Stormy Friday
Yes,
Greg Owens
yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so many different concerns. And like you said, that, which, which is a really good point, the, as companies look at how they’re going to come back to work and use their facilities, there’s such a political side to it, and based on where that company’s headquarters, and that sort of culture will dictate a lot of that. So maybe even like, you know, like, I can imagine Bank of America, which I think is in North Carolina, located there. You know, they, as they make decisions, it’ll be completely, you know, different and foreign, when they start saying, Hey, you know, the buildings in San Francisco, we want you to do things like this.
Stormy Friday
And I think that will be the interesting aspect of this rolling out of I called the new frontier, people keep saying is that the new normal, but I say, no, it’s the new frontier, because we’ve never been there before. And it’s not ever going to be exactly the way it was, there are some good things about that, and probably some bad things, but it’s always going to be different. And we have to accept it, and take the best of it and try to massage it so that it works for everyone. And I think that’s the key. But you’re absolutely right, geography is going to play a big factor. Globalization plays a big factor. What’s happening in the Far East is different than what’s in the Middle East and is different, you know, in this hemisphere, so I think it’s going to be fascinating the next few years.
Greg Owens
Right? Yeah, yeah, for sure. And I’m seeing because I have friends in different parts of the world. And Diego right now I’m seeing my friends in Portugal, they’re getting together, like, you know, there’s been there’s no pandemic at all. And the same with my friends in Shanghai, right? Like, it’s so different than my friends here in San Francisco, where we’re still really very much so in the middle of a pandemic, and the second wave sort of what’s happening. And Neil, and I like what you said, a tremendous amount around it. It’s not the new normal, because we’ve never experienced this before, and it’s still unfolding in front of us
Stormy Friday
is, and we aren’t there yet. And I think the fall when we have the wave of flu, on top of what may be another wave of this, I think, you know, we, we aren’t going to get it sorted out just yet, soon, but not just yet.
Greg Owens
Right? It might be another year or two, that we actually have something that we can say, Oh, this is how our new normal is because it’s the amount of changes that are happening. Katrina looked like you had a question to her.
Katrina Hayes
Yeah, I also really, like I wrote that down to the new frontier, it’s almost sounds space related to you know, we don’t know the new normal, and it is the new frontier. So that’s great.
Greg Owens
So part of one of the things I like to check in around and ask questions about with this podcast is, I really believe that there’s all opportunities in facilities management, and that there’s a tremendous amount of people out there that don’t know about these kinds of opportunities and what’s what’s a good way to get started in a lot of ways. Um, what’s your thoughts on it? If there was somebody that came to you and they’re, they’re ambitious and they want to figure out, you know, a new career, what were the some of the highlights are the benefits of being a facilities.
Stormy Friday
I think one of the things we have not done a very good job educating people about opportunities In our profession, and particularly for young people at a very early age, who are interested in technology and high tech, hmm, just as the world of FM in terms of advancement, and where we are positioned, organizationally and companies has changed dramatically. So to have the way we manage buildings, you no longer have to physically be at a facility to make sure that your infrastructure is working appropriately. And so for young people who are interested in technology, I don’t think we do a very good job at marketing and selling facility management as an opportunity to do that. Yeah, the other thing is that we have a shortage of trades folks in the facilities world. And I know, it’s, um, it’s important to me, my husband, and I fund that my husband’s from an island off the coast of Seattle, and we fund a scholarship program. And we emphasize stem and more so than young people going into the liberal arts world, because there’s such a shortage of young people who think that they can be in the trades or that they can be in, in mechanical engineering and things like that. And I don’t think we do a very good job still in the FM profession of selling that, and it has to be at a very early stage, I think we have to get into the high schools, or even in the elementary schools and make it when you do Career Day, how many people go in and talk about facilities management? So I think we need to be doing more of that.
Greg Owens
Right? Yeah, we’re seeing it across the board in the construction industry, where, you know, the young people are not as interested in in working with their hands as much and or even No, no of it or have opportunities to learn about it. Like you said, at a younger age, I know for myself, I wasn’t very good at I wasn’t very good at school, and they had a program in New York where they would have me go and you know, I would do carpentry and electrical work and HVAC and I, I would get to touch each thing. And there are there are things in from those classes that I remember to this day that I still use, right that are that are handy. And, and for me sitting in front of a computer all day long was not necessarily a good, good, a good use of my abilities, let’s say, I get too distracted. It’s too challenging to sit still so long. But being in the construction industry, made it so that I can be moving around all the time, and always looking at new projects, right. And that’s something that I see within the facilities management is just there’s your day is never the same and a lot of ways. There’s new things coming up all the time and new problems to solve. And, and you still have to have a hands. As much as there’s technology, there’s still like you still have to walk the buildings in a lot of ways and, and know them really well.
Stormy Friday
Absolutely. And I think that’s the beauty of facility management when I used to talk about marketing, in facilities, which nobody thought was important 30 years ago. And now of course we know it is the issue was that you have to be customer focus, there isn’t any other component in either a company, a college or a university, a hospital, in any institution or facility, the facilities folks have their tentacles into everything. And so if you want diversity and you want change and variation in what you do, the facilities world is a great place to be because as you said, it’s never really the same. And you might be on a project doing an H back system one week and another project, you know, relocating people to another facility. Now, again, those kinds of things are going to change a little bit. But I think if you are looking for diversity of challenge in your work environment, that certainly is what the facilities world is all about.
Greg Owens
Yeah, the diversity of challenge. That’s what it is. Right? Yes. Yeah. And then and then, like you said, like God, you know, depending on what types of buildings if it’s new, or if it’s old, there’s all kinds of challenges within those within those buildings and those kinds of opportunities. And what what other resources do you recommend sort of, for young people, if they’re sort of interested in this as a career or to check into it, that kind of thing? What do you recommend?
Stormy Friday
I think it’s important to I think, first of all you need to set yourself apart in the field if you’re interested in this at all. And so whether you decide you want to be involved in if mo or you want a credential through pro FM or you want to To be involved in BOMA and get a credential that way. Or if you are interested in the environment or you’re interested in the construction and the bid, I think it’s important for young people to take a look at how do you differentiate yourself. And so a credential is a great way to do that. And also to just ask if you can sort of spend time with people. When we get back to doing that. I know kind of the walk in my shoes programs were always very effective, where young people from high schools and colleges would come in and work with facility managers and their staff, I think that we need to do a better job of, and I think it’s happening more and more, because I see more things like, like what you’re doing, but that we have podcasts and things where people can actually go and learn more about it. What is it? And because we weren’t very good at that kind of marketing for a long time?
Greg Owens
Yeah,
Stormy Friday
yeah, no, I think we need to dip down lower into the educational systems. And I think we need to build public awareness by having more information out there about what it really is and what it does. And that it’s not a mom and pop shop anymore.
Greg Owens
Oh, and what advice can you give to, to women that are in this space into start getting into facilities management, because I know, you’ve must have learned a lot of tricks, ways of asserting yourself, especially being sort of, you know, back in the 30 years ago, when it was incredibly male dominated, and you’re, you look like you’re maybe 55, 56, 57
Stormy Friday
i three and a half,
Greg Owens
three and a half, right? Yeah, I’m six, I’m six, almost 654 I hate you’re in a room full of a tremendous amount of men that that are can be loud, boisterous and, and, and dominating in a lot of way just in their just nature. They’re bigger, they’re there, there’s more of them everything what, what things did you learn in that in your time being in facilities management in your career?
Stormy Friday
Well, I had an advantage because I came out of the consulting world. And so people in the consulting world are usually pretty obnoxious when it comes to being outspoken and being able to be a little pushy at times. So I probably had a little bit of that as an advantage. But I think what I learned in the facilities world is a, you have to have your facts and figures very well grounded, you have to be smarter than the next person in the room, and you have to know what you’re talking about. And then you have to make sure that you’re not afraid to take a risk that you raise your hand or you step up there and say, I’ll be on that panel, I’ll be on that team, I have an idea, I have a suggestion. And you just have to keep offering that up until people start listening to you. And pretty soon, when they recognize, hey, that individual is pretty darn smart. And she knows what she’s talking about. And she’s not afraid to participate. When others are not, then you can set yourself apart. And then on top of that, if you have a credential to offer. And it’s recognized in the industry now more than ever before. That’s very important.
Greg Owens
Oh, nice. Nice. And I can tell you, you’re also ambitious, because and I love that little story of that you were working, basically within doing managing 8 million square feet for the US government. And you know, and they tell you, it’s about painting and dusting things off. And, and then somebody says, Hey, if you started your own consulting company, I would hire you, you’re like, give me 48 hours, I will do this.
Stormy Friday
Absolutely. Right. It was a tough sell back then, when I wanted to be in the business, I started trying to sell facilities management to a lot of architectural engineering firms. And back then, sadly, they didn’t want to get their hands dirty. Facilities Management was still kind of like, ooh, those are the people that we don’t necessarily want to work with. And so nobody understood what I was trying to tell them about outsourcing and what you could do in the FM world. And one of the things that I learned was that so many facilities professionals had come up through the ranks, and they didn’t have good management skills. And so that’s what we focused on over the years is building that internal capacity to solve your own problems. And so it’s leadership. It’s communication. It’s how do you build a team It’s how do you do strategic planning, it’s all the things that make a good executive or make an organization healthy. And those are the things that the industry was kind of lacking 30 years ago. So it was a nice niche, I was able to kind of, you know, push people aside and say, Okay, here’s what we do. And it’s a little different.
Greg Owens
Right, right. And as we get close to wrapping up here, any, any other tools and or books that you recommend, or, you know, anything along those lines?
Stormy Friday
Well, I think it’s important to read what is out there, in the profession of there are a lot of good white papers. And, and if you read, if you participate in the programs that are being offered by trade, press, and others, if you go to conferences like nfmt, when they’re available, or if they’re virtual, or if you go to world workplace, I think it’s important, you have to be a sponge, you have to build a network. And you have to have four or five really good colleagues in either competing industries or in peer industries that you feel you can call up and bounce ideas with. I think you need to read what’s out there in terms of management issues and trends, as well as technical issues. And you can’t be all things to all people in the facilities world. So you kind of need to see where your talents lie and pursue that field.
Greg Owens
Yeah, no, that’s great. That’s great. And I can’t let you go here without asking about your name, Stormy Friday, and I can only imagine that when you were young, that that you might not have particularly liked it as much. But then as you’ve gotten older, and you have your own business that you were like, this is a good name is.
Stormy Friday
Well, it’s actually the opposite. I’m an only I was an only child. And when I was very young, my given name is Gayle G-a-y-l-e. RT is my maiden name, which I’ve kept. And when I was a baby, my aunt asked my mother, if I was going to have a nickname, and without missing a beat, my mother said anodically speaking when there’s a gale, there’s a storm. So people started calling me Stormy, I think my parents always thought I would outgrow it. But as I got older, I kind of liked it even better. And then when I had a business people remember it. And I have a colleague who is so annoyed after 30 years of working with me at that, you know, having to tell that story. If a client says to us, and how did you get that name? And then he’ll say, I’m just so and so I’m boring, so and so but of course you want to hear her story.
Greg Owens
That’s about what Stan said.
Stormy Friday
We do the Stan and Stormy show. And we like to do that we like it when we’re on together. We have a good time. And it’s sometimes
Greg Owens
Oh, that would be great. How would he I would can only imagine you guys are you both are really, really smart know a lot about the whole industry and that you both have, like incredible creative side to you. And that how has creativity played into your life?
Stormy Friday
Well, I think truth be told, I don’t say this to many people. But if I’d had talent, I probably would have been a singer or a dancer and actress or something like that. Because I enjoy. I enjoy being in front of people. And I like to do presentations, I do a lot of public speaking. And I’ve always found it easy. So I kind of enjoy that. For me. That’s my creative side. And it allows me to give back to an industry that’s been very generous to me, professionally, and personally, I’ve been all over the world. And so speaking about what’s near and dear to my heart allows me to do that. So I think that’s where the creativity came in years ago, when I said customer service was important. And everybody said, No, nobody’s going to listen to you talk about it. And I wrote a book and and, you know, it’s still being used 30 years later. I think those that’s where the creativity is, how do you deal with your customers? How do you involve your customers in the facilities world things that people hadn’t thought about? Right? I think that’s where that comes into play.
Greg Owens
Oh, that’s great. And what’s the name of your book and where do people find it?
Stormy Friday
Oh, gosh, that book I think is I think it might even be out of print. I have to ask me how to get it but that’s that’s a book called customer service. And and Getting, I can’t even remember what the title is. And then quality customer quality facility management. And then the other book that I wrote is about tracing the DNA of facility organizations. And that’s a fun book because it not really fun in that word. But it traces from an organizational standpoint, what are the key things that a facility organization needs to have? And so I think those kind of management pieces are, that allows me to be creative, and I write a lot for trade press for their publication and for some of their web activities. So it keeps me keeps the juices flowing.
Greg Owens
Oh, that’s great. And so where where would people be able to find you or, or connect with you? Would it be best to go through LinkedIn, we can put it in the show notes on this.
Stormy Friday
Um, it’s best to you can find us if you look on online for TheFridayGroup.com or it’s, you know, you can write to be Stormy@theFridaygroup.com. I love to hear from people. You can call us. I’m not as huge on social media. I don’t tweet, I don’t do Facebook. And so the best and the best way to find me usually is in a, in a podcast like this or speaking, or just, you know, go online and find us and pick up the phone and call and say, I need to ask you a question or kind of one. Katrina. Did you know Would you like to be on a podcast?
Katrina Hayes
Awesome.
Greg Owens
Yeah, that’s great. That’s great. Well, thank you so much for being on our podcast Watching Paint Dry. We have Stormy Friday on this has been a pleasure to get to know you a little bit. Yeah, that’s great. Thank you so much.
Outro
Thanks for listening to the Watching Paint Dry podcast. We’ll see you again next time. And be sure to click subscribe to get future episodes.