The Bridge Podcast | Episode 2

There’s a moment that happens in every field merchandising career. It’s the moment you walk through the doors of a retail store, sometimes before the lights are fully on, sometimes while customers are already flowing in, and you realize something important: You are being evaluated before you’ve said a word.

On Episode 2 of The Bridge, Channel Partners’ podcast focused on field merchandising, retail execution, and assisted sales teams, the conversation centered on that exact moment. Not in theory. In practice. 

The topic was simple: First impressions in the field. But as the discussion unfolded between Andrew Catapano, Heather Petrone, Jimmy Knight, and field leaders across the country, it became clear that first impressions in retail are not about personality. They are about professionalism. They are about preparation. And most of all, they are about trust.

The Field Is the Brand

Heather Petrone said something early in the episode that reframed the entire conversation:

“The field is the first face of the company because they’re the boots on the ground. They’re the ones interacting at the store level.”

In field merchandising and assisted sales roles, you are not operating behind a desk. You are not hidden in a headquarters building. You are standing inside someone else’s workspace, someone else’s store, representing your company in real time. You may be setting a planogram. You may be installing a fixture. You may be refreshing graphics or supporting in-store sales conversations. But what the store sees first is not the fixture. It’s you.

Heather added:

“I think people have a general idea of who you are in the first few seconds that they meet you.”

In retail execution, those seconds matter. Store managers make snap judgments about reliability. Department heads assess whether you will disrupt or support their day. Receiving teams decide how cooperative they want to be. First impressions are not dramatic. They are subtle. And they compound.

The Fundamentals That Never Go Out of Style

Jimmy Knight, now part of the headquarters team but shaped by years in the field, described what he believes sets the tone before any words are exchanged.

“Bright-eyed, bushy-tailed… being there early. Before time is on time.”

There is something powerful about arriving early to a retail location. Not rushing through the parking lot. Not scrambling to find tools. Not looking flustered. 

Early arrival communicates intention. It gives you time to understand the store environment. It allows you to check in properly. It signals to store leadership that you respect their schedule as much as your own.

Field merchandising training often emphasizes the technical aspects of the role, from planogram compliance, to reset sequencing, to fixture assembly. But the reality is that reliability begins before a single tool is lifted. Preparation builds credibility.

Confidence Without Overstepping

There is another side to first impressions: enthusiasm. Jimmy shared a story from his early days as a merchandiser. He was new, eager, ready to prove himself. When approached by a manager, he confidently explained the scope of work and what the team would accomplish. Shortly after, his team lead pulled him aside.

“All communication goes through me.”

It wasn’t a reprimand. It was a lesson. In field merchandising, clarity matters more than eagerness. Communication must be aligned. Overpromising, even with good intentions, can create confusion.

Julie Ramsey, District Manager in the Pacific Northwest, reinforced that point:

“Make sure you don’t oversell yourself. If you don’t understand something, ask the question.”

There is a fine line between confidence and overextension. Strong field professionals understand that credibility is built not by having all the answers, but by handling uncertainty with composure.

Walking Into a Store the Right Way

If you asked every District Manager in the company what they expect from a merchandiser on day one, you would hear similar themes. Leanne, a District Manager in Texas, laid it out clearly:

“You best be in uniform and have a name badge.”

Uniform and badge are not just compliance items. They are signals. They tell the store team that you belong there, that you are prepared, and that you take your role seriously. Leanne continued:

“Ask for the vendor log. Sign in. Ask who the manager on duty is.”

It’s structured. It’s respectful. And it’s effective. Julie expanded further:

“I would go find the store manager or store director, introduce myself, make sure they have my phone number, and tell them what I’m there to do.”

This is not about formality for its own sake. It’s about transparency. It ensures the store knows why you are there, how long you will be there, and what to expect from your team. And then Julie added one of the most practical insights of the episode:

“The third person who I believe is one of the most important is the receiving clerk.”

Why?

“This person knows what’s going on in the back room at all times.”

In field merchandising and retail resets, backroom knowledge can determine how smoothly a project runs. Building rapport with receiving is not a shortcut. It is smart execution.

The Moment You Don’t Know

Every field merchandiser, whether new or experienced, will face a moment when they are asked a question and they do not immediately have the answer.

A store manager may ask about a timeline adjustment.  A department head may question placement. An associate may ask about product availability. In those moments, ego becomes a liability. Julie offered a response that has become a model of professionalism:

“I’m not 100% sure. Can you give me a few minutes so I can get the correct answer and not mislead you in any way?”

That sentence carries weight. It protects the store from misinformation. It protects the client relationship. And it reinforces that you value accuracy over appearance.

Andrew drew an important distinction during the episode. Honesty is answering when asked. Transparency is proactively communicating. Transparency says, “I care about getting this right.” In retail execution, that distinction builds long-term partnerships.

Support Systems: You’re Not Alone in the Field

One of the strongest themes in Episode 2 was the reminder that field professionals are supported. Emily, a Team Lead and TEAMS Champion Award Winner for Transparency, explained how she approaches situations where she needs clarification:

“If I don’t know the answer to a question, I’m going to probably have an answer within the next 30 minutes no matter what.”

That confidence doesn’t come from knowing everything. It comes from knowing who to call. Field merchandising teams rely on layered support:

• District Managers
• Project Managers
• Operations teams
• Call center support
• Peer-to-peer networks

Heather shared how often she sees reps leveraging internal community groups:

“They’ll literally throw up a post… and boom, boom, boom, they get comments back.”

This kind of collaboration reflects a mature retail organization. Strong field execution is not individual heroics. It is coordinated teamwork.

Transparency Builds Professional Respect

The conversation also moved into the human side of field work. Emily spoke candidly about the importance of being transparent with leadership:

“Being honest, communicative, and transparent with your DM is key to success in your job. It’s literally like your backbone to everything you do.”

Julie echoed that sentiment:

“We believe family is very important. We’ll support you if we can adjust the time for your start.”

Field merchandising is structured, but it is also human. Life happens. Schedules shift. Unexpected responsibilities arise. Trust is built when communication happens early and clearly. Transparency is not about oversharing. It is about alignment. It ensures that both leadership and store partners understand what to expect.

The Larger Lesson

As the episode closed, Andrew reflected on something deeper than procedures or checklists.

“If you were good at it, you’d enjoy it. If you enjoyed it, you’d be good at it.”

Field merchandising and assisted sales roles are demanding. They require professionalism, accountability, adaptability, and strong communication skills. But they also offer autonomy. They offer growth. They offer the opportunity to represent a brand in meaningful ways.

First impressions are not about being perfect. They are about showing up intentionally. They are about respecting the store environment. They are about understanding that when you walk into a retail location, you are stepping into someone else’s workspace, and how you enter that space matters.

What Episode 2 Ultimately Reinforces

Strong field merchandising teams:

• Arrive prepared
• Follow store protocols
• Communicate clearly
• Avoid overselling
• Leverage support systems
• Practice transparency
• Build trust deliberately

Retail execution is not just about displays or resets. It is about relationships.

It is about how you introduce yourself, how you ask for help, how you align expectations, how you represent your company. As Andrew concluded:

“Get out there, communicate, own your activities…and most of all, have fun.”

Because when trust is established early, retail partnerships strengthen. Assisted sales improve. Execution becomes smoother. And that first impression becomes the foundation for long-term success in the field.

Make sure to subscribe and tune in every month to The Bridge on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. 

Want to join our team? View our open positions at https://channelpartners.com/careers/ 

 

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Jimmy Knight: [00:00:00] Welcome to the bridge, your playbook for Thriving in the Field. Today we’re gonna be talking about first impressions and how transparency sets the tone.

Andrew Catapano: Alright, and welcome to episode two of the Bridge. How are we all doing today? This morning? Actually doing great. Doing, doing great. Great meeting with me as always. My, uh, co-host, Ms. Heather Patron.

Heather Petrone: Yes.

Andrew Catapano: And Mr. Jimmy Knight. Welcome back for episode. I can’t believe they let us do two of these. Can you believe that

Heather Petrone: episode made it through the first one?

Andrew Catapano: That was great. Thank you for all the guests that joined us in episode, uh, one and an amazing special guest from our Jim Falk, CEO, Mr. James Falk. Did you enjoy the time? Is that the first time you met him, Mr. Paige? Very knight. Sorry. We’re just getting to learn each other’s names here. Absolute. As a matter of fact, at episode

Jimmy Knight: two, first time that I met him.

Andrew Catapano: First time you met him. Yes. Yes. Heck of a guy. Really, really salt of the earth type of individual. Hopefully we learned a lot about him both here, [00:01:00] uh, at headquarters and at the field. Yeah. The bridge we all know is the purpose, um, isn’t just about headquarters talking at the field, right? Mm-hmm. It’s about, uh, connection where voices can go both ways.

So as we start episode two here, I don’t, all of you listening, thanks so much for joining us. I don’t want. Um, people to think this is just news updates as we learned in, in episode one. This is about, really about the field hearing from us and about us hearing from the field. Right, exactly. The bridge was a, a purposeful, well thought out name that took us a while to come up with and had some, some real good foundation and making sure that we.

We spawn that gap mm-hmm. In between the knowledge that our boots on the ground people have in the field, the knowledge that our great headquarters associates have. Mm-hmm. And just sharing in free exchange of those ideas. Sure. Yeah. Right.

Jimmy Knight: I agree.

Andrew Catapano: So, uh, episode, uh, two though, Heather, tell us a little about what Heather episode two is gonna be about.

So, I, I have a starting point for us, but I’d like to hear a little bit about what, uh. What episode two’s gonna be about. [00:02:00] So, because I just got here, you know, I don’t know what I’m doing here. Exactly. I didn’t how, why let the building. Exactly. You never know what you’re

Heather Petrone: doing, so it’s fine. This is why I’m here.

Um, no. So episode two we’re gonna talk about fo first impressions in the field. Okay. And like, how do you set the tone, right? Like, yeah. Because first impressions are so important. I think people have a general idea of who you are in the first few seconds that they meet you. So, sure. Um, you know, it’s really important for the field to understand what they need to do to kind of present.

You know themselves the best way possible. ’cause really and truly, the field is the first face of the company because they’re the boots on the ground. They’re the ones that are interacting with at the store level.

Andrew Catapano: Yeah.

Heather Petrone: So how do you kind of set the tone, especially for your first day? So if anybody’s listening and you haven’t started your first day yet, maybe you wanna kind of grab a pen and paper and take some notes.

’cause we are gonna hear from Love it. Some people that are from the field that have done this a million times. And hopefully you’ll feel more confident after listening to this episode that you’ll know exactly what you need to [00:03:00] do. So, um, I was

Andrew Catapano: always, but I got one for Jimmy. Yeah. Before we start here, because I have a, I was just in this wonderful meta installation up here at, uh, Polaris Parkway here in Columbus.

And, uh, we talk about, I got to meet a great team, Corbert was there. Uh, Marty was there. Oh my goodness. It was just yesterday. I’m horrible with names. I just called my co-host Jimmy Page for heaven’s sake. So, uh, forgive me, forgive me for the five of those rock stars that were out at that, uh, best Buy here in Polaris.

But so the funny story is we got there and I’m supposed to, you know, go there. They all know I was coming. But our CEO Jim Folk was also coming. Now I got there first. Now I, I know the rules. At a Best Buy, you go into a Best Buy before hours, you’re not allowed to reopen that door. Without a Best Buy person opening it to let someone in from the outside.

Jimmy Knight: Right.

Andrew Catapano: Okay. Right. So Mr. Folk is on his way up, we’re talking and, uh, I broke the, broke that rule, not really paying [00:04:00] attention. I saw him coming up donuts in hand. The whole thing opened up the door. And of course I forget that it slides. So I push it and I break that seal of that sliding door, you know? No, that kind goes.

Boom. And it’s like swings out and I’m just trying to hide it. My mistake hide when, and sure as a, a young man walks around big old blue shirt, walks right at me and says, do you work at Best Buy, sir? And I said, no. Then you know you’re not supposed to open that door. Right, right. And that was my first impression, damn.

As I had just gotten there. So, uh, Mr. Knight, give us, give us your best first impression story or worst first impression story. What is. What is one you have in the holster there, sir? That, uh, uh, either went wonderfully right or wonderfully wrong.

Jimmy Knight: So my first impression, I had a location that I went into.

Unlike you, I knew the rules when it came to opening the door because the league kind of informed me when I came in, Hey, here’s the do’s and don’ts, right? Um, one thing that I did do is [00:05:00] kind of spoke outta turn manager came to me, I was new, wanted to make a great first impression. So kind of told him the scope and what we were doing, and I got pulled to the side by the lead and said, Hey, all communication goes through me.

Mm-hmm. ’cause you could tell this manager something that’s not going to happen. And at that point we won’t exceed his expectations. We’ll probably be telling him something that we’re not doing. So what I need you to do is stay close to me. And direct everybody to me. That way they can communicate clearly through me.

Okay. I don’t have to worry about you not knowing what’s going on. But I was so eager, right? Just to jump in and help. I read the scope and I was ready to go and, uh, that wasn’t the way to go to, just to sit back and let the lead. Manage the facility and just sit back and play a, a role, which is helping

Andrew Catapano: Outstanding.

Heather Petrone: I wanna ask a question. What do you do though? Like if you’re, obviously you were a new employee with the company merchandising, and how did you, how did you set the tone for the first day? Like how, how do you stand [00:06:00] apart from somebody else that’s new? Um, to really show a good first impression like what you but without

Andrew Catapano: stepping outta line, like apparently he did.

Yeah. Yes. And

almost dismissed on his first day. Yep. Where’s the line? Good question though. So

Jimmy Knight: first thing was right eye, bushy tail being first air right before time is on time. Shaking the hand of the lead. You’re here at

Heather Petrone: seven 30 this morning?

Jimmy Knight: Absolutely. First one. You’re at 30 minutes early. Yeah. Here before he opened the building.

Yeah. Were you really? Because

Andrew Catapano: I was, I think I was the last, as always. He was here for an awesome, so show

Heather Petrone: up early. What else can you do?

Jimmy Knight: Uh, you, you know what? Be introduce yourself to the lead. Understand who’s the player. Mm-hmm. Who you, what you’re doing. Understand your scope, the tools that you need to have.

Mm-hmm. You know, those are some of the most important things that you can do to set the tone from the beginning because now that person looks at you and say, okay, this guy, he checked off three boxes on time, introduced himself, and he also has tools and ready for the job. Nice.

Andrew Catapano: I know we’re, I know we’re gonna, didn’t need to cut you off, Heather.

I know we’re gonna cut for a second, but I just wanna, uh, ask something, uh, [00:07:00] or say something ’cause you just raised a good point. Um, sometimes we always don’t know who’s watching. You know, and that’s something that also happened, uh, you know, in, in a lot of my field journeys here, that I, I’ve seen people say things or do things that they didn’t intend to be a first impression, but they didn’t realize who was watching them.

Mm-hmm. Or who could hear them or overhear them. I have actually been called on out on this many times. I am, I am reserved here today in the studio. I’ve got a lot of sound absorbing things around me. But I happen to have a booming voice. One that I’ve been told many times, carries many times. I have to just tone it down a little bit.

’cause I don’t really, I get passionate when I speak. Yeah. And I don’t realize that everyone else can hear around me. Has that ever happened to you either? Oh, I’m,

I have a loud, booming voice. I, I understand completely. Yeah.

Yeah. So sometimes I think we gotta be aware that even though we’re focused on that first impression, who we’re directly talking to, that maybe there’s some people around and he shot.

Heather Petrone: We need to

Andrew Catapano: Yeah. Agreed down. [00:08:00]

Heather Petrone: Um, we do have somebody from the field, uh, who is a district manager. She’s amazing. She’s from the, uh, Pacific Northwest, uh, Julie Ramsey. So I wanna hear from Julie now.

Andrew Catapano: Oh boy.

Julie: Julie,

Heather Petrone: what do you do to set the tone? Julie,

Julie: my advice to, um, set the tone correctly on your very first day of the job is make sure you show up at least five minutes early.

Before you get, actually, when you get your assignments from your um, district manager, make sure that they give you the phone number of your team lead, be in uniform. The DM will have told you exactly what you should wear your first day of work. When you arrive, if you have any issues, you have the phone number of the person that’s your direct contact in the store.

Call them with any issues that you have. Make sure you don’t oversell yourself if you under, if you don’t understand something, ask the question. We’re there to [00:09:00] support you, make you a success. And just because you don’t understand the terminology we may be using. We can explain it to you. Um, so it’s something that you do understand.

We wanna make you, um, be as the most successful person you can because we took the time to interview you and hire you because we saw potential in you. Um, just be ready to work. Don’t get frustrated. If you have any questions, ask them.

Andrew Catapano: I love that. Yeah. Excellent. Julie said something, uh, Jimmy, uh, don’t o explain.

Don’t oversell yourself. Yes. What are, you know, you’re our, you’re our connection to the field being here now at, at, at headquarters, and I know you know where you started and where you are now, but what does she meaning by don’t oversell yourself.

Jimmy Knight: You know, sometimes you a fine line between being confident and being cocky.

Okay. Right. If it’s something that you’ve done before and you know you can do it, just, just let the lead know. Um, but if you [00:10:00] don’t feel as though you understand it, don’t be afraid to reach out and say, Hey. Mm-hmm. I don’t, I don’t understand this. I need help with you. Always

Heather Petrone: better to ask questions. Oh, awesome.

Andrew Catapano: Mm-hmm. I love that. I, um, I. Sometimes it’s hard though. Sometimes we wanna make that first impression as we’re talking about. Sometimes you wanna, we don’t know really that line in between confident and cocky, and we just want to show that we know what we’re doing. But I think a lot of times when we do that, we find ourselves doing things or making choices that we’re unintended mm-hmm.

To, to make us look like, you know, we didn’t, we’re not putting our best foot forward where if we had just been. Vulnerable. Yeah. I think vulnerability’s a good word of just saying, listen, I’m vulnerable. I don’t know. I think the message here is it’s okay to ask. Yeah. Yeah. I agree. Okay.

Heather Petrone: We have another, uh, person joining us today, and she’s also district manager this time from Texas.

Uh, Leanne late is here. Uh, to let us know. What do you think is good to set the tone, Leanne?

Leanne: Thoughts on, on walking [00:11:00] into a store? First off, normally I ask them to, um. Ask for the vendor login book if they have one, and sign in well, before you go in. Wait, excuse me, before you go in. You best be in uniform and have a name badge, because that right there is gonna tell them, okay, vendor

Speaker 8: meant that.

Go

Leanne: ask, um, if they have a vendor log, get the vendor log, sign in. And while I’m asking them that, I’ll say, well, I, I would really like to speak to the manager I, and who might that be here today. And they might say, okay, John. Okay, will you tell John that I would like to talk to him? I’m a merchandiser. I’m here to do.

X, Y, Z project, and I would just like to go over it with them. That’s what I have my people do. You have to have all, it’s all about communication. All about communication. Mm-hmm.

Andrew Catapano: I think that’s a, you know, I’ve done some, I’ve spent a lot of time because I know we talked in our last, uh, our first podcast about our values [00:12:00] and everything, and I went through the whole transparency.

But yeah, you know, Ray is a good point here on communication that, um, you know, people forgive a lot. When you just talk to them. Right. You know, people forgive a lot when you explain to them. Mm-hmm. You know, oh, you’re late, you’re in the wrong spot. You should have picked this up. Why did you not? Well, I, I didn’t understand, or I did this, or, you know, that was my mistake and I’m gonna do it differently next time.

Mm-hmm. Or, Hey, just want to give you a heads up. I blocked something by the bailer over there. I. Couldn’t lift it. Uh, can someone help me? You know? Correct. I mean, I think there’s that combination between being vulnerable, as you had said, Jimmy, being honest with oneself about your capabilities, but then being able to communicate, I think that is key.

Yeah. I’ve seen so many people in their, really, their careers, whether they be, uh, young in their career or older in their career, forgetting that mm-hmm. As a key. Aspect to how to be successful. Mm-hmm. Uh, now I will, I will tell you, there’s come times in my, uh, career where I feel like I want to [00:13:00] tell people to maybe zip enough with the communication.

Speaker 8: Yes. We know

Andrew Catapano: I’ve been, uh, I’ve been told that a few times. There’s, there’s sometimes when I go to meetings, they, they, they tell me there’s a safe word.

Speaker 8: Safe word There

Andrew Catapano: is. I actually was, what is it? Do, do you wanna know what it I love You wanna know? Yeah. Okay, banana. So it’s

Heather Petrone: shut up. It’s, oh, it’s, isn’t that the go-to safe word for everything?

Andrew Catapano: Yeah, it is. It is banana. Yeah. Uh, which was good for me, but they added the Yes. So it’s bananas because I think, I don’t know if going bananas, it’s a comment on me or if it’s, so we were up in, um, and I’ll tell you it’s funny, we were up in, uh, uh, Minneapolis in Best Buy, right? We were doing a, uh, Jim and I and, and Jennifer Fisher, Finnegan, uh, Deidre, Rita Ma May, the whole team was up there.

Some of us zoom some person and they ran the risk of, of bringing me in person. And I had to have a safe word when I was talking that if I got a little bit too mouthy or I got, went down a thing and, and, and I’m not kidding, as soon as I got up. [00:14:00] Nobody said anything except a rep from Best Buy. Within two seconds she said bananas.

Speaker 8: Oh my gosh. I’m not kidding. It might not. That

Andrew Catapano: happened not only a, a couple weeks ago. Uh, but that is actually a true story. That’s great. But as far as communication in the field and as far as making sure that we own our vulnerability, um. We’re talking about first day. Yeah. You know, we’re gonna be nervous out there.

Yes. We’re not gonna know what to do. So, you know, gimme Jimmy. When, when you see some people, you know, walk in on their first day, what can you do if it’s not your first day to help that individual? Is that. I mean, what are we doing that we, if we see somebody, we’re cha When I went to the palette, everyone has been there for over a year, two, three years.

This is a team that’s been here, right? There was no new person on that squad. What if you got, you know, a four person team? You got one newbie. Right. [00:15:00] What should those four people be doing? Like how can they help?

Jimmy Knight: Uh, you know what? I would say you would need to be confrontational instead of confrontational.

Right. Gotta converse with the person, make ’em feel like they’re a part of the team. Mm-hmm. Introduce ’em to the team. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Uh, that makes it so much easier because sometimes being in a new setting. Working and you have a team, you instantly think, oh man, I’m not a part of these guys. So you gotta make that person feel welcome, feel a part of the team, talk with them, let ’em know what we’re doing, introduce ’em to everybody.

You know, once that happens, that kind of, the tenseness kind of alleviates things, you know? Yeah. Kind of like. Tossing the feather around, you know, ho ho.

Heather Petrone: Hopefully,

Andrew Catapano: hopefully we get back to that in a second. Hold on, Jimmy. We’re gonna tell people you meant there.

Heather Petrone: Hopefully, you know, the, the established reps too will have some empathy knowing that they were there one day.

So I would say. If you are already established, you know, just remember what it was like your first day and what your [00:16:00] feelings were and like how can, that can be a little intimidating and everything. But I, we do have, uh, Julie back to give us a little bit more information about, you know, setting the tone.

Again, we’re still trying to talk about like first impressions and everything. So, uh, Julie, can you, uh, chime in here?

Andrew Catapano: Oh, love it. Julie’s back.

Heather Petrone: What

Julie: I would do going into a new store is I would go find the store manager or store director, introduce myself, make sure they have my phone number, and tell them what I’m there to do.

And if I have a team coming, let them know. Let them know how long we’ll be in the store. The next person I would go and contact would be the actual department head. Do the exact same thing with them. And the third person who I believe personally is one of the most important is the receiving clerk. This person knows what’s going on in the back room at all times, and they can help you find things they can direct you in the right direction.

But they’re a really [00:17:00] good point of contact, and I would leave them my na name and number as well.

Heather Petrone: Nice. Yeah. The shipping in receiving clerk. Good point. Point. I mean, it’s great point. You, you have to find the fixtures and half the time you can’t find them. So you better, you better build a connection to that person.

That’s, that’s a good point.

Andrew Catapano: You know that, that happened too, but let’s I what I want, because that just happened. It’s such a great point. Julie. Thank you for coming back, by the way. Um, dropping bombs of knowledge on us. Yeah. So two things we’re really talking about today. We’re talking about the first impression.

You, yourself and with your team, right? Then we’ve got our first impression with a new store or a new store manager or a new store management team that we’ve never been, that we’ve never seen before. So I wanna make sure we’re clear on, on the two and, and, and I think what, what Julie’s talking about here, which is great, is let’s shift gears back or forward whatever we’re deciding to do, uh, based on our fluidity of conversation.

About a new store. So we’re coming to a new store we’ve never been before. We’re not necessarily new. Our team’s not new. We’re dealing with a new store. I [00:18:00] love the things she said here, and let’s just emphasize those. So, and Jimmy, I want you to gut check me here ’cause you’re my, you’re my voice of reason when I say something that’s not quite right about, you know, these, these processes.

Um, you go in. Do not just shuffle over to your area, right? You gotta make some eye contact. You gotta, is that a first thing? Meet and greet someone at that store and make a connection. Take me through the steps of a new store. Echoing what Julie had said. I love the shipping and receiving. Jimmy’s entering the store for the first time.

He’s gotta build a brand new fixture. It’s got team of three people, four people. These are veteran people. Take me through that team lead of how we’re dealing with that new store.

Jimmy Knight: First thing I would do would, would be, treat it as a home, right? Mm-hmm. We’re a guest in someone’s home, that’s our customer. I would walk up to the manager.

Introduce myself, let ’em know my team members exactly what the scope that we’re here to do and complete. So it make him feel comfortable with us being in his home.

Andrew Catapano: Right. Do you take your team [00:19:00] members with you at that moment or are you single team lead going not, you’re not bogging ’em down ’cause they probably gotta get ready for their days.

As store manager, are you just the point of contact? You’re saying, my team’s over there if you need anything, let me know. Are you bringing them all over? You introducing them all? How does it

Heather Petrone: team? Team leads are usually there early.

Jimmy Knight: Okay,

Heather Petrone: so the, the, the reps wouldn’t even be in the store at that point.

Right.

Jimmy Knight: But we would let ’em know, Hey, listen, I got a team of three or a team of four, and then we would find out what their practices are as far as safety is concerned. Mm-hmm. Opening doors. Oh, I see. Being let out. Okay. You know, that way now we kind of bridge that gap with talking with the manager, him understanding what we’re there for, understanding their processes so we can be able to kind of.

Um, work with the store and unity. Love

Heather Petrone: it. And listen, sometimes you’re not going in with a team. Sometimes you’re being hired to, you know, go in solo. Yeah. And that, and that’s when you’re gonna, and there’s a lot of people listening that are new hires that are gonna have to go to their first store, buy themselves at some point.

[00:20:00] And, you know, it’s not a bad idea to do, was it? Was it Al Pacino who did the whole thing in the mirror, like practicing? Like, who was it? No,

Andrew Catapano: no, no. Robert De Niro.

Heather Petrone: Robert De Niro. De Raging Bull, right? Raging bull. Okay. I’m getting, I’m getting my Italian actors mixed up

Andrew Catapano: easy. Now I’m, I’m getting my Italian actors

Heather Petrone: pizza bagel over here.

But maybe you wanna rehearse in the mirror. Maybe you wanna like, rehearse in your mind’s eye like going into the store and like planning out your day and like, what does that look like? Do I have my uniform on? Do you know? There’s studies that show that if you rehearse things in your mind’s eye, like you’ll actually execute better than.

Physically kind of practicing. I love that. So it’s not a bad idea to kind of go over that first day in your head and kind of, you know, let let it sink in of like, how are you gonna confidently walk up and like find the store manager or asso an associate to get the store manager, those kind of things.

However, there’s going to be times where you can’t rehearse things, right? Yeah. What do you do when there’s the unknown happening? Yeah. Like what if, what if a manager. At some point in the day comes [00:21:00] up to you. It’s your first day in the store, new manager, you know, you’re still trying to make a good first impression, and the manager asks you a question that you don’t know the answer to.

That’s right. What do you do?

Andrew Catapano: What did Mike Tyson, what songs were name drop? What did Mike Tyson say? Everyone’s got a plan until you’re punched in the mouth. That’s

Heather Petrone: it. There

you go. So,

so Jimmy, have you been there? Have you, you know, been asked a question that you didn’t know? How to answer. Yeah. And what did you do in that situation?

You

Jimmy Knight: know, what I tried to do is try to be informed. If I don’t know it, I let ’em know. I do not know it, and I’ll reach out to the people, right. My team that I have surrounded me to be able to get that answer and let ’em know. Right. Hey, I’ll come back and circle back to you. Yeah. But right now I don’t have that answer to give you.

It’s better. Being honest and open, honest. Mm-hmm. You know, instead of just making something up. Right. Because, uh, it bites you,

Heather Petrone: it does. Right. It’ll backfire if you, if you lie,

Andrew Catapano: you know, and it’s all playing off each other and what you just said there. ’cause that’s hard and I’m not going to. Get [00:22:00] into the, uh, psychosis of either people or, or demographics or uh, uh, you know, how different people handle different situations.

But I know I have a problem sometimes, and I thought maybe it was my age, my experience being a man who knows. I don’t like saying when I’m wrong. I don’t like saying, I don’t know. Maybe that’s the father instinct in me. Yeah, because when my little 7-year-old son asked me a question, daddy’s gotta have an answer, right?

Mm-hmm. Dad, why is the sky blue? I, I remember, I think it reflects off the ocean. Isn’t that right? I don’t know. And I’m gonna give him a solid, convicted answer, right? Mm-hmm. Because I don’t want daddy to be wrong, right? So. What take Did you, and I’m Heather, maybe I’ll throw it to you because you are extremely, uh, confident and I’ve noticed that about you as I’ve gotten to know you.

How do you deal with, are you okay with just saying you don’t know a hundred? I’m gonna get you an answer.

Heather Petrone: A hundred percent. I’m totally fine by saying I don’t know. However, I will try to figure it out [00:23:00] and that’s the thing. I think when you have. Um, when you’re looking at the, not the problem, but the solution, then your energy is going to be towards, you know, finding a resolution for that.

Like, so, and we have Julie here and I’m sure she has some really good advice as well.

Speaker 5: Oh,

Heather Petrone: um, so let’s ask Julie again. What do you do when you don’t know. You know an answer. What do you do

Julie: if asked a question you do not know the answer to? What I suggest you do is tell them, I’m not a hundred percent sure.

On the answer to that, can you give me a few minutes so I can get the correct answer for you and not mislead you in any way? I wanna make sure I take care of you correctly. You’re building trust and you’re helping them understand that you’re there to serve them and help them do things correctly. Um, if we become just.

Yes, people. Yeah, I’ll take care of it. Yeah, I’ll take care of it. And we don’t really know what to do. [00:24:00] Then that builds distrust with the client rather than trust. And that’s, we, especially the reps in the field, there are our representation of a company. They’re the eyes that the stores see. And um, if. If they feel that they’re being taken care of, then it’s gonna just go, it’s the one time it goes upward rather than downward.

Heather Petrone: Yeah. What I’d like to say is, you know, she’s bringing up transparency, which is a core value of ours, right? Yes. And, and this is super important. Like you cannot mislead and just be this yes person and then do it wrong, because then they’re never gonna trust that you’re gonna do it. Right. You know? Yeah. So what she’s saying is absolutely valid.

Speaking of transparency, we have another, uh, we have a she, and by the way, Julie won, uh, a core value award for transparency. Did she? Yes. Yes.

Andrew Catapano: Congratulations. You, and

Heather Petrone: you could tell, right? Yes. She’s very transparent just talking with us. Absolutely. But we do have another. Uh, [00:25:00] core value transparency winner, and she’s actually a team lead also in the Pacific Northwest.

She is, falls under Julie. Um, so I would love to hear her feedback about this Pacific Northwest. Yeah, it’s

Speaker 9: Pacific Northwest. Okay. Nine times. It’s probably raining there. We’ll see. Call knowing your support system is, it takes time, but it’s very important, you know what I mean? Um, the support that you get from your project managers along with the store will make or break a project, you know?

And if I don’t know the answer to a question, I’m gonna probably have an answer within the next 30 minutes no matter what.

Heather Petrone: Yeah, your support system is huge. So, Emily, this is Emily. Um, and she knows who her, her project manager is. She knows she can always call her dm. I’m sure she has everybody’s phone number in her phone, you know, so at the drop of a hat, she can just pick up the phone and call somebody to get that answer.

If she doesn’t know the question to something, she’s going to be proactive and figure it out.

Andrew Catapano: Yeah.

Heather Petrone: Because she has that support system and she [00:26:00] knows that she’s built those connections with, you know, people in ops who are above her. Mm-hmm. So she can turn to, um, people above Yeah. To get, to provide the answer for her.

Andrew Catapano: And I’ve witnessed this so many times in the field. I’ve seen, you know, we have this wonderful call center run by Matt Britten, and then we’ve got, you know, obviously these great, uh, FOMs and district managers and, and headquarters people who could support. But I, I’ve witnessed so many times this peer-to-peer.

Support. Mm-hmm. Which I’ve noticed, right? Yeah. So you’re working with someone in the field, they, you see them do something you’ve not seen done before. You’re having a problem with something. I’ve seen people just calling people they’ve worked with before. Oh yeah. And on

Heather Petrone: social, they connect on, on Facebook groups.

Yeah. You know, we have a Facebook group that they connect and they’ll literally throw up a post on the Facebook group and say, I don’t know what I’m doing with this. Can anybody provide? And boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. They get comments back. Yeah. And immediately find resolution. They’re using their resources.

That’s being resourceful.

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Andrew Catapano: Yeah, I love that. And I think that, you know, Jimmy, when we’re talking about setting the stage between being. I know we talked about this in the last one. You know, I want to, I wanna really bring this point home that there are differences between communication, transparency, and honesty. There, there was a reason we chose, and if you missed our first episode, when I really did a, a deeper dive into this, we realized that transparency is different than honesty.

Let’s leave communication up both types of communication in some PA cases, but transparency is just this, almost this level of vulnerability. Yes. That says, look, I am what I am. Right, and I’m gonna give you an open look into that. I’m not going to try to manipulate, I’m not trying try to hide. I’m not gonna try to think about what I’m going to say to make you get a reaction.

I’m just gonna be who I am and if you have a question, I will answer it. But I will also be forthcoming with information, like you had said, coming to the store too. So transparency is about this two-way openness about just being vulnerable, maybe not knowing, knowing you don’t know, have all the answers, [00:29:00] maybe knowing that you may, you know, you’re in.

You’re an, you’re an introvert who maybe isn’t great at meeting people for the first time, but you’re gonna tell people that. Right? Right, right. Because say, Hey, listen, as you know, I’m not, it’s my first time in this store. I just wanna get to know everybody. Who are you? What do you do, you know here. Right.

Let’s do that. Mm-hmm. I mean, do you, when we’re talking though, Jimmy, about this level of transparency and, uh, is there a. Because people always tell me too, is there a line though between the honesty of transparency and say, listen man, if you’re new, yeah. It’s a little fake it till you make it too. Let’s not go in there shouting from the rooftops that you are new.

It’s my first job, or whatever it might be. Is there a line between those two that you say, Hey listen, we want confident, not cocky, but we also want strength.

Speaker 8: Mm-hmm.

Andrew Catapano: Maybe even before you feel like you got all the muscles to be strong. I don’t know. Is there something there as well?

Jimmy Knight: It’s a, like you said, and [00:30:00] to be honest with you, when it, when it comes to being vulnerable, trust has to be there because if you don’t trust the person mm-hmm.

Oh yes. You can’t be vulnerable. Mm-hmm. And that helps open up that transparency. Mm-hmm. So the communication can go back and forth. Right. I have to be able to trust you to be vulnerable with you and, and that communication between two people. If you have a relationship, makes it all more be all more better.

Right? Yeah. Hey, it does let,

Heather Petrone: let’s, uh, switch gears here. ’cause I’m just thinking like, you know, we talked about, you know, one, maybe possibly rehearsing to give a good first impression and everything. Yep. And, and being, uh, you know what, not just like walking into somebody’s home without them knowing, right?

Yeah, exactly. You gotta kind of knock on the door. There’s no door to knock on in the store. Yeah. But, and then we also talked about what do you do when. You don’t have the answers. You can’t rehearse something and you, you know, you’re, something comes up on the fly and you don’t know the answer to it. But now I wanna talk about setbacks.

Mm. And how, how do you [00:31:00] handle setbacks? And you actually told me this morning with the Breville project, right? Yes. You had a setback with that. Can you talk about what you do? How do you handle that with the client? How do you handle that with the store?

Jimmy Knight: So generally when you get setbacks, you gotta step back, right?

Gotta take a look at it. Briefly. Can you explain

Andrew Catapano: a setback a little more clearly for maybe some of our first time listeners who’s their first day on the job? Potentially

Jimmy Knight: a hiccup, something goes wrong, hiccup, something goes wrong. You, you got the plans, you have the scope, you, you did A, B, C, and something’s not right and now you’re trying to figure out.

What did I do here? Mm-hmm. What did I do wrong, right? Mm-hmm. So when you get those setbacks, you step back, take a look at it, reach out to anybody that you, that that’s done it before to be able to help you with the communication. Sometimes some people are visual, some people you can shoot an email to and they can be able to figure it out.

But when you get that setback, you gotta now dig deep, right? Are you accountable? Make yourself accountable for the setback. Right. Just say, Hey, I did something wrong here. Mm-hmm. And I [00:32:00] don’t know what it is. In this case, we had a set that, we did a fixture, we followed the, um, the manufacturer build on it.

Unfortunately, instead of building it from the top down, no, the ground, we builded it from the bottom up. Uh oh. So, um, once we figured out what the issue was. Um, well, that’s

Heather Petrone: how the directions were. Yeah. The directions were that way. Said to build the directions from Okay. The client said to build it from the ground up, but it was actually, they figured it out that they couldn’t do it that way.

Andrew Catapano: Okay.

Heather Petrone: So it wasn’t necessarily, you know, on them, but it was just a bad situation with communication and it, things got mixed up, but they had to set it right.

Jimmy Knight: Yep. So basically once they got the, um. New plants. Yeah. Right. Which says top down. Okay. Which came from the customer, but it was last minute after we did our first set, so, um.

We started spreading all the communication out to the field, to everybody holding meetings, calls. Yep. So you had that, just like that social media thing. People put [00:33:00] it out there, Hey, you can’t do it this way, you have to do it this way. Mm-hmm. You gotta go top down. Spread the word. So they spread the word.

Okay. And it, it was like wildfire. Now a 12 hour set now gets done in eight. Mm-hmm. Right. Because of the fact that that communication

Heather Petrone: Right. I wanna ask lean Leanne’s back. Oh, so I do wanna ask Leanne, her thoughts on this. What do you do to remain professional, Leanne? When there’s, when there’s hiccups or setbacks,

Leanne: I mean, you just own up, if I’ve done something wrong, transparent, tell, tell someone quickly I made a mistake.

And, and, and I mean, I mean, we’re, we’re not perfect. There are mistakes that happen, but say it quickly and get a resolution.

Andrew Catapano: Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So. Thank you so much. That was a real time example of the difference between transparency and honesty.

Heather Petrone: Mm-hmm.

Andrew Catapano: Transparency’s about getting in front of it, being proactive, explaining where you’re at, and honesty is about waiting until someone asks you a question.

True. Based on something they see is not [00:34:00] quite right. Right. And she

Heather Petrone: won a transparency award too. Yeah. Leanne also won a transparency award.

Andrew Catapano: There is a difference between people go, well, I’m being honest. Yeah, but I had to come ask you. Correct. All right. Correct. Why don’t you come be a little more proactive?

Right. Tell me where you’re at. Right. Maybe in that situation, can I ask you a little follow up now, because you realized you had done that. Did you have to stay in the store longer than you thought? Did you have to explain to people, listen, this is why it’s taking so long. Maybe they’re looking at you going, this team just doesn’t know what they’re doing.

Right. Yeah. But if you’re not communicating, so

Heather Petrone: yeah. Uh, Julie, Julie’s also back here. I wanna hear. All right. ’cause she always has great nuggets of information. She does.

Julie: There are times when we’re working in stores that we may make a huge mistake or a hiccup in the store. Uh. First thing you wanna do is you wanna go and be completely transparent with the store.

Tell ’em what you did incorrectly. Make sure that they know you’re gonna take care of it and make it right for them because, [00:35:00] um, things do happen. It’s not something to freak out about. It’s don’t just all rush it under the rug. Let them know if they’re hearing it from us. That’s another level of being trustworthy.

Um, the, the transparency then needs to go to our. Um, project managers and your district manager, nobody wants to be blindsided. Just say, Hey, we reset Sally Hansen incorrectly, as an example, or I didn’t put the graphics on the correct, um, model that I needed to, I need to redo it. I want you to know that’s why I’m taking a little bit longer and I mean here.

Um, ’cause I want it right or I. I lost the graphics and I have to reorder ’em. I I’ll get it taken care of and we’ll, we’ll take care of you correctly. That’s what we want. Um, because things happen. If everybody hears it directly from you first, then it doesn’t blow up into an escalated situation. It’s if we [00:36:00] just, oh, maybe they won’t notice it.

We don’t ever wanna do that. We wanna be just, like I say, transparent, right? This is what happened.

Heather Petrone: Yeah, that, and it, it’s a good point. You know, she, she talks about things happening, like things happen in the store and, you know, not only do they happen in the store, things happen in people’s personal lives too.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve, you know, been down, you know, uh, at a store to film something for a training and got wind. Somebody’s car got a, had a flat tire or something like that. So

yes,

you know, when there’s open communication. From an employee to their manager, even that’s going to build trust with your manager.

Guess what? You’re probably going to get called in to do more work. When they feel that they can trust you. When they feel that they are getting that open communication, you know, you’re always answering the phone, you’re always answering text messages, you’re always looking at your emails. Mm-hmm. Keeping that open.

Communication is vital for you to get more work, right? Sure. So I wanna kind of [00:37:00] switch gears and talk about building trust a little bit more. But now I wanna talk about what happens like in your personal life. Like have, do you have an example, Jimmy, of, you know, somebody, um, showing transparency with their personal lives at all?

Like, you know, do you have any kind of example about that? I mean, I know Emily and Emily’s here too, she’s gonna answer this, but I was just curious.

Jimmy Knight: Yeah. Yeah. I, you know, I had some, sometimes you get some guys in the field that may have transportation issues, right? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And they don’t communicate it well.

So you saying, Hey, this is the third job you’ve been laid on. What’s going on to try to get that communication. If, if they don’t trust you, they won’t tell you. However, if they do trust you, right? Or if you feel as if you open that bridge up for them to be able to communicate, right? Then they’ll tell you, Hey, listen, I’ve been late because I, I got car issues I didn’t want to tell you guys.

Yeah.

Heather Petrone: Yeah. You raise a good point too, because it’s, it’s, now you’re talking about the manager needs to be trustworthy enough [00:38:00] with their demeanor and how they’re interacting with a rep to make them feel comfortable enough to open that communication up, right? Yes. So if you’re, if, if you’re. You know, very kind of like walled up and like, where were you?

You know, where, you know, that’s not gonna get you an honest answer, you know? Yeah. Yeah. So I think managers listening, this is a good point, but I, I would like to turn to Emily ’cause she’s had some issues in the past and I know that Julie said she’s always been very transparent with her. So, Julie,

Andrew Catapano: oh, love it.

Heather Petrone: I’m sorry, Emily. Emily,

Speaker 9: you have to be transparent with your dm For sure. Honest, transparent. Um. Either way. Like sometimes you know, your car does break down or you get a toothache or you know, you never know there’s a funeral, someone passes away. Your best bet is always to be honest with your DM across the board.

’cause your DM is who you work hand in hand with across the board. Um, we’ve had to go to about a lot of things, you know, whether it was having [00:39:00] COVID, you know, someone passed away and we got a drive to Utah at the drop of a hat. Um, but no matter what, being honest, communicative. And transparent with your DM is key to success in your job.

It’s literally like your backbone to everything you do. You.

Speaker 5: Mm-hmm.

Andrew Catapano: I love that. That’s paramount. I love that. And you know, and I hate to keep bringing these points home ’cause she’s used the words honesty and transparency. You know, maybe you do have an unreliable car. And the transparent thing would be to say, Hey listen, team lead dm, I have an unreliable car, but I’m gonna do my best.

You know, and a backup plan and everything else. That’s the transparency, the honesty is, if you’re late telling me you always had a broke down car. Right. But I, little, little sidebar here, I will tell you, and I, I, there are ways to break that trust. Uh, and, and I will tell you in, in, in college when, when, when I, uh, I had a roommate who was uh, not gonna go to his internship the next day.

Uh, a little bit of a rough night, you know, it was college, right? A little cocktail flu or something. Uh, [00:40:00] fun fact, everybody that I learned on that day, the clear button of a microwave sounds a lot like the beeping noise of a hospital room. So if you find yourself in a bind, oh

Heather Petrone: my gosh, be

Andrew Catapano: clear. The repeated touching of a clear button, when you are on the phone telling people you do, do not listen

Heather Petrone: to him.

Don’t, this is not good advice. This is on, do not listen to Andrew. Cancel, cancel. Listen

Andrew Catapano: of that moment. I never believed another word coming outta that young man’s mouth, but I was like, where are you going? He’s like, dude, I gotta get to the kitchen. I was like, what? Oh my

Speaker 8: gosh. Oh my gosh. Alright, alright.

I’m

Andrew Catapano: sorry

Speaker 8: I No, it’s okay. That is trick.

Andrew Catapano: Oh my goodness.

Heather Petrone: Well,

Andrew Catapano: anyway, I can guarantee you anyway, I digress here on the bridge. Okay. No, no, nothing’s off the table except for that one. Okay. If I hear any clear buttons being pressed or stop buttons we’re in trouble.

Heather Petrone: No one listened to Andrew for advice. Now, [00:41:00] um, Julie has really good, uh, nuggets again, and I know that she had an issue at one point where she did have to be very transparent with us.

Not too long ago. So, um, Julie’s back. Julie,

Julie: there have been times in my career I’ve had to be completely transparent with the company over a health issue. Um, what I did is I made sure they knew what my parameters could be for working. And just was, you don’t have to go into every single detail about it, but if you’re constantly waiting for your husband to come home at night, ’cause he works graveyard to give you the car, and that’s what makes you be late.

If you let us know that that’s happening, we can work with you. We know people have things going on in their lives. Another example is I’ve had individuals that, um. In fact, she even won a, a transparency award as well, that when she was first hired, [00:42:00] she was unable to have any type of electricity. They lived in a tent.

They moved here, they didn’t have any housing. They lived in a tent and so she didn’t respond right away, but she would, she would get back to me and she let me know what was going on. Just saying, Hey, I don’t have access to keep my phone charged all the time. Um, but I will check it every day at this time.

And they turned out to be some of the best workers I’ve ever had. And this has been. You know, close to 10 years ago, and they’re excelling extremely well on the company. Just being forthcoming is extremely important. No one needs to know every single detail. Don’t be embarrassed. Just say, you know what? I cannot be there at this time because I have to get my kids off to school.

We believe family is very important. We’ll support you if we can adjust the time for your start. You know, there are gonna be times we cannot, but we would rather [00:43:00] have a good worker that shows up and is dependable and reliable. If we know what’s going on, everybody will work with that. It’s when you say, I’ll be there at 5:00 AM and you can’t show up at 5:00 AM and you know you can’t from the get go, you just have to let us know.

We’re a company that does have some flexibility and we wanna make everybody a success. E

Andrew Catapano: excellent feedback. And I know we’re coming up against our, our, our time here. I, I wanna make a point though, and I don’t want to be the guy that is the, the antithesis of everything we just talked about to transparency, honesty, and communication.

Okay? But I feel like it’s important to note here, listen, just because you are honest, just because you are transparent, just because you are communicative. You also have to sometimes prepare for consequences.

Heather Petrone: Mm-hmm.

Andrew Catapano: Okay. So sometimes, at the end of the day, that type of atmosphere of transparency, honesty, and communication doesn’t always beget forgiveness sometimes.

[00:44:00] Okay. At some point, um, you know, there is a fool me once, shame on you, fool me once, shame fool me twice, shame on me, right? So, um, let’s be honest, let’s be transparent, but let’s not forget. That’s not a pass to poor performance or that is not a pass for not living up to expectations. And

Heather Petrone: that’s on the manager’s, uh, you know, side to be able to communicate that this isn’t gonna slide a second time.

So, you know, you gotta, you gotta also like, have the manager communicate, Hey, unfortunately I can’t work with this. Yep. You know, whatever this is that you’re presenting to me. Either you can work with it or you can’t work with it. Yeah. And if you can’t work with it, the manager has to communicate that.

Then hopefully, you know, the employee will find a resolution to make it work. Mm-hmm. Um, but if not, sometimes it doesn’t always work out. Right. Maybe this is not That’s right. The best fit. Yeah. Um, because it has, it’s a two-way street. So,

Andrew Catapano: and I will say, and I know we’re closing now, I’ve always lived the moniker or, or the [00:45:00] mantra, however you wanna say it.

If, if you were, and go both ways, if you were good at it, you’d enjoy it. If you enjoyed it, you’d be good at it, right? So if you find yourself, and it’s not enjoyable, if you find yourself, it’s not, you know, sometimes, you know, like relationships, not everything is the perfect fit. We hope it is. We hired you for a reason.

We keep you here for a reason. You want to be here for a reason. But at the end of the day, I, I believe we only go around one time. So make the most of your time here and make it impactful for yourself and others. And not everything is, you know, there are, we want you to be honest. We want you to be transparent.

We want you to be vulnerable. Uh, we want you to be communicative. Uh, but at the end of the day, you know, um, we also want to enjoy what we do. Mm-hmm. Right? And we wanna enjoy those we work with. Right? All right guys. Listen. I have so enjoyed episode two here of the Bridge with my good friends, Heather, uh, and Jimmy Page Knight.

Who knows? It doesn’t matter.

Speaker 5: Jimmy Page. We’re, we, we’re,

Andrew Catapano: we’re gonna, [00:46:00] uh, we’re we, who knows if the name of this podcast is even gonna stay? His name may change at the end. I may be different at the end. Uh, episode two now in the books. And remember, it’s the way you communicate. It’s the way you create vulnerability, which builds trust.

Yes, you take, uh, you take accountability, I’ve heard. Uh, but the best thing you do is get out there, communicate, own your activities. Mm-hmm. Be accountable. And most of all, everybody. Have fun. Right? All right. We’ll see you at the next, uh, uh, podcast of the bridge. It has been so enjoyable. Any closing remarks from my two counterparts here?

Are we outta here?

Heather Petrone: I think we, we want you to tune into episode three, power Moves. Own Your Growth

Andrew Catapano: Power Moves, own your growth. Everybody have a wonderful day out there or night depending on where you’re listening from.