Transcript

Wendy Cohen 00:00:03

Good morning Powerhouse smart friends and colleagues and everyone out there who's listening to this fabulous recording today we are so excited this is a podcast recording with John creamer who I am so excited to share with you and instead of spending a lot of time giving you the introduction I'm going to be bringing him on shortly but this is Powerhouse cool collaboratives or cool collabs if you want to be uh short and sweet so what this is is this is our way of interviewing leaders in luxury design build and real estate who are inspiring and doing amazing things in their business and we all want to learn about that as well as living with an attitude of gratitude and giving back to humanity even in some small way and a lot of times in a big way so without further Ado I'm going to bring on John my dear new friend and colleague and he's going to be my guest today. Good morning Jon 

Jon Cremer

good morning Wendy, how are you?

Wendy Cohen

I'm fine I'm thrilled to have you here and I love the view where are you today? 

Jon Cremer   00:01:20

Thank you thank you I am in uh my apartment and my home office in Downtown Minneapolis 

Wendy Cohen

cool love it love Minneapolis we do a lot of things in in the Minnesota Market we're thrilled to have you here and that's actually how we met so what we're going to do is this is just a 20 minute short snippet and after we're done here we're going to make sure we give people a way to reach out to you and connect because it's all about helping you grow the fact that you're giving us your time this morning and but I'm going to start with

00:01:49

letting you tell us your business story or start with just who you are John and where you are 

Jon Cremer 

Absolutely no thank you for for having me on I'm honored and it's blessed to be part of this opportunity so uh my name is Jonathan Cremer uh founder and uh principal of Eversphere, we're a sustainability consultancy focusing on accelerating resiliency and every environment based out here in Minneapolis and I come from the commercial design architectural background where you know we got to in a pre-co world build inspiring spaces for

00:02:20

people to work learn heal and play and had the bless the blessing of working with you know amazing National design firms and international Architects to really build inspiring spaces and uh throughout Covid we kept thinking you know how do we how do we get people to come back to places and spaces and feel healthy and confident and and safe and it really inspired my business partner and I to launch ever sphere uh we're a year and two months in not that I'm counting and uh blessed to be part of this where we really get to blend

00:02:49

environmental and human sustainability together I uh I joke that I'm a wannabe doctor and I love helping people and so um we're we're excited to be here and we're really focusing on making the invisible visible and how can we bring people back to places and spaces and make sure that they're an environment that they can Thrive and do their best work whether it's at a hospital at a school at an office or at home as well so that's uh that's kind of our our high level overview but we're we're out here

00:03:17

just trying to activate spaces and make sure that we're building resiliency in every project across the world 

Wendy Cohen

wow that is impressive John and it's so it's so needed and so important and inspiring and talk about cool you are cool but I want to hear you know H how is it that somebody utilizes your services and what what does it look like for us to have our first initial meeting and think about being able to have ever sphere help us if I'm a developer or I own a property or even in a single family home

00:03:50

share with me please 

Jon Cremer 

absolutely yeah we dabble you know we we're really trying to bolster sustainability for business owners creative firms and Global developers so we can kind of play in every Arena from you know the development stage to really taking the vision of our client from start to finish um and having the background of dabbling in the commercial real estate world and the architectural design we have beautiful Partners all over the world to help achieve these different goals and when we're talking

00:04:16

sustainability it's not just you know talking about clean and green but it's really blending that Human Side in how can we design spaces that are healthy and really delving into that human Centric approach to space so we have interactive workshops where we can sit down with the client let's say in the commercial real estate world there's all these empty buildings all over the world so what do we do to activate them bring people back we see we hear about conversions into residential we hear about you know spec Suites being built

00:04:44

within existing spaces but what's really that trick to help bring people back and make people almost have that fomo effect for not being at their place of work or their place of play whatever that may be and and just really taking that Vision um have five beautiful nieces and one nephew and throughout Covid I saw their their their pains at such young age of you know they're missing their friends and they're missing being at school you know it's a weird time in life back then and you know for us adults to really

00:05:12

navigate it was challenging but what about our future so it inspired me to really and my business partner to really develop this company about creating healthy spaces 

Wendy Cohen

that's amazing so let's start with schools and I know you and I chatted about Office Buildings and schools and then we also talked about hospitality and restaurants and whatnot and then we can get into single family and residential development condos and apartments but so your your niece and nephew schools like what would you do schools typically uh

00:05:44

not that many are ground up today because we have a lot of existing buildings as you said so now you go into a school district and they have multiple buildings what is it that you would do for them to help them turn this into an opportunity to you know make it healthier and actually save money money as what I learned from you earlier

Jon Cremer

absolutely yes um learn quite quickly in this uh sustainability space that it is the power Partnerships not one firm can do it all nor do we want to do it all you know we really want to stay in the

00:06:13

lane of creating those healthy spaces and bless a partner with a few different um tech companies one is a biotech company that were uh by the name of poppy where we're able to come and do a space with a nebulizer and we can mimic in in livetime human breath so we're dispersing particles in the here Gathering the data of what's going on it's really calculus and AI combined so we can go and we can get a benchmark and a baseline of a building in a school application we've learned quite quickly from an air performance perspective that

00:06:42

schools are under most of the time are underventilated meaning that there is not enough air going through based on the amount of humans within and therefore we typically see poor air quality obviously that's not anything that anyone wants to be a part of I don't have kids myself but I want our future generations and you know not just a kids the staff to really to really feel blessed and um to thrive in a space that we know is clean and efficient where they can do their best work I prime example and this is great timing

00:07:11

uh my family we have a childcare Learning Center part of our family home recycling company so um it's deep down in harmony Minnesota and uh it's called the harmony Kids Learning Center and we average about 80 to 85 kids a day I say we as I work there but we're definitely involved and uh we're you know in smalltown USA we we have a shortage of Labor and when a teacher is sick what do we tell our parents you can't bring your kid and it's kind of a dominal fact so we're really starting with going in

00:07:39

we're Gathering the data what's going on in the space and almost like getting your blood pressure taken from a building perspective let's go in take a pulse and then write a prescription per se on how to diagnose this to be cleaner Greener and more efficient so we're we're finding that we're able to bring in our part Partners excuse me uh in the far UVC and air purification spaces to then create a healthier space um blessed to have these just really amazing Partners where we have a far UVC partner

00:08:07

that um integrated within the grid and at all times we're sanitizing surfaces and the air so we're we're Gathering what is going on in each individual classroom and treating that to make it healthier so that's just a prime example in an educational setting and and there are future you know why why wouldn't we invest in healthier air and uh it's and the correlation goes on to you know from the future from a mental health perspective and whatnot so really that going back to that Wann toe doctor I

00:08:35

want to help people and uh we're very passionate about it 

Wendy Cohen

so uh John if you actually you do this analysis and you identify what the prescription has to be and then you use your partners and you pull it together and make it happen how do you measure the results 

Jon Cremer

yeah so um our partners are incredibly intelligent it's a biotech company so we have a team of Engineers that are analyzing what's going on in livetime so then we know how to retrofit for an example HVAC system to achieve compliancy and we found in a

00:09:06

non-educational world the most about 80% of commercial buildings are over ventilated which means ultimately you're bleeding money and you're far over compliancy so if we can help building owners you know organizations across the world achieve compliancy and by achieving compliancy you're creating the highest standard of health and while saving money so we get to go in prescribe create the healthy side but also delve into the energy Sav aspect too which is significant and very substantial so for us it's a win-win we

00:09:35

get to help people save money and create healthier spaces at the same time and I don't know anyone in the right mind that doesn't like to do one of those so we're uh we're excited 

Wendy Cohen

wow so in your initial you know business consultation with a client a new client of yours you actually sh you know walk through what the process is and then at the end you actually show them what their savings could be you take their current utility bills and energy usage and you actually show them the difference wow that's

00:10:03

amazing how long does that process take if I own a you know the sear used to be the Sears tower now the Willets Tower which is an office building that I bet you there's some vacant floors in and I want to invite people and encourage people to come back to the office how long does that process take if I own that building and I really want to you know I see this is you know a a three-way win-win win right all the way so absolutely no one 

Jon Cremer

thank you for asking as we deploy our testing on our Tech side where we going with a

00:10:33

nebulizer disperse these saltwater po mules into the air excuse me and gather that and within 30 days of retrofitting the HVAC system we can see results and we have a performance guarantee as well if we're not if our clients aren't seeing you know the ROI asss that we projected well we're happy to compensate you for what you've invested in from a high level perspective there's a lot of nuances within but this Tech there's nothing else like it in the world and blessed to have this amazing partner

00:11:01

where we're really really scaling on a national on an international scale um was just in Europe deploying this technology to hospitals to supermarkets to Burger Kings and McDonald's where everyone wants to be cleaner and Greener and there are different laws in place in major cities like New York City local law 87 so we're helping companies avoid fines that are coming down the road from a decarbonization perspective and it's just uh it's the power Partnerships and I'll go back that without without

00:11:31

Gathering the data it's a little bit more of a challenging conversation at times so it's it's been absolutely amazing and saving people money has been beautiful 

Wendy Cohen

yeah the icing on the cake right so uh so if I'm doing a new condo development and there's a lot of those or especially multif family you know buil to rent um would I come to you very early when would I bring you in into my development stages 

Jon Cremer

the earlier the better if we could start the vision of the client and have the client to drive everything forward is our Dream um to be

00:12:05

able to you know delve into the interviews with our textu design side and really find the right Partners to achieve our clients vision and dreams um but early on as humanly possible truly but the nice thing is that we get to work with existing buildings to new and most people would assume that these newer buildings especially more on the corporate side are very efficient and we're finding that there are a lot of great products and tools within to make the building more efficient but they're not being utilized so we're we're just a

00:12:33

valuable resource to come in and and help course correct what's going on 

Wendy Cohen

wow wow so are you privately um funded you and your entrepreneurial partner or are you going what's the plan here

Jon Cremer

yeah we uh we put every penny that we have into this because we really do have this vision and we if left a great opportunity and a great job and a great career to Aspire this vision and it's it's been great you know being a little over a year in it's definitely that entrepreneurial grind time but I thrive on being busy and chaotic and running

00:13:07

around like crazy and it it suits it suits us very well and you know we'll see what the future brings down the road but for the for the time being it's really bringing in the right clients that have that shared vision and and I'm used to being in the bidding world my previous job where you know bid comes out and I'm going out there where I'm going to be as low as possible and I learn that that's not where my value is I'm not looking looking to lose money on a bid and have you know the project just

00:13:34

not turn out the way that I know it could be so this is we're treating this as an opportunity with clients you know no one's asking for this which is quite unique and no one has this Tech to offer so our our partnership with these different organizations have been absolutely beautiful and I'm very proud to be able to bring these to the international market and see where things go from there but everything from airplanes to hospitals to homes to wherever there are human beings breathing we have a resource and you

00:14:03

know all we do our entire lives is breathe there we I think it's average of 22,000 breaths per day and if we're not breathing we all know that's not a good thing so not make sure that we're breathing you know clean air and I mean it can go on and on and on that's my Wann toe doctor side but really delving into that has been our true passion we have other great Partners to help accelerate resiliency and some really funky data driven Solutions but I'm confident that our Solutions are top tier and can really make an impact on

00:14:35

the world and we want to be able to see the future generation Thrive and grow and and going back to the helping people which has been a great you know a great resource for us here in the local community with so many beautiful nonprofits and different boards that um that are collectively we're a part of and it's been great to bring these tools to to these teams and really do some beautiful things

Wendy Cohen

well you're leading right into which is a beautiful dovetail but before we go into the nonprofit and

00:15:01

the attitude of attitude of gratitude and giving back um to humanity in any way big or small um I do want to put my recruiter hat on because you know Powerhouse recruiting is kind of the one way I get to do my happy dance by helping people find their perfect career fit and helping companies build their teams if I was interested in what you're doing or I there are people listening who want to get involved are you hiring are you looking for partners what where can we help you on that aspect 

Jon Cremer

oh thank

00:15:32

you and bless you for even asking uh yeah we're we're not looking to hire for the time being but we're looking to bring on Partners in every major city where we can deploy I mean if I could be in every major city Every Day Count Me In but you know try to find these partners that can deploy these Technologies to broaden our footprint um and yes of course you know making money is great but really be able to make an impact has been huge so on the commercial real estate commercial real estate side finding you know partners

00:15:58

and to help their clients to on the development side absolutely all day long East Coast West Coast and we have a team in Europe as well and our team has exploded with these different Technologies you know kind of combining data driven recycling solutions to Energy Efficiency and clean air and people kind of thought you know that's kind of an interesting combination why not add them all together to make a massive impact so we're yes we're we're looking for partners and open to any conversation with anyone truly whether you uh you're

00:16:31

get You're Building owner and you're already getting hitting with fines to someone that just has a vision of building a beautiful building that's high performing and that's going to sustain whatever comes down our way in the future you know Lord only knows what's going to happen so why not be a little bit more prepared and like my niece Brooklyn said she goes Uncle John John I'm Uncle John John she goes let's create healthy spaces and you know create a force for the future so that doesn't happen again and and if you look

00:16:57

at our website um www. eversphere.com you'll see the top healthy spaces Bright Futures and that comes from not just Brooklyn but you know uh collaborative efforts from children around us and it's it's amazing and it's allowed us to stay in our lane this industry can get quite political left to right and everywhere in between and we're not looking for that we want to create healthy spaces for people to to thrive and grow and that's that's really where our passion comes from 

Wendy Cohen

and the link will be right

00:17:26

below in the comments here so with that said that's beautiful Jon you are a beautiful human being so tell me you know you wake up every morning well what do you um Define is having an attitude of gratitude and and giving back share with us 

Jon Cremer

yeah absolutely uh just being I've always been one I love helping and giving back to the community from a a young age I remember uh I was eight years old my friends and I we had a competition to raise money for cancer research with lemonade stands and things

00:17:54

like that where I've always tried giving back and with eversphere our vision of creating these healthy spaces and you know accelerating resiliency has allowed us to open the doors to some beautiful projects around here where um a board that I'm on called Joy collaborative where we're creating life nishing spaces for kids with life limited conditions and to me if I get to help uh a child with some sort of neurod Divergent complication or anything that they can't feel and and feel and be happy in their

00:18:22

best way in any given commercial space or at home too you know for us to be able to come in as a team with architect and designers and Builders and just a wide breath of different very Visionary folks that want to give back so we're building these these sensory spaces all over the place and we have a mobile solution now too called The Joy mobile and it's just beautiful to bring back to people and see the changes in a few minutes to see parents have a moment for to breathe and to have their children go into a space and come out

00:18:55

feeling so much better I mean I can't think of anything better than that truly to be to get back and to make an impact for the kids and and it's just been it's been great in a short time of being part of the sport and it's you know our vision of integrating some of our Solutions and every if I could deploy thousands of these Joy mobiles all over the country and all over the world that kids can go and in a few minutes feel better you know to come out and go back to you know a baseball game or you know

00:19:22

state fair whatever that may be to be able to be part of that is I couldn't ask for anything more truly 

Wendy Cohen

wow that's really interesting so first of all I love the name Joy collaborative that's fabulous and of course the link to that nonprofit that John is on the board of will be below here and I believe my colleague Eric Nelson who is uh our video uh Guru is doing a video with you and the founder where the Founder's name is uh 

Jon Cremer

Founder's name is Mark ostram and I had the pleasure of sitting down for a

00:19:51

few hours this morning with both of them and had some coffee and just talked life and you know we really dug in the hearts and souls and it was so organic and if it wasn't for us connecting now we'd probably be sitting there for about 7 hours so it was it was the energy from the both of them just led to this and just I'm blessed to be part of this conversation with you following U meeting with these two beautiful Visionaries that they just have the heart and soul to make an impact and we'll go above and beyond and do

00:20:19

anything under their power to make an impact and my uh within the board I'm trying to raise awareness and you know there's only so much that we can all do so you know raise aess to bring people on board to you know help build this beautiful vision and help more kids you know we they've it's just it's a great thing I could go on and on 

Wendy Cohen

absolutely and so we do events Powerhouse smart does events in the Minnesota Midwest area Florida Southern California I'm actually going to be at West Edge Design

00:20:49

Fair in Santa Monica and I believe I saw Joy collaborative there last year at their big Design Fair in the Barker Hangar we I will be back again and double check but I am so excited to finally meet the people behind Joy collaborative and wow what a beautiful thing that you were born and raised and had the sole ambition to give back um from a very early age and now you're really at that point where you're a business entrepreneur and being successful at what you're doing and you know just it goes full circle Jon I'm

00:21:24

just so inspired and impressed so I'm going to end our brief podcast here today and ask you what is your definition of a well-lived life 

Jon Cremer

it's a great question I feel that if my loved ones friends family everyone around me is healthy and we can all be together and never be separated because of a reason that I could help fix beforehand you know to make sure that we can all Thrive together and live our best lives and I feel like this question I could go on for days and days and days but it's really seeing other people

00:22:01

happy and people being able to reach their full potential and seeing the future generation my nieces and nephews my feature brand ambassadors of eversphere um really do their best live their best lives and Inspire the younger generation who comes after that so seeing seeing the kids be able to believe in what I believe in and what I learned from them too is magical so that they can pass that down to the next generation is it's lovely 

Wendy Cohen

wow that's that's very inspirational and I felt the love I got the chills it's

00:22:37

all good and I might be uh reaching and tapping on your shoulder for you being a speaker and sharing more about eversphere at one of our luxury conferences or one of our local events and of course of course Joy collaborative is going to be one of our nonprofit Partners so we can help you grow we're right in the same family Builders Architects interior designers real estate and people in the luxury World well frankly anybody who cares about making a difference in humanity so with that said my gratitude

00:23:05

to my dear Jon and I will put all the contacts below for all of you here you want to learn more about ere enjoy collaborative and please return to our next cool collabs and we wish you all a day filled with unconditional love and gratitude thank you okay