Latest / Something Extra / Redefining Inclusion as an Economic Opportunity w/ Jim Atwater

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Redefining Inclusion as an Economic Opportunity w/ Jim Atwater · Something Extra

0:02
Jim Atwater: So that was one of the things I've always tried to help people with
0:05
Jim Atwater: is don't get angry.
0:06
Jim Atwater: And it's not about,
0:09
Jim Atwater: you know, giving up or revenge and all this stuff.
0:12
Jim Atwater: It's really nobody's trying to do this to you.
0:15
Jim Atwater: You know?
0:15
Jim Atwater: The people at the hospital, at the medical school, they just don't understand.
0:21
Jim Atwater: People in seventh grade just don't understand.
0:24
Jim Atwater: And so
0:25
Jim Atwater: it's not always as bad as it seems, first of all.
0:28
Jim Atwater: But if you can't if you can't stay positive in
0:32
Jim Atwater: in yourself and look for what's right in front of you,
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Jim Atwater: that's really that's really important.
0:39
Jim Atwater: I think one of the biggest lessons I learned.
0:44
Lisa Nichols: It takes something a little more to lead with impact.
0:47
Lisa Nichols: I'm Lisa Nichols, author of Something Extra, and this podcast
0:52
Lisa Nichols: was inspired by our daughter, Ally, whose additional chromosome has shaped
0:56
Lisa Nichols: how I see people in leadership.
0:59
Lisa Nichols: Each episode features conversations with inspiring leaders from around the world
1:03
Lisa Nichols: about what truly defines how they lead and serve others.
1:07
Lisa Nichols: If you enjoyed today's conversation, please consider leaving a five
1:11
Lisa Nichols: star review.
1:12
Lisa Nichols: It helps more people discover the show.
1:15
Lisa Nichols: And if you'd like to go deeper, my book, Something Extra, is available on
1:19
Lisa Nichols: Amazon and through other major book retailers.
1:23
Lisa Nichols: Today, we are joined by Jim Atwater, founder and CEO of InReturn
1:28
Lisa Nichols: Strategies.
1:29
Lisa Nichols: Jim spent over fifteen years leading major operational transformations
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Lisa Nichols: in corporate finance, but his true pivot came from personal experience.
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Lisa Nichols: After navigating progressive hearing loss from childhood, he set out to
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Lisa Nichols: fundamentally change how businesses view untapped talent.
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Lisa Nichols: Jim is a strategic leader, true social innovator, and a pioneer
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Lisa Nichols: in value driven business growth.
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Lisa Nichols: Well, Jim Atwater, welcome to the Something Extra podcast.
1:55
Lisa Nichols: I'm delighted that we can make this work today.
1:59
Jim Atwater: Thank you so much, Lisa.
2:00
Jim Atwater: I'm incredibly excited, first of all, to have met you and
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Jim Atwater: incredibly excited to be on your show that is gaining so
2:08
Jim Atwater: much
2:10
Jim Atwater: traction and absolute a wards.
2:12
Jim Atwater: I know you got last week.
2:15
Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
2:15
Lisa Nichols: Oh, yes.
2:17
Lisa Nichols: Right.
2:17
Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
2:18
Lisa Nichols: That, you know what?
2:20
Lisa Nichols: And it's all because of people like you, though, Jim.
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Lisa Nichols: It's you guys that are on the show that make the show.
2:26
Lisa Nichols: It really truly is.
2:27
Lisa Nichols: So very grateful for that.
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Lisa Nichols: But you know what?
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Lisa Nichols: First of all, I have to give a big shout
2:35
Lisa Nichols: out to our mutual friend, Jim Bechtold.
2:40
Lisa Nichols: Because if it weren't for Jim, you and I may not have met each
2:43
Lisa Nichols: other.
2:43
Lisa Nichols: Although, you know, you're Kansas City.
2:46
Lisa Nichols: You're not that far away.
2:47
Lisa Nichols: But, you know, we may have met each other, but I'm just
2:51
Lisa Nichols: so grateful to Jim because he always connects me to really
2:56
Lisa Nichols: special people.
2:57
Lisa Nichols: And I really appreciate that and always want to give him credit,
3:01
Lisa Nichols: so I'm grateful for that.
3:03
Lisa Nichols: But we've got a lot to talk about, Jim.
3:07
Lisa Nichols: But for those of you who for those listeners who have not met
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Lisa Nichols: you, I really love for you to go back and
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Lisa Nichols: tell the story behind that little boy who struggled
3:20
Lisa Nichols: through first grade, the hearing test, and how did that shape who
3:24
Lisa Nichols: you are today.
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Lisa Nichols: And, honestly, it's shaping what you're doing today
3:29
Lisa Nichols: as, as your life work.
3:31
Lisa Nichols: And, so I know I've read the story, but I would love for you
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Lisa Nichols: to tell our listeners the story.
3:38
Jim Atwater: Lisa, that's a long way back.
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Jim Atwater: So let me let me think about that just real real quickly.
3:43
Jim Atwater: First grade, I was seven.
3:44
Lisa Nichols: First grade.
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Jim Atwater: And, Southern California.
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Jim Atwater: You know, it's unique.
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Jim Atwater: That's part of a unique long story because that was the first
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Jim Atwater: time I really figured out that people thought I was different, and they didn't
4:00
Jim Atwater: know what to do with me.
4:02
Jim Atwater: So every first grader back in the day had to take a hearing
4:06
Jim Atwater: test,
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Jim Atwater: and, of course, I didn't pass it.
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Jim Atwater: This was, 1977
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Jim Atwater: .
4:16
Jim Atwater: So
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Jim Atwater: hearing aids were there, but they were kind of awkward.
4:22
Jim Atwater: And,
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Jim Atwater: so obviously, I I didn't have hearing aids, but the people
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Jim Atwater: administering the test didn't believe that I'd failed it.
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Jim Atwater: They thought I was just trying to do that.
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Jim Atwater: So they made me sit there all day
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Jim Atwater: while the rest of the school took the hearing test,
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Jim Atwater: and made me take the hearing test maybe, like, five or six times.
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Jim Atwater: And so I'm I'm seven.
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Jim Atwater: I mean, I don't know what's going on.
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Jim Atwater: And so I just did it.
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Jim Atwater: And, you know, fast forward throughout your life,
4:59
Jim Atwater: well,
5:01
Jim Atwater: you're in groups of people and,
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Jim Atwater: you know, there's group conversations going on and you can't really participate
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Jim Atwater: in those conversations.
5:10
Jim Atwater: And decisions are being made socially with your friends and everything, and you're
5:15
Jim Atwater: you're just not part of that, but you don't realize it at
5:19
Jim Atwater: the time.
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Jim Atwater: You don't really realize what's going on.
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Jim Atwater: You're you're there, right,
5:24
Jim Atwater: with a group.
5:26
Jim Atwater: And but those things have impacts on people over
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Jim Atwater: time.
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Jim Atwater: And so it just made me acutely aware of
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Jim Atwater: how to really pay attention to people, I think, is one of those things.
5:41
Jim Atwater: And it's not so much about empathy or
5:45
Jim Atwater: those kinds of things.
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Jim Atwater: It's really just a fact as,
5:49
Jim Atwater: that's part of how we how do we include people?
5:53
Jim Atwater: Why do we include people?
5:54
Jim Atwater: Why don't we include people?
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Jim Atwater: And so it's just an interesting thing, you know, when those things
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Jim Atwater: happen.
6:02
Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
6:03
Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
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Lisa Nichols: I mean,
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Lisa Nichols: and I'm sure, Jim, just kinda like you said, they didn't really know
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Lisa Nichols: what to do.
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Lisa Nichols: You know?
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Lisa Nichols: And it wasn't maliciousness probably on their part.
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Lisa Nichols: It's just they thought you were kinda goofing off, right, and not
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Lisa Nichols: really taking the test.
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Lisa Nichols: And so a lot of times, it's a lack of education,
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Lisa Nichols: I would say, a lack of awareness.
6:27
Lisa Nichols: Right?
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Lisa Nichols: And, and I know that's something that you have spent your life,
6:33
Lisa Nichols: really advocating for differently abled people, and we're gonna talk about that.
6:37
Lisa Nichols: But, you know, you do have progressive hearing loss.
6:40
Lisa Nichols: Finally, you received cochlear implants, and I'm sure
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Lisa Nichols: that that was that was probably opened up a new world to you, right,
6:48
Lisa Nichols: when that happened.
6:50
Jim Atwater: Yeah.
6:51
Jim Atwater: So when I finally lost my hearing, excuse me,
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Jim Atwater: when I was about 26 or 27 .
6:59
Jim Atwater: And so that was when you're no longer
7:03
Jim Atwater: able to discriminate speech.
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Jim Atwater: And so hearing aids
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Jim Atwater: we're not answering anymore,
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Jim Atwater: cochlear implants were still relatively new.
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Jim Atwater: It was nineteen ninety seven.
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Jim Atwater: I think you were only allowed to get one on one side.
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Jim Atwater: You wore a big battery pack on your belt.
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Jim Atwater: That that was what powered it.
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Jim Atwater: And a a big wire ran up to your head.
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Jim Atwater: It was really awkward.
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Jim Atwater: But but,
7:30
Jim Atwater: interesting thing, they say, yeah, I did.
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Jim Atwater: It took a long time for my brain to be able to make
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Jim Atwater: sense out of those electronic signals that
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Jim Atwater: the device was sending it, because they've never heard those frequencies before.
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Lisa Nichols: Right.
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Jim Atwater: The higher frequency is, like, I've never really heard birds.
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Jim Atwater: I've never really heard that microwaves have a beep.
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Jim Atwater: And so just trying to figure out what all this noise
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Jim Atwater: was was kinda nerve wracking at the same time as fun
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Jim Atwater: .
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Jim Atwater: But now
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Jim Atwater: I love listening to music.
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Jim Atwater: I finally figured out you know, it took about eight years before I could
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Jim Atwater: process music in my head, and I just love it now.
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Jim Atwater: I'm I'm very fortunate.
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Lisa Nichols: Oh, I'm so grateful.
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Lisa Nichols: I'm so grateful that you're able to hear music because I was thinking about
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Lisa Nichols: you this morning, Jim, and I think that is the thing I would miss
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Lisa Nichols: the most is just hearing the music.
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Lisa Nichols: So I'm so grateful for that.
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Lisa Nichols: But I read a story about you where a Latin professor
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Lisa Nichols: refused to accommodate your hearing loss.
8:38
Lisa Nichols: I'm sorry for that.
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Lisa Nichols: You know, I'm sure that was a very painful experience.
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Lisa Nichols: I think you ended up switching schools because of that.
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Lisa Nichols: Right?
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Lisa Nichols: But, you know, what did that experience teach you?
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Jim Atwater: Yeah.
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Jim Atwater: So this is another one of those things that, little things that just keep
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Jim Atwater: adding up where,
9:02
Jim Atwater: you know, you you you're not you don't feel fully in control of your
9:06
Jim Atwater: path.
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Jim Atwater: At university, I was playing tennis.
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Jim Atwater: I was playing really good tennis.
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Jim Atwater: I loved it, made some great friends, and but I couldn't
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Jim Atwater: get the foreign language requirement waived.
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Jim Atwater: And not being able to hear all this is obviously before implants and everything
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Jim Atwater: else.
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Jim Atwater: And most of the foreign languages, obviously, they're talking .
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Jim Atwater: So I did everything I could.
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Jim Atwater: I got a tutor.
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Jim Atwater: You know, I had really good grades otherwise.
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Jim Atwater: But I failed the class for the first time and
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Jim Atwater: eventually wound up transferring to Xavier in Ohio where they would waive
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Jim Atwater: the requirement.
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Lisa Nichols: The foreign language.
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Jim Atwater: And I took four years of art history instead.
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Jim Atwater: So, you know, Lisa, this was in a time when people really didn't
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Jim Atwater: understand.
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Lisa Nichols: That's right.
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Jim Atwater: Though I don't even know if ADA was there in 1988 or '89
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Jim Atwater: or whatever, but it was there's just there's just weren't any
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Jim Atwater: rules or understanding of what people could or couldn't do,
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Jim Atwater: and how to accommodate them.
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Jim Atwater: So, you know, looking back again, there's always a
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Jim Atwater: path that you're gonna take, but you'll see later along
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Jim Atwater: in my life where all of this stuff just added up to the moment
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Jim Atwater: that I'm in now.
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Lisa Nichols: Absolutely, Jim.
10:35
Lisa Nichols: That's what I always say.
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Lisa Nichols: It's like life is like a bunch of dots.
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Lisa Nichols: If you remembered, you know, the dots, right, in the pictures, and and
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Lisa Nichols: it's like, as you're going through it, you don't really see how this makes
10:47
Lisa Nichols: a beautiful picture.
10:49
Jim Atwater: Yeah.
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Lisa Nichols: But on the other side, give it a little time, and you can start
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Lisa Nichols: connecting those dots and understand.
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Lisa Nichols: Because you're a, you're a huge advocate.
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Lisa Nichols: I mean, you're a huge advocate for differently abled people now, and,
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Lisa Nichols: you know, you know what it was like going through.
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Lisa Nichols: And so, you know, you're so much more equipped, I would say,
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Lisa Nichols: to help in that regard and to help people.
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Lisa Nichols: So,
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Lisa Nichols: it it turned out to be a beautiful picture, but it didn't end there
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Lisa Nichols: because I know that you really had a dream.
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Lisa Nichols: I think your dream was to be this rural doctor.
11:29
Lisa Nichols: You had worked a summer in Colorado at a ranch.
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Jim Atwater: Yeah.
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Lisa Nichols: And decided you wanted to do that.
11:36
Jim Atwater: Yeah.
11:37
Jim Atwater: This is I always wanted to be a doctor, and I really wanted to
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Jim Atwater: be a rural doctor.
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Jim Atwater: And because I love being outside, and I love being outside of the
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Jim Atwater: city and with, you know, animals and everything.
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Jim Atwater: I just love the whole environment.
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Jim Atwater: So Lisa, w hen I graduated college with
11:58
Jim Atwater: an economics degree,
12:01
Jim Atwater: you know, I was in part of two honor societies, and I was on
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Jim Atwater: the top ten percent of the class.
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Jim Atwater: So I went after school to take premed classes so I could satisfy
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Jim Atwater: that before I applied for medical school.
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Jim Atwater: I really wanted the business degree to be a better doctor.
12:19
Jim Atwater: And
12:21
Jim Atwater: so
12:23
Jim Atwater: after applying, they literally looked me in
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Jim Atwater: the face and said, Jim, those old doctors are not gonna repeat themselves for
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Jim Atwater: you.
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Jim Atwater: And even though I aced the interviews and all the stuff, I didn't get into
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Jim Atwater: medical school.
12:36
Jim Atwater: And
12:38
Jim Atwater: so I was like, you know, that's five years of my income
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Jim Atwater: generating life that's just gone, right, and with nothing after that.
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Jim Atwater: And so but, again, that's in the moment, and all of these things
12:51
Jim Atwater: start to add up.
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Jim Atwater: I did get to meet with the chancellor of the school after that, not
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Jim Atwater: with the purpose of, you know,
13:00
Jim Atwater: trying to get back in line or anything, but really just to help them
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Jim Atwater: understand what was going on.
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Jim Atwater: And she just couldn't believe it.
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Jim Atwater: And so so she was like, Jim, if you
13:13
Jim Atwater: apply, you don't have to take the MCATs again.
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Jim Atwater: You just you just need to apply.
13:17
Jim Atwater: I was like, you know, I'm I'm building a house.
13:19
Jim Atwater: I'm having kids.
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Jim Atwater: I think I'm just gonna move on at this point.
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Lisa Nichols: So, basically, what it was is they were telling you
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Lisa Nichols: that the older doctors to mentor you and that we're not gonna slow
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Lisa Nichols: down
13:36
Jim Atwater: Yeah.
13:36
Lisa Nichols: To understand you.
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Lisa Nichols: And, boy, I mean, that's...
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Jim Atwater: You know, the the main point there, Lisa, is, you know, there's a million
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Jim Atwater: people like me.
13:47
Lisa Nichols: Yes.
13:49
Jim Atwater: At least.
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Jim Atwater: And so they've been spending tens of millions of dollars
13:54
Jim Atwater: even since then, and they still are today trying to solve a rural medicine
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Jim Atwater: problem.
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Jim Atwater: Not enough doctors, but they're not looking in places
14:03
Jim Atwater: where they might find them.
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Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
14:06
Lisa Nichols: And, I mean, you would've you would definitely have had, the
14:10
Lisa Nichols: smarts,
14:12
Lisa Nichols: right, to be a doctor, Jim.
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Lisa Nichols: You had the passion because you had already decided that's what you wanted
14:17
Lisa Nichols: to do.
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Lisa Nichols: So I just, I'm really hoping that, you know, even if there's
14:22
Lisa Nichols: people out there today that are listening that maybe don't really
14:26
Lisa Nichols: understand the differently abled community, that they'll come away with
14:31
Lisa Nichols: better understanding today.
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Lisa Nichols: And that's my hope and my prayer, for our conversation.
14:36
Lisa Nichols: But, you know, I mean, you've had a lot of leadership lessons,
14:40
Lisa Nichols: Jim, come from facing barriers.
14:44
Lisa Nichols: I mean, your whole entire life, right, that many people never have to
14:48
Lisa Nichols: to navigate.
14:49
Lisa Nichols: I mean, you know, what what are some of those leadership lessons,
14:54
Lisa Nichols: b ecause I know that you went on to work, I think, for fifteen
14:57
Lisa Nichols: years at American Century Investments.
15:00
Lisa Nichols: You know, your economics degree, I'm sure, came and your business degree came into,
15:05
Lisa Nichols: play there.
15:07
Lisa Nichols: You know?
15:07
Lisa Nichols: But what what are some of those lessons that you learned from facing these
15:11
Lisa Nichols: barriers and having to overcome?
15:12
Lisa Nichols: I'm sure resilience,
15:15
Lisa Nichols: never quit, you know, pivoting, you know, having a mindset to pivot,
15:19
Lisa Nichols: but, agility.
15:21
Lisa Nichols: What what other leadership lessons might you have learned?
15:25
Jim Atwater: Yeah.
15:25
Jim Atwater: So it's just interesting, Lisa.
15:31
Jim Atwater: The lessons learned have been
15:34
Jim Atwater: ongoing every day, you know, not just from the past, but
15:38
Jim Atwater: I hope to learn something every day.
15:41
Lisa Nichols: Yes.
15:43
Jim Atwater: The most, most important thing is, you know,
15:47
Jim Atwater: you still have to look at inward.
15:50
Jim Atwater: You still have to look and see what you're doing and
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Jim Atwater: who you are and not get away from that,
15:59
Jim Atwater: and not get angry.
16:01
Jim Atwater: So I had I had a friend you know,
16:05
Jim Atwater: I've helped a lot of people find their path into
16:09
Jim Atwater: employment and everything they wanna do just by the nature of what I'm doing.
16:15
Jim Atwater: I had one in the hospital.
16:18
Jim Atwater: You know, he had ADD,
16:21
Jim Atwater: ADHD.
16:23
Jim Atwater: His father was not always there for him and so forth,
16:27
Jim Atwater: and he was just angry about it.
16:30
Jim Atwater: And so I'm like, you know, let's not get angry.
16:34
Jim Atwater: Let's figure out, you know, how you're valuable, and
16:38
Jim Atwater: let's talk about that.
16:40
Jim Atwater: And
16:41
Jim Atwater: he really took that to heart and started to just started to think, you
16:45
Jim Atwater: know, people are gonna want me if I can talk about
16:50
Jim Atwater: those things.
16:50
Jim Atwater: And I'm not really in the hole that I think I am.
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Jim Atwater: That doesn't determine me and where I go.
16:58
Jim Atwater: So that was one of the things I've always tried to help people with
17:02
Jim Atwater: is don't get angry.
17:04
Jim Atwater: And it's not about,
17:07
Jim Atwater: you know, giving up or revenge and all this stuff.
17:09
Jim Atwater: It's really nobody's trying to do this to you.
17:12
Jim Atwater: You know?
17:13
Jim Atwater: The people at the hospital, at the medical school, they just don't understand.
17:19
Jim Atwater: People on seventh grade just don't understand.
17:21
Jim Atwater: And so
17:23
Jim Atwater: it's not always as bad as it seems, first of all.
17:26
Jim Atwater: But if you can't if you can't stay positive in
17:30
Jim Atwater: yourself and look for what's right in front of you,
17:35
Jim Atwater: that's really important.
17:37
Jim Atwater: I think one of the biggest lessons I learned.
17:39
Lisa Nichols: It's so good.
17:40
Lisa Nichols: I love that Jim .
17:41
Lisa Nichols: Look for what's right.
17:43
Lisa Nichols: And right in front of you, if you look what you do have instead
17:46
Lisa Nichols: of get angry about this the negative circumstances.
17:52
Lisa Nichols: And you know what?
17:53
Lisa Nichols: Here's the reality with anger.
17:55
Lisa Nichols: It hurts you.
17:57
Lisa Nichols: I mean, it hurts you emotionally.
17:58
Lisa Nichols: It hurts you physically.
17:59
Lisa Nichols: I mean, it hurts the person that's holding the anger more than it
18:03
Lisa Nichols: hurts anybody else, really.
18:06
Lisa Nichols: You know, there's definitely studies that show that.
18:09
Lisa Nichols: Right?
18:10
Lisa Nichols: So,
18:12
Lisa Nichols: I love that you've been able to help people in that way.
18:15
Lisa Nichols: I bet, Jim, that you're a better listener.
18:23
Jim Atwater: That's so funny you say that.
18:25
Jim Atwater: I think I'm a better observer, maybe.
18:29
Lisa Nichols: Right.
18:29
Jim Atwater: Because I growing up, I always had
18:35
Jim Atwater: to I couldn't just listen and not pay attention to a person.
18:36
Jim Atwater: I had to really pay attention to meaning lips and the mannerisms
18:40
Jim Atwater: and what people, so I I guess I hear a little differently.
18:45
Jim Atwater: I hope I don't know if I'm better.
18:47
Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
18:48
Lisa Nichols: I love that, though.
18:49
Lisa Nichols: I mean, you're probably using, like you said, you know, the
18:53
Lisa Nichols: observing all the senses a little bit more than a typical
18:58
Lisa Nichols: person.
18:58
Lisa Nichols: Right?
18:59
Lisa Nichols: Because you're you're watching body language.
19:03
Lisa Nichols: What's this person really feeling right now?
19:06
Lisa Nichols: What what is the, the why behind whatever it is
19:10
Lisa Nichols: that they're saying to me?
19:12
Lisa Nichols: You know, so I think I think what it boils down to, maybe a
19:16
Lisa Nichols: better way to put it, I think you're probably
19:19
Lisa Nichols: more attuned to understanding people and to trying to understand
19:24
Lisa Nichols: who they are.
19:25
Lisa Nichols: So was there,
19:27
Lisa Nichols: in your life, Jim, was there a mentor or really influential
19:32
Lisa Nichols: a person?
19:32
Lisa Nichols: Like you said, you've helped a lot of people kinda move past
19:37
Lisa Nichols: the anger and that sort of thing.
19:38
Lisa Nichols: Did you have somebody like that in your life that really helped you see,
19:43
Lisa Nichols: not the limitation, but the opportunity maybe?
19:47
Jim Atwater: So I've had so many, you know, starting with my grandfather and my dad
19:52
Jim Atwater: and,
19:53
Jim Atwater: some very successful business people in Cincinnati from the Lindner family.
19:57
Jim Atwater: And,
20:00
Jim Atwater: but it's funny that you talk about that anger aspect because
20:04
Jim Atwater: when I started one of my first companies,
20:07
Jim Atwater: trying to help organizations pay attention to and see
20:12
Jim Atwater: and engage hard of hearing people as a market.
20:16
Jim Atwater: I was actually in this person's idea, and we were playing golf
20:20
Jim Atwater: one day, and I was playing really bad.
20:24
Jim Atwater: I really I was, I was starting to get angry, and he looked
20:28
Jim Atwater: at me and said, Jim, you're just getting angry.
20:32
Jim Atwater: You know?
20:33
Jim Atwater: You know?
20:34
Jim Atwater: You gotta you gotta focus on your next shot and your next shot.
20:37
Jim Atwater: And so it was just as simple as that.
20:42
Lisa Nichols: That's a leadership lesson.
20:45
Lisa Nichols: Right?
20:47
Jim Atwater: So that gentleman was a a Pepsi bottling company, a franchise
20:51
Jim Atwater: owner.
20:51
Jim Atwater: You know, after I left American Century and
20:56
Jim Atwater: wanted to do I've always wanted to do my own thing besides being a
21:00
Jim Atwater: doctor.
21:00
Jim Atwater: I was, like, trying to ask all the most successful people I know,
21:04
Jim Atwater: what am I good at?
21:06
Jim Atwater: What what do you see me doing?
21:08
Jim Atwater: And
21:10
Jim Atwater: he thought for a while, and he said, why don't you help people?
21:14
Jim Atwater: How about you help companies so people like you, the hard of hearing
21:18
Jim Atwater: market?
21:20
Jim Atwater: And I was like, is that a market?
21:22
Jim Atwater: I was like, you know, I've never heard that before.
21:25
Lisa Nichols: Right.
21:26
Jim Atwater: Yeah.
21:27
Jim Atwater: So that was, you know, one of the interesting things.
21:31
Jim Atwater: You know, my grandfather was a an ADG pilot in World War two,
21:35
Jim Atwater: and he taught me how to be
21:38
Jim Atwater: humble.
21:39
Jim Atwater: He actually grew up in Mobile, Missouri, not far from
21:43
Jim Atwater: you, and, and didn't have much.
21:46
Jim Atwater: And,
21:50
Jim Atwater: but he was really, he really showed me how to pay attention
21:54
Jim Atwater: to people and how to respect them,
21:59
Jim Atwater: how to make sure that, you know, you're you're actually seeing
22:04
Jim Atwater: you're not dismissing them in a way that,
22:08
Jim Atwater: under circumstance, under context that you don't understand.
22:13
Lisa Nichols: What was his first name, Jim?
22:16
Lisa Nichols: Your grandfather?
22:18
Jim Atwater: His name was Jim Cross.
22:21
Lisa Nichols: Jim.
22:22
Lisa Nichols: Awesome.
22:24
Lisa Nichols: Thank you, Jim.
22:25
Lisa Nichols: You know, thanks for grandparents.
22:27
Lisa Nichols: Right?
22:27
Lisa Nichols: That just, that's beautiful that he built that into you and just
22:32
Lisa Nichols: the humility you were able to observe,
22:35
Lisa Nichols: the new humility that he had and the respect for other people.
22:38
Lisa Nichols: I just I love that.
22:41
Lisa Nichols: Well, you did spend fifteen years at American Century Investments.
22:46
Lisa Nichols: Give me one or two lessons that you learned in that
22:50
Lisa Nichols: chapter of your life, Jim, and then we're gonna move on to really more
22:55
Lisa Nichols: what you're doing today.
22:56
Lisa Nichols: And, you know, I think you already alluded to the fact that you started Hear
23:00
Lisa Nichols: , H E A R,
23:02
Lisa Nichols: r ight?
23:03
Lisa Nichols: So you jumped on that entrepreneurial wagon in two thousand seven.
23:06
Lisa Nichols: But tell me just a few of the leadership lessons that you learned in
23:09
Lisa Nichols: American Century.
23:10
Jim Atwater: Yeah.
23:11
Jim Atwater: So the leadership lesson I learned the most at American Century because
23:15
Jim Atwater: I started there,
23:17
Jim Atwater: I was working part time while I was applying for medical school in the
23:21
Jim Atwater: legal department.
23:22
Jim Atwater: And then when that didn't happen, I just jumped on the first thing, which
23:26
Jim Atwater: was
23:27
Jim Atwater: part of the electronic commerce team.
23:29
Jim Atwater: And, you know, this was the first opening of the web.
23:34
Jim Atwater: It didn't really exist and the Internet, and so I was one of
23:38
Jim Atwater: three or four people on that team.
23:40
Jim Atwater: I learned how to do HTML, and I was building websites
23:44
Jim Atwater: all of a sudden.
23:45
Jim Atwater: So,
23:47
Jim Atwater: and that kinda led him to content management systems.
23:50
Jim Atwater: And, you know, the great thing about that is that
23:54
Jim Atwater: the web was at the center of the intersection of what was
23:58
Jim Atwater: going on in the company.
24:00
Jim Atwater: You kind of were a collective, a collective point.
24:03
Jim Atwater: And
24:05
Jim Atwater: so I got to see where all the silos were.
24:08
Jim Atwater: I got to see where, you know, there were opportunities
24:12
Jim Atwater: for value and stuff like that.
24:14
Jim Atwater: So one of the biggest lessons that I took away from that was
24:18
Jim Atwater: I'm just low on the ladder
24:22
Jim Atwater: of,
24:24
Jim Atwater: ecommerce department and a big financial company.
24:28
Jim Atwater: And you see all this opportunity.
24:29
Jim Atwater: Well, how do you impact it?
24:31
Jim Atwater: And you're not a leader.
24:32
Jim Atwater: And so I'm twenty something at the time.
24:36
Jim Atwater: And I think at that, big the biggest lesson in my year was how
24:39
Jim Atwater: do you impact things, where you have no control?
24:43
Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
24:44
Jim Atwater: How do you influence on how how do you get people to see
24:48
Jim Atwater: the the opportunities that you see and and start to systematically
24:52
Jim Atwater: build change for that?
24:54
Jim Atwater: And so that was probably, in the fifteen years, I would say, the biggest
24:58
Jim Atwater: the biggest lesson that I took away.
25:01
Lisa Nichols: That's so good.
25:02
Lisa Nichols: How do you influence,
25:04
Lisa Nichols: right, without that title?
25:06
Lisa Nichols: And we know that you can, but there is, you know,
25:10
Lisa Nichols: there's something you need to learn there to be able to do that, r ight?
25:15
Lisa Nichols: So, that is so good.
25:16
Lisa Nichols: Well, Jim, we need to take a quick break, but we'll be right back
25:20
Lisa Nichols: with Jim Atwater on the Something Extra podcast.
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25:53
Lisa Nichols: So welcome back, everyone, to the Something Extra podcast with Jim Atwater.
25:58
Lisa Nichols: So, Jim, I love, what you shared about when you were working at American
26:02
Lisa Nichols: Century.
26:04
Lisa Nichols: I love that lesson that you learned how to to influence and
26:08
Lisa Nichols: maybe when you don't have the title.
26:10
Lisa Nichols: But in 2007 , we already kind of alluded to this, but you, jumped
26:14
Lisa Nichols: on the entrepreneurial wagon, and you found it HEAR .
26:18
Lisa Nichols: You know, sometimes entrepreneurship
26:21
Lisa Nichols: gym looks really glamorous
26:23
Lisa Nichols: from the outside, but we both know because we've done it.
26:26
Lisa Nichols: Right?
26:27
Lisa Nichols: It is hard.
26:28
Lisa Nichols: It is hard.
26:29
Lisa Nichols: What do you think are some of the biggest lessons that you've learned
26:33
Lisa Nichols: personally about entrepreneurship?
26:35
Jim Atwater: Yeah.
26:36
Jim Atwater: Lisa, yes.
26:37
Jim Atwater: It is hard, and there's no doubt.
26:42
Jim Atwater: It seems done on the outside.
26:45
Jim Atwater: Of course, the biggest lesson , I started being an entrepreneur,
26:49
Jim Atwater: of course, before we had video chat, and those things
26:53
Jim Atwater: are before it was widely used.
26:55
Jim Atwater: And I couldn't just pick up the phone and go you know, I had
26:59
Jim Atwater: to literally go to where I was to meet with people, and things were
27:03
Jim Atwater: very slow.
27:04
Jim Atwater: And
27:05
Lisa Nichols: Right.
27:05
Jim Atwater: So I put so much weight on each one of those meetings
27:11
Jim Atwater: because I found I had to nail it every single time.
27:14
Jim Atwater: I mean, months could go by before the next one and or weeks and,
27:18
Jim Atwater: if I had to drive to Cincinnati, if I had to go to Washington
27:22
Jim Atwater: DC and so forth.
27:25
Jim Atwater: And, really, as an entrepreneur, I'm sure you know that it never hinges
27:29
Jim Atwater: on one thing.
27:31
Jim Atwater: Okay.
27:31
Jim Atwater: But, it seemed like it does.
27:34
Jim Atwater: You're always trying to get the big thing, but that's not really what it
27:37
Jim Atwater: is.
27:37
Jim Atwater: It's really about learning and all the little things that you do every day
27:42
Jim Atwater: that add up and the people that you get at your table.
27:47
Jim Atwater: So this is really important, especially
27:51
Jim Atwater: if you are trying to influence a change such big.
27:56
Jim Atwater: And, I can't say enough.
27:58
Jim Atwater: You know, there are
28:00
Jim Atwater: so many I was on several accelerators,
28:04
Jim Atwater: one that was associated with the Points of Light in out of Atlanta
28:08
Jim Atwater: and Washington DC.
28:11
Jim Atwater: And I'm in a really awesome group here in Kansas City called Pipeline
28:15
Jim Atwater: Entrepreneurs.
28:16
Jim Atwater: I don't know if you've heard of that.
28:18
Jim Atwater: But
28:20
Lisa Nichols: But I know the on yeah.
28:21
Lisa Nichols: I know the entrepreneurship the entrepreneurial ecosystem in
28:26
Lisa Nichols: Kansas City is very strong with the Kauffman Foundation, and you
28:30
Lisa Nichols: guys have a lot of great resources there.
28:32
Jim Atwater: Yeah.
28:32
Jim Atwater: And everybody is trying to help you.
28:36
Jim Atwater: You know, there are tons of resources, and it's just sorting through
28:41
Jim Atwater: those things.
28:42
Jim Atwater: It's not always easy.
28:43
Jim Atwater: It's not always beneficial.
28:45
Jim Atwater: And keeping that focus on what you're doing and
28:49
Jim Atwater: what you need to do that day and that week and everything is probably,
28:54
Jim Atwater: you know, it's not life and death.
28:57
Jim Atwater: Nothing is.
28:58
Jim Atwater: Right?
28:59
Jim Atwater: .
29:00
Jim Atwater: But a lot of times it seems like it.
29:02
Jim Atwater: So
29:03
Lisa Nichols: Yes.
29:03
Jim Atwater: You just have to realize that even the most successful companies, nobody's
29:07
Jim Atwater: got very few people are going to win the lottery.
29:11
Jim Atwater: That's all about the work and the time it takes to do it
29:15
Jim Atwater: is never what you think it's going to be, as you know.
29:19
Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
29:20
Lisa Nichols: Oh, yeah.
29:21
Lisa Nichols: There's so many things.
29:23
Lisa Nichols: Patience,
29:25
Lisa Nichols: patience.
29:26
Lisa Nichols: Things don't happen nearly as quickly sometimes as we would
29:30
Lisa Nichols: like.
29:31
Lisa Nichols: And I like what you said, Jim.
29:34
Lisa Nichols: It's not life and death.
29:35
Lisa Nichols: It's not life and death, but sometimes you feel like it when you're an
29:39
Lisa Nichols: entrepreneur, and you feel like everything is hinging on you and
29:43
Lisa Nichols: the decisions that you're making and the work that you do.
29:47
Lisa Nichols: So you you nailed it.
29:49
Lisa Nichols: I mean, because yeah.
29:51
Lisa Nichols: And I even like what you said, and this is something, you know, for
29:54
Lisa Nichols: our listeners that all the accelerators, all the things we could be doing.
29:59
Lisa Nichols: But what is the best thing to do for your business?
30:03
Lisa Nichols: And so, you know, we don't wanna get into this mode
30:07
Lisa Nichols: of comparing
30:09
Lisa Nichols: our business or what we're doing to somebody else's because it's different.
30:14
Lisa Nichols: Right?
30:14
Lisa Nichols: And you're on your own different path.
30:18
Lisa Nichols: So I really like so much of what you said there, but,
30:22
Lisa Nichols: you know, some people talk about disability and inclusion,
30:28
Lisa Nichols: Jim, as being more of a social issue, but you talk
30:32
Lisa Nichols: about it as being an economic opportunity.
30:35
Lisa Nichols: Can you expand on that a little bit?
30:38
Jim Atwater: Yeah.
30:39
Jim Atwater: So
30:41
Jim Atwater: this is really important because,
30:46
Jim Atwater: if it remains a social issue, then
30:50
Jim Atwater: we can't advance
30:54
Jim Atwater: how we value.
30:55
Jim Atwater: We know how to help those people, but we don't know
31:00
Jim Atwater: how to value them if it's not an economic issue.
31:03
Jim Atwater: And those are two very different things.
31:06
Jim Atwater: And for a company
31:10
Jim Atwater: who's in business to make money, other than what they do,
31:14
Jim Atwater: it's the most important thing to understand is that your company,
31:18
Jim Atwater: every company,
31:21
Jim Atwater: you have everything.
31:22
Jim Atwater: You own everything everybody needs to be part of life.
31:27
Jim Atwater: You own the products and services that they need to be part of life
31:31
Jim Atwater: socially with their friends and everybody else, and
31:35
Jim Atwater: you own the jobs that they need to be part of life economically.
31:40
Jim Atwater: And so
31:43
Jim Atwater: most of the majority of companies, we haven't cracked a shop.
31:47
Jim Atwater: My whole mission is how do we scale
31:51
Jim Atwater: the value of our community, Lisa, into the economy?
31:57
Jim Atwater: And how is from how we do things today?
32:01
Jim Atwater: And what does that look like?
32:02
Jim Atwater: What does the conversation look like?
32:05
Jim Atwater: Can we build trust between our community
32:09
Jim Atwater: and the companies that have everything we need
32:13
Jim Atwater: to be part of life so that we can eventually determine our
32:18
Jim Atwater: life outcomes?
32:21
Jim Atwater: You know, this is really important because as a company,
32:27
Jim Atwater: we may be doing tons of stuff.
32:29
Jim Atwater: We may be giving away millions of dollars.
32:32
Jim Atwater: We may be volunteering.
32:33
Jim Atwater: We may that's the social backup.
32:38
Jim Atwater: And, you know, we buy stuff.
32:40
Jim Atwater: You know, Ally buys stuff, and she likes her stuff.
32:46
Lisa Nichols: She does.
32:46
Lisa Nichols: She's a very good customer of Starbucks, Jim.
32:52
Lisa Nichols: Yes.
32:53
Jim Atwater: So
32:55
Jim Atwater: it was just this is really an eighteen trillion dollar
32:59
Jim Atwater: global market.
33:00
Jim Atwater: This is, you know, again, it's not how people
33:04
Jim Atwater: are disabled or what they can't do, but how are they valuable is
33:09
Jim Atwater: the question that we need to solve.
33:14
Jim Atwater: And that's what we can't do today.
33:15
Jim Atwater: We don't know because we've never asked them.
33:18
Jim Atwater: The first thing that somebody says when they hear the word disability is,
33:22
Jim Atwater: well, what can they do?
33:23
Jim Atwater: What can't they do?
33:25
Jim Atwater: You know?
33:25
Jim Atwater: And then it becomes about that one person,
33:30
Jim Atwater: Jim Atwater, applying for medical school,
33:34
Jim Atwater: not can we leverage the deaf and hard of hearing
33:39
Jim Atwater: population of a million plus people to solve the rural
33:43
Jim Atwater: medical problem?
33:45
Jim Atwater: It's just Jim.
33:46
Jim Atwater: And Jim is very disruptive, and we don't know what to do with that.
33:50
Jim Atwater: It's not necessarily worth our time.
33:54
Jim Atwater: If I can't see past Jim, if I can't see past a deaf person,
33:58
Jim Atwater: what I really need to know is well, how many of these people
34:03
Jim Atwater: are there, their families, and friends?
34:06
Jim Atwater: What do they want?
34:07
Jim Atwater: What do they need to do?
34:09
Jim Atwater: And but we're not having that conversation, and it's it's
34:13
Jim Atwater: so important because,
34:16
Jim Atwater: Lisa, I get calls from vice presidents of major companies
34:21
Jim Atwater: asking me if I can help their twins with cerebral palsy
34:25
Jim Atwater: and so forth, you know, get a job, do something.
34:30
Lisa Nichols: Right.
34:30
Jim Atwater: And I'm like, aren't aren't you the the VP on this this huge
34:35
Jim Atwater: company?
34:35
Jim Atwater: You know?
34:37
Jim Atwater: What I'm talking about, though, is the fact that that individual
34:42
Jim Atwater: can't have a conversation at his company or other companies because
34:46
Jim Atwater: it's the listener is not there.
34:49
Jim Atwater: On the other side, they don't know how to have a conversation or and
34:53
Jim Atwater: this person doesn't really know what to tell him.
34:56
Jim Atwater: He doesn't want to go and and ask for help, or
35:00
Jim Atwater: can you do a favor?
35:02
Jim Atwater: Or you know, that's that's a social conversation.
35:05
Jim Atwater: Right?
35:06
Lisa Nichols: Right.
35:07
Lisa Nichols: Right.
35:07
Jim Atwater: The economic conversation is how many of these VPs are
35:11
Jim Atwater: there?
35:12
Jim Atwater: How many twins are there?
35:14
Jim Atwater: How many? What's
35:16
Jim Atwater: not disruptive?
35:17
Jim Atwater: Can we find a thousand people in our around our
35:22
Jim Atwater: business to do something for who wants to
35:26
Jim Atwater: use our you know, that conversation just doesn't happen.
35:28
Jim Atwater: The economic one j
35:31
Jim Atwater: ust doesn't happen.
35:32
Lisa Nichols: Well, I know you're out to change that, Jim.
35:35
Lisa Nichols: I know you're out to change that.
35:36
Lisa Nichols: And I know that you may not feel like you are, but I know
35:39
Lisa Nichols: you're making a dent.
35:41
Lisa Nichols: So I wanna talk about I nR eturn S
35:44
Lisa Nichols: trategies and Aptly, and I know they really work in tandem with one another,
35:48
Lisa Nichols: and these are both companies that you have founded.
35:53
Lisa Nichols: Can you, first of all, tell our listeners there's a nonprofit arm and a
35:56
Lisa Nichols: profit for profit arm.
35:58
Lisa Nichols: The InR eturn S trategies is for profit.
36:00
Lisa Nichols: Aptly is in the nonprofit sector.
36:03
Lisa Nichols: But first of all, tell our listeners what are they.
36:07
Lisa Nichols: What are they?
36:08
Lisa Nichols: What are you hoping to accomplish with both of those?
36:12
Jim Atwater: S o a lot of this,
36:16
Jim Atwater: what I'm what we're talking about is, how do we discover
36:21
Jim Atwater: the economic opportunity?
36:24
Jim Atwater: And, well, we have to have a direct engagement with
36:29
Jim Atwater: this audience first.
36:31
Jim Atwater: And to do that, you know, we don't know how to have this conversation
36:35
Jim Atwater: other than how can I help you and so forth?
36:39
Jim Atwater: How can I see you?
36:41
Jim Atwater: How can it not be so much friction between for
36:45
Jim Atwater: our marketing department to engage,
36:49
Jim Atwater: for you to engage with us?
36:51
Jim Atwater: So very simply, InReturn S
36:54
Jim Atwater: trategies is support, profit, provides the companies with
36:58
Jim Atwater: the tools that they need and the dialogue and the narrative and
37:02
Jim Atwater: everything they need to be on this side of the conversation.
37:07
Jim Atwater: And we're gonna help them know how to talk
37:11
Jim Atwater: to p eople that they don't understand necessarily.
37:16
Jim Atwater: And it makes it easy in a way that
37:20
Jim Atwater: trust can be built.
37:21
Jim Atwater: So it's not about inclusion.
37:25
Jim Atwater: It's not about this top down thing.
37:27
Jim Atwater: It's about, hey.
37:30
Jim Atwater: We understand you're already here.
37:33
Jim Atwater: And you're right in front of us, and we know you, but we don't
37:36
Jim Atwater: really know
37:38
Jim Atwater: how to initiate this conversation.
37:41
Jim Atwater: But this is what we wanna do.
37:42
Jim Atwater: We don't wanna just help you.
37:44
Jim Atwater: We wanna build value with you.
37:46
Jim Atwater: You know?
37:47
Jim Atwater: I'm paraphrasing this, but, essentially, that's how the conversation,
37:51
Jim Atwater: not on the last hundred years that we can't repeat if we wanna move
37:55
Jim Atwater: forward together.
37:57
Jim Atwater: But the conversation for the next hundred years should start with how do we
38:01
Jim Atwater: build value.
38:03
Jim Atwater: I'm sure that you have many business partners, and I'm sure that whenever
38:07
Jim Atwater: you meet them, you're not working with them based on what they can't
38:11
Jim Atwater: do.
38:12
Jim Atwater: So why would we start there?
38:14
Lisa Nichols: Why?
38:15
Lisa Nichols: It's so good.
38:16
Jim Atwater: Yeah.
38:17
Jim Atwater: That's the conversation of the past.
38:18
Jim Atwater: And, A ptly, there's the other side of the conversation was,
38:23
Jim Atwater: you know, how do we help these families, provide them with the tools
38:27
Jim Atwater: to understand and communicate how they're valuable,
38:33
Jim Atwater: who they are, where they are, what they wanna do, and so
38:37
Jim Atwater: forth so that they can be part of that conversation
38:41
Jim Atwater: with these companies.
38:45
Jim Atwater: You'd think,
38:48
Jim Atwater: so the vice president of that big company, he doesn't really know how
38:52
Jim Atwater: to tell me how his twins are valuable.
38:55
Jim Atwater: I he knows, but he doesn't really know how to tell it all
38:59
Jim Atwater: the time in the context that we need him to.
39:03
Jim Atwater: So that's what Aptly is for us, to give give those families a voice
39:08
Jim Atwater: and collectively give them a voice so that it's not
39:12
Jim Atwater: one person at a time, thousands, millions of
39:16
Jim Atwater: people at a time.
39:18
Lisa Nichols: Right.
39:19
Jim Atwater: That information can be used.
39:24
Lisa Nichols: So , Jim, I'm just thinking,
39:27
Lisa Nichols: if there's a company out there that is listening
39:31
Lisa Nichols: and they want to understand more, what does an engagement
39:36
Lisa Nichols: look like?
39:36
Lisa Nichols: Can you, like, just how would they even get started with
39:41
Lisa Nichols: an engagement to explore the economic
39:45
Lisa Nichols: value,
39:47
Lisa Nichols: not a social issue, but what can,
39:51
Lisa Nichols: what can they do?
39:54
Jim Atwater: Yeah.
39:54
Jim Atwater: That's a great question, Lisa.
39:55
Jim Atwater: I appreciate you're asking it.
39:58
Jim Atwater: So this is a situation again, we've been doing it this way for a
40:02
Jim Atwater: hundred years.
40:03
Jim Atwater: We've been seeing these people this way for a hundred years.
40:06
Jim Atwater: We don't know what we don't know.
40:09
Jim Atwater: And it's a situation where we really have to crawl,
40:13
Jim Atwater: not walk before we run, but crawl before we walk.
40:20
Jim Atwater: There's very little trust
40:22
Jim Atwater: between
40:24
Jim Atwater: companies in this audience because they have never been in direct engagement.
40:27
Jim Atwater: Right?
40:28
Jim Atwater: They've they've always interacted indirectly,
40:32
Jim Atwater: through social sector groups and so forth.
40:38
Jim Atwater: So all these parents might be sitting on a church basement or somewhere,
40:43
Jim Atwater: together,
40:45
Jim Atwater: with like families talking about what they what they want
40:49
Jim Atwater: to do, what they can't do for themselves, but we really
40:53
Jim Atwater: need companies to be part of that conversation.
40:56
Jim Atwater: And so the first thing to do to answer your question
41:00
Jim Atwater: is I need to help companies, you know,
41:05
Jim Atwater: in form them of a little bit of consulting with the CMO, the strategic leader,
41:10
Jim Atwater: about how to talk to these people and give them a playbook
41:14
Jim Atwater: that is very simple, and they can integrate into
41:19
Jim Atwater: because these aren't separate people over here.
41:22
Jim Atwater: They are people they're interacting with.
41:24
Jim Atwater: They just don't know it.
41:27
Lisa Nichols: Right.
41:28
Jim Atwater: So the first thing is, how do I talk to my employees?
41:32
Jim Atwater: How do I talk to and it's not necessarily about inclusion.
41:37
Jim Atwater: Again.
41:37
Jim Atwater: It's about building value together, and that's a different type of question.
41:42
Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
41:43
Lisa Nichols: I love that.
41:44
Lisa Nichols: I love that.
41:47
Lisa Nichols: One question, and then we're gonna talk about something extra.
41:50
Lisa Nichols: Jim, when you look ahead ten years, what do you hope
41:55
Lisa Nichols: has changed for people that are differently abled
41:59
Lisa Nichols: and other underserved populations?
42:03
Jim Atwater: Oh, I hope that they are a valuable part of the economy.
42:08
Jim Atwater: That's the goal.
42:09
Jim Atwater: And what does that mean?
42:10
Jim Atwater: What does it look like?
42:13
Jim Atwater: Companies are actively engaging them through their products and services
42:17
Jim Atwater: and not just their charity.
42:20
Jim Atwater: And, ultimately, as they get to know these people through their
42:24
Jim Atwater: products and services, and everybody in their company gets to know
42:28
Jim Atwater: them because they're interacting with them, that will be done
42:33
Jim Atwater: with all these top down social initiatives that
42:37
Jim Atwater: really don't fit into business.
42:39
Jim Atwater: And
42:41
Jim Atwater: they have a great heart.
42:43
Jim Atwater: They have a real purpose to bring awareness, But when it turns into,
42:49
Jim Atwater: operations and how does everybody at the company
42:54
Jim Atwater: understand what they're trying to do?
42:57
Jim Atwater: They want to do those good things.
42:59
Jim Atwater: But their day-to-day thinking, how do I prioritize this when
43:03
Jim Atwater: I really am supposed to be spending my time on if I'm a wealth
43:07
Jim Atwater: manager, in asset owner management and all these other things, some new products
43:12
Jim Atwater: and innovating for my company to grow.
43:15
Jim Atwater: These are kinda oil and water.
43:17
Jim Atwater: Right?
43:18
Jim Atwater: I'm hoping that every company will be able
43:23
Jim Atwater: to have the conversation that I know how to have.
43:26
Jim Atwater: And I'm hoping that I become those people are gonna start to
43:31
Jim Atwater: trust that these companies actually want to build value with them,
43:36
Jim Atwater: but they're gonna be so if I have a kid with autism, I'm gonna
43:40
Jim Atwater: be able to walk into HR and not ask for a favor
43:45
Jim Atwater: of being disruptive and usually probably fail at the end,
43:50
Jim Atwater: there's gonna be a path for me through a front door
43:54
Jim Atwater: and not through a disability program that the company works with and so forth.
44:00
Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
44:01
Lisa Nichols: That's so good.
44:02
Lisa Nichols: I I pray that too, Jim.
44:04
Lisa Nichols: I pray that too, and I know you're on the front lines every day
44:08
Lisa Nichols: fighting for that future.
44:11
Lisa Nichols: So, we're with you.
44:13
Lisa Nichols: We're with you.
44:14
Lisa Nichols: Well, Jim, this is called something extra.
44:17
Lisa Nichols: What do you believe is this something extra that every leader needs?
44:23
Jim Atwater: Oh, I think my big something else.
44:27
Jim Atwater: Put a lot of thought on this after reading your book, Lisa, is
44:31
Jim Atwater: you can't have, there's no addition by subtraction.
44:37
Jim Atwater: That can mean many things, but that's rooted in
44:41
Jim Atwater: the fact that the differently abled have been subtracted
44:47
Jim Atwater: from life and social and economics for a long
44:51
Jim Atwater: time.
44:52
Jim Atwater: But not I'm not just pointing them out.
44:54
Jim Atwater: There's many parts of society that have, but I think if we
44:59
Jim Atwater: want to have the best long-term
45:02
Jim Atwater: outcomes as a company and growth for a company,
45:06
Jim Atwater: we need to not just work past the short term, but really understand
45:11
Jim Atwater: what's being subtracted when we do things.
45:15
Jim Atwater: And, you know, that's hard to do, but it's not if
45:20
Jim Atwater: we do the things that we're talking about.
45:22
Jim Atwater: And we shouldn't be subtracting a million deaf
45:26
Jim Atwater: people from being doctors.
45:27
Jim Atwater: We shouldn't be, you know, there's value there if we can learn how.
45:34
Jim Atwater: And when I was working on American Century, you know, and this was all
45:37
Jim Atwater: about silos and breaking those silos down for business
45:41
Jim Atwater: process improvement ,
45:44
Jim Atwater: and people just don't know.
45:46
Jim Atwater: And it's really up to everybody just to be
45:50
Jim Atwater: thinking, the company to provide the systems that people
45:54
Jim Atwater: need to be able to be adding,
46:00
Jim Atwater: individually understand their own value to always be adding
46:05
Jim Atwater: instead of subtracting.
46:08
Lisa Nichols: That's so good.
46:09
Lisa Nichols: That's a very I mean, that's a very unique
46:13
Lisa Nichols: answer, Jim.
46:14
Lisa Nichols: I've not had anybody say that, but knowing who you are and
46:18
Lisa Nichols: what you are trying to do, it is, it's so good.
46:22
Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
46:23
Lisa Nichols: There's no addition by subtracting.
46:27
Lisa Nichols: So good.
46:28
Lisa Nichols: Well, thank you so much for being on the show today, Jim.
46:32
Lisa Nichols: I really thoroughly enjoyed this.
46:34
Lisa Nichols: And, you know, I'm really hoping that a lot of people tune in,
46:38
Lisa Nichols: and they come away with a new perspective
46:43
Lisa Nichols: and a new paradigm about how they think about this.
46:47
Jim Atwater: Well, again, Lisa, I'm so, so glad that we got to meet.
46:51
Jim Atwater: I'll be meeting with Jim in Cincinnati
46:55
Jim Atwater: Thursday morning.
46:57
Lisa Nichols: Oh, wonderful.
46:59
Lisa Nichols: Give tell him, hello for me.
47:02
Lisa Nichols: He's truly one of my favorite people.
47:04
Lisa Nichols: And you guys share the same name, Jim.
47:06
Lisa Nichols: Jim Jim.
47:07
Lisa Nichols: You know?
47:08
Lisa Nichols: So, you
47:11
Lisa Nichols: well, thank you again so much, and have a wonderful rest of your day.
47:15
Lisa Nichols: And God bless you in all the things that you're doing, Jim.
47:18
Lisa Nichols: And, may God bless the work of your hands because it's important work.
47:23
Jim Atwater: Thank you so much, Lisa, for having me.
47:25
Speaker 2: Something extra with Lisa Nichols is a Technology Partners production.
47:29
Speaker 2: Copyright Technology Partners Inc twenty nineteen.
47:33
Speaker 2: To learn more about this week's guest, check out the show notes at tpi
47:37
Speaker 2: dot co slash podcast.
47:39
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47:42
Speaker 2: Thank you for listening to Something Extra.