[Bonus] Weekly Impact: Craig Hassall (Playhouse Square), IoVs and, Innovation Summit

Hello everyone and welcome to the Lay of The Land Podcast. I’m your host Jeffrey Stern and today we’re doing something a little different.

My guests this week are my friends and partners over at Impact Architects —who many of you will note are the longest-time supporters of Lay of The Land and the community building work we’re doing together — Kris Snyder and Jim Haviland who’ve spent over a decade together as serial entrepreneurs building companies like Ninety, Vox, and Impact Architects here in Cleveland.

For the last year or so, Kris Jim, and I have sat down to debrief Lay of The Land episodes after they are published… I’ve always been so enamored by the insights Jim and Kris have been able to extract from each episode, I’ve come to look forward to their learnings and musings like I do from my favorite podcasts — So I’m thrilled to announce here that they’ve opened up these insights and weekly debriefs in the form of a video podcast so that more people can tune in and benefit from them!

Available now, you can join their quick discussions, debrief of Lay of The Land, and recap other developments in Cleveland’s entrepreneurial community going forward.

In this week's episode, I’m republishing their account of Craig Hassal — CEO of Playhouse Square and Lay of The Land’s 175th conversation.

Weekly Impact by Lay of The Land is linked in today’s show notes and I’d encourage you to search for it in your podcast player now and subscribe not to miss episodes like this one and others like their reflections on Matt Buder Shapiro — Lay of The Land’s 14th and 170th episodes — who’s company Vytalize health was just ranked Number 1 on the 2024 Inc 5000 list, as the fastest growing company in the country with $1.5 billion in revenue last year, a three-year top line growth of 90,778 percent, and that is not a typo.

So with that, please enjoy Weekly Impact with Kris Snyder and Jim Haviland.

Jim Haviland & Kris Snyder (00:00)
Hello and welcome everyone to Lay the Land weekly impact. I'm Jim Havland. I'm Kris Snyder. Kris, it is the 22nd of July. Summer's going by like a lickety split. I can't believe it, Slow down, slow down. Today we have the third in like a series, think. don't think, I don't know, Jeffy didn't say it was meant to be, but the last three shows have really been about non -traditional entrepreneurial journey. So we had Mitchell Vargo who's making great places to go hang out.

party and have a good time, which is a great, great thing. didn't know anything about going forward. Then we had the double G films who made me cry last week with their upcoming film release of Lost and Found in Cleveland. Can't wait for that. And now we're talking about Greg Hassel, who is an internationally renowned. A. Creator of events is that we're putting it the Olympics and festivals and amazing stuff.

And he's now in charge of Playhouse Square. Yeah. Jim, this is the first podcast I sent to my kids who are 16 and 19. we were kind of a theater kids, theater theater family who love musicals. Yeah. And he had such a great story. I don't know they'll listen, but I did send it. I texted it to them. Right. So we'll see. But I thought it was really cool. I'm sure we're to get into it, but that's a great thing.

Yeah, the kids, you it gets downplayed. It should have been someone else sending it to him. Like, that's it. Oh, it's going to be lame. Maybe it was a tick tock and I would have got more. Yeah, probably. We'll work on that. So Greg Haslund, number 175, does a great job of talking through his journey of discovery about Cleveland. You know, I think this is true. This was true in the last couple of shows we listened to when there's outsiders. And this is through Jeffrey's story as well, realizing this is an amazing place.

Yeah, I had a reflection back to I think you've heard me tell the story before when Dan Gilbert first came and he bought the Cleveland Cavaliers. There was a there was a I don't know, I think it was Crane's did a whole like meet Dan. And so we got there and you know, people are excited. We didn't know really who Dan was at the time, right. And then he got up on stage and he chastised us because we're supposed to be leaders and in the city invite only type of moment. And he basically said, Look, he's like, I don't understand why you're so down on your city. Yeah, I'm from Detroit.

He's like, we have more problems and I'm not down on it. He's like, you all need to find it because you're so worried about everyone else feeling this way that you've adopted that feeling and you're projecting on yourselves. And I felt like that was kind of a similar sentiment that he was sharing on the podcast. It was like, look, outside of maybe the US, no one thinks of Cleveland that way. They may not think of Cleveland often enough, but they definitely don't have a negativity towards it. mean, I remember when I first came back to Cleveland, my second tour of duty, like to say, but it was around

1. And there was they did a study. It was for the greater Cleveland partnership, like, know, growth association, I think is what they were going at them. And they just study on what international leaders thought of Cleveland. And it was then right after 9 -11, the report came out. the good news is, we're not going to get attacked because no one knows where we are. Craig even said that he's like, I'd heard of it, but I didn't quite know where it I where it was. Right. And it is an issue, you know, and it is a rich, a rich history.

But I think it's very much like what they talked about in last week's show, the level of authenticity and kind of active pride in the city. People will work here to keep things here, to make things work. I know with other adventures I've been, they're very, like my sister's restaurant, if you're new, like, I don't know about you yet, but once you're there, it's like, no, we love you, you're staying. We're gonna, if you ask the question.

then that's gonna be, it's a wonderful life moment. We're all gonna empty the kitty to come help you out. I see that happen again and again. And he called out a number of great things happening, I think that are changing that tone though. Justin Bibb, he was in show 15, has been doing a lot to kind of change the tone of that. I think we've seen, certainly it's been on, we want to do that. It's part of our flywheel to get people to know that you can do great things here.

Yeah, well, it's also they talked about the cyclical nature of a city, right? Like San Francisco is probably in a down cycle. Austin's probably peak, but starting to come. You're right. You don't think it's. Yeah. So I think every city has some cycles. I think he was advocating that we're probably on the up cycle, right? That we've got enough momentum. Things are going on. Yes, we still have challenges. All cities do. But we got some momentum in that. That's probably good to consider. I was thinking about that because I compare it to like real estate in Cleveland. You know, we didn't boom or we didn't. We haven't busted.

Wouldn't it be nice if we just could continue to rise gracefully? I believe it can happen. Well, boom and bust are hard cycles. They're hard cycles, man. Because you break things you don't want to break is the problem. On the downside, it isn't like you get to choose. It's also going to break. And so that gentle rise, I'm happy with that. That's a good model.

I also want to call out like, cause you know me, when we start working with clients on the coaching side, one of my favorite things to do is kind of vision sessions. Yes. Right. And so hearing, hearing him really starts to kind of debate with his team around like, how big is this vision? Right. And to say, for me, and I, and I think he'd agree that it doesn't have to be overly specific. It's directional in its nature. And it's as far as the founding members, the visionary, if you want to call it that in the moment can see out. Right. And I love the fact that he's going to surprise.

the world basically. to say that it shouldn't just be Northeast Ohio, it shouldn't just be the US. And it shouldn't be surprising to us when you have somebody really like Craig who has a global view. 100%. Why not? Why not? Well, I think that's, and then we talk about it, to dig into that, that really important differentiator between your purpose and your niche. if you're going to, in your niche, can be, you want to be specific. Like this is where we're going to attack right

Yeah, we're going to do but their purpose should be expansive as you want because you're not going to over Accomplish your purpose, you know, like I just want to be the best on this city block You know, it's like you should be trying to you know, what would it look like if we did this? You know, how would we how would we go beyond we're doing right now? Why not challenge the world? Yeah, and I'm saying fans of Simon Sinek and the just cause right and he often says when you're working on the world in which you believe in which the world which you vision

It is your time for your, have a dream speech, not your, have a plan speech. I think that's similar to the way that. And her desire to be practical, you know, kind of gets in the way of that sometimes. But I love that. Love a shout out to Justin Bibb. was a great conversation. And definitely, if you want to go to school a little bit on creating your vision, this is a good episode for you. All right. So I also want to talk about Kris, very similar to that. I had a great introductions of value story. And I'll have you talk about introductions of value here in a second. so I was.

Following up with one of the Lay of the Land alumni, and I won't call him out, he can talk about it later. It's his story to tell, not mine. But I was talking to him because he said he maybe wanted to start working together and I met him at one of the Lay of the Land monthly events. If you want to learn about that, let us know. that's where, know, Jeffrey's done a great thing coordinating these smaller events and introducing people to each other, which is a great thing to do.

Because it's around connectivity. think we're giving people the opportunity in small groups to break bread together, have a dinner. We envision having breakfasts and some things too. But as this community continues to get curated deeper, as we talk about episode 175, right? And on another 2030 that's been recorded, the community is getting large, right? And there's so much connectivity to be had because we focus so much as entrepreneurs on doing our thing. so, mean, like there are people I didn't know existed that have been on the

Right, so right. just imagine that times 175. We all have people we haven't met yet and in curating those. That's a great event. I met a handful of people there that I hadn't met before, including this one member that he's building a great business. He's doing a great job, has amazing opportunities for him. But as he sometimes do, he was a little bit maybe optimistic and overextended a little bit. And he said, this is what my biggest problem is right now. I said, well, so I spent about an hour with him breaking it down because.

That's what we do. We don't sell, coach. I coach them out and said, okay, this is what I can do. And so I met with Jeffrey afterwards. Like, Jeffrey, this is what I'm gonna solve. I'm gonna talk to these people. Who else should I talk to? And Jeffrey, you know, had great memory. We picked three people I was gonna reach out to. I picked out three people within 48 hours, Kris, I had 10 people coming back. How can I help? Asking details, how can I step up? I mean, we're all busy, Kris. Like, these weren't people that sitting around. These were all founders and entrepreneurs and people like, including one that was

Perfect fit. Perfect fit. And I made the introduction of value. It's like, hey, this is my vision for how you guys work together. This is this person that's working these great things, this thing, and things. And they just connected. But for us, mean, this is so exciting to me because it is the flywheel we've been trying to build with Layland, with the Layland events, with our work in general, our purpose in general. Yeah. Well, and so that story, other people have those stories before, But they did more accidentally.

The way in which you're doing it is intentionally back to our one of our favorite words there, Like intention and with the intention and the design that talk about what is an introduction of value. It's an intentional way to introduce two parties, right? And cause people do it all the time and connecting and networking. But it's hard to know like, why am I taking that introduction? Right. But if you can describe in a superlative way, right. And a trusting way.

What that they're gonna get at it with those two parties. Why are you taking the time to make that introduction? Then I think it's actionable you can you infuse it with context So this is why you should talk to each other and and if you're superlative if you actually if your intention is to transfer trust to Remove caveat emptures like why am I talking to you? Right? If you get if you know, that's your job That is the point of that making introduction then now they have a reason to talk now They have a process to talk now. They have subject matter to talk

And that's a much better chance of getting something happening. The antithesis of this is all the trash that we see on LinkedIn and emails that are spamming is saying, Hey, my CEO or my so and so said I should reach out to you because it's like, well, a I don't know that person or trust that person. Right. So how can I don't know that I can't trust them. B that's just the BS way to come at me. Right. Like, so I do believe what we're trying to do with this with high trust relationships, the transfer the extension of trust in these introductions of value.

is really how our community can make those types of experiences like you just described really happen. Yeah, Kris, I think about this in terms of like you and I been on this journey for 20 some odd years. Dude, trust at scale. What does that look like? But it's real. You've got to create. It can't just be news, weather and sports. You have to have a deeper conversation. Yeah. That's what the work to be done then. So frequency, depth and duration. Last thing I want to shout out, Cleveland Greater Cleveland Partnership. We'll talk more about them. They're having a great event in the fall that I'll be speaking out. I can't wait for that. But this week,

Cleveland Innovation Summit going on on Tuesday evening, six to eight, I think. can look online, you can even find registration for that. But Jeffrey is actually doing a panel there. Congratulations, Jeffrey, on that. It's going to have a, know, and there's really, is, it's what's fun, Kris. I'd say 80 % of people speaking there are going to be people that have been on the show. So we're doing a pretty good job of coverage. Dallas, Hugginson from Felix is going to be there on the panel, Drew Anderson.

from Central Kitchen, his partner, was it Eric Diamond? Yeah, was on Show 54, Ray Leach, Show 69 from Ohio Fund, they just launched that. That's gonna be interesting to hear about. And Todd Fetterman, our good friend and partner who was from North Coast Ventures, number 28. So lots of stuff to go on there. That should be a fun event and we'll talk about it next week probably. Looking forward to it. All right, thanks everybody. Have an impactful week.

Jim, Kris, thanks so much, I appreciate it, Jim. Thanks. Take care,