In this Business Blast podcast episode, host Tyler Wagner interviews Hannah Donovan, founder and CEO of Trash. Donovan shares a personal story about the turbulence of the past three years, emphasizing the importance of patience and trusting that things will fall into place while continuing to work toward goals. She then provides industry insight, highlighting that the next big innovation in video technology lies in leveraging depth and volumetric data, beyond the current focus on VR/AR. Donovan offers business advice drawn from her experiences, stressing the value of hiring people who have endured challenging circumstances—downturns, layoffs, or failed acquisitions—as they reveal true character under pressure. When asked what she would tell her younger self, she stresses self‑acceptance: "you’re enough." She defines happiness as being at peace with one’s whole self, not just career achievements, and stresses nurturing all aspects of identity. Donovan cites Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet as her favorite book, quoting a passage about loving unanswered questions and patience. Her favorite quote is from cellist Pablo Casals, urging respect for talent and relentless work. Finally, she directs listeners to find her on Twitter and Instagram under the handle @han.
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Welcome to the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. This episode is brought to you by Authors Unite. Authors Unite provides you with all the resources you need to become a successful author. You can learn more about Authors Unite and join the free community at authorsunite.com. Now let's jump into the episode. Alright everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Hannah Donovan with us. She is the founder and CEO of Trash. So welcome to the show, Hannah.
Hi, thanks so much for having me here today. It's a pleasure to speak with you.
Of course, it's a pleasure to have you on as well. And we'll dive in. The first question I have for you, Hannah, is what's the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
Sure. So the last 3 years of my life were pretty turbulent. And I think I spent a lot of that time being really impatient and really frustrated that things were not going more according to what I wanted my life to look like with my career. And the underlying valuable message from that for me is just to have a lot of patience that things will fall into place because I'm experiencing that now. And it's such a great feeling and being able to look back on it all and I'm like, wow, if I had just had a little more patience to trust that it was all gonna make sense in the end, I could have spent a lot less energy being frustrated. And I don't mean don't sit back and not do the work. Absolutely keep moving towards your goals, keep doing the work. But sometimes when things aren't fitting together the way you want them to, it just takes time.
And what's the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
Sure. So, I mean, the industry that I work in is the crosshairs of emerging tech and consumer media platforms. And the first arc of my career was in music tech and the second arc of my career was in video tech. And so like right now, I think that some of the most valuable things that we should be looking at are, are the things that I'm working on right now, which is more sophisticated sophisticated video editing. But specifically, I think that in that narrow slice of video tech, I think that people are not paying enough attention to what we could be doing with depth and volumetric data. And I think that's going to be really important. And there's a lot of focus right now on VR and AR, which is cool. But I think that that's probably the most valuable place to be looking for the next innovation in video technology. Is depth data.
And what is your best piece of overall business advice? So not necessarily industry specific.
So I don't really like giving advice, but I can speak from experience and I can, I can share things that I've observed and things that I've learned. And one of the things that I've learned from like some tumultuous business experiences is that you don't truly know who people are until you have worked with them. Under what I would call a rough circumstance, whether it be like a company in a downturn or a turnaround or like layoffs or something really gnarly like that. Maybe an acquisition gone sideways. You just don't know what people's true colors are. And I don't really trust people that have only ever worked for companies who have been in an upswing and have never experienced that kind of difficulty for two reasons. One, you don't know what those people's true colors are. You don't know how they're going to act when they're under pressure. And secondly, because they've never been under that kind of pressure, the chance that they might not deal with it so well is probably a lot larger. And so I think that actually it's really important to experience these things in business. And like my overall sort of piece of observation for humans out there is, seek these people out in your career that have actually had a little bit of difficulty.
And if you could give your younger self one piece of experience or advice, what would that be?
Oh, it would absolutely be, Hannah, you're enough. I have spent so much time in my career just spending energy on whether I'm good enough, whether I'm this enough, whether I'm that enough. You know, it's funny because I think I'm just fine.
And actually, it could tie in, but in your opinion, what's the key to happiness?
Yeah, this totally ties in. I think, you know, this is going to sound a little cliché, but it's something around being at peace with your whole self, however you choose to define that as a human. And the reason for this, to get practical, is that it's really important and relates to what we're talking about today in work is when the thing you focus on, for example, your work, or your job or your career isn't going well, which is another thing we've discussed on this podcast. If you don't have the rest of yourself to fall back on, then you're going to be in a really tough spot. And this is why it's so important to have a good understanding of your whole self and all those other pieces and parts of you that make up who you are besides just your career, or just any other part of your life for that matter. And that not only do you have them to fall back on and you've been nurturing them, but actually that you really enjoy those aspects of yourself.
And what is the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?
Sure. So I, you know, I've read a lot of great books and this question is really hard because it's tough to pick out the best one. So what I did is I tried to pick out the most relevant one based on what we were talking about today, which is We started this conversation with talking about patience and things falling into place. And one of the things that I went back to a lot during that time when I was trying to be patient is a passage from Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet, which I think is an excellent book for anyone to read, but especially young people to read as they're starting their careers. And there's a passage in it that goes like this, which is, be patient towards all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not seek the answers which cannot be given to you because you wouldn't be able to answer them. And the point is to live everything, live the questions now, and perhaps gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer. And that's something that I keep on my phone and I go back to all the time when I'm feeling frustrated by something feeling like it's a locked door to me.
Wow, that is incredible. So I mean, the next question I have for you is what's your favorite quote and why? Is that what you just said kind of your favorite quote or do you have another one?
I mean, that's a great one, but I think the quote that I used a lot when I was getting started in my career was something that was hanging on the wall of my cello teacher's studio that I took. I started playing cello when I was 3 years old. I'm a classically trained musician and she had this quote on her wall that really stuck with me. And I think it's a really important one for anyone who does any creative work or is trying to start something. And it goes like this. It's by a famous cellist and composer and conductor, Pablo Casals, who's like the grandfather of modern-day cello playing. And he said, "Don't be vain because you happen to have talent. You are not responsible for that. It was not of your doing. What you do with your talent is what matters. You must cherish this gift. Do not demean or waste what you have been given." "Work, work constantly, and nourish it." And that quote was something that was something I thought about almost every single day when I was especially like going through design school and starting my career.
That is good too. Thank you so much for coming on. Both of those quotes were just amazing. So sorry, it took me back a little bit. Thank you so much for coming on. The last question I have for you before we let you go is where's the best place for people to find you online?
Sure thing. So really easy. I'm @han, H-A-N, on Twitter and Instagram. That's the easiest way to find me online.
Perfect. Thank you again. We appreciate it.
Yeah, thanks so much for having me. Take care.
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