Empowered Owners

Chris Fredericks hosts the biggest group conversation yet on Empowered Owners, bringing together four employee ownership committee members from four different companies to debrief the annual EV Employee Ownership Summit. Erica Roudebush (TVF, fifth Summit), Travis Adams (Benoure, first-timer), Amanda Smith (Paramount, second Summit), and Dennis Casey (Firstar, rookie) share their raw first impressions: nerves at the beginning, re-energized by the end, and amazed by what they learned from each other. They dig into the Summit's theme, from a storytelling workshop with Sally Perkins that helped each company craft their origin story and identify the pivotal moment when employee ownership changed everything, to a stand-up magician who actually knew each company's history. The group celebrates favorite moments including the TVF warehouse tour, late-night go-karting, card games in the hotel lobby, and a surprise visit to the Indy 500 museum. They close with what they wish everyone in their companies knew—and what they say will make you a believer.
 
Edited by Mateusz Złakowski

What is Empowered Owners?

Creating connections is essential to building a community. It’s even more important when the people you’re trying to connect with aren’t in the same location. Businesses and companies have always found geographic distance to be a challenge to building a really great community-oriented culture. At Empowered Ventures, the same challenge holds true, which is why we decided to start Empowered Owners, the podcast that takes you inside Empowered Ventures.

In each episode, CEO Chris Fredericks will have a discussion with one of our employees to discover and highlight their distinct personalities, perspectives, and skills while also keeping you in the loop with exclusive news, updates on company performance, and a glimpse into the future plans of Empowered Ventures. Not only is this an opportunity for Chris to learn more about our amazing employee-owners, but it’s also an opportunity for you to hear regularly from Chris and others from within Empowered Ventures.

00;00;00;11 - 00;00;25;00
Speaker 1
Hello everybody, and welcome to another episode of Empowered Owners, the community Building Podcast by and for the employee owners of Empowered Ventures. Join us as we take you inside the world of employee ownership, discovering the stories, insights, and sometimes surprising adventures in a family of businesses where everyone's an owner. Now let's dive in. Welcome to another episode of Empowered Owners.

00;00;25;00 - 00;00;46;14
Speaker 1
I'm super excited to be joined today by four of my colleagues as part of Empowered Ventures. This is definitely the biggest group we've had so far, so we're going to have a nice big group conversation. We're coming on the heels of a gathering, an annual gathering that we like to do at Empowered Ventures that we call the EOS summit, which stands for the Employee Ownership Summit.

00;00;46;19 - 00;01;12;10
Speaker 1
A little bit of context. As an employee owned enterprise, all of our companies have a committee, and that committee can be called an employee ownership communications committee or culture committee. A lot of different names for these committees, but the purpose of these committees is to kind of spearhead the development of ownership, culture and an understanding of employee ownership and how the Esop works in each of our businesses.

00;01;12;15 - 00;01;32;13
Speaker 1
So we had a gathering last week, recently about what it means to be part of those committees. We bring the committees together, spend a lot of fun time together, learn about how each other are doing this work in their in their respective businesses, and it's a lot of fun and a lot of learning, all combined into a pretty action packed two and a half days.

00;01;32;14 - 00;01;51;08
Speaker 1
So really excited to have one person each from four of our different companies. Today we have Erika Ruda Bush from TVF. We have Travis Adams from Berner. We have Amanda Smith from Paramount Plastics, and we have Denis Casey from First Star. Thank you all so much for joining me.

00;01;51;11 - 00;01;51;22
Speaker 2
You're welcome.

00;01;51;28 - 00;01;53;09
Speaker 3
Thanks for having me. Yeah.

00;01;53;10 - 00;01;55;03
Speaker 4
Thanks for having me.

00;01;55;05 - 00;02;10;05
Speaker 1
Yeah. So just to start us off, how about first impressions coming out of the gathering last week? Some of you is your first time. Some of you it wasn't. What were your first impression? You know, just coming out of out of the event. And let's start with you, Erica.

00;02;10;07 - 00;02;37;19
Speaker 4
Well, this was my fifth actual EV summit, so some experience there. But every year that I've been I leave re-energized specifically about employee ownership, of course. But first impression is that it just continues to get better and better every year. And I think as we like, really lean into it and then get to know more people, for me, it just gets better every year.

00;02;37;22 - 00;02;43;18
Speaker 1
It's awesome. Travis, I'm going to jump to you. What were your first impressions coming out of the event?

00;02;43;21 - 00;02;54;26
Speaker 5
First impression was exciting. Meeting new people, new family. It was nice. It was my first time, so it was not knowing a lot of people. It was nice.

00;02;54;29 - 00;03;10;08
Speaker 1
Yeah. How did you find that with it being your first time? And, I don't know, maybe first time even, you know, traveling to Indiana for work. I'm just taking a guess. Maybe. How did you find it? Were people welcoming, like, at first? Were you a little nervous? Like, how did you settle in ultimately to to it.

00;03;10;09 - 00;03;28;01
Speaker 5
So very nervous. What I got out of the trip the most was getting to know the Bonsoir coworkers and getting to know them on a personal level, and that kind of calmed me down and allowed me to interact and talk with other people from other companies.

00;03;28;03 - 00;03;34;29
Speaker 1
Yeah. I'd like to dig back into that. So that's a that's a really interesting point. So Amanda how about you. What were your first impressions.

00;03;35;01 - 00;03;56;29
Speaker 2
This is my second go round. So it was definitely I enjoyed just seeing more bodies in the excitement, the excitement of doing it again coming back together and just throwing around ideas and brainstorming. My nerves were definitely down a little bit more than it was the first time. I was definitely more nervous to just show myself, so I actually show more of me and what we were capable of here at Paramount.

00;03;56;29 - 00;03;59;17
Speaker 2
So yeah, that's that's great.

00;03;59;22 - 00;04;02;15
Speaker 1
Dennis, what about you?

00;04;02;18 - 00;04;25;03
Speaker 3
As, being another rookie to the event, a little nerves, you know, at the beginning. But after, you know, getting to meet all the great people that, you know, and all the different companies and hearing all their ideas that they're, you know, doing inside the different buildings, it was pretty exciting. I can't wait to see how we can incorporate some of that stuff into our life here at First Star.

00;04;25;05 - 00;04;39;08
Speaker 1
That's great. Let's stick with you, Dennis, for a second. What were your expectations like? What? When coming into this? Like, what were you hoping to get out of it, and what did you expect everything to be like? And was it ultimately, you know, in line with what you were hoping for?

00;04;39;11 - 00;04;54;28
Speaker 3
I really don't know if I had expectations. I really didn't know what, you know, what was coming ahead of me. But, you know, I was hoping that I got out of it. What? I was hoping to get out of it. A lot of fresh ideas. And to meet other people that are actually excited about, you know, being employee owners.

00;04;54;28 - 00;05;05;08
Speaker 3
And and it's nice to meet the EEO committee outside of normal business, you know, just to kind of sit back and, you know, kind of meet people in a social setting to,

00;05;05;11 - 00;05;12;21
Speaker 1
What any particular ideas that you'd be able to share like that you, that you came away from the event with?

00;05;12;24 - 00;05;34;28
Speaker 3
Nothing specific. There was actually a bunch. The one thing that I really enjoyed was the idea of bringing in, you know, the new hires into our meetings that we have, you know, every other week or whatever to to show them what their committee is all about and, you know, to see if they have any fresh ideas, you know, that that they could share with us and give them a chance to get excited about the being an employee.

00;05;34;28 - 00;05;35;06
Speaker 3
Owner.

00;05;35;13 - 00;05;53;27
Speaker 1
Yeah. So I think, if I remember correctly, that idea came out of Paramount. So Amanda, could you share a little bit about. I thought that was an interesting thing, too, that I had never heard happen in another employee owned company. So I think tell us a little bit about how paramount or what this specific thing is that Paramount is doing.

00;05;54;00 - 00;06;12;14
Speaker 2
Yes. So when we have new employees, we meet as a subcommittee every two weeks. So whoever is new to the company, we bring them in and let them sit in on the meeting and let them hear what we do as a subcommittee. What we're all about, we break down a little bit, the share price, just different things that goes on.

00;06;12;15 - 00;06;27;11
Speaker 2
Give them a better understanding. They do sit in on that one meeting. We have changed it where they do have to be employed here for a year before they can actually join the committee. So we have maybe 3 or 4 new employees who will be sitting in with us on March 5th, who are very excited to know what we do.

00;06;27;11 - 00;06;31;25
Speaker 2
You know, they hear whispers, but they'll be able to actually sit in and hear what's going on.

00;06;31;27 - 00;06;53;19
Speaker 1
Yeah. So just to put a fine point on that. So I've really new employee, you know, joins the company and then within a few within a month or so, it sounds like they get the opportunity, perhaps as a group of new employees, to sit in on your employee ownership committee meetings. Yes. And just to kind of shadow it, to kind of begin to learn what this is all about.

00;06;53;19 - 00;06;55;04
Speaker 1
Is that is that right?

00;06;55;07 - 00;06;56;09
Speaker 2
Yes, absolutely.

00;06;56;16 - 00;07;11;18
Speaker 1
Yeah. So I can imagine that that's actually really powerful. Do they speak up and have questions and stuff like when they're in the meeting, or do you find they mostly kind of just absorb and and kind of later on, you know, talk and more offline about what they just experienced?

00;07;11;21 - 00;07;24;11
Speaker 2
Yeah, typically they just sit and absorb. I do ask or we ask if there's any questions later down the line. We'll probably approach them again and say, hey, is there any questions? Was there anything that you didn't understand and just continue to tap into that as the weeks go on?

00;07;24;15 - 00;07;34;24
Speaker 1
Yeah, I think it's such a fascinating idea. Yes. Travis, how about you? Did the banner team come away with ideas to consider, you know, implementing from the other companies?

00;07;34;27 - 00;07;56;27
Speaker 5
Oh, absolutely. It was, and just now hearing from Amanda, I don't either I didn't hear it or I didn't know what was going on, but, that's a fantastic idea. And that's something that we definitely want to think about doing because it's very difficult to, you know, us as a committee to try to relay this information to practically 100 employees.

00;07;57;04 - 00;08;06;10
Speaker 5
But we definitely we want to share what what we have for knowledge of of EV and yeah. Educate. Absolutely.

00;08;06;13 - 00;08;29;11
Speaker 1
Yeah. So talk to us a little more Travis about business kind of you know the operations and how it's actually not very easy for everyone to get together at any one time. And that's kind of what you're alluding to in terms of your committee even having this opportunity to spend some time together. How important is it, do you think, for folks to find that that in-person time to connect?

00;08;29;11 - 00;08;37;22
Speaker 1
And, do you guys feel like that's kind of part of what your purpose is as a committee going forward to kind of help foster some of that connection?

00;08;37;25 - 00;09;06;03
Speaker 5
Yeah, we're definitely struggling with, trying to get everybody together. We have, crews, ton of crews of people that are just there on job sites. They're from New Hampshire to sometimes New York, southern Vermont, to try to educate these people, when they're not on site, they just, they're losing out. They they need this education for sure.

00;09;06;06 - 00;09;18;24
Speaker 1
Yeah. And you guys as a committee are getting together in Indiana, you were able to just spend more time together than you're used to. Did you guys do anything fun while you were together that kind of created any bonding or anything?

00;09;18;26 - 00;09;31;20
Speaker 5
First night? Yeah, we went out. Go karting. Yeah. Go karting. So it was fun. It was, beaten and banging and hitting the walls and nobody got hurt. It was a good time.

00;09;31;23 - 00;09;39;11
Speaker 1
That's awesome. Yeah. Safe is probably the most important thing, but were there any obvious winners coming out of it? Or was it just everyone had a good time?

00;09;39;14 - 00;09;47;06
Speaker 5
There was 1 or 2 that was always fast. Yeah. Whether your first or last. It was fun. It was a good time.

00;09;47;08 - 00;09;55;23
Speaker 4
I think there was. There's some card playing going on in the hotel lobby too, right. With the arts. Yeah, yeah.

00;09;55;25 - 00;10;03;22
Speaker 5
The last day we ended up going to an Indy 500. We went to the, the museum in the infield.

00;10;03;25 - 00;10;06;03
Speaker 2
Oh, nice. Yeah.

00;10;06;06 - 00;10;11;04
Speaker 1
That's amazing. That's amazing. Maybe we should have done that theme. More on racing than what we ended up doing.

00;10;11;07 - 00;10;12;17
Speaker 5
But no.

00;10;12;19 - 00;10;12;25
Speaker 2
That's.

00;10;12;25 - 00;10;36;08
Speaker 1
A good point. So the theme this year was magic make employee ownership or make ownership magical. Curious from a theme perspective. What like was there any particular connections that you came away thinking, gosh, that really the magical theme really resonated or alternatively, was there anything that we did with that theme that was your favorite part of the of the gathering?

00;10;36;10 - 00;10;39;19
Speaker 5
The storytelling was my favorite.

00;10;39;22 - 00;10;41;27
Speaker 1
Tell me more about that. Note about it.

00;10;41;29 - 00;11;06;25
Speaker 5
So I can't remember her name, but her whole business that she's doing, how she's teaching people how to tell a story, and just having our group of people pull together and have our own ideas and come up with a story of Bonheur about Bonheur. Just. She was just setting the foundation, and we just put in the pieces.

00;11;06;25 - 00;11;11;00
Speaker 5
It was. Yeah, it was really cool. That's my favorite part.

00;11;11;02 - 00;11;28;06
Speaker 1
That's neat. What? What about that? Was it, like, what a what a part about that was most powerful for you as a learning things about business history that you didn't know? Or was it more of the act of like developing it with your fellow committee members or. Yeah, tell me more, a little bit more.

00;11;28;08 - 00;11;58;00
Speaker 5
So it was more of, understanding the concept of a story and knowing that you have, well, you got hardship and then you figure out a way to come back, and then you plateau, and then where you got hardship again and it just, secured, Bonheur as a whole as being a strong company. And you just all come together, you fix the problem and you move on.

00;11;58;02 - 00;12;12;03
Speaker 1
I love that. So the act of kind of seeing your story, the history of Bonheur and the times that things challenges were overcome can kind of help kind of create a shared story that then everyone can unite around. Is that kind of what you're saying?

00;12;12;06 - 00;12;18;19
Speaker 5
That's it. And I think every company goes through that. But she just brought it to light.

00;12;18;22 - 00;12;23;00
Speaker 1
Interesting. Dennis, what did you think about the whole storytelling part?

00;12;23;02 - 00;12;47;10
Speaker 3
Well, I thought it was great. You know, it was, it was cool to hear more of the the behind the scenes stuff that I never knew about. First star, being only here for three years. You know, obviously, I don't know everything about the company, but it was once we went through it, and, you know, I was told some of the, the hurdles that were, you know, that we came across the way you know, it.

00;12;47;12 - 00;12;57;04
Speaker 3
It's pretty cool to see how they thrived on that. And they were able to come out stronger every every time they jumped over hurdle it, come out a little bit stronger. So it was pretty powerful.

00;12;57;06 - 00;13;06;05
Speaker 1
Was your group also focused kind of on the history and the origins of First Star? Is kind of the story that you were crafting together?

00;13;06;07 - 00;13;26;17
Speaker 3
Yeah, yeah, we, we base it, you know, from the very beginning of First Star and how it actually, came to light by, by two guys working together for a separate company that that went out, they went under and they decided to team up and, you know, come up with First Star and, you know, the trials and tribulations that they ran into.

00;13;26;17 - 00;13;29;27
Speaker 3
And so it was pretty awesome.

00;13;29;29 - 00;13;38;06
Speaker 1
How about you, Amanda? How did Paramount kind of what what did you guys focus on as a group when it came to that that storytelling exercise?

00;13;38;08 - 00;13;55;10
Speaker 2
So yeah, I did learn a lot about the history. I was just like, wow, why didn't I know this before? Nobody told me you guys were keeping this as a secret. No, but I really enjoyed hearing that history. I definitely think that is major. And that's something that we got to keep continuing to push. So, you know, when once we retire, we still have that history.

00;13;55;16 - 00;14;04;00
Speaker 2
That's where the magic started. And we're continue to make the magic. So we need that history. So I was very grateful to be able to receive that so I can continue to spread it.

00;14;04;03 - 00;14;27;28
Speaker 1
That's great. Did you or did anybody else open this up to everybody to, connect the history to the employee ownership moment as well? Kind of the moment when, you know, the company joined and became employee owned and how that kind of connects with the overall story. And let's start with you. Amanda did that. Did it feel like a natural part of the story, or did it feel like kind of like a separate story?

00;14;27;29 - 00;14;30;25
Speaker 1
Almost.

00;14;30;27 - 00;14;49;02
Speaker 2
I'd say I'd say natural, but at the same time, it was something that just came about, you know what I'm saying? It was a surprise to everyone who had worked here and who was still working here. They're like, wait, what's happening? You know, so, that transition was it was scary. But look at us now.

00;14;49;04 - 00;14;55;02
Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah. How about you, Dennis? You you spoke up and said, yeah, that's something you guys also incorporated.

00;14;55;05 - 00;15;17;01
Speaker 3
Yeah we did. And it was it's funny, the whole story changed from the moment that first star became part of, you know, the Esop. You know, it was like an moment where everything was going along okay. But then bam, it seemed like that was the turning point where bigger and better things are on the horizon.

00;15;17;03 - 00;15;23;09
Speaker 1
Interesting. Erica, how about you? How did you relate to the storytelling exercise?

00;15;23;11 - 00;15;54;03
Speaker 4
I did really like the storytelling exercise. Obviously, TVs origin story, well, I have known the TVF origin story. I'm lucky enough to have worked here almost 22 years, so, of our 50 plus year history, I do think I have a pretty decent handle on the origin story. However, it is a nice refresher too, and also, that we do have to continue telling our story because we don't want that.

00;15;54;06 - 00;16;22;07
Speaker 4
I think resiliency is kind of what everyone else has. The ups and downs of a business. So it's nice to hear all that history to know that, yes, moving forward, we're in a really great place and we'll continue to be. And as for the magic theme, I really love that too. I did love the stand up magician entertainment that we had one night, but, I mean, he knew who we were to.

00;16;22;07 - 00;16;45;26
Speaker 4
And I think that entire summit is a reiteration of the commitment that Empower Adventures has in all of our companies as well. Like, it really shines through how much you care for us and are talking about all of our different companies, because every other person that was part of that, from Sally, the storytelling lady, to the stand up.

00;16;45;26 - 00;16;57;23
Speaker 4
But what was his name? I forget what his name was, but they knew so much about us too, which is a reflection of you guys in my opinion. So yeah, absolutely. That was really magical to me.

00;16;57;25 - 00;17;17;17
Speaker 1
Well done. Erica, that was really nice of you. Thank you. Yeah. So what was your favorite, like, or a favorite moment or an moment for you? Like, what's the, what's the one thing for you personally that you came away with? Like, wow, that really surprised me. Or that was a really big for me.

00;17;17;20 - 00;17;43;17
Speaker 5
My was the, doing the tour of the, of the warehouse and the amount of product in there, and, I forget the guy's name. I'm bad at names. But he did an outstanding job of a tour in there. The fabric in there that. It's unbelievable. What's going on? What's going in and out of that warehouse?

00;17;43;19 - 00;17;46;09
Speaker 5
Very cool. What's going on in there?

00;17;46;12 - 00;17;56;27
Speaker 1
Thank you. Travis. That's awesome. So yeah. Erica, since you represent TVF here, why don't you share a little bit about the tour. So what did the whole group do? On the tour.

00;17;56;29 - 00;18;27;14
Speaker 4
So TVF here in Indiana, because we do also have a presence on the West Coast in the LA area. We have both an office in Carmel as well as 150,000 square foot warehouse in Lebanon, just a little north west of us here in Carmel. So the first day at the summit, everyone did meet here at HQ and got to see our office building, but then we ended on Wednesday in Lebanon with a tour of that facility.

00;18;27;14 - 00;18;57;18
Speaker 4
So I know in the past we have toured, both Paramount and First Star, and that was always, really interesting for me to, to be able to see what our cousin companies are doing. It just I mean, it adds to the whole feeling of ownership and the magic of ownership when you can really understand that it's beyond even just our little company.

00;18;57;20 - 00;18;59;04
Speaker 4
What empowered Ventures means.

00;18;59;04 - 00;19;01;28
Speaker 1
So really neat.

00;19;02;01 - 00;19;20;28
Speaker 2
For me, when you do something for me in my memory, seeing the facility before and after, how big you know, you guys has grown. Oh my goodness, oh my goodness. Yes, I love seeing that you guys do so much more than what I thought that you did. Of course I thought, you know, you were a a big company making great things.

00;19;20;28 - 00;19;22;25
Speaker 2
But I was like, wow.

00;19;22;27 - 00;19;35;16
Speaker 4
Yeah, true. Because it did highlight where we came from originally. We stored everything here in Carmel, but now have grown exponentially, especially since we became employee owned.

00;19;35;19 - 00;19;37;07
Speaker 2
Yes.

00;19;37;09 - 00;19;39;29
Speaker 4
I mean, that is true.

00;19;40;02 - 00;19;47;18
Speaker 1
Dennis and Amanda, how about your moments? Or favorite moments from the whole. The whole, you know, a couple days.

00;19;47;20 - 00;20;10;09
Speaker 3
I think my favorite moment was actually going to the warehouse. But it's always impressive to see a facility that big, especially with only a few people working in it. But, I mean, it was so clean and so well organized, and you could see why TBF is, you know, the successful company that it is because the people that are working there were fantastic.

00;20;10;12 - 00;20;20;14
Speaker 3
And they, they took pride in everything. And you could tell how how it just runs like a well-oiled machine. So that's that's pretty impressive to me.

00;20;20;16 - 00;20;39;24
Speaker 2
I would have to agree with Dennis just seeing that warehouse. That was probably one of the things I was waiting on the most, so I definitely enjoyed that. Just being with our cousin companies, breaking down those walls, whether it was being nervous or just, you know. Yeah, just opening up a little bit more, those were highlighted points for me.

00;20;39;26 - 00;20;57;11
Speaker 2
I definitely think Paramount as a whole really showed what more we can bring to the table. Last year we did say we're in stage two. We wanted to push that education. And here we are pushing that education. I feel like I'm more excited about that. Like, I'm so excited to learn more about the Esop and the education portion of it.

00;20;57;16 - 00;21;10;24
Speaker 2
And I just I think this week I learned what the breakdown of Esop mean. I'm just like writing it on everything. This is what it is, you know? So I am just ready to keep pushing that. So we'll be able to learn more and understand why we're doing what we're doing.

00;21;10;26 - 00;21;33;25
Speaker 1
I love it, I love it. This has been fun. I want to wrap up with one question. And, we can go through or go or do a round robin again on this go around the table. So last question would be, what's kind of one thing, you know, you wish everyone in your company, now that you're going back to, to your business, after going through this event, what's the one thing you wish everyone in your company knew about?

00;21;33;26 - 00;21;40;20
Speaker 1
You know, employee ownership, the Esop being part of. Let's start with you, Amanda.

00;21;40;23 - 00;22;05;05
Speaker 2
This is real. This is not anything made up. I mean, this is we are actually employee owned. We, we're doing something different than most companies are doing. So just pulling out the education portion of it and really drilling in the facts. This is a great company to work for. All the companies are great companies to work for and just keep pushing that.

00;22;05;07 - 00;22;18;26
Speaker 2
What am I trying to say? Narrative. It's important that. Well, yeah. The story. Yes. But yes, keep pushing that story and keep growing. And as a company and as, cousin companies.

00;22;18;28 - 00;22;45;26
Speaker 4
Yeah. No, I completely agree with Amanda. And, that it's real. And it's not just us that there is a bigger picture, that everything we do at TVF affects not only us. And I think it's powerful to know that. That we're not alone. Empowered ventures too. That it is five, six companies really that are all together.

00;22;45;26 - 00;22;53;26
Speaker 4
So kind of one of those things, like you tell your kids like, hey, this is bigger than just you, it's bigger than just us even.

00;22;53;28 - 00;22;55;18
Speaker 2
Yes.

00;22;55;20 - 00;23;06;01
Speaker 1
Love it. Travis, let's go with you. What's one thing you wish everyone in your company knew about? You know, employee ownership and power adventures or just coming out of this event?

00;23;06;04 - 00;23;41;11
Speaker 5
So I would have to say two words quality and quantity. I think that's what Ed's bringing to the table. And I think EV we should be educating our owners, of the quality and the quantity that it's not just us little 80 to 90 employees anymore. There's a bigger, bigger bunch of people, more companies. We fall on hard times.

00;23;41;14 - 00;23;49;02
Speaker 5
They've got our back. They fall on hard times. We've got their back. It's a big family.

00;23;49;05 - 00;23;55;06
Speaker 1
That's amazing. I love that, Dennis. We're going to finish with you on on this question. What about you?

00;23;55;08 - 00;24;16;14
Speaker 3
I think the thing that I wish everybody knew and I think they actually know, but I think that they're you they take for granted that being it's not just about the committee, it's about everybody. It's you know, I wish that they would, you know, make more of a voice for themselves and not just, you know, rely on a committee to, to, to do things.

00;24;16;18 - 00;24;32;05
Speaker 3
But, you know, I wish everybody knew that they could be more active, even though they're not part of the committee. They're one of the owners. And I think that if they knew that and understood it a little bit better, that, that all the committees could be just a little bit better.

00;24;32;08 - 00;24;50;26
Speaker 1
Yeah. Their voice matters. Yeah. Well this is awesome. Thank you all so much for joining me. I had a blast last week. I came away feeling super energized. And I think a lot of folks did as well. So, thank you again for joining me and look forward to seeing you all in person again sometime soon.

00;24;50;28 - 00;24;51;19
Speaker 2
That's great.

00;24;51;23 - 00;24;53;14
Speaker 4
Thank you Chris. Yes.

00;24;53;16 - 00;24;55;05
Speaker 3
The care everybody take care.