Billy Ray Taylor  00:04

How do you win? He says, first of all, the best seniors, the best leaders, start with a standard. 

Andy Olrich  00:12

People ask me, what was my lean light bulb moment I was in some training a few years ago, and one of the first slides they put up was an image of Tai Chi. Oh no. And it had without standards, there can be no improvement before we think about all these magical things or tools or whatever it’s like. Hang on, what’s the standard? Do you have one? There

Patrick Adams  00:30

are standards that you have to live by, and no matter what level of sport you’re at, and that’s how people become really good, is by sticking to those standards, or understanding and knowing what the standards are. And then he made that shift to business where you know safety, quality, people process and how many leaders, how many organizations compromised their standards? Hello, and welcome to this episode of the lean solutions podcast. My name is Patrick Adams, and I’m joined by one of our hosts from Down Under, Andy Ulrich, from Australia. Andy, how you doing? I’m

Andy Olrich  01:12

going great, mate. Really, really, really happy to be here. Good to see you again, and really looking forward to this episode.

Patrick Adams  01:17

Yeah, no, I’m excited about the episode. It’s a beautiful day here in Michigan. The sun is shining, and today’s episode is going to be amazing. We heard from Billy Ray Taylor at the 2024 lean Solution Summit. He was one of our keynote speakers, and his keynote was just amazing. And so we took just a small little piece of that that we’re going to break down today and talk through and and then Billy Ray is going to be joining us again here in 2025 for the summit. He’s not keynoting, but he is going to be part of our executive track, which is a new part of the lean Solution Summit. So this is going to be a great episode. So everybody that’s listening in, buckle up, because we got some good stuff to talk about today. Andy, when we so when we at the Lean Solutions Summit, prior to listening to a speaker, our amazing media team puts together these cool video intros. And normally, when we have a guest on the show, we kind of read through their bio and do an intro that way. But I thought it’d be fun to just play the intro and from the from the actual Summit, and let our listeners listen to who Billy Taylor is. If they’ve never heard of them before, what

Andy Olrich  02:33

do you think? I think that’s a great idea. Let’s, let’s bring him into the summit last year. Let’s go back in time. All right, let’s do

Patrick Adams  02:39

it. All right. So I’m bringing him to the stage here. I’m going to hit play, and then what I think we’ll do is we’ll listen to the intro of who Billy Ray is, and then maybe we’ll just let it go right into the beginning of the story that he shares at the beginning, and then maybe we’ll pause it and have a conversation. Does that sound good? Sounds great? Alright, let’s do it.

Speaker 1  03:02

Meet Billy Ray Taylor, a visionary leader transforming the world of operations and supply chain. As the CEO and executive vice president of operations and supply chain, Billy Ray has executed cutting edge strategies that simplify processes and enhance efficiency, an acclaimed author, Billy Ray shares his insights and experiences in the winning link inspiring leaders worldwide to achieve their fullest potential. Billy Ray founded linked XL, a global consulting and software company. The company helps align the entire employee base around clear outcomes and systems that drive ownership and execution. Keynote Speaker Billy Ray Taylor ignites passion and drive leaving a lasting impact on audiences everywhere. Please welcome Billy Ray Taylor to the stage.

Patrick Adams  03:55

Feel like I want to clap. I

Billy Ray Taylor  03:57

want to share a story with you. I saw a coach once. He’s a 78 year old baseball coach, and everybody wanted to hear him talk he’s going to retire. They want to know, how did he win? All the time. And at night, he thought about it, and he put this baseball play. He’s a baseball coach, and they said, John Colin is, how do you win? He says, first of all, the best teams, the best leaders, start with the standard. He said, See this baseball play, if you play Little League Baseball, home plates 17 inches. If you play high school baseball, home plates 17 inches. If you happen to make it to the pros, home plate is how big 17 inches the best coaches, the best parents, the best leaders, hold to the standard. They don’t widen the plate. So let’s convert that into business. You. We establish standards on safety, quality, right, our policies, our processes, our people, but it’s not what you write down, it’s what you walk by. That’s the standard. If you don’t hold to the standard, then again, your management system is flawed. The best coach in college, Nick Saban. I’m not an Alabama fan, but I am a Nick Saban fan. Why? I don’t care where you live. You can be from Beverly Hills or Rodeo Drive in California or in Compton, one of the worst neighborhoods in California. On game day, you don’t know who’s from where, because they all follow the what standard. Now, standards are not monuments, but I tell you, I remember a story where a kid had to go to a funeral and they wanted to let him out of practice early. And Nick Saban said, Absolutely not. We have the biggest game of the year tomorrow. I mean, next week, absolutely not. And this is Coach. She says, go to a funeral, absolutely not. The kid went to practice. What people didn’t know. Nick Saban went to his office and called the police department. He had an escort to take the kid right to the airport, and then he walking right through security, and the kid was two hours earlier than he would have been had he left early. He didn’t compromise on the standard. But great leaders, great leaders have that empathy, those leadership characteristics. Often people say Billy, who’s your greatest role model. I said my mom why she held to the standard. She would tell me what you accept you cannot change, and this is what I will not accept. When I was a little kid, I used to play football. Those are my rings. I could run that football. And I use, I like to bring them on my keynotes, and I put them on so I could reminisce, right? And the older I get, the better I was alright. So let me tell you, I had a nickname. They called me. BT, express touchdown. Taylor, listen, I’d line up in that backfield, and before they could pitch me the ball to bland, played the fight song. I knew I was going to score. BT, let me tell you, my mother did not care about that. My mother would sit my brothers and I down, and she says, Let me tell you what you own. She says, Listen, I’m feeding you. I’m providing you shelter. Here’s the standard. And if you make anything less than a B, you can’t play in Texas, there is a no pass, no play rule that you can fail two classes and still play well. I had all A’s report cards came out. I had all A’s and 1f and I remember coming home and saying, putting the card going to my room, and I hear this, Billy Ray, come on back in here, baby. Oh, I said, Yes, ma’am. She says, What is this? I said, Mom, it’s okay. I’m eligible. I’m eligible. I can fail one class. She says, not in this house. She says, you’re done. I said, Mom, you’re not fair. Coach comes by, athletic director come by, even the janitor, I think, came by. We were undefeated, getting ready to play for the championship of Texas. I knew she was going to let me play. And I said, Mom, Mom, you’re not going to play. You don’t know just me and I’m going to play in the NFL someday, I’m that good mom. She says, Baby, do you know what NFL means in this house, if you make less than a B, no, ma’am. She says, Not for long will you be playing? So I go to my room. I’m thinking, I’m going to play. She’s going to compromise. Game day came. My buddies walked by. They caught the bus. They went to play the game. They played a game. We lose 54 to zero. We were favored to win by 20. And I remember her saying to me, you blame me. What you need to understand is, in the absence of ownership, comes blame. See what you owned in the strategy was making what at least a B, but you’re going to blame me, and that’s what happens in organizations. But it still didn’t register until my best friend actually was killed in a motorcycle accident, and I had to go. I flew home, and all my buddies around the coffin, and they were saying, Hey, Billy, you didn’t get back. It’s time for he wanted to talk to you, but he met with us, and he wants to share with you. We image you growing up. We don’t remember the scores this game, but we do. Understand what it means to hold to the standard, but it still didn’t register until my mom was in hospital, since she was passed by the pass away and I’m crying, I said. She said, What are you crying for? So I ready for you to leave. She says, No, baby, it’s my time, but I need to share something with you about the eighth grade. See, leadership is hard. I can’t tell you how many times I cried and I wondered if I made the right decision taking off that team. I can’t tell you how many times I thought about letting you play and it was the worst thing I would have I could have done. I look at you today and I know what the standards brings. See those great teams, those leaders set and hold to the standard these rings I have in front of me. Let me be very clear, I didn’t play to earn any of them. Mark Cuban in the Dallas marriage, when they put together the G league team, I was part of putting together, part of that strategy. My son played for St Vincent, St Mary’s. They won the state championship, I was on the board, and this one is a college class ring. So what’s your standard? What are you holding yourself and your team accountable for? Because remember, it starts with deliberate ownership. People need to know what they own in your strategy. And in fact, Extreme Ownership starts with extreme clarity.

Andy Olrich  11:28

Oh, I just took me back. Yeah, it was to kick off the day that was, wasn’t the first day of the summit. And, yeah, just amazing. The story he told, the the visual there with the plate he had around his neck, the rings, I think, yeah, the standard, right? He was really strong on and had a great leader that being his, his mother, yeah, would have broken her heart to not let him play, but he sees the value in that now. So I it was just such a great way that he brought that together. And it was pretty emotional in the room too, when he was telling the story. So it was, I remember that, yeah, all to the standard. And it was just, I, you know, being from Australia, there’s not a whole lot of baseball down here, but I knew, I recognized what that was. And he just came out with this thing around his neck. Standard again,

Patrick Adams  12:25

yeah. And you think about, you know, we apply standards to so many things, and I love that he started out with that story, and then, you know, we he transitioned into another story. But, you know, doesn’t matter what sport you play. I mean, there are standards that you have to live by. And no matter what level of sport you’re at, you’re learning how to how to stick to the standards, right? The coaches are teaching you based on very specific standards. And that’s how people become really good, is by sticking to those standards, or understanding and knowing what the standards are. And he made that shift to business where you know safety, quality, people, process and how many leaders, how many organizations compromise their standards when you know things happen, when, when you know it’s like, we have very specific standards around quality, but if we’re not, if we compromise those, if we, If we don’t stick to those, what happens? Well, we lose, we lose customers, or, you know, from a safety standpoint, people could get hurt or even killed. And so, you know, starting with that, I think was such a key part of his keynote, and then going into the story about his mother, which, again, was very emotional to think about that. And I remember putting myself in his shoes and thinking, Man, I don’t know what I would have done. Like I would have been just so broken and frustrated and upset, and to his point, I probably would have immediately went to the blame game like this, you know, telling my friends like, listen, it’s not my fault. My mom won’t let me do it. It’s on her. This isn’t me, but in reality, he knew the standard, and he knew, you know what, what, what his mother’s standard was, and for for her to compromise that, what kind of lesson would that have taught him, and what would the repercussions of that have been in his life? Right? Just like if we compromise safety or quality, what are the, what are the the repercussions of that? You know, someone getting hurt, someone a customer getting a bad part, or whatever it might be. You know, what would have happened to Billy Ray if his mother would have compromised that? What? What would that have taught him, and how would that have affected the rest of his life? Such an important concept, right?

Andy Olrich  14:42

Yeah. And people ask me, what was my lean light bulb moment I was in some training a few years ago, and one of the first slides they put up was an image of Taichi Ohno, and it had without standards, there can be no improvement. And that was where they really again, like Billy Ray’s keynote was they just went, wow. Right at the start, before we think about all these magical things or tools or whatever it’s like, hang on. What’s the standard? Do you have one? Do you walk past it? And that, as soon as he got up and started talking about that, I just thought that was really powerful. And Billy Ray, being who he is, was always around for a chat at the summit. He was always there and available. And, yeah, he definitely wouldn’t have been up on that stage if talking to us in that way, if he didn’t have that standard held to him when he was a bit younger. So yeah, no standard, no improvement. It’s really love

Patrick Adams  15:33

it well. He’s and now he’s transitioning into leadership, and he’s going to talk about some things that are important when it comes to leading. And you know, you can you you already heard a little bit of the Extreme Ownership starts with extreme clarity. Let’s, let’s continue on here, and let’s see what, what he’s got next for us.

Billy Ray Taylor  15:53

Here’s the formula for success, strategy plus execution equals results. If it’s that simple, why do so many strategies fail? They fail for this. The plus leaders don’t focus on who owns what in that strategy. And what we’re going to talk about is, how do you do that? How do you break that down? Now, I went to some remote, remote places to be the leader. In fact, I was in one complaint was the Deep South, and it was a it was stated that I don’t think they’re going to follow Billy. Let me tell you something. I don’t believe in a lot of those pity parties for myself. I don’t walk into a room looking for the glass ceiling, because my mother always told me, it’s not the glass ceiling that would hold you back, son, it’s your sticky floor, things that go through your head. So what I tell my daughter is, how you show up, show up with ownership. And so here’s the principles. When I went in there, I kept hearing, drive accountability down. Drive accountability down. But here’s what I saw in most companies. 5% of the people think they make everything happen. 15% watch and 80% wait. The best team flipped that pyramid so when you’re doing your gimbal walk, it’s around what’s up top, that 80% that go and see, and then the middle start deploying that strategy, and then you start that vision. But more importantly, the people at the top should be working on the business, supporting those people working in the business. This is that team. When I first got there, we bought them jerseys. Everybody in the plant is a football team. I went back, think it’s five years later, I hadn’t been there, and they lined the aisles with the shirts we had given them. It was better that day than it was when I was there. But the moral of that is, they owned it, and they stood there to say, just because you’re gone, we’re still here. And so why I show you that is, most companies you hear about strategy deployment are the x matrix. But at some point, once they have that strategy, strategic meeting, then it stops. It never gets to the point of impact. And what happens there? They’re not driving it to the lowest level of the organization. And that’s the key. That point about ownership, what I see in those companies when I talk about strategies and we come up with a plan, what happens in leadership? They walk out and they tell you the plan, and they say, our goal is to make $9 million and then at the end of the month, it’s $8 million so they’re $1 million short. What normally happens? Okay, everybody in the room, we’re going to stop traveling, no catering, stop training, get your ink pens out of the hotel room. We’re going to not spend money. And then your team looks at you like this. That’s your art chart. They think you’re dumping on them. So I’ve said something to you, and I want to prove something to you around ownership. I want everybody to stand up, please. We’re going to exercise. Okay, I’m going to give you clear instructions. We’re going to put our fingers up, like this little spirit fingers. We’re going to go to the left, count the three. We’re going to go to the right. Count the three, and then on the count of 3123, we’re. Going to clap. Work our bodies up. Any questions? Alright, here we go. Hands up to the left. What two, three to the right. One, three in the middle of spirit. Fingers ready? 123, now I clearly asked y’all to clap on three. Why did you clap on two? Huh? Say it again. Oh, what I just say, She blamed me. Didn’t she see in the absence of ownership, comes blame, right? But what I want to share with you, thank you. You know why I’m coming to you because you were transparent. All

Patrick Adams  20:44

right, he’s gonna get into a whole nother, whole nother area here. So I gotta pause it, because he’s, he stopped, he’s, he’s, he made a point. He said, People follow what you do, not what you say. And obviously that whole exercise that he did was displaying that where he, you know, had them clap on three, but he said one, two, and then he clapped, and everybody clapped, rather than waiting till three, which was the instruction. So the point was that he was people were following what he did, not what he said, and how, often is that the case with organizations when they’re you know, leaders are saying one thing, but people are seeing another thing. Or, you know, think it’s the actions aren’t aligned with the words, right? I don’t know if you’ve had any experience with that. Andy,

Andy Olrich  21:38

yes, definitely do as I say, not as I do, or it’s not clear. I really love that. For people, if you’re listening to this, I really recommend you watch it, because it shows that the greatest flow chart of all time, or something it said. And for me, when he yeah, there’s, I didn’t when he was talking about how there’s the strategy and execution piece and that, plus in the middle, yeah, I’ve seen it quite a lot in my career. Is there that there’s a lot on the top end of the strategy, the high up, that’s all documented and very clear, but then when it gets down to the ground level, there’s nothing really there, or visible, documented, or the other way around. It’s a bit hard to connect with the overall mission statement, because there’s nothing in between. Then it’s just never ending action plans. So it was a really powerful image, how we showed the cascading X matrixes or the deployment model. I was like, wow, you see that all the time. And what I loved about this bit here is she spoke up and said it straight away. She didn’t hesitate, and he and he went down and thanked her for being transparent. So

Patrick Adams  22:41

yeah, and we’ll get into that in just a minute. Hold that thought. I want to go back to to the beginning, like you that you talked about, because I want to really I remember being in the corporate world myself, and I remember the exact example that he gave. It wasn’t 9 million it was something different. But I remember the executive leadership coming back and saying, We missed our goals, and now, you know, here are the repercussions of that, right? And I remember thinking to myself, I don’t even think that I had any weight in whether we hit our goals or not, or I didn’t understand how my actions or my work were going to actually impact that. In fact, I don’t even know how. I don’t even know if I even heard the the goal, you know, like when it was set, you know. So it’s like there was no connection from setting that strategic goal to to me as a frontline worker or a manager in the organization to how I can impact that. And then here I am, you know, at the end of the year going or the end of the quarter, whatever it was going like, I’m dealing with the repercussions of that, the consequences of it. And yet, I really had no, no weight in whether or not we were going to hit the goal or not, or not, or I didn’t know how to do it, right? I mean, how many organizations today and how many people are listening right now, that are in similar situations where the, you know, I go to organizations all the time where people are like, I don’t even know what our strategy is. I don’t even know the direction. I don’t know where we’re heading, and how in the world can we expect them to be aligned and actually doing the right things. How do they even know what the right things are? They’re going to help the organization move in the right direction? Yeah,

Andy Olrich  24:29

that that $9 million and we only made eight guarantee. There’s a lot of people in the organization go, either go, I didn’t even know it was nine, like you said, or, well, I don’t know, there’s some massive number right at the top there, and I can’t see what makes that number up even up there, let alone but, yeah, I I’m getting punished now my training has been cut, or that salary increase that was supposed to come down the line that stopped, but I’m working my butt off, and I think I’m doing all I can for this company. And then a lot of people might put. The cord and go, I’m checking out. I can’t I’m working as hard as I can, and I’m still losing, and I’m kind of being blamed for why this is not happening. So again, it’s one of those things where people just supposed to be here, and it’s, it’s kind of, I use the example if you’re driving along the highway and there’s no speed signs, and you get pulled over, and you get booked for speeding, and you get a ticket. It’s like, well, was I didn’t even know what the speed limit was. Oh, it doesn’t matter you’re speeding. I’ve got you. And thanks very much. And you’re like, if I hadn’t known, or probably would have, my behavior would have been different if I did know, and I still chose to to put the foot down. Well, that’s on, man. I got to own that as well. So I just think that’s such a powerful example, and real, yeah, yeah, so

Patrick Adams  25:50

true. And he gave the formula of strategy plus execution equals results, and the plus was the the key, and that is the ownership. And so you know, where we’ve established a strategy, but then who owns what in the strategy? And then what are the action items look like for everyone that’s responsible and who’s who’s going to make sure that we that we hit that? And are we going to wait until the end of the quarter and then look back and go, Well, how’d we do we missed it. Okay? That sucks. Let’s move on, you know. Or are we going to have, you know, smaller, a smaller cadence of checkpoints where we’re like, Hey, we’re a weekend or we’re a month in we’re a little bit behind. What are we going to do differently? You know, as the owner, that’s my responsibility. What are we going to do differently? How are we going to execute this next month, or this next quarter, that’s going to get us back on track so that we can hit that strategy. Yeah, keys, key. Okay, now let’s, let’s go back to the story again, that, or the, the point that we’re at right now in the keynote. So everybody again, Andy mentioned it, but if you’re not watching this, you might want to go back and watch the video. The exercise is very clear. He says one thing, but he does another thing, and everyone follows him with what he does not with what he said. And immediately someone in the audience says, well, it’s your fault, and so she blames him, and instead of him getting upset, instead of him reprimanding her, he immediately is going to praise her for being transparent, this is key for the next point. So let’s listen in.

Billy Ray Taylor  27:39

I can’t manage a secret. People follow what you do before they follow what you say, and look at her response. She’s ready to come back and work with me more. I created a sense of psychological safety. People are watching you. It’s a leadership chain reaction because with leaders, here’s what happens. You come up with these big goals, and you say, this is what we’re going to do. And I do this exercise, and I pick a table, and I say, well, listen, I love giving my credit card away. And I normally say, look, I love giving my credit card away. It is platinum, unlimited. I love giving it away, but I don’t give it to people that don’t take action. But I love giving my credit card away. I love it in this metal. So I did. So here’s what happens. Watch this. He still was apprehensive. Listen, you seem like a pretty nice guy. I like you travel. Listen, I want to buy you a cup of coffee. Pause, I offered him unlimited and only one person attempted to come forward. When I dropped it to a lower $5 value, he took it without any hesitation. I want y’all to digest that when you’re talking about what your goals are, it wasn’t psychologically safe to take my card in his mind. It was psychologically safe to take the five. But I’m going to share something with you. It happens every time look behind me, he’s jumping at the bits and give me my five back. That’s how people will be with you and your organization. I never take my five back. I write on her, take action, frame it, because there’s gonna be somebody to tell you what you can’t do. There’s going to be goals out there that you don’t think you can accomplish, but you have to create that psychological safety within that’s how you change the game.

Patrick Adams  29:50

Pretty awesome. I can’t remember who it was in the audience that he handed that $5 bill to Andy. Do you remember who. That was,

Andy Olrich  30:01

oh, it was you. That was me, and that was Shane who went to get the platinum card for all of our listeners. He’s one of our other hosts that he went up there as he’s a fun guy, but yeah, Billy Ray gave me the $5 and I was, I was, I actually wanted to buy him a coffee. I was like, There’s no way you’ll buy me a coffee. And yeah, he said, Just after that, he said, take it home. Frame it, take action. So hence I have this normally, it sits up there on my on my little case there. And I got goosebumps listing and watching that again, because it was just such a powerful moment. And he was that sort of guy, like he was just, he had the talked about his two feet real. Anyone comes within two feet of him, he steps out and says, Hello, and that’s, that’s just the kind of guy he was on the first day we did a tour of Menlo innovations and Zingerman’s and, yeah, people who’d studied the guide and the summit brief knew who he was, but there’s a lot of other people who just kind of ran off the plane and were on the plane and were on the bus. Every single one of those people, he made an effort to go and see, and he’s, yeah, I’ve got that, and I’ll forever remember that. The other funny thing, Patrick, I might be going a little bit left of center here, but did you sit there? I like but what the summit was those few days together, I reckon 80% of the back of people’s heads that were in that video, I knew who they were. Like, I was like, oh, there’s Sam, there’s there’s Chad. It was just, everybody really got to know each other really well. So I just, I don’t know how you went, but I was, I was head counting. Oh yeah, no,

Patrick Adams  31:36

it was a, it was a ton of fun, absolutely. Yeah, yeah, I appreciated that last point around psychological safety. You know that that’s just such an important piece for leaders to understand and know. And I think you think about his point with the credit card, right? I offered unlimited funds, and people were hesitant to take it, but I broke it down, and I he was he moved towards you and handed it to you, and you felt safe to take it, but also he mentioned to you he could feel you wanted to give it back, right? I mean, think about that. The difference in that, you know, you if something is so big and it’s hard to understand and capture, nobody wants a piece of that. Nobody wants to try to break that down. But you know, the moment that he broke that down into a five and and handed it to you and said, You now own this. You accepted it. And I think there’s a really, really important point there around strategy and execution and ownership and psychological safety all wrapped in one, just the fact that he created that safe environment for you to accept that and then want to give it back, right? I mean, just so many lessons,

Andy Olrich  32:57

so many and for me, that moment there in the strategy or the worker? He said, Yeah, straight away, you want to give it back. Like I looked at the value of what was being given to me, and then I felt like what He then gave me was more than, you know, that I thought was fair and reasonable. I was like, Oh, wow, you’re really giving me so much. Hey, no, no, I’m going to give you this. And I didn’t have to do that either, you know, but I was just so willing. I couldn’t I was really trying to give it back to him. And I think that’s true. It’s like, if people can see the value in what they’re doing, and they feel that they’re being potentially over rewarded, or they’ve really in a good spot and lucky to have such good leadership and outcomes, most people will be like, hey, and I’m going to give you a bit more of what I’ve got too. So that’s, that’s how it works. And it’s just such a again, distilled into a couple of minute little exercise. That’s the sort of thing that the keynotes and and in particular, Billy Ray is just charged the room that morning. So I really encourage everyone to check him out and and read his book too, because that’s really the winning link,

Patrick Adams  33:57

and that was the that was the title of his presentation, the winning link, and that’s also the title of his book, which Andy has really great book. And yeah, we absolutely loved having Billy Ray Taylor as our keynote this past year at the Lean Solutions Summit. In fact, we loved all of our keynotes, and each one of them, Tilo Schwartz, Katie Anderson, Nigel Thurlow and Billy Ray Taylor are all coming back this year for the Lean Solution Summit in September. Now they will not be keynoting. We have all new keynotes, but they will be participating in a new track that we’re offering called the executive track, and this will be specifically geared towards executive leaders in organizations. They they will be they will have break their own breakout sessions that are going to be geared towards strategy and execution in an organization that is on its Lean journey. It’s going to be a great track, a good add on for the Lean Solution Summit and executive leaders will cut will come away with some crazy good nuggets from all. Our keynote speakers from last year, not only that, but they’re going to bring their teams. And you know it’s going to be, obviously, as just as last year, we have team building activities, lots of networking opportunities. So if you’re listening right now, and you are at last year’s lean Solution Summit, and you said, Man, I wish my, my manager was here. I wish. Wish my my executive leader, my CEO, my, you know, CEO was here. This is your opportunity to shoot them an invite, because they’re going to be blown away by the the value that comes in last year’s keynotes, leading them through the executive track this year, it’s probably one of the most exciting things that are one of the things that I’m looking forward to most is, is just that add on for the summit itself. And that was a request by many people at the summit who said, I wish we had something specifically geared towards executive leaders. Well now we do, and it’s going to be this September, September 24 25th and 26th in Detroit, Michigan, the Motor City. We got some great tours planned, some good team building activities and lots of amazing networking, like you said, Andy, looking even just looking at the backs of the heads of the summit, it brings you back. You remember the conversations, the just the close, tight knit community feel that you know, everyone creates at the summit. It’s pretty awesome. I think,

Andy Olrich  36:25

yeah, I just want to give you kudos again, Patrick. And because, you know, I find when I go being a CI lean professional, right? Usually, when I go along to conferences, it’s usually sort of my level, or, you know, in the organization there, and every time, like, Oh, I wish, my wish my boss was here to hear that. Or wouldn’t it be great if we could get them to go and there’s, there’s moments where we’re together, looking at the same thing, and we can kind of bounce off each other. And do you feel, do I make you feel like that? Or am I giving that to you? So I think it’s, it’s a master stroke. Also wanted to drop in there, like all of the keynotes and all of the other great presenters we had, if you’re not an executive, I guarantee you Katie and Billy and Nigel and Tila will be floating around, and they are super cool to hang out with, and you can buy their books, everything, all there. So it’s if you’re not an executive, you won’t miss out either on some of that. What do you call it? BT love Billy Ray Taylor,

Patrick Adams  37:23

you’ll be Yeah, absolutely no. It was. It was great. We had lots of lots of good conversations, discussions. I didn’t want to leave, and I think a lot of other people felt that way too. So I’m looking forward to this year. It’s going to be awesome, but more More to come on. The lead Solution Summit, if you’re listening in anywhere in the world, you’re invited. We would love to have you. Love to meet you in person. Andy and I will both be there, along with many other CI professionals from around the world, and we hope to see you there. So Andy, it’s been great, short and sweet episode, but it was, it was worth every minute of it. I was excited to share this keynote by Billy Ray. It’s something that resonates with me. In fact, I sent the this clip. This is, this is just a short clip from his keynote, but I sent this clip to my son, and I said, You got to watch this because it’s, you know, he’s, he’s a collegiate track athlete, and I wanted him to see it because it just, it’s powerful, right? So I’m glad everyone, all of you list, all of our listeners out there, were able to hear it and just listen to the breakdown by Andy and I So Andy, great to talk with you. Have an amazing week.

Andy Olrich  38:35

You too, mate. Just the last comment he made. One of the last comments there was from his mum, saying it’s not the glass ceiling that’s holding you back. It’s a sticky floor, and I needed to hear that today. Actually, I’ll just be vulnerable in the moment. Now it’s just like, Yeah, thanks, Billy. So I’ll see you next time. Patrick and I’m set for the day, mate, great to see you again