The Michigan Opportunity
The Michigan Opportunity
S6 Ep. 6 - Matt Elliot, Founder and CEO, Blue Lake Ideas
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From $35B in Sustainable Capital to The Power of &™: Matt Elliott on Driving Durable Growth and Community Impact
Matt Elliott, Founder and CEO of Blue Lake Ideas, is a nationally recognized business and sustainability leader who advises executives and boards on navigating complexity and driving durable growth through his The Power of &™ leadership framework. In this episode Matt discusses his background as President of Bank of America Michigan and Sustainability Executive for Business and Global Commercial Banking. Diving into how he led teams across nine states and deployed more than $35 billion in sustainable capital.
Additionally, Matt is a former Chair of the Detroit Regional Chamber and board leader with Business Leaders for Michigan, the Michigan Israel Business Accelerator, and the Detroit Economic Club.
Welcome to Mission Opportunity, an economic development discussion series and extended conversations with business leaders and innovators across Mexico. You'll hear first account on how the state is driving job growth in business investment, supporting a thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem, building private communities, and helping to attract and retain one of the most diverse and talented workforces in the nation. And now your host, Ed Clemente.
SPEAKER_01Hello and welcome to the show. We're fortunate to have with us Matt Elliott. He's the former president of the Bank of America, Michigan. He's now a founder and CEO of Blue Lake Ideas. Matt was also an active member with several key boards across the state, including business leaders from Michigan, as well as the Detroit Regional Chamber, which he was the chair of in 2024, which I was at that event when you were also before you were the chair at uh Mackinac Policy Conference, which is obvious sort of the step up before the chair, right?
SPEAKER_02It is. You know, the the the Mackinac Policy Conference is the one where you get a lot of uh publicity, but actually a lot of the work happens when you're the board chair the following year. It was a great experience all the way around.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, no, no, no. And and and and I've been a fan of that conference since I way back, even before I was leaving in these jobs. And and I do usually the last couple of years, I've done a remote from there too, on Media Row. So it's uh been a good place to pick up a lot of good guests like yourself.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So, Matt, why don't you, before we get in and we can unpack some of the other things, but why don't you at least tell us a little bit what what your blue lake idea is, Alan?
SPEAKER_02Sure. Well, most of my career actually was spent in banking, Ed. So I stepped out of a 35-year career in banking uh, you know, in uh about a year ago. And at the end of that, I was the, well, for the last 14 years, I was the president of Bank of America, Michigan. Um, and the work that I did then is pretty similar to the work that I do now. I mean, a lot of the work that I did in banking was helping align people, money, and strategy, either for my clients or for the teams that I led inside of B of A. Um, I also spent a lot of time leading commercial banking around the Midwest, which we can get to in a little bit if we're going to talk about economic development. So the work I do now, really as an advisor and a thought leader, is to help leadership teams and leaders themselves align people money and strategy. And I feel like the biggest issue that they're facing now is how to lead themselves and their teams in a world of exponential change. And so what I do is help people find clarity under pressure. And uh, that's been a lot of fun. And uh, I'm working on a book, uh, I'm doing some keynote speaking, and I've also turned all that work into a workshop. And uh, we're off and running uh and have clients signed up to help us with that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and it is kind of funny, but this is just more my observation. How when you go through a lot of things like you've done, like in a career, you're not always sure what the next step is. But then when you it's nice to have that clarification where you realize everything was part of like the foundation to make you be able to do the things you're doing now, I would guess, right?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I mean, that's a great point. I had the the the privilege, I guess, of being able to call a timeout and say, okay, for the next thing, what do I really want to do? And it's the intersection of you know what my interests are, what my skills are, and I think what the world could use. And um, you know, it's been a lot of iteration and testing and learning over the last year, but we're starting to get our rhythm and uh and it's been a lot of fun. And it's also a completely different experience. I worked most of my career in large corporate uh environments, and now I'm an entrepreneur, um, which, by the way, is is increasingly common among more and more people I talk to. And I think it's a great thing about our state because we now have a growing innovation sector, which, you know, for years and years we didn't have, and uh, and we will need if we're gonna be successful long term.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and I think I want to unpack that innovation stuff a a little bit later, but I want to I mean, because right now I'm reading a book, and I'm sure you might have heard of it, Breakneck. And it's really changing my views on things about what we need to do in this country as well as the state, as how we need to really you know, how do we move into our next phase as a global economy? But let's talk a little bit, let's this is like being at the bank for so long, what do you think your sort of uh key foundational things that helped you? I know you gave like you put the three things together when you do the job, but what what did you find out that really fit into our economy, you know, more than anything? Because I think a banking perspective is a very unique one.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you know, one of the things that B of A does a great job of, they're led by a very strong CEO, Brian Moynihan. And I think Brian does did a very good job and does a very good job for the bank of being really clear about the interesting role that banks play in the economy. You know, and you know, the the bank is really, if you think about the economy almost as a body, the bank is the vascular system. All right. It's it's the system, the banking system is what moves the money around, which is sort of like the blood of the economy. And so it's important, obviously, for the banks to be stable, the banks to be dependable, because the whole business model is based on trust. Um, but it's also important for banks to be responsible in terms of the way that they act, the way they allocate capital. And you can't sit there and say, you know, the shareholder stops here and the community begins there because the the outcomes are tied to each other. And so I think that the thing I learned the most, especially with the economic development work that I have done at the at Business Leaders from Michigan and the Detroit Chamber, is really understanding the importance of that alignment, like I talked about earlier, people, money, and strategy. And that the bank's job primarily was to understand the strategy and be in service of people and make sure the money is there to support that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. You know, it's like it's like you're in a car and you kind of know where you're going, but you also need to also have the gas and you need to have, you know, the vehicle too, right?
SPEAKER_02And yeah, it exactly. You know, and and one of the things that I love the most about my job as a banker uh was sitting down with a management team or a leadership team and having them explain the vision, saying, here's where we want to go. And what we would always say is great, we'll draw you the map. Like, we'll draw you the capital structure map to help fund that in a way that gets you there sustainably, because who knows what kind of weather you're going to encounter along the way of your journey, right? And those were a lot of the things that we had to do. And if the client was able to succeed, then the bank succeeded. I I there was a there's a fellow board member at BLM uh who I think for the last decade, every time I see him, his name's Mike, he would say, How's the bank doing? And I would always say turn it around and say, Well, how are you doing? If the, you know, if you're doing well, then we're doing well. And uh, you know, I think that was one of the most important lessons that we learned and we internalized, especially coming out of the financial crisis, is that we're in it together. And uh, I feel like that's something in the state that uh we we understand quite well that our industries and the success of the state are tied closely together. He knows that as a member of MEDC. And it's important for us to create outcomes for for everyone, fundamentally, so that the people in the state of Michigan can win.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and in fact, uh I I I think it's hard, and I would imagine with 30 or 30 years plus years, I forget how many you said, but um you know, the banking industry has gone through many sort of evolutions and revolutions both, because when I ran my chamber of commerce, you know, we were having mergers constantly or buyouts, and and that changes your strategy every, you know, it's like a new chemistry every time, like with the new bank and the merger. And that's probably helped probably season you for change a lot.
SPEAKER_02So, you know, there's a a a large bank that's that used to be headquartered here in Michigan, that's that's right now in the process of being acquired. And I I know I have several friends who work there. And I called up one of their senior leaders right after the announcement and said, Let's go have some breakfast, or better yet, maybe a drink. Because I've been through seven. Okay. Yeah. And uh personally, they all worked out quite well for me for my career, but every single one of them was a learning event. Every single one of them was an opportunity, was an inflection point where value could be created, value can be destroyed. Uh, and you know what I really learned during all those experiences was that the fundamental, the most important thing was to make sure that people understood the why behind what we were doing. And then they could see themselves in the future story. They could see themselves in the new company. And uh, because very often leadership teams would sort of skip steps. Uh, but I always feel like it's it's fundamentally about the people in those things. And uh, and I feel the same way about the work that I do now with Blue Lake Ideas, is that I'm here to help leaders and their teams lead themselves and their businesses through increasingly turbulent environments. And that's, you know, that change isn't gonna stop slowing down or it's not gonna start slowing down anytime soon. So I learned that a lot by going through those kinds of experiences and watching my clients either succeed or fail as they were doing acquisitions too.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it you know, it's funny. I just had to do a presentation uh yesterday about um, you know, the future of economic development internally. But one of the things I tell people all the time is, you know, economic development's not the same from year to year because what companies want, what organizations want, it's very fluid given geopolitical things, geoeconomic things, and even internally in our country somewhat, how what's going to be attractive? And what the job is for economic development, and Quentin and I have talked about this, the head of the MEDC, about how really economic development is sort of an internal diplomacy program to try to make all people come out hopefully with a win-win, yeah, so that you can move the state forward with strategy, as you pointed out. I mean, that's what it sounds obvious to me, but I don't know if it's always obvious to everybody else.
SPEAKER_02Well, you know, it's funny. This this gets to the heart of the core of a lot of what I do at Blue Lake Ideas. You know, our core, our core thesis is that the as the world accelerates, you know, we have a natural stress response to that. Uh, and that is to narrow our thinking to make sense of it so we can keep up. That pushes us into a binary way of thinking yet. So a lot of people will automatically look at the world through an either or kind of a lens. But really, almost always the best answer is some form of yes and or or both and. And but what's different about that is that the win-win can can be something that the that neither of the two extremes would name. You know what I mean? That sometimes there's a better answer between those two places that if you just get in a room and you actually talk and you drop the need to be right and you decide you want to be happy, that you can get there and figure out. And the the work that we do now with the Blue Lake Ideas is to help leadership teams put that idea into action because so often I used to see it in my own life, but I see it now, especially in anything remotely political, is that everything gets very black and white, very binary. And almost always that leads to an outcome that's not as not as good as it could have been or could be for people. And uh, and I think the more that more and thinking that we can use not only in economic development, but in our economy, the better off we're gonna be.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you know, it's funny. I I love to read biographies of like famous people in history, right? And you see a lot of that strategy where the reason why some people were more famous in history or more successful is because they found an option that wasn't as obvious to all the players at that moment.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01Like even FDR, say during World War II and the Depression or something, right? And it's it's you just you know, it's it's kind of like venture capitalism, somewhat. You know, you're not gonna win on every hit, but you at least need to explore as many options and try to take the least harmful one, which ends up being the better one in the long run, somewhat.
SPEAKER_02You know, when when you take the time to figure out where the shared interest lies rather than the positions, there's a difference between positions and interests. And when you can take the time and do the work to figure out where the shared interest lies, that's when you get to those new solutions. You know, you think about historical figures that like think about what Lincoln did, right? He he famously formed that cabinet, which was the team of rivals, because he was he had a tolerance to sit with that conflict. And that, and by doing that, they they got to a better place than they would have if it were just one side or the other.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, in fact, I wouldn't saw what was her name, Doris Kern and Doris Kearns Goodwin.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_01I wouldn't saw her speak at the uh because of that book at the uh she spoke at the Henry Ford Museum. And um but I just love that book. And I really think too that you know in a weird way, diversity is strength, even though it's so many different opinions sometimes. But that's what made him a more you know, and I I think it's easy to argue he's one of the greatest presidents we've had. And at the same time, probably would help keep America together at a critical point, which we probably wouldn't be talking today in this way without him.
SPEAKER_02God only knows where we would have landed, right? Uh, but I I um Doris Kearns Goodwin was uh I met her at Mackinac, actually. We shared a carriage ride several years ago. And then then it turned out like a year or two later, I meet a guy named Joe Goodwin, who's her son, who worked at the bank. Still does, I believe.
SPEAKER_01Oh, you can't well, you had several states though, right? Too or no?
SPEAKER_02I did. So I, you know, the the way that the that B of A works, you know, my my my job as uh president of B of A in Michigan was a part-time job. My my core jobs were were leading uh either business banking or commercial banking around the Midwest, depending on the time frame. And then I also had a sustainability role that was national uh at the at the end of my tenure before I stepped out.
SPEAKER_01Um we're gonna just take a quick break.
SPEAKER_00You're listening to the Michigan Opportunity, featuring candid conversations with Michigan business leaders and innovators on what makes Michigan a leading state to live, work, and play. Listen to more episodes at MichiganBusiness.org forward slash podcast or download the Michigan Opportunity through your preferred podcast platform.
SPEAKER_01Welcome back. Uh, we're fortunate again to have Matt Elliott with us. He's the former president of Bank of America Michigan. He's now the founder and CEO of Blue Lake's ideas, Blue Lake Ideas. And Matt is also an active member of several key boards across the state, including business leaders from Michigan and the Detroit Regional Chamber, which he chaired in 2024. A couple questions about the last two groups. One is, uh in fact, I got a podcast coming out that isn't released at the moment of this interview, but I'm interviewing Jeff D'Onefrio and Rachel, uh, the I'm drawing blank on her name, but uh Gardner White Furniture, right? Yeah, Rachel Stewart. Stewart, right. And um, and that was a really good interview, too. And it's really interesting. But can you give us sort of a what your 30-second version of what you know business leaders from Michigan is, too? Because I find it such a unique organization.
SPEAKER_02Uh BLM is a very unique organization. And I had the privilege when I worked, when I ran the Midwest for business banking at B of A, to get to know several other economic development organizations that attempted to do something like BLM does. But what it is, is that number one, it's it's it's meant to um gather together the largest employers in the state. It's a policy organization. And what's interesting about it is that it's principles only. So when you go to a BLM meeting and there are only a few a year, you're you're talking to the leader of that organization in the state. So usually it's a CEO or you know, uh by being by virtue of being president of B of A Michigan, I was on it. And so what you're able to do, that, you know, I, you know, Jeff would know the exact details, but you're you're talking about roughly half of the GDP of the state and half the employment of the state in the room. And so that creates a very strong policy voice. And what I love and do love about being around BLM is that members are all come in there with their own points of view about what's best for their company. But when we're in that room, we are in service of Michigan. And the idea is to try to figure out how do we make Michigan a competitive state. We want Michigan's Michigan to be a top 10 state for jobs and income and for opportunity. And so every year or two, we refresh our plan. And Jeff and the team have done a wonderful job pulling together a new blueprint for growth. And the idea here is that we as a state need to grow on several dimensions if we want to be successful. And we also focus a lot around what are the precursors for success, things like K-12 education, which has been not only falling, but just precipitously dropping in terms of our performance over the last decade. When I joined BLM, we were in the top third in the country in outcomes. Now we're in the bottom five. And most people in the state don't know that. But that is a critical issue that we have to address if we want to be successful long term. BLM's job, among others, is to highlight that and then more importantly, come to the table with policy ideas that will help drive the state forward. The last thing I'll say about BLM that I really enjoy is that it's nonpartisan. And that, you know, certainly everybody comes to the table with their own political bet, but we are always thinking through the lens of how do we get something done in a way that's going to benefit the state, not party A or Party B.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and that actually sort of leads into the Detroit Regional Chamber a little bit, because I like I said, I've probably been to almost 30 Mackinac policy conferences, but I I, you know, as much as like it's the great speakers that draws everybody, I think sort of like the unofficial real value, it's like de facto of the what's happening, but you know, versus what's actually happening, is all the activity that takes place actually not from the speakers, like from all the happenings in the hallways and off-site events and just people being up there and they've been trying to reach each other for a year and they finally get to bump into each other and spontaneously make a deal or have a conversation. I find that to be the greatest value. And that's why I really love the Detroit Regional Chamber for hosting it all these years.
SPEAKER_02Me too. And just like BLM is a hard thing to replicate, uh, there are you know chambers across the country that have come to talk to Sandy Barua and his team and Megan Spanitz about all right, how do we do this and you know, pick a state? And you know, there's no clean answer to that, you know, because what would compel you to to drive multiple hours to spend several days on an island, you know, talking about business and politics and policy with access to unlimited alcohol? Like where what what's where's the bad news here? Um, and it's a very unique thing. And uh it it I learned this as chair of the conference in 23 that there are a lot of speakers who can't wait to get onto that stage. As difficult as it is to get there. We we brought B of A CEO the year that I chaired it. And um, you know, we he literally took a plane, a van, a ferry, and a carriage ride to get to the stage. And I he grew up in Ohio, so he knew a little bit about Mackinac. I told him, hey, listen, pal, we're we're gonna put you on this gonna be a multimodal trip. And uh we when I saw him that morning, he's like, Yeah, I didn't think you were serious. You were serious.
SPEAKER_01It's hard to believe you're still in the United States and you got to do all those different, you know, transitions.
SPEAKER_02But to your point, you know, there's no substitute for face-to-face, there's no substitute for being able to look someone in the eye, there's no substitute for understanding at a deeper level what someone's context is. And I used to get so much done, and I do get so much done at the conference because of those meetings, even if they're five minutes, 10 minutes, you know you've got something to pick up on when you get back to the mainland. And uh I think that's that's one of the hidden values of the conference, in addition to the thought leadership. And I I have to plug Bob Riney, who is the CEO of Henry Ford Health, who's this year's conference chair. He and and Megan uh and Wendy, who or not, Nodge, who really runs the conference, are all doing some really great work to change the programming around a little bit uh to create a little more dialogue, but also create more space for those interactions you just talked about.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, Bob Riney's actually a downriver guy. He went to my rival, my rival high school. Yeah. Um, but uh, you know, the other thing too is I think because there's so many people there, that's why it leads to only five minutes. So it's almost like you know you're on the clock for every conversation. So you kind of don't do too much fluff conversations. You're like, hey, I just want to know about this, and what do you think about this idea? And everybody's under the same basic clock, which is that's right, it's unusual.
SPEAKER_02I mean, most of those conversations, like that, great to see you. I want to talk to you about two things. I got this and this. You're like, cool, I've got this and this. Here's let's get Together and talk about it. How's next week? You're like that. That is a typical Mackinac conversation.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I've done like over 30 guests from up there, but uh two of the more uh interesting people I met was Richard Florida, who came on. And then the other one wasn't someone on my show, but he was just a guy who used to play rugby the same time I did, Mark Cuban. And so I played in Big Ten rugby, and he played for Indiana at the time.
SPEAKER_02And so Mark Mark was uh a guest of the year I chaired, and I got a chance to get time in the green room with with Mark, as well as like for Reed Zakaria. Um, you know, what what I think is amazing about Mark Cuban is um his humility. He's a smart guy, but he also is clear about where he's not necessarily smart, but where he's become wise, you know. I mean, this is a guy who grew up in Pittsburgh, went to Indiana University. By the way, I think one of the reasons why I use doing so well in football might have something to do with Mark. Um, and you know, is really clear about what he's learned and is and is he's just so relentlessly positive. I think he was a great speaker. And um, and I I enjoyed my, you know, I don't know, whatever it was, 10 minutes with the guy.
SPEAKER_01Well, I I think, you know, he's like, and I gotta be careful, but like I've known a lot of people just through different connections who have become successful because maybe one idea. But like take Henry Ford, for example, right? Yeah, Henry Ford failed two times before he got successful. And then, not that he was the best, but like he thought all of his ideas then were going to be successful because he had one successful one. And he didn't do a lot of introspection. Someone, and I'm I'm a big fan of Henry Ford. You know, I do tours at the Henry Ford Museum, and I don't I think Michigan is on the map because of a person like him, really. And but still, it's like it's the humbleness of being open-minded after you've made a billionaire, you know, or whatever, that is more impressive to me that you're still open-minded and that, you know, you don't have a bunch of yes people around you, you know.
SPEAKER_02But you know, so many times in my career uh I I saw that uh up close and personal, you know, that that you you I could quickly, we could quickly discern and figure out, okay, who are the leadership teams that really have that dynamic, that learning dynamic, and enough humility to say, I don't know, but I'm gonna go figure it out, right? Um, but you know, the clock speed of the world really forces us as humans to want to find certainty. And when you work in a in a very complex environment that's moving fast, like the bank that I used to work in, you know, it's hard to create that space for introspection. It's hard to create that time and the rigor that it takes to say, okay, what did we learn and what experiments can we run? Um, but I think that kind of thinking is value more valuable now than ever because the number one way, if you think about, like, for example, the way Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger would always talk about wealth creation, the number one thing, don't screw up. The number one thing, don't make mistakes. You know, if you're a golfer, for example, the number one key to a good golf score is don't make double bogey. And uh, you know, and then build from there. And I think that requires some discipline, some humility, and ultimately some wisdom.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and you know, um, and and this next question, I mean, you might have already answered this several different ways, but I'll just like to ask us um if you could look at some future trends, but I'm gonna make yours a little bit bigger, not just for Michigan, but because you're multiple states and you were for a large bank in America, and America, at least at this point, still is one of the leading financial hubs of the world. Yeah, what things do you see as trends on the horizon, not just the micro of Michigan, but you can give some for Michigan, but also the macro globally.
SPEAKER_02You know, the number one trend that I focus on right now is the impact of exponential change across several key elements of our society and our economy. That number one, that this idea that of everybody talks about the fact that, you know, the only constant in the world is change. That's true. But what's different about the environment that we're living in and right now is that that change is exponential. It's not linear. And what that means is that it that the world is changing faster than we're frankly comfortable with, or that our brains are evolved to deal with. And so you're just gonna have to get comfortable with this idea that the planning cycles get shorter. You're gonna have to get comfortable with the number of times when you say, Boy, I never would have thought I saw that one coming, right? And we've already seen that even from a policy point of view in the last 12 months, right? Um, that trend is gonna continue. And I think that's the biggest one that we have to get our heads around. So, you know, the way the world looks today is gonna look vastly different five years from now. Whereas the amount of change we're gonna experience in this five years may have been 25 years when you and I were younger, right? And it's that kind of time compression that we're gonna have to understand better. And I don't, you know, who knows exactly where the puck is going every day, but you know, part of part of my stump speech that I share with with leadership teams now or groups when I speak is I've got three graphs that show exponential changes in global temperature and US government debt and AI compute speech. And they're all exponential. The AI one is the scariest, by the way. And I think you know, that is that is the that is the challenge for us, you know, as especially as folks who are working in the policy realm or who are leaders, is the how do you operate in that environment, which is really unique compared to what's in the environment that maybe we grew up in.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, uh, there's an old quote, uh, not I forgot her name, the one that said it, but she says that um technology always advances, humanity stays the same. And so, you know, I I look all the time about the comparisons, and this is probably big picture for this uh podcast always, but I always look at that balance between the rate of like, like I always tell people like when you go to Europe or you go to the Middle East or anywhere and you look at the ancient cultures, you know, that's what we measure them by is what was civilization. You don't really look at how the people lived necessarily back then that much, you know. And how were we measuring, you know, is society pushing civilization or is it the building blocks for civilization? And, you know, that's my struggle all the time, is are we, you know, I think China's trying to be much more looking at the macro picture than we do sometimes. And I don't know how we solve that problem. Like you said, the rate of speed is so fast.
SPEAKER_02Well, I don't I don't know, but it, you know, that but it it's it's never all one thing. You know, that that's that's the issue. So you can on the one hand say, boy, China's got this great advantage, but frankly, they have they don't have any political dynamism. There's a lot of groupthink. And so it's easy to plan for 20 or 30 year cycles when you know politically the same group's probably gonna be in power. We're the exact opposite. But on the other hand, that also gives us the opportunity to do a pivot. Right? So all these things, you know, the it's never all one thing. Um, but I will say that, you know, there are certain requirements if we're gonna live in an environment like ours, you know, like uh really access widely available access to good information, for example, which is, I think, a big issue for all of us. Um, you know, those are the kinds of things that we need as building blocks to live in a society that we live in and have us succeed long term.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's a tight balance. How you get those two to work together. Um, I don't know where'd you go to high school, by the way.
SPEAKER_02I'm a proud DeWitt Panther, Ed. I grew up in the Lansing area.
SPEAKER_01North of Lansing? Yeah, I used to teach I used to teach at St. John's schools. Um DeWitt. Yeah, oh yeah, I know. I still got some of their shirts. But um, so so let's say if you could go back to your 17-year-old DeWitt self.
SPEAKER_02Um cringy, but okay.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. What advice would you give yourself today as for a career action? So think of it more as like a mini commencement speech kind of thing. What would you tell someone to go into if some young person came up to you?
SPEAKER_02You know, I I think maybe now more than ever is is to to it's easy to say don't worry about it, but um is to expect change and and lean into failure because failure leads to learning that makes you better. I think that a lot of our younger people, and I saw this a lot with our kids and the kids that they grew up with, their classmates, is that we we try to help we're well-meaning as parents, and we try to help our kids, but we shield them a lot of time from the pain of failure. As long as it's not catastrophic, that's really helpful, right? You learn, you learn more from your mistakes a lot of times than your successes. And so conditioning younger people for change, conditioning younger people to constantly be learning and evolving, which is gonna involve some level of failure or mistakes, that I think is probably the biggest lesson to help them be successful in the future. Because they're gonna be, you know, they're gonna be growing and leading into this world of exponential change. You know, I'm co-leading a business group for the for the president of Michigan State University. I'm the co-chair of what's called the Green and White Council along with Sanjay Gupta. And one of the things that Kevin talked to us about at the outset was okay, we really want to help make sure that we're preparing our graduates for the jobs of the future. And the thought experiment was well, these kids are going to retire, kids, these young people are gonna retire in roughly the 2070 time frame. Think for a second about like what 2070 might look like. You know, I never thought that in 2025 or 2026, you know, we'd have the world of communication in our pockets when I was a 17. I didn't know that was even an option, right? So who knows what it's gonna look like, but we do know that we need to help our students get up, get yeah, good first rung on that ladder and then help them be lifelong learners. We know that for sure.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and especially with the work you guys are doing at BLM that maybe even starts earlier than 17 anymore.
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um, yeah, it's it's uh I used to teach high school and middle school, and I don't know if I could teach the same way I did back then.
SPEAKER_02You know, I really admire that. Ed, my dad taught public schools in Lansing for 31 years, and he taught at Lansing Community College for 25. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. Well, I was a trustee at Wayne County Community College for quite a while, too. And we were constantly changing with the type of students we were getting, and now I think it's a different again. But um, yeah, well, I I I know you and I could probably talk a couple more years, but um, thanks again to Matt Elliott. He's uh former president of Bank of America Michigan. He's now the founder and CEO of Blue Lake Ideas. He's also an active member of several big boards, cross-state business leaders from Michigan, as well as the Detroit Regional Chamber, which is still very active with both of them. And I want to thank you. It's been a delight. I'm so glad you're in Michigan and your your compass heading is good too. So I appreciate taking time to talk to you.
SPEAKER_02My pleasure. I really appreciate it. Thanks, Dad.
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