We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jim Cirillo. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jim below.

Jim , appreciate you joining us today. Let’s talk about innovation. What’s the most innovative thing you’ve done in your career?

Great question and insight. This might sound a bit counterintuitive but quitting what I thought would be a dream job cold turkey without another job lined up turned out to be one of the most impactful “innovations” of my career. I was 8 years into my career and dove head first from a large multinational to a chaotic small tech company I should have vetted more closely. I lasted a year before leaving. I was really down and frustrated. However, quitting and spending a lot of time on the couch for next year (yes year!) gave me time to reflect, helped me work through fears (real and imagined) and gave me a much better understanding of myself and what I wanted. Quitting gave me space and allowed me to change and grow. And believe it or not this lived experience is something I lean on quite often when working with clients. Embracing change, pivoting, leaning into vulnerability, creating a vision, tackling fears, knowing when to quit one path and start a new direction are all necessary requirements when looking for innovation and strategy to deal with today’s tech based world.

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.

Out of engineering school I worked in advanced development at one of the big three auto manufacturers. I was developing plastic optical fiber communication systems for vehicle platforms before eventually moving into the “high tech” optics industry directly. Soon though I had quit my job without a plan. One day a got a call from a friend of a friend who wanted to talk to me about my engineering expertise. That casual conversation turned me into a consultant/entrepreneur overnight. And though I had no experience and no plan JIMIUM Group was born. That was 17 yrs ago now.

With JIMIUM Group, I’ve shifted to being a fractional Chief Innovation and Strategy Officer for select small & medium size businesses and also provide entrepreneurship consulting for individuals. JIMIUM Group started out providing advanced engineering and project management services but has shifted over the years as my clients, personal interests and the world has shifted. Additionally, leaning on my advanced technology experience, I am recently exploring angel/tech investing more seriously.

With JimJim’s Reinvention Revolution (a podcast I started about 6 years ago), I do interviews with professionals, entrepreneurs, and creatives re-imagining success in the digital age. I’m interested in how the world is reinventing itself with technology, in pivoting, in entrepreneurship and growth mindset, in seeing the world differently, and exploring how I can reinvent myself and help others along the way with reinventions they may need.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Mindset is everything. When I first became a consultant I really did not see myself as an entrepreneur though I had worked in the corporate business world my whole career. I had no vision of being an entrepreneur or changing careers. I was only consulting for a few months until I figured our what was next, or so I thought. Two challenges stood out when I started: 1) I was part of management at the company I quit and consulting had pulled me back into engineering (which I was ready to move on from). The longer I was going to consult I felt like my management experience was waning, perhaps destroying what I had worked many years for. 2) I now have one client but how do sustain this and pay my bills going forward?

I started tackling number 2 first. My solution to worrying about paying the bills was to break my projects / client work down into 6 month increments, but on a daily basis. That is I would wake up everyday and think do I have enough work to last the next 6 months? Most often the answer was yes for about 12 straight years until I decided to change things up as I felt the world was changing. That’s when I began pivoting into the online world a bit more and leaning into strategy and innovation.

In regard to 1) My first two years consulting were a huge challenge. The challenge was not in the work itself but was whether I should be looking for a new job or am I losing my previous expertise? I really had no idea what I was doing or if I really wanted to be a consultant and run my own business. But as I got better and more comfortable at business and realized I owned my time my mindset opened up more and more. Then I realized I could make the same or even more income working less hours and I never looked back. My dreams shifted from corporate life to designing a life I never could have imagined.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I started podcasting in 2017 when I began to study online business models. My career previous to this was in engineering / manufacturing and I knew little about the online world. I started experimenting with dropshipping and Amazon merch businesses before I settled on podcasting as an avenue to develop online skills and learn about digital marketing. This was intentional as I knew the online / social media world was going to have a big impact. I could feel it coming. I chose to do interviews with people reimagining success in the digital age, i.e. those who were reinventing themselves and their careers. This was earlier days of podcasting when it was hard to learn the production process and to figure out how to get it distributed. It’s been a great experience so far and I am humbled by the guests that choose to come on my show. And I am humbled by my listeners. I think about it as providing value to the audience first, my guests second and I am third in the equation. For the show I’ve created these are the priorities that has made it successful. In regard to building an audience, I would say it’s similar to picking the right stock. Picking the right one will make you rich and you only need one, the right one. Finding the right listener (niche) is similar, don’t get distracted by vanity metrics of number of downloads unless you’re building an advertising engine. True listeners >> many listeners.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.jimjimsreinventionrevolution.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jimjimfollowme/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jim-cirillo-9882787/
• Twitter: https://x.com/JIMIUMGroup
• Other: https://www.jimiumgroup.com