All-In Design

Episode #38 - Interview with Ansley Potter & Molly Moore

• Chad Moore & Mark Griffo • Season 2 • Episode 38

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In this episode of All-In Design, we interview Ansley Potter and Molly Moore from McMillan Pazdan Smith. This is our first episode with two guests and the first time recording from Huntsville, AL. Those that know Ansley and Molly will not be surprised at how wide ranging this discussion gets, with the guests asking as many questions (if not more) than the hosts. It's a fun and lively episode, so check it out!

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Recorded at the IIDA Studios Huntsville location, this is all in design. Hello and welcome to All In Design, IADA Alabama's podcast. Thank you for listening. My name is Chad Moore here with my co-host, Mark Griffo.

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Hey, everybody.

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And today we are recording from the IADA Huntsville office, which is, I will say, an upgrade from the Birmingham location where we record. There's a lot of windows. But this is a first for us for a couple of reasons. One, we're recording from Huntsville. Number two, this is our first two guest episode. We did the healthcare symposium where we recorded a bunch of people, but they were all individual interviews. And then we've done a couple from Neocon where there's been a fourth person in the room, but not technically a guest. They chimed in every now and then. Yeah, exactly. Secret guest, unannounced. So Mark, and this is a podcast that I fully expect to go off the rails. Usually we've got a little bit of an advantage. It's two-on-one. Today it's 2v2, although I think we're... And yet we're still outnumbered. We're still outnumbered. We tried to arrange the seating to break them up just to give us some edge. You know your place. Yes, exactly. So, Mark, if you'll do the honor of introducing who we have. Yeah, we'll do our best to keep this on track as much as possible. So I'm just going to dive right in while one of

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our guests is already shaking her head at me. I don't know if it's disapproval or not, but I'm very happy to introduce Molly Moore and Ansley Potter. Thank you for having us. It's not your turn yet. I'm not done with my intro.

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We

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haven't rehearsed this. You just want to get right into it. Because I don't want to mess this up, because this is kind of a big deal.

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Okay, go

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ahead. Right? Because you guys, we're in Huntsville, and you guys work for Macmillan Pazden Smith.

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Yes.

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Which is new. So the newest news

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is that you guys were working for Fuquay, and Fuquay has now been acquired by MPS. We'll call them MPS. Yes. And so this is very exciting news, very exciting for Huntsville, very exciting Signing for you guys. Home of the squiggle. Home of the squiggle. That'll make sense when people start seeing

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your email signatures. It's a real thing. And when all your colleagues in all the other offices listen to this, they're going to be like, what is going on in Alabama? For sure. But we're super stoked to have you both. I'm not quite sure how we're going to proceed from here. Don't look at me. Yeah, I'm looking at Chad for help. I'm keeping my head down. But now that I've

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properly introduced you both, I'll let you guys fight out who wants to talk first, if you want to tell a little bit about yourself. We're going to go with Ansley first. Well, I'm not going to say anything about myself, and we're going to ask you questions.

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Okay, we're already off to the races. Okay, let's go. I put

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it in my email. You did? So you should have been prepared. You did. If you had to be stuck in an elevator with a celebrity for two hours, who would you choose, and what would be the first thing you ask them? Chad, go first. So this question's funny, because I do actually think of this occasionally. And I think it's like you watch movies or whatever, and you're like, yeah, that person would be interesting to talk to. So it changes for me as far as who would be in the elevator. But there's a stand-up comedian that I've been listening to recently that I like, Jimmy Carr. He's a British. He's hilarious. Funny guy, but he also, and just seeing him on some different podcasts, he's also kind of somewhat philosophical and has some good outlooks on life. And so I I think it would be... if you get in the elevator with a celebrity, you'd probably be like, okay, these people are, they're just really good at acting. They don't have a lot of depth to them necessarily, but seeing Jimmy Carr, he's really funny and then also just, again, has a very positive outlook on life and so that would be who I would pick. Would y'all be able to escape? Like, would he help you escape? No, he'd be terrible. He's very thin. I don't think he's very strong. Yeah. Yeah, he would be no help. He would also be in a three-piece suit and a tie. Yeah, three-piece suit and a tie. Okay. Yeah. So y'all would just be stuck and hanging out. Right. Talking about life that we would never be able to experience because we'd be stuck in an elevator. Perfect. Love it. Are we trying to escape from the elevator? That's your call. That's a personal thing. That was a follow-up question that she had with mine. I would not want to be stuck in an elevator, so I would pick somebody strong that could help me get out. Okay. So this now has changed my answer. No. Go with your heart.

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Well, I am. I'm going with my heart. I'm going to pick Idris Elba. Mmm. Mmm. That was Molly, by the

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way.

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First thing

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I

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said. It's okay. Somewhere in Birmingham, my wife also went,

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Mmm. And that's why I'm picking Idris, because I think he's an interesting guy. He's a handsome guy. I had some other answers lined up, but I don't know if they're really appropriate. I don't want to come off as a creep. Jimmy Carr, I think he's got some plastic surgery. He's had a lot of work done. He's just scared, though, Idris could hold him. you. Yeah, yeah. And you need that.

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And I need that. I need to be held by Idris Elba.

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And he would be, I think, helpful getting out of it. Yeah, and then it would make a really great story that my wife would want to hear about, whereas if I picked a Jennifer Aniston or something like that, she'd be like, I want to hear about this. Does she like to hear your stories generally? I hope so. We've been together for 10 years, and she listens to me most of the time. As married men, we both chose dudes.

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Yeah. Yeah, to be safe. Just

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putting it out

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there. Like I said, I had some other answers. I mean, go with your heart. I

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think that speaks volumes. Do you want to ask a question or do you want to tell about yourself? Well, you have all the questions. I didn't know if you had one in your brain. I can keep going. Mark, this one's for you. What is your third favorite hair product? My third

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favorite hair product? Yeah. I'm going to go in order of hair product. How about that?

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Like first, second, then third?

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So we would go with mousse.

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First would be shampoo, and then conditioner, and mousse. See where I'm going with this? Yeah, you answered my question.

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Okay, oh. Thank you. Again, this is why we need video, season three video. She's giving me the most intense look of like, you've answered the question, stop

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talking. That's what a podcast is. Yeah, okay. They're here to get information. Right, okay. Don't know if it's this information, but okay. I mean, yeah. If your pet could talk for 60 seconds, what do you think they would say about you? I do not feed them quick enough. That would be for my cats. I do feed them. But they lie constantly. They're liars. Now Ansley is looking with slightly judgmental face. Is there like a DHR for cats? Do you have pets? Do you have cats? I have a dog. Okay. Cats will come up and meow at you as if you haven't. I'm familiar with what a cat is. She hates my cat. No, I do not. No, no, no. I am familiar with what a cat is. I love her cat and I have checked on it multiple times when it needed. Yeah, but they'll come up to you like 10 minutes. after you fed them, meowing as if you had not fed them. Right. And you're like, let's go back to your, see, there's still food in your bowl. Well, you're going to shake it because cats don't like to see an empty bowl, so you have to shake it to level everything out. Okay. So you know more about cats than I do. I grew up with cats. I'm just not a fan of most of them. Are you not a fan of cats because you wish they were dogs? No, I don't wish cats were dogs. Cats are important, but I just don't want to own one.

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Okay. That's right. You ask the questions. Important in what way? I answered that. I have a quick time check here. Chad, how far along are we in this? 10 minutes, maybe? Like 45 at least. 45 minutes. We're only at eight. We're at eight minutes. I

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just want to throw out a quick little shout out to our number one fan, Mickey Davis, and tell him that with this

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episode, we will provide him a flow chart. And that is referencing one of our more recent episodes. Yes. So, Mickey, just giving you a heads up. now. That's nice. Do

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you want to shout out our sponsor?

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Not yet. We'll do that later. Keep it a secret.

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Let's see.

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This is what in the podcast world they call dead air.

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We'll edit it out if you want.

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We don't edit, remember?

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I think it keeps me human. She's also dyslexic, so give her a minute to read the questions. Y'all are both going to answer... Chad, you're going to say what Mark's biggest ick is, and Mark, you're going to say what Chad's biggest ick is. I've actually thought about this, but I didn't have an answer, but maybe Chad can go first. Mark's biggest ick? I would say world hunger and cruelty to animals. I don't think that really answers the question. I don't know the answer. I would say maybe design... poorly or lazy done graphic design.

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That's a good one.

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Chad's biggest ick is me rambling in this podcast. So

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far, we are really rambling. That would have been good for this. Or people who are not funny that think they're funny.

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Like

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Mark. Like me when I ramble in this podcast. I think you should ask Molly a question. Because

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so far all she's done is given a mmm sound at Idris Elba. Maybe just say his name every so often so she has something to contribute. I know a lot about Molly that I don't want to know. No, I didn't even say that. I love knowing everything about you. Ooh, if we looked at your screen time, what app would be embarrassingly, I know this answer, but what app would be embarrassingly at the top? I'm not embarrassed about it. Yeah, of course you are. Probably Sudoku or what's that one called? the tubes not the oh flow yeah you love reconnect to the dots that one or um what's the one with all the that has no ads with the king that's gotta escape i get ads for that all the time i know the one it's constantly advertised right yeah it's awesome it has no ads yeah how do they pay for all the ads i get the ads all the time did you pay for it yourself no it has no ads We also discovered today. Are they stealing all your information? It doesn't matter. What information are they going to get? What do we have that they want? I

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don't know. Credit card numbers? Sure. Things that you're buying?

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They want to know that or they want the things?

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Maybe both.

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Yeah, the puzzles are you've got to put in certain information about yourself. Yeah. It works. Yeah. Sudoku, you have to do that? Yeah. I have to put in my social security number, and then I fill out. My address. That's a good starting. Social security number and my mother's maiden name. I'm recording myself saying yes and no. Yep. Every time. That sucks. Okay, you're apparently still in charge, so we're letting you roll with it. But you're on thin ice, sir. The rope's getting short. Yeah. You can wrap this up. That means Chad's about had it. Okay, well how about I sprinkle in the rest of my questions throughout when I feel like I've gotten enough of y'all's questions.

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Oh, okay, great. Does that feel good? Yeah. Do you want to now introduce yourself and talk about yourself? I guess. Oh, actually, I didn't

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even record. Sorry, we're going to have to, I'm kidding. I would walk out. I'm Ansley. I was born and raised in Huntsville, went to Catholic school growing up, then went to Mississippi State, and then I moved to Dallas, and then I moved here to work with Molly. That was the end goal, so I've reached it.

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Okay, so there's nothing more to live for. Nope, that's it. Well, now that you have Molly, Molly, why don't you tell people about yourself?

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I'm Molly Moore. I am from Huntsville originally, but I grew up in Vancouver and Tampa, Florida. I came back here to Huntsville. Vancouver, Canada? Canada. And Tampa, Florida. I'm just making sure geographically. That's why you're picking up the British accent. Yeah. That makes sense. The British accent in Vancouver? Yeah. Okay. Just listen close. She doesn't hear it. She doesn't know. But also, I'm really bad at U.S. geography because I learned all of that when I lived in Canada. So they don't go in depth. Anyways.

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Does she know that you're Canadian or that you lived in Canada and not England?

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Who? Ansley? Yeah. Well, I told you she just dislikes it. Okay. Okay. Well, you just asked, like, talking about her British accent. No, I told you to listen out for it. It'd be French. No. So we were just going to pretend she didn't act like she was going to use a British accent prior to us recording? Yes. Just make it sound like she's crazy? Yeah. Okay, see how I derailed all that? So Vancouver, Tampa. Came back here from high school, went to Auburn for interior design. There, graduated, and I interned here in Huntsville at Fuquay, and I've just been there ever since. So that's in 2016, so I've been there ever since, and I'm still here. And I have a cat and a dog. And a son. And a son. I love him a little. Zeke, if you're listening, I love you. He can't podcast yet. How old is he? He'll be four in September. He could be podcasting. He could have his own show. Goodness gracious, that would be fun. He's into snakes right now, so he would talk about snakes only. I feel like he could find some pretty good success in a four-year-old's YouTube show where he talks about snakes. He's got the hair for it. And

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he needs

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good hair to talk about snakes as a four-year-old. Not to podcast. He needs the video. What's his third favorite hair care product? Water. Probably like Oreo crumbs. In a bathtub full of pee. He's a potty train. Yeah, he's a potty train. By the time this podcast airs, he'll be fully potty trained. So the pee's put in there intentionally? Yeah. He's a boy. I mean, yeah. I mean, he's having fun.

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Okay, and so you guys both work at Fuquay,

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or MPS as interior designers. What sort of work do you guys do? A little of everything commercial, not healthcare. And would that change? No, it's probably going to stay the same. So we're fortunate, like all at one time we'll be doing school work, K-12, higher ed, or we've got a lot of restaurants that have come in in the last few years that we've been working on. We still do a good bit of corporate work, but it's kind of at one time we're working on most project types at once. Never a dull day. No, no.

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How big is the design studio here in Huntsville?

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Here in Huntsville, we've got, what, 30 now? Yeah, yeah. So we've got summer admin. We've got five full-time interior designers, a few admin, and architects here in Huntsville. Cool. Right upstairs from where we're sitting right now. That's crazy. It's weird that they're right above the IADA Huntsville studio. Yeah, well, yeah. Coincidental. What got you into interior design in the first place? Did you go to school for that? to start out? I kind of knew I wanted to do something in the design art world. I had a really great high school art teacher, and I was in her studio one time during my free period, and she was like, what are you going to do? And I was like, I don't know, because I went to a college prep high school, so all of the kids were going to be doctors, lawyers, and I was like, not for me. I'm going to not do any of that. And she was like, well, have you thought about interior design? Auburn has an interior design program. And I was like, no, but that makes a lot of sense for me. So I just signed up and did the first week of studios, and I was like, oh yeah, this is it. And I've loved it ever since. Yeah, that's great. I wanted to go to Alabama to do event planning slash party planning. My mom was like, I'm not sending you to Alabama to party plan. So she had me shout out. I was one of those kids who, in the middle of the night, would rearrange furniture. And she was like, oh, you need to shout out. Were you on Ambien? See, I did it again. I went. I was on Adderall. Still am. That's our sponsor. Good God. That is our sponsor. Yeah. I would rearrange furniture and she was like, you need to shout out my friend who did residential interior design and pick a school and a career instead of party planning. So I shouted her friend, enjoyed it decently. She

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still feels that way. Yeah. She still may go into it decently.

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And then I toured Mississippi State and Alabama's interior design program No hate to Alabama, but Mississippi State just took the cake. I loved the campus. The program was very hands-on, which I'm not a test-taker girl, so I needed projects and presentations. And then I did, I still was kind of not sure, but I did an on-campus internship with ADA going around to existing buildings on campus, and I fell in love with making spaces usable that people could actually get into, and then finished out school and graduated. Yeah, important end note there for the next step. Well, for my boss, I've never given her a diploma. Oh, disclaimer. Believe it or not, I'm Ansley's boss.

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Yeah. Oh, wow. That's usually the reaction we get. Yeah,

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okay. Yeah, up until the acquisition, we didn't have HR, so now we're going to be... Now we're on best behavior. Okay, okay, yeah. Okay, we've already talked about Oreos and bathtubs of... What is bad about Oreos? And bathtubs of pee. We have boys. Yeah, okay. I'm sure you peed in a bathtub.

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I probably peed

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in the bathtub in the last week. You know how we talked about how we're probably not going to edit? Maybe we will. And I want this on record. It was because of Mark, not

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because of us. Maybe Chad will be like, do you guys remember what you said? So check that transcript.

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Blackout.

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Chad, you're in charge. Yeah.

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God. It feels weird to ask a normal question now. It does. Tell me about, what's a project you've worked on that was really rewarding?

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We do have those. Well, so what's interesting, and so, you know,

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for our listeners, like, we know y'all well. Right, we're buddies. You just recently rolled off the IIDA board. We're work acquaintances. I didn't get a mmm. No. I got a ugh. Yeah, we're friends. Work acquaintances. I don't know if you know this, but we're friends. You were on the IIDA board. We were. Just recently rolled off. Yes. Passed along the batons. Yes. And you guys are a lot of fun, and you're very spirited. And as a pair, it's never a dull moment.

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Correct. So take what I'm about to say as a compliment. The questionnaires were great. They were very professional. Oh, you were surprised. Very thoughtful answers. I was like, oh, these read other questionnaires that we've gotten from other people. From normal people. Yeah, from normal people. We are

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corporate America girls. We have jobs and I think function pretty well at them.

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No, you are both very talented. Thank you. So now that I've gotten us sort of on track, I think maybe now we can. Can you

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share a specific project that was particularly inspiring to you? You want me to do that one? Yeah, you can answer first. I don't know if y'all had the same answer. Yeah. Actually, I didn't get a chance to read yours because I was driving in the car on the way up here. I can read it now. Yeah. I don't even remember what I said. You can refer back to your sheet. Yeah, y'all did. I mean, yeah. I mean, and you colored your answers different from the questions. We colored it for Christmas because it's half Christmas. So was that intentional? No. Oh, okay. Yours is green, hers is red. Here, we're all going to have dead air. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I'll answer this one. Okay. So I did a few of the libraries here. I got to do the interior design in the Huntsville public library system, a particular one in South Huntsville, which I now live really close to. So I get to take my son there, which is kind of a cool full circle moment. But when I did the design, I think I used every single color available that existed in the world. And that usually doesn't happen. They were like, we don't have any restrictions, use any color, any pattern you and I did a insane floor pattern for the children's library that I found out during construction, the flooring installer retired to Florida right after he finished. Two days after he finished installing, he moved to Florida. And I was like, oh, good. Killed one. And he was 35. He

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was like, I'm done. I'm done with this industry. This is it. I can't even stay in the state. And see, I

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thought I had a color-coded plan, and I thought I made his life easy, and apparently not, but... I got to work with somebody that used to be an ex-Disney Imagineer. Oh, fun. A rocket puppet theater that actually blasted off at story time. Were they part of the library group or just? No, we brought them in as a consultant called Wacky World. Some great people. But it's kind of just a rewarding project. I love doing kids spaces because I just think I have so many fond memories as a kid, like going to public libraries with my mom and just getting to have those special moments with her. So I kind of love getting to do anything that kind of create those spaces and environments for other people to have those memories. Nice. And you now live close by. When you go in, you're like... Do you point to yourself and be like, this was me. Thank you, everybody. She has a flag that says, I'm the designer. Like the alarms go off. The rocket blasts off. Yeah. It's pretty cool. My son tells everybody, though, that I designed it, which is kind of cool. Nice. That's the way to do it, really. Yeah, instead of you pointing. To have somebody else point it out. Yeah, even though you might have coached him in the car saying, hey, when we get there. Sorry, library. Anybody that works there, sorry. But he checked out a book and ripped a corner of it. And I took him like a week ago. And for like a week leading up to us returning the book, I don't know where he got it. He thought alarms were going to go off when he put it in the book drop. And he was like, are the alarms going to go off? And then he threw it in the book drop and went, no alarms went off and yelled it. And I was like, shh. Don't tell anybody. It's OK. It's OK. They didn't, and yet they did. Yeah. So it's kind of cool. I get to go back and experience one of my favorite jobs I've worked on now through the eyes of my son, which is kind of cool. Nice. Ansley, do you have a serious answer? Yeah. We just, BI did the furniture for it, but we had a decent. Sponsored by? Yeah, I wasn't even told. Idris Elba. Yeah,

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yes.

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We had a client that had a headquarters office and had done a couple of other offices in other locations, and they gave us inspiration from those offices. But at the beginning of the project, we're told not that they didn't want to follow it. So we did design iterations, I think shipped three full finished pallets to them and a lot of critiques along the way. But it turned out very beautifully and the clients were happy at the end. So that one honestly was just like a lot of relief, rewarding in that way that all their employees were happy about it after. a year project. How do you approach something where you've got a corporate client and they've got design standards and they have design standards for other offices and now here are design standards, here are the other offices. But we don't want to do that. Don't do this. Yeah, they pretended like they weren't standards but full circle they came back and used those same carpets and we just plugged in a few new ones. Okay. That was what was so frustrating about it but it turned out really well and I think everybody was happy in that. I think we've been lucky. I think a lot of our clients that have other locations, they kind of wanted to make their Huntsville home a little different. So it's kind of been not so much a, we're going to do this better than your other location, but a, how do we make you stand out by still keeping the same theme and feel of your other locations? Yeah. Gresham, not to plug Gresham, but because it's where Aaron works, but they're like that, right? So they've got lots of different locations around the U.S. and they do have a design standard for their offices. But then Birmingham is different from Nashville, is different from Tampa, is different from wherever. So that makes sense. And I just want to say more solutions just because everyone else's firm is specific. Not a sponsor, though. Not a sponsor. Not sponsoring. So with clients that... You wrote where they a lot of times don't know what they want design-wise. So how do you navigate that? If somebody comes to you and is like, okay, we've got a space that we need, where do you start? With our ideas and then kind of lead them down that road. I think they'll tell you corporate branding or things that they want to incorporate, but it's then up to us to– show one option that's really strong and get their feedback off of that i think sometimes it works out better than others and some there's a lot of clients that oh we want to see three different options and that's a little bit difficult to go full force into, but it gets their feedback. It's interesting, too, because I think people that say they don't have any idea and you can do whatever, that's never true. As soon as you show them something that you want to do, they're like, no, that's the opposite. They have a response. I had one project, I'll plug them, because they're, I think, my favorite project to date. The Brassman& Gorey Huntsville office. Sarah Beth told me, she was like, you just show me what you want to do and there was one VE the back columns we didn't wrap like the front columns and that was it and she loved everything I showed her and that was amazing that will never happen again and I would hold on to that forever but yeah to clients will say, you can do whatever, but then when you show them something, they're like, no, we don't like that. Yeah. Have you ever had anything where a client's adamant about a particular thing and you're like, oh God, we got to incorporate that? Yeah. Are there any that you can give examples of or are you just going to nod and say? Molly's dad. We're just going to hug. When I first came back to Huntsville and started working at FBA, I did a tenant improvement for where Molly's dad used to work and their logo color was like Kermit Green, and they were adamant about using that paint color on a full wall of every office. And I gave them so many different other solutions that we could do, but they were adamant about it. Stuck to Kermit Green. So there was an accent wall of Kermit Green in every office? Yes. We've had some clients over the years too that have some old traditional furniture that they're adamant about reusing or they've got some piece of art they've had at all their four other locations that they want to incorporate into the design. But usually we kind of treat that like a gallery moment. Treat it like a special piece of art. A walk through history. Yeah. Do you ever have situations like that where once the project is coming along that when those pieces enter the space, that the client's like, uh, never mind. Just doesn't really go. And they pull them out. Yeah. It's like they think it's going to work and then it doesn't. Yeah. If you've done your job. Well, it's kind of like helping a hoarder. clean their house out. You have to let them make the decision. You can't make it for them. Like men. I'll say that.

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I don't know. All you said is like men.

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That was Ansley that said that. Molly agrees, so we've talked about it. Do you want to elaborate? Yeah, like a lot of men. Yes, I do. I'll stand by my place. This is the most animated she's gotten. Glad you have a mic. Me too. A lot of times, men, you have to make it think that it's their idea i'm sure your wives do it to you yeah yes but you do that to me yeah 100 it's just any good relationship yeah i'm sure that chad and i never have to like make our wives think it's their idea You probably do. Because they always have. So now I'm going to go off about women. I'm not saying a thing.

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I'm like slowly looking at Chad's like, nope. Sponsored by more solutions. This portion. No, this part's not. We should have brought our therapist. That's why we're here. No. Yeah. Okay. Go on. You're

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not like Jennifer.

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I'm not what?

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Redacted.

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Redacted. Okay. We cut that.

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Okay. I'm going to pepper in one of my. Sure. Yeah.

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Perfect.

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What do you call this? Dead air?

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Yep.

SPEAKER_02:

What is something you tried to learn this year? Something I tried to learn. Or you're actively trying to learn. Are you learning anything new? I'm learning some new presentation software. That's exciting. What is it? We have looked at a couple, and right now we're looking at Cirrus, and there's several others, just to kind of jazz things up a little bit, you know? But I've... So when the slide comes in, it goes whoosh. Yeah, so I have a whole... This is going to come as no surprise to any of y'all that I have very strong opinions on things like that. Wow. Yeah. It's just an ick. It goes back to the ick. It goes back to the ick, yeah. There can be too much sliding and whooshing and things spinning around. And that can make a presentation... It can enhance it to a certain point, but if the content is garbage, if the person is not a good presenter or they're not listening to the client, there's a bunch of other factors that go into a presentation other than the swooshes and the things spinning. Have you tried slides where the letters go one at a time?

SPEAKER_01:

It's really good for somebody with dyslexia. We need that video because that was like a little Morse code index finger. Would that be helpful for you? No. Okay. Very distracting. I would leave the room. Okay. Okay. Yeah. I would never do that.

SPEAKER_02:

No.

SPEAKER_01:

I mean that. No, but

SPEAKER_02:

we've all sat in those, clearly we've all sat in those presentations before where they've done those things or the one where I was talking about the whoosh sound when they go to, like every single. I like when the paper spins in. Yeah. That was cool transition. It really captures. It's like a Nickelodeon show from 1991. There was one where I sat in and every time, every single slide went whoosh every time they switched slides. The sound effect and the. Whoosh. and it would move from the side to side. They probably thought it was so cool. I bet they did. Or they didn't know how to change it. They did it once and didn't know how to change it. We use this software that you can put a PDF in it and it makes it a little flip book, like a digital flip book, but it has a page turn sound. I've pulled it up on the TV in a meeting before and it's gone and you can turn it off and I don't know how to turn off people's sounds so I'm like and I just don't talk about it or bring it up or anything. I'm not doing it myself, but I've got somebody that's building a website for me that is an industry game. I'm trying to get it to launch August 1st. Maybe we'll see. A lot going on August 1st. Happy birthday, Fritz. There it was. Nicely done. He's never going to listen. So that's your brother? Yeah. His birthday is August 1st, which is when this podcast will... Hello to everyone. It's August 1st. How are you? But it's an industry game where it give you a manufacturer product image, and you try to guess the manufacturer, and if you get it wrong, it gives you another product from the same manufacturer, and you get four guesses, and get it right, great. If you get it wrong, it'll tell you who the manufacturer was, and then it keeps track of your stats each day. Oh, cool. So a quiz.

SPEAKER_01:

You know, Ansley loves tests. I think she already said she loves tests.

SPEAKER_02:

Right, right. It's very hands-on. Yeah, but not really. Not really at all. Are you learning anything this year? Yeah, I'm taking two of my NCIDQ tests in October. Oh, yes. So I'm trying to learn a lot. This was a lead-in question just so she could say that. No, it wasn't. It's like the show's about you. Here, I'll give you a non-industry question in answer to that question. I'm learning how to make cheesecake. I've been making cheesecake for about three months. She's never shared it with me. Oh,

SPEAKER_01:

okay. Then I don't feel bad that you didn't bring any here. Maybe she's still learning.

SPEAKER_02:

What I'm thinking is it's not good. Beta, okay? Is it just plain cheesecake? No. That was really offensive. I made a lemon blueberry. I made a peach crumble. I made a... And none of them are good. Lemon. None of them are good. And they're all terrible? Well, the first one had a really bad crust on it. That's why I didn't share it. What about the other? So you have not had any cheesecake? No. Zero. Your list's in a lot of really great flavors. Have you just perfected cheesecake? No. Okay. Why would I start with the basics? No, you're right. That's not how I roll.

UNKNOWN:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

I've baked other things that I've let you try, I think. Like what? Stuff. Stuff. I think... No. Stuff. Well, dessert doesn't go far from my home, so... love so far apart five minutes five

SPEAKER_01:

minutes five minutes well you know you can eat a lot of cheesecake in the car

SPEAKER_02:

in five minutes so i was looking for what flavor do you want me to make anything chocolate that would be great i love chocolate cheesecake yeah okay I've never had chocolate cheesecake. I haven't either. I'm just throwing it out there. I don't know if I've ever seen one, but I'm going to do it. Yeah, okay. Are there any specific tools or software that you find particularly useful in your work? A springform pan, a cookbook. Nicely done.

SPEAKER_01:

A code book? Cookbook. Oh, I heard code book because this is a design podcast,

SPEAKER_02:

and yet we're talking about cooking again. What are your thoughts on sourdough? Oh, God. Okay, we have now two employees at our office that are celiac. Yeah, it's really annoying. I have always thought sourdough was gluten-free, and apparently it is not. You literally add a pack of gluten to it. Yeah, but I've heard that from lots of people. Whom? Yep, there you go. No one. Nevermind, cut that out, it's embarrassing. Are there any specific tools or software that you find particularly useful in your work? We have actually started doing, after the, Professional Development Symposium, one of, I'm sorry, I don't remember the designer's name that said it, but she was talking about how she presented black and white 3D views to clients and presentations, and we had kind of stayed away from presenting Revit models or a lot of renderings to clients just because they latch on and you can get hung up in the details of it, but we have implemented doing some black and white 3D views for clients out of Revit and then into Lumion, and I think it's been going decently well. well yeah because I think that's a big part of our industry that was a learning curve for me is I can visualize in 3D but a lot of people cannot and that's a big part of what we do is getting people to buy in on what we're saying and what we're trying to do without them being able to visualize it in their head so I think doing the black and white views has been really successful versus but if you make it too realistic then they latch on to something where they're like I don't like that color yeah Well, then when we're actually in design selecting finishes, they're like, what happened to my... To that rendering. To that wood floor you showed in there. And you're like, well, we can't afford that. We need more money. Yeah. And I think, I mean, we find that with furniture, when you're presenting furniture. And they're like, I guess it's okay, but I really don't like that fabric. And you're like, oh, let's back up. Yeah. Let's go back to the beginning here real quick. Yeah. I will say in a lot of furniture presentations, even with our clients, and we're just involved in the outside portion. but clients definitely get hung up on the color of certain chairs they're like i didn't like that green chair it's like okay take the green out of it like i don't know how many times i have to explain that

SPEAKER_01:

yeah

SPEAKER_02:

which is a tough i mean and we're all speaking the same language it's just it's just tough because then it's like the flip side of that is and i'm from the dealer side and i'm going to speak for all dealers here because they've all experienced it it's like okay well your presentation wasn't creative enough. And it's like, okay, well, we were trying to actually, one, either not step on the design intent of the A&D firm, or... we don't have that, like, you know, so you're intentionally coming in with a neutral palette, and it's like, oh, well, now I'm bored. It's like, okay, well, what do you want us to do here? Yeah, I mean, and from the rep side, we get samples sent in, and what colors do they come in? And if we're presenting to an A&D firm, you want something a little poppier and a little bit more fun, a little more color, but if you take it to an end user, they're like, ew, I don't really care for that because, you know, it's got this pattern on it or it's, you know, this color. And you're like, oh, well, and then you end up with all these black leather chair samples, which are beautiful. The ones we're sitting in are very nice. They're very, very nice. And in that room over there. A lot of neutral in here. But it does, it gets kind of anonymous when you get all these samples and everything's just black. Yeah. Yeah. But that's the flip side is that the client just doesn't understand it. Well, then sometimes we've, we had one client where the furniture presentation had, was it green, was it green chairs? And that's what sold the job. Yes. And I fully. Was it the Kermit the Frog? Green. No, it wasn't the Kermit the Frog green. It was a. No, it was. It was, it wasn't that job, but it was that color of chair. And this client, I fully expected them to be one of those clients that needed a neutral presentation. presentation, just from how design of the building went. And I might love to say that y'all's presentation was like that. All right, the presentation was neutral, and I thought the client would be more receptive to that, but to Mark's point, they were then just bored, and they were like, no, we love the green chair presentation. And I just want to say to Mickey Davis that we do not want Kermit the Frog dolls. No, I do want that. Do you? Okay. But with our heads on them. Oh. Okay. We're frogs, but our head.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. I'm

SPEAKER_02:

excited to see what y'all are going to get in a box.

SPEAKER_01:

I mean,

SPEAKER_02:

Mickey is very creative. I'm really excited. So I'm terrified a little bit. I would like to read what I said before. Mickey, we do not need any Kermit the Frog with anybody's

SPEAKER_01:

help. Redacted. Redacted.

SPEAKER_02:

Where do you two find inspiration? Um... This is halfway a joke, but halfway not. Molly sends me a lot of Instagram interior design pages, and I don't follow them. I probably should, but I go back. You don't need to because she filters them and sends them to you. On my maternity leave, I went on Instagram and unfollowed anybody that I didn't know in person. Okay, yeah, okay. It was just too much. But now Molly sends me things that I capture. Yeah, so I try and follow a good bit of designers, architects, but I also follow a lot of artists, like mixed media, different types, paintings, sculptors, whatever, and that usually actually gives me a really cool idea for floor pattern plans, color schemes. I think you should be listening to your boss here. No, no, no, I do listen to her. I'm sending them hoping, hey, I listen to her. Follow these. And then when she explains it to me, she'll use hand gestures, and then our jobs are great. Or sometimes we'll be working on a job, and I'll send her the weirdest, most obscure thing, and I don't explain it. And she's like, cool. I take a stab, and I say, OK, I need us to look at this. Three weeks later, I'm like, remember that picture I sent you? She's like, what? I also have short-term memory loss. Yeah. That's not a joke.

SPEAKER_01:

I wasn't going to make a joke. Why are you looking at me? Because

SPEAKER_02:

I felt like you were going to attack me. I'm words of affirmation. I was going to make a dyslexic short-term memory loss. If you're listening, her Kermit doll should have realistic-sized eyes. Yeah, but crossed. Oh.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. I don't know what to do with either

SPEAKER_02:

one of you at this point. Well, I'm going to ask the question. I enjoyed this answer. What tips do you have for listeners? But only from one of you. He's looking at green. I didn't read hers. What tips do you have for listeners who want to improve their space on a limited budget? Oh. let me find this because I don't want to mess up. We've talked about this before. It's amazing how people don't remember their answers. No. Okay. I took my Adderall yesterday when I filled this out. Okay. What does that have to do with today? I didn't take it today. Okay. In the short term memory. Yeah. Yeah. I remember. So I did have, I'll, This might be off script. Okay, that's fine.

SPEAKER_01:

I'll tell you the correct answer. We've kept it on track so far. Now we're going to start riffing. Go ahead. So

SPEAKER_02:

I had Redstone Gateway. There was a client that was doing a new build, and they were very budget conscious. And throughout the whole project, I was telling them they have these long corridors that we need to do something visually to break it up. We get into CA. They're still adamant that... They didn't want anything in the corridors. They were going to hang art later, which always makes me so nervous because what are you hanging? What does it look like? Why are you doing that?

SPEAKER_01:

Are you crazy?

SPEAKER_02:

But this client, I was able to talk into another one of my answers, a schoolgirl plaid carpet. And so I was like, okay, maybe I can impress them on this. So during construction, I took a picture looking down the hallway that was just general white paint, carpet, and base. And I was like, And I photoshopped some options, and I was like, even with just a paint strike line, you can dress this up so much. And I sent it to them, and then finally, I probably hounded them for two or three months on adding things into the corridors, and finally they said that they would do the paint strike line. And I think it really dressed up the space very well. Nice. Their graphics were horrible afterwards, but it looks pretty good now. Did you say schoolgirl plaid? Yeah. Yeah, I'm glad we went back to that. I was just hoping we wouldn't talk about it. You meant it all, but since we are now. And that was the one where you presented it virtually. Yes, so finished presentations, we always advise our client to come in person. Sometimes that happens, sometimes it doesn't. This client was the ultimate... sayer was virtual

SPEAKER_01:

the ultimate the ultimate sayer yes chief of options

SPEAKER_02:

she was virtual and they had another counterpart that was in person and she was snapping photos with horrible lighting horrible angles and sending it to the client because her zoom wasn't working so there was a plaid carpet that i had installed pictures for but she couldn't see that and she could only see the snippet from her employer and she said oh no that looks like school girl carpet. And I was like, oh, come on. Let me talk you into this. So I photoshopped a plan with the patterning that I wanted to do, sent it to her, and she was like, I still don't really love it, but I'm going to trust you. I was like, okay. And then at the grand opening, she was telling everybody that I talked her into the school girl plaid carpet. So she's the one who's the catalyst for the phrase school girl plaid. Yeah. Oh, I was thinking that was Ainsley. Okay. Yeah. I did go to Catholic school, but... I'm not explaining

SPEAKER_01:

it. Again, the video. I know. So much. I don't know what you just did. Some

SPEAKER_02:

sort of

SPEAKER_01:

self patty cake.

SPEAKER_02:

I'm not explaining it. Okay. But what is schoolgirl plaid as opposed to schoolboy plaid? Boys don't wear plaid. They wear khakis. Girls wear plaid. The skirt? Yeah, it's a plaid. I'm just thinking like plaid. My kids go to Catholic school. It can't be. Catholic plaid is different than regular plaid. Anyone else would have said plaid. They go to Catholic school. Chad gets it. If you were in charge of creating a new holiday, what would it be? Okay, I would do one where children do not get candy, because it seems like all the holidays, every kid gets, it's candy, candy, candy, candy. And this would only be for adults. Like 18 and up? No, I think adults that are not living with their parents and are paying a mortgage or rent. It's a holiday off of work, free responsibility holiday. So like the Purge, just PTO?

SPEAKER_01:

Like the Purge. Oh, and I forgot to add, you get to murder everyone. He said no rules. Yeah, no rules.

SPEAKER_02:

Wow. What's your answer? Festivus for the rest of us. Yeah, that's cheating. I don't have a holiday. I don't know what's a... What's something you're passionate about that you would like to take a day to celebrate? I got one. Okay.

UNKNOWN:

My birthday.

SPEAKER_02:

That's already a holiday, and you make everybody celebrate the whole month of March. What day in March is your birthday? First day of spring. First day of spring! And let me tell you, both of my children are born in March, and she makes me celebrate her starting March 1st to the end of March. She did come to their birthday parties. She's still allowed to love her children that month. So is your answer going to be her birthday now? Yeah, that's my answer. I'm on board for the month of March being Molly Moore's birthday. Recognized internationally. If you do not give her a present on March 1st, I will come to Birmingham. Don't make her think that... She's not feeding into this because you're the only one that does the March 1st birthday present, so. No, I'm not. You have made it very clear that this is because of your mother. Why did you bring the microphone closer? So that everybody can hear me. No, no, no, no, no. It's not just me. So yours is that and mine is that children don't get candy and adults can kill people. Yep. Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Yeah. So, and I was just literally, I leaned back a little more in my chair to watch the exchange between those two. Because they're sitting, again, no video. They're sitting across from, directly across from each other.

SPEAKER_02:

We asked to sit next to each other and you didn't. We'll be at work and we'll be like playfully. We'll be bantering. Bantering. And people will be like. Are y'all fighting? Are y'all fighting? They get uncomfortable and leave and we're like. We're just talking. I used to have a co-worker, hey Beth, back in past jobs many moons ago where we were like that. Beth's not listening. We were like,

SPEAKER_01:

yeah,

SPEAKER_02:

Beth's not listening. You know, Beth, she could surprise me. She's not in the industry. She could surprise me. She's totally not listening. I don't know. She's a very interesting lady. I think her and your dad take notes on the episodes and then maybe at year three they'll give you like a review

SPEAKER_01:

they're gonna wait till we get three years into this thing and they'll be like you should have stopped at episode five

SPEAKER_02:

well that's your take they might have some positivity to put into that maybe i mean we're we're always open for suggestions and critiques yeah we don't listen to them yeah we're open to receiving them yeah most people just tell us how good we are I will not do that. Yeah. We did get, we'll shout out Tim O'Brien here. Yeah. Because he sent us a very nice email. Tim O'Brien of Interspace. Yeah. Tim O'Brien. This section is sponsored by Interspace. And he sent Chad and me a very nice email about how he enjoys the podcast. And he started off with like, let the ass kissing commence. And what did he say? It's like, you guys bring it 87.2% of the time. Yeah. That's pretty high. That's pretty high. Very specific. It was. Yeah. And then I made a joke about, like, I've been trying to get Chad to, like, you know, get the other 12.8% and bring us to 100. And then Chad responded

SPEAKER_01:

with, since I do 75% of the work, I think that maybe this is on you. And that was our first fight.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. And then Tim kind of was like, so sorry. I didn't mean to start this. It sounds like me and Ansley on the IADA board. It does. I did all the work at Molly. I think you did two newsletters at first. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

But that's, I forgot

SPEAKER_02:

the whole reason I brought up Beth, but that's why I brought up Beth is because she and I used to like fight, like bicker fight, like not like me and Valerie. I was going to say, is that you and Valerie? Valerie and I are just like, like two small children. that are siblings just going at each other. And really, it's not me. My blood pressure never raises, right? It's just like I'm just normal. And then that just irritates Valerie. But Beth and I used to fight. And then we would get done and it'd be like, I'm sure like y'all, where do you want to go to lunch? But there would be people that we worked with that would be like, wow, I can't believe you guys talk to each other like that. And they'd be like, we're fine. It's okay. We don't fight, fight. No. There's only been one time that Molly got mad at me, and I don't even remember what I did. Oh, that's about right. You didn't follow those Instagram pages. Short-term memories. Yeah, yeah. Not to learn from my mom. Do you remember? Yeah. Yeah. Do you want to talk about it? Nope. Okay. I was like, you're getting far away from the microphone now, so maybe you don't want to. I did lean back in like a little power stance. If Molly sounds like she's in another room. She

SPEAKER_01:

is. It's because she just rolled five feet away from the microphone.

SPEAKER_02:

No, we don't fight. She will fight me if I haven't talked to her in like two hours. But then I just track her location. So you track each other? Yes, we do. I was instructed that I wasn't using her location enough, so now every once in a while I'll check and be like, oh, I see that you're going to Target. What are you getting? And then she says, oh, I feel so loved. So we've had better communication. My angel watching over me. So wait, so when you, Molly, are looking, you're just like, ah, I'm not doing anything right now. I'm going to get out my phone and see where Ansley is. Yeah. And then you message her and

SPEAKER_01:

you're like, I see that you're. I

SPEAKER_02:

don't go out of my way to look at her location. I track my mother, who is notoriously doing things like burning trees down and. On her own land. Yeah, on her own land and like almost getting

SPEAKER_01:

hit. Thanks for the specificity. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or love, love, love. You can see her right out there in the green piece. Yeah. So

SPEAKER_02:

she's doing things on the farm. She'll be like, oh, yeah, something flew off of the mower, and it almost hit me in the eye. She does stuff like that all the time. So I tend to check my mom's location a good bit to just make sure she's moving and she's alive. And usually when I check my mom, I'm like, oh, what's Ansley doing? But I wasn't doing that enough for her, so she told me that, and I have corrected my ways. So do you accidentally see where she is, or do you have to set an alarm? Um... I don't set an alarm. She looked at me to make

SPEAKER_01:

sure

SPEAKER_02:

I was

SPEAKER_01:

approving. It's okay. Don't mention the alarm. It'll sound weird. If

SPEAKER_02:

I have a free moment on my phone, I'll say, oh, what's Molly doing? Usually once a week or so. Do you ever check to make sure she's on a job site? No. I'm very good at communication and tell her all my whereabouts. She shouldn't need my location because I do update her on every step that I take. No, it's never work related. It's like she will come to work. She came to work one Monday and she was like, yes, yesterday I went to this restaurant for dinner and I just said, I know. And it was like she was mad that I hadn't told her yet.

SPEAKER_01:

I know. I was there. Chad's looking for another question. Yeah, he is. He's really

SPEAKER_02:

uncomfortable. No, we're almost an hour in. We're 55 minutes in. Oh, man. Switch to our questions. Rapid fire. Yeah. Yeah. So we're going rapid fire? Mm-hmm. Because they could still take another 20 minutes. Yep. I feel like I'm kind of kicking myself that I didn't kind of refresh my rapid-fire questions for this group. You can just make one up on the spot. I'm just not

SPEAKER_01:

that good at this. To think of something on the

SPEAKER_02:

spot. We'll just blame it on Chad.

SPEAKER_01:

I

SPEAKER_02:

normally do when I'm, you know, on like this podcast and on social media. I'm usually very supportive of Chad,

SPEAKER_01:

but behind his back, I'm just dragging him constantly. This guy is the worst. Did

SPEAKER_02:

you all drive separately today? Yes, we did. That's probably a good idea. We have different things we need to be doing here in Huntsville. Okay. I'm just talking. We got up here at different times. You don't have to explain that to me. My wife asked the same question this morning. Erin didn't ask.

SPEAKER_01:

She was texting me. She was

SPEAKER_02:

texting me

SPEAKER_01:

asking

SPEAKER_02:

where her car keys were. She found them, by the way. You should get her a tile. She's had a tile. She lost it. Then she lost the phone that would track the tile. That's tricky. It is tricky. I'm going to go back to this very awkwardly worded question from the symposium. Awesome. Chad loves this. If design was a competitive Olympic sport, what sport would it be? Boxing, but also ice skating. Okay. Boxing on ice.

SPEAKER_01:

A little aggressive

SPEAKER_02:

physical, but beautiful. Smooth. Nice costumes. Yeah. You start with boxing, and then you go to ice skating.

SPEAKER_01:

Do you agree, Molly? No, she doesn't like that.

SPEAKER_02:

My answer was going to be a little different than that. I was going to say curling. So still on ice. We're always on thin ice. That is where we live. I was going to say one person kind of starts out, and then you have a team. You have people helping, and you get to the goal. Again, the video, yeah. Because that was really good. No, we do not consent to that. If someone gifted you a pet monkey, what would you name it? Winston. Winston. Winston. Monkey. That was quick. Okay. Monkey. Do you have an answer for that question? No.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, okay. Then I don't either. I'm just going to stick with the weird questions. That one was a little weird. Well, we've definitely thought about that one.

SPEAKER_02:

What's the weirdest or most unexpected source of design inspiration you've ever encountered? Pass. What? That means it's a good answer. Probably not. Oh, okay. No, never mind. Molly, are you passing? I don't know. I answered this. That's a hard one. Oh, did you? Okay. Yeah, yeah. I forgot what it was. Why don't you remind listeners of episode 12? They can go back to it. Okay. Then you get more listens. Why don't you drop a hint? More sponsors! Yeah. From dreams. Oh, that's right. Okay. Yeah. Yep. But that also comes with nightmares. That is hilarious that I asked you your own question from like a year ago. No, you asked me that question a year ago. I didn't make that up. Didn't I say that? Did I say that backwards? Am I a dyslexic speaker? We'll check the tape. Okay. Some other time. Redacted. When

SPEAKER_01:

we never

SPEAKER_02:

listen to this episode again. This is how you should send out proofs. Okay, did you have an answer or do we need to move to Chad? Let me think about it. Okay, we'll get back to you. All right. If you could dress Mark up in any costume, what would it be? And can we create a bet that he would lose so we can force him to dress that way? I think he's probably willing to dress up. You just have to like play the game kind of thing, you know, like make it think that it's his idea. Like a little Bo Peep. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

I like that. I want to wink at you. Just make this as awkward as possible.

SPEAKER_02:

Little Bo Peep. Little Bo Peep. Yeah. But don't keep the beard.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. Okay. And

SPEAKER_02:

then Chad's the sheep.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. No. Take back my wink. No, I like that a lot. Is it my turn? Or is it your turn? That's the best contribution yet, Chad. If you could design a space based on a smell...

SPEAKER_02:

What

SPEAKER_01:

would the smell be?

SPEAKER_02:

Definitely a man. But like a vanilla, but also woodsy.

SPEAKER_01:

Definitely a man.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, because then it's like a moody. Remember earlier when she wanted to talk bad about men? But you need men. We can get into this if you want.

SPEAKER_01:

That's a whole other podcast and even I will cut this one short. Yeah, we'll

SPEAKER_02:

fight later. I think like a warm cup of coffee.

SPEAKER_01:

She

SPEAKER_02:

hates coffee and I've been trying to get her to drink it for years. The smell is nasty and the taste is nasty. You don't like the smell of coffee? No. Interesting. Maybe you're... nose is dyslexic too hmm no sick burn like i feel like I hope you're embarrassed. You want to laugh. No, I don't. She is laughing. You're looking at me like, I'm not going to give you this satisfaction. I just also wanted you to be embarrassed.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm fine with it. I know who I am. I know when jokes bomb, and that one did not.

SPEAKER_02:

Landed. I'll write a review. Okay. You have to chop off one of your hands or feet. Which one would you choose? My left hand. Probably one of my feet, so I can just be carried all the time. Yeah, her knee hurts, so she can't drive.

SPEAKER_01:

Is that why you check her location, Molly, so you can see how close she is to come pick you up? Hey, I couldn't help but notice, you're five miles away. Could you swing by?

SPEAKER_02:

Honestly. If you could design a space that included a secret passageway... How would you hide the entrance to the secret passage? One day we're going to plug in music for these parts where it's like... I don't know if we can make them quieter. Just start singing. I think maybe on the floor. So people fall through. I don't want a bookcase. I was going to say trampoline into a ceiling. I was kind of thinking trampoline, but I feel like people might not bounce on it. Well, they don't know it's there. You have to remove a panel, and then you have to... Oh, it's a secret trampoline. It looks like a carpet tile. Pull a lever. Oh, so it's like... The carpet slides back. Trampoline in the floor. Double secret. Yeah, and then you jump on the trampoline, and then you have to launch into the... All right, detail it, and we'll make it work. All right. Is that also your answer? No, mine's just something with the floor. I haven't figured it out yet. Okay. What's your answer? Get back to us. Mine is the secret bookcase. Yeah, done. I'm just kidding. You can buy those now at Home Depot. You can buy a secret bookcase at Home Depot? Yeah, at Bookcase Door. Yeah, and there's all sorts of YouTube videos on how to build them. It's equal to film one for you. Yeah. All right, I want to know more about cake pop makers. Because I was looking on Facebook, and I think you had made some brownie pops or something. Somebody made brownie pops. It was a cake pop maker. Did I look at the wrong one? On our Facebook? I thought so, yeah. Well, you didn't read. My question, my answers. No, I did not. Are you talking about just on social media? Yeah. I thought I saw where it was like made brownie. I'm only making me a cheesecake right now. Okay, yeah. See, my joke was

SPEAKER_01:

better than this.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. Right? Well, no, because this is making me think. Nice. I can't win. Sick burn. Cake pop mold? Cake pop maker. They have those. I know they do, but I could have sworn somebody was making brownie pops. Oh, my mom. Oh, there it is. Maybe you were tagged. Chad follows your mom? Yeah. And I follow yours as well when she's burning trees. She did make cake pop brownies with the boys the last time. So she's got one. I guess you were tagged in it maybe is what it was. If you need any kind of weird thing, my mom probably has it. Yeah, because I saw that because my kids love cake pop. I didn't know there were cake pop makers. Yeah. What is a cake pop? Go to Starbucks and order one. Oh, the little things that are on a stick. A cake pop. Okay, yeah. So I thought you had made one, and so I was like going to ask. No, sorry. Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

Could we get your mom on the phone so she can answer this question? Phone a friend. Yeah, phone a friend.

SPEAKER_02:

I'll give you her number. Okay. I'm winking.

SPEAKER_01:

Getting the digits,

SPEAKER_02:

Chad. Do you want to ask us any final ones? Do you have any from your brain? Wait, do we have any? I have one last question for y'all. Okay. What design, material, or feature would you banish forever if you could? And which one would you declare the king or queen of commercial spaces? This seems like a try.

SPEAKER_01:

You seem surprised by your question. It's not where I thought that question was going to go. Try

SPEAKER_02:

another one.

SPEAKER_01:

No, just ask us questions. Rapid fire's over.

SPEAKER_02:

What sock do you put on first, and is it also that shoe that you put on? Do you do right sock first? Left sock, right shoe, left shoe? Yes. So I thought about this this morning while I was getting dressed. And so it's left sock first, because I'm right-handed and right-footed. And so just naturally, for whatever reason, I start on my right foot. Because I also stand up when I put my socks on. But I sit down when I put my shoes on.

SPEAKER_00:

I

SPEAKER_02:

am right sock, left sock, right shoe, left shoe. But I found out last, I guess with the Neocon, it was my brother. He puts on sock shoe on the same foot first and then does sock shoe on the

SPEAKER_01:

other foot. Interesting.

SPEAKER_02:

So my four-year-old likes it that way, but I don't always do it that way. And so it's made me curious to how other people put their... I do sock, sock, shoe, shoe. I mean, I looked at him like, what the hell is wrong with you? Who does that? Because if you have to do something, all this like... You have one shoe on... Yeah. You've got your barefoot and got one shoe on. Yeah, okay. Wait, do you leave your shoes on when you get home? No. And wear them for hours when you get home? The only time I've done that is because Lauren Fry, plugging her, a sponsor for this last segment.

SPEAKER_01:

Lauren is y'all's coworker, for those people who don't know. I think it's Fry. It's not.

SPEAKER_02:

She told me that she saw on TikTok her form of research. She saw that if ADD people leave their shoes on, they get more done. So if I need to get more done on like a Friday afternoon, I will leave my shoes on. But I typically take my shoes off at any chance I get, even at the office. Well, I just looked and you have kept your shoes on. I did take them off for a brief moment. And then you lost focus. You stopped paying attention. If I see her walking around the office with no shoes on, I just like roll my eyes at her. I'm more productive. Is it because your shoes grip the floor better and so you're not slipping around? No, I don't usually run around the office. Sometimes I do, but it just feels constrained. Okay. Try it. Work with your shoes off. Did you have a follow-up question, Molly, to this whole conversation? No, she knows. Just listening. Okay. All right. Making sound effects, listening. Do I have time for more? Y'all want to cut it? We're done? We can do one more. We can do one more. Let's do one more. Another couple of minutes and she'll ask the question. No. What opinion do you have that would get you uninvited from me and Molly's dinner party? We're not having one and you're not invited, but what opinion

SPEAKER_01:

do you have? I was going to say I don't think women should be able to vote. Oh, I agree with that. All right, bye. Or drive. No, I'm fine with that one. I'm

SPEAKER_02:

good with

SPEAKER_01:

that. My knee hurts. Will you drive me to the voting box? If

SPEAKER_02:

I was very wealthy, that's the first thing I would do is hire a chef. I would hire a chef. Well, my chauffeur can cook for me too. Yeah, see, no, you're just explaining an employee of yours. Like somebody that you have for everything.

SPEAKER_01:

Chad, what's your answer? I

SPEAKER_02:

was just going to say I'm close to having... one of my children drive. So hopefully it'll be kind of like that where they can chauffeur me around or just go get the stuff. Yeah. Yeah. That's nice. Yeah. I don't have an answer. I would say it on the podcast.

SPEAKER_01:

It's a good joke though. It's funny.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I would say something similar to what you just said, which I've ever told my Helen Keller joke on this show. Oh, let's go. Molly's sister loves Helen Keller. She didn't think she was real.

SPEAKER_01:

So I just want to preface this by, that's a whole

SPEAKER_02:

different podcast. I preface this with that my mother thinks this joke is funny, so that's okay. It makes it okay. Why was Helen Keller a bad driver? Because she was a woman. That is funny.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and there you are again trying not to laugh. She

SPEAKER_02:

said, that is funny. And then I'm done talking. My first high school suspension, we were talking about... First. Yeah. Like I said, not a good student. We were talking about... the era of women's rights. And I raised my hand and I said, do you want to know a joke? And nobody said anything. And I said, women's rights.

SPEAKER_01:

Straight. That's where we end. Um, so we're

SPEAKER_02:

going to finish this episode. Like we have the last couple, which, um, will be a, like, personalized song to finish the podcast. Which will be an AI thing that's done. But I need some random words from you all to include in it. And then also a genre of music. So give me two each. Just a random word. Water chestnut. I was going to say raccoons.

SPEAKER_01:

Also

SPEAKER_02:

good. Um... Do they have to be related to our episode? No. Water chestnuts and raccoons were not.

SPEAKER_01:

We didn't get to that part of the question there. I love how we're talking to each other and they're talking to each other.

SPEAKER_02:

Women is my third. Women? My second word. It's like I forgot every word ever. Tree.

SPEAKER_01:

Lamp. Literally looked out the window. It was like, I can't think of it. Tree.

SPEAKER_02:

That's how my kids play Mad Libs. They're like, spaghetti. It's like reading spaghetti. It's like, okay, this is fun. We just name things in the room. Why don't we do that? I love that. Genre of music. Jazz? Yeah. Jazz. Oh, nice. Do you two like jazz? No. Sure. But we don't not like it. Okay. We hate

SPEAKER_01:

it. But that's why

SPEAKER_02:

we need this.

SPEAKER_01:

That's what gets you canceled on this episode is people learning that you don't like jazz. We

SPEAKER_02:

like jazz. We just need more... Send us a playlist. Yeah, send us a playlist, including this song. You'll definitely get this. You don't get a proof, but you'll get a copy. I think that should change. Well, thank you both for coming on. Thank you. Thanks for having us. And this will never air, and we'll never be invited

SPEAKER_01:

back. It went better than I thought it was going to. It went worse than I thought. Chad did not have fun. He's been miserable. We

SPEAKER_02:

kept a good train of thought most of the time. I thought it was good. Yeah. Especially for me not taking Adderall. Yeah. And we appreciate that you guys took the time to come, what is it, six floors down? Yeah. And be fed. And you ate. Oh, man. Yeah. Long way down. So appreciate it. Yeah. Thanks, y'all. Thank you. Appreciate it. Good to see you.

UNKNOWN:

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00:

Playing, the mood was set Ansley showed up with no regrets With her own list of questions, the time just flew First time a podcast was two verse two Oh, we're swinging on, all in design Where the thoughts run wild and the riffs align Molly's got taste and she's got her peak Thinks Mark should dress like, like little Bo Peep Molly chimed in, calm and clear, said Kermit the Frog was our pellet this year. Greens on the wall, Muppets in mood, felt surprisingly chic if a touch misconstrued. Oh, we're all in Cast line from raccoons in the attic to a water chestnut stew You never quite know what they're gonna do There's rhythm in the render and poetry in paint When your team is two legends with no restraint Come for Idris, a nod to the tree, side glance at Chad with a cake pop plea. Mark's in the corner, resisting the sheep, but let's be real, he'd rock Bo Peep. With raccoons and Vincent Kermit in the room Ansley's asking, Molly hums low And Chad's in the back yelling cake pops, let's go Design's not a script, it's a bebop spree So pour up some jazz with your lemony tea Molly and Ansley, they're swinging sublime Women of wonder, one podcast at a time