285. How Allyship & Partnerships Fueled a Community Project - Jonathan Dodson

Jonathan Dodson, PIVOT, Eastpoint, Oklahoma City, We Are For Good Podcast

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Overview

Meet J on. This former banker turned developer-for-good is passionate about I’m creating value through new partnerships and projects in areas with tremendous potential. His interest in urban re-developments led to the creation of the internationally recognized Pivot project launching an economic revolution powering underserved citizens to stay, build, and thrive in their communities for generations. It’s one of the great underdog success stories we’ve heard on the podcast yet - and it happened in our own backyard of OKC! We're crazy proud to bring our community's story to you.

💡Learn

Equitable allyship: breaking down local/regional systems to build vibrant communities
How to manage & stay resilient after hearing a lot of NOs until the right YES comes along
Forging dynamic partnerships with government, for-profit & nonprofits
The mission story of Eastpoint

Today’s Guest

Jonathan Dodson, Co-Founder and CEO at Pivot

“It’s easy to have a lot of ideas that we would say are baked in knowledge and therefore wisdom, but knowledge that isn’t attached to relationships isn’t wisdom.”

— Jonathon Dodson, Co-founder and CEO of Pivot

Episode Transcript

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Episode highlights

How Jon’s childhood and experience in banking led to Pivot (3:47)
Jon’s journey to building relationships and community in Oklahoma City’s East side (9:20)
Six values that contributed to building a dynamic, equitable community partnership (14:45)
Joyous disruption and other lessons learned from a development project that almost failed (24:50)
Exploring joyous disruption further (30:30)
Jon’s take on being distrusted (35:50)
How EastPoint has changed Jon (41:00)
Jon’s One Good Thing: Try to find ways you can experience discomfort so you can find joy. (44:00)

Powerful quotes

“It’s easy to have a lot of ideas that we would say are baked in knowledge and therefore wisdom, but knowledge that isn’t attached to relationships isn't wisdom,” - Jon Dodson

“Community has to be centered at the core. For anything sustainable, for anything meaningful and ethical and all of the things, it just has to be central.” -Jon McCoy

“Typically people who have access to power or money think they're a blessing to any community that they walk into. And, outside of that being really paternalistic, it's just wrong.” - Jon Dodson

“We coined this term, joyous disruption. Like we had to use joyous disruption to capture somebody's heart to lend us money, because this guilt and shame game was not winning.” - Jon Dodson

“The story informs everything.” -Becky Endicott

“To those who are listening and really doing the work, you're already entering this suffering and so I hope that you find joy around every other rock.” - Jon Dodson

“It just takes a 1% shift to go in and do something differently.” -Becky Endicott

Episode Becky referenced: 87. Doing Business Better: The Founding and Mission of Simple Modern - Mike Beckham

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