Ep 166: Why Great Leaders Give People Permission to Fail with Ron Helmer

0:00You either give people a reason to trust you and believe you, or you don't. Own up to it, 'cause bad news does not get better with time. As always, failure is always an option, and true failure only comes when you refuse to get back up. You're listening to the Limitless Leadership Podcast, the podcast designed to help automotive repair shops learn how to lead, coach, train, and manage their team better by sharing proven techniques and thought-provoking interviews from industry leaders.

0:27Are you ready to transform your leadership skills by tapping into unrecognized potential to achieve limitless results? Let's get ready for liftoff. It's time to go from great to greater. Here's today's episode. Hello everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the Limitless Leadership Podcast. I'm your host, Josh Parnell, and before we get started, don't forget to like, comment, subscribe, do all the things you need to on social media to help this podcast impact people and build leaders just like the leader I am able to interview today.

1:03Uh, our guest is the owner and CEO of MentorMentee, a proud sponsor of the Limitless Leadership Podcast. So I will thank you for that. But, uh, Ron Helmer, if you would, man, go ahead and introduce yourself. Share with the audience who you are, what you do, and how you do it. Sure thing. First of all, I wanna start off by saying thanks, Josh, for inviting me on.

1:25Um, I'll be completely honest and transparent. This is my first podcast, so I'm sure my daughters will get a kick out of this. So again, thank you for that. So no, my name's Ron Helmer, as you had indicated, CEO of Mentor Mentee. We are specifically in the automotive industry as we speak, providing accelerated career pathways for service technicians to solve a problem that everybody's well aware of, which is There's just, there's a significant shortage in the industry as far as service technicians are concerned.

1:58And we're just trying to help organizations both in the automotive and diesel identify how they can leverage the untapped talent that they have and accelerate their competencies to a level that they then can service their customers in a way that increases that customer experience and product or service that they're offering. Promotive is the recruiting engine dedicated to helping modern automotive shops hire better and grow stronger.

2:28With deep aftermarket experience, they know shop operations, the technician talent market, and how transformative the right hire can be. Promotive runs a full hands-on recruiting process. They find active and passive talent, screen candidates with intention, and guide everyone through a clean, professional hiring experience. The result is a pipeline of candidates who are aligned, prepared, and and ready to contribute. Shops work with Promotive because they deliver consistency, clarity, and real results.

2:54They take on the heavy lifting so shops can stay focused on customers, operations, and growth. If your shop needs to hire or wants to build a better recruiting pipeline, visit gopromotive.com, start a search, schedule a conversation, and see why so many shops trust Promotive to find the right technicians. Ron, one of the things that, uh, you know, I, I really value and Uh, and quite frankly admire in leaders is their ability to provide clarity and direction.

3:18And, um, what I know that MentorMentee can, can, can provide is just that. They, they pro— you guys provide clarity and direction. The fact that you're offering the career path, um, and, and, and what a, uh, uh, um, automotive prepare— automotive repair professional can, can expect, that's, that's key. That's crucial. And, you know, most people are not leaving bad jobs. They leave bad leaders because those leaders don't provide the career path.

3:44They don't provide clarity and direction. And another great sponsor of ours is Promotive, and Promotive, uh, does a great job of talent acquisition. So Promotive is a recruiting company that helps get team members on board, and MentorMentee is able to provide the career path for those team members and retain that talent. Uh, if you would share with our audience, um, a little bit about MentorMentee, how you got into this organization, and some of your personal background, uh, as well.

4:14Yeah. So, great intro. So, the purpose of MentorMentee is to address kind of exactly what you talked about, right? So, you know, if you think back to, you know, early days in your career, you may have been hired in an organization, brought in, and there was some kind of onboarding and et cetera, et cetera, but no real clear definitive pathway for how you're going to get from step 1 to step 2 to step 20, right?

4:41Mentor-mentee, aside from trying to address the issues around the number of available technicians and et cetera, et cetera, was really about creating visibility, clarity, right, for these technicians, regardless of their entry level, right, coming out of some kind of trade school or somebody coming off the street and getting into an organization through express lane services or a C-level technician elevating to B, to A, to master.

5:11Really kind of providing that clear pathway for them as well as individuals in these business organizations to say, hey, here's the differentiating separator between us and, you know, a similar dealership down the street. You know, we invest in our people and this is how we do it. So ideally, it has a specific purpose, but the overriding arch of the purpose behind it, if I could double use that word, is really just show the individual how they can get from where they're at to the next step and beyond.

5:44And doing that, right, it creates a little bit of incentive, it creates motivation, it creates a little sense of pride in what they're doing, and et cetera, et cetera. That's incredible. And then personally, so I'm curious if you could share with the audience how you came about MentorMinty, how you got into MentorMinty. Yeah, my background's a little colorful in the sense that I started off in the service.

6:11I spent 22 years in the Navy, about 11 of it was active and the rest of it was reserves. Thank you for your service, by the way. No, you're worth it 100%, right? So in that scenario, got to do a multitude of different things. I was in engineering, I worked in the sub fleet, worked for Global Transportation Command, specifically military sealift. In the Korean Theater of Operations, worked for DIA, Defense Intelligence Agency, at, uh, you know, Strategic Air Force, um, or STRATCOM at, um, Offutt Air Force Base.

6:45And, uh, I got out of that and worked in the tech sector and doing recruiting, actually. And, um, I did a little stint in, you know, recruiting in the Navy. Um, from there, I got involved in an organization that was specifically geared around IT hardware asset management for enterprise folks and data security. Actually ended up buying that business from the founder and was in that organization about 20 years.

7:13But I got connected to MentorMentee for a couple of reasons. One, I'm a gearhead by nature, right? That's my generation. And then the individual that actually came up with the concept around MentorMentee, extensive automotive background, specifically in collision. He actually had, uh, 300 Car Star franchises before, uh, he sold out in the mid-'90s, I believe. Okay. Got into, uh, U-Inc., which provided, um, educational online training in the automotive sector, developed a program called, uh, Safety and Pollution that was hugely successful and understood and recognized the current challenges in the automotive sector around technician and tech development.

8:01And so that's, that's how it got birthed. And our relationship started in an entrepreneurial mentoring program here in Kansas City that developed that relationship. And through that, we had some conversations, and I have since sold my other business, about 80% of it, and I was bored. And, uh, we had a conversation and I got excited about it and it just kind of fell into my lap and it was right up my alley relative to my interest in automotive, to mentoring, to leadership, the whole nine yards.

8:34That's incredible. Um, again, Ron, thank you for sharing. Thank you for being here. You know, I mentioned earlier that the 2 things that we get to provide as leaders is clarity and direction. I believe that we cannot provide that without the establishment of safety and trust. Could you speak to the listening audience about what it means to you to be able to provide safety and trust for your team members in, in order to provide the clarity and direction that they all deserve?

9:02This episode is brought to you by Limitless Leadership because great teams don't happen by accident. They're led on purpose. If you're tired of wearing all the hats, putting out fires, and wondering why your team won't step up, Limitless Leadership is for you. They help leaders transition from player to coach who develop people and multiply impact through in-person or online leadership training like the Limitless Leadership Blueprint or their Roots to Results coaching method.

9:25Their services are designed to help you tap into unrecognized potential to achieve limitless results and help you create safety and trust in order to provide clarity and direction. So if you're ready to stop managing chaos and start leading with purpose, Head to limitlessleadership.co to book a complimentary discovery call today. Leading a shop can be isolating, especially when you're trying to grow and still take care of your people.

9:47The good news is you don't have to piece it together alone. TechMetric is the all-in-one platform built for shops and growing operators who want less chaos and more clarity. Shop management, integrated payments, and built-in marketing all working together in one place. No bouncing between tools, no syncing issues, No missed opportunities, just a cleaner operation, a stronger customer experience, and a business that's built to grow.

10:10See how it works at techmetric.com or use the link in the show notes. Yeah, it's the old adage, people don't care what you say, they only care what you do. Right. And, and yeah, so leadership, you know, is, you know, permeated with buzzwords and phrases. Right. And what it boils down to is if you want You either give people a reason to trust you and believe you, or you don't, right?

10:37So from that, there has to be some consistency, right? And that comes from personal conviction and your belief in what it is to be a good leader. And it's not a title that's given, it's a title that's earned. So if you want your organization to follow you and lead you and, and trust your leadership and believe in your vision, you really have to connect.

10:59And you have to connect in a way that is real. You have to connect in a way that's genuine. And because most people, regardless of where they're at, right, they can smoke out and sense, you know, who's fake, who's being non-genuine, right? So I think the key for people to really align themselves with you, they have to, like you said, trust and believe in what you're doing and how you're doing it and why you're doing it.

11:26I believe that we connect through authenticity, humility, and vulnerability. And, and I'm a big believer in, if, if, if anyone has listened to this podcast or watched this podcast, by the way, you can watch this podcast, uh, on YouTube at The Bearded Leader. But if, if you've heard or watched this podcast before, you've likely heard me say the phrase, connection creates engagement and engagement increases performance.

11:48And many of us as business owners, regardless of the industry that you're in, As business owners, you wanna increase performance. And a lot of us are so focused on the processes and, and, and of course the profit. But what if we focused on the people? What if we focused on the people first? If we prioritize our greatest assets, which are our people, we can, we can connect in a way that creates engagement and engagement increases, uh, performance.

12:14You, you kind of, you kind of touched on my, my, you know, one question that I, that I ask every guest on this podcast, which is, what does leadership mean to you? If you would go, uh, continue to take, take that question. And, and if I were to ask you, Ron, what does leadership mean to you, how would you answer that? So, great question, right?

12:34Um, first let me say, no leader's perfect, right? And, and I think the sign of a good leader is, is when they get something wrong, they're the first to step up and say, hey, I made a mistake. Forgive forgive me, that was a bonehead move, whatever the case may be. People are inclined to give grace, right, in those situations. Um, so avoidance of your own mistakes and human failures and that is, is, is essentially, um, very important.

13:02But for me, um, good leadership comes first, I think, from great emotional intelligence, right? Can you regulate your emotions? Regardless of what's going on, chaos, not chaos, I mean, can you remain, uh, steadfast in your resolve and your steadiness? Because when stuff does hit the fan, as my dad always used to say, it doesn't get evenly distributed. So if you get the brunt of it, you got to brush it off and keep moving.

13:29Yeah. Uh, your, your, your team is going to look to you how you react and respond to that. And, and if you panic or if you flip out that's what they're going to do. I mean, it's the same thing when I used to coach all 3 of my girls in competitive fastpitch softball. I could always tell if I can get a coach rattled, I got the team, right?

13:48And so, female athletics specifically in the younger years can get a little wavy, right? But, if you can maintain resolve and you can work through that, then you got a shot. But, I think those are 2 critical elements. I think I already mentioned connection, right? They got to know and understand that you're a real person, and you can do that through many different ways.

14:08Management by walking around, connecting with folks on topics and interests that they have that's not necessarily connected to work. Also, celebrate wins, regardless if they're big or small. But also, at the same time, I think a good leader will create an opportunity for individuals to fail. And I think that's essential to success because you have to be able to learn from your mistakes.

14:32Obviously, as leaders, we want to minimize how critical those mistakes are, but you got to give them permission to be able to try and step out and fail, right? That's another key part. I think another one is, and this is where the rubber hits the road relative to them really seeing and understanding what you do versus what you say. And that is, you kind of alluded to it, right?

14:56Our best resource, our best assets are our people. And it's just standing in the gap for them or with them in specific times or periods in their life. That's where that real, that connection really grabs root, where you can show that, hey, listen, I see you as a whole person and not just a function within our organization. And that's huge, right? Uh, and then I think the last thing, which I think is critical because it can create unintended results, and that is fairness through, uh, being firm, right?

15:30As a leader, you have to be okay with having uncomfortable conversations, right? And most individuals have a natural, uh, affliction to, uh, conflict, right? They're emotionally uncomfortable with it, so they avoid it at all costs. So if you've got it, if you've got an individual that is not meeting standards, or performance issues are a problem, or attendance You have to have that conversation with them.

15:57And if you don't, your team's going to see that and they're going to say, well, why should I be held to this standard and yada, yada, yada if this individual over here is not, right? So everybody wants a fair playing field, right? So I think a leader that can do that is good. The other thing is that as leaders, we need to know the difference Um, between excuses and explanations, right?

16:23Excuses are nothing more than a way for us to explain away our behavior, right? Um, explanations come with information, they come with accountability and ownership, and they come with potential solutions to solve the problem. Ron, if you got a mic, man, drop it because you just brought some fire. Like everything you shared is why I believe that Limitless Leadership and MentorMentee are so closely aligned.

16:50Um, I mean, I— there's a lot to unpack here. Um, I think one thing that, that, uh, is, is very helpful is for the audience to understand the, the opportunity that we're providing to a team member when we give them permission to fail, we give them permission to be wrong. I mean, we're, we're not going to encourage that they go out and fail willingly, but we're going to encourage that they try something, they put forth effort.

17:14And if they fail, they get to learn something and they get to pivot. So, being able to create that safety, that safe place, space, and platform, if you will, knowing that if I try something that my leader has delegated to me, and if I fail, it's going to be okay. We're going to learn and we're going to grow through it. Could I ask you to unpack that specific concept a little more?

17:36Um, yeah, if I'm, if I'm listening or if I'm watching and I'm trying to think, I'm thinking like, hey, that sounds great, but Man, I really struggle when I see someone on my team do something wrong or make a mistake or fail, including myself. So how do we actually get through that process? So I think the first thing that comes to mind is, is that as I kind of identified some of the traits of a good leader, right, is emotional intelligence and the ability to control one's emotions, right?

18:10So as leaders, you know, we obviously fly at a specific altitude and there's a lot of things that we are responsible for relative to the core processes that have been given to us under our, our guise. And we have pressures as leaders, right, to perform. And we all have people that we report to or, uh, et cetera, et cetera. So I think recognizing where you're at relative to that emotional state is key because if that's not in check and somebody does make a mistake, you can unfortunately let that emotion boil over and then you can create a counterargument to maybe a culture and environment you're trying to create.

18:53So that's the first thing. The second thing is that ironically over the weekend, I watched a series on Netflix that caught my attention. And it was called The Journey to the Sandlot, and it was on, it was on Netflix, and it talked about youth sports and what makes a good coach. And, you know, parents in youth sports, how they can get overzealous and live through the— live vicariously through their kids.

19:17And, you know, every parent thinks their kid's a D1 athlete, and it just creates this tension that these kids can't make a mistake. And it's the same thing in, in business where if the leader is so tight, right, and so subject to what's going on in their own purview, that one little thing over here just sets everything off, that doesn't help your cause.

19:41So, to go back to your point, you want your team to be in a position where they can work with a level of understanding that what they're doing has a specific purpose. There's intentionality behind it. There is enough wherewithal for them to learn and grow and develop. And if they do take the initiative to step outside of their comfort zone and try something and not be successful at it, that they're going to have the permission to do that.

20:17Now, obviously, like I said, your job as a leader is to minimize how critical that is, right? But at the end of the day, if you truly want your team to grow, you gotta give them the space to grow, right? Yeah. That's good. That's powerful. Um, you know, I, I truly believe that emotional maturity is having feelings, but not letting our feelings have us.

20:39And we know that when emotions are high, logic tends to be low. And so I, I love that you're touching on emotional intelligence. Um, ultimately, as a leader, we get the opportunity to be influential. Because we have a, a perspective that, uh, a lot of folks may not have. And, and this goes for anybody regardless of if you're, you could be green to an industry, you could be day 1 or day 1,000.

21:00You have a perspective that is not shared by anyone else in, in the world, let alone your, your company. And so that means you have value to add. Your, your, your voice should be heard. Your opinions should matter. Your ideas should be considered. So if you have perspective, that makes you influential. In other words, You're contagious. You can either infect or you can affect.

21:20And if you can affect change, that makes you a leader. So my thought is everyone is a leader. I love that you touched on, uh, you shared something that I hadn't heard before— excuses or explanations. Uh, something I often share in my own coaching is, uh, there's excuses and there's reasons. They're, they're the same thing. It just depends on the perspective. Because when something occurs and someone is trying to justify or explain why this occurred or why that occurred.

21:46To them, that's their reason. Well, look, this is the reason why I showed up late today. This is the reason why I made this mistake. And the person receiving it, in their mind, they might just say, hey, look, like, you're just making excuses. I mean, if you showed up late, could we have woken up early? Could we have, you know, taken a different route?

22:04So could I ask you to elaborate on that concept as well in terms of excuses and explanations. Um, you, you touched on accountability and, and taking ownership, and I think this is probably the direction you're gonna be going in, but elaborate on that concept for, for us if you could. Yeah. So as a leader, you know, you want to have an ear kind of tuned to that.

22:24Okay. And you can tell right away if somebody's making an excuse, right? Because like I said, it lacks the accountability and the ownership piece. It's always pointing the finger elsewhere. And that's a learning moment. That's an opportunity right now. You know, I always said, you know, if you're gonna pour into somebody, the first thing you have to decipher is, is that if you use the example of a glass and you want to pour water into it, there's a specific way that that glass has to be positioned to receive what you're going to pour into it.

23:00If that glass is upside down and it you try to pour into it, it's just going to go all over the table. You'll be able to ascertain quickly if somebody that you're dealing with is willing to receive what you're trying to pour into them. So in that, you can help them understand, listen, because you don't know the background, you don't know the experiences, you don't know upbringing, whatever the case may be.

23:25And really, as our— as a responsibility, unspoken responsibility of leaders, is to help people grow and mature in life. So regardless if they stay with your organization or not, whatever influence or impact you have on them is something that can last and stay with them as they move forward. And I've had these examples play out before, and I've had people call me like 2 years down the road and say, listen, you know, I thought the day that you let me go was the worst day of my life, but I realize now that it was the best thing that could have happened to me because everything that you tried to teach me, everything that you told

24:01me, everything you showed me, I decided to make a choice to apply some of that to my new job and I've had great success, right? Not everybody's going to do that, obviously, but the excuse explanation thing, and I've had great training because I live with 4 women. And so that's really evolved my level of patience and understanding. But, you know, you need to know what angle they're coming at and you, you can help them get to, all right, is there an explanation behind why you did this or why this happened?

24:34And if they take ownership and accountability, that's growth. And, and you certainly want to encourage them and praise them for that. Ron, man, this is really powerful stuff. And, and I can't thank you enough for sharing all of this, all these words of wisdom and, and the nuggets that you're sharing. I know a lot of us can take a lot of this information away and really take action and do some incredible things with it.

24:55I love the analogy, the glass analogy, I think is spot on. And I'm likely going to steal that from you if you don't mind. I mean, as a coach, that's something that, you know, I often run into quite often is it may not be the right time. It may not be the right season for this person to receive coaching and the opportunity to hold themselves accountable, which is not calling you out.

25:14It's calling you up. It's very evident to me that you have, you are, you, you yourself are a fantastic mentor for a lot of folks in your life. I think that I know you can offer a lot of, a lot of words of wisdom from a mentor perspective. I'll ask you as a mentee, what is the best advice that you have ever received from a coach or mentor?

25:42You know, I had this, I had this chief when I was in the Navy and I've always been kind of a doer, right? Um, and I remember when I first got to the ship and I had respect for the guy, um, just because of the way he carried himself and the way he presented himself. I could tell that, you know, he meant business and et cetera, et cetera.

26:05And, um, We had this piece of equipment and, um, which is something that we use quite frequently in the things that we did. And, uh, I remember him sitting me down, I think it was like day 1, and he said, listen, he goes, uh, I'll bend over backwards to help you any way I can, but if you screw up majorly, I'll bend over backwards to get you.

26:33And, um, that got my attention right now. I'm, I'm an older generation. I'm, I'm, you know, obviously Gen X. And so, um, as, as a young sailor, um, that really set the tone for my stuff better be tight. I better know what I'm doing right. And I better, I better do it right the first time. And sure enough, a couple months later, were working on a project and I overloaded a piece of equipment because I was in a hurry and I broke it.

27:06And so he came in the shop and I'm kind of like just red and embarrassed. And he looked at me, he goes, what's going on? And I said, well, I said, I screwed up. I broke the machine. How'd you break it? And I told him and he goes, you better fix it. And he left and I was up till 3 o'clock in the morning and I fixed it and I got it back online.

27:33And I can tell you, I never jacked it up again. So that always stuck with me in the sense that, you know, knowing and understanding where my leaders were at really kind of gave me an understanding of where I could play and what I could do and what the boundaries were, as well as if I did make a mistake, the best policy is to own up to it because bad news does not get better with time.

28:00That is right. That's a line right there. Bad news does not get better with time. Right. And I, and I would add this. I, I think there are 3 primary, uh, positions in which, uh, leaders, um, lead from. And that is, you know, and again, I'll use a, a Navy analogy and I've done this with Uh, you know, guys that are like seriously courting my daughters, that sometimes as a leader, you know, you want to lead side by side, right?

28:34And side by side is supporting, encouraging, you know, um, or I mean, um, basically you're training, um, guiding, developing. You know, supporting them through connection, through whatever they're doing. Um, sometimes you, you lead from the back of the boat where they're out front, right? And that is, you know, the encouragement portion of it, like letting them kind of step out further and further.

29:03And then the last position is where you're leading from the front of the boat, right? Maybe there's something going on, there's some chaos, or etc., etc., and it's like, everybody just get behind me, follow me, we're going to go do this. And then afterwards you can do a debrief. I think through that process, they see those different leadership traits in those different areas, and that just builds that trust, that connection.

29:24So that's strong. Um, well, Ron, let's talk about MentorMentee in automotive repair. And if I'm an automotive repair shop owner, if I work at a shop, um, how can I get in touch with MentorMentee and, and what would it look like for me to get involved with MentorMentee? Like what, what does it look like in, from a shop perspective? Yeah, so essentially we are serving 2 customers, right?

29:50The first is obviously the technician, right? Helping them see and have visibility to their career path regardless of where they're at in the process. The second customer we serve is the business unit, right? So obviously we're helping them drive revenues and profitability, but also there are certain KPIs that they're looking at that are extremely valuable, valuable, like their effective labor rate, right?

30:17Um, total number of ROs per technician, um, total billable hours, right? Um, and in those situations, what we want to do is we want to be able to show them, hey, listen, there's a way to affect retention, keep the people you have, and then through that process, you'll identify who your performers are and those who are not. And then if you bring in new people, then you have a system and a process that you can put them in that's going to get engagement and then help accelerate their competency, which thereby is going to improve your effective labor rate.

30:54You're going to be able to do more repair orders per technician per day. You're going to be able to claw back billable labor hours through labor overruns because we all know that they have kind of this time to repair matrix, right, to do certain things. And so if you've got technicians that are, you know, taking, you know, 0.8 hours to do a job that should take them 0.5, and you can bring that back close to that standard, then you're effectively bringing in, you're clawing back those labor overruns and labor hours.

31:30And it gives you an opportunity to do more ROs, which thereby means you can set more appointments. The service advisors now know, you know, they can write these appointments or set these appointments and write these ROs. But also at the same time, it gives visibility to leadership within the shops to know who's good at what, because not just the technician know what their career path is, but leadership knows what's their progression, what's their competency.

31:57So, when they do the work distribution, they now have a better chance to be able to equal that out across the board. So they're not overtasking some of their more senior technicians to do BC-level work. You're kind of balancing that out. So at the end of the day, it's just a real straightforward, simple process that can have significant impact, lasting impact, and it can create a differentiator for these business units to be different than their competition down the street, and that'll help with recruiting.

32:30Absolutely. I love, I love what you shared, Ron. I think this is a fantastic resource that everyone in our industry should be checking out. Go to mentormentee.com to learn more. You can watch a demo, book a discovery call. Um, folks, this is a fantastic team, and it, it should be very evident to everyone listening or watching this episode. Ron is an incredible leader.

32:51Uh, he's a CEO of an incredible organization. And I would encourage everyone to go check out mentormentee.com. Before we go, Ron, I do want to ask you to share one more thing. You know, offline we talked, we had a great conversation and got a chance to connect more, but you talked about a chance or a choice. Can you talk about what I'm alluding to?

33:14Because I think this was a fantastic— it's fantastic what you shared. So I'd love for the audience to hear it. Yeah. So I'm a firm believer and, and I've tried to instill this in my kids as well as anybody that, uh, has been in my charge, um, as an employee or a, a junior sailor or an athlete. And that is the only thing that we're ever really afforded in life is opportunities.

33:41And those opportunities are directly related and tied to attitude and effort. So if you got a great attitude and you got good effort, then the value, the volume, and the frequency of those opportunities are going to be pretty substantial, right? So then what do you do? Well, when you get up in the morning, there's 2 things you're faced with. One is you've got a chance to do something great, and then secondly, and equally as important, you have a choice to make.

34:11Do I do it or do I not do it? Right? And so at the end of the day, you know, scripture says, you know, man makes his plans, God guides his footsteps. And that's great because through that process, one of my favorite words in the English dictionary, which is serendipity, comes into play. You find experiences and relationships through that process that pour into you, that elevate you, that prepare you for greater things to come in the future.

34:38So regardless of whatever your opportunities are today, you have chance and choice, and that's preparing you for what opportunities you're going to have in the future, which may have greater level of responsibility, greater level of consequence, greater level of reward, and it just sets you up for success. And as always, failure is always an option, and true failure only comes when you refuse to get back up.

35:04Ron, this was such a good episode. I mean, one of the most impactful episodes we've had in a long time. Uh, thank you again for being here. Uh, this will likely not be your last time on the show. So I wanna say first and foremost also, uh, congratulations. I could not tell that you were a rookie with podcasting cuz you did great, man.

35:21This was awesome. Yeah. Well, fake it till you make it. Yeah. Well, hey, fake it till you make it, face it till you make it, whatever it is. Yep. You did a fantastic job. Uh, I'd say you made it incredible on this, uh, on this podcast. This was a, Serendipitous episode for me. Uh, thank you for being here and thank you again for tuning into another episode of the Limitless Leadership Podcast.

35:43As you know, we look to transform our leadership skills by tapping into unrecognized potential to achieve limitless results. So thanks again, everyone. Have a great day. Don't forget to smile today. I see you got one more thing to say, Ron. What you got? Come on. I was just gonna close with this, right? So I really appreciate Limitless Leadership. All right. You guys develop the leaders.

36:02We at MentorMentee, we try to help develop the technicians, and I think together it connects leadership development with operational performance, and that's a sure win for success. Absolutely. I appreciate you sharing that. And as a reminder, go visit mentormentee.com. You can also check the show notes. There's a link there in the show notes for you to book a discovery call with Jen Grimes, fantastic team member of MentorMentee.

36:26Uh, so Ron, thanks again for being here. Thank you for tuning in. And, uh, hey, we'll catch you on the next episode of the Limitless Leadership Podcast.