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Michael Thomas, tell me about your vision.

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Yeah, so my vision is that every executive

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or business owner is able to make the most impact

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for their organizations or their businesses.

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Because I find that a lot of leaders,

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they do a lot of firefighting

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and that's a fantastic skill to have.

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But I think on the other side,

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there needs to be a little bit of

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what we would call fire marshaling.

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So not only taking care of the issues that come up

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from a day-to-day standpoint,

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but be able to get them into more strategic thinking.

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So my vision is to have more of the leaders

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do more of the things that can impact their business

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or their organization on a wide scale.

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And that allows their teams to feel like they're more in line

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or they can have more say in what that vision is

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because they know the context of what's happening

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and what that vision is for the future.

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Wow.

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Tell me more about that.

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Yeah, so I know in my own experience,

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when I became a leader in different organizations,

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I was very focused on getting my teams

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to do the things that I was doing.

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And I failed to realize that everyone has

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their own motivations, their own skillset,

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and not communicating the context effectively

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hindered not only my own progress,

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but the progress of my team.

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So I had to take a step back

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and certainly getting mentors and coaches

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are extremely valuable for myself,

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is setting that proper context.

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So being able to tell not only the story of,

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hey, I need you to do this thing or that thing.

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So not just at a task level,

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but being able to connect the task to that larger vision.

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So we know, okay, if we get this thing done today

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or this month, we know what's gonna happen

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for the next year or five years

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because everyone can see where that story is going to end

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rather than just focusing on the scene, so to speak.

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Wow.

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Well, thank you for sharing that.

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That goes directly into my life for you, Michael.

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What is a why you get out of bed every morning?

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Yeah, so for me, I mean, there's many whys.

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One of them would be to make an impact in my own way.

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Everybody has their part to play

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and as Shakespeare says, all the world is a stage

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and we're merely players.

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And for me, I want to maximize the role that I think I have.

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And what I've come to realize in the course of my career

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is that for me, one of the greatest skillsets that I have

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is being able to connect dots,

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to take something that's abstract

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and bring it into something that's more concrete.

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And I found that has been a very valuable skill in my career

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because it allows people to understand

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what a larger vision is.

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And so for me, my why is being able to connect the dots

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for others, help them realize their dreams

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and in the process, it'll help me realize my own dreams.

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What is so far is your dream?

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Is it the same as your vision of where you're going

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or if there's something else?

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Yeah, so a dream of mine,

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so an end game for me would be to have a beautiful house

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in a tropical climate, being able to pick mangoes

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off of trees and just live a very peaceful life.

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Now in the process, of course,

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we all need to sustain ourselves.

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So for me, part of that day,

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would require reaching out with clients or with teams

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and helping them organize the work that they need to do,

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communicating strategic narratives,

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organizing resources and helping them realize

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the goals that they want.

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So for me, that would be an end game.

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Now, how I get there is being very deliberate

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about the types of relationships that I build,

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the types of people that I interact with,

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the types of work that I do,

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so that to a degree ties into the vision and to the why.

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So for me, it's being my best self.

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So not being a second rate version of someone else,

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but being a first rate version of myself.

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Thank you for sharing all that, Michael.

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I think that was very impactful.

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And the mangoes on the trees,

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I feel like you wanna go to Brazil.

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Could be Brazil, Jamaica is also a place that has mangoes.

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My parents are from there and they have,

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so talking about them a bit,

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they immigrated to the US in search for better opportunities

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for themselves and for the family that they formed.

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And having that mentality, going into new territories,

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not really knowing what the future might bring,

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but knowing that you have a mission to make it happen.

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Knowing that you have a mission to make yourself,

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put yourself in a better situation for yourself,

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for your family and for your friends.

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And so I take that with me everywhere that I go.

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And I've moved to different cities across my career

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and across my life.

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And everywhere I go, I have a bit of a pilgrim mentality.

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So you go where the soil is fertile

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and you can maximize those opportunities.

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And so for me, I've always taken that with me.

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Now, of course, mangoes don't grow everywhere.

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So it'd have to be in certain places,

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going back to your question,

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but those lessons have stayed with me very much so.

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Awesome.

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According to you, according to the experience you've had,

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what defines a great leader?

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A great leader is able to not only communicate

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a very strong vision and enroll people

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into what that vision is,

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but they're also able to connect that vision

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into the work that needs to be done on a day-to-day basis.

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So some people will call it,

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could be a charismatic leader or a motivational leader.

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And there's aspects of that, right?

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Especially when there's challenging times.

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But I think one of the most important aspects

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is understanding where you feel the strongest

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and knowing that you cannot take everything on yourself,

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you must get help in order to succeed.

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So business and life is a team sport.

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Nobody wins on their own, nobody loses on their own.

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And so it's very important as a leader

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to understand where you're strong at

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and then getting help from others

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in either areas that you're not as concerned with

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or areas that you may not be as strong at

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and organizing the forces around

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what that vision is as a leader

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and marshaling the forces to the future.

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Now that could manifest in a number of ways.

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So some people may be more analytical,

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some people may be more strategic, visionary,

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some people may be getting, you know,

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like a program management style and getting things done.

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So everyone has their strong suits.

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So focusing in on what that is for that individual person,

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maximizing that, and then for the areas

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that they may not be as strong at is organizing teams around.

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So being able to connect vision to task,

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formulating that strategy around your strong suits

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and the strong suits of others as well.

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Wow, they do use strengths

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and build systems for your weaknesses.

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I think that's a pretty good strategy

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that you just defined here.

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And a lot of entrepreneurs, the one I've experienced,

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they're focusing too much on things they're not doing right,

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essentially focusing on things they are doing right

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and expanding on that and then bringing someone in

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and helping with the other part.

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It's more so we see with solar panel routes per se

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than entrepreneurial routes

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because they're stuck in their own way.

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It's hard to get them out of their mentality.

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So yeah, that's pretty hard on point.

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So thank you for sharing that, Michael.

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Yeah, and I'll mention something that you talked about

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from a solopreneur standpoint,

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and it's understandable, right?

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Depending on how much revenue is coming in

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for that solopreneur or even an entrepreneur,

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it may not be as advantageous early on to take on

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hiring new people or having assistance.

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So every situation will have its unique aspects to it.

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But at the end of the day for us,

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as people, we have a certain time period in every day.

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So there are no 25 hour days, there are no eight day weeks.

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And so for us to maximize the things

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that we would like to do,

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there are certain things that eventually

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we have to let go of and allow others to help us

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to reach those goals that we would like.

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So the time constraint is always gonna be there.

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And if we want to spend most of the time of that time

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doing the things that we enjoy,

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then it requires certain aspects,

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whether you mentioned processes and systems,

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that always helps.

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Getting help from others could be people.

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And it can manifest in a number of ways.

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It doesn't always require hiring someone,

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it could be relationships.

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You know, some people do joint partnerships

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where somebody has an asset or a resource

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that could be used in exchange for skill or expertise.

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So there's many ways to get creative about it.

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And so not limiting the thought process either,

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I think is also important because as a creator,

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as a leader, as an entrepreneur,

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there's a creativity that exists.

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So just using that creativity in a different context

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can open up a world of possibilities.

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Thank you for being here today.

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I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live.

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I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions

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as these episodes continue to move forward.

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This is gonna get more and more fun.

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We'll have more and more engagement as well.

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We'll invite people to participate in the show.

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And thank you for giving us your time and attention.

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Have an excellent time building out your vision

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and becoming a Vision Pro yourself.