Turning it Upside Down - James Whittaker

Hello friends. Welcome to the Story Forge Podcast where we believe Making Things Matters and we talk to people we've met along our journey who are doing just that. Making something - a thing, a product, a service, an idea that matters to other people. Matters to the world. Makes things better, or easier, or just more exciting to be around.

I'm Lyle Smith, your host. I'm a runner, a dad, a husband to an exceedingly accomplished acupuncturist. I'm a writer, a storyteller, a hiker, partly because I'm new to Boulder County Colorado. And that's where today's story begins.

I met James Whittaker on a hike in Boulder, CO.

A couple of months ago, I attended several days of an event called Boulder Startup Week and discovered a group that does a monthly networking event out on the trails surrounding Boulder. My first event, there were about 20 or more people hiking up and up and up on the Mount Sanitas trail.

I figured it would be about an hour and I could meet a few folks, start a few conversations if I was lucky and then get back to work. More than two hours later, I was tired, and thirsty, and still out there talking to new friends.

We talked business and Lego - James has three young kids who love the bricks as much as my son Aiden does - and the more we chatted, the more intrigued I became in what he was doing to rethink the way executives made career transitions.

And so I asked him if he'd like to chat here. And I have to tell you, I've listened to all sorts of stories here. And found them all to be valuable. Some really even spectacular. But something about the way James has thought through his business and was completely open about sharing his successes and challenges along the way made this one especially helpful to me. His business is nothing like mine, but I took away so much I'm already putting to use every day.

I hope you find it as useful as I have.

Now... here's my new friend, James Whittaker.