Discover Your Talent–Do What You Love

Don Hutcheson

What do highly successful people actually do to succeed? For 45 years as entrepreneur, inventor, and author, Don Hutcheson has studied the proven career-building strategies that people around the world have used for decades to create lives of success, satisfaction and freedom. Every Tuesday he interviews individuals from around the world who share their real-world experiences and insights—what worked, what didn't and why—and any advice they might offer to help you jump-start your life and career to the next level. On Fridays, a highly accomplished woman or man from one of the most popular or interesting occupations and professions gives listeners an up-close-and-personal look at what it's truly like to do what they do every day in "A Day in the Life." Select recorded interviews here: http://www.DiscoverYourTalentPodcast.com/podcast. Interview Don on your podcast, radio show or other media: don@DYTpodcast.com

  1. Equipped to Meet Life's Challenges

    1D AGO

    Equipped to Meet Life's Challenges

    Guest: Spann Cordle "What I'd love to do is public speaking. Sure I've been a spokesman.  Sure I've made inroads. But I want to get on-stage. I want to travel. I want to speak. I want to show people that if you are determined and you persevere, there is nothing you cannot do–whether you are disabled or able-bodied. It is a mindset. A lot of individuals who are disabled don't have the opportunity to express themselves. I would like to show them how to do it!" Sixty-eight years ago, Spann Cordle's parents made a decision that was ahead of their time. They chose to treat Spann as any other child and equip him to face life's challenges. Born with a disability, he went to elementary school riding a tricycle to strengthen his legs, learned to swim, took driver's ed in high school, and was on the drama team. After being a state probation officer for several years, in 2007 he became a full-time employee at Walmart in northwest Georgia. He has found it to be an excellent opportunity to spread disability awareness by demonstrating his workplace dedication and winning attitude day after day. Walmart has recognized his contributions by making him their spokesperson at other Walmart locations across the country. His hometown of Summerville, Georgia, held a celebration for him and dedicated a new art installation for disability awareness. But the best recognition is from the Walmart customers who stop to talk and tell him that he always provides them with encouragement. Spann strives to do the same for all of the disabled community.

    23 min
  2. 1195. Finding a Deep Sense of Purpose: Successful Venture Capitalist to Passionate Education Change Advocate

    FEB 10

    1195. Finding a Deep Sense of Purpose: Successful Venture Capitalist to Passionate Education Change Advocate

    Ted Dintersmith is a best-selling author, education advocate, and former venture capitalist who believes math has been weaponized—and it's time to set things right.   His professional career has been immersed in the world of technology-driven education, giving him a ringside seat to the advances of integrated circuits, robotics, and Artificial Intelligence. For the past fifteen years, he has focused on the world of education, forming an education non-profit, authoring best seller books, and setting a mission to help catalyze and accelerate progress in our schools and equip our children with skills and mindsets that are essential in a world defined by rapidly-advancing innovation. Ted graduated from the College of William and Mary with High Honors in English and Physics and then got a PhD in Engineering from Stanford. In 2012, he was appointed by President Obama to represent the U.S. at the United Nations General Assembly, where he focused on education and youth entrepreneurship. "I was recognized by one of the trade publications as one of the top-ranked venture capitalists in the country for 1995 to 1999 – which were good years to be good at it. I loved every day. But as I got further into it, I realized that a lot of the companies we backed were developing products and solutions to make customers far more productive. And that seems to be a really good thing. "But at a certain point, I realized that if you make a few people really productive, you may be laying off a bunch of others, which gets me to AI and why I am so focused on things today. "As I looked back on my business career, every day was really fun, but I didn't feel a sense of purpose. Now, every day, I feel a deep sense of purpose by fighting for different priorities in schools and fighting for helping kids find their strengths – instead of putting students on the narrow conveyor belt that leads right into the jaws of AI." Recommendation to listeners:  "Find the things you love to do. Be resourceful in terms of connecting your passions with ways to support yourself financially. Take chances and be bold. And leverage technology. You will never look back and you are going to be in great shape."

    38 min
  3. Switching Careers With an Entrepreneurial Spirit

    10/21/2025

    Switching Careers With an Entrepreneurial Spirit

    Liz Chism has been an entrepreneur for over 11 years. She started out her entrepreneurial journey by starting a craft brewery with her husband and being the COO and Head Brewer. After that journey ended, she started Systems into Freedom where she is a business operations coach who strategizes with business about how to organize and streamline their operations so they can create freedom through their business. Liz seamlessly fits coaching around helping her husband in his real estate business, running the house, raising their three children, and homeschooling. "It wasn't until my husband and I decided to start a craft beer brewery that I found my passion for organizing, streamlining and strategizing how to go from point A to Point B in the fastest way possible. "My husband and I fell in love with brewing, the science and the art mixture. And we fell in love with the community aspect that it brought, the ability to bring people together. What's interesting is that most people didn't think that I would be the brewer. They always put the male as the brewer and the female as the admin/marketing person. It turned out I had more talent for organizing and operations, repeating success and creating the recipes. In the end I was the brewer and did all the operations. My husband's talents were more of that CEO mentality, that visionary, and he handled the business side. "We ran it for almost five years but ended up closing down in 2018 and filing bankruptcy in 2019. And that's actually when we pivoted. There's a lot of things about the brewery that we liked, but some aspects weren't a match for where we wanted to be and what we wanted to do with life. It was actually a moment where we could redesign our life however we wanted to. "Based on what my husband and I learned while building the brewery, I started a coaching business called Systems into Freedom. It is designed to really help business owners put the systems in place so they will not get burned out. Those systems need to be incorporated into the culture of the business and leverage their employees to become leaders."

    20 min
5
out of 5
595 Ratings

About

What do highly successful people actually do to succeed? For 45 years as entrepreneur, inventor, and author, Don Hutcheson has studied the proven career-building strategies that people around the world have used for decades to create lives of success, satisfaction and freedom. Every Tuesday he interviews individuals from around the world who share their real-world experiences and insights—what worked, what didn't and why—and any advice they might offer to help you jump-start your life and career to the next level. On Fridays, a highly accomplished woman or man from one of the most popular or interesting occupations and professions gives listeners an up-close-and-personal look at what it's truly like to do what they do every day in "A Day in the Life." Select recorded interviews here: http://www.DiscoverYourTalentPodcast.com/podcast. Interview Don on your podcast, radio show or other media: don@DYTpodcast.com