Roles and Hats: Building Careers in Robotics

Growth doesn't start with a playbook. It starts with people doing hard work together. Anthony Leo, President of IPR Robotics USA, joins us to unpack what it really takes to build a high-trust organization that wins on clarity, speed, and genuine problem solving.

Anthony walks us through the mechanics of a frictionless buying experience: getting engineers the specs they need upfront, knowing when to slow down and dig deeper, and designing processes that eliminate costly mistakes before they happen. He also gets candid about leadership, hiring for trust, giving people a clear sandbox to operate in, and why stepping back is often the most powerful thing a leader can do.

Whether you're in sales, building a team culture, or navigating the realities of selling robotics to integrators and OEMs, this episode is packed with frameworks you can put to work immediately.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:09

Hi everyone. Mandy Dwight here, host of Ross Goss Podcast, founder of Dwight and Company, Market Strategy for Automation Robotics. Exciting day. I'm here with uh my very good friend and industry colleague, Anthony Leo, uh president of IPI Robotics.

SPEAKER_00 0:26

It's great to be with you, as always, Mandy.

SPEAKER_01 0:29

You know, it's it's funny, like preparing for this podcast, you know, I thought about it, and Anthony has had the um the fortune, misfortune to have worked with me three different times at three different companies.

Small Industry, Big Lessons

SPEAKER_00 0:42

Yep. I uh I've gotten around just like you, and we've we've had some good scar tissue together, and we've had a lot of fun together, and uh it's always good to keep working with you.

SPEAKER_01 0:53

It's a it's a small industry, and that's like one of the big pieces of advice that I give people all the time is like, you know, uh don't don't burn a bridge because you're gonna see these people from nausea like for the the rest of your life. But um, but yeah, I mean we've known each other for a very long time, you know. Starting we were at Rethink Robotics together. I actually almost brought you a Rethink Robotics umbrella because I had Oh, that'd be amazing.

SPEAKER_00 1:15

Yeah, I've still got some good good relics in my house, too.

SPEAKER_01 1:18

So exactly. I mean, on my keys, like the the Rethink Robotics flash drive was one of the best flash drives.

SPEAKER_00 1:23

I've still got it too by Keychain.

unknown 1:25

I love it.

SPEAKER_01 1:26

Um, and then I also I thought about it and we worked together at Soft Robotics. So I almost brought you the soft robotics umbrella.

SPEAKER_00 1:31

Oh, I didn't know we had a soft one. Okay, all right. My car um the other day in the back.

SPEAKER_01 1:36

It's not yeah, good umbrella. Um, and then again, you know, we worked together through you know with IPR after the president, you know, our team has has worked with you, your team, which is a fantastic team, and it's it's been great.

SPEAKER_00 1:48

So yep. No, it was good uh you know to bring you guys on last year helped us kind of figure out um I think how to grow up with marketing. Yeah, um, you know, like I've always appreciated marketing. I always uh think in some of the tech companies we've been involved with, it was undervalued. Yeah, um, but it wasn't an area that I like I spent time working myself. So like for me it was a I know this is important, but I don't know how to scale it myself. Um, so it was it was really helpful while we started to figure out our internal team and strategy, having you guys kind of come in and set the whole foundation for what we should and shouldn't do, and and that was really helpful.

From Sales Engineer To President

SPEAKER_01 2:27

Yeah, it was really fun working with you guys. And you know, you and I like we kind of I say we grew up together in this industry, but you know, we don't want to I we don't talk about old an hour or anything like that. But you know, we've had you know very similar but also very different career paths, and you know, I I love your career story, and you know, not just because we're we're friends and I I'm a great champion of you, but you know, you started your career as a sales engineer, and really in kind of a short time by this industry standards, you're now you know the president of IPR robotics. And I wanted to talk a little bit with you about what does that journey look like, you know, with your career.

Leading Without Grabbing The Deal

SPEAKER_00 3:06

Yeah, I mean, for me, I think growing up through being an individual contributor um was probably one of the best things that could have happened because it gets you polished as far as with your customers, understanding like what they need, um, learning how to communicate better, both internally um as well as externally with customers on, you know, is technical information going to get you the sale or is figuring out their pain points, you know, and those are things that you get by repetition and and learning versus and failing uh consistently because sales is a failing game. Um, it's just not failing enough to to meet your goals. Um, but uh taking those learnings and also being able to figure out how to internally, I guess, take take that information and and pitch internally also. Um, you know, things we talked about before this uh podcast of how you can get your your internal company to understand things that are going on outside of the four walls of the organization and and maybe um you know some tough discussions on what needs to change and stuff. But yeah, no, it definitely shaped, I think, um, both the good times and the bad times that I've experienced. Um, my philosophies on I guess how I operate IPR robotics.

SPEAKER_01 4:25

Yeah, I mean, and and think about like going from individual contributor to now leadership position, like that for me at times was like, oh, I just want to go out and close that deal. You know, so so how how do you how do you um still feel like you're in that deal, but you're kind of stepping back?

Uncovering Hidden Problems

SPEAKER_00 4:42

I think the biggest part of it, um probably two parts. One for me going out and and finding um salespeople that I could trust, yeah, um, that I know are gonna one take care of the customers how I would want them to be taken care of. Um the part B of that is also understanding they're not me. So there's a level of like just how I appreciated sales leaders treating me is let me give me my sandbox parameters, stay within the sandbox, but like allow me to have my personality and my way of communicating involved within that. Um, so I think that that was kind of an important aspect because again, I'm not on the calls every day. I can't be. That's not what I'm supposed to do. Yeah. Um and then the second part of that I think is instilling my philosophy of how to sell. Yeah. Um, and so training our salespeople on here is the again, I'm not gonna force you to to stick to my script and read my words and do it in this exact order. For me, it's it's again the sandbox. So I provided them a here's how I kind of expect things to go in that first meeting. Um, I want you to ask these types of questions to uncover again, not just the technical need, but the customer pain points because I want that customer walking out of a meeting going, wow, like these guys understand me. And like what's happened a few times is a customer we asked the right questions and they uh we uncovered a problem that they didn't know they had. And so a good example of that was we had a customer that um needed a decent sized rail. Yeah, and the robot that was gonna go on it was obviously a decent size as well. Um, and they didn't think about the fact that the customer, the end customer, this is through an integrator, um, didn't have a thick enough concrete slab to handle. And so we had kind of brought that up in the conversation of like what's that look like? And they said, I don't know. They went back to their customer, they said, Yeah, it's only this, I think it was six inches or something, you know, pretty standard. And uh they basically said, We're not re-pouring a slab, figure it out. And so again, that came back to us. We figured out a redesign to spread the load out, and so we made a custom kind of um base design for the RTU to help out, and so now the customer is very happy. I didn't have to re pour a concrete slab. The integrator is happy because we saved them a oh crap, we dropped a rail on your system and smashed your floor. So, like to me, it's like the philosophy of um like my whole uh philosophy in general is being easy to do business with, and that just shapes everything that I try to do. I, our team, I try to make them understand like we should take on some paint if we have to to allow the customer to have a more frictionless um experience. So I guess for me that's kind of the uh the mantra, I guess, that we go out with.

Making Buying Easy Online

SPEAKER_01 7:23

Yeah, and easy to do business with. I mean, even looking at your new website, you know, how like an you know, somebody doing a project, an integrator, can go on your site, figure out what they need and kind of shop it out, you know, and it's almost a little bit like an Amazon store, kind of, which you know, a lot of people like, no, I'm not gonna tell the people what it is. You have to call me and talk to me.

SPEAKER_00 7:45

Yes, I think uh that's one I've experienced both ways where it's like unlock everything on the on the website, a lot of people have free access to everything, which in some aspects I do understand. Um, me as a consumer, right? If you go on a website and you're trying to spec out a lawnmower and you're looking at three different websites, a lawnmower, and you can't find the specs you want, you might go with the one that you can find the specs with, right? But that being said, we don't live in a um productized type of solution like market. So, you know, obviously there's standard things that we have with the grippers and tool changers, and and the RTUs are very modular to allow of a lot of flexibility, but you know, integrators who are our main customers, they need one-off solutions many times. So they want a tool changer with specific pass-through sensors and and different um things that might go with it. So, in order to do that, we want them to be able to figure out can IPR meet what I want? You know, what's the number of pass-throughs they have? What's the but like when they need the more technical, like, I don't want to order something that's not gonna work for my customer, that's when we want them to reach out. And that's when we, as a sales um organization and as our apps engineers, that's when we want them stepping in to reconfirm and make sure that they've got everything they need, and so instead of ordering a very piece, you know, expensive piece of automation that they might go, oh crap, I I have the wrong thing and now I need to reorder and and you know cause an issue that way.

SPEAKER_01 9:08

So and that's part of like being easy to do business, not like, oh, you ordered that. Well, that's too bad, you're gonna have to order another one, and maybe it's the right one this time.

SPEAKER_00 9:16

Yes, and we've done that. We we've handled a couple times where you know customers ordered something and um you know they they respond back, oh, this isn't fitting, and it's like, oh, you you switched the robots or something, you know. That it it happens, so you know, we we do our best to help them in those instances, and um, you know, that's just part of again, we want people to enjoy working with us. Yeah, I agree. Um, so that's that's kind of uh I think one of the things I heard recently, um, and they I think one of the um talks here at A3, um, they talked about like the super fans versus like consumers. Yeah, and so it's like if you solve a problem for a customer, they may or may not come back. But if they're like a fan and something goes wrong, they're gonna give you a little bit more leash to be like, all right, let's fix this. Like, I like you guys, you're fun to work with, you have a good product, that you generally are you know right on top of things. There might have been a misstep. Like that happens with every company. It's not, it's it's uh impossible to be perfect. However, like we want to develop that type of a customer where they're like, no, we're fans of you guys, we like you guys, we feel that you guys are um, you know, maybe a bad cliche, but family in some sense of like wanting to see each other succeed, and you know, that's how we want our integrator partners to also, you know, be with us too.

SPEAKER_01 10:34

Exactly. Yeah, and and you know, you mentioned super fans. Uh, you know, one thing I didn't mention, we're at the A3 business forum, so we, you know, Anthony and I come here every year. Um, sometimes we run into each other at check uh at check-in.

SPEAKER_00 10:45

That's our uh our go-to place, yes.

SPEAKER_01 10:47

That's happened several times, but yeah, I mean, and you know, you've had a very successful year, you know, you know, IPR, you've been there for how long now?

SPEAKER_00 10:56

Uh I'll be coming up in two years in uh in March.

Turning Customers Into Superfans

SPEAKER_01 10:58

Yeah, and and it's been successful. And you've really, you know, IPR, for those of you that don't know, um German company, um, you are the US subsidiary. Um, so you have not only um been easy to do business with creating super fans here, you know, in the North American territory, but you have really built a brand and built a whole whole new business here in the US.

Building IPR USA From Scratch

SPEAKER_00 11:22

Yeah, and that and that's part of, you know, when I came here uh to IPR, that was important to me was um making sure the US market understood that one, we exist. That's the first first thing is say, hey, IPR is here, um, and we're not just a German subsidiary to handle, say, German customers that have come to the US. We're here to operate as our own entity, if you will, and serve the the US market differently than how the German entity serves the European market. Um, because at the end of the day, it's a different market, it's a different customer style, it's a different um working style, and customers have different expectations. Of course. So um, for me, that was why you know I had to kind of take a look at things and say, what are we really good at? And what do we need improving on? And the great thing for me um in coming in here was like the people that were already here were fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 12:17

That's that's everything.

SPEAKER_00 12:19

Which which is one of the hardest things that people don't get right, is like we had a really good foundation of hardworking people, um, people that generally cared about like the customers. Um, what wasn't in place was more of a sales, outward sales focused organization. Um, in addition to uh I guess just trying to go out to the market again and tell a story of what IPR does best. Yes. Um, and so that was the misstep where that's an easier problem to fix than the problem uh or the the product is bad and the people are are bad. Yeah, so I mean those are the problems. Those are the first two that's like, all right, product is very good. The people are very good. It's just that we we got to get out there and tell a story. So for me, it was a it was a huge like, all right, we have a marketing issue, or we have a um getting out to the marketing, letting know like all these amazing, like we're in Detroit. Um, there's a ton of robot companies and integrators and automotive OEMs that that we sell to that half of them don't know we exist um in some capacity. So it was a a fun problem to try and solve.

SPEAKER_01 13:28

Yeah, no, exactly. And and really, you know, you mentioned kind of going out there and storytelling. So how important is that like to shorten sales cycles for you, especially if you're kind of like an emerging brand in Detroit, which has a lot.

Storytelling That Shortens Sales Cycles

SPEAKER_00 13:41

Yeah, I think it's it's it's pretty important. Um and again, I think part of the storytelling isn't just like a I think people probably consider like case studies and um customer testimonials. And again, I also consider that part of the sales process, the experience, the the frictionless kind of work that we do with our customers. It's like all that is storytelling because you're creating the story as you go in that instance, where the customer doesn't maybe in the moment realize it. But when they're getting out of the first beat and going, like, huh, these guys seem pretty solid, like I'm interested, like let's talk. And then they say, I have this, you know, I have this problem over here that I haven't been able to solve. Why don't you guys start with that? Yes, and we solve that problem. Then they're like, Oh, the story is IPR is professional, they're well organized, they know where they fit, and they solve problems. And it's like they're creating that story, or we're creating that story on the fly without just creating a customer testimony video to show them in a presentation at the start of a pitch. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_01 14:45

And the bigger part of that story is now you're so sticky in that account that that is your lifelong customer.

SPEAKER_00 14:51

Yeah, and I I think um I don't remember who talked about that um here at A3, but somebody made the comment of like uh an integrator, I think actually it was the Ford, uh, the gentleman from Ford. Oh, yeah, that's good. Um, but he he kind of made the comments like, yeah, once you're in, it's it's very difficult to get in, but once you're in, don't screw up because like we're not gonna replace you.

SPEAKER_02 15:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:12

And and I think that generally is true for our market, where the integrators, if you're not having missteps, why would you fix a problem that doesn't exist when you have all these other problems? So I think that's that's why it's so important for me and and for um, I think us as a company is we want that first impression to be frictionless. But even if there is a mistake, we're gonna handle that mistake as soon as possible because we want them to be like, all right, there's a problem, they took care of it, I'm good. Like these guys are are solid to work with.

What Good Leadership Looks Like

SPEAKER_01 15:42

So yeah, exactly. And and really like, you know, that's part of you know, leadership too, right? It's finding if there's a problem, taking care of that problem. So, you know, what does good, I mean, we talk about leadership, leadership. What's what does that look like? What does good leadership look like? Because I've I've seen a lot of people. We both have. Have you seen that? I've seen bad, yeah. Um that's another episode, everyone.

SPEAKER_00 16:04

Yes. Um, it's a great question because I think, you know, maybe the standard answer is you, you know, you lead by example. Um, I think that's very true. I think a lot of people say it, don't do it. Um, so yes, that's true, leading by example. Um, probably the other aspect is maybe doing the hard work alongside your employees.

SPEAKER_01 16:30

Bingo.

Wearing The Right Hat When Needed

SPEAKER_00 16:30

And and I I think that doesn't happen because like I can sit there and say all day long, like, follow up with your customers, like do this, like do that, but you know, there's also a lot of hard things that I have to do that might not be even sales related or or customer related just internally at IPR, all the other things that I have to do. It's like, but if I'm not putting the effort into what I'm supposed to be doing in my role, like everyone else is gonna see that and be like, well, why should I also burn the mid-ite oil for this situation or this customer? And so, I mean, even last week, like we have a you know, a big customer coming in uh this week, and we had our our apps engineer kind of working on some new demos and stuff for them coming in. We have a deployment going on uh a customer in Texas. Um, all right, what do we do? Well, we have a newer design engineer, we send him out. I went out with him. Oh, yeah, and I said, All right, this week I'm an apps engineer. So just like the old days, just like the old days, and and honestly, it was kind of fun. You know, so I I got my other responsibilities, but like I'm on site with our with our uh design engineer, and we're we're we're working on the uh with the the integrator, getting it all connected, working with the end customer, getting it, uh making sure that they're happy with how the system's deployed. Um, you know, and at the end of the day, it's like, all right, is that my role? Like, no, but you know, just like every small organization, you have your roles and your hats.

SPEAKER_02 17:52

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 17:53

And you know, this week or last week, my hat was to step in as an apps engineer and help out that because it it called for it. And so, like, that's what I've tried to instill with with all of our people is like you have a role, but when a hat position comes up in a short-term situation, jump in and help that because again, that makes you invaluable to the company.

SPEAKER_01 18:12

You know, I always liked working like my favorite um bosses I ever worked for were the people that they wouldn't ask me to do something that they wouldn't do themselves.

SPEAKER_00 18:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:22

And that's like literally what you do.

SPEAKER_00 18:25

No, it's it's very true. And and again, I can look back at the ones that were were awful to work with. Um, and I I can look back at those the ones that like I appreciated and I know appreciated me, and it's like the ones that like I appreciated and appreciated me, I didn't agree with, and they didn't agree with me all the time. But there was a mutual respect of like getting me sometimes to understand things I didn't understand or perspectives that I wasn't thinking about. Like, you know, yeah, you're saying this, but have you thought about what this person's view on that is? And it's like, oh, okay, yeah, if if I'm them, I'm thinking this, and it's like, okay, you know, so it's not like all like oh, I I loved them because they agreed with me on everything. It was because there was a mutual respect of like, no, I need to push you further because you know, I see the potential in you, you have a lot more to offer, and I need you to to kind of do the things that I would I would do myself, and that's that's an important thing.

What Winning Sales Teams Do

SPEAKER_01 19:21

Yeah, no, I I agree with that. And and really, you know, this is the thing. Like, I I hear all the time from leaders of like, I just need more of my pipeline. I need I need better sales. Um, you know, I've worked with you. You have a sales team that's winning. What what is your what what does a sales team that wins do differently than anyone else? That's such a loaded question.

SPEAKER_00 19:45

Yeah, it is a loaded question.

SPEAKER_01 19:46

But don't give away your secret sauce at it.

SPEAKER_00 19:48

Yeah, no. Um I mean, is there really a secret sauce to doing what you doing what your customers expect you to do?

SPEAKER_01 19:58

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 19:59

I mean, it's it's pretty yes. Yes, I guess so. Like, I've been a part of of companies that like, you know, either internally said, you know, I'm bringing in my uh five-step process to to bringing in more business, or you know, here if you just follow my specific um speech in these meetings, and you follow my specific format, that's how you're gonna close more deals. Um and anyone that kind of comes in or see even sales trainings that are like, you know, do these things and you're gonna pull together at different times, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:34

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 20:34

And it's like, okay, like, no, that's not how people operate. You don't just say these magical words and you you increase your your uh your sales. Yeah, um, yes, does pipeline matter? Of course. Am I always looking at like what does our pipeline look like? You can't grow if your pipeline's going down. No. So, like, yes, does getting more opportunities in the pipeline matter? Yes. However, like I like for me with the sales guys, again, I want them focusing on like sifting through noise.

SPEAKER_02 21:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:07

And so there might be, you know, a million-dollar opportunity that has 1% chance of closing. It's like, do you really want to spend a ton of time right now and had your best? Like, because again, at the end of the day, for the sales guy, it's it's your number, right? Like, that's all that really matters. That's all really that should matter. Uh, it shouldn't be, you know, this might be uh not controversial, but some people agree, some people don't. I don't care like how many meetings did you have, how many phone calls did you make, how many emails did you send. At the end of the day, quality over quantity.

SPEAKER_01 21:39

Exactly.

Staying Sane And Loving The Field

SPEAKER_00 21:40

And you know, when when you're running a smaller sales team, um I'm not gonna bring in, or I'm we're not going to bring in as a smaller sales organization, you know, a thousand leads a month. You know, we're we're not the big guys that have these massive marketing machines, um, you know, teams of 30 BDRs doing cold. Like we don't have that. So, what do we have to do? Well, we got to be strategic. So, our BDRs are focusing on areas that we know we've had success in.

SPEAKER_02 22:09

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 22:09

And we're hyper focusing our efforts on where we think we're going to have the most success for wins. So we're going to look at our open rates, we're going to look at the messaging, we're going to look at what our recent wins are. We're adjusting marketing based on what we're winning. Yep. So why am I going to market something that we're not selling? At the end of the day, if we're getting all of a sudden a bunch of requests for RTUs, well, maybe we should talk about RTUs more on LinkedIn and social media. So I think that's kind of where I guess the framework of, you know, what makes a successful like sales organization to me, it's just doing the right work and not busy work. Um and trusting, again, if if I'm going to bring in somebody, I have to trust them that they're going to do what I'm asking them to do, but then be effective in it. So if I'm going to sit there and um, oh, I have to be on every single meeting and every phone call you make, at the end of the day, why'd you hire that person? Well, also you can't you can't.

SPEAKER_01 23:08

You know, and one thing I wanted to ask you about too is you know, how do you balance all the things you like what keeps you sane? I love that laugh.

SPEAKER_00 23:19

Yeah. I mean at my core, I'm a salesperson.

SPEAKER_02 23:24

Yeah, I know.

Culture By Design, Not Chance

SPEAKER_00 23:25

So for me, what keeps me sane in a weird way sometimes is being out in the field. Like as exhausting as the long days at the plant were last week, like walking out of there like with a successful deployment, it kind of just I don't know, it re-energizes you, right? Like you need that. Yeah, and then like when a PO comes in, I'm still to this, I don't care how if it's$20, you know, like I'm still pumped when another customer decided that I trust IPR enough, I'm gonna give you guys the order. Um, you know, and and I guess now in the leadership position, as an individual individual contributor, like I loved it. Rethink was a great example where we did the, you know, send an email to the team with the PO when everyone was jumping on the email chain. Yeah, and it was it was for me as a first-time kind of individual contributor, like it actually meant a lot to me to see like other people cheering you on, right? Yeah, and then you got an opportunity when you saw somebody else land a huge deal, now you get to cheer them on, and it really did kind of bring that team together. Yeah, um, and so me internally here is is also as exciting just as much, and to keep me sane, um, when I see one of our sales guys land like a big fish or even a generally decent order, like it's exciting to me. And like, and that's what keeps me sane because at the end of the day, it's like, all right, if if we're doing all this work and effort and it's not netting results, either the strategy's wrong, yes, and I need to adjust something, or something else is going wrong. So I I think just keeping me sane is success, I mean, in some capacity.

SPEAKER_01 24:58

Yeah, and I and you mentioned something I forgot about those emails at Rethink, but you're right, those are awesome. And you know that yeah, you you're promoting a culture of teamwork, and I think that's why your team is doing well. You know, they're doing the right things, but they're also they're a team.

SPEAKER_00 25:14

Yeah, and actually, um, one of our newer design engineers that we brought on, he's been on maybe for five weeks at this point. Um, that was one comment that he made to me while we were at at the plant. He's like, no, I've I just got this, I don't know, everyone's just really chill, and like I can tell, like like everyone just is willing to like step in and do things and it's like help each other out. And like he said that almost like he had no idea, like I just kind of gave him that side eye. I'm like, that was by design. Like, I didn't just pick people and hope for the best.

SPEAKER_01 25:47

Like, you gotta pick the right people.

Motivation, Market Growth, New Logos

SPEAKER_00 25:49

There's people that were more qualified on paper that I passed up on because I didn't feel that culturally they were going to do more than what's asked when needed. Again, we're not gonna be out there expecting everyone to work 80 hour weeks. That's just you, that's burnout, and you're not gonna survive. But when things happen or when gaps happen in the company because we're growing, like the marketing was a great example. We had a BDR that took over half the halftime marketing, and I kind of took the other half over until we You were great. Yeah, yeah, thank you. That was the other half we had to do, but like, all right, I gotta step in. It's either it doesn't get done or whatever. Yeah, yeah. So, you know, until we grew enough to say, all right, now we have enough pain, I gotta go hire somebody and take that off everyone else's plate. And but that that was a by design with everyone I'm bringing in, you know, is everyone perfect? No, am I perfect? No. Um, is there things that people probably like roll their eyes at when I turn my back? I'm sure. Like, yeah, there's no way it's it's it's just human life that you're never gonna agree with everybody, um, and everyone's not gonna agree with you. However, generally I just get that vibe like in the office, like sitting in my office, hearing people talk, walking through, like people are kind of laughing with each other, they're talking about sports, they're talking about like, and like it generally just seems like a good cohesive, like nobody's like, uh, so and so doesn't do anything. All you know what I mean? Like, there's not that kind of dead weight, and a small company can't have dead weight.

SPEAKER_01 27:16

Well, it'll bull bulldoze the place. The wrong person in a place, and you've seen it will totally bulldoze a place.

SPEAKER_00 27:23

Yeah, I mean, you can count the times you at the companies we've both been a part of together or separately, and have seen just in the industry when all of a sudden you have a mass exodus of of places, it's like, well, what happened? It's like, oh well, they put the wrong leader in, or we got sick of dealing with this issue, and nobody listened, and all of a sudden you have half your sales team gone or your engineers start leaving because they're they're uh kind of fed up with things, so like it does matter. It does matter, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:50

Yeah, exactly. But um also, you know, you've been in this industry for over a decade, you know. Um I actually I'm not even gonna ask this because I think I was gonna ask you what keeps you motivated, but I think you really told that story.

SPEAKER_00 28:04

Yeah, I mean, I guess one extra piece to add to that part of it, but um, I mean, I guess what keeps me motivated is I enjoy seeing the growth in our industry. Like I can uh think back to when I first came on at at Rethink um about 12 years ago now, maybe. Um I remember walking through plants and uh people you know, we we sold it as a cobot. Uh, what is a cobot? You know, it's human-like, blah, blah, blah. And people are like, oh, can it pick out of this bin? And like it was always like a ha, yeah. If robots could just pick out of bins, like we'd be really uh, you know, cruising along here and like fast forward. And it's like bin picking is so yesterday, right? And it's like, I just remember like so many times, like that was a joke in our industry 10 years ago. Like, oh, if robots could just pick out of bins, and it's like there's so many great companies out there doing that. Pick your vendor, yeah. Pick your vendor. Yeah, um, so like I guess that part of me keeps that keeps me motivated to see the progression that we're we're kind of going through. Um, but at the end of the day, again, with just kind of, I guess, my personality and sales, like I am a people pleaser. Like, I want people to like working with me, I want people to enjoy now working with IPR. So that keeps me motivated. When we get a, you know, one thing I tracked this past year and that I gave as as goals for our salespeople was new customer acquisition. Like, I don't care how many dollars, sell one dollar to them, but like get a new customer to sign up with IPR. Because like at the end of the day, that's a great motivator for me to say, like, okay, we're doing something right if we're gaining more customers willing to work with us. So, like for me, I I guess that's kind of what keeps me motivated is is that.

SPEAKER_01 29:50

Yeah, no, I mean, yeah, for me, I get energy from customers. I love that, you know what I mean? And I I try to be with them as much as possible, which that's actually my job. So it actually works out.

Career Advice For Future Leaders

SPEAKER_00 29:58

Yeah, it works out great.

SPEAKER_01 29:59

Yeah, but you know, so career long career, right? And it's it's just just getting started, right? Well, it it's it's in it, but you still have some time to go. Yeah. Um, what advice would you give to somebody that wanted to start like either go into automation or follow in the footsteps of you're a sales engineer and you want to go into leadership? Like what types of advice would you give somebody?

SPEAKER_00 30:22

So I think uh we hit a little bit on this with doing the hard work. Um as an individual contributor, especially on the sales, you can kind of make the decision when you're kind of left to run your business, if you will. Your territory is your business, how much effort you want to put into it. True. And you you kind of own your own career path in some capacity because um based on how much I was out on the road, based on the POs that I was emailing through at Rethink, you know, that's what gets noticed.

SPEAKER_01 30:56

Yeah, I'm starting to get cold, the sun is setting on us. I'm seeing that there's a sign that says uh there's alligators perhaps around.

SPEAKER_00 31:03

I'm waiting for one.