Hello, this is Corey. Before we go today's episode, I have some exciting news. I want to share with you. Think about it on a scale from one to 10, how important is it for you to get this next year? Right. For many leaders, the answer is they can't afford to miss the Mark in 2021 because of the impact 2020 had on their business, their personal life or their home life. They can't afford to miss that Mark in 2021. So in light of all the tools that we already have at our fingertips, what else can we do to ensure success? We have found that one of the biggest blind spots of helping leaders and organizations reach their full potential is misaligned or mismanaged priorities. For example, when that CEO says, it's all about the people and culture, but yet all they're ever talking about is profit.
Or when that business leader talks about working at a healthy pace, but yet their expectations, you work 24 seven. When you have misaligned priorities, your best leaders leave. This is why we're excited to announce the prioritize leader Academy. We recently launched this Academy in Cincinnati and do the early success. We want to take this virtually to impact leaders outside of Cincinnati. This mastermind will bring together a few key components. The first one is content. This 12 month program will be centered around the prioritized leader framework. This is a proven framework that we've used for years with leaders and organizations. Second is community. We all know we don't want to be the smartest person in the room. And so this mastermind will surround you with other leaders that you can learn from. The third component is coaching in between our mastermind sessions. There will be one-on-one coaching to help you implement the learnings into your personal professional life.
And the last component is this will be faith centric. We will be bringing faith and scripture into our meetings, into our content and conversations to make sure that we are all Christ centered leaders going forward. So if you were looking for accountability outside perspective, and this sounds like it'll help you reach your personal professional goals, then the prioritized leader academies for you. We launch in April, we've got limited capacity. So visit corium carlson.com for slash prioritize leader Academy to learn more as well as some upcoming free webinars that we will be having to do any Q and a to help answer any questions that you may have for this. So thank you for listening on today's episode,
Welcome to the win at home first podcast. I'm your host, Corey Carlson. This podcast is where we talk about how successful business leaders win, not only at work, but also at home. On this podcast, we will go behind the scenes with great leaders to hear stories of how they win. Thank you for listening and on to today's episode.
(03:00): Hello, this is Corey Carlson. You're listening to the wind at home purse podcast today. I'm excited to have Ross Cooley on our episode today. He's the CEO of the harvest group, which is a very neat company. They represent about every cool brand out there that getting them on the shelves of Kroger, Walmart now even target and so very neat company, but more importantly, he's even a man of high character from the standpoint of incorporating God in the vision statement, which we'll talk about later. He's married has four kids and just a very strong man in his faith. And so he's winning at work and winning at home. So Ross, awesome to have you on here today. Thank you. Yeah, Corey, thanks for having me on. To kick things off. What is that key trait that leaders need to have in order to win at work and at home?
(03:47): Yeah, there's so many that are key, but I think one that is top of my mind and heart as I've, as I've journeyed here recently is just self-awareness. And so when you think about all of us, we've got strengths and we have weaknesses. And fortunately we don't always see those clearly at home or at work. And so I've just found that some of the most effective leaders inside our business and the effective leaders in my life that I've seen them kind of navigate their home life. They're they're self-aware of what they're good at they're self-aware of their weaknesses. And I think once you have that, then, then you can build a plan to kind of capitalize on those or address them. And so it's something that I'm trying to grow in a lot right now.
(04:33): No, that's good at work self-awareness we can do a lot of personality test or we have a good sense of competencies. What about at home when you were at home? How are you aware of, of some of maybe how you show up in the room or how you maybe command a presence with your kids or with your spouse around, just by you walking in the room? How are you in improving your self-awareness?
(04:59): Yeah, thanks fully similar to harvest group in the coli household, we have built a, a great culture of feedback. And so, so I get some good feedback from Kate, my wife, and even my kids, unsolicited feedback, but then I also really try to, to solicit feedback from them. And so when I take my kids out on, you know, some time just one-on-one with us a question that a friend of mine, you know, taught me to ask. I was like, Hey, how can I be a better dad? And instead of asking them that question, you know, even, you know, you, you learned some of this at work, you know, when you give feedback with somebody, sometimes you circle back and say like, Hey, how did that interaction go? Anything I could do different next time? How did it feel like you, so asking some of those questions of our kids and then certainly, you know, for Kate and I, we've tried to build some rhythms into our year where we, where I intentionally am asking her a host of questions about how I'm doing. So that's helpful being in community. And just, you know, hearing, hearing how friends are doing it. I think builds self-awareness, you know, listening to, to, to great content. Like you're putting out reading great books, like, like you've published also helps build that awareness.
(06:15): Yeah. Well, thanks for that. About the podcast and the book. I know when I asked my kids, Hey, how can I be a better dad? One thing that they almost always say is almost like dial down the intensity of coaching, almost like pushing them for improvement, which I tend to do. And most of the time it's, Hey, just hang out, like just be a dad and not necessarily coach I'm sure it's probably similar in your house as well. Right?
(06:41): It is. Yeah. I think, you know, you put a framework out there in your book around parenting that that talks about, you know, the kids end up spoiled if they're, you know, love, but not challenged or foot soldiers, if you're only challenging them and not encouraging and loving them. And, and I think I, if I'm honest, I toggled between those, those two and struggled to balance that. And so Kate at times will be like, you get to be the fun parent, you know, taking the kids out for donuts and I'll lean into that. Right. And not want to be so intense or always coaching and challenging. But then I think, yeah, when w when, when I, when I talked to my kids about how I could improve a lot of times it's and could you dial that down? Could, could that have been a shorter conversation that, right?
(07:29): No, exactly. Cause I mean, I am I more high challenge because it is, you know, have you read today, kids, are you doing devotion? What is your vision for your life? I mean, it could get like, you know, sometimes I forget to take the coaching hat off, so, and I'm sure with you being CEO, you forget to take even that leadership hat off and, and sometimes it's just going and playing and having a good time. Absolutely. I remember when we were together, when I was in Northwest Arkansas and we got a chance to actually sit down face to face, which is pretty cool. You're really good about getting away with the family and you and Kate doing your retreats and getaways, you know, so share a little bit of what that looks like in basically those annual retreats that you guys are doing to kind of plan strategize and move forward.
(08:16): Yeah. I got this you know, this insight from, from a mentor and then also some feedback from Kate, you know, as you lead a company, you obviously do intentional thing to play in the business. And a lot of times that looks like retreats with the leadership team. And so, you know, along the time about the same time I got this feedback from, or this idea from a mentor, Kate kind of came to me, it was very convicting. She was like, you know, you spend all this time planning the business. What time are we spending planning for our family, which is supposed to be our priority. And it's like a gut punch, right? So you asked the, we, we have taken an annual retreat for probably the last seven to 10 years and it's looked different every year. And so sometimes we're able to get away for multiple days and in an overnight type situation at a cabin or, or, or a hotel kind of getaway.
(09:09): And in other times we've had, you know, newborn babies and it's been on the couch in the living room, you know, for intentional a couple of half days. So yeah, we've had to be flexible, but we have a couple of things that we do every year. So one is we take note of the blessings of the previous year and we write them down now that we have several years, the second thing we do is we just randomly pick a past year and we read them and it just brings, you know, things that we've forgotten, where we've received blessings in years past. And then we spend some time visioning forward and it gets real practical. Like what's our weekly rhythm, what are we involved in? Are we using, you know, the gifts that God's given us, we talk through each of our kids their personalities, where we see them growing and showing strengths where their weaknesses that we can help attend to, we go through our budget, you know, where are we, where are we giving charitable, please try as we try to be good stewards. So it's been, it's been really great touch point for us. And I think the thing we've added is as our life's gotten busier, is we try to now touch base again about midway through the year. Because as we know in business, things change quickly and in a growing family, our size things change quickly, too.
(10:24): Yep. And just like in a business, they do change, but we have those quarterly meetings where we review again. And so in a, in a family may not need to do it quarterly, but you're right. That mid year it's, it would also does just bring it to the forefront of what's going on. Even if you don't make any modifications, at least you both come recalibrate, get on the same page and start moving forward again, as opposed to just maybe becoming roommates where you're to just kind of business partners, raising kids.
(10:52): Absolutely. Yeah. And we have school aged kids. And so it's, it's kind of a natural, like school's kicking up the semester's about to begin, guess what? I need you home on these days on these nights, you know? And so it just seems to naturally fit that things kind of changed twice a year on that school semester schedule. So it's worked well.
(11:09): Yeah, that's great. I know for us at five capital's framework, which we've talked about before and including the book, that's been a helpful framework for our family and for me, even individually to think through how do I want to grow this quarter this year? So you had that, that was really neat that you lived that out. What is God talking to you about right now? What are you learning from him?
(11:32): Yeah. You know, I think as I look at that at 2020, and just the variety of challenges that it's done our way and kind of getting into that holiday season or reflecting back, the thing that, that I feel like I've learned the most this year is to really find my hope in a deeper way outside of this world. And, you know, as the scriptures teach us as followers of Jesus, that our citizenship is in heaven. And there's a hope outside of this world in a new heaven, a new earth that yet, yet to come. And and I've, I've known that mentally I've studied that, you know, kind of theologically, but I think this year has really created an increase in the gap between my hope for what's to come and what we have in this current world, because there's just some of the comfort that, that I had that we all had has, has been taken away.
(12:28): And so whether that's physical health that I took for granted that now, you know, it's kind of at risk for all of us, whether it's community, even, you know, kind of the righteousness of this world, as we've looked at racial inequity, you know, I think a lot of people look at the political process. We went through in our left kind of unsatisfied and, you know, their, their biggest wishes, you know, on all sides of the aisle didn't didn't happen, you know? And so there some dissatisfaction, even with just how power and authority work here on it. So I kind of ball all that together and some, maybe some idols or some comfort that I've had in my life that would've had me, you know, you, haven't excited, you know, for the life to come. I'm more excited. There's a bigger Delta there.
(13:11): Yeah. That's neat. Well, that word hope you. And I it's almost like you had took a peek inside my journal. And the fact of just, I haven't spent a lot of time here in this last, well, really a couple of weeks, I mean, even Isaiah 40, where it talks about wait for the Lord, and sometimes that can be translated and have hope for the Lord to come. And really all year a Bible verse from Hebrews talks about God will allow the unshakeable so that the I'm sorry, the God will allow the shakable so that the unshakeable remain. And so for me, that I think I was starting to put hope in a lot of these shakeable items, whether it's the idol of a busy schedule or the revenue, my business, whatever it could be. And then for the quarantine. And COVID all basically shake those things up really helped me put my hope in. What's more permanent. What is the unshakeable? So you and I have been been thinking some of the same words and thoughts that that's pretty cool. I've, I've definitely a hope has been a word for me as well. So that's neat.
(14:18): Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. It sounds like we're on the same, same wavelength. And so, yeah, it's just brought me to you. You might listen to that and say like, Oh man, like, it sounds like, you know, kind of going through the dark year, but it's actually brought about another level of worship and gratitude and thankfulness. And like you said, hope than anything. And so as the G you know, as a, as the Bible ends with the prayer, come Lord Jesus come. Like, I just, I pray that with, with greater hope. And fervency after this, this year,
(14:52): Our church has been having this big campaign right now, just a slogan where if the story isn't good, then the story is not over. And so it's a lot of like, well, you know, you and I are talking about right here where 2020 has been a difficult year in and trying, which also means it's not over yet because that's still not good. So a lot of your hope for the future, speaking of God, and a lot of those pieces when I did go into your office and saw right, when you walk in, I mean, God is in your vision statement and right there on the wall. And I think that's so neat that you stand strong on your values. Considering you have big companies that will walk through those doors. I mentioned at the very beginning, it's Kroger and Walmart now target plus all these other neat brands that you represent. And I think that's a bold move. So how was that when you establish your values, did you think I better not put that in, or how did that go through? Because I do work with a lot of clients as we put together vision statements and our core values. There's always that pushback of, well, I don't want to do that. I may rub someone the wrong way. So I'd love to get your insight and because you, for 14 years you've been having this.
(16:02): Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. It was a big decision and, and I think it certainly has the potential to be misinterpreted in really negative ways and it not intentional ways. But for me, like as we went through the process of founding harvest group, you know, the, as we crafted our, our mission statement, you know, the, the definition presented to us and the mission statement is like, why do you exist? And for us, you know, sitting there at a kitchen table with, with nothing, you know, as entrepreneurs trying to imagine and dream about this as people of faith, we, we, we came at that question from a place of dependence and just at the foundational core of who, who we will we're personally it was, we exist to serve God, you know, to honor him. And, and as we thought about including that our business for, for us individually, there was no greater level of accountability and how we went about our work from an excellence standpoint, from an integrity standpoint, from how we treated clients from how we treated teammates, man, then including that.
(17:13): And so it's, it's personal to me. And, and, and so as I've weighed, you know, kind of putting that out there and interacting with teammates and clients and folks in the community that, that don't necessarily share that faith. And it also, it puts pressure on us to, to walk in a grace filled way and to not engage folks that, that have a different worldview in an exclusive way or an exclusionary way, or in a way that would, that would be, it would, would shine negative light on our faith. And so, again, it's kind of a form of accountability. So I don't think it's required, you know, for people of faith and business to wear that on their sleeve. And I think that companies and people play different roles throughout the world. And so we're, we're just playing our little role, you know, kinda as we walk through,
(18:06): No, I mean, that's neat. You did say something. Well, you said a few things. Every one in particular is it does raise the standards. People have a higher expectation when you put the God value in there, and I've heard as you have different stories of people say, you know, you should have done this because you have God in your values and the list goes on. I'm sure you've got some stories like that. But the other thing you mentioned is it, yes, you probably have lost a potential employee board or a prospect I should say, and maybe even a client, but it's not an exclusive statement. It's very inclusive. It's just, it's really kind of on the, that person, how they perceive it.
(18:47): Yeah. It really, I think it means a variety of things, you know, to folks that work inside harvest group. And so for some people that are people of faith, like they're very much aligned with who they are and they, they, it has very deep meaning as they come to work. I think other other folks look at it and say, Hey, this, this is a company that's going to strive to do things with integrity. They're probably not going to do something that conflicts with my conscience. And so I feel good about working for a company that that's going to operate like that. So, yeah, so it means a variety of things. And so, and I'm okay with that. Like you know, we, we're an inclusive company and we want people to, to come from wherever they are in there.
(19:29): Thank you very much for listening to today's episode. I hope you're joining it so far before we go back to the rest of this episode. I want to share with you my book when at home first, some of you have read it. So thank you very much for others of you. You have not. And I encourage, if you're looking for a resource to help you with these times of your work is now in your home and your home is now in your work and what this looks like. This book is being helpful to many leaders like you whores magazine said it was one of seven books. Everyone on your team should read in the book is broken up into four different sections to help you versus about you understand who you are. The second is marriage in ideas and tips to help with your marriage. Third is parenting and the last is work. So these four different sections to help you recalibrate during this time and to help move forward. So if you are needing additional resource, I encourage you to check out my book went home first. It is available on Amazon, as well as audible and so on to the rest of the episode. Thank you very much.
(20:37): Speaking of your company, it is obviously growing. You're now going, you know, in, in, in Minneapolis. So you've got a whole new markets. You have multiple cities. So as a CEO, a husband, a father of four, now you're in multiple markets, very busy. How are you guarding your time, your day to make sure not only is it, you know, productive and fruitful, but you also are able to lead both at work and home. Well, yeah.
(21:04): Wow. That's a big question. And one that I wrestle with quite a bit, you know, I think a couple of tactics that have been helpful, one is blocking my calendar and blocking it for things like personal time with my family when I'm going to leave work, when I need to be at an event it looks like blocking time to make sure that I have the ability to think and not just respond, you know, to emails or go to the next meeting. And so that, that intentionality with planning, my time has been key. I think if I zoom out, I also try to, you know, budget then the nights, you know, in a non COVID year that I'm away from home as best I can. And so I try to be thoughtful and choiceful. I think a key strategy, you know, in our work has been to surround myself with, with great leaders that are smarter than I am in many cases, better at things than I am and be willing to to give them authority and empower them to do things that otherwise I would do.
(22:01): And so I've been tremendously blessed with a phenomenal leadership team that I trust to empower in that way. And so that takes a lot of, a lot of pressure off of that potential conflict of time. But, you know, I, I had a friend that said, it's not work-life balance, it's work-life balance team. It's a verb, you know, it's dynamic. And so try to make sure that I'm paying attention to that balance. Kate, make sure that I pay attention to that. And as I tell our people, sometimes you're going to have something come up and work is going to have to win when you don't want it to. Right. But when that happens, you need to be intentional about figuring out, figuring out how can family win during a different time and and try to get that time back and keep that bounce in place.
(22:47): Yeah. That awareness that you've got to recalibrate and talking to the family in advance of, Hey, this is a busy season coming up, I've got to travel these cities, or we've got a conference coming up or whatever it is. So these are gonna be busy. But on the back end, we're going to, it's going to be family worry. I know for us, when we've looked at a heavy schedule, whether it's due to sports or dance or gymnastics throw, when my work travels as well, it's like we're doing a staycation or we're putting in the calendar to staycation, we'll stay in Cincinnati for that weekend. And a hotel have a lot of fun. And just having that kind of light at the end of the tunnel has been so helpful for our family. So, yeah.
(23:26): Yeah. I think that that strategy has been big for me to see that on the front end and the backend of busy-ness be intentional. And so, and it's amazing how easy it can be to get a win there, you know? And so, you know, when I'm scheduling flights, man, if I can, if I can carve out an hour, you know, when the kids go between, when the kids go to school and I have to go to the airport, so just grab coffee with Kate massive. When, you know, on the back end, if it's like, Hey, you go, I want you to go away, you know, and have an evening with friends. After I've been gone for several days or I'm going to cook dinner, you know, two or three nights this week, it makes a big difference.
(24:08): Absolutely. As you've ran in harvest, we talked about those 14 years. Was there a point where you were able to release control more so to your employees or to your, those leaders that you spoke highly of them before? As I work with a lot of clients and they're balancing a big point is control like almost where everyone thinks they're more important than they really are. If I, I don't do it, it won't get done. Right. Was there a point almost at tipping point or were you pretty open handed from the beginning of releasing just the work and not having to worry about it?
(24:46): Yeah. I think that tipping point, what was more handed to me versus something that I intentionally did. And so about three years ago, our company went through an ownership transition where I bought out my two business partners. And so at that point, you know, I found myself in a, in a new phase where I'd had two running partners to kind of share that load with and, and, and suddenly I didn't. And so on the other side of that, it was really, it was a healthy thing for me in the sense that there was no way to have any balance in my life if I, if I didn't execute an empowering leadership strategy. And so we already had begun that journey, but that was definitely key point my leadership journey that, that changed that for me. And so it, it was such a positive thing, you know, for me to, to come on the other side of that and handover empower, trust, have leaders that were bought in that, that were ready and that we had great chemistry with that just took it and run with it, ran with it. And our business has done phenomenal ever since.
(25:57):
Yeah. So you mentioned it there's a healthy side, but usually before there's health there's, there's not. So you went, you must've went through that, that, that Valley, that the shadow of darkness there for a little bit where you had an unhealthy season.
(26:12): Yeah, for sure. As we went through that buyout transition, and as we went through growing pains, leading up to that, this point in time as a leader where you're trying to get your arms around everything and, and whether it's a change in ownership or your businesses growing and in our case, it was both, it, it prevents the prevents you from that span of control, that word that you said being able to do that healthy way. And so, yeah, so I think, you know, things that, that play out there is burnout, you know, lack of balance, micromanagy you know, a host of unhealthy behaviors that can present themselves. And so, as I went through that, that season of growth in that transition, it took me to a healthy place. What's a current challenge you face right now as a leader,
(27:06): Really, we, we just finished our annual employee survey where we solicit feedback. I'm a big believer that high-performing cultures and performers eat feedback for breakfast. We had 35,000 words of verbatim feedback, so, and I read every everywhere of it. And and so the, the number one challenge, you know, inside our organization for several years, actually listening to our team is the rate of growth that we're going through, preserving our culture and continuing to deliver excellence for our clients with that rate of growth. And so for me, as a leader, it's trying to, to make sure that we have, or in scale stage the leadership bench, strength, the processes, the right communication lines of communication within our organization, the training, the onboarding, all of those processes, that to your point about, you know, giving up control that as a, as an entrepreneur. And before the scale stage, you can, you can have your pulse on that. You can even do a lot of that, and we've just reached a new stage of doing that. And so I think for me, it's preserving that culture and the excellence that we serve our clients with with, with managing the rate of growth that we're going through. Oh, that's great.
(28:24): I think it's really neat as a leader, you read all 35,000 words where there there's many who don't or they delegate it and Hey, please give me a summary of the big takeaways, but it just says a lot about your, your hands on leadership to, to really get to the heart of what's going on. So that's pretty neat.
(28:41): Well, it's it, it, it was a range of emotions, you know, some super inspirational and encouraging words that you can't believe. You, you know, you kind of wake up and you go back to the kitchen table, you know, start up. And you're like, I can't believe someone just wrote that, you know, about on the other end of the spectrum, some, some gut punches that you're like, Oh man, we have, we have a big issue here that I, that I didn't know about, or, Oh, wow. I, somebody thinks that, you know, inside our company, like, and so, yeah, so it's, you have to take the, the encouragement with, with the opportunities and in some of the discouragement, but for sure as we get bigger things like that become more important for me to stay in touch. What's going on inside our company.
(29:28): What about at home? What's the greatest challenge you face as a leader right now at home. Oh man. There's several that are coming out of this, this prolong COVID right. Yeah. So yeah, I wouldn't be, let me, there'll be tick tick through the, the top ones here. So I think from my wife who is introverted and recharges alone, it is how do we make that happen? That's full of kids and, you know, our kids range from 12 to one and a half. So quite, quite the range there. So they, yeah. Just seeking respite for her. And then with my, with my kiddos, I think speaking of that age range, the challenge for me is living on both ends of the spectrum. And so when I get home from work, getting down on the carpet, playing cars, you know, my little one Laughlin, and then figuring out how do I pry my eye, my eyelids open long enough to hang with my 12 year old who wants to stay up late and do take dogs or something. So I'm just experiencing that, that age range. And in my, you know, just like had gesture leadership style with different direct reports, you know, at work, I'm trying to figure out how do I adjust my parenting style, how I intentionally have fun and connect with my kids with that, that age range that I've got home. Yeah,
(31:00): That's good. Yeah. It's situational leadership wherever you're at, whether you're at work or at home and different people need different motivations. And, and just like our kids, one thing you mentioned is rest, and I've been really working with myself as well as clients, because it's been such a hard year. How are you, or how are people finding intentional rest, not sit on the couch and just pound pizza and a beer. But instead that rest that's fulfilling, you know, to your heart and really fruitful for the kingdom. So really helping encourage people, especially, you know, just after this hard year and you know, what does that intentional rest look like? So, yeah, that's neat that you're doing that. Ross. Part of my story is where I talk about handing over my story for a greater story. Is there a moment in your life? And you may have had a few where you just felt God was calling you into something better or different, and you had to let go kind of loosen the reins of the story you thought you were building for Ross instead. It had to be more open-handed.
(32:06): Hmm. Yeah, I think the, the thing that comes to mind for me is early in our marriage, God put placed on my part, a heart for the nations and just what God's doing around the world. And that was something that I didn't really understand, you know, kind of part of my heart, my faith walk. And so there was several instances during Kate canines engagement or early marriage where we traveled overseas, you know, to various places that felt uncomfortable, that felt dangerous or hard about those trips. And, and there was a releasing, you know, in, in that journey for us that, Hey, we don't know everything about this, but we feel like this is what we're supposed to be doing. And I think when you, you, you go through some of those challenges, some of the folks that look looking in on your life, or are you sure, you know and so we experienced a little bit of that, but there's great fruit, as we just proved a love a variety of countries and cultures and saw God work through some of those travels.
(33:11): And so that's an area. And then I think another area that's just more recent as we go through 2020 is just growing in awareness around racial inequity, and injustice is been something that as I have spent time with my friends that are people of color is just hearing from their story, realizing blind spots, that I have words that I think mean one thing that, that mean another thing totally. And just concepts that I hadn't ever really dove into. And so canine, I've spent some time this year, just kind of releasing some of those, the, the, those thoughts or preconceived notions and just trying to, to grow in relationship with our our friends of color at our church in our community. And also just to read some different content, listen to some different things and, and grow our awareness. And there's been a releasing of that, of, of how we viewed the world and in some uncomfortable growth.
(34:10): Yeah. And I can definitely relate to the, the, the race piece for sure, because that's, that's been our house as well in 2020 Holly and I have had more race conversations then this year than, than ever read more books, listen to more podcasts, talk to our kids about it. I mean, so very, very similar to what you're doing and learned a lot. And there's some parts I, I, I guess, I didn't know. I didn't know if you know what I mean, it's that unconscious incompetence where I is, I just had never really dove into some stories or learn more. And so, yeah, it's been been an interesting year just learning a lot of that. So it's neat that you guys have stepped up in your house as well.
(34:56): Yeah, it's a, I think the, you talk about like the biggest story in the point of release. I think the decision we made to bring that conversation inside our company, I'm embarrassed to say it was a harder internal struggle for me, but we, we ended up doing it and we invited some teammates that refer to it along their journey. Some of our teammates of color stepped up in a very courageous way just to share their story, you know, as we went through some of the unrest that came from, from George Floyd. And so, but there was a point of release of like, okay, this, this could really be a powder keg, it's on our culture, but I'm so proud of our company in terms of how we looked at those values. And one of the most impactful team meetings we've had just people share those stories and people just growing and being open to, to learn more about it.
(35:43): Yeah, that's neat. I know in our house my sister-in-law is, is black and we never really added ashamed to say, but really never had a family conversation about it. And after George Floyd, few weeks after, I don't remember exactly when we did it, but we did a zoom call and had Ashley and it was all of us and you know, my kids and we talked and, you know, tried our best to kind of surface some of those things like you talked about. And it was awesome. It was a cool experience for, it was a hard, it was hard for sure, but it was just neat. Ross, what are you reading right now,
(36:19): Man? I I'm in a book called the hard thing about hard things. That's written by an entrepreneur former CEO now investor, I'm reading tattooed on the heart. It's a book about kind of the gang community inside LA in some work that a guy did there. That's been, that's been pretty sweet and then a lot of children's books at night.
(36:45): That's awesome. That's very good. Well, thank you so much for, for being on the podcast. I could keep asking you questions for sure. Cause I did a little time. We have spent together. I've learned a lot from you, so very neat to get to the, share your wisdom with the win home first podcast audience. So thank you. What's the best way for people to get ahold of you?
(37:06): Yeah. You can check us out@horacegroup.com and and I'm on LinkedIn under my name, Ross coli. So we'd love to connect with with your, your audience. So thanks again for having me on for you. Yeah, well you're, you are welcome. Thank you. I want to thank you for listening to my podcast winning home first. I am so grateful to hear from listeners like you, that this content has been helpful. So now I would love for you to pay it forward. I want to get this message in the hands of more listeners. We need leaders to be winning both at home and at work, especially during this time. So please take a minute to share this episode with somebody you think would find value in it, as well as rate and subscribe as a thank you, please visit my website@coriumcarlson.com to download a free resource that people are finding value in. Thank you very much.
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