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Leon Pinder: The Road To Leadership · Inside West Palm Beach

• 0:08
  This is the City Center podcast from West Palm Beach,
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  Florida.
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  I'm Jerry Marcelo.
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  The city is a place where hard work and dedication does pay off.
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  There is of course the satisfaction of serving the residents of West Palm Beach.
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  But there is also the promise of career development and professional growth for those who stick with it and do their job.
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  Well,
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  a good example of this is a man who many years ago started one of the toughest jobs in the city and is now the leader of one of the busiest departments in West Palm Beach.
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  And we're here today with Leon Pinder,
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  director of public works and support services for the city of West Palm Beach.
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  Leon.
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  Welcome.
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  Thank you for having me.
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  Listen,
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  help me get this set up.
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  What exactly do these two departments do for the city and the folks who live here?
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  Well,
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  public works and support services.
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  One we provide uh in public works,
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  uh sanitation services uh where it's commercial,
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  residential yard ways and residential garbage pickup for the citizens of West Palm Beach.
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  We also provide uh street lighting maintenance.
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  Uh We fill potholes with our asphalt crews we repair sidewalks,
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  uh,
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  with,
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  uh,
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  our,
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  uh,
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  concrete crews and,
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  uh,
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  also our,
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  uh,
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  sign department where we make the signs like in-house,
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  uh,
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  some stop signs,
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  some yield signs and a lot of different,
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  uh,
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  signage that you may see around the city of West Palm Beach.
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  Uh,
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  we do in house,
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  uh,
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  support services.
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  We,
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  uh,
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  you know,
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  fleet is,
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  uh,
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  part of support services where we maintain all the city assets,
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  meaning uh cars,
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  pickup trucks,
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  uh uh sanitation vehicles,
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  bucket trucks,
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  so on and so forth and uh facilities where uh our department maintained all the city owned facilities uh throughout the city of West Palm Beach.
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  So basically a whole lot of stuff,
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  you guys are involved and obviously the ones that we hear about most often,
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  you know,
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  fixing street lights,
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  fixing potholes.
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  Hey,
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  when is my next garbage pickup?
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  All that falls underneath you?
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  Wow,
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  that's pretty impressive.
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  So you are the director over both these,
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  these groups.
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  But you started a long time ago doing a different sort of job for the city.
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  Yes.
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  Uh When I started,
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  uh I started here as it back then.
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  It used to be called a refuse collector.
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  So that was uh back when there was uh three guys on a residential garbage truck.
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  It was a driver and two guys on the back.
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  Uh That's where I started at when I started here.
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  And how old were you when you started?
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  Uh I think I was probably around like 23 something like that.
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  So,
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  what made you take the job?
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  What,
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  what drove you to come to the city and give it a shot?
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  Well,
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  uh,
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  prior to working here at the city,
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  I was a truck driver and I was driving over the road.
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  And,
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  uh,
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  so I,
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  uh,
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  you know,
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  didn't want my kids to grow up and not know who their dad was.
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  So I decided to take on a different uh career path.
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  And uh I started here at the city and I started looking,
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  I was like,
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  well,
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  hey,
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  uh one of my friends worked here and he was like,
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  hey,
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  you should come and do this.
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  And I was like,
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  oh,
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  I'll take a look at it.
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  And so,
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  uh taking a look at it,
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  I was back off the road for like two weeks.
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  I told him I needed to be home,
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  uh close to home.
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  So I began to show up at the city of West Palm Beach at four o'clock in the morning,
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  uh,
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  before the supervisor would get there.
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  And I say,
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  hey,
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  I want to do this job.
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  And he was like,
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  uh,
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  you don't want to do this,
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  you're a truck driver.
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  This is hard work.
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  It stink,
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  it's hard and it's a lot of heavy lifting.
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  I was like,
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  sir,
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  I would want to do this job and he was like,
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  uh,
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  yeah,
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  come back tomorrow.
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  And so tomorrow the next day I was there at four o'clock again.
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  I was like,
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  I don't have a problem getting up iiiii I want to work and then he was like,
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  well,
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  come back on Friday.
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  And so I came back on Friday and I was there again early and he was like,
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  ok,
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  ok,
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  I'm gonna give you a chance.
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  And so that's how my career started here at the city of West Palm Beach.
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  Wow.
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  So you basically stuck to it.
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  You would not take no for an answer.
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  You kept coming back and coming back and you did it for some pretty important reasons.
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  Your family.
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  Yes,
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  fantastic.
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  So what,
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  what you did that for a while and was there an opportunity or what was going on?
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  Yeah.
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  So I,
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  I started out as a refuse collector.
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  I did that I think about for three or four years.
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  And then I was uh promoted to a uh sanitation equipment operator where I began,
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  began to be the driver uh of the residential truck.
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  And uh so I did that for several years and shortly after that,
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  I became the residential sanitation supervisor.
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  So uh where I started then I was the supervisor over that whole work group.
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  Uh And then uh several years after that,
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  I became uh five years after being a supervisor,
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  I was promoted to the uh sanitation superintendent and I was the sanitation superintendent for seven years.
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  And then I was uh promoted from the sanitation superintendent to the public works operations manager.
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  Meaning at that point,
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  I was not just over uh sanitation anymore.
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  I was over sanitation and street maintenance.
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  Um And then uh a little short time after that,
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  a year or so after that,
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  uh I was promoted to where I'm currently as the public works director uh for public works and support services.
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  Now that,
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  that,
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  that's,
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  that is incredibly impressive,
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  but it wasn't necessarily as smooth a ride as you might have might be portraying.
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  It was,
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  was there some stumbling along the way?
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  Yeah,
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  you know,
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  I can remember one story and I could remember it very clear to this day.
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  Uh uh when I came to the city,
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  I went to a training and I was uh I was a driver at that time and I went to a training that was for uh supervisors and um as a driver,
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  you could go if you aspire to be a supervisor.
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  So I went to this training and uh you know,
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  I was asking some,
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  the the instructor was asking some questions and I was answering the questions.
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  And after that training,
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  uh she called at the time was the superintendent of uh sanitation and told him,
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  hey,
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  I think you picked the wrong person to be your supervisor because you have an employee.
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  That's a driver that really should have been a supervisor because he was able to answer more of the questions than the supervisor was able to answer.
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  And I remember my supervisor at the time said,
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  hey,
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  my boss said,
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  don't allow you to go to any more trainings.
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  Uh,
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  because,
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  uh,
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  you know,
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  you're,
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  you're smarty pants.
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  And so,
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  um,
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  at that point,
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  uh,
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  I didn't go to any more trainings right away.
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  But,
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  uh,
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  shortly after that I was,
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  uh,
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  consistent and persistent that I want to go to other trainings and I was allowed to go.
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  So,
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  what did,
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  how,
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  how did you react?
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  How did you feel when you got the smarty pants hit?
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  Well,
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  you know,
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  uh,
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  I was,
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  uh,
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  I was taken back by it a little bit because I didn't think I was being a smarty pants.
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  So I was just,
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  I knew because I had,
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  uh,
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  you know,
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  read up on things and I researched things and I took the time to learn about it.
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  Um,
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  you know,
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  because I want to make sure that,
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  uh,
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  I was one in compliance and if I was gonna,
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  um,
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  share anything with anybody,
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  I wanted to make sure I knew what I was talking about.
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  And I always wanted to know I wanted the information so that if one day I was able to lead anyone that I could give them the right information from the beginning.
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  Instead of having to backtrack and try and give them information,
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  he took the opportunity to take this sort of look hit and then,
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  you know,
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  sort of redefine what management is about.
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  And did you ever take that to heart?
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  Did you use that in the future when you were hiring and working with new people?
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  Yeah.
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  So,
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  one of the things I did is I took that to be the fuel to the fire if you will.
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  And I wanted to make sure that I never,
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  ever,
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  uh,
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  was one of those individuals that the supervisor,
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  not the supervisor and the superintendent was because the things that I've seen them do,
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  I wanted to go 100 and 80 degrees different and not do them.
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  And I want to be the supervisor that my employees one day would be able to,
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  uh,
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  depend on and know that when I spoke to them that when they spoke to me in confidentiality,
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  that it wasn't gonna go anywhere and that I cared about people and not,
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  it wasn't just the number and how I talked to people and how I respected them.
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  And,
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  you know,
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  one of things I used to this day that we may not necessarily like each other and we can agree to dis disagree respectfully at no point.
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  Would I,
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  I demand respect and I will never disrespect any one of my employees or coworkers at any time.
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  Um,
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  so that's one of the things II I took from,
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  from that and how do your coworkers react to this to your approach?
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  Well,
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  I think they,
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  uh,
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  they can not only,
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  uh,
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  hear me talking but they can see it in what I do every day.
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  Um,
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  as the way I carry myself,
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  uh,
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  the way I respond.
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  Um,
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  you know,
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  one of the things that,
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  uh,
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  I don't think any one of my coworkers or anybody I work with can say that,
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  hey,
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  they've ever seen me upset.
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  Um,
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  that's not who I am.
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  Um,
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  I know that,
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  you know,
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  the storm may come but it's only their 10 and I always uh calm about situations and if two people get upset,
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  we're not solving any problems.
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  And I always tell people that I try to lead by example and I'm not gonna ask you to go do something that I'm not willing to either go out and be your biggest cheerleader side by side with you or go out and do it with you right now because there's probably people who are listening to this who are thinking about perhaps maybe applying for a job with your division,
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  with your,
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  with your group.
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  What message would you like to send to someone who's thinking about joining public works and,
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  and support services?
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  Well,
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  I would tell anybody that have a thought about joining uh public works and support services that you could not want work for a better city than the city of West Palm Beach.
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  That's number one,
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  number two,
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  I think that I would say come and join the award winning team.
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  You know what we do every single day,
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  we get to make a difference.
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  And you know,
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  I always kind of go back to uh the sanitation division because within sanitation,
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  if this is a service that everyone depends on every single day.
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  Ok?
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  And it,
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  it's like clock work.
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  People don't think about it.
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  They know that their garbage days or whatever those garbage days are they put their garbage out when they get back home.
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  The expectation is that,
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  that garbage cart is gonna be empty.
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  The moment that that garbage cart is not empty.
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  Uh We're gonna be getting a phone call,
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  what happened?
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  And so we provide a service that not only people want,
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  but people need and it's,
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  it's not that hey,
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  when you call us,
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  uh it's not like when uh nothing against the police are fire something bad to happen.
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  No,
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  we're just providing the ongoing,
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  ongoing service that everybody expects to have.
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  Lean,
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  obviously,
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  the type of work that you do is very,
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  very complex.
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  How do you keep up with the state of the art and all the things that you're involved with?
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  What sources do you use?
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  Well,
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  there's a different uh organizations that I'm affiliated with uh like a PW A which is American Public Works Association that I'm very involved in and also connected with other individuals and professionals that's across the United States.
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  Um There's uh swana the solid waste authority of North America Organization and,
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  and other organizations that I just tap into and that there's individuals that uh have been uh in those organizations for years and years and some of them are retired and consultants that I still keep in contact with uh to make sure that I'm relevant and plug into free webinars whenever they're uh available as well.
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  Anyone that you can think of that truly motivated you or inspired you to be the man that you are.
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  Well,
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  I think that uh there's,
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  there's probably a couple of individuals so I won't name them by name,
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  but there's a couple that uh that are part of the organizations.
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  Uh Just that I just said like uh a PW A and swana,
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  you know,
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  I could tell you that uh I took a trip over uh several years ago to the city of Clearwater and met some incredible gentlemen over there and that I,
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  when I seen the uh friendship and relationship and working relationship that they built and uh and the individuals that uh was working for them that was so happy all the time and motivated to go out and do more uh that just inspired me to definitely latch on to those individuals and uh many other ones uh uh around the,
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  the US.
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  Uh But them in particular that made me say,
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  hey,
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  you know,
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  something,
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  those are the individuals that I want to be associated with and,
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  and learn from them.
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  All right.
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  So if you had the opportunity now that you are director and you've had all this experience in your life.
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  If you could reach back in time and talk to yourself when you were 23 years old and starting your career with the city of West Palm Beach,
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  what advice would you give?
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  Um I think,
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  uh the one thing I would say is,
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  hey,
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  you know,
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  uh continue,
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  uh just go back and how many other individuals that you could bring along to show that how great that the city uh is and was.
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  But how could you provide careers and opportunities uh,
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  here for individuals that have,
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  uh,
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  came to the city,
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  uh,
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  uh,
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  uh made a mistake and unfortunately,
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  was unable to come back,
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  you know,
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  come and do a great job and,
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  and have a long career,
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  a rewarding career.
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  Because,
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  you know,
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  one of the things that I asked,
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  one of the employees that's in the street maintenance uh division is,
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  hey,
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  when you retire,
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  what do you feel that you'd be most proud of when you're riding around the city of West Palm Beach with your grandkids?
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  And he says all the signs that I've been able to put up,
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  but not just that the signs that I've been able to put up,
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  that I've been able to make a difference for every resident and visitor that come to the city of West Palm Beach by having the bright signs out,
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  Leon.
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  There's no doubt you and your team makes an incredible difference here in West Palm Beach.
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  I wanna thank you for taking the time today and enjoying joining us.
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  Is there anything that you would like to say to the folks out there now that we have an opportunity to have their ear?
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  Any message for the folks,
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  you know,
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  again,
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  is,
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  you know,
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  um my thing of it is is that,
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  hey,
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  we provide um um exceptional service here in the city of West Palm Beach.
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  And one of the things I like to pride myself and my team on is that I can't do anything without having a winning and a great team,
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  you know,
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  set any expectations up front.
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  So everybody know what their role is.
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  You know,
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  uh,
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  most teams I'll use football as an example.
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  You have one,
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  maybe two quarterbacks,
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  maybe three,
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  you know,
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  but at the same time,
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  everybody needs to know what,
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  what their role is,
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  play their role and you can win any championship that you're going against because everybody knows what their role is and be the very best that you can possibly be because every individual add value to the team.
• 15:01
  Leon.
• 15:02
  Thank you so much for being here.
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  Thank you for having me.
• 15:05
  Have a wonderful day.