Episode #511: Chelsea Piers Leadership: Greta Wagner on Culture and Customer Connection

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This is Pete Moore on Halo Talks NYC. I have the pleasure of having

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Greta, who is on the board of Ursa and has made some game changing

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moves to make this industry better. And also one of the top

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executives at Chelsea Piers. So we're gonna talk about Ursa changing to

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Health and Fitness Association. Talk about how we brought Liz into the,

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into the fray here and has done some pretty amazing things in a short period

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of time. Get her view on where the industry's going and, where

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you as an operator or an advocate of the industry should be focused on your

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time. So, Greta, thank you, and welcome to your first Halo Talks. Thank you, Pete.

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I'm excited to be here. Awesome. So talk about how you

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originally got involved in IRSA and where, you know, maybe you said, like,

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hey. My return on time might also be well spent in

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advocacy and growing the entire industry and not just working inside

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my clubs and saying, like, okay. I'm gonna do what I can for New York.

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I'm actually gonna do what I can outside of that. So talk about how you

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decided to become a member and allocated time to that, because I think some

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people get involved in certain associations, don't know what the time allocation is,

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and say, like, I don't know if I could do this. So talk about how

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that journey went. Yeah. Well, I've been in this industry for

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40 years. I started when I was 16 teaching, you know, what

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they used to call aerobic dance. And so I have

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been a supporter and a fan of Ursa since

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almost inception. And I went in and out of the

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industry a little bit for about 10 years. I went into the golf industry. And

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when I came back from the golf industry and went to my

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first show, and got back into fitness,

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I realized that we had not really seen any growth. We were still

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in the same place looking for those 80% of the people who don't

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exercise, don't come to a club. And I'm like, wow. 10 years and we

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haven't seen progress. So that started to peak my interest,

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more in the association and becoming more familiar about what the mission

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was. But I stayed on the perimeter a little bit. I went to

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the show. I went to some of the seminars. I knew a lot of people.

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My network over the years, of course, has been pretty

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extensive. Mhmm. From Rick Caro, Ray

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O'Connor, and, you know, people who've been in this industry and have had major

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impact. Gail Landers, and the list goes on, and

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I felt very honored by that that they all seem to,

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you know, gravitate and give me, tips throughout my

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career. Uh-huh. And and then about, I guess,

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10 years ago, somebody first said, you know, you should

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get on the board and you should help contribute because

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you're definitely involved in your local government. You're definitely at

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a club that is in one of the largest markets in the

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world. Sure. And we do fantastic work at Chelsea

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Piers and very unique. So

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that started my journey of thinking about it. And then I didn't do it right

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away because I wanted to make sure when I commit to something, I wanna do

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it, and I wanna do it a 100%. And then

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in 9, 2019 is when I first

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got on the board. And very soon after,

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I think it was maybe my 2nd or 3rd board meeting when COVID

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hit. And just like all of our businesses, that's,

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you know, really determined, okay, are you on track? Just like everybody's

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business, if you were on track and you were doing the right things and you

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were on your game, you can survive. And things

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went a little bit better. It was horrible for everybody. But, if you

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weren't, you were in trouble. Let me let me ask you a question given that

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you're on the board of Ursa. And, I'll tell you my

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story, my perspective on it. Right when Irsa right when COVID hit, everyone's

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like, oh, Ursa's not doing enough. Ursa like, you guys haven't funded Ursa to do

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this. Right? So don't don't blame Ursa for not having, like, lobbyists that you're not

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willing to pay for. And some of the larger players in the space aren't part

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of Ursa. So they have their own lobbyists, and they're they're kinda doing their own

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thing. And then we're basically having to kinda get these super regional

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groups or these state groups together, and and it happened in pretty short order.

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And I I think it was pretty successful, you know, given that you can't really

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move certain politicians in certain states to to accommodate us. And

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we're not, quote, unquote, like, essential businesses, which I think is a crazy thing that

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we're not. But Yeah. You know, for being on, like, maybe the front lines of

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that and saying, like, hey, look. Like, we got a budget to run a trade

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show. We do some really good research. Like, we do some policy, but,

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like, don't make it seem like we're like the NRA, and we've got, like, a

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$200,000,000 budget when we have, like, a $4,000,000 budget. So how did you

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kind of digest that and say, like, look, we can only do so much. I'm

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more grassroots, and we'll do what we can, like, from a gorilla standpoint. But tell

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me, like, what was going through your mind on that? Think the whole industry just

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pulled together because out of necessity, we had to. Yeah. And,

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you know, CEOs that hadn't talked to each other now started to talk to each

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other. Groups started to form, you know, a lot of it led by IRSA,

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because everybody really stepped up, And we made changes, the

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necessary changes we needed to make in order to get stronger and to be

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there to support people. But, you know, everybody has to do the work.

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And especially on an, you know, advocacy front, it needs

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to be local. It needs to be start locally, then in within your

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state, and IRSA, I think, can support that.

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And, obviously, with Liz's background,

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she can then and she's compiled an amazing team. Yep.

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On a federal level, we can have make some impact, and we're already making a

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lot of impact. But, you know, we created team 435. Yeah. I

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wanna talk about that. So Q Q is a good friend of ours, and we

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Yeah. Talked a little bit about that. But educate people on, like, look, we gotta

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get down to each one of these districts, so we gotta make change. However, you

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gotta have a really big ground game to do that. So talk about how you

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say, hey, let's do this. And then how do we get the resources behind things

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like that? Yeah. Well, we need people to realize that, you know,

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it costs. Right? So we need people to join. That's number

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1. We need every club. And if you're a club that is a member of

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Ursa, then you need to get to your network within your town and

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state and find other operators within the

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health and fitness because now we're the health and fitness association. So

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that goes broader than just the local clubs, gyms, fitness,

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and get them in the mix. Get them to join because a lot of that

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will go back to our advocacy, and then

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donate to the pack. Right. Right? And and start to

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realize that this is an investment just like you would in purchasing new

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equipment, just like you would training your staff, just like you would with,

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you know, acquiring new staff and the expenses that are associated with that.

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There's an expense and associated with protecting your

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business. Yeah. And and they have to join us

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and and give. I wanna I wanna ask you a perspective on something. I was

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part of the NHFA right when it was originated and then spent spent about a

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year, year and a half, on that committee. Then Al

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is now Alonosh Shivani is now on the board of Ursa. It kinda represents our

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interest, and he's awesome. He's very thoughtful. One of the

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things I was trying to push through is, like, why can't we just spend a

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dollar per member per year? Have it collected by whoever your billing company is,

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excerpt, and then have the member maybe even match that. Or, hey, hey. Do you

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wanna support the industry and support our club? Because we're basically I mean,

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Chelsea appears, you could say it's a sports complex. You could say, you know, it's

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it's basically like the equivalent of, like, an urban country club for the people that

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part of it. And those people would pay assessment fees, and they would

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pay joint fees. And and maybe sometimes I feel like the

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operators are not saying, like, I don't wanna spend another I don't want my members

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to, like, see another dollar charge, or I don't wanna see anything up, or I

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don't wanna offer them the ability to, like, co fund, you know,

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like an Ursa pack or like a halo pack or, Ursa

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directly. Like, do you think that we should take this to the members as, like,

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the next frontier? Or do we have to, like, fund it out of our budgets

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as operators? I think that I think that a lot of our members would

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welcome it. But what we're really talking what we're really talking about is education.

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Right? So when we talk about putting the fit bill out there, you don't

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know until you try. You don't know until you put it out there in front

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of your members what's gonna have meaning to them or not. If they know that

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they could use their FSA for their gym membership or

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for for Chelsea Piers, it would be for their child's sports, you know,

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activities. Which is like an infinite infinite budget. Right? It's huge. Yeah.

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It's huge. So so I think that, you know, the goal is to educate

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people so they understand what are their options. You know? Will

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they? Some will, some won't. But the most important thing that we can

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do is try and get people to write to their representatives to

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let them know how important this is because there

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are 70,000,000 members. We heard that today Yeah. At

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the keynote address and throughout the day, plus, plus,

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plus. Yes. So I mean, a dollar per member, you got probably one of the

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largest budgets of any, you know, advocacy or nonprofit

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association in Washington if we had $70,000,000. And Liz and her

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team are doing a fantastic job creating these ideas

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and, you know, getting out there and executing, and that's

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you know, we talk a lot about that during our board meetings. And,

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and all of the different committees, it's not

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just happening at the board level, obviously. Right. It's happening at the club

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level, the committee level. So everybody has to participate,

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and we can't lose that feeling. The one good thing that came out of, you

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know, 4 years ago is that we do need

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to band together a little bit more and not get so tunnel visioned

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that we can make an impact because there we have the power of numbers.

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This is Pete Moore. I wanna let you in on a little secret. There's this

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company called Promotion Vault, and what they do is they give out rewards

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from retailers that allow you to incentivize your

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members without having to do zero down and 1 month

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free or giving away shakes or giving away t shirts. What

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you want to do is build a rewards program that lasts, that

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people value, and that doesn't discount your own products and services.

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So here's the deal. There's something called rewards vault. The rewards

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vault is going to allow a member to set up their own profile.

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They are going to answer questions. You are gonna get those answers. You're gonna be

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able to target those members, and you're gonna reward them inside your

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club, inside your spa, and outside of the club and

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outside of the spa to get them to become loyal, to get them

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to pay their monthly dues, and to be rewarded

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properly for the actions. A lot of companies are cutting back on rewards.

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You shouldn't be. Promotion Vault's your answer. Trust me. This is

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real.

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Do you think, just a question that it's something I I I thought of

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recently. I don't wanna get political at all. Please don't. No. No. But but

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I'm saying, like, effectively, like, we have 70,000,000 members, and

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I'd probably say 60,000,000 of them vote. Right? And I feel like

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what we go in there and we're advocating for the industry, but we're not,

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like, advocating as if it's like a voting block. I just

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wanted to is that something in the future? Like, there's certain people that

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are on the news. I'm I'm going I'm going straight here for a second, but

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I I just wanna get your take on this. I don't want people to think

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about this. Like, there's certain people that are, like, they're, like, one

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issue. They're they're one issue voters. Right? Mhmm. Some people might have

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certain views. Like, I don't care what this county thinks. Like, as long as they're

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on board with by one issue. Right? And there might be a lot of people

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that say, like, I want more bike lanes in New York City. I want more

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parks to play in. And my candidate is x because that is what they

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believe in. I'm gonna vote for them. Right? But we don't really use

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that as like a a chip on the table. Like, hey, I got a $70,000,000

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70,000,000 people that vote or 60,000,000 people that vote. In addition, we've got

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this budget that we can help, you know, sponsor your candidates and your

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events and so on and so forth. I just wonder if, like, does that does

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that ever become something that you think could be relevant or, like,

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pressure change? I mean, it could be. I think everybody has

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something that's important to them, and I think if you can speak to that. But

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then also try and have people broaden their

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minds a little bit so they're not just focused on, hey, that one thing

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that's important to them. Yeah. Yeah. And, again, it goes back to education, and it

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goes back to just communication and to kinda letting your guard

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down a little bit. And we're very divisive, right,

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in in our politics and in in a lot of things these days

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in life. So I think it's really and and where we're

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unique within our club environments is that we've got an

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audience that usually love us. That's why that's

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why they're here. They they want to talk to us. They want to talk to

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each other. They want to, you know so whether it's, you know, having,

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a social and coffee or drinks or, you know, doing a class together or

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going on a hike together, you know, where those conversations start

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to come up. So but the person needs to start

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the conversation, not to be afraid to have the conversation. I know

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that, listen, myself included, we

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stop the conversation because we don't we we kind of think of this is the

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direction it will go. Yeah. I know. So, like, it's the beginning of our conversation.

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You know? So I'm just trying to think about, like, during during COVID, I listened

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to, like, a ton of, like, you know, like, documentary series and,

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like, you know, podcasts that I've and and they had one on the NRA.

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Mhmm. And I was thinking, like, you know, we're, like, the equivalent of that. Like,

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instead of like rifles or like biceps and muscles and, you know, like getting tone

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in a in a in a weird way. But they talked about like the size

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of their membership base. I'm like, we have like the same size membership base, but

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we don't like use it properly. It's like Right. The pressure. Anyway

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because we need to be more organized. Yeah. And we need to have

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one voice, and that's what Ursa is. Right.

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And we need to prioritize our messaging. Yeah. Right? And I'm not

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advocating that, like, Ursa would, like, support, like, specific candidates. I'm like, look, if you

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vote, like, we just wanna get this as, like, on a priority list. So I

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just wanna clarify Right. That I just want them to know, like, we got 7

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60 out of 70,000,000 people here probably vote. And,

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you should be listening to what they want, and and maybe reprioritize what

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what you want based on what we want. That that that was my point. Yeah.

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So so pivoting over, Chelsea Piers, and I've been there many times. I've spent a

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lot of money bowling. Thank you. I've been soccer. I've been I used play roller

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hockey there, which was Yeah. Which was the best. I used to play

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roller hockey every Thursday night on that one outdoor court. I don't even know if

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still there. Our roller rink's director, Craig Woodcock, is now our camp

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director. And it was like, yeah, people grow up at Chelsea Piers. It's a great

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place. And I went to summer camp for 10 years. So every time I go

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to Chelsea Piers, I feel like I'm in upstate New York, and I can, like,

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do whatever activity I want, which is awesome. There's so much

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emphasis on kids programming right now and leagues, and

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whether it's participation awards or treat teaching them how to win. But a lot of

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kids are growing up now on a path of, like, hey. I'm gonna do one

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sport. I'm gonna do well. I'm gonna try and get into college. I think I'm

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gonna, you know, you know, bet my career or bet my

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life on on a sport. Are you seeing some of that, like,

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pressure or, like, optimization of of athleticism

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kinda hit, like, new levels of of demand?

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Yes. I think that one of the things in it, especially what we do at

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Chelsea Piers, we don't practice kind of that

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specialization at an early age. Right? So everybody you

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know, people come in, they're hockey players, they're swimmers, and

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this is their one sport, and they're gonna do it, and they're gonna go

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to train, and they're getting nutritionist, and they and all before they're, like,

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8. You know? That doesn't make any sense. Yeah. Yeah. So I agree with you.

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Philosophy is that we think that people should try a lot of

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different sports and become a better person through athletics.

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And eventually, you will find your sport that, okay, I love this. I wanna be

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a swimmer, and I need to dedicate the time to do that. But at those

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early years, you wanna have I mean, for,

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you know, injury prevention, for just exploratory

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reasons and and discovering who you are as an athlete.

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You you want variety. Right? So so that's something that's

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very important to us. It's very important to our athletic director and

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how we guide our programming. And, but, you

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know, kids now are

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so overtaxed, both mentally and

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physically and emotionally. And I I see it. I see it. I see it. Statistics.

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And, you know, so sports should be something that

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is a relief and a social Right. Element. Right?

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Where they can they can find friends and have joy

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and, you know so, yes, there's the competitive level of it. And and our Chelsea

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Bears, Connecticut, rehab wonderful, like,

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national level competitive team sports for our kids.

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But at the heart of it, it's more than that. It is a safe

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space where they can grow and develop and become good people, well

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rounded people through sports. I've probably been to Chelsea Piazza, like, a 100 times, you

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know, in the last 20 years. And now that I'm thinking back, there

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was never a time I was in any one of your areas where I felt

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uncomfortable, where somebody was arrogant, where somebody, like, judged

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somebody's athletic ability. It seemed like cultural and, like, top

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down that, like, we are go we are here for everyone. There's, like, a no

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judgment zone. We don't care how old you are, what condition you're in, like,

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you'll find a a a safe place. We'll we'll find a spot here. How

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much of that was, like, by design, and how much of that kinda just,

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like, is the way people interact? I mean, I think everything

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as far as your culture is concerned is, you know, it it

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it's who's your leadership. So it all starts with leadership, and we were

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lucky because we had 3 gentlemen who

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Roland Betts, Tom Bernstein, and David Tewksbury, the 3 principals of

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Chelsea Piers, led in a way that encouraged

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growth development, you know, that that it is a

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place that people wanna be. And when your people wanna be there, like, you know

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when you walk into a business and you see somebody who's behind the counter or

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somebody who's waiting on you or somebody who's, you know,

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sweeping the floor, you know whether they love their job, love the

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people that they're working with, and want to be there.

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And it makes a huge difference. I mean, that is your culture

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is your people. Right? You don't you don't I can't dictate what my culture's gonna

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be. I can hope what our culture is gonna be. We can say this is

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what our strategic plan is to make our culture, but it doesn't it's our

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actions and it's how we live our lives in every

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moment while we're working together, playing together,

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socializing together, and and our principles and our

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core values. And I think if you stay true to those, your p

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and you hire the right people, you hire the people who believe in

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those core values

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and and you're good to your people, that will resonate.

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Yeah. And it is in my opinion, it is everything.

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You can have the best equipment. You can have the best facilities, which we

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do at Chelsea Piers. We reinvest. We keep everything brand

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spanking new. People are amazed when they walk through our facilities.

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But it's meaningless if our people aren't what it's really about, and

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that's what our customers and our members say. They don't ever say I mean, they

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always say, oh, god. It's so clean here, and I love it, and it's so

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beautiful, and I love the equipment. Yeah. But what they really say is,

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I love, you know, Annie behind the desk because she says hello to me

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every morning, and my coach is so cares about my kids

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so much. I will never leave you because of that.

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This is Pete Moore. Here's the last tip for you of the podcast.

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00:20:36,429 --> 00:20:40,225
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346
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these workout recovery and spas end up saturating your

347
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market. Having your members walk out of the club and going into one of their

348
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locations for $200 per month where they're paid

349
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351
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353
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354
00:21:33,434 --> 00:21:37,280
let's get people happy, healthy, and sweating, and the recovery

355
00:21:37,580 --> 00:21:39,200
should be just as good as the workout.

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Could could I just ask you a branding question for a minute?

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And I I grew up in yeah. I grew up in Long Island, Westbury,

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but I spent most of my early adult life in New York, and we have

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to say, oh, let's go to Chelsea Piers. Right? And then you open up a

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location in Connecticut. And to me, Chelsea Piers

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originally was, like, is a destination. Right? And then,

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like, it turned into a brand. And then the brand now could

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travel. Like, was there any commentary in the room? Like, hey, let's

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not call Chelsea Piers. Let's call it, like, Connecticut Piers or or, like

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but I felt like the brand I'm sure it's not. It didn't

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happen by accident. Right? You you got team and and and every relationship and and

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experience kinda builds that brand. But did you ever say, like, hey, how far can

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we take Chelsea Piers? Because as an example, like, New York Sports Company, like, we're

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going to Boston. We can't call it New York Sports Company. We gotta call Boston,

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Washington, you know, Philadelphia. And, like, that created, like,

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4 different websites. It created 4 different membership plan. You know, it's it's like top

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like, the waterfall is, like Yeah. Creates, like, an

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an, decentralized just disaster basically on

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operational basis. So was there ever a time when when you said, like, our brand

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could basically go anywhere? Like, even though it's the Chelsea Piers, like, it isn't Chelsea

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Piers, it's the brand. Yeah. Well, I mean, we had many talks in

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the war room, and we have a dynamite team, a he a wonderful

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marketing team. We brought in experts, but

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at the core of it, you know, you talk and you talk for hours and

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weeks. Yeah. It does. And then you realize that you're back to your original

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conversation, which is what do, you know, you you do the

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research, you, you know, and you find out that

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people associate our what we offer them, it's Chelsea

384
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Piers. It's not Chelsea Piers Field House. Right. It's not Chelsea Piers Golf Club. It's

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not Chelsea We are Chelsea Piers. I'm trying to think of any any other brand

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that started out with a destination. Right? Because when he said, hey, we're opening up

387
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Chelsea Piers. Like, it probably wasn't like, let's call it like Elevate Fitness. You

388
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know? Like, it's like, dude, we're taking over like this area that has nothing going

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on, and we're gonna turn it into, like, this vision that far exceeded

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anybody's expectations on what that could become. And the draw that people

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would go there, I think, far exceeded what I would have assumed

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people would, like, walk to the west side back back in the day. Yeah. It's

393
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not really what you did. Yeah. But you didn't walk back there. I mean, before

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we were there, 20, but yeah. District unless you're, like, 1 o'clock in the morning,

395
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you're looking for a taxi out of, like, you know. To say, you know, the

396
00:24:03,950 --> 00:24:06,815
the women in skirts, they're not I mean, now they're figure skaters, but they weren't

397
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then. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There might be people coming in for a early morning

398
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workout and people walking out from a nightclub. You're right. Time on, like, the Westside

399
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of 23rd Street. I can't think of any other place.

400
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Maybe I'll put it in the show notes, but, like, a place that started out

401
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as a destination and now is, like, an actual brand. I don't know.

402
00:24:23,785 --> 00:24:26,025
I don't think they have. I don't We should we're gonna think there is. We're

403
00:24:26,025 --> 00:24:29,145
gonna have to research that and find out. Find out a brand. But, anyway but

404
00:24:29,145 --> 00:24:32,950
it's a strong brand where, you know, it took well, listen. It's been 29

405
00:24:33,410 --> 00:24:36,850
years, so, a lot of work. But and, again, every

406
00:24:36,850 --> 00:24:40,115
day creating that excellence, exceeding

407
00:24:40,335 --> 00:24:44,095
expectations of our members and our customers, that's what builds a brand.

408
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That's what real builds the trust and the loyalty is every

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day, it's a new day. And that's what our people

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feel. Like, they're proud to wake up. I mean, it's a hard business. Oh,

411
00:24:55,330 --> 00:24:58,475
yeah. Right? No no doubt. You're running you're running like a mini city, basically. Right?

412
00:24:58,635 --> 00:25:02,475
20. Yeah. Almost 247. So it takes a

413
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special kind of person who's gonna get up at 4 o'clock in the

414
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morning to be on the ice at 5 AM Yeah. With a smile on

415
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and coaching those kids and, you know? So There's something

416
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funny. My my buddy used to play hockey. He used to play at 11:30 tonight.

417
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I play, like, 5. Yeah. I'm thinking, like, who gets the who gets the pre

418
00:25:19,715 --> 00:25:22,940
premium ice time? I feel like nobody gets premium ice time. Everyone I know is,

419
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like, playing hockey. Like, bizarre hours. Right? Yeah. Life. Yeah. Alright.

420
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So my last my last question for you is, you know, you you you run

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a a company that is is private, and it's and it doesn't have any

422
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institutional capital in it as far as I know. And it's

423
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not publicly traded, so you don't have to hit, like, 90 day goals and, you

424
00:25:40,210 --> 00:25:44,050
know, report your earnings and things like that. What are some of the KPIs that

425
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you look at that maybe other companies, like, can't really look at because

426
00:25:47,885 --> 00:25:51,645
it's not really private equity doesn't care about, like, your Medallia or,

427
00:25:51,645 --> 00:25:55,170
like, your customer rating as much as they care about, like, what your

428
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EBITDA margin is or, like Right. What your membership role for report looks like.

429
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So do you feel like I mean, that's all less or beneficial that, like, hey,

430
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I can also, like, think about the long term brand or, like, what I'm

431
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actually delivering here because I'm not just delivering financial results. I I just it just

432
00:26:09,795 --> 00:26:12,940
came up in my mind that the way you're talking about the business is not

433
00:26:13,419 --> 00:26:17,019
29 years. Like, you don't run the business quarterly in 29 years and have somebody,

434
00:26:17,019 --> 00:26:20,779
like, you stay there and say, like, okay. I'm on, like, this quarterly earnings treadmill.

435
00:26:20,779 --> 00:26:24,315
Like, it's it's exhausting. Right. Right. So I I just wanna comment on, like,

436
00:26:24,315 --> 00:26:28,075
KPIs that maybe matter to you that maybe other people, they can't because

437
00:26:28,075 --> 00:26:31,700
it's, like Yeah. Too long term. Listen, KPIs are incredibly

438
00:26:31,700 --> 00:26:35,424
important, and, you know, all the things you just mentioned are still important. No. You're

439
00:26:35,424 --> 00:26:36,753
true. Of course. Of course. Of course. Of course. Of course. Of course. Of course.

440
00:26:36,753 --> 00:26:40,195
Of course. We do look at the monthly numbers. Yeah. But, you know, each

441
00:26:40,514 --> 00:26:44,274
department and each business has and each role

442
00:26:44,274 --> 00:26:48,115
has their own KPIs. So if you're not tracking those Right. And

443
00:26:48,115 --> 00:26:51,720
that could be, you know, it it it is our Medallia

444
00:26:51,779 --> 00:26:55,380
score. It is our net promoter score. It is, you

445
00:26:55,380 --> 00:26:58,120
know, what's our turnover in each department?

446
00:26:59,265 --> 00:27:02,485
It is, you know, obviously, the the obvious sales,

447
00:27:03,345 --> 00:27:06,565
retention. All of those things are incredibly

448
00:27:06,705 --> 00:27:10,520
important. You know, how many compliments do

449
00:27:10,520 --> 00:27:14,200
do we get? What do we, you know, each week? What's That's right. You know,

450
00:27:14,200 --> 00:27:17,905
so it it's all those little moments of truth where

451
00:27:18,525 --> 00:27:21,345
our customers and our members define

452
00:27:21,885 --> 00:27:25,680
and determine who we are. Yeah. That's right.

453
00:27:25,680 --> 00:27:29,120
It's not us. It's not you know, it's really them, and and

454
00:27:29,120 --> 00:27:32,495
retention is everything. And sometimes people

455
00:27:32,495 --> 00:27:36,095
leave, and then they come back. So we we track that as well. Yeah.

456
00:27:36,335 --> 00:27:39,800
Because it's a big world and people move around, especially in New York.

457
00:27:41,240 --> 00:27:44,440
So, you know, I think you have to look at your own business and determine

458
00:27:44,600 --> 00:27:48,375
again, go back to your core values, go back to each role,

459
00:27:48,995 --> 00:27:52,515
because every single person plays a really

460
00:27:52,515 --> 00:27:56,210
important part of your business. We have people who've been

461
00:27:56,210 --> 00:27:59,909
part of our housekeeping team for 29 years, and

462
00:28:00,289 --> 00:28:03,890
they attack their job every day. Yeah. It's amazing. And they know that they

463
00:28:03,890 --> 00:28:07,365
are super important because when we have our quarterly

464
00:28:07,365 --> 00:28:10,725
meetings, when we have our state of the peers, you

465
00:28:10,725 --> 00:28:14,520
know, the the founding members and our principals

466
00:28:14,580 --> 00:28:18,260
are up there giving them awards and talking about

467
00:28:18,260 --> 00:28:22,105
how spectacular they are and that nobody would come if we weren't

468
00:28:22,184 --> 00:28:25,785
clean and nobody would come if we weren't friendly. Sure. And we have to be

469
00:28:25,785 --> 00:28:29,405
fun, and and those are our core principles and values. So

470
00:28:30,409 --> 00:28:33,549
people, you know, when you live it, really live it,

471
00:28:34,169 --> 00:28:37,690
people know that it's authentic, and they stay, and

472
00:28:37,690 --> 00:28:41,325
they work from their heart, not just for a

473
00:28:41,325 --> 00:28:44,285
paycheck. Yeah. That's right. Because they want to work. Especially during COVID, I'd be like,

474
00:28:44,285 --> 00:28:46,845
if you don't know everyone in the names of the people that are actually cleaning

475
00:28:46,845 --> 00:28:49,900
this club, like, these are the most important people in your club right now. Like,

476
00:28:49,900 --> 00:28:53,740
don't walk past them ever. And forget COVID. Like, we went All the

477
00:28:53,740 --> 00:28:57,075
time. Yeah. We went through storm Sandy. Yeah. I have never experienced

478
00:28:57,375 --> 00:29:01,135
anything like that in my life. Yeah. We built I mean, from

479
00:29:01,135 --> 00:29:04,810
6 feet down, we had to demolish the entire

480
00:29:04,810 --> 00:29:08,570
property. Yes. And we did probably 6 months of work

481
00:29:08,570 --> 00:29:12,270
in 30 days. Who did that work? Everybody.

482
00:29:12,665 --> 00:29:16,265
You know, they came in, and we even had our our members wanting to come

483
00:29:16,265 --> 00:29:19,465
in and help us. They came to the door and said, can we help you?

484
00:29:19,465 --> 00:29:23,120
That's awesome. Tear out this sheetrock, can we help you? You know, it was like

485
00:29:23,120 --> 00:29:26,960
everybody came together and it was it you know, the ultimate and

486
00:29:26,960 --> 00:29:30,735
most expensive team building activity we ever had in our lives. I hear you. But

487
00:29:30,975 --> 00:29:34,735
it really showed us that our people care about us because

488
00:29:34,735 --> 00:29:38,575
we care about them. Yeah. That's great. Well, thanks for coming on. Thank

489
00:29:38,575 --> 00:29:42,330
you for your service to the industry, and and thanks for, being able to pull

490
00:29:42,330 --> 00:29:45,870
Liz in. I think she's a great leader, and, she's awesome. Very integral.

491
00:29:46,409 --> 00:29:50,255
To everyone feeling safe, I think, and, like, didn't know that, like, the ship's

492
00:29:50,255 --> 00:29:53,935
got a captain, and and the captain knows where we're going and, you know, is

493
00:29:53,935 --> 00:29:57,690
is communicated well with everybody too. K. And the name change, I think,

494
00:29:57,769 --> 00:30:00,970
is is great. Maybe we Yeah. We just need to get everybody on board with

495
00:30:00,970 --> 00:30:04,730
her on that ship and donate to the pack and be a member and

496
00:30:04,730 --> 00:30:08,335
maybe upgrade your membership. And, you know, we can do great things

497
00:30:08,335 --> 00:30:12,115
together. Our association is strong and it's getting stronger

498
00:30:12,175 --> 00:30:15,920
every day and the future is incredibly bright. And we

499
00:30:15,920 --> 00:30:19,600
want everybody, you know, on the boat with us. Yeah. So we use that

500
00:30:19,600 --> 00:30:23,095
that halo term. So we wanna be at the ecosystem of everything that's going on

501
00:30:23,095 --> 00:30:26,055
here and start to bring in more and more people that Yes. Have the same

502
00:30:26,055 --> 00:30:28,855
mission as us. So as these events grow and maybe we'll get our name in

503
00:30:28,855 --> 00:30:31,950
there at some point over the years. But, like, we'll we'll put the show be

504
00:30:31,950 --> 00:30:35,549
twice the size, and we just gotta articulate, like, hey, what do you believe in?

505
00:30:35,549 --> 00:30:38,215
That's what we believe in. Why don't you get on board? So thanks for doing

506
00:30:38,215 --> 00:30:40,855
what you're doing and what you're gonna continue to do, and I'm glad we finally

507
00:30:40,855 --> 00:30:44,535
got a chance to meet. Me too. Thank you so much. Chelsea Piers, Ursa

508
00:30:44,535 --> 00:30:48,370
board, and all things awesome. Thank you. Thanks, Pete.