Episode 05

(0:00) Welcome to the BLTNT podcast. I’m your host, Matt Loria, serving up real stories of business, life, technology, and transformations. You’ll hear from interesting people about big changes from career shifts to life-altering decisions and the innovations that help make it all happen.  It’s about sharing those light bulb moments, pivot points, challenges overcome, and the journeys that inspire us to think differently. If you’re on the lookout for insights to propel you forward, stories that resonate, or just a bit of inspiration on your next BLTNT move, you’re in the right place. Let’s dig in.
(0:42) Hi, I’m Matt Loria, and we’re here with another episode of the BLTNT podcast, where we’re talking about business, life, technology, and transformations. 
(0:50) And I have Tony Michaels, the CEO of The Parade Company, and good buddy of mine. Good morning.
(0:56) Glad you’re here. BLT, is it? BLTNT, business, life, technology, and transformations. Matt, bacon, lettuce, and tomato.
(1:02) Although there are many layers to all of us here, bacon is not one this morning. Gotcha. So I’m glad you’re here. We’ve gotten to know each other quite a bit over the last few years, and really have enjoyed your conversations. And we’d love to share some of that with whoever else will listen. Well, I’m honored to be here. This should be fun. 
(1:25) Great, great. So you’ve got a really cool… We always start off with the business side, because this is kind of mimicking the conversations that we would have over lunch, hence the BLTNT sandwich reference. So we usually start off with business, and you’ve got a really cool career. 
(1:46) Certainly loyalty would ring true in your career
Longevity Yeah. Stick-to-itiveness. Yeah. I mean, I was born and raised at Elias Brothers Big Boy. I was 14, working every summer in the commissary, unloading trucks, and (graduated college in 81 from Central Michigan University. Go Chips!
(2:10) All right. I know somebody in this room who might be…  I know. I learned all about that. Went to Elias full-time in 81 when I graduated, and took over marketing, advertising, PR in 1985, and became CEO of a company that was headed towards bankruptcy in 1999.
(2:36) Figured out how to save that company with a great group of people, and then I ran it under the new owner for about seven years. We parted company at the end of 08. I was on the board of the parade company, and somehow, I ended up running the parade company in 09, and here I am 15 years later, and we’ve just kind of turned this thing right around, and it’s really exciting.
(2:57) That’s great. And so you’ve taken a lot of the business acumen from private sector business, if you will, to the non-profit world. Yeah. It’s really interesting. It’s pretty much the same. You have a mission. You can’t falter from the mission of the non-profit. It’s just the way it is. But if a non-profit isn’t run like a business, there’s going to be no non-profit.
And that’s what I told the team back in 09. I said, look, forget the money, because we didn’t have any. I mean, it was tough.
(3:40) But I said, if we make everything great, just make it great. Let’s really work on, and I call it the goalpost strategy, where I put the word great between the goalposts. And anything outside the goalposts, we’re not going to do unless we can bring it inside the goalpost.
(3:57) And I said, the money will follow, and everyone’s career will grow. And you know, it’s interesting, but it is panned out, and we can’t stop. It’s our strategy going forward. But we changed everything. We had to make everything better, which made it better for the team members in a really big way. So now the parade company is doing very well.
(4:20) We’re raising money to build a new home on the Detroit River. Cross your fingers,  Matt. They’re crossed. Everything I have is crossed. We’re getting there. We’re getting there. But we need a new home. Do we have some drawings that we’ll be able to show? Absolutely. I can get those to you. Great. We’ll pop it up on this and make sure everybody can see it. And if anybody wants to write a check, I mean, you know.
We will put a link in there as well. I’m just saying. No problem.
(4:43) No problem. I totally understand what you’re saying, though, about that mission to great. And we did it a little bit differently here, said it a little bit differently, and it was a little more accidental. I had been a customer of IT companies in my former business that I owned with my family members, and we struggled to have a great experience with those. And when I got into the business, I started to realize what that was all about. And it was, there was no standards, there was no processes, there were no compliance standards also that people were being forced to.
(5:20) So we would go into a company, you know, let’s pick on Elias Brothers or on the parade company itself. We would go into that company and say, okay, let’s take a look at your IT, how it is. And it wouldn’t really have a whole lot of structure.
It would be working. But I had came from the larger organizations where they had all these different processes and procedures. They had ITIL, which is an international standard for how you run an IT department. And we were shocked to come into the small and mid-sized businesses and see that there was no, there was nothing kind of forcing them or no real standard across the board.
(5:53) And so we said, we have to create the gold standards and apply it. And if we don’t, it, it’s not going to, we’re not going to be helping anybody. And so I loved when you told me about the, this, this strategy of great, and it’s now starts to really piece together kind of all the pieces that I know about you and the, the actions that I’ve seen you take. And it’s like, you know, Tony Michaels doesn’t really half-ass anything, does he? 
(6:19) Wow. I, you know, it’s, if you think about it, it’s a very simple, it’s a very simple stance because if you’re not going to do something great, why do it? And then who wants to team up with you? Who wants to become a partner? Who wants to become a sponsor if you’re not doing things great? And look at all the great brand association that you’ve brought to the, to the table with your, you know, with, with that, you know, you’ve brought some amazing brands.
(6:44) In fact, I had Anthony Laverty, the CEO of Emagine here just recently, awesome guy. And I’ve known Paul for a long time, really good friends with those guys. And they, you know, they’ve associated they’re a platinum brand, you know, attached to, attached to the parade company, another platinum brand. And so that association is, is a wonderful thing. 
(7:03) We’re very fortunate. And when we say great, when it comes to our sponsors and partners, we go overboard to give them exposure. I try to line up as many interviews and get the word out. And we want it to where if you’re working with the parade company, you are everywhere. You are, it’s not just a day.
(7:23) You’re providing a value beyond just the, you’re able to donate to a great cause, but, but, but, but you’re giving back with the exposure piece. No question. No question. That’s a great plan. Yeah. Yeah, it really is. And it works. And, and, you know, we have to keep doing it. We just, we don’t sit on our laurels and say, Oh, that was a great year. No, it’s, it’s, in fact, I’m not much on lessons learned. And I know a lot of people say, Oh, we have to meet and do lessons learned. 
(7:47) I’m about how to make it better next year. I’m sorry. I, I, yeah. Okay.
There’s going to be groups, we talk about those, we deal with them, but where are we going? What are we doing? How do we make it better? That’s always what we do. 
(8:00) Future oriented sort of look. Yeah, that’s exactly it. So talk about this new, this new building and kind of the why behind it as well. Cause it sounded to me from what you explained is that there’s a whole lot of give back in this beautiful building that you’re building that will give again, more exposure and, and, and notoriety to the people who are involved in it. 
(8:20) Yeah, it’s a, it’s the old Broadhead Armory on Jefferson Avenue across from Belle Isle. I was born and raised in the cabbage patch of Grosse Pointe, the two family flats for like five blocks. And every time we would go head down Jefferson, you would see the submarine sitting in front of the Naval Broadhead Armory. It’s now been empty for 23 years.
(8:41) It is decayed to no end. It is blight now, but I kind of identified that that could be the new home. If we did certain things, number one, we have to salvage any art that is in the building because it’s historical. And we had to spend five years going through the historical district commission in Detroit to get clearance to progress. So we had to hire a conservator and we’re going to cut out any salvageable art in that building that is salvageable. I mean, we are going to do that.
(9:11) Is it just art or is it artifacts as well? There’s frescoes, there’s doors, the old naval doors with the rounded corners. So not just a piece of art, but actually the architecture of some of the pieces of building that you’re going to be able to salvage? 
(9:27) Yeah, absolutely. Then we’re going to level the back end and then we’re going to refurbish the front 37,000 square feet and take the exterior right back to its grand look of back in the 30s.
(9:42) Then we’re going to build a two-story building right on the river connected to the refurbished front. And below we’re going to be building the floats and doing all those things that we build and we do. Upstairs will be the storage and events center, tours, internships.
(10:02) There’s going to be the largest Detroit summer camp for kids learning arts and crafts when school lets out. We’re going have them rolling through all day long. There’s going to be tours. I mentioned the events center. This building is going to be 175,000 square feet of amazement and we’re looking for people, companies are going to want to rent this for their corporate meetings, fundraisers. 
(10:27) We’re already getting calls for weddings and graduations and I’m like, (10:32) no, we have not raised the money yet. We can’t book anything. We think this place is going to be booked a lot. So we have something great here for the neighborhood, for the kids.
Also, there’s going to be a veteran’s office. This was a naval broadhead armory, right? And we’re going to have a veteran’s office where they can come and meet. They’re going to be able to hold a couple of events there, you know, through the year, big events, free of charge.
(10:59) Also, the neighborhood. This is a blighted building. It is really bad.
Massive hole in the roof. There’s water inside and who knows what else. And this is going to really send a message on Jefferson Avenue. It’s kind of that connecting point. We’re excited. It’s great. We’re raising the money right now and hopefully soon we’re going to be close to halfway. That’s a big deal. And once we go green with the city, we’re going to start this. Rosetti designed it. 
(11:34) Kramer is now our design architect. They deal with historical and Rosetti did a phenomenal job. And then Barton Mello is going to be the builder. And so we’ve got everything laid out. It’s costed out and we just have to raise the money and we’re getting there.
Great. You know, not everyone that’s tuning into this is from the Detroit area.
(12:00) Can you give a little explanation of what the Parade Company does for anybody that doesn’t know? Absolutely. The Parade Company is a non-profit which puts on the big events in the city of Detroit, many of them. So we put on America’s Thanksgiving Parade presented by Gardner White, which goes head-to-head with Macy’s. You know,  Macy’s gets the big pub, of course. It’s New York, a lot of Broadway. We’re the real grassroots. We build 130-foot floats. They’re all three-year contracts. And our parade is syndicated across America in 185 cities.
(12:31) It is the number one event in this city, in this state. The largest and a massive, massive live audience and television audience. We also put on the Ford Fireworks June 24th this year in 2024, of course. That is the largest firework show in America.
(12:56) Wow. It is, hands down. Also, we put on the Turkey Trot Thanksgiving morning.
15,000 runners running down Woodward Avenue in front of a million people that morning. And all of this happens right before the Lion Game on Thanksgiving. If you think about it, the parade. Takes a little orchestration to get all that going, huh? Oh, it’s crazy. Yeah. The parade goes from 9 till noon.
(13:19) The Lions kick off at 1230. It’s what a day in Detroit. We also put on Hobnobble Gobble presented by Ford, which is a party unlike anything else.
It’s a black tie for kids from 1 to 95 with carnival rides. It’s in Ford Field, right on the floor. Great entertainment. We’ve had Nellie, Jason Derulo, Flo Rida. We’ve packed the place. 2500 people just rocking it out to help fund the parade company.
(13:48) Great. We’ll make sure that we give a lot of access to anybody who’s watching this to be able to find it and be there and buy a ticket. Absolutely. Yeah. And the freebie that we do, the invite is the Pancake Breakfast presented by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. 
(14:07) And that’s 800 to 1,000 civic and business leaders that morning.
Have you been? I’ve not. You need to come. It’s the Friday after Election Day, I think November 8th this year. You’ve got to come to that. I’ll be there. And Dan Lepp, dear friend, is retiring from Blue Cross. He just announced his successor. Yes, he did. Trisha’s phenomenal. Trisha Keith. So at that breakfast, we’ll be rolling out the brand new Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan float.
(14:35) We’ll have WJR there, WDIV. And it’s a really great moment for Dan because this is the last one with him as CEO. Won’t be the last one he’ll be coming to. Of course not.
No, he better. He better be there with everyone. But yeah. He’s a De La Salle guy too. So I’ve got some influence, some people around if he just tries to get out of it, we’ll suck him back in. He won’t. He won’t. He’s a dear friend. And what a supporter. Great guy. Very supportive of your event, of De La Salle and a number of other great charities.
(15:03) Absolutely. We’re so fortunate. I mean, think about it. We have Gardner White, Rachel Stewart and her family, Stephen, Barb Tronstein and her parents. And it just goes on and on and on. Ford Motor Company. I mean. Yeah, when you see the loyalty, I mean, you know, when you watch it year after year, you see that you get some new people along the way. We do. But really the longevity of it. You’ve got some longstanding partnerships. We really do. Let’s talk about that a little bit. I mean, you are, you are, you are Mr. Detroit. 
(15:37) Okay. One of the Mr. Detroit’s. You’re too humble to take the whole, take the whole thing. But, you know, how do you, how do you make these connections? How have you kind of done that through your career? I mean, it’s interesting to me for somebody who was inside of one company for so long to, you know, to really have made that shift. You know, we talk a lot about transformations.
(16:02) You know, you made that shift from that, that company to, you know, to really dealing with, with hundreds of companies and knowing so many people around town. How did that kind of occur? 
(16:12) I, I, I don’t know. I, it just, you know, I’ve kind of lived by the thing is treat people the way that, treat people the way you want to be treated and create friendships.
And I just, it just happened over time to be able to meet great people and be able to do good things with them. And kind of not change. So, when I took this, it was a depleted sponsor list and made some calls and said, look, I got to bring this thing back.
We’ve got to really make this happen.
(16:45) And we had the, we had the, you know, the few good ones that were going to be there forever and just grew the daylights out of it just through relationships. And it’s hard to say how you do things like that. You know, you can’t go back and say, well, I targeted to be a friend of this person. I don’t do that. Never. Just, I don’t know. It’s like you do good things. 
(17:05) I would say it’s good, good, clean living, right? Don’t burn bridges and do what you say you’re going to do. Exactly. And over deliver and don’t let people down. I, it’s one of the greatest things I tell my kids this all the time. If you’re going to do something, go all in a thousand percent. 
(17:23) And if you sit back and you think you’re all in, you’re not all in. (17:27) Because every day you have to find that new all in and that new level. So you just live like that every day, Matt. I just do create relationships and so on. And, you know, I knew the media people because at Elias, big boy, you know, we were big advertisers.
(17:44) We were big sports sponsors with the Pontiac Silverdome and Michigan Speedway with Roger Penske. We handled all of his food there. So I was fortunate just to meet a lot of people at a very young age.
(17:58) That’s great. That’s great. So you mentioned your kids. Let’s talk a little bit about life here, your personal life. I did hear a girl is what brought you out to the, out of Grosse Pointe and all the way out to Rochester. I’m here. I’m here. Yeah, I got married back in 80. Wait, it’s been a long time. 41 years back in 83. 
(18:22) We can edit if you get any of these dates wrong. No, no, I get it right. I got it right. I’m kidding. Yeah. And my wife said, well, look, you’re going to leave Grosse Pointe. Let’s just live in Rochester for six months. I said, great. Okay. Well, I can do that. 41 years later, here I am and I’m loving it. I really, it’s so great out in Rochester here. 
(18:40) It’s worth, it’s worth the drive. It’s worth it. Yeah. It’s fabulous. It really is.
The funny part of this is we’re always going to Grosse Pointe to visit my family. They say we’re really far in Rochester. Yeah. It’s like the oddest thing. When my father was living, I used to tease him and say, did you get a hotel room for halfway? It was like the biggest joke. But yeah, so we’ve been in Rochester 41 years and just love it here.
Really, really love it. 
(19:11) Met so many new people years ago who are now dear, dear friends. So I’m really fortunate. I’ve got the guys that grew up with, you know, and all the families over there, Grosse Pointe. I’ve got everyone over here and I’ve got the business side and it’s, it’s fun. It really is. We moved around a little bit around town, but I went, I grew up going to Catholic school. So I went to St. Mary’s and Mount Clemens and then DLSL for high school. And so because we had had three or four homes around the area, I had all those, those, the public school neighbor kids, but we always stayed at the same Catholic school.
(19:47) So, I have all these interesting relationships. And so when you move from Grosse Pointe out to Rochester, you get these, these two friend groups. It’s just awesome. It’s, it’s, it’s, it’s fantastic. I mean, it really is. 
(19:56) So how many, how many kids? I have three kids. I have, my youngest is in Cincinnati. She’s with Procter & Gamble. And I, I’ll throw out a little ad here, buy, buy many Swiffer products. She’s on the Swiffer brand. Okay. We have ceiling fans, so I know all about the Swiffer. Yeah, there you go. Good, good. 
(20:15) Great for getting the dust off. She’ll be happy. I’m pumping this up. She’s in consumer knowledge and innovation. Hey, we can talk to her about a sponsorship for the ELTNT podcast. Oh, she’s going to kill me. My, my middle Emily has two kids, lives here.
She’s with Comcast Effective, which is the advertising side and doing really well, you know, working for them. 
(20:35) And we get to see her cute, cute kids at the pool. You do. You get to see her kids. Yeah. And her husband, Tommy’s a chiropractor. And then my oldest, Joey and his wife, Tracy. Joey’s an attorney. artner with a massive law firm in, in Chicago, Sidley Austin.
(20:51) Great. And he’s got a couple young ones and, and yeah, it’s, it’s good. It’s, they’re hard, hard workers and that’s the key. Awesome. Yeah. Awesome.
(21:01) This episode of the BLTNT podcast is sponsored by Auxiom. Business IT and cybersecurity designed to outsmart chaos. Empowered by Juniper Networks. Automate your network with Juniper Networks and the Mist AI platform. The world’s first AI driven wired and wireless network. Shift over to technology a little bit.
(21:21) I know you’re in an, you’re in an industry that isn’t, wouldn’t really be considered tech heavy because you’re, you’re making, you’re making floats. You’re, but you’ve heavy into the advertising side, marketing side of things. Are you guys leveraging artificial intelligence for any of that? Not yet.
Not yet. Not yet. No, no.
(21:41) You know, it’s an interesting world that, that I live in. We build these floats. Our next big step is going to be going into like 3D because believe it or not, this area we’re running out of sculpting artists. It’s really interesting. 
(22:00) And we, we have seven full time artists, you know, all professional sculptors, the whole thing, you know, have to sculpt everything out, build these floats.
(22:11) We bring in about 20 freelance every year.
(22:16) When I got there, we had one full time and my goal has been keep hiring people. So they have full time jobs and so on. (22:24) But they’re telling me that the art of sculpting is going away.
(22:28) And it’s because of the new machinery that you can stamp out designs and things from styrofoam and so on. So we’re going to, we’ll in a new home venture into that. It can’t handle everything though. I mean, these floats, some of them have a hundred different sculpts, you know, in 120 feet. I mean, they’re crazy. Some have 30. But it’s, it’s a dying breed. 
(22:57) And I, we have to get these art schools to bring it back. I mean, it’s, it’s, this is a big deal. But so we’ve got to get into this whole 3D stamping out and so on. So that’s a piece of where we have to go.Beyond that, it’s, look, we’re looking at new ways of music from the floats.
(23:16) As far as technology, we have added screens to some of the floats. Enable like we did the Huntington Bank float. And they’re of course, the sponsor of Huntington Place, which is the old Cobo.
(23:29) So we built Huntington Place on the float. And we built the screen that sits in front when you come down Jefferson. And we had that going live. We’re not great at it yet. And we’ve got to get better. And I said, look, if we can’t make that great, we’ve got to pull it off.
(23:44) So we’re looking to get the lighting on that right. So when it comes down Woodward, it is vibrant. And you know, sunshine hurts that. But there’s got to be a better way. And we’re searching that out. So we’re diving in, in those areas wherever possible.
There also is a fine line.
(24:05) How techie do we want to make this? Because it’s grassroots. So I think that there is a place for tech, no question. And there’s also a place for, you know, culture and tradition. And old school really seems to be the thing. I mean, yeah, that’s what’s going to keep people coming back for the nostalgia.
(24:24) Right. If it’s too techie, you might. Yeah, they can say, I can get this at home.
Yes, exactly. Why would I come down? Yeah, but but but we we’re, we’re, you know, searching out pieces and so on. Okay. There’s a few around town. There’s a few maker labs. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of maker labs.
(24:40) But those could be some great places to, to find those technologists with the machines already that could could help you. Right. Absolutely.
(24:47) We’ve discussed that, you know, the artists. Yeah. Great. So business, life, technology, some transformations. If you could talk about that a little bit. I mean, we’ve already kind of touched on each of these. You know, we talked about your transformation from all of the different jobs and roles that you had at Elias Brothers, making that leap to become the CEO of the parade company, moving from Grosse Pointe to Rochester.
(25:14) So you don’t shy away from change. You don’t shy away from transformation.
You worked on a big project at a golf course recently where you helped to transform a building that needed that needed modifications. Yeah. Yeah.
(25:30) We did over at Great Oaks. You know, with a great team from Rewald and Rossetti again on the design. Yeah. We transformed the north side, great membership, great board, great people, you know, all being a part. And I kind of got to lead the way a little bit and we got it done. And it was a very big deal. And now I’m off the board and there’s more projects coming. 
(25:54) And so that’s a good thing. The other part of my world, and I don’t know if you know this, I do a couple of things on the side. I’m kind of an odd duck, but I am involved in the Dream Cruise, the Woodward Dream Cruise. Oh, I did not know that. Yeah. So 14 years ago, Mike Murray, head of Channel 7 and Bob Sliva asked me, would you consider jumping in and being kind of the go-to person for the Dream Cruise with the nine cities? 
(26:21) And I said, really? And they said, yeah, yeah. Talk to the board. And the board is phenomenal. Nine people who represent the nine cities. They’re great people. And so I put a little team together and we’re like the consulting group to them. We brought Ford in as the big sponsor and the cities run the Dream Cruise. It’s just how it is. But we help along.
(26:47) We go to once a month meetings and really kind of make things happen for them in a really good way. So I do that on the side with a little thing I have called the Michaels Group.I also work on the brand of the Jazz Fest. Gretchen Vallade and I became unbelievable friends. 
(27:08) Unbelievable. And she asked me to do that about, oh, 12, 13 years ago.
And so when you see Fox 2 running PSAs about what the Jazz Fest means to Detroit and musicians and all, that comes through me. And different things that you see with the brand. I don’t run that event.
(27:27) Chris Collins is phenomenal. He’s the president. But I’m kind of a wingman.
And I was for Gretchen on some of the changes she made to it and things like that. And a couple of other things that I get to do that are fun for me. 
(27:43) I work on a little strategic advising stuff from time to time with some other companies. That’s great. What do you think the next transformation is of Detroit, of all of these events? 
(28:00) What can you see coming down the line? We talked to a couple of people here, and one is designing his company for the Race to 2030. This is how he looks at it. What’s the Race to 2030 look like in the parade company world, in some of these other areas of Detroit that you’re very influential on? Well, I’ll tell you, Detroit right now has come out of the pandemic. And think about it. Just before, things were flying. Restaurants were booming. Everything was great. 
(28:33) Mayor Duggan is phenomenal. He’s a workaholic. And it’s all for the right thing. Everything he does is for the right thing. Right now, we’re flying. We’re coming out of the draft. What a job they did at Visit Detroit. And I’ve got to tell you, Dan Gilbert and his team at Rocket were so instrumental in bringing that here. 
(28:56) Mark Hollis, dear friend, known him for 40 years. They busted their butt to get that here and to make it happen. And then you had Visit Detroit and DDP and so many others involved. We got to get involved a little bit at the parade company, which was fun. But Detroit really put on a show.
(29:17) It was phenomenal. The Detroit Police Department, we have, I think, the best police department in America. The best police chief, Chief White, is off the chart. But everybody came together to make that phenomenal.  So what does that say about the future? It says that we can do big things. We can bring people from around the world here to Detroit.
(29:40) And we are going to do that. So if you look at what’s coming, 2027 is the Final Four at Ford Field. And I’m kind of lucky. I’m a new member of the Detroit Sports Commission board. So I get to now work on those pitches with that team and all those things. But that’s another massive event coming to our city. Don’t count out another Super Bowl. I think it will happen in the future. 
(30:11) I don’t think it’s going to happen tomorrow. But I think it stands a good chance. We’re building more hotels. Restaurants are starting to open now, you know, where we were before pandemic. Here’s another thing. I think, and this, people might say, oh, what does that really mean, Tony? Well, I think we have the cleanest downtown that I’ve been in in a long time.
(30:34) What Mayor Duggan has done to bring that back, and keep in mind too, in his head, the neighborhoods are just as important. So he’s working the neighborhoods, helping fix them, helping bring them back along with downtown. Thank God in the downtown area, we have Dan Gilbert, Christopher Illich, you know, companies, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, companies that are there making sure that downtown is vibrant and really happening. 
(31:07) We went down for the NFL draft, my family and I, and I couldn’t believe the, I mean, I go down a lot. But when you see it with that many people that organized, you realize we are in a world-class, we are a world-class city. It, when you go to Uptown New York, there is a police officer on every single corner. 
(31:31) When we went down to the draft, there was a police officer everywhere within eyesight. There was a medical station every two blocks. I mean, it was the most thought out, there were screens everywhere. And so the thoughtfulness that went into that was totally world-class. Any sort of thought that anyone has negative about Detroit needs to understand that and really needed to see that. 
(31:59) It was phenomenal, but that’s the future. So now you’ve got Mayor Duggan saying, hey, you know what? Here we go. We’re going to make these things happen. We just saw it possible too, right? Absolutely. We just saw it executed flawlessly.
(32:12) Yes, yes.And so we’re going to do it again. I urge you, have you been to the Jazz Fest on Labor Day weekend? Matt, you need to go down. Hundreds of thousands of people, stages at Heart Plaza, stages at Cadillac Square, the largest, the best musicians in the world, and it’s all free.
(32:33) I mean, think about that. We’ve got the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix coming up in just a couple of weeks here, another week or so. How good is that? Racing in downtown, Roger Penske, Bud Denker, Michael Montrey, bringing that right into downtown Detroit. It’s phenomenal. I mean, there is so much movement.
(32:54) Memorial Weekend, the largest techno acts in the world. Jason Huvary and his team, Sam Fotius. I mean, it’s phenomenal that we’ve got the Ford Fireworks, June 24th.
And there’s more to come, a lot more to come. On the parade side, you mentioned that. 2026 is the 100th parade in the city of Detroit.
(33:19) So imagine what we are putting down on our chalkboards right now, as far as who we want to bring in and how we want to handle that. It’s going to be big, really big. Great. Any advice you would give to maybe a budding CEO or someone just starting out their family who maybe was in your position? 
(33:38) Starting a family with all these different priorities, with all these jobs going on, how you’ve kept it all together to keep a strong family life, keep a strong organization going. Yeah, I kind of view it as simple. And I don’t know, maybe some don’t. But if you literally believe in going all in with what you do, with everything, it turns out really well. 
(34:11) And there’s a time of your life when you have to kind of get serious. You know, so you’ve got the college years you want to do great. I was a horrible college student. If I had to do over again, I would do it differently. I would be a much better student.
I would be better at accounting and things like that. I blew things off and I paid for that, you know, and I had to catch up.
(34:33) But to go all in there and then have fun, have a lot of fun.But know that if you want to be somewhere, you know, in your 30s, 40s, 50s, you’ve got to really say, I’m going to do this. I’m going to do it right. There is a time in your career. If you’re doing that and you’re all in, when you least expect it, you’re going to be somewhere in your office or somewhere where you’re there when other people aren’t there. 
(35:04) And you’re doing things that, you know, are above and beyond. Somebody’s going to take notice. Somebody’s going to call on you. And those are magic moments in a career that give you a reputation that you are the real deal and that you can grow. 
(35:20) And you can be the head of a department, a CEO, whatever that may be. But if you shy away and look, not everybody wants that life. Some people just want to do things great, which is phenomenal. And they don’t want to, you know, get up to that upper level.
(35:38) So you have those options if you’re all in. But if that isn’t your aspiration to be up on top, then do everything great where you want to be. Just go all in. Go all in. I just read a book and I’m going to look here. It’s by Fred Sievert.
(35:55) It’s called Fast Starting a Career of Consequence. And almost every nugget that you just gave us right there is something that he recommended. I didn’t read his book.
He wrote this book. Well, we’ll give him a little credit. He wrote this book for his daughter who was a former president of New York Life.
(36:19) And so he wrote a book when he was trying to help his daughter to kind of navigate corporate America. And almost everything he said was right along those lines. (36:29) Is you have to be going the extra mile.
(36:31) You have to be, you know, maybe working when somebody else isn’t there. And things of that nature. And so we’ll put a link up to the book and maybe find a summary or something.
(36:43) Well, and how trustworthy are you? How loyal? And are you willing to do those things? You know, I mean, it’s not for everybody. No. No, but that’s okay. How have you kept your energy? I mean, have you ever dealt with any, you know, health problems along the way or anything like that that’s attacked it? 
(37:02) Because I know you as the Energizer Bunny. So I’ve never seen you tired. I’ve never heard you say, you know, I’m whipped, I’m beat, I’m tired. I’ve never heard you say anything like that. You always have energy. So two things. How do you keep that energy? And two, did you have anything along the way where maybe it cut you down, you know, with a health item or something like that? 
(37:26) Yeah, I mean, eight, nine years ago, I had all the energy in the world, but I was 65 pounds heavier. And my doctor said, you need to lose this. You know, you got a sugar number that’s punching up a little bit.
(37:40) And I was a sugarholic. Beyond a sugarholic. I ate more Twinkies than you drink water. I was, you know, I drank more pop. I was crazy. So he said, you’ve got to make a decision. And I did it that day and lost 65 pounds in four months. And have kept 95% of it off. I wanted to gain a little back.
(38:05) I got like too thin. So I probably put about eight on since, which is great. But I’m on the treadmill in the wintertime, probably five days a week. And I do my lifting because, you know, I’m never going to get really big, but I want to maintain my strength. I had neck surgery five or six years ago. I had blown some discs in my neck and I got really thin.
(38:31) And so I just had to kind of build back a little bit. So I go three times a week for 20 minutes. And I do the four, five things that they had me do.
(38:40) But I don’t know, beyond all of that. It’s just that I love to make things happen. And I love to help people. I love to help a company. I love to help the team grow. That’s just the stuff that I love to do.
(38:58) And, you know, people know that they can call me and say, hey, do you know this guy? Do you think you can help me with this? And I do it not only for the company and projects I’m working on, but for other people. Now, my wife will tell you that I pass out at 9.30 in the family room on a regular basis. And she’s right. I do. I mean, just boom. Okay.
(39:20) Which is okay. Horrible sleeping habits. Because then I wake up at 11. I watch the news. I’m up till one. And then I try to go back to sleep.
(39:29) Well, we can take this as not proper sleep advice. Yeah. I also have a really bad habit. Do you have this habit? Looking at your phone in the middle of the night.  I’ve done that before. It’s horrific.
(39:43) Yeah. I’ve learned that nothing good comes from it. I can’t stop. You can’t do anything about it. I know. So if you get an email, good or bad, you can’t do anything about it until the morning anyway. Right. Yeah. But I do it. I’ve tried to stop it. Yeah. Yeah, man.
(39:58) I know. This morning I did it. It was like 3.30 in the morning.
And I went, I got to peek. My wife’s like, would you turn that thing off now? And I’m like, yeah, okay. I was going to say that. If your wife wakes up, you’re going to get a talking to. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And let’s just touch on that real quick before we wrap up.
(40:22) Your wife, I know that having a great wife who supports me in everything that I do is what allows me to do what I do. Can you talk about how your wife is there for you? And allows you to exist at this cadence? Because not everybody can even keep up with the cadence. So how does she keep up with or just kind of allow it to happen where it exists symbiotically? 
(40:48) She flat out gets it. I mean, she’s just a rock. When it came to our kids, she really understood how to raise these kids. But I’ll give you one thing that just blew me away.
(41:01) All three of the kids could not go to sleep at night, no matter what age, without getting a book. And they became readers. (41:10) Two of the three became constant readers. Maybe one’s a now and then reader. But it was like there were rules like that. She wasn’t a lunatic in any way.
(41:22) But it was like, this is what you have to do. And the books and those types of things became automatic. And then shipping these kids around, I had three really good athletes, Matt.
(41:34) Joey was a tennis player at UConn for four years. Played in the Big East. Emily, my middle, swam at Michigan State. And my youngest, Maddie, was a really good soccer player. Small, like 5’3″. She said, I’m done when the end of travel and the end of high school came.
(41:54) Because she’s just a small kid. She knew. But Clarice took these kids everywhere.
 I mean, to get at that level, you have to travel the country. So he’s playing tennis in other cities. Emily’s swimming, soccer.
(42:09) I mean, they were everywhere. And she was just a rock through the whole thing. And I have to tell you, in my lifetime with her, 41 years, I’m married, has never commented on my golf habit. So I play every Saturday and Sunday. I do. You know, in the allowable months that we have here in Michigan.
(42:29) But never, ever, ever said, oh, you’re playing golf again Saturday? Never. She knows. 8 o’clock, I’m teeing it up. And I zip around home 12, 31 o’clock. What do you want to do? What’s at the house? You know, and we’re off and running. That’s how Nadine is with my skiing habit.
(42:46) She just understands that it exists and doesn’t complain about it. No, no, it’s great. That’s great. It’s a great, great wife. Great person. Yeah. Fantastic. Really good. Well, thanks for being here with us and doing this. And great to get to know you even on another level than I already have in the past. And keep up the good work. 
(43:06) Well, thank you. This is great fun. And I tell you, there’s a lot of great people out there. We are blessed in this city, and I mean the region and our state, with phenomenal people willing to do really great things. And I’m really fortunate that people want to team up with the things that I’m lucky to be involved in. 
(43:27) So yeah, a lot of great people. And that’s what makes the world go round. Awesome. Yeah. Awesome. Have a great rest of your day. Thank you. Thanks, Tony.