All right, good afternoon everybody. Thank you for joining us for our press briefing here today. First of all, just wanna remind people that if you haven't taken the opportunity, get vaccinated, please do vaccines are our best first line defense against the pandemic helps you build the antibodies that will help you fight off the virus and will reduce the chance that you end up in the hospital or have no severe outcomes that come along with the coronavirus. So please get vaccinated. If you have any questions about that, please talk to your health care provider about getting the vaccine second. We all know that we have the best place in the world to live right here in Nebraska. That's why we call it the good Life. And you can see here in Nebraska that we have done very, very well over the course of the last year and a half. But just in general, think about all the things we've got going on here in our state, right, Nebraska is an agricultural state. It's the biggest part of our state's economy. One and four jobs are tied in it. And through the first months of the eight months of this year, we have exported more beef than any other eight month period in history, at least on record. And that includes the month of August where we exported $188 million dollars worth worth of beef beef is our single biggest export commodity corn. We can't break out by state, but we can see the United States has done very well in exporting corn as well. In fact, through the first eight months of this year, the United States exported more corn than we did all of last year in the same deal exported more corn than we have in any eight month period in the last decade. So we've done very well with regard to that and that helps our farm economy when we have those type of robust exports. We can also see that we have a very low unemployment rate. Our unemployment rate not only leads the nation at 2.2%, but is also a record in state history. We can see the top 380 some metro areas in the country that Lincoln ranks number one for lowest unemployment rate at 1.7%. Grand island ranks number two at 1.9% in Omaha ranks number six at 2.2%. So our three top metro areas here in the state are all in the top 10 with regard to low unemployment rate and that's one of the reasons why wallet hub ranks us Number two is the best place to find a job in the country to have a wonderful place to be able to find a job. In fact, if you look at national rankings again, Nebraska does very, very well. Number one and unemployment but also the least indebted state in the country. Number two place the best place to find a job and then I believe related to those things were also according to any Casey Foundation, the second best state for Children's economic well being. We are the third biggest state with regard to ag receipts from all commodities, as well as the third best state for workforce development. We are the fourth best state for economic development projects per capita. And we've got the fifth most diverse economy in the country. So we have just the best place in the world here in Nebraska. And what we're here today to talk about is how we tell our story. You know right now, we have about 50,000 job openings on the Nebraska works website. That's any works dot Nebraska dot gov. 50,000 any given month job openings. And that's about 10 more job openings than we have for the people who are collecting unemployment. So we've got a great place to find a job and be able to and of course, a quality of life that is unmatched. So today we're announcing what we're doing to tell the world our story about why we call Nebraska the Good Life. It's a campaign called The Good Life is calling. And you can find out about it on the Good Life is calling dot com And it does a great job of telling our story as nebraskans about the opportunity, the affordability, the community. The safety. Nebraska is one big small town and we just have a tremendous quality of life that goes along with that and we want people to know about that. We want nebraskans who have left the state to remind her of that and ask him to come back to our state and raise their families here. Want people That are looking for a change of pace, especially after the last 18 months. Maybe they're tired of those big urban areas and are looking for a better quality of life to move to Nebraska to be able to help us grow our state. And so we have this campaign, the Good Life is calling to be able to help reach out to those folks. We actually unofficially launched it last week. Last week, I was in Minneapolis talking to companies in Minnesota about expanding here in Nebraska. And of course, we have the Nebraska Minnesota game which we hosted a number of those folks at the game on saturday. And so we started the advertising campaign there were targeting it generally In major urban areas that are within 500 miles of Nebraska. So Minneapolis Kansas city denver Chicago though, we will also be testing it in places like Silicon Valley or Austin to be able to reach out to folks there and again, really targeting that group of younger folks or looking at the quality of life issues that come around starting a family. So we're very excited to be able to roll this out and be able to start that communication campaign and really talk about all the wonderful things that we have here in Nebraska. So with me today to tell that story. I've got Tony going to our, who's our director for the Department of Economic Development. Tony oversaw this effort. And then Clinton Njie, who is the Ceo and founder of our tribal, who actually put together this campaign and Clint's company really focuses on how to do that communication to young people. But before I bring them up, I want to go ahead and show the clip that is on our website. The good life is calling dot com. So Ryan, let's go ahead and just run our little video clip here. So we give people a feel for what we're talking about. Mm mhm If you want to be great, start with good, you know, like good friends, a good job with good opportunity. Is that normal good nights and good morning's good trails and good air. It's good to go for it. Good to find your pace a good space. A good embrace. Let me in there a good place to set up shop a good front yard backyard. And if you want barnyard, good teachers, coaches and next door neighbor lease. Good official handshakes. Good nonofficial handshakes, good people, good churches. It's good to be free. Cannonball, good things, good times, good manners, good games, good game, good game, good game, good schools, good artsy stuff, Good, this good, that is not Nebraska way. That's Nebraska good commuting good, well commuting tastes good, looks good is good. So good. We're showing it again. It's a steal people. Good feelings, good fishing, good steaks. Those are great, good medical places, doing medical things. Good far Mikel places doing far Mikel thing's gonna make it good, more good, even more good, good stars, good dreams because it said stars and good kids. Normally it's a long day of filming. Okay. These are the in between moments that make Nebraska, they say you can't have too much of a good thing. We've got plenty of the Good life is called. All right now, you may recognize that voice as being from Adam Devine who we think is a great person to frame that up because people will recognize that. And of course he is a native Nebraskan. So we're very excited to have him be able to do the voiceover for that. That will be broken up into 32nd commercials, 15 2nd commercials and then six seconds spots for social media. So we'll be doing, uh, really a multi channel approach to be able to get our message out. And then of course, you'll see over here on this board Nebraska, the good life is calling. You see the logo that we've got for it. And with that I'm gonna go ahead and turn it over to Tony goings our Director of Economic Development. So it can tell a little bit more about the campaign, Tony. All right. Thanks. Governor. Well, good afternoon everyone. I'm really excited about today. Governor rick as you know, the growing Nebraska on this side over there. Growing Nebraska, that's our vision statement. And everyone in the state must be online to that vision to support growth telling our story is really mission critical. You know, we live in one of the best places in the world. Quality of life opportunities are truly unmatched. We've produced as governor Rick has stated the lowest unemployment rate in the country. We've got an abundance of great paying jobs. We've got affordable cost of living safe communities, vibrant amenities like arts, music, technology and lots of outdoor recreation. You go out west, you see a lot of outdoor recreation. This is truly a welcoming home for all walks of life. Nebraska really does have it. All these attributes create what I call a value proposition for Nebraska to be a place to reside. But frankly, this story has been under tolling undersold. We've had a great level of humility and we haven't shared, but at the end of the day, we can still do both. We can be humble, but we can still tell our story. So being under totally under stole that ends today. It's time for us to shift our narrative and share messages about the great opportunities in our state. This campaign will allow us to tell people across the country and around the world that the good life will be a reality for them if they choose Nebraska. That in turn will support the mission and the vision of growing our state and it will help us create thriving communities from the panhandle all the way to greater Omaha. So I'm asking you to please show your support by helping us to share this campaign. This is a team effort. The best people to tell the story are the nebraskans that live it every day. And as I always say, we all wear the same jersey. So governor rick is, I want to thank you for uh, I wanna thank arch rival Clinton Run G and I want to thank all of our state teammates that participated in this campaign and for contributing to spend a lot of hard work. It's been a lot of film being watched and we're really excited about the good life is calling. So without further ado, I'll turn the platform over to the Clinton run. Thank you sir. All right, well, hello everybody. My name is Claire Angie. I'm Ceo and founder of a company called Arch rival. Her Crave agency that helps brands win the hearts and minds of young adults And we're based right here proudly in Nebraska now. Typically we're doing national campaigns for brands who want to get associated and ingrained into, into culture but an opportunity to do something like this for a state. It's incredibly rare and I would say it's both important and exciting, important because we have to keep the economic engine going uh, and talent is at the root of all of it. We have so many great, amazing people in this state and there's still, as you heard the governor say, opportunity for more exciting because this is really a first for Nebraska, at least in modern history. Ah, that actually as Tony was saying for the first time, maybe step out of our own humbleness and say, actually we do have a great place to live. Um, I would call it a good life, uh, that is here and open that invitation to everybody. So, this campaign, um, embraces what I think is probably one of the best state mantras I've ever heard of a state and that is the good life. Um, it should be, if there was a state hall ST Montrose Hall of Fame, I would put the good life in there. It's something that everybody across the state embraces and knows to be authentically true. So, it just made sense that we wrap ourselves in that now the campaign, as you're the government say, is going to be run with media, uh, in key markets and um, there will also be a large digital and social effort, including that we have a whole great group of influencers who are going to help Really showcase what it means to run or to be a part of the good life and show their lives here in Nebraska, the video you saw is actually covering 170 real nebraskans, not all featured, but 100 70 nebraskans said it and we went over 60 different locations, uh, to get all of those shots. So it's, yeah, wow. Uh, and it covers everything from city to rural and everything in between. Um, to really show that there is a wide and diverse type of life here. Adam, as you heard, we think is the perfect voice to bridge the gap between people who know Nebraska and the people who maybe be hearing about us for the first time. And look, there's still more to come. We're not treating this campaign is one big, you know, launched to rule them all, but really as an ongoing effort um, here to set a foundation for us to think about this as we go forward as a state. Um, and we hope by end of the year to have a robust set of assets that businesses that are listening today can use and leverage in their efforts to do recruitment as well. We all work together to do this. I think that this could end up being a case study on the best way to ever promote a state. So with that, I will thank the governor for his leadership Tony for his drive to make this happen. And then lastly, all the businesses out there who we need your support, we're here, we got your back and we do this thing together. All right. If you want to see that video again, as you know, the government say, the Good Life is calling dot com or just go to Youtube and search Nebraska Good Life and you will find it. Thank you. Turn back over the governor. Thank you very much Clint. I appreciate it. And I love what you're saying there. That's awesome. So we want to get the word out about the great quality of life we have here in the good life. So with that, we'll go ahead and open up to questions and answers. And then as typical, we'll take questions on this topic. When we run our questions on this topic, we'll move on to other topics and we'll let uh, you know, Clinton step aside at that moment. So questions for myself, Tony or Clint on this campaign. Don How much? Yeah. So this is gonna be the overall effort between the creative and the media is about a $10 million dollar effort. And it is being funded with Kazakh money cares act money to the money that we got from the federal government last year. Yeah, I think I'll go Martha and come to you and her, the company marketing effort. Right? Yes. Here. So with regard to so we are as Martha points out, she said, hey, I was at the launch of something called The Good Life is Calling before. What's in between that and this and absolutely the Good Life Calling is a website that existed before. So we are building upon that, which we already had to launch this campaign. The difference is, again, we've got arch rival really trying to frame this up in a way that can be used in media, whether it's going to be tv media or social media and that we've got the advertising weight of the, You know, nearly $10 million good life is calling. We've updated it, we focus it on young folks and then of course putting the media weight behind it to be able to get the message out. Hendren. So Andrew's asking, well why are using cares act money for this? One of the things that the cares act money was meant for, was to be able to make sure that we could do an economic recovery. Right? So for example, we used it to do grants to different businesses who needed that hand up to be able to continue to stay in business and employ people. This goes along the same lines around promoting ourselves and continue that economic momentum that we've gotten to be able to continue to grow our state. So it's right in line with a lot of the things we did with regard to the Kazakh money already around economic development. Yeah, Martha this campaign actually just you. Yeah. So the question was, how do we know this if this campaign is effectively we have some measurables around it. So we're gonna be doing a number of different things and actually going to turn over to, uh, Tony or clint to comment further. But generally we're gonna be looking at things like how much traffic and we're driving to the website, but also looking to measure how many people are actually moving to Nebraska, uh, as some sort of connection to having seen the campaign or raising a question there. So, I don't know if Tony or clinton want to make any further comments. Yeah, it's a really great question because in any kind of advertising, um, if you're not getting a return on investment, you know, was it worth it? And I can tell you for this in particular, it's very important that we get a return on the investment. Uh, so as the government said, there's a couple different metrics will be using. First of all, there's a series of vanity metrics, which is just looking at how many people are impressions are we actually gaining? And there are some general formulas to look at and say comparable to other campaigns. Are we getting the right, the right eyeballs and enough eyeballs on it, Then there's the actual, like hard metrics, are we getting people to, and the right people, uh, to fulfill the talent to move to the state. And so we're looking at that as well now to make sure that we're doing this well, as I had mentioned earlier, we're really looking at this as two waves. We're doing an initial wave right now where we're testing media and different approaches. We will we will learn a lot from that. And so the second wave is a of this 10 million is a bigger spend of that, of that chunk. Um and so we'll invest into the areas where we're seeing the best return. So we're trying to be as smart and responsible as possible with a great question. Yeah, if you are broadcasting these, No, she's Oscars were playing so we're going to be picking different media spots in different target market. So it will not be a national media campaign. Like when they're playing on national tv we focused it for what I was saying earlier, was we focused it around the Minnesota Nebraska game because Minnesota is one of our target markets. And so we did a soft launch prior to that because we knew people would be thinking about Nebraska with that Minnesota Nebraska game that was last saturday. So it won't be a national thing, but we'll be looking for ways to be able to target audiences in Minnesota Chicago denver and Kansas city. Andrew Uh huh States peel away working. Mhm mhm So Andrew's asking, aren't we firing a salvo to other states to say why aren't you, why are you trying to steal our people and actually the reality is other states are already doing this. Ohio, I believe and check my numbers here on this clinic because I'm pulling from your presentation, I think it was, Ohio already spends $25 million dollars on these types of campaigns already. I know South Dakota had launched their own campaign where they're using cares act money to do it. Cities are doing this. So this is already happening in other cities, in other states where they're spending dollars to draw people from Nebraska. And frankly, one of the things I hear from companies around the country is they love hiring nebraskans. They look to recruit nebraskans because they know when they hire Nebraskan, they get somebody who's well educated who's got a great work ethic whose customer oriented, who's loyal and helps companies succeed. So in a way we are trying to be competitive with those other states that are already doing this. I don't know if you had anything else. Yeah, I would just add, there is, there's an exchange program going on between all the major markets that we're targeting and Nebraska that's already happening. The difference is, is that they're engaged in that conversation and we have not been so really for the first time we are actually engaging and saying actually is a great reason to do come to Nebraska versus and just letting it happen. Um, I think we're just getting involved. Yeah. Andrew what together enforced. I'm sorry, say that again. Take the other attack. Primary important. All right. So Andrew saying, why not take the other tact of just continue to cut taxes and a couple of things. One first of all the cares act money is not to be used for cutting taxes, right? It was for economic development. So that pool of money really has a specific purpose that can't be used to cut taxes. But I think it also gets back to just whenever you're running a business and you've got a great product, you still have to go out there and tell your potential customers that you've got a great product, right? You can't just expect them to find you without letting them know. That's why companies, you know, all across this country run advertising campaigns and have a marketing strategy. And that's what this is about. Is letting people know that we've got a great product here in Nebraska. We've got a great quality of life. It's a wonderful place to live. Work, raise your family. We have to go out and tell the world that because as Clinton is talking about other states are doing the same thing. They're going out and telling people you should move to their state. If we don't go out there and have our voice out there, we're gonna be losing to those states that are doing this. So it's important that we not only have a great product like we do here in Nebraska, you know, the good life, but also that we tell people we've got that great product. And certainly for our former NEbraskans remind them of what a great quality of life we have here in Nebraska. So when they're making that decision about where they want to put down those permanent roots, did they come back here to our state? Yeah. In the works, how long is this campaign has been in the works Tony? Do you remember when we started this campaign? I do, I do. Um you know, as the governor stated, articulating the value proposition in any firm is a real strategic priority. So, to answer your question, we started planning this campaign sometime around the summer, early, early spring of 2020. I mean, it was crystal clear that as the pandemic continue to to move that, you know, there's gonna be some states that dipped economically um in a in a more, much more challenging way, we we knew that the way we managed the pandemic would allow us to be competitive from an economic standpoint. And we felt like this was an opportunity for us to really now set ourselves up to really bounce back and start telling the story of the way we managed the pandemic, what we've done here and the good life is calling. And so we had an RFP process and uh clinton Runyon arch rival, uh they prevail. What? Yes. Mhm. Right, Nothing. Well, well, I think when you look at our target market and you think about families, you know? Yeah. So I think the question was we put a sign in the video about $225,000. And and and that being synonymous with affordable housing, is that, is that your question? So yes, $225,000. We did put put that in the video. And I think when you think about families and kind of what we're trying to attract, we felt like when you look at the housing market across the United States in places that a lot more dense, that $225,000, it's very reasonable and very affordable for what you can get here in the state of Nebraska. Thank you Tony. Any other questions with regard to the good life is calling. Alright, seeing done. I'll just to thank Tony and Clint, thank you both very much appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Yes, sir. And we are very excited to roll out this campaign and look forward to attracting all those future nebraskans to our state. All right. With that, we'll go ahead and open it up to other topics. Okay, Do I have no questions over there? Real Martha mhm Right. Party. Mhm Right, coordinate more search breast threats. More members. School officials. Oh, is the concerned? Great, mm. Mhm. Mhm. It's threats. Yeah. So the question was about the absolute outrageous abuse of federal power with the Justice Department asking the FBI to investigate parents who are showing up at school board meetings and calling them domestic terrorists. This is will have a huge chilling effect. It's meant to to browbeat those parents and not going into school board meetings. Now, first of all, if there is somebody who is threatening a school board member or a superintendent, that needs to be addressed by law enforcement, but its local law enforcement, This is not some sort of conspiracy across our country for domestic terrorism. If there are bad actors or people who are misbehaving in school board meetings and making those threats, then absolutely, law enforcement has stepped in and make sure that we're guaranteeing the safety of our school board members. But this is an abuse of federal power to sic the FBI on parents who are asking about what their kids are being taught in school. And that's why I called upon the state Board of Education as the highest elected body in our state to come out against this abuse of federal power. They are the highest elected officials in our state. Having to do with education. They should be coming out and defending Nebraska families in Nebraska parents, they don't have to agree with everything a parent says, but they should absolutely agree that the parent has the right to attend a state board of Education meeting, which many parents did over the course of this last summer or go to a school board meeting and ask questions about what their kids are being taught in school. And that's why I think it's just simply outrageous what the federal government is doing and the Justice Department is doing here is just is just beyond the pale. We don't live in the old soviet union here. This is not what our federal government supposed to be doing. It's not supposed to be this big, heavy handed uh, hand of government coming down and trying to intimidate parents when they're simply trying to find out what their kids are being taught. Yeah. Yes. There is some our great keeper I've read I don't see there for Frances really? Yeah. Is there? Yes. And some that suggests on rights. So with regard Martha's question was, hey, where you get the domestic terrorism? I've read that as far as some of the news articles are being talked about it. So, uh, maybe they didn't use that directly. But why is the FBI being involved in this? The FBI is supposed to be about investigating things that are national in scope. One would presume a local school board meeting is going to be about a local thing. There's no reason for the FBI to be involved in this? So, when you're talking about why is the FBI and I involved? Everybody should be very concerned about why is the FBI involved in this? Why does the Justice Department think the FBI needs to be involved in local school board matters do with the national assoc Oh, thank you. National Association school boards used Domestic terrorist. That's where I got that from. Thank you. Yeah. Andrew and by the way, let me just take a step back. The National Association school boards which was supporting the FBI investigation used that term domestic terrorists go ahead. Andrew. Mhm. So so the question is where are we with regard to the F. O. P. Negotiations with regard to the increased pay for our corrections officers? And just as a reminder, we announced an agreement with nape to make increases to people's pay to be able to help attract and retain talent here in our state. And we've uh made an offer to the F. O. P. Which I think is worth roughly 15 or $16 million and increased pay to their members. And Andrew's asking why is it taking so long we could get this done tomorrow if they just agree. Uh you have to go ask the F. O. P. What's taking them so long. So the question is what's the sticking point? I don't know. We're trying to raise everybody's pay. You should ask the F. O. P. What's the sticking point? Self well we can get this deal done tomorrow. The F. D. Greene ape did. I mean they said this is a good deal for our our members. We're gonna get them their pay raises any other questions. Alright, seeing none. Thank you all very much for being here this afternoon and please remember the good life is calling so go out and watch the video. I think you're gonna be pleased with the way that is presenting our state. Thanks very much. Have a great afternoon. Mhm. Right.