Arias Awards Night

Count money, man.

Money, man.

Stacked riches.

I told trying to told him I'm a beast.

What's up, everybody?

Just got done wrapping up our annual awards ceremony and recognition meeting for areas,

agencies.

And it was a great time.

It was our first time ever at stage AE downtown Pittsburgh.

It's been cool to look back on the process of starting out our first ever recognition

meeting at Pizza Roma in Mechanis, where there was just a few people and a karaoke speaker

and connected microphone.

And over time just kept moving the venue up and up and up as we had more people where

we moved the last few years.

We were at the casino, the rivers casino in Pittsburgh.

And this past year we took over stage AE.

And I thought it went very well.

It was great to see people from all different states, all different cities, people that I don't

have an opportunity to always see, to watch the family get together and co-mingle and share

ideas and share thoughts and what went well in their year.

But most importantly, we were there to celebrate everybody's efforts from our staff that

I described on stage as like an offensive line sometimes.

And football, the quarterback gets a lot of credit, the running back gets a lot of credit,

the people that score touchdowns.

But people don't always see the linemen.

A lot of times you don't see the linemen's, even though the linemen's name.

It's usually not everybody's favorite player is rarely a lineman unless you're a lineman,

typically.

But the linemen without people blocking for you, you can't score any touchdowns.

So the staff, that we've been blessed to have together for a long time, we rarely, rarely

ever turn over a staff person.

So our team has been together there.

So shout out to you, shout out to the staff.

So appreciative to the offensive line, sexiest offensive line in the game.

And then the sales from the sales people, we had a record broken this year.

We had a producer break our all time record in young Brandon Bennett.

And then we had Joey Crivelli break my all time record that was in my first 12 months of

leadership.

And I would have to go on and on about all the people that did great things that we had

an opportunity to recognize on stage as well as announce our next year's executive council

where we get to go to exotic locations, different places and have meetings for a few hours

and then enjoy our time together.

And typically they'll bring a guest or a spouse or something like that.

And so we had the opportunity to just think and recognize everybody from this past years.

Great effort.

Once again, a record breaking year, our biggest year in agency history, only to be backed

up in what we believe is going to be a huge year in 2023.

And so what I believe we're going to be doing with the help of my offensive line is we're

going to be showing I think sharing some clips of the end of our recognition meeting.

We're having an opportunity to share some words and thoughts with our team as we close

out a great year and get ready to go into an epic year of 2023 wishing everybody a great,

happy new year and a great year up and coming and let's keep growing and let's get it.

Sacrifice, overcoming obstacles, overcoming adversity and doing what it takes in order to

win.

Those are the things leading into next year that we got to wrap our head around right now.

And I've been telling some of the people that I work close with, you're going to see a

different version of me.

How many times have you heard people say that?

You're going to hear a different version of me.

We're always zoned in.

We're always locked in with 17 years in this game and I'm telling you the best version

of me.

As your coach, I promise you you're getting ready to see in 2023.

Promise you.

It already started.

People around me know it already started.

What I need from you is your permission.

I need your permission to coach you to your potential.

I'm no longer coaching you based on you did a good job or coach you because you did

10,000 or coach you because you put up 2 million.

I'm going to challenge you.

I'm going to push you but I'm going to make sure that you know that it's coming from a

good place.

It's coming from I care about you.

I love you but when you look at your life and you look at me, I'm going to say, I love

you.

And you look at the people that have met the most of you to help you get to where you

are today.

Typically if you look at the top two, three, five people that have made an impact in your

life, these are people that have challenged you.

These aren't people that have let you stay comfortable and become comfortable with the

status quo.

And so what I want to do, I've been going back to as a man thank you by James Allen which

which was one of my foundational books coming up in the business.

I was a walk on.

Somebody called my resume.

I didn't have a friend in the business, put his arm around me and say,

I got you.

I'm going to take care of you.

Nope.

Somebody called my resume.

I moved an hour and a half away from my house where every single person, friends, family,

everybody but my mother told me there's no way this business can't be real.

You got to be a scam.

There's no way it's real.

It's no way it's true.

And I did it anyway.

And one of my favorite books that got me through those moments, Pits in your stomach,

Butterflies in your stomach, First Month, Nervous, was this book by James Allen.

And so I got away from it for the years because I read it so many times.

And here's part of the book that I wanted to share with you.

It says, most people see only the apparent effect.

They say to people how lucky he is, how chance aids him at every turn.

They have no idea how many sacrifices, trials, failures, struggles that these men and women

have voluntarily encountered to gain their experience.

They have no knowledge of the sacrifices they have made, of the undone efforts that they

put forth, of the faith that they have exercised, that they might overcome apparently insurmountable

so that they may realize the vision of their heart.

They do not see the darkness in the heartaches.

They only see the light and joy and call it luck.

They do not see the long in a Jarger's journey but only behold the pleasant goal and call

it good fortune.

They do not understand the process but only perceive the result and call it chance.

In all human affairs, there are efforts and there are results.

And the strength of the effort is the measure of the result.

Chance is not.

Who we are today is the result of the choices that we've made yesterday and days prior.

Tomorrow we will become the choices that we're getting ready to make today in this upcoming

year.

So I just want to first of all thank all the spouses, parents, support staff and system

that are here in the crowd.

None of the people here could do it without you.

And I'll mean it from the bottom of my heart.

We're grateful for each and every one of you.

And I'm asking for your permission.

Please the support, the people next to you.

I believe that's accomplished anything great in their life.

You know what it requires.

I would feel bad pulling greatness out of people and asking for permission to pull greatness

out of people if I didn't see the fruit of our labor.

When you look at the people, quote at the top, look at the way those people are living their

life.

Ask them and their spouses, did they feel like I care about the people and their families,

their wife, their children.

Do I make it a priority for us to focus on our family or our wives or children?

And so I'm telling you, this ain't about not being a good dad, not being a good mom,

not being a good husband, not being a good spouse.

This is about reaching your full potential.

And I'm letting you know right now, your sons, your daughters, your sisters, your brothers,

your husbands, your wives are getting ready to be challenged by my ass all 2023.

Make sure everybody's ready to strap it up.