The CEO’s Time Machine – Geoff Thatcher & Zoe Thatcher
The Not Old Better Show, Author Interview Series
Welcome to The Not Old Better Show. I’m Paul Vogelzang, and this is episode #453. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lightstream.
As part of our Art of Living, author interview series, today’s show is a very special one. Our guests are father, daughter author team, Geoff Thatcher and Zoe Thatcher. Geoff Thatcher and Zoe Thatcher have co-written the new book, THE CEO’S TIME MACHINE. THE CEO’S TIME MACHINE will transform how you view leadership and innovation.
The title says it all…wouldn’t it be great to have a time machine in business, and in our lives? It is impossible to predict the future of innovation and business success—but what if you had a time machine? Where would you take it? Does going to the future provide you with answers? Are you missing the obvious in the present? What can be learned from the past? For CEO’s for all of us, there are problems that come from trying to see the future, but, there’s a test for that…
That was Geoff Thatcher and Zoe Thatcher reading from THE CEO’S TIME MACHINE.
Zoe Thatcher did all the art, and when you buy the book, which I encourage you to do, check out page 55, and the accompanying artwork, which beautifully depicts the giggle test.”
And, that was Zoe Thatcher. You’ve got to see her artwork, which we’ll add an image of to the site. As I say, you’ll love this book, and it’s great for all audiences and all families.
Please join me in welcoming to The Not Old Better show via internet phone, Geoff Thatcher, and Zoe Thatcher.
My thanks to Geoff Thatcher and Zoe Thatcher, authors of the new book, THE CEO’S TIME MACHINE. My thanks to Lightstream for sponsoring today’s show. Please check out Lightstream, go to LIGHTSTREAM DOT COM SLASH NOTOLD
And, my thanks to you, my wonderful Not Old Better Show audience. Please stay safe, practice smart social distancing, and be well. Let’s Talk About Better. The Not Old Better Show. Thanks, everybody.
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Paul Vogelzang:
Welcome to the model better show. I’m Paul Bogle saying, and this is episode number four 53 today’s episode is brought to you by LightStream as part of our art, the living author interview series. Today’s show is a very special one. Our guests are father, daughter, author team Jeff stature and Zoe Thatcher, Jeff Thatcher and Zoe Thatcher have co-written the new book, the CEOs time machine. The CEOs time machine will transform how you view leadership and innovation. The title says it all. Wouldn’t it be great to have a time machine in business and in our lives? It is impossible to predict the future of innovation and business success. But what if you had a time machine? Where would you take it? Does go into the future, provide you with answers? Are you missing the obvious in the present? What can be learned from the past for CEOs, for all of us, there are problems that come from trying to see the future, but there’s a test for that.
Geoff Thatcher and Zoe Thatcher:
The CEO interrupted her as he stepped toward his time machine, but you see the CEO replied, that’s the problem with time-travel. The COO followed him as he kept talking. It’s really everyone’s problem when it comes to seeing the future. People just can’t look past the present. Everyone has a filter that’s impossible to shake. I have a filter. You have a filter. We all have these limitations that hold us back from really seeing what the future can be. The truth is the only way to invent the future is to go there and then look back. It’s a matter of perspective. Too many people stand in the present and try to imagine what the future might be like, but without standing in the future and looking back, you can’t get past what I like to call the giggle test. People who are standing in the present or stuck in the past, they giggle at big innovative ideas. They mock concepts that don’t understand their creativity and imagination is limited by their perspective.
Zoe Thatcher:
Oh no. I just giggled at an idea the other day. I know. What do you mean? You know?
Paul Vogelzang:
That was Jeff Thatcher and Zoe Asher reading from the CEO’s time machine. Zoe Thatcher did all the art. And when you buy the book, which I encourage you to do, check out page 55 and swear the reading just came from and the artwork that accompanies it applies directly to that reading. So you gotta check out this accompanying artwork from Zoe Thatcher, which is beautifully depicted there. And it visually provides you a glimpse of what the giggle test might look like.
Zoe Thatcher:
I was doing ink drawings every day of the month of October for a challenge called ink Tober. And I did a drawing of a girl in a red scarf and my dad looked at it and said, that’s a style for this book. And it’s honestly a very different style for me. I usually draw very colorful, cutesy illustrations, but this is much more sharp and angular and graphic. It just ended up being perfect for the book because of the message, that kind of futuristic vibe to it. And this illustration in particular features a young woman presenting to people kind of smirking at her ideas. They’re kind of just whispering under their breath like, I can’t believe this, like, uh, silly, silly things. And, um, I think my favorite part of this illustration is the expression of the girl who’s presenting. Um, it’s very subtle, but you can just tell she’s disappointed, she’s embarrassed. Um, she is being shut down and it kind of just shows in her face that she’s not going to because of this experience that she’s not going to share her unique idea.
Paul Vogelzang:
And that was Zoe Thatcher describing her artwork. You’ve got to CVR at work, which we’ll add an image of to the site. As I say, you’ll love this book and it’s great for all audiences and all family. So please join me in welcoming to the Natalie better show via internet phone, Jeff Thatcher and Zoe batcher. So without your Jeff Thatcher, welcome to the program. Thank you. It’s great to be here. It’s great to talk to you too. So same last name. I of course have done a little bit of an introduction of you both, but father daughter written this great new book, the CEO’s time machine. You know, I have to say, I get a chance to interview an awful lot of authors. This is my first father and daughter authorship on a book. So congrats first of all about that and tell us how baby that came about, how you guys kind of reached this conclusion that together you want to write a book titled the CEO’s time machine. I’d like to hear that story first.
Geoff Thatcher:
Well, when covert 19 hit, uh, and all of our projects started going on a hold. Zoe and I looked at each other and we were like, we got to stay busy. We got to do something. And we had been talking about this book for a while. Uh, it’s a short story that I originally wrote back in July of 2016 while I was working, uh, in a project in Saudi Arabia, uh, with the CEO of the history factory, Bruce wine trick. And uh, Bruce has this saying start with the future and work back. And we were doing a traveling exhibition for the King of doodle foundation and we were looking at the history of King Abdula but also looking at the future of Saudi Arabia. And this is of course, was before all of these massive changes that were happening over there. And so I just felt inspired on one of my long flights, uh, and wrote this short story.
Geoff Thatcher:
And then it just sat there. Uh, we actually posted it on LinkedIn and like five people read it. It was, you know, it’s just something that I wrote because I’m a writer and, you know, a creative director, but it just sat there. And then Zoe did this October challenge in October of 2019 and October 29th, she posted this amazing sketch of a girl in a red scarf. And you know, I immediately saw it and I said, Zoe, that style would be perfect for the CEO’s time machine. This little short story I wrote, let’s go ahead and, you know, start thinking about this as a book. And the problem was his reality interfered. Uh, you know, uh, there’s a saying that says, you know, the problem with doing projects in your spare time is you never have any spare time. And that was the truth with this.
Geoff Thatcher:
I mean, we talked about it, we thought about it. Zoe did some doodles of what the, you know, what the CEO might look like or what the protege would look like in the book, but we really just didn’t have any time to work on it at all. And so when covert 19 hit, we just jumped in with both feet. And Zoe completed 43 illustrations in about two and a half weeks. Uh, I called a graphic designer that we work with and, and we called a copy editor that we work with the kind of cleanup, the short story that we had written and we call it a publisher, uh, Casa Flamingo literary arts, uh, you know, and we were able to put the whole thing together and get it published in four weeks on Amazon. And you know, Zoe and I, uh, have worked together since August of 2019. So really this collaboration is, is rather new. Uh, I mean, I’ve always of course seen her talent. And after she graduated from Auburn university in 2018, she went to st Louis and she was a costume designer, designed these really beautiful, innocent costumes and sweet costumes for, uh, ballet and tap dancers to four to eight year olds. Um, but I just love the style that she has for this book and I think it really tells the story and, uh, you know, it’s, it’s, uh, it’s been a lot of fun.
Paul Vogelzang:
Well, that’s, that’s great to hear. I’m so impressed. And, um, and congratulations on the success working together. Uh, the artwork. Let’s back up for just a second, Zoe. I wonder if you could take a minute and tell us a little bit about the, the messages in the book and, uh, perhaps just to give us a brief account of what the book’s about. It’s a nice, quick read, but I have to say I was left with a range of, of emotions and messages. So Zoe, I wonder if you could take a minute, a minute and just tell us a little bit about the book and, and what it’s about and, and some of those messages.
Zoe Thatcher:
Uh, so the, this book is basically for anyone who has felt like they’ve had great ideas that have never been heard before. Um, and the premise of the book is that this legendary CEO, uh, he’s got this company that is so successful. It’s always looking to the future. People don’t know how he does it. There’s, he has a secret R and D garage. Um, and the rumor is that there’s a time machine in there because he’s just so far ahead of the game that nobody knows how he’s doing it. So they’re like, must be a time machine.
Zoe Thatcher:
I don’t know. But um, the story takes, starts with the CEO about to retire and he’s turning over his company to his protege, um, who’s a young woman and um, he’s turning over the reigns and allowing her to go into the garage to see his time machine. Hi, this is Paul and I have a quick sponsored message to share with you after which we will return to our author interview with Jeff Thatcher and Zoe Thatcher, others of the new book, the CEO’s time machine. We’ll be right back. You know, I love to read and a lot of us are able to spend time on things that are very important to us right now. You know, whether it is reading, we just didn’t have the time. I’ve taken it upon myself to review some of my family’s finances and in particular I’ve been looking into credit card finance charges.
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Paul Vogelzang:
We are with Jeff batcher and Zoe Fasher father and daughter illustrator and writer of the great new book, the CEO’s time machine. Zoe, I have to tell you the illustrations are beautiful. The primary colors that they’re, they’re just, they’re very vibrant and uh, and there’s a precision I think to the lines we’re going to have, um, a couple of your illustrations present within the show notes. But I wonder if you would describe your favorite illustration and tell us a little bit about it in some detail and how you kind of arrived at, uh, this, this artwork specific to that one illustration.
Zoe Thatcher:
Oh, okay. Well, picking a favorite is very difficult probably, but I guess if we’re going to go classic, I’d probably say that covered image is my favorite. It also shows up later in the book.
Zoe Thatcher:
This was one. I think it just does a really good job kind of providing mystery. You could just see a piece of the time machine, but you don’t get to see the whole thing. Um, I think the shadows are very dramatic. The angular fashion of them. And uh, you get to see the stories hero from center. She’s looking at you, uh, her bowels open, like she’s gonna say something. I’m curious as to what she’s going to say.
Zoe Thatcher:
that one just has a lot of layers in it. Just like he was talking earlier about the book having many layers. I think this image can communicate a lot of different things.
Geoff Thatcher:
There’s no doubt. When we, when I saw this illustration that did some for the first time, I was like, Zoe, that’s our cover right there. That’s it. That’s our cover. I just knew it. It was our cover. It had to be our cover. And one of the things that we struggled with at first was how do we represent the CEO? This kind of Elon Musk, Steve jobs type of character. And Zoe played around a lot of different character designs for the CEO. But in the end we were like, you know what, we don’t need to see his face because this book isn’t about him. It’s about her. And so we really decided to focus on this protege, this chief operating officer who’s moving up to take over the reigns of this incredibly innovative company. And, uh, so it’s my favorite too.
Paul Vogelzang:
Yeah. So again, congratulations on this wonderful work. How was it working together as father and daughter? I think there’s a lot of, um, a lot, a lot in my audience that are going to be interested in hearing about the, the G, the intergenerational, uh, working relationships that took place.
Geoff Thatcher:
Well, the first thing you have to know about working together is that Zoe doesn’t call me Jeff. No, I call him Allen. Um, which isn’t my name by the way. Um,
Zoe Thatcher:
it’s a kind of an inside joke, but it’s an, it goes back to
Geoff Thatcher:
what your generation, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s from that YouTube video that has like, I don’t know, 300 gazillion views. It’s like a ch,
Speaker 3:
so little Badger chipmunk thing. Just they like lip sync to it. And so it’s going like, it’s calling someone if they’re not paying attention. And so he’s a mile a minute. So I have to sometimes say his name multiple times. Allen Allen, Allen Allen, because she can’t call me Jeff. She just says, that’s weird. It is weird.
Paul Vogelzang:
And you’ve worked together. And in a workplace it’s hard to call you dad and there’s probably pet names that you have for your dot. Your wonderful daughter, Zoe. So it’s, you need to have that professionalism. But I wonder were there other times when you just kind of had to compromise and understand each other despite the intergenerational differences and be able to just simply say, Oh yeah, that works for the story, or I think we got to do it this way, or let’s take it this direction. And then you both were kind of wondering what is she being, what does he mean that happens?
Geoff Thatcher:
Yeah. You know, we actually get along really well. I mean when, you know, she’s worked for a year and a half in st Louis and you know, I was using her a little bit as a freelancer here and there and was seeing her talent develop and my biggest worry about hiring her was holding her back. Um, but by the same token, you know,
Zoe Thatcher:
I would never get to illustrate a book or have the same opportunities in a bigger corporation. Um, I mean, yeah, I, I’m fairly unknown. I’m very young. Nobody’s going to come up to me and be like, Hey, I wrote this story. You want to illustrate it. But because I know him and I get to work for him now, um, I’m introduced to all these great projects and networks and even though he thinks he might be holding me back, I’m really, I’m kind of diving into the deep end with things that wouldn’t be trusted to someone as young as me.
Geoff Thatcher:
And then on the flip side, I had no idea what ink Tober was. You know what I mean? I don’t know about Instagram challenges that have daily prompts. And I mean, right now she’s doing mermaid where she posts on her Instagram account and our company’s Instagram account, a mermaid, a illustration every single day. And you know, you know, the middleman. Again, another theme of the book is middle managers by their very nature a stifle innovation. And you know, we are very clear in the book that middle managers are needed in an organization to drive process. They are there, they’re necessary. But you have to figure out a way to work around, uh, sometimes that process to be able to innovate. And, you know, I don’t think very many design firms out there would say go ahead and take, you know, one to one to two hours a day to do this inc Tobar challenge or go and take, you know, one or two hours every day to do the mermaid challenge.
Geoff Thatcher:
Because, you know, that’s really just about professional development. And you know, Walt Disney did that with his illustrators. Uh, you know, when he launched his company is, you know, take plenty of time for professional development to develop your skills. And the reality is, is, you know, when I told her, Hey, Zoe doing Tobar is totally fine, you can take an hour or whatever it takes every day to do it. I didn’t realize when I asked her to do that that we are going to discover this amazing style of illustration that was perfect for this book. I had no idea. I mean, it wasn’t until the 29th of October really that we saw this girl with a red scarf sketch that she did, which by the way, another generational difference is based on this nerdy fantasy writer that she loves that I’ve started reading now. So we, so if we have more to talk about and you know, um, but I’m very lucky, you know, she’s great joy to work with and you know, we, we, we get along really well and uh, she, um, yeah, I mean she saves me money too. I mean, you know how much I had to pay someone to dictate, illustrate 43 illustrations in two and a half weeks. I mean, first of all, nobody would have done it in two and a half weeks. So that that was great. She doesn’t know enough. She’s so young at 23. She doesn’t know that. Like you’re like, Oh, I should take two months to do 43 illustrations. She does 43 illustrations in two and a half weeks.
Paul Vogelzang:
Well, it certainly is a Testament to your personal style, your professional style, Jeff and, and, and congratulations to you both on just this wonderful book that the illustrations again are fantastic. Zoe, the writing is wonderful. You guys have so much to be proud of, including the wonderful family dynamic that’s taking place there within the workplace. I, I, uh, I think that’s, I think that’s marvelous. I think my audience is just really going to love this story and love the book. I’m going to encourage everybody to check out the book. We’ll put up links to where you can find out more information about Jeff Thatcher and Zoe Thatcher. But guys, I really appreciate your time and, um, and your energy. But tell us maybe one last question real quick. What’s next? You guys have another project kind of in the works together. Well,
Geoff Thatcher:
what we’d love more than anything is to get back to work on the real projects. I mean, uh, you know, the firm that we work, uh, you know, creative principles as our firm. And we do, uh, corporate visitors centers. We do museums, we do theme parks, zoos, we do attractions, experiences. And of course all of those are closed right now. And a number of our projects have been put on hold. Um, we were able to work on one project, uh, through, through the pandemic and that was fantastic. And we think another one’s gonna knock on wood here, a startup here towards the end of may. We’re working on a visitor center for a water purification plant. Um, in the meantime though, we’re actually, we were so had so much fun working on the book and creating
Geoff Thatcher:
something that we are now doing a website called buzz. And it’s a kind of nerdy in a way, but it’s, um, it’s allowed people to come onto his website and ask questions of the late buzz price. And if you’re a Disney fan, know who buzz prices. His name is in a window on main street USA, but buzz price is the economist and feasibility expert numbers cruncher who picked the location of Anaheim and pick the location of Orlando for the two flagship Disney parks. And he is really an amazing, I met him when he was like 93 years old and got to walk a trade show floor with them for a couple of hours and just an amazing man. And this website is gonna allow people to, we’re working with buzzes son to to ask buzz questions about the industry and we’re calling it ask buzz.
Paul Vogelzang:
So that’s what’s next for us. We’ll congrats and Jeff, you’ve just had a fantastic career. Zoe, you’re off to a great start too. But what a pleasure it is to be talking with you. I hope, I hope you guys will come back and talk to us again about this next project at 80 upcoming projects, but what a pleasure it is to talk to you and congrats again on the book. Thanks for joining us today. Paul. Thank you so much. We really appreciate you helping to tell our story. Thanks Mike. Thanks to Jeff Thatcher and Zoe Thatcher, authors of the new book, the CEOs time machine. My thanks to LightStream for sponsoring today’s episode. Please check out LightStream. Go to lightstream.com/not polled. All this will be in the show notes, and of course my thanks to you, my wonderful Natalie. Better show audience. Please stay safe. Practice smart, social distancing, and be well. Let’s talk about better than adult. Better share. Thanks everybody.