Bold Leadership and Strategic Vision for Innovation with Heidi Arave-Noonan

Welcome back to another episode of the multifamily women's podcast. Today. I have a great guest here She has not only spoken on stage at the multifamily women's summit She's also an innovation council member now The multifamily innovation council is an executive level membership organization that makes a difference in your bottom line It drives a better experience for your employees And allows an experience that keeps demand strong for your company to become a member today. Please visit multifamilyinnovation. com backslash council. If you're not registered for the upcoming multifamily women's summit, please do that today at multifamilywomen. com. Today, we'll be sharing time with Heidi Arave Noonan. She is the Chief Operating Officer of Live Communities. Heidi, we are so glad you're here joining us today. I have to say, I've, in spending time with you, I think you're one of the most intelligent women I've ever met, which is pretty incredible. And I want to say, so I've seen that you're, you've been with Live Communities for 15 years, which We're here this month. In this industry, that's very uncommon to stay so long. So what is it about live communities? So I've been in the industry for nearly 30 years. So, and thank you for the compliment, by the way, very kind of you. Of course. But, um, I live, embodies, Um, everything I feel like this industry could be and should be and should aspire to be. And so when I came across the company, it wasn't live at the time, it was called IPA, but the people that I engaged with at the company were exactly, they embodied, like I said, what I thought the industry could be, you know, capable of and how we can serve our residents truly in their homes. Um, it's a privilege. And so it's, it's been everything I thought it would be. And I was able to help build our live brand. Joining the organization over 15 years ago or almost 15 years ago. And so being able to be a part of that, creating this live brand as well. And the rebranding from who we were as IPA to live communities was a big honor. And it's just been the highlight of my career. And where did you start? What was your first position in the industry? And then how did you talk about your journey a little bit? Absolutely. So I started, I was 18 years old and I started part time leasing. Um, the company was Simpson, Simpson housing. And It was a little community, a hundred unit community, and I was a part time leasing consultant. We still had paper ledgers. We were still writing down, you know, everything on paper and paper service requests. And I made 4. 85 an hour. I remember those days. Yeah. You're in good company. I'm going to get, you know, a commission of 25 bucks if I get a lease. So this is exciting for me. So, um, I stuck with it and I stayed with that organization actually for 10 years. and ended up moving up into, you know, a full time leasing position and then assistant manager position and then eventually I went into training and, um, I did training on a national level, um, for that organization and then later on I left for a little bit and I went to Forent Magazine. Remember Forent Magazine? Oh yeah. Back in the day. So I did that and I sold ads to the industry. that for a couple years and then, um, actually returned back to Simpson again and did some training for them and then I left to have my son and, um, after my son was a couple years old, I said, okay, I'm ready to get back into it. And I found IPA at the time. I love that. So I know you've been, you've been a part, a big part of the women's summit, which is really amazing. And I know Carrie, um, Knows you very well for that reason. Um, what, tell us a little bit about your experience going to the Women's Summit and what kind of, you know, what, what you've taken away from that and what you might be able to bring back to your teams from the Summit as well. Absolutely. I love it. The first year we were involved, it was actually my assistant and somebody else that went, so two others, somebody from our HR team and then um, our operations person and they came back and said, this is so amazing. Like, we should have more people here. Why aren't we all going? All of us women at Live, and, and, um, we have a lot of women that work at Live, by the way, in leadership, which is pretty cool. And so I said, okay, well, next year we'll go. And so we, we bought the tickets in advance and five of us went. And then I thought, yeah, I see what you guys are getting out of this. This is amazing. It's, it's, uh, it's kind of a soul filling experience to be with all those women in a room and it's, it's intimate. So you're able to really get to know people. I've made connections with people I hadn't seen in years there. And so it was really. an awesome experience for myself. So I said, yeah, this is something that we're going to keep on the docket, um, every year. And I, and then I talked to Carrie and I said, I would love an opportunity to be more involved. And she said, all right. Come next year. And so the third year we were involved, I was able to be a speaker and it was an awesome experience. Wonderful. Um, definitely enriching for me. And I made even more contacts after that as well. So it was also really good for my professional network. Um, so yeah, I'm excited about doing it again this year with you guys. What I loved about having you on stage is that you're so candid and open. Um, I remember the, there might've been some nerves before we went on. I think you and I were the first ones that day, um, on the second day. Um, but you were so candid with our audience members and they asked you questions and you had answers for them. And it was just really open conversation. And, um, I'm really excited to have you in a bigger role this year, participating more for that reason. And also, because you had attended before, you kind of knew what to expect and the culture of the event itself. Um, we've put a lot of work into the, into day one, forming those relationships and, and, and, And, you know, none of the forced networking and all of that, you know, more unique experiences so that by day two, people aren't afraid to raise their hands and say, what did you mean by that? Or how did you do this? You know, ask questions. I felt so comfortable that day too because of that. So when someone from the audience, when you're looking at them and you're engaging, you do feel like you're just all in the same conversation. And that's a different experience that I haven't had at other, you know, conferences, so. Yeah. Absolutely. It was wonderful. And I kind of migrated towards that because we've asked you to help us this year with some of the planning and infusing these sessions with some of your knowledge because. Someone who's been in the industry and has the experience that you have, you absolutely have have a hands on experience to the pain points of this audience. And being such a successful woman in multifamily, I think our audience would love to know what, what has fueled your journey and how have you, you know, climbed your way to exactly where you're at today. I think a lot of people are going to want to know kind of where that came from. That's a great question. It's a big question. I have to kind of go back and see. Yeah. Um, I have to say that having passion for what you do is, is key. So if you're in an industry where you don't feel passionate, you're not excited about what could be and, and what could be for yourself and for others. Then, um, you might want to change gears, you know, it might not be the right place to be. So I've always gravitated toward people as well, that had that same kind of passion and energy and excitement for, for what we do and who we serve. And so. For me, it's been connecting with the right people and knowing and knowing kind of, you know, what are the possibilities? What are the opportunities which got me from leasing up into a training role? I thought well, I want to teach other people how to do these amazing things So I think multifamily gives you that opportunity it you can be in operations. You can be in development You can work in marketing you can work in IT. I mean, there's just it's such a It's a very multifaceted industry, and I found that incredibly interesting. So I also, I, through every stage of my career, I asked, where can I plug in? Where can I help? Where can I learn? What's best for the organization? What's best for my leader? What do they need from me? And I remember everyone that I ever kind of followed really appreciated that and would say, Oh my gosh, that's great. Here's what I need. Here's what I, and I think that open attitude and then the willingness of the leaders I to kind of take me along. That's really how my, my career happened. It, it sort of happened that way. Yeah. We, um, and you're a Multifamily Innovation Council member, too, which we'll talk about in a minute, but in one of our meetings recently we kind of talked about the org chart and, um, And how, you know, sometimes we'll promote a leasing agent to something that might not be in their wheelhouse. Did you ever experience that yourself, like working your way up? Were you ever in a role that you're like, maybe this isn't my ideal position? Like you didn't have that excitement to get up every day, but you knew there was something better. Did you have experience with that? Yes, absolutely. I think, and, and I'll use the assistant manager role for an example. Even though I did enjoy it because I learned a lot about the legal aspects and the, and the administrative, I didn't see it as a strong future for our industry and for myself. And so I thought, well, this is good to learn all of this, but I really, I would really like to learn how people work and how they think and what the psychology of life is and, you know, what do people want out of, out of life and how can I help them get that at their home? Um, and so I started looking into. the training aspect of things and thinking, Hey, for my company, maybe there's a role and we actually ended up at my previous company, creating one that really helped to, to leverage that passion and those ideas and thoughts into helping other people do a better job serving our residents. And so, um, I kind of took that same sort of thought process into my current organization live and There's always been that whole idea you have to have leasing, then assistant, then manager, then move up. Maybe you go into corporate services or marketing, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it's how it has to be. And so we had some individuals that were really great with people and really great at leasing and they're like, I can't wait to be an assistant manager. And I'm like, why? You know, you're so great with our customer. Yeah, it's got to be a different way. So we, um, years ago created a different route that you could either go that administrative kind of bookkeeping accounting route, or you could go the route of this. like a leasing retention specialist. We kind of created two different career paths already, um, years ago and, and then now, you know, fast forward to today and we have multi site bookkeepers that take care of the accounting and the administrative work and take most of the administrative work off our leasing consultants. Wow. So they're not, they're not. They're not doing a bunch of admin work and following up on, on income verifications and all that sort of stuff and, and collections and all of it really goes to an offsite bookkeeper. So everybody at the site, our goal is in our hopes are that they're just facing the customer and finding out how they can better serve the customer. I love that. So, you mentioned that role was kind of created for you, like the training role, they created that role for you. Was that nerve wracking? Did it take courage to say, this is what I want to do, it doesn't currently exist, um, what can we do to make this happen? Yes, yes, if I'm thinking way back to then, this is many years ago, and again, it was the previous company, but yes, I remember thinking, this is so exciting, this is an opportunity, how, but if I could blow it, you know, what if I get into it? And they're like, yeah, this isn't really that great. My role gets cut, you know, good. So again, you surround yourself with other people that you can brainstorm and you can involve people that will be, you know, in the end benefiting from it. And it's like, Hey guys, what are your thoughts? What should we do? And how do we build this role to make sure it really serves our organization and our customer, you know, to us, it's always about the customer. So how do we, how do we craft this and involve other minds? And so, and it was a success. Well, that's good. As long as it worked. I think that's amazing because, yeah, I think it sounds like you have the power to be so innovative and make changes that, that a lot of people are a little bit afraid to make. And I think that was the first thing that drew me to you. And to say, you know, the compliment I gave you earlier, I meant it because it's, it's really hard to advocate for that change. You know what I mean? It's really hard to be the person that's saying, you know, raising your hand and saying, the way things have always been done might not be the way they should be today. It is, and you know, Lauren, that's a good point, because you're also impacting other people. So when you, so for instance, when you say, we don't have this assistant manager position anymore, it's not your career path, then people start to panic a little bit, like, well, that was my career path, that's why. Right. Here. What do you mean? So it, it has to be kind of that why behind the what, and then what's in it for you. What does that career path look like? So when you make changes, you have to involve the people that it will impact and you have to find out how they might do it. Mm hmm. Also have to give the why behind the what. All the watts. Absolutely. To help people come along. And being a trainer, the why behind it just makes me laugh because that's absolutely right. If you don't have people's buy in, they're not going to, even if they're watching the course with their eyes, they're not going to be there, right? They're not going to absorb the information because they don't understand why I even need to know this. And we've all been there. We check out immediately the second we don't have that why behind. That's right. So I love that you're thinking that way of how do we get people's buy in first? Yes. And just involve them in the process. Yes. Think about what, what they are going to get out of this and benefit and then they're already bought in the second they start to train on whatever it is. Right. And, and we haven't been perfect at that, right? You're always trying to improve. So I'm always looking at what does change management look like and, and how do we do it better every time? Yeah. But even being able to think that way, I think. Is is the route, right? What? What do people actually care about? What do they benefit from? And is it career growth? What's that skin in the game that gets them excited? Absolutely. And that's a big difference. We talked about also psychological safety and that with the change management. I think that it's so important if you are presenting these new things, as long as somebody knows, like, I'm safe here. Uh, you know, I, I'm free to express my opinions and if I don't understand, I can ask why, you know, I think that that is such a big, makes a big impact when you're trying to implement new things, new technologies, new trainings, programs. Everybody has to feel like, okay, even, even if this is new and kind of crazy right now, I know that there's a bigger picture and it's for the greater good, right? Yeah, there's trust, right? Yeah, exactly. Establish those kinds of rhythms with your, your team. Hopefully there's that trust there. Yeah. And so never perfect, but you try your best to say, Hey, we want you involved. We want to hear from you. from you and so we do so much of that at Live. We invite so much feedback from our teams, from every team member. We want the feedback. We want the engagement. We want to know what their opinions are. We share communication in multiple ways and then we have a very, um, detailed strategic planning process and, and rhythms that we meet. So everybody has an opportunity. So if you don't take it, Oh, it was there, so. Right. Yeah, exactly. No, I love that. I think that's really smart, and I think that, again, this is all you, right? It starts at the top, and when you have leaders in those high level positions that are innovative the way that you do and value the individual the way that it sounds like you guys do, you can feel that. You can feel that culture in a company, and it makes such a difference. I agree. And, and I've been told so many times that, and this is a brag on our teams on site, I've been told so many times by people, whether it's investment partners or, you know, banks, whoever, um, people that shop are just shop assist competition. I've gotten the feedback time and time again, your teams are really special. I can feel the vibe when I come on site to your communities, everyone has it from anyone they, whether it's the maintenance tech, the housekeeper, the leasing person, the manager, whoever they interact with, they come back and say, okay. There's some, there's a vibe there and it's really, really good. I love it. Mm hmm. You're right. That's an amazing compliment. I mean, to get that across all your communities, that's really, yeah, that is something to be proud of. Yeah. That's cool. And another thing, so another thing that drew me to you as an individual is how innovative you are, even with technology. I loved hearing that you've kind of, played and you've tried to work and expand and you worked with certain vendors to try to push their boundaries to do what you need. And I want to hear a little more about what you've done in that space too. Sure. So, um, a few, is it okay if I say who, which partners we work with? I mean, is that. Yeah, that's fine. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Why not? That's okay. Sure. Yeah, I mean, one that comes to mind is Intrata. That's our, our CRM and our, um, accounting platform and, you know, as they've grown and, and we've grown, it, it comes to mind that there are certain things that, that every company wants and there are certain things that you want that are different than all the other companies. And so, so, yeah. When we're communicating with them in the beginning, we would say, Hey, this is great. We love this tool, but here's the way we would like to look at it. Here's how we want our reporting to look here. And they were one of the ones that were really willing to say, yeah, if we're going to be a cutting edge, innovative company, we should listen to individualities of our community. Our clients and try to meet that if we can. So that's one, you know, example. And then with AI, obviously big, big topic about it, but what's that? I don't know. You'll see. So, um, you know, at least we work with meet a lease and they do leasing AI and, um, they, we rolled this out a couple of years ago. So we've been doing it for going on three years now. And. It's a wonderful tool. It's not meant to replace people. It's meant to enhance the experience. And so what we did is we said, well, that's great. We love that. It's going to answer leads for us and talk to our customers and try to get us people coming in and really try to sell the apartments. That's the whole goal, but we want to see how she's doing it and how she's talking to our customer, because for our brand, it's extremely important that the language is right and that the voice and the tone and all of that reflects our brand. Yeah. And so they were willing to. to sit down with us and go through scripting and literally change language and change verbiage and how, um, the AI will respond, um, to our customer. And so it was really important to us and in looking at it, when we first implemented it before all those changes were made and then after, the success of those conversations and the outcome of those conversations is incredibly different because of that impact. So we know it has, it does, it works. And so asking your vendors, asking them, Hey, this is a really cool tool. Yeah. Can we enhance it? Can we enhance it for our brand? Yeah. And I, I don't even think a lot of people know what you know about AI to even ask for that. Because to know that the large language model is trainable in that way. Right. To where you can custom create an agent that is speaking on your behalf the same way you would if you trained somebody. Right. I think. That alone, that knowledge that you have puts you so far ahead of the majority of people. I mean, we obviously know a little bit about it because we work in the world of AI a bit. But, but certainly I think pushing those boundaries to have, you know, to ask your vendors, what are we doing that's custom to us? Because we talk a lot about AI and how that is the answer is that it cannot be a one size fits all solution. You cannot create a, you can create AI for the masses, but what's going to have to happen are exactly what you're saying. These custom AI agents that are learning your business, your brand, the things that matter to you. Yeah. And that will just get better and better, right? It'll just get better. The more people that weigh in and kind of help help me, you know, Um, transform it into what it can be for each organization. It will just get better and better. It's really brilliant. So as you're vetting these new technologies that are coming out, are you, is that something you're asking them? Like what, how can we work together if we were to have this partnership? Do you listen to us when we say, Oh, this would be great, right? Are those like kind of tougher questions that you've been asking? Yes. In fact, so, um, you know, almost every demo I've ever been on and my team has been on those questions come up. So they give the presentation and we go, this is really neat. Here's all of our questions, you know, and at the end they say, okay, so we have some special requests, you know, how open are you to our input and, and can we partner? How can we help you? Because we're in this for everyone, right? We would, we love to be able to also impact and have influence on the industry itself. We want everybody, you know, to do better and to serve their customers better and to live better lives. And so, um, we always ask those questions and they go, Oh, well, that's interesting. We haven't been asked that before. I hear that all the time. You know, that's a new question. And so then we explore it with them. Well, what if we could help? What are some of the ways? And, and we've even come up with test case scenarios for some of these vendors, like, hey, why don't, we'll, we'll, every quarter we'll meet and we'll talk about how this is going. You can compare it to another case scenario, and then we can see, is this something that provides value to your clients or not? I love it. Wow, that's really interesting. So, Patrick always says, the future, AI, you know, and it's, it's very, there, basically, everywhere, once it's, once it's everywhere, the future is going to be. Implementing something, testing it, and then measuring it. Right. And this, you're already there, right, in your head. You're like, okay, we understand that we, we now have this power. How are we going to test, measure, and improve upon it? And I think, again, this is somewhere where you're so much further. Along than a lot of people. And so I think a great question for our audience right now is when you're having these conversations with vendors, what is, or suppliers, what is the, what is, what are the core questions that you should be asking and what are those services where you feel like you can really push those boundaries, right? Like what should somebody be asking when they're, when someone brings AI to them? Yeah, to me, it's starting with what are your brand tenants? What are the things that you're most. Wanting to accomplish with this tool and then, um, who's going to be using it. So you got to ask yourself all these questions. How, you know, how are we going to roll it out? And then it is what sort of features and benefits do we want to get out of it? What are some of the nuances of our brand that may not match what's out there, um, test driving it and asking for. We always ask, can you get me in front of some of your other clients that are using it? And let me ask them some detailed questions because they're on my side of, of, um, you know, they're, if they're an operator, they know what I'm going through and what I need. I can ask them how it's working for them. What are some of the challenges they've run into? And so we'll always ask for examples, um, contacts, people that we can kind of verify things aren't working. And then again, how malleable is the product? How malleable is the tool? Um, what other tools does it work with? Right. You know, how can, what it, what, how much influence and what is the extent that we have Right. over the part we're buying from you. I also always ask, what are your future plans for your product? Um, will you be selling it? Yeah. Um, you know, will you be adding on features and benefit, features and, and, um, options? And what are those? What does your roadmap look like for your product? Um, cause that's really important and sometimes you find out, oh wow, they have some really great things in the hopper. And sometimes it's the opposite. It's like, oh, well. That's an obvious one. Have you thought of this? Um, so we'll, and we'll often compare. So if you're demoing several different products, then ask each one of them questions that you've learned from the other one. Um, I've also learned that asking what their financial strength and backing is, is important. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Do you typically roll out just a few properties when you're testing new products or do you do the whole portfolio? What's your, that's a great question. So, um, we do typically start out with one or two, typically start out with one or two and then kind of test and see how it goes. Occasionally we'll try two different products at two different. That was my follow up question. Yeah. Yeah. And then kind of compare and contrast and say, okay, this is the one that really meets our needs. Um, but if there, there have been times when we've just rolled things, if we were sure about it and we go, this is what we need, we rolled it. We'll just roll it out. Yeah. I love that. Yeah. I think it's really exciting, and that's why I'm super excited to have you on stage, too, because I feel like these are, this can be infused in so many conversations where people don't exactly know. I tell Carrie this a lot. I cannot stand it when I go somewhere or to a conference and people speak about these amazing innovations with AI or products that are coming out. And then you walk away with no tangible list of things to do, right? Like, I think a valuable handout is, here's 10 questions to ask. A supplier who's bringing you tech, new technology, especially if it has a, I, here are the questions you need to be asking before you just dive in. Right. Right. And so I think, you know, pieces like that are going to be really important for us to workshop in the summit as well. Yeah, I agree. I also think, um, you know, we mentioned the innovation council earlier as a member, you know, you're attending every Friday or when you can, you know, um, I know you're busy. Right. Um, what have those conversations. Have they, have those provided value to you when you're making these decisions? And, and like, have you had any light bulbs like, Oh, from something someone else said, like, Oh, that's a great point. I never thought about that. Are you taking that into your own organization? Absolutely. So I've made so many great contacts with the innovation council. It's so wonderful. And, and the cool thing I'll just sidebar really quick on is the networking is fantastic because you do, you meet new people and you meet people in all different areas of our business, which is really, really cool. really beneficial in a, in a group setting where you can have some interaction and you really get to know them a little bit better. So that's been incredible. And I've also run into people I worked with years ago that I hadn't seen. And so now we're, our relationships are rekindled and we're able to then, you know, um, really serve one another in growing our own brands and companies. So that's been incredible. And yeah, light bulbs going off. I've gotten contacts for, you know, This is kind of a dry topic, but insurance is not something I'm super well versed in. But people on the council are. So I'm like, oh, hey, you can, you know, what should we do about this kind of an issue that we're facing? It might be dry, but it is so important. So important. Yeah. So important. So those types of ahas are fantastic. You learn so much from other people that They do that day to day. I don't. Oh my gosh. Thank you. I had this question in my head. Now I understand. Yeah. So I think it's fantastic. I think the whole idea of it too, is it's the perfect platform for people to get together with no judgment and say, What are we facing? What are some wild ideas we have? It's okay if your idea is kind of weird and crazy and no one's done it in the industry. That's great. That's better. Bring it here. And so I'm kudos to you guys because it's a fantastic platform and I'm, I love it. Let me be a member. No, we love having you. Yeah. And a big part of that, like, you know, I'm, I'm new as well. I'm about two months in. So, um, and I, I love it because I feel like There are spaces where people collaborate within this industry, but it's pretty rare still. And I feel like there's kind of this sense of we're competing for the same business. So we can't innovate together. We can't bring the industry to a certain level together because we're, we're competitors. And so I think that element being removed and saying, look, this is a confidential group where we don't talk about any specifics to your business. Like we literally have rules around it, but. We all need to get together and there are things that we need to do in this industry today to bring it up to par, to bring it up to speed, and to put it in a place where we can innovate and, and prepare for the future. And there's a lot about to happen that we need to all be ready for. And there, we need to create best practices together. So, yeah. Oh my gosh. That's so great, Lauren, because I actually, I'm, I'm I'm embarrassed to say it. Well, I'm not really embarrassed to say it. I'll just say it. Don't be embarrassed. Yeah, you know what? It is what it is. So I've been in the industry for almost 30 years and I found it for a while to be so incredibly unimaginative, boring, just absolutely what you're saying. It was like me against you, us against them. And so I really took myself out of most of the industry related, um, I did. I just kind of stopped participating for years. And, um, actually the Innovation Council and the Women's Summit were catalysts to me getting back involved with some of it. And I've seen how much it's changed over the years. And it's refreshing. It's really fantastic. There are wonderful people involved that are like, no, we want it, we want to go the right direction. And you guys are, are part of that. Yeah. And I love it. And so it's given me a whole new, just a re energization. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's bad word. It, it, it sounds really intelligent. Don't question it Right. It's just giving me that whole, that passion again for what we're doing is so incredibly important and people get it. They're seeing it and they're excited to do it and, um, and so I'm loving it. I'm getting more involved all over the place and, and it's great. Yeah, that is great. One of my favorite things is. when in the meetings when we're all talking about, you know, a specific topic and it seems like we have a consensus and then somebody comes on and said, you know, I don't really think about it that way. I don't really agree. Let me play devil's advocate. I love when someone says, let me play devil's advocate because I feel like that's where the magic is. And even on, on stage and at conferences and our own summits, you know, it's, it's about forming the consensus. And, but when that, when one person says, that's great, I hear you. But also I'm thinking something different. This is my take on it. And it just, It opens your mind and you're like, Oh my gosh, I never thought about it that way. It does. What? Oh my gosh, that's wonderful. I can take that back. Yeah. And I don't know many people that would do that on stage. Right? Like during a panel discussion. No, I don't agree with any of you, but in the, in the smaller setting, you know, then it's when you're amongst friends, so to speak, I think it's a lot more comfortable to do that. 100%. I agree. Yeah. And I love the way that you guys talk. You explained to me so beautifully, you and Patrick is that When you're aligning over as the same goal, it brings the masses together, whether that's women, whether that's men, whether that's competitors, whether that's this company, that company. When you're all aligning over the goal of we need to innovate and we need to innovate fast. Right. That alone unites people in a way where you can forget everything else. And you can say we can all work towards the same goal because otherwise we're all going to be under pressure. Water together trying to get to the top, because if we're not creating certain best practices, if we're not creating, you know, if we're not innovating together as an industry, it's never gonna work. That's right. We need each other, right? And so you learn that you think, wow, I need these ideas. I have all these challenges. And we get stuck in our own our little own road and our own, you know, focus. And we go, well, I think I know the right things. But actually, you know what, I'm really stuck right here because I'm not making progress. Yeah. You know, centralization is a big topic, optimization, whatever you want to call it. And they're, depending on how your company is structured, whether you're an owner operator or a third party operator or whatever it might be, um, there are different challenges to it. So when you get together and you say, wow, who's doing it well, it's hard to say, let's share our best practices and figure out how can we do it well, how can we figure this out? And you need each other. Yeah. Yeah. And we even got into that on the council meeting. You know, we've been workshopping centralization and talking about, well, what are the unique aspects to your company that are allowing that that model to work so well for you versus what's, you know, it might not work for somebody who's in this situation. And so I think those unique aspects and having different perspectives and understanding, okay, just because someone says centralization is where it's at doesn't mean that's what's right for me. Okay. And so to be able to hear someone's perspective, but also drill in on, well, why is that working so well for them? Because they actually started out sexualized, or you might, you know, you might actually get some intel as to why it worked for them and might, it might not work for you. That's a great point. Yeah, so anyways, but we're really just so glad you're here and we're so happy to have you helping us I'm so grateful to be here. I'm honored. Thank you for having me. Absolutely So we'll wrap on that and any final thoughts you want to leave with our listeners, you know I'm just really encouraged by You know, opportunities like this and opportunities like the, like multifamily leadership and, and the Women's Summit. So please get involved and let's help make this industry what it can be. We're here to serve our residents at their most, the place they spend most of their time, um, the place our team spend most of their time, right? So we have a huge, uh, responsibility and an honor to do the right thing for people all over the place and provide awesome homes and places to work. So I'm excited about all that is to come. We are too. Yes. Thanks so much, Heidi. And thanks again for tuning in. Please visit the Multifamily Women's Summit webpage at multifamilywomen. com and register today. Do not miss your opportunity to attend this amazing event. Heidi will be on stage. You'll be able to see her live there and we will see you on the next episode.