11. Jodi Simpson – Passion for People and Community

‘I parked my fear and just said, okay, let’s give this a whirl’ Jodi Simpson and the FOunder and President at City Match based in London, Canada.  Five years ago, Jodi started her own business… London Ontario’s relocation and settlement concierge service: CityMatch. Since then, Jodi and her team have brought people into London and area from 26 countries. Her warm welcome and the professional integration services she offers make everyone feel immediately at home. There’s so much more to our discussion: high energy, the impact of growing up economically challenged and practical tips on managing ourselves in our busy jobs. Jodi and Jann also discuss their different approaches to their portfolio careers. 

More on City Match can be found here: https://www.citymatch.ca/ 

More on Ford Keast can be foundhere: https://www.fordkeast.com/services/human-resource-consulting/

& for all the podcast information visit our website: https://www.career-resilience.com/

Thank you for listening. 

Transcript

00:11 | Hello and welcome to our series Career Resilience, where we talk with people about their career path and their career journey, and maybe we can all learn from each other. My name is Jan Taylor and I'm a human resources professional in London, Ontario, Canada.

00:28 | I work with Quirkiest LLP and I work with my clients to help them with the outside of their business. We hope that you will enjoy these discussions with real people about real challenges and real working life situations. Welcome. My guest today is Jodi Simpson. Jodi, I am so excited to have an opportunity to chat with you. Welcome to Career Resilience. Thanks for having me, Jan.

00:57 | I'm so excited to see you spend some time. And this is I know this is going to be airing in the New Year, but I'm so excited to have our holiday get together on Zoom with you. Yeah, that's right. We usually do have a holiday get together. I sort of forgot about that, but this is it. So as I said, very excited to have a chance to talk with you. And I have so many things to ask you about. So one of the things is I want to talk about your business enterprise.

01:27 | I think that's very interesting about your career, which has been varied. I also really would like to get into a little bit about your commitment to the community, because I think that's a very important part of you. And, of course, this is about career resilience. So we're going to talk about career resilience and a portfolio career, which I'm really interested in hearing your perspective that. So I want to dive right in with my questions here, as I say, occasionally at Mission Control.

02:00 | So to get us started, can you tell us about your role so we have a sense of your day today? Sure. So I am the I founded and I'm the sort of top dog in our small little company. It's called City Match and City Matches, the relocation consultancy office here in London. We support incoming talent that is coming in to really relocate to the city where you're working with organizations and companies in the city.

02:31 | And we help them land. We help them find housing a great neighborhood, help them register for school, help them register for taking care of doctors, help them get connected to their community, find their passions. And so in many ways, it's a part of that extension, of that retention effort. We do such a great job of recruiting. But, you know, when you take somebody out of their home base, whether it's a different city, different province or a certainly different country, it's pretty unsettling.

03:01 | And it's probably one of the top three stressors next to like speaking in public and deaf. So we really do our best to reduce that stress and ensure that people land really well in our community and get the best start they can. So that's my that's the business. And so I am every day working with clients and supporting their efforts to to to make the transition. That's that's my main business. But I also wear other hats and I think we're going to be getting into that.

03:32 | But I'm also so I'm also a licensed realtor. So as part of the business, we also support our clients relocating from a buyer standpoint. So they're buying into the community. And so that's just that's an add on that. We made a strategic decision to incorporate real estate services a couple of years ago, and that is part of what I do. But when you're real estate and you're in the community, you do find that you have friends and family and colleagues. They'll say, hey, I'm looking to list my house, too.

04:03 | So I find I'm also in that space as well. And I think, you know, we're good at that. It's just a natural extension of what you do now. What is the furthest away you have brought someone into London, Ontario ? Oh, so. Twenty-six countries. I'm just trying to think of Australia for like Australia, the long journey. You know, we've been in countries Australia, south of Johannesburg and South Africa, Nigeria.

04:36 | We've been in the Ivory Coast, China, Hong Kong, Argentina. So lots of places. I always, I always. So whenever we're working with clients, I often ask, you know, how long the flight was left. And so I think the longest flight I've ever had a family come was about thirty one hours. So that is amazing. And here you are on the other end to welcome them.

05:05 | So that that's true of me. Actually asked me the shortest distance from a reallocation. Standpoint, what's the Cambridge, Cambridge? Well, that is, what, about an hour and a half away ? Forty five minutes, I would say, depending on how you're travelling. But from from my end of town, it's about a 45-minute drive. So, yes, Cambridge, too. So now I have we have a solid sense of what you do.

05:33 | So what I wanted to ask you, you had a career going on where you were working for others. What made you change your mind about that? You said it perfectly. I had a varied career. I was indifferent sectors and different roles. But I always worked for the other four companies. And the truth be known. I actually suffer from a bit of burnout.

05:59 | So I had a bit of burnout and I think it was two thousand thirteen fourteen just and it wasn't actually corporate-related work-related burnout. It was everything I was involved with the community was my cup was really overflowing and not in a good way. I think I just stretched myself to the point where I was really finding that I I was struggling with the joy, finding joy in my every day and finding joy in the work I did.

06:27 | And so so I sort of took a big step back, at least for my community work. I love the corporate work that I was doing, but I just knew that something was missing. And so I started to I actually work with an executive coach. So just more of like, OK, I'm here, I'm in burnout mode. I need to get out and I need to examine why I'm here. And so so through that process, I've just sort of self self discovery, self-analysis.

06:58 | I, I started to think about all of the things I always love to do and why was in pursuing that. So so City Match was actually a business idea I had in 2008 when I worked for a tech association. I saw this as a potential need in the community, a gap of service, and I thought this is something I'd love to do and I'd be good at it. And it it all of the passions that I love and all the things that I'm good at and all the connections I have.

07:26 | And so when I went through this process of kind of analysis, I that idea came back in the conversation. And, you know, my coach was like, so, you know, what about now ? And I'm like, what ? Maybe, maybe the timing is good. Maybe the stars are aligned to to pursue this. So I took a lot of time on the side just sort of investigating the marketplace. I started to reach out to my colleagues and people who would make my likely use the service to say, hey, what do you think of this idea ?

07:57 | And so I got some positive feed back to say, yes, this would be a mark. This would be amazing for the market. The this is a gap. Why don't we have this ? This is you know, you'd be perfect. And so I started that process. So I thought, well, maybe everything's perfectly aligned for me to do this. And so they're there. I made that commitment. I made a commitment to launch the business. I was fortunate to have to have a partner who was an entrepreneur who said, just give her just do it.

08:28 | And so I put it parked a lot of that fear and just said, OK, let's let's give this a whirl. At the end of the day, the worst-case scenario is if I fail, I just get a job. So that's really at the end of the day, I used to tell my friends and people I worked with the tech association, you know, both their ideas about going into entrepreneurship. And I said, well, what's your fear ? Well, what if I feel I'm like, OK, and I use that same logic on me and it works.

08:58 | So I'm still here. It's five years later, over five years later, I wanted to dig in on a couple of things that you said there. You said, you know, I figure if I failed, I just get a job. I don't think people think in those terms. I think if they think if I fail. Oh, my gosh, it's going to be a complete disaster, and I like the fact that you think in terms of options.
09:25 | Yes, yes, I think that's actually that's one thing I started to realize is that you know, when you because if we were to give this advice to our loved one, this is probably it would say he's just like, OK, so face your fears. What does that look like? OK, so then what happens? You feel all right. So then you regroup and then you apply for a job or you're looking for a job or you start a job or you start a different kind of line of work.

09:53 | It's not also, you know, the end. I agree. And you know what ? I think it's success or fail. And we forget to add the third one, which is success or fail or tried this, that you try and maybe try again. What's again ? Fourth one, try again. So what do you think has been the most difficult steps on this five-year journey with City Match ?

10:22 | So when I launched the business, I had a big I had a lot of lift, which was incredible for an entrepreneur to get some great left. I had some media pick up, which was extraordinary. I wouldn't have ever expected it. I think I was the, you know, London Inc. Well, now it was the London Business magazine at the time. It wanted to do a cover story. I had even lined a client yet. So I felt like this pressure of having to be successful because here I am, I'm on the cover.

10:53 | But what's that say where people think, oh, successful business and not a client lined up at that point? Thankfully, when not by the time the photos were done, I did have a client that I could profile in the article, but I remember feeling this incredible amount of pressure of being successful. You know, I had great, really promising conversations, but then everything was slow to move. I did I have I did line up a couple of assignments initially, but I thought.

11:25 | Wow. And then I had a rejection, I remember the rejection was just like, OK, we're not quite here yet. And I was just honestly, mostly like, you know, I had to go outside, get some fresh air. And then I said, get yourself together. You know, you're going to have to be a little bit more resilient. And I and I stepped outside of myself to be the voice of of of the advice I would give my friend, you know, who is launching a business to be gentle and just and, you know, things will come together.

11:55 | So I think that was the first lesson was to deal with this, to realize that extraordinary pressure wasn't really mine to own. I was going to launch this business on my own. I was I you know, this idea that I had to match the public perception was I just kind of took that away. And I thought that somehow I'm going to practice my business model and then I'm going to build it out.

12:24 | And that's essentially what I did. But the other one was when I got to the point where I knew I needed help because I didn't know how I got I was solo for quite a while, two years solid. And then I got I ended up doing more and more work. And then I realized I just didn't have the capacity and needed some assistance. And so, you know, going through that journey of, you know, making a higher and then higher in your husband.

12:55 | Well, my husband now was was was a bit of you know, I didn't know how to share the work. I did not know I was so tied in my own little world to start to delegate and share and open that up was a little bit more challenging than I expected. So that leads me very nicely into my next question. And you are such a high energy person.

13:23 | How how do you maintain that level of energy without eventually hitting a wall? And I think it would be really nice for me. I consider high energy, but I am not in your league. So so tell me how you do that. So I think I've always operated at a high, high octave in terms of like just, you know, the output I have is pretty it is pretty high.

13:54 | I mean, I like just now sometimes I think about what I've got on my plate now with, you know, I serve in a volunteer board, I'm on a corporate board of directors. I'm on you know, I've got city manager, got real estate. I've got all these things going on. And when, like, sometimes I laugh at it because I'm like, well, this is crazy. But I think it's so so I feel I have failed in the past of burnout. I mean, I, I have had burnout before.

14:24 | So so I know I'm not I know I have I can run the risk of, you know, putting burning all the candles, you know, on both ends and just and hitting that wall. But over the since I've launched the business and coming out of that initial burn out, I have some coping skills and some things that I incorporated in my day to day life that have has been critical for my balance and wellness and monitoring things.

14:58 | And and and and they come in the form of, you know, I, I, I have I journal every single day thirty minutes my I get up at six o'clock, I do my thirty minutes of journaling and then I go into the work. But that thirty minutes of journaling is really, really critical for me to set my, to set my intentions of the day and also to tune in on how I'm feeling and what's going on in my world as well. To be self-aware. That's been critical.

15:27 | The other piece is that I do my best to protect my time and ensure I have downtime and space to to to breathe and to think through what I have on my plate. When you're when there's jam-packed, you you're not functioning very well because you're just running from one thing to the next. So if you can purposely give yourself time for space, Kavalier dedicated lunch.

15:55 | You're your twenty-minute meditation mid afternoon that end of day walk to let go of the day. Those are really, really helpful for me to to maintain that sort of balance and perspective. Another one is I manage my calendar and so I well, I do my best to manage my calendar. I sometimes gets away from me, but I try my best to to to to monitor, to look at it and to to know I know what my busy season so.

16:25 | Season is and so I say, OK, like this is when I need to pull back and and I'm going into January, February, which is an intensive period for us. We do a very large Grutness. And so I just let everybody know I'm so sorry. I'm just unable to do anything. I won't see you. I won't visit with you. I will love covid makes it, you know, makes it easier. But but, you know, I basically really protect it and and I say no a lot more than I ever did.

16:56 | And I think saying no is probably the best thing for anybody who's taken on a lot. And that's a no for, you know, for people who have kids and families and demands of work. I feel like that is probably the biggest super power is your ability to say, no, not at this time. That's excellent. And you know what I loved about things, those things that you listed off is that they're practical and I am practical in nature and I like that.

17:28 | But those are specific things. They're not just saying, well, I practiced mindfulness and I think that's great. It's wonderful to practice mindfulness, but I like that you have a bunch of different things that you bring in as your aides. Do you are you your own best friend ? I think I you know, when that's a hard question because I don't know what that really means.

17:55 | I feel like I think over the years I've been a better friend to myself over time. You know, I, I, you know, I think like anybody, we have these periods of time where we engage in acts of self-sabotage that sometimes happens. And we are unkind to ourselves in setting up expectations that are not really reasonable.

18:22 | And in hindsight, we kind of go, whoa, who said that kind of expectation? And, you know, you did. So I think I think I think I've been a better friend to myself over these past few years. I still struggle. I still you know, I still feel like I could use some improvement and the self-care angle. And that's really more about, you know, just, you know, I'm really good at getting my rest now.

18:54 | I get my sleep, you know, I'm getting better on diet, like eating more sensibly and those kinds of things. So it's more of that sort of self-care and making sure that I'm healthy in mind, body and spirit. And that's I think that's an ongoing journey. I think we all have to just sort of figure out what makes sense to keep us whole and healthy and well. And, you know, sometimes, you know, if we if we could be in perfect balance, you know, how wonderful would that be ?

19:27 | But I think we always it's always a delicate balance to just kind of get the perfect kind of cadence because life gets in the way when things happen, you know, and you got to be kind of go with the flow. Life does get in the way, that is for sure. Let's switch over to talking about your community involvement and your commitment to the community. Where does that come from?

19:53 | We had decided to contribute 10 percent of our net profits to initiatives to support our community. And, you know, when I was when we were deciding where our funds would go, I was brought back to being a kid in my hometown. I grew up in northern Ontario. And and so so I grew up in a community that was an affluent everybody's like working class.

20:25 | And and it was a big community, French, Canadian, indigenous, and and people like myself. I and what I found was that I was I I really participated in an organization called And then and we have them in all through Canadian communities called the French Centers, the the First Nations Friendship Centres. And that was my first foray into community. And I did that as a kid doing programming.

20:54 | It was all indigenous focus. So was around working with, you know, study under elders who had, you know, crafting drumming circles, all of these kinds of really cool experiences. But what I also saw was that this organization was super charged, community focused. They did fundraisers. They they they knew how to to stretch a dollar in terms of providing getting enough funds to deliver a program. Everybody who came into the center were welcome.

21:25 | So if you even people who were in precarious sort of housing situations or people who were suffering from some type of addiction, perhaps alcoholism, there was always a warm place, a cup of coffee, and there was elders and there were children and there were and it was a safe place for everybody to come. And they would often find the challenge in the community and address the gap or dress the challenge.

21:55 | And I learned from being in the community and particularly with the in a new friendship. Senator Cochran, my hometown, what how you can solve your community's greatest challenges by coming together in unique ways. And you didn't need to rely on businesses necessarily, although we did get business support. But it was just it was just what I saw.

22:20 | And so I think that's where all my like my interest in supporting the community has come from, was that those early days when because I was literally 12 years old or like from the age of like seven until 12, I was doing fundraisers. I was you know, I was part of this community and I I loved what they did and continue to do. Yeah, yeah. I think you like me. We did not have the easiest and.

22:47 | Whole life growing up, and I think that that's one of the reasons that we have the metal we have now because we. Did you yourself, it's fundraisers and so on. But to do yourself intrinsically get something out of that. Yeah, I think I did. I mean I mean, the we were we were like our family was economically disadvantaged and that's where I think that's where I came from.

23:17 | So I loved I loved how we could support each other and without stigma, without shame that the community could come together and support it and with with with open, warm embrace. And and I thought that's how all communities should be, is to support each other. And that's and it's funny. So going full circle this year, when we made that announcement, we decided that we would support out Losa and their indigenous homeless program.

23:49 | And so it was just like it sort of like it did feel first circle for us and to to kind of return to those original roots of of working with an indigenous community that does that knows how to intrinsically support themselves with the with their cultural understanding and everything. I love the story of that and how it so ties into your values and the core of all of you as this person with such integrity and such kindness.

24:21 | And I just love that story that just warms my heart. I do want to switch over to pure career resilience because of course, that's what this podcast and series is all about. The video series you indicated when we were talking before about getting together like this, about a portfolio career. And I really love that as an idea because I think, Jotty, that people struggle with their careers and finding themselves and finding their happiness.

24:55 | And it's so important to enjoy your job, but so many people don't. And so I love this idea of thinking in terms of portfolio career. And I don't know if you remember the author, George Plimpton, do does that name mean anything ? Yes. Yes. So George Plimpton was famous for just trying different careers. Now, he would write about this and I think he tried being a hockey goalie and all these different things. And I thought that is so cool that he could do that.

25:25 | And it certainly is one of the ways that I built my career that I thought, you know what ? I'll do this job for a while and then I'll move on to another thing and see how that builds from the previous thing and grows into the next thing. So I think it's sort of a not feeling stuck idea. So can you run with a little bit of what your thoughts are about for your career ? Well, so it's interesting because I was an only until this past year that I realized I was in a portfolio.

26:00 | And I don't like I like I have all these income streams. I have these things I'm really passionate about. And they're not all similar. Some of them are, but some of them are not. And and I realized that I I loved it. I loved the I love the ability to fill my cup with everything that I love to do.

26:27 | And and it also get interesting and, you know, even thinking about covid to write just it's also gave me some economic stability across. And all of these has to help spread the risk. Let's just say that having different different different income streams, different channels. The funny thing is when I am going back to what you said, because I think I'm very similar, because I remember, you know, I always and I don't know if I was the product of my generation.

27:01 | I'm a Gen Xers, so, you know you know, our parents enjoyed the pensions. Our grandparents well, my parents didn't the pensions. But conceptually, our generation had parents that had those that stability. And I and a new Gen Xers started to see that that wasn't the case. Certainly millennials don't see that at all. And I started to shift and I felt myself much more of a freelance mentality. And he did that early.

27:30 | And because I just I was early in my career and I thought, well, I'm going to give that a whirl and see if I like it and I'll do something. And I knew there was always a stop over. I never approached any role with permanency. And and I realized that this can be sort of the sometimes the employers get frustrated with the impermanence of talent coming for for a short term or short time, not a long time. And moving on.

27:59 | But I think this is really where, you know, especially when you're depending on where you are. In my after graduate school, I just really wanted to to work and to share my my my skills and learn and establish and grow my skills, a skill set and experience to. So the pathway was wild and but all followed a real natural trajectory. But I always found myself never thinking about I never I never followed role title either.

28:31 | Like I think that, you know, so, so, so I know when I used to chat with friends that we're looking to make a career shift, they were I saw that how people got stuck on titles because they were a communications manager in one role. And then how does that look like or they were wore this hat. I never got stuck on on. I never got stuck on titles.

28:56 | And so I the way I used to approach it, whenever I wanted to make a shift, I would look on online and look at the titles that popped for me because the words they they sort of they sort of spoke to me. So I'm like, OK, well what kind of job is that ? And I would kind of look and then I started to see where my passions were by just kind of looking at what was going on.

29:19 | So that's where I discovered, you know, community engagement and, you know, business development and that these kinds of roles that that because it spoke to me, that's where my passion was. And sure enough, that's where my skill sets are as well, is in terms of community. So I found that I didn't get stuck on titles. I didn't get I didn't approach anything with permanency. So I always saw that I had that freelancer perspective where I wanted to.

29:50 | The job should work for both of you. Great. You know, and so I think we make the mistake of, you know, hoping to be hired and they'll like me enough. They'll hire me where you you know, but we fail to discuss them out. We want to work with them. Well, and and the more I think about portfolio careers, the more I think about, you know, it's a great option for people just want to have self empowerment to to just want to have their own, their own, their own gache and and to have balance and to do different things that fills their cup and fuels their passions.

30:31 | And then on top of it, you get the bonus of having economic resiliency as part of that process, as you share the risk in your in your role. Now, the. Downside is, is, you know, there is a downside, the downside is that you you end up having a great portfolio of career and and you have you you have you know, you find yourself kind of maybe over doing it and maybe overextended.

31:00 | There is a risk of being overextended in a portfolio career. But the great thing is in portfolio, you can just say, no, not at this time. Right back to being able to say no, which is hard for people. And I think what you described is very creative and very backwards to the way we talk, which I love. I mean, that that's thinking outside the norm and and thinking in terms of possibilities.

31:31 | I think we need to do that more often. And I think one of the one of the biggest exercises is for those who are in careers, particularly careers that they don't want right now, is to not go into the zone of how do I get out of this situation, but how who am I and what does my where are my passions ? And then get a little creative about. All right. So you love to do this. Well, what's that industry look like and where what kinds of roles could you explore in those kinds of places ?

32:01 | I think we sometimes wait to too long before the choice is no longer asked to make. Right. I think people can feel very stuck. Stuck ? Yes. That they forget that there's so much more in their control to do that. Fly up a few thousand feet and look down and think, what do I like ? What don't I like ? What's me, what what turns my crank ? What aspect of my job do I like ? And you know what ?

32:31 | In my career, I moved around a lot because I wanted to build that all those different experiences. And I would go into a job and I wouldn't I do not like this job at all. And I would stay for a year and I think I'll give it a year because that's only fair. That's a that's a fair I'll give it a year. And one of two things will happen at the end of the year. I love the job and I'll stay a bit longer or I will have learned something that can move me into the next job that might be of interest and help build my career and so on.

33:05 | And being someone I came from a very insecure background, I'm not sure where that came from because I've always been very security conscious. So it's really interesting to hear what you say in terms of just being open. You know, let let the let life speak to you. As one of my interviewees said and I said to her, wow, yeah. Let life speak to you, you know. You know, I was just thinking, you call me when you said, you know, you'd give it a whirl.

33:37 | And I wonder, given our similar backgrounds and I don't know if we're going to be able to answer this on this on this this chat, but it's just something to think about, I wonder. And it just literally downloaded. So it's I haven't really thought this one out. So it may sound kind of I often wonder because the fact that we didn't have financial security and it's such a big and it is also a big part of my I it's very important for me to have financial security, very important for you to have some financial security.

34:14 | And I wonder because we did not have that, if we and we also know that things can happen, that you have to pivot hard to make a shift. And so we may maybe we keep looking at the door or we're always cognizant that that that door might close or that door may open. And so we need to be ready to go, I think. Do you think this maybe what's happening ? I don't know, because I think it's very similar.

34:45 | Yes, it is. And I think that might be the case, that we always need to be ready to go and not a lot of baggage hanging off so we can be ready to go. And and that has stood us in good stead. Yes, maybe that's it. Yeah. Yeah. I think we've unlocked the secret. Anyway, when you said that, I thought maybe this is what's happening.

35:13 | We're always like, OK, we know this can all this this wonderful little journey could end at any time and be ready to go ? What's it look like ? I think that also helps us appreciate the journey and appreciate life and what we've built. Yeah, the gratitude is is actually just core to everything that I, I have I've enjoyed. And the hard lessons to.

35:41 | I'm I'm absolutely delighted that that I have this, you know, appreciation for the gifts, you know, the gifts of prosperity, the gifts of good mentors, the gifts of friendship and family of great clients that respect your work, all of those things. I don't take any of it for granted. Yeah, yeah. I think that it's so important to be grateful and it's so important to think in those terms.

36:12 | And Jody, we're coming to the end of it. I just say how grateful I am to have this chat with you, because it's just been so interesting to hear about your philosophies and your path and your stick to it edness. And as I said, your incredible energy of all of us know that when it comes to energy, we look in your direction and can only hope some of that passion.

36:42 | So thank you very much for chatting with me today. Thank you, Jan. I so enjoyed this conversation. It really did feel like we're back in either my living room or your living room. And we were talking to the screen, but it was wonderful to have this conversation with you. So to our listeners and viewers, I hope that you've enjoyed our conversation today. It's been wide ranging and Jodie is someone that I so admire. So to have had this opportunity to share her thoughts with you has been a real gift.

37:12 | And as as we said, we're discussing these things just as we ramp up to Christmas. So when gratitude is something that is in our minds, so so all the best of 2021, as soon as we launch into this new year and until we meet again. Thanks. Thanks, Jan.