Episode 9 | Clay Snowden

Well, hello, SCDC. Welcome to the SCDC podcast presented by our friends at Insightful, who every day provide real-world innovations for economic development. Insightful believes your digital tool should work as hard as you do for your community. That's why Insightful creates data-rich modules, websites, and digital outreach designed to make your visitor take notice without complicating your day. From core four modules, three pillars, digital marketing strategies and comprehensive websites to research and analysis, videography, and collateral design, Insightful works tirelessly as your on-call EDC marketing department. So thank you to the team at Insightful for partnering with SCDC to present the podcast. Thank you, Ray Methman, also of AHA Creative, who has done some great work for SCDC that you will see at trade shows in Europe and at our conferences coming up. So thank you to that great team. For those that don't know me, my name is Matt Tackett. I'm the president of the Southern Economic Development Council and am joined, as always, behind the scenes by our great director of operations. Another Matt, Mr. Matthew Darius, who's here. So hello, Matthew. Thank you for being here today. How are things in HQ1? HQ1 is beautiful right now. 85 degrees blue skies, light wind. So we're having a great old time here at Atlanta. Well I know you are at the office today, so I hope the lights are on and everything's good there. Everything's good at physical HQ1. There we go. There we go. So I'm joining you from HQ2 at my house in Prestonsburg, Kentucky now. So happy to be with you, Matthew, from the north. So Matthew, now today I think we're going totally off the rails here. This one might get us fired because we're going to talk very, very little economic development today. And we're going to go full on sports here. And this is something we've wanted to do for some time, but here we are, and we'll see what happens after this. Yes, our first human interest piece. Yeah, I mean, and look, we're in the south. There's a lot of things we're passionate about in our region. And one for sure thing that binds us is sports. It crosses borders, especially college athletics. So today, as we're closing up the college basketball season, we need to do a recap of what was probably the wildest March madness of all time. And we have a special guest here to help us do that. So on the pod today, we have the director of operations at the Kentucky Association for Economic Development. And he's here because he has participated in the SEDC men's and women's NCAA basketball challenge that we had. Not only did he participate, but he won the men's challenge and he won the women's challenge. So we're going to dive into that a little bit. We're also going to do some investigation because we just don't know how that is possible. We need to make sure this is on the up and up. But Matthew, we can insert a big round of applause because the champ is here. It's Mr. Clay Snowden. Welcome to the podcast. You know, your reward for winning both brackets is much, much better than money. I think we can all agree. That's the opportunity to spend time with Matthew and I on the pod and do some do some bragging. So we really appreciate that you're here. We hope you've recovered from your victory parades around Frankfurt and probably around the whole Commonwealth. But before we get going, do you want to release an official statement regarding your championships? Well, thank you for that introduction. And you know, it has been hard to walk around town. Everyone stopping me and saying, are you Clay Snowden who won the SEDC bracket challenge? Of course, I have to lie and say no just to keep them off me. But no official statement at all besides the tournament is random. That's about the only way that I can put it in a nutshell. So humble, so humble. But now it seems like you were pretty confident going into this. And you know, you were just always telling me you were going to beat me, not only me, the entire American South. So you know, the humbleness is coming out now. But I don't know that that was the way it was before. And of course I'm joking. Of course it is random and you're super humble about it. But congrats on the two wins. And before we need to dive into your brackets and talk through your winning picks a little bit. But first, I think we need to introduce you to the SEDC membership really quick. You are a new member as of just a few months ago. And everyone will get to meet you at Meet the Consultants, the American South Site Selection Summit that we have in just a few weeks. So we're really thankful that you're going to be a part of that. But before they do, how about just pull back the curtain on you a little bit and give us a rundown of who you are? Yeah. So I graduated from University of Kentucky in 2016. Shortly thereafter, moved to Louisville and started working for Builders Exchange of Kentucky, which is a commercial construction trade association. And after a few years there, I moved to Lexington where my wife, now wife, girlfriend at the time lived. And once I moved here, I looked for a different job. And that's when I landed at KAED doing mostly membership when I first started there. And I've now been there for just over two years. I'm the director of operations there. I guess I have a lot of different hats within the organization these days. But I love being a KAED. It's been a lot of fun and pretty incredible the amount of people that you're able to meet just from the state association side. Now I know that Matt's now at SEDC and just 17 states that you all cover, I believe. And I'm sure that that's just an awesome experience to be able to see all that. And I'm glad that I'll be able to attend the META consultants to get a taste of my first SEDC event. 17 states plus Puerto Rico. So we won't hold that one against you, but you can't forget about them down there. We're going to take a meeting to Puerto Rico before too much longer. So we're really excited about it. But hey, Clay, you mentioned KAED. So what is that? What does it stand for? I'm not really familiar with the organization. Yes, it's the Kentucky Association for Economic Development. It's been around for a long time, I believe since the 60s. KAED is about anywhere from it kind of fluctuates, but 700 to 900 members that we currently have and everyone is represented in the economic development space. We have construction, engineering, design and build type members. We have local elected officials. So our membership is pretty diverse. Like most organizations and associations, we have education opportunities, conferences, things of that nature, golf outings. We like to mix in some fun as well. Founded in 1967, KAED is the Commonwealth Forum for Economic Acceleration. I still remember all my talking points. I think most people listening to this probably know, okay, I came from KAED. Clay said he had been with us for two years, but I was the smart person that hired Clay. We didn't have a membership person and pull back the curtain at SEDC. Something we'd like to do here too, just a membership person focused on relationships, focused on engagement. Like Clay said, we're 17 states, we're a large geographic region, we're a really large organization of people. Sometimes that can be a little bit intimidating to try to step into or then once you step in, try and find your place. So we'd like to have at SEDC a person like Clay because you were doing membership at Builders Exchange and then we talked to you and to come into KAED and then before you know it, boom. We really took off on membership growth and on engagement. Just everything started doing, it was already doing well, but it started doing better. And there was a point where we ascended as the largest state association in the nation, in Kentucky. And we were so proud of that and none of that could have happened without you, Clay. It's just the truth. Everything started getting a little prettier once you came in with financial statements, membership numbers, all of that. So it's really, and we had a lot of fun too. So I really wanted to thank you for all that you did for KAED and really all that you continue to do because it's just a great organization. I know you stay super busy too. Yeah. And you know, you set it up well for success and our new CEO, Haley McCoy has done an excellent job of continuing that. And you know, it's funny how there's two different CEOs and they are both super successful and they do things different ways. And she's really strengthened some areas that, you know, and you strengthen some other areas. So it's been fun to work under two excellent CEOs in my short time here at KAED. I've got a question for you about that on the hot seat later. So I didn't send you that in advance. So we'll see how you answer it. There's no good way to answer this one. Perfect. But anyway, you were just talking a little bit about KAED. And I always knew that KAED was a really special crew. I was there for five years. And it was just such an honor. You know, it was a big part of my life. And I lived it. I never, never implored. I just really, really cared about the organization. And I still do. But it's a big time, really busy, unique organization. You know, not only do you have the normal trade association things, but KAED is really involved in direct economic development and kind of moving the needle for economic development partnership with our communities and members, or KAD's communities and members and also the state. I mean, it's just a, it's a unique organization that does unique things, I think. And I think, you know, you have a multi-million dollar grant making operation. You have a state and association business development marketing partnership for, for example, those are, those are kind of unique things. So how about a couple of nuggets about both of those things? If you want to name them and give us some updates. Yeah, so KPDIs, the Kentucky Product Development Initiative, and that, that is what you were talking about. That is where communities across the state can apply and kind of put forward a piece of land that they'd like to have developed. And it's a great way to bring companies to Kentucky and bring, you know, like a large manufacturing operation or something to Kentucky. It's awesome and Matt didn't mention it, but he was one of the founders of that organization and somebody who helped get that going. And it's been great for KAD and it's been great for local communities across Kentucky as well. It was, it was such a cool thing. You know, we, we started that in 2018 on the heels of what was at the time record setting economic years in Kentucky, you know, relative to investment and jobs created. So we were thinking, okay, you know, we've got to keep this momentum rolling, you know, water some of our challenges. And it was a plus ready to go sites and buildings that would provide quick and risk-free site selection experiences and really quick operationalization for enterprise. So we were successful in tapping into about $9 million. You know, $9 million doesn't go very far. You know, when you talk about product development sites and buildings, but, but we had 9 million and we were really excited about that. So this was 2018 to, I guess, 2021. We could grant that out. So we said, well, grant out 3 million a year up to $500,000 per applicant. We hired site selection group to manage this for us. They built the program that mimicked identity or almost, you know, as close as you could to their actual site selection processes. So if you wanted to respond to our grant opportunity, you had to fill out an RFI, you had to go through a site process and just that, you know, specific education was so good for us. But it was just a really good process that was ROI driven. So we were investing the state's funds in a way that demonstrated really high confidence of a return vis-a-vis a location or a project location. So we had, through those three years, 9 million bucks, I think we granted out maybe six, maybe seven, something like that. But that turned really, really quick into over $500 million. I don't even remember what it was, Clay, but it was somewhere around there really quick. And we were creating jobs. We were bringing in investment. It was doing transformative things. We really proved a big time concept there. So it was one of the last things that I got to do in Kentucky. And I'm so proud of this. And, you know, I hope I do something bigger and grander, you know, before my time's done. But I don't know because we got another $100 million funded into that program. And I know, Clay, I'm so thankful that you all have taken the reins on that thing and have rolled it out so well this year. And I know you'll roll it out again, or I guess so well last year and you'll roll it out so well this year, but $100 million for site development in one state and other states are doing this too. But it can do transformative, transformative things. So I couldn't be more proud of that program. And you and Haley and the secretary at the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development and all the utility partners who stepped in to fund our ability to manage that program. It's just such a cool collaborative thing. And if $6 million turned into $500 million, what will $100 million turn into? You know, it's just unbelievable. So thanks for all you're doing there, Clay. Yeah. You know, it's been fun to see the excitement around it within our state. And you know, just the opportunity for certain communities to, I guess in a way, work together and work with not only us, the Cabinet, as you mentioned, the utility partners, all working together for a common goal. So it's been neat to see. It's been a fun experience as well. The other piece of this, think about, okay, we are, KAD was very involved in kind of preparing for economic development readiness. Well, I mentioned that in that in your organization is a state slash association partnership for business development marketing called Kentucky United. You know, we have a lot more, Kentucky has a lot more sites and buildings that are marketable at the moment, thanks to PDI. But Kentucky United is a really, really cool thing too, where through KAD, you all will go all over the country to consultant clusters or to enterprise line with your target markets, wherever, and tell them why you think they ought to do business in Kentucky. And I guess that's why we're going to see you at our site selection summit in Atlanta, just singing the good song of Kentucky. And we hope other states do that too. Yeah. So we will be in Atlanta. Our team will be there and several other people in the economic development space from Kentucky will be in Atlanta at Jurl's conference. And we have our Kentucky United event kind of piggybacking off of it as well. I know we're going to Detroit, Dallas, and Chicago as well. So all of that information is on our website. If anybody out there is actually interested in joining us on any of those trips, but you know, it's a fun way. It's usually a smaller group that goes and it's kind of a fun way to not only promote Kentucky, but you know, any time you travel with a small group of people like that, all with the same initiative, it usually sparks some good ideas. Yeah, yeah, for sure. It was always, it was always a really good kind of opportunity to be with other professionals and just kind of spend some time together, learn from each other and think about different things. And I know some kind of internal Kentucky regional ideas and regional, regional things have kind of sparked on those trips. But it's also just a really good time to go and be with whoever the consultants are in that market and just invite them to a reception or a lunch and really like, you know, everything we can present to them or any state can present to a consultant for the most part they can grab on their phones. But it's about just building relationships. And you know, that it's just been really successful for Kentucky and then for the other states that do that too. And now, you know, I've learned, tried to take those same ideas to SEDC, scale those out to 17 competitors stage, which is kind of a different animal. But we're seeing what we can do and following kind of a Kentucky model and kind of a Texas model is similar to Kentucky, but we'll be doing some business development trips. And we'll focus on FDI, but it'll be really similar to what you all do at Kentucky. So if there are any Kentuckyians listening to this, take a look at the Kentucky United Trips because it's a really, really good, inexpensive opportunity to get in front of some consultants and just start building relationships and see where it goes from there. But before we get off of the Kentucky stuff, because I know you're staying busy right now in the weeds on a conference. So you've got a major one coming up at some time. So the Kentucky Collaboration Conference is sometime in April. We want to know when it is. And I'm looking forward to being just a normal registrant there telling you that I'm cold or I don't like the coffee or whatever and just kind of having some fun with you when I get there. But when and where is that conference and what are some main highlights? Yeah. So that conference is in Louisville and that will be April 12 and 13. So coming up, we are recording this on the 5th. I'm not sure when it will be released. But coming up in about a week. And you know, it's awesome to see the momentum that is gained. The Collaboration Conference when I started here was online and it was, you know, Matt and I trying to figure out, does the person who's going to speak in three minutes have the correct link? And are they going to go out to the crowd or not? Like, what's going to happen? It's funny how the world's kind of. I guess, trended back towards normal since then. And, you know, we did want to know in Zebra as well. And now we moved to Louisville at the highest Regency downtown. It's a great event space. And we are projecting our largest crowd that we have had since I've been here. So we are really excited about that. And there's going to be an opportunity to highlight some of our partners such as KLC will be on stage there. And there's going to be obviously site selection group doing an update. The full agenda is online as well. But you know, it's also a little bit different than previous years. We've moved it to two days instead of three days, which we think, you know, we had our members in mind there and just thought about cost and being away from the office and what not. And that model has worked really, really well for us. And I guess it's easier to keep people's attention for two days too, right? So we tried that out in the fall for the first time and Ashlyn and it went well. So yeah, these conferences, you know, it's great to get education. It's great to have everyone in the same room and bouncing ideas off of each other. But it's also just a constant reminder of how lucky we are to be where we are. Considering just two years ago, we were online and kind of away from people. And I remember when I first started, I was joking with Matt that the first six or eight months, I never met somebody in person, always on Zoom. And I remember meeting the first person I ever met, you know, not on Zoom, was significantly taller than I imagined they would have been. And it kind of shocked me. And I was like, wow, you know, what in the world? Like, this is such a bizarre world that we live in. So it's awesome to be where we are today and having these, you know, meet the consultant type events and the collaboration conference. And I think people are jazzed up about that. And, you know, it's going to be a great event that I know that we are looking forward to. Yeah. You know what I love about the KAD events is for the most part, every one of those, the governor is there, which is, which is really cool. Really good opportunity to hear from the governor about what's going on and then spend some time with the governor, talk to him or her off, you know, off to the side, but it's just always such a great opportunity. And then the secretary of the cabinet and then a lot of the executives of the cabinet are there too. So it's so great. And it just shows you the place that these associations have relative to the economic development environments and go forward success. So I'm definitely in Kentucky too. So I'm looking forward to that. But you know, one thing I forgot. And you came on, so this isn't the annual conference for Kentucky. It's the, it's a spring, kind of the secondary conference, but still really, really good. But I had forgotten that, yeah, we did that in a TV studio. The first one, the first one that you did with, with Studio 46, I totally forgot about that. It was. So I started in February of that year. And I believe that happened in early May. And I remember right before I was hired, I told you like, Hey, I have a family vacation this week and it happened to be the week of the conference. And knowing now what I know about the conference, I never would have done that. But at the time, I was like, it's just a conference. I mean, how could, how crazy it could have been. So I was in South Carolina, zooming in to the conference from, from, well, I was at, I wasn't on the beach. I wouldn't do that to anybody, but I was back at the house and yeah, I remember doing the promos going to Studio 46 to shoot all of that and trying to coordinate everybody to be here and there. And here's a script. Here's the agenda. How do these zoom links work? Are we going to merge? And Matt was crazy enough to do breakout rooms. I think you have like five or six breakout rooms on an online conference, which was so many things to juggle. But it ended up being fun and it was a learning experience and people were there. I mean, these people came no matter what. And I appreciate that so much about this group too is their dedication to KED. So many times we joined things, organizations, clubs, whatever it may be. And you know, it just, we joined and we don't think about it. But the KED members really care about the organization and that doesn't go unseen. And it means a lot to us and helps us stay dedicated to work towards making it better for them every day. You know, one thing I learned at that conference is I'll never do breakout rooms at a virtual conference again. I mean, that was, it wasn't a disaster, but it was close to it. But it was, people were getting somehow selected into a breakout room that they did not know they were going into. Yeah. And yeah, it was a bit of a cluster, but we were learning on the fly. It was, nobody was too upset. Yeah. And that was the first time I began calling you Vay Clay because you were on vacation during the conference and that just, you never took vacation, but that didn't stop me from calling you Vay Clay every week. So it's probably an HR violation, but okay. So we'll move on from the KED from the economic development stuff because we need to get real here and just, we need to move into March Madness. And we need to know the truth. Clay, did you cheat on your brackets? How did you win and where did you get your pics from? Yes, I did cheat. No, no, no, I didn't cheat. So I will be completely honest with the process. The process was I saw the email come out. I said, I know Matt cares a lot about these brackets for one reason or another. So I will fill one out and that will be that. And I will not think about it again. Well I got a text from Matt the day of that was like, your brackets not complete. Can you, yada yada yada. So I go in there and realize I had missed one or there was something. I don't even remember what the situation was. So I more or less just clicked on some names and got through. Now it's not as easy as that. I could not tell you who's in the final four this year, but what I could tell you is trends on how to pick brackets. And it's that easy. You don't have to look at the names. What you have to do is realize, okay, there's going to be an upset. Each side of the bracket, each little corner, you just pick one to two upsets and I'm not talking about the eight over or nine over an eight. You got to pick an upset like I had Pittsburgh over Iowa State 11 over six. Now why did I do that, right? I have no idea. It just happened to be the upset that I selected. So really, I mean, I hate to be honest about this, but there wasn't a ton of rhyme or reason. It's probably a lot more luck. I picked an upset or two, but what I did know is I was not going to put a number one seed in the final four. That's something I was not going to do. But a three seeding on Zaga, five seed in Miami, a six seed in Creighton and Duke a five seed. So my final four wasn't very good, but I did have my enemy. Yeah, I was trying to pull your bracket up just to see because I think so I'm not pulling it up here, but I think, yeah, you had Creighton going far. I mean, who could see that? I mean, come on. Like they're really good, but I mean, just anybody, especially in this bracket, anytime you got two teams in any of the regions to your elite eight or grade eight or whatever you call it, it's just like, it's almost luck. But you had that with San Diego State. Creighton. I had three of the four elite eight. So there's four corners of the bracket, if you will, right? I guess the easiest way to say is I had seven of the eight teams in the elite eight, which I didn't even know until I'm looking at it right now. Ridiculous. I mean, that was so lucky. So, I mean, you were right in Miami and I saw it. So right around like maybe grade eight or something because I was always going back looking. I remember I sent you a text like, gosh, Clay, you're probably going to win this. This is awful. You know, I jumped off. You know, but I mean, you're right. Like I had to talk you into playing too because I was struggling to figure out if I was setting this up right. And I didn't want to bother Matthew is after hours because didn't want Matthew to know how just silly, you know, his coworker was being about something goofy. But I was bothering you about it and you weren't signing up for it. I had to keep like, hey, Clay, can you help me out on this? And, you know, lucky I did because you won both of them. Yeah. More or less that came down to, I won't say the specific website, but everyone knows what it is, I guess, but it was just kind of difficult to work with. So yeah, I was crunched last minute. So I started clicking and I clicked Kentucky and Kansas State. And then I thought, well, I know people in Kentucky won't like me to say this, but I'm just not much of a coach cow fan in terms of his coaching. I'll say it. So I picked Kansas State and I'm a Michigan State fan. So I had Michigan State and it's as simple as that. Anyone that's crunching the numbers and saying, you know, they're defensive rating of plus six in the past three weeks of the regular season is going to lose any bracket challenge. That is factual. Why did I pick Miami? Well, my buddy lives there. So I thought, I'll have Miami going far. I didn't want to put Houston in there. So that is really the strategy I have with brackets is find a loose connection, pick a couple upsets and just hope you get lucky. You know, it's kind of funny because, you know, if you're, if you watch college basketball a lot or you're, you're into the weeds on the analytics or whatever, different things that people look at to try and make projections. I mean, normally you can probably do pretty well on, on, I mean, as well as possible on any normal year. But the fact that you did so well, um, this year when it was just so many upsets and just a really random tournament, I mean, it's just like, and you blew everybody away to like, no one is even close to you on, on second place. I have not looked into this, but does it give like a, um, national ranking? Did I win a car or, or something like that? I mean, what's going on here? I bet if you had seven of the eight, um, great eight teams, I bet you were really, really yeah, you could. There was some kind of, um, I don't know. I think Nissan did something. If you opted into it, you could win. I, I, I remember opting out of the, it asked for some information. I was just like, I wasn't interested. So. Yeah. I saw on ESPN, you know, they're, that's the largest one that, uh, one of these things that people do, they were, I think there were four or five that had all of the final four teams out of however many million, which is just a crazy, crazy, um, percentage. Uh, but I don't know that anyone had a perfect bracket, which you would think if you got, if you got the final four teams there, you'd have a really good 50, 50 shot on that Florida Atlantic San Diego state game, but you were probably going to pick Yukon to win it all at that point, I guess. Um, yeah, you would. Um, is it okay? Have I asked you a question on this podcast? Is that okay? Absolutely not. Okay. No, it's okay. It's okay. Yeah. So I'm, I'm looking at your bracket, which came six to, to the bottom overall in the group. And you had Alabama, Duke Houston and Kansas, three, one seeds and a five seed in the final four. Were there any rhyme or reason to any of that? Yes, because those were probably the smartest picks that anyone could have made. It just didn't work. I mean, last year was all, all chalk like last year was all number, number one seeds. And I thought, nobody's good this year. It'll, you know, it'll work out where all these kind of big time teams. And I was the same way with you. It's why, it's why I picked Kentucky to win their game because Providence was kind of limping in. But I thought I believed in Duke because they were like super hot coming into the tournament. Yeah. And I thought they're going to go far. Um, you know what? I guess Kansas will probably go through and all these other one seeds, like they'll beat out these kind of middle of the pack teams, but it just didn't work out like that. But now in my real bracket that no one saw, I got them all right for the most part. I missed a few. But Matthew is the same way. Matthew and I both had Alabama winning this and that one for sure didn't work out. So Clay, if you are, I mean, so it sounds like you are the, not only are you the bracket genius here, you're, you're really analytical and have a really smart approach to this. Well, you missed Yukon. Where were you on that one? Um, no comment. I actually was until I just looked at the bracket, I was not even sure that they had made it to the final four. And now I see that they actually won the championship, which shows you how little attention I actually paid to college basketball. But it was kind of a weird final for this year. They didn't have the same type of buzz that it's had in past years. I feel like I just didn't hear as much about it or see as much online. And I guess just because of how it turned out with a lot of top teams being out of it, but good for Yukon. Congratulations to the great state of Connecticut for. Yeah, they, they just won't stop winning the tournament. Like they'll, they'll either be terrible or they're going to win at all. That's, that's like five championships they've had in the last 20 years or something. Meanwhile, Kentucky's has won. But now I think if you go back and look at my final four, I had all American South teams. So loyal to the brand, you have to believe in the Southern teams. When I was in your shoes in Kentucky, I always had the cats pick to go, pick to go all the way. So do you want to apologize to the great people of the Commonwealth for your pick there? Absolutely not. No, I, I think picking Kentucky to lose in the second round was a lock. That just seemed like a lock to me, especially now Kansas State was a really good team and they were super well coached and, you know, I, I don't want to sound negative. Three point shooting team that was not hidden there threes and Kentucky still lost. That's a tough, tough way that game could have been a lot worse if Kansas State was hitting their threes. I am. I know I did almost pick Kansas State to come out of that bracket. I think maybe I, well, maybe I had them in, I guess maybe not in the final four. I had them in the elite eight, I guess, but I, I really liked them just because I watched them play one game. They destroyed Kansas in a game I just happened to see. So of course that's all I knew about them. So I thought I knew they were good, but their point guard that was like the star of the tournament is, he's from New York City, but he played some high school basketball in Kentucky and know this like a little bit south of hazard in eastern Kentucky, like deep, deep in the mountains. Yeah, he was at a little school called Cordia for, for a while. So I remember that team they, they were great, but I just held on to his name for, for whatever. So whenever I knew he was at Kansas State, I was just always was kind of rooting for them. But I picked those wildcats to beat the Kentucky Wildcats to is one of the only picks I got right in my bracket this year. So before, before we move on, any final words on, on the bracket, this was, well, let's talk about women's really quick. Yeah. So yeah, when she's bracket was actually, believe it or not, something that I had a little bit more knowledge on because I feel like there's less upsets in the women's bracket each year. And I had picked LSU to win it all and they did. And the reason why I did that was because I saw a lot of stuff on Twitter about their coach in the outfits that she wears. And they're these ridiculous, cool, whatever trendy outfits. And I thought, huh, that's how to cool. I like teams with swagger and they look to be a good team. They're the number three seed, like, I'll go with that. You need swagger in the tournament. So I went with LSU. I had South Carolina, which was the popular pick in the pool. I had them going to the final four. And I did have Stanford in there as well. So I actually went chalk all one seeds here, but, you know, I did okay. I would say I did okay. It was not as successful of random selection as the men's bracket, but, you know, it is what it is. That one came down a little closer for you. If I would have won, you would have came in second, I think, where, I mean, you were so far ahead on the men's side. But yeah, I went on my women's bracket. I was kind of really leaning in heavy on some of the top seeds. But I had, I think I had LSU in my final four and getting upset by Yukon, just because they're all, or maybe LSU would pull the upset. So I think it was the most watched women's final four, at least, if not most watched entire tournament, but they were getting massive ratings. And I got to see a lot of those games too. It was, was really fun. I don't know how ill she was a three seed the way they were, the way they were playing, especially at the end. I knew that coach too, because she was, that was the coach that was at Baylor when they had so many great teams and they went 40 and 0 one year. Brittany Greiner was there, their center. So she's been around, but I didn't know her outfit thing until this final four. Oh yeah. She had some good ones. The championship fit with the sparkles and the tiger stripes. I mean, that was an all-timer there. Yeah, that was nice. Well, congrats Clay. You know, we were really so I'm thankful that you, that you, you know, let me annoy you and let you play because it's unbelievable you won both. And it's not like a little amount of people were playing these things. You know, there was a, there was a really good selection of people, you know, that we all, you know, we all wanted to win obviously and you won both of them, just, just ridiculous. So I hope you come back to defend the titles next year. So how about an early prediction for men's champion and women's champion for 2024? Okay. Women's champion will be, let me think, North Carolina. Okay. Are you writing this down? Yes. Oh gosh. Okay. Women's championship, I'll go with my Michigan State Spartans. Okay. Michigan State North Carolina on the women's. Okay. So that's, that's interesting. If that happens to come true, I did write it down. We'll put a little bug in my, in my calendar, but I'm going to go with women South Carolina, men Kentucky. So how about you, Matthew Dairie? Is who you got? I have no idea. I don't fall basketball, but let's just say Georgia and Georgia. Oh, whoa. Oh, okay. All the eggs in one basket. There we go. I like that one too. Okay. Well, Clay, you know, thanks, thanks so much. Congrats. Thanks for giving us a little bit of detail on, on KAD and Kentucky too. So, you know, we've been really nice here. We've dug into some weeds. We've had a lot of softball questions here. So it's time to really get real and put you on the research, uncensored seat sponsored by our great friends at research, FDI research, FDI is a trusted investment attraction and trade development partner working all over the world. Our listeners know Bruce Tackifman CEO and the great work that he does to introduce global enterprise to the advantages and opportunities that we have in America and in the American South. Thank you to the research, FDI team for sponsoring what is the former hot seat segment. So Matthew, spooky music time, Clay, are you ready for the hot seat? I guess so. Okay. Here we go. Here's the one. I don't know how you're going to answer, but who's the best boss you've ever had? Well, back when I worked at the Kentucky Derby Museum when I was 17 years old, no, I'm joking. You know, that's a good question. It's funny how different my bosses have been at KAED. And there's definitely, you know, some takeaways, but I've got to go with Haley. She's the one that signs my checks. Yeah. Hey, the good answer. She's really doing a great job. It's fun to watch you all go right now. I'm just so, you know, as proud as I was of that organization, I'm still equally as proud now. So just a good answer for sure. I agree too, but I love what everything that you are doing. Can't wait to see her and the KAED team. So shout out to Haley McCoy, who's been there what she got in August of last year. Yeah, she's been here about eight or nine months so far. And I think things are going really well. You know, it's for a while thereafter, you left, it was just me in the office. So it's been a lot of positive momentum since adding somebody, especially someone of Haley's caliber. Yeah. Yeah. So Haley was involved in various committees. She was also on our board too. But I remember when I knew I was leaving for SCDCI, I got to hang out with Haley for a second at one of our conferences. The last one that I got to do. And I said, hey, would you ever think about applying for this job? And she played it cool, but I knew that would be something that would have a lot of promise for our organization and the state. I just didn't know if she would be interested or not. So we were so thankful that she was and then you and the board were able to talk her into coming on to KAED and she's an SCDC member now as well. So can't wait to have her involved in the state association committee or anywhere else that she wants to get plugged in and you too. So shout out to Haley. Hello, if you're listening. So question two here, Clay, who would play you in a movie? People have said more when I was younger that I looked like Peter Parker, Spider-Man. What's the actor's name? The first one? Like in the early two. Toby Maguire. Toby Maguire. People have said, I don't think I do, but some people have said that. So if you had to go with one, Toby Maguire would be a good one. But if I got to choose anyone to play me in a movie, man, maybe two of my favorite actors are Tom Hanks and Steve Martin. So one of them would be totally fine. I'm sure that they could come up with some, you know, they would make me funnier, which is always a plus. Well, you could have, so Toby Maguire could play young Clay. And then I could see Steve Martin for you for sure, like as older Clay. So yeah, you're a really funny, funny guy too, I think. I mean, you're really smart. Smart people are funny and quick-witted, but Steve Martin for sure. I think that makes a ton of sense. So who's your favorite Spider-Man, by the way? I guess it's Toby Maguire. I actually have not seen a Spider-Man movie since that initial one came out. So I'm in no way equipped to answer that question. Oh my gosh, Clay, get into the Marvel universe. Where have you been for the last five years? Matthew, are you into the Marvel movies? I've seen them all up to Phase 4. Yeah, I don't even know what that means. I don't know how you expect me to watch Marvel movies when I'm researching college basketball left and right. Yeah, really. I've said last five years, but this is up till Phase 4 that Matthew's talking before that, that was like a 10, 15 year, I mean, it really cool. It's 10 years, yeah. And you know the thing you can do now, Clay, you have every one of them available to you, whereas Matthew and I, and the rest of the world, by the way, we were waiting months and years in between these movies, waiting to find, okay, is there going to be another Infinity Stone or what's going to happen? How's this play out? You need to get on that this weekend. They're all on something stream. They're all on Disney Plus. Yeah, I have Disney Plus. Maybe I will consider it. Why? So disappointed. You at least need, I mean, yeah, you at least need to watch Infinity War in Endgame. I mean, come on, Thanos. All right, it down. He had all the Infinity Stones. You need to figure out how that worked out for everybody. Okay, moving on, we're disappointed. What's your favorite hobby? So I love baseball and as kind of a side hobby, I write for a baseball company. I write articles, do podcasts for them. I love fly fishing and camping, do a bunch of that. I'm one of those people that has a lot of hobbies. You know, I have a canoe, I like canoeing. I like going out to eat with friends, stuff like that and reading. So I'm somebody who jumps hobby to hobby, but fly fishing, baseball, those are probably the two primary ones. We don't need to get into Matt's interest in baseball. Well, I'm a big fan and I have a lot of hot takes on baseball, but yes. Well, let's leave America's pastime out of this one. But I can remember when I was checking your references when we were thinking about bringing you on at KAD, I don't remember who it was, but someone always remember this. They're just, you know, of course, really glowing about your work ethic and who you are and all that. And he's tried, it might have been a sheep, tried to say this in like a really positive way, but it came off as like, you know, clay will just like go disappear in the wilderness for, for, you know, days at a time. And you know, he just does that. So I want you to know, but it's because you were out fly fishing somewhere, probably. I two weeks ago, I disappeared for three days in the Smoky Mountains fishing camping. I'm one of those weirdos that prefers to travel alone. So I just kind of disappear unplug for a little bit and reset and, you know, relax and just kind of take it easy. But yeah, a lot of people find that strange and they don't understand it. But if you've never tried it before, I would definitely suggest it. Oh, I understand it for sure. People don't know, you know, the real me how introverted I am. So I could go in the wilderness in a cabin and spend some time, but it all made sense your first day at work when you come in your license plate on the Subaru is a fish and then you're carrying like fishing lures that you've made to hang up in your office. So I thought there we go. So now I'll just wait to see when he disappears on us. But yeah, they clay, but yeah, the fly fishing was something I got to do recently. It was so fun. I could get into that too. Okay, you mentioned this. Let's go there. For those that don't know, he just said it. You're a baseball blogger. Tell us about that and who's in the World Series this year and who wins it? Yeah. So I write for a company called just baseball and it's a really neat company. It started by two 20 some odd year old young people right out of college who went to college at Syracuse to be sports announcers. And their first season out of college was 2020 when it all got shut down and they didn't know what to do. So they started this baseball website and I write and cover the entire MLB and I have a do the fantasy baseball thing for them as well, which has a podcast of its own probably not as many listeners as this one. But you know, we, you know, it does pretty well. And yeah, it's just a lot of fun. I'm one of those psychos that watches several games a day. I get home from work and turn on the computer and quad screen four games at once and stay up late to watch the West Coast games as well and then write about all of it. So you know, it's good. It helps me kind of take my mind off work and always grew up a baseball fan. So it's really, it just comes natural to me. Yeah, me too. I just, I love to sit back and just watch baseball all the time. But who's, who's your World Series pick? World Series pick. Are you going to write this one down to? Absolutely. Okay. My World Series pick will be from the National League. I will go with the Mets and from the American League. Let's make it to New York teams. Let's go Mets Yankees. That would be really interesting. Quick side note, I remember Matt and I when we first started working together, driving somewhere and it was multiple hours and I was kind of like, Oh man, I don't know what we're going to talk about. And somehow baseball came up and I, I don't know why I just remember asking you to name baseball players and your struggle to name players who had, who had not retired within the past five years was, was absolutely hilarious. Now, 90s though, I mean, I'm just a repository of, of information. I mean, I could, you know, that was my time. But okay, so I was going to go Yankees and Reds, but now I will not go Yankees since you did. I'll go Dodgers, Reds. I mean, that's, you know, that's what I'm thinking in, because this is a podcast about the Southern States, I'm actually going to include two teams that I think are most likely from your regions to make the World Series. But I think that would be the Houston Astros, who were the World Series champs last season out of the AL and out of the NL would be the Atlanta Braves, Matthew Darius's team, I assume. Well, I'm a OG Yankees fan, but yeah, we can do it for them as well. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, I'm a big time Braves fan too. I just, just bought a hat for a Braves hat for some of my upcoming playing trips. So yeah, I'm going to change my pick from Reds to the Braves. So yeah, the Reds may lose 90 to 95 games this year. So I think you made the right decision. So they had a, they had a guy, he threw 105 mile per hour pitch the other day. Hunter Green, yep. So, I mean, pretty good, I guess. So that's my Reds breakdown. So okay, when you talked about on the road, two more questions here than you're done. We did spend a lot of time on the road and we always had fun together. Where is the best place to eat in Kentucky? On the road? Yep. Not in Frank's not in Lexington. There's two options. One is small town USA. You've got to go to Applebee's because it's open later than local joints. There's going to be one in every town and they have a diverse menu. So when you're traveling for three straight days, you can eat three different meals at a predictable price, which is important for the expense report. The other option Friday, you've been gone for a week. You don't really care about getting the Applebee's salad. You don't care if you feel bad afterwards. You're pulling into the gas station and that has the little scissors and you're getting the personal deep dish pizza. I know Matt knows what I'm talking about an underrated slept on meal. So here's the thing, at least you're honest, you know, here's a backstory for everyone. When Clay got to KAD, he had never been to an Applebee's before. No, I'd never been to a little seizures. I'd been to an Applebee. Oh, is that how it is? Okay. But you weren't a fan of Applebee's, right? So we had a whole like week trip of Kentucky when we were going stop to stop. No, two weeks, right? So we were just on the road for two weeks staying in little towns. So we nailed an Applebee's every night and we did it at first. It was like, I thought Clay was doing this. It was like a joke. Then I realized he was serious. So I leaned into it and every night Applebee's you were just in the way. I remember we would go and, you know, I would order junk and you'd order a salad. But I don't know why we thought it was so funny to tell the waitress, hey, we've been to other Applebee's this week and this is the best one. Every Applebee's. I always remember too, you were always like, hey Matt, you know, you should get a couple beers while you're here too. And you know, I never did. But I remember every time you were like, yeah, I mean, Matt, just go to the house. Cut loose. Yeah. I tried to get you to buy the limited edition, like, you know, red Mountain Dew with Bacardi Ramen it or whatever they sell for $1.50. That's a headache and you never once bit. I will tell you that you never once bit, but the sampler platter, a little bit of boneless wings, maybe a quesadilla or the quesadilla burger can't go wrong. Clay and I will send each other pictures of the various Applebee's that we're at across the world. I mean, you're right on. So I'm going to say Billy Ray's in Prestonsburg, Kentucky is my favorite place to eat in Kentucky. But you know, if you're talking chain pizza, little Caesars is better than anyone gives it credit for. So I'm glad you gave them a shout out to you. Yeah. I didn't want to go any local companies because I didn't want to show favorites. You know, I got to keep everyone happy. So yeah, I went with Big Box pizza place and the Big Box chain restaurant. Where's your favorite place to eat? Applebee's and Little Caesars. I'm like a nice one. On the road. When I'm on the road, you just want predictability. That's my number one thing. After a long day of work, I don't want to go somewhere, have bad service. I'm not even asking for the world's best food. I'm just asking for it to be predictable. Luxury food at reasonable prices is what I like to say. So okay. Well, maybe there's a sponsorship deal coming from the bees for you one of these days. But last question, then you're off the hot seat. So Clay, I think you mentioned this earlier, but newly married man, as of just a few months. So we need to know how's that going? Are you still married? Also you are a new dog dad. So tell us about the puppy. Is she destroying everything in your house? So I got married in September of 2022. We are still married. And the dog was the first big purchase. And I was, I love dogs, but I just didn't, did not necessarily want one at this point in time. Went to meet the dogs just to make my wife happy and fell in love with one. Ended up buying it. It's probably one of, if not the greatest purchases I've ever made. Yeah, Bailey is her name. She's a golden retriever. She was born on Christmas Eve of 2022. So she's still a young pup, but super well behaved, already potty trained, nose commands, not chewing up everything. So a really good dog. Now she's been outside in the family room the whole time during this. So she may have had an accident. We're approaching an hour now. Oh geez. Yeah, I remember you had told me early on that Spencer, your wife wants a dog. And you were like, yeah, she wants a dog. I'm not going to get one. And I was like, okay, we'll send me pictures next week of the dog that you get. But you held out for like a couple of months seems like, but you just, Yeah, the dog thing started when I got a house two years ago. About two years, but I don't regret it. I know Matt, Matt, he needs a dog now. And Matthew, do you have a dog? Yes, I do. She's 35 pounds, 10 years old. She's a cross between, we think, a German shepherd and a government pincher. Oh, my dog's great. Yeah. Yeah, she's great with my daughter. She's never tuned anything up. She's never been instructive. She very, very sweet and calm. So it's been a blessing to have her. Is she starting to slow down a little bit at 10 or how she is? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you just, I'm the same way with you guys. So I've lost a couple of my dogs recently and it just just kill you. But especially as you start watching home age and slow down, it just happens so fast. It's always a little bit heartbreaking, but I'm with you guys. I mean, they're such, such a blessing to have. So I'll have, we just lost ours a few months ago, but I'll have another one before too much longer too, I'm sure. So on that note, to end things, Clay, we can't thank you enough for joining the podcast. Look, we know it's you're right in the middle of conference season and legislative session is wrapped up there and you're dealing with PDI and Kentucky United, just everything. I know how busy you all are. So just really thank you for coming on today and having some fun with us. More importantly, just really thank you for your partnership with SEDC and in the American South and all you do for Kentucky. So before we let you go, do you have any parting words? Thank you all for having me on. It was kind of fun to walk down memory lane for a little bit there and beyond the, not the hot seat, but the research on censored seat. That's right. The research on censored seat was, was awesome. So thanks guys. Yeah, thanks for being here. So thank you, Matthew Darius for running this thing. And before we go, we want to invite all of our listeners to check out the SEDC website at www.scdc.org and follow us closely on social media. We want our members part of everything we do. So to get plugged in, you can reach out to us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, email, or give us an old fashioned phone call. And while you're checking us out, why don't you go ahead and register for the American South site selection summit on May 8th and 9th in Atlanta. So thank you, SEDC. Join us next time on the SEDC podcast presented by insightful. Bye. Get the money! you