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Racquet Fuel provides insights into the best practices and innovations of racquets industry business leaders.
Co-hosts Kim Bastable, Director of Professional Tennis Management at the University of Florida, and Simon Gale, Senior Director Racquet Sports Development at the USTA National Campus, help racquets leaders in your ability to grow the game and to improve the experiences you offer to both your staff and players by talking to industry leaders, including USTA executives, authors and innovators. If you are on a career path in racquet sports or already a racquets business leader and you want to stay up to date on ideas and innovations in racquets industry business and leadership, this podcast is for you.
Presented by the Athlete+ Podcast Network at the University of Florida Institute for Coaching Excellence.
Hi. This is Kim Bastable. And as Simon and I plan and record season four of Racquet Fuel, you will be enjoying replayed episodes from seasons one through three. There's incredible content from our previous episodes, and we want to inspire leaders and really help any tennis player or rackets player to consider a career path in the rackets profession. The content from our previous episodes should not sit on the shelf, so we're happy to provide it for you.
Kim Bastable:Please enjoy this episode recorded last year.
Episode Narration:Welcome to Racquet Fuel, where we launch into great conversations and share powerful tools to help you become a stronger Racquet's leader. Your hosts are Kim Bastable, a former all American tennis player and now the director of tennis management at the University of Florida, and Simon Gale, the USTA National Campus Director of Racquet Sports. In this episode, we tell the story of how two brothers from Perth, Australia ended up leading two of the most elite rackets operations in The US. Simon's brother, Chris Gale, is with us today as we fuel up on their secrets to leadership, team building, and culture. Now here's Kim and Simon.
Episode Narration:Welcome
Kim Bastable:back. Stay tuned today. This is a fascinating discussion. These guys admittedly aren't the best players in the world, although they did play for toasters and blankets in their early years, but they are great leaders. So I'm gonna let Simon and Chris tell you how they learned the tricks of the trade.
Kim Bastable:Here we go. Take it away, Simon.
Simon Gale:Alright, Chris. Welcome. It's a pleasure to have you on, and and this is an amazing amazing moment for us to do something like this together. I don't think we've done anything like this. So excited to have you here.
Simon Gale:Why don't you tell us a little bit about River Oaks Country Club? You know, what it is, where it is and kind of the tennis landscape and then we'll start there. Thank you.
Chris Gale:Sounds great. And Kim and Simon, thanks for having me on. Such an exciting opportunity and really looking forward to this. So yeah, I'm the director of Racquet's at River Racquet's Country Club, which is the number 11 platinum country club and it's situated about five miles from Downtown Houston, Texas. A beautiful club with 16 courts, eight red clay, eight hard courts.
Chris Gale:We have 5,000 members, an extremely robust tennis program and pickleball program here. We have 14 full time staff members and all 14 of them are certified in both pickleball and in tennis. And actually just last week we hosted the US Men's Clay Court Championship ATP event, which we've been hosting now for quite some time. It's a pleasure to be able to host such a great event for our members in the community in Houston here.
Kim Bastable:Yeah. That that's an amazing facility, amazing, event that you guys get to have. It gets a glimpse into your club. So that that's fun that we get to see that. So let's start out, though, with a little bit of, the brother story so we can get a reflection here.
Kim Bastable:What was your view of Simon growing up? He's your older brother. And and and tell us how you guys spent the first years of your of your tennis career in Perth.
Chris Gale:Wow. That's a that's a great question. I mean, the growing up in Western Australia, just a beautiful place and a beautiful climate and recreation is just part of the Australian culture and lifestyle. So we were we were And Simon and I were actually pretty big into another another sport called cricket, and we would play that endlessly. And this is the second most played sport in the world after soccer.
Chris Gale:But I think that our introduction to tennis was during a school vacation week, we kept telling our mom how bored we were. So she put us in a tennis camp with a guy named Bruce Robinson who was a bit of a legend in Australia. And he really took to us and took him under, you know, he took us under his wings. And that's where the love of tennis really started with me. And I think it did with Simon.
Chris Gale:Might correct me if I'm wrong, but we were young and how we got started. And then it became kind of an addiction, you know, playing at our local club and, playing competitive, team tennis as juniors and then as adults. And, so that was the foundation for our and specifically my tennis in Perth, Western Australia.
Simon Gale:Yeah, and it's pretty rare, we always talk about this how we never stop and reflect on kind of where you came from and you're always looking ahead, what's next. So hearing Chris talk about growing up in Perth, I think now that we've both been in The States for the best part of twenty five, thirty years, you took for granted what Perth was and what Australia was as a culture and you miss a lot of those things in sports and being outdoors is just part of the culture, especially because of the climate. It's just a perfect place to be outside all the time. So anything that we could throw, hit, catch, compete in, we did it and you grew up doing everything. And so I don't think we specialized in tennis until we were a little older or even if we did heavy tennis, we were always doing something else.
Simon Gale:It was a there was a winter sport in addition to tennis which was year round but we played winter sports as well. So I think if you look at what the pathway to tennis was, I do remember that camp but I think even prior to that, there was an after school program that that was a little four or six week after school program intro to tennis and that was played at the neighboring club to where my school was. And I was about 10 when I started, so I started late compared to, you know, now as soon as a kid can walk, they seem to have a racket in their hands. So I think we started later and got hooked on it but played everything. And just a quick story to that is it was funny that the timing of this is this week because over the Easter break, we would always go to this country tennis tournament and go with our club and all the members and play in as many events as possible on these pristine grass courts and it was, you know, if you won the tournament, you won a toaster or a blanket or something amazing like that.
Simon Gale:It wasn't trophies, prizes, that sort of thing. And we were texting with dad who's in Australia over the weekend and we were doing a three way text just reflecting back on those days and how much they meant to us and what they meant to dad as a father and now that we're fathers, they're cool memories that have lasted a lifetime because of this sport. And I think that's just what's one of the great things about the industry we're in.
Kim Bastable:Yeah. Yeah. Chris, I mean, do you remember that tournament? Do you remember and what was your father? Was he inspiring for you guys?
Chris Gale:I absolutely remember that tournament. It was it was kinda like the highlight of the year because it was good players that went to it. Know? Was it was and and the the a large population of players from Perth over the Easter weekend would migrate out to various smaller rural country towns and kind of take over the tennis courts there and have big tournaments. So it wasn't just a tournament, there was also a sense of community there because everyone kind of camped or, you know, were in hotels and everyone hung out outside of the tennis.
Chris Gale:So it was a really unique experience that you can't really give justice just by describing. But dad was an inspiration. I mean, dad was an amazing athlete and one of the most intelligent guys that I've ever met. A world renowned engineer, but also was scouted by professional football teams in Australia to play football. But he absolutely knew at a young age that a great education was more important to him than playing professional sports.
Chris Gale:So that really resonated with Simon and I because we chose to forego our tertiary education and pursue sports. It was, but that was definitely an inspiration.
Simon Gale:Athletic. Never recovered from that.
Chris Gale:Yeah, he did. I think he's just recovered now. It's a
Kim Bastable:yeah. So so who were some just where I I grew up and I love John Newcomb and Ken Rerunwald. Who were some of the people you looked up to on Australia? Or did you look up to Americans? Who do you look up to at your young ages?
Chris Gale:I think that Simon's and mine are identical. There was an Aussie tennis player called Pat Cash who just single handedly won two Davis Cups in the 80s, won Wimbledon in 1987. Know, and he was just an Aussie tennis legend because he and that was during Simon's and my real, like, formative years, you know, inspiration wise and really looking up to an athlete. But he was kind of an Australian legend, you know. I think he peaked out like top four in the world, you know, was really the guy that carried Australian tennis on his shoulders for quite some time.
Simon Gale:Yeah, I would second that and I think he also inspired us to all grow mullets and listen to rock music. He was a bit of a rebel. He was the one international superstar. We had a lot of great Aussie players but he was that celebrity international superstar right around that that same period you had, you know, like Greg Norman in golf was the equivalent. And and for a country that's so isolated to have somebody out on a world stage, that's a big deal.
Simon Gale:We're not America where it's just flush with sports and sporting celebrities. So you grab onto these celebrities and sporting icons, whether it's cricket, golf, tennis if they're at that level, they're rock stars in your country. So they were definite inspirations. The Woodies were winning doubles titles right around that period, right after then as well. And you know, we grew up playing on grass courts.
Simon Gale:So coming to America and going on slow red clay in Vermont and learning to hit three balls in a row, I'd never done that. Was serve volley and if the ball bounced, you should lose the point was kind of the strategy or tactic. Yeah. That's good. Same as Chris.
Simon Gale:It's funny that we got the same role models.
Kim Bastable:So okay. So, Chris, when did you know that or direct you know, a career in Racquet Sports was was the step you wanted to take? How'd you get there? And did you map out this career that took you to River Oaks or how'd you
Chris Gale:get here? You know, it's it's it's interesting because I do think about it often. I'll I'll never forget, Kim. We had to do in in fourth grade, I was nine years old. We had to do like a speech or in front of the whole class something that you were passionate about or you loved.
Chris Gale:And mine was tennis. And I brought my racket in and I was describing like why this racket is so great compared to other rackets and talking about tennis and how much I love it and I went on and on and on. And I remember the teacher looking at me and she goes, Wow, I think that your career is going to be tennis. And I was nine years old and it's it's was that the defining moment? Retrospectively, you know, yeah, that stands out.
Chris Gale:I'll I'll never forget that statement from her. But no, I'm really fortunate, Kim. I I've only ever had one job in my life and that's teaching tennis. I never have worked, in any doing anything else. And it started at 15.
Chris Gale:Yeah. When my coach said to me, hey, do you have aspirations of being a pro tennis player? And I said, no. And he said, well, good. Because I didn't wanna have to have that hard conversation that you weren't gonna cut it.
Chris Gale:He goes, but I tell you what, I'll teach you how to teach. And so he he did and he was brilliant. He was an absolute master with teaching, with people, with communication, just his whole energy and the way that he was. So, you know, I think I was very fortunate. I got started off at a very young age and he was great at giving constructive criticism without shattering your ego.
Chris Gale:You know, I think that my leadership style started with him and to kind of further the pathway. I knew at a young age here in The US that the private club sector was my pathway and what I was going to be most successful at. And I think that I got very fortunate. At 21 years of age, I became director of tennis at a private country club in the desert in in Palm Desert. And once you have a director of tennis on your resume, it just gets your foot in the door to so many interviews that if you have an assistant director or a head professional, it just really blazes a different pathway.
Kim Bastable:Yeah. Well, that's interesting you mentioned a mentor because well, I've done, you know, studies recently that show sixty six percent of the pros who responded to the survey I did said that it was a person who inspired them to wanna be have a career in our industry. And, you know, it's some people might just say the flat out love of the game, which you clearly had, but you tell you had somebody who I would call created a sliding door moment for you. You know? Opened it up and thought, oh, wow.
Kim Bastable:This could be bigger than I even maybe thought or I'd never maybe you hadn't at that point thought about that, but your fourth grade teacher opened that door. So Simon, what's your mentor story? Can you same same guy or different or what?
Simon Gale:No. It was the exact same guy. In the first podcast, we talked about how I got started and it was that little newspaper ad that I found and applied for this job. Was at this same mentor, Bill Mundy was his name and he had a club in Perth and then he was a real country guy so he on his farm had all these quarts, a couple of clay quarts and some grass quarts that he was starting to run some camps out of. So I didn't start in coaching, I started as the cook's assistant cleaning the bathrooms and making the fires and mowing the courts each day.
Simon Gale:And then after hanging around the courts a few days, he said, would you like to try teaching? It seems like you have an interest. So gave me eight kids and said, go teach them to volley and at the end of that hour, one of the kids said, Simon, do you know how to say anything else except good shot? Because all you said was good shot, good shot, good shot for an hour. But I knew right then that I loved it.
Simon Gale:And I think at that age, 17, 18, it was cool versus it was a career and you just enjoyed it. It paid better than working at McDonald's or something like that and it was fun. So it was a natural pathway to make some money. But I ended up in The UK for a couple of years and traveled around Europe a little bit and I was a cocktail bummer for a year at a nightclub and then another year at a four and a half, five star hotel and then ended up in The States. And as I traveled around The States, I started to see the amount of clubs, the amount of people, the amount of opportunities and started to think there's only a handful of clubs in Perth and they've got really good, there was a lot of good coaches and they had all those great positions.
Simon Gale:Is there a pathway for me in Perth or is there more opportunity in The States? And it just felt like you would look at the coaches in The States and say, I think over time I could get to a position like that and that's where I need to be. And it's a real business here, whereas I think in Australia and really a lot of places around the world, it's a sport and a hobby for a lot of people, but it's hard to make a great living and it's a lot more of a grind than it is here in terms of salaries and benefits and that's just really difficult in Australia. So I think we both saw that early and gravitated towards, you know, we need to end up in The States.
Kim Bastable:Well, Chris, so you mentioned, and I I find it interesting, you know, the only job you've ever had is teaching tennis except you run a a program at a club with 5,000 members, and I bet you're not on the court very much. So realistically, you are a businessman, and I think that's what we'd like the career you know, the world to know that this really isn't anymore about teaching tennis for the people who are in both of your shoes. And when does that transition happen and how did you get ready for it?
Chris Gale:It's a great question. I think that you can almost, so I've been in The US for twenty seven years now. You can look back through those twenty seven years and the involvement of what the requirements, thought processes and demands are on a director of tennis or rackets. Early in my career it was being present, ready to play with members, doing clinics and running events that exceeded expectations. Then it kind of evolved more to like, well, let's get a dynamic staff, manage the staff but you still need to have a large presence on the court.
Chris Gale:And then it continues to evolve into a well now you're a director of Racquet. It's multiple sports so you need multiple talented staff that can diversify themselves between tennis and whatever other rackets it is that's being offered. And so it's gone from being like a head tennis professional basically, director of tennis, director of rackets and I really feel Kim, you know, with absolutely zero ego that my position here at River Oaks Country Club is like the CEO of tennis or CEO of Racquet's. You know, it's an extremely large budget capital projects, long range, short range planning, staffing development, staffing diversification. On top of that, you've got all your program development.
Chris Gale:How are you staying ahead of the curve so that the members of River Rose Country Club are receiving the most dynamic, ultimate, forward thinking rackets program in the country because they deserve it. And everyone that steps foot on the USTA national campus deserves that as well. So it's more than just can you break down a forehand biomechanically or run a great you know, women's team practice? No, it's having the ability to have a staff that can do that while you still need to be out there I think. You know, I love the ten to fifteen hours I teach.
Chris Gale:Sometimes when I'm teaching fifteen I'm like this is too much. This is way too much, you know. And so ten hours is kind of like my sweet spot and some people don't want to get on tennis court but I like it. I like the connection. I like the connection with the staff, the team and I really like that on court connection with the members because majority of the time if a member is coming into my office or I'm asking them to come in, a conversation which has got a real end point.
Chris Gale:But on a tennis court or a pickleball court, these people are coming during their recreation time to be with you. What better compliment can you have? Because they could do anything, you know. So that connection to me is really key. But where I'm at right now, Kim, if I'm doing more than ten hours a week, feel it and know it.
Chris Gale:I'm spreading myself pretty thin.
Kim Bastable:Yeah, Simon, I'm sure you have a response as well. And just in general, where did you learn it? How do you
Simon Gale:get there? Because you guys do. You have very different positions than the so called rank and file or entry level pro. It's interesting listening to Chris describe it because you think about, you start out as a forty hour week pro and do the teaching and it's all about me and it's a connection with the client and I'm trying to get them to come back and get my paycheck every week. Then as you move up the pathway or the career ladder and you end up a director at some point, maybe it's starting at a small club like we both did and you are on court still a lot and you can't afford to have lots of layers of leadership and assistant directors and so on.
Simon Gale:And then you gradually, if you keep graduating, you move into bigger and bigger operations which take you off the court more versus just because you're a director, you should be off the court thirty hours and ten hours on the court. I think it depends on the size of your operation. And as it gets bigger and you have more layers, then you've got to learn to delegate. And so you need to be off the court more. For example, I don't teach any hours anymore.
Simon Gale:It was part of the job description, which was really weird to me and I still miss it because that's what we got into the industry for and the connections, as Chris said, and just being around people. But having a leadership role that changes over time and I think it becomes more off court and you're in hiring and philosophy and vision and you need your team to deliver the product. So that's just a natural evolution, think, as you go through different directors roles.
Kim Bastable:Yeah. But okay, so let's go to the idea of the University of Florida's Director of Racquet Sports, you know, education course where we now educate and certify USPTA and PTR certified directors of Racquet Sports who come through that course theoretically because you guys have lived through this apprenticeship model, but we now have this education model. So you didn't have a course like this to sort of feel like you got your head around it. Would that have, like, would that have been great? What were the pitfalls of of not having that?
Kim Bastable:Maybe you could share. I mean, I'm not shameless plug for the course, but just kind of try to understand how the industry is changing.
Chris Gale:I'd love to. I'd love to lead up on that one, Simon. I think Kim, you know, part of your previous question is like, well, how did how did you how did you figure it all out? You know, how did you, you know, and and let me start with that. Number one is I think that anyone that talks to me on a frequent basis gets sick and tired of me using the word mentor because I had the ultimate.
Chris Gale:At 24 years old, I got an Assistant Director of Racquet's position at a place called Dedham Country and Polo Club in Boston. Director there, his name was Reruns Thomas. To say that he was brilliant is an understatement. And he did something which I call an industry rescue. I was ready to get out of it because I had an interaction with a member, I must have been tired, I don't know what it was but she did not like the way I spoke with her.
Chris Gale:And she didn't complain to me, she complained to the director of Racquet's and she complained to the general manager with quite hostility. And I was like, you know what, I don't need this Reese, I'm out. And he goes and I will never forget, he's like, please do not leave this industry and he goes and he talked me through the whole process of how to smooth this out and if he hadn't have done that, I wouldn't still be in this industry And I learned so much from him over the next four and a half years. So he was brilliant. The one thing that he did not do, which I wish he had have done, was let me sit in on board meetings, committee meetings, association meetings.
Chris Gale:Those are the things that learning on the fly were the most difficult, Kim. And just sitting there as a 25, six, seven year old with him, seeing how he handled it, seeing what these processes are, seeing what these conversations are would have been great for someone like me. But learn it as you go through and you learn it on the fly. And do you make mistakes? Darn straight you do.
Chris Gale:And the greatest directors and leaders recognise their mistakes, learn from it and become greater leaders because of them as long as they haven't buried themselves with the mistake that they've made. It's something like the programme that you're heading up. What a gift that would have been as a like I said, got my first director's position at 21 to be able to go through a course like that and say, Hey, now I've got people I can lean on. Now I've got people I can reach back out to and say, Hey, you know, professor, we went over this in the second module. What can you just go over this again and give me some more clarity?
Chris Gale:That was never there. Know, so the mentors was my University of Florida. And there's another one, a mentor I had, his name is David Moore, absolutely brilliant and he's over at Houston Country Club now. To this day, I'll call Reese or I'll call David and just get confirmation or quantification of what I'm doing is the right thing. So now it's time for me to pay it back and let that be something that I do for other future leaders and leaders in the industry.
Simon Gale:Yeah. Kim, I would back that up with, I think we all had mentors who helped us learn how to teach and maybe they didn't actually pull you aside and teach you how to teach, but you worked alongside them and you copied and you emulated and you listened and then you applied it yourself. And if you're into growing as a coach, you pick up on the people around you which is a great value of working on a team. You learn from the pros around you just naturally. But I look back to when I started getting into being director at a larger program, say at Yonkers Tennis, it was a big program that we built it into.
Simon Gale:But the owner of that facility, Joe Curdo, he taught me how to take care of people, how to be more empathetic and care about your staff and look at work life balance and taking care of people financially before they come and ask you for a raise, can you be a step ahead of them and show that you're acknowledging their growth and their value to your business. But I I remember so many lessons now that I probably didn't take in at the time, but they they've helped me as I've moved through new leadership roles. Something as simple as I remember statements like, it's great that you've built the club up to 600 kids a week, but now your biggest challenge is maintaining it. That sometimes is more difficult than growing something, is can you actually maintain it? And so the statements I use as a leader that I didn't write them down, I just remember them and you start using them like Chris is talking about the statements he probably uses with his team.
Simon Gale:You know, I say things like it's more than just tennis and that means it's a connection to your people. And so we have these things that we try and pass on, but a lot of it happens naturally. So we didn't have any course and one of the things that I would take out of the course because I'm just about to finish it, is at 21, 22 years of age, like Chris said, the value of sitting in on a board meeting or committee meetings or how to present things is something that we don't get taught. But understanding financial statements, like the amount of directors who are probably looking at P and Ls and balance sheets for the first time and saying, I don't know how to decipher this and interpret it and then present it to my committee. Your course helps them get equipped for things like that.
Simon Gale:So I think it adds real value and it's a great asset for a young up and coming or even a director who's well established just to brush up on some skills.
Kim Bastable:Well, it's one of the things I believed in the originality of is that, you know, we aren't necessarily gonna teach you everything, but we can hopefully teach you a lot of people that you can connect you to a lot of people even within the course and then through the experts in the course. Because I think mentors and knowing who to pick up the phone and call and is important, and you guys have given some great examples. So just kind of, to we'll wrap this up in a minute, but to get through that mentoring, how would you recommend someone find a mentor?
Chris Gale:That's a great question. I think that there's benchmarking out there and I think that right now, with the amount of opportunity to really research places and people and what industry you're in and I'll speak on the private club sector. If you look at it, there's mediums and forums where you can see what are the leading programs, what are the leading clubs, what are the leading directors. I think that the private club industry is starting to see more leaders being keynote speakers at PTA and PTR conventions. CMAA is a great thing for the private club industry.
Chris Gale:Also with the networking that's really available now. If you make the effort to network and create a brand for yourself, quite often the reciprocation of a mentor will appear. If you're that's if you're a leader. If you're someone who is an aspiring leader or is is in the industry as an assistant professional or an assistant director, when you're interviewing for a position in the private club sector, you should be you should be assessing whether that director that is potentially going to be hiring you will have that mentor quality. And I think that a great mentor who is a director will spell that out very, very clear.
Chris Gale:I know I certainly do. When anyone comes on board at River Oaks Country Club, I make it very clear to them if they have aspirations to grow in this industry, that's my job. That's my job to mentor them, put my wings around them and ensure that they have every opportunity to grow to the maximum of their potential and reach their goals.
Kim Bastable:Yeah. I think that's the key. I think you've got great great insights for people who are coming up to make sure that they do get connected. Then and I would say from what I've seen from your discussions, there was the mentor that maybe inspired you, but that's not the forever. You're not gonna go necessarily back to that.
Kim Bastable:Then there's another one at another stage of your career, and yet another one at another stage of career your career. And in my understanding of mentors, it's good to have kind of a set maybe, or, you know, would you mentor me for six months or a year? Maybe an agreement. And then maybe it will expand and become a lifelong friendship for all you know. But if there's an initial agreement at the beginning, it feels a little less intimidating.
Kim Bastable:I know you have a story, Simon, about how you've kind
Simon Gale:of developed a mentorship agreement with someone. Yeah, I think when you talk about mentors too, there's lifelong mentors, there's mentors at certain points in your career but I've always put a real value on how I leave a place and the relationships that I try and keep intact whenever I leave. And so I look at the places I've worked in the past and I still connect with probably three quarters of the people I worked for. At some point, there's a connection, how are you doing? What do you think about this?
Simon Gale:And I'll call different ones for different situations, you know. And so you kind of build this team of mentors over time and you can use them for different parts of your career or situations you're going through. And Chris said something about really thinking about who you work for. And I use that a lot in the hiring process is, what are you looking for? Do you think you know everything and you want a leadership role?
Simon Gale:Or are you on a pathway to leadership? And what do you want out of the job beyond the finances? The finances need to be fair and and just, but what do you want out of this job? Because if you want to learn and develop and leave here better and get a better job, I will do that for you. I'm invested in you.
Simon Gale:If you just want to do it for money, then you might find there's a director that can do that for you but they don't have the time or they're not as invested in you. And so you have to weigh up what's right for you. So that's a question you should be asking yourself at all times is, who am I going to work for until I get to a point where I can be that mentor or that leader that is passing it on. So it's kind of that earning versus learning phase, right? And at what point are you learning before you start to get a position that pays you really well?
Simon Gale:So the one other thing I would add is I encourage, say in our future leaders group that I have here at the campus, we talk about, or I'll tell them it doesn't cost much to take a senior pro or a pro you respect or want to learn something from, doesn't cost much to take them out for breakfast or for lunch. And so for $20, can you go and spend an hour or two with someone and pick their brain? And quite often they're right in front of you and you just have to have the courage to go and ask them and I don't know many people who will say no, it's flattering to be asked and I think we're a pay it forward type industry for the most part. So look for people around you in your immediate environment and you never know where that's going to go and for $20 if it's no good, didn't cost you much. So I think there's opportunities there that you don't have to seek out the greatest person in the industry to be a mentor.
Simon Gale:They're right in front of you sometimes.
Chris Gale:I think that's something that doesn't get discussed enough is peer inspiration as well. If you've created, if you're a leader, you should also be networking with other leaders to inspire you. There's great directors of Racquet's that are a little bit younger than me or my age that I work with and bounce off ideas and discuss topics with them and vice versa. And if you can put your ego in check and say, hey, I'll listen to anyone. You know, you can create also a peer network that's going to drive inspiration.
Chris Gale:And I don't think that's discussed enough. Everyone talks about mentors and please, I think I've made it very clear what I think about a mentor and how important they are. But my goal and and and stamp I'd like to leave is is that, hey. Let's let's be a community. Let's be a network, and let's let's help each other grow and develop.
Chris Gale:You know? Even if we feel like we're we're at the top echelon of where we are in our career, there's there's still learning to be done. And that can be done through through mentors or through peer inspiration, I think.
Kim Bastable:That's fabulous information, both you, Chris and Simon. We do need to be an industry where we have mentors and mentoring happening. We need to learn from each other, and that's really what this podcast is all about. We look forward to the next episode where Chris is gonna stay with us, and I'm gonna talk to them both about the mistakes that they've made and how they learn from them. We're looking forward to that.
Kim Bastable:We'll see you next time on Racquet Fuel.
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