Wayne Whitzell and Katerina Karasyova dive into hybrid work, data-driven design and the power of community in FM. Katerina shares her IFMA journey, highlighting the impact of mentorship, networking and professional support.
In this engaging conversation, Wayne Whitzell and Katerina Karasyova explore the multifaceted world of facilities management, focusing on the importance of professional associations like IFMA, the dynamics of hybrid work and the critical role of data-driven design in enhancing employee experience. Katerina shares her personal journey within IFMA, emphasizing the value of networking, mentorship and community support in professional growth.
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Katerina Karasyova: [00:00:00] The first question that I love to ask is, what is the purpose of your office? Are you bringing people into the office for the right reasons? Are you providing offices that have a purposeful human-centric design? Are you building spaces that actually cater to the needs of your employees to the way that they work? Because if you're gonna have employees that are coming into the office and they hate the space.
They're gonna resent it. They're not gonna wanna come in. But if they have a great experience, they have value coming in, they have spaces that actually cater to their working styles, that's gonna be a significantly more positive environment.
So it's really about learning and understanding what are those human patterns of behavior or what are those trends?
How do we cater to the needs of our employees and bring them into the office that's gonna give them that value?
Host: Welcome to Connected fm, a podcast connecting you to the latest insights, tools, and resources to help you succeed in facility management. This podcast is brought to you by [00:01:00] ifma, the leading professional association for facility managers. If you are ready to grow your network and advance in your career, go to ifma.org to get started.
In today's episode, host Wayne Whitzell, the second vice Chair of IFMA's Global Board of Directors interviews Katerina Karasyova, who is recently named an IFMA global influencer. Together they explore the multifaceted world of facility management, focusing on the importance of professional associations like ifma, the dynamics of hybrid work.
And the critical role of data-driven design in enhancing employee experience. They also touch on katerina's personal journey within ifma, emphasizing the value of networking, mentorship, and community support and professional growth. Now let's get into it.
Wayne Whitzell: Hello everyone. Welcome to the podcast. This is your host, Wayne Whitzell, and I am here today joined by Katerina Karasyova.
Yeah.
Katerina Karasyova: for [00:02:00] having me.
Wayne Whitzell: absolutely, I'm, no, I'm excited to talk with you because, you may not know this, but I knew you from emails and from working with the Canadian chapters on a a series of presentations I did a couple of years ago, but I never got to meet you or see you in person until IFMA Fusion again.
That's a side note. Another good reason why Fusion's such a great conference, but you might not know this, but we were in a room, oh, it was a component class that was being taught by Mary and Treslyn and there was this person chiming in on everything up in the front, and I'm like, this person's got game. You know?
She, and the things you were saying were things that only someone who had been in chapter leadership would say, And you were taking it with, I mean, such seriousness and that you were dropping truth bombs left and right, and of course you were at the same table that Geoff Williams was.
You know, who's who. When he drops a truth bomb, the earth shakes a little bit. And I still remember that I was like, oh, that's Katerina. And you know, everybody's busy and then we go on to the next class. So I never got a chance to come [00:03:00] up and just say, Hey, you know, I really appreciated the things that you said in that meeting.
So, yeah, that was a, that was my first Katerina experience live.
Katerina Karasyova: You can definitely count on me not to stay quiet. That is for sure. A lot of people know that, but it's because we're so passionate about what we do and we absolutely embrace everything that IFMA gives us, and we wanna treat it with respect and give back to the community.
So it's always a lot of fun.
Wayne Whitzell: Yeah, I wish there was a better way than the cliche of you get out of ifma what you put into ifma, but it's so true and it's hard to convey that to someone who hasn't. Had those relationships with people and reap the harvest from those relationships personally and professionally.
So I can sense that in you, you know, you radiate that. So that's that's something I, I appreciate. So I wanna hear your ifma journey, where you started and where you are today. Tell me that story.
Katerina Karasyova: Well, it's been a really long and wonderful journey of wow, it's probably gonna be almost 11 years soon that I've been part of ifma. [00:04:00] And I'm gonna start in a slightly different way where I had no idea what facilities management was. So it all started with the fact that I got a call from a recruiter saying, Hey, do you want a job in facilities management?
We saw your resume on LinkedIn and we saw that you've, you're doing a lot of great things, so do you wanna join? Facilities management, we have a great opportunity for you. And I had to Google what facilities management was, but then I realized that I was doing it for 10 years. So as I got involved, I had incredible people kind of guiding me on my journey from day one and one of my vendors, within the first week of meeting, we went for coffee, we went for a walk, and they're like, you gotta get involved with ifma.
This is an incredible association that's gonna give you so much opportunity for learning and growing and mentorship and just really progressing in your career. And I did, I got involved, I got in contact with the facilities [00:05:00] management association here in Toronto, IFMA Toronto my, my home, my love, my passion, and I immediately got involved.
So. We started with me coming in as kind of a liaison between membership and YP and really getting excited about bridging that gap and having conversations around the value of the association, the value of networking, and then jumping right into a whole bunch of other opportunities within the board over the last 11 years.
But I am probably that cliche, cheesy story, and I shouted off the rooftops. I would not be where I am today in my career without ifma. Absolutely no way. So it's always a really exciting story to tell and it's really exciting to work with other young professionals that are trying to learn and grow and really progress in their careers.
So it's been fun.
Wayne Whitzell: Gosh. Yeah. You're getting me misty already. I don't know whether it's 'cause I'm getting older or whatever, but, you know. Yeah. I mean, because you, like I said, I can recognize that in you and that journey. Especially your you know, starting [00:06:00] out as a connection with young professionals which is so critical among our components to really engage that group of people.
So, so, so that's your ifma journey here. We're gonna maybe talk about that a little bit more. But, okay. So tell us about your professional life now. So what, so now sometimes I say ifma is my day job. It is some days as you know. But so tell us about your real day job. What is that?
Katerina Karasyova: It's a package deal,
Wayne Whitzell: Right, right.
Katerina Karasyova: right?
Wayne Whitzell: It's the sports package.
Katerina Karasyova: Exactly that. No. So I, right now I work for free space and so we help our clients really understand their space and occupancy and workplace strategy, enhance their employee experience and never really thought that I would be here. In this role, in this world doing account management and sales.
But it was an opportunity that came my way and I got really excited about it. And I've been here for over three years now, and the beauty is that I get to work with a lot of clients, but I used to be a client and so I know the ins and outs of the world. [00:07:00] But that's, you know, that's the beauty of ifma and the connections and networking as well, is you kind of get to learn and understand what those opportunities are in the industry.
And it's not one sided. There's a lot of different things that you can do and you can shift from being direct fm, which I was for over eight years, to now being, you know, on the support side and supporting FMS in making critical decisions within their work environment. So, it's a little bit about where I am today, but I love my clients.
I've got amazing global clients and really get in the weeds of helping them understand their workplace strategy and data-driven design and how they can make strategic change and impact the way that their employees work. So it's a different avenue of fm. Right? And that's what I love about it. But it's still FM and.
Still working in the FM world and you're combining and bridging the gap between other service lines and other departments within those industries as well.
Wayne Whitzell: Yeah. And so I wrote down the word ecosystem when you were talking because it's there, there are some [00:08:00] associations which kind of view vendors as a necessary evil. And I, when I'm shocked sometimes when I go to some of those places, because I at, if a, for the most part we, there's a connectedness.
There's a synergy, a sym symbiosis between those. That, and even passing across those lines sometimes is so blurred, especially, you know, with outsource providers, especially with people that are doing workplace strategy. There's a lot of crossover there. So we really are blended. But this is another great thing about ifma is that.
I always tell people, I was very lucky early in my career because my boss bought me full conference passes to World Workplace as a young kid and as a, as an associate member. And he caught grief for it. I mean, they did not want him to do that. This was a long time ago. Another place I used to work and he really stood and said no, we're gonna do this.
So I would come back speaking fluent CFM or say fluent fm. And you know, you, I would talk to FMS in the local market and I would know. How they're thinking about things like ROI about net present value, about how to position certain [00:09:00] things. So it was such a, you know, a value for me, but.
You know, I know a little bit about what you do in terms of workplace strategy, hybrid and things like that, so , I wanna get your opinion on this. The data we're seeing shows it varies, but like 90% of managers want everybody back in the office full-time and nearly the same number or even higher in some studies. Don't want to come back full-time. That's a tremendous spread on data. And part of that I believe is that managers tend to be extroverted or leaders or tend to be extroverted and they need the playground.
They need that. It's the same thing as an introvert being forced into a huge social gathering. That's how uncomfortable they are not having people in the office. But talk to me about that di that disparate nature there between managers and staff and how, you know, we can kind of thread the needle through that or what's going on in your expert opinion.
Katerina Karasyova: Well, the first question that I love to ask is, what is the purpose of your office? Right? What is the [00:10:00] employee experience that you're looking to achieve? And there's different parts to it. You want collaboration, you want purpose of people coming into the office.
You want them to have value. If I'm gonna come into the office and be on calls. The entire day sitting at my desk and not working with others. What is the value of me being there? But if I know that I'm gonna have my colleagues there, if I know that I'm gonna be able to have natural collisions, great conversations, mentorship and leadership.
And I think that's the key piece that we miss out on in a fully virtual world coming together. Even just for a little bit, having that mentorship, learning from each other, hearing how people speak about different things in the business, getting to know what people are doing. That connection piece is the most powerful thing.
But are you bringing people into the office for the right reasons? Are you providing offices that have a purposeful human-centric design? Are you building spaces that actually cater to the needs of your employees to the way [00:11:00]that they work? Are you understanding what that looks like? Because if you're gonna have employees that are coming into the office and they hate the space.
They hate the environment. They don't have what they need. They're gonna despise it. They're gonna resent it. They're not gonna wanna come in. But if they're coming into the office and they have a great experience, they have value coming in, they have spaces that actually cater to their working styles, that's gonna be a significantly more positive environment.
So it's really about learning and understanding what are those human patterns of behavior or what are those trends?
How do we cater to the needs of our employees and bring them into the office that's gonna give them that value. So it's really fun to learn and no two companies are gonna have the same strategy. No two companies are gonna have the same approach, but do we know what we are providing?
And so it's really fun to get into the weeds of that and work with my clients to truly understand it, to cater to their needs, to build programs that are unique to their to their work environment. Whether it's through just the data and analytics and capturing that information through [00:12:00] sensors and really.
Diving into the metrics and doing a data-driven design, or even taking it a step further and enhancing their employee experience through employee experience apps.
So it's really fun to get into understanding the impact of that strategy. And then working with our clients to again, really truly build a program that's gonna cater to their employees.
Wayne Whitzell: Yeah. You know, as you're talking, it's interesting the mix of words you're using. We have human people client experience, which are all very, you know, organic terms. And then you have data KPIs, analytics on this. And we're blending these three things, and I think it's a more sophisticated argument than it was four years ago, which was.
Hey, here's a new espresso machine for your people to come. I mean, I was thinking, how bad is your office that buying an espresso machine is going to bring everybody back to the office? Right. So we were talking at such a really basic level then and now the sophisticated, and it's not just sophisticated on the experience, it's from a very practical standpoint.
How do we do just in time [00:13:00] inventory for an unpredictable workforce? Do we need this much toilet paper? Do we need this much? I mean, even things like airflow into a facility. I mean, are you overspending on outside air? You know, trying to, from an engineering standpoint.
Katerina Karasyova: Well, and I have a great example for that as well. If you're gonna have 10 floors and a hundred people in an office on a Friday, what's the value for 10 employees being on an individual floor? Why not navigate people to the same area, the same zone. They have buzz, they have culture. They have an opportunity to have those water cooler talks with their colleagues and learn something new.
And you as an operator have an opportunity to close those floors, do operational maintenance, do inspections, save money on cleaning by reallocating those resources. So there's so many ways that we can get creative with our spaces, but again, it comes down to understanding our employees, understanding the needs, having the data behind how is the [00:14:00] space actually being used every single day of the week, and then leveraging that information for those strategic decisions.
So it's fun.
Wayne Whitzell: Yeah. Now, so, so hearing you talk, you know, you're coming from the position of a SME, a subject matter expert. And one of the things I've noticed, there's certain things, you know, we get a little bit older, we get some experience. We're subject matter experts. We put in our 10,000 hours or a hundred thousand hours in something, and there's a few things like that I have that expertise in, just by virtue of having done it for so long.
When I hear some folks talk about things sometimes, and I'm sure that you've experienced this as a subject matter expert, is you'll hear people arguing a point or saying things and they're wildly off base or they don't have all of the information. And you're kind, you kind I bite my tongue a lot and I'm like, okay, I'm, what am I'm not gonna just enter in and jump in here and correct this.
But I, I. In your world there. So if you were listening to a couple of people, what is the most common misinformation going around [00:15:00] about this concept of hybrid work or workplace strategy? What do you often hear people talking about or where they're maybe missing the bullseye or where they're off the mark or working with misinformation?
Where would you like, if you had a magic wand and could just wave it so everybody knew something that they don't know now, what would that thing be?
Katerina Karasyova: So from my perspective, it's more so looking into the overall grand scheme, the story of the office. What is that story? Because you're gonna have all of these incredible data sets that you're capturing within the space, and you know, space and occupancy is one of them. All of your employee feedback is another piece.
Are we closing those feedback loops? Are we actually combining the data together to truly understand what is the story of the office? What are you doing with the information that you have to enhance that employee experience? And are you closing that feedback loop with employees? I think that's the one piece that I always tend to see people not.
Really complete [00:16:00] is they're doing all of these changes. They're listening, they're learning, they're using data. But are we sharing that knowledge with employees and explaining to them what it is that we're doing and why we're doing it, and what's the impact to them as an employee? 'cause hey, we've listened to you.
We've done all this research, we've invested a lot of money to enhance your experience, and this is why we've made these decisions. You're never gonna satisfy absolutely everybody. Maybe you're gonna make it sting a little bit less if you explain why you're making the changes that you're making. And I think that's a really key piece in everything that we do.
It's that change management, that communication, and really effective communication and building that culture of transparency, of trust and knowledge sharing within the organizations as well. 'cause we have all of this amazing data in every single one of our buildings. We're making all of these strategic decisions.
Are we sharing that?
Wayne Whitzell: Yeah, that again, there's just so much that we're [00:17:00] talking about a human aspect here and I guess the, that old story about the one-eyed person in the land of the blind is king. And that I think tho those people that speak human. Right. They go forward having the ability to connect with other people for both change management, just for for leadership,
I think as we incorporate more texting, more artificial intelligence, is that, I guess my phrase is there was a you know, an album I really like, it's called Amused to Death, and the album was released as a burgeoning technology and it was get all this technology. Eventually humanity is going to amuse itself to death.
Well, I think now we might be in a situation where we're optimizing ourself to death and I think right and the person who can cut through all of that and incorporate what's necessary but connect with other people on a human level and develops that skill. And marries those things together, like you're saying.
'cause I, every time you say something, you're marrying this concept of humanity with data, and that's a special [00:18:00] skillset. And I think that, you know, when you talk about workplace strategy. So many fms I know. And I'll just talk even components are operating in a very tactical way and not from a strategy and not from, 'cause you, the first thing you said was you need to look at the whole organization and you need to understand it.
And I read into that, what's your why? Okay. And I'm a big fan of Alana Donoff, that's no you know, mystery. And she constantly preaches that, 'cause we both are Simon Sinek fans as well, where that comes from. But I think starting with that why and then developing. Everything from there is so critical and just about everything that we do in life, but we're so in, in a cold sweat as fms that we're in a tactical nightmare sometimes that we don't have time to get outside and above that.
So. It seems to me that's a really good opportunity for individuals like you who consult from the outside. They can come in with neutral eyes and offer that a pathway for them assessment and pathway. So do you find that because and FM's gonna say, gosh, I'm already [00:19:00] shortt staffed, I'm already doing all this stuff, and now you're asking me to go and figure out a way to get these 10 people on one floor and shut down the air on the other nine. This is just complex. So do you find it, it's your concepts and your outside approach is a welcome thing to the fms. Do they say, thank you for giving me some framework to be able to talk to my CFO about this stuff?
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Katerina Karasyova: The numbers [00:20:00] speak volumes. The strategy speaks volumes. And again, once you can quantify the cost savings, the cost avoidances, but most importantly the impact on an employee experience and that human behavior piece it makes it easy to make that decision and to move forward with it. And it gets really exciting to be able to understand, oh, this is actually what this is gonna accomplish.
And so I think from my perspective, I'm also coming at it from a viewpoint of I was a client for five years. I was a direct fm. I know the impact on employee experience. I know how the building is run. I used to walk my junior team members when I was an FM that had just started out the building and walk them into the building saying, you're a brand new employee in this space.
You're not on the facilities team, you're an actual employee of the company. Walk in and tell me what your experience is. Walking through the building, going through the experience at the security desk, at the reception desk. What do you see? How do you [00:21:00] feel? And that's the mindset that we wanna bring to everything that we do, right?
It's what is the impact to you as an employee? What is the impact to the organization? What are those things that are gonna make our experience better? What's that approach to everything that we do? Right? And every person is. A big, huge piece of the puzzle, regardless of what they do, and they're part of that team.
So how can we make their experience better? How can we make them feel valued with the spaces that we build, with the design that we are very mindful of with the way that we operate our business, but also are we reinvesting that money that we can save back into the business in a way that's gonna, again, enhance and cater to the needs of our employees.
So really leveraging that. The ability to automate things. I mean, let's get be honest. A lot of our facility managers now are like, automate I'm in. Right? If I can make it easy, if it's simple, I'm in [00:22:00] because it's gonna enhance my operations. I'm going to be able to find those cost savings and cost avoidances.
I can hit my sustainability goals. And so there's a lot of things that we all get excited about. Yes, there's InfoSec reviews and paperwork involved, and you've gotta go through the steps of getting the necessary approvals and making it work. But once it's there, it's really exciting to see the impact.
But it's one of those things where we get really excited about the technology and yes, technology can be really overwhelming sometimes. But take the time to learn it because if you are not gonna be a facility manager that's keeping up with the technology, you're gonna be left behind.
Wayne Whitzell: Oh boy, that's a big truth bomb right there. It really is. I mean, it's and if is doing a great job, I, you know, you're seeing it kind of bubble up and you have great content coming out from Dean, from Ted and Geoff over at the IT community and people are and then you also see kind of real, kind of basic level stuff where it's, you know, here's how you start a [00:23:00] chat GPT account and but we have members that are all over that map.
And us providing with them with that kind of content is going to be more important going forward. And, again, implementing that with a human experience mindset I think is so critical. But let me ask you this. So many fms don't have input or maybe believe they don't have input in the design phase.
And that more strategic phase of either designing a space or even, let's face it, too many fms, just hermit crab their entire career. They don't have an opportunity to build or design a space. Maybe they do a ti sometimes. How can they advocate for the fm o and m side at the design table, at the a and d table?
How can they get involved? Because I often say to fms, okay you're complaining. Rightfully so about some of these choices, but what would you have done had you had a seat at the table? How would you advocate? Do you know how to do that? Do you know how to read plans, et cetera. So how do you envision empowering FMS to go further upstream in this process?
Katerina Karasyova: [00:24:00] So I'm a true believer that it's our belief that we can't be part of that process. I think to your point, what you said, right, where there's a will, there's a way. Be vocal. Don't be afraid to speak your truth, something that you're really excited about. Get in front of the right people. Your ideas may not always make.
Change your ideas. We may not always be used, but get yourself in the room. Find a way to express your opinions, to share your experience, your knowledge as the operator of the buildings. I think it comes down to just. Being true to what you believe, being true to what you know leveraging the information that you wanna share internally and vocalizing it.
What is the worst case scenario? They won't listen. They won't do what you're suggesting, but at least you know you've tried. But best case scenario, somebody says, oh. That's a really great idea. Why don't we explore it further? It may not be your version of the [00:25:00] idea, but your version might inspire it.
Something maybe even bigger, maybe even better. But don't be shy. And right now within if, I mean I've had so many roles within if my sit on the IT community, but I also chair the young professionals global network.
Wayne Whitzell: you do the squeaky wheel, right. Let's cap Catarina do that. Yeah.
Katerina Karasyova: And I mean, I'm really excited 'cause we got rebranded this year to a global YP network. And that's one of the things that I always talk about with the young professionals as well, is what is the worst case scenario? What's the worst that can happen? You get a no. You don't get a response. Nobody even looks at it, but at least you know you've tried and you got inspired.
You looked at something and you had suggested something that may or may not inspire something in the future, may pivot somebody's perspective. And so really just. Getting outside of your comfort zone, finding those [00:26:00]opportunities to share your opinions, to share your knowledge, to share your excitement within the organization, whether it's your direct manager or your manager's manager, or even somebody on the design team directly.
If you see them walking by, go sit down and have a coffee with them in the cafeteria. Put a meeting on their calendar for 15 minutes. Worst case scenario, they're gonna decline it.
Wayne Whitzell: You case scenario, they love what you have to
yeah. Again, a human skill. I think we're sensing a theme here, Katerina. I remember the first time I brought this subject up to a couple of people Trina Ellis in Sacramento. She's a VP of safe Credit Union and Linda Beney, former Chicago chapter president, now incoming president of the CFC.
But I was explaining them this concept of not having a seat at the table, and they were looking at me like, what are you talking about? I said, you know, they said, that's never happened to us. I, we do, we go to the table. So your concept of belief and mindset is they never perceived anything otherwise.
They were gonna sit down at that table and they were gonna say, no, I [00:27:00] need more outlets here. That atrium's too high. This is the wrong stone. This is you've located that pump too close to the wall. That's another eight hours of wrench time every year for me to fix that and maintain that. And it was just like common.
This is what I do. So I think you're right about mindset of that is that. It's not necessarily forcing your way into the process, but just as an expectation that, you know, we are going to connect these dots. And the hope was the sustainability movement would do that, that there would be a circular thinking around all of this.
But if anybody's been reading any, keeping up with some of dean's papers on the BLMI initiative and that kind of stuff and I think that we're starting to see because of data and the ability to collect this and really get good data and utilize that data is the circles. Forming better right now.
So it's a good time for those. But let's circle back here to ifma a little bit. 'Cause I've learned so much at ifma in my career, and I would say that, you know, I'm very fortunate where I work, I have a CEO. He is a lovely man and he really recognizes the value of ifma and understands that this is an important [00:28:00] piece of our business.
And in doing this and I know that some people are not that fortunate. Some people don't have that. So there's a lot of young professionals maybe that might not have someone paying for their ifma membership and so forth. But I like to say that in the past, some other places I've worked, I've learned what not to do as a leader.
I've learned what not to do
at ifma.
Katerina Karasyova: get me started on
Wayne Whitzell: you, yeah, right. There we go. I knew you and I had something here. But at ifma I've learned what to do.
And when you combine those kinds of things, it's really been so helpful. So, so as a young person who's entering the career field or considering entering the career field, what would you say to them why they should be a part of ifma, not just a, you know, a member and checking the FMP box, but why they should be involved in a component?
Katerina Karasyova: I tell everybody, regardless of whether you're YP or not. Regardless of whether you're a seasoned professional that's been in the industry for years and years, just never got involved, get involved because it's not [00:29:00] necessarily just about the knowledge, the credentials are incredible, don't get me wrong.
But it's not just about that. It's about the people that you meet along the way, the network of subject matter experts, the professionals. I truly believe that without the people that were part of my IFMA circle, I would not be where I am in my career. And it's very simple. Geoff being one of them.
I mean, he was my instructor for SFP, for FMP, but I could call him and say, Hey, I have this situation. I've never dealt with this before. How do I do this? And he would walk me through it step by step. I had incredible people on the IFMA Toronto chapter, Bernice Lily Hughes, one of our past presidents in his.
Held every single position possible. I used to do that same thing with her and say, Hey, how do I do this? I'm new to the industry. I'm new to this world. She's been an FM for 20 plus years. Help me out here. Help me make sure that I am bringing value to my organization, that I'm not [00:30:00] missing any steps, and that I am thinking through this in the right way, in a critical way.
And the same thing goes to my vendors. Vendors that not only I used as vendors, but I had the opportunity to build personal relationships with through ifma, through networking and through different pieces of the puzzle, essentially, right? Being able to leverage their expertise and say, Hey. Don't gimme any bs.
Tell me the truth. What do I need to do? How do I do this? How do I solve this problem? But because I had that personal relationship with them, having that built in trust and being able to lean on my network to really give me what I needed to do to be successful in my role, whether it is when I was a direct fm, and even now being able to leverage my network saying, Hey, I have a client who has a problem.
Can you help them? So it's just, it's the human factor. It's building those relationships. We [00:31:00] all know that building our careers is not always about what you know. It's about who you know, getting in front of the right people, building your brand, really elevating yourself in the industry as somebody who brings a lot of knowledge to the table, a lot of value, and not being afraid to say, I don't know, but I know somebody who does.
Wayne Whitzell: Right. That's a skill in itself is the, I don't know because I think so many times we're. Afraid to admit that we don't know. And we've got this entire treasure trove of a resource in ifma. Both you know, the human pick up the phone and talk to somebody. The knowledge library, ifma, engage ifma mentor match.
We sensing a theme here. There's a, if you want to plug in here, and I think it's just trying to get people over that. Initial hump of saying, do I reach out? Do I ask for help? But once you tap into that's all you're going to do. I mean, there's times when I respond to an RFP, I will reach out to an FM and say, Hey, how would you like me to phrase this?
What [00:32:00] would you like to see on this? 'cause you're in that same kind of a rollover over here. And, you know, I've learned so, so much just from that. And I, you know. If I look a at the history of my career it's almost like who do you look up to? And you, I, that's a great question to ask in an interview, by the way.
'cause if somebody says, you know, Kobe Bryant or you know, if I said, oh, I look up to kit Tuon, he was my mentor, or I look up to my, my high school by English teacher, you know, and things like that. It's, these are people that you will remember that made an impact on your life. And I think you and I have benefited so much from these relationships that now we, we feel we have a moral obligation to do the same for other people. And that's something that's an incredible motivator. And you can't fake that. You can't there, you can't put the eye in the ego in the middle of that equation.
Katerina Karasyova: Well, it's giving back to the community that supported you so well on your journey and just because. I'm no longer a yp, even though I lead the dean a little bit over the threshold. [00:33:00] It's about giving back to the community, but we all, no matter where you are in your journey, even if you're close to retirement, have so much to learn.
And not only from our mentors who are significantly more experienced and seasoned. Than us, but even from the young professionals and doing that reverse mentorship and learning from our youngsters that are coming up and bringing brand new, fresh ideas to the table. Right? So it's really leveraging, again, that knowledge source.
From the community that you have within the association, really understanding how you can learn and grow and continue to revamp and change your perspective and pivot and shift and make changes that are gonna bring incredible value to your organization, to your clients, to your employees. Depending on where you are within the industry, whether you're on the direct client side, whether you're on service provider side or vendor side, really doesn't matter because you're bringing a lot of incredible [00:34:00] value across the board.
You're learning, you're gaining that community of people that are subject matter experts that are gonna strike inspiration and give you something new to think about as you're thinking through your solutions, as you're thinking through your problems and finding those solutions.
Wayne Whitzell: Well, I think that's a great place to end it here. Katerina I've thoroughly enjoyed talking with you and Toronto to me has always been this really cool chapter. You guys put out a lot of stuff. You do a lot of things and you can sense there's a camaraderie there among your people and, when you sense that in a component that there's this kind of thing this maybe nucleus there that's just radiating out this good stuff. You can sense a healthiness in the component. And I definitely sense that in, in, in Toronto. And we really appreciate everything you've done just for IFMA as a whole and the content you guys put out and the support that you give for all the conferences and everything.
And for those of you out there considering a a conference and if you're a component leader especially definitely consider going there. You will meet your peers and you can commiserate, [00:35:00] cry, cheer, whatever you wanna want to do about your leadership role.
And Katerina, I'm sure will be there to to help you no matter what you need. So, Katerina, thank you.
Katerina Karasyova: we love, it's such a nice little, you know, smaller event that really, truly brings the component leaders together to learn from each other. But Wayne, I will say that one of my favorite things about Toronto Chapter is bringing all of our community across the globe together. But most importantly, partnering with just communities and councils and sharing that knowledge internally.
So I think it's just doing that right bringing the community together, bringing those fresh perspectives. So we love it.
Wayne Whitzell: Alright, Katerina, well thank you for your time today and and we appreciate it and can't wait to see at Fusion or World Workplace. Yes.
All
Katerina Karasyova: see you at World Workplace First, but we'll see you at Fusion two.
Wayne Whitzell: Alright, see you there.
Katerina Karasyova: Thanks.
Host: Thanks for tuning into the Connected FM podcast. If you enjoyed today's episode, please take a moment to [00:36:00] rate and review the show because it really helps us reach more listeners just like you. And don't forget to hit the subscribe button so you never miss an episode. See you next time.