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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
Navigating Entrepreneurship and Leadership in Kansas with Josh Shorter
Join us for an insightful exploration featuring Josh Shorter, COO of Integrated Components, as he unfolds his inspiring entrepreneurial journey in the challenging world of aerospace manufacturing. Founded by his father on September 11, 2001, a pivotal and challenging time for the industry, Josh shares the evolution of the family-owned business in Wichita. Through his personal anecdotes, we gain an understanding of how his early years in the shop laid the foundation for his leadership role today. We also appreciate the dedication and balance between his work and family life, accentuating the core values that drive his success.
Our conversation broadens as we dive into the profound impact of the Leadership Kansas program on personal and professional growth. Together with Josh, we delve into the nuances of building meaningful relationships across the state and tackling important local issues like water availability, employment, and energy resources. By fostering a strong professional network and embracing lifelong learning, the episode showcases the power of community and leadership in overcoming challenges and seizing opportunities throughout Kansas.
In addition to leadership, we shine a light on the vibrant manufacturing landscape in Kansas. As the chairman of the Kansas Manufacturing Council, I share my passion for the diverse sectors that fuel the economy and create opportunities for a skilled workforce. Through the lens of my son's journey into aviation mechanics, we explore evolving perceptions of education and career paths, emphasizing the rewarding prospects within manufacturing. We wrap up with a heartfelt segment on the priceless experiences of parent-child bonding through travel, underscoring how these shared adventures enrich life far beyond material possessions.
Follow Catalyst Development on LinkedIn @catalystdevelopment and @drkatieervin
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Theme music by Emma Jo https://emmajo.rocks/
Welcome back to the Path to Leadership. I am so excited for our conversation today and I have to warn you, this is truly one of my favorite people from Leadership Kansas and Lord knows where this conversation is going to go. So you guys just stick with us today. Hey, josh, how are you?
Josh Shorter:Hello Katie, we're going to have a great time. I know and I won't tell anybody else, I'm your favorite no-transcript the right time of year for golf but I'll do it, but it's hard to find people to play with you this time of year.
Dr. Katie:It's supposed to be 60 on saturday. So, spoiler, we're recording this in december. It's going to come out in january, but yeah, as long as the ground's not frozen I'm in. Perfect, I'm with you. Well, so before we get into all of the fun adventures we had this year and everything, can you tell everyone who you are, what you do, all that good stuff?
Josh Shorter:Sure thing In true LK fashion. Josh Shorter, wichita, integrated Components is my business. We're a small parts manufacturer and assembly manufacturer that deals mostly in the aviation industry but also some space, military recreation. We do a little bit of dragster work, some work in the entertainment industry, do some stuff for roller coasters and carousels, but mostly aviation, mostly metals and stuff that fits, you know, inside of probably a 12 by 12 by 12 box most of the time. But we kind of do anything tail to nose. We specialize in gear work and then we have a couple of other specialty markets that we kind of deal and we're known for being kind of doing difficult parts that other people don't like messing around with. So we've kind of carved out a little nice thing going on here.
Dr. Katie:That's awesome. Yeah, those niches really pay off.
Josh Shorter:They do. They've helped us through a lot of tough times.
Dr. Katie:Yeah, so your role there, your COO, so how did you get there, like talk about your career journey?
Josh Shorter:Sure, so it started. My dad owns the business and we were founded on September 11th of 2001, which is not a great day to start an aerospace manufacturing business, but literally he was buying his first machine, came out to the news of the first plane hitting the trade tower and we just started going from there. So what we thought was going to be a nice business plan and had everything lined up ended up being a lot more uh, he, uh, uh. As we talk about it, I just I admire my dad and his work at work, ethics so much that, um, but he just really it's just hard work. I mean, it was just sheer bootstrapping hard work 23 and a half hour days just to make it, to make it go, and so at the time I would have been 11, something like that. And so over the summer, when school was on break, I thought it was fun to go down and kind of work in the shop. And then, as I moved into high school, it was going after football or golf practice or whatever else. Extracurriculars I was doing, whether it was musicals or band or debate, going and working as much as I could in the evenings, on the weekends again summer break and then the industry started requiring some kind of certifications and more control over processes about the time I was in college and so literally I started this role, basically by saying, hey, instead of trying to catch up on where our vendor's on time, instead of trying to catch that up two weeks before our yearly audit, why don't you let me take five or 10 minutes a day and record it every day?
Josh Shorter:Then we don't have to try to recreate everything. And then that just grew into okay, if I'm doing five or 10 minutes of this, why don't I do five or 10 minutes of this? Why don't I do? It'll take me 30 minutes a day if I do this. And then I just kind of created this job. That then, as we grew, just kind of created this job. That then, as we grew, um turned into a full-time. That became my job. I left the floor I haven't really been in production for years, um, on the on the floor itself, um but it was just kind of an organic growth that, as we grew as a business and needed that oversight, it just was a natural progression as I was going through college and to move into that kind of a role.
Dr. Katie:Yeah, yeah. Well, and you know talking about entrepreneurship and I know your undergrad is entrepreneurship and I mean it is such a journey to get to that I can't imagine what your dad was going through. First of all, I know you're a baby, but then when you say you were 11 on 9-11, because I was pregnant with my son, actually my nephew was born that day, so you're such a baby, but what a journey that had to be for your dad to be like okay, well, we'll figure it out.
Josh Shorter:It's amazing and tying two of our favorite things together family and business, and trips. I was just with my parents and one of my daughters at Disney World last week and I pulled my dad to the side and I said thank. I said thank you for all the hard work that you did so that I can have these experiences with my kids. You know, and um, because it was, it was really really tough, yeah.
Josh Shorter:And and he was always there. He was at every band concert, he was at every football game and he worked 23 hours a day and it, just it, it he's, he's my hero.
Dr. Katie:Yeah, oh, I love that it and and I love it it. This sounds crazy to say, but I love how much you love your family. Like I know, rob and I always tease people here in our house, you know we'll, we'll tell people like we love each other and all that mushy stuff. Like we really like each other and we like our kids and we, we love our family and you're, you're so similar in that, in that you, you just go all in with them.
Josh Shorter:Yeah, we get along really, really well and, um, we do a lot of extracurricular stuff but, um, I think a big um, a big thing that he kind of taught me that has helped us to keep a good relationship is that being in a family business and at one point my mom worked here and some other family members, we didn't take work home. Oh, yeah, yard work or whatever else is going on, and you know, it's just such a natural thing, even in conversation with anybody you know how's?
Josh Shorter:work going, what's going on, you know, are you staying busy? And those were conversations because we're here with each other. You know hours and hours and hours a day. It's stressful enough to do it here. We, we, uh, we. You separated that and so we had a a really good um relationship at home. We have a really good relationship working together and um, and it just was. It's created that family, um, real strong family tie like you're talking about.
Dr. Katie:Yeah, yeah, it is just. It's so cool and you know, through our leadership Kansas time, I mean, we talked about all of that and and it's been so fun because I've had so many of our classmates on here and I'm working through getting everybody on. But can you talk a little bit about what this experience was?
Josh Shorter:We've since graduated but what the experience was for you and just reflect on a little bit. That is such a great question and I spent a lot of time after graduation really reflecting on that, Because you know you talk to people. I've been involved with the Kansas Chamber for a number of years and so I've always heard of leadership Kansas and I've known people that have gone through it and they've always said you know you really need to do it, it's really good, it's a great program and even when I was in, it was one of the most rewarding and hardest things the amount of time that we had to spend away from home.
Josh Shorter:Um, when I calculated the numbers out of how many nights we spent in a hotel and, and, uh, seven or eight months, um, but man, the things we learned. And then also just the Thirty nine people in a bus and I don't know, probably you put all of us in a room. You know what five of them would be, people you'd normally hang out with. Yeah, man, I love all thirty eight of you. Yeah, and it just so you combine all of that together and connections across the state, anywhere you travel. Now you think, oh, I got to call this person for coffee because I'm going to be in going on in the state, whether it's struggles or or victories, or questions, or improvements, or I mean, we just got so much going on in the state of Kansas right now. That is, it's really something to be proud of. As a Kansan born and raised, lived here my whole life, it's just really there's a lot to be proud of what's going on in Kansas right now.
Josh Shorter:Yeah, but it's hard to put into words what leadership Kansas is.
Dr. Katie:I know, I know I had to, because you know I'm really diligent in posting on social media and sharing experiences and things like that and things like that and I mean I really just had to sit with the whole experience for like two to three weeks afterwards, cause it's like I don't even know how to digest everything that we truly experienced, cause it was, it was so impactful, yes, and we saw so much and, like I didn't know where Dodge city was. So I mean, there's some basic things like geography, but then even deeper things, like now I get so much joy when I see that it is raining throughout Kansas, because I never thought about the water tables and the impact of water in Kansas.
Josh Shorter:Yes, and how it's different in different parts of the state. You know how it's impacting western kansas, different than eastern kansas and, um, yeah, and the common themes of things that are struggles, the um, you know, employment issues, or the regulatory burdens, or the water availability, energy availability for some of the advanced manufacturing that we're trying to bring in. You know all this stuff and it's it's universal. We are Kansans and these are our, our issues and our successes and our pride, and it was just, it's an amazing experience. I'd recommend it to anybody that's willing to put in the work to do it yeah.
Dr. Katie:My husband would always say you're such an extrovert, how are you so tired after all of this? And I'm like you just don't understand. Like it's, it's an intense two and a half, three days and then you throw in some golf in there and some some evening activities.
Josh Shorter:I won't mention any names, but Tony saying hey, just one more turns into just one more. 1.30 in the morning is late when you're getting up on the bus at 7.
Dr. Katie:I would tell everyone I'm a day drinker, so I'm 48 years old. I'll see you guys in the morning on the bus.
Josh Shorter:Man, amazing times, lots of great memories, and I'm glad to have a breath, you know, to be able to sit down. I'm not planning on taking an LK trip in December but, man, I think January I'd probably be ready for one.
Dr. Katie:Yeah, yeah, we're going to have to figure it out. We were already talking before this. We got to figure out a cruise or some kind of big trip, maybe golf or something with everybody.
Josh Shorter:Yeah.
Dr. Katie:Well and so when people hear Leadership Kansas, they probably think you know leadership development skills. The work I do is all about leadership development skills. So how do you continue to grow your leadership skills Like? What intentional work do you do?
Josh Shorter:So I like to seek out people who know more than me. I had a professor in one of my very first business classes at Wichita State and he said it's more important to know what you don't know than it is to know what you know. And so I think that for me it's just, you know, for lack of a better term, continual education surrounding myself with people like the opportunities like Leadership Kansas gave me, and that's, you know, that's a big example, but being a part of other boards or just friendships with people that are really good at what they do, trying to soak up the information. And then, you know, there's a million books out there about leadership. So, you know, I'm trying to constantly, I try to throw in one every couple of, you know, either fiction or history books. Okay, let's do one about leadership or business and trying to develop, you know, trying to develop a culture here where people feel appreciated and they, but also where they're held accountable, and you know we can get a good job done.
Dr. Katie:Yeah, yeah, yeah, I love that. I love that Well, and you're so passionate about you know the work you do and about Kansas and, in particular, manufacturing. And here's a fun thing that has happened in the urban house in the past two weeks is my son has decided he's going back to college to get his A&P certification, so he wants to be an airline mechanic, which is so important you know all around the world, but especially in the state of Kansas. So can you talk a little bit about you know why you're so passionate about manufacturing work and the stuff you're doing to, not just in Kansas but around the region, manufacturing work and the stuff you're doing to, not just in Kansas but around the region.
Josh Shorter:Yeah, um, it starts as just uh, I mean, I got to grow up around it, you know, and it was, it was. It's just cool seeing something come in as a you know a block of nothing and go out as something that um, you know, a few times in our LK uh, experience, we got to go to places and I was able to point to parts that my company had made on airplanes, you know, that's so I, I mean, I think at the very basic it's that um, but that's led into some pretty cool opportunities and I'll I'll throw a plug in now. Um, I'm currently serving as the um I think it's technically the chairman of the Kansas Manufacturing Council through the Kansas Chamber. And you know, in our day-to-day lives, I think, a lot of times, especially, you know, for us, we're producing a product. It's easy to think, it's easy to get caught up in your own circle. It's easy to get caught up in your own circle. But you know, in the state of Kansas we've got food and beverage manufacturing, we've got automotive, agricultural, medical, pet food and supplies. We got to experience a lot of the animal health corridor that's in Kansas but we do. A lot of the extruding machines that make pet food are manufactured in Kansas and then shipped out. We have chemical plants, we have technology plants, like we got to see, and some that are coming online. So just the breadth of things that are being manufactured inside of Kansas is really remarkable.
Josh Shorter:The manufacturing output in the city of Kansas in 2021, I think was the most recent numbers I saw was over $30 billion. That accounts for almost 15% of total Kansas GDP. 15% of total Kansas GDP. 175,000 people in Kansas are employed in manufacturing, or like 12% or 13% of the workforce. 86% of Kansas exports are manufactured goods. I think that number was like 12 billion that manufacturers exported. And then you know, as it relates to, like your son, the average compensation is over $70,000 a year, and so when you combine all that together, it's just so important for our economy, for our security, for our as we move forward, and it's given us the opportunity. We got to see Panasonic. We're seeing some other chip manufacturers, battery manufacturers coming into the state and there we got to see cheese manufacturing coming online, and these are thousands and thousands of jobs that help the tax base, that give our kids an opportunity. I'm at five daughters that I'm hoping at some point are all productive members of the Kansas society. I don't want to move in a way you know Right.
Josh Shorter:It gives everybody the opportunity to live here, which is where you know, I think that we're one of the best places, if not the best place in the country to live. Um, and it just provides such, uh, such great opportunities for for my generation and the generation that's coming in after me. Um, what concerns me is the age of the, of the workforce and manufacturing um, across the board, across the country. So I was excited to see a lot of the, both with the chamber and then with LK, a lot of the stuff that we're doing with colleges, community colleges, trade schools, but also then partnering with businesses that are saying if you come here, we'll help train you and you know, you can make a really good living If you're. If you don't, you know, some people want to be a doctor, right, some people don't want to go to another day of school, right, you know. And there's there's opportunities across the whole spectrum inside of this industry, and I don't think I don't know that people across the whole state understand how vital manufacturing is to our economy.
Dr. Katie:Yeah, yeah, it's massive. And you know I openly talk about. You know, my son went to college because that's what everyone expects you to do, even though I'm like what are we doing? Like you hated K-12. Why are we fooling ourselves? And he was a COVID grad, so there's all kinds of complications there, and so he dropped out of college, which I'm like, thank you. Why let's not play these games? And so when he came back and said I've been exploring this and I want to do it, it's like you know the, the motivation and the pride and everything. He's so excited and it's all the places we went and saw people working so hard. They're doing such great things and there's such opportunity around it and they're not. I mean, yes, there's some lower paying jobs, but there's some really great paying jobs in all of the manufacturing.
Josh Shorter:Absolutely, and we got to see that with. Well, we were talking about A&P mechanics in Topeka when we were there last and you know they're wanting to stand up that program and how much you know six or $8 million, I think, to put up an A&P program. But, and I think the important thing to remember is, obviously neither of us are opposed to college. Love it. I mean, I've got an advanced degree, you've got an advanced degree, um, and that's great and if that's what you want to do, but I, I I'm afraid that we've gotten that. We're almost. Maybe we're coming away from this a little bit. We've got to the point where that's expected and um it. It's just nice for I think for some kids to know and maybe we even talked about a little bit that, okay, so you go do a manufacturing job for 10 years and then you decide, no, I do want to go get a college degree.
Dr. Katie:Okay.
Josh Shorter:But don't do it just because you feel like you have to. There are other options available. But yeah, I mean, education is great, but but just doing it because that's what you're supposed to do, I think it's disenfranchising a lot of our kids.
Dr. Katie:Yeah, yeah, I know I tell people all the time like I've been to the pinnacle, I love education. There's still this itch in me like, yeah, I have a master's and a doctorate, but maybe I need an MBA, like there's still that itch in me because I love that lifelong learning. My daughter, who's 20, is like not getting married till I have my doctorate, like it's so important for her but it's just not for everyone. And that's one of the things I did love about LK was seeing all of these opportunities and then, as I shared them with my son, who has always loved airplanes, it just got the wheels turning into.
Josh Shorter:Oh, I'm gonna start doing some, some research and figure this out and they need airplane mechanics everywhere, anywhere that people are flying, yeah, you could be. You could you have a job anywhere you want to? Yeah, and um, which I'm sure you wanted to stay a mile from home in Kansas city, but uh, you know he gets to make that choice, I guess.
Dr. Katie:Yeah, no, I think. I think he's going to probably end up either in Kansas city or Wichita, which two of my favorite places, so I don't mind either of them. So we'll just we're holding our breath to see how this ends up, for sure. Well, and you know, we talk about family so much and, and you know, love for work and our communities, um, and it's, it's just a lot, your five daughters, uh, all of the travel that you do. So can you talk about how you balance all of these responsibilities and make sure that you you talked a little bit about not talking about work at home, but how do you handle all of that?
Josh Shorter:Therapy. Fair enough. Um, my therapist tells me I don't do a very good job. Um, no, I'm just kidding. Uh, um, and he's helped me with that.
Josh Shorter:No, I think that one of the things that's been really cool about being able to be part of a family-owned business is it's given me the opportunity to have some freedom, to be a part of things that I wouldn't have otherwise normally been exposed to, whether it's with the Kansas Chamber, the Wichita Chamber and then some other groups that I've helped out. A lot of it is I have a really supporting wife. I always I steal one of Jim Gaffigan's jokes whenever I tell people I have five kids, and I think I probably said it to you the first time I said it is exhausting watching my wife take care of them all. But so, having a supportive wife and and who is smarter than I am, and so I can, I get to go home and I get to say, hey, we're dealing with this issue, or the community seeing this, or I'm involved in church, the church is seeing this, um, and being able to to have some back and forth with her, and um, I think it's just a lot. You know, you find time to do the things you're passionate about and um, september 11th impacted me.
Josh Shorter:I was at the right age for a lot of different things, but I also was able to get pretty connected with our congressman at the time and we're still great friends now. And um, so the idea of civic responsibility, and, and then you know, you have kids and you're like, oh, I really do want, um, this stuff that was cerebral. No, I really do want a better city or a better state in 15 years. Yeah, uh, because that's when my grandkids are going to be coming into the, you know, coming, coming around, and and um, it's just, you know, that's uh, that's a really important. You want to leave it better. Hopefully, you want to leave it better than you found it. Yeah, you know, um, so I think that it's probably just a, it's a, it's a passion, and you find you find a way to make it work.
Dr. Katie:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, and one of the things I love so talking about your five daughters and I wish I would have of course, you were just a baby when I was having my babies but one of the cool things you do with your daughters is you take special trips with them. So can you talk about that tradition that you do with them and how that? I just I think anyone who's listening steal this and start it with their own family.
Josh Shorter:So the way it started, um, or the way the idea came about, my wife and I we were first married decided that we were going to. We had two travel goals and it was a way to get us exposed to a lot of different places. Instead of, you know, we went to New England on our honeymoon. I love New England. I could just go back to New England every year, yeah. But what we decided was we were going to try to make it to every state capital and we were going to try to go to every Major League Baseball stadium, and we're almost there on both. But after we'd gone, probably in the first two or three, the first year or two that we'd been together, we'd gone to a few of the baseball teams and I'm a Cubs fan, and Wrigley was one of the first places we went.
Josh Shorter:And so I thought to myself and then I communicated with my wife. I said what I want to do if and when we have kids. When they turn 10, which I figure was an age that I could be I could have them in a hotel room. They can take their own shower, get their own clothes. Yeah, you know, a little less needing for me, but they'd be old enough to remember it really well. So I said, when they turn 10, I'm going to take them to wrigley one-on-one. And as we started getting closer to my oldest daughter being 10, I had this realization. I don't know, um, if anyone listens to this and says it was their idea, I will give credit. Maybe someone challenged me, um, but I had this realization that that trip wasn't for them, that trip was for me yeah, and I realized, oh no, this really is supposed to be about them.
Josh Shorter:So I changed to. I decided, okay, when they turn about eight we start talking about it. And I told them they could go anywhere they want to inside of the united states. Well, that was the idea, um, so my first daughter always knew what she wanted, I mean from the minute that we started talking about it. Um, we are huge billy joel fans. Shout out to heath as one of our lk guys, bill bill Joel is Heath and my favorite, and we listened to Billy Joel on vinyl a few times a week and the girls all love them. Uh, I think probably in.
Josh Shorter:Uh, oh, maybe three years ago I took the oldest two um on a baseball trip. We saw him in Detroit and that was their first concert ever. And I told him I said I really did you a disservice by your first concert being Billy Joel, because you're not ever going to be able to top it. So then the next year he came to Arrowhead, kansas City, and we went and saw him up there. But my oldest daughter, from the minute that she realized what we were doing, she said I want to go see billy joel at madison square garden at christmas time and I said, okay, let's go, and luckily we were able to take the trip last year before. We can't, uh, before you stop doing his uh residency there.
Josh Shorter:We spent a week together in new york city at christmas. We went by the Rockefeller Tree a dozen times, she got to ice skate in the park and we saw a couple shows on Broadway and it was a really, really cool one-on-one time. The next one's coming up in March with my daughter number two and girl after your own heart, she chose a Disney cruise. Yes, so we're going to the Caribbean in March with my daughter number two and girl. After your own heart, she chose a Disney Cruise. Yeah, we're going to the Caribbean in March, and then she's. It took a lot of effort on her part to convince me to go to Disney for a couple days while we were down in Florida, but so we're doing that in March. And then I started having the conversation with daughter number three, who I think is probably at this point. She'd probably just prefer 10 days at Disney world.
Dr. Katie:But you know I.
Josh Shorter:I just it's a good opportunity, as they're kind of coming into maturity. Of course I didn't expect, or didn't? I didn't have any expectations, but I didn't. That's what I think it was going to be. All girls either, you know, um, uh, but it just gives. In a big family they like having one-on-one time, um, and so we try to do. You know, that's the big thing, but I also try to do one-on-one trips to the grocery store, or, um, I've got to go run an errand to Lowe's, do you want to come with me? Or hey, we've got to go do something out in the barn, or I need you to come out and help me, and so we just love spending as much time. My dad and my grandpa really they didn't necessarily do kid things, but they always included us. If they were building a deck. We were, you know, four years old. I was, quote unquote helping yeah.
Josh Shorter:I realize now I really wasn't. No, I really wasn't, but it was important to have that relationship with them and build those connections. And I'm able to use it. I'm a perfectionist and I see some of those tendencies in some of my kids and so I'm able to intentionally sometimes screw up and then we get three or four steps down the path and then I can show them it's. You don't have to get upset, we can just undo it and redo it and um it just. There's a lot of life lessons that can be learned whenever you're uh, that need to be learned when you're spending time with your kids and um and uh. And then it also gives me the opportunity I could. You know my wife always gives me a hard time that I I could eat like a eight-year-old. So it also gives me the opportunity to uh, to do things like I just took a kid to disney, maybe for me right, right, but I got to take her along and say we were going. You know I was taking her. So it works out all the way around.
Dr. Katie:Yeah, yeah, I love that and for our family we have. It was probably about the kids were probably seven and nine and you know it was like Christmas was just over the top, it was just too much. And that was about the point where I was like we're going to lean into experiences as opposed to things, and as they get older, things get more expensive. So it's like we would rather you know, the following year we went to Europe for New Year's in London and Paris, and those are the things they're really going to remember.
Josh Shorter:Absolutely, and we had that same epiphany. Speaking of Christmas, we had that same realization. We have two very generous sets of parents and they give our kids great Christmas presents. And I told my wife, I said I think that the trip to Detroit was the first time we did that, where it was like why don't we take the money we would have normally spent on them and let's take them on something, whatever it is, and you still get the pictures and the memories and it's not something that's going to break or they're going to throw away. Yeah, you know, and they get exposed. I always reiterate to my kids I go, you know, you've been really lucky. How much you've gotten to travel. They've been to Hawaii, they've been, you know, all over, coast to coast.
Dr. Katie:Yeah.
Josh Shorter:I go. This is not what a lot of people grow up with. We've been really fortunate and it might end tomorrow, who knows? But it's something that we really enjoy seeing new places and we always use it as an opportunity to take them somewhere that they can learn, whether it's learn science, learn about nature, learn about history, and just see age, appropriately exposed them to things that are challenging, whether it's concepts or historical ideas that are challenging to what we think or what we know, so that they it's not always just a, it's not just a pleasure thing to it. So it's an opportunity to grow as humans.
Dr. Katie:Yeah, yeah, yeah, and I appreciate when you talk about you know you being a perfectionist and teaching your daughter those pieces. I think that's so valuable, and so the final question I ask everyone on every show is you know to the level you're comfortable sharing what's the biggest leadership or career misstep or maybe learning that you've had?
Josh Shorter:Yeah, this is a great question and I've enjoyed hearing people's answers to it, so I kind of knew it was coming.
Josh Shorter:But I think, as I thought about it, I think that there are a few things that stick out to me. One of them is, I think, partly because of the perfectionist part of me, I'm also really risk averse, and so there are changes professionally you know, whether it's with a particular vendor or whether it was going and having a difficult conversation with a customer or employment issues that I just took too long to pursue and they probably cost us money. I mean, at the end of the day, it probably was my comfort level of not wanting to create conflict, hurt the bottom line at the end of the day, and there were things that drug, um, that drug on, that could have just been, it would have been difficult, but you just, if you, just, if I just would have addressed it, moved on from it, it would have been over in a week or two instead of you know, maybe months or years in some cases. Um, and so I think probably that's the one that sticks out the most to me.
Josh Shorter:Um is just, I need to be obviously not, uh, not necessarily um, carefree you know, but when there is something that comes up that that needs to be addressed, probably a little bit better at just addressing it right away.
Dr. Katie:Yeah, yeah, makes sense. That's a tough one to to learn and to perfect, but it's addressing it right away. Yeah, yeah, makes sense. That's a tough one to to learn and to perfect, but it's, it is valuable. It's difficult, yeah, yeah. Well, thank you so much for being on the show. I know we could talk for probably another three hours, but we both have other things to do, so, um, I just really appreciate you.
Dr. Katie:Yeah, yeah, all right everyone. Thank you for joining us on the path to leadership and I will talk to you next time. Bye, everyone.
