Don and Liz Thompson

Seth Green: Well, you know, you are in the company of Don and Liz Thompson. When every person who walks in gets a hug on their way in. So good morning to everyone here at Gleacher. Good morning to the hundreds that are joining us via live stream, because this is a hot ticket. My name is Seth Green. And on a morning like this one, I’m especially grateful to say I’m the dean here at the Graham School at the University of Chicago. And we are the ambitious home for lifelong learning. For those who don’t know us, you should. We believe that learning is not a phase of life, but it is a way of life. And we make sure to extend the university’s intellectual assets to individuals across all ages and stages. And what that looks like is a great books program that is best in the world, that allows you over four years to go across the texts that are formative for Western civilization. And now there is an Asian classics tradition and many other texts, because we’ve taken a yes and approach to that great books tradition. We have one of the best Masters of Liberal Arts in the world that allows you to go across all the disciplines of the university. We have the Leadership and Society initiative for people that are distinguished in their careers, but not done, and want to rewire and refire into a meaningful next chapter.

Seth Green: And we have a host of open enrollment courses, about 70 every quarter for people that want to study anything under the sun and better understand the world and live in examined life. So that’s a little bit about us. And it gives us a good entry point to why we are involved in enduring excellence with this gentleman, our distinguished fellow Tyler Mathisen. We believe that learning should be a lifelong pursuit, and that the way to have enduring excellence is to be constantly learning, growing and deepening in your purpose. And we certainly have two remarkable role models for that idea here. The origin of this series, I’ll just say, is thanks to Tyler. Tyler was finishing after decades of serving as an anchor on CNBC, and even more decades of being one of the great journalists of our time. And he and I began a conversation because he saw Leadership and Society Initiative and he said, well, you must know exactly how I should endure in my excellence because I’m about to finish my career. And we said, we’re still figuring it out. And he said, let me help. I know all of these really interesting people who I’ve admired, and I usually get to talk with them for five minutes. What if we sat down and talked for them for 75 minutes, and we really went deep on what it is in their life and in their childhood and in their formation that allowed them to have a spirit that endures across time and space.

Seth Green: And so we’re thrilled that over the course of this year With Tyler’s incredible help, we’ve been able to interview Brian Moynihan and Mellody Hobson and Indra Nooyi and Arthur Brooks. And now this morning, the ultimate: two incredible leaders, Don and Liz Thompson. And that is actually a great segue into why we are so excited, because each of them have absolutely remarkable careers in their own right. Obviously, Don rising to become the CEO of McDonald’s and now even bigger in my mind because of what you’re doing on issues like inclusivity and economic prosperity for all Cleveland Avenue and Liz, starting in the private sector, having a lot of success there, but then following this deep passion around education and ultimately becoming the founding executive director of City or Chicago, leading a Montessori school in Denver, and now coming to be a co-founder of Cleveland Avenue and also of the Cleveland Avenue Foundation for education. So an incredible twosome. They’ve not only done this each in remarkable ways, but they’ve done it together. And so our first ever enduring excellence conversation about enduring excellence as individuals and as a couple. And with that, I will turn it over to our wonderful host, Tyler Mathisen. And I will take my seat because I’m eager to learn with all of you.

Tyler Mathisen: Thank you sir. Thank you. Thank you very much. And thank you all for coming this morning. I must start by saying I don’t think I’ve ever done an interview that felt more like a family reunion than this. I mean, you’re exactly right. Everybody seemed to know everybody, and there was genuine affection and warmth in the room. And so I’m so glad to be a part of that. I agree with everything Seth said about the origin story, though I will demur completely on being one of the great journalists of our time. And that’s what we call horseshit anyway. But I’ll take it. I’ll take it. Believe me, I’ll take it. It’s a delight to be with you two today and at. I have never I have done hundreds of interviews in person and on television. I have never interviewed a married couple before. At the risk of being totally inappropriate, I’m going to say this is my first threesome. Okay.

Liz Thompson: So. So from your ears at home.

Tyler Mathisen: From that, I’m going to begin the only place I really can begin, and that is to ask the two of you. I know you both grew up on Cleveland Avenue. I know how important it remains in your life. It is like the street itself. It is a through line in your life. But I, I don’t think that’s where you met and fell in love. I’m going to channel my inner Oprah and ask you to tell us the story of how you met, how and where you met and how and why you fell in love.

Don Thompson: Go ahead. You know you’re going to do it.

Liz Thompson: Okay? Because this, this story is mine. You go first. This one is mine to tell. And I’ll try and be as brief as possible, but it is so integral to everything that we are and who we are. We are on campus at Purdue. Classes haven’t even started. It’s the first day on campus and we were at a welcome reception for new students. Half of y’all in the room have heard this story, but So we end up at a table sitting across from each other and I’m thinking, ooh, he’s cute. But I was very clear that’s not what I was at college for. And we exchanged some pleasantries and, and it was wonderful. But I didn’t see him again for the whole first semester at Purdue. Purdue is a very big campus, 4000 students. We didn’t even see each other. Second semester freshman year rolls around. We end up in the same calculus lecture, calculus 162 with Professor Dorf. And I saw.

Tyler Mathisen: So it was all his.

Liz Thompson: Oh, it’s professor. I saw him the first day, but I didn’t get the nerve to sit next to him until three months in. And so it’s March 26th, 1981. We’re in W 129. Lecture hall holds about 500 students, and I get the nerve to sit next to him in class. And I said, I don’t know if you remember me, but we met at that welcome reception first day on campus. And he said, I remember you. And I said, well, I’m Liz. Blah, blah, blah. I’m from Chicago. Where are you from? And he said.

Don Thompson: You want to do this? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I have to do this. Tyler. I said, I’m from Indianapolis, but I grew up in Chicago.

Liz Thompson: And I said, oh, I said, well, I grew up on the north side of Chicago. I said, where did you live in Chicago?

Don Thompson: I said, on the north side too.

Liz Thompson: I said, well, what street did you grow up on?

Don Thompson: I said, it’s a small street. You probably wouldn’t even know of it.

Liz Thompson: And I said, but what is it?

Don Thompson: I said, It’s Cleveland Avenue.

Liz Thompson: I said, I grew up on Cleveland Avenue. So we grew up four blocks apart on the same street. And at the end of that lecture, I don’t know what the topic was, but at the end of that lecture, we had discovered not only did we grow up on the same street, but we both had taken four years of Latin in high school, all of these weird things that, you know, I would not think that we would have in common. That was March 26th, 1991. We’ve been together since 1981. Yeah. So.

Tyler Mathisen: While we’re applauding, let’s keep applauding because you just became four weeks ago grandparents.

Don Thompson: Oh, yes. Oh, yeah. Oh yeah.

Tyler Mathisen: To a beautiful baby girl. There she.

Don Thompson: Is. There’s proof.

Liz Thompson: You probably can’t see it, but.

Don Thompson: If.

Tyler Mathisen: If we’d known sooner, we would have projected.

Don Thompson: That’s true. That’s true.

Tyler Mathisen: So. So what are the odds that two kids from Cleveland Avenue would who are both going to. Purdue, who are both studying electrical engineering, would meet and fall in love? This feels like destiny. Does it feel like destiny to you?

Don Thompson: I would say, you know, and I have said, you know, Liz is the angel of God sent me. And so I absolutely, you know, I don’t believe in in happenstance things that occur. I think God ordains our steps in our lives. And we have believed that from the beginning. And I and I do believe. Tyler. Yeah. Destiny, you know, call it the divine hand of God on my end, but absolutely. Because it just it doesn’t happen. We were for those who are familiar, you know, all of you with the city, we were at a Standard Oil scholarship dinner that night. Now, some of you know Amoco, but back in the day, they give $500 scholarships and we got a $500 scholarship. And both of us, you know, Purdue was expensive. So I’m on work study. She. We’re picking up pieces and parts. My grandmother. Et cetera. So it doesn’t happen that way. Purdue had at that time, 3% of the students were African American. In, in the engineering function. And so, you know, the odds, you know, those aren’t odds. Yeah, yeah.

Tyler Mathisen: The longer I live, the less I believe in sheer coincidence. I believe there it is part of a plan. And at the end of end of life, somebody’s going to roll a movie and show me why I met this person on this time and why this happened, and so on and so forth. That’s that’s a very interesting thing to think about. So let’s talk a little bit about Cleveland Avenue and and what it meant to you and what growing up there taught you about love, about toughness, about aspiration, about faith and about community. And how do those early lessons still show up in what you do and how you live?

Don Thompson: Right.

Liz Thompson: Yeah. So I think about Cleveland Avenue, but I think about really home because that’s obviously where I lived for the first 23 years of my life in Cabrini Green. So Cleveland Avenue, it’s a small short street, relatively speaking, for Chicago, but it traverses several neighborhoods where Cleveland Avenue starts, is in Cabrini Green, and it goes north from there. And so I think about what Cleveland Avenue taught me. And the first thing is love, for sure. Love was my mother’s superpower. She passed it on to me and it shows up in everything I do in every way. So love is the first thing that I think about from Cleveland Avenue and Cabrini Green. The second thing is education. That’s where I developed my lifelong love of education. The elementary school I went to would not be called the best elementary school in Chicago. In fact, it was rated the second lowest at the time that I attended. But I had the very best teachers that ever lived at that school. They chose to teach there and it shaped everything about what I thought education could be. And then on to high school and then onto college. And so Cleveland Avenue helped shape my thoughts about education. And then finally, for me, Cleveland Avenue helped me understand because what the world thought about our neighborhood and our street is not what it was. And so it helped me to see the reality of things. In front of me as opposed to the potential of things. And so I lived with people that were very wise geniuses in their own way. The world may not have seen them in that way, but I certainly did because I was close enough to know them. And that has most definitely followed me throughout my leadership journey in recognizing that genius is all around us. We just have to see it. And I first learned that on Cleveland.

Tyler Mathisen: And sometimes you see it in places you don’t expect to find it.

Liz Thompson: What it taught me, Tyler, was that where I think I might see it is not where the world tells me I will. So it’s not that I didn’t expect to see it there. I fully expected to see it there. The rest of the world didn’t. Yeah. And so that has truly shaped part of what we are trying to do is help people understand. No, it’s it’s it’s everywhere.

Tyler Mathisen: More geniuses on Cleveland Avenue than at Purdue.

Tyler Mathisen: And listen, don’t judge me. Yeah, don’t judge me. My son goes to IU.

Don Thompson: Okay, okay.

Liz Thompson: We forgive you. We forgive you.

Don Thompson: You know, Tyler, it’s an interesting question. And I would offer just as many and on a per capita basis more. And I say it this way. I was raised by my grandmother since I was two weeks old.

Tyler Mathisen: Right?

Don Thompson: So, you know, I’m one of those kids that they say, you know, you’re not supposed to at least statistics would say that we don’t make it quote unquote. But what people don’t realize about our neighborhood, and we call it the neighborhood is the neighborhood was full of a lot of people who were networked together because of necessity. My grandmother, single parent, she didn’t have any reason to take me and raise me, but my parents were much younger. You know, they weren’t married when I was born. And the best thing that they ever did was realize that my grandmother could give me all of the nurturing, the love and, you know, extension cord when needed to, to bring me up and raise me. And so I would say if I think about that neighborhood in Cleveland Avenue and then subsequently when, when we moved to Indianapolis, but Cleveland Avenue particularly you got raised by the neighborhood, you know, you got raised by Miss Gibbons on the corner and the woods is two doors over. There were there was so much love. And the reason I say the genius aspect is when you think about the income levels of people in some of those neighborhoods and what they were able to do how they were able to take care of things to, as we said, stretch pennies. But by the same token, there was not a house that you could go into that you would not be welcome for dinner, even if it wasn’t a ton of it, as my grandmother would say, we stretch it. So you know, the genius was around how you survive and thrive and nurture and an environment that is not necessarily suited to support you in that way. And so I think there is a real.

Tyler Mathisen: It’s a resourcefulness, absolutely, that you encounter in, in those in that environment. You know, I, I hazard the guess that many, if not most people who leave or move away from a neighborhood like Cabrini-Green and Cleveland Avenue tend to go and stay away. You have chosen the opposite. You have chosen to embrace it. Cleveland Avenue and Cleveland is the name of your funds, of your investment company. It is your brand.

Liz Thompson: It is. It is.

Tyler Mathisen: Why did you make that choice when others would say, get me out of this neighborhood and let me put it behind me? You’ve said the opposite.

Liz Thompson: I think we never. The intent was never to leave the neighborhood. The intent was to go out and discover the world. That’s two different things. And I recognize that some people, you know, want to get out. But there was nothing to get out from. We just talked about the love that was there in our home, outside of our home. We talked about the level of education that was there, the level of resourcefulness, the level of genius. That’s not something to escape. That’s something to embrace. And so for us, yeah, we may have wanted, you know, different places to live. And we’ve moved all over the country. And we’ll hear more about that in a minute. But it was never someplace to escape.

Don Thompson: Right?

Liz Thompson: It was who we are. It’s where we’re from. And we are who we are because of it. So Tyler, never any place that we thought about escape.

Tyler Mathisen: I want to pick up on that because you have said, I read that that your success is because of Cabrini-Green, not in spite of it.

Liz Thompson: 100%.

Tyler Mathisen: And and you as you pointed out, your grandma moved you away from that neighborhood at a young age to Indianapolis, in part because she thought it was a better, safer environment for you. I’m not. I’m not sure. But so you have different kinds of relationships with the same geography is really what I’m driving at. And, and, and how did that. Did those relationships shape your views about, about risk and community and what you quote? Oh, the place from which you came.

Don Thompson: So it’s interesting, a lot of people have asked me, so, Don, when you all left, why did you leave Chicago? Why did my grandmother decide to leave? So to give you a better sense of this, we lived in an apartment 1342. Empty lot next door. My cousins across the street. My cousins. So when Liz says family we lived. And when we were on Cleveland. Right there. My grandmother’s daughter, my aunt lived in Indianapolis by herself. So two things occurred at the same time. One was a desire for her to get closer to her. And the second was at that time my cousins and a lot of close, close friends, their paths you can take in the neighborhood. And my grandmother was a grew up in Mississippi and she was a stern handed grandmother. She was her life was based on her faith in the word. But mama was strong and her thought was, you’re not going to get into some stuff that I don’t want you into. And so schooling, she had heard from my aunt. Schools were stronger in the area. So we left Chicago. We went to Indianapolis. I would say the neighborhood we moved into was another apartment area that in the city in Indianapolis, was viewed as a lower income area. It’s called Park Chateau Apartments. So we never left our neighborhood.

Don Thompson: What we did was we moved geographies. And there’s so many people that when you hear people that will move and they say, we lived in Cabrini then we lived in Oakdale Gardens. We lived in this. We, a lot of us have left geographies, but they are fewer in the early stages that left the neighborhood. And even when some of us did move to other places, that sentiment for all of the things that we loved, lived, and learned, was grounded in those neighborhoods. Everything I knew about being really an effective CEO, I learned in the neighborhood.

Don Thompson: I said it to the end of time. I learned a lot of other things academically. That that helped me. But if you looked at the emotional quotient associated with being in the role of a leader of an organization, if you look at and I tell young people who grow up in those neighborhoods, you understand logistics very well better than most people because you don’t navigate how to get home.

Don Thompson: You understand how to manage your budget because when you don’t have money, you definitely learn how you you have so much knowledge that’s in those communities. And so that’s why we always say it’s the neighborhood. It’s not a ghetto. It’s not that place. It’s not Cabrini. It was the neighborhood. And it still is.

Tyler Mathisen: I think there’s so much I think of my son, who is 20. And as I mentioned at IU, there are so many valuable lessons that come out of scarcity and come out of inconvenience. And you can’t protect your. Our instinct is to protect our children from scarcity and inconvenience. But sometimes it’s better to let them experience it so that they learn how to take care of themselves. You both came from the same neighborhood. You both were trained as electrical engineers. You both went to the same to the same school. But but and you both, you began your career in in private enterprise at Ameritech. But fairly quickly, you pivoted into philanthropy and you stayed on the corporate route. The question is, how did two people who came from the same neighborhood, who went to the same school, study the same thing, moved in, moved in such different directions? What was the calling that took you away from the world of the corporation and into the world, like at City or Chicago and the Montessori school? What was the calling? Are you just sort of wired differently, you two electrical engineers?

Speaker 6: I mean.

Liz Thompson: We are not wired differently at all. I’ll just start really quickly with my. And before we go on, I just need to let say two things. One, You all know you’ve been in a thousand of these interviews. You’ve probably had a lot of them yourself and you have prep, right? You get a sense of what the questions are going to be. What I said to Tyler and to Seth this morning, we have never been asked this level of questions before. The thoughtfulness, the preparation. So I want to thank.

Speaker 5: You.

Liz Thompson: For that. And I also want to thank I look out in this audience and I know over half the folks here. So I just want to thank you all for showing up. Yeah, it means something. So thank you. Thank you. When I was at Ameritech, I realized that what I wanted to do more than anything else, it wasn’t that we’re wired differently. It’s how we took our engineering training and decided to apply it. I realized very quickly that I wanted to understand kind of the engineering of people, what makes people tick, what makes organizations tick through leadership of people. And so My people, I discovered, were young people. I started volunteering for an organization called Junior Achievement and realized very quickly that what I was doing from 5 to 9 at night quickly eclipsed all of my thinking, my heart compared to what I was doing from 9 to 5 during the day. And so it made it very easy for me to decide, easy for me to make the decision. Not necessarily easy for us as a couple to decide to take a 50% cut in salary. And y’all just heard where we grew up, and now I’m going to go from a job that was paying X to a job that was paying 0.5 X and to use engineering terms. And, you know, that was not an easy decision for us to come to together. But I just knew that where I was getting my fulfillment was working with those young people. And so we talked about it and we made.

Tyler Mathisen: And that’s how you made that turn? Absolutely. That that was the road that you chose. As I said earlier, I’ve I’ve never had the privilege of interviewing a married couple before. But more importantly, I don’t think I’ve ever had the privilege of, of interviewing two people who define partnership. The way you define partnership and partnership involves sacrifice. Sometimes you have to make compromises along the way to you allow space for him to grow in his career. You allowing space and and and allowing, not allowing. That’s not the right word, but, but embracing the idea that, okay, I’m going to work for point five X. Well, you go wait a minute here. So so take us through how that partnership built on love obviously works and how when the partnership comes to those watershed moments, you guys decide who gets the space, who gets the grace?

Don Thompson: You know, it’s interesting because Liz said it was a tough decision. It was a lot tougher for her than it was for me. And the reason I say that is because it was obvious that the way she lit up when she talked about, you know and at this time it was really city year when she lit up a talking about it. It was like, you absolutely have to do it. It’s not like you can’t do it. So the other piece that probably is somewhat grounding in this is when you come from a place where money was not the penultimate. Then you don’t chase money as the penultimate. So even if it was a reduction, as mama would say, we’re stretch it, we’ll make do. And and we were blessed. We’ve been blessed. I mean, you know, you know, other things happen. Careers move. But it was really because it was important to Liz and, you know, and what was important to me was I was still, you know, I’m still a techie electrical engineer. So I want to design radar jamming systems and do all that kind of stuff. And she, you know, allowed me to do that. And so it really was, you can’t, you can’t, I don’t think you can starve a person’s desire for what really, really makes them happy if you can be in a position to support them. And so it’s kind of defined not only who we were then, I guess as we talk about, it’s kind of defined, you know, same thing as to who we are now.

Tyler Mathisen: You took distinct paths. I mean, you and philanthropy or public service and you’re more in the corporate world. And yet you remained united in sort of heart and soul.

Liz Thompson: Yeah for sure.

Tyler Mathisen: I would say that that would be.

Liz Thompson: And Tyler, I do want to say that when it was time, our daughter was three days old when Don got the call. That really started his career or his trajectory. Trajectory toward becoming CEO. It’s a little bit before that, but what really was the turning point was when he got this call and he had to go on the road. And so we talked about what would that mean? And it was never it was never. Well, I’ll step back while you step forward. That was never the conversation. It was what’s going to be best for our family. And this dude is smart. This dude is smart. Y’all, I, you might assume that for him becoming CEO of the world’s largest restaurant company, you might make that assumption. I want to confirm that this dude is smart and and I’ve known that for 45 years now. And so the idea of making a decision that would benefit our family was based on understanding his level of genius. And so it was never it didn’t feel like a sacrifice, even though it was hard.

Tyler Mathisen: I think that’s a that’s an interesting thought to hold because I was thinking, well, maybe she had to step back to allow him to move forward or, or, or he had to step up to, to allow you to keep doing what you were doing and raise kids. We know that that by and large, the mom takes the lead role.

Liz Thompson: In case that was.

Tyler Mathisen: True. In your case, that’s true. But but really you’re you think of it more holistically that it was the family’s best interest that you had in mind as you made these decisions, not who was going to get what.

Don Thompson: And I would say Liz made the toughest decision and the biggest sacrifice. And I’ve always, you know, we talked about it then Because her. Her decision was we now have we have younger kids and I am going to take care of us at home. You do what you need to do. I’m going to take care of home. And just the nature of that decision on one hand, was very freeing to give you the opportunity to do your thing. But on the other hand, it calls into a higher level of responsibility that I couldn’t take my free time and go play golf. You know, when I was leaving Japan, I was flying to the airport to get back, to get to the football game or the recital or the or, you know, Maya’s basketball game or a track meet or Xavier, you know, you you begin to think about just the that we have always thought about the family unit as, as the kids didn’t, you know, they didn’t ask to come into the world. But they were the blessing that God sent us. So when you think, when we thought about that, our lives have just been kind of wrapped around the responsibility, both the kids and to each other, you know, and then it comes up even later when we found the Cleveland Avenue Foundation for education, that it it was it Liz had to she absolutely had to lead us down that path because that’s what her destiny is.

Tyler Mathisen: As you moved into McDonald’s, I believe you had worked at Northrop Grumman. Is that right? You go to McDonald’s, your path to the top job. There was maybe a little bit unconventional. I mean, you came up through systems and and operations and organization, and you even went to work from the bottom up in a McDonald’s franchise not far from here in Chicago. You were a fry cook. You did it all. You you rose to assistant manager.

Don Thompson: Hey, co-manager and co-manager. That’s for the record.

Speaker 7: I stand corrected.

Don Thompson: That’s right. Co-manager. Yeah.

Speaker 7: So.

Tyler Mathisen: So what do leaders only understand once they’ve done the unglamorous work themselves? Was was running operations so critical to understanding you? You really got down to the nitty gritty. The leaders have to do what you did to really understand how an organization works.

Don Thompson: Well, I think at McDonald’s, most certainly, and I think for any leader you know, first of all, you have to enjoy it. You know, I enjoy the passion of Liz and I both are very people. We’re people. People. I enjoy the passion of our teams in the restaurant. I respect the lifestyles that they were leading. You had people that would work. They would work in a shift in a day. They might work for another restaurant group later that night. You know, you’re being taught by people that are 16, 17 how to do certain procedures. You’ve got a manager that, you know, gets calls day and night to support just the lives of these young people. And then you’ve got, you know, the breakfast crew who are the sages of the world. You know, it was a person who made biscuits and the men and the women that were there and the, the, the people that came in for breakfast. It is such a diverse ecosystem. So for me, if you are a leader and you don’t understand that ecosystem at ground level, how do you address it with sensitivity, empathy, and even a business angle of growth? Because it’s very difficult.

Don Thompson: The other thing that I’d offer is most of the conversations, as we all know, don’t occur in the formal rooms. Most decisions occur outside the formality of a of a boardroom or of a specific meeting. And at McDonald’s, it’s no different. So, you know, most of the conversation came up when you were out chatting with somebody and you have stories about, man, did you ever get burned on the grill? Oh yeah. I remember when we closed the restaurant. You know, how this happened and that if you didn’t have a cadre of stories relative to your experiences, you were not in the mix of that discussion in the same way. And I didn’t go into it to get I didn’t go into it to get stories. I went into it because I really enjoyed and was passionate about that aspect of our business. And that’s where our folks were. That’s where they are. And I have believed that since the very beginning and will forever.

Liz Thompson: It would come home smelling like fried grease.

Speaker 7: And I ain’t for sure. So. So I think.

Tyler Mathisen: It can arguably be said, given the size of McDonald’s, the global nature of McDonald’s, that that that you rose higher in corporate America than any black executive has. When you consider the scale of of of McDonald’s. The list of those executives is distressingly short and remains so today. What did the experience, the path, the struggle as you moved up through the ranks at McDonald’s, teach you about race in a huge corporation, in the boardroom, in society? And were you heartened or disheartened or a little of both as you now look back on that long path?

Don Thompson: As Liz said earlier, some of the, some of the questions that these, these really made, you know, and even now, you know, I sit here and I, I along the way, first of all, it is absolutely and should be disheartening to a nation That we have and have had the number of African American, Latino, other race CEOs. It should be disheartening that we have had not as many women CEOs as we should have had, because genius does not reside in race, nor in gender. Genius resides in people. And it’s not just a genius, you know because there’s a lot of, there’s a lot of smart people who can’t lead. But it’s also the empathy associated with what it means to be in those kind of roles, because the job is not just a technical job, quote unquote. So, you know, as I, as I came through, I never, I always, somebody once asked me, what was it like to be the first African American, first black CEO? And I said, I don’t know, because every day I wake up, I look in the mirror and it looks exactly the same to me.

Don Thompson: And so what that meant for me was I know who Don Thompson is. And when I walked in the room, I never fooled myself. When I walked through the door, I knew it was going to be a lot of people that didn’t look like me. And the thought was when I walked in the room was more like the Joker in Batman, you know? Wait’ll you get a load of me. It was not oh man, I don’t know. You know, and I think it’s important, even for young people today, to understand when you walk in that room, do not be fooled about the potential environment you walk into. But also don’t be jaundiced because when you walk in that room, there’s a lot of allies in that room who look very different than you. There’s a lot of people who look just like you, who might not be your allies. So don’t walk into a room and you paint the color that you didn’t want to be painted with. Walk in that room is an opportunity. And so McDonald’s afforded me opportunities. It afforded me doors that I could walk through. And when I got in the door, then it’s just like anything else. It’s up to everyone. When you get in that door, you got to perform. And so I look at it that way and I think that for whatever reason, there is and still has been this jaundiced approach to looking at talent of people and giving access and opportunity, you know, regardless of what that person’s background might be.

Don Thompson: As a matter of fact, the more diverse the better. Different thoughts, bring it strong, put it on the table, because then we’re going to get the best of all worlds. But if you don’t get that you’re not going to be in good shape. And the last thing I’ll leave with this one too is I am pro-black, not anti-white. And I need to make sure everybody understands that I am, I am for the inclusivity that that diversity of thought brings. But if you look at our teams and a lot of folks that are here that are some of our dearest friends, you all look like the United Nations, and all the hugs go to every single person in every single body because I love you all. We love you and we care about you. You’ve cared about us. That’s what that’s all about. And that’s what leadership is about the same way. And people will say it’s different. You can’t bring that into don’t bring that and don’t bring your faith. Don’t bring your love. Don’t bring your faith into the corporate arena. That’s crap. You bring all of it because you can’t. You can’t shed it when you walk through the door.

Tyler Mathisen: Yeah, yeah.

Tyler Mathisen: We.

Tyler Mathisen: I want to come back to the, to the, to the idea of, of opening doors and opening rooms to people and, and who did that and how for you all. But, but Liz, you’ve worked in large institutions to Ameritech large institution and you’ve created large philanthropic institutions as well. City or Chicago cafe group. How did that pivot from from the corporate world into the philanthropic world? Widen your understanding of leadership from corporate performance to human development, educational equity, human performance?

Liz Thompson: Yeah, I saw a lot of the same things that Don did, as you said. Tyler. I started at Ameritech and was there for ten years. What I learned from being there was the importance of precision at a telecommunications company. When I left, I managed a three state region and was building a fiber optic network at the time, cutting edge technology. And so I understood the, the need for precision and what having that meant or didn’t mean. I learned that, but what wasn’t there for me was how people did the job. We knew that they had to do the job, but how they did the job, how they felt about doing the job. That’s where I was living in my heart and in my head. And so when I left, I wanted to focus more on that. Tyler and understand that as the story. Don just told is what governs so much of how we lead. You got to be close to it. You can lead without being close enough to what the challenges are, but you will not come up with as good a solution if you’re not as close to the challenge. And so for the work that I do now, what I know for sure, as Oprah used to say, is that the people who are closest to the challenges are the ones that come up with the best solutions. And so for me, taking that pivot allowed me to understand what it meant to come up with solutions in the corporate world and how those solutions look different now in the world of social innovation, and how I am very much tied to resourcing people that are closest to the challenges, which is why we started the cafe group and why we started the 1954 project to resource those who come from the communities that they aim to serve, and who have the most proximate life experience, in order for us to get the best solutions out there.

Tyler Mathisen: I want to come back to.

Don Thompson: Just before you go to that. So, Liz, you know, this woman is she is my best friend. We’ve been together for 45 years, you know, but but she always says that I’m a genius in it. That’s the genius. This is the best 99% of dining, Liz.

Don Thompson: And if you didn’t get a feel for it.

Don Thompson: You know, it’s one thing to be able to run what I call is a multi vertical platform set of businesses, this, that, but when you add in the notion and you decide that you’re going, as Liz says, lead with love, and then you parlay that into the social fabric of how you innovate. That’s a whole different, whole different world and a different journey. And she has done that and done it time and time and time again. And so, you know, when we, you know, we people say, you know, you all love each other, you support each other. You know, I get a chance to relish also in the genius that she brings in terms of just watching her. Liz just needed her platform. Just like, you know, I needed a platform. She just needed her platform, you know? And with that platform, this is, this is how the various things have come about from cafe group to, to, to what we do with the different projects and the internship programs, etc.. So I just wanted to, to, to, to rightsize this because, you know, I’m the one.

Liz Thompson: Sitting McDonald’s turn right.

Tyler Mathisen: Liz, 2015 comes along, Don steps away from from McDonald’s. You had, you had a lot of choices you could have made at that time. You could have played pickleball. Okay.

Tyler Mathisen: You could have taken board seats. You could have done speaking. You could have done quiet personal philanthropy, but you chose to take a harder path.

Tyler Mathisen: And really both of you through the Cleveland Group and Cafe and so forth. You chose to take a harder path. Why go harder when you could have gone softer? What was the calling?

Liz Thompson: I love your question. I don’t know that I see it as hard versus soft. You know, it’s almost like this path shows us we we don’t look, y’all, there’s too many things going on in the world right now. Pickleball is fine. You know, golf is fine. And then my people need me. And when I say my people, I’m talking about all of us. Don’t get me started on what it means to be an American. So when we talk about our people, I’m talking about lots of different people because I’m a proud American. I’ll get emotional about it, but our people need us. And so taking a softer route is a viable option for some people, not for us, because there’s too much work to be done. And if not us, then who? And so it was never an option to take that path. It will never be an option for us. Would I like to rewire at some point and slow down? Yup. And I need to talk to you about how you made your choice to do something different. But that was never a viable option for us because there’s too much work to be done.

Tyler Mathisen: Don.

Don Thompson: Yeah, I I mentioned we’re people of faith, and I don’t think that you’re blessed with talents to bury them. I think that it’s it’s, it would not be appropriate for you as an individual. Or is it appropriate for us collectively? You know, if you all were not here today and made this investment of time. I couldn’t see your faces. I couldn’t be fueled or lifted by. By looking out and seeing you. All the things I say might be different if we just sitting, you know, in a room and Tyler would pull out the best parts, I’m sure. But it’s different. That’s why we’re human. We feed off of each other. We need each other.

Liz Thompson: Yeah.

Don Thompson: And so for us, you know, it was never a you know, and the other thing is we’re inquisitive. So, you know, I wanted to, I mean, McDonald’s had made an interest in this company called Chipotle and man, it was great. And we bought and had the majority of Chipotle for a while. And I said, man, what would it be like if you could just create a bunch of those? You know, that would be a fun investment firm. And what if that investment firm could look a lot like me and could look a lot like this room and could be very, very diverse? Could you create a firm that people would look at and go, you all look very, very different than most firms. You don’t walk the same way. You don’t talk the same way. You kind of have a different look to you. You’re focused on operations side of things a lot more than you’re focused on purely the financial side. And what would that look like and feel like? What would it look like if we could put it in a place that looked like a living room and invite everybody in and Liz, as she calls it, be the center of social change relative to a physical asset that people could come in and join together to think about how we make the world better for each other. So that was the path we chose. And and I would say after ten years now, 11 years when we did that it absolutely was the was the right thing.

Tyler Mathisen: You both seemed to think about capital in, in a, in a much broader sense than money alone, that it isn’t just the financial part across Cleveland Avenue cafe group, the recurring ideas, it seems to me, are mentorship and sponsorship and opening doors slash rooms that talented people in many cases have not been able to enter in the past. And that’s what you’re about with your investments and your social programs. What is the difference between financing potential and truly advancing it? And who opened doors for you, and what have you learned about how doors actually get opened?

Liz Thompson: I think when I think about the difference, you know, it’s interesting in the world of philanthropy, we talk about that, we invest, we invest in people, obviously, but through our 1954 project, we select five leaders each year and we invest $1 million of unrestricted capital in.

Tyler Mathisen: What is the goal of the 1954 project?

Liz Thompson: It ultimately is to have philanthropy understand resourcing leaders across the entire landscape. We want to change how philanthropy operates. We want to help people understand that genius resides in every zip code. And let’s start leveraging philanthropy in order to recognize that. So ultimately, we want to change how philanthropy works along that pathway. We want to see more leaders of color be resourced at the same levels that other leaders are. We want to see young people have their minds opened up to the world of philanthropy, to the world of social innovation. Yeah, go be an investment banker. But along the way, understand there’s another whole sector in this country that helps us live our lives every day hospitals, universities, after school programs. These are all nonprofit organizations. We want to be able to introduce young people to that world as well. So ultimately, we want to change how philanthropy works. Ultimately, we want to have the more perfect union that this country says it wants to be. But in order to do that, we have to start investing in the people again who are closest to the challenges. That’s what we’re trying to do with the 1954 project. But unrestricted is important. Tyler, I want to come back to that because if I give you money, if I invest in you, but I do it on my terms, right? That’s a transaction. I’m only believing in you as far as what I know will allow and what I’m trying to do. What we’re trying to do with changing philanthropy is to really explore. How can philanthropy change you? How far are you willing to go to be changed by what you’re investing in? And so when you do it in an unrestricted way, what you’re saying is, I trust what you know, not what I know. I trust what you know.

Tyler Mathisen: It’s unrestricted belief.

Liz Thompson: It is unrestricted belief.

Tyler Mathisen: It’s unrestricted belief and confidence. It’s not just unrestricted money.

Liz Thompson: That’s exactly right. Because I know who you are. I know the genius you have. I am you. And so when I say I’m investing in you, I’m investing in the genius you’ve already demonstrated. You don’t have to prove that to me. We do our diligence. We know you can run an organization. We know you’ve already had impact. But I believe that you can do this. And not not all investors believe. And that’s a transaction. My belief is a relationship.

Tyler Mathisen: And you’re you’re you’re giving people or organizations, you’re not just giving them money, you’re giving them room. You’re not just giving them money and rules. You’re giving them freedom.

Liz Thompson: That’s exactly what it is. Tyler.

Tyler Mathisen: Yeah. How about that? See?

Don Thompson: So, Tyler, we think you’re about to become part of 1950.

Tyler Mathisen: But that was the year I was born. By the way. All right. All right. There you go. Yeah. You gotta come. You know.

Liz Thompson: We get.

Tyler Mathisen: Talking. All right, well, I love that.

Don Thompson: You know, the interesting part about this is.

Tyler Mathisen: There are no coincidences.

Tyler Mathisen: None. Right.

Liz Thompson: That’s what.

Liz Thompson: I’m saying.

Don Thompson: You know what, baby? Get Tyler right now. Get that.

Don Thompson: Number. You know.

Don Thompson: I think to Tyler, what’s interesting is when Liz, as they look at the 1954 project, so you you effectively have over 300 applications from around the US.

Liz Thompson: 500.

Don Thompson: 500 this year.

Liz Thompson: 500 applications from every state in the United States.

Don Thompson: And, and the three tiers relative to the applications come in which areas.

Liz Thompson: So we resource leaders in three areas. One is diversity in education. The second one is innovation in teaching. And the third is increasing diversity in the educator pipeline. So we have an open call for applications. And we, like I say, we get applications from all over the nation. So that tells you two things. One, there are people doing this work in every corner of our nation. And two, the need is real. And so when we go through the three stages, as Don said of our diligence, I. If I could just have you all read the applications that we get so you can see the incredible work that’s being done in Nebraska. Yeah, in California, New York and Chicago, but in Arkansas, in Wyoming, in New Mexico. It is humbling. It is inspiring. And it will make you mad as hell because there’s so much need. And so yeah, I forgot what your original question was, but I’m just saying.

Tyler Mathisen: I have too.

Liz Thompson: Yeah, yeah yeah yeah. But the, the need is real. And what we are trying to do through not only our philanthropy, y’all, we couldn’t do this work without the generosity of so many others out there. Our partners, Walton Family Foundation, so many foundations that do this work in collaboration with us, we wouldn’t be able to do it without them, and one day I hope to be able to get everybody involved, because you will be truly inspired by the level of work that’s happening in 1954.

Tyler Mathisen: Project is part of the under the umbrella of cafe.

Liz Thompson: The.

Liz Thompson: Cafe Group.

Tyler Mathisen: And that’s Cleveland Avenue Foundation for.

Speaker 7: Education.

Tyler Mathisen: There’s Cleveland Avenue.

Liz Thompson: There it is.

Tyler Mathisen: One more time.

Tyler Mathisen: And Cleveland Avenue LLC is the main investment fund that you guys both supervise. That puts money into mostly correct me if I’m wrong, consumer brands a lot in food and beverage. You’ve had great success with how big is that fund now?

Don Thompson: So we’ve got, you know, I guess there was a Crain’s article that came out and they kind of understated it a little bit. We, we’ve got six funds. Those funds are different ones, a technology fund, two food and beverage funds cast us, which is Cleveland Avenue state Treasurer. Urban Success, which focuses on entrepreneurs of color and women and getting access to capital. And the support services, which we also provide to all of our funds cast us is relatively small fund that we created for a very specific purpose. The broader funds that we have are even more substantial, but I mean, we’ve invested, you know, a little over, I guess we’re coming up on around two. $2 billion or somewhere around there.

Tyler Mathisen: So that’s, that’s that’s amazing. Yeah, it’s just.

Don Thompson: It’s been, it’s been, it’s been fun to be able to. And that goes from beyond meat was one of the early investments, the farmers fridge that you all see to, to the robots. If you’re in the United Club, you see the little robots running around that help them put the trays on it. It’s an investment we have out of a company called Bear Robotics with companies like LG. So we’ve got a broad range technology sector, food and beverage ag ag tech. And then there are, there’s a bucket of consumer related and cast us as an agnostic fund. It’s industry agnostic. So we seek out talented individuals who we think can make a great impact, who have great ideas. They just happen to be under-resourced and undercapitalized. And the last thing I’d say, the biggest thing that both Liz and I do is whether it’s with 1954 or with those funds, the entrepreneurs, both on the impact side of that fabric Liz mentioned, or on the other sides that I mentioned, in those industries, we typically wrap cohorts around people. So that’s the bigger part. They get together. So we bring people together to talk with each other to because especially on, on Liz’s end, it can be really lonely, especially now if you’re focused on education, if you’re focused on broader inclusivity. It can be lonely out there. And so we she just had one of her network summits where she brings the folks together. And one of the things we do the same with entrepreneurs.

Liz Thompson: We bring the entrepreneurs from the Cleveland Avenue side together with the social innovators from the cafe group side. And not a lot of people are doing that these days. And we think there’s a lot to be learned because the IRS is sneaky, right? They divide us up and they say for profit nonprofit, the leaders are the same. The genius is the same.

Tyler Mathisen: I’m going to open it up here. We’re going to go to about 915. I’m going to open it up to audience questions in just a minute. But but but let me slip in a couple of more before we go. I mean, you all have helped provide capital. You have helped provide access and expertise. But, but I sense that there are still structural barriers that hold people back that, that, that there isn’t really equality of access, equality of access to capital, and so on. So how are you thinking about changing the systems that can hold people back, even as you operate organizations that enable people to move forward?

Don Thompson: I would say one is to to highlight those successes because far too often the things that get highlighted are not the positive stories of success of, of, of entrepreneurs from all walks of life. You know, it’s these things just need to be front and center. I mean, as a company, we invested in open water, open water, and a lot of people, some of the aluminum cans, some of you may have it, it’s run by two women, Jesse Nicole. They are unbelievable entrepreneurs. One’s a Latina. One’s a Caucasian woman. They are unbelievable. They’re part of our cast us fund as well. And, but but you know, people see open water. They know them. But there’s another cast of these individuals. Denise had partake who does you know cookies that are non allergenic as a result of her her own child. You’ve got all of these entrepreneurs that have been very innovative. And so what we try to do is to highlight those. As a matter of fact, tomorrow I’m headed to something we did with the WNBA. It was the first time they’ve done it. A couple years ago, we partnered with the Phoenix Suns and Mercury and the Mercury, specifically the women’s basketball team, and they put a little banner on the jerseys. And if you ever see, you’ll see a banner. The first banner they had was for partake of a company owned by a woman, Denise, African American woman out of New York. And it’s for her cookies. They’re about to put another banner on now for Hero Foods, which is a zero net carb bread company that we have an interest in. So even doing things like that to try to get them more visible out there and to create strategic partnerships with organizations that are willing to take these same journeys and pathways that we are.

Tyler Mathisen: All right. Let’s turn to the audience. And I would only ask that you introduce yourself and keep your questions short so we can get as many in as as possible right here in the front, this gentleman.

Audience Member: Thank you. Liz and Don, thank you very much. You decimate the negative stereotypes that the larger world has of black people, and you encourage black people to see what can be achieved. Thank you so much for everything you do. Here’s my question, Liz, you mentioned earlier that you were proud to be an American. One party tends to believe that they own the flag. Would you elaborate on why you are proud to be an American and what the opportunities are for participation at being a participant in sport called democracy?

Liz Thompson: Yeah. Graham, thank you for all you do, your support for us, for this city, for our nation. Thank you. Yeah. I am a proud American. You know, that gets me in trouble sometimes, especially in this particular environment. But nobody owns what it means to be a patriotic American. Not one party, not one person. Nobody owns that. In fact, I feel like if we were going to have ownership, black people could own that outright because we continue to fight for a nation that has never fulfilled its promises for a more perfect union for all of its citizens. In fact, we weren’t even considered citizens for a long time, and we’re still fighting for the country. So but I believe that this is the only nation that I’ve known, and I love it. I will not let anyone tell me that I cannot be patriotic. Does that mean because I love it so much, I reserve the right to critique it. And so for that reason, I will continue to love it. I will continue to fight like hell for it, and I will continue to critique it because it has never been the perfect union we have aspired to be. And now we have people that say that, you know, maybe it maybe it won’t be the perfect union that I want it to be. Hogwash. I’m going to continue fighting like hell for it. And all of us should. If we believe that democracy is really worth fighting for, I do. And if we feel like America is worth fighting for, I do. But the America that respects all of its citizens, including those that came from other shores. Because guess what? If you’re not Native American, we all did. And and here we are. So that’s how I feel. Graham.

Tyler Mathisen: Thompsons for president.

Tyler Mathisen: I think you probably.

Tyler Mathisen: Carry this room pretty easily.

Tyler Mathisen: Let’s go to the lady in the orange there. Hi.

Audience Member: Good morning. This has been so fulfilling for this story. But the question I have is that we know that so many businesses are built on brands. You all chose to build your enterprises on love as your brand. Now some brands are earned and some brands people declare, but you all sort of earned it and declared it. And I want to know your thought process of really embracing love, because that’s something that’s not always associated with business.

Don Thompson: You know, I always say, Dorie, first of all, good to see you and thank you for all you do and have done

Liz Thompson: In so many different.

Don Thompson: Yes, yes. You know what? So Liz is, is, is, is the master of love. I mean, that’s what everybody calls. They know it. Matter of fact.

Don Thompson: Yeah. She’s got her thing on. Yeah.

Liz Thompson: I want this for you, Dorie.

Don Thompson: I would I look at it this way. I lead with my faith. Love is a part of my faith. And so when, when we, when I think about what our walk. That walk has got to be a walk that is respectful of everyone. It’s got to be a walk that is as supportive as we can be. It’s got to be a walk that’s truthful. So some say that’s called tough love. There are companies we’ve invested in and entrepreneurs and partnerships we’ve had that might say, well, Don, that didn’t seem loving. You know, it is in truth and it is also seeing the greatness in people and what they actually can be. Sometimes we don’t see it in ourselves. You know, there are a bunch of people in my career that saw something in me I definitely did not see and pushed me really hard toward it. And at the time, I may not have liked it, but at the end of the day Liz and I push each other, you know there’s days that, you know, we have a favorite saying when we go to bed at night, we have to give each other a kiss, and you have to look at each other and say, I love you. I may not like you today, but I love you. But but never let ourselves go to bed without that. And, and I think that our walk is the same way. So, you know, leading with faith, leading what I think God would have me to do have us to do and, and as a part of that, clearly love is, is a big part of it.

Liz Thompson: And I think rejecting the idea that you can’t, as Don said earlier, that you can’t bring it into the workplace like you think you have to check it as you’re walking out the door, hanging on the hook at home.

Liz Thompson: And then leave to go to work and then pick it back up when you come home. And that’s, that’s a myth.

Liz Thompson: One of our team members is here today, Ellie Cumberbatch. Ellie knows that, you know, we tell each other I love you on a regular basis. I basis. I love you, Ellie Cumberbatch. And if I can’t say that, then what’s the purpose? What’s the I love you?

Don Thompson: I love you. Now, I don’t go around saying that all day. So. So I know some of y’all are gonna be like, Daniel. You go around saying, I love you, I love. I don’t tell everybody that. I mean, I try to show it, I try to show it, but, you know, it’s Ellie knows every now and then like, okay, there goes Don. Something’s not going right. But, but I think it, I think it also has to come across, especially for an organization. And people will always remember how you made them felt, how you made them feel. They will always remember that. And I think you just try to do it. We just try to do it out of respectful trust and care and love.

Liz Thompson: Yes. It comes across in your policies. It comes across in your what your leaves are. It comes across in all kinds of ways. Just don’t abandon love and leave it at home, y’all. Bring it to the workplace. I reject how we’ve grown up in this country as corporate America. Yeah, we got a whole lot of money. And bring the love with you. Bring it along.

Don Thompson: There’s some for you.

Tyler Mathisen: Let’s come to this lady here all the way down, right next to me. And then we’ll get a couple more and then wrap it up.

Audience Member: Good morning. Thank you both for working with the youth of today. My gosh, do they need support and help. And I do not see it. In those that are in the leadership role my concern is that I started out teaching in the 70s. We had service learning. It was all about as a teacher, I would work 24 over seven. It was all about what I could give to the student, what can I give to the community? And that’s what I my messaging was. I see the messaging now as, what are you going to do for me? And that’s, that’s a concern. So what are your thoughts as far as working with the leadership, those that the young people are looking to receive the help.

Liz Thompson: What’s your name?

Audience Member: Oh, I’m Connie.

Liz Thompson: Hi, Connie. Connie, when you say you see people saying, what’s in it for me? Are you referring to the young people or to the leaders? The leaders? Yeah. Here’s what I say, because I got to lead with love. You know, a lot of people are really looking around these days for evidence that somebody believes in them. Whether they’re 17 or 77, they’re looking for the evidence that somebody believes in them. So it would be easy to say, yeah, we’re going down the wrong path. And yet what I think is that people are looking for affirmation, confirmation wherever they can find it. And in many cases, they’re looking for it from their young students. And so without being indicting, one of the most practical solutions that I think we can do, this is going to sound cliche, y’all, but it’s so real. You got to love people, catch them doing something right, catch them doing something right and tell them, wow, I really appreciate how you helped that person across the street. Thank you for that. I really appreciate your service. You know, at this restaurant today. Thank you for that. The more people feel that unconditional, unrestricted belief, the more it will unleash them to be able to then give it. And so it’s a long term solution. Yes. But it is a fail safe solution. The more you love people, the more they will be released to give that love in return. And so I want to see more people go into teaching more people who already feel loved and affirmed, because then it’s so much easier for them to pass it on. But for those who don’t have that, they’re looking for it. And I feel like everybody in this nation can help with that. If we just figure out how to catch people doing things right, how to love people, it’s free, how to love on people. It’s a different world. If we do that.

Tyler Mathisen: It’s really about being human. I mean, letting the human, letting the human out more. And what you said earlier, Don really stuck with me. And that’s, that’s the idea. How did you make that person feel today? Did you make them feel better or did you make them feel worse? Did you make them feel more confident? Less confident? Did you make them feel the love or the anger? And let’s take one more question from this side, because I’ve sort of neglected this side. Lady in the orange dress.

Audience Member: Hello. I’m wanted to go back to the two last two questions you had for the Thompsons, which was, I believe, on who opened the door for them and what they saw as leadership or something. To that extent, I can’t remember, but I would we would love to know about that.

Tyler Mathisen: Let me go back and see if I can find that other question. You talk about opening doors. What did you do that who opened doors for you?

Don Thompson: You know, I would say the first door and I go back to it routinely. But the first door was my grandmother. She opened, she opened up the doors. To me being. Yes, loved. And she also opened up the door to my faith. And I saw her her life how strong she was and what that foundation meant to her throughout the years. You know, I also was blessed with a number of and another coaching point I give to a lot of people. I was blessed with a lot of sponsors throughout my career, not necessarily what people would call mentors. I had maybe one mentor but I had a lot of sponsors. People who were in were in my corner that I didn’t even know about, you know, and you hear about them years and years later. But there was a lot of doors open by those sponsors. Just saying, you know what? I interacted with this person. Hey, why don’t you give them a call? They might be able to help you. And I get a call from somebody that said, hey, could you do X, Y, or Z? And then the last group that I would say, and this is going to sound very different, but when Liz and I began Cleveland Avenue and Cleveland Avenue Foundation for education, it’s interesting when you leave a CEO role.

Don Thompson: Okay. When you’re CEO, you walk into a building, you know, and everybody you’re the CEO. When you leave, you find out whether or not you built relationships while you were the CEO, because people don’t need to, you know, you’re not CEO anymore. And so there were a lot of people that have been in our lives that have opened up additional doors, whether that’s some of our capital partners and sponsors and, and folks that have taken this journey with us. And in an interesting way, they have opened the doors of opportunity for us to do what we do. And so I will be forever thankful to them.

Tyler Mathisen: The second part of my question was how do doors get opened? And I think you just answered that in in a large way.

Liz Thompson: So, Tyler, can I just add.

Tyler Mathisen: Yes, please. Please do.

Liz Thompson: So it’s important to be that person that opens doors. Yes. Others. But that’s a transaction. The relationship you build once you open that door and walk through with them, that’s what will stay with them forever. So we are about relationships, not transactions. Somebody once said that, you know, I, I send the elevator back down for people. And I said, no, I am the elevator. Like, I’m coming back down. And it’s not even down. I’m coming back to get you. So I will ask that, you know, open the door. Be the elevator. Be the vessel. Whatever it is, just go get somebody else.

Tyler Mathisen: Final question. If you could go back 40 odd years to professor whose class? Swinging door swinging door to professor, swinging doors class and talk to your younger selves about what the next 50 years or 40 years could look like. What would you say to that younger self, and is there any part of the younger you that you feel you’ve lost, but wish you still had?

Liz Thompson: You did not put that in the press box.

Tyler Mathisen: I did.

Tyler Mathisen: Not. Oh. That’s the wild card question over there.

Don Thompson: It’s.

Tyler Mathisen: You can see it’s written in there.

Liz Thompson: Ooh. Buckle up.

Liz Thompson: The next one we do. Tyler. The next conversation we have could go in so many different directions. What does it mean to be an ex CEO? And who does the world see you and think you are at that point? How you shatter all of that? Anyway, the question, the question I would, I would tell myself, I would tell us to buckle up. I would tell us that if you think this brother’s fine now.

Liz Thompson: It gets so much better.

Don Thompson: Yeah, I would I would, I would say looking back now, you know, I’d say you have no idea What kind of ride you’re in for. You just, you know, and just open yourself up to whatever pathways it may come up. Don’t turn down anything except your collar. Look for opportunities to to be educated and just, just just hang on because it is. We have been blessed with a ride full of blessings, friendships, partnership, our lives together, our kids, our grandbaby. Now all of the the people that have touched us and we’ve been able to touch. We have just absolutely. If if there is a headline, the headline is we have been blessed. Period. That’s it. And so I just say, strap in and look forward to blessings.

Tyler Mathisen: Yeah. Best conversation ever.

Tyler Mathisen: Thank you. I really loved it. Thank you.

Seth Green: Can we say a huge thank you to Don and Liz and Tyler? And I’ll just close by saying very few people can come to the home of Milton Friedman and make the case for love and relationships as the core of business, and have everyone in the room totally persuaded. And on a serious note, what you said at the beginning about growing up in a neighborhood that inspired your creativity in the context of scarcity and helped you to know what really matters. And I think that’s what you bring to us as a university, is that diversity of thought, because it’s so easy to have a very narrow way of looking at the world and thinking about it, maximizing this very measurable good. And what you described was a very big vision for a much better society. And so thank you for bringing that and for helping us all through that thought. And thank you all for joining us for this very special morning. Have a great day.