Miriam Allred (00:01)
Hey everyone, welcome back to the Home Care Strategy Lab. I'm your host, Miriam Allred. I am really excited to be back with you this week. I hope everyone's having a great week and thriving. It's summer and there's a lot on the horizon for people, maybe some distractions with kids out of school and things, but hope everyone is doing well and working hard in their businesses.

Today in the lab, I am joined by two gentlemen. We've got Adam Berry, the COO at As Close as Family, and also Doug Markham, the CEO at Avenues Home Care. Gentlemen, welcome to the show.

Doug Markham (00:35)
Thanks for having us.

Adam Berry (00:35)
Thank you for having us.

Miriam Allred (00:37)
Let's go ahead and start with introductions.

Adam, you are the COO at As Close as Family and you've been in the industry for a while. Tell us little bit about getting into home care and then starting your home care company.

Adam Berry (00:49)
So my background's home health physical therapy and during that time I saw the need for another level of home care. There were people doing it you know, not not to a satisfactory way in my opinion. So at that point I said, Hey, there's there's something here, there's a great need. So started that in twenty sixteen and then we've grown and grown ever since and and really grown all over the state of Alabama.

Miriam Allred (01:15)
Amazing. And you started the company you said twenty sixteen. Here we are twenty twenty six. So it's been ten years and we're gonna talk a little bit about your journey and what kind of the stages of your business is, which leads us to Doug, why don't you go ahead and introduce yourself and Avenues Home Care?

Doug Markham (01:31)
Sure. Thank you for having us. really honored that you invited us to participate, so thank you for that. as said earlier, I am Doug Markham. I serve as the CEO of Avenues Home Care. My working career has been primarily spent in insurance and claims and managed care. And a lot of those claims years were spent in the

Automobile and workers' compensation world. And so in the workers' compensation world, we dealt with a lot of claims where quadriplegic and paraplegic, and really long term, long duration claims where an individual would not be improving, but nursing care, skilled nursing was too expensive, and so they would use home care. And that's where my experience came with home care. A lot of times it was hiring a family member, but other times there were

Situations where we were bringing in individuals for respite care or when family members were working. So that was really my introduction into home care. Today avenues

Serves two other brands. Adam is one of those, as Close as Family, which serves Alabama. And then we have another brand name, ClearPath Home Care, which serves Dallas and North Texas. We are in four states, Texas, Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia, and within those four states we have about 25 locations where we're serving individuals.

Miriam Allred (02:55)
Amazing. That's

perfect. And we're gonna talk about exactly that, Adam. Your journey of essentially selling to Avenues Home Care, but remaining active in day-to-day operations. I said to you both before before this conversation, a lot of operators get to this point, Adam, that you hit, which is where do I go from here? You know, I think of this this kind of like fork in the road for a lot of operators. They may be burnt out, they may be hitting kind of a plateau revenue wise or hours. And

And there's there's options of where to go. And you kind of went down a specific path and got acquainted with Avenues Home Care and essentially sold to them, but I've stayed involved. And so I find this very fascinating and just want to kind of unpack your journey and explain to operators what is possible and then what it looks like to to sell, but then be involved in day-to-day operations. So starting with that, Adam, I'm curious at what point did you start to feel like you were

hitting this kind of wall or this plateau, how many years into the business, how many, you know, kind of hours or revenue? What was kind of this point where you started to feel like was it an itch or, you know, was it stress? Like what what was the feeling and when did that hit?

Adam Berry (04:03)
It was probably nine years into the business, eight and a half, nine years into the business, that I said, Hey, this is we have we experienced just a large amount of growth. And it was it was to the point I was I was like losing sleep at night. And you know, when you start losing sleep at night and you're saying, Hey, a leader is a visionary and that leader has to be looking at not what we're doing tomorrow, we have to be looking at what we're doing six months from now, a year from now, five years from now, one, three, five year plan.

Doug Markham (04:03)
Yeah.

Adam Berry (04:33)
And so, you know, once I saw that, I said, hey, this thing is outgrowing me. And this is something that I need to bring in some other resources. And that's where we got to the point we're at now.

Miriam Allred (04:44)
Were you still very bogged down in day to day operations or were you already kind of starting to step back?

Adam Berry (04:50)
I was starting to step back some, but still I enjoyed the day to day. but you know, some of that was have to, which we'll talk about later of of you know when when we met Avenues and and how that worked. But you know, it was some was have to, some was want to.

Miriam Allred (05:09)
Mm-hmm. What other what did your administrative team look like at that point? I'm just curious because oftentimes, you know, there's the CEO role and it can get lonely at the top and you being the visionary, it's like you carry this this huge burden. I'm curious, did you have other kind of like C suite or director levels? Like what what was the in infrastructure of the administrative team at that point in time?

Adam Berry (05:29)
at that point brought in a vice president of operations and you know she was a a great integrator has been a great integrator and and we worked very very well together we did the the rocket fuel analysis and she scored very high on integrator. I scored very high on visionary and we said, Hey, there's something here. This could this could work and I feel like we were a dangerous duo.

Miriam Allred (05:54)
And then below her, I'd imagine like a handful of directors that reported up to her.

Adam Berry (05:57)
Mm-hmm.

Branch directors, we had our office assistants, receptionists, and then we had caregivers, lead caregivers. So it was we had a full team.

Miriam Allred (06:08)
Okay. And not to not to bring you back to, I don't know, maybe PTSD of that time, but you said losing sleep. Like you at the head, you felt this weight. what what was going through your mind at that point? Like I don't know where to take this business, I don't know where to take my people, like what were some of the thoughts that were hanging you up?

Adam Berry (06:26)
Think it's John Maxwell that speaks of the, you know, the most dangerous leader is the one that's not self-aware. And so, you know, looking at that, you know, I have to be self-aware and say, okay, I'm not good at this, I'm not good at this, I'm not good at this. And that's where, I consulted some friends in the industry and said, Hey, you know, what what do you advise? What do you recommend? What are your thoughts? And that point they said, Hey, you know, you can look at this, this, or this. And, you know, once

Miriam Allred (06:47)
Mm.

Adam Berry (06:53)
we got to the point of of looking at I thought there's no you know, there's no option for me to have an acquisition and stay with the company. And so that was a that was an amazing thing.

Miriam Allred (07:05)
So when you say someone told you this, this or this, what what was the this, this and this? What were the what were the three the three two or three paths that you thought you could go down?

Adam Berry (07:15)
the two or three paths, one of them was was a complete acquisition that, you know, that I stepped away, which I fully expected to happen. The other one that I told the the person I worked with on it from Mertz Taggart was you know, I would love to have an opportunity to to do what I enjoy, but to have that support and those resources out there.

And I thought, there's no way that'll ever happen. You can't have your cake and eat it too. And well, you know, it was it's been a been a great experience to this point.

Miriam Allred (07:51)
Okay. And you referenced Mertz Taggart Were they the first people that you turned to or did you also call up other kind of operators, friends in the industry as well?

Adam Berry (08:00)
I was part of Mastermind Group of Jensen and Stephen's Mastermind Group for several years and you know, met several operators through there. And so you know, we had discussions through through our mastermind meetings, we had that and said, you know, there's like I said, there's different options out there. And but I never thought the option that I wanted would actually be the option that would that would truly be a real a reality.

Miriam Allred (08:26)
Mm. And and who told you, just getting to the root of it, was it someone at Mertz Taggart that told you, hey, there might be people out there that would acquire you, but then you could stay on in day-to-day operations? Did that come from Mertz Taggart or who was it that told you, kind of showed you like that light and that path?

Adam Berry (08:41)
I can still remember where I was sitting at when Bruce Vanderlan with Mertz Taggart told me, hey, this isn't this is a possibility. And I thought, there's no way this is a possibility, much less finding someone that has the same vision, has the same culture that As Close As Family does now that you you don't find that. And he said, you you never know. There's there's possibilities out there. And well, you know, it's it's been a like I said, it's been just a match made in heaven.

Miriam Allred (09:10)
Amazing. And and what what exactly did you want? You wanted to stay involved in day to day operations because you love what you do. What were you looking for? You know, what what as a leader did you need and did you think you needed at that point?

Adam Berry (09:25)
At that point was just needed some back office support. the things the the things I enjoy are are going out, going to the referral sources, thinking big, big newer broken. And that's that's the main things that that I wake up excited about every single day. And then, you know, if it's the everyday over, over, over rinse and repeat, I don't do well with that. But, you know, that's the thing with avenues is is

partner with them is they have allowed me to to head that direction, see my strengths, but yet support my weaknesses. And that has been, like I said, it's been great.

Miriam Allred (10:04)
Okay. And Doug, over to you. How do you get on on Mertz Taggart's radar? How do how do you kind of surface that relationship to then be able to entertain relationships like with Adam?

Doug Markham (10:16)
I don't actually recall.

Miriam Allred (10:18)
Yeah, okay.

Doug Markham (10:20)
We are pretty good sizes in the fact that we cover a number of states, number of different locations. I I do like the industry and I like meeting people and knowing people and sharing ideas. So I have a pretty good Rolodex of people that I just talk to from time to time and let know this is what we are doing philosophically, here's what we're going, this is what we're looking for. And while we do that from an organic growth perspective, I also

Also tell everybody, if you know anybody that fits maybe this geography, fits this philosophy, fits what they're trying to do in life and where they're trying to go, call me and think of me. So I don't really remember the first time I, you know, met Mertz Taggart or met Bruce. it may have been through their newsletter or one of their industry updates or something like that.

Adam Berry (10:52)
Okay.

Miriam Allred (11:12)
Yeah, the industry

is relatively small and I feel like everybody knows everybody and and I love what you just said of, you know, just letting people know who you are and what you're looking for. And It's like we're all we're all trying to accomplish something and work with like minded people. And so it's all about that connection. It sounds like this was kind of a a match made in heaven, but people talking to people and sharing objectives and same passions and it came together.

Doug, let's let's talk about what you look for in acquisition targets. You mentioned having two brands, ClearPath and and Adams Company as well. What are what are some of the non negotiables that you're looking for when you're entertaining these acquisition targets?

Doug Markham (11:48)
Well, first off, I really don't look at things as negotiable or non-negotiable. everything's in play. I am interested in growing, you know, the business. Our North Star is how do we serve more people? How do we help more families? How do we help more individuals? And so that's first and foremost what we set out to do. So to me, I like to listen. Let's just take Adams, When Adam and I first

began talking

getting to know each other, call it a courtship, I don't care what you kinda want to call it. It was more what are you trying to do? Where are you trying to go? Where are your bumps? Where are your opportunities? What are you excited about? And so I try to do a lot of listening. And by me listening it it helps me again not make something negotiable or non negotiable. Because to me that makes it sound like I won and you lost, or you won and I lost. I like to align

what we're doing with other people that share that same energy, commitment, passion, empathy, whatever kind of words you want to throw in there. So what I really look for, there's got to be a geographic fit. There has to be, you know, a cultural fit, a philosophical fit, all those things everybody can say, but we really mean it. And we really put, you know, our kind of our money where our mouth is. And then we sit down and we say, where are you trying to go? What are you trying to

get to. In Adam's situation, Adam, correct me if I'm wrong, you know, bring bring me back to center if I'm off base, but he kind of raised his hand and said, you know what, I need help. And it was, I do find here and I do find there, and I said, we can help you with HR, we can help you with marketing, we can help you with the financial piece. And so we looked at each other across, I remember it was a lunch table in Huntsville and we said, why don't we do this together?

as opposed to competing against each other. And so by bringing deals, transactions, acquisitions together in that format, you're and I am trying to bridge a gap and create that bridge that shares common interests and value of serving more people. And I think

Miriam Allred (14:07)
Hm.

Doug Markham (14:09)
You know, if there was something that was non negotiable, you know, a drop dead, and that would be taking me to a state where I don't want to be selling the company and then leaving. I don't want to do that. This is a people business, people serving people. Adam and team have created a great company in Alabama, and I look to be able to foster that as opposed to somebody come along and say, Okay, thanks, I'm gone, I'm out of here. So if it was in a market where I may already had

Miriam Allred (14:35)
Mm-hmm.

Doug Markham (14:39)
talent, office, caregivers, knowledge of the rules, the regulations, the referral patterns and somebody wanted to step off and retire, I would entertain that. But every situation from the from my perspective as well as the sellers is unique to them. And that's what I like to listen and hear and make sure that we can find a fit. Because if the fit's there not there and the alignment's not there, we should just be friends and talk from time to time.

Miriam Allred (15:05)
Yeah, I think that's all all really fair points. It's not apples to apples, and it's not there's no play look for how this looks. And that's kind of the beauty in the curse of acquisitions is there is no playbook. It's really a personality fit, a cultural fit, a geographic fit. There's like all of these factors, and there's no one right way. I imagine though, in Adam's case, he wanted to stay on and be involved in day to day operations. Doug, I imagine for someone like you, that's music to your ears. Like that's what you

Doug Markham (15:12)
Yeah.

Miriam Allred (15:32)
That's maybe best case scenario is you have a really strong operator that has all these relationships, that has this trust built with the office team and the community. I'd imagine Adam wanting to stay on is is something that you want to hear, correct?

Doug Markham (15:44)
Yeah, yeah, and I I'm kinda smiling at that and Adam, you know, kicked me under the table if you don't want me to say, but I'm going to anyway. When Adam and I first began chatting, I think Adam was much more, wow, I'm tired, I'm beat, I've taken this thing as far as I can go, and I really want to step off.

And through the course of that conversation and multiple conversations and courtship, like I said, listening and hearing, and and me sharing where we are going, and me listening to him where he has been and where he'd like to go, was when I think the light bulb went off to Adam and he said, This this works for me. And and I absolutely recall saying to Adam,

I need to know your team, I need to meet your team because I'm not moving to Alabama. And I don't have anybody else that's moving to Alabama. So for us to do this right well and properly, i.e., achieve and exceed our North Star of serving more families, I need you and your team involved. And so when Adam went, I like it, I believe you.

I I see the integrity that you bring into the industry and I want to be part of it. It absolutely maybe fast-tracked our conversations, but it definitely solidified that we were on the same page, focus on the same thing about being able to serve more families and more individuals. So yes, it's important.

Adam Berry (17:07)
Okay.

Miriam Allred (17:12)
And

And Doug,

what's the timeline here? When did you guys first meet? And about how many meetings did you two meet together before you then actually went and met the team?

Doug Markham (17:25)
We probably met the team, you know, I guess we kind of courted about a year conversations, lunch a couple of lunches here and there. Early on, I did say, you know, it's important for me to know the team. Not only for me to know the team.

But I feel very good about our team and what we're doing that I wanted them to know us. I wanted them to be comfortable in who we were as people, open, honesty, integrity, communication. So it's a scary thing when an owner walks in and says, hey, I'm selling the company. What does everybody do? Uh-oh, what's that mean for my job?

And that's why I say to Adam or others, it's important for me to get in front of your team so they can see, I don't have horns growing out of my head. I put my pants on the same way that you do. And we probably had a couple of lunches and then Adam Adam did early on said, you know what, let me bring in my VP. And so we had a couple of conversations with her. So, you know, I don't know, Adam half a dozen or so.

Adam Berry (18:32)
I would say half a dozen. I remember it. It was a cold, cold Friday the first time we met. Extremely cold because I picked up Bruce from the airport and we came and met you guys and sat down, had lunch. Very cold Friday in March. And Miriam, the probably I would say within the first five minutes out of Doug's mouth was it's about serving more people. And

Doug Markham (18:36)
Ha ha ha.

Adam Berry (19:00)
I mean, I could take off my shoes. I'd have to count on both hands, take off both shoes, and and still how many times I've heard Doug say that because that he reminds that to all of the team. And you know, a CEO is not I think it's Lynchone that says Patrick Lynchone that says a CEO should be should be called a CRO, also, a chief reminding officer, reminding of the vision. And so, you know, what Doug told me the first time I met him in the first five minutes.

It's still the same thing today. It's still about serving more people.

Miriam Allred (19:34)
And you could probably say, Adam, it really is kind of a a gut feeling, you know, selling a business and undertaking, a huge opportunity like this, like there's a lot of fear and there's a lot of emotion, there's a lot of unknown. But at the end of the day, Adam, do you feel like it kind of comes down to a gut feeling to make a big decision like this?

Adam Berry (19:52)
It can. the the biggest thing that I remember telling Bruce after that meeting, taking him back to the airport, was their PLU. He said, PLU? I said, people like us. And I said, that that makes a big difference of someone wanting to come down and sit down and break bread with you. Not just a, you know, a a quick phone call or something of, hey, we're gonna we're gonna do this, we're gonna do that. The other thing that I asked right out of

Right out of the gate is, you know, a lot of people has the ooh, private equity. Ooh, private equity. They're gonna come in and cut everything. I asked that question. I said, Hey, what are we looking at? You know, are you are we gonna come in? Are we gonna downsize? And he said, Downsize? No, we're looking at adding people, not cutting people. And so it's, I mean, it and everything just started there and it was just a snowball of, hey, this is a this is a great match.

Miriam Allred (20:46)
And then you mentioned, Doug, that this was like maybe a year long process. So it sounds like that initial meeting maybe surprised you both and how well it went. And there was just like this alignment and this excitement and then this kind of like snowballing of like, wow, what does this really look like? But then the year long process of the back and forth, is that really just going through kind of all of the the logistics, the technicalities, the Adam, you know, what do you want versus what do we do? Like was the year kind of just this back and forth of like picking apart the operations and who was gonna do what? Or

Kinda just like s synthesize what that looks like.

Doug Markham (21:20)
it's it's a little bit of both. In that year there's normal diligent stuff that needs to happen. So that's the unpleasant side of the transaction. There's legal diligence and there's financial diligence and that that's time consuming and especially for somebody that hasn't gone through it, especially for somebody that might be a one-man show or not really, you know, has the support team to to help contribute to the data requests. so that that was a that was a chunk of it.

As well, but part of it also is still warming to the idea. I mean, I probably said it to Adam, you you can say I did or I did, I don't remember. If today's not the right day, we can talk next month or next quarter. I'm okay. I'm not going anywhere.

Adam Berry (22:06)
Definitely.

Doug Markham (22:09)
We're going to continue to serve families and individuals in the capacities that we're set out to do. So I'm going to be here. If today's not right for you, you're busy with kids or summer vacations, or you just want to mull it over a little bit, or you want to talk to an advisor, that's okay. You know how to find me. Here's my number, here's my email. And all I ever ask is.

You know, if all of a sudden you get to the point where like I want to do this now, make sure I'm at the top of the list. So I'm not w we're not out to just buy people to buy people. It's a process, what I talked about. Listen, align, fit, and then it makes sense. And so some of that year is just downtime where

Adam's running his business, maybe a a particular location's doing well, and maybe a particular location's suffering. Maybe he's feeling great about business and he wants to hold it a little longer. Maybe he's had a bunch of HR headaches and he's like, I gotta get rid of this thing now. It doesn't matter, but all that is just kind of what I call maturation of the relationship. And I don't

Miriam Allred (23:23)
And Adam, and Adam, you're

still running the business. Like that's a really fair point of you're you're doing this kind of due diligence, this entertaining this acquisition in the background, but you're also still running day-to-day operations. Is that what it felt like? You you know, you're carrying like these two huge loads and like like Doug said, it's like, you know, it's every day is a little bit different. Your mood changes, your excitement changes, your passion to to hold on or to sell. Like, did it kind of feel like that throughout the year, this kind of like back and forth of I have to

Adam Berry (23:41)
Yeah.

Miriam Allred (23:52)
Keep the business running while also like entertaining this other opportunity.

Adam Berry (23:58)
It changed with the wind, I guess, sometimes. no, it was it was a once we found avenues and had lunch with them the first time, at that point I knew I was like, this is a this is a great match. This is everything they had to say. That's you know, like the saying is, that's where I want to be when I grow up. Well, you know, that's that's what I wanted to be, wanted As Close As Family to be when we grow up is is in that avenues.

brand in that avenues, their thinking, their vision and and growing of serving more people. when you look at the diligence and you look at look at all of that, yes, that's a stressful time, but you know, going back to merch tiger, Bruce, he said, hey, here's what this is going to look like. here's here's how it's going to go. And before any data request was given, I already had a pre

check sheet that I was already working on pulling stuff together before they even ask. And it was he already knew some of that of what they would ask for. So I already had some of that. So we could say here, here, here. So Bruce was a great, great, great asset there.

Miriam Allred (25:11)
curious to get a little bit technical, like say there's that checklist about what percentage did you have completed? Like do you feel like you had fifty percent of that or seventy percent of that? Or did y if you could just kind of conceptualize ballpark, like did you feel pretty prepared once you saw that or you're like, wow, we've got a lot of work on this diligent side.

Doug Markham (25:23)
Yeah, yeah.

Adam Berry (25:28)
No, I felt once once they turned over their request and I had the request that Bruce said, Hey, here's what's here's pro probably what's coming. I mean, they were they were very, very similar, very, very similar. So I felt very prepared to to present all that information.

Miriam Allred (25:47)
So what was the hardest part of of the diligence? You think of the legal, the financial, the data polling, like for you personally, what part was the hardest?

Adam Berry (25:57)
you're gonna have to give me a second on that one.

Miriam Allred (25:59)
Okay.

Adam Berry (26:02)
Not a very patient person. So once that requests come through, you can ask Bruce, you can ask Anka from Mertz Taggart Once they gave me the request, once Avenue sent their request over, there was a lot of long days and long nights that I worked to get that information quickly because I'm like, I want this information to them because they're getting information to me quickly. I'm getting them information quickly. It's just I looked at it also as a respect thing of if they request this, let's hey, let's let's get it through.

Miriam Allred (26:32)
Okay. And Doug second said a second ago, you know, like, no rush, like Adam, this is all on your timeline. Like you can wait a month and come back to us, or you have fires to put out, like, come back to us. Did you get cold feet at all through this process, whether it was in the diligence stage or later on as it was getting more serious, did you ever get cold feet?

Adam Berry (26:52)
I had cold feet walking into the restaurant the first day. That was that was the cold feet. But literally when I met them and realized they were people like us, I'm like, and then Doug's statement was it's about serving more people. And I was like, Thank you, Lord. That's a that's a you know, that was that was almost like a sign that it was, hey, this is it's not about.

Miriam Allred (26:56)
Okay.

Mm-hmm.

Adam Berry (27:22)
increasing revenue. It's not about, you know, looking at the numbers. It's not about looking at this, looking at that, growing our footprint. you look at it's about serving more people. Everything, whether it's a footprint, whether it's whatever, it comes back to serving more people. And Doug reminds us of that all the time of, hey, does this entail serving more people? If it doesn't, we're not going to do it.

Miriam Allred (27:46)
And so after all of this diligence, I'd imagine there comes this point. We kind of touched on this before, but there comes this point where Adam, you get to vocalize your strengths and weaknesses and what you want this to look like on the other side of the sale, in that you're still COO, you're still running this business, but there's things that you now have the the choice to offload. And I think that's that's the really exciting bit, at least in my kind of like

My limited mind is like if I was a CEO and I could choose hand pick all of the things that I can offload to somebody else, like it's kind of like Christmas Day is like, okay, here's all the things that I like to do and choose to do, and now I can just like ease this burden and just like give it to someone else that's qualified and capable to do all these things. What what when did that conversation happen? Like when do you get in the weeds of establishing who's gonna do what post sale?

Doug Markham (28:22)
Yeah.

Adam Berry (28:38)
that was a first that my opinion and Doug can correct me. That was a first day conversation of hey, what's stressing you out? What are your strengths? What do you enjoy? And so that was it was not Doug coming in saying, This is who we are, this is what we do, this is how we're gonna do it, this is how y'all are gonna do it. His statement was listen, you guys know Alabama. I don't. You guys are running a great operation. You guys have grown exponentially.

So why would I come in and try to change that? Why would I try to come in and mess that up? I'm gonna come in and support that. And so once I saw that, that was literally that was the first, I believe Doug, I mean that that was the first meeting was hey, here's what's stressing, you know, here's what's stressing me out. Because at that point it was if I go, if I stay, hey, it's you know, either way is is good. But when they started sharing their vision of, hey, here's where we can see.

Doug Markham (29:21)
Yep.

Adam Berry (29:36)
this going. Here's where we can support you. I actually remember getting on the phone with my wife on on the way home and saying, hey, wow, this this could work. This could work. I didn't think it would ever come to this. But, if I could have drew it out and said, hey, this is what a perfect situation looks like,

It was that day of I will never forget that day. It was like I said, it was a cold Friday and we had our meeting and we sat there at least a couple of hours and had a just a it was a great meeting, but they didn't they cared about the business, but they cared about who I was also.

Miriam Allred (30:17)
Mm-hmm. And you left there as warm and bright as ever.

Doug Markham (30:18)
Well, and thanks and thanks for

saying it that way. And Miriam, I think that's hopefully what listeners take away is we think we have a really, really good agency and we do some really neat things helping people and helping individuals. But we also know that there are plenty of people out there like Adam.

That also have good agencies and do good things. And so you've heard me say alignment and fit and listening. the other word I throw in there a lot is collaboration. And so we talk about, wow, you do that in Alabama? We never thought about that in Texas. Maybe that's something we could do in Texas. Or boy, you do that in Texas or you use that service in Texas? What about in Tennessee? So that all of that comes together in that

period of time where we're seeing if alignment and fit is there. Because I've done a lot of acquisitions in my life, in my working career, and I don't ever want to try to put a round peg in a square hole. If it doesn't fit, guess what? It's going to come back wrong. And that's where some of that communication, dialogue, comfort, gut feeling you said earlier

Adam, what's working, what's not working. I mean, there's simple things. We can say, hey, you know what, let's let's buy our work comp insurance together. Let's buy our group health. I mean, there things like that that make sense that there's synergies because of size and scale. But also, Adam has a very successful business. A Alabama has done very well. And I'd be foolish, my team would be foolish, to think we could come in there and tell them how to do it better. Or anybody else.

You know, if we buy somebody that might might be having trouble, might be struggling, that's a different story. But it's a collaborative conversation and it's a conversation. When we're sitting at the table, there are people on both sides of the table, from us as well as in this situation, the seller. Because we want to figure out how to do it better. Adam made reference to no, we're not gonna cut, we're gonna add. That's very, very much.

Miriam Allred (32:18)
Mm-hmm.

Doug Markham (32:35)
what we're about. To serve more people, we have to do it by adding things, not taking things away. And yes, we have to make hard decisions about can we do three cities at once? No, that's probably getting too far to the tips of our skis. Let's pick the one that makes the most sense. Do it right, do it well, do it properly, enhance the value we deliver to the community and those individuals that live there, and then go to the next one. And we don't want to do things too aggressively that we do something poorly.

Miriam Allred (32:40)
Mm.

Mm.

Adam Berry (33:04)
Doug, can I add to that real quick? So I am, like I said, I'm I'm a visionary. I cannot integrate anything. I am not a good boots on the ground. get very distracted very quickly. look, a squirrel. But it is, I've called Doug and I've said, hey man, I've got this idea. Let's do this. It's like, okay, but think about it like this. Or

Doug Markham (33:05)
Sure, yeah.

Yeah.

Adam Berry (33:30)
You know, in other situations, hey Doug, I d I don't agree with this. Doug comes back and says, Okay, well let's talk about it. Let's look at it. Let's have a conversation. And, you know, literally, Doug knows the conversation I'm probably talking about. and he made the statement and he told me and he said when he told me the the reasoning, I made the statement. I said, You know what? I I didn't think about it like that whatsoever.

Doug Markham (33:47)
I do.

Yeah.

Adam Berry (34:00)
And but that's the thing. It wasn't a you know beaten over the head of what are you thinking? Why are you thinking? You know, that's crazy thinking. That's it was a I'm gonna hear you out, we're gonna figure this out. And that's everywhere from Doug all the way through the entire company, the corporate section. We have different with a different I can call Dallas, I can call Knoxville.

I can call Nashville. I can call San Antonio and I can say, hey, here's an idea. Let me run this past you. Hey, we've tried that here. Didn't work. Or we've tried that here and it worked great. And that's the other thing that I really like is that iron sharpens iron. I can call Philip. I can call Sarah. I can call Hannah. I can call Paul. I can call any of those folks and say, you know, tell me what's going on.

Miriam Allred (34:46)
Mm-hmm.

Adam Berry (34:56)
I can call Andrew, I can call Heather, I can call Harrison, and the list goes on and on and on. And I mean we could sit here all day and I could tell you the people I could call

but that's the biggest thing is just having that iron sharpens iron. When we get together for our management meetings, we're sitting down, we're digging in and really looking at the financials. We're looking at the okay, how can we serve more people? We're looking at the core values, we're looking at the mission statement, we're looking at all that. And it's a it's a tiring couple of days when we have our management meeting. but when the meeting's over, we go out, we have dinner together, and it's like a family. So I mean it's it's

We didn't, I guess you would say they adopted us into their family. And we're just part of a of a huge family now. And they have they have taken us in as one of their own. And it's it's been it's been refreshing because like I said, I get to work in my strengths. I get to bounce ideas off of, hey, how about this growth strategy? How about that growth strategy? you know, and I've heard Doug say a couple of times, hey, let's don't get over the tips of our skis. And

Miriam Allred (35:42)
Mm-hmm.

Adam Berry (36:02)
you know, let's let's head back down to reality here of maybe maybe tomorrow, but not right now. Or hey, that's a, you know, we're having a an event coming up. Told him about the event, shared with him that. He hey, I want to be a part of that. I want to come down. And other ones in the company said, hey, I want to come down and be a part of that. And taking part in an event, the CEO actually coming down to just a marketing event we're doing. it it is one big family.

Miriam Allred (36:30)
Yeah, you b you get to challenge each other in all the best ways and support each other in all of the best ways as well. And you have, like you talked about Adam, just like this built-in network of other successful operators that you can bounce ideas off of. And that's where a lot of, you know, CEOs and owners get stuck is they don't have this sounding board. And, you know, that's kind of my personal mission with this podcast is just like connecting people. No operator should be operating out in a silo in their own market and getting to this like burnout point where they don't know where to where to go or who to turn to.

There are so many operators, and we just need to like kind of rally together and put our heads together and challenge each other and push each other and support one another, another. And you found that inside this avenues home care, which is so powerful. Doug, I want to ask you about kind of centralized versus decentralized operations. We talked quite a bit about that with these large home care companies that are in four states and 25 locations. how do you think about

Adam Berry (37:14)
Okay.

Miriam Allred (37:23)
centralizing certain functions because you are a roll-up and you do have different brands and different branches and different people. Have you tried to centralize any operations or have you kind of kept everything decentralized out in their different markets?

Doug Markham (37:36)
kind of break it up into two things those that are back office related yes can be centralized accounting finance banking relationships all of that HR insurance all that is easily put under one

Generally there's cost savings with it just because of the size of the scale. Maybe somebody's experience mod for the workers' compensation is better, so they get, you know, it brings value to the group. We absolutely believe in local autonomy.

And so I want each person in our organization, so Adam sits over Alabama, Hannah sits over Tennessee, and so forth. And then there is at each local level there's an administrator or a branch manager. They're the same people, but in certain states you're required to have an administrator, so that's why they're called an administrator. but I want those people to be on board with what we're doing.

I want them to be in agreement with what we're doing. I want them to be excited about what we're doing. And then I want to equip them with the data, whatever they need, to help their speed of decision making going back to the executing of our mission. I may come along and say, you know.

What should our rate be for caregivers in that state? Or what should our rate be for clients in that, you know, jurisdiction? But I leave that up to those people because they know the markets, not me. And that is really, really, really important is that

Those local people take pride in ownership, pride in authorship, knowing where we are, knowing where we're trying to get, and the levers and things that you need to do to get there. So I'm big open book practice, data, results, so that people make those informed decisions as they come up. Where's Adam? I got to track down Adam. He's traveling. Adam's got to call Doug. No, we don't do that. Very flat organization.

Yeah.

Miriam Allred (39:51)
Mm.

So Adam, how has your day to day changed? You know, in a lot of ways it probably looks similar, but in maybe some key ways it looks different. But kind of describe the differences of your day to day between then and now.

Adam Berry (40:07)
Difference is sort of like we mentioned earlier of I'm in my strengths. So big, new, or broken, being able to start new things, work with new referral sources. Doug has encouraged me, hey, let's let's work on this and this and this. And because I'd brought some some ideas to him and he said, Okay, here's how we can, here's how I think we can integrate that.

and get that down to here is I think you would fit good in this spot. And so that's the other thing that I told them when when we met was, was I want to learn. I want to learn from people who's done this a lot longer than I have. And so teaching, you know, them teaching me that's that's a big thing that I've really enjoyed was, you know, my day to day stuff is I do get to learn from them. I do get to bounce ideas off of them. But as far as everyday

we have a great, great marketing department, we have a great HR department, we have a great finance department. So that's taken off those things. And then when with like what Doug was saying, as far as with data, you know, we get the data. We get data fed to us every, you know, every month of, hey, here's our number. Every week we send our numbers in and we say, okay, here's where we're at. How do we serve more people?

How do we do this? How do we do that? And we get, you know, from the business side, we get those financials of, okay, here's, here's where you're at. Here's your scorecard, so to speak. We read our own scorecards. We're not told, hey, this is too much. This is this. This is not enough. This is, it's that autonomy is there. We know the numbers. We know what, we know what that market can handle. We know what that market cannot.

We know what it takes to hire good caregivers in that market. We know what it takes to retain the caregivers in that market. So my day-to-day has shifted more to being out to be able to be out in the market. has been contracting, has been working on credentialing, working on all that of just the the everyday little nooks and crannies. And it's been

Miriam Allred (42:29)
Mm.

Adam Berry (42:31)
More than anything, it's I love to get to the office early and you know, they've they've not quenched that spirit. love to get there early and and get going. And as Doug said, it's not a there's not a mold that you have to fit in to be as part be a part of avenues. You just have to be about serving more people. And how that looks, you know, that's it's different. It looks different in San Antonio than it does in Dallas, than it does in Alabama.

Miriam Allred (42:52)
Mm.

Adam Berry (43:00)
It looks different in North Alabama than it does in South Alabama or East compared to West. It looks different in the in the hills of Tennessee. It looks different than it does in Nashville. But the the full team, the you know, 30, 40 or so in that we deal with with the management team, you're looking at everybody has respect for everybody else, and we understand what our strengths are, what our weaknesses are. So that was a big circle.

Miriam Allred (43:07)
Mm-hmm.

Adam Berry (43:29)
to get back to my strengths are what I get to do, still get to do every day, which is, which is the marketing, which is the, coming up with big ideas of, hey, this just might work. And so it's it's been a very enjoyable time of looking forward to going to work of this is just crazy enough, but it might work. Let me call Doug, let me call Andrew, let me call Heather, let me call Harrison, let me call one of those and see if, you know, see what they think.

And it's it's been a good like I said, I know I've said it a couple of times now, but it's been a very good match because I get to do what I enjoy every day.

Miriam Allred (44:10)
And in many ways.

Doug Markham (44:10)
Well and a you know, Adam, there are there are

a couple of things that I think of and I was just listening to you that popped into my head when Miriam asked that, is

your days change because you have support. I think of the managerial training and the HR support that you get. I think of the conversation this morning or maybe it was yesterday morning about the marketing. That y we have a marketing department and Adam said, Hey I'd like to do this, this and this. They'll run with it. They may get it seventy five percent of the way or ninety percent of the way there and then Adam can edit it. Let's use these words. Let's choose those words. But you know, I just think of even the year that we've been together

I can see a difference in you

because you have that support of HR and you're not necessarily, I gotta deal with that or how do I do training or what could do to help elevate, you know, our managers. We're we're big on building our talent, you know, it's a people business and so we put a lot of investment into our people. How do we can improve? We all can improve. and so I think of those as two examples, Adam, where you probably have more time because you have somebody else helping you through that process, whether it be the marketing side or training

with HR or things like that.

Miriam Allred (45:28)
Mm.

Adam Berry (45:28)
definitely.

Unemployment claim would come through. Guess who would do it? you know, request for information, employment verification. I was doing every bit of that. And it was and now it's that goes to the HR department. They handle that of well, what about this marketing idea? What about that marketing idea? Hey, I need this ordered, I need that ordered. Nope. Hey, call Aslan, we'll work with her, call Julie, we'll work with her. And it's it's more

Miriam Allred (45:31)
Mm-hmm.

Adam Berry (45:55)
streamlined of everyone as Doug says, stay in your lane. We know what where strengths are, we know what our weaknesses are, and we stay in our lanes and we we run that race.

Miriam Allred (46:09)
Mm-hmm. And and like I said earlier, Adam, you know, I think of the kind of the Christmas day is like you get to offload all of the bad. But then I it what it sounds like to me is the best part for you is now you have all of this built in support of people you can call. Whereas before you were lonely and burning out at the top. And who do you turn to? Who does a burnt out CEO turn to? You know, for like real day to day, tangible support. Yes, you can.

call a someone that can like empathize, you know, a therapist, like there's all of that type of support. But it's another thing for you to actually call someone up, bounce an idea off, pass off, a task or a a project for them and not have to take all that on as as the CEO at the top. Do you feel like that has alleviated most of your stress? Like think back of all the like the stressful nights and the sleepless nights. Do you feel like just having that backstop of support has alleviated a a lot, if not most of your stress?

Adam Berry (47:05)
If I would have had that five or six years ago, I would still have a full head of hair. So it's it's it's definitely a it's a relief. It's a godsend. you know, my wife, she will she will tell you, she said, Lord, send our way. And that's Doug, I don't think I've ever told you that. But that my wife, she's you know, it was there was a lot of prayers, you know, of what direction.

Miriam Allred (47:08)
Yeah.

Doug Markham (47:26)
You have not. Yeah.

Adam Berry (47:35)
What am I supposed to do? Where am I supposed to go? What's the next, what's the next step? because, you know, built the baby from the ground up. And we grew this baby and you know, you once you grow that baby, you you don't want to just take and just say, whoever, you know, take care of my kid. But it's but literally when I go back to that cold Friday in March of when he said it's about serving more people. It got warm at that point because I was that was that warm fuzzy feeling.

Miriam Allred (48:03)
Mm-hmm.

Adam Berry (48:05)
And it was just a it's literally to this point, you know, another thing that comes to mind is trust. Trust is not is not given, trust is earned. And, you know, looking at from when I was in the seat of looking at going to something else, it was hard to trust people. It was very hard to trust people. But, you know, everything they've said they would do, they've they've done. So it's been a

Like I said, it's been a godsend, but it has been it's allowed me to work in in my strengths.

Miriam Allred (48:41)
Mm-hmm. If if to shift gears just a little bit here in our last few minutes, if I were an operator listening to this, I would want to know the the specifics or the high level of like how this kind of a deal is structured. Because a lot of times we think of, you know, Avenues Home Care just buys out Adam's company and then it's all kind of like, you know, all said and done. This acquisition is very unique in a lot of ways with Adam staying on. And so, Doug, can you shed some light on

Adam Berry (49:02)
Mm.

Miriam Allred (49:08)
how the deal structure is organized and that Adam is still involved. Can you explain kind of what some of the details are?

Doug Markham (49:16)
yeah, I I'll take a stab at it. And first and foremost, everything is different. You know, you've heard me say listen, you've heard me say alignment. So we have had people that say, I'm done, I'm tired, I want to get out and we've just bought them out. And that might you know, that might be cash and an earnout, that might be cash or deferred payment. we have had people that say, I need help and and

I don't really need the money, but I want to stay involved and maybe I'll finance part of it and take some of it in cash and some of it in a note. So my reason for saying it that way is we try to meet people where they are and where they're trying to get to. Which I think makes us very unique in the situation that I it's not a black box. I don't say, Adam, you have to do this, this, this, and this, and that's all I'll do.

I go back to, if it makes sense for all the reasons we've just spent the last hour talking about, then to me the structure is kind of irrelevant because I listened, we agreed we made sense together as a combined entity to execute on our mission.

And so now how do you want to break this up? So we can do cash, earnouts, notes, stock. We can do whatever makes sense. And you know, I have a board and we we talk through each one of these situations, but everyone's different. I don't think I've done I'm thinking before I say it. I think every transaction that we've done has been

Unique to that individual, where they were in life, personally, professionally, and financially, and we met them where they were trying to go.

Miriam Allred (51:05)
Mm.

And then it's an open conversation for both of you. You know, you know, year over year. It's kind of like where are we at? How are we both feeling? How are things going? What do we want out of this?

Doug Markham (51:08)
Mm-hmm.

Yep.

Yep, absolutely.

Miriam Allred (51:17)
And and and any sort of timeline, you know, do you sca discuss timelines? Obviously that's like a personal question and Adam with you and your family, it's but you oftentimes in these moments of time of an an acquisition, it's like there's kind of some sort of timeline even established. Have you guys established any sort of timeline? Or it very much is let's just take it kind of one year at a time?

Doug Markham (51:35)
Yeah, no, we we absolutely have people that say, you know, I'll give you six months to transition. I'll give you three months to transition. And again, if that fits where we are, I'll entertain that. In Adam's situation, I said, I'm not moving to Alabama and I don't have anybody else that wants to go there. So I need to know that you and your team are

interested and empathetic and have the compassion and the desire and the motivation and the drive to continue to build. And so that's how timing comes into play. That's how the timing conversation comes into play. And and I've said no plenty of times when somebody says, you know what

I'm tired, I've done this for 20 years, 15 years, and I want to step off the train. I want to step off the bus. And sometimes I say, that's great, I understand that, I respect that, but you know, I don't have anybody to fill in your shoes. Tell me about your leadership team. Let me meet your leadership team. Or if you are the leadership team, then we probably have a different conversation and a different problem. So

Miriam Allred (52:48)
Mm.

Doug Markham (52:49)
I really try to listen and understand where they are, where they're trying to get to, that is the seller, and then we layer that in is is there a good fit for avenues? And in Adam's situation I think it worked out beautifully.

Miriam Allred (53:01)
Okay.

Mm-hmm. I want to ask you one little tangent question here, Doug, that you're not not expecting, but I want your take on it, which is there's a lot of there's a lot of private equity and attention on home care right now. And you've explained how you're doing things differently than a lot of the other players out there. I just want maybe like your unfiltered take on what private equity is doing to this industry, because I'm sure you've seen that up close and personally. And obviously you're building a very different approach, but what's what's kind of your take on

Adam Berry (53:10)
Yeah.

Doug Markham (53:10)
Yeah.

Miriam Allred (53:31)
What's happening with private equity in home care right now?

Doug Markham (53:35)
you know, private equity, there's a a place and time for private equity in all industries and in all markets. So I think they can bring real value to the equation. Having said that, there are a variety of operators in that space. And so if you're going down that road, getting to know the sponsors, getting to know what they are about.

maybe getting references on, you know, hey, what's it like working with them? And in our situation, I even introduced, in essence, my boss, the chairman, to Adam, at one of those lunches we talk about. And so I would I would encourage everybody to fully understand who they're you're talking with, what they're talking about, because there's a lot of things that are said.

and a lot of things that can play out differently once the ink is dry and and you know money's changed hands. So I think there's a great opportunity for people in this space, but really, really do your due diligence on the people that might, you know, hold majority control, hold minority control, be writing the check to you or however the deal is structured.

Adam Berry (54:45)
Definitely.

Miriam Allred (54:55)
Mm. And I want yeah.

Adam Berry (54:56)
To add to that, Miriam,

you know, with as I said a second ago, big scary, you know, private equity is what you hear sometimes. No, our management meetings have been, you know, at at the firm and you know, knowing those guys and and shaking their hand and looking them in the eye and hey, how's the family? And and all that. It's it's a completely different animal of what you see, what you hear of, you know, avenues is completely

completely different, my opinion, of what you what you see sometimes on the news and you hear on the news. it's a like Doug said, make sure to do your homework because it is, you know, if if you hear someone tell you something and then they turn around and change it, don't ignore that. Don't ignore patterns. And because I looked for patterns, honestly, I looked for patterns with avenues when we would have different conversations. And I was looking for a pattern of and trying to get that

and everything was A equals, you know, A and B equals B and and one plus one always equal two. you know, and that's that's the big thing is don't let it scare you off. Find someone, if you're looking at that, find someone like Avenues that is a trustworthy company.

Doug Markham (56:15)
And

and and sometimes, Miriam, that that's really difficult to get that intel, behind the scenes intel. Everybody can find a great reference to say glowing remarks. everybody can put somebody in front of you to say they're wonderful people. our financial sponsors, I I have known the principals for a very long time.

And so while we didn't have a working history, we did have, you know, working knowledge of each other and interaction of each other. And so when we began to sit down and look at this, we really said, you know, we can help you put things together, but you know how to run it and go to market and create the strategy and execute. And that's how they support us today. I can go ask them to do something or dig in and they will.

But they're never going the other way of saying you should be doing this and you should be doing that. Again, we're performing, so that helps, but you know, doing things like we have with ACAF as Close as Family, it helps. And so getting that honest intel can be a challenge. I don't I don't want to make light of it, it can be a challenge. But I think there's a time and a place for private equity, really in all industries.

Miriam Allred (57:34)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. And I I asked that question kind of like a skeptic. I think I hear more private equity success stories in home care than horror stories, but we all hear the horror stories and we're just kinda that being said, you know, there there definitely are like some some sour examples of private equity in home care. I think I spent more time with people that are, you know, successful and done it well and are seeing success in that. But I think it is like you just said, Doug, like there's things for everyone to be aware of. Like this really is kind of a courtship. It is a long process. Do as much due diligence as you can.

There are good private equity firms, there are bad ones, there are good fits, there's bad fits. And so there there is a place. But I do think all of that being said, it is pushing home care. Like home care is going through this kind of like sophistication era and we're all pushing each other and getting better and serving more families. And so, in a lot of ways, bringing in kind of outside eyes into this industry in the right ways can push us into what I think of kind of like a new era of home care. Like operations are smarter, we're taking care of more families. We're

approaching care differently, we're treating caregivers better, work for focusing on workforce development, like all of these really important things. We are we're trending in the right direction. And I think bringing in kind of outside eyes and support is a way to do that.

Doug Markham (58:44)
Well, and I you know, my my working career has been basically with private equity backed companies. So I've had the good fortune of of getting to know a lot of and what I would say to anybody listening, like Adam took time to pick us, you take time to pick your partner.

Adam Berry (59:03)
Most definitely. Most definitely.

Doug Markham (59:05)
And you know, if if it doesn't feel

Miriam Allred (59:05)
Mm.

Doug Markham (59:07)
right, pick another one. You know, if there's a if there's a rub that's just not so I find and I don't call anybody good or bad, I just say they have different philosophies or different directions. So I think there's a time and a place for that investment vehicle to come into the industry, this industry or any other industry.

And as Adam took time to pick us, I think everybody should take time to pick their partner. It's an important decision.

Miriam Allred (59:40)
Yeah. Yeah.

Adam, just here in closing, think of operators just like you, you know, a couple of years ago in this kind of doom and gloom state. What advice would you give them? You know, they've just heard this conversation and they've seen how things have turned out for you. What advice would you give someone that's listening to this that kind of feels at the end of their line and they don't know where to go? What what would you say to them right now?

Adam Berry (1:00:06)
I would say probably one of the songs that's that got, you know, during during this time was called Just Wait and Be Still. And, you know, be still till you know. Be still till you have that person that says, Hey, we don't want to just have a phone conversation. We wanna have lunch with you. We wanna sit down, we wanna have a conversation. Hey, tell me about your family. Tell me about you. I love to hunt and love to fish, love to play golf and

You know, they knew that about me in the first five minutes of our meeting. And so if people just comes in and says, Hey, tell me about your about your business, be very cautious of, you know, if are they looking at to bringing you into their family? Are they looking at truly mentoring you, working with you? But it back to that, back to your original question was wait and be still until you have that conversation that somebody looks at you and says,

It's about serving more people. And when you have that and you get that that confirmation, do something at that point. But if I cannot say, well, I would have eventually known that was that was the right step to make, but it was like literally when I heard the statement of it's about serving more people. It was at that point I said, these are the guys. These are the guys. They want to come and sit down.

know who I am. They want to know about my family. They want to know about my team. They don't want to cut. They want to add. So, you know, if someone's looking at, hey, I think I'm at the end of my road here of what do I do next? Don't hesitate asking questions. Don't hesitate reaching out and saying, hey, to to one of the mastermind groups, to one of the you know, someone who's who's been through this, don't hesitate to reach out and say, hey, you know,

at least let me be, let me cry on your shoulder, at least let me have your ear a second. Because, you know, we're like you said, Miriam, we're all in this together. It's a small group. I can count and start naming operators that I know across the market in big, small, in between. But truly don't do anything till you have someone that literally will look you in the eye and say it's it's about serving more people.

Miriam Allred (1:02:31)
Yeah. Gentlemen, great conversation today. Thank you so much for sharing. I feel like we've we've hit this topic really well and that I want operators to feel the way that you felt, Adam. You know, that when you feel at the end of the line and you feel like there's only so many paths you can go down, there there is another option in that you can find someone like Doug, companies like Doug that want to play to your strength, that want to keep you involved so you can keep doing what you do best and doing what you love with that additional layer of support. And so I feel like we've

We've told that story well. And I would encourage everyone listening to this to reach out to Adam and Doug. There's more questions that these operators probably have about specifics that we didn't hit on, but reach out to them and and learn more about their experience so that you're not alone kind of in that place as well. So gentlemen, thank you so much. We'll go ahead and wrap up here.

Adam Berry (1:03:12)
Thank you for having us.

Doug Markham (1:03:13)
Miriam, thank

you for including us. Take care. Have a wonderful day, everybody.

Miriam Allred (1:03:15)
Absolutely.

Adam Berry (1:03:18)
All right, thank you.