John Lewis
21 Nov 2022 · 37 min
John Lewis, former Gilbert mayor and current Phoenix East Valley Partnership leader, talks about growing up in Provo, his eight children and 22 grandchildren, his three years serving in Cambodia, and how he built a career in local politics focused on economic development and regional partnerships.
Chapters
Guiding Conversations with Community Leaders.
In this podcast, we'll explore the human journey of leaders, their stories of humility, triumph, roadblocks and lessons learned. Come join us as we journey together and uncover the questions you've always wanted to know. This podcast is brought to you by the Gilbert Chamber of Commerce, providing resources, connections and belonging for business professionals and modern moments.
An event and meeting venue in the heart of Gilbert. Today is a very special day. We have a very special guest. Sarah, who do we have here?
We are in the presence of greatness right now.
Yes, we are.
This guest grew up in Utah and settled in Arizona by way of Texas. Although he carries the title as one of the greatest mayors in our town's history, he he considers his greatest success to be his marriage. He and his wife share eight children and 22 grandchildren. Today he serves as the President and CEO of Phoenix East Valley Partnership, where he leads a coalition of community, business, educational and government leaders to provide support in specific areas of focus. He might also be recognized for his mantras, what we do, we do together or Feedback is like a gift. The Please welcome John Lewis.
Welcome to the show.
Well, it's great to hear that feedback. You just gave me a gift. Absolutely.
Well, let's start with what we call Rapid Fire.
Would you rather sing in public or dance? In public?
Sing.
What is one of your nicknames?
JW would your 12 year old self think you were cool?
Yes. I was a great baseball pitcher, but no one ever wanted my autograph.
Oh well, things have changed.
Have you ever won a contest?
Yes. Pie eating contest?
Pies? Yes. Nice.
Favorite movie of all time?
Hoosiers.
How do you overcome failures?
A comment, and this is one of those great statements. I think my dad was quoting Henry Ford, but he kind of put his own phrase on it. He said, if you think you can, you can. If you think you can't, you're right. And so when there would be a failure, it would be a learning experience and you would just get up off the ground if that is what happened and get ready to go again and do it again.
Yeah.
And learn from it.
Of course. Yes.
Fill in the blank. Joy is ice cream.
Are you more of an introvert or extrovert? Why are we asking him this question? What is it?
Because you never know.
I love parties. And there's an interesting answer to that too, that if I'm talking to others, I'd rather be asking questions of you than having you asking questions of me. So therefore the answer is I don't know. I'm both.
Yeah, I actually can relate to that. Do you have a favorite book?
Lincoln on leadership. And then from a faith perspective, scriptures.
Sure.
What is one thing you are grateful for?
A sunset and a sunrise. It just makes the world a better place. Sorry, I'm giving you more answers, smiles, and then family. Just make everything worth it.
Okay, last question. Glass half full or half empty?
Half full.
Do you ever feel like your business is stuck? It's time to get traction and move it forward.
Call Chris Spear, your business coach and certified EOS implementer. He'll help you use the entrepreneurial operating system to get traction and achieve your vision.
Call Chris today at 480-848-3037.
That's 480-848-3037. Let's start in the beginning, which is where we always start, right?
Yeah.
Talk to us about your upbringing. What was that like? Where was it? What was life like?
Youngest of eight growing up in Provo, Utah. My mom and dad Met in Washington, D.C. and they had beautiful plans to raise the family. As my dad was working for a company called Hot Shops, which is the predecessor to Marriott Corporation, he had a fabulous job. And the president of Brigham Young University in 1951 called him up and said, I need you. And my mom and dad said, oh, no, we've got life here. But they ended up going to Provol. That's where I grew up. So when he retired, he was the executive vice president of Brigham Mountain University. So I grew up in a college town and had great seats for all of the football and basketball games.
Absolutely. The youngest of eight. What was that like, a baby?
I learned a lot. And of course, the older siblings always said I was spoiled and I did learn how to get out of things. But once they grew up and left, what they don't understand is then the youngest was in charge of everything.
And you got to learn from all their mistakes.
Yes. And I learned a lot. And good things they did, too.
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah. My parents, my dad is one of 10, my mom's one of eight. And so when I look back, I can relate to those stories. And of course, I have nine children now, so I'm seeing this and I'm noticing that the youngest is getting away with a lot more because we've learned. So this is probably you. Yes, yes.
And also, maybe parents are tired.
Yes. Yeah, that's true, too.
I don't think I had a curfew. Older siblings did.
I'm going to guess. Tell me if I'm wrong. You probably didn't need a curfew.
I didn't need a curfew. I was so trustworthy and never did anything wrong in high school. Never anything.
All right, what did you do? What were you up to in high school?
High school athletics and sports. And again, as I said, always loved parties. I was scared of girls in sophomore year. And once I finally got asked to a dance and I went to the dance and realized that none of the other males knew how to dance either, I gained more confidence and I said, I can do this, and I don't want to be jumping ahead too far, but I'll get to a point. You told me if you want me to continue. I was minding my own business at the end of the junior year when I got called into the vice principal's office. Do you need to know why? It has a little bit to do with some leadership.
Yeah.
Yeah. It was the last period of the day, math class, and my math teacher said, by the way, after school, Mr. Conde, the vice principal wants to see you. Now. What goes through your mind as a junior in high school when your math teacher says that I didn't do anything wrong, why does he want to see me? But I knew Mr. Condi and he knew me. And so I went into his office, sat down, and he looked at me and he said, john, I've been watching you. You've got potential. He handed me an application for the student body vice president position, and he said, I want you to apply. Now. That caught me off guard. I hadn't been planning on that, hadn't been thinking of ever doing anything like that. And yet the way he phrased that, john, you've got potential, was something important in my life. I walked out of there thinking, oh, I've got potential. Now, I grew up in that environment, in a family where loving, caring, uplifting, encouraging environment. But this was a little bit different because it wasn't mom and dad and the way he phrased it, he'd been watching me. I was thinking, where has he been watching me? And. But it was something that caused me to say, I'll do this. I'm going to apply.
I love the stories where we hear about the educators who had influence. It just. I hope it really does take a village. And I hope that I've done that for youth and that people are doing that for my kids. Because you're right, saying it at home is one thing, but kids hear it so differently when it's a respected adult or somebody in a leadership position. That's awesome.
Yeah. Now, baseball was part of your journey.
Too.
Was that high school?
Yes.
Coaches, influences there, anything like that?
Always a lot of coaches.
Yeah.
And teachers, too. And jumping back to that senior year that happened after that, because even though the rest of those listening to this can't see this, but the two of you are looking at the student body vice president of my high school. Right here. Right here. All right. That was another amazing experience in that it was something that I had never thought to do. The student body president was a really close friend, and the two of us together could just think of anything crazy or creative to do. And so our senior year, many things happened that no one had ever seen done before. And it was a lot of fun. So we had a good time.
Did you have to campaign for this position?
Yes.
Okay, so that's where it started.
Yeah. I mean, he just didn't know the can he was opening, did he?
So I have campaigned for student body vice president of my high school, and then fast forward, I'd not done any other campaigning until Gilbert Mayer. But that's maybe not what we're ready to talk about yet, but that's a little bit more about high school.
Okay, interesting. So now we're going past high school. What's next?
Let me make one comment, please, about high school. Back to that friend who was a student body president. So at the start of the year, we decided to make a bet who could get the most pictures in the yearbook. So we're both very competitive. How do you win that contest? One, you become very good friends with the yearbook photographer, which I did. And two clubs. And so I started several clubs. You had to get a faculty member to sign off on it. But one of the clubs I started was the Jake Garn fan club. Now, Jake Garn was running for US Senate from the state I was in, and he ended up winning. And I had no reason to really jump on that campaign other than I had an older brother who was helping him. And so I. That was just another club I could start.
And the photo op.
And the photo op, yeah. By the way, there was one other club I started called gpiy. We only had one meeting the whole year. Get picture in yearbook. But the Jake Garn Fan Club, we formed it. We actually had a meeting where someone from Jake Garn's office came and talked to us. And it was a great experience. Now, the reason why, when you said, what's next? I did a freshman year at college, a two year church mission in Japan, came back and then was married a year later, which, as Sarah, you already said, was, I think One of the greatest moments of my life. And the junior to senior year, I applied for a paid position in Washington, D.C. working for Senator Jay Garn. And I was one of three selected out of 100.
Must have been the high school campaign.
And you're jumping out there where I wondered what was it that caused them to select me? And one person said, well, of course we had to select the president of the Jake Iron fan club. And so I had an experience back in Washington D.C. it was a super experience and it was just on the front row of seeing all sorts of interesting things that were happening in that particular year. Ronald Reagan was only in his. In the early part of his presidency and security wasn't as tight. And I had a friend who, President Reagan was out of the country, was able to get me into the Oval Office on a Saturday. And that just doesn't happen anymore. And it was a great experience, but I loved what happened. But then accepted employment in Houston, Texas. We had this cute little baby daughter that had been born and then twins were born in Texas. We were thinking big and then it was a folks on family and politics went to the side and I was not. Of course I would vote and do my best to try and come up with decisions for candidates, but was not actively involved in any political campaigns.
Okay, okay. Interesting.
So that Washington, D.C. graduation from college and then Houston and then a transfer to Phoenix.
And how many kids at this point?
Still three.
Still three.
Okay.
You had to get out of Texas. You didn't need any more twins.
That's right. And then. So we've got a lot of Arizonans in the family too. But what was interesting in that experience is that we looked all over the valley. I would be working in downtown Phoenix to find a place to live and a lot of great places. 1985, Gilbert was 10,000 people. And it reminded us where we had lived in Houston in a city called Katy, Texas. Gilbert felt like Katy, Texas. It felt familiar. And so we are going to live in Gilbert. And this is a time at Eliot and Gilbert. The big, huge sign just across the street from HD south that had the words Gilbert. Welcome to Gilbert. Hey, capital of the world. So we had arrived and I did make a comment to my wife. We'd been here three months. I said, it is so nice here. I hope that no one else moves here. Oops, you said that. Oops.
You didn't say that loud enough.
I guess you did. Oh, so it's your fault.
But others came because of the same reasons we did. Great place to raise a Family, great schools, great environment, great people, and we've loved Gilbert.
But just to be clear, it was a work transfer that brought you to Arizona. Okay, so that's how you ended up here.
Got it.
Okay, so now you're in Gilbert. What's going on here?
Work. And then family grew and did a lot of fun things. I was a lamb basketball coach. And maybe one very quick story. It was the first grade team. Nine boys, one girl. The girl was Jenny, my daughter. She was really good at basketball, and she was always the leading scorer. So for this particular upcoming game, something had happened where Danny Ainge, who had lived in Gilbert at the time, was playing basketball for the Phoenix Suns. And then he retired from playing, and he became a coach. And during the middle of the season, he retired from coaching. And he did that because all these years he had been away from his family, and he had two sons playing high school basketball. And he said, it's time for me to go watch them play now. That's the background. So back to this Wham Basketball game on Saturday. I walk into the gym to look down, and I see the other team, and there I notice the head coach of the first grade team that we're playing is Danny Ainge.
And you weren't intimidated at all?
Not intimidated. It was more. I thought if the Arizona Republic were here right now, I could see the headline, danny Ainge accepts new head coaching job. And what was kind of fun about that game is his son was the leading scorer on their team and his son in this first grade league from about. And the baskets were shorter, but from about six feet out, could do a banker and make it 100% of the time. So they beat us badly, but we had better treats than they did.
That's what it's all about in first grade, the treats.
So to that question, it just was family, grew up a lot of great things, and involvement in Gilbert. And we continue to love beating Gilbert.
Okay, so there comes a time where the proposition is before you to perhaps run for mayor. How does that happen?
A little bit of background on that. I was a faith group leader in Gilbert and about half a block from St. Anne's Catholic Church. And Father Doug Lorig and I had become friends and to bring our two churches together, we started doing some youth activities together. And we did one that became very big. We took a thousand citizens from Gilbert in the late night, probably was 1997 or 98, and took them on a Saturday morning with T shirts that had been designed by the youth to the town of Guadalupe to do 18 major projects. And it was for the community really special to have two different faith groups. And I was the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in the St. Anne's Catholic Church coming together. And we had a great experience. And so we just continued doing things together. And on Easter and Christmas, they got to use half of our parking lot we designated for them. We did Christmas concerts where the two groups would get together and have a choir. And down at the visitor center at the Mesa Temple, we would do that joint choir. So it became really strong. Now, I give you that background because something happened in the late 1900s, 1990s that was not good for Gilbert. We were making the front page of the Arizona Republic for some challenges, the Devil Dogs. And that wasn't Gilbert. And yet Mayor Dunham asked if I would be a co chair. Arnett Ward, who was the president of Chandler Gilbert Community College, was the other co chair. And we were to form a diversity task force to make recommendations on how to deal with the challenges that had come to Gilbert. It was a year that we were together and part of from a leadership perspective. I describe our very first meeting with 35 committee members, diversified group from all over Gilbert. Some are older, some are younger. Different faith groups, different thought processes. Some were local farmers, some had just moved here. Just every way we could diversify, we formed this group. And our very first meeting was very quiet. We didn't know each other, we didn't trust each other. It was. We were on guard. And I remember that first meeting well, thinking, we've got to get to know each other. And so over time we did. And I jump into the end of the year when we finished what we'd planned to do and different projects and getting groups involved to listen and make recommendations. We were a very tight group. In fact, our last meeting as a group, we said, is there any way we could just keep this going? We know each other so well. There were several that had tears at the end, and I try not to cry myself, but inside it was just the friendships were so strong. Now, part of why I share that is from a community perspective, that's an example to me of it is easy to not know each other, not trust each other. And yet if we can just put those walls down and get to know each other, great things can happen. That background is what caused at some point, some of those committee members came a couple years later and said, you need to run for mayor. And it was, oh, no way. No, no, no, no, no. And part of I'll give you two Thoughts of why all of a sudden I changed was one I had from that diversity task force, had such a good experience. I thought, well, even if I didn't do well, it would give me a chance to meet more people in Gilbert. And I said, that would be really positive. That would be a nice thing to do. The second part. And, Sarah, you'll appreciate this from a business perspective. I had a couple of friends that worked for a law firm in downtown Phoenix that I just asked them one day, I said, and they were lawyers that often would have companies from outside of the Gilbert, outside of the Phoenix, outside of Arizona, come and look to see if Arizona was a place they wanted to put their business. And so I asked them, I said, when a company from outside of Arizona comes, what do you think about Gilbert? Is Gilbert a place that you would consider? And they said, gilbert, Gilbert. We would never send a company to Gilbert. Now, what that did for me, in a little bit of a competitive manner, was I said, we're going to show them. And it was part of what I would call motivator to say, I love Gilbert. And I even back up just slightly. I had been here in 1985 for just a short time. I was called to be a Boy Scout leader. And Boy Scouts would work on a merit badge where they had to go to a council meeting. And I'd only been here a few months, and I went to a council meeting. I remember the town manager at that time, Ken Cooper with the Boy Scouts, he said, let me tell you about Gilbert. There's a big, huge map of Gilbert, of our 10,000 people. And he told us what Gilbert was going to be someday. And his vision was very inspiring to me. And so now jumping back to this moment where these two friends said, Gilbert, we'd never consider sending a company to Gilbert. That was a motivator to say, gilbert is such a great place. We've got to show them and others why you would want to have a business here, because great place for families, great place with our schools. Just quality of life was fantastic. And so all of a sudden, I said, I'll do it. It was a little bit late in the game. There were five other candidates, and there were two weeks left to get signatures. So it wasn't like you were hustling. I was not proactive on that.
This is when your photo days came in from yearbooking and getting this. You're like, I know how to get campaigns. I can do this.
And so jumping ahead a few months later, and it had been a great experience to meet People to talk to, people to learn. And all of a sudden I was elected mayor and then it was, oh, no, what am I going to do now? And of course, one right to the chambers where I went and said, okay, what are we going to do? And how do we build business in Gilbert? Because that was a key part of the campaign was economic development. And what.
Well, that was one of your motivations, right?
Exactly. And what better group to go to than the chamber? But we'll let you talk about the chamber in another podcast.
Oh, yeah, yeah. Well, it's. I appreciate listening to you and having you reference some of our past leaders because I think right now we're so stuck in today and things that are occurring immediately. And it's just helpful to remember that all of the success today is because of people who came before us. And, you know, you share Ken Cooper and George and. Yeah. And Cynthia Dunham.
Cynthia Dunham. Just so many individuals. Wally Dilecki comes to mind with our school districts and just some great leaders who have been here.
It's just. Yeah. It's a great reminder of. It's so much bigger than us here today.
Yes.
How does this mayor role impact your family?
All of a sudden the family was older. Now, Arizona has a council manager form of government and it's designed where mayors are part time. I did have this great experience with son number seven, Ed, for his school class. I came home after council meeting and he said, dad, I have to answer this question. Does Gilbert have a strong mayor form of government or weak mayor form of government? And I pulled up my shirt.
Come here, son.
I pulled up my shirt and I flexed my muscles and I said, what do you think, Ed? And he wrote down weak. That is council manager, where it would be considered weak mayor form of government, where the town manager professionals hired to run the city. And yet Gilbert was growing at a time where all of a sudden I was spending about 50 hours a week as mayor and I needed to and I wanted to. And so Ben, your question about the family. It. It's always been important to keep family the first priority. And so then it's just managing the calendar, managing time, making sure that when there was the athletic event or the music concert or something important at school that was first on the calendar and other things would go around. And yes, there were council meetings that were scheduled for all year. So they got on the calendar and then we had something really nice in our family once week. We had just Sunday afternoon family council, where part of it was to look at the calendar and to look ahead. And so family was older, fortunately. And so I think it worked out.
Yeah, you had a little more leeway there then.
Yes.
Okay, good.
When you reflect on your time as mayor, what are some of the highlights for you?
Economic development and business leaders like you and others. It was the right time. It was Gilbert's time. Now, I want to back up and just for learning, for me and for others, economic development was the top priority. That's what I wanted to do. And Greater Phoenix Economic Council Barry Broome was the CEO at the time, and he sent out Chris Camacho to train me. And Chris is now the CEO of gpec. And it was a memorable moment where Chris, I knew in his mind he was thinking as he came out to meet with me, oh, I've got a rookie mayor. I've got to figure out how to help him. But he knew that my focus was on economic development. And he said, mayor Lewis, I need to give you some counsel. You want Gilbert to have great economic development. Here's how you do it. He said, you need to cheer on Chandler and Mesa. And he could tell I looked a little puzzled when he said that. And he said, here's why. Because those two cities, their growth is a little bit ahead of Gilbert. But Gilbert's coming. But take intel as an example. Intel will have thousands and thousands of employees. Many are going to live in Gilbert. Many are going to shop in Gilbert. Many are going to influence Gilbert for the future. And the companies that will come to support intel, many of them will be in Gilbert. It was one of those moments where he could see my puzzled look. But as I looked at him, I realized he's someone who has done this for many years. That is counsel I really needed to hear. So it became a regional project to make sure the region was doing well. And never forgetting that Gilbert was the first priority as far as a cheerleader. But at the same time, the partnerships that developed with regional leaders was very important at that time. And it was true. As Chris said, Gilbert's time was coming. And so later on, a few years as mayor, it was really Gilbert's time. And it was just so nice to see all the local leaders rallying together to help build Gilbert and have some great business leaders like Ben and others just come here and help us thrive.
And while you're serving as mayor, you also invest in others and bring other leaders up to. I think of Jen immediately, of your guidance of Jen before she became mayor and as she was on council, but so many others as well.
You asked me a favorite book Lincoln on Leadership. I read that and had so many wonderful tips from Abraham Lincoln. And one chapter in that book was called Find you'd Next Grant. And what that meant is build leaders for the future. And that's been so important to me. In fact, reflecting back on the first part of the podcast, I love to meet with youth and they will always hear me say, you've got potential. And that goes back to that junior year in high school when I had that moment when somebody told me that I want to look them in the eye and say, you've got potential because they are future leaders. And so that is a key part of leadership, is building our leaderships for the future.
Yeah, absolutely. I love that. I've always wondered, and this is one of those situations where when you've gone through such a journey being the mayor and you've had all those years of experience and now you're stepping away from it, what's that duty? What's that like? Is it a relief? Is it, I don't want to leave this, I have to now, or what's that like?
Tell me. I'm not. I've got a lot of growing up to do, a lot of learning to do. But I also learned that to be a good leader, you need to be a good follower. And so it has been fairly easy for me in my life when it's time to pass the baton, to be able to do it and then to be in a role to support others. And so I'm sure I could do better. But it has been nice to be able to call myself Citizen John or Citizen Lewis and cheer on other leaders and try and help them. So, Ben, I would say it has not been a problem. And yet I need to keep learning. And so if there's some day where you need to sit me down and say, John, remember what you said that one day? But I have learned that trait that to be a good leader is also to learn how to be a good follower.
So after you served as mayor, you were called for a three year church assignment and share a little bit about that experience?
Yes, that was a surprise. It's a volunteer assignment and it was to serve in the country of Cambodia. And I have, of course, never been to Cambodia, did not know the language. And it was an assignment to.
Help.
Younger missionaries with their leadership skills and to grow and give them guidance and supervision and then to help the local members with their leadership and growth. And then there were six senior couples that came to help and there was a specific humanitarian aid project to help Medical clinics. And so we had some doctors come and they were just full time trying to help. Help the local country build their medical facilities. So the short answer there is that was like the mayor was another service opportunity of a lifetime and so enjoyable. The people were very friendly and just enjoyed being in that environment to try and help. Of course, Ms. Gilbert and love coming back here, but at the same time, there's a piece of my heart that's still in Cambodia.
Yeah.
Yeah. Time spent for sure.
Yeah. And I remember receiving word that you were coming home, and it felt like a piece of Gilbert was back when you came home. Yeah.
Okay. So now you're back and something else is happening. Talk about that.
So those who are listening to this, many will know Danny Barney when I left, and in a sense had to retire because three years is a long time. And. And I had been serving in a lead role for the East Valley Partnership, and Danny Barney had taken over. Symbolically, in my backyard, I had found a piece of wood that I made into a baton. And so on my last meeting, I handed it to Danny and I said, danny, here's your baton run. And he's a great leader. And he ran. When we came back, he was called on a church mission, and I had started to look for other opportunities. And he called me up on the phone and he said, john, what are you doing? What are your plans? And he said, stop. Don't do anything until you come talk to me. And so I went and talked to Denny and he said, this hasn't been announced yet, but I'm going to be leaving for three years and the board wants to talk to you. So at his last meeting, he called me up and he handed me back that baton that I had given to him.
And.
And the only thing I could think of at that moment was, Denny, this is not a baton. It's a boomerang. So when you come back, just be ready. So I'm back involved with East Valley Partnership and get to work with people like the two of you, other business leaders, government leaders, education leaders, in trying to build our region and to continue to make this a place that people want to be.
So you're going to pass that baton boomerang back, I take it?
I've got that option. That boomerang can just be given back to Danny or so.
Well, that's where I'm going with my next question. What's on the horizon for you then?
Well, right now it's short term thinking.
Okay.
And that is to just continue to build our region and Long term, it will be to be the best grandpa I can be. I continue to just love being in Gilbert and we get out in the mornings and evenings and so we'll continue to do that. In fact, I just. Not a question you asked, but someone recently asked me that. They said, when it gets really stressful and there's too much going on, what do you suggest that I would do as a leader? And I said go to a kindergarten class and read them a book. And I said, if you don't have a kindergarten class to go to, go mow the lawn or just get in your backyard. And those are the times where sometimes you just need self time. And that's been a great blessing to me. So to that question, what's next? Opportunities to continue to build our community, region, family. That will be part of my life and faith will be part of it. And just anything we can do to help build Gilbert. Because when I wake up in the morning, my other statement I often say is, another great day in Gilbert.
Another great day it is.
Okay, last question. Gilbert, being part of the fabric of your DNA, what do you hope for our town in the next decade?
That comment you heard Me make in 1985 is so nice here. I hope that no one else moves here. That changed. And I think we're up to about 280,000 and a build out will probably be another 20 or 30,000. So it would be to just continue to try and that diversity task force experience to bring us together and have us get to know each other, find ways to build a community and in spite of differences, know that we can make this the best community in the entire world by working together to make it so.
Love that. Thank you.
Absolutely.
Thank you for being here. Thank you for being on our show today. It's been a pleasure learning about your journey and learning about all the amazing things you've done for so many people in the community.
I'm thinking we didn't really scratch the surface on all the amazing things he's done.
Yeah, this was the condensed and to.
Talk about some of those great leaders that were just great mentors and bless Lewis family. I mean I think as school teachers and just neighbors and business owners that have just influenced my life for the better and I appreciate them.
Yeah, absolutely.
So we can talk about them at a future podcast.
We'll do a round two. That sounds good to me.
Absolutely.
With that, I know you enjoyed this podcast episode. We did immensely enjoy this one. So thanks for being here. Thank you for being on our show today. We hope that you'll join our tribe and subscribe and get these in your inbox for the next time. So thanks for being here.
Thank you.
Guiding growth conversations with community leaders.
Ben, let me ask you a question. How do you see other community members being involved in this podcast?
This is going to be a great opportunity for so many people in the community to have a chance to be heard if they want to tell their story or if they just want to be part of this journey with us and help sponsor in a way that helps bring more people to the table with us. So I think there's many opportunities at hand. Whether you want to again be on the show, reach out to us, let us know what your story is and how you think you could be part of it. We'd love to hear from you. You reach out, let us know and we'll see if we can make that connection.