Weekly Impact by Lay of The Land

Jim Haviland [00:00:01]:
Alright. You have joined the lay of the land week in review My name is Jim Haviland..

Kris Snyder [00:00:06]:
And I'm Kris Snyder.

Jim Haviland [00:00:07]:
And we are here at the Impact Leadership Center to give you a rundown of the last week in the land, those building and, creating great things here in, in Cleveland. And we got 3 things to cover today, Kris. We've got a podcast review. We're gonna get a couple of events to review. Right? Absolutely. So, the last podcast came up was, number 168 and, around OCO. I think it's we're saying that right. And that was a very interesting show, show, wasn't it? I mean, great technology, very Cleveland like technology because it's on the back end.

Jim Haviland [00:00:38]:
There's no front end. It just makes things work better.

Kris Snyder [00:00:40]:
Yeah. But highly timely too, for those of you who haven't caught the podcast yet. Darren A. Small talks about the fact that, it's really AI as an assistant, but the assistance that it's providing is really in the back end around integrations. Right? Think about data exchange, EDI gets brought up in the podcast. Right? How it's an antiquated technology, and they're just doing more with it.

Jim Haviland [00:01:02]:
Yeah. Forget about, you know, having, AI write the next, summer blockbuster, but more importantly, be able to interpret these things that are really well known and, you know, AI being, ultimately, stealing information at scale. I mean, it what a great use of that of that technology.

Kris Snyder [00:01:18]:
Yeah. No. We've got more things, and and he talks a little bit about workflow inside the podcast and what's the future coming and whatnot. And he's obviously sharing some of his thoughts on machine learning, but it is an interesting technology because we always think about software as having user interface and how we interact with it, but really we're gonna start to see AI and automation workflow, and they've got a great use case when it comes to supply chain, global supply chain, whereas all the handoffs and the points are at.

Jim Haviland [00:01:43]:
Now and Darren is what we'll we'll maybe we'll coin the term brain gain for Cleveland. Great a great highly accomplished, individual from somewhere else.

Kris Snyder [00:01:52]:
Yeah. And he makes a pretty big statement around moving from New York to Cleveland. It was 1 of the best decisions he's made. I'm paraphrasing. I don't remember exactly, but it was pretty strong. It was it's just called a strong statement. And, you know, I also I did a good job talking about life and inflection points. We we mostly put our life around the business side of inflection points, but most of the time our personal life is driving how we got here.

Kris Snyder [00:02:14]:
I know both of you and I are not natives and it was Yeah. As personal as much as it was business that, that we became Cleveland. Yeah.

Jim Haviland [00:02:19]:
The things that open you up to the possibility that maybe this is pretty awesome too, and I think that's you know, 1 thing you'd see throughout the the arc of all of the, shows is that, Jeffrey, being AAA transplant himself, is able to find these people that are coming here, finding amazing resources both for quality of life, but also for for starting and running a business. You know, the talent is here, the money is here, and maybe in less supply, but but but, and Darren, of course, didn't didn't raise much money here, but he did have help from Jumpstart, which is a great, great institution and just getting it better.

Kris Snyder [00:02:51]:
Yeah. No. A 100%. He does make some comments around the, you know, while the size is he doesn't necessarily go up to the size, but why we probably don't have size of a Austin, Boston, or the Valley. Right. Right? You you still have the intensity of a great network, which is kinda why this podcast exists. Right, Jim?

Jim Haviland [00:03:06]:
100%. It was the always the idea, the power of, the impact of having a great community, having having having peers, to get access to. Alright. So let's move on. So, Kris, we had, this great event with the North Coast Ventures, our partner in in ventureship. What did you think of that event?

Kris Snyder [00:03:24]:
I well, I just love the I love the humans getting in the room together.

Jim Haviland [00:03:27]:
Yeah.

Kris Snyder [00:03:27]:
Right? It's as much networking as kinda they do a little bit of portfolio review. How are they performing? They talk about, you know, some really big events with the state and their participation of getting $15, 000, 000 to the next fund. But then I love it when they bring the entrepreneurs in, and we should gotta give a quick shout out to Todd Fetterman. He was on lay of the land number 28, I

Jim Haviland [00:03:47]:
believe. In time early

Kris Snyder [00:03:48]:
days. Yeah. And, I should I don't think we said Darren's was 168. So just showing the delta difference between when Todd was on to when Darren was on this last week.

Jim Haviland [00:03:57]:
Yeah. No doubt. And I think the, you know, for those of you who don't know, North Coast Ventures is a really intriguing model because you can join those funds for little or no money. I mean, it's really, from a standpoint of being a venture capitalist, I mean, the the low boundary to entry at North Coast Ventures, you know, it's really, you know, if you've had you know, if you're saving money for something, it's a great place to put your money because they've they've got a really amazing portfolio company, like 40 companies now that that, you get a piece of.

Kris Snyder [00:04:23]:
Yeah. And and they've with their syndication fund, it gives they can get even to larger companies and even beyond the region. Right. So as you know, we'll call a quick shout out to North Coast Ventures. They're investors in 90, through their syndications. So and, obviously, you and I, 90 has a sweet spot in our heart, right, and and our portfolio. So so we appreciate North Coast being an investor and supporter of 90. And, obviously, they they run on 90 as well.

Jim Haviland [00:04:47]:
They do. And and they and they gave us a shout out. In fact, our connection there our impact on them and and the impact of 90 on them. But there were 2 2 companies there. We had, David Edelman, so we both know him for long going back. He's an EO member, and he is he's not been on the is he on the show? He's on 136.

Kris Snyder [00:05:04]:
No. That that that was Michael was on 136. Yeah.

Jim Haviland [00:05:07]:
Oh, god.

Kris Snyder [00:05:07]:
I don't think David's been on yet. That's a great question. And I don't know why he hasn't been on. That's a Jeffrey note. Alright, Jeffrey. Note to Jeffrey.

Jim Haviland [00:05:14]:
Let's talk about Thriva Bowl and what they've got going on, but that was a good update. But even better was, Michael Ciarpillo from Society Brands. He's 136.

Kris Snyder [00:05:22]:
Yep.

Jim Haviland [00:05:23]:
And and they're really becoming the p and g of, of online brands and doing an amazing job. There are a bunch of acquisitions more to come.

Kris Snyder [00:05:31]:
Yeah. And really, you know, fun, fascinating story from Michael's perspective. Literally, he had built another company in transition at the pandemic stage, watching all these Amazon packages flood his house, and he's like, I'm not sure there's some consolidation in this market that could be done. So they're beyond Amazon. They have Shopify and some other other sources as well as how they think about it. But they are an aggregator of these really strong brands. And having coached several PE firms and acquisition related clients, I love theirs because they don't get rid of the founders. Yeah.

Kris Snyder [00:06:01]:
They want the founders to stay.

Jim Haviland [00:06:03]:
100%. I mean, certainly, we we've got other clients in our portfolio that are have an acquisition strategy, but they're usually just rip and replace. And, and that's the interesting part about Michael. Michael and his team's strategy is to keep the founders on, and he gave us a great big shout out as well. Thank you so much, Michael. It's been fun working with them. They're they're they're smart guys, but and they're trying to move fast, but we're trying to slow them down to make some good decisions.

Kris Snyder [00:06:24]:
Yeah. No. And and it you know, 1 of the things I do appreciate about it is they get that what got you here won't get you there. They understand the stages of business development starting from survival to sustainable to scale. Right? And they're really pushing into that scale side right now. Yeah. And it is a change every time. And sometimes, you know, structure first people second, but sometimes our people don't evolve as fast as we really need them to to keep up with the structure that's required.

Jim Haviland [00:06:47]:
Yeah. You know, and it's like hug them on the way out. You know, I so many of my clients when once they embrace, first of all, the hell yes principle of hiring of hiring people. And 2, like the like, you don't have to hate them to let let them go. You have to the most loving thing you could do to someone that no longer belongs here is to just say, hey, man. You you can find the thing in your where you really fit. Right?

Kris Snyder [00:07:07]:
That really is a transition, but sometimes it's the right 1.

Jim Haviland [00:07:09]:
Yeah. Absolutely. Alright then. And you had a good conversation with Caleb there.

Kris Snyder [00:07:12]:
I did. So I hadn't met Caleb. He was on, episode 151 integrated, power search. I think I get that right. IPS. Yeah. And he and I had exchanged some introductions of value back and forth. I got him a client just because of hearing the podcast, introduced him to folks, but we got to hug it out and get get to learn.

Kris Snyder [00:07:31]:
And I think you're gonna have breakfast with him soon. I am. So we love we love the connectivity of all this happening, which is 1 of the reasons I think we bring it up.

Jim Haviland [00:07:38]:
Well, it's it's a good powerful move for here in Cleveland because he's 1 he's he's really placing high high level people into fast growing businesses, and he's focusing on the VC and PE markets, places where they really want high powered people. So I think it's a really interesting play for us, as Impact Architects, but also it's great to have that as a resource here in Cleveland that, hey, we're sourcing these people and we complete the circle. Cleveland's a good place to come to come work. So, hopefully, that will continue to work out.

Kris Snyder [00:08:04]:
Yep. And you went to a pretty good event last week for EO?

Jim Haviland [00:08:06]:
I did. I did. It was really fun. You know, obviously, Kris, you've been an you were an EO member for many, many years, and now we've been, an SAP or a a sponsor for the last couple. This is their end of year event, at the Shorby Club, which is a great great venue. It was a perfect night to be looking into Lake Erie and, sun going down. And there were a lot of people from EO there. I mean, EO's, you know, local chapter is 1 of the biggest chapters and the most successful chapters in the world as it turns out.

Jim Haviland [00:08:33]:
They they get kudos everywhere they go. A 144 active members. I gotta say that 80 of them were there

Kris Snyder [00:08:40]:
Okay.

Jim Haviland [00:08:40]:
And including a lot of our clients, you know, we so we we're well represented there, including it was really great to have, Tracy Miller actually got up on stage from Color 3 and, really shouted out Impact Architects and and the work we've done together to to advance her business. So she couldn't have gotten there without us. So, always great to hear that. And, but, you know, we met lots of other people there that, you know, we both have clients that have that have been in EO. Barb, Mini from Mini Group, is current client. Ryan Schmidt, you know, also current client. And you've had some great clients that that are there, and then there's some of them moving on. In fact, we're talking about, Gabe earlier who's, Torek who's ready to move on in life.

Jim Haviland [00:09:20]:
Yes. He had a great exit.

Kris Snyder [00:09:22]:
Had Had a great exit. I think that's what some things that people don't really get about EO is that you it is business based, but it's a lot of the person, the human, and you get a lot out of it even when you're not just in the business. And there's so many folks that do transition, and they can decide, like, if you've been there, I think it's a decade plus, you can decide if you're staying for that personal attribute or if it's really time for you to to go on to your next peer group that might not be, you know, crazy crazy entrepreneurs focused on, what they can build today. But, you

Jim Haviland [00:09:46]:
know, it's 1 thing we we we always say, Kris. Right? It's it's you gotta have a a peer network, people that are in the same situation as you so you can learn from them. Yeah.

Kris Snyder [00:09:54]:
I don't know if you caught that. Also, just just 1 moment back to Darren, on his podcast, that was just released as he talks about having a coach. Yeah. So he's just And he has a coach, and we're just talking about mentorship and how those things go. And and I think you definitely need a peer group. I think you definitely need a coach. I know I've got 1. Right? Like, why shouldn't we all have 1? And then I think you you you really gotta have that that operating system that helps you, that helps your business build.

Kris Snyder [00:10:19]:
Right? Because otherwise, it's accidental, it's unintentional, and it's a distraction.

Jim Haviland [00:10:23]:
If you want accidental results, have an accidental operating system. If you want intentional results, you know what to do. Yep. So, alright. Well, Kris, great talking, and we'll catch up again next week for, lay of the land we can review.

Kris Snyder [00:10:36]:
Awesome.