Lead Out Loud Podcast

With the holiday season upon us, we’re officially ending our first season of the Distracted Driving Podcast. Thank you for watching and listening, we’re excited to bring you more enticing conversations in the new year!

In the fourth and final episode of the conversation with Kevin Meredith, Rex and Sean do some professional blabberating, covering topics from school safety, experiential learning, and opportunity cost.

Also, here’s some proof that Kevin did speak to Sean’s class and he did meet up with Rex. Find out more about Kevin’s company at 4thsi.com.

Is there any completely original content anymore? Probably not. But that’s a good thing, because when it comes to innovation, new is not enough. Outside of Glacier National Park and in the midst of a year-long road trip around the United States, Kevin Meredith discusses the need to mature our thinking about innovation and entrepreneurship and steps through his model for incubating innovation. Start building innovation muscle memory and listen to this episode of the Distracted Driving Podcast. #innovation #nostatusquo #entrepreneurship

Not every bit of creativity is going to have value, but creativity is the cost of entry for innovation. When creativity meets a stakeholder, you get innovation, but it may not be a commercial venture. How do you take something that’s innovative and make it profitable? That’s what Kevin Meredith helps people do, and that’s the topic of conversation for this episode of Distracted Driving.

If you like innovation and entrepreneurship, you’ll like this episode of Distracted Driving. Kevin Meredith, founder of 4th Sector Innovations, joins the podcast via Starlink from Glacier National Park in the midst of an epic family road trip. The episode is full of great new vocabulary words and an explanation of how Kevin’s company operates in the 4th sector of the economy. Just in case you don’t know what that is, we explain that too.

Brett Hoffstadt is building a vision for life on the moon. He’s sharing that vision with kids around the world via his book, Goodnight Moon Base. As an added bonus, this episode starts with a review of Goodnight Moon Base by Sean’s daughter, Alyssa. Spoiler: she does not want to live on a Moon base. She’s become accustomed to gravity.

We live in an age of abundance. It is an age where you can chart your own path and you don’t need someone’s permission to do it. Brett Hoffstadt reflects on these lessons and more; lessons learned thus far as an engineer, entrepreneur, musician, and author. Inspired by Seth Godin and a successful corporate career interrupted by layoffs, Brett overcame his fear of creativity and embodies the idea that consumers are now producers.

Sean completes his conversation with industrial engineering classmates Amanda, Rick, and Eric. The quartet of friends discuss what to look for in a work environment, the importance of work-life balance, and how long to continue the conversation. Speaking of quartets, Eric was in one, and he shares the similarities of singing in a barbershop quartet and working as an engineer.

Part two of the first happy hour edition of the show features four fun, cool cats continuing a discussion of their respective career paths as engineers. If you have ever taken a breath of clean air inside a hospital, walked past an AED in an office building, or driven a car with a blind spot monitor, then their work has impacted your life. Like their careers, the episode starts off slow, but builds character and becomes more entertaining as it matures. If you are an engineer or are perhaps studying to become one, this episode is a great reminder that what you do is important, even if the impact of your contributions isn’t always visible or immediately recognized.

If you are a recent engineering graduate, this is the episode for you. While Rex is on vacation, Sean is joined by three friends–all Cal Poly industrial engineering alumni. On the heels of a recent meetup, and against a backdrop of some college stories and a few cocktails, the group discusses career paths, networking, and the importance of building relationships. It’s the first happy hour edition of the Distracted Driving Podcast.