May 23, 2023

Episode 42: Aligning Identity and Purpose to Fuel Your Mission with Nick Smoot

On today’s episode of The Future of Teamwork, Nick Smoot sits down with host and HUDDL3 CEO Dane Groeneveld to talk about the importance of personal narrative in helping you understand and pursue meaningful work. Nick is the Founder and CEO of Aesop Industries, a venture partner, and someone with a deep passion for developing communities. During their conversation, the two discuss Nick’s venture projects, progressive policies and technologies, the inherent drive in humans to create, as well as the impact of getting involved in mission-based work.

Guest Bio

Nick is a globally respected culture first community and economic strategist. He is a 4x entrepreneur (3 exits), venture capital investor, real estate developer, and ecosystem builder.

His work in startup ecosystems has been recognized by organizations like Google, Brookings, Milken Institute, and Bloomberg. He has been interviewed for Bloomberg West, BBC, USA Today, Entrepreneurship Magazine, and Fast Company.

He has developed national job strategies, award winning education/workforce training programs, and youth leadership development programs. Nick is a Milken Institute Young Leader and the founder/CEO of Innovation Collective. He has spent time in over 200 cities in the last decade working with government, education, industry, and in his words, most importantly the community as he focuses in on the reproducible art of community lead ecosystem development.

He is Puerto Rican-English, loves hiking deep in the woods of Idaho and can often be found camping in the woods with his two sons. Nick spends most of his time in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.

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Recap & Takeaways

[00:11 – 00:47] Introduction to Nick Smoot
[00:49 – 02:20] Nick talks about the beginnings of his story with creating Aesop Industries and doing community work
[02:22 – 03:49] Finding success in youth community coaching programs and opportunities to grow an EdTech company
[03:50 – 08:35] Partnerships and venture innovations
[09:07 – 11:57] A way to reorient a merit-based innovation approach
[12:03 – 14:28] An identity story, and our birthright as creators to solve our own problems
[14:30 – 17:48] Building a constant percolation of the culture you want
[17:49 – 19:59] Sentiment mapping and understanding how communities feel
[20:00 – 21:25] Coffee and Concepts in Victoria, TX
[21:26 – 24:30] Growing a culture change engine that spreads [25:00 – 27:50] Creative or creator vs. entrepreneur or maker, a philosophy
[27:51 – 28:30] Killing the word “entrepreneur” and building Build
[28:35 – 32:34] Bifurcating your identity and spreading a mission-based goal
[32:36 – 35:22] Identifying a shared problem teams face and forming a coalition
[35:24 – 38:41] Where do we leave room for belonging, gathering, and transaction to happen in authentic, co-creative ways
[38:45 – 39:35] Spin and watch how you spend your time, and understanding our journeys
[39:40 – 41:10] Dane and Nick on the Berkshire Hathaway shareholder event and building wealth
[41:12 – 42:12] Aligning yourself with the shared interest of your consumer, the idea of a “soul and goal line”
[42:21 – 44:38] Magic exists in our own town, and taking the risk away from community events by making them more accessible [44:42 – 46:48] Community-based approaches and Nick’s free ebook Better
[46:53 – 48:26] How to reach Nick