Profitability and Beyond: Navigating Leadership Through Unexpected Challenges with Pete Hoelscher

Pete Hoelscher is a seasoned strategic operations executive known for transforming complexity into clarity and vision into measurable outcomes.  With a career that spans several industries, Pete's leadership philosophy is deeply rooted in accountability, clarity, and growth. A former U.S. Army surgeon turned C-suite executive, Pete believes in building great company cultures through clear guidelines, transparency, and shared ownership of results.

In this episode, Pete outlines the steps he took to lead a company through a pivotal change after its acquisition, underlining the importance of clarity over charisma. Emphasizing transparent communication, lean sessions, and the value of team involvement in decision-making, he transformed a services-based firm's challenges into opportunities. As the narrative unfolds, Pete discusses the unforeseen hurdles, including a pandemic, that shook the conventional leadership roles. The episode encapsulates ideas like maintaining constant forward momentum and building trust through transparent, consistent communication.

Key Takeaways:

• Authentic leadership requires clear rules, transparent scorecards, and shared ownership of results.
• Engaging employees in lean sessions can unveil hidden talents and promote effective change.
• Leaders must remain adaptable, as constant external and internal changes can alter business dynamics rapidly.
• Trust is built by consistent, honest communication and acknowledging when adjustments are needed.
• Discover your personal reset methods to sustain efficacy under pressure and constant change.

Notable Quotes:

1. "Clarity beats charisma and that every great culture is built on clear rules, transparent scorecards, and shared ownership of results."
2. "If you say something, either you do what you say or if you can't, you acknowledge that too."
3. "You have to be always thinking about what's going to be different because that's where we are."
4. "The leaders are here to be leaders. But we—the collective—we are going to solve the problems of this business."
5. "I've never felt like, oh, I now reached the pinnacle. I'm constantly learning and trying to become better."

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

You have to walk the talk. You have to be authentic as a leader. If you're not doing it, they see that.

SPEAKER_03 0:07

It is entirely universal. There's other people who are going through this.

SPEAKER_00 0:11

For me, a great leader needs to be able to marry three things: vision, systems, and people.

SPEAKER_03 0:20

Welcome to Leadership Moments. If this is your first time, and if you are returning, thank you for your support.

SPEAKER_02 0:26

This show is about leaders from all walks of life, leadership tips, and maybe even a little of what you wouldn't expect to help you in leadership.

First-Day Shock And Transparency Gap

SPEAKER_03 0:35

We would appreciate it if you tell someone else about our podcast as we strive to support all leaders that want to just be better. Let's get on with the show. Today our guest is Pete Holcher. Pete is a strategic operations executive who transforms complexity into clarity and vision into measurable results. He has led companies through growth, turnaround, and transformation across multiple industries. Pete's leadership philosophy is shaped by his early career as a U.S. Army sergeant and later as a C-suite executive. His philosophy centers on accountability, clarity, and growth. He believes that clarity beats charisma and that every great culture is built on clear roles, transparent scorecards, and shared ownership of results. Today we're going to talk about leadership through career pivots, even when they are stacked back to back for you. Let's jump in. Pete, I'm so excited that you're here with us today, because as we were talking before the show, you were telling me about this interesting career you've had where you've had so many pivots unexpectedly. And I'd love for you to start off by telling our listeners about those pivots and how they formed you in your career.

Calming Fears And Setting A Plan

SPEAKER_01 1:46

Sure. Well, Stacey, thank you so much. It really is I'm excited and honored to be um part of the podcast and spend some time with you today. And, you know, it is funny, I think about my career. I mean, pivots, um, some which by design and to your comment, though, a lot of unexpected ones. And um, I'm thinking about one particular role I was in as COO of a company that was a services-based firm doing um uh sort of parts catalog and content for industrial engineers. And by very first day, my very first pivot, fully unexpected, they had this you know, impromptu town hall. Hey, let's introduce Pete as our new COO. So, you know, all the common things you would expect. And then like any questions as anyone asks. At the very first question from someone says, Pete, what's gonna be your first priority as COO? Um and the company, just for context, had not had a CEO at this point. So they were really curious, why do we have one now? And I said, Well, my first priority is to get us back to profitability because as you all know, we lost money last year. And every face just dropped. And I was like, oh, they don't know. And I would not have said that except for the CEO had told me in the interview process, even that first day, oh, I've been super transparent about the business to everyone here. So now in hindsight, I should have said, so they know we're not profitable. I didn't ask that question. I assumed that because to me, when you say you're transparent about financials, you're sharing almost everything you can. And that's my own literature philosophy. And they all just looked at me and I could just see their brains going, oh, he's here to fire us all. He's, you know, he's here to, you know, push everyone out. It's all about saving money. And so my immediate pivot was to fast forward my plan of it, which was not my plan, was to fire everyone. It was to say, how can we be more efficient? I'd studied the business enough before I joined to know that there's a way to restore this business back to profitability. And so I talked about, okay, so I just addressed it. I know now since I said that, you're probably thinking, I'm here to do layoffs. I'm not. I'm here to figure out how we collectively can make this business you know more effective. And so it's gonna look we're gonna have lean sessions that you're gonna be involved in to identify and solve the problems. I don't know this business, you all do. So I'm gonna facilitate that, but you're clearly gonna be fucked with that. We're gonna find a way so that we can grow with the team we have, not just um find the erased the bottom to save money. But it was a significant pivot for me because I had and when we executed this plan, but I didn't expect it to be introduced quite like that.

SPEAKER_03 4:21

Yeah, yeah. And thank you for sharing that. And I can only imagine uh how your heart sank when the it was really a mic drop, right? When you think about it. And so what I what I love about that is how you pivoted and you said, okay, first of all, you read the room, which is so important for a leader, right? That you didn't just keep going assuming that they were done. You realized in the moment. So that's I think the most important part there for one. And then two is how you pivoted is you you called it out. You said, look, like this is what I plan on doing to like how can I get this to a calm state as quickly as possible. And I'm sure people thought that way, but I just want to call out like I think those two pieces are so important as a leader is one, you gotta read your room, read your audience and know what's going on. So you pivot in the moment. And then as you pivot, like speak about the elephant in the room, right? Like talk about what's happening and and how you're actually gonna move forward. And even if you were going in, uh, unfortunately, like trying to let people go, right? If you had that task put upon you, like how you would talk about that would be very different, right? And what you said. So I love that you were transparent and how you brought things up, but I know that there were some other times that you had to pivot to uh in this role. So I'd love for you to continue this story and tell me like what happened, tell our listeners what happened next, because this is so interesting.

CEO Ousted And New Uncertainty

SPEAKER_01 5:50

Right. So that's why after that that initial day, I started to work to keep my word, right? And which is a big part of you know, leaders building trust is and it sounds so simple, but I think a lot of leaders miss that. Is like if you say something, either you do what you say, or if you can't, you and acknowledge that too. And so I had started working, we had done some lean sessions, you know, began to um see people kind of believe that what I was saying was true. And then literally like three weeks later, I get a call from our board chair who says, Hey, we just let go of the CEO. Like, oh, you which I had no idea was coming. I'm like, oh, it's like now you're not interim CEO, Pete. You know, we're gonna we're gonna give you a few months to get fine your feet. So the board chair is gonna be interim CEO for a few months, but pretty much you're gonna run it all now day to day. And so I had to be the one to tell the rest of the company, oh, hey, been here three weeks, you know, scared you a lot three weeks ago, and and now I'm sort of kind of the person leading the company with uh with the bullet chair. And so just when things started to find a little bit of traction, now there was this shaking point of ah, okay. And so now it's coming to clear Pete really is here to take over the company, which was not the plan or the truth at all. And and you know, people had mixed reviews of the CEO leaving, as you would expect. Some people are sad, some people are not not sad, but it just sort of created this another time of okay, now there's more doubt and uncertainty. And what I saw was when you of course you see the uncertainty is people hesitate. So not only they don't focus as much, but they're now slowing down, even without even realizing it, on their decisions because they're pausing, like, is this the right thing? I don't want to be seen too much right now. I don't want to do the wrong thing because this new person's here and he or she may say, Oh, you know, you're not right, not right for the role. So it created another, you know, in-step leadership challenge.

SPEAKER_03 7:46

So amazing. So um I I can't even imagine only being there three weeks and that happening and what this is doing to the culture, you know, and there's a saying that culture will eat your, you know, your strategy for lunch. And so I'd love to hear, and I think there's more to the story, but I'd love to hear, and you tell me which way you want to go. If you want to tell more to the story, or like I also want to get to like, how do you handle this culture shift? Because, like you said, some people were sad that the CEO left, some people were not so sad. Some people saw you just three weeks ago saying, Hey, I didn't know we weren't making a profit. So now they're probably telling themselves stories, and we know what happens, right? People start losing their energy, maybe their engagement and stuff like that. So wait, should we finish the story or should we tell how we how you handle culture, which way you want to go?

Scorecards, Town Halls, And Trust

Fixing Leadership Bench And Morale

SPEAKER_01 8:38

Let's let's go as for now, because there is there is there is more to the story, but I want to talk about, and I'm glad you brought it position that way, is kind of some things that we did um as a leadership team to sort of you know staunch this concern. And something that I told them back on day one they were going to do was, you know, we're gonna set up a scorecard and first we start having monthly town halls. There was no cross-company communication, uh, monthly town halls, and we were gonna communicate the financials of a scorecard of the previous month. And and I said, now I am super transparent. So, you know, I will earn your trust and I will tell you the news, whether it's good news or bad news, and we'll talk through all of it. Um, and I said, now this first scorecard won't look great. And without even knowing the number, well, I knew the numbers, but I knew we hadn't processed it yet. I said, You're gonna get a little shock. I said, but it is the actual truth of our business. And so we had it um a couple of weeks after the CEO left, we had our first town hall, we had closed out the first month, and everything from the financials, how the products were performing, it was a complete comprehensive scorecard. It was another one of those moments. But what was different this time was that people had started to lean into the message that myself and my team had said, which is we are going, we, the collective we, not the leaders aren't here to fix the business. The leaders are here to be leaders, but we, the collective we are going to, you know, solve the problems of this business. And I talked about how just that the company had problems, but these the solution belonged to individual leaders and individual departments, but the company was there to support each other. And so what through through my own team plus and them talking third and teams themselves, just through constant conversations, reinforcing, checking things, like after the town hall, for example, I had our um chief HR person who was he was just phenomenal. I mean, just as a side note, every you know, senior leader, CEO, CEO needs to have that type of partner, I believe, in in any business, but certainly, you know, when you're transforming the business, is that trusted advisor for yourself, but also someone that people can respect and listen to. And he would circle around every meeting and say, okay, you heard Pete say this, what did you think? And luckily, people were very transparent. I don't believe me. Um, I'm encouraged, I love it. And so we had this really short cycles because we were constantly talking to people, constantly having them engaged in meetings and lean sessions to solve, identify problems and work those problems. And those real small cycles of feedback and engagement, um, one helped us get there faster to use um trust and belief, but also the business started to change. So the results would get better month over month. So after that, from the first month to probably the third or fourth month, and we saw not all the metrics, but a lot of them be go from red to yellow and the scorecards start turning green. It was so cool the first time that something had changed because I showed the tracking to you of the scorecards. No one applauded yet. We we that happened later, but you started to see people go like, hmm, okay. You know, and so that that was so, which is an energizing moment, right? You know, to say, it's see, it's real. You know, this is this is our plan to get there. And we only we're making this improvement because of the things that you have done and your roles, not nothing things that I've done.

SPEAKER_03 11:59

A couple of things there is one, you're so right. You're when you're a senior leader or when you are a leader of leaders, no matter what level you're at, your leadership team matters on the success of the organization. And so we have, you know, I work with a lot of my clients in coaching. I have a few that really struggle delegating and really struggle handing things off and what they're doing and what they're realizing is they're not going to be able to level up if they don't level up their team. And so having that strength, when you have the strength and surround yourself with wonderful leaders, everyone succeeds. Everyone succeeds. So yeah.

Lean Workshops To Unlock Talent

SPEAKER_01 12:44

It's such a great point, Stacey. The ver the my if I think back to my first formal leadership role. So but I I use formal leadership as when I had the the responsibility for I call it the care and feeding as well as the higher fire. And the biggest mistake I made was I had two lists. I had their list and my list. You know, I as far as delegation was just something I struggled with. And you're absolutely right. When you you you really free yourself, not to go not do work, but your impact is just exponentially larger when you have the right the best people around you and teach them to be better leaders, right? And that's something I did early on this role, excuse me, was I recognized there were two leaders that just weren't right for the company and weren't great in their roles. And so um separated both from the business, brought one person externally, promoted someone internally. And that also became a very um positive shift because their own teams knew they weren't great leaders. As most, I mean, people are very smart. They know when their leaders are not a great leader or when they are. Um, so that actually, you know, raised those two departments, raised their raised their morale. And it also sent the message to the rest of the company that yes, I may go outside to bring someone in, but only when there's not a really good option internally. When I forget person internally, it was like, and she was someone who was had been there a long time, well respected. Um, and so it showed that, oh, okay, I can have a career here too. If I want to, I can there's a path for me. You know, you know, internal expertise and knowledge is is valued.

SPEAKER_03 14:19

Yeah, I love that. And I think the big piece, you're so right. Like when you don't help your leaders, people know. So when you're not performance managing accordingly, and you think nobody's realizing that that leader's not up to par, people are actually losing respect for you because you're not doing your job of performance managing that leader and putting them where they need to be and helping them be successful. And they might still be a real leader in another team, having a smaller space that they have responsibility for, like whatever that is, it doesn't mean that they have to exit leadership or exit the organization, but finding the best place for everyone, I think is what's most important rather than ignoring it. Now, one piece that you talked about, which was how you I'm gonna call it, you got out on the floor, right? You actually were talking to people, you were letting them contribute to the solving the solution and changing that scorecard. Um, what are there any tips and tricks that you would say, like what did you do to be able to start buying that engagement when you say you let them be part of it? Like what are some of the things you do?

Interim CEO And Company Sale

Pandemic Pivots And Steady Comms

SPEAKER_01 15:29

Sure. So um I have a lean background, not in manufacturing, but in services. And everyone with lean knows that the ver the very first step is you do uh a workshop essentially and you map out the current state of that process. You don't try to solve it, you don't argue what you should do, but you get people in the room, though, who are actually performing the work of that process. And because they know how it runs today. And in this case, I had facilitated several sessions in my career. I was able to actually do that facilitation, even though I was a COO. I told them, look, I'm taking that CO hat off today. Today I'm a facilitator and I'm just here to map out the current stay. You all perform this work. And every time I've done that, that lean sessions, whether I was an executive or not, it always exposes a couple of things. One, it you find talent that was hidden because there are some people who are just sort of naturally quiet. Maybe they're introverted, they're just they do a good job, but they're not seen in that broad sense. But their expertise is clearly evident and you get them in the room. So you're like, wow, this person is really sharp, understands the work, and has ideas how to make it better. So that that was a benefit. But two, then we get through with the map, the process map. I said, So does this represent how it's done today? And you go to considerations, and they're all like, yes. And I said, So where are the friction points? And of course they're evident, they're pointing and they're like, this is why it's hard to get work done here. And the input above me is wrong. Here's why. And so it's not me pointing out some things that I'd already seen, um, but we all learn it together and they're they're seeing what it looks like and why it's so difficult, how their work impacts someone else downstream. And I'm like, okay, so where should we start? I never pick the place to start because although first I want them to pick it because they'll pick they'll make a much better choice than I ever could, because they live with it every day and they're very motivated to find a way to make work less rest ready. And so those sessions were essential for to for me to sort of keep my word that they're gonna be part of the process and we're gonna make it better. And I'm not here to you know eliminate eight positions to make more profit. I said, because with that, the sales team's trying to go sell more so we can put more into this engine that we're building. So that's why I'm not focused on reducing heads. I want to grow the business, but I want to grow in a way that when we add work, we're not adding more positions. I want to make us more effective here. So though those sessions were the key in the first 30, 45 days to get people to believe that um we're gonna make things better.

SPEAKER_03 18:03

Love it. I'm a huge Six Sigma lean fan as well. So totally agree. And I love how you were being very deliberate in taking your facilitator, you know, putting the facilitator hat on, taking your COO hat off. Um, really, really important. So uh good advice. I love that. Okay, before we run out of time on the show, you got to tell about the next pivot of this story. So why don't you go move along with your story now?

Culture Built For Constant Change

SPEAKER_01 18:26

Sure. So uh a couple of quick ones. First, the um the pen, well, uh six months into it, the the board chair tells me, Hey, Pete, good news. We're making you interim CEO. I'm like, Well, all right, thank you. Said, Oh, oh, by the way, um, the parent is divesting us, so we're up for sale now. I'm like, okay, that was kind of a two-part converse, a two-sided conversation, not two sided conversation, but like, thank you, maybe. And it was the right decision because the the the parents and um reason for buying this never materialized and probably wasn't a great decision, you know, from the get-go. So it made sense. But obviously, when you hear that, oh, your your company's being sold, it's it craze, it's crazy disruption. So uh by that point, though, I had really had earned trust across the company. So I told the company, I'm seeing, I'm like, guys, you know what? We're gonna be sold, and that's a good thing. And let me tell you why. And there was a little bit of that pause, but they, you know, again, I'd earned their trust over those first six months, and I laid out the facts on why I thought a different owner would make a lot more sense for us long term. Because at that point, the parent had um stopped our line of credit, so we had no cash to dip into if we needed to. Everything was self-funded. You know, it was making, you know, the number of moves that we could make was very limited because of that. So that was part of my, you know, communication to the team is hey, we're, you know, here's it's wide, it's a good thing they're they were leaving. Um, so that actually didn't disrupt people too much. But became disruptive though was that that move that time frame to be um bought by someone else moved into the pandemic. So when I sent everyone on for home for I thought two weeks and in March of 2020, like the rest of us, two weeks became many months. And so now we weren't all together talking about what's going on. So I made sure every uh Thursday I sent out sort of a sort of a fireside chat, I called it, where I did a short video and I told them whatever the new, if there was no news, I said there was no news, but to keep them informed and connected as we moved through the pandemic and find the right owner. Um then another pivot um was that the board was all terminated by the chick, by the parent for a new board to put in place to manage the um the sale process. So I had to rebuild relationships with new board members um all the same time. And it so it was it was a lot. And we unfortunately ended up having to further people. We all took pay cuts, ended up letting some people go, unfortunately. But we came out the other side with the right owner, someone who was much more aligned with our business, um, who was going to invest in the business and did our last year there. And so a lot of a lot of turmoil, especially the pandemic, but we built a culture that could sustain that, grow from that. We built belief. We had the right people in the seat, right seats, not just for the leadership team, but the team overall as a whole. Um, and I'm still well connected with the or with friends, the people there. And the business has really, you know, has taken off and is um, you know, it's everything's in the review mirror as far as the the performance from years past.

SPEAKER_03 21:33

Amazing. Amazing that you went through all that. You're just the job that just keeps giving.

SPEAKER_01 21:40

Oh, it was, yeah, it was giving all right. It was like I couldn't if I I couldn't slow it down. I was like, here, have some more. I'm like, no, I'm good, really. No, no, no, no, no. Here, one more thing.

Personal Resets And Sustainable Leadership

SPEAKER_03 21:49

Yeah, yeah. Uh, I love that. And, you know, thinking about your career and handling all these pivots, uh, because as we start jobs, right, we know, we know. When we start a new job, our life as a whole is turned upside down because we're meeting new people, we're learning new ways, and all that. And then to have these pivot after pivot after pivot, uh that continued on for you. And so I'd love for you to say, tell us like, what do you think is one uncomfortable truth that leaders need to hear right now?

SPEAKER_01 22:23

That's a great question, Stacey. I think one uncomfortable truth is this is that more than ever, and everyone talks about change is the only constant, but I do believe that we're at a time and period right now that as a leader, almost every day you had to be thinking about what's different. What either what am I going to change or what's going to change for me? I mean, there's really, I think, not a moment a leader in in today can say, okay, I got a plan, I got a team, let's just, let's just execute. You've got it, the uncomfortable truth is it is always going to be moving on you, either by your choice because you have to, or some other influence or input. So the uncomfortable truth is you have to be always thinking about what's different. Your feet have to be moving constantly. And for some people, that's really uncomfortable because they're just not that people just want to coast, but the thought of like, oh, I've got it all in place and it's running well, that's just, I think those days are gone. It's not no matter the size of your business, the industry you're in, there's just too many things that are always moving. And so you have to really become at least okay with the fact that again, your feet are always moving and you're always thinking about what's going to be different because that's where we are.

SPEAKER_03 23:40

I totally agree with that. And what I would like to ask you is what are some things you did to keep yourself whole during this? Because I I can only imagine what the stress level was. And you have to show up as a leader. We always say leaders bring the weather, right? And so you have to show up with positivity. And it sounds like you did that and engagement. And so, what it what are some things that you did personally that helped you thrive through all these pivots?

SPEAKER_01 24:11

Sure. Um, I have a great question. I would say I would start with, you know, I've been in a learner is one of my top five strengths on the on the Gaut Strength Binder. So I've always been curious about pretty much everything. And for me, you know, leadership is that constant, you know, I I've never felt like, oh, I've now reached the pinnacle of leader. I'm constantly, I'm reading books, I'm listening to podcasts, um, I'm shadowing you know, other leaders. I'm trying to learn, you know, learn more about becoming a better leader. And fortunately, by that point in my career, I knew that under times of stress, what worked for me and what did work for me. So for example, I knew getting outside and either running or walking, you know, fresh air, no technology was one of my fastest resets. And also I'm an introvert. So, you know, I like people, but they're not recharging for me, they're not recharging for me. So I knew that after, you know, spending a day with people from a business perspective, I needed some time to really decompress and fully get my batteries recharged. So, what whatever that is for you as a leader, if you don't know yet what resets you, you know, hang what specifically resets you, not like, oh, time away from the office. That's that's too general. What specific thing for me, being outside fresh air was was huge, even if it's you know 20 degrees or five breeze below zero, being outside just for a few minutes was very recharging. And oddly enough, reading recharges me too, because again, I like learning. So even in times of stress, learning something new is recharging. So I would really encourage leaders, if you don't know what it is that personally gets you reset, you need to find that out somehow. Um ask your colleagues, get a coach, do do something. If you don't know considerable yourself, find help have someone help you figure out. So, how do I recharge? Because you're gonna need that. Because again, talking about either stress or just constant change, you're gonna need to know something, what what that one or two things are that really make you whole again the next day or the next week.

Rapid-Fire Personal Questions

SPEAKER_03 26:10

I love that. I love that. All great things. It is about finding what energizes you. And I love, I love some of the ideas you brought up. And I don't know if our listeners caught it, so I just have to say it again. Like, if you're an introvert, you heard right here, right? You can be an introvert and be successful as a C level leader. It is possible. A lot of people believe that you have to be an extrovert to become a senior leader, and that is not true. There's so many that are actually introverts. Uh, you just don't know it, right? That you just know how to handle and and how to re-energize yourself on those downtimes that you needed. Love that. Awesome. Okay, well, there's that sound. It's time for our fun questions. Are you ready for our fun questions?

SPEAKER_01 26:53

I'm ready. Let's have some fun.

SPEAKER_03 26:55

All right. Um, are you someone who talks things out or thinks them through internally first? I think we know the answer with what you're just saying, but let's see.

SPEAKER_01 27:05

I I should talk things out.

SPEAKER_03 27:07

Awesome. Awesome. I would not have expected that. As an introvert, a lot of times there's deep thinking. So see, you just don't know.

SPEAKER_01 27:14

See the the white the whiteboard behind me. I mean, that I mean, so you could be even by myself, I mean, you give me a whiteboard and a marker, and I'll I'll start talking out loud and drawing it out. So maybe it's it's kind of the mix of the intro the two, but um, yeah, I'm really good at getting my ideas out, mapped out first. It's and if especially even if you know someone in the room with me together, or the three or four of us, and we all jump up and start, you know, drawing things. That's that's my that gives me energy, which is odd for an introvert. I get that, but it's a small group of people doing, you know, um something really cool. So that's that's my that's my energy.

SPEAKER_03 27:48

Yeah, love that. Love that. Okay, do you naturally wake up early or are you a night owl?

SPEAKER_01 27:55

I naturally wake up early.

SPEAKER_03 27:57

Yeah. Awesome. Awesome. Do you wake up without the alarm every day or do you need the alarm? Like, is it a mix?

SPEAKER_01 28:04

It's it's only I only need the alarm if I'm like, I guess it's like an early, early flight, you know. There's something that I really can't miss the next morning. I'll set the alarm as a backup plan, but generally I can wake up on my own.

How To Connect With Pete

SPEAKER_03 28:16

That's awesome. Awesome. Well, Pete, thank you so much. And if people are going through pivots similar to what you've gone through in the past and maybe just want to reach out and talk to you, how can they get a hold of you?

SPEAKER_01 28:28

Oh, I'm just I'm on LinkedIn. Um Pete Hotra on LinkedIn. I'm feel free. I love new connections. I love to, I'm very curious about I, you know, people's backstories and how they got to where they are, because you know, what I found is very few of us when we were, you know, in college, thought, oh, I'm gonna be a blank. I mean, almost we we made multiple pivots personally to to where we are. And so I love to connect with people. And and if I can be of any assistance, resource, sounding board, um, you know, I would love to do that. And I have never spoken with someone in, you know, applicational perspective and not learned something from them that helps me. So it's it's definitely a mutually beneficial um uh situation, I believe. So I would love to connect with anyone who's interested in me.

SPEAKER_03 29:11

Awesome. Thank you so much, Pete, for that offer. I hope some listeners take you up on that and we'll put your contact information in the show notes. But thank you so much today. I think it's a great story for our listeners. I know I learned a lot. I'm sure they learned a lot too, but really appreciate your time.

SPEAKER_02 29:30

If you enjoyed the show, please go to LeadershipMoments Podcast.com to subscribe to the podcast or on your favorite player, as well as follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn.

SPEAKER_03 29:42

You can also send us a message on what you like and don't like or what guests you want us to have on the show. So until next time, this is Stacy Castor, and what doesn't challenge you won't change you.

SPEAKER_02 29:51

And I'm Tracy M. Palmer. Be the change you wish to see in the world.