This month, we sat down with JS Bull to hear his career journey, from founding his first company to becoming the CEO at WhyteSpyder.

Introducing, Talent Stories: an Endeavor series featuring professionals in various industries throughout the Heartland region sharing their journey into entrepreneurship. We interview c-suite execs and founding teams to learn what experiences inspired them to pursue the unconventional and bold venture of changing the world through entrepreneurship. This month, we sat down with Jordan Lanning to hear her career journey, leading her to work for Mycelium Networks and launch her own company.

A growing number of people are working remotely, but what do you need to know before starting? Phil Libin, founder of Mmhmm and former co-founder and CEO of Evernote, shares the pros and pros of this new way to work.

Innovation can be a difficult concept to grasp in legacy companies. It is often seen as something that only newer, more progressive companies with a lot of risk-taking and willingness to change their business practices can do well. But what if we were able to find ways for innovation in legacy companies? How would it look different from the traditional entrepreneurial company?

Like many cities in the heartland, Tulsa has suffered from an exodus of talent. In several years over the last decade, more people moved away from Tulsa than into the city, with the 25-54 year-old segment of the population growing slower than in similar-sized markets. To course correct and inject the kind of high-earning, creative talent that could help fuel its economy, Tulsa embarked on a great experiment: offer a $10,000 incentive for remote workers to move there for a year. Since launching at the end of 2018, accelerated by the pandemic, the pioneering initiative has moved more than 1,300 remote workers to Tulsa, delivered millions in economic impact, and inspired cities around the county to adopt this new vehicle for economic development.

The historic passage of the federal infrastructure bill will send hundreds of millions of dollars to expand high-speed internet access to states and localities in the heartland and across the country; an unprecedented investment. This funding has the potential to make real progress in closing the digital divide. That being said, this will only work if these dollars are spent in a way that provides for those who need it most, the unserved and underserved.

Business schools in universities need to provide business knowledge to all areas of the university, not just the business school because entrepreneurs do not just come from business schools. The knowledge business schools teach helps entrepreneurs succeed. Seven of the top 10 companies on the 2018 Inc. 5000 had founders with at least one degree from a business school and this finding was even more pronounced in the top 10 of the 2019 Inc. 5000. The majority of the 12,000 thousand LinkedIn profiles who are CEOs of companies of more than 50 employees have this in common—a degree in business (see “Business Degrees Help Entrepreneurs”). The challenge is that most innovation comes from crossing concepts, technologies, and theories from disparate areas, so business knowledge must be widely distributed in order to catalyze the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

According to Forbes “ in the 12 months ending May 2021, sales of kayaks grew by almost 30%, backpacking tents up by almost 50%, sleeping bags up by 28%...48% of consumers said they intend to do more hiking or walking and 13% said they’d do more outdoor cycling.”

Recent history proves that innovation-based economies continue to outperform more industrial economies in many key economic-development metrics such as job growth, average wage, productivity, and entrepreneurship. Cities across the heartland, like Tulsa, that were built on the backs of legacy industries like oil and gas, aviation, manufacturing, and healthcare now have the opportunity to position their cities for success in the global innovation economy without falling victim to the same hypergrowth pitfalls that communities like San Francisco and Austin have faced.

The COVID crisis has dramatically revealed long-simmering problems for business communities and the nation that have now reached their boiling point - the costs of an unhealthy population and the associated system of healthcare that remains largely reactive. It is time to radically re-envision and redesign all the systems that impact human health and well-being, starting with an innovative shift towards employee well-being and risk reduction that emphasizes trained peer-to-peer facilitation. Empowering and equipping employees to take charge of their physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being supports becoming their best, most productive selves at work and at home.

A strained supply chain, initially by the pandemic, continues to struggle under the weight of rising prices. And yet, while costs continue to rise, specifically around food and gas, we continue to see massive market disruptions in both the energy and agriculture sectors. It is not impossible to imagine a not-too-distant future where most cars on the road are electric, and solar panels abound, but that future may be closer than you think and the biggest changes may be happening on the margin.