How Strong Leadership Drives Agency Growth

Justin Levinson (00:00)

Hey everybody, welcome back to Agency Side Podcast. I am your host, Justin Levinson. Today's guest is Alita Mills, president of LaForce. Olita joined the agency expecting it to be a stepping stone. Now, 20 years later, she's leading it. When her daughter's preschool recently held a career day featuring several moms who are all doctors, her four-year-old proudly stood up and announced, My mom's not a doctor, she's a president. In this episode, Olita shares the unexpected journey behind that title, how she helped LaForce do growth and change, while human connection still matters.

an increasingly automated industry. So please sit back, relax, and enjoy the show. This one is gonna be fun.

Hey Alita, thanks so much for being here today.

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Olita Mills (00:46)

Thank you for having me.

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Justin Levinson (00:47)

Yeah, I'm interested in your story here. I would love to get right into hearing about your your origin story, how you got into this industry.

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Olita Mills (00:57)

Is wonderful. It's I always say that I feel that my trajectory is unique in that I have spent the majority of my career here at LaForce. But even to go back to when I was starting post-college, I always had a passion for media. I had this idea that at first I wanted to be a lawyer. So I did this whole stand in working at a law firm and I applied to law school. And then I decided that.

Perhaps another three, four years of school was not necessarily gonna be for me. And thank God I had these internships. They had all these media internships in advertising and and in other aspects. And so I was able to use that to land my first job, which was at a boutique agency that actually doesn't even exist today. But it was a focused in home furnishings, interior design, architecture. and it was a category that

I didn't have a lot of experience in, but I grew to love and I continue to have a really strong passion for home and design and and and you know, even that media and that category of media. And when I spent about four years working with many brands and and interior designers and commercial real estate and and that actually led me to wanting to break beyond that category and do something different. So I

I was looking for bigger agencies and at the time it was very different in terms of job search. I don't even think LinkedIn really existed, believe it or not. It was very much going on websites and and looking. And there was a job for LaForce at the time. It was it was a different agency then, but they were looking for a mid level executive for their home design team. So it was sort of perfect. And I ended up

Taking that job and thinking that I was never going to be here for more than a few years. It was definitely a stepping stone to understand what bigger agencies were doing. And when I say big, this agency was very much getting started, but was bigger than the agency that I was at before. and got great opportunity. And I can go on and on and on about the opportunity and probably in other questions, but fast forward 20 years, I'm still here.

And there's there's a real there's a lot of reasons why that is the case, but it's very unique in that I have chosen to spend the majority of my career here, but it was definitely by accident. It wasn't it wasn't planned.

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Justin Levinson (03:26)

Do you do you remember your interview?

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Olita Mills (03:29)

I do. I and I actually am still very much in touch with the young lady who interviewed and hired me. She now has gone off to do incredible, incredible things in corporate communications and comms. But I just remember ask them asking me about my experience. I remember asking about editors that I worked with and how I would pitch certain things in media. And I think they were impressed, at least they told me after that I just knew every home editor. And it was a very small category and that was

part of what, you know, agencies would, you know, they want to know that you know everyone and that you're able to get stories for the brand. So and I think I did a writing test and all that fun stuff to get the job. But it was a very niche category. And I think they were excited that they found someone that sort of understood it.

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Justin Levinson (04:16)

Yeah, very cool. So you had you had kind of a traditional accounts story from going up to a you know, accounts, supervisor, director, VPS VP president. Maybe you could tell us what was like I guess what was there anything special that you feel you brought to the table that kept giving you those promotions and and bringing you up to to such a high level?

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Olita Mills (04:37)

Yes. There were a few things and I don't know if it was necessarily about me, but I think it was also about the company that I was in and the leaders of the company. So there's a few factors in my trajectory. One is that I entered LaForce at a time where the agency was rapidly growing. It was rapidly changing. I had no knowledge at the time of what I wanted. I just think that that's like a very but what I did feel really excited about was I was getting a lot of opportunity.

And I knew I was getting more than if I was at this big corporate company that had a lot of red tape and you know, and now I understand that I was at a supervisor level going to new business meetings and with the founder and you know, sitting and I don't know how well I was doing in those meetings, but I certainly was a part of them and was someone that would then go back and if we were a if we were working on the brand, I would be a part of getting that off the ground. And that was simply because we weren't that big.

You know, we were probably a quarter of the size or half the size, I would say, of what we are now. And very much in demand. We're founded and our current CEO is James LaForce, and he's incredible. And he he definitely played a major role in in growing the company. And I think I in a way benefited from brands coming in and having, you know, getting being able to work on things simply because we were growing and we were hiring, but sometimes we weren't hiring at the pace of the growth.

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Justin Levinson (06:06)

Yeah.

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Olita Mills (06:06)

So that also got me into other categories because there were brands and consumer package good brands and and the ways in which we were expanding where we would have the opportunity to work on the business. And even though I didn't have that deep category experience, I was willing to learn it and I had this understanding of media. So I would be staffed on these brands. And it really sort of grew my experience, even though there was a learning curve there.

So I think a piece of that step was having the opportunity to work at a company that was growing and being willing, I think if I give it to myself in a way, being willing to get my hands dirty and everything. Yeah. And I loved that. I didn't yes, I was overwhelmed and there was definitely moments of what is going on here, but I realized that I probably wouldn't get that kind of opportunity just anywhere. Yeah. And it really did benefit me in my career.

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Justin Levinson (07:06)

Yeah, that's amazing that that the company is growing and you get such an opportunity to get your hands on all these things where you may not have been as senior at at that time as other folks in the room and getting that exposure. That's that's really fascinating. Just just to give our listeners some background, if they might not know LaForce, maybe you can just tell us a little bit about what you guys do in the market and what what makes you guys unique.

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Olita Mills (07:25)

Exactly. We're LaForce is a New York-based full service consumer marketing agency. We specialize in public relations, digital marketing, paid, and we really we always say that we service big brands and small brands with big drapes. So we like that we are mid-size. We sit at this sweet spot of about a hundred, a hundred and twenty employees.

And we are in every single lifestyle category. So everything we s our roots are in fashion and the agency grew rapidly in fashion over the last thirty years, but we have expanded in the last decade or so into almost every category. So we are servicing brands in wine and spirits and retail, food and beverage, consumer package goods, everything from brands like Amazon to Motorola in consumer tech.

a lot of what we do are we're understanding, you know, what the brand voice needs to be, what the objective is, what the results need to, you know, starting with results that are coming out of the program and we're creating ideas that we hope will break through in culture and media, and in the landscape across the board. So we have a range of clients and we always say that we see ourselves as the consumer. So that's a lot of the lens in terms of how we bring things in and what

I get excited about is that we are private and we do sort of put this lens on the brands that we work with that we we we try to curate our roster in a way that we are just excited about every single client that that you know is at La Force. And it is a hundred percent true. Like we love all of our clients and and and get excited when new ones come in.

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Justin Levinson (09:10)

That's amazing. What what is your specific role as president? You know, what is you know your your day-to-day like at these days? Thanks for tuning in, folks. This episode is brought to you by Coming Up Creative, a relationship first boutique creative recruitment agency.

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Olita Mills (09:53)

yeah, my day to day has changed and especially since I you know have had a trajectory here. in the last five years I've been president of the agency. We've grown significantly and I'm incredibly proud of that. But my day to day spans different buckets. So I always say first is agency and under agency I have personnel. And so I have a wonderful operations team and HR team and you know, or our finance team, but ultimately I am

partnering with them to understand what is our employee retention, happiness, growth, do we need to hire? What are we doing for our employees from an agency and company standpoint to make sure that they love working here? they this team does a lot of creative work around just helping that making sure that our culture is really top notch. We also have a Chief Joy officer who

spreads joy and sprinkl joy all throughout the agency, which is really fun. and so you know, personnel can can span a lot of different things, but that would be like a bucket for me. I would say a second one would be client. And so similarly to our people in our talent, our clients are everything. So I spend a lot of time making sure that across the board at a very high level that our clients are happy and that they are getting service on the level that they expect. I tend to

go to the problems, you know, it's like that's what happens. But I really do try to find and make sure that I have times because, you know, I I forget the phrase like the squeaky wheel always wins. Like it is a little bit of like you want to go to the ones that are happy and making sure that they continue to get the service and and the thinking and all, you know, that proactivity that we really try to nurture here consistently so that they remain that way. And so there's all sorts of things in that client bucket too. If there's a fire that needs to be put out, I will do it.

I also feel like I benefit from being at every level. So I have a really good knowledge of the media landscape and, you know, so I try to bring ideas to the team. So if they're, you know, if they have to pitch a big story, I I I may say, like, what about this angle? You guys take it and run with it. So I'm always trying to get my hands in the brand and and the clients in a way that at a high level that's enhancing the teams here. Yeah. And then I would say the third bucket, which spans a lot, is new.

new business, which as you know, agencies you know, are constantly pitching new and and looking at new. And I think at LaForce we are we are very busy in terms of always sort of talking to new brands, which excites us and very exciting. So a lot of my time goes there in terms of not only attracting that clientele, but the ones that are coming in helping to build the programs that hopefully they'll want to keep working with us and keep coming back.

Or at least referring us to their friends and and others. So I always think of it in those three buckets. And then in those buckets, there's just so much that's in there.

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Justin Levinson (12:52)

Yeah. interested in a little bit and to double click on the like the retaining part and the chief joy officer. Is that what the title was you said?

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Olita Mills (13:00)

Yes, yes.

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Justin Levinson (13:02)

I've done I've been re b in the recruiting business for over ten years and I've never placed the chief joy o joy officer, but I I've gotta meet this one 'cause that sounds like a really what is the key it's to that p person's role? What what is that like? It's

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Olita Mills (13:13)

So

it's a C suite. So we so his name is Steven Henderson. He is the husband of James, but he is he has been named Chief Joy Officer for almost as long for at least a decade. And he his job is to understand the little things about how we work. So he'll so anything from you know, around holidays, if it's you know, let's say it's like Valentine's Day, like creating

you know, Valentine's Day cards for employees or having for Halloween, we did like pumpkin carving one year. So the fun activities, like he'll s cut sort of come up with these ideas. But I think what he does so well is the little things. So I'll give you an example. We had an employee once when they first started, we have an internal newsletter that goes out and we spotlight employees each month when the newsletter goes out. and it's really just for all of us to know what's going on in the agency. Stephen

writes the spotlight. He's a a journalist and you know by heart. And he heard that one employee when he was interviewing had never just moved to New York and never had been to a Broadway show. Never been to a Broadway show. And when he heard that two days later there were two tickets to a Broadway show on this employee's desk. You know, saying like you're in New York now, you're you know, enjoy the city, you need to go bring a friend and go ahead. So little things like that, I think that

personal touch as well. And he's always listening for those things. I mean, there's times where, you know, a don you know, an employee volunteers for a charity and is really passionate about it. And all of a sudden a modest donation is made in their name. So, you know, it's just these little touches that I hope that also our employees do remember and say about us. But those unique things make a really big difference in how people, you know, feel about LaForce and the differences in LaForce. So that's his role. Bring joy.

Red joy.

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Justin Levinson (15:06)

Yeah, that is really that is really incredible. I love that. Broadway tickets. That's

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Olita Mills (15:10)

I

just think it's possible. Exactly.

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Justin Levinson (15:12)

Is

and those things make a big difference, you know, especially when everybody's working hard and to know you're being recognized. that's a really brilliant way to retain people. I love it.

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Olita Mills (15:21)

Right, right.

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Justin Levinson (15:22)

What is your what's your favorite part of your gig?

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Olita Mills (15:26)

You know, I I love media and I love brands. And so and I realize that I'm very much very passionate about where brand where the landscape is going now, but also like how ideas and campaigns and creativity around brand strategy. I love it when I love all brands that we work with because now I'm completely across category and feel very comfortable working in any sort of space. However, you know, some of my favorite things are when we're taking

Something that seems like it doesn't need a publicist, and we're coming up with ideas that gives it, you know, more. So we've had you know potato chip brands in the past where we've gotten them in fashion shows or in the New York Times. we recently had a really great program with Popeyes, which is our our client, where we created a partnership at Surf Lodge. And through our outreach and pitching, we're able to get a big New York Times story. So I think, you know, when I when we're able to

do things like that. And when I'm able to be a part of it of taking something that is so simple and doesn't, you know, anyone would kind of say, Well, that's not gonna get there. And then we get it there, that's the bigger part of my job is coming up with those challenges and those ideas so that every brand is sort of seen and can break

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Justin Levinson (16:40)

I love that. I my my favorite part in agency world is is winning new business. I I love I love that. That's really exciting to me. And I had read that maybe this was correct me if I'm wrong, but maybe this was before you were president, you had grown the brand practice by sixty percent over two years. How did you do that?

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Olita Mills (16:58)

that's so research. We and you know, before when I was became president five years ago, we it was also during the pandemic. It was it was around our COVID time frame where businesses and even our business, we, you know, we were very cautious about, you know, the landscape at the time. You know, there was a lot of things going on with brands. And in that in my promotion, and and I sort of credit James, he empowered me to look at the agency and look at it differently.

And how are we, how are we, we know we didn't know, we couldn't predict the future, but we did see it as an opportunity to figure out what is our structure, do we need to make changes? how are we showing up so that we do we are on the path to growth over the next five years or so? and so I had a lot of ideas and no experience in implementing them. But of course, true James LeForce is like, go for it, you know, like do it.

So part of it was, you know, we did a bit of restructuring internally and how we were showing up for new business. We were showing up differently. we were reaching across agency, we were really making sure, and these are just little things that aren't necessarily secrets, but like making sure that the people that were going to be a part of the brand were very much on the front lines of the pitch. I think that clients do get

sort of feel a little deceived when there's a bit you know, a bait and switch on on that business team. But from our end, it really allowed the people that were working on the pitch and the deck and all the ideation associated with it. And and we brought in other resources within age the that they really got to know the brand. They really got to love the brand. So like when they were showing up for things, they had a lot of knowledge. They

develop the plan so they could talk through the ideas as if they did it themselves. There, I think and I feel there was a level of authenticity where quite honestly we just started, you know, more people were s were more willing, I guess, to work with us with some changes that we made structurally. I also had some senior teams that were sort of senior leadership that were sort of embedded in teens and doing a really great job. And I

bought them more cross agency so that they could have more impact on the teams in our agency. So it, you know, I th I thought we were doing a great job, but sometimes, you know, you tend with a team structure to get one team has, you know, certain ideas. And how do you get that to infiltrate the agency to uplevel everyone? And so it was some structural changes that allowed some really good key people that are still with me today.

to make a bigger impact across the board. And I think all of it, I don't know if it, you know, what exactly the map, you know, what what was the result of business, but that's sort of what I felt was the biggest difference in the before the after. And then you know, there's things that I just don't take credit for, which is the reputation of the agency and everything that James has built. I think he just has this incredible reputation that I don't deny and is a real reason why we are

so successful in in what we do as well.

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Justin Levinson (20:09)

I love that. You were you've had some some impressive accolades. You were PR actually, well the agency was PR's best place to work in twenty one, twenty two. You were recognized in PR news for for top women. I I didn't read this, I didn't write this very well, but for change for change change maker. There it is. So yeah, obviously you've had a a lot to to do to do with the success of of the agency.

How d how'd you feel getting these awards? That must have been pretty exciting.

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Olita Mills (20:40)

It was shocking and exciting at the same time. We we had, you know, here at LaForce, we didn't really have a lot of marketing of ourselves in place. It was, you know, sort of and we're still a little like that. Like we don't do a ton of it. We're like, we promote our clients, we don't promote ourselves. And so we focus a lot of our energy on the brands that we work with. But there are some awards and things that came along that we've just like, you know what, we should just throw our hat in the ring. Like we think that

We're doing X well. We do think we're a great place to work. Like we have, you know, our chief joy officer or, you know, all these little perks that we do that we don't really talk about. And so, you know, we filled out, we thought that was a really good thing to fill out. And guess what? We got it. Like, you know, and we got it two years in a row, which is great. In terms of my personal awards, it was something that, you know, my team said, you know, maybe we put you fourth and see. And I'm like, I'm sure it's very competitive. And so

it is it's always an honor to feel like the industry is recognizing you. Yeah in any way. And especially with, you know, trades like PR News and PR Week and PR net, they're all sort of read by everyone. And so it feels like what you're doing is is sort of the word is getting out. But, you know, sometimes it also just comes back to making sure you're doing the work and

getting it done. But it it it's it's definitely a a great thing and I'm super proud of it. And I'm grateful that LaForce as an agency decided to put me out there in that way.

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Justin Levinson (22:12)

I love it. Kinda wanna bounce to another topic that we're always interested in. I I know that I'm sure PR has changed a lot since you first got into the industry. I would curious to to know what you've seen as like you know, the biggest changes and also how AI has affected the industry.

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Olita Mills (22:31)

Who's gonna say AI? It's funny because I'm looking at as I look back at my trajectory, I mean, there's a lot of change. So when and we joke about this, and anyone who's been in the industry for over, I guess you could say like 15 years, wherever, remembers the time of Bacon's books and you know, all these things, like everything with the way that I started, it almost it prepared me in some respects, because I still think relationships are important. I think

being able to understand media and how they write and what they're gonna cover. All these basics are still there and still very important, but how we do things have changed. And so a lot of things have gotten more automated. I will say one of the biggest changes before AI, and I'll get to AI in my career was the whole, remember bloggers and like, you know, when all of that started and then it could be influencers and creators and like all these things. But I remember being on all these calls with clients like, what are you all doing in the

blogger landscape and you know like how it was like such and that was a level of education for everyone. Like and then the bloggers became influencers and you know all these different things, obviously with social media, TikTok, all that stuff created so much change. And when I think about that, where we are now just with social media and where I was even when I think of our, you know, young employees,

A lot of the things I say to them is like, yeah, we did monitoring all stuff, but there wasn't that much to monitor. Like, you know, now it's it's it's so the the landscape is so broad, the job has changed so much, and you do need these databases and AI and all these things to help make it more efficient and time consuming. and less time consuming. Yeah. But fast forward to AI, I mean, I think that's, you know, this is just a complete game changer. And we don't know truly what it's

going to become. I I know that even in the last year, it has changed significantly in terms of implementation. I I, you know, whereas a few years ago we were, you know, starting to talk about it, or sorry, I'm not now it's like, you know, I AI on every computer we're using it for all of our reporting and our monitoring. A lot of our new business briefs and pitches are asking like, how are you incorporating AI and how

what is, you know, what are the services that the agency is offering. And so it has changed it from an output, but also from our efficiency standpoint and how we work internally. And so we're very careful with it. Like we we do use it and we think it's incredibly important. But I do I continue to say and I continue to feel that it's still not going to replace the need

for human connection and for the ability to sit in a room and have a conversation with someone and for them to, you know, respond to you and say, I want to work with you or I really like the team. Like I think that from an efficiency standpoint, it's gonna help us tremendously. From an inspiration standpoint, it's helping us tremendously. And but there are gonna be certain try to do things that I I don't think are going to change.

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Justin Levinson (25:40)

Yeah, I love that. Yeah, it's almost coming back full circle with relationships and all that auth authenticity. like in the hiring in the recruitment business, you know, everything is so like automated with like multi-channel campaigns and just using sort of like AI variables that are so like they're so generic and clearly AI. That now like picking up a phone like the old school way is re is a way to get a hold of a hold of people now. It's like picking the phone, because people are so

you know, they're not expecting it. And so that's b or or like personal video. You know, like reaching out to somebody with a personal personal video that's not just a message. It's that's not, you know, AI generated video, but reaching out to somebody and expressing why you're personally interested in that person and why they would be fit for a role or why you're interested in getting to know them. So yeah, I I I think the the relationships thing is always gonna prevail. But it's it's cool to it's cool that that it's making things more efficient and you know, the stuff that that we obviously don't want it

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Olita Mills (26:35)

Do.

Exactly. And I I still think like the battle is that editor lens, like you have to know, you know, if you're using it, say you're using it to like refine emails or something. I don't even know what it is, but you still need to know the job. Like you need to understand what you're trying to say. You need to understand how to communicate. You need to understand how to edit. So I think, you know, some of it is like is, you know, you just don't want to lose the education and the foundation that

Has gotten us to this point. And even to your point with talent, like we have a rule here, like we will not hire people right off video. Like we will not. Like somehow you need to come into this office and you need to have an interview or we we'll meet you for a breakfast or whatever it is. And I do think, you know, COVID changed that in terms of, you know, there obviously during the pandemic, there was a lot of hiring or whatever would happen just by not meeting someone face to face. But it it it just

That that human interaction, that human touch, the in person, I personally am a very big believer of. I know James i is and I I just don't think that that is going to kind I don't think it should be replaced. Like I I really don't and I hope that it's not. I still write thank you notes and I hand Yeah.

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Justin Levinson (27:48)

that. what do you look for when you're hiring people? What kind of qualities?

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Olita Mills (27:52)

Gosh, so I think it is very important to look for qualities that are different than yourself. I really try to encourage, especially when we get to teens, is for as we're hiring for a role, is we start with what don't we have? Like what are we lacking here? You know, what is the biggest thing? Like if I am, say it's a team or a talent and we have really good media strategists or we have

Really good writers, I don't know, you know, whatever the qualities are. You know, it's not that we would look someone that doesn't have that, but what are we missing? And how are we sort of complementing the efforts that we have here? So sometimes I will rank qualities of like what is the most important thing that I need right now that I'm missing and why I'm hiring? Is it personality? Is it strategy? And it doesn't mean that that person won't have all of these other things.

But I'm going into an interview, sort of understanding that ranking and looking for those things because I know that that is something that's gonna make us better.

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Justin Levinson (28:56)

Yeah.

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Olita Mills (28:56)

So I I always think if I'm hiring everyone like me, I'm not doing a great job. Like I want people that are gonna challenge me. I want I don't want yes people like everyone just saying yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Like I I think that it's important to have people around you that are

really kind of challenging you in in respectful ways and that I'm listening to them. So so I'm looking for that in in what I'm hearing. Yeah.

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Justin Levinson (29:21)

Do you guys give writing tests still?

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Olita Mills (29:24)

We do you know what? We switch them. We switch them here and there because we found that the writing test didn't always reflect the work that we were doing. So sometimes we will take an old assignment, you know, from a client or, you know, and and put it into it could still be a version of the writing test, but it'll be like a media strategy or

You know, if it's a very senior level person, it will be like a new business. You know, like how would you respond to this if you were pitching this business? What are some ideas you would come up with? We try very hard to give to test in situations that we are in versus these sort of things that we wish we would have and that we're never gonna use. And that because we found that we would, you know, some people interview really well. And then you're in that day to day work, it's like that didn't really work out that well.

So we try to put them in our environment. And if that environment doesn't work for them, like, you it's like, this it's like, okay, well, we get it. Like this is probably isn't the best place for you.

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Justin Levinson (30:26)

Yep. Yep. That that makes sense. I guess the last part of the interview or podcast, not really interview, but what what what do you like to do outside of outside of work? What's you know, what's your jam out there?

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Olita Mills (30:38)

Damn. Well, I I if you asked me this four years ago or five years ago, I would say I travel and I go, you know, do all these different things. And in the last four years, I had my daughter. And I I think I I share this very openly that I'm what's called a choice mom. So I had her on my own without a husband or a partner. and so that just limits a lot of my my life in general in in the best possible way. She is four now, and so I will say that.

The majority of my time outside of being at work is with her. And so whatever we're doing, and we do travel, we do things. It may be to like Pepa Pig or something like that. But we definitely try to do a lot of things. We live in the city in Manhattan, so it's it there's this luxury of being here in New York City and having access to so many great things to do. But she is my priority and becomes all of my free time from five AM in the morning till eight o'clock at

You know, like with those windows that I'm home and then of course weekends and vacations and all that fun stuff.

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Justin Levinson (31:42)

Does she understand like what what you do for a job and and all that jazz?

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Olita Mills (31:47)

She does. I have a funny story about her. So she she doesn't really understand what I do, but she knows I work because she's always saying, like, you're going to work, you know, which I think is like good and bad. Yeah. Funny thing happened at her school. She's at preschool and a lot of the moms, which I love, are doctors. Like we're we're kind of right by the hospital. So there's a bunch of moms that are doctors. And so the preschool did Doctor Day. And all these moms, one was a surgeon, one was a

OB and all stuff. They came and they talked to the kids and they talked about being doctors. And I was like, this is the greatest thing. I love that they're doing this. And apparently my daughter stood up in the whole thing, because they told me this after and said, My mom's not a doctor. She's a president. You know, like she's like, and they were like, they all told me that. So like I think she knows like, you know, what I do. Yeah. But she knew she knows that I, you know, work.

Sh she knows I work. I think that that's that's that's the biggest thing now. But hopefully as she gets older she'll be proud of me and and be as proud.

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Justin Levinson (32:51)

That's a I mean, your your your job is very like for bring your you know, bring your parent into work day, I feel like your job is pretty cool. Like that's a pretty awesome job. so that's that's pretty cool. Well are you are you a fan of I'm always interested in in music. Are you a music fan?

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Olita Mills (33:06)

I am a music fan. I love music. I will say that I may be a little stuck in the nineties and early two thousands, but I'm a big hip hop fan. I'm a big you know, I don't know, like I I keep watching all this footage from like the Jay-Z Yankee Stadium, you know, concert that just happened and wish that I could be there, but of course I wasn't. So anything, you know, nineties hip hop, even that goes fans to today is probably on my playlist. and then

What else? I I mean, I like all site sorts of music though. I listen to country, I listen to R and B, like all of it. So but I love music. Love it.

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Justin Levinson (33:43)

Awesome. Well yeah, I'm probably s kind of stuck in the nineties, early two thousands too. So we're probably of similar vintage on on that on that side of things. but thanks so much for being here today, Lita, and and talking to us and offering value, sharing your story. It's really been a wonderful conversation. So thanks so much for being here today.

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Olita Mills (33:59)

Thank you

for having me. This is great. Thank you so much.

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Justin Levinson (34:02)

Right,

take care. Thanks so much.