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00:00 more financially stable and we have never had the successes in our sport
00:06 to date which our national directors will share with you shortly. In closing
00:12 we have all worked hard this year and I encourage you to celebrate your wins.
00:17 Do not simply use this week to cap off your year, use it as I said earlier to kick off
00:23 your 2024 season. Together we will make you SSSA stronger and position it
00:29 for continued success for the next generation.
00:34 [Music]
00:36 [Music]
00:38 [Music]
00:40 I've got a heart of stone and I'm sorry not to. All this time I was finding myself and I didn't know I was lost.
00:52 'Cause day and night, the loneliest owner seems to freeze my night. He's all alone through the day and night.
01:02 The loneliest owner seems to freeze my night. So wake me up when it's all over. When I'm wiser and I'm older.
01:15 All this time I was finding myself and I didn't know I was lost.
01:23 [Instrumental]
01:38 Everybody get up, it's time to slam now. We got a real jam going down. Welcome to the Space Jam.
01:47 Here's your chance, do your dance at the Space Jam.
01:53 [Instrumental]
02:08 I, I wanna get numb and fuck it right from me. 'Cause looking in your eyes, like looking at the sun. I feel like you're the moon, I feel like I'm the one. I wanna get numb, I wanna get numb.
02:24 [Instrumental]
02:44 I don't wanna know if you're playing me, creeping on the low. 'Cause my heart can't take it anymore. And if you're creeping, please don't let it show. Oh baby, I don't wanna know.
03:01 Shoot me down, but I won't fall. I am Titanium. Shoot me down, but I won't fall. I am Titanium.
03:15 [Instrumental]
03:29 Yeah, I might be being sober. I'm a smoker. I know a drink or two. I might be part of a group. It's a sober, part of a group.
03:41 What we call love, we call us. Yeah, I might be being sober.
03:47 [Instrumental]
03:54 I need something you prove. Something stronger than I'm used to. Yeah, I've been born 92 on. I feel like nothing's gonna cut it, that's the hard truth.
04:08 [Instrumental]
04:36 Impressive year. And it looks like some of us have to touch up on our Spanish.
04:43 [Applause]
04:46 At this time, I'd like to introduce Megan, if you'd like to stand up please. And just wave.
04:53 Megan is our COO and she's done a phenomenal job with the rest of staff in putting together this week.
05:00 And just wanted to acknowledge her and her staff and say thank you very much.
05:04 [Applause]
05:10 Again, that's enough from me. Now we would like to bring up the sports heads to speak a little bit more on their program.
05:17 Obviously the successes of the past year and the future ahead. I'd like to start with Sean Melvin and Slow Pitch.
05:24 [Silence]
05:43 So good morning. Slow Pitch started off 2023 with a hurdle as this time last year we adjusted our BAT standards.
05:53 So we rolled that out first of the year and I must thank all of our state directors and our directors in the field
05:58 because they did a great job educating our players and explaining why we made this change and for it's better for the game and the safety of the game.
06:05 Challenge Cup continues to be one of the most popular programs in all of Slow Pitch.
06:12 We expanded to four weekends this year, hit 379 teams over the four weekends.
06:17 We see that that program is not going to slow down and will certainly reach, go over 400 teams this year.
06:24 You saw the conference. We went into it's 18th season this year.
06:29 Professional softball across the board, 37 men's teams, 24 women's teams.
06:34 This year we scaled back. We listened to our teams about travel and costs that have been going up continuously and we scaled our overall schedule back.
06:42 We saw benefits across the board not only for our teams, our sponsors, our players, our umpires, our staff.
06:48 So we're going to continue with that format going into 2024.
06:52 Our USSSA and GSL World Tournaments grew in participation from 2024.
06:58 I'd like to take a moment and we tend to focus on World Tournaments to evaluate our programs and our number and how we're doing.
07:05 But we would not have these results if it was not due to the tireless and incredible job that directors do in the field every single weekend.
07:12 So I just want to take a moment and thank those people that are out there in the field every weekend because again we couldn't sit up here and say positive things about our World Tournaments if it wasn't for you folks.
07:21 Very proud to report that we're on track to improve our numbers again from 2022 going into 2023.
07:28 Most exciting news for Slow Pitch is that starting January 1 we're expanding into Europe.
07:34 First tournament of the year will be March 14th through 17th in Barcelona, Spain.
07:39 We have, that event will consist of 12 women's teams, 12 men's teams from 9 different countries.
07:47 We qualified 2 men and 2 women's teams from U.S. World Tournaments this year and all 4 teams have agreed and will be making the trip over to Barcelona to sponsor and play in March.
08:00 The league and tournament schedule in Europe continues to grow.
08:04 Once the year kicks off we'll have league play in Spain, Austria, Netherlands, Germany and Italy to name a few.
08:11 Discussions have already started and we'll be talking with Steve, with Ryan on fast pitch and baseball and also Craig in soccer because they're interested in getting those sports.
08:23 So we really look forward to not continuing what we're doing in the U.S. but also expansion into Europe.
08:30 At this time I will hand this over to Ryan Heifel with fast pitch.
08:35 [Applause]
08:43 Thanks Sean, good morning.
08:45 In 2023 we had a great year in fast pitch and we came into last year's convention and really made it a point of emphasis with our directors that we wanted to get out and grow, get outside of our comfort zones in 2023 and we accomplished that in a big way.
09:01 And that's a reflection of all the men and women that are sitting out in the crowd today that represent USSSA fast pitch.
09:07 So I want to start with a thank you to all of our directors for their passion for the sport and for USSSA.
09:14 Let's give you guys a big round of applause for all of what you do for us for USSSA.
09:18 [Applause]
09:22 I'll share some program highlights from this past year.
09:25 You saw a lot of these on the slides but we sold out our Select 30 in Vieira over Martin Luther King weekend.
09:31 And then we also launched the first ever West Coast Select 30 through our partnership with BLD out in Las Vegas and had a successful event there with over 150 athletes in attendance and it's definitely something that we're looking to build upon for next year.
09:47 And here in December between Christmas and New Years we'll be launching our National All-State Games program.
09:54 And we've got approximately 700 athletes set to attend that from 25 different states and it's supplanting what was our Winter All-American Games program that had grown a little bit stagnant over the last couple years.
10:07 So to see that many kids signed up for an inaugural event is really exciting and something that we're definitely looking to push in 2024 and beyond.
10:17 Our AAG tryout program continues to be successful.
10:21 We had a record number of kids attend tryouts this year and that springboarded us to a record number of athletes at our Summer All-American Games program this past August at Vieira.
10:33 And that is a large testament because of Jim Dennis-Shuck and Kim Hatcher's leadership.
10:39 They do a tremendous job with those individual programs and also helping our directors in the field.
10:45 Some event highlights from this past year, we once again had over 3,000 teams participate in the USSSA Nationals for the second consecutive year.
10:54 The road to the show tournament around the Women's College World Series somehow grew from 547 teams in 2022 to a staggering 657 teams this past year.
11:06 Making it once again the largest single weekend tournament in USSSA Fast Pitch history.
11:11 Pretty impressive.
11:12 And overall in Fast Pitch this past year we had a growth of 6,300 teams in tournaments from 2022 to 2023.
11:21 And again that's a testament to our directors in making that push.
11:25 And I'm so excited to get started on 2024 with you all this week.
11:29 A huge thank you once again to all that you do for USSSA and can't wait to see what we can accomplish with our Fast Pitch program next year.
11:39 Thank you.
11:41 [applause]
11:45 With that I'll turn it over to Steve Hassett, National Baseball Director.
11:49 Good morning.
11:59 I typically usually wing these things but I wrote some notes.
12:02 But the problem is I can't read my handwriting now so bear with me.
12:07 Thanks Ryan for introducing me and again thanks for everybody for being here.
12:11 I know it's not easy to take a week out of your busy schedules.
12:14 It means a lot for you guys to come here and spend the week with us.
12:17 I'm very excited about a lot of the seminars and classes we've got going on.
12:21 So again I wanted to thank all the directors for coming down and taking the time to be a part of USSSA.
12:26 Baseball had a great year.
12:28 Our individual events were probably the highlight of the season.
12:33 AAG being the best.
12:35 Last year we had 300 participants in AAG.
12:38 This past season we had 1,200.
12:40 So that was a huge growth compared to last year.
12:44 We've added a lot of new directors and we continue to do so in areas that are a little short on what USSSA baseball expects.
12:52 So we're constantly looking to add great directors in new areas.
12:55 Excited about that.
12:56 We had a lot of directors had great seasons.
12:59 We're going to highlight them in our individual sessions in our 101.
13:02 I can't thank you guys enough for the effort and time you put in.
13:05 It's really amazing and astounding to your effort.
13:10 Despite all the noise and the distractions that we've seen over the last month or so,
13:14 I feel like we're in a really great place with USSSA.
13:17 Not just baseball but the organization as a whole.
13:21 Again, a little awkward moment.
13:23 This is the CEO.
13:24 Welcome.
13:25 I know Donny DeDonatus would love to be here.
13:28 He loves USSSA.
13:30 I spoke with him earlier and he wanted me to tell you guys that he cares about you and the organization.
13:36 In his leave of absence, we're going to be in good hands because as I look out into this room, I look out into a room full of CEOs.
13:42 Everybody in here is their own CEO.
13:44 You guys make day-to-day business decisions.
13:47 You run your company on the day-to-day.
13:49 We know we're in good hands with all the CEOs and experience in this room.
13:52 So I really appreciate you guys being here.
13:54 Next, I would like to introduce our guest speaker, Chad Scott.
14:09 Does this work?
14:10 Obviously, the budget was low this year, guys, for speaker.
14:14 Okay, so I did take notes.
14:16 I do have a limited time, so I want to make sure that I stay on time.
14:19 A lot of you know that I can talk for a while.
14:21 But this moment for me, before I kick everything off, I want you to know this for me is a dream come true.
14:27 But the minute that I found out that this was possible, I nearly shit myself.
14:33 First of all, I'm not allowed to swear, sorry, but I really got nervous.
14:37 So right now, the reason I got nervous is because you guys are the reason that my life personally is possible.
14:47 And I just wanted to take a moment to say thank you, because there's a lot of you in this room that gave me a chance when I was 19 years old.
14:53 And I would have bet against me if I was a gambling person.
14:57 I would have absolutely bet against me.
14:59 So I just want to make sure and say thank you, because literally, I don't know if you're out there, Tim Foster, Bob Egger, Laurie Strode, a lot of you guys, you gave me a chance when I was 19 and I didn't deserve one.
15:07 So even Gene Campbell, for those of you guys that remember him.
15:10 So with that being said, I want to show of hands for anyone in here who knows the name Paul Harvey.
15:18 Okay, so Paul Harvey was a radio commenter.
15:24 And the reason that this story is super important is because it's going to explain to you just how impossible this particular moment for me is.
15:33 So I grew up in a small town in Kennett, Missouri, and I moved to Chicago to go to college.
15:37 And so I had to get a job. My family had no money. We lost our house in high school. We had nothing.
15:42 So I get a job at a country club.
15:44 And my goal when I got this job was to be around successful people to understand what that looked like.
15:50 And I go through training. I get out of training.
15:53 And the very, very first table that I get a chance to serve is this really tall guy and this really short lady.
16:00 They're older. And so they're like, "Hey, Chad, you're up."
16:03 I'm like, "Okay, awesome."
16:04 So I go over and I ask the lady what she'd like to drink. She tells me.
16:07 And then I go to the guy and he starts talking and I stopped and I'm like, "Dude, are you Paul Harvey?"
16:12 And he was like, "Yeah." I was like, "My whole life, I thought you lived in Kennett, Missouri, because you were on my radio."
16:18 Like, that's how impossible this is.
16:22 So when I tell you that literally anything is possible, it is.
16:26 Okay, so now for me, whenever I got a chance to do this, I probably wrote this speech five times.
16:32 Okay, because it was, how do you speak to people that you look up to? Right?
16:36 That's a thing for me. I look up to a lot of you guys and you're all friends of mine.
16:40 And so what I wanted to do was take you on a journey of how I got here and five things that I learned to be true throughout my journey and kind of how it happened.
16:49 So the first thing that I learned is that if you have a plan B, that is the plan that works out every single time.
17:00 Okay, so where did I learn this? Well, the way my poster company, for those of you that don't know, I have a poster company that I started when I was at a restaurant.
17:09 And today we have offices all over the US and Mexico and we do millions of dollars a year in annual revenue.
17:14 So I'll get that out of the way. But this all became possible because of a catalyst moment for me.
17:20 I was waiting tables at a restaurant called J. Alexander's in Chicago.
17:25 I had told this guy that came in every day that I had this idea. I have this poster idea. I just know I can do it. I'm certain it can happen, but I'd never done anything.
17:33 He goes, man, I have a guy who's coming into town this week. I want you to meet him. I think he'd love your energy. I think he'd love it.
17:39 So I was like, okay, great. So he comes into town. I go up and he's like, Hey, this guy's name's Peter Chad. I want you to meet him.
17:45 Now, keep in mind, this is 2004, 2005. This is before the iPhone, really before Google was a big deal.
17:51 So you don't naturally think to Google someone or look them up online. So his guy's name's Peter.
17:57 Peter says, Chad, I've heard about your poster idea, but I have a question for you. Why are you waiting tables?
18:04 And I was like, well, Peter, if you really want to know the truth, I have $4,000 in credit card debt.
18:08 My family has no money and I'm having to pay my way through school. And that's why I'm waiting tables.
18:12 And he's like, okay. He's like, do you have any samples of these posters? I'm like, dude, yeah.
18:16 Middle of my shift, we go to the parking lot, right? Keep my touch food and everything else. And I'm in the parking lot with stuff on the ground.
18:22 And so Peter loves it. We spend five minutes out there and then we walk back inside. Okay.
18:28 I go back to my shift. I carry on about my night. The night ends. And I walk over to tell Peter by and to tell this other guy's name was Christos by.
18:36 I said, I just want to say it was nice to meet you. I'm going to get out of here. And he goes, Hey, Chad, really quick.
18:41 He pulls a check out of his pocket for four grand. He gives it to me and he goes, now I have a question for you.
18:47 Why are you waiting tables? And that moment for me was super, super, super powerful because he reminded me that if I had a plan B, that was the plan that always works out.
19:02 Okay. So now how do I tie that into you? Triple a say, because for me, this is a big deal. Bob, are you in here? Just out of curiosity.
19:10 Okay. So I wasn't sure. So Bob Egger told me a few weeks ago that someone stood on the stage years ago and they said that they want everyone in this room to do this full time.
19:22 Okay. For me, that was powerful. He said he never forgot that moment ever. And I couldn't believe that to be more true today than ever.
19:32 Okay. If you do this full time and you will get out of it, what you put into it.
19:36 If you are someone like me who was waiting tables, trying to get my poster company off the ground, it was not possible.
19:42 Okay. So I can tell you guys from personal experience, you guys know, I know so many of you in the national office and I can confidently tell you, I've never seen them more dedicated to being the directors, being their plan a as well.
19:55 So for that, I just want you guys to know now the second piece of my journey that I learned, be careful who you take advice from. Everyone has advice on how you can do things better.
20:10 Everyone. So for me, we sell posters for a living. So imagine this. We sell $85 posters on the weekends. Do you know how many people have told us we should sell bumper stickers?
20:23 Right. So I want you to think about this. If we sell bumper stickers for $5, we have to have 16 times the customers to make the same amount of money. Right. Just because you get advice doesn't mean it's good.
20:35 Now I'm going to take you back to a story with Peter again. Who did Peter end up becoming? Who was Peter? Right. Because I had no idea. But when I met Peter, he gave me this business card.
20:47 I went home, I put it on my table or my desk at school and I said, you know, one day this guy is going to want to be my friend. I don't even know who he is and I don't even know if he's a nice guy.
20:57 But one day he's going to want to be my friend. OK. Turns out Peter built Nextel International in Mexico City. He went from one employee to 17,000 faster than anyone in history.
21:11 Peter patented the chirp walkie talkie phone. OK. So that's who he was. I had no idea. But when I left Peter that day, I had his card. I decided that every single month I would send him an email updating him on my sales.
21:28 So I quit my job. Obviously, the minute the check cleared first, I thought it wasn't going to clear. When it did clear, I quit my job right away. And I emailed Peter. Hey, Peter, we had $700 this month.
21:37 Hey, Peter, we had $2,000 this month. Right. A few years ago, I was like, hey, Peter, $60,000 this month. Peter's like, let's have lunch. Right. Every time I would email Peter, every time he would respond with one word. Great. Awesome. Keep it up.
21:51 And I sent a novel about how grateful I was. And I only met him for four minutes ever. And so he wants to have lunch with me. And he says, Chad, I want to buy into your company. I'm like, no chance. 0% chance.
22:03 And he said, Chad, I want to give you a piece of advice. And this is why I say, be careful who you take advice from. Peter said to me, Chad, when you build a business, you need to imagine having a toolbox.
22:18 Okay. Imagine you're building a house. You can do a lot with a hammer and nails. A lot. But there comes a time when you need an electrician. There comes a time when you need a plumber, a roofer, all of the other pieces. Right. For Peter, he said to me, Chad, I'll be the whole toolbox. Okay. And that was powerful.
22:38 But how does that relate to you, Triple S A directors today more than ever? Well, what I find when I meet directors and I also meet small entrepreneurs and I speak on a lot of stages, the one thing that I find is that everyone seems to think that they do it best. No one can do it better than them. Right.
22:56 Remember the goal in business is to have a network. For those of you that were asking me, what am I good at? Literally, I couldn't give you one thing. I don't think I'm that good at anything other than attracting a bunch of people that are really good at things. And that's the key. So for all of us, right, for me, I know nothing about law, but we have lawyers. I know nothing about accounting. We have accountants. I know nothing about marketing. We have a marketing team. Right.
23:19 So the key for you guys is as you move forward, when you take advice, find experts and lean on them. Okay. Truth number three. This one make sure I'm good on time. Okay. So truth number three. This one is very, very powerful for me. You can tell a lot about a business or a person by the quality of their problems.
23:43 Take a moment. Think about that. What types of problems do you have? When I first started doing posters, these were my problems. I didn't have an event to work at. I didn't have anyone that would let me work at a tournament. Right. I didn't know how to find tournaments. Those were my problems.
24:02 So my problems, they got a little bit better. Right. So we started figuring out, obviously we met you, triple essay. Thank you guys. And getting tournaments was no longer a problem. But then what happened was we would make these posters with using graphic designers. So imagine this. I'm a person. I'm a graphic designer. We bring them in. We teach them how to make posters and we send them to events and they make posters on site.
24:26 Well, what ended up happening with that, a really close friend of mine. And when I say close, we were born one month apart. We grew up. Our parents were best friends. We grew up together. During my early years, I struggled bad. When I say struggled, I mean, guys, I would drive to tournaments and sleep in my car because I couldn't afford the hotel. Okay. And I refused to give up.
24:49 Once I had figured it out, my friend wanted to come on and work with me. So I said, dude, that's amazing. It's like the biggest compliment in the world. Like you would, you know, want to work with me. Well, what ended up happening next was after about a year of working with me, he went off and said that he couldn't work with me anymore. I said, okay, you know, he couldn't travel. He couldn't do those things. Okay. No problem.
25:12 This particular guy was a person who I trusted with my life. I had him booking events for me. Well, what he ended up doing was when people were calling to book our company, he was stealing the events and going to work them on his own.
25:25 And when I found out, obviously, I'm sure you guys can imagine I was devastated. Like, because I'm a person, I was just talking to Mike Schmidt here earlier. I'm from the South, like near Arkansas. And my natural instinct is to trust everyone. It's just how I am. It's who I am. And I was literally devastated.
25:43 And so at that moment, I decided to start compartmentalizing the business. So what does compartmentalizing mean? It means that we take each piece of the business and we separate it off. So long story short, I'll fast forward to where it is today. Today, our problems are very simple. We built some technology that automated our graphic design process.
26:02 We eliminated teaching people every part of the business so they couldn't compete with us. And that was something that we did. Today, it's automated. And when we first started, we could make like 10 posters an hour. Today, we could make 10,000 posters in 5 minutes. So it was a huge problem, right?
26:17 But I want you guys to understand about, you can tell a lot about a business by the quality of its problems, is that it is important to have problems. Okay? And a lot of businesses think that that's not a good thing. No. Having problems is the only thing.
26:34 Because if you don't have problems, it means that you're not pushing the boundaries. You're not pushing the limit of where you are. Okay? So for you guys as a whole, if you think about this, what are your problems? Right? If you have an eight team tournament, I can predict your problems. You've got cash flow issues. You have marketing issues. You have a lot of them.
26:55 If you have 300 team tournaments, you have different problems. You have organizational structure. You have staffing issues. You have umpire issues. Right? There are a lot of things. So please, as you move forward throughout your business, remember, the goal every single year is to have higher quality problems, both individually and as a business.
27:14 Now, keep this in mind when you're hiring people. You can learn a lot about them when you hear what they complain about. Okay? You can tell what level of person they are. So that's a, it's super, super important, powerful one for me.
27:27 So now, number four, this one I could have done the whole speech on. Okay? Getting stuff done is easy. Most people are just lazy. Okay? I'm going to use an example and I'm actually going to pick on my friend Steve. By the way, I love Steve. He's done a lot for me. So I, but I'm going to pick on him.
27:47 So this past year, Steve gave me an opportunity to help run an individual event for him so I could get firsthand knowledge of your guys' side of the business. I've always been on the vending side. He wanted me to get a firsthand knowledge of what you guys go through. I was like, yeah, dude, it's amazing. This is awesome. Thank you.
28:03 So we get this email from this customer. It was super long. And Steve responds with, yes. I literally about had a heart attack. I called him like, dude, are you effing joking me? Right? Like, is this a joke? And the reason is, is every single customer that you have, they deserve to be treated like they are the only customer you have.
28:30 And for Steve, you know, and I told him, I obviously warned him I was going to say this. He said, well, the answer was yes. That's obviously true. Yes. But right. It also needed to be yes. You know, thank you for reaching out all of these other things. Right? And these are things that to me make such a difference. Okay?
28:47 So when I think about people being lazy, I just want to show of hands here for a second. I do this sometimes, not always, but I want to show of hands of anyone in here who knows what it takes to be in better shape. There's a bunch of liars in this room. Every one of you know what it takes to be in better shape, including Ryan Highfill, wherever you went. Okay. How many of you do it? You do what it takes.
29:14 Okay. So look, the truth is, the truth is we all know what it takes to do better. Everyone knows. It's like asking for advice. You only ask for advice when you already know the answer. You just want someone to confirm what you're saying, confirm what you're thinking.
29:31 So I want to share something in my personal life, and I don't do this very often. I try to stay away from my wife, my life, my kids. I do. I try to do that. But my wife and I have a rule. When we fight, we always do one thing. When we start fighting, we stop. We take a 10 minute break and we ask ourselves, each one of us ask this exact question.
29:54 How is this my fault? No matter what happened, right? It does not matter what the problem is. How is this my fault? And she's asking herself, how is this my fault? I cannot tell you how powerful this is.
30:12 Okay. If you can do this in a business and you can train people that work for you to ask themselves, why is this my fault? You will not have to micromanage a single person ever again, ever.
30:28 So my wife's watching right now. So sorry if you don't like me talking about that, but okay. So now for everyone in here, I'm a believer in one thing. You are the result of every decision you've ever made.
30:47 Every single decision you ever made led you to this moment right here. Okay. And if you're happy with this exact moment and you're happy with your outcome, keep doing what you're doing.
31:00 If you're not, it's your fault. It's not my fault. It's not you. Triple S. A's fault. It's not your parents fault. It's not your, it's no one's fault, but yours. And sometimes that's a hard thing to internalize.
31:13 But I think if we all approach our business that way, every one of us, myself included, if we approach it that way, you will be amazed if we did that for one year, where we would be if we came back here next year.
31:24 Okay. Now I want to challenge you guys with something that I've been doing for a very, very long time. When you lay down at night in bed, before you close your eyes, ask yourself one question.
31:39 Would I relive today exactly as it was? And if the answer is no, why? And whatever you're doing, do not get up and do that over again the next day. Okay. Your time is limited. I promise the minute you were born, the hourglass started. Do not waste it.
32:02 Okay. Truth number five. The journey is what creates your life, not the destination. Okay. So for me, if this moment started with me telling you guys everything that I'd accomplished in my life and it stopped right there, how terrible would that be?
32:23 That's not what makes life. Okay. What makes the best story is overcoming something that's really hard. And I think right now in you triple essay history, it's never been better to Craig's point ever than right now. But it's also to Steve's point, never been more challenging. And that's a good thing. Right. It means that we're leveling up. It means that we're challenging things. And with a group of people like you, that's hard to do.
32:51 So now the last piece that I want to share with you guys is a practice that each of you can do with yourself. Okay. So you all have a business and on this journey throughout your business, something you should be doing every year is asking yourselves, if I were to start a company tomorrow to compete with myself, what would I do?
33:19 And if you want to know how to fix your businesses this week and when you leave here, it's that question right there. If I was starting a company to compete with myself right now, what would I exploit and what would I attack? Because to me, that right there is one of the most important things you can ever, ever ask yourself in a business.
33:42 So now the very, very last moment that I want to leave you with is a reminder. Never, ever let your memories be greater than your dreams ever. And with that, I thank you guys for this moment.
34:00 Meg, you're up.
34:12 >> Thanks, Chad. Chad let me know he was going to say something about if you know how to work out and if you're lazy. I will say the next morning I rode the Peloton for the first time in like three months because I felt guilty about being lazy. So thanks for that.
34:34 So hi. For some of you, you may have remembered me from last year. I spoke a little bit at convention. Obviously I stand before you in a different capacity this year. But nonetheless, I'm super excited to be back.
34:50 I met many of you last night. I do remember names. Where's James? He told me, how do you remember names? I'm like, it's intentional. I try. And so if I forgot your name, I apologize, but I will get it. And I look forward to meeting many of you throughout the rest of this week.
35:08 I need to give a huge shout out to the people who put this together. I won't name names because I'll forget somebody and that would be terrible. But obviously look around. There's a lot of you here. We appreciate you taking the time, like Steve said, out of your busy schedules to come and be here. So that's super important.
35:28 I will acknowledge that this week we have a lot in store. And so the people from national headquarters have done a lot to make sure that this week is all about you. And so hopefully you'll see that. I definitely want you to take advantage of the time, like everybody who's spoken up here before me, to prep for 2024. It's important. That's why you're all here. So I'm super excited about that.
35:52 A couple logistical things before I let you all go to have a productive week. Outside these doors, you'll find a tech lab. The first time U-Trip has ever tried this. So bear with us. But the team has done a lot to give you hands-on exposure to all the technology advances that we've made in the last year.
36:13 So what you'll see in that room is an opportunity for each of you to touch and feel what's going on with DC. So the point is for a number of reasons. We wanted to get your feedback. It's important that you see what we're doing. But it's also important that you help us build what we need to do for you.
36:34 So take the time. I know we have scheduled sessions for both all sports. So make sure you hit the tech lab and give us your feedback. Alexa wants me to tell you, make sure you download the convention app. Search U-Triple-SA National Convention in Google Play or Apple Store. You'll find the agenda, the meeting room assignments, and any general announcements that we're going to push out. So if you haven't done that, please do that.
37:01 And then certainly the marketing lab. This is actually really exciting. The marketing team has hands-on marketing materials and support for anything you need. It's going to actually be right out here, I think. If I'm reading this correctly. Hold on. Give me a minute.
37:20 The marketing team is ready to provide hands-on marketing support for anything you need. Help with social media, head shots, et cetera. It will be set up in the foyer. We had originally had it in the marketing room. But again, making it all about you, it will be right out here. During lunch today, during breakfast hours on Tuesday and Wednesday, and then as needed on Thursday. If you find Alexa, she'll be able to set you up. So get your head shots. You'll see there's marketing materials. We're trying to provide everything for you to take back and make your business even better.
37:49 So if there's anything you like, don't like about convention, let us know that as well. We're always looking to improve. But with that said, have a fantastic week. Thanks so much.
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