I hear a lot of, um, missteps because of bad onboarding too.

yeah i mean we really do try to make sure that we've got a process in place for that the main thing about my department is because we are supporting property management companies across the country that we understand and anyone coming into our department understands the importance of what we're doing because we're supporting a lot of affordable housing clients and they are literally providing housing in their communities to people that may or may not be able to get that housing otherwise.

And so understanding that if the technology, although technology to us, it's our life, right? But to the end user, to the person sitting there wanting an apartment, they're not worried about technology.

They're worried about what that technology is going to do for them.

How are we going to get that lease printed? How are we going to get that unit cleaned and all these things that technology helps them with.

And if something goes wrong and we're not available to help them get that fixed, it could mean the difference between someone being homeless or not.

Tell us a little about that.

So some of our clients have, they might have PHA properties which are public housing.

Oh,

definitely.

And it's interesting because growing up, I'll be honest, I was never ever that... girl that woman who wanted to get married wanted to have babies I was like somewhere hopefully down the line but I definitely wasn't that I've got friends who have done this as well that you know that are planning their big day before they've even met the person they're with like that wasn't me I was very much kind of like what will happen will be whatever my path is will be and so Yeah, I mean, I did want, I suppose I did want children, of course, I would not in a millennia's change the fact that I've got two amazing kids.

And obviously my parents, that was, you know, family is huge from that point of view as well.

But one thing I will say is, and this kind of goes back to adventure, don't live in my family's pocket.

Like they, I see them, we're very close, we'll chat, but we're not with each other 24 seven.

And I sort of say that to Rocco and Talia as well.

ask

But had you been in the culinary field at all or had any experience with culinary professionally?

No, I was working at Microsoft in human resources and I was a cookbook collector, particularly British cookbooks and an avid home cook.

I actually, for my 40th birthday, my husband gave me a week at basically adult summer camp.

And I was in the process of really trying to think about what I wanted to do next with my life.

I was working in high tech, had been doing it for 15 years.

And I had always viewed that as sort of a way I would get to sort of move to Seattle, but didn't really think of it as something I would do for 15 years.

And I loved my job.

So what trends are you seeing this fall or what books are you really excited to see? Anything we should just be aware of?

So what does Help Desk Realty really do, if in a nutshell?

So our department, um, specializes in IT support and software support.

And, and I separate that because there's hardware and you've got software, and we specialize that in the multifamily, um, environment, affordable housing, multifamily.

Um, we understand the, um...

There's a gray area between IT hardware and the software that you use, such as Yardi, RealPage, AMSI, MRI, all the things that, um, property management companies use out in the industry, and how that navigates, um, daily, whether it's setting up the new property or configuring the software if you wanna move from one software to another, or just answering daily questions.

Uh, "My ledger isn't right.

What if- what do I do with this tax credit certification?" All the things.

But from a leadership standpoint, especially in your world, right? I mean, I won't go down this rabbit hole right? But we also live in a world now where anyone that's selling software, there's a million people that think they can just recreate that software on AI just as easily, right? Now, granted they can't, and there's a lot of security issues and, and we can cover that later, but I guess my question is more with how fast AI is moving, how should leaders be responding to that in terms of what safeguards should they be putting in place, but also what, what advantages should they take?

What, what, what are some of the steps you guys do or you guys take?

Well, I think the first thing is remembering that AI sounds like a scary, uh, thing.

It's new, it's up and coming, it's the buzzword.

It's all the things, right? But you're using it every day, even if you don't realize you're using it every day.

And so remember that it seems scary, but once, once you really realize, okay, every day I've used my ph- my cell phone, I'm using AI.

Um, you know, if I Google something, it's using AI.

And so, you know, bringing it back to the basics, I think it help- is helpful, but also remembering, um, input in, input out.

So Lara, what is, uh, next for you and The Helpdesk Reality? How are you expanding your influence, and how can our listeners, uh, engage with your work to make sure that they take the advantage of the amazing team that you have?

So would you tell people what part of the world you're in, and then a little bit of your backstory and how you got into this wonderful world?

Sure, I'd ...

It'd be my pleasure.

So I am based in Scotland, within the UK, and, um, yes, uh, looking a bit gray today, but we've got a heat wave coming, uh, next week, so that's all good.

Um, so yeah, based in Scotland, but work worldwide, um, which is wonderful.

That's the wonders of Zoom, isn't it, Sandra? We can all connect now, uh, which is fabulous.

So a little bit about me and how it all started.

And for career, have you always been a medium or did you start off with some other things?