Jason (00:47)
Hi, Jim, it is great to see you.

Jim Fielding (he/him) (00:50)
So great to be here. Thank you for having me.

Jason (00:52)
my pleasure. And you are wearing the absolute right hat at the absolute right time. And I normally don't do this, but I'm putting on my IU hat. It's got the national championship there. I know we were both there.

Jim Fielding (he/him) (00:57)
Absolutely.

It's been one. Yeah, it's a week from today. We're one week in crazy.

Jason (01:10)
Unbelievable,

unbelievable. To go from worst to first in a matter of two years, mid-season this year, we were still the losingest football program ever. And to be number one and be national champion is just, it's hard to believe it.

Jim Fielding (he/him) (01:17)
You see what I mean?

Mm-hmm.

Especially because you and I were on campus when we were like 0 and 11 and 1 and 10. And I was still going to the games, by the way. Yeah, it's a really different feeling. The energy, you know, going to Miami for that final game, the energy was unbelievable. Like, Hoosier Nation showed out. It was crazy.

Jason (01:30)
Right.

It was crazy. mean, it's hard to capture that energy and anywhere else. I mean, when you're with your team in that space at that time, it was, it was really special. I'm so glad you got to experience it.

Jim Fielding (he/him) (01:58)
Well, yeah, me too. I'm glad you did too.

Jason (02:01)
So I think it's a great example of what we're going to be talking about today, which is about leadership and how big of a difference the right leader can make in a company. Right. And just the, all the different things that go along with that. But before we dive into the Wise in Five or five questions, I would love for you to share your amazing background with the people that are watching and listening today.

Jim Fielding (he/him) (02:09)
Mmm.

Absolutely.

⁓

yeah, I'll give you the ⁓ I'll give you the condensed but I grew up in Salido, Ohio, proud midwesterner son of a fireman and an x ray technician mom and knew I wanted to go to a big school. Honestly loved the University of Michigan, but it was only 45 minutes away from home. And I thought that was a little too close for my parents. I needed some space.

And I had this incredible high school teacher that I'm still in touch with, Mrs. Coontz, who said, you should go look at Indiana University. And so I went with my dad, and you know this from being there, like I remember walking on and driving onto campus and I'm like, this is what a school is supposed to look like. And the deal with my dad was he would pay in-state Ohio tuition and I had to make up everything else with

scholarships or work study or loans. So I did that. I majored in political science and did an outside field in business at the Kelly School. It wasn't the Kelly School then it was just called the business school and thought I was going to go to law school. And at the end of undergrad was accepted into a couple of different law schools, but frankly had run out of money and was a little tired from school. And so decided

Okay, what kind of job can I get? It was the 80s. There weren't a lot of people hiring liberal arts grads. It was like insurance sales, pharmaceutical sales or retail. And I had done retail. And so I went into a retail training program. And it was the best thing I ever did, because I found that that I loved retail. And so as a trainee at the old Dayton Hudson department stores in Minneapolis before they were bought by Macy's. And then

went to the Gap for nine years. And I say that the Gap was like getting a master's in retail because that was the heyday of the Gap, the late 80s and 90s. And then really, mean, probably my biggest pivot is when I got recruited to go to Disney in 2001. And I originally went to Disney to run the Disney catalog, moved over into Disney stores as a merchandiser. And

then moved into licensing and merchandising, ended up being at Disney for 12 years with the last four being president of Disney stores globally. My favorite job, people ask me all the time in my resume, what was my favorite job? That was by far my favorite job. Left Disney to become the CEO of Claire Stores, the girls jewelry and accessory stores in Chicago. Got me back to the Midwest, got me into that CEO job, got me into the C-suite.

And I did that for three years. And then I got called back to Hollywood to be president of DreamWorks, Consumer Products and Experiences, and then 20th Century Fox, Consumer Products and Experiences. Because my last five years in Hollywood were the start of the big media consolidation. DreamWorks got bought by NBC Universal. And then I went to Fox thinking the Murdoch family were buyers, not sellers. And kind of it was like I was there a year.

Jason (05:09)
Mm.

Jim Fielding (he/him) (05:20)
And the rumors started that Disney was buying us and I was like, there's no way Disney's buying us. Like we're too expensive. And then lo and behold, Disney bought us and I knew there wasn't a job for me at Disney at my level. And so I took that opportunity, Jason, to for the first time in my life, I was laid off and I really took, I said, I'm going to take a sabbatical. And just for your listeners and viewers, this is fall of 2019.

Jason (05:35)
So that was the issue.

Jim Fielding (he/him) (05:46)
And I basically announced to the world I'll be back in April, 2020. And we all remember what happened. Like there was nothing to come back to, right? All of a sudden it was COVID. And that was really my big pivot time. That's when I decided to leave California, move back to the Midwest. I got involved with Indiana again, more involved. I went back to school at Emory to get my executive coaching credentials. And I started really advising and coaching. And then I wrote my book.

And the book was a side hustle vanity project. I won't lie. I never thought it was anything but a academic exercise. And then the book got published and got out in the world and started to work. And all of a sudden I was getting speaking opportunities and advising opportunities and people asking me to write other books. And it changed.

my life just changed. And I think one of my lessons in the book, and I'm sure we'll talk about this, is control the controllable, but leave space for the possible. And my life since 2020 has been that lesson because everybody asks me, did you have this grand plan? Did you, is this what you knew you were going to do? Absolutely not. Like I, I literally just doors and windows opened and I went through them. And so today I'm advising,

and I have a podcast and writing another book and speaking and I love the variety of what I'm doing right now.

Jason (07:08)
I love it, Jim. I mean, you're just a powerhouse, right? In terms of and I call it the judo method also, which is you go the way the energy is taking you, right? And you are very open and have that wisdom to be able to see where those opportunities are. Even if you don't know exactly where they're going to take you. It's like it feels good. This seems good. Keep going with it.

Jim Fielding (he/him) (07:12)
Yeah

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, I'm willing to try almost anything like, and see, I think I've always had kind of a test and roll mentality. yeah, it doesn't mean I haven't pivoted all the time, because I do, I pivot every day, but yeah, I like the path I'm on right now.

Jason (07:46)
Well, and thank you for being an advisor on The Wise. We were thrilled to have you be part of this. So first question, I ask all the guests that I have on, where do you find inspiration just in daily life?

Jim Fielding (he/him) (07:50)
Sure, I love it.

Okay.

It's so funny because I kind of teased it a little bit. I am constantly curious and a lifelong learner. And so I push myself to literally try and learn something interesting or new every day. I mean, that's really what keeps me going. And I love that I'm at the point in my life also where it's about giving back because it's not necessarily about my success or my like I've had my career like I have. I have my moments. I have my favorites.

And now I really feel it's about giving back and helping others. And part of that is staying current by listening and learning. I mean, that's really what gets me up every morning.

Jason (08:34)
I love it. I love it. Well, let's dive in a little bit into you. You mentioned Disney and Claire's, but you've been at these amazing corporations, right? Legendary businesses and legendary roles. So when you look back at whether it was Disney or Claire or DreamWorks or Fox the places you've been, what's the common thread that you feel that connects those very different roles in your mind?

Jim Fielding (he/him) (08:45)
Yeah. Yes.

Yeah, I mean, I, I think there's a couple. One, that all of those companies were run by legendary visionary leaders, know, Bob Iger at Disney, Jeffrey Katzenberg at DreamWorks, Rupert Murdoch and my direct boss, Stacey Snyder at 20th Century Fox. So strong visionary leaders at the core of the entire thing, including Claire's.

was storytelling. I mean, that's what I'm about. I'm about authentic storytelling. so obviously Disney and DreamWorks and Fox are the land of storytelling. But Claire's had a lot of stories too because of the ear piercing and the history of Claire's and it had been a family run business for a long time until the family sold to professional managers. And so I think the core of it is authentic storytelling.

brands. If you really look at it, even back to the gap, like I always worked for brands with authentic stories. I that's what I was attracted to.

Jason (09:54)
Would you come in and

would you come in to help them build a story or would you come in and say, here's the story that exists. How do we refine it or, you know, put a megaphone to it?

Jim Fielding (he/him) (10:07)
Mm hmm. It was a little a little bit of both. mean, particularly all three Disney, Dreamworks and Fox all had incredible libraries or archives, you know. And so let's face it, they're large multinational companies. And so we were always looking in the archives to see what could we mine from the archives that, you know, IP that we owned already that maybe had a big fan following that hadn't been out in a while. And then

we would participate in driving the new IP that was coming out. So new movies, new television shows, new Broadway shows, new short form, you know, with YouTube and things like that. the teams that I ran, we were always about products and experiences. So we were creating ancillary products and experiences off of the core IP. And so like on an animated film,

we'd start working on an animated film four years before it came out. Like we'd be in the storyboards and we'd be getting to know the characters and we'd be immersing ourselves in the world and story and figuring out how do we bring this to life and product and consumer experiences. And so it was a mix. mean, obviously leadership and management loved when we could mine money from the archives where they didn't have to make anything mean, they loved that.

Jason (11:23)
high margin

Jim Fielding (he/him) (11:23)
Yeah, high margin and it's just sitting there kind of in the library doing nothing. But they also wanted us, you know, they wanted to use us to help drive eyeballs and ticket sales and viewership on new content as well.

Jason (11:37)
Very cool. Well, yeah, I mean, that had to be so fun. I mean, when you're working with those companies in the entertainment space, I could see why that was one of your favorite jobs being at Disney.

Jim Fielding (he/him) (11:38)
So, mix.

It was.

It was, it was pressure. It was pressure.

Yeah, it was pressure filled because there was a lot going on and they had high expectations. And I always say, I love the creatives who were creating all that content, but it's like being in a nursery and everybody thinks their baby is the most beautiful and they should be making more money than they are. Like so much of your job when you're the head of consumer products and experiences is about managing expectations, right? Like everybody thinks.

they have the next billion dollar idea, right? And, you know, there was a lot of ego involved in it. Like there was a lot of creativity and sometimes some of the best movies, the most favorite movies didn't really create consumer products demand or didn't really turn into a franchise. And so a lot of my job was managing expectations. And...

trying to set realistic goals, but I loved it. those jobs were 24-7, 365. I mean, at companies that size, there's always something going on, always, always.

Jason (12:50)
Absolutely. Well, you just

went into that balance, right? In terms of expectations and financial. For a lot of the mid-size companies, CEOs that we're working with, where they want to be empathetic leaders, but they still have to hit numbers, whether they have a board or just for their own business So what practice have you seen to make that balance real and not just talk? How can a CEO balance those things?

Jim Fielding (he/him) (12:56)
Yeah.

Yes.

Yes!

Of course.

Very real.

Yeah, mean, listen, I, my leadership style is has always been one of collaboration and communication and working through the team. But listen, I worked for some of the biggest companies on earth and had really aggressive financial earning goals. I mean, we were publicly traded, we had shareholders, we had fiduciary responsibility. I, I just always thought

how you achieve the goal was as important as achieving the goal itself. And that was just my management style. And a lot of the people I work with in my advisory or coaching, it's balancing, frankly, EQ and IQ, because yes, you have to get to the goal. And yes, you have financial goals and you have responsibilities to your constituencies. But I still think how you do it is as important as doing it itself.

And I think a lot of leaders care. I mean, I think they really do care. I'm sure there's some people out there that are just driver, driver, driver, and they're gonna get the number no matter what. I'm not as great with those kinds of people. Of course I work with them. But I really, I do think it's about a balance, but I think that's where an advisor, a trusted advisor comes in because you need someone

who's like an accountability partner almost, right? And a truth teller and someone you can pick up the phone and say, hey, I'm struggling with this. Like, can we talk about it? Right? Like, because it's tough. mean, those leadership jobs, when you own a company, a midsize company or CEO of a company, the pressure is on, the pressure is on from everywhere, from your employees, from your partners, your clients, your board, your investors. And I think

You know, when I was a president at Disney and DreamWorks and Fox, when I was a CEO, I always had coaching trusted advisors. Like I had that my entire time because you need to have sounding boards. You know, you need to have, you need to have people you can kind of play pros and cons with. And sometimes it can be a really lonely job. You know that Jason, like CEO can be a really lonely job because you're

Jason (15:17)
I've heard that, Jim.

Jim Fielding (he/him) (15:18)
You

don't really have a peer in the company. Like everybody reports to you, right? Yes, you know that. Yes, it's and and that's the thing is like, you know, especially when I was CEO of Claire's and moved to Chicago, I joined like the Chicago CEO Society because I wanted to meet other people who understood kind of what I was going through. You know, I I've always thought two heads are better than one. Always, always.

Jason (15:24)
You're mad.

Especially someone who has lived the experience that you're living that can kind of, they're not going to tell you what to do, but they can give you things to think about.

Jim Fielding (he/him) (15:48)
Yeah, has lived experience, exactly.

Yeah, have you considered? Yes, you understand being an advisor and a coach. We don't tell you exactly what to do. We suggest and we say, have you considered or what about trying this or have you tried that? It's a discussion. It's and it's it's it's mutual. It's a mutually beneficial discussion.

Jason (15:53)
Exactly.

That's right.

Yep. And it's funny because I don't know how much you've dealt with this, but there's always these questions about, well, can't AI help me answer those questions? Right. Can I go? And I feel like there is a piece of AI. mean, AI is a powerful tool and getting more powerful. I always say there's wisdom in the why, right? So AI may give you an outcome and tell you what, you here, here's a path that people have taken, but they, it's not personalized to your situation. It's not taken into account all the,

Jim Fielding (he/him) (16:19)
Yeah!

Yeah.

Mm-mm.

Jason (16:38)
things that may be occurring for your company, your team at this time, at this place in the role. So I always found that interesting with.

Jim Fielding (he/him) (16:44)
Mm-hmm.

I think

that's a yeah, it's a really that's a great point. Yeah, it's a tool I tell my my clients that of course you need to know what's going on in AI, you need to know what's going on in technology because it's impacting your business. But to your point, it's another input. It's another tool. And still at the end of the day, you have to blend that with your vision and your experience and decide the information that you get out of whatever tool you're using.

How are you gonna implement that in your situation?

Jason (17:12)
That's right.

That's exactly right. Well, ⁓ always. So you've worked with these major IP driven franchises, right? Disney, DreamWorks. How should a mid-sized business think about creating and managing its own IP?

Jim Fielding (he/him) (17:16)
Always. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I mean, I'm a huge fan of owning IP. Like I work with all different kinds of companies. mean, many people who own IP, many people who don't. I, you know, because of the first question you asked me in my bio, I am a fan of owning IP because I've seen the power of it. Like I've seen the power of it with customers, with clients, with partners.

It's a currency like owning that IP, owning that story is a currency. And and I think it owning your story, owning your brand, owning your IP, however you want to call it, is to me, it's a differentiator. It makes you unique. It's it's got tangible value. You know, we used to carry brand value on.

it was a line in our P and L, right? Because it was like brand equity, goodwill, exactly. I was just gonna say, many people call it goodwill. Some people on their P and L is called brand equity. And again, that's why I said earlier, when you're a big company like Disney, you're tracking all the IP you own, even if it's been sitting in the vault for 50 years, because if there's a way to capitalize off of it, you're gonna figure it out.

Jason (18:17)
It's almost like goodwill,

Jim Fielding (he/him) (18:41)
And I think Disney is the master of this because they have so many different ways. Broadway shows, movies, television, cruise ships, theme parks, stores, there's so games, there's so many different ways. But smaller companies also have a variety of ways they can leverage their IP. Even if they license that IP to someone else to do something with, right? But then that creates a revenue stream for you, a royalty stream.

I'm great with companies that own their IP or want to own their IP and figure out how to leverage it and how to capitalize off of it. But I also understand there's a lot of companies that the IP they own is maybe that their company brand. Like the IP they own is their company name and their brand name and like what they've created, especially like SaaS companies and things like that. Like they own tools or they own...

Again, that's their uniqueness, their differentiator, but I think it's critical to understand.

however you define IP, brand, IP, whatever, what do you really own and what can you do with it? Like I think it's, and for me, that's been my career. mean, and even, it's funny now, even as a solopreneur, you and I were talking about it, like when you write a book, when all of a sudden you start speaking and stuff, now I think about my own brand. And honestly, that is something I never really did. When I worked for Disney and...

DreamWorks and Fox, I was always thinking about their brands. And of course I was worried about my reputation and my credibility in the industry. And I wanted to be viewed as a good leader, but all of a sudden when you're a solopreneur or an entrepreneur and you're putting yourself out there on the speaking circuit or you're hosting a podcast or you're writing books, now it's about your brand, right? And I think about, and all of sudden I'm like very conscious of my LinkedIn and very conscious of my Instagram and.

that's been a big change for me the last five years is really thinking about my messaging and my uniqueness and my differentiators for the Jim Fielding brand. That's my brand. And I didn't embrace it at first, I'll be honest with you, Jason. At first I was all about the title of the book, right? And then I hired someone to help me with my website and I wasn't originally gonna do a Jim Fielding website. And they were like,

Jason (20:43)
Absolutely.

Jim Fielding (he/him) (20:57)
But Jim, that's how people know you. That's your brand, right? And so if you look at my website now, it's hijimfielding.com because I couldn't own jimfielding.com, somebody else owned that. But it took me a while, I'll be honest. It took me a couple of months to be like, gosh, that's my brand, you're right. And I had been doing it for princesses and Mickey Mouse and trolls and you know.

Bob's Burgers and Simpson's at the Fox, but now I had to do it for me. mean, and it's similar. A lot of the skills I used that I've learned all these years, but now it's about your brand. And so for a lot of companies, especially startups and smaller companies, that's really what it's about.

Jason (21:22)
⁓ Thank you.

Totally.

I completely

⁓ so especially coming out of the entertainment industry where they're getting challenged with AI and you know, how are they managing their IP both as you know, individual performers and then overall content. That's a big issue right now.

Jim Fielding (he/him) (21:43)
Ugh.

Mm hmm.

It's a big it's a big learning. Yeah. And again, yeah, it's a huge issue. It's a big learning. It's where I go back to authenticity. I again, I have some I worked for, you know, 30 years in the entertainment industry have so much respect for the writers, and the directors and the animators and the creators and

And again, and by the way, they've been using technology and tools for a long time. You when we went from hand-drawn animation to computer-generated animation, there was like a whole kerfuffle about that. But that's where I think like the brand and that kind of good housekeeping seal of approval is so important, especially in this time of AI.

And technology has been infecting our businesses my entire career.

retail, media, entertainment, technological advances. Think of streaming. of how we listen to music now. You and I still remember when we were buying out, now it's cool to buy an album, right? That's only choice we had. I had eight track tapes, right? Think about the life of us listening to music. 45s and 33s, eight track tapes, cassettes, right?

I was there, I was working at Disney when we went from VHS to DVDs. Like that was huge. Like, and the whole world was going to crumble down because we were going away from VHS to DVDs. By the way, the world kept going, kept going. Right. exactly. No, thank you. By the way, Disney, hello, business model. Disney was like the average person. The average person has 50 Disney movies. I'm telling you, we knew this.

Jason (23:10)
Yeah, I had to pay twice for the same movie for my kids. So thanks, Jim. ⁓

Jim Fielding (he/him) (23:25)
The average Disney family had 50 Disney movies on VHS that they would have to upgrade to CD, right, DVD. Think about that. 25 bucks a pop times 50 times the number of families. That was a strategy. How do we get people to strategically invest in their DVD library? Now, then it was, how do you get them to go from DVD library to Disney?

streaming, right? Disney, HD. That's technology, right? And, and leaders and managers and smart people have had to deal with those impacts for years.

Jason (23:59)
Totally agree, totally agree. ⁓ just moving on to the next question. So many of the folks that are watching listening, they're mid-market, they're kind of squeezed in that mid-market, right? So they have good product market fit. They're too big to be scrappy, but not big enough to throw money at problems, consultancies. What have you seen these mid-size operators do when competing with giants? So they were competing with you at some point, Jim, and now you're helping them.

Jim Fielding (he/him) (24:02)
Yeah.

Sure.

Mm hmm. Yes.

Yeah.

For sure.

Jason (24:27)
So what do you suggest? What do you see them do that can make a difference?

Jim Fielding (he/him) (24:32)
Well, I'm going to start to sound a little bit like a broken record, but it's like you study the big guys and you study the little guys, right? I think the people that are in the middle have an advantage because you try to hang on to that scrappiness and that nimbleness and flexibility from when you were small. You know, because it's like the problem with growth a lot of times is growth brings infrastructure and growth, growth brings.

processes and systems, but it also can slow down things. It can slow down innovation. It can slow down creativity. And I think the people who are in the squeeze middle, and I agree that they're there, when I advise them or I coach with them, it's about, well, what can you take from, many of them were scrappy and nimble and flexible at one point in their life, because many of these founders, founder led companies, they kind of grew up with the company. And it's like, okay, well, what can you take from that? And then,

What can you learn from the big guys? What can you learn from the Disney and the NBC universal and the Warner brothers or the biggest people in your industry, right? The apples, the Googles, the, because we used to always say, and you'll get this, Jason, it's much easier to turn a PT boat than an aircraft carrier, right? Like we used to say that even at Disney, right? Disney is, mean, Disney is a flotilla of aircraft carrier. It's not even just one, right? It,

Change at Disney is actually very slow because it has such huge ramifications, right? Huge, multi-billion dollar ramifications. So I think holding onto that scrappiness and nimbleness and flexibility from like the startup life or the founder life is actually an advantage because it's like, that's where I often say to, it depends on if my people understand boats or not that I'm working with, right? But it's like, it's about a PT boat.

is smaller and more nimble and can turn and can handle rough seas and all that kind of stuff, much easier than an aircraft carrier. And when you say that people are like, ⁓ yeah, right. And so, but it doesn't mean you don't learn from the aircraft carrier, right? I mean, the skill that I talk probably the most about with people I work about, I call it helicopter ability. I look for people with helicopter ability because I love helicopters because helicopters have the ability to hover.

at 3000, 10,000 feet and be strategic and hover, but when needed, they can swoop down on the ground and land and get tactical. And so I used to interview for people on my leadership team, looking for helicopter ability, asking for questions. Are they a helicopter? Do they have the ability to be a helicopter? Right? Cause and it's okay. Some people on a team, only have people that hover at the strategic level forever. That's fine.

Some people on your team are only tactical, that's fine. But I think in your leadership team, you need that helicopter ability, the ability to go up and down ⁓ and read situations. I literally with, yeah, with my, you have it? That's my term. Yeah. Yeah. No, I mean, my HR partners will tell you, they're like, God, Jim's looking for helicopters. Like they'd roll their eyes, right? I'm like, I don't think he's a helicopter. I literally would say.

Jason (27:17)
I think that's fantastic. I've never heard that term used that way, but I think it's fantastic.

No.

Yeah.

Jim Fielding (he/him) (27:36)
I didn't get a lot of helicopter, they'd like, God, okay. But yeah, and I look at the people now, because I'm at the age now, where a lot of my former people that I worked with, my alums, so to say, are running companies, are running big divisions. And the ones who are most successful, I would honestly tell you, Jason, were the ones who are the best helicopters, for sure.

It's like, it's, it's that same thing of, I, I listen, Jason, you and I talked about this, I think anybody that you're advising or coaching anybody that's in business right now, it is hard. There is a lot going on in the world. Like I think it's one of the most challenging periods I've ever seen in my life with the amount of change, the way the consumers changing the way the employees are changing the way competitions changing technology, we've talked about AI.

I think there's a lot of things, there's a lot of stimuli and input coming at these leaders. And they need to like drink it in and not panic and then figure out their action plan off of it. Because it is, there's a lot going on. Yeah, there's a lot going on. And that's okay. And it's okay to raise your hand and say, Whoa, there's a lot going on. I'm not sure what to do about it. That's when you hire Wisory That's when you bring in a coach. That's when you bring in an advisor because

Jason (28:32)
I think that's very smart advice. That's very smart advice.

Jim Fielding (he/him) (28:47)
I think the best kind of leader is the one who can raise their hand and say, I need help. It's okay. I don't know what to do. I need help.

Jason (28:51)
I totally agree. I think you're exactly right.

And there's strength in doing that too. Some people may view that as a weakness, but that's strength.

Jim Fielding (he/him) (29:00)
That's huge strength. No,

I think it shows humility and incredible confidence. Yep, I agree.

Jason (29:07)
Well, Jim, we went through our five questions. You passed with flying colors, no surprise. So thank you for that. I have a bonus question for you. So as folks want to interact with you on The Wisory what are the things that you would say, this is what I'm best positioned to help you answer?

Jim Fielding (he/him) (29:12)
⁓ of course. Yes.

Mm Well, a lot of your questions helped me on this. mean, I am best positioned to work with brands, IP holders for sure. Retail, experiential retail, media and entertainment obviously are my industry specialties. I spent a lot of time working in hospitality and travel and leisure. That makes sense because they're very related to kind of retail and service. And I think I'm

I'm known and I think my clients would say now, like people who are working on building their team, building cultures, being competitive in today's environment that we were just talking about, I think I'm a great advisor for that. I'm a great thought partner, that's an easier way to say.

I'd say for the most part, my sweet spot is consumer services, consumer facing companies.

Jason (30:13)
wonderful. Well, I cannot wait for our folks to engage with you the clients that we have. So very excited for that. Thank you for taking the time to share your wisdom today. Go Hoosiers. I'm gonna repeat but what an incredible time to be Hoosiers. Thank you, my friend. Great seeing you. Okay, bye.

Jim Fielding (he/him) (30:17)
I know. ⁓

Thank you. Yeah, thank you for caring. really appreciate. Go Hoosiers. Hoosiers.

Thank you. Talk to you soon.

Bye.