85. Growing Forward Podcast featuring Diahann Howard

Tri-Cities Influencer Podcast with Paul Casey

Paul Casey:

Your brain does not see the word knots. So if you're like, I am not going to eat chocolate, you know what your brain hears is chocolate. And so then you're like start moving toward it and you have actually more of a craving for it because the brain doesn't see that where it's just a fun fact about the brain

Speaker 2:

Raising the water level of leadership in the Tri-Cities of Eastern Washington. It's the Tri-Cities influencer podcast. Welcome to the TCI podcast. We're local leadership and self-leadership expert Paul Casey interviews, local CEOs, entrepreneurs, and non-profit executives to hear how they lead themselves and their teams. So we can all benefit from their wisdom and experience. Here's your host, Paul Casey of growing forward services, coaching, and he could be individuals and teams to spark breakthrough success.

Paul Casey:

It's a great day to grow forward. Thanks for joining me for today's episode with Diane Howard. Diane is the executive director for the port of Benton. And I asked her for something funny about herself and she sees all about classic movies and the time that they're supposed to be watched every year and you're going to have to do it justice. So go for it.

Diahann Howard:

Yes. I love, yeah, all things. Star wars, DC, Marvel, our fall season for our family and extended family kicks off with the Harry Potter series. Then we transitioned into the Lord of the Rings for over the Christmas period and of hosts. Then we've got to do the TMC movies as well. I got white Christmas, I got everything timed out and my family knows me for this. And it's just a little bit of my, I, I just enjoy all those types of movies and it's just hilarious. And then I a layer, I sprinkle on top of that, a little bit of the peanuts collection for every holiday season. So my kids will come home from college and I've got peanuts, you know, The Great Pumpkin going. It just depends on what's going on, but I just like the things that make them smile and it makes us smile and allows us to connect a little bit and kind of have our, we used to have forced family fun, Fridays and things that we would do. And it's just part of the, the cycle of the year for our family is centered around movies and games and activities. And

Paul Casey:

I love it. I was going to say you're forcing them into a sedentary life with all that movie watching, but

Diahann Howard:

Oh no, I hope not. But yeah, that's we don't want to go too many movies in a row, but that's for sure that'll break it up, but nothing better than a crisp fall day and a good Harry Potter movie

Paul Casey:

That is so much fun. Well, we'll dive in after checking in with our Tri-City influencer sponsor

Speaker 5:

From the Columbia Basin to the Pacific Ocean, Basin Pacific Insurance and Benefits, help protect families and businesses in a professional, timely manner. Ours are knowledgeable and service oriented, helping you ensure your home auto and toys as well as commercial business, larger small health insurance, individual, or group agribusiness and crop insurance at basin Pacific insurance and benefits. You get the service of a large broker with the care of a local agent locally owned since 2010, visit us online at Basin Pacific Tri-Cities dot com.

Paul Casey:

Thank you for your support of leadership development in the Tri-Cities. Well welcome, Diane. I was privileged to meet you years ago. I think it was through leadership Tri-Cities is that where we met? I'm trying to,

Diahann Howard:

That are either a team for meeting and I got an opportunity to meet you. And I literally think it was that same week that our commissioner Robert Larson said, Hey, you got to talk to Paul. He's a great guy. He's got this new business. It was, it was wonderful for me to be able to tell him, you know, I've, I've just met him. And I think it was, it was either you're correct. Leadership tries to do sort of chamber event. I just can't remember. It's been some time

Paul Casey:

You're right. You're right. And I remember interviewing you over at C3 church for like a meet the leader that was before I started this podcast, but I was trying to start like a community forum where we would just get to talk leadership with, I think Ken Hohenberg was there and it's hard to think who else was there on that one, but that was fun.

Diahann Howard:

Thank you for having me on again.

Paul Casey:

Appreciate it. Absolutely. Well, so then our Tri City influencers can get to know you tell us about what your organization does and what do you spend 80% of your day doing in your role?

Diahann Howard:

So the port of Benton is chartered by under the state of Washington, as all ports are under RCW 53. And our primary focus really is economic development on behalf of the region and on behalf of the state, as well as tourism. And that's, it's just that clear. So our port district is two thirds of Benton county. We've got everything from the north Richland area, a little bit of office R and D commercialization education. And then we transitioned over to Benton city. We've got some redevelopment buildings there. Then we go over to Prosser area, a lot of work with the wine industry there, a lot of work with the Walter Core, which is now a partnership with WSU, and which is fantastic. And then we continue to kind of head south and we've got Kirby park. And in addition to that, you know, port right transport station.

Diahann Howard:

So we've got barge facilities, that's really just a intake for large components that come to the Hanford site or part of the Hanford project. And then we've got two general aviation airports, one in Richland and the other in Prosser. And then finally, we've got 16 miles of rail track that runs from north Bridgeland all the way down to the Columbia center region. And both class ones could run direct on this rail, which is a really capability in the state of Washington. So that's what we do. So a lot of my day is really just spent collaborating with community economic development partners with my team, ensuring that they have what they need and that, and I think that we all love what we do here at the port, because it's always varies. I mean, you can be working in wine to airports to taking care of not that this is necessarily a good thing, a broken sewer pipe at a facility or a water pipe. So you never know what the day's going to bring. And I think that that's what makes it a lot of fun and why I know that I love what I do.

Paul Casey:

Wow. That is awesome. I really appreciate giving me the whole scope of that. Cause I remember moving here and hearing port and I just assumed boats, you know, and I, I, it was, I remember going to a chamber meeting where the, all the ports were there and wow, what a, an education. So I'm hoping the listeners by you rattling off the whole scope of what you lead was very educational,

Diahann Howard:

Good from a broad perspective, you know, at the end of the day ports, we're really, we are a system that lead to the port of Seattle, the port of Tacoma or the sea port Alliance. It's all about getting our value, add and add products to market. And we serve a global market in the state of Washington. So that's really what we're about. We're a system and we're always working in collaboration with our other port districts

Paul Casey:

And your journey to where you are today. Diane, what have you learned from previous bosses? Previous supervisors probably there's good and bad, right. And don't mention any names keep in mind today while you leave. What has stuck with you from those experiences?

Diahann Howard:

I've learned from, primarily what I've learned is what I don't want to do when I manage people. To be honest, I also have learned from some of my past managers about just the importance of seeing broad perspective and really looking at things from multiple lenses. And I think that that was the biggest gift that was given to me from that manager. I, myself focus more on a servant leadership style. I really prefer to provide clarity of direction and strong communications, which there can never be enough of. And I really want to ensure that I've got all of my team growing and set up for success, really positive, really positive with them and appreciate them in public in anything that I need to correct. I do that one-on-one in private. I would never want to be treated that way and I don't want to treat anyone else that way is really kind of my motto on that.

Paul Casey:

I love it. So many leaders that have come on this podcast that said servant leadership is like the only leadership style, right? And all the benefits and how winsome that is to your people to follow you. When you have style, you're not a lording over leader, you're coming alongside kind of a leader and removing obstacles love that, love that style. Even in my own personal mission statement, because I believe in it so much, you, you lead by talking about a broad perspective. Can you elaborate a little bit more on what that means for a leader to have a broad perspective?

Diahann Howard:

You've got to, there's always multiple sides of a story. There's also multiple perspectives. Not everybody always has all the information on everything all the time. And I'll speak to this a little bit later as well. I just think that you've got to take the time to listen to get that perspective, but look at it from different angles. How does that look? I know for myself, one thing I've always said is can I face the 70,000 people that live in the ports district and tell them that this is a good decision? Can I explain to them in one or two sentences why it's important and how it creates a job for somebody tomorrow? If I can do that, then I know I'm on the right path. So again, broad perspectives and making sure that you're looking at the good and the bad of it too. I mean, it's not always, sometimes we've got to, to look at the bad. You definitely need to look at the bad and be prepared for that and understand how you're going to help support your team through that and how you're going to manage through that.

Paul Casey:

What a great rule of thumb to think about. I have to announce this to 70,000 people. Am I in good footing? I make it considered all these issues. Have I talked to the right people? I've often heard, it said like before you send the email, if this were to get published in the Tri-City Herald, do you feel comfortable with that? Or would you probably do some edits? Well, leader has to have to fire themselves up. So Diahann, where do you go for inspiration for yourself as a leader? Okay.

Diahann Howard:

For me, it's really back to the same thing. It's the community. I think that's the benefit of my, for myself of being born and raised here, I've got a lot of clarity and sense of purse, a purpose, and I've got a strong passion for the community. It's inspiring to me to want, to help people that I know and have grown up with. I've seen their businesses grow. I've known their family for a long time. I also understand what this community looks like in times of trouble in the mid to late eighties. And I know what it was like to see, you know, lots of families have to leave and the impact the region. So for me, the community itself is very inspiring and that's again, the role of economic development. That's what it's all about. It's really, it's, it's a run that never ends. It's about what we're doing today strategically to help support and grow and create an opportunity for someone else tomorrow. And really why I enjoy this type of work.

Paul Casey:

Well, let me ask this cause COVID affected us all in the last two years. If community is such a good driver for you to fire yourself up, then COVID hits. How did you get, how did you stay connected to community so that you could keep building yourself up and not as a lot of expressive people, you know, that were more extroverted? They, they were just really glum, you know, and discouraged during that, because that was their source and it was taken away. How did you still fire yourself up?

Diahann Howard:

Actually for the port, it drove us to increase our level of digital communications webinars working with our downtown associations, like the Prosser downtown, the Prosser chamber, the city of Richmond. It actually had us connect further and deeper with them talking one-on-one meetings with industry, folks, and tenants, just to see how they were doing those just one-on-one conversations was how, how we did it. And our role for ports is a little bit different during COVID. We, again are a state entity, we're a special purpose district. We can't waive rents. We can defer them, but we can't waive them. And it still has to be paid back. So just making sure that we were having constant contact with there, with our tenants, making sure that we were really staying in tune with what was going on with them, but it also drove our team. Like, look, we now is our time to strengthen and be ready so that when our community and our region does come out of this, we're in a really strong position to continue to help support them.

Diahann Howard:

That we've actually created a pathway for everybody to come forward out of COVID. And that's really what we focused on. We looked at our facilities and areas where we can improve them and make them more attractive. And, and basically forward-thinking, you know, simple things like lighting projects and cleaning, just painting up facilities just to freshen them up so that when people do come back, they're going to feel like, yeah, you know, this feels good, this feels good. I feel safe. And I feel good. And I know that the people that manage these facilities have taken the time and the effort to ensure that everyone's following state safe protocols,

Paul Casey:

What a fantastic response, everything from the buildings being now, what can, what can we focus on when other things we can't focus on, but I love your ears, your phrase of further and deeper in communication. And of course we're not out of the woods yet. So Tri-City influencers. If you still have opportunity while we all have opportunities to go further and deeper in all of our relationships, whether that's at work or on a personal level. And I would just encourage us all to continue to follow that guidance because people are feeling very alone and that leads to a lot of negative emotions. So that's a cool response. Diane, how do you balance or, well, let me ask you this first. I, I would love to know how you develop yourself and what are you currently working on to develop yourself so that you can be a model for developing your team?

Diahann Howard:

Hmm, well, I'm constantly working on my communications, so I, I just don't think you can ever over communicate. And even when you think that you have, you, haven't everyone communicates in different matters. The other thing I'm really, really working on is just really actively listening, deeply listening. And I also think that right now, you mentioned COVID right now for, I know for my team and for just, it's really a time to provide everybody a lot of grace and empathy. And I stress that to them, not only to each other, but to our tenants, to the people that we engage with on a daily basis. We really want to give everybody some grace and empathy right now. There's just a lot going on. People are managing COVID family's concerns. And then we're also here at work trying to get that this job done. So I really want to listen.

Diahann Howard:

I would really want to understand more about what's happening in their life. And I, I really focus on providing them as much flexibility as I can because it's a different time right now. And I don't re going forward even post COVID. Cause I believe there will be hopefully a post COVID. I really have discovered that I really, I do not want to lose this connection with my team. So I, I think that this just becomes more part of our normal, as far as our live, our life work balance is what I'm hoping to strive for it. And focusing on them, taking care of themselves and their families from

Paul Casey:

So good. You know, I just finished doing a training for PNNL on communication skills and you hit, you hit some big ones there, I'm over communicating because if you think you're over-communicating, especially in the land of COVID, you're probably just enough, I guess it goes over communications, going to people are going to miss it so many times. And they're finally going to hit it. Maybe around the seventh time. The research says, and then listening really is the best form of communication and endears people to their leaders. So Tracy influencers, you want more influence? You've got to be a better listener. Not, not, not necessarily the one that's doing all the talking. I love what you said, Diane, about grace and empathy as let's have this go on forever, not just during a crisis time, but let that be a way or almost ground rules for how we communicate with our teams. Great stuff. How do you balance or integrate your family time with work time? And I don't know if that was impacted during, during the COVID shutdowns at all. You can throw that in there if, if it was for you, but how do you give priority time to both?

Diahann Howard:

So this is one that I constantly have to work on, even when there's no COVID, even before COVID with the very beginning of COVID, we were ripping our organization forward into cloud-based flexibility, ensuring that everybody had the right communications and work tools so that they could either work at home or work in the office. So there was a lot going on. There was a lot to understand and unpack during that period of time, but I am really constantly working on this one. It's hard. It's hard for me to set my phone down. It's hard for me to sometimes I, I, I really have to focus to actively again, listen, and really I am, I am trying to take a better approach to managing a work-life balance. And COVID actually has showed me that I'm not on a constant frantic jumping pace of travel. And I really understanding my need to prioritize. I have a fantastic team and that has been phenomenal for me in order to provide a better work life balance. And I do truly appreciate them each and every day. So I don't feel like I'm always caught up in a fire drill. So it, it it's, you have to actively be conscious about it. You have to actively pay attention to it and you can't let your health, your health has to be a priority.

Paul Casey:

Yeah, I think for being a little vulnerable because you're probably a driver personality style at some level and just a teeny bit. Okay. And a lot of leaders listening are also a drivers or the line personality styles I like to teach. And it is hard because we love our work and we love excellence and we love results and goals and metrics. And so it is hard sometimes to put the phone down and to divert our attention and have a replenishment plan too. So thanks for, thanks for sharing that. You're a work in progress along with the rest of us.

Diahann Howard:

Absolutely.

Paul Casey:

Well, before we head into our next question on hiring and retaining great employees, a shout out to our sponsor,

Speaker 5:

A lot of sweat and hard work has been put into your farm and ranch protecting it. And your family's legacy is what matters most at Basin Pacific Insurance and Benefits. We understand the challenges Agra businesses face today. Our team is knowledgeable and service oriented from small farms and branches to vertically integrated agriculture. Our team at base and Pacific and manly crop insurance provides the services of a large broker with the care of a local agent locally owned since 2010, visit us online at Basin Pacific Tri-Cities dot com.

Paul Casey:

And what's your process for attracting great talent on your team. And then what do you do intentionally to make your workplace a place where employees want to stay for a long time? You've actually given us a little glimpse into some of that through your leadership style.

Diahann Howard:

Well, first and foremost, I seek out really good people. I love people that are better than me and expertise in their fields and see a bigger picture and are collaborative. My first and foremost thing I'm always looking for is how do they play with, along with the team? How do they work with others? That to me is the most important is, is, is the integrity of the team and ensuring that everybody has or feels like they have space here. And everyone has a seat at this table, so good people bring that cause they have the confidence to go with it. So I love that. I also to continue on ensuring that I'm staying in touch all employees, I hold one-on-one meetings with and I call them, stop, start, continue meetings. So what should we stop doing that we're currently doing? What should we start doing that we're not thinking about right now?

Diahann Howard:

And what is it that you like and how we're going strategically that we should continue depends on the person. Cause not everybody wants to, you know, say hello every morning or have a one-on-one meeting every week, but it just depends on the person whenever they need. So for some, I meet with them monthly, some weekly, some only semi-annual, it just depends again on their needs and wants. I really encouraged them to enhance their strengths, but I focus with them on any weaknesses that they want to develop to drive their passion and success. I really liked the fact of flexibility and the diversity of work here that makes it again enjoyable to be at the port. It's different every day. It's never the same. And there's always opportunities where people might say, you know, I want to try, I want to collaborate with that. Or I want to kind of step into that role.

Diahann Howard:

Okay. Let's, you know, let's try some new things. I have no problem with that. I actually like it. And we really do strive to be fully transparent with our entire team on what we're working on. I was to provide a monthly email out, to tell, for example, our facility staff that are really out in the field and we don't see them and interact with them, especially with COVID is often. But that, that, that way they know what's going on. They know what's coming in front of our commission for consideration. And it's just really important for me that everyone's B D is treated fairly with integrity because they all bring value back to the organization and they, they literally are what makes support successful

Paul Casey:

So many golden nuggets there. So let's, there's, you're going to have to rewind to get all those. But two that I picked up from that was the stop start, continue. And I'd heard, I've heard this before. I've heard that leaders can do this for all the themselves as like a leader report card. Like what of my behaviors do I want to do? I need to start doing more of stop doing or continue. I like how yours is organizationally. You make your employees think organizational, what does, what is it that we need to stop doing start doing or continue that that's a neat twist on it that I hadn't heard before. And I also thought it was interesting of the varying cadence of one-to-one so that you're not on the same cadence with everybody. Some people want more of your FaceTime, others, you know, probably want more autonomy. So that's creative, There's so much to do in the leader's chair. So how do you not burn out? How, what, what are you, what are your thoughts on delegation for you? Are you a great delegator? Do you struggle with the, any tips for our listeners on delegation?

Diahann Howard:

Well, the secret to delegation is when you have good people, delegations, not a problem. So I have no problem with it. I, I do not like a micromanagement approach. It is not very successful. It actually drives productivity down and culture down. And so delegation's really not a problem. The struggle at times though, is just ensuring that they are communicating and collaborating and matching and understanding each other's communication styles. And so that's the important thing is to always touch base with them on and make sure again, all sides are feeling like they are a part of that effort or that they know where things are going or how things are going to be moving forward, or they've come up with a joint plan. And really a lot of times they're doing so well. It's just really my intention, no goal to just to stay out of their way.

Diahann Howard:

So that can be hard to cause you want to know, you want to know and you want to see the progress and you've got to measure and you want to know, but you can just, it's better sometimes just they're doing great, stay out of their way, tell him how much you appreciate them. And then, you know, see if they need coffee, you know, what, what is it that they need to, to keep going and help them through? And what, what else can you be provided to help support them? So again, try to provide various approaches and work with them. I also really try to set, not set, sorry, unrealistic debt timelines are. I prefer quality, quality over time, quality over just completing that task and checking the box. Because for example, we have an integration project right now on our leases and the finance system.

Diahann Howard:

I would not want that to be rushed, good input in good data in great quality out. And I would prefer that they don't have the pressure of that. And just knowing that they don't, they actually do a fantastic job of pressing the pedal to the metal because they know that there's there. There's going to be flexibility there. And if something comes up, we can talk about it because at the end of the day, for us, it's about ensuring that we provide good customer service and good end product. So I'd rather just have them again, take the time to do it right and allow them to keep that good work-life balance in place. Because the more we take care of ourselves, the better we can take care of each other and take care of our customer.

Paul Casey:

Yeah. The old sharpening, the saw from Stephen Covey, right? If we you've got a sharp solver, we're probably going to produce more quality and be less irritated and angry and depleted, or if you have a Bolsa. So yeah. So your philosophy is quality over speed, as much as possible. And, and it's great that you've, you've made that clear as an expectation to your people. Cause I would assume there's some other bosses out there, their speed, maybe they wouldn't say speed over quality, but they would probably say speed is very, very important or maybe they've got different expectations. So it's great that you've got, you're being as clear as you can, with your people about what you expect. You also brought up communication styles. Tell us more about how you assess what a persons on your team's communication style is that, does that start way back at the interview even, or you give them a survey or how do you assess whatever one needs on your team?

Diahann Howard:

I think it really starts on just the one-on-one. I'm also very observant of people. So I, I just, it's how, it's how they like to be approached. I will go say good morning to people at their offices, just to see that they have everything that they need and kind of check in some, you know, some people might be rolling their eyes like right now, like, oh God, I wouldn't want her to come to my office, but I get that. And those that kind of, I understand. And, and I give that, I give those people space because they don't need that kind of contact. However, that's when you start to learn people's communication styles, you know, some prefer to definitely see it in writing. Some want to be taught, talk it through some want clear direction. I think that's the other thing is a value that we have now as a port has an overarching strategic plan.

Diahann Howard:

So our again, organization and culture is the number one priority for the port and for our team. And since we all know that, and we talk about it and that leads into their everyone's individual work and goals. I think that that definitely helps, but it's just getting time to, to observe the person and their interaction with other people, as well as with is as well as between us one-on-one then I really try to help weave that web between them and other people and help everybody understand like, well, maybe this person actually does better if he follow up with an email or maybe you need to just go ahead and set a meeting because both of you are, have a lot going on right now. And not that anyone wants more meetings, but in this instance, it's probably better. If you sit down and talk it through it and don't make assumptions. So we always talk about those things because we do have a lot going on. If we can take care of things quickly, we definitely try to do that because we're, we're working in a very collaborative manner.

Paul Casey:

Yeah. That's great stuff. I've got a tool from Harvard business review years ago called the leader report card, no leader users, guy. That's what it was called. Yeah. And so I made a little tool out of that where a boss can tell his or her people what their style is like, how they want to be communicated with what their pet peeves are. It's, it's a fascinating little tool and then they can get it back from their team to see what their communication style is and their strengths and their weaknesses and their pet peeves. That it's, it's a fun little way to get leaders and their employees learning each other pretty quickly. So they don't step in landmines along the way, like the roll dice of the good morning. That's what, I'm glad you still do that dynamic because research does show, it sets a positive vibe in the office. So I know

Diahann Howard:

Even if I go down the hall and just care about something we've got going on for that day, because I black, but it's really just to kind of break open the break, open the day and set a good tone. I hope that's my,

Paul Casey:

Well, you mentioned strategic planning a moment ago. What's your process for that?

Diahann Howard:

Again, we just two, two years ago, we brought in an outside consultant firm and we did again, the one-on-one meeting. So individual one-on-one meetings start continue one-on-one discussions with the consultant economic development partners, stakeholders with the consultant, and then one-on-one meetings really with our industry folks in order to ensure that we're really meeting the needs of our clients, customers, and really trying to ensure that we are staying strategic on, on direction forward of what we needed to do. It's allowed us to really eliminate a lot of unnecessary costs and expenses that we had. It's been a phenomenal, the things that we've been able to address through that process. And we've also been again, taking this time to do things like the lighting projects to drive energy efficiency, just again, to ensure that where people do come back to work, the environment again is refreshed and safe. So it's, it's been very helpful for the team to definitely feel like we're rowing in the same direction. Everyone has clarity of role. Everyone has clarity of lane, it just drives the productivity. And again, big word for me is efficiency forward in order to meet the needs of business and our customers and tenants

Paul Casey:

Efficiency forward, it sounds like Growing Forward. So we'll, we'll make those together. Well, finally, Diahann, what advice would you give to new leaders or anyone who wants to keep growing and gaining more influence?

Diahann Howard:

I think it's a reminder. It's kind of like, you know, Spider-Man right, the leading of the privilege and it comes with great responsibility. You, you definitely need to remember that it is not about you anymore. It's about your team. You have to constantly want to learn and grow yourself and you're going to also learn and grow from them. I'll also take a little bit of note from Jim Mattis that, you know, you've got to know all your business, everything from, for me, it's everything from the facilities to the finance side, to the legislative side, to the transportation side, you need to know your business. And that's really important and be open to all levels of input. This again, can be hard because not everybody always knows all the information. So don't just make judge some quick judgements, take some time to reflect again, listen. And then the end, if you just do what's best for your organization and community, that mindset's really always worked out well for me. And I hope it works out well for them.

Paul Casey:

Hmm. Great stuff. Great stuff. So Diane, how can our listeners best connect to you?

Diahann Howard:

Well, the best way to connect to us as our Port of Benton’s website, which is just portofbenton.com, you can either call or email us. Everything's listed there as well as our strategic plan. Any updates on any projects, we also have newsletter information, digital and print. So whatever way again, you prefer to communicate, we're here to serve you and we appreciate your trust. And we in our, we appreciate your trust and we hope that we continue to meet the needs and be good stewards of your investment.

Paul Casey:

Well, thank you again for all you do to make the Tri-Cities a great place and keep leading.

Diahann Howard:

Thank you, Paul.

Paul Casey:

Let me wrap up our podcast today with a leadership resource to recommend it's a book I just read on vacation called the slight edge. It's been around for a while. The author's name is Jeff Olson and he talks about just little habits done every day. They're not jazzy sexy habits, but it's the little habits, a little exercise, the little 10 minutes of reading professionally a day, they had up to greatness over the long-term. So check out the slight edge by Jeff Olson. Again, this is Paul Casey. I want to thank my guest, Diane Howard, from the port of Baton for being here today on the Tri-Cities influencer podcast. And we want to thank our TCI sponsor and invite you to support them. We appreciate you making this possible so we can collaborate to help inspire leaders in our community. Finally, one more leadership tidbit for the road that will make a difference in your circle of influence. Desmond Tutu said hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness until next time KTF keep growing forward.

Speaker 2:

Thank you to our listeners for tuning in to today's show. Paul Casey is on a mission to add value to leaders by providing practical tools and strategies that reduce stress in their lives and on their teams so that they can enjoy life and leadership and experience their key desired results. If you'd like more help from Paul in your leadership development, connect with him at [e-mail] for a consultation that can help you move past your current challenges and create a strategy for growing your life or your team forward. Paul would also like to help you restore your sanity to your crazy schedule and getting your priorities done every day by offering you is free. Control my calendar checklist, go to www dot take back my calendar.com for that productivity tool or open a text message 2 7 2 0 0 0, and type the word grow.

Paul Casey:

The Tri-Cities influencer podcast was recorded at fuse SPC by Bill Wagner of safe strategies.