Meet Weston Woodward

We were lucky to catch up with Weston Woodward recently and have shared our conversation below.

Weston , we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.

Growing up, we moved every two to three years due to my father’s job as a pastor. Eating at the lunch table by yourself is quite miserable so I got pretty good at making friends and adapting to the local culture. This continued into adulthood as I began to travel internationally and bounce around into various careers. Three pivotal moments became the catalysts for me finding my purpose.

1. In 2010, I stumbled into a panel discussion with AJ and Melissa Leon from Misfit.co. They talked about living life with a purpose and meaning. I quickly became friends that day and still close now. AJ’s quote that has stuck with me all this time is, “This is not our practice life”.
2. After a terrible breakup in 2016, I was crushed, attended Summit at Sea, and started working with a life coach, Lucia Cottone. She provided some structure on finding and articulating my purpose.
3. The following January, I quit my job after Lucia and others told me that my superpower was connecting folks. However, it really wasn’t fully solidified until a month before I turned 40 when I gained full confidence in my purpose.

In one line, my purpose is to help connect people to make the world a better place.

Over the past 8 years, this is what I have been doing in both business and personal endeavors. I love it.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I tell people I am an advisor, producer and connector in the worlds of Sports, Entertainment, and Food/Beverage. The primary bulk of my work is helping founders or brands accelerate growth in those areas. Most of my clients need intros to capital providers or looking for more clients and partnership opportunities.

Not to be creepy, but I collect people. My super power is my empathy. I naturally know how to engage and build connections with individuals from all walks of life. This helps me be a conduit for business. Basically, I can leap frog steps because my network is more than just for business….their friends.

My favorite projects right now are the following:

— Inaru.com — woman and minority owned chocolate factory in the Dominican Republic. I am helping them fundraise and establish relationships with retail and private label customers.
— CelzoDrink.com — woman and minority owned agua fresca canned beverage from Mexico City now in Austin, Texas. Connecting these founders with investors and brand partnerships
— P3PL — a Par 3 Golf League that will be pushing the culture and the love of the game. Making introductions for the Dominican founder.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Top 3 are for sure:
1. Empathy
2. Curiosity
3. Generosity

They have all three helped me in my business. Empathy let’s me connect on a deep level immediately. Curiosity has led me to some of the most interesting people just because I asked questions. Generosity has built levels of trust with others.

I believe traveling to different countries and having conversations with all walks of life will broaden your mind, teach you that everyone has a story, and best prepare you for conducting business on a global scale.

What has been your biggest area of growth or improvement in the past 12 months?

I have been guilty of being a people pleaser and agreeing to help more than I should. This past year my biggest area of improvement has been learning to say NO more often. It can be easy to say you can help everyone, but then your cup quickly becomes dry. Once I really started declining opportunities and telling my network I was focusing now in specific areas, everything has been operating more smoothly. I have more time to think and process the connections I have made and the projects I am dedicated to. Learning to say NO is pivotal in business.

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