Donna Isgett - CEO - McLeod Health

This is Coffee with Cool People, and today I am joined by, spending some time with, Donna Eskett. Donna, how are you?

I'm doing very well. Thanks for including me.

Well, thank you for spending time with me. So just to kind of jump right in, we had a few minutes before we got started to kind of catch up. For folks who don't know, who is Donna Eskett?

Thanks for asking, Chip. Just kind of hometown USA girl is who I am. I grew up in a little town called Cedartown, Georgia. It's about 50 miles northwest of Atlanta. Only child of a father who owned a Napa Auto Parts store and mother that did the bookwork at home for the, for the business. Well, she did it at the business for a while and then came home and Grew up there, grew up with my grandparents, all of them surrounding. My father's mother died when I was 3, but one group of grandparents was literally across the field, the other was just down the road. So grew up that way, uh, very independently driven, probably some of the only child, certainly some of parents decided that I would totally put myself through school. Part of that was just my independence. Part of that is I didn't want to be a burden financially to— I mean, my parents were solid middle-class people, but certainly we never went wanting for food or things like that, but we didn't have luxuries that you would think of. So literally my parents were out of town and I went to the hospital, local hospital, and got a scholarship for an associate degree in nursing while they were away. They didn't even know I was going. And then when I finished my associate degree in nursing, then I worked full-time as a nurse and went back and got my baccalaureate in nursing, moved to downtown— well, close to downtown Atlanta, Marietta. And went downtown, went there to Georgia State University and got my baccalaureate while I was still working full-time and just worked my schedule around it. Worked in the ER at Piedmont. All of my background clinically is really in emergency and then air vac, and then how I ended up in South Carolina was to get my master's degree in nursing. So when I finished my baccalaureate, which took me 3 and a half years between my associate in that. But when I finished it, I moved to Charleston to get my master's in nursing at the Medical University in Charleston. And that's when I did my air evac work. And but same thing, I flew every Friday, Saturday, Sunday, 12-hour shifts, and went to school Monday through Thursday for the 2 years to get my master's in nursing. And so just sort of grew up by circumstances of, of where that educational drive took me. Loved being a nurse, still proud to be a nurse. I still have scrubs. I was in the OR a couple weeks ago. All I could do was transport patients, but I still transported patients at McLeod Regional. I've been to the ER, headed to the cath lab at the coast. In the next few weeks, mostly because I like to do what you're doing. I like to get to know people in the, the time that I get to spend with them when they need medical care. So I'm social by background, and it's just fun to feel like you're making a meaningful difference. And as a nurse, you always feel like you have a chance to make a meaningful difference. So that's, that's kind of my trajectory from an academic standpoint.

Sure. Yeah, it's a little bit of a— you a Seinfeld fan?

Little. I'm not much of a TV watcher.

I don't imagine you have a ton of time, but it's a That part of your story is a little bit— there's a Seinfeld episode where they talk about yada yada, and it's, you know, it's this very beginning and the very yada yada at the very end. Yeah, I started out, I was a nurse, I got my degree, yada yada, I'm in the ER as the CEO of McLeod Health. So a big journey in that middle. How— again, I just— because I don't know that I knew all of the background. How did you go from point A to point— that's a big— or maybe for some people it could feel like a big jump, right? Because one of the things I could think of is folks listening to this may be working on an associate's degree going, I could never be the CEO of a healthcare institution, but that's exactly what you did. You started out getting an associate's in nursing, and now here you are. And so quite a trajectory kind of in between there. How in the world?

That's an interesting question, interesting thought to ponder. For clarity, I never set out to be the CEO of a healthcare system. Some people have a point, an endpoint in their career that they're driving towards. When I am a X, when I'm president of a bank, when I am, when I'm an X, then I will have met my pinnacle. I didn't do that. I set out to be better every day. And so mine is more in steps. I set out to be a nurse, and then when I got my associate degree, I thought, you know, to be a better nurse, I want to get my baccalaureate. And then to do that, you know, I need my master's. And even in my master's, I got a clinical master's because I calculated in my head I could do leadership with a clinical master's. I couldn't do advanced clinical if I didn't have a clinical master's. So it gave me— so every time I would hit a point, I would look at what gave me the most options. And then what I didn't add in there, I ended up going back to Duke and getting my MBA.

I remember that.

So, but that was later in life that I went back to do that. But the, but the same thing looking, but I just drove to be better every day without an absolute end goal in mind. As a matter of fact, I recall a time that, that my mentor, Rob Colonas, who was president and CEO of McLeod Health and to whom I directly reported my entire career at McLeod Health except about the first 6 months. So Rob really took me under his wing from a development standpoint, and there was a period of time when he wanted me to take a position, and I said, sir, I don't want your job. I want you to have your job. And that position would have been closer in that. So I didn't have aspirations, but I did have drive to get better every day. I still do. I still do. I do not think I have arrived anywhere. It is my intention to finish my career at McLeod Health. I've made that commitment to our board of trustees as long as they'll have me, and they seem to be enjoying that I'm in that role. And so I intend to end it here, but that doesn't mean that I'm like, okay, I'm I'm here, journey's over, let me just sit back. I'm constantly thirsting for better ways to lead, more innovative things we can do to serve the patients in this region. So that's the yada yada.

Mm-hmm.

The yada yada is just look to be a better person, to be a better leader, to be a better nurse, to be Every day, as a matter of fact, I laugh and say there are very few jobs I've ever applied for. I've been tapped on the shoulder and asked to consider. So my journey might be different than others from that perspective. I just try to bring my best self every day.. And then if some people see something in me that I maybe don't even see, then I've responded to when they've tapped me on the shoulder. The most recent, when I moved to president and CEO, I mean, there are days— McLeod Health is a huge organization. We're about $1.6 million in annual net revenue. That's a lot. We're the largest employer in the region. So, there's some days going, I'll wake up and go, what am I doing? You know, I'm a little nurse from Cedartown, Georgia. But I also believe that I was prepared along my journey with the things that I've seen to do this. The story I was going to tell is when Rob decided to retire, he told the board they should give the position to me. And so they said, not without talking to her. So I interviewed with all 23 of them in one room.

Wow. It's intimidating. Or it could be.

It could be if you had to have the job. But I didn't have to have the job. And I don't mean that flippantly. I meant— and so I sat at a table very similar to this, but imagine you and 22 of your friends were on the other side. So it was literally almost like sitting on a witness stand.

Sure.

Did some of the things that I've just done with you, you know, let me tell you who I am. You, many of you may not know that I grew up as an only child of a Napa Auto Parts jobber. And, and so we walked through some of that, and I said, if you're looking for the person that knows all the right answers for the future of healthcare, I'm not your girl. If you're looking for the person that can amass the best team that will figure out the path forward, that's me. And Chip, that is my talent. I'm not stupid, but I'm not genius. I'm a good, solid student. I was valedictorian in high school, so I'm not stupid. But I'm really not genius. I'm really not. My talent is being over myself and being able to make connections and finding the right seat on the bus for the right people. And then creating a venue that's really safe to hear all of those collective voices that then produces collective intellect that is incredible. Because it's a mathematical equation. Your brain plus my brain knows more than your brain or my brain.

Mm. No doubt.

But I have to be able to take what's in your brain and get it out in the open in a safe environment so that we can all hear that and take what's in this one and take what's in this one and we can all hear it and then we can say, now how shall we go forward?

I think it's Brené Brown that says you have to be more interested in 'in getting it right than being right.' And I think there's a lot of truth in that.

Totally agree with that. One of my favorite books is Crucial Conversations, and in there it says, 'Do you want to be right or get to the right answer?' And it speaks to exactly what you're referring to. I always strive to get to the right answer. It is natural human behavior if you feel threatened It's actually biological, the fight or flight. You can feel that flushness when somebody almost hits you. So you have to make sure you never have the environment where somebody feels backed in a corner or they feel like they just want to fight. And so I see the job as president and CEO of the healthcare system is creating the culture of inclusiveness in the ability to hear us all and then plan the path forward. So I said to the board, if this is what you're looking for, that's me. If you're looking for the person that knows all the right answers, that's not. And your job as the Board of Trustees is to identify what McLeod Health needs.

Absolutely.

Well, they thought we needed this collective thing, and so it's, it's been an absolute honor to serve with both an incredible board that's really engaged. I have called the board chair this morning. They are very engaged, but they don't try to micromanage. They don't try to be in the management role, but very supportive and engaged for the vision and the mission of of McLeod Health and then to have a team that is second to none.

Yeah, you've done a phenomenal job in terms of, from what I've seen, being able to recruit great people both internally and externally. And so, yeah, I think one of the cool things for me in watching McLeod, because the first time, I don't know if you remember, the the first time that we ever sat down, you were Director of Quality Control, if I remember. And I may be getting the title wrong, but you guys had gone out and adopted lean manufacturing from somewhere else. You were kind of spearheading that, I think. And I heard about that, and I was fascinated by it because it's, it's one of those things that if it can apply to healthcare, it can certainly apply to finance. And, and so, um, but As you have grown, one of the things that I think the organization has done a good job, and maybe you can— I don't know if it goes all the way back to Dr. McLeod, but, but I think that McLeod as an entity does a great job of leadership development, talent recruitment, and, and I think this is as important, and you're a great example of that, in talent retention. It is. Where does that come from?

It comes from the— first of all, you're spot on. And it comes from the culture of family that probably does go all the way back to Dr. F.H. McLeod. I certainly didn't live in that era that was 117 years ago, but it almost had to start back there. And we do have so many of our leaders that have Leslie Kennedy McGee, Basen McGee. Leslie started like when she was 16 years old in the ER as a ward secretary. Right. You know, her mother had her career, Daphne Basen had her career there at McLeod Health. So it's a family-like atmosphere. I often say we are local people. Caring for local people. And it's that culture. And yes, there are a lot of us that have been there. I've been there 26 years that have grown up, and I believe some of that comes from you can do different things. I mean, within McLeod Health, I came in as a half of an overhire. Marie Seger Salibi hired me into a half-time job, and a half was an overhire that she would figure out what we could do because she thought I might have some talent to offer. Then I did nursing informatics, I helped run the nursing office, and then it was Rob Colonis that pulled me to do the quality work and to differentiate us on quality. And drove that journey. Then I went over when we had a need in our physician organization. I ran our McLeod Physician Associates because I knew all the physicians from my quality work. And then I went on to be the chief operating officer before I became the president and CEO. I give you my trajectory because I can lay it out for many others in our organization.

For sure.

And that's what gets that, and that's what gets you more likely to have that safety and culture because you know each other.

Right.

One of the things you said when we started this is you wanted to really get to know people. Well, when you've worked 26 years side by side people, by then you know them. And it makes it different to then lead together. It becomes more mission-based than a job. Does that make sense?

Oh, absolutely. Yeah, no question. And again, I'm sitting here as you're talking, and I'm thinking about folks who are or have been in various leadership roles, and they really have Number one, interestingly, all the ones that I can think of right off, and I could rattle off names, started out clinical, which I think is, again, interesting. It's not a career administrator track, not that I'm— I'm sure there are some that I don't know, but, you know, folks that I can think of, and to your point, at some point because McLeod's been through some stuff since you've been there of varying varieties, because you don't get to be big without running into some challenges. But you're a little bit, as a team, you end up being battle-tested, right? Because you've been— because I think about my team. Yes. You know, Tracy and I have been together almost 20 years. Scott and I have been together 25 years this summer. Um, Quincy was there when I got, you know, And you do, you look around the table when things get challenging and you know what you've got. You know, it's like playoff baseball, like we've been through the season together, we've played, you know, 150 games or whatever it is. Exactly. Yeah, again, I may need another piece or two every now and then, but I don't have any questions about what I have., and I think that longevity makes a big difference.

And I think you said that beautifully. You know what you have. What you learn are the personalities of the people on your team. You know where their strengths and opportunities are. You know how to then partner that together to get the best outcome. And I can't, I can't speak enough about making an environment where it's safe that everyone can contribute, that they literally feel like, "I can say whatever's on my mind and no one's going to laugh at that. They're not going to— I won't need to be defensive." And I spend an exorbitant amount of my time making sure what I call the broth in the soup, to me, My job is the broth of the soup. They're the vegetables. But I have to create the broth. And I have to make sure that stays very safe all the time. And I have to start that by role modeling it. I have to role model, oop, y'all, I made a mistake. I did so and so. This is why I did it. This is what I was thinking. It didn't turn out the way I thought that it would. My bad, my mistake. Own it outright in an open forum. I have to model that I have to have self-control when I feel in a corner. And how can I model that? And recognize I'm not perfect, nor do I expect anybody else to be. And but I'm in charge of the broth. Right. Which is ironic for someone who doesn't cook, by the way. Did I use a food analogy?

I understand. Hey, listen, don't let— what does it say? Don't let the facts get in the way of a good story.

That's exactly right. My daughter for Christmas gave me a pillow, a needlepoint pillow. It says, my favorite thing to make for dinner is reservations.

Amen. DoorDash, you know, is one of the greatest inventions in my life. And so I can definitely relate to that. It's interesting though, because I've never heard it described as the broth, which I would— I guess if you were looking for a book on it, they would call it culture. Right. But it is, to your point, one of the words that I thought of when you were talking about creating a safe space was vulnerability. Which I think is sorely lacking to some extent, authenticity and vulnerability. But it's the only way I think ultimately that you build good teams like what you're talking about. But you've had the privilege of, we'll call it professionally growing up with some of the team, but not everybody's from around here. And so in addition to that, you've been able to recruit talent from outside the Florence area to come in and kind of put their shoulder into the mission. How do you do that if you're outside of the— is it 13 counties?

Yes.

Yes. If you're outside the 13 counties, well, I imagine there are lots ask people who know McLeod all over the country. So I'm not naive to that. How do you go out and talk to— if there's not a right internal, or maybe, and again, maybe a good question is, how do you make the decision to go outside?

So you do have to make sure that you don't get too inbred, and there is a balance.

Authentic, by the way, to use that word. There are a lot of people who might say that who weren't inside, you know what I mean? I mean, because that can be a charged word, you know, but I just, I want to acknowledge that because I think that that's, again, just emblematic of being authentic and vulnerable is the words that we choose to use. So I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt.

No, that's okay. I'm an extrovert. I can be interrupted all the time. Same. But you have to, so you have to weigh through that. The perfect example is when I was promoted from the Chief Operating Officer to the President and CEO, then we purposefully went outside to look, to see. We knew, I knew then the senior team, and we were all from the inside, or had spent a large preponderance of our career on the inside. Fulton Ervin, who's the CFO, and I came at the same time. So we're both 26 years. Leslie McGee that I was talking about earlier, 35 years. You know, Octavia Williams-Blake, I mean, it's Dr. Michael Rose, Dr. Dale Lusk. I mean, decades. For sure. And so we needed to make sure we had balance. We also knew there were certain areas that we needed to have some expertise that we didn't necessarily have. Very transparently, we used a headhunter to do that. And if you hire a really good headhunter, they will come in and they will talk to you about culture, what are you looking for, do a profile, and go out and look. But also transparently, the candidate we did end up hiring, and I allowed the process to work, was someone that I had some connection with. We were at Duke in our MBA class together.

Okay.

So Dr. Matt Johnson, and he, by the way, has been an outstanding fit, but Dr. Johnson and I had been in school together and on several teams together, so I knew something about how he operated, what he thought, but I We did the interviews. We brought in several outside candidates. We kept— I did some virtual interviews, then we skinnied them down, and then we used our medical staff to interview. We used board members to interview. We used the other members of the senior team and used the folks which are the hospital CEOs that he would give oversight to. They interviewed, and then we aggregated all of the information from all of those And he came out the winner in that process. But the secret in that is to look for a cultural fit. We have been through that exact scenario that I just played out for you. And sometimes we've erred before on a technical strength.

Right.

And it's not ended well. That if we've just been focused on, let me pick an IT something, you know, this person has so much technical strength in this IT realm, but ignoring the cultural fit, they either get very frustrated with us because of how we do things around here.

Right.

Or we get frustrated that they don't get us. And so it's so critical when you're bringing in from the outside that culturally that they're mission-driven, that they have those cultural things. And so we did that well with Dr. Johnson, and practically once a week I'll go, you're doing such a great job. And he'll go, "I just love it here." And he came from Virginia. We got him from Lynchburg. And a physician.

And a physician. So again, it's interesting. And you go through the process, but when it all comes down, you know, here you are hiring from outside, a COO, all these different options from lots of different places, and you end up with somebody with clinical experience to go with Marie, to go with Debbie, to go with, uh, you know, Dr. Lusk and, uh, and Dr. Rowe. I mean, again, it's interesting. So I'm curious, you talk about culture, uh, culture is something that you don't want to change. You want to set the course and you want to try to, again, as you talk about, um, control Broth, one of the things you can't always control is the temperature. There's external change always coming at the organization, whether it's from governmental policy changes or how you get paid. How do you deal with change management?

I take it to the team. Uh, you're correct, we can't control the external. But we can figure out the best path forward if we have collective intellect. And so we take to the team, we are all in healthcare struggling today, all of us. If you pick up any of the, maybe more in the hospital press, but what happened after COVID from a labor standpoint, the people that just said, I'll endure it to take care of patients because it's my calling, particularly nursing. It's my calling. It was my mission, but then I'm out. So the big resignation was particularly prominent in clinical staff, especially in nursing and respiratory therapy, probably some. So we've had to go, here's our problem. We're— this is what we're spending on contract labor. This How do you think we need to fix it? And so that's the beauty of shared intellect is you also share the responsibility. And so taking it and just putting it on the table and, you know, Chips, what are your ideas? Leslie, what are your ideas? Octavia, what are you thinking? Fulton, I can see your forehead. What's on your mind? Dr. Rose, what are you seeing in the literature? I mean, that And that we walk through those, and then it may be Dr. Lusk who goes, oh, by the way, let's do ba-ba-ba-ba, or let's try it. And being willing to try anything in a controlled amount. You don't have to fix everything. Okay, let's pilot that. Let's do a pilot of that. Where would we do it? Let's go. Sure. And so it's really then rallying the troops. I know that's sort of a— maybe gets overused, but literally rallying the troops. Okay, here are our problems. I'm really transparent. I even have been really transparent with the board. Sure. Here's— here are the opportunities, here are the challenges, here's what we're working on to fix it. I actually— you were talking earlier about our lean journey. One of the ways you do lean work is you do, it's called A3 thinking because it's just a problem-solving process. I did an A3 for our turnaround plan operationally for McLeod Health and took it to the board. I literally wrote an A3 and said, here's our reason for action, here's our current state, here's our desired state, here are the gaps that are keeping us from being at desired state, and here are the action plans we're working on, and here's who's doing each one of them, and then we've reported into the board, and by golly, it's working. I underestimated— a lot of that's probably timing, Chip— that my background in improvement would serve me so well as president and CEO, but with Coming out of COVID and what all the healthcare systems are enduring, the average hospital is losing money today across the United States. And figuring out how to fix that perfectly aligns with my expertise in problem solving.

And I imagine you run into a problem or two. 13 counties. And how many facilities is it now?

So, we, we have 6 plus our behavioral health hospital over in Darlington. So, we have hospitals, we have 500+ bed facility here in Florence, and a lot of people think as McLeod and McLeod Regional is synonymous, the only thing, and a lot of people don't even realize that we have them other places. But we have a hospital down in Manning and Clarendon. We have a hospital over in Cheraw. Uh, we have a hospital in Dillon. We have a hospital in Loris. Uh, we have a hospital at Little River called Seacoast. Uh, we have a massive ambulatory campus and growing at Carolina Forest. Uh, and then we have a behavioral health, 23-bed behavioral health facility over in Darlington. Uh, and then we have over 100 physician office sites all across the the region and still continuing to grow and serve in the region that we're in. So yes, there— what the CEO, Will McLeod at McLeod Regional, has the right name, doesn't he, by the way? Yes, he does. But he sent me a little video the other day, a little TikTok or something, and it was somebody that was One of those whack-a-moles.

Oh yeah.

You know, and that's how it feels like in this business. You know, you get this one down and here comes another one. And then you get this one down and here comes another one.

Problem solving is a valuable skill to have.

It's a very, it has really, once again, I underestimated it when I took the role. I do think I'm the right person at the right time. To nurture this healthcare system, to have it for the next 117 years, which is my goal. That I get a window in time to shepherd this system and prepare it for the next handoff, but our goal is another 117 years at least. And just to manage it through this, this era.

Sure. Well, so I have to ask because I want to be respectful of your time. So I got about 3 more questions. First is, what do you see as the biggest challenge right now?

Workforce. I mean, I was quick on that one, wasn't I?

No pause.

Workforce. I think it's the biggest challenge in America. Right now. So it's not unique to healthcare, but it is particularly an issue in healthcare because we lived through COVID. And, and I can't impress upon you what that was like for you to fully appreciate it in the acute care setting. We had staff that wouldn't go in to see their children. Because we didn't know how it was transmitted. We had people sleeping in garages, sleeping in campers, but still doing their job. We had sometimes struggling where we would put people. We were having to convert different areas of the hospital. Our observation unit became our COVID unit, and because we had the most beds that we could flex there. I mean, we Everybody jumping in, and it didn't last for, you know, you can deal through anything, you think of a hurricane, but it just was unrelenting. And it kept coming and coming, and you watched your coworkers die from it. And you had to keep putting your head down and being at work. And unless you were in it, you don't understand it. So particularly for healthcare, so many people thought, "I can go do something a lot less stressful than this." And so building back a workforce, but also to point out it might be less stressful, but is, is it as impactful? Because there is no there's nothing more impactful than those patients we rolled out that lived. And that you know you did that because of something you did, that what the system did, the odds were against them, and you could pull together to save human life. And so to find that next generation and nurture the one you still have to do that for the future. And to recognize that it is— everybody plays a role in that. From one of the most critical roles was the housekeeper, the nutrition folks, the— I mean, everyone had a role. Security that was making sure everything was safe and who was entering the building And so, and so to develop that, we have multiple jobs, including finance, by the way. We have multiple jobs that we can do in building that workforce for the future. So we've been very purposeful in reaching into high schools. We've had programs in that arena for years, but really putting that on a more aggressive path for the workforce development, which then feeds into that local people caring for local people. Another piece of that, Chip, is our mission is to improve the health and well-being of the region we serve. What better way to improve the well-being of this region than gainful employment in a career that could be just like mine?

Amen.

So, workforce is our biggest challenge. We got our best people on it. We're all focused there. Octavia Williams-Blake leads our human resources for our healthcare system. I mean, she's got a wonderful team that surrounds her. Charity Gerald is out doing the workforce development. Charity has a story very similar to mine of putting herself through school and doing an associate degree, so she can relate, and so it's just a great group.

Yeah, and this may be so next to last question, and you may have already touched on it, so what are you most proud of? 26 years, a lot of life.

Team.

Team.

It's not me. I was blessed to facilitate, but it's—

it's a lot of facilitation too.

It's a lot of facilitation, but the team, the relationships, the difference we're making. I mean, it's that because of the healthcare system we have in this region close to home that we're saving lives, and we may never look in their face, their eyes, but it's somebody's mother, brother, sister, um, and that it's making a meaningful difference. But the camaraderie of the team is what brings me my fulfillment, and to watch folks grow themselves and become a better person. Remember, that's how we started this conversation. That I never had an end goal in mind, that I just wanted to be better every day, and I still want to be better every day, and watching them get better every day, that's, that's my proudest thing.

It's awesome. Well, it is, uh, again, I, I hesitate to quote a number. There are a lot of stakeholders, um, you know, who are employed by McLendon We have over 14,000 human bodies now.

About 10,000 true full-time equivalents, but over 14,000 human bodies across the region.

Oh boy, is it one you sleep at night?

I only do because I don't own all the burden.

We do. Oh, no doubt. No doubt. All right, so last question. If you could pick, because I think this tells a lot about a person, if you could pick a fictional character that you feel like represents Donna Isgid, who would it be and why?

Ah, you know, you sort of pre-wired me you were going to ask that question, and I don't know, you know, probably the, probably my dad.

Ah, say more.

My dad had such a kind heart for others. I remember he owned a Napa store. I told you that before. And people would call him. They'd say, oh, I'm leaving to take my kids and family. I remember this one case very specifically to Florida. This afternoon, and we just realized the windshield wipers aren't working. This was way back before you could go buy them at Walmart. And my dad said, well, I'll run down to the store and meet you, get you some. And my mother would go, I don't know why you're doing that. That's not a customer of yours. He doesn't buy anything else from you. And Dad said, because his family needs to be safe. And it's not about, it's not about What's in it for me. It's about what they need. And if you could say I was like anybody, it would be him. I would want, I strive, I watch that in him, and I strive to be that way. And how he genuinely cared for others regardless regardless of their status in life, regardless of what they could or could not ever do back for him, just like getting those windshield wipers for them. So it would be him.

What a testament. Donna, thank you for being vulnerable and authentic and genuine. I really enjoyed it.

Well, thanks, thanks for the chance. To catch up. And now next time I get to do it to you, see?

Fair enough.

I'll buy you a cup of coffee.

I'll look forward to it. It'll be fun.

Sounds great.