Fairway to Success: Tracy West on Life and Leadership

Transcript

Ernestine 0:00

Welcome to Bon Vivant Chic-Life Well Lived the podcast. For anyone who wants to cut through today's noise and just listen for a few minutes to meaningful conversations on the human experience and the power of connectedness, I'm your host Ernestine Morgan, an advocate for kindness with a passion for showcasing human interest stories that matter. Today, I'm delighted to be sitting with. Tracy West the tournament Director for the PGA Tours Valspar Championship, which is held at Innisbrook Resort, located here in Florida. The tournament is one of Tampa Bay's largest pro sporting events. The tournament, which is owned by Copperhead Charities, was in dire need when she arrived over 11 years ago. And that's when we were first introduced, it's really amazing to see the impact the tournament has on the Tampa Bay region. Tracy also plays a key role at Pro Links Sports, which specializes in event management and corporate hospitality. So let's get started. Tracy, thanks so much for sitting down with me today. Oh, I'm so happy to be here. I'd love for you to share a little about where you grew up and what life was like.

Tracy 1:10

Yeah, so I am a Yooper I grew up a Yooper What's that? A Yooper is someone that grew up and is from. Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

Ernestine 1:19

Oh.

Tracy 1:19

Up on the Canadian border, six hours north of Detroit. I grew up in the Tundra, a little town called Sault St. Marie, Michigan. About 18,000 people. Life was fantastic, growing up there. A lot of snow I have an older brother and a younger sister. The three of us very small family, but tight knit family. Six first cousins. My grandparents lived there, but they had passed before. Any of us were born. Aunts and uncles. We lived there, for generations and it was a great place. It's beautiful, freighters. Sault St. Marie is best known for,, the Sault Locks. Big, huge freighters that carry iron ore. From basically Cleveland, through the Great Lakes all the way over to the other side of, the Wisconsin border. They go through the locks. It's picturesque, beautiful freighters, hunting and fishing snowmobiling. It was a pictures place to grow up. My best memories, from there, we were very fortunate to own a cabin on Lake Superior. We would go there every summer. My mom would take us the minute school got out, we would be packed into the old, station wagon where you all sat in the back and looked at each other with no seat belts. She would have all the supplies ready. It was like we were going away. It was 15 minutes away, but as a kid you thought, wow, we're leaving for the summer. We would go to our cabin, right on Lake Superior, a beautiful beach, and spend the summer there, and then come back, the day before school would start in the fall.

Ernestine 2:41

Oh, that's great. What are some of your fondest memories?

Tracy 2:45

For me, spending, the time growing up, when you only have two siblings, but having first cousins,, just growing up and spending so much time together. Not just the holidays, but literally every week, with them. Every Friday after school we'd walk to our grandparents' home. And spend,, the night with them. They would, make us,, dinner and we would hang out,, with them, play board games or,, go to the movies or drive-ins. My family on my mother's side owned movie theaters. My great grandparents, started,, the first movie theaters in the eastern part of,, the Upper Peninsula in Michigan. They own four of them and then a drive-in and a. Big bowling alley. For generations we owned that. Being able to go to the movies but go into where they were popping the popcorn and frying the french fries. We could make our own french fries, we could, make our own popcorn and, my grandfather was just delightful. Spending time with my cousins, doing those sorts of things are my fondest memories.

Ernestine 3:42

I used to love going. To the drive-in. We had one in San Diego it was so much fun.

Tracy 3:47

It sounds silly because every generation says this, right? And I'm gonna sound like an old lady saying it, but it just was a different time and pace. I think I grew up in a great era.

Ernestine 3:56

No electronics to distract you.

Tracy 3:59

Yeah. We just really had to spend time and focused and play games. Mm-hmm. Convince our cousins to play, with paper dolls and the little fisher Price people and, we would convince our male, cousins to do that. It was just a lot of fun.

Ernestine 4:13

Oh, that's great. Who had the biggest influence on you when you were young?

Tracy 4:18

Definitely my grandfather. I just idolized him so much. He was a successful businessman. Everything that he did,, he was Italian, I'm a mixture of five different, nationalities. But. Italian was what was most prevalent. Mm-hmm. Because that's what our great grandparents were and I remember my great grandmother I just pretended I was a hundred percent Italian, probably to my father's dismay,'cause I just dis dissed his side of the family. So I pretended I was a hundred percent Italian and back when you're a kid, you don't know and understand. What the mafia is and that it's not a good thing. Mm-hmm. As a kid though, you kind of romanticize that, you know? Because you didn't really understand, I used to think, he's probably in the mafia and I just looked up to him so much as I got older I realized, okay, get a grip on yourself, but truly, he was a successful businessman and he really, hammered into us. Family first. He said it all the time, family first. And, I got a lot of my values, from him.

Ernestine 5:14

And you've applied that to your family

Tracy 5:16

yeah, absolutely. I'm very, very fortunate. I've got, a son, Emerson, who's,, a radiologist. And he's in his, third year of residency and I have a beautiful daughter, lovely talented daughter that works for Amazon in Nashville. My husband and I have successfully launched two children.

Ernestine 5:29

And your husband's in golf too, right?

Tracy 5:31

He actually played baseball and basketball, collegiately, and didn't take up golf until we both got married in our very young twenties. And he loved. It and self-taught he would watch, swings, by a very famous, Canadian golfer named Mo Norman, who had a single plane swing. He taught himself to play golf and eventually good enough to become a golf pro. And now he's a teaching pro locally.

Ernestine 5:53

So you have something in common

Tracy 5:55

yeah. To our children's dismay. Life. For them growing up was constant golf from both parents. Emerson learned to play, but he was more of a tennis kid, haley, to my husband's delight, has really in the last year and a half in Nashville, got caught in the golf bug. That's great. And so she films swings and sends him videos all the time. And, they chat golf all the time.

Ernestine 6:16

Oh, fun. What was your very first job and how did it shape you?

Tracy 6:21

My very first job, so not only on my mother's side owning the movie theaters, on my father's side for generations back, we also owned, businesses in, Sault St. Marie bookstores and, music shops. Probably when I was about in sixth grade, my parents bought a Hallmark store, a big hallmark. Gift store.

Ernestine 6:38

Your family's full of entrepreneurs.

Tracy 6:41

I know. We are. So my first job was dusting all the glass racks throughout this, big Hallmark store. At Christmas time during the holidays, his normal staff was busy working the cash registers and taking care of people and so forth. So he had to have, my sister and I come in and we would dust every Sunday racks and racks of display racks. And then wrap gifts. I am a master gift wrapper. Ooh. I have, I've got it down. I've wrapped. Thousands of gifts in my lifetime. So that was my first job.

Ernestine 7:14

Oh, that's terrific. What do you think, you've learned from that, that you might apply today?

Tracy 7:20

For anyone growing up, if they can work in a customer service, sort of job for their first job, taking care of people and so forth. I also waitressed, for several summers. I think just being able to know and recognize how hard, those jobs are and how hard those people work. To just be more appreciative of everyone in the retail trades. As you go, throughout life, I think was a really good lesson to learn.

Ernestine 7:42

I'm sure that there have been many pivotal moments. In your life and decisions that you've made that have really changed the course of your life, are there any that really stand out to you today as

Tracy 7:56

you reflect? Absolutely. There's really three big ones, for me in my life. When. I got outta grad school and my husband got out of grad school. We, got married right away and moved to his hometown in Grand Rapids, Michigan. And he knew a lot of people'cause that's where he grew up. I didn't, so I joined a group called the jc. People, now it's, it was the young professional organization of the time. Now it's called, ypo, but it was the jcs and to really do some civic events and start to meet people. So my first jobs, I actually worked in corporate America. At the time I was working for a company called Herman Miller, doing their, economic forecasting. But on the side I volunteered at a senior PGA tour event in Grand Rapids, Michigan as part of the jcs. I was doing it for, educational and civic duties and to network and meet people, but I loved it. Absolutely loved it. So when the opportunity came, the senior PGA tour was gonna start a new senior tour event in Minneapolis. And the person that they hired, Hollis Kaner to be the tournament director,, needed to hire an assistant director. The tour recommended that he come to our tournament. Talked to some folks and he was actually coming to interview one of my friends that was also a committee chairperson. But we ended up meeting and spent, maybe, half hour together. Mm-hmm. Maybe three or four different times during that tournament week. And he called me the next Monday and said, I really would love to actually hire you. Would you be willing to leave Herman Miller and come. With this fledgling new Senior Tour event. That was big decision number one. Mike and I took the chance, it's scary. You're only 26, we had just bought a house, had financial commitments. You're not making much money at that point. And here you're working for a Fortune 500 company. That you could have. A good trajectory at to say, okay, let's pick up, leave our families, move to Minneapolis and with this guy that we just met. And take a big pay cut and we said, let's do it. So that was pivotal decision number one. To really follow a path because I knew what a senior tour and what pro golf meant. It's bringing a really unique, fun thing to a community, but in the end, it's raising money for charity. And I just looked at myself and said, where, how am I gonna be happy? Am I gonna be happy with nothing wrong with her Miller, great company by the way. But is the corporate life for me, or do I wanna do something where I see my direct impact? That's what was more important to me. That was big decision number one. Big decision number two. We started ProLink Sports. We were progressing, I was in Minneapolis, with Hollis for seven years and eventually we got an, several other senior tour events, but then we got one in Boston and he said, I think you're ready, to go out and be tournament director. Do you wanna move to Boston? Emerson was three. Haley was just turning one. My sister had already moved to Minneapolis. We were drivable to Michigan. And you're really close, right? And family. Oh, we're super close. Yeah. You know, my sister, we're two peas in a pod. I said, okay, are we gonna move to Boston? And we said, let's do it. So pivotal decision number two. Excellent decision. Not only career wise, but we loved Boston. Ended up raising our children there. A ton of great friends. Great decision. And then the last big pivotal decision was, at one point in time, I left ProLink Sports, for six years, and I went and worked for the Red Sox Foundation and Mass General Hospital in philanthropy. So you and I have kindred spirits. I was raising money for a clinical care program at Mass General, taking care of veterans, coming back from, at that point, Iraq and Afghanistan, with traumatic brain injury and and mental health needs proLink Sports landed the tournament here. So the PGA Tour event here, in Tampa and Halls called me back and said, listen, I need you to come back to Pro Links and come do this. Big moment, right? Because Haley was only a junior in high school. Emerson had just graduated. And he was going into UMass, but Haley was only a junior in high school. This was probably the toughest decision of my entire life. I agonized over this thing. Mm-hmm. But this was a PGA tour event. I was going to be the first female PGA tour tournament director ever.

Ernestine 11:49

Bravo.

Tracy 11:49

Yes. Thank you. And thank you for her Hollis and the board. And your husband, Larry Morgan, who was the board chair at that time for taking a risk on me. And bring Haley with us. Very tough decision. Still was the right decision. I think she's thrived and, she's a better, more resilient person'cause of it. But as a mother,

Ernestine 12:06

yeah.

Tracy 12:06

Tough decision.

Ernestine 12:07

Mm.

Tracy 12:08

Those are three big pivotal ones.

Ernestine 12:09

Thank you for sharing. You've built a very successful career in golf tournament management. What are some of the most rewarding moments through your journey?

Tracy 12:18

For me, it just goes back to, the pro golf tournaments, it really checks all the boxes for me what I wanted out of a career, I wanted to do something that, I felt was meaningful. And pro golf tournaments are meaningful in three or four different ways, it brings an event to the community that, improves the lives, quality of life because hey, you can come watch these PGA tour golfers, you can come watch Jordan Spieth right in your backyard. It brings something fun and meaningful into a community. The economic impact of this tournament? This PGA Tour event has a$75 million economic impact into the Tampa Bay region every year.

Ernestine 12:52

That's

Tracy 12:53

incredible. We employ people, all the vendors we hire, all the fans that come in. There's about 140,000 people that come and watch this tournament. A huge, chunk, come in, fly in to do it. So the economic impact that we're generating, and then the recognition for the area, because it's broadcast. Nationally and internationally on the golf channel and NBC sports. People see it, see the beautiful resorts, see the area. We make sure that NBC shows all the beautiful beaches and all the, awesome things about Tampa Bay. Hopefully that's having a year round impact on tourism. But in the end, the charitable impact. So for me, each and every day. And my favorite times of the year, are the week we go out, we have a charity caravan. And we go out and we bring charitable donations, into the community. We support about 70 to 80 different charities. And we hear the impact that those dollars are having. What a great career, to be able to say, oh my God, I see the exact impact of what we're doing each and every day, and how hard we work. And that has meaning.

Ernestine 13:46

Yeah, absolutely. So you were able to tie in what you left at, the, Red Sox and bring it to what you're doing now with Valspar. And thank you very much. Because Morton Plant Mease Healthcare Foundation has been one of the recipients, over the course of many years. Organization has benefited from Valspar's tournament. Thank you. It's our honor. You mentioned you're the first female PGA tournament director.

Tracy 14:15

That's a

Ernestine 14:15

lot of pressure.

Tracy 14:17

It was,

Ernestine 14:18

male dominated,

Tracy 14:19

oh, there's no question obviously, especially when I started, there wasn't a lot of females that worked in the industry. There was some females that worked at the PGA tour, but not a ton. And a lot of times in, back of the house functions, but most of the tournaments were operated by men for sure. The senior tour,, at the time, which is the 15 older set, they actually had female tournament directors well before the PGA tour, which is surprising. You would think it would be just the opposite, but it wasn't. I was the second female tournament director on the senior tour. Hollis kavner, was, the CEO of Pro Links, he and I co-founded, ProLink Sports, and he's the one that took the chance on me. He was the first to put me in place as a female. And then as we grew as champions tour events, a lot of our. Champions. Tour tournament directors were females, but, yes, I was the first on the PGA tour and yeah, there was a lot of pressure because,, they just weren't used to that, The agents weren't used to that. Sponsors weren't used to that. And then the pros and I distinctly remember, as a. Tour director, you have access to the locker room, mm-hmm. You can go talk to the pros anywhere. On the range, putting green player dining, but technically you have access to the locker room and I was always respectful of that for my first year especially, I figured if I can talk to them out on the range or the putting green, if I can find them and do what I need to get done and not have to go in the locker room, I'm not gonna do that. Eventually it got to the point where I didn't care anymore, but that first year I didn't. And I recognized that I was a novelty as I started to, go up in the range. And because part of my job is to recruit the players to come they're independent contractors. They don't have to play your tournament they can take your week off. Part of your job is to go and talk to'em and convince'em to play your week. And, as I would approach them on the range and so forth, I could see the guys, looking out the side of their eye, what's going on. But it really hit me our first Valspar championship my first year, and it's a late Tuesday and I try and find every pro early in the week to thank them for. So up on the putting green, at Innisbrook, Justin Rose was there and he was putting, and there wasn't really anyone around him. So I went up to him and just said, Justin and I had met him a few times, obviously, and I just said, wanted to thank you Tracy West. That first year would reintroduce myself and, I wanted to thank you for playing and so forth. His wife, lovely wife was in earshot. She was waiting for him to get done putting, and she looks up, she was on her phone. She looks up and she said. Oh my goodness. She probably said, oh my God, but oh my goodness, you're a female. There's a female tournament director. I looked at her and I was about to say yes, and before I could say it, she said, that is just awesome. She said, it's about time. And she just went on and on and she's like, I can't believe it. This is so great, and that's when I realized, wow, okay, here we are.

Ernestine 16:57

What are some, misconceptions that people may have about a female, tour director?

Tracy 17:05

Over the years, people are used to anything, you've got women running, pro sports teams. I think now it's not, a big deal at all.

Ernestine 17:12

Not a big

Tracy 17:12

It's not a big deal at all. Mm-hmm. I don't think the agents don't think of it that way. The players don't think of it that way. I've been doing this long enough now, Uhhuh, they're all used to me. I'm one of the guys, to them. Yeah. Yeah. I think, just overall I'm pro sports. Things have changed dramatically, let's say over the last 15, 20 years that, it's not a big deal anymore.

Ernestine 17:29

What if there's a young person that's interested perhaps in considering a tour director career, what? Advice would you give to that person?

Tracy 17:40

A couple of different things, to just really think through, the type of career and the type of person that you are., It's not for everyone, you've got to be someone that can juggle a lot of balls, and live in the gray zone. It is not black and white, you've gotta, if you're a very, black and white person, this career is probably not for you because there's so much that you. Control, but so much you can't control. I explain it this way, it's bizarre, you're selling a product meaning we make money by just selling sponsorships and ticket sales and everything. That goes into the tournament to make that money for charity, but you're selling a product that you really don't know what the product is in any given point in time because you don't know which players. You don't know if you're gonna have Jordan Spieth one year, or Patrick Cantley, or exactly who you're gonna have when you start to sell tickets and you start to sell sponsorships and so forth, you have to be able to live in the gray. you're selling that this is an event and it's a happening and it's a lot of fun no matter what players we have out there. Mm-hmm. But if you're real black and white and you need to know and it's not that way, our sponsors come to us last minute. Most of our ticket sales, believe it or not, are sold the last three weeks before the tournament, which is nerve wracking, is all get out

Ernestine 18:48

Uhhuh.

Tracy 18:48

You're an outdoor event, so you don't know what the weather's gonna do. It's stressful, and these are big businesses. Mm-hmm. Each PGA tour event is a$30 million plus. Business and some are much grander than that, the majors, et cetera. Mm-hmm. So it's a big business. If you can't handle stress and anxiety, and juggling balls and people not making decisions till the last minute, this is not the career for you. First and foremost, I always try and make sure that our interns, for example, or anyone that I talk to that calls and asks, for career advice, can you live in this lane?

Ernestine 19:18

Yeah.

Tracy 19:19

If you can't live in that sort of lane, in that sort of environment, then, and right or wrong, you might need to think of something different. Certainly making sure that people understand what this is, and then to be a tournament director, you can work at a tournament and have a position that is not exactly the same level of stress as if you aim to become the tournament director, just as like in any job. When you're the CEO, like the buck stops with you. Can you handle that scrutiny and that stress? Versus sometimes being number two or number three is a little easier. We have about 85, 90 people that work for us now in ProLink sports.'cause we manage multiple events across the country. And I've had a couple just absolutely excellent. Employees that have reached like number two within, their tournament, let's say, that just never were the right fit, to actually then become a tournament director. Mm-hmm.'cause it just wasn't,

Ernestine 20:09

and you have

Tracy 20:09

to be

Ernestine 20:09

willing to move too.

Tracy 20:11

You've gotta be willing to move, but you've gotta be able to handle that level of scrutiny that the top person receives. And so you gotta be able to do that

Ernestine 20:17

and you're a tournament director for not only Valspar, but you are in charge of 3M.

Tracy 20:24

Yep. I'm the, executive director of 3M Open, and then our Simmons Bank Championship on the Champions tour as well. We have six events right now. I've got three. And then, someone else has three, and then we both report to Hollis. I've got a big team in Tampa and Little Rock and Minneapolis. I travel around, between those three.

Ernestine 20:41

And then is it all year 12 or probably 18 months. You're working on a particular tournament. Yeah.

Tracy 20:47

It's constant. It's funny,, our staff always used to joke that, we'd be very wealthy if we had a dime for every time someone said, well what do you do the other eight months out of the year? Right? This must only take you, what, three months to put together? Four months? It's like, no, that's a$30 million wrap. Corporation. We have, 450 corporate partners. We've got, 2,500 volunteers, yeah, it takes a lot takes three months just to build, the venue and another month to tear it down. This is an all year round opportunity.

Ernestine 21:16

What lessons about family and relationships would you pass along to the younger generations?

Tracy 21:22

Something that I thought about,, that I wish I would've done or that someone would've said to me earlier on in my career, to really stay in touch. With people in a better way. What I mean by that is, obviously there's tools now, all the social media tools and LinkedIn and, it's a little easier, but more so personally and taking the time, I just lost track, with, a lot of board directors, that we've had at our past tournaments and, every time I moved on to something else, you just kind of, and I get that that's life. But I think from a career perspective, trying to stay in better touch with people that you meet along the way, would be a good piece of advice,'cause you never know when they're gonna pop back into your life or, yeah. Or when you might need them.

Ernestine 22:03

It's hard. I think there's only so many hours in the day, to have a personal life is really difficult with the work that you do and the work I was doing. And many of us that really our careers have identified us. And to be intentional, as I transitioned into retirement,

Tracy 22:21

yeah. It really is. A lot of times people talk about, or all the time, work life balance There's no such thing. And when I'm asked to speak on that or ever asked that question, what I try and say is, listen, there's no such thing as daily work life balance. Weekly, monthly. The most you can hope for is over a year's time. You had some level of balance. That you can look back and go, wow, I was a pretty good mom this year, at some point, during that year, I was a decent mom. I was a decent friend, I was a decent family member. It's just knowing, yes. I disappear. My family knows, and they knew growing up that the two or three months before the tournament, I literally disappeared. I get home late at night, I don't wanna talk to anybody. Mm-hmm. I go right back to my computer,'cause it's the only way I can keep up and do the job that I need to do at hand. But then I make up for that. Eventually.. So it's just trying to balance that, at some point. I'm really fortunate, here, Tampa Bay has been, so welcoming. When I first got here we didn't know anybody. Larry, your husband was just unbelievable. Making sure that he brought me, to every function he could think of. Every rubber chicken tender, and just making sure that I got. Plugged into the business communities quickly as possible. Mm-hmm. Several, our other Copperheads did that. And now, our Copperheads, which is the host org of the tournament led by Ronde Barber once he retired from the Bucs, we tapped him and said, Hey, would you help host this one event with us? It was, one event during tournament week. And he said, sure.'cause we knew he was a big golfer, he said, sure. We just developed a great relationship. And then, we brought him onto the board and now he's been on the board ever since, and now he's our board chair in perpetuity. He loves it, loves the tournament.

Ernestine 24:01

That's awesome. He's a great guy.

Tracy 24:02

Oh, he is phenomenal. He does. Everything that we ask of him. And he's very generous with his time, so he's awesome as all our copperheads are. And, they're now my tribe.

Ernestine 24:10

Yeah, that's,

Tracy 24:10

I have friends outside of the Copperheads, but some of my best friends here are as a result of the tournament and now they're my Tampa tribe.

Ernestine 24:16

Think that's awesome and you can tell, you can see the connection that you all have and it's really beautiful. So congratulations. What are some. Life lessons that you may have, learned along the way.

Tracy 24:29

You don't have to chart your whole life, you don't have to say, some people do and good for them. I was never exactly, that person, but at least giving enough thought, earlier on in your career of what does make you happy and how do I try and make those things happen? Basically, trying to be intentional about directing your life versus letting your life happen to you. And sometimes I've let my life just kind of happen to me versus really being intentional and thinking about things. That's a lesson I've learned and I'm trying to be much more intentional about where does my next hopefully, however many years go.'cause we're on the back, well back half a life right now. Yeah.

Ernestine 25:09

We continue to evolve, don't we? What do you think is a secret to a fulfilling and happy life?

Tracy 25:14

No question. It's deep friendships. I fortunate to count a lot of people as friends. But I'm very fortunate to count, a good handful, as my dearest friends. I would do anything for them. And we always talk about that, if life, happens like it normally does with males dying first, let's just say that I don't mean to sound morbid, my poor husband, right? Yeah. But that we're going to, all of us, buy a villa in Tuscany together. Oh, yes. And we're gonna be the old ladies. The 85-year-old ladies drinking wine together and rocking, to classic. Rock and country around the pool in Tuscany. So I'm fortunate that I have the friends that should that happen. We will be able to do that together.

Ernestine 25:55

That's awesome. Sounds like fun. I might stop by and visit.

Tracy 25:59

You are welcome. You are welcome to do that.

Ernestine 26:01

Oh my gosh. Your job can be emotionally draining and physically draining too. And you're doing this all year round, what keeps you motivated, inspired, keep doing what you're doing?'cause you've been doing this for many years.

Tracy 26:14

Yeah, absolutely. I really started, my very first tournament. Those first three years as volunteering when I was working at Herman Miller. My first tournament was in 1990, so I really started in 1989. So yes, I've been doing this a long time, professionally since 92. Yeah, it's interesting because, luckily I guess I just have the body structure that, I can run on very little sleep when I need to. It's getting harder and harder though every year, Ernie, as we progress here, my ability. I'm almost 61. The last couple of years has started to, get a little more difficult to operate on two hours of sleep, but,

Ernestine 26:47

completely understand.

Tracy 26:48

Yeah. But I rally. Tournament times are, yes. Usually if you get five hours a night, that's. Good. You're doing well. But I can do it in short stints, i'm good for, eight day stretches where I can do that. And if I have to do that three, let's say four times a year, I've still got it. I can do it.

Ernestine 27:06

It sounds like you really love what you do.

Tracy 27:08

Yeah. So if that doesn't come through, right? Yeah. Certainly, no, I love what I do. There's days where I look at and go, okay, I am 60, should I be thinking about retirement and so forth? And then I think, what the heck, I've got the world's greatest job. There would be a thousand people killed to have my job. Why would I not do this? Especially as long as I'm having fun.

Ernestine 27:28

Yeah.

Tracy 27:28

Think for me, as long as I'm having fun and then I'm physically able to do this, I'll do it because again, they're, it's my tribe and it's what I love doing. And I feel an obligation, to the people in our company. I've got a lot of great people that rely on, us and our leadership most of my career I didn't. Take a lot of vacation, or at least not the quote, the vacation you were entitled to, in a handbook, but I'm really trying to be more intentional about thinking about that. And, this past year I probably took more vacation time, than I ever. I'm trying to take more trips, spend more time, it's limited time even though my children are grown, where they still can carve out and find time to vacation together still. Mm-hmm. Before they start to potentially get married someday or have. Kids someday. And that just gets more difficult. So really trying to take the time, to say, Hey, I wanna spend some more time. We went to Greece this year for the first time and, I literally normally would've been working, the whole time when I'm on vacation. And I didn't, I told the staff, don't send me anything unless, hair is on fire, something's blowing up. And I think I only answered like three emails that mm-hmm. That, nine, 10 day stretch. That was probably the most time I've ever. Attempted to unplug. So really just trying to be more intentional and take some more time. I'm looking to at some point, redo our family cabin, back up in Michigan, so where it all began and go back and really start to say, Hey, can I figure out a way to spend, the month of August up there? And just try and do some more time for me. But not retire. Because I love it. I love what I do it's a great opportunity to spend time with, the people that I love doing this work. I don't think I'll retire, anytime soon, but I wanna get a little more time for myself

Ernestine 29:09

as you know I've been involved in the philanthropic world for quite some time, and philanthropy means different things to different people. What does philanthropy mean to you?

Tracy 29:21

For me what philanthropy means is probably a broader description than what most people would think. Most people think okay, it means giving money. And certainly it does. But I think of it broader about giving what you can and how you can, there's the old adage, time, treasure, and talent. I try and think of it that way, and go, Hey,, give an organization, or someone,'cause philanthropy doesn't mean necessarily to a charity or an organization. To me, philanthropy can mean just helping. A person,, it could be helping someone that's homeless on the street I'm the person that I, yes, I'm sorry. I roll down the window and, I give them$5 or$10. A lot of people will say, oh my gosh, you're not supposed to do that. I just do. It is, it's just what I do. It's, give someone your time, if you can. Yes, certainly your talent. I do serve on a lot of different boards, in the community, and I love to be able to do that, as much as I can., So for me, philanthropy is the broad approach of just helping people. We all would wanna be helped if we needed it. So if we have the ability to help someone or an organization, I believe in trying to do it.

Ernestine 30:22

Beautiful. Thank you so much for sitting down with me today. This has been awesome.

Tracy 30:26

Oh, it's such fun. I'm a talker. You can tell that.

Ernestine 30:29

It's so good to see you too.

Tracy 30:31

It's great to see you, and congratulations on what you're doing is really meaningful

Ernestine 30:34

thank you so much.

Tracy 30:35

Oh, you're welcome

Ernestine 30:36

Thanks for listening to Bon Vivant Chic Life Well Lived. I hope you'll tune in for more meaningful stories on the human experience and share with family and friends. A special shout out to Will Cooper, out of Nashville, Tennessee for providing this season's music. All the episodes are available wherever you listen to podcasts, including my website. Bonvivantchic.com Till next time. Remember, every day is a gift. Live it with kindness.