WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.859 Welcome to the Innovation Conversation, a podcast 00:00:02.859 --> 00:00:05.419 about innovators, both in business and real life. 00:00:05.879 --> 00:00:08.380 Hosted by myself, Ricardo Rescual and Harry McCona. 00:00:08.500 --> 00:00:11.699 This podcast is also sponsored by ODEV Tech. 00:00:12.439 --> 00:00:14.640 ODEV Tech is your premier software development 00:00:14.640 --> 00:00:17.940 partner. Make sure you check them out at odev 00:00:17.940 --> 00:00:22.399 .tech. The podcast is also sponsored by Notion 00:00:22.399 --> 00:00:25.379 .so. Notion is offering six months for free for 00:00:25.379 --> 00:00:27.839 new users. Make sure you check out our website, 00:00:28.039 --> 00:00:30.600 thestoreofevents .co .uk to read in the software. 00:00:31.859 --> 00:00:34.219 Hi, and welcome to another episode of The Innovation 00:00:34.219 --> 00:00:37.840 Conversation. Today we are joined by Dr. Jeff 00:00:37.840 --> 00:00:40.679 Standridge. Jeff, welcome to the podcast. It's 00:00:40.679 --> 00:00:43.340 great to be here. Thank you for having me. Jeff, 00:00:43.399 --> 00:00:44.840 would you like to introduce yourself to the audience, 00:00:45.119 --> 00:00:48.719 please? Sure. Jeff Standridge. I am an innovation 00:00:48.719 --> 00:00:51.939 consultant and executive coach. I'm a growth 00:00:51.939 --> 00:00:55.259 strategist. I do several different things. I 00:00:55.259 --> 00:00:57.859 started my career in healthcare, spent about 00:00:57.859 --> 00:01:00.399 a dozen years in healthcare, and then moved over 00:01:00.399 --> 00:01:03.020 to the business world. I spent 20 years with 00:01:03.020 --> 00:01:08.140 a publicly traded company, running global operations, 00:01:08.359 --> 00:01:10.540 doing mergers and acquisitions. So I tell people 00:01:10.540 --> 00:01:15.739 that I became an entrepreneur from the world 00:01:15.739 --> 00:01:19.000 of being an entrepreneur, and I became an innovator 00:01:19.000 --> 00:01:21.099 from the world of being a corporate change agent. 00:01:21.280 --> 00:01:24.480 So I spent quite a bit of time in Europe. I got 00:01:24.480 --> 00:01:27.280 to visit Lisbon a time or two. So about eight 00:01:27.280 --> 00:01:29.780 years ago, I left my corporate employment to 00:01:29.780 --> 00:01:32.959 start our consultancy called the Innovation Junkies 00:01:32.959 --> 00:01:35.340 and then an entrepreneurial support organization 00:01:35.340 --> 00:01:39.140 called The Conductor. So I worked both with startup 00:01:39.140 --> 00:01:42.019 companies and entrepreneurs all the way up to 00:01:42.019 --> 00:01:45.359 mid -market and large organizations as well. 00:01:46.260 --> 00:01:49.629 Great to be here. Fascinating. I mean, I have 00:01:49.629 --> 00:01:51.090 so many questions right now. It's going to be 00:01:51.090 --> 00:01:53.409 absolutely crazy. I was actually checking something 00:01:53.409 --> 00:01:55.530 on your profile. You're also a pilot, which is 00:01:55.530 --> 00:01:59.349 pretty cool. I am. Yeah. Fairly recently. So 00:01:59.349 --> 00:02:03.250 I started flying about three years ago and ended 00:02:03.250 --> 00:02:07.090 up doing multiple certificates. So my private 00:02:07.090 --> 00:02:09.370 pilot, my instrument rating, my multi -engine 00:02:09.370 --> 00:02:11.949 rating. And so it sure has made getting around 00:02:11.949 --> 00:02:14.889 to clients a lot easier and a lot less hassle. 00:02:15.460 --> 00:02:17.659 I can imagine. I was just, I'm actually quite 00:02:17.659 --> 00:02:19.120 curious because you started obviously in the 00:02:19.120 --> 00:02:20.759 corporate world and then you move over to the 00:02:20.759 --> 00:02:23.379 more entrepreneurial and startup type of world. 00:02:23.960 --> 00:02:26.280 You probably know what works and what doesn't 00:02:26.280 --> 00:02:28.240 work. So just to get, you know, this kind of 00:02:28.240 --> 00:02:31.719 started. Are you able to pinpoint exactly if 00:02:31.719 --> 00:02:33.500 a company or startup is going to be successful 00:02:33.500 --> 00:02:36.969 from the get -go or not at all? Not at all. I 00:02:36.969 --> 00:02:40.189 mean, there are criteria that we look at, you 00:02:40.189 --> 00:02:43.349 know, I'm also an investor. And so I get the 00:02:43.349 --> 00:02:47.009 opportunity to review a lot of companies on a 00:02:47.009 --> 00:02:50.310 weekly monthly annual basis. You know, there 00:02:50.310 --> 00:02:52.969 are things that we look at. Clearly, we're going 00:02:52.969 --> 00:02:56.830 to look at the the value proposition of the company, 00:02:56.990 --> 00:02:58.990 the uniqueness of what they're trying to do. 00:02:59.150 --> 00:03:01.729 We're going to put a lot of focus on the management 00:03:01.729 --> 00:03:03.870 team and just the leadership that they bring 00:03:03.870 --> 00:03:06.319 to the table. Have they done it before? But I'd 00:03:06.319 --> 00:03:10.620 be lying if I said that that anybody could pick 00:03:10.620 --> 00:03:13.240 a winner from the get -go. Interesting and you 00:03:13.240 --> 00:03:16.020 know from your time in Europe and obviously you're 00:03:16.020 --> 00:03:18.819 from the US do you find the mentality of people 00:03:18.819 --> 00:03:20.400 is actually quite different when it comes to 00:03:20.400 --> 00:03:23.479 running a business? Is there like a lot of cultural 00:03:23.479 --> 00:03:25.560 shocks and stuff like that and especially is 00:03:25.560 --> 00:03:27.180 there a different attitude to running a business 00:03:27.180 --> 00:03:30.990 in Europe versus the US or not at all? You know 00:03:30.990 --> 00:03:33.009 yeah i would say they're different just different 00:03:33.009 --> 00:03:35.330 cultural attitudes i don't know if it's different 00:03:35.330 --> 00:03:37.530 specifically in running a business but there's 00:03:37.530 --> 00:03:40.789 a little bit of a difference in. How would you 00:03:40.789 --> 00:03:43.229 corporate culture how would you leadership how 00:03:43.229 --> 00:03:45.569 would you communication you know i was talking 00:03:45.569 --> 00:03:47.949 to on a podcast with a gentleman from the uk 00:03:47.949 --> 00:03:50.830 the other day and he said that when he was working 00:03:50.830 --> 00:03:53.610 with us based company said you're always so positive 00:03:53.610 --> 00:03:57.120 and enthusiastic from the us you know and. And 00:03:57.120 --> 00:03:59.560 I believe that is the case. You know, I said 00:03:59.560 --> 00:04:01.979 to him, you know, we're still relatively a young 00:04:01.979 --> 00:04:05.699 country relative to the countries in Europe and 00:04:05.699 --> 00:04:07.280 around the world. You know, we're two hundred 00:04:07.280 --> 00:04:10.439 and fifty years in. And and so, you know, we 00:04:10.439 --> 00:04:12.500 we count ourselves as the land of opportunity. 00:04:13.020 --> 00:04:16.040 And and and so we see immigrants that come in 00:04:16.040 --> 00:04:17.860 from all around the world and they're they're 00:04:17.860 --> 00:04:22.139 able to create successful, thriving empires, 00:04:22.139 --> 00:04:25.160 you know. And and so, yeah, I believe there is 00:04:25.160 --> 00:04:28.220 a little bit of a difference. But at the end 00:04:28.220 --> 00:04:31.579 of the day, we all have the levers and knobs 00:04:31.579 --> 00:04:35.519 and dials that we all use the same ones to fine 00:04:35.519 --> 00:04:38.680 -tune how a business operates. Interesting. I'm 00:04:38.680 --> 00:04:41.000 always curious because every single person I 00:04:41.000 --> 00:04:43.779 talk to here in the UK and in Europe, they are 00:04:43.779 --> 00:04:45.879 always obsessed with going to the U .S. overall 00:04:45.879 --> 00:04:47.839 and say, oh, the U .S. is where everything's 00:04:47.839 --> 00:04:49.879 happening, we need to move to the U .S. But then 00:04:49.879 --> 00:04:51.519 when you actually talk with someone from the 00:04:51.519 --> 00:04:52.879 U .S. they say, well, actually there's quite 00:04:52.879 --> 00:04:54.540 a lot of stuff happening in Europe as well, so 00:04:54.540 --> 00:04:56.139 you don't necessarily need to move to the U .S. 00:04:56.319 --> 00:04:59.199 to make that happen. I'm curious on something 00:04:59.199 --> 00:05:01.740 else, which is in terms of the funding rounds 00:05:01.740 --> 00:05:04.060 and the size of the funding rounds, have you 00:05:04.060 --> 00:05:06.160 noticed them to be completely different or quite 00:05:06.160 --> 00:05:07.860 on the contrary, it's actually pretty much the 00:05:07.860 --> 00:05:09.899 same size? You mean between the U .S. and Europe? 00:05:10.720 --> 00:05:14.490 Yeah. No, I haven't seen a significant difference 00:05:14.490 --> 00:05:17.449 between kind of the US as a whole. And what I 00:05:17.449 --> 00:05:22.310 would say is the primary areas where capital 00:05:22.310 --> 00:05:26.089 rounds originate in the US, the expected places 00:05:26.089 --> 00:05:29.850 like Silicon Valley, Boston, New York, et cetera. 00:05:30.170 --> 00:05:32.850 I wouldn't see a big difference there between 00:05:32.850 --> 00:05:36.180 there and the... the rounds you see coming from 00:05:36.180 --> 00:05:39.579 Europe or Israel or any other location. What 00:05:39.579 --> 00:05:42.240 I do see is a significant difference in the U 00:05:42.240 --> 00:05:45.939 .S. between the places where people commonly 00:05:45.939 --> 00:05:49.180 think of being venture capital heavy versus what 00:05:49.180 --> 00:05:51.699 I would describe as middle America where I'm 00:05:51.699 --> 00:05:56.610 located. You know, valuations tend to be considerably 00:05:56.610 --> 00:05:59.670 different on the coasts, much higher on the coast 00:05:59.670 --> 00:06:02.529 than say in the heartland is what we kind of 00:06:02.529 --> 00:06:05.670 call the flyover states. So in fact, our investment 00:06:05.670 --> 00:06:08.930 fund, Kadren Capital Partners, we're predominantly 00:06:08.930 --> 00:06:11.290 looking at opportunities in the heartland of 00:06:11.290 --> 00:06:13.730 the United States for that very reason. So I 00:06:13.730 --> 00:06:16.329 don't see a... a big difference globally, but 00:06:16.329 --> 00:06:19.069 I do see within geographies, what we would call 00:06:19.069 --> 00:06:23.470 unexpected places where startups originate that 00:06:23.470 --> 00:06:26.610 the valuations are quite a bit different. Interesting. 00:06:26.870 --> 00:06:28.990 What do you look for in startup when they're 00:06:28.990 --> 00:06:31.089 just raising? I don't know which stage you normally 00:06:31.089 --> 00:06:33.350 invest in, but I'm curious like pre -C then C. 00:06:33.870 --> 00:06:37.649 What are your criteria for them? So our specific 00:06:37.649 --> 00:06:40.810 criteria are, if it's a SaaS company, and we're 00:06:40.810 --> 00:06:43.629 a little later stage now, we don't do as much 00:06:43.629 --> 00:06:46.970 pre -seed and seed stage stuff as we used to 00:06:46.970 --> 00:06:49.569 do. When we were looking at it at that time, 00:06:49.689 --> 00:06:52.490 it was the quality of the idea, the quality of 00:06:52.490 --> 00:06:54.949 the vetting of the idea with customer discovery, 00:06:55.529 --> 00:06:59.300 and the quality of the management team. We're 00:06:59.300 --> 00:07:01.699 a little bit later stage we're kind of series 00:07:01.699 --> 00:07:05.420 a or just pre series a kind of series a gap rounds 00:07:05.420 --> 00:07:09.220 or what have you and we look at if it's a sass 00:07:09.220 --> 00:07:12.759 company or a subscription based software you 00:07:12.759 --> 00:07:15.000 know we're looking at two million dollars of 00:07:15.000 --> 00:07:17.199 of annual recognized or annual recurring run 00:07:17.199 --> 00:07:21.500 rate if it's if it's a. non -SAS product or service 00:07:21.500 --> 00:07:23.540 probably more like three and a half to four million 00:07:23.540 --> 00:07:26.019 dollars. We're looking at high gross margins. 00:07:26.100 --> 00:07:27.980 We're looking at an experienced leadership team 00:07:27.980 --> 00:07:30.439 who's done it before. Those are kind of the criteria 00:07:30.439 --> 00:07:32.220 that we're looking at and we're pretty much industry 00:07:32.220 --> 00:07:35.480 agnostic. Okay, that's pretty cool because then 00:07:35.480 --> 00:07:37.560 you open up the doors for a lot of stuff, right? 00:07:37.699 --> 00:07:40.720 So it's just that much more interesting. Now, 00:07:40.720 --> 00:07:43.120 I am curious on something else which is you actually 00:07:43.120 --> 00:07:45.600 have a published book. How many books have you 00:07:45.600 --> 00:07:47.740 written so far? Is it three? I actually have 00:07:47.740 --> 00:07:53.250 four. Yep yep three most recently so i have three 00:07:53.250 --> 00:07:55.269 that have been done since i've been in the work 00:07:55.269 --> 00:07:58.439 that i'm doing today. I have one called the innovator's 00:07:58.439 --> 00:08:00.500 field guide, which looks something like this. 00:08:00.779 --> 00:08:03.199 It says accelerators for entrepreneurs, innovators 00:08:03.199 --> 00:08:05.620 and change agents. I have another one called 00:08:05.620 --> 00:08:08.600 the top performers field guide. Some of my academic 00:08:08.600 --> 00:08:11.399 research was focused on identifying top performers 00:08:11.399 --> 00:08:14.079 and looking at the criteria that are the characteristics 00:08:14.079 --> 00:08:17.040 of top performers. And then my business partner, 00:08:17.240 --> 00:08:20.040 Jeff Amoran and I, another Jeff, by the way, 00:08:20.519 --> 00:08:24.779 we have a book that came out in 2021 called creating 00:08:24.779 --> 00:08:28.019 startup junkies. building sustainable venture 00:08:28.019 --> 00:08:31.420 ecosystems in unexpected places so it's it's 00:08:31.420 --> 00:08:34.659 a book that focuses on how to create a culture. 00:08:35.179 --> 00:08:37.460 How to create an entrepreneurial ecosystem an 00:08:37.460 --> 00:08:39.620 entrepreneurial culture how to cultivate talent 00:08:39.620 --> 00:08:42.559 access to capital and community engagement around 00:08:42.559 --> 00:08:46.590 building driving on early ecosystems. I was quite 00:08:46.590 --> 00:08:49.909 a lot of information taken there and a lot of 00:08:49.909 --> 00:08:52.110 lots of knowledge I was just I'm curious on one 00:08:52.110 --> 00:08:54.110 thing the top performers right because we've 00:08:54.110 --> 00:08:57.289 all we all kind of know who they are but are 00:08:57.289 --> 00:08:59.929 you able to pinpoint and say this is what all 00:08:59.929 --> 00:09:02.289 the top performance do on a consistent basis 00:09:02.289 --> 00:09:05.700 so that's really where Yeah, that's really where 00:09:05.700 --> 00:09:08.059 my research focused on when I was working on 00:09:08.059 --> 00:09:10.480 my doctorate in healthcare to start, but then 00:09:10.480 --> 00:09:13.240 in the corporate environment following. You say 00:09:13.240 --> 00:09:15.080 we all know who they are, but the interesting 00:09:15.080 --> 00:09:18.600 thing about it is when I moved over to Axiom 00:09:18.600 --> 00:09:20.580 Corporation, which is a publicly traded company 00:09:20.580 --> 00:09:24.039 at the time, and I started by having all the 00:09:24.039 --> 00:09:26.659 employees in the company and all of the management 00:09:26.659 --> 00:09:30.240 and leadership of the company nominate high performers 00:09:30.240 --> 00:09:33.059 from the company. And when we got the list and 00:09:33.059 --> 00:09:37.220 looked at it, It was about 80 % different. The 00:09:37.220 --> 00:09:40.220 top performers that employees said were top performers 00:09:40.220 --> 00:09:42.799 were vastly different than the top performers 00:09:42.799 --> 00:09:45.500 that management and leadership said. So when 00:09:45.500 --> 00:09:49.240 we looked at the list, so that was a problematic 00:09:49.240 --> 00:09:52.879 finding there is that what people believe top 00:09:52.879 --> 00:09:56.059 performance is or what people believe the characteristics 00:09:56.059 --> 00:09:59.659 of top performances is different from employees 00:09:59.659 --> 00:10:03.139 to Leadership, right? Yeah, so we were able to 00:10:03.139 --> 00:10:07.100 find about about 50 30 to 50 individuals that 00:10:07.100 --> 00:10:11.200 that were across both organization or both nomination 00:10:11.200 --> 00:10:13.740 lists. Then we were able to validate it with 00:10:13.740 --> 00:10:17.700 some of their actual performance metrics in the 00:10:17.700 --> 00:10:20.399 organization. We I think we identified ultimately 00:10:20.399 --> 00:10:23.700 about 30 or 35 and then we started. interviewing 00:10:23.700 --> 00:10:26.539 them around instances where they were challenged, 00:10:26.720 --> 00:10:28.740 but they ended up being successful. Instances 00:10:28.740 --> 00:10:30.580 where they thought they were staring failure 00:10:30.580 --> 00:10:32.580 in the face, but they ended up being successful. 00:10:32.980 --> 00:10:36.019 We looked at their behaviors. We looked at their 00:10:36.019 --> 00:10:38.539 decisions. We looked at all of those things. 00:10:39.120 --> 00:10:42.700 One thing that we know for sure is that academic 00:10:42.700 --> 00:10:46.019 performance does not correlate with high performance. 00:10:46.840 --> 00:10:49.679 Academic credentials do not correlate with high 00:10:49.679 --> 00:10:52.700 performance. It really boils down to behavior. 00:10:52.879 --> 00:10:56.639 The knowledge, skills, and abilities that I have 00:10:56.639 --> 00:11:01.259 that enable me to develop specific habits and 00:11:01.259 --> 00:11:05.960 behaviors around results generation and relationship 00:11:05.960 --> 00:11:09.000 management. So results in relationships. If I 00:11:09.000 --> 00:11:11.740 focus on results at the expense of relationships, 00:11:12.080 --> 00:11:15.759 I will achieve success very, very quickly, but 00:11:15.759 --> 00:11:18.919 I won't be able to maintain those results after 00:11:18.919 --> 00:11:21.200 I alienate everyone around me who's responsible 00:11:21.200 --> 00:11:23.480 for helping me maintain those results. By the 00:11:23.480 --> 00:11:26.179 same token if I focus on relationships at the 00:11:26.179 --> 00:11:28.259 expense of results people will love me for a 00:11:28.259 --> 00:11:30.879 while until they lose respect for me because 00:11:30.879 --> 00:11:32.899 I can't deliver results and then I lose them 00:11:32.899 --> 00:11:35.860 both and so so there are specific knowledge skills 00:11:35.860 --> 00:11:38.919 and abilities that enable me to develop behaviors 00:11:38.919 --> 00:11:42.659 and habits around results generation and behaviors 00:11:42.659 --> 00:11:45.960 and habits around relationship creation and management 00:11:45.960 --> 00:11:48.720 and maintenance and I have to balance those sets 00:11:48.720 --> 00:11:51.990 of behaviors to be successful ultimately. Interesting 00:11:51.990 --> 00:11:55.110 is this across both the entrepreneurial world 00:11:55.110 --> 00:11:59.509 and corporate world so you see really interesting 00:11:59.509 --> 00:12:05.090 is doing that research in the US I've had the 00:12:05.090 --> 00:12:08.450 opportunity to kind of. What I would call do 00:12:08.450 --> 00:12:11.330 observational research anecdotal and observational 00:12:11.330 --> 00:12:13.889 research across five continents over the last 00:12:13.889 --> 00:12:18.509 25 years and I have seen that play out in every 00:12:18.509 --> 00:12:23.309 setting in nonprofits in Individual success in 00:12:23.309 --> 00:12:27.090 leadership success in for -profit organizations 00:12:27.090 --> 00:12:29.570 and publicly traded organizations and startup 00:12:29.570 --> 00:12:33.710 companies. It's pretty much a universal Is there 00:12:33.870 --> 00:12:36.409 Obviously, I'm assuming you also do the training 00:12:36.409 --> 00:12:38.350 for people who want to get better at all these 00:12:38.350 --> 00:12:41.649 things. But is there any specific training someone 00:12:41.649 --> 00:12:44.370 can do to be better at both building relationships, 00:12:44.409 --> 00:12:46.269 but also delivering on what they're supposed 00:12:46.269 --> 00:12:48.669 to deliver? Do you think that actually works 00:12:48.669 --> 00:12:51.169 for everyone? Yeah, you know, I don't know of 00:12:51.169 --> 00:12:54.250 any specific training program or training module. 00:12:54.509 --> 00:12:58.690 What I encourage people to do is to take an inventory, 00:12:58.830 --> 00:13:02.110 kind of a self inventory of the strengths and 00:13:02.110 --> 00:13:05.720 weaknesses that they have. Just hear what I believe 00:13:05.720 --> 00:13:07.559 my strengths are, hear what I believe my weaknesses 00:13:07.559 --> 00:13:10.059 are, and then to do some validation with other 00:13:10.059 --> 00:13:14.340 people asking for feedback, getting some unbiased 00:13:14.340 --> 00:13:16.279 feedback from people that we work with, from 00:13:16.279 --> 00:13:18.720 our significant others, from colleagues, friends, 00:13:18.840 --> 00:13:22.139 what have you. And then once we... We take that 00:13:22.139 --> 00:13:24.360 list and feel like we've got a pretty good exhaustive 00:13:24.360 --> 00:13:27.120 list of strengths and weaknesses, then begin 00:13:27.120 --> 00:13:32.059 to separate those out into results versus relationship 00:13:32.059 --> 00:13:34.720 oriented types of strengths and weaknesses, and 00:13:34.720 --> 00:13:37.860 then begin looking for ways to skills, capabilities, 00:13:38.179 --> 00:13:40.019 knowledge, what have you around those areas of 00:13:40.019 --> 00:13:42.960 weakness. Interesting. And then you also wrote 00:13:42.960 --> 00:13:45.899 a book on startup ecosystems and startup junkies. 00:13:45.940 --> 00:13:47.759 So this is actually quite fascinating for me 00:13:47.759 --> 00:13:50.399 because obviously I have an opportunity to talk 00:13:50.399 --> 00:13:53.019 with multiple ecosystems across Europe. Have 00:13:53.019 --> 00:13:55.600 you found that it's actually quite hard to create 00:13:55.600 --> 00:13:57.440 your own ecosystem or it's just a matter of going 00:13:57.440 --> 00:13:58.940 out there and asking a bunch of people, hey, 00:13:58.960 --> 00:14:00.799 would you like to come and run this with me and 00:14:00.799 --> 00:14:02.500 then we just build something up from the ground 00:14:02.500 --> 00:14:07.539 up? No, it is a marathon forced march versus 00:14:07.539 --> 00:14:09.980 a sprint. We've been doing it here in Arkansas 00:14:09.980 --> 00:14:14.200 for Over fifteen years and you know we think 00:14:14.200 --> 00:14:16.840 that there are four pillars that that we tend 00:14:16.840 --> 00:14:20.580 to focus on one is talent development making 00:14:20.580 --> 00:14:23.840 sure that we're. we're trying to build innovative 00:14:23.840 --> 00:14:27.059 entrepreneurial talent because even even large 00:14:27.059 --> 00:14:30.259 flagship employers want to hire innovative entrepreneurial 00:14:30.259 --> 00:14:34.620 people, but we also need that for startups and 00:14:34.620 --> 00:14:36.899 growing growing businesses, scaling businesses. 00:14:37.399 --> 00:14:40.360 So talent, creating a culture, an entrepreneurial 00:14:40.360 --> 00:14:44.320 culture where people can come together, can share 00:14:44.320 --> 00:14:48.179 ideas, can share resources, can participate in 00:14:48.330 --> 00:14:51.250 training together and networking events. The 00:14:51.250 --> 00:14:53.330 third element or the third pillar is community 00:14:53.330 --> 00:14:56.429 engagement, getting large institutions involved 00:14:56.429 --> 00:14:59.570 like the colleges and universities, large flagship 00:14:59.570 --> 00:15:02.970 employers involved, financial institutions, investors, 00:15:03.230 --> 00:15:06.490 getting all of those folks engaged in the ecosystem 00:15:06.490 --> 00:15:09.970 as well. And then finally, looking for ways to 00:15:09.970 --> 00:15:13.350 provide access to capital and to help help entrepreneurs 00:15:13.350 --> 00:15:16.169 navigate that access to capital at every stage 00:15:16.169 --> 00:15:17.929 of venture development. As you said earlier from 00:15:17.929 --> 00:15:20.950 the Precede the seed stage to the series a the 00:15:20.950 --> 00:15:23.169 series B and all the way all the way throughout 00:15:23.169 --> 00:15:25.769 that continuum So those four elements is what 00:15:25.769 --> 00:15:29.269 we have found to really focus us on focusing 00:15:29.269 --> 00:15:31.230 on makes a difference over the longer term I'm 00:15:31.230 --> 00:15:33.070 curious on one thing that we talked a lot about 00:15:33.070 --> 00:15:35.669 innovation and how important it is to be an innovator 00:15:35.669 --> 00:15:38.149 in you know In multiple areas of your life, but 00:15:38.149 --> 00:15:41.049 as a manager, how do you manage someone who's 00:15:41.049 --> 00:15:43.669 a natural -born innovator? Because I'm you know 00:15:43.720 --> 00:15:45.740 I know for a fact that it's quite hard to be 00:15:45.740 --> 00:15:47.340 in the company and you're trying to manage someone 00:15:47.340 --> 00:15:48.860 who's always coming up with new ideas and new 00:15:48.860 --> 00:15:51.139 ways of doing things and you just want them to 00:15:51.139 --> 00:15:53.220 execute. So how do you manage that? But at the 00:15:53.220 --> 00:15:55.779 same time, how do you create the space for new 00:15:55.779 --> 00:16:00.080 ideas to actually rise up and to be applied in 00:16:00.080 --> 00:16:02.279 multiple companies? How do you do that? Well, 00:16:02.620 --> 00:16:05.860 first of all, I think we have to give people 00:16:05.860 --> 00:16:10.799 the flexibility to understand that failure is 00:16:10.799 --> 00:16:13.759 only failure if you quit. Otherwise it's just 00:16:13.759 --> 00:16:17.580 feedback right so creating a culture where people 00:16:17.580 --> 00:16:20.860 understand that failure is part of the success 00:16:20.860 --> 00:16:25.440 formula. And and we like to talk about you know 00:16:25.440 --> 00:16:28.320 fail faster and fail often but what we do is 00:16:28.320 --> 00:16:32.820 we limit the we limit the degree of that failure 00:16:32.820 --> 00:16:35.840 by doing our research by doing our customer discovery 00:16:35.840 --> 00:16:40.049 by. by making certain that we understand what 00:16:40.049 --> 00:16:42.730 we're trying to do and the market impact of what 00:16:42.730 --> 00:16:45.269 we're trying to do before we mortgage our house 00:16:45.269 --> 00:16:47.389 to go make an investment on something that's 00:16:47.389 --> 00:16:50.970 half -baked. So we do quite a lot of very, very 00:16:50.970 --> 00:16:52.690 specific work around what's the problem we're 00:16:52.690 --> 00:16:55.210 trying to solve? Who are the target customers 00:16:55.210 --> 00:16:57.029 that experience that problem to the greatest 00:16:57.029 --> 00:16:59.710 degree? What's our unique value proposition to 00:16:59.710 --> 00:17:02.210 solve that problem? Have we done customer discovery 00:17:02.210 --> 00:17:04.539 around all of those elements? product markets 00:17:04.539 --> 00:17:06.759 fit, problem solution fit, that whole thing. 00:17:07.000 --> 00:17:09.059 And so recognizing that that failure is part 00:17:09.059 --> 00:17:10.599 of the success continuum, I think is probably 00:17:10.599 --> 00:17:12.380 the key element to that. And then giving people 00:17:12.380 --> 00:17:16.299 a process to, to limit the impact of those failures 00:17:16.299 --> 00:17:18.680 so that they can fail faster, fail off and make 00:17:18.680 --> 00:17:20.779 improvements to their, to their innovations, 00:17:20.920 --> 00:17:24.450 their ideas. Putting on a different hat now as 00:17:24.450 --> 00:17:27.029 an investor, when you invest in a company and 00:17:27.029 --> 00:17:29.809 you see that they are failing fast, but learning 00:17:29.809 --> 00:17:33.009 the lessons and adapting to the challenges and 00:17:33.009 --> 00:17:34.730 overcoming those challenges, but still failing, 00:17:35.569 --> 00:17:37.750 nevertheless, would you continue investing in 00:17:37.750 --> 00:17:39.849 a company or do you just call it quits and say, 00:17:39.950 --> 00:17:43.430 guys, you failed too many times, I'm done with 00:17:43.430 --> 00:17:50.579 you? Yeah, I think it really depends. It really 00:17:50.579 --> 00:17:53.460 depends on the nature of those failures and are 00:17:53.460 --> 00:18:00.259 those failures a result of just multiple oversights 00:18:00.259 --> 00:18:07.079 or multiple situations where we didn't really 00:18:07.079 --> 00:18:09.619 assess the environment well, we didn't really 00:18:09.619 --> 00:18:14.140 do the work. There's no shortcut. to success 00:18:14.140 --> 00:18:18.119 in the startup world. And so we place a lot of 00:18:18.119 --> 00:18:21.859 focus on, are the entrepreneurs doing the work 00:18:21.859 --> 00:18:26.019 to actually take their company to ultimately 00:18:26.019 --> 00:18:29.680 a successful place? Are they pivoting based upon 00:18:29.680 --> 00:18:32.900 customer feedback? Are they pivoting based upon 00:18:32.900 --> 00:18:36.400 market dynamics? Or are they out there not doing 00:18:36.400 --> 00:18:38.619 the work and shooting an arrow one direction, 00:18:38.759 --> 00:18:41.220 then shooting an arrow another direction, and 00:18:41.220 --> 00:18:44.079 they're playing pin the tell on the donkey, so 00:18:44.079 --> 00:18:46.319 to speak. If that's the case, we're probably 00:18:46.319 --> 00:18:48.980 not going to continue throwing good money after 00:18:48.980 --> 00:18:52.460 bad. So it really depends on the situation. I'm 00:18:52.460 --> 00:18:54.839 curious on something else, which is there's always 00:18:54.839 --> 00:18:56.779 everyone kind of talks that you need to go to 00:18:56.779 --> 00:18:59.079 Silicon Valley, you need to go to San Francisco, 00:18:59.500 --> 00:19:01.920 obviously being being almost the same place. 00:19:02.599 --> 00:19:05.059 Do you find in terms of human resources, you 00:19:05.059 --> 00:19:07.500 can actually find talent across the world and 00:19:07.500 --> 00:19:09.700 across America more specifically, or are they 00:19:09.700 --> 00:19:11.680 just focused on these regions and that's actually 00:19:11.680 --> 00:19:14.130 a shame? Well, that's the book you mentioned 00:19:14.130 --> 00:19:16.369 a few moments ago creating startup junkies. It's 00:19:16.369 --> 00:19:19.930 about creating startup junkies in unexpected 00:19:19.930 --> 00:19:22.609 places, which literally means outside of Silicon 00:19:22.609 --> 00:19:24.430 Valley, outside of Boston, New York, what have 00:19:24.430 --> 00:19:28.359 you. So we have been focused on helping people 00:19:28.359 --> 00:19:31.539 understand that you can in fact build and find 00:19:31.539 --> 00:19:35.460 talent in these unexpected places. So I absolutely 00:19:35.460 --> 00:19:38.519 challenge the assumption and the belief that 00:19:38.519 --> 00:19:40.599 you've got to go to Silicon Valley to build a 00:19:40.599 --> 00:19:44.799 good quality, healthy startup and find the talent 00:19:44.799 --> 00:19:47.180 that you need, that you can find the talent you 00:19:47.180 --> 00:19:49.240 need in these unexpected places. You know, you 00:19:49.240 --> 00:19:52.740 take a look at... Two, two and a half, three 00:19:52.740 --> 00:19:56.000 hours north of me in Northwest Arkansas. We have 00:19:56.000 --> 00:19:58.200 three, the headquarters for three Fortune 100 00:19:58.200 --> 00:20:02.740 companies, Walmart headquarters, Tyson food headquarters, 00:20:03.359 --> 00:20:05.700 JB Hunt, which is one of the largest logistics 00:20:05.700 --> 00:20:09.480 companies in the world in Arkansas, in Northwest 00:20:09.480 --> 00:20:11.740 Arkansas. We've got one of the largest coffee 00:20:11.740 --> 00:20:14.799 companies called West Rock Coffee just down the 00:20:14.799 --> 00:20:18.000 street here. in one of their two major locations. 00:20:18.480 --> 00:20:21.500 We've got one of the largest data management 00:20:21.500 --> 00:20:23.980 and analytics companies just about two miles 00:20:23.980 --> 00:20:26.759 that way called Axiom Corporation, part of the 00:20:26.759 --> 00:20:32.470 interpublic group. And so, so yeah, I I absolutely 00:20:32.470 --> 00:20:34.529 challenge the assumption that you've got to go 00:20:34.529 --> 00:20:36.730 to Silicon Valley or that you have to go anywhere 00:20:36.730 --> 00:20:39.670 other than where you are. What about the support 00:20:39.670 --> 00:20:42.269 of the local government in terms of like tax 00:20:42.269 --> 00:20:45.829 deductions and having lower taxes? How impactful 00:20:45.829 --> 00:20:48.849 is that overall? Oh, it's hugely impactful. Uh, 00:20:48.970 --> 00:20:52.170 in fact, I spent about seven years on the board 00:20:52.170 --> 00:20:54.829 of science and technology for the state of Arkansas 00:20:54.829 --> 00:20:57.630 appointed by the governor. It's our, our economic 00:20:57.630 --> 00:21:00.410 development entity in the state of Arkansas is, 00:21:00.410 --> 00:21:03.490 is called the Arkansas economic development commission. 00:21:03.829 --> 00:21:05.890 And the director of that is actually appointed 00:21:05.890 --> 00:21:08.609 by the governor and they have a number of incentives 00:21:08.609 --> 00:21:11.789 there for research and development tax credits. 00:21:12.109 --> 00:21:15.250 equity investor tax credits. They actually have 00:21:15.250 --> 00:21:17.849 non dilutive funding programs, like what we call 00:21:17.849 --> 00:21:20.470 the technology development program investment, 00:21:20.509 --> 00:21:23.289 which is a royalty based investment, the seed 00:21:23.289 --> 00:21:26.309 capital investment program, and other types of 00:21:26.309 --> 00:21:29.009 incentives. In fact, one of the one of the funding 00:21:29.009 --> 00:21:33.269 mechanisms that they have is they also fund a 00:21:33.269 --> 00:21:36.450 statewide technology commercialization center. 00:21:36.750 --> 00:21:40.130 I called a rise and arises and isn't a cross 00:21:40.130 --> 00:21:42.769 stick that stands for Arkansas innovators startups 00:21:42.769 --> 00:21:45.549 and entrepreneurs and just recently our team 00:21:45.549 --> 00:21:47.769 at the conductor startup junkie was selected 00:21:47.769 --> 00:21:51.190 by the state of Arkansas. To manage the state's 00:21:51.190 --> 00:21:53.829 technology commercialization center funded by 00:21:53.829 --> 00:21:57.109 the state of Arkansas so so it is it is catalytic. 00:21:57.400 --> 00:22:01.640 In in all of those incentives non diluted funding 00:22:01.640 --> 00:22:04.920 programs and technology commercialization programs 00:22:04.920 --> 00:22:08.660 are catalytic at helping to spawn activity within 00:22:08.660 --> 00:22:11.099 the state of arkansas you know what's the population 00:22:11.099 --> 00:22:17.960 of lisbon roughly. What's the what's the what's 00:22:17.960 --> 00:22:21.380 the population of portugal. Ten million total 00:22:21.380 --> 00:22:24.779 ten million alright and you have the same the 00:22:24.779 --> 00:22:28.660 state i think no. So we have 3 million in the 00:22:28.660 --> 00:22:31.579 state of Arkansas, the entire state. Our geographic 00:22:31.579 --> 00:22:38.500 size is about the size of the UK and they have 00:22:38.500 --> 00:22:40.599 70 million people and we have 3 million people. 00:22:43.400 --> 00:22:47.420 The revenue generated is crazy. I'm saying the 00:22:47.420 --> 00:22:49.940 revenue generated as a group of people, it's 00:22:49.940 --> 00:22:55.160 actually quite high, isn't it? I was wondering, 00:22:55.619 --> 00:22:58.430 have you noticed that Actually, I actually have 00:22:58.430 --> 00:23:01.410 two questions here. But the first one is, if 00:23:01.410 --> 00:23:03.509 there's this European startup, they want to move 00:23:03.509 --> 00:23:05.789 somewhere in the US, would you advise them obviously 00:23:05.789 --> 00:23:07.650 to, and I know you're going to be biased on this 00:23:07.650 --> 00:23:09.390 one and rightfully so, would you advise them 00:23:09.390 --> 00:23:11.210 to move to Arkansas and trying to do business 00:23:11.210 --> 00:23:13.390 there and trying to launch in Arkansas compared 00:23:13.390 --> 00:23:15.950 to, let's say, Delaware, where we know there's 00:23:15.950 --> 00:23:18.869 all this legislation that kind of helps companies. 00:23:19.849 --> 00:23:23.589 Yeah, you know, of course I will try to advise 00:23:23.589 --> 00:23:26.950 them to move to Arkansas or a state or a place 00:23:26.950 --> 00:23:30.269 like Arkansas because they're going to be a big 00:23:30.269 --> 00:23:34.210 fish in a small body of water versus a little 00:23:34.210 --> 00:23:37.490 fish in a very large body of water. And the focus 00:23:37.490 --> 00:23:39.750 that they're going to get with just a little 00:23:39.750 --> 00:23:42.170 bit of success, the focus they're going to get, 00:23:42.230 --> 00:23:44.089 the financial incentives they're going to get, 00:23:44.710 --> 00:23:48.339 the cost of living. The cost of labor all of 00:23:48.339 --> 00:23:51.720 those things are going to be financially advantageous 00:23:51.720 --> 00:23:54.079 to them doesn't have to be arkansas course i 00:23:54.079 --> 00:23:56.700 would try to recruit them to arkansas. You have 00:23:56.700 --> 00:23:59.279 to be arkansas but it could be places in the 00:23:59.279 --> 00:24:02.059 flyover states in the heartland kind of that 00:24:02.059 --> 00:24:05.420 middle america where there's a balance of metropolitan 00:24:05.420 --> 00:24:09.740 with with rural because the cost of getting their 00:24:09.740 --> 00:24:11.680 business off the ground is going to be so much 00:24:11.680 --> 00:24:15.099 less expensive. Interesting, because there's 00:24:15.099 --> 00:24:16.980 always conversations and I talk with multiple 00:24:16.980 --> 00:24:18.579 companies and they always have this dream of 00:24:18.579 --> 00:24:21.220 going to the US doing business in the US, but 00:24:21.220 --> 00:24:24.740 I think they don't actually look at it as a place 00:24:24.740 --> 00:24:26.759 with so many states. They only look at one or 00:24:26.759 --> 00:24:29.200 two locations and that's actually a shame, right? 00:24:29.400 --> 00:24:31.440 It's just an error from the get go. And then 00:24:31.440 --> 00:24:32.819 they end up getting stuck and saying, oh, you 00:24:32.819 --> 00:24:34.859 know, rent is really expensive in New York or 00:24:34.859 --> 00:24:37.119 we can afford an office in San Francisco. Oh 00:24:37.119 --> 00:24:39.240 guys, look elsewhere. There's more states and 00:24:39.240 --> 00:24:41.980 they probably offer a lot of the same. They also 00:24:41.980 --> 00:24:45.880 don't understand the geographic breadth of the 00:24:45.880 --> 00:24:47.700 state of Arkansas. I lived in London for about 00:24:47.700 --> 00:24:51.039 18 months when I was doing mergers and acquisitions. 00:24:51.220 --> 00:24:54.819 And we had some friends after we moved back from 00:24:54.819 --> 00:24:57.420 the UK who said, yeah, hey, we're going to be 00:24:57.420 --> 00:25:01.660 in the US for about 10 days. And we'd love to 00:25:01.660 --> 00:25:03.740 pop in and see you guys. And I said, OK, where 00:25:03.740 --> 00:25:05.819 are you going? They said, well, We thought we 00:25:05.819 --> 00:25:07.700 would fly into New York, but then we're going 00:25:07.700 --> 00:25:10.339 to drive down to Miami and then maybe drive over 00:25:10.339 --> 00:25:14.599 to Los Angeles. And we thought we would pop in 00:25:14.599 --> 00:25:16.380 and I was like, you're going to need way more 00:25:16.380 --> 00:25:20.380 than 10 days. You're going to need 10 days just 00:25:20.380 --> 00:25:23.160 to do the drives. But you're not going to see 00:25:23.160 --> 00:25:24.559 anything. You're just going to be driving for 00:25:24.559 --> 00:25:27.180 10 days. So they don't understand the breadth. 00:25:28.359 --> 00:25:30.279 You know, they only think about, as you said, 00:25:30.400 --> 00:25:33.420 the New York's, the Miami's, the Chicago's, the 00:25:33.420 --> 00:25:37.119 San Francisco's, and there's a lot of other very 00:25:37.119 --> 00:25:43.079 thriving cities around the country that are much 00:25:43.079 --> 00:25:46.460 less expensive and provide access to high quality 00:25:46.460 --> 00:25:49.279 talent, resources, capital, and what have you. 00:25:50.000 --> 00:25:51.579 Interesting. I'm curious on one thing, which 00:25:51.579 --> 00:25:54.349 is in Europe, there's always I guess in the last 00:25:54.349 --> 00:25:56.410 six months or so there's been talks of a bit 00:25:56.410 --> 00:25:59.150 of a slowdown when it comes to investment. People 00:25:59.150 --> 00:26:00.670 are saying it's actually quite hard to raise 00:26:00.670 --> 00:26:03.069 money now because obviously the interest rates 00:26:03.069 --> 00:26:05.250 were quite high. Have you noticed the same thing 00:26:05.250 --> 00:26:07.630 in the US or quite on the contrary it's been 00:26:07.630 --> 00:26:10.210 you know? No, yeah we've seen the same thing. 00:26:10.369 --> 00:26:15.250 You know my experience is when the real estate 00:26:15.250 --> 00:26:19.230 market is hot and when the stock market is hot 00:26:19.230 --> 00:26:22.920 it's difficult to get people to make the higher 00:26:22.920 --> 00:26:26.299 risk venture type of investments because of the, 00:26:26.299 --> 00:26:28.900 of the risk relative to the reward. Usually though, 00:26:28.980 --> 00:26:30.619 when you, when you begin to see a cooling off 00:26:30.619 --> 00:26:32.539 of the stock market or a little more volatility 00:26:32.539 --> 00:26:34.420 in the, in the real estate market or what have 00:26:34.420 --> 00:26:36.920 you, you see a little more, a little more cash 00:26:36.920 --> 00:26:39.059 coming into the venture spaces, you know, as 00:26:39.059 --> 00:26:41.700 a result. And so, so yeah, I think, uh, I think 00:26:41.700 --> 00:26:43.460 we're seeing some of that same kind of thing 00:26:43.460 --> 00:26:48.490 globally, quite frankly. incredibly curious on 00:26:48.490 --> 00:26:50.890 one thing, which is you've published four books 00:26:50.890 --> 00:26:52.990 now, how hard is it to actually write a book 00:26:52.990 --> 00:26:55.289 and publish it? Obviously, a lot of people will 00:26:55.289 --> 00:26:57.569 use chat tpt right now and it will come out absolutely 00:26:57.569 --> 00:26:59.809 horrible. So how hard is it to actually launch 00:26:59.809 --> 00:27:01.609 a book? I mean, that's quite impressive. You 00:27:01.609 --> 00:27:04.670 know, it's it's not hard to to launch a book 00:27:04.670 --> 00:27:07.789 and and get it out there. There's a lot of resources 00:27:07.789 --> 00:27:11.450 where where you know, you can you can hire typesetters 00:27:11.450 --> 00:27:14.470 and editors and cover designers and those kinds 00:27:14.470 --> 00:27:17.970 of things. What's difficult for me is writing, 00:27:18.390 --> 00:27:20.690 literally writing the book, you know, process 00:27:20.690 --> 00:27:24.250 of planning the content, making sure that you're 00:27:24.250 --> 00:27:27.109 not being redundant and repetitive, but that 00:27:27.109 --> 00:27:30.430 you fully cover the topic that you're wanting 00:27:30.430 --> 00:27:34.069 to cover and that you give the reader actionable 00:27:34.069 --> 00:27:36.650 insights that they can use so that the book actually 00:27:36.650 --> 00:27:40.869 makes a difference. It's easy to just put a book 00:27:40.869 --> 00:27:43.829 together and throw it out there, but if you want 00:27:43.829 --> 00:27:48.039 to really have something that's impactful, that's 00:27:48.039 --> 00:27:50.339 thought provoking, that leaves someone better 00:27:50.339 --> 00:27:53.880 than you found them, so to speak, then it's quite 00:27:53.880 --> 00:27:57.200 a bit more difficult. But the mechanics, the 00:27:57.200 --> 00:27:59.920 mechanics are not difficult at all. You've done 00:27:59.920 --> 00:28:01.720 so much. It's actually, it's kind of impressive 00:28:01.720 --> 00:28:03.460 even to be sitting here and talking with you. 00:28:03.500 --> 00:28:05.779 I always want to understand what actually goes 00:28:05.779 --> 00:28:07.720 on behind the scenes. And I always try and ask 00:28:07.720 --> 00:28:09.660 this question, which is when you're having a 00:28:09.660 --> 00:28:11.200 bad day, when you're having one of those days 00:28:11.200 --> 00:28:14.359 you just want to give up, what thoughts go through 00:28:14.359 --> 00:28:16.039 your mind? What's the one thing that keeps on 00:28:16.039 --> 00:28:19.279 popping by? Is it just faith? Is this that, you 00:28:19.279 --> 00:28:23.839 know, complete craziness? It's like high confidence? 00:28:24.019 --> 00:28:25.339 What is it? What goes through your mind when 00:28:25.339 --> 00:28:26.740 you're having a really bad day and it's a full 00:28:26.740 --> 00:28:30.359 month? You know, it's interesting. I don't know 00:28:30.359 --> 00:28:33.319 that I have really bad days and I'm not. I mean, 00:28:33.579 --> 00:28:36.299 bad things happen. You know, bad things happen. 00:28:36.880 --> 00:28:42.279 But I think bad days are between our ears. You 00:28:42.279 --> 00:28:46.099 know, I think that the biggest battle we will 00:28:46.099 --> 00:28:49.680 ever wage, in many instances, the biggest war 00:28:49.680 --> 00:28:51.759 that we will ever wage is the one that goes on 00:28:51.759 --> 00:28:55.759 between our ears and allowing thoughts to conquer 00:28:55.759 --> 00:28:59.200 our psyche, to allow thoughts to conquer our 00:28:59.200 --> 00:29:04.599 attitude, to allow our feelings to lie to us 00:29:04.599 --> 00:29:08.700 and get us to behave in ways that... that we 00:29:08.700 --> 00:29:11.140 know we shouldn't behave. So I'm very much a 00:29:11.140 --> 00:29:14.759 proponent of mental toughness, mental resilience, 00:29:14.980 --> 00:29:18.140 and being able to control our emotions, not stuff 00:29:18.140 --> 00:29:21.019 them down, but just control them. So I don't 00:29:21.019 --> 00:29:24.279 know that I ever really have a really, really 00:29:24.279 --> 00:29:27.619 bad day. I have bad things that happen, but just 00:29:27.619 --> 00:29:30.319 like failure's only failure if you quit in a 00:29:30.319 --> 00:29:35.109 business, you know, setbacks are temporary. Bad 00:29:35.109 --> 00:29:37.309 things that happen are only temporary. Someone 00:29:37.309 --> 00:29:39.490 asked me one time, you know, or actually shared 00:29:39.490 --> 00:29:42.650 with me, when they find themselves being consumed 00:29:42.650 --> 00:29:45.910 with worry, they ask themselves just a handful 00:29:45.910 --> 00:29:49.049 of questions. Number one, what's the absolute 00:29:49.049 --> 00:29:51.849 worst thing that can happen? If that about which 00:29:51.849 --> 00:29:54.089 you're worrying comes to fruition, if it actually 00:29:54.089 --> 00:29:56.049 occurs, what's the worst thing that can happen? 00:29:56.230 --> 00:29:58.710 And then once you identify that worst thing, 00:29:59.109 --> 00:30:01.309 then ask yourself the question, well, if that 00:30:01.309 --> 00:30:05.049 worst thing happens, can I live with it? And 00:30:05.049 --> 00:30:06.930 the vast majority of the time, the answer is 00:30:06.930 --> 00:30:09.210 yes. There was some research that was done a 00:30:09.210 --> 00:30:11.789 while back that said that actually only about, 00:30:11.869 --> 00:30:16.009 I think it was about 85 % of the time, everything 00:30:16.009 --> 00:30:17.910 that we worry about, the things that we worry 00:30:17.910 --> 00:30:20.589 about never even come to fruition. 85 % of the 00:30:20.589 --> 00:30:23.710 time, it never happens. Of the remaining 15 % 00:30:23.710 --> 00:30:28.390 of the time, 12 % of the time, that which we're 00:30:28.390 --> 00:30:31.950 worrying about comes to fruition, but it's... 00:30:31.740 --> 00:30:35.680 Less than or even better than let it's better 00:30:35.680 --> 00:30:39.119 than what we anticipated. And sometimes it's 00:30:39.119 --> 00:30:41.279 an even positive outcome not a negative outcome 00:30:41.279 --> 00:30:44.160 which means that the remaining three percent 00:30:44.160 --> 00:30:47.440 of the time. That would about which were worrying 00:30:47.440 --> 00:30:50.000 comes to fruition and it's bad it's as bad as 00:30:50.000 --> 00:30:53.059 what we anticipated so worries worry is kind 00:30:53.059 --> 00:30:56.559 of a liar. It's kind of a liar and recognizing 00:30:56.559 --> 00:30:59.420 those statistics i think probably what's helped 00:30:59.420 --> 00:31:03.130 me. Help me navigate if something bad happens 00:31:03.130 --> 00:31:06.069 then my I immediately go into okay This has happened 00:31:06.069 --> 00:31:08.269 what I need to do to lessen the impact on my 00:31:08.269 --> 00:31:10.569 business on my family on my life on my time What 00:31:10.569 --> 00:31:16.180 have you? This was a lessons for business and 00:31:16.180 --> 00:31:18.259 also for pilots and i'm just about to ask you 00:31:18.259 --> 00:31:20.359 something to do with i love aviation actually 00:31:20.359 --> 00:31:22.839 have a background aviation as well but i'm i'm 00:31:22.839 --> 00:31:24.660 curious on one thing which is time management 00:31:24.660 --> 00:31:27.000 how do you manage to do all these things is quite 00:31:27.000 --> 00:31:29.440 impressive. I'm assuming quite a lot of time 00:31:29.440 --> 00:31:32.079 consuming it is also how do you manage all that 00:31:32.079 --> 00:31:38.450 well number one. I am in tune. Just over the 00:31:38.450 --> 00:31:41.490 last 15 or 20 years with what I believe my God 00:31:41.490 --> 00:31:45.829 given calling is my purpose in life and I believe 00:31:45.829 --> 00:31:48.789 that I've been that I've received specific gifts 00:31:48.789 --> 00:31:53.890 to create new insights that inspire people to 00:31:53.890 --> 00:31:58.650 better ways of living and working. And so much 00:31:58.650 --> 00:32:02.329 of what I do around innovation junkie conductor. 00:32:02.880 --> 00:32:05.859 writing books, speaking on leadership, doing 00:32:05.859 --> 00:32:09.680 podcasts, investing in companies is, is about 00:32:09.680 --> 00:32:12.460 fulfilling that purpose, fulfilling that calling 00:32:12.460 --> 00:32:14.519 of creating new insights that lead people to 00:32:14.519 --> 00:32:17.359 better ways of living and working. So I'd say 00:32:17.359 --> 00:32:20.259 that is first and foremost that I get energized. 00:32:20.940 --> 00:32:25.259 And so the second thing is that I don't I don't 00:32:25.259 --> 00:32:29.079 have hobbies that take me away for hours and 00:32:29.079 --> 00:32:31.480 hours and hours at a time, like fishing or golf. 00:32:31.920 --> 00:32:35.200 I play golf occasionally, but it's not an every 00:32:35.200 --> 00:32:38.880 Saturday morning, six hour hobby. My hobby is 00:32:38.880 --> 00:32:41.599 much of my hobbies outside of being with my family, 00:32:41.759 --> 00:32:44.880 which is my biggest hobby. My hobbies have to 00:32:44.880 --> 00:32:48.019 do with thinking about better ways to fulfill 00:32:48.019 --> 00:32:52.410 my purpose. And so I've constantly got an iPad 00:32:52.410 --> 00:32:56.569 in my lap or I'm constantly consuming a podcast 00:32:56.569 --> 00:33:03.009 or an audiobook or something. And so I feel like 00:33:03.009 --> 00:33:06.970 living this integrated lifestyle, I'm working 00:33:06.970 --> 00:33:09.289 way harder than what I expected to be working 00:33:09.289 --> 00:33:13.109 at 58 years of age, but I'm having a great time 00:33:13.109 --> 00:33:15.190 doing it. So as long as I continue having a great 00:33:15.190 --> 00:33:18.500 time doing it, I'm going to keep doing it. Sounds 00:33:18.500 --> 00:33:21.119 like the dream. I'm curious to one thing. I mean, 00:33:21.259 --> 00:33:23.059 we were talking before that you actually fly 00:33:23.059 --> 00:33:25.579 to things now instead of, well, most people fly 00:33:25.579 --> 00:33:27.539 to things, but you actually fly on your own plane 00:33:27.539 --> 00:33:30.019 instead of going commercial? Yeah. That must 00:33:30.019 --> 00:33:32.519 be amazing though. How does that even work? Well, 00:33:32.619 --> 00:33:35.740 you know, it is. I had a client meeting in Chicago 00:33:35.740 --> 00:33:39.359 a few weeks ago and I was going to fly myself, 00:33:39.400 --> 00:33:42.559 but the weather wasn't looking great and it was 00:33:42.559 --> 00:33:46.049 going to be too... Iffy with the weather and 00:33:46.049 --> 00:33:49.170 so I ended up flying commercial and, and so I, 00:33:49.190 --> 00:33:51.470 uh, it was a direct flight, which there's not 00:33:51.470 --> 00:33:53.029 a lot of direct flights out of Arkansas, but 00:33:53.029 --> 00:33:56.569 it was a direct flight. We left on time. We arrived 00:33:56.569 --> 00:33:59.950 early. My Uber got there very quickly and took 00:33:59.950 --> 00:34:02.930 me to my hotel coming home. We left on time. 00:34:03.069 --> 00:34:05.240 We got home early and I still hated it. It was 00:34:05.240 --> 00:34:08.719 still terrible. You know, have to be at the airport. 00:34:08.960 --> 00:34:11.539 You know, I leave my home two hours before my 00:34:11.539 --> 00:34:13.400 flight so that I can get to the airport, get 00:34:13.400 --> 00:34:15.559 through security, get to the gate. Many times 00:34:15.559 --> 00:34:18.280 we have to fly through Dallas or Chicago or Atlanta 00:34:18.280 --> 00:34:21.400 to go somewhere else because there aren't really 00:34:21.400 --> 00:34:24.019 close connections like there are in Europe or 00:34:24.019 --> 00:34:26.860 direct connections rather. And so, but when I, 00:34:26.860 --> 00:34:30.139 when I fly myself, I drive 10 minutes to the 00:34:30.139 --> 00:34:33.190 air to a different airport. I get on my plane 00:34:33.190 --> 00:34:37.489 and I leave and I'm there a couple of hours. 00:34:38.630 --> 00:34:43.289 It makes a big difference. It's enabled me to 00:34:43.289 --> 00:34:46.170 be able to see more clients in a shorter period 00:34:46.170 --> 00:34:48.469 of time than I would do otherwise, to get more 00:34:48.469 --> 00:34:51.349 work done in fewer days. You know, if I go to, 00:34:51.349 --> 00:34:54.789 if I go to Chicago, I can do an early morning 00:34:54.789 --> 00:34:57.190 flight and come home late at night. But almost 00:34:57.190 --> 00:34:59.389 always, if I go anywhere commercially, it's going 00:34:59.389 --> 00:35:01.429 to be an overnight and overnight flight where 00:35:01.429 --> 00:35:04.809 we're here. I can be, I can be in Chicago in 00:35:04.809 --> 00:35:06.789 two, two and a half hours. I can be in Dallas 00:35:06.789 --> 00:35:09.670 in an hour and 45 minutes. I can be in Nashville 00:35:09.670 --> 00:35:13.469 in two hours. I can be down to the beach on the 00:35:13.469 --> 00:35:16.489 Gulf coast in two hours. So there's a pretty 00:35:16.489 --> 00:35:19.289 broad brush of places that I can go to work with 00:35:19.289 --> 00:35:23.389 clients. In a in a couple of hours. Do you ever 00:35:23.389 --> 00:35:25.150 do you ever have like meetings inside the plane 00:35:25.150 --> 00:35:26.949 you ever take people over for it let's go and 00:35:26.949 --> 00:35:29.510 fly over I don't know some some city and just 00:35:29.510 --> 00:35:32.590 go and talk with people. No I really don't do 00:35:32.590 --> 00:35:35.750 that I mean now granted when I'm flying some 00:35:35.750 --> 00:35:37.769 of my business partners they may be in the back 00:35:37.769 --> 00:35:39.809 talking business and we may all be talking business 00:35:39.809 --> 00:35:42.269 through the headsets but usually when I'm flying 00:35:42.269 --> 00:35:45.610 I'm I'm focused on I'm focused on. Yeah, that 00:35:45.610 --> 00:35:47.369 makes sense. Yeah, I think that that's actually 00:35:47.369 --> 00:35:49.650 one of the first rules, isn't it? First, yeah, 00:35:49.650 --> 00:35:53.550 a V8 that you as you navigate, navigate, navigate, 00:35:53.949 --> 00:35:55.750 communicate. Yeah, okay. I got them right. I 00:35:55.750 --> 00:35:57.849 was like, because you're right. But yeah, okay. 00:35:58.030 --> 00:36:00.090 That's that's quite impressive. Jeff, I'm sure 00:36:00.090 --> 00:36:02.889 a lot of people after listening to this podcast 00:36:02.889 --> 00:36:04.650 and seeing the podcast, they want to see obviously 00:36:04.650 --> 00:36:06.369 your own podcast, which we're going to add to 00:36:06.369 --> 00:36:08.429 the link. But they probably also want to reach 00:36:08.429 --> 00:36:10.840 out to you. Now we have four books on Amazon 00:36:10.840 --> 00:36:12.960 people can buy, which is awesome. How can you 00:36:12.960 --> 00:36:14.559 reach out to you? What's a better way of doing 00:36:14.559 --> 00:36:16.760 that? Yeah, the best, the best way to reach out 00:36:16.760 --> 00:36:18.559 to me, probably two or three different ways. 00:36:18.619 --> 00:36:20.900 The best one is probably LinkedIn. I'm very active 00:36:20.900 --> 00:36:23.380 on LinkedIn and it's Jeff Standridge is my handle 00:36:23.380 --> 00:36:26.719 on LinkedIn. Jeff S as is Jeff standards, Jeff 00:36:26.719 --> 00:36:30.119 S at innovation junkie com and jeffstandridge 00:36:30.119 --> 00:36:32.760 .com had my own website as well. So happy to 00:36:32.760 --> 00:36:35.619 connect and would love to, to talk with any of 00:36:35.619 --> 00:36:37.440 your, any of your listeners who would want to 00:36:37.440 --> 00:36:39.880 connect me. Sounds good. Jeff, thank you so much 00:36:39.880 --> 00:36:41.239 for your time. It's been an absolute pleasure. 00:36:41.739 --> 00:36:43.840 It has been my pleasure. I appreciate you for 00:36:43.840 --> 00:36:47.320 having me and I hope you survive the heat. I 00:36:47.320 --> 00:36:50.219 shall. Thank you so much. This podcast is also 00:36:50.219 --> 00:36:53.760 sponsored by ODEV Tech. ODEV Tech is your premier 00:36:53.760 --> 00:36:55.960 software development partner. Make sure you check 00:36:55.960 --> 00:37:02.000 them out at odev .tech. The podcast is also sponsored 00:37:02.000 --> 00:37:04.679 by Notion .so. Notion is offering six months 00:37:04.679 --> 00:37:07.289 for free for new users. Make sure you check out 00:37:07.289 --> 00:37:10.050 our website, thestartupevents .co .uk to read 00:37:10.050 --> 00:37:12.590 in the software. This podcast is also sponsored 00:37:12.590 --> 00:37:16.269 by startupnetworks .co .uk. Startup Networks, 00:37:16.369 --> 00:37:18.690 it's an online forum where you can find all the 00:37:18.690 --> 00:37:20.949 resources you need to run your startup, from 00:37:20.949 --> 00:37:23.269 grants to investors to tips and tricks on how 00:37:23.269 --> 00:37:24.510 to be successful in your startup.