Dr. Stratton is the Dean of the J. Whitney Bunting College of Business at Georgia College & State University and also serves as the president of the Management and Organizational Behavior Teaching Society (MOBTS). He's an accomplished academic leader and teacher-scholar with experience in private and public higher education. Micheal's expertise lies in the theoretical and practical application of organizational leadership, including workplace culture, power and politics, group dynamics, shared governance, and stakeholder relations.
About Micheal
Quotes from This Episode
Resources Mentioned in Episode
Dr. Stratton is the Dean of the J. Whitney Bunting College of Business at Georgia College & State University and also serves as the president of the Management and Organizational Behavior Teaching Society (MOBTS). He's an accomplished academic leader and teacher-scholar with experience in private and public higher education. Micheal's expertise lies in the theoretical and practical application of organizational leadership, including workplace culture, power and politics, group dynamics, shared governance, and stakeholder relations.
About Micheal
Quotes from This Episode
Resources Mentioned in Episode
Note: Voice to text transcriptions are about 90% accurate.
Scott Allen 0:04
Micheal Stratton, he is the guest today on the program, we were just discussing, that we're both, I think probably a little geeky. We have, he has baby Yoda in the background, and I have R2-D2 in the background. And so you know, it's gonna be a good conversation, sir. How are you? Lovely.
Micheal Stratton 0:22
Good morning. I'm doing well, thank you.
Scott Allen 0:24
Tell our listeners about you. I'm gonna call you the pandemic leader. I think you took on two significant leadership roles during the pandemic, you just can't get enough. Are you going? Is there a third in the works right now?
Micheal Stratton 0:38
A third disaster, no.
Scott Allen 0:42
leadership role. Another context? you're leading an association, a school of business. Right. And maybe there's another place for you to lead as well. That through the pandemic?
Micheal Stratton 0:54
No, no, I said no to the presidency. So I decided not to run this go around.
Scott Allen 1:04
Thank you. As you said, the president of the Management, Organizational Behavior, Teaching Society and www.mobts.org. In my second year of leading that organization, and in my fifth month as Dean of the J. Whitney Bunting College of Business at Georgia College and State University. So yeah, apparently, I enjoy punishment. I'm not sure. No, it's I think that there's anything to say about me I'm, I'm ambitious and impatient at the same time. And so about MOBTS. I've been part of that organization since I was a doctoral student. And at my first conference is in 2005. And it's an organization that is his mission is really geared toward enhancing the quality of teaching and learning and management organization studies. And it's in its 47th year I believe it's been really impactful in my career, but also the career of many of our colleagues in business and public and nonprofit management as educators. It's near and dear to my heart. And I've been on the board since 2012. I was a faculty member at the University of North Carolina, Asheville for 10 years and as a junior faculty. I volunteered to help host our 40th-anniversary conference.
Scott Allen
That was the first I checked in. And I found that I found myself in a residence hall, a dorm room, right? Yes, absolutely. I ended up having just a wonderful experience. And I think I've probably been to five or six since then. But yeah, that was the first one that was my first we
Micheal Stratton 2:50
We jokingly call it summer camp for professors. It's a three-day conference in June on a campus. We've held it everywhere from Stanford and Harvard to well, we were supposed to host this past June at Purdue-Fort Wayne. Yeah, but that did not happen. We had a virtual conference, but it's been it's an incredible organization. And service on the board has been, I think probably the most meaningful service I've done in academia, even taking into account leadership roles at UNC Asheville and obviously now here at Georgia College. I think being on the board at MOBTS you really see do that you really do see the impact of what we do at the conference in our journals journal management, education in the management, teaching review, really the the the hands-on engagement with the faculty to help them be better teacher/scholars, and it's kind of how I approach my work with faculty, both when I was at Asheville and here at Asheville was chair Faculty Senate for two years and then chair and unit head for our Department of Management accountancy there, I still use the word "our" when I talk about UNC Asheville. being there for about a decade, I suppose I'll always have a part of me there. But even here, I mean, I kind of view the role of the leader and mo BTS or that as a dean or a chair, provost or president is really making sure that if your focus is student-centered and you want your students to succeed and you want to advance the institution, at the core of it, you really have to help your faculty you have to advocate for your faculty and staff. And I'm always reminded when I, I guess before the pandemic, I was flying a lot to conferences and meetings and, and, collaboration you know, you listen to the flight attendants who say, you know, before you put your oxygen mask on your child or the person next to you make sure to put it on yourself first. I think that's the case, you know, before we can really support our students and, and ensure that they have a path forward, we really have to make sure our faculty have that oxygen mask, our faculty have to be taken care of. They're on the front lines, of educating our students. And if we, if we do not take care of them, they cannot take care of our students. And so I take, I think that's the case, even, you know, with MOBTS, we see, you know, as educators coming to us for space, to talk, to listen, to share ideas, to develop, we have to remind them about taking care of themselves and taking care of their colleagues so that they can help their students.
Scott Allen 5:33
Talk a little bit about that, I would love to hear a little bit more about the kind of your approach and it could just be Micheal, your insights on transitioning into this new role as dean of the college of business. I love that. Take care of them so that they can take care of others. Are there any other mantras or principles you've kind of lived by as you've entered into that role? Because you're literally what, three months? Four months, five months in?
Micheal Stratton 5:58
I might Yeah, the first two months, I was counting the days down. I'm not gonna say math difficult after that.
Scott Allen 6:19
No, no, yeah.
Micheal Stratton 6:20
Yeah, no, no, I say I mean, now, I think anybody Well, I'm not gonna say everyone, but I think my path in academia was such that if you asked me 10 years ago, where I would have been now, it wouldn't have been an academic leadership position. And I think if you asked myself, yeah, you asked me 20 years ago where I would be...you know, had just started graduate school. Yeah. And I was in a Master's in Public Administration program, thinking I was going to be a public servant and working in the federal government, and working my way up. And I think similar to what happened in graduate schools happened and my career in academia kind of just fallen into these roles. And part of it is ambition, but part of it is, is I really do like taking, taking risks. And you know, when I was a doctoral student, and as I said, I literally just fell into that program. I was a semester into my master's program, and one of my faculty said, you really should think about the Ph. D. program. And being a first-generation college student growing up in a working-class, family and mountains of Maine. I never, you know, going to college itself was a stretch and, and going to graduate school at a top university and then being beat. You know, even the idea of joining a doctoral program, I had an undergraduate Professor Bill Ferris, who's part of a movie Ts for years, who introduced me to the organization when I was a graduate student. He said that to me when I was an undergrad, and I just, I just laughed. Yeah, no, and plus, you know, you're an undergrad, you're senior, you're exhausted, right? You go to school your whole life, even though I love school like I need a break. But, you know, I just kind of fell into my doctoral program. And my second semester, I started the Ph. D. program. And, and I remember talking with another mentor, my dissertation advisor, Sue Faerman, who also Sue and Bill Ferris, they both introduced me to MOBTS as a PhD student, but I was working on my dissertation, and we went to lunch, and we're like a progress meeting, you know, about where I was and everything. And she said to me, she said, "Look, you know, you're teaching as a graduate student, you know, you're doing all of the services. You're, you know, you're the academic advisor for the undergraduate public administration policy program, you're the internship advisor, you're she said, and you're helping, you know, with a reaccreditation. And she said, your, you know, service is not going to write your dissertation. And, and so I think, early on in academia I really was interested in, in the background and the work of a higher education institution, and maybe because my areas organizational theory behavior, that could be part of it, but and so when I, you know, when I took my first academic position after, after my doctoral program, it was at a small school in Maryland Hood College, and assistant professor of tenure track and nine months in the Provost asked me to be the director of the MBA program. It was a small, private, small MBA program in Maryland. And that's where I got my first taste for academic leadership and curriculum leadership and program development and And understanding the ins and outs of managing faculty and adjunct recruitment and all that, and I enjoyed it. Um, I still love teaching. I still love research. And the problem was is I loved it all. And so yeah, I was reappointed. And then I went on the market again, found myself at UNC Asheville, public liberal arts university in the UNC system, and, and I'm really been liberal arts and that kind of part of my identity for a long time. And, and, you know, I started I mean, I jumped into my research again, and my teaching and undergraduate research mentoring, which is a core value of UNC Asheville and, and, you know, circumstances change. After about four years, you know, the Chancellor way the UNC system has Chancellor as the university presidents and Chancellor announced retirement Provost announced retirement, there is some transition and in the department leadership, and I got tenure early, and a couple of weeks later, the provost, the outgoing Provost, and out, you know, appointed me as chair and accreditation unit head for the department and it just kept going. And, and, you know, I just, and then
Scott Allen 11:18
you led the Faculty Senate.
Micheal Stratton 11:21
Yeah, for two years, which is, you know, I had a three-year stint on senate started on the senate as a junior faculty member, one of my faculty mentors said, you know, you really are supportive of our mission and our public liberties identity. Yeah, one of the things that Asheville was was really impactful in my experiences, we had a shared humanities program, a four-core sequence, and it was, it was a multi-unit interdisciplinary effort, so that music faculty, sociologists, psychologists, biologists in a management Professor could teach a humanities capstone course, post, you know, post World War Two today, everything from gender identity, poverty, globalization, environmental sustainability, and, and we all kind of came at it from our particular disciplinary lens. And I mean, this was the most engaging experience since graduate school, and sitting in a room full of folks from different disciplines, debating, discussing, identify shared readings, and then my second year teaching in that program, I ended up leading the senior capstone humanities course. And so I think folks saw that you know, I really did eat, you know, eat and breathe and drink the Kool-Aid around the public of arts. And so, you know, I started working on Faculty Senate, and that is, that was my first real experience was shared governance. And it was, as a junior faculty often just sat back and watched and listened to my senior colleagues and going through transitions in Provost and, you know, then then a chancellor search. The second Chancellor was at Asheville. And then, you know, I took about a year after being a faculty, Senator, once my term was over. And I, you know, I was asked to go back on again, and then asked to run for the chair position. And, I mean, it was so eye-opening to be the chair of faculty senate when, you know, when we're going through such trends, another transition, yeah, another Chancellor search, a new provost search...
Scott Allen 13:32
And what are two or three observations about that role leading in that context? You have no formal authority, it's all influence. It's all
Micheal Stratton 13:44
When I was at Asheville, I developed a seminar course on organizational politics and power really influenced by, you know, the work of Jeff Pfeffer and others, and I saw it in action. And I, you know, I, I fumbled, I tricked. I was really taking what we've learned in graduate school and in our, in our research and work and implementing it, and I have to tell you, it was for me, it was about relationships, and authenticity, and really showing that you know, when I talk about shared governance, it was not, those weren't empty words. Yeah. And so part of that was ensuring that the faculty understood that this was we were coming from a not a, it wasn't fair, it was an antagonistic relationship between the administration and faculty and that transition, but it was definitely one where we went from one Chancellor to another and the second Chancellor was only there for about two or three years in my first year as senate chair, and I think there was an opportunity for us to reaffirm our commitment to basically being at the table that faculty are at the table when decisions are made. And so as, as we search for a new chancellor, I made that very clear. I was on the Chancellor's search committee and, and so there were a couple of other senators as well. And so I think we made it known to the candidates that this was our expectation. And so building relationships with our administration colleagues were really critical in their role and demonstrating that okay. If we want to open the books are, so to speak, and ensure that the faculty and students, and staff are at the table when it comes to budget finance decisions, how do we make that happen? And not letting it go? Not saying yes, we're gonna do this and not bring it up again? And so so I think part of this was authentically owning your words and following through. And I think I also learned about crisis management. That that first year for Nancy Cable our current Chancellor time, that was brought in, I was in my second years as senate chair, and you know, there was just, every month, every month, a new not pandemic level crisis, obviously. But it was either financial or enrollment or system-level politics or past decisions that were made in a vacuum And now coming back, yeah. You know, into the media. And so, you know, I learned, I learned a lot, you know, from that Chancellor, who really became a mentor to me. And, yeah, so I think that those are some lessons learned during that experience. And I think that shaped really, how I began to think about my future in higher education, I saw you know, leading an academic unit, leading a faculty senate part and while at that time, also on the MOBTS board. How really critical kind of being persistent. And, and picking your battles, and knowing, knowing how important compromises. Yeah, and listening quote to the other side, and recognizing that the other side isn't the other side that you're just sipping, you're there together. Yeah, you just might not agree, and where can you find common ground? And I've, I've taken that, um, you know, even into my to my current role. So I'm really influential.
Scott Allen 18:01
Well, I imagine relationships have been critical and compromise, and everything that you've just said, has been absolutely critical as you've entered into this new role as Dean, correct? What do you see the future as I mean, it's, it's how do we as institutions continue to thrive based on the seat that you're sitting in? What's that recipe?
Micheal Stratton 20:02
Well, I think both for MOBTS as an organization as a nonprofit, you know, as a higher education institution that is serving, you know, management educators environment, that there are not necessarily competing organizations but an environment of other higher education, nonprofits, right to support faculty development scholarly endeavors MOBTS faced with this very similar situation as, as higher education units, such as college as a business, and I think there's actually there are similar paths moving forward, and that is kind of removing ourselves from our respective silos and partnering with other entities. And so in MOBTS, one of kind of the central vision for MOBTS when I came on board was, and this was, you know, the board affirm this, this kind of audacious vision, which is really expanding the reach of the organization, you know, taking the kool-aid that we serve, and giving it to others and, and exposing them to the magic of the organization. And so, we've done that globally, we have an Oceania conference that's virtual this, this winter, or their summer. And, and, and that was after an international conference in New Zealand. A year ago, January, February, that was just full of energy, you know, imagine having other pictures on the Facebook, for those folks who hadn't, you know, who had participated in our journals in a variety of ways of as authors or reviewers, but whereas associate editors but hadn't, hadn't been to our annual conference in the US and and and so we saw that as a real opening we created we have a new partnership with the University of Surrey in England for their management education certificate programs. MOBTS will be a partner with them and facilitating their workshops and, and their certificate program and creating a pipeline of new educators or even seasoned educators that want to be master teachers, so to speak. Yeah. And, um, you know, we've announced our 2022 conference in Mannheim, Germany, we are now an affiliate, nonprofit affiliate with AACSB. We've created a relationship with them. And Brandon Charpied, our executive director and I have worked really hard on behalf of the Board to pre-pandemic to really do the face to face outreach with deans and others make decisions about faculty resources. Oh, yeah. Um, and, and so I think partnerships are critical. And kind of getting outside of your silo, the MOBTS style of only speaking, you know, you were on the board briefly. And we used to talk about being East Coast centric, you know, most of our members, we do kind of a geocode analysis, they mostly come from the east because a lot of the history in the organization is from the east, breaking from that mold. Yeah. And, and, and really attracting Community College educators, online faculty, is that our mission is not narrowed to, you know, smaller, private or regional, public. Comprehensive, it is really all management indicators. And I think that's the case in, say, a college of business. Yeah. One of the things that attracted me to Georgia College is it it is the Public Liberal Arts University of the Georgia system. Yeah. And it's a member of the Council Public of Arts Colleges, COPLAC, and I knew Georgia College very well, and its reputation and its very focused, very focused mission on rigor, and experiential learning and transformative experiences and, and, and being a residential institution. And one of the things I observed in my research and talking with the search firm and initial conversations with folks here is that the College of Business was, for the most part fairly alienated and isolated. Even though we're on the main campus and looking outside at the columns of the building, I don't know the front quad area or the front lawn is a con. We're centrally located yet.
Scott Allen 24:42
The relationships didn't exist.
Micheal Stratton 24:45
Relationships didn't exist. For the most part, I think on the margins they did. And you know, what I did at Asheville was to I always used to say at Asheville, you know, management and study of the organization is a liberal art? To say that we aren't just, you know, then you question what is the liberal arts. Well, it's really understanding, you know the complexity of human existence and organizations or social phenomena.
Scott Allen 25:17
I this building we called "Google".
Micheal Stratton 25:22
And, and we, if we don't just expose our students to the history, philosophy, language, the sciences, but if we actually collaborate as faculty across disciplines, team teaching, co-developing courses, cross-listing courses, cluster hiring, joint appointments, you name it. I'm developing curriculum across disciplines and across, you know, I remember once talking, this was years ago with an AACSB. And AACSB has made a real transformational shift with their new standards, but you know, used to be Oh, multi interdisciplinarity used to be marketing professors talking to accounting professors. That's not what I'm talking about. And I really was exposed to that in my undergraduate experience at Western New England College now University, which when I was there, was a much smaller, private liberal arts university. And no, it's, it's about management students reading Moby Dick, management, students reading, you know, the Lord of the Flies in an intro course, and principles, the management or something. And, you know, when I came here, I think one of the reasons I, you know, was offered and made the decision to leave Asheville to come here was that I saw this real opportunity of, of peeling away the onion and getting down and dirty and making the case for this unit, the College of Business is a critical part of the identity of the liberal arts. And that means having conversations with my Dean colleagues about ways we can collaborate, and creating a space for the faculty to talk with other faculty, we're doing something right now we're having conversations between computer science, which is in the college business, computer science faculty and the math faculty about developing a joint program in data science. And what's fascinating is, we're at the table virtual table talking about this. And, and everybody's excited. There are no turf issues and planning, we're focused on the student's focus on resources not generate resources, but how to share resources. And yet we all look at each other, "how are you going to make this happen?" This has never been done here. This is you know, we don't even have the structure to make this happen. Yeah. And that's what excited me here and it's the same thing we are in talks early, within the College of Business on diversity, inclusivity certificate, and business undergraduate certificate, that would really involve courses in sociology and philosophy. I mean, there's, there's so much more but you know, it's part of this is making the case to the faculty, you know, that we can do this, we should be doing this. And I remind them, that I don't have a business school pedigree. They hired my masters and PhDs in public administration policy, my area was work behavior theory, but I don't come from a business school background. And so I just kind of saving them, you know, you got what you got, now, you know, this is this, and then I was very authentic and who I was when I interviewed and, and, you know, it's not like I'm going to come in and then all of a sudden switch, you know, but I've learned the lesson of listening, you know, to the faculty, outside of my disciplinary area of expertise and how important that is, I don't, I'm not an accountant. You know, I was, I was chairing unit head for the management accounting department, where those accounting faculty, bless their heart as they say. They put up with me, and they taught me and I remember meeting with firms and graduate programs and accounting and just going asking all these questions. And so I think, here, and MOBTS, going back to your question is about really getting outside of your silo and collaborating. And here at Georgia College, I think the opportunities are endless, not just collaborating within the university, but collaborating within the system, how do we look at potential, you know, three plus three programs with a Bachelors of Science in Business and a JD program at another university? There, again, and not only partnerships in higher education institutions, but partnerships with local business and nonprofit organizations. Higher Education cannot survive in its silo as a unit as an institution, or in their, their ecosystem. Ecosystems are going to have to come together and merge. I'm not afraid of it. I don't think any discipline has a there's no discipline that I know of that has a monopoly on the complexities of, of, of human existence.
Scott Allen 30:29
Yeah.
Micheal Stratton 30:30
So I don't, you know, you know, if economists, you know, think that they know everything about decision making, yeah, then they should talk to psychologists, and
Scott Allen 30:44
and then the sociologists, and historians.
Micheal Stratton 30:48
maybe, maybe that's why I love the field of organizational behavior theory, these micro and macro studies of organizations and, and work inside and in humans, because it is so multi and interdisciplinary. And so for me to talk with, you know, somebody who's kind of taken it and what Ph.D. programs they narrowly trained. And so, and, and that wasn't my experience, that widening mind, Albany and so.
Scott Allen 31:18
So, I love how you're thinking this fall, I had, I kind of put together a series for my institution. And the first speaker was a gentleman named David Sinclair. So David Sinclair is at Harvard. He's a geneticist, and he's trying to cure death. So I partnered with some folks in our chemistry department and in our biology department. And, and then, of course, we had business students at this meeting as well. And I think some of the faculty at first blush, were thinking, Well, why in the world? Would a leadership educator bring in a person who's trying to cure death? A geneticist from Harvard? Well, when you start really peeling back, how does that change organizational life? What does that mean for society? What business opportunities present themselves? If this gentleman is successful, and we extend the human healthspan, and lifespan and other 30 years? What does that look like? All kinds of things shift and change. so and so? I love that because I think it just even my area of focus, which is leadership, I mean, you can look at it through the lens of biology, you can look at it through the lens of history, political science, sociology, psychology, I mean, you're exactly right. It's rooted in all of that work. Right. So I couldn't agree more. And I also agree, I can't agree with you more that, that I think that the strength will be in those relationships and those collaborations because I don't know that any one institution, of course, there's a few out there. But the strength is going to be in those relationships. And that web, that network that's created, not only on campus, with the relationships among faculty, but also like you said, in the community, or within the system within
Micheal Stratton 33:07
And I think, you know, if you read about mergers and acquisitions in higher education is painful. Yeah, it's disruptive, whether it's privates coming together or kind of forced upon mergers within public systems. I think they're the challenge facing presidents and provosts in the next three to five years will proactively create those relationships and partnerships and demonstrate the added value for your institution to have those and rather than it being forced upon you by a board, or, you know, in the private or public sector. I think that's the real challenge. And but I think it's a tremendous opportunity. And you've seen, there are examples of that, in the northwest with Willamette University, a smaller liberal arts college partnering with another. And I think there's been some examples in Massachusetts as well, the private level. I don't have examples in the public sector that being proactively done. Typically, that's often brought about by boards, or boards, regions, but they...I think I think that opportunity exists tonight. And for MOBTS. That's for us to survive as an organization as a nonprofit, really dependent upon our members. You know, as a 47-48-year-old organization, we need to recruit the next generation of management educators, and we need to retain them and show them how important our organization is. And their development as teacher-scholars. And we shouldn't just be focusing on such a small pool of management educators. Yeah. And when you look at the research that's been, you know, written by scholars around the world, there's an ample space For us to share our opportunity. And I'm thrilled by the fact that the board, the current, current, most recent boards really kind of embrace this idea of expanding, expanding our reach, and excited to see where that goes forward. But I will not be we have an election issue for President-Elect if you're honest, Scott, you want to take all that leadership theory and put it into practice my friend, we, from Secretary, elect me
Scott Allen 35:36
just saying I'll never forget that first meeting when I actually just took notes, right. Everyone was like, What? You're taking the notes right now? I can't even believe this. You're blowing my mind. I'm a secretary. Right. That's what I do. Correct?
Micheal Stratton 35:57
Yeah. And you help the president keep on track.
Scott Allen 36:01
So Micheal Stratton, I always close down these conversations. Well, real quick, I heard in that that dialogue, a couple of themes. For me that stood out, obviously, the importance of relationships, obviously, the importance of collaboration, right, is another big piece in all of this. And I think it's it's through those two fundamental foundational components, that, that their strength, their strength, because of the trust that's built, and that social capital and that glue that existing but then there's also, there's also strength in numbers, so to speak, in that, and synergy in different perspectives, and in how these different parties can both benefit from
Micheal Stratton 36:47
absolutely aberrations.
Scott Allen 36:48
So thank you for that. I really, really appreciate that. Because I think there's two, those are two very, very important fundamental components, where if you have a leader that has invested in both of those over the last decade, over the last five years, or is just starting out, like you and in doing so, that's probably two pretty solid places to begin to help navigate all of the complexity that's incurred occurring, whether that's digital disruption, COVID, whether that's shifts in higher ed, demographic shifts that are occurring, I mean, it's just it's all over the place. So I always close these out by asking, you know, what you're streaming, what you're listening to what you're watching what you've read recently that stood out, it may not have anything to do with management and leadership and org behavior. Maybe it's just the Mandalorian, which I would imagine you have watched the latest four episodes of that right, sir?
Micheal Stratton 37:46
Yes, absolutely. And The Crown, which I'm telling you, I don't I, I found myself now watching documentaries and reading up on on the queen and her reign, and what a unique position that that is the solver and the constitutional separation and the monarchy in between the sovereign and the elected leader. It's just absolutely fascinating. And, and to see historically, you know, I had read previously about fetcher and The Queen, and, but to see it play out, it was just, it was just absolutely fast. So
Scott Allen 38:31
that's, that's one of my favorite films. It's the queen. Have you ever watched any great film from just the contextual leadership challenges and how maybe context is moving by? Because if you think about what she has experienced over her lifetime, I mean, are we in our fifth or sixth decade of her reign? I mean, she's met every American president since I forget who
Micheal Stratton 38:56
ever right?
Scott Allen 38:58
Yeah. Okay. And so I have one for you. Have you watched the Queen's Gambit?
Micheal Stratton 39:04
No.
Scott Allen 39:05
Oh, Micheal Stratton Yeah. Queen's Gambit, prioritize it please, please, please. And we have not finished The Mandalorian we are going through them again to make sure we're up to date with the next four so
Micheal Stratton 39:21
yeah, no that's brilliant. Anything else? Any
Scott Allen 39:24
other Hot Tips? Sir podcasts?
Micheal Stratton 39:27
Boy, No, I'm not I'm not sure if this helps will probably hurt you. I guess depends. I don't have that much capital in the podcast world but I've never been a podcast fan. I don't know what Yeah. Not
Scott Allen 39:40
yet. Not yet.
Micheal Stratton 39:42
Not yet. Not yet. But I mean, I honestly I'm I love NPR and so I remember growing up listening to Car Talk. And, and so they...I do actually think they have a podcast and where they replay old episodes, obviously so might have To have to check that out.
Scott Allen 40:03
Oh, that's awesome. Well, you know, I had not been a huge listener of podcasts myself. But especially with commutes. It started much more into my kind of entering into my day to day. And just some fascinating conversations with incredible people that have really drawn me in. And so, I don't know, I've kind of started to love the state.
Micheal Stratton 40:29
And maybe that's what you know, there are a lot of folks who went from reading to the books on tapes and podcasts that maybe I didn't books on tape. That makes for a long commute, but maybe...
Scott Allen 40:40
you do the books on tape either. I find my mind wanders, right.
Micheal Stratton 40:44
At least podcasts are shorter, focused.
Scott Allen 40:50
Micheal Stratton, thank you so much for the work that you do with Thank you. A number of different organizations. You're left there leading, I think your two foundational components are solid. That's wonderful. Thank you, sir.
Micheal Stratton 41:03
You too. Thank you.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai