Why MLS & Agents Should Attend A Regional Show | B2B Vault - The Biz To Biz Podcast | Episode 242

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Okay, hey everybody, welcome to B2B Vault live on LinkedIn, and today's a special Street Smarts edition because I am the host of Street Smarts that's in The Green Sheet, um, so writing articles in The Green Sheet, and this is Street Smarts edition of B2B Vault, and today it's the MLS, which stands for Merchant Level Salespeople Roundtable, to learn about why agents should come to all the regional shows. And today I have my guest host, one of my favorite people, Dale Lassic. Hey, industry writer and my friend for a long time. And then we have Pete, who's representing the Northeast Acquire Show. My other friend for a long time, forever, Jamie, representing the Southeast Acquire Show. I always shake her down for some swag when I go. And we have Amanda, who's doing the Western States, right? And Dinah, who's representing the Midwest Acquire Show. And all these shows are shows that are every year, they're all around the country, and everybody If you're an agent, it's a great place. I've been going to the Southeast Show for— this will be the 24th visit. So 20— they started it, Judy Foster invited me to the first one in 2001, and I go to that show every year. That's the show that I pick to go to, you know, and everybody should go to the show like in their area. So I'm gonna let Dale kick it off and we'll give everybody a chance to answer questions. Be nice. Everybody wants everyone to come to their show. So we love each other.

Thank you so much, Allen. And I want to thank B2B Vault for hosting this special episode. And I also want to give a shout out to The Green Sheet. We thank you very much for sponsoring this. And, uh, You know, it's really exciting for me to be back here with the Street Smarts columnist because, as some of you may remember, a decade ago I was actually a Street Smarts columnist for the Green Sheet. And, uh, you know, it's, it's amazing to see how much has changed and how much is the same. Uh, the platforms have definitely changed, and for the better, I think. Uh, it's really— we, we didn't have this type of platform before, uh, to amplify our voices, but, um, it's super exciting to be here with all of you. And I've also known all of you for a very long time, and I consider you some of my closest friends in the industry. And I would love to get your thoughts on why it's beneficial for merchant-level salespeople to attend regional shows?

Don't rush. Who wants to go first?

There's so many benefits that we probably spend hours talking about them, but a lot of it is just, you know, they're affordable, they're educational, and they're a place to network. So each of us have gone to many of the shows. I've been involved with Northeast for for 30 years or so. It's the original of the regionals. And you just, you see so much, you know, you go into the different conference centers and each of us try to move our show different areas within our region to get the most people there that may not be able to travel so far for so long and whatnot. And so you sit on sessions, you'll see sessions about, you know, cash discount, surcharging. And we had one of the most amazing sessions as our keynote speaker, a gentleman, Connor, that talked about AI and how ChatGPT and AI really is, is transforming the industry and how we perceive it and do things. So it's definitely a great show. You know, each of the regions are great shows to be at, and they have so many benefits.

Thank you, Pete. And, and to your point, the NEAA was the first regional show. When did it actually start? What year do you remember?

I'm gonna say around 1980.

Wow, that's incredible.

We're— I should notice too, being a board member, we just put out our, you know, established— I'll look that up real quick.

Yeah, well, I mean, it's really been around for a while, and I think it probably spawned the other regional shows. I think And the one— and the first one after that, if I'm— if I'm correct, '85. And, uh, Jamie, I think right after NEAA was SEAA the next one to come live?

I believe so, yes.

Yeah. And I remember Allen, you know, pointing out that he started his company the same year that SEAA began, which was 2001. Yeah, um, very exciting to see the organic growth. And I, I think for me it was one of my favorite things to attend the regionals back in the day because there weren't that many shows. And when I was working for hardware companies, it was amazing to go to an event like that and see— I, I kind of call it the, uh, the waterhole truths. You know, everybody gathers around the watering hole and everyone's a friend, and we have this amazing collaboration going on. It doesn't matter if you're a competitor, uh, you know, a vendor, whatever you're— you are in the industry. It seemed to have a place for everyone. And, uh, and, and looking ahead, I'd like to get your guys' thoughts on what breakout sessions do you expect to really be very exciting at your upcoming events?

So, Jamie, you go first.

Thanks. Um, yeah, my— I think my show is probably the next one coming up here in June, and We have a really great team on our advisory board that sifts through several submissions, like I'm sure we all do, of people who are dying to speak and present and talk about, you know, what's new. And we try to make sure that we don't do the same breakouts every show. We try to see what, you know, what happened in NEAA and what did that look like, and maybe we can offer something different. You know, to mention what Pete referenced earlier is AI, like that is becoming a very big hot topic. I go to a lot of different fintech shows now with the company I work for, not just payment-specific shows. And AI is kind of dominating all the conversations. So we're going to have a session about that. Real-time payments, of course, digital wallets and BNPL is still a big talking point. And then just a lot of different software development that's going on in fintech right now to help people be more strategic with their onboarding or with their fraud tools and the way that they just run their business as a whole. So I think we have some really good topics. That people are going to be interested in coming up in June.

Amanda?

Well, so Western States is the last show of the year, which is super exciting for us to kind of wrap up the year with Western States. And we kind of take a similar approach as all of our sister organizations, right? We like to find fresh content for our presentations. And we really strive to look at the industry trends to see what is of interest to the people that we want to draw into these shows. Kind of circling back to the first question, you know, why is it important for these merchant-level sales folks to attend these regional shows? You know, it's, it's interesting because there's so many different opportunities out there and options for folks to board their merchant accounts to, right? And it all comes back down to everything being relationship-based, right? And by the organizations, the acquirers, associations, providing a platform for people to come together and really meet each other in person, kick off some meaningful dialogue, and really understand what their needs are, and then how we can strive to meet them. But going back to the agenda topics, because our show is so late in the year, we don't have our agenda figured out yet. But we are sifting through a ton of submission requirements. And we're definitely looking for stuff that is really hot in the industry right now. Like we're saying, like, you know, the crossover of technology and payments, and really kind of where we're meeting with that. A lot of ISV, banking as a service, those types of industries where everything's kind of merging together and finding a solution for everybody.

Wow, thank you. And Dina?

Dina?

Yeah.

Hi, Dina.

I remember Oh, I'm sorry, go ahead.

Our show is actually the third week of July. We're always the third one, um, and we're in Chicago, which everybody loves to come to. Um, and to go back to the why should people come to the, uh, show before I even get into our topics, one of the things— and Amanda can talk to this as well because we had her involved— um, we have a session on Wednesday morning, which is our first day, that is a 2-hour session for MLS, specifically for MLS. It's an MLS forum, and it's so that people newer to the industry or less experienced in the industry, feet on the street people, can come and share information. And we have people like Amanda who speak to their experiences and share knowledge and give advice. Um, last year was our first one, and I think it went gangbusters. Um, we've already got pretty much a a full show for it because it's got to be small so everybody can talk. And we're, we're almost booked up on that, and our speakers are, are set. Uh, there's two speakers that we are— that we have looked to change a little bit because it was male-dominated. And speaking as one of the three women on this panel, we needed to make that a little more equitable. So now we have two females. And yes, Amanda, we did want you, but we thought give you a chance to be in the Level 2 that we're planning maybe for next year, because you did such a great job. And then as far as our agenda goes, you know, we do an Industry Achievement Award, and it is on our agenda, so I can announce it and not, you know, not break any confidentiality. But this year, our Industry Achievement Award is going to Fadi Cheka. So hopefully everybody will and see that. That's so great. He's an amazing man. You know, then our, you know, we take it just like our sister regionals do and try to find keynote speakers that will bring something that is not just strictly payments related. So our keynote speaker this year is Brian Smith. He's the founder of UGG Boots. So, and no, to my knowledge, we're not having free samples. But I did ask. Really interested in the boots, but plenty ahead. And then we're also, like everybody, interested in exploring AI and the crossover between fintech and technology. So we've got some sessions on that. You know, we're doing a regulatory session as well because The regulations impact all of us, but the reason to come to these shows, like Pete mentioned, is the networking, it's the educational information. It's also— you can do all 4 regionals and see some of the same people, so you can build on your relationships but meet new people who don't go to the other regionals because it's not in their area. And it's cheaper than some of the larger shows. You can do all 4 for less than the larger shows. You can't beat that.

It's important, like, going to these shows because that's where you get to meet, like, whoever you're writing business with, the managers there, the relationship managers. And it's important, you know, to let them see your face, you see their face, have some honest conversations with them whether they like it or not. And listen, it's important to, you know, to, to build those relationships with people and meet new people and see the, you know, all the product innovations and all the things that, that people are doing. You know, some of it's not ready for prime time yet, but you get to see exactly like what's coming down the pike.

Exactly.

And I think that as well at these shows, you know, cocktail parties closing parties, opening parties. And, you know, there's no better way to network and bond with people than with a cocktail in hand, you know, for those that participate, sort of thing. So it's really— it enhances the whole experience, right?

I think you can win some good prizes.

The prizes are definitely a perk.

You get some good one-on-one time with your vendors or even card brands. Card brands show up at these. You'd never have to Well, yeah, but you'd never have a chance to talk to them if you were an MLS, if you weren't at one of these shows. Never come across.

Yeah, I think that one thing that we should all really highlight that every one of these regional shows offers is the power of connection, right? And we say that in different ways— relationship-based networking, one-on-one meetings. It's that power of connection, and as humans, we are wired for that. So as we're really kind of gearing up towards a world of AI and automation and really heavily technology-based, we cannot overlook or forget that power of the human connection.

Absolutely. And that was one of the unfortunate downsides of the whole COVID thing is that everybody went to a Zoom, you know, architecture and you didn't have shaking hands and, you know, that sort of thing. So now we're, you know, fortunately we're through it. We're back to going to the shows, the shows are doing better, and we're getting that one-on-one time, the shaking hands, the, you know, hugging people that have been in this. You know, Dale and I have known each other for 30-plus years, and first thing I see Dale, I run across the room and give her a big hug and find out what's going on and that sort of thing.

So, you know, I have to agree, Pete. And when I reflect on how far we've come since 1985, when I think about some of the topics that, that are trending right now— digital wallets, AI— none of this even existed back then. But just having these relationships gives us a sense of continuity. And if you look around, some of the same people are still in the room.

And, uh, you gotta check the badges and see where they work, right?

But, you know, we're still in the journey together, mainly because of our relationships. I've always thought that this is first and foremost a relationship business that we're in.

Family.

It's, it's really interesting that you mentioned, Pete, like, the whole COVID situation, right? And if anybody knows me, I'm like one of those folks that always finds something positive, and I know that's a little annoying. But out of the COVID pandemic, one of the positives that came for me was, you know, the, the power of the camera. Like, hello, we are all dialing in from different regions. And after the pandemic, I have found myself feeling more connected with our partners and even team members working in a remote role with the power of the camera. Now it doesn't replace that hug, because trust me, if anyone else knows me, I'm also a hugger. Um, so it doesn't replace the hug, that's for sure, but you know, that is one positive thing that has come out of the pandemic for me.

It's definitely— the camera is definitely a tool. Like, I've even told my salespeople, like, you guys just don't use it enough because it also, you know, COVID kind of changed how you can sell. Before, you had to pull teeth for people to get on a Zoom meeting. Now they just hop on. They were like— I remember the first time I did a remote demo, a client said, are you, are you crazy? You're gonna— I'm gonna look at your screen? I'm like, yeah, just click this link and I'm going to show you how this software works. But you know, that, that's the power of the camera and having meetings with people and things like that. And it can be quite time-saving, you know, to do things. And we get to do events like this. So, which is cool. So Dale, get on to the next question.

Okay, I will, Allen. Thank you very much. You know, we— I think we've already covered why it's important for, for MLSs to have face time with vendors. But the other thing that is really interesting to me as I look back at all of the regional shows I've attended over the years is that There's more and more of a big show vibe in these exhibit halls. I remember when it was just a little meeting, you know, of friends getting around and maybe a few tabletops. And look at what we have now. It's really— I think it's an amazing opportunity for agents to get out and not travel very far to, to go to a show that basically has everybody in the entire digital commerce value chain all together in one space, not very far from home. So the, the investment is, it's definitely a powerful ROI. Maybe you just drive there. Maybe it's a short flight, but, but it's definitely worthwhile. And I'd like to get your thoughts on why it's important, you know, why it's important to meet with some of the brands that are really the, the powerful brands in our industry. What can an MLS expect when they go and they introduce themselves and they meet somebody from a card brand or a major network, you know, and what type of relationships can they cultivate?

I think the value to the agents going to the shows and, you know, many of the agents have a challenge that they're out there trying to succeed with. Perhaps it's high fraud merchants or some other niche market within their scope. And the different networks, the different processors and service providers will often specialize in those different niches. So they're able to create multiple relationships. It's not an exclusive relationship type of thing. Typical agent is writing for 2 or 3 companies and this company is known to do offline and this other company is web stuff and high risk and whatever restaurants, et cetera. They're able to talk to people and figure things out to help what are their challenges and meet those needs.

To take that a step further, the ability for an MLS to actually talk to somebody from Tesis or Global, sorry, or Fiserv. Um, you know, they're MLS, they're writing for 2 or 3 or 4 different ISOs. I talk to people all the time from those companies. I'm the ISO. Um, I guess once upon a time we were all called Super ISOs, but I talk to those people all the time. I don't think anything of it, but the agents that we sign up, they get to talk to my sales side, or I'm operations. They get to talk to me if they have questions about risk or underwriting. They never, ever, ever get to talk to anybody at a processing platform and ask, well, why would we do it this way? Why can't you do it this way? Or, or why is this piece of equipment better? Or, you know, nobody's going to answer that question other than us. But I'm, you know, I'm going to admit I'm biased. I have my preferences for why I use whichever platform I use and whichever piece of equipment. It may not be the best one for that MLS. So going to, you know, going to the equipment providers, going to the processing platforms and asking those questions, they learn a lot more and they can come back and share something with me that I hadn't thought of. And it could be worthwhile to, for me to expand what we're doing.

I, I think it's important too, like you mentioned, these— the MLS, the agents, they're running their own business right now. So if they're spending $150 to come to our show, they can use it to meet, like you said, with, with Global Payments. They can also maybe meet with their payments attorney. They can meet with their equipment vendor. They can meet with all the people that they use to run their business in one place. Obviously, that makes it so much more cost effective. But furthermore, they can meet with other agents and exchange ideas and say, oh, how are you approaching this, you know, cash discount issue? How do you approach this? Or Maybe who do you use for your payments attorney? Are they good? Can I use them? And then also touching on the, I guess, the transient nature of our business, you know, maybe the relationship manager that you have at Global Payments, you get to meet them there and they leave. And the next thing you know, they work for Worldpay and you're going to go sign a deal with Worldpay. It's good to make networking opportunities like Amanda said, because, you know, you may work with somebody here one day and then the next day they work somewhere else and you're going to have an opportunity. Maybe you can't do business with this company today, but you can do business with them when they work somewhere else. So it's always nice. Nice to form relationships with people that are servicing your account from all the different vendors that you use, because you never know when you're going to work with them again.

I think that's excellent.

I want to say one thing about— yes, one, one of the biggest challenges that I see that agents have in the business today is the, you know, you have technology and credit card processing. So all these agents are desperately always scrambling around for these agnostic processing solutions. And one of the things— I've been doing this for 23 years— and one of the things I try to tell, explain to people, and let's get your views on this, is, you know, I think it's better to go to a company who has technology and the payment processing together because we've seen over especially this year and last year We have seen so many companies who were agnostic and now they're not agnostic anymore. And this has been a real big pain point to the agents. And I think that the vendors should be really pushing technology because I think the shift we see in the business is people, merchants, business owners buying, buying products, software products, right, or technology products versus just, oh, I need credit card processing. Yeah, I think it's really important that people— that, that, that's a huge change that's going on in our industry right now. That's like the biggest change that I see.

Yeah, when I think about that, I, I talk at the moment, for me, I talk only to e-commerce merchants, right? And typically when somebody is maybe a smaller merchant, it seems like now they're starting out with like a Shopify or a Square or Stripe. Then their business grows, they grow up a little bit and they want a real merchant account, right? They want a real payment stack. They want to get a payment gateway. They want to get, you know, but what they're coming to us to your point is, you know, when they were using Shopify or when they were using Square, everything was included for them, right? They had PCI was included. They may have fraud tools built into their solution. They have a payment gateway, they have a shopping cart. So I think whenever MLS are looking at this, they need to be looking at technology solutions that offer a full service, not just the processing. They need to be able to offer them everything that they need to run their business so that they can have all that like they're used to. Whenever it's easier to get them away from the Shopify and the Square, if you have more stickiness and you can offer them more things than just processing. And that's what most of the merchants that come to us are looking for, a full solution.

Everybody wants— the new term is embedded payments, correct?

Allen, how are you gonna steal my thunder?

Sorry, that was literally what I was just gonna say. How funny. So 100%, right? That's the power of these platforms that the Acquirers Association offers is that meeting place, that common ground where everyone kind of takes off the gloves when they walk into the exhibit hall. And you know, it's, it's of course, it's a whole room of exhibitors that offer the same or similar services, right? But that's kind of what we said before. It's like, you know, there's some kind of unspoken rule that when you come in, you're just kind of at a peace treaty, right? And like all kind of collaborating for the future of payments as a whole. But that is one of the opportunities that gives these MLS folks the opportunity to come to speak to each of the vendors to understand how they are adopting to the need and technology needs as far as like the embedded payments or, you know, the whole stack, the fraud prevention tools, the banking as a service, etc. Like everyone is saying, it's all kind of head in that same direction. It's wild.

I, I also think it— I think it makes, um, the ISOs and the super ISOs— I also think it, it keeps them honest because the agents are there to share their stories with each other. You know, they're sitting in the bar at night saying, oh, so-and-so isn't paying me my residuals, or so-and-so has, you know, changed my revenue share. And like, you know, that happens. I know that happens on online forums, but whenever people are sitting face to to face, you know, at these regional shows, they're sharing their stories. So I think it does keep— it forces, you know, the big ISOs and the big players to, to do right by the MLS and make sure that they're doing what they're supposed to be doing and honoring their contracts.

I always tell MLS the same thing. New people, read your contracts. Don't, don't just sign a paper because somebody sent it to you, you know. Pay a lawyer $500 I won't name names of lawyers, but there's a bunch of them you can pay probably $500 to $1,000. You have to think about that. This residual stream, this is your lifeblood, right? Right. Don't just sign it, like read it and know what you're signing up for.

You know, that was one of the topics that came up in the merchant level forum that Dinah was speaking of. And it was amazing to see how many new people in the industry didn't even realize that they can have an attorney review their agreement on their behalf and offer redlines. I mean, nobody said they couldn't, but it was never spoken that they could, right? So that's kind of one of the powerful things of that forum and really, you know, like we said, take the gloves off and welcoming everybody to this payments ecosystem because we're better when we shine together.

Well, it's a lot of times like when you click something online, there's, you know, 3 pages that you're scanning through it, at the bottom it says, "I accept." Who reads all that stuff in reality?

Exactly.

And when it's your revenue stream, as Allen mentioned, you know, you need to read it. You know, do you have a 2-year residual plan with your partner, or is it perpetual? You know, these are different things, different options that are available out there. And I think the new agents don't realize all those things, so they learn at our shows. All these different things. And one of our favorite words is, right, gossip. You know, what's going on and who's doing that and who's paying this and, and etc., etc. But I want to, I want to flip it a little bit to not just the agents that these shows are extremely valuable for, but also the hardware vendors. And, you know, a couple of us on this forum here have been around a little while, and I think there's only one brand of hardware that's still using that name and hasn't been bought and merged with somebody else. It's really a whole new player of folks out there. And, you know, and some are, as Allen mentioned, they're doing the full service. They're a virtual cloud terminal, you know, and providing backend services as well. So the whole thing changes and that rep is able to see all the MLSs, they're able to see the ISOs. You know, the partners. I mean, you know, instead of, you know, flying out to a dozen different cities, you get them all right there in one place. It's just an amazing show for so many different, you know, aspects.

Well, you know, another interesting thing to me is that we were talking about digitization just a little while ago, and it occurred to me that we've also done that with the regional shows. We've made it easier than ever to network with people and connect with people because I've noticed everybody has a mobile app. And the mobile app has all of these wonderful capabilities. You can actually look up and see where somebody's booth is. You can reach out to a colleague. And when you leave the show, you still have this this powerful tool on your desktop that enables you to stay involved and stay connected with people. And how is that? I'd like to get your thoughts, I mean, from the regional organizer perspective on how the apps are working for you. Are there any recent tweaks that you've made?

And one of the things that's good about these apps is you can reach out to a vendor that you want to meet with and schedule the meeting before you even get to the show. You don't need to wait until you're in the hall trying to chase them down, you know. You can set up a meeting and go, okay, hey, I really want to meet with you at the show, and either meet with them at their booth or set up a meeting to eat lunch with them, or whatever. Some, you know, you got to remember these are the people giving, paying you your residuals, helping you make money. So it's important, you know, to really, you know, if you want to make the most out of a show, is set up meetings. I do that before I even go to the show. If there's 5 people I want to meet, I make sure I reach out to them and set up a meeting.

You know what I would call that, Allen? I would call that embedded networking.

Oh, Dale, that's amazing. It's gonna go viral, Dale. Um, you know, it's interesting from, from a, um, an Acquirer's Association kind of perspective, the mobile app is definitely an extra lift, right? Like, it is definitely a project to get it approved through Google and Apple, make sure that you have all, like, maybe the proper vendor that's helping you, like, really kind build the foundation of it, the skeleton, I guess, and then you kind of fill it in with your event-detail-specific information. So it's definitely an extra opportunity for you to kind of expand your skill set. I personally have never worked on a mobile app before being on the Western States Board. So that was really cool for me. But I also feel like it was one of those necessary things to just continue to stay relevant in today's world, right? And I find myself even going, OK, let me find the app. You know, and sometimes the notifications can be a little overwhelming, but there's a setting for that. You could turn it off, right?

Yeah, I'm so dependent. Anytime I go to a trade show, I immediately download the app and I, I have a team of salespeople who, who work for me. And the first thing I have them do is when we register for the show is start prospecting through the app, go find out who's going to be there and start messaging them to preset meetings. We, we have a quota like we need to set this many meetings before we go and then we need to come home with this many. And the app is 100% what we use. Because as it, you know, as attendees you don't get an attendee list at the end. So all you have is the app to see who's there. Vendors are the ones who get the follow-up attendee list. So you really need to use the app to your advantage to, to reach out to everybody through the app and communicate that way and get your appointments set. I think that's important.

And it sends you a reminder, and that's a great tool. Oh my gosh, what, what meeting do I have today with who, etc.? It sent you that reminder. Oh, 3 o'clock, I'm meeting with Dale, you know, etc.

Yeah, to build on what Jamie said, I'm in charge of registration for MWAA, so I'm the one who gets all of the email requests for the pre-show list and all the conference, all the requests for the post-conference list, and I'm always telling people to download the app and use it and giving them suggestions of how to find the people they want to meet with, set the meetings up, schedule them, and like you said, Pete, put the reminders in so they don't miss them.

Think about all of the manual labor-intensive, uh, heaviness that that has just lifted off of our shoulders. It's amazing.

Yes. And, and the vendors too get, um, get promotion too. So the vendor is in there, their website link is there. So if somebody's looking for a vendor that meets whatever need they're looking for, either hardware or processing, you know, um, it helps the agent, helps everybody. So it's an incredible tool.

Well, I, I think we're coming up on, uh, time. So, uh, I think in the, in the time that we have left, I would love to just go around the roundtable and get everyone's thoughts on your show. Uh, I'd love to— I'd love for you each to share the date, the location, how people can get more information and register. Let's, let's start with you, Pete. Oh, actually, you just had yours, uh, this year's, and I'm sorry I missed it, but, um, why don't you kick it off with the next next year's and absolutely plant that seed.

Um, I think we'll be the first, uh, first show for next year. I'm just looking up the exact date here. They'll be at the, uh, in Atlantic City at Harris. So, um, and, uh, you know, as, as each of the boards do, they, they scope out different places that they want to have the, uh, the events and And we decided we wanted to do Atlantic City for a change, and we checked out a number of the facilities. So this, uh, ours was pretty good in that it fits our needs. The elevators bring us right into the convention center, so you don't get that squirrel factor— oh, Chinese stuff, you know— and come to us and it'll be great as well.

Great.

Um, 2025, let's see, just—

and then And then your website is—

we just launched a brand new website, um, and my team that is in charge of the website and all the media, uh, and whatnot. So Atlantic City, March 17th to 19th, and you can find out everything you need regarding the Northeast at northeastacquires.com. And then follow us on the different social medias and you'll get what you need. And right now we're promoting, uh, Southeast.

Wonderful.

Jamie?

Yes, so our show is coming up June 10th through the 12th in New Orleans. It's at the Roosevelt Hotel, which is an amazing historic property. It's beautiful. Um, we'll kick it off with a sponsor, uh, reception, and then, um, whoever is arriving early, we're having a welcome to the Roosevelt reception. Sponsored by First Citizens Bank. Um, and then we're doing something special this year in honor of, um, one of our board members, Derek Bowles. Um, is— everybody who knows Derek, um, he passed away last year, and he was very passionate about, um, rescue animals. He has always had a pack of rescue animals, and we're partnering with a local, um, um, shelter. And we're going to have a room where we're going to have a cash bar. They're going to bring their animals in and let us play with their puppies, and all the proceeds from the bar will go towards that shelter.

That's great.

Anybody who's local who wants to adopt a pet, they can do that while they're there. Or if they just want to come pet some puppies and enjoy a drink and donate towards Derek's Dogs, uh, you're welcome to do that.

Is the bar gonna have a credit card machine?

I'm sure it will.

We know a friend that can help, right?

Um, and we're gonna do that in every city going forward for, uh, in honor of Derek, uh, in his memory. And then we're gonna include where, um, we do the JY, the John Yarmey Scholarship. Uh, that's going to be changing a little bit this year, which we'll announce at the show, but we're going to continue to honor his memory as well. And we're also doing something really fun at the opening reception. You guys may have seen the announcement. We're doing a second line parade. I don't know if you guys have ever participated in that, but as we leave the opening reception, we're going to do a parade through the street where you have the little towels, and we're going to be led out by a band, and it's going to lead us into the beach bar.

It's going to be wonderful.

I don't know if I'm allowed to say where the next show is. I think we announce that at the show.

No, that's fine. I mean, It's right around the corner.

Yeah, so, um, don't steal any thunder from— yeah, yeah. But any information that you'd like to get is at southeastacquires.com. I also just want to say that we have great event planners that help us, Cypress Planning. I just want to give them a shout out, to Catherine and Megan. We couldn't put on the show— all of us obviously have, have day jobs, and it's a lot of planning, and they help us out so much. So I just want to recognize those two ladies because they're amazing.

Wow, thank you.

Yep.

And Jamie's always nice and gives me a t-shirt.

I got you one.

I ordered you one in advance this year, so you got your own.

Oh, nice.

And Dinah, you're coming right up in the summer.

We are, we are. Our show is July 24th and 25th in Chicago, downtown Chicago. Um, and we've been— it's at the Marriott MagMile, so we've been there a couple times. We're all really comfortable and, and they make us feel very welcome. Um, our website is MidwestAcquirers.org, and if you have questions and you just shoot something to the info box or registration box, you'll get me or another board member. We're all obviously very involved at this point planning things. We're moving to our weekly meetings, um, so because we're getting closer. But you know, it's going to be a great show. And for all of the people who are asking, yes, we're going to have karaoke again this year, so make sure you come with your best singing voice. That's always a really good time. I don't know that we figured out what else we're doing for the parties, um, We had our planning meeting about 3 weeks ago, 4 weeks ago in Chicago, and there were so many options we actually had to table it for our next call. So I'm curious to see what we'll come up with, but you don't want to miss the show.

No, absolutely not. And I think it's so poetic too that there's 4 regionals, there's 4 seasons, there's 4 quarters, And you know, you're evenly distributed. You each get your own quarter, your own season, and your own very special show in a very special region. Uh, so, uh, Amanda.

All right, fabulous. It's always a wonderful thing when you have options and you're forced to choose, right? So I'm sending you guys all the vibes, um, and I'll be there. So, uh, Western States Conference this year. WASA is turning 21 this year, guys, and we're turning 21 in Vegas. We are hosting at the Red Rock Casino and Resort. That's going to be September 17th through the 19th.

Fantastic!

And I love that each show kind of does something a little special, right? And one of the things that Western States does is the golf tournament. And so the golf golf tournament will, um, is actually in honor of one of our founding members. Um, Ken Elderts is his name. Um, and so it's just been kind of continuing, um, to be honoring his, his memory as well. Um, but the golf tournament is going to be on the 17th at the TPC Las Vegas, uh, golf course. So it's going to be fabulous, of course. Um, and we're looking forward to seeing everybody there. And side note, They have a wonderful spa.

Oh, I've been there. It is great. Wow.

I just can't think of a better way to honor such great people in our industry. Ken Elderts, Yarmy, Vowels— what fabulous people. I mean, industry icons. And, uh, and what a beautiful tribute to all three of them. Allen, any, any, uh, any final thoughts on, on, on the final thoughts?

If you, if you've never attended a show, I highly suggest you go to the shows because it's important. Your, your career, your, your business will change once you go to one of these shows. You will really see the value and meeting all these great people and making connections with your vendors, meeting new vendors, talking to people from card brands. Although if you say cash discount, they'll run, but that's okay. So, you know, listen, regulatory was mentioned. It's, it's— everybody's on pins and needles with that, you know, and government intervention into our business. That's why it's important to go to these shows to see what's being discussed and actually hear it from experts in the industry and not just the rumor mill on Facebook and LinkedIn, you know. So it's— that's why it's important to go out to these shows, and that way you have these connections with people and you know that you're getting quality, good information. And so I want to thank The Green Sheet because they never did a live before And I said, oh, we're going to do live for the Green Sheet for Street Smarts, you know, by B2B Vault. Everybody check out my podcast, B2B Vault. It's on— it's everywhere: Spotify, Apple, wherever you listen to podcasts. We always do posts on LinkedIn, Facebook, and it's on YouTube if you like to watch rather than listen and see everybody's smiling face. And we're going to be doing a couple of more of these throughout the year. That, um, the Street Smarts columnists, and hopefully try to bring— you know, the Green Sheet used to have the forum, and that was like the very active place for all the agents to go. So people are watching this now, and they'll— or they'll watch the replay or hear the replay. So this is for the agents to— and we're going to cover more interesting subjects coming up throughout the, throughout the year. And hope everybody enjoyed being a guest today. Thank you to Pete. Thank you to Jamie, Amanda, Dinah, and always Dale.

Thank you.

Thank you for having us.

Thank you.

Thank you so much. And thank you to the associations, the Acquire Associations, for providing the platform for folks to come together and future-proof their portfolios.

Yeah.

Yeah.

All right.

Absolutely.

Bye, everybody.

Thanks.

Bye.

See you guys soon.