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The Path To Leadership
We podcast about strong leaders, loyal employees, avoiding burnout, and raising profits building strong cultures. Everyone is a leader, but the path isn't always easy. Developing critical skills to build stronger, more successful and profitable organizations.
The Path To Leadership
From Classroom to Community: Dan Smith's Impactful Shift
Kansas City's entrepreneurial scene takes center stage as we sit down with Dan Smith, co-founder of Porter House KC. Get ready to uncover the fascinating journey of a man who transitioned from teaching entrepreneurship at the University of Kansas to creating a thriving support hub for urban entrepreneurs. With projects like small business development classes and mentoring programs, Dan illustrates how the rhythms of summer pave the way for groundbreaking initiatives that bolster the community. Tune in to discover how Porter House KC is revolutionizing support for local businesses with its innovative retail incubator.
As we navigate the shifting tides of career paths, our conversation shifts to the significance of soft skills in today's workforce. Our personal journeys serve as the backdrop for this discussion, highlighting the transition from traditional roles to more dynamic, nonprofit-focused careers aimed at giving back. We delve into the essential nature of adaptability and interpersonal skills, emphasizing their oft-overlooked importance in both education and business contexts. Drawing from experiences in higher education and human resources, we explore how bridging the gap between academic learning and practical application can profoundly impact career readiness.
Venture further into the story of the Porterhouse's inception, a testament to community-driven leadership and the power of supportive relationships. Starting from informal workshops, and inspired by mentors like Aaron Jenkins, we discuss the transformation into a structured Entrepreneur Support Organization. This episode captures the essence of leadership growth and community impact, celebrating the creativity of Generation Z and the spirit of innovation. You won't want to miss our reflections on the challenges faced, the triumphs achieved, and the ever-evolving mission to uplift Kansas City's urban core through entrepreneurial support and economic development.
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Hi everyone, Welcome back to the Path to Leadership. I am excited to have my guest back on today. Dan was on my show back in the OG days when it was a LinkedIn series. Hey, Dan, how are you?
Speaker 2:I'm doing great. It's good to be back. Good to be back.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it is so great to catch up. We were just talking before we hit record there for a while we were seeing each other all over, but you've been grinding and I've been grinding and unfortunately we haven't been in the same room a lot lately.
Speaker 2:No, this is. This is true. You know, like the summer season I don't know it seems like like spring summer to enter in the fall. You know it's a lot of work to be done because you know summer months, everybody's traveling and things like that, and so it gives you opportunity to really kind of sit down and work. So, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, I can't wait to catch up Before we jump in, can you introduce yourself to everyone? Who are you? What do you do? All that good stuff?
Speaker 2:Absolutely. My name is Dan Smith, co-founder of an organization called the Porter House KC. We're an organization created to help support entrepreneurs in the urban core. Primarily, we do that in a myriad of ways. We have a small business development class cohort style that we do 15-week thing. We have a mentoring program. We just recently opened our retail incubator, which is really cool and yeah, so we were doing small dollar grants. So this year we kind of tailored back from the grants just because we had to really focus on getting the incubator up and running. But we in the past I'd say three years we've given out almost about a half a million dollars in small dollar grants to small businesses. And also I teach. I teach at the University of Kansas, a school of business. I teach entrepreneurship. So that's been fun. This is my second year doing that. Yeah, just, you know, having all kinds of fun, you know.
Speaker 1:It is so cool and the work you do and we'll get into more of the porterhouse work. But it's funny it feels like so much lately I've been on panels, you know as an entrepreneur, and people say you know, what do you wish you knew? And it's like I wish I knew all of the amazing resources that Kansas City had. You're so naive sometimes when you go in to start a business there's just so many great resources and Porterhouse is one of those.
Speaker 2:No, I appreciate that. Yeah, you know a lot of the resources, the resource providers we don't really have, I'd say, marketing budgets. A lot of us work in the non-profit space and so it's difficult to to to line items and marketing in in any of those you know, like when we go after foundation grants and things like that. So, um, and a lot of organizations are similar to us where you know we don't have dollars to put on tv or or get ads on TV or get radio or anything like that. So a lot of our stuff is just word of mouth, social media, maybe some email blasts, things like that, but you know that becomes.
Speaker 2:You know it's a journey, but I think that's a part of the shortcoming of you know some of the resource providers because, like you said, I mean there's a lot of help in Kansas city, but if you don't know where to get that help, you know it. It it can be a little, a little more daunting. So so yeah, yeah, I think you know it'd be great if, if we all can just hit that, that that magic button, and says hey, market everybody and and let's show the region. You know, hey, market everybody and let's show the region what we can do or who we are, but until that button comes, we'll just still keep grinding.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, I'm going to meander here real quick, but it's funny because I heard a very significant, impactful organization in Kansas City talking with great pride about the big businesses and big things they're doing in Kansas City, which is awesome. I mean, kansas City is booming with some greatness, but I'm sitting in the room and I just can feel like the heat of you know, like don't ask the question in this forum, don't ask the question in this forum. But I wanted to say, like, what are you doing to really support entrepreneurs? What are you doing? And I think you know supporting the resources that support entrepreneurs is so necessary in Kansas City.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know it's interesting. Yeah, you know I it's, it's it's interesting. A lot of organizations sit at different, at different tables and different, you know they, they, they're here to to do different things, right.
Speaker 2:Ours just so happens to be, and yours too, right. Like your, your business is here to be boots on the ground, right Be in the spaces. And then there's some organizations that are, they do better at admin stuff and they can really do some great support of organizations like ours to be boots on the ground. So you know there's, we all have our little place in the space, but I totally understand what you're saying, though we could just do it a little better.
Speaker 1:That's all I'm saying. It doesn't and I don't think it's that this organization doesn't care or that organizations don't care, it's just I think it's that blind, you know that, that blindness where it's, you know, we just don't see it. So but but that's all right, okay, I'll get back on script and not get on a set box. Look. So can you tell me a little bit kind of your career journey, like how did you get to where you are now?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I have an interesting journey that has not been one straight line at all, it's been zigzag and loops and all kinds of other stuff been zigzag and loops and all kinds of other stuff. Um, I, you know, for the beginning of my career, my working career, I worked in corporate America for for about 10, 15 years Uh, and then after corporate America I left that and went to nonprofit for about five more years, uh, and then, uh, you know, kind of journeyed over into this and doing our own thing. But I realized when I was in corporate America that you know, that wasn't the space for me. I stuck at seeing problems, not being able to solve those problems and then having to do the you know the dance to to even to try to progress. You know I just it was to even to try to progress, you know, and I, you know I just it was tough for me. It was tough.
Speaker 2:So I evolved into nonprofit because, you know, all my life I've been, you know, I'm a, I'm a give backer. So if that's even a word give back, I'm a give backer. So I, I, you know, coached, you know youth basketball forever, football forever, just volunteer, ymca things like that Ended up coaching high school basketball for a little bit, and most of that is just I love to give back, I love to be able to try to stay in the young people's lives and be a positive influence of some sort lives and be a positive influence of some sort. And you know, I, just because of those things I've been a part of other organizations 100 Black Men as a volunteer organization.
Speaker 2:I served as a president, a member of Kappa Alpha, psi fraternity alumni. I was an alumni at that point in time but all these things just kind of led me to man maybe my calling is nonprofit work Right and so left there and went to nonprofit. Quickly found out that there were not quickly, but eventually found out there there were other things that we probably can help with that I could probably help with and use my particular skill sets to help with. And that's what kind of drove drove us into to doing our own thing in this business space.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah Well, and I appreciate you sharing that. It's not a windy road I talk about, or it's not a straight line. It's a windy road. I talk about that all the time because I think and I think more and more as we progress. I'm I tell people all the time, I'm proud to be 48, but when I went into the workforce at 22, it was expected Like here's your path Sit in the office, get the pocket watch at the end, and that's just not reality.
Speaker 2:No, no, and especially, you know, maybe 20 years ago, maybe 25 years ago, that was the end goal, the reality ago, that was the end goal, the reality.
Speaker 2:But now, like you know, that's, I think that's so far away from our reality now that you know, it ends up being a detriment to a person that is, you know, really dedicated or really, you know, focused on one thing, because we all know that change is inevitable, more now than ever, and so being mobile, being able to, you know, make those changes, is more imperative now, like I said, than it has ever been before. I talked to my college students up at KU and we, we, we have that discussion Like why do you think you're in school right now? And most of them are like, I literally asked this question last semester and the whole class, 19 students last semester, everybody was quiet. These are senior juniors and seniors in college. Nobody had an answer at that point and they, so they, they asked me so why do you and I'm like man, like this is allowing you to be, you know have the skill sets to be mobile, to be able to, to transcend what, what workforce is going to be in the next 10, 15, 20 years? You know.
Speaker 2:I said it's not because of what you're learning today, 15, 20 years, you know, I said it's not because of what you're learning today, it's what you're you're acquiring and you're and you're uh, you know the, the motivations to finish work and the, the leadership skills that it takes to push, like all those soft skill things. I think is, the, are, are the most important pieces to this puzzle and the fact that you can, you do, have the ability to learn, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, Well, and I think that's so important and that's something when I worked in higher ed, like I so badly wanted to create this certificate called the bridge and it was bridging the classroom to the boardroom and I got some traction on it and then we changed presidents and then the new president was like, yeah, I don't care about that, but that's what we do with the NAIA student athletes at Catalyst is, you know, how do you take the skills that you're learning in the classroom in the locker room, on your field of play and then take it into the workplace? And I think we all have the skills in us. We just don't know what they are necessarily, how to unlock them and how to grow them. But you learn those in your you know K to 12 experience and then, if you choose to go on to college, you just deepen those.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, absolutely. I mean it just, there's just levels to it, you know there's, there's, there's the levels, and then workforce you talk to folks, that these company leaders, all the time they'll tell you that the skill set that's hardest to teach is the soft skill set. The easy stuff is the technical stuff. The easy stuff to teach is the technical stuff. But those ability to negotiate, ability to conflict, resolve conflict, the ability to just kind of sometimes show up on time, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Like yeah, yeah, those are the difficult things that they always talk about. So, yeah, yeah, that's what, that's what college you know, especially junior, senior year, especially in the business majors. Now, science is a different, you know.
Speaker 1:Just, I feel like in the business space, yeah, yeah Well, and that's exactly why I started my company, Because when I was sitting in the HR chair, I was so busy trying to teach them the technical stuff that I always had a list of this type of stuff I wanted to do, but I never had the time to do it and I'm like you know what I now? I have everything, Cause I mean we would hire teachers at a local school district and they would fail because they were not taught in their education programs like those interpersonal skills, and so I mean they couldn't get along with each other, they couldn't get along with a pair of educators. So we would bring new teachers in three weeks early and literally teach them soft skills to help them be successful in teaching.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it's imperative. I mean, that's something that we do in our small business development class too. Like the first three weeks, basically, is all about, uh, that tear down and the build-up. Right, there's all these traumas and things like that that a lot of our entrepreneurs have probably been through at different times. But any but in addition to that, uh, some of these, some of our entrepreneurs maybe, you know, have have not necessarily mastered those skills of conflict resolution and negotiation, all those other things. And so we know, the first three weeks of our class is literally just that, like the tear down and break and build up and, and, uh, to try to create some, some, some fortitude to keep to push. You know, because you know how entrepreneurship is. I mean, we talked about it. It's some ebbs and flows. You know what I mean, and if you can't keep up, you know what's the point. You know what I mean, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, and that's why I love the work you're doing at Porterhouse, because it's not just the technical skills, it's the soft skills, it's the support, it's bringing everyone together. And so I'm curious I know we've talked about it before, but will you share it with anyone who doesn't know you? Like, how did Porterhouse really come about, and why was it so important for you to do it when you did?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so my co-founder and myself we've known each other for Forever and we've been serial entrepreneurs, so outside of the corporate world we would start little businesses and things like that. We actually started our first business while we were in college and it was a maintenance company, believe it or not, but we, you know we've had, we had supports back in the day. There was this the Lincoln Building City of Kansas City used to have a small business incubator down on 18th and Vine and I think we paid like 50 bucks a year to like have a mailbox and you know, to be around other entrepreneurs Most of them were older than us Printers, computers, just like a resource center, and we only had to pay like 50 bucks a year or something like that for it. And it was just amazing the resources that were provided. And so you know, kind of fast forwarding to when we first started the Porterhouse, we first of all it came out of frustration, everything you know like there's this lens of frustration, and our lens of frustration was we had Google Fiber moving in to Kansas City and there was this huge conversation about making Kansas City the most entrepreneurial city in the country and all that good stuff, and it was from the chamber and the civic council and these other other entities, which is great, which is a great, like you know, position to try to stand on. But I've come from the east side of the city and a lot of that conversation wasn't happening in the areas that I come from, and so we just kind of did this deep dive into why, like, why not, why were there so many gaps and why, you know, in resource and knowledge base and just everything.
Speaker 2:And so, you know, with that deep dive, we decided to do these speaker series, events where we invited some of our friends that were like attorneys, accountants, marketers, branders, things like that, and they did workshop style sessions, speaker sessions where they would come in and just kind of teach, like, teach those, those, those workshops in those specific disciplines, and we was free of charge. We did it every month for like three years. We literally didn't have a business plan in mind. There was no end goal. That was just like how do we help solve this problem right here?
Speaker 2:And you know, believe it or not, the reason why we end up establishing ourselves and doing more was because of Aaron Jenkins of the Confident Foundation. She actually heard about some of the stuff that we were doing and she decided to come. She came to a session of ours, through introduction and whatnot, she came to a session of ours and said and afterwards she was blown away and came to us and says what's what else? What is where? Where are we going with this? And this is before we knew what a ESO entrepreneur support organization. We had no clue what that was at that time. We had nothing. We had no clue about incubators or any of this other stuff that you know that's out here, and so it made us do a deep dive.
Speaker 2:So we learned about ESOs, not only locally, but we started doing national research. We learned about organizations down in Florida, out in California, cincinnati, ohio, and we started traveling. We actually traveled to some of these places to learn more in depth about what they do and how they do it and why they do it and all this other stuff. And we just and afterwards we came back with with what our goal, you know, we came back with a vision and so, yeah, this is. That was kind of. And you know, ever since then, I couldn't tell you the blueprint. Since then, man, I couldn't tell you the blueprint. I can tell you that we have been blessed beyond measure, you know, with all the things that we've been able to accomplish just with. You know, with the lens of how do we figure out a way to solve this problem. You know, yeah, fun times, you know hard times, but wouldn't change any of it for the world you know hard times, but uh, wouldn't change any of it for the world.
Speaker 1:Well, and, and will you talk about the space that you all just opened? I have not had a chance to get down there yet. Um, I was out of town for the, the big grand opening, but will you talk about that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so so it actually so that derived the whole vision came from. After we were doing these speaker series events, we started doing surveys and a lot of the the entrepreneurs that were coming to our, our, um, our events were like retail based entrepreneurs but they do a lot of pop-ups, right, they didn't have brick and mortars or anything like that. They did pop-ups all over the city and it wasn't consistent. You know, you can't really tell. You know if what you're doing is sustainable if you don't have an opportunity to to really like get into the brick and mortar space. So we came up with with this idea and we thought about like what if we created an incubator where all of these folks would be able to come? They still pay them like a monthly rent, but they come together, they get classroom training, they get other business supports and, you know, the hope is that they turn into brick and mortar retailers that serve in the urban core, which leads to additional workforce development opportunities for youth in the community and, you know, and adults, but youth primarily, and our driver is the social determinants of health and ours is economic development in the urban core and what we're trying to do is expand lifespans of individuals that live in certain zip codes in the city, right, and so in order to be able to do that, you have to have these things in your community to be able to continue to drive growth and longevity. And so, yeah, so this is why we kind of went on this long, long journey.
Speaker 2:We've been building for about four years and partially you know, some of it's due to the delays because of COVID happened and you know, obviously, funding and all these other things that come into play. But we've gotten here. Phase one is done. We have an upstairs that's currently being renovated. We have a small business that's going to rent the whole upstairs from us Wow. And then we have a huge backyard that we're going to put a deck back there and create an outdoor 24, I mean year-round event space, if you will fire pit and all that good stuff back there. So we just got funding from, or approved for funding from, missouri Technology Corporation to actually pay for that whole renovation. So we're really excited about getting that done. So right now we have seven entrepreneurs in house. They're in the small business development, three grow 360 class. So they've been, they've been in that and I think they're maybe in week eight or nine of that and they're. I mean, we're just, we're rocking and rolling, we're rocking and rolling.
Speaker 1:That is so fantastic and it just it's so exciting to watch this because I know we met a couple years ago and it was going and it was in the works. But I know that the type of work you do, while it's so fulfilling and you have so many blessings that are coming in, it's also really challenging to do. Blessings that are coming in, it's also really challenging to do. So what keeps you, keeps you going, keeps you? You know, in this the time gets a little hard. What. What keeps you moving?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, the cool thing about it is, you know we have good people I work with, like phenomenal people. So Miranda's our director of programming and and basically the director of everything. So we have a small but mighty team. Excuse me, I got Miranda, who's our director, and me and her do the day-to-day. Sharon, my co-founder. He still works a full-time job but he's there to support as well, in various capacities, my mom she actually helps with cleaning a couple of days a week in our space. We have the guys at chess who are our partner organization. They do some phenomenal work. And you know our families right, like why I got a wife and two boys, two teenagers soon to be adults, but I yeah all of that man, I mean, and just, you know, we keep each other encouraged and motivated.
Speaker 2:You know, there's times where I'm going through my struggles that and I need that extra help.
Speaker 2:And Miranda, you know, pushes me, sharon pushes me, my wife obviously pushes me, but we all do this for each other and so that's been a, you know, it's been a great, great thing. I mean and this is not to be melodramatic but honestly, if, if, if Miranda didn't didn't come on, you know, I don't know if we make it as far as we've made it to this point, right, just because of her support, this point, right, just because of her support, um, so I just, you know, we just got it, we got a bomb squad, um. And then the entrepreneurs obviously they motivate us, right, and it's awesome to be in their presence every day, uh, and be able to, like, see what they're going through, see the highs, see some of the lows. You know, it just, it's just, it's just it, all of it, all of it is a motivating factor. But I watch YouTube all the time too, and I listen to audio books. I got all kinds of ways that we, that we keep motivated.
Speaker 1:So yeah, yeah, well, and I think it's so great. You know the, the community around entrepreneurs and around you know the Porter house and everything. It's just. It feels like everyone truly want well, I shouldn't say everyone, that is a very large term and not everyone wants everyone to succeed but most people, most people want, want you to be wildly successful.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, we've man I can't tell you how many really great people. So we try to do this thing. Sharon did this probably like three or four years ago. He created this image, this vision board full of faces that we've interacted with or been in our programming or just you know, and we try to capture as many people as possible. So we have like this huge board with all of these faces on it. It's out in the in the main area, and we try to do Charron tries to keep it up to date as best as possible.
Speaker 2:I know we suck at it, but there's so many people that really great people that we we get to interact with. We got foundations, the folks that we get paired with, like from a foundation standpoint, like we got Victoria down in New Orleans with JP Morgan Chase or, you know, the JP Morgan Chase Foundation got Dave up in Chicago. He's with JP Morgan Chase. They both come to Kansas City to check us out, hang out with us. We've got, like I said, aaron, we have Sinead, davin, michael. I mean it's just so many people you know I can't even name all the people that are rock stars themselves but are really dope supporters of the work that we've been able to push to this point.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, and it's so great, and I think I think what helps too is you give back so much to the community as well. I know you serve on boards and you're really active. We don't see each other all the time, but I am constantly stalking you on Instagram. Um, I should say too, you're the reason why I have cool um shoes. I aspire to be you with my tennis shoes.
Speaker 2:I am. That is my. It depends on how you look at it. It's either my crux or it's my joy. I mean I don't know how. You know, if you are not a sneaker person it's probably a crux. But if you are a sneaker person person, you can appreciate the joy that I get when I get a new set of shoes.
Speaker 1:I'm just saying I know I think about you all the time when I put on my catalyst branded nikes or my catalyst branded converse.
Speaker 2:I'm like dan would be so proud of me oh yeah, we, we, uh we've been able to do some really cool stuff. Yeah, I'm on a board man board service is is phenomenal too like I'm on a board of um hogan preparatory academy, which is a charter school uh here in kansas city, but I actually graduated from bishop hogan, so it was a small private school uh back in the day, and the year that I graduated actually was the last year of the the private school, the distinction and it transitioned to charter, a charter format afterwards. But it's like a full 360 for me because I get to go back to the school that you know, that I came from and it was pretty cool when I got to be. I got accepted to be on that board. But I'm also on the board of St Louis South Hospital Reconciliation Services.
Speaker 2:So all the so the work that we try to do is like, like I said, the social determinants of health are really important to us. Healthcare is a big thing in a social determinants, so I wanted to get in, you know. So I had the opportunity to get on a hospital board, so I did that. Education is a part of those social determinants. I got an opportunity to teach at KU and then also I'm on the board at Hogan, so education is key.
Speaker 2:My wife is actually a principal at another charter school, a rival charter school to Hogan, but my little brother's a principal at another charter school as well, and so education is key and foundation to what we do. My mom has been was a social worker and she retired from that, so this is all things that are encompassed in my being. Mental health is a really big thing for us, and reconciliation services. I get to serve on that board as support. You know the, the, the, the principles that I understand to help. That's going to help the community and and help us get out of of of shorter lifespans and live longer and and more prosperous, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, when I think it's so important and and I hope we're getting away from the days of people just being on boards to put it on LinkedIn or on a resume but when you serve on boards that are so impactful to who you are and you know what you want to give back to the community, it's a gift to us as well to be on those boards well to be on those boards, man 100.
Speaker 2:I mean I get so much value from learning.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, like I got joined st luke's board right after the height of covid so I came in right when the hospital was trying to recover from from from all of the the wildness that happened with covid. But I learned so much I was like oh my gosh. So at one point I was like, am I gonna be able to stomach all of this? Like, is this, this, is this the thing you know because you know, you think, think about it. You know, when you, when you have these board meetings, they bring all everything to the board. You know, yeah, and so, uh, it's, it's really interesting. And the same thing thing with Hogan when I go to, I stalk you, stalk you pretty heavily.
Speaker 1:And I'm cheering for you all the time, but with everything else you have going on with, you know work and volunteer work and family and friends and community and everything, why teach? Why are you doing that extra piece?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I never, I would have never.
Speaker 2:I was the worst, like when I tell you Katie when I tell you I was the worst student ever of all time, like I was a horrible student and to think and you know I'm going to be honest, I'm full of transparent. My brother probably won't hear this, so I'm going to throw him out there he was smart but he was bad. So I was a horrible student but I wasn't really bad. He was smart but he was bad. Yeah, so I was a horrible student but I wasn't really bad. He was bad but was a great student. And he now he's a vice principal at a school and I'm teaching a in a college, a major college around, you know, in the country.
Speaker 2:So it's, it's really, it's really fun, it's cool, it's unthinkable. Uh, I would have never imagined that I would have been able to be in this, in that position to be able to do that, but the benefit there's, there's, there's tons of benefit. But the cool thing about the class that I teach is that it's a capstone class and so we get to do a lot of interesting, fun things. And one of the things that we get to do is we created a program where these students get to consult for real businesses, right, and so what we do is I pair, you know, I use businesses from down here in Kansas City and we pair them with our students and our students do a full-fledged you know consulting review on each of these businesses. And they do brand, know brand identity, they do financials, they do like just the uh, you know, competitive, what were the competitive landscape, like all these things that small businesses don't really have the opportunity to do? Uh, we have these seniors, juniors and seniors in college doing these things for these businesses for free, right, uh?
Speaker 2:And and when I tell you every time at the end of the semester, these businesses are all, all benefit, they've made changes and I'll tell you like some of the businesses that we work with have been like multi-million dollar businesses and they've made changes to their business model based on feedback from these students consulting. So I you know there's so many different again, like, just like the board thing, like I get so much out of it. I want to stay. I have to stay close to to learning, right, and so this is an opportunity for me to stay close to learning, because I have to make sure that I evolve as much as the students evolve in their learning as well. So it challenges me to be able to bring that stuff here like to what we do at the Porterhouse KC, you know.
Speaker 2:And so yeah, it is. It is cool. You know I get to carve out time in the weeks to be able to do it. I get to carve out time in the weeks to be able to do it. Mondays and Wednesdays at 8 am is my class. Next semester it'd be Tuesdays and Thursdays at 8 am. Didn't realize I loved it as much as I did because last semester was like 2 in the afternoon. Oh, I love 8 o'clock in the morning. Now there's easy parking, there's less traffic. Oh my gosh. O'clock in the morning now there's easy parking, there's less traffic. Oh my gosh, it's so much better.
Speaker 2:So much better.
Speaker 1:I love that you know you're getting older when you celebrate, starting earlier in the morning so you can get parking.
Speaker 2:I get up at five o'clock anyway, like that's just the normal, and so I'm like, why not? I'm like at two o'clock, I'm, I'm, I'm wearing down.
Speaker 1:Right, oh, my gosh, that's so fantastic. Well, and I, you know, keep telling people like I'm on a mission to, like, celebrate Gen Z and to let you know the workforce know, and organizations know, like, don't be afraid of Generation Z. Like, yes, they need to learn some things, they have some challenges we all did when we were 20 to 25 to 30, but they are so innovative and creative and phenomenal We've got to celebrate what they have to offer us.
Speaker 2:That's a really great point and I, you know, I want to just to chime in on that too. You know there are so many like when you become quote unquote when you become an adult, we I don't know what happens Like we feel like our childhood didn't happen Right, or like we were fully put together when we were 17, 18, 19, 20, up to 23, 4, 5. Like, like at 25, I definitely didn't have life together. But we're looking at these 25 year olds like, oh my gosh, what are you doing with your life? Right, like, what? Like, where did this judgment come from? Right, but when we become, like you said, said 35, 40, and we start to mature a little bit and we understand, understanding life a little better, we look at them like what are you doing with your life? Like, no, like that's not how this thing works. Like, yeah, they're trying to figure it out.
Speaker 1:Like we were right, you know, right I I know that is a soapbox that I am constantly standing on because I think you're right, we have forgotten how young and dumb we all were, or we maybe don't want them to repeat it, but we're not doing it in a way that's constructive and supportive of them.
Speaker 2:Right right.
Speaker 1:Well, I appreciate you so much. I asked the final question. I ask of everybody and I think it is a beautiful bow for the conversation we have had today but to the level you're comfortable sharing what's the biggest leadership or career misstep you've taken?
Speaker 2:Hmm, I think the biggest misstep that I've taken was not believing in myself sooner. There's so many like you know and you know this as an entrepreneur like on the outside, we want to make it. You know, you want people to think you're well put together.
Speaker 2:You want people to feel like the business is the greatest business in the world. You want to make people feel like you have all the answers, but the reality is we don't. And I didn't learn that until I was like maybe thirty five, thirty, thirty, thirty, forty five, so about ten, a little over less, a little less than 10 years ago, 10, a little over less, a little less than 10 years ago. And so, yeah, I wish I would have realized those things earlier. And you know, like when I was in my twenties, that would have been awesome. Realize that. You know, not everybody's perfect. And when people start to try to, you know, uh, implore you to be this way, to not listen to that. You know what I mean. Yeah, yeah, just believing in self self-belief is a huge thing, and I wish I would have had that earlier, earlier on. Yeah, but we have it now.
Speaker 1:So that's right. That's right. Well, I thank you so much, so I will put your contact information, all that good stuff in the show notes. But how can someone support, connect? You know, just stay in touch with what you're doing.
Speaker 2:When people come to you and they're like how can I support? And it's like I don't. I mean like sheesh, how are we filled? You know suited to do so? I don't know, but no, you we can. You know we have a website, the porterhousekccom. All our social channels are the porterhousekc, just you know. Just come by, you know we're here, introduce yourself. We love meeting new people and so things evolve from that. But we love developing relationships and new relationships. Like, we don't like transaction, we like we like relationships. So just come by, introduce yourself, yeah.
Speaker 1:Go see, go see shop. The entrepreneurs support the work that they're doing. That gives back to everyone. Well, thank you so much for your time. It is great to reconnect and hopefully, sooner rather than later, I'll get down to to see the new space and and we can grab coffee or something soon.
Speaker 2:Come on down, come on down.
Speaker 1:All right. Well, thank you everyone for joining me on the path to leadership, and I will talk to you next time. Bye everyone, thank you.
