Patrick Adams  00:00

Welcome to the Lean solutions podcast. This is the podcast that adds value to leaders by helping you improve performance using process improvement solutions with bottom line results. My name is Patrick Adams, and this season, I’ll be joined by three other amazing hosts, including Catherine O’Donnell from Ireland, Andy Ulrich from Australia, and Shane got involved from the United States. Join us as we bring you guests and experiences of Lean practitioners from all over the world. Hello and welcome to this episode of the lean solutions podcast. My name is Patrick Adams, and I am joined by our other three hosts for the Lean solutions podcast. So I’ll just let them introduce themselves. Shane, you want to start?

Shayne Daughenbaugh  00:45

Hey everybody. My name is Shane Dauphin Bob. I am glad to be here. I don’t know if you needed anything else. I

Patrick Adams  00:52

don’t think so. I think just just names is good for now. I guess we’ll just go around the room. Andy, Andy. All right. Good night. Alright, from Australia, and then Catherine from Ireland.

Catherine McDonald  01:04

Hi everyone. Catherine McDonald here, how y’all doing? Alright?

Patrick Adams  01:08

So this is, this is a different type of episode for us. We’re obviously at the end of the year, as those of you that are listening in, it is Christmas Eve, right into the holidays, and this will be our last episode of 2024 so we’re going to be saying goodbye to 2024 and saying hello to 2025 so what? How do you guys feel? How did the year go? I mean, what? Let’s let’s talk about it. Let’s reflect a little bit here on this past year. Catherine, let’s start with you. Any anything special or that happened this year, personal, work wise, I mean anything at all,

Catherine McDonald  01:50

apart from the Lean solutions podcast, of course, number one, obviously, this has been a great experience, and we’ve talked about it, and it’s absolutely up there with with my best experiences this year. Apart from that, yeah, both work and life have been good and not always easy. But then that’s okay too, because with some of the challenges throughout the year have come plenty of learning for me and my business as well. I’ve worked with some clients who had a lot of difficulties, took us a long time to get going. Things like that. Things didn’t go right, but we are coming out the other end, and we have come out the other end, and I’m grateful for that, and they’re grateful for it. So I’m I’m delighted to have this opportunity to do what I do and to learn, and obviously, once everything is good, but family and health, I’m happy. So it’s been a good year, a really good year. I have so much to be thankful for. Love

Patrick Adams  02:48

it and Catherine. What do you have? What do you have planned for Christmas? New Year’s? Yeah, so

Catherine McDonald  02:55

I’m cooking. I’m cooking for everybody, and then I’m going to do nothing for the rest of Christmas. Can do every cooking and organizing. I’m just, I’ve actually very little planned. I’ve all my parties and my meetups. I do all that between November and the start of December, because I just love this downtime in December. That’s, that’s, yeah, but I love, so, yeah, awesome.

Patrick Adams  03:19

Perfect. Good. Shane, what do you got going on over the holidays here?

Shayne Daughenbaugh  03:25

Man, over the holidays. So we’re doing something unique. I have two adult children who live with us, and they’re going through college, working all that. Great kids. We love them to death. But since they’re adults, Christmas changes just a little bit. You know, Christmas Day is a little bit different. Little bit different, and my wife loves Christmas. Okay, you don’t understand. My wife just tries to blow everything up with Christmas. Just loves the holidays, loves it all, and loves to be creative about how we’re going to do gifts this year. However, we’re doing something very unique. We’re actually buying ourselves the present. So what and how this works is, which is fantastic, because I don’t have to think about, what am I gonna get my wife? What am I getting? Yeah, we have different ways of spreading out things, typically. But this year, everyone is buying their own present, wrapping it, and then the rest of us have to guess what that present is. What would you buy yourself? Andy, that’s what we would, we you’d hold it up, and we’d have to go, okay, so what would Andy buy himself? And I’m still trying to figure out what the prize is going to be, if you get it right. But I have, I guess, if this is New Year, if this Christmas Eve, I have about 12 hours.

Patrick Adams  04:39

Love it. I love it. Andy, what about you? What do you got going on?

Andy Olrich  04:44

Shane made a little noise when you were talking through, like, what’s 2024? Been? Like, it has been a wild ride. And I’ve Yeah, yeah, coming into this episode, I thought I’d look back not just on the podcast, but the year. Man, yeah, James, and things in, right? So. Uh, it’s been awesome. It has been a year. Let’s talk about the podcast. I just met some absolutely incredible guests and made some really good connections all over the place, all over the world, and that’s been really good for my own growth and getting to just get those little nuggets of wisdom. I’m hoping that I’m getting better at this, even though I’m traveling at the moment. So I’m, I’m not coming to you from a professional podcast studio. Let’s say that. So that’s okay, but you learn to to just make it happen. Work wise, and personally, yeah, things have been very busy. Just seem to try and fit so much in every year and try and outdo the last. But everyone’s, everyone’s happy, healthy. I’m, I’m I’m on my way to Mexico at the moment, but that’s for people who don’t know. Australia. There’s a state below New South Wales, where I live, called Victoria, so south of the border. So heading down here to to catch up with the Mexicans for for Christmas. So it’s, yeah, it’d be great, lots of food and sightseeing. So love it, yeah.

Shayne Daughenbaugh  05:59

And we got to see you. We got to meet you. Now. We just in 2025 just going to be able to meet Catherine. Yeah, oh

Andy Olrich  06:05

yeah. That was going to be my last, my last thing we’ve been talking about highlights here, definitely making it to the states and going to the the Lean solutions Global Summit. Looking forward to seeing Catherine there of Detroit next year. So bring it on, guys.

Catherine McDonald  06:19

Give me dates

Patrick Adams  06:23

end of September, 24 25th and 26th I think it is. The nice thing is it’s at the Westin rate connected right to the airport. You can literally get off your flight and walk right into the hotel from from your flight, and same thing going out. So you can stay right up to the end, walk directly out and not have to worry about parking, or, you know, getting to the airport or getting through customs. Or, you know, the hotel has their customs through TS TSA, the hotel has their own, so they’ll get you right into the airport, super quick. Yeah, it’s really nice, very, very special for our international guests that’ll be coming in for the summit this year. Pretty awesome.

Catherine McDonald  07:03

I’m Patrick. What about you Christmas? Yeah.

Patrick Adams  07:07

So I this. This is a, this is a special Christmas for me. We just found out this year that my oldest daughter, who’s been married for two years now, they moved back to Michigan about, I don’t know. It’s been almost a year now. They were living in Montana. They moved back, and we just found out that they’re pregnant for their first child, and that means I’ll be a grandpa in February. So yeah, so you know, that’s definitely a highlight for me this year, on a personal standpoint, and even over the holidays here, just looking forward to spending the holidays with them and my son and my youngest daughter and the rest of our family, and just being able to be together and just have a really good have a really good Christmas. And as far as New Years go, I don’t know yet. I don’t know if we have plans yet, so looking forward to that, but, yeah, it’s been a it’s been a good year for me as I as I think back. You know, our summit this year was amazing. That was definitely a huge highlight. Loved. I try. We have a client in Kazakhstan, and this was my first time ever going there, and so that was a highlight, going to a country that I’d never been before, meeting people and learning about a culture that hadn’t worked with before. So really enjoyed that as well. And I mean, I could go, probably go on and on. You know about so many other things. This year’s season for the podcast. Was amazing having you guys join me. You know, I’m no longer lonely anymore. You guys have filled my my bucket, so that’s been great. Shane, I didn’t get to, I didn’t get to hear your reflection, thinking back on the year, either, what? And you know, just, let’s also give us a little reflection, but also maybe a, maybe like a highlight for a personal and a work you know, for me, it was, you know, learning to be a grandpa number one from a work standpoint, it’s hard to pick just one, but I guess I’d go with the summit. We had a really successful summit, a ton of fun. I learned a lot, so it was really good for me. Yeah, Shane, give us a reflection. Oh, this

Shayne Daughenbaugh  09:27

has been a crazy year because I started my own consultancy. I’m in February, and, you know, I don’t know that I can, I can untangle the personal and professional right now, because that’s where my head is like it is what I’ve what I think about, what I wake up, you know, what I’m thinking about when I fall asleep. It’s, you know, how am I going to continue to grow this? How am I going to continue to serve the clients that I have and the new clients that are coming? So that has been, I will say an incredible comma, and. Painful, not incredibly painful, but also painful. And anything that, anytime you grow, when you have change, and there are things new and there’s disruption going on, and you’re trying to figure things out, there’s a little bit of pain involved, trying to figure out how I market myself, and all the business side of things is I pretty I think I know pretty well. I’m not an expert, but I certainly have expertise in in my line of work, but when it comes to how to market that and the just a huge learning curve, the things that that I really have appreciated, and how I’ve how I’ve grown, the things that I’m really grateful for is, is understanding, you know, on a personal level, that I’m enough with who I am, and that’s a great place to start. You know, doesn’t mean I can’t grow. Doesn’t mean that there’s not more for me to learn. But just knowing right now, I’m enough and I have something of value that’s that can be utilized. You know, I, I love the encouragement and the endorsement that I’m getting from the clients that I’m having, not because I want people to, you know, hey, just like me, but it, it validates the work that that we do when they’re saying, hey, this was really good, you know, we really appreciate this. Or you should really think about, you know, hiring Shane, or whatever it is, to be able to see the impact that you have. It’s just it’s been on a different level. Now that, you know, when you’re actually working in a company, you may not get that like the teams are appreciate what you do, and the organization appreciates it, but it’s just not the same when it’s kind of, you know, familiarity breeds disinterest. I don’t know what, what a better word for, but it’s, it’s been a growing, a growing experience now so and I love to learn and grow, but I will say that it’s a challenge and it’s kind of painful. Yeah,

Patrick Adams  11:56

yeah. That’s, I understand that absolutely. I think there’s many people listening right now that that are just shaking their heads and saying, yep, yep, I know exactly what you’re talking about. So okay, good. Did you did you say number one personal best and number one work best? Did you get those out? I don’t, I don’t know.

Shayne Daughenbaugh  12:17

I don’t know what I have because, because it’s all, it’s all tangled together. So it’s, it’s, it’s getting in front of new people and learning new things. I’m having a great time doing that and and that’s just, that’s just part of my personal and my work just clumped together right now. It’s great.

Patrick Adams  12:36

Yeah, that’s, it’s awesome. Catherine, what about you? What about personal? Personal best for the year. Work best for the year. Where would you fall on those?

Catherine McDonald  12:46

Yeah, well, I get what Shane is saying, because it’s so hard when you work for yourself to separate it. I 100% get you, Shane, it is tough. But I suppose I wrote about this the other day in a LinkedIn post, because I’ve been thinking about it. I think I’ve gotten on a personal level, much better at that balance. So, Shane, the way you said there, you know, I’m enough. I sometimes have to bring myself intentionally to those thoughts, because they don’t come to me naturally. I have to make the time to think that, you know. So I’ve gotten better, on a personal level at that balance between, I suppose, what did I I phrased it ambition versus appreciation. And I find that I’m I tend to push, push, push myself. And I well, I don’t think I’m alone in this, but myself, and probably so many other people, we don’t stop and just pause and just appreciate and accept what we have, who we are, be in the moment. So on a personal level, I feel I’m getting better at that. So it’s not some big win for me, it’s just having more of that in my life, having more of those moments in my life. And I’m happy that that’s something I’ve I’ve gotten to that place and then, yeah, so I suppose that impacts on the career side as well, but I reached double digits with my own clients this year for the first time. So I work for myself. So it’s a thing. It’s a big thing to have 10 clients, and they’re all would be six month contracts and beyond. So I probably reached capacity this year, which is huge for me. I’ve never had that before, and capacity in on a level that’s manageable, do you know? So I feel I’m in a good place. And yeah, very appreciative for

Patrick Adams  14:32

that. That’s awesome. Very cool. Good to hear that. That’s great. Thanks for sharing that. Andy, what do you got going on down under there for this past year?

Andy Olrich  14:42

Yeah, I would definitely say that there’s a common thread there, you know, especially when I kind of forced to take the time to look back over the whole year, like from January one to now. Yeah, it’s been, there has been some really strong moments and self discovery and things and and then there’s. Been some low points that I’ve certainly learned some pretty valuable lessons from as well. And some of those, I had to do pretty much on my own, like you just kind of, you know, sometimes you get lost in the speed of it all, and you you’re a little bit proud, it’s the word, but you just don’t want to sort of hassle anyone and ask for help in the moment. And I’ve learned that that’s not always the best option either. So it’s like, yeah, definitely some some things in work where I’ve had some some challenging conversations, but I’ve just had that moment where I’m like, you know what you’re doing. Just follow the process. Just you know you haven’t just started this today. And whichever way it goes, just be, just be genuine, and be about the person, and come from the right place, and yeah, and got some really good feedback on that. It’s like, Oh, wow. Thank you for standing on your dig on that one. Because, yeah, now I get it. Whereas we could have just as I say, thrown our toys out of the pram and and just gone separate ways. And I was just, it’s all too hard in for that particular case. Careful how much I go into it. But I actually had a moment started as a very low point, but then has come into something really positive. And it was around working with neuro diverse people and learning, you know, some initially was frustrations around, well, everybody else gets this stuff, you know, come on, you know, let’s go. And it actually went quite, quite pear shaped with a project. However, we’re at a point now where I’ve actually together, have gone away and actually done a bit more training in neuro, neuro diversion, thinking and approaches, and actually applying that in a space like lean and Lean Six Sigma, that’s been just phenomenal. And I’ve learned a lot about myself, too, where I kind of sit on that spectrum, you know. So I that’s if anybody’s, you know, has that one thinker in a group of, let’s say, 50 people that can sometimes be seen as a bit disruptive, or look the bus is moving, just, yeah, just keep going. They’re just different. I’ll tell you what, if you can, if you can find the time and learn a little bit more about how to approach that, they superpower that that person will provide. It’s just ridiculous, and it’s probably the best thing I’ve done all year, even though, at the time when it was all sort of crumbling down, it was very tough on that person and me personally as well. So I would give, yeah, it’s a it’s just been really, a really strong moment for me in my career. And personally, it’s weird, like people you’re saying that it’s tangled in I said to someone the other day, it’s really odd that my hobby is my job as well. Like this podcast, all these things that I do outside of my day job that’s connected to this. So I think the podcast, and being able to connect with people outside of my work, providing some guidance and support that’s been from a personal growth level, that’s been amazing. And then, yeah, I’ve got a very happy, healthy family, and we’re on our way to Christmas with the broader family, so I there’s no complaints from Down Under at the moment, guys. So yeah, I’m interested and a little bit scared, in some ways around what 2025 is going to be like, but we won’t know till we go. So that’s right.

Patrick Adams  18:13

Ah, great reflection, man. Awesome. Love hearing those things. And you know, for for all four of us, I think sounds like, obviously, we’ve had our challenges. Everybody does throughout the year, and sometimes it’s nice to really call out those highlights, because sometimes the challenges or the negative stuff can can drag us down, and we, you know, we forget about all of the amazing things that have happened. So I would challenge those that are out there listening right now to do the same, think, you know, think back, reflect, but try to focus in on the positives. What are the what’s the number one, most positive thing that happened in your personal life? Number one, most positive thing that happened in your work life. And I think even just by doing that, those two things can maybe change your day, you know, just flip the script for you. Speaking of number one best, let’s, let’s shift gears specifically on the Lean solutions podcast. And I’ll just kind of start with Shane. If you were to look back on the year Shane on all the guests that we had, the shows that went out. Could you pick one or a few of your favorites from the year that you would say kind of stand out for you? I think they were all great. But did you have any any individual ones or points that you were, like, this was a really good point this year, or this was a really good episode, whatever it may be.

Shayne Daughenbaugh  19:44

I mean, I had, I had several of them I can think of. And the majority of them, to be honest, are because that I was engaging with them so that I just, I gleaned so much more. You know, I remember art. Burn and and I think Catherine, you were on, and I remember just being blown away, like it was just there was so much information that he had just about things that just rattled me. When, you know, I still remember the the saying that he said, Hey, everything must change if you’re going to do Lean In, in an organization, everything must change. And I was like, wait, wait, wait, wait, that’s not how it works, is it? And then to have him go and talk about how, you know, for lean to really thrive the different systems that they’re connected, whether that be, you know, the accounting and the sales and the marketing and the manufacturing, or whatever it is, all of them, like lean needs to touch all of those things for it to really take off, like it could, rather than just kind of piece mailing which works like it does, to do a certain process or not but, but he has so much like I that is definitely one that I would recommend. You know listeners to go back to if you haven’t listened to it yet, and to review it if you have the most recent one that I was on with Royden was so great, so many great things, you know. And when he talked about his, his three points, if you remember, I forget how he said it, or the three rules of life, or whatever, you know, respect for people, improve process, but grow people capability, which I was like, Oh, yeah. And then the third one is, you know, deliver on results, you know. And it has to be in that order for Lean. And then how I remember in the conversation, how it veered toward, he said that when, how did he put it? When things really get hard, they jump down to that third one results, and skip over those first two respect for people and, you know, continuous improvement, but not just about the process, but it’s also about growing people’s capability, because it’s the people that do the process. I mean, I love that. I could go on David scooters when we had him, you know, talking about building professional trust, I was like, Yes, this is spot on. Who else, who else, Jeff Shannon, if you remember when we had Jeff Shannon on, just, just the things you know that that so are in line with how to run meetings, and especially those of us that do kaizens And and those kind of things you know, just a how to manage meetings like and managing the people and not wasting their time and being more efficient in it was with some amazing stuff and Joyce, I remember having just a hoot and good time with joy she was, you know, in what, what stood out with Joyce, I remember is, is the cost of unresolved conflict. You know, whether that be the emotional cost, you know the time you know, the emotion, your health, the time, the quality, the relationships. Like I was just, man, there’s so many like Andy said so many great things, and there’s so many more that I could mention that. Like, when you say, Hey, what’s your favorite? That’s like, that’s a hard I don’t like that question. Patrick, my brain doesn’t work with a favorite like I have,

Patrick Adams  23:05

I have, yeah, I agree with you. Many favorites. I It’s funny. You You mentioned art. I still remember where I was standing when I was listening to that episode for the first time. I was in New York, working with a client, and I was at my hotel, and I was listening to it, and I remember I shot you guys a message. I’m like, Man, powerful episode that was that was amazing, so many good things, but it was like, jam packed with so many things. Yeah, you almost have to listen to it two or three times in order to, you know, gather all of the value that’s being thrown out there. So awesome. Good, examples, for sure. Catherine, what about you? Where would you go if you had to kind of narrow down, you know, for the year and pick, you know, your top few, or your top one, or whatever it might be? Yeah, I

Catherine McDonald  23:51

had a couple of some, the same as Shane, and just, I suppose, to go through a couple of others that you didn’t mention Shane because, you know, we didn’t let you, because I know you would have probably given everyone five minutes, and we would have come to the end of the episode, but so you can’t mention everyone, so let me mention a few more. So I think Charlie prosman Episode was really good. I just liked how it left us with a good understanding of the foundations of lean, because we always talk about the people side versus the tool side. But he went into a little bit more. He talked about beyond people, that the systems that people work in and problem solving and standard work, which is just so key, we just come up in a couple of our episodes with standard work and standardization, and just the importance of focusing on that before you jump to improvements. And I just think that’s a really important message for everyone and every lean practitioner, to understand it’s not about going in and looking at, oh, what do we want to do differently? Right? Let’s go do it. We have to pause. We have to do the discovery phase, and we have to get to that standardization piece. So that was amazing. Alex Ramirez, I actually, I didn’t. Know a lot about two second lean, until I heard that Alex Ramirez talk about it. And I think just it resonated me, with me, because it’s obviously what I believe in, as well as this idea of small improvements and just focusing on the doing the daily stuff, right? I know you mentioned Ryan Tierney. He’s all about that as well, just the daily the little things, the little improvements and continuous reflection on that week after week, and you build it up, and that’s that is real lean as well, without putting pressure on people and causing conflict and resistance, it’s just a great way to work. Shane Wentz was another great episode. Talked a lot about culture and people, and he’s just amazing. He just has so much knowledge and experience. I think he did a really good job of understanding, helping us to understand, especially if you’re a new consultant or new to working with organizations and lean just the importance of understanding the culture and the people side and working with people on that and couple of others, then just don Watson, I love that conversation again. All about up people first culture. There’s definitely a theme of that. He told a great story about, I think I mentioned this in another episode about, was it himself, I think, on the way to a meeting at some sort of high level meeting or leadership meeting, and on the way, he noticed that somebody, maybe on a line or in the workshop, needed help. Something was happening, maybe at a machine, or was someone was struggling with something. And of course, the his first thought was, this person needs me more than these people sitting in the room for the in the meeting need me. So he was all about getting the priorities right. Do we go sit in a room and talk and have meetings, or do we go work with people when they need us? And I thought that was that stuck with me completely the whole the whole year. So that was amazing. And then I had Jeff Shannon as well, because he loved his energy. I just say, I’d say he’s a fantastic facilitator. And yeah, he had some really good nuggets in there that really made me think how responsible and accountable you are when you hold a meeting, you are responsible for involving everybody, for everybody leaving, having clarity on what was discussed, knowing the next steps, feeling involved, feeling valued, you really but just hit that home for me. And so, yeah, that’s just a few mine. I’ll leave a few for you. And either,

Patrick Adams  27:27

yeah, before we go to Andy, I’ll just, I just want to say a couple things. Catherine, Alex Ramirez, he spoke at our lead Solution Summit this last year, too, and just meeting him in person, he is a true servant leader. I mean, his the humility that he has, he is, you know, just for I could, I could work for him any day. I mean, just a powerhouse when it comes to Lean leadership. So I’m glad that you mentioned him. Shane Wentz also spoke at the summit, so that that’s, that’s interesting and cool at the same time that that you know, to that of your favorites were speakers. So I got to meet both of them in person this last year, which was great. And just, you know, both of them are, are great. So, yeah, two good episodes to go back and listen to. Definitely. Thanks for sharing those. All right. Andy, go ahead,

Andy Olrich  28:16

hit it. Yeah, I kind of feel, I kind of feel like I’m with with the band, right? Because I’ve met Shane, I’ve met Ryan Weiss. I met, you know, Alex, yeah, that was those episodes were fantastic. So, yeah, again, a really hard one. I will go back to March the wonderful Katie Anderson, so Katie’s a great mate of mine now, and it was great to meet her, and was really interesting. It was my first live on location instead of over the the internet type interview, and we did one the day before, and then we did one the day after. So it was kind of like over two days. So that was, that was pretty cool. And of course, Katie brings the energy. And yeah, I had a great time with Katie in Sydney when she was down here running some workshops I had, obviously Ryan Tierney was one where I really resonated, not only with Ryan’s story, but also about how he’s very strong. And conversation I had a lot it’s about it’s not about the tools, you know, it’s about the people. And lean is a method for developing people. And when he was telling the story about the guy grabbing him, going, No, you don’t understand. It’s not about the tools. And I think there’d be a lot of people, including myself, that, yeah, we get, we get dazzled a bit by the shiny things at times. So

Patrick Adams  29:29

yeah, real quick for for those that are that haven’t seen the episode, he was on a tour, and they were taking he kept taking pictures, and the guy took him and said, Stop taking pictures, like, take it in and just understand that it’s not about the things that you see. It’s it’s what’s behind that. So that. That was super powerful, definitely. Yeah, go ahead. Sorry.

Andy Olrich  29:55

Oh no. And that was really cool, because he hadn’t released his book yet. And. He has so and it’s just gone gangbusters. So it’s, yeah, it’s really great to see and know that we’ve spoken to someone like him, really cool, personal one that I had was Wes haine. We had him on and Wes was actually in a bit of a low point in my career. Was he flew over from the states and trained me in a lean certification program and mentored, and I’m still, you know, good mates with him now. So that was just amazing to somehow, you know, bring him into this world and and help, you know, try and give something back to him by having him on and to share his knowledge and and his energy. He’s just a yeah, that he’s just such a great guy. And I was just really pleased to have him on the podcast and also get to chat to a fellow Aussie, Brad Jevons, talking about five hats of adaptive leadership. Anyone who I haven’t mentioned, Hugh Ali was great. Look whoever we’ve had on. I’ve learned something from all of you. And I think what’s really cool with this little exchange we’re having now is we’re talking about stuff that we’ve learned. You know, all we’ve taken away. So we’re supposed to be the hosts. You know what I mean? I just, I just really hope that at least that has happened for the people who’ve tuned in and and more of it next year. So there’s some for me, absolutely love. What about

Shayne Daughenbaugh  31:12

for you? Patrick, what? What’s what? Which one or which many? Yeah.

Patrick Adams  31:16

Well, thank you for asking. Uh, Andy. Hit the nail on the head for me with a couple that he mentioned. But you know, I want to just highlight the episode with Ryan Tierney. I took so much out of that. And there was one part at the beginning of the episode when Andy, you asked him, you know about his introduction to lean and he told a story about his company and his brothers and his dad and and I actually pulled it up and want to share this, just so we can listen into this one little piece that really stood out for me. Because honestly, if I think back at the year, I mean, there’s so many good guests, but there’s also been so many good stories that have been told. And, you know, this one that Ryan told just really resonated with me. So let me just play that real quick, and let’s have a little chat. Okay, I gotta bring them to the stage here. Give me a minute. Alright, here we go. Alright, and Andy’s just like Andy

Andy Olrich  32:21

his teachings have inspired 1000s of organizations to embrace continuous improvement by simplifying the message of lean so Hey, welcome Ryan.

Ryan Tierney  32:30

Thank you very much. Thanks, Patrick, thanks. Ambi. Uh, brilliant to be on the show.

Andy Olrich  32:36

Yeah, super excited. So, as we like to do, we like to just unpack a little bit more about you mate, so yeah, I’d love to know what’s your story, and how did you find out about Lean and what’s led you here today? Yeah,

Ryan Tierney  32:48

it’s actually a really interesting story. Back nine years ago, actually, it’s actually nine years ago. Last week, we run a company called seat matters. We make a therapeutic seating for nursing homes and hospitals, and I’m predominantly on the operations side of the business that’s myself and my two brothers that own the company, and the company really wasn’t running well at all. Loads of production issues, loads of people issues, loads of quality problems. The place was dark, the place was gloomy, the place was dirty. I mean, if you imagine the worst company you’ve ever seen, we were that company. We absolutely were that company. I was really stressed. I was overworked. I was doing really long hours, and it was just after my father passed away, actually. And he was only 52 when he passed away. And when he passed away, I was 26 It was exactly half his age, and everything came, kind of came to head, and I said, there has to be a better way. I can’t keep running the business like this. And I went home one night, I got my iPad at my kitchen table, and a brother brought out the iPad, and I started to type in how to manage a factory, how to run production, how to streamline processes. I had no idea even what I was trying to search for, but lo and behold, I came across this thing called Lean. And I’d never really heard of it before. Didn’t know what it was, and it’s like a switch. Something switched that night, and my my brain and my mind, and it led a fire that has never went out. Something changed that night. And I went in the next day to our company, and I said, you have to see this thing called Lean. It’s unbelievable. This is the key. This is the tool that we have been looking for. And. And thankfully, it sparked a personal passion that has been been going on for the last nine years.

Patrick Adams  35:07

Wow, that’s amazing, pretty awesome, right? I mean that that just that alone, just that story, and when he says, you know, it lit a fire inside me that has never gone out. Is like, like, I can resonate with that. It’s, you know, sometimes I call it like a disease, even though it shouldn’t be looked at as a bad thing. But I’m like, it’s just like, it it’s, it’s in, it’s embedded in everything that I think about, my conversations, how I deal with my my kids and my wife, which you have to be careful with. But you know, it’s definitely uh Andy’s used lean to, you know, from a health journey. I mean, it’s just just such an amazing methodology. And, yeah, so anyways, that was my highlight of the year, that story, and just that whole episode with Ryan. And I want to tell you guys one thing. No one knows this yet, in fact, no one this is a this is a secret that only I know right now. But Ryan just accepted the the offer to be our opening keynote for the 2025 lean Solution Summit. So he will be flying to Detroit, and he’ll be on site and opening keynote for us. So I’m super excited to have him here in the state of Michigan and part of the summit this year. So yeah, so we’re excited,

Catherine McDonald  36:37

brilliant. I get a few more Irish people over. Now, that’s right, we need more Irish people here. Amazing. Yeah,

Patrick Adams  36:47

so that so so great reflection and all kinds of really good stuff that’s going on in in all of our lives and in the podcast itself. I do have some, you know, just thinking about this past year, and I’m going to share, let’s see here pop up. There we go, right here. I want to throw this up for some conversation. So Spotify, which we use for our Lean solutions podcast, they put together this kind of, this annual wrap up of the year. And they give some details about, you know, how, how you’ve done as a, you know, how your podcast is sits, and it kind of gives you just a summary, some some high level analytics and different things. And I have some detailed analytics here in front of me too, so we can, you know, dive into those a little bit more too. But, you know, as we kind of just continue in the spirit of reflection from the year, let’s see what Spotify put together for us on this 2024 wrapped and I think what the way that it works is you it’s interactive. So we’ll, we’ll click through it together and just have some conversations as we as we walk through it. So those of you that are listening to the show and not seeing what we see, we’ll do, we’ll do our due diligence to explain as we as we walk through these so let’s click. Let’s go and see what we get. Alright, it says fans were really loving your show in 2024 that’s good to hear. Yeah, that is good to hear. Good starting. Good starting. About me, yeah. Alright. It says you took you took it to a whole new level this year. Yes, we did. In fact, this is the first year that we had four hosts. For those of you that are tuning in, maybe for the first time, you wouldn’t know this, but going back to season one, season two, you won’t see Catherine Shane or Andy except for as guests on the podcast. And you know now the three of them are hosts, and we kind of trade off. Every once in a while, Shane and Catherine are together, Andy and I, or Shane and Andy, or whatever it may be. But this was new for us this year. We are interested to hear what you thought. So, you know, give us some feedback. Let us know you know how that went this year. 2025 we’ve already got some plans to kind of UP, UP THE, the Annie and, you know, do some new things this year. So I’m excited to to talk about a little bit of that as well. But yeah, we definitely took it to a new level. Okay, we had, we gained 2% in streams. So 2% in streaming. Where am I clicking? Here? There we go. Streams, followers, oh, next one, followers, 56% increase in followers. That’s pretty good, right?

Shayne Daughenbaugh  39:34

I think that’s that’s healthy. Okay, so

Patrick Adams  39:37

the listener age brackets for 2024 so this is all of our listeners all around the world. Yeah, we have 35 to 44 is our largest percentage, 40% 30 to 34 and then 45 to 40 to 54 but that’s interesting, that we have. 18 to 24 year olds listening to the podcast. That’s pretty good. All right, let’s go to the next page here. All right, a lean solutions podcast. Let’s see here, 56% follower growth, 325 top fans. The United States is our top country, and then an average rating of 4.4 that’s pretty good. I’ll take Yeah, one of the questions that I had on this was, when I saw this was, if the US is our top country, what is the what’s number 234, right? So I went and looked that up the so the United Kingdom is number two. So that’s good to know. The UK is is out there representing and then Australia is number three on the list. Good work. Andy,

Andy Olrich  40:48

we love it. Yeah, we got

Patrick Adams  40:51

Mexico number four, and Canada is number five. So those are our top five countries.

Catherine McDonald  41:00

And I wonder, what do you have to do to be a top fan? With 325 top fans,

Patrick Adams  41:06

how do you Yeah, I think, I think it’s repeat, like you’re coming back and listening to the show. I don’t know what the number is, but maybe it’s like five weeks in a row or or X number of episodes you’ve listened to, they make you a top fan. So that’s pretty good, right? Looking at we have 76.1% of male listeners and 20.1% female listeners. And then there’s like, non specified, 3.1 non binary point six. But I think I will say I have seen over the years that we’ve increased in our female listeners, for sure. Yeah, that’s definitely happened, which is good. And I love seeing, love to see that. And I think having Catherine on the show definitely helps representing, okay. Listeners, oh, we, we, oh, yeah, top rating four and a half. I want to know why we’re at 4.4 who rated us lower than a five. No. I mean, we can’t be perfect, right?

Andy Olrich  42:13

I think it might have been me. Me. Patrick,

Patrick Adams  42:21

oh, well, it for those of you that are listening in, if you haven’t rated us, please do give us a rating, and we love to keep those numbers up. And also, if you haven’t subscribed, make sure you subscribe, because we do follow our subscribers, and you know, we have goals set annually that we track those, and we’re always trying to do things to increase the subscribers. So if you haven’t already, please do and we’ll add you to the to our list. All right, let’s see. What else do we have here? 88 countries. Yep, that’s yeah, 88 countries. That’s huge, man. If I go through here, let me look at some of the other, some of the other countries that are represented here, Germany, Brazil, Ireland, Norway, Netherlands, Sweden, Italy, India, France, Spain, Czech Republic, Finland, Poland, Denmark, Belgium, Portugal, New Zealand, Egypt, Colombia, South Africa, Chile, Peru, Philippines, United Arab, Singapore, Argentina, the Netherlands, Thailand, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Taiwan, I mean Israel, Switzerland, Hungary Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Australia, Austria, Kenya, Iceland, Greece, Morocco, Puerto Rico, Vietnam, China. Pretty awesome. Guys. Yeah, we have on

Andy Olrich  43:53

a map of the world. Just tell the little pins on there where that’s

Patrick Adams  43:58

that’s incredible. That’s pretty awesome. And that’s, yeah, that’s, that’s a pretty cool number to look at. It looks like, I don’t know if they’re going to show us this on here or not, but I don’t know platforms. It’s got Spotify. Apple podcasts are the top two where we listen to I know you can find the Lean solutions podcast through a few different areas, but you know, just looking at let’s see our overview, overall, We’ve had 145,000 plays over 145,000 plays all time, and most of our, most of our top episodes are, you know, 3000 plus downloads. Pretty cool, pretty cool to see. Yeah. Okay, oh, top podcast, 325 fans. So. Pretty good. So they listen 4.4 times more than other

Shayne Daughenbaugh  45:05

listeners. That’s, that’s repeat, repeat listeners, basically,

Patrick Adams  45:09

right, right? Yeah, I like that. New listeners. 81% new listeners this year. So they must

Shayne Daughenbaugh  45:19

What’s that? That’s a lot. It’s almost double, almost doubling the listeners. That’s awesome. Yeah, that’s

Patrick Adams  45:25

big. That’s big

Shayne Daughenbaugh  45:26

way to go. Andy, way to go. Shine

Andy Olrich  45:28

and Patrick, yes,

Patrick Adams  45:31

some of the other podcasts that that our listeners love, the Joe Rogan experience, the diary of the CEO and Lex Fridman podcast. So, yeah, that’s those are. I mean, the Joe Rogan experience is great. Our Creator personality, the storyteller. That’s interesting, because I talked about that earlier, like, all the stories, right, that we’ve heard from our listener or from our guests. So, so Spotify has labeled us as a storyteller. Yeah, top episode, oh, this is the one you mentioned, Catherine. So that’s pretty cool. This was a great episode, Lean leadership basics, definitely. I think you mentioned Catherine just about the foundation, laying the foundation, and from a leadership perspective, Charlie brotzman does a great job. They actually have a book out. It might be on my shelf. It is here. It is Lean leadership basics, right there. So everything that he talked about in that episode is right inside this book. Great book. Yeah. All right. What else do we have here? Top 5% of videos on Spotify. All right, that’s good. Yeah, I think that’s everything that they got for us. So, pretty cool, pretty cool stuff. What do you guys think? I mean, what? How does that? How does that land with you guys, as you think about the show as a whole, in the year, does that? Does that all make sense?

Shayne Daughenbaugh  47:04

I mean, how it lands, how it lands, for me is, man, now like now we have to top this. What’s, what’s next year is going to look like? So, so we have to do 80. We did 86% this year in, you know, in growth. Now it’s supposed to be 90 next year, so we have to double it again. I mean, there’s some pressure here involved. Patrick,

Patrick Adams  47:25

there is, yeah, well, we do have some changes that we’re planning for this next year, and I don’t want to, I don’t want to share too much, because I want everyone to experience the changes, but there’s some good things that we have planned. We had our reflection period as a team, and we put out some ideas and thoughts for this next year. And we’re going to make some minor adjustments to how the show flows and and just how our guests come on and things like that, and and how everything’s delivered. So you’ll see that, you know, in 2025 another thing that I want to mention too is that on January 7, our very first episode of the new year. Correct me if I’m wrong, January 7, right, guys, for our we will be kicking off the year with a LinkedIn live, where we’ll be, the four of us will be on live and will be kicking off the year, and we’ll talk about some of the changes that are going to be happening in 2025 and and we’ll be doing it live. So we’ll be looking for all of you to jump on with us. I’ll be putting out a LinkedIn live event, and Please RSVP to that and plan on attending, because we’ll be soliciting some ideas from you as our listeners as well, and we’ll be doing that live, in addition to answering some questions based on some of the conversations that we have on that day. So it’ll be January 7. I believe it’s 2pm eastern time, but go out to LinkedIn and look at the LinkedIn live event that will be coming out. Should already be out, actually, by the time this episode drops. And make sure you RSVP to that. Jump on with us live. And we’d love to chat with you and grab some of your questions and thoughts. So as we close, guys, any, any parting thoughts for this year for 2024 any, any last thoughts as we leave the year behind us and move into 2025 who wants to start?

Shayne Daughenbaugh  49:36

Andy, let’s, let’s hear it from under. Okay.

Andy Olrich  49:39

Just alright. Well, thank you to you three, my three amigos. Thank you to our listeners. Thanks for inviting us into your world, and we’re glad that we can share some of ours and our amazing guests, Patrick, I guess this is kind of a proud dad moment for you looking at some of those stats there. Yeah, mate, I just thank you to you for the opportunity, and I’m glad we didn’t send you backwards. So that’s a positive. As I said, it’s been awesome. Bring on next year, and I’m really excited to hear what our guests ask us to bring in in that live event. So Cheers, everyone. Have a very Merry Christmas, or however you celebrate the holidays, and I’ll say next year, awesome. Thanks. Andy, appreciate

Patrick Adams  50:23

that. Catherine, what do you got?

Catherine McDonald  50:26

Can I just go Ditto? Because,

Shayne Daughenbaugh  50:30

like, how what am I supposed to say now?

Catherine McDonald  50:32

Yeah, you just wrapped it up so nicely. Look absolutely 100% this has been so much fun, and it’s amazing the fact we can come on and learn the way we do and get to know each other. And I don’t know how you did it, Patrick, but you put us together, and we dealt so well. And that doesn’t always happen. It really doesn’t. So yeah, you chose, well, not talking about myself the other two.

Patrick Adams  50:56

No, I agree. I agree 100%

Shayne Daughenbaugh  51:02

Yeah, I got, I guess I will take the difference spin and I will just say thank you to all the guests that came on. You know, it was some amazing times, just great learnings, not in most of them weren’t anything like earth shattering, but when you add them all together, it builds such a great picture of what is possible, of the growth, of the improvement, of the the love you can pour into your people and to your customers. It was, I mean, it’s been, it’s been a fantastic showing from all of our guests. And I’m super excited about what the next year has and the guests that we have. I know of a couple that are coming on, and I’m still, like, churning through all of my contacts, like, who would be really great, who I know has that story to be able to tell that just paints that picture that might be able to help some of our listeners, or encourage, if not help, at least encourage some of our listeners.

Patrick Adams  51:56

Yeah, for sure. Thanks, Shane, and for me, I’ll just, I want to thank the three of you for an amazing year. Each one of you has really just poured out a ton of value to our listeners. And you know, obviously we have guests on who are experts, and we’re interviewing them as hosts, but I think, you know, the three of you have done a great job at adding some of your own flavor and spin and value into the conversations. That’s really, really made it a really, really awesome year. And as we kind of go through all those analytics, I mean, you know, it’s really cool to see all of the positive things that are happening for the show and and, you know, at the end of the day, all the positive things that are happening for our listeners, you know that they’re hearing things that they can go back and apply in their personal lives and their work lives, and it’s really having a positive impact, not just in the USA, but all around the world, in all of the different countries that we talked about that are listening into the show. So you know, changing the world, equipping, empowering people positively. You know, pretty awesome, pretty awesome. So thank you guys for that. Thank you for a good year, and well, we will see all of you next year. So have have a great holiday season, and we’ll see you all in 2025 Take care, everybody. Thanks so much for tuning in to this episode of the lean solutions podcast. If you haven’t done so already, please be sure to subscribe this way. You’ll get updates as new episodes become available. If you feel so inclined, please give us a review. Thank you so much.