This podcast episode focuses on the insights William Johnson shared about the power of curiosity and genuine connection in building meaningful relationships within the tech community. During our conversation, Will talked about how growing up in a small town sparked his natural curiosity about people, helping him connect easily with those from all kinds of backgrounds. He highlighted how being truly interested in others turns every interaction into a chance to learn something new. Will also discussed finding the right balance between building community and driving sustainable business growth, emphasizing the importance of staying responsive to both members and partners. Overall, our discussion is a great reminder that curiosity and humility are key to strong leadership and community-building in today’s fast-changing tech world.

Takeaways:

• In every interaction, one can glean knowledge from others, regardless of their status.
• Maintaining openness to learning about people fosters meaningful connections and networking opportunities.
• Building a community requires collaboration and communication among diverse groups to ensure collective growth.
• The essence of effective leadership lies in promoting accountability and encouraging open dialogue among team members.

Will, thank you so much for. For being here.

You always are interviewing people, and now I get a chance to put you on the other side and interview and learn a little bit about who is William Johnson. So thanks for being here.

Hey, it's a pleasure. I love doing this.

So what I've loved about getting to know you, Will, is you're so approachable, despite you always being sort of limelight and front and center. So you allow conversations with anyone, and you are interested in people, and that, I think, is what makes you really stand out.

What do you think made you that way in your life?

How did you.

How did you become like that?

I think for as long as I can remember, I've just been really curious about people. And something that I learned, I would say, at an early age, is that everyone knows something that you don't know, right?

So no matter what interaction you have, if it's just with, like, a young person or an executive or something you just met, like, there's always something you can learn about them or something that they know about the rest of the world and that they're passionate about. So I find that, like, I'm always open to learning anything about them or whatever.

They know what they're passionate about, and I bring that everywhere I go. And, like, I grew up in a little town called Winchester. I was one of three black kids in the whole town, right.

And raised by a white mother who adopted us. That's like, a whole nother story. Maybe we'll get into that. Right? And so the other thing is, growing up, everyone in the community knew who I was.

And so the reverse almost became true, which was that I felt like I could go anywhere and people knew who I was. So I felt like, well, I guess I know them too, right?

So I could be at this grocery store, I could be at a hockey game in the little community, and I was just comfortable talking to anyone. And the other key thing there was I was always on my best behavior, right.

Because I couldn't get into trouble because it was too obvious whose kid I was in this small town. So growing up in Winchester, everyone knew who I was, so I was friendly to everyone. I always talked to anyone.

And I've just brought that with me everywhere I go.

I love that.

And do you think that.

How have you maintained that through your sort of rise in the Vancouver tech community? Like, isn't it challenging to always be in a conversation with people when you have a job to do?

Sometimes that, honestly, really is a challenge. Yeah.

Going out to an Event where I have an agenda and there's specific people I want to talk to and shake their hand and maybe build some relationships that are going to benefit the business that I work for. But there's four founders lined up who want to tell me about something that they're working on.

And so that happens actually on a pretty regular basis. And despite that, I'll always still make time to hear founders and talk to them about what they're working on.

And I've always found that whatever time that I give them or whatever insight or advice that I can provide or perspective that I can share, I feel like I get all of that back. And I feel like that's just been a cycle for me over the 10 years that I've been in Vancouver, working in the tech space and.

Will, you studied at Carleton? studied journalism. And even back then you were writing stories. What about your time in university tied into, I guess, your rise here in Vancouver?

I didn't study journalism. I. It's funny, I, I. No, no, no. I studied polysign.

But a lot of people think I studied journalism because I tried to get into the journalism program, but I was like a very average student. But I was very good at meeting people and networking and building connections and relationships.

And so I became very good friends with many, many people in the journalism department. So by the time I graduated, I might as well have been like, within the journalism school.

I remember actually at my convocation, when you get in the line and you're in your robes and everything like that, I didn't actually know anyone in my line, so I didn't know anyone from my program, but I knew many people from the other programs, especially the journalism program. And so what was the question, though?

How did that experience tie into your.

Career here in Vancouver? Oh, well, it's literally like the, the through line, I think for me is that I'm comfortable talking to anyone in any room.

And I, and I, like, I was already, I guess, just from my childhood, and then you just get better with practice. And so the, the link there is I was studying political science. I wanted in journalism.

The journalism school was like, no, your grades aren't good enough. So I literally went to the journalism department physically. Like, I went to the Charlatan, which is the student newspaper's office.

And I walked in just myself and said, hey, like, I want to learn how to do what you guys are doing. How does this work?

And an amazing woman there, a woman named Julia Johnson, who did her journals in the grid and went off to good Lawyer said, hey, like, welcome, come on. And we're going to assign you some stories and we'll see what you got, basically.

So I learned, like, reporting from journalism students, like, outside of our classes.

But the connection there to what I'm doing now is that I still feel comfortable walking into any room and talking to the first person I meet, no matter who they are or what they're doing. And that has taken me a long, long way.

So it sounds like being curious, humble, and frankly, just not afraid to walk in and shake someone's hand and say hello.

Yeah, like, the thing that I say to people at a networking event when they're thinking about, oh, they're too afraid to say hi to someone. Like, the line I typically say is, like, you, you are in this room for a reason. Right?

Either someone invited you or you had the courage to register and go to this event by yourself. Right? So you, you are in this room. You belong in this room just as much as the next person that's at this event.

And so I just like to remember that in your interactions.

I think that's so insightful because a lot of times when I'm working with students, they might not have that level of confidence. There might be on the other side, perhaps people with big egos that maybe make others feel small.

But you, despite your influence in the community, you always make people feel welcome at the events and in the community. So thank you for all the work that you've done. And I know that's what's always attracted me to spending time with the projects.

That you're working on. Hey, is, it's selfish. That's what I also tell people. Right? Like, I, I, it's fun for me, right?

And one of the coolest things I see just from networking and being in Vancouver over the last decade is meeting people when they were, you know, an associate or an analyst somewhere and they weren't like a big shop. But that doesn't matter. Like I said, I'm curious about people. So. And now they're all like, VPs and presidents or founders and CEOs of companies.

And so that's something I also tell a lot of younger people and students is like, just take the time to, like, have conversations with people and build relationships. Right? You don't. Who knows who these people are, right? So I will always just, I will always assume, you know, this is, like, an amazing person.

They're going to do a great thing. It'll be great to know them in five years. Like, that's how I think about People in my interactions, I think that's taking me a long way.

I think that says a lot about your leadership ability.

And that's really why we've built this podcast, is because I think young people are looking for real leadership in a world where there's so much distraction and misinformation. You've been known as someone who remembers small things in details about people.

How has that helped you in team building and helping you build a business? Your ability to remember details and people.

So, I mean, a number of things, right. I think that on the simplest level, it makes people feel special. Right?

You met someone six or five years ago, and then you see them again, and then you can ask them a question about what's going on in their life, right? So they feel seen. And I think that's helpful to see business development and sales and relationship building.

And then I think with managing teams and people again, this is not a new revelation, that when people know that you actually care about them, I think they're more willing to hear your feedback and that constructive criticism.

They're more willing to really take it and think about it, because I know that anything that I'm saying to them comes from a real place of caring, and I want to see them succeed. So the fact that I do remember a lot of stuff, like, little details, like most books, like, I'm really lucky.

Like, I can read a book and I can probably, like, flip through a page and say, like, here's where this quote is from a book. So that's like the type of memory I have, and I'm really lucky. But I try and do that with everything, right?

So, you know, one of my colleagues, Nicole, she's amazing. I hope she. She works with me forever. She sent me a link to a website maybe two weeks ago, and she's like, oh, hey, have you seen this?

Like, look at this cool innovation this other media company is doing.

And then I went back and found the Slack message from March when I had already sent her this thing, literally March, I said, I went back and found it and screenshotted it and I sent it to her. And I said, yeah, Nicole, they're doing some cool stuff.

Like, they're still doing some cool stuff.

Yeah, that literally happened, like, two weeks ago. I love that.

So you're basically like the Mike Ross.

Of journalism, I guess.

Yeah, let's. So let's. Let's switch gears, talk a little bit. Vtj.

I know you and Nicole do great work, and I enjoy partnering with you on events and being involved in the.

Community.

VTJ was nothing. It was just a conception that you basically came up with and ended up building.

There's a ton of media outlets that post content for the purposes of farming engagement. But VTJ was able to not only create engagement and grow, but be a trusted voice that people knew that you were sharing credible information.

How do you balance sort of organic growth and clickbait stuff with credible news? And how do you see that shifting in the media environment today?

Well, the Tech Journal is. It's interesting and it's not really interesting. Like, it's very simple, like how it came to be. Right.

It was initially just me sending an email to somebody, people saying, hey, there's a lot going on in the tech ecosystem. I think more people need to know about it. Where's the central place to find this information? Oh, it doesn't exist. I'm going to write it myself. Right.

So that's how it started. And the Tech Journal had sort of a few inflection points.

Like, I mean, they had like 50 inflection points and, you know, you can look backwards and connect the dots, right? So the one thing was we actually provided like, net new value. There were.

You could read a little bit in the Vancouver sun that it once had a digital reporter. Right. In the past there was Tech Vibes. Beta kit is national. They touch on Vancouver. And so we really wanted to just bring everything together.

And the churn with the Tech Journal early was very low. Like, and it still is very low. Like, people sign up and they find value and they don't unsubscribe. That's how it is.

And so we took it a bit further at the early days. First there was just like 10 people subscribed, and then there was like 20, then there was 50.

And one of the turning points where we've really added value was creating this, like, tech ecosystem guide. It's funny, I see people doing it now and I think like, oh, that's so funny. I made this like eight years ago. But it's cool.

There's new iterations of it. And it was just this list of like 150 organizations that were supporting technology companies and startups in the ecosystem.

And we gated it so it was like a lead magnet. You couldn't actually get it unless you subscribe to the Tech Journal.

So whenever I released that into the world, that was like one of the key points where people thought, oh, what is this newsletter? There are a lot of people that were already on it.

And then that introduced like a few hundred people to the tech Journal and then the growth just continued to grow organically from there. And then the Tech Journal, eventually me and the Tech Journal.

I'm fast forwarding obviously was Aqua hired by Overstory Media Group as a company that builds different media and community brands, Right. Another big one that people will know as the Georgia Strait.

Also the same company at Overstory, we invested heavily in paid growth, so actually advertised Tech Journal to broader audience. So that drove tens of thousands of new subscribers. That was another big thing.

And then the other big thing that really benefited us was holding in person events. And I think that's what really made the Tech Journal stand out from other different tech publications.

The fact that we were building community in real life and this was just off the back of COVID and people were very excited to attend events and be in person and network. Now there's honestly too many events, but whenever we were doing the events just postco, we were kind of the only ones in these regular events.

And so there was like a real hunger for that. So there was just like initially just like, you know, creating value, doing something that other people weren't doing. Right.

Then it was like, like using like a legion, like sort of tactic, right. Like creating a lead magnet that sort of drove organic growth.

Then through Overstory, like investing in paid growth, people underestimate like, well, like the value in that. Especially just for media organizations, that was key.

And then holding events and taking it just from information exchange to actually building community, that was really, really key.

And if you're like a creator and you're like listening to this few key things you want to do, if you're building like a newsletter or a media company, right. It's like you need to be entertaining people, right. You need to be like helping them make money. Right.

You need to be helping them like solve a problem or like the key thing is like, just like make them feel like part of something bigger than themselves. Right? Like there are a few key things. Yeah.

And you're, you're very good at that. I think the team members that I've seen that you brought on and coached and trained are typically very similar to you.

They're passionate, energetic, they, they seem to care. Now let's talk a bit about like membership or the community aspect of it.

What sort of feedback have you gotten from people who join the community and is there any kind of stories you can share about people that have been a part of the journey and some of the value they've gotten in terms of being a part of your. Your baby?

Yeah, honestly, people come to me all the time. And it's funny, I. I'm a bit embarrassed. Like, people thank me for stuff and I.

And I always say, you know, like, I did this for me and I'm glad that, you know, the intersection of my interest and curiosity overlap with what people need. Like, I'm very fortunate. Right. There's like a Venn diagram of things, right. And the tech journal sits in the middle and it's like what I want.

It's like what the community want and what's good for entrepreneurs. Right. And I'm lucky that there is the thing that connects all the dots here. Sorry, like people can't see. Well, I guess there is a camera here.

I want to show. Like, I got a message the other day and you can cut this out if it takes you long, but I literally got this message and it was so interesting.

This is from somebody I've never met this person. Hi, William. Just reaching out to say thanks for covering tech in Vancouver and helping build more of a community.

Having relocated here from Waterloo where there was a very strong tech community, I found that Vancouver doesn't have that same level of connective tissue. Your publication is one of the things that is helping move that in the right direction. Thanks for what you're doing. Cheers. Stephen. Never met Steven.

Right. So what a lovely message.

Well, I think that's a good note for anyone who's listening that if someone is positively impacting your life, tell them, because this is will. Hearing a message from someone he might not necessarily know, but it touches him and pushes him to continue to do what he's doing.

You talked about, I guess, turning points with etj. We talked about some of the growth story of the gated community. You talked about events.

What else kind of led to that Aqua hire with overstory that you were surprised by.

What was I surprised by?

Was there anything?

Well, I mean, the, the. The thing is, is like I would have been doing the tech journal no matter what, right?

And so I was running as like a small business, like kind of like half seriously. And so it was just really exciting for me. Again, that overstory came to me. Like they saw the value. They thought, hey, we love what we're doing.

We think we can invest in this and like really like turn this into a rocket ship.

And so again, the big takeaway there for me and I think for other people is just how important it is to actually, like work on things that you enjoy doing. I think other people can see that. And honestly, it just makes life better. Right.

If you're if you're spending your days and your time on something that you really care about.

Well, yeah. And we can always see your passion.

At the events, right?

Like, you're almost like a hawk. Like, you're paying attention, you're keeping people organized, which is. Which is really fun.

And I think all of us are ultimately are trying to build something that we're passionate about, whether it's at our place of employment or with our family or with our business.

And the other thing I would say I tell people this all the time, is you get a lot of credit just for executing stuff. Like, just like everyone has ideas. You get a lot of credit just for doing stuff. Right. The Tech Journal is not a revolutionary concept.

It was an email that summarized local tech news. But I did it, and then I told people I was doing it. And then all of a sudden, I'm this Vancouver tech guy somehow eight years later. Right.

It's not that special, but I did do something, and people talk a lot and, like, there's real value in just, like, doing work and then, like, letting people know, hey, I'm working on this. Like, that goes a long way. Actually. You get a lot of credit for just, like, executing on stuff.

You're an executor, there's no doubt about it.

But as you added people to the team, both pre acquisition and post acquisition, how do you find the right people and then who are the ones that have really helped and what are the common traits, I guess, among those people and why you have worked so well with them?

Some of it is that, yeah, you do need to find people who fit in a role that you need.

But the more important thing is when you find just generally good people, regardless of their skills and knowledge, is like, giving them the tools to, like, succeed and then just, like, getting out of the way again. It's very cliche, but that, like, is the honest truth. If you look at some of the people who worked at the Tech Journal.

So James Matthews was the first writer I hired, and we're like, very different people, but he's an incredible writer and he's passionate about a few different things. And he did an amazing job working in the Tech Journal. He wrote like, he did events, like he. He did a whole mix of things.

Another writer that used to work at the Tech Journal, and actually now he's the senior writer at Clio, which is amazing. So I'm glad that he's. Yeah. Off the greater things. Another writer, Allison Gakad, same thing.

I remember reading her blog before she worked for us And I read her blog on how. Oh, okay, well, we already know she can do the job, right? Who is she as a person? So I met her. She's lovely, right?

And so she's very passionate about climate tech and clean tech. And so she started working for the Tech Journal.

It was kind of like me and Kate, the former editor, said, well, we just need to let her do whatever she wants. What does she need to have, like, the most fun and do the best work that she is going to want to do? Right. And she was similar.

She just wrote great stories, she built relationships, she organized events from start to finish in Vancouver and in Victoria, and she was hired as a writer. Right. But this is something that's so passionate about this that she was willing to do more than her job was. And so it just.

It was just my job to say, okay, what do you need to keep running? Essentially? And that's how I think about everyone, right. Like, Nicole works for me now. It's just kind of like Nicole's actually like a mini me.

Like she's going to a room. She can talk to anyone, right. And. And so I just need to let her do that. Basically. I don't really tell her what to do.

She just kind of knows what to do. And so it's my job to be there when she needs support, but only then.

Well, you know what? James is a good example, right. Like, I think good leaders help uplift others in the community.

Right?

And so you provided an opportunity.

He flourished.

I love James as well. Had some great combos from him before he was a dad and looks like he's doing great as a dad.

But if you had to go back and change, perhaps a decision you made or how things played out with vtj, is there any one thing you would kind of call out and perhaps suggest.

And they missed you, by the way. I mean to. Like, I. I'm. I'm. I'm glad I left. I missed. So I, I left and then I went. I worked in. I worked at another place.

I learned a lot at this other organization I worked at. And now I'm back and I'm in a different, Completely different role.

And I think back now and I think, hmm, you know, maybe if I would have just like stayed there like another month, there might have been a hump that I could have gotten through. And there's like a year period where I think that like a lot of good work could have been done but I wasn't around.

There was still work, great work done at the tech journal, but that's just more like a really personal reflection of like, ah, you know, I was kind of upset. I was like, kind of like down and I thought like, oh, I'm like I'm, I'm very fortunate that I can quit a job.

Not everyone can actually just like quit a job. Right. And so I just left and then I just took some time off. Right.

And so I had thought back to like, oh, maybe if I would have stuck around, like this would be different, this would be different, this would be different. But then I also wouldn't be in the role I am now likely. Right. So I'm so glad that I took a, took a step back.

At the same time I do think about like what could have been had I not.

Because I had a meeting today with another partner and we were talking about some new tech journal initiatives and they were like, you were talking about it two years ago, Will. And I was like, yeah. But then I left. So now I'm only like getting to it now.

Well, I don't know if Apple would have been the same if Steve Jobs didn't leave and come back as well. So sometimes you need that time of reflection, both the company and the founder.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I'm happy to be compared.

To Steve Jobs and I will keep it going, man. Keep it going with vtj. You talked about this before. You're not just building a publication, you're building a community.

What does community mean to you and where do you think there's strengths and opportunities here in Vancouver?

Yeah, community is sort of what I said before, right. Which is being part of something that's just bigger than yourself. I guess that's like the simplest way I would put it it Right.

So I'm Will, tech writer or I'm Steve and I'm a front end engineer and I'm Julia and I'm a full stack engineer at X Company. Or I'm Mark and I'm a product manager at X Company.

But then I show up at this event and there's all these other people here interested in the same topics as me and they have the same problems as me and they're working on this cool project and it's like realizing that, right, that's like the magic, right, of a community and it's like, oh, wow, we can talk about this. And oh, we both worked at Microsoft and now we're working on startups.

And it's like connecting on all these different issues in our past and our history. Right. So that's like the community and Vancouver is really special in that it has like 500 different communities.

That's also one of Vancouver's biggest drawbacks is that there's so many different communities and they don't all do a really good job of talking. Right. And even with, like, the work the Tech Journal does, like, we, we're like a mix.

We're sort of like the umbrella for all of these different communities and sometimes actually hurts us. We can talk about that after. But there are a lot of different groups.

And because there are so many groups, they don't always have the same, like, message to share. Right. So you move to Vancouver from another city and you're trying to figure like, what's going on here.

And there's like a hundred different people who might tell you something different. Right. Or if you're like a policymaker in the government and you need to hear like, oh, what does the tech scene or the tech sector in B.C. need?

Well, there's like 50 people you need to talk to to get, like, a real sense of what's going on. I might have different things to say. And if you're the federal government, you just, you look over at B.C.

and you think, I'm just gonna leave those guys alone because they don't know what they want. Right. And so BC's left out of some of these, like, national conversations.

Right.

Like, we had Web Summit earlier this year, and there's a lot of talk about how other countries had more government leaders at Web Summit than Canada did, even though it was in Canada. Right. And so sometimes BC is left out of, like, a lot of key, like, national innovation conversations.

Anyway, that's, that is sort of reflected in Vancouver like, a lot as well. There's just so many different voices and so many different communities and they're not always talking.

So it's, it's, it's great in that there's like so many niche groups that are very passionate about specific topics, whether it's Web3 or Life Sciences or product or whatnot. But then no one's talking.

Yeah, it's a good point. Communities are stronger collectively. Together versus a ton of individual groups.

And on the west western side of Canada, we always have this issue where decisions are being made in Ontario, but ultimately we're an important part of the economy.

And so if we can't collectively come to a decision or cohesively share our thoughts with Ottawa, then you're right, we might just get ignored, which is not. It's not good for any of us.

No, totally. And like, I wrote a blog post about Web summit whenever it was announced. And I just said, like, we have all this attention on us.

The world is watching, everyone's coming here. It's like, what are we. What are we saying to everyone? Right.

And who is convening everyone and getting them in the same room to be like, who is Vancouver? What is Vancouver? What's bc? What do we stand for? I don't think it actually happened. So maybe we'll do better in year two and three.

Yeah, there was some political shift happening, so hopefully by next year, as a country, we're closer together and we can have someone as charismatic and diplomatic as yourself to bring everyone together for the next couple years of Web Summit.

But that.

I was talking with one of your friends, Mitch, recently, and he said your secret sauce in your career has been your charisma. How you're able to be charismatic but also still, like, humble and connect with people. What would you say to that?

Hey, I think I'm lucky that I genuinely, like I said at the beginning, am curious about everyone, so I can meet anyone and I'm happy to talk to them and learn about them and their story. And so I'm just lucky. And then the other part is that I'm also, yeah, confident enough to also, like, I'm curious.

And then I'm, yeah, I'm just comfortable. Maybe not confident, maybe it's just comfortable. I'm just comfortable being a room, you know, comfortable grabbing a mic.

And so that, that takes me a long way. And then I think, I don't know, the charisma or being on stage and all that, like, that also just comes with practice, right?

And I remember giving that presentation. I was very, very nervous. Like, heart was, like, pounding.

I remember specifically it was probably one of the first, like, professional presentations I gave. And I do remember that. And now, of course, like, I talk all the time in front of people and it's not even a thing anymore.

But it wasn't always like that. So practice does help.

Well, that's a good point.

So when you are about to step into a room with 10,000 people and speak, is there any, like, quirky things that you do to kind of prep and get ready for that? So you sound so polished?

I don't know if it's quirky. Often I'll go to the washroom and I will like, just sit on a toilet by myself, like in the washroom and soulless.

No, I. I just, I sit down and then I think about like the three or five points I need to get across. Because another thing I hate is notes. Like, I will never use notes. It's just. I just, I just don't like them. Right.

I want to know what my points are and then I want to talk about them naturally. So I don't like to read like, I was just in New York for a wedding.

I gave a like a 10 minute best man speech and all six speakers, like before me, all had their papers in front of them and they were going through their jokes. I'm like, it's not a good joke if you read it. Like, you got. You know what I mean? Like, you got. You got to get the timing right and everything.

And so I like having three to five points and I know what they are and I just speak to them and it's. And it's very natural. That's what I would recommend to other people, like just knowing your points but then talking naturally about the points.

And the other thing is, and there are lots of books on this, like, the most powerful thing, like, I think talking and getting people to pay attention is just like storytelling. That's like the key thing. If you can like, tell a good story, that's how you're gonna hold people's attention.

There's a really good book called Made to Stick. Made to Stick by Dan and Chip Heath. And like, so I recommend that for anyone, no matter what, what job, what career.

Like, you're in sales, you're a writer, you're finance or anything engineering. You want to sell an idea internally. Made to sick. Read that book. That's. That's a recommendation for me.

Made to Stick. Now, how do you take criticism? Now, obviously you have a fair bit of autonomy. I imagine your role as you come back in a senior leadership capacity.

But when you do get feedback, both from above or below, how do you handle it?

Typically, not personally at all. And so again, I'm lucky. Like, I am not my work and Again, I've had a long time now to, like, learn that.

And so we did a paid subscriber acquisition campaign a few months ago and didn't perform as well as the previous one. And I think my boss, Shannon, she's our coo, was like. She just, like, not thinking, was like, oh, yeah, like, that performs terribly. Right.

And I know people who would have, like, taken, like, offense to that, and, like, they would have been, like, down the rest of the day. And I was like, oh, yeah, Yeah. I didn't. Like, that's like, we need to tell the truth here. And so for me, I was like, well, let's look into why. Right?

It's not like I did it like, you know what I mean? And so I've just learned to not take things personally, or I guess it's the better way to put it is I realize that I am not the work.

People are commenting on the work. They're not commenting on me. The key thing is they hired me for the job. They trust me to go out and do better the next time. Right.

And that's, like, the thing people need to remember. You're in this role for a reason.

Yeah.

You're.

You're clearly a relationship person. And so you recognize that if there's some sort of critique, it's on how do we create a better experience as opposed to a personal attack on you.

I think for anyone who's listening, who's a growing leader, trying to be the best, showing up best for their teams, I think that's a good takeaway because I get feedback from my team, and.

Sometimes it's not always positive, and I.

Probably have opportunities to grow there as well, so.

And I also think that in your leader, right, Like, I'm a leader, we give people the feedback that we believe that they can handle. Right. And so I think that's the same with me. Right.

People will say something to me because they know, oh, well, Will's not going to take this the wrong way. Right. And I think that's what we also will do as leaders. Right? Like, we'll put someone in a position.

Maybe they're only actually 80% prepared for the role we're going to give them, but we know they can manage it. And then they're gonna. They're gonna grow as a person and as a professional, and then they're gonna be at 100%. Right?

We're not gonna wait till someone's 100% ready to put them in a role we should do when they're actually not ready and that's how they grow. Right. And so that's like, something I think about a lot. Yeah.

It's sort of like hiring for values, but train for skills. You can always teach someone something that you can't change who they are. So eight years since you started VTJ.

What would you say is your biggest leadership lesson throughout that time that you'd like to share with the audience?

Oh, is it a leadership lesson? Yeah, I. I actually. I guess it can be a leadership lesson. Right. It's.

For me, it's just like doing work, putting work out there, and then that's, like, the best way to get feedback from people. Right. I think that, like, has.

It's taught me so much, just with, like, work and, like, at different, even different companies, like, there's like, writing a newsletter and sending it into the word world, and then there's just, like, being in a meeting and saying, hey, I have an idea. Right? Like, you might be. You might have this idea in your head. No one cares. It doesn't matter. No one's heard it. It's irrelevant, right.

Until that's out into the world and you've said it and people have heard it, it's like, then you can start learning, right? You can start learning from other people around you. And I think people really appreciate that.

And so I think that anyone can take and apply that to any part of their work. It's like being public and accountable with, like, your ideas and your thoughts and your insights.

And the key thing is, like, there's a woman I mentor in New York, her name's Jasmine. She was talking about being in meetings and being like, ah, well, this person's a vice president and I'm not.

And it goes back to my comment about, like, being at an event. I'm like, you are in the room for a reason.

You wouldn't have been invited to this meeting if people didn't want to hear your thoughts and your insights and your ideas. And so I think you just have to, like, be public and vocal about, like, anything you're working on, no matter, like, what level you are.

That's because that's when you're going to learn the most from the people around you.

I think that's very insightful, particularly for a millennial demographic, because I think historically, leaders, there was a lot of decisions being made in sort of closed rooms and Then those were then projected onto everybody else.

Versus your leadership style is let's bring everybody together, share your thoughts publicly, see what the sentiment is, and then consensus will move the needle, which I think will likely lead to a better decision ultimately, as opposed to the wrong decision being made by a small group of people and they find out later that, oh, actually that was the wrong decision.

And something else about me, and this is another thing. It's like, I am happy to steal ideas if they're good. Right.

Can we call that R and D?

Yeah.

Rip off and duplicate.

Okay. I actually haven't heard that. Yeah. Someone has a good idea in my company or outside of my company, and it's good. Like, I want it. Yeah.

I'm like, oh, of course. That's obvious. Why wouldn't we do that? And especially in media, right? Like, there are. There are no new ideas, and media is too small to not.

You see something you have and it's good and it looks like it's working. It's like, oh, we got to test that. Right. But you can apply that to anything.

That's another thing I would say just to young people generally, or leaders at any level. Right. Someone who's a junior person has a good idea, great. Someone who's old and whatever has a good idea, great. It's a good idea. Let's take it.

We want to try that. So don't be possessive about your own ideas, and then don't be the type of person who rejects ideas because they weren't yours. That's stupid. Totally.

The best ideas will come out of. Out of larger groups.

Typically, if you're willing to listen to them and people are comfortable sharing their credence, you provide that space for them to share. Businesses, ultimately, the goal is to make money.

You talk a lot about community in building up vtj, but how do you balance for entrepreneurs that are maybe considering building a business, how do you balance, you know, dollars and cents and. And community? And how do you bridge those two.

When it comes to, well, business? Like, the key thing is like, are you providing something valuable enough that people want to pay for it? Right. Yeah.

And are you making more money than you are spending? Right. It's. It's very easy. It's actually very hard. But the concepts are very easy. Right. And so for us, that's.

We just have to be responsive to what people in the community want and to what other people who are paying our bills want. So it's individual readers and people who are attending events, and then it's our partners, like You. Right. And we have to. Yeah.

The word, I'll say it again, is responsive to what the needs of those people are. That's our number one priority. Right. So it's. Yeah, it's like the Venn diagram.

It's the intersection of, like, here's what we want to be doing, what we think provides value, and then what we're hearing from our partners and our. And our readers. Right. So we need to make those things link up.

So if people haven't met you before, haven't heard from you, where's the best place for them to find you? Other than at a BTJ event? Where can they connect with you?

Well, honestly, I. I always tell people to message me on LinkedIn, and then I message people on LinkedIn saying, Hey, I don't really check my LinkedIn messages, so here's my email address and here's my phone number. And I think that's another thing. Like, I don't want to compare myself to who's the old Toronto mayor that. Like, Doug Ford, who's the one who died.

Oh, his brother was Rob. Rob Ford. Yeah. So Rob Ford, give everyone his number, like, so you could be anyone and just, like, call him up. So I'm kind of the same.

Like, most people in Vancouver that have met me have my number and I just, like, hand it out. It's like, text me. That's just the easiest way because I get too many emails. My.

Like, I've got, you know, 200 unread LinkedIn requests because I'm just never going to get through them. But if I meet you at an event and this is for anyone listening, just say, like, hey, let's exchange the numbers.

And I will always do that, and I'm happy to connect with people that way. I love it.

So you got to come to VTJ events. You can get connected to Will and chat with him.

That's perfect. Well.

Well, thank you very much for joining for the first A List podcast.

This has been really insightful for me and, yeah, it's been interesting to see your growth, and I look forward to continuing to support VCJ and all the.

Work that you do. Hey, thank you so much for your support and thanks for having me on. The show. Was a pleasure. And I'm. Yeah, good luck on the rest of these.

I'm looking forward to listening.

Yeah, thanks a lot, Will.

Yeah, cheers.