0:01 - Madeline
Okay, so on today's episode, we had an episode of First Times. We had our first show on a job site, and the first time we had a 296 team member on the show, Harold Munoz. Did I say that right?

0:16 - Andy
Pretty good, yeah. In-yay, it's got an in-yay in there, so Munoz, but yeah, it took me a while to get used to it as well.

0:22 - Madeline
Okay.

0:23 - Andy
So yeah, Harold is one of our team members. Thank you for saying team member. I like that a little better, but Yeah, this is definitely an exciting episode because he is the first team member on the show. And Harold is one of our engineers working here, and also he is somebody who is, his primary focus for the past year has been supporting construction, or we call it construction support. And he does design work as well, but the importance of that aspect of things, when you get into construction phase, it's good to have somebody that's just helping make sure that the architect, the contractors, questions are getting answered. And we talk a lot about that. We talk about escuchamos in this episode.

1:13 - Madeline
Which means?

1:14 - Andy
Well, I don't want to give it away. It's a Spanish word, but we'll get into that during the episode. But you'll learn about what escuchamos means. It's a significant word for 29E6 and one of our values, if you will, in terms of what we think And as a construction support person, it's important to understand this term as well. So we learn all about that. And also a few other things to think about and to prime the pump, so to speak, is just, you know, obviously his journey coming from Venezuela and that and how the difficulties there and the inspiration there. So you're going to learn a lot in this episode. You're going to be inspired. And I think we probably laugh too and also we were on a job site because the construction side so you get to see if you're watching YouTube you get to kind of see some stuff that we're actually out on a job site so for those reasons check it out my name is Andy Richardson and I've been doing this 27 and this is Madeline our producer and this is the enhanced AEC podcast I haven't been doing in podcasting for 27 years but structural engineering but on the podcast we like to interview professionals in the AEC industry and find out what their what is and what their why is.

2:30 - Madeline
Let's jump to the intro. Welcome to Enhance, an AEC podcast where we learn the why behind AEC professionals so that you can learn your why.

2:42 - Andy
Hey Harold, welcome to the Enhance podcast.

2:45 - Harold
Thank you, thank you for having me here.

2:47 - Andy
Yeah, awesome. So I'm gonna start you out with a curveball opener. So So you've been here in the U.S. How many years now?

2:58 - Harold
Four years and a half.

2:59 - Andy
So four and a half years. Yeah. And what's the most interesting difference between your home country and the U.S. That you found when you first got here?

3:10 - Harold
I think I must say the first thing related to the type of constructions that we do in Venezuela is that we don't see too much like wood construction. We basically do a lot of concrete and CMU type of construction, basically for houses and all that. Basically, my house is constructed in concrete and CMU in Venezuela. And that's one of the biggest changes that I must say. We have some classes during university that we learn about, of course, the different materials construction and wood construction and concrete and steel, of course, but yeah, I mean, that's the biggest impact that related to what we do in Venezuela, basically. But other than that, I mean, it's pretty much we follow, in Venezuela, we follow the coding and all the characteristics that we usually do for design work in here. It's a little bit of change, but I must say not too many changes from what AmeriCast usually design, basically.

4:27 - Andy
Do they use metric there?

4:29 - Harold
Yeah, we use metric and kilograms, of course, metrics.

4:34 - Andy
Yeah, so that was probably a big change.

4:36 - Harold
Yeah, that's one of the biggest ones. And of course, using the changes in feet and kilometers and metrics and metros we call it metros in spanish but but yeah it's it's one of the highest difference and also fractions fractions we usually don't see like this type of specific type of measurements in fractions like that in Venezuela I must say that probably it is right now because I've been out from Venezuela quite a while but but yeah usually when When I first saw the first plan that I saw with a bunch of fractions like 7-8s and 7-16s and all that, it was like, OK, I need to study this. That's one of the changes.

5:26 - Andy
Yeah, they still give me a hard time. Yeah, those fractions. But how about culturally? I mean, was it a cultural shock for you? I mean, was there any big differences, food or entertainment or anything like the way we do things here? That was different for you?

5:44 - Harold
I mean, the culture always changed, of course. I think being as a Caribbean people, people were always like hugging each other or kissing each other, because that's how we usually do. But and that's a little bit of change in with the American culture, basically. Yeah. There's people that, of course, have that type of culturedness, I guess. And and and are that type of worming too. But even though, I mean, it's a pretty good country that allow us to have different cultures, right? So maybe in one area, they treat it different, and in another area, they treat it another way. But yeah, I mean, one of the biggest changes is, I think, probably that. But other than that, I'm going to say that I'm very proud and I'm very lucky that I met with a bunch of good people here in America while I came here. Like my first jobs and my first employees, they treated me very good and I'm still learning and of course with you as well. But I must say that I'm lucky that I really met a really good people so far and I hope and that's continuous. And I know that that will continue, too, but yeah.

7:12 - Andy
And you're a structural engineer.

7:13 - Harold
I'm a structural engineer. I'm graduated as a civil engineer in Venezuela. I'm from the UCAP, the Catholic University. Andres Bello is the name of it.

7:26 - Andy
OK, can you say that one more time?

7:28 - Harold
Well, it's U-C-A-V. So in Spanish, it's UCAP. That's an acronym? Yeah. Okay. University, Catholic University, Andres Bayo. It's on the capital. It's one of the biggest universities in Venezuela, and I'm really proud to be part of that university. I really enjoy my career and my time there, and I met a bunch of wonderful people over there. Oh, yeah.

7:56 - Andy
Yeah. Awesome. And how long have you, so you were in Venezuela and worked there for how long?

8:02 - Harold
So, yeah, I grew up there. I graduated in 2019 right away I finished my college degree. I started working basically in the AEC field. I started working with a really big company in Venezuela that allows me to enter into this matter and start doing some design, structural design. They were looking at structural engineering. Path that I really wanted to go for during my studies time. That's one of the best areas that I really found more interesting and that kept my attention when I was starting basically. So that's what I wanted to do and they have a disposition. I applied and I just started working with them and the funny thing is that while I was in this company it was like international type of company and they having a bunch of projects here in the United States. So basically all my experience is related to projects in America, in the United States.

9:14 - Andy
Yeah, I didn't know that. Okay. And then you did that, but that was more like a civil type construction?

9:22 - Harold
No, it was a structural. Structural. Yeah. Yeah. I go there as a civil, but I went to a structural and yeah, I was Basically, structural.

9:30 - Andy
And what type of work did you do for them?

9:32 - Harold
What was your role? I spent almost a year with them. And I remember one of the biggest projects that I worked for was for an oil plant in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico. And they need to do some structural designing for the old steel members that they have on the plan so what we were doing is just updating sizes and checking if they work and I remember that I that's the first time what I use advanced steel is another software from AutoCAD that yeah it was pretty good and and that's where I started to use Grisa as well.

10:18 - Andy
Okay so maybe the you know this is an AEC podcast so maybe the A and the E or the A and the C don't know what all this is, but what is Advanced Steel? What is RISA? These are calculation softwares?

10:31 - Harold
Advanced Steel is more of like a drafting side. The good thing with Advanced Steel is they have all the, like a very bright and big catalog of steel members. So that allows you to just implement members faster and be more precise with the measurements and all that. So that's one of the, it's pretty much like an AutoCAD, but related to structural steel, basically.

10:59 - Andy
Like detailing, basically. Like detailing, yeah. Okay. Which we've had a couple of detailers on this show. So, you know, they, they, but they, I don't think advanced steel is the most popular detailing, but Exactly. But there's a few others. So you were doing design work mostly. Yeah. I was doing design. Okay. Structural design. Yeah. And then, What brought you to the U.S.?

11:26 - Harold
Basically, I just wanted to expand my knowledge. And of course, because of the situation of my country that I really don't want to get too much into it. But yeah, I mean, I just wanted to explore. I saw that because my experience on that company allowed me to work in different projects in the United States. I just decided to see how it works. I've always been a really big fan of the American culture. I mean, we as Venezuelans always watch sports from the United States, the NBA. We're very familiar with the culture because we're pretty close to the United States and usually during my vacations I just came to the United United States for vacations and that's where I decided to maybe it was a really good path for me and my career as well and again my parents decided just to try here and I just followed them basically.

12:34 - Andy
Yeah okay so you followed them here and then yeah started working down in the Brunswick Savannah area yeah a while yeah and then I guess you decided to come work for us, right? Exactly. When was that?

12:51 - Harold
Yeah, I mean, I just came to the United States and I was working something not related to AEC for a while. I mean, not too much time, but yeah, just to try to settle down, work into my documents and get everything fixed. And yeah, as soon as I have my my employment authorization document, I started applying as an engineer, basically. And that's where I found, I worked for a company that was pretty much related to the company that I used to work in Venezuela. A really big one here in the United States. And that's where my career in the United States, my career as a structural engineer starts. And yeah, I spent some years with them and then I moved forward with another area, another company, more residential type of projects. Same thing there, I just do some projects with them and I really enjoy that phase of my life too. And then I found 2096 as well. It was pretty much the same thing that I was doing on the other company, residential projects. And then I saw that 2096 was a really bright type of projects and catalog to do design, basically, because in here we're focusing different type of projects, not only residential. And that's where I decided to maybe, yeah, join the team. I'm here right now.

14:41 - Andy
You gave us a call and said, which by the way, this is a first for the podcast. Yeah. So, I mean, the podcast isn't about 2096, but, um, obviously it's a way to help, help us, you know, market the company and all, but, um, but really we wanted to enhance to be its own thing. But the, but 2096, uh, the, you're our first team member to be on the pod. So, So that's a first. And also another exciting thing is we haven't done one on on a project. So this is exciting, which we haven't really talked about yet, which we're on. Today we're on a job site here. This is Palawan Island. It's cold here in January. We're recording this. It's going to be probably later when you get this. But so that's why I'm in a hat. And Harold and I, because is Venezuela a very cold country?

15:35 - Harold
Not really. Yeah, it's pretty warm to be honest.

15:40 - Andy
Yeah. So we're pretty cold right here. We're going to probably wrap this up soon, but we want to talk about this job a little bit. Um, but I wanted to talk about, you know, I wanted to finish that thought about 2096 first. Um, so, uh, because this is a couple of firsts, you know, you're, you're the first team member. Um, and so I want to talk a little bit about that. I mean, what, what made you decide to come to 2096?

16:07 - Harold
I remember the first call that I had with you. I was looking for different areas to explore into my career. And I remember that I Googled it. I found 2096, and I just wrote you an email. And then I think we had a call about it. But I think the first thing that caught my attention was your mentality. And how you wanted to be like in some type like a mentorship for me. And that really caught my attention. And that's where I really started thinking about it. And I remember that I received the exam, the first exam they just sent me. It was a really good one.

16:53 - Andy
Yeah.

16:54 - Harold
Yeah. I mean, it took me some days because I remember that I was doing something else. I don't remember what, but yeah. So yeah, I finalized it and then sent it back and it was pretty good to receive that and work on that. And the other thing is related to the right catalog of projects that you have in the company, basically. I wanted to explore, of course, expand my knowledge into residential type of projects, but even that, just going further and maybe work in industrial or maybe and as well commercial as well. That's one thing that I really wanted to improve and wanted to enhance basically for my career. So basically those things kept my attention and that's where I decided, hey, this will be a good season for me. So that's when I decided to join you guys.

17:55 - Andy
Yeah. Well, And you've been here how long now?

17:58 - Harold
A year and four months.

18:02 - Andy
A year and four months, wow. So you got over the year hump.

18:05 - Harold
Yeah.

18:05 - Andy
So congratulations. And we're still making it. You know, every day is an adventure, it seems like, in structural engineering and business. You've kind of seen a lot of, it's been, 2025 was a tough year for 2096, frankly, and you stuck by our side and and the team is stuck by our side. And some of that's not to get into all that, but the point is, it was a tough year. We had a few people get off the bus. We had a few people get on the bus, is what I call it, which it just means people left the company and got back with the company. And financially, there was some challenges, but you stuck with us, and I appreciate that. So why did you stick with us through those difficult times?

18:54 - Harold
I think it's the confidence that I have right now that I didn't have in the past. I've been built a confidence related to design and how to manage basically construction and the experience that I feel that I can gain from all the projects in design and of course the site visits experience that I gained, it tells me like, you're in a good place, you can keep growing. Probably it's not, it's gonna be difficult times, and probably last year it was, but I know that in the future, hopefully this year will be better, and we're gonna be, we'll grow, and we're gonna be better, we're gonna enhance, and that's one of the things that, yeah, kept me attached to 2096 and I'm hoping that this will last for a long time too.

19:55 - Andy
Yeah, well I think it, you know, we have a, hopefully you see like we have a vision for, you know, our 6Es, for example, the Enhance. I mean, we're not just trying to stack bricks, so to speak. You know, we're trying to build something that's, like you mentioned, the Enhance piece, which is, you know, what this podcast is all about. We want to interview people like yourself that are trying to make the world a better place. Sounds a little bit like a Miss America pageant sometimes, but it's what I value. And I think, do you agree with those values of 29E6?

20:33 - Harold
Yeah, I definitely agree with those.

20:36 - Harold
I always committed to that. And during our couple of meetings that we had, we usually talk about our system aim, and how we're just looking to reduce headaches for everybody. Basically, that's what we're trying to do every day. Eliminate headaches for everybody. So basically, that's our goal. And yeah, of course, enhance the world around us.

21:08 - Andy
Yeah, I mean, so we have the 6Es, they eliminate headaches. How does all this fit in? It sounds complicated. Or does it make sense to you?

21:19 - Harold
I mean, yeah, of course it makes sense. I mean, one of the things that I'm working for as a construction support manager is that tons of headaches came during the construction side of a project. So being there for the clients, And for the contractors, I think it's a very unique and very special thing to handle this type of designs, because time is important for everybody. And we, of course, we know that. And that's where we keep pursuing for reducing this type of headaches that comes from the sites and during construction, basically. And yeah, explaining enhancing everything that relates to the design, of course. And yeah, keep pursuing for that too.

22:20 - Andy
All right, so your role here, you're an engineer, you do some design work, but also construction support, you mentioned. That's really your number one job. And so to tie up first of all, so like we say that we have our six E's, that's our value, at 2096, also we have the system aim. System aim is something where we all want to row our boat in the same direction, so to speak, right? And so if people are rowing their boats in different directions, you got a problem. But inside of that boat, we're rowing them with the same values too, right? And those, you know, those values are our 6E. So, but that's, that's really internal to the company. It's also external in the sense of eliminating headaches, but our sort of thing that we've always said is we provide streamlined structural engineering, including construction support. And I mention all that because that's your role, and it's a significant role because the reason that somebody hired us is for this, what we're out here for today, which is the Palo Alto project, one of our projects we worked on. And if the project doesn't go well during construction, then that's a headache. And so when you called me a year and a half ago, I knew I had a spot where I said, I really need somebody to help with this. And are you able to jump? I said, if you can come in and do that, then you got a position. And so you've been doing that for about a year and a half now. Actually, about one year and four months. How's that going for you?

24:08 - Harold
It's been going pretty good. I must say that at the beginning it was challenging just to be part of the construction. Like I said, timing is important for the client and for us. At the beginning, trying to do design and of course handling construction, it was challenging and it took me a little bit of time to get organized everything that we had regarding construction. I remember a few projects that I started working on, I think Maybank and a few more like this another one that yeah allowed me to get deep into it. The good thing is and I feel lucky about it is that I have a really good colleagues working with me. Has some really good team members that allows me to feel that confidence and try to knock out things faster. So a bunch of people that really helped me to do this, to finalize the construction, to organize things, get RFIs responded on time, and of course, submittals, revisions, and all that.

25:25 - Andy
Yeah, we know, right?

25:27 - Harold
So yeah, it was challenging at the beginning, but now I feel confidence, I feel comfortable with the work that I've been doing, and I'm pursuing to know more, train more, and of course, transmit, and sometimes transmit this knowledge that I have to other people, right?

25:47 - Andy
So, exactly. Now, what is your, so what's the job look like for you doing construction support? I mean, are you handling handling all of these RFIs and questions, and they may not even know what an RFI is, but are you handling all of that, or how does that work?

26:06 - Harold
Well, basically, my position right now is, as we said, construction support manager. I receive, when the design is finished and it starts doing the construction on the site, that's where questions end. Needles get going and they need to have responses from engineers. And what basically I do is I receive all these documents for the different projects that we're working on. And I just try to address it to the designer, basically the structural engineer that work on the project to be faster, to be precise, and to optimize the process to respond to these questions. And basically if you guys don't know RFI is a request for information so questions that come along about details or maybe about some concerns that they have during the site and that we're expecting sometimes to have or sometimes not but yeah things that the contractor need to solve in order to continue with the construction so that's one of the things that I that we've been receiving and of course came along with that some medals as well. These can be still shop drawings or anchorable or framing shop drawings that we have to review and give the approval to the contractor to use those or maybe mark it as a work may proceed or work now may proceed and I don't know just keep keep on targeted and keep aiming to get the safest building design based on our design. That's why we want to reach out on every type of design. So that's what I'm basically doing. Getting all that information, spread it to our teammates in the company, the person who's available or the person that works in the design, and then try to solve it as fast as possible.

28:18 - Andy
And I can tell you, Harold, you are on it. When an RFI comes in, when a shop drawing comes in, we put that as priority number one. And you're doing that. You're putting that as priority number one. So you see the vision of construction support. Because when somebody, an architect, an owner, a contractor, has to do a design, but now it's in construction. And this thing is most likely holding up their whole project. And so talk about that a little bit. I mean, how do you make that a priority? And sometimes you may have priorities that are vying for one another, right? Like two RFIs coming at the same time. How do you handle that?

29:10 - Harold
Yeah, that's one of the hardest part, to be honest, to for the position. But I know that's where the problem solving thing comes to my mind and and get into my mind and said like, OK, let's see, let's organize and let's see how we can solve this the best efficient way possible. So, of course, I do design as well. And sometimes When you receive this type of questions or maybe a call sometimes, we receive a bunch of calls too, where I need to attend and need to let the client know that we're been working on that. When you are designing something, you need to pay a really big ton of attention. And when this RFIs or this request came to you, it a little bit of change your direction of concentration and try to respond to the client as soon as possible. So that's one of the biggest challenges that I'm seeing in here. But as far as you are organized and you keep your thing straight, maybe what I do sometimes is I split the day hours into two. So in half a day I just focus on design and the other half I focus on responding enterprise Yeah, assigning to the teammates that can that have some time available to respond of those That's what I focus the most and that's been working pretty good for me to be honest just to keep everything organized everything put some notifications in my my accounts allow me to to get everything organized and And yeah, of course having the teammates to respond at those as soon as possible and sometimes we receive RFIs that have some really quick responses that I can just take on myself and I just do it by myself, but there are some times where we need to go more deeper into it and that's where I just rely those to the teammates. But yeah, basically just try to maintain, organize and clear your mind and be focused what you have to do.

31:38 - Andy
Yeah, okay. Now, as far as getting organized and being more efficient, you know, I've heard that from another colleague, you know, innovation is broken into three parts. Systems, people, and technology. So, are there any of those three things, the systems, the people, technology at 2096 that we're doing that's helping you with the construction support and be efficient with the RFIs and such?

32:10 - Harold
Well, related to organization, I just use the Google Calendar and just try to get everything, notify me and keep a point of that. And regarding of that, we usually have our daily huddles. We call it like that. So these are basically daily meetings that we do in the mornings where everybody is working and everybody is available to do it. So those are really quick meetings that where all the teammates join it and just share thoughts and share questions or share any type of needs that they have in the company. So I think that's one of the the biggest wins that we have since we start to implementing those huddles, daily huddles. So those are not too long meetings, just I think it's 12 minutes or 15 minutes, but that allow us sometimes go further than that, but that allow us to get everybody where everybody's at. If I need some RFI to be responded, that's where I just brought it to the team and Usually a person just writes up their hand and just say, hey, I can handle that. Just send it to me. And that's one of the biggest things that I am seeing, that when we start to implement in those, I really see a really big, huge change into these responses as well.

33:47 - Andy
Yeah. OK. Any technology that you're using to help? You said Google Calendar. Yeah. Anything else helping you facilitate effort and your work?

33:59 - Harold
Well basically just yeah respond everything with the Bluebeam software of course everything needs to have to be responded and basically just if we need to check design of course we use the all the different programs that we use to check those the Reset3D, the SimSim catalog as well that's one thing that we use for connections and and any type of detail and connection that we need to be responded to. And I mean, different softwares that we use just related to design. But as far as organization, I use just Google Calendar. We use Slack for communication as well. So that's where I can ping somebody and let them know, hey, we need this pretty quick, or we need a response. Funds for this. And yeah, just being attentive to the Outlook basically, the Gmail that we have attached to it.

35:03 - Andy
Well, and we have JIRA, right? Yeah, we have JIRA as well.

35:08 - Harold
That's true. That's one of the biggest, the biggest softwares that we use for project managing as well. Thank you that you brought in that too. Is basically It's basically a cannon bore that we use to get this task organized and responded as soon as possible and as fast as the client needs it. So we use it for the design, we use it for RFIs, submittals, and all that, and it's been working pretty good so far for us.

35:46 - Andy
Yeah.

35:49 - Harold
to keep on the target.

35:51 - Andy
Yeah, awesome. So yeah, it's a Kanban board approach, like Trello. So Trello is one that's similar to that and just helps us keep things. We can put it on the board. Now, what about, can you just walk down the hall and tap somebody on the shoulder and say, hey, can you knock this RFI out for me? Yeah. At 2096, are you able to do that?

36:11 - Harold
I mean, in Kanban? No, no.

36:13 - Andy
I'm being a little bit funny because we have a remote company. Yeah, that's true.

36:19 - Harold
Well, not right now because we're a remote company. So everybody works basically from home. And yeah, since I think it's since COVID, it was that, right?

36:29 - Andy
Yeah. So I say that we're a post-COVID remote company. Yeah. So, I mean, we have to do a daily huddle to stay connected and Slack and Jira in order to understand what's going on. Right. Otherwise, it's just disconnection. So, I mean, I think the huddle was pretty important. We've only done that for less than a year. But I agree, it's been a significant part of the improvement.

36:58 - Harold
Yeah, yeah. And of course, now that the world is changing and everybody is using the AI tools, we use Gemini as well.

37:09 - Andy
Oh, yeah.

37:10 - Harold
That helps us a lot with this gem. So in the company we designed some of those just to try to help the team and everybody knows what we're using for in order to get reports done or get RFIs done or responses or emails sent out. We use GEMS and it's been pretty good tool that we use on the company as well related to AI.

37:42 - Andy
Yeah, okay, awesome. So you can create a custom gem and it like is a template of sorts that you can filter in. So for example, can you give a good example of a gem that you've used?

37:56 - Harold
Yeah, the ones that I use for the most part, I do when every time we are on a site visit, we need to write a report, of course. Is for our documentation and for the design that the client wants us to do. So basically I just, in case of report, in case of reports, doing reports and filling out the reports, we usually do the site visits with videos and Andy is one of the biggest pieces on this because he usually do some good videos about what is the status of the construction, what they want to do, what they want us to check, and what they want to have on the report. So I use JAMS to help me with these videos, sometimes are long videos, sometimes are short videos, but these videos have some observations that we need to account for in the report and that's why I use JAMS sometimes for that. Plug in the video, I create especially a gem that is called observations and it basically picks up every observation that Andy had on the video with the time frames for each of the observations, when it was set and that allow me to get all those observations working of course, try to address the observations, if they are accurate, if there are some differences that it didn't catch too well because it keeps improving every day. But yeah, that's one of the biggest gems that I use for the report creation. And of course, then I have to work into those and apply my knowledge as a structural engineer and get the feedback from the team and from Andy to see if those reports are accurate. So that's one of the biggest gems that I use.

40:05 - Andy
So it gets you going. I mean, you're not necessarily like just kicking it out with a seal on it after the gym, after Gemini does its thing, right?

40:13 - Harold
Yeah, they does its thing, but of course we need to check everything. And we, I mean, not me, just the QA body. That's what another thing that we use in the company. There's a person who review basically our job and then just send it to the EOR. Sometimes Andy, sometimes Paul and other teammates from the company. And after we got all these revisions, of course, that's where we can stamp it and send it to the client. Yeah.

40:46 - Andy
So QA buddy, I mean, is that just like a checker?

40:52 - Harold
It's not a checker. It's not only a checker. That's a trick question. You got me on this one. Yeah. It's not a checker just to let you guys know a QA body is basically a person who's gonna be checking your work, but of course giving you Insights and helping you with the design. So that's we don't call it just as a checker It's a person who's gonna be involved into the project. He's gonna take it as his project and it's gonna just a streamline and keep things straight try to to catch details and specific things that probably the engineer, the design engineer didn't catch. And yeah, that's one of the biggest wins that we had this year as well with this QA body implementation to the projects. I think it's been really enhancing our design job and optimizing the design.

41:59 - Andy
Yeah, I mean, hat tip to a company called Menlo Innovations. They actually are a software company, and it's pretty wild. We don't quite take it as far as they do, because they actually have two programmers sitting at the same computer all day, and so you'll do programming for a period of time, and I'll watch you, and like, oh, I didn't know you could, like, if you're doing Revit, for example, like, I didn't know you could do that in Revit, and then you'll do it for a while and you say, well, that sounds really inefficient, but it's quite the opposite. They found it to be very effective. So it's a bit of a hybrid approach to that. And it's the idea that we're taking this design together down the road. I mean, one person has to really own it, but the other one is really there with you. So why don't we talk a little bit about this job here that we're standing out freezing on a little bit. So this is, I just want to, Call it the Palawana job, if that's okay, but Palawana Island, it's here in South Carolina, the low country, not far from our office. You didn't do the design on this job, but what was your role on this?

43:12 - Harold
My role was to jump as a construction support manager, of course. So we receive a revision from the client. They want to make some changes into the design, so that's where I have to jump in and get the engineer that designed, basically did the design to make these modifications and some RFIs that we've been receiving for this project. That's basically my job here. But yeah, the design was made for another colleague, another teammate. Yeah, it was pretty smooth design. I think we're very proud of that design as well.

43:52 - Andy
Now, so you said there was some revisions. I mean, did we make some mistakes, or what caused the revisions?

43:59 - Harold
No, we didn't make mistakes at all.

44:03 - Andy
I mean, we're not infallible, of course.

44:04 - Harold
Yeah, exactly. But yeah, no. It's related to, I think they just want to change some members that we designed as wood members. They wanted to have it as steel members, some columns that they want to change. Floor joists, they want to change it as well. They want us to make it as a lumber floor joist and we had it as a TJI's members. And yeah, a few more things that they just want to change because they think it's more profitable for them and think related to money, I guess. That's things that they just want to change. So basically we just help them, we just tell them, hey, yeah, we can do that. We make some revisions to our design and give those plans to them.

45:00 - Andy
Yeah, so the columns were changed from a concrete masonry unit, CMU, to steel.

45:06 - Harold
To steel, yeah.

45:07 - Andy
Was that just, they thought it was gonna be cheaper that way or cost effective?

45:12 - Harold
I think it's a cost effective implementation in there. They were like worried about the money that they were going to spend in those units that they just want to implement. So that's where I went there and we did some comparison between pricing of steel related to CMU and concrete and that's where we send that out, all the information that they want to have and that's where they make decision to go with steel, basically.

45:49 - Andy
Yeah, which was surprising to me that they went from traditionally around here, I mean, we're seeing most of the, this is a house, right? So we're normally seeing houses built on CMU piers, on footings, and then now the arch, this is a more modern design, you know, so the architect has a modern vision, and that, I think that played into the design that we had some, and so sometimes I mean, there's a bit of a value engineering that has to occur during construction. It's just unavoidable sometimes. I mean, what's your take on that?

46:26 - Harold
Yeah, I mean, what we do is just we are ears open and we just hear what the client want to do. And of course, we sometimes we tell them or or think or what we think it will be the best solution that's what is based on our design and usually we focus on to be efficient and to have of course a safety type of design but as well thinking about the pocket of the client the money that they want to spend so that's when we try to optimize our design to be in a good position for us and for for the client. So one of the big things that I think that we are committed to is to listen. And that's one of the things that why is the people calling us and giving us some work is because we listen to them. And if they want to make a change, we can think about it, we design it, we run some numbers, and then we let them know what is the best decision and the best option for this. For them, so that's my input in there. Escuchamos. Escuchamos, yeah.

47:47 - Andy
We listen. How's that?

47:49 - Harold
Pretty good? Yeah, it's fantastic.

47:53 - Andy
So, yo quiero aprender español, por eso yo hablo español aquí. Ahí, or aquí?

48:01 - Harold
Aquí, or, you can say that too.

48:03 - Andy
Now, it'd be ahí, right?

48:05 - Harold
Yeah, I mean, yeah.

48:07 - Andy
So anyway, I just said, So, I said, escuchamos, which is we listen in Espanol. And I said also, I want to learn Spanish. That's why I'm speaking now. So, let's talk a little bit more about this. Sorry, back to the, I got sidetracked on the Spanish. So, we listen. That's a significant point. I mean, you listen at the beginning. We do our charrette and we have a process for that. But then when you go to construction, it's almost like the process starts over again because, in my opinion, the design process carries all the way through construction. I mean, and it's not that people couldn't make up their minds, it's that you get out here and it's a development of the idea, right? And it might be the owner, it might be the contractor, it might be the architect, and it might be us, mostly it's not us, it's usually one of those three that says, hey, we wanna shift the door over here, is the owner, or the architect says, we really didn't finalize the stair design, we kinda wanted to see laid out in the field, and now we're gonna work on that a little bit. Or the contractor has cost things. So I would maybe bring that to fill in some gaps here as far as RFI, because I think RFI can have a very bad name. And even revisions can have a very bad name, but what I'm getting to is, is RFI always a bust, if you will? Like a revision?

50:03 - Harold
I mean, not all the times. I mean, there's some RFIs that probably need to, some things that we need to improve in some of the plans that we provide, but sometimes are changes. So I think, I'm not going to say it's like a big problem for us. We, of course, the goal for us is to not have any RFIs, to be honest, because, as you said, it's a really weird word and acronym and we just want to try to eliminate those and try to eliminate headaches. But I think usually we're going to be receiving RFIs as well because, I mean, we're humans, right? And sometimes things were planned in a way and came along in a different way. And it depends on the weather as well. Maybe the weather was and the proper weather and something happened during the site and they just want to have answers on how to solve problems. So yeah, I think it's a little bit of both and we need to address those and try to get the client satisfied with those, basically.

51:16 - Andy
Awesome, awesome. Okay, so let's talk a little bit about this project. We've given a little bit of introduction, but I don't know, this will be, we're trying new things today but let's maybe pan around a little bit to the job and right now it's just a slab on grade and and what do we have here Harold that they've built and they've constructed can you kind of describe that a little bit?

51:46 - Harold
Oh well yeah they just have the concrete slab, slab on grade, that's what it's called. We just saw that everything was so far, everything is pretty straightforward. We see the control joints very good aligned as we have it on the plans and the location of the anchor bolts are pretty accurate as well. That's what we've seen so far in here. We just had a call with the contractor and they are expecting to have the steel elements I think as soon as possible so that's one thing that we really want to take a look at but we need to wait a little bit for that but as you see the anchor bolts are in a good location we're just checking with the plants I have the plants usually traded or on the iPad and yeah basically that's what we do that's what we have so far in this one yeah so And they didn't really ask us to come out here today, necessarily.

52:53 - Andy
We just figured we'd come check it out and talk about it a little bit. But anything else, so they got a slab on grade. It's got what we call TWFs on our projects, right? Turn Down Wall Footings. And these anchor bolts are, there's some red lines here where they've chopped out the center lines of the anchor bolts. So see if we can get some footage on that. Can see they've chalked out you know this is the center line of the column here and then the anchor bolts have been they're gonna epoxy those in so and then like right here is right here is this plate which is basically like a a template of sorts right yeah is there anything else you want to talk about this project or this construction, I mean, this Palawana job.

53:50 - Harold
I think that's all I have from the Palawana. The latest RFIs are related to those floor joists that they just want to change. We already did that. Some details that the contractor will want to check with us during this meeting that we had. It went pretty good. We're looking forward to to continue how the project comes along. And also this project is not only this area, there's another area that we designed as well.

54:27 - Andy
And it's- Yeah, so there's like two houses, right? Like two buildings. Yeah, two buildings.

54:32 - Harold
This one is the biggest one and the other one I think is across the street over there.

54:39 - Andy
So yeah, I think they have the same status one they have it on the other one that's why I'm assuming but yeah nothing more than this beautiful slab yeah awesome yeah it's not much to look at right now I mean I don't know if I panned out really good let me go ahead and pan out a little bit more here so if you're listening to this on Apple or Spotify your favorite player if you will you might want to check out YouTube What's your favorite way to listen to the podcast, Harold? By the way.

55:17 - Harold
Usually YouTube. I use a lot of YouTube. And and yeah, usually YouTube, I just put it. Usually I use it when I'm driving. That's where I I listen to. And and the last one that I that I listen to on 26 is with Daniel Calabro Calabro.

55:35 - Andy
OK, yeah, that was a really good one. The AI guy, Ferris. Yeah. But uh, yeah, I mean you can listen to it They have a podcast feature and and also that you can do the video podcast on there, too So yeah, but the point is check it out because you can see this Apollo on a job also check out my LinkedIn I'm not trying to make it's about me, but I think it would be fun to watch and maybe as we get some construction photos Maybe we get Harold to post some photos on LinkedIn too. So he'll refer to it as the Apollo on a job. I So I was gonna ask you a couple questions, Harold. One, what's the craziest RFI you've seen so far, or what's the craziest construction thing you've seen so far since you've been here?

56:22 - Harold
Wow, I need to go deep into my, yeah, the RFIs that I've been receiving, because it's been, I mean, of course we do a lot of design, jobs and different type of jobs. And I don't know, maybe. I think I'm being honest, this Polo One project was one of the biggest RFIs that we received, not RFIs, because we just went into a revision phase and it has a lot of changes regarding the steel and a lot of conversations between the client as well. But yeah, I think there's another one that we are currently working on. I think the other one is in Spring Island, I guess, right? The other one. They're working right now with that. Really, a lot of questions that came out from the design. And we are addressing those. We are almost finishing up. I don't know. It's basically just, sometimes it's changing sides, sometimes it's, I don't know, maybe moving beams to another area. Sometimes, I don't know, they just want to change the joists, TGIs into lumber frames and what can we do with that? And yeah, basically that. I mean, nothing too complicated. That we can work on, usually we just knock them out pretty quick, just get the right people to work on that and we respond to those pretty fast. But I think one of the biggest changes was this one, the Apollo 101.

58:17 - Andy
Yeah, okay. How about the people that you work with on the construction? I mean, do you meet some interesting characters sometimes, like contractors and architects that you work with? Like, maybe not specifics, but people, names, but you ever met any interesting characters that you had to work with?

58:37 - Harold
Yeah, it was one, one that it really was one of the first site visits that I did on 2096 that I remember for, this is in another island. I don't remember the name of it, but the right location of it, because I live in Savannah, basically.

58:55 - Andy
Yeah. So I just, you're right. To help knock that out.

58:58 - Harold
Yeah, and the fun fact for that site visit is that I remember that the client, we were, I was with another engineer helping me out with the design and then the contractor came in and the client, the owner of the house came in and I remember that it was some things that they missed during the construction from the contractor side and they start to yelling. It's really hard. But yeah, what I was saying is during this site visit, it was a really kind of a discussion between the contractor and the owner that was kept my attention and really was really impressive for me during the site visit. But other than that, I mean, they fixed and they do this. The right changes, the project went really good at the end. And we did a really good job on that one as well. But other than that, the clients and the people that I've been working for, the owners were really good.

1:00:09 - Andy
And I figured out it was Fripp Island, wasn't it? Yeah. Fripp Island. OK. Yeah. So I remember that one. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, I remember that. So sometimes you're like the heat sinking or the You take the heat for the company. And so I appreciate that. You're doing a good job, and I appreciate all the hard work you're doing. I wish you didn't have to take the heat for that guy yelling and dealing with things. And it wasn't your fault. It wasn't even our fault. But you had to take that, so how do with those type of things?

1:00:53 - Harold
I mean, it depends on the situation and, of course, the position that I'm in. But usually I'm a really chill person, to be honest. I just don't take the things too personal. I just flow with the wave and just let the things know. I just focus on my job, just focus and the solution. And like I said, the first thing that I learned from college is that engineers need to have a problem-solving mindset. So I'm just focused on solving the problem, not the problem itself. So yeah, that's what I focus on the most.

1:01:42 - Andy
Awesome. Well, that sounds like a good approach to a lot things. So I want to ask you about really, we were going to take this to the office, but it looks like we kind of did it all in the field, which has been fine, I think. But I want to make sure I ask the important question about the purpose of the podcast, which is enhancing the war around us. And how are you doing that? Do you do you agree with that vision? And how do you see that? Yourself playing into that vision for yourself, for the company, or any other ways?

1:02:22 - Harold
Yeah, I mean, I think we are, I believe that we're doing a really good job in the company, enhancing the world around us, or the area around us. We've been doing really good projects around the area, and outside the area as well, different states of the United So we keep improving every day. We keep working. We're working through that. And we always committed to deliver the best of our knowledge and design. So I'm pretty confident and I'm pretty happy that I'm working with our teammates like this, in a company like this, with you as a mentor. And yeah, just trying to make the world better. And that's why. That's the why, right? Try to make the world better for us and for our child, for the families, and for all the people that share the world with us, basically. So that's our goal, basically.

1:03:34 - Andy
Awesome. Thanks for sharing that. I mean, you mentioned about the airplanes that flew over and your country. We've talked a lot about that. Obviously, there's been a lot going on with Venezuela. You know, we want to both handle it with care on the podcast. That's not really what we're about. But at the same time, I mean, it's definitely happening. It's definitely going on. So is there anything you want to talk about your country and what's going on right now?

1:04:04 - Harold
Well, yeah, a lot of things happening right now in Venezuela. You can see it on the news. You can see it everywhere. There's like negotiations that are being handled right now. And the things that happen, happen for a reason, I would say that. And the reason is to keep improving and keep working to have a better country. And I know that we as Venezuelans, we usually have. During my college, my college expertise and during university, we've been through different type of problems regarding environmental problems, regarding some politics and things that changed the path for us some ways. And we have to have this mindset of how we're going to handle or how we're going to go through this. And that's one of the biggest challenges for us as Venezuelans and as engineers as well. So I'm committed and I have too much hope of what is happening right now. I know it's going to get better in the future. Things are taking place right now. And the people as far as the people is doing their jobs and focusing in what is the best solution for the country. That's that's the biggest thing that I that I that I have to say about it. We're going to get through all this and we're going to be happy as always. We're really a happy community Venezuelans. I really have a really good Venezuelan community in the area that I live in. Right now and yeah you can see people in different areas are working very hard. People from Venezuela that came to explore and see new horizons and they're really doing a really good job and you can see it not only in engineering in different areas and I'm really proud of it every time that I see a new from a Venezuelan that win something or that wants something or reach out a goal or share something good for the community, I feel really proud of it. And yeah, I think everything is going to be better and things are changing. And hopefully this helps the people here and in Venezuela as well.

1:06:51 - Andy
And it has a direct impact on you right now. I mean, you're you have some big news coming up for your.

1:06:58 - Harold
Yeah, I have some plans. I mean, this plans that I had, I don't just don't want to share too much things because I don't know how it's going to end it up. But yeah, I mean, this plans, I have to move this plans because all these things that is happening in here, because we we want to make a really big celebration and we really have like the whole family in here. But are you able to say what it's for? Oh, yeah. I mean, I'm looking to get married with my with my girlfriend right now and but yeah the things we need to put a step back a little bit because the things are happening right now and we want to have all the family involved into this so we just have to make a pause on that but but as soon as everything get and she's from Venezuela yeah she's from Venezuela, my girlfriend is from Venezuela, I live with her and we went into to how I met her in college. And yeah, it was pretty good that she just wanted to come here and work together and keep growing together.

1:08:09 - Andy
Yeah. Well, congratulations on that. Maybe by the time this podcast airs, you'll be married. But yeah, there's some challenges there because the family is having a hard time getting here, basically, right?

1:08:24 - Harold
Yeah. And they cannot do that. And of course, we want to have all the people, all the family involved into this. It's a huge step for us. But yeah, I mean, we're working on that. Hopefully, everything gets better in the fastest way possible. But yeah, that's what we're planning to do.

1:08:47 - Andy
Awesome. Well, Perro, is there anything else you want to talk about today?

1:08:53 - Harold
Yeah, I think we talked about the different aspects on the company, different areas. I think we talked about construction, about site visits, reports, AI. It was a really good conversation. I just want to say thank you, Andy, for having me here. It's been a really good experience working in 2096 with all the teammates. I just want to say that I'm really grateful and I'm really thankful that that life brought me here and to see awesome people work with awesome people like you and my colleagues and teammates and the company has been really helpful and really I'm really happy to be there with all that is happening so yeah I really don't think I have any much thing to say. I just want to say thank you. And yeah, to all my colleagues from Venezuela, just keep pushing and keep working hard. And I know we're going to get better and we will get better. And we're going to have the best country of the world again. And we're going to be successful in it. So keep pushing and keep working hard. That's all I have to say.

1:10:19 - Andy
All right, keep the dream alive. Keep the dream alive, yeah. All right, awesome. Well, thanks, Harold, for being a part of it. How do people get a hold of you if they want to find out more?

1:10:28 - Harold
Well, you can find me on Haroldeon. It's usually the username that I use for all of my accounts, because it's pretty weird. It's Harold with I-O-N at the end. So yeah, you can find me there. Sometimes I have a really good post. And you can follow me on my LinkedIn as well, Harold Muniz. On LinkedIn, gonna share some posts about this, of course. And yeah, I'm always following posts from Andy. Andy's a really famous person in LinkedIn, so you must follow him and see the funny posts and really good posts that he have for everybody. So.

1:11:13 - Andy
Awesome. Well, thanks, Harold, for being on. And thanks for being a part of the team. I'm hoping everything straightens out with Venezuela and I'm glad to see things getting better there for you. Actually, you know this, but there is a small connection I have with Venezuela. My grandfather, unfortunately, he left my grandmother, but he went to live there after he, and then, but before they split up, my mom grew up there for about five or six years. When she was born. So, I've never been to Venezuela, but I do have some family that kind of grew up there for a little while.

1:11:53 - Harold
She lived in Caracas?

1:11:55 - Andy
It was Maracaibo, I think. Oh, Maracaibo. It's like a bay. Yeah. Because he was in the shipping industry, and they met in Mobile, Alabama, which is also a shipping, and then they moved down to there for a while, and he kind of stayed there after. But anyway, so fun fact, for the audience and for yourself that, you know, I don't necessarily have the Venezuelan culture or language, but I had some family there for a while.

1:12:24 - Harold
Oh, that's good.

1:12:25 - Andy
You probably had a really good food in there.

1:12:28 - Harold
They have a really good food.

1:12:29 - Andy
Oh, in that part of the country?

1:12:30 - Harold
Yeah.

1:12:30 - Andy
Yeah.

1:12:31 - Andy
What's the best food in Venezuela?

1:12:33 - Harold
I mean, I would say the famous one, the arepa, but I really, I love the cachapa.

1:12:40 - Harold
Cachapa is like a made of corn type of dog and you just put cheese on it and you fold it.

1:12:47 - Harold
And it's like a, yeah, it looks like a, like a moon, half moon or something.

1:12:53 - Harold
But it's sweet and it's salty at the same time.

1:12:57 - Harold
So it's pretty good.

1:12:59 - Harold
You must try it.

1:13:00 - Andy
What's that one called?

1:13:01 - Harold
Cachapa.

1:13:02 - Andy
Cachapa.

1:13:02 - Harold
Yeah.

1:13:03 - Harold
It's really good.

1:13:04 - Andy
And Harold, you like to cook too, right?

1:13:06 - Harold
I like to cook.

1:13:07 - Andy
Yeah.

1:13:07 - Harold
Yeah.

1:13:08 - Harold
So I like to cook.

1:13:10 - Andy
I know that I brought you the last time was a lasagna that I brought you.

1:13:15 - Andy
Was that a Venezuelan lasagna?

1:13:16 - Harold
But it's a Venezuelan lasagna.

1:13:18 - Harold
We call it pasticho.

1:13:20 - Andy
Yeah, it was good.

1:13:21 - Harold
It was good.

1:13:22 - Andy
So I can't wait to get a next one that you bring.

1:13:26 - Harold
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

1:13:27 - Harold
Of course.

1:13:28 - Harold
I'm going to bring you some.

1:13:30 - Andy
Sounds good.

1:13:30 - Andy
Well, thanks, Harold, for being on the show today.

1:13:32 - Harold
Oh, thank you, Andy.

1:13:33 - Andy
And thanks, everybody.

1:13:34 - Andy
Take care.

1:13:34 - Harold
Thank you.

1:13:35 - Madeline
Hey, everybody.

1:13:36 - Madeline
Thanks for listening to today's of Enhance and please leave a like, unsubscribe, or follow and we'll see you next time!