Derek Cole Acceptance Speech for Franchise of The Year 2024 | One Hour Heating and Air Conditioning

Kind of feel like I should have dressed up a little more, but I did jot a few notes. I went to ChatGPT when I found out what was happening. I was like, what am I going to say? No, I didn't do that. Thank you for that, Lance. That was great. I almost teared up a little bit, even though Richie told me not to. But first of all, I want to thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He is the reason I'm here. He is the reason we are here. Second, I wanted to thank my family, my wife Jodi, who's not here. We kind of joke, if you see both of us anywhere at the same time, take a photo because it's rare. But I want to thank her. We've been married for— I'll tell a little story here. They give me a mic. I can't believe this. But we were on a cruise back on Christmas and a couple was in the elevator. I said, yeah, we've been married 20 years. She said, 21. I said, even better, 21 years. But no, I want to thank my team as well. We consider our team our family. We fight, we love, but at the end of the day, we have each other's backs, and that's what it's about. I also want to thank some of my mentors, my, my father, my brother, my parents. It's been a long journey. I even want to call out a few mentors in this room. Start with Lance. He was my trainer back in 2009. He was probably like, who's, who's this bald kid? What's happening here? And then Richie. Richie owns Myrtle Beach, which is only a few hours away from us. But he was my general management development instructor back in 2009, '10, whatever year that was. So those guys really made an impact and helped me through each step of the way. And you guys, the fellow franchisees, I mean, the support I've gotten from you guys, not only because I have MS, but you've answered every question I've had. You picked up the phone, you responded to the email, you've been proactive. And I said it one time, I'll say it over and over again, this isn't a a franchise. This is a family. Thanks.