Live2Lead LP | Local Leaders The Podcast #237

0:00 Hey, everyone, and welcome back to Local Leaders of the Podcast. I am glad to have a new guest on the show today for his first, very first appearance on Local Leaders of the Podcast. His name is Justin Barksdale. First of all, welcome to Local Leaders. Thanks for having me, Jim. I'm excited to Have a little conversation with you and tell them a little bit about Live to Lead, Living to Perish. Yeah, yeah. Excited. That is coming up. We're going to get into that. And I want people to learn a little bit more about you before we get into an exciting event that we're going to tell you all about that is right around the corner. So stay tuned for that. But you're a local guy. Where are you from? Albany, Louisiana. The one and only Albany.

0:43 That's it. Albany, America. Yeah. You know, we should change it to that. I think so. Hammond's trying to do that. But yeah, Albany, America sounds really good. Yeah. Albany, Louisiana. Born and raised. Yeah. Yeah. Born and raised and boys, you know, it's hard to think that Albany is grown because it was so small, but it really has grown from where it was. It's tremendous to look around. We still have one red light, but we now have a, you know, a roundabout and lots of other businesses popping up, but we've got a Bojangles now. So if you're around the Albany area, come check it out. We've got, you know, world capital chicken going on there. Some of the the billboards say that. So it's fun stuff. Love it. Love it. Born and raised there.

1:25 And you are a guy who is, uh, we talked a lot off camera y'all, but leadership personified in so many ways. And we're going to take people on kind of a journey of your life in fast forward, if you will. So you are married and you, you have a big family, have big family. Yep. Married with four kids. Now we just had our fourth child. Um, just, you know, beautiful family, beautiful wife. Uh, Samantha Grayson is my oldest faith. Uh, second, she's, you know, I'm just thinking about the biscuit she's making later tonight. So I'm, I'm excited about that. Graham. And then our, our newest addition is Micaiah. So it's a little, little, little Micaiah.

2:10 So yeah, very good. And, uh, faith, uh, Which is part of your life. That's it. Yeah. That is who you are. Yes. You are a faith guy. And let's talk a little bit about that because in addition to founding Barksdale Safety Solutions, which is your company, you also have a big role in mentoring young people through your church. Yes. Let's talk a little bit about that. Yeah. Youth ministry has been something that I've been involved in, Jim, since I was probably 18. And it's just the Lord called me to it. I know I'm called to it. I love being able to minister to young people and getting to do that as a local youth pastor is just the joy of my life. I'm so thankful that I get to serve in that capacity and continue to do that.

3:02 And it excites me. So people that know me know that I'm pretty. Passionate about our youth group and what we get to do with them. And they're good good, good kids. And I've seen a lot of kids come through and I'm, I've enjoyed, you know, continuing to serve in that role. God, God's called me in. So love that. And give a shout out to the church. Yeah. Eagle Heights community church in Tickfall, Louisiana. So yes, sir. My pastor's Kevin Dunn and I love him so much. Very good. Very good. So We're going to fast forward a little bit more. And you talked about since you were 18, you've been working. I mean, you've been a faith guy probably your whole life, but you've been working, mentoring others in faith since that age.

3:48 What did you do immediately upon going out into the world and, you know, becoming a man yourself? Yeah, you know, just thinking back to my journey, and I believe God called me to to be a minister of some degree. I didn't know what that was going to be around 15 years old. And I thought at one point I was going to go to the full-time ministry. That ended up being a part-time thing. So I've always been kind of bivocational. But just being who I am and a man of faith is like, I'm living it out just like everybody else is every day. You know, I spent much of my career as a safety professional and went to college at Southeastern Louisiana University and for occupational safety, health, and environment. And How I got into that, I don't... It's funny because my family's a bunch of scaffold builders from Albany living in St. Parrish. But I scaffold built right out of high school.

4:41 Hard work. Hard work. And my dad said, son, you're not going to be in these plants all your life. But I did that. For a summer and realized that there were some good things happening in the industrial setting. And so that kind of drew me to career of safety. And, you know, doing that, you know, I ended up finding out that Southeastern had an occupational safety health and environment program. And that's where I went to college. And I did that all while serving, you know, back at home and in our youth ministry and just, you know, doing life. So I don't look at, you know, church and my faith as something that, you know, is just a little part of here. It's, it's really like, you know, it's the center of what we are and who we are.

5:26 Um, so I think of it like. That, but going along, going along those lines, just, just back on the career path, you know, we started working and, and, and still serving in the church and so it's just always been, it's, it's, it's not something that I think is separate. I think it's all together, but, um, gotta make a living somehow, you know? So it's, It's, you know, we're going to talk a little bit about that, I know. But just, you know, the journey has been a blessed one, a fulfilled one. And it's getting brighter and brighter. If I could just use Proverbs there for a second. I like it. All of that being said, you still felt like maybe you weren't fulfilling what your plan was, what God's plan was for your life. And you decided to focus more on leadership, which is really something you were, I don't want to use the word dabbling, but I will. You were kind of dabbling in that already. I mean, as a youth pastor, you're certainly dealing with leadership in young people.

6:27 So tell me how that journey ended up happening. Yeah. So, you know, just kind of backing up a little bit, Jim. So I spent, you know, most of my career as a safety professional and working for major corporations. You know, you and I talked off camera about you know, chemical plant in Plaquemine, Louisiana, another, you know, big, big name company around here that's, you know, contractor before that. And then a lot of my time, you know, folks that know me, I worked at Entergy almost seven years. And so I grew in these corporations, you know, being around a lot of leaders, being around a lot of people who are running a business, running major corporations. And so One of the things that I got pulled into because, you know, I've kind of been a public speaker and, you know, on the faith and the things since 15.

7:15 You know, you start doing a class here, you start doing a safety message there. They start to say, hey, why don't you why don't you come teach this? And so I remember back early on in my career. I say early on, but at Intergy, early on in my phase of my career at Intergy, I was pulled into a conversation about culture. Yeah. And I just. I love talking about culture, but especially organizational culture. Absolutely. It's so much more important now in this era. And I say much more important because of all the things that are happening. But let me. Just dive off into that for just a second. We got pulled in and they said, listen, we want to create this excellence model and we want to we want to really want to set the stage for the next several years and what our culture is going to look like.

8:04 And I just, I love that. And it resonated with me and what it really was. It was, it was, it was a leadership course. You know, it was a, it was a, we're going to every one of the plants. And at the time I was serving, you know, the power generation side of energy, which is just all their power plants and how they make the power to get to yours and I's house. And, and so we're, we're. Helping those leaders that are running those plants, just be better leaders and lead their culture and, And so that desire to help leaders be better just continued to grow. And so if I could back up just to my own journey, when I started at Entergy, at the same time, I started a little side hustle because I had worked four days a week, and I had one day off, and I was a one-income family. I don't know if you know any other one-income families. Obviously, permission to do this, but I started an LLC called Barksdale Safety Solutions. And the intention with that was to just be a side hustle, a side gig.

9:02 And what I was doing. For other consultants and just, you know, was safety-related activities, but a lot of it was, hey, can you come teach this safety leadership class? Yeah. Can you do this safety leadership? You know, so it's always kind of come back to leadership, leadership, leadership for me, which is funny. And this is not in your notes, and we didn't talk about this, but thinking about my background– Boy Scouts was a huge thing in my life from about 11 to 18. And I was one of the only ones, my family had never done that, but I was the only one in my family that went all the way to Eagle Scout. And I'm thinking about that journey now. I'm like, yeah. I went through Wood Badge as a Scoutmaster.

9:45 So I've always gravitated to wanting to not just be the leader, but make a difference. And so thinking about that making a difference kind of attitude, I look at, you know, Barksdale safety and the journey. that it started as a side hustle now to what, you know, I left my company, my corporate job, my nice corporate. Job, should I say. Secure corporate. Secure corporate job in 2024. And I have never looked back now because. I realize what I'm doing is much bigger than one organization. And what I get to do with my clients now is so huge. When I see a leader's face and the change that is happening after they've been through a workshop or they've been through a coaching session or they've been through, and I know I'm kind of jumping ahead, but I'm just telling you my passion is to see leaders grow because we all need to grow.

10:45 And we all can grow. That's right. And you're never too old to learn. That's it. Never too old to learn. And I've sat down with 300 different business owners, and I have learned from every single one of them. And I'm kind of an old man. I mean, I'm 52 now. You know, I'm not no spring chicken. I've been around the block, Justin. Let me say this before you move on. I don't want to gloss over this point because you just brought this up. You said in 2024, you kind of took a leap, okay, and you left your job. And look, folks, and I can speak from experience on this. That is scary.

11:26 It's especially scary when you got four kids or three at that time. And one that you didn't even see coming yet. I didn't even know it was coming. Yeah. So you've got three kids. And I want to ask you, how important was your faith in that decision? Oh, you know, we didn't do the move without knowing that. That this was a God move. And so I'll say this. In 2024, we had really ramped up in 2023. In fact, I had hired my best friend. And he was a school teacher. And, man, him and his wife wanted to. Be able to homeschool their kids. And me and my wife have always been able to homeschool our kids. We've been able to do that, one-income family. But it takes a lot to raise babies.

12:15 You and I talked about that. Oh, yes. And so, you know, my. Heart with this, and we're laughing and joking at the beginning of 2023. I'm like, how cool would it be if, and we're in the gym, how cool would it be if you came to work for me and your wife gets to go home and this company can pay, you know, you a salary enough to cover both of you and your wife's salary and you could go home and you can accomplish that. And we're laughing and cutting up about that. And then fast forward nine months later, nine months later, it happened. Unbelievable. It was just all God orchestrated. And I don't have time to go into all the details about that, but it's just beautiful. He's the director of my operations now, director of operations, Justin Anthony. He is amazing at what he does. He is my right-hand man and wouldn't trade it for nothing in the world now.

13:01 And God did that. But we saw in 2023 the growth, and here I am still full-time. And I'm having to give him things and really make sure I monitor my time and all of this stuff, which was a lot. It was a lot of hours. But then at the beginning of 2024, you know, I began to pray and I was like, God, listen, you know, I want this thing to work out where I'm full time in this. I'm tired of being distracted by, you know, nothing. Everything we were doing in energy was great. You know, at the same time, I had this burning desire to start this own company and, much like your journey that we've talked about. And I said, listen, Lord, I need something to help me grow and I need something to help the business grow. And that was the mentality that I had. So I was looking at different degree programs.

13:49 I was looking to get a master's in something and I thought that was the path. And then I come across this and I knew that leadership was something that I wanted to be a. Part of our organization. Of course, I was highly focused on the safety side of things and the, the, you know, safety technical aspects and compliance aspects and all the things that I get to do as a safety professional. But, you know, I said, what can we do? What, what product can we add? What thing can we do to make this to where I can feel comfortable enough to begin to sell this repeatedly to customers that they need it and they want. To buy it. And so I thought about that and I prayed about that. And the Lord brought me to, you know, the Maxwell leadership team, John Maxwell and, um, I had looked into the program in 2020 and it wasn't the right time.

14:37 It was obviously it's an investment, you know, and you pick, you know, you kind of pick what investments of growth you want to do it from time to time. But for my journey there, I looked at it and I said, you know, if I do this, not only am I going to grow because I'm going to get intentional about it, but it's going to help my organization grow. And the reason it's going to help my organization grow because there were products and things that I could offer in the marketplace immediately. And Jim, it was so amazing because so the way the Maxwell leadership team works is like, you know, you buy and then at the time it you buy your certification and then you get into the program where you have to wait to the next IMC, the International Maxwell Conference before you're certified.

15:23 And so. What I did was I actually had in my package that you've done a DISC before, DISC Personal Assessment. Oh, yes. Okay. So as a safety guy, I love behavioral assessment tools. Yeah. Because a lot of what safety is is dealing with people. Yeah. And people, I just love people. People, you know, some people just, you know, like people. Yeah. But I love people. And I just always love people. People person. I'm a people person. So I'm gravitating to this, you know, DISC, you know, assessments and DISC, you know, finding out what the leaders like and their communication style, their leadership style. So we had the DISC certification as a part of that prior to the IMC. So I went ahead and did the DISC certification as a part of my package. And then in August, IMC occurred.

16:05 I'm certified. Well, that just means I'm able to teach from the content, right? Right. At the same time, I'm starting to piece this together. I'm still working corporate at this point. I still got a. Team of people working Barksdale Safety, a couple guys that are just doing jobs that we were getting. And then here all of a sudden, it just happened. I had this conversation, one conversation, one conversation that led to another conversation. I got in front of a leader of a business and was able to to provide a leadership development program for the next year for that company that would allow me to leave my corporate job and go. And so it was just like the steps were ordered ahead of me. And I wasn't even three months certified. So my prayer was answered in that I wanted something to help me grow and help the business grow. And so it's just the faith part to your question is huge in that, is that I walk by faith and not by sight.

16:59 And that is a lot of times scary. That's a great quote. But anyway. Yeah. Walk by faith and not by sight. I love it. And you also said in there, another key word for, for people seeking leadership here, you said intentional, be intentional with what you're doing. There's a whole nother, that's actually part of the topic that I'll be discussing in this event that we're going to be talking about in just a second. So I'll save that nugget, but love that word, be intentional. So, You do. You get certified with Maxwell. And a lot of things happen kind of in that small time frame between 2024 and 2025. You also became a Livingston Future 5 winner with the Livingston. Great honor with the Chamber of Commerce here in Livingston Parish. And you are doing things. You're making it happen out there. You're betting on yourself. You're following God's lead, if you will. You had a book out there also. I want to mention this, The Safety Pro's Edge. It's an e-book out there. I would imagine it's still around.

18:06 It's still around, yeah. It needs to be expanded, but yeah. You know, Jim, knowing the background that I came from, and I really see a need for Um, for safety professionals, if I could just plug this for a minute, this applies to a lot of, a lot of, um, positions within the company, right. That it could be anything that you're working with, but don't just go to work to make a day. Yeah. Go to work to make a difference. Yeah. And that's, you know, for safety professionals that I'm mentoring up I keep telling them that, like, get in there and, you know, help the organization be successful. And that could be any role, right? Sure. That's the passion I have, though, is when I'm speaking from the Safety Professionals Edge e-book that I wrote there.

18:53 Yeah, I would agree with that. And you mentioned culture earlier, and I'm sure you would agree with me that in any business, in any field, the importance of culture. It can actually make or break your company. And a lot of that starts at the top because the way you treat your employees, for example, determines what their attitude is going to be when they come to work. That's right. And so you're really setting that, you're setting that pace for your group and you're, you're creating a culture is what you're doing. Yeah. And, uh, I've, uh, look, I've had a lot of jobs over. It's funny. I worked one job for 20 plus years and, and, uh, loved it and thought that was all I was ever going to do. But before that, I probably had 30 jobs and there's a whole story to that, that I was someone that just wanted to try everything. And and through all of those jobs and what I learned from them was there's a lot of people that go to work.

19:50 to collect a paycheck. And there's a limited amount of people that go to work to make a difference. That's right. So we need more of that. But culture develops that in people, I believe. So let's get into how we ended up with Live to Lead Livingston Parish. Because Live to Lead, the organization, the Maxwell Company. Look, go on Amazon and Google John Maxwell Books, and you're going to see this guy is the cat's meow, if you will, when it comes to leadership. Global. He is the best. He is global. And everything he does and touches is top-notch. faith-based leadership.

20:33 And one thing I will say that's very important is I've actually seen probably five or six global live-to-leads that have been televised. And the Chamber of Commerce actually used to put a lot of these together, and they were great, and I loved going to them, and I felt refreshed when I left there. And so I can't tell you how excited I was to learn that you were doing one that was going to feature local speakers in addition to a national Maxwell speaker. So let's get into that a little bit. How did that happen? So, you know, and look, the past of Livingston Parish having lived to lead, it's been, I know, tremendously a blessing to the area.

21:15 100%. If you've been to it, and unfortunately, I didn't because I did a lot of work off You know, as I worked, I lived here in Livingston-Barish, but my work was a lot of times elsewhere when I worked a corporate job. Now I'm very focused on how do I help my community get better? And that kind of speaks to why I'm doing this. But, you know, the Chamber of Commerce, you know, has done it for several years. They decided budgetary reasons. I was told that they're not going to feature it this year. And so guess what? You know, it takes a Maxwell person to put it on. And I said, why not me? Yeah. And so. That's kind of really the simplicity of it is I wanted to bring– I wanted to keep it here. I didn't want it to go somewhere else. But, Jim, as I listened to other people's feedback about what you just said, hey, we've had it like this.

22:06 We've done it like this. It's been very successful. But, man, it would be nice– some of the feedback that I got would be nice to just see a real person and not just a video showing of successful people, obviously. And there's a good mix of that, right? So listening to that feedback, my idea was, hey, let's bring Live to Lead Livingston Parish and let's feature some local speakers. I'm going to speak. It's my event. I get to speak, right? Yeah, that's right. But I'm going to speak. We want to hear you speak anyway. So you're going to speak. I'm going to speak. I love that. And then we're going to have four panelists that are different backgrounds, business owners to you've got Ross Kinchin of the Kinchin Group. You've got Angela Alessi. of heirloom journeys. Uh, she's also interim CEO of.

22:53 The chamber of commerce. And then, um, you've got Sean Castile. He is the COO. of Baton Rouge General. He lives in Livingston Parish. Did you know that? I did not know that, actually. He lives in Albany. Anyway, I'm about to try to tell where the guys live. But I didn't know that either. And then Glenn Taylor. And Glenn Taylor, maybe not as known, you probably hadn't heard his name before, but he's a HSE manager, health and safety manager at Shell Geismar. And so I invited him because I thought he could bring a different perspective than the other folks that are leading in different capacities. But those four panelists and then Rory Vaden will be the only, you know, simulcast or rebroadcast, which his is super awesome. I love his message of what we're going to be showing. But I really, to be honest with you, Jim, I'm really excited to hear yours the most.

23:45 Oh, I love it, man. Because we've talked about it. But, yeah, Jim is the closing keynote. He's the closer. So I'm pumped about that. All the pressure's on me. Yeah, you got it, dude. So whatever you say, we all remember, right? Yeah, exactly. But purpose, why am I doing this? It's really to help our community. And, and I say that in a way, like if you, if you want to come to a half day leadership experience, that's different. And it's, I say different in a good way. It's not just going to be a showing of videos this time. If you've been to live at the lead before, it is going to be world-class content right here locally. And I promise I'm bringing it. I know you're going to bring it.

24:27 And I've been helping and prepping the other folks and their panelists interview is going to be amazing. And I just, I'm super excited about the day. I think it's going to be great. And I don't, I don't think people want to miss it. I'm being honest. Yeah, I agree a hundred percent. And just to quickly on the panelists, you have, as you said, Ross kitchen, who is from the kitchen group, he, or founded the kitchen group rather in 2018. He has a large team, 12 plus people, future five award recipient himself. He was, he is also chairman of the Livingston Paris chamber of commerce. He, He's involved in, he's a notary. So if you need something signed, Ross can get it.

25:09 His brother's a notary, but they can do it. He'll refer him. That's right. And his wife actually opened Precious Prince Ultrasound. Studio in 2025. We can give her a plug there. So check that out. Angela Alessi. I've known her a long time. 23 years in construction business. She was CEO of an industrial construction company. Also in 2024, she and her husband, Lee, launched Heirloom Journeys, which. Is a travel company, travel design firm, if. You will, which I need to call because if I don't call somebody to schedule my traveling, I'm never going to travel. I'm going to be in this podcast studio forever.

25:52 So I need someone else to take those reins. I'll definitely be looking for that. She is interim president and CEO of the Livingston-Parrish Chamber of Commerce as well. So, wow, tell me that's not a leader. And the other people you mentioned as well, I'm not as familiar with, but I'm fired up to hear Sean do his thing and talk. Fired up to hear Glenn do his thing and talk. And these are people with a lot. What I like about all these people, the panelists and the speakers, is they're all from kind of different walks of life. Yes. So they become relatable, right? Yeah. I love that. Whether you're in healthcare or whether you're out there in a plant like I used to be, these folks, they're going to be there. And I'm excited about bringing everybody to come hear a similar message about leadership.

26:40 Yeah. Yeah, and I'm excited to share what I've learned and a little bit on my journey and how it's led me to discover leaders as well and learn from what they've taught me through getting behind a microphone, just like you're doing now. I do want to ask you a few more questions with regard to this. So this gets scheduled, and you come up with this amazing lineup of local speakers discussing you know, excluding me, I'm not. Pumping myself up here. I feel weird saying that about myself, but all these other people, but let me, let me ask you this.

27:23 Um, what has been the biggest challenge maybe with this? Yeah, I think, I think it's the, the, honestly, the marketing efforts for me. Um, it's, I'm still trying, Jim, I'm trying to get my name out there. Barksdale leadership solutions, Barksdale safety solutions. We're, you know, we're growing and, what people, knowing what people, you know, having people know what we do. And, um, one of the things that we do is have these great events. Yeah. And so that's, that's kind of been a challenge. If I'm, if I'm, if I'm honest, I've had, you know, your help. Well, and you're doing a good job on your own of putting those shorts out. We talked about that. Yeah. I actually had a guy reach out to me, a very prominent, uh, a broker, a realtor broker in this area named Darren James. And he texted me the other day and he said, what is this leadership thing about?

28:10 That's all he wrote. So I texted him back the link to live to lead. And you want to know, you got to show up and find out. It's going to be great. But he saw that off of a, I had shared one of your reels that you put on Facebook. Yeah. And I think that's the thing for me, if I'm honest, the challenge is that Um, you know, I had limited marketing, uh, monies that I put towards doing this with that, but we wanted to make it an organic thing. People be word of mouth. We're going to be at the forest grow plantation. I want to give them a shout out because they've been stellar about helping with this. I also want to give, um, uh, coffee, uh, chest press coffee. She's going to come. She's local to Albany, you know, so she's an Albany girl, but. Um, we're going to have free coffee for everybody. I like specialty coffee.

28:54 Yeah. Like this is going to be good, but we've got good food and we've got good coffee and we're going to be talking leadership. So, uh, I think, you know, beyond that, uh, it's just, you. Know, I want, I want people to know about it to get there. And like November the 19th is going to be a great day to come. Just, just sit back right before Thanksgiving, take it in and just, you know, soak up something that you can start to do something different now. You don't have to wait until January 1st. You can start doing different today. That's right. That's right. Anyway. And let me ask you, if somebody did ask you, like Darren had texted me and said, what is this about? What would you tell them? What would you say? I think it's a day to grow.

29:34 You know, if I could just put it in simple terms, it's really a half day. So it's not taking up your whole day, but it's a day to grow and learn from other local, if I can use that, local leaders and really hear different perspectives. But at the end of the day, my hope is that somebody walks away with something that helps them be a better version of themselves. It helps them go. Make not just be successful, like we were talking about earlier, off camera, but be significant. And how can we go from success to significance? And right there where they're. At, doing what they're doing and the role that they're in. And so that's my hope for the day is that they come get inspired, get motivated, come have a great experience.

30:15 That's what I want you to have. I love it. And, you know, I would say it's a half a day to invest in yourself. That's it. You know, so often. business owners, entrepreneurs, people out there that are running big companies, they invest so much in everybody else sometimes that they don't take a lot of time to invest in themselves. This is a day, a half a day to do this. So you're not, you can still take care of whatever needs to be taken care of, but so important to take time to invest in yourself because when you do that, you are invested in your business. And look, it really is uh, reasonable to say the least. I mean, very reasonable. Uh, and you can get all that information. I want you to shout out the website quickly.

31:03 Yeah. It's live with the two. Yeah. Number two, live to lead LP.com. It's simple as that. Live to lead LP.com. Yeah, and of course, I'll link that in the description of this video as well. So if you're driving or something, you don't need to write anything. Just wait till you get where you're going. Safety, safety, safety. That's right. Safety first. We got a pro here. But wait till you get where you're going. You can click that link and it'll bring you right to where you can get tickets. It is on Thursday, November 19th from 8 o'clock a.m. to 1 o'clock p.m. That's it. Forest Grove Plantation in Denham Springs. Breakfast is at 7.30. That's it.

31:44 Lunch is included. Breakfast and lunch both included. Breakfast and lunch included. Look at that. You can't beat that. And coffee. And coffee. Specialty coffee. Specialty coffee. You don't even have to buy the coffee. That's it. You're going to get great coffee. For nothing, because that's included in your registration price. That's right. And some great donors that have, you know, sponsors that have helped. Love that. Of course, we've covered the speakers that you'll be having, the panel you'll be having. Yes. Now, the theme for this is. would you call this the theme climb higher, be in the room? Yeah. So that is the, you know, live to lead theme like globally. And so I loved it. And I said, that needs to be the local theme because, you know, we, we have the global event that happens over in Atlanta and, you know, you, you can, you can register and go to that. It's a public event, but this is the one that, you know, John Maxwell team, Maxwell leadership, you know, when we put all together the marketing assets for live to lead as a whole, when you go back to your local community, This was the theme.

32:43 I could have changed the theme up if I wanted to. I like the theme. I thought so too. Climb higher. That applies to everybody. And being in the room when you're– and you made the point great here. Be in the room to make the investment on yourself. Yeah. Be in the room with other people that are doing the same thing. Be in the room to make change a priority. Yourself. Yourself to change. Cause that's where, that's where it starts. It starts with you making a change and growing. That's what it really starts with. That's right. To re-energize as you look, I have, I've been to a, you know, I'm very active in the local chamber and things of that nature. And I go to these events and I've always come back from these events and I'm like, man, I need to do more of that.

33:28 There is a literal change. Change when you get out and look i'm in i'm in a studio all day y'all and i'm editing and i'm going blind trying to see screens and all of these things but the truth of the matter is when i got out and i got around my peers and just positivity yeah the energy that it gives you when you go back to whatever business you're in is really something you can't even put a price tag on it's just for sure It is so needed and it's so hard as people who are drivers to stop what they're doing and go invest in themselves. So I cannot tell you all the importance of doing that. I want to thank you because this event would not be here were it not for you bringing it and putting a nice little twist on it to where these are local folks that some people may be familiar with, some people may not be familiar with, but they can familiarize themselves with, right?

34:26 Well, I'm excited. I'm excited to do it. Um, it's, it's my honor to, to be able to put it on, you know, with bringing live to lead locally was something that I thought about a couple of years ago. And then in this, like, it wasn't the right time now it's the right time. And so it's, it's the first one that I'm hosting, but I believe the next, you know, several times we do it, it's going to just get better and better. So you might want to come to the first one just to see how we grow along the way in the next. Couple of years. So I think you've done a phenomenal job of promoting it, putting, putting it out there and And I think that anyone who will attend this event will come out of it a better, you know, better in so many ways.

35:06 You'll have some tools. I believe it. I believe you have some tools. Yeah. So any final thoughts before we get out of here? Yeah. You know, I just want to say thank you, Jim, to, you know, allow me to come on, tell a little bit about me and talk a little bit about the event. But, you know, this this has been great just to. chat about, you know, what you do, what I do and what we're trying to do to serve. Yes. Yeah. Serving people is one of the things that I just, I'd love to do. And, and, um, I get to do, let me just say it like that. I get to do this. So maybe you're thinking today you're a business owner and you're listening to this and you remember, you know, your, your customer. You're, you're there to serve your customer, serve people. So, Come learn about servant leadership.

35:46 Anyway, those are a couple of my final thoughts there. No, I love that. And, you know, purpose is something that I think any human. Out there seeks. Yeah. And I think that it's events like this where people kind of find that purpose in one way or another. I truly believe that. We talked off camera about the absolute drive that I've had since I was a teenager to to be better and seek out that. Because I don't have the knowledge at 15 years old to know what it takes to be a leader, what it takes to be someone that lives with purpose and intent. And I had to seek that out. And sometimes you have to do that. You have to go seek it out.

36:34 And so come see us. I promise you, you're going to have a great time at this event, you're going to get the best coffee in the world, according to Justin. I'm putting a lot. Of pressure on her, but she's good. She's good. So we look forward to that. Thank you so much for coming on. To all the listeners out there, share this. If you're interested in attending, you can do so just by clicking the link again in this description. I'm also going to put some of Justin's other things that he does I'm going to link those in the description so you can get more information if you've heard something on there. If you're a company looking for a safety company to come in and help you with your culture, they can do it.

37:16 Or leadership development. Or leadership development. Jim, we didn't talk a lot about that, but I've had to rebrand and have not just Barksdale Safety Solutions, but Barksdale Leadership Solutions because- I'm doing probably more leadership development than I am doing safety compliance these days. Yeah, you were telling me about that. I'm like, wow, this guy's living the dream, man. I mean, I love it. Really, he is in so many ways. So thank you again for coming on. Thank you for having me. Folks, share this everywhere you can on Facebook. I want to see a ton of shares out there. And until next time, I'm Jim Chapman reminding you, love your community, support local business, and keep leading. Thank you very much.