The SiteVisit

Roundtable #8 - Hybrid workplaces, in-person events & growing a network on LinkedIn

• Andrew Hansen, James Faulkner, Christian Hamm • Season 2 • Episode 55

Share episode

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 1:02:33

Send us Fan Mail

Subscribe to stay updated with the latest content.

Follow theSiteVisit community:

YouTube |

Instagram |

LinkedIn |

Twitter |

Facebook |

Website

PODCAST INFO:
the Site Visit Website: https://www.sitemaxsystems.com/podcast
the Site Visit on Buzzsprout: https://thesitevisit.buzzsprout.com/269424
the Site Visit on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-site-visit/id1456494446
the Site Visit on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5cp4qJE5ExZmO3EwldN1HH

FOLLOW ALONG:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/thesitevisit
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesitevisit

SPEAKER_01

Welcome to the Site Visit Podcast. Leadership in Construction with Perspective from the Job Site. Your host, Andrew Hansen, James Faulkner, Christian Hammond. Let's get down to it.

SPEAKER_00

Well, we're back. Another roundtable here on Tuesday morning, uh, April 6th. It's another sunny day. It's springtime. Coming on Easter weekend. We got Jesse Unky joining us. Jesse, how's it going, man?

SPEAKER_02

It's going great. How can it not be on a sunny day? Oh, I know. It's this weather's awesome, man. I'm glad that we're kind of out of the four o'clock uh darkness and raining sideways, right?

SPEAKER_01

So have you got into any uh more uh parkside wine and cheese situations?

SPEAKER_02

No, but we got we definitely got to do one. James and I had a little wine and cheese session last summer, which uh which was good. I mean, we did it with a lot, like my wife Jen and I did it with a lot of friends of ours. But what I have been doing is is Ram's office is near uh is near BC Place, or rather sorry, GM or um Canada Place. And a great BD move is just grab a coffee of someone, keep your distance and just walk around the point there and hang out. You can see the centrum project is a nice little backdrop to to talk about. But yeah, I've really liked about the the fact that the nicer weather is coming, is that you know having having discussions over Zoom and and Teams and stuff like that is great. But for me, I I'm I don't know, you guys are the same. I love to be able to see people in person, be safe about it, you know. So if we're outside keeping that distance and be able to have some nice scenery as a backdrop is a great way to connect with clients and and colleagues and partners. And so yeah, if you guys are in the neighborhood and want to grab a coffee and go for a walk around Canada Place, it's a nice, nice way to do things.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, it's uh it's interesting. Some of the news that's coming back in terms of offices going back to uh normal work again. Um some large tech firms uh claiming productivity is down.

SPEAKER_02

So yeah, I mean, I we definitely at RAM. We don't we productivity is up. We've seen uh we've seen people really, really step up and be able to uh be accountable to what they're doing and and what they're working on. And I mean it's tough. It it's it's hard on everyone having to work from home, uh especially for uh for such a long duration. But we we haven't really seen any impacts. In fact, we've seen positive uh, you know, people being more efficient, not having to a lot of people are not having to commute and have to deal with all that. So we've actually seen the opposite. And I mean, we we're starting to open up a little bit and have people come in. You can work with our office manager to have an assigned desk on a certain day. And and for the leadership team, we've got enclosed opses. So I go in uh more or less every day just because I'm not having to interact with people. But yeah, it's gonna be interesting to see kind of what the policies are across the board in different industries and and how companies are gonna approach this and if there's gonna be a like a hybrid model or or or what it's gonna look like.

SPEAKER_00

Well, you guys have been um because a lot of what you guys do does involve you going to projects, right? Two site to see things and everything like that, which has been going pretty full blast, or more or less, um, kind of the whole time. What does that look like for you for you guys in terms of uh change of pace, or is that just business as usual? Um yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I mean, yeah, we've got one of our major projects in Richmond is is the uh um airport fuel delivery project, and and we've been going full bore on that project. Of course, we've taken all the COVID measures on site. Uh, you know, we're do people are still working from home where possible, but but you know, on an active construction site, of course, there's a lot of people even on the consulting side that need to be there on site but need to be safe about it. So for us, we've with our client, our other clients as well, where we we need to go out to sites, we just follow the protocols. I mean, all of our clients are are taking this very serious, we're taking it very seriously. So we haven't had any any issues with that. And and where possible, we we try to do things remotely. But of course, you know, you if you need to go out to site to see something in person, um, there isn't really much we can do to get around that right now, but except for taking the proper precautions and and being safe about it. But yeah, we still are visiting sites where needed to to perform inspections or or site visits as needed.

SPEAKER_00

You said that um even through this whole time that you guys have seen uh efficiencies even increase. Um I think a lot of it has to do companies that have like a really solid set of processes, a solid culture, and all that kind of stuff, it really um it can benefit very well with those types of adapting environments. Would you say, and we've I've had you on the podcast a number of times, and um you you know you're quite active on social and sharing, you know, the RAM consulting, uh just all the methods and all the the kind of um things behind the brand and all that kind of stuff. Would you say that that's been a pretty solidifying factor in having efficiencies through these times?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, you know, a good example of that would be like the work we do with municipalities. Like traditionally you would book out like a high school gym or a community center and be able to have people come in and there'd be storyboards up and you can ask questions and it's very interactive. And one thing that we've seen in an efficiency in this in the COVID times is that we've got our digital public engagement. So everything's done digitally online. Uh, so you've got almost like you walk into a virtual open house and you've got the the project boards and and uh you can uh provide your feedback that way rather than in person. I mean, the the issue with that, of course, is that not everybody is tech savvy. Uh, you know, if I if I tried to get my dad to to take part in one of those, he'd he'd be a little confused. Um, you know, he prefer prefers in in-person type uh interactions as well. But I mean, it's it's just adapting, making the best of what we can do because right now it's it's just not safe to be able to get together in person. So I would say like that's an example of an efficiency we have on projects. And then as well, you know, the there's the the pro and the con because I'm sure you guys are the same. My day is basically back-to-back meetings from eight till five, and then I do my my real work in the morning and and in the evening, right? Because something that would have been a quick conversation with somebody in the office, you know, in passing, or or you know, let's get together in the boardroom here quick and just talk about this for 10 minutes, is now something that's blocked out in a 30-minute increment on your calendar, right? And uh so I so that I mean in the beginning it was kind of cool to be able to do that. You don't need, you know, you can talk to people from all over the place, but now I find like the the Zoom and Teams burnout is a real thing. And uh, you know, trying to find I I'm looking forward to being able to actually have that where you can walk by someone and say, Oh, hey, what did you think about this and be able to have those kind of interactions rather than having to have like a a set uh you know appointment? But I mean, so there's efficiencies with that, but there, but there's also I think people are getting a little burnt out, and I think people, myself included, are looking, do we really need to have this meeting, or can we just make it a five-minute phone call? Or can we just block out 10 minutes on Teams or Zoom or whatever, rather than you know, doing it in the in the big blocks, right?

SPEAKER_00

So well, it's really interesting because at first probably a lot of people were um using it to their advantage with video conferencing and all that kind of stuff, because you're right, you can just block a 30-minute time, you can block a 15-minute time, but before you know it, you've got no margin left in your day, right? And those little periods where you give yourself like power hours in the morning or in the afternoon or wherever you you know you work best, or you you're in your flow zone or whatever you want to call it, gets filled up and people just start piling things into your calendar. Oh, yeah. So it can almost work in reverse. And I and and it's exactly what you're talking about that it gets to this point where it's um uh it's just exhausting. So to be able to lean over to somebody and resolve a problem on the spot without having to block their time away is gonna be a breath pressure.

SPEAKER_02

Well, and the other thing too, I mean, with with the more junior people, uh, you know, you like well, I'll use myself as an example. When I was like an engineer in training and more junior in my career, you just learn from kind of being in the environment and hearing and seeing the way people interact and and tackle problems and stuff like that and uh and find solutions and you know work collaboratively. And and so it's hard to do that through teams um uh organically, right? Like you can have again, you can set up these meetings, but it's not like you can just kind of be be uh observing what's going on around an office and learn that way. So that's definitely been a disadvantage, I would say, um, is having you know the younger staff interacting with with some of the more seasoned people.

SPEAKER_00

So yeah, no, for sure. I mean, in terms of um, and has your team, well, I guess this is a question for you. Have you guys been growing through this time? Have you been onboarding new staff and bringing on new people and everything, which adds a whole other element to this?

SPEAKER_02

We have, yeah. You know, we've we've we were fortunate enough to grow in 2020 and and continue to grow in in the the in 2021 this year as well. And that was it's an interesting way to do things. Like there was people that I was working with that I had never actually really met before, um, which which is weird, right? And and you know, for us, you know, what uh in terms of onboarding, we still need to get people their computers and and everything else. And at one point we weren't allowing anybody in the office, so we would courier their computers and their kind of little welcome package and everything else. Um, again, that opens up a whole new can of worms in terms of uh making sure that they have the software and that their computers are set up correctly and everything else. Um, so yeah, it's definitely been a challenge, and and that's something that we we've actually uh looked at with with a couple of our clients as well that we're working on. We've got some some uh some PM seconded with some clients, and we're helping them actually uh put together an onboarding framework. And actually, that was more near the end of end of last year because some of our people were onboarded on on their side, and they had never done that before either. And they're starting to grow internally as well. So they've got consultants like us, but they also got internal people. So they were looking for kind of some some pointers, what we would do, and then also kind of using our people as guinea pigs to see, okay, how did it, what went wrong and what went right in terms of lessons learned here to make it more seamless? Because before it was great, you could come in, you could actually shake hands with everybody, see, see what's going on, get all your the stuff you need. But uh at this day and age, it's just not possible to do that.

SPEAKER_01

Did you have to um interview these people yourself, some of these new people?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, so that that's the other thing too, is the the the interview process is different as well because we're not doing in-person interviews. So it's it's all through teams. Uh we use teams at RAM. It's all through teams and having those those uh um those interviews that way, and then also allowing people to interact with uh with the team they would be working with as well. So setting up those kind of social hour type interactions to see how people interact. But it's very it's difficult because like you know, even in this conversation with us, the three of us speaking, uh, it's hard to kind of like you you wait for you know for for James to stop talking before I stop talking. But if we were all in person, we could be kind of chiming in. And it's it's hard on a on a I find on a virtual means like this to have those kind of free-flowing conversations, right? Because people accidentally talk over each other and all that kind of stuff. But yeah, so we we have done the, you know, everything has been virtual in terms of the interview process as well, which which makes things interesting because it's sometimes it's hard to read people's body language when they're sitting down or you just kind of see this much of them. Um so yeah, it it's it's been a challenge, but again, it's it's adapting as best you can and and uh and and making the best of the situation.

SPEAKER_00

It's funny you said like it was a while until you saw people for the first time. Um we have been doing like a bi-weekly town hall that we've been doing through Google Meet just virtually um through the whole pandemic. Before we we would do it in in person and we kind of got that going, so we kept that rhythm. Uh, as we brought on new people, you know, you'd see that new little square, and there'd be that person in the corner, and you'd kind of get to know them on screen. Um when we had this new um uh uh I guess opening of things to meet outside, we got our our team together in a few different groups so that we could actually interact with each other. And um people were meeting each other for the first time, and it was crazy. It was crazy just to see like stories being shared and the way that people were just instantly you connect differently because you're right in person, you're having that flow, you're going back and forth, and you're learning new things that you know sometimes you just avoid even going into conversation when you're looking at somebody on the screen because it's almost just very transactional.

SPEAKER_02

Totally, yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00

So we had we've probably had you on joining us a handful of times, and it's been have we had you on since uh over the last 12 months? Or is it all pre-COVID?

SPEAKER_02

I think right in the beginning, I want to say it was like probably a year ago that I that I joined you guys, like right when COVID was like the real deal, like when it started. So yeah, it's been probably a year.

SPEAKER_01

And we got the uh the package, remember, uh in front of your place. Yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_00

That's right. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Okay, so over the course of 12 months, what uh what's Jesse been working on? What's uh what's been exciting the last little while? You're you're very involved in in the BC construction roundtable and growing your business as well. What's uh yeah, what's been exciting for you over the last little while?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I mean, I can touch on the BCCR maybe first. Is that uh that was a whole that was a challenge in itself as well, is adapting to the virtual uh world with the with the BC construction roundtable because really the whole thing that that the that BCCR is built around is networking and connecting people. So traditionally we'd have breakfast sessions uh once a month downtown here. You're in you're in person. Again, you know, you can you're grabbing a coffee talking to somebody. We had the networking part before our events and the networking part after. And so we had to quickly adapt to an online uh format using Zoom. And and it's actually been great because now we have people, you know, traditionally we'd have people attending that just are kind of in the the lower mainland area, but now we have people calling in to our sessions from all over the place. And you know, I definitely across Canada, we've had some people from the US as well, and uh it's a great way to uh to share information, which is the other real um part of the BCCR that we're about is that we're we're a nonprofit group, we're all volunteers, and really what what our mandate is is to share information, connect people, and really strengthen the the construction community because we really are a true round table of the of the construction industry. And when I say that, we've got consultants, we've got contractors, we've got insurance people, owners, suppliers, the whole gamut that that goes into construction. So we really had to quickly adapt to that. So we've been using Zoom for that. We've also been having networking sessions where we can using breakout rooms, but again, it's a little bit, it's a little bit awkward. I mean, nothing beats being in person, but we've seen a lot of success. We did some sessions, some under 40 sessions and some networking events in the past. Last one we had, excuse me, was our festive season event where we had a virtual tour of a distillery. We had the distillery send out uh little samples of what we would be or what they'd show us how it was made, and then we'd have a sample of it, which is kind of cool. So it was almost like being there. And then we had breakout rooms that were facilitated uh doing that as well. The other thing that we've done that we and we actually have uh have an event this week uh is virtual tours. So traditionally we would also have tours. So, like, for example, pre-COVID, we did a tour of the Vancouver house when it was under construction. Um, we've done we did we did tours of like um the um uh the timber building at uh at UBC, the tower there that they built. Um so we always try to get into some some cool construction projects where where we can and and do some tours. So we did a tour, a virtual tour of the Centrum project a couple of weeks ago, actually, which was really, really well done and gave you really good framework for where it's at and where it's going. And so we've got a one with Metro Vancouver coming up this week, which I if you guys can make it would be great. Um and that's and again, it it's it's it's a it's a presentation, but it's framed as if it was a tour that you're that you're going through. Um, and so yeah, that's that's the other thing too, is that we've been trying to continue with with so there's I guess three parts, you know, that's still the learning part. So that we've got a session coming up this month as well with the First Nation Major Project Coalition. And they just had an excellent, uh, an excellent conference a few weeks back. And we got Nilo from from that group coming to speak on April 29th. So I encourage encourage you guys to check that one out. And then there's the there's the networking part, so that's where we've been having trying to have some of those networking type sessions, and then also the the virtual tours. So we're hoping that I mean it doesn't look like in 2021 we're gonna be able to do anything in person, but definitely, you know, once it's safe to do so and we can start getting together in person again, we're definitely gonna move back to that format. But I think that the virtual format's always gonna be there. I think we'll probably have a bit of a hybrid um option with our future events once we're able to get together in person, because people that are in, you know, let's say Chilliwack or something that don't want to drive all the way downtown, but are still interested in attending the session or or being part of the session, they can do that through uh through Zoom.

SPEAKER_01

You talk about like the hybrid part because that's gonna be kind of that's gonna be interesting to try and pull off, right? Because that's at some point you're gonna be like, oh great, we all get to be together. And then you're and then you're also thinking, yeah, but how do we get these people from the states back again and have this breadth of an audience? Um but totally and and and it's almost like it, you know, we all talk about you know sports teams getting back together and you know, large events, you know, concerts, all that kind of stuff, and you know, whether or not you're gonna show a vaccination card or some sort of identification that you had that. Um on the smaller event side, uh, it seems that is that something that you would probably check for.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I mean, I'll be honest with you. I we haven't gone, we haven't looked at it that much in depth. And that's where you know, for sure we're not gonna be having events in 2021, but you're right, that it opens up a whole new can of worms in terms of how do we do that safely as well, once we once we if once we can move to to in-person events. And so there's a there's a whole bunch of uh factors that feed into that that we're gonna have to take a look at. I mean, I I definitely would like to be able to have events in person, but I only want to be doing it when it's when it's totally safe and when people feel comfortable doing it as well, because that's a whole other thing that we've talked about at a board level is okay, so once it's deemed safe by you know the health authorities or the you know the uh um the groups that need to give the thumbs up, who's actually are are people actually going to be wanting to get together in person uh you know for breakfast? That that's a whole other uh question that we've been looking at. So that's why the the hybrid model has come up because we want to give that option to people that that uh that do feel safe and and are will, you know, wanting to get together in person, want safe to do so. But there still may be people that like to attend our events but not have to drive downtown or not have to, you know, it's nice to be able to attend a BCCR event and then five minutes later, bam, be in another meeting rather than having kind of that that time to to travel or or that time to um to get to your to to where you need to go to start your day. So I've definitely seen that's that's the pro side of things, but the con for me is definitely that that in-person interaction, seeing somebody as you're walking out or coming in. You can't you can't do that over Zoom.

SPEAKER_01

It's possible that your engagement is more genuine around your content than it was with the in-person thing. Because often, you know, you've we've all had this where you're going, I don't know, do I want to go to this event? Oh, yeah, it's a free breakfast. So satiation is part of the motivation. Like, you know, you know, yeah, you go, yeah, I could meet someone or I could network a little bit and then hey, you know, like it's it's there's the other benefits. Whereas yours, it's like, okay, well, I'm gonna be in my own environment again. I can go on a zoom, um, but I'm actually interested in what they're saying. And there's no other real motivation because you actually have to put yourself out to do it. Yeah. So that's that's kind of a good thing, I think. Um, that you're rather than having people just kicking the tires, you've got people actually driving this thing.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, totally. And and there's a there's a real there's a real appetite for for networking events and for events like what we're putting on, I find, because we're getting record numbers. We're getting, you know, 90, 100 people on, excuse me, coming to our events and more, and you know, depending on the on the topic, more than that. And and our in-person events, we normally get, you know, 60 to 80 people, which, which was also good as well. But uh, but yeah, you know, some of our events we have well over 100 people that are that are coming. And you're right, it's driven by the content because there isn't really that opportunity to really network. And that's something that we've looked at as well is how can we improve that in the new year and have maybe before the event or after the event, have some you know, 15 minutes on on either end of it to have some breakout rooms and get people talking. Because that's definitely some feedback I've gotten from from people that have reached out and said, Hey, great event, but it'd be great to have that more of the networking side of things uh to be able to connect. But again, it's it's uh it's easier said than done with Zoom. I don't know if you guys have been in any Zoom breakout rooms. I mean, it's that's good, it's better than nothing, but sometimes you need to have somebody that's driving the conversation too, because I've been to some, uh especially on the engineering side, not to knock my own industry, but you know, everyone kind of just stares at each other in these calls, and you need to have somebody keeping the the conversations going too.

SPEAKER_01

So you definitely have to have facilitators and kind of like the the clubhouse situation. I mean, you know, have you have you yeah is is your organization in that using legalizing that?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I mean I I'm definitely on Clubhouse, but I I like we don't have like a corporate account or anything. Maybe we should actually now that you say that, but uh you It's an interesting app. I've I I didn't I kind of didn't see what the appeal of it was at first, but then you know, myself and and Jen have uh have listened in on some conversations that uh are pretty interesting. There's such a a wild, a wide variety of things that you can get uh can chime into.

SPEAKER_01

So do you use um in order to get your audience, you know, obviously uh you know, branding this thing, you're using LinkedIn uh quite a bit. We see you on there. Uh there any how has that channel worked for you in terms of, you know, are you are you promoting ads? Are you just doing yourself? Are you paying for any of that stuff? So what's the strategy around LinkedIn for you?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, for LinkedIn, I'm I'm definitely not paying for anything, but I, you know, I've I've definitely seen the value of putting content out there, especially to uh, you know, I like to support clients that we're working with or clients I'd like to work with, um, as well as supporting people like you, like you guys. You know, I always like your stuff and and support you because that's I I think what you're doing is great and I want to see you guys grow. And that's the same way, you know, with other uh friends and colleagues of mine that are in the industry and then and in clients as well. So um, you know, we for the BCCR, we definitely use LinkedIn a lot to promote our our content and what's upcoming. And we also like to to uh promote other groups as well, like ACECBC and um other you know, BC Road builders and stuff like that. We like to be able to share their events and and and those groups will share ours as well. So it's being able to kind of cross market as well. Um we also you know, we use mailing lists and stuff like that with BCCR as well. But I do find that for me, the most powerful marketing tool has been LinkedIn. And you know, we've we've I've been able to get projects because of that. We've we found employees because of that. Um, you know, I've been able to connect with, I mean, I originally connected with uh with Andrew on uh on LinkedIn. He he shot me a message and I hadn't met him before or didn't know of him and he didn't really know of me. And that was a, you know, now that that's how I met you guys, right? So it's a great way to connect with people uh in the industry as well. Uh, you know, in terms of paying for LinkedIn, I think that there's there's benefits to that. And I know that like our HR group will will use that uh from like a recruiting perspective. But for me, I don't have a paid account. I I just have the regular account and uh I've still managed to to uh to get great use out of it. So I don't know, do you guys use uh paid accounts at all?

SPEAKER_01

Or only uh on the HR side where we'll be doing that because I think it is is an effective use that and indeed. Um but uh you know not not on an advertising point of view at this point.

SPEAKER_02

But uh you must have a right yeah, I just have a premium account. No, sorry, Christian, go ahead. Really? No, no, I I just have a regular account, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, you're getting you're getting good bang for your buck because you're you're quite quite active on LinkedIn and it's done quite well for you, like you said. So that's um that's cool. I wonder what what other things you could unlock on LinkedIn.

SPEAKER_02

Not this, not that I'm getting yeah, I know, and I I yeah, I've looked at the premium account and and uh you know I think there's great things you can do on it, but I just haven't uh maybe someone from LinkedIn's listening and I'll regret saying this, but I haven't seen at this point. I'm like, hey, I've been able to do what I'm looking to do is is is either connect people, reach out, you know, put content out there and be able to uh get conversations going. So it's been a great thing so far. And I just using the regular account, I've been I've got almost uh almost 18,000 followers now from that as well, which has been great.

SPEAKER_01

So they're making money off you anyway, so don't worry, don't feel guilty. You're the product, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02

Exactly. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00

James kind of touched on it, but when it comes to network and utilizing something like LinkedIn for hiring people, nothing is more powerful than tapping into your network. And what we found, especially with a lot of our hires as of late, is throwing throwing things up on LinkedIn connects you with people who already are connected with you in a meaningful way and who even want to help you out and be like, hey, Jesse, I saw you posted that. Uh I know somebody or I I I was in passing, met somebody or whatever it happens to be. And you don't kind of you don't really get that from anywhere else um in that kind of a way. So I don't know if you guys have utilized it like that at all.

SPEAKER_02

Um well, I think it's a great way to really showcase your you know your organization's culture, share the wins, uh, you know, like we've got a little bell now, we ring when we when we uh we secure a project and and just talk about our people and what we're doing. So it gives people that maybe are looking at, for example, RAM, okay, what are these guys about or what are these, what's this organization about, and be able to see like what we what what our values are and what we uh think is important and and how we interact with each other. And I think that's something that's some feedback I've got from some people we brought on board is that they really were able to see the way we do business and the way that we uh what we what we hold uh valuable uh in terms of of uh um attributes in in people and and you know, like for example, we we're we're um we like to support various charities throughout the lower mainland. We like to have social events, uh we like to talk about, you know, we have our did you know series as well, which talks about from a technical perspective looking at different things like that. So so I think it's a good way to facilitate interaction with uh future and potential employees and clients as well, because they can kind of see what you're doing. So I think it's a good way to uh to act as an extension to um to what you're all about and people can kind of get an inside lens. And you're right, like it's people almost feel like they know Ram or know me or or someone else on LinkedIn before they even meet you because you know you're able to really put it out there in terms of what's what's important to you and what your values are.

SPEAKER_01

So, in terms of you and your who you are in in LinkedIn, I mean, do you constantly think about, hey, how is how is Jesse going to be positioned and like and you're sculpting your persona out there in the marketplace? I mean, is that something that you think of on a daily basis, or are you or are you just kind of just going with your gut on that?

SPEAKER_02

So so I I remember sharing my first article like I don't know, four or five years ago. And I thought, oh man, this is cool. I like this. And I thought, well, you know what, if I find this interesting, guaranteed there's people in my network that find this interesting as well. So I only share articles that I look at and say, yeah, this this I find this interesting. It's applicable to to infrastructure and the area that I work in. Excuse me. Um, so I'm definitely not uh uh I definitely don't look at it as as uh how is this going to position me? But I do, you know, I'll I'll a quick story for you guys is that I shared an article that I'm like, oh, this is great. I agree with this. And at the very end, there was some really negative, like politically incorrect statements that were made. And that taught me really quickly. Make sure you read the full article top to bottom uh twice and you understand exactly what they're saying because there was something in there, and I posted that with the best of intentions. And then right away I got all these messages saying, How dare you support this and that? Like, what are you talking about? And and it was a long article, and I didn't read the very bottom, I kind of posted it on my phone. And so you can definitely get yourself in hot water. So I I try not to post anything that's political or or you know, and and make sure there's nothing, no kind of hate speech or anything in there because you guys would be surprised what you know, in some articles, uh especially from the US, when they're looking at what they're doing in infrastructure down there is is on another level. But there's also all kinds of horrible things that people will say that has nothing to do with like this new roadway construction, and then they'll throw something in there. So you definitely got to be careful about that. And so I would definitely say from from that would be a tip for me that make sure that before you post anything, really understand what it's saying and read it top to bottom because you can have the best of intentions and it and and people that don't know you could think, oh, this Jesse guy is sexist or racist or whatever because there's something in there that you didn't realize a quote or something that was put in there, right?

SPEAKER_01

So from Dukes of Hazard. No, they they can't. He's just like that southern boy.

SPEAKER_02

When it comes exactly no, go ahead. Yeah, but I think you know, for me, oh sorry, I just I was just gonna say for me, like LinkedIn is just information sharing. And it's a great it not only is it a way to share information, I mean, if there's a new guideline that comes out or a new technology, or uh, you know, like there was something about Mass Timber, uh, their new uh specifications that I shared, I think it was last week. Hey guys, check this out. This is a new uh a new specification or guideline that's been put out by EGBC. People may not realize that that's out there. And so I've got messages on that one, for example, like, oh, I didn't even know this was had been published. Thanks for sharing. And so, but it's also a way that once you get people that that that really trust you and and see you as somebody that's uh has their finger on the pulse, it's a great way to also slide a little promotion in there as well and say, hey, well, you know, check out I talked about our digital public engagement, and they can talk about something like that and then say, well, by the way, Ram, you know, we've got our digital public engagement service offering, feel free to reach out to me. And people do reach out to me, which so it's a great way to uh to also promote um what you're doing and how it may be applicable to that article or the or whatever that you're sharing.

SPEAKER_00

You post regularly and you post interesting articles and things that engage people, but do you have any sort of like a methodology in terms of like on Monday mornings by 9 a.m., I will find an interesting article that I'll post. Do you have any sort of a rhythm or an approach or a certain type of engagement that you're looking for? Are you digging into that stuff yet?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I mean, definitely. I I try to share articles uh first thing in the morning when I'm when I'm you know open my laptop and get going for the day, uh, or sometimes midday. I mean, I don't it's funny too because people are saying, oh, how much time do you spend, you know, finding these articles and stuff like that? But you know, on the weekends a lot of the time I'll I'll be reading through um, you know, I'll look up, you know, infrastructure, type in infrastructure in Google and see what comes up. And I can earmark some things that I can share throughout the week. But yeah, definitely, you know, some people that are that are more on the marketing side, like I've gotten involved with the uh uh Canadian Society of Marketing Professional Services, CSMPS. And so that's what they do day in and day out. And they're a great organization here in the lower mainland. And they've told me about okay, you know, you don't want to post on Friday afternoons and you want to, you know, early mornings the best. And there's there's a kind of a formula to it as well. But really, I just try and do it when when uh you know it's not conflicting with my workday. So, like in either, like I said, in the morning or like midday, and I don't I try not to post anything in the afternoon because normally people are you know grabbing their coffee or or going for lunch, uh grabbing like not going for lunch these days, go uh having lunch and uh and maybe looking at LinkedIn, and that's a good time to facilitate some of some interaction with the schedule that you do.

SPEAKER_01

Sorry, just sorry to touch on that. Um because on uh on regular social media, like in the general stuff, it's usually the opposite of that. So that the timelines are flipped because it's busy B2B, I guess, B2B network. So what what were the suggestions that maybe share that with exactly uh of the times to be posting?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, well, I yeah, so I I would definitely recommend put like for me more when I've got the most uh the most interactions on my posts have been in the morning. So if you post it first thing in the morning, generally I find with LinkedIn, I mean, and you're absolutely right, James, it's different on like Instagram and and other other uh platforms as well. But I find on LinkedIn that people generally will check their their their LinkedIn profiles in the morning and around lunchtime. So that's those are the two times I try to post. And you know, there's a there's there is a lot of time that goes into um finding content as well. So that's where I, you know, another tip I would say is that if you're gonna share something that somebody's um put out there, that you either reshare their post um or or you know, um find your own original content, because that's another thing I've found as well. And I I I learned early on as well, is kind of the the etiquette that comes to to LinkedIn as well, because to find the content and write a little commentary on it and post it there, it does take time. And so I find that you need to be respectful of people that do that too, because I've had people reshare my exact post, but it's like just been copied and then they've shared it for themselves, which is fine. You know what? At the end of the day, whatever. Like as long as it is that content's getting out there and getting shared. But I I definitely see that, you know, if I if I'm sharing something with uh uh like on-site magazine or something like that, I definitely want to give them credit, right? Or directly share their article. I can put a little, you know, talk about something that I'm that uh why I like this article or why I think it's of value, but definitely give give the credit to the person who wrote the article. So that's something as well that I've seen that people, you know, put things out on LinkedIn and claim that it's their own uh when really you know like you know it's from another article. And and I think the a powerful thing is writing your own articles too. I've written a number of articles on LinkedIn as well. So invite people to check out my LinkedIn uh page and take a look at the articles I've written and talking about uh meetings and and networking and some of the stuff that we've talked about, kind of best practices and project management. And and those are that's original content that I've put out there and I've I've uh um uh put out myself. And that's where I'm happy to have people share that as long as that they're giving credit. So that's what I always try and do as well is that if I read an article, I'm like, hey, I know what it takes, the time it takes to put this together. I definitely want to give that that person credit as well.

SPEAKER_00

So we see like when it comes to our audience and even past guests that we've had on, uh generally pretty active on social, a few of them like really active on LinkedIn. And of course, you see those people because, well, they fail your feed, right? And then you regularly like them or engage with them or interact or whatever. You mentioned um earlier on that you'd even won some business through through your LinkedIn posts and articles and stuff like that. So I think that would be really handy to just kind of unpack a little bit because some people just go, social media, like yeah, LinkedIn's great, it's really professional, but how are you winning business by posting things? So I mean that'd be interesting to hear about that.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, no, and I think like again, what the the content that I post is is generally around infrastructure. So I think once you're you're putting content out there and you can show that you got your finger on the pulse in terms of what's going on in your industry, people automatically see you as kind of that subject matter expert and see, and there's that that uh subconscious um trust that's built. And they see so and and it's being top of mind because if somebody's got a project and they need, for example, project management services, and and who are they gonna think of inviting? I mean, some of like a lot of obviously a lot of work is put out to RFP and through BC Bid and stuff like that when it comes to the public side. But also you want to, you know, sometimes there's smaller scopes of work, or when they're putting together that RFP or that RFQ, they may consult with you about, hey, what do you think is important? What should we include in here? And you can help kind of put together what that opportunity is gonna look like. And so putting that content out there on on LinkedIn has allowed me, especially like if you know, if I'm sharing, sharing information and getting the same person liking a lot of my content or commenting on a lot of my content. And if I'm not already connected to them, that's a great reason for me to send a message and say, hey, Bill Smith, I you know, I've seen that you've liked a lot of my content, and and I'd love to be able to uh to have a little introductory meeting with you and learn more about your organization and what you do. And right away that gives you that that in to be able to have that discussion with that person, learn about them, treat it as a discovery session and pull out some information about what's important to them, where their pain points are, maybe where their gaps are in their team, what projects are upcoming, because it's, I mean, at RAM, we try not to bid on anything that we don't already know is coming down the pipe, right? So we want to know about an opportunity and who the people are that are gonna be gonna be working on that or gonna be making a decision on who's gonna be the successful proponent before we we bid on something, because it's really being able to read between the lines and know the client well. So I found that LinkedIn has allowed me to do that, to make those new connections with people that normally maybe I wouldn't, especially in COVID times when you're not going to networking events and not going to conferences and stuff like that. I've connected with a ton of people that I would have maybe met at a conference or or another area, but I'm not working with them directly uh as a client on a project. And we've been able to build that relationship, get that conversation started. Maybe it's not that particular person in that organization that you need to be talking to, but they can make that introduction. And it's allowed us to uh be successful, especially on the project management group, um, to get new work. And so, you know, I would say with LinkedIn, you're putting the right content out there, but again, there's a very fine line because if you're, you know, if you're not sharing content that you understand or you're sharing something that's that's uh you need to be very neutral about the content that you share. Because if you put something out there that's that's saying, yeah, this is great for for group A and and you know, kind of uh pointing the finger or looking down on group B, uh, you don't want to be doing that. And there's a lot of content out there like that. Um, so uh it's a very fine balance because you want to you want to be friends with everyone, but sometimes you can't, right? So especially when there's some politically charged things going on around infrastructure and and and what infrastructure should be delivered and what shouldn't, and some of the content around that. But it's definitely enabled people to to see you as top of mind rather than you know seeing you walk through their office, which you can't do right now. You're almost virtually walking through their office by them seeing your content. But at the same time, you don't want to be putting stuff out there that's not of value, right? Like LinkedIn is not Instagram.

SPEAKER_00

It's not like people will get called out pretty quick, like, hey, this isn't they'll say it, like this isn't Instagram. Hey, you that does that's not correct for LinkedIn. And it's like, well, yeah, it's been pretty good to self-regulate like that, right? In terms of keeping the content consistent. So that's why it's such a that's why it is such a good platform for that for B2B and for building a personal brand and everything like that. How much engagement do you focus on? Because RAM is um operating primarily British Columbia or only British Columbia, or do you guys have projects across the nation or anything like that?

SPEAKER_02

Yep. A majority of our work is in BC, but we we're we do work across Canada. And in fact, we did some cruise ship terminals down in the Caribbean about three or four years ago now, which is unfortunate given what you know, with COVID now is kind of the cruise ship uh industry has taken a big hit. But yeah, we've done work, we've done work out like a majority of our work is in the lower mainland, but we're doing work in northern BC and across Canada. We we were looking at opportunities in Albertus, things are picking up and then in eastern Canada as well, and looking at, you know, especially now with COVID and and when we can have virtual meetings through Teams and Zoom and stuff like that, you don't need to be there, right? Like to be able to provide that that value on a project. And as long as you have local representation that we do have with through partnerships with other consultants, we're able to do work across Canada. So we're, you know, the next step for us is we're we're just shy of 80 people now. And so we've we've grown quite a bit. Um and the next step is geographically to to uh to uh expand our footprint as well. So we're definitely open for business across Canada and looking at opportunities where it makes sense. And where we can add value.

SPEAKER_01

Um you know, being the type of firm that you are, you're probably the perfect um type of personality, not just you, but the the people that work at your company. The um the work that you do is all about detail. It's all about showing up, it's all about accountability, it's all about timing, it's all about all the things that matter the most. I think the businesses are struggling are the ones where that isn't everything. Because, you know, you guys are engineer consultants. I mean, when you think about it, if you guys can't get teams figured out, the projects are in trouble. So, I mean, you know, that's why you guys are good at it. And it's showing that as a management team that you can, no matter what the situation, it's a pr it's actually a pretty good uh pretty good indicator that you guys are a successful company and you can go through anything and survive. Um, I mean, that shows you know, when you know this from experience with great companies, is that it's easy to do business when everything's going well. The real pros show up when it's gone wrong and fix it. You know, and and it seems like the communication thing now is been broken and you guys have fixed it and you've found a way to move projects forward, et cetera. So it's a it's a pretty good branding exercise on on how you guys as a company and a culture of a business have been able to thrive in it.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I mean when when COVID first hit, I uh I as a leadership team, we got together and said, how are we gonna make this work? And how are we gonna you know be able to keep adding value to projects and and clients and keep moving things forward? And you know, and a good example of that is you know the teams and Zoom and everything is great, but you really do need when you're in a meeting now, really need to push people and say, hey, what do you think? And what do you think? Because it's very easy for people to hide on a Zoom call, especially when you've got you know just a bunch of little tiles that Christian, you're talking about that when you've got a big team meeting, you really do need to be a facilitator and really show that those leadership skills and those communication skills to to to to get people to uh to interact. And so that's where, you know, especially when you're having a meeting with a on a project that's got multiple stakeholders, maybe that don't get along and stuff like that. It's you've we really had to step up, especially on the in the PM group at RAM, to to provide that that value in terms of of being a uh a facilitator and being able to get people to collaborate because in in person, it's you know, you know, everyone knows there's people that kind of hide in meetings or don't really say much, but especially on Zoom, you can forget. And I mean, I made a mistake one time when I was on uh a meeting, I was talking to people, and I didn't know that there was like I swiped and there was a whole nother, you know, six more people. And I thought that was everybody that was on the call. So like I went through half the well, probably quarter of the meeting, and I said, Oh yeah, you know, if if Bill was here, he'd chime in, and all of a sudden he spoke.

SPEAKER_00

So regularly. Not that keeping any meeting rhythm just kind of you get complacent in it, but especially with um, you know, only what's in front of you on a screen gets to the point where you're just kind of going through the motions a little bit and it can get kind of mechanical, and you're just like, okay, ready to get to the next one. So there takes a ton of intentionality and just like keeping the stamina through through a lot of these things. Again, we're getting back to like that burnout and fatigue conversation. Yeah. But um earlier, earlier on, so we talked about um with the BC construction roundtable and having that like hybrid approach. I'm kind of segueing back to that just because you're bringing up um uh video conferencing again and and and teams and Zoom and everything like that. How do you guys see in a lot of conversations we've been having with people, different uh contracting businesses, um, or general contractors, subcontractors, or whatever, um, the the talk is all about hybrid, right? In construction, it's tough. You can't really do a hybrid on a job site. You can't really do hybrid on a construction, you can't alter your hours, you can't pick and choose, you can't work into the evenings, not not as readily as you could when you're you're in the office. But when it comes to your people, because you are primarily you do have field staff as well, but when it comes to that hybrid, what do you what are you excited about? Um it could be BC construction roundtable, or it could be with RAM and your group. What are you excited about in the benefits taking out of what we've learned over the last 12 months into that hybrid approach moving forward and maybe utilizing Office differently or leveraging technology differently? What are some things you've learned that you're excited taking into the future?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I think you know, one thing I'm excited about is that not like as much as I've talked about how important the in-person meetings and interactions are, at the same time, there's huge value in being able to have people from Alberta or the US or wherever that are involved in a project, like a like one of the like the major project we're involved in now in Richmond, being able to have people attend and not have to fly and not have to leave their families to attend a meeting, right? And so I think that's something I'm like I'm excited about because I mean, uh hopefully my family will be growing soon, just beyond uh Jen and I and our dog. But I can see that once I've got kids and stuff like that, there's definitely going to be advantages to not having to um to be in person at a meeting, at every single meeting. Because I think there's huge value in being there in person. But at the same time, I think that some meeting, this has shown us that people can be productive and efficient uh without having to have someone watching them or to being there in person, right? And I think that that it helps uh it helps facilitate uh interactions um internationally and crossing borders and stuff like that too. I mean, we we've got some consultants in the US that we work with, and and you know, of course, borders have been shut down. We we a lot of companies have no traveling um uh uh bans on uh uh still. So that's one thing I'm I'm excited about. And then you know, looking at the at the BCCR as well, like you say, you know, we've had a lot of people that probably would never attend our events in person just because it doesn't make sense to come you know from Alberta for a day to for a breakfast event. But now that we're we're able to use this hybrid approach and also, you know, being able to record events or meetings as well. I mean, it's a good thing. That's one thing. Like when we're doing training that we would do, for example, at Ram in person, we you know, we fully disclose to everyone, but we record a lot of our training and a lot of our town halls and stuff like that. So people can re-watch them or people have a client meeting or something and they're not able to attend. And that's not really something maybe that we that we did before. And it's it we we would we would just do it in person. So I think there's definitely the advantages in terms of of the travel and and being able to record events and share events or share meetings. But at the same time, the the uh you know, the in-person, especially when you're when you're building relationships, a new relationship or you're having a you know, kicking off a new project or something like that. I think it's it is very important for those to be in person and to be able to make those connections once it's safe to do so. But then that opens up the option of, hey, do we really need to have this? We do really need to have our client pay the expense to have us come in person uh for a routine meeting when it can be done in a much more cost-efficient way for our client and then also for for our team as well, not having to leave, like I said, leave their families and um and be away from from home uh where it doesn't make sense.

SPEAKER_01

Meetings until this COVID situation sort of hit us, meetings are starting to get a little bit fat too. Like, do we really need this meeting? Like meetings after meetings after meetings, and then when you add in uh people's travel and totally greenhouse gases, and you know, why are we traveling all over the place, flying all over the place? And yeah, I mean, obviously the air nine airline industry needs to survive, but you know, the business travel wow. I mean, just think about that. How how much revenue, how much less uh flights there have been, less driving there has been, less fuel spent. I mean, it it the impact is huge. So do Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And it's not just financial, right? Like it's the like the like I said, it's the the the your own personal time or you know, or employees' time that's spent with that too, right? And the fatigue that can come along with that as well, right? Of just being on the road all the time.

SPEAKER_01

The recording of the meetings, that's that's kind of an interesting thing because um you know that you know often people in meetings, I don't know, you can remember this from sort of earlier days of being in person, that you'd be sitting there and somebody's almost expected to contribute uh for the sake of not looking stupid. You know that uh um in and sometimes you you go, okay, yeah, heard your point. You're thinking, you know, why do you need to say that? But it's because they feel they need to contribute. But um so with this, with someone being recorded, do you think that that element has been reduced of people going, well, if I say that, it's gonna be on record. Better make sure that what I say is relevant.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, you know, and and that's where in terms of the way that we would record meetings, like if we're doing a a town hall or a monthly uh, like for example, a PM team meeting or something like that. If I was gonna record that or if Ram was to record that, we definitely disclose that first. Um, and and but yeah, you're right. It definitely you can see the difference between where we're having a team meeting that isn't being recorded or isn't gonna be shared versus like, hey guys, we're gonna be recording this so because person A, B, and C aren't able to make it. So I wanted to have it where where someone, you know, they can watch this after. It definitely the the the um the whole vibe of the meeting changes because everyone knows you're right. If that if something uh is said, it's that it's it's recorded. It's the other people are gonna see it and and can see it multiple times. Because you're right. Sometimes in a meeting, someone will say something or do something. You're kind of like, but did they actually did they do that? But you it's whatever, it's it's it's kind of it's it's done. But then you know when it's recorded, you can be watching it over time.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, I'm just saying, it's it's like absolutely sports footage though. Uh you do good things, you do good things, you want to see them, you do bad things, you want to see those too. Yeah, right, because it's all about it's all about improving and refining what you're doing. Yeah, yeah, totally. So yeah. But hopefully not, uh yeah, hopefully not recording a whole bunch of uh debauchery in uh in meeting after meeting. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

What is I mean, we've done like so for example at round, my team is doing a PM 101 series for the company. So every I think it's every month and a half, someone from my team does a presentation, how to run a meeting, how to write a project plan, uh, risk management, you know, at 101 at a high level, because it's you know, as we have new people join that maybe PM isn't their strong suit, if they're they're inspectors or they're more technical people, that's where I saw, okay, this is a good way to utilize this whole Teams and Zoom environment, right? And so that's that's a great thing where now we have a library of recordings of that where people can can go and and use that as a as a learning tool. And as we get new people joining, and and maybe they're um, you know, let's say uh an EIT joins and they're gonna be um an assistant project manager and they don't really know what what's involved in in running an effective meeting. Well, hey, check out this video that we did six months ago and and uh and then let me know if you have any questions. And and then there's a whole library, and it's not only the PM group, but it's it's the uh the engineering group and the construction management group as well, are doing these as well. So it's a good way to uh um here's a question to have those kind of build out a bit of a library as well.

SPEAKER_00

They'll say, Hey, we're offering you some free stuff here, just some tidbits about what we've learned, which might help you in your industry. Now, you guys are a consultant group. You've got engineers, you've got project managers, you've got a whole gamut of things. Now you're not necessarily like business consultants necessarily in terms of like, hey, let's help you manage better. Not purely, I mean, maybe through the way you guys do things, it does. Would you ever entertain, and this is kind of just a side note, but would you ever entertain because it sounds like you've done you guys have done well over the last 12 months. And you were, anyways, like you guys were already like a growing group, a really dynamic group, strong brand, strong culture, all that kind of stuff, even before this, but it's really helped refine you guys. Would you put more and more content out there just to the industry in general, or would you only be keeping these things internal? Like, for example, we're sharing this podcast, so yeah, you know, that yeah, no, and I I think you know that that's a very good point.

SPEAKER_02

And that is part of what we're trying to do now as a as a marketing tool, and also just to try and get back to the the the uh community that we work in and the engineering construction community. So we we do have some of our content that's being shared. I mean, and a good example is I did an internal workshop for the company on how to write it, how to how to put together an elevator pitch, how to deliver an elevator pitch, and what to do after. And that was something we did internally. And then we were looking at that and I thought, you know, well, okay, right away I thought LinkedIn. So I wrote, you know, I took that, put it into a LinkedIn article, and then we also shared um some of that content on our website as well. So definitely go to Ram, uh type in RAM Consulting, check out our website because we do have some of that content, like how to write an elevator pitch or running an effective meeting. We do have that available to the to the general public to have a look at that and and see. And you know, the white paper thing you touched on, that's that's something I should mention as well is that through RAM and the uh the BCCR and uh PWC and uh another uh great leader in our community, Tim Stanley, we put out a BC infrastructure point of view paper that uh that we wrote. So it was myself, uh Peter Blanik, Tim Stanley, um, with um it was put out through the BCCR in collaboration with Ram and PWC and Tim uh with Stratus's group. And um, so that's something that we're trying to do more of as well. Is but again, that's a very fine line, like I talked about before, because you're putting an opinion piece on like, hey, this we were looking at where could funding go and where, you know, how can we structure this this upcoming uh infrastructure funding? This was probably oh, eight months ago that we put this out. Um, and so we are we are trying to to uh and we want to have a part two of that kind of a year later. What does it look like? Um, because it it you know, it it was only about a five-page document, but it took a ton of time. And again, you know, we need to be wanted to be very careful about how we put that together and what kind of messaging we put out there because we want to we want to get collaborative with contractors, uh engineering consultants, and and the government as well uh to work together to get the best bang for our buck when it comes to uh to infrastructure. So I think that you know, sharing white papers is something that I'd like to do more of through RAM, and we plan to do more of and through the DCCR. And then also sharing some of the content I talked about through our website. And uh, if you follow me on LinkedIn, I always share anytime we we share any kind of that content, I I definitely uh put it out there.

SPEAKER_00

And the company as well, pushing these things out on LinkedIn. Quite active, very relevant information, and um it's there and it's really beneficial for people to be to be using. Um I guess the only thing, other thing I was gonna say about that is when it comes to sharing things, you can't please everybody, right? So, like if you're putting, if you're if you're putting out something that's like, hey, this worked for RAM, it could probably work for exactly you know 75% of people. Obviously, someone's gonna jump in and be like, ah, you know, that's that'll never work for us. It can't stop anybody from putting these things out. You you want to be able to put out helpful, relevant content that you've done like the hard learning lessons on, but to put it out there, yeah, it kind of makes it subjective to people's opinions as well. Yeah, so it is what it is what it is, but yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Totally, which is fine. Yeah, exactly. Like, and that's the thing as well, is that on excuse me, on LinkedIn I've had people message me, uh send me angry messages over the weirdest things, and I'm like, hey, I'm just trying, I'm just trying to get to to share information and get conversations going and share something that I think is of value. And if that you didn't like that, or hey, like you're right, you can't you can't please everyone. I mean, you can all you can do is do what you think is normal and and appropriate. And if for some reason someone's like, oh, that you know, the color of the sky and your picture and your posting is you know, isn't I don't know, like weird stuff. I've got like trust me, man, there's been weird comments that have been made.

SPEAKER_00

Okay, just like yeah, okay. No, that's cool. James, are you gonna say something? Exactly.

SPEAKER_01

No, it was um yeah, it's just it's been awesome to to chat with you and and get your perspective on this and see that you guys are thriving and uh and uh you know with the BCCR, everything you're doing. So cool, man.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, no, and sorry, go ahead, Jesse. Awesome, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

It's been great. Well, I was just gonna say it's great to check in with you guys too. It's always a pleasure because I as I said, I you know, I follow you guys, what you're doing very closely. You know, I I chat with you guys outside of of these conversations as well. So it's great to see that uh you guys are doing well as well. And I'm I'll I'll do everything I can to support you guys. So if there's ever anything that you want me to share or anything like that, let me know. And and as well, uh with the BCCR for you guys and anybody that's listening to this as well. If there's something that you think we should be talking about, or you have a new technology, or there's something that you think that would be of value to the construction community in in BC and in the lower mainland, don't be shy. Reach out to me. We want to hear from you. I want to hear from you, and and I'm happy to help facilitate a session on whatever you have, whatever it is that we're gonna do.

SPEAKER_00

It's great to have it, and it's great to see you doing what you're doing. Um, you know, there's a lot of things that we we we didn't touch on, and that's why we're gonna come back and uh and do this more often. And I know you've chat chatted, there's some things you want to chat about. So we need to go for one of these walks. We need to go out there in Cole Harbor and check out some of these projects and have some good chats. And uh I think yeah, I think it would be good for you. Um, lastly, uh just anything you want to say to our audience or to your own audience, give you a chance to plug anything uh before we just wrap up.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, you know, one thing I didn't touch on is uh I'm also involved in the Project Management Institute, the Canadian West Coast chapter. And I'm gonna be doing a project management series uh in the next couple months here. So definitely keep an eye out for that. I'll be I'll be advertising that through my LinkedIn links that you can um uh click on to attend those. And so we're gonna be looking at stuff like Indigenous engagement, meaningful indigenous engagement, how to properly do that, because that's something that, you know, as a PM, you need to make sure you're doing that. Uh stakeholder management and engagement, uh personal branding and and professional branding through LinkedIn as well. So I've got a great uh a great network of people that I'm gonna be pulling into these sessions as well. So there will probably be three or four of them. Another one, you know, another one that's that's interesting is negotiations as well. So I've got a a friend of mine and a colleague that um she's got her own business looking at negotiations. And I think that's a powerful part of being a PM as well, is being able to advocate on behalf of your client, negotiate contracts, understand contracts. So that it's still in the the the early stages, but uh in May and June, I'm hoping to start having these these um sessions will be lunchtime sessions, 12 to 1 type thing, interactive. Um, yeah, so keep an eye out for those. Keep an eye out to for BCCR's website. It's bcccr.net, which I always laugh whenever I say that because it sounds like it's from like 1994, and that's because it is. It's probably made on like the first you know, Windows program or whatever. But yeah, it's bccr.net. We've got a whole new website set up there. We went through a bit of a branding refresh, so check that out. And then all as always, feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn, check out Ram's website. We touched on a little bit of some of the tidbits we put out there in terms of what we're doing and our best practices, and maybe how it can help you and your business.

SPEAKER_00

And some of the thoughts and the and the leadership tidbits that you guys are throwing out there to our industry. Um, from our standpoint, uh follow site visit on on LinkedIn to our audience on Instagram as well as our YouTube channel. We'll have this one up shortly, and it'll have uh our wonderful uh collage of faces here up on YouTube and all over social in the next couple days or so. So, Jesse, great having you again. And uh thank you. No worries. Let's get back to building.

SPEAKER_01

Thanks for listening to The Site Visit, a podcast dedicated to leadership and construction with perspective from the job site. If you like the show, please subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, or Google Play. To learn more, check us out online at thesitevisit.com.