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The future is not set.
Up next is our top executive in specific areas.
Virginia.
An award we're extremely excited about.
You have to have extreme excellence in absolutely generic skills.
And a checkbook willing to write an $8,000 check.
And then you have to sign it, and it has to actually cash.
And then, and only then, are you invited to join this stage.
And we are so excited to actually welcome someone in just a moment.
Viridian Dynamics.
Bosses.
Everybody has one.
Without bosses, we'd be like these worms.
Disgusting.
Bosses make everything better.
So listen to your boss.
And don't question them.
Otherwise, you're no better than a worm.
Viridian Dynamics.
Bosses.
Necessary.
Let's have our award winner, Hugh Johnson.
The president of Ideal Johnson, LLC.
Join us on stage.
Come on up, Hugh.
Right, left, your call.
Any stage is good, yeah.
He's carrying a little extra weight.
This is acceptable.
Congratulations.
You want to be close to the mic.
Sorry, just taking a moment to take this all in.
I've dreamed of this award forever.
And I feel a touch overwhelmed.
So if you'll please allow me a moment.
I believe we're, I believe this to be a safe company where I can share feelings.
Is this a safe place for me to share feelings?
Can I share some feelings?
Oh, you are, you are really, really, I'm so moved.
I'm almost going to wet myself, which is very improper.
I've been seeking this award for a lot of years.
And I'm so very thankful.
And one thing that you'll find about who I am is I'm very original, I think, which is why I've been able to gather this award, which is why I'm so excited.
I don't like to ever copy anyone.
And I like to always make sure that I'm original.
And so tonight I'm going to let my hair down, all 14 strands of my hair to let down.
So I'll be doing that tonight.
Because again, when you're original, what I found is that I just didn't want to get ahead of my skis.
And that gets really, really critical.
And because I have found that I'm quite battle tested.
And I think that's really critically important too.
I think also it's always for me it's always important to check the boxes.
Checking the boxes I think is exceptionally critical.
And I think also for me it's just getting those ducks in a row.
And I think I thought of that one too.
I think I thought of that saying too.
So thanks for being there with me.
I think maybe the elephant in the room possibly could be is why Hugh Johnson?
I think why not Hugh Johnson?
Right?
Based on what you've seen so far, I think the level of competency I bring to any room is really kind of probably overwhelming for you also.
I think the one thing that sometimes I can be a fish out of water on occasion.
And I want as I get down, I don't want to get too granular with you folks tonight.
Often people say to Hugh, they'll say to me, Gary, to Hugh, I forgot my name for a moment.
Hugh dropped out of character.
But they say to you, Hugh, it's almost like we're herding cats with you.
I don't have cats, so I don't know what that means, nor do I have cattle.
So I'm just here, I guess people just herd cats.
But you know what?
It is what it is.
And this award has just come, and it's really just in time.
This award is just in time for me, and I think you've all found a lot of leaders in here.
So excited, and I'm sorry you're not on stage with me.
And I know, again, I can be a little overwhelming when I do.
But I think we've found that low-hanging fruit.
Right?
Low-hanging fruit?
It's something we all like?
Can we just do this real quickly for me, please?
If I may indulge you, can we just all say low-hanging fruit?
All right, one, two, three.
Low-hanging fruit.
I almost wet myself again.
This is really, I mean, I'm capacity on my bladder.
Control, dad diapers.
But for me, I think it's also important, and I know this is very high level, so there's notes after tonight's talk of moving the needle.
Always critical to move the needle.
And I know some things are not in my wheelhouse, but I think it's always thinking outside the box.
Right?
We've always got to be thinking outside the box.
And I think it's important also to peel the onion, to peel the onion back.
And as there's times where I'm almost just crying, because I'm so overwhelmed by the joy and your participation in low-hanging fruit, that it's like peeling the onion that I feel like I could cry.
And that's all for you, and thank you.
And I'd also like to say that it's really so important to raise the bar.
We always must be raising the bar.
Correct?
Would you agree?
Oh, yeah.
Thank you.
Good participants.
Thank you.
Again, this is so powerful.
And soup to nuts.
I think soup to nuts.
And I don't really know soup to nuts, but apparently back in the cruise ship of the Titanic, they had a lot of soup, and then at the end they had nuts.
Here we have, like, nuts on our Sundays at the end.
So it's a little different, but I think you understand the concept.
And I think we're always just trying to take our temperature, you know, and in the work that we're doing.
And, you know, I think it's really been good for us tonight to unpack these things as we dissect this award.
And I'd say that it's always important about being value-added.
And, you know, I think it's always a win-win situation.
And did you mention that I play the xylophone?
And if you've not noticed, I've been going through the alphabet with each one of these, and I didn't have a word for X, so I chose the xylophone.
And then for Y, we have the you only live once, which you may have possibly heard of at some point.
And as I zip this thing up, in review, I'd like to take you back to we'd always want to be ahead of our skis, we always want to be battle-tested, we always want to be circling the box, we always want to be keeping our ducks in a row, we always want to be asking about the elephant in the room,
we always want to be asking about falling forward, we want to ask about being granular, we want to be always about herding cats, we also want to be talking about it is what it is, along with just in time, along with letting the cat out of the bag, with a low-hanging fruit,
and moving the needle, and then not being in the right wheelhouse, along with being outside the box, along with peeling the onion, because we want quick hits, so we can raise the bar, so that we can set the bar, and so that we can always unpack things,
so that we can eventually have a value-added situation, whereas we can have a win-win situation, play the xylophone, and you only live once, and then we... I'm just going to zip it up here.
Thank you for the warm, great talks.
Thank you very much.
Let's give it up for Hugh Johnson.
So much inspiration, so many words put together that I've heard in other occasions.
But condensed into just one consistently fast story, without those words that actually connect them.
I enjoyed that.
It really got to the bottom line.