EXPERIENCE 101 | Nick Armstrong, WTF is up with Nick, Founded in FoCo, Comic Con, and FTW Hot Sauce?
Nick Armstrong is among Fort Collins’ most interesting people! He’s the Geek-in-Chief of WTF Marketing, the Pepper Pioneer of FTW Hot Sauce, and the Lead Organizer of both Founded in FoCo and Fort Collins Comic Con! He’s also a freelance community organizer in various ancillary capacities, and a recently BARELY unsuccessful candidate for Fort Collins City Council.
In this episode, we zoom especially in on the Founded in FoCo event and highlight some of the amazing speakers, workshops, and events that’ll be going on. LoCo Think Tank is hosting a Celebrating our Community event to kickoff the festivities on March 1, 2023. Nick also shares about his city council run and more about his newest venture - FTW Hot Sauce, FOR THE WIN. Tune in and enjoy my conversation with Nick Armstrong!
The LoCo Experience Podcast is sponsored by: Logistics Co-op | https://logisticscoop.com/
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Music By: A Brother's Fountain
nick Armstrong is among Fort Collins' most interesting people. He's the geek in chief of WTF marketing, the Pepper pioneer of F T W Hot Sauce, and the lead organizer of both founded in Foco and the Fort Collins Comic-Con. He's also a freelance community organizer in various ancillary capacities. And a recently barely unsuccessful candidate for Fort Collins City Council. Nick has a great business journey. Basically unemployable from the start after earning his BS in business administration with both marketing and computer science focus, nick got into the corporate world where he rambled from job to job for a bit before getting into his own things, and there's a lot of them from organizing at night Fort Collins to starting a NOCO Comic-Con, so he didn't have to go to. Nick has 28 experience lines on his LinkedIn profile. In this episode, we zoom, especially in on the founded in Foco event. Nick highlights some of the amazing speakers and workshops and events that'll be going on in early March. And make sure to stop by for loco Think tanks, celebrating community Coffee to kick off the festivities on March 1st. Nick also shares a lot about his city council run and more about his newest venture. Ftw hot sauce for the win. Tune in and enjoy my conversation with Nick Armstrong.
curt:
Welcome back to Local Experience Podcast. I'm here today with Nick Armstrong, and Nick is the founder and geek in chief of WTF Marketing. He is the lead organizer of Founded in Foco, the lead organizer of Fort Collins Comic-Con, and the founder of an amazing Hot Sauce. I presume that he just gifted to me the For the Win brand. That's right.
nick:
So, um, when we first met you gifted me with, uh, the Spice. Oh, I did?
curt:
Yeah. Oh, I didn't loco. Thank you Spice. I wondered when it was that I served you well. You're, you're just such a good community service servant that, uh, that's how we reward people
nick:
sometimes. Yeah. Well, and it's, it's cool to be able to give a gift and that stuck with me. So no Cool.
curt:
Good. I'm so glad. I'm so glad that, that makes me
nick:
happy. Although we did have to get you a longer notepad for all the titles and things. It's Right.
curt:
Yeah. Well, that's about all the notes I'll take. Yeah. It's basically back to my college days here. It's, yeah. Just winging it
nick:
daily. It's, it's good to know, like, you know, who's on your podcast, Yeah. Yeah. But thank you for having me.
curt:
Of course, of course. So, um, where should we start? Well, I feel, yeah, go ahead. Yeah. Uh, you know, you're here because we're gonna talk about Founded in Foco in part know. That's right. Yeah. Founded in
nick:
for Fort Collins. Um, formerly Fo Foco Startup Week. Yeah. Fort Collins Startup Week. When is that? It is March 1st through third. Okay. And it's gonna be at Front Range Community College. It's gonna be an awesome experience for all
curt:
involved. We were just looking at the schedule. I think we'll get this out. Last week of January. First week of February. Great. So, uh, that's awesome. You can build your schedule now, right? Exactly. So we'll talk more about Founded and Foco, but I think your why in getting to be the lead organizer of Founded and Foco is gonna be flushed out through this conversation. And you've, you're a pretty interesting guy. Thank you. Um, and, and I have to, I have a confession, right? Early in this show, when I first met you, you're kind of brash and annoying like me in some ways, And you had this business called WTF Marketing, and I was like, uh, it's just a little bit, a little too much in your face. Like Yeah. Even though I'm the guy that's like in your face a lot,
nick:
you know, it's, I, when I first started, I was so upset with the state of marketing. Um, I had just two years earlier graduated from CSU with a dual degree in marketing in cs, and all of the sales and marketing jobs I could find were cold calling. And, you know, that's not anything a recent grad wants to go into. Right. You don't really want, well, plus you don't know anything. Exactly. Yeah. And so I, I went in and was the world's worst programmer for two years. Okay. And they actually paid me to stop And, and I looked around and said, what, what do we have in the marketplace? And there were all these social media gurus. You remember the day, the era of the guru? Sure. Like the Facebook guru, the, you know. Yeah. They didn't have Facebook pages, like Facebook business pages. So you created a profile, like a fake person. Oh, for your business back then. Oh, okay. And they had Twitter and all this other stuff, but nobody really knew how to do it. So all these small business owners were getting booked right by these quote unquote gurus who were snake oil salesmen, And it was really frustrating
curt:
for me. So when you're talking guru, are you talking about like Mark Zuckerberg and stuff, or local gurus that were like, I'll get you on Facebook and
nick:
whatever. Yeah, exactly. They were like a dime a dozen. They were going out there and they would like, oh yeah, I'll get your business on Facebook and I'll, you know, we'll make all the friends in your community, the followers. Yeah,
curt:
exactly. Yeah. You won't have to work. You'll just get all. Free
nick:
customers. Yes. More and more customers. They were the same people who fake Yelp reviews and things like that now, so mm-hmm. So I, I was really just upset by this entire progression of Yeah. What I, I perceived as the, the, the, the extraction of wealth from a small business community. And so I started teaching the digital Gunslingers, which was a$1 per person per head for an hour. Twitter 1 0 1, Facebook 1 0 1, WordPress 1 0 1. And I would take the money and I donated it to the food bank because I figured I might needed at some point Right. And then I was like, well, now that I know what I'm doing, I started l reaching out to other contacts. So how
curt:
did you know what to do though? Just
nick:
from these? Yeah, it was mostly like, personal two years of being a struggling programmer. Yeah. I mean, cuz as a programmer, you know, you dive into the communities and, and you know, they had put forums and read different things. Yeah, exactly. Stuff like that. Facebook and you would go to, I would tweet a hashtag when I'd go to a conference and fellow developers would tweet me back and whatever else. And so there's a lot of just organic community building that I was doing across. And also I was. Uh, the, you would basically call it a marketing or production director, like an advertising director for the K C S U student radio station at csu. Oh, yeah. And so I was building all of the promo bumps and all the other marketing assets for the, the DJs. And I would make things for shows and I would make, you know, the commercials or the funny PSAs,
curt:
which is kinda that identifier stuff that small businesses struggle with a lot of times. Yeah.
nick:
And so I had a lot of that marketing skill that had just sort of grown organically through that as well. Yeah. Um, and, and over time, I, I didn't really know it at first, but that WTF was like, you know, internet vernacular. This is the, you know, we are digital native, like we're working every day in this, in this medium. Like this is the vernacular. Hmm. And I had a client, there was only one client who turned around and said, after we got all the way through, like a long email discussion all the way in, at the end of my contract, he looks at the contract and goes, is that the name of your business? I said, yeah. He says, what does it stand for? He said exactly what you think it does. He says, oh, well, I I can't do business with you Like, how do you, it was on my email address, my website. You had to go look LinkedIn, like all of these references. Like, and you didn't notice the name of the business. Right. So that was the one, one guy in the entire, it was one of the biggest restaurants in Fort Collins, but one guy who would refuse to work with us. Right. And it, it became this filter for people who understood like internet vernacular. And it, I had this really amazing mentor who told me, you know, look, it's, you are so upfront about things. You tell clients things that e even if they will fire you, they know that it's the truth. Yeah. Right. And so they know it's the best advice you possibly have to offer. So your brand is unabashed honesty. Hmm. I,
curt:
uh, I, I don't, maybe we talked about this. I don't think so though. But in my banking career, um, at one point in time, I, the bank was under distress. I got a, uh, my boss got let go. I was the acting boss. I wasn't really interested in being the boss, the bank. Anyway, long story short, I didn't cut my hair I was under a haircut strike. I was always pretty shaggy in that. I, but I, I grew a ponytail. I went all the way to ponytail stage at like age 35. Nice. As I'm the acting president of community or no. Capital West National Bank. Yeah. And when I got a new boss finally, um, we worked together for a few months and stuff. And, and a couple months in, he was like, oh. Cause I got, my picture was taken and it was on the front page of the BizQuest magazine, And I'm like, stretched out with my five finger shoes on and my hair like, not in a ponytail. It was just shagging out. Yeah. Cause it was a He is like, you know, there's, I don't know how many, but 30%, maybe 40% of business owners in town that no matter how smart you are and how good a questions you ask and how good a rates you offer, that just won't be your customer because of your hair. Yep. And I was like, you know, I just, I can't be everybody's banker and I wouldn't wanna be the banker of somebody that would judge me that quickly anyway. Right. And then my hair started thinning out and I just have, I don't, I can't go back. So I'm really glad of that time of pony tailing it for a year self-discovery, and
nick:
I'm, yeah. I'm curious, you never dove into the
curt:
mullet territory? I did not. I really thought about going hard mullet like as I departed the long hair and I just, I checked out I'm, it should have been, I'm not scared of much, but I am scared
nick:
of mullets. You know, it's a, it's a future Halloween costume for you. Alternate identity discovery, I think, well,
curt:
I do wear mullets for Halloween costumes. There you go. From time to time, I just haven't ever had the boldness to take it on myself. That's awesome. Um, so, so it just kind of started organically. Were you like, working for other people and stuff? Were you just kind of piecing it together, bootstrapping it? Um, yeah. Well, so who would you, who did you start charging money to other than like a dollar to learn about
nick:
stuff? Yeah. Um, so I had, bootstrapping is an interesting phraseology because I, I think that that's how 90% of most small businesses operate or should operate anyway, because when you start seeking out external funding or venture capital or anything else like that, there's so much, uh, expectation and, and it's hard. Yes, there is, there's so much emotional weight to all of that as well. Um, but when I, when I started. I had just left my, like second to last job. Um, as a programmer, I was about to start my last job as a programmer. Um, and I had to have an emergency appendectomy. And the, the doc looks at me after the surgery and says, what are you doing with your life? You should not be this stressed out, that you don't know the signals of your own body. Like you should have come into the hospital a lot sooner. Like you should have had this taken care of, like what's happening with you? And so I didn't have a good answer for that. And he said, well, you need to think about what you're doing. Hmm. Thank you doctor. Yes,
curt:
And so, I mean, really, cuz a lot of doctors today wouldn't give you that much time.
nick:
Right, exactly. And so, I, I recovered slowly. And, uh, I knew about the time when my boss asked me, I was like, well, when are you gonna be able to wear pants again? Because I had a, I had a shark bite, right? Right. So you can't wear belts, you can't wear tight clothing. Like you have to be like full on sweats. And that was it, And, uh, I knew I was gonna get fired, so I pulled my 401k from all the various jobs that I had had. Um, I paid off, uh, a little bit of my medical debt. I paid off a month of rent and a month of groceries, and that was my runway Wow. And then I started building websites for$350. Hmm. Um, and I had one client who was, uh, is this like
curt:
early days before the tools and stuff, or? No, this
nick:
was, we had, you know, there was like, when was this By the other CSS editor and, um, so this was 2009. Okay. Um, and$350 for a website is nothing. No. Right. Even then, it was nothing. You would still pay about 10 times that for. Yeah. This was fully custom,
curt:
word pressing mean, a couple grand for a. Affordable website. Yeah. I, there's been people that have said they could build$700 websites and stuff, and no way they, they're terrible usually, you know?
nick:
Exactly. No, this was fully custom WordPress full on theme graphic design. So you made
curt:
like$8 an
nick:
hour Oh, yeah. After it was nothing.$6 an hour, you know, you'd get a website and you're like, oh, I've got a third of my rent. I've got a third of my groceries. And, and now it would be like, I've got a 10th of my rent Right, right. Um, but yeah, that, that was my runway. And Laurie May Homer, who used to run Blue Guys Marketing here in com, she doesn't anymore. She retired. She moved. Yeah, she moved. Oh, she moved away. She handed it off. Um, okay. And so she was my, one of my early on mentors, um, Ron Zinsky, who runs code geek.net. Yeah, yeah. Um, and they, at the time had operated a, a speaking event called Ignite Fort Collins. Yeah. Um, and so I, they invited me to be one of their first speakers at the very first Ignite Fort Collins. And I, of course pitched the, um, having, why did they invite you? Well, they, they had this great, they just liked you on social media. They had this great, on Twitter in particular, it was, we're waiting in line for tickets for Ignite Fort Collins. And I was like, oh, that's an interesting thing. And it was pictures of people waiting in lawn chairs out throughout Old Town Okay. And it just caught my attention as being this and the social media. Yeah. Yeah. Side of me was like, this is what Yeah. Actually caught attention. Yeah. And, and so I leaned in, I said, I wanna submit a talk to this. And I said, yeah, absolutely. So I submitted a talk and of course it was totally self promotional, and they turned around and said, No, let's, what if you did this instead? Right. And talked about this, who actually added value. Exactly. Yeah. And it was such a kind moment of like course correction. Yeah. And then also of like sending the elevator back down for a newbie entrepreneur who they just felt like it was okay to take a risk on. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and so I went up there and I gave my talk. It's still out there on YouTube and, um, I talked about how social media was this wild west wasteland, essentially, where we had to make the value that we wanted to see. And, um, we had to treat respect, you know, treat each other with respect and bring the kindness because there weren't filters and there aren't these other things. So, um, you know, history repeats itself obviously, but like, we were sitting there and Lori came up to me afterwards and she said, I want you to write content. Cuz the, what you just spoke about here was really, and knowing that that was leading edge to the time. Yeah, exactly. And I had been self-promotional right up until like a week before the event. Mm-hmm. and that I had turned it around into this like, you well received talk. Yeah. And, and they said, well, well you should write content. And so Lori hired me to write content for a website. Okay. Um, and one of the clients that I had worked on was Jim Davidson, who's she charged more than
curt:
$350 I assume She,
nick:
she taught me how to price myself. Well, um, And, and that's the story of like, most of my business journey was I had all these amazing mentors, most of them women entrepreneurs who came out of the, the, the woodwork of some sort of networking relationship or some other, you know, thing that I had done or a project or saw that I was working on something and, um, helped me level up my game over time. That's cool. Um, and so I, I like that spirit of give first and then like, you know, we know that a newbie entrepreneur is not gonna be at the same level of productivity or focus or whatever else. Um, their game's not gonna be as high as somebody who's been established for 10, 15, 20 years. And so that, that grace allowed me to really level up my game in an organic way. Yeah. And to find my focus without having to, to, uh, hustle for every single dollar essentially. Right.
curt:
Well, and imagine if you're like, yes, if you've got some great tech or something, you can be a funded startup, right? Yeah. Maybe. But for the most part, you, you can't charge a lot for your stuff cuz you aren't good enough.
nick:
No. At it. And the, the one thing I really took with me is teaching is the critical way to show your value. And so I, I carried that forward into like e-learning and different platforms and I launched a Skillshare course for a little while there and it, it funded quite a few things Yeah. That I wanted to do. Yeah. But when I was doing it as digital gun slingers, it proved ethic. And so our, our community realized I knew what I was talking about because it was vetting out in, in practice. Yep. And one of the things I'm most proud of is that the folks who were intending that class went on to start up their own social media, their own marketing consultancies, their own like content creation. They did it in their own ways. And it was amazing to see that sort of response from the community of like, they came out, they learned about WordPress, they set up their website, they learned about business, and they shared it out with the community, and it was
curt:
valuable. Yeah. Yeah. Do you know the, the motto at Lo Inc. Tank, by the way? No. What's that? It's, uh, ask of your needs and share of your abundance. Nice. And I feel like it kind of speaks toward your kind of persona in the way that you approach community. Yeah,
nick:
absolutely. Give, yeah, give first is how, um, and, you know, startup Week, we were a big part of Techstars for a while there, and, and they said, uh, give first. That's a give first mentality. Yeah. Back. So, um, by, by entrepreneurs for Entrepreneurs is how we phrase it. I
curt:
like it. I like it. That's the same theme with Startup Week now, still, right? Yeah. Like what? Why has everybody, like, there's Maiden Loveland and founded in Foco and there was this and that, whatever. And it used to all be br co-branded as Startup Week. Yeah. What,
nick:
what happened there? Well, Denver's still startup week. Okay. Um, and
curt:
they're, but it was like, Techstars was like a whole thing, right?
nick:
Yeah. Um, as, as gently as I can put this, um, I, I Good fucked it all up. I have a personal, um, uh, issue. Licensing organizations. So I used to run TEDx Foco and we got three, three, uh, programs deep into that. Right. So we had three events. The last one was spectacular. It was at Avagadro's number. We had amazing speakers, great videography, amazing lighting, good scenery design. Yeah. Um, it was a packed room. So that entire like stage area of AGA's numbers. Yeah. Completely packed. And, uh, I got a phone call after we had uploaded our talks from that, from somebody at TEDx and they said, Hey, I'm your, you know, liaison and just wanted to ask you like, your talks seem really folksy and that was the word they used, folksy. And I was like, well, what does that mean, Exactly. Like, have you been to Fort Collins? Like, have you seen our people? Like this is where we, right. And so the entire premise of that was I wanted to give an environment where our community could have a a, a large platform. Yeah. Right? Yeah. And, uh, folks that nobody had ever seen or heard from or, you know, knew about, but they had excellent things to say. Um, and it was sending that elevator back down. To give them that TEDx space. Uh, and so, and they're like, uh, we're
curt:
looking for a little more Polish.
nick:
Right? We wish, aren't you just like north of Denver? Can't you get, like, I was like, no. This is our community. And so I, I pumped the
curt:
brakes on now. Well, there's some amazing speakers and some TEDx speakers from around here that they're lucky they had'em. This is true. Yeah. But you kind of misread the room a little bit. sounds like So, so I put, well, the elevator had been sent down for you. You're
nick:
like, here. Yes. Yeah. And so I, I turned around and I looked around, uh, at the, like TEDx, CSU and TEDx, um, uh, front range, which was a thing back then. And I started advising on their boards to like, okay, this is how we did what we did. And, um, TEDx CSU is still around and they, you know, oh good. CSU is the license holder for that, but it's a student organization that runs it, which is just the best way to do it. Um, and with all of these things, they're laborers of love. Mm-hmm. you know, so you can't really, you can't charge for it. You can't make money off of it like a podcast. So many things. Basically, by the way, this collect, here's the collection. Tin sound
curt:
right? Yeah. If you wanna sponsor the Loco experience's, right. Uh, send an email to Kurt at loco. Think Tank
nick:
um, we there payment accepted in coffee whiskey.
curt:
Right. Whatever. Yeah. Hot sauce is good. Um, but
nick:
yeah, and, and so I, coming back to Techstars, I think Oh yeah. Um, I, I, sorry, I'm going off on these tangents.
curt:
No big stories. I'm
nick:
a squirrel chaser. Yes. Um, so the, the, the issue with Techstars was that they became really onerous with their branding. Mm-hmm. Um, and first it, and this was for years, they had said, well, you can't be startup Foco, which was our, our domain startup foco.com. Yeah. Yeah. And you can't be Startup Foco. You have to be Techstars Startup Week, Fort Collins. Right. And that was feed everything
curt:
through our website.
nick:
And so you had to have, so we bought all the massive branding with their updated logo and everything else like that. All of the banners were changed and all the rest of the website expense to do all of this stuff. Um, and then they changed their logo and then they have the underscore thing now. And so then they were like, you have to come into compliance with our new branding standards and we'll give you one year to do it. I said, well, are you going to give us like the$5,000 to, you know Right. Make the new banners.
curt:
And we just, and were they charging you to be part of
nick:
their thing? No, they didn't charge for it. But when they became you, like, you must do this. Yeah. And, or else we won't license you. It's like, okay, well, so basically
curt:
we're not connected to the Greater Techstars system. No. In a way, no. And the, which means we have to home grow our own speakers and presenters. Cause I've, you know, I guess maybe one difference is when it was Techstars, they would bring some. Baller speakers out and stuff like that sometimes. But the cool thing is we have some really great speakers here. Yes. Like people that are really awesome that choose to live in Fort Collins because it's a choice city. Yes. And they probably won't even charge as much as Techstars was paying because they just want to talk to the local community and help them. Exactly. Yeah. Every help send the
nick:
elevator down. Right. We don't, we don't pay any of our speakers. It's still that give first mentality. Um, we might, if we need to fly somebody in, we'll pay for their flight and their accommodations, but we don't pay any of the speakers to just appear. Yeah. Interesting. Um, and so it's, it's very much that who in the local market has something to share that wants to share something and can share something and is in a position to share something. I haven't heard back about my application yet. You Yes. You're in as a Sorry. The email, I was working on it right before we did the podcast, and I was like, oh, I've gotta go to Kurt I'm gonna be late. Um, so yes, you're in. Um, okay. But yes, the, the whole, the whole concept of um, give first and, and, and now we're founded in Foco and you mentioned, you know, maiden Loveland Week. Yeah. They had a similar
curt:
experience. They moved first kinda on that even think Right.
nick:
A similar, yeah. I mean it was just this entire, everybody kind of felt icky about the branding and that's as, I mean, as kind as I could. So basically
curt:
Techstars crashed their brand in some ways. I mean, I can't assume that Northern Colorado was the only region of the country that was. Here's what I think about all your new requirements. I,
nick:
I, as much as I, and they are, they're a good team. Brad Feld and all of the folks set them up for a lot of success. Um, Brad actually came up and, and yeah,
curt:
Brad's local, right? No, he's for
nick:
Boulder guy. Yeah. But, but the, I mean, Boulder is quote unquote a long way away, and it was tough to get official support from Yeah. Yeah. So we didn't, outside of like, I think one of our events, we didn't have much in the way of like, Hey, here's some support to do a thing, um, outside of Sketch, which became not a thing. And they tried to wrap the, yeah, there was a lot of weird apps
curt:
became so advanced after just a short while that you couldn't, they couldn't like, expect that to be a value add. It's just like, Hey, here's
nick:
the, and then they tried to roll their own community, which I think is, it's a really valuable thing if you're far away from the hub of Boulder. Right. Um, and if you wanted to connect your entrepreneurs in that way. But we have in Fort Collins, we have 1 million cups. We have,
curt:
you know, uh, you know who the entrepreneurial communities are
nick:
exactly out here. We have Loco Think Tank. We have. And so they, what they were trying to do was pull folks into, Uh, network, which was, it just didn't fit well for us. Yeah. Yeah. It wasn't, it just wasn't a good fit. Like, well, and for
curt:
me it seemed like super attractive. Cause I'm like, oh, there's this Techstars thing. I went down to the Longmont event. Yeah. Went to Boulder even actually. Yeah. And, you know, never did succeed in Scaling Loco think tank geographically. Yeah. Uh, you know, we still will eventually, but we're taking a different tact. Yeah. Um, and uh, it just was, it's hard to build relationships with even a week long event. Yes. Right. Like the relationships that Fort Collins businesses are with one another. Yeah. And so it's not just gonna be like captive and contained in this one week event each year. That can be a catalyst for relationship building, which is Right. You know, you guys, and I know the S Spdc has been a big advocate and supporter of the, the startup week and whatever. So, yeah.
nick:
And it, you know, it started with, um, Mike O'Connell when he was at the S spdc is the director and now Hope Hartman is the director of the s spdc. Um, and it's doing amazing things and we, yeah. Hope
was
curt:
just on a few weeks ago actually. Yeah.
nick:
I mean, just super talented and amazing programming for local entrepreneurs.
curt:
So, I wanna just say who is founded in focal week for like, who should come, who should block off that? Is it first through third? Yeah, the
nick:
third. The first through the third. So because we just. Uh, found in a foco in, in September. Right. We're resetting our time
curt:
for, we'd rather do it in the spring. Yeah. We don't want to screw around with in the
nick:
fall. Yeah. Well fall. You know, there's so many different events. And this last time when we tried it was the, the chamber had an expo, the
curt:
talent summit. There was a lady's business thing about
nick:
that time. Everybody was busy doing something. Yeah, yeah. And so we just didn't want to, we just didn't want to compound that time of year. And there's also, uh, Fort Collins ComicCon, which was in August. Right. So just we're one event, massive event after another for the organizing team. Right. We just could not do it. Um, so now we're back in March. it's
curt:
much a little bit of pressure. It was like Nick you kind of spread yourself thin during an August, September event. Oh yeah. So, wait, it's less learned, whether it's outside pressure or inside pressure. I'm sure there's pressure. Yeah. Um, well, well perfected the cloning yet. So who is that for? Like, is it for existing businesses? Startup businesses, wanna startup businesses, longtime established, but want to connect in the community
nick:
more? Sure. So Startup Week, that was the other com component of that branding. It's, it's usually like tech heavy. Yep. And startup heavy and funding heavy, right? Mm-hmm. so founded in Foco is much more freelancers. Solopreneurs, small business owners, um, non-profits. We've got a non-profit track. Yeah. Creatives nice. Can get in on the business. Um, and, and also, uh, the, the classes that are taught for creatives are taught by creatives. So artists have a very particular way about talking about business. Yeah. And they have a very particular way of understanding and relating to business concepts. Um, and so you have to hear it, it helps to hear it from a fellow artist. Right. Um, and same way as like banking has compliance, right? So you have those really strict rules that you have to play and you can't just, like, I'm gonna walk to a marketing talk because 90% of that will not be applicable to me. So it's in that same vein, um, the, the talks for the non-profits led by non-profit experts. Um, and so we, we have three big, well curated days of, uh, excellent business peer-to-peer programming. And so whether you're a freelancer, an established business that's looking to scale and grow profitability, or if you are a nonprofit or if you are a solopreneur creative, you will find something of value. Okay. At found
curt:
in Foco. Yeah. So that was my big question. I think probably most of my listeners are, have established businesses. They've been going for a while and stuff. Yeah. Um, do you have value ads for that? You know, for sure. 10 established longer than that even, you know, very profitable already.
nick:
Yeah, we have um, we have Charles, Fred. Oh. Who's gonna be coming. He's a great talk about Yes. Scalability. We have an entire track that's dedicated specifically to scaling small to mid-size businesses, up to a million dollars plus. Nice. So Perfect. You're looking to grow. Those are the tracks.
curt:
Those are really our rank and file at local think tank really are thinkers and builders chapters are all kind of in that.
nick:
Exactly. And you're, you're gonna be the first to find out the, uh, the loco think tank, uh, coalition will be highlighted the top of that day. What on Wednesday, the first. Um, so you'll be kicking off the entire day and leading right into the scale up tracks. I hope I'm free at that
curt:
time. I hadn't
nick:
heard from you. We'll, we'll clear your schedule. Okay.
curt:
Um, so I want to, before we get too far in that, is there anything else, I guess, people that are asking themselves already about fund? Uh, do I have to pay anything? No, it's totally, can I just show up? Where's it
nick:
at? The, the event is totally free. Um, and you can go to Foco, uh, yeah. Founded in foco.com/schedule, and you can start building out a schedule right online. Okay. You can keep it with you on your device. It can carry it with you into the venue. All of the talks are, uh, free to attend. We will also have some events for networking that you can go to throughout. There's an exhibitor hall where you can explore and see just some different aspects of our community if you're looking for different resources or to connect with a, a different hub. Yeah. Um, they are going to be there and, and promoting theirselves. So. Cool. Um, we also have a brain crawl. Is it still mostly at
curt:
front
nick:
range? It's all at front range Community college. Okay. The wrap up party will probably be at the lyric. That's where we're working on. Oh, fun. Yeah. Good. Um, so we also have a brain crawl. And Brain crawl is a mental health resource fair for entrepreneurs and solopreneurs. And basically if you're in the world of business and you, you have a hard time, you know, winding down or if you're neuro arg or if you're anything, any of the above. Like a h d Yeah. Um, or just buried in your business. These folks can help you find the resources for resiliency. Hmm. And that's led by Krista Berry, um, who, you know, runs She leads. Yep. Um, we have an excellent community of entrepreneurs who's on our, our, you
curt:
should check out my podcast with Mandy Mullen from recently. Okay. And she might even sponsor, uh, win Run Windsor is her business. And Okay. She's developed a, she's really passionate and I'm not quite clear why yet, about mental health and especially suicide prevention and things like that. And so, yeah. Yeah. Um, she's your type of
people
nick:
maybe. That's awesome. So as, and this is how founded in Fort Collins really gross is, yeah. Anything that we've done in the past has been very similar.
curt:
Well, as long as I'm name dropping, run Windsor has a seven race. Uh, ranging from fun runs up to marathons. Awesome. And the Wild West Relay is coming up next August. I'm looking for a few more runners. Very cool. You wanna be in a 200 mile relay race with
nick:
you Look, the I can run a 5k, um, really slowly.
curt:
Well, Manny would say anybody can be a, a long distance runner. That's cool.
nick:
Yeah, no, I love it. Um, I have never tried to run longer than about four miles. Okay. So, well, if you can in touch Yeah. put
curt:
me on the backups, on the bench Um, so yeah, like I was starting to say before. So great information on Fun and Focal Week. Uh, check it out@foundedandfoco.com. That's right. Um, Google it. If, even if you misspell it, you'll be able to find it and find all the schedule. There's a lot of great speakers. I'll be on the schedule somewhere, apparently. Yes. Um, and, uh, but before we like learn more about WTF and ComicCon stuff, I wanna know where did Nick came from. Yeah. Um, is, yeah. Are you from local? You, CSU was you right?
nick:
Yeah. All, all around Colorado started. Okay. Um, so I, I, you know, went through Colorado Springs part. Where were you born? Um, I was born in, in, uh, in Grand Junction. And why
curt:
were, why did you move all around? Um,
nick:
Mostly, uh, my family had jobs going various places and so they had family over in Grand Junction. They moved down to Colorado Springs. Um, and my, my dad worked at Lockheed for a while. Okay. Um, which was Martin Marietta at the time and was programming things and um, you know, we just moved around where, where there was good programming jobs.
curt:
Yeah. Yeah. And that was, so that was what your dad's work was? Yeah, it was computer programming. Yeah. And so, so he was an early adapter, obviously, cuz he's old enough to be your dad. Exactly. So
nick:
he was, um, you know, and he, they were not quite at the punch card level. They moved beyond that, so he was programming in like basic and things like that. Yeah. Um, and you know, it set things, book logic books and see programming and all the rest of that in front of me. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and then we moved over to, um, to what is now Park Meadows, essentially. Mm-hmm. And so that's, I went to school around there and Yeah. Um, then we moved to Parker and that was, you know,
curt:
Why? Because he was successful in his programming. Yeah. Well enough to buy a nice house in Parker. And that was the coolest thing. Do Yeah. Well cause Denver was getting kind of crowded. Comparably. Exactly. Yeah. I love Parker. Interesting. We live in Colorado Springs for a while. Nice. Okay. And uh, that back road, whatever that is, that goes from the springs up through Black Forest and up to Parker and Frank through Franktown and stuff. Yeah. Just really like that road.
nick:
Anyway, it's, it's a beautiful, uh, area of Colorado and it's just, you know, super wide open. I go to Parker now, uh, to visit some friends and it's just, you know, they, it's, it's so packed in. They didn't have a Best Buy when I was growing up there which was like a big, that was a big deal.
curt:
Well, the Denver's like 27 minutes away or something. Yeah,
nick:
exactly. Well, do you remember Incredible Universe? There was a store that was in, it was like right in Park Meadows. I've never been at all. Okay. Yeah, it was, it was the best, it was the best store ever. They had like Light Saber and Giant Trampolines and they had, uh, do you remember Lou from Littleton who was a radio personality on k o a and he would do the Denver Broncos games and he would cover the Post? No, I'm sorry. So I, I went to Incredible Universe and he was on air for K O a Oh wow. And I went and I was just a huge fan. Cause I had listened to him all the time. Right. And so I went up and I say, Hey, are you Lou from Littleton? Yeah, absolutely. So we had a five minute conversation. He's like, yeah, your voice just went out on air to like 50,000 people in Denver. I was like, And so that, I think was the moment of Oh, that led
curt:
you to the CSU job? Yes, exactly. Um, I just talked to a, i I, one of my former members I just met with this afternoon and he lives just around the corner from here. Yeah. Um, and he said, I've actually, uh, seen you walking by a couple of times, so I figured your office was really close. That's, I didn't wanna That's funny. Wasn't quite sure where, but the reason I, um, like reconnected is I heard your voice like I was apparently walking by with Alma or with Alicia to go have lunch in Old Town or something. Was talking loud And they're like, I heard that's Kurt. That's funny. So anyway,
nick:
I was, yeah. So, and that's, it's, I pick coffee shops sometimes based on where, where I know that folks will be. But, um, Lima Coffee actually in Old Town Yeah. Is one of my favorites now. And it's because my neighbor is the, is the organizer of it. She's just the owner of Oh, is she? Yeah.
curt:
She needs to be a member of Local thing Tank Air. She's, I'm so impressed with what she's built Oh goodness. In such a short period of time. Yes. And she's probably needs to do like multiple locations and stuff. Yeah. Have
nick:
you been to their Midtown location? It's right next to like boomer music and, um, that the, the older target
curt:
on, well I know Where're Boomer, did they take over the, the focal coffee
nick:
house or something? No. Focal Coffee House is still there. So they're just right up the street from Okay. No, I
curt:
didn't know they had a second location. I knew they were in the mall before. is that it? No, they're in the mall too, so they Oh, so they got third location mall and now Good. Yeah. No, I think that's a smart move. And, and soon the moon and they're caking over the moon too. My special talent isn't as, uh, identification of special talent. Yes. And like the first time I'm walked into that place, I was like, somebody was pretty intentional about this. I never went to the mall one. Sorry. Yeah. Um, but when they opened downtown, I was like, oh, this place's pretty fun. Yeah. And they've been busy basically since they opened.
nick:
Absolutely. Yeah. And, and for good reason too. I mean, everything there is made with a, a ton of intentionality, a ton of attention to detail and care and consideration for the end user. They're, there's seasonal drinks. You can get a flight of them, which I've never seen another coffee house do That's funny. So you can actually experience all the great, you know, sugary drinks Yeah. But without having to let go full on Oh, that's hilarious. And commit
curt:
to 16 ounces. Yeah. So's the, that's the kind of thoughtful stuff. Maybe she doesn't need local think tank, I don't know. But what I find usually is that smarter people are, the more they realize how much they can benefit from connecting with other smart people. For sure. Yeah. Um, so anyway. Yeah, that's, uh, that's great to know. I'm proud of her. Yeah. So, and she's supposed to come on my podcast too. Amanda, if you're listening, you're next tag. Yeah. Diego is her husband. Yeah. Amanda and Diego. Yeah. Yeah. They should be on. So
nick:
anyway, they're, they're fantastic people. Um, really good neighbors also. They just, we
curt:
know, where did we jump off? We were we were in Parker. Let's, and then somehow we made it. Coffee shop getting
nick:
recognized in, in public places. Yes. So, oh, yes. Yeah. Yes. And that was one of those, you know, you can walk in and you see Wade Trel. I know it's been on your podcast. Oh yeah. Um, you know, you
curt:
Wade's everywhere. I see him twice a week somewhere. Isn't
nick:
he great? So I just, so wait, and, and I ran for office not too long. I remember.
curt:
Yeah. I actually wrote down a note right here to say, how about getting beat for city council by 40 votes or whatever it was. It's 30,
nick:
30, 34 votes. Yeah. Um, and, and it's honestly, it was the most fun marketing campaign I've ever run, and it was one of the best projects I've ever had. Um, because most politicians
curt:
just, you must suspend a shitload though, right? Like you did a lot of little cards and stuff. Yeah. It was expensive.
nick:
Yeah.
curt:
Um, and I, you basically spent one year salary, but now City Council gets a raise, right? They get a raise. Didn't
nick:
that happen? Yeah. So they do get a raise. And that's a, it's a really good thing for them because the amount of work that they put in, the amount of subcommittees and other things that they go into, and especially if you are, uh, a counselor like Wade, right? Right. So Wade goes to literally everything and we invited him to ComicCon, we invited him to Startup Week. We invited him to, and he would show up and he would show up to all the subsidiary events of ComicCon, like our Kele run or 5k He would show up to, I mean, anything that we asked him to, he was there. And so, Um, I
curt:
think it's a mental condition that he has I'm some, sorry. He shows up for anything that anybody asks him for. It's such a, but thank you Wade
nick:
Yes. For thinking if you're, that, that guy, if you are, that, you know, that figurehead of, of Fort Collins for as long as he was, um, you and, and still is he recognizable, you know, you want to talk to him about stuff. Yeah. So, um, it's great to have that kind of access and that was really instrumental and uh, my city council person when I first moved here was Bob Overbeck, who's now the, uh, assessor. Yeah, yeah. Um, and he called you back. I sent him an email. He called you back within five minutes of an email and he would have a lengthy conversation with you about whatever it was that you just emailed him about. And it really stuck with me about local politic. Uh, that it just is about connecting with people. Yeah. Yeah. And so, you know, most, most politicians, they operate off of a list. Right. So they have, they, even though it's nonpartisan, will affiliate with one party or the other, and they'll have a a walk list Yeah. Where these addresses are maybe sympathetic. These addresses are like, on the edge and you can like maybe convert them and whatever else. Right. But this is where you'll get the, and don't even spend your time over here. Exactly. Yeah. I, I didn't use any of that. I used Larimer County data, which most, most folks don't know. Your Larimer County voter data has an insane amount of information about you. Mm-hmm. And so when you, you get text messages from politicians, that's the source of the thing. And if you ever, wow. It's just right there. Oh, yes. And if you ever donated money to a campaign anywhere, the parties have your everything as well. It's And
curt:
so I'm, I donated 50 bucks to Molly's Gold. I think that's the only political donation. Just about I've made. No, Heidi Gnal, I donated a hundred bucks or 200 bucks to her. Well, there you go. Yeah. And so, because she came on a podcast, I mean, that was kind of her. Yeah. I mean, right. So you, you, I'm not paying you nothing
nick:
though, No, I don't. It's not asking for
curt:
Well, if you run again, I might donate, but, right. Yeah.
nick:
But that's the thing is that you, I I'm unaffiliated and so I, I didn't have support from official parties. Like Yeah. Um, you know, some of the folks wouldn't even talk to me about things. And so I, but I had, I had this list of neighbors and I was like, I'm not gonna mess with it. I'm just gonna go door to door to every single house in Fort Collins, and I'm allowed to knock on and talk to my neighbors and I knock on their door. The most common question I would get is, what party are you? I'd say, well, I'm a huge treky. Does that help you? Like it, it's funny, I, I believe in the, like, gene Roddenberry future, like, everything's working out. We've got great science, like everybody's healthy, um, and we can get there by hard work, right? And so, and I'm a business owner, which usually sent them for a loop as well. Um, but ultimately we would get to a point of past, get talking about party to tell me about what issues you were concerned about, what are you interested in, what are you curious about, and what do you wanna see fixed? And I would just take notes and as they were talking, I would write it down, say, I don't know the answer to that, but I'll get back to you. Or, oh, you might wanna talk to these people in neighborhood services or whatever else. Yeah. Yeah. And so I did that with every single door in Fort Collins that it was in district one. And uh, that's one of the reasons why I came in so close. Yeah. Yeah. At the end of the campaign when it was clear that, and this was right after January 6th, right? And so there was a lot of concern. About the process, right? Because the city of Fort Collins holds back 10% of the votes so that they can, um, they can hide the identities of the folks that are voting overseas, right? Oh, right. And how they voted. Because if you, if you don't, and there's three voters and they all vote for, you know, your opponent, then you know who voted for your opponent. Right. And it's not, it's not privacy. Right? Hmm. I guess so they, they obfuscate that with this holding back 10%. And so when it was clear that I was down by X number of votes, um, I, I said, well, here's what the process is, because I had to learn from the city clerk's office, right. What the process was. And a lot of folks were, why, why aren't you conceding, why aren't you conceding? And I'm like, well, it's not time for that yet. It's time for this. Like, we're gonna give the office time to do their work and we trust the clerk's office to do their, their job. And so they did. And uh, when it came back and we were 34 down, I called Susan. uh, Gutowski, who's district one, and, uh, I, we had a conversation about what I had learned and what I heard from, you know, folks around. And I had these eight pages of notes and I sent it to Susan and I sent it every elected council member. And I said, here's what's important to the people in district one. Every single door I knocked on, these are what the, this is what they said, and here's the neighborhoods where they said it. Here's what the parks and here's all of the data. Like please use this. And so then offline, I could also go through and now I'm on the parks and rec board and, um, you know, part of my HOA board and I'm, you know, all of these other things where I can sort of help You crave power, huh? No
curt:
no Parks and rec board. That's pretty,
nick:
I mean, it's really, sorry, let me adjust the, the mower settings or something. um, no, I, I, I wanted to go where I could be most useful, be fair. Right. And so, um, my, but
curt:
those were some of your causes. I remember like, like sidewalks and walkways and green spaces
nick:
and bike lane sidewalks and trails constantly. Um, and it's because in, in district one, in, yeah, in Fort Collins, Northeast Fort Collins, we have no connected bike lane sidewalks, trails to the rest of Fort Collins. Yeah. And it is a huge equity issue because you cannot get. Parents, working parents, their kids to a recreation center, they can't go on their own. They can't connect to a different park, they can't go with play with their friends in a different neighborhood. Right. They cannot drive, go anywhere safely to school without driving. Interesting. And it is the most frustrating because what you see is you're creating a commuter community. Yeah. Right? Yeah. Where they will obligatory Yes. Even they put their head down to sleep and then they go somewhere else and there is no sales tax revenue from that. There is no, uh, investment in the properties because of that. And so you just lose out as a community. And so I've worked really hard as a, you know, HOA board member, um, as just a community member to like, okay, look, we're gonna do a public art piece and we have the largest mural. It was a$25,000 art project. We have the longest mural in Fort Collins, in Northeast Fort Collins as a result of art and public places. Where's that? The Richards Lake Under pass. Oh, cool. Which is right on Turnberry in Richards Lake. Um, if you not a lot of people have reason to go out to Northeast Fort Collins except for like Budweiser. Right. So if you have a reason, you stay there, you can, uh, you can, or friends, you can go and visit this Richards Lake underpass, which has, uh, it's called the Vibrant Forest. It's by artist Kristen Vos. And it is the longest mural. It's 190 feet long. Wow. It was painted, uh, cooperatively with the community. So 60 neighbors came out and Oh wow. Helped to paint this like a paint by numbers thing. Yeah, yeah. And then Kristen went in and added the details in finally. Oh,
curt:
that's cool. Um, that makes me feel less, uh, like that was a giant waste of taxpayer money. It's, it's a beautiful I like, it's, it's, I'm a libertarian. No, I totally get it. Um, and, and I love beautiful things. Yes. You know, and so, yeah. And actually that's the way they did that to make it a leverage project and not just some fancy artist guy making$300 an hour while he does stuff.
nick:
Exactly. And so it's, there was a, a contest, we had a coloring page for kids. Oh, cool. I like it. And all of the kids got to come out and see that like, art is a viable thing that you can do in the community. Yeah. Because there's art in public places. There's these mural programs and well, there's
curt:
gonna be a lot more people in Northeast Fort Collins. Not too far away. Yeah. I'm actually, uh, I just called back Monk Max Moss today. Yeah. And Max
nick:
is
curt:
interesting, isn't he? He's, I think he's very, I barely know him. I've met him a little bit and. I called him out of the blue the other day and said, Hey, I think you should probably be on my podcast and maybe in one of my think tanks or something. I don't know. Yeah. But, uh, but that's is because that's gonna be city of Fort Collins, right? Yeah.
nick:
So Mont Tava, which is Yeah. Right next to Budweiser. Right. Um, it, there's this entire portion of northeast Fort Collins called the Mountain Vista Sub area. Yeah. And Mountain Vista is the road that goes to I 25 right next to Budweiser. Okay. So PSD owns land out there, and theirs was right up against the storybook neighborhood, which is mm-hmm. you know, Adri Hills has the golf club storybook is just to the north and the, the east of that, um, toward Budweiser. And so there's all of these different sub-communities going in and for residents who have been there, the, there are two roads in and out of town, Timberline. Right, right. Which crosses it, vine over a railroad. And then there's also there's, which is, uh,
curt:
all sorts of obnoxious. Yes. It backs up way
nick:
far sometimes. Yes. And now there's, uh, mosaic, which is completed out there as well. Oh. And there is no escape from that neighborhood to any of the other neighborhoods. Right. With a bike.
curt:
So if you wanna go to the I 25, you're great. Yeah. Otherwise, you're just,
nick:
Yes. Stuck commuter communities. And then you have on the other end Hearth fire, or not Hearth fire, but uh, uh, water's edge. Yeah, yeah. Water's Edge Trailhead. Um, but
curt:
the critical mass of Manava Yeah. Will make it So there has to be like trails connecting and stuff. No.
nick:
Theoretically, if the city decides to lean in and make that a priority, yeah. I mean it'll cost money. Yes. And
curt:
the, but if that could hook up, hook to putter trail. Yeah.
nick:
I mean, and it's the, it should because our neighborhood, the trail that runs through our neighborhood is putter trail, right. Richards Lake underpass is putter trail. Mm-hmm. And they're all supposed to interconnect and Mont will have a, a trail connection in. Cool. Now whether or not they can connect down further relies on PSD relies on, and this is the issue with Northeast Fort Collins, that um, you know, when when you see things come up about studies, like, oh, the master plan is being updated, lean in and comment because you know stuff about your neighborhood Right. That you Yeah. They don't know. The planners just don't know. Yeah. Cuz they can't be everywhere. Right. Right. And they know what their section of town looks like and they know what their staff's section of town looks like. Right. Right. Which is fair, but that's why they ask for us to lean in and do those things. Yeah. So, um, the trail networks and being connected in relies heavily on developers to do the thing, to connect the
curt:
dots. Totally. The things that you're passionate about. Oh yeah. Obviously.
nick:
And, and the city has to sort of guide that process to say, you should really connect us here because then you can connect over here and you can do these things and. You know, they right next to Ginger Graham's property with uh, um,
curt:
lame
nick:
and the lame over or whatever. Yeah. They did this brilliant thing with the bike lane underpass. Okay. Which goes right underneath lame. It's a great separated crossing so you don't have to get off your bike. Nice. You don't have to cross in front of traffic. There's no 40 mile an hour traffic coming at you. Um, and these are things that we don't have in Northeast Forks. Right. But soon, if like Sunga comes and connects over on through Right. Which it should eventually, um, there's, there's going to be those great separate across
curt:
Well, and there's gonna be enough traffic that if there isn't, it'll be mayhem.
nick:
Yes. So, and there already is because everything goes down. Everything goes down Country Club Road and, and it's, it's, those are county neighborhoods, so they don't have representation in the city. Yeah. And that is a huge frustration for them. And
curt:
so even during, so they're counting on district one kind of to like represent their interests a little
nick:
bit too. Yeah. And so district one, to give you a sense of scope, includes Old Town, by the way. And next to Cow Country where I live, Budweiser. It goes all the way from Hearth Fire up in right next to the, to Terry Lake, to Dairy Farm, Terry Lake. Yeah. So all the way down to wow, the Timberline King Supers and I mean, it's Wow. Right. And all the way across to Old Town and all the way out to I 25. Well, it's so diverse. And then there's even a neighborhood across I 25, which is included in district one. Nice. It's like, how do you plan for Old Town, which is almost all of the sales tax revenue in district one. Right. And for most parts, like 30 to 40% of the city's sales tax revenues centered Really, and around Old Town. Yeah. And also, you know, Cal Country. Right. At the same time. Yeah. It's, it's an impossible job of both. Yeah. And so, and I, you know, like Susan and I have a lot of respect for each other. We connect a lot and it's, you know, you can't be too hard on any particular city council member, but like in district one in particular, because it's so wide, it's just such a hard position to hold and to keep everybody happy because Susan's neighborhood Right, right next to Adora, right next to three different grocery stores that she can bike
curt:
to. Right. It's all good. She doesn't need more money for sidewalks and stuff. Exactly.
nick:
And so that the pedestrian safety is the key concern for those neighborhoods down there. They wanna make sure their pedestrians are safe and that there's like, you know, separated crossings and all these other things. Um, and you see that in investments.
curt:
I feel like we're at risk of revisiting your failed city council election. here. Yes. So, I want to bring us back. So basically, oh, but gimme your family dynamic just a little bit. As you're growing up in Parker and, and Park Meadows area and stuff, you have brothers, sisters, are you the oldest? Youngest only child. Only child? Yep. Uh, and what was your mom up
nick:
to? Um, she, she was a stay-at-home mom. Okay. And she, um, she loved to craft and she loved to, you know, just make new recipes and visit family Cool. And all that stuff. And All right.
curt:
Um, and so you're just first and only son of a computer nerd, pioneer and pretty much came up here to extend the legacy. Yeah. Well, and have
nick:
I was, as I said, it was the world's worst programmer. They paid me to stop Fair. Um, but the, they,
curt:
yeah. Well, but there's understanding, right? Like that's true. Like Almaha, you just met a little bit ago. She's 20, you know, and, but she just understands a lot of things about how computers and softwares and interfaces work that are really hard for me. Yeah, this is
nick:
true. You know, do you have a, a an intrinsic like, knowledge of computers,
curt:
right? Yeah. Um, yeah, because you're, are you, you're not 40, you're 37 or something. I 30 sevenish suspect. Yeah. Yeah. And so like, I'm 48, I'm, you know, full 10 years plus. Yeah. And so like when we got cell phones, that was like, Hey, my first phone, you know, and whatever. And an email address that could just be your name and stuff. It's a big deal. Which is much different for you. You were. 10 years later, but also on a, in a leading edge family at the time. Right? Yeah.
nick:
We, we always had the latest gadget, the latest whatever. Um, you know, one of the, I, I didn't have the first gen iPhone, but like the second gen iPhone, right, right. And it was a brick. Um, and it was one of those things that y I I knew it was not something that everybody else had access to. Mm-hmm. And so I was really mindful about that when it came time to like, okay, well what do I do with my, my skills? Yeah. What, what can I do with this? And Facebook, interestingly enough, I, the, just before starting the digital gunslingers, I taught a$70 per person Facebook for Facebook 1 0 1 class, basically. Okay. Facebook for business owners. Yeah. Um, and felt so icky about it because of who showed up. And it was like these, like 60 plus female entrepreneurs. Wow. Right. And I was like, this is a literacy skill, right? Mm-hmm. it's just as much a literacy skill, this reading, typing, writing your own name. Like, y'all need to know how to use Facebook and I should not be charging you$70 per class to teach you this. Um, and so I immediate Well, did you add more
curt:
than that in value though? Well,
nick:
Yeah. I mean,
curt:
literacy is worth a
nick:
lot. Yes. But school, public school is free. I know, but like the libertarian, and he was like, come on. Um, hell, I I
curt:
also, and apparently you're
nick:
a chick magnet. I am not but the, I, my first key, uh, my first, I had, I do have a good voice for radio, um, and podcasts. My first couple of clients were very much in that, um, that female 60 plus demographic. Oh, right. And, and I think that's just how like Fort Collins sort of shook out and they, they were willing to, um, invest in, you know, a newbie entrepreneur and willing to, um, who, who seemed to know what he was talking about. Yeah. And I, and I did, um, but
curt:
added a lot of value. You knew things that they didn't know. They knew a lot of things that you did. Yeah. Or vice versa,
nick:
right? Yeah. And very willing to teach so that I could like, okay, check this out. Here's where you need to go. Right. And that was a key, like I would, what was a win win? Teach my clients. Right.
curt:
You like, they would teach you and you would teach them at the same time.
nick:
Right. And I, it was, it was awesome having that access to those learning opportunities because anytime in any business that you have access to, um, well, you know, Fort Collins Brewery was one of my first clients. Mm. Really? Yes. And so, um, you know Tom, who was Major Tom. Yep. Um, Tom Peters and, uh, their entire family. And Jan Peters and then Tina who took over the restaurant to Gravity. 10 20, um, It was such a dynamic family that you could just learn no matter what you went in there. Mm-hmm. Like, you could go in there for like, Hey, let's do a label preview, and you would come out with five different marketing ideas. Right. So, um, yeah. I, I owe a lot of my growth to just the entrepreneurs that were around me. Yeah. And so I, I try to keep that spirit going. I like that
curt:
the old, a lot of times marketing people treat their customers as people that can learn from them only. Yeah. And like, recognizing your customers as people that you can also learn from. Yeah. That speaks a lot. Um, I want to cover some stuff about Comic-Con Yeah. A little bit more about what WTF is doing in the future, and then talk about this hot sauce. But I wanna do it after a alma. Is that cool? Sure. Okay. Let's do it. And we're back. So we were gonna talk about, I think where all this fits together. Like, WTF marketing has kind of been, are, have you always been a, are you one man band? Do you subcontract? Do you have employees? Yeah, I, I
nick:
subcontract quite a bit. Okay. Um, I, I did have employees at one point and it just is not something that I wanted to continue doing. Um, you know, you get these weird, like, you have to have something for them to do all the time and Right. Um, if you hit a slow spot in your business right then, okay, well I still want to pay you and, and do the thing because I, I don't wanna lose this talent that we've curated. Yeah. Yeah. And the working rapport. And, and so I just, you know, freelancing is notoriously kind of fickle. Yeah. And, uh, even when I had like a, a good solid base of clients, um, I would, I would have these moments of like, oh, well we have this massive expense, but I also have this employee and I can either choose to resource them or I can fix the expense. And so, um, subcontracting became a much easier ask. Yeah. Yeah. So that's, that's where I, and, and then, you know, you have your reign of like whoever you want to
curt:
choose to work with. Right. And then you can find just the right fit. Yeah. And
nick:
whatever. And if somebody's like, oh, my passionary is no longer graphic design. Cool. No biggie. Like, let me, let me introduce you to, you know, five other graphic designers that I know Right. And, and they can, you can
curt:
continue working. So where would you say you're special value add and, and who are the best clients for you? Yeah. Without doing a commercial.
Yeah.
nick:
Um, you know, I, I really, I really enjoy working with, um, with non-profits. Okay. Um, and in particular like understanding non-profits that are seeking to grow better relations with their donors or seeking to grow a new donor market that they're looking at. Okay. Um, and also just businesses that are, that have a defined product base, like they know who their customers are. Okay. Um, and they need to find more of them. And they need to honor them in a new way or get them reengaged. Right. So, um, customers that are sort of like,
curt:
which kind of resonates with that nonprofit thing, right? Cuz they know who their donors are obviously. Exactly.
nick:
They gave us money. They still have to get them to recur. Yeah. The, the businesses that that struggle mightily, in my opinion, are, and, and that I can help best or the ones that are, um, they haven't identified what their value is. Right? So the food bank, if you give the food bank a dollar, they turn that into four meals. Right? Easy one to one. Why you dollar four meals Right? It might not be four meals for you, No,
curt:
exactly. I can turn$40 into three meals if I want.
nick:
Exactly. They, and they have that leverage so that leverage is their entire value. Now you can say what you want about the rest of the story, right. That they, um, make sure that there's no kids hungry in Irv community, that they provide lunches and that they work with all these different food, you know, shelters and all the rest of that stuff. Yeah. Awesome. Wonderful stories. The ultimate business value of them
curt:
is the dollar and for a certain amount of their donors. Yes. Uh, if they take a dollar and turn it into four meals, that's worth
nick:
supporting them. Exactly. And, and then you get the halo effect as a donor. You say, oh, well, you know, with gun digital Gunslingers, we donated$5,000 over four years and so we know what the, this will be 20,000 meals. Exactly. And so when businesses aren't that clear about what their value proposition. That's where I can step in and say, oh, well let's turn this number, whatever this is. When somebody gives you a dollar, what is it that happens?
curt:
Hmm. Okay. Fair. I like it. And like, is it steady as she goes for WTF marketing? Like, yeah, just need a few of those. I mean, imagining like, I mean, frankly like five or 10 clients at a time is probably all that you can process. Maybe 20 or something. Yeah. But not like a huge book,
nick:
right? No, it's not a I don't have, yeah, we don't have a ton of throughput. We have a lot of recurring. Yeah. Um, and so we, we do
curt:
things so you're not marketing that often for yourself. A lot of times you're just like, I got kind of the right number of customers. I stay busy.
nick:
Honestly, I, I'm the way I market myself. Um, is through various events and happenings that I can help put on like ComicCon, ComicCon. I mean, I don't paid for, I don't get paid for ComicCon. I don't get paid for founded in Foco. I don't get paid for brain change or any of the other stuff that we've wanted. You're making any money in
curt:
your hot sauce company yet?
nick:
Um, it's, it's, it pays for itself. Eh, that's good. So it covers its expenses and, and theoretical better than ComicCon Right. Um, it's, you know, a hundred percent volunteer efforts. Yeah. Uh, and, and you will always, the thing about ComicCon is it's such a, it's such a tight-knit community. And there was a geek presence in Fort Collins before we started ComicCon. Yeah, for sure. Um, and they would travel down to Denver
curt:
to, I'm kind of geeky, honestly. I just, so you said you're not a geek. I'm not a geek. I'm not. I just, I'm not a, I'm not an outta closet geek. Yes, A little geeky. Have
nick:
to pull it out of you. One podcast at a time.
curt:
but, uh,
nick:
what, what are you bing on Netflix right now? Or
curt:
Hulu, or, well, I just had a watching Rings of Power. There you go. Or a Ring of Power or whatever it is. So yeah. That's kind of nerdy or geeky or whatever. Not nerdy. I'm more geeky than nerdy for sure. Mm-hmm. Totally. But I love Star Wars because you were talking about some of the things that you love. I was like, oh shit. I love all that too. Star
nick:
Wars, the Mandalorian. Uh, it's, it's game changer. I mean, you know, book of bbo Fat. Um, they, they've got, uh, all of the, I mean, you know, what do you even do with the of Universe's Vast Star Wars, besides tell a very specific storyline that can last one or two season arts, right? and then, and then make every fan either really happy or really mad about Yes, it's the golden age of Star Wars. It was for a while there, the golden age of Trekk. And now I think that's maybe coming back a little bit with Paramount Plus. And isn't that
curt:
wild? How big the vision of the original creators of Star Wars was, that there's room like a, you know, fast and, and furious Nine, you're like, I think you've run outta material guys. But, but in some ways the six episodes of Star Wars were just enough structure to build a whole ecosystem around. Yeah.
nick:
And they were really smart about how they turned over content creation to fans, right? Mm-hmm. So you wanna talk about like, customer driven content creation? That is one of the premier examples. Now, paramount, CBS did it wrong, right? Because they were like, no, you cannot, we will sue you into the ground. And then they turned around and they were like, well, maybe we won't, we'll actually give you some leeway to do this thing, right? And you'll have,
curt:
you can make, we'll let you know when you've crossed the line two
nick:
standalone episodes. If you spend more than a million dollars on your two standalone TV episodes, you're done. Right? Because you can't, and you can't fundraise crowdfund more than that. but Star Wars was always they, you could fundraise, you could do whatever. You could tell whatever stories as long as you did not make a profit. Right, right. Okay. Could not turn a profit, but you could pay your actors, you could pay your, you know, fans, whatever else. Like you could make swag, you could do things. Yeah. Then they actually turned around and licensed the 501st, the stormtroopers. Okay. By the, the cost players. Um, and they made sure that they had proper licensing and all the rest of that stuff, that they could go out and do events. They couldn't get paid for it, but they could, you know, well,
curt:
you're deep in this. Yeah. Like, yeah. I feel like we could nerd out on that for a while, but I don't know anything. And, uh, most of my listeners don't really care at all.
nick:
Well, it's, what's interesting is there's a local company that, that produces props for those shows. Oh, really? Yes. Who's that? Um, it, it's, uh, far Away Creations. Okay. Yeah. And so they, they do all sorts of really cool stuff. They, and they show up to cons and show off, like replica props and things really like that. Yeah. And so they advise on different cool stuff. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah.
curt:
So tell me about Comic-Con. Yeah. Like how long you've been involved, what is it really for? Like the uninitiated? Yeah. And, uh, why, why do you carry this significant, I guess it's marketing for WTF in a way, but it's mostly, it's a labor of love.
nick:
Yeah. No, it's so, and you know, I have always wanted to have a local convention because like I said before, Fort
curt:
Collins comic there were underground nerds and geeks and you wanted to bring'em
nick:
out. The, uh, geeks come out at night was one of the things that happened back in the day. and it was, you know, 60 plus
curt:
in a room. You weren't related to the geeks who drink, uh, trivia series around
nick:
No. Oh, okay. That's a separate, you know, um, seems like something you could have created Right. Um, so we geeks like me would drive down to Denver. Yeah. Spend two 50 on a hotel room. Right. Spend 150 on tickets to get in, spend x number of dollars on art if we could, and food and whatever else. If you still had some left. Yeah. And this, this is too much. And so, um, I, Tony Raymond, who was the, um, head of the Colorado TSA at the time was, and, and I were good friends. We have an audio drama Star Trek podcast, Okay. Which is one of the most popular around, um, 60,000 downloads a month. Nice. But yes. And so it was one of those, like, we knew there were geeks in Fort Collins cause we could see it on the stats. Yeah. And also I knew that there were geeks because I could see them doing things like, there was Griffin games and comics. We had all these comics. What's the name of that stores podcast, by the way? It's called Outpost. A Star Trek Fan Production. Okay. Production. All right. Um, star Trek. outpost.com. Yeah. I'll find it. Um, and so she'll play, play embarrassing clips from my voice acting game. Okay. Will do it. There's this, this, uh, idea of doing a con was sort of just like off in the wind. And so back in the day, Nate, uh, Scott, who ran the Fort Collins Zombie crawl. I know Nathan. Yeah. And he, he had this great following and so. I was working with the Puter River Public Library District at the time and the communications director, uh, had said we just lost our building, which became the Butterfly Cafe. Right. Um, we just lost our building to hold our books for our annual book sale. Yeah. And so we're gonna be out, you know, however much to, to do this annual books up cause we can't do it this year. Yeah. Is it? Okay. So Nate came in and I got the Taylor with Paula Watson Lak, who was the communications director and we said, what can we do? Can we run on a con like Sure. So we said for can we hold it as a lawn center? Right. So we put it at the Alon Center. It was a one day event and we're like this for$1 rent. Exactly. We're gonna be the either the coolest, I think it was seven K or something like that. We were like, this is gonna be the coolest party ever for a hundred of our closest friends. or Right. Or it's gonna
curt:
go on something real. Yeah. It was bigger than that. 1500 people showed up. Really? Yeah. Cause that was office scene right. By there. Maybe that was first year or second year. I don't know. Yeah. 1500 people show. What year
nick:
was that? That was, um, 2018. Yeah. Uh, when was that? 2015. Oh, wow. So it's
curt:
been a little while. Okay.
nick:
2015. And so we raised 15 K for the library. Nice. Just for through badge sales. And we paid for our expenses. We had all this other stuff and I was like, which is great. What, what can we do next? Go to Denver. Well, yeah. I mean, I don't have to drive to, I can, but now we have options. Right. And so we, we said we gotta do this better next year. So we brought on Todd Jones, who's our vendor coordinator, and he did, um, you know, he's, he's got his own show now too, also the Wicked West Comic Expo. Cool. Which is out of the ranch. Um, and we purposefully kept the badge prices low, so he said, we want a family afford to come in for under a hundred bucks. Yeah. And so the badges for adults are 20 bucks. The badges for kids are 10 bucks. The badges for five and under are free. So they can come in and, and seems like
curt:
you've got margins till the raise prices. But I mean,
nick:
we could, but we also understand that there's an audience who needs that. Right? Yeah. Yeah. And so, um, for the folks, and it's mostly teens who don't or can't pay. Hmm. They can go into our volunteers. Yeah. And so for a two hour shift or a three hour shift, depending on where they want to be at the, at the con Yeah. They get in for the entire weekend for. Cool. And so it grows the staff organically. Yeah. As a result of that, because almost all of our existing staff came up through the volunteer ranks. Right.
curt:
They already know pretty much the story, how it needs to
nick:
go. Exactly. And so then they said, oh, well, I wanna do something. And so one of the things that came out of that was the Kessel Run 5k. And so we did a 5K around the library to help promote, and this was right after, um, Leonard Nemoy had passed away from C O P D, um, and Carrie Fisher had died of a heart attack. Mm-hmm. Um, and so we must get our geeks out exercising like we have to, like there is no excu. We have to do something in health, like teach them about. And so we created the 5K and then we created the Couch to 5K program because one of the participants in that program was like, you know, we can do this better and we can teach people how to run it. Yeah, yeah. And we can get more attendees and it can feed itself. So Yeah. I like it every week. There was a That's
curt:
great language to use by the way too, right? Because I've, I've run a couple, few couch to 5K s Yeah.
nick:
And it's, it gets you able mentally and physically able to do the thing. Yeah. Yeah. And mentally is the more trick, right? Because for sure. Yeah. It's, it seems like a. And it's, it is a lot until it isn't. Right. And I had that same experience and I never really believed it. Cause I never got to run the actual 5k. I would always participate in the couch to 5k. And I never did the 5K because I was organizing it Right. Well, and then I was like, oh, well I could do the firecracker, or I could go do the whatever and like, never got to it.
curt:
I'm gonna do the Wild West really again, this nice summer, uh, relay to Steamboat from Fort Collins. You wanna be on the team
nick:
If you can, like I said, if I can run really slowly,
curt:
three legs, average of six miles a piece. Yeah. I, I might be
nick:
able to do that.
curt:
Yeah. Um, I'm teasing. Um, I, so I wanna talk about the hot sauce before we move on to the faith, family politics. Yeah. Talk to me about the why of the hot sauce. You said this is Yeah. One
nick:
year, two years old. Yeah. So it's, it's just a little over one years old. Um, and we have five different flavors. We're in all 30 Sprout stores in Colorado. Wow. And, uh, do
curt:
you have an inside with the Sprouts people or something? Or how do you like No. How, why did they do that? You know, is it just that good? I'm, I'm trying to unwrap it right now as we speak. Where's, yeah,
nick:
you can just, if you unscrew the top, oh, it'll pop. Push it up right off. Yeah. Okay. Um, so the, um, the, that one's really heat sh trunk wrapped. Um,
curt:
I'll find a knife. No, keep going.
nick:
So I have a, I also have a good knife in your pocket knife. Yeah, I do. Oh, really? Yeah.
curt:
Yeah.
nick:
Gimme that. Here you go. All right. So we, Kurt's gonna open the hot sauce while we do this. I'm
curt:
gonna taste it too. What? Live on air? I
nick:
should have brought you like a charcuterie board or something like that. Like Yeah. No, I'm just gonna,
curt:
I'm just gonna with empty handed, I'm just gonna dip it on my finger a little
nick:
bit and taste it. Note to future guests. Show up with a charcuterie board and
curt:
that's, there you go. Well, nah, don't the best. That would be too much too
nick:
fancy. Thank you. Okay, so, um, I had all these recipes from high school and back then I was like, okay, I,
curt:
cause I love to make salsa, so computers and hot sauce and salsa.
nick:
Yeah. My first domain name was salsa on the web.com. Okay. And, and I, I just love the idea of like, making a, making things for people, but I, I was, I did not understand. Yeah. So that's, uh, smoke Chipotle and, uh, it's the straight malt whiskey from Copper Muse. Um, there's smoked paprika in there. It's very, pretty good.
curt:
Yeah, it's good on Chip. Very distinctive. Yeah. Thank you.
nick:
Um, yeah, so we had all these and I just didn't, I wasn't, I didn't know anything about commercial kitchens or food safety back then. Right. And so I said, oh, I wanna start selling salsa and, you know, dog would come running through the kitchen and like, dog hair, everyone. I'm like, oh, well maybe not Right? And so, Uh, fast forward to Fort Collins Startup Week. Okay. Where I met Gabe from the Crooked Cup. Yeah, yeah. Um, and Zoe, he is Bakery. And I said, you know, I wanna do something special for a speaker gift and I want to put together a hot sauce for the speakers. Um, and so we, we made that a possibility, but then all of the hoops that you have to jump through right. In order to label it. Like if you just wanna give it away, that's one thing. Right. But you still have to go through all of the steps. Right. And so you have to get it,
curt:
well, you don't really wanna poison your guests and speakers and stuff. Acidic
nick:
food certification, like all of this, you know, like heian have ingredients, labels and everything. And so we were literally an LLC filing and a U P C code away. doing it proper. Yeah. I said we just, we should just do this proper. And so filed the llc, got the, the UPC code, talked to Gabe, and because he teaches, um, uh, food marketing Yeah. At, uh, front range. And so I just bounced some ideas back and forth off him and Yeah, yeah, we can do this. Why not? And so, um, Emily's shirts created the awesome branding in the all of the labels and where's the, where's the name come from? Uh, for the win. So FTW is a gaming, um, oh, for the win. Yeah. Ftw. And it's the inverse of wtf. Right. And so I was like, what's, I had this, um, for the win for, for the win marketing idea concept back from when I was like, oh, I don't too scared to do wtf. Well, WTF was like too edgy cuz it was right after that incident with the, the client who was like, oh, I can't do business with you. I was like, right. And then my mentor stepped in and was like, no, really stick with this. But that was the outcome, the ultimate outcome. And all of the sauces have some sort of gaming or geeky bent. So firefly me to the moon is from flights or, and are you
curt:
selling this to nerds and geeks and stuff too? Yeah. So the interesting, such a niche sauce in
nick:
some ways. Yeah. The interesting thing about all of these is most of them are fruit based. Um, and so the first one I remember made was, um, uh, raspberry Mole. And it has, um, all of the peppers and the pepper mashes are, um, fermented. Oh. And so it takes a lot of the heat right off the front end. Yeah. And, uh, it makes it, uh, deposit, it's on,
curt:
on the, on the fly, on the backside. Yeah.
nick:
So you get the amazing flavor profile up front, and if you add more and more, it gets spicier and spicier and spicier. And that's the, the beauty of fermented sauces. Hmm. So we ferment the, the peppers, then we mix in all the awesome ingredients and then have it all prepped and lit. Oh, wow. And so you get that taste of like, so ghosted. Oh, that's, yeah. It's like ghost pepper hot sauce. Sure. And most people like the bragging rights of being able to say, I have a ghost pepper hot sauce. Right. They don't have to have, you can't be insane burn most of it though. Right. You can never taste it. And so now people can, and they can, because I actually
curt:
love the flavor of habanero Yeah. When it isn't cranked up to number nine
nick:
heat. Yeah. And two of our sauces, the carrot cake is a lie and Lucifer berry, um, both of those have habanero in them. Hmm. So in they're vanilla. They also have vanilla and some other cinnamon
curt:
and all spice. I'm gonna keep an eye out for that. Yeah. And, and grab a bottle. And thank you for this one. In the meantime. Yeah. So you're in the sprouts. Do you want to grow
nick:
that? You know, it's, I do. Um, and we're using, um, Loco food distribution to Sure. To get out to the, to do the thing. And they're, they're a really cool company to work with.
curt:
Yeah. Well that's where we took our name from. Did you know that? Yeah. No, I didn't know that. I called Elizabeth and said, Hey, can I steal your name? Because I was gonna register NOCO thing Tank. Yeah. Which 10% of people still call me. Yeah. Um, but I was like, well that restricts me to Northern Colorado. Yeah. But Loco is stands for local community think tank. Yeah. Uh, or Lee, I dunno what Elizabeth stands for, but I assume the same was such a nice thing. Right? Um, yeah, it's a nice thing. And I was a big advocate for her way back when. That's
nick:
cool. And they're, they're, they're still rocking it. Their team is amazing. Um, they taught us all about how to get the packaging right and how interface well with Sprouts. And so, um, you know, I didn't have an in with them. I just, I, they had a cat, they call it a category reset. Yeah. Where they have this like, oh, you want, you have chips or you have popcorn, or you have a whatever. Yeah. And you can send in sample. We're firing
curt:
everybody. And we have, we're we're interviewing a few. We're you audition? Yes. Right. Basically.
nick:
Um, and so I sent in my stuff now, um, I, I have to give a shout out to Rachel from Life. Sabu. Kombucha. Yeah. Rachel Walker, absolutely amazing. Super generous with her and with her, uh, knowledge and resources. And she came in and said, well, you should go to, let me introduce you to the folks at Lucky's, cuz most of the folks at Oh right. That I had worked with them. And so I said, oh, that's great. And so she introduced me to Sam over at Lucky's and Sam said, oh yeah, here, give us a sample. And oh, okay, here's how this works and here's, here's where we can put you on the shelf and whatever else. Um, and it, it was just this really nice, just organic Is Sam
curt:
the growth, um, kind of longer haired guy that seems to be kind of running a lot of the place there.
nick:
Yeah, he was. He's a shorter haired guy now. I think so. Yeah. But yeah. Yeah. He's the, he's decorated house. Well alive grocery. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and so they have a lot of really cool, by the way,
curt:
if Rachel is listening, I'm. Brewing kombucha on top of my cupboards. thank you for the starter about. Isn't it awesome? It was January of 2020. I've been a home brew kombucha guy for three years now. Cause I'm too cheap to buy the cebo, which you should buy if you don't brew your own.
nick:
Buy that. And what's really fascinating life Cebu has six grams of sugar in a bottle. Right. And whereas most similar for the same ounce has 10 to 20. Oh wow. And you, you just get a sugar bomb, but Right. Her kombucha six grams and it's still amazing. And she just started the fruit leather. Well the point is
curt:
kind of let that critter chew up that sugar. Yeah. Yeah. I love it when, when I use honey and I get the thick thick, like double Frisbee size. Like, anyway, I digress. Scooby
nick:
Nerd Scooby Nerd
curt:
So she's, she's doing something leather out of the scooby's. Does she want my old Scooby's? No, I don't. Well she's probably not my little ones. She's got big industrial size ones now. Yes. She has the massive
nick:
ones. And so, and she mixes it with her fruit mashes, which is, they're just so, they're really good. Oh, I've seen that. Also. Super low sugar. And there are the checkouts at Lucky's and I think
curt:
the natural grass. So the punchline was, did you get in there too?
nick:
Yes. At Lucky's and the Cupboard. Um, nice. And I got a chance to celebrate at the Cupboards 50th, um, ACE Hardware and Old Town. Cool. They brought me into and just, I love Ace Hardware because they're all locally. Yeah. Family owned usually. Um, and they're all independent. I
curt:
was just telling you how I wanted to do a hot sauce called the local experience, but maybe I should. a line of spices and sauces called the Loco Experience and have different things or something. I don't knows. What's
nick:
funny is when we did ours, um, the folks who run Slice turned around to to Gabe and said, Hey, we wanted to run a hot sauce too. Can we make one? And so Gabe runs crooked Cup, and so he was like, yeah, absolutely. So they have now their slice, uh, Chipotle slice. Yeah. Think. And then also there's a,
curt:
um, sweet, well, I'll call Gabe next week actually, or maybe even tomorrow to figure out my hot sauce solution. Yeah. So, and he does
nick:
a cold brew, uh, cold brew habanero or something like that with his Oh really? Yeah. It's good brew.
curt:
Really good. Yeah. Um, we always do faith, family, politics. Mm-hmm. at the close of this show. Um, do you know which one you'd like to take on first? And what you'd like to talk about? I'll let you pick. Well, we talked about politics a little bit already. Um, yeah. Do you want to, like you said you're an independent, I'll, I'll take us there. Uh, you said you're an independent Yeah. Non, non-affiliated. Um, like talk to me about the why of that, if you would.
nick:
The. The party system. The two party system. And this is founding Fathers Logic, right? That they knew it's in the constitution that the, or Well, that's in the, um,
curt:
the decoration. Yeah. They, or some of the other founding letters and things.
nick:
Yeah. It's, it's in, in their writings, they have the two party system is ultimately a, a, a catastrophic outcome, which leads to hyper partisanism, two wings of the same bird. Yeah. And they fight against each other. They, and this was, in my experience, going door to door, almost everybody had similar goals, but different methodologies to get there. Yeah. Yeah. And so everybody kind of wanted the same things. Yeah. Um, but the fixers and the mixers. Exactly. And so they wanted to make sure that the things that they, you know, prioritized were the things that either got funded or that there was enough for, you know, all of the things. And so, um, it's, for me, I've never really wanted to be a part of the, that bigger party network. Um, and even when the, the after the campaign, the Colorado Center party said, well, you could join us. And I was like, that's not really where I'm at either. Yeah. Yeah. I really appreciate it. Um, and, and, and don't get me wrong, the folks who are up and down in both of the parties are super nice. They're. They're resourceful. They know their stuff and they know how to connect with people well, yeah. And they know their audience and it's where the game playing comes in. Yeah. Yeah. That I really, I just detach from that because I'm
curt:
fact that you can't really be a free in an independent thinker in our national political system at all. It's hard, even in our local Fort Collins city council system, it's pretty hard.
nick:
It's, well, and the, the perfect example is, um, the bag fees. Right? Right. And so the bag fees is this, it became, it could have easily been much more regressive than it was. Um, but ultimately it puts a lot of pressure on the, um, the frontline workers Sure. Who don't have a ton of exp, you know, uh, disposable income to spend on, like mental health or days off or anything else like that. Right, right. They're getting all of the heat for this policy and none of the support, which they should've had. But there's also, during that time, because we've co that, you know, covid masking all this other stuff that was happening concurrently. And so you just have this rage that was built up in the con in the consumer base. The final
curt:
straw. Irrational rage. Exactly. Is that you're gonna charge me for my bags. Yeah. I'm, I'm a little bit that way, like. I've taken my shopping cart full of groceries, not in bags, out to my van and put it all in the seat of my van. So I didn't buy a bag cuz I'm not gonna buy a bag even if I forgot my fucking bags and I don't, you know, 10 cents is 10 cents. I'm just not gonna do it. I, I'm exactly, because I was opposed, frankly. Yeah. Uh, to put subjecting those people to that trauma. Yeah. And, and to little store suffering. Well,
nick:
and, and you know, now it's statewide and so that's, that's coming down the
curt:
pipeline Right. Forever. Well, and I used my leftover grocery bags Yeah. For trash bags. Right. At local think tank. Yeah. And so now I gotta buy my own trash bags for local think tank I was recycling already.
nick:
And there's, there're nobody, there was literally nobody on the other end of that issue environmentally. Right. We all get it. There's, there's microplastics. Sure. People are getting sick. We can see in our blood tests that there's like BPA and polyphenols and all of these other things that are sitting out there. We get it. But how do you implement that and what does it look like when our, we know our recycling system can't handle the, like clamshell containers that 9% of our produce comes in. So what do you do about that? Oh really?
curt:
Yeah. Oh, even the raspberries and the strawberries
nick:
and stuff? No, you can't put it in the recycling. Yeah. Oh, I do. Doesn't that make you feel bad? I'm sorry. No, see this is the thing because
curt:
I dragged like styrofoam containers out of there all the time and people sort of wrong things in, in recycling. And I'm like, here, I pulled that up for you. But I didn't realize about the
nick:
clamshells. Absolutely. Uh, constantly. And this is the thing that's like a third of my recycling. Yeah. And so you have to be careful with it because some, you know, some of them you can if they're the thick ones, but some of them you can't. And it depends on your municipality and whatever else. Yeah. But in any case, we had this education issue and it's a practical education issue. It's not like a, you know, cuz most people will teach Right. If they can and it's easy enough. Right.
curt:
But it's just so hard to communicate with people cuz there's a million ways to get your information these days. Yes.
nick:
And, and uh, Gallegos before they were Republic tried leaning in and doing the community education and they had an entire sheet and they said, here's what you can and can't fit in.
curt:
And I just threw mine away. Right. I literally did because Jill got some kind of a cool thing to hang on the wall there near where our trash can is. I was like, nobody follows this anyway. Right. But, uh, thank you Gago for that excellent guide that I apparently didn't follow with regards to my clam shield
nick:
is exactly right. And so you have to have that sort of eye for what is, what's the, what's the end goal and what's the bigger policy. So back in the day, uh, the, uh, spring Creek Gardens Yeah. Didn't exist. That was owned by csu. Yep. Yep. And the u c which the University Center for the Arts, where the Flower Experimental flower Gardens is Yep. Yep. Did not exist either. The, you know, Fort Collins owned that. What ended up happening was a land swap. And so now we have the u c and the experimental flower gardens and we have Spring Creek Gardens, which is this amazing resource for the community. Fast forward couple decades to Hughes and you have this amazing opportunity for open space. Now, CSU would never, ever, ever have developed it, ever. It was right. That's not what they do doing. Invest a ton of money just to get it back to where you could develop on it. Right? It's like 7 million just to develop it. Yep. To start day one with a shovel, 7 million. It was never ever going to happen. They could talk a big game about putting houses and whatever else to like drive a market value. It was never ever going to happen. Yeah. So when presented with this ballot initiative, which put it on the ballot for voters to decide, do does Hughes become open space or not? And should we force the city to buy it? What could have happened? Alternatively, in a different universe, we could have had a lands swap. Hmm. Right. That historical perspective was really important. We could have had a land swap because CSU could have gotten a fair market value for it, and the city could have paid a fair market value instead of what happened is the voters decided to force the issue. Right. And then we had to buy it back at whatever that, you know, proper rate was. Right. That was determined by, oh, we can do this. Who the hell knows? Exactly. Right. And it was swapped for land on, like Timberline or whatever, where everything's, you know, it's off the max line. It doesn't have any great support for Right, right. Public transit and all the rest of this stuff. And so it was equal swap, but I a huge cost taxpayer cost to the taxpayers. They were, they, they overpaid essentially for Well,
curt:
and sometimes voters are dumb. No, I, you know, there's a reason that we have representative government and like I was just thinking, we were just talking about the property use code, land use code too. Yeah. And all the changes
nick:
there. Voters, I would say that voters go for the, and it's just like recycling. They look at what is the best outcome and what's easy to do and how do we get there the fastest way. Right. It's because they, they know that in two years, The person who's running the show right. Is gonna switch over and in two years they're gonna have to do it again. Yeah. And so,
curt:
so how would you quantify your politics in a, in a, in a statement Like, you don't wanna be part of these systems Yeah. Because of their grabby, grabby hands. But how should we act as a nation? Neighborly. City
nick:
Neighborly. Neighborly. Yeah. Um, and just talk to, you know, I, I talked to, I'm, I was the president of my HOA for Yeah. And people hate their HOAs and for good reason in most cases, ours won a statewide award because we actively talked to our, our neighbors. We communicated with them well. They knew in the board meetings were, despite that we are still not hitting quorum because all of this other stuff. But like, as long as you're communicating Yeah. And open and honest and transparent Yeah. Folks will pay attention. And I think that that's really about being neighborly. You can still disagree, just fine. Totally. But just be honest about like, oh, well, you know, we disagree about that, but I think that we can still figure out a way to, there's accomplish
curt:
some space where we can both have some Yeah. That's part of the reason why I talk about faith, family politics, cuz just to highlight that notion that we need to talk about things if we're gonna fix'em. Oh, for sure. You know, like smashing each other when we have power is not really the best way for a United Nation Yeah. In the future. Well,
nick:
and, and that joke earlier, like I crave power. Like it's, it's about if you have a useful skill, be willing to volunteer it. Yeah. If you are in a position of power, send that elevator back down. Yeah. So I am no longer the president ask of your need
curt:
and share
nick:
of your abundance. Exactly. I'm no longer the president. I stepped back when another neighbor said, I'm interested in doing that. Can I do? And I, yeah, absolutely. Like, let's nominate you. Let's get you going. Let's roll in this process so that you have the opportunity to lead. Yeah. Yeah. And there's this weird, it's, I think it's an American dynamic. It feels like it's an American dynamic of like, if I'm not in charge of the thing, then there's no point
curt:
Right? It's like then it's not then anti to it or like
nick:
disengaged from it. And folks who are, are super well traveled or from other countries where they have a different understanding of power dynamic. Yeah. So like you can still be influential without being in control.
curt:
Yeah. You should read my old blog from, uh, it's called, uh, leadership at Every Level. Nice. And it's basically the notion that leadership is. Anything that you do that impacts the behavior of anybody else. Yeah. And to be a leader, whatever level you're at in the world and your time and place. Well, that's
nick:
why I love our local board system because it, in, in the city, you can volunteer for a board and you can have a one year term or you can have a four year term. Right. And you can volunteer your skills to a particular area of interest. Same thing with like leadership Fort Collins or Leadership Northern Colorado, or lo leveraging local leaders. Like even if you're not running for politics, you can learn about the local systems and invest yourself in those things. Yeah, yeah. To help make the things better. And it, it does really encourage you to like, oh, my neighbor's running for city council, or my right is running for Senate. Like, should I
curt:
support him or Yeah. Push
nick:
against him. Exactly. And so folks who are, you know, running in, in this last house race, I would talk to everybody. I just, you know, this is what I know, this is what I learned. We better figure these things out. And I, you know, I had campaigns that I was supporting and we would talk about, so what's gonna happen
curt:
in the, uh, in the house, we're in the midst of the, uh, never ending speaker vote contest. Right now. It seems like they're squeezing him for just enough humility to get enough people on board, or are the, are the, the hardliners just going to like, screw Kevin when,
nick:
when
curt:
you have he act like such a pompous ass coming into the contest?
nick:
Oh, well, I mean, you know, you have a certain sense of entitlement. I think So you think
curt:
I think that's been stripped of him. Yeah. Sorry Kevin.
nick:
There's, there's a, I think it's kind of funny
curt:
actually, but whatever
nick:
I, I hate it when our, I
curt:
actually like it when our government is dysfunctional. I like it when that happens as a libertarian and I'm like, sweet.
nick:
I I am, I have the complete opposite reaction to that. Cause I'm like, I, I really want you to all to be able to fix something that's happening. Um, but, or make wise decisions by coming together as, as a council,
curt:
at least somebody's gotta get like sworn in.
nick:
Yeah. Yeah. Um, you have to be able to function as a, as even, you know, neighbors who are of communities, you have to, they disagree with each other, whatever. And especially when it comes to like water rights mm-hmm. And how we negotiate water rights. And in, in Colorado we have really cool, uh, negotiations about all of those things. Yeah. And they're passionate and, you know, there's a lot of like weird little technical details that have to be pull out of the muck, but like, ultimately there's an agreement at the end of the day. Right, right. And people are sitting at the table still. Something you can shake hands about. Yes. Yeah. And everybody kind of walks away unhappy, which is diplomacy. So that's Right. So fair. Um, I don't know what's gonna happen in the house, honestly. I think that the, again, the two party system is, is completely toxic. You heard, um, the, the minority speaker, um, come and say, we. You know, we have this unification of Democrats and he listed off four insider terms for the different factions of Democrats. Right. that, and this was national news. Right. And we're like, whoa, hold on. They're so unified. Right?
curt:
and No, and they're twice as unified as the Republicans
nick:
It's so, so I just, I lean into this idea of like, the more neighborly we can be, like, um, I don't know if you've met Joe Na Goose, like Joe Yeah. Goes to a lot of different events too. But like, you know, he's super down earth. He'll talk to anybody. He'll talk to you about your kids. He'll talk to you about his kids. He'll talk to you about like his family, what their experience is. And he has this understanding of like where his knowledge boundaries are. And he'll like ask as much as he can. One
curt:
of my friends, uh, said of Wade Trel years ago, you know, I really like that guy. I can't tell if he's a Democrat or a Republican hardly. Yeah. You know, and, uh, I think that's what I hear you saying is have more, uh, independent thought, community engagement, relationship driven politics, and, uh, a local perspective. Keep the party power to a minimum and we'll be happier as a nation. party,
nick:
party politics. Ignore, often ignore locality. Yeah. For sure. And so you, there's strength in that unification sometimes when it works, right? When it doesn't work, it's hyper dysfunctional. It super toxics. Yeah. It's very toxic to local communities who are depending on their representative to actually communicate with each other. Yeah. To represent their interests. Yeah. Yeah. And so when you have, I think, I think. McCarthy is in an interesting spot.
curt:
we'll save our predictions. Um, I want to get you outta here in a reasonable time and we've been rambling a lot. It's fun. Um, family. Yeah. Uh, tell me about your family. So I have two kiddos. Okay. And tell me about your, you have a wife too? Yeah, so I, we didn't find them. The romance, there're along the way. Where, where did you find
nick:
her? Um, so, uh, Stacy and I met online. Um, big surprise there given my, my, uh, profession proclivity. Yeah. Um, and so, uh, she lived up in Winter Park and I, you know, was here at csu and so, um, we, we met and three months later we were married. Wow. And that was, yeah, it was just a really fast turnaround. we, we, I mean, we knew exactly what we wanted. Um, she's super smart, hyper driven, um, and had this, I wanted to go and, and be a teacher. Mm-hmm. And so for a time she was a special ed para, PS d mm-hmm. um, has her, you know, masters in, in elementary ed, um, is crazy dedicated to making sure kids have a really good educational experience.
curt:
How was it that you two could be confident about each other within three months? Like, what was it, vice versa? You could speculate on her part, but on your part at least. What made you say yes?
nick:
We just knew. I mean, it was, you get that feeling about, yeah. And, okay. Okay. So this is my, my, my vice, my guilty pleasure. Stacy and I watch like Married at First Sight and Love is Blind and like The Bachelor and the Bachelorette and all these other, um, and you understanding that there are some moments you just roll your eyes at, but like for the most part, when people are honest and straightforward and there's that really genuine connection, you can just see it. And here for sure, we know that they're meant. And so like, yeah, that was our Well, you just had that, that was our experience. Yeah. And uh, and I, I, you know, we, we built a life together, so Yeah. Um, we bought a house here in Fort Collins and then we, uh, just made a family, so, yeah. Yeah, it was very cool. Yeah. So two kiddos. Um, yeah. Tell me about and girl. Um, my, my son is a virtuoso when it comes to music. Okay. Um, he has a, he a different interest every week and, you know, very interested in And how old is he and what's his name? He's eight and his name is Ryland
curt:
And, um, we try to do a one word description for the kids if you haven't been listening.
nick:
Yeah. He's driven. Hmm. Um, and he's driven to learn. Yeah. And he. We on his iPad and I, I know screen time's a thing, so, you know, whatever. But on his, he uses his iPad to compose music. Wow. Like at eight years old? Yes. And he is learning violin. He picked up the violin and was playing it without being screechy. He could play a long note with a bow draw, like within the first week and did it really well. Wow. And it was like, I wanna play this, I wanna play. And he would learned like portions of rush E, which is a really fancy, like, piano piece. Okay. Um, and so he's been like practicing on that. Dang. So he doesn't have, you know, cuz he's eight, he doesn't have like the emotionality and the tonality just yet. But given
curt:
enough time. His imitation is pretty significant already. Yeah.
nick:
Yeah. He's, he's, he's learning, he picked up the recorder within five minutes on the recorder he was playing. Mary had a little lamb and I was just like, what do you do? That's be awesome. Like, I played saxophone, you know? Yeah. When I was in high school, like Colorado honor band and all the rest of that stuff. And like, so he's got some through there. Yeah. But like, and Stacy's crazy musical too, but like, um, you know, she plays flute piccolo.
curt:
Well, that sounds like a, a place of opportunity for this young man in the future.
nick:
Yes. And so he's very, very, very, um, interested in, in
curt:
all things musical. The robots won't take over saxophone playing early on, you know, like the will writing, uh, yeah. Anyway, lot writing is getting interesting.
nick:
Yeah. There's, there's gonna be an asterisk and I think there's actually gonna be a law requiring if you put your work out as ai, you know, you have a, a tariff on top of that. Really.
curt:
Yeah. Yeah. I think interesting option. Yeah. Humans can't compete on that level to pay to who for what? Just pay it to the government general fund. You,
nick:
you pay it to because it's a part of your cost, right? Yeah. So it'd be, it'd be part of your, so you can't charge a penny, but to who you charge$10 to the end customer. I mean, that's really the where it's gonna come from. It'll go, the tariff will sit there and it'll go to the local state government art programs. Education. Yeah. Something that, yeah, something like that. It'll help. It'll,
curt:
it'll be like the Well, cause if we can't keep writing well then Yeah. Like they won't have anybody good to copy. Exactly. Uh, exactly. Yeah. That's, that's in a whole nother two hour podcast right there. Yeah. Um, let's deep dive. So let's, uh, let's jump to faith. Yeah. Uh, what do you have for a faith perspective
nick:
to share? Oh, you, you know, I mentioned, I didn't mention Clara, so cla cla. Oh yeah, sorry. Yeah, yeah. Thank you Clara. Sorry. It's my six-year-old. She's super creative. Thank you. Um, creative is what I would say. That's her word. Say yes. Oh my goodness. So she is, uh, an artist straight through and through. Yeah. Uh, makes houses, doll houses people. Oh, fun. Um, draws has all like at six. Yes. Very detailed drawing. Like, just incredibly Wow. Um, and both of them love to read. So my eight-year-old just finished, uh, the entire Percy Jackson series. So were you
curt:
and your wife like in the, like the Mensa No. department on the online dating app or something. Like, that's, that's what I'm starting to get. The impression is you're a lot smarter than I am. No,
nick:
I, and I, I think we all have talents, fair. Um, and, you know,
curt:
well these kids sound amazing. So you're blessed. They're, they're
nick:
wonderful. Um, they're, they're equal parts frustrating too. So right? It's not, not just to put the mental health almas
curt:
Yeah. Well the gifted and talented means very talented at pissing mom and dad off sometimes
nick:
or whatever. They're really, really adept at getting their way, um, and also finding the buttons to push. Right, right. So that's as all kids are. Yeah. So, um, it's, I, I can't, I can't complain because I know that there are folks who are out there have worse off. Yeah. Um, and their kids have a lot bigger struggles or whatever else. Um, so I, I, I tend to just be really, um, really happy with who they are. Yeah. You know, hold'em mostly Yes. Encouraged or holistically encouraging Yeah. Yeah. I like that. Whatever, whatever it becomes of them is what they are. So like it That's awesome.
curt:
I like it. No, that's, uh, it's obvious that you're very proud Oh yeah. Of these kids that you've got. Uh, and the, the no more, no, I six and
nick:
eight and call it
curt:
This two, two is enough. Well, I've seen, I've met people a lot of times that are like, you know, they've got a six or eight, 10 year gap between their, I really,
nick:
you know, I think that's a, there's brain damage, right? And this is probably the, there's
curt:
brain damage unwilling to sign up for further brain image.
nick:
Yeah. Because you forget, right? You're like, you look in the series really good about this. Or Facebook sometimes too, reminding you of like, oh, weren't remember like eight years ago when they were like super cute and you, I was like, yeah, but I also wasn't sleeping or eating or productive. Um, so there's, there's a big trade off. Yeah. Um, but good, good on you. If you want more or fewer
curt:
your family dynamic. Yours are not available, nor are you looking to I'm out. Fair enough. Had another 14 years. Damn. 16.
nick:
I, I, I joke, I was like, you know, we could adopt if we really wanted to go that route and not go through the physical
curt:
trauma of, right. Yeah. All of the, because it's, it's hard on Jill and I do, uh, uh, exchange students. There you go. So like taking in. Rich people's kids from other countries is way less commitment, but has kind of that same influence. Yeah. So once you're a big brother, I
nick:
mean, there's a ton of Yeah. A lot of opportunities. Yeah. And you could, I mean, volunteer for like Boy Scouts, girl scouts. Sure. There's so, you know, boys and so much a demand there. Yes. Yeah. Yes. Kids need, kids need good mentors. True. Um, and, you know, we just had that Ps it was an entire c uh, Colorado educational, uh, study. Oh. And kids don't feel like they have trusted adults to talk to. Wow. One in three. Um, feel like they have a trusted adult. One in three, which
curt:
tells me that like, are kids as parents, um, being very bad at it or, or kids being kind of like programmed not to trust their parents and stuff. Is some of that stuff coming in the vernacular? I
nick:
think when there's, so we're
curt:
drifting into politics in a way now here,
nick:
but Yeah. When, when you're growing up, it's, it's hard When you're growing up, it's hard to like know who you can talk to about your like identity or whatever else, your interests, whatever. Um, and there's so much politic leaning in to. Hmm. You know, govern like, oh, you can't say this, or You can't, you should be doing these things. Or Oh, that's not PC or whatever. And like, no kids need answers. Like they're gonna Google it. Like they need to have somebody who's not.
curt:
They'll find somebody that's gonna tell'em
nick:
how, what to believe. Exactly. And it's a message board. And if it's a message board, it's not you as the parent. And so, right. If your kids can't feel com comfortable coming to talk to you about whatever it is, um, and you haven't opened that dialogue with them to have honest discussions, then it's really problematic. And I think that teachers aren't really empowered to do that. Um, there are ample resources in PS D and I'm really proud of our PS are local and it
curt:
used to be families and villages were closer a lot. Yeah. And there was neighborhood people that would stay around forever and they were kind of a mentor for the different kids and stuff. But we all just park in our garages now and walk into our houses and then play on the computer until it's time for bid.
nick:
Yeah. And those small disagreements turn into big rifts instead of like, what they, you know, like, oh yeah, I can take your trash can. And like, I don't mind that Right. Let me help
curt:
you with your trash. Well, I had an incident on a, on an airplane. I went partying the night before we left Mexico and I had this like sinus draining and I had a cough and stuff. Mm-hmm. and the lady in front of me on the airplane was very covid nervous and stuff, apparently. And mm-hmm. I don't know, every 10 minutes or something, I would have to like, you know, just kind of a, and close to the end of the flight. She was like, Do you mind covering your mouth? And I, I had sometimes and stuff, but it wasn't, and I was like, yeah. And, and just ask, you know? Yeah. And tell me what you need. Yeah. And then like, that was just fine. And then her son, like from across the plane, like chimed in and like basically made me almost to the point of being like, you could both screw off. Yeah. Um, but just ask. Yeah. Like if, if your neighbor is leaving his gar garbage cans out and it's in the way of your car when you're trying to leave to work the next day, like, tell them Yeah. Don't like harbor this grudge of resentment and anger because somebody doesn't know what you have perceived. Because chances are you're telling yourself a story that isn't true.
nick:
Oh, for sure. Everybody lives in their own heads. Right. So, so much. Um, and it's, it's hard to, I mean, as the president of an hoa right, you get that a lot, right? It's like, I don't know what's happening in your personal life right now, but very clearly this is irrational level of anger that
curt:
you have about some, and if you just talk to your neighbor for two minutes, you might find that this problem can just go away instead of writing a 10 page letter to the HOA board. Yeah.
nick:
And, and that's what, you know, our board was really good at. It was walking around and, and talking with people. Yeah,
curt:
yeah, yeah. That's cool. So yeah, you have to do a lot less actually conflict resolution if you just like engage once in a while. People love it and they, or it's marriages or kids
nick:
or whatever. Yeah. And if you just talk, I mean, that's really the whole, the whole thing is just communicate. Yeah. And the words. you have to both go into it with the understanding of, like, this, the words are gonna be clunky. Yeah. They're, and people don't always talk eloquently when they want to. Yeah. Yeah. And not as well, the word choice is poor sometimes, but the intent, if the intent is to connect, then there's honest intent behind the thing. Yeah.
curt:
Usually. Yeah. Um, so moving on to faith. Yeah. Uh, do I remember correctly that you're gonna burn in hell because you don't love God? Just kidding. Sorry. I think I remember a conversation earlier. Uh, yeah. I'm playing
nick:
sorry. I, uh, I would be delightfully called a humanist. Um, okay. Yep. I, I'm, I'm so, and will Wheaton, uh, coined that phrase? Yeah. Um, so the, I mean, he, he identifies as that. And so I think a lot of, uh, interesting geeks are really kind of in that same vein of life. Yeah.
curt:
Which
nick:
is what people are smart enough to figure out problems, and there's not really an external, uh, deity required. Okay. Um, or responsible for outcomes of things Fair. Um, and people, is there a creator? Um, you know, I, I, I would probably call myself agnostic because I think that we are the idea of like Q from Star Trek, right? Like this omnipotent, omnipresent, like all powerful being who's kind of snarky and just like another level of human right. Probably exists out there somewhere and just is too bored to deal with us at this moment. So yeah, I think that there's, there's almost certainly something more advanced, you know, more powerful, more present. Something
curt:
designed us a little bit or whatever, maybe ish. Yeah. When you look at, at least set things in
nick:
motion when you look at the elegance of the universe or like dna Yeah. There's, there's purpose to life. Um, and I, what that is and can we categorize it? Does it look like us? I think it's a little ego-driven, like, you know, it's, it's us, um, learning about the universe as the universe learning through us. Like, I think that those things are important questions. Yeah. Um, and I really like the idea having, having read Percy Jackson now, I love the idea of conceptual deities Um hmm. That come into play when something's important and then fade away when it's not. Hmm. Right.
curt:
That's almost like, like the old Greek gods and stuff was kind of relevant to that. Yes. Right. And so when it's something like, instead of having like a, a patch for all problems, like Jesus is trying to be kind of, uh, having a tool for the right problem. Yeah. If you will. Uh, sorry to interrupt, but one, one of the things I was thinking of with that kind of humanist and, and just trusting in people's Yeah. Wisdom, which I think is, you know, a lot of the wisdom of the wisdom books has been boiled up from that soup, but. One of the things is the lack of a shared values is really challenging to our humanity now, and is, is can we depend on humanity to come up with a shared value set that we could agree with? Sure.
nick:
And, and so before, before AI takes it all away from us, right? Or
curt:
before the Christians and the atheists battle it out, or who knows? I don't know. Yeah. I, well, because I think that's one of the big frictions I see in society is like, there's this value set and then there's this one and this one and this one. Everybody's got their own value set, but there isn't really a shared, like if you don't believe LGBTQ q plus is like the best thing ever. You're kind of terrible these days according to one side of the spectrum, but according to the other side, it's like if you do believe that, you're terrible too. Yeah. And I, I, as a small example, although I'm in the camp of take everybody as an individual and love them and appreciate their special value. Right. You know, for me as a creative being. Um, but yeah. So that would be my big question to you as like, the absence of God creates kind of an absence of anything more important in the state. What is the values? What do we care about?
nick:
So the, the old school value of the church was education. Right. And they were the holders of books. They were the holders of Yeah, the old,
curt:
old school. Yeah. Like dark ages. Yeah. Okay. Of
nick:
art and literacy and creation, creative endeavors. and the folks that were patrons of the artists were also high up members of religious institutions oftentimes, or kings or queens or, you know, and so yes.
curt:
But it's hard to say that that started there.
nick:
Yeah. No, and, and granted what I'm, what I'm, that's where the problem with power is, right? The, the folks with power and money had art created for the things that they were interested in. So, you know, sculptors, uh, uh, made sure all the Renaissance, Ren, renaissance, whatever. And so as you, as you look forward into what the community became, right? So church was gathering place and Sure. In, um, you know, for the black community church is where your extended family is, and that's where your, um, you know, where your social gatherings are and where your community is. And for the Latinx community, it's where you learn a lot of interesting things about, you know, your place in community and what your role is in the larger extended family of your, your community. Yeah. Um, and they, they approach religion differently, right. Um, and in, in much the same way as if you go to a different state or a different place. In Fort, in Fort Collins, we're very like, we're very almost like homogenous. It's a, yeah. Well, there, there's a lot of, there's a lot of similarity in terms of how things. Are perceived in terms of like the religion, the role of religion, the role of education, the schools, and what you think? So yeah, I think that there's, oh, more so than, like, if you went to like Georgia, if you went to like, places in California, Idaho, like there are places that are el extroverted in a way that we are not here.
curt:
So, or more, not extroverted, but more strided or divided in Yeah. A way like, yeah. If you're in a rich neighborhood in Baltimore, your experience with the public education system is much different than an important neighborhood in
nick:
Baltimore. Yeah, exactly. And Florida. I mean, there's all of these places that have, um, they're identities are more worn on their sleeves and Yeah. Here and, and like, you know, here, Boulder, Denver, Aurora, like Colorado is kind of this unique space where we're much more like community that don't really matter. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And we're okay with like differences in things like that, more so than a place that isn't. Um, so I, and that's like a very Colorado Center view. I love, I love Colorado. But, um, the, the end of the day picture for me is, um, humanism is about appreciating that it's that Gene Rodden Bray principle. Yeah. Infinite diversity and infinite combinations. And so, you can learn things from people who have different backgrounds, different perspectives, different approaches to life that you can't learn on your own path. Right? Yeah. And if you don't appreciate that, those differences have equal value to that yours do that, it creates a lot of, um, pathways for strife. Right? Yeah. And so, you know, when, when, uh, when we look at what the contributions of the LGBTQ community are, um, we have to look at individuals, right? And we have to look at the community as a whole because that experience is a completely different
curt:
driven thing. Totally. You know? Yeah. And my understanding of the world and of that topic even has only been informed by my willingness to engage in conversation with people that have lived at
nick:
Palm. Yeah. Yeah. And it's that lived experience that drives, uh, the ability of a community to grow Hmm. And learn about itself because the, the identities otherwise are hidden below the surface because it's not a, and I, I think in some ways, in, in, in that, um, we sort of gloss over the differences in Colorado, um, that those identities become, L Yeah. Less relevant because they're glossed over, but that they're still driving underwritten stories, that need to, to be expressed, and that creates a lot of strife.
curt:
Yeah, that's an interesting thing where, where I grew up in Central North Dakota, that was Catholics and Lutherans pretty much. Yeah. And they were fine, like the Catholics were fine with the Lutheran kids and the parents and vice versa and stuff, but they didn't really want you to marry one of them or whatever
nick:
it was. Yeah. That's the other side
curt:
of the tracks, right? A little bit. But they were both sides of the tracks were poor white kids from North Dakota, you know? So there wasn't really a difference in socioeconomic. It was who's, whose flag are you gonna fly today? Right? Yeah. So I do appreciate your sensitivity towards that being like more a way to divide than a way to, to
nick:
Oh sure. Unite. And if you, if you gloss over differences rather than appreciate the differences and it's, it has to be an organic thing, right? So the, the individual has to invite you into that world and to have that discussion. Yeah. So without that, it's, you know, yeah. Yeah. Just trying to force it. It's, and then fair enough. That has to be a genuine, authentic connection there.
curt:
Um, last segment, the loco experience. Um, do you have something in mind already? Did you put some pre-thought So the craziest experience of your lifetime or journey, business journey that you'd care to describe to our listening audience? Might be a moment, might be a week, might be a year in the life, I don't know,
nick:
the most reward. which is not necessarily the craziest, but the most rewarding was I was working on a marketing project for, um, compass Collaborative School. Yeah. Um, yeah. Jan. Jan. Yeah, Jan. And, uh, it's in volunteering
curt:
there before Covid, and I haven't reconnected, so, yeah. Anyway. Yeah. There's
nick:
amazing school. Yeah, it's great. Um, project-based learning, really driven, uh, teachers. And, um, one of the students who was part of this initial brainstorming group and marketing group came up to me and said, you run Comic-Con, right? I said, yeah, well, I'm indigenous and I've never seen an indigenous, uh, superhero. Hmm. I've never seen an indigenous comic book. I've never seen an indigenous artist drawing any of those things or writing any of those things. And in a comic book, yeah. Basically. And I, I, where are we at? Where I mean, where are we at? I said, I don't know, but I'll find out. Yeah. And so two years later, we had an indigenous artist, um, Raphael Malano Badhand, uh, come to the Con who had original art, original creator, original characters, had a full series six series book of this, um, it's called Pia. And she is a post-apocalyptic, um, girl who's friends with this like Demonn dog. It's, it's awesome. Yeah. And she, she goes on to like try and find her father and all this cool stuff. Um, and it's this great storyline. Yeah. But, um, RA is a, he's an organizer of the indigenous pop excon that was down in Denver. Okay. Um, which has a different name this year, and I'm totally spacing on it right now. I'm sorry, RA. Um, but the, um, we, we brought in, um, characters and we, he was able to help us identify like, oh, here are your other, here's some gaps. Yeah. Then here are the other folks, and here you should talk to these folks. And so it allowed us to generate a, a wider birth of our audience. Yeah. Um, and really to, you know, and now r has created our poster for this year, Oh, cool. So it's like we, it's come full circle. Right. We didn't have, yeah. You answered that
curt:
question fully.
nick:
Yeah. We didn't have visibility on it. We dug in deep to find out who is in our network to do these things and could, you know, highlight that area that was missing from our representation base. Yeah. Cool. And it's, it's really important to be able to, representation is the most critical thing in media. and in particular for kids in and identifying in pop culture, in geek them right. They need to be able to see themselves in a superhero. Hmm. Or in a particular career, or in a particular aspect of life. Yeah. That if they haven't been exposed to that, like it's not, it's not necessarily closed off to them. Yeah. But they don't really like, oh. I could be
curt:
Superman. Could I aspire to be Bart Simpson? Actually, is pretty much my biggest dream.
nick:
yes. Nuclear power plant. I
curt:
think I'm getting close. No, not Homer. Yeah, Bart. I wanna be Bart I just wanna ride my skateboard around. And do you skateboard? No, you should. I'm too scared. I'm old. No, this
nick:
is right there. Okay. Yeah. So my son picked it up. Right. Okay. And that was one of his things. And we, we took him to launch, which is an amazing place if you haven't been there. Um, and they teach you how to skateboard. Oh. And it's very welcom. Me, even old people, they will teach Yeah. Quote unquote old people how to skateboard. Um, Andy the founder is, huh? I, I think he's somewhere between our ages. Wow. Um, but yeah, I mean, he's, he's out there, you know. Oh, he's, he actually designed the Alon Center, uh,
curt:
skate park. Yeah. That's a great skate park. Yeah. It's an amazing, I've watched kids there. I mean, my office is there for years, so. Yeah.
nick:
And, and it's an, it's a passionate community that is highly invested in art and tangential and overlaps with all of our stuff. So
curt:
maybe I'll try to take a skateboard list. I'm telling you, it's a, I'm so scared. I've thing I've, uh, what's the, I've snowboarded a couple times. Yeah. And it's, it wasn't
nick:
pretty, you know, it's an indoor thing. You can pay for a private lesson, you can fall and nobody will even know. Okay. So,
curt:
Nick, um, remind people again where to find wtf founded in Foco Comic-Con. Yeah,
nick:
so founded in Foco is coming up March 1st through third. Um, and that is, uh, founded in foco.com and you can Google that. Um, but it's uh, or you can spell it, hopefully. Yeah. Founded in foco.com. Um, and WTF marketing wtf marketing.com. Um, uh, foco ComicCon foco comiccon.com. And, uh, for the win hot sauce. Oh yeah. For w hot
curt:
sauce.com. Ftw hot sauce. Yep. Nice. Um, any last words of wisdom for our grateful listeners that this is coming to close? Well, thanks for listening this far. I mean, two hours. That's a lot of, a lot of listening. That's too much. And we're not gonna edit any of this out either. It's
nick:
too much. Nick Armstrong. Um, I, there's never too much Nick Uh, just be kind to each other. Yeah. Like there's people who know things that you don't and it's okay. And everybody's having a rough day, so I
curt:
agree. Cheers. Thanks Nick. Peace out.
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