Oh, didn't know that.

So we've had some name changes over the years.

Uh, we currently serve about a quarter million patients across 30 locations in West Michigan.

We employ about 3,500.

Uh, we're a 208-bed teaching hospital, and the hospital's at M-6 and Byron Center Avenue in Wyoming, and we're a verified level two trauma center, a certified comprehensive stroke center, accredited chest pain center.

And this past fall, we received Magnet With Distinction designation-

Mm-hmm

...

So one, was that a surprise? And two, is that actually good if you're not producing something with an individual profile that's uniquely us?

I think it's always good to benchmark yourself against the very best.

And that's what we did.

And we're not really trying to be Burgundy.

And even though a lot of the tasters found it hard to tell a difference, each of those wines still has its own distinctive stamp.

So, you know, I think in a world where Burgundy is becoming very expensive, harder to find.

And if you're a fine wine lover in London or Hong Kong or in New York and you want to find something that's going to give you the same pleasure, sometimes it's hard to find white Burgundy that can do that.

What's your vibe on the industry at the moment, Steve, given the world's turning away from alcohol and we're all on GLP-1s and we're all fitness and, you know, et cetera, et cetera?

So one, was that a surprise? And two, is that actually good if you're not producing something with an individual profile that's uniquely us?

I think it's always good to benchmark yourself against the very best, and that's what we did.

And we're not really trying to be Burgundy, and even though a lot of the tasters found it hard to tell a difference, each of those wines still has its own distinctive stamp.

So, you know, I think in a world where Burgundy is becoming very expensive, harder to find, and if you're a fine wine lover in London or Hong Kong or in new york and you want to find something that's going to give you the same pleasure sometimes it's hard to find white burgundy that can do that and what we're saying is you know maybe we deserve a seat uh or a place at the same table

What's your vibe on the industry at the moment, Steve, given the world's turning away from alcohol and we're all on GLP-1s and we're all fitness and, you know, et cetera, et cetera?

Well, we've been talking about a trend in wine for a long time, which people should drink less but drink better.

And I think Now we're starting to see that happen.

I don't think people are necessarily moving away from fine wine.

So it's possible that the ridiculous strategy

backfired.

But that's what real dogs do.

What do they say? You ever seen a dog stretch before he gets you? They didn't need to stretch.

They didn't need any of that.

Yeah, they needed to.

Found out.

Correcto.

Okay.

So the entertainment industry does basically a trade show every year called Licensing Expo.

And you can go meet with movie studios, puddle shooters, to see what intellectual properties are available.

I had run into a guy who was a legend in the licensing world named Danny Simon, who in 2016 took on Ultraman.

Ultraman has failed three times in America to catch on.

The first one, I was about nine years old when the first TV series came on in America around 1970.

It was made in Japan in 66.

it basically became

Steve, any concerns here?

No concerns.

You even just look at that pass.

One, first of all, happy feet, right, by your quarterback because he's under duress.

And then ultimately, he's throwing across the middle field where they had a guy that was lingering, a lurker.

So he's sitting there watching the quarterback.

This is not a concern, this is more of telling you that this is a young connection by two young guys, and everybody in the stadium knew it.

[laughs]

All right, your guy tonight that you're most looking forward to then.

Ooh, Carnell Tate, right? You...

I've, with the Tennessee Titans, I've been seeing him flash everywhere.

Hadn't got an opportunity to get down there, but everyone that I've talked to down there, you just see all the different things.

First wide receiver taken, arguably wasn't the first, the best wide receiver, as they said, because of Jordan, uh, Tyson and some of his injuries and all that stuff.

But Carnell Tate is showing that he is the guy, and it's gonna be really interesting with Brian Daboll, uh, being the offensive coordinator because he was offense coordinator in Alabama where they had Calvin Ridley, and I thought Calvin Ridley was on his way out.

But understanding who the offensive coordinator is, he needs a guy that can press the offense, get that fourth level, go on ahead and run the defense.

Yeah

I was wondering if you could start out by just giving us a bit of an overview of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, what it is, what it does, and maybe what are a couple of your big wins or accomplishments over the years.

Yeah, no, that'd be great.

And it's very relevant because we're approaching our 40th anniversary this year.

So we'll be celebrating that in the fall.

So the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy is an organization that is focused strictly in the Southeast.

So our primary states are Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.

But we also track the very large energy companies that are in the southeast, some of the largest in the world.

But it does also seem that solar and wind in particular have reached a real level of viability and economy where even without some of those incentives, people are still building them, right? So I guess, how much activity is there going to continue to be on the clean energy front, even with those kind of rollbacks from the federal level?

... from Bryce Young to believe he can be the long-term solution for Carolina at quarterback?

Well, I, I, I know Bryce already knows, um, that he is the guy.

I think this year is really pivotal, uh, not just for Bryce, but also the Carolina Panthers overall.

And when we talk about it, we have to address the quarterback position because the most important thing with any team is the quarterback.

And he has to play, in my humble opinion, four great quarters, right, of football.

We've seen him play great fourth quarter.

We've seen him make a play, a splash play or two during the second quarter, but we haven't seen Bryce consistently put what he's done in the fourth quarter in those last year games together in four quarters to just watch him methodically move and move up and down the field and just kinda flow, right? Just throw the ball out there.

[laughs]

Oh.

That's pretty dope, man.

So yeah.

So you know, I, I, I've come here a few times, uh, broadcasting, but this is my first time, uh, that my schedule has allowed me to come, uh, when one of my team- former teammates, uh, is getting inducted.

And it's just been, um...

It's been really cool, man.

It...

Ooh.

¶¶ Let us pray.

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God, our strength and our salvation.

Amen.

Amen.

Brothers and sisters, I'm still learning with this microphone.

If you cannot hear me, please raise your hand.

[laughs]

I have the house.

I used to bug my old man when he drove the car.

I was a little terror in the backseat, you know? I think all dads say this to their kids in the backseat.

If you're a dad, you probably say this to your kid, or your dad said this to you.

This is dad law.

All dads say this when they drive.

[laughs]

What is, what's usually like the one or two main problems that are unclear inside these organizations that you're working with? Like, is there one or two big things that you see the most often?

So the first big problem is for them trying to understand where it fits into their existing workflows.

I mean, because for, and here's what I tell people, we've evolved from the early days where, I'll use ChatGPT as an example, just to say ChatGPT versus, you know, but you could substitute Cloud or Gemini, whatever you want, right? When ChatGPT started, like I said, it was kind of like a almost replacement for Google where it was an ask and answer engine, right? So that was sort of phase one, the really early days of, you know, I'll call it the chat bot.

And then it moved into this, you know, this help me create a memo phase, right? Help me edit this essay.

Help me make this argument stronger phase, right? I called it the collaborative chat phase.

It was really, you know, that was sort of phase two was, hey, I'm now having a conversation with these tools.

And that's where a lot of people still are.

What do you have any authors that you follow that you kind of try to model some of your writing style after?

Oh.

Apeel is like a, it's...

So in the world of apples, there's conventional apples and organic apples.

Most conventional apples have a, a vegetable-based wax on them.

Organic apples don't have, uh, generally don't have a wax.

But Apeel is an org- organically approved wax for organic apples, and there are some organic consumers that don't think organic should be treated with anything.

They should just be right off the tree.

But so then at that field, are people just going in with scissors and knives and taking branches from this place?

[laughs]

I, I, I don't see a, a chance.

And in fact, J.J. McCarthy...

Who, you know who could beat J.J. McCarthy? Anybody with a heartbeat.

[laughs]

And Kyler Murray, good luck.

I hope, I h- I hope things improve for him.

I hope he stays off the, uh, Call of Duty and start, uh, getting in his playbook.

Yeah.

But he was, uh, he was not of the age of 16, so he had to have my account to use it.

So I just was the custodial of the account.

So I was using it to mess around.

However, DJ's my guy, though, right? And Torrey Smith was there, who used to be teammates with me in Baltimore, so we kind of used it as just a little, little jab.

And then they were doing, like, Hard Knocks, and I didn't under- I didn't realize that they were gonna use that.

So, uh, it was interesting.

Yeah, I don't think it's controversial at all

That's right.

It is there.

The biggest issue, like Stephen A. is saying, is there has been some nucleus.

I don't really think that Jalen Hurts can't throw the football c- over the middle like people are anticipating.

First, let, let me say this.

Philadelphia Eagles fans are so quick to jump in the comments, DM you, tell you you have no idea what you're talking about because...

Or I'm always told over my 16-year career, that's why I don't have a Super Bowl.

That's a Heisman Trophy winner.

Yes.

Right? You got Rashee Rice.

How long is his suspension? What is it gonna look like? Is he a guy who can get out of his own way? The speed merchant of Xavier Worthy, he's excellent, but his speed has not equaled up to 1,000 yards or any touchdowns, right? So they need to figure out.

And then obviously having a Travis Kelce in his last couple of years.

So they need to figure out offensively what is their identity.

The best part about understanding what their identity is, is buying and acquiring Kenneth Walker III-

Yeah.

Right? Just look at all the things he's able to do.

No doubt

... "Hey, Coach, what do I need to work on?" So Jalen Hurts gets a lot of flack because he's a winning quarterback, and people expect a lot more out of him and be more well-rounded, and obviously throwing in the middle of the field.

But I'm telling you, he can play football, and I think acquiring this new offensive coordinator is going to give him a little bit of sense, to challenge him.

And then also reading the tea leaves.

The Philadelphia Eagles have always been a team that builds from the inside out.

Yeah

... it's going to be, it's gonna be fire, it's gonna be a fire in a barn with the fireworks already inside.

John Harbaugh is gonna run practice.

But why has golf been really good for you? I know you're into it.

Golf has been a great space for me.

I quit playing for about five years.

I'm talking about Chuck, the clubs.

I'm shocked.

I know.

Huge shocker.

So to be rooted in something, to be implanted and finding your footing and being able to, like, connect with, you know, guys like myself and Smitty to something that is universal for the city of Charlotte, it does something in the sense of, like, the connectivity, the connective tissue.

If, if you were negotiating with the French, what would you be negotiating?

I wouldn't continue bashing my head against a brick wall, doing exactly what's been done over and over again with no, uh, palpable outcome.

Uh, we see people drowning in the Channel.

We'll continue to see people drowning in the Channel.

And all that will happen by putting more people on the beach, more security forces on the beach, is that the, uh, the people smugglers will change their tactics.

We're already seeing them move further along the coast.

We're seeing them move further into Belgium.

Do you, do you hold out any hope that that policy might change?

No.

He had kinda said something.

I know he was a special teams guy.

At that time, they were trying to get him to play, 'cause y'all had some injuries.

And so, um, he kinda gave me a little extra.

So when I blocked him, I held him one hand, and I said ...

He was like, "Let me go," and he realized that I was a lot more stro- I was more stronger than him.

Mm.

Now, looking ahead, what are some of the big priorities and headwinds that you're focused on for twenty twenty-six?

I would say we're not to the end of the journey yet in terms of our access with our, um, with our automation.

We still need to continue to build, um, automation with our phone system, provide more self-service across all our specialties.

Uh, right now, we have, um, scheduling self-service for primary care, which has gone really, really well.

We're in the process of building that, that out for our women's, uh, service line, but we need to build that out for all our specialties.

So we need to continue to build that infrastructure to, um, provide our patients more seamless access, uh, to our system and to be able to do it, you know, even at off hours.

When they call the digital assistant, they're able to interact with the digital assistant, and in many instances, uh, resolve their concerns.

Um, I'm curious, before we wrap up here, what do you see as being some of the best opportunities for organizational growth?

[laughing]

Hi! [laughing]

All right.

I'm good.

You know, I'm- you know, I gotta get on.

I appreciate you, dude.

They have beat them before, but what do they have to do?

Man.

So it, it, well, it's really tough because it's hard to beat a really good team twice, and it's even harder to beat a team where the team before, uh, they sustained some injuries, just like the Carolina Panthers, but they're getting some players back and we aren't.

So it's gonna be tough, but event- but the biggest things is, uh, don't leave the field without scoring points, uh, because you know Matthew Stafford is, and company.

Sean McVay is not gonna have the same game plan.

Um, and biggest part is third down.

Uh, the Carolina Panthers are not great, in the low 30s, uh, in third down conversion.

[laughs]