The Holistic Care of Entrepreneurs with Jace Mouse

Speaker A: Foreign.

Speaker B: Welcome to Savage to Sage where we explore the evolution of entrepreneurs. In this show we hear from leaders on the challenges and breakthroughs that have shaped them on their journey toward becoming a Sage. Welcome back everybody to Savage to Sage. This is Daniel, the co host and today I have the joy of being joined by Jace Mouse. Jace is the CEO of Godo and the founder of Sogomeat and also has a deep history in the startup scale up space as an entrepreneur. And so I'm really excited to have Jase here today. Jase, welcome.

Speaker A: Hey Daniel, thanks so much for having me. I'm excited to chat with you today.

Speaker B: Yeah, for sure. So like we were joking before we hit record here, you know, go to. Is your current rodeo yet it is not your first rodeo. You've been kind of um, I'd call it like serial entrepreneur kind of in this, in the startup scale up space, seeing you know, acquisitions happen over your career and been, been an integral part of those. So first question for you on that note of like, what is it that you know, I know you just started at Goto about four, four months ago. Like what is it that keeps you coming back to this space and um, the startup space and especially in technology.

Speaker A: It's interesting for me, uh, a country boy from Oklahoma to be in tech and really what drew me in is the opportunity to have an impact. When I discovered early stage businesses I just realized like, wow, there were just so many places where I could just be focusing productively at any given moment. Um, that could be its own challenge. Of course with so many things, what do you focus on? But the impact is huge and I was really drawn to that aspect of it. The second is just the opportunity to really rally people around a common goal and especially why it's a common good is incredibly powerful. I see growing up in ranching like there were always things that needed to get done, but it was a little bit hard sometimes to know beyond the family kind of what that bigger aspect of kind of who you were helping. You never got to meet the person that you fed for dinner. Right. But I love the impact of startups and just that opportunity for us to get a team focused together on a goal.

Speaker B: Yeah, well, you don't hear Oklahoma country boy that grew up ranching turned tech entrepreneur. So what was it that prompt for you to leave that lifestyle to, to jump in in the early days?

Speaker A: Yeah, I uh, grew up in Oklahoma, just youngest of four boys and uh, grew up on working. And I think you could always tell the city kids from the farm kids because when uh, spring break or summer break rolled around. The city kids were super excited. And the farm kids are like, I gotta go, like, fix fence and bail hay and do all these other things all summer long. And so we did develop a love of kind of the work ethic behind it. The other interesting thing. I'll share that I owe a lot of credit to my dad because we were in the middle of a field one day repairing a windmill, literally 105 degrees outside. And my dad was a man of few words. He looks up. It's just me and him in there, middle of nowhere. Uh, he looks up and says, uh, son, there's easier ways to make a living. You ought to find one. And they went right back to work. And I was like, oh, okay. And it took a while for that to sink in. But really what that was powerful about is that in that moment, my dad kind of released me from this kind of feeling a sense of burden around that. I had to kind of take this over and continue to run with it, because it's a hard way to make a living. You work hard, you've got to watch the weather, the commodities markets, capital side of things, and just so many dimensions to it. And so I just really, uh, value him a lot. He never really circled back until far later explained. It's like, yeah, that's why I told you that. And he was someone who never used a lot of technology, but just really encouraged it for me from the earliest days.

Speaker B: Nice. Yes. So was that, uh. You're like, you're not too good at this, uh, this ranching work, or. Or was it like, uh, um, I really see that. That I'm just joking there. Or, you know, is this. I really see a path forward for you out outside of here.

Speaker A: Well, you know, Daniel, I never thought about it that way. I might want to rethink that or a therapist or something now. But, uh, no, uh, it really was. He just. He would explain. He's like, hey, I see a lot of potential in you, and, you know, you really like the computers and you're really good at it. And again, like, he. He just really encouraged it in a way that was really profound. My father never went to college. He paid to put my mother through school. She's a doctor of pharmacy and. But was probably far smarter than any of us and just knew so much about so many things. He just never explained. And I think for me, he just. He just saw potential. He wants what every parent does, which is for kids to. To do. To do well in life. And, uh, I really respect him for that.

Speaker B: Yeah. That's awesome. A lot of times, you know, you hear entrepreneurs who I would say, have like a father wound, and it's almost like they, they're trying to be successful because they didn't get that, you know, attunement like you're describing from your dad who really saw you and like, encouraged you in a way. And so they're trying to prove something. And, um, typically that I would say in my experience, that's led to like a lot of unhealthy behaviors. But for you, it just sounds like he, he really saw something in you and encouraged you. So, man, he gave you a really good gift there.

Speaker A: Yeah, I agree. I, you know, and I, I look back sometimes and just, he even followed my career along the way and he was just, he would ask questions about technology and how I was doing certain things, and he always had a kind of an arm's length kind of interest in it and just really valued that.

Speaker B: Yeah, that's awesome. So when you say impact and the impact that you can have, like, describe what you mean by impact there and then maybe give an example or a story of the impact that you've experienced personally.

Speaker A: Yeah. So, uh, I'll tell a little story of kind of early in my startup kind of journey and go back to the first business I built. I was out of college. I came to Illinois to work, uh, for State Farm Insurance, which was, in case, you know, it's not a startup. And, and even there I just really, I love the company, loved all the people. But I, it makes sense now. But even then I was actually found my way into what were called at risk projects, um, which were almost like these many salvage kind of startup kind of journeys. But fast forwarding, but it was always hard to have an impact. It's like, all right, what am I allowed to do? What am I not allowed to do? Whose job is this? And coming from that into a company that only had less than 100 people at the time, 50. And then we grew 100 and then down to 14. But that's the next chapter of the story. But there were so many opportunities for me to be trusted with things that no one at State Farm is ever going to trust me with.

Speaker B: Right.

Speaker A: And I remember, for example, looking at, um, a specification we were writing for a major system we needed. And I'm looking through the table content sets and I'm getting to like page like 30. I'm like, wait, these pages are like blank. There's no, there's no more. And so I Was like I should probably think about this because we've got these consultants that are going to be doing this work and so examples like that. I'm just like, hey, would it be okay if I took a stab at this? And people are like yeah. And I love that. From there I'll kind of jump ahead. Like we, I shared a little bit. We, we kind of grew up a little bit but we had a pretty heavy burn and the capital market shifted and we just realized we were not, despite any traction, we're not going to get additional funding. So we took the capital we had pivoted the business from being a, was originally intended to be a high end kind of travel consultancy for adventure travel and needed to pivot that into essentially what was a SaaS based marketplace business. And so I stuck, I stuck with the team there uh, to grow and keep that business alive. And uh, there were just been certainly no shortage of ways to make an impact. Everything from writing code to figuring out your sales pitch for your ex partner. And again for me I learned a lot in my career. Right. Because I was just getting trusted with things that I was just never going to see otherwise.

Speaker B: Yeah. That impact I think is, it's something that, it's like a, a boost that, that keeps you going especially in like what we call in this show the Savage days where it's like those days where you know, most entrepreneurs would describe it, you're working an insane amount of hours, you know, trying to get your product to market or sell or say your survive as a company in some seasons. And so just getting that like a dopamine boost of like yes, like I'm making an impact. This is important, this is why I'm doing it is fuel to an entrepreneur's fire like that. And so talk about like that for you, especially right now with, with Godo. I mean you're, you're in the Savage days with GotU. Uh, but I know also you, you weren't the founder of goto. You recently came into leadership and you know, took over from a previous founder leader. And so talk about like what the savage days are like right now for you and what keeps you going through that.

Speaker A: Sure. So first of all I'll just share that Godo, uh, is a solution that helps employees make the most of every dollar. And the way we do that today is we actually let employees pay themselves in between paydays that can cover a bill. They can actually pay down interest bearing loans faster and a lot of interesting things with it. And so I'm fortunate as you mentioned to, to inherit the benefit of other people's hard work. There were other people that came before me to really pull together this kind of payroll connection with a fintech bank back solution. And so it's really an opportunity, a privilege for me to go and really help more employers find out about it so they can offer it to their employees. That's really what drives me, uh, and what gives me a lot of impact and purpose right now. In some ways it's a little bit easier because I got to skip over the building season and now I'm in the season where I get to watch actual employees via data streams that are coming through and I'm like, wow, that's a real person who really needed that help, who really works at that place. And that feels amazing. Uh, I joke with my team. It's like, you know, I'll just sit here all day and look at this so you. And we do a little bit of that time just so I can make it. I feel like it's important for that to be real for people in terms of what we build and do. But that's the stuff that gets me really excited. That impact and then rallying people around that common purpose, like the stuff we're doing is interesting. It is to us also, at the end of the day, the kind of confirmation point this matters in the lives of people. Uh, it's a great feeling.

Speaker B: Yeah. So talk more about that in terms of, I know it's a topic we want to hit on today in terms of employers nowadays having to navigate employee challenges like the people that live paycheck to paycheck and sometimes like you've said, that need access to that paycheck before you know it's paid. And so like, why is that important for people to think about?

Speaker A: Because it's something some employers naturally recognize the need for their people, but others, it's taken longer to kind of see it. And I'll share a little bit about kind of why that is, but first I'll just share the impacts for the employer that they see. Uh, it usually shows up in two key ways. It's, it's how they retain employees at their company or attract new employees into the business and the other way. And some, some interesting studies are just coming out about this that show the impact of people that are under financial stress and how much time at work they need to spend just dealing with the ripple effects of that stress. It's on average about three hours a week. And so those are the two reasons why employers are really tuned into this right now it's like all, uh, right. How do we get people essentially to show up at work and then to fully show up and be committed to the work they're doing when they're here? And uh, so those are the reasons employers care. The interesting thing, I'll share a little bit more about just the types of people we help. And the first is we've kind of touched on people that are earlier in their career or tend to be the lowest income earners. There's obvious very real ways we can help those folks very quickly. But in the data, there's a second cluster of people we also help that's the most unexpected. It's also, it's the highest income earners. That's the second demographic most likely to be either living paycheck to paycheck or dealing with financial stress. They're dealing with stresses for very different reasons as we kind of unpack that. Right. They're generally getting married, buying houses, having babies, and none of those expenses wait for payday either. And so I love that we have a solution that's so easy for an employer to offer that even those employees can, can access the benefit anytime they want and avoid putting something on a credit card or taking out some other type of loan product to kind of COVID those unexpected expenses. And again I mentioned just some people really savvy can use it to actually just pay a mortgage twice a month instead of once a month. And even little tricks like that are kind of these financial hacks that, that we make possible. So it's, it's interesting to be able to, to offer that to such a different and diverse group of people. But ultimately always comes back to employers wanting people to be able to do their best work.

Speaker B: That's, that's fascinating because when you first told me about this when you first started, I think we connected the first few weeks, um, back four months ago, like I, I was just turning on like these use cases of the restaurant employee or you know, like some of our clients who have some folks that are minimum wage or just above minimum wage that are hourly that, you know, kind of your classic people that would be fall prey to like a payday loan type of scenario. But you're opening my mind here to like other use cases where, you know, I, I put myself in the, the scenarios where it's like we have three kids, my wife works full time, I work full time. And you know, we're, we're going through like a home purchase right now and we're realizing, oh my gosh, like moving is a lot more expensive in 2024 than we remembered the last time we did this. And it's just like you start thinking about cash flow and okay, this contractor needs to be paid today and it's this much money. So I didn't think about that use case as well.

Speaker A: Yeah, thanks for sharing that. It just makes it more real. Right? It's a very tangible example. And you're not alone. If we really think about it back in our life, no matter what position we're in right now, we can think back to a time where we were really scraping pittance to figure it out. And for me it was, yeah, I was buying my first home. I remember that I was like, okay, everyone tells you put down as much as you can. But then I'm doing this kind of calculus in my brain around m, well, how much do I keep in reserve? And it's because I didn't have a solution like Odoo. If I had. State Farm is a great employer, very reliable employer. So frankly, if I'd have just known I had a rainy day fund on demand when I needed, would have taken even pressure off of what was ultimately one of my proudest moments as a early stage career person. So I like hearing the stories like you shared just because it reminds us how big of an opportunity is to help folks.

Speaker B: Yeah, I mean that gets me excited too because at Full stack and then with my extended network, you know, we, we've got every type of business, you know, and so I think every type of earner from executives who are making 300,000 a year to like frontline people who are making $15 an hour and uh, or less in some cases. And so it's, it's just interesting how, you know, when we think about how expensive it is to live in, you know, let's just talk the United States in 2024 due to inflation and like the increase of costs. Um, you know, post pandemic, I, I think you've got something really special to, to offer and to offer employers who are, you know, the most, you know, proactive, thoughtful employers that we're talking to are like thinking about every possible scenario. And my friend Jordan Peace from Fringe Benefits, I think he, he stated it on, um, of like how do we help employees are thinking. How do we help employees to, to live, not just to, you know, to help them when they're, they're sick, dead or dying. Because the like, I think benefits, we've, we've thought about this topic of employee benefits and most of them are like if, you know, if an employee is in a bind, you know, they're sick, so they use health insurance or they've got someone in their family who's dying. And so they have resources for that. They, you know, there's life insurance for, you know, if, if you die. But like, how do we help employees live today in 2024? Like Godu has a, uh, very specific solution for that. So that's fantastic. And I imagine you have some like, stories of, of impact too that you've got to experience already that are fueling your fire right now. And you know, your first six months there.

Speaker A: Uh, I do. It's been so interesting for us and I gotta give props to the team that go do because some of this was kind of here when I got here. Some individuals and we've just been amplifying it together. We're just, we get to refer to people by name. It's like, what are we going to do about this person? Or look at this case of the scenario and it is impactful. Like we're still at the stage of a business where we can give that really personalized attention to those cases because most, most people are just kind of sailing through. But then we, we tend to right now in this season, we look a lot about at customer service and we try to really understand sometimes unlimited information what people are telling us. And I always think it's like, well, they're probably running between two jobs or two shifts or, or dealing with the stresses of finding the movers. Right. And that, that truck don't pack itself like, you know, for you. So it's like how do we figure out how to ask deeper questions so we really understand what the employee is trying to tell us. And I just love that we have people here that they're willing to sweat those details with me because it does make it real.

Speaker B: Yeah, that's fantastic. So talk a little bit more about in your first six months. I mean, at a new company, what would be like the biggest lesson that you've learned so far? Make it personal if you could, like, uh, just about yourself. I, I think you're kind of in the crucible where you learn a lot, maybe some new things about yourself and grow in self awareness and. So curious. What has it been for you so far?

Speaker A: Sure. I'll share a couple things, uh, that just, I think resonate with me is not to burn every business and Ben and hopefully with some others as well. The first is we look at is how do we make sure we're focused on things that are Important, not just urgent, because lots of stuff pops up that feels of the moment, and you can spend an entire day just reacting and never actually being proactive. And so we talk some about that as a business, a fair amount. The other thing that we're doing more of, I'll share just a little bit, the tongue in cheek. I'm a dad of teens, and someone once shared a tip on how do you get your teens to talk to you? And there's lots of smarter people than me. But one bit of advice I got that was really impactful, like, okay, well, first is, don't freak out. Like, what do you mean? When they start talking, don't freak out. Because then they're going and doing a little bit of that. As someone coming into a business, it's like, hey, like, there's a reason why something doesn't work the way you think it should based on your days at bandcamp, @cars.com or perkspot or Capex, like, and so just realizing that there's a journey there too. And I'm a little bit fortunate here because things are a little bit more buttoned up in some of those cases. But, uh, doing that is important. And the last thing I'll share, the third thing is that we all know entrepreneurship is hard and it can be lonely. You deal with rejection. You deal with something worse than rejection. Sometimes it's just silence. It's like, this is a perfect solution. Your people need this. Why won't you answer the phone? And so what we've done here, culturally, I've done this with the last three companies. And I'll do it for every business I'm in from here on out is we celebrate the wins. And the way we do this at Godo, we, uh, just start turning this on. Uh, we do Team Retros every week, and so we do them on Friday afternoons. And we share just basically two, Two key questions. What are the lows of the week? And what are your highs? And that is hugely cathartic for us as a team. I started that, uh, again, the college application business called Capex. Then we took it to Perk Spot, which was easy when it's six employees. It was really hard to do at 150 employees. But we found a way, uh, because it was so impactful to us to do that. So it's exciting to be able to do that here at Godo. And I think even for an early stage, uh, company, even if it's just you as a solo entrepreneur, just kind of working to do proof of concept, finding A partner or a friend who can just say, it's like, I'm just going to tell you a couple hives every week so I can celebrate with somebody I think can be so valuable.

Speaker B: That, that is so true. And I'm curious. I saw, I was reading a little bit about sogo Meet too. And is that kind of a part of why you, you started that as well? Just to help, you know, with that loneliness piece as well as, you know, like, helping people share together.

Speaker A: That was an interesting kind of, uh, born out of a time when we all had gotten really comfortable being in Florida, our own home office, and just trying to encourage people to get back into kind of unexpected interactions with other people. And we all know the reasons why. We were very alone, very withdrawn for a while. Then it was like, okay, we can only interact with people we really know and trust really well. And so that's some kind of muscle of survival. We built that there are other muscles to thrive that we also need to be building and exercising. And so, so go Meet was just this idea. It's like, let's take people who don't know each other, do a little psychological kind of matchmaking and put them at a table for coffee or lunch. Uh, so it's a, it's a small little effort. It's mostly here in Chicago. We kind of trot about for, uh, Chicago Ideas Week and some other places. Um, but just born out of this idea that there's a lot of benefit of getting people together and just sharing and we, we do a couple things, we put people together and then we just ask really light hearted, kind of funny questions just to get people chatting and interacting. Something that no one can be an expert on. And so it's just been fun to kind of kind of add that out there as a little bit. So if anybody, uh, uh, of your listeners who's looking to uh, pick up a passion project, I'd love a partner in crime on that one.

Speaker B: That's good. Uh, last week someone asked me a question like that. It was, I think it was, if you were to go to Arby's, like, what would be your order? You know? Yeah, so the first thing that came to mind because I haven't been to Arby's in a long time, was uh, the Big Montana. So I don't know if you remember, it's like this, this roast beef sandwich that was like that big, stacked with like an insane amount of meat. But, um, yeah, yeah, I love that idea of just helping people to share life and you know, and Also just something that people can't be an expert in because I, I think we all talk to those folks that, you know, are like to talk about themselves and show their expertise and not necessarily show curiosity or ask questions. And, you know, I tend to try to avoid those types of people. But, like, you're onto something in terms of, I mean, entrepreneurship and leading a company is, is known to be like, one of the loneliest things, you know, that you could do. I'm, I'm curious like, at, uh, how you've seen that shift or evolve, like, post pandemic too, because this isn't your first rodeo. I mean, you were, you were a founder prior to the pandemic, and now you're a CEO now. Like, what's, what's different now in terms of that, like, loneliness piece?

Speaker A: Yeah, it's interesting. I think I've not thought about this a lot, but I'll. Or, uh, not thought about this question before, but I'll just, uh. But there is a perspective in my brain rattling around. Used to be in entrepreneurship, you. You saw a lot of it. You'd ask me. It's like, oh, why are you here in the same place, the same cohorts, it's every day, and no one's ever heard of you or your business. Like, what are you doing? They had to say. It's like, well, I'm not sure. It's hard. I'm trying to. But now it's more common for entrepreneurs to go suffer in silence. And so you create this really interesting problem, right, where you have an entrepreneur who suffers in silence and actually even good suffering, right? The good struggle that comes before the winds. But they're doing it alone and quietly. And all they ever hear about out beyond their own little bubble are the wins other people are having, because you only hear about the success story. And so I wonder about that. And how should entrepreneurs find a way to get in community with other entrepreneurs, even when it's messy? I did that for me. I have a group of five other early growth stage HR focused CEOs. I was like, hey, let's do this together. And I mapped it out. I looked for five. I'm, uh, like, none of us compete. Let's go do this and talk about it. And just to create a little bit of a space where we, we can admit where we're struggling or where we're having challenges. Because when you're talking on a sales call to a client, there are no challenges, right? It's like, oh, no, this is great. Everybody wants this product and so it's great to have a space where you can share a little bit more about like either hey, I have a great product, why is no one picking up the phone? Or hey, someone asked me a great question I was totally unprepared for as a client and I feel embarrassed because I feel like I should have prepared or something. And uh, so going back to that point, like, I think there is a tendency for entrepreneurs to suffer in silence right now. And it's really important to find some way, your way to get connected to other people who aren't always sharing just the wins. It's not always sunny with them.

Speaker B: So when you leave that meeting with the CEOs and you've had a chance to, to share that, like talk about that experience, what's it like for you? What, what are you kind of processing or feeling like after that time with them?

Speaker A: Uh, well, selfishly for me, um, I get to just tell them things I need to do to make goo successful that I'm not great at. And so it's great to have you be like, oh, well, let me tell you how to do this. And that's huge. Right? I get there's something a little bit cathartic about being able to admit you're not perfect at something. And it's amazing when someone else can kind of quickly step in and share that. Or sometimes they just tell you it's like, yeah, that's hard too. And that's okay as well. But I love just the notion like if I had never been willing to share, I was struggling with that thing or I was afraid that this next thing we are going to have to do, I'm not perfect at uh, I'd have never gotten the benefit of some other expertise. And so I think once you can get in that kind of community with other people, it can be very validating and self reinforcing. But it's so hard to do at the outset when you're just in your own little bubble.

Speaker B: Yeah, I, I was just talking to someone who's a part of um, eo, which is, I think it stands for entrepreneurs Organization. But they have these um, I forget what exactly what they call them, like focus groups where essentially you're with non competing like CEOs and that they are very specific of like you have to be a founder, an owner, majority owner, CEO to be involved. And then they, they place you in groups of like non competing CEOs. The, the testimonies I heard, uh, it would just about, you know how like, like you said, I, I was able to share what's really going on, you know, in my life and my, my business. And I could do that safely and confidentially and get the support that I needed to take the next step forward to figure out a sticky situation. I heard stories of entrepreneurs that were sharing both deep business challenges, but also deep personal challenges with their group. I think it feels like when we talk on Savage to Sage, we're talking about this evolution of entrepreneurs toward what we call sage, which is like, you know, just the embodiment of wisdom and the way, you know, living life, leading business the way that uh, we're meant to as humans. I feel like there's something sage in that and what you're saying and then like kind of that mission of EO is that that reality, like we're not alone. And the myth that we are alone I think has probably crept its way into entrepreneurship in the United States in particular, where it's like, okay Jace, it's just you, you gotta get go do off the ground yourself. Like it's up to you. And if you fail, it's your fault. You know, if you succeed, it's all because of you. And so it just creates like this pressure to, you know, to perform in a way that I don't, I don't know that we were meant to do. I think you're onto something there with just like having that support group of people that, you know, you can bounce ideas off of as well as like, you know, share those deep challenges and, and receive those and help help other people through them. So I, I'm curious how that, how that falls on you.

Speaker A: Uh, yeah, I agree. I think a couple things there. Things are never as good or as bad as they are in my head, in reality. Right. Uh, and so it's so good just to kind of be able to share that. And again, you can't just do that on repeat full time because who wants to talk about the J show all day long? Right. Um, and, but finding a space where there is this kind of balance of sharing and back and forth I think is incredibly valuable. And that's taken me a while. Like again, I'm a rancher. Like I mentioned my dad, he don't talk a lot. A few words like, and that was what I was taught to be. Be self reliant, be strong, don't complain. Like all these things that are actually really good for uh, to be a good entrepreneur even like they're really important, that self resilience and all these other things, but they also have their downsides Right. And so how do you get a place where it's like the classic therapy thing, which is like, okay, put a word to your feeling. And I thought that was the dumbest thing ever. I was like, what? And then the reality is, like, the number of times I'm like, oh, like, I'm just something shaking around in my head, like, I'm gonna put a word on it. Like, that's a skill I probably would have paid 10 times as much for, but at the time felt silly. Like, it didn't feel like I had time for that. I really identify a lot of what you're sharing there.

Speaker B: Yeah, I think there's. I've seen more of this movement within startup world, tech world, even some venture capital firms, where they're basically saying, hey, like, if we're going to invest in you, we need, you know, we need a confirmation that you have the support that you need, both from a psychological perspective as well as, like, the relational perspective. And so they're thinking it's good. Like, I think people are starting to think more holistically about, you know, people like you, who a lot of venture money and board of directors are. Are relying on, you know, to. To lead something toward a good return on an investment. They're realizing it's not just about Jay's picking himself up by his own bootstraps, but it's like, how does J care for his whole person? I've gotten my hand slapped in the Midwest for even saying that, because it's like, Daniel, you should. If you're going to talk like that, you just need to move out to California. Um, but this. We don't talk like that in the Midwest. But I'm like, hey, I think California could. And people that are a little bit more progressive as it relates to this could teach us all something about the holistic care of entrepreneurs that are really what helps us to keep going and to ultimately give not just good ROI from a investment standpoint, but good ROI from, you know, finishing well as a. As a person and caring for our families well, you know, having a strong marriages, if we're in a marriage, you know, etc.

Speaker A: If I could, I'll, uh, break in and share one bit about that. Just somebody I feel like is doing this really well and just recently came in my orbit. One of our investors is Technex. Sits here in Chicago and proud to have them on board. Fred Hoek actually sits in the board meeting. Is. His question is like, okay, Jason, how are you? And I'm like, I'm good. I'M um, good, Fred.

Speaker B: Let's keep moving.

Speaker A: And, you know, and I, I didn't think much about it. I kind of knew he was going to ask that question because someone else had said it before and it's funny, asked that question, you kept moving on, you didn't push, didn't say anything, and that was it. But actually, in, in my world, it gave me space to come back on, you know, five weeks later and be like, hey, Fred, I'm still good, but I do have one thing I'm a little worried about. Uh, would like to get your thoughts, you know, and so it does kind of create this opportunity for people who really want to have impact and get results. It creates a space because honestly, as an investor, it's got to suck, right? Because you can't solve problems that people don't tell you. So I do think there's a wisdom in getting people to talk about their challenges just because it then gives you access as an investor or a mentor to be able to do more there to help.

Speaker B: Right. But you're onto something there of like, what Fred did for you, though, is he gave you, he gave you permission to share that. And I think a lot of times, you know, like you said, what gets stuck in your head is, I couldn't share that with my board. I can't share that with my investors because that would be me, like, playing a weakness card and cause them to question, you know, does Jace have what it takes to. To lead this thing toward roi? But like, Fred, in my opinion, gave you permission to just to be human and so that he could have the opportunity to support you and help you. And I think it takes people like Fred that changed the tide there because like most. I would say most people in your seat relate to investors from a place of fear, and it may be compliance, you know, of like, yes, here's. Here's what I'm doing and here's how I'm doing it versus, like, vulnerability. Um, you know, I would say constructive vulnerability to, you know, to get the best, you know, product and outcome for everybody. So I don't know, does that. Is that fair?

Speaker A: Just that permission piece absolutely makes tons of sense. I love all my investors and everyone on the board, but, uh, that one definitely jumps out.

Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, good, Good answer there. Um, so we're at our time and I like to finish out here just asking two lightning round questions and related to the topics that we've been talking about. First one is, you know, what is. What does Jace do for. That's dumb. And Fun just to recharge your battery. If, like, if you had an hour a day or a couple hours on a weekend, like, what, what kind of dumb or fun thing would you do to recharge your battery?

Speaker A: Oh, gosh. Um, well, it's go. Dude, that's the answer. Right, boss? I know I'm a huge sci fi nerd, so anything if I want to check out a little bit of a sci fi movie or a book, just gives, uh, you that space.

Speaker B: Nice. What's your favorite, uh, sci fi movie or series?

Speaker A: Well, for my kids right now there can only be one answer, which is Star Trek. If you don't know what Friday is, I can't tell you. But, uh, I'm enough. For us anyway, uh, that's it for us. It's something with teens. You're just always looking for things that get you connected together and you can do together. I would have chosen Cubs baseball or Bears football, but they chose Star Trek. I'll take it.

Speaker B: I love that. Yeah, my, my son and I just finished, um, over the, in January, we finished, um, the Lord of the Rings, like extended edition, which is like, he's nine, he's nine years old and it was, you know, four and a half hours a piece of like. And then I think we did the, oh yeah, we did all three of the Hobbit movies as well. And so that was, that was a large investment. But he was just like every night, you know, especially at the holiday break in the first couple weeks of January when school, you know, school was still out. It was like, hey, can we, can we go watch some more tonight?

Speaker A: Oh, man, uh, I knew who I'm calling for my questions about Middle Earth.

Speaker B: Yeah, I bet my 9 year old would know more about that than me and retain more. So. Well, I'll put, I'll put him on speaker for you. So second of all, um, especially because this isn't your first rodeo. You've been in this seat and space so often over so many years. Think about somebody that's stepping into entrepreneurship for the first time. It's a new founder and probably has a good product or service idea and just taking the jump. Just got some funding. What, what advice would you give to them?

Speaker A: The groundbreaking one for me just made a difference in my life. I follow through someone else. It's like, hey, have an innovative solution to an important problem and just keep doing that on repeat. So it's important for your thesis of, you know, what's the problem you're solving? Do you have a solution? Is it different innovative, not unique. Like you don't have to be perfectly unique in the business, but innovative. And then how do you keep using that message? An innovative solution to an important problem in your sales messaging, your communications to your team. It's just a little bit of a shortcut for me in terms of how I communicate with everyone.

Speaker B: Yeah, that's good sage advice to finish out. And, um, if people want to get in touch with you and learn more about Godo after they listen today, where would you point them?

Speaker A: Uh, yeah, I'm on LinkedIn and Godolife. Uh.com is where everything could get started with, uh, helping people make the most of, uh, every dollar they earn. So we'd be happy to chat with you and any employer certainly are interested in doing more for their folks. We'd love to talk.

Speaker B: Awesome. Thanks so much, Jace, for your time and insights today. Thank you for listening to today's interview. To view show notes or hear more episodes, please visit www.savagetosage. Com.