What’s it like to find your path of authentic service in the world? What if you could use the pain of the past, a pain of not knowing where you fit in, of not knowing where you belong to propel you toward work that makes a difference? What if you could create a place of belonging? Well, it might look a lot like what Tanisha Robinson is building with Print Syndicate. Started just 2.5 years ago with 8 people, Print Syndicate now has over 140 employees and will generate more than $20M in revenue this year. But the company isn’t just about shirts and home goods, it’s a place where people (including a black, gay, woman from a Mormon family of 7 in a small town in Missouri) have a place to self-identify and a place to belong. As Tanisha shares, running a company fueled by your passion to make the world better is both exhilarating and heartwrenching.

1.
Welcome to the Reboot podcast. We’re proud to say that today’s episode is brought to you by
Justworks. Justworks helps businesses take care of their benefits, healthcare, payroll and HR. It’s
super simple and powerful. We use it and we love it. And this podcast really is way more than
just Jerry so we wanted to take this opportunity to introduce you to more of our team, and hear
their experience in using Justworks.
A: I’m Ali Schultz, and I am the COO of Reboot. Justworks makes my life insanely
easy. It’s every HR solution I have ever wanted in one place, including my benefits,
and I don’t have to think about HR things at all.
D: And how does your experience with Justworks compare to other providers that you
may have used in the past?
A: I have tried two of the largest HR solutions in the market, and the time that it has
taken out of my life, to use both of those programs, is maddening to me. Back then, at
least a couple of years ago, I remember thinking to myself, ‘This really doesn’t need
to be as complicated as it is’ and I was hoping that someone would create what
Justworks has created. I feel like it has kind of given life, and a new­found sense of
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D: Well, you hear how much Ali loves Justworks, and a happy Ali is a happy Reboot. If
you are ready to grow your business and not your busy work, head over to
Reboot.io/justworks. You’ll find out more about how we use Justworks and how it
could work for you. That’s Reboot.io/justworks.
“This is the temple of my adult aloneness and I belong to that aloneness as I belong to my life.
There is no house like the house of belonging.” That’s from David Whyte’s poem, ‘The House of
Belonging’. What’s it like to find your path of authentic service in the world? What if you could
tap into your wholeness; your fears, your wounds, your purpose and build a company from that
place? What if you could use the pain of the past, a pain of not knowing where you fit in, not
knowing where you belong, to propel you toward work that makes a difference. It might look a
lot like what Tanisha Robinson and her team are building with Print Syndicate.
Started just 2.5 years ago with eight people, Print Syndicate now has over 140 employees and it
will generate more than 20 million in revenue this year. The company isn’t just about shirts and
home­goods, it’s a place where people, including a black, gay woman, from a Mormon family of
seven, in a small town of Missouri, have a place to self­identify and a place to belong. It’s a
place where they can find proof that they are not alone.
As Tanisha shares, running a company fueled by her passion to make the world better is both
exhilarating and heart­wrenching. In this podcast, I am thrilled to welcome my friend, Tanisha,

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one of my favorite entrepreneurs in a conversation with Jerry. They discuss Tanisha’s path to
building Print Syndicate, as well as the power and pain of connecting who you are, what you
deeply care about, and what you do. Enjoy.
JC: Hey Tanisha, it’s really great to have you on and thank you so much for joining us
and taking the time. I know it’s a fast­growing company and it’s really helpful when
entrepreneurs take time out, and talk about some of these things. Not only for you but
as we – you know, we were talking about before we hit the ‘Record’ button, the
notion of just sharing that experience with other entrepreneurs and really talk about
that. So before we begin, why don’t you tell us a little bit about Print Syndicate and
yourself, and you know, what are some of the things that you are working through.
TR: Yeah, so my co­founder, Mike and I founded Print Syndicate in November of 2012
and we actually worked together in a company with sort of similar model and I think
it’s an interesting sort of, distinction I often point out. Often you don’t have to be an
inventor to be an entrepreneur. You can just take an existing model, and if you have a
better idea for it, it might be a promising business and that’s kind of how we came up
with the idea of Print Syndicate. And so, we worked for a company that was like
CafePress or Zazzle where anyone could upload anything, and we had a different
vision around how content should be created and what consumers might want. So, we
started in November 2012 and we had us and a handful or artists and started
generating content based on what we saw as trends in social media. And you know,
the other interesting kinda thing about our business is that it’s – we use all on­demand
fulfillment processes. So everything is produced on demand and so if you can round
up enough money to do on­demand fulfillment, then it’s a pretty good way to
bootstrap. But you know – so that’s sort of the idea that we started with. Two years
later, we had a very different version of what the model would be. I mean, it really
took us a couple of years to nail down what we are actually doing. And so now, really
we are in the business of self­expression but we focus half­way on trends and social
identities. So, the example I often give is, here in Columbus if you are a Buckeye fan,
there are a thousand places to buy Buckeye t­shirts, but if you are an introvert, or a
feminist, or a science geek, we are kind of the only creator of well­designed products
for people that want to express those elements of their social identity. We kind of,
think about ourselves as kind of the makers of products for unserved social identities
and we spend a lot of time thinking about that. People want to belong and the internet
has allowed for these tribes of people, even very tiny tribes of people that can be in it
in really unprecedented ways, and they want to express their belonging to those tribes
instead of sort of the old­school [Unclear 0:07:00] kind of tribes for the masses. And
so, that’s what we do but we kind of, outwardly look like a portfolio of niche brands
that sell T­shirts and home­goods and that sort of thing. But yeah, the underlying
premise of our business is the people who wanna express themselves in unique ways.
JC: You know, I feel like, you know, I stumbled upon someone who’s already read the
end of the book because I love what you just described. Not only – congratulations on
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the business, the business is doing well, you’ll do over 20 million in revenue
forecasted this year, that’s fantastic but I can’t help but just jump right in. And you
saw me scribbling through and writing a bunch of notes and words like ‘We’re in the
business of self­expression’, you know, I think you used the word ‘social identity’
and ‘identity’ about 12 times.
TR: Yeah.
JC: Yeah and ‘people want a sense of belonging’ and that you know, ‘there’s tribes for
the masses and then there’s tribes in which people actually feel like they belong’.
That’s powerful, that’s powerful.
TR: It is, I mean, it’s been a funny, isn’t it? It’s been a fun way to sort of, close a loop in
my life. I grew up in a small town in Missouri, I’m the second of seven in a very, very
conservative, Mormon family.
JC: I have six brothers and sisters too.
TR: Nice. You know, and in Liberty, Missouri, I wasn’t really a great fit. It was kind of a
Friday­night lights, football­cheerleader, very, very traditional, evangelical event kind
of town and when I was in high school and junior high, AOL chat­rooms came out
and I was able kind of, find kids who were like me ‘cause there really were not kids
who were like me in Missouri. And so that was kind of the first experience I had
where I felt like okay, there’s a bigger world out there and there are people that I can
get along with even if none of them were in my high school – or maybe one of them
is in my high school, as was the case.
JC: Right.
TR: And so, I definitely – and I really struggled in high school because of that, because I
didn’t feel like I didn’t fit in and I definitely didn’t fit in. I mean there was a sort of,
question about that but you know, so it’s been interesting to be kind of be able to
build a business around sort of thinking through people’s desire to belong. And you
know, it’s interesting in the world right now, because of the internet, because of the
social media, counter­culture is very mainstream. And so, it’s – you know, I kinda
wish that I was 20 years younger where it’s cool to be a nerd, and cool to be smart,
and you know, cool to be different because when I was in high school, it was
definitely not. I mean, but it’s fun to be able to enable people’s weirdness a bit.
JC: If you don’t mind, could we explore a little bit, the way in which you were different?
TR: Yeah, you know, so growing up Mormon, my parents really raised us, raised me – I
have five younger sisters, they raised us to be wives and mothers. And so, you know,
the context from a cultural­religious stand point, I really was more interested in a lot
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of other things. I didn’t want dolls, I wanted Legos, and I didn’t want to be raised to
be a wife and mother. I wanted to go to school and do stuff, and then in my small
town, like from the time I was very little, I thought I could change the world. And
actually this is a funny story: I was in seventh grade and I had to write my own
obituary, and I wrote – yeah for my English class or whatever, and I wrote that I had
done so much work in helping that the poor people called me ‘Mother Tanisha’ and I
really dreamed that I was capable of doing something special. You know, and my
mother was very, very negative towards – any aspirations I had towards – or my
parents were both really negative. And so, you know, like there was kind of – I was
kind of raised in a very, very confined structure and that didn’t fit me or sort of what I
dreamt for myself than in the larger social structure, football­oriented,
cheerleader­oriented, white high school that I went to, and I didn’t even know that it
was possible to be gay. So I just thought, well, it’s easy to be a prude and I’m not
really interested in boys. You know, but even in terms of my coming to terms with
my sexual identity, you know, took a long time because I grew up in a very sort of,
suppressive and repressive environment. It wasn’t okay to be myself and I didn’t feel
like I was and so, it was a huge struggle for a long time.
JC: So you know, again, I want to be mindful and really respect your own
self­identification; part of my own journey through my own, as we were sharing
before the recording began, becoming aware of my own unconscious biases, I want to
make sure that I am cognizant of the individual’s identification. So what I’ve heard
you identify is non­white and gay.
TR: Yeah.
JC: And do you also identify as a woman?
TR: I do, yeah.
JC: Okay and you know, I think – and what I’m also hearing is, identifying as someone
outside the norm of Mormonism –
TR: Oh definitely, yeah.
JC: – and so there is a – and I know, in a CNN interview, you described yourself as
‘hyper­marginalized’.
TR: Yeah.
JC: Are those the things you were referring to?
TR: Yeah, definitely. I think you know, and not that – fortunately, for the vast majority of
my experiences, because I had been fortunate to live in places where people are very
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open and smart enough to typically not cause problems, you know, I think that when I
refer to being hyper­ marginalized, it’s really around the start up world that I function
in –
JC: Yeah.
TR: – where you look at the percentage of VC­funded startups, the number of women,
even co­founders, not necessarily CEOs, or black, or gay, or sort of in any category
besides straight white dudes or Asian dudes, is very, very, very small. And so, you
know, there’s a lot of times in my work that I – when I walk in there, I’m the only
black woman, or gay person, or any kind of any – among those categories. And so
that’s what I would say I feel like I function in the margins but not so much sort of,
day­to­day living here in Columbus, Ohio.
JC: But is that – I hear that and I’m curious though ‘cause one of the things in working
with clients that I often suggest is something that I found that you did almost
immediately, which was connect to a deeper sense of purpose –
TR: Yeah.
JC: – when you were describing the company mission.
TR: Yeah.
JC: And that’s what I sort of, leapt on and to me – so I’m making it into an association
here and tell me if this is right that creating a service for people to find social identity
and the sense of – and therefore, a sense of belonging, isn’t just a business
opportunity, but there is something connective there for you; is that right?
TR: That’s totally true and it’s a huge driver because I mean, per­se, I am not interested in
being in a T­shirt company – owning a T­shirt company; that’s not even appealing to
me. And so, you know, there has to be more purpose than that we sell shit and make
money, because business­building takes so much sacrifice in terms of time, and
seeing people, and mental energy and so the opportunity cost is very high based on
anything else I could be doing in the world. And so, for me, it has to be more than just
the Visa stuff and you know, and beyond that as like my whole, sort of, purpose in
being an entrepreneur is that the company itself can be a lever for impact. I mean,
that’s been a huge learning for me as we have grown that – you know, we have 140
people, but we also have a force of 140 volunteers, and we have a force of 140
donors, and we also have some talents that allow us to offer unique things in support
of our community and causes that we care about. So not only do we have a business –
that I get to work in a business and run a business that I think serves a good purpose
and does a positive thing in the world. I think you know, then we also have a lever as
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a fast­growing company to make a difference as we build this thing. And you know,
so I think it’s very intertwined really.
JC: Yeah, I can feel the interrelationship and the interdependence of sort of, the inner and
the outer here at the same time. And you know, many people who follow my work
know that I’m a huge fan and my friend, Parker Palmer and he often talks about when
the inner and the outer are in congruence with each other, that there’s this powerful
opportunity that emerges, not only for the individual self­actualization but for the
community, for the organization, for the organism to really live itself out. And he
refers to not only the inner – the stuff that we are proud of, but also the pain and the
stuff that we have placed back in the shadow. I feel like I’m speaking with a CEO
who kinda just shrugs her shoulders and goes, ‘Yeah, of course’.
TR: Yeah, I think it’s been – you know, it’s not necessarily a – well, actually, it is. I mean,
it’s something that to me seems totally natural; like why else would I build a business
that I don’t deeply believe in my bones. But you know, I think it’s something that
might be a unique feature as a woman, and I don’t necessarily know what the reasons
are, but I know that I wouldn’t invest my life savings and all of my time and energy
and effort and make sacrifices for a thing that wouldn’t really make a difference. You
know, ‘cause there are a lot of ways to go out and make money in the world, and so to
pick the hardest fact, I think the challenge could be much worse, I guess. One in ten is
kinda successful, where one in a thousand really and then for a lot of folks, it’s just a
highly public failure. Sort of, dive into that and then, you know, at such great risk to
my reputation, and my hopes and dreams, and sort of all that, you know, I can’t
imagine doing it any other way.
JC: Mmm, that’s really beautiful, it’s admirable, it’s – it took me a long time, a long time,
to get to the point where my work­self more closely matched my inner­self. And I
think I’m there now but I think you know, in looking back, I think that it took me a
long time. So you know, I just admire that, I really do.
TR: Yeah, I think – you know, for me, it’s been interesting because there are some aspects
of my inner­self that people gauge, and measure, and judge that you know, that we
sort of talked about earlier which is like I’m a black woman, I have a fro, I have a
wife; and so, you know, there’s a lot of things about me that people measure and look
at on the – I think that are just very inherent parts of who I am but – that people pay
attention to. And so I can’t hide some of these major, major elements that some
people react negatively to; and so I found that it’s like well, I can’t – there’s sort of
like, well, there’s the ‘I got the conservative white dude business version of me and
then –
JC: Yeah.
TR: – and then the real version of me.
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JC: Yeah.
TR: I mean, I can’t – so it’s hard to fake for me because I look the way I do and function
the way I do. So that’s why I have just decided to dive in on being who I am ‘cause
it’s too hard to try to negotiate through the world any other way.
JC: I love that expression of it in a sense and without minimizing at all any of the
challenges you’ve experienced. In a sense, I hear you describing as ‘easier’; the word
that occurs to me is ‘truer’ –
TR: Yeah.
JC: – more authentic in that sense. So, I also am aware that you said something before we
actually started recording which I thought was really powerful which was – and so
this stuff that we’ve been talking about, this is about five percent of the challenge.
TR: Oh yeah.
JC: Yeah, tell me about the 95%
TR: Okay yeah –
JC: And uh­oh, here comes Jerry, he’s going to start coaching.
TR: Yes, I’m in. So, you know, I mean the current challenges we are facing now are, up
until last year, we were a management team of two and so we rounded up a bunch of
people that are really smart in their respective territories and were like ‘Okay, go’.
And trying to impart knowledge and strategies so that everyone is moving in the same
direction at the same time is infinitely harder than it looks even when everyone
believes [Unclear 0:22:01] even when you have people that are super­smart, with 10
or 15 years’ experience and even when you communicate on a regular basis, to try to
maneuver for the singular purpose, you know, in the midst of tons of tiny projects, is
you know, a huge thing that we are going to be probably solving for years. So it’s sort
of this problem that we have created for ourselves which we have to solve, but you
know, it’s a really, really tough one.
JC: So, how does it show up as a challenge? What are some of the things that happen?
TR: Yeah, I mean, in microcosm, it’s like, all right we are going to watch this project and
there’s not necessarily coordination before, and then people are moving in sometimes
opposite of competing directions, and then it takes twice or three times as long to get
the thing done. And then it’s not necessarily done in a way that anyone is particularly
happy with or in a way that aligns with sort of the longer term infrastructure context
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of the thing. And you know, so it’s like instead of moving forward, we spin our
wheels and move it – you know, pull things apart or move in different directions. So
it’s – you know, so that’s a super­tough one when you got – so 2.5 years ago, we
were eight people and now we are at 140 and we trying to wrangle all of that. That’s a
very, very intense learning experience to try to learn how to manage because it’s so,
so different.
JC: What’s the hardest part of that?
TR: I think it really just – I think that it’s – there is no one that will know the business or
the long game better than Mike and I do, and so to try to convey that so that people
can think about what they are doing in the larger context of what we are trying to do
is super, super­tough.
JC: What makes it so tough?
TR: I think it’s really just trying to get everyone on the same page all the time because
when you iterate so often and you know, so there are things that I see but you know,
both in the world and in the business, that may change – like nudge our directions
slightly on a weekly basis and sort of, try to constantly convey those tiny iterations
which ultimately, at the size that we have, have a massive ripple effect if we don’t get
them right is hard.
JC: And when you see that it’s not being gotten right, how does that make you feel?
TR: Oh, I mean it’s frustrating, and it’s super­discouraging because we are capable of – I
think we – I know we are really, really on to something and that we are fulfilling this
very special place in the market. And so to not be doing it fast enough, and not be
doing it big enough, and not to be doing it as well as we possibly can especially with
the team that we have, is very frustrating.
JC: So can I respond more coach­like with you?
TR: Yeah, please.
JC: So, two separate ​threats that I want to respond to, I hear you, I really do hear you and
the first thing that I want to say is that there is a theme that I’ve been working with
lately; there’s a talk I’ve been doing called, ‘Standing Still While Your Hair’s on
Fire: Surviving the Startup Life’ and ‘The Paradox of Caring’ and the paradox of
caring I think is really important here. Caring and connecting so much with deep
purpose creates an enormous amount of energy and as you know, I’ve explored with
other guests in the podcast, by reaching back into our pain, by reaching back into our
shadow, we actually access creativity and spontaneity that would otherwise be not
available to us ‘cause we are accessing the wholeness of who we are as a human
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being, and we are bringing that forward. And I think that a lot of the success that Print
Syndicate stems from the fact that you guys, almost from the beginning, are sort of
accessing disenfranchisement, accessing not belonging, accessing a sense of
dislocation and with love and humor, finding ways to connect with that. And that’s
powerful. The problem with caring so much, and here’s the paradox part, is that it
actually increases the stress –
TR: Yes.
JC: – ‘cause what happens if you fail?
TR: Yeah.
JC: Right, so not only do you carry the burden of failure of ‘Oh, I lost all this money’,
‘Oh, I’m gonna be penniless and homeless and the laughing stock of my town’, but
I’ll have let down this community that I care so much about. And you know, it
reminds me of a poster that a client once sent to me which was, ‘Stress is caused by
giving a fuck.’
TR: Yeah, exactly.
JC: Right, if we didn’t give a fuck, we wouldn’t be so damn stressed.
TR: Oh yeah. I mean, people that clock in and clock out and don’t care, are not stressed at
all.
JC: That’s right. Well, let’s be fair to them, there’s the stress of dehumanization –
TR: Yes.
JC: – which is a different stress, right, it’s a kind of violence. So it’s a dehumanization so
that is there but yes, the people who actually manage to really actually not care about
anything, and float along, I envy them.
TR: Yeah.
JC: So there’s that point that I wanted to share. The other piece I wanted to share is to
take you back to this other thing which is – and it reminds me of something that a
client once said to me which was, ‘You mean, I have to tell them the vision again?’
TR: Yeah.
JC: And the answer is, yes.
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TR: Yeah.
JC: So, you’ve probably heard me say this but I’ll say it again, there’s three functions that
you have as a CEO: the first is to hold and promulgate the vision and that means our
values, our purpose, our sense of why, our sense of the future, our sense of
differentiation, our sense of who we are on the planet as an organization, and when I
say ‘hold and promulgate’ I mean, literally with your body –
TR: Yeah.
JC: – with your being, every day, in how you walk, how you talk, and who you engage
with, and who you hire, and what that process is; so it get’s embodied in everything.
TR: Yeah.
JC: The other two tasks are to build and maintain the team and then lastly, give them the
resources that they need which goes beyond money –
TR: Yeah.
JC: – but goes to clarity and prioritization. So part of the challenge is realizing that you
have stepped into the practice of being a CEO.
TR: Yeah.
JC: And the word ‘practice’ is really important because you actually never achieve it.
TR: Yeah, so I have the sense that it’s a totally unachievable thing and –
JC: Totally unachievable.
TR: Yeah, I mean, it’s been interesting to sort of, actually move through it and then move
into this place where I get to do my little bit and really think about those three things
because you know, especially in the early days, it’s like I am also the shipper, and the
trash picker­upper, and sort of, so many other very, very functional things of just
getting stuff that needs to be done. And like I would say now, for the first time within
the 2.5 years, so really in the past four or five months has been where I feel like I got
to really think through and live through those particulars of the role.
JC: Right, and a lot of folks will then find themselves in the very difficult position of
saying, ‘What value do I add every day?’
TR: Yeah.
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JC: Right? And I joke with people that I kinda want you bored at four o’clock, on a
Friday afternoon, and going, ‘You know, maybe I’ll go home and hang out with my
wife’ because the goal is to get the machine operating –
TR: Yes.
JC: – in such a way that the drama is minimized; right? And then we go from this
hyper­activity, up­and­down roller coaster, to a kind of, equiniminous state where we
just kind of like blip­blip­blip, up­and­down, up­and­down, and we have some fun,
and then we go home, and have a life, and we go have dinner, and we laugh, and we
make love, and we have fun.
TR: Yeah.
JC: You know?
TR: Yeah, I can see the path through the woods to that – you know, we are starting to get
into a good spot with our team and you know, getting people the context and the
information they need to make the decisions that they are supposed to, and so to be
able to hand off decision­making and a lot of the process work is something I’m
really looking forward to.
JC: Yeah, so that process and the dialectical tension between doing that and the feelings
that arise, which is ‘What am I doing?’
TR: Yeah.
JC: ‘What? Is this right? Am I –’ that tension point, that’s part of the practice as well.
TR: Yeah, that’s a good point.
JC: Right? So part of your job is to actually ​bare the feelings that arise without turning
the team into an object of your narcissistic, neurotic tendencies.
TR: Yeah.
JC: And by the way, ​[Crosstalk]​ well, guilty as charged.
TR: Yeah.
JC: Not only with my colleagues at Reboot, but with my family –
TR: Oh yeah.
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JC: – with my friends, because that’s our work.
TR: Yeah.
JC: It’s like the feelings arise, anxiety, sadness, anger, and what do we – where do we
create the most suffering? It’s when we don’t know what to do with those feelings,
and then we project them out; or as my friend, Parker Palmer says, “Violence is what
we do when we don’t know what to do with our suffering.”
TR: That explains why my favorite workout is a heavy bag.
JC: There you go! That’s what you do with your suffering! Hit the damn, heavy bag!
Exactly.
TR: And how!
JC: There is something powerful in what you just said because the path is actually to get
out of your head and into your body ‘cause the body is where all that feeling is going
to get stored up, and that’s why so much of good coaching will pull people in and say,
‘Great, did you go for a run?’ ‘Did you do some yoga?’ And it’s not just like for
‘Namaste –’ you’re like Don Draper at the end of ‘Mad Men’
TR: Yeah.
JC: Spoiler alert, right?
TR: Bummer.
JC: It’s not that, it’s really how I’d be with all of this stuff that has charged up because
what most leaders end up doing is, and we joke before [Unclear 0:34:04] the
organization into an object of their narcissistic neurosis.
TR: Yeah, and I mean, I think that there are so many cautionary tales of that that for me,
my biggest –I try to be very introspective because I mean, there’s a term for it, it’s
‘Founder Syndrome’, where the CEO becomes a toxic leader and it does more harm
than good in the organization and you know, so I try – I’m trying and I hope to, for a
long time, be very mindful of like – that I might hit that moment where I am not the
right leader anymore, or that I am not in the right place as a human being to be the
right leader anymore, to you know, let my investments make gains and let my people
be happy. If I am a hindrance to that or to the effectiveness of the organization, that’s
something that I try and pay attention to, and I definitely, whole­heartedly believe
that I am the right leader for this company right now. But I don’t know if that will be
the case in three years or five years.
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13. Reboot019_Building_House_Belonging.Mp3-Transcription
JC: So what I would suggest is, this is why community is so important. This is why
human beings, as a species, evolved in communities. Now, I’m a profound introvert
but even I need somebody to tell me when I’ve got a smudge of dirt on my nose;
right? And community, and creating the conditions within the organization where
your co­founder Mike, can go to you, ‘Hey, Tanisha, that thing you did, that wasn’t
cool.’
TR: Yeah.
JC: ‘Or this thing, this is not going on.’ ‘And what do you mean it’s not go –’ and then
you have that point of contact and then that’s what we – you know, we often talk
about, what if work were a means for the self­actualization, the full realization of
ourselves as human beings, including bringing our bag of tricks and our bag of shit
forward and processing that? What if work were a process for you as a human being,
to evolve to the full potential as a human being? Community can help us do that.
TR: Yeah, and I think probably entrepreneurs get that closest to their work being, or
having a possibility of being part of actualizing one’s full potential. I mean, I think if
I were working in a corporation or doing anything, I’ll say, I would move farther
away from that than I feel like I am now.
JC: I think you are right; I think one of the beauties and gifts of a startup organization is,
we do commit ourselves to creating a culture.
TR: Yeah.
JC: And you know, as I often say to clients, what kind of company do you want to work
for? ‘Cause you get to create that every day.
TR: Yeah, and it’s been very fun in our business. We have a lot of ​creatives , a lot of
artists, and a lot of odd kids that have found their place here. And you know, I think
people really feel that they can come to work and truly be themselves, and be loved
and accepted, and valued for that. And you know, I would say it’s one of the things
that I am most proud of that we have built, as I look around our team of misfit toys,
and to see that, you know, they are happy, and they have got a best friend at work,
[Unclear 0:37:33] lunch with, and they also have a chance to dive into this purpose of
helping other people express themselves. But it’s a pretty special and exciting thing
and it’s something that we are very, very intentional about from the beginning. It was
declaring our values and really thinking through – ‘cause one of my mentors told me,
even if you are – ‘If you are not intentional by your culture, you will still have one’
and I think you know, there are other cautionary tales, there are lot of startups that
just become really, really horrible places because no one is keeping an eye out for
culture, and the experience for other people to show up to work every day.
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14. Reboot019_Building_House_Belonging.Mp3-Transcription
JC: I think that is beautifully, beautifully said and I think you are absolutely right. You
know, one of the things like that motivates me and gets me excited about the work
that we try to do is to really create a place for the “island of misfit toys,” for the
“caboose with square wheels”.
TR: Yeah.
JC: And we are both referring to Rudolph, the red­nosed reindeer.
TR: Yeah.
JC: And you know, I always related to them. I’m a white male privilege and yet, I always
related to the caboose with square wheels ‘cause I cry at the drop of a hat because I
feel in a way that not everybody else feels, and because I’m an introvert but I’m not
shy.
TR: Yeah.
JC: And people don’t understand that when I withdraw, it’s because I’m depleted.
TR: Yeah, I am also a charismatic introvert, is how I describe my personality ‘cause
people are like, ‘Oh, you are so good with people’ and that’s totally true. And you
know, I have unbelievable anxiety around public­speaking and networking events,
you know, I was a kid who had a birthday party who no one showed up to. And so,
you know, those types of moments in your really early years, remind me of early
years were really so painful and I am perpetually like paranoid about ever facing that.
You know, because when you don’t fit in, it’s so hard, and so humiliating, and so then
the idea of public­speaking, and being a public­facing figure for the business is –
gives me very, very intense anxiety. And I do it because it’s part of my role to tell our
story, and you know, to be out in the community, and talk to our investors and talk to
our people and then talk to our media – and you know, the fear even with all of the
practice I’ve had at this point, the fear has yet to go away.
JC: So two things I would say to that: the way I have come to be comfortable as a public
speaker is, I really and truly pretend that I’m speaking to one individual. I fix my eyes
on that one individual, and the funny thing that’s happened is, all of a sudden, I find
myself – even if there’s a distance of a stage, I find myself having a physical heart
connection with that one individual, and that gives me sustenance enough to get
through it.
TR: Yeah.
JC: The second thing I would say is, one of my favorite poems is a poem by David Whyte
called, ‘The House of Belonging’. I won’t bore you with a full reading of it, but
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15. Reboot019_Building_House_Belonging.Mp3-Transcription
there’s a beautiful line in there which is, ‘There is no house like the house of
belonging and I belong there as I belong in my adult aloneness.’ And I love the notion
of an adult aloneness because to me, it’s the notion of solitude versus [Unclear
0:41:22]
TR: Exactly, yeah.
JC: So you resonate with that line as well?
TR: Totally, yeah. And fortunately, my wife is actually very extroverted but she knows
when I need time to do Legos. It’s not playing Legos, by the way –
JC: I know what you mean though. You know, for me, it might be modeling, it might be
clay, it’s something that allows me to just sort of [exhales] the world.
TR: Exactly. Absolutely, yeah.
JC: Yeah, I have so enjoyed talking with you.
TR: Yeah, thank you so much Jerry, this was awesome and I appreciate the coaching.
JC: You know, anything that I can do to support you in your process and you know,
anything that Reboot can do to help you in that regard, you know, I’m really grateful
for you coming on and sharing who you are in this moment. And as I said before, I
am truly admiring of the way in which you are trying to live out your values in this
way. It is really wonderful.
So that’s it for our conversation today. You know, a lot was covered in this episode from links,
to books, to quotes, to images. So, we went ahead and compiled all that and put it on our site at
Reboot.io/podcast. If you’d like to be a guest on the show, you can find out about that on our site
as well. I’m really grateful that you took the time to listen. If you enjoyed the show and you want
to get all the latest episodes as we release them, head over to iTunes and subscribe and while
you’re there, it would be great if you could leave us a review letting us know how the show
affected you. So, thank you again for listening and I really look forward to future conversations
together.
[Singing]
“How long till my soul gets it right?
Did any human being ever reach that kind of light?
I call on the resting soul of Galileo,
King of night­vision, King of insight.”
[End of audio 0:43:56]
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16. Reboot019_Building_House_Belonging.Mp3-Transcription
[End of transcript]
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