The Obvious Podcast

Celebrating 100 Episodes

• ABC Florida East Coast Chapter • Season 2 • Episode 100

Share episode

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 33:35

In this special broadcast, Peter and Sonny celebrate the milestone 100th episode of The Obvious Podcast, reflecting on the show's growth, impact, and purpose since its launch in August 2024. 

They discuss why the podcast was created to promote the values of meritocracy, free markets, workforce development, and the American Dream while expanding the conversation beyond ABC Florida East Coast's membership. 

The episode also highlights the podcast's impressive audience growth, rare achievement of reaching 100 consecutive weekly episodes, memorable guests, and the vision for the next 100 episodes of conversations on construction, business, government affairs, apprenticeship, leadership, and public policy.

In this episode:

► Celebrating the 100th episode and what the milestone means in the podcasting industry
► Why meritocracy, free markets, and workforce development remain central themes
► Podcast growth: 10,500+ audio downloads, 12,200+ YouTube views, and 2,700 watch hours
► Reflections on memorable guests, interviews, and behind-the-scenes moments
► The importance of consistency after 100 consecutive weekly episodes
► Looking ahead to future guests, major construction industry developments, and the next 100 episodes

You can watch the episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/JfuPI41bSdU

“The Obvious Podcast” is a production of ABC Florida East Coast Chapter. Unless otherwise stated, all content reflects the opinions of the guests and hosts.

If you like “The Obvious Podcast,” you can click here to listen to the audio version and subscribe on all the major podcast platforms, such as Apple Podcast, Amazon Music, or Spotify. We encourage you to leave us a review so other listeners can find us. 

You may also follow “The Obvious Podcast” on Instagram, Truth Social, X/Twitter, and now on TikTok.

► Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theobvious_podcast/

►X: https://x.com/TheObv_podcast/

►Truth Social: https://truthsocial.com/TheObvious_Podcast/

► TikTok: http://www.tiktok.com/@the.obvious.podca 

►Email: theobvious@abceastflorida.com



Sonny Maken

We welcome you. This is episode number nine, episode number 18, episode 27, episode number 36, episode number 45, episode number 55, episode number 64, episode number 73, episode number 82, episode number 91. Welcome to the Obvious Podcast. This is episode number 100.

unknown

Woo!

Sonny Maken

I'm Sonny Macon, COO at ABC Florida East Coast. And I just want to say if you're w listening to us and you regularly listen to us, this episode really is meant to be seen. There's a lot of video, there's clips. Uh it's a very, very special episode. It's our hundredth episode, so make sure you get us on YouTube, and I think you'll get a lot out of this.

Peter Dyga

And I'm Peter Daiga, president and CEO at ABC Florida East Coast.

Sonny Maken

You are listening to the Obvious Podcast where all opinions expressed are our own, unless we say otherwise.

Peter Dyga

Love the show. We ask you to subscribe on any major podcast platform or watch us in action on YouTube. Follow the Obvious Podcast on Instagram, X and Truth Social, and now on TikTok. All the links you need are in the show notes. Reach out to us anytime at theOvious at abc eastflorida.com. And if you're enjoying the ride, help others find us by leaving a review wherever you listen. I said that at least a hundred times.

Sonny Maken

Happy Friday. Happy Friday. And happy 100th episode. Happy 100th episode. What what I mean? I'm speechless. I am shocked that we like ended up with a hundred episodes. Um, as if you're watching us, and I hope you are, our background is completely different. We are in one of our labs uh in our headquarters. This is the electrical lab. Um, the red UC is in honor of our sponsor, the campus sponsor, Milwaukee Tools. I kind of like this background. It's a great background. I agree with you.

Peter Dyga

So I guess we're gonna maybe spin around the camera at some point during this episode. You can see the actual uh electrical lab that we're sitting in at our uh uh can our you know, one of our flagship campuses here in uh Coconut Creek. So 100 episodes, but different background with the same show. But a hundred episodes, almost two years.

Sonny Maken

Our first episode ran on uh Mr. Producer just uh showed it to me, August 8th, 2024. Hard to believe, right? Yep. So it's obviously a time of reflection. There's a lot lot of things we want to share with you, and we're gonna have to kind of talk about how we ended up with a hundred episodes of a show that we thought you know nobody would watch or listen to. Um but we wanted to, obviously, that's why we did it, right? Like the whole idea is you want whatever you put out there to to have an impact, right? To make a difference. And we didn't want to check a box that said, Oh yeah, we have a podcast. Like if two people listen to it, and that's you know, our own family. What's the point? Right.

Peter Dyga

You know, the I think from the onset, uh, we understood that having a podcast was not just a different way of communicating with our membership. Correct. Uh because it's quite frankly, it's uh not the most cost effective way of communicating. There's plenty of ways to communicate with your membership. Right. We we always saw it and still see it as uh uh much more than that, reaching a broader base, growing the ABC um mission and understanding of it and appreciation for who ABC is.

Sonny Maken

Well, I'm gonna I'm gonna take her to the next level from what you just said, right? I really so ABC is a very much a values-driven organization. And I think one of the best ways you can sort of expand the values that it stands for is this medium. Right? Because it allows us to talk about the values um regularly, consistently, and to exp and to have an expanded audience listen to the values, especially now, because you see everything that's happening in politics, you know, the mayor of New York, you'll you're looking at a lot of this, like the Democrats are really kind of shocked by the rise of socialism in their party. And you see that happen, and you're just like, We feel like this medium, this show, really serves as a way to sort of grow and expand the values of ABC. So we talk to our members in all sorts of ways and all the time, but we really wanted to expand our audience for the values because I think the values of the sh of the organization are American values, and they're the values that have made this country great. And that uh need to be spread far and wide. That need to be spread far and wide because opposing ideas are constantly in battle. Yeah. They're coming after our ideas. So what are those values, Sonny? What is that mission? Number one. Who aren't we? Who are we? That's a great question. Uh I think the number one value that we represent, which I think has has sort of been the fundamental reason why America has been successful in the way America has been, is a meritocracy. Meritocracy. You cannot divorce meritocracy from America's success, and you cannot divorce meritocracy from ABC's success. And the American dream. And the American dream, right.

Peter Dyga

You know, which by the way is uh very closely uh associated and tied with our industry and our members, in my in my book, right?

Sonny Maken

I mean our members come from all over the world, right? They come to America, they work in an industry that is not an easy industry to work in. You have to work very hard, you have to be very smart, you have to be able to analyze, evaluate, make decisions quickly, right? Build something that is going to stand the test of time. And it's a perfect marriage. It's a perfect marriage.

Peter Dyga

Our industry and ABC and what we stand for. And you know, hard work is what has always kind of gotten uh people ahead in this country. Right. Dedication and meritocracy, as you said. So in any event, it's a great marriage. That's what we've tried to try to grow that that uh reach, if you will. And we always saw it, I think, as more than just another way of communicating. Yeah. Because, and we're gonna get into some of those things, I think. When you focus just when you focus just on the one, uh you you know you may have nobody listening. Right.

Sonny Maken

So and and really somebody has to propagate and advocate for the values that have made this country great. And there's a lot of opposing voices. Why should our voice take a backseat?

SPEAKER_07

Right, right.

Sonny Maken

So do we have a video clip?

Peter Dyga

Is that what? All right, let's do it. We're gonna have a few of these through the course. So anyway, thanks for being with us.

Sonny Maken

Hey everyone, my name is Sonny Macon. I'm the Chief Operating Officer of ABC, Associated Builders and Contractors, Florida East Coast Chapter.

Peter Dyga

I'm Peter Daiga, I'm the uh president and CEO and excited to be part of this uh new project at the Florida East Coast Chapter.

Sonny Maken

Absolutely. We want to welcome you to our very first inaugural episode of our new podcast, the obvious podcast.

Peter Dyga

This podcast, unless otherwise stated, all the opinions and content reflects our own opinions and the opinions of our guests. So shall we?

Sonny Maken

So Peter, yeah, let's get started. Why are we hosting a podcast?

Peter Dyga

Wow. Why are we hosting a podcast? Well, we think obviously this medium, I think, is hot, right? It's the way the modern consumer, I think, consumes news and material and whatnot. So we hope to talk about as the title of the show, I think, uh references, obvious things. Which I think ABC is oftentimes about obvious things, we think.

SPEAKER_07

Wow. Uh can you believe it? I hope I don't contradict myself. So anyway, I think our production values have gone up.

Sonny Maken

Yeah, I can't believe how dark that we're like, where's the lighting?

Peter Dyga

It's great. It's great. I love it. Oh wow. I think you've got skinnier and I got fatter. That's not true.

Sonny Maken

Uh thank God that we both kept our hair in two years, right? Um I do wanna I do want to uh reference the name. I feel like you know, when we have this conversation about values, we you and I kind of grew up in a world where we thought those values were obvious, right? Like the idea that this is what defines the ABC, this is what defines America, and everybody knows it. I think we no longer live in that world where the things that we fight for personally, individually as an organization, they are not obvious, especially to the younger generation. I think, and so they have to be articulated. Uh, I had a professor in grad school say the only way you're gonna build culture is through repetition. And I never forgot that line. And so we have to be constantly repeating why we believe what we believe.

Peter Dyga

That's a great idea to have. And if you think about it, you can now understand a little better why we find ourselves where we find ourselves, because we've been repeating a lot of the bad stuff for a long time. Absolutely. So unfortunately. So um, one of the things we wanted to talk about, because that was episode one, and we're in 100, is a little bit about um you know that um milestone and what it what it actually represented.

Sonny Maken

What was episode one? Was that an uh Mr. Producer? Was that an interview? That was an interview, right? Yeah. George We had a board member. Yeah. Was our was our wow, that was episode one. I still remember that interview.

Peter Dyga

So um anyway, Mr. Producer pulled together some great uh data for us, which uh, you know, I love data. So oh, by the way, back to the obvious, you know, I think too that, and I hope we do, and I hope the next hundred episodes we do it more. Yeah, which is spend some time explaining how we get to the obvious, the reasoning. Yeah, because that's what's missing, I think, so much in our culture today. The ability to reason through problems, issues, difficulties. So we kind of start with the premise of the obvious, but you know, you have to sometimes reason, right, to get there.

Sonny Maken

So I'm gonna on that. I think we've done that on the show, but I just want to make that point and just say what you said a little differently. So you're known in this organization as Mr. Data, right? Like you want to see data. I think one of the biggest areas where we fall as a society is we are failing to extrapolate the right conclusions from the data. Absolutely, right? So and I'm just saying what you just said, like the reasoning behind it, right?

Peter Dyga

So they still do those. I remember when I, and this was a long time ago, when I was in school, you know, they used to have those uh they'd give you a sentence and they'd say fact or fiction, you know, or fact or opinion, or you know, and then we just don't have that ability anymore, it seems like we don't. So in any event, um, Mr. Producer, from one episode to 100, what does 100 mean? So we're told there are about 400 4.7 million podcasts worldwide. Wow. So we're we're one of 4.7 million. That's amazing. Only 13%, um, still a lot then, right? So 13% would be right somewhere around 500 uh thousand, I think, have published an episode within the last quarter, 90 days. Wow. And the vast majority of podcasts eventually stop producing new episodes. New episodes. We have kind of worked our way into uh rare territory, so right?

SPEAKER_07

Yeah.

Peter Dyga

So um reaching a hundred episodes is rare. Um according to the data we've been given, only about 11% of all podcasts ever reach 50 episodes, which we did a year ago. That was amazing. So and fewer than 7%, which is the uh the group we find ourselves in, ever make it to 100 episodes. So we're we're in the top 7% of all just just we're not saying anything about the quality. We think we're in the top 1% for quality, but in terms of quantity, we're in the top 7%.

Sonny Maken

So that's incredible. So I I want to I want to ask you a question. I mean, obviously we've made it to 100 episodes, uh, and Mr. Producer tells me we have never missed a week since we started. That's amazing.

Peter Dyga

Yep, that's in front of us too. Never missed a Friday publication since since launching on August 8th. So you all can can um be assured that every uh and if you're if you've ever been like I have, up late on Thursday night, uh you might find it, you know, uh being noticed uh after it's shortly after midnight, I think. So that the episodes get released. Certainly by the time you get to the office uh Friday morning, you're gonna find a new obvious podcast. Right from Sunny.

Sonny Maken

So I have the uh obvious, the obvious I have the podcast, uh, Apple Podcast in my car, the app. And so on Friday morning when I come to the office, I hit it and our episode just starts on its own. I don't need to do anything, I don't have to go look for it. Yeah, it just shows up and you too can do that.

Peter Dyga

So Sonny, did you know that we had 10,500 audio downloads? No. I did not know that. We have 12,200 YouTube views. Wow, 12,200 just in two years for a total of 27 hours watched. No, 2700 hours. 2,700, I'm sorry. Yeah, 2,700 hours watched. Now keep in mind, we're a 20-minute podcast. That's 2,700 hours watched on YouTube. Wow. So amazing. That's amazing. Congratulations. Thank you. Did you ever think we could like sit down? And sometimes literally we sit down.

Sonny Maken

I think that's yeah, because we get in private private um meetings and privately people ask us all the time, like, how do you come up with the topics? How do you do show prep? So I think the thing that I wanted to share with the audience that uh we do no show prep. And does it show? Probably. And I think it's a compliment to you. I mean 90, I think 90 percent. We haven't done any show prep. There's no notes, there's no outline. You and I just kind of and what and I really want to congratulate you because I feel like this is such a testament to your depth and breadth breadth of knowledge, because I will come to you and I'll say, as we're sitting at this table, I got a lot of opinions. Cameras are rolling. I'm like, Peter, do you want to talk about this? And you're like, yeah, sure. And so and we have a conversation, and it's and I think that's what our audience likes because it's so unrehearsed, and it's I think so. You know, I think it's just a it's a natural.

Peter Dyga

We'll get into a little bit some of the feedback we've gotten, which is really uh inspires us. So, but uh one of the things we did want to, we had another clip we wanted to show you. Uh during our first 100 episodes, we've had 18 guests. So about 18% of the time, wow, uh, we've had a guest on the show, and we want to roll a clip for you.

SPEAKER_14

You know, that is in fact a real background uh behind me. I'm standing on the east lawn of the United States Capitol Complex. So that's the Capitol Dome.

SPEAKER_00

Well, I'm the director of development at ABC CARES uh foundation, and uh that's become an all-encompassing role. But primarily it is to go out there and talk about the good works of the foundation.

SPEAKER_20

Because of that reputation, when the opening became available, I was very interested in learning more and working for government relations for this chapter.

SPEAKER_02

QR codes on the job sites, as well as empowering safety officers to be able to hand out sheets and kind of uh information overviews.

SPEAKER_03

Office industrial has always been a very core to us. You know, office here recently has been not quite so big, big a part of our business, but we've had some work in multifamily hospitality, retail.

SPEAKER_05

The things that I just did I'm amazed when I talk to our members, particularly those who do the hard work on the ground, but also the project management and the financing people, they drive by afterwards at night and look up at those buildings or look on that city and know that they did something.

SPEAKER_23

It has been uh an honor to participate, and both of you and your leadership has really set the example for how all of us need to move forward.

SPEAKER_04

So this is where we, the distributor, the uh designer, the architect, the contractor, anybody who's looking at product comes to review product and make decisions.

SPEAKER_17

A group of like-minded individuals who also share that passion for getting people educated, for for for mentoring people.

SPEAKER_13

This is the concept, and I was talking to somebody about it yesterday. Uh, one thing is to give a man a fish, the other thing is to teach the man to fish, and that's what you are doing.

SPEAKER_15

The the the money, the state had the money for the apprenticeship program. The problem was the money was not flowing down to where it needed to be to the actual provider. So it was a huge legislative win.

SPEAKER_10

Uh I'm a you know huge fan of ABC. Uh as a matter of fact, I'm becoming a member now, and uh and I and I do that because yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_12

We appreciate that feedback, and that's exactly what we love to hear. We are a relationship-driven organization, and we always have the client in front of any decision that we make within Sonovas Bank.

SPEAKER_21

You know, investing in our future and investing in apprenticeships, making sure that the next generation um is properly educated and that they uh see the value in having a career in this amazing field and the opportunities it's gonna bring, right, for employees and and for people to be able to have better employment.

SPEAKER_24

It's just, I really do appreciate so much what you guys do and what you're bringing to the city of Hayalia.

SPEAKER_18

Elevating people, giving them the tools that they need in order to make their lives better and in turn their families' lives better and their their children, right? So it's it's generational. So what you do is so important, and I'm thankful for it.

SPEAKER_16

If we have a really niche thing that we need and we don't have anybody in our network, yeah, we we may reach out to people on social media. That is is certainly one of the strategies that we do, and social media makes that easy. I mean, I think social media is generally a terrible thing for this country.

Jon Carter

I mean, so so we've approached the ways and means chair to see if we can't incorporate this into a tax package. But even though there's no bill this session, it's so important that our members came up to Tallahassee and advocated for this because uh something like this doesn't change.

Peter Dyga

Can you believe that is impressive? That was that was a great uh role, by the way. Clips of all the folks, yeah. 18 different guests. Um, we don't need to go through them because you saw a a good number of them, but um pretty much who's who in leadership in ABC and uh legislative leadership and political leadership. Wow. So we have a lot of feel like that much, but 200 episodes that kind of puts it in perspective, doesn't it? How many episodes that is yeah when you've had that many guests, and that's only what did I say, 13 or 18 percent of our episodes.

Sonny Maken

18 18 guests. Well, we really had I mean 18 guests, seven of them were from our dedication in in Miami, so we've had um eleven guests like as part of the regular show.

Peter Dyga

So um I know we have some guests uh in the uh lined up uh for our next hundred. Yep. Uh we do don't want to give anything away, but you're gonna have some top-notch uh legislative leaders and uh guests, political leaders coming coming forward. Sonny, do you wanna uh let C out of the bag and any that you'd like to have on here or any thoughts? What kind of uh I don't know, uh thought leaders or particular stuff.

Sonny Maken

So um I I'm happy to announce this. Um representative Meg Weinberger is gonna be joining us as a guest on a future episode, and she's a huge supporter of our work in apprenticeship and just been an ally. My guess is after the election, uh we'll invite you know some of the new leaders.

Peter Dyga

Yeah, we'll have some new leaders on board in in uh Congress or in the Florida legislature. So we'd love to have some of them on board. Uh within the next year, next hundred episodes, 50 episodes, we'll uh probably have the grand opening of our newly built-out flagship center. That'll happen sometime in the next hundred, fifty episodes or so.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah.

Peter Dyga

So maybe you'll you'll see in the next 50 episodes, uh episode from there. Um so and again, uh hopefully we'll get a chance. The Mr. Producer will take the camera around here and show you where we're at here in Coconut Creek.

Sonny Maken

I remember that episode we did with the um the CEO. I forget what she was, the CEO. Some uh Brendan Gill was um questioning her. NPR. Remember that? Oh, yeah, yeah. Like, yeah.

Peter Dyga

Everything's racist and everybody's racist and interesting. So are we still getting those love notes on TikTok? Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, it's kind of okay. We gotta step up our game. Yeah, we're gonna read the love notes that's dropped off.

Sonny Maken

We've been saying some less controversial things for TikTok.

Peter Dyga

You know, so um I got I had a thought and it escaped my mind. But um all right, well, while you look for that thought, we're gonna roll our next video. Another video? Yeah.

SPEAKER_19

Oh my god, this is just Hi, I'm Mayor Sarah Baxter, and I would like to congratulate Peter and Sonny for reaching a hundred episodes on their podcast. Congratulations.

SPEAKER_01

Um, Meg Weinberger, state representative for Western Humbridge County and District 94. A hundred um podcasts coming up. What a what a great um seat, and uh want to congratulate you on the maybe something I'll be able to be on the Pomeganists, but in some of the men, congratulations and um many more.

SPEAKER_11

This is state representative from the full house of representatives, district one ten. I represent Million Lakes. I'm here on the ABC congratulation, and I want to congratulate Sonny and Peter on the 100 um that's huge, 100. Keep it going, 1400 more.

SPEAKER_09

Hey Peter, hey Sonny, Representative David Barrero here, congratulating you on 100 episodes for the obvious podcast. What a milestone! Congratulations. South Florida is really lucky to have two amazing individuals who I know work tirelessly to advocate for the construction industry in South Florida and be a voice for so many here in the industry. Congratulations, very proud of you. Here's to a hundred more.

Peter Dyga

Wow, I'm humbled. That was really special.

Sonny Maken

Wow. Well done, Mr. Producer.

Peter Dyga

Yeah, well done. That was John TJ, I'm sure you had a hand in pulling those together as well. So that was very nice. Very nice. Right?

Sonny Maken

Uh yeah. I'm kind and I'm never speechless, and I'm like, thank you for your I mean, these are great leaders, they're huge supporters of the work we do every day. Um, I mean, our whole team.

Peter Dyga

That's quite frankly, huge supporters of ABC's mission.

Sonny Maken

Yeah.

Peter Dyga

Exactly. Uh and what we're about. So in any event, thank you for all you do for the merit shop and for uh meritocracy and the free markets.

Sonny Maken

So and you know, I think that Legacy that this organization has. This this organization, this is its fifty-eighth year, right? Yep, the chapter. I know the uh you know I say this in almost every episode. We're the largest provider of apprenticeship education in the state of Florida. Our apprenticeship institute is in its fifty-first year. Um and that legacy, this the these are the leaders that we support, these are the leaders that support us and the legacy of meritocracy and free markets and capitalism that have made uh America and the American dream possible is is is represented in leaders like this. And I'm just I'm grateful for their support, I'm grateful for what they stand for. Absolutely the values that they fight for in Tallahassee and looking forward to having many of them as guests.

Peter Dyga

Um again, uh our leadership is constantly changing as well, and so we'll be introducing you to some of our new leaders in the next one. And David Barrero, special shout out to him.

Sonny Maken

He was a sponsor on our uh appropriations. Yeah. Which, you know, uh thanks to our incredible team, um, TJ, John, um Nick Iarosi, the team at Capitol City, you know, we were uh uh special thanks to the governor.

Peter Dyga

You know, we were gonna be no apprenticeship uh facility like this, I think, anywhere in the state.

Sonny Maken

Yeah. So when it's done and when we're done investing in the U.S., we're just grateful for the support that you know we have received the successful um appropriations that happened this year, the the PCOG grant leading the state by almost 50% from the number two spot.

Peter Dyga

Knowing the that this organization and everybody who works here, not just us, but everybody who works here, does such incredible work and then it's supported by thought leaders and political leaders and and the one thing we haven't done, Sonny, and maybe I'm throwing this out as a challenge, is so we've kind of uh alluded to just in this podcast, this episode alone, uh the kind of the uh political and government affairs leadership and the workforce development and placement leadership.

SPEAKER_07

Yep.

Peter Dyga

Uh the one leg of the stool, which is the networking business development, uh we haven't really touched on. And I don't know that we've done this, but I'd like us to maybe maybe we do a podcast, uh uh air or tape an episode from an event. Oh, at some point in the future where we can talk to someone. Like we did for the uh dedication of the Hayaliya building. That's a great idea. Anyway, it's a lot of exciting things for you to look forward to as well as us, I think, in the next hundred. Yeah. So uh I think I thought I got my thought back. Okay. Which I think was uh when we were talking about future guests, you know, because I um, you know, I I'm very excited about again the legislative and congressional leaders as well as our association leaders and whatnot. But you know, I'm thinking uh with the next hundred episodes, the great things we can do, the interviews we can have to top uh the f the first 18 we had and the first 100 episodes. Uh maybe some of our students, maybe some of our instructors as guests moving forward. Maybe uh our GC on our project down in Hylia. Anyway, I'm a lot of different ideas coming through my head right now. No, I know, I know a lot to look forward to.

Sonny Maken

Um, we are going to show you another video because Mr. Producer is going crazy with his hand gestures behind the camera. Uh a lot of you have asked who he is. It's gonna remain a secret. We will not be revealing Mr. Producer's name uh anytime soon. So you'll have to just hope that one of us slips ups and you'll find out. Or he'll reveal it because when he goes to conferences, he's openly telling people that who he is, which they're telling him. Oh, they're telling him. Anyway, uh let's see what this up is. Yeah, if you want to if you want to actually meet him, right?

Peter Dyga

And I, you know, I call on every American to pray and wish. If you're not the praying type, uh do your yoga chant or whatever you gotta do to wish or to wish for success in this campaign. Success and long-term peace.

Sonny Maken

Yoga chant. That is that is my favor one of my favorite movements on the show. So uh pray to whoever you want to pray to, say your yoga chants. Uh that was great. Um, I was not, you know, one of the things I think that benefits our show is because we do no show prep and we just have a conversation, we say, you know, things just are said that sure we react to that make us laugh. And that speaks to our relationship, I think.

Peter Dyga

Absolutely. So um it would be I would be hard pressed to trying to figure out uh a favorite moment, I think. Um the the the favorite moments for me are um I think those the the spontaneity, yeah, you know, the impromptu nice of it all, uh the laughter. Uh, you know, a lot of that is the uh what it's called outtakes or whatever, you know, before the show's recording or after.

Sonny Maken

But like I know we were in the 90s and I was still screwing up the intro, you know, and you're just like um day one or something, right? So uh Mr. Mr. Producer made this point. Uh apparently for two years we used to say uh the opinions expressed our own unless stated otherwise. And then apparently what after episode 90, we changed it. We did, and we didn't notice? I do want to say thank you to to all the military families, you know, who have uh sacrificed uh their loved one for this country. I mean, this is official this is not our opinion. Thanks to you. This is our opinion, but this is also the organization's opinion. We are grateful for the sacrifice, and we're grateful for um what your loved one has done to the next weekend for one small moment. All right, so it took 90 episodes to get to that point. I do want to read something from you, or did you want to read this? Go ahead. Okay. So Mr. Producer remains anonymous, uh gave me this P uh paper and he said it's a reflection from Mr. Producer. So I'm just gonna read it to you. It's not long and it's um it's very sweet. But don't let that go to your head. When I started working at ABC, Sonny told me he wanted to do a podcast. I asked if the project's timeline was long-term or midterm. He told me he wanted it now. My first thought was he has no idea what he's getting into. A podcast requires a time commitment that two busy executives who lead three organizations and have a heavy travel schedule cannot honor. Well, I was wrong. Both Peter and Sonny committed to the podcast, and whenever their schedules conflicted, they made the necessary adjustments to record on time for our Friday release. A hundred weeks in a row. And if that wasn't enough, people have accepted our content and the show continues to grow. Producing this podcast has been both a professional and a personal experience that I will always cherish. It's a very nice thought.

Peter Dyga

Thank you, Mr. Producer. Thank you, Mr. Producer. So and uh his reflection reminded me of the there have been times when I've actually participated in the taping via uh Zoom Teams meeting or something uh from actually from Costa Rica or God knows what. I think there was one episode where we were both out of Florida. That's right. You were in a hotel room. I was in a hotel room somewhere. And so there have been times when we've had to do it outside of our our normal studio in our boardroom in Coconut Creek or in kind of locations like this and uh other places over the uh last hundred episodes.

Sonny Maken

But yeah. It's been a great honor to sort of be a part of your day and and get to talk about the things that we we value personally, you know, what the organization values, and it's just been um it's just been an incredible journey. I never imagined when I first talked to Mr. Producer about the show, I never imagined we'd be sitting here talking about it.

Peter Dyga

By the way, uh you know, I I can I can't imagine succeeding, much less enjoying the work I do, yeah, or any of us for that matter, if there wasn't some kind of alignment with the organizational mission and values. Yeah. Um, so I think, you know, kind of as we start to wrap up or reach a conclusion, I think it's important to say that uh whether it's the two of us sitting at this table or whoever the future leaders are, uh staff, employees, um you're you're not going to uh I think be as successful if you don't share those values and the mission of the organization. And I think that's in part uh what's made this podcast a success, is because we are personally aligned with that mission and so that we can uh talk about any host of issues and many times tie it you know to the organization as well.

Sonny Maken

So this shows you really the importance of shared values, right? Great point. Because if you don't share the values uh whether you're serving in executive leadership, you're serving on staff, you're serving as a board member, you're serving as a lay leader, if you don't share the values of the organization, you will not be happy. Yep. You just won't be. And and nobody will agree, you know.

Peter Dyga

Or be a successful or be a successful organization if you don't share them. So um Mr. Producer had some very uh lofty reflections. Uh, you know, uh giving us dates for where episode 200, episode 500, episode 1000 would actually land us. Right. And if you're at all interested, uh if we double and uh make it to 200 episodes, that'll be on June 30th, 2028. 2028. Wow. Uh 500 episodes on March 31st, 2034. I'm not sure where I'll be, but maybe this obvious podcast will carry on. Uh episode thousand would be uh October 30th, 2043. So yeah. Kind of fun to look forward to what year that might be, but uh even the next hundred will be uh because we know what a hundred, what an accomplishment that is.

Sonny Maken

I think a thousand, I'll probably be dead by then, but I definitely think two hundred is definitely twenty years from now. Less than twenty years. Yeah. Well, it's men have a kick in it, and men have a men have a shorter life spending. I'm sorry if you listen to it, but I would suggest you go and look at it on YouTube. You know, it's a much better video episode than an audio episode. Uh but we will be we will be back on our regularly scheduled programming starting personal opinions and controversial stuff next Friday.

Peter Dyga

So in the meantime, if you want to send us a comment, you can email us at the obvious at abc eastflorida.com. Until next Friday for 101 episode. Ciao. Take care.