 First, I want to thank members of the media and our distinguished guests for joining us today to honor this milestone and thank you for braving the heat. We will only be here at the podium for 15 minutes tops and then we'll move to the front of the building to cut the ribbon and then we'll move inside for air conditioning and refreshments. My name is Katie Haney and I'm on the therapist at Jill Smith and Associates. Working here and getting to help my clients is truly wonderful. I often tell my clients that it is an honor to walk alongside their stories and be a witness to their strength and resiliency. I hold this responsibility close to my heart. At this company we lean heavily on each other. We have an expanding team of 16 therapists and we all communicate, share, grow and train together. It's truly a special place. Did I mention we love sharing words of encouragement? If you follow us on Instagram at Jill Smith Counseling, you will be treated to a regular dose of inspiration, tips and uplifting posts that are sure to brighten your day. Our team has immense gratitude for the Midlands community as we have much to celebrate. In addition to expanding to this new downtown location, this year marks our 20th anniversary. Thank you. Everyone on my team is thrilled to welcome you to this location where we will continue to serve this region that we love so much, but first we have a few brief remarks. I have the pleasure of introducing Gavin James Smith, town council member from Lexington, which is home to JSA's first office. A 2016 graduate of the Darla Moore School of Business, he is the CEO and founder of the Gavin James Group, under which he operates Gavin James Public Affairs and the Inspire Group. And he is the youngest member to serve on the Lexington's Town Council. Welcome Gavin. Well, thank you. Thank you, Katie. I'm so pleased to be here and Jill, congratulations on this monumental day. You know, Mr. Mayor, your city is living up to your slogan, famously hot. Humanity is good for the skin. That's right. That's right. But you know, today I stand before you to honor Jill and her team as they mark this occasion and open their new facility here in Columbia. And you know, seeing a small business that originated in Lexington is super exciting to me. I was just on the phone with our economic developer in the town. I said, I'm going to this grand opening. He said, I don't know about a business opening in the town. And I said, well, that's because it started here and it's grown all the way to Columbia. So that's super exciting to us. You know, for me, I'll tell you a personal story. I I will be very honest and say I didn't believe in therapy. Jill and I were talking of, you know, I think we can all think back to a time in life where maybe we've gone through a moment where that was a tough period. And, you know, maybe you needed to talk with someone and talk through that and dissect what that moment was. And I went through that period in college. And my family said, you should talk with a therapist about that. And I said, yeah, right, that's that's not going to work. I was that typical college student. And I will tell you, I decided to do that. And it changed my life. So I believe in what y'all are doing. And to know that this facility that originated in Lexington is now going to change lives in Columbia is just so exciting to me. So nonetheless, I'll stop talking about it is so hot. I have the pleasure of introducing Columbia's mayor. Daniel Rickman. Thank you for being here. And I'll turn it up to you. Thank you, Gavin. Thank you, Jill for having us here. Thank you for your investment. You know, one of the things that we started off saying is we're open for business and we're open for ideas and innovation. Well, we're open for this. What a great investment. Thank you. Celebrate in two decades of taking care. And I have to be quite honest. My wife thinks that Jill is the best out there in her business and said sorry she could be here today. But as a physician, she feels that Jill feels a void takes care of her patients and goes beyond what a lot of people do. And as we know today, we need more folks here helping and counseling folks as we're through some trying times, we're in places that we've never seen. But to turn around and have somebody who's who's grown a business in one part of our community expanded into the other and done it with such style. If you remember what this corner looked like several months ago, you kept driving by now you stop and look and go what what's going on over here? What's how was this investment? Well, this is what we're looking for in Columbia. People who are dedicated to our community believe if I think Jill probably follows the same kind of factors I do and I can see it from her practice, which is one, you got to work hard every day. Number two, every challenge every hurdle in front of us is just strictly an opportunity. It just depends how you look at it. Let's try something different. It's okay. If we fail, it's about how we recover from it. But most important at the end of the day that we get back to the community that's given to us and Jill, that's what you do every day. And I hear it from all over. So that's why we're excited that you're planting your second flag right here in Columbia, South Carolina. And having another women owned business on this street is also exciting. You know, South Carolina is is had more women businesses growing coming out of the pandemic and actually is in the top five in the country for women on per capita. On this street, I've been to three different ribbon cuttings all owned by women, all women firms. So very excited about that. And with that, I'm going to turn it over to the woman of the hour, Jill. Thank you, everybody. Katie, I adore you. Gavin, I'm so excited about your leadership in Lexington. And may I recommend I have mad respect for you and the way you communicate with all of us and all of your initiatives in Columbia. It feels like we are absolutely like living in the place to be right now. Thank you for taking care of us. I want to do a lot of thinking and I'm going to talk quickly. Thank you to all of our elected officials here today, the media and our cherished community members. It's hot and you're here and we appreciate it. This building is a dream come true. I am so appreciative for the warmth and support we've received from this incredible community over the past 20 years to get us here. We have served way over 7000 clients in the Midlands. People used to come to us in Lexington from all over Columbia. And so we're happy to have a bigger space here now. Here, we have 11 counseling rooms, two waiting rooms. And what we hope is adequate parking, certainly more parking than we could find anywhere else. So we're just delighted. We really wanted to have a comfortable and gracious place for our staff to come every day to be excited to walk through the doors. And we wanted our clients to feel really special when they walked in as well. We want them to feel cared for and pampered. We think that the therapy experience begins as soon as they walk in the door. And I think we've created that kind of I'm seeing and valued vibe. Can't wait to hear what you think when you take a tour. When I started this company in 2003, I wanted to provide the highest quality counseling for clients. But the more I learned about the art of psychotherapy, the more elusive that seemed. It is a really complicated art. And there's a big difference between being a good enough therapist and being a master at this craft. Our goal here is to never stop learning and to never stop being humble. Because it's complicated to figure out how to help someone see themselves differently. We're still trying to figure out how to help ourselves see ourselves differently, right? So we require our staff to talk to each other, to staff cases, to lean on each other and to say I'm stuck. I don't know, come help me. That's one of the many things that makes us different. So to our counselors, you are all here. Please give us a wave or a shout out to the JSA counselors. You guys are the heart and soul of this business. You are all so valued. You're so important to me. I hope I make you feel that every day. You are tireless with your efforts, your training, your empathy, your commitment. My vision was for you to want to come to work every day. For you to want to come to work every day. And you make me want to come to work every day. That's the way that's worked out. So I hope it's working out for both of us. To our dear clients. Yes, I did. We did invite some of our clients. Please stand or wave if you choose to be recognized. Of course, you do not have to be recognized because this is a private endeavor. But I see hands going up. Have a look around. We invited clients that have been with us a significant length of time. Some of you have been with us for years. And we are just so impressed by your commitment to self care, your commitment to the journey. And I want to say publicly that you've trusted us. We hold that so dear. And we want to work every day to continue to earn that trust. Briefly, I want to recognize my family, my front row people who flew in from Chicago and drove in from Raleigh to be with us, including my beautiful mama, my beautiful sister and my beautiful daughter, my son-in-law who I adore, my brother-in-law who I adore, and my husband, Mike, who has helped me every step of the way. I want to express gratitude to this community. Many of you refer clients to us. Former clients refer people to us. Please stand or wave if you're one of our community-referring partners. I know a lot of our doctors could not get away today. But I'm hoping that some of you are here. I want to call out a couple of names of our business collabs. Rita Patel and Marcus Muncie with Hotel Chondall. We're going to try to get here for part of this event. They are doing a collab with us. There you are. You didn't miss your shout out. Lauren Truslow with bar three was hoping to get here. She also owns the plan by Lauren. The folks at Tribe Yoga, all of these business owners have gone the extra mile to collaborate with us to help their staff or their clients have an easier entry into mental health care here. We get with them and we figure out how to make it a little bit less expensive or how the employer can help defray some of the costs. They are walking the walk. They're doing cutting-edge stuff and we love it and we appreciate it. I want to extend a special thank you. I'm almost done to everyone who physically created this space. Our architect, Dale at Architrave. Dale, I saw you walk up. Where are you? Hey, Dale. Indigo design and construction. Jason, hey. They are the best, the best guys to work with if you are doing a project. Call them. Brook Green Landscaping. I don't know if you're here. Ellen Taylor Designs. And Guy Sullivan. Guy, I know you there with Avante Interiors. He did the interiors for me and he's a doll. Okay. I want to invite everyone to stay after the ribbon-cutting for refreshments. We've got a ton of fabulous food from Farm to Table, Christian Nimi's company.