What Team Culture Sounds Like Under Heat

Carolina Reaper hot sauce has a funny way of making people tell the truth. While we work our way through five sauces from The General’s Hot Sauce, our ACUMA team shares the real stories behind this year’s credit union mortgage events, from unforgettable off-sites to the small details that make members feel connected. It’s our fan-favorite hot sauce challenge, but it’s also a practical debrief on what creates value at a conference.

We talk about what stood out at summits and workshops in places like St. Louis, Dallas, San Diego, and Baltimore, including the moments members still bring up today. Then we get specific about programming: why icebreakers like the scavenger hunt actually improve networking, why roundtable discussions can be the most productive part of the agenda, and what it looks like when credit unions and vendors collaborate in ways that help everyone solve real mortgage and servicing challenges.

We also share lessons learned you can apply to any event plan, including how traffic and transportation can shape the attendee experience, as well as a growing problem for associations: fake travel agent calls and emails targeting registered attendees. We close with what we’re looking forward to next, including ACUMA Annual in Las Vegas, September 20-23, more network meetings and roundtables, and a kickoff luau we cannot wait to see come to life. Subscribe, share this with a colleague, and leave a five-star rating if you want more episodes like this.

Transcript

Welcome And Disclaimers

SPEAKER_03 0:00

This is Atkins on Point Podcast. On today's episode, our fan favorite episode, our hot sauce challenge, you're not gonna want to miss it.

SPEAKER_01 0:23

The 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.

Meet The Team And Setup

SPEAKER_03 0:40

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, hello, and welcome to Acumazon 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 the miracle workers of Acuma, Krista Korfmacher, Director of Events. Krista, say hi.

SPEAKER_00 1:00

Hello, everybody. Hello, Peter. Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_03 1:03

Howdy. Yeah, my pleasure. Justin Hawkins, the Hawk, Director of Marketing. Justin, say hi. Hey, how are you? I'm good. Thanks. I'm good. And last but not least, making her official hot sauce episode debut, Nicole Herrick, Director of Business Development. Nicole, say hi.

SPEAKER_01 1:26

Hi, everybody.

SPEAKER_03 1:27

I love it. Love it. All right, guys. Looking forward to uh this episode. I think what this is, Justin, correct me if I'm wrong. This is our third time, fourth time doing it. Fourth time. Fourth time.

SPEAKER_02 1:39

This is our fourth annual.

SPEAKER_03 1:40

Yeah, thank you very much for saying that because people can't see your hands when you just throw up the number four. So you can't see me. You can't see me type thing. But yeah, this is gonna be awesome. Our fourth time doing this. It gets better and better every time. And a little bit runnier, runnier, right? Yeah, a little bit runnier. Similar format to what we've done in the past. Before we get to it, as we always do, we gotta take that step back.

Summer Hiatus And ACUMA Updates

SPEAKER_03 2:24

Hawk. Please tell us what is the latest and greatest happening over at the American Credit Union Mortgage Association.

SPEAKER_02 2:35

Wow, the whole thing. I sure did. I went there. All right. Can you believe it's already been six months, though? I I feel like we woke up yesterday and it was 2026 and now here we are six months in. Like that is insane. I feel shocked. Shocked or shot?

SPEAKER_07 2:49

Shocked. Okay, good.

SPEAKER_01 2:51

Dazed.

SPEAKER_07 2:52

Yes, sir. Dazed. Dazed. Great movie.

SPEAKER_02 2:57

But just saying. All right, all right, all right. We didn't plan that. All right. So, anyways, I think the biggest thing that we need to mention prior to kicking things off with the event update is that we're gonna take a a break this summer on the podcast. So this is gonna be the last episode we do for a few weeks. So I know we're gonna take some RR though. We get some some rest, and some of us are going on vacations to California. Sorry, gotta go. But you know, it'll be a good time. You'll be in Maine. Krista's going on lake life, Nicole's got her horses.

SPEAKER_01 3:30

Yeah. Am I the only one that's not going on vacation?

SPEAKER_03 3:33

Yeah, it's a staycation for you, probably, but I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 3:36

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 3:36

We need to take some time off. I guess. Yeah, yeah. Seriously.

SPEAKER_03 3:38

She'll plan the listen, well, we're not here. She'll take some time off. I mean, I'll be summering with the bushes up in Maine. But you know, it's summering.

SPEAKER_02 3:47

Summering. Yeah. But we're still gonna be working, we're still behind the scenes, we're still making it happen. So we're still in office for the most part, aside from a few of our vacations.

SPEAKER_03 3:56

Yeah, do we actually take vacation? Because my laptop's coming with me. I actually picked, we're staying a few nights in one town in Maine and a few more nights in another town. And I purposely picked houses that had offices.

SPEAKER_02 4:11

That's not weird.

SPEAKER_03 4:12

So I I had you literally chose your vacation to work. You were like, oh No, no. One, I'm gonna be hiking all throughout Maine, so that's gonna be awesome. I'm gonna hit some breweries, I'm eat my weight in lobster. This is gonna be a glorious vacation.

SPEAKER_02 4:28

Yeah. See, and I I'm going to a baseball game in California. I get to go finally go to the Dodgers, convince my wife that's not a bad place. See, it's not bad. See, although we work. Yeah, we play hard too. Yeah, I guess. Yeah, but so things are still happening. Annual registration's open. Uh this year we're gonna be in Las Vegas from September 20th to the 23rd. The agenda is just, I mean, it's amazing. The speakers that we already have lined up are just I mean, we say it every year, but I I feel like every year we just sort of like try to just outdo ourselves from the previous year. And I think that Peter and Krista, you guys have done a great job at really like amping up that agenda and those speakers for this year. Thank you. Up next for our networks, we have our next neck network meeting on July 9th. That's going to be our servicing network. They're having their quarterly meetings, so head over to the Acme website to learn more about that. And then just stay tuned to emails, check our calendars, look at your LinkedIns because our webinar series are happening a couple times a month. And after the summer hiatus, we'll be back for our regular on schedule, our regular scheduled podcast episodes. So the next one will be coming back out on July 22nd. So stay tuned for that. And then if you're curious about anything else going on in the Acuma world and so much more, head over to the Acuma website. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 5:43

Awesome job. Thank you very much.

Sauce One And Favorite Event Moments

SPEAKER_03 5:45

Of course. All right, so let's focus on the hot sauces. So we're doing something slightly different this year. In years past, we would go and find a whole bunch of random hot sauces by, you know, different producers, different flavors, etc. This time, they'll all be varying levels of flavor and varying levels of spiciness. But this time we actually have five hot sauces from the same exact producer. The producer is the general's hot sauce. We have some ranging anywhere from mild all the way up to we're gonna be breathing fire. So this is gonna be exciting. But before we get to the our first question, as always, we gotta start with the first hot sauce. Nicole, you're sitting next to me. Why don't you go ahead and take some, pass it down? The first hot sauce we are tasting is, like I said, the generals hot sauce. This is called Grunt Green, and in theory, this should be considered a mild hot sauce. So I'm gonna take a quick taste.

SPEAKER_01 6:51

Is this is this a bad time to say that I'm allergic to hot sauce?

SPEAKER_03 6:56

No, you're not.

SPEAKER_01 6:57

Too late.

SPEAKER_03 6:59

We checked.

SPEAKER_07 7:01

Alright, that's not bad.

SPEAKER_06 7:03

It's okay.

SPEAKER_07 7:03

What's the flavor profile?

SPEAKER_06 7:05

Do you remember? I do. Green cayenne.

SPEAKER_03 7:10

It doesn't really say on the bottle. It's kind of meh.

SPEAKER_00 7:14

I really like it actually.

SPEAKER_03 7:16

Boring.

SPEAKER_00 7:17

Yeah, it's okay, fine.

SPEAKER_03 7:19

Yeah. Alright, so first things first. First question. Now that we got that easy hot sauce out of the way. That was just a walk in the park. Alright, favorite moment so far. I'm gonna pick on Krista. If you could. When you think about obviously we we've we switched things up this year, unlike in years past, where we had our events spaced out pretty decently, and we really stacked them up this year. We were pretty much gone every other week. New cities doing awesome things. And so I mean for me, I think there's a lot of great moments, a lot of great connections made. But from your perspective, and obviously from everyone's perspective, I want to hear your favorite moments so far this year. So, Krista, you're up first.

SPEAKER_00 8:09

Peter, as pretty much everybody I think knows, Cameron and I split the small events this year. So I went to the St. Louis Summit and the San Diego workshop. And I want to be a Clydesdale in my next life because they are treated so good. Those horses are like treated so well. They're so beautiful, they're so graceful. And we had we not only had like kind of a viewing of where they stay at Anheuser Busch in St. Louis, but we had a Clydesdale come out into the outdoor patio and we got to touch it and fe and pet it and take pictures with it. And it was just so beautiful. And I love horses anyways. So that was a highlight. I mean, I love seeing all of our members. We're always grateful for their participation, for our sponsors, everything. But the Clydesdale was just like super cool.

SPEAKER_03 9:00

No, it was. I mean it was pretty rad. Did you get a picture of you riding one?

SPEAKER_00 9:05

He was not allowed to get on it.

SPEAKER_03 9:07

No, I kept so I actually kept asking. At first they thought I was joking. And then they realized that after like the fifth time asking. This guy's nuts. That that I was actually being serious.

SPEAKER_00 9:21

I'm like, Peter, no.

SPEAKER_03 9:23

And finally they were like, sir, you can't ride the Clyde sales. No one rides the Clyde Sales.

SPEAKER_05 9:29

I'm like, all right.

SPEAKER_03 9:31

I guess I'm gonna have to move on past that. But I mean, it was pretty cool, you know, petting it. Yeah, I actually the one that came out, I forgot the name. Do you remember the name, Nicole?

SPEAKER_00 9:40

Mm-mm. I don't.

SPEAKER_03 9:42

It was small in comparison to some of the other ones, but it was still gigantic.

SPEAKER_00 9:46

Gigantic. And they get their hay grown, especially for them up in Idaho, I think, and taken down by a semi truck. I mean, it was this whole amazing process for these horses.

SPEAKER_03 9:57

So they get bathed daily. Yeah. So they want for nothing. Yeah, their paddock was cooler, when I say cooler, temperature-wise, than any other part of the facilities that we were in. I think they kept it like at 65 degrees. And it was a had ended up being a hot day that day. Everything was perfectly clean. You walked in there and it didn't even smell like horses.

SPEAKER_00 10:21

No, it was amazing. They retire after 15 years.

SPEAKER_03 10:25

Yeah. And then they just live a good life.

SPEAKER_01 10:26

Living the dream, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:27

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 10:27

That's right. Put come glue. So what we're saying is that they've uh figured something out. They do. Yeah. They live for fifty, like work for 15 years and just sounds nice. Erase pastures. Come on. That's right.

SPEAKER_03 10:39

YOLO. All right. So Krista, thank you very much. All right, Nicole.

SPEAKER_01 10:42

Well, that was mine also. So I'll shift gears.

SPEAKER_03 10:45

Uh no, you you can no expand on it if you want to.

SPEAKER_01 10:47

Yeah, yeah. So I just joined Acima in January. So it's been a whirlwind for six months here, just getting adjusted and got to attend my first summit. So I've been attending Acuma conferences for the last four or five years, but I had never had the chance to join a summit. So that was awesome. And yeah, the Clydesdills. I'm a horse gal, if you know me. So that was definitely a highlight. I think his name was Joey. Does that sound right? Did I make that up?

SPEAKER_03 11:15

I feel like it definitely was like a a person name, like a person name. Cole. Yeah, it was like it was George. Um Bob. Oh, Jangles. That's what Josh Schindle's dog's name. Of course it is.

SPEAKER_01 11:31

No, I think the offside experience, like of course, the agenda and conference is great, seeing everybody, like you said, Krista. It's just good to see our people, you know. And you see the same people a lot of times year over year, and it's just good to reconnect and give them a hug in person. But the offside experience was pretty cool. So we went to Billy Bob's in Dallas. That was a blast. That was cool. We got a private rodeo. Definitely a highlight. Definitely my my cup of tea there. So that's right.

SPEAKER_02 12:02

Country girl.

SPEAKER_01 12:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:03

All right, Justin. I was in Dallas. For me, it was probably the experience that we had there. So we went to Billy Bob's as Nicole just mentioned. And there was like two animal things that were really exciting in Billy Bob's, right? So there was one, it was the bull riding show of the rodeo that we got to see. And we had attendees who brought their spouses with them back to the experience, and they were saying that they were there the night before, and they only had like three riders, and they were like, they really put out like a lot of really good riders for us. I think there was like somewhere between like eight to twelve riders. Uh oh yeah, something like that. Yeah, it was it was a good number. Oh, it was a good number. And they were like, Yeah, they're like, so I don't know what you guys did, but like this is incredible. And like, no, none of them rode the whole eight seconds and bull riding. I just couldn't even imagine doing that for a living. Dude, remember how that guy got caught up?

SPEAKER_03 12:54

Oh yeah. Like the he broke his he broke his hand or something. You could hear a pin drop as he was being dragged around that arena by the bull. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:03

It's not good.

SPEAKER_02 13:04

Yeah, no, that was not good. But I mean, from a spectator perspective, that was awesome. And he was fine. I mean, he broke his hand.

SPEAKER_07 13:12

I mean, it sucks.

SPEAKER_03 13:12

He still was able to climb up out of the ring. Yeah. And he was fine. Yes. His his his glove was all torn up. He broke his hand, but it was so it was it was amazing.

SPEAKER_02 13:22

Yeah, it was awesome to see. I mean, just and bulls are just magical creatures in general. Which then takes me to my second favorite animal moment in Dallas, which was the imitation bull that we all got to take pictures of with.

SPEAKER_03 13:35

It used to be an electric bull. I guess it was so old that they people couldn't ride it anymore. So they they retired it like they did the Clydesdales 15 years.

SPEAKER_02 13:42

Definitely older than 15 years. Yeah, probably. I mean, it's probably had enough butts on it. Yes, there's but uh the team took a photo. Um it wasn't just a team, it was a bunch of our members as well.

SPEAKER_04 13:52

Ten of us.

SPEAKER_02 13:53

Yeah, that was the most uncomfortable way to sit in the photo.

SPEAKER_03 13:55

What are you talking about? I was in the front and I had the weight of every single person being pushed on me.

SPEAKER_02 14:00

I was in the back and I had my entire weight being pushed on me. So yeah, it hurt. It was a very interesting way to sit. But the my favorite photo though had to be uh Peter uh Macera, aka other Peter. His photo outside of the the group photo was probably the best one that we got to see. He was like grabbing it by its horns with his mouth wide open, going, you know, like screaming. So it was hilarious.

SPEAKER_01 14:27

I don't think I saw that.

SPEAKER_02 14:28

Oh yeah. It was no, he he was very proud of it. He was going around showing everybody. Oh shit. Oh, yeah, he emailed me like three times before the event was over. Do you get a photo? Did you get the photos? I was like, Yeah, man, I got them. I'll send them to you. So he definitely got them. I know he shared it on social media too.

SPEAKER_01 14:43

I'll have to check it out.

SPEAKER_03 14:44

Yeah. No good memories. All right. So I guess you know, for me, I mean, you guys really took a lot of my stuff. And I I will say this. We left Baltimore for you, your hometown. I've had some crazy ideas, but I think this year, like my crazy went to the next level. I mean, Billy Bob's was awesome. I I loved the rodeo. I loved the group pick. I actually was gonna say the group pick. The country singers that were in our private room, they they were phenomenal.

SPEAKER_01 15:11

They were really good. They could sing.

SPEAKER_03 15:13

They absolutely could. And and uh she could sing pretty much anything.

SPEAKER_01 15:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 15:17

I don't know if it's her boyfriend or husband or just general partner. He had a great voice too. Definitely good up and coming Texas country singers. I really enjoyed that. Guinness was awesome. I mean, granted, but I had been there before, right? So I'm not gonna say it's one of my favorite moments. The Guinness Brewery, it's in Maryland, just outside Baltimore. So I can't put that up there. My true favorite moment was Chris and I took a side trip to Tampa, Florida, and to do a and I guess it's uh breaking news that we're we're totally dropping this right now. Yeah. I mean hot this hot off the press right here. This is a hot one. You and I went to Tampa just to plan out or take a site visit to the J.W. Marriott Water Street and the and the Marriott Water Street for 2029's annual conference, and we were blown away about how one, beautiful the properties were, two, how amazing that city was. That right there, yes, Anheuser Busch, Guinness, Billy Bob's, San Diego, all fantastic and fun events. That was a highlight for me.

SPEAKER_00 16:33

I think it was just surprising because I mean, Florida, we always think about maybe Orlando or Miami, and Tampa's like this hidden gem on the other coast. And yeah, it was just vibrant, is the only word that I used to describe it. Like we really enjoyed it.

SPEAKER_03 16:48

Yeah, it was a young, a young, energetic city that had a lot of history, great food. I think in 2029, our members are gonna be in for a real treat.

SPEAKER_00 17:01

No, I totally agree. Walkable, water everywhere, just great paths. I saw two dolphins, like it was just really, really cool. Great foodie town.

SPEAKER_03 17:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:11

Great foodie town. So yeah, it's gonna be super fun for 2029 annual.

SPEAKER_03 17:15

I didn't see any um dolphins when I was in Tampa. I did see a sea lion when we were in San Diego, though, so I thought that was pretty cool.

SPEAKER_02 17:21

I was gonna say Nicole's gonna be like super jealous because she and I went on a walk one morning and she was like, let's walk by the water and see if we can see stuff. It was just like, I want to see wild fishes. And I was like, okay.

SPEAKER_03 17:36

I actually took a video of uh the sea lion I saw from jail. It was literally just doing like a backstroke, just floating down the harbor, and I was like, that guy has the best life. I have a video of it, I'll show you after we're done.

SPEAKER_02 17:50

Dinner we went to that it was second to last night, I guess. Like you were you were gonna come, and then because of uh the work schedule, you decided not to, but the three of us went out and they were saying that sea lines and stuff like that come right around there all the time. So then Nicole was like super locked in trying to find a sea line the entire night. Or she was hurting.

SPEAKER_01 18:11

She wanted to jump in, but we didn't let her. That's true. No, we did see a stingray. We saw the biggest stingray I've ever seen. I didn't know they made him that big.

SPEAKER_03 18:19

It was like five feet.

SPEAKER_01 18:20

It was huge.

SPEAKER_03 18:21

It wasn't that big.

SPEAKER_01 18:21

Yes, it was.

SPEAKER_03 18:23

So, yeah, I mean, all in all, we've had a lot of great memorable moments this year, which really kind of comes to the second question, is really similar to the first.

Sauce Two And Content Highlights

SPEAKER_03 18:33

You know, the second question is highlights from the events, but before we do it, as always, we gotta pull that hot sauce in. So hot sauce number two is Hooya Jalapeno. Yeah. Hooya.

SPEAKER_01 18:51

Scary.

SPEAKER_03 18:52

All right, so I'm pouring some right now. This one's a lot water. That first one was very thick. There you go. This one is considered a medium temperature. It's green jalapenos, and that's really pretty much it.

SPEAKER_06 19:06

First one to tear up, it loses. It's not bad. It's not hot. I'd consider that mild.

SPEAKER_03 19:17

It's not good. It's not good.

SPEAKER_06 19:19

Yeah, I didn't I didn't like it.

SPEAKER_03 19:21

Did you smell it? It doesn't smell very good either.

SPEAKER_00 19:24

How come you guys don't like the green ones? I like the green ones.

SPEAKER_02 19:27

So I don't like most green sauces because they usually use cilantro. Yeah, that are like there's like like the verde sauces. Like I'm not I'm just not a big fan of them. Yeah. So like I'm actually looking forward to the rest of them because they're not green.

SPEAKER_01 19:40

They're all red, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:41

All right, so we're gonna go with their reddish.

SPEAKER_03 19:44

We are, we're reddish, brown. All right, so oh, and by the way, these are I mean, they're they're cool bottles. I mean, they all look like hand grenades. Yeah, it's a veteran-owned company. Yeah, I love that. I love that. That's cool. All right, so question number two highlights from the event. So, experiences aside, let's focus on the content, let's focus on the actual events themselves, I guess Tuesday to Wednesday or Monday to Tuesday, like we did in San Diego. What was the actual highlight from the event that you were like, hey, this was awesome. We have to replicate this next year. We'll start with Nicole.

SPEAKER_01 20:22

Well, I have kind of a selfish highlight, if you will. So historically, I've been coming to these conferences like I mentioned, and I am always asking Krista to put me to work. Like, just let me help, let me do something, I don't care what it is, set up, break down, anything. And she always, always refuses. But now that I'm actually on the Acima team, she does put me to work and she's telling me what to do all the time. And actually, it's nice. It's nice to be able to help out and to actually get to pitch in and everything. So, I mean, obviously that's not an answer to your question, but it is that works. It was a highlight for me for sure.

SPEAKER_03 21:02

I dig I dig that. I dig that. I I'll I'll go next. For me, three years ago, we started the icebreakers at our workshops. Yeah, we did you know, survive the Himalayas, we did Solve a Murder, we did uh Rock, Paper, Scissors contest, which caught on like wildfire. Everyone does that now. I guess that was that would have been four years ago, then four years ago. Yeah. This year we did a scavenger hunt, and I thought that was awesome. It was fun seeing everyone's pictures, but what I loved the most that the true highlight was seeing the winners walk around with their medals. Proudly. Proudly. Proudly. Some of them even wore it out to like their evening receptions. Like and for those who didn't attend San Diego, uh, we actually got like these like six. Six inch like acrylic Olympic like medals that said first place in the Ashma scavenger hunt. They wore it proudly, like they were rubbing in everyone's faces, and people were mad because they didn't win them. And I mean, granted, I w I was hoping that there was gonna be a team of like five because we had six. Yeah. So I had to keep one, but they all went. But yeah, that that was most certainly one of my favorite things is just see how invested our members were in that, the attendees were in that, but also how proud and how much they they love that network, that networking opportunity. That was mine. Justin, what about you?

SPEAKER_02 22:41

Man, so for me, I think one of my favorite moments at most of our like with our summits and our workshops, is the roundtable discussions. Like I really just love watching credit unions just come to life during those. But the one in San Diego specifically, that one really took a life of its own. Like we had some really top-notch members there, and we had people asking questions. Amy, who's on our board, became Amy Moser became a just super subject matter expert. Like people were picking her brain left and right, and the number of people that came up to me afterwards or just the team and was like, you know, she's phenomenal. Like, we're so glad she was here. Like those types of people, like that experience that our members are getting when they come to our events and they're in those discussions and part of those roundtable discussions, and they're active participants, like that to me is one of the the highlights every time I get to see it, just because like coming outside of the credit union world, you don't get that level of collaboration by any means.

SPEAKER_01 23:49

Right. She had some very interesting things that they were working on that they figured out. I actually I made some phone calls after that and called a few credit union folks just to share the people that are in my network that would benefit from some of those things that they've launched. It's it was I'm still kind of mind blown about what they're doing over there. Amy in particular.

SPEAKER_03 24:13

It was awesome. And Justin, I was similar to you. I got a lot of feedback from people saying how amazing it was. What I enjoyed the most about that round table, and candidly speaking, like draw in the number of attendees that we wanted. For me, I guess that's a good lesson learned, right? How do we approach that for next year? But unlike other round tables where we have, where credit unions really just wanted to focus on credit unions and and and only hear from other credit unions, that group was so collaborative across the board that everyone from credit union A to vendor Z were providing positive feedback to each other and truly trying to elevate the next person, the person sitting next to them, which I think that was probably one of the first times I've seen that.

SPEAKER_02 25:12

Yeah, and like from the vendor perspective, like we've had feedback that's you know, our our our vendors are taking over the conversation too much. But then in this one, we didn't really hear that at all. Instead, what we got from our vendors and our sponsors that were there was sort of that next level question, you know, like, you know, how can we support you with that challenge as they were discussing it. So they were really playing that that role that I think that our credit union members really look for them to play is like understand me and then help me solve my challenge.

SPEAKER_03 25:46

Yeah, I mean it was good. We do get a lot of that feedback and we we do our best to monitor it as as best we possibly can. This time we didn't have to. It was the right group that was in that room. Absolutely. All right, Chris, so what about you?

SPEAKER_00 26:00

Sure. So my highlights are lunch beers.

SPEAKER_03 26:06

Compliance beers.

SPEAKER_00 26:07

Compliance beers. So as you guys can all hear, there's a theme here. And I don't know if somebody who's the president of our association likes beer, but it's not a bad thing. Don't get me wrong. So do I. But in Anheuser Busch at the St. Louis Summit, Peter comes up to me on day two and he's like, Do you think we could just get lunch beers? I'm like, sure we can. We are in a brewery. So everybody was thrilled. We kind of secretly wheeled in the lunch beers, and Peter made the announcement, and I was like cracking up, and everybody's like, Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 26:37

So it was it was awesome.

SPEAKER_00 26:39

We had lunch beers, and then Michael Christians does our compliance updates, and he's super boring. So we uh snoozville, snoozeville. Yeah, seriously, got jeez, Michael. So we got compliance cocktails in there for his session at the end of the day. So there's that.

SPEAKER_02 26:56

I think he loved that too.

SPEAKER_00 26:58

He did love it.

SPEAKER_02 26:59

He was like, wait, we're having drinks, they're all staying awake.

SPEAKER_00 27:02

Yeah, totally. So that was really fun for San Diego, too. So those just made me smile.

SPEAKER_03 27:07

Okay, love that. Love that. All right, so next hot sauce, before we get to our next question, it is called Shock and Awe. It is a red cayenne and orange habinero sauce. It is considered hot. So we'll cut on a scale of one to five, with one being mild, this wouldn't be technically considered a three.

SPEAKER_01 27:32

That's pretty spicy.

SPEAKER_03 27:34

Is it?

SPEAKER_01 27:34

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 27:34

Are we like cheaping outside or are we like going all in? Like maybe. I went all in. I mean, so far I've gone all in. Nicole's got like Nicole's like little dab.

SPEAKER_03 27:44

Yeah. Remember how Cameron used to do it?

SPEAKER_00 27:46

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 27:47

Like the smallest it'sy bitsy teardrop.

SPEAKER_00 27:52

I don't think that was that bad. I mean, it's a little spicy, but I like it actually. Made some ranch though.

SPEAKER_03 27:57

Yeah, we definitely have had hotter hot sauces. No, it's not not bad. That's really good. I love habanero, though.

SPEAKER_05 28:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 28:06

It's kind of one l one flavor profile for that one. I don't know what the orange cayenne thing. I don't know. It was no, it's orange, red cayenne, and orange habanero. Oh. Yeah, it was good.

SPEAKER_01 28:18

I mean, my mouth is still on fire. Anyone else?

SPEAKER_03 28:21

Just the ones we've gotten some in the years past. Or they hurt. Well, yes, they hurt, but it's they've also been pretty complex. Like they've had like a Korean barbecue type thing or blueberry, kiwi, pomegranate, blah, blah. Or like we've had a few that were like maple syrup, yeah. Also, maple syrup infused hot sauces. So it was spicy, but also a little sweet. I mean, those, in my personal opinion, those were good. Anyways, lessons learned.

Sauce Three And Lessons Learned

SPEAKER_03 28:51

That's the next question. Kind of hinted at it, right? You know, from mine. And that was really obviously, although San Diego was absolutely awesome, the hotel was fantastic, San Diego was beautiful, as always. Man, San Diego. The people who attended were awesome. That I just wanted to see more credit unions come. Part of it is, yeah, you know, I want people to come together. I want to bring people together and have that connection. But for me personally, again, I I've said it before, workshops are where I I fell in love with the association, right? Back when I was a member, my first workshop was what, Nashville 18, 2018. And so it's the lesson learned is really, okay, well, how can we plan this better and still not lose that sense of that creating that space for our members? I'm worried that the workshops have run their course. You know, it would be harder to see them go, that type of event, but maybe we just evolve it, right? And so that that was just interesting. So I feel like the summits, which are designed to be smaller, were huge successes. This was the only one that I kind of felt like I wish it was more, right? Even though it was a great event, once we were there, I think when I'm saying I wish there was just more people here to experience. Yes. So that was me. Krista, what about you? What are some of your lessons learned?

SPEAKER_00 30:20

So I think, and I don't have any idea how we alleviate this, and I'm not sure if it's a lesson or a point of contention or annoyance or something. But as you guys have probably all experienced, hopefully not many, but once we opened registration for annual, our members, speakers, people just got like inundated with these fake travel agent calls, emails, phone calls constantly. It even happened in San Diego, too, didn't it? Yeah. So well, he keeps coming up. Him again.

SPEAKER_01 30:54

Well, I just have to take little jabs while I can. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 30:57

Well, you gotta be careful though.

SPEAKER_01 30:58

Why?

SPEAKER_03 30:59

You know why.

SPEAKER_00 31:00

Because he retaliates.

SPEAKER_03 31:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:02

But um He'll call you out. So we've just had, I've gotten several calls, several emails from our members just saying, like, is this legit? I've already booked a room here, what should I do? I don't know what to do. Justin and I have talked uh in circles about this. There's really probably nothing we can do as an association because if our information's on a website, any scammer, spammer, mean person can get it and do what they want. But maybe there's some way we can preempt it in the future, notifying people we send emails out, but sometimes our membership just doesn't get the emails. It's a problem, especially in Vegas. I don't even remember having this issue in Denver. So just note to self and future Vegas conferences just to kind of figure out a little bit of a game plan on that.

SPEAKER_03 31:52

Yeah, sure, for sure. No, that's a good one. That's a good one. And you know, again, it's it's not us. It's in many ways, it's out of our control. If we can somehow figure, you know, solve that, that, solve that mystery, I think we'll be better off and our members will be happy. Nicole, what about you?

SPEAKER_01 32:08

Lesson I learned stems back to the San Diego workshop and actually the scavenger hunt. So Tom Murphy and I were on a team and we thought we had it in the bag. So we went ahead and snuck away from the group and had a celebratory drink, a little confession here. Yeah, yeah, we did because we we were very confident that we won.

SPEAKER_03 32:30

Mr. Murphy. Look at you corrupting him.

SPEAKER_01 32:33

Yeah, yeah. But we didn't win. So we actually lost by three whole minutes. Yeah. So less amount of time it took you to drink your cocktail.

SPEAKER_02 32:45

Let's be as deliberate as possible with that. She sent or tried to send the email three minutes after the winner had already been determined. The email did not come in for like three or four hours. Like it never went through. So she was in last place beyond belief.

SPEAKER_01 33:05

Had the email sent, okay, we would have been second place, right? Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 33:11

Well, did you not first or last?

SPEAKER_01 33:13

Yeah, second place is the first to lose.

SPEAKER_03 33:15

So yep.

SPEAKER_01 33:16

Lesson learned.

SPEAKER_03 33:18

All right. Okay. Lesson learned. All right. Well, I was wondering why you're acting so weird. She was all happy. And by the way.

SPEAKER_01 33:25

Weirder.

SPEAKER_03 33:26

And by the way. For those that didn't know, this was like 9 30 in the morning.

SPEAKER_01 33:31

It was it was a bloody merry. I mean, I feel like that's an appropriate morning. Celebratory drink.

SPEAKER_02 33:36

Beverage drink. If you say so. Justin. For me, I think the lessons learned, and we sort of addressed it this year as well, but the bus ride from Fort Worth the Hotel to Billy Bob's in Dallas, and the with the amount of traffic in Fort Worth, we were on that bus forever. And our members, I think they felt it. I know I felt it. I was there with them. So they weren't alone by any means, but it became a point of like, like we heard it in our survey feedback, even that the bus ride was just unbearably long, or that it was just too far away from A to B. And so we did make adjustments when it came to Baltimore because we were sort of in that same boat where there was a lot of back and forth, and there's traffic in the DC metro area quite a bit, and Baltimore is kind of part of that area. So we wanted to make sure that we weren't just sitting in traffic again. So we mitigated it by just going from A to B and just enjoying the experience versus having to go change, go back, all that kind of stuff. So I think that was just something I as a team that we learned. Me, I get to I I'm the one that sort of rides the bus with our members. So I think that was just something that I learned to communicate with you guys that that was point of contention with our members.

SPEAKER_03 35:00

Nicole Cam and I had a nice little buzz going by the time you guys got there. I mean, we were there for like two hours just waiting. Drink.

SPEAKER_05 35:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 35:08

Yeah, we were i I think the it was like an hour fifteen, hour and a half on the bus. Well, we also got there early to make sure everything was set up.

SPEAKER_02 35:15

Yeah. I I we left on time. Like we did not delay leaving. It was just there was just traffic in Fort Worth. And I'm not from there, but I I I know that traffic in the Dallas-Fort Worth area is probably one of the top in the country.

SPEAKER_03 35:28

So hindsight's 2020. Yeah. Next hot sauce is Danger Close. This one is orange habanero. Just straight up.

SPEAKER_01 35:42

It looks scary.

SPEAKER_03 35:44

It smells spicy. Yeah, I don't know about this one. Kind of stings the nostrils.

SPEAKER_06 35:50

Meh. No, it's not spicy. Meh. Meh. Meh. Doesn't taste very good.

SPEAKER_03 35:54

I feel like the last one was hotter.

SPEAKER_00 35:56

Yeah. I agree. Yeah. More of like an after effect, the last one.

SPEAKER_03 36:00

Yeah. This one's kind of unless this one's gonna come get you later on.

SPEAKER_01 36:03

Yeah, it's gonna it's kind of sneaky, maybe a little bit. I'm starting to taste some spice, but I'm almost gonna have to my throat.

SPEAKER_03 36:10

We have yet to have one that's actually made us sweat.

SPEAKER_01 36:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 36:13

Like la I think the past couple years we had that one that was like It's like ghost pepper or something? That was like, yeah, immediate diarrhoea.

SPEAKER_01 36:22

Oh my god. Speak for yourself, Peter.

SPEAKER_03 36:26

So gross.

SPEAKER_01 36:30

Just being honest, I guess, you know.

SPEAKER_03 36:31

I try to hug that line of when we push the explicit. That wasn't that, but that was just nasty. Oh shit. There you go. Did that, got that out of the way.

SPEAKER_01 36:43

I'm glad I wasn't here for that.

SPEAKER_03 36:45

All right.

Sauce Four And What’s Next

SPEAKER_03 36:46

Next question. It's really the last question. What are you looking forward to in the coming months? Justin. A break. That July vacation.

SPEAKER_02 37:01

No. I I think for me it's just and I think well, I think a lot of us are gonna have a similar answer, but it's it's the pieces to annual, watching it all come together. We spend a lot of time on the back end, and just all the work that we put into it, you and Krista working on the agenda, and you know, me on the marketing and Nicole with the members, and there's just so many moving parts that are happening simultaneously at the same time, different lanes, and just watching it all come together. It's a work of production, it's a work of magic. And for me, it's just a really beautiful thing to see. We sort of joke about it all the time that we have this little child, we raise it and we send it off into the world. Well, that's sort of what our annual is what we're raising a child for a year and we send it off into the world at the end of it and we're done with it. Like a true parent, done with our kids when they're 18. Not really.

SPEAKER_03 37:56

All right, Krista.

SPEAKER_00 37:58

Let's see. A couple things for me. I am too, like Justin said, excited about getting annual kicked off. I do love that conference. I love our members. I love our sponsors, I love our exhibitors. Everybody just comes out full force and it was just like a melding of the credit union spirit. Ooh, how where'd that come from? Wow. I haven't even had any French 75s yet. But no, I I do appreciate that. I also appreciate I cannot wait till Wednesday afternoon when I'm laying at the pool at the Fountain Blue after the hotel's uh after the conference is over. I'm gonna hide in a corner with my bottle of Prosecco, and I'm not telling anybody where I am. So don't come and look for me.

SPEAKER_02 38:40

You'll be in the fountain blue with a bottle of prosecco on the corner. You just told everybody.

SPEAKER_00 38:44

Not which pool I'm gonna be at. But in seriousness, it's gonna be it's gonna be great. And I do love putting that all together with everybody here on our team and all of our sponsors and exhibitors. The other thing, really quick, I'm excited about is James Lawrence is speaking. That dude, if you guys not have not read his book, go find his book. He did 50 Ironmans in 50 days in 50 states. I read his book in like 50 minutes. Like it is crazy. He is amazing. He is the fittest individual in the world, pretty much. He's crazy. His wife was along with him. Like he had this whole team. It was just unreal reading his book. So I'm really excited. I normally don't stay in the general session because I'm running around, but I'm going to make a point of being in there at least for part of his message because he's freaking cool. What's the what's the book called? I don't remember.

SPEAKER_03 39:41

Iron Cowboy.

SPEAKER_01 39:42

I am cowboy. There we go. Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 39:44

Cool. Nicole.

SPEAKER_01 39:46

Yeah. So this will be my first annual conference working for Acuma. So obviously looking forward to that. There's just, like Justin said, a lot that goes into it. So the payoff on the other side of the conference. I'm excited for that. And honestly, I'm looking forward to not being new anymore. I hate being new. I hate not knowing just anything like what we do at annual and the different systems and and yada yada. So yeah, looking looking forward to my first year with Acuma in the books.

SPEAKER_03 40:22

Love that. Love that. For me, I think it goes back to annual and I'm going to piggyback off, Krista. I've never gotten a massage in my life. What? And I am based off what you said about the spa, I'm going to carve out time after the event to get a massage. And wasn't there like a special like mist room or something like that?

SPEAKER_00 40:47

It's an entire experience. So there's a men and women's side. You can do like two different temperatures of hot tubs on the men's side and women's course. And then in the middle, there is a shared area where there is a snow room, there's a steam room, eucalyptus room. A eucalyptus room. There is like literally snow coming out of the ceiling in this cold room. There's a cold plunge. There's a regular hot tub. Like it is an overall experience for your body.

SPEAKER_03 41:16

Annual tears me up. Like I'm so exhausted afterwards. So need that. So I'm personally looking forward to that. But I think professionally, we've worked really hard on this agenda. And I'm not trying to reduce any of the sessions. I think this year's agenda has a lot more network meetings, so a lot more roundtables, which I'm pretty excited for because I know our members love them. But I'm really looking forward to that luau.

SPEAKER_05 41:46

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 41:47

That Sunday night luau, it is going to be awesome. And we mean we had some cool things planned for that thing. Last year we started the Sunday night party, the kickoff party. It was at Lucky Strikes last year in Denver. This year it's we had that luau on the Fountain Blue Terrace.

SPEAKER_00 42:08

Yeah, the Water Blue Terrace.

SPEAKER_03 42:09

Water Blue Terrace. It's going to be so awesome. Like, bring your Hawaiian shirts, come win your flip-flops and your board shorts. It's going to be rad. Like that's all I'm going to say. Looking forward to it. Like that. I've been looking ever since we were there for a site visit and they showed us that spot. I just sat there and I was like, this is going to be badass. It's going to be badass. So that's what I'm looking forward to.

Carolina Reaper And Dad Jokes

SPEAKER_03 42:42

So that kind of wraps up the questions. You know, so now we have to start transitioning to that second segment. Like we don't in all the other hot sauce episodes. We're going to go around the horn and do some dad jokes, you know, the most fan-requested number one segment that we do. But before we do it, we have that last hot sauce that we cannot forget about. And now so this one is called Carolina Reaper, Red Cayenne, and Smoky Chipotle Hot Sauce. This one's considered the hottest one that we have. Yeah. All right. So and by the way, it does just smelling it. It smells like kerosene.

SPEAKER_00 43:23

Yeah. Kerosene. I thought you were going to forget it, Peter, and I was like, oh, maybe we don't have to do that last one.

SPEAKER_06 43:35

Uh oh. I don't think I like that.

SPEAKER_03 43:40

I don't think I like that.

SPEAKER_01 43:44

Not a fan. Didn't like it.

SPEAKER_02 43:46

She's like, where are we going to dinner tonight? I might not be coming.

SPEAKER_00 43:50

It's landed like right in the back of my throat. Oh good. Yep. And your face is red, Peter. It's hot. It's not making me sweat.

SPEAKER_03 43:57

Definitely not the hottest one we've ever had.

SPEAKER_00 43:59

No.

SPEAKER_01 44:00

It's also sneaky though, because it's getting worse. And now my nose is running.

SPEAKER_03 44:04

Chocolate milk.

SPEAKER_01 44:05

Oh, genius. Okay. It all makes sense now.

SPEAKER_03 44:09

Chocolate milk is all it's a back of the throat. It coats. It coats your stomach also. Chocolate milk is key.

SPEAKER_01 44:15

Okay, I wondered. See, I don't eat spicy stuff. I don't know each.

SPEAKER_02 44:18

Iced tea.

SPEAKER_01 44:19

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 44:19

No. I can't have chocolate milk, so iced tea. I know. We don't want me to have 10 gallons right over there. There's chocolate oat milk.

SPEAKER_01 44:26

Oh no, it's getting spicier.

SPEAKER_03 44:28

No, it's not.

SPEAKER_01 44:28

Have some ranch. Eat some ranch. Oh, I'll just take a shot of ranch. That's a good thing.

SPEAKER_03 44:31

That's definitely. Oh, do it. Are you drinking a cup? Do it.

unknown 44:34

Do it.

SPEAKER_03 44:35

Drink out of that ramic. Drink the screen. Come on. No, drink the ranch out of the ramekin. Right out of it. There you go. Oh yeah, that's a girl.

SPEAKER_01 44:44

Peer pressure.

SPEAKER_03 44:46

Alright, now that we're done with that, let's go around the horn like we always do with the dad jokes. I asked you prior to this recording to come prepare with two to three dad jokes. You're gonna say two, and you leave that third one just in case the other two bomb or one of the two bombs. And then we wrap up. Sound good? Yep. You alright, Nicole?

SPEAKER_01 45:05

My nose is running.

SPEAKER_03 45:08

You just see her. You better catch it.

SPEAKER_01 45:10

Oh good one. Does that count?

SPEAKER_03 45:13

No. Krista, go.

SPEAKER_00 45:16

Well, since we're in Oklahoma City, here's a couple jokes. Did you hear about the cowboy who died with his boots on?

SPEAKER_03 45:24

No.

SPEAKER_07 45:25

No.

SPEAKER_00 45:25

He didn't want to stub his toe when he kicked the bucket.

SPEAKER_07 45:30

It's a very country one.

SPEAKER_00 45:32

I thought it was funny. Do you want me to keep going or are we doing one? What does it mean when a cowboy finds a horseshoe?

SPEAKER_07 45:39

Good luck.

SPEAKER_00 45:40

His horse is walking around in his socks.

SPEAKER_01 45:45

Mine are also country. Why why shouldn't you play poker with cows? The stakes are just too high. The internet connection at my farm is is really sketchy. So I moved the modem to my barn and now I have stable Wi-Fi. That is good.

SPEAKER_07 46:17

Good job. Thanks. Good job. Justin. Alright. What kind of dog lives in a toilet? A pug? A poodle.

SPEAKER_03 46:31

No, we're going we're going poop jokes in New York.

SPEAKER_02 46:35

I mean, you're the one that brought up diarrhea. Yeah. So just felt like it was fitting. No, that's perfect. And then what's what's a skeleton's favorite type of road?

SPEAKER_06 46:48

A dead end. Dead end. That's funny.

SPEAKER_03 46:54

Alright. What's the leading cause of dry skin? Humidity. Towels. I like that. Good, thank you. What do you call two monkeys that share an Amazon account? Oh, primates.

SPEAKER_04 47:12

Primates. There you go. Yeah. I know that one.

SPEAKER_03 47:14

I have one more since you guys got that. Why do pine trees make poor knitters?

unknown 47:21

Oh, I think I know.

SPEAKER_03 47:23

They're always dropping their needles.

SPEAKER_02 47:24

That's not what I was going to say, but that's a good one. I was going to say it's because they have so many needles. Why are they making a poor Come on, man?

SPEAKER_07 47:33

I don't know.

SPEAKER_05 47:34

All right.

SPEAKER_00 47:35

This last hot sauce is now I can feel it in my tongue. See, I told you, it's sneaky. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 47:39

My mouth is on fire.

SPEAKER_03 47:42

I feel fine. It's a chocolate milk, man.

SPEAKER_01 47:44

Yeah, yeah. No, you you got it figured out. I should have done that.

SPEAKER_03 47:47

All right. So, well, that wraps up this episode of Dad jokes. Honestly, guys, thank you very much for for are you okay?

SPEAKER_00 47:57

Oh my gosh. What was that?

SPEAKER_03 48:00

It got caught in my throat. I was trying to have a sentimental moment.

unknown 48:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 48:06

Slice that out. I I was choking. I was dying. Oh, it's okay.

SPEAKER_03 48:10

It's okay. All right. Well,

Thanks And Where To Follow

SPEAKER_03 48:11

as I thanks for humoring, humoring me guys with this hot sauce episode. I think it's semi-annual at this point. We do it annually. Just once a year? Yeah, we only do the hot sauce once a year.

SPEAKER_01 48:22

Oh, that's good. I'm doing this again this year.

SPEAKER_03 48:27

It's a fun episode. It gives us an opportunity, one, to come together, do it in person. But also, I mean, it's just fun connecting with you guys and joking around with you guys. We're so focused on the day-to-day that we lose sight of the connection, the personal connections that we have. So, guys, thank you very much. And of course, thank you for all that you do for the us, our members, the association, and the team. To that point, Krista, thank you very much for being here.

SPEAKER_00 48:52

Thanks for having me, Peter.

SPEAKER_03 48:54

You're very welcome. Nicole, thank you.

SPEAKER_00 48:56

No, thank you.

SPEAKER_03 48:58

Are you uh gonna come back?

SPEAKER_01 49:01

We'll see. We'll see.

SPEAKER_03 49:03

Cool, cool, cool, cool. Justin, thank you. Of course, it was my pleasure. And to all of you, we know your time is valuable. Thank you for tuning in to the latest episode of Acuma's On Point Podcast. We hope you enjoyed it. Until next time, be well, my friends.

SPEAKER_01 49:18

Thanks 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, visit us online at Acuma.org. And to get the latest updates, head over to our LinkedIn page.

SPEAKER_00 49:39

This podcast was edited by Resonate Recordings.