It was exciting to see our sales team powering up at a recent National Sales meeting led by Josh Ellsworth, Senior Vice President Dealer and Enterprise Sales. I had the opportunity to speak with this very dynamic and professional group and my overall impression is: FOCUSED and READY. The theme of the meeting was about creating an Extraordinary Sales Experience and I know they will deliver. This team is one of the most experienced, knowledgeable group of garment decorating experts I’ve ever encountered. It was really wonderful to experience the energy and passion that they have for serving our customers. I can’t even begin to count up the many years of combined experience they have in serving apparel decorators in our industry. Many of them have decades of personal experience running their own shops or family businesses, from screen printing and embroidery to sporting goods and promotional sales, combined with countless years of heat printing experience. In addition to training and new product technology updates, the agenda also included strategic market work sessions, trade show news and speed networking meetings with key GroupeSTAHL leaders. When it was my turn to speak to the group, I started with a brief overview of my experience with this year’s Great Race 2019. During the race, it was apparent that some of the differences between the Champions and the “average” drivers usually boiled down to focus. I explained how this is also true in many real life business examples. Think of all the great companies that lose their focus and consequently lose customers or market share. Apple was one example, a company once known for its innovation that has lost its way recently. This meeting confirmed that our sales team is not going to let that happen. We are committed to remaining focused on the success of our customers, which is what we have been doing best since 1932. Josh also handed out our first annual ESE Sales Awards, giving well-deserved recognition to many hard-working team members. Congratulations to all of those who were recognized. Thank you again to Josh for making the meeting happen, and to everyone who took the time out of their busy lives to spend several days focusing on our customers. And another round of applause for everyone who helped make this meeting such a success, including Wendy, Mary B. and Greg M. It’s clear we’re ready to go above and beyond in serving our customers and building lasting relationships.