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Inspire Club EP #26 - Taylor Smith
14 Plays9 months ago
In this episode we talk with Taylor Smith, Co-founder & Chief Executive Officer at Blueboard.
Taylor is focused on creating a world of work where people can thrive both personally and professionally. Beyond leading Blueboard to 3 consecutive Inc. 5000 lists and 2 Great Place to Work Awards, he is an engineer by schooling and a musician at heart.
He's dedicated his life to challenging companies to show up for their employees in an authentic way, and inspiring people to spend quality time outside of the office with the people they care about most.
We hope you enjoy it.
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Transcript
Introduction to the New Season
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello and welcome back to the long-awaited second season of the Inspire Club Podcast. We have a long run coming for you, basically a year's worth of the podcast. So buckle up for the ride and get ready to be inspired.
00:00:13
Speaker
For those that don't know, I'm new to the podcast. It's powered by the Inspiring Workplaces Group, and myself, Matt Manners, is the founder and CEO of CED Group. We're a worldwide community trying to change the world through the world of work. That community is impossible without our amazing partners, and you can find them all on our homepage.
Interview with Taylor Smith
00:00:34
Speaker
So without further ado, let's get to our first guest of this new season, and that's Taylor Smith, co-founder and CEO of Blueboard.
00:00:41
Speaker
Blueboard is turning employee rewards and recognition programs upside down for amazing companies like Google, GoPro, Pure Storage and Pinterest. It enables managers to send their top employees local curated experiences, think skydiving, couples' massages, cooking classes with just one click and much, much more. I strongly advise you to go check them out at Blueboard.com.
00:01:06
Speaker
To the man himself, he says he's a keen cyclist and hiker and loves the Niners. As meatloaf sang, two out of three ain't bad. I love two of them, but I'm a Jets fan for my sins. Anyway, without further ado, hello. Welcome, Taylor. What's up, Matt? Good morning. It's good to see you.
00:01:23
Speaker
Hello, good to see you too. Lots to cover today. And I think having a brief chat ahead of the podcast, I'm really excited to hear things that you want to talk
Inspiration from Personal Journeys
00:01:34
Speaker
about. So the number one staple on this podcast is like the first rule of inspire club, Unlike Fight Club. We actually want people to talk about it. It's to show and spot a story of who or what has inspired you along the way and why. So all ears. Yeah.
00:01:53
Speaker
It's a great question. And when I first read the list of questions that you could ask, I thought this one was interesting because over time you take bits and pieces of the people and experiences that inspire you and you can work them into how you carry yourself and your own personal style. So I thought this was a fun question. The person who jumped to mind and I wanted to pick someone from my current company who's been a recent inspiration. I really appreciate when people
00:02:22
Speaker
pour their energy into their work with the end goal of just dedicating themselves to the craft and having a really great input or output, excuse me, and I just think it's something that I've seen
00:02:38
Speaker
from our COO, Brian Cook. And it's something that I've learned in terms of just going the extra mile to make sure that what you're presenting, what you're putting together is just fully thought through. There have been a number of things that we've done to stretch the company's capabilities. So we're an international company. We send people on experiences. Last year it was over 55,000 people in, I think, over 60 countries.
00:03:06
Speaker
And what became very readily apparent at the beginning of 2022 is like we need 24 seven support for our clients who are going out, you know, they might go sandboarding in the Sahara and someone might be going to Omakaste in Tokyo. And there's just a constant stream of people doing things. And so Ryan rolled out 24 seven support with the plan A, plan B, a plan C, a plan B, a plan E, a plan F. And it was something that, you know, as most big initiatives are, it took a lot of work
00:03:36
Speaker
to get the mix right. But just the energy, the time, the thought that went into managing a project like that, I was like, wow, we were able to pull this off in six months at such a high quality. And it happened through a lot of effort, a lot of communication and really that dedication to the craft. And so that was something that I strive to bring into my own style of doing work for sure. So thank you very much, Brian.
00:04:05
Speaker
But the inspiration as well from the fact that maybe you're thinking, I just couldn't do that myself and seeing somebody do that with the energy they were bringing to the task. Because I think sometimes from my perspective, you look at people and their capabilities and skill set and go, yeah, I could probably do that, but nowhere near as good as this person. And in itself, that's an inspiration to see new skills, skills you don't possess yourself at work.
00:04:30
Speaker
100%. I think that's one of the greatest gifts as an entrepreneur, as a leader, when you have the opportunity to work somewhat with someone who has a complimentary skill set, and who's stronger than you in the areas that you're not. And I think something that I've evolved in my own careers, I used to look at people like that, be like, Oh, I want to do that. And I need to learn that. And if I don't, I don't have the tools, I don't have what it takes. But I think as I've matured, and grown, I've realized that that is a great gift.
00:04:58
Speaker
And it's great that someone can compliment you being great at something and you can be great at something else.
Overcoming Workplace Challenges
00:05:03
Speaker
And it just helps take everything a little bit further. So absolutely, I watched an admiration and just have this sense of, yeah, appreciation. Fantastic. Well, one of the things that we do on the podcast, once this is live, is we'll make sure we tag Brian into the posting on social media to make sure that he knows that he's inspired you. So thanks again, Brian.
00:05:26
Speaker
something we're bringing you to the second season, and we'll see if it works or not, is like a part two to the one rule of an inspired club. So we've shared a person who's inspired you. I also think from another powerful driver could be a negative experience. So for an example, there's one negative experience I have at work that always sticks out in my mind.
00:05:48
Speaker
And that was being in a, what we used to be called a brainstorm. And I raised my hand thinking I had a very good idea. And the boss at that time just said, that's a stupid idea in front of the whole company. Whilst it wasn't a stupid idea, the fact that they said that, I went, that's just not a way to behave in the organization we are or any organization. And I will never ever treat somebody like that again. And it's a driver to help.
00:06:14
Speaker
create inspiring workplaces. So that negative experience actually had a lot of positive in the world for both myself and I think what the business does. So part two is we look to the inspirational person, but have you had a negative experience that's actually inspired you to do good in the world? Yeah, absolutely. And you know, funnily enough, having a somewhat negative experience in the workplace actually led me to quit my job
00:06:44
Speaker
to start Blueboard and it has a lot to do with our founding story. And I can share sort of a quick rendition of that, but I started my career in management consulting, working at Accenture. And for anyone that's worked in one of those jobs early in your career, it is a complete grind. You're working a lot of hours, you're traveling, you're eating crappy cafeteria food, you're not sleeping, but we all choose to do that, right? Because we want to get ahead and it's a great place to start your career.
00:07:12
Speaker
There was a specific project I was on in Dallas, Texas, and I was traveling there every week for about four months. And over the course of this project, you know, I was just running myself ragged. I was a shell of myself, you know, my personal side outside of work, because I was giving just all of my energy and time to getting this project right. And at the end of the project, my manager called me into his office and he said, Hey,
00:07:38
Speaker
Taylor, the partners, and I were really impressed how much work you carried being a young analyst. We wanted to recognize you. And he handed me an American Express gift card across his desk and said, thank you so much. And I have to admit, in the moment, it's like, oh, cool, like that. That's nice. But it was on the flight home when I was exhausted and I was thinking to myself, wow, I've worked hundreds of hours of overtime.
00:08:05
Speaker
And does Accenture just value my time at $1.25 an hour? And what started as such a nice gesture became something that, as I thought about how transactional it was, how much I'd been working, it became something where I was like, oh, this sort of stinks. And that weekend I was talking to Kevin, who was my roommate at the time, and became my co-founder. And he had such a refreshing point of view that sort of shaped us going on this journey, which was he said, hey, it's crazy how many things went right.
00:08:34
Speaker
in that interaction and you're still sitting here complaining about getting a gift, like basically getting $250 cash. And I said, well, what do you mean? He said, well, think about it. Your manager called you into his office to say thank you. He went to Walgreens or CDS to buy you a gift card, which means Accenture had a big budget for stuff like this. And they did training because your manager knew to do this. He's like, if you think of the value chain, almost everything is going right. It's just that end.
00:09:04
Speaker
you know, that end reward that you got the gift card. That's what sort of sucks. And so we stayed up all night brainstorming and we're like, Oh, what would have been better? And we decided if my manager had said, Hey, you've been working so hard. We really appreciate you. Why don't you take your girlfriend to get a couple of massage this weekend at an uphill spa. Please recharge on us. Come back to the office on Monday, ready to hit the ground running. I would have thought Accenture was the coolest company in the world.
00:09:29
Speaker
I would have felt like they saw me, they understood, but I was, you know, committing my own time and energy to being a great employee. Like, what if they could reciprocate that time and energy, helping me spend time outside of work that was meaningful to me. And so that conversation led us to actually quitting our jobs and starting Blueboard almost 10 years ago now, which is
00:09:50
Speaker
wild to say out loud, but I think it's interesting, right? It's like, just like you said, it's both the positive and the negative experiences have the opportunity to influence who we are, what our style is, how we approach our work. And I think that story was especially formative because it's launched us into this journey that's been really fun by all accounts.
00:10:11
Speaker
Well, congratulations on 10 years. That's an amazing achievement in itself and starting the business. I mean, the way with all to give it a go and the success it has had. It's funny, like you say, isn't it? It's that last part. It's that lack of personalization. You're in a room with another human being. They're saying, thank you. And then it just became this homogenous thing. You just give anybody. Absolutely. And I think.
00:10:39
Speaker
Sometimes people confuse the idea of recognition and compensation. And when you like muggle them together, it always defaults towards compensation, whether it's like a small cash bonus or a gift card. And like our whole realization is, you know, it's a human need to want to be acknowledged and to want to be seen and great recognition programs like help people feel seen and celebrated in the way that's most meaningful to them. And it just dawned on us that our whole generation
00:11:09
Speaker
We spend our money on experiences. You know what I mean? People are saving their money to go to Coachella. They're saving their money to ride scooters around Vietnam. People want to eat at that Michelin star restaurant. Like that's how people are consuming nowadays. And it's just made no sense to us that companies still spend tens of billions of dollars in the United States on gift cards, merchandise, electronics. They're nice and they're fine and there is a place for them. But
00:11:35
Speaker
Our generation doesn't see those things as the most sought after and exciting reward. Absolutely. And even the simple thank you, just the regular very one-on-one meaningful thank you that isn't prompted or planned for has a huge impact. And then following that up with something like you deliver.
00:11:57
Speaker
just a really strong experience and how things like has a has the totally opposite impact that you had and led you to start a blue board. Thank you very much. What a great first answer to that new question. Moving on, I don't know when there might be some overlap here, but one of the staples from season one was asking about your personal purpose, your why, so to speak, and what drives you when you get up in the morning every day. Yeah, absolutely. I think
00:12:25
Speaker
Obviously, the mission of the company gets me up every morning, but I can talk about my responsibility as the CEO and sort of how I approach work as a leader. I just love seeing people reach their potential. And so sort of my charter for myself as the CEO is can I create an environment where people can thrive not only professionally, but also personally. And
00:12:53
Speaker
I think that's something that in the past it would have been, you know, acceptable to just have people thrive professionally. But I think especially over the last three, four years, you see that people bring their full selves into the workplace. And I don't think there's any going back from that. And I think the best companies really invest in their employees outside of work as well.
00:13:18
Speaker
and in ways that help them develop themselves outside of just professional skills, whether that's their financial health, their mental health, having new skills, or things like Blueboard, where you're actually investing in people spending quality time outside of the office. And I think when companies start doing that, like this whole, you know, judgment that prospective employees or employers are making, it's like, ooh, from all the time and energy that I'm giving, am I getting
00:13:44
Speaker
What I want out of this relationship, and I think you know if you're a company that's not only helping people level up within their careers, but also become the full version of themselves outside like that's a hard value prop to compete with and.
00:14:02
Speaker
Yeah, and also there's just the personal satisfaction of seeing people. That's an amazing purpose. It's also an interesting one, one I share, and obviously there's work you can do that impacts people outside of work, but there's work you do within the organization that has that indirect impact. And I think as you're saying, the best companies, the best workplaces are putting that effort into those spaces. So those experiences they're having,
00:14:29
Speaker
drives a healthier lifestyle outside of work and i saw a study from a college in the u.s. recently that said that either giving promoted voice or allowing the voice to be heard kind of back to my negative experience where my voice was shut down allowing your employees voices to be heard.
00:14:49
Speaker
actually helps with their sleep at night. And if you close them down with a prohibitive voice, actually creates sleep problems. So actually creating that kind of environment where people are being heard, gives them a better sleep, then gives it more productive the next day, offering their ideas to you how to improve the business, the customer expense, all that. And conversely, not only is it a bad idea not to give people a voice and not to get all that information and IP, but it actually impacts their sleep and their health.
00:15:19
Speaker
So there's a lot that we can be doing and we're learning now, especially coming out of pandemic and remote work and hybrid working, that we can be doing that has such an impact on people's lives, both emotionally, physically. So what a great purpose. We'll investigate two or three more questions in this first episode back. What's the best experience you've had at work? I think the thing that jumps to mind, which I was surprised when I jumped to the start, but I think meeting
00:15:49
Speaker
the company through COVID was one of the best formative experiences of my career and my life. And the reason that I say that, it was just such an incredible challenge where everyone in the company rallied together to solve a problem. And ultimately we pulled ourselves through in a way that I didn't think was possible when sort of the news first broke and we first went
Adapting to COVID-19
00:16:15
Speaker
into lockdown. And so just to give a bit of context,
00:16:18
Speaker
Our business is we send people out into the real world to be patrons at small businesses. So that's yoga studios, you know, your local Italian restaurant that might have pasta making classes, the airports to do flight lessons. Like we are supporting the local experience economy. And that was basically shut down for two and a half, three months nationwide in the US. And so our business came to a grinding halt.
00:16:42
Speaker
orders stopped overnight, people stopped using the product, we had our hands tied and it was utter chaos and panic at the beginning and I think something that I'm really proud of that Kevin and you know and I sort of
00:17:00
Speaker
promised to each other to the company is like, hey, we're going to work through this and we're going to figure this out. And like, there's no way that like, this is going to stop us. I think at the time we thought it was going to be like everyone else. It was going to be six weeks and we'll get through to the other side. But there were two innovations that actually came from that time that pulled us not only through COVID, but it had made us a stronger company today. The first was we had had this aversion to doing anything at home. Like we didn't want to like ship you something like all the other companies ship you an iPad and like that's their reward.
00:17:29
Speaker
But the company came up with over 100 in-home experiences where we would send you a telescope, but we would pair it with an astronomy lesson through Zoom, or we would send you wine, but we would pair it with a sommelier so you could do wine tasting. And they came up with over 100 options of these experiences that you could do in-home. And that helped the business start churning again and start working again. And then there was another idea from the company, which was, hey, HR is worried
00:17:58
Speaker
and focus on all the right problems right now. They're worried about can people work from home? Do they have the tools they need? Are they feeling connected to the workplace? How is their mental health? And so this idea of recognition and experiences just fell down that list in terms of priority. Someone in the company suggested, hey, we should sell the sales leaders as well. Sales leaders are still incentivizing their sales teams. And so we rolled out a couple of sales products that ended up doing incredibly well and supporting the company through COVID. And both of those things are now
00:18:27
Speaker
part of our poor business today. We still have in-home experiences in a number of countries. And we also sell to sales leaders. And going into COVID, I think we had 55 people. What went from a really difficult, challenging, existential crisis has led to tremendous growth. And so we're over 200 people at this point in time. We've grown our revenues significantly.
00:18:52
Speaker
it all comes down to people hunkering down together, running ideas past together, testing things in the market and ultimately finding things that worked and then scaling them out. So I'm just incredibly proud of the team. And I think something that gets lost on people a lot of times when we've been through a lot of difficulty the last three years, and I think employees are in a place now where they just want like comfort. There's been enough chaos
00:19:19
Speaker
People just want to just like, things should be smooth, things should be easy. And I think that's a natural reaction to the time we've all shared together. But I also think it's important to keep in mind that ultimately growth comes through hardship and it comes through challenge and it comes through being uncomfortable and not knowing the answer sometimes. And so I think something that like I love about that story is like we just like ran straight into the fire as a team.
00:19:46
Speaker
certainly made a lot of mistakes along the way and a lot of things didn't work. And I had some not great ideas that we tried as well. And ultimately the best ideas came from outside of the leadership room and from people across the company that felt passionate. And I think that's what builds character is that resilience is running headfirst into the challenges. And I just wanna make sure as the world normalizes that people don't forget that.
00:20:13
Speaker
Well, you answered one of my questions there. And I was going to say those 100 ideas, did they come from outside the leadership team? Were they an employee? They had ideas. Cause that's, that's one of my favorite things, hearing how organizations harness the ideas to improve their business. Yeah. And I think one of the key things that I've learned over the years and a book that has shaped how I think about this is team of teams. Um, great, great book, great stories, great concepts, but they talk about the idea of,
00:20:42
Speaker
if you want to engage the wider company in idea generation, they actually have to have the business context and understand what are the levers in the business? What's the business model? How do the stakeholders engage? And so in order to actually get relevant ideas or the most relevant ideas, you have to spend time educating your whole team. And that's something that's been difficult as we've grown from 50 to a couple hundred people is just
00:21:10
Speaker
Sometimes I wonder is the cost of time, right? We do it all hands every Friday. I love it. We try to share ideas that kept people considering the way that we think about things, how the company works, but it's a large cost to do it all hands every single week. But we've decided that giving people that context for the business is going to help them generate better ideas and be more innovative and be more productive. But I think that's a constant battle as companies grow is how much do you invest in communicating? And can you, can your company thrive?
00:21:38
Speaker
you know, with well-informed silos, or do you need to spend time educating everyone and understanding all the connections? And yeah, we decided on the ladder, but I know that different leaders approach it differently. Well, another thing you've said as well is like making mistakes and I'm paraphrasing you now, but like failing fast and often, and some of the best inspiring workplaces that we've seen over the years are organizations that allow their people to make mistakes, try things.
00:22:05
Speaker
It's by making those mistakes, you come up with a better idea. I finally caught up with the second season of the morning show on Apple Plus, and it's a great show. And it starts and ends with the looming pandemics, like empty Manhattan streets, there's a drone flying through there. And you go...
00:22:22
Speaker
Oh, yeah. That happened. And that was really brutal in so many different ways. And you are quick to forget. Whilst it's nice to forget, I think we should try and keep that, those lessons we've learned and what we were capable of doing that and the good things that came out of it that we've a lot of forced into to make sure we keep them within organizations.
00:22:48
Speaker
Cause as soon as it goes into the next part of life, aren't you?
Evolving Leadership Qualities
00:22:51
Speaker
So next question of our favorites is, and it'd be interesting to know what you think around this one is what, what do you think is the most important quality in a leader? Yeah, this is a, this is a good question because it's something that I've been wrestling with a lot because I think my model of, of leadership has changed over the years. Growing up, I think.
00:23:15
Speaker
largely from my parents, and this is a very valid type of leadership, it was be the first person to show up and be the last person to leave. And work the hardest, set an example through just like pure passion and hard work, that's going to trickle down. And I led that way for
00:23:36
Speaker
I mean, honestly, my whole life until probably the last, like, couple of years, I even lived in my office in San Francisco. So we had this great loft on mid street right near sort of the Twitter building and the Airbnb building in San Francisco. And I just lived in it for three years. Because for me, it was going to be blue board 24 seven. And that's what it was going to take. I think something that I
00:24:04
Speaker
that I realized is when you work that hard sometimes you get in the way of people's growth because ultimately the hardest challenges would land on my desk the things that just needed to get done would land on my desk and you know there's no
00:24:20
Speaker
And inside, like I could have worked 24 seven for years on end and it just like work can always consume you in that way. And I didn't think I was setting that grade of an example and I was getting the way of people's growth. So now I shifted to see my role as given that the company is at the size that it's at.
00:24:39
Speaker
What are things that I'm uniquely positioned to do and that no one else in the company could do? And if there are things that other people can do like that, a great leader gives people the rope to and the least to go try things and to fail and to try their own approaches. And that's been hard for me because, you know, I asked someone who poured so many hours and years of my life into this, you tend to be particular about how things are done. But I think my new my new model for leadership is, are people clear on where we go?
00:25:07
Speaker
Are they aligned? Have I communicated things at a high enough level where it makes sense and it sticks? And certain things such as, hey, you have to repeat something six or seven times until people remember it. That was really new to me. And I remembered, well, that's not as fun as all the nuance and the gray area between all these questions. But it's like, hey, if the whole company is aligned and understands the priorities and is on the same page, we are going to be more successful as a company. So I spend more time thinking about that, making sure our all hands are going to be productive and thoughtful and people can take things away.
00:25:38
Speaker
And I've also, the other thing I've realized that I'm in a unique position to do is to be an external face for the company in terms of meeting other leaders and meeting, you know, other people doing interesting things in the space. And I think for a long time, we were this insular company where I was the first person in the office, the last person to leave, but I wasn't looking externally. And I think Blueboard's brand suffered because of that. And so.
00:26:02
Speaker
I don't know necessarily that I would like generalize my answer to say everyone should lead through communication alignment and external connections, but I would say causing looking at the stage of your business and figuring out what am I uniquely qualified to do? And like that totally changed how I spent my time. And I think it's been very successful in helping us get out there and really grow the company in ways that I
00:26:30
Speaker
wouldn't have if I used the old one. What I heard there as well was enabling your people to perform at what they do best, kind of like Brian, the man who inspired you at the beginning.
00:26:42
Speaker
relinquishing some of that control to allow people to do what they do best. And that's obviously how a great organization works. Being a founder myself, I also can fully empathize with understanding how hard it is to let some of that stuff go. So I think a few quick fire questions to wrap up the conversation. I really enjoy that. Like always, I could
00:27:03
Speaker
Probably talk for hours. There's so much more I want to ask you, but maybe that's for another time offline. So favourite album you're listening to right now and what song fires you up when you need it most? Ooh, I love that question. Not many people do, especially the album part. Oh, yeah, totally.
00:27:26
Speaker
I'm actually going to go less the direction of an album, but more in the direction of an amazing mix that comes out quarterly from Lane 8. Lane 8 is an amazing producer, DJ, actually started his career in San Francisco, if I remember correctly. But every season, spring, summer, fall, winter, he puts out like a three hour mix tape. No, amazing music to listen to in the background. It just
00:27:54
Speaker
I work better with music on, but I have a hard time if there's a bunch of words, right? It's like, I tend to listen to the lyrics and then you forget what you're doing. And then you end up reading the same sentence three times over again. But the lane eight mixes are incredible to work to. And I'd say a song that I really love that's not that new, but I love to turn people on to Fireboy DML. Fireboy DML. R&B artists, I think out of Nigeria, there's a song, Jealous, that's just
00:28:23
Speaker
got such a nice vibe to it. And my fiance actually took me to see him live in San Francisco last year. It was an amazing, amazing show. And yeah, Fireboy DML and Tialis was a great, great try.
00:28:35
Speaker
Awesome. That is a new one to the list. We have had everything you could possibly imagine at this point. That is new, which is great. I'm going to go and listen to it straight after this. I also understand what you mean about lyrics and words. I often find myself listening to the same song about 15 times when I'm into a task just because at that point, the words aren't meaning anything to me about that point. So if I have to have my AirPods in because it drives my wife absolutely mad. Quick, funny story about that. There's a lyric.
00:29:04
Speaker
From a Bay Area rapper named Mac Dre, who's from the hyphy movement. I don't know how much that's going to mean to some of the listeners, but it was a it was a genre of rap that was really popular when I was in high school. But one of the lyrics became one of our company values. And the rapper says, hey, in the Bay, we dance a little different. And so our company value is dance a little different, which means show up as yourself.
00:29:26
Speaker
bring your whole self to work. And we always tell people that if you respect that about other people, you respect individuality, beliefs, you earn the right that people are going to respect that about you. So like we really tried to craft this culture of showing up intentionally as yourself. And that all came from a lyric from back in the day, believe it or not. Oh, love it. Love that story. Favorite film?
00:29:51
Speaker
And this doesn't have to be the best film that's ever been ever made when DVD players existed. Just put that DVD on, you know you can watch it and love it. Oh, I would watch Top Gun without question. I watched it with my brother growing up, you know, probably 50 times and he became a naval aviator. I didn't. Oh, wow. Somewhere along the way, I dropped out and didn't quite make that clap. But yeah, I could have seen that movie more times than I can count.
00:30:21
Speaker
You're doing really well, but that's hard to compete with Naval Aviator. Oh, wow. Wow. That's amazing. Do you like the second one? Because that's been on the plane a lot when I've been flying recently, and I've probably watched that six times already, Top Gun Maverick. Oh, it's so good. Isn't it great when you watch a movie and it's long, but it feels like it just lasted 20 minutes? Oh, just great film. They kept the essence of the first one. I really enjoyed that.
00:30:50
Speaker
something you've done, but will never do again. So we do these team events. We haven't gone back into them since COVID. So this is a pre COVID thing, but we always did team events in the office that were chosen by one specific person where they were supposed to bring the whole group with them to challenge their comfort zones, indulge in a passion or to try something new. That's our company mission.
00:31:13
Speaker
And so one time someone took us to an aerial yoga class in San Francisco where you're hanging from the threads, from the ceiling and stretching. And I like almost everything I try. And I just hated aerial yoga. Like it was so uncomfortable, like how the ribbons or I don't even know what they're called, how those tweets would like dig into your muscles when you're hanging upside down, like the blood rushing to your head. Like I'm a fan of a lot of things in life, but not not aerial yoga. That's for sure.
00:31:42
Speaker
But you can appreciate the people who are brilliant at that. It's hard. Oh, totally. Yeah. Best place in the world you've ever visited. And if you could be working remotely right now anywhere, where would it be? The best place in the world I've visited. Hmm. You know a place that I've been that I, um,
00:32:06
Speaker
that I just thought was so interesting and that it's so different than anything I'd ever experienced with. I went to Clang Kilimanjaro in 2019 and spent some time in Tanzania and from someone who grew up in the West Coast, grew up in California, has largely lived in cities and a city environment. It was amazing to go out and just experience a different culture and country that was just so vast and wide open with, you know, different environments and
00:32:36
Speaker
In terms of where I would work remotely, I think moving to San Diego, the one thing, the only thing that I miss about being in the Bay Area is the access to all the forests and to Lake Tahoe and Truckee and the beautiful places out there. And so I would be working out of the forest right now in the cabin, you know,
00:32:57
Speaker
I feel like the snow is still melting, so it's gonna smell like spring, even though it's June, which is sort of an odd thing. But yeah, I'd be in the forest for sure. That's somewhere I really, really wanna get to is Lake Tahoe. My wife has done and is doing Burning Man again for the first time in about five years. And leaving the Burning Man, she first stops Lake Tahoe, just had a few days of just relaxation and decompression, they call it. And it just looks absolutely stunning.
00:33:27
Speaker
Are you going to go? That's her thing. You know, it's I think it's nice to have our different different things. But and it also I am so crazy when she's away for two weeks. So it's not it's a nice thing. And when I asked her to marry me, I said, Burning Man's your thing and I will never stop you going to the desert.
00:33:44
Speaker
So, um, not that I could, um, so yeah. Um, so like being in the forest right now, amazing. Um, so last question, uh, and then we're done.
Future Guest Suggestions
00:33:55
Speaker
Um, who do you think would be a great guest on the podcast? I have an idea out of right field. I would, I think it'd be really interesting if you did an extended podcast with Ray Dalio. His book principles is one of my,
00:34:12
Speaker
favorite reads just in terms of thinking about mental models and how someone can approach their life consistently with certain beliefs, processes and principles. And I just think it's a really interesting approach to operating and like reading a book to help me understand that you can be more consistent and you can build a culture with intention if you're mindful and thoughtful about your principles. And I don't know how familiar you are with him, but he has
00:34:42
Speaker
Tried some pretty interesting and like controversial experiments and things at Bridgewater, his hedge fund. Some things that like most people would consider pretty radical that I think are just interesting and I'd love, I think he's been spending a lot more time doing content in the last few years, but I think that would be a really interesting
00:35:01
Speaker
conversation because I think he comes at it from less of a touchy feely side of inspiring and more from like an app scale with systems processes and principles. How would you create an environment that is consistent and reflects your beliefs? And so, yeah, I think that would be an incredible conversation. Brilliant. Thank you so much. Is there anything you'd like to add? We just have a stoke to have you on the podcast. No, I mean, thank you so much for having me. It's great to get out here and just tell
00:35:29
Speaker
The Blueboard story and talk more about our beliefs. I think if I would want people to think of one thing when they think about Blueboard, like we're trying to create the company with a soul, like a company that stands for something. And I tell people that I want to run the company until I'm 80. Like we take so much joy in sending people out to take their families to Disneyland. We've helped with proposals. We've helped with honeymoon.
00:35:55
Speaker
I think there's something magical about people spending time outside of work in the way that they care about with the people they love. That's what life is all about. And I think I would just make sure that people never lose sight of that. Because yeah, it's those moments that sort of define us and that will take forward with us. But yeah, I think that's it. I appreciate the questions. I appreciate the time. I'm looking forward to connecting down the road, of course.
00:36:22
Speaker
Well, that's a brilliant way to end, to put a smile on my face because to hear the passion of what you do and that you want to do for such a long time, that inspire anybody. So thank you so much. Thank you to those listening. We're back. We're excited to be back. Hope you've been enjoying the new website. It's been around for a few months now. And yeah, we will be back with our second episode of the season in less than a week's time.
00:36:51
Speaker
Take care. Thank you very much. Bye bye.
00:40:01
Speaker
So, this one's a good one, so we'll start updating our Spotify playlist with these songs now, and we'll share the link on the podcast, but there's a Spotify playlist where each guest shares the song that helps fire them up when they need to do that really annoying task that keeps getting pushed down their list on purpose.