How would you condition people to think differently about the wealth side of things?

I talk all the time about the difference between living in an and universe and an or universe.

So in the very beginning of someone's wealth building journey, we're talking about saving, and investing, and paying off debt.

You can't do an or, you have to do and.

The same thing goes once you're established to personal and with the business.

And I feel like a lot of times we are given advice around spending money within the business for a tax strategy.

And although we want to do that, You also don't want to spend a dollar to save 30 cents if you don't need to, right? So it's very important that as a founder, you're thinking, okay, I need to be in an and mindset and I need to be filling both cups.

So what have you got for us, Michelle?

Are you seeing a trend where bench chemists are really having to become data scientists in a sense to manage the advanced statistics and machine learning connected to these workflows?

100%.

Even without the surge in PFAS testing, even if we're not talking about PFAS, this is already happening.

This is actively happening in our workflow, in our workforce.

The ability to understand and manage data, and then m- even more collaborate effectively with advanced platforms like AI systems and large language models, that's, ugh, I don't wanna say, but it's almost as important as operating a mass spec.

Like you have to know how to do both, and during today's workforce or maybe the workforce of the future.

And I don't necessarily wanna paint that in a negative light, 'cause it's not.

I was so focused on the laboratory and the detection side of it, and so many of the challenges are really on the destructive side in terms of, okay, you've identified and found them, how do you get rid of these things? So what is the removal and destruction of PFAS look like for the analytical laboratory based on the work you did for the documentaries?

get some really fun answers with this one.

Yeah, so let me see.

So as I think about just how I would describe what I do to someone I've just met, I kind of bucket it in three ways.

So I would say, hey, listen, I lead the intersection of supply chain, quality, and economic development.

And the execution, that execution of those three areas directly impact growth and customer confidence and financial performance.

Those three areas impact those other three areas that I just listed.

What excites me most about building organizations and, you know, What excites me most is building organizations and partnerships that create measurable impact while leading with accountability, safety, and I would say innovation.

But sometimes our listeners can get hung up on like, well, how do you justify that? How do you get a budget for those initiatives? How do you translate it into like a business language that people understand and will get leadership teams like the advocacy and the buy-in?

Thank you.

I'm so happy to be here.

I love coming.

Oh, I lo- I'm so, I, um

um[outro jingle]

So what are some of the most common beliefs you hear women repeat and how are these beliefs costing them money?

Oh, boy.

I mean, I can talk about what I did growing up, and it's likely the same that so many of our listeners would feel they'd also felt growing up.

But the reality is we are all taught that debt is bad.

Or that, you know, we need to keep a lot in an emergency account.

What emergency do we know of that is $30,000, you know? So I think the biggest things for women are they think that they're not ready to invest yet.

They don't know where to invest, so they don't start investing.

So like, I get you feel good, but like, is it at the expense of hurting your future self?

Obvious question perhaps, Michelle, but how do you make these new discoveries? Is it by diving or just, you know, how else? Using special cameras?

cameras?Well, I mean, the, we have a network of 1,400 scientists, and they've made these discoveries in, in various incredible ways.

So some are from the deep sea and were collected by human-operated vehicles like the one, uh, from, that we used in Japan, the Shinkai.

Um, some are collected using remotely operated vehicles, um, like we did when we went on an expedition to the South Sandwich Islands, which is a UK overseas territory.

And others were literally done snorkeling in very shallow water.

[laughs] So I think every time you go into the marine environment, there is that, that wonderful chance that you find something new.

Um, if that's the case, I mean, why?

We have, as humans, obviously explored our shallow waters, and for me, I call shallow down to scuba diving depth, about 30 meters.

What's it like when you come across something that you know you haven't seen before?

I mean, it feels otherworldly.

So I know that you mentioned this carnivorous death sponge that we came across.

This is across a very muddy habitat and it's quite a distinct looking thing.

It's white and it looks like it has stalks and ping pong balls on the end of the stalks.

And there's a number of the stalks.

So it's a really odd shape.

When that's going on, are you able to see that?