Giving Back thru Mentoring

0:00 This program is designed to provide general information with regards to the subject matters covered. This information is given with the understanding that neither the hosts, guests, sponsors or station are engaged in rendering any specific and personal medical, financial, legal counseling, professional service, or any advice. You should seek the services of competent professionals before applying or trying any suggested ideas. Hello, and thank you for tuning in to a Sharp Outlook on pay for HD radio and talk or TV. I am Angela Sharp, your host. Our arm chair discussions with industry experts will give you the steps, tools and information to be successful in business and to prepare you to be your best self. Hello, I'm Angela Sharp, and welcome to a Sharp Outlook. And today I want to talk about mentoring, but I want to talk about it in a very special way. I'm sending out my own personal appeal to those who are retired, those that are seniors, those that have worked over many years, that are still maybe working but thinking about retirement. I would like us to consider giving back, giving back to organizations, giving back to the workforce through mentoring small businesses. They're the engine of our national economy. Through business formation, job creation, and

1:35 wealth building. The small businesses and their support are critical to vibrant communities in our society. Mentoring is a developmental, often long term relationship. We're a more experienced individual mentor guys a less experienced person. The mentee to foster personal and professional growth through knowledge sharing and support. It aims to enhance skills, build confidence, and career advancement, and also offer some psychosocial support. Mentorings often talked about is ah nice to have, But I'm saying I think it's a real necessity and I'm going to give you some personal information about why this is important to me. I work in the areas of finance CFO fact you know, fractional CFO Interim Controller, Director of Finance, VP of finance for multiple industries and organizations. I also do software implementations and assess software and ERP systems and help organizations to get this installed and trained so that people are able to have the efficiency than an ERP system offers. But what I am finding and have been seeing over the past five,

3:08 maybe even ten years, I've been seeing that the work is being done, but it's being done by people that are lesser experienced and it is causing quite a bit of problems for organizations who are the recipients of work done by maybe less experience. And I'm not trying to say anything negative. They're doing what they know to do, but without some of us experience people they're mentoring telling them all of the things that are involved because we've been there since the first personal computer. Tell the truth, we've been there and we know all of the ins and outs of programming and how much information needs to be involved in the programming, and how much thought needs to be involved in the processing, in the paths and the processing and the information flow. That is critical information.

4:11 And if you don't have someone that is there to train you when you come on their job, you're going to be doing it based on just knowing what the software is, but not understanding the critical processes and things that are involved in it working efficiently and in the best interests of the client. So I'm saying this that I've seen these particular conditions. They can be changed, they can be helped. But we that are retired already or are thinking of retiring, we have the full picture, and I think we kind of ought to be given back.

4:53 We need to share this with the younger generation so that they can be successful too, so that they can be able to do their best job and be their best self. And so I'm appealing to you, I am asking you, and I'm going to talk with you about how to become a mentor and organizations where you can be a part of mentorship. So it's really important, and I hope you're listening with an understanding. Ear I'm not being critical. I'm just seeing a situation that I think it's not just in the areas that I have been and in the industries that I have gone to, the different companies, but it is happening in a lot of other spaces, even in the development of AI. And so we need to bring that knowledge to our younger generation who is now taking the baton from our hand. But we need to equip that younger person who is taking that baton and moving on and care the process to fulfillment.

6:04 How to recognize when you're ready for a mentor. Well, that's kind of something that we need to talk about because there is a difference between a mentor and a coach. A coach is someone that's coming in and maybe working with you and talking with you about a specific skill and helping you to improve in that particular area is generally short term and the process of working with the coach, they're asking questions and looking for feedback, and that's the process that's being used. A mentor. Well, we don't particularly be asking questions. We're there to come and inform, So we are giving you information, we are guiding the information, we are guiding the conversation, and we're doing it based on experience in the very area that you are working.

7:02 So it's not overall coaching about you know, being excited, and coaching is needed because sometimes you get maybe a little down and you need to be motivated, or you are put now into a supervisor position, but you've never been taught or shown leadership skills. What's important for leadership skills, So coaching is really good. But that mentor is going to come in because they know that industry. They know all of those processes, not just one, but all of the processes of the organization. So when you get down to the point of you have financial information that you are generating or you're in there reviewing financial information looking to see whether or not the company is stable, you understand all of the ins and outs of the organization, all of the transactions that occur. You understand all of the different levels of regulatory requirements and everything that is involved.

8:05 And so the mentor is coming to tell you some of the things that may have not been in a younger person's career. They're not teaching a lot of this in school. I'm not sure why. They've kind of dummy down. That's a terrible way to say it, but the classes are not at the same level they were when our group went in to get our education, went in to get our degrees, and so they're kind of in a situation where they don't know what they don't know, but we know, and we am asking you to please consider it skill and career development. It accelerates learning through practical knowledge and advice from seasoned experts, and we need those seasoned experts. Never turn away for you, younger ones that are listening. Don't turn away from the grid. We've been there, We've done that, and we're part of the whole process that was developed from the beginning. We know the ins and outs, we know some of the pitfalls, we know some of the heirs that we actually saw and were able to overcome and are aware of so that we know what to do in the future, and so we have advice that we can give you. And we're not there trying to be critical. We're there to be your champion, to be there to help you to achieve, to be there to root you on and to help you so

9:37 that you don't have to go through some of the stump stumbling, or the mistakes or some of the frustration that you might be experiencing. We've been there, done that and can tell you all about it. And maybe you may want to consider getting a mentor, especially for our small business owners, those that are starting small businesses. You're at a place where you just are very frustrated. You don't know which way to go. Everything you do seems to not be turning out right. Call for a mentor, a mentor that can come in and give you advice, come in and assist you with with expertise that they know because they've lived it, and they can tell you exactly what it is that you need to know. The types of mentoring or mentors they have, you know, traditional ones, a one on one often a senior level person to a junior level person, or you can have group mentoring.

10:42 You're gonna have virtual mentoring, you know, online remotely, you can have peer to peer. You know, individuals who may have gone further in their career, they have learned things, they can come back and assist. It's not there's nothing wrong with asking for help. It's not a bad thing. In fact, it's the best thing you could ever do. Is if you need help, ask We are out here. We do have the answers. We do have experience, not saying we know everything. You have new technology that you're working with, but it started from the old technology, and so we have things that we can share with you.

11:28 And then we also sometimes because some of us older people are coming back into the workforce, we have junior employees that are mentoring older employees. So it can work both ways. Sometimes you just need to just ask and say I need some help. And then you can sometimes have a situation where it's not just one mentor, but you have multiple mentors that are there that are working in different areas of their expertise. That brings the whole picture together. And that's something that I would advise for a business owner, whether you're just now starting or you're at a point where you wish that you could go and expand and scale, but you don't know exactly which direction to go. Contact some of the mentors, and I'm going to tell you exactly the places that you can call to get this help. Call mentors who have worked in that industry. They've been in manufacturing. They understand some of the problems that happen in manufacturing. They've been in the healthcare industry, They've worked in government environments. They have done all types of different positions and have seen different processes, work with multiple software platforms, and so they have information that you can really learn from and would really really

13:05 help you move forward. So it's just one of the things I wanted to say. Let's talk about the role of the mentor. They act like coaches. They guide, they challenge you and their role models. They provide feedback, they share experiences, they assist with goal setting, and they help navigate organizational and personal challenges. And one of the things when I say they challenge you, they're going to ask you honest questions. They need authentic, authentic answers. They need to know who you really are, what your fears are.

13:50 And the wonderful thing is when I say they talk from experience, they can give you examples. One of the things when I was in college, and I know you know what I'm doing talking about younger people. I was in school, and it's wonderful to learn all of the textbook you know, analogies, and you know, be able to prepare for your tests and all of that's wonderful. But then going into a working environment and actually applying that information. You and I both know that is more difficult than what they made it sound in school. So learning how to actually apply the information that you learned in a work setting is very, very difficult at times, and sometimes it takes a lot of mistakes and falling down and having to get up to get through it. Because other people that are there they went the same way you, the same route you did, and they don't know either.

14:52 But a senior person, a senior mentor, we've been there, done that. We know, we know how to apply it, we know how it works in almost any environment, and we can help you along the way. The one thing we love to do is develop a level of trust and as I mentioned before, authenticity that is needed for the mentoring to be successful. We're not there for you to pretend that you got it all together. You need to be honest and say, this is what I'm having difficulty understanding. I don't know what this means. I don't know how to do this. I have people in here helping.

15:38 Things are more messed up than what they were before, and so I need some help. I need some advice, I need some guidance. I need your expertise to tell me what would you do in this situation? What would you do if this was your business? What would you do if you were the CEO or the operations manager or the CFO. And they're going to be kind, and they're going to be considerate, and they're going to tell you just exactly what they would do based on years and years and years of experience in the same areas. And so that is really important that you know that how to be a mentor in times where there must there must be honesty and the mentee is not really a receptive to the facts, but work through the walls.

16:36 We've got to be able to help them, not challenging the mentee, but and challenging them in the way that they feel uncomfortable or they feel like they're being belittled, but challenge them in the way of energizing their analytical skills, energizing their thought processes, because that's really important when you are mentoring to get to that point where you help to tone up or sharpen those analytical skills, helping them be able to do critical thinking, that what you see is not always the right answer, being critical, going in, researching, going in, tying it out, going in and looking at everything that flowed in and flowed out. Does it make sense?

17:26 Is it working right? Is it giving you what you were expecting? That's really important. And so when you're in a situation where a mentor building trust is probably one of the first things you have to do. Establishing a safe and confidential environment where that person can tell you their fears, can tell you their mistakes, can tell you that they just don't know or they don't understand, and they don't feel threatened by telling you this. Building that trust is really important. And listening, listening to them, understanding the menteing's needs and goals, not taking over, but listening to hear what they think their needs and goals are and providing constructive feedback, constructive offer guidance on strengths and areas for improvement. Coming there knowing that you need to have a plan. You're going to have conversations in advance.

18:41 You're going to have discussions, You're going to have things that you talk about during that time when you're trying to find the right mentor. But then also that mentor needs to understand what the goals and objectives are and is this an area where they feel they have that expertise or they can really help them in that area. So it needs to be total clarity and honesty between both parties in this relationship to make sure that it ends up being successful and then being accessible, just depending on how long it's going to take. Dedicating consistent time for meetings and communications and setting clear goals. As I said before, define the partnership in advance so that no one's feelings get hurt. No one is anticipating or expecting your of rival or to you to be there and you're not there or you're arriving, you're making yourself available and the mint tea is not making themselves available. There needs to be set rules and set times and set plans for communicating so the goals can be achieved. You know, with them running the business, owning a business, their time might be limited, but there are ways of working around that and setting it up so that you do make time.

20:11 Sometimes you can even be on site being a mentor, and I've seen that in the past with organizations. I've even invited in mentors for organizations that are developing, and I see where they are and they have areas where they need skills that need to be developed, and so I have sought out mentors, you know, for an organization that can help build up the knowledge base in those particular departments, those particular development areas. Let's look at the stages of mentorship. It follows a pretty structured process and it involves, like I said before, initiation, getting to know one another to see if it's going to be a potential match. And as you're defining the expectations, you both understand what the goals are and you both wanted to achieve the same thing, cultivating, building trust, goal setting, active knowledge sharing. The mentor is going to be sharing their knowledge.

21:20 They're going to be sharing experiences they had, They're going to be sharing solutions that they used for the particular situation that you're in. And so the men team needs to be receptive. We're not your parents, We are there as your guidance, your guides, and your assistants and your helpers, and we're not trying to instruct you like we're talking to one of our own children. We're instructing you as peer to peer adults with thoughts and resolutions and ideas is and we talk them out with you, We explain them to you. We get your opinion as to whether or not it's something you can commit to do so that you're able to achieve the goals that you're wanting.

22:13 What we're wanting to do is understand that also a mentor is more than just what do you want to say somebody you're having a coffee chat with. They're there to bring real expertise to the situation that you're in and they're there to really help what you're doing doing. It's more than emailing someone on LinkedIn or getting a chat going through Facebook or whatever your social media. It is generally on site. It's generally they're looking through information. It's they're reviewing your process. It's they're reviewing even the leadership, the skills of leadership, the the areas. Because we need to find where the breakdown is happening, where the where the maybe the risk might be where there might be areas where development is needed, knowledge is needed, and so it's far more than just setting down having coffee and just having a chat about something. It's going to have solutions, and it's going to have steps to those solutions, and the expectation is those solutions are going to be not only listened to, but applied to the situation that you happen to be in. What makes it different from advice, from coaching or therapy. One of the things I want

23:45 to explain. Mentors generally do not get involved in personal things that are going in going on in your life. They are experts that deal with those and those are the people that you should be contacting. A mentor is coming in to deal with problems in your workplace, problems in your business, problems in your department, problems in your business flow, different things like that, but not getting involved in personal and giving personal advice as far as coaching about things that you might be going through personally, that's where we kind of draw the line because that's not what we're there to do. We're there to assist you in your professional development. Some signs that it's time to seek a mentor. If you've had a business for five plus years, especially ten years, and you have not seen it growing, you have not seen it expand. Now that might be your choice that you want to be at that level, but if you're wanting to be to expand, you're wanting to scale, you're wanting to open up more divisions or more locations or different things like that, and you have not been able to make that leap, I

25:17 think it's time to talk to a mentor, someone who can come in and actually see what's going on. Because of their experiences, because of their knowledge base, because of what they know, they're going to be able to come in and write up a plan for you to help you get over that hurdle so that you can reach that goal that you're trying so desperately to reach. But you don't know the right steps, or you don't know what you need to do first, or you don't know how to make it happen, or who to contact or different things like that. And you have to also understand, because of all the multiple years that mentors have worked, they also have great networks. They have networks of people that they could refer to you that could really make a huge difference in your organization and in the plans that you have set for your organization or your own personal plans for your business to grow roles and responsibilities.

26:29 What do you believe a mentor owes a mentee and what do you not owe a mentee. As I mentioned before, you're there to give advice business professional advice, but they're not there to become a sounding board for personal things going on in your life. This is a professional relationship and you will receive and achieve a lot in your professional career from that mentor building trust and honesty. That's going to be one of the big hurdles because, like most businesses, you feel like you can't share because of the constant competition that you have with other companies that offer the same services or offers with the same products.

27:20 There's a competition there to get the largest market share, so there is a kind of bit of suspicion, you know, when you're talking to someone, so you don't feel like you can open up. A mentor is not there to challenge your organization or take your business secrets and go out and use them. They're there to help you get the information so you can grow that you can develop that you can scale, that you can move on. If you're in your career and you've now been placed into a very key senior role, but you're not sure what to do next, or you're not sure how to handle it, or you're not sure you know how to deal with situations in the organization. You get someone who has experienced that and successfully managed those challenges, successfully found the solutions to those problems, have resolved many of the challenges in the organization that you are experiencing at this time. So it's important to, like I said, get on the right foot when you're just getting started with a mentor getting the right structure. You know, how often do you feel you need I know with mentors that I have used in the past, not for me, but for organizations that

28:51 I have said, you need a mentor to help you maybe go in and train some of their engine years, or training some of your finance staff, or train some of your sales sales group. You know the people there. You get a mentor who's been there and has done those things. It really makes a difference, a difference that you will never ever forget. But some of the things you want to do is establish how often and I think that would be based on what is what need do you really have. Some of the challenges you might have is something that is cyclical so that you only need to see the mentor monthly, or you might have major issues that you know, you've got auditors staring you down and you have things that you have to clean up, or or just whatever it might be before the auditors come or they have come, and you've been instructed these these these things need to be mediated or you might lose your you know, your opportunity to even continue to be a business. So you bring that mentor in and it might be something where your frequency is weekly, and as I mentioned, some mentors actually come on site and they're there daily until the situation is resolved. It just depends

30:22 on who you're speaking to, what their availability is, what your needs really are. And these are things that you need to establish up front so that when you begin this mentor mentee, you know, relationship and you're resolving these problems. Then it is handled as if it's part of the business and they are there on a regular basis, and everybody knows exactly when that is. So that you make yourself available, both parties make themselves available so that they can meet those goals and be able to do those things. There are some of the common challenges, whether you fail or you succeed, if you don't establish the right relationship up front, there may be a situation where this whole mentor mentor mentee situation will fail. If we don't have truth and honesty in that relationship, it can't be successful because you're working from a point of view where you're not even resolving the problem because you haven't heard what the truth is about that problem. They are there to help.

31:42 They're not there to hurt you. They're not there to make you feel inadequate or anything. They're there to boost you. They're there to excite you. They're there to inform you. They're there to build you up so that you can be all that you ever ever wanted to be. There's nothing wrong with not knowing. That's the situation that I know. We have a lot of people out there to say, oh, you know, with the name calling and stuff like that, we're not in that space. The space we're in is we have qualified and experienced people that have knowledge that would make your life easier, that would make your life more successful. And guess what, I haven't even told you the best part the organization that I'm going to mention it doesn't cost you anything. Who doesn't want a CEO to come in and help with organizing your company? A CEO that has twenty thirty forty years of experience working in multiple industries and it doesn't cost you anything? Now, how can you not want to do that? Just think about that, You're getting expertise that some other person is having to pay three four hundred thousand dollars a year for for free. We're going to mention that just something

33:18 to make you hang on to the end. But just having those communications and understanding what is needed and what needs to be done and who needs to do it, and you know, And then like I said, determining how long the process is going to be. If it says it's going to be thirty days and we need to achieve this within thirty days. If they say, well, based on the severity or maybe that so many different areas in the organization that development needs to be built up, it could be six months. But they're there for that six months. They're not going to leave. If you commit and they commit, they're going to be there on the assigned time, and they're going to come there energized, and they're going to come there with information, and they're going to come there with ideas, and they're going to come there with structure that's going to help you get over those hurdles and those challenges and become the organization, the business, the nonprofit, the manufacturing site, the healthcare organization, whatever it is, whatever industry. Because we that have been working a long time, that have been in this workforce a long time, we have seen all of the businesses and we've seen them from the beginning up to this date, and so we know what's involved. We have stories that go way back and can walk you all the way through the path of those stories up to this very date as to what works and what doesn't work and so, and as

34:50 I mentioned before, those services can be free. And so to my seniors that are out there, one of the things I wanted to mention that there is an organization out there that provides information, and they provide skills, and they provide guidance and they do a lot of different things. And I want you to consider being a part of that. But one of the things we have to establish also the boundaries and expectations. You know where you draw the line with the mentors and where you draw a line with the mentees. So establish good boundaries and expectations and you'll have a successful relationship and the issues will be resolved and it will be a successful site visit and plan.

35:56 One of the other things I wanted to mention is we have a lot a lot of businesses out there that are indigenous, they're minority groups or whatever, and equity, inclusion and access is sometimes not available in all areas of their business organization. So how does how can we maybe have more representation in that area because we do, we need mentoring that's going to impact underrepresented or marginalized organizations.

36:38 Someone with that experience, somebody that understands that pathway, that understands some of the challenges that we're seeing today or over the years of just because of the the just because of some of the issues that have never been resolved here in this nation. And you know what I'm talking about. When we don't have some of these things resolve, then it causes imbalance. And there has been imbalance. So we've got to have mentors of all backgrounds, because organizations are of all backgrounds organizations that have all kinds of challenges and situations and circumstances that not everyone would understand, but someone who is from that particular, you know environment, they understand the challenges, They understand how to work around some of the challenges, they understand how to miss the pitfalls.

37:47 So we need, you know, mentors that are going to come in from all backgrounds, all types of experiences so that they can bring, you know, knowledge to this situation so that people are able to get the information that they need. And then you also need to establish how to measure measure whether or not this mentoring was successful, measuring the impact you know, when you're telling them that you're able to do this, and this set a clear goal so that everyone understands when that goal is met, nobody is discouraged, nobody is disappointed. No one feels like they didn't receive but they expected, have the expectations, there, have the goals there. So when you get to the end, you can go through your checklist. All of these goals were met, all of these things were accomplished, all of these things were served, so that you know them when you walk away, you really, really truly have had a very successful relationship with that mentor. One of the things, one of the things is I was going I was trying to think of, Okay, what would be a question a mentee could ask a mentor to maybe find out

39:21 who will they understand? And I guess one of that my question was ask that mentor have you ever made a mistake and what happened? And how did you fix it? Have you ever failed? Ask them what was the circumstances, how did you feel, how did you react, and how did you go forward? So that you can understand that just not coming in with you know, the Wonder Man with the cape on and Superman, you know, resolving the day. You know, we have Clark Kent under there that can also make mistakes, say the wrong things, do the wrong things.

40:06 So we have to know that that person is open to sharing personal information. Everything is not a success. Sometimes there are some failures. And when you get a mentor that is willing to say, you know what, I did this, and boy it blew up in my face. I should have asked someone, or I shouldn't have taken that particular path, or you know, I should have researched a little more. They have to be willing to share even that kind of information because we're not perfect, We're just experienced. Now we learned from our mistakes, we learned over the years, and we learned exactly what it is that need to be done. Effective mentorship is built on connection, clarity, compassion, and commitment and they will give you exactly what is needed that's going to help the younger people achieve their career path or their goals that they have in their organization or their personal goals and maybe starting a business.

41:19 They will be able to make that happen. But the organization that I want to speak about is called SCORE s Coore Service Corp of Retired Executives SCORE, which exists here in the country and it's a find that foundation that you can look up. It consists of over ten thousand volunteers, stakeholders and sponsors who are willing to give back to their communities through mentoring. And it was established in nineteen sixty four. And I used them in different environments when I was needing assistance or needing help coming in as an interim or when I worked as a CFO and I saw different areas that needed building up, I contacted SCORE because I knew they would get the expertise needed to be able to turn this around very quickly.

42:24 So successful small business owners understand the importance of giving back to their communities people that joined SCORE. They volunteer. They volunteer to helping small business people solve business problems. The volunteers give freely of their time, energy, their knowledge to help others. SCORE volunteers donate over one million hours of their time each year to support their communities, community alliances, and to help organizations and businesses or whatever it might be, become successful. Diversity and mentoring. Mentoring is valuable and possesses great power by diversity of thought, diversity of race, gender, ethnicity, geography, and experience is important and valuable. In SCORE volunteers are generally lifelong learners. They remain relevant. They achieve personal and satisfaction and growth personal satisfaction and growth. They enjoy it.

43:40 I enjoy it. I enjoy mentoring. I'm here on a sharp because I'm mentoring. I enjoy informing. I enjoy being able to give you guidance so that you can miss the pitfalls, can miss the mistakes, can miss some of the problems or the issues that we ran into as we were learning and growing and watching the digital world come to life. The small businesses need knowledgeable experience business people to give back to their communities by volunteering, volunteering their time as a mentor. No matter what your particular industry title or expertise, you have value to offer two potential entrepreneurs. And as you know, like you said, small business is the backbone of the nation. We always have to keep our small businesses growing and developing and starting.

44:45 And with the expertise of some of our older retirees, you can't be anything but successful because you're going to get the best experienced workers they you could ever even think of having. And they're volunteering and it doesn't cost anything. So hmmm, what does that mean? Wow, I don't think you have an excuse not to contact them, and I'm really recommending that you do consider bringing them on board their experience. To you volunteers that are going to start working with SCORE, your experience is vital. It really is.

45:33 As I mentioned before, people are stumbling, they don't know what they need to be doing. Things are not as good as they could be if they just had a little just tweaking a little bit. And you know what that tweak needs to be. It's vital and it truly matters the volunteers. Knowledge is relevant, it's important, it's wisdom, it's experience. It serves clients through mentorship and education. Mentors develop relationships and they act with integrity and respect, honesty, purpose, and professionalism. They listen with an open mind, they encourage and openly, openly are going to tell you what it is that you need, so people that are seeking help, you're going to get the help that you need. They have long term relationships and are drivers of small business success.

46:37 Score the organization I'm talking about. It's in all fifty states and territories and they are experts in entrepreneurship and business operations. They volunteer their time just because they want to help. They have free on line events discussing topics that range from startup strategies to marketing and finance, and the attendees can watch on webinars live or view recordings that are online that we're recorded at a previous time.

47:21 SCORE offers entrepreneurs free confidential business mentoring in person or remotely, and they're there at your fingertips because all you have to do is contact them. Their website is score Sco r e dot org RG. Their phone number is one eight hundred six three four zero two four five. They're waiting on you to call. They're waiting on you to say, I need I need help. If you are even those that are kind of considering, you know, working with you know, nonprofits or government organizations or whatever. They have experience and everything.

48:17 They cover every area of industry that exists. They've been there, they have long years of experience, and they just want to be there to guide you, to assist you, and to make you successful. And I don't know how it is you can refuse free free executives that would be making hundreds of thousands of dollars and you get them for free because they care and they're giving back. And so I'm saying to even some of the retirees that seem like they don't you don't have anything to do, this is something you can do, something that can make a difference in the lives of businesses that are starting, and in the lives of professionals that are starting their careers, and in the lives of those that are dreaming and thinking about starting something but don't have any clue how or where to go. You're there you've got that knowledge, and I'm asking you please become a volunteer. It's time for us to give back to the communities, to the business world, and to the next generation so that they can enjoy what we're enjoying, the joy of having successful careers.

49:47 Help us all out, join score or whatever organization you would like to bring knowledge to our younger people so they can succeed. Thank you for tuning in to a Sharp Outlook. We're here every Monday at eleven am Eastern time eight am Specific time. We're here to inform and to bring you good topics to add to your podcasting time. And one of the things I always want to tell you to do stay informed. I want to thank you for joining us on a Sharp Outlook. We have been informed and energized to take the next steps. We have posted links to websites and videos to learn more on today's topic. Please join us again next week for another thought provoking conversation right here on key for HD radio and Talk for TV. Listen to the podcast on all the podcast apps, and until next week, stay informed.