Stronger by Design: Specifying Customized Door Hardware for Security Excellence

Join us for an in-depth discussion of advanced door hardware solutions and their impact on building security and occupant safety. In this podcast course, participants will learn about the evolution of locking systems, the integration of cutting-edge technology, and the importance of quality and durability in safeguarding occupants and managing egress. Covering a range of products, including door closers, exit devices, and locking systems, in this enlightening conversation we emphasize the impacts of superior materials and innovative design features on applied safety. Participants will gain insight into best practices for specifying and implementing customizable door hardware solutions that enhance building security, user safety, and long-term sustainability. By the end of this podcast course, participants will understand the significance of rigorous testing and certification processes in maintaining high standards and ensuring product integrity for door hardware solutions.

Design professionals who listen to the podcast can earn AIA CE credit by logging in to www.ronblank.com and taking the online quiz.

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Transcript

Hello, and welcome to the SpecShaman podcast, the show that explores the world of building product manufacturers, architects and engineers, sustainable design and technology and trends. We engage in thought provoking discussions with renowned experts, industry pioneers, and visionaries who are making a significant impact in the construction industry. Join us as we explore groundbreaking ideas, revolutionary concepts, and the latest advancements shaping the built environment.

I hope you enjoy this week's episode. Let's get started. Hi, and welcome to the SpecShaman podcast.

I'm your host, Megan Vipond, and I'm joined today by Joy Skovern. Joy is a sales consultant at Detex Corporation. She's been involved in many facets of manufacturing and sales for 47 years and has been conducting training classes for the past 31.

Joy has been involved with various technological changes during the time and has been educating the market through the evolution of products and technology. Joy, thank you so much for being here today. Welcome to the podcast.

Thank you. It's good to be here. You were actually introduced to us by SPC Alliance as part of their podcast series.

Now today we're really excited to get into the topics of advanced door hardware. So off the bat, can you give us an overview of the current trends in the door hardware industry? You know, it doesn't sound like a very exciting topic, does it? But it's quite amazing the things you'll see in door hardware and shake your head and say, wow, somebody thought of that. A lot of it has to do with electronics.

Everything used to be done mechanically or not done at all or with magnets or solenoids. And now with the advancements of electronics and circuit boards, and quite honestly, creativity of matching those things together, the hardware is able to do things it didn't do before on its own. So there's a lot more options that are available to the end user as far as electronic options.

And then finishes and aesthetics are big. People are looking for mixed finishes, which is not typical in our industry. Typically for a grade one architectural design device, it's one color.

It's either stainless steel, satin bronze, or whatever it is from tip to toe. And that's not true anymore. Sometimes they like the push pad to be black and for the rest of the body to be another color.

And so we're looking at things like that. We're just quite honestly not used to mixing and matching that way. But you know, it's aesthetically pleasing.

So it's surprising that something that is so small in people's minds can set our world on its tail because it's just never happened before. And then performance. Performance is huge.

There are so many different performance requirements and expectations than they had before. I mean, an exit device was an exit device was an exit device. Can you push the pad? Does it open the door? Does the door shut? Does it lock? Yes.

And now there's a whole lot more to it. And the expectations of durability and, you know, the life of the product. Also, ADA regulations, much needed, much needed ADA regulation updates so that everyone has the accessibility to get into buildings, to use them, to use all portions of the building.

And you know, finally, we're really getting there with ADA regulations. So those are really the big ones that we see today. Wow, that's fantastic.

With all that being said, how has it actually evolved then over the last few decades? Because it sounds like we've come quite far. You know, we have. A lot of it, though, is invisible.

And you know, with I mentioned circuit boards and, you know, the ability to do things electronically. And then we're also have things like weatherization and we're using products where we never thought of using them before, which is in itself something very different for us. But we're excited about it because, you know, a lot of it, you know, you've you've watched happen, you've watched it, you're excited about this product.

You think, oh, yes, this is going to be great. It gets there and it's like, oh, it is. It works.

We're giving people something they've never had before. So then what are some of the key technological advancements specifically when it comes to the current door hardware? I think part of it is less magnets. Magnets are great.

They do a lot of the job, but they are actually a liability in some cases. The size of them, the proximity of where they have to be installed. They fall off sometimes and hurt people in certain instances.

That's not so great. But now we can do all those things electronically. We have different coatings to our materials.

You know, COVID taught us a lesson that we have to be careful with germs and disease. And so antimicrobial coatings and just defending against viruses and illness is another thing. And the material that you use makes a big difference in how you can protect your visitors, your buildings, your customers against those things.

And we're really reaching for things we never thought of before that in some cases are very simple. But we're working, we're all creating outside of our box. And, you know, people think it has to be the most complicated, the most intuitive.

When in fact, sometimes they are the least asked question and somebody can sit there who is outside of the industry and say, but what about this? And the clear mind takes you to the most fundamental ideas and changes. And they're simple sometimes. Oh, I love that.

So you mentioned durability a moment ago. How do manufacturers ensure the quality and durability of their products? Well, there's many ways to do it. I mean, and a lot of the specifications that are applied to the products in the market help with that.

So there's different grading, grade one, grade two, grade three devices, of course, grade one being the greatest. And you have to meet certain testing criteria to attain a grade one rating. So that's one way to do it.

Constant testing of your products, making sure that you are working to the best of your ability, that your products are what you've advertised them to be, what you've said they would be, what you've classified them as. That's another thing. And constant reengineering, I would say.

There's always something new coming out. And how can that apply to our products? Can that improve them? You know, thinking about the future. And quite honestly, if you're into the market or the products far enough, you kind of have an inkling of what's coming out.

Where is the direction going? What are you facing? And try to work ahead of that curve. Now, when it comes to materials, are there commonly used ones in door closures and why? There are. It's funny that door closers are a little bit different because they're covered.

The main part of a door closer is the body of the closer. And a lot of times that's made out of cast iron. It's not a pretty product.

But because they're always covered with the cover, which is plastic. And then it has hardened steel arms. But being the fact that the most, the workhorse of, I guess, the product is invisible.

It's covered. They can use almost any material they want. But there's a company that uses aluminum.

An engine-grade aluminum. And cast iron, by what it is, by the nature of what it is, is heavy. Very heavy.

And engine-grade aluminum is 40% lighter than that, which opens the door to different options. You don't have to have the size all the time. It can affect it in different ways, but it also affects how it works in its application.

Yeah, so with different materials being used then, does the choice of the material really impact the performance and then the maintenance of this door hardware? Basically, it does. And if you put something, so we all know that door closers are mounted at the top of the door or on the door frame, and they close the door. The function is, it's a door closer.

It doesn't open it, but it closes it. And so it hangs on the door. And every time the door opens, you know, there's some torque placed on the components.

And when it closes, it's released. And it changes direction. Well, if you have a product hanging on the door that's 40% lighter than the others, it's going to have less, it's going to have less abuse, I guess, might be the word, to the door.

It's not going to move around so much. And even though you have something mounted, you know, there's still moving that happens, contracting. So there's, you know, all of those things apply.

But the weight is a huge, huge factor. We also mentioned a bit of a technological advancements. So kind of going in that gear, what does it mean for a product to be software agnostic? It's a crazy term, isn't it? You know, I never thought of things that way.

And I heard somebody use that term one day, and I'm thinking, oh, that's a little different. And then I really started thinking about it. And there are reasons why you want that.

A lot of companies create their products, and they have their own software. And at that point, they own your opening, they own the service contract, they own your timeline. So if your product goes down, you're at their mercy to come in with their programmer and reprogram their software.

And only their products can work with their software. And that's multiplied many times in many companies across the country and around the world. But being software agnostic, and this really applies to products in Division 8 and Division 11 a lot, because they interact with the greater systems within the building, access control, security monitoring, and things like that.

And if it's software agnostic, it means that that product can interface with anybody's software. And this is particularly important with a lot of companies and a lot of entities that we supply to, especially the government. The government doesn't like you telling them what kind of software they have to have in their buildings.

They don't want you controlling the software that they have in their buildings. They want to control that. They want it proprietary.

They don't want you giving it to everyone else because it's your software. So when you have a product that you can offer them that doesn't require you to interrupt their systems and their security, it's pretty huge. Yeah, absolutely.

So with all this technology, how has that impacted the design and then functionality of the door hardware? It's the same theme. There's more electronics. It's kind of almost the same thing.

The options, there's new specifications, quieter performance. Quieter performance is huge in some areas, especially medical. Typically, those are a lot of areas that are quite reverent, I guess would be the word.

Reverence to people who are ill, to treating them, to their comfort. And it's amazing to find out how something working quieter matters. Solenoids are used a lot.

Instead of using a solenoid, you can use a motor and a magnet, which is nearly silent, but the solenoid buzzes constantly as it's working. So there are different things that you look at and you really try to consider the environment, the end user, and their comfort. More than just security, which is the crazy thing because you think that security products only touch security, but we have to think of more things than just that.

So with benefits of integrating modern technology, is that something that can be done integrating it into traditional door hardware systems as well? It can. It can increase the functionality and it can take simply, because you don't have to go all the way, so it can simply take them further than what they were and what they thought they could do before. Everything doesn't have to go from zero to 100.

Sometimes somebody wants it at that 25 level, but they've never been able to get it before. You need to know when to use that technology to its fullest and when to use that technology at all. Now let's talk a little bit about sustainability and how does sustainability play a role in the design and manufacturing of door hardware? Well, sustainability leads us to being good corporate and world citizens, true.

So we have to always think of those things and, you know, how we manufacture, how our buildings work, how do we have green space, do we recycle, doing those things. How do you run your business basically has a lot to do with sustainability. And then we have what types of products do we use? Do we use corrosives? Do we use products that can be recycled? Do we use products that have to be handled gingerly because they're toxic? You try to get away from all of those things and use the safest best practices and products that you can find.

So are there thoughtful design steps then that can be taken to ensure that the products meet accessibility standards? Oh, absolutely. Accessibility has been focused on more in a lot of the industries that we supply to. It's in institutions, but healthcare is huge.

Baby boomers are hitting the age where healthcare, memory care, assisted living, those, the use in them is skyrocketing. And accessibility and protection of people is a lot more than we would have thought before. And ironically enough, they hadn't thought a lot about inside accessibility.

People could get in the front door, right? That was the big thing. Can somebody get in the front door? Is there a ramp and is there an automatic operator that somebody can get in in a wheelchair or a minimized capacity? Can they do that? Yes. And it almost seemed like it stopped there.

But now it's expanding to the inside of the buildings as far as hardware products go. Right now, the push is that the restrooms have automatic operators for people in wheelchairs to be able to get in. And you think of it, not long ago, you could go to a hospital and you would go to a restroom and there was no automatic operator on there.

There was no button to push. If somebody was in a wheelchair, they had to push the door open, just like people who had full capacity and full use of their arms and legs. But now that's a thing right now.

So now we scaled on the size of the products and everything else. And we have to think about what's the next step we need to take? Where do we need to take care of? What do we need to think of? And it's kind of like being a good corporate citizen also. We want to think of all humanity.

We want to think of every segment of the population, not just the average. Absolutely. So then how do the manufacturers balance code and standard compliance with the cost and performance? And that's a big thing.

You take a look at that and you have to weigh. You have to weigh what's important. Do we need to do today? What did we need to do yesterday? And what do we think we need to do tomorrow? So the application philosophies, we can use the same product that we have had for years in a different way.

We can use it on a different application and it can change things dramatically. Creative designs. You think of the design.

There's a lot of environments that are very abusive. And when you say the word abusive, people think that it's a bad word. It's just a real word.

Hospitals are abusive. They do great work. And you know what? They can't think of how gingerly they open a door.

They have to open the door. They have to open it fast and they have to move things through them. It's our job to make sure that they have the proper design and durability of the products that they're using to be able to get their jobs done.

And then there's smart design. You just because you can put everything on there doesn't mean you have to. Again, back to that.

Sometimes we need to keep it a little simple. I don't know. It's it's the trend to say, oh, look at it has all these bells and whistles.

When it only needs the bells and not the whistles. So kind of moving into the testing and certification, what is the importance of having certified test labs for door hardware products? Well, I've worked at a few different companies in different areas that had certified test labs, and it is a tremendous advantage. Isn't it? I wouldn't say a burden.

It's a lot to have a certified test lab. You have to have audits. You have to have compliance.

There's a lot of things to do to have that. It surely pays off. The scheduling itself, you kind of own your own destiny in scheduling.

I don't have to send my products to an outside test lab for them to put it in line behind all of their other customers who they have to serve just like me. And I have to wait a month to even two weeks sometimes to get on the schedule to be tested. I can test my products when I need to test them.

If I need to take something off and interrupt a test to put something on because it's emergency, I can do that. Continual results. You're constantly seeing what your product is doing.

If it fails, you know it instantly. You don't have to wait for somebody to write a report and send it to you. You can react to it instantly.

When they succeed and they pass the life testing and you want to go a little further, you can do it at that time. But if you didn't order it, if you have to send your products out, then you have to start all over. Another thing is competitive testing.

You know, we all could test our competitor's product. This is no secret. Every industry I've worked in, everybody tests competitive products.

And you're able to do that in kind of just privacy. Although everyone knows it happens, you don't have to advertise it. And then you can understand how the tests run.

You know exactly what processes they're following. There's a lot of benefits to having your own test lab. Although, again, it is a little bit time consuming.

There are regulations. There's a lot that you have to stand up to. And every certification, different certification you want to have, is, of course, cost and time and attention.

So where does third-party verification come into play then? How does that contribute to maintaining the product standards? Third-party verifications, they can expand your capacity because you're not going to have a fixture that enables fixtures or tests. You don't have the proper setup to test everything all the time. So if you know that you've already got a fixture at test company B, you can say, hey, I need this tested also.

So it expands your capacity. And a lot of times those third-party verification companies have extra knowledge about specifications. If they test within your division of products or your type of products regularly, a lot of times they'll stay on top of it too.

And they'll give you additional information regarding your products. Or they may take one step further. Hey, you know, I wrote this report to include this, but I also noticed this.

And they may include more information than you would have thought. So it sounds like there's, or there can be, quite a bit going on there. So what are some of the challenges involved with certifying door hardware products? Keeping up with new specifications.

People have different expectations. They have different specifications. And keeping up with that and keeping ahead of it, possibly.

If you can do that, if you can continually keep ahead of that, anticipate, plan ahead, design, proactively design. Boy, that's quite an amazing thing to do. Keeping up with the specifications is a big one.

They're always evolving, constantly evolving. All of us are using door hardware on a daily basis. Does user feedback influence the development of the door hardware products? I would say that it's the major driver of the change.

Because, quite honestly, at the end of the day, that's who we design the products for. Everybody, whether, we don't sell it to the end user. But the end user is the one who uses it.

The maintenance person, the installer. Those are the people who the feedback from them is exactly what drives change. We find out about our weaknesses.

We find out what we may have overlooked from those people. And you know the old saying, if you don't know it's broke, you can't fix it. It pretty much applies right here.

If we don't know what's going on on a day-to-day, in a certain environment, at a certain type of building, in a certain type of building, we have no idea. So there are information flow. So what are the common issues then that users face with the door hardware? And then how are they addressed? I spoke earlier about an abuse of the products.

I talked about hospitals. And that's part of it. They face the abuse.

Hospitals face something different than schools do. Kids, they're creative. Kids are very creative.

And so we have to think, like a 13-year-old boy sometimes, what would the 13-year-old boy try to do with this? What can we do to make this withstand the 13-year-old boy? Because sometimes they're curious. Sometimes they're just rough. Sometimes they want to see if they're better than the door handle, right? Than the trim is.

So we have to think of all of the different types of things. And we have to make sure that the products operate and they're durable. And they can work in the environments that we are putting them in.

How do the manufacturers then ensure that the products are going to meet the needs of both installers and the end users? You know, there's a few different steps that we should take. First of all, we need to listen. We need to listen to the people who want to purchase our products.

We need to listen to the people who have our products. We need to listen to the people who, you know, haven't even used our products. We need to listen to what they want and what they don't want.

And sometimes what they don't want is more important than what they want. And then we need to design to that. Design to design the good in, design the bad out.

Make sure everything is durable. And think beyond that design. Add, you know, make it the most value-added design that you can do.

Then you need to build a good product. Build a functional, durable product with good aesthetics that's going to function in the atmosphere that it is. That lives up to a good warranty and does exactly what it needs to do.

And then there's the support. We need to support our customers in every facet of that product life. Whether it's the inception of a new product.

Whether it's the installation. Whether it's learning how to teach their staff to deal with it. Or if it's supporting them through technical support because they have an issue with something that's installed and they need help.

So if you listen to your customer, you design to their needs. You build a good product and you support them. That should be a good key to how you can listen to your customers, the end users, and the installers.

Fantastic. Now, what are some unique challenges faced by family-owned locksmith businesses today? I've been dealing quite extensively with family-owned locksmith businesses for over 30 years. And they have evolved.

They have evolved a lot. 30 years ago, everything was mechanical. So if you had people in your family business that were mechanically minded, had common sense, good work ethic, bought quality products, they could really work on anything.

They could pick a safe. They could start a car. They could unlock a car.

They could get keys out of it. They could change the trim on a door that just broke. And they could, you know, change a door closer in a hospital all in one day.

They could do all those different things. But now that we have electronics, it's very difficult to keep up with every aspect. There isn't the, yeah, one family can do it all unless you have the specialists.

So the guy who works on the cars doesn't work on the automatic operators. And the guy who works on the automatic operators doesn't work on the safes. Because they have to have specialists.

They have to have CCTV specialists. So they have to specialize. And they have to have a lot of knowledge and a lot of training now in every single facet.

The costs of the product are significantly different than they were before. Of course, with the computerization, the electronics, different types of materials, different technology being built in, costs are much different. So now their inventory carrying costs are different.

If they have a job to do, they make a decision. Do I put in a grade one exit device? Or do I need to cut the cost? Because I can't keep those in my stock. I can't afford to keep them.

So I may put in a grade two instead. Now to them, they're thinking how their business is. What can I afford to keep on the shelf? So when I get that call, I can answer it.

Compared to when I get a call, I want them to know that they never have to call anybody else. Sometimes they can do it financially. And sometimes they just can't, which is a difficult part.

And then training. There's a lot of training out there for the locksmith. A lot of distributors have shows and associated with those trade shows come classes.

Or they will have just training sessions. Distributors will have training sessions. And there's different ways.

They can join associations. And those associations afford them to be able to get training. What now, you know, they can do things online.

They can have webinars and things like that. Where everything used to be in, you know, they had to go to the training. Because there's such a small group, the training typically doesn't come to them.

So there's quite a few things that have, through the evolution of technology and products, have changed the family locksmith business. Now, how do door hardware products cater to the needs of certain clients, like government or institutional clients? And that's where listening and designing come. Sometimes you have products that will work on all of those applications.

And sometimes you don't. We talked about software agnostic. That's huge for the government.

Buy American. American made. That's huge with the government.

As much as we don't think, we think those are just buzzwords, they're not. Those are very important. And American content and American manpower and American made products.

This just, it's huge. The government and a lot of institutions. And you have to understand their unique needs.

As much as you're going to look at their buildings and think they're all the same, they might appear to be the same to a standard person who walks into a door, who walks into a building, who walks through a turnstile, who does any of those things. And you may say, don't even think about it. We walk into a building and we look up.

We look sideways. We look down. We look ahead of us.

And we realize, oh, so they have this type of product in this building. Or this type of building always has this. So the awareness of what everybody needs in the different types of commercial, institutional, and government, they're similar, but they're very different at the same time.

So are there key considerations then when specifying door hardware in those higher security environments? There's always considerations and things like that. But you have to understand the needs. You can't over or under spec something.

Just because you can spec it in doesn't mean you should spec it in, honestly. But sometimes that's done strategically by spec writers. Is more always better? Don't know.

Because one of those entities uses something doesn't mean the other one needs it or wants to use it. Are we setting attainable goals for those buildings? Are they unattainable? You know, we have to set them up for success. In their products, in the durability, in the life cycles.

You know, we would love to always sell the most expensive product. We would love every building to have only our products in it, but that's not reasonable. It's not reasonable to think that way.

So what we have to do is have as much value as we can to each of those specific entities as we can. And we have to put ourselves in their shoes and think about them honestly before we think of the company. At the end, the sale results in the company benefiting.

You have to consider the person or the use of what they need before you're thinking of yourself. Yeah, absolutely. And with so many different client types, are there different benefits or different ways of approaching those projects to know what type of door hardware they're going to need? There is.

There are similarities. They do blend together in some ways, but if you work on schools and then community buildings and such, they kind of blend together. And then, you know, there's different... They end up grouping themselves to some degree so that you have a starting point and you can decide what they need, how they need it, what they might need to suggest.

You may suggest things. You may need to do that because they don't know everything about their buildings. They're the user.

They know what has to happen, but they don't know everything that there is to offer. So what are some of the latest trends in door hardware and security that design professionals should be aware about? I talked about it a couple of times, ADA expansion. Keep track of that and have that in the forefront of your mind.

People need it more than they think. They're going to eventually have to have it. If we can think of it for them, they're not going to have to catch up and change all their products later.

20 years ago, we didn't have to design or think of things the same way we do today for schools. Security aspects, lockdown systems, the emergencies that unfortunately face us today in society. We didn't have to think of those things that long ago.

But now we have to not forget them. They always have to be a consideration. And things just evolve.

And sometimes it's out of our control. Sometimes it's not even technology. Society makes us change.

Society makes us evolve. Human actions. And that's a big one.

That's a big one for us. Trends toward how do I keep my staff, our visitors, our customers, and our facilities safe is a very, very important point now where a lot of times it was in the past, not too long ago, it was function. How do I get this to work longer than anything else? How do I get this to not fall off the door, basically? How do I get this from having to replace it so often? Now it's, okay, I'll replace that if I have to, but is it going to keep my people safe? Is it going to keep the staff safe? Is it going to keep the children safe? Is it going to keep... Safety is a big thing.

Memory care. There are all kinds of different facets you have to think of to keep people safe. Yeah, absolutely.

A lot of considerations in that. So how do manufacturers stay ahead of the competition in terms of innovation? I think a lot of it has to do with taking that extra step. What can we do also instead of? How can we accomplish this in a more efficient way? How can we do this? So it's taking the extra step in a lot of ways and thinking outside the box.

Just because we did it this way for the last 30 years doesn't mean we have to do that for the next 30. Technology changes, products change, environments change, needs change. And you have to be aware of that at all times.

So what is my competition doing? We have to pay attention to that all the time. All the time. Because we're all fighting for the same business.

And if my competition is offering something that I'm not, I have to be aware of that and find out, is it successful? Do people want it? If they want it, why don't I have it? Can I have it? Is it patented? There are so many different things you have to consider when you stay ahead of the competition or even stay with them. So you think of creative ways of doing things. You creative ways of including more, giving them just a little bit more.

And that might not be expensive. It might just be convenient. It might just be a little extra safety.

It might just be that little bit more that they need. So how do companies support the education and advancement of their employees within the industry? Well, continuing education. You know, almost every company, a decent-sized company, because every company can't afford to do this.

But continuing education. If somebody wants to go to college or a technical school for a position, typically that company has. I've known people who have gone to nursing school while they've been working for companies that aren't nursing companies, but they have a nurse.

So that person can go to school to be a nurse. And then there's a requirement to get reimbursed. But for companies to encourage the growth and the continuing education of their employees that way.

There's also seminars. People can attend more easily, attend and learn things that they didn't have access to before. Very quickly, very easily.

At their own schedule a lot of times. You can watch a webinar anytime. Heck, we're doing a podcast.

People can listen to this at any time. Nobody's listening to us now. But they can listen to this at any time, at their leisure, at their convenience.

And there's a big thing to that because now it's accessible and available to you at any time. Joining associations. That's another big one.

That association pinpoints, more or less, topics that people learn, path that they're taking professionally. They have meetings with other professionals. And it's an amazing thing.

Take off topic just a tiny bit to prove this, but I have taught classes to locksmiths for over 30 years. And the independent locksmith of 30 years ago, every person in that room, if they didn't work for the same company, fought for the same business. But once you got in that room and you shut the door, they were a group and they would help the person sitting in front of them, person sitting next to them, the person sitting three rows away.

Even if they were going to fight for the same business on Monday, they were united. And that's the same way it works in the meetings. You may have a couple of few different companies there, but they share ideas.

Once those doors are closed, they're all there to learn. And they're all there to share information and experience, which is quite a phenomenon in itself. They can get CEUs if they have to have continuous education in their profession.

Those associations offer CEUs and networking. I mean, there's huge thing about networking with other professionals in your field or ahead of you or in other fields because that's how we grow, right? We get more experience and we're like, this would be really interesting. I think I might like to try X. I've never tried that before.

I want to learn about that. I want to see what that's like because somebody else brought that up to you and you hadn't thought of it in the same context as you may have just spoken about it. And advancement and promoting from within.

I benefited by that in the first real adult job that I had. I started out catching product off the end of an assembly line and inspecting them. And almost 27 years later, I was responsible for a significant part of their business, product development, product releases, literature training, pricing, profits.

So promoting from within is huge. And I wouldn't be where I am today without a company that did that, offered me the benefits, continuing education, bringing people in. Again, I had to take advantage of that, but I don't know that I would have done it without them bringing it into me, offering that opportunity to me because I might not have thought of it.

Or I was in a time in my life where I just couldn't do it outside of work because I had enough to do. Promoting from within is huge. And then, of course, my and everyone's experience carries through.

So you have somebody in a position, a higher level position, that actually knows the processes, the products, whatever it is ahead of them. And there's a lot to that. The company only benefits by that.

So there's so many different things. And again, with webinars and such and podcasts, people have the ability to access information more and differently than they ever had before. Joy, do you have any additional thoughts or kind of final thoughts for us today on advanced door hardware? You know, it doesn't sound like an exciting topic, but it is.

My friends, my family, they're like, what do you do? Yeah, you know, we used to say, I sell doorknobs. Just as a joke. You wouldn't think it's an exciting topic, but every time you talk to a new customer or a potential new customer, or you hear of some new technology, or somebody's thinking of something in a different way, it's actually so exciting, you wouldn't believe it.

There's a passion. There's a passion within people. And I think to me, one of the most gratifying parts are, because I'm just a real human being, is that every day that I'm working, I get to deal with real human beings.

I get to deal with their base needs where my products are concerned. A lot of times, you get a frustration point with somebody, and you have to realize that they're a human being venting to you, trusting that you're going to listen to them and help them out. And quite honestly, that's to me kind of exciting.

It sounds crazy, but it is. No, you have such an excitement. It comes through in all these questions that we've talked about today.

And you've been in the industry for quite some time. Can you tell us a little bit about your origin story? I started out 47 years ago, walking into a building that made automotive locks and keys, the world's largest automotive lock and key manufacturer. And so I entered security, distribution, manufacturing that way.

I was the least paid person in the building. I don't know, there's something inside me that wants me to learn. I don't have to have a book in front of me, and I'm not going to be a brain surgeon, and I'm not going to learn about brain surgery.

But there's something inside of me that when I'm doing something, I want to learn how to do it the best, the most efficiently. And I want to learn about the type of product and how it's made. What does it do? And what can I learn? What's the next step for me? So then I went on and moved through the company.

And like I said, 27 years later, I was a manager of service and aftermarket products. It was very fulfilling. And then I went to, well, I've worked for three competitors in my time.

And then I was fortunate enough to meet people in the security hardware side, the institutional commercial side that I work in currently. And this was a whole new realm of products. I use them all the time.

I walk through doors every day, many times a day. I look at the things, sort of. I notice when they're broken.

That's unfortunately how my eye works. I notice when I'm at a wedding, and I notice when the exit devices don't have an end cap on them. I always notice that.

I'm like, why can't they fix this hotel, right? So then I was lucky enough to be able to work in this industry and this side of the business in security hardware. Now I know, I know those things. My curiosities or my, I guess my observations.

Just crazy observations. And now I'm here and I get to think of people's needs in a whole different way. And I'm a people person.

I do like, I love being around people. I love helping people. I love knowing that my job is impacting somebody to benefit them, whether it's keeping them safe, whether it's allowing them to get into the bathroom easier, whether it's the poor guy who comes into work in the morning and half the door, half the trims are broken on the doors because the kids decided they were going to try to break them all.

Yeah, it's quite interesting. I've had an evolution that most people wouldn't be excited about or they think, okay, yeah, great, great, great. But to me, it's been exciting.

I've worked in the man's industry for 47 years, and I don't even think of that. People like, oh, you work in male dominated industry. I'm like, I guess I do.

But it was my virtue of walking that door the first day that took me there. I didn't do it on purpose. I didn't try to do it.

This happened. And to me, this is just real life. And it's pretty exciting.

Fantastic. Thank you so much for sharing your insights and your stories with us today. It was really a pleasure having you on the podcast.

Thank you. I appreciate you having me. Thank you.

Thank you for listening to the Spec Shaman Podcast. If you enjoyed today's episode, please subscribe to our show and leave us a review. A huge thank you to our guests who made this show possible.

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