ACUMA ONpoint
ACUMA ONpoint
Mid-Year Reflections: Triumphs, Regrets, and Spicy Challenges
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Ever wonder what happens when a team of mortgage industry professionals willingly subjects themselves to progressively spicier hot sauces while reflecting on their year? The ACUMA team delivers exactly that in their annual mid-year review episode, blending genuine reflection with watery eyes and burning sensations.
The episode kicks off with diving into the team's favorite moments from the first half of the year.
- Kate, the newest team member, shares how meaningful it was experiencing her first workshop in Savannah and meeting everyone face-to-face.
- Camryn celebrates her return from maternity leave,
- Others reminisce about baseball games, successful workshops, and surprisingly competitive rock-paper-scissors tournaments that had mortgage professionals channeling their inner playground selves.
Between increasingly fiery hot sauce tastings, the team candidly discusses lessons learned and areas for improvement.
- Krista opens up about her apprehension regarding their first convention center venue for the annual conference, citing the many uncontrollable variables compared to their usual hotel settings.
- Justin reflects on transportation challenges from previous events.
- Peter acknowledges that having back-to-back workshops in the Southeast might not have been the optimal geographical strategy.
The conversation takes a delightfully spooky turn when the team shares stories about their stay at a haunted hotel in Savannah, formerly a mortuary, complete with ghost tours, mysterious occurrences, and Kate successfully terrifying Krista on an evening walk. This storytelling reveals the close-knit nature of the team and how they balance professional excellence with genuine camaraderie.
Looking ahead, excitement builds around several initiatives for their annual conference, including
- "ACUMAx" (a new speaking platform featuring six selected presenters)
- An innovative exhibit hall layout, charity activities, and yes, therapy animals including dogs, possibly bunnies, and maybe even a mini horse (not a pony, as Justin learns through some gentle ribbing).
The episode wraps with increasingly uncomfortable hot sauce reactions and groan-worthy dad jokes, showcasing the team's ability to maintain humor even when their mouths are literally on fire. Whether you're a credit union professional looking for industry insights or simply enjoy witnessing good-natured suffering in the name of content, this episode delivers both substance and entertainment in equal measure.
Introduction and Team Welcome
Speaker 1The views and opinions expressed in this podcast do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Acuma, its board of directors, its management staff or its members. The podcast discussion presented is conversational in nature and for general information only.
Speaker 3Hello, welcome to Accused On Point Podcast, a series focused on sharing the stories of people who are making a positive impact in the credit union mortgage industry. I'm your host, Peter Benjamin. Today, I am joined by my amazing team, the miracle workers behind the scenes, Team Acuma. Ladies and gentlemen, this is our mid-year review episode, also known as the annual Hot Ones episode. Everyone welcome to the show, Hello.
Speaker 4Happy to be here Yay.
Speaker 3I mean, that is so much excitement.
Speaker 2The thing that we didn't hear was Cameron or Kate, so like they're not, that's right. Guess what.
Speaker 3Cameron is back. Woohoo, I'm back, all right, so excited for this one. This is I don't call it world famous, but it's getting up there Infamous. Infamous is a good word, that's a good word, but this is definitely a becoming a very popular episode. But before we get to it, as always, got to bring the hawk in, hawk, just in. What is the latest greatest happening over at Acuma? And, by the way, how are you doing today?
Speaker 2I'm good, peter. How are you Living the dream? There we go Awesome. I love that phrase. I do every time. Well, over here at Acuma, we're not busy. We are officially, though, one month away from the Make your Mark annual conference happening in Denver, colorado, from September 21st to the 24th. Something like that. Something like that. The speakers are set, the agenda is amazing, the venue is going to be incredible. Have you registered?
Speaker 3No, there's still plenty of time.
Speaker 2Best one. Yet I know Registration is still open, so head over to the Acum site now. If you aren't registered, and as a reminder, if you're a credit union and you're bringing three or more, you all get a $200 discount. So there's that as well. So bring yourself, bring your friends, bring your colleagues and come. Get ready and make your mark with us in Denver.
Annual Conference Announcement
Speaker 3All right, I appreciate it. This is going to be awesome. All right, so let's jump in, because we have to do. I don't want to say we have to do this episode, but we most certainly have to do this episode, I mean.
Hot Sauce Challenge Begins
Speaker 3I wasn't. I didn't mean it to go Start it off in that direction. But Alright, so before we Really go down the path of Hot sauce tasting, let's do some quick introductions, just so everyone knows who's joining the Hawk and I In this amazing room Torturing ourselves with some hot sauce. So first up we have the amazing Krista. Krista say hi.
Speaker 4Hello everybody.
Speaker 3Thank you very much for saying hi. We have the amazing Cameron, who is finally back from maternity leave. Cameron say hi, hey, there, or hey there Cameron say hi, hey there, or hey there.
Speaker 3You can say hey there. And then, for those who don't know her, haven't met her yet we have our. I guess she's still new, I guess, at this point, six months, three months, five months, more than three. Five months, how long? Six? I can count. Five months, how long Six? Yeah, I can count. We have Kate, our business development coordinator. Kate, say hi to everybody, hi everyone.
Speaker 3There you go, All right. So we, as always, we have our little Hot Ones episode where we are going to test. This year we have seven hot sauces. We're going for broke. This year, we're going for broke.
Speaker 2All right. So I think the first year we did like four and last year was like six. We just keep.
Speaker 3And we're ramping up the temperatures this year. And actually, off to the side, we have some spicy beef jerky and some hot nuts here, but I don't know if we're going to taste those. It all depends on how far this hot sauce tasting marathon goes for us. But so we have hot sauces ranging anywhere from a scale of 1 to 10 all the way up to 11 to 10. From a scale of 1 to 10 all the way up to 11 to 10. So we also have a beautiful plate of chicken tenders and French fries, and we're just going to see how this goes.
Speaker 3So the first one we're going to try before we start diving to the great conversation of the mid-year review, is on a scale of one to ten. That's the Scoville units is Shaquanda's hot tropic hot pepper sauce. I'm gonna take my little dab of it. I haven't even poured it on my plate yet. I'm gonna pass it over to Krista. Krista, go ahead and take that. So I haven't tasted it yet.
Favorite Moments of the Year
Speaker 3So the first things first. I'm gonna ask everyone a question, as I always do. You know, in these mid-year reviews it's an opportunity for us to kind of, you know, reflect back, you know, and really focus on the future. But for me I'm going to start with Kate and have you go first. You are the new person on the block and we often joke around that, you know. I guess for me one of my favorite moments for you was having you in Savannah, but more so having everyone go up to you and give you a big hug. But what was your favorite moment since you've started Again six months? What's been the favorite moment since you've started again six months? Um, what's been the favorite part since you started?
Speaker 5I actually have to say I think savannah was my favorite too. That was the first time that I got to meet everybody else on the team in person, so you know that made me a lot more comfortable and closer with everyone having that kind of experience. But also one of our main things is our events, and everybody had been hyping up Savannah and the workshop so much that it was fun to go and experience it and truly see in person how much our members actually do enjoy and value it. So I feel like that was definitely my favorite experience.
Speaker 3Awesome, I love it. I absolutely love it. All right, cam, I know it's kind of a weird question to ask you, because you've basically been gone this whole year, which I'm still not quite over yet. I'm still a little bit upset the fact that you decided to leave us for a little bit. I mean, it's okay, it's a good reason.
Speaker 1It's a very good reason.
Speaker 3It's a very good reason, but I guess you can take this any direction you want, but your favorite part of this year so far.
Speaker 1Yeah, so I'll take it in more of a personal direction. Just since I wasn't here at Acuma for most of the year, I had my first baby in March. Yay, I had my first baby in March, so I would say he is my favorite part of this year and just the best part so far, but it's also great to be back with all of you there you go.
Speaker 3Best is yet to come. I love it, justin. We'll go to you favorite moment. I love baseball, so this year we switched it up, justin we'll go to you Favorite moment.
Speaker 2I love baseball, so this year we switched it up. The summits, we did the experience. We got to go to the Blue Wahoos baseball game Wahoo, wahoo. And Krista was so excited the entire time because she loves baseball as much as I do. No, I'm kidding, but no, being at the baseball game, being at a ballpark, I mean, that's like second home for me.
Speaker 3And the amount of complaining that Krista did was like next to none.
Speaker 2No, she had boxed wine and didn't say a single thing. Actually, it wasn't as bad as Nashville when she had boxed wine.
Speaker 3For those that don't know, Krista is very particular about her wine and whenever there is boxed wine she complains quite a bit. But wine is wine, but wine is wine. All right, Krista, favorite moment.
Speaker 4So I actually have two quick favorite moments. The first one was when Cameron did come back from maternity leave, because I thought I was going to have a coronary when she was gone. So thanks for coming back, cameron, you're welcome. And then my second favorite moment is everybody knows that Peter comes up with some seriously harebrained ideas to which I'm usually like no, we're not doing that.
Speaker 3That's facts.
Speaker 4But the rock paper scissors tournaments at the two workshops were hysterical and the entire room was like jumping around and clapping and I just looked at him and I was like you're insane, but this is really cool. So that was another favorite moment.
Speaker 2Okay. So on that, I actually took that idea to my little league baseball team and I made them do a rock paper scissors tournament with each other too. How'd that go? The parents had to get involved. It was awesome. They were like oh my God, this is so much fun. They're like how'd you think of this? I was like I didn't. I was like my boss did this at a conference, with a bunch of grown adults running around doing rock paper scissors, and they was like this was fun. I was like yeah, I was.
Speaker 3So I'm going to steal your thunder, krista, because both of those were hands down. My favorite moment also One, because we know in the mortgage business that for the most part everyone has this deep down level of competition. But you really don't understand it until you go back to your juvenile self, third grade on the playground. Third grade on the playground and you're doing rock paper scissors and they got loud.
Speaker 4They got loud.
Speaker 3Really loud. I mean, Seattle got decently loud.
Speaker 4Savannah was crazy Savannah.
Speaker 3I mean there were people walking past that room in Savannah wondering what the heck is going on in there. Like they went crazy in Savannah Hands down favorite moment moments from the year because of how amazing Although people, the same company, won. I was about to say that.
Speaker 2It is a question who won in Savannah?
Speaker 4Jim Did.
Speaker 2Jim, go back and tell Randy and just start practicing.
Speaker 4They probably did. They probably practiced in their office Same company, both workshops.
Speaker 3Member.
Speaker 1First Mortgage won.
Speaker 3Yeah, so it's. I did get some complaints that Member First Mortgage wanted both.
Speaker 2but so like we really need to figure out who's the better.
Speaker 3Between Jim and Randy. Yeah, I mean we kind of need to know. Maybe that's an annual thing. We'll have to bring them up on stage at annual Something. I mean we got to close it out. That's right to settle One ring to rule them all, that's right. To settle One ring to rule them all, that's right. There you go, all right, so all right. So first, all right. Next question Thoughts on that first hot sauce.
Speaker 4Oh, I haven't had any yet.
Speaker 3You haven't even had it.
Speaker 4I didn't know we were supposed to do it.
Speaker 3Yeah, you're supposed to be doing this the whole time. Go on.
Speaker 1I actually liked it because it's not that hot.
Speaker 3It wasn't hot at all. I cleaned my plate so it was hot One. It came out like water and I poured a lot on my plate so it's very soupy, but it wasn't hot, no.
Lessons Learned and Regrets
Speaker 2It was like a scaled down version of Frank's hot sauce. It was very sweet and, yeah, it's kind of boring. Yeah, it wasn't. The name is more exciting than the sauce. No 100%.
Speaker 3Yeah, yeah, shaquanda's Hot Tropic Hot Pepper Sauce, which is a mouthful.
Speaker 3The hot sauce was not a mouthful, all right, so the next one is two out of 10 and it's called Just Winging it, and I think we're just gonna wing this next question because I think with it, you know, it's I. I've said this before whenever I you know I I have a change management background, and so for reflecting back on processes, reflecting back on things I can always do better, is just fundamentally something I do. I look at a process, I look at things that I've done, and I just want to learn from an experience, and even once something is completed, I want to go back and find ways to make it better. And so I'm going to ask that question to everybody, and, chris, since you went last, I'm going to have you go first this time. What's one thing from this past year that you're like we did it well, but I kind of wish we had that second chance to really perfect it? Or that one thing that you said hey, let's go back to the drawing board and do that one over Nothing.
Speaker 4The year's not over. I mean, our biggest event is coming up, so it's mid-year Mid-year We've got to learn.
Speaker 3Is that hot? It was a little hotter than I was expecting.
Speaker 4It's kind of stuck in my throat right now.
Speaker 3I mean, justin kind of did like a little choke on that. I haven't even tasted it yet I went all in on it, did you really?
Speaker 4Yeah, it has a kick, Yep.
Speaker 3All right.
Speaker 2Well it's not bad, though you okay. Oh yeah, I'm great. So that's not a two. Nah, it's definitely not a two. Like you go from one to two on this one, it's a big jump. Did you give me the right order? I don't know.
Speaker 1I think so turns out it's actually a ten.
Speaker 2I don't know.
Speaker 3I went in on it, though it's got a kick that one does have a kick, alright, so maybe give me something. Come on now, girl.
Speaker 4I'm thinking so it's, I mean for me. So the annual conference is at a convention center which normally we're using a hotel. So I'm kind of like prefacing this.
Speaker 3But you're nervous.
Speaker 4I'm definitely nervous. Um, the convention center is a whole other animal as far as event planning is concerned. Um, I'm just afraid I'm going to forget something, or something doesn't have approval and we're not going to be able to put like a sticker on a wall, like it's just to the minutest detail, and so for me that's like super stressful and hard. That's something that like keeps me up at night.
Speaker 3Okay, I think that's a good answer because I know you well enough, and I think we're everyone in this room. I think we've seen success with such a small team because we are very good at managing expectations and controlling the situation. Managing expectations and controlling the situation and this is very much. This year's event is filled with too many uncontrollables, and so I respect your answer. I truly do, justin.
Speaker 2Something I've learned. I learned a lot. No, this one's lot. No, um, this one's a tough one too. I mean, I don't want to steal Krista's thunder Cause her, her, her reasoning is so different than mine, like mine's, from like there's just a lot of moving parts to annual Um, but even like I don't know, kind of going back to the summit, the, the bus ride, maybe that was probably a little bit of trepidation, I would say, on my end because I had to ride the bus with the attendees. You did ride the bus, she was such a sweet lady but, man, she took the smallest roads possible. I don't know, maybe just us kind of reevaluating that scenario, like you actually mapping it out.
Speaker 3Yeah, a little bit different. Yeah, I feel like Chris and I were there. We left at the same time, but you and I were there probably a half hour longer.
Speaker 2Oh, at least I mean we would it's. There was one day it probably took 40 minutes and I was just like what are we doing? There was one day it probably took 40 minutes and I was just like what are we doing? Um, and the tightest streets, like just kind of making sure that we had a good route to where we were going or that the vehicle was accommodating to the, to the area. Okay, so that would be something. I'd say that probably as a team, but just because I was on the bus that's's fair.
Speaker 3I think that's a good one, because that was, at least for this association, probably the first time we ever had to use a bus right.
Speaker 4Since I've been here for over seven years. Yeah.
Speaker 3So I mean probably going down that path of having a good mapped out route for the bus driver to take, because, if you're I mean not an exaggeration you and I were just standing there like where the heck is Justin and everyone else. What's taking them so long?
Speaker 4But our GPS took us on those little roads too. I thought we were going to end up in a neighborhood, yeah, but coming back.
Speaker 3It wouldn't always take us on those same roads because we sat in a lot more traffic coming back to the hotel, so we were taking a few more main roads I'm pretty sure, like chris and I like, on the way back one day, like you and I went upstairs and like dropped off all our stuff, like changed, and like we were like did they get lost? Did something happen? Like we were done?
Speaker 2like no, I mean she again. The bus driver was amazing. I can't stress that enough. Um, sweet lady. Yeah, she was very sweet. She made sure not to leave me because I wasn't sitting on the bus. I was like, please don't leave, didn't she hug you too?
Speaker 3yes, she did.
Speaker 2she definitely gave me and chris the hugs, so but no, it was an interesting experience Okay.
Speaker 3Cam, I'm going to skip over you for this question, if you don't mind.
Speaker 1That's fine.
Speaker 3Kate, you don't know.
Speaker 5I don't know. I feel like you know, I've only been here six months.
Speaker 3That's fair. I think there's still a lot to learn, right? Yeah, that's fair. I think there's still a lot to learn, right? Yeah, that's fair. No, it's fair. I mean, you're still in that honeymoon phase where you're still one, you're still learning us, you're still getting your sea legs when it comes to the association and our members. So I mean, I understand, I respect your answer because I think once you have that year under your belt, this time next year, when we do the same silly thing of Hot Ones, you'll be able to truly answer that question. So that's fair, I get it, I get it, I do, I do, I do. That's fair, I get it, I get it, I do, I do. You're probably thinking right now I regret and wish I didn't have to do this episode.
Speaker 5Yeah.
Speaker 2I'm scared. Let's get the next sauce going.
Speaker 3All right, fine, I guess we do have to before I answer the question. Since we have so few questions and so many hot sauces, before answer the question, I will dive into the next hot sauce. The next hot sauce is alchemy peppers. Well, on a scale of, you know, one to ten, this one's a three. Uh, this hot sauce is called alchemy peppers hop sauce. Um, it uses actually hops as in, like hops made for beers. It's serrano and mango. It uses some citra hops, which I personally am a citra fanboy in my beer, so this one should be interesting. That one came out a little too fast for me, so we'll see how this one goes. Krista passed this one along. What did everyone think of that last one?
Speaker 2It was not a two. It was not a two.
Speaker 3It was hot, it wasn't so bad. It was that initial for me.
Speaker 5Oh, I feel like at the end it got hotter.
Looking Forward to the Rest of Year
Speaker 3Well, I mean, we'll see how this one goes. That's nice, that's really nice kind of beer taste to it. Yeah, all right. So you know, for me like lessons learned, I think everything that you, you two, said you know about the convention center and the bus, I think are good points. I don't necessarily know if we're going to do a convention center again. You and I have already talked about that. We like controllable situations.
Speaker 3I think this year, although the summit in Pensacola was a great success I mean, you know, again, thanks to Todd Potter, I mean, his facility was amazing, the Blue Wahoos game was fantastic, you know but then we were right back in Savannah, right, we were pretty much in the southeast, back to back. You know, my only, you know regret was, you know, we were southeast, southeast, you know, pretty much month after month. You know, I kind of wish that we had mapped out you know this year's locations a bit better. And again it's you win some, you lose some. Sometimes you kind of pick based off of you know the years and we map out years in advance and sometimes, hey, you hit home runs, Sometimes you don't. I kind of just wish, you know in hindsight, we kind of were a little bit better in that planning.
Speaker 2But hey, I mean. Savannah was packed too, though, like not only did we have our attendees, we had the ghost of Savannah that joined every one of us.
Speaker 1The ghost of Savannah.
Speaker 2Oh, there were so many.
Speaker 3I mean lights. Everyone talked about the ghost. I don't necessarily know about that.
Speaker 2But all right, you're right, the lights just come on by themselves.
Speaker 3It didn't happen in my room. It didn't happen in my room.
Speaker 2I'm just saying.
Speaker 3I just had, the window shades were broken that supposedly kept breaking. Somehow kept breaking. Even after they fixed them, the window shades kept breaking.
Speaker 2So what was Peter doing to his window shade? Oh, swinging off him, obviously Trying to get over to the cigar bar.
Speaker 3Yeah, no. But so apparently in Savannah the hotel was originally built and it was a former mortuary. Yeah, that's right, it was a former mortuary, like where the restaurant was, so it was one. It was a beautiful hotel, Literally embalmed dead people. Yeah, wow.
Speaker 2And it stayed there.
Speaker 3Yeah, and it was owned by like some really rich guy, and, like where the hotel was, that's where his family lived, and right next door where the restaurant and club bardo, which was like some urban country club thing, right, yeah, pretty much that's where they actually did all the embalmment, and the funeral parlor was there, um, and apparently, apparently the hotel was haunted by some little kid At least that's what the urban legend said, kate, didn't you go down?
Speaker 2some rabbit hole.
Speaker 5Yeah, it was some little girl named Lily or something scary like that.
Speaker 3Yeah, exactly, see it's. Yeah, see, we all went down these rabbit holes.
Speaker 2I mean it was. I mean, Kate even went as far as scaring the pee-pee out of Krista.
Speaker 5Oh yeah, she did. I want to take that back and say that that was my favorite memory of the year.
Speaker 2That was awesome.
Speaker 4I screamed really loud.
Speaker 2It didn't help that we had just walked past a haunted ghost tour and the dude was like like literally talking about how, oh, dead people are buried over there, and they uprooted this house, yeah, okay.
Speaker 3All right, so please tell everyone on the podcast how you scared Krista.
Speaker 5We were going by an old church and it had parts that like stuck out on the side of the siding, so I hid behind it and as soon as she walked by I screamed, and she screamed probably like three times louder than I even did. That's funny, I didn't think it would work, but it actually worked yeah.
Speaker 4Yeah, and then I told you you were going to get fired because you scared me, but you're still here. Yeah, good.
Speaker 2I do love a good jump out scare. Oh, yeah, it was.
Speaker 3It was definitely one where she got krista and I jumped scared pretty good absolutely right at that point in time we knew kate was gonna, was gonna work out pretty much at that point. So on second taste I realized I don't like that hot sauce. I didn't like that one. No, no, it had a weird flavor. It's burnt hops. It had a hot burn to it.
Speaker 4It's still lingering like on my tongue. It's really bad. It's weird.
Speaker 2Yeah, it wasn't that good yeah, let's get another one.
Speaker 3Yeah, I agree, all right, so the next one is five out of ten. It is Hook and Arrow.
Speaker 2Hot sauce. That's it. It had no fun name. Well, that's lame. Yeah, it's just Hook and Arrow, but it is like a sauerkraut and mustard right, sauerkraut and mustard, yeah, that's the one that smells really good.
Speaker 3If you say so, Doesn't really smell good to me, but Justin thinks it smells good. I do think it smells good. It's very chunky, so pass this along, please. Thank you very much, Okay. So next question as we go about and taste these hot sauces sauerkraut and mustard hot sauce Obviously we have annual coming up and we're probably all going to say the same exact thing. But what's the one thing that you're looking forward to for the rest of the year? The rest of the year, let's actually be really specific as much as we possibly can. You can't just say annual. Try to be focused on something really specific. I'll go first. Acuma X.
Speaker 4That was mine. You cannot take it. I'm taking it anyway. Too late Acuma.
Speaker 3X, that was mine. Nope, you cannot take it. I'm taking it anyway Too late. Acuma X it was another one of my crazy ideas.
Speaker 4Legit.
Speaker 3And I definitely took off, though Took off. We had like 40 people apply for it. The people that we selected are fantastic. The people that we selected are fantastic, and I think it's going to be a very powerful session, or however we want to call it. I guess the six people Six, five, six, six people have awesome stories. Their 10 minutes each are going to be the highlight. Their 10 minutes each are going to be the highlight, and this is going to be something that I just see us doing every single year from this point forward, and it's going to be a staple that we're going to be known for from this point forward.
Speaker 2I mean, we have people come up to you all the time and say I want to speak. How can I speak? Right, Exactly.
Speaker 3They want to break into the speaker world Right. So that's that's the one thing. I'm looking forward to a lot of things at annual, but, like I'm also really looking forward to the mob museum at MBA, that we're doing that little reception yeah, that's going to be fun, that'd be awesome, but anyways, Kate, I need a minute. Are you choking?
Speaker 5No, okay, maybe.
Speaker 3Krista.
Speaker 4Okay, now that you stole the Acuma X thing, you're allowed to share the same thing. No, I'm actually good. So I'm excited this year for, specifically, the exhibit hall. We've rearranged the pattern of the kiosk. We have a lot more going on in there. I think it's going to be vibrant and full and full of activity. So I think that's going to be cool. And I'm also cautiously excited about the after party, because everybody if you're listening to this everybody needs to come to this after party. It's free, just show up with your name badge.
Speaker 2So after party on day one it's on Sunday night after party, the pre after party, yeah it's the after party party.
Speaker 4after exhibit hall party party starts, right, yeah, so it's that lucky strike.
Speaker 2It's the after party party, after exhibit hall party party, before the party starts. Right, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 4Now. So it's at Lucky Strike. It's Sunday evening after the exhibit hall opening reception and it's free for all attendees, so I'm excited to see how that flows and how everybody enjoys the after party.
Speaker 3The free after party.
Speaker 4The free after party Pre, pre, pre and free. The pre-free after party, the pre-after party. The free after party Pre, pre, pre and free.
Speaker 2The pre-free after party.
Speaker 4Pre of what.
Speaker 2The event Pre. Who has an after party on day one of four.
Speaker 4Okay, the pre-party.
Speaker 2Our naming mechanisms were not awful.
Speaker 3You're the marketing person, I don't know how we call this the after party, when it's like Sunday night, the day before the event starts.
Speaker 2One of Peter Benjamin's crazy ideas is to have an after party on day one.
Speaker 1Right, I did not call it an after party About three months in. It's after the reception.
Speaker 2Cameron.
Speaker 4Thank you, cameron. You're welcome After the reception, cameron. Thank you, cameron.
Speaker 3You're welcome.
Speaker 2It is after the reception. And that's how I got the after party name.
Speaker 3Whatever? All right, Cameron, you go next.
Speaker 1All right, so I was going to say the after party as well, but I guess, for me specifically, I have not been to any of our in-person events this year since I was out, so this will cool. It's always really nice, but each year it just gets better and better. And then there's one little thing with the exhibit hall. We're having, like, a smoothie bike. That's going to be fun, so I'm excited to see what that looks like.
Speaker 3It better be good.
Speaker 1I think it will be. I think it will be.
Speaker 3Yeah, you have to work for your smoothies.
Speaker 1Yeah, Pretty cool.
Speaker 3Yeah, all right, kate, now you go.
Speaker 5Well, off the bat, this will be my first annual yeah, so I'm excited to see how that goes.
Speaker 3But you know, you know some of the things that we're doing right.
Speaker 5Yeah, I think. The thing I'm most excited for, though, is a surprise, so I can't say it.
Speaker 2No, not allowed oh, that okay everybody's sitting around the room staring at each other, trying to figure out what and whispering people's.
Speaker 2Yeah, whispering things what kate is cryptically talking about. Okay, justin. So all the above, no kidding, um, I'm excited about the after party. I think that's going to be a good time For sure. Yeah, exactly, why not? I mean it will be. We got a lot going on with that. That's been fun to put to help kind of put together from the branding side. But another thing I'm excited about in the exhibit hall is I think it's probably one of the first times we've done it. It's been one of the first times since I've been here. But we're going to have an Acuma set up as well, so we'll have our own booth where we'll have some putting some cornhole.
Speaker 3We had cornhole last year.
Speaker 2We had cornhole last year and everybody loved it, so we'll have cornhole again and we'll have some fun activities. What's wrong? Fun activities, yeah.
Speaker 4What's wrong? Nothing.
Speaker 2Something on my face? No, yeah, something on your face.
Speaker 3No, I don't. Why are you guys? Stop whispering.
Speaker 4No, I'm laughing, I don't. Can you cut this out? If we need to cut this out? Yeah, I swear, you said porn hole and not corn hole. Yeah, you said porn hole.
Speaker 3I was like oh, Don't cut this out. I'm not cutting that out. One I didn't say Pornhole.
Speaker 2I said Cornhole, I will enunciate Cornhole.
Speaker 4That's better, because it was like Pornhole.
Speaker 2My mouth is coated in hot sauce.
Speaker 3Speaking of hot sauce, let's go to the next one. The next one is 7 out of 10, and it's Smokin' Ed's World Famous Peppers Apricot Sauce. So, like I said, they have apricots in there, so it passes. Oh, I tightened that one too much, sorry. There you go, pass it around.
Speaker 2That's interesting. That's how you read it. I did not read it that way. Apricot, I put CH together, but then I also didn't think that was right, oh no.
Speaker 3All right so keep going.
Speaker 2Acme booth, yeah, so I'm excited about the Acme booth and getting to see all that come together. And then the putting, because this year we're going to try to do like a putt for charity yes, we are. So we're going to try to raise money for the Bollinger Foundation again, which I'm a non-profit guy, so I'm really excited about that as well.
Speaker 3Yep. Oh, I forgot to ask Sauerkraut mustard Meh. It was kind of boring.
Speaker 1Not a fan. Yeah, I didn't really like the flavor.
Speaker 2It was fine. It smelled better than it tasted. I didn't think it was that hot. No Two was definitely hotter than that one Agreed.
Speaker 4Yeah.
Speaker 3Apricot's hot has a nice flavor to it.
Speaker 4The one we just did Apricot. It's not that hot really.
Speaker 3I think it's hotter than two. Has a nice flavor to it.
Speaker 1I think it's hot.
Speaker 3I'm not sure if I'm allowed to say this, but I'm going to say it anyways. I'm also looking forward to the puppies.
Speaker 4They're not puppies, they're therapy dogs. So when you get stressed out because I'm telling you what to do, you go sit by a doggy and pet it.
Speaker 2Oh, I'm so going to be looking for Peter He'll be by the dog.
Speaker 3Who's a good puppy? Have my face in the therapy, dogs Therapy dogs are awesome. Therapy dogs are awesome. That's what it is it's going to be really cool how many dogs we get a day.
Speaker 4Well, it just depends on who signs up, because they're all volunteers. But they also have therapy bunnies and they have a therapy mini horse, oh. So I don't know who's coming Wait.
Speaker 2We're going to have a horse.
Speaker 4I don't know, maybe it's not guaranteed. No, it's a mini horse and that would not work.
Speaker 2We're going to have a pony.
Speaker 4We don't know, Justin.
Speaker 2We're getting a pony. A mini horse is called a pony.
Speaker 4No.
Speaker 1A pony is a baby. Yes, I'm talking about like a little mini horse, those are awesome looking, not a pony.
Speaker 4A pony is a baby horse. A mini horse is a small horse.
Speaker 2Or they're all ponies, or we could just play.
Speaker 4Pornhole. I don't know. Whatever you want to do, Justin.
Speaker 2Leave it to Krista to make it explicit.
Speaker 3So wait, we're getting bunnies also.
Speaker 4It just depends, because everybody who has a therapy pet with this organization is a volunteer. So I just gave them the dates and the times and then people will sign up to come to the convention center with their therapy animal, and there's a variety of animals that are available. It just depends on who has time in their schedule to come.
Speaker 3But no matter what, it's either going to be dogs, bunnies or pony.
Speaker 4Mini horse, or maybe cats I think they have therapy cats too? No, yuck, no. Oh stop it, you guys, no.
Speaker 2Do you think they have therapy gerbils?
Speaker 4I'm going to need therapy. After talking to you both right now, I need a therapy human. Does Acuma cover that? I think they do your health insurance does.
Speaker 3Perfect, that's going to be so awesome.
Speaker 4It's going to be really cool.
Speaker 3Wait, how are we going to get the pony down an escalator?
Speaker 4The pony will walk in from the loading dock through the hallways. Please don't worry about that. I got it.
Speaker 2That's going to be so awesome.
Speaker 4Just focus on what you need to do, peter, not the mini horses.
Speaker 3Can you imagine how it comes in with a little cowboy hat on?
Speaker 4This is not a circus.
Speaker 2I don't know those little mini horses. I don't know where else they belong.
Speaker 3What was the name of that mini horse in Parks and Rec, little Sebastian? Oh, my God, we digress.
Speaker 3That was so good. That was good, all right. Well, everyone, thank you very much for kind of going through those questions. That was awesome.
Dad Jokes and Final Hot Sauce Challenge
Speaker 3Now it's time to start transitioning to the second segment of the podcast, where we do dad jokes. So did everyone come prepared with dad jokes? All right, excellent. So we love dad jokes here. So in our mid-year reviews, our annual reviews, we always do the fan favorite, the most requested segment of dad jokes. So everyone has two to three dad jokes, and that third dad joke is the makeup dad joke, just in case you fail on the first two. So we're going to have Kate go first with her dad jokes. But before you do that, we still have two more hot sauces left, so we need to go into some hot sauces. So this next hot sauce is on a scale of 1 to 10, a nine, and it's called the Torchbearer Sauce's Sucker Punch Sauce, and again, it's a nine. So I'm gonna take a little dab of it. That's definitely a little dab, krista. Pass this around, please. So, kate, fire away with your dad jokes. Okay, that's definitely a little dab, krista. Pass this around, please. So, kate, fire away with your dad jokes.
Speaker 3Okay, what happened when a Maine fisherman was late to work.
Speaker 5What she lobs? Her job that's decent.
Speaker 1That was going to be one of mine.
Speaker 3Was it really?
Speaker 2Yeah, Clearly Kate and Cameron looked at the same website.
Speaker 5Just lobster jokes, those at the first Google. Okay, don't worry, this one isn't lobster themed. What did the drummer call his two daughters?
Speaker 3What.
Speaker 5Anna one, Anna two.
Speaker 3That was a good one, kate, that was good. All right, cam welcome back. I've got to find another joke. You're supposed to come with three All right, I'll go. What is a lion's favorite state? Lion's favorite steak or?
Speaker 1state.
Speaker 3State.
Speaker 2Maine, maine. Good job. It's always bad when we ruin them All, right, good All right Cam.
Speaker 1This is another Maine-related one.
Speaker 3Go.
Speaker 1Where do horses get?
Speaker 4their hair done.
Speaker 2You mean ponies?
Speaker 1Mini horses.
Speaker 3Where.
Speaker 1Maine Sorry.
Speaker 3I just found that one. Good job, cam, good job. All right, before we go to Krista, what's everyone's thoughts on the hot sauce?
Speaker 2I'm trying to get Cameron to give it to me over here so I can try the hot sauce.
Speaker 3It's good. I actually didn't think it was that hot. What did you say? It was A nine. It was a nine.
Speaker 1I didn't think it was that hot. What did you say? It was A nine.
Speaker 3It was a nine. I didn't think it was that hot. Oh, it stinks, it stinks. Yeah, it doesn't smell good. I didn't think it was that hot.
Speaker 5I'm scared. It's not that hot. I feel like it's starting to get hot.
Speaker 3I felt that apricot was hotter.
Speaker 4That one went in my throat. I don't like that one. It's too hot, too late Down here yeah.
Speaker 3Where.
Speaker 4It's in here, you okay.
Speaker 2Oh yeah.
Speaker 4Have fun editing this that gets so much hotter.
Speaker 1That one's definitely hotter than the one before.
Speaker 2So it's like sweet at first and then just gets spicy. It gets worse, gets worse.
Speaker 5Yeah, doesn't water make it worse?
Speaker 3Yes, water does make it worse. You want some of my chocolate?
Speaker 4milk yes.
Speaker 3Chocolate milk. Does it All right my?
Speaker 2eyes are sweating, it's actually not that bad.
Speaker 5I was getting scared, but I feel like it just stays at the same level.
Speaker 3Wait till. We eat till 11.
Speaker 5Yeah, no.
Speaker 3All right, Krista jokes. Krista is taking off clothes.
Speaker 4I'm just taking off my vest Because I have a lot of layers on because it was cold, but now I'm hot. I asked my mom why she married an author. She replied because I found a lot of layers on because it was cold, but now I'm hot. I asked my mom why she married an author. She replied because I found Mr Right.
Speaker 3It's a book, one it's a book one.
Speaker 4I like books, I like paper.
Speaker 2Krista is sometimes known as the tree slayer.
Speaker 4Whatever, what did the buffalo say to her son as he left for school?
Speaker 3Bye son, you got it.
Speaker 2Kate passed the T.
Speaker 3All right, Justin, you okay dude.
Speaker 2Yeah, I'm great, I'm living the dream over here.
Speaker 4Don't take any clothes off, please.
Speaker 2There's nothing to take off, don't worry.
Speaker 3All right, before we get to Justin, we have to do it I missed the middle of that milk too, kate. All right, so the last hot sauce. It is on a scale of one to 10 and 11. It is the hot ones hot sauce. It's the last dab. The Reaper edition We'll see it's not even pouring out. That's how thick it is. There it is Very chunky, probably want to shake it. Oh, that one smells like gasoline. All right, here you go.
Speaker 2That one was really hot, All right well, so this is not going to be pretty.
Speaker 3I'm going to wait until after my dad jokes and we're going to wrap up with this one, All right. Well, this is not going to be pretty. I'm going to wait until after my dad jokes. I'm going to wrap up with this one, All right, so Justin.
Speaker 2Did you know your pupils are the last part to stop working. When you die, it's because they dilate. I swear.
Speaker 4I've heard that one before. That was so bad.
Speaker 2That was so good. That was so good, that was so bad. You get mad about the good ones. All right. What did Tennessee? The same thing as Arkansas. That's so bad.
Speaker 3You didn't like them. No, they were so bad.
Speaker 4That's a point.
Speaker 2Yeah, I mean Give me a third. Those were great. Okay, when should you ask someone out on a coffee date? When, when you like them a latte?
Speaker 3That's a good one.
Speaker 2Thank you, all three of those were great. No, you just don't like the cringy ones.
Speaker 5That one's really hot All right.
Speaker 4Is that enough.
Speaker 2Oh my God, it's like 57 sauce, like Heinz 57? Oh my God, it's like 57 sauce Like Heinz 57?.
Speaker 3Oh yeah, I didn't taste it yet.
Speaker 2I didn't taste it, it just looks like it All right.
Speaker 3All right. How does an Englishman invite a dinosaur out for lunch?
Speaker 2Nope, okay.
Speaker 3T-Rex, that was a good one. Thanks, I don't get it. It was bad, it's terrible. All right, fine, here's a good one. What's the german word for bra? This will stop them from dropping.
Speaker 4Oh my god.
Speaker 3Wow, I love that one. You alright, justin. Nope, you okay, that's hot. I haven't even tried it yet, you okay. Yeah, all right, I haven't even tried it, I'm going to go for it. Oh, please, do you try a lot? Yeah, of course I tried a little bit of it.
Speaker 4I still have those other ones in my throat.
Speaker 2How much. I might as well more than that, but I'm sure.
Speaker 1I'm glad I did.
Speaker 2As we all listen to Peter chew. I don't taste it. Give it a minute. Where is it? For me? It's at the back of my throat. Yeah, there it is. Yeah, see, yeah, it's hot, it's a lingering one.
Speaker 4My whole mouth is burning.
Speaker 2My tongue and my throat. It's like one side's gone numb. One side of your face has gone numb. That would be cool, though, but no, that didn't happen yet. Yeah, I'm fine If I lost eyesight in one eye because of this just temporarily. That'd be pretty cool too, alright, well, everyone, thank you very much for being on the podcast, really enjoyed our conversation.
Speaker 3That'd be pretty cool too, all right, well, everyone, thank you very much for being on the podcast.
Speaker 2Really enjoyed our conversation, especially one of our faster mid-year reviews yeah, last year was an hour and a half long good for us.
Speaker 3Good for us efficiencies yep, there we go.
Speaker 2Efficiency. Kate's over here going.
Speaker 3Thank god she's like I'm so happy this is done with all right. Well, everyone, thank you very much for being here. Really do appreciate it, and thank you for everything you do for our members um, supporting, um well, okay, it did kick in all right. So thank you for supporting them, but also going along with going along with all my crazy ideas, so it was fun.
Speaker 2Yeah, no, this was fun and thank you, peter, Of course, all right and close out.
Closing Thoughts and Goodbyes
Speaker 3Thank you to everyone for tuning in to the latest episode of Actions On Point podcast. We hope you enjoyed it. Until next time, be well, my friends.
Speaker 1Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time at the Acuma On Point Podcast. If not already, be sure to subscribe and give us a five-star rating For more great episodes and information. Be sure to visit us online at acumaorg and to get the latest updates. Head over to our LinkedIn page.
