Candid Conversation with host Adrienne Barker, MAS, sponsored by www.PromoIndustry.Guru

I know everybody's been waiting. Hi, Jennifer Card!

Hi, how are you?

Oh, I'm great. How are you?

I am fantastic. It has been a fun-filled day.

Oh, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me what happened this morning.

Okay, so this morning RealtyPros, the company that I work for, had a hand sanitizer giveaway. So my shift was from 9 to 10, and I got to see some of my really amazing friends that I haven't been I haven't been able to see in so long because we've been kind of tied closer to our homes, you know. So it was nice to see them. And of course, your propensity is to go and run in for a hug, and it's just not something that's too easy for everyone to do right now. So we had the discussions that everyone are having of, you know, how do you greet people now? You know, is it the little heart sign or, or what is it? Yeah, but it was, it was fun to see everybody and see some of the teammates at Realty Pros that I haven't seen for some time either.

And you're giving them a gift, hand sanitizer. Who would have thought that that is like the hottest thing right now?

I know our owner, Bill Navarra, and co-owner Buzzy Porter are amazing advocates for the community. They do everything they can to try to take care of the community. They believe in that. And I am so glad and grateful to work for a company that believes that that's the way that we should work and live our lives.

I agree with you. They really— it is amazing what they do. And the Mark Card team— I love my card from Mark Card and Jennifer Card. Lovely. What a lovely— such a nice gift. Thank you for the informative and professional presentation. Executive protocol in a virtual world. I found it interesting, engaging, and timely, and definitely needed to hear some of these reminders. With sincere gratitude. You know what? That is, as I'm looking, that is really, the picture is beautiful, really lovely.

Oh, wow.

I really appreciate it.

Thank you so much for doing that. We appreciate it. Our chamber is filled with people with gracious, giving hearts, and you're one of them. And we were so lucky to have you last week to do the Executive Protocol class. It was fantastic. I loved it.

You know what I noticed? I tend to like just speak. And so I— so first of all, the beginning, my dryer was going off and I'm like, oh no. So in the beginning you see me, I disappear for a second because the dryer just was not working well for me. And then I think when I re-listened to myself, I said some things that were kind of funny.

Well, yeah, we all do, don't we? I mean, that's just the way that it is. You're gonna say, uh, funny stuff. So I just got a message. It looks like someone's saying that they're seeing just you on the Facebook thing.

So, oh my gosh, thank you whoever said that.

I don't know if they can hear both sides, but—

oh, you know what, do you have your phone? Let's double check ourselves. That's weird because nobody wants to just see me.

Let me—

yeah, hold on everyone, we got a little technology we think, and it sounds like it could be the issue. I turned off my Apple phone so I can, um, get a better service.

Got it.

Everything—

I don't know, I don't know if they can, um, see.

I've got you in the stream. So watch, I'm going to hide myself here and I'm on the other side of you, which is much better. And, uh, okay, let me see it. Let's go. I'm going to look and see myself and see what's going on. This is Candid, and I'm going to go to Facebook and I'm going to go to myself, and if it's the case, I'll scream. Yeah, no, I see you. Oops, I see you.

I see you. Okay. Yeah, I just got something from my girl Holly. My girl Holly. That girl is amazing. I love her.

Tell me, Holly. Who's Holly? Does she live here, or—

She does live here, and she, um, was the first customer I had this morning. That's a friend, um, for our sanitizer giveaway. So, um, it's Holly Grimaldi, and She is an amazing, wonderful woman that is one of my dearest friends. I love her so. She's so supportive in everything that I do, but she'll keep it real. She'll tell me if I've got, you know, something on my face or whatever. And those are the kinds of friends that you want to have in life.

Oh, I love that, Holly. Oh, is she part of the chamber?

She is not. She's a dental hygienist and she's an amazing mother that lives in Port Orange. And her husband is the police chief for the city of Port Orange, Tom Grimaldi.

Wow, wow, thank you, Holly. That, that position— I would love to talk to Holly too because I think that that's got to be a very hard to have your husband leave and you just never know what's going to happen. That's got that— I say that the heroes on the front line and then the heroes on the back line because being a, a wife and a mother, that's not easy when you have a child in law enforcement, or his husband, right?

Well, and her son was in the military too. So yeah, she is a very strong woman, and she does it all with grace and sheer beauty. She's an amazing woman, so I'm lucky to have her in my life.

Oh, isn't that sweet? I'm still trying to get my bestie Dee to come on, you know. So I'm so glad to have you. I keep saying you remind me of my sister-in-law. You're so pretty. When I first saw you, I was kind of like Wow, a little speechless. You're so beautiful. But, um, I really have to say, besides your looks, I was so wowed in Tallahassee. Do you remember we were at the chamber, the Florida Chamber? We were sitting there and there was, there was a man across from us. And was he with the Florida Chamber? I don't recall.

No, no, actually he is the commissioner, the education commissioner for the state of Florida. Yeah.

Wow.

Yeah. Mm-hmm.

And you were sharing your story. Do you mind sharing your story? I don't know if everyone knows your story.

Well, and you mean how I got into real estate or—

You were a teacher?

Okay. So when I was in college, I went to Tallahassee with Marion County Day, and I met a person there named Gordon Smith. And he's a legend in Marion County, as a matter of fact. And I worked in a shoe store actually, I worked in Belk-Lindsey selling shoes. And a very long story, he came in and said, you know, I knew it was you that sold my wife these, this pair of shoes for my birthday. And because she described you as a Southern-speaking, curly-haired blonde, and I knew that you worked here, and I'm glad to be here with you. I want to offer you a job at my real estate company. And I was ecstatic, of course, because it was nice to not have to work nights and weekends anymore, kind of thing. Um, just the prospect of that sounded amazing. And so, um, then after I accepted the job with him, he called me a couple of days later and, um, offered to put me through real estate school and pay for my real estate license. Girl, I cried. And I still to this day just feel the tears just come when I think about someone believed in me before I did. And that is, that's amazing to have in your life because oftentimes we second-guess ourselves. We don't think we're as much as, um, of a person or as good at certain things as others see you. And so, so that was very, um, humbling to have someone believe in me like that. And he still an amazing friend of mine. We talk even today. And so I just know that I'm very lucky to have had him and his wife in my life.

That's so beautiful. But now you learned something because real estate is not just like— because you do work nights and weekends.

Right. Well, when I started out with him, I started out as their assistant. So I have done many different facets of this job. I understand what our admins go through. I understand what our transaction agents and things like that go through because I've done that. I've been there. And I think it's important that people who are in any type of job, whatever it is, that you try to learn that your teammates, you try to learn what they do too, because they may need you someday. Or you may need them. So it's good to try to know what other people are doing so that you can complete that circle when, when it's necessary.

So true. When I started in the family business after college, my parents had me filing, and they said you have to go through every single part of the business in order to understand it. So I'm so grateful. And I always found the best salespeople were the ones that really did understand the whole cycle and didn't just jump into being a salesperson and not understand how to even write up an order. So that is good advice. That really, it makes a lot of sense. And then where were you born?

I was born in Detroit City, Detroit, Michigan, the Motor City. Yes, that's where I was born, but I was raised in Georgia and I went to college in Georgia. My degree is in elementary education, and that's probably part of the conversation that you heard that day, because we were, we were there talking about education, which is a passion of mine. Lifelong learning is important, I think, to everyone. But I think that it's very important that we take care of our kids and that we invest in our children by giving them our time and our talents. And so that's something that I've tried to stay involved in, even though I'm not teaching, per se anymore.

But you're so, so you're on the edge, you're in the— so wait, so you're the chair of the chamber, you're— were you also the chair of the Education Committee? Did— because I know you're on the committee, but I think you held— you were chair, right?

I was, I did chair the Education Team Committee right after Tony Tussi. And he's another one, I'm just so grateful to have that guy because he comes up with some amazing ideas. He's always supportive, and, um, he's another one that'll tell you exactly what he thinks. And I, I need those people in my life because I'm one of those people that will aim really high or come up with really crazy ideas. But I believe that you have to, to come up and dream those ideas, and then, um, beautiful things happen from there. It may not be that exact idea that you came up with, but if you have good people around you, um, something good usually will come of it.

I agree with you too. It's not, you know, it's not easy being a woman in business. I was the chair for the Celebration Area Council in Celebration, Florida, and that actually wasn't difficult because there was a lot of women on the board, and I think it was even maybe more women than men. But, you know, you're in Port Orange. So when did you move to Port Orange? First of all, when did you get to this area?

Well, we moved here in 2002. That's when my husband and I got married. And I moved from Ocala where I taught school in Ocala. And so we've been in the area since 2002. And our son went to Port Orange Elementary, Silver Sands Middle, Spruce Creek High School, Florida State. And now he works at Brown Brown. So I'm so glad that he stayed local. And that is one of my missions is that we invest in these children and that they come back, that there's jobs here for them. And so I know there's a lot of people that are on it, including the superintendent of schools, and I think we're making headway on that.

It was a big— so I loved getting to know him and a fantastic job. I have Alana, my— so I have my, my fourth, my daughter who is going to high school. No matter what, I'm always nervous about that. She's like, Mom, really? But I can't help it. Cause you just never know. I mean, like, I just get scared. But anyways, so now, so you are the chair of Port Orange. How long have you been part of the chamber?

Well, I've been part of the chamber since— I have to tell you, when I started in real estate, just as an assistant, one of the first things my broker did was march me down to the Ocala Chamber of Commerce and said, you need to be right here. And I was, and I was so grateful for that. So when I came to this area, I wasn't in the chamber immediately. And I ended up getting really involved in the chamber when we moved to RealtyPros, which was in 2000— I think 2012, um, or maybe 2013. And so, um, I had the opportunity to represent RealtyPros, and again, I'm just grateful to have that opportunity that Bill believed in me enough to represent their company.

I, I can't see how he couldn't, but it just is because you're so amazing. And what is it like to be chair? Because I don't know if you realize, but being chair, there's so many other, first of all, young females that are looking at you, and those my age at 57 that are proud of you and, and that think, you know, this is, this is good, this is what I want to do, this is, this is helpful. It's nice to have a woman that's in charge and making decisions, and you become a mentor with whether you know it or not. Right.

So, you know, being the chair to me may be a little different. I'm sure it's different for every person because we are all different, but I enjoy working with people and I enjoy working in teams. So for me, I think that a good leader is one that can meld right into the team, that you really can't tell who the leader is because they're working to build all everyone and what their talents are. So for me, that's how I see my role is just pretty much the moderator of anything at this point. And two, I think that women supporting women is really important. And luckily we have in our community all of the, the chamber presidents are women and they get it. They know that they need to be supportive, even if you may not agree with everything. We're not always going to agree, but you have to support each other. And there's going to be people who don't, don't care for you, don't care for your style. And you know what? It just has to be that way sometimes, unfortunately. But you have to get up every day and know that you're trying to do the best job you can for the people that you represent. And that's what I try to do every day. And I hope that I can make everybody happy, but more than that, I hope that I can help to continue to build more leaders in our community that are willing to do the work because A lot of times people just aren't willing to get involved because they don't want the scrutiny or they don't, they don't really care to be involved with others for one reason or another.

I love that. I also wonder when I was in Celebration, I, I kind of thought that also the younger generation maybe didn't know how to go about. And so being a mentor is so important because, and as if you're an owner of a business, You know, maybe find the employee that really wants to. I mean, I, I, I gave the opportunities to go out and, you know, saying, we'll give you time to support a nonprofit that you want to support. Give, give the hours, give that away. That really helps because to me it's all about that growth of the other person and watching someone grow is a pleasure. You can't even define it. You can't put it in words, but helping someone to find out what that is and, and Realizing also, so what I did is I created something called the Spirit of Caring and a little simple logo of everyone holding hands. But the idea is that everyone on the team work together to figure out and pick a few charities that everyone kind of agrees. It could be 4 a year, and then have your employees go out and learn about it. So have the charities come in for lunch and explain, and then together everyone chooses. And we did Give Kids the World Village, which is a lovely place in Kissimmee where they help children with life-threatening diseases. Amazing place. But pick your local places and encourage. You have to really encourage because a lot of the employees are very used to— it's easy to go to work, go home, you know, have the child. And even if you have a baby in the house, it's still— it's a good release of stress and tension to go and do something. And if you can make it family-related, that's even better so that you have— oh, where the whole family can go out. So what do you think? That's a good thing to encourage?

Oh, absolutely. You know, I think that the schools try to encourage that these days because they give scholarships and things like that based on community service. Community service is really important. And, you know, it's not always what you know, it's who you know. And this is what I mean by that. It's not the who's who. It's this. You can be a rocket scientist. But if nobody else knows that you're a rocket scientist, how do you make that work? How do you put that into action? So there has to be someone that knows what you do or knows what you don't do too, you know. So it is important to get out there and know people, but it's good for your heart and it's good for your mind to give to others. And we all give differently. I believe in you give what you can when you can. Some people, all they can give is money because they don't have the time. Some people have time. And if you have that time, there's 24 hours in a day. So how much time could you spend in a day helping a cause that's important to you or helping a group of people that have helped you in your life? And I've been very lucky to have a lot of people that have helped me in my life. And so I feel that it is really important that I continue to give back for the rest of my life.

I love that. My mom used to say, she had a saying, I wish I had all the money in the world so I could give it away. And my parents, and artwork, this is actually Melanie Taylor Kent, the artist behind me, I love her. And Melanie, my parents just loved all the artists, but they would buy up artists. So Melanie did the, did a beautiful piece that was the 1986 reconditioning of the Statue of Liberty that, oh gosh, his name just escaped me. But anyway, so it was a really beautiful thing. And after 9/11, my dad had all the artwork framed and he donated it. And I grew up watching my parents give what they could of promotional products or donations of artwork. As a matter of fact, I remember saying to someone, I could ask my dad for any piece of artwork, he would never say no. And it was so true. And then actually after we closed up the store, I got a lot of art given to me here so that I have it. So that I could donate it too. But on the other hand, I wanted to— watching that, I felt like I wanted to give something myself. So learning etiquette allows me to donate my time without making money. So I've never— I have never made a dime on professional global etiquette, but I love not only learning it but trying to teach it. So I think when you do have something that you love and you do, it is important. But I want to— I want to ask you, so Tell me about you, Mark. So, so how do you— you work together and I love that. My parents did 70 years together, but like, so what are the differences between— if I'm going to work, do I work with Mark? Do I work with Jennifer? Do you each have a specialty in the real estate business? Right.

So Mark and I are obviously polar opposites because you usually marry your polar opposite. Mark is from New York. And so he married, you know, the Southern rebel, I guess. And so he does a lot of the phone work, a lot of the really tough stuff that I'm not too good at. So we balance each other out. And I do a lot of the administrative stuff. I enjoy doing a lot of the front end work of the marketing work and any of the, um, I call it shaking hands and kissing babies. That's the kind of stuff I enjoy. Um, and so I'm just lucky that I'm able to get to do those things. A lot of people don't get to do what they love in their lives. And I think that most jobs though, if you're in that job and you excel at the things like you mentioned, the things that you love, you're going to be successful in it. You're going to find more success and you're going to rise because you are doing your work in a joyful way.

I love that. So the man that I had on before this, Mr. Edwin Dearborn, interesting man from Las Vegas, very smart branding expert. We were talking about the real estate industry and he was saying that, you know, you— what, what— there's going to be a lot of disruptors in it. And that in 10 years, you know, Amazon could be taking over and selling. So what do you see? And are you having those discussions now on, on what changes you see coming up in the next 10 years and how you can make sure that you, that Amazon doesn't just come in and sell homes or become a bigger Trulia?

Well, you know, this is the thing. Every real estate transaction is different. And so this is the one thing I do know about real estate, even though I've had my real estate license, I'm in my 28th year of having my real estate license, this is the one thing I do know. I'm going to learn something new every day because every single transaction is different. And so if you're a person who knows how to use your resources and is good with research and things like that, you'll succeed in real estate. Now, I hear a lot about the disruptors and we have those conversations in our company. They're certainly there. But real estate is a personal business. If you boil it all down to why you chose the realtor that you chose, you chose them because you like them and because you knew that they were professional and they knew what they were doing. So if you, if you think it's that easy to shop for a house on the internet and close it and everything without a person there managing all of the moving parts of it, then you're probably going to run into some problems because I consider my job more project management than anything. Every transaction that I do, the people are the first thing behind it. Who, who is my customer? Who is my client? And then I have all of these other people that don't work for me that I have to coordinate. So I have to coordinate inspectors, appraisers, mortgage brokers, closing agents. I mean, all of those things have to come together and you have— you're forming a team every time you do one of these. So that's how I see my job. And so I think the disruptors are out there, but, you know, there's disruptors in every profession. And as long as you are bringing value to your customers and they see it, they're going to use you.

I like that. I said the same thing in the promotional products industry. The— now I remember, I remember about 20, 25 years ago, first time that we started hearing for sale by owners, and that seemed like, whoa. And I remember saying, what would you— what— why would you do it? And it came— everyone said, oh, well, you save a little money. And even then, even then, I was like, but you have to do all that work. Like, it didn't make sense to me saving money on the, on the, on the front end, but then on the back end you had like a pile of things that where you're really saving. Now here in this Daytona, you know, Volusia County, I don't see a lot of for sale by owners, actually very rare.

Right. You know, transactions can get a little complicated from time to time, especially when you're dealing with different types of properties. And so I think the general consumer that's selling their home knows that, you know what, I don't know that I'm actually going to save any money because you can't— it's hard for one consumer to spend the amount of money that you have to spend on each transaction or each listing to get it sold. So if they're planning to do that, then you might be able to market to the masses. But putting a sign in your front yard is not oftentimes marketing your home. So there's, there's a lot more that goes into it than just that.

Yeah, that's so interesting to me. I think that people have to be educated on how actually to find a realtor and what to look for and what to, what to know. And I guess that goes with everything, but you're right, there's only a few things in life that are like what's considered like a big transaction. So getting married, buying a home, right, buying a car, finding daycare, and what else? I'm trying to think if there's— that's really kind of the big things.

Well, this is the thing. Real estate is typically the largest investment you'll ever make in your life. And you want to have someone that is on your team as a consumer that understands the market, that can help guide you through the financials of it, because you want to make those decisions wisely. People who own homes are typically, for the most part, have more wealth, right? So that is a known. And if you have a real estate agent that understands how to maneuver financing to help you to get you to the right financiers so that you can actually buy a home and start wherever you can start, and as early as you can start so that you can start building that wealth in your life. And so that is what a good real estate agent would do, would understand where you are in your life and in your financial plan and help you to build on that.

That really does. That's really good advice. And then so now COVID-19 hits and are you still selling homes during— I think I feel like we're getting back to business, but what was going on in the middle of March and April?

Well, you know, I like to say that April felt like it had 46,000 days in it. But for the most part, we were selling all along the way. And we have several transactions that are closing right now in this timeframe that we sold by FaceTime. And So these owners will never see their home until they move into it.

That's exciting.

It is.

It is exciting.

It's a lot of pressure for a real estate agent because you want to do the right thing. You want to make sure that you're, you're looking at this home for this person. What does it smell like? What does it look like? What is this family going to actually be able to live and function in this home and be happy here?

Did they ask you to flush the toilets for them so they can hear the flush?

You know, I didn't get that one, but you know, that probably would have made good sense. But we recommend that anyone that buys any home has a home inspector. And so they of course had a great home inspector come in and do an inspection for them on actually both of them. So both were our buyers. And then I had one that a real estate agent had a husband that had some underlying conditions, and they did not want to go out. So I went out to show my listing to their buyer. And so I— we did that, and, and it was, it was an interesting process. But luckily, we had a buyer and agents on the other end that were easy to work with.

You know what's funny? I think back, so I— my first home I bought, I was upside down. I was under. And so I sold it in 1988 and, uh, and I lost like $40,000. But then I bought a new home in '95 and sold it in 2006, just like right before that market crash. But the weird thing was, and, and everyone around me thought I— they really kind of thought I was a little cuckoo, but I— it's just who I am. I felt that I wanted to get the most for that home to help all the neighbors that I was leaving and never see again. But for some reason Everyone's like, go a little lower. And I was like, that's not fair to everyone else if I get something. So actually, I think I did really help. So I, they did buy it a little higher price and never really came down that much. And when I went to look the other day, it's still at the same price. But I couldn't believe how many people are like, you, you're, you're wrong what you're doing. And I was like, no, how could I be wrong? It's a median of the house, it's a medium of the, of the neighbors. So if our house sells a little higher, I think it helps everyone in the neighborhood. Was I wrong?

No, you're not wrong. And that's one thing that real estate agents that are worth their salt are careful about too, because there are people that need to sell and they need to sell now. And so you want to price the property right so that they can sell it, but so that the neighborhood keeps its value too. So it can be a tricky you know, situation. And there's been times where you have people that just need to unload a property right now for whatever reason, and you, you give it your best shot and you do the best to put your clients in the best possible financial position you can.

Yeah, funny, I think back, I don't even know if I really understood it, but I've always cared. So I had a weird thing happen yesterday— was yesterday Thursday? Yes. So I went out, so I'm on the, uh, I love the Bob Davis's group, the hospitality, Volusia Hospitality and Lodging. So we had our allied meeting and it was so nice being out. It was, it was so great. I can't even explain it. And then after I ate my food, I clapped my hands like, like this. I go, and then they all turned to look at me. And I realized like, oh my God, like, like, what do I say? Like, I've been in the house. Like, I'm sorry. Like, that's what I would do with my own family. Plus I don't cook. I, you don't even want to eat my food. So like having something delicious that I would never in a million years know how to make, a lump crab with avocado, with all the stuff that was delicious. But I realized I have to like calm myself down now when I go out and not bring the, like, you know, 14-year-old personality that I have because I'm hanging with a 14-year-old all day long, day and night, night and day, not a break that I see in the future. We're going on a cruise together and I'm very excited. Like someone said, of all the people, who do you want to go with? I'm like, I love— like, she's so much fun to be with, but just the stress of school was killing me. But now that it's over, it's good. But, um, anyways, I gotta remember not to be a 14-year-old because I— it's kind of rubbed off on me a little bit.

Hey, it's good to be a kid again.

It does feel good to be a kid. It's so nice. I look forward to seeing you. I guess, I guess the thing like this I saw Sam Adams yesterday and in the, in the parking lot, and it was like, yeah, the instinct was to like, and then he just kind of did a fake hug. And I'm like, yeah, because I, you know, you just can't, you can't reach out and shake a hand unless, unless everyone, you know, yesterday everyone was fine, everyone, you know. So, but we had, we received a gift of a face mask, which was so nice, and hand sanitizers too that smelled like really strong alcohol. And, uh, I know when you, um, I was like, wow, that's a really strong— I mean, my hands will burn. But, um, That's really— it's good. But the thing is, is that, um, is that you have to make those decisions yourself of what you feel comfortable with. And, you know, I, I had my mask. My husband got me a really nice one, even though I sell them. I love the one he got me. It kind of goes over and then you put it up, but then it got ear things in it, but you could push it down so you could pull it up and pull it down whenever you want. I feel like a little bandit, kind of looks like a bandana. So, but, um, and on the other hand, I just— as we're smiling, I just want to say too that there's so many— there's— it's real— it was a tough night last night. I woke up this morning to the news. And I was watching CNN early this morning and saw, uh, when they arrested the reporters. And my heart goes out to, to just everyone. This is just such tough times. It's so much stress, and then we have more stress on it. And all life should be honored and respected. And I notice how we're treating each other, and I notice how people tell me stories when they go in the store, whether you wear a mask or not. It's— I know that we're just all humans, but I wish that we could be, uh, uh, they like— everyone's just so nice. Can you imagine if the world— everyone was so nice and smiled at each other and cared about the person in front of you?

Yeah, you know, kindness goes a long way, and it's something that you have to work at. It's not— everyone feels frustration in their lives, and sometimes you have to let that go when there's someone in front of you Um, your frustration can't be at the person that's there even though it's not directed to them. You know, those events that are going on right now are so unfortunate. It's so sad that life sometimes is not being cherished like it should, and that we should see each other as human beings before anything else. That's the only conversation that it should be. You know, we see the colors of the rainbow and they're beautiful. So why aren't the colors of our skin the same way? So I have a really hard time understanding some of the biases that we have in our lives and I hate that sometimes we rush to judge people or judge actions based on that alone. It should be— your actions should be judged on your actions. So if you're doing wrong, you're doing wrong. It doesn't matter if you're, you know, the yellow or the purple in the rainbow spectrum. So we should all hold each other to a higher standard of what our behaviors are that are acceptable, what we will accept. And we need to teach that, and we need to teach love and beauty. It has to be taught, and, um, because we can fall short of that if we're not immersed in it.

That's beautiful advice. That is really, really beautiful. You could be, you could speak about that. That's really a beautiful thing. In the meantime, it's hard to sell during these days. I find that it's, you know, it's, it's hard to put a smile on, but we have to keep going. And that's, you know, we have to keep going. Houses have to sell, promotional products have to move on. And so thank you so much. I really am so excited about talking to you. It's lovely to see you. I look forward to the next in-person event. Will that be soon?

You know, we are going to try for one in June, a Business After Hours in June. So it's going to be at Spruce Creek Fly-In Country Club, so it will be outdoors. So that will be a good thing that— and we're going to obviously— our ambassadors that will be working there will all be protected so that we can keep them safe. They're the heart of our chamber, and we want to make sure that they're healthy and that they feel comfortable and confident in what they're doing.

I think that's great. I think slowly doing that, I think that makes sense. It feels so good to get out there. Being outside makes sense and it'll help raise the spirits of all of us. So thank you for that. In the meantime though, thank you for, you know, we shouldn't be taking, we shouldn't be expecting that our chambers have the Zoom calls. I know it's a lot of work. And so thank you to the Port Orange South Daytona Chamber of Commerce for taking the time to do this, develop you, do the Zoom calls. They really are great. And I may have missed the networking one, but I'll have to go back on. But I really, I love the chamber and it's a great team. So thank you so much. I really, I'm very excited to get back to, back to business. Thanks, Jennifer. Have a great day. Have plans this week?

You know, I hope that we're going to finally meet some friends for dinner and that will be nice. To do that. And then my husband and I love to ride bikes on the beach, so we will be on Daytona Beach or Daytona Beach Shores, um, this weekend like we always are, if the weather permits.

Oh, and thank you, by the way. So we went to Jimmy Hula's. Is that— what, how do you pronounce it? Is it Jimmy?

Uh-huh.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. That was so much fun. And actually being there, you kind of— you've just forgot everything. All— everything just seemed to melt away. All the colors of the restaurant. And then, um, Alana got the, um, the— oh my gosh, the avocado. Their avocado with the, the stuff on the top of it. They have a tuna, and then she got another one that's like fire roasted poke bowl, I think they have.

Is that what it was?

Yeah, their flavors are really delicious. Their staff was sweeter than can be too. But I have to say, I'm so glad. So when we had the choice of where to go I said, oh, Jimmy Hula's. Plus he donates to, um, he gives his time to Healthy Souls and to the community, which is great. So, but I had a really wonderful experience. So now I'll go out. I love you're going out to the restaurants and showing us. And then the local, the shop local, the signs, brilliant.

Yeah, well, that was the city of Port Orange did that. And, um, you know, the city works really hard to maintain positive relationships with businesses. We have a very good relationship with the city, meaning the chamber has a great relationship with the city, and we're very fortunate to have a city council that understands businesses are very important and integral to the life of our community, and our city manager as well. So very lucky to have that. And also the city of South Daytona, and even the mayor and the city manager and the ECHO development director for Daytona Beach Shores. They're just an amazing team of people that— people that don't know who is running their cities, they should get to know these people because they want to know you, and they are— they're fabulous people.

It's a beautiful area, so thank you. So I'm going to use that for where to go. And I thought it's really the marketing, everything is just so perfect. There's really— I'm just so blessed to be part of it. So thank you, Jennifer. Have a great weekend. Thank you.

Thanks for having me. Take care. Bye-bye.

I could stare at you for hours. You're just such a lovely woman. I'm just so thankful.

Thank you for making me feel like a million bucks today.

Oh, I mean it.

Oh,