Nov. 21, 2022

EPISODE 90 | Bob Flynn on Building a Green Business

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EPISODE 90 | Bob Flynn on Building a Green Business
EPISODE 90 | Bob Flynn on Building a Green Business
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Bob Flynn is the co-founder of Green Ride Colorado, which sold in 2018 to become Groome Transportation here in Northern Colorado. Groome specializes in airport-to-city shuttling between Northern Colorado and Denver.

Bob talks about the process, ethos and hard work behind building a transportation business that is environmentally friendly. The momentum that Green Ride created continues with Groome today, and Bob has retired to live a simple life sailing and wandering Canada and the US in his camper van.

Toward the end of this episode, you’ll find challenging debate over recent issues as Curt and Bob demonstrate the art of civil discourse and the right to disagree.

Check out Groome Transportation

The LoCo Experience Podcast is sponsored by: Purpose Driven Wealth Thrivent: Learn more

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Music By: A Brother's Fountain

Transcript
WEBVTT

00:00:00.123 --> 00:00:08.253
My guest on today's episode was Bob Flynn, co-founder of Green Ride Colorado, which sold in 2018 to become Groom Transportation here in northern Colorado.

00:00:09.064 --> 00:00:18.969
Bob and his partner Ray Go Scofield were some of my most favorite clients from my banking days, and arguably one of my most successful startup SBA loans of my career launched and funded during the Great Recession.

00:00:20.408 --> 00:00:25.028
Bob grew up in Newfoundland and later in Labrador City and started his career in the Iron Minds of that.

00:00:26.169 --> 00:00:36.069
We spend a lot of time talking about Newfoundland because it's where Bob mostly makes his home now, and it's completely unknown to me, and I believe to most of our listeners, an engineer by education.

00:00:36.073 --> 00:00:43.779
Bob moved to Colorado with Honeywell, which had recently acquired Loveland Controls and had a 10 plus year career at that organization before a big shift.

00:00:44.348 --> 00:01:01.418
GM and later CEO of Shamrock Transportation offering airport and local taxi service in northern Colorado after the sale of Shamrock created super shuttle, Bob and his CFO at Shamrock Ray Goldfield started Green Ride Colorado with a$250,000 SBA loan from yours.

00:01:01.418 --> 00:01:08.828
Truly, they built momentum over time and focused on organizational culture in helping car drivers learn the value of leaving that car at home.

00:01:10.073 --> 00:01:11.394
over the next nine plus years.

00:01:11.394 --> 00:01:23.424
Green ride slowly and steadily ate super shuttles, market share and their lunch, and they departed the market around 2015 leading to strong growth at Green Ride and an unsolicited acquisition by groom transportation.

00:01:24.474 --> 00:01:28.043
Bob's been sailing and wandering around Canada and the United States in his camper van.

00:01:28.043 --> 00:01:32.813
Since then, living an intentionally simple life and spending time with friends from every step along his.

00:01:33.849 --> 00:01:35.739
Bob and I love each other, but we don't always agree.

00:01:35.739 --> 00:01:38.198
So keep an eye out at the end for some drama.

00:01:39.069 --> 00:01:40.688
Enjoy this episode with Bob Flynn.

00:02:21.032 --> 00:02:22.893
Welcome back to the LO Experience Podcast.

00:02:22.893 --> 00:02:26.312
This is your host, Kurt Bear, and I'm pleased today to be joined by Bob Flint.

00:02:26.763 --> 00:02:34.353
And Bob is the co-founder of Green Ride Colorado, which was one of the most successful small business startup loans that I made when I was a banker.

00:02:34.742 --> 00:02:37.413
And, uh, subsequently sold to Groom Transportation.

00:02:37.413 --> 00:02:41.133
And Bob has been wandering the globe and sailing a lot in the meantime.

00:02:41.133 --> 00:02:42.453
So let's start with that.

00:02:42.457 --> 00:02:44.372
Where was the, the last time you had the boat in the water?

00:02:44.703 --> 00:02:46.953
The last time I had the boat in the water was about two weeks ago.

00:02:47.252 --> 00:02:47.552
Okay.

00:02:47.733 --> 00:02:48.393
Newfoundland?

00:02:48.423 --> 00:02:48.723
Yeah.

00:02:48.752 --> 00:02:54.393
So the northeast coast of Newfoundland in an area called Notre Dame Bay, it was considered the Caribbean of the North.

00:02:54.983 --> 00:02:59.212
So lots of islands, lots of places to drop, anchor, lots of cold water.

00:02:59.242 --> 00:02:59.693
Right.

00:02:59.693 --> 00:03:00.532
That's the north part.

00:03:01.342 --> 00:03:01.913
Fair enough.

00:03:02.212 --> 00:03:08.842
And I remember you're from up there and did you, I feel like you inherited a home or something up there.

00:03:08.842 --> 00:03:12.742
Is that where you live now or you bought a home up there when we were in touch?

00:03:12.747 --> 00:03:12.953
I can't

00:03:12.953 --> 00:03:13.643
remember.

00:03:13.703 --> 00:03:15.473
Yes and yes and yes.

00:03:15.592 --> 00:03:16.612
Us to all of those.

00:03:16.612 --> 00:03:17.962
So I'm originally from Newfoundland.

00:03:18.203 --> 00:03:18.443
Okay.

00:03:18.592 --> 00:03:21.832
I grew up in Labrador, uh, moved to Colorado in 1990.

00:03:22.473 --> 00:03:22.622
Hm.

00:03:22.983 --> 00:03:26.372
And, uh, I have a house, uh, my dad's house in Newfoundland.

00:03:26.432 --> 00:03:26.582
Yeah.

00:03:26.612 --> 00:03:28.052
I also bought a house in Newfoundland.

00:03:28.082 --> 00:03:28.353
Okay.

00:03:28.622 --> 00:03:32.703
I sailed into this little port called, uh, in Lewisport, central part of Newfoundland.

00:03:32.883 --> 00:03:35.193
A few years ago, there was a house for sale.

00:03:35.402 --> 00:03:36.543
It was next to the marina.

00:03:37.263 --> 00:03:38.733
Uh, it was a bank repo.

00:03:38.943 --> 00:03:39.212
Hmm.

00:03:39.483 --> 00:03:41.372
I had it had a lot of the Right it attributes.

00:03:41.377 --> 00:03:42.122
Yeah, it did.

00:03:42.603 --> 00:03:43.112
Location, location,

00:03:43.112 --> 00:03:43.383
location.

00:03:43.383 --> 00:03:47.492
So that's your Caribbean house, quote unquote Canadian Caribbean house.

00:03:47.492 --> 00:03:51.663
And then the other one is the family heritage, which is your main, do you have one that you live in more?

00:03:51.842 --> 00:03:52.293
Uh,

00:03:52.353 --> 00:03:52.893
gosh.

00:03:52.983 --> 00:03:55.473
Uh, when I'm in Newfoundland, I spend a lot of time on my boat.

00:03:55.983 --> 00:03:58.907
And so even though I have a house there, I don't spend a lot of time in the house.

00:03:58.967 --> 00:03:59.177
Yeah.

00:03:59.717 --> 00:04:05.207
The, one of the purposes of having the house was to allow other sailors a place to say and visitors.

00:04:05.298 --> 00:04:05.627
Oh.

00:04:05.927 --> 00:04:11.747
And so in fact, there, uh, maybe a couple of people moving into my house this week or next week for a few weeks.

00:04:12.198 --> 00:04:14.117
Uh, there's a guy working on a boat right now.

00:04:14.117 --> 00:04:18.257
He's renovating it, stripped out the old engine, putting in all electric.

00:04:18.468 --> 00:04:19.697
Really awesome.

00:04:20.452 --> 00:04:21.923
Uh, project that he has going on.

00:04:21.923 --> 00:04:21.983
Yeah.

00:04:22.043 --> 00:04:23.182
Just overwhelming.

00:04:23.242 --> 00:04:24.112
Not your boat, but

00:04:24.117 --> 00:04:24.773
Not my boat.

00:04:24.903 --> 00:04:25.252
No.

00:04:25.312 --> 00:04:25.583
No.

00:04:25.673 --> 00:04:26.572
Oh, what a cool thing.

00:04:26.572 --> 00:04:28.103
Let's, uh, it's a resource.

00:04:28.163 --> 00:04:31.463
Let's work on, now let's describe Newfoundland.

00:04:31.642 --> 00:04:34.973
Like, tell me about the, the culture, the, the territory.

00:04:34.973 --> 00:04:38.543
Nobody that listens to this podcast has probably been up there hardly, or just a few.

00:04:39.023 --> 00:04:39.442
Oh my God.

00:04:39.442 --> 00:04:40.432
We don't have enough time.

00:04:40.612 --> 00:04:43.432
It, it's, it's a, it's a wonderful place.

00:04:43.682 --> 00:04:47.632
A lot of, uh, natural areas, very low population.

00:04:47.872 --> 00:04:50.692
The communities are spread out along the coast of Newfoundland.

00:04:50.963 --> 00:04:53.603
It comes from a fishing, uh, background.

00:04:53.692 --> 00:04:53.783
Mm-hmm.

00:04:54.052 --> 00:04:59.963
And although the fishery died out there more than 30 years ago because of overfishing from around the world.

00:05:00.827 --> 00:05:03.017
Uh, right now it's a wonderful place to visit.

00:05:03.023 --> 00:05:04.577
Great for tourism into summertime.

00:05:04.877 --> 00:05:05.867
Even in the wintertime.

00:05:05.867 --> 00:05:08.088
If you like winter sports, it's a wonderful place to visit.

00:05:08.327 --> 00:05:12.017
The culture is, uh, really connected, strongly, I think, to an Irish culture.

00:05:12.197 --> 00:05:12.377
Hmm.

00:05:12.437 --> 00:05:15.588
Lots of music, lots of friendly people, lots of helpful people.

00:05:16.187 --> 00:05:22.218
Uh, it's amazing to me that I hear stories from visitors all the time, who Salem to some little port.

00:05:22.577 --> 00:05:24.798
They Salem to a port, they meet some locals.

00:05:25.038 --> 00:05:30.437
Next thing you know, they're driving their car or going for a jigs dinner at their house.

00:05:30.557 --> 00:05:30.827
Yeah.

00:05:31.218 --> 00:05:34.158
They're just open, friendly, trusting, cool, wonderful people.

00:05:34.187 --> 00:05:34.548
Yeah.

00:05:34.997 --> 00:05:42.048
If you were gonna contrast it with somewhere in the States, would it be kind of like that northwest area or more like Michigan E or something?

00:05:42.048 --> 00:05:44.598
You can't really, cuz it's not the ocean or maybe even New England.

00:05:44.658 --> 00:05:44.927
Right.

00:05:44.927 --> 00:05:46.427
Like Maine and stuff, but they're not near.

00:05:47.148 --> 00:05:48.408
Open and receiving.

00:05:48.918 --> 00:05:49.697
I, I agree.

00:05:49.697 --> 00:05:56.507
I don't, I think, I think there's a bit of a distrust that's built up over the years in a lot of places that hasn't happened yet in Newfoundland.

00:05:56.507 --> 00:05:56.867
Yeah.

00:05:56.958 --> 00:05:57.348
Yeah.

00:05:57.348 --> 00:05:59.507
And, and so I think it's really hard to compare.

00:05:59.987 --> 00:06:04.877
Look, I love Colorado to, people here are really friendly, so I find the Colorado people to be fantastic.

00:06:05.298 --> 00:06:08.747
When I traveled with Honeywell, I loved coming back to Colorado.

00:06:08.747 --> 00:06:10.187
I loved coming back to Fort Collins.

00:06:10.577 --> 00:06:11.958
I've always connected well with the

00:06:11.958 --> 00:06:12.528
people here.

00:06:12.798 --> 00:06:20.327
I bet like maybe like Minnesota almost, that that Midwestern Nordic kind of heritage might be as close as anything.

00:06:20.627 --> 00:06:20.838
Yeah,

00:06:20.867 --> 00:06:21.468
could be.

00:06:21.468 --> 00:06:25.247
I've, I've traveled through various parts of the US and gotta find good people everywhere.

00:06:25.458 --> 00:06:26.028
That's fair enough.

00:06:26.028 --> 00:06:26.507
Fair enough.

00:06:26.747 --> 00:06:26.927
Yeah.

00:06:27.048 --> 00:06:33.898
So, um, So tell me about, let's actually, before we even get into the green ride story, cuz that's kind of the meat of this one.

00:06:33.898 --> 00:06:41.307
Let's, let's talk about young Bob and what the house that you got that was your father's, did you like live there as a child and everything?

00:06:41.338 --> 00:06:47.548
We didn't actually, uh, so when I was about five years old, we moved to Labrador City from the island part of Newfoundland.

00:06:47.552 --> 00:06:47.668
Mm-hmm.

00:06:48.028 --> 00:06:50.817
and Labrador City had a huge iron or operation.

00:06:51.028 --> 00:06:52.048
So mining operation.

00:06:52.048 --> 00:06:53.757
It was an open pit mining operation.

00:06:53.757 --> 00:06:55.798
My dad moved up there in 1959.

00:06:56.127 --> 00:06:57.987
Mom and I followed in 1961.

00:06:58.288 --> 00:07:01.798
And so essentially I grew up in the north, northern part of Newfoundland.

00:07:02.158 --> 00:07:05.307
Labrador had very, had a, an arctic climate Yeah.

00:07:05.307 --> 00:07:09.088
So minus 30, minus 40 was pretty normal at the win in, during the winter.

00:07:09.088 --> 00:07:09.298
And was

00:07:09.298 --> 00:07:11.788
your dad a minor or was he an engineer or He,

00:07:11.788 --> 00:07:12.927
he worked in the safety department.

00:07:12.987 --> 00:07:13.348
Okay.

00:07:13.468 --> 00:07:15.028
Uh, so he was a safety.

00:07:15.648 --> 00:07:17.088
Uh, support person, trainer,

00:07:17.088 --> 00:07:18.468
inspector, all those things.

00:07:18.677 --> 00:07:18.887
Yeah,

00:07:18.887 --> 00:07:19.247
that's right.

00:07:19.307 --> 00:07:19.517
Yeah.

00:07:19.517 --> 00:07:27.228
Inspected, uh, power distribution systems, inspected, uh, water systems, irrigation systems, all all sorts of things.

00:07:27.257 --> 00:07:27.708
Interesting.

00:07:27.708 --> 00:07:28.247
Did some training.

00:07:28.427 --> 00:07:28.877
Yeah.

00:07:28.882 --> 00:07:28.887
Yeah.

00:07:29.298 --> 00:07:31.288
So it was, uh, a.

00:07:31.877 --> 00:07:36.048
I guess that was the anchor of that community that, that mine was probably.

00:07:36.048 --> 00:07:37.247
And how big a town is Labrador

00:07:37.247 --> 00:07:37.577
City?

00:07:37.788 --> 00:07:40.187
Well, the, the only reason a town is there is because of the mine.

00:07:40.187 --> 00:07:40.398
Fair.

00:07:40.398 --> 00:07:40.817
Absolutely.

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One on all, if the mine goes away, the town goes away.

00:07:42.798 --> 00:07:43.127
Right.

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And the town, I think at its peak maybe had 15,000 people.

00:07:46.668 --> 00:07:46.997
Okay.

00:07:47.002 --> 00:07:50.117
It's probably in the area of, uh, seven, eight, 9,000 people now.

00:07:50.237 --> 00:07:50.478
Yeah.

00:07:50.718 --> 00:07:57.737
They'd drive through their occasionally to stop off and see some good friends of mine, but I haven't spent much time there in the last 30 years.

00:07:57.798 --> 00:07:57.947
And

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is it cold even in the

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summer?

00:07:59.987 --> 00:08:02.267
No, in the summertime it's just comfortably cool.

00:08:02.358 --> 00:08:02.658
Yeah.

00:08:02.718 --> 00:08:03.437
So not cool.

00:08:03.437 --> 00:08:06.528
So temperatures into sixties, seventies, maybe eighties sometimes.

00:08:06.533 --> 00:08:06.798
Yeah.

00:08:06.798 --> 00:08:07.158
Yeah.

00:08:07.247 --> 00:08:09.648
Or in the twenties, mid twenties Celsius.

00:08:10.367 --> 00:08:10.757
Fair enough.

00:08:10.908 --> 00:08:11.088
Yeah.

00:08:11.088 --> 00:08:11.927
That's like a, yeah.

00:08:12.168 --> 00:08:19.218
So you were obviously raised in, in Canada, raised in that system and things like that.

00:08:19.608 --> 00:08:22.367
Um, we were, when we were kids, we were sold.

00:08:22.372 --> 00:08:26.538
You know, by the time you're adults, we're gonna all be on the metric system, so you better learn this stuff.

00:08:26.543 --> 00:08:28.098
And it's basically the same thing.

00:08:28.098 --> 00:08:29.057
Now it seems like.

00:08:29.418 --> 00:08:30.048
Did you.

00:08:30.677 --> 00:08:35.207
Like become more Americanized with your weights and measures after 30 years here?

00:08:35.268 --> 00:08:40.457
Or do you still, are you ambidextrous on your meters and kilograms and all that stuff?

00:08:40.817 --> 00:08:42.077
I'd say I'm ambidextrous.

00:08:42.077 --> 00:08:46.937
Uh, I certainly easily switch back to Celsius and uh, kilometers when I'm in Canada.

00:08:47.057 --> 00:08:47.268
Yeah.

00:08:47.388 --> 00:08:52.878
And in fact, uh, it feels better when I ride my bicycle and I go a hundred kilometers.

00:08:53.268 --> 00:08:55.488
Like that feels better than just going 60 miles.

00:08:55.488 --> 00:08:58.697
Like who wants to just only go 60 miles when you can go a hundred kilometers?

00:08:58.727 --> 00:08:59.118
Fair enough.

00:08:59.508 --> 00:09:00.168
Fair enough.

00:09:00.197 --> 00:09:07.128
When my wife and I went to British Columbia some years ago for our 15th anniversary, we had a BMW convertible as our rental car.

00:09:07.248 --> 00:09:07.427
Yeah.

00:09:07.727 --> 00:09:12.977
And we tweeted all the kilometers per hour signs, like there were miles per hour signs, pretty much It was a hoot.

00:09:12.977 --> 00:09:14.268
That car was the right car for it.

00:09:14.658 --> 00:09:14.807
It

00:09:14.812 --> 00:09:15.227
is a hoot.

00:09:15.528 --> 00:09:17.388
And, and Celsius is so much easier in Fahrenheit.

00:09:17.388 --> 00:09:19.307
Like, uh, gosh, what's the freezing point about zero?

00:09:19.577 --> 00:09:20.207
What's the boiling point?

00:09:20.418 --> 00:09:20.837
It's a hundred.

00:09:20.957 --> 00:09:21.288
That's

00:09:21.288 --> 00:09:21.888
so easy, right?

00:09:21.893 --> 00:09:22.758
Everything from there.

00:09:23.028 --> 00:09:23.327
Yeah.

00:09:23.508 --> 00:09:23.687
Yeah.

00:09:23.717 --> 00:09:25.697
So, um, what kind of a young man was.

00:09:25.748 --> 00:09:26.437
Was Mr.

00:09:26.437 --> 00:09:26.768
Bob.

00:09:26.788 --> 00:09:29.768
And, and what kind of family outside of you have siblings too?

00:09:30.008 --> 00:09:32.048
I, I'd, uh, I'd say he shy and introverted.

00:09:32.138 --> 00:09:32.437
Okay.

00:09:32.498 --> 00:09:32.798
Yeah.

00:09:32.857 --> 00:09:35.918
Uh, not an academic, uh, achiever in any way.

00:09:35.918 --> 00:09:39.878
I, uh, I was one of those kids that, uh, flew under the radar.

00:09:39.883 --> 00:09:40.268
Mm-hmm.

00:09:40.347 --> 00:09:43.087
I think I was one of those kids that barely made it through high school.

00:09:43.508 --> 00:09:46.238
Um, and, and I think I, later on in life, yeah.

00:09:46.268 --> 00:09:52.177
Later, later on as in, uh, in my mid twenties or 23 years old, I went to university, went to college.

00:09:52.207 --> 00:09:52.447
Mm.

00:09:52.628 --> 00:09:57.638
And, uh, that started me on the path, I think, to gaining confidence in Bob Flynn.

00:09:57.788 --> 00:09:58.028
Yeah.

00:09:58.148 --> 00:10:00.548
And understanding that, hey, I can do stuff.

00:10:00.577 --> 00:10:00.847
Yeah.

00:10:00.937 --> 00:10:01.238
Yeah.

00:10:01.298 --> 00:10:01.717
Yeah.

00:10:01.722 --> 00:10:18.452
And, Like to what do you attribute, because the Bob Flynn I've always known was pretty confident and outgoing, or at least seemingly, so even though I think you probably have an introvert side and an extrovert side a little bit, um, why do you think that was?

00:10:18.452 --> 00:10:22.623
Were and do you have siblings or were you the like the youngest kid that didn't get enough attention

00:10:22.623 --> 00:10:22.893
or?

00:10:23.102 --> 00:10:23.643
Oh my gosh.

00:10:23.643 --> 00:10:25.623
I have such a complicated family background.

00:10:25.952 --> 00:10:28.283
So I have, uh, I have four brothers mm-hmm.

00:10:28.472 --> 00:10:32.462
and uh, and I didn't grow up with any of them, so I grew up with my aunt and uncle.

00:10:32.523 --> 00:10:32.942
Oh wow.

00:10:33.033 --> 00:10:36.363
And uh, and so I was really in an adoptive kind of family.

00:10:36.873 --> 00:10:42.842
Uh, I know two of my brothers really well with three of my brothers really well, one that I found when he was in his mid fifties.

00:10:42.932 --> 00:10:43.263
Wow.

00:10:43.533 --> 00:10:47.673
So that's a long, complicated story for another venue.

00:10:47.677 --> 00:10:48.452
We don't have time.

00:10:48.482 --> 00:10:49.383
It's good to go through.

00:10:49.383 --> 00:10:49.763
Yeah, I understand.

00:10:49.768 --> 00:10:52.202
But, uh, but no, I grew up as a single, single child.

00:10:52.322 --> 00:10:52.682
Yeah.

00:10:52.743 --> 00:10:54.123
Essentially, even though I had brothers.

00:10:54.182 --> 00:10:54.543
Yeah.

00:10:54.753 --> 00:10:56.173
And they were nearby and everything and

00:10:56.283 --> 00:10:56.673
whatever.

00:10:56.793 --> 00:11:02.852
One of my brothers was nearby for a while while he was young, but then they moved away and so no, they weren't nearby.

00:11:03.072 --> 00:11:10.173
In fact, uh, the older brother who was adopted from birth was an FBI agent working outta the New York office in New Jersey, office f the fbi.

00:11:10.173 --> 00:11:11.613
And when I met him, that

00:11:11.613 --> 00:11:12.062
was cool.

00:11:12.273 --> 00:11:12.913
Yeah, I bet.

00:11:12.913 --> 00:11:13.312
I bet.

00:11:13.317 --> 00:11:28.712
It's neat to, you know, in my own family, I've watched my siblings grow up and do different things and you know, I'm proud of the people they've become and stuff, but it's gotta be so much different thing to be like, Hey, haven't you know here you are.

00:11:29.432 --> 00:11:30.332
Indeed, indeed.

00:11:30.332 --> 00:11:35.253
You know, the wonderful thing about connecting with Jerry, Jerry Stano, that's my brother's name.

00:11:35.283 --> 00:11:35.493
Okay.

00:11:35.822 --> 00:11:36.482
Adoptive name.

00:11:36.482 --> 00:11:45.812
And, uh, when we met, it was the first time that he had met anybody in his family direct blood relationship, and it was a very, very huge emotion.

00:11:46.832 --> 00:11:47.613
Time for him.

00:11:47.763 --> 00:11:49.863
Yeah, and it was a great emotional time for me.

00:11:49.863 --> 00:11:51.062
We get along so well.

00:11:51.332 --> 00:11:52.082
We really That's so cool.

00:11:52.293 --> 00:11:52.653
Yeah, we

00:11:52.653 --> 00:11:53.403
really connected well.

00:11:53.432 --> 00:11:54.543
Did you initiate that?

00:11:54.548 --> 00:11:56.133
Did you just get curious or how did

00:11:56.133 --> 00:11:56.913
that shake out?

00:11:56.972 --> 00:12:10.143
We both initiated because we were both looking for family members and in the social services program in Newfoundland, if you have two members of the same family looking for family members, even if they're not looking for each other, they'll allow you to get in contact with each other by sending mail.

00:12:10.842 --> 00:12:16.423
Old fashioned male to social services and they would then forward it, and then it would be up to us and whether we contacted each other.

00:12:16.423 --> 00:12:17.052
That's so cool.

00:12:17.113 --> 00:12:17.773
It was so cool.

00:12:17.893 --> 00:12:22.393
Well, I don't wanna get stuck on that too long, but, so you went off to university, you're, you're a big guy.

00:12:22.393 --> 00:12:25.062
You weren't an athlete in high school or any of that kind of stuff.

00:12:25.153 --> 00:12:28.572
Yeah, I was, I was a bit of an athlete, but, uh, again, I think I was a late bloomer.

00:12:28.577 --> 00:12:40.753
I think I became more athletic as I got a little bit older when I, I went to a, a school called College of Fisheries to do electronic technology program and I started playing some sports there, but I played sports before that as well.

00:12:40.993 --> 00:12:47.592
Growing up in Labrador City with the support of the Ironer Company of Canada, we had facilities for all sports.

00:12:47.597 --> 00:12:55.842
Everybody had had access to sports, so we had ball fields, hockey, basketball, volleyball, everything was all there and it was easy to access.

00:12:55.842 --> 00:13:00.403
So I think we're very, very fortunate to have available to us all the things that we did.

00:13:00.462 --> 00:13:07.873
Yeah, probably compared to the more rural agrarian parts that, you know, like you said, they were, it was a fisheries.

00:13:08.222 --> 00:13:10.472
Land for a long time and the fisheries are gone.

00:13:10.472 --> 00:13:11.793
And so what sprouts up in

00:13:12.003 --> 00:13:12.482
its place?

00:13:12.602 --> 00:13:13.442
Yeah, very much so.

00:13:13.447 --> 00:13:16.982
Uh, well, what sprouts up in its place is that a lot of newfound landers love Newfoundland.

00:13:17.312 --> 00:13:17.702
Yeah.

00:13:17.732 --> 00:13:18.873
In, in search for work.

00:13:18.873 --> 00:13:20.582
And so there's a lot of fly in flyout now.

00:13:20.582 --> 00:13:25.623
There's a lot of newfound landers who work in Alberta and my brother Sandy works in British Columbia.

00:13:25.712 --> 00:13:26.253
Interesting.

00:13:26.283 --> 00:13:29.523
And so he'll fly in there for several weeks and fly back to Newfoundland for a few weeks.

00:13:29.643 --> 00:13:29.822
Yeah.

00:13:29.822 --> 00:13:30.452
So there's a lot of

00:13:30.452 --> 00:13:30.543
that.

00:13:30.643 --> 00:13:31.143
It's a culture.

00:13:31.263 --> 00:13:31.743
It is.

00:13:31.832 --> 00:13:37.623
Um, but I guess, you know, it doesn't really offer, like geographically it's pretty removed.

00:13:37.623 --> 00:13:41.462
It doesn't get that much sunshine or warmth to grow things.

00:13:41.582 --> 00:13:46.322
You know, nobody really wants to live in cold places, so you can't really be like, we're gonna be a tech hub.

00:13:46.352 --> 00:13:48.692
Well, Fine, as long as I can work

00:13:48.692 --> 00:13:49.653
remote, you know?

00:13:49.653 --> 00:13:50.013
Yeah.

00:13:50.102 --> 00:13:50.942
Well, interesting though.

00:13:50.942 --> 00:13:53.013
That whole tech area is growing a little bit as well.

00:13:53.222 --> 00:13:59.673
The, the real advantage I think that Newfoundland offers to some other places is the cost of housing can be somewhat less.

00:13:59.702 --> 00:13:59.732
Mm.

00:13:59.732 --> 00:14:00.003
Sure.

00:14:00.003 --> 00:14:02.403
Cost of living is high there because everything is shipped in.

00:14:02.793 --> 00:14:06.003
Uh, but the quality of life there is incredible.

00:14:06.513 --> 00:14:07.592
You, it's not crowded.

00:14:07.682 --> 00:14:14.072
Uh, if you're an outdoors person and you like a wilderness environment, a wild environment, Newfoundland is an incredible place to be.

00:14:14.143 --> 00:14:14.383
Cool.

00:14:14.383 --> 00:14:16.802
And there's still lots of arts and culture as well in the main cities.

00:14:16.923 --> 00:14:17.763
I'll put it on the list.

00:14:18.153 --> 00:14:20.342
I'll play this segment for my wife and I'm pretty sure she'll

00:14:20.342 --> 00:14:21.842
be in, you gotta come for a visit.

00:14:21.847 --> 00:14:22.893
You gotta see for yourself.

00:14:22.952 --> 00:14:23.192
All right.

00:14:23.192 --> 00:14:24.243
You'll put us up for a few days.

00:14:24.302 --> 00:14:26.552
I'll put you up for a few days and we can go sailing.

00:14:26.582 --> 00:14:26.972
Awesome.

00:14:26.972 --> 00:14:27.153
That

00:14:27.153 --> 00:14:27.962
sounds really good.

00:14:28.322 --> 00:14:30.302
So, uh, so where'd you go after college then?

00:14:30.602 --> 00:14:31.503
So, let's see.

00:14:31.682 --> 00:14:32.283
University.

00:14:32.403 --> 00:14:34.472
Yeah, I went to university in, in Montreal.

00:14:34.533 --> 00:14:35.852
Uh, Concordia University.

00:14:35.852 --> 00:14:36.243
Interesting.

00:14:36.302 --> 00:14:37.173
Got an engineering degree.

00:14:37.863 --> 00:14:42.543
And, uh, I found out surprising to me that I loved academics.

00:14:42.543 --> 00:14:52.113
I really enjoyed learning, and I think the best thing that I got out of the university education was that I knew so very little that I needed to keep learning.

00:14:52.413 --> 00:14:52.623
Hmm.

00:14:52.923 --> 00:14:55.173
And I think that was the biggest part of that education.

00:14:55.352 --> 00:14:55.653
Yeah.

00:14:55.773 --> 00:14:56.582
And you learn how to

00:14:56.587 --> 00:14:57.572
learn once.

00:14:58.817 --> 00:15:14.447
learn how little, you know, once you start learning and you get to be even kind of knowledgeable about a subject and you realize how many subjects there are, like there is no smartest person in the world that can have a 1% sure of what there is to know, or a one 1000000th of a percent.

00:15:14.898 --> 00:15:15.498
So true.

00:15:15.798 --> 00:15:21.977
I, I'd learned some sub subject matter and, and as you dig deeper and deeper and deeper, all it did was open it up more and more and more.

00:15:21.977 --> 00:15:24.557
You found out that the more you learned, the less, you know.

00:15:24.618 --> 00:15:25.187
Yeah, yeah.

00:15:25.187 --> 00:15:25.607
Totally.

00:15:25.607 --> 00:15:25.727
Mm-hmm.

00:15:26.192 --> 00:15:32.868
So, um, did that lead into an academic, uh, like did you go on and get a master's or be additional education

00:15:32.868 --> 00:15:33.557
after your engineering?

00:15:33.677 --> 00:15:37.067
Not then, but it certainly planted the seed.

00:15:37.097 --> 00:15:37.278
Yeah.

00:15:37.457 --> 00:15:47.538
You know, even then I thought about going back and maybe getting the law or business or something that was different than engineering that broadened my horizon and allowed me to learn in a different area entirely.

00:15:48.048 --> 00:15:56.268
You know, long time later after working for Honeywell, 4, 0, 10 years or so, maybe less than that, um, did an MBA with cu.

00:15:56.957 --> 00:15:59.717
So I, so I did get a Masters of Business administration,

00:15:59.807 --> 00:16:01.577
uh, for While you were still with Honeywell?

00:16:01.607 --> 00:16:02.837
While I was still with Honeywell, yeah.

00:16:02.842 --> 00:16:03.008
Yeah.

00:16:03.013 --> 00:16:07.788
And so was Honeywell kind of your first big job in your career that led to that?

00:16:07.788 --> 00:16:09.888
Or what was, what did you do after university, I

00:16:09.893 --> 00:16:10.217
guess?

00:16:10.248 --> 00:16:12.528
Well, after university I worked with the Ironer Company of Canada.

00:16:12.533 --> 00:16:13.577
I worked there as an engineer.

00:16:13.727 --> 00:16:13.847
Yeah.

00:16:13.878 --> 00:16:18.738
And previously that I worked as an electrician and a labor and a whole bunch of different roles with the mining company.

00:16:18.798 --> 00:16:18.977
Yep.

00:16:19.158 --> 00:16:25.937
And so working there with them as an engineer and that moved into management roles and so I had quite a few management roles.

00:16:25.937 --> 00:16:26.687
Leadership roles.

00:16:26.748 --> 00:16:26.927
Yeah.

00:16:26.957 --> 00:16:29.087
Supervisor roles With the armor company.

00:16:29.118 --> 00:16:34.307
Did they pick you and say, you're pretty smart, maybe you should be a manager kind of thing?

00:16:34.307 --> 00:16:36.947
Or did you raise your hand or what was that like?

00:16:37.577 --> 00:16:38.807
Not everybody becomes a leader.

00:16:38.807 --> 00:16:42.077
Some people become really good engineers for a long time.

00:16:42.903 --> 00:16:47.253
The, the, you know, it's really interesting to try and figure out how those connections are made.

00:16:47.732 --> 00:16:48.123
Now.

00:16:48.182 --> 00:16:58.023
I played basketball with a team of managers from the Irony Company of Canada So I had personal connections with a whole bunch of people that got to know me in a different venue.

00:16:58.173 --> 00:16:58.383
Yeah.

00:16:58.623 --> 00:17:06.482
And I think their confide in who I was as a person became more important than what I had learned academically.

00:17:06.482 --> 00:17:06.803
Yeah.

00:17:07.232 --> 00:17:07.292
Yeah.

00:17:07.413 --> 00:17:07.982
I like that.

00:17:08.073 --> 00:17:08.432
Yeah.

00:17:08.432 --> 00:17:16.323
And so I think, uh, you know, part, part of our growth and part of our evolution in career in life is who are you as a person?

00:17:16.593 --> 00:17:20.673
And, uh, yeah, the academics are necessary, I think, to get you in the door sometimes.

00:17:20.702 --> 00:17:20.823
Mm-hmm.

00:17:21.182 --> 00:17:21.903
to get you started.

00:17:21.903 --> 00:17:25.712
But to really thrive in anything, you have to be able to get along with people.

00:17:25.712 --> 00:17:28.292
You have to be able to do things, learn things.

00:17:28.353 --> 00:17:28.472
Mm-hmm.

00:17:28.803 --> 00:17:29.522
adjust to new

00:17:29.522 --> 00:17:29.972
things.

00:17:30.752 --> 00:17:32.613
I think that's, uh, super insightful.

00:17:32.853 --> 00:17:33.633
So I was.

00:17:35.012 --> 00:17:37.653
Wondering to myself, like, what does that look like?

00:17:37.653 --> 00:17:39.423
Did they invest in you then?

00:17:39.423 --> 00:17:42.363
Like do they have new managers, trainings and stuff like that?

00:17:42.363 --> 00:17:44.462
Like how do they get you to believe that you're a leader?

00:17:44.972 --> 00:17:45.692
They, they did and

00:17:45.952 --> 00:17:46.232
do it well.

00:17:46.413 --> 00:17:46.563
Yeah.

00:17:46.563 --> 00:17:51.242
They certainly did have training programs, great training programs, and, uh, they invested a lot in their people.

00:17:51.292 --> 00:18:05.313
The, the trouble that the Ironer company of Canada had is that they had to treat their people really, really well to hang onto them, because who wants to go to Labrador and have the rest of their life in this isolated community where the next community is 400 miles away?

00:18:05.403 --> 00:18:05.823
Oof.

00:18:06.063 --> 00:18:06.363
Yeah.

00:18:07.653 --> 00:18:09.182
So that's a challenge right now.

00:18:09.182 --> 00:18:10.292
So they, but they offered a lot.

00:18:10.353 --> 00:18:12.002
You know, we, we really had a high

00:18:12.002 --> 00:18:12.932
quality of life.

00:18:12.962 --> 00:18:13.173
Yeah.

00:18:13.173 --> 00:18:18.663
And if you could do a five or 10 year tour of duty there, that could change how your retirement looks 20 years from now, whatever.

00:18:18.663 --> 00:18:18.962
Right?

00:18:18.992 --> 00:18:19.442
Absolutely

00:18:19.442 --> 00:18:19.623
true.

00:18:19.623 --> 00:18:24.242
And some people would go up there for a few years expecting to make some money, put some things away, get some experience and leave.

00:18:24.393 --> 00:18:24.573
Yep.

00:18:24.932 --> 00:18:26.222
But some would stay Right.

00:18:26.373 --> 00:18:30.182
And they became the core of the operation for many years.

00:18:30.182 --> 00:18:30.512
Yeah.

00:18:30.722 --> 00:18:32.012
Well, I'm from North Dakota.

00:18:32.357 --> 00:18:38.028
As you remember, probably, and, and it's, you know, fairly remote as far as the states go.

00:18:38.087 --> 00:18:38.178
Mm-hmm.

00:18:38.417 --> 00:18:54.647
nothing like what you're talking about, but, you know, for people to move to some of those towns, especially the not Fargo, you know, not Bismarck, but the James Towns, the Devil's Lakes, the May knots, it isn't, uh, it's hard to pull people to there from other places.

00:18:54.678 --> 00:18:55.067
Right?

00:18:55.097 --> 00:18:56.238
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:18:56.238 --> 00:18:57.317
It's not New York City is it?

00:18:57.407 --> 00:18:59.627
But not, and not that that's possibly a good thing,

00:18:59.958 --> 00:19:00.228
right?

00:19:00.438 --> 00:19:02.057
I'd rather live in Labrador for sure.

00:19:02.268 --> 00:19:02.928
Lab city.

00:19:03.557 --> 00:19:14.627
Well, you know, a surprise to the heck outta me sometimes that, uh, people in, in big cities who are stuck in traffic and, and have all kinds of challenges, don't look outside a little bit more and find a place like Newfoundland.

00:19:14.748 --> 00:19:16.847
Find a place like North Dakota totally.

00:19:16.847 --> 00:19:18.137
Where quality of life is high.

00:19:18.258 --> 00:19:18.857
Uh, great.

00:19:18.857 --> 00:19:22.127
And uh, and interactions between people become more personal.

00:19:22.278 --> 00:19:22.788
Totally.

00:19:23.028 --> 00:19:30.228
When I, you know, I think about some of the, the inner city challenges and unemployment and things like that and, and poor educations and.

00:19:31.202 --> 00:19:38.522
Go to North Dakota and work in the oil fields for a while, for$35 an hour, and that will change your life, you know, even if you do it for a few years.

00:19:39.063 --> 00:19:39.242
Mm-hmm.

00:19:39.482 --> 00:19:42.603
Um, but nobody does much, you know, it's only rare.

00:19:43.143 --> 00:19:43.413
Yeah.

00:19:43.623 --> 00:19:45.962
Um, so take me to Honeywell then, I guess.

00:19:45.962 --> 00:19:48.452
Is that the next big step for you, or not quite yet?

00:19:48.932 --> 00:19:50.823
Uh, well it was kind of it yeah.

00:19:50.853 --> 00:19:51.752
Down the road a little bit.

00:19:51.752 --> 00:19:53.252
So I worked at the Iron R Company of Canada.

00:19:53.252 --> 00:19:55.022
Went to another company for a while.

00:19:55.022 --> 00:19:56.133
I was teaching for a little bit.

00:19:56.163 --> 00:19:56.343
Oh.

00:19:56.403 --> 00:19:58.232
So I went teaching at a technical school.

00:19:58.232 --> 00:20:00.692
It was the school that I went to, uh, earlier on.

00:20:00.782 --> 00:20:00.932
Mm-hmm.

00:20:01.173 --> 00:20:10.383
college of Fisheries that turned into the Marine Institute, which is now the College of North Atlantic, which is now part of the, part of the University of Newfoundland Memorial, university of Newfoundland.

00:20:11.103 --> 00:20:12.843
And so I was part of that for a little while.

00:20:12.843 --> 00:20:18.722
Then I went back to the iron or company again, worked as a, as a maintenance supervisor and superintendent.

00:20:19.502 --> 00:20:22.173
And then made connections with a company in Colorado.

00:20:22.623 --> 00:20:27.393
We bought a piece of software from a company in Colorado from Loveland Controls to use at the mine.

00:20:27.992 --> 00:20:32.222
And, uh, and that blossomed into a really great connection.

00:20:32.643 --> 00:20:36.363
Uh, long story short, they offered me a job and moved to Colorado in 1994.

00:20:36.363 --> 00:20:36.722
And how

00:20:36.722 --> 00:20:37.712
long was that?

00:20:38.103 --> 00:20:40.742
Was it a couple years in that time of relationship building?

00:20:40.863 --> 00:20:43.863
Yeah, about six years, actually, probably about five years.

00:20:44.042 --> 00:20:46.653
I went back to the r r company of Canada in 1988.

00:20:47.073 --> 00:20:52.292
Worked for them, found the software, developed a solution, and, uh, got to know these folks in Colorado.

00:20:52.298 --> 00:20:52.532
Yeah.

00:20:53.133 --> 00:20:55.772
And never thinking that I could possibly move to Colorado.

00:20:55.772 --> 00:20:58.982
It just looked like a great place to visit, a great place to retire to.

00:20:59.583 --> 00:21:00.452
And what do you know?

00:21:00.692 --> 00:21:09.512
Yeah, you know, it, it actually demonstrates something that, you know, a lot of times people that are looking for a job like go, go through the job postings.

00:21:09.518 --> 00:21:13.413
And a lot of times I say, you know, the best companies barely ever have to post outside.

00:21:13.742 --> 00:21:18.363
And so go look for a company, let them know that you wanna work for them.

00:21:19.292 --> 00:21:20.972
and then see what happens.

00:21:20.972 --> 00:21:25.663
Cause they will have an opening and if, if they really think that you like them, it'll be a lot easier than if you're one of.

00:21:26.103 --> 00:21:27.813
Bunch of outside applicants that mean nothing.

00:21:27.962 --> 00:21:28.292
Right.

00:21:28.353 --> 00:21:37.863
You know, but ultimately relationships, you know, that Loveland controls may or may not have even had an opening when they first met you, that for somebody like you, but over time it's like, Hey, you know what, what

00:21:37.867 --> 00:21:38.432
about that guy?

00:21:38.673 --> 00:21:38.942
Yeah.

00:21:38.948 --> 00:21:43.323
You know, it's funny, I, I had lots of conversations with Dan Wer, who was the founder of Loveland Controls.

00:21:43.383 --> 00:21:43.472
Mm-hmm.

00:21:44.012 --> 00:21:45.393
uh, Dan and Jane were the founders.

00:21:45.393 --> 00:21:54.182
And, and I look back at my notes sometimes and the notes are just shocking to me actually, because clearly I was interviewing them more than they were interviewing me.

00:21:54.873 --> 00:22:02.133
And I just remember having all these questions for their business, their philosophy, their culture, their interaction with the community and those sorts of things.

00:22:02.133 --> 00:22:04.262
And uh, and I met a really good group of people.

00:22:04.262 --> 00:22:04.442
Yeah.

00:22:04.653 --> 00:22:09.633
In fact, I just had, uh, dinner with, uh, with a group of them, uh, on Saturday.

00:22:09.813 --> 00:22:10.323
That's cool.

00:22:10.383 --> 00:22:14.103
We went to the Rio and Reenacted rehashed some of the old times we had.

00:22:14.192 --> 00:22:14.853
That's pretty cool.

00:22:14.857 --> 00:22:19.772
And so how were you looking to move to the States or was that part of the, part of the draw?

00:22:19.778 --> 00:22:22.022
It wasn't just a cool company that you could learn things with and

00:22:22.022 --> 00:22:22.532
whatever, but.

00:22:22.893 --> 00:22:28.173
Yeah, when I reached out to Dan, my, my statement to him was that, Hey, I love it up here in Labrador.

00:22:28.232 --> 00:22:30.032
Uh, I wanna do something else with my life.

00:22:30.032 --> 00:22:31.202
I wanna explore something else.

00:22:31.202 --> 00:22:40.863
I'd like to move somewhere in the US So if, you know, if a company that's using your software and are looking for someone to help them implement that software, then just let me know and I'll reach out to this company that you're working with.

00:22:41.222 --> 00:22:43.742
And so he came back to me and said, well, how about coming to work for us?

00:22:43.742 --> 00:22:43.982
We have

00:22:43.982 --> 00:22:45.752
lots of companies that want to implement this software.

00:22:46.682 --> 00:22:47.432
I travel over.

00:22:47.702 --> 00:22:48.272
Was that what you

00:22:48.272 --> 00:22:48.813
did then?

00:22:48.813 --> 00:22:49.563
And that's what I did.

00:22:49.563 --> 00:22:50.313
I helped them implement.

00:22:50.492 --> 00:22:52.593
I, I worked in the training, the customer support.

00:22:52.742 --> 00:22:52.982
Yep.

00:22:53.133 --> 00:22:57.452
Uh, part of the Loveland Controls company that was now part of Honeywell.

00:22:57.573 --> 00:22:57.782
Yeah.

00:22:57.782 --> 00:22:58.143
Yeah.

00:22:58.202 --> 00:22:58.413
When I

00:22:58.417 --> 00:22:58.682
joined.

00:22:58.742 --> 00:23:03.708
And so, You were there by the time you joined, it had already been acquired by Honeywell there, it had been,

00:23:03.827 --> 00:23:04.907
it was acquired the year before.

00:23:04.907 --> 00:23:06.048
I think it was acquired in 93.

00:23:06.048 --> 00:23:06.948
I joined in 94.

00:23:06.978 --> 00:23:07.518
Okay, cool.

00:23:07.518 --> 00:23:10.847
We had, we had conversations going on though for about three or four years at that point.

00:23:10.907 --> 00:23:11.238
Yeah,

00:23:11.337 --> 00:23:11.738
yeah.

00:23:11.742 --> 00:23:17.298
And so what did the software do and what was, what was that training element like and who were your customers?

00:23:17.538 --> 00:23:17.718
The

00:23:17.722 --> 00:23:20.417
customers were industrial companies, kind of all around the country.

00:23:20.417 --> 00:23:28.127
So everything from, uh, Anheuser-Busch, uh, breweries to pulp and paper mills, to pharmaceuticals, to metals,

00:23:28.127 --> 00:23:29.897
chemical companies of commodity.

00:23:30.573 --> 00:23:31.563
Things moving.

00:23:31.563 --> 00:23:32.343
Big things.

00:23:32.373 --> 00:23:32.702
Yeah.

00:23:32.702 --> 00:23:33.123
Anything

00:23:33.123 --> 00:23:35.553
with, uh, industrial measurement requirements.

00:23:35.553 --> 00:23:47.972
For example, if they're measuring temperature, flow, pressure, any of those sort of things, our software and hardware or the Loveland software and hardware enabled them to check the accuracy of those instruments and record

00:23:47.972 --> 00:23:50.163
that information, keep an eye on those things really well.

00:23:50.167 --> 00:23:51.272
And whatever became

00:23:51.272 --> 00:23:58.593
really critical in quality control programs, you know, you need to know how well your instruments are measuring your flows and pressures and levels.

00:23:59.038 --> 00:24:06.363
I'm reminded of a conversation with, uh, I, I went to the Budweiser beer tour forever ago when I first moved to town.

00:24:06.363 --> 00:24:09.512
My wife and I, uh, she wasn't even my wife yet, I don't think, actually.

00:24:09.932 --> 00:24:17.762
And they, they said, well, we Beachwood age it and, and we used the Beachwood, you know, from three to five times.

00:24:18.333 --> 00:24:26.762
And I was like, so my question was, you know, do you soak it longer on the Beachwood on the third or fourth or fifth time than you do earlier?

00:24:26.762 --> 00:24:28.323
Because it's got that much more.

00:24:29.178 --> 00:24:30.228
Potency or whatever.

00:24:30.557 --> 00:24:32.837
And she's like, we use the exact same process every time.

00:24:32.837 --> 00:24:34.698
And I'm like, well, it can't be though.

00:24:34.938 --> 00:24:34.998
You

00:24:34.998 --> 00:24:35.178
know,

00:24:36.198 --> 00:24:37.097
there's always a variable.

00:24:38.028 --> 00:24:41.988
And uh, Jill was like giving me the elbow, like she's just a tour guide, baby.

00:24:44.208 --> 00:24:45.167
Anyway, I digress.

00:24:45.347 --> 00:24:49.728
So, um, I guess take me through that, that Honeywell experience here.

00:24:49.728 --> 00:24:53.357
And did you land right in Loveland then or in Fort Collins?

00:24:53.357 --> 00:24:53.928
In effectively,

00:24:54.137 --> 00:24:56.298
the office was actually in Loveland when I first arrived.

00:24:56.327 --> 00:24:59.208
And, uh, less than a year later, we'd moved to Fort Collins.

00:24:59.208 --> 00:25:01.998
The office moved to Fort Collins, Honeywell took over.

00:25:01.998 --> 00:25:04.607
Dan and Jane, the founders of the business went away.

00:25:04.698 --> 00:25:04.788
Mm-hmm.

00:25:05.117 --> 00:25:07.518
And so we became part of the Honeywell organization.

00:25:07.968 --> 00:25:15.557
And uh, and I don't wanna speak too harshly about that, but you take a small company and build it into a huge company.

00:25:15.587 --> 00:25:15.798
Yeah.

00:25:15.917 --> 00:25:19.728
And the small company doesn't get the attention that it had before, obviously.

00:25:19.748 --> 00:25:19.867
Yeah.

00:25:19.867 --> 00:25:19.868
Yeah.

00:25:19.874 --> 00:25:20.837
And there was no way you can do that.

00:25:21.198 --> 00:25:28.097
And Honeywell being a huge company, I think that if you're not a hundred million dollar company, then you really don't count that much.

00:25:28.127 --> 00:25:28.307
Mm-hmm.

00:25:28.577 --> 00:25:35.147
And Loveland Controls is truly a, a five to$10 million company and, and doing really, really well in their niche.

00:25:35.178 --> 00:25:35.597
Right.

00:25:35.778 --> 00:25:40.067
But as part of the big Honeywell organization, uh, I think they was was they founded?

00:25:40.127 --> 00:25:40.488
Yeah.

00:25:40.577 --> 00:25:40.907
Yeah.

00:25:40.907 --> 00:25:43.877
And I think the intent was there from everybody from all sides.

00:25:43.877 --> 00:25:45.528
Honeywell wanted to build in this instrument.

00:25:45.528 --> 00:25:47.478
Calibration documentation seemed like it made sense.

00:25:47.478 --> 00:25:56.837
You know, they wanted to have a competitive offering to Rosemont at the time, so they wanted to fill this portfolio of everything that other companies are offering to make sure they're offering as well.

00:25:56.928 --> 00:25:57.137
Yeah.

00:25:57.288 --> 00:25:58.157
But it was a poor fit.

00:25:58.157 --> 00:26:02.748
You know, taking the culture of a small company and dropping it into a huge company is really

00:26:02.748 --> 00:26:03.198
hard.

00:26:03.198 --> 00:26:05.928
If Loveland had been already a 50 or a hundred million dollar company, it.

00:26:06.532 --> 00:26:07.613
An easier fit in some

00:26:07.613 --> 00:26:07.972
ways.

00:26:08.063 --> 00:26:08.573
Absolutely.

00:26:08.633 --> 00:26:16.492
And there were some people who came through Loveland, I'll call'em Loveland, even though they're Honeywell who tried to turn it into a a hundred million dollar company.

00:26:16.492 --> 00:26:20.363
You know, they had big visions, big ideas, and, and uh, you know, they worked really hard

00:26:20.367 --> 00:26:23.303
at that, but the market maybe just wasn't even there for that scale.

00:26:23.452 --> 00:26:23.873
I think.

00:26:23.873 --> 00:26:27.292
I think the investment, it was really hard to justify.

00:26:27.623 --> 00:26:27.653
Mm.

00:26:27.653 --> 00:26:32.063
Because you could justify investment in a hundred million dollar company and turn it into a$200 million company.

00:26:32.212 --> 00:26:32.452
Right.

00:26:32.482 --> 00:26:36.952
Or you can invest the same amount of investment into a$5 million company and turn it into a$15 million company,

00:26:37.613 --> 00:26:37.792
Right.

00:26:38.032 --> 00:26:40.222
What are you gonna do, Yeah.

00:26:40.222 --> 00:26:41.692
Because it's the flywheel, right?

00:26:41.752 --> 00:26:42.113
It is.

00:26:42.323 --> 00:26:51.923
And uh, so, um, I guess take me, take me through that chapter a little bit and cuz you left Honeywell to come on board with airport.

00:26:52.907 --> 00:26:53.298
Yeah.

00:26:53.357 --> 00:26:56.357
Uh, so I was with, uh, Honeywell for 13 years.

00:26:56.387 --> 00:26:56.718
Okay.

00:26:56.867 --> 00:26:59.688
Uh, started in 94, finished in 2005.

00:26:59.738 --> 00:27:00.538
Is that, is that 13 years?

00:27:00.544 --> 00:27:00.978
Sounds about right.

00:27:01.367 --> 00:27:01.637
Mm-hmm.

00:27:01.968 --> 00:27:02.988
my math is out there a little bit.

00:27:02.988 --> 00:27:16.367
Anyway, uh, so, uh, around 2005, uh, Honeywell, Honeywell, Loveland was really starting to not get the investment and uh, and they were turning into a support organization for the customers that were using the software.

00:27:16.728 --> 00:27:18.557
And so they weren't building much, but not growing, not

00:27:18.557 --> 00:27:19.907
creating, not growing, creating.

00:27:19.907 --> 00:27:20.178
Exactly.

00:27:20.178 --> 00:27:23.748
And that was where your specialty was, was helping new customers

00:27:23.748 --> 00:27:24.857
growth and Yeah.

00:27:24.917 --> 00:27:25.127
Yeah.

00:27:25.127 --> 00:27:27.768
Helping new customers get on board, implement that, that sort of thing.

00:27:27.768 --> 00:27:29.057
Training, all those sorts of things.

00:27:29.063 --> 00:27:29.897
So you were getting board,

00:27:29.958 --> 00:27:30.198
they were,

00:27:30.557 --> 00:27:32.688
well, they were getting, uh, they

00:27:32.688 --> 00:27:33.198
were getting tighter.

00:27:33.198 --> 00:27:33.978
Paid you so much.

00:27:33.978 --> 00:27:34.907
That's exactly right.

00:27:34.907 --> 00:27:35.298
That's it.

00:27:35.897 --> 00:27:36.738
That is exactly right.

00:27:36.738 --> 00:27:40.278
They were looking at ways to cut cost and here's an easy one, right?

00:27:40.577 --> 00:27:40.788
Yeah.

00:27:40.907 --> 00:27:43.978
So tell me about that time, that season where you.

00:27:44.448 --> 00:27:49.877
Like free agent then on the street, or you just put some whispers out and you'd made a lot of relationships around the community.

00:27:49.877 --> 00:27:50.448
Or, for

00:27:50.448 --> 00:27:50.478
a

00:27:50.478 --> 00:27:51.857
little while, I worked with this company.

00:27:51.857 --> 00:27:54.768
We'd met through Honeywell, Intertech, now a company based outta Sweden.

00:27:54.768 --> 00:27:56.387
So I did a little bit of consulting work for them.

00:27:56.748 --> 00:27:57.587
Uh, not much.

00:27:57.587 --> 00:27:59.357
They were, they're a great company, really.

00:27:59.357 --> 00:28:00.528
Uh, fantastic.

00:28:00.532 --> 00:28:07.038
They provided all the support for Loveland software in Europe and so they were really great.

00:28:07.367 --> 00:28:10.218
Um, but around that time as well.

00:28:10.248 --> 00:28:11.147
Where am I going with this?

00:28:11.627 --> 00:28:22.008
Um, stepping back a little bit, when I first moved to Colorado, uh, the lady who sold the house for me or thought I bought the house through had a neighbor.

00:28:22.008 --> 00:28:22.577
Tom Hoffman.

00:28:22.577 --> 00:28:24.107
Tom Hoffman owned Shamrock.

00:28:24.347 --> 00:28:24.678
Yeah.

00:28:24.708 --> 00:28:28.817
And so when I move from Honeywell to nothing Tom said.

00:28:29.657 --> 00:28:31.097
I need an operations manager.

00:28:31.788 --> 00:28:33.377
And I said, that's crazy.

00:28:33.468 --> 00:28:36.978
No I'm, I'm not a transportation guy.

00:28:36.978 --> 00:28:38.117
You're looking for a transportation guy.

00:28:38.123 --> 00:28:39.077
I'm an engineer, right.

00:28:39.347 --> 00:28:40.218
I work in industry.

00:28:40.758 --> 00:28:46.698
So anyway, long story short, I went to work for Tom as a cab driver and as a airport shuttle driver.

00:28:46.938 --> 00:28:51.077
Did that for three months and then said, Tom, okay, I, I see how your business works a little bit.

00:28:51.077 --> 00:28:53.508
Now I'm ready to come in as your operations manager.

00:28:53.627 --> 00:28:54.018
Interesting.

00:28:54.107 --> 00:28:55.847
And so that happened in 2006.

00:28:56.298 --> 00:28:56.778
Okay.

00:28:56.837 --> 00:28:58.548
So after a little moonlighting period

00:28:58.553 --> 00:28:58.968
and whatever.

00:28:58.998 --> 00:28:59.327
Okay.

00:29:00.002 --> 00:29:03.363
And so 2006, uh, you know, worked closely with Tom.

00:29:03.512 --> 00:29:08.222
Uh, we, he taught me a lot about the transportation industry, about his industry.

00:29:08.313 --> 00:29:08.583
Yeah.

00:29:08.643 --> 00:29:11.492
And he did shuttle, he did cabs and he did charter.

00:29:11.492 --> 00:29:13.272
So he, he really hit a lot of it.

00:29:13.272 --> 00:29:15.212
And he worked very closely with regulatory agencies.

00:29:15.212 --> 00:29:16.502
Local regulatory agencies.

00:29:16.508 --> 00:29:16.563
Yeah.

00:29:16.893 --> 00:29:23.792
Well, and he had maybe made an acquisition or something and cuz it was, there was the, something the airport shuttle was one segment in the cab.

00:29:23.792 --> 00:29:25.442
Business was another or something.

00:29:25.448 --> 00:29:25.752
Mm-hmm.

00:29:25.837 --> 00:29:26.163
Yeah.

00:29:26.343 --> 00:29:26.883
Oh my gosh.

00:29:26.883 --> 00:29:27.423
Poor Tom.

00:29:28.113 --> 00:29:36.063
And actually, I guess it worked out in the long run, but just before nine 11, Tom bought airport shuttle, bought them out, brought on their six buses.

00:29:36.063 --> 00:29:37.623
I think they had six buses at the time.

00:29:37.682 --> 00:29:37.982
Yeah.

00:29:37.982 --> 00:29:40.982
Invested a lot of money and then boom, no customers disappear.

00:29:40.982 --> 00:29:41.823
No passengers.

00:29:41.823 --> 00:29:42.633
No passengers.

00:29:42.633 --> 00:29:44.192
So he struggled through that period.

00:29:44.553 --> 00:29:50.823
By the time I joined in 2005, he was starting to become positive again in terms of cash flow, revenue.

00:29:50.823 --> 00:29:52.472
And he was starting to come out of that.

00:29:53.252 --> 00:29:58.803
And then really, really sad, um, a year and a half after I joined them, Tom passed away.

00:29:59.688 --> 00:30:04.938
And so it was a blessing in disguise, I guess, that Tom had brought me on earlier, right?

00:30:05.057 --> 00:30:14.538
Just enough time for me to get to know his operation, and his board of directors trusted me enough to keep me on and let me lead their business.

00:30:14.913 --> 00:30:18.903
For another year and a half until Super shuttle bought Shamrock.

00:30:18.932 --> 00:30:19.623
Yeah, yeah.

00:30:20.492 --> 00:30:22.833
What a, what a tremendous time.

00:30:23.163 --> 00:30:25.472
I'm, I'm assuming he had become a, a friend as

00:30:25.478 --> 00:30:25.563
well.

00:30:25.563 --> 00:30:26.163
Very close friend.

00:30:26.163 --> 00:30:26.403
Yeah.

00:30:26.492 --> 00:30:26.673
Yeah.

00:30:26.673 --> 00:30:34.182
In all those years from the time that I first met him, which was, you know, I arrived, started working in October, 2000, uh, wait, 94.

00:30:34.182 --> 00:30:34.502
94.

00:30:34.712 --> 00:30:37.772
And uh, by November we were playing basketball together.

00:30:37.772 --> 00:30:39.272
In the summertime we played softball together.

00:30:39.272 --> 00:30:42.423
We'd go out and hang out and have beers together after games.

00:30:42.542 --> 00:30:44.073
So yeah, we became good friends.

00:30:44.077 --> 00:30:44.502
Yeah.

00:30:44.883 --> 00:30:48.452
And Tom was one of those incredible people who brought people together.

00:30:48.692 --> 00:30:54.212
Yeah, so all of the friends that I met through sports, really, I met through Tom.

00:30:54.752 --> 00:31:01.343
Well, in the bank where I worked, and it wasn't my client, but the bank where I worked, had a little bit of business.

00:31:02.073 --> 00:31:03.573
Airport Express, I believe.

00:31:03.603 --> 00:31:09.873
Uh, and I don't remember it maybe was a shamrock too, but there was some kind of either a letter of credit or something.

00:31:10.143 --> 00:31:17.343
And that's how, how we got acquainted was probably in those first months after the board was like, you're a man, Bob.

00:31:17.343 --> 00:31:20.432
Can you help best make this work?

00:31:20.853 --> 00:31:22.113
You're absolutely right.

00:31:22.117 --> 00:31:30.303
And, and I don't know where, I wasn't there during the Airport Express, uh, acquisition that Tom had, but right when I came on board, we were working with the capital west.

00:31:30.603 --> 00:31:30.932
Yeah.

00:31:30.992 --> 00:31:36.512
Uh, the, or Shamrock was working with Capital West and, and, and so that was where we made our first connections.

00:31:36.573 --> 00:31:36.813
Yep.

00:31:37.262 --> 00:31:39.272
And, and so it was kind of interesting that.

00:31:40.173 --> 00:31:45.873
You know, one of the things that Ray and I did raise the other founder of Green Ride, Ray Schoolfield.

00:31:45.932 --> 00:31:56.163
And, uh, one of the things that we did, we considered offering and did offer Kathy, Tom's wife, uh, an opportunity for us to buy Right.

00:31:56.167 --> 00:31:56.522
The business.

00:31:56.522 --> 00:31:59.373
Now she made the right decision saying, nah, I want to get out of it.

00:31:59.373 --> 00:32:02.252
I don't wanna hold a note because the only way we could do it is if she held a note.

00:32:02.252 --> 00:32:02.792
Yeah.

00:32:03.002 --> 00:32:06.932
Because you brought Ray on board to really help the operations work right.

00:32:06.992 --> 00:32:07.292
At

00:32:07.413 --> 00:32:08.462
Shamrock Airport.

00:32:08.522 --> 00:32:08.732
Yep.

00:32:08.792 --> 00:32:09.063
Yep.

00:32:09.242 --> 00:32:12.123
Tom, God bless his heart, didn't have a really good financial system.

00:32:12.272 --> 00:32:12.573
Yeah.

00:32:12.663 --> 00:32:21.303
And so what we tried to do is get these various spreadsheets where he was tracking cost and revenue and different, uh, things into a single place.

00:32:21.303 --> 00:32:23.012
And Ray brought all that together.

00:32:23.073 --> 00:32:23.163
Mm-hmm.

00:32:23.403 --> 00:32:24.212
using QuickBooks.

00:32:24.212 --> 00:32:26.222
We got kinda a key performance indicators and all that.

00:32:26.252 --> 00:32:26.792
It was.

00:32:27.053 --> 00:32:29.212
Gave us really clarity for the first time.

00:32:29.212 --> 00:32:32.242
Once Ray got on board, we could see, okay, what's happening with this business?

00:32:32.242 --> 00:32:34.972
Where, where are the adjustments that we need to make?

00:32:34.972 --> 00:32:37.913
Where are the things, what things we need to do and make this financially

00:32:38.393 --> 00:32:38.903
solid?

00:32:38.992 --> 00:32:41.363
And where did Ray come from and did you know him before?

00:32:41.423 --> 00:32:41.752
Yeah.

00:32:41.752 --> 00:32:41.932
Yeah.

00:32:41.932 --> 00:32:42.742
He was a neighbor of mine.

00:32:42.803 --> 00:32:43.133
Okay.

00:32:43.133 --> 00:32:45.923
So I've known Ray since about the time that I moved here as well.

00:32:45.952 --> 00:32:46.373
Okay.

00:32:46.462 --> 00:32:54.113
And about 94, 95, I think Ray, Ray and Ann, their kids showed up and their kids are, uh, very close in age to, to my kids.

00:32:54.143 --> 00:32:55.972
And so our families hung out together.

00:32:56.333 --> 00:32:57.952
We've went on vacation several times together.

00:32:58.042 --> 00:32:58.583
Oh, that's fun.

00:32:58.613 --> 00:32:59.482
It was really great.

00:32:59.813 --> 00:33:03.413
And so here was a person that I knew well, trusted completely.

00:33:03.417 --> 00:33:03.692
Mm-hmm.

00:33:03.873 --> 00:33:11.573
and uh, and to have him come on board, you know, luckily HP was going through some rough times and he was with HP then I think Allegiant.

00:33:11.782 --> 00:33:11.903
Mm-hmm.

00:33:12.298 --> 00:33:15.472
and uh, and uh, and then he had some time available.

00:33:15.563 --> 00:33:15.893
Right.

00:33:15.893 --> 00:33:24.593
And so he was able to join and it was a contract at the beginning, gonna bring you on for a month or two to get these things started, and then that extended a little bit longer.

00:33:25.998 --> 00:33:28.577
And then we started a new business.

00:33:29.178 --> 00:33:40.067
You know, I think before we jump into the green ride launch, I think the thing I would like to point out there is that there's utility in unemployment, like in, in both of your cases.

00:33:40.067 --> 00:33:44.048
Part of the reason that you were here at this place and time is because of kind of unexpected.

00:33:44.883 --> 00:33:46.173
I don't have a job no more.

00:33:46.173 --> 00:33:46.623
You know?

00:33:46.623 --> 00:33:53.373
And if, if there's never any of that, there's so many less things that get sparked and created and new opportunities

00:33:53.377 --> 00:33:54.002
developed.

00:33:54.423 --> 00:33:56.403
That, that is an awesome point.

00:33:56.553 --> 00:33:57.813
And it's so true.

00:33:58.262 --> 00:34:03.163
Look, uh, I think I would've eventually left Honeywell, but I'm not sure, you know, it was comfortable

00:34:03.167 --> 00:34:05.192
and only to go for work for some other corporation.

00:34:05.192 --> 00:34:05.673
Absolutely.

00:34:05.853 --> 00:34:06.063
That

00:34:06.063 --> 00:34:06.303
kinda

00:34:06.303 --> 00:34:06.633
thing.

00:34:06.633 --> 00:34:07.803
You know, it was my comfort zone.

00:34:07.803 --> 00:34:08.672
It was my experience.

00:34:08.672 --> 00:34:11.583
It was where I thought I could get the best value for my time.

00:34:11.643 --> 00:34:11.853
Yeah.

00:34:12.422 --> 00:34:15.753
And I had, uh, I had no entrepreneurial experience.

00:34:15.753 --> 00:34:16.952
No entrepreneurial goals.

00:34:17.012 --> 00:34:17.282
Yeah.

00:34:17.492 --> 00:34:23.733
That, that wasn't part of who I thought I was, uh, until it was thrown in front of me that, Hey buddy, you better do something.

00:34:24.003 --> 00:34:24.213
Yeah.

00:34:24.213 --> 00:34:25.713
Because you got a family to take care of.

00:34:25.713 --> 00:34:29.253
You got things that, uh, you need to make sure we have an income.

00:34:29.913 --> 00:34:34.773
And when I worked with Tom, you know, luckily I did join Tom's Organiz.

00:34:35.523 --> 00:34:39.632
And I felt like there was incredible more opportunity Yeah.

00:34:39.632 --> 00:34:40.382
In that industry, even

00:34:40.387 --> 00:34:44.913
though you probably made 25% less than you did at Honeywell at the end of your career there.

00:34:44.972 --> 00:34:45.032
Yeah.

00:34:45.063 --> 00:34:45.302
Made

00:34:45.302 --> 00:34:48.273
less certainly at the beginning, but as I grew Right, uh, we were able

00:34:48.273 --> 00:34:49.382
to, willing to share that.

00:34:49.443 --> 00:34:49.773
Yeah.

00:34:49.802 --> 00:34:50.103
Cool.

00:34:50.282 --> 00:34:50.432
Yeah.

00:34:50.492 --> 00:34:56.822
So yeah, tell me about the, like that first business plan for Green Ride Colorado.

00:34:56.822 --> 00:35:00.932
And, and I love the timing of it also because probably by the time that you.

00:35:01.952 --> 00:35:06.422
Starting to try to get ready to launch was the 2008 financial crisis.

00:35:06.782 --> 00:35:07.172
Right.

00:35:07.293 --> 00:35:09.092
And there's a lot of things going on around that time.

00:35:09.092 --> 00:35:19.623
And, and really if you look back on it, you have to challenge my, my intelligence or my decision making capabilities because here it is, 2008, the financial crisis is coming on.

00:35:19.742 --> 00:35:22.443
I have a good job with super shuttle, you know, part of the acquisition.

00:35:22.443 --> 00:35:22.773
Right?

00:35:22.893 --> 00:35:34.293
I was the local manager for the super shuttle operation and, uh, my, my direct boss, God bless his heart, uh, Ross Alexander and I had a great conversation and I asked Ross, you know, how's this gonna work?

00:35:34.293 --> 00:35:39.393
And Ross, uh, I love this about him and said straight up said, well, you're gonna work for me.

00:35:39.393 --> 00:35:40.052
You're gonna do what I say.

00:35:40.242 --> 00:35:44.583
He said, okay, It was fantastic.

00:35:45.182 --> 00:35:46.952
You can't have better clarity than that.

00:35:46.983 --> 00:35:49.322
You know where you stand, you know exactly where you stand.

00:35:49.833 --> 00:35:52.952
And it was probably, uh, a couple of weeks after that I resigned.

00:35:53.163 --> 00:35:53.753
Oh, wow.

00:35:53.753 --> 00:35:54.032
And.

00:35:54.452 --> 00:35:58.393
Not because he didn't wanna work for Ross, but because heck, I've been there a year and a half now.

00:35:58.603 --> 00:35:58.782
Yeah.

00:35:58.813 --> 00:36:01.333
Running the business, you know, doing whatever the heck I want.

00:36:01.932 --> 00:36:02.262
Yeah.

00:36:02.262 --> 00:36:03.463
And that was going away.

00:36:03.523 --> 00:36:03.882
Yeah.

00:36:04.032 --> 00:36:10.932
And uh, a couple things happened internally, uh, the way some people were let go as part of the acquisition.

00:36:10.938 --> 00:36:11.802
Ray being one of'em.

00:36:11.802 --> 00:36:12.163
Right.

00:36:12.193 --> 00:36:13.003
Ray was one of them.

00:36:13.003 --> 00:36:13.242
Yeah.

00:36:13.273 --> 00:36:22.182
He was let go and a bunch of other people and, and a bunch of people that I, I thought, uh, that I had a personal responsibility to, but they were let go without my knowledge.

00:36:22.273 --> 00:36:22.632
Yeah.

00:36:23.083 --> 00:36:23.983
And it happened once

00:36:23.983 --> 00:36:25.512
without even your discussion.

00:36:25.543 --> 00:36:26.713
Without discussion whatsoever.

00:36:26.713 --> 00:36:29.172
Talk to me about it and maybe you, and let me be the one that has

00:36:29.172 --> 00:36:29.592
to tell him.

00:36:29.682 --> 00:36:30.132
Absolutely.

00:36:30.132 --> 00:36:30.552
Right.

00:36:30.557 --> 00:36:32.682
That, that was, that was for me like a basic requirement.

00:36:32.682 --> 00:36:40.302
So I confronted the, the current managers at the time and said, you know, if this, I can't have it this way, I can't.

00:36:40.422 --> 00:36:41.623
It's gonna be, I'm out.

00:36:41.833 --> 00:36:42.612
And then, and then it happened again.

00:36:42.822 --> 00:36:43.063
Yeah.

00:36:43.092 --> 00:36:43.753
And then I resigned.

00:36:43.842 --> 00:36:44.083
Yeah.

00:36:44.382 --> 00:36:44.563
Yeah.

00:36:45.132 --> 00:36:51.282
So, but you know, you think about the lack of intelligence around that cuz here I am resigning with.

00:36:51.768 --> 00:36:53.538
The financial crisis coming on.

00:36:53.688 --> 00:36:53.898
Yep.

00:36:53.927 --> 00:36:55.547
I had good be good benefits.

00:36:55.728 --> 00:36:57.347
I had a great salary, I had a steady job.

00:36:57.347 --> 00:36:58.338
Like how stupid is that?

00:36:58.668 --> 00:37:08.568
You know, there's a, I love competing, uh, wisdom bits and there's one that I always think about the same cuz I had a, you know, a good job as well shortly thereafter.

00:37:08.568 --> 00:37:11.027
And there's a Fortune favors the bold.

00:37:11.297 --> 00:37:11.507
Mm-hmm.

00:37:11.987 --> 00:37:15.197
and Fools Rush in They're

00:37:15.197 --> 00:37:15.827
both true.

00:37:15.887 --> 00:37:16.208
Yeah.

00:37:16.213 --> 00:37:16.697
Yeah.

00:37:16.697 --> 00:37:17.777
And I'm not sure which one I was

00:37:18.612 --> 00:37:18.978
Right.

00:37:19.518 --> 00:37:27.797
Well, you know, you had a model, you had an interesting vision because the, the, a shuttle business like you guys created.

00:37:27.802 --> 00:37:36.467
And maybe, maybe we can have you z us out a little bit here and describe kind of the vision for what the reason for Green Ride Colorado.

00:37:37.288 --> 00:37:39.077
to be, to exist was mm-hmm.

00:37:39.157 --> 00:37:44.057
because it, in large part, it looked to the marketplace like it did a lot of the same things that Supers shuttle did.

00:37:44.327 --> 00:37:44.657
Mm-hmm.

00:37:45.052 --> 00:37:45.197
Yeah.

00:37:45.202 --> 00:37:45.378
Yeah.

00:37:45.407 --> 00:37:46.188
And I, and I agree.

00:37:46.188 --> 00:37:51.947
I think for the large part it did a lot of, a lot of the same things Supers shuttle did, when you look at they were transporting people to the airport.

00:37:52.038 --> 00:37:52.248
Yeah.

00:37:52.608 --> 00:38:04.038
Uh, what I thought, and what I felt, uh, while I was with Shamrock and while I was with Super Shuttle, is that there was an opportunity for a lot more people to get out of the curves if the level of service continued to increase.

00:38:04.043 --> 00:38:07.518
And I felt like we were making things better service, better quality, better.

00:38:07.637 --> 00:38:07.697
Yeah.

00:38:07.998 --> 00:38:08.507
The equipment.

00:38:09.842 --> 00:38:20.132
And I thought if people had a real high confidence in being able to be delivered to the airport dependably at a cost effective manner, then we could grow that business so much more Yeah.

00:38:20.193 --> 00:38:21.483
Than it was currently serving.

00:38:21.753 --> 00:38:22.413
And Yeah.

00:38:22.413 --> 00:38:24.572
It had a, had a 2% market share and we needed 10.

00:38:24.693 --> 00:38:25.293
Yeah, exactly.

00:38:25.293 --> 00:38:25.503
Right.

00:38:25.507 --> 00:38:29.463
Of all the people that drive the airport and park in the covered parking for 10 days, whatever.

00:38:29.612 --> 00:38:30.092
Yeah.

00:38:30.152 --> 00:38:37.322
And all, all you really have to do is make sure that hey, they, they shouldn't have to stay at the airport waiting for an hour or two hours or three hours for a, for a shuttle ride.

00:38:37.327 --> 00:38:38.702
They should be able to get on quickly.

00:38:38.972 --> 00:38:43.293
They should get as quick as reasonably possible, you know, to door to door service.

00:38:43.322 --> 00:38:43.503
Mm-hmm.

00:38:43.952 --> 00:38:58.773
And, uh, I just thought that there was a huge opportunity to, to grow and, and if one company wasn't gonna grow, then it probably actually is better to have a second company that helps growth because it really gives, I think it even help the other company grow.

00:38:58.922 --> 00:38:59.492
I think it does.

00:38:59.612 --> 00:39:00.152
I think it does.

00:39:00.157 --> 00:39:06.992
I think there's models that show that when McDonald's set up at a one corner and, and a Burger King set up at the other, they

00:39:06.992 --> 00:39:07.682
both did better.

00:39:07.713 --> 00:39:08.012
Right.

00:39:08.342 --> 00:39:08.552
Yeah.

00:39:08.612 --> 00:39:10.893
And it makes it more likely for the Wendy's to move down the street too.

00:39:10.893 --> 00:39:11.552
It does,

00:39:11.612 --> 00:39:11.882
yeah.

00:39:11.882 --> 00:39:13.112
It grows a market.

00:39:13.112 --> 00:39:19.922
And I think people, early on I reached out to super shuttle and they didn't wanna talk to us, which is fine.

00:39:20.043 --> 00:39:24.722
Uh, but what I would've loved to do is have our schedules half an hour apart, right?

00:39:25.202 --> 00:39:30.483
And then, and say, look, take super shuttle, take us, but take, take a shuttle.

00:39:30.483 --> 00:39:31.233
Take a shuttle.

00:39:31.472 --> 00:39:31.713
Right.

00:39:31.713 --> 00:39:32.313
Leave your car at home.

00:39:32.402 --> 00:39:38.402
Well, and the, the secret to that whole business in some ways is don't drive empty buses to the airport.

00:39:38.402 --> 00:39:39.362
If you can avoid it.

00:39:39.543 --> 00:39:41.793
And you know, the more times you can have.

00:39:42.333 --> 00:39:46.322
Seven or 10 out of 12 seats full or 12 the better.

00:39:46.353 --> 00:39:46.623
Right.

00:39:46.623 --> 00:39:47.943
Without leaving too many people behind.

00:39:48.003 --> 00:39:50.282
So it's really quite a logistical puzzle.

00:39:50.463 --> 00:39:50.882
Well, we,

00:39:50.882 --> 00:39:52.293
we, we took it a little further than that.

00:39:52.353 --> 00:39:59.163
We didn't wanna leave anybody behind because the, the feeling was that once you leave a person behind, they ain't never coming back.

00:39:59.672 --> 00:40:00.512
They're never coming back.

00:40:00.512 --> 00:40:01.503
So you gotta make sure you're there.

00:40:01.503 --> 00:40:03.932
So you gotta have built in over capacity.

00:40:04.052 --> 00:40:04.202
Yeah.

00:40:04.202 --> 00:40:06.032
If you really want to serve the market.

00:40:06.393 --> 00:40:06.722
Wow.

00:40:06.782 --> 00:40:08.373
So you gotta be focused on that

00:40:08.373 --> 00:40:08.793
customer.

00:40:08.853 --> 00:40:13.472
There's a bunch of money if you're too empty and if you're too full, then you piss people off and Yeah.

00:40:13.652 --> 00:40:15.932
But then you gotta have the patience, you know you're gonna grow.

00:40:16.083 --> 00:40:16.413
Right.

00:40:16.472 --> 00:40:27.293
And, and, The fear that I had and the fear, fear of failure was, was very real in the first few years because we had over capacity, we had lots of empty seats and very few passengers.

00:40:27.322 --> 00:40:27.413
Mm-hmm.

00:40:27.802 --> 00:40:31.702
But the vision was that we're gonna serve this market and we're gonna serve it.

00:40:31.702 --> 00:40:32.123
Right.

00:40:32.393 --> 00:40:37.882
And we're gonna not give anybody an excuse for taking their own car or having their son come pick them up.

00:40:38.663 --> 00:40:47.152
There's these great, great, I wish I could remember all the great stories, but I remember a guy coming to me one time saying, my 95 year old father won't ride with us anymore.

00:40:47.152 --> 00:40:48.172
He likes green ride.

00:40:48.172 --> 00:40:49.672
He wants to be picked up by green ride.

00:40:49.913 --> 00:40:50.543
That's a win.

00:40:50.782 --> 00:40:51.052
Right?

00:40:51.083 --> 00:40:51.922
That's a huge win for

00:40:51.922 --> 00:40:52.342
everybody.

00:40:52.342 --> 00:40:52.402
Yeah.

00:40:52.432 --> 00:41:07.443
Do you want your like, and like my wife really likes it when I drop her off at the airport and pick her up, and I still do that a lot of times, but, but frankly, for$50, You know, it's 30, 25 bucks worth of gas these days.

00:41:07.443 --> 00:41:07.802
That's right.

00:41:07.802 --> 00:41:08.762
At current prices.

00:41:08.762 --> 00:41:13.443
And, and my time has to be worth more than$5 an hour, you know, and, and whatever.

00:41:13.447 --> 00:41:14.222
So yeah.

00:41:14.253 --> 00:41:14.523
Yeah.

00:41:14.672 --> 00:41:22.143
It was, you know, it was so tough to, uh, to see people being left behind and, or, and we had a really hard time late at night.

00:41:22.148 --> 00:41:29.463
You know, a bus, a flight gets in a little bit late and our last shuttle is a one, and we'd hang out for 10 or 15 minutes after one o'clock to catch people.

00:41:29.733 --> 00:41:30.963
But if you get there at one 30, like we.

00:41:31.393 --> 00:41:31.932
Right.

00:41:31.992 --> 00:41:33.043
And that was painful.

00:41:33.043 --> 00:41:35.233
But then our next post was gonna be there at three o'clock in the morning.

00:41:35.322 --> 00:41:35.532
Right.

00:41:35.682 --> 00:41:39.523
So it wasn't too, too bad and it was rare, but you know, that happened.

00:41:39.523 --> 00:41:40.123
Yeah.

00:41:40.128 --> 00:41:40.163
Yeah.

00:41:40.182 --> 00:41:44.682
There, there was a, there was a level of service that we didn't provide, but we, we provided darn good

00:41:44.682 --> 00:41:44.922
service.

00:41:44.927 --> 00:41:45.523
Yeah, for sure.

00:41:45.523 --> 00:41:47.472
That was part of your, your growth model.

00:41:47.472 --> 00:41:54.643
And I remember it was one of the more interesting SBA loans that I, that I did because we, it was a, 250,000.

00:41:54.643 --> 00:41:55.543
250,000.

00:41:55.543 --> 00:41:55.693
Yeah.

00:41:55.753 --> 00:41:56.083
Right.

00:41:56.083 --> 00:42:04.123
And, and we bought like six or eight broken down old 12 passenger buses that Michael Berger found for you guys Mostly.

00:42:04.242 --> 00:42:04.452
Yeah.

00:42:04.452 --> 00:42:05.353
Six bucks bus.

00:42:05.563 --> 00:42:11.023
We bought six initially and there was a couple of 20 some passenger buses in there, a couple of bigger ones, and a 19 passenger bus.

00:42:11.027 --> 00:42:12.583
And uh, oh my God.

00:42:12.583 --> 00:42:16.242
Those things were, uh, they were life savers for us because we had capacity.

00:42:16.302 --> 00:42:16.572
Yeah.

00:42:16.753 --> 00:42:20.202
And, and they were expensive to operate, but they allowed us to start.

00:42:20.782 --> 00:42:21.052
Yep.

00:42:21.052 --> 00:42:21.233
And they

00:42:21.233 --> 00:42:22.463
allowed us to provide the service.

00:42:22.463 --> 00:42:26.632
And I think about a, a almost half of the budget of the SBA loan was for marketing.

00:42:27.443 --> 00:42:27.983
Uh, yeah.

00:42:27.992 --> 00:42:30.802
It was, you know, or, or some, 30% or 20%.

00:42:30.802 --> 00:42:32.182
It was like, cuz you gotta get the word out.

00:42:32.182 --> 00:42:34.132
You can't have all these buses ready for duty.

00:42:34.193 --> 00:42:35.543
And then not people in, well, no,

00:42:35.543 --> 00:42:36.682
I gotta, I gotta correct you there.

00:42:36.682 --> 00:42:38.902
You know, we, we, we didn't spend much money on marketing.

00:42:39.143 --> 00:42:39.563
Oh yeah.

00:42:39.563 --> 00:42:42.233
You know, crazy because we were, we were afraid to market.

00:42:42.233 --> 00:42:42.952
It was gor.

00:42:43.217 --> 00:42:45.887
Yeah, we were, it was gorilla tactics, it was word of mouth.

00:42:45.887 --> 00:42:46.878
We gave a discount.

00:42:47.117 --> 00:42:52.188
If you traveled with us, we'd give you a$5 discount for you and for whoever new person you bring in.

00:42:52.338 --> 00:42:53.447
So you became our market.

00:42:53.478 --> 00:42:53.797
Yeah.

00:42:53.802 --> 00:42:53.898
Yeah.

00:42:53.898 --> 00:42:55.128
And so there's a cost to that.

00:42:55.128 --> 00:42:57.887
There's a$5 cost to you and a$5 cost to the next new passenger.

00:42:57.893 --> 00:42:58.847
But that was our growth model.

00:42:58.853 --> 00:42:59.447
That was part of it.

00:42:59.447 --> 00:42:59.507
Yeah.

00:43:00.047 --> 00:43:07.277
We did, uh, doorknob hangers ran around to houses in apartment building to put door doorknob hangers out there, advertising green ride.

00:43:07.487 --> 00:43:12.648
We did go with, uh, one of the, one of the marketing groups for, I think it was 1600 bucks a month for a little while.

00:43:12.648 --> 00:43:13.757
And I forget what, like

00:43:13.762 --> 00:43:15.467
search engine optimization

00:43:15.472 --> 00:43:15.838
and stuff?

00:43:15.838 --> 00:43:18.467
No, it, it was those little things you get in the mail, you know, it's a

00:43:18.467 --> 00:43:19.547
packet of Oh yeah.

00:43:19.547 --> 00:43:21.228
The, the value pack or something.

00:43:21.228 --> 00:43:21.378
Yeah.

00:43:21.438 --> 00:43:21.737
It, it

00:43:21.737 --> 00:43:22.367
wasn't value pack.

00:43:22.367 --> 00:43:22.878
It was like that.

00:43:22.938 --> 00:43:23.637
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:43:23.637 --> 00:43:23.757
Yeah.

00:43:23.762 --> 00:43:24.137
Fair enough.

00:43:24.197 --> 00:43:24.378
Yeah.

00:43:24.378 --> 00:43:27.137
And so we did invest a little bit of money there and did that a couple of times.

00:43:27.143 --> 00:43:35.507
And, um, but, but we, but we best was word of mouth though, but we, yeah, we were afraid to market because we, we were afraid we would grow too fast.

00:43:35.688 --> 00:43:36.197
Mm.

00:43:36.217 --> 00:43:38.208
And we, and that was another danger that we.

00:43:38.532 --> 00:43:41.052
Felt we had, whether it was true or not, we don't know, of course.

00:43:41.112 --> 00:43:41.202
Mm-hmm.

00:43:41.443 --> 00:43:45.523
that if we, uh, offered services and couldn't deliver Right.

00:43:45.523 --> 00:43:47.443
That we would turn people away and they wouldn't come back.

00:43:47.443 --> 00:43:47.682
Right.

00:43:47.742 --> 00:43:49.722
So we were growing slowly and organic.

00:43:49.722 --> 00:43:51.253
Well, we're growing really, really fast.

00:43:51.282 --> 00:43:53.072
I mean, we're growing fast enough, right?

00:43:53.262 --> 00:43:54.762
And we didn't need to grow faster.

00:43:54.793 --> 00:43:58.422
I mean, that, that was the key to us avoiding marketing early on.

00:43:58.422 --> 00:43:58.722
Yeah.

00:43:58.873 --> 00:43:59.313
Yeah.

00:43:59.318 --> 00:44:00.672
Do you remember that growth curve?

00:44:00.943 --> 00:44:04.963
Uh, like, like what was your first year full year revenues kinda thing?

00:44:04.963 --> 00:44:06.432
Well, first, and, and who were those first hires?

00:44:06.432 --> 00:44:07.782
Let's talk about that a little bit too.

00:44:07.813 --> 00:44:08.023
Yeah,

00:44:08.023 --> 00:44:08.532
for sure.

00:44:08.532 --> 00:44:08.862
Yeah.

00:44:09.043 --> 00:44:12.793
Well, the, the first year of growth, well, from first to second year, 283%.

00:44:13.398 --> 00:44:16.068
Okay, but that's not fair because you're so small to first

00:44:16.447 --> 00:44:17.297
like is irrelevant.

00:44:17.387 --> 00:44:17.447
Yeah.

00:44:17.447 --> 00:44:21.257
I did 200% of your growth for a few years when Local first started, but now it's, yeah.

00:44:21.338 --> 00:44:21.577
Not

00:44:21.577 --> 00:44:21.938
your life.

00:44:21.943 --> 00:44:26.358
But when it started leveling up, we're still doing 15, 20, 30% growth year over year.

00:44:26.597 --> 00:44:31.398
And, and we, we got recognition for that from, oh, what's the organization?

00:44:31.458 --> 00:44:32.478
Uh, the Mercury 100.

00:44:32.478 --> 00:44:33.737
We were part of the Mercury 100.

00:44:33.742 --> 00:44:37.128
So we were in the top one, two, or three, four or five for 10 years.

00:44:37.398 --> 00:44:37.637
Right.

00:44:37.637 --> 00:44:40.248
I think the worst we came in that 10 year period was 10th.

00:44:40.307 --> 00:44:40.577
Wow.

00:44:40.838 --> 00:44:45.228
And, and so that was pretty amazing to be in, in our, in our revenue category.

00:44:45.288 --> 00:44:45.588
Yeah.

00:44:45.617 --> 00:44:48.557
To be one, two, or three for many, many years.

00:44:48.563 --> 00:44:48.858
That's pretty cool.

00:44:48.858 --> 00:44:49.338
That

00:44:49.338 --> 00:44:49.757
was pretty cool.

00:44:49.762 --> 00:44:50.387
That was pretty cool.

00:44:50.447 --> 00:44:57.077
I wasn't big enough yet when the last time I thought about that thing, and then I, I might still be eligible.

00:44:57.077 --> 00:44:57.947
I don't know, but Yeah.

00:44:58.038 --> 00:45:00.498
But I think 500,000 revenues is the minimum.

00:45:00.617 --> 00:45:01.458
Is that what it's now?

00:45:01.463 --> 00:45:01.697
Yeah.

00:45:01.697 --> 00:45:04.248
So I might get there this year if I work hard.

00:45:04.248 --> 00:45:04.697
We'll see.

00:45:05.432 --> 00:45:09.063
There, there was a year we came number one and they didn't have things categorized.

00:45:09.063 --> 00:45:10.202
And I think it was around the time of that.

00:45:10.322 --> 00:45:10.652
Right.

00:45:10.652 --> 00:45:12.663
And it was with our 283% closing.

00:45:12.713 --> 00:45:13.472
Right, right.

00:45:13.503 --> 00:45:13.773
Okay.

00:45:13.773 --> 00:45:14.583
That's not really right.

00:45:15.362 --> 00:45:15.842
Okay, we'll take

00:45:16.262 --> 00:45:16.773
a small number.

00:45:16.773 --> 00:45:17.132
Yeah.

00:45:17.733 --> 00:45:19.503
So what were some of the dynamics?

00:45:19.507 --> 00:45:29.952
One of the things I remember, uh, cuz I was, which was, I think it was ethically just fine, but I was a, like an unofficial advisory board member, or not an unofficial mm-hmm.

00:45:30.038 --> 00:45:30.902
unofficial advisory board.

00:45:30.902 --> 00:45:34.773
So I'd come in even for some of your like meetings and stuff.

00:45:34.773 --> 00:45:34.893
You,

00:45:34.893 --> 00:45:35.882
you and Chris Hutchson.

00:45:35.913 --> 00:45:36.242
Yep.

00:45:36.333 --> 00:45:36.543
Yeah.

00:45:36.632 --> 00:45:37.862
And Yeah.

00:45:37.952 --> 00:45:38.373
Yep, yep.

00:45:38.432 --> 00:45:38.882
That's right.

00:45:38.887 --> 00:45:40.592
That's probably how I know Chris actually too.

00:45:40.592 --> 00:45:42.963
I don't, I don't know that I would've known him before that.

00:45:42.963 --> 00:45:43.503
I'm not sure.

00:45:43.802 --> 00:45:52.112
Anyway, so what, what I was gonna ask is like, who became those initial team members and like, how did you.

00:45:52.742 --> 00:46:04.172
like was it just a recreation of the systems that you had kind of seen at your previous location or did you like kind of start fresh plate on that and and how did you decide?

00:46:04.293 --> 00:46:05.523
Yeah, I think we started Fresh Plate.

00:46:05.552 --> 00:46:06.512
Honestly, I think we did.

00:46:06.603 --> 00:46:14.313
I think there's a lot of things we did that were innovative from a, from an organizational and from a people, uh, re from a respecting people perspective.

00:46:14.742 --> 00:46:26.862
Uh, I think, uh, I'd read too many silly books and I don't think they're silly at all, but silly books about, uh, how you treat people, you treat people well, you take care of your business by taking care of your people, your people take care of your business.

00:46:26.862 --> 00:46:27.793
All those sort of things.

00:46:27.822 --> 00:46:28.152
Yeah.

00:46:28.152 --> 00:46:33.313
You know, and uh, and I think that really was the core of Green Ride that people felt they were part of it.

00:46:33.342 --> 00:46:33.402
Yeah.

00:46:33.402 --> 00:46:36.762
They weren't, they weren't listening to Bob and Ray giving them direction on everything.

00:46:36.853 --> 00:46:37.152
Totally.

00:46:37.152 --> 00:46:40.302
They're, listen, listening to Bob and Ray, giving them boundaries.

00:46:40.782 --> 00:46:45.342
You know, the boundaries are, we trust you, we expect you to provide great service.

00:46:45.492 --> 00:46:49.632
We want you to be caring about this business and about our customers.

00:46:49.753 --> 00:46:49.902
Yeah.

00:46:49.992 --> 00:46:54.432
And you figure out what's right, within those boundaries.

00:46:54.463 --> 00:46:54.853
Yeah.

00:46:54.858 --> 00:46:55.032
Yeah.

00:46:55.302 --> 00:46:56.742
And, uh, you know, that's, that.

00:46:56.742 --> 00:46:57.672
I think that's a recipe

00:46:57.672 --> 00:46:58.003
for growth.

00:46:58.032 --> 00:47:00.463
Well, and I think, you know, you were probably.

00:47:01.188 --> 00:47:05.208
you had happier drivers at 15 bucks an hour than super shuttle had at 20 bucks an hour.

00:47:05.268 --> 00:47:05.327
I

00:47:05.327 --> 00:47:06.617
was, I was surprised.

00:47:06.617 --> 00:47:07.788
And I shouldn't have been surprised.

00:47:07.788 --> 00:47:11.177
I guess people would ask me over and over again, like, where'd you get such great people?

00:47:11.177 --> 00:47:12.088
Where'd you get such great people?

00:47:12.092 --> 00:47:12.347
Right?

00:47:12.737 --> 00:47:19.398
I said, well, you know, if they come in there and they say that they're good people and they wanna do a good job, you let'em I like it.

00:47:19.938 --> 00:47:20.777
Don't tie their hands.

00:47:20.777 --> 00:47:22.668
Don't put a whole bunch of constraints around them.

00:47:22.668 --> 00:47:24.858
Don't be looking over their shoulder all the time.

00:47:24.858 --> 00:47:25.547
Give them guidance.

00:47:25.547 --> 00:47:26.177
Give them training.

00:47:26.177 --> 00:47:27.168
Give them expectations.

00:47:27.168 --> 00:47:28.097
Give them knowledge.

00:47:28.188 --> 00:47:28.398
Yeah.

00:47:28.788 --> 00:47:31.487
But don't, uh, and don't beat'em up when they make a mistake.

00:47:31.487 --> 00:47:33.018
They're not gonna, everybody's gonna make mistake.

00:47:33.077 --> 00:47:33.347
Yeah.

00:47:33.737 --> 00:47:34.697
Uh, and support them.

00:47:34.702 --> 00:47:36.077
And we can learn from the mistakes.

00:47:36.137 --> 00:47:36.288
Yeah.

00:47:36.293 --> 00:47:38.208
Like tell me your, tell me your mistakes.

00:47:38.237 --> 00:47:38.507
Yeah.

00:47:38.597 --> 00:47:39.617
So we can learn.

00:47:40.682 --> 00:47:42.302
And we might even share it with others so they can learn.

00:47:42.333 --> 00:47:42.813
Absolutely.

00:47:42.873 --> 00:47:43.112
Yeah.

00:47:43.143 --> 00:47:43.922
We did that lots.

00:47:43.922 --> 00:47:44.583
That's pretty cool.

00:47:44.882 --> 00:47:50.913
So, going back to your question a little while ago about our initial employees, we had, we did job fairs.

00:47:50.913 --> 00:47:53.432
We used to go down to the, uh, to the boar.

00:47:53.643 --> 00:47:55.172
Uh, the, the wild boar.

00:47:55.177 --> 00:47:55.983
Wild boar, yeah.

00:47:55.983 --> 00:47:56.193
Yep.

00:47:56.282 --> 00:47:57.063
That was our hangout.

00:47:57.213 --> 00:47:57.333
Yeah.

00:47:57.338 --> 00:47:58.202
The, the wild boar.

00:47:58.742 --> 00:47:59.523
See, we'd go there.

00:47:59.523 --> 00:48:00.572
We have our meetings in there.

00:48:00.572 --> 00:48:02.072
We had our job fairs in there.

00:48:02.103 --> 00:48:02.282
Right.

00:48:02.702 --> 00:48:04.682
And I remember having job fairs.

00:48:04.682 --> 00:48:05.972
We had 80 people showing up.

00:48:06.333 --> 00:48:06.753
Oh, that's cool.

00:48:06.813 --> 00:48:07.083
Isn't that.

00:48:07.938 --> 00:48:08.148
Yeah.

00:48:08.148 --> 00:48:14.628
You try to get 80 people to show up now for a job fair for this new company coming outta nowhere paying terrible wages.

00:48:14.688 --> 00:48:14.867
Right.

00:48:14.867 --> 00:48:15.978
And, and who knows?

00:48:15.978 --> 00:48:18.467
You know, who knows what they, what if they're gonna survive at all.

00:48:18.827 --> 00:48:21.197
We had 80 people show up consistently for weeks.

00:48:21.407 --> 00:48:21.768
Wow.

00:48:22.338 --> 00:48:29.268
And one of those first MA meetings, we had, uh, this young lady by, uh, name of, uh, Megan Coen, who I remember Megan and, and

00:48:29.268 --> 00:48:29.777
Megan.

00:48:29.807 --> 00:48:32.117
Uh, she was the, the bring all the shit together kinda girl.

00:48:32.117 --> 00:48:32.327
Yeah.

00:48:32.327 --> 00:48:32.748
She, she

00:48:32.748 --> 00:48:32.898
forget.

00:48:33.318 --> 00:48:34.068
What was her title?

00:48:34.277 --> 00:48:34.878
Oh, I don't know.

00:48:34.967 --> 00:48:35.597
I forget.

00:48:35.628 --> 00:48:38.327
Oh, it was like, it was a crazy title.

00:48:38.358 --> 00:48:39.018
It was super

00:48:39.018 --> 00:48:39.347
fun.

00:48:39.347 --> 00:48:40.188
But yeah, it was a lot of fun.

00:48:40.188 --> 00:48:40.307
Yeah.

00:48:40.307 --> 00:48:42.228
We liked to have fun with the titles whenever we could.

00:48:42.233 --> 00:48:47.297
She, she did a great job with her titles, but she kind of came in and as a, as an applicant, took over.

00:48:47.568 --> 00:48:47.748
Hmm.

00:48:48.047 --> 00:48:50.688
And so she started taking notes and started taking names.

00:48:50.688 --> 00:48:51.648
And so, damn.

00:48:51.648 --> 00:48:53.507
We had to, we had to hire her Right.

00:48:54.978 --> 00:48:56.538
Uh, and she became a great hire.

00:48:56.568 --> 00:48:56.838
Yeah.

00:48:56.838 --> 00:48:57.228
I remember.

00:48:57.228 --> 00:48:58.068
She was key.

00:48:58.157 --> 00:48:58.907
She was key.

00:48:58.998 --> 00:49:03.318
Uh, but in that, in the first round of hiring, I think it was six people that we hired.

00:49:03.438 --> 00:49:03.617
Yeah.

00:49:03.648 --> 00:49:04.978
And we had training classes at my house.

00:49:05.418 --> 00:49:05.657
Yeah.

00:49:05.748 --> 00:49:11.927
And, uh, and we, them, and at that time we still did not have an authority to operate, so we were a little ahead of the curve.

00:49:11.958 --> 00:49:12.378
Wow.

00:49:12.797 --> 00:49:17.657
We had applied for an authority through the Federal Motor Courier Safety Administration.

00:49:17.717 --> 00:49:18.288
Yeah.

00:49:18.318 --> 00:49:22.907
Cuz the Colorado had like a cock block on you to use a technical term.

00:49:22.907 --> 00:49:23.177
Right.

00:49:23.182 --> 00:49:24.347
That's, that's another whole story.

00:49:24.347 --> 00:49:24.617
Right.

00:49:24.978 --> 00:49:29.387
And we should go into that a little bit cuz we applied to the puc, uh, the transportation.

00:49:29.387 --> 00:49:29.507
Yeah.

00:49:29.768 --> 00:49:32.838
The public utilities, those commission and they regulate transportation.

00:49:33.527 --> 00:49:36.407
And uh, and we know that we would've been.

00:49:37.322 --> 00:49:38.333
By the puc.

00:49:38.373 --> 00:49:41.643
Now we didn't go so far as to have a judicial hearing.

00:49:41.643 --> 00:49:41.702
Yeah.

00:49:41.733 --> 00:49:43.893
Cause it's a judicial process with a judge.

00:49:43.983 --> 00:49:44.612
Oh gosh.

00:49:44.733 --> 00:49:51.693
To verify whether you are qualified and whether there's a need for another service.

00:49:51.782 --> 00:49:53.253
Doesn't the market supposed to do that?

00:49:53.342 --> 00:49:57.063
Well, you would think, but, but the law is written in such a way Yeah.

00:49:57.123 --> 00:49:58.563
That it favors a monopoly.

00:49:58.623 --> 00:49:58.922
Mm.

00:49:59.193 --> 00:50:02.193
And so if the monopoly is not, if there isn't

00:50:02.452 --> 00:50:03.362
a damn good reason.

00:50:03.572 --> 00:50:03.782
Yeah.

00:50:03.788 --> 00:50:08.163
If they're not totally failing in their responsibility, then they stay in power.

00:50:08.193 --> 00:50:08.552
Wow.

00:50:08.643 --> 00:50:09.483
And nobody else get.

00:50:10.668 --> 00:50:11.057
And is

00:50:11.057 --> 00:50:16.847
that protection monopoly, is that associated with the airport rules and they just don't wanna clutter up the space

00:50:16.847 --> 00:50:17.297
there?

00:50:17.297 --> 00:50:23.538
Or I believe, and I don't know this because you have to go back in history to decide when that law was put in place, what was the goal?

00:50:23.597 --> 00:50:23.898
Yeah.

00:50:23.958 --> 00:50:28.998
And I suspect the goal was to try and encourage a company to provide the service.

00:50:29.027 --> 00:50:29.628
Oh, right.

00:50:29.628 --> 00:50:31.818
And so you, you provide the service.

00:50:31.878 --> 00:50:33.077
We'll give you a monopoly.

00:50:33.137 --> 00:50:34.427
You got, you don't have to worry about it.

00:50:34.427 --> 00:50:36.018
Just make sure you provide good service.

00:50:36.197 --> 00:50:36.257
Yeah.

00:50:36.378 --> 00:50:38.027
Safe, dependable, all that kind of stuff.

00:50:38.027 --> 00:50:38.657
You know about good

00:50:38.657 --> 00:50:39.288
intentions.

00:50:40.007 --> 00:50:40.518
Yeah.

00:50:40.523 --> 00:50:42.648
Sometimes they have unusual outcomes.

00:50:42.887 --> 00:50:47.478
So there's another company who applied for an authority to operate through the PUC before us.

00:50:47.717 --> 00:50:49.068
They went through the hearings.

00:50:49.157 --> 00:50:49.757
Oh yeah.

00:50:49.818 --> 00:50:52.547
Jay, something is lively in my mind.

00:50:52.547 --> 00:50:53.688
I think I met with them.

00:50:53.867 --> 00:50:54.257
You might

00:50:54.257 --> 00:50:54.858
have met with them.

00:50:54.862 --> 00:50:55.068
Yeah.

00:50:55.068 --> 00:50:56.568
As a potential good people.

00:50:56.568 --> 00:51:01.188
They were gonna provide service directly from Harmony to Dia, harmony, DIA, that's all they wanted to do.

00:51:01.217 --> 00:51:01.458
Yep.

00:51:01.697 --> 00:51:01.967
Yeah.

00:51:01.967 --> 00:51:03.257
And uh, and.

00:51:03.867 --> 00:51:06.978
Uh, you know, for, for, for, well, it's too bad.

00:51:06.978 --> 00:51:15.197
Really, the lawyer did not understand the law that was around this particular industry because he was in talking about what we would think would make sense, right?

00:51:15.197 --> 00:51:17.807
Comp competition is good for the public, like competition, right?

00:51:17.813 --> 00:51:18.498
Doesn't matter what

00:51:18.588 --> 00:51:19.157
makes sense.

00:51:19.157 --> 00:51:19.697
It's what those

00:51:19.697 --> 00:51:20.237
laws say.

00:51:20.447 --> 00:51:24.108
The judicial judge said competition is irrelevant in our discussion.

00:51:24.288 --> 00:51:26.418
It's not perfect the discussion whatsoever.

00:51:26.418 --> 00:51:31.248
You have to show us that there is a need for your service because the other company's not provid.

00:51:31.907 --> 00:51:34.007
or they're providing it in an unsafe manner.

00:51:34.038 --> 00:51:35.358
An un dependable manner, right.

00:51:35.387 --> 00:51:35.867
Or something.

00:51:36.228 --> 00:51:36.407
Yeah.

00:51:36.407 --> 00:51:37.938
Which is a high standard to pass.

00:51:37.998 --> 00:51:38.177
Oh,

00:51:38.297 --> 00:51:39.197
it's almost impossible.

00:51:39.197 --> 00:51:39.617
Right.

00:51:39.768 --> 00:51:42.737
And you go up against a company like Supers show, who's a billion dollar company, right?

00:51:43.018 --> 00:51:44.237
What, what are you gonna say?

00:51:44.242 --> 00:51:45.978
They can't afford to put more buses on the road.

00:51:46.608 --> 00:51:47.057
Right?

00:51:47.057 --> 00:51:47.447
Right.

00:51:47.748 --> 00:51:50.358
And so you sidestep that really by going to

00:51:50.358 --> 00:51:50.777
Wyoming.

00:51:51.137 --> 00:51:56.597
We side stepped up by going to the federal motor and getting a federal, uh, operating license.

00:51:56.777 --> 00:52:05.148
And, and part of that, uh, was applying under the, um, under the heading of providing interstate service.

00:52:05.148 --> 00:52:05.418
Right.

00:52:05.717 --> 00:52:10.128
And we clarified that to ensure we were providing interstate service by going to Wyoming.

00:52:10.132 --> 00:52:10.427
Mm-hmm.

00:52:10.547 --> 00:52:11.838
we didn't need to go to Wyoming.

00:52:12.168 --> 00:52:12.498
Okay.

00:52:12.498 --> 00:52:20.688
You could have still gotten a federal license, but it would've been, it was more motivational to serve what maybe is, was arguably a more unserved marketplace that

00:52:20.688 --> 00:52:20.867
way.

00:52:20.927 --> 00:52:21.648
True, true.

00:52:21.737 --> 00:52:32.268
Um, the, the law, there had been a court case that, uh, the Colorado Mountain Express had, um, I guess sued the PUC saying, Hey, we operate under a federal license.

00:52:32.268 --> 00:52:33.467
We don't operate under.

00:52:34.277 --> 00:52:35.427
Colorado puc.

00:52:35.432 --> 00:52:35.628
Yeah.

00:52:35.657 --> 00:52:37.157
Therefore, because the Colorado, so stop

00:52:37.157 --> 00:52:38.387
asking us for our papers.

00:52:38.628 --> 00:52:39.978
Stop asking for that information.

00:52:39.978 --> 00:52:40.248
Stop.

00:52:40.518 --> 00:52:42.018
Stop telling us that we can't change our rates.

00:52:42.018 --> 00:52:43.907
Stop telling us you can't change our schedule.

00:52:43.907 --> 00:52:46.547
Stop telling us all these things because the PUC regulates all of that.

00:52:46.577 --> 00:52:47.088
Yeah.

00:52:47.092 --> 00:52:49.668
If you wanna change your schedule, change your rates, change anything.

00:52:49.728 --> 00:52:49.907
Wow.

00:52:49.938 --> 00:52:52.487
You go to the PUC and you get all that approved before you can do any of that.

00:52:52.547 --> 00:52:52.847
Yeah.

00:52:53.208 --> 00:52:56.358
Uh, and, and, and maybe there's reason to do that,

00:52:56.358 --> 00:52:58.427
but it mostly seems like an exercise.

00:52:58.427 --> 00:52:59.027
And exercise.

00:52:59.032 --> 00:52:59.148
There's

00:52:59.148 --> 00:53:00.467
definitely not free market type stuff.

00:53:01.132 --> 00:53:01.398
Right.

00:53:01.518 --> 00:53:02.027
Fair enough.

00:53:02.177 --> 00:53:02.447
Yeah.

00:53:02.538 --> 00:53:03.047
Fair enough.

00:53:03.257 --> 00:53:05.867
And so, so you're hiring people.

00:53:06.063 --> 00:53:09.902
You're training them, you've got a couple of drivers, a couple of dispatchers or something like that.

00:53:09.902 --> 00:53:12.693
So you can provide good coverage or did you have a dispatchers?

00:53:12.753 --> 00:53:13.563
At the very beginning.

00:53:13.563 --> 00:53:16.202
Ray and I are the dispatchers who we're also the reservation agents.

00:53:16.202 --> 00:53:17.282
We are also the drivers.

00:53:17.288 --> 00:53:17.583
Right.

00:53:17.612 --> 00:53:21.572
We were everything but we had, uh, trained and hired some people.

00:53:21.577 --> 00:53:23.373
They, we didn't have them on payroll yet.

00:53:23.432 --> 00:53:23.882
Right.

00:53:23.972 --> 00:53:24.753
But we trained them.

00:53:24.753 --> 00:53:32.552
And so we were prepared that once we got our license, uh, and once we grew enough and had vehicles, then we could bring something board.

00:53:32.643 --> 00:53:32.913
Okay.

00:53:32.913 --> 00:53:35.882
Cause we didn't, uh, we didn't have any way of, uh, begin with.

00:53:35.882 --> 00:53:38.913
It's just somebody's gonna take a van every hour down the airport.

00:53:38.943 --> 00:53:40.682
And So Rays on for four hours.

00:53:40.682 --> 00:53:40.992
That's right.

00:53:40.992 --> 00:53:41.882
That's exactly right.

00:53:41.882 --> 00:53:42.092
Yeah.

00:53:42.152 --> 00:53:42.333
Yeah.

00:53:42.333 --> 00:53:48.663
Ray, I, and we did, uh, I think it was four hour schedule at the beginning, and then we, you know, shortened that up as quickly as

00:53:48.668 --> 00:53:48.963
we could.

00:53:48.992 --> 00:53:49.443
Right.

00:53:49.503 --> 00:53:51.483
And well, it was reservation only at first.

00:53:51.483 --> 00:53:51.722
Right.

00:53:51.722 --> 00:53:52.893
You didn't wanna run an empty bus

00:53:52.893 --> 00:53:53.253
down.

00:53:53.253 --> 00:53:53.672
Absolutely.

00:53:53.672 --> 00:53:54.452
It was, yeah, absolutely.

00:53:54.452 --> 00:53:55.112
Reservation only.

00:53:55.112 --> 00:53:55.293
Yeah.

00:53:55.293 --> 00:54:02.342
If there was anybody coming north from the airport and we didn't have, if, if we didn't have a reservation, we didn't go down there.

00:54:02.342 --> 00:54:02.793
Right.

00:54:03.527 --> 00:54:03.827
Yeah.

00:54:03.918 --> 00:54:06.228
So, uh, so there was that, because there was only two of us, right?

00:54:07.217 --> 00:54:07.728
we're doing it all.

00:54:07.818 --> 00:54:09.588
We were taking reservations while we're driving.

00:54:09.588 --> 00:54:13.487
Sometimes you're stop and take, take a call and say, okay, yeah, we'll put you in the reservation system.

00:54:13.757 --> 00:54:24.228
So now later, Deb's, uh, your, your then wife, Deb, and, and Ray's then wife Ann, uh, became very involved in the company.

00:54:24.228 --> 00:54:26.568
But early on, were they doing their own thing?

00:54:26.568 --> 00:54:28.068
I don't remember how much involvement they.

00:54:28.847 --> 00:54:29.657
Like in the earliest

00:54:29.657 --> 00:54:29.987
years.

00:54:30.018 --> 00:54:30.228
Yeah.

00:54:30.288 --> 00:54:33.228
So, so Deborah was working at Walmart to try to give us, uh, health,

00:54:33.228 --> 00:54:33.788
health insurance.

00:54:33.788 --> 00:54:33.867
Yeah.

00:54:33.867 --> 00:54:34.788
State income and health

00:54:34.788 --> 00:54:35.108
insurance.

00:54:35.108 --> 00:54:35.427
Yeah.

00:54:35.427 --> 00:54:35.788
Yeah.

00:54:35.793 --> 00:54:39.318
Cause we didn't have health insurance for ourselves, uh, for the first few years.

00:54:39.347 --> 00:54:39.768
Right.

00:54:39.797 --> 00:54:40.068
Wow.

00:54:40.068 --> 00:54:46.757
And, uh, and so Deborah eventually was able to move from Walmart to Green Ride once we were able to provide health insurance.

00:54:46.757 --> 00:54:49.427
And this was probably two years down the road, I think A year and a half down the road.

00:54:49.847 --> 00:54:50.027
Yeah.

00:54:50.148 --> 00:54:53.268
And joined us maybe 10 years into the operation, eight or nine years.

00:54:53.268 --> 00:54:53.387
Gotcha.

00:54:53.387 --> 00:54:53.958
Not too long before

00:54:53.958 --> 00:54:54.077
you

00:54:54.077 --> 00:54:54.827
sold ultimately.

00:54:54.827 --> 00:54:55.068
Yeah.

00:54:55.068 --> 00:54:57.387
She came in and did a market, took it on a marketing role.

00:54:57.387 --> 00:54:57.588
Mm-hmm.

00:54:57.708 --> 00:55:00.768
you know, we were finally at this point where we needed to grow our marketing.

00:55:00.773 --> 00:55:04.157
Now we didn't need, we, we couldn't entirely do it just by word of mouth.

00:55:04.163 --> 00:55:04.547
Right.

00:55:04.552 --> 00:55:04.788
Right.

00:55:04.878 --> 00:55:05.838
Couldn't grow anymore anyway.

00:55:05.838 --> 00:55:08.027
We could grow and we had capacity and we're looking for more.

00:55:08.088 --> 00:55:08.427
Yeah, sure.

00:55:09.077 --> 00:55:10.128
And so we're reaching out to community.

00:55:10.128 --> 00:55:11.507
So it became a full-time job then.

00:55:11.777 --> 00:55:16.518
So, um, how do I ask this question?

00:55:16.523 --> 00:55:16.878
Right.

00:55:19.637 --> 00:55:23.027
Like, was it, was it, did it change you a lot?

00:55:23.027 --> 00:55:29.838
I remember for me, when I left banking and became a food trucker which you were like, you're doing what, probably at the time.

00:55:29.838 --> 00:55:30.197
Right.

00:55:30.257 --> 00:55:39.197
Um, you know, I really gained a lot of appreciation for the quality of people that I could hire at a, at a different price range.

00:55:39.197 --> 00:55:42.228
You know, I got into banking and they started raising my salary.

00:55:42.257 --> 00:55:47.418
You got in a corporate and you started making more and more money pretty quickly and being nominated for leadership.

00:55:48.018 --> 00:55:54.737
And then, you know, you had a couple years probably where you household that had negative cash flow.

00:55:55.487 --> 00:55:55.757
Yeah.

00:55:55.788 --> 00:55:58.307
You know, and you know, at least poverty level.

00:55:58.307 --> 00:56:00.318
And you've got teenage kids at the time.

00:56:00.318 --> 00:56:02.268
Or maybe not even quite that yet at the time.

00:56:02.268 --> 00:56:02.898
I don't even know.

00:56:02.898 --> 00:56:08.418
But like, did that change your mindset about the world or justice or?

00:56:09.603 --> 00:56:09.782
My,

00:56:09.782 --> 00:56:11.913
my mindset changed in many, many ways.

00:56:12.003 --> 00:56:12.273
Yeah.

00:56:12.422 --> 00:56:24.152
Uh, and initially it was really difficult for me to go to networking meetings and luckily Fort Collins was filled with networking meetings at the time, and so I would go, you'd have to talk to people.

00:56:24.152 --> 00:56:25.262
Like, I didn't like doing that.

00:56:25.262 --> 00:56:29.612
Then I don't mind now, but that was a huge learning for me.

00:56:30.063 --> 00:56:37.472
I remember my, my good friend Heather Collins reaching out to me and saying, you, you just gotta get out there and you gotta meet people and you just like, just be, just be yourself.

00:56:37.472 --> 00:56:41.043
Just kind of relax out there, talk about what you're doing, be passionate about what you're doing, and Yeah.

00:56:41.222 --> 00:56:43.322
And, and that became kind of my mantra.

00:56:43.353 --> 00:56:43.443
Okay.

00:56:43.443 --> 00:56:45.452
Just go out there, I'll talk to somebody, I'll talk to one person.

00:56:45.603 --> 00:56:45.842
Yeah.

00:56:45.842 --> 00:56:49.112
And of course when you get one person, you can talk to another person and then you can talk to another.

00:56:49.202 --> 00:56:51.362
And so that brought me outta my shell.

00:56:51.452 --> 00:56:51.572
Yeah.

00:56:51.572 --> 00:56:53.943
You know, we talk about my childhood where I'm more introverted.

00:56:54.003 --> 00:56:54.393
Right.

00:56:54.483 --> 00:56:59.463
And now really, uh, I think I came outta my shell more than any other time in my life.

00:56:59.793 --> 00:57:00.873
You were in your fifties.

00:57:01.023 --> 00:57:01.413
Yeah, I'm

00:57:01.413 --> 00:57:02.802
in my fifties Exactly right.

00:57:02.802 --> 00:57:03.063
At the time.

00:57:03.242 --> 00:57:03.483
Yeah.

00:57:03.483 --> 00:57:07.262
And so, and, and so you have this business that you want to succeed.

00:57:07.628 --> 00:57:09.338
You have to get out there and you have to meet people.

00:57:09.338 --> 00:57:10.507
You have to listen to people.

00:57:10.717 --> 00:57:16.958
And, and again, Fort Collins was filled with wonderful organizations that were trying to help other businesses.

00:57:17.257 --> 00:57:21.938
I remember the, uh Oh, the local organizations that were Or be local.

00:57:21.998 --> 00:57:22.418
Be local.

00:57:22.418 --> 00:57:22.867
Exactly.

00:57:22.867 --> 00:57:22.987
Yeah.

00:57:22.987 --> 00:57:31.268
That was one of the first places I sat down and, and met with people and found out that, uh, that there's a whole group of people out there that wanna see others succeed.

00:57:32.282 --> 00:57:35.163
Uh, and we worked closely at the very beginning with New Belgium Brewery.

00:57:35.373 --> 00:57:35.583
Oh.

00:57:35.583 --> 00:57:36.603
And they were fantastic.

00:57:36.603 --> 00:57:57.362
They gave us their employee manual, which we copied and modified somewhat as really, really great organizations who are successful and, uh, community minded and environmentally minded and, and, and so many different areas that matched what we were trying to do, what we would like to do.

00:57:57.902 --> 00:58:12.632
That was one of the funny things to me as I look back from afar as, as Green Ride captured more and more market share from what had become super shuttle, is super shuttle, like, put on this effort to be like the greenest company around.

00:58:12.632 --> 00:58:22.413
And I don't know if they painted their buses green, but they, like, they couldn't stop talking about how renewable and socially responsible, I think they got some natural gas or whatever buses.

00:58:22.862 --> 00:58:23.253
Right.

00:58:23.523 --> 00:58:26.012
And they, they didn't focus on the right things.

00:58:26.012 --> 00:58:29.373
They were so busy looking over their shoulders at your greenness that they didn't.

00:58:30.152 --> 00:58:32.282
Ask their customers what they wanted to be different.

00:58:32.583 --> 00:58:32.913
Yeah.

00:58:33.182 --> 00:58:35.313
I, I wanna go back briefly to, to, to Ross.

00:58:35.313 --> 00:58:37.413
Remember I mentioned Ross Alexander earlier?

00:58:37.413 --> 00:58:37.623
Ross.

00:58:37.623 --> 00:58:39.992
So Ross is gonna be my boss at, uh, at Super Shuttle.

00:58:40.322 --> 00:58:44.943
Well, years later, Ross gives me a call and says, Ross, I'd like, or Bob, I'd like to have a conversation with you.

00:58:45.302 --> 00:58:51.182
So we sit down, we have a conversation, Ross, uh, wants to start a green ride, uh, option in Boulder.

00:58:51.362 --> 00:58:51.722
Oh.

00:58:52.052 --> 00:58:55.443
And, and so, you know, we're, we're thinking, oh, you know, it'd be nice to be able to franchise.

00:58:55.443 --> 00:58:57.572
Maybe this can be a test case and we'll see how this works out.

00:58:57.577 --> 00:58:58.382
And so we, we did that.

00:58:58.773 --> 00:58:59.583
We worked with Ross.

00:58:59.583 --> 00:59:01.742
Ross created an operation of Boulder.

00:59:02.052 --> 00:59:03.813
And, and he did really well, I think.

00:59:03.813 --> 00:59:04.773
I think he did really well.

00:59:04.952 --> 00:59:06.713
He'd have to answer for himself on how he thinks he did.

00:59:06.713 --> 00:59:07.773
Did he sell a groom as well?

00:59:07.922 --> 00:59:08.702
He did not, no.

00:59:08.702 --> 00:59:09.393
He kept it going.

00:59:09.422 --> 00:59:09.782
Okay.

00:59:09.873 --> 00:59:15.003
And, and I haven't talked to Ross in the last few months, but I think Ross has sold Green Ride now.

00:59:15.092 --> 00:59:17.702
And so I think Green Ride officially is finally gone.

00:59:17.762 --> 00:59:18.032
Oh.

00:59:18.038 --> 00:59:18.663
From everywhere.

00:59:18.663 --> 00:59:19.262
Even Boulder.

00:59:19.262 --> 00:59:19.793
Gotcha, gotcha.

00:59:19.797 --> 00:59:21.063
But it was there until last year at least.

00:59:21.063 --> 00:59:21.362
Yeah.

00:59:21.572 --> 00:59:26.643
So, uh, so Ross was really, uh, Uh, just a great guy to work with.

00:59:26.943 --> 00:59:27.992
I loved working with him.

00:59:27.992 --> 00:59:28.393
That's funny.

00:59:28.393 --> 00:59:30.032
Even though I wouldn't work for him before,

00:59:30.032 --> 00:59:32.193
but I'd work with him if you could tell him what to do.

00:59:32.193 --> 00:59:32.943
That was fine.

00:59:33.003 --> 00:59:33.242
That's

00:59:33.248 --> 00:59:33.512
right.

00:59:33.543 --> 00:59:34.443
That's absolutely fine.

00:59:35.822 --> 00:59:36.512
Hey Ross, hope you're

00:59:36.512 --> 00:59:36.902
listening.

00:59:38.103 --> 00:59:38.373
Me too.

00:59:39.603 --> 00:59:55.983
So, um, yeah, so I guess kind of expand on, like from a, from a market branding competitive position, you guys kind of just, it seemed like both, you created a lot of new riders and you kept nibbling away at the market share that super shuttle had a hundred percent of before you

00:59:55.987 --> 00:59:56.342
started.

00:59:56.643 --> 01:00:03.003
One of the, uh, I guess, uh, awards I'm most proud of was getting the environmental, uh, company of the Year award.

01:00:03.452 --> 01:00:07.563
And when I look at the list of companies that had received that award previous to us, yeah.

01:00:07.652 --> 01:00:12.123
Uh, I was just humbled, uh, to be in a category with those kind of companies.

01:00:12.182 --> 01:00:12.422
Yeah.

01:00:12.753 --> 01:00:13.233
And.

01:00:14.163 --> 01:00:15.182
That was so special.

01:00:15.182 --> 01:00:20.402
And I, and I think that's when maybe super shuttle started responding as well to what we were doing.

01:00:20.913 --> 01:00:24.182
And we weren't doing anything other than how you were just being, you.

01:00:24.233 --> 01:00:24.873
We were just being us.

01:00:24.992 --> 01:00:26.043
We, we were doing what we could.

01:00:26.253 --> 01:00:26.432
Yep.

01:00:26.463 --> 01:00:26.793
You know?

01:00:26.797 --> 01:00:29.552
And, and, and if we could, we could have, would've and should've.

01:00:29.552 --> 01:00:32.853
And if we could've done more, we would've, we would've loved to go to cng.

01:00:32.853 --> 01:00:33.572
We looked at that.

01:00:34.023 --> 01:00:36.152
We didn't have the capital to convert vehicles.

01:00:36.152 --> 01:00:37.503
We didn't have the capital to put in

01:00:37.503 --> 01:00:38.103
infrastructure.

01:00:38.282 --> 01:00:40.052
You put in a refueling center and all that.

01:00:40.083 --> 01:00:40.713
There's so much.

01:00:40.742 --> 01:00:40.922
Yeah.

01:00:40.927 --> 01:00:43.322
Your banker was like, I don't know about not gonna work.

01:00:43.322 --> 01:00:43.413
It's

01:00:43.713 --> 01:00:44.342
a little risky.

01:00:44.463 --> 01:00:45.003
That's right.

01:00:45.572 --> 01:00:47.523
And so, so we, we didn't do that.

01:00:47.552 --> 01:00:48.873
And uh, and.

01:00:49.668 --> 01:00:52.728
And, and there were people who said, well, how can you call yourself green?

01:00:52.878 --> 01:01:00.197
Uh, you know, there was this idea that we were using the name right within our name without really being able to validate that.

01:01:00.498 --> 01:01:02.568
But we, we drove slower on the highways.

01:01:02.572 --> 01:01:04.518
We were part of climate wise.

01:01:04.523 --> 01:01:07.757
We, uh, we really tried to be efficient in picking people up.

01:01:07.757 --> 01:01:11.237
We were same as super shuttle, getting more vehicles off the road.

01:01:11.268 --> 01:01:13.547
Yeah, we'll put 10 people in the van as 10 cars off the road.

01:01:13.637 --> 01:01:15.197
Like all that is good for the environment.

01:01:15.197 --> 01:01:16.038
It's better for the environment.

01:01:16.427 --> 01:01:19.978
Maybe it could be better again by going to see ag or something else, but when

01:01:19.978 --> 01:01:21.467
you were a crazy guy for a while though, you rode your.

01:01:22.128 --> 01:01:23.447
All over the place.

01:01:23.478 --> 01:01:25.188
I still do I still do.

01:01:25.608 --> 01:01:26.097
I believe it.

01:01:26.097 --> 01:01:27.047
You appeared it on your bicycle today.

01:01:27.168 --> 01:01:28.277
My bicycle is here today.

01:01:28.307 --> 01:01:28.637
Yes.

01:01:28.637 --> 01:01:30.077
I just about rode my bike today.

01:01:30.137 --> 01:01:36.108
I went home for lunch, but I had a flat, you a had a flat tire and so I just jumped back on the motorcycle.

01:01:36.108 --> 01:01:37.217
It's only like a mile.

01:01:37.338 --> 01:01:38.327
Yeah, yeah.

01:01:38.327 --> 01:01:39.018
That'd be fine.

01:01:39.137 --> 01:01:39.498
Yeah.

01:01:39.557 --> 01:01:40.697
But yes, I,

01:01:41.538 --> 01:01:47.117
I, I got, I got bitten by the environmentally environmental bug in 1973 when the embargo hit.

01:01:47.117 --> 01:01:51.378
And I think I've been, you know, I grew up in that era where, turn the lights off.

01:01:51.737 --> 01:01:51.947
Do what?

01:01:51.947 --> 01:01:53.027
You can save water.

01:01:53.027 --> 01:01:56.268
All, all the, I'm looking forward to shower with a friend, you know, save water,

01:02:41.733 --> 01:02:42.422
So we're back.

01:02:42.512 --> 01:02:46.952
Um, when did you first start thinking about selling green ride?

01:02:47.313 --> 01:02:48.302
We ne we never did.

01:02:48.333 --> 01:02:49.682
Never did start thinking about it.

01:02:49.802 --> 01:02:50.132
No.

01:02:50.132 --> 01:02:51.632
Well, we, we were thinking that.

01:02:52.068 --> 01:02:54.168
We would sell in maybe five to 10 years.

01:02:54.168 --> 01:02:59.538
And this is going back now four years ago, so we'd probably be into the, uh, idea now of selling.

01:02:59.958 --> 01:03:02.117
Assuming pandemic didn't happen, things were normal.

01:03:02.557 --> 01:03:03.677
Right, right.

01:03:04.038 --> 01:03:05.838
So you're taking us to about 2018?

01:03:05.838 --> 01:03:06.527
2017.

01:03:06.532 --> 01:03:07.248
2017.

01:03:07.248 --> 01:03:08.568
So, so set the stage.

01:03:08.572 --> 01:03:11.148
What's, what's life like in 2017 by now?

01:03:11.672 --> 01:03:13.083
Anne's working for you guys.

01:03:13.083 --> 01:03:14.672
What's the size of the team?

01:03:15.063 --> 01:03:24.963
Um, you can, you know, share us a rough revenue ish if you want to, but kinda like more, especially like what's the operation look like, is what I'm curious about.

01:03:25.233 --> 01:03:25.382
Yeah.

01:03:25.382 --> 01:03:28.443
The operation is rolling pretty good at this point.

01:03:28.652 --> 01:03:38.193
I have got a, I don't know if it was around 2016, might have been 2016 or 2017 that uh, uh, the CEO of, uh, super shuttle approaches.

01:03:39.032 --> 01:03:42.632
And so, and this is a really interesting story I think as well.

01:03:42.632 --> 01:03:48.362
Uh, they were struggling and, uh, it was, and

01:03:48.362 --> 01:03:48.913
we were doing well.

01:03:49.172 --> 01:03:56.822
This is Veolia Transportation in general, or CEO Super shuttle is the US branch, US super shuttle, but it was still part of that French conglomerate kind.

01:03:56.827 --> 01:03:57.302
Yeah.

01:03:57.313 --> 01:03:58.623
They they were owned by Veolia.

01:03:58.713 --> 01:03:59.793
Yeah, the French conglomerate.

01:04:00.932 --> 01:04:05.612
Yeah, so David Bird reached out to me and uh, and we had a conversation.

01:04:05.672 --> 01:04:13.202
He came to Fort Collins, we went down to Odell and a brewery and had a beer and had a great evening out and got to know each other a little bit.

01:04:13.202 --> 01:04:20.282
And he, he was a very honorable person, you know, he's out front straightforward and said, yeah, we're struggling here in this market.

01:04:20.282 --> 01:04:24.242
And he mentioned a couple of other markets they were struggling in, and they're looking at getting out.

01:04:24.242 --> 01:04:32.822
One of the ways that he could see them getting out is by allowing us to manage the super shuttle operation and becoming a super, super shuttle operation.

01:04:32.853 --> 01:04:33.273
Right.

01:04:33.603 --> 01:04:33.992
So

01:04:33.998 --> 01:04:35.853
almost like a franchisee of sorts.

01:04:35.882 --> 01:04:36.543
Yeah, it

01:04:36.547 --> 01:04:38.402
was kind of, it was called a super franchise.

01:04:38.432 --> 01:04:38.672
Yeah.

01:04:38.733 --> 01:04:40.143
Is what they called, whatever that means.

01:04:40.233 --> 01:04:40.713
Uh, yeah.

01:04:41.213 --> 01:04:41.632
Ray.

01:04:41.637 --> 01:04:45.063
Ray and I said, well, we'll, we'll think about it, but you know, we don't think we're gonna go there anyway.

01:04:45.068 --> 01:04:47.432
Ray and I talked about it quite a bit and said, you know what?

01:04:47.432 --> 01:04:49.233
We don't wanna be part of this big corporation.

01:04:49.233 --> 01:04:51.873
We don't want, uh, um, to be.

01:04:52.713 --> 01:04:53.402
subservient.

01:04:53.523 --> 01:04:53.672
Yeah.

01:04:53.802 --> 01:04:55.532
To, to, to them at all.

01:04:56.043 --> 01:05:11.822
And so we counter proposed and we counter propose something that says, Hey look David, how about you go away completely SuperSoul, just disappear and let us have your customers and uh, and we will take care of your customers under Green Ride Banner completely.

01:05:12.032 --> 01:05:17.523
And we will pay you an amount of money each year, depending on how many of your customers we get.

01:05:17.882 --> 01:05:25.563
So if we get X number of customers, the bottom end, we give you$150,000 a year if we get the maximum that we think you have.

01:05:25.563 --> 01:05:29.842
Now, if we get, you know, most of those 80 or 90%, I forget what the numbers are, right?

01:05:29.842 --> 01:05:31.293
We'll pay you$400,000 a year.

01:05:31.382 --> 01:05:31.592
Yeah.

01:05:31.893 --> 01:05:34.112
Well, for several years we paid them$400,000 a year.

01:05:34.202 --> 01:05:34.682
Oh really?

01:05:34.773 --> 01:05:36.762
And you know, so we got their customers.

01:05:36.768 --> 01:05:38.282
We continued to grow tremendously.

01:05:38.282 --> 01:05:40.023
So we were really doing well.

01:05:40.023 --> 01:05:48.452
So we were into maybe the second year of this arrangement with Super Shuttle when we were approached by another company.

01:05:49.072 --> 01:05:49.563
Okay.

01:05:49.568 --> 01:05:52.713
And so one of their managers had, and this is Groom.

01:05:53.193 --> 01:05:53.373
Yeah.

01:05:53.373 --> 01:05:55.262
So one of their managers had arrived in Denver.

01:05:55.652 --> 01:05:57.063
They never heard of Green Ride.

01:05:57.063 --> 01:06:01.893
He sees all these buses around going to Fort Collins in Boulder and all around.

01:06:01.893 --> 01:06:04.083
And he's on his way to meet his daughter in Boulder.

01:06:04.172 --> 01:06:04.443
Yeah.

01:06:04.833 --> 01:06:06.603
And he's thinking, what the heck is this company?

01:06:06.693 --> 01:06:06.963
Right?

01:06:06.963 --> 01:06:13.413
So he reached out to us to have a meeting and he called us and we said, well, we're not really interested in selling.

01:06:13.413 --> 01:06:14.523
They were in a buying mode.

01:06:14.523 --> 01:06:16.052
They bought several companies already.

01:06:16.052 --> 01:06:16.293
They're in

01:06:16.862 --> 01:06:17.282
buying.

01:06:17.492 --> 01:06:19.952
Did they have private equity behind'em looking for deals?

01:06:19.952 --> 01:06:20.193
Kind

01:06:20.193 --> 01:06:20.342
of.

01:06:20.402 --> 01:06:20.853
They did.

01:06:20.943 --> 01:06:21.393
They did.

01:06:21.603 --> 01:06:30.242
And, and so long story short, we set up a meeting with, with their owner, with the owner of Groom and, uh, Kevin Groom.

01:06:30.452 --> 01:06:30.722
Mr.

01:06:30.722 --> 01:06:30.992
Groom.

01:06:30.992 --> 01:06:31.983
I was gonna say, yep.

01:06:31.983 --> 01:06:32.702
That's his last name.

01:06:33.422 --> 01:06:36.393
And, uh, and they put some ideas on the table.

01:06:36.393 --> 01:06:40.202
And then after we, that we went through a due diligence and they, they made us a great offer.

01:06:40.202 --> 01:06:40.293
Mm-hmm.

01:06:40.693 --> 01:06:41.762
I think they made us a great offer.

01:06:42.242 --> 01:06:46.052
It, it was interesting indeed, uh, to work with them.

01:06:46.503 --> 01:06:53.012
The con conversations and the actual execution are always gonna be a little different.

01:06:53.043 --> 01:06:55.293
You'll never, things never match up perfectly.

01:06:55.532 --> 01:06:55.693
Sure.

01:06:55.893 --> 01:06:59.282
And, and I think the, the thoughts were that, Hey, you guys are doing a great job.

01:06:59.612 --> 01:07:00.873
We're gonna continue, we don't wanna change

01:07:00.873 --> 01:07:01.773
anything you're doing.

01:07:01.833 --> 01:07:02.132
That's right.

01:07:03.362 --> 01:07:06.483
your people, all your employees will barely notice the difference.

01:07:06.487 --> 01:07:08.672
Their paychecks will take the room instead of green ride.

01:07:09.152 --> 01:07:10.023
And that's the story, right?

01:07:10.023 --> 01:07:13.802
That's the story of most acquisitions until you come in and say, oh wait, now we know how to do this better.

01:07:13.862 --> 01:07:22.083
Because, you know, groom has been in business for 80 years, so they have their model, their ideas, their thoughts, their processes, and they come in and they improve, you know, from their per.

01:07:22.998 --> 01:07:25.367
and they change things because that's what they should do.

01:07:25.367 --> 01:07:26.748
That's their, it's their business.

01:07:26.748 --> 01:07:27.527
They do what they do.

01:07:27.887 --> 01:07:32.208
You know, fortunately, I think for, for me at least, uh, I had no involvement.

01:07:32.237 --> 01:07:37.398
Uh, once we agreed to a sale, there's no follow on, oh, you gonna hang for a while?

01:07:37.398 --> 01:07:38.447
It was a cash deal.

01:07:38.447 --> 01:07:39.498
Cash deal done.

01:07:39.557 --> 01:07:39.708
Yeah.

01:07:39.947 --> 01:07:42.858
And race helped to make the sale more.

01:07:42.858 --> 01:07:42.978
Is

01:07:42.978 --> 01:07:43.097
that

01:07:43.097 --> 01:07:43.367
true?

01:07:43.398 --> 01:07:46.577
Ray, Ray was, Ray certainly was involved a little bit more.

01:07:46.577 --> 01:07:52.608
And, and Ray's brother Scott continued to work with, uh, with Groom for quite a while for I think maybe a year or more.

01:07:52.728 --> 01:07:52.818
Mm-hmm.

01:07:53.262 --> 01:08:00.947
uh, Ray son Thomas was a great guy, really ran the dispatch system and a lot more became their local manager as well.

01:08:00.947 --> 01:08:07.878
When, when Scott moved on, Thomas was still there and so they had, they picked up a couple of the great people from Green Ride.

01:08:07.938 --> 01:08:08.117
Yeah.

01:08:09.088 --> 01:08:16.332
What bothered me somewhat is that some of the great people we had, To get us to where we were, we're let go, you know?

01:08:16.332 --> 01:08:18.372
And so that, that was sad for me.

01:08:18.582 --> 01:08:20.533
But look, they bought the business.

01:08:20.533 --> 01:08:21.252
They do what they want.

01:08:21.342 --> 01:08:21.823
Yeah.

01:08:21.853 --> 01:08:22.243
Yeah.

01:08:22.247 --> 01:08:22.483
Fair enough.

01:08:22.483 --> 01:08:26.052
And I gotta be able to step back and say, not my business anymore.

01:08:26.712 --> 01:08:28.603
But I do, I do carry some guilt,

01:08:29.172 --> 01:08:29.533
you know?

01:08:29.533 --> 01:08:33.552
Um, you mentioned, uh, was it like zookeeper or something like that?

01:08:33.552 --> 01:08:34.122
Megan?

01:08:34.632 --> 01:08:35.203
Oh yeah.

01:08:35.203 --> 01:08:35.622
History.

01:08:35.863 --> 01:08:36.643
Was it zookeeper?

01:08:36.853 --> 01:08:37.063
It was

01:08:37.707 --> 01:08:37.903
yeah.

01:08:37.983 --> 01:08:38.743
Somewhere that town.

01:08:38.747 --> 01:08:43.842
You mentioned her already and you mentioned, you know, Ray, of course, and, and his son now.

01:08:44.082 --> 01:08:50.203
Are there others that deserve a special shout out either from the early days or even from the evolution days?

01:08:50.203 --> 01:08:50.653
Kind of.

01:08:50.712 --> 01:08:51.252
Oh yeah.

01:08:51.403 --> 01:08:52.603
There really, there are so many.

01:08:52.632 --> 01:08:56.622
You, but I can certainly talk about Nelson Greenley and, uh, and Kevin Hoyer.

01:08:56.802 --> 01:09:02.863
You know, they're, they're the core part of our, our, and I never like to call'em the management team.

01:09:02.868 --> 01:09:03.792
They're the support team.

01:09:03.882 --> 01:09:04.122
Yeah.

01:09:04.153 --> 01:09:12.403
You know, the, the terminology we always use is that our people who are in these positions of where they're able to provide.

01:09:13.002 --> 01:09:16.712
Guidance, they were supporting the dispatchers, the drivers, the reservation agents.

01:09:16.712 --> 01:09:18.813
They were there to support them, not to boss'em around.

01:09:18.962 --> 01:09:19.893
Not to boss'em around.

01:09:19.893 --> 01:09:21.512
That's the notion of servant leadership, right?

01:09:21.512 --> 01:09:22.863
Absolutely, absolutely.

01:09:22.922 --> 01:09:24.212
And they did a great job with that.

01:09:24.872 --> 01:09:46.502
And then if you reach into the agents that we had and the dispatchers we had in so many people who contributed so many ways, I can't remember the guy's last name, but Tom helped us evolve our software so that we were, instead of copying from this reservation system, we had into our distribution system where we could, uh, organize the routes, organize the pick up times, locations, routing.

01:09:46.507 --> 01:09:51.243
And we eventually went with another company to develop something way better.

01:09:51.247 --> 01:09:51.443
Yeah.

01:09:51.632 --> 01:09:52.802
So we developing That was bounce.

01:09:52.802 --> 01:09:53.582
That was bounce.

01:09:53.582 --> 01:09:54.243
I remember.

01:09:54.243 --> 01:09:54.573
Yeah.

01:09:54.903 --> 01:09:58.502
He's teased around the edges of local membership forever, but I've never got him yet.

01:09:58.592 --> 01:09:59.613
Oh, good guy.

01:09:59.643 --> 01:10:01.233
If you're listening out there, Jeff.

01:10:01.323 --> 01:10:01.802
Jeff, yeah.

01:10:01.802 --> 01:10:02.552
Jeff, Jeff Hill.

01:10:02.672 --> 01:10:03.332
I'm ready for you.

01:10:03.393 --> 01:10:03.542
Yeah.

01:10:05.162 --> 01:10:07.172
Well, and I owe Jeff a lunch dinner.

01:10:07.172 --> 01:10:09.153
So Jeff call,

01:10:09.153 --> 01:10:09.932
I'll give you my card.

01:10:11.268 --> 01:10:15.738
So, um, so you guys basically cashed out?

01:10:15.917 --> 01:10:16.337
We did.

01:10:16.518 --> 01:10:27.257
And you know, you didn't get like few money, but enough to have a boat and two houses in Newfoundland and go to the Caribbean sometimes and stuff and raise, yeah.

01:10:27.257 --> 01:10:27.738
Chilling.

01:10:27.797 --> 01:10:30.587
It was, cuz you, you were basically at the end of your careers anyway, right?

01:10:30.587 --> 01:10:34.908
Like you needed a retirement play Cause you put all your chips into green ride.

01:10:35.028 --> 01:10:35.358
Yeah.

01:10:35.358 --> 01:10:39.408
You know, and that's the sad thing a little bit, is that I started late, later in life.

01:10:39.408 --> 01:10:42.438
I was in my fifties, as you mentioned earlier on when I, when I started Green Ride.

01:10:42.797 --> 01:10:49.097
And if, if there's anything, if I had a magic wand could change anything, I'd start in my forties, uh, to be an entrepreneur.

01:10:49.247 --> 01:10:49.427
Hmm.

01:10:49.488 --> 01:10:50.478
Because I, I loved it.

01:10:50.618 --> 01:10:50.818
Yeah.

01:10:50.818 --> 01:10:51.618
I loved everything about it.

01:10:51.622 --> 01:11:01.578
I loved being connected with the community, connected with the employees, connected with the customers, connected with the businesses, connected with the community, the uh, the social networking that we did.

01:11:01.578 --> 01:11:02.658
Like it was fantastic.

01:11:02.658 --> 01:11:02.927
So fun.

01:11:03.108 --> 01:11:06.557
I even liked some of the bankers At least one, not many

01:11:08.747 --> 01:11:09.347
That's awesome.

01:11:09.618 --> 01:11:13.502
Well, Anything else that you wanna reflect on the business journey?

01:11:15.047 --> 01:11:16.547
People to shout out anything like that.

01:11:16.547 --> 01:11:16.757
Yeah, yeah.

01:11:16.757 --> 01:11:19.667
You know, I think it's really, really important for me to shout out to Ray.

01:11:19.847 --> 01:11:20.087
Yeah.

01:11:20.207 --> 01:11:23.148
Cause uh, it wouldn't have happened without Ray on board.

01:11:23.148 --> 01:11:25.728
I remember there were times when I was ready to throw into towel.

01:11:26.207 --> 01:11:29.568
We had, revenue is growing, but cost is also growing.

01:11:29.573 --> 01:11:30.018
Right.

01:11:30.347 --> 01:11:31.158
Profits shrinking.

01:11:31.158 --> 01:11:32.807
Those lines are never gonna cross.

01:11:32.813 --> 01:11:35.537
It's like, when are we going to get revenue above cost?

01:11:35.568 --> 01:11:36.677
Like, when is that gonna happen?

01:11:36.707 --> 01:11:36.858
Yeah.

01:11:37.217 --> 01:11:40.877
And, and so we'd grow and our revenue would go up and our cost would go up.

01:11:40.877 --> 01:11:43.967
So we had another bus, we had more employees, we had more support.

01:11:44.448 --> 01:11:47.118
And well, eventually the lines crossed and we became profitable.

01:11:47.118 --> 01:11:48.587
But boy, that took forever.

01:11:48.618 --> 01:11:48.768
Yeah.

01:11:48.768 --> 01:11:49.787
How long did it take for you?

01:11:49.818 --> 01:11:51.377
Well, it took us three and a half, four years.

01:11:51.377 --> 01:11:54.377
I think it was three years before we had a quarter that was profitable.

01:11:54.438 --> 01:11:54.707
Wow.

01:11:54.738 --> 01:11:58.608
You know, and the$250,000 loan helped us get through those first couple years,

01:11:58.608 --> 01:11:59.268
you know, clearly.

01:11:59.268 --> 01:11:59.507
Right.

01:11:59.507 --> 01:12:03.738
Well, and I seem to remember you drained some of your retirement and things like that when Kurt.

01:12:04.377 --> 01:12:05.278
I'm sorry.

01:12:05.337 --> 01:12:06.898
I can't loan you anymore money.

01:12:06.898 --> 01:12:07.587
You Right,

01:12:07.717 --> 01:12:08.118
right.

01:12:08.118 --> 01:12:08.279
You know?

01:12:08.368 --> 01:12:08.637
Yeah.

01:12:08.643 --> 01:12:10.467
No, I did, I went into my 401k.

01:12:10.467 --> 01:12:14.037
I went into, I had a retirement package in, in Canada Yeah.

01:12:14.037 --> 01:12:15.417
That I liquidated.

01:12:15.417 --> 01:12:17.368
And, uh, you lose a lot of money that way.

01:12:18.448 --> 01:12:18.988
a lot of money.

01:12:19.557 --> 01:12:23.997
Not only the growth that could have happened, cause plus the market was still depressed at that time and stuff.

01:12:23.997 --> 01:12:26.997
So you're selling shit that's already discounted and there's a penalty.

01:12:27.207 --> 01:12:27.537
Right.

01:12:27.597 --> 01:12:28.648
And you pay taxes on it.

01:12:28.648 --> 01:12:29.007
Right.

01:12:29.097 --> 01:12:30.688
So, so there's a 20% penalty.

01:12:30.688 --> 01:12:30.747
I'm

01:12:31.118 --> 01:12:35.427
sorry, I would've gladly loaned you more money if I had some of my own, but at the time.

01:12:35.438 --> 01:12:35.557
But

01:12:35.557 --> 01:12:36.478
you, you know, but that's interesting.

01:12:36.478 --> 01:12:39.177
We, we had people who were interested in loaning us more money.

01:12:39.328 --> 01:12:39.537
Hmm.

01:12:39.927 --> 01:12:42.177
But we didn't want to dilute the ownership.

01:12:42.807 --> 01:12:44.217
So, so there was that as well.

01:12:44.217 --> 01:12:47.877
We didn't want people to come in and say, well, where's the return on our investment dollar?

01:12:47.877 --> 01:12:48.898
How come you're not doing this?

01:12:48.898 --> 01:12:52.587
Or why are you giving away bottles of water, like that's costing you money?

01:12:53.247 --> 01:12:56.278
So you and Ray were 50 50, if you remember Right.

01:12:56.307 --> 01:13:03.028
And I heard somebody tell me one time, I'd rather be a 49% owner than a 50% owner.

01:13:03.377 --> 01:13:03.648
Yeah.

01:13:03.677 --> 01:13:08.268
Because of the struggle that can have sometimes of when no one's the decider.

01:13:08.807 --> 01:13:10.608
Uh, any regrets on that?

01:13:11.028 --> 01:13:12.648
No, I, I think it was the right thing to do.

01:13:12.707 --> 01:13:12.978
Yeah.

01:13:13.037 --> 01:13:15.137
Uh, I, I would not advise anyone to do that.

01:13:15.228 --> 01:13:27.198
I mean, you have to have, you, you have to have an incredibly strong trusting relationship and uh, and, and we had our struggles, you know, there's no doubt Ray and I had different perspectives on, on a lot of things.

01:13:27.228 --> 01:13:27.717
Yeah.

01:13:27.768 --> 01:13:38.597
And, uh, and I think as we got into the later years when, when I was certainly already walking away because I went out and I did some French immersion thing for months at a time and, you know, all kinds of silly things.

01:13:38.597 --> 01:13:40.547
And Ray stayed there and ran the business.

01:13:40.578 --> 01:13:40.787
Yeah.

01:13:41.148 --> 01:13:43.368
And, uh, and no matter whether.

01:13:44.507 --> 01:13:49.757
How aligned you are when two people are running a business, one is gonna run it different than the other.

01:13:49.818 --> 01:13:50.028
Yeah.

01:13:50.328 --> 01:13:53.568
And, and raised direction is not the same as mine and mine is not the same as his.

01:13:53.658 --> 01:13:53.807
Yeah.

01:13:53.898 --> 01:13:55.877
And I can't say what's right and what's wrong.

01:13:55.938 --> 01:13:56.688
It doesn't really

01:13:56.688 --> 01:13:57.018
matter.

01:13:57.018 --> 01:13:57.978
You see relevance, right?

01:13:58.217 --> 01:13:58.457
Yeah.

01:13:58.637 --> 01:13:59.927
So no regrets in that regard

01:13:59.927 --> 01:14:00.287
anyway.

01:14:00.292 --> 01:14:00.347
Huh?

01:14:00.408 --> 01:14:01.097
No regrets.

01:14:01.097 --> 01:14:09.228
But because of that, because you run things in a different way no matter how aligned you are, uh, I think my advice to anybody is not to do a 50 50.

01:14:09.257 --> 01:14:09.528
Yeah.

01:14:10.278 --> 01:14:10.488
Yeah.

01:14:10.488 --> 01:14:11.717
And, but because,

01:14:11.722 --> 01:14:19.698
but look, it worked out for us when you went off then Green ride kind of ceased to become ish somewhat the green ride than it was because Ray's influence was so much stronger.

01:14:19.818 --> 01:14:20.028
Yeah.

01:14:20.087 --> 01:14:21.677
And it was, you guys kind of counter pulling.

01:14:21.917 --> 01:14:27.287
I feel that sometimes about politics and like progressivism versus conservativism.

01:14:27.408 --> 01:14:27.618
Yeah.

01:14:27.677 --> 01:14:28.908
It's like if we're just all pro.

01:14:29.703 --> 01:14:36.182
Like, we'll lose all the foundations of all the things that have supported our value systems and our whatever forever.

01:14:36.422 --> 01:14:42.603
If we're always conservative, we won't ever like correct some of those things that we've done dumb for a long time.

01:14:42.603 --> 01:14:43.502
You know, whatever.

01:14:43.682 --> 01:14:48.002
The opportunity to learn from different perspectives is so valuable.

01:14:48.212 --> 01:14:48.932
So valuable.

01:14:48.962 --> 01:14:49.382
Fair enough.

01:14:49.653 --> 01:14:49.922
Yeah.

01:14:49.927 --> 01:14:52.382
And, and, and we can't do a, a double take on this.

01:14:52.382 --> 01:14:54.422
We can't try both out to see what would turn out better.

01:14:54.422 --> 01:14:54.722
Right.

01:14:54.752 --> 01:14:55.682
Like it turned out great.

01:14:55.802 --> 01:14:55.922
Right?

01:14:55.922 --> 01:14:56.162
It turned

01:14:56.162 --> 01:14:56.552
out great.

01:14:56.557 --> 01:14:56.672
Right.

01:14:56.672 --> 01:14:58.143
We might be living in a simulation right now.

01:14:58.233 --> 01:14:58.443
Who the

01:14:58.443 --> 01:14:58.893
hell knows?

01:14:59.403 --> 01:15:00.092
I'm pretty sure we are.

01:15:01.222 --> 01:15:03.752
there's, there's a mic in front of my mouth here, like, how's that happening?

01:15:03.752 --> 01:15:04.893
How could that happen?

01:15:05.372 --> 01:15:09.573
So, um, let's, uh, let's jump into the closing segments.

01:15:09.662 --> 01:15:14.132
Um, We, we have, we always talk about faith, family, and politics.

01:15:14.523 --> 01:15:18.483
And if I remember right, you're not too much from a faith background.

01:15:18.483 --> 01:15:20.582
I don't know, agnostic or atheist.

01:15:20.643 --> 01:15:23.372
More element, but maybe not, maybe I'm wrong about

01:15:23.403 --> 01:15:23.672
that.

01:15:23.703 --> 01:15:24.273
No, no.

01:15:24.278 --> 01:15:25.412
I don't think you're wrong about it.

01:15:25.412 --> 01:15:25.712
But I

01:15:25.712 --> 01:15:30.132
don't know how to car, but I hear all this servant leadership stuff and I'm like, well, you would like Jesus if you met

01:15:30.132 --> 01:15:33.393
him you know, he'd probably be a pretty cool cat, right?

01:15:33.453 --> 01:15:33.722
Yeah.

01:15:33.932 --> 01:15:36.962
Uh, I think we could, uh, we could hang out together and have a good conversation.

01:15:36.993 --> 01:15:37.472
Fair enough.

01:15:37.502 --> 01:15:39.453
Uh, so, uh, I grew up as a Catholic.

01:15:39.573 --> 01:15:39.813
Okay.

01:15:39.813 --> 01:15:43.653
And, uh, my faith got broken kind of when I was in my high teens.

01:15:44.012 --> 01:15:48.842
And so I really haven't been, uh, faith based, I guess in, in a long, long

01:15:48.842 --> 01:15:49.382
time since then.

01:15:49.563 --> 01:15:54.212
What you said, my faith got broken almost like it was an external force or something.

01:15:54.212 --> 01:15:55.262
What, what broke

01:15:55.262 --> 01:15:55.502
it?

01:15:56.162 --> 01:15:56.912
Oh my gosh.

01:15:56.972 --> 01:15:59.552
Uh, simple things, stupid things.

01:15:59.582 --> 01:16:04.712
Uh, I think that the priest at the time said, we need more money to run the church.

01:16:04.773 --> 01:16:06.512
You know, power, right?

01:16:06.512 --> 01:16:08.103
You need to keep the heat on, right?

01:16:08.103 --> 01:16:09.273
You need to keep the lights on you.

01:16:09.273 --> 01:16:10.052
Practical things.

01:16:10.082 --> 01:16:10.353
Yeah.

01:16:10.472 --> 01:16:15.542
And in my mind I'm thinking, well, you have these gold chassis and you have these like beautiful gowns, like sell a few of them, right?

01:16:15.603 --> 01:16:18.632
You're the Catholic church, you got billions, trillions of

01:16:18.632 --> 01:16:19.203
dollars, right?

01:16:19.203 --> 01:16:20.313
Don't make me feel sorry for you.

01:16:20.313 --> 01:16:20.943
My family is.

01:16:21.233 --> 01:16:21.412
Yeah.

01:16:21.412 --> 01:16:22.462
You know, not doing any great.

01:16:22.523 --> 01:16:22.823
Yeah.

01:16:22.832 --> 01:16:23.323
Yeah.

01:16:23.363 --> 01:16:27.653
So, but you know, that's kind of a very narrow point of view about the whole thing.

01:16:27.653 --> 01:16:30.412
You know, about the whole, but that kind of broke a bubble.

01:16:30.443 --> 01:16:31.073
Burst a bubble.

01:16:31.132 --> 01:16:31.432
Yeah.

01:16:31.823 --> 01:16:32.872
It was magic before then.

01:16:33.052 --> 01:16:33.443
Magic

01:16:33.847 --> 01:16:34.313
Interesting.

01:16:34.943 --> 01:16:38.063
So you actually had kind of a, a background.

01:16:38.063 --> 01:16:48.802
You were like, there's no offense to Catholics out there, but there's a lot of Catholics that are kind of, you know, Christmas, Easter, and occasional Sundays and they don't put too much time thinking about it otherwise.

01:16:48.802 --> 01:16:49.703
That's for the priest to do.

01:16:49.882 --> 01:16:50.212
Yeah.

01:16:50.273 --> 01:16:50.512
Yeah.

01:16:50.542 --> 01:16:53.842
And there's others that, that are a little more invested, I guess.

01:16:53.842 --> 01:16:55.462
And it sounds like at least your family was

01:16:55.823 --> 01:16:56.483
in that realm.

01:16:56.512 --> 01:17:01.372
My family was definitely invested and, uh, I was an altar boy for, for years and so I was very invested.

01:17:01.552 --> 01:17:02.662
Went to church seven days a week.

01:17:02.872 --> 01:17:03.143
Wow.

01:17:03.323 --> 01:17:04.252
Yeah, I was there.

01:17:04.762 --> 01:17:04.882
Interesting.

01:17:04.887 --> 01:17:05.523
Yeah, so I was.

01:17:06.137 --> 01:17:07.667
And take this word as you like.

01:17:07.667 --> 01:17:09.818
Was it really indoctrinated into that religion?

01:17:09.818 --> 01:17:09.819
Yeah.

01:17:09.948 --> 01:17:10.188
Fair.

01:17:10.307 --> 01:17:10.667
Well

01:17:10.787 --> 01:17:12.228
I think that's one of the things they do best.

01:17:12.377 --> 01:17:12.438
Yeah.

01:17:13.698 --> 01:17:22.247
Well is it just like a snap And I'm free and I don't call me, uh, no Church need bother me with any of their flyers.

01:17:22.307 --> 01:17:22.518
Yeah,

01:17:22.787 --> 01:17:23.057
pretty much.

01:17:23.118 --> 01:17:24.738
Cuz teenagers are like that, right?

01:17:24.858 --> 01:17:25.127
Yeah.

01:17:25.257 --> 01:17:26.238
They like snap

01:17:26.297 --> 01:17:26.568
boom.

01:17:26.747 --> 01:17:30.497
Well, but sometimes 35 year olds with kids start to go, Hmm.

01:17:30.497 --> 01:17:33.887
You know, the Catholic church kind of annoyed me, but maybe that church up the street from.

01:17:34.648 --> 01:17:35.417
It might be cooler.

01:17:35.448 --> 01:17:35.747
Yeah.

01:17:35.747 --> 01:17:44.387
Well look, uh, I recently met a, a friend here in Fort Collins and she's part of the, you know, tearing church, which I think is an awesome church.

01:17:44.448 --> 01:17:44.658
Yeah.

01:17:44.898 --> 01:17:50.417
And, uh, and so if there was a church and there's not, if there was a church that was gonna join, I would join that church.

01:17:50.448 --> 01:17:50.597
Yeah.

01:17:50.957 --> 01:17:53.028
Uh, because I love their philosophies.

01:17:53.057 --> 01:17:57.887
Uh, you know, its based on love, it's based on community, it's based on acceptance, it's based on science.

01:17:58.037 --> 01:18:00.887
It's based on a whole lot of things that I support Fair enough,

01:18:00.887 --> 01:18:01.608
fair enough.

01:18:02.057 --> 01:18:02.717
What else?

01:18:02.717 --> 01:18:06.287
Uh, what I kind of started you talking about faith.

01:18:06.292 --> 01:18:11.868
It's usually supposed to be your choice where to start, but is there anything else on that topic that you would like to share more about?

01:18:11.868 --> 01:18:14.807
I mean, have you spent time digging into.

01:18:15.978 --> 01:18:18.198
The different, like for me it was a journey.

01:18:18.198 --> 01:18:22.398
I, I grew up kind of in a, I'd call it a very half-ass church.

01:18:22.938 --> 01:18:24.768
Uh, I never really knew the good news.

01:18:24.768 --> 01:18:27.648
You know, basically what I knew is if you were baptized in our church, you were good.

01:18:27.858 --> 01:18:28.127
Yeah.

01:18:28.132 --> 01:18:28.787
And that was about it.

01:18:28.847 --> 01:18:29.148
Yeah.

01:18:29.217 --> 01:18:29.497
Yeah.

01:18:29.502 --> 01:18:40.457
Um, but so I dug into like even what I could understand about Buddhism and Ta Taoism and, uh, you know, ju what Judaism and things like that.

01:18:40.457 --> 01:18:44.148
I wanted to know all about all the things from that element.

01:18:44.148 --> 01:18:47.358
And that was during kind of my college years and, and whatever.

01:18:47.358 --> 01:18:49.967
And I was still in my late twenties before I actually ever.

01:18:50.493 --> 01:18:51.422
Came to a church again.

01:18:51.842 --> 01:18:54.632
I can certainly say that I was curious, but I never dug into it a whole lot.

01:18:54.632 --> 01:18:54.903
Yeah.

01:18:54.993 --> 01:19:01.113
I spent some, a little bit of time in Nepal and I really enjoyed the people that I met there who are Hindu and Buddhist.

01:19:01.203 --> 01:19:01.412
Yeah.

01:19:01.533 --> 01:19:10.502
And, uh, I love their philosophies and for me it was more about Philosoph and, you know, I, I, I honestly believe I'm a spiritual person, but I, but I'm not sure what that means.

01:19:10.802 --> 01:19:13.023
You know, I'm spiritual in nature.

01:19:13.028 --> 01:19:13.103
Yeah.

01:19:13.162 --> 01:19:15.092
You know, I believe in the good of people.

01:19:15.332 --> 01:19:16.773
I believe in the good of the world.

01:19:16.773 --> 01:19:26.252
I, I, I wanna support people who have good morals and, and a lot of churches and a lot of religions start with really good morals.

01:19:26.257 --> 01:19:26.462
Yeah.

01:19:26.467 --> 01:19:28.533
And so I appreciate it from that perspective.

01:19:28.962 --> 01:19:35.302
And, and I think that churches and religions can play a really positive role Yeah.

01:19:35.552 --> 01:19:39.212
In our society as long as they don't start dividing our country.

01:19:39.243 --> 01:19:39.332
Right.

01:19:39.337 --> 01:19:41.853
And our people and too many churches divide.

01:19:41.882 --> 01:19:42.153
Yeah.

01:19:42.212 --> 01:19:47.823
You know, my dad would be shocked that I married someone who was not a Catholic.

01:19:47.828 --> 01:19:48.103
Mm-hmm.

01:19:48.182 --> 01:19:49.082
And it's terrible.

01:19:49.453 --> 01:19:50.012
Right.

01:19:50.012 --> 01:19:51.302
It was terrible that he would be shocked to that.

01:19:51.302 --> 01:19:51.512
Right.

01:19:51.613 --> 01:19:52.323
It's dumb, it's stupid.

01:19:52.533 --> 01:19:52.863
Right.

01:19:53.012 --> 01:19:54.542
And does my perspective at least,

01:19:54.603 --> 01:19:55.023
sorry, dad.

01:19:55.082 --> 01:19:56.073
Yeah, no, that's fair.

01:19:56.103 --> 01:20:00.573
I, I I don't, uh, I don't disagree with a lot of those things.

01:20:00.573 --> 01:20:04.802
I wrote a, a blog some, gosh, a couple years ago now, it's called On Virtue.

01:20:05.042 --> 01:20:05.313
Yeah.

01:20:05.493 --> 01:20:10.472
And, and I basically repackaged the 10 Commandments as the 10 principles for your best.

01:20:10.472 --> 01:20:10.863
Good.

01:20:11.582 --> 01:20:16.323
Because I, I'm concerned frankly, about the notion that, well, there's two things.

01:20:16.323 --> 01:20:22.653
One, I've already heard kind of an anti-authoritarian authoritarianism, kind of a perspective from your work life.

01:20:23.432 --> 01:20:25.983
So people don't wanna really have commandments.

01:20:26.523 --> 01:20:28.563
That's not our nature in a lot of respects.

01:20:28.773 --> 01:20:28.983
Right.

01:20:29.012 --> 01:20:35.493
But there's hard to argue that most of those things that are listed there aren't like, good for you to practice.

01:20:35.733 --> 01:20:36.033
I agree.

01:20:36.063 --> 01:20:36.393
Right.

01:20:36.393 --> 01:20:41.222
And, and, and so what is virtue is a question I've been kind of consumed with.

01:20:41.228 --> 01:20:45.063
If it isn't what the church says it is, who is the decider?

01:20:46.337 --> 01:20:48.677
Culturally and societally, what is virtue, right?

01:20:48.677 --> 01:20:56.328
Cause there's, right now there's a lot of like, if you don't think it's virtuous to ask a trans woman out if you're a straight man.

01:20:56.733 --> 01:20:58.023
Then that means you're a bigot.

01:20:58.382 --> 01:20:58.712
Hmm.

01:20:58.922 --> 01:20:59.162
Yeah.

01:20:59.372 --> 01:20:59.762
Right.

01:20:59.773 --> 01:21:00.172
Yeah.

01:21:00.172 --> 01:21:00.332
Yeah.

01:21:00.337 --> 01:21:05.943
And I'm sorry, but I'm married, but I'm still not interested Right, right.

01:21:05.972 --> 01:21:06.813
Uh, that's just me.

01:21:06.813 --> 01:21:07.622
That's my Right.

01:21:07.622 --> 01:21:08.222
That's where you are.

01:21:08.432 --> 01:21:09.002
Exactly.

01:21:09.243 --> 01:21:10.412
And, and that's okay.

01:21:10.743 --> 01:21:11.582
I think so.

01:21:11.823 --> 01:21:13.233
You know, I, I don't know.

01:21:13.292 --> 01:21:13.682
I Yeah,

01:21:13.922 --> 01:21:19.113
because you, you can be accepted for who you are, just as a trans person can be accepted for who they

01:21:19.113 --> 01:21:19.292
are.

01:21:19.323 --> 01:21:19.712
Totally.

01:21:19.773 --> 01:21:20.762
And I, and that doesn't mean.

01:21:21.417 --> 01:21:27.568
Like, welcome that same trans woman into my backyard and have cocktails and good conversation.

01:21:27.637 --> 01:21:28.497
I, I hope that's true.

01:21:28.677 --> 01:21:29.037
Absolutely.

01:21:29.037 --> 01:21:29.877
For, for everybody.

01:21:29.882 --> 01:21:30.648
For, but it's

01:21:30.648 --> 01:21:30.728
not

01:21:30.728 --> 01:21:31.078
true for everybody.

01:21:31.078 --> 01:21:31.497
We know it's true.

01:21:31.497 --> 01:21:32.127
Totally, totally.

01:21:32.132 --> 01:21:32.637
Fair enough.

01:21:32.637 --> 01:21:32.847
Yeah.

01:21:32.853 --> 01:21:39.328
So, but, but yeah, that question of who, who is, you know, for a long time the church was the decider of what was virtuous Yeah.

01:21:39.358 --> 01:21:40.677
For a long time was the Catholic church.

01:21:40.887 --> 01:21:41.127
Yeah.

01:21:41.158 --> 01:21:47.007
And then Martin Luther did this 95 thesis thing and got a bunch of people's panties in a bunch.

01:21:47.307 --> 01:21:47.578
Right.

01:21:48.658 --> 01:21:49.528
Anyway, I digress.

01:21:49.858 --> 01:21:52.978
Um, do you wanna talk about family or politics next?

01:21:53.007 --> 01:21:53.398
Look, I,

01:21:53.448 --> 01:21:57.957
I gotta say that, uh, starting a business and running a business and being so involved in a business is really hard on family.

01:21:58.198 --> 01:21:58.497
Mm.

01:21:58.768 --> 01:21:59.247
And,

01:21:59.247 --> 01:22:02.728
uh, you, I mentioned both of you had, you and Ray both have ex-wives now and

01:22:03.688 --> 01:22:04.198
Yeah.

01:22:04.228 --> 01:22:12.837
Uh, well, I can't speak for, I don't know what Ray Ann's situation is, so I don't know where that is right now, but I, I know that my, my, my ex-wife and I are, we're, we're good friends.

01:22:12.898 --> 01:22:14.188
We see each other frequently.

01:22:14.193 --> 01:22:14.247
Yeah.

01:22:14.698 --> 01:22:19.097
Uh, but I, I think, uh, green Ride put a little bit of a wedge in her Okay.

01:22:19.167 --> 01:22:21.057
In her personal life, but not, not too much.

01:22:21.057 --> 01:22:21.898
She worked at Green Ride.

01:22:21.898 --> 01:22:22.738
I worked at Green Ride.

01:22:22.768 --> 01:22:22.948
Yeah.

01:22:23.188 --> 01:22:27.717
Uh, what, what suffered was our time to do things outside of Green Ride.

01:22:27.717 --> 01:22:27.988
Right.

01:22:28.257 --> 01:22:44.717
We, we'd go to a movie, you know, the family, I'd fall asleep, I'd be there in five minutes and my God, cuz I was totally, totally zonked and, uh, and so I think, I, I think we, we had quality time together, but we would've had a lot more quality time together with Max and Catherine and Deborah.

01:22:45.047 --> 01:22:46.377
If I had more If you were

01:22:46.377 --> 01:22:47.747
a corporate stooge kind of thing or whatever.

01:22:47.747 --> 01:22:48.257
Yeah, exactly.

01:22:48.257 --> 01:22:48.917
If I was, yeah.

01:22:48.978 --> 01:22:49.217
Perfect.

01:22:49.217 --> 01:22:51.707
Or if you were 40 when you started it instead of 52.

01:22:51.978 --> 01:22:52.278
Yeah.

01:22:52.457 --> 01:22:53.448
Maybe you'd had more energy.

01:22:53.898 --> 01:22:57.828
Do both or maybe you just had more energy for green ride and instilled the same amount.

01:22:57.887 --> 01:23:00.257
I had a lot of energy for green ride, I gotta tell.

01:23:00.257 --> 01:23:03.078
Uh, and but uh, I was burned to candle at both ends, you know?

01:23:03.137 --> 01:23:03.257
Yeah.

01:23:03.287 --> 01:23:07.307
Ray and I both were up all night, up all day, you know, sleep in the can.

01:23:07.637 --> 01:23:11.927
And so, uh, I think we were both, uh, pretty exhausted during that period of growth at the beginning.

01:23:11.957 --> 01:23:12.078
Yeah.

01:23:12.082 --> 01:23:13.127
That first four or five years.

01:23:13.127 --> 01:23:13.938
First four or five years.

01:23:13.997 --> 01:23:14.448
Exactly.

01:23:14.478 --> 01:23:20.177
And then we finally got enough people on board that, okay, we can pass on this, we can pass on something else to their responsibilities.

01:23:20.177 --> 01:23:20.957
And it's so good.

01:23:21.018 --> 01:23:28.578
I describe, uh, that journey, cuz for me, that local think tank had the same journey where, you know, your journey to break.

01:23:29.613 --> 01:23:30.813
Is from under the water.

01:23:31.143 --> 01:23:31.443
Right.

01:23:31.443 --> 01:23:34.323
You know, and then finally you hit break even.

01:23:34.323 --> 01:23:37.052
And even if you're not making much profit, at least you can breathe.

01:23:37.113 --> 01:23:37.323
Yeah.

01:23:37.443 --> 01:23:39.422
Well you get a breath between each wave, right?

01:23:40.023 --> 01:23:40.233
Yeah.

01:23:40.233 --> 01:23:41.162
That's basically it.

01:23:41.162 --> 01:23:41.523
Yeah.

01:23:41.582 --> 01:23:41.943
Yeah.

01:23:42.212 --> 01:23:46.203
But it's, it's so much better than just wondering if you can make it to the surface.

01:23:46.233 --> 01:23:46.563
Yeah.

01:23:46.568 --> 01:23:48.422
And, and I wonder that for quite a long time.

01:23:48.453 --> 01:23:48.752
Yeah.

01:23:48.872 --> 01:23:57.542
Again, going back to Ray, there was, uh, times when I was ready to throw into town, and Ray was, was, he was the stabilizing, uh, I guess advisor, uh,

01:23:57.573 --> 01:23:57.932
partner.

01:23:58.082 --> 01:23:58.353
Yeah.

01:23:58.533 --> 01:24:02.912
So tell me more about your family, um, both Deb and your kids.

01:24:02.972 --> 01:24:08.073
Uh, one of the things that we always do here is, uh, do a one word description of your children.

01:24:08.688 --> 01:24:09.408
Oh, that's easy.

01:24:09.408 --> 01:24:09.768
Awesome.

01:24:10.608 --> 01:24:10.847
No,

01:24:11.057 --> 01:24:13.457
not your children as a set, but you got two, is that right?

01:24:13.547 --> 01:24:13.967
Yeah,

01:24:13.967 --> 01:24:15.347
I got two Max and Catherine.

01:24:15.347 --> 01:24:18.797
And so Max is, uh, both are kind of based in Newfoundland right now.

01:24:18.828 --> 01:24:19.007
Okay.

01:24:19.012 --> 01:24:22.158
They, they're, Catherine just graduated from Memorial University.

01:24:22.158 --> 01:24:23.898
Max is going to Memorial University.

01:24:24.018 --> 01:24:24.228
Wow.

01:24:24.228 --> 01:24:30.137
Uh, doing some courses, uh, that are kind of aligning with, uh, engineering and computer science.

01:24:30.198 --> 01:24:31.518
So in that kind of category.

01:24:31.518 --> 01:24:36.347
So he is, he's heading, or I think he's hoping to head toward, uh, computer engineering.

01:24:36.448 --> 01:24:36.807
Yeah.

01:24:36.813 --> 01:24:38.537
And, uh, we'll see where that goes.

01:24:38.658 --> 01:24:40.368
You know, he's, but he's an awesome guy.

01:24:40.728 --> 01:24:41.597
He's, yeah, he's like

01:24:41.597 --> 01:24:43.158
in his early twenties or late teens?

01:24:43.158 --> 01:24:43.578
I, no, he

01:24:43.582 --> 01:24:44.688
is late twenties, like 29.

01:24:44.747 --> 01:24:45.198
Oh, wow.

01:24:45.203 --> 01:24:45.568
Okay.

01:24:45.573 --> 01:24:45.707
Yeah.

01:24:45.707 --> 01:24:46.158
Crazy.

01:24:46.278 --> 01:24:46.637
Yeah.

01:24:46.908 --> 01:24:54.528
So he's, uh, and he's working with this other company that's a startup that, uh, prints, uh, 3D prints, medical devices in Newfoundland.

01:24:54.917 --> 01:24:56.778
Uh, poly Unity is the name of the company.

01:24:56.778 --> 01:24:58.097
I'll give them a little plug here.

01:24:58.488 --> 01:25:03.677
And, uh, and they, uh, appear from the distance cuz they don't know much inter right.

01:25:03.858 --> 01:25:07.398
Inside the company directly, but they seem to be, they have a value proposition.

01:25:07.398 --> 01:25:07.997
Absolutely.

01:25:08.177 --> 01:25:12.927
They received rewards recently of inclusion, uh, for, you know, all genders.

01:25:13.427 --> 01:25:13.698
Right.

01:25:13.967 --> 01:25:14.417
Fair enough.

01:25:14.507 --> 01:25:14.688
Yeah.

01:25:14.898 --> 01:25:17.283
Um, and one word description for

01:25:17.283 --> 01:25:17.823
Max.

01:25:18.422 --> 01:25:19.743
Max is a scientist.

01:25:19.832 --> 01:25:20.613
Oh yeah.

01:25:20.613 --> 01:25:23.432
He's, I can't do a one word description of anybody.

01:25:23.432 --> 01:25:24.842
He's, he's a nerdy scientist.

01:25:24.842 --> 01:25:26.342
He's like, he's like, you can have two.

01:25:26.342 --> 01:25:29.342
Like, like he and he and I connect in so many levels.

01:25:29.342 --> 01:25:29.582
Yeah.

01:25:29.943 --> 01:25:33.393
When we get together, we talk nerd nerds of stuff.

01:25:33.398 --> 01:25:33.823
Yeah.

01:25:33.823 --> 01:25:33.943
Yeah.

01:25:34.172 --> 01:25:34.563
It's cool.

01:25:34.802 --> 01:25:35.493
It's lovely.

01:25:35.493 --> 01:25:36.302
It's absolutely lovely.

01:25:36.872 --> 01:25:38.372
And Catherine Adventure.

01:25:38.552 --> 01:25:49.922
Okay, so she's got that wanderer side of me and right now she's in Yosemite climbing with her boyfriend, a great guy, uh, who is starting a business along with some of his friends that I'm also participating in.

01:25:50.122 --> 01:25:50.444
Oh, that's fun.

01:25:50.672 --> 01:25:54.182
And, uh, and so she is, uh, an adventure and explorer.

01:25:54.483 --> 01:25:56.313
Uh, she's interested in other cultures.

01:25:56.313 --> 01:25:58.203
She's interested in learning.

01:25:58.203 --> 01:26:00.122
She is just, but she's a little younger than Max.

01:26:00.122 --> 01:26:00.872
She's a little younger.

01:26:00.872 --> 01:26:02.493
She's 26 going on 27.

01:26:02.493 --> 01:26:02.762
Can't believe

01:26:02.762 --> 01:26:03.573
she's that old.

01:26:03.693 --> 01:26:04.023
I know.

01:26:04.023 --> 01:26:07.953
I remember she was a teenager when I was hanging out at Silver, silver, silver Trails.

01:26:07.953 --> 01:26:08.582
Silver Trails.

01:26:08.643 --> 01:26:08.962
Yeah.

01:26:08.967 --> 01:26:09.092
Yeah.

01:26:09.302 --> 01:26:13.877
No, and, and she's, she's brilliant and Max is brilliant, and they have different kinds of brilliance.

01:26:14.403 --> 01:26:16.023
They, they're shining lights in my life.

01:26:16.082 --> 01:26:16.382
Oh, that's

01:26:16.382 --> 01:26:16.712
awesome.

01:26:16.712 --> 01:26:17.073
Awesome.

01:26:17.073 --> 01:26:17.283
Yeah.

01:26:17.462 --> 01:26:19.262
Tell me about the love story a little bit.

01:26:19.353 --> 01:26:24.903
Uh, with, with Deb, when did you guys, we told your story, but without really figuring out where she plugged in is.

01:26:25.908 --> 01:26:26.118
Huh?

01:26:26.238 --> 01:26:27.438
After you came to Colorado?

01:26:27.677 --> 01:26:28.457
No, no.

01:26:28.457 --> 01:26:29.148
We, we met in la

01:26:29.387 --> 01:26:30.047
Deb or Deborah?

01:26:30.047 --> 01:26:30.408
I'm sorry.

01:26:30.408 --> 01:26:31.158
Oh, she goes by Deborah.

01:26:31.188 --> 01:26:31.877
Deborah, I'm sorry.

01:26:31.908 --> 01:26:32.238
That's okay.

01:26:32.658 --> 01:26:35.148
Uh, so we, we met in Labrador at the Iron Mine.

01:26:35.153 --> 01:26:35.207
Oh, okay.

01:26:35.207 --> 01:26:55.398
When I was a young engineer, just graduated from university and, uh, working as a young engineer and, and the thing that she, uh, brings up occasionally is that, uh, she, we were moving some things in the office and look, I'm a staff guy and I was moving furniture, like only unionized people move furniture So I was kind of breaking some rules.

01:26:55.637 --> 01:26:59.207
So she thought I was a laborer cuz she didn't like s Right.

01:26:59.207 --> 01:27:02.297
So she, so there's an attractive looking laborer, right.

01:27:02.358 --> 01:27:04.578
With this t-shirt that has a thumbprint on it.

01:27:04.578 --> 01:27:05.297
It says I gotta be me.

01:27:06.722 --> 01:27:07.983
So she still has that t-shirt.

01:27:08.012 --> 01:27:08.493
That's cute.

01:27:09.212 --> 01:27:10.382
So, so that's what, so

01:27:10.382 --> 01:27:11.672
she kind of hanking for you a

01:27:11.672 --> 01:27:12.122
little bit?

01:27:12.122 --> 01:27:13.353
Yeah, that's what I won her over.

01:27:13.353 --> 01:27:13.563
Yeah.

01:27:13.563 --> 01:27:19.622
And, and how she would tell stories about coming into my office and watering the plants, like drowning them in there two, two or three times a day.

01:27:19.863 --> 01:27:21.573
And me, like, stupid guy.

01:27:21.722 --> 01:27:22.023
I had

01:27:22.023 --> 01:27:22.443
no idea.

01:27:22.472 --> 01:27:22.953
Hi Suzy.

01:27:22.953 --> 01:27:23.252
No idea.

01:27:23.372 --> 01:27:24.023
I see you good

01:27:25.653 --> 01:27:26.143
Yeah.

01:27:26.143 --> 01:27:26.983
How come these guys need so

01:27:26.983 --> 01:27:27.182
much water?

01:27:27.393 --> 01:27:30.153
So I didn't know like, who made the first move then Ultimately,

01:27:30.153 --> 01:27:35.493
you know, I, I'd have to ask her, but I think I made the first move because I had a banquet to go to.

01:27:35.493 --> 01:27:38.132
There was a volleyball banquet that I had to go to and I needed a date.

01:27:38.222 --> 01:27:38.552
Right.

01:27:38.557 --> 01:27:41.792
And that's like, I was too shy to ask people out just to ask'em out.

01:27:41.797 --> 01:27:43.353
Had to have a reason to ask somebody else.

01:27:43.353 --> 01:27:43.712
Yeah.

01:27:43.717 --> 01:27:43.743
Yeah.

01:27:43.743 --> 01:27:46.172
And so since she was hanging around there all the time, she was pretty cute.

01:27:46.292 --> 01:27:47.262
Yeah, she was really cute.

01:27:47.268 --> 01:27:47.672
I think that's

01:27:47.672 --> 01:27:48.063
super cool.

01:27:48.063 --> 01:27:49.052
She, she was really sexy.

01:27:49.203 --> 01:27:51.662
I was a very shy kid too.

01:27:51.662 --> 01:27:58.502
Like I never had a girlfriend until I was a senior in high school and then never really had a girlfriend until second year of college at least.

01:27:58.773 --> 01:27:59.012
Yeah.

01:27:59.122 --> 01:28:03.363
And, and not just the girls, but also just, and it's so funny how.

01:28:04.082 --> 01:28:08.342
You know, in your case it, it kind of maybe slow developed over 20, 30 years.

01:28:08.342 --> 01:28:11.103
In my case, over probably five or something.

01:28:11.103 --> 01:28:13.743
Early in my, in my banking career, it was like, well, you're a salesman now.

01:28:13.983 --> 01:28:14.313
Right.

01:28:14.372 --> 01:28:16.113
You know, and you're gonna have to go meet people and stuff.

01:28:16.113 --> 01:28:28.682
But I was so awkward and shy early on, and part of it being from that rural, rural remote kind of environment, I think where you just kind of assume the people from the big cities and stuff are smarter and whatever.

01:28:28.743 --> 01:28:29.132
I don't know.

01:28:29.252 --> 01:28:29.853
Yeah, yeah.

01:28:29.853 --> 01:28:35.222
You do make that assumption that you think that I think we, we don't appreciate ourselves very much.

01:28:35.222 --> 01:28:35.493
Yeah.

01:28:35.497 --> 01:28:36.332
As much as we should.

01:28:36.453 --> 01:28:36.962
Yeah.

01:28:37.052 --> 01:28:37.143
I

01:28:37.143 --> 01:28:39.002
think that's probably true across most

01:28:39.002 --> 01:28:39.542
elements.

01:28:39.603 --> 01:28:40.052
I think so.

01:28:40.082 --> 01:28:40.412
Yeah.

01:28:40.893 --> 01:28:43.802
And you don't know what you don't know until you get out there and you say, you know what?

01:28:44.462 --> 01:28:46.143
I can do, I can do just about anything.

01:28:46.233 --> 01:28:46.412
So

01:28:46.412 --> 01:28:50.762
you guys had a few dates, you and, and Deborah and kind of love, love story from there.

01:28:50.762 --> 01:28:51.092
And

01:28:51.573 --> 01:28:53.283
there was, uh, no, we didn't have a few dates.

01:28:53.287 --> 01:28:53.972
We had an a.

01:28:54.363 --> 01:28:59.943
And then, uh, I was at the, uh, Labrador Shopping Center one time, which is everybody who lives there.

01:28:59.943 --> 01:29:00.033
Right.

01:29:00.033 --> 01:29:00.662
That's where you shop.

01:29:00.903 --> 01:29:05.523
Yeah, And I was parked there in my new truck that I have, and she came over and started talking.

01:29:05.523 --> 01:29:06.603
She talked to me for three hours.

01:29:06.603 --> 01:29:07.542
I don't think I said a thing

01:29:10.493 --> 01:29:12.573
Well, it was obvious she liked you,

01:29:13.953 --> 01:29:21.993
So we had to do, had a date after that But I, but I remember something about, around that time that, uh, we were going to have a, or she mentioned, oh, go out and have a date.

01:29:21.997 --> 01:29:26.672
I said, well, I got a date with Angie tonight, so we'll have, we will try again later.

01:29:26.672 --> 01:29:29.792
So I, anyway, we, we did try again later and started going out together.

01:29:30.662 --> 01:29:30.993
Cool.

01:29:31.203 --> 01:29:38.073
And so, um, you guys kind of had Rocky as, as Green Ride was getting ready to sell and stuff.

01:29:38.073 --> 01:29:43.353
Did Green Ride sell first or after, or you guys, you were kind of separated for a while during that season?

01:29:43.353 --> 01:29:44.983
Maybe, if I remember right, we,

01:29:44.988 --> 01:29:53.733
we were, there was a little bit of a gap coming between us, uh, I think, but we were still, you know, sharing the kids, sharing the house and doing living, living together, you know, having the.

01:29:54.182 --> 01:29:56.943
The almost from the outside looks like a normal life.

01:29:57.033 --> 01:29:57.483
Right, right.

01:29:57.483 --> 01:29:57.932
Fair enough.

01:29:58.262 --> 01:30:02.103
And, uh, the separation really came after green ride, years after green, a couple

01:30:02.103 --> 01:30:02.643
years after green ride.

01:30:02.643 --> 01:30:11.403
And so now you're, you're more than five around coming up on seven or something like that kind of wandering bachelor guy, right?

01:30:11.403 --> 01:30:13.502
Or 3, 3, 4, I guess.

01:30:13.502 --> 01:30:13.563
Yeah.

01:30:13.563 --> 01:30:14.613
We sold in 2018.

01:30:14.672 --> 01:30:14.993
Okay.

01:30:14.993 --> 01:30:16.622
So I think June was final, 2018.

01:30:16.912 --> 01:30:17.432
So that's four years in

01:30:17.432 --> 01:30:17.733
June.

01:30:17.762 --> 01:30:17.912
Okay.

01:30:17.912 --> 01:30:18.453
Four years in June.

01:30:18.453 --> 01:30:18.632
Yeah.

01:30:18.872 --> 01:30:19.143
Yeah.

01:30:19.233 --> 01:30:25.802
And uh, like you got, got a special lady up there in Newfoundland or anything like, well you look that of my business.

01:30:25.983 --> 01:30:27.033
This is a terrible thing.

01:30:27.033 --> 01:30:32.853
I think I have a few special ladies and, and this is not, you know, an egotistical guy thing like there.

01:30:34.082 --> 01:30:36.573
There's some friends that I have who are really special to me.

01:30:36.662 --> 01:30:36.842
Yeah.

01:30:36.903 --> 01:30:38.943
And I get to spend some time with them occasionally.

01:30:38.943 --> 01:30:40.983
And it's not sexual, it's not crazy.

01:30:40.983 --> 01:30:43.653
You know, it's, it's like, it's just people I like to hang out with.

01:30:43.653 --> 01:30:43.893
Yeah.

01:30:44.193 --> 01:30:45.903
And, and they're so important in my life.

01:30:46.023 --> 01:30:46.323
Yeah.

01:30:46.412 --> 01:30:49.893
And, you know, I've had some who've sailed with me, some that I just go out for a date.

01:30:49.898 --> 01:30:53.493
We'll go, we'll go to breakfast, we'll go to a dinner, have a glass of wine once in a while.

01:30:53.493 --> 01:31:01.832
It's, uh, so, uh, so I, I can't say that I've found that special person yet, although you don't know, but maybe I have.

01:31:01.832 --> 01:31:02.012
You don't

01:31:02.012 --> 01:31:03.122
suffer from Yeah.

01:31:03.422 --> 01:31:05.582
Necessarily loneliness all the time and whatever.

01:31:05.792 --> 01:31:08.943
That's one of the interesting things, not to interject.

01:31:09.092 --> 01:31:17.882
Um, but, so I always had a lot of platonic female friends previous to my marriage, and it's always been, you know, pretty normal for me.

01:31:17.887 --> 01:31:23.132
And, and like, literally platonic, like I, you know, wasn't former girlfriends and things.

01:31:23.582 --> 01:31:25.583
And when I got married, a lot of.

01:31:26.627 --> 01:31:30.738
that kind of faded away, and I think that's appropriate, you know, in some ways.

01:31:31.217 --> 01:31:42.377
And, but I feel super blessed by the fact that with my job with Lo think Tank, I've got, you know, 30 or 35 or 40 amazing female business owners that are my members.

01:31:42.377 --> 01:31:55.307
I get to meet prospects that, you know, even just today, I, I met with a gal that is just a really inspiring, you know, there's no romance or anything, but I get to have intimate, interesting conversations.

01:31:56.627 --> 01:31:58.068
not my wave, only

01:31:58.427 --> 01:31:58.938
you know?

01:31:59.148 --> 01:32:02.627
Well, not, and I think that's a wonderful adjustment for society to make.

01:32:02.868 --> 01:32:03.018
Yeah.

01:32:03.377 --> 01:32:07.097
We gotta stop thinking that everything is about a sexual attraction.

01:32:07.158 --> 01:32:07.518
Mm-hmm.

01:32:07.762 --> 01:32:13.608
there, there are women with incredible skills who are held down, held back.

01:32:13.967 --> 01:32:18.627
Uh, I think because of these attitudes that people have for so long that Yeah.

01:32:18.632 --> 01:32:22.217
That they, they can't go out there and do a great job and they can, they absolutely do.

01:32:22.222 --> 01:32:24.467
We're we're missing out on an incredible opportunity.

01:32:24.528 --> 01:32:24.828
Yeah.

01:32:25.158 --> 01:32:29.927
By, by restricting because of some, I don't know, some ancient social norms

01:32:30.137 --> 01:32:36.198
that Well, and, um, people are horny monkeys sometimes too, right?

01:32:36.198 --> 01:32:41.898
Like, there's, there's both sides of, of that conversation and, you know, you know, jamming.

01:32:42.453 --> 01:32:49.712
A pair of married, but not to each other people together into a cubicle for six hours a day to work on a big project.

01:32:50.012 --> 01:32:51.752
You know, there's consequences to that too.

01:32:51.752 --> 01:32:58.143
And so I think there has to be a recognition and, and, and it's a comfort level on an individual basis,

01:32:58.203 --> 01:32:58.653
you know?

01:32:58.658 --> 01:32:59.063
Yeah, yeah.

01:32:59.162 --> 01:33:06.422
Well, I feel, I feel blessed in that, you know, I believe my core attitude has been one of respect Yeah.

01:33:06.603 --> 01:33:08.103
For, for women and for men.

01:33:08.342 --> 01:33:08.672
Yeah.

01:33:08.672 --> 01:33:12.243
And so the friends that I have, I have an incredible amount of respect for them.

01:33:12.247 --> 01:33:14.552
I, I love sitting down having a conversation with you.

01:33:15.033 --> 01:33:20.132
I love sitting down, having a conversation with other folks that I've met here in Fort Collins who are not male.

01:33:20.403 --> 01:33:20.672
Sure.

01:33:20.853 --> 01:33:24.962
And, and, and I get so much out of that, and I get different things.

01:33:24.993 --> 01:33:25.412
Totally.

01:33:25.743 --> 01:33:26.042
Totally.

01:33:26.042 --> 01:33:28.292
And it enriches my life in so many ways.

01:33:28.643 --> 01:33:35.403
And I, I don't like the concept of limiting that by having a girlfriend, a.

01:33:35.457 --> 01:33:36.177
Person.

01:33:36.207 --> 01:33:38.188
Uh, and the only, the

01:33:38.188 --> 01:33:38.818
one and only.

01:33:38.877 --> 01:33:39.518
Right, right.

01:33:39.537 --> 01:33:39.868
Yeah.

01:33:40.717 --> 01:33:40.917
Interesting.

01:33:41.007 --> 01:33:57.358
I, uh, early in my banking career, not even early throughout my banking career, I would work with capable women, um, and many of whom it had kind of a glass ceiling applied to them in some fashion or another, or at least, uh, misogynist kind of attitudes and mm-hmm.

01:33:57.597 --> 01:33:58.768
like at least three times they.

01:33:59.582 --> 01:34:02.493
Kurt, you're so not a bigot asshole.

01:34:03.243 --> 01:34:04.292
How did you get that way?

01:34:04.292 --> 01:34:11.672
I'm like, I don't know what a nice moniker to put from where, you know, farmer's, wives are just as important as farmer's, husbands or whatever, right?

01:34:11.677 --> 01:34:12.993
Like we're, I don't know.

01:34:12.993 --> 01:34:14.762
It's just a different perspective on the

01:34:14.762 --> 01:34:14.882
world.

01:34:14.882 --> 01:34:16.203
It's a hard subject to talk about.

01:34:16.262 --> 01:34:16.533
Yeah.

01:34:16.563 --> 01:34:21.542
Because I know I'll stick my foot in my mouth, uh, as soon as I open it when, when it comes to this category.

01:34:21.542 --> 01:34:25.773
And, and, and I think what, what we all have to do is look at what the intentions are.

01:34:25.863 --> 01:34:26.042
Yeah.

01:34:26.073 --> 01:34:27.033
Like I say the wrong word.

01:34:27.033 --> 01:34:31.052
Like I've, I've, I've met some wonderful ladies and called them girls.

01:34:31.052 --> 01:34:32.912
Like, no stupid bob.

01:34:33.122 --> 01:34:33.932
Stupid Bob.

01:34:33.932 --> 01:34:34.453
Don't do that.

01:34:35.512 --> 01:34:37.143
And I don't mean that in a demeaning way.

01:34:37.143 --> 01:34:39.063
It's like, I mean, in a very respectful

01:34:39.063 --> 01:34:39.363
way.

01:34:39.393 --> 01:34:43.712
One of my favorite things to do when I open doors for little old ladies Yeah.

01:34:43.802 --> 01:34:49.743
Uh, especially if I know them, uh, is to, to h before beauty That's such an asshole.

01:34:50.432 --> 01:34:51.212
You're, you're an asshole.

01:34:51.363 --> 01:34:51.783
You know that.

01:34:52.502 --> 01:34:53.703
They, they take it as playful.

01:34:53.943 --> 01:34:54.302
That's good.

01:34:54.302 --> 01:34:58.262
Um, so let's see, uh, politics.

01:34:58.983 --> 01:34:59.523
Politics.

01:34:59.523 --> 01:34:59.882
Yeah.

01:34:59.972 --> 01:35:02.523
Uh, are we done talking about family by the way?

01:35:02.582 --> 01:35:04.203
We kind of drifted into some weird

01:35:04.203 --> 01:35:04.502
stuff.

01:35:04.533 --> 01:35:05.252
I love my family.

01:35:05.252 --> 01:35:08.493
I love that we still have a really powerful connection within my family.

01:35:08.972 --> 01:35:09.872
Uh, with my

01:35:09.872 --> 01:35:11.972
ex-wife, with kids, no grandkids yet, I guess.

01:35:11.972 --> 01:35:14.172
No grandkids, any spouses for Max or Catherine.

01:35:14.837 --> 01:35:15.108
Cat.

01:35:15.108 --> 01:35:18.677
Catherine has a wonderful boyfriend, so I don't know where their, what their intentions are.

01:35:18.677 --> 01:35:21.198
You know, that's your authority to pull the goalie, Catherine.

01:35:21.318 --> 01:35:21.408
I

01:35:21.408 --> 01:35:22.368
got my fingers crossed.

01:35:22.368 --> 01:35:23.238
Got my fingers crossed.

01:35:23.238 --> 01:35:24.078
We'll see what happens.

01:35:24.648 --> 01:35:25.188
No pressure.

01:35:25.188 --> 01:35:25.728
No pressure.

01:35:26.448 --> 01:35:26.807
Max.

01:35:26.807 --> 01:35:27.198
Max.

01:35:27.497 --> 01:35:30.768
Love to, uh, find a partner and have children.

01:35:30.887 --> 01:35:34.188
He's, he's ready for that stage of life, but he's also really busy.

01:35:34.188 --> 01:35:38.118
He's got his career, he's got his hobbies, he's got his learning, his education.

01:35:38.118 --> 01:35:41.148
He's like, he's full wall to wall.

01:35:41.148 --> 01:35:42.467
His time is full wall to wall.

01:35:42.768 --> 01:35:44.448
But he'd really like, I think he's

01:35:44.448 --> 01:35:44.717
ready.

01:35:44.778 --> 01:35:45.137
He's ready.

01:35:45.257 --> 01:35:45.318
Yeah.

01:35:45.318 --> 01:35:47.537
The right person and right person, right time, whatever.

01:35:47.537 --> 01:35:49.278
They can push some of that stuff aside for him.

01:35:49.427 --> 01:35:49.757
Yeah.

01:35:50.028 --> 01:35:51.467
Um, politics.

01:35:51.768 --> 01:35:53.078
What do you wanna talk about in that sphere?

01:35:53.167 --> 01:35:56.118
Oh, my, we've got a governor's election coming up here in Colorado.

01:35:56.643 --> 01:35:58.143
As one of those midterms.

01:35:58.533 --> 01:35:59.523
Oh, how about this?

01:35:59.762 --> 01:36:00.662
This is politics.

01:36:00.662 --> 01:36:08.283
Uh, Biden asking the Saudis to at least pump more through the election, and then you could do whatever you want after that.

01:36:08.287 --> 01:36:08.912
How is that?

01:36:09.122 --> 01:36:15.783
You know what, I, I gotta say that I'm not close enough to these issues to really have a a, a fair, valid opinion on a lot of these things.

01:36:15.783 --> 01:36:25.113
I, what I, what I'd love to see a lot more of is us reaching out across aisles and across divisions and having conversations instead of shouting matches.

01:36:25.203 --> 01:36:25.563
Agreed.

01:36:25.743 --> 01:36:28.353
And, uh, and so that's what I like to see.

01:36:28.563 --> 01:36:31.622
Uh, I think a lot of people have good intentions.

01:36:31.627 --> 01:36:33.363
I think some people have bad intentions.

01:36:33.363 --> 01:36:33.512
Yeah.

01:36:33.842 --> 01:36:38.132
And I think we need to get rid of the people with the bad intentions, the people who don't wanna talk to anybody else.

01:36:38.132 --> 01:36:38.222
Yeah.

01:36:38.222 --> 01:36:41.073
The people who only say this is the only way it can be done.

01:36:41.132 --> 01:36:41.792
Well, no, it's not.

01:36:42.483 --> 01:36:46.323
You know, and, and so let's have a conversation about how we can make it better for everyone.

01:36:46.592 --> 01:36:46.743
Yeah.

01:36:46.743 --> 01:36:49.113
Like, um, I, I don't know where I fall.

01:36:49.143 --> 01:36:51.153
Look, I certainly fall more on the demo.

01:36:51.573 --> 01:36:56.222
CRA side there and the Republican side in terms of platforms and policies.

01:36:56.552 --> 01:37:01.802
But there's a, I say to a lot of people, if Co Powell run for president, I'd vote for him in a second.

01:37:01.807 --> 01:37:02.073
Right.

01:37:02.342 --> 01:37:03.243
I would absolutely voted

01:37:03.243 --> 01:37:03.813
for him in a second.

01:37:03.813 --> 01:37:06.872
I'm pretty sure his foreign policy would be superior to reason.

01:37:07.653 --> 01:37:08.103
I think so too.

01:37:09.092 --> 01:37:09.363
Yeah.

01:37:09.512 --> 01:37:11.643
Uh, you know, but obviously that's not gonna happen.

01:37:11.693 --> 01:37:12.092
Yeah.

01:37:12.143 --> 01:37:22.802
Uh, you know, I was a big fan of Obama and, you know, I think he got, uh, short changed, uh, quite a bit in, in his tenure because of blocking instead of having conversations.

01:37:22.983 --> 01:37:23.372
Yeah, yeah.

01:37:23.613 --> 01:37:23.762
Yeah.

01:37:23.762 --> 01:37:25.172
I think a lot more could have been done.

01:37:25.502 --> 01:37:27.393
Um, I'm not a fan of Trump.

01:37:27.573 --> 01:37:29.162
Uh, you know, so that that's out there.

01:37:29.162 --> 01:37:34.443
I think, I think people should have high character, high values, high morals to be in leadership positions.

01:37:34.443 --> 01:37:34.622
Yeah.

01:37:34.802 --> 01:37:38.132
And I don't care what his policies could be written in gold Right.

01:37:38.137 --> 01:37:39.632
But he's not in my mind.

01:37:39.693 --> 01:37:39.993
Yeah.

01:37:40.052 --> 01:37:41.823
He's not a good, that's why I never voted for him.

01:37:41.823 --> 01:37:44.747
You know, I, uh, I voted for Kanye in the last election.

01:37:45.273 --> 01:37:45.542
Yeah.

01:37:45.573 --> 01:37:45.813
Yeah.

01:37:45.813 --> 01:37:47.823
Cause I couldn't, I couldn't do it otherwise, you know?

01:37:47.943 --> 01:37:48.182
Yeah.

01:37:48.417 --> 01:37:48.688
Yeah.

01:37:48.957 --> 01:37:50.578
Well, and I'm glad you'll share that.

01:37:50.578 --> 01:37:53.847
I mean, these are kind of personal decisions for, for a lot of people.

01:37:53.847 --> 01:38:01.797
And I know people are very, it, it is tough coming to America, sitting down with somebody you don't know to decide whether you have a conversation about politics or not.

01:38:01.797 --> 01:38:02.127
Right.

01:38:02.158 --> 01:38:03.028
And that should not be.

01:38:03.028 --> 01:38:03.717
So yeah.

01:38:03.778 --> 01:38:05.368
You should be able to have a conversation about that.

01:38:05.608 --> 01:38:08.797
I went to dinner with some people I met through a bicycle accident.

01:38:08.802 --> 01:38:09.868
I, I damaged this guy's car.

01:38:10.408 --> 01:38:13.948
And so anyway, long term, long story short, I paid for the repairs.

01:38:13.978 --> 01:38:15.568
He invites me to dinner at his house.

01:38:15.747 --> 01:38:22.018
We get into a conversation and hi, his, his wife, uh, wonderful lady, starts mentioning politics.

01:38:22.287 --> 01:38:24.568
And then she says, oh, wait, now can we talk about that?

01:38:24.988 --> 01:38:27.118
And we should not have that hesitation.

01:38:27.118 --> 01:38:28.887
Yeah, we should absolutely be able to talk about those.

01:38:29.537 --> 01:38:30.257
One would hope.

01:38:30.377 --> 01:38:30.618
Yeah.

01:38:30.648 --> 01:38:33.078
Um, let's talk about Canadian politics a little bit, shall we?

01:38:33.408 --> 01:38:39.438
I just, my, my next door neighbors just came back from a trip to, they went to, uh, old Quebec.

01:38:39.467 --> 01:38:43.847
They went to Toronto and Montreal and they were like, you gotta go.

01:38:43.847 --> 01:38:46.518
It was the best and the colors and this and that.

01:38:46.667 --> 01:38:46.938
Beautiful.

01:38:46.938 --> 01:38:49.787
And I was like, I don't know if I'm allowed, cause I'm not vaccinated.

01:38:50.268 --> 01:38:55.757
And you're allow, they just, they just changed it back allowed in the last week or something like that.

01:38:55.847 --> 01:38:56.087
Yeah.

01:38:56.118 --> 01:39:04.427
But like, frankly, one of the jokes I've made is in North Dakota, we used to joke like, if the US gets too fucked up, then we'll just become part of Canada.

01:39:04.847 --> 01:39:05.057
Right.

01:39:05.148 --> 01:39:07.148
And like nobody says that up there anymore.

01:39:07.347 --> 01:39:07.467
No.

01:39:07.597 --> 01:39:08.417
No, no.

01:39:08.417 --> 01:39:12.858
Cause Canada got pretty clampy and the whole, like, whatever you wanna say about the trucker thing.

01:39:13.462 --> 01:39:15.063
And that was pretty shitty pool.

01:39:15.063 --> 01:39:24.483
The way they played that from a, you know, just like literally taking, shutting down people's bank accounts if they donated$10 to these truckers and stuff like that, that was Nutty balls.

01:39:24.662 --> 01:39:25.172
Yeah.

01:39:25.203 --> 01:39:27.962
Well, I'm not sure I'm on the same page with you all, with all that stuff there.

01:39:27.962 --> 01:39:28.893
I think it was Nutty Balls.

01:39:28.898 --> 01:39:30.813
Have these truckers shutting down the city as well.

01:39:31.472 --> 01:39:31.743
Yeah.

01:39:31.863 --> 01:39:32.432
Uh, fair.

01:39:32.432 --> 01:39:33.752
So there's, there's that as well.

01:39:33.752 --> 01:39:35.582
But, but again, but their livelihoods were.

01:39:36.497 --> 01:39:39.467
Uh, uh, maybe, uh, I don't know.

01:39:39.528 --> 01:39:42.078
It could because of the cross-border thing because he weren't vaccinated.

01:39:42.108 --> 01:39:42.408
Right.

01:39:42.408 --> 01:39:43.547
That was, yeah.

01:39:43.728 --> 01:39:43.967
Yeah.

01:39:44.207 --> 01:39:52.097
And but are the livelihoods of other people who are, uh, compromised being threatened by people who are not vaccinated, you know?

01:39:52.877 --> 01:39:55.307
So wouldn't go around circles on this particular thing.

01:39:55.547 --> 01:39:57.497
Like, I, I respect your choices.

01:39:57.618 --> 01:39:57.707
Yeah.

01:39:58.127 --> 01:40:00.618
But, uh, it's like the old time smokers, right.

01:40:00.618 --> 01:40:02.207
I respect your, you can smoke yourself to death.

01:40:02.297 --> 01:40:02.478
Yeah.

01:40:02.537 --> 01:40:03.377
But just don't kill me.

01:40:03.677 --> 01:40:03.917
Fair.

01:40:04.278 --> 01:40:04.547
Yeah.

01:40:04.608 --> 01:40:06.047
And you do what you want to yourself.

01:40:06.078 --> 01:40:06.858
And that's absolutely right.

01:40:06.858 --> 01:40:07.427
Well, the truck driver, but

01:40:07.688 --> 01:40:08.387
don't come into my house.

01:40:08.537 --> 01:40:13.457
Truck drivers driving by themselves in trucks across borders was not a significant threat to Canadian security.

01:40:13.667 --> 01:40:19.847
And I don't know if you noticed, but Pfizer didn't check to see if it would reduce transmissibility of the disease or not.

01:40:20.028 --> 01:40:20.328
Right.

01:40:20.898 --> 01:40:24.887
I just, you know, so it's like, can a government, should a government be able to mandate things.

01:40:25.653 --> 01:40:26.733
Haven't been tested.

01:40:26.733 --> 01:40:31.412
And even like the government was saying, if you take this vaccine, you won't catch it.

01:40:31.412 --> 01:40:32.193
You won't spread it.

01:40:32.523 --> 01:40:33.783
We, we, we are on, so take it or

01:40:33.783 --> 01:40:34.563
lose your job.

01:40:34.592 --> 01:40:36.212
We are definitely on different sides of this

01:40:36.422 --> 01:40:36.693
issue.

01:40:37.103 --> 01:40:40.502
So why, why, why are you on the side that you're on then, is what I want to hear.

01:40:40.533 --> 01:40:56.042
Well, I, I believe in the science that, that I've heard and, and for, for me it was the more people that get vaccinated, the less chances there will be more mutations of this disease that will continue to hurt more and more people.

01:40:56.372 --> 01:40:58.832
So get in line, get your vaccination.

01:40:58.837 --> 01:40:58.972
Yeah.

01:40:59.462 --> 01:41:15.738
See, I I what you described as science I describe as propaganda because in my studies, which is substantial, the, the just how like use antibiotic bacterial soaps and stuff and then it creates super bugs that escape the protection.

01:41:16.773 --> 01:41:18.733
That's why we had such rapid development.

01:41:19.278 --> 01:41:23.478
Of Delta and OC crime was, was getting around the protections provided by that vaccine.

01:41:23.627 --> 01:41:24.948
So it made it worse.

01:41:24.978 --> 01:41:26.177
It made a bad problem worse.

01:41:26.328 --> 01:41:26.537
That's

01:41:26.537 --> 01:41:27.917
your belief with Yeah.

01:41:28.007 --> 01:41:28.457
Yeah, yeah.

01:41:28.457 --> 01:41:28.608
Yeah.

01:41:28.608 --> 01:41:29.717
We're definitely, there's a lot of science.

01:41:29.717 --> 01:41:32.568
We're definitely on a completely different Understood, yeah.

01:41:32.627 --> 01:41:33.408
Side of that issue.

01:41:33.408 --> 01:41:33.557
We'll see.

01:41:33.557 --> 01:41:34.337
You get my out cards,

01:41:36.467 --> 01:41:37.368
Well, look, it's cool.

01:41:37.698 --> 01:41:38.927
Personally, I'm fully vaccinated.

01:41:38.927 --> 01:41:38.988
Yeah.

01:41:38.988 --> 01:41:44.717
And I'd probably feel uncomfortable coming here if I was not fully vaccinated because of my fear of passing something on.

01:41:45.542 --> 01:41:45.993
Oh, but it

01:41:45.993 --> 01:41:48.332
doesn't reduce your risk of passing on to me and also why,

01:41:48.872 --> 01:41:50.132
but that's my belief that it does.

01:41:50.162 --> 01:41:50.372
Yeah.

01:41:50.493 --> 01:41:50.823
Well, right.

01:41:51.002 --> 01:41:51.332
Yeah,

01:41:51.372 --> 01:41:52.213
so, so it's cool.

01:41:52.502 --> 01:41:53.703
We don't need to arm wrestle over it.

01:41:53.703 --> 01:41:56.672
I'll just, uh, right, beat you in ping pong after this and

01:41:57.243 --> 01:41:57.783
call it Square.

01:41:57.842 --> 01:42:02.432
You've probably played more than I have, so I'll, I'll use that as a caveat just in case you win, just in case Well,

01:42:02.733 --> 01:42:09.872
I'm much younger and more skilled to so, um, anything else in the political sphere that you would like to, to share?

01:42:10.353 --> 01:42:24.332
And, and we don't need to talk about this kind of uncomfortable topic necessarily, but I, I definitely was dismayed by the level of a, because I've heard kind of anti-authoritarianism in your, describing your personal life, your career path.

01:42:24.332 --> 01:42:26.523
You know, when your boss said, you just do what I say and you'll be.

01:42:27.677 --> 01:42:31.307
but then when it comes to a societal thing, you're like, okay, I'm in line.

01:42:31.488 --> 01:42:32.417
You guys all get in

01:42:32.417 --> 01:42:32.988
line too.

01:42:33.137 --> 01:42:33.347
Yeah.

01:42:33.347 --> 01:42:40.578
So I, I think you'll see a map of things that, uh, in my world, there are things that I sign up for and things I don't sign up for.

01:42:40.608 --> 01:42:40.818
Yeah.

01:42:41.118 --> 01:42:46.068
And uh, you know, when I look at, and clearly we're talking about vaccinations at one side of that coin.

01:42:46.097 --> 01:42:46.307
Sure.

01:42:46.368 --> 01:42:53.717
The other side of that coin is regulatory environments in which businesses are not given the freedom to really serve their customers.

01:42:53.717 --> 01:42:53.778
Yeah.

01:42:54.228 --> 01:42:56.747
And you know, I think there is a place for regulatory.

01:42:58.667 --> 01:43:06.948
Involvement when it comes to safety, when it comes to basic minimum standards, when it comes to expectations, but not to prevent us from getting into business.

01:43:07.278 --> 01:43:09.587
You know, I think those rules, those laws ought to be changed.

01:43:09.648 --> 01:43:09.887
Yeah.

01:43:10.278 --> 01:43:16.427
Uh, so one particular law that says you need to be a should be a monopoly to serve Northern Colorado.

01:43:16.457 --> 01:43:17.778
I think that's crazy today.

01:43:17.868 --> 01:43:18.108
Yeah.

01:43:18.167 --> 01:43:19.787
It might have made sense 30 years ago.

01:43:19.997 --> 01:43:21.257
It does not make sense today.

01:43:21.377 --> 01:43:22.427
And they've changed the law.

01:43:22.457 --> 01:43:23.957
They've changed the law in the Denver area.

01:43:24.257 --> 01:43:24.377
Yeah.

01:43:24.382 --> 01:43:25.427
Cause it used to be the same thing.

01:43:26.238 --> 01:43:36.948
So I guess my struggle there is it's more of an outcomes related philosophy than it is a, a values or principles related philosophy in some respects.

01:43:37.688 --> 01:43:38.108
I'm

01:43:38.113 --> 01:43:38.898
not sure where you're going with that.

01:43:38.927 --> 01:43:39.408
Well,

01:43:39.408 --> 01:43:44.837
because, like, it might have made sense when it was put into place, but it doesn't make sense now.

01:43:44.837 --> 01:43:51.078
And, and to me, I guess I, I come from more of a libertarian perspective, and you should have principles that ground your decisions.

01:43:51.078 --> 01:43:54.318
And, and if it, if it's.

01:43:55.188 --> 01:43:58.938
You know, it isn't really it, it's not the ends justify the means kind of a world.

01:43:58.938 --> 01:44:01.637
It's a what are the principles underlying your decisions?

01:44:01.637 --> 01:44:05.087
And, and to me that's a firmer ground to build your decision tree on.

01:44:05.207 --> 01:44:05.507
Yeah.

01:44:05.512 --> 01:44:05.837
Okay.

01:44:05.898 --> 01:44:11.118
And so taking that with this regulatory environment thing, the, the principles that were there at the beginning was served the community.

01:44:11.148 --> 01:44:11.448
Yeah.

01:44:11.717 --> 01:44:16.307
Now that law that was made sense 30 years ago is no longer serving the community.

01:44:16.307 --> 01:44:16.707
So, yeah.

01:44:16.707 --> 01:44:17.717
So you do it on the same principles.

01:44:17.717 --> 01:44:17.837
Yeah.

01:44:17.868 --> 01:44:18.347
Fair enough.

01:44:18.528 --> 01:44:20.778
And but changed the law because society has changed.

01:44:20.778 --> 01:44:21.497
The world has changed.

01:44:21.497 --> 01:44:21.677
Yeah.

01:44:22.068 --> 01:44:26.118
Uh, the laws that made sense in the 18 hundreds don't necessarily make sense today.

01:44:26.148 --> 01:44:26.568
Fair enough.

01:44:26.807 --> 01:44:27.078
Fair enough.

01:44:27.078 --> 01:44:27.228
Yeah.

01:44:27.497 --> 01:44:32.148
But the principles that undergird those laws, hopefully most of'em are still at least somewhat similar.

01:44:32.177 --> 01:44:33.707
Hopefully most of, but not all of them are.

01:44:33.707 --> 01:44:35.478
And that's far where the challenges in today's

01:44:35.478 --> 01:44:35.597
world.

01:44:35.597 --> 01:44:35.778
Yeah.

01:44:36.078 --> 01:44:38.898
And, and the, if the principle is serve society Yeah.

01:44:39.047 --> 01:44:44.448
Serve the customers then and the customer goes from one to a hundred thousand, well, you're in a different world.

01:44:44.478 --> 01:44:44.747
Yeah.

01:44:44.807 --> 01:44:45.198
Fair enough.

01:44:45.257 --> 01:44:45.438
Yeah.

01:44:45.828 --> 01:44:49.382
Um, your local experience, Oh, my local experience.

01:44:49.382 --> 01:44:51.332
The craziest experience that you'd care to describe.

01:44:51.603 --> 01:44:52.592
Oh gosh.

01:44:52.653 --> 01:44:52.983
Yeah.

01:44:53.283 --> 01:44:54.783
I thought I had something in mind for that.

01:44:54.813 --> 01:44:55.653
Uh, you

01:44:55.653 --> 01:44:59.462
know, the, do you wanna tell me about a good boat story just to break the ice?

01:44:59.613 --> 01:45:05.283
The, yeah, so, so a good boat story is, uh, sailing in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

01:45:05.283 --> 01:45:10.023
We have our spinnaker out the wind, and the spinnaker is the big bellowing sail that's up in front of boats.

01:45:10.023 --> 01:45:12.393
People always have photos of these big, big things,

01:45:12.393 --> 01:45:13.262
and for when you're really

01:45:13.262 --> 01:45:16.353
cruising, kinda, yeah, you're really cruising, you're going down wind, right?

01:45:16.353 --> 01:45:21.603
So, so the wind is coming behind, blowing you along and, and it's really good when the winds are light, right?

01:45:21.608 --> 01:45:22.983
So this is a great sale to have up there.

01:45:22.988 --> 01:45:29.432
As the winds start to pick up, then you get kind a risky situation in terms of this, a big area that can catch right by

01:45:29.432 --> 01:45:32.582
the wind, too much wind and snap your beam off or something like that.

01:45:32.823 --> 01:45:33.033
And

01:45:33.033 --> 01:45:39.842
so, as wind is picking up above 20 knots, mid twenties, we're, we're heading up to the bow of the boat to take the sail down.

01:45:40.143 --> 01:45:47.193
When the sail, uh, Catches a gust of wind, gets caught into water and turns the boat sideways.

01:45:47.613 --> 01:45:47.672
Oh.

01:45:47.703 --> 01:45:52.863
And this is a 50 foot boat with a heavy weight, like a U-turn and it's like a U-turn.

01:45:52.953 --> 01:45:53.432
Oh my goodness.

01:45:53.432 --> 01:45:54.483
In just a second.

01:45:54.488 --> 01:45:55.592
Just a couple of seconds.

01:45:55.922 --> 01:46:05.432
Now it feels like it's happening in slow motion, but just, it just goes, wow, you turned around and this sail that this big Bill w sail when the boat comes back kind of up out of the water.

01:46:05.432 --> 01:46:12.063
And we weren't, we weren't turtled or anything like that, we just kinda went sideways, came back up again, lopped up, and now this sails wrapped around the head.

01:46:12.063 --> 01:46:13.382
Stay the front part of the boat.

01:46:13.382 --> 01:46:13.682
Oh shit.

01:46:13.682 --> 01:46:14.762
And there's no way we can get it down.

01:46:14.853 --> 01:46:15.182
Right.

01:46:15.243 --> 01:46:19.863
And so we were struggling with this and I'm up on the bow of the boat thinking, oh my God, this is awesome.

01:46:21.603 --> 01:46:21.783
such

01:46:21.783 --> 01:46:23.733
a challenging problem to figure out.

01:46:23.733 --> 01:46:25.033
I haven't had any of these in a while.

01:46:25.233 --> 01:46:25.533
Oh

01:46:25.533 --> 01:46:25.893
yeah.

01:46:25.922 --> 01:46:26.162
It could be.

01:46:26.162 --> 01:46:26.643
You know, I think.

01:46:27.783 --> 01:46:35.162
Adventures that we run into those moments of time when, when things are just like, oh, is it all gonna fall apart now?

01:46:35.462 --> 01:46:39.542
And I've had a couple of those sailing, uh, where is it all gonna fall apart?

01:46:39.962 --> 01:46:41.103
And is this the end?

01:46:41.193 --> 01:46:41.882
Is this the end?

01:46:41.882 --> 01:46:42.033
Yeah.

01:46:42.302 --> 01:46:45.287
And then you come out the other side and think, Wow, that was cool.

01:46:45.768 --> 01:46:46.068
right?

01:46:46.118 --> 01:46:46.967
You, you learn something.

01:46:46.967 --> 01:46:48.228
You experience something and

01:46:48.318 --> 01:46:48.978
you, you move on.

01:46:48.978 --> 01:46:54.768
I've heard it said there's the fun that, um, you know, it's fun when you're having it that you can barely remember later.

01:46:54.948 --> 01:46:55.158
Yeah.

01:46:55.188 --> 01:47:00.917
And there's the fun that was miserable at the time that it was happening, but you look back at it more fondly than almost all your other memories.

01:47:01.037 --> 01:47:01.368
There's some

01:47:01.368 --> 01:47:02.387
of the best experiences.

01:47:02.393 --> 01:47:14.238
So one, one of the challenging experiences that we had with Green Ride was when CDOT came in and changed our world and we were operating out of the Harmony Transportation Center and so is super shuttle.

01:47:14.297 --> 01:47:14.507
Yep.

01:47:14.568 --> 01:47:21.198
And CDOT comes in and says, you know, for good reason, for their good reason that customers can no longer park there for more than 24 hours.

01:47:21.318 --> 01:47:25.278
Well, all of our customers were going to the airport, parking there for days or weeks at a time.

01:47:25.307 --> 01:47:25.608
Right.

01:47:25.637 --> 01:47:27.018
Are no longer allowed to park there.

01:47:27.257 --> 01:47:29.238
This is a huge disruption Wow.

01:47:29.268 --> 01:47:30.198
To our business.

01:47:30.408 --> 01:47:32.778
And we just got totally blown, blindsided by Right.

01:47:32.778 --> 01:47:35.238
We were just sent a letter saying on this particular date.

01:47:35.297 --> 01:47:35.688
Right.

01:47:35.688 --> 01:47:36.677
Two weeks is what happened now.

01:47:36.768 --> 01:47:36.948
Yep.

01:47:37.427 --> 01:47:38.358
Here's what, oh my goodness.

01:47:39.167 --> 01:47:41.118
We struggled to figure out what to do with that.

01:47:41.118 --> 01:47:41.278
We.

01:47:42.137 --> 01:47:44.478
Found a place that we could operate out of.

01:47:44.478 --> 01:47:46.488
It was the Fort Collins Loveland airport at the time.

01:47:46.547 --> 01:47:46.997
Oh right.

01:47:46.997 --> 01:47:51.347
And we moved down there and we had a place for our customers to park, but it changed our business model.

01:47:51.347 --> 01:47:57.078
It caused more cost, more distance, uh, a poorer service for our customers.

01:47:57.198 --> 01:47:57.257
Yeah.

01:47:57.557 --> 01:48:01.097
Uh, you know, now it was longer to get to the airport cuz now they had to go into Yeah.

01:48:01.158 --> 01:48:02.597
The airport, the Fort Collins local.

01:48:02.597 --> 01:48:02.688
Right.

01:48:02.688 --> 01:48:02.747
It

01:48:02.997 --> 01:48:03.978
wasn't just right there at I 25.

01:48:04.127 --> 01:48:04.478
It

01:48:04.478 --> 01:48:04.759
was just right there.

01:48:04.764 --> 01:48:04.967
Yes.

01:48:04.967 --> 01:48:05.988
To stop.

01:48:05.988 --> 01:48:11.177
And, and we were driving further is costing us more in fuel, damaging the environment.

01:48:11.268 --> 01:48:15.618
All these things that were just really terrible outcomes of that one decision.

01:48:15.797 --> 01:48:20.507
And yeah, they have the right to make that decision so that, um, Bustang could, yeah.

01:48:20.568 --> 01:48:23.957
Customers would have a place to park for the day for, cause they go to Denver and come back.

01:48:24.648 --> 01:48:26.747
The, these kind of unintended consequences.

01:48:27.393 --> 01:48:28.502
Were painful.

01:48:28.682 --> 01:48:28.922
Yeah.

01:48:29.073 --> 01:48:32.113
And, and that is one that almost drove us outta business.

01:48:32.118 --> 01:48:38.882
That was one that I was in, uh, Quebec at the time, doing a French immersion course, you know, enjoy enjoying my time.

01:48:38.912 --> 01:48:40.203
Yeah, you're trying to be chilling.

01:48:40.203 --> 01:48:45.512
And I had to quit that, come back, work with Ray and others, figure out what, how we gonna do this.

01:48:45.662 --> 01:48:45.932
Right.

01:48:45.932 --> 01:48:47.073
And we changed our schedule.

01:48:47.073 --> 01:48:48.212
We modified our schedule.

01:48:48.212 --> 01:48:50.703
We were trying to provide service and we're trying to navigate our way through that.

01:48:50.832 --> 01:48:51.512
We, we got through it.

01:48:51.512 --> 01:48:51.783
Okay.

01:48:51.783 --> 01:48:52.682
But it was painful.

01:48:53.073 --> 01:48:53.222
That

01:48:53.222 --> 01:48:53.552
was rough.

01:48:53.853 --> 01:48:58.353
I'm gonna, so unintended consequences is one of my kind of biggest annoying things.

01:48:58.502 --> 01:49:18.212
What if, just theoretically, what if this, these M R m RNA vaccines that have been mandated and so popular around Canada, what if it turns out that they're having a, a significant excess death, uh, component a year down the road, two years, five years, then would you feel the same?

01:49:18.842 --> 01:49:21.573
Mandating those kinds of things in that circumstance?

01:49:22.082 --> 01:49:22.262
No.

01:49:22.592 --> 01:49:23.912
Or you change your plan based on the

01:49:23.962 --> 01:49:26.733
outcomes if the science says something different, right.

01:49:26.733 --> 01:49:29.432
The science that I know, not the science that, you know.

01:49:29.493 --> 01:49:29.703
Yeah.

01:49:30.002 --> 01:49:32.943
Uh, then yeah, I'll follow what the science says.

01:49:33.063 --> 01:49:36.153
Well, we'll talk, I'll find what, uh, you know, what does, what does Fauci say?

01:49:36.212 --> 01:49:38.372
Well, he's the head of the science now.

01:49:38.372 --> 01:49:40.143
You don't take that, but I do.

01:49:40.443 --> 01:49:40.622
Yeah.

01:49:40.622 --> 01:49:42.302
He's, he's been around for 30

01:49:42.302 --> 01:49:44.132
years, have by a lot of people for a

01:49:44.132 --> 01:49:44.672
long time.

01:49:44.677 --> 01:49:45.332
See, I don't believe that.

01:49:45.872 --> 01:49:46.233
Okay,

01:49:47.972 --> 01:49:48.363
Love you, Bob.

01:49:48.632 --> 01:49:49.292
Yeah, you too.

01:49:49.342 --> 01:49:49.762
You

01:49:49.762 --> 01:49:49.882
too.

01:49:50.012 --> 01:49:50.313
All right.

01:49:50.313 --> 01:49:50.552
Bye-bye.

01:49:50.552 --> 01:49:50.882
Take care.