Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to David Thomson. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi David, thanks for joining us today. Can you tell us about an important lesson you learned in school and why that lesson is important to you?
When I arrived at The University of Denver, I started a whole new journey. I had no past history to keep up with, I was free. I immediately jumped into activities that inspired me, activities that truly built the person I am today. Some of those included taking all Freshman to the mountains for 3 days, taking ALL students to Steamboat for 3 days of skiing, becoming Student body president and being active in my fraternity- Kappa Sigma. These are the real life skill sets that train you for the real world. You are forced to work with your direct peers with reprimandable consequences. You are no longer the popular one as you have to make decisions that have optically negative impacts on some. This forces one to gain confidence and also teaches us that there is so much more to the world than just satisfying our personal objectives. I learned the world of philanthropic, empathetic behavior. At the end of one’s life journey, isn’t that what it is about? How did we impact the world.?
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I grew up in Pittsburgh and always thought I would return after schooling at The University of Denver. My dad had a real estate company and expected me to get educated and return. I only returned for a year and then went onto graduate school at Thunderbird- finished in Paris. My dream was to live in the State I loved, Colorado. I moved back in 1989 when Colorado was in a depression. My first apartment downtown Denver was $200 and it was amazing! What I learned in the next few years was perseverance. You find how to survive. My greatest joy was becoming a part of the East West Partners team as COO and creating the entire new downtown, Riverfront Park. We truly envisioned living downtown Denver and it worked. To see this today, it is a thriving and electric area. It was not an easy task. I had to convince others on WHY they should live downtown and WHY they should love Denver as much as I do. I had hundreds of meetings just to persuade others on what could be a joyful way to live.. Persuasion become my pursuit. If you can’t persuade your feelings, your ideas, your vision, then those are merely thoughts and can simply die within. I want the best for people. To persuade them is only a tactic to get them to realize that there is so much out there to enjoy- to take advantage of. We live only once, so live it. My license plate says LVNGLYF.
Have you ever had to pivot?
I made a pivot in my career from real estate (which is private business) to joining the Governor and leading his Global economic development efforts (which is public business). It is a huge fundamental change, you no longer have an immediate reaction, it is the bureaucracy that controls you. The emotions take over. I tried to treat it like a business and made some real efforts to do so (brought in Salesforce to control communication, spending and more). It taught me a lot about seizing each moment to do the best you can given the environment that you are in. You must stand back and look at the consequences, who are you affecting and what are the long term outcomes. I went back into the private world but it opened my eyes and taught me how to be a better human by listening more.
How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?
Brand loyalty is critical to the long term sustainable future of any company. I highly encourage any young company to invest in hiring a true branding company. You will understand the WHY of what you do. You know how and what to do, but do you know why you wake up each day and do this? Once you learn this, it is the heart and soul of your company. That is your brand. That is what wakes you up each day to do the best you can – game changer.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.kairoi.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kairoiresidential/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/david.thomson.311056
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidethomson/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/kairoires