In this episode, Simon welcomes Jason Todd, Founder and Managing Director of Thinker Ventures. He has helped businesses see the bigger picture and use the vision to eliminate the constraints that clutter the path to their success. His experience ranges from business ownership, marketing, and consulting to software application development for small to large and multinational corporations. Today, he is an interventionist, a world changer, a podcast host, an entrepreneur, and an advisor.

3 Valuable Insights

• Don’t escape the situation, figure out how to work with the situation and be in the moment.
• Be patient enough with the process and know how to sit in the struggle.
• Sit with it (struggle) for a little bit and align yourself with people who've been there before.

Show Notes

(00:57)  - Simon: What are you currently up to?

(01:06)  - Jason Todd: Well, I am working on some kind of high profile advisory work, um, with some mid-sized companies in, in building out ecosystems, working with data and strategy and products and software and across, uh, across supply chains. It's super fun and interesting. And I can't talk about specifically what it is, but I, it it's right in my sweet spot. I really enjoyed that. And then I'm also working on a project called coffee with humans, which is my world changing venture that I started in COVID in April and having a lot of fun with that.

(01:52)  - Simon: Tell us about the non secret stuff, Coffee with Human. Why did you start it in the first place?

(01:53)  - Jason Todd: I started coffee with humans in April of this year, sort of when peak fear happened with COVID being sequestered in our homes was very new to everybody. And I think people were just, in my sense of the world at least we're becoming full of despair, I think, and that was leading to hopelessness. And, I kind of felt that creeping into my own soul. I thought I refused to be taken down by this hopelessness. And I think at the time, you know, my, my thought at the time was if I can make it easy to connect with people, then it's those connections that can yield some positive results for everybody. And so I made it simple, easy to connect to me. I just said, Hey, if you want to have coffee with me, go to this link, I'll have coffee with you. The only rule is no sales calls. And that just, that just, has exploded into the now a live stream. So now I'm going to be doing those lives with strangers and we become friends after that hour.

(03:47)  - Simon: Where are you headed with it now?

(03:50)  - Jason Todd: So one of the things that excites me about this project is the pull through that. I'm getting from it. And I think this, you know, to your point of working with businesses, to find success, I think one of the things that I have certainly lost sight of over time and have not been good about is going where you get pulled through instead of pushing. it's interesting also from a business standpoint that, because I've got all these connections around the world and, and, and people who are becoming friends, when I need to get something done in business, I just type a little message like, Hey, can you help me out? I need a connection to such and such a place or just so-and-so. And I probably can get there pretty quickly. So it has served me personally, I think it serves the world at large and it's served me in business. 

(10:32)  - Simon: How do you remember all these people? I meet so many great people and I forget them. So I started every guest. I started writing in my CRM system, what they are up to, what their next thing is. And, and so from time to time, I scroll through it and I see if I can help them with something.

(11:39)  - Jason Todd: I do a poor job and historically I always have done a poor job of keeping track of all the people in my sphere, because there are so many people. My strength is thinking things through and strategizing and moving ahead and relationships are not a process of thinking things through and strategizing their, just their process of just being in the moment.

(12:48)  - Simon: And I have to share something with you because just today I told my wife, Hey, I'm such a bad friend to my friends, and it's getting worse and worse. If It continue this way, can I please have one evening per week where we agree that I can be off family and just for my friends. So you said, yes, take Tuesday evening. 

(11:39)  - Jason Todd: I think it's the care and nurturing care and nurturing of relationships. Sometimes I've missed the thing that I'm getting pulled through on because I was off busy, strategizing something I wanted to create, not understanding that the thing I'm in right now is in the middle of creation and it's in the middle of growth. Just relax, just stay there for awhile, be present.

(14:52)  - Simon: What are the weak signals?

(15:07)  - Jason Todd: So years ago I sold the company and I remember that in the year up to selling that company, I was in a point of maybe I don't want to go so far as to say mental distress, but I didn't know how to have conversations that I needed to have with my business partner. That's what the root of the issue was. There were things I wanted to say, things I wanted to express. I did not know how to have those conversations. And instead of learning how to have those conversations and asking somebody for assistance, asking somebody for help, who had been through those types of discussions before I got stuck in my head and I strategized, like, do I get out of this company? 

(17:55)  - Simon: I have learned this after 40 years, because now I know who to ask and that exactly what my private masterminds are for me.

(18:36)  - Jason Todd: And there are two parts to that, right? There's the idea of who do you align yourself with? Who do you spend your time with? I'm just inviting people around me to give me a different perspective and just pause for a bit and internalize.

(27:09)  - Simon: What is next on your journey?

(27:25)  - Jason Todd: Well, 2020 is weird, I think for everybody. I'm going to move into the things that I'm getting pulled through on. I have a lot of simplification that I, that I am taking the time now to do in my life.

(28:14)  - Simon:  What were books or podcasts that touched you recently?

(28:30)  - Jason Todd: I'm going to be a little selfish and say, my podcast is touching me recently because I've learned so much from all the people I get to talk with. I mean, it is just, it's a gift. And a book that came up recently, Triggers by Marshall Goldsmith.

(32:19)  - Simon: Is there something I forgot to ask you?

(32:29)  - Jason Todd: We've covered a lot and all those things like people really have to unpack it. Like, sit with it for a little bit, repeat it to yourself, unpack it. Spend the day, unpacking it.

Sprint Resources!

Get a free report on your current sales processes with our 15 minute Sales Audit and consultation with a Sprint coach!

Subscribe on YouTube and listen to Apple Podcasts to hear the latest Strategy Sprint episode!