January 8, 2025 • 37 mins
In S3, Ep. 2, innovator and social entrepreneur Jessica O. Matthews, the self proclaimed "love child" of Bill Nye the Science Guy and Beyoncé, explores the power of innovation as a lifestyle, emphasizing how embracing creativity and a growth mindset can lead to personal and professional transformation. She shares stories from her journey, including challenges faced while developing innovative solutions and lessons learned from overcoming obstacles. Through candid discussions on topics like imposter syndrome, leading through uncertainty, and the importance of radical transparency, Jessica encourages listeners to take bold action, believe in their abilities, and create lasting impact by continuously innovating in all aspects of life.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:01):
Susan MacKenty BradyAre you ready to become the best version of yourself? I'm Susan MacKenty Brady. Join me on the Better Understanding podcast. In each episode, I'll bring you inspiring stories from remarkable leaders who embody intellectual humility and compassion while also driving results. Together, we'll explore new ways to live, lead and work with one another more effectively. If you're ready to embark on a transformative journey towards impactful leadership and personal growth, this is the podcast for you.
(00:33):
Susan MacKenty BradyJoin us and let's start cultivating understanding, teamwork and connection. Today. Welcome to the Better Understanding Podcast. Today's guest is a prominent thought leader, CEO and trailblazer. Jessica O. Mathews is the founder and CEO of Uncharted, a New York City based sustainable infrastructure company. She is also known as an innovator and social entrepreneur and trailblazing energy advocate. Since its launch in 2011, Uncharted has delivered solutions that have supported over $8 billion in sustainable projects and government programs.
(01:12):
Susan MacKenty BradyJessica is a Harvard graduate, currently serving her third term on the Department of Energy's Electricity Advisory Committee. She has secured $17 million in funding from investors, including former and current NBA stars Magic Johnson, Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony. Early on in her career, at just age 19, she invented Soccket, an energy generating soccer ball that reflects her vision for a better world.
(01:39):
Susan MacKenty BradyJessica We couldn't be more excited to have you join our Better Understanding podcast. Welcome.
Jessica O. MatthewsThank you for having me.
Susan MacKenty BradySo let's get to know each other. First of all, I've heard you on more than one occasion refer to yourself as a blend of Beyoncé and Bill Nye the Science Guy, which I just think is fabulous. And I'm very intrigued by this combination. Tell us why you identify with these two individuals in particular.
(02:04):
Jessica O. MatthewsOh, my gosh. Thank you for that question. So I specifically say that my goal in life is to be the love child of Beyoncé and Bill Nye the Science Guy. I think that distinction is important because I'm essentially like the Jon Snow. Like, I don't think I'm a sanctioned offspring. And it's because in many ways, I think when people think about Beyoncé, despite the fact that she is so incredibly hard working and a visionary in her own right, I have a poster behind me that says everybody wants to be Beyoncé, but nobody wants to put in the work.
(02:42):
Jessica O. MatthewsRight. And they often would never consider Bill Nye the science Guy in the same vein. Again, this is an individual who in many ways was one of the reasons why I fell in love with science. He made science attainable and tangible and cool. And he worked so hard at communicating not just what science could be, but how we all could be empowered by science.
(03:10):
Jessica O. MatthewsAnd so when I think about the two, it's first and foremost just starting to get people to think about those two things, not just in one room, but in one body, because there are a lot of people who are looking at Beyoncé and they're not looking at Bill Nye. And there are a lot of people who are looking at Bill Nye and not looking at Beyoncé.
Jessica O. MatthewsAnd I think that's creating an unnecessary division in the world of of people, especially women who want to feel beautiful, sexy, powerful and hard working, but want to drive a narrative of innovation and science and everything that they do. I also think that it's really important for me to always give life to both those sides of me. When I was growing up, I was maybe more Bill Nye than I was Beyoncé.
(04:01):
Jessica O. MatthewsIt's honestly easier to be into science than it is to attempt to look good the way Beyoncé does, but it's also, I think in saying that mostly in jest, it's just a reminder to me that I'm more than one thing. And I think that as especially as women, the number one thing at the core of how we choose to create in our world is to recognize that you're more than one thing.
(04:26):
Jessica O. MatthewsAnd when you lean into the fact that you're more than one thing, I think that opens up everything that you could be. And most importantly, it opens up the extent to which your destiny will be more than what you might plan.
Susan MacKenty BradyI'm so glad you said the more than one thing. We've been talking about authenticity and how it's our competitive advantage and how being our whole selves in environments that are accepting really matters because we can be a collection of seemingly opposite things. So I'm so glad you raised that. You've been described as someone who has a disruptive technological mindset.
(05:02):
Susan MacKenty BradyI mean, I think you are a walking, talking, disruptive technology just based on how you talked about Bill Nye, the Science Guy, and Beyoncé. What drives this passion in you and how do you inspire others to come along with you?
Jessica O. MatthewsSo I believe that innovation is a lifestyle and it just happens to be a lifestyle that I am obsessed with, that I love. It's just and if you view it not as something you need to do at work, not just something you need to do when there's a problem, but just in the way that you see the world.
(05:33):
Jessica O. MatthewsOne, I think it's something that will make you feel more fulfilled in everything that you do. I also believe that something that's going to make everything feel more like there's light versus darkness because you're constantly seeing everything not through rose colored glasses, but through the perspective of, well, maybe there could be this. You're not just accepting the world as it is.
(05:59):
Jessica O. MatthewsYou are giving yourself permission to constantly dream about what the world could be and to put yourself in the position to be part of that creation. Right? It's kind of a two part thing. I just believe that that's just a better way to live, right? Like, that just seems more fun than sitting down hoping something will be or dealing with something.
Jessica O. MatthewsIt's empowering. It's engaging, and it's fun and exciting. And then to that extent, you give yourself permission to not just accept the world as it is a dream about what it could be. And I think more importantly, you empower yourself to be part of that creation and that's just, in my opinion, a better way to live. A better way to approach whatever you're doing, whether it's personal, whether it's professional, whether it's a side gig.
(06:48):
Jessica O. MatthewsI just find that that's a happier place for me. So I would say that in accepting that that's not just accepting, but being incredibly excited that that is a perspective, that that is a lifestyle that I want to have. I think that day in and day out, it's it's less about inspiring myself to be an innovator and just choosing to innovate versus what I believe the alternative would be is wait for something better to happen and feel disempowered.
(07:21):
Jessica O. MatthewsYou know, I think where this came from, the first person that always comes to my mind, and perhaps this is cliché, is my mom. I used to tell people that she's my favorite inventor, even though she has no patents, simply because I think she was just very good, especially when I was younger at finding a path if a door closed in some way.
(07:44):
Jessica O. MatthewsAnd it's quite ironic because my father technically was a scientist and he's a doctor of science. Yeah, a technologist as well. His his Twitter handle and his social media handles are IQ breeder, which I can't even tell you the hilarity of what this man had in his mind when he sat down and said, I know I want to call myself IQ breeder.
(08:10):
Jessica O. MatthewsI'm a scientist. My mom's on even on social media. And yet I'm saying my mother, because any time I brought her problem, she was always focused on saying, I believe that you can find a way. I believe that you can fight and find a way. And I think that when you also recognize that innovation, innovation, yes, brings hope, right?
(08:34):
Jessica O. MatthewsIs this lifestyle that makes things more hopeful and more happy. But the reality is that the day to day of innovation is often a fight. Innovation is a fight. Beyond my mother and her influence. The key for me in driving and pushing in really hard spaces is that I have to find my fight and I have to take it personally.
(08:55):
Jessica O. MatthewsRight? How do you win a fight if you feel like you're the smaller person in the fight? If you feel like you're less experienced, if you feel like you have less skill, less resources. Well, you need to take it personally. And whoever takes that fight more personally, they're the one with the edge. And so whether it's looking at my family in Nigeria and seeing not only when they did not have access to electricity and I felt like they should have had access to it, seeing that my grandfather or my uncle and my aunt, who is younger than I am right now, seeing that they lost their lives prematurely because of something I believe should be
(09:31):
Jessica O. Matthewsa human right. Seeing girls in refugee camps on the border of Syria and Jordan not able to play with our soccer ball just because they're girls and because in the camps they said, Oh well, life is so hard. These girls are too tempting to the boys, so they're not allowed to play outside. So the boys are outside playing with the soccer ball and the girls don't get to play.
(09:55):
Jessica O. MatthewsAnd deciding I was going to take that personally. And that's why we created an energy generating jump rope. I find that at every step, if you find your fight, if you take it personally, that's the little spark that just begets innovation. And if you do that consistently enough, innovation just becomes part of your lifestyle.
(10:16):
Susan MacKenty BradyThat you're talking to somebody who's founder. So I posited as love, but it's really a fight. It's a fight to bring men into the work of advancing women. I want to talk about socket. I want to talk about your jump rope. Can you tell our listening audience about your inventions and about how these innovations came to be? You just told us about the jump rope, but start with socket.
(10:40):
Jessica O. MatthewsSure. So the first fight that I decided to get into and I agree, it's sometimes people are like, oh, gosh, fighting that's so violent. Why are you using that world word? And I'm like, you know, you can fight in very different ways, especially as women. It's a mistake to assume that just because we're not in a full out brawl, that we're not fighting.
(11:02):
Jessica O. MatthewsBut I sometimes think that that word, while it feels aggressive, which we won't get into all of the nuances of using that word as women either. I do think that sometimes it is the best word to speak to how hard innovation is and how relentless it can feel.
(11:23):
Susan MacKenty BradyIt's evocative and it's effective.
Jessica O. MatthewsYes. Yes, exactly. And so for me and again, I wouldn't say initially saw it this way at this age, the socket started as a class project. I was in my sophomore year at Harvard and I was studying psychology and economics. But I always, again wanted to be an inventor, and I was looking for opportunities to invent and create things.
(11:50):
Jessica O. MatthewsAnd so I took a class called Idea translation effecting change through art and science. And I remember thinking, okay, cool. This is, you know, is in the engineering school. It seems to be, though, a class for non engineers. That's good. And I remember thinking, okay, I don't know if I'm an artist, but I do think I know what's beautiful, right?
(12:11):
Jessica O. MatthewsAnd however you would define that and you know, my mother's side of the family there all art is my mother went to art school, all of that. And they said, well, I don't know if I'm a scientist again. My father is.
Susan MacKenty BradyThe scientists say you were literally birthed by an artist, right? Yeah. Yeah. I love it.
Jessica O. MatthewsI do know that the the definition of science is the study of life. And I think, again, people don't realize that if you're living, you're halfway there to being a scientist. We don't need to kind of cut ourselves out of things. And so I took the class and they said, Hey, you know, what's a problem you want to solve that kind of melds art and science?
(12:46):
Jessica O. MatthewsAnd I thought back to the time I would spend in Nigeria. I'm a dual citizen of Nigeria in the United States. Most of the time my family would spend the summers in Nigeria, my father for work primarily spends most of his time in Nigeria. And I remembered in particular when I was 17 years old, I was in Nigeria for my aunt's wedding.
(13:10):
Jessica O. MatthewsAnd as expected, we lost power in Nigeria. Especially during that time, we would lose power several times a day. It didn't matter if you were in the bustling city of Lagos or if you're in the village, right? In addition, it wasn't even a socioeconomic issue. It was really an infrastructural issue that was masquerading as socioeconomic because people pay more per kilowatt hour for the diesel fuel in their diesel generators than people often even pay here for their energy in the U.S..
(13:40):
Jessica O. MatthewsAnd so, you know, I remembered we we lost power. We brought in the diesel generator just to kind of keep the festivities going and I remember the fumes were just really bothering me. Normally, I'd be fine, but this time the fumes were just really bothering me and I started to feel kind of nauseous. And I turned to my cousins, who were just young men, honestly, all engineers in their own right.
(14:04):
Jessica O. MatthewsAnd I said, Hey, I feel sick. And it was what they said. That was kind of the first kick in this kind of two part kick for me, starting my career in this way. They said, Don't worry, you'll get used to it. And I remembered thinking, Get used to what exactly? We know that this is horrible for the environment.
Jessica O. MatthewsWe know that living with a kerosene lamp is like smoking two packs of cigarets a day. So this is killing us. And how can you guys who are all engineers, young men, and you see the whole world is your oyster. You're not telling me. Gosh, yeah, you're right. This is horrible. I wish we could do this. I wish we could do that.
(14:43):
Jessica O. MatthewsYou're basically telling me that the best way to solve this problem is to pretend like it's not happening and get used to it. And 17 year old me. Bill Nye. Not yet Beyoncé me. Really could not accept that as the way I should view the world. Right. Going back to this innovation lives lifestyle that felt icky that felt like, you know when you're only when you're 17, you're like you see the whole world in front of you and you're like, So I have to spend the next how many decades just dealing with it, just letting this thing kill me.
(15:19):
Jessica O. MatthewsAnd so I didn't know what to do at that time, but I knew it really bugged me. Fast forward several months. I'm in my senior year of high school and my family had one of those years that I think every family has. It just felt like a bad luck year. And my mother ended up losing that year. Her brother in law, the father of those cousins I mentioned, her father and her baby sister, who was younger than I right now.
(15:50):
Jessica O. MatthewsYeah, all in one year. Oh, and I guess going back to my mom right. I do believe that there's only so many times you can see someone cry before you say, you know, I can't accept that this is what life is. It might be exhausting to to keep wanting to fight and have the ability to create a better world than this.
(16:10):
Jessica O. MatthewsBut I can't just sit with this. And I remember thinking about each of those individuals and I remember writing, I can't cure Death, but can I fix life? It's a ridiculous thing to write at the age of 18 on your notepad, because I remember thinking, it's not just that these individuals passed away prematurely. It's not just that maybe they had access to reliable infrastructure, that their lives would have been extended.
(16:37):
Jessica O. MatthewsIt's that when they took their last breath, they probably thought the same thing that my cousins thought. They probably thought, Well, this is just what it is. You got to deal with it. That's it. And at that moment, I told myself that I would be comfortable dedicating my entire life to addressing that. And that was not okay. I knew that, but I didn't know how I would do that.
(16:58):
Jessica O. MatthewsBut I was already starting to look for those things. So now jump back to this class I'm in and I'm like, this is something I want to address. I've been waiting for the class to do this. Okay, well, what is art? What is science? I'm going to lead into everything around you in the way that you're seeing it, what have I seen?
Jessica O. MatthewsHow can my observations be the bank for my innovation? And I thought to the times when my cousins were very hopeful and very powerful and very passionate about what they thought they could do in this world. And it was when they were playing soccer, my cousins were are, I would say, average to below average at sports. They hate it when I say this, but these are facts.
(17:41):
Jessica O. MatthewsThey're not they were not that good. And we're not so amazing at soccer. That is like, oh my gosh, yeah. But that's when they had the bravado to believe that they could do insane things. Yes. That's when also they also had the the freedom to try and not fear failure. And so when I would see my cousins betting that they could do some sort of thing that they saw Beckham do or something that Pele used to do, and nine out of ten times they failed to do it.
(18:09):
Jessica O. MatthewsBut one out of every ten times they did it. I was like, That's what I want to capture that psychological headspace of being willing to try and fight and push. And so the soccer was actually meant to be a psychological innovation first and foremost. I'll tell you everything about me. It wasn't meant to be a ball that could power a whole house.
(18:30):
Jessica O. MatthewsIt was meant to be a tool that would get people to think out of bounds, that would get people to begin this path of the innovation lifestyle. And the first prototype was a hamster ball with the shape, the charge flashlight, like one of those clear plastic hamster ball. Yeah, the take the church flashlight in the, you know, dorm room rolled it back and forth, put on the light and said, yeah, this is a thing.
(18:55):
Jessica O. MatthewsAnd before you knew it, I was sketching. I was in manufacturing facilities, you know, around the world. And we ended up distributing over 50,000 units to different nonprofits. And I'm actually really excited. We should be about to sign a partnership with this global toy sport company to relaunch the product for the World Cup in 2026. So.
(19:17):
Susan MacKenty BradyOkay, that's just every kind of bad ass. I don't know if I'm allowed to say bad ass on my own podcast, but it is just totally awesome. You make innovation sound elegantly sort of simple. In “Arrive and Thrive,” my coauthors and I wrote a chapter about inspiring a bold vision and we talk about what is vision? Well, it's seeing a problem and seeing some opportunities to that problem. That starts there.
(19:44):
Susan MacKenty BradyAnd your story really brings that home. What I'm wondering, though, is what gets in the way of the simplicity of seeing something that needs to be better and wanting to do something about it. In everyday leadership life as you as you go around and work with different groups and meet with people to inspire them, what do you see?
Susan MacKenty BradyGet in the way.
Jessica O. MatthewsTwo sides of the same coin. Imposter syndrome and ego. That's it. People will say it's resource. Oh, I don't have enough resources. They're not right. I want to see that gets in the way. I think that just, you know, if you think about this like a gantlet, like a gladiator, I mean, I keep going back to a fight.
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Jessica O. MatthewsI have been boxing for ten years.
Susan MacKenty BradyI was going to say, are you a kickboxer ?
Jessica O. MatthewsYou know what I do? I'll take one quick detour. I'll bring it back. Okay. Let. We made the energy generating jump rope. I was like, okay, I'm not going to get good enough at soccer. The demo that I have to get better at jumping rope. I wasn't good at jumping rope. I found this two time Golden Glove female boxer named Jen Lopez, Jennifer Lopez, Puerto Rican from Jersey, different J.Lo.
(20:46):
Jessica O. MatthewsAnd I was like, Can you teach me how to jump rope? And she's like, Yeah, but I also have to teach you how to box. That was 12 years ago. And now I can jump rope in stilettos, I can box. And it doesn't also hurt that in 2014, Muhammad Ali gave me the award for Confidence about a year and a half before he passed away. So.
Susan MacKenty BradyWhich is saying something.
Jessica O. MatthewsI wasn't that...
(21:08):
Susan MacKenty BradySo not everybody can jump rope in stilettos, so I can't even. Okay.
Jessica O. MatthewsBut bringing it back. So.
Susan MacKenty BradyImposter syndrome and ego.
Jessica O. MatthewsTwo sides of the same coin, right? Some people will say resources, but all resources really do is it kind of dictates the the bounds of the field that you're playing. Right. How much time do you have, who you have to work with? But sometimes I would actually say that too much capital, too many resources, too many people is just as bad, if not significantly worse, than having less resources, less people, especially given what you can do now with AI.
(21:48):
Jessica O. MatthewsSo it's not actually resources that's a scapegoat. It's a it's don't get me wrong, it can be a pretty windy, crazy road depending on your resources. But that's not it at all really comes down to imposter syndrome or ego. So let's talk about imposter syndrome. If you do not believe that you can do something, perhaps more importantly, you do not believe that others believe that you can do something.
(22:15):
Jessica O. MatthewsAnd even worse, you don't believe you deserve to even try. Where are the longer that I kind of exist and engage in the world, the more than I'm like, Wow. At least 75% of the world's problems are still problems because the majority of our planet believes that.
Susan MacKenty BradyIt's an epidemic.
Jessica O. MatthewsSusan - Snap. An epidemic.
(22:37):
Susan MacKenty BradyYeah. My first book was about mastering your inner critic because so many women don't feel good enough to even speak up. Never mind have the audacity to go do it.
Jessica O. MatthewsThank you. Okay, so that's that's one side. And then though, you do have this nasty thing called.
Susan MacKenty BradyEgo self-righteous indignation.
Jessica O. MatthewsWith an ego.
(22:59):
Susan MacKenty BradyI love your words.
Jessica O. MatthewsSo, you know, you have this. There's a couple sides. One is part of innovation is one, recognizing that you could do everything right and still get it wrong. And being comfortable with the concept of the pivot. And if you are unwilling to pivot and that could be a pivot in the direction of what you're building or can be a pivot in your understanding of what role you should be playing in that innovation if you are stubborn.
(23:27):
Jessica O. MatthewsI'm speaking from personal experience, by the way, on both sides of this. So just so everyone knows, if you're stubborn there, it's not going to work, you're not going to grow, you're not going to achieve impact. And both require reflection, not just about the world you're in and the environment you're in, but it really is about self-reflection. It's about how you view yourself.
(23:51):
Jessica O. MatthewsHow do you have that balance of believing in your voice, believing in your vision, believing in your perspective, but also having the humility to know that it's not about being right or wrong, or the only one or perfect, that everything it's almost unconditional respect for just your existence in that space and the value you bring to it. And that for women is really, really, really hard.
(24:18):
Jessica O. MatthewsProbably for people, let's just say for people, but especially for women who are achieving more smart, who feel like I'm going to do twice as much and I'm going to show all you people what I can do and this and that. It's like we're not given space to just be. And I will say I have so many amazing male allies and counterparts, but there are quite a few of our male counterparts that truly believe that just their existence in the room is the prize for everyone.
(24:44):
Jessica O. MatthewsThey say three random words and they're like, Congratulations for listening to me and they're going to take a nap. And they feel good about themselves. And they still believe that they're they call themselves innovators. I want to be very clear. I will not say any names, but yeah.
Susan MacKenty BradyYeah. So you know what's so fascinating? The core of our institute's philosophy is generating a working world where more humans are leading from their best self. And at the core of our best self is respect. But we define it as when your strengths and talents come together with where your call to add value to others, which comes together with what brings you joy and vitality and gives you energy.
(25:20):
Susan MacKenty BradyCan you share a story of when you felt you were leading from your best self So you're not playing it small, not feeling good enough, and you're not playing it too big, Like you got big ego and you want to you know, you're better than everybody. You're you're you're writing right where you just described once last time you were leading from your best self.
Jessica O. Matthews2020, the pandemic. So one, I think that especially as a woman of color founder, I think that I've often been in a situation where it feels like I have to carry £50 weights while my counterparts are carrying £10 weights and we're walking the same path. The pandemic put £100 waves in everybody's hands. It doesn't matter if your green doesn't matter what's going hundred pound weights.
(26:05):
Jessica O. MatthewsAnd in that situation, I did definitely feel as if just because of what I had already been through, you know, who do you think is going to do well in that situation? The person who's been carrying £50 weights versus can carry £10 weights. So I'm like, this was heavier, but it was only twice as heavy, not ten times as heavy.
Jessica O. MatthewsBut I think being more specific, I remember when I had to really think about how to lead a team in incredible uncertainty. It's one thing to innovate in terms of uncertainty is having to lead during times of incredible uncertainty. And I remember coming in to my team were all online after, you know, I think it was like March 9th or 10th I won.
(26:44):
Jessica O. MatthewsI was because this was on like Women's Day, right? So I did a talk for International Women's Day. Yeah. And for being on a flight on March nine, coming back from Canada. And it was empty. And I was like, I looked around, I called my husband. I was like, Babe, this is real. And he was already my husband's a weird prepper.
Jessica O. MatthewsSo he had already in February was like, I see something.
Susan MacKenty BradyYou got the Purell, you got the carton of Purell from.
(27:05):
Jessica O. MatthewsCostco, had a mask, and he was he was just my boyfriend at the time, actually. Now that I think of it and but then he ordered so many supplies in February to my home that I was like, your husband material. This is I I'm going to lock this down. So anyway.
Susan MacKenty BradyPreparation.
Jessica O. MatthewsSix months later, engaged, I was like, we're a gospel innovation lifestyle focused on target, you know, so so I remember seeing that. And then going into my, you know, team and seeing that no one knew anything and being very concerned that because, you know, I had a wide span of ages of people working for me and really saying, wow, this is dangerous, we need to kiboshed.
(27:45):
Jessica O. MatthewsAnd so I told everyone, grab your stuff starting tomorrow. We are remote. And I made that decision early so we had no one on the team that got sick. We had no issues. And I remember having to get on to the zoom and say, okay, what am I telling my team? And I don't know anything. And I think that the best thing that I did, that perfect balance, right, you say, is that I said, Hey, team, the only thing I can be certain of is who I am, why I'm here, and that my goal is to create the best situation for all of you.
(28:19):
Jessica O. MatthewsAnd I believe the best way for me to do that is to be hyper transparent. I will tell you when I don't know. I will tell you when I'm scared. I will tell you when I'm hopeful. And I will create space not just for our work, but I will create dedicated space for our personhood. We will starts every Monday talking about the things that normally we feel like we need to leave at home, that we need to leave away from work.
(28:50):
Jessica O. MatthewsWell, we're all at home now, so it's an insane thing for me to ask you to pretend like you're just work person. You're working from home, your life is behind your life is around you. We're going to create space for that because there will be times when we can all bring our best selves because of what's going on.
Jessica O. MatthewsAnd we all need to have that awareness. We all need to have that humanity for each other. And then we will build from there. And I think that my leadership style of radical transparency and asking people to bring their whole selves and their personal problems to work again, it can work within a team about 10 to 15 can't work for perhaps larger groups, but ideally, you know, managers can, you know, the two pizza rule, you have a kind of subgroups you can work with, but it resulted in us becoming a stronger team than we ever had.
(29:45):
Jessica O. MatthewsIt resulted in us completing a significant right of way Smart City project during the pandemic that Fortune 100 companies have failed to do, that Google failed to do in Toronto. We were able to get a version of that done in upstate New York. It resulted in us being able to achieve one of our highest years in revenue than we had done since the energy generating sports product Side times.
(30:13):
Susan MacKenty BradyA direct correlation to value, impact and results.
Jessica O. MatthewsYeah, and at the end of the day I said, Hey, our presence and our perspective and our aligned mission, that's why we're here. But again, for me personally, I will not pretend that I will not be asking you to pivot. I will not pretend like I'm going to get this. All right. Yeah, pretend like I know everything. But I also know that I can still lead you.
(30:41):
Jessica O. MatthewsDespite all of that.
Susan MacKenty BradyIf I may. You modeled it and it was the great collision. I think the pandemic for many, many working adults was the great collision of human resource, like colliding with the human being. And each of us and some leaders got this right and honored the human being and some didn't. And it sounds like your approach, which I love radical transparency allowed for an opening and a connectivity and you kind of clued us in to how you help people.
(31:12):
Susan MacKenty BradyIt sounds like you set the stage for the expectation of pivoting. Did I get that right?
Jessica O. MatthewsYes, That we would have to be nimble. Yeah. Okay. If you have to do anything within a phase of uncertainty, but in particular when you need to innovate during times of uncertainty, the key to not being lost in the chaos is to establish your true north. I know everyone talks about true north, but the true north can actually vary depending on who you're speaking to and how you're engaging the team.
(31:39):
Jessica O. MatthewsSo we as a group had to say, What are we holding on to again? What are we fighting for in this moment? Why do we believe that now more than ever, what we're doing is important? Okay, that's our professional true north. Now each of you are going to have your personal true north as to how you want to get through this.
Jessica O. MatthewsJust reflect on that. Hold on to that. When everything feels like there's like a tornado around you. Hold on to that and you'll see that you are actually steady while everything else is moving around. You. And we have to continuously have conversations to bring ourselves back to that and then make decisions from there.
(32:13):
Susan MacKenty BradyI feel like you could just drop that Mike now. I mean, there's just so much goodness here and I'd love to hear when you get kicked out of your best self off balance, triggered by something, whatever it is, how do you get back on balance? That's my first question. And then the second is what do you want our listening audience to know about how to return to a place of searching for the light and stepping into a mindset of innovation?
(32:47):
Jessica O. MatthewsWell, that's a good question. What I would say is in sometimes the harder part and kind of course correcting is recognizing that you're off course because we're so busy, we're constantly running and moving that. For me, I spend a lot of time trying to make sure that I recognize that I'm thrown off course as quickly as possible. And I think that the the way that that happens is I have a trusted circle of individuals who know me very well, sometimes better than I know myself, who love me regardless and despite and perhaps even before all of the things that I've done and that I will do, who see me and I ask them, Hey, how
(33:45):
Jessica O. Matthewsdo I seem to you? Or I'm stressed, I'm concerned about this. What do you think? I've had friends that I went to college with that actually live in Boston that I see, you know, a couple times a year, a bestie. And I'll share something and they'll say, you know, over the last five years, I've noticed that you've been doing this and this affected your creativity and this.
(34:06):
Jessica O. MatthewsAnd I'm like, how the hell how did how did why night Talking about random Halloween party. How did you know that?
Susan MacKenty BradyYeah, yeah.
Jessica O. MatthewsHappening. Your trusted circle will often see it my all to have a better view of it than you. And if you can kind of get into a cadence of vulnerability to be once every couple of months of having that kind of check in and listening, not just pushing it off and saying, Well, I have 37 things I need to do on my to do list that I think is step one of hearing it and saying, wow, this might be the case, Then I actually find that it's when you know what you're fighting for, when you have your compass, once you know you're lost.
(34:45):
Jessica O. MatthewsYou look at your compass and you go back in the right direction. Like it's not actually that hard to course. Correct. Once you know your loss if you have your compass. Right. And so and that's what I want to leave everyone with. If you consistently do work to reflect and ask yourself, what are you fighting for, what gets you up in the morning?
(35:08):
Jessica O. MatthewsAnd if you can only have one fight right, and you had to push everything else aside, what would it be in that moment? Macro and micro, the thing that you want to dedicate your life to or just the person who really pissed you off in the moment and you want to be there, what does that look like? Because if you have that and you hold on to it, when people bring back to you this kind of view of, Hey, you seem awesome, you don't seem as happy.
(35:33):
Jessica O. MatthewsYou don't seem as this. And you pause and you say, My gosh, they're right. That means I'm a little bit lost. You can go back to that and I can't tell you exactly what the path will be. I don't know how lost you've gotten I don't know if you have to now traverse a river and jump over a mountain.
Jessica O. MatthewsI don't know what you have to do, cause I don't know how far you walk the away. But the point is, you can now start walking in that right direction because you found out you were lost. And so realizing you're lost one thing. And before you get lost, or even while you are lost, dedicating the consistent and daily time to an innovation lifestyle, I believe, puts you in a position to have a very well tuned compass that you can look at to get back to where you need to be.
(36:15):
Susan MacKenty BradyWell, I am blip an inspired idea. I needed this. I needed to hear this. We're in a moment of innovation and pivoting to here at Simmons. I loved what you had to share. Thank you so much. Where can our listeners find you online?
Jessica O. MatthewsYes, you can find me on LinkedIn. Jessica MATTHEWS I'm planning on doing a lot more around this innovation lifestyle and really trying to highlight really, really tangible examples people can use to adopt it. And so please check me out on LinkedIn if you want to see random photos of my random life with my husband, who's also my best friend, check me out on Jessica matthews there, too.
(36:55):
Susan MacKenty BradyAll right. You are every bit totally awesome. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for being with us today.
Jessica O. MatthewsThank you. This is an amazing conversation.
Susan MacKenty BradyAre you ready to become the best version of yourself? I'm Susan MacKenty Brady. Join me on the Better Understanding podcast. In each episode, I'll bring you inspiring stories from remarkable leaders who embody intellectual humility and compassion while also driving results. Together, we'll explore new ways to live, lead and work with one another more effectively. If you're ready to embark on a transformative journey towards impactful leadership and personal growth, this is the podcast for you.
(00:33):
Susan MacKenty BradyJoin us and let's start cultivating understanding, teamwork and connection. Today. Welcome to the Better Understanding Podcast. Today's guest is a prominent thought leader, CEO and trailblazer. Jessica O. Mathews is the founder and CEO of Uncharted, a New York City based sustainable infrastructure company. She is also known as an innovator and social entrepreneur and trailblazing energy advocate. Since its launch in 2011, Uncharted has delivered solutions that have supported over $8 billion in sustainable projects and government programs.
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Susan MacKenty BradyJessica is a Harvard graduate, currently serving her third term on the Department of Energy's Electricity Advisory Committee. She has secured $17 million in funding from investors, including former and current NBA stars Magic Johnson, Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony. Early on in her career, at just age 19, she invented Soccket, an energy generating soccer ball that reflects her vision for a better world.
(01:39):
Susan MacKenty BradyJessica We couldn't be more excited to have you join our Better Understanding podcast. Welcome.
Jessica O. MatthewsThank you for having me.
Susan MacKenty BradySo let's get to know each other. First of all, I've heard you on more than one occasion refer to yourself as a blend of Beyoncé and Bill Nye the Science Guy, which I just think is fabulous. And I'm very intrigued by this combination. Tell us why you identify with these two individuals in particular.
(02:04):
Jessica O. MatthewsOh, my gosh. Thank you for that question. So I specifically say that my goal in life is to be the love child of Beyoncé and Bill Nye the Science Guy. I think that distinction is important because I'm essentially like the Jon Snow. Like, I don't think I'm a sanctioned offspring. And it's because in many ways, I think when people think about Beyoncé, despite the fact that she is so incredibly hard working and a visionary in her own right, I have a poster behind me that says everybody wants to be Beyoncé, but nobody wants to put in the work.
(02:42):
Jessica O. MatthewsRight. And they often would never consider Bill Nye the science Guy in the same vein. Again, this is an individual who in many ways was one of the reasons why I fell in love with science. He made science attainable and tangible and cool. And he worked so hard at communicating not just what science could be, but how we all could be empowered by science.
(03:10):
Jessica O. MatthewsAnd so when I think about the two, it's first and foremost just starting to get people to think about those two things, not just in one room, but in one body, because there are a lot of people who are looking at Beyoncé and they're not looking at Bill Nye. And there are a lot of people who are looking at Bill Nye and not looking at Beyoncé.
Jessica O. MatthewsAnd I think that's creating an unnecessary division in the world of of people, especially women who want to feel beautiful, sexy, powerful and hard working, but want to drive a narrative of innovation and science and everything that they do. I also think that it's really important for me to always give life to both those sides of me. When I was growing up, I was maybe more Bill Nye than I was Beyoncé.
(04:01):
Jessica O. MatthewsIt's honestly easier to be into science than it is to attempt to look good the way Beyoncé does, but it's also, I think in saying that mostly in jest, it's just a reminder to me that I'm more than one thing. And I think that as especially as women, the number one thing at the core of how we choose to create in our world is to recognize that you're more than one thing.
(04:26):
Jessica O. MatthewsAnd when you lean into the fact that you're more than one thing, I think that opens up everything that you could be. And most importantly, it opens up the extent to which your destiny will be more than what you might plan.
Susan MacKenty BradyI'm so glad you said the more than one thing. We've been talking about authenticity and how it's our competitive advantage and how being our whole selves in environments that are accepting really matters because we can be a collection of seemingly opposite things. So I'm so glad you raised that. You've been described as someone who has a disruptive technological mindset.
(05:02):
Susan MacKenty BradyI mean, I think you are a walking, talking, disruptive technology just based on how you talked about Bill Nye, the Science Guy, and Beyoncé. What drives this passion in you and how do you inspire others to come along with you?
Jessica O. MatthewsSo I believe that innovation is a lifestyle and it just happens to be a lifestyle that I am obsessed with, that I love. It's just and if you view it not as something you need to do at work, not just something you need to do when there's a problem, but just in the way that you see the world.
(05:33):
Jessica O. MatthewsOne, I think it's something that will make you feel more fulfilled in everything that you do. I also believe that something that's going to make everything feel more like there's light versus darkness because you're constantly seeing everything not through rose colored glasses, but through the perspective of, well, maybe there could be this. You're not just accepting the world as it is.
(05:59):
Jessica O. MatthewsYou are giving yourself permission to constantly dream about what the world could be and to put yourself in the position to be part of that creation. Right? It's kind of a two part thing. I just believe that that's just a better way to live, right? Like, that just seems more fun than sitting down hoping something will be or dealing with something.
Jessica O. MatthewsIt's empowering. It's engaging, and it's fun and exciting. And then to that extent, you give yourself permission to not just accept the world as it is a dream about what it could be. And I think more importantly, you empower yourself to be part of that creation and that's just, in my opinion, a better way to live. A better way to approach whatever you're doing, whether it's personal, whether it's professional, whether it's a side gig.
(06:48):
Jessica O. MatthewsI just find that that's a happier place for me. So I would say that in accepting that that's not just accepting, but being incredibly excited that that is a perspective, that that is a lifestyle that I want to have. I think that day in and day out, it's it's less about inspiring myself to be an innovator and just choosing to innovate versus what I believe the alternative would be is wait for something better to happen and feel disempowered.
(07:21):
Jessica O. MatthewsYou know, I think where this came from, the first person that always comes to my mind, and perhaps this is cliché, is my mom. I used to tell people that she's my favorite inventor, even though she has no patents, simply because I think she was just very good, especially when I was younger at finding a path if a door closed in some way.
(07:44):
Jessica O. MatthewsAnd it's quite ironic because my father technically was a scientist and he's a doctor of science. Yeah, a technologist as well. His his Twitter handle and his social media handles are IQ breeder, which I can't even tell you the hilarity of what this man had in his mind when he sat down and said, I know I want to call myself IQ breeder.
(08:10):
Jessica O. MatthewsI'm a scientist. My mom's on even on social media. And yet I'm saying my mother, because any time I brought her problem, she was always focused on saying, I believe that you can find a way. I believe that you can fight and find a way. And I think that when you also recognize that innovation, innovation, yes, brings hope, right?
(08:34):
Jessica O. MatthewsIs this lifestyle that makes things more hopeful and more happy. But the reality is that the day to day of innovation is often a fight. Innovation is a fight. Beyond my mother and her influence. The key for me in driving and pushing in really hard spaces is that I have to find my fight and I have to take it personally.
(08:55):
Jessica O. MatthewsRight? How do you win a fight if you feel like you're the smaller person in the fight? If you feel like you're less experienced, if you feel like you have less skill, less resources. Well, you need to take it personally. And whoever takes that fight more personally, they're the one with the edge. And so whether it's looking at my family in Nigeria and seeing not only when they did not have access to electricity and I felt like they should have had access to it, seeing that my grandfather or my uncle and my aunt, who is younger than I am right now, seeing that they lost their lives prematurely because of something I believe should be
(09:31):
Jessica O. Matthewsa human right. Seeing girls in refugee camps on the border of Syria and Jordan not able to play with our soccer ball just because they're girls and because in the camps they said, Oh well, life is so hard. These girls are too tempting to the boys, so they're not allowed to play outside. So the boys are outside playing with the soccer ball and the girls don't get to play.
(09:55):
Jessica O. MatthewsAnd deciding I was going to take that personally. And that's why we created an energy generating jump rope. I find that at every step, if you find your fight, if you take it personally, that's the little spark that just begets innovation. And if you do that consistently enough, innovation just becomes part of your lifestyle.
(10:16):
Susan MacKenty BradyThat you're talking to somebody who's founder. So I posited as love, but it's really a fight. It's a fight to bring men into the work of advancing women. I want to talk about socket. I want to talk about your jump rope. Can you tell our listening audience about your inventions and about how these innovations came to be? You just told us about the jump rope, but start with socket.
(10:40):
Jessica O. MatthewsSure. So the first fight that I decided to get into and I agree, it's sometimes people are like, oh, gosh, fighting that's so violent. Why are you using that world word? And I'm like, you know, you can fight in very different ways, especially as women. It's a mistake to assume that just because we're not in a full out brawl, that we're not fighting.
(11:02):
Jessica O. MatthewsBut I sometimes think that that word, while it feels aggressive, which we won't get into all of the nuances of using that word as women either. I do think that sometimes it is the best word to speak to how hard innovation is and how relentless it can feel.
(11:23):
Susan MacKenty BradyIt's evocative and it's effective.
Jessica O. MatthewsYes. Yes, exactly. And so for me and again, I wouldn't say initially saw it this way at this age, the socket started as a class project. I was in my sophomore year at Harvard and I was studying psychology and economics. But I always, again wanted to be an inventor, and I was looking for opportunities to invent and create things.
(11:50):
Jessica O. MatthewsAnd so I took a class called Idea translation effecting change through art and science. And I remember thinking, okay, cool. This is, you know, is in the engineering school. It seems to be, though, a class for non engineers. That's good. And I remember thinking, okay, I don't know if I'm an artist, but I do think I know what's beautiful, right?
(12:11):
Jessica O. MatthewsAnd however you would define that and you know, my mother's side of the family there all art is my mother went to art school, all of that. And they said, well, I don't know if I'm a scientist again. My father is.
Susan MacKenty BradyThe scientists say you were literally birthed by an artist, right? Yeah. Yeah. I love it.
Jessica O. MatthewsI do know that the the definition of science is the study of life. And I think, again, people don't realize that if you're living, you're halfway there to being a scientist. We don't need to kind of cut ourselves out of things. And so I took the class and they said, Hey, you know, what's a problem you want to solve that kind of melds art and science?
(12:46):
Jessica O. MatthewsAnd I thought back to the time I would spend in Nigeria. I'm a dual citizen of Nigeria in the United States. Most of the time my family would spend the summers in Nigeria, my father for work primarily spends most of his time in Nigeria. And I remembered in particular when I was 17 years old, I was in Nigeria for my aunt's wedding.
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Jessica O. MatthewsAnd as expected, we lost power in Nigeria. Especially during that time, we would lose power several times a day. It didn't matter if you were in the bustling city of Lagos or if you're in the village, right? In addition, it wasn't even a socioeconomic issue. It was really an infrastructural issue that was masquerading as socioeconomic because people pay more per kilowatt hour for the diesel fuel in their diesel generators than people often even pay here for their energy in the U.S..
(13:40):
Jessica O. MatthewsAnd so, you know, I remembered we we lost power. We brought in the diesel generator just to kind of keep the festivities going and I remember the fumes were just really bothering me. Normally, I'd be fine, but this time the fumes were just really bothering me and I started to feel kind of nauseous. And I turned to my cousins, who were just young men, honestly, all engineers in their own right.
(14:04):
Jessica O. MatthewsAnd I said, Hey, I feel sick. And it was what they said. That was kind of the first kick in this kind of two part kick for me, starting my career in this way. They said, Don't worry, you'll get used to it. And I remembered thinking, Get used to what exactly? We know that this is horrible for the environment.
Jessica O. MatthewsWe know that living with a kerosene lamp is like smoking two packs of cigarets a day. So this is killing us. And how can you guys who are all engineers, young men, and you see the whole world is your oyster. You're not telling me. Gosh, yeah, you're right. This is horrible. I wish we could do this. I wish we could do that.
(14:43):
Jessica O. MatthewsYou're basically telling me that the best way to solve this problem is to pretend like it's not happening and get used to it. And 17 year old me. Bill Nye. Not yet Beyoncé me. Really could not accept that as the way I should view the world. Right. Going back to this innovation lives lifestyle that felt icky that felt like, you know when you're only when you're 17, you're like you see the whole world in front of you and you're like, So I have to spend the next how many decades just dealing with it, just letting this thing kill me.
(15:19):
Jessica O. MatthewsAnd so I didn't know what to do at that time, but I knew it really bugged me. Fast forward several months. I'm in my senior year of high school and my family had one of those years that I think every family has. It just felt like a bad luck year. And my mother ended up losing that year. Her brother in law, the father of those cousins I mentioned, her father and her baby sister, who was younger than I right now.
(15:50):
Jessica O. MatthewsYeah, all in one year. Oh, and I guess going back to my mom right. I do believe that there's only so many times you can see someone cry before you say, you know, I can't accept that this is what life is. It might be exhausting to to keep wanting to fight and have the ability to create a better world than this.
(16:10):
Jessica O. MatthewsBut I can't just sit with this. And I remember thinking about each of those individuals and I remember writing, I can't cure Death, but can I fix life? It's a ridiculous thing to write at the age of 18 on your notepad, because I remember thinking, it's not just that these individuals passed away prematurely. It's not just that maybe they had access to reliable infrastructure, that their lives would have been extended.
(16:37):
Jessica O. MatthewsIt's that when they took their last breath, they probably thought the same thing that my cousins thought. They probably thought, Well, this is just what it is. You got to deal with it. That's it. And at that moment, I told myself that I would be comfortable dedicating my entire life to addressing that. And that was not okay. I knew that, but I didn't know how I would do that.
(16:58):
Jessica O. MatthewsBut I was already starting to look for those things. So now jump back to this class I'm in and I'm like, this is something I want to address. I've been waiting for the class to do this. Okay, well, what is art? What is science? I'm going to lead into everything around you in the way that you're seeing it, what have I seen?
Jessica O. MatthewsHow can my observations be the bank for my innovation? And I thought to the times when my cousins were very hopeful and very powerful and very passionate about what they thought they could do in this world. And it was when they were playing soccer, my cousins were are, I would say, average to below average at sports. They hate it when I say this, but these are facts.
(17:41):
Jessica O. MatthewsThey're not they were not that good. And we're not so amazing at soccer. That is like, oh my gosh, yeah. But that's when they had the bravado to believe that they could do insane things. Yes. That's when also they also had the the freedom to try and not fear failure. And so when I would see my cousins betting that they could do some sort of thing that they saw Beckham do or something that Pele used to do, and nine out of ten times they failed to do it.
(18:09):
Jessica O. MatthewsBut one out of every ten times they did it. I was like, That's what I want to capture that psychological headspace of being willing to try and fight and push. And so the soccer was actually meant to be a psychological innovation first and foremost. I'll tell you everything about me. It wasn't meant to be a ball that could power a whole house.
(18:30):
Jessica O. MatthewsIt was meant to be a tool that would get people to think out of bounds, that would get people to begin this path of the innovation lifestyle. And the first prototype was a hamster ball with the shape, the charge flashlight, like one of those clear plastic hamster ball. Yeah, the take the church flashlight in the, you know, dorm room rolled it back and forth, put on the light and said, yeah, this is a thing.
(18:55):
Jessica O. MatthewsAnd before you knew it, I was sketching. I was in manufacturing facilities, you know, around the world. And we ended up distributing over 50,000 units to different nonprofits. And I'm actually really excited. We should be about to sign a partnership with this global toy sport company to relaunch the product for the World Cup in 2026. So.
(19:17):
Susan MacKenty BradyOkay, that's just every kind of bad ass. I don't know if I'm allowed to say bad ass on my own podcast, but it is just totally awesome. You make innovation sound elegantly sort of simple. In “Arrive and Thrive,” my coauthors and I wrote a chapter about inspiring a bold vision and we talk about what is vision? Well, it's seeing a problem and seeing some opportunities to that problem. That starts there.
(19:44):
Susan MacKenty BradyAnd your story really brings that home. What I'm wondering, though, is what gets in the way of the simplicity of seeing something that needs to be better and wanting to do something about it. In everyday leadership life as you as you go around and work with different groups and meet with people to inspire them, what do you see?
Susan MacKenty BradyGet in the way.
Jessica O. MatthewsTwo sides of the same coin. Imposter syndrome and ego. That's it. People will say it's resource. Oh, I don't have enough resources. They're not right. I want to see that gets in the way. I think that just, you know, if you think about this like a gantlet, like a gladiator, I mean, I keep going back to a fight.
(20:22):
Jessica O. MatthewsI have been boxing for ten years.
Susan MacKenty BradyI was going to say, are you a kickboxer ?
Jessica O. MatthewsYou know what I do? I'll take one quick detour. I'll bring it back. Okay. Let. We made the energy generating jump rope. I was like, okay, I'm not going to get good enough at soccer. The demo that I have to get better at jumping rope. I wasn't good at jumping rope. I found this two time Golden Glove female boxer named Jen Lopez, Jennifer Lopez, Puerto Rican from Jersey, different J.Lo.
(20:46):
Jessica O. MatthewsAnd I was like, Can you teach me how to jump rope? And she's like, Yeah, but I also have to teach you how to box. That was 12 years ago. And now I can jump rope in stilettos, I can box. And it doesn't also hurt that in 2014, Muhammad Ali gave me the award for Confidence about a year and a half before he passed away. So.
Susan MacKenty BradyWhich is saying something.
Jessica O. MatthewsI wasn't that...
(21:08):
Susan MacKenty BradySo not everybody can jump rope in stilettos, so I can't even. Okay.
Jessica O. MatthewsBut bringing it back. So.
Susan MacKenty BradyImposter syndrome and ego.
Jessica O. MatthewsTwo sides of the same coin, right? Some people will say resources, but all resources really do is it kind of dictates the the bounds of the field that you're playing. Right. How much time do you have, who you have to work with? But sometimes I would actually say that too much capital, too many resources, too many people is just as bad, if not significantly worse, than having less resources, less people, especially given what you can do now with AI.
(21:48):
Jessica O. MatthewsSo it's not actually resources that's a scapegoat. It's a it's don't get me wrong, it can be a pretty windy, crazy road depending on your resources. But that's not it at all really comes down to imposter syndrome or ego. So let's talk about imposter syndrome. If you do not believe that you can do something, perhaps more importantly, you do not believe that others believe that you can do something.
(22:15):
Jessica O. MatthewsAnd even worse, you don't believe you deserve to even try. Where are the longer that I kind of exist and engage in the world, the more than I'm like, Wow. At least 75% of the world's problems are still problems because the majority of our planet believes that.
Susan MacKenty BradyIt's an epidemic.
Jessica O. MatthewsSusan - Snap. An epidemic.
(22:37):
Susan MacKenty BradyYeah. My first book was about mastering your inner critic because so many women don't feel good enough to even speak up. Never mind have the audacity to go do it.
Jessica O. MatthewsThank you. Okay, so that's that's one side. And then though, you do have this nasty thing called.
Susan MacKenty BradyEgo self-righteous indignation.
Jessica O. MatthewsWith an ego.
(22:59):
Susan MacKenty BradyI love your words.
Jessica O. MatthewsSo, you know, you have this. There's a couple sides. One is part of innovation is one, recognizing that you could do everything right and still get it wrong. And being comfortable with the concept of the pivot. And if you are unwilling to pivot and that could be a pivot in the direction of what you're building or can be a pivot in your understanding of what role you should be playing in that innovation if you are stubborn.
(23:27):
Jessica O. MatthewsI'm speaking from personal experience, by the way, on both sides of this. So just so everyone knows, if you're stubborn there, it's not going to work, you're not going to grow, you're not going to achieve impact. And both require reflection, not just about the world you're in and the environment you're in, but it really is about self-reflection. It's about how you view yourself.
(23:51):
Jessica O. MatthewsHow do you have that balance of believing in your voice, believing in your vision, believing in your perspective, but also having the humility to know that it's not about being right or wrong, or the only one or perfect, that everything it's almost unconditional respect for just your existence in that space and the value you bring to it. And that for women is really, really, really hard.
(24:18):
Jessica O. MatthewsProbably for people, let's just say for people, but especially for women who are achieving more smart, who feel like I'm going to do twice as much and I'm going to show all you people what I can do and this and that. It's like we're not given space to just be. And I will say I have so many amazing male allies and counterparts, but there are quite a few of our male counterparts that truly believe that just their existence in the room is the prize for everyone.
(24:44):
Jessica O. MatthewsThey say three random words and they're like, Congratulations for listening to me and they're going to take a nap. And they feel good about themselves. And they still believe that they're they call themselves innovators. I want to be very clear. I will not say any names, but yeah.
Susan MacKenty BradyYeah. So you know what's so fascinating? The core of our institute's philosophy is generating a working world where more humans are leading from their best self. And at the core of our best self is respect. But we define it as when your strengths and talents come together with where your call to add value to others, which comes together with what brings you joy and vitality and gives you energy.
(25:20):
Susan MacKenty BradyCan you share a story of when you felt you were leading from your best self So you're not playing it small, not feeling good enough, and you're not playing it too big, Like you got big ego and you want to you know, you're better than everybody. You're you're you're writing right where you just described once last time you were leading from your best self.
Jessica O. Matthews2020, the pandemic. So one, I think that especially as a woman of color founder, I think that I've often been in a situation where it feels like I have to carry £50 weights while my counterparts are carrying £10 weights and we're walking the same path. The pandemic put £100 waves in everybody's hands. It doesn't matter if your green doesn't matter what's going hundred pound weights.
(26:05):
Jessica O. MatthewsAnd in that situation, I did definitely feel as if just because of what I had already been through, you know, who do you think is going to do well in that situation? The person who's been carrying £50 weights versus can carry £10 weights. So I'm like, this was heavier, but it was only twice as heavy, not ten times as heavy.
Jessica O. MatthewsBut I think being more specific, I remember when I had to really think about how to lead a team in incredible uncertainty. It's one thing to innovate in terms of uncertainty is having to lead during times of incredible uncertainty. And I remember coming in to my team were all online after, you know, I think it was like March 9th or 10th I won.
(26:44):
Jessica O. MatthewsI was because this was on like Women's Day, right? So I did a talk for International Women's Day. Yeah. And for being on a flight on March nine, coming back from Canada. And it was empty. And I was like, I looked around, I called my husband. I was like, Babe, this is real. And he was already my husband's a weird prepper.
Jessica O. MatthewsSo he had already in February was like, I see something.
Susan MacKenty BradyYou got the Purell, you got the carton of Purell from.
(27:05):
Jessica O. MatthewsCostco, had a mask, and he was he was just my boyfriend at the time, actually. Now that I think of it and but then he ordered so many supplies in February to my home that I was like, your husband material. This is I I'm going to lock this down. So anyway.
Susan MacKenty BradyPreparation.
Jessica O. MatthewsSix months later, engaged, I was like, we're a gospel innovation lifestyle focused on target, you know, so so I remember seeing that. And then going into my, you know, team and seeing that no one knew anything and being very concerned that because, you know, I had a wide span of ages of people working for me and really saying, wow, this is dangerous, we need to kiboshed.
(27:45):
Jessica O. MatthewsAnd so I told everyone, grab your stuff starting tomorrow. We are remote. And I made that decision early so we had no one on the team that got sick. We had no issues. And I remember having to get on to the zoom and say, okay, what am I telling my team? And I don't know anything. And I think that the best thing that I did, that perfect balance, right, you say, is that I said, Hey, team, the only thing I can be certain of is who I am, why I'm here, and that my goal is to create the best situation for all of you.
(28:19):
Jessica O. MatthewsAnd I believe the best way for me to do that is to be hyper transparent. I will tell you when I don't know. I will tell you when I'm scared. I will tell you when I'm hopeful. And I will create space not just for our work, but I will create dedicated space for our personhood. We will starts every Monday talking about the things that normally we feel like we need to leave at home, that we need to leave away from work.
(28:50):
Jessica O. MatthewsWell, we're all at home now, so it's an insane thing for me to ask you to pretend like you're just work person. You're working from home, your life is behind your life is around you. We're going to create space for that because there will be times when we can all bring our best selves because of what's going on.
Jessica O. MatthewsAnd we all need to have that awareness. We all need to have that humanity for each other. And then we will build from there. And I think that my leadership style of radical transparency and asking people to bring their whole selves and their personal problems to work again, it can work within a team about 10 to 15 can't work for perhaps larger groups, but ideally, you know, managers can, you know, the two pizza rule, you have a kind of subgroups you can work with, but it resulted in us becoming a stronger team than we ever had.
(29:45):
Jessica O. MatthewsIt resulted in us completing a significant right of way Smart City project during the pandemic that Fortune 100 companies have failed to do, that Google failed to do in Toronto. We were able to get a version of that done in upstate New York. It resulted in us being able to achieve one of our highest years in revenue than we had done since the energy generating sports product Side times.
(30:13):
Susan MacKenty BradyA direct correlation to value, impact and results.
Jessica O. MatthewsYeah, and at the end of the day I said, Hey, our presence and our perspective and our aligned mission, that's why we're here. But again, for me personally, I will not pretend that I will not be asking you to pivot. I will not pretend like I'm going to get this. All right. Yeah, pretend like I know everything. But I also know that I can still lead you.
(30:41):
Jessica O. MatthewsDespite all of that.
Susan MacKenty BradyIf I may. You modeled it and it was the great collision. I think the pandemic for many, many working adults was the great collision of human resource, like colliding with the human being. And each of us and some leaders got this right and honored the human being and some didn't. And it sounds like your approach, which I love radical transparency allowed for an opening and a connectivity and you kind of clued us in to how you help people.
(31:12):
Susan MacKenty BradyIt sounds like you set the stage for the expectation of pivoting. Did I get that right?
Jessica O. MatthewsYes, That we would have to be nimble. Yeah. Okay. If you have to do anything within a phase of uncertainty, but in particular when you need to innovate during times of uncertainty, the key to not being lost in the chaos is to establish your true north. I know everyone talks about true north, but the true north can actually vary depending on who you're speaking to and how you're engaging the team.
(31:39):
Jessica O. MatthewsSo we as a group had to say, What are we holding on to again? What are we fighting for in this moment? Why do we believe that now more than ever, what we're doing is important? Okay, that's our professional true north. Now each of you are going to have your personal true north as to how you want to get through this.
Jessica O. MatthewsJust reflect on that. Hold on to that. When everything feels like there's like a tornado around you. Hold on to that and you'll see that you are actually steady while everything else is moving around. You. And we have to continuously have conversations to bring ourselves back to that and then make decisions from there.
(32:13):
Susan MacKenty BradyI feel like you could just drop that Mike now. I mean, there's just so much goodness here and I'd love to hear when you get kicked out of your best self off balance, triggered by something, whatever it is, how do you get back on balance? That's my first question. And then the second is what do you want our listening audience to know about how to return to a place of searching for the light and stepping into a mindset of innovation?
(32:47):
Jessica O. MatthewsWell, that's a good question. What I would say is in sometimes the harder part and kind of course correcting is recognizing that you're off course because we're so busy, we're constantly running and moving that. For me, I spend a lot of time trying to make sure that I recognize that I'm thrown off course as quickly as possible. And I think that the the way that that happens is I have a trusted circle of individuals who know me very well, sometimes better than I know myself, who love me regardless and despite and perhaps even before all of the things that I've done and that I will do, who see me and I ask them, Hey, how
(33:45):
Jessica O. Matthewsdo I seem to you? Or I'm stressed, I'm concerned about this. What do you think? I've had friends that I went to college with that actually live in Boston that I see, you know, a couple times a year, a bestie. And I'll share something and they'll say, you know, over the last five years, I've noticed that you've been doing this and this affected your creativity and this.
(34:06):
Jessica O. MatthewsAnd I'm like, how the hell how did how did why night Talking about random Halloween party. How did you know that?
Susan MacKenty BradyYeah, yeah.
Jessica O. MatthewsHappening. Your trusted circle will often see it my all to have a better view of it than you. And if you can kind of get into a cadence of vulnerability to be once every couple of months of having that kind of check in and listening, not just pushing it off and saying, Well, I have 37 things I need to do on my to do list that I think is step one of hearing it and saying, wow, this might be the case, Then I actually find that it's when you know what you're fighting for, when you have your compass, once you know you're lost.
(34:45):
Jessica O. MatthewsYou look at your compass and you go back in the right direction. Like it's not actually that hard to course. Correct. Once you know your loss if you have your compass. Right. And so and that's what I want to leave everyone with. If you consistently do work to reflect and ask yourself, what are you fighting for, what gets you up in the morning?
(35:08):
Jessica O. MatthewsAnd if you can only have one fight right, and you had to push everything else aside, what would it be in that moment? Macro and micro, the thing that you want to dedicate your life to or just the person who really pissed you off in the moment and you want to be there, what does that look like? Because if you have that and you hold on to it, when people bring back to you this kind of view of, Hey, you seem awesome, you don't seem as happy.
(35:33):
Jessica O. MatthewsYou don't seem as this. And you pause and you say, My gosh, they're right. That means I'm a little bit lost. You can go back to that and I can't tell you exactly what the path will be. I don't know how lost you've gotten I don't know if you have to now traverse a river and jump over a mountain.
Jessica O. MatthewsI don't know what you have to do, cause I don't know how far you walk the away. But the point is, you can now start walking in that right direction because you found out you were lost. And so realizing you're lost one thing. And before you get lost, or even while you are lost, dedicating the consistent and daily time to an innovation lifestyle, I believe, puts you in a position to have a very well tuned compass that you can look at to get back to where you need to be.
(36:15):
Susan MacKenty BradyWell, I am blip an inspired idea. I needed this. I needed to hear this. We're in a moment of innovation and pivoting to here at Simmons. I loved what you had to share. Thank you so much. Where can our listeners find you online?
Jessica O. MatthewsYes, you can find me on LinkedIn. Jessica MATTHEWS I'm planning on doing a lot more around this innovation lifestyle and really trying to highlight really, really tangible examples people can use to adopt it. And so please check me out on LinkedIn if you want to see random photos of my random life with my husband, who's also my best friend, check me out on Jessica matthews there, too.
(36:55):
Susan MacKenty BradyAll right. You are every bit totally awesome. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for being with us today.
Jessica O. MatthewsThank you. This is an amazing conversation.
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