All right, so we're live cool on uh youtube youtube, so yeah yeah, sweet yeah. How the heck are you great? That's good, hi, youtube, um yeah. One thing that i've noticed about this setup, for whatever reason is, is like my bald spot is really clear, which is strange because i'm not even not even like, like bat like my back's, not to the camera yeah, have you noticed that no, i haven't noticed in General yeah, i guess i'm just used to it by now - yeah, that's understandable. I didn't used to be self-conscious about these things.

That's the sort of thing that happens when you have a midlife crisis. I guess oh wow crisis wow anyway, so i wanted to you, know kind of do a recap. Um talking broadly because, like we've talked a lot about the symposium um, and so i don't want to just do that. I want to talk broadly about the purpose of trade events, because you know we've done a few of these together.

Now you and i probably more than anyone else at calo's, i'd, say yeah, although you missed ahr last time i did yeah and you're gon na also miss the educators conference, yeah yeah, so um actually uh yeah. I i wan na hear your perspective on that. So, like juxtapose, that's a big word juxtapose, the educators conference, which is the esko, and i think they called the education conference now. I think they changed that a little bit because they it doesn't, it seems like they are inviting people more broadly to it, which is a great conference.

Yeah um focused on education, uh ahr, which the last one i think you were at was the one in orlando yeah and then the uh hdcr training, symposium yeah yeah, put on by those weird people yeah in claremont, florida, okay, so yeah so yeah talk to that Talk about these things, yeah talk about talk about the difference, okay, uh! Well! From your perspective, sure you know. From my perspective, the ahr was uh, pretty incredible, the just the scope and seeing all the money that's in this industry, and i mean it just people showed people showed you money, yeah, everybody. Everybody showed me money massive, like displays and two-story set up inside of a building and like meeting rooms upstairs yeah, just like a mile long of children through yeah, stuff and yeah, that was that was fun and um yeah. Well, i i actually really like that, because i was walking around and there was people from all over the world that came up and recognized me.

That was awesome. That was that was but it, but it sent you into like a tale because you were really on bert life. Prior to that, like you were lifting it up, and then you were really popular. You were in like the peak of your fame at that moment, and then that happened and then you were like no i'm done here like what.

What was that all about uh? I don't. I don't want to talk about what it was all about. Oh no, it just happened that way: okay, yeah life happened at the same time yep, but yeah that was really fun and actually to contrast that, like the symposium is like hvac school, i mean everybody who knows everybody like no one shows up there and and and Doesn't know who everybody is right, even me, and so it's like, like you know, i know you well, you know, there's a lot of people there who we don't know sure who we don't know but who they seem to all, but they all know anybody who's connected With hvac school or yeah yeah, so no surprise to have you know everybody coming up and talking to you or knowing who your name is, if you don't know who their name is, which was different at the ahr when that was a surprise for me to have Random people, but then to contrast that with the educators conference, nobody knew who i was at the educators conference. So you thought that isn't true yeah not not ever not nobody, but there was a big difference.

Yeah yeah, so you can just kind of see the circle that i don't fit in with uh real smart educated people uh well. So the first event that i went to that i actually felt that kind of sense of community and felt a um like kind of walked away with a big impact. Was the educators conference actually and it was in orlando um now they're doing it? I think almost every year at the south point hotel and um in vegas, i think that's pretty consistent. I mean you want to shut that off.

I mean i got to take this next um. So what was different about that for me, was in a lot of the other, because i had gone to ahr several times and ahr. It has a lot of contractors and actually has a lot more now than it used to seems like it. At least i i can't quantify that, but it seems like there's more technicians and contractors than there used to be, but it's just so big and it's so full of like reps and manufacturing.

You know people from the manufacturing sector. You know a lot of people in suits kind of the ashrae bunch and the ahri bunch and stuff in all suits. You know like i'm, not i'm not going to be critical of it, but uh. Let's just say that maybe i don't fit in as well in that group sure, so you don't feel that the focus of like um just money and consuming consumer stuff - i mean i mean it's, it's why why it's there yeah but yeah, and i well so in Defense, i feel in defense of my friends at ahr, because i can imagine i'm gon na get the email from nicole who's gon na be like hey, you kind of no like it's a great conference and they've done a lot better job.

I think over the last couple years of including contractors and technicians, like with the podcast pavilion and doing education and they've certainly reached out to to us, like they've, been very active in reaching out to us and having uh taking feedback yeah, i'm not saying it's bad. It was just it's actually in a good way for me to see like yeah, whoa, there's so much more to this industry and there's so much potential even like career-wise, like it just blew my mind, yeah right right and actually that's coming away from it. That's how i always feel is like this idea that you have to be stuck doing one job or that there isn't. You know that, just being a technician, your whole career is what you have to do and there's nothing wrong with it.

If that is what you end up doing for sure, but that isn't the case: yeah there's massive opportunities to to for different directions and all that and that's the sense you get when you go to hr but back to the educators conference. So what was different about that to me - and i think probably it's because it's where i met bill spone the first time in person and a lot of other people um, it was the chance to kind of like sit down, actually go to dinner with some people Who you know spend time with people? There was that space and then the sessions you go into are talking about stuff, that's pertinent to our careers. You know it's like it's talking about um, you know refrigerant side and air side and combustion and design i mean, i think, um the educators conference you went to. You met some people that now are kind of like symposium, friends, right, yeah, exactly and then also uh.

Exactly what you're saying with the classes that they did there and stuff? I was just surprised at how little i knew, and it was a really good yeah thing to sit there and realize there's so much to grow in here. Yeah yeah and they do a good job showing that, because they bring in a lot of really good people for that yeah in terms of size. It's significantly larger than the symposium significantly smaller than ahr we're talking about the educator's confidence and very focused on, or the education conference very focused on education. You know focused on tools for education, so talking a lot about how to teach uh.

For example, this year, dickwars uh and i are gon na talk about different learning, uh styles and different ways: different ways of reaching different people in their careers at different levels. Um, whether it's you know after they call it. The three different levels would be, like you know: high school students versus adult students in a school versus people who are already in the field. Yeah and obviously my focus is people who are already in the field um.

So they do a lot of that and then they do just a lot of really like technical stuff. So, like ed jonah walk, i think you sat in on one of his uh presentations and just got into like an egg fight uh in it. I think no, not in that one that was actually great. We got in our fight once he came back here and i'm like what are you doing at our house, wow yeah? No, i like that.

It was great i like that bunny language yeah. He was like wait, it was it was that intense was it good or bad, and i was like well, your show was really entertaining he's like yeah. That was me. Then i was there.

Yeah yeah, it was great um eric kaiser was was at. I think at the educators conference, where we first got to hang out, i think, but anyway, the point just is: is that um i'm using these three events, and certainly there are more - i mean there are a lot of business type events um service world expo is One that a lot of people go to kind of for more the business side of things. I've never been, but i hear it's good the akka conference this year, it's in um, kansas city, it just i couldn't make it this year, um and i actually have never been to the akka conference, but they asked if we would do podcasts and stuff there, which Sounded fun but i just couldn't make it um, so there are a lot of events like that um. But from your perspective, i guess you know just coming off the symposium for people who, maybe you haven't seen the value or maybe you're curious about like what the value is.

How would you describe the value of an event like that? Like the symposium, like the symposium, specifically because symposium is a little different in that, but but we'll kind of we'll kind of start there and then i'll talk a little bit about what i was wanting to create kind of. What inspired me to create it. This way. But okay, so just the um classes that are done.

I mean i'll start with that, because that's what's being advertised, there are so good and so rich and are taught by people that you've selected as uh authorities in the field, but also like someone who's actually had life experience in this, and so i mean there wasn't Anybody here teaching classes that didn't have the respect of the industry, and so nobody because they, you know they had some position, some important position that everyone had to suck up to or whatever you know. This was just a training event, so hand selected for people that could bring the best and everyone here felt that you know yeah and that that's a really cool thing, so the training classes are great in that way. But i mean what was the most dynamic to me was just feeling. Like i mean we, we called it like uh.

The brotherhood of the group, like just feeling like the hvac industry, has a lot of people with a common passion for what we're doing and what we're learning and what we're experiencing in life. And so the friendship dynamic was just so cool showing up here and having people that understand completely what you're doing, no matter where you're at in like this industry, like people here, have experienced it, they understand it, they want to talk about it, and so there was Just amazing conversations that happen outside of the classroom that i don't know for me just help me get excited about what i'm doing yeah and it is about being excited about what we do. Specifically. It is about hvacr and building science and all that stuff.

But but there's also this other thing that i think gets you an element of. Can i wait don't say anything: i'm gon na fill it in okay. There's this other thing about like every time. You turn that down.

Does that turn my voice down yeah it it you're annoying me, so i just turned it down yeah. I said. No, that's not what's happening, no yeah, no, switching camera angles just for fun. It's like uh the way that it connects us with real people behind what uh that are doing all this and connects us to their lives and their stories yeah and how that impacts us like that was the coolest thing for sure about this yeah and so back To back to what i was about to say, oh, i thought i said what you were about.

I mean kind of uh, but there are like there are your true extroverts. There are people who and like i don't i don't know if you would be yeah. I think you're you're pretty extroverted um yeah. You would definitely be pretty extraordinary.

I'm an extrovert you're, an extrovert but they're sort of true extroverts, like your sales type people, and you see this in the business groups, um. What oh you're looking you're watching you're like? Is it fine? If i watch them? No, no, that's fine! You can watch yourself live and you can also because you can get you can see the comments. Um questions good morning that sort of thing yeah, if you want to i mean i did have something i wanted to say, yeah. If you wanted to show it listen.

Maybe i mean if you just want to focus first, okay, that would be. I mean that would be appreciated all right, um yeah. It's no big deal so um. The point i was going to make is there: are: there are types of people who can talk about anything and small talk, yeah politics, the weather, whatever um, but for me and i think a lot of people who are like us i'll just say us as a Trade um.

Sometimes it's not. We talk so much about passion for the trade, but you know that that comes and goes i mean, let's be honest, like we are talking about repairing installing air conditioners right and it's good to be passionate about that. But what it does - and you see this with people who are definitely introverts - i mean i think, of people like you know max johnson or uh. You know steve rogers, you know those types of folks and you see them come alive because they have something to talk about yeah, that they care about right, that they know right that matters to them, that matters not just to them, but to the world like it's Something that's meaningful right, um and that's that to me is what's really cool is having a context for connection so a context, meaning something that allows you to connect to another human that then feeds into just valuing them in general, yeah you're, like i, wouldn't, have had An opportunity to care about so many of these people - you know jenny, garcia or michael house, or you know all these really great people who are neil compareto, who are part of the group um.

I wouldn't have had a chance to care about them as humans. If i didn't have a context to communicate with them about our trade right - and i think that's the thing that i notice and - and there are a lot of these - these people - who you see these kind of common traits where you do this job - that's fairly, thankless, Um and you you do care about it, because, whatever you do you're going to care about right, it's just it's! Just your personality you're not going to do something and not care about what you're doing you're not going to do something and not care about how it works or be interested in it right. So that's the type of person that it is, but sometimes when you get into a room with people like you, go to a chamber event or you go to some. You know business mixer or whatever, and it's like right.

What what do i say and like i'm awkward, i'm uncomfortable, whereas if you get in a group of people and it's like oh true flow grid, how about that true floor grid right? It's like oh yeah and then you dive in you know. You know what about you know: mass flow rate. You know people always get that screwed up, you know, and then you start, and you start talking and the next thing. You know your friends and next thing.

You know you know about their families and their and their spouses and their kids and their just all that kind of stuff and now you're talking about all that stuff um and you see that over and over and over again and every year and again this happens. Other places too, this can happen at ahr, definitely happens at the educators conference. I've definitely seen that it's it's it's a little more structured. You know.

Ours is kind of like it's. It's kind of unstructured it's kind of kind of crazy um, but you see that every year people come away and what do they talk about? Is the people um and they and a lot of them will give me credit as if i did something, but the reality of what i did was just say here. You know here talk with each other, and the classes also provide a context for focus like yeah. Okay, well now now i know this person and i know they just talked about market refrigeration.

So now i'm going to talk to them about co2 and that's an interesting topic to me, um. So back to kind of like the inspiration for this um, i went to building science summer camp, which is uh kind of like an invite-only building science event put on by joe stiebrick up in wexford massachusetts, the that's the informal name. The official name is um. The wexford building science symposium, so you'll catch the word there uh and that event was it was.

I was definitely on the edge of that event like i was not most of the stuff they talked about. You know about, because it's about it's about building science. As a whole, it's not just the stuff we care about in air conditioning. So it's talking about like fire protection and structures and building structures.

You know better just building buildings, better, all all the sides of building science and and i went into the sessions and it's like whoa. This is way over my head and i can imagine that. That's probably how a lot of people feel when they come here and they're listening to you know alex meany or nikki krueger or ed, john walker. You know all these people talk about some of these more complicated building science topics um, you know let alone rick sims.

I mean, like i went to rick sim session again and it's just like my brain was just melting out of my ears. I mean that guy that guy is so ridiculously smart and he just and he i don't think he realizes how much he intimidates me, because he walks up and just starts talking about all this stuff and he's like oh yeah. You know about this. You know about that, just assuming i know it all right, i'm like oh yeah, rick, absolutely.

I know all of that. Just please don't ask me any questions about it, yeah that that describes my entire life experience of the symposium or any other event, just hoping. Nobody has asked you any detailed questions after you just agreed with everything they said: oh yeah, i definitely yeah but anyway. The the point is: is that that's how i felt there, but then in the evening, everybody loads up in in vans, and you go out to to joe's house, and he has this barn and all these tents set up and people just hang out yeah.

They just hang out and get nerdy, and some of them uh drink a little too much, but they just enjoy one another's company and it's a very positive experience. It's where i met alex media. It's where i met allison bales and many others that uh people who john semelhack and a lot of other people who and i now have really good relationships with people who i can appreciate in a deeper way, everybody's super aggressive, but super kind to one another simultaneously. You know where they're just arguing you know to the death about some detail, but actually really appreciating another person yeah and it's there's just something really cool about that, and so i came away from that like all right, i'm not gon na be able to do that In the exact same way, i don't have the space for 700 people the way they do um, but but there's something that we can do that's going to be similar to that and uh.

And that's what the hvac our symposium came from so credit to credit to joe uh seabrick and that whole group, because without having experienced that event, an event that you know, i don't know if i'll get a chance to go again or you know it's it's a It's a very, very specific niche event that i'm sure, like i said just on the edges of um, but that that helped inspire what this is and, and so a lot of people will ask like versions of you know. Is it gon na? How are you gon na grow it? How are you to make it bigger, and i really don't know the answer to that right. Um, i don't know, do you have any thoughts on that, like i had a lot of questions on that too um and you know part of it is just this feeling like. Well, i don't want to like this is so great, like there's a there's, a family feel to it that uh chris stevens said you kept, calling it grassroots it's like coming back to the roots and where you have all of these, you know it's like a it's.

A blue-collar theme it's what it feels like the training. That's there the conversations. That's there, my brother not wearing a shirt, yeah, all very blue collar, yeah, exactly and so just being able to connect with that with so many people. I mean even a lot of the educators.

They had years of experience in the field, so flow straight into conversations with what some of us are experiencing every day. Like me, for example, yeah i worked in the field once yeah. I remember that yeah yeah i was out in the field. I had tools like me.

What's going on right here, guys where's, the camera where's, the mics, i'm getting out of this place, where's my feelings, yeah, no for sure so the grassroots thing like yeah, you don't. I don't want it to turn into some monster event where everybody uh, you know where you can't connect with people and and have that connection, and that, like what we had here, but at the same time like you immediately sold out like pretty quick yeah and there's A lot of people waiting and hoping to come back and - and i want a lot more people to experience this so yeah yeah - i don't know my thoughts making it bigger. We are completely maxed out here, like every class had like 15 people standing around for an hour and a half like people would come out of the class holding their back because they had, they didn't want to leave the class, but they had to stand there for, Like an hour i mean it was, it was full and uh and we had like the fire inspector like call us multiple times, yeah uh very concerned mm-hmm, which we did get like. We did it by the book.

We really did yeah believe it or not, but they were still very concerned about the number of cars that were parked yeah, like the fire inspector called shauna and was like yeah, but there's no building in this area that can hold that many people right. That's what he kept saying: she's like yeah, but it's an outside event. Remember you inspected the he's like yeah but like, but there's no building yeah exactly they're having a hard time getting their heads around that. So anyway, yeah i mean who's to say i think you know so we are um, we are doing it next year and we've already picked some dates.

I don't remember, but it's like third week in january, so we're actually moving it up a little bit because ahr is a little later, so we're doing it two weeks before hr, rather than after just so, we don't bump into other some of the other events and The other reason is, it was actually really hot here right. It was so it would be okay like even if here it's in, let's say worst case scenario - 50s during the day right, that's going to contrast with a really cold season, other places so it'll make. I think it a little more, maybe a little more comfortable um, so we're definitely doing that next year. But then beyond that, i really don't know i'm open to things.

I you know i want to put out there and this probably isn't the right place to do it, but like one of the ideas that i've had for a long time and that i would really like to bring to fruition if anybody has any thoughts on this Is um having like a destination training center somewhere, that's um that isn't in like a downtown something i can call a retreat a retreat. You like the idea of a retreat. Is that a word that you, like you, go to this place and there's, like other, really fun things to do there? Mm-Hmm yeah jazz, such as you know, like activities like disc golf, disc, golf uh, yeah archery, oh archer. I was shooting some people the last day of the symposium, oh yeah, oh with with my bow, did you miss it yeah? I don't think you should probably do that.

Okay! Well, they didn't mind. Oh okay, did you ask their consent before shooting them with a bow uh? Well, you have to surprise them. I might miss oh okay, um! No! I did actually bring out my large foam tips for like arrow tag. Okay and we played yeah.

Oh while cleanup was happening, oh okay, well, i'll clean. I didn't shoot anybody during the classes. I resisted the urge to bring the bow in and shoot nathan in the chest while he was sitting there. That would have been definitely approved by me.

That would have definitely, of course, with the spring action that probably would have boinged back and uh yeah done more harmony. I mean i mean if you could take an event like this and put everybody even like staying in the same sleeping in the same retreat. Like a campout retreat, symposium event yeah well, so okay, it might be getting a little unrealistic, but my idea is to have a good sized facility that allows hands-on training. Yeah um kind of you know similar to what we have here: kind of a warehouse environment, tents that kind of thing close enough to hotels.

You know that that makes sense, but in a fairly suburban rural setting kind of like the wexford symposium is - and it isn't, it isn't really rural, but he has this nice barn kind of venue. That's large enough. Uh has all the kind of the video equipment all pre-set up. It's just static companies can use it for their trainings to send people and to do those sorts of training retreats and all that yeah.

I'm talking about large organizations and maybe even contractors um, but something like that wouldn't have to be terribly expensive. I mean. Obviously, real estate is expensive, right now sure um, but i don't like the idea of trying to wedge something because people are like well, it's got ta be really close to the airport. It's like yeah, but the downside is if you're really close to the airport, then you've got these really expensive, uh property prices and parking, and all that i want to have a place that people can park on site.

Okay, everybody showed up here and it worked exactly equipment. You know you can park. You know seven, eight hundred people on site. If you want, like that's kind of what i'm thinking and you know, you got yeah space for tent, you got big building um and that you know to buy that type of property and it's not realistic in an urban environment for the type of thing i'm talking About, but if you could then set up all your training equipment, all your demo units have static.

Cameras have static mics, you know kind of everything all set up, so that people can just show up do trainings, both virtual and in person um. I don't think it's that huge of a like a of a barrier and that's to me. I think that's the only way i i can think of that. I really grow it right because i can't move it to a different city right and we talked about.

Maybe maybe one year having a version of it or having it up at truetech um that may be possible because they have a staff, but it's it's just. The reason it works here is because we have all these people here and right, and it's been hard even bringing everybody into an environment like a warehouse like this is where we run our shop. This is what, where we uh this is our company place like this is where we do all that we do out of this place. It's really awesome to be able to do that, so it's hard to lose some of those things yeah and it would take a really ideal scenario for me to be like, oh yeah, that's a great idea: let's stop doing it here and move there, but yeah i Mean there were several people that came up to me and said: hey next year.

Do you want to do this bigger somewhere else, yeah a lot? A lot of people did say that, but then even more said, please don't change it exactly. There was definitely more of that. Yeah um, which i understand, yeah and and the thing the thing that needs to not change is the education focus. Because what happens is everyone shows up here and there's like a kindle passion for training education and improving this trade? Improving people in the trade and and even like, there's a lot of people that come here that uh produce their own content and make a big difference right.

Um, online and uh actually give out free free training and information online like we're working on ac over time. Yeah chris stevens hvcr videos, craig miguelachio yeah. I don't, i surprised, still didn't say it right, but neil camparetto told me that when i pronounce uh italian names, if you go so i'm saying this came from an italian okay. Okay, like i'm not being neil's, never been wrong about anything.

So he said if you, when you say an italian name, if you go like this, it helps you say it yeah. So craig, like you know, he's he's owning me yeah. You know in terms of youtube. You're kicking my butt he's doing great.

You know he really is. I love greg. I had some great conversation with him yeah. He is an excellent human that was like it's like impossible to replace some of that.

Like yeah, like we had great conversation, life god work, family politics struggles, you weren't there for the politics yeah. I skipped any politics yeah it was i mean, but so i actually like intentionally created a conversation like each other. Can do this well right because it was, it was alex meany. Who is? Definitely, you know, he's from massachusetts right sure, and then there was reagan, murphy, who's from texas, yep and uh, and they were going at it.

But you know but like, and i was kind of moderating you know just sort of and - and you know like you can just see like they're having an intense conversation, but these are people who, like each other right value, each other see, can actually see another person's Perspective and like at the end, that's how it was like everybody had a great time. Yes, you know, and we talked about like the grittiest politics stuff, you can possibly talk about which i i love that right. I don't. I don't love talking about politics if it's gon na do harm, but i like it when you have reasonable people who have strongly held beliefs that can still hold their beliefs and not change like you.

Don't need to change your belief, but you come away from, like. Oh okay, like i get i see you i get you um. I sounded very woke of me, but you know whatever it was it was. It was very it was.

It was productive. I enjoyed it, um yeah, so that's it that so so yeah. If any. If any of you have any ideas or thoughts or anything about how we might be able to do some of this there's any kind of like companies out there they're like hey yeah, we definitely would like the idea of a destination training center in in the orlando Market, because my thinking is the nice thing about orlando - is the weather's good, the politics here, taxes all that make it really nice to have those types of facilities here, uh and then well that just got political, but i mean it does it's.

It floors an easy place to do business um, but then also it's got disney and all the kind of stuff that people want to do with your family. So it's the kind of thing you can kind of double up. You know you can do a three-day training. I'm thinking of big companies like emerson and carrier and these sorts of folks, you know you could give up.

You know, have a three-day training and then have everybody go off, because it's just hard, even for big, even for big companies. They'll set up these uh, really nice training centers, but then they don't end up really using them um, because either where they are, doesn't make a lot of sense for people to come to um, i think of like the and again like this is not throwing stones, But i think, like the helix that emerson has, there is like one of the most amazing facilities you've ever seen in your life, but it's sort of in the middle of nowhere in ohio, i mean, as is emerson's entire facility there, and that makes it kind of Tough as a destination center um, whereas florida orlando specifically got a gigantic international airport, easy to get to and then there's other things people can do and bring their families and that kind of thing. So i like that vision, whereas a lot of people see the fruit of the symposium now i'm like well, how did you you know? How did this happen? Well, it happened by just taking a small step at a time and the first year, especially, was really messy. Like it was really sloppy, but second year was a little less sloppy, but still sloppy and this year still sloppy uh, but but you know, i think, better yeah.

I actually felt a lot better about it, um and that's the same thing with this vision. It's like. I think this is going to happen. I think some version of what i'm saying here is going to happen uh and i would like to be a part of making it happen, but i don't have to be the one who who does it at all.

I would just like to see folks who think it's interesting uh, give me some ideas and maybe come up with some ways. We could do that so yeah. A couple people online saying: keep it the way it is um in the chat right now, but yeah like uh the atmosphere and the size that it is. You know josh josh wolfe.

I got to hang out with him. Yeah he's a great guy, yeah yeah yeah he's not on chat. Is he yes? Yes, yeah. He says, keep it the way it is.

He loves the size and the atmosphere which, which is true. I mean it's. Yeah josh brought his family and we always love seeing them here and that's that and that's fun like you see like at ahr. They don't allow anybody under the age, i think of 16, and it's for obvious reasons.

You got all these giant corporations and everybody's. You know worried about liability and all that, and maybe we should be, but i don't care like i'm, not going to sit here and worry about every little detail right, um of that kind of stuff like like when we moved the water up onto the gravel and You had to step up to get to it a couple people asked while i was moving it is this safe. Should we be worried about this and we're looking around like not with this group right right? We don't have to have a sign here, yeah like and even if somebody does trip and banks their knee they're going to be like oops and they're going to move on you're like right. That's the group of people that we have yeah right.

That's the cool thing about this kind of event: yeah you can get like-minded people that have worked their lives in the trades and understand the struggle of putting something on like this, but also like yeah, just the atmosphere that they're walking into that casual feels really nice. It is yeah, it's nice yeah, it is, it feels like it feels comfortable and in the past i have gotten really stressed out about all the details and so going into this year. I just decided like this thing is what it is and it will be what it will be um and i'm gon na just enjoy it and and and be able to enjoy other people enjoying it. Rather than getting worked up about the things that are imperfect or the ways in which i could have done it better yeah because there are - i mean when you put on an event, it's like you, you get complaints, you get little and they're all details and they're All details that it's like man, yeah.

Why didn't i do that sure um? Why didn't i adjust that? Why didn't i change that? Oh, the porta potty's filled up. Why didn't we get another one? Why didn't we think about that? You know, and it's uh and you can second-guess all that, but but that's part of what makes it makes us. What we are is that we're willing you know again. This is sort of a technician thing.

You don't have to have all the answers before you act as a technician or a troubleshooter. You just exactly just move forward. You know you do the next thing um, like i said it was so cool to see the little kids running around i mean there. Were babies you know, and i love that stuff it was.

You know joe shearer did like a gospel message at the end of one of the talks, because that's something that he wanted to do and and like, and i think that's awesome. You know um yeah. I mean i, i think, people having some freedom to um who they are yeah and to express themselves in that way, and nobody was afraid if they were themselves or if they showed a little more color or if they spoke their mind, that they were going to Get hushed by someone and be like no, we don't do that around here. You know.

No, i mean there was a. There was a couple key words that got dropped. Sure yeah, maybe don't say that. But even then it's like you, you mean you get it and it's forgiveness is quick.

Yes, anyway, it's all good um yeah. I think that's it uh yeah, so uh, just everybody who's been watching this uh. This is sort of a weird little live video to do, but i just wanted to kind of put out there. You know the impetus behind all this.

Thank you all. I mean everybody who took the time to to come down and speak. I mean people came down their own dimes to do this right, um, which is incredible. That's another point i mean like everyone who came wanted to be here, and you know how different that is.

It wasn't like there was a bunch of companies that you know part of they pushed you to be here because you had to go. Show your face somewhere, you know and or your boss is making you do this or it's it's on your way to that. Next step in in whatever certification you need, no, it was like. People came because they really wanted to be here and that yeah yeah and even and even the kind of like the key sponsors, accutools and true tech.

Being the two title sponsors i mean these are not enormous corporations. These are um, i mean they're they're good-sized companies, but they are companies that invested significant money in making making this work right because they believe in it exactly um and of course, that's bill. Uh bill. Spone and jim bergman and then diverse attack as well.

I mean, like you, know, they're a very large company, a very large company, but when they show up they've got this really gritty demo that they're doing of the of the line set cleaner um that actually lets people experience it rather than having it so polished, and So right and also helping with education, yeah exactly yeah yeah, oh yeah, i mean rick streaker from packard was amazing. I mean and uh yeah there was chris mulholly got to come for the first time, which was amazing. Um yeah, russ king from quick model he's a absolute gem of a human. Is it so good to see him interacting? So just so many people this year, who were who were new, who maybe weren't able to make it in previous years um and then you know our regulars, the bills bones and jim bergman's and all the other people that we've mentioned um yeah.

Thank you to all of you, it it it's very humbling to me. I used to hear people say that, oh it's humbling to me, it's like what does what does that mean, but you s, but you do realize um that sometimes like when you do things like this, you get a lot of blame, but you also you get a Lot, you get some blame, you don't deserve, but most of it you do deserve, but you get a lot of credit that you certainly don't deserve, and so i get a lot of credit for this from people who are emailing me being so kind um and saying, Like you know, but right and i had people walk up to me like you, made such a huge difference in my life as a career, you know hearing you talk about like um your life and your focus and just seeing your attitude with work and stuff and Just made me excited about work again, and i just you know, i'm now, i'm making more and i'm so much happy. I'm just like hearing this stuff like whoa like maybe i should listen to myself or go watch those videos take my own advice yeah. What was that yeah? It was surprising and felt very undeserved most of the time correct.

That is how it feels, and i think the right response is to say yeah, i'm humbled by that. I'm i'm humbled by the opportunity to take a very small thing and to do it, but then to have god, take that and um make something bigger out of it. That actually helps people, and is it fine to say i'm humbled when i feel so proud, like it's so hard to isn't it's hard to parse that are you being sarcastic, i'm so proud, i'm so proud of myself and what i've accomplished all these years, yeah um Yeah, so i guess kind of my message moving forward to all of you is keep doing this. You know like um, because i think some people get the sense that i'm competitive in some way or whatever.

But and - and i am i mean - we all - have a competitive spirit in us. But when i see these people like chris stevens and like uh craig, who both have better youtube channels than i do right and who have had so much success and all this is like man, i'm just so glad you're here, yeah and for those guys and others Who are like you, if you want to put on an event like this up in the northeast or over on the west coast, then absolutely do it like. I that's that's so awesome to me because i think that's another possibility and another part of this is that maybe there maybe there becomes you know, versions of this that are regional, then i don't have to have any say in that. I don't want to.

I don't want to like. I don't just follow your events and do like after party events involve shooting each other with both bows and arrows yeah yeah yeah, yeah yeah. We did have some really great dinners and some and some uh some just great times just talking to people. The only downside to it that ends up happening.

Is nobody gets any sleep right? No, that's so true! It's just! Nobody gets any sleep because you just have this this. I slept four hours on sunday in the middle of the day and i never can sleep in the middle of the day. Mm-Hmm four hours just was out yeah yeah, it wasn't great, it was. It was definitely a recovery, but it's, but it's for good reason.

It's not like this great wild. I mean because some people get a sense like oh wild partying, it's not it. I guess some some people, you know some people drink a little bit, but it's because you have this time with these people that you don't get time with yeah and you don't want to give that up. I mean you don't want to um yeah.

You don't want to miss that time right. I ended up having breakfast with andrew grieves after the event just because we didn't get to spend enough time just kind of talking about our lives and stuff um. So you just never feel like you. Have you never feel like you have enough um, but anyway yeah? So thank you to everybody huh, i'm jealous about that.

Well, maybe that's what maybe i was name dropping a little bit there, maybe just yeah, yeah, probably probably yeah anyway, so uh events going to be up again soon. Tickets will be on sale for next year very soon and we're going to try to get ahead of it. This time, we're going to actually um buy out some uh, some airbnb vrbo houses, oh cool, so that way, we've got extra housing because that was an issue. Was there just wasn't enough space nearby, um and that's also sleeping in tents, on the edge of swamps? Well, that was it wasn't a tent, it was a.

It was practically a tent. You obviously didn't hear the story. It was intense uh, practically yeah, yeah he's great at storytelling yeah. No, no.

We have a lot of really great storytellers in the old community community yeah. That is, that is for sure, so i'll focus i'll finish by focusing on this camera right here is that us, that's us yeah right there guys hey um, yeah! Well, thanks, okay! So nice, thanks thanks for taking the time talking to me. Yeah, i'm not gon na shake your hand, okay! Well, it's good seeing everybody and i can't wait to see everyone again, yeah for sure all right have a good one.