Happy New Year 2025!

At Work in America – Happy New Year 2025!

Hosts: Steve Boese and Trish Steed

Summary

In this episode, Steve Boese and Trish Steed kick off 2025 by reflecting on the Rose Parade, discussing personal best days, and exploring the Pantone Color of the Year, Mocha Moose. They discuss the 2025 Trends Report, highlighting key themes such as caregiving, technology, and workplace dynamics. The conversation wraps up with aspirations for the new year, emphasizing the importance of empathy and creative approaches to personal growth.

Chapters

00:00 Welcome to 2025: A New Year Begins

06:22 Best Day Ever: Personal Reflections

12:26 Color of the Year: Mocha Moose and Trends

18:27 2025 Trends Report: Insights and Predictions

24:24 Words for the Year: Aspirations and Goals

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This episode of At Work in America is sponsored by Paychex, one of the leading providers of HR, payroll, retirement, and insurance solutions for businesses of all sizes. Here’s a stat for you: 85% of businesses are expecting higher revenue this year, but many are still worried about economic uncertainty, talent shortages, and rising costs. Sound familiar? That’s why you need to check out the results of the sixth annual Priorities for Business Leaders survey from our friends at Paychex. They’ve surveyed companies just like yours to uncover the top challenges and strategies driving business success in 2025 — from streamlining HR tasks to setting employees up for growth. Curious? Head to paychex.com/awia to read the full report. Don’t just guess your priorities — know them.

Transcript

Announcer 0:00
Welcome to At Work in America, sponsored by Paychex. At Work in America digs in behind the headlines and trends to the stories of real people making a difference in the world of work. And now here are your hosts, Steve Boese and Trish Steed.

Steve 0:27
Welcome to the At Work in America podcast for 2025. My name is Steve Boese and I’m with Trish Steed. Trish, Good morning. Happy New Year. Happy 2025!

Trish 0:37
Happy New Year! I’m good. How are you?

Steve 0:40
I am well, I’m excited for the show kicking off yet another year. We figured out it’s season 17 of podcasting on the HR Happy Hour network, which is fun.

Trish 0:50
Did you ever think you would be doing this this long? Probably never in your wildest dreams.

Steve 0:55
I really didn’t. I there’s very few people even I’ve known for 17 years, so it’s exciting, but we’re glad you’re with us. Lots of exciting things happening on the network this year. We’re grateful to have everyone joining us once again. Make sure to subscribe. Tell a friend all the things we got so many cool things happening this year on the network, Trish, including some new titles that will be coming soon that we’re working on. So stay tuned for that, and old friends, of course, with us again this year. Just a lot of really, it’s gonna be a really fun 2025, I think it is.

Trish 1:27
And we have a new sponsor, so the next show will be announcing that, right, we’ve just signed another new sponsor. It’s a big one. So very exciting.

Steve 1:35
I am super excited on that we worked hard on that over the last few months, and lots of fun news to share around that and good things to come. So we do, of course, for 2025 we are supported by our friends at Paychex once again. Oh my god, Paychex is made the biggest news in HR tech, probably of 2025 I’ll say it right now. I’m not sure anything else is going to surpass it for the rest of the year in terms of news in our space, right, with a $4 billion acquisition of pay core right, which is another very large HCM provider here, largely based in the US. So we’ll dig into that a little bit more down the road. We’ll try to get some of our friends at Paychex on to talk about that, but so exciting, and congrats to them.

Trish 2:25
Yeah, absolutely. I think that’s interesting too. Whenever a big announcement comes out, and it’s sort of like it, it, it’s like spreading crazily right through in terms of the news itself. But what I love is that we’ve had that relationship with them for so long, and we understand what they do and who the people are. So being able to really dig in on why it’s important, what it means to both customers and potential customers, is going to be a really different way to handle it, I think.

Steve 2:55
We’ll talk to them, and maybe even get some folks from the Paycor side as well to talk about that. So that’s coming up soon. Let’s just remind everybody that we are sponsored by our friends at Paychex. They are one of the leading providers of HR, payroll, retirement and insurance solutions for businesses of all sizes. Trish, 85% of businesses are expecting higher revenue in 2025 but many are still worried about economic uncertainty, talent shortages, rising costs, right? I’m sure that sounds familiar to folks. So for listeners, please check out the results of Paychex. Six annual priorities for business leaders, survey Paychex survey companies just like yours, to uncover the top challenges and strategies that can drive business success in 2025 streamline your HR tasks, set up your employees for success and growth and plenty more. So if you go to paychex.com/awia and get the full reports free. Just go there. Get it. Great resources from our friends at Paychex, and thank you so much to them. Once again.

Steve 4:04
All right, good stuff. Trish, we are here to do our annual kick off to 2025 Well, it’s a kick off the new year show. We talk about the Rose Parade, the theme of the Rose Parade, maybe for maybe newer listeners. Trish, or folks who haven’t listened back to the show prior shows, tell us why you’re so fascinated with the Rose Parade and why we talk about it every year.

Trish 4:25
You know what? Since I have been a little girl, I can’t even remember the first year I’ve watched it, but I’m 54, years old, and so I would say I’ve seen it at least 50 times. I would imagine over the years, right? It’s been it’s just a staple. It’s what you do. Like, you know, growing up, there wasn’t a lot you do on January 1. And there’s this beautiful parade, right? It’s out in Pasadena, which, if we we can pause a second. Obviously, that area is being hit with all of the California wildfires. There’s at least five separate fires burning. I think the last total I saw was 11 people have lost. Lives. But, you know, just 1000s and 1000s of homes of all sizes and different economic impacts are being burned. So it’s odd that they just had in Pasadena this Rose Parade that is such a tradition. It was 136 and then yet, you know, a week or so later, they’re dealing with some really horrific situations. So definitely thinking about everyone out there. I know you and I both checked on friends out there, family out in that area, and seems like everyone I know is is doing okay so but in terms of the Rose Parade, I think that for me, as I became an older person and was working, there’s always a theme. And so it was a fun way to kick off the year. Like a lot of people make resolutions. I’m not a big resolution maker, and kind of, looking at the theme of the Rose Parade was a good way to focus in and think about the coming year. And this year’s theme is best day ever, okay, best day ever. I like it day ever. And so, I mean, just when you think about work, like, are you going to work? Are you making every day the best day ever at work, and what you’re doing is, is it the best day ever in terms of your home life, or what you’re doing personally for yourself? So, yeah, that’s, that’s kind of the draw for me. I don’t know you’ve been doing it with me a long time. Do you do you actually watch the Rose Parade? Do you enjoy it at all?

Steve 6:23
Well, I’ll admit to not really being dialed into the Rose Parade before we started doing the podcast about the Rose Parade each year. And we’ve been doing, I don’t know how many we’ve done, eight or 10 of them probably, but the I Am, I have watched it. I recorded it honestly, and I actually in the background here in the office. Here I have it on with the sound off. So I pulled it up again this morning, sort of as I was prepping for the show, I turned it on again. I will say this my absolute favorite float of all the floats I saw. Okay? I thought was the wicked float from the wicked movie because it was so well made. They had Glinda and Elphaba, right? Both characters made on the float, and, you know, made of various flowers, or whatever they make these floats out of. But they were, it was so realistic looking in terms of the characters and this big float with, I don’t know why. I just thought it was really, really cool. And I’ve seen the wicked movie now twice, so it was on my mind, maybe. And I know when the float came by, I’m like, oh, that wicked float is really cool. So that was my favorite.

Trish 7:22
I actually made notes about that one. So for the first time ever in my memory, I have not watched the parade on the first it actually was the exact opposite of my best day ever, because that morning I was flying back to my house and leaving Florida. I had been down in Florida for a few days by myself, just a little retreat, kind of reset, recharge for the year, and I fell, and I broke, fractured my foot. So it was not the best day ever. No, I did not get to come home and watch the so what I’ve done, I’m actually excited because I’m going to watch the whole thing today, like on replay, but I did watch some of the highlights? I absolutely love the wicked float. I saw that one. The other one, I’d love to hear your opinion, is the bowling float. Did you see that one?

Steve 8:09
That one? I don’t remember, right off top my head, yeah.

Trish 8:12
Huge bowling ball and bowling pins. And since my daughter was a bowler, I’m obviously it caught my eye. So no, I you know what? I love it. When I lived in O’Fallon, Illinois, that was always a big deal for our band, our high school band they wanted to go is, I think they go every other year or so, every third year, and that was a big deal. So I just think when you see the work that the people put into building something like each of the floats and all of the intricacies of that, when you look at the different bands that show up, especially the bands from the two schools that are then playing in the Rose Bowl, right? That’s always a big deal when the college bands come.

Steve 8:48
I did notice that, yeah, it was Oregon and was it Ohio State? No, wasn’t I forget the other team, but yeah, yeah.

Trish 8:56
And then all of the equestrians and other just professional performers that come out to that parade. It’s just a really special one, so little bit different than a lot of other parades, I think. But yeah, it was, it was good, and what I saw, and I look forward to watching the whole thing today.

Steve 9:12
Okay, so the theme was best day ever, Trish, so I’m going to pitch it to you first. You can take it either way you want. Either what was your best day ever. Or, if you could sort of architect a day, you know, design a best day ever, what would it be? So either one you could, you could take up, what do you think?

Trish 9:32
Can I do both? So, best day ever, best day ever, easily, is becoming a mother like having twins. I think just because that was the most shocking experience. Like, you know, you’re having a baby, but like, okay, when it actually happened, it was super shocking and wonderful.

Steve 9:47
Yeah, you do, you do know, right? Yeah, you do know.

Trish 9:52
It’s one of those things, like, in my head. Like, a funny story about that is, I, I worked at PwC at the time, and I was very, very type A wanted to go right back to work after having kids like that was in my mind the split second I had the first baby, I looked at my husband and I said, I am never working another day in my life like that was gonna be it. So, yeah, best day ever. But in terms of what I would do, it’s funny I was thinking about that, and I think a best day for me would be something really simple. I would love to fly to London and just spend the day in Hyde Park, like walking and looking at the swans and having a picnic lunch or something. Something really chill would be my best day, if I could create one. How about you?

Steve 10:38
I mean, yeah, that you could sort of take the default right, and say, oh, you know when you became a parent and stuff, yeah, that was, that was pretty cool. But I, I would say, I’ve had a couple I got to when my son was younger. I’ll mention outside this one, I guess we used to go to a lot of baseball games, and I particularly recall going to Baltimore, which ultimately became his favorite team. What was his favorite team at the time? So like, road tripping to Baltimore to go see an Orioles game down in Camden Yards. I don’t know how old he was at the time, nine or 10. You know, he was young, but old enough to appreciate the whole experience. And, you know, we stayed down in the Inner Harbor there and went to the ball game and just had a really, really good time. And we were lucky enough to do a number of those kinds of trips, like, in terms of, you know, going forward for me, yeah, it’d be pretty, pretty cool. Like, simpler, I think, to sort of like yours, like, wouldn’t be, but the beach for sure, you know, staying at the beach, getting up, having Karen there, Tillie there, like, seeing this, you know, beach walk in the morning, hanging out at the beach, making some, you know, having some good, you know, I used to grill a lot of steaks, not grilling them as much more, but like doing something like that outside, just being outside most of the day, enjoying the beach and just chilling at night. And then, of course, you know, like settling in in the evening for very important, you know, whatever’s in season, bachelor, Married at First Sight, 90 day fiance. I don’t care which one I I like that one hour or so at night to just decompress and hang out with, you know, the family here and just be like, let’s watch mindless kind of like TV for an hour before bedtime. Like it’s fun. So that’s my best day ever.

Trish 12:20
Isn’t it interesting that, the older you get, the best day ever is actually, number one, achievable, right? Yeah, easily achievable. And number two, it’s just, it is more simple, right? It is being in nature in some way, and being with family and friends like that’s that’s really what makes up the best day. So Well, hopefully any listener out there, you’re thinking of the same, same type of thing, right? And getting out and getting to do something with the people you love and and just enjoying yourself, yeah?

Steve 12:47
Let’s go make it happen, yeah. Trish, a couple other things we love to talk about on the show over the years, we I have been obsessed with the Pantone color of the year for at least a decade. I used to make it an annual post on my Steve, my Steve Boese blog, right for years and have a blog I used to, yeah, Google. It still out there. I think the archive.

Trish 13:09
It’s out there. I still look at it all the time.

Steve 13:13
This year’s Pantone color of the year from the Pantone color Institute for 2025 it’s called mocha mousse. It’s kind of a like a brown, rich brown color, you know, as you’d expect from Mocha, and it captures the global mood of connection, comfort and harmony, right? That’s the idea. And every year, typically, they’ll talk about why they selected that color. And it’s not so much a prediction. We learned this because we a couple of years ago, we had the president of the Pantone color Institute on the podcast, right? And we should probably get her back again someday, but she told us, I remember that it’s not so much a prediction of what color will be, a popular color or an influential color. It’s more a reflection on what’s already happening in the world of fashion, in art, in design, in entertainment, right? And so it’s sort of the predictions, like, Hey, this is what’s going to be an important shade or color for the upcoming year. So I think it’s a cool idea. It’s different. It’s not a super vibrant color. It’s, I don’t know, did you notice that announcement? Trish, do you have any thoughts on the color of the year?

Trish 14:18
I did, and it’s interesting because you mentioned, like comfort, it is. It’s a cozy color. It’s really comforting. And, you know, being on social, being on reels and Tiktok and whatnot, I’ve noticed that the big thing for women, anyway, well, I guess for anyone who wears lipstick, for any person that wears lipstick, the shift into the 90s colors of lipstick, which are all shades of basically Mocha, right? They’re all the browns. So we’re seeing it definitely in terms of fashion, because I was looking and I wrote some of these down, I’m wearing, I’m wearing revlons. Um, which one do I have on? I have on, um, rum raisin. This was a huge color in the 90s. So like the fact that all the things that are old are coming back and reformulated, but the colors that are most notable are revlons, coffee bean and rum raisin. L’Oreal’s mica, which I have to tell you, like that was funny, because that’s when I still wear all the time. So to hear young women like on there, going, Oh, look at this color we just discovered. And I’m thinking, like, it’s in my bathroom right now. Anyway, Velvet Teddy from Mac and Silverstone, which is kind of a brown, a lighter brown, but yeah, so Brown is definitely going to be in fashion, right? What about for men? Like, are like suits? Do you still do you have like, a brown suit?

Steve 15:42
I do not. Brown suits are typically very difficult to pull off for men to look good, right? Because most suits are not brown. But interestingly enough, I got a one of the Christmas gifts I was fortunate enough to receive this year was a brown sweater. And I thought to myself, Wow, this is really cool, because I don’t wear much brown ever like, and typically grays and dark blues and greens like is mostly what I wear and, and I’ve been wearing the sweater, you know, since Christmas fly, so I like it, and it’s brown and it’s cool. I should have put it on for the show. I didn’t think of it. So, yeah, it was a pretty cool gift.

Trish 16:15
It’s hard to tell. It might look a little gray. It’s actually, it’s actually Brown, nice, like, a light mocha. Like a latte today.

Steve 16:22
I like that. You’re like a latte. I love that. So couple more things Trish, we wanted to cover before we sort of wrap up our first show the year. We have invested at H3 HR Advisors, our company, a ton of effort and research and just time really building our 2025 trends report. It was, we published it, I don’t know Trisha. I guess in November of 2024 we posted it on the website. It’s, it’s our was our longest version of a yearly kind of outlook or trends report. Yet it’s over. It’s like 55 pages long, or something like that. It hits up seven trends that we think will be important in the world of work and the world of workplace technology. We’ve been spending a lot of time. We’re going to be presenting on it to a client next week, as a matter of fact, and I’m super proud of it. So I do want folks, as they get back to work and get re engaged, you know, at the New Year, if they’re interested, you can check it out. It’s at h3 hr.com, and just click on Reports, and you could get it, but I’m glad that we did it, and I I have some thoughts on it, Trish, but like, I’d love for you to maybe share, like, some of your thoughts on on what’s really going to matter this year in the world of work?

Trish 17:34
Yeah, it’s interesting. Karen does such a good job, too, of helping us chunk it out into smaller, more manageable bits and bytes too, right? I was going to show one of the things, and we can get copies of this for people. So we even have, like, little one pagers that we have of the trends. But you know, what strikes me is, of course, AI and skills, right? Or, you know, mentioned that you have to, but things like caregiving, which haven’t hit the trends reports heavily in the past, are starting to become much more talked about in the workplace, and not just caregiving for yourself, because that’s part of it, right? It was more like well being and mental health, which is still important, but it’s more about caring for yourself and caring for if you’re raising a family, potentially, right? That could be caregiving, but also for aging parents or grandparents or aunts or uncles, right, extended family. So that’s been different, hearing about the impacts and every time we’re collecting information from people, that seems to be a common theme, people are struggling now with, how do I balance what I’m doing at work with not only taking care of maybe younger children or college age children, but also parents, so that one rose up to the top, also people. Analytics, I think with AI brings more of a focus back on the analytics side of what are you capable of doing with the information that artificial intelligence helps you obtain. Again, we’re seeing a little bit of a rise in the people analytics. What about you?

Steve 19:08
Yeah, well, to me, as I look back through the process that we developed to to build the report and the research that we did, and then the report itself, that that that balance and or perhaps a little bit of tension between the technology, like aI skills, tech, right, analytics and kind of the more personal or emotional side of what people do in HR, right, all around caregiving and mental health, well being, Financial wellness in particular is one of our seven trends that we call that specifically. And you know, organizations working hard to kind of balance the two right, and it’s always been a challenge in HR right the to balance the sort of really business focused side of a. HR and the people business with those the people themselves, right? And it’s getting more challenging, of course, as the technology becomes more powerful and has the potential to disrupt more organizations, perhaps even replace more individuals. And at the same time, right? We see people struggling, still with mental health, struggling with their financial well being, struggling with caregiving, as you said aptly, Trish. So to me, walking that that balance right, and then even we didn’t mention hybrid and remote work, Trish is still still five years after the start of the pandemic, still a really big deal in many organizations I just saw yesterday, JP Morgan, the latest, very large organization calling all employees back to the office five days a week, right? And so the tension and stress around that continues. And then finally, we didn’t mention this yet, but I’ll mention it because it’s one of our trends. What’s happening with de and I this year, renewable, right? So many companies stepping back from DNI, a couple companies still saying, Hey, we’re still really committed to this and just meta. Just over the weekend, Trish talked about how, yeah, we’re rolling back all this DNI. We’re gonna, you know, we’re getting rid of our chief diversity officer, and on and on and on, right? So we can do a whole nother suit. Well, we will. We’ll do shows on that all year long, and we’ll do shows on all these trends right this year.

Trish 21:24
The fact that SHRM, right, if you’re an HR professional, SHRM has taken, you know, the E out of it, not, not completely. It’s sort of like, off to the side, right? But so they’re kind of having to take a lot of flack from, you know, organizations where you’ve, you’ve you’ve told us for years this is super important to put it in, and now you’re right, dialing it all back.

Steve 21:46
So, I think that our trends are right on. I We all pat ourselves on the back. I think we anticipated some, and we’re reflecting what’s happening in 2025 really, really well. So I encourage folks to go out and check out the parts free. We don’t. You don’t have to give us information or anything. I just go out there and get it, so just click it and share it. Tell us what you think.

Trish 22:05
Click it and share it. And also, you know, as you read things like reports, not just from us, but from wherever you get your your information for your job, I would say, share back with whoever writes those, because people do put a lot of time and effort into these trends reports, or just reports in general on the industry, go back to them and say, Hey, this really resonated, or this doesn’t right. So that’s kind of the feedback loop, right? Think that there are a lot of analysts in the space who give a lot of time and effort for free to the industry to help people in their jobs. So definitely, you know, circle back with with whoever wrote the report you’re reading and let them know if they resonate. I would say, yeah,

Steve 22:43
Yeah, absolutely. So we’re probably proud of that. And thank you, Trish, thank you Karen for all the great work on it as well. Last thing, Trish, I love this idea of talking about sort of, I don’t know whether it’s a word of the year. I don’t know if you’re a person who picks out a word to kind of center your thought process around the New Year on or what’s one big thing you’re thinking of for 2025 a big whether it’s a goal or some place you want to go, something you want to do, some person you want to meet. Do you have you have anything out there for 2025 it’s on your radar.

Trish 23:13
You know what? I like the word idea. I’m not like I said earlier. I’m not a resolution person, because I would forget what I resolved. I think by the end of the year, last year, my word, it’s more of an aspiration. I would say this, my words are sort of an aspiration for me. And it was unbothered. I wanted to head into last year being unbothered by things. I was unsuccessful. I was extremely, extremely bothered by lots. But here’s why that having a word works for me anyway. So without giving all the details, I was in a very bad relationship for many years, right? And I was very bothered by that, and so I became unbothered. I became unbothered. And I’m not laughing about that itself. It was difficult, but I think that giving myself a word like that, I was able to then remind myself, you know what you need to get yourself to that place where you can feel more unbothered by the situation you’re putting yourself in. So with the wicked theme, when I saw the movie the first time in defying gravity, there she says the word unlimited. I love that word for this year, because I think 2024, two for even for our business, for the podcast, for everything. It was a little bit of just a holding pattern, right? We were celebrating having 15 full years of shows, for example, and not a lot of new coming in. So to me, it’s going to be unlimited. So in terms of work, we have, like I said, we’ve got some exciting new clients already signed. We’ve got a few more that are about to sign. So I think it’s working with new people, because to me, that’s what challenges us and keeps us fresh. Gosh, and also, we’ve got at least two new shows coming out this year, and that’s also really exciting and, like, unlimited, thinking about what we can do that we’re not doing. So to me, it’s sort of an exciting word, but I don’t know, what about you? Are you a word person? Are you a resolution?

Steve 25:20
I thought about this a lot. I did do some resolutions. I did them in a form of a bingo card, because I’d seen this interesting kind of video about setting them up that way. And I the paper is somewhere. I don’t have it right at my hand, but I did create a few things, some goals, some some of them are a little bitmore practical. Mark your bingo card. I love it. Yeah, I’ve started one of the things.

Steve 25:38
I’ll give you an example. One of the things was I wanted to make sure I read more this year. So I wanted to read and complete 12 books. That was the very easy goal I set for myself, like one per month. I’m almost done with the first one and the second one is, like around here somewhere, where I’m going to start once I finish the first one. So, so things like that. But in terms of the word, I remember, I think my word for 2024 was empathy, and I was thinking a little bit more about kind of, some of the workplace things, and it’s reflected in right at least half of our trends reports, which really talks around those empathetic kinds of issues about caregiving and mental health and well being. So I think that was a good word. I’m not sure I got more empathetic during the course of the year, maybe, or maybe not.

Trish 26:26
You know what I think, in knowing you, I think you did with yourself, maybe. So I think you’re more empathetic with yourself, and I think that’s something we don’t do well as people, right? We’re always thinking externally, right, giving empathy to others, but we’re not really focused on ourselves and giving ourselves a little grace. And I think, outwardly, I think that’s what you’re doing.

Steve 26:49
Well, thank you. Yeah. So yeah, I had a couple words. I kicked around for 2025 purpose was one, to just try to do things with connecting a little bit more to broader purpose, both in what we do for work, but also things outside of work, you know, like in terms of being more involved with people, getting maybe more involved in the community, doing some volunteer work, things like that, which is part of my list as well. And then I think we talked about Trish. I won’t spill the beans about our sort of internal strategy and planning, but elevate was another word that we used a lot as we talked about 2025, and so trying, you know, in the broadest sense. And then finally, I had gratitude, and I’m super grateful for you, of course, Trish, for Karen, who does amazing job with us and our clients, our partners, our listeners, as we head into year 17 in this podcast and and depending on how you’re consuming this podcast, you may, you’ll may notice some things we’re on. We’re recording them on a new platform. We’re distributing them on a new platform after all this time. So lots of changes, but I’m grateful for folks who are with us along the way. So yeah, that those are, those are my thoughts.

Trish 28:00
I love those words, you know what? And I would just say, challenge your family or your co workers. I have have a buddy. Have some of them where you can challenge because I’m listening your words. And I like those. I mean, I think that inspires me already, my wheels are turning a little bit so awesome.

Steve 28:14
Excited for 2025, I think it’s going to be a really exciting year. We, as always, we’ll have lots of events to go to and trips planned. Things will be attending, speaking, presenting and yeah, lots of fun to have lots of great guests coming up on the show, and more interesting things to come.

Trish 28:35
I’m glad that you shared your bingo card idea. I had not ever heard of that. So I love that, so I may have to steal that one. And I love the idea about just a manageable amount to read, one that I saw on reels. And I actually reached out to both, to Karen, of course, but also to our friends, Madeline, oh, Chris, haverilla and Meg bear. So I saw where you you each take a book that it could be one you go by. It could be one you have, and you have a list, and you send it to the next person on the list, and they get to read the book and annotate in it. They can draw in it. They can underline things. They can highlight things. They can whatever, right, put little tabs on it, and then they read it, and then they send it on to the next person on list. So by the end of the year, you’ve read however many friends you’ve brought into the circle, right? You’ve at least read, in our case, you know, four new books, but you get your book back with, like, all of the things that your your friend group think are important about that book, what they found interesting. So you can kind of reread your own book and sort of see what you think based on what they think. So yeah, just kind of a fun way to do that. So, yeah, find creative ways to read. I think that’s a good one for the year.

Steve 29:47
All right, good stuff. Trish, I think we’ll let it go. There it is. You know, great way to start the new year. I’m excited. Thank you. Hopefully you’re on the mend from your New Year’s Day experience.

Trish 29:57
From my worst day ever.

Steve 30:01
Worst day, well, right? If the worst day ever is on January 1, then it can only get better, right?

Trish 30:06
That’s what I said, like, if you fall down the stairs and break your foot, it only gets better.

Steve 30:12
Great, great stuff. So thank you Trish, thank you Karen for putting this show together, and all the great notes. Thank you everyone for listening. Thanks to our friends at Paychex, of course, and congratulations once again to Tom Hammond and the entire team at Paychex for that great news. And remember to subscribe. Go to hrhappyhour.net listen to us wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks so much for being with us once again in 2025 here’s to a great year. So my name is Steve Boese, for Tris Steed, thanks for listening. We’ll see you next time and bye for now you.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai