DEEP DIVE - Where Smart People Explain and Great Leaders Simplify

Step through the looking glass for a moment. 🕰️

If you lead people, manage W-2 staff, operate a healthcare organization, or simply want to understand why some teams thrive while others quietly fall apart under pressure, this episode is worth your time. Ms. Maya Sterling joins a compelling conversation on the hidden power of clarity, communication, and leadership psychology in high-stress environments. Through relatable stories and practical insights, the discussion reveals how great leaders simplify complexity, reduce confusion, strengthen culture, and help people execute with confidence. More than a podcast about coaching or sports, this is a masterclass in operational leadership, emotional intelligence, and building resilient organizations in a world already overloaded with noise. 🎙️🔥

What if the real reason teams struggle is not because people are incapable…
but because modern leadership keeps handing them complexity when they actually need clarity?

In this episode, Ms. Maya Sterling joins a powerful conversation exploring one of the most overlooked truths in leadership: people perform better when complexity is removed.

Like Alice wandering through Wonderland trying to make sense of a world that keeps changing size, direction, and rules, many employees, managers, caregivers, and business owners today are navigating environments filled with noise, pressure, mixed signals, and constant reaction. The result? Confusion, burnout, disengagement, and costly operational friction.

Through stories rooted in coaching, team culture, communication, and organizational dynamics, this discussion unpacks how great leaders create clarity under pressure, simplify difficult concepts, and build environments where people can confidently execute.

More than a conversation about sports, this episode becomes a masterclass on leadership psychology, emotional intelligence, mentorship, and systems thinking — with practical insights directly applicable to business, healthcare, education, and everyday life.

For owner-operators managing tight margins and W-2 teams, this conversation hits especially hard. Because sometimes the greatest hidden cost inside an organization is not payroll itself — it is confusion, inconsistency, disengagement, and the absence of clear leadership systems.

The Mad Hatter creates chaos.
The best leaders create structure. 🎙️🔥

#Leadership #BusinessStrategy #HealthcareLeadership #WorkforceCulture #TeamBuilding #OperationalExcellence #EmotionalIntelligence #Podcast #TalkStory

William Peetoom, Commissioner - Executive Producer & Host: Business Dev. Advocate - A Modern-Day Urban Robinhood | Blue Zone Living Benefits Insurance - Broker/Agent, Licensed Life & Health Insurance Professional | CA License #4347307
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TalkStory Media Presents our Business Edition Podcast is an intimate interview setting with leaders of our shared global business communities, offering best practices and hacks to achieve success. Inspire, Empower & Impact is our mission with a Vision to uptick the world we contribute to.

Together, share and simplify the latest research and best practices from award-winning business owners, entrepreneurs, and professionals to educate and empower you on how to make money, save money, and compound the interest of earned revenue to thrive happier, healthier, and improve your business practices for greater efficient impact. The end result is that you understand alternative pathways to roads less traveled to success that the daring duo share on the show.

Together with ignite San Diego, sparked by the Better Business Bureau (BBB), we resolve the challenges and obstacles of growing a successful business to be victorious in a new era of inno...

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Imagine finding out uh finding out that giving your employees a raise and providing them with like top-tier healthcare actually lowers your company's tax bill.

SPEAKER_01 0:09

Yeah, it sounds it sounds completely backwards, honestly.

SPEAKER_00 0:12

Right. It sounds almost illegal. Like there has to be a catch.

SPEAKER_01 0:15

We're so wired to believe that adding any kind of employee benefit is just, you know, a pure expense that totally shrinks the bottom line.

SPEAKER_00 0:22

Exactly. But the tax code that makes this possible has actually been sitting right in front of us for years. So welcome to the deep dive.

SPEAKER_01 0:30

Glad to be here.

SPEAKER_00 0:30

And we are thrilled you're joining us. Yes, you, the listener, the third mind in this conversation. Because today our mission is to unpack this massive radical shift happening in how we protect both our physical health and our financial wealth.

SPEAKER_01 0:44

It's a big one.

SPEAKER_00 0:45

It really is. We are looking at a fascinating stack of sources today. We've got corporate healthcare data, insurance policy mechanics, and even some deep philosophical essays on business leadership from the Kaisen Group International.

SPEAKER_01 0:59

And when you synthesize all of those materials, you know, a really clear through line emerges. We're seeing a structural shift away from a reactive crisis management model.

SPEAKER_00 1:09

Where you wait until something breaks to fix it.

SPEAKER_01 1:11

Exactly. Moving away from that toward a proactive continuity model.

SPEAKER_00 1:14

Aaron Powell And man, we need that shift because the context right now is just grim. The data shows that nearly 60% of the U.S. population suffers from at least one chronic illness.

SPEAKER_01 1:24

Aaron Powell Yeah. It's everywhere.

SPEAKER_00 1:28

Trevor Burrus And the financial toll of treating those illnesses reactively is well, it's staggering. In 2022, the average American family spent $13,493 completely out of pocket on healthcare.

SPEAKER_01 1:42

$13,000. And the system is just bending under the weight of that reactive medicine. Yeah. And that financial strain, it leaks directly into the workplace.

SPEAKER_00 1:50

Oh, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 1:50

And this is where the materials from Talk Story Media provide some crucial context. They argue that our standard corporate growth models are like fundamentally broken because they rely on a kind of brute force.

SPEAKER_00 2:02

Right. For decades, business culture has been completely obsessed with purely scaling the metrics, you know? Growing revenue, growing market share, pumping up the valuation.

SPEAKER_01 2:12

Aaron Powell But Talk Story points out that growth without continuity creates fragility.

SPEAKER_00 2:18

That quote is so good. It's like overclocking a computer processor without installing a cooling fan. I mean, it runs incredibly fast for a little while, but eventually the motherboard just melts.

SPEAKER_01 2:28

That is a perfect way to look at it. Because the people holding our businesses and our society together, the founders, the employees, the family caregivers, they are the processor.

SPEAKER_00 2:37

Right.

SPEAKER_01 2:38

And right now they're running dangerously hot. The traditional business mindset treats people as a line item expense. But unmanaged pressure causes absenteeism, mental fatigue, and this massive strain on what economists are calling the care economy.

SPEAKER_00 2:52

Wait, the care economy?

SPEAKER_01 2:54

Yeah, so we have an aging population, right. And the burden of that care is falling on a workforce that is already stretched to its absolute emotional and financial limits.

SPEAKER_00 3:02

Okay, let's unpack this. Because conceptually, no one disagrees that burnout is bad. We all get that. But bottom lines matter. Margins are incredibly tight right now for businesses. How does a company actually afford to pay for this cooling fan, so to speak, without completely tanking their profitability?

SPEAKER_01 3:22

And that that right there is the friction point where this whole paradigm shifts. Okay. The argument made in these sources is that people aren't expenses, they are the infrastructure itself. And fixing that infrastructure doesn't have to cost the employer a single dime.

SPEAKER_00 3:37

Wait, seriously.

SPEAKER_01 3:38

Seriously. In fact, if structured correctly, it creates immediate savings. And this brings us into the actual mechanics of IRS Section 125.

SPEAKER_00 3:47

Here's where it gets really interesting. The data provided by Patriot Preventive Care or PPC outlines the zero net cost wellness revolution. But let's, you know, let's strip away the marketing terms.

SPEAKER_01 3:57

Yeah, let's look at the math.

SPEAKER_00 3:58

Right. Break down the actual financial mechanics of a Section 125 cafeteria plan. First of all, um, what is a cafeteria plan? Are we talking about lunch trays here?

SPEAKER_01 4:06

Not quite. A section 125 cafeteria plan is simply an IRS code that allows employees to choose between receiving their full salary in cash, which is fully taxable, or taking a portion of that salary to pay for qualified benefits on a pre-tax basis.

SPEAKER_00 4:22

Okay, so you get a menu of benefits, you pick what you want, and the money comes out of your paycheck before Uncle Sam takes his cut.

SPEAKER_01 4:28

Exactly. Now here is the specific mechanism for this wellness program. An employee opts into the program by making a pre-tax contribution. And because that money comes out before taxes are calculated, the employee's overall taxable income is lowered.

SPEAKER_00 4:43

Makes sense. Lower taxable income.

SPEAKER_01 4:45

Now look at it from the employer's side. Because the total taxable payroll of the company is now lower, the employer pays less in payroll taxes. Oh, wow. Right. Specifically, they save on FICA taxes.

SPEAKER_00 4:56

Okay, just to clarify for anyone listening who doesn't stare at the itemized deductions on their pay subs, FICA is that mandatory chunk taken out for Social Security and Medicare, right?

SPEAKER_01 5:04

Correct. And by lowering the taxable payroll, the employer saves an average of $681 per employee per year in those FICA taxes.

SPEAKER_00 5:16

That's significant.

SPEAKER_01 5:17

It is. The employer then takes those exact tax savings and uses them to fully fund the administration of the wellness program.

SPEAKER_00 5:25

So it's like finding money in the couch cushions, but the couch is the IRS tax code.

SPEAKER_01 5:29

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 5:30

It's like legally rerouting a river. Instead of all that payroll money flowing straight to the IRS, you're diverting a stream of it into this wellness reservoir first.

SPEAKER_01 5:39

That's a great analogy. But the river keeps flowing, right? Right. Because on the employees' side, their taxable income dropped. So their tax burden dropped.

SPEAKER_00 5:47

Right.

SPEAKER_01 5:48

The wellness program then issues a tax-free claim payment, essentially a reward for participating in the health program.

SPEAKER_00 5:54

Okay, right.

SPEAKER_01 5:55

When you combine the lower tax burden with that tax-free reward, the overflow actually puts more water back in the employee's bucket. They see a net increase in their monthly take-home pay.

SPEAKER_00 6:04

You're kidding.

SPEAKER_01 6:05

No, on average, it's about $92 to $100 extra in their pocket every single month.

SPEAKER_00 6:09

Hang on. Let me just play devil's advocate here. I'm looking at this from the perspective of a skeptical employee. You're telling me my reported taxable income is dropping, which means I am paying less into FICA. Yes. Doesn't that mean I'm shortchanging my own Social Security benefits when I retire? I mean, am I just robbing my future self to pay for a virtual doctor today?

SPEAKER_01 6:32

It is a totally valid, vital question to ask. The mathematical reality is that yes, because your reported wages are slightly lower, there is an impact on your future social security calculations. I'll knew it. But and this is key, the impact is microscopic. We are talking about a difference of a few dollars a month at retirement age.

SPEAKER_00 6:52

Oh. Just a few dollars.

SPEAKER_01 6:53

Right. Compare that to getting an immediate tangible raise of over $1,000 a year today, plus gaining access to massive health benefits that actively prevent chronic illness. It's a supplement to major medical, not a replacement. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_00 7:06

And let's scrutinize those benefits because the Patriot Preventive Care Materials claim a wildly robust package. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_01 7:11

It's pretty comprehensive.

SPEAKER_00 7:13

I mean, we are talking 24-7 virtual primary care, four mental health therapy visits, unlimited virtual urgent care, where over 70 common medications have a zero dollar copay.

SPEAKER_01 7:24

Yeah, 70.

SPEAKER_00 7:25

Plus, they have these living 2.0 lifestyle perks, right? Like student loan debt relief coaching, identity theft protection, and even 0% interest payday loans to keep people out of predatory debt traps. What's the catch here? If my take home pay is going up, who is actually paying these doctors and coaches?

SPEAKER_01 7:44

Aaron Ross Powell The cost of the care is covered by the administration fees, which remember are funded by the employer's tax savings.

SPEAKER_00 7:50

Oh, right, the river diversion.

SPEAKER_01 7:51

Exactly. But the reason the math works for the healthcare providers is proactive mitigation. Virtual care and therapy are incredibly cheap compared to, say, an emergency room visit for a panic attack or a preventable diabetic crisis.

SPEAKER_00 8:05

That makes total sense.

SPEAKER_01 8:06

By addressing the root causes of medical and financial stress early, the overall cost of care just plummets. According to the third-party validated data in the sources, implementing this approach led to a 70% decrease in high-risk health categories.

SPEAKER_00 8:23

70%?

SPEAKER_01 8:24

Yeah, across a population of 23,000 people.

SPEAKER_00 8:27

Wow. Catching the problem while it's just a warning light on the dashboard instead of waiting for the transmission to drop out on the highway.

SPEAKER_01 8:33

Precisely.

SPEAKER_00 8:34

Okay, so we've stopped the bleeding on daily medical costs and stress. But what happens if something major hits? I mean, daily virtual wellness doesn't fix a stroke, it doesn't pay for chemotherapy.

SPEAKER_01 8:46

And this brings us to the next structural layer of the deep dive. What protects a family from a sudden catastrophic interruption?

SPEAKER_00 8:53

Right.

SPEAKER_01 8:54

And to understand this, the sources delve into what they call the three worlds of life insurance, specifically focusing on a framework called Living Life Defender.

SPEAKER_00 9:02

So what does this all mean? Because historically, life insurance has been um pretty morbid.

SPEAKER_01 9:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:07

You pay premiums for 40 years, and the only way your family sees a return on that investment is if you die.

SPEAKER_01 9:15

That is the traditional world of death benefits. But the modern evolution introduces something called accelerated benefit riders or ABRs. ABRs. An ABR fundamentally changes the utility of the policy. It allows you to access a portion of your own death benefit while you are still alive, provided you suffer a qualifying medical event.

SPEAKER_00 9:34

Okay, wait. What qualifies as an event?

SPEAKER_01 9:36

Typically, it covers critical illnesses like a heart attack, stroke, or invasive cancer. It also covers chronic illnesses, meaning you've lost the ability to perform basic daily activities like bathing or eating.

SPEAKER_00 9:47

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_01 9:48

Yeah. It also covers critical injuries, like severe burns or traumatic brain injuries and terminal illnesses.

SPEAKER_00 9:54

So if I'm getting money while I'm alive to pay for care, isn't this just long-term care insurance in disguise? I mean, long-term care LTC insurance is notoriously expensive and super difficult to qualify for.

SPEAKER_01 10:06

What's fascinating here is the actuarial and structural difference between the two. Traditional long-term care operates on an expense reimbursement model.

SPEAKER_00 10:15

Reimbursement meaning.

SPEAKER_01 10:16

Meaning you have to hire a specific type of registered nurse, save the specific receipt, submit it to the insurance company, and then wait for them to reimburse you.

SPEAKER_00 10:25

Ugh. That sounds like a nightmare when you're sick.

SPEAKER_01 10:28

It can be. And if you don't use the care, you lose the premiums you paid. But accelerated benefit riders operate completely differently. Once a doctor certifies it you qualify medically, let's say you've suffered a severe stroke, the insurance company accelerates a lump sum of your death benefit directly to you.

SPEAKER_00 10:47

Wait, no receipts.

SPEAKER_01 10:49

Except for specific regulations in the state of Massachusetts, no receipts.

SPEAKER_00 10:52

Are you serious?

SPEAKER_01 10:53

Seriously. It is an unrestricted cash lump sum. You can use it to pay your household bills, you can use it to build a wheelchair ramp on your house, or you can just use it to replace your lost income so your spouse can afford to take time off work and be your primary caregiver.

SPEAKER_00 11:07

Aaron Powell But how can an insurance company afford to just hand over the death benefit early? And the sources claim these writers can usually be added to a policy at no extra premium cost. That doesn't sound like how insurance companies normally operate.

SPEAKER_01 11:21

It comes down to the time value of money in actuarial science. If your policy has a $1 million death benefit and you suffer a heart attack at age 50, the insurance company knows they might not have had to pay that million dollars until you died at age 85.

SPEAKER_00 11:36

Right.

SPEAKER_01 11:37

By accelerating it to you now, they apply a discount factor. So they might offer you a lump sum of, say, $400,000 today instead of the full million at death.

SPEAKER_00 11:47

Uh okay.

SPEAKER_01 11:47

It saves the insurance company long-term risk and it gives you immediate liquidity when you are most desperate for it. Aaron Ross Powell, Jr.

SPEAKER_00 11:54

That liquidity is everything. I mean, the sources highlight Alzheimer's disease as a primary example. The lifetime cost of care for someone with Alzheimer's dementia is nearly $400,000.

SPEAKER_01 12:05

It's devastating.

SPEAKER_00 12:06

And here's the statistic that really forces you to pause. 70% of that massive financial burden falls entirely on family caregivers. People are literally draining their own retirement accounts to afford memory care for their parents.

SPEAKER_01 12:20

Exactly. And living benefits act as a financial shock absorber for these exact scenarios. They prevent a tragic medical event from turning into a generational financial wipeout.

SPEAKER_00 12:29

Okay, so we have defensive strategies. We've protected the daily workplace with Section 125 tax routing, and we have disaster shock absorbers with accelerated benefit writers. Right. But insurance premiums are generally seen as sunk costs. You hope you never have to use them. How does this model transition from just preventing poverty into actually generating wealth?

SPEAKER_01 12:52

That transition happens through the engine powering these specific policies, which is known as indexed universal life insurance or IUL.

SPEAKER_00 12:59

IUL. Okay, let's get into it.

SPEAKER_01 13:01

This is where we move into offensive wealth accumulation. An IUL allows the cash value inside the policy to grow tax-deferred, and that growth is tied to the performance of a major market index like the SP 500 or the U.S. Paysetter Index.

SPEAKER_00 13:14

The sources lean heavily on this concept of the 0% floor. I love this idea. I was thinking of it like bowling with the bumpers up. You might not get a strike every single time, but the bumpers guarantee you are never ever going to roll a gutter ball.

SPEAKER_01 13:28

That's a really great way to visualize it.

SPEAKER_00 13:30

But I need you to explain the math here because it feels like a free lunch. How is it mathematically possible to capture the upside of the stock market without taking on the downside risk of market losses? Where is the money actually sitting?

SPEAKER_01 13:43

It's a brilliant mechanism. And to understand it, you have to look at options trading. When you pay your premium into an IUL, the insurance company doesn't actually take your money and buy shares of the S P 500. Oh, they don't? No, because that would expose you to the crashes. Instead, they put the bulk of your principal into highly secure, boring assets like corporate bonds that yield a steady guaranteed interest rate.

SPEAKER_00 14:07

Okay, so the base money is safe in boring bonds. Where does the market growth come from?

SPEAKER_01 14:11

The insurance company takes just the interest generated by those bonds and they use it to buy call options on the S P 500.

SPEAKER_00 14:18

Oh, just the interest.

SPEAKER_01 14:20

Right. A call option gives them the right to capture the upside of the market. If the stock market goes up, say 18%, those options hit, and the insurance company credits your policy with the gains up to a specific limit called a cap.

SPEAKER_00 14:33

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 14:34

So say the cap is 12%, your cash value grows by 12%.

SPEAKER_00 14:38

Aaron Powell And if the market crashes, let's say it drops negative 15%.

SPEAKER_01 14:42

If the market drops, those call options just expire worthless. But your original principal was never in the market. It was sitting safely in those bonds. So your account simply doesn't grow that year. You hit the 0% floor. Uh-oh. Your previously earned interest is locked in. Your cash value doesn't grow, but it doesn't shrink from market losses either. The insurance company absorbed the risk using the bond yield, which makes zero your hero.

SPEAKER_00 15:09

Making zero your hero, that makes total sense when you break it down like that. You are trading away the absolute highest peaks of a bull market in exchange for total immunity against a bear market crash.

SPEAKER_01 15:19

Precisely. And what makes this architecture so resilient is how customizable it is. The sources outline several riders that allow you to literally customize this armor.

SPEAKER_00 15:30

Yeah, let's look at one of those in detail. The sources mention the gap protector writer. And they use the term guaranteed insurability. What does that actually mean from an underwriting standpoint?

SPEAKER_01 15:41

Aaron Powell So the face amount of a policy is your total death benefit. Usually, if you want to increase that amount later in life, you have to take a new medical exam.

SPEAKER_00 15:51

Which can be risky.

SPEAKER_01 15:52

Exactly. If you've developed high blood pressure or diabetes in the meantime, the insurance company will either charge you a fortune or deny you entirely.

SPEAKER_00 16:00

Right.

SPEAKER_01 16:00

The gap protector writer allows you to automatically increase your face amount by five to fifteen percent every year, up to a certain limit, without ever having to prove your health again.

SPEAKER_00 16:10

Wait, no new underwriting.

SPEAKER_01 16:12

No new underwriting. You lock in your healthy radio today, and your coverage scales up as your career and liabilities grow, regardless of what happens to your physical health.

SPEAKER_00 16:20

You're just building a fortress.

SPEAKER_01 16:21

You really are.

SPEAKER_00 16:22

And you can even add the combo multi-choice writer, right? Which lets you add term life coverage for up to five people, including business partners or your spouse, on that exact same policy, so everyone gets access to the living benefits. And the guaranteed flex writer ensures the policy won't lapse for up to 40 years.

SPEAKER_01 16:41

If we connect this to the bigger picture, you start to see the philosophical architecture beneath the math.

SPEAKER_00 16:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:48

All of these tools, the tax routing, the ABRs, the options-driven 0% floor, they aren't just isolated financial products or ways to dodge taxes. This is about capital continuity systems architecture. And this brings us directly to the insights from Kuya William Pitum and the Kaisen Group International.

SPEAKER_00 17:05

Right, the philosophical essays. Kuya Williams' background is fascinating. The materials describe how he blends his Dutch and Filipino heritage. He takes the rigorous structural discipline of European architecture and merges it with the deep community-first spirit of his Filipino roots.

SPEAKER_01 17:21

Yeah, and he calls this concept Zentrapreneurism.

SPEAKER_00 17:23

Zentrapreneurism. It's essentially mindful capitalism.

SPEAKER_01 17:26

Exactly. It's the merging of mindfulness and Buddhist philosophy regarding suffering and attachment with hard-nosed modern business strategy. Pitium's argument is that when leaders cultivate clarity and compassion, they don't just become nicer bosses. They build systems that are fundamentally resilient to systemic shocks.

SPEAKER_00 17:45

Because a business that destroys the health of its founders and employees is just mathematically unsustainable. Right. Which perfectly explains why a group like SageMont is also highlighted in these materials. SageMont Group specializes in securing RD tax credits and paid family leave credits for businesses. It seems like the smartest businesses aren't just grinding harder.

SPEAKER_01 18:06

No, not at all.

SPEAKER_00 18:07

They are using every legal tax incentive, credit, and wellness program to build an absolute fortress around their people. They are blending high-level tax strategy with D tearing compassion.

SPEAKER_01 18:19

Because they recognize how true wealth is actually defined. A massive corporate valuation is completely meaningless if the founder is recovering from a heart attack and the staff is clinically depressed. True wealth is holistic. It is your physical health, your time, your energy, and the financial stability of your family tree. The ultimate goal of all these financial architectures is adding years to life and life to years.

SPEAKER_00 18:42

Wow. So let's recap the journey we've been on in this deep dive for you, the listener. We started by looking at the cracked foundation of the old reactive health care model. How waiting for things to break is burning out our workforce and draining our wallets.

SPEAKER_01 18:57

Yeah, the broken system.

SPEAKER_00 18:58

Then we explored the mechanics of IRS Section 125, seeing how rerouting tax dollars through programs like Patriot Preventive Care can literally put money back into an employee's pocket while funding preventative zero-net cost wellness.

SPEAKER_01 19:12

The river diversion?

SPEAKER_00 19:13

Exactly. Then we examined how accelerated benefit riders break the old rules of life insurance, providing a vital lump sum of cash while you are still alive to survive major medical socks without needing a binder full of receipts. And finally, we looked under the hood of indexed universal life policies, seeing how the strategic use of bond yields and call options can capture market growth while locking in that zero percent floor, making zero your hero.

SPEAKER_01 19:41

It's a lot to take in, but it raises an important question. And it's a thought I want to leave with you, the listener, to mull over today. Let's hear it. For decades, society has rigorously trained us to ensure our cars against a crash, our homes against a fire, and our businesses against a lawsuit. We protect all of our external material property from total destruction. Yet we routinely leave our own human capacity, our physical health, our peace of mind, our sheer continuity completely exposed to the elements.

SPEAKER_00 20:10

It's so true.

SPEAKER_01 20:10

If modern financial tools are finally capable of treating us as whole, living humans, rather than just future liabilities on a spreadsheet, how does that change the way you define and protect your own true wealth starting tomorrow?

SPEAKER_00 20:22

That is a massive paradigm shift. Instead of waiting for the X ray to show us what's already broken, we can finally start building systems that prevent the fall in the first place. Thank you so much for joining us on this deep dive. Keep exploring, stay curious, and we will catch you next time.