We were lucky to catch up with Matt Sweetwood recently and have shared our conversation below.

Matt, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Do you take vacations? How do you keep things going – any advice for entrepreneurs who feel like they can’t step away from their business for a short vacation?

I am the CEO of Greener Process Systems. My previous gigs were running a $100mm business (with a successful exit) and as a professional speaker, I was on the road a lot – for business. Even now, running a startup cleantech business consumes almost 100% of my time. So, dedicated vacations can be very difficult to find time for. However, since business trips happen frequently, why not use that opportunity in a multitasking way — work and respite combined?

My last business trip was a few weeks ago to NYC for an environmental conference, I had a speech to give and many important meetings with industry executives. Now I could have jumped on a plane back home to Florida on the Thursday night the conference ended. But I already had a nice hotel room, was in Manhattan and had my computer with me.

This was a perfect setup to stay caught up on emails and then head out into the city on Friday and for the whole weekend!

I try to carefully plan my business schedule to have time for myself every day. For me that means some alone time, enjoying a quiet, high-quality dinner, taking a walk with my camera and doing some serious street photography, seeing a show, watching a movie in my hotel room or even writing an article or my book. But it doesn’t always work out that way.

Adding a day or two or three onto the end of a longer trip (even if I am in a less exciting place than New York) where I can really vacation is my preferred method. Business travelers should do it more often. I’ve already paid for the travel (or a client has paid for it, less the extra hotel days), I’ve already invested the time in making the travel plans, and I am there – no wasted time away from family or work getting there. It’s the most efficient short vacation I can arrange. When I rush home on the red-eye after a business trip I get home exhausted and then find myself struggling even harder to catch up — and dreading the next business trip.

I have learned from the time I was a little boy, that there’s no dessert until after dinner. So, I can’t really enjoy play time until after the work days are over. Therefore, I schedule those “extra days” after the work part of the trip is over. This “vacationing” technique allows me to recharge before charging back to the airport and home. And a rejuvenated and refreshed me is a more successful me.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My company, Greener Process Systems, has developed a patented and revolutionary modular system to capture maritime, industrial emissions, and CO2. Our ship emissions capture technology, SETH™, reduces pollution, to near zero, from docked oceangoing ships (such as freighters, cruise ships, ferries, etc.) in urban areas near ports. Our IEM systems have industrial applications such as in glass, paint, cement, steel, aluminum, food, chemical factories, etc. Greener’s systems are capable of capturing CO2 (Carbon Credits) and producing significant energy (and revenue) from waste heat recovery (WHR).

Greener’s systems improve health conditions for millions and reduce the impact of emissions and CO2 on the environment and provide an alternative source of energy from waste heat recovery.

My long and successful career as a CEO and business owner has primarily been in more traditional businesses including retail, distribution, marketplace apps and a fintech startup. I had no intention of running a company after my exits. I was consulting, speaking and even wrote a best-selling book, Leader of the Pack.” However, when the opportunity at Greener came along – a chance to make an immediate impact on the environment and people’s health – I couldn’t pass up the opportunity.

So, here we are today, Greener is projecting to install emissions systems in factories across the US with technology that is available today – not like many other environmental improvement ideas that promise some unclear future gain.

In the relatively short time that we have been operating we have be awarded 4 patents, 2 trademarks, and have established business relationships worldwide.

What I am most proud of, however, is the incredible team we have assembled of brilliant engineers and inventors as well as our highly talented biz dev team. Because it’s ultimately the propel in your company that makes you successful. And that’s why I know Greener is going to be a big winner.

Have you ever had to pivot?

When you running a startup business like we are doing now with Greener Process Systems, there are times when you have to make a smart pivot. And that pivot for us cam about a year ago when we realized that getting our SETH® systems install in oceangoing ports was going to take years, in many cases, to break ground, we needed to find a faster business close cycle. So, we pivoted our focus to industrial applications for our IEM/Industrial systems. In the last 8 months we have placed 15 proposals into some of the largest companies in the US and this should lead to tens of millions of dollars in business.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

Some call it serendipity. I call it divine intervention. I met my co-founder previously to Greener when I had hired him as our CMO at a company I was interim CEO for. I guess I did something very good for him or impressed him, since a few years later he called me up and said, “We have this amazing invention, and we need to form a company and bring in a professional CEO to run it. We’d like that to be you.” And that’s how Greener Process Systems was started.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://msweetwood.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/msweetwood/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/msweetwood
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/msweetwood/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/MSweetwood
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MSweetwood