Episode 8 - Embracing Disruption and Nostalgia with Todd Weidman on AI, Innovation, and Personal Growth

Todd Weidman joins the show to share how he went from accountant and wealth manager to AI-focused tech leader, guided by a lifelong love of libraries and learning. Using nostalgic callbacks to landlines, phone books, Nextel walkie-talkies, floppy disks, and physical games, Todd shows how quickly technology changes and how embracing that change opens doors.

He explains how AI acts as a new “library of knowledge,” helping organizations boost efficiency, build capacity, and create new products. Todd also breaks down how to rebrand yourself during disruptive times, offering practical advice for career pivots: adopt a beginner’s mindset, make space to learn, set boundaries, and focus on what you can control. The episode closes with a call to lean into collaboration, mastery, and intentional growth as AI reshapes work and opportunity.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to Solomon Pact, the show where we explore ideas, stories, and strategies that help you create meaningful changes. I'm Mike on the Mike Henry, excited to kick things up.

SPEAKER_01 0:11

And I'm Jeff, that we're former. I'm here to bring a product mindset to our conversation focusing on value, innovation, and purpose while exploring how AI grow together.

SPEAKER_04 0:20

And I'm RG Wood, also known as the RTF. Because when transformation happens, you know we're making waves. Together, we're here to share insights, spark ideas, and have a lot of fun along the way. So let's dive in. It is Column Impact.

SPEAKER_00 0:44

Welcome to today's episode. Thanks for joining. As always, Mike on the mic here with Jeff and Archie. The Archie effect. It's on my screen, so I have to say it. But we have an amazing guest, as always, and we've just started calling him the AI guy. But Todd is here joining us and couldn't have uh he fits right in with the cool nickname vibe too. So before we go too far, Todd the AI guy, would you like to do a quick intro?

SPEAKER_03 1:10

Sure, yeah. Thanks, guys. Appreciate you having me uh on this uh episode and uh having the opportunity to share some of my experiences. So I'm Todd Wideman, I'm a director at Solalum. Uh I work out of the uh Greater New York region. My domain experience and capabilities where I usually play is in uh the crossover section between product and transformation. So things like modern product organization. Uh anything, anything that falls under that sort of product and transformation umbrella that uh that you're seeing in the marketplace. So yeah, that's that's why I'm here.

SPEAKER_00 1:51

Excellent. Thanks, Todd, again for being here. Um, as always, we like to start with a little icebreaker to warm everyone up and just to get to know our guests more, and so we can talk about silly stuff too. But um, our icebreaker today is your favorite item that doesn't exist anymore. So it used to exist, maybe it was popular, but it doesn't exist. I'll go first just to give an example. Um, I had to go with the Next Tell walkie-talkie, two-way type of phone. I think it was ahead of its time, and I'm not a phone person or a texter. So the ability to just quickly say, like, I'm on the way, or what's going on, just kind of met my need. And then also they were indestructible. Like my friends and I would we would try to break them and we could not break them. So I think uh just so far ahead of its time. But I definitely missed the old uh next tell days. Minus the reception I remember was not too good, but maybe if it came back, that'd be fixed up. Uh Todd, I'll let you go next as our guest. What's your favorite item that doesn't exist anymore?

SPEAKER_03 2:55

That's great. Uh actually it's uh it's it's similar, and I was going to say the the phone that used to hang on my wall in the house. Um and it's less about the the technology, and I think it it was a device the that gave me boundaries, right? Like so now, like if I was out of the house and the phone rang, you know, I'm not answering it, you know. And the way you look at life today between having the text messaging and people calling you. Um, so I I did appreciate those boundaries. Uh, but I did, I just want to show you. Uh I do have a fake. I I will walk around the neighborhood one day with this. So I'm showing you with a handheld phone that plugs into your iPhone.

SPEAKER_04 3:47

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 3:48

So it actually works.

SPEAKER_00 3:50

Well, that combines the best because I was gonna ask do you uh is it the phone before caller ID or after? Because the thought of answering a phone, you know who's calling I start sweating thinking about that. I don't know how we did that. Straight to voicemail, honestly.

SPEAKER_03 4:04

Yeah, I've gone through all phases of that. So even a rotary phone growing up. So uh but caller ID was great, right? Because that's like you run over to the phone and you looked at it and you said, no, not here.

SPEAKER_00 4:19

Yeah, that's key.

SPEAKER_04 4:20

Archie, what's your pick? This is a hard one for me because I've been recently reminded of some relics of a bygone era that we used to have that were very familiar. And the first one I thought of was the TV guide, because now everything is streaming, so you don't need it. Like, what's there's no even point, you just it's on demand, whatever you want to watch. But the other one that I really thought of because it had so much utility is the phone book. So, like Google, I'm sure, is a large contributor to having killed the phone book because now you don't need this giant thing to look up numbers, but also no one has landlines anymore. Like, you only have a landline if you've just kept your cable package for 30 years and not taken the landline off of it, or you're a business, that's fair. But so, like personal landlines, you're never looking it up and being like, oh wow, there's 600 woods in here. Like, and so, but we understand we don't need it anymore, but the utility of having this giant book of like, hey, I need to prop this monitor up six inches, or like the old joke was like this person can't see over the steering wheel, put a phone book under them. Like, our youth of today, zero idea to what a phone book would even be, right? And I just I just miss the kind of the nostalgia of its existence, I think, and the utility of it.

SPEAKER_00 5:39

I feel like we're in the communication vibe. We got the next telephone, the landline, and the phone book. We'd be a powerful force here. Yep. Jeff, what are you going with?

SPEAKER_01 5:51

Yeah, um, my initial one, and I'll stick with it, is is really just like the old school like floppy disk. Um, I think of like the save icon and how my kids have no idea what that means now, and like how they they don't get that. But sort of related with that, I think it's like just kind of that piece of hardware, like a CD or something that something's stored on, you can just you just put in. You can stream everything now, which is which is awesome, but uh especially during the Olympics, just the amount of like commercials and things during and ads during things just really interrupted it. So I I kind of love kind of that old school, like you can just you know pop a CD in. They're not completely gone, but I mean they're definitely on their way out.

SPEAKER_02 6:33

So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:36

I had the same feeling with video games. I used to be attached to the physical disc. I finally just had to give it up because there's no value to it anymore, so it makes sense to do them digitally, but I had a hard time. I liked getting the case and the book that came with it. Uh those are good, those are good times.

SPEAKER_04 6:54

I I did like the tactile experience of sticking a cartridge in like a like a Super Nintendo, yeah. But like those things, they had the technology was not that great, and like you had to like weird blow clean them in order for them to function and like all that. Like, did you take it out?

SPEAKER_00 7:09

Did you yeah, it was just yeah. My son looks at me weird when I blow on his PS5. He's like, Dad, that doesn't that doesn't work anymore. And the game was digital. It's it's on a hard drive, Dad. Yeah, you never know it could work. All right. Well, if you're listening and you've got something we missed, feel free to send it our way. Or if you have the power to make Next Elves come back, you would be my best friend. So let me know if we can make that happen. But let's get into our topic today. And and first I just really wanted to start with uh Todd, you and I had a chance to talk about a potential project that we may work on. Um, we didn't end up working on it, but just in the process, your story about how your career has transpired and the things that you've encountered was was just really inspiring to me. Um, so we'd just love to hear if you can start uh and kind of give us your story.

SPEAKER_03 7:59

Yeah, yeah, sure, definitely. Um I think when I my career, you know, and I've been around for for some time, and when I think about the path that I've taken, I always think back to uh a library. So my my reference is a library, a physical library. So my my dad used to take me to the library when I was when I was a little boy, probably before I could even walk. And this was a ritual that we had every Saturday morning. And I learned that you can you can learn and you can open a book and you can meet someone or go someplace without really going there. And it just opened this whole world for me, right? And it's it's a it was about learning and finding new ideas, uh, which which really was something that uh you know as a child I was just very curious. And and so the library for me was a really special place, um, and became a big reader. And that went all the way through high school and and college, and uh and when I got out of undergrad, uh I was an accountant at uh a wealth management firm. And uh it was a pretty boring job. Uh, and I did it for about four or five years. Uh, and then I was going to um grad school uh at the same time at night. So this was probably late 80s, early 90s, dating myself here. Uh and I I had this love of technology, I had this love of books and the ability to sort of transport yourself to other places and get information. Uh and my undergrad, uh my graduate degree was an MBA in information systems. So while I was at school, I began hearing about this, uh, you know, the internet. And this was even before browsers. This was uh this this was green screen, right? And it there was there were a couple different communities that were out there. Uh one was called the Well. Uh if you look it up, this is one of the first sort of online communities that ever existed out in the Bay Area. Um, a lot of influential people. And so this whole this whole idea now of connecting ideas with connecting people was was something that uh really sparked my interest. And I figured out that the internet was going to be something, right? I didn't know what it was gonna be. Again, before browsers, uh, wrote my thesis uh in grad school on the commercialization of the internet, right? Now here I am an accountant. Oh I know. I was able to, you know, I was able to pass and uh get my degree, and then in about mid-1995, this is now finally after Netscape introduced their you know first browser and the world started to change. Uh and I was I uh was able to uh talk myself into a job at a brokerage firm uh that was building uh an internet portal for their retail wealth management clients, right? And like we didn't even know what the role was that I was going to play. We just they just wanted to hire someone who was excited about this opportunity, what it could mean uh commercially and how it could uh improve the client experience. Um so that kicked me off. I I got the job, that kicked me off on a like a 30-year journey in technology, uh, all different kinds of roles, anything in product. Uh if you name the role, I've I've I've played it. Um and now you know being in Salem uh for almost about four years or so, just really you know grateful for the opportunity here to to again explore, to to learn, to meet different people. And so I think recently, the reason I tell you this story, because at that point in time when I was excited about the internet, it it took another 30 years for me to get excited about something. And that is exactly how I feel about AI now. And I feel that, like I feel like that, you know, the 22, 23-year-old kid again, understanding or believing I understand the power of AI. I don't think anyone really understands what's gonna happen, uh, but you can just you can see the explosion of ideas and new tools and how it gets leveraged. Um, and again, I feel that excitement again, uh, which has allowed me here at Slalom to be able to dig deep into the learning about it, the practices, um, the people, uh, opportunities, and you know, again, back to my library analogy. It's it's like walking into the library, AI, and just like every book is coming at you that it that knows you and knows what you want to learn about, and you know, context, and it all gets put together. So I think, you know, I tell you that because everything goes back to me to the library, right? And that's that's that's sort of the anchor here.

SPEAKER_00 13:15

Yeah, I love that. Thanks for sharing. Um, I'll let Archie ask the next question, but first I had to say the parallels when we when we first met, uh, the library is something we still go to, and people look at us like we're crazy, but we take our kids as much as we can. I think that that is huge. Uh, and it's honestly a ton of fun. But then my career started uh in wealth management too. So the portals that you were building, I probably had to learn how to use right out of school. But uh super cool to see all those intersections and hear how the waves of excitement, you know, are coming and going and how it's it's impacting you. But um, I'll let Archie jump in with the next one.

SPEAKER_04 13:53

It it also takes me back a little bit, maybe not as far, but it takes me back to in college, I was managing a coffee shop that was within our library. And so I was I was deep in the library every day, but I was there for different reasons. But yeah, good, but also it allowed it allowed my wife to come and visit me and get coffee. Well, I mean, we were dating, so you know, whatever, different time.

SPEAKER_00 14:15

But that's why you really want to work every day.

SPEAKER_04 14:19

Look, whatever I could get her to do to like come and spend more time with me, I was like, Yeah, I'll give you coffee, babe. It's fine. Yeah, you know, that was that was a thing. Anyway, that's a whole nother story. We're not going into my life that deep. Uh, okay, Todd. So um I would love to know. So, do you have any like thoughts or or examples on like because this I think is a thing that we we hear a little bit about, um, but it's just a thing I'm curious about from your perspective. Um, in terms of like the value of AI, measuring the value or like quantifying it, what how what do you think about that?

SPEAKER_03 14:52

Yeah, it's a it's a great question. And I I you know part of me says that there's things we don't know, but there's there are there are absolutely components that you can see benefits from, right? And if you look at what's happening in the industry, uh the first wave of this leveraging AI is really focused on optimization. So how can I, you know, and the story that companies are telling, it's how can we create capacity from the people that we have today in order for them to do other things? So how do we reduce cycle time for certain tasks? You see a lot of this happening uh definitely in sort of the engineering and tech world. Um you'll you'll you're starting to see it also in sort of the front-facing products and building those out. Product management is another area that's like ripe for that. And I think the use cases are fairly limitless, like legal, all those different areas where how do you measure that capacity capture, right? A lot of that is is is optimization. It's not easy to do, right? It's it's it's you have to find the data, um, and you have to make the right level of attribution, you have to apply a cost to that. Uh but it can be it definitely uh uh can be done, and we're starting to see that uh in in the marketplace. But then there's this whole I think what's happening is there's also another sort of wave of this AI uh effect, which is more around the innovation and new products developed, like products that don't exist. Like how do you how do you measure innovation, right? And that you're going to see that. There's no doubt that that you will see uh and every we've all in this room, we've all played with AI, and we see the power of that. It's not just about making me more productive, it's a it's about taking my sort of cognitive window, which is fairly small, right? But if you you you open up your cognitive window larger with the use of AI tools, and it gives you an opportunity to think about innovation, new products, new ways of doing work, and that type of thing. And so I think that's sort of where we're headed next. And but how you measure it is is gonna be a difficult thing, right? If it's a new product, fine, then that's like I have a new revenue stream or I have a different client segment that it may be going after. Um, but the initial phases of how we think about that measurement, um, I think there's still more to come there.

SPEAKER_04 17:32

Yeah, I I love the the call out to an innovation space because I like I I totally understand like the cycle time thing and how we do that. But the innovation thing is like I see it transforming some industries, and like what I've seen is it kind of lowering the barrier to entry on some stuff that was really hard to do before, right? So the example of what I've liked to play around with is some AI music tools, and in those, I can I can write some like you could come to it and know nothing about music and actually get a decent song. But what I would do is hey, I come up with like a scratch track for a song and I'll put it in there and then use the AI to remix it. Now it's a full band, everything. I just skipped the studio and have the ability to self-publish. It's not easy, or it's not hard. Like like anybody can kind of do that, and so it just removes that barrier to entry to having like a prototype or something you can socialize or get feedback. And any and I so I think that's like a really interesting part, and I don't know how to measure that either, but it is transforming, it will transform, I think, some different industries.

SPEAKER_03 18:32

Yeah, that's a great example.

SPEAKER_01 18:33

That's definitely yeah, it makes me think of Archie, the the white paper we wrote around innovation um and the innovation spectrum, right? And in thinking through that, I think um, you know, when we talk about it, it's starting out, and I remember we had a conversation with uh one of our data uh folks a while back, and he talked about yeah, AI is gonna start to be used within operations and making operations a little bit better and improve there. Um and I I I see us moving more into that disruptive space. It's gonna disrupt industries, it's gonna make certain things that used to exist no longer exist because it's just gonna be able to do it in such a better way, right?

SPEAKER_04 19:14

I'm gonna lose my phone book, Jeff.

SPEAKER_01 19:16

You're gonna lose your phone book, Archie. Oh so yeah, I think it's just it's gonna be wild what uh what happens in the future. Um so so Todd, you know, you've gone through uh and and shared a lot about like through your career what this has looked like for you and how you've you know embraced uh the as the internet came on board and now with AI now. Um can you share a little bit of advice about just you know, someone who's potentially looking to make a pivot in their career, what does that look like and how do you think about that um in such a disruptive time as we're in right now?

SPEAKER_03 19:53

Yeah, sure, sure. I think um you you anchor yourself in you know your craft, right? Being a master uh of your craft and what you do, and do the best possible job you can uh at what you do. Like that's a to me, that's like the the first step. Um but also understand where you fit at work into the overall system, right? Because we we don't work alone, things don't happen with a single person, but there's there's all this collaboration and knowledge work that that has to happen that that takes place. And when those collaboration points happen, there's room for friction, there's room for uh missed messages, miscommunication. And so you can look for opportunities there, like for improvement around that. Umpportunities for improvement and what you do today and how you work with others. Um, and this will also opportunities to lean in and help others, others uh with what you do and work that they need help with, because that's really important to build relationships uh with people because it helps you build your brand, right? What is your brand? And so it's you know, if if someone said Jeff Mortimer, right, what would he be known for? Like what he's got some expertise, right? Or you know, uh we can say the same with all of us here. We have a set of expertise, we have a set of domain experience, and you want to be the guy that people are calling when they have a question about that, right? So you you gotta strive for for for some of that. Um that brand allows you to make certain pivots because it's going to give you opportunities to be able to work with others, have introductions to other people, um, exposure to different work. Uh so I think. You know, wrapping all those together, it's it's it's having much uh having a much better awareness of what you do in the system, leaning in and helping people where you can, and recognizing, you know, you do you do need to build that brand around yourself and uh have one area of sort of expertise where people are gonna pick up the phone and give you a call to ask for some advice. Yeah, absolutely. Love that.

SPEAKER_00 22:28

Yeah, that's huge because I think where your your guidance is always strong, knowing your brand, having that awareness is always strong. But when there's times of disruption, if you're not intentional about those things, you get lost that much faster. So if you're if you're not staying true to your brand, to your your purpose, that disruption just takes you further away from that, or you have to backtrack and get you know get back with it. But if the opposite is true, if you leverage a disruption, the new technology, the innovation to multiply that, you can be even stronger, you know, in the brand and purpose. So I think sharing that's a really good reminder that even though there is change, we have to stay true to that. So it's great that you're going back to that kind of home base.

SPEAKER_01 23:14

And another thing I picked up on is you know, as you're sharing your story, is rebranding yourself as well with that disruption, right? So, like you were an accountant, and then you know, you you worked in when to get your MBA and information and systems and and moved with that into your next role, right? I think, you know, and kind of had yourself be known for that and then what you move forward with. So you you rebranded yourself out of being an accountant and into you know someone who could lead in that technology disruption. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 23:48

So yeah. Adaptability is a is a good thing to have in these days when everything's changing so rapidly, right? Uh that's good stuff. Uh Todd. So I I would be remiss if I didn't take the opportunity to to poke your brain and ask for some of your wisdom for us. If you had to leave us with something, what would you what would you leave us with?

SPEAKER_03 24:15

Oh, we can we can talk for hours about that. Uh let me give you a couple of life principles. Uh I think these are these are practices that have helped me, not just in a career, I think, but but but in life. So let me uh let me rip through a couple of these. So one beginner's mindset. And there's this concept in uh meditation and mindfulness about showing up with a beginner's mindset, which is really like I don't really know much, but I'm curious and I'm open to uh the experiences. And if you approach work and life like that, uh you're much more apt being open uh to different opportunities, different experiences, um, certainly less stress in your life, right? Uh because you'll be able to make those pivots that you're looking for. And you don't know everything, and nobody knows everything. Um and so showing up.

SPEAKER_04 25:15

I'm just learning that now, hearing you talk, so that's good to know. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:20

So that would be the first one. Uh I think I think the second one would be uh create some space for you to learn, right? You are the CEO of your life, and you are responsible for what happens in your life. It's really easy to get caught up day after day, to go home from work or go downstairs from work is what we call it now. Netflix for two or three hours or whatever you're watching on TV. Next thing you know, it's it's a year later or two years later. And you know, what have you done? Um and you you there's a relevancy piece here, right? You you want to remain relevant at work, you want to be present for uh the people in your life. Uh so carve out that space for learning and and you know, connecting with the your loved ones, obviously. Uh third one is boundaries. I think uh this is probably my most important one. Um setting boundaries in your life is is so key for you to be present and to be mindful uh and not feel resentful if you're being asked to do something that you really don't want to do, right? It's okay to say no. Uh when you say yes to things that uh you you don't want to do, that that's when that resentment kind of kind of comes in. So you have to be really careful uh about what you take on uh in your life. I'd say another boundary you want to think about is um if you have children, never be their best friend. You know, I think a lot of parents uh try to do this today. It and it doesn't matter whether your children like you or not, it's it's about respect, and you are the teacher and you are the coach in their life. Uh and that is so key to to being a parent for for young children, um, that you play that role that you need to. Yes, you can have fun, obviously, but um not from a best friend perspective. Uh and then the last boundary uh I think I would I would talk about is um the phone, right? I like if you're present with family and friends and and loved ones, put the phone down. You know how many times you you know you're out to dinner and you you look across at the table next to you, and then there's five people eating and they're all on their phones. So it's like guys, what what are we doing to each other, you know? So I would say that uh is an important one too. And then lastly, um really have a sense of what you have can control over. And you don't have control over much in your life. Uh and this is a these are all for me hard, this was a hard lesson in in a lot of different ways. Um you just have to be sensitive to things that are going to happen to you. Understand you don't have control over those. Respond and don't react. Respond and don't react. Sometimes the best thing you can do is nothing when something is happening to you. Um and that is a response, right? That is that that is one way to deal with it. So there are so many things that happen during your day. It could be traffic, and you don't know, someone cuts you off in the car, you you have no idea what what's going on with the other person. It's so you know, give them a little grace and and give yourself some grace, and just you know, that's not something you need to be worried about. So control is the last one. So those are my four.

SPEAKER_04 29:06

The Todd AI guy four. Uh no, though that's great. I I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01 29:12

Yeah, Todd, I really liked those. Um I actually got uh was with my client, they actually recommended this book. I'd never heard of it before. Um, but it was the let them theory. Have you heard of that before? Or um are you familiar with that at all? Okay, yeah. I really enjoyed it. Just I think it tied into some of the what's under your control, what's not, um, and you know, being mindful of that.

SPEAKER_03 29:33

So yeah, yeah, that's uh uh that's a pretty famous book these days. Um definitely. And and and again, from a practice, it's it it's not easy, right? Because you you you want people want to control everything, but uh you'll be so much more peaceful if you just control what you can control, then that's it.

SPEAKER_00 29:57

Of course he's heard of it. He went to the library every week. We knew he was gonna know that book. Uh well I echo what Jeff said. I think those are huge to stand on. Those those reminders and principles are huge. Um, but really the whole conversation, Todd, I just appreciate it. Feels like there's so much going on right now. There's new tools, they're changing every day. But it's just a really good reminder from someone who has been through so many of these different ways and looked at it as an opportunity to grow and do different things and get better. And I think that's what that's what our goal here is is there are all these new different ways of working and opportunities, but at the end of the day, we can control some aspects of that, we can have the right mindset, um, and we're all gonna come through it. It's you know, nothing's gonna come to an end. This is just another wave of innovation, and we can work together uh to be better. So really great to see how you put all those things in perspective and can share some of that wisdom. Um, but great conversation. I think we could probably do another half hour on library and next tells and putting your phones down and all that good stuff. But um, I'll take us home. And if you're out there listening, feel free to send us those items that don't exist anymore. Um, share some book recommendations because we went down that route. But uh reach out if you've got questions about what's next or how to have the right mindset with all the new innovations and things coming at us. Uh, but thanks again, Todd, for joining us. As always, thanks to the Archie effect and the Agile Moose, Jeff Mortimer. I'm Mike on the mic. Have a great day.

SPEAKER_04 31:38

Don't look for us in the phone. Thank you for joining us on phone and keep learning, keep growing, and keep making waves.