Kirk Petyo | Executive Vice President, Mullings Group | Crafting Medtech Careers with Intention and Impact

Kirk Petyo, Executive Vice President at the Mullings Group, shares how more than 20 years in medtech recruiting has shaped his purpose of helping people join companies and technologies that save and improve lives. Kirk explains why relationships and mentorship create opportunity, what a day in the life of a recruiter looks like, and how he stays current across diverse medtech areas while supporting single hires and multi-role team builds. He also offers practical guidance for candidates, from defining your “why” and career path to optimizing resumes and LinkedIn for how recruiters actually search and decide. Kirk reflects on lessons learned hiring for subcultures within organizations, the importance of legacy, and the joy he finds in family. 

 

Guest links: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirkpetyo/

Charity supported: Feeding America

Interested in being a guest on the show or have feedback to share? Email us at theleadingdifference@velentium.com. 

PRODUCTION CREDITS
Host & Editor: Lindsey Dinneen
Producer: Velentium Medical

 

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Episode 090 - Kirk Petyo

Kirk Petyo

[00:00:00] Lindsey Dinneen: Hi, I'm Lindsey and I'm talking with MedTech industry leaders on how they change lives for a better world.

[00:00:09] Diane Bouis: The inventions and technologies are fascinating and so are the people who work with them.

[00:00:15] Frank Jaskulke: There was a period of time where I realized, fundamentally, my job was to go hang out with really smart people that are saving lives and then do work that would help them save more lives.

[00:00:28] Diane Bouis: I got into the business to save lives and it is incredibly motivating to work with people who are in that same business, saving or improving lives.

[00:00:38] Duane Mancini: What better industry than where I get to wake up every day and just save people's lives.

[00:00:42] Lindsey Dinneen: These are extraordinary people doing extraordinary work, and this is The Leading Difference.

Hello, and welcome back to another episode of The Leading Difference podcast. I'm your host, Lindsey, and today I'm delighted to welcome as my guest, Kirk Petyo. Kirk is an Executive Vice President at the Mullings Group with 20-plus years of experience in medtech talent, specializing in regulatory, clinical, quality, engineering, and commercial functions. His work spans both critical individual placements and strategic multi-role team builds across emerging technology companies, mid-cap organizations and strategics, turning organizational strategy into executable hiring outcomes. The Mullings Group has completed over 9,000 hires across 900-plus companies globally, playing a key role in building many of the most innovative medtech organizations in the market today.

All right, Kirk, welcome to the show. I'm so glad that you are here today. Thanks for being here.

[00:01:38] Kirk Petyo: Yeah, absolutely. Really excited. Thank you.

[00:01:40] Lindsey Dinneen: Of course. I'd love if you would start off by sharing a little bit about yourself, your background, and what led you to medtech.

[00:01:48] Kirk Petyo: Sure. Well, well, first of all, thanks again for, for having me. It's, it's great to have connections and how this circle of medtech kind of brings us together. And I'll probably get to that a little bit later in the show as we just talk about, you know, our connections and, and the relationships that we have. But, you know, I'm really lucky. I've, I've had the opportunity of spending roughly 22 years in recruiting with most of that being in the medtech space. And I started my career early working for one of the largest recruiting companies in the country, and that really r- set my roots into the foundation of the fundamentals, the character, the values that, that come from recruiting and really understanding the relationships that need to be built in order to be successful.

And, and after going through that, I'm, I, I was part of a startup organization where I was a part owner, started up a medtech division of that, and there were some successes, there was definitely some failures, and some things that you learned along the way. And as we were kind of going through that, you know, I had the opportunity of meeting with Etienne Nichols. I worked with a company that that he had worked with. We were, we were given referrals and, and we were talking one day, and he's like, "You know, you, you gotta meet this guy, Joe Mullings, and e- everything that you're doing within medtech is exactly what they're doing and with five to 10 years in advance of, of where you're at. And I think it'd be just a great opportunity for you to, to spend some time with him."

So I, I, I just feel really lucky and blessed that, you know, I get a chance to, to change people's lives, to put them in the opportunity and into the technologies that are, that are saving people's lives from startups to strategics and emerging technologies. And I, I couldn't be more excited about spending the next 20-plus years doing this.

[00:03:32] Lindsey Dinneen: Oh, I love that. I love when somebody is passionate about what they're doing and clearly just feels like they are in the right place. So that's, that's wonderful to hear. Okay. So I'm curious, backing up a little bit, what got you into recruiting in the first place? Like, what interests and set of skills and things did you have where you were just like, "You know what? I think this all pieces together really well here"?

[00:03:53] Kirk Petyo: Yeah, you'll, you'll probably hear this if you talk to a lot of recruiters that nobody ever says that "I'm going to get into recruiting." But I think that there's, I think that there's something there that it's, it's your, your ability to wanna, wanna do something and, and build relationships. And it's funny, i-if you look at my love languages I, I love a-acts of, acts of service, and I love helping people. If you talk to any of my friends, I'm the guy that's always, you know, trying to coordinate and, and get the guys together and, and I just love being able to, to impact people's lives in big or small ways.

And I, I met somebody at a job fair randomly walked up and said, "I'm nervous. I don't know what I'm doing. I just wanna have a conversation. Do you mind talking?" And Marty Shager was the, was a gentleman, introduced me to a number of different people where I spent 17 years of the, of my the beginning of my career. And, and I think that was really the foundation of, I saw somebody that I could look up to, that I could admire, and when I started to meet the people that were here, I, I looked at, wow, all these people are motivated. They wanna make impacts. And I followed the leaders that, you know, I think eventually were just the, the, the groundwork for my career and my life.

[00:05:11] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, so I'm sure we're gonna dive into this a lot because this is such a core thing about, you know, your job, but also who you are and how you kind of show up in the medtech space and beyond. And so relationship building is so critical, I think, to success in a lot of different areas of life. But I wonder if we could talk a little bit about the kinds of relationships that lead to opportunities, whether those are mentorships or things like that, but also-- we had a little bit of this conversation at MD&M West at a, at a dinner the night before with Etienne. And part of the topic that came up which was so interesting was this idea of surrounding yourself with good people, having really good conversations that go kind of beyond the surface level. And so I was wondering, really long-winded way of asking, could you share about your philosophy behind the importance of relationships, both personal and professional, to move the needle forward?

[00:06:09] Kirk Petyo: Yeah, absolutely. Well, you know, you, you bring up a really great point, and I don't think that anyone has gotten to where they're at if they haven't had a group of individuals that was around them that was helping and supporting them. It's just you, you can't do it. And and I, I think that there's a great opportunity when you look at the relationships and the people that you spend time with, and does that really... how, how does that, how does that expand in your ecosystem? What are you utilizing from those individuals? And how are, how are you taking that information and making yourself a better person?

And so when I, when I was working with someone like Etienne, I saw the value of his knowledge and experience, his, his, his tenure in medtech, his connection with, like, quality and QMS systems, and maybe an area where maybe I didn't have a lot of expertise or, or focus in understanding a third-party QMS system within medtech for maybe smaller... or I'm kind of giving a little plug here. Obviously that's not the point. But the, the, the point is, is that when you surround yourself with individuals, with relationships in, in areas that maybe you're an expert or try to be an expert in or to surround yourself with individuals that you can connect and connect the dots within the marketplace, I think that can be so powerful.

[00:07:25] Lindsey Dinneen: Absolutely. Yeah, so okay. So I'd love to talk a little bit more about, okay, so what you do now and sort of, what is like a day in the life of Kirk like?

[00:07:38] Kirk Petyo: So a day in the life of, of Kirk and a recruiter. Well, the day in the life of Kirk probably starts around 5:00. You know, it's a, it's a, it's a busy day, but it's, it's, it's full and impactful of, of a lot of things. You know, I I didn't get a chance to talk about it at the beginning, but I got two kids. They're 10 and 12. They're into sports. They, they love baseball, they love basketball, and they're in, they're in travel baseball right now. So it is, it is constant between them and games and things like that.

But what you, what you bring into the, the workplace is there's, there's stuff going on every day, and your to-do list is never gonna get accomplished if you're really trying to make the impacts that you wanna make. What I, what I think is great about this job and, and what I do is I get an opportunity to find people roles in, in, in the opportunities that they really wanna get into and expand their lives. And we talking about becoming the person that you are and who do you wanna become. And so I get to have conversations daily with individuals that are trying to move their career in that out, in, in, in that retrospect.

And so, I can be engaged in anywhere between 10 to 15 different projects. Could be single or multi-team builds. Could be in the cardiovascular neuromodulation, robotics, infusion pumps, CRM technology. It's, it's a wide, it's a wide range. So what I think is really fun but also challenging is that when I came here, I really had to focus on not just being a subject matter expert in maybe one or two buckets, maybe combination products or infusion pumps or Class 2 medical devices, is that you really have to be a subject matter expert in all aspects of medtech. And so one to two hours a day is just getting information and learning so that you can provide the best value to your clients.

[00:09:26] Lindsey Dinneen: Wow. Yeah, that is quite the learning curve. And I, I would be curious to know, when you started going into medtech specifically, did you-- it sounds like you had, a-again, kind of a learning curve there. So what was that pathway like to, to really go, "Okay, I feel like I am in my happy place here," you know? Like, "I, I know recruiting's right for me, but, but here's this, this actual niche that's even maybe more right."

[00:09:55] Kirk Petyo: Right. Yeah. Well, you know, I think there's a couple of things. The, the feeling that you get out of placing somebody is, is, is different than anything else in any other industry. And so people that aren't in recruiting just don't get it, sometimes. You know, w- and the fact of medtech is, you know, I'm placing people into companies that are really changing someone's life and impacting someone's life from dialysis to infusion to blood glucose monitoring systems. I mean, there's so many things that are involved in medtech that you're impacting somebody.

But when you get, when you get into it and having the opportunity is, you know, it's, it's... In 2009, there was an opportunity that, that set to shift into more of an embedded hardware software systems focus. And that, I think, was the root of where my career started to shift and go into a little bit of aerospace, but really spending a lot of time in medtech because everything was transforming. Everything was becoming IoT connected. It had Bluetooth connectivity, and electronics were getting more and more popular. And I knew then that everything was gonna be connected in some aspects.

And now you look at it and you think about AI, you think about digitization, there's so much that has gone on, I think that was definitely a right call. But you know, when I, when I think about medtech, I mean, if you think about recruiting in general, the, the industry has changed and the way you reach out to people has changed. The impact, how you treat an individual, and the journey that you take them on has changed. Because 20 years ago it was, "Why do you want this job? Tell me, tell me how much you need to make in order to take this job." And now there's more of a journey around that because we all have access to talent.

[00:11:36] Lindsey Dinneen: Hmm. Yeah. Well, a- and that's great 'cause that segues really nicely into my next question, which is going to be about what are some of the lessons that you learned along the way? Perhaps things that went really well and you went, "Oh, wow, this is great," and things that maybe you thought, "Oh, well, maybe we're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna take a different approach next time." I'll put it that way.

[00:11:58] Kirk Petyo: Yeah. Well, y-you know, it's when you're building, when you're building teams, there's, there's gonna be a lot of mistakes along the way. And they could be small, hopefully not large mistakes. But if I, if I go back on my career, I can probably pinpoint, you know, 20, 30, 40 different mistakes that I've, that I've made that I think were, were, were challenges that eventually we overcame, but I think, you know, had a, had a, a, a good output at, at the end.

One, one in particular was, we were, we were navigating an engagement with a, with a larger customer. This is, this is many years ago, and 50% of the company's population was over the age of 50. And so if you think about that in regards to the engineering team and the amount of IP and information that's gonna be going out of the organization, we needed to build out a team of individuals that was gonna be able to take that information, be able to learn from those leaders, and then be the future leaders of that company.

Well, there's a lot of challenges that go in on that. And the, the success was that, you know, we ended up building out, you know, a team of 30 or 40 different folks that were, you know, in that tier one, tier two kinda level maybe four to five years out of college to, to really impact the organization. But the, the hard challenge on the front was really understanding what good looks like. Because for every manager, if you think about... I talk about this a lot, is you think about all of the subcultures within a culture within an organization, and they're massive. And so each group, each team is gonna identify things that are important to them that are different from what other people might be.

And one of the mistakes that I learned along the way that I think has, has helped me later on in my career is that I looked at and I treat each role, each manager, and each subset as their own subculture. And so while a manager, you know, John, Doe, or Mary, might have one culture or one aspect of what they're looking for, that team that I'm hiring for might be unique in its own way, and I need to hire for that particular team and not be broad as if I'm, as if I'm hiring for the organization. So big, big learning moments in, in, in my career.

[00:14:10] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Okay. And, and I'm curious, do you have some particular advice for somebody who is interested in working with a recruiter but maybe hasn't before, maybe is a little nervous about that whole approach? What kinds of things are helpful for people to understand about the process?

[00:14:32] Kirk Petyo: Well, y-you know, I think it depends on the, the recruiting firm that you go with and what that engagement looks like. I can give a big plug to the Mullings Group and what we're doing and how I think that we're the best in the market. But I, I think as you, as you go out there, there's a lot of different firms that you can engage with and, and I think you, you have to go into the situation understanding what you wanna get out of it, but you also wanna go into it understanding the why.

So many times I talk to people about what it is that they wanna do and why they wanna do that, and typically there's a barrier there or there's a challenge there or there's a... There's something that is preventing them from really moving to the next step is because they don't know. And they'll say, "Well, I'm really open," or "I'm interested in a lot of different opportunities. I'm not really stuck on that one thing."

Well, for me, I'm a recruiter talking to 100 to 150 people a week and navigating hundreds or thousands of resumes a week. Why am I gonna call you and what am I gonna call you about if I don't know what you want? And as simple as that is, is you have a purpose, and that purpose needs to be defined.

And so my, my advice is for somebody that wants to work with a recruiter is to really sit down and understand, "What are the motivating factors that are important and critical for me as I move my career forward that are must-haves as I look at an opportunity? And then what is it that I want this recruiter to be able to do for me or with me as a partner to get access to the best roles in the industry?"

[00:16:04] Lindsey Dinneen: So is it helpful to develop a purpose statement of sorts of just this kind of idea of "who I am at the core and what I want to do?" Or how--what would you recommend people do to approach that?

[00:16:21] Kirk Petyo: Yeah. You know what? I think it's a really good question. We talk about it at the Mullings Group is, who do you wanna become? And it's interesting because while that wasn't my statement over the last, like, 20-plus years before I joined here, it was on the tip of my tongue of exactly feeling those same emotions. And so when I came here, I really believed in that. And so what I, what I think is I, I, I can break that down into a couple of different pieces. One is I think you really need to understand the person that you wanna become and where you are now, and what is your journey to potentially get there.

I talked to someone the other day, and they're like, "I'm, I'm a VP of operations. I wanna move into a general manager role to move into a COO to eventually become a CEO." And they had their journey path pathed out. And then there's others that I talk to, and they're reacting based on the situation that the market is putting them in. Those people, while sometimes get impacted by layoffs or cutbacks or RIFs, that happens. However, how are you looking at your future? Which is probably one of the most important things that you do in your life is your career. You spend more time in your job than sometimes you do with your family.

So one, you need to love it. You know, two, you need to have a purpose of where you want this to go and what does that path look like. Because when the market or something puts you in a situation, are you making the decision based on the, the, the where you're put at, or are you making the decision based on, you're in control and you're deciding the outcomes that you wanna have? Big, big difference, and I see a lot of people struggle with that.

[00:18:04] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Okay. Well, first of all, I love the concept of who do you wanna become, because I think part of ,part of what I love about it is there's so much built-in hope and optimism that not only is change possible, but you get to help decide the change. You get to decide who you wanna become. A- and so I have... i'm curious, you know, you mentioned it was sort of always on the tip of your tongue, so it, this had been, like, something that you've been mulling around for a while. Ha, no pun intended, but kind of. That was...

[00:18:34] Kirk Petyo: Ha. That's good.

[00:18:36] Lindsey Dinneen: And so I'm just... I, I'm curious, for you personally, do you have a purpose statement that you're kind of willing to share, even if it's maybe not... like, you seem extremely happy in your job and, and your career path, but just, I'm just curious.

[00:18:54] Kirk Petyo: Yeah. You know, that's a, it's a, it's a really good --I think it's a really good question, and I think it really comes down to what was at my core. And when I was talking to Etienne and he said, "You have to meet with Joe Mullins," he was actually on the podcast the next day. And, and, and so I, I pinged Joe and, and we were having a conversation, and I told him that I was really interested in the opportunity.

My big thing is I wanted to be a part of an organization that everybody was rowing in the same direction, who wanted to make an impact on medtech and wanted to be leaders in the industry. I wanted to, I wanted to partner with subject matter experts who were just as passionate about medtech as I was and really wanted to leave a legacy, which for me, legacy, I think is the most important thing in everything when you think about leadership, opportunity, growth, the person that you wanna become is really the, the legacy that you leave behind, both personally and professionally. And so, it was, it was all rowing in the same direction and making sure that I was with a team that wanted to make the same amount of impact that I did.

[00:20:00] Lindsey Dinneen: Nice. I love that. And I, and I love that that's what you found. That is always a, an amazing thing. Okay, so, so another area that I'm, I am curious about is when you-- I, I'm sure you're seeing, you know, hundreds, thousands of resumes and LinkedIn profiles and whatnot on, on a daily basis, basically. But what are some tips that you might have for personal versus professional branding?

I think that's a-- it's-- that's something that a, a lot of people have on their minds, especially with LinkedIn, where, you know, there's such a combination of both, you know, very sort of professional observations and commentary, and then there's, there's a trend towards e- being a little bit more personal and sort of raw and real about your life and things like that, and I'm curious what you see as being important and potentially, on the opposite side, not the best approach when you're evaluating candidates for that branding conundrum.

[00:21:02] Kirk Petyo: Yeah. Well, you know, you can, you can probably break that up into two pieces. You can break it up into the resume standpoint and look at resumes first, and then you can look at LinkedIn. If I'm looking at resumes, typically that's a, a very professional type of setting. The, the thing that I think people need to remember is that a recruiter is looking at your resume within 13 seconds or less, is, is deciding whether or not they're going to spend time and whether their time is worth calling you or messaging you.

That, that seems harsh in a lot of different aspects because you might have somebody that has 10, 20, 30, 40 years of experience, but we have to be able to identify whether or not it's worth our time to call you. And so making sure that it's... that you're using tools and AI and a lot of different information to best position yourself of who you are, what you've done, things that are important in that industry.

And then for me-- this is maybe a quick tip for people-- is what are the buzzwords that someone is going to search or AI is going to use as a tool in order to look at your background to pull you to the top of the list? I can probably talk about that for an hour plus just in that specific topic, but, you know, I'll, I'll shift to the other aspect which you talked about LinkedIn.

You know, I... This is my opinion and this is just my opinion from somebody who's been doing this for 20 years, and I may or may not have the, the answer that most people want, is LinkedIn is a representation of, of your professional career with a glimpse of your personal, your personal life. And I do think that it is important to show your authentic self. If, if you meet, if you meet me in person, I'm extremely outgoing. I'm very energetic. I'm bouncing off the walls, and that's who I am. I love spending time with my family. My family is the most important thing for me and spending time with my kids, going to every single baseball game, going to Purdue games. So you'll see that content.

But you'll also see a lot of thought leadership about the market, the industry, where we're going, why we're going there. And there's people that post, I believe, on, you know, the, the, the, the basic fundamental topics that are out there, and then the ones that are really leading are the ones that are thinking about where are we going, how are we getting there, and what does the future look like? There's a big difference in that from... Yeah. So I'll, I'll, I'll leave it at that.

And I, I... What I, what I think is a ba- maybe not a bad approach, but maybe a, a something just to think about is when you look at your LinkedIn page, does it reflect who you are, and does it reflect someone that is gonna wanna spend time with you on an opportunity to call you about a role within an organization? And you have to really look at it, not just as a personal thing, but as a business.

[00:23:46] Lindsey Dinneen: Mm. So, okay. So thank you. That's great advice. I appreciate that. I, I-- it makes me think that it would be always helpful to have then your trusted mentor or frie- friend, but somebody who's gonna, you know, tell it to you straight. Like, "Hey, evaluate my LinkedIn. Do I come across the right way?"

[00:24:04] Kirk Petyo: Nice.

[00:24:06] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. That's awesome.

[00:24:07] Kirk Petyo: Yeah, abs-absolutely

[00:24:09] Lindsey Dinneen: Hey, s- this just circles right back. Relationships matter, and they can help in all sorts of ways. That's awesome. Okay. So, you know, I know you, you really felt like you, you found a lot of purpose in recruiting in medtech specifically, and you are impacting lives, and I'm wondering if there's any moments that stand out to you as really just affirming, "Wow, I am in the right place, in the right industry at the right time."

[00:24:36] Kirk Petyo: Yeah. You know, it's, I, I, I'll tell you that getting some of the messages from people that say, "Kirk, this was the best experience that I've ever had," is, is really impactful. And I'm words of affirmation, kinda going back to the love languages. So, that's, that's my second piece is I'm, I'm a words of affirmation guy. So being able to hear from the marketplace that I've impacted their lives in a way that is more than just money, but about the purpose that is driven in them, segue back into the what is your why, right? So if I know your why, I know what to impact you on, I know what calling you about the right opportunities is.

And it's, it's interesting because when I talk to a lot of people, when I was in recruiting 10, 15 years ago, it was kinda like if you had an opportunity, you're like, "Why, wh-why are you interviewing somewhere else? Like, what, what, why are you going after that role?" For me, I would love for you to have five or 10 different interviews. And you know why? Because it is my job to make sure that that why is hit, that that purpose is hit. And so that when an opportunity does come up, and I do find you that role, and you interview, and you get that job, and you take that job versus the four others, that's when I know that I did my job correctly, and that, for me, is a lot of the gratification that I need.

I love hearing shout-outs from clients. I love hearing shout-outs from, from individuals that we impact in their lives. But I don't think there's any particular moment. But I, I, I will say that the, the last 20-plus years in doing this, hiring over 1,000, maybe 1,500 people in my lifetime I cannot thank enough of, of, of the individuals that I've had a chance to be a part of their journey.

[00:26:18] Lindsey Dinneen: That's awesome. That's super cool. What a, what a gift. So not only are you in the right place at the right time, but you're also getting to help your clients do the same. That is, that is, oh, that is cool. Yeah.

[00:26:32] Kirk Petyo: Thank you.

[00:26:33] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Okay. Well, this has been a fantastic conversation, but I also would love to pivot it just for a moment for fun. So.

[00:26:43] Kirk Petyo: Okay.

[00:26:44] Lindsey Dinneen: All right, imagine that you were to be offered a million dollars to teach a master class on anything you want. Could be within your industry, but it doesn't have to be. What would you choose to teach?

[00:26:56] Kirk Petyo: Anything in my industry or anything in my personal life that I would wanna teach. You know, it's The, the first thing that probably comes to mind is, is maybe baseball or maybe golf or fishing. Love to take my kids fishing and, and spend time with them. You know what? It's... I-if I had an opportunity to do something like that, I, I would... I think I would really wanna do something that I've never really done before, and just spend a ton of time just learning and digesting as much as I could to, to, to try to give a presentation on a topic.

It's, it's... I had a friend that and, and a CEO of a, of a pretty big recruitment firm that was recently on a TED Talk, and the amount of time and effort it put for him to put into that--just learning so much and spending so much time, I think that would be so much fun to do something like that. And I was in a heavy metal band. I was lead singer, so I love being up on stage. And so I think if I had an opportunity, I would just love to invest time and effort and to do something like that one day.

[00:27:55] Lindsey Dinneen: That's awesome. Oh, I'm--

[00:27:57] Kirk Petyo: Now that's another topic for another show. Karaoke, heavy metal, being on stage. Yeah, that's, that's a different, that's a different podcast, but, you know, we can pick that up another time.

[00:28:07] Lindsey Dinneen: I, you know, I, I actually have that other podcast. It's, it's currently on hiatus, but it's called Artfully Told, and it's about people sharing their experiences with art. So we'll have to reconnect about that.

[00:28:17] Kirk Petyo: Right, there we go. Art-- music is art. Yeah, I love it.

[00:28:20] Lindsey Dinneen: Oh my gosh. Okay. And how do you wish to be remembered after you leave this world?

[00:28:27] Kirk Petyo: Yeah, I mean, that's easy. It's, it's, it's for me, it's all about legacy. I, and I, I break it into two pieces. It's, it's, for me, it's a legacy of my family and my, you know, my kids and, you know, what my parents and my dad and his dad have left left for me and, and the legacy that I wanna have for, for, for my family in the future. I think that's, I think that's what it's all about. I talk a lot about legacy, so for me that's an easy answer.

And then in the professional life is, you know, just the impacts and the people that I get a chance to meet with and, you know, having leaders that have impacted me and made me the person that I am today, and if it wasn't for them to say something when they needed to say something or pull me in when they needed to pull me in, I, I wouldn't be here and I wouldn't have this opportunity. And so it's my job to continue to pay that forward, and I wanna be known for that guy that's, that has that gratitude and will continue to pay it forward no matter what.

[00:29:19] Lindsey Dinneen: Love that. Oh, I love that. Okay, and then final question: what is one, what is one thing that makes you smile every time you see or think about it?

[00:29:30] Kirk Petyo: Yeah. It, you know, it has to be my kids. You know, I you know, I'm a, I'm an emotional guy, and so you probably could've got me a little emotional on this, on this conversation. But I, I promise I'll, I'll hold it together. No, I love spending time with my kids. I love watching them play sports, and right now they're in travel and Little League. They play both, and I just won't miss a game. I won't miss a game for golf. I won't miss a game for travel. I will do everything I can in order to be at those games. We have two tonight. I have to separate and figure out which one I gotta go to. But I, I... Every time I see my kids in, in a setting where I see them, it just, it brings a smile to my face

[00:30:06] Lindsey Dinneen: Very nice. I love it. Well, Kirk, this has been an amazing conversation. I so appreciate you sharing your experience, your expertise, your advice with us, and just giving us some really practical tips and tricks along the way. So thank you so much for everything that you're doing. And we are honored to be making a donation on your behalf as a thank you for your time today to Feeding America, which works to end hunger in the United States by partnering with food banks, food pantries, and local food programs to bring food to people facing hunger, and they also advocate for policies that create long term solutions to hunger. So thank you for choosing that organization to support. Thank you for being a part of an industry that is, you know, making an impact, and thank you for working hard to change lives for a better world.

[00:30:56] Kirk Petyo: Yeah. Thanks for a great interview. This was so much fun. Thank you.

[00:30:59] Lindsey Dinneen: Of course.

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