Paws, Planning, and Perfection

Join Gayle Hellemn for the first episode of It's in the Details. She talks with Thomas Wright about the ins and outs of planning and executing a successful dog show. Keep listening to find out more! 

Transcript

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Welcome to Within the details, a podcast where we take a sneak peek behind the curtains to see how remarkable events really happen. Whether you're an event professional, a community leader, or just curious about what goes on behind the scenes, this is your all access pass to learn how the magic happens. Kinsey, well, good afternoon, everybody. We have Thomas Wright with us today, and Thomas has a wealth of experience in doing events and producing them both here at the expo and other locations, and a very diverse background. So I'm not going to waste any time. I'm doing a welcome Thomas to the show, and I'm going to start off with tell us a little bit about yourself. Well, I'm Thomas Wright. I live in White House, Tennessee. I've been in dogs in the event that I do, I guess promote is dog showing. I've been in it since I was 50 years old, and I'm only 27 but I mean, so you worked backwards. I have basin Jesus, which is the barkless dog, and they're a hound. I'm the president of Tristar Kennel Club and also the harvest cluster chairperson, and what they entail, putting together updates of successful dog shows Well, and that's no small task. No, it's not. And we are very blessed to be here in in the Farm Bureau Expo Center and also Wilson County Fairgrounds. We have so many compliments. I think we've been here eight years, if I'm that that's about, right? Yeah, and we have helped probably 30 nationals. And what that is, is when one breed decides that this will be the ideal location for where they can come and host their national, and that entails also judging seminars, probably other types of performance events, which we'll discuss here in a few moments. But you got to have an ideal situation in a beautiful location. And I went out in the beginning, the Neapolitan masters and the police, and they were our first two that were here and and you said, poolies. Okay, I'm gonna ask what's a Pooley? It looks like somebody that has never combed their hair running around. It's also cords. They're very pretty, okay, very time consuming. The Neapolitan Mastiff, for example, are probably some of the ugliest dogs you will ever see, but they were to guard the castle in England, our large house, and they are to scare you. And when you look at them, you get scared. They are big. I have seen those big heads, big mouths, and they do not move fast. They were to scare you. So we were very fortunate for that. The following year, we did not have a national. But then after that, people started talking, and it escalated. And this year we've got five nationals. Next year we've got seven, and it keeps growing and growing. I mean, we're very blessed for this place, and our club in Tullahoma is very thankful. And y'all, everybody sounds like I'm a southern here, y'all, but everybody makes it very easy when you work together for the same objective. I agree. I agree, and we love having you here like your I've told you before, your show is like the gold standard and and I have used your standards when talking to other shows. And it's kind of funny, because when you kind of lay out or communicate the expectations, which you have to so to make sure everybody's on the same page, that they are no longer interested, because evidently, those details are more than than they want, or at least, or maybe they found another location, I don't know, but it's very interesting that when you lay that out, I've not had another dog show since I started doing that. So I think that that's interesting when you look at that in the big picture of things well in Thank you, but we always try to set the bar higher. Every year that we're here is everyone knows it's not always a smooth ride. We've had bumpy road roller coasters here. We've had our ups and downs. I would say majority of our problems that y'all have with is our spectators or exhibitors, and we have to take care of that. And the best thing you can do is say it's taken care of and take care of it. And as I was telling some people earlier, there are some fairgrounds are very nasty when they come to and y'all are very professional, and we're very grateful. Well, thank you for that. But I have to say thank you to you as well, because when there has been some challenges that have come up, and they're all. Always is, I have yet to see an event that was flawless. I don't think the word flawless and event belong in the same sentence, honestly. But when there is a challenge or there is something that comes up, you guys are you're right on top of it, and that means a lot from the venue side, to know that there doesn't have to be an intermediary struggle before the Challenge gets dealt with. You just you just deal with it. And you know, we appreciate that. And I would think any venue would appreciate that. Well, talking about my background, originally, I was in catering, food service management, and a lot of times you went into a location that was not the greatest clean or maybe the greatest to deal with, but you left it in Super shape, and you made sure everything went super because you were there and everything had to be so way. So I've carried basically care that into dog showing the events we go in to make sure it's as good of a place when we leave it as we come in. And we also want to deal with situations. And as you know, we don't have a lot of chiefs. We narrowed it down to maybe one or two people that you deal with. And a lot of times, events have multiple people that you got to deal with. And then, you know, is it Bob? Here is it Sandra here? Is it Maggie? I mean, and we have it narrowed down to who you deal with, and that helps a lot, too. Well, that's an excellent point, because I know from the venue side, we we prefer to have one, maybe two people that we go to, just because, again, it's taking that, addressing a challenge and making it simple, so that you know who to talk to, and then you know it'll get taken care of. And if they need to tell somebody else to do something that's they've got the infrastructure on the event side. We have the infrastructure on the venue side. So yeah, that makes perfect sense, and it's very helpful all the way around for everybody, I believe. And to your point, leaving things better than you found it, and always making sure that things were taken care of. That's not always the case. Not everybody does that. It's interesting to me. Why? To me, that's a normal thing. I was raised that way, and I've always conducted business that way. But that's not always the case. Well, I mean, and there's gonna be times that things happen, you forget to clean something up, and that has happened here before, and you know, you can, you know, when you're talking to someone, if they're telling you the truth or they're lying, how they true, that reaction you can say Tom, did you forget? I want to say, you forget the X pins back there. There was still a bucket. Did you realize that? No, I thought, you know, you know you've or, yeah, I knew it was back there. Oh, I'm sorry. It's how they react. And yes, we do make mistakes, but we try and your, your people here always loves the way that we leave stuff, because we do. And they even get out there and say, You don't have to do this, you don't have to do that, but we do, no, we you don't. And I mean, that's good, that's great. That's a good partnership. And I think that's a big word here. We have a great partnership. You know, last year I told you that some of the guys I sent up to take care of bills, you know, and things, they thought, you Oh, I get along with Gail. So well, Gail and I get along. You remember me telling you, know these guys, you were their best friend. And they'd come back and say, Well, if I can't deal, if you can't go up there, I'll go up there and talk to her. I'm like, gosh, I don't I'm not even needed anymore. But that's a sign of a good leader. Though, when you've got, when you get to the point that other people can handle details for you, that's a sign of a good leader. It really is, because they've learned, they understand. They're supporting you. You've created a good team, and you have you've created a great team, and I have appreciated, and I know the entire team does here, that we've appreciated the compliments that come from that team. Because, I mean, you know, when people, when people are respectful and kind, what's not to like, right? I mean, we all want to be treated with respect. Well, this past year, there was some things that you sent that we need to make sure it didn't happen again. Okay, right? But what was the response from everybody? Everybody Everybody wanted to make sure you was not upset with us, if you remember, and I mean, you got, you got multiple it was funny. Okay, it's not funny, but, I mean, it is funny because we care about our success, and we don't want to make anybody upset. I mean, if we made a mistake, we'll take care of. It, and every one of them sent to you will take care of it. You're not upset and you sent back. No, I'm just pouring out things that y'all need to consider next year, right? And but that's your job, and it's also our job to make sure it doesn't happen well. So I think if you are looking this is just my opinion, you tell me what your thoughts are. I think that when it comes to events, the concept of teamwork, communication and mutual respect make all the difference in the world to the success of something. Yes And y'all have an open door absolutely here for us. Okay, always I can come in during our event and say, I need to see Gail. And Gail, you're in there, Thomas, what do you need? Or if I need see zendell, if he's in his office, bam, I'm there. I don't have to wait. If I need something taken care of, it's done right there. And that means a lot. Or, as you say, if I send somebody up, you are you already know who to deal with in if they come up, it's just like me coming up. And that's one thing everybody likes, the open door, the partnership, the positive is what I want to I think I would emphasize the positive. There's very little negative. So question for you. One of the things, I mean, this is more of I guess, from my edification, and we make sure that we have staff that's identifiable, that's available to you while you're in the building, whether that's Zindel or I here in the office, but there is always staff readily available for you. What does that mean to you as an event planner, when we come in and we come in six o'clock in the mornings? Okay, early, very early before the rooster crows, right before I'm here, and the one that opens the door usually checks with me on our water buckets. And what we have water buckets for is dogs urinate and they also poop. Okay? We have bleach water and mops to clean them up, and they will ask me, how many do I need today? And do I need them at the same location last year, or do I need them different? Well, I'm gonna tell you the truth. I don't remember where we had them last year. Okay? That's fair. That's fair, and I doubt they do, but you know, it's still nice, okay? And I'll say we need at least three buckets. We need on bleach. Can we check them about every three or four hours to make sure that they're not dirty? They will tell me that your ladies will come by and tell me, we've changed the water out, we've gone through and taken the trash out. If somebody's doing something, they will even come and tell me there is a very open positive just ran into one of them few minutes ago here, and she said, I'm looking forward to working with y'all again, and it's once again. It's funny, because, as she said, I enjoy working with your people, and you don't hear that a lot because being in catering, or sometimes you rolled your eyes because you was going, somebody was coming in, but they they know we take care of it, and that means a lot. And I'm looking forward to it. We'll come in with our game Tuesday, lay everything out, and go from there. I do know that we're having some changes this year on our show. We're going to be bringing the vendors in inside and putting them against the wall. In the past, we've had people that have left cages there, even dogs in it, and of course, it's not allowed. So we're trying to eliminate a problem without taking off exhibitors, right, right? Our job is also to appease rearranging the structure a little bit. Yes, we're still going to try to have the 20 foot walkways. We're looking at 14 rings in the Expo Center, two, three this year in the MIT. Next year, it will go to two, and we will start putting another ring in your is it? Excuse me, hail moss or mouse? Hell Hale moss. We'll be putting one in there, and that's where we're going to start putting the poodles. Oh, okay, poodles like grooming around the rings, and they have 80 plugs there. We can there's some we're going to be readjusting for next year. Now, is this readjusting due to the growth of participation? Our largest show last year was 1700 dogs. Okay? Yeah. You know, it's really interesting, getting the look, seeing the look on people's faces when you go, Oh, you had a dog show. I mean, how dismissively, how many dogs did you have? I was like, somewhere between 15 and 1700 and they're like, what that's one day. Okay, so if you take our numbers, we had a total entry of A. Around 7500 Oh, my goodness, I didn't realize that so and people don't realize we bring a lot of money into the economy. We bring a lot of money into dog show world. Our entries are $32 for a dog. So if you had 8000 dogs, which we're hoping to get over the five days, you're looking at almost a quarter million dollar system dog show entries. That's phenomenal. And then I understand from your tourism department that there is a great spike in the business world when we come in. That's true. That's true. So let's, let's talk about that a little bit. So that's true. Okay, so you get that many dogs, I'm assuming some of the people, what's the official name with if you show a dog, you're a you're an exhibitor, exhibitor. Okay, so does an exhibitor typically have more than one dog that they show. Sometimes you also have handlers. But if we have 8000 total entries, all right, you're going to be around 2020 500 people. Okay, so those people are either staying in an RV that they showed up in, or they're staying in a hotel, correct? Okay, and then they're eating in the area, they're buying gas in the area, and they're probably doing some shopping in the area. So, yeah, that translates to tourism dollars for sure, and it helps everybody in the economy, exactly, right? And I understand we're one of the larger ones that come in to the county and that we we do usually have over 200 motor homes here. We'll probably have around 202 50 this year. But I understand we take over almost all the hotels in the city, okay, that would make sense. That would make they allow dogs. Okay, excuse me, right, right. Which? We have a whole list for you that tells you which ones allow dogs and which ones don't. And of course, that that changes a little bit depending if the hotels changed ownership or whatever, but, or if they're empty, and say, everyone else, bull that we can and then all of a sudden they go, Well, maybe, yeah, but yes, we do. We do put our judges at a hotel where there's no dogs on purpose, because we don't want exhibitors. And this will be our eighth year with them too. Just like with y'all, they're being very loyal and very workable on who is it? Cedar? Cedar lodge in cedar. And cedar lodge used to be executive in Yes, and their manager is very nice to work with. Yes. Absolutely, it is Katie, yes. And they take care of our judges. And we're very appreciative that when the judges are happy, you're halfway there. Now you got to get the exhibitors happy. That's not always but if judges are happy, then they're going to be smiling throughout the day, because you're making it easy for them. You're taking care of all the other details. All they got to do is come in and do what they're there to do. That's right. So we are expecting 2000 plus this year. We have four nationals. We've got the Neapolitan smack, the dogo argentinos. Don't even know if I know what that is, the wire, higher point and Griffons. I do know that one and the tree and Walker Coonhounds, okay, don't know what that is, either. So it's kind of like you tease Coonhound to a degree. Oh, okay, and then we're going to have some Coonhound bench shows where some of the locals can come in and participate. And have you done that before, where the locals came in? No, this is in shows for the coon hounds, and it's it's totally different from our all breed show, but it will also bring in the community. And what we are trying to do this year is not everybody can get a dog that can get us championship, okay, but there's other things you can get on your dog and be just as proud. We're going to have doc diving this year. Doc diving, yes, so you need to go out there and watch a dog jump five and 30 feet. I'm going to have to check that one out for sure. We got our fast cats where they're time to run 100 yards. We've got scent shows where they use their nose to locate rats in certain areas. We're doing the Fiddler's grove. We're going to have weight pulling. And God told me a few months ago he had a chihuahua pulled 2000 pounds. I find that hard to believe. Wow. They used to have chihuahuas on the Taco Bell commercial about. Godzilla. This one could take on Godzilla. We're going to have farm dog. We're going to have temperament testing. You can get your canine good citizenship, and you also can get your trick dog, and some of these things, people can come back and if their dog stay in, entering the show. But they have papers, AKC papers, they can participate in some of these. We're one the community. See that it's time to have fun with your dogs. And as I said, you don't have to be running around the ring and your dog don't have to look beautiful and perfect like a model. You know, Doc diving, you're not going to look like a model. You look pretty soaked when you get out of there. That's right, yeah, and we're very excited about all these performances. Will be our first time, but also will help bring in more nationals, and we also will have obedience and rally. So there's some things out there that people were to come see, especially the fast cat, where they run 100 yards, if you ever get to see a greyhound racing Greyhound run 100 yards and five nine, that's pretty amazing. I can only imagine that it's a thump. Their their their movement is a thump. It's almost like a heartbeat or a rhythm. But that's a that's because they're racing well, when they run, it looks like they're gliding, yes. I mean, I don't know, just I look at my two dogs, which are not show dogs, okay, but they're, you know, I've got almost 90 pound English cream retriever. She runs, she sort of saunter, runs. She doesn't really run run. But then I've got the one year old 50 pound golden retriever, and, man, she's she is to say she's light on her feet. That's an understatement. Man, she she runs, but she runs like a deer. And I'm like, it's so interesting. The two of them are so different, but she also leaps like a deer. But that's a whole nother story, so, but at the end of the day, people can pay $5 maybe it's 10, just to run your dog to see if it could ever run a fast cat. And, you know, some people just want to see their dog run, that's fine, and I would pay five or $10 to see my dog run. It Okay, 100 yards. What time did the dog get? Oh, it got 8.9 seconds. Wow, is that good? Well, yeah, if your dog would get so many points, we had a baseinji. His name was 42 he was the first B cat, D, cat, F, cat and F cat two and fast cats. And he usually ran, started running around eight, four, and finally got his time down to seven, eight fastest. And he was at fastest, Kinsey, Kinsey, for one year at 25 miles per hour. That's incredible. That's incredible. So let me shift gears just a little bit. You guys have an amazing show, an absolutely amazing show. And you know, like I said before, we use that sort of as the gold standard if you want to bring a dog show in. This is the expectations. It's a two part question. Number one, what is the why to produce the show? Okay, because you've got the harvest cluster group, but you guys produce this massive show, and then what is your personal why for why you choose to put all this time and energy and work into it? In the past, we have taken our proceeds and don't make donations. We also put some back to where if we ever have another covid experience, please don't speak that into the world. But it will never happen. But if we had one dog, we wanted to be able to survive two years paying everything so kind of have money laid back? I save his account. Yes, and that sits in a CD where we cannot touch it. But we have gone around in the past one year. We made a $2,500 donation to a policeman that had a stroke you did. That was here. We have made two giant donations of$5,000 each, that was to the Great Smoky Mountain Dog organization that war veterans, that had post PTSD, they had dogs that were made for them and was was trained for them. We've also given face masks in the past to the fire departments. Here we have also in Mount Jillian, when all those cherry trees got knocked down during the tornado. Yes, I remember that we don't cleaning up to be dug in every. Thing, we have made donations to a veterinarian place, it's down in Antioch that will give food and do surgery for your charge for senior citizens. Wow. And then y'all have a place in Mount Juliet that is a old dog century wary. I've heard of that, but I don't know anything about it, but I have heard of that, revisited and made a donation. So we try to take care and not everything is worthy of your donation, because not everything goes to where it's supposed to. We're trying to figure out what we're going to do this year. So what's that selection process look like I mean, how do you evaluate what is appropriate or not appropriate? We visit it. We want to see a tour, and we want to talk to the people the sanctuary. We had a meeting down there. They took us all through it, showed us everything, explained things to us. This place that takes care of for senior citizens, took us all the way through it. If you open your doors and then you allow us to question you, you're gonna have to be pretty up and up. Yes, okay, so the integrity of the gift is important to you. Yes, your policeman came up here. I think he cried in his wife. They all cried, okay, and the fire department was very grateful of it. So we're out here looking this year, and we want to make sure we stay within your community. Your community supports our massive show. So we also want to give back to the community, and that's going to open up doors like we might can go into Watertown a little bit, or Mount Juliet. It's not just all right here in Lebanon, because everybody benefits from us being here. Well, that's true, because we are in Wilson County, and our building belongs to everybody that lives in Wilson County. So I really appreciate that attentiveness to detail and consideration for the fact that whatever you give to it benefits the county as a whole, instead of just Lebanon. And if somebody is out there and sees this and they think they know a good cause, I don't mind them sending it for us to look into. I don't want to say investigate, but still you want to check them out. Well, you have to do your due diligence and vet whoever for consideration. I mean, I think that's just that's important. What I see is especially with social media. You know, everybody has a cause. You know, I have things that are near and dear to my heart, as you well know, and that that's not necessarily a fit, but I would, I would really respect and appreciate somebody taking the time to ask me about the details, and giving me a a chance to share about it, and b a chance to maybe help them better understand and it's their responsibility as far as knowing who they're giving that money to, because you, I'm assuming you communicate who you give that money to, to your participants as well, so they know how you're giving back. And lot of times we go into a place thinking that we're going to give $1 okay? And I'm just using it as a number, and we get in there and everybody's impressed, and they said, Let's give $3 and I'm like, Are you sure? Well, yeah, my cousin looks short on this other end, but this was a this is a very, very good cause, so sometimes the board is shocked at what they find out, right? And I think that shows that we do. We're very compassionate, and we do have passion, and we can be shocked, huh? Yeah, there's, it's good to be educated, right? Because you're kind of, you've got a whole nother role in your life of being a teacher, that's right. So you understand that, probably more than most people do. And what do we gain? Now? Are you asking, What do I gain from this being from a personal perspective, why do you choose to be involved in it or to even facilitate it? We are now becoming known as one of the premier shows in the South. Not surprised, we are going up the ranks. And when we started here, we was a 600 dog show, barely okay. And we've come a long way, a long way, and we did not do it overnight. We have grown the correct way. Because when you grow, you don't want it for one year, you want it to grow next year, but you want to maintain what you got to go into next year. Well, that's important for any event, for sure, and we've done that. We averaged around 12% growth every year for quite a while. So we and I'm we as our board. We get excited about our shows, we get we all have the same objective. We talked about the same focus. We're focused the same what we want. We know that this isn't okay. I'm the president and I'm a cluster chair, but it's not the Thomas Wright show yet. It's like a football team. It Tom Brady's team wins the Super Bowl, but Tom Brady isn't the whole team, correct. And wherever I go, I brag on the team, and they have made this a success, and it takes all of us working together, and yes, sometimes we have conflict on the board, but it's the passion, and there's nothing wrong with conflict, because it makes you stronger. Absolutely, if it's done civil I'm not saying get up and throw pots and pans, okay, but we're on Zoom meetings, we don't have to throw pots and pans. Throw pots and pans. Okay, but if you throw a tantrum, you just look silly in your own room. Sometimes we all get hot, but as I tell everybody, I calm everybody down. It's our passion, and we want to be the best we've got. Guy Fisher, the director of development coming in this year, and also the new Chief Operating Officer, Gordon Gordon Carville, I believe his name coming in because they've heard so much about this show. And who was the gentleman that was here last year. That was from there was Guy Fisher. That was Guy Fisher, okay, he's coming familiar. They use our show for a lot of other shows to look at on how to do things, and we're blessed by that. We're very blessed that people like what we're doing. So my personal thing is to always have a successful show. Everybody's happy. Everybody enjoys it. If you ever see me, I'm out walking around, you very seldom see me sitting You're hard to find. That's why you got my cell number, isn't it? But I mean, I want people happy, and how can we improve? But I look at it as a business, and a lot of times, people that run dog shows don't look at it as a business, and that's why it doesn't grow, because they think it's a good old boys thing, and it's not. Everybody has a task. We're looking at eventually bringing people in to help us Park, because next year, we're anticipating 300 RVs, and so you're able to take it. That makes this location also a nice advantage for you, because there are camping spots on the grounds. Yes, we have the availability of what 500 at least, yes, maybe a little bit more, depending on their needs. Yes, and they're also putting up your Christmas decorations too. Yep, that we have to take in consideration. But, I mean, we have around probably 500 we could use. I don't think we'll ever go over 300 okay, but if we do, I'm in Las Vegas betting on some stuff, okay, because that's gonna be one large show. But they AKC anticipates us to hit over 2000 next year, possibly 2500 and that's why they're coming out here. They are wanting us to make a bid on the regional agility, obedience and rally in the future. And we might have to take in the whole fairgrounds eventually, one day, when the availability opens up and because as we grow, we take in more and more buildings you have. You definitely have. I mean, I can go back through our contracts and and I don't necessarily write the contract for the Ag grounds piece of it, but you've taken more and more days, for sure, that has grown here. And you said, just said something about, you know, bringing in more people. You see it growing, and you almost become part of the fabric of the local area. Like you don't live in Wilson County, you become part of the fabric of Wilson County while you guys are here. And I think that that's important for people that are not part of the show to understand that, that while you're here, you're you're part of the county, you you are contributing. And I think that's super important for people to recognize well this year, our trophies we have, we try to keep everything Tennessee orient oriented. We we've got some guitars that will have the we can put your frame in at the bottom will be given away. We've got some artists place. It's down on Murfreesboro Road, close to the old museum down there. There's a lot of artists that makes pots and all that. We bought butter dishes this year that will have every flower from the state of Tennessee on each how cool were to get it. And then, of course, we've had Jack Daniels that will be doing our best in shows. We're working on trying to get a sponsor for our 20. Year, next year, dog food company, either Purina or royal Canaan. So we're working on that. It's, it's a 24 hour job. Like you said, I'm a teacher, so I already have a full time job, but you deal with a whole lot of a whole different dimension of craziness. That's true. But no matter what you do, if you're in catering or if you're a teacher or running a show, you still have to teach people on how to do things and model on what the expectations are. I would hazard a guess, and you could tell me that I'm completely wrong, but I do think that your different experiences have fed into why you are successful with this show, because there are standards and there's expectations, that you've been able to translate that into the show, per se, and if you do that, because, going back to what we talked About, initially, that teamwork and that communication and working together collaboratively for the greater good of whatever it is you're working on that that's That's it in a nutshell, you you've got that respect, that collaboration, you're talking to each other, and you're working together, and that's true in every experience that you have. Correct? Most people look at everything goes from the bottom up, and that's not my philosophy. If everything's going to be a success, then the top person's got to set the standards and expectations, and you don't make anybody do anything that you've now already done. And you get in there and you work with them, you know, we have to clean the poop up outside. Okay, let's be honest. You're dealing with dogs. You come to me say, Thomas, there's some poop out there. You need to take care of it. Okay, I'm out there doing it. Okay? And people, we do have a little hand and thing, I mean, I've got things that do it. But if I tell Tim. You know, Tim, I told Tim, Tim, can you write there, take care of it? Well, he's already seen me out there doing it, so more than likely he's going to go out there and do it. Because if the top guy doing it, he's not asking anything. And I think that's where our success starts, because they know I've done it, or I will be right there besides you doing it, and that makes you feel good. I mean, you even know that in your position, and when your boss is working besides you, you can't really complain, because you're both there doing it, right? Well, you it's also it's a great example for role modeling. It's a great way to show support, because I truly believe that if you support the staff that you have, you're going to get amazing results out of that and and being able to step into their shoes. I have always had that philosophy that, you know, I mean, I've had bigger staffs work for me, and, you know, I'm not afraid. I know, when I was working in a medical clinic, you know, we had a couple days where everybody got sick, and I sat at the front desk and checked people in. I wasn't something I was supposed to do, but we had to have it done, and there was nobody else to do it. So, you know, that's what we did. So you're the top, you're the, basically the jack of all trades you should be, because you should have already experienced some of that. If somebody's not doing it, you got to step in and know how to do it, just like that, exactly, exactly. And that's we have a lot of our club members that can step into any position, because cross training, right? And not everybody cross trains. Cross training is so important, so important, because you just never know what's going to happen. Life can throw you some serious curve balls, for sure. I want to thank you for for taking a few minutes to spend time with me. I really have appreciated it, and I have enjoyed it, because I don't get to sit down with you very often, and when we started this podcast, you were one of the first people that I thought of. It was like, I need to get him on there, because I know he can articulate the whole premise of what it is I want to focus on. So thank you for taking the time. And I add one thing, absolutely, the show is going to be from October the eighth through the 12th. Okay, you can get here around eight o'clock in the morning to six o'clock at night, and come to enjoy the day. We will have concessions here. Anybody that is got looks like a Club member, and we'll try to have identification ask them question. We want you to make sure you understand. Once again, it will be October the eighth through the 12th. Awesome. Looking forward to it. I know we are looking forward to it, and I do hope that people come out and have a chance to see it, because this is pretty phenomenal to watch these dogs perform and carry out what's their ex what's expected of them by their trainers. And I'm going to get out there this year, and. See what goes on in the back with the fast cat and stuff, because I've not seen that before, but thank you again. Check out the show and Farm Bureau Expo, and if you want additional details on it, they'll be at Farm Bureau expo.com. So thank you so much. You you.