having one of those humidifiers in your office or in your home is actually good,
Leigh Stringer 31:58
good thing and there’s certain levels You should target and even Google, it’s pretty easy to look up now a very popular thing. But humidity is really good. And the problem is and the fall, same flu say with all these things, yeah,
oh, the humidity drops,
everybody, all these kids start school, all those droplets stay in the air, people go back to work these droplets in the air, and things get passed around a lot faster. And that’s where the flu shots happen about now, right? Because you’re trying that. So anyway, I think there’s this cyclical nature of it. And so back to health and sustainability. One of the other things that you can do is to upgrade the filter in your air conditioning system, for example, like go from a mirvis of add into a HIPAA filter. And you know, your engineers can tell you what you should do but but upgrading is actually really, really good to do in times of low humidity or when there’s other possibilities of COVID coming out there another surge or whatever, but it’s not very efficient, like pushing air through a thicker filter. It takes more energy. So the idea is that you switch the filters back out when there’s times of no COVID, you know, things like that. So we’re learning kind of this kind of building as an organism building needs to be, you know, changed and fine tuned. Same with our behavior and building so I always think they’re like, two levers that we’re kind of playing with, what is the building lever things that we can do to adjust the building and make it smarter,
fancier high tech, and then there’s the people ever, where we say, you know, what, we’re gonna ship work today, because, you know, we just need fewer people in the office looks like you know, our cases are going up in New Jersey, and we’re gonna have to deal with that. So um, anyway, it’s, it’s, um, I think that kind of mindset is, is helping my own group kind of get our heads around, what’s changed what’s different and how we’re thinking about the future.
Greg Owens 33:42
Yeah, and I love what you said in there, because you you’re merging the building and the health but people care about their health more. So then like maybe the third lever is how you market that you’ll change behavior. And I always I always think of this week because I have a tremendous amount of friends on the That are liberals and have a tremendous amount of friends that are conservative and they’re really all very smart, very successful. And I’m always amazed like how these people just see these different ideas differently. But one thing I do see is like when it comes to environmentalist it really want to do a lot of good for the environment. Their messaging seems to not hit the mark on to my Republican friends in a lot of ways. But I think, you know, everybody wants clean air, and everybody wants clean water and the messaging like needs to be down. And I always feel like the marketing should be more about that, right. Like even when I was a kid, like in New York, I grew up in New York, and people used to just throw garbage out the window all the time back in the 70s. It was just commonplace to see just stuff being thrown out the window and nobody cared. But then there was a big major push along with new laws, but a lot of things around how to make your environment healthy, like I grew up in. I was in Westchester County, but like, in the country area, people historically just dump their garbage out the back on a hillside. Right? And then slowly
Leigh Stringer 35:15
it’s very medieval.
Greg Owens 35:17
It’s very medieval.
The way it’s the way things were done before they had like sanitary services and things. So you know, it took a while to change. Nobody would ever think of doing that now in green, especially Westchester. But it took a lot of marketing and a lot of like, saying, like, hey, let’s clean up our environment and then and then some laws around like, you know, if you get caught littering 2000 I think
Leigh Stringer 35:45
you gotta have carrots and stick.
Greg Owens 35:47
carrots and sticks. Yeah. So this is this has been great. You You’re a wealth of information. You have two books, where can people find your books? Are they on Amazon? Okay, we’ll put those in the show notes. How did you get into this whole field? You’re so passionate about this. And it just really shows you know so much about it all and you’re so many different avenues you’ve gone into, how did you get started in this field?
Leigh Stringer 36:15
Well, I started out as an architect. And pretty early days, I realized I like the people part of it, you know, really enjoyed getting to know my clients personally, and understanding how people worked in the building and what made them tick. So that kind of led down a path to look at architecture. And then at some point, I got an MBA thinking, oh, maybe I’ll leave some business in here. Really good Business of Architecture, as well. And when I got out, you know, one of the options in the workplace at the time was kind of emerging called workplace strategy. It’s like, oh, that seems relevant. You know, I can use both of my passions, how awesome so yeah, I definitely just kind of jumped in with it. Loved it. Really really lucky, everybody gets that right away, but it was good. It was fortuitous. And then I figured out pretty early as well that I just had a real passion for the planet, especially when I was having my first child. I think maybe something weird happens in your body. Lots of weird things happen in your body as a mom, but yeah, I just you know, so yeah, this is crazy and inconvenient truth was coming out and all these things, and I just have to write about this. I’ll just speak about this. And it just kind of came out. And then a few years later, I was working, you know, for big international firm and traveling all over the world and doing all kinds of crazy, awesome projects and exhausted, I really hit a wall. It was really bad actually, kind of, maybe it was anxiety attacks. And, you know, thinking back, I need to self diagnose myself a little bit more accurately, but I just, you know, I can’t do this anymore. So I took a sabbatical and I started studying company. buddies that were when I thought were healthy. It was like, tell me, who are these mega companies that you know have have have come to the fountain of you know, knowledge around what a healthy workplace looks like because I sure don’t feel like I have it, you know, I haven’t figured it out. And so I studied them and very few of them were actually way industry and, but it was cool. I learned a ton I met a number raising people ended up partnering up with a number of them and creating a nonprofit called Global Women 4 Wellbeing. Leadership itself and super cool. And then um, yeah, and then you know, kind of wrote this this next round of I guess it was it was a subject that didn’t know a lot about I’ll be honest about health about human health. So it was a little bit of a journey, Eat Pray Love kind of thing. I went through like a mindfulness conference, and then I checked out this miracle and, you know, miracle, but it’s like,
Greg Owens 38:55
Yeah,
Leigh Stringer 38:56
Yeah, super cool. Like really paint courses. You know? Just like crazy stuff. And what else? Oh, I went to went to check out an organization in Orlando human performance index with athletes and improving athletic performance, but they also know work on senior leaders around the world around. Think about the professional athlete or the corporate athlete,
Greg Owens 39:21
corporate athlete. Yeah.
Leigh Stringer 39:23
Amazing.
Greg Owens 39:24
I think some research is coming up. I think he’s written some books. Yeah, some stuff, research and things like that have come out from that organization. Oh, my gosh,
Leigh Stringer 39:31
yeah, very compelling, right. So it sticks with me today. It’s been a long time ago since I wrote about or took some of those courses and got to know there’s groups of people anyway, it’s all stuck. And now of course, we’re in this crazy new world of kind of putting it all together, I guess, in a weird way trying to figure out how to be sustainable in a world gone mad and that really looks like and so a couple years ago, I decided I was writing and, and sharing all these wonderful stories with other clients and all about healthy workplaces. But I really wasn’t practicing what I preached. So I decided I would just jump in and and I’m the Managing principal of our DC office, my company’s DC office, but Yeah, awesome. The team is amazing. I really love all of what we’re doing. And, and it’s been great because we’ve been really thinking hard about what it means to you know, to have a great culture, what does that really feel like? What does that look like? And it’s roll up your sleeves block and tackle work, I tell you, because it’s not an easy industry to always be healthy, and have a healthy workload and all these other sorts of things. So it’s, it’s been a lot but um, it’s a wonderful, it’s been a joy. Despite again, despite the Mad World, it has been a real joy to to be, and this
Greg Owens 40:52
might be the because of this pandemic. That is there seems to me is going to be an opportunity that this There’s going to be a focus on healthy workplace and healthy you know that comes out there’s gonna be so much that comes out of this so much data as we talked about early earlier and so much learnings around how to make what what does work look like and how does work get done and how you can do it in a way that people feel healthy about it. Right and and it’s it’s always amazing to me because the Yeah, I mean, I really believe that that you can feel different buildings and feel like they’re like all of this is so comfortable. And so I was in Salesforce, salesforce dot coms not their new building, which is unbelievable building but they’re all building and they had this top hole on top floor of a skyscraper skyscraper for board meetings, right? But there was so many plants in there. It was unbelievable. It was an old building, but they they just had it felt like a rain forest in some of the rooms right? And I was like, Ah, this feels really good. This is so much different. Then like when I’m in Google, and there’s just all kinds of beanbags and toys and that kind of stuff hanging around, which is cool too in a fun environment. But this other places like, Ah, this feels like you could really like, feel nature in here. It was great.
Leigh Stringer 42:15
I think we’re kind of figuring out what it’s like to be human again, you know, and not being in this big rat race and on a plane, every other year, a lot of people I know, are on planes a lot of their time or traveling or just racing place to place and just the pause even though it’s, you know, it’s scary pause. I think it does make you think a little bit differently about what matters and how to use your brain most effectively. So you come up with those really good ideas versus just, you know, slogging along. Yeah, because AI is right behind us. You know, there gonna be a lot of things that are gonna be, you know, silly for us to even be thinking about anymore.
Greg Owens 42:56
Like, why were we doing that we can have this computer on
Leigh Stringer 43:00
The next frontier. And that is scary. But also I don’t know, you know, I? Gosh, what’s his name? Kevin Kelly genius. Oh, Kevin, I think he’s from the Bay Area is this futurist guy?
Greg Owens 43:12
Yes. He sounds familiar. Yeah, a lot of I go to a lot.
Leigh Stringer 43:17
He, um, he was talking about how people call him a futurist but really use he’s just one of the first people who sees these devices that you’re going to be seeing five years from now. Yeah, I’m just telling you what to see. And that you know, which is that was the very opposite of him. He really could plug the futures thing for a while. I think
Greg Owens 43:33
I saw him at singularity, which is yes, a university that focuses on all that kind of stuff. Sure,
Leigh Stringer 43:39
yeah. And this idea you know, man and machine and we’re better because of machines. We really love our cars. I don’t think we want to give up our cars. You know, there are lots of other pieces around there are
Greg Owens 43:51
or our phones
Leigh Stringer 43:54
ever meant to do you know, so, but how do we do that? How do we survive in this kind of you know, people machine how The world? And what does that really really look like? I think there’s a bit of a race, a bit of a race, you know, in our industry and everywhere, like who’s going to get there first and figure out what it is that makes us human. And what it is that, that we when we turn on, you know, fires on all cylinders, and, and really helps us kind of capture value in ways we can’t even think of right now.
Greg Owens 44:23
Yeah, yeah, no, that’s wonderful. I want to make sure we talk you’re the founder of WomanUp and and what is that organization and what you guys do there?
Leigh Stringer 44:36
Well, um, we’re gonna get a little political now, so I’ll just apologize for that. But what happens is a group of about half a million women activists who are supporting women running for office, progressive women running for office, my husband’s involved in politics, and we created it together and he wrote something called left action which is a little more telling you know, Political views but it’s been awesome. And so we have Elizabeth Warren, Gabby Giffords ACLU we have these amazing clients and it really is kind of matchmaking and matching people with with passions to you know women who can carry forth their passions and their ideas and office and you know it’s just really symbiotic supporting these one we try and as we can you know host house parties and and support women as many ways as possible and it’s a really big passion of mine I really just think we just need you know, we need we need both sides of the brain we need the feminine and the masculine are so much evidence that shows that’s really good for us really helps reduce the number of wars that we go after.
Because without
a pro that but I you know, I think it’s been it’s pretty exciting times, I think, you know, with our new
Katrina Hayes 45:51
high power. Absolutely.
Leigh Stringer 45:53
Yeah. Well, it’s interesting in so another thing that my husband started doing is investing in woman run firms.
Greg Owens 46:01
Oh, yeah,
Leigh Stringer 46:02
really interesting, new products out there financial products out there that are really focused on on those things. And this is a group of people, like if you think, you know, you’re in the Valley area, right? So you know how male centric that world is. And, gosh, you know, 2% of the women funded or founders or 4%, it’s like ridiculous numbers. So you find these organizations that are willing to go after the top percent of women and it’s a really good group, you know, like, just to be putting that money out there and helping them just get a bit of leg up and scale as they need to. Really, we’ve put so well in a short amount of time I’m really proud to say so, I think you know, part of it is just you got to stand behind and you have to put your money where your mouth is literally sometimes, right? Just show support. It’s it just makes makes everyone better, you know, makes our world a little there.
Greg Owens 47:00
Yeah. And I can tell you’re you’re incredibly passionate about that. And
Leigh Stringer 47:04
am I passionate about things? But yeah,
Greg Owens 47:06
it’s wonderful. It’s so good, I feel good I have to connect you and maybe you know her Christina Herbert I’m not saying her last name correctly, but she’s also involved in a big organization that helps women gain leadership roles and helps them find there helps them find their voice and be authentic and that kind of stuff, it helps them get elected and, and so she’s been growing up, but I’ll see if I can connect you guys through email or something like that, because, you know, just it’s a good movement and it’s good to see all the the activity in the possibilities Katrina and I were just talking that you know, I’m, I’ve been in painting since I was 16 years old, and it’s it’s a very much a male, as you know, dominated industry, the painting contractors and construction and all of that. I think in that time, we just I think we just hired my fourth woman painter ever. Right? And she was out of work. house cleaner, right. But she’s, you know, painting in house cleaner, actually not that far off for a lot of the skill sets and stuff. And she’s been working out great. And she’s you. It was a funny story too, because she, she’s the wife of one of my painters. And so I showed up at a job, we’re doing a commercial job, and I showed up there, and I was like, This lady helping the gal out. And I was like, I think that’s his wife. And so I go over, I’m talking and she’s like, Well, you know, I’m bored at home. And, you know, so I thought I’d come in and help him and support him. He was like, well, we need to, like, get you on the payroll and pay you. Yeah, and she’s been working great and customers absolutely, absolutely love her. Um, and then like, just a sort of a like, checking in with people about how if somebody wants to get into this field or the fields that you’re involved in, what is the best avenue to try to, to work in this in this field of building wellness, or any of the other things that you’ve been talking about on this podcast today?
Leigh Stringer 49:22
Well, I think, particularly now, when hiring is a little tough, and a lot of places, I think start with informational interviews, find people that are doing cool stuff and say, Hey, I’m really interested and passionate about x, you know, health well being whatever it is a particular aspect of that and reach out and talk to them. They’re Welcome to call me. And I’m also you know, happy to direct them to others in the roping space, but I feel like that I learned so I do that now actually have one set up tomorrow with somebody doing really interesting work in a field I’m interested in is a little more senior than me and I’m like, I just I really think Can we talk? And believe it or not? She said, Yes, of course. So CEO of a big company and she said yes. So like, you just have to ask and maybe you get one out of three, right? That’s okay. And I think those conversations are the connections that you make and the learnings from people outside your circle, who are out there doing, you know, the work that that you think you want to do. Oh, so great, so great to learn. And of course, you know, then once those relationships kind of cement themselves, there’s potential for, for hiring and other things, especially to keep in touch. Always good. And, you know, keeping keeping in touch with them. When you find you know, kind of what you’re looking for you find the companies you want to work for, and then you and you hone in.
Greg Owens 50:41
Yeah.
Leigh Stringer 50:42
Leave me much more expansive. It’s a great way to start because it’s it feel there’s a lot out there.
Greg Owens 50:50
I love that because I just read a book by Leonardo da Vinci, not by him but somebody wrote about him, and they shared like his notebook. He had find somebody to learn anatomy from find somebody to learn about building dams, right? Like, it’s just things that came into his head that he wanted to learn about. And and he’s like, you know, part of his to do list was finding this person that can help me make inroads and learn about this. And I thought it was, you know, writing your goals down in that way of like, Who’s got this kind of information and who can I ask and how do I put it out there and find that person?
Leigh Stringer 51:31
That’s great. My other word of wisdom is hang out with people who are who you aspire to be. Yeah, no, I am. I used to go to this conference back when we had conferences. Remember
Greg Owens 51:44
those? remember those days?
times? youngsters don’t know about this. You actually used to go conference .
Leigh Stringer 51:52
Yes, yeah. So but but it was so funny. I remember going and everybody had written by Like this guy during the book was written eight books whenever we go every year and it’s like after well, like, I got to know them. I was like, Bob is smart. I mean, but I’m smart, you know, I don’t know, I mean, like less smart than Bob. And I can write a book, you know, kind of thing. And all of a sudden, you know, clicks in my brain happens and connections are made. And I realize, Oh, yeah, you know, that kind of thing. So I think it is, um, you know, imagining the possible people or people right, and the more you get to know them, the more kind of real they become. And that’s something up on a pedestal, I’ll never be able to do that or accomplish that, I think, make friends with people who are a few steps, you know, in the direction you want to go. is really, really helpful.
Greg Owens 52:40
Yeah, absolutely. It’s been very valuable in my life, for sure. And I’m always amazed because like, I’m a I’m an entrepreneur and on a on a painting business, right. And I’m around a lot of other entrepreneurs and I love the quote like you are the average of the five people you’re hanging out with the most right and i think came from like Napoleon Hill or somebody like that, right? And the, but I’m always amazed like, amongst my entrepreneurial friends, we are desperate if somebody came to us and wants to learn from us like it’s so great to have somebody come and say, Hey, you, you know this, you’ve done a good job of ringing a bell and getting a level and it doesn’t really matter what they look like or anything I find amongst my friends, right? It doesn’t matter what race doesn’t matter what, gender or anything, it’s just that if they are interested, and they ask good questions, and they want to learn and are eager and and they try things. Now if they ask questions, and they come back with the same questions, and over and over and over again, they don’t try things that’ll burn out the relationships faster than anything I’ve ever seen. But if they’re they going try new things and do it and come back with the info. It’s like, it’s so wonderful to see that and it’s but it’s rare to
Leigh Stringer 54:01
Yeah, I think that’s, you know, I part of my job lately has been recruiting and retention a lot in the last couple of years. And you know, so a lot of people in our conference room kind of pass through. And I, you know, after welds to see brightstar you just know, you know, they’re asking the right questions and it’s not about their clothing or what anything it’s, it’s just the, you know, maybe its intensity or maybe it’s some thoughtfulness. There’s just something shiny about what they bring to the table. Yeah, different and I feel like will make me smarter by by association, wiring, you know, people with that kind of natural inquisitiveness and passion. You’re right. It goes a long way. It’s,
Greg Owens 54:52
yeah, it happened to me because I met my mentor. His name’s George and I met him at a painting conference when we, you know, did those things and this is when Is this is 20 something years ago? And I stopped him at that conference and kept asking him questions kept asking him questions and he gave me a business card. And he, he said, Hey, why don’t you you know, call me in a few days and we’ll talk. But I called him a few days, and he didn’t return my call. And then I wrote a letter. And he wrote a letter back saying he’s going to personal problems. And to check back in with him. I just stumbled across this letter that I wrote, and he wrote a letter back saying in six months, check in with me again. So six months later to the day, I wrote them another letter saying, Hey, you know, and he was a painting company that was just like, doing two or three times better than me. He was 10 years older than me. And the way he spoke really resonated with me, right it really, it really meant a lot and became he became my mentor after that, and now we’re just incredibly good friends. So it’s a
Leigh Stringer 55:55
very cool
Greg Owens 55:56
Yeah. Yeah. Um, how People find out more information about you is it best to go through LinkedIn is it?
Leigh Stringer 56:06
Sure you can reach out on LinkedIn? That’s probably the easiest I have a author page leighstringer.com that’s Leigh Stringer like it sounds. Um, you can also go to eypae.com, my my company’s website and reach me there.
Greg Owens 56:22
Okay, and it’s been a pleasure to have you on this podcast. It’s wonderful to get to know you a little bit and this has been Watching Paint Dry podcast. Thank you so much, Leigh.
Leigh Stringer 56:37
Thank you.
Outro 56:47
Thanks for listening to the Watching Paint Dry podcast. We’ll see you again next time and be sure to click subscribe to get future episodes.