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Coach Dora Mendez
Welcome back, Amazing Leaders to another incredible episode of season three, Building Leadership Community Podcast. I'm your host coach Dora mendez. Today we're diving into a conversation about innovation, perseverance, and the entrepreneurial journey from corporate America to creating something entirely new. Our guest took 21 years of business development expertise, combined it with a moment of frustration in the wilderness, and turned it into a patented solution that's now gaining national and international attention.
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Coach Dora Mendez
From 19 prototypes to trade shows across the country, his story is a masterclass in problem solving, persistence and purpose driven leadership. Our season three guest is entrepreneur, inventor and founder of Compass Cards LLC. Todd Hanson. By the end of this conversation, you will walk away with insights on how to turn obstacles into opportunities. The courage to pivot from stability to startup life.
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Coach Dora Mendez
And a powerful reminder that innovation begins when you refuse to accept the status quo. This episode is a reminder to build boldly, strategically, and with the conviction that your idea matters. So settle in, take a breath, and get ready for our incredible guests.
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Intro Outro
Hello and welcome to Building Leadership Community Podcast. I'm your host, Dora Mendez. I am the founder and CEO of Coach Dora LLC. Our guests will be entrepreneurs, small business owners, and community leaders that drive social impact. It can be lonely at the top, but it doesn't have to be.
00;02;04;05 - 00;02;15;26
Coach Dora Mendez
Hello. I am so thrilled that you come back week after week to join us for these conversations on season three of Building Leadership Community Podcast.
00;02;15;28 - 00;02;37;23
Coach Dora Mendez
It can be lonely at the top, but it doesn't have to be. That's exactly why we started this podcast. If you are new to Building leadership community, we are so glad you are here. Please like, share, subscribe. So you never miss an episode! Say hi in the comments! We read every single one and we respond to every single one.
00;02;37;25 - 00;03;13;13
Coach Dora Mendez
When we have some great resources, we love to share them. So today we're sharing what you've been thinking about. One of our most, FAQs, frequently asked questions? Have you been starting or thinking about starting your own podcast? Check out our mini course, The Entrepreneurs Podcast Blueprint. I've partnered with my husband and co-producer Dylan Rogers to create five easy to follow video modules, along with a workbook that you can download and follow along at your own pace.
00;03;13;16 - 00;03;46;04
Coach Dora Mendez
And yes, get a very handy eye prompt sheet that will make getting your episode out there into the world a breeze. The link is in the description. Season three is rolling along with more powerful conversations. So let's get to it. Let me tell you about our guest, Todd Hanson. He is the president and founder of Compass Carts, a Rochester, Minnesota based company specializing in innovative utility carts.
00;03;46;07 - 00;04;36;28
Coach Dora Mendez
But his journey to entrepreneurship is what makes his story so compelling. After spending over 21 years in business development at Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, Todd experienced a pivotal moment during a challenging hunting trip in Whitewater State Park at the end of 2018. That frustration sparked an idea, and Todd didn't just complain about the problem, he solved it. He invented the patented Compass Cart, an aluminum utility cart that attaches to any two inch vehicle receiver hitch, making it easy to load and unload gear for outdoor activities like hunting, camping, fishing, biking, and boating.
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Coach Dora Mendez
After developing 19 prototypes, yes, you heard that right. 19 Todd launched the product in November of 2023. Since then, the Compass Cart has gained traction at U.S. trade shows with growing interest in Canada and Europe. Todd also combines his entrepreneurial spirit with a deep commitment to supporting military veterans through partnerships like Camp Southern Ground. Today, Todd is here to share his leadership journey, his lessons from the trenches of entrepreneurship, the mindset it takes to go from idea to impact.
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Coach Dora Mendez
Season three continues right now, and we can't ask for a more inspiring entrepreneur to join us than the innovative Todd Hanson. Let's bring him to the stage. Hi, Todd. Welcome.
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Todd Hanson
Dora. Hi. Glad to be here. This is exciting.
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Coach Dora Mendez
I'm excited too, because I just I love your story, and I guess I want to share with the audience really quickly before I turn over the proverbial mic to you that, the way we got connected through. Was your assistant, right? Found me. Found our little show, and, we met right away. We hit it off. I love everything that you're doing.
00;06;01;24 - 00;06;27;27
Coach Dora Mendez
I myself, just am a new entrepreneur. I started, Coach Dora about, It's going to be two years. Almost two years. And so, I feel such a kinship with you in so many levels. My father was in the military, may he rest in peace, for 32 years. I just feel such a such a kinship with you and what you're doing.
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Coach Dora Mendez
And I would love for you to share your unique, you know, leadership story, how you went from Wells Fargo to inventor and entrepreneur.
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Todd Hanson
Thank you. Yeah, it's. But it was quite a journey. It was, I'm sure many of your listeners probably seen the show Shark Tank and, you know, watching all the pitches and stuff. And, you know, that was really a, inspiration for me to, to take action, right? Many of us have an idea at a simple a simple idea would be, wouldn't it be great if if you ever said that you're probably on your way to either finding the product or maybe creating one yourself?
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Todd Hanson
And that's kind of how the scripts got started. We, like you mentioned, we found a found a problem that we were having when we were out in the, in the woods and we came up with, an idea and just said, hey, let's let's go for it.
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Coach Dora Mendez
It's funny you mentioned, Shark Tank because as I was reading your bio or like, all I kept seeing was, oh my God, this would make a great Shark Tank episode, but I'm glad you're here. I was like, I'm glad you're here with us. I'm glad you're human. Does that. I hope I said so. And, you know, if folks who follow me listen to the show, they know how obsessed I am with popular culture.
00;07;42;20 - 00;08;08;14
Coach Dora Mendez
So when you mention Shark Tank, that's exactly what I was thinking. So, I just could you just share just a little bit more about how, you know, like, when I mean, obviously you had, something happened, right? So can you kind of tell us your, like, origin story? Like, what's the genesis? What was the real genesis for Compass Carts
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Todd Hanson
So, we had this, a game cart that we'd bring into the woods for either hauling our gear in or, with any kind of luck, some game back out. And, when we got back to the vehicle, we'd always have a rack. You probably seen, with, you know, SUVs and trucks with this little rack on the back of your vehicle hauling, you know, coolers and totes and all kinds of stuff.
00;08;31;02 - 00;08;49;16
Todd Hanson
And so that's what we had as well. And my thought was, why can't that cart and that rack be one and the same? So after like you mentioned, 19 different iterations of figuring out how it would work smoothly. We made it so that you can simply leave all your gear, all your, your cooler, your stuff right in your cart.
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Todd Hanson
And when you get back to your vehicle, you just slide it right on, like loading a boat on a trailer and, and, it lifts off the ground. So you're not trailering it on your vehicle. But that was the that was the inspiration for. And then it kind of blew up from there. You know, we customers are asking for different things, like, you know, the ability to tow behind, an ATV or garden tractor or a bike.
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Todd Hanson
And you know, so we're continuing to evolve based on our customer needs. But that's that's how we started. And, it's, haven't looked back. It's been fun.
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Coach Dora Mendez
That's amazing. I, I, you know, you are our first inventor on the show, so I logos. So we always try to bring our listeners and our audience, you know, new things, but something that we always go back to and something that I find, you know, one of the themes of the show is that sometimes it can be lonely, like, you really put yourself out there.
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Coach Dora Mendez
You took a risk. So can you share with our listeners and viewers, viewers what community means to you?
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Todd Hanson
Yeah, it's it's huge. Especially as an inventor or, you know, anybody like launching a new business. It's, it's good to have a team around you and, you know, getting, you know, getting negative feedback as is. Good. Right? So I've, I've gotten feedback and it makes you pause and think. So like the group around me, I've had everything from, you know, successful business, you know, family members that I've been in business to, you know, working with my patent attorney to, you know, the small business development, you know, local organizations.
00;10;19;11 - 00;10;40;27
Todd Hanson
I tell you what, you there's there's help out there. You have to go out and and find it, but there's there's definitely help. And and I leverage them all the time. I'm six years into this process now and it's it's common, you know, weekly that I'm reaching out to somebody to get some, some feedback. Even today I was, you know, contacting, one of my manufacturers to get some assistance on a design.
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Todd Hanson
So it's fantastic.
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Coach Dora Mendez
So community for you means, safe space to get feedback. For me. Yeah, that's what it is for you. So you kind of have your unofficial board of directors that you reach out to to get feedback. And for you, the feedback can be negative. Positive, just you just need the community. You need a community that give you some feedback.
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Coach Dora Mendez
So you're not working in a vacuum. Is that is that do I have it right there?
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Todd Hanson
You do, you do. And there's there's multiple different types of, community. Right. So communities can be solving a problem. But some community can be just, you know, bouncing ideas off of. And that's, that's hard when you're, you know, so entrepreneur like yourself or, where you want to come up with an idea and you want to be able to, you know, ask others about, you know, what, what you're planning on doing and and getting some feedback, maybe before you launch and that and having those trusted, you know, community around you that will give you honest feedback.
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Todd Hanson
A lot of people will give you encouragement. And but what you need is the honest like you need you need the positive. You need the negative to.
00;11;54;15 - 00;12;15;20
Coach Dora Mendez
I like that. So yes you're right. All right. Feed. That's what feedback is right. It's kind of neutral negative and positive. You want to hear. You want to hear it all or else you can't make decisions. And so what I would love for you to share, I would love for you to share with our listeners and our viewers.
00;12;15;23 - 00;12;26;20
Coach Dora Mendez
What advice, what words, what wisdom would you like to share with aspiring entrepreneurs? Maybe something you might have told your younger self.
00;12;26;22 - 00;12;48;00
Todd Hanson
You know, it's funny you ask that question because I was just thinking about this the other day. And the number one piece of advice I can give somebody that's got an idea, whether it's, you know, launching a business or, you know, launching a podcast like you mentioned, or inventing a product is you have to start before you know everything because you'll never know everything.
00;12;48;00 - 00;13;02;28
Todd Hanson
Things change and you're always you're always, always learning. So don't don't wait till you know everything is that then the day will never come. You, get enough to where you're comfortable getting started. And once you get started, you know, go for it.
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Coach Dora Mendez
I love that, I love that. So, that sounds like this, similar advice my business coach gave me, which is, you know, I'm a coach, I have coaches, but so.
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Todd Hanson
It is a good,
00;13;15;08 - 00;13;19;20
Coach Dora Mendez
And and it's move with imperfect action.
00;13;19;23 - 00;13;20;05
Todd Hanson
Yes.
00;13;20;12 - 00;13;36;20
Coach Dora Mendez
Because if you wait till if you wait till everything is perfect, you'll never go like, right, like perfect is the end, you know, like you'll never get going. So I love when you say you can't know everything you've got to. Or else if you wait till you know everything, you won't. We'll just be sitting there.
00;13;36;22 - 00;13;52;25
Todd Hanson
Yeah. Because as soon as you think you got something figured out, you're going to get hit with, you know, a regulation or, you know, you know, something's going to happen outside of your control and you just have to learn to, to figure out what that is. And how does that impact you? And then, you know, kind of roll with it.
00;13;52;25 - 00;14;12;02
Todd Hanson
You know, some, you know, things that that have been a challenge for me lately is just, you know, dealing with things like tariffs. You know, those are those have been that's been a challenge for an entrepreneur. You know, importing and exporting regulations. You know, those kinds of things are, or, you know, things you don't. Well, I didn't plan on any of that when I first started.
00;14;12;04 - 00;14;17;05
Todd Hanson
You know, I wasn't I didn't think that far ahead. But it doesn't take long.
00;14;17;08 - 00;14;44;24
Coach Dora Mendez
But even if you did, even if you were thinking about long term, there's no way you could have known. You know, there's so many external things. So, you know, I teach at, at a local college here, and we use this technique called S.W.OT. analysis. Yes. Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, Threats. And the oh and the, the oh and the T are things that are really beyond your control.
00;14;44;24 - 00;15;06;29
Coach Dora Mendez
You have to be ready for when opportunity strikes. And you also have to be ready for when, when there are threats like opportunities and threats are sort of considered in the same category where you have to be flexible and adaptable and continually learn so that when opportunity strikes, you know how to you know how to, take advantage of it.
00;15;06;29 - 00;15;24;20
Coach Dora Mendez
And then when threats happen, you know how to protect yourself or navigate through it. And there's always going to be there are always going to be opportunities are always going to be threats. And there's no no matter how much you plan, no matter how much far out you plan, there's no way you can you can predict, predict those things.
00;15;24;20 - 00;15;52;29
Coach Dora Mendez
So I just love I thank you for lifting that up. Because whether you're an entrepreneur or a big corporation, there are always going to be things outside of your control. And it's just your attitude and the lens by which you, approach, approach, problem solving that's going to help you, take advantage of the opportunity or get through the threat.
00;15;53;01 - 00;16;00;22
Todd Hanson
Right. But look at the military, whether it's, you know, going back to your father, it's what is it? It's improvise, adapt and overcome. Is that what that is?
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Coach Dora Mendez
Yeah.
00;16;01;27 - 00;16;23;08
Todd Hanson
And that's that's entrepreneur right there. Yeah. You're always going to have to you know always after all the changes. And and this is where like your, your message you know finding that community around you that you know, you can bounce ideas off of. And some of my best, sounding boards are other small businesses that I work with on a regular basis in.
00;16;23;10 - 00;16;29;14
Todd Hanson
And, we've become quite, quite good friends with, a number of them. And it's fun. It's been a lot of fun.
00;16;29;16 - 00;16;54;24
Coach Dora Mendez
Well, Todd, so I'd love to leave the space open to you. What would you like to share about your business? What you're doing now? What, what offerings would you like? Our audience and listeners, to to take away from this conversation about you, your product, your, your business. I'd love for you to share.
00;16;54;26 - 00;17;25;15
Todd Hanson
No, thank you very much. Yeah. So Compass Cards is, we're evolving. We're growing. We've had, recently. We just did a, trade show at, Las Vegas. So that's really boosted our, not only stateside, exposure, but international as well. And, met some fantastic people and opportunities at the show. So when I, when I talk about compass cards, the, the hard part, like on a podcast like this is understanding when I say what Compass Cards does, it's hard to visualize it.
00;17;25;15 - 00;17;43;23
Todd Hanson
So for those of you that are wondering, okay, what is Compass Carts What does it do? You know, who would it be good for? Whether it's myself or someone in my family you want to go to like Compass cards.com and you can actually see how it works and how it slides from, you know, a cart onto your vehicle with a, with a mated receiver hitch rack.
00;17;43;25 - 00;18;11;12
Todd Hanson
But then we're growing. And so, Dora, one of the things that I have heard so much lately that, customers are looking for a way to haul, larger dogs behind, like a bike or take them down to the beach or when they're doing their bike trails and stuff. So they want a kennel system for it, because we're one of the larger, carrier systems that can actually be towed behind a bicycle.
00;18;11;15 - 00;18;28;20
Todd Hanson
And, so that's been an interesting revolution in, a purpose for compass cards that I never even thought of that our customers, are telling us about. So you really just got to listen to your customers and that's, I'm just excited. I.
00;18;28;22 - 00;18;29;05
Coach Dora Mendez
Well, you.
00;18;29;05 - 00;18;30;22
Todd Hanson
Know, I can talk about those cards all day.
00;18;30;22 - 00;18;51;03
Coach Dora Mendez
Yeah, but you know what's great about that, Todd? It is really an environmentally friendly way to if you're talking about cycles, bicycles. So, like, I, I bet you didn't even think like you were going to be doing something that's, like, very environmentally friendly, you know, so that's like a really when you talk about sustainable, it's not just a trend.
00;18;51;03 - 00;19;12;21
Coach Dora Mendez
Like people are really, really wanting tools that are going to go with their bicycles that are, you know, low fuel. So this is also a potential way for you to contribute to that, sustain a sustainability with respect to the environment, even though that might not have even been on your radar.
00;19;12;23 - 00;19;31;11
Todd Hanson
It wasn't you know, there was there wasn't, it wasn't I thought, you know, I it'd be interesting. Someday I'll have to show you a door on my, my list of ideas. And, you know, when you're brainstorming the idea that all the crazy things and I, I didn't I mean, I left everything in there. Yeah, it's it's I just let it go wild.
00;19;31;11 - 00;19;34;04
Todd Hanson
When I started designing and thinking about what Compass Carts could do.
00;19;34;04 - 00;19;59;29
Coach Dora Mendez
So I have to tell you, Todd would like the stereotype of the inventor that I have in my head. This this I'm aging myself is, you know, Doc Brown from back to the future. You know, like Christopher Lloyd. Like what? All those trinkets, it all those great things. And like, what do they call that machine? That, the Goldberg machine that is so, like, that's kind of like the stereotype in my head, like when I think of inventor.
00;19;59;29 - 00;20;25;17
Coach Dora Mendez
But really, what an inventor is, is a problem solver. Really is someone who who solves a problem and figures out how to solve a problem. And that's what you continue to do with Compass Carts. That's what you're listening to your customers. And I'm, we're over thrilled. We're just over the moon that you came and shared your your story with, with us.
00;20;25;19 - 00;20;45;20
Coach Dora Mendez
I just can see I can now. I can see I knew you when. Because when you're big. When you're big time and you're on Oprah's favorite things, don't forget to make sure that you know us here on our little show. Gets, gets a sample. But, yeah, it's just wonderful what you're doing. I want to thank you for being here.
00;20;45;22 - 00;21;01;15
Coach Dora Mendez
And, I want, folks to remember to, like, share and subscribe so you can continue to get great content. And I'm going to ask you, Todd, to hold on one moment. And, thank you again for being here.
00;21;01;17 - 00;21;05;22
Todd Hanson
My pleasure. Thank you for having me. It was, it's it's fun.
00;21;05;24 - 00;21;35;03
Coach Dora Mendez
You've been listening to Building Leadership Community. Watch on YouTube @CoachDoraM. Listen, wherever you get your podcasts, follow me on LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube @CoachDoraM. Visit me on the web at CoachDoraMendez.com. Hosted by me, Dora Mendez. Produced by Dora Mendez and Dylan Rogers. Graphics, editing, and sound mixing by Dylan Rogers.
