Paws, Planning, and Perfection

Join Gayle Hellemn for the first episode of It's in the Details. She talks with Thomas Wright about the ins and outs of planning and executing a successful dog show. Keep listening to find out more! 

Episode Transcript

Unknown (00:00):
Welcome to Within the details, a podcast where we take
a sneak peek behind the curtainsto see how remarkable events
really happen. Whether you're anevent professional, a community
leader, or just curious aboutwhat goes on behind the scenes,
this is your all access pass tolearn how the magic happens.
Kinsey,well, good afternoon, everybody.

(00:25):
We have Thomas Wright with ustoday, and Thomas has a wealth
of experience in doing eventsand producing them both here at
the expo and other locations,and a very diverse background.
So I'm not going to waste anytime. I'm doing a welcome Thomas
to the show, and I'm going tostart off with tell

(00:47):
us a little bit about yourself.
Well, I'm Thomas Wright. I livein White House, Tennessee. I've
been in dogs in the event that Ido, I guess promote is dog
showing. I've been in it since Iwas 50 years old, and I'm only
27 but I mean,so you worked backwards.

(01:09):
I have basin Jesus, which is thebarkless dog, and they're a
hound. I'm the president ofTristar Kennel Club and also the
harvest cluster chairperson, andwhat they entail, putting
together updatesof successful dog shows Well,
and that's no small task.
No, it's not. And we are veryblessed to be here in in the

(01:32):
Farm Bureau Expo Center and alsoWilson County Fairgrounds. We
have so many compliments. Ithink we've been here eight
years, if I'm that that's about,right? Yeah, and we have helped
probably 30 nationals. And whatthat is, is when one breed
decides that this will be theideal location for where they

(01:54):
can come and host theirnational, and that entails also
judging seminars, probably othertypes of performance events,
which we'll discuss here in afew moments. But you got to have
an ideal situation in abeautiful location. And I went
out in the beginning, theNeapolitan masters and the

(02:15):
police, and they were our firsttwo that were here and and
you said, poolies. Okay, I'mgonna ask what's a Pooley?
It looks like somebody that hasnever combed their hair running
around. It's also cords. They'revery pretty, okay, very time
consuming. The NeapolitanMastiff, for example, are

(02:37):
probably some of the ugliestdogs you will ever see, but they
were to guard the castle inEngland, our large house, and
they are to scare you. And whenyou look at them, you get
scared.
They are big. I have seen thosebig heads,
big mouths, and they do not movefast. They were to scare you. So

(02:59):
we were very fortunate for that.
The following year, we did nothave a national. But then after
that, people started talking,and it escalated. And this year
we've got five nationals. Nextyear we've got seven, and it
keeps growing and growing. Imean, we're very blessed for
this place, and our club inTullahoma is very thankful. And
y'all, everybody sounds like I'ma southern here, y'all, but

(03:22):
everybody makes it very easywhen you work together for the
same objective.
I agree. I agree, and we lovehaving you here like your I've
told you before, your show islike the gold standard and and I
have used your standards whentalking to other shows. And it's
kind of funny, because when youkind of lay out or communicate

(03:48):
the expectations, which you haveto so to make sure everybody's
on the same page, that they areno longer interested, because
evidently, those details aremore than than they want, or at
least, or maybe they foundanother location, I don't know,
but it's very interesting thatwhen you lay that out, I've not
had another dog show since Istarted doing that. So I think

(04:10):
that that's interesting when youlook at that in the big picture
of thingswell in Thank you, but we always
try to set the bar higher. Everyyear that we're here is everyone
knows it's not always a smoothride. We've had bumpy road
roller coasters here. We've hadour ups and downs. I would say
majority of our problems thaty'all have with is our

(04:33):
spectators or exhibitors, and wehave to take care of that. And
the best thing you can do is sayit's taken care of and take care
of it. And as I was telling somepeople earlier, there are some
fairgrounds are very nasty whenthey come to and y'all are very
professional, and we're verygrateful.
Well, thank you for that. But Ihave to say thank you to you as

(04:55):
well, because when there hasbeen some challenges that have
come up, and they're all. Alwaysis, I have yet to see an event
that was flawless. I don't thinkthe word flawless and event
belong in the same sentence,honestly. But when there is a
challenge or there is somethingthat comes up, you guys are
you're right on top of it, andthat means a lot from the venue

(05:19):
side, to know that there doesn'thave to be an intermediary
struggle before the Challengegets dealt with. You just you
just deal with it. And you know,we appreciate that. And I would
think any venue would appreciatethat.
Well, talking about mybackground, originally, I was in
catering, food servicemanagement, and a lot of times

(05:39):
you went into a location thatwas not the greatest clean or
maybe the greatest to deal with,but you left it in Super shape,
and you made sure everythingwent super because you were
there and everything had to beso way. So I've carried
basically care that into dogshowing the events we go in to

(06:01):
make sure it's as good of aplace when we leave it as we
come in. And we also want todeal with situations. And as you
know, we don't have a lot ofchiefs. We narrowed it down to
maybe one or two people that youdeal with. And a lot of times,
events have multiple people thatyou got to deal with. And then,
you know, is it Bob? Here is itSandra here? Is it Maggie? I

(06:22):
mean, and we have it narroweddown to who you deal with, and
that helps a lot, too.
Well, that's an excellent point,because I know from the venue
side, we we prefer to have one,maybe two people that we go to,
just because, again, it's takingthat, addressing a challenge and

(06:46):
making it simple, so that youknow who to talk to, and then
you know it'll get taken careof. And if they need to tell
somebody else to do somethingthat's they've got the
infrastructure on the eventside. We have the infrastructure
on the venue side. So yeah, thatmakes perfect sense, and it's
very helpful all the way aroundfor everybody, I believe. And to

(07:07):
your point, leaving thingsbetter than you found it, and
always making sure that thingswere taken care of. That's not
always the case. Not everybodydoes that. It's interesting to
me. Why? To me, that's a normalthing. I was raised that way,

(07:29):
and I've always conductedbusiness that way. But that's
not always the case.
Well, I mean, and there's gonnabe times that things happen, you
forget to clean something up,and that has happened here
before, and you know, you can,you know, when you're talking to
someone, if they're telling youthe truth or they're lying, how
they true, that reaction you cansay Tom, did you forget? I want

(07:51):
to say, you forget the X pinsback there. There was still a
bucket. Did you realize that?
No, I thought, you know, youknow you've or, yeah, I knew it
was back there. Oh, I'm sorry.
It's how they react. And yes, wedo make mistakes, but we try and
your, your people here alwaysloves the way that we leave
stuff, because we do. And theyeven get out there and say, You

(08:16):
don't have to do this, you don'thave to do that, but we do, no,
we you don't. And I mean, that'sgood, that's great. That's a
good partnership. And I thinkthat's a big word here. We have
a great partnership. You know,last year I told you that some
of the guys I sent up to takecare of bills, you know, and
things, they thought, you Oh, Iget along with Gail. So well,

(08:37):
Gail and I get along. Youremember me telling you, know
these guys, you were their bestfriend. And they'd come back and
say, Well, if I can't deal, ifyou can't go up there, I'll go
up there and talk to her. I'mlike, gosh, I don't I'm not even
needed anymore.
But that's a sign of a goodleader. Though, when you've got,
when you get to the point thatother people can handle details

(08:59):
for you, that's a sign of a goodleader. It really is, because
they've learned, theyunderstand. They're supporting
you. You've created a good team,and you have you've created a
great team, and I haveappreciated, and I know the
entire team does here, thatwe've appreciated the
compliments that come from thatteam. Because, I mean, you know,

(09:22):
when people, when people arerespectful and kind,
what's not to like, right? Imean, we all want to be treated
with respect.
Well, this past year, there wassome things that you sent that
we need to make sure it didn'thappen again. Okay, right? But
what was the response fromeverybody? Everybody Everybody
wanted to make sure you was notupset with us, if you remember,

(09:45):
and I mean, you got, you gotmultiple it was funny. Okay,
it's not funny, but, I mean, itis funny because we care about
our success, and we don't wantto make anybody upset. I mean,
if we made a mistake, we'll takecare of. It, and every one of
them sent to you will take careof it. You're not upset and you
sent back. No, I'm just pouringout things that y'all need to

(10:08):
consider next year, right? Andbut that's your job, and it's
also our job to make sure itdoesn't happen well.
So I think if you are lookingthis is just my opinion, you
tell me what your thoughts are.
I think that when it comes toevents, the concept of teamwork,
communication and mutual respectmake all the difference in the

(10:30):
world to the success ofsomething.
Yes And y'all have an open doorabsolutely here for us. Okay,
always I can come in during ourevent and say, I need to see
Gail. And Gail, you're in there,Thomas, what do you need? Or if
I need see zendell, if he's inhis office, bam, I'm there. I
don't have to wait. If I needsomething taken care of, it's

(10:52):
done right there. And that meansa lot. Or, as you say, if I send
somebody up, you are you alreadyknow who to deal with in if they
come up, it's just like mecoming up. And that's one thing
everybody likes, the open door,the partnership, the positive is
what I want to I think I wouldemphasize the positive. There's

(11:16):
very little negative.
So question for you. One of thethings, I mean, this is more of
I guess, from my edification,and we make sure that we have
staff that's identifiable,that's available to you while
you're in the building, whetherthat's Zindel or I here in the

(11:38):
office, but there is alwaysstaff readily available for you.
What does that mean to you as anevent planner,
when we come in and we come insix o'clock in the mornings?
Okay, early, very early beforethe rooster crows, right before
I'm here, and the one that opensthe door usually checks with me
on our water buckets. And whatwe have water buckets for is

(12:01):
dogs urinate and they also poop.
Okay? We have bleach water andmops to clean them up, and they
will ask me, how many do I needtoday? And do I need them at the
same location last year, or do Ineed them different? Well, I'm
gonna tell you the truth. Idon't remember where we had them
last year.
Okay? That's fair. That's fair,and I doubt they do, but you

(12:25):
know, it's still nice, okay? AndI'll say we need at least three
buckets. We need on bleach. Canwe check them about every three
or four hours to make sure thatthey're not dirty? They will
tell me that your ladies willcome by and tell me, we've
changed the water out, we'vegone through and taken the trash
out. If somebody's doingsomething, they will even come

(12:47):
and tell me there is a very openpositive just ran into one of
them few minutes ago here, andshe said, I'm looking forward to
working with y'all again, andit's once again. It's funny,
because, as she said, I enjoyworking with your people, and
you don't hear that a lotbecause being in catering, or
sometimes you rolled your eyesbecause you was going, somebody

(13:10):
was coming in, but they theyknow we take care of it, and
that means a lot. And I'mlooking forward to it. We'll
come in with our game Tuesday,lay everything out, and go from
there. I do know that we'rehaving some changes this year on
our show. We're going to bebringing the vendors in inside
and putting them against thewall. In the past, we've had

(13:33):
people that have left cagesthere, even dogs in it, and of
course, it's not allowed. Sowe're trying to eliminate a
problem without taking offexhibitors, right, right? Our
job is alsoto appease rearranging the
structure a little bit. Yes,we're still going
to try to have the 20 footwalkways. We're looking at 14

(13:56):
rings in the Expo Center, two,three this year in the MIT. Next
year, it will go to two, and wewill start putting another ring
in your is it? Excuse me, hailmoss or mouse? Hell Hale moss.
We'll be putting one in there,and that's where we're going to
start putting the poodles. Oh,okay, poodles like grooming

(14:19):
around the rings, and they have80 plugs there. We can there's
some we're going to bereadjusting for next year. Now,
is this readjusting due to thegrowth of participation?
Our largest show last year was1700 dogs.
Okay? Yeah. You know, it'sreally interesting, getting the
look, seeing the look onpeople's faces when you go, Oh,

(14:42):
you had a dog show. I mean, howdismissively, how many dogs did
you have? I was like, somewherebetween 15 and 1700
and they're like, whatthat's one day. Okay, so if you
take our numbers, we had a totalentry of A. Around 7500

(15:02):
Oh, my goodness, I didn'trealize that
so and people don't realize webring a lot of money into the
economy. We bring a lot of moneyinto dog show world. Our entries
are $32 for a dog. So if you had8000 dogs, which we're hoping to
get over the five days, you'relooking at almost a quarter

(15:23):
million dollar system dog showentries. That's phenomenal. And
then I understand from yourtourism department that there is
a great spike in the businessworld when we come in.
That's true. That's true. Solet's, let's talk about that a
little bit. So that's true.
Okay, so you get that many dogs,I'm assuming some of the people,

(15:49):
what's the official name with ifyou show a dog, you're a you're
an exhibitor, exhibitor. Okay,so does an exhibitor typically
have more than one dog that theyshow.
Sometimes you also havehandlers. But if we have 8000
total entries, all right, you'regoing to be around 2020 500

(16:13):
people.
Okay, so those people are eitherstaying in an RV that they
showed up in, or they're stayingin a hotel, correct? Okay, and
then they're eating in the area,they're buying gas in the area,
and they're probably doing someshopping in the area. So, yeah,
that translates to tourismdollars for sure,

(16:35):
and it helps everybody in theeconomy, exactly, right? And I
understand we're one of thelarger ones that come in to the
county and that we we do usuallyhave over 200 motor homes here.
We'll probably have around 20250 this year. But I understand
we take over almost all thehotels

(16:58):
in the city, okay, that wouldmake sense. That would make
they allow dogs. Okay, excuseme,
right, right. Which? We have awhole list for you that tells
you which ones allow dogs andwhich ones don't. And of course,
that that changes a little bitdepending if the hotels changed
ownership or whatever, but,or if they're empty, and say,
everyone else, bull that we canand then all of a sudden they

(17:19):
go, Well, maybe,yeah, but yes, we do. We do put
our judges at a hotel wherethere's no dogs on purpose,
because we don't wantexhibitors. And this will be our
eighth year with them too. Justlike with y'all, they're being
very loyal and very workable onwho is it?
Cedar? Cedar lodgein cedar. And cedar lodge used

(17:43):
to be executive in Yes, andtheir manager is very nice to
workwith. Yes. Absolutely, it is
Katie, yes.
And they take care of ourjudges. And we're very
appreciative that when thejudges are happy, you're halfway
there. Now you got to get theexhibitors happy. That's not

(18:05):
always but if judges are happy,then they're going to be smiling
throughout the day,because you're making it easy
for them. You're taking care ofall the other details. All they
got to do is come in and do whatthey're there to
do. That's right. So we areexpecting 2000 plus this year.
We have four nationals. We'vegot the Neapolitan smack, the

(18:27):
dogo argentinos.
Don't even know if I knowwhat that is, the wire, higher
point and Griffons. I do knowthat one and the tree and Walker
Coonhounds,okay, don't know what that is,
either.
So it's kind of like you teaseCoonhound to a degree. Oh, okay,

(18:48):
and then we're going to havesome Coonhound bench shows where
some of the locals can come inand participate.
And have you done that before,where the locals came in?
No, this is in shows for thecoon hounds, and it's it's
totally different from our allbreed show, but it will also

(19:09):
bring in the community. And whatwe are trying to do this year is
not everybody can get a dog thatcan get us championship, okay,
but there's other things you canget on your dog and be just as
proud. We're going to have docdiving this year. Doc diving,
yes, so you need to go out thereand watch a dog jump five and 30

(19:30):
feet. I'm goingto have to check that one out
for sure. We gotour fast cats where they're time
to run 100 yards. We've gotscent shows where they use their
nose to locate rats in certainareas. We're doing the Fiddler's
grove. We're going to haveweight pulling. And God told me
a few months ago he had achihuahua pulled 2000 pounds.

(19:52):
I find that hard to believe.
Wow. They used to havechihuahuas on the Taco Bell
commercial about. Godzilla. Thisone could take on Godzilla.
We're going to have farm dog.
We're going to have temperamenttesting. You can get your canine
good citizenship, and you alsocan get your trick dog, and some
of these things, people can comeback and if their dog stay in,

(20:16):
entering the show. But they havepapers, AKC papers, they can
participate in some of these.
We're one the community. Seethat it's time to have fun with
your dogs. And as I said, youdon't have to be running around
the ring and your dog don't haveto look beautiful and perfect

(20:37):
like a model. You know, Docdiving, you're not going to look
like a model.
You look pretty soaked when youget out of there. That's right,
yeah, andwe're very excited about all
these performances. Will be ourfirst time, but also will help
bring in more nationals, and wealso will have obedience and
rally. So there's some thingsout there that people were to
come see, especially the fastcat, where they run 100 yards,

(20:59):
if you ever get to see agreyhound racing Greyhound run
100 yards and five nine, that'spretty amazing.
I can only imagine that it's athump. Their their their
movement is a thump. It's almostlike a heartbeat or a rhythm.
But that's a that's becausethey're racing

(21:19):
well, when they run, it lookslike they're gliding, yes. I
mean, I don't know, just I lookat my two dogs, which are not
show dogs, okay, but they're,you know, I've got almost 90
pound English cream retriever.
She runs, she sort of saunter,runs. She doesn't really run

(21:40):
run. But then I've got the oneyear old 50 pound golden
retriever, and, man, she'sshe is to say she's light on her
feet. That's an understatement.
Man, she she runs, but she runslike a deer. And I'm like, it's

(22:03):
so interesting. The two of themare so different, but she also
leaps like a deer. But that's awhole nother story, so,
but at the end of the day,people can pay $5 maybe it's 10,
just to run your dog to see ifit could ever run a fast cat.
And, you know, some people justwant to see their dog run,
that's fine, and I would payfive or $10 to see my dog run.

(22:24):
It Okay, 100 yards. What timedid the dog get? Oh, it got 8.9
seconds. Wow, is that good?
Well, yeah, if your dog wouldget so many points, we had a
baseinji. His name was 42 he wasthe first B cat, D, cat, F, cat
and F cat two and fast cats. Andhe usually ran, started running

(22:44):
around eight, four, and finallygot his time down to seven,
eight fastest. And he was atfastest, Kinsey, Kinsey, for one
year at 25 miles per hour.
That's incredible. That'sincredible. So let me shift
gears just a little bit.

(23:06):
You guys have an amazing show,an absolutely amazing show. And
you know, like I said before, weuse that sort of as the gold
standard if you want to bring adog show in. This is the
expectations. It's a two partquestion. Number one, what is
the why to produce the show?
Okay, because you've got theharvest cluster group, but you

(23:26):
guys produce this massive show,and then what is your personal
why for why you choose to putall this time and energy and
work into it?
In the past, we have taken ourproceeds and don't make
donations. We also put some backto where if we ever have another

(23:51):
covidexperience, please don't speak
that into the world.
But it will never happen. But ifwe had one dog, we wanted to be
able to survive two years payingeverything so kind of have money
laid back? I save his account.
Yes, and that sits in a CD wherewe cannot touch it. But we have
gone around in the past oneyear. We made a $2,500 donation

(24:14):
to a policeman that had a strokeyou did. That was here. We have
made two giant donations of$5,000 each, that was to the
Great Smoky Mountain Dogorganization that
war veterans, that had postPTSD,

(24:38):
they had dogs that were made forthem and was was trained for
them. We've also given facemasks in the past to the fire
departments. Here we have alsoin Mount Jillian, when all those
cherry trees got knocked downduring the tornado. Yes, I
remember that we don't cleaningup to be dug in every. Thing, we

(25:01):
have made donations to aveterinarian place, it's down in
Antioch that will give food anddo surgery for your charge for
senior citizens. Wow. And theny'all have a place in Mount
Juliet that is a old dog centurywary.
I've heard of that, but I don'tknow anything about it, but I

(25:23):
have heard of that,revisited and made a donation.
So we try to take care and noteverything is worthy of your
donation, because not everythinggoes to where it's supposed to.
We're trying to figure out whatwe're going to do this year.
So what's that selection processlook like I mean, how do you
evaluate what is appropriate ornot appropriate?

(25:45):
We visit it. We want to see atour, and we want to talk to the
people the sanctuary. We had ameeting down there. They took us
all through it, showed useverything, explained things to
us. This place that takes careof for senior citizens, took us
all the way through it. If youopen your doors and then you
allow us to question you, you'regonna have to be pretty up and

(26:06):
up. Yes, okay,so the integrity of the gift is
important to you.
Yes, your policeman came uphere. I think he cried in his
wife. They all cried, okay, andthe fire department was very
grateful of it. So we're outhere looking this year, and we
want to make sure we stay withinyour community. Your community

(26:27):
supports our massive show. So wealso want to give back to the
community, and that's going toopen up doors like we might can
go into Watertown a little bit,or Mount Juliet. It's not just
all right here in Lebanon,because everybody benefits from
us beinghere. Well, that's true, because
we are in Wilson County, and ourbuilding belongs to everybody

(26:49):
that lives in Wilson County. SoI really appreciate that
attentiveness to detail andconsideration for the fact that
whatever you give to it benefitsthe county as a whole, instead
of just Lebanon.
And if somebody is out there andsees this and they think they

(27:10):
know a good cause, I don't mindthem sending it for us to look
into. I don't want to sayinvestigate, but still you want
to check them out. Well, youhave to do your due diligence
and vet whoever forconsideration. I mean, I think
that's just that's important.
What I see is especially withsocial media. You know,

(27:33):
everybody has a cause. You know,I have things that are near and
dear to my heart, as you wellknow, and that that's not
necessarily a fit, but I would,I would really respect and
appreciate somebody taking thetime to ask me about the
details, and giving me a achance to share about it, and b
a chance to maybe help thembetter understand and it's their

(27:57):
responsibility as far as knowingwho they're giving that money
to, because you, I'm assumingyou communicate who you give
that money to, to yourparticipants as well, so they
know how you're giving back.
And lot of times we go into aplace thinking that we're going
to give $1 okay? And I'm justusing it as a number, and we get

(28:18):
in there and everybody'simpressed, and they said, Let's
give $3 and I'm like, Are yousure? Well, yeah, my cousin
looks short on this other end,but this was a this is a very,
very good cause, so sometimesthe board is shocked at what
they find out, right? And Ithink that shows that we do.
We're very compassionate, and wedo have passion, and

(28:41):
we can be shocked, huh? Yeah,there's, it's good to be
educated, right? Because you'rekind of, you've got a whole
nother role in your life ofbeing a teacher, that's right.
So you understand that, probablymore than most people do.
And what do we gain? Now? Areyou asking, What do I gain from
this beingfrom a personal perspective, why
do you choose to be involved init or to even facilitate it?

(29:06):
We are now becoming known as oneof the premier shows in the
South. Not surprised, we aregoing up the ranks. And when we
started here, we was a 600 dogshow, barely okay. And we've
come a long way, a long way, andwe did not do it overnight. We
have grown the correct way.
Because when you grow, you don'twant it for one year, you want

(29:28):
it to grow next year, but youwant to maintain what you got to
go into nextyear. Well, that's important for
any event, for sure, and we'vedone that.
We averaged around 12% growthevery year for quite a while. So
we and I'm we as our board. Weget excited about our shows, we

(29:50):
get we all have the sameobjective. We talked about the
same focus. We're focused thesame what we want. We know that
this isn't okay. I'm thepresident and I'm a cluster
chair, but it's not the ThomasWright show yet. It's like a
football team. It Tom Brady'steam wins the Super Bowl, but
Tom Brady isn't the whole team,correct. And wherever I go, I

(30:14):
brag on the team, and they havemade this a success, and it
takes all of us workingtogether, and yes, sometimes we
have conflict on the board, butit's the passion, and there's
nothing wrong with conflict,because it makes you stronger.
Absolutely, if it's done civilI'm not saying get up and throw

(30:34):
pots and pans, okay, but we'reon Zoom meetings, we don't have
to throw pots and pans.
Throw pots and pans. Okay, butif you throw a tantrum, you just
look silly in your own room.
Sometimes we all get hot, but asI tell everybody, I calm
everybody down. It's ourpassion, and we want to be the
best we've got. Guy Fisher, thedirector of development coming

(30:56):
in this year, and also the newChief Operating Officer, Gordon
Gordon Carville, I believe hisname coming in because they've
heard so much about this show.
And who was the gentleman thatwas here last year. That was
from there was Guy Fisher. Thatwas Guy Fisher, okay, he's
coming familiar.

(31:17):
They use our show for a lot ofother shows to look at on how to
do things, and we're blessed bythat. We're very blessed that
people like what we're doing. Somy personal thing is to always
have a successful show.
Everybody's happy. Everybodyenjoys it. If you ever see me,
I'm out walking around, you veryseldom see me sitting

(31:41):
You're hard to find. That's whyyou got my cell
number, isn't it? But I mean, Iwant people happy, and how can
we improve? But I look at it asa business, and a lot of times,
people that run dog shows don'tlook at it as a business, and
that's why it doesn't grow,because they think it's a good

(32:01):
old boys thing, and it's not.
Everybody has a task. We'relooking at eventually bringing
people in to help us Park,because next year, we're
anticipating 300 RVs,and so you're able to take it.
That makes this location also anice advantage for you, because
there are camping spots on thegrounds. Yes, we have

(32:26):
the availability of what 500 atleast, yes, maybe a little bit
more, depending on their needs.
Yes, and they're also putting upyour Christmas decorations too.
Yep, that we have to take inconsideration. But, I mean, we
have around probably 500 wecould use. I don't think we'll
ever go over 300 okay, but if wedo, I'm in Las Vegas betting on

(32:47):
some stuff, okay, because that'sgonna be one large show. But
they AKC anticipates us to hitover 2000 next year, possibly
2500 and that's why they'recoming out here. They are
wanting us to make a bid on theregional agility, obedience and
rally in the future. And wemight have to take in the whole

(33:11):
fairgrounds eventually, one day,when the availability opens up
and because as we grow, we takein more and more buildings
you have. You definitely have. Imean, I can go back through our
contracts and and I don'tnecessarily write the contract
for the Ag grounds piece of it,but you've taken more and more

(33:34):
days, for sure, that has grownhere. And you said, just said
something about, you know,bringing in more people. You see
it growing, and you almostbecome part of the fabric of the
local area. Like you don't livein Wilson County, you become

(33:56):
part of the fabric of WilsonCounty while you guys are here.
And I think that that'simportant for people that are
not part of the show tounderstand that, that while
you're here, you're you're partof the county, you you are
contributing. And I think that'ssuper important for people to
recognizewell this year, our trophies we
have, we try to keep everythingTennessee orient oriented. We

(34:19):
we've got some guitars that willhave the we can put your frame
in at the bottom will be givenaway. We've got some artists
place. It's down on MurfreesboroRoad, close to the old museum
down there. There's a lot ofartists that makes pots and all
that. We bought butter dishesthis year that will have every

(34:43):
flower from the state ofTennessee on each how cool were
to get it. And then, of course,we've had Jack Daniels that will
be doing our best in shows.
We're working on trying to get asponsor for our 20. Year, next
year, dog food company, eitherPurina or royal Canaan. So we're

(35:05):
working on that. It's, it's a 24hour job. Like you said, I'm a
teacher, so I already have afull time job,
but you deal with a whole lot ofa whole different dimension of
craziness.
That's true. But no matter whatyou do, if you're in catering or
if you're a teacher or running ashow, you still have to teach
people on how to do things andmodel on what the expectations

(35:29):
are.
I would hazard a guess, and youcould tell me that I'm
completely wrong, but I do thinkthat your different experiences
have fed into why you aresuccessful with this show,
because there are standards andthere's expectations, that
you've been able to translatethat into the show, per se, and

(35:53):
if you do that, because, goingback to what we talked About,
initially, that teamwork andthat communication and working
together collaboratively for thegreater good of whatever it is
you're working on that that'sThat's it in a nutshell, you
you've got that respect, thatcollaboration, you're talking to
each other, and you're workingtogether, and that's true in

(36:17):
every experience that you have.
Correct? Most people look ateverything goes from the bottom
up, and that's not myphilosophy. If everything's
going to be a success, then thetop person's got to set the
standards and expectations, andyou don't make anybody do
anything that you've now alreadydone. And you get in there and

(36:38):
you work with them, you know, wehave to clean the poop up
outside. Okay, let's be honest.
You're dealing with dogs. Youcome to me say, Thomas, there's
some poop out there. You need totake care of it. Okay, I'm out
there doing it. Okay? Andpeople, we do have a little hand
and thing, I mean, I've gotthings that do it. But if I tell
Tim. You know, Tim, I told Tim,Tim, can you write there, take

(37:04):
care of it? Well, he's alreadyseen me out there doing it, so
more than likely he's going togo out there and do it. Because
if the top guy doing it, he'snot asking anything. And I think
that's where our success starts,because they know I've done it,
or I will be right there besidesyou doing it, and that makes you
feel good. I mean, you even knowthat in your position, and when

(37:25):
your boss is working besidesyou, you can't really complain,
because you're both there doingit, right?
Well, you it's also it's a greatexample for role modeling. It's
a great way to show support,because I truly believe that if
you support the staff that youhave, you're going to get

(37:48):
amazing results out of that andand being able to step into
their shoes. I have always hadthat philosophy that, you know,
I mean, I've had bigger staffswork for me, and, you know, I'm
not afraid. I know, when I wasworking in a medical clinic, you
know, we had a couple days whereeverybody got sick, and I sat at
the front desk and checkedpeople in. I wasn't something I

(38:11):
was supposed to do, but we hadto have it done, and there was
nobody else to do it. So, youknow, that's what we did.
So you're the top, you're the,basically the jack of all trades
you should be, because youshould have already experienced
some ofthat. If somebody's not doing
it, you got to step in and knowhow to do it, just like that,
exactly, exactly. And that's wehave a lot of our club members
that can step into any position,because cross training, right?

(38:34):
And not everybody cross trains.
Cross training is so important,so important, because you just
never know what's going tohappen. Life can throw you some
serious curve balls, for sure. Iwant to thank you for for taking
a few minutes to spend time withme. I really have appreciated
it, and I have enjoyed it,because I don't get to sit down

(38:56):
with you very often, and when westarted this podcast, you were
one of the first people that Ithought of. It was like, I need
to get him on there, because Iknow he can articulate the whole
premise of what it is I want tofocus on. So thank you for
taking the time.
And I add one thing, absolutely,the show is going to be from
October the eighth through the12th. Okay, you can get here

(39:19):
around eight o'clock in themorning to six o'clock at night,
and come to enjoy the day. Wewill have concessions here.
Anybody that is got looks like aClub member, and we'll try to
have identification ask themquestion. We want you to make
sure you understand. Once again,it will be October the eighth
through the 12th.

(39:40):
Awesome. Looking forward to it.
I know we are looking forward toit, and I do hope that people
come out and have a chance tosee it, because this is pretty
phenomenal to watch these dogsperform and carry out what's
their ex what's expected of themby their trainers. And I'm going
to get out there this year, and.
See what goes on in the backwith the fast cat and stuff,

(40:02):
because I've not seen thatbefore, but thank you again.
Check out the show and FarmBureau Expo, and if you want
additional details on it,they'll be at Farm Bureau
expo.com. So thank you so much.
You you.