These 7 minutes and 27 seconds start and end with a standing ovation.

The CEO of UK-based Precision Proco, and longtime Dscoop volunteer and community galvanizer, retired this year from his role as Dscoop's global board chair. At Edge Indy, he took the stage and shared a message from the heart — a completely different speech than the one he had originally planned to give.

The sentiment is vintage Jon. The story he shares is relatable, heartfelt and humorous at the same time, a testament to the extreme highs and lows any printing pro might feel over the course of just a few days.

Enjoy the video above, along with the follow-up conversation below about the speech.

Interview by Darin Painter, Dscoop Storyteller

Darin: Hi, Jon! It's always great to catch up with you. Looking back on that remarkable Edge Indy speech you delivered, what do you remember most about that moment?

Jon: I see a man who's walking around and pretending to know what he's talking about <laughs>. No, specifically, all I knew was I was trying to prep a speech, which I never do, and I was finding myself down these sorts of rabbit holes, you know? It was all becoming a little bit preachy. I was even upsetting myself with how pathetic it sounded. On the plane to Indy, I was writing all of these headers out, and it was still formal. But then when I got to the conference, I realized Dscoop is all about the stories. A lot had just happened to me, so I trusted my instinct and decided to just talk about those things in a story.

Darin: Were you nervous going off the cuff?

Jon: I don't love being on stage, and I get really nervous. So when I'm on it, I kind of zone out. I don't really see anything. It's really weird. It was like that until I remember seeing [MindFire VP of Customer Success] Leta Wood. She walked to the front, stood there and blew me a kiss. At that moment, I started locking into individual faces. I got a bit emotional during the speech, and that's because I started seeing all of these people who mean a great deal to me.

Darin: Your words that day were extremely heartfelt and poignant. I remember watching you on stage and feeling like this was also a call to action — the idea that staying relevant, brave and humble embodies what Dscoop is all about, and it's up to all of us to keep that mindset going strong.

Jon: I didn't realize it quite hit the spot until the feedback afterwards. It was humbling. But it also must have hit the right spot because people did feel something. The best thing that's come out of it is we now have a new project with three other Dscoop members who were in the audience and grabbed me straight after, and now we're excited to work on a new initiative that's focused on the community and everything I talked about in the speech. This is what communities are built for. It's a chance to look after one another. I'm excited about the idea!

Darin: How does it feel to be retired from the Dscoop board?

Jon: You get some time back that you get to spend doing other stuff, but I genuinely love Dscoop. It was time to allow other people to do it, though. When it actually happened, there was a sense of achievement and pride, and the response at the end of the speech was pretty special.

Darin: It was special to experience. OK, last question is a fill-in-the-blank: In 10 years, I hope to be __________ ?

Jon: Will I be retired? Will I have sold and be living the dream? Will I be on the yacht and everything's working perfectly? <laughs> What I think is if you spend your time thinking about 10 years from now, life passes you by, and before you know it, you're even older and you've missed all this stuff. I truly believe that by thinking too long about the end goal, you can make wrong decisions based on "What if ...?" and "What if ...?" and "What if ...?" I try and think about what's going on right now. I can say for certain, though, that the next 10 years in our industry are going to be awesome. We have some big things going on with robotics, AI and automation now. For me, I just want to be healthy, I want to be aware and I want to be engaged. I want to have an appetite to learn new stuff. If I'm still doing that in 10 years, I'm hoping the rest will take care of itself.