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VOLUME 43 | ISSUE 5 | SEPT/OCT 2024
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SMPS Recognition

Interview with Frank Lippert, FSMPS, CPSM

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By Clare Kelly, MS, CPSM
COLUMN
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I had the chance to catch up with Frank Lippert to ask him about his experience around winning the Weld Coxe Award. In his kind and warmhearted way, he shared the following.
Describe your experience preparing your submittal.
"First of all, you have to write 50 pages about yourself in the third person. It's not a thing you do lightly. It takes a team, a project manager, a graphic designer, and reviewers. My project manager was Leslie Cocores; she's been a friend of mine for more than 10 years and has been gently pushing me to do this in her own way for a long time."
What does the Weld Coxe award submission entail?
"The whole process is like a crazy walk down memory lane. Thank goodness I have friends who save things better than I do. The women who were SMPS Oregon chapter president before and after me in Oregon came up with memories and pictures I hadn't seen for 20 years! Going through the process of preparing my Weld Coxe entry, I started to realize the genuine depth of relationships that I made in my career. "
What benefit did you get from the process?
"In a really great way, I got to empathize with seller-doers when we ask them to update their resume. I suddenly got this feeling like, okay, this is not easy, talking about Frank Lippert. I have won only two other awards in my entire 30-year career. I was the Oregon chapter president when we won the SMPS Striving for Excellence mid-sized chapter of the year. Before that, I was working as surveyor/draftsman and won the Grand Prize for Leroy-lettered mapping from the New Jersey Professional Land Surveyors Association for a map I made of a McDonald's restaurant."
What will stay with you?
"I realized I've built friendships that are friendships for life. They're not just transactional friendships that are about winning the next job. It's about deeper stuff, about supporting each other in any way we can. It really came home as I was trying to piece together my 35-year career and asking myself, 'What have I done with my life'?
SMPS members are helpers. I noticed all the touches over the years that seemed small but made a huge difference in people's careers. One that stands out is introducing my mentee, Stacey Ho, to SMPS very early in her career, and the same morning at Amplify, where I was awarded Weld Coxe, she was recognized as a Fellow.
For someone like me who did not raise children, I used my career to nurture others and help them grow along the way. The award makes it all tangible. It shows me that I did make a difference in other people's lives in a very moving and heartfelt way."
What advice do you have for anyone considering pursuing this award?
"Get started now. Reach out to previous award winners. Ask them if they think you have what it takes. If not, listen to the gaps they point out and work on them. Don't lose faith in yourself, you will get there."
Clare Kelly, MS, CPSM, is Principal Consultant at FUSE Marketing and a member of SMPS Colorado. She is an insightful, multi-disciplined marketer for firms that impact the built environment.
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