Impactful Lessons with Malcolm Harvin Connor

Today, we're pulling back the curtain on education with Malcolm Harvin Connor, a principal with a vision. How can we prepare our children for the future? Malcolm believes the keys are reading, writing, and critical thinking, and he's not afraid to set high expectations. Whether you're in the classroom or on the school bus, Malcolm insists that everyone plays a role in creating an educational environment that you'd want for your own children. 

Born in Nigeria and raised in the US, Malcolm brings a rich tapestry of experiences and challenges to his role in education. His immigrant mentality and firsthand experiences with poverty have shaped his belief that every child can be excellent. He refuses to lower his expectations, a stance inspired by the stereotypes he's faced about Africa. He has seen the power of high expectations firsthand, watching his first student triumph over adversity to graduate high school. 

Service leadership forms the backbone of Malcolm's approach. Using lessons from his military experience, he prioritizes observation and communication to understand the needs of his school and community. He's not just committed to creating a legacy of success in his community; he's committed to creating a future for education that meets the needs of every child. It's a conversation that promises to inspire and challenge your perception of education. Listen in and join us on this journey with Malcolm Harvin Connor.

Chapters

• 0:00 Vision of Education
• 8:15 Challenges and Passion in Education
• 19:16 Importance of Service Leadership in Education
• 29:52 Building a Legacy for a Community

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

I'm gonna stop by saying this. We're gonna do something that I haven't done in a very long time, and that's the Sneaker Principal Podcast Takeover. So I'm here with Malcolm Harvin Connor.

Speaker 2: 0:14

Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it. It's a pleasure. I'm here from Washington DC. I'm currently a student at Teachers College at Columbia University, go through the Summer Principles Academy. The Summer Principles Academy, no, and you're the one who sort of inspired me. You inspired me to join, and so I'm so glad that I get the opportunity to actually meet you, to be a part of this podcast and this opportunity, because I have a lot of questions for you.

Speaker 1: 0:40

Listen you know what, let's get into it, all right.

Speaker 2: 0:43

I'm in a hot seat. Okay, I hope you're ready. I hope you're ready, and then again shout out to Zoha Nadim and Fatima Hamlani. They both helped me come up with these and I know that you're coaching them as we go over our internship going up.

Speaker 1: 0:57

High expectations, though.

Speaker 2: 0:59

Well, they're amazing educators and they're a little bit interested as well, as am I. What is your vision of education and how do you navigate, sort of pushing your vision of education while sort of going through the red tape of the DOE?

Speaker 1: 1:15

So I'll tell you this I'm a father, I have a two-year-old he's, he had a three-year-old son, four and a half year old daughter, and what I want for them is to be prepared for the world. Is that, is that simple? So, reading, writing, critical thinking, being able to make meaning out of what they're being taught, what they see in the world and their first teachers are, you know, me and their mother. But then at some point in time we got to get them over to the school. So, knowing that they're able to go through an education, to receive an education that really expands them and it's not a vision, it's just what it should be and unfortunately it's not that it's not that simple. So, as a principal, as a school leader, as a teacher, that is what I push my teachers within my school.

Speaker 1: 2:14

One of the parents. We're here to prepare your world, I'm sorry to prepare your child to go into the world and conquer, not just survive. So that question is is it an easy question? But it's also a tough question because it's easier said than done. Yeah, you know I've said this to people that the schools that I lead my goal is to make sure that I'd be comfortable with my children attending that school. That's my standard. If I don't feel that the school that I'm working at or I'm leading is good enough for my children, something's very, very wrong.

Speaker 1: 2:54

So, with that being said, I would say this that's the vision that I would have for every school that every school leader can say this is good enough for my kid, this is good enough for my child. You know, as far as red tape in the system systems always have red tape, yeah, you know. But the and I would never say it's the issue of red tape, it's an issue of leadership, it's an issue of and what I mean? Leadership. I'm not just talking about the principal teachers, the bus driver, the cafeteria workers, the building security. What are their expectations for the children who are walking through the doors of that school that they're working? You know, that is the thing. A lot of times, people don't have expectations, it's just a job.

Speaker 2: 3:41

No, I remember you saying when you had the opportunity to talk that you know I was talking about. You know what about schools that have, like, a health clinic on their campus? And you really said that comes down to like the vision of the leader that's there to like supply those things and to push for that to exist there, and when it's not there, that's really an issue of the vision that the principal is sort of pushing for at their school.

Speaker 1: 4:07

People want to blame that. Oh, it's the community, it's this, it's the DOE or the public education or the district. But I'm like, if you really want that thing, listen, one of my mentors in my head. I've never got to meet this man, but I really appreciate him. Jeffrey, canada, harlem students, I told you about him. Yeah, you did, you did, and he said he came out of Harvard with his master's in education leadership, like you're pursuing right now, like I have and said, okay, I have all these job offers in all these places, think tanks. You know, this is in the 70s. You have this black man from Harvard. You know everybody wants him.

Speaker 1: 4:42

He says, no, I'm going to go back to Harlem, I'm going to prototype this space where I support children from prenatal through 16. So before you even come into the world, I'm working with your mother, your father and all the prenatal stuff to make sure you're healthy. So when you're born, now we're doing how to support you, parenting wise and your development. Then we could then, now you are pre-K, kindergarten on the same facility, Then go to school, high school, and when you graduate, we're still checking up on you to make sure you make it to the other end.

Speaker 1: 5:21

That was. That was one man's vision, you know. You know I'm not trying to be preachy, but the Bible says you know, we perish because we perish because we have no vision, something like that. We have no sight, and that's the thing you want to click in your building. I've never got it. I've never went out and got a clinic in my building. Right now, this building has a clinic in it, which is awesome, but there's other things I went out and got because I was like, no, my school needs this. Or when I was on my kids to graduate and get into college, I had to do the work and find out what the musicians work with and bring all the resources, and that happened.

Speaker 2: 5:58

So remind me if I remember correctly, you came to the United States when you were 11 or 12, or originally.

Speaker 1: 6:07

I came here second grade Okay, third grade I was I was diagnosed or labeled or however you want to call it, as the word that was said to my mother is your son is mentally retarded. Back then there was a normal language. This was like 82, 83. My mother cried she was, and she and we were immigrants here and not a lot of money, and she opted to just let's go back to Nigeria. I went back to Nigeria and she supported me with tutoring and everything else. My parents were cheaper out there and then we came back and when we came back it was 1988, 11, 1988, 6th grade.

Speaker 2: 6:49

So I'm sort of wondering how your experience as an immigrant sort of informed your vision of education and, like what you want, added to educational experience for kids.

Speaker 1: 7:00

So I'll tell you this. So, having been here the second grade, third grade, in Los Angeles, then, mind you, second grade, third grade, and now I have to share this Before I came here, we were in Saudi Arabia. My father was a student in Saudi Arabia. So Saudi Arabia, america, then we're back to Nigeria and I was like whoa, this is different. You know, I went to a really good school, but the school when it would rain, you would have to move your desks away from the wall because it was literally cut out in the wall. Yeah, so it was like, you know, chalkboard and like old desks. It was like it was not what I saw in Los Angeles, it was what I saw in Saudi Arabia. And then I stayed there, finished elementary school, started the beginnings of high school there and everything was like not what I saw in America. So I come back to America and all of a sudden I'm like back to like lights and windows, ac's and all that stuff. And one of the things that I always thought about was like this is interesting In Nigeria the kids didn't play with the education, school was taken seriously by everyone.

Speaker 1: 8:15

Come back to America and at this point in time it's middle school and the teacher could barely teach. Like, you know, like in Nigeria, the teacher walks into the room, everybody stands up and says good morning. Then the teacher says, sit down. Everybody sits down. But you know, here, you know kids are not teachers and everything else. And then kids are also struggling. You know, kids can't read. It was weird. I saw my first, you know, first year that I saw there was middle school that couldn't read. I was confused. How is that possible? It's in Nigeria, everybody can read and the thing is the stereotypes about Africa is like you know back where it's in, struggling and everything else, but that's just the stereotypes that they put out there.

Speaker 1: 9:01

Yeah, how that experience has impacted unless being an immigrant or, better yet, having had an education in another country impacted me was that I've seen what you can do with nothing. I've seen what you can do in object poverty. You know where, literally, kids are going to school no shoes on, you know. Then you come here, kids got Jordan's near feet, you know.

Speaker 1: 9:28

And you know, yeah, you might be living in a project, but you got light. You know you might. You know you might you might be poor, but you got that EBT card or the food stamps. That's not in these other places, but those kids come here and perform better. Yeah, a lot of it has to do with the fact that people want to say that immigrant mentality is not immigrant mentality, it's just societal expectation is different. But as an educator I have I think I have that can do like, honestly, those deficit thinking that you have, even with teachers. I don't tolerate it. Yeah, because I know I see what can be done with nothing and even in the worst schools we have a lot more the other other societies and countries have.

Speaker 2: 10:15

Yeah, I'm really hearing you talk about, at least from the teacher perspective, how there needs to be this assumption that every child can succeed. Every child can, can.

Speaker 1: 10:28

I'll go further than that. Like I don't do the every child can, every child will Will. Okay, I tell students I don't need you to be perfect, I need you to be excellent. Think about this If I tell you be perfect, that's an impossibility. I know it. You know it Be excellent. Tonight you have to sit down and say, ok, now what's excellent for me? And the thing is, we don't ask our kids to be excellent, we expect them to be perfect. Then we say we need to believe that they can't. No, every child can be excellent. We just got to pour into it and we have to make that statement. And we don't make that statement. And I'll be honest with you, we don't make that statement, especially with black and brown kids. No, for sure, for sure. The expectation is that they've already lost and now we're trying to save them.

Speaker 2: 11:28

Yeah, unfortunately, but yes, so I know that you are sort of on the verge of possibly leaving education. I did leave, leaving education. So what made you leave? And then, on the flip side, what made you come back, what made you decide that this passion of yours was not something that you were done with?

Speaker 1: 11:54

So, to make a look story short, I left. This was 22. And this was three years of probably the hardest time in education. During the pandemic, yeah, I became a high school principal, and I became a high school principal in 2019. And by 2020, the water shut down, yeah. And then I'm running a school and again and this was my second school, but it was a new experience it was high school now and I've been a high school dean at AP, but now I'm running a high school after running a middle school.

Speaker 1: 12:38

So the matrices and all those things that you're measuring are different for high school. So I'm here trying to perfect my craft around high school. Then, all of a sudden, we're online. Then I'm dealing with the stresses. At that point, my son had just been born, so I have a newborn. And what is this thing? It's killing people.

Speaker 1: 13:01

Covid-19. Kids are stressing out, teachers are stressing out. All of a sudden, one child, two children, three children losing parents, losing aunties, uncles, and all of a sudden, it was like a year of trauma. It was just a year long fuel. Then I had teachers losing all the ones. Then a couple of my colleagues passed away and it was just like all these different things.

Speaker 1: 13:24

But at the same time, I refused and maybe this is on me I refused to back down on my expectations for school. In my core I was like, yes, we have to show grace, we have to be supportive, but we can't let, we can't not relent on pushing out kids. And we got to the following year where we had this weird hybrid year. Then we had we are coming back now. And when we came back that year 2021-22, that summer my first time sitting in the building, because I was remote the whole entire time, because, again, I wasn't going to put my son at risk, because I didn't know what was going on and I walked into the building and the first person I see is Anthony Lord, and this was the first kid that I met when I became principal.

Speaker 2: 14:24

No way.

Speaker 1: 14:25

Remember that first kid, the first kid that you met. Yeah, you never forget that first kid Because your nerves are like, oh, it's new school First kid, cool kid, come back. That's the first kid that I see. And now it's been almost two years. I'm like yo, you got tall, it's a senior year. Sweet chat in the hallway. He's like, yeah, I'm excited to graduate. So I'm like yo, it's going to be a great year.

Speaker 1: 14:55

And a couple of days later no, not a couple of days, no, it was a few days later it was at a tele in the summer school. A few days later, I'm in the meeting with my staff. We're sitting in the office. Everybody has their masks, on phone rings. I pick up the phone and it's my deputy chancellor I'm sorry, deputy superintendent and she says, hey, you lost a kid. I'm like what she's like, um, when her students was killed. I'm like who she's like. I think it's Anthony Lloyd. I'm like I don't know who that is. My brain had literally shut, like that moment had shut down, and I'm sitting there I'm thinking to myself who's? Who's Anthony Lloyd. And she's like Anthony Lloyd. And obviously my brain said, okay, I'm gonna let you off the hook. You know, you know who he is, I'm just going in my brain, I'm like no way

Speaker 1: 15:55

it was murdered, you know, in Brooklyn. And that's how we started the school year. You know, great kid, we started the school year. Not only did we just go to the pandemic, but then we started the school year one of our seniors murdered. So and then that, you know, it's just a couple year, yeah, but at the same time I had this thing in my head we had gone AP for all as a school where every kid was sitting AP classes. You know, black and brown kids from some of the toughest hoods in Brooklyn in this school. Like no, we're gonna push you. And we and we had a successful year.

Speaker 1: 16:29

100% of our seniors got in the college. Like all got in the college and and then graduation I was dreading graduation. We got to graduation, the front first seat was empty, flowers and picture and everything else, and and then having to give his mother his diploma. It was so much yeah, and I was just like, yeah, I need to walk away from this. You know, because I don't know like I'll tell you, I don't know how to just like take a break, yeah, I go 100%. And just like I did, I was like you know what I decided, like you know what I think I'm good for right now. So an opportunity came up at a tech company. I went over there and and then funny thing, the funniest thing happened once it passed by and I realized I belong in the school. Yeah, I need, I need, I need that break away.

Speaker 1: 17:34

Yeah, and and absence makes the hard-go fund yeah, but also gives you clarity yeah yeah, but the thing to, but more, more, more, anything else I need, I need to rest, I need to break a rest is big, and so I did, I rested, I wrote, I refocused and as soon as I said, okay, I made it come.

Speaker 2: 17:58

This opportunity came up and and I'm here, okay, yeah all right, all right, I love that and, you know, as principal in training, you know I feel like we've learned a lot about how the experience of starting your own school versus going into a school community that's already established is like two very different experiences, and so I'm sort of wondering, as you entrance this new space, what are some of the things that you're thinking about and establishing yourself in this new community?

Speaker 2: 18:32

establishing myself yeah, like you're, you're a new face, a new position. You know I'm sure that you know I don't know the history of principals in this space before, but you're sort of filling new shoes and people are sort of looking to you to take on a pretty big role in this new community of it.

Speaker 1: 18:55

It makes sense what one of the most popular thing that I learned from spot some of my principal's academy I remember when and I would say was Dr Perkins he was. It was, and I'm you by. You confirm this, because the first summer the whole notion of what kind of leader you want to be he talked about and he had all these things. My brain works is when I focus on one thing everything it doesn't matter. And when I focused on what he said service leadership I was like I've been in the military and all this stuff and I know what it means to serve. But the way he framed it, maybe it's just as baritone voices where he was speaking he has a way.

Speaker 1: 19:36

He has, a way he says he said you know that Christ, like service, like you know when you know you're here, this is who you are, but you bring yourself here and under those that you're serving to really serve them like any hands and knees you do. And for me, guess that is who I became as a principal. So I, I hope I want, when I want, the spaces, people since my energy. I'm here for one purpose, one purpose only. It's to make sure that your child gets everything they need. Yeah, I tell families all the time. If I can ever be help officers, your family, let me know. I don't have all the answers, I know. I mean it's long enough. I know enough people that I can find the right person yeah, I don't have the answer.

Speaker 1: 20:30

I know I'm I know someone who does exactly, and with OSG, no, but, but, but that's a bit is very true. And and I was there on was that? Was that Tuesday or Monday? Yeah, tuesday, tuesday. And when he went on Dr McKee's and called out on, shout out, dr McKeezy. Yes, he called on the crew and they by showed up and I, and even I, was moved by that because I realized even over the course of my career, I'm not alone. Yeah, so I'm able to call people and people answer.

Speaker 1: 21:03

But back to your question is do I? I hope the way I move and when parents meet me they're not meeting the principal. There's this notion of like you know the student time you walk out and all the sudden you talk like this so yes, I'm principal in Joku and let me talk to you about just so much. Or someone's doing, not, son, I'm from, you know I grew up in Eagle California. You know West Side, you know I'm hoping all blood hood, I was in the military down south in the Marine Corps, all these spaces. I'm a human being and all these things I quote in. So when I meet people, I try to meet them where they are, as a human being.

Speaker 2: 21:41

No, I think you're exactly right when it comes down to the fact that we, as principals, are supposed to serve. Our goal is to uplift the community, and in order to do that, we have to engage with the community, we have to build rapport, we have to really understand the needs, which can't happen without dialogue, and it's transformational leaders who show up with the intention of asking how can I serve? Not, this is how I'm going to serve you.

Speaker 1: 22:15

But what I'm going to add to that is this as well Sometimes have you ever had somebody ask you, what do you need, and you're like I don't know you might not know. You might be like I don't know how to put it into words, but I don't want to come off. It's kind of crazy. So people say, oh, I'm good. The hard part of this all as well is Can I add some to that?

Speaker 2: 22:40

I feel like it's also all the times that maybe they've tried to say something and the people that they've tried to tell haven't listened, so they've been trained that them saying what they need isn't going to get them anywhere. To begin with.

Speaker 1: 22:55

Or, even worse, no one ever asked yeah. So you're like, oh, what is that? But that's 100% valid. You know, when you keep putting out there, this is what I need, and you're either ignored or you're giving what you don't need, you know, then after a while you're like you're not serious or I don't even know how to answer it. I don't even know what I need at this point in time. This is where learning, shutting up and paying attention and learning, you know, when I came so I started May 1st. I could have waited until summertime, like most principals, you know. Come in, you know, stop preparing for the new school year. A lot of people say, oh, I hate taking a school mid-year. It's tough, that's the best time.

Speaker 2: 23:45

That's the best time. It's the best time. Yeah, you're right. I've never heard anyone say that before in my life.

Speaker 1: 23:51

So May 1st Okay, may 1st would. Even if you think about it, may 1st is probably the worst time. Exems are over. You're now in this stretch of like people are not really teaching anymore, and you know the kids are like, but you know, and then everybody's going through the motions. Yeah, but for me, I wanted to get in here as soon as possible, but I need to learn. I play a touch to every single teacher. Kids and the whole watching listen to the rhythm of the school. What was it the loudest? You know school safety security officers. What was their tone? You know, when parents walk into the building, how were they treated? Did I have any disrespect for people on staff as far as how they treat students? How the staff spoke to each other? You know?

Speaker 2: 24:44

I'm hearing a lot of social data intake.

Speaker 1: 24:48

Yes, yes, but check this out. It was backed. That was actually bookended. It was the other end of that bookshelf was me doing my desk art. I sat in the judge's office for a week and just went through data at the school. I spoke to people. I spoke to people on the team. I said you're the ELA point person for the district, so tell me what's going on in that school. I've seen your numbers here. Has that always been like this? I saw a jump. You're the math person, tell me. And people are telling me listen, going to that school, you know we put these in the place and it falls through. And I'm not sitting there, I'm learning, I'm learning. Then they start dropping names Mr So-and-so, mr So-and-so. I'm like oh, okay, so now I'm in the building, oh, that's Mr So-and-so.

Speaker 2: 25:38

Oh, you started putting names.

Speaker 1: 25:41

I'm not making any judgment, I'm just like listen, now I have quantitative data that I've been studying, but now that social input, getting those information in very, very important Okay, because now, as I'm sitting here a month away from the new school year, like nothing is left to be, left a chance. I know what I'm working with, I know what's here, you know, I know personality types, I know how to deal with certain people, I know who should be in what classroom, who should not be in another classroom. Come into a school as a new principal and you're just moving pieces and you don't even know what you're doing. It's not that you don't know what you're doing, you don't know who you're moving. I've had listen, listen. I've seen things where I'm just like, hmm, interesting, I've had teachers who got into it. I'm like, so how long I've just been going on all year. Nobody did anything about this. You know, and you start to see, oh, this teacher's a bully, okay, and not just the school, it was over the course of my career. Or this teacher, you know, or this administrator, or this, and you start to move things and you're better able to plan things out. I hate it. I hate it. I'd be fortunate. No, no, no, no.

Speaker 1: 26:55

When I went to the high school, my first day as a principal, I was like my first day as a principal of that high school was two weeks into the school year. I was walking in blind, totally Blind. I had two APs who had been here for years. I had a principal who was ready to be out of there and kids who were just like hey, what's up? Hey, what's up, you know, and I had to figure those things out. I learned one thing from that Like, that's not how you walk into a school. Okay, sometimes you have no choice because maybe a school is just in that position. You prepare, it needs you in there, you need to go in there like a warrior and do what you gotta do. That was that school.

Speaker 1: 27:37

This scenario, you know, being my third school, my first school was different because I was brought in there as an AP to hold it down until I bought a principal, and then I was asked to stay for a year and then I knew the school. Yeah. So when they said you're going to be the principal, I knew what I had. Okay, so I've done, I've known what I had. I was in this scenario where I didn't know what I had. And now here, I made a choice to say no, I wouldn't be there soon as possible. Yeah, Okay, and not just to show myself. Listen.

Speaker 1: 28:06

I fell back on a lot of things, because there's a lot of things that would happen and I was like, okay, no, I have to step in. Okay, I'm the principal, I have to step in. But there was a lot of things I was like, let me see how many APs are going to happen with that, let me see how they do these things. But sometimes it could be shocking to the school system when you walk in there and you're like, no, I'm Mr Malcolm. This is why I want Okay, have you been a teacher in that scenario? You've had a cool career. Yeah, I've been there, I've been there when I had a principal at the school. I was like, oh God, this is going to be awesome.

Speaker 2: 28:41

No, no, a lot of my experience. I've been pretty lucky to smooth transition from one community to the other community so I can't say I've ever come in like in a mid-year situation where I'm taking over a class or like anything you gotta have that in your career One day one day I don't want you to know anyone, but how else would I have known to be like no, this is how I want to come in.

Speaker 1: 29:06

Yeah yeah, you know, this is how I want to come in, because I was like no, I've seen those things and right now I'm very like I'll tell you right now this is going to be a tough year, but I'm very confident. Okay, I'm very, very confident because I'm like I know what I'm working with, I know the capacity of the people of this team and also I've done my homework Mm-hmm. So I'm like for me, this is pre-season, like everything I'm doing right now. This is like pre-season.

Speaker 2: 29:34

You told me earlier, only three days off this whole summer. You're putting the work.

Speaker 1: 29:37

This pre-season I'm putting my business off, but yes, it's been three days off so far and. But again I'm going to speed these off because somebody told me about this. You got to be careful. Like that's unhealthy. I'm like tell that Bill Gates, tell that to Jeff Bezos, tell that to some of the most powerful, tell that Einstein. And that's just for a business we're talking.

Speaker 2: 30:04

this is for a community. This is for a community.

Speaker 1: 30:06

This is for children and we're building something. It's a legacy. So my thing is if you know out the vacation, you know me getting back to the beach is going to happen down the road, but right now I'm in a scenario where, if I do this right, it can literally save a community Totally Like it doesn't get any more service oriented than that. So I'll sacrifice sleep, I'll sacrifice, you know. You know, going to to an island somewhere. You know I'll sacrifice that right now Because when the time comes, you know, the greatest, the greatest joy I've had in my career is when I see my former students and they are like hella successful. I love that. I'm like wow. I remember when you were a little annoying but you were an engineer, wow, that's awesome.

Speaker 1: 30:59

You couldn't read. I remember we we did, you were fighting us on that, and now you're a writer.

Speaker 2: 31:05

I'm a little young in the game to have anyone come back and tell me they're an engineer. But I'm excited Before you know it before you know it.

Speaker 1: 31:13

Listen, I have, yeah, but that's a, that's the thing you know. When you, when you, when you're part of a community and you know and you don't know, you make an impact, you don't get to see it to down the road. Yeah, but there's, you know, there's a particular group of kids Becca, class of 2000. Getting called out yeah, 2013. That, that, that, that group, those group of kids like now, they're like 26, 27, 28. Wow, and we have like senior ranking in the military. We have attorneys, we have pharmacists, we have engineers, we have a bunch of teachers. All kids Come to spa, they're coming.

Speaker 1: 31:59

All kids in the Bronx yeah, who, if you had seen them, then you'd been like, when they had their bras on the street, you'd been like, you know, but we were, we were, we were, we were like, we were like, you know, we were pushing for excellence. Man, this is going to sound really bad. We even let them breathe. No, we were just like no, no, you're going to be right here. Like, no, you will, you will succeed. And they were like yo, how can we be? Excellent, excellent, excellent. You're not going to be part of the U of X, but but if they, if they watch this, they're going to be laughing and be like yo, he really did do that.

Speaker 1: 32:36

But the thing was, I just had such a belief on what. I just tell them this, I just tell them this all the time, like you might not believe it, but I see your future and I'm in love with it. I, I, I I'm just like. I'm excited for you and your future because you guys are putting the word that's a beautiful vision. That's the thing. That's a beautiful vision. You all have to see that.