Meet the Host, Lisa Laronde

Lisa Laronde (00:00.672)
I'm Lisa Laronde, the first woman president at RSG International and the host of this new podcast called The Powerhouse Project. I'm here with Morgan Campbell, our public relations manager, and we're going to tell you about what you want, sorry, about what you can expect from this podcast.

Morganne Campbell (00:24.081)
to say.

Lisa Laronde (00:31.616)
And so I'm okay to, because this isn't, there's no camera on this one, right? So I'm okay to actually read it, read it like.

Morganne Campbell (01:09.461)
I feel like I can't tell you because of my previous employer.

Lisa Laronde (01:14.026)
It's a trade secret, I'll have to kill you.

Morganne Campbell (01:34.097)
Okay, woosa.

Lisa Laronde (01:37.44)
Hi, I'm Lisa LaRonde, the first woman president at RISG International and the host of this new podcast that we're calling The Powerhouse Project. I'm here with Morgan Campbell. Welcome Morgan, she's our PR manager here at RISG International. Welcome, how are you?

Morganne Campbell (01:52.369)
I am great, so happy. Okay, I feel like this is so not natural, Sarah. Can we take it back to the top? I'm awkward af. Oh, I guess.

Morganne Campbell (02:05.457)
Okay, okay. All right. She asked me how I'm doing and I'm like, I don't know.

What the heck? Okay.

Lisa Laronde (02:15.424)
Hi, I'm Lisa Leronde. I'm the first woman president for RISD International. Welcome to our new podcast called The Powerhouse Project. I'm here today with Morgan Campbell. Welcome Morgan. She's our PR manager here at RISD International.

Morganne Campbell (02:29.457)
Hey Lisa, thanks for having me. I guess we should probably hone in a little bit on what you mean by the first woman president of RSC International.

Lisa Laronde (02:40.896)
Well, I think I'm lucky enough to be the first woman president. There's been nobody ahead of me. I said when I started in my career, which is about nine years ago, I said I used to introduce myself as, you know, hi, my name is Lisa LaRonde. My pronouns are she, her. My background's manufacturing. I came from the finance background. I'm actually CPA. My name's not on the building. So how the fuck did I get here? And everyone's shocked because really,

it makes no sense for me when I didn't grow up in this industry to actually get here. So I'm very proud to be the first woman president. It's been a really long journey, but I'm very excited to be here.

Morganne Campbell (03:18.961)
Okay, before we touch on the long journey, which from my understanding and talking to you includes like a really dingy office when you first started with the organization, tell me a little bit about what RSG International is and what the organization does.

Lisa Laronde (03:37.344)
Oh my God, I can't believe did someone share that story with you? It's hysterical. So I got here, whatever, nine years ago, and they used to actually call it the accounting space of the finance section was the dark side. So that was our name for the area. And when I got in there, there was boxes of files, there's boxes all over the place. And the person that I had taken over the office had a snap drawer, which was in my bottom, like left -hand corner.

And we had, there were the mice were rampant and anybody who knows me, I'm terrified, just terrified of mice. I don't know why that is. So I can handle pretty much any animal, but I mean, I guess just cause they're rodents. Anyway, the, the, they, they would be running around, running around. So the one, the one day this frigging mouse is actually he's, he's in my garbage can. So I see him, I scream, I get up and, and I run to the door and this poor, my poor assistant controller, this little tiny man.

comes running in, I grab him, I put him in between me and the mouse, which is hysterical. And we had these stupid carpet baseboard. That's what they're made out of. And this poor mouse is doing like Superman. He's like, he's like, and I'm like, get him, get him, no you don't understand, get him. This poor guy was looking at me. Oh my God, Kevin. He was like, what? I have no idea. And at this point, at this point the mouse ran away. It was really funny. So then I got this.

Morganne Campbell (04:55.365)
He's like, what do you want me to do?

Lisa Laronde (05:02.112)
I got those sticky traps, they're like little matchboxes. And I put it was behind the door. And I'm actually on the phone and the door is open and I can hear this like and I'm on the phone and I'm like, excuse me, I hear this noise all of a sudden from underneath my door. I can see this little paw poking out when the mouse is trying to get out of this. I don't know he's in the trap at the time, but I can see this little this little paw coming out and I scream.

And I throw my phone and I screamed so loud that people are running. They came from downstairs. What happened was Deb comes in the office. She goes, what? And I'm like, now I'm trapped because she comes in and I'm like, I'm screaming at this point. There's a mouse in my office. There's a mouse in my office. So she comes in, she closes the door and she grabs the mouse. So now I'm feeling trapped because the door is closed. She's got the mouse in this trap.

And I'm like out of control and you can see this poor guy feel bad. Like he's trying to get out and he's like stuck. It's just they're not humane traps. I don't recommend them, but oh my god, I laugh so hard. So yeah, yeah, it's a it's a pretty, pretty common story here. Yeah. So some days I like they'll put a mouse on my keyboard or in my drawer quite often. Yeah, it's not very nice. Yeah.

Morganne Campbell (06:10.135)
They're nice. They're so nice. So your road to becoming president at RSG International has been quite a few years, but it's actually quite an interesting story. I mean, you started in accounting and to move up, like you mentioned before, you don't have a background in road building. You're not married to someone or you don't have a family member in this industry. How...

does a CPA get to this job?

Lisa Laronde (06:42.656)
It's interesting, I do talk about this a lot. So we are road builders and you see our products all over the roads. And it's actually changed how I look at things. It's funny. So I'm gonna digress for one thing. I'll come back to your question. But when we travel, or even sometimes my partner's traveling or working and he'll send me pictures of, you know, out of Vancouver and I'm like, oh, that's a really nice barrier that's out there. So all the concrete barriers and steel barriers that are on our highways or the overhead sign structures of the guardrail.

Those are all products that we would produce. So it's interesting that it changes your view. I don't actually look at all the sites anymore. I'm looking at how high is the guide rail? Is it safe? What kind of barriers out there? It's quite interesting. So sorry, your question was, how did I get here? I really like working for entrepreneurial companies. So I actually chose the company because it's private. It was run by local people. I didn't know them at the time, but I did know that they came from the area that we were from.

And that was really important to me. I've worked in the corporate environment and anybody that knows me, I don't function quite that well. I like this entrepreneurial spirit where you can make decisions quickly, you can pivot, you can implement ideas and suggestions and recommendations based on sometimes just gut feel or what you think the market is going to do versus the whole analysis or business plan going forward. So that's kind of how I chose it. And again, it...

coming from finance really, the skills are transferable. It doesn't really matter what industry you're from. There's obviously some learning that goes with it, but your skill set can travel with you. So that's how I ended up here.

Morganne Campbell (08:22.961)
So RSC International, just expanding a little bit on the organization, it is responsible for all road safety devices. Can you explain to listeners a little bit about what that entails? Because before I started working here, I was in broadcasting and I had no clue what a concrete barrier was. I think the closest I ever got to a guide rail is when a car would

try to go through it. So can you tell me, paint a bit of a picture for the listeners?

Lisa Laronde (08:57.888)
What we do, yeah, I said we're the people that you most like to hate. So although we keep all of the road users safe, we also cause a lot of traffic congestion. And so we are definitely on the road. So anything that you see when they're doing any kind of construction. So for a temporary work zone, we keep workers safe behind that. So any of those concrete barriers that you see along the highway and the guide rail obviously keeps all of our road users safe as you're traveling through the highways.

or even regional or municipal roads as well. And we do things like the overhead sign structures. So any of the big signs that you see along the highway, yeah, we do it all. So everything to keep all of our road users safe.

Morganne Campbell (09:41.297)
So obviously, from my limited exposure to this organization so far, I've only been here for a short while. It is easy to see that this is more of a male -dominated industry. So what kind of challenges have you faced with being a female in a male -dominated industry? And how have you tried to open up and create opportunities for other women?

Lisa Laronde (10:10.848)
I think I've been pretty lucky now. So things have started to change, but definitely early on in my career, one of the things I did say, one of the challenges that I do not experience is the lineup to the women's washroom. So that's kind of a nice thing. But definitely, I think credibility was a big thing for me being taken seriously in any kind of meetings. I said this is the first industry that I worked in that I was not respected for.

my capabilities. And when you meet me, you understand I'm smart, I'm articulate, I have business acumen, I've built kick -ass teams, I'm passionate about anything that I do. So it was a shocking to me that I would go into functions. And in our industry, in the road building industry, we do a lot of networking events. So we would go to, let's say we would rent the box at a hockey game or a basketball game. So you'd walk into the room and...

and people would hand me like empty drink glasses or ask me who I was with or why was I here? And it was really, it was just an interesting time for me because it was really off putting. I just didn't know, I didn't know how to answer. It's like the first time I was ever lost for words, which doesn't happen very often, but I don't know how to respond to that. First of all, I don't look like, I don't look like a cocktail waitress. So it's not like you're mistaking me for somebody. So then I'm like, is that an intentional, like intentionally you're trying to insult me? You know, it's, it's a weird, it was just a weird time for me to be able to, and it wasn't,

Morganne Campbell (11:30.233)
Oh yeah.

Lisa Laronde (11:34.816)
I wasn't, it was interesting because I wasn't confident enough to be able to, you know, I was, maybe confidence wasn't the right word. I guess just wasn't sure was, could I tell somebody to fuck off? Is that reasonable? You know, when I say like, like really, are you that fucking stupid? Or was I supposed to go, you know, oh, should I laugh? I just was really unsure what to do. And I didn't have anybody to talk to. So I had nobody at the time that was, that I had met. I've met now a lot more women.

And it's unfortunate when I started down this path that I didn't have access to them. But just nobody to actually have that conversation with, how did you handle yourself in this situation? You know, it wasn't appropriate to say something, should I let it go? One of the nice things that I did during that time when I was struggling the most was I engaged in a leadership coach. And the funny story was it wasn't actually by choice. It was actually because of my bad behavior that I got put into the program. Yeah, and I love her. She's done a great job. She's...

Morganne Campbell (12:27.153)
No, not yet.

Lisa Laronde (12:31.392)
coached probably over 40 of our team now. I think it's a very, very valuable exercise to go through. But I remember meeting her for the first time. She was all excited, bubbly, because this is her business. This is what she does. And she's like, what did you do to get in the program? I'm so excited for you. I'm like, this is my fucking punishment. OK? I'm a bad person. I need to like, you know, it's like I'm going to jail. I need behavior modification, you know, anger management, whatever it is. And I still remember the look on her face. She was like, like just devastated. Because again, this is her business. That's what she does. This was her thing.

And now we laugh about it because she just said, you know, it was one of the, and that was just before COVID, just before COVID hit that we went through it. But one of the things that it did for me was it gave me my confidence. And then I started talking to people about, you know, how do I handle my, and it's funny because they do this 360, so they interview your colleagues, your direct reports. And one of the comments that came back quite often was I roll my eyes.

And it was funny, I was traveling, I'm going to travel with my family. And so we'd had this conversation. I was like, really? I don't know that I roll my eyes. So I asked my kids every time I roll my eyes, just pointed out. And I came back and I remember calling her saying, well, I know why I roll my eyes. I said, when somebody says something stupid and she starts to laugh, she goes, well, like you can't do that. I go, but really I'm either going to say that's just stupid or I'll just roll my eyes and be like, oh my God, really? Is that what you're going to say? So then she goes, she, that it was just all these strategies of how do you, you know,

you know, you can still think the same way and we can still end at the same place. It's just how would you get there and make that, you know, not everybody has to have a straight path. People can like, you know, deviate a little bit before they actually get there. So one of the challenges that I faced would be I'd be in a boardroom, a boardroom, traditionally, mostly men, if not all men. I'm usually the only woman. That's not the case anymore. But back then I was. And back then is only three years ago. I don't know why I say back then, but it just seemed like such a long time ago. It's just...

Morganne Campbell (14:23.569)
Yeah, wow. It took almost three years.

Lisa Laronde (14:26.656)
It's changed so much, so that's a really nice thing that, you know, now there's way more women, even in the associations that I go to. But I'd be in the boardroom, I would say something and the guy beside me would say exactly the same thing, exactly the same words. And mine would be like a recommendation, you know, I think we should move forward with this strategy. And he would say, hey, I think we should move forward with this strategy. And they'd be going, yeah, great idea. So I would say, you must like the sound of your own voice, because you said exactly what I just said.

And in my 360, that was actually written up that that was inappropriate for me to say in a meeting. And my coach and I had, we had lots of conversations. So she was trying to give me strategies of what you were to say. And I said, the problem that I have with it is everybody around that table, if I don't say anything, and maybe there's a nicer way to say it, I'll give you that. But then everybody around the table thinks that that behavior is okay. So I can pull them aside later and say, you know what, you really shouldn't do that. This is how I felt. But then everybody's heard that and,

then I'd have to talk to everybody else individually. So why wouldn't I? First of all, he is literally repeating exactly what I just said word for word. So why wouldn't I call that behavior out? And why wouldn't we correct it? And I think that's what I want to be able to do is to be able to correct things that, and she was saying, what happens is you make people feel really uncomfortable. And I said, I get that, but you have to think of how do I feel when somebody's actually saying, basically they're taking credit for my ideas, what's happening. So how do you think I feel for that?

And so there actually is no resolution for it. Because I say that all the time. And now when I talk about it, it's interesting that people actually notice it. It happens much less now because we actually have a much more diversified senior leadership team or executive team. But it's still, you can see it with other women when they're in meetings or doing presentations. You'll get a question directed and the man will answer. It's quite interesting.

Morganne Campbell (16:18.193)
Mm -hmm, mm -hmm. It definitely set that precedent, right? That, you know, that's just really unacceptable. I do have to ask you this question I've always wanted to know, but I've noticed that you do not carry a purse. Everywhere, anywhere. I don't see you carry a bag, nothing. Why?

Lisa Laronde (16:37.376)
No, no, I have my phone and my card. That's all I need. What else do you need? I don't need, I just don't need anything. What else do I need? It's not like, yeah, I don't know. I don't know. I never carry, none of that. I don't know. That's a very interesting question, but none of that's really mattered to me. I mean, really, I need a credit card and a debit card. That's really all that I need. It does sometimes pose a problem when I don't have cash.

So sometimes in golf tournaments, which you're going to tip people. I'm like, and now it's pretty, it's pretty famous of me. I'm like, uh, Luca, I don't have any cash.

Morganne Campbell (17:15.793)
Yeah, can you please give me some, no, I didn't know if it was, you know, part of the fact that sometimes, you know, when you're going into board meetings and stuff, men don't carry bags, right? And like, I get this sense that the only thing you've ever really wanted is to be on a level playing field.

Lisa Laronde (17:34.272)
Definitely, but I don't need to dress or act like them. Them. Yeah. Yeah.

Morganne Campbell (17:38.257)
Yeah, that's very true. That's very true. No, I was wondering that the other day. I'm like, I never noticed that she has a bag or a purse. Me, I'm like, I carry so many things in my purse, which I probably don't need them all, but hey.

Lisa Laronde (17:51.456)
Well, and when we travel, like I have a backpack that I have my laptop in and you know, that would have that would carry. Yeah, I wouldn't have any. I don't know. I don't know what I would put in it. What do you put in a purse?

Morganne Campbell (18:02.833)
Well, AirPods, my laptop, all kinds of things. But I feel like this is the perfect way to kind of segue into the whole purple leather skirt debacle because that story is a hilarious, but I think it says a lot about how far you've got.

Lisa Laronde (18:17.984)
God.

Lisa Laronde (18:25.28)
Yeah, so this, I think I've always worked in non -traditional, like what I would consider non -traditional women roles. So I was in the venture capital and I started, it was a federal government funded program that was to bring financing or venture capital to non -financial centers. So I was located at this time in North Bay and it was a very, it was an awesome time. And there was one other woman and she was actually,

responsible for recording like all of the statistics. She was the only other woman that was ever at anything that I was at. And she was the one to say to me, you know what I like about this industry, Lisa, is there's no line up to the ladies washroom. So that's I'll give her credit for that one. But we had gone, it was our first big event. And so I was traveling to Ottawa. And so I was driving from North Bay to Ottawa. My sister lives in in in Canada. So on the way there, I was reading just what what the agenda was like. So.

The Saturday, it was an all day Saturday, all day Sunday event. And I went out and I bought a navy blue suit and then I had a black suit. And I was wearing the white blouse. I thought I'm going to fit right in. No one's even going to know I'm a woman. And then I'm reading the thing and there's like, oh, there's a registration. There's actually a welcome reception. I was like, oh shit, I didn't bring anything for that. And I met my sisters and I was, so I'm telling her, she goes, oh, I've got a perfect outfit. And it was a beautiful purple leather skirt and a beautiful purple blouse.

I put it on, I look fucking awesome. I'm also in my twenties. I just, you know, think this is the, this is, I am just like, I'm loving it. So I go, I do my registration, I get my badge, I'm like sauntering in, I look around, I'm like, oh fuck, I'm the one who's jumping out of the cake. I was like, this was just completely, everyone's in a suit and a white shirt and a red tie, and I am completely, completely not.

Morganne Campbell (19:57.137)
Just rocking it.

Lisa Laronde (20:18.368)
It like just, it was so obvious. And I was standing there, nobody would talk to me. Nobody would come near me. I'm sure they thought I was a stripper. Like they just, there was no way that this person was like true. That was part of this committee. And I remember I was standing by myself going, what the fuck do I do? Like, and I'm young and I don't know, I just don't know what to do. And I'm, I'm also a beer drinker and I don't like to drink out of the glass. I like to drink out of the bottle. So that also sets me aside. So here I am.

in my purple leather skirt, my purple blouse, and my beer bottle. And one of the other guys that was part of the committee, and he was from another small town, I think in Manitoba somewhere, and he came and he was wearing a sweater. And so we just stood beside each other, because I said, nobody's talking to us. They're like, who brought the homeless person in? And the stripper, that's who I thought we were. So, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Morganne Campbell (21:06.577)
the homeless person in the stripper hanging out. But you learned a lot from that experience, right?

Lisa Laronde (21:13.182)
You know, I think I learned you have to be, and the more I talk about it and the more I talk, you know, we hear this a lot that, you know, um, um, you know, so what happens is you go to a function or an event and then you're all dressed up and you know, you have your gown on and everybody's like, well, you know, it's, it's a, it's a, to me, the, the, the issue is for that, for some reason, when women get dressed up, it's a, it's a statement. And when men, I guess there's not a huge difference between wearing a suit and wearing maybe a tuxedo.

And so I'm not sure if that's what the difference is, but I started to embrace the fact that I can't change what people think about me. I need to be myself, I need to be my authentic self. And if I choose to dress up and if I choose to be who I want to be, then I'm just going to embrace that and accept that. I still struggle a little bit with, you know, when people don't want to talk to me, I'm a very social person. I like to be, you know, engaged. So I find that still a little off -putting that...

you walk into a room and people just don't, they just don't want to engage with you. That one's a little weird for me. But now I don't, I don't worry about what I wear and what I look like. I'm more, I'm more want to engage into, into conversation with you. And it's funny cause I was talking about acceptance and, and I had read that Trevor Noah book. And one of the things that he talked about was he was born, I believe he has a black mother and a white father.

And in South Africa, when he was born, they were all segregated. So they had the black communities, they had the colored communities that they called them, and then the white. So because he didn't fit in the white or the black, he was in the colored community. And then he just talks about his whole journey and story and the difficulties that he faced. But he said, how he connected with people was he spoke their languages. He speaks multiple languages. And he said, it didn't matter. And one of them, he's in jail, but he, and it's really funny. So if remember the book, it's actually quite humorous.

But he talks about how you connect with people as understanding their language and it didn't matter what color you were because you found that common denominator that connected you. And as soon as you spoke their language, then it didn't matter. And I always remember that because I think you just have to find that common denominator with people is whatever that is. Whether it's the same language, whether it's the business, whether it's your personal life or maybe your hobbies, there's something that's going to connect all of us that we can actually relate to.

Morganne Campbell (23:40.369)
And what do you think has been kind of that turning point where you realized that you wanted to be just your true unapologetic self? You you told me, but you did tell me a story about, you know, how when you first started off, you would try to fit in a certain way or you would laugh at certain jokes. Did not think.

Lisa Laronde (23:51.584)
I think I've always been telling you. You can probably.

Lisa Laronde (24:01.536)
Definitely, definitely. But that's, I think, because I was struggling with fitting in. And so this is the first time when I got into this industry that I did not fit in. And my credibility was always being questioned. So even when I was talking, people were just discounting me. It was a very weird time for me that I just I couldn't find that ground. And this is before I got the executive coach, because I was just getting in trouble. So I'd be in a meeting and then I would get feedback that I wasn't talking.

I would try to be myself and it was saying I wasn't talking appropriately to customers. I was making them feel uncomfortable. I'd go to an event and then my behavior was inappropriate. And so this is where I started to go, okay, so, and I was just constantly being talked to about what I was doing was wrong. And I tried everything. I tried the, ha ha ha, I'm so.

funny. And I was like, that wasn't working for me. Then I cried the, you know, no, that's wrong. You don't really know what you're talking about. And then that was wrong. And then I would be agreeing. And then that was wrong. It just was going on and on and on. So I remember talking to our VP of HR and just said, fuck this shit. I'm getting in trouble for what everything I'm going to go back to who I am. And at least if I get in trouble, it's for what I do that I can stand behind that it's because of what, of what I thought and what I spoke and it's my true authentic self. And I said, that's it. That's what I'm going to do.

But the danger with that, so that's where I came from. But if you talk to anybody up until that point, so this was probably a year struggle that I'd gone through. And it's when I was named the executive vice president. Or just around that time frame. And it's interesting because I talked to one of the owners and said, I don't understand when I was the vice president of finance and admin. My colleagues all talked to me. They still talk shit behind my back, but they like forward, they still talk to me.

Morganne Campbell (25:47.281)
Please don't talk to my face.

Lisa Laronde (25:49.184)
Yeah, definitely. I got included with things. I got invited to activities, to social events. They liked my ideas. We could have conversations. We could go for coffee, go for lunch, go for drinks, do all of that kind of stuff. As soon as I was named as executive vice president, all that stopped. I had people that tried to get me fired. It was just, it was like bizarre. And I'm like, so I'm like, what happened? I'm the same person. We're talking like one day to the next day. So what happened? And I remember him saying to me, well, you're a threat now.

when you were the vice president of finance and administration, you had no operational influence or they didn't feel that I did. And then as the executive vice president, you were now responsible for operations and direction that the company was going and now you're a threat. And so now people don't like that and they wanna make sure that you don't go any farther, which I thought was, and that's where I struggled the most because then I couldn't figure out, I consider myself a very good judge of character. So now I couldn't figure out what had happened.

And why was this gang ganging up on me now? I just felt like the victim in the schoolyard. And I'm like, which is bizarre. I'm not sure. I didn't feel like I'd done anything to deserve it. And in fact, I felt like I was listening to people's concerns and we were going to make things better and we were going to make all these changes. So it was just an interesting timeframe. And then again, as I went through this...

when I got the leadership coach that actually she just, I just, you know, what I needed was that unbiased person. I really like, as you know, honesty. I need that, I need not the positive feedback. I need the truth. I need that constructive criticism, but I need people to be honest with me. I make decisions really quickly, sometimes with very little information, but I need people to just stop. I always say to my team, you need to, if you don't like the direction that I'm going or you don't agree with the decision that I make,

put your hand up. And if you feel, I still reserve the right to make the decision after I've heard you. And sometimes I'll, maybe I dismiss what you're saying, but I always, when I have an opportunity to think about, you know, the day's events and what's transpired, I always go back over conversations that I've had to say, did I miss something? Is there a piece that I need more information on? But I would hate for you to walk out of my office, roll your eyes and go, that was a really stupid fucking decision. And have it actually blow up. I would rather you say, and,

Lisa Laronde (28:09.504)
Regardless of how you say that, you know, I don't agree with it. Here's the reasons why I really need that. That's what I need as a leader is to be challenged. I don't have all the information, but if you, not everybody likes that part of it. And what I found was when I got into this role, when this is what I was expecting, it's not what I was getting. It was just a bizarre time for me.

Morganne Campbell (28:34.225)
Well, and I think that comes back to the importance when you're in these executive positions to build your own team, right? And you've spoke a lot about building your own team and having a team that supports you. And quite frankly, you've built an incredible team at RSC International. And to be able to take a look at the members that you have on your SLT team, I mean, everyone brings a different talent to the table. Everyone is valuable in their own way.

but you also have great representation. How important was it to you to ensure that you had good representation and how are you going to continue to take that even further in the future?

Lisa Laronde (29:18.304)
Well, I did learn something very valuable when we started our DEI committee and one of the things that we learned was we just all needed to be educated. So that was the first thing we actually recognized that we didn't know what we were doing. I think that's important for any leader is to understand that we don't have all the answers and we don't have all the information. But what happened to me was I had a woman reached out to me who was running some kind of leadership seminar. Actually, we just...

We grew apart for about three years and then we just reconnected and I was just telling this story because this has resonated me for the last four years. Anyway, she said, did I have, I don't know, six women that I could in senior leadership or senior positions that I could put in this leadership program? And I was all excited. I said, yes, I do. And then she said, how many of them are white? And they all were white. And I talk now about that. That's my own unconscious bias. So as we talk about, you know, diversity, equity and inclusion.

we have to first recognize that we all have unconscious bias and that I didn't think that I came from a place of privilege, but I actually do. So as a woman in construction, I really think that I'm, obviously I am a part of an underrepresented group, but I'm white. English is my first language. I did come from a middle -class home. So I have lots of privileges that others don't have. And when I look at the journey, even for me to take as a white woman, my journey is much easier than a person of color, a black woman, indigenous woman. So.

We have to recognize all of that. So we still have a long way to go in terms of my senior leadership team for diversification, but we have started. And I'm very happy that, you know, obviously I do, I try to promote women where appropriate. I still think we need the best person for the job. But again, as you know, I talk a lot about this because everybody says that they want the best person for the job, but he said traditionally women will only apply for jobs if they possess 80 % of the skills that are listed on the job.

So how do you know you're getting, and men will apply if they have 20%. So you never know because people are, women are not applying for the jobs and other underrepresented groups are also not applying for the jobs. So we need to do a better job of, and which is one of the things that we've done is how we've changed our job application process of how we word things so that we're trying to be a little bit more inclusive and we learn every single day. But one of the things for me, that's very, very important as I built my team,

Lisa Laronde (31:38.08)
is we come from all sides. We have IT, we have our commercial director, we have construction, we have finance, we have like a marketing, we have product development. It's all very important that we all bring a different perspective. And it's interesting when you're sitting through part of our meetings. And it was interesting when we brought IT in, because as you know, Elliot, who is our vice president of technology, he just brings a whole different perspective that I would never have thought of. And it's just such a nice change because otherwise,

you know, I guess it's, you know, you have like minded and eventually everyone's going, yeah, that's a great idea, great idea, great. And he's going, well, have you thought about this? And you're like, absolutely not. We never even entered our minds. And that's one of the lessons that I've learned. If you get this diversified group, you just get different perspectives, things you haven't thought about. And together, I think you create some really ingenious solutions and innovative ideas.

Morganne Campbell (32:30.833)
Absolutely. And I think too, what's incredible about this podcast is that we're going to have an opportunity to highlight women, not just within this industry, but across all facets. We're talking politics, education, youth, up and comers. This is really quite an exciting time to celebrate other women through your work with KWIC and your work with

RSG International, KWIC being the Canadian Association of Women in Construction, for those listeners who do not know. Tell me a little bit about how important that advocacy work has been to try to bring women forward so that they are putting their applications forward for those positions that they think they might not hit all of the targets and they are starting to get involved and they are starting to get their...

their wants and their needs met by their employers or potential employers.

Lisa Laronde (33:30.24)
Well, and I think when I started down this path, one of the things I did look for was associations or networking groups for women that were in leadership, ideally in construction, and there really wasn't a whole lot out there at the time. And that's when I came across CAWIC, the Canadian Association of Women in Construction. And as I started down that journey, and now that I'm president of the association and we've hired this kick -ass executive director who's actually taking us forward much, much

faster than I ever imagined. But really what I wanted was an association that was going to be an industry leader. It was going to be the one -stop shop that you could go to get your stats. It's very difficult to gain stats in Canada for some reason that there's not one spot that we can go to just gather that information. Or if you want to start an apprenticeship program, you know, where would you go and how do you apply for those jobs? Or if you want to get into leadership, where would you connect with women? And then through KWIC, I've actually been...

connected with NAWIC, which is the National Women in Construction. And now I'm the Canadian representative on their global alliance, which has been very, very interesting for me. So I've met women from Dubai and South Africa and England and Australia. And it's interesting because we all have the same issues. And right now, the issue that we're looking at right now is childcare. But talking to the Australian women in construction, they have exactly the same issue. And...

and you think that it's not a global issue, but it really is a global issue. So it's nice to connect with people in different countries and then get their ideas, what's working for them, are they lobbying the government? Is that even an option for us? What are some of the suggestions that we can or solutions that we can start to implement or even like work together? Maybe we need to have this global alliance that we start to address some of these issues. So I think it's been an interesting journey for me, but also,

This place for us to go, one of the things that women actually want is a sense of community. So I'm hoping through CAWIC that we can bring this national sense of community that women that are either in the skilled trades or in leadership in construction or any position in construction can come to this community and feel safe and secure and we can exchange ideas and solutions and recommendations.

Morganne Campbell (35:45.745)
And I think too, that even plays into this podcast, The Powerhouse Project. We talked about it and of course we have great ideas for it, but how incredible is it to even just bring other female listeners in to take something from your experiences or the experiences of your guests? How important is it to share that information? I'm not saying we're going to give everyone a step -by -step guide as to how they're going to be successful.

But we can talk about what the hell worked and what hasn't worked and teach them how to forge their own paths.

Lisa Laronde (36:20.576)
Well, and even I do a lot of talking with two young women and even just some of the strategies. One of these young girls came up to me and said, you know, cause I talk a lot about, you know, even if you don't want to go to the networking events, you should try to attend them. You know, even at RSG when we have our mixers, you know, just to go out, it's not like you have to have somebody that you need to sit and talk to. They're usually short in period and timeframe. And so she was saying they were going out for drinks after work and she was in construction and usually that operations, that project management project coordinating.

They usually go up for drinks. That seems to be a very common thing. So I was saying you should make sure that you do that because there's just so much additional conversation that transpires when you're, you know, you're more relaxed. You're having a drink or even if you're not drinking, you're just outside of the work environment. Anyway, you know, one of the, one of the male counterparts tried to pick her up and she said, I didn't know what to say. So I just left. And I said, this is where I think that you need to set your boundaries. The thing is, is, you know, you're young, you're beautiful, you're friendly, you're outgoing.

you're smart, you just have to set your boundaries. And that's all you need to do is say, I'm not interested or whatever it is that you want to say and I can give you maybe five lines. You can be funny, you can be direct to the point, however, but that needs to come from you as a person and how you want to express yourself, but you really do need to set your boundaries. And I think that through talking and through things like this podcast,

You just get these ideas or again, the sense of community that other women are going through exactly the same thing. And again, you're never going to get a recipe for how to solve a problem, but at least you can talk to one another to say, oh my gosh, you're going through exactly the same thing that I'm going through or it's still happening. And we were talking earlier, like it's 2024, this shit is still happening. Like nothing's changed or some things haven't changed. And so let's be that change. Let's be that, you know, the people that...

actually are going to make a difference. Let's be the beginning of the movement. And maybe that is partially, as I said, education is a very big part of it. But if we can actually start speaking up and having more sessions like this, more podcasts, more panels, you know, discussions, more conferences and conventions where we're openly talking about this and everybody doesn't feel alone or that they don't have a voice, that's going to change our industry 100%. The other thing that I want to be able to do for women is to give them the opportunity,

Lisa Laronde (38:42.304)
to tell their journeys or to speak or to talk about. And I'm very excited about this podcast that I get to meet other women leaders. I think it's going to be very, very interesting just to see, you know, what worked, what didn't work, how, you know, what were their challenges? What were their struggles? How did they deal? What were some of their funny stories? Because I think we all have them and it would be nice to be able to share that and, you know, share a laugh to say, you know, I'm surprised I got here and just how it all ended up at the end. Because I do think at the end of the day,

we all have exactly the same issues. We all face the same challenges. And then it would just be interesting to hear how people actually dealt with them.

Morganne Campbell (39:19.313)
Well, I even know like when you get into a room with women from the same industry or even outside the industry, you start connecting and conversing and you realize, you know, what I've experienced in the broadcasting industry is actually quite similar to, you know, what project coordinators have experienced in their organizations. I mean, these things do kind of unfortunately go hand in hand and they touch almost all industries, which I think is why it's important to.

have a podcast like this that really isn't just women in construction. You know, this is going to be a podcast that is really for all women who are aspiring to be leaders or just want some sort of inspiration at the end of the day. This kind of brings me into my next question. And I know you and I have debated this a little bit, but sponsorship versus mentorship. I know you're a strong believer in sponsorship. And I think when.

when we look at all of these invites that you've been getting for speaking engagements because of your recent top 100 win, go Lisa. A little mention is about mentorship opportunities, but you've been a huge advocate for sponsorship. So can you explain to the listeners a little more about.

Lisa Laronde (40:26.686)
Ready?

Lisa Laronde (40:37.504)
Sure, and I think the difficulty for me is people want to know how did I get to this position? And I do think winning the top 100 has given me this huge platform, which I'm hoping to make people proud and to use it constructively. But what happens is people want to, and I'm not going to say like be like me, but understand how did I get here? And I go, the problem is you don't work for the company that I work for.

you're not my personality, you don't have my background, you don't have my trauma that I've brought to the organization, or the triggers that send me over the edge. So it's difficult for me to say, do this, this and this, or this is what I did to get where I am, because it's not going to work for you. And you have to figure out what that is. And I think by sponsorship, what I mean is that what I missed when I started here or when I got into my leadership position in the operations side of it,

was someone to take me to events and introduce me and be my advocate, because that's really would have given me some, I think, quick credibility in the industry. And that never happened. And because of that, and it's interesting the more I talk about it, people go, why? And first of all, I don't think I asked for it because I didn't understand that that's really what I needed. I thought I could probably make a name for myself pretty quickly. But I did realize very, very early on that I really did need help. And at that point in time,

Nobody was willing to help me, which was also another interesting part of that. But just for people to take you out, introduce you, take you to lunches, you know, take you to that networking event, invite you to that golf tournament and then spend that time with you introducing you around. And now that I've had some sponsorship, just it's night and day to be able to go to an event and have somebody say, hey, this is Lisa Laron. She's president of RISD International. You really need to meet her. That's a huge, huge thing versus walking into a room.

and absolutely nobody acknowledging you. So that's really what I feel is important and that's what I'm going to try to do with any young women or actually anybody that requires a little bit extra guidance or that needs some credibility in our industry.

Morganne Campbell (42:49.457)
And I think mentorship can be hard, right? Like I think a lot of times women want to get together and, you know, I've mentored a lot of young journalists in my career and even some of my students at Seneca College. And while it's been great and I've tried to be very straightforward and honest with them, it only goes so far. I mean, what they need is me to take them on a shoot, right? So they...

Lisa Laronde (43:17.664)
Yeah. Yeah.

Morganne Campbell (43:18.737)
see what it looks like. They need me to take them to an editorial meeting. And I think you, from my perspective in terms of mentorship, my best mentor was a woman who was a former CTV anchor who used to tell me exactly how it was, whether or not I wanted to hear it. It was, those earrings are too loud. That lipstick is not your color. Why would you wear that dress? Stop saying like, you sound like a dumb blonde.

And, you know, back then I think it was acceptable. At least it was in my eyes. I took it as constructive criticism. I'm not sure how that would flow, how that would go today, but I did just talk to her yesterday and she hammered at me over something grammatically incorrect that I had said. So maybe she still talks to me that way. But I think that, you know, when we're looking at mentorship, it's important to facilitate the type of mentorship that someone needs.

You know.

Lisa Laronde (44:18.144)
And I think what happens is people think that when you're being mentored is you're gonna give them all the answers to say, just model my behavior and you'll end up in the same place that I am. And that's what I'm trying to tell people is no, don't model my behavior. You'll probably be in very big trouble. The one thing is first of all, you're not my age, you don't have my experience. There's just so many things that come with it. It's also...

I say to my kids sometimes because they look at my relationship with my partner now and they're like, this is the marriage that I aspire to. And I go, no offense, you'll never fucking get there. It was so much hard work and the commitment. And I don't expect that. I also say I really like the fact that as women we're more independent now and we have some financial independence. And I think that that's very important. I always say to Tim,

you know, we should, we've actually, we've talked about it, so we laugh about it, but we always said we should be signing like 10 year contracts and say, do you want to renew it? Like, yes or no. And the problem that happens in a marriage is that, you know, you, you, everything becomes combined. So you have your house now or, you know, your, your mortgages or your cars or whatever it is. And then it's so difficult. Now you're used to this lifestyle to, you can't maintain two separate incomes. And so people actually feel trapped in all of that. So I, but, but everything is this very,

It's just a lot, everything is a lot of work. So when I'm trying to talk about, you know, mentorship, I'm saying, I don't know, it just doesn't work. That's why I like the sponsorship. I'll take you out, I'll introduce you. I'll be honest with you, because I think that that's very important. We talk about, you know, women in the skilled trade. No, no, no. And I'm starting to see that I talked to actually Jamie McMillan, who we're going to interview on the podcast.

Morganne Campbell (46:01.489)
enough, you know, in this industry.

Lisa Laronde (46:13.12)
who I just think is awesome and she's an iron worker. And one of the things that she said to me, one of our first time meeting was, we were talking about just the harassment and discrimination that women in the skilled trades go through. And she actually said to me, and I was saying, we need to have our voice and we need to speak up. And she said, Lisa, you know what happens when you speak up and you're at the union hall? You get put to the bottom of the list and you don't get called for the next job. I was like, do you mean you gotta be kidding me? Is that true?

She goes, yeah, that's fucking true. That's the reality. So that's why women don't speak up. And then I was at a conference and I actually repeated the story and they were like, no, that's not true. What? What? And then you and I were talking about that at the same conference, they were talking about, this was a lawyer who said she'd done her research for the human rights tribunal and there were no complaints in Ontario for women in construction for harassment or discrimination. There was one in Alberta.

And this made me go, it's that craziness. It's craziness to think that there's been no complaints. But that's what I think we need to start to do. We need to start talking about it. This is a reality. It is happening. We can't have women getting into the skilled trades and thinking that this doesn't exist because now you don't have the tools to be able to defend yourself. And then you think you're the only one or what's causing it to happen. So that I think we need to actually talk about it. We need to address it. We need to figure out a way to fix it. And really, as you know,

I think we need just representation. If we get women in as lead hands and four people and superintendents and project directors and project managers and coordinators, that's going to change everything. Again, having this diversified workforce, it just changes how you do things. It changes the conversations that happen. It changes the behavior that's tolerated or not. And our industry has come from, you know, we tolerated it. You become immune to it. I've talked to other women presidents in our industry now, and it's funny that...

When you've been in the industry for a long period of time, there was just certain things that were accepted that you just didn't think anything about. That now we're saying, no, you actually, we need to talk about it. That this is what happened and this is not acceptable and you don't have to tolerate that behavior.

Morganne Campbell (48:28.785)
I think too, as we all grow, you know, within not only just our roles, but individually, we start to look back in our life and think, man, that was not a cool situation. Or that was, you know, a really bad thing that, you know, that boss did to me. You know, like I should not be told to smoke cigars and drink scotch in order to have a good voice for broadcasting. I mean, that's just not, that was,

Lisa Laronde (48:40.576)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Lisa Laronde (48:57.92)
Yeah.

Morganne Campbell (48:58.833)
today, right? So I think that a lot of this too is it reflecting back to to understand where you were and how far we've kind of moved forward as a group collectively. And if we continue to call it out and speak about it, hopefully it means that other people reach out and connect and also start sharing their stories.

Lisa Laronde (49:22.048)
I agree. And I think the Me Too movement did a lot for us to say, it has two things for me. It was the one that, again, we need this, you know, you need more than one person. You need this group to make changes. And I think that's what powers me now when I talk is, you know, what we need, we need to work together. We need to have this united voice. We need to speak together. We need to support one another. And that's what's going to drive change. And that's what's going to drive us forward.

So let's continue to do what we're doing. Let's continue to look for solutions. I'm not saying we're going to fix everything, but if we continue to talk about it and bring it to the forefront, you know, one, all of these panels that I've been on lately, the room has been packed and, and it's majority of men and they're looking for ways as how can I help and what can I do to, to, to make a difference? Because really that's, we all want this, um, particularly in our industry when we're looking at a labor shortage. So,

And statistically, when you look at it, if you have a diversified senior leadership team, both gender and ethnic, I think it's 30 % more profitable than those companies that don't. So even from a financial viewpoint, it just makes so much more sense to go down this path. And I think everybody wants it. This generation that's coming up, I was actually at this CEO conference in Palm Springs, and 27 % of the people in the audience, we are all executive leaders.

where 27 % were Gen Zers. And the message was that the Gen Zers are looking for something different. It's not all about compensation. They're looking at sustainability. They're looking at equity. They're looking at, you know, community involvement and giving back. And it's this whole picture now. And if it's not work -life balance, it's flexibility. It's very, very important. And what they're doing is they're starting their own businesses because if they're not getting that in the...

in the industry that they're in, they're just going to build their own businesses. And I talk to people all the time saying, they're going to be your competition. So where do you think this next generation is going to go to work? They're going to go to the company that gives them all of those advantages that they want or are aligned with their core values. And that's why you're seeing, you know, buy local or the craft breweries, you know, the people are willing to spend a little bit more money. So in order to get something that they feel is has

Lisa Laronde (51:43.424)
better value for them individually.

Morganne Campbell (51:45.297)
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. So I wanted to end the podcast off with this one question, which I'm really

Lisa Laronde (51:54.752)
Sometimes you scare me with your one question.

Morganne Campbell (51:57.873)
I looked on like one question and I was like, oh no, I actually have like five more questions, rapid fire questions, but the one last podcast question, which may be valuable for younger listeners to hear, but what is the best piece of advice that you would give your younger self? If you could.

Lisa Laronde (52:18.176)
So for my industry, I would learn how to golf. And I know people look at that and go, what? But I'll tell you what I've learned is that, and you don't have to be good and you don't have to be on the PGA, you just have to be confident. The amount of golf tournaments that I go to that year or that you want to be invited in a foursome gives you four hours to spend with somebody. You usually have drinks ahead or drinks after. You can do a lot of business, a lot of networking. But what happens is I go out,

And traditionally I'm usually one of the very few women, but what I do see that happens is you get up to this first tee, traditionally, and I'm generalizing, but the first woman gets up there, she goes, I'm not very good, I don't know what I'm doing. So you've already set the tone, you take a swing, probably miss or whatever. And then what happens is the men come in as the rescuers, they show you how to hold your club, they show you how to put your ball down, what you should be doing. And it becomes this teaching thing. So what happens is now,

this become this this you're the inferior sex now and that and it just changes the table. It's shocking to me and it's not meant to be mean by any of these men. They're truly trying to be helpful, but it really does this imbalance happen so quickly. So what I say to people is just be confident. You just have to go up. You have to be good. Just swing the ball. You don't don't apologize. Don't make any excuses and then and then play your game. It's amazing what it will do for you and

There's so many opportunities to network. So that's what I would have given myself. I took up golf four years ago, so.

Morganne Campbell (53:50.257)
the old saying you know deals are deals are struck on the golf course the work happens out on the greens. Okay so a couple of rapid -fire questions so you have to answer these quickly and you can't think about it or or go too long on it so the first one is what's one thing on your bucket list that you haven't done yet?

Lisa Laronde (53:53.696)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yep, definitely.

Lisa Laronde (54:13.824)
travel to Nepal. So I want to go to base camp.

Morganne Campbell (54:18.737)
That's impressive. If you could have any job in the world other than the one you have now, what would it be?

Lisa Laronde (54:26.016)
I would be CEO of a public company.

Morganne Campbell (54:28.465)
Nice. If you could have any superpower, what would it be?

Lisa Laronde (54:32.96)
Probably invisibility.

Morganne Campbell (54:37.585)
That was a good one. Can you imagine?

Lisa Laronde (54:41.568)
I just snorted on that one, so there you go.

Morganne Campbell (54:43.153)
Amazing. What's your go -to productivity hack?

Lisa Laronde (54:49.088)
What's a productivity hack?

Morganne Campbell (54:51.185)
Like how do you, how are you more productive? Like do you...

Lisa Laronde (54:56.128)
I'm productive all the time. I do, there's very, very little downtime for me. I think what I do get is, you know, between 10 and 11 is like kind of my time to regroup of what's happened in the day. Or I have, you know, sometime Saturday in the morning. Yeah.

Morganne Campbell (54:57.649)
I mean, you work in your sleep, next.

Morganne Campbell (55:10.705)
Yep, so you reflect.

Morganne Campbell (55:15.953)
It's Women's History Month. Who is a female you've always admired?

Lisa Laronde (55:23.048)
Who's a female that I've always admired? That's a good question. I don't know the answer to that. I'm going to say probably my mom. Yeah, actually probably my daughter, I'm going to say. Yeah. She's taught me a lot and she's probably been the, my, she's taught, she is, yeah, hopefully she doesn't listen to this because I don't want her to go to her head. But yeah, she's taught me a lot about just, again, this, this, this younger generation about,

Morganne Campbell (55:31.537)
Oh.

Lisa Laronde (55:51.572)
equity and inclusion and tolerance and just having different perspectives on life in general. So I think that was really cool. My mom, I think, is one that really impressed me because when she was in not a good marriage and she stuck with it and she... My dad left when I was like 18 and she left her with... The house was paid for, but all is debt.

And there's two generations, my oldest sister is 17 years older than I am, same parents, and four in our family. So I was the youngest one at home. And so my mom had to go to work and she had to pay bills and she didn't, she never said anything and we struggled together through all of that. And I just, I admire her, her courage and she never, you know, she was not that I saw, she never felt sorry for herself. She just, you know, persevered and kept going.

And I think I learned a lot from that. That doesn't matter what life hands you, at some point you have to figure out what you're gonna do with that. So I think she would be probably somebody I would admire.

Morganne Campbell (57:00.401)
Definitely helps shape who you are.

Lisa Laronde (57:02.72)
Definitely. Good and bad.

Morganne Campbell (57:04.689)
That's okay, there's no such thing as bad. Any hidden talents?

Lisa Laronde (57:08.54)
Do I have any hidden talents? None. Yeah, no, I have no no hand -eye coordination. That's the that's probably the funniest thing. I said I can't multiply or add. So my designation is that when I got it, we're all CPAs now, but mine was CMA. And I said that stands for can't multiply or add. So I missed I missed that day in school. So I just I mean, I have the logical sense for it. But I like if you ask me what eight plus four is, I'm

Morganne Campbell (57:12.657)
I can not care.

Morganne Campbell (57:29.041)
What?

Lisa Laronde (57:36.384)
be like eight, nine, 10, 11, 12. It's quite funny.

Morganne Campbell (57:38.513)
What's your favorite genre of music or band or singer?

Lisa Laronde (57:46.058)
I have lots. I would call it, Tim calls it angry music. So I like the Eminem side. And then I like a lot of the pops up. So Malcolm Moore's probably one of my favorite artists that I would listen to often. So yeah, I listen to everything but country. Yeah.

Morganne Campbell (58:02.129)
All right, and last but not least, if you could eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Lisa Laronde (58:08.836)
Margarita pizza, everybody knows that.

Morganne Campbell (58:12.561)
Oh, yes, I love pizza. I was like, please be pizza. If it's pizza, like she's my person.

Lisa Laronde (58:18.848)
Yeah, it's funny because I'm the pickiest eater alive. And so now because I travel a lot with my team and and then it's just so funny. They start like they just start to notice you're ordering that again. It's ordering that again. Yeah. There's nothing wrong with that.

Morganne Campbell (58:33.745)
We've got for three days in a row.

That's okay. Okay. Sarah, I'm not sure how we end this out, but I feel like we're over time.

Morganne Campbell (59:23.441)
Yes. I love the movement. Words, Sarah.

Morganne Campbell (59:47.121)
I don't know.

Lisa Laronde (59:47.296)
Oh, sorry, so I missed all those. Okay.

Morganne Campbell (59:51.441)
Oh, you're so small for me.

Lisa Laronde (59:53.824)
What's up?

Morganne Campbell (59:55.281)
Oh shit, she wrote getting long you can oh yeah, I saw that too

Lisa Laronde (59:57.504)
I know, I didn't see any of that. Yeah.

Morganne Campbell (01:00:04.817)
You're lucky that the microphone was even turned on because I've done that too.

Morganne Campbell (01:00:16.081)
Okay. All right. Well, I'm obviously a chatty Cathy, and I think it's probably time we wrap this up before we lose subscribers. Thanks for having me and listen and answering some of my questions. I'll let you take it from here.

Lisa Laronde (01:00:25.376)
That's awesome.

Lisa Laronde (01:00:35.584)
Awesome. Thank you so much, Morgan. Thank you everyone for listening. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and join the movement, the powerhouse -project .com.

Morganne Campbell (01:00:50.577)
Was that weird?

Morganne Campbell (01:00:55.281)
This ring.

Lisa Laronde (01:01:01.984)
Okay. And so it's the powerhouse -project .com.

Morganne Campbell (01:01:06.609)
Yeah, we couldn't get thepowerhouseproject .com. Yell at Elliot for that.

Lisa Laronde (01:01:19.456)
Yeah, because that's the problem I'm having the powerhouse -project .com.

Morganne Campbell (01:01:41.361)
Fuck off!

Lisa Laronde (01:01:47.264)
Yeah, yeah. Fuck you. Yeah. Um, yeah, that's like an FYI. It's called Fuck You Idiot.

Morganne Campbell (01:01:48.081)
Yeah.

Morganne Campbell (01:01:55.021)
I'm sorry.

Lisa Laronde (01:01:56.96)
I think I sent you an FLY today Morgan.

Lisa Laronde (01:02:04.544)
Awesome. Thank you so much for joining us, Morgan. And thank you everyone for listening. Subscribe anywhere you, oh, sorry. Thank you very much, Morgan. Thank you everyone for listening to our podcast. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and join the movement at the powerhouse -project .com. I hate that.

Morganne Campbell (01:02:25.073)
We should bully Elliot.

Lisa Laronde (01:02:36.864)
Okay. Okay. Awesome. Thank you so much, Morgan. I really appreciate our chat today. I'm looking forward to many more podcasts. Hopefully you get to join me. Welcome to everyone that's been joining our podcast today. I have a whole lineup of new, I don't know.

Morganne Campbell (01:02:52.305)
I know. We'll take it, just take it up from the top again and just be like, you know, thanks for joining us. Why don't you just say like and sub, Sarah, sorry, I don't know how to end this. This is not my realm.

Lisa Laronde (01:03:10.432)
Okay, I'll try it one more time. I'll try it one more time. Ready? All right. Thank you so much for joining us, Morgan. I appreciate all the time that we had this afternoon. I also hope that you'll join us on future podcasts. Welcome to all of our listeners. Please join the movement. Thank you.