#45 Morgan Lehtinen: From Lab to Green Tech Leader
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Morgan: [00:00:00] Don't, listen to the boundaries that are put on you, but instead find out how you can blend the things you like into something that adds extra value to X sector. I think sometimes it's just the reframing of.
Morgan: Yourself and your skills that can help it fit to a certain, goal or problem. And then also nothing has to be finite, right? You can always change it as you go and you go, okay, I'm going to try it for me. I want, I'm going to try and commercialize this technology. And that didn't work out to the goal I said at the beginning, because I got a better opportunity to get to amplify and get to support more companies.
Morgan: And To me, hit my life goals more closely.
Claire: [00:01:00] Everyone. And welcome to another episode of the small town entrepreneur podcast. I'm your host, Claire Bouvier. And in this super exciting episode, we are going to dive into the exciting world of Morgan Lettinen. PhD trailblazer. And really bridging that gap between the academic worlds and into entrepreneurial success, specifically looking at green technology.
Claire: I'm so excited to have Morgan here to share her journey, revealing the mindset shifts, strategies for goal setting. Building her network, building her mentorship that really propelled her from going from the lab into leading innovations and sustainability.
Claire: So Morgan. Welcome to the show.
Morgan: Hello, Claire. Thank you for having me. I am very excited for this conversation and getting to, as you were kind of say, talk about [00:02:00] different aspects of my life and then kind of how those have all come together to now get to do more cool things. And realistically, that's the, that's the foundation every day.
Morgan: And how do we do more cool stuff? That's making a big impact.
Claire: And that you are doing every day. So let's just get right into it because this is such a big topic right now, you know, hear the word climate change. I was. listening to a commercial and it said, how do you feel about climate change? Like it's not subtle anymore.
Claire: It's in your face. It's there. What really sparked earlier in your research? Because now you have a company in the green tech, but early on, where was the spark for green technology?
Morgan: Yeah, so I think if we go back, like, very young, it was always, you know, science was always, it was, it was questions. It was discovery.
Morgan: It was, you know, being in your background or your backyard as a little kid mixing, you know, mud potions and being like, this is really cool that you can put all these different components together and then create something new. [00:03:00] So that was always, no matter what, always really interesting to me. And as I went through schooling, Yeah.
Morgan: Looking at, wow, there's these really massive problems. You know, I was in 10th grade when the BP oil spill happened and we saw the sort of, you know, the what happened the turmoil that came out after that, both from to wildlife to the industry itself to all these new technologies that were then coming into place to try and clean that up.
Morgan: And that's just one example, but there's countless of those. I mean, when I look to peers currently, it's really interesting in the kind of. Millennial generation that We're all very aware of what's happening. And I think this is just happened what we've grown up through and we're seeing that these problems that are facing the world are only going to get worse if we don't do something about them now.
Morgan: So when I was going through school, that was always a conversation that myself and the other chemistry or other biochemistry students that were we were with. And then I didn't really know. 100 [00:04:00] percent how I wanted to make an impact in the world, and I said something I'm going to, I'm going to figure it out.
Morgan: I had the opportunity in my 4th year of my chemistry degree at Queen's to do a kind of a cumulative thesis project and this was around creating new green filtration technologies to separate. These oily wastewater emulsions, which goes back to my BP oil spill they kind of connected and then ended up getting to work on that.
Morgan: And it was a blend of the inquiry and discovery of chemistry with a very applied problem. And that really clicked in my brain because I always struggled with having. They couldn't be mutually exclusive. I had to find a way to blend those two for me to, to really be able to focus in it.
Morgan: that kind of spurred the, oh, this is interesting. let's kind of keep continuing learning about this and seeing where that could take my career.
Claire: And I love that because. I think it's really neat that you just mentioned, you know, there was something a real problem in the world and you're studying.
Claire: And I think that's the biggest thing in academia. It's how do I take [00:05:00] this learning and apply it so you can solve problems. And it's not everyone is Morgan that when you're in school, you don't relate to those problems. did you personalize that?
Claire: Because that was a problem that was, you know, outside of your bubble, but it impacted you. Do you remember at a personal level, how you found that that did impact you to push into the academic circles that you're in now
Morgan: yeah, so when you're in an academic based setting and you're doing your research and sometimes, as you said, sometimes that research is spun out of a, a problem that is seen in the world.
Morgan: Other times, it's spun out of how do we create something new and novel that's fundamental that could then, you know, ignite into other stages that could, could solve a big problem. And when I would go to conferences or events or, or speaking engagements, when I talk about my research, I would always get.
Morgan: Can it do this? Can it do that? Is it able to solve this? So it was almost this [00:06:00] externalization, and these other external factors would come in and ask me these questions,
Claire: and that
Morgan: caused me to start thinking about, okay, could this be more than a research project? Could this be more than my master's at that time, or, or PhD thesis?
Morgan: How do we, we blend those worlds? And that's something I just found very, very fascinating and it, caused me to look outside of the field. kind of research bubble that you're sometimes in to try and see what other skills do I need to learn to be able to get to that next step. And I think it was, it was really that outside perspective, which is why I am so passionate about interdisciplinary projects and interdisciplinary learning now, because I think it's so important that we need experts in certain topics, but we also need people that are able to Transcend and discuss between the different sectors, which is not as common coming from a, you know, true hard science background.
Morgan: And so sometimes.
Claire: That's beautifully, beautifully said, On the outside [00:07:00] seems very contrasted is the idea of academia and you move beautifully into the world of entrepreneurship so seamlessly.
Claire: I know for you, you're laughing probably. Yeah, wasn't anything entrepreneurial doesn't ever feel seamless, what was it that you knew that you had to not go and work for a company? A lot of people, you know, finish up their academic research and go and work for a company, get some experience, figure out what they're going to do.
Claire: There's a lot. I want to talk about this, but even having the confidence to be like, I'm on to something, I know it's time to go maybe get some funding and go into entrepreneurship. How did you know, or what was it that was like, okay, I'm I'm going to go from this academic world in transition to entrepreneurship.
Morgan: Yeah, I'm going to answer the question first with what happened if I was in the mind of the moment that was happening and now I have a bit of a kind of a retroactive look at what I think was actually happening. [00:08:00] So After within my PhD, as I said, doing this research that was really cool. We were having all kinds of external excitement about what it could do.
Morgan: I then was like, okay, there's this, we're doing these separations of this, you know, contaminated wastewater at the bench scale. So that meaning, you know, you're in hundreds of milliliters. And in my head, I was like, okay. That's, that's not the size of an ocean. That's a lot bigger or a process that's out in industry.
Morgan: So I went, okay, how do you get from there to there? And I, I, that was not something you're often taught with a chemistry background in chemical engineering. You might get a bit of it, but it's still, it's still not really taught. So I said, okay, there, we have to look at it technically, but also from a business sense, you need to have money to do that.
Morgan: You need to be talent that has to be put together in a team. I said, okay, so maybe This, this is something that could happen. I originally thought that it's very common to have industrial partners in academic research. You work together and then [00:09:00] that company will then go in and scale the technology and take it on.
Morgan: And maybe you as a researcher, you'll end up going and working for them. I've seen that a handful of times, but you know, the world does its magical things. And at a time of 2019 right into 2020 was when you know, COVID happened in the lab shut down and I had been exploring this commercialization potential of my technology for about a year.
Morgan: But then. You know, I couldn't go to the lab anymore and we were stuck at home. And then also Kingston at that time had a woman entrepreneurship grant that kind of came to the community. And I said, okay, why don't I start taking some of these workshops, start learning these other skills and just loved it.
Morgan: I loved the connection of the two, the two worlds. I felt like it gave me something. You know, knew that sparked my interest, but also allowed me to now have a level up, I felt to, you know, the, the path that I was following with my research before. So I went through that and then because of COVID had the [00:10:00] opportunity to go through, you know, entrepreneurial training programs from across the world because I didn't have to travel for them.
Morgan: I was able to still do my research and still learn these new things. So that's what actually happened. In retrospect, I think a mix of it was stubbornness that I had this. Really cool thing. And I just like, I couldn't get it out of my brain to keep trying to figure out how to solve the problem.
Claire: For us, chemistry newbies, or maybe you're a listener and you only have great love and chemistry like myself. Yeah, would you in layman terms explain your cool tech?
Morgan: Yeah. So my research was on basically we took fabric, anything like the fabric on your shirt.
Morgan: So a cotton based fabric and was able to coat it with different molecules that was able to make basically it could separate out Very stable, gross, nasty mixtures of oil and water. So you'll originally think, wait, oil and water don't mix. That should be easy. In a real [00:11:00] industrial setting, there's things called surfactants, you know, types of soaps, but these can be bacteria.
Morgan: These can be, you know, naturally occurring molecules. Anyways, when they all mix together. They are extremely difficult to separate and they can cause issues either when we're talking about oil spills, but also in a variety of other industries from food to pharma to natural products. So our technology was able to separate these with no external energy or other input of chemicals, which is how they normally do it.
Morgan: So I was going through trying to develop this technology and also from the lens of, Those that don't might not fully have ever learned about the process of getting a technology from lab to market and making it actually out there making an impact. There's, you're starting at the lab bench at university that is at this small scale, then you've got to get it up, you know, 10, 100, 1, 000, 10, 000 times in size.
Morgan: And each of those takes, you know, technical both like scientific and engineering improvements. So this can [00:12:00] happen takes a long time. They're measured in something called technology readiness levels. If anyone is interested, go look them up. It was a scale developed by NASA. And it's it's this process that you have to develop this new and invention and then turn it into an innovation.
Morgan: By finding the problem for it to solve and that can take 10 years. So it's a, it's a long and drawing process going back to the stubbornness. I was just, you really
Claire: brought that together. I love that. Okay. Also brilliant. You are a great inventor of our time, Morgan. This is so exciting to have you here.
Morgan: Oh, I appreciate it. on that journey, realistically, is where how I ended to where I am now is I learned that process that we were talking about takes 10 years. It's really hard. And there's not a lot of places out there where you can go and get the support to scale these, these inventions past the lab size.
Claire: Right.
Morgan: And there's not really places you can do them because they require, they're really expensive [00:13:00] and require a lot of equipment that's, you know, very specialized. So basically, our new organization, the company that I'm running now is, is How do I build what I wish I had? And that's what our team is doing is building infrastructure and and basically spaces that these new chemistry technologies can help get to that next scale.
Morgan: And that goes into a whole other other conversation around. What do you actually need within it within an ecosystem to help scale companies, which is something that I am so passionate about it could have a whole nother discussion about.
Claire: Well, it's interesting because I think as as much as we reflect on the pandemic, it's it's interesting as we move further away from the pandemic.
Claire: Some way it's been, you know, some blessings in people's lives in a very subtle, but yet now a little more robust way where it's. You found a community, it seems, and you found this new part of it. [00:14:00] How has your community or your network been impacted the growth of now the company and, and bringing people in?
Morgan: Yeah. So if we look at Kingston, Ontario as our case study first step, right? Kingston has this 80 year history of chemistry expertise that a lot of people, unless you're in the community, really don't know about. It has been the start of, we had, yeah, we had, you know, organizations like, like DuPont and Alcan, which are these massive multinational companies came and set up their R& D facilities in Kingston in the 1940s.
Morgan: And that has led to this generational cycle of chemists and chemical engineers and chemical process specialists. That's then turned into some really leading organizations here. There's one's called Green Center, one called Kingston Process Metallurgy. And Kingston as a city has set to And it's a really, really, you know, really targeted strategies around climate change and sustainable manufacturing and innovation in general.
Morgan: So there's this really interesting [00:15:00] nexus of talent and expertise that's in this region that a lot of people don't know about. I something I think one of the statistics is, you know, the highest number of chemical process specialists per capita anywhere in Canada, the highest number of PhDs per capita Canada for this type of city.
Morgan: So it's a really interesting knowledge. And when we saw that we knew that the people around are all working towards these aligned goals but there was still a missing piece of infrastructure. So our organization was able to fit. So that's from my company's perspective, but me as an individual getting to go through, you know, I was at Queens University for 10 years.
Morgan: I did all my degrees there and then had the opportunity to, you know, meet all of the different organizations, both from economic development groups and through entrepreneurship programs where I met Claire and how all these pieces fit together. And it's, a community that Really is trying to push towards solving these problems in aligned ways.
Morgan: And, and, you know, there's no community is ever perfect. [00:16:00] We're still always working and trying to iterate. How do we work? How do we solve that? But I felt very lucky to have a lot of supporters behind me and I'm excited to see where we continue to go in the next 5 years.
Claire: Morgan, I think you're now the ambassador for Kingston, Ontario.
Claire: I'm ready. Okay. This is a perfect segue because, you [00:17:00] know, I celebrate and encourage people that are coming from small communities, small towns, it's a small town entrepreneur. Why not? The big cities, because you just have more people, bigger networks. I know you said we have the history and everything, and maybe you can speak from the other side that after the pandemic with, you know, the, the resources that you can connect with people worldwide maybe it is a smaller community that you were looking for, you know, why.
Claire: Aren't you in Toronto or New York City, or I think, you know, the big cities around us. What's the reason for that?
Morgan: Yeah. So to answer that question, I'm going to kind of lay out a little bit of a framework because I think that's how mine works. I like to have something to build off of and then, and then answer from the, from the personal kind of perspective side.
Morgan: So when I think of, of, you know, what I do on a day to day basis is trying to improve innovations that we can solve. You know, massive problems. And [00:18:00] when we look at the problems that are currently in the world, if we take climate change as our first example, that's on brand that we've been talking about in order to reach net zero by 2050, the current experts say that we need to spend about 275 trillion into the processes to actually get us there.
Morgan: That is exorbitant and never going to So what are ways that we need to How do we fill gaps or create new systems to work and to get us these steps further, which is where this topic of ecosystems comes into play, where, when we think, look at how to actually foster innovation, we need different stakeholders.
Morgan: So we have, you know, your universities, you have your You have your government, you have your funding organizations, you have startups that are trying to bring new technologies to market, and then they all have to interact and the more interactions between those. So we say this is, you know, resource flow.
Morgan: So [00:19:00] how more resources that flow between them, if it's monetary capital, if it's social capital and relationships, if it's knowledge, capital, sharing of expertise, we have stakeholders, they all need to interact the more interactions, the more effective and efficient the ecosystem. Love
Claire: that. And this,
Morgan: yeah, so this is just when I think about it, and that's why we call ourself a hub, because we want to help facilitate interactions.
Morgan: But going back to the point of the question, after COVID, these innovation ecosystems, and this is something that's in literature, you can read about, I'm just kind of have been, you know, bringing my version of it moving forward, is that place used to be a key component. You used to build an innovation ecosystem around a physical region, because there was, you know, the, the communications that came out of COVID were not prevalent before.
Morgan: So now place is no longer a limited factor. We are able to, you know, hop on a call. You know, for me, it was people in Vancouver. People have a contact that I speak with in Hong Kong. Like, we're able [00:20:00] to meet to all these different regions just virtually, of course, that doesn't break of, you know, I love getting to go travel to that spot and meet with the people in person because it forms a different type of, you know, relationship, but from an actual knowledge sharing and ecosystem, so we don't need it anymore.
Morgan: And I know personally, myself and my fiance, we love nature. We want to be able to. Congratulations,
Claire: by the way.
Morgan: Thank you. Yeah, we want to be able to live in acres and forests and have that. And then also be able to be in a location that has everything that our current business needs and then also enables us to help the city grow.
Morgan: And that's why, you know, we really talk about these ecosystems because there's so much potential. And excited to get to kind of push that forward. So the answer to that whole question is there are sure the benefits and being in the big cities, but a lot of those benefits you can get now, because place is not a it's not a factor, a limited factor.
Claire: Yeah, and it's not a requirement at the same time. I love that. [00:21:00] You speak beautifully, Morgan. I love listening to how you look at, you zoom out and then you bring it tight in. Now, let's be honest. This is a trajectory. You're so ambitious. You're changing world issues. When you have failures, when there's setbacks and failures are great.
Claire: I think you can agree that Propels us in another direction and we learn something, but how do you deal with failure and setbacks and obstacles? Because anyone listening, Morgan, you're very confident. We need more confident women in the world. You've obviously worked a lot on your mindset, how you're going to attack problems, but what do you do when you're stuck and you're not sure which, way you're going, right?
Morgan: Yeah, it's a good question. Cause it always, I feel like there's different, there's different seasons of life where you do it differently. I've recently kind of learned to know, embrace my neurodivergence that I never knew [00:22:00] was a thing that I had before. And it's come out in the last two years.
Morgan: I think that's very common for women. You, you realize these things in your late twenties, early thirties and are like, Whoa, the whole world is different now. Oh my goodness. This is amazing. But also it's very difficult at the same
Claire: time.
Morgan: So looking at these things, and I know. I struggled a lot from, I feel like I can maybe come off confidently, but I've struggled a ton with imposter syndrome.
Morgan: Like, all of these things are not, they're not things that I have not faced. And I think especially you know, went through, it took me, you know, I went through 10 years in school. And was doing a lot of different things at once in school, just because I think my brain liked that and liked the spark and the interest, but when it actually came down to when things didn't go the way that they were planned, many times I froze.
Morgan: So I had times where it was a, like, shut down and then have to have the people around you that are able to pull you out of those things. So I have a really great team now. I said, my partner is amazing at knowing when I. Tip to the starting to freeze and not be able to make [00:23:00] those really strong decisions, but I looking at it now as it's becoming more preventative as opposed to trying to call them after we're reactive, right?
Morgan: Looking at, okay, what does my brain need to be able to get to a point where that problem I've laid out all of the potential paths of solutions. And you just have to pick the right one or whichever one happens, you have the second degree and third degree steps to be able to solve it.
Morgan: And I think real
Claire: scientists,
Morgan: it was just kind of like you looking at it. I like to look at you look at everything like decision trees where it's like you start here and then you've got these potential options. And then if this one happens, okay, these things can happen and it's a way that I'm able to sort of put out to make decisions.
Morgan: Things that are scary, less scary, if that, that makes sense. So you've thought of everything.
Claire: Rewarding it, I agree. I think it's the relationship and, and for someone like you, you know, not everyone wakes up and, and says, I am [00:24:00] actively on the path to completely make a huge impact in the way we use technology to improve the sustainable future that we're living in.
Claire: Like, you know, for some of us. And I know I've been there. It's just like, get through the day. Can you speak? Yeah. Can you speak to the, the woman, the, the young girl at one point, you know, you know, getting through that day, do you have something that kind of keeps you is, is the rock, the foundation of like, just making the small steps so that eventually the big steps, you know, I love James clear.
Claire: The book, Atomic Habits, right? Yeah. We'll always go back to the idea of that 1 percent change. What's your go to that allows you to move forward?
Morgan: Yeah. I think there's a line that we say within our team sometimes that it's like, if if it's not us, who? So there are some times that you got to remember that there's these problems that [00:25:00] they're, they require so many people working on them.
Morgan: And, you know, by me showing up every day, I'm taking those couple steps more and pushing in the right direction and enough of us all push in the right direction. We're going to get there eventually. And that's, I know, sometimes when we're getting really frustrated on, you know, different roadblocks that come up, etc.
Morgan: Just going. You know what we're waking up every day to do something that does have impact and let's just pushing through. I know personally, sometimes it's, you know, the tactics that I use is just like, all right, here are the things that have to get done this week. We're just going to make those happen.
Morgan: That's, that's difficult for
Claire: Morgan.
Morgan: I try. Sometimes it's difficult when I know I, I feel a lot of this is a common, I think, women imposter syndrome thing. You can sometimes feel guilt. I should be doing more. I should be doing more and trying to balance those things out. I just don't have an answer for you there yet, but, but
Claire: that's beautiful though, because I think.
Claire: Do we [00:26:00] ever really have the answer or the solution? No. And I love that you're just taking one step and sometimes it just means showing up. And. You know, I'm not going to hide from it, but being a woman in technology, being a woman in science, if there's still a lot of pushback, do you feel that for you?
Claire: Is there any thing that you have been able to overcome in that space? Do you still feel as much as we've had this conversation for how many years it's still there? And how do you navigate being a founder leading role, a woman in tech, a woman in science, how do you show up for that in that space?
Claire: And has it prevented you from, you know, that imposter syndrome getting louder at any point?
Morgan: you know, it's not uncommon that I'm the only woman in the room and, you know, a lot of situations. That's something that kind of just have,
Claire: have accepted.
Morgan: It happens. [00:27:00] And it is frustrating when maybe you are not. Recognized for for what you actually bring to the table. But I think when I look back it's ensuring that my team members are there. You know, I'm standing up for myself, but also making sure that they're standing up. For me as well.
Morgan: Our leadership team is two other males and myself and they will both be the first ones to say, Nope, this is Morgan's area of expertise, make sure she is answering the question. And we have that all planned ahead. So , it's one, you know, me just sometimes pushing through. The, and that has taken a long time to be confident in doing.
Morgan: I will not say five years ago, I had the same mentality around this. And even a month ago, I've really been, this is something consistently working through of just like, sometimes you just got to push through the hesitation and eventually they'll listen to you, which is annoying, but we'll deal with it.
Morgan: And then having people on your team around you that will also acknowledge something, maybe you're missing and then pick up on it [00:28:00] and push back where necessary, but I do think there is a change happening, especially in, you know, our kind of generation that this is something they've experienced since they were children in the way of, like, this conversation has been happening.
Morgan: And I'm, optimistic for the future. But right now, we just got to keep. We'll get there.
Claire: I feel emotional right now. You know, we're virtual, but I wish I could just give you a big hug because Morgan, you are such or such a driver of positive change, not just, you know, in the, in the worlds of technology and science, but there are so many women.
Claire: That whether or not, like I'm so on the external and I have just looked up to you since I met you, you have this, I think what makes someone like you really incredible and for the listeners is that sense of curiosity that you touched on. And you know, I do believe it's a muscle and that needs to be strengthened for [00:29:00] some it's more innate than others.
Claire: Your sense of curiosity and optimism. Where does that come from?
Morgan: You know, I was, lucky enough to have, you know, parents when I was growing up that didn't put ceilings on anything that were kind of like, go do whatever you want. I was also a, I was a competitive figure skater. So I had like the sport outlet where you learn different skills and, you know, nothing was ever, no, you can't do that.
Morgan: It was like, sure, go, go figure it out and then focus when you find the right thing. So I think, There was never like a put ceiling that I had been created and then I started when I got to actually see the world and start to like look out and understand there's so many things to learn. Like I just said, whenever people say like, what do you want to be do for the rest of your life?
Morgan: I was like, there's so many things I want to get to try all the different, you know, different sectors and then get to hone in and find, you know, what I'm really good at and be able to take that skill and apply it to as many things as possible. So I think that's one. And from some of the [00:30:00] optimism side,
Morgan: There's small incremental. Learnings or things that happen where, you know, when I set out having a conversation with someone, you know, and me personally, I say, I hope that at the end of that conversation, that person, you know, felt like they were listened to and felt that they, like, had an enjoyable time.
Morgan: Like, that's just great. And from that, the incremental things of that person, then actually feeling joy and feeling that they were seen and heard and listened to, then brings back a positive energy that I feel like those things just kind of like, they just keep adding up.
Morgan: And I said, if we can together find ways that that can happen more often, then we're not going into conversations with a negative mindset. I don't know. This isn't. You know what?
Claire: Wow. This is not where I thought
Morgan: it was going to go, but
Claire: I'll read your book on leadership, Morgan. All right, here we go. And running teams.
Claire: There was a book Charles Dewey, and he talks about, you know, the more, if everyone has equal voices at the table, it makes such a powerful [00:31:00] team. And I think that's what you do one on one. And, and it's really interesting because, you know, I think that curious nature that you seem to have is sparking the beauty in someone or something interesting about that.
Claire: Someone that comes into a positive light and has that optimism for the future. So if you don't mind, I'm going to take that and bring that into my conversations is making sure the other person is heard. I think that's a, It's so powerful.
Morgan: I want to put one star on that, because I think this is something interesting that I could see someone saying this.
Morgan: I am, if we take the introvert, extrovert, all those things, I call myself a, I'm an introvert. That's where I gain my energy. I like to be alone. These things of doing these types of communications aren't For just people that, you know, it might be the more outgoing that you see. I said, it took me a lot of learning and kind of practice to be able to have that muscle, but I think that's important.
Morgan: If there are the women out there, anyone listening, that is maybe a scientist first and sometimes struggles with those [00:32:00] pieces. It's okay. You can figure it out. I know that was a, another big learning I've kind of had over the last five years and how to, use that energy in the best way possible.
Claire: And I think that's so important. It's true. Like not everyone is wanting to go out and talk to people that is that drains energy levels. But I think that coming back to that other person and seeing that you're giving another person a platform or a space to speak and to share. I think it's really powerful to all the listeners out there.
Claire: How awesome is Morgan? You are just awesome. Thanks. Ah, this has been a beautiful episode. I have taken a lot that I'm going to bring into my everyday, especially in the way we communicate for people that are in school right now, that are on the path of what am I going to do? I want to do all these things.
Claire: You are an inspiration to the person that wants to do a lot of things, but you have very successfully [00:33:00] become an expert and focused in, you know, making As we know, through this conversation, you have a million skills that have been come to this one point, I remember hearing , the multi potential light, you know, individual that has, I like this.
Claire: I want to do this. I'm curious about this, but you know, what's my, where's my passion? What am I excited about? What advice do you give? You know, the younger Morgan at one point or the person out there in school and figuring out how do I get there?
Morgan: I think one of them is, if I was thinking about, you know, in school, Morgan is finding you don't have to be in boxes.
Morgan: There's sometimes where these, , you're a scientist, so you're going to do this. You're in business, you're going to do this. The world is changing because the problems that have to be solved are interdisciplinary. You need the scientist to interact with the business individual, to interact with the marketing communication specialist.
Morgan: You see, all these people need to be able to interact. So I would say, you know, Don't, [00:34:00] listen to the boundaries that are put on you, but instead find out how you can blend the things you like into something that adds extra value to X sector. I think sometimes it's just the reframing of.
Morgan: Yourself and your skills that can help it fit to a certain, goal or problem. And then also nothing has to be finite, right? You can always change it as you go and you go, okay, I'm going to try it for me. I want, I'm going to try and commercialize this technology. And that didn't work out to the goal I said at the beginning, because I got a better opportunity to get to amplify and get to support more companies.
Morgan: And that was. To me, hit my life goals more closely. So I said, all right, we're going to pivot this way. So not to think that they're distinct paths, but paths can overlap and then they can, they can wind out and come back again later on in life.
Claire: But isn't that entrepreneurship? And it's [00:35:00] Okay, one last little one because I'm dying to know, where does Morgan want to be in the next 10 plus years?
Morgan: Yeah, I think I want to, so if we have from a true kind of career point of view, I want us to be able to have help and support as many, you know, impactful chemical technology companies have as many of them, the company and the technology as well as the people themselves, be able to get and achieve their goals and because their goals are getting these new technologies into the world that solving.
Morgan: You know problems for the for the planet that's solving economic development issues, domestic supply chain issues. They're all these things. So for me, I want to be one of the catalysts that able to help as many as possible. I would also I know I'm really trying to really grow this idea of how do we help those technologies, but how do we create the systems that can then be replicated multiple times [00:36:00] and be able to figure out a way.
Morgan: There's a system. Of innovation that has as many of these support services possible. So we can really try and streamline that process because if we don't move. Fast. We're not going to be able to solve the problems in time, which is kind of scary, but we have people that many people are working, on this.
Morgan: So want to help as many as possible, really trying to hone in on and learn more and get the data to be able to put something out there. So I think this is a really great way we can move forward. And then. I don't know. I think that's the exciting thing about the future is if you set far, you don't know what's in, in between and kind of keep iterating as I go because something new might come up and, and, and then want to do that there.
Claire: You know what, that's what makes entrepreneurship so exciting and well, we will have you back on at some point for this next pivot, wherever you off decides you, maybe the release of your book on the creating that have impacted the world in this vase, Morgan, [00:37:00] you have been amazing. Thank you for joining us on the show and we will see you again soon.
Morgan: Yes. Thank you so much, Claire. Bye. Cheers.
