HR BESTIES - Corporate Social Responsibility - Charities and Volunteering

Episode Date: October 30, 2024

Today’s agenda:  20 pounds of carrots Cringe corporate speak: e-meet Hot topic: Corporate Social Responsibility What does it mean? Employee financial circumstances Providing opportunities without pressure Best practices Questions/Comments  Your To-Do List: Grab merch, submit Questions & Comments, and make sure that you’re the first to know about our In-Person Meetings (events!) at https://www.hrbesties.com. Follow your Besties across the socials and check out our resumes here: https://www.hrbesties.com/about.  We look forward to seeing you in our next meeting - don’t worry, we’ll have a hard stop! Yours in Business + Bullsh*t,  Leigh, Jamie & Ashley Follow Bestie Leigh! https://www.tiktok.com/@hrmanifesto https://www.instagram.com/hrmanifesto https://www.hrmanifesto.com Follow Bestie Ashley! https://www.tiktok.com/@managermethod  https://www.instagram.com/managermethod https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleyherd/ https://managermethod.com Follow Bestie Jamie! https://www.millennialmisery.com/ Humorous Resources: Instagram • YouTube • Threads • Facebook • X Millennial Misery: Instagram • Threads • Facebook • X Horrendous HR: Instagram • Threads • Facebook Tune in to “HR Besties,” a business, work and management podcast hosted by Leigh Elena Henderson (HRManifesto), Ashley Herd (ManagerMethod) and Jamie Jackson (Humorous_Resources), where we navigate the labyrinth of corporate culture, from cringe corporate speak to toxic leadership. Whether you’re in Human Resources or not, corporate or small business, we offer sneak peeks into surviving work, hiring strategies, and making the employee experience better for all. Tune in for real talk on employee engagement, green flags in the workplace, and how to turn red flags into real change. Don't miss our chats about leadership, career coaching, and takes from work travel and watercooler gossip. Get new episodes every Wednesday and Friday, follow us on socials for the latest updates, and join us at our virtual happy hours to share your HR stories. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

So, back in the day, I did a lot of drugs. Well, just alcohol. I went to a state school. This is the best Madlib intro. Your pause set it up for that. So now my mind's wandering to places that I'm excited to see whether they're going to go or not. I'm so sorry.

I was just like, oh! What's wild is I was going to say volunteering. You said drugs and I was like volunteering. Wow. All right. I took it somewhere. I know. I know.

But with a past employer, I had the wonderful opportunity, and I don't mean that sarcastically. I mean that earnestly, to sit on a couple of boards here in San Antonio. And one I got to sit on was the food bank. And so that's definitely a cause that I certainly take to heart personally and then for my local community here. And I was able to establish a relationship with the New Braunfels Food Bank, that's a small town outside of San Antonio, with our work location. And back in kind of that COVID time, if you will recall, people are furloughed, people are worse than than it is now, or perhaps now the same.

I don't know. But it was very hard times, correct? And we saw that the San Antonio Food Bank made the global news for having, you know, the longest lines for food and all of this. I mean, it was very tragic here in this area in particular. And so, my employer, I got them on board to host food drives, which is fantastic, right? Where the food bank comes and they set up shop and the employees volunteer. And we had 10 lines. People are driving through,

they're waiting in their cars, we're putting everything in the cars, full day event. We're serving thousands of people in one day, so incredible. It was wonderful to partner with the food bank and coordinate that. But I couldn't help but just chuckle on the event days because of what we were passing out. It was like donations, of course, and whatnot, but it would be no shit. We would send people home with like 30 pounds of celery. Celery, and then there would be a box of shrimp, and then a log of sausage. And you know, it's kind of this mismatch, podge

podge of just, you know, all these things. And, and I'm, you know, I'm sure people, obviously they were so grateful. We were so grateful to have the opportunity to pass those things out. But I will never forget this poignant conversation I had while I was standing with a coworker of mine and you know mine, and he's from the UK. He turned to me and he said, guys, this just blows my mind that we're doing this. I was like, right, isn't it great? I'm like, yeah, it's wonderful, right? He's like, no, the fact that we have to do this in the US, he's like, we would never

do this in the UK. We just wouldn't see this like this. We would just already be supporting people behind the scenes. This wouldn't be a thing, to have a food bank like this, and to have a food drive, and to be giving people 20 pounds of carrots. That was his station at one point, 20 pounds of carrots. We're making stew tonight, fish stew or something. But I just remember him being really, really blown away. And Mike, I just kind of had one

of those light bulb, mind blown moments. Because if you've ever only known a certain culture or perspective, to have someone say that, like, wow, I can't believe we're doing this, but it's kind of like in this melancholy way, it just really takes you aback. That, wow, look at us doing this food drive. Everyone's so excited and yay and whatever. And then you have all the international folks, they're like mind blown and their eyes are wide. Like, oh my gosh, you know, like Americans are crazy.

I know. Yeah. I mean, the fact that we have to crowd source for basic items, like even when I was posting the teachers Amazon wishlist list. Like, what? And I had so many people from different countries reach out and be like, wait, I don't understand that they don't provide any of this. No, they don't.

And the teacher's salary is so low that they have to crowdsource for basic school supplies. Like, it's wild that this is what we're so used to, even just from food to basic needs, basic human needs. I know, right? Truth. So just a little hot goss from the water cooler there. Being an adult has its high points.

You can eat ice cream for dinner any anytime, like I did last night. Or watch all of those Netflix documentaries. But it's not all fun and games. You also have to do your taxes and figure out what's for dinner every freaking night. That's why I had ice cream last night. And make doctor's appointments. And for that one, there is ZocDoc. Oh, thankful.

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Shifting gears and a line to that hot goss. Shall we kick off the agenda? Up first, we have Cringe Corporate Speak and Jamie has that covered for us today. Again, just a friendly reminder, try to use it, or don't in your work day. Yeah, now you could do a drinking game with it after work if you need to. And then of course we will pivot to our hot topic, which today is everything,

basically corporate social responsibility. So corporate giving campaigns, volunteering at work. We get a lot of questions on this. And as you can imagine, we do have a bit of an inside scoop on the behind the scenes of all of those things, right? So that should be a good hot topic. And then, per usual, we will end with some questions and comments. All right, well, we got that hard stop today. So Jamie, you want to cringe us out? Yeah.

So today's word is emeet, which I don't know. I mean, I guess I've seen it a lot more frequently post-pandemic, because you're truly remote and you're meeting people over email. It's so nice to e-meet you. I don't know. I just hate it so much. Oh, okay. Yes. That's how you mean it. Yeah. You know, I do not say that. It's never been a part of the vernacular anywhere I've worked, but I have received that for sure. What do you all say in that? Like when you...

I just usually say it's nice to meet you or something. It's great to quote me, meet you. It's great to be connected. Like I say that a lot, I think. I don't say e-meat. I don't think I've actually ever used e-meat. Me neither. Me neither.

But people are using it more, Jamie, you're right. It's giving LinkedIn for some reason for me. I may just use e-meat in person, just weird people out. You know what I mean? But again, you get people avoiding you probably. So it's good. It works. Oh my God, that'd be nice to meet you.

Work, work. We're nuts. We're nuts. Here we are. Oh gosh. Here we are trying to reinvent wheels. Shall we pivot? Shall we pivot to the hot topic for today?

Everything CSR, as you may have heard, or corporate social responsibility, everything corporate giving programs, everything volunteerism at work, all of those things. As I mentioned, we get so many questions on this topic. So ladies, curious, what questions have you received on this topic? Well, I mean, just raise a hands and yes, you too driving in your car on your way to work. How many have you guys had to donate money from your check, you know, your bi-weekly check for like United Way or something to wear jeans. I'm raising my hand. Yeah. Yeah. That was a price.

Oh, for the proliferation of jeans for a month or something. Is that what you got one time? Like, you got jeans for how long? One day or what? I think if I remember correctly, this was my first job out of college. If we donated at least $5 from every paycheck, we could wear, for the whole year, we could wear jeans every Friday, if I remember correctly. And I fucking did it. Are you kidding me? Yeah, I had to pay to wear jeans.

Now granted, it was going to a good cause, but really. I know, like 1% of that, but yeah. Depending on the journey. And knowing how much I made at that job. Oh, I know. Oh my God. Like that's like, and I paid $5 to wear jeans. When you say corporate social responsibility,

the thing that sticks to me is that for a lot of organizations, what that means is window dressing. Because in the last decade, that term, CSR, corporate social responsibility, a lot of boards of directors or even certain regulations in certain locations, especially around the world, but have this to put out this statement. And it says, and it covers all things, how you treat labor, how you treat the environment,

things that really talk about that employer's ties to the communities that you serve and that you work within. So, overall, it's super, super important, but that really falls into, a lot of times we talk up on this podcast, this idea that at work, often the question is, what do we have to do? When we, the three of us, really push you, especially in HR, no matter what your role is, to think about what can we do to help and support others at work and help and support ourselves? Corporate social responsibility often falls into this like, check the box, what do we have to put? What do we have to say, and what

makes us look good without actually having as much effort. And so that's, it's like the rub that, especially where it's regulatory or it's pushed for, it's better than not because left alone, a lot of places wouldn't care, but it's changing the mindset as opposed to just the obligation. I've always really enjoyed the cultures where that really was the culture. Like the kind of what can we do? Let's make time to do it, right? The organizations that give volunteer days and are supporting employees in the workplace in their charitable and volunteering efforts. Like I mentioned, working for the organization, that allowed me to partner with the food bank and

then bring that in and making time for that because of course that takes time out of my workday, but they're like, hey, we support that. I love it when it's part of the culture. You do feel this altruism or this kind of the giving. What I don't appreciate, and I've worked at these places too, and you're definitely touching on that Ashley, are the organizations that it's more of a check the box. It's not part of the culture. They're not even giving to employees, so they could really give a shit whether they give to the community or whether their employees do or whether they care for their community. I tend to see, at least again in my experience, that these organizations are doing those big campaigns and throwing it on someone at the office to kind of coordinate this thing.

And they're kind of checking that box. And instead of their billion dollar, multi-billion dollar ass making a donation to something, they're having the employees do it and running all of that. And so I know there's lots of complaints on the corporate giving programs and I've received, those are a lot of the comments or questions that I've received kind of in this space. Are they a scam? Should I donate? Will I be blackballed if I don't?

Do people know whether I'm donating or not? All of these things. Exactly. That's the giveaway right there. Well, with the jeans day, they sure do. It's the tell. It's that aspect of like altruism. So like, are you doing this because you want to give or because there's a reward or you have to and there's a difference between incentives and like disincentives like embarrassment. But I do. I know someone that absolutely got

a ding on this, got it brought up in their performance review about not donating as part of their culture and their citizenship. And I'd made a video on this and people were like, no, who cares? So many people were like, oh my God, yes. Oh my God, yes. I had my manager bring this up. I've had the CEO walking by with checklists and at times HR because some of those people are like, I've had HR that goes through and they have managers reach out to or the pressure that people will say we want every team to be at 100% giving. Oh yeah.

We'll give you a pizza party. And so that gets into really personal conversations, especially when you have a manager that's getting that pressure and they're like,, guys, everybody donate even something. And you have team members that are like, you don't know my financial situation. And I should be the recipient. I am or could be or need to be the recipient of this aid or at least I just I'm barely scraping by. I don't have things to give. Yeah. Yes. I mean, I remember being at an employer and they just wanted to pay $12 an hour entry and they are bullying, that's how I took it, bullying employees to do the, every, what

is it, the automatic, like you were saying, Jamie, the automatic and the biweekly. Yeah, the biweekly. Yeah, exactly. Power reduction. However much. And they had the thermometer with the percentage. Oh, yeah. reduction, however much. And they had the thermometer up with the percentage. You've seen the big thermometer and they're coloring it in with the marker and all of this. And

I'm like, some of these employees make $12 an hour and you want them to contribute every paycheck. Are you kidding me? And then you're bullying them about it. And to your point, Ashley, people are bringing it up or, you know, there's some sort of measure, right? And for me, I personally didn't like feeling pressured because I didn't want to donate my money to an organization that I knew had 95% of contributions go to admin fees and their CEO was a multimillionaire. And I'm like, that's disingenuous. I would prefer to put my money locally, which I do.

And it's, you know what I mean? Like I wanted to target certain organizations that meant more to me. But then I'm pressured here, especially as a leader in the organization, you know, to at least what contribute $5 a paycheck to something I don't believe in. That sucks. The pressure. Have you all had to do that or felt that pressure? Yeah. Well, and a lot of times it feels like they just want photos to put on their website. It's more the look so that potential vendors or clients or potential employees come and they see, Oh, look, we, you know,

once a year we go to a food bank and we pack the boxes or, or what have you. And you know, one thing I did, I have learned in my 21 years is not always, but sometimes you're not actually, you're paying back the company for the donation that was already made. You're not actually, you're, you're not giving it directly to the company. Now, granted, not, not everywhere's like that. And I've seen it reverse to where your money is truly going monthly on a check to that program, but it's not always like that. So just be aware of that. Sometimes

it's better for you to get on your phone and go to that website of that charity and donate directly to them than doing it on, you know, your receipt at checkout. Yeah. Oh my gosh. There I'm going to be like checking out the whole place. Sorry, sorry to the people behind me. Let me just Google. They'll be like, don't worry about it. No, no, I want to be certain. I want to find this information. Right.

This is 63 cents. Yeah. Do you want to round up? Exactly. Those, yeah. Your group photos are likely missing someone important. You. With Ad Me on the new Google Pixel 9 Pro, never rely on a stranger again. Add yourself to any group photo through the

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Terms and conditions apply. Visit amex.ca.com. And some of it, I think, is the aspect of giving is one of the ways is for organizations to give and have those, again, the top burden, you have those CEOs and people making it. But even there are C-suite leaders that are living a lot harder lives than they would like you to think that they're living in their financial situation is different. So I wouldn't even say an across the C-suite leaders that are living a lot harder lives than they would like you to think that they're living in their financial situation is different. So I wouldn't even say an across the board thing on some of the C-suite, because especially

some organizations, C-suite is not paid quite what you think, but for organizations to give those donations. But then for employees, I mean, I do think having like some people love the angel trees or things like that. That's like you take the donation and people do, they love those and have that be, having things be voluntary. I just, I'm not a fan of the incentives tied to personal giving because I just think it creates such pressure even if it's well intended.

But to James's point is like thinking about ways you can help your employees give time. So Leah's well talking about places giving volunteering days. So having opportunities for people during their regular work day to do things, whether it's in house or go locally and do that and spend your time so people aren't spending anything out of pocket and they're not asked to come in on the weekends or do things. And you can always create optional things like, you know, I've certainly been part of like 5Ks for charity of people that want to do it. But when you can really limit anything that you make to be, you know, required or expected to be during the workday and not take a dime out of your team members pockets, I just think can, it can create

benefits to the community without creating those pressures that are like people get enough pressure at work. They don't pressure to have to give to not get yelled at or made fun of or whatever. Mm hmm. Or not get that promotion, right? Or be blackballed or whatever. I mean, I'm so aligned with you, Ashley. I mean, I just I try to affect change. You know, I know some of you out there think HR runs everything. We do not. I would always encourage, gosh, we should not be tying employee dollars to this campaign

where we're looking at completion percentages and pressuring people, oh my gosh, just reward everybody who ever can or wants to contribute, fantastic. One thing that I've seen work really well in the past and I really, really enjoyed is when I had an engagement team or a fun team or whatever you've called them in an organization sponsor a certain charity, right? The employees coming together, deciding what charities they wanted to do, doing their own fundraisers. I mean, that's when you know that altruism or giving spirit is really alive in the organization

when you just give time, you throw in some dollars. They do all the effort because they're so passionate about it, but it really just spreads that joy of giving back across the workplace. If that's something you haven't seen or heard of, try it on, propose it. To me, that works really, really well. It gives people decision making. It gives them leadership opportunity. It gives them just that opportunity for the feel-good at work, which then they tie to

work and the workplace. Have you all had any best practices in this vein, CSR or volunteerism? Well, I think you already brought up a really good point is having volunteer hours. So if that's something that you can incorporate into at your workplace or, you know, at least start pitching that idea to the senior leaders and get that on the board, that's something that's super helpful because then the, not only can you host events like a food, food bank, um, and you know, go to organize like the cans or whatever, but they don't, they can be paid while they're there. Right. And it's not, they're not taking

off time from work to go to the food bank and not be paid. So they, that's really, I think showing that the company does care. But even if it's just eight hours, um, a year, you know, that, and they can use it for their own. If they don't want to go with the company to the food bank, they can use it for, you know, maybe they want to go to walk dogs or, you know, at the, at the shelter, you know, allowing the employee to choose what they do with those eight hours, I think is so important. And that's kind of where it starts is that having that time and allowing employees that flexibility to do those things and not just outside of work. Yeah, but it's great for the brand because trust me, they're going to go to the animal

shelter and be like, my employer is supporting me to be here today. And they're like, where do you work? Oh, I work at wherever. Oh, wow. That's fantastic. You know, I mean, it really, it's good. It's good. Right? Exactly. And send your social team pictures of that. If you have, you know, a social media team, send them pictures. Let's post that. Let's, I mean, let's get excited. Like so and so, Jamie used her four hours of her volunteer time to play with puppies today. I actually might go do this right now because this sounds amazing. I know. I'm like, we should go play with puppies.

Well, first, those that listened to our HR department of one episode, that episode, are going to be thinking like, I am the fun team and I'm the social media team. I'm HR. I have, I'm an octopus. I have these. Yep. Yep. And I I'm HR. I'm an octopus. And I've been there. I've been there. I love this idea. I think from the best practice is truly give monetary as an organization. You can give avenues if you want, like things that are happening, whether there's emergencies, places like that, but honestly not having those thermometers and those pressures, but having those volunteer times when people have that time off, whether it's organizationally,

I think is great because you can really bond with people. But also, I love that idea of things that are really meaningful to employees. I remember now, it's like it jarred this memory in me of working at a large organization and they had this. One person did a lot of work for a charity called, I think, My Dog Eats First. It was about homeless, it was for homeless pet food and things like that for homeless individuals, their pets. They also had, and then also like military and had a former military member that came and spoke about veterans' mental health and resources and things like that.

It's really this line between, I totally get it, of people that have that, work is work. You show up, you get the job done. We don't need these things at work. I get it. I think sometimes that's a defense mechanism of people that have had really bad experiences and they're like, I'm not giving or showing any of myself. But for organizations, aside from the capital CSR expectations, you are where people's lives happen. For better or for worse, especially in America, you are where a lot of people's lives and time and energy happen. So what do you want to do with that? And if you want to do good and help people do good

for their communities, then make the most of it and create opportunities where people feel like they're treated like humans. And you make it so it's not just you come in, you get yourself done, and you leave, but honoring those people that are your business or your organization. And definitely caring for the communities in which you live, work, and serve.

I think that's really important, just to get strategic for a second, just from a business sustainability perspective. Because we know that retention really comes from connection and personalizing the experience for employees. They will feel more connected to your workplace when you support them and what matters to them, and when you support their kids' school and their kids' basketball league and all the things. You really have to embed in the community as much as possible and make it personal, you know? So it's good practice. Good practice. Any questions or comments? Any questions or comments?

I do. What's a volunteer opportunity that you've done through work that stands out to you? I have a couple. One, it wasn't necessarily a volunteer opportunity, but something that I thought was neat is it was the C-suite and instead of buying each other gifts or like pulling secret Santa, we decided that we were going to take a family in need and like actually purchase things for the family. It was a family of four. Um, it was kind of like an angel tree. Um, but like three of us went shopping and we just had a ball and this was when I was a department of one HR department of one. Um, and we just had a ball like being able,

and then we all got in the conference room and wrapped presents. And, um, I don't know, we were really just able to make someone's Christmas better that year, like a family's Christmas better that year. And for me, that was better than anything that I could have ever got anyone in the C-suite. You know what I mean? Or they could have gotten me personally. I'm just trying to rack through my mind of different gifts that different C-suite leaders

have gotten you, especially some of these large. Oh my god. A Kendra Scott necklace. And I'm like, ooh, okay, this is cute. Private jet hours. But then the pressure of, no, the pressure of buying something for the CEO who literally has everything, it was so nerve-racking every year.

That's why you do like I did that time and buy a gift card and then take it back. Oh, you don't drink Starbucks? I found out he only drank Dunkin. Whoopsies. Lee, what about you? I've done a lot through organizations. So thankful the places I've worked supported that. For the most part, there's been some onesie-toosies, but for the most part, you know, something

that stands out to me is that I was able to multiple times speak at schools, elementary schools, reading in elementary schools, teaching lessons in high schools through like a junior achievement and things like that. One time I got to paint the benches at the Washington Mall. So spent the day repainting, sanding and repainting all the benches at the Washington Mall. Is that what that's called? You were in DC, right? Yeah. Yeah. The National Mall. Did I say that? National Mall. There we go. Yeah. I used to play kickball on the National Mall back in the day.

Yeah. And it's gorgeous. For those of you who are DCers, I played Waka 20 plus years ago. Yeah. So I thought that was kind of a unique experience. That's so cool. Right? I mean, you know, so you need to really do some crazy things. Yeah. Very cool. When I worked at my first law firm, which is a big law firm, they knew I'd been in DC and I was a total politics nut, government nut.

And so someone reached out and they're like, hey, there's this cool organization, it's called something else now, it's called iCivics. It was founded by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. And it was about, kind of to Lee's point, it was about creating civics education in middle and high school, definitely high school, but in schools and working on that. And it was all of these free lesson plans and things like that to bring government back into the schools. And it was awesome. So I was the co-state head in Georgia and went to like education conference and spoke

about it and met really cool people. But one really neat thing was also there was a golf tournament that they invited all of us to go to for free at Pebble Beach with Sandra Day O'Connor. So we get to play. And I'm again a golfer. I was so excited. They scheduled it for like the week after I was due with my daughter. Oh my gosh.

I know. I know. So one day, one day I'm going to go and play Pebble Beach. I, you know, sadly never got to meet, meet Justice O'Connor, but it was, but it was very cool. So iCivics is a really, really neat, that's still, that still exists. So anyway. Jamie, question or comment? I have actually a quick comment and this is from all my years of volunteering at second harvest food bank here in Nashville. I never realized how much meat can be canned.

Really? I thought it was just a spam. Like no, there's like canned beef, there's canned, I mean there's canned chicken, canned tuna, but I literally was slightly obsessed when I was one of the times when I was volunteering because I just kept finding it. And I was like, literally, I have a picture of me like holding a can of, I think it's canned beef. And I'm like, what is this?

We'll post it on our show stories if I can find it. But I just didn't realize I had no idea there was that much canned meat. Oh, all the meats. Yeah, there's canned clams, canned, I don't know, all the seafoods, right? Canned clams. I love, I love canned steak and potatoes. Campbell's chunky soup was like my go-to steak and potato soup going through, but it is, but it's, but also how much shelf stable. And so, you know, just knowing as an organization

as well, if you have a big budget and you're going to shop for things, don't just get the ramen that's there, which can be cheaper. I remember in high school, people would be like, oh, because you'd get rewarded for how many individual goods you brought. And so you'd be like, ramen is like nine cents each. But as an organization, now that we're not in high school, not getting credit for that, having things like canned beef and having some of that sustenance, giving that to people in need. You know, I know at Second Harvest, like you can actually weigh, you weigh it. So it's actually by weight.

And if you're competing against another company. Don't get that ramen then. No, that's like air. Don't get the ramen. It would not work. You would need the canned beef. Exactly. You need that. That's like air. Don't get the ramen. It would not work. You would need the candy.

Exactly. You need the candy. That's like supermarket sweep level math right there. I'd be going around examining that. I could totally kick ass on that show. I've always wanted to be on it. Supermarket sweep love. Well, not a question, but just a quick comment for me.

Just throughout my career, I've had maybe a couple handfuls of employees. I'm recalling now, right? That's the pause, like I'm thinking about it. I've had conversations with employees and multiple employees tell me that, well, I don't volunteer because I don't feel like I have anything to give back or kind of have this not necessarily disinterest, but almost this lack of confidence that they could give something back to the community. In these instances, it was like going to schools or being a mentor or doing STEM awareness

at a conference or whatever. What I will share for me personally is that it makes all the difference in the world. And what makes the difference is just your presence there, the time you give, your actual presence. But we are all so unique and so different. And mentorship really, really matters. For me personally, being a Hispanic female,

would you all believe I didn't know that I could be who I became until I saw it be done in college? I had not seen a Hispanic leader in business or a female and all that. So just the power, right? Just the power of the visibility, the power of your presence. Someone is going to relate to that, whether it's someone younger than

you or perhaps even older than you too, who's inspired to be like, you know what, I can do that because I see that person who has the same hobbies as me, or the same background, or the same look, or is from the same community, I see them doing that and they will aspire. So that's what's so brilliant about just getting out there in the community and giving back is that it's more than just the actual actions of what you are doing,

but just the effect your presence has on people. Yeah, that representation is so super important. Oh boy, so representation is so super important. Oh, boy. So key. So key. Oh, you know, because see it be it, right? So I just encourage everybody, you know, find that thing that means something to you

and go and share it with somebody else, right? Big scale, small scale, doesn't matter. But oh, well, ladies, on that note. All right. I'm going to go pet puppies now. Oh, me too. Pet a puppy for me.