Please welcome to the stage Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, Erik Glass. We're back, we're back, we're back. It's so good to see you back in here on our final day of Discover 2025. I have to tell you, I'm very conflicted about that. I'm conflicted because I have so much fun with you, so much learning, so much growing, so many insights gained. At the same time, I have to sleep at some point. If I'm not careful, I'm going to be face down in the craft macaroni, which I'm also game for. Hello to our VIPs, rollercoastering it still. So thrilled you're here. What a wonderful, wonderful week. I hope we have exceeded some expectations. I hope we have created some of the impact, the value, the purpose that we were after. Most importantly, I hope you have felt seen, that you have felt seen, that you have felt heard. If you haven't quite yet, there is still more time. We are all ears, we are here for it. We want to ensure that you are leaving inspired and ignited and ready to tackle this world of work that we are designing together. Hey, I want to give a shout out to doing the workout you're meant to do. I know we had some walkers, some running. I was out there. Who was out there? There they are. We were a small but mighty group. Yes, yes. As it often goes in work, we got a little lost. Because it was the workout we were meant to do, we still found our way back and ultimately on our journey to the workout life that makes us better. That was really, really wonderful. What about the community breakfast? Who was having a good old time with Jack and Jason? I heard some great stories. Yeah, they make it super, super fun. So much discovery this week. Hopefully, you took some goodness from our other day maker leaders. Hope you got something from Sal Khan. How great was he? Yes. He's really funny. That was such a treat. One of the things I really loved about what he had to share with us is that we can approach what's happening in terms of technology and these different waves with confidence and optimism. That truly is what shapes the most meaningful way to shape the experience. Of course, at Dayforce, we feel very strongly about that. We got optimism right there in our core values. When he hit that, it really, really resonated with me. Hopefully, it resonated with you. Gave me confidence that my kids are going to be okay, that there's learning, there's AI that's going to help them and won't let them cheat their way through it. It was very good. This is so much of what Discover is all about. We're fueling the community. We are doing this together. We are engaged. We are energized. It is absolutely a wonderful thing. There is so much more still. In this day, we have this keynote. We have more breakouts. We're not done yet. I want to give another just big thank you to our sponsors. I hope you got to spend some time with them and really learn. They're here with you, for you. Lots of goodness there. I also want to just give a very, very big shout out to all of my fellow marketing colleagues, also our partners, our vendors, the win team, everyone that came together to make this event possible. Can we just give that whole crew a big shout out? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I don't want to waste another minute. I want to get to the heart of this keynote. I want to bring out a fellow runner on the workout you are meant to do, a tremendous partner, collaborator, sometimes instigator, your buddy and mine, our Chief Customer Officer. Let's give it up for Chris Armstrong. Hey, good afternoon. You could tell who I promised free alcohol to later. Did you hear him over there? That was awesome. Hey, Erik, really well said. Way to kick us off this afternoon. It has been a truly amazing week. Thank you so much for everything that you guys have done here with us. This is one of my favorite weeks of the year. I tried to go back and count how many Discover sites I've been to. I think I'm up to 20. For those of you that have shared many of those years together with us, we really do appreciate it. It's just such an amazing moment where we have this time to connect with each other. Daymaker- to- daymaker, customer- to- customer, customer to prospect. It's so inspiring. The energy that comes out of the conversations and the stories is really something else. I also want to take one moment to give a special thank you to our customer advocates, ambassadors, HCM advisory board members, and every one of you, actually, that took a bit of time this week to pay it forward. Whether you were speaking on stage, whether you participated in reference calls to give insight to folks, or whether you were just at breakfast, lunch, dinner, or in the bars sharing stories, it really is part of what makes this such an amazing event. Your partnership, your advocacy, and your collaboration make the Dayforce community what it is, which is just incredibly special. That same spirit of generosity and leadership actually inspired us again this week. We wanted to come back and actually reintroduce something that we've done in the past, which is give a formal award. Today, we're actually going to present the Make Work-Life Better Award. This is going to recognize what we consider to be truly outstanding individual contributions within our customer community. In this case, we've got an individual who's gone so far above and beyond to help so many people in this room truly be different, to be better for themselves and for the organizations that they work with. He champions Dayforce, not only within his own organization, not only in the local community, but in this really broad extended community. It's actually going to be really fun for me because I can kind of see you guys out there. When we announce this person, many, many of you are going to know him, and you're going to cheer wildly. I encourage you to do it. If you don't, you're going to feel like the exception, and you should cheer wildly anyways, just because everybody else is doing it. To help present that award, I actually want to introduce one of my colleagues, favorite colleagues, longtime colleagues to the stage as well, Chris Casper, the better Chris, who's going to come up and help us present the award. Those are wide stairs. Thank you, Chris. It is absolutely great to be here and to have the pleasure of introducing the award today. As Chris said, there's going to be no surprise to many of you in the audience when I announce the name of the recipient this year. This individual has helped to build, develop, grow, and create our Basecamp community, which has grown to over... Yeah! It's grown to over 2,800 members. I heard last month was maybe the best Basecamp ever. Hear it in the audience there, those of you that attended. Had a great lunch the other day, too. Yes, great lunch the other day as well. This individual, in addition to connecting our customers to one another, to peers, to Dayforce product and innovation, has served as a reference many, many times, as well as participated in over 32 advocate activities this year alone. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. As Chris said, he's an excellent partner, not only in his own organization, but to us at Dayforce and all of you in the Basecamp community. It's our honor today to announce this year's recipient, Evan Stroum. He's the HR Senior Manager of Technology at Trident Seafoods. Welcome to the stage to join us, Evan. All right. Congratulations. Evan asked if he was, where were the other people that were getting the award? That was what he asked me when he walked in today. Everyone, it's such an honor. The two of us have gotten to know each other really, really, really well. It's an absolute honor to present you with the award. Let me hand it over to you if you can. Can we get a round of applause? All right. That's not all. We also have the prize. Dabubu. Dabubu. I want to point out a few things. The little crown on the top with the heart makes it very special. Decked out, and obviously, the Dayforce gift. That's all I want. Whoa. All right. Congrats. I'm going to get a photo before we do that, without a doubt. The background is completely appropriate. Thanks. I'll put that in later. All right, thanks so much. Thank you. Hold on. Can I just say really quickly, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. If you're not involved in a Dayforce community, in their user groups, or in Basecamp community, get involved. Ask somebody to your left or right, and we'll get you in a group. All right. I can't shake. You can't shake. All right. Thanks. Well done, Evan. All right. As you can tell, each of you plays a vital role in making work-life better in your organizations for the people that you support in your businesses and your community. Again, your stories and advocacy are what make Dayforce so special. It really is an honor to be part of this community alongside you. Now, not only to keep the inspiration going, actually, we're going to take it up a bunch of levels here. We're going to welcome somebody to the stage, DeAndra Jean-Louis, who is our Head of Global Customer Success, who's going to introduce our really special guest as well. Thank you so much. Have fun. Thank you. Hello. Thank you, Chris. All right. Another round of applause for Evan. If you have not been to Basecamp or have you missed this week's Basecamp session, you are missing out on meeting, honestly, one of the most dedicated human beings focused on making work-life better that I've ever come across. Just a personal thank you from me. All right. I know this is the last, you know, came to the last session. I know I'm standing between you and the bar, given 12,000 steps every day. That's a lot. All right. Let's get started. Again, hi, everyone. I'm DeAndra Jean-Louis. I am the Global Head of Customer Success. As you've heard David say it, Amy, and a number of the executives on stage, at Dayforce, we believe, excuse me, we believe you should, the work you should do brings you back to what we truly meant to do. When we achieve that, it not only makes it better for us, but it makes it great for everyone around us. That's why I'm so excited. We get to hear from someone who truly embodies what it means to lead with purpose and joy. Our guest is an award-winning actress, producer, TV host, founder, and co-CEO of Pattern Beauty, and a storyteller whose life and work celebrate authenticity, self-expression, and today's Discover word of the day, Joy. Together, we'll explore how bringing joy into our daily work connects us to doing the work that we are truly meant to do. Please join me in welcoming my personal hero, the one, the only, Tracee Ellis Ross. Hi. Thank you so much. You can't hug because we'll make noise. Oh, we'll make noise. Okay, we'll do these. Thank you. Hi, everybody. Hi. May I say that your title is extraordinary? Thank you. Head, say it for me, please. I'm the Global Head of Customer Success. Did you hear that? The Global Head of Customer Success. That's what you, that's a title. Yes, it is. It's a title, and it's also a very significant job because it really makes sure I am responsible, along with all of my CSMs and TAMs and all of Dayforce, to ensure that we're making work-life better. I think that's really beautiful. I love when a title in and of itself holds the intention and the opportunity. So beautiful. Thank you. Honestly, if I can just be honest and say, you're such a personal hero. What you've done is you've brought that to me for so many years. Thank you for me. Thank you. Thank you. This is good. We called each other in advance and coordinated. No, we did not. I'm glad that we look so coordinated. All right. Now, before we dive in, I do have something personal to share. My mother, my brother, almost everyone in my family, and including my entire team, they're so excited for this because they know how much it meant to me. We've been talking about it so much. They talk about it in stores. It's embarrassing. Someone actually tried to hand me a script to give to you. I'm serious. That's terrible. I didn't take it. Glad you didn't. I do want to ask you all to just indulge me quickly. My mom is watching. She's so excited. I want to. Hi mom. What's your mom's name? Alita. Alita? Yes. Hello, Alita. Thank you. You should be very proud. Your daughter has a great title. Thank you. All right. If you don't mind, I had a thousand questions, and of course, they told me to narrow it down. I wrote them down. Please. All right. Let's get started. Everybody ready? All right. Let's roll. All right. So Tracee, you wear so many hats. You're an award-winning actress. You're an award-winning founder of Pattern. Thank you very much. Yeah, me too. Love the product. For those who don't know, Pattern Beauty is a beauty company. We exceed the needs of the curly, coily, and tight textured community. Everything from wash, treat, to style. We have blow dryers, curling irons, a steamer, and we just launched Pattern Body, which is, you know, lovely. It's scrub, lotion, and shower gel. Everybody needs that. You know what I mean? Okay. Yes, I know what you mean because I'm going to bed now. I'm going to showers, guys. All right. My cabinet is getting a little tight, but I will find space. All right, back to all of your accolades. Storyteller and so much more to all of us. At Dayforce, we talk about helping people do the work that they're truly meant to do. For you, what part of your work right now feels most aligned with that, but also brings you the most joy? It's interesting. I wear many hats. I was actually just talking to someone that I work with about, I said I have three careers. She was like, "Only three?" She said, "I think it's more like five." I was like, "Okay." I think the most joyful part for me is that I've really built a life where the truth of me and my sort of underlying mission in life is threaded through all aspects of who I am. If my, not if, but my overall or overarching mission is really to join the chorus of people who are helping to make the world a safer place and a more just place where people feel safe to be who they are. In all aspects of my career, whether it's through storytelling and projects that I'm developing, or at Pattern Beauty in terms of the products that we're developing, or the content that we're creating in order to launch those products, or even coming here to you today to talk about joy, it feels very fulfilling, very on purpose, and allows me to have a sense of joy in what I do. I love working hard. When I get to work hard for more than just my own benefit, but for the larger benefit of being of service to something, and mostly for me, it's being of service to humanity, that allows me to feel a sense of joy. Sometimes those are small things, and sometimes those are big things. Can you guys all hear okay? Okay, good. There's like an echo, so I just want to make sure you guys can hear out there. You're what matters. All right, thank you. Does that answer that? Absolutely. I could be a little more specific, but I feel like, especially as we begin the conversation, the broader spectrum of how you discover joy and find joy in your daily work is something that I have cultivated and worked towards for many years in my life. It's come from my own relationship with myself and years of having, not having to, but discovering who I am, what brings me joy, what makes me feel fulfilled, and then learning how to live as that person in what I do. All right. My next question, thank you for sharing where you find joy, but where do you find it and how do you protect it when life gets messy? First of all, messy is just a part of life. True. I think one of the things that I've learned as I've gotten older is that messy or mistakes, like a mistake doesn't mean you're a mistake. Messy doesn't always mean you've done something wrong. Making space for both aspects of life, the good and the bad, where it doesn't have to mean, and I don't have to create a narrative and a story that it means that I've done something wrong. I think that offers space for some joy because things are not always easy. Things are not always as you plan them. It keeps going in and out. Is it something I'm doing? Should we get another mic? Hello? Hello? Are we okay? Hello, can you hear me? Can you hear me here? Can you hear me when I'm here? I'm going to give you my mic. Let me just sit next to you. I think you can still hear me. It's fine if it goes in and out. What was I saying? So busy being funny. Oh, yes. Nope, don't know. All right. Let me—oh, we got another mic coming. Thank you so much. Hello? It was about messy. It was about messy. Yes. Yeah, it must not have been important. It's always important. My mom always says if it's important, it'll come back. Sometimes I don't know about that, because sometimes it comes back like the next day. Like at 3:00 A.M. Yeah, it's like. You don't want it to come back. I don't know what I was saying, but fantastic. Messy. Ask the question again. Let's see. All right. We'll start over. Okay. Where do you? Yeah. Okay. Back. All right. Hello. Hi. Wonderful answer. All right, where do you personally find joy in your work, and how do you protect it when life gets messy? I think protecting your joy is something we all need to learn how to do. One of the things I like to remind myself, outside of the fact that life is messy, is it doesn't mean I've done something wrong when things get messy sometimes. Things don't always go according to plan. You don't have to finish everything on your list every day. I actually have a friend who writes out the list and then doesn't bring it with her to work. What gets done gets done. I personally am not that person. I love a list, but I have a way of answering, what is my bandwidth? What can I actually do? Where can I ask for help, knowing that I don't have to know everything? I shouldn't know everything. They say shame, the acronym, is should have already mastered everything. Oh. Not a bad one, right? Right. I don't think that any of us are meant to have mastered everything. I think the beauty of life is staying teachable and staying open. There is a lot of freedom in allowing yourself to be teachable, and in that, you can find joy. I think for me, the perfectionism that I grew up with has been an ace in my deck and has allowed me to be incredibly rigorous in my due diligence and my work and being accountable for what and how I do things. It can also rob you of joy if perfectionism becomes a way to stop you from allowing the magic of life, from allowing the connection with other people, and for allowing the I don't know that actually has a lot of beauty in it. Some of the art and beauty of life comes from the I don't know, not from the knowing everything. One of the ways that I protect my joy, I think, is to allow life to be in process and to be in session and to show up to the best of my ability and then do my best to let go of the results, knowing that not everything has to go. I think back at this age, and there are so many things that I really wanted to happen that I think back now and I'm like, "Oh, God. Thank God that didn't happen." Some of those moments were incredibly difficult, whether it was in a work situation or a personal situation. You get to the place where you go, "Oh, things are not happening against me, but they're happening for me." It is often the perspective that you have and having an ability to look at things through the lens of growth and not through the lens of gotcha, you know? Yeah. I think that's, I don't know if that answers that question. It answered it perfectly. I think I'm going to keep doing that. I'm just going to say I don't know if that answered that. I'm going to say yes. Okay. Especially that. By the way, she was not kidding. This is very pretty. Oh, I love this. When we did the rehearsal, it seemed meaningless to bear with this. It's gorgeous. It's absolutely gorgeous. Wow. But. All right. Well deserving. Okay, sorry. It's a lovely backdrop. That was the perfect answer because you basically said, give yourself space. Yeah, give yourself space. I think we don't do enough of that. I think there's a culture right now with cancel culture and all these things as if you can't grow if you don't make mistakes. You don't want to have to make mistakes, but it's a part of life. For me, I've noticed that I'm the hardest on myself. I really had to hear that over and over again that making a mistake doesn't mean I'm a mistake. There are certain mistakes we don't need to be making. You know what I mean? There are certain mistakes that are a little more than a mistake. You know what I mean? We want to be accountable. We want to be responsible. We want to remember that we are one of many and you're only as great as your neighbor. You know what I mean? We're connected and interconnected as humanity. At the same time, there has to be an element of ease within that and how we give ourselves space to be human beings and to learn and to grow and to ask for help. Thank you. That's actually a good transition to the next question. Are we ready? Yeah. All right, we're good. All right. What moment in your career taught you the most about choosing yourself, even when others doubted you? Oh, God, I have so many. I really do. The first one that pops to mind is I was 25, somewhere around there. I had graduated from college. I went to Brown. I wanted to be an actor. I had worked in fashion as a fashion editor. I wanted to take the leap into being an actor. I had found an agent. They were a great agency. I had been an actor in college, but then I moved into the fashion industry as a fashion editor. I took the leap into acting. This agent, they were sending me out. I was going out on so many auditions. I was not booking anything, what I tell you. Nothing. I could not figure out how to get the Tracee that I knew I was inside, that I could be in the mirror in my room, into an audition room or into the space with other people. I was so uncomfortable in my own skin. It's hard for people to imagine that because of the personality and the freedom that I have within myself now. I really did not have that. I was frightened. I had a lot of anxiety about that. I always give people the example or the metaphor like, you know, if you're a singer, people forget that these are the vocal cords, it's a muscle that's happening in there. If you're tense, you can't get anything out. It's the same thing as an actor. Your body is your instrument, right? If you're scared, you can't get anything out. I wasn't booking anything. I was still game and getting in there. My agent brought me into her office and said, "So we're going to let you go." It was worse than that. She said, "You come with all this good stuff. You're pretty. You wear good clothes. You have a good personality. Then when you get in the room, nothing happens and you just don't pop." Let me tell you, I held on to that phrase for so many years. One person said that to me. It's like now you read one comment on your social media, and the way you tell it to your friends is everyone is saying, right? In my head, the world was saying, "I'm a person who doesn't pop." As an actor, that part of my life, not as a business person, I hadn't even dreamed of being a business person yet. That was it. That was the whole thing, right? You got to pop. That's what star quality is. I was being told I didn't have it. To make it even worse, I don't know if many people know this. It's not something I lead with, but my mom is Diana Ross. She pops, guys. You know what I mean? Like, she's a lady who pops. I was like, I'm the daughter of a lady who pops and I don't pop. I didn't get the pop gene. You know what I mean? This is a real bummer, especially if I was going to make a career on popping. I held on to it for so long. I remember it took me years. Even in the moments that I would come through that and I, you know, did I want to be an actor and then I decided I did still and I went on that road anyway and I continued. I booked Girlfriends after that, you know, and things have gone pretty well since then, you know. Even whenever one of the dark moments would come up, one of the roles I didn't get, one of the bad auditions or whatever it was, that would haunt me. I was like, oh my God, the not pop of me has come forward again. The not worthy of me has come forward again. It's just a larger metaphor for that thing, that one thing that you decide about yourself or that you've heard about yourself that you decide means is the whole story, right? It always creeps back in. It no longer, it doesn't have anything anymore. There's no juice anymore. It doesn't have any power over me anymore. What it took was for me to continue to, and it was a huge lesson for me, is do I agree with her? The truth is, at the time, there was a part of me that agreed, that didn't know who I was and how to find my version of being a person who pops, right? My job was not to be my mom in life. My job was not to be even the people I looked up to at the time as actors and things. That was where the journey for me really began. That aspect of the journey began around me discovering who am I? What is it? What is it that's making me so afraid to be myself in front of other people? That's been an arduous, chewing on ground glass journey, a daily journey in my life that has led me to being the person that you introduced, you know, that has many hats. That pops. That pops. When I say pop, that means there's a sense of you know who I am, you know what I bring and what I stand for and where my purpose is. To me, everybody has a pop in them, right? Everyone has that part of them that is so them that it's undeniable. It might be a quiet thing, it might be an intimate thing, it might be a louder thing. It might be the way you listen to people, it might be the way you do your job with a level of excellence or the way you support other people. There's a way that, and it's actually something I ask people in interviews when I'm interviewing them. I ask people to tell me, there's like three or four questions I always ask people. What is your superpower? How would your best friends describe you? What do you think are the areas of weakness for you? Those are reflective questions that have to ask you things about yourself, but those are questions that I've answered for myself on my journey and in these moments. Another story, if I may, we're okay on time, is, I now have learned to express myself, whether it's through speaking or as a boss and a leader or as an actor to stand up for myself or in many different areas and aspects of my life. I used to be very terrified to do so. I used to send my sister, Rhonda, who's way smarter than me, every email, text, like anything I wanted to write, I would send to her and have her sort of copy edit and write. Speaking of ChatGPT. I don't use ChatGPT. I don't. I really don't. All right, we'll get to that. I think the reason I don't is it took me so many years to learn how to express my feelings and my thoughts in words and how to learn that both how to do it verbally and how to do it in writing. It requires patience. Sometimes I do this when I'm writing. I try, I can't find a word and I have to feel it through. It has given me a sense of confidence and an ability to know that what is in my head and in my heart, I can tell you and effectively express that and be able to listen to you and realize when something doesn't strike true or I agree and not say it mean, but mean what I say when I respond to you. I think you need that in every aspect of your life. You need that at the train station. You need that at the airport. You need that at home. You need that in the office. You need that with your coworkers. It's a skill that I worked hard to gain that I'm grateful for. I know that I can communicate very clearly with people what it is that I need, what it is that I want, what it is that I hope for, what it is that I expect, what it is that I'm disappointed about. I learned that by working and bumping up against my sister. That's another huge lily pad moment for me in my life, from not knowing how to pop to learning how to not only be myself, but express myself. I think that's what's allowed me to build a company, to build a multimillion-dollar beauty brand that started out with one retail partner and has 11, that has 47 employees and an office. I'm some actor girl, but I've been able to build that because I have the ability to express myself appropriately. I love that. I love that. My next question, I feel like you touched on it, but I want to ask it because I want to hear the end part. How has your definition of success changed over time, and what do you hold on to now? You've walked us through the journey. Tell us about how you hold on to it now. Wow. I think as a kid, my definition of success was fame and money and a Rolls-Royce. I think we all have that. I mean, yeah, I don't know. I felt like that's what people had on TV, or like, what was Magnum PI? His car was Kit. Yeah. Are you guys all too young for that? Oh, man. No, with Knight Rider. I just heard somebody say Knight Rider. Knight Rider. I heard somebody say in the audience. Thank you. Knight Rider. Then Magnum P.I., he had a different car. Ferrari. That's sort of, like I think I thought growing up, I thought success meant like a fancy car, a husband, and fame. Yeah, I think that's what I thought. No, I don't have a husband. I have a nice car. I do have a nice car. To me, success means the freedom to choose. It is a space of, and that's something that I, you know, it's the freedom to choose, to have choice, to not have to wait to be chosen, but to be able to ask myself what I want and to be able to walk towards that. I find that to feel like success for me. That to me, that's like the big whopper, right? That's the big umbrella. Underneath that, on a daily basis, success is process, due diligence, accountability, holding a sense of responsibility for how I show up in the world. I feel most successful when I'm of service to something other than myself. I feel a real sense of accomplishment when a thing that was hard to make happen, that happens over time, comes to fruition. Success, I think, has a lot of different legs and arms to it. In its overarching space, it is the freedom to choose. I couldn't agree more. I think a lot of that also comes with age, just the ability to give yourself space. Yeah. No, I couldn't agree more. Yeah, I think, you know, money, property, and prestige things, they don't equate success. I think a child's mind says they do because you see the outside of what that looks like. As an adult, and I love being a grown-up, by the way, you know, I really do. I don't know that I, as a kid, thought I would love being a grown-up. I like it. I like what I know. I like what I've learned. I like knowing what I don't know. I mean, physically, there's some weird things. I mean, I've got. Oh, good. I've got an Incrediwear on my knees because they're not happy. My knees are angry with me. I don't think I did anything, but they think I did. They think you did. Yeah. There are these things on my knees. You know, there's stuff that you're just like, "Huh, that wasn't there yesterday." I wake up in the morning and I get out of bed and I'm like, "I feel like I was in a fight last night." I feel like I walked to the bathroom like a scarecrow. I'm like, "Oh, God. Oh, God." It's like you have to oil me up before you get to this, like, crazy. Oh, my God. Like that is rude. I remember hearing, you know, youth is wasted on the young. It really is. Yet, you know, emotionally, spiritually, intellectually, I just, I wouldn't go back if you paid me. I'm grateful for, and I feel honored. I'm not 53 yet. I turn 53 this month. Oh. And. Happy birthday. It's October, right? At this age, whatever. It's so funny. I've gotten to that age, like I never, you know, when you were a kid, you would hear people say, "I went home. I don't remember." I don't remember. I don't want to know. You found one for two in his 50s. I don't know. Yeah, it's great. Anyway. Oh, my gosh. Thank you for basically describing how we all feel in the morning, because yes, there's always a new. It's a new surprise. You know what? I really do, in terms of point of view and perspective, and it's something that I think is also really important about a workday, right? It's like how you look at it. How do you frame it? I could say that, "Oh, my God, it's so hard getting older and all the stuff." It's fascinating instead of challenging. I just say it's fascinating, you know? Sometimes that's what happens too. It's like when you're dealing with things in a work environment that you're just like, "Huh, that's neat. I don't know that I would have done it that way." Tell me more about that. I always like to say curiosity and delight. Isn't that delightful what you've done? Tell me more about why you made that choice. That'll bring joy to your workday, won't it? Yes, it will. Seriously, one of the best tips I can give you is the word neat. Neat. All right. I'm warning my team now, part of my new vocabulary. Say it with a smile and just absolute and pure delight. Neat. All right. Now we're going to get to something that is more than neat. It actually keeps my hair neat. It's Pattern Beauty. Again, it's an award-winning product. If you don't know anything about it, please just do your research. With this award-winning product line, Pattern Beauty, what's been the most joyful and also the most challenging because you're an entrepreneur, part of building something that is truly yours? I don't have children. I feel like Pattern is the first thing I built, made, birthed on my own. It was 10 years in the making. It was a lot of no's. It was 11 years from the first time I wrote my first hair care brand pitch until we were on shelves. I think the most challenging, I don't know if it's challenging, but there's a big growth curve for me becoming a business leader and a business builder. I think the biggest area is really knowing what I don't know and bringing in the people that I need that do know those things and learning what kind of leader and boss I am. I don't get a lot of joy from micro-managing, but if I don't trust what's happening, I will step in. One of the things I've learned about myself is I can learn anything pretty fast. I like to build a team that feels empowered and filled with agency in their roles. Micro-managing usually undermines that. It is my least favorite thing to do. I think I have learned that I like people to bring themselves to the table. I don't like that kind of table where everyone is afraid to speak up. I do think there's a lot to be said for not the hierarchy, but the respect of a team and the positions that people are in. Allowing, you know, one of the things I've learned that's been so interesting to watch is when you do hover too much over people, they can't blossom. True. They don't have a sense of agency, trust, and confidence in their own ability. I've seen people that other leadership team members are like, "I'm not sure if that's working out." You move them into a place where they are trusted in their skill, and they just blossom. It's so exciting. I come from, for example, on Black-ish, in the eight years we were on that show, one of our set PAs, the person who knocks on the door and says, "Camera's ready," she was working as a set PA for our first two years. By the eighth year, she was in the writer's room. Wow. It's amazing. Yes. You know, our focus puller, who literally cranks the thing, saying, you know, it's 30 years I'm in this business. I don't even know what this is called. The action, that's not action, whatever. The thing is, you know what I'm talking about? The clapboard, geez, Louise. I mean, get it together, Ross. Anyway, Tiffany, who did that for our first five years, and one of the most important, and they do more than just that, obviously. One of the most important roles in a crew is the focus puller. Like the focus puller. You can shoot it all, and if there's no focus, it's just not happy. She ended up moving up in our seventh year to being focus puller. We needed to create space for her to mess up sometimes because she was learning. I saw, witnessed, and experienced that on Black-ish in a way that you want to see that at work. You want to build an environment and a work culture that allows for people to feel confidence, to lean into areas that they have desire to be in, even if they don't necessarily have the experience to be in those places, and to make space for that pathway of success. Learning how to be that kind of leader and boss is something that I have not found challenging, but definitely has been out of my purview. It's a very different role than being an actor. It's similar to being a producer, but it's very different. Hollywood operates very differently than corporate America. Give us an example. Can we get an example? You don't need examples. You guys see it all the time. It's not linear, and bad behavior is often supported, and it's Hollywood. Oh. It's not, you know, we have a line producer, not an HR person. What? You know what I mean? A lot of stuff is a little different. Learning all of those things, I have to say as a CEO, I brought in my co-CEO because we were scaling at a rate and a pace that I didn't have the experience for. I knew that I needed somebody who really understood how to do that and how to really manage the operations of the business in a way that I did not have the expertise. It's one thing to have a successful business. It's another to have a successful business that will continue to be successful and maintain that. All the time I say to the team, I'm like, I don't know what those initials mean. Everything is an initial. It's like letters. Letters. I'm like, can you just say the words out? I don't know what that means. We're doing the same thing here. It's so funny. You know, and I've got a lot of them now. I know what EBITDA is. That's the most important one. Okay. I think our President would love that. Wait, can I tell you a really funny story? Before I became a CEO and a founder and a business builder, I never understood why people wanted to be in the C-suite. I was like, I don't get it. Don't you want to be in the A-suite? I literally was like, I don't understand. I never asked anybody the question, but I was just like, not even the B-suite? A C-suite, I get it now. I get it. Chief, I do want to be a chief. I want to be a chief. You want to be a Chief? I want to be a Chief. I want to be a Chief. Those have been some of the lessons within the journey. I will say some of the most fulfilling, joyful, and exciting things for me is creating a product that has supported people in loving their natural hair. I just got a text from an old friend who was like, my daughter has struggled with her hair forever. We have tried every product, and when we landed on Pattern, she's able to do her hair herself, and she loves her natural curls. That to me is so moving. To be global, to be in Europe and have people be like, oh my God, I love your products, I'm like, what? It's so exciting. This is exciting. Yes, I built a company that is not only lucrative, but has a purpose and a mission and is supporting people in self-care and their self-love. That is very fulfilling for me. Please, two shouts of applause. I'm clapping for your words, but I'm also clapping because I'm going to give you another story. Okay. When Pattern Beauty came out, before it came out, I was becoming a chemist in my own bathroom. You are not the only one. Yeah, literally putting together. I was ordering oils, you name it, Amazon, and I had a love affair with just boxes. I'm telling you, you have given me hours back on my Sunday. Thank you. Yeah, I think that's also something I was saying to people in that 10 years when I was getting so many no's, is that so many of us had become experiential experts in our own bathrooms. The industry was not supporting our hair the way it naturally grew out of our heads. Yes, there were products for your hair that made it help you with straightness, but that really tended to and were of service to the needs of the curly, coiling, tight-textured community. We use more conditioner than we do shampoo. You know, a brush that wasn't going to break when you were pulling it through your hair, just all the different aspects to think through those from that perspective. It's been, I mean, listen, I'm a user. What was the hair club for men? I'm not just the president. I'm like really telling my age. I'm not just the. What is it? I I remember that. I'm not just the president. I can't remember. I'm also a client. You have every answer. That's Evan. Evan knows everything. Hi, Evan. You have every answer. Thank you. All right. We're going to get in trouble. I'm looking at the time. All right. I got a final question. If you could leave us with one practice to bring more joy into our daily work, what would it be? I think I've, can I give three? Sure. The floor is yours. The first is listening. There is a sense of self-esteem, honestly, that comes from being able to listen, to witness as people are talking, to actually ask a question and then hear the answer. You're a very good listener. Oh, thank you. I was like, oh, she's not commenting. No. I'm not listening. I am focused. No, but you know, it's something that we've, that attention span has been a little bit lost in our culture. We get distracted if an alert comes on our phone. You know what it feels like when someone listens to you, when they actually nod and say, not interrupt with a thousand questions, but actually let you get your thoughts out. It can change a day. That's not something you're getting. It's something you're giving. It also can change the way you do your job because if you can really listen, sometimes you can hear what people are actually asking of you. You can have a sense of where somebody is in their day. It gives you, it gives them and humanity a little bit of grace and space. It might allow you to ask a question when somebody finishes what they're saying, like, are you okay? Yeah. Are you having an okay day? I'm good. I'm good. Are you? Yeah, I'm having a really good day. We're all good. These are things that can change a day and can change an experience. Listening can be done with such kindness and such openness. That's one that I would say really can bring joy into a day. The other is to offer yourself a sense of ritual in the things that you love, even if it's the way you make your coffee, the way you, I don't know. One of the things I heard is that meditation could be described as doing what you're doing while you're doing it. We don't do a lot of that. We multitask. We talk on the phone while we do dishes, while we do laundry, while we do, you know what I mean? We're at our computers on the phone with, you know, we've got headpieces and earpieces so that we can do other things with our hands while we're talking on the phone, while we're listening to this, while we're looking at a screen, you know. Yeah. I find that a sense of ritual that comes from doing what you're doing while you're doing it can really offer you more time in a day, which is strange. I remember someone saying to me, like, how long do you think you need to get that done? I was like, I don't have enough time, or I have a feeling, you know what I mean? It's not possible. How much time would you really need? When I'm really busy, I try and tell myself, you know, the tendency when you have a really jam-packed day, which is the majority of my days, is to move really fast from A to B. Yep. You can even feel it, like the way you start, you start to move fast, right? Exactly. Yep. I try and tell myself, can I move slowly? Can I just walk intentionally from A to B? I'm going to say something that's maybe not so PC, but I'm telling you guys, this is going to be a big one for you because I know it's a big one for me. Pee when you have to pee. It's really hard, but it's something we all have to do, and we don't do it. You sit there thinking, and it doesn't take that long. We're constantly robbing ourselves of our own human experience. Whether it's that you really do sing the alphabet while you're washing your hands, or you know, I like to eat soap, eats, not soap. No. I was going to circle back to that. I like to eat soap. I like to eat soup because you got to drink it slowly. Totally. Take your time. That doesn't mean waste time. It doesn't mean be flagrant with your time. It doesn't mean just be disrespectful with the time you're taking. Take your time so that you can be present. The third one is to use your breath. It is the most practical, efficient, portable way to be present. You can do it in your car, in a bathroom stall, at your desk, on the train, or on the plane. Can we finish with that? Yeah. Can we all just take three breaths? No, I like together. Let's do that. If you can put your feet on the ground, put your feet on the ground. All right. Close your eyes. Allow your eyes to relax. Let your eyeballs fall into your head and let your head hold them. Let the chair underneath you hold the weight of your body. Take a deep breath in through your nose and let yourself feel the air going in your nose and think to yourself, breathing in, I know I'm breathing in. As the air goes out, you can let it go through your mouth and just say, as I'm breathing out, I know I'm breathing out. You can do that at any point during your day. It can calm you down. It can allow joy to be there and present with you. It's like yours for the taking. Thank you. Yeah? Thank you for that moment. Thank you. Thank you. It is amazing to see everyone's eyes. Don't fall. Tracee, thank you. Thank you for giving us your time. Thank you so much. Thank you. I'm going to do it. Thank you. The amazing Tracee Ellis Ross. Oh, what an opportunity. Thank you, Dayforce. Thank you. All right. Now, I'm not going to cry because that was truly my personal hero. I think a lot of people talk about seeing, and I will show my age at this point. I'm 55. I think a lot of people talk about Mary Tyler Moore being the person that kind of got them through. It was Tracee for me. It was truly seeing Tracee in shows like Girlfriends. Wow. All right. I'll cut it there. All right. Let's move on. Again, I'm between you and the bar. I know it. All right. I want to, again, thank Tracee. Thank you for listening and thank you for breathing. Now I'm going to bring on Erik. Erik, let's carry this on. I'm going to go up this way. Erik's coming on. You guys. I obviously like being a grown-up. Well, that was... I'm going to set this down. That was amazing. Let's give one more hand. Tracee Ellis Ross. That was incredible. I feel so inspired. Feel so ready. We got so many tools there. There's only one... one thing left to share. We are going intergalactic together. Um, I want to share the one very important update. This was this was real time. So, yesterday with my my dear friends, our dear friends, Farm Credit. I don't know if you're out there. Okay. All right. We informally, I think, launched the Dayforce Disco User Group. Yes. And, um, I'm the secretary. Where Base Camp is coming. Um, if you want to join, you're going to have to find me at the at the Space Disco. But these were the two important actions I was given. Number one, a disco is not just about bell bottoms and flared collars, though we love those. It's about any kind of intergalactic flair that you can come up with. So, be creative. If you missed your moment to pre-pack your creativity, there is a wonderful mall, the Fashion Mall. It is right across the way, super easy to get. Dip in there and let's get you flared up. Okay? Because we are we're going to space together. And I and I need you bedazzled. Okay? So, um, and and also, I mean, I could be in trouble for sharing this, but there could be some other Daybubus over there at said mall. There will definitely be some Daybubu community members in space with us at the disco tonight. Make sure you've got your badge. You are going to be with all these other Day Makers and Community Makers. It's me, you, and we're all going to be doing this thing together. Okay, 7:30. Bring your badge. You must, if you're hearing one thing, bring your badge. What a wonderful keynote. We got a little bit left, and I'm going to see you at the disco. Let's wrap it up.