how we connect with this next generation of potential young people who will work in the space. I'm trying to encourage some of my kids to get involved in the design industry because I see the benefits that it brings being able to take a project from start to the challenges that you face during the project to completion. Just that satisfaction that comes along with that of any really good project, like a well-done project that's done, that you can actually physically drive down the street and look at on a regular basis and say, I designed that, or I designed this. And I always tell the famous joke that Chad. Kleinans, who is the president and CEO of Zweig Group, says that one day he and his wife were talking and she was asking about, like, kind of what he did. He was like, I designed those. And he was driving down the road and he was pointing to a culvert. And so she was like, that's just a ditch. And he was like, that's a culvert. And there is a specific method to how those have to be designed so that they do what they're able to do with regard to water runoff and all these other things and just the strength of the road itself. And so we sometimes don't recognize the beauty that goes into designing what, design professionals create in the first place. And so I think it's important for us to remember that. Cherise Lakeside: I agree. I couldn't agree more. If you ask my kids, what does your mom do for a living? It's a. She writes some books about buildings. So they're kind of like the instruction manual on how to build a building. And that's probably about the simplest but truest definition of what I do.
Randy Wilburn: Yeah.
Cherise Lakeside: As a specification writer. But I think when it comes to these younger people, I think the best thing we can do is meet them in their space. Don't expect them to meet us in ours.
Randy Wilburn: Yeah.
Cherise Lakeside: up in a different day and age. And I'm not saying we shouldn't share some of the wisdom we've taken from that journey. Absolutely should. But you, you need to come to their space. You need to understand their space. You need to help them in their space because they're not doing it the way we did it. I hate it when they hear that. Well, this is how I always did it. Well, we've always done it this way. they're called statements Cherise can't stand, and that's one of them. You cannot approach a younger professional with that mindset and expect them, if you don't have a relationship first, if they don't bond with you first, you're going to get nowhere no matter what comes out of your mouth. Piece of advice for some of us who might be a little older than 25.
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