EXPERIENCE 118 | Chas Greener - Content & Video Creator at Chas’s Crazy Creations - Cultivating a Creatives Community

Chaz Greener enjoyed a long career as dance director of Mountain Kids in Fort Collins, and along the course of her journey, she became a content creator in her spare time, initially as a contractor for Facebook. Her professional dance instruction career ended in 2019 with an injury. And in the time since then, she's blown up Chaz's Crazy Creations to over 10,000 YouTube subscribers and a very active website and blog and video library. Chaz also has a second enterprise site consulting services where she helps other creatives bring it all together. Maximizing their blogs, email marketing, and managing multiple revenue streams. This episode zooms in on the life and journey of a creative solopreneur, how to build community among creatives with authentic communications, intentional partnerships, and scroll stopping content. Chaz is a kid at heart and her past vocation as a teacher of creative dance positioned her well for the creative dance that is building a sustainable and impactful enterprise. In the time since this conversation, Chaz has become a member of Loco Think Tank, and we're excited to have her big ideas, charming personality and marketing savvy in the chapter meetings every month. Please enjoy an amazing conversation with one of my newest friends, Chaz Greener.=Welcome back to the Loco Experience Podcast. My guest today is Chaz Greener and, uh, Chaz saw our ad in the Fort Collins Lifestyle magazine and said, I gotta know more about this loco think tank. And we had a Zoom a few weeks ago, and, uh, I really enjoyed your story and learning what you're doing in the world. And so welcome Chaz. Thank you. And thanks for having me. I'm really excited to be here. So I would like to just ask you to please describe your enterprise. Oh, sure. Because you have kind of a few different things that you do and it's, I would call it kind of a non-traditional, uh, set of businesses, but. I, I loved learning about it when we, when we first met, so, yeah. Sure. Um, so I have a blog, a website, and a YouTube channel, and I am, it's Chassis's Crazy Creations. Mm-hmm. So that's one platform that I have and I create DIY tutorials for cleaning, organizing, repurpose, upcycle, all kinds of stuff like that. Yeah. Um, and that is one forum that I work kinda self-help in some ways, a self-help hack channel. It is exactly that. And I have hacks too, right? Like, you know, a bunch of different ways to use the Magic Eraser or what can else you can do with coffee filters and all kinds of stuff like that. Yeah. And then I have a second website that is called Site Consulting Services. And this is more of a, a like blog coaching or if you need help with your email marketing or you, um, Have some website troubles. Yeah. Some tech needs or something like that. And so that's my other, so yeah, I, I never, I couldn't have told you in a hundred years, like when I got done with college that this is the direction my life would've been heading. Well, what I like about it is there's a lot of coaches that haven't done, but what you've really done is you've built a. Successful solo entrepreneurship and channel and following. And you wanna help other people like be able to put it all together. Yes, exactly. Cause there's so many things to, to having an enterprise. Exactly. Yeah. The journey was totally first. Uh, well, there's a bigger journey that I know we're gonna be talking about, but, um, Just ideally the whole DIY website aspect of it was the starting point. And then through my teaching background of teaching dance, then it spawned off of, oh my gosh, other people, you know, might need these, you know, how do you do this? I struggled to learn this. Yes, yes. So maybe other people wanna learn how to do this. Exactly. So then I, you know, I'd started with some, um, my, uh, we call it a mastermind when a group of bloggers gets together and starts talking about things. And I, before I knew it, I was kind of coaching them and then they said, you need to look at this at the bigger picture. And so now it's turned into whole second business. And which, which business do you love more or give more attention to? Or is that the same answer? That's a really good question. So, I think they both fulfill to set like, I don't know, maybe it's right and left brain per se, right? Mm-hmm. Because, you know, the creative aspect that has always been a part of my life through dancing and all of that. Um, and just making up things. Sometimes my parents say they don't know where the creative and came from. Mm-hmm. You know why I'm the way, so like scientists or whatever. Well, my dad had a body shop for a lot of years. I said, that's an art form in itself. So I think some of it came from that. And, um, but then the, the whole coaching piece, I mean, that is very, um, planned and programmed and very political. Yeah. Very structured and intentional. Yeah. So, I don't know, maybe my brain just likes using both halves. That's, you know. Yeah. I think that's great. I think that's great. Yeah. You could have two loves, you know? Exactly. Having another child doesn't diminish how much you love the first one. Right? Right. Exactly. And I think like you're, I'm fitting like, So the DIY stuff has had been more of what I did. And then I would say the other aspect of the coaching end of it now, um, it's gearing up like this last year. Now this is, you know, I went to conferences, I've been guest speaking. Mm-hmm. And so now that aspect is kind of catching up with the other, whereas the other one was kind of the leader for the longest time. Yeah. Yeah. He would call almost the, the second one. More of a passion project first. Yes. Both were more of a passion project first, I expect. Right. They were, they were, yeah. Yeah. They were both a passion project and then I, I had no idea, like I said, that I was gonna end up, this would be my second career. So you've got, um, a YouTube channel that was really, is probably the heart of your. Connection or is that fair? Or is it the website that's the, the beat? You know, I would say, you know, surprisingly enough, the website actually was the, was the, it was first. It was first, yeah. Um, the YouTube channel was more, um, the complimenting piece to go with it. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And I mean, they both have independent things of each other, but they work in combination with each other. And my big thing is, Just people learn in a lot of different learning styles. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So some people are reading tutorial people, some people are visual, some people are auditory. You know, just the different ways we learn. And so my website tries to tap into all of those things. Oh, right. So I have the written tutorial, but the pictures to follow along and the video, so all the components are there so that somebody could hopefully be able to follow along and complete that task or project or whatever they want themselves. And is it your website, like really like, Categorized and thing, you can find a lot of the stuff that you've created Yes. And instructed. Yes. Oh, wow. Yep. So each, yeah. You know how you go to a normal website and it's got, you know, your menu bar. Right, right. And you know, it's like, oh, about this or that. And so yeah, if you want to find my cleaning and organizing, that's under all the how-tos. Mm-hmm. If you want to make a project or a seasonal decor that's under a ca, you know, its own category, so Yeah. And then there's always a search bar. Right. So That's so cool. Well, it's like, and when did you first, um, have the website? Like it sounds like it was a blog first and foremost, and got the following there back when. Like blogs were like the big main thing right? As far as making money on the internet directly. Yeah. Um, so I'm what I'm called a backwards blogger. Okay. According to some people. So, um, I had a different career. First I was a dance director over at Mountain Kids here in Fort Collins. Mm-hmm. And I have a degree in dance. And as I traveled, you know, through this world of parenting and everything I would craft with my kids and I stumbled across a website by accident that was called Home Talk. And it was basically do it yourself tutorials and the public can all implement what they have home and garden into this website. You just put your own tutorials out there. Right. Oh, like a Wikipedia page almost. Yeah. Yeah. And so, you know, in the beginning I was like, wow, this website's really cool. And I was learning things from it. And then I thought, You know, I should give back, you know, I'm getting from this website, I should give back. So I started putting a few tutorials on it and little did I know that the, one of the CMOs of the company was actually watching all the posts at the time. Hmm. And she reached out to me and, um, you know, they ended up flying mid to New York. And so then I met up with them and a bunch of other people that were kind of like me putting tutorials out there. I think there was a panel of 12 of us out there. And, um, they just wanted some input from us if dos and don'ts and likes and dislikes about their website. And then on the fly, Facebook lives were kind of, uh, just coming into play. Mm-hmm. And so on the fly, they said, so circum me this, is this like 2009 10? Yeah. Yeah, I did think about that. Yeah. Um, I think so. Okay. Yeah. I'm like, I should probably bookmark my ears, right? Yeah. But not the worst. Your processor works. Yeah. So on the, on the fly, they said, oh, by the way, we're doing a Facebook Live. And they pulled three of us up and I happen to be one of them. And they said, you're gonna make a wreath right now, live in front of the world. Oh. And I had never made a wreath before. I mean, I've made a lot of carras, but I had not made a, a wreath. And then on top of it, they say, oh, and by the way, we have, you're gonna have a mystery item, so you're gonna make a wreath with, you can't see anything that's on this table and we're going to, you know, reveal it, but each one of you has a special thing you need to implement. So I was like, great, what is, oh, you know, wonderful. So they move it all off and it's, um, anything fall or Halloween was the time period of the year. Mm-hmm. And so they tell me, I'm using these plastic eyeballs, that is my mystery thing. Oh. So I have to make aa of plastic eyeballs, and. I happened to love Halloween, so I was so excited. So I made my little eyeball Halloween wreath and completed it with some, um, hot glue gun cobwebs. Right. Okay. Nice. This is not something everyone anticipated. So is it like cotton balls or something that you stretch out? No, it's like a hot glue gun. You heat it up and then as you pull the hot glue gun and strings Right. All the stringy. So yeah, you're moving it all over and then it turned into all these cobwebs and I think that was the thing. And it was a contest. And so I think that was the thing that helped me win. It was this weird cobweb thing that I made on the, on the thing in the end. Yeah. Um, so when I finished with the, um, With the wreath. And I went home, they said to me in the end, um, you know, thanks for coming and everything, and I just was so excited. I got to meet some community members that were part of the website that, you know, um, had made the projects. And that to me was just so much fun in itself. And then I got home and they actually messaged me and said, well, we actually wanna ask you if you will continue to do live shows for us. We'd like to pay you to be a live show host for us on our Facebook page. So then I continued on that journey for a while and then continued to make their, help them, you know, um, they hired me, um, as an independent contractor to make like DIY videos for them, and then they kind of edited'em all together. Did you get to choose the content or A little bit of both. So sometimes I got to pick, and then sometimes they'd say, what could you do with this? Right. You know, can you, can you come up with 10 ways to reuse your coffee grounds? You know? And so then I'm like, I love that challenge. Right? I real like, thrive on those kind of challenges too. Like, ooh, what can I do? You know? Um, so then, Um, upon doing all of this, you kind of suddenly realize that you're creating all this content for somebody else. Mm-hmm. And I mean, I was being paid for it, so I couldn't blame. But you were, but you were a subcontractor even you didn't have have benefits or nothing. Exactly. Exactly. And in the meantime, I'm still directing the dance program, just figuring this was just something for me for fun. And all of a sudden I was like, you know, I think, I think I need to start a website. And so then I started the website and started building the website up. And then with that then created the YouTube channel kind of to go together. Yeah. Hand in hand. And were you doing stuff for Facebook Live still? Mm-hmm. Or had you mm-hmm. Okay. So you're still one, one foot on each side? Yep. Yep. I was still doing that. And to this day I still make, uh, a video for Home Talk. They still hire me to do. Oh, really? Yep. Yep. Oh, well, good. They've watched their program evolve over the years from Facebook lives to, um, more of a long firm video with like 10 ways to do something and then back to lives and then back to this or that. Just up and flows with all what the social media needs are, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I learned from them, so yeah. And I owe a lot of where I am at because they helped launch me and realize that. This would be a piece of my life that I never would've guessed. Right? Yeah. Yeah. And so then from there I had, I started my blog and YouTube channel and they always said to me, they said, you're the backwards blogger. Most of the time bloggers start and then they come find someone like Home Talk to help launch their Oh right. Program and their platform even higher or get back links to their website, you know, and that kind of thing. So, um, yeah, they said you're backwards. You, you saw this first and then you created a website. So what did that look like? Were you had the website and, and did that on the side for quite a while. Um, were you a dance instructor for a long time or should we. I'm feeling like I'm in a crossroads here. If we should jump in the time machine and go way back and then talk more about the business journey when we we return, is that sensible? Yeah, I think that's a really good idea because other, otherwise you won't know enough about who you were before that. Exactly. And I think the transition is really helps clarify and explain a lot of it too. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so jumping back in the time machine, I, um, went to csu Okay. And I majored in dance. Let's go back further. You wanna go back further? All right. Yeah. Like first grade. Oh, first grade, okay. I don't know. So I grew up in Minnesota. Okay. Um, and I grew up there. In the city or in the country? Kind of more in the country. Yeah. Yeah. And um, you know, we grew up in a small town. My um, grandparents were farmers and a in a different town in Minnesota. And that farm just turned a hundred years old in 2020. And where, where is this town, if I may? Um, that town is in Worthington, Minnesota, which is Oh, that's where I moved to after college for a year. Are you serious? Small world. Oh my gosh. Yep. That's so funny. Right before I moved to Fort Collins, I lived in Worthington for one year. Oh my gosh. Okay. Well then we're gonna have to talk cousins and stuff then, because you probably knew my family cuz the town is a small town. Well probably, yeah, probably. But that was your grandparents' town? That was my grandparents' town where my parents grew, grew up. And what was their last name? Um, my grandparents or Gordon? Gordon. Okay. And then my dad's family there was kr. Okay. Now no, neither. I lived there from 98 to 99, so it's a good while back now. Okay, sure. My summer is 98, summer of 99. Sure. Yeah. So my uncles are now still running the farm and my cousins now taking over and helping run the farm. So it's very much family oriented still. Um, and then I was up in St. Francis, which is about 20 miles north of Minneapolis, St. Paul. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. And so a small town up there and, you know, grew up, um, playing softball. You know, we moved from sport to sport there, you know, and I danced and I don't know, I just really loved the small town atmosphere and environment. Yeah. And actually coming forward and then going backward again. One of the reasons I picked C S U, besides just the fact they had a dance major here, and I liked the program when we came to tour the school. I, my mom was a little lost. Yeah. And we pulled into the oval. We were looking for the admissions building. And so when we pulled in, um, my mom pulled over for a second so we could try to figure out where we were going. And somebody came over and knocked on the window and we rolled it down and they said, where can we help you find? Yeah. And I said, this is the school. This is the school. Because Right. They're friendly here, just like every friendly Minnesota. And it makes me feel at home and Yeah. And so I very, and of course it was an Aggie school. Right. So, you know for sure I went to North Dakota State. Okay. So also an agricultural school. Sure. Um, Your dad was an autobody guy. Was your mom a stay-at-home mom? Did she have a career as well? She did. So, um, my dad owned a body shop there, and then when we moved to Colorado, he sold that business and then started it up here. Oh really? Okay. And then my mom, she was a stay-at-home mom probably until we were both in mil, um, elementary school. Yeah. And then, What she did is she kind of got a job in the school district. Right. Oh, okay. So then keep an on you from the inside. Yeah, exactly. So she started as the lunch lady and then worked her way up a lot of power. A lunch lady position. Yeah. She liked her whistle, but yeah, then she worked her way into kind of the secretarial positions. Right? Yeah. And, and yeah, administrative support and different things and stayed involved with the PTA and whatever else, probably. Yep, exactly. So, um, that's, that was their jobs and, and um, like I said, we live, we live there until, how many of you do you have siblings? Do I do, I do. So I have, um, a sister. I have sister, and I have, uh, a, well I had a brother. He recently passed away. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so yeah, there was the two of us mostly, and then my sister got to come visit us in the summers or during the holidays, and she's actually still back there in Minnesota. Yeah. Gotcha, gotcha. Yeah. So, um, you're an active, you know, multi-sport kid. Sounds like good grades too. Um, I was a good girl. Yeah. Yeah. You seem like kind a goody too, too, a little bit. I, yeah, I'll just own it. Yeah. So not the hall monitor type, like you're No, it wasn't quite that bad. No. Yeah, no. Yeah. Uh, smart and good, but not a controller of others necessarily. No, no, I do, I I do have some aspects of my life where I probably would own being a control freak, but not quite like that. That's in the organizational space. Yeah. That is an organizational space. Yes. So, um, it sounds like it was, Maybe before your CSU experience even that you came to Colorado as a family? Yes. Um, I was in, um, let's see, about to go into eighth grade. So I finished up seventh grade. Okay. Um, and it was different. It was like a big culture shock, I would say. Um, from where we moved in Minnesota, small town to, we moved, um, down in Aurora, but it was kind of near the Cherry Creek school district area. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And I went to Smokey Hill High School and while I was there, we had, I would say it was an interesting collection of students because some of them lived in the area where like John Elway Yeah, yeah. You know, lived, that's where his house was. And others lived in Commerce City or over. Exactly. We lived in the, you know, smaller homes or whatever and both parents worked and everything. And so I just remember being that first year was really challenging. Um, it was eighth grade where you're not quite moving, finding schools yourself anyway. And you're finding yourself and, you know, it was just that thing where. We, we grew up in Minnesota where it was like, I got my sister's hand me downs. I got my cousins hand me downs and like, that was the coolest thing in the world. You know, you got your, your, you know, they were new to you. They, they were new to me and, and my, my cousins were cool and my sister was cool. So like to get these clothes to wear was just everybody. Everybody did that. So, I mean, every once in a while you got the new sweater for Christmas or whatever. Sure. That was just accepted and it was exciting, you know, this was my sisters or whatever. And then we moved here and it was like, if you didn't wear a spree, outback red or gas, you were no one. Right, right. So that part was a little challenging to kind of maneuver through and was more of a sidious city-ish area as well. So what prompted the move? Um, just wanted to come to Colorado like a lot of families did. And the body shop was working good enough, the somebody wanted to buy it kind of thing, or was there other factors? You know, I. It's a, that's a really good question. I don't know what the hell my dad was thinking. Uh, yeah, I, well, and honestly, sometimes I'm like, I think they were going cuz they were in their forties, like young forties. Okay. And so I'm like, uh, midlife crisis maybe. I'm not sure. You know? So, um, interesting. Yeah. So was it like long and coming or they were just like, that kids we're moving to Colorado? That's exactly the way it was kind of presented. I mean, so my dad, you know, he owned a business and, and I just couldn't believe he was gonna up and sell it. But I remember when they sat us down to tell us that they were thinking about it. I mean, they had traveled out here to kind of visit. Mm-hmm. And I, you know, and I thought, why Colorado? Of all places? I wa I mean, yeah. We had not really left our own state other than to like maybe go to Disneyland once or something like that. Right. And my dad said, well, I had a calendar up and I marked how many times it rained this summer and it rained almost every weekend. And I'm sick of the weather and I'm sick of the rust and I'm just done. And so, Yeah. He, he just said that's it. And so yeah, he sold his business and my mom quit her job and we literally moved out here in a motor home with, you know, pulling a trailer. Yeah, yeah. Like, we came out in our motor home and lived on, um, in, uh, Chatfield Reservoir for two weeks. Oh, awesome. While they lived at this place. Yeah. Like we lived at Church Chatfield Reservoir for two weeks. While they like tried to adventure of that though, like it does, it sets a good tempo for your life ahead to be, because it's like, you know, mom and dad just moved their whole family to Colorado without really much of a plan, you know? Yeah, yeah, exactly. Like and, and just, yeah. What was that? I don't know. But I mean, again, I guess this always teaches us that we can all start over at any time around our lives and we're very adaptive creatures. We are, we are. So yeah, we moved out and they. Rented a house and my mom was the first one, um, to get a job because my dad wasn't sure he wanted to start another body shop. Right. Right. At first. Right. So my mom got a job in the school district and we started school and my dad actually worked as an estimator for, um, a big business down. They're no longer there anymore, but, uh, um, body shop down there at the time. Gotcha. And, uh, you know, was come in, put your hours in and leave, right? Mm-hmm. Which he hadn't done in years. He was almost unemployable. Yeah. And so then he just decided there was some things going on at that business that he just couldn't stand behind. And so he was like, okay, I think I'll open up. I think I will open up a body shop. Yeah. If these guys can succeed. Yeah. There must be plenty of demand. Yep. Yep. And I mean, he. Just was, his first year was so wonderful. Like, because there was no rust, you know, and things like that. You know, the rust jobs were the worst. I think for him. He didn't mind painting cars or fixing dents or a lot of that kind stuff. That's all we really had to deal with is rust. Was rust. Rust. Exactly. Exactly. And, um, I think the income bracket was a little different between where we lived and here. Right. You know? Yes.$600 job at home was like, somebody's like, are you sure? You know? And here they're like, yes. It's only a thousand. That's great. Yeah. Can I trade you some work for that? You know, and that doesn't put all that kinda stuff that doesn't put fa on the table necessarily, right? Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. So, um, I think then in the end he was super happy that he started the business backup and saw that location does matter and, you know, um, yeah. What kind of a, uh, tell me about. Like that business, was it a lot like the one he had before? Did he have, you know, 2, 3, 4, 6 body men and then like a front desk person, estimator kind of thing? What was the functionality of his body shop? Sure. He was, um, Mostly a one to two or three man show. Okay. So he was always kind of the one that answered the phones or you know, did the estimating and then did a lot of the work. And then on his busy times he would hire another guy or two. Okay. Yeah. To kind of work. And then a lot of the body shop people, they would come and flow like ebb and flow. Right. You know, so you'd have'em maybe for a few years and it was enough for him to fall in love with each person that worked for him, you know? Yeah. And then, you know, for whatever reason that person would move on or we back to wherever or, and so then he'd be like, gosh, now I'm back to the drawing. Or it was a lot more of a cash and carry, like now you almost need to have a full-time person just to deal with the insurance companies Yes. And stuff. Yes. Right. And, but in those days it was a lot more like, okay, it's gonna be$450, Frank, you know? Exactly. Yes. And now it is very much more insurance based and, um, he. When my brother graduated from high school, he ended up working more and more with my dad. So then they kind of ended up being the father-son. Yeah. Cool duo for a lot of years, but still a pretty small enterprise. A small enterprise. And then, yeah, my brother was the one that kind of did a lot of the computer aspect of it. Mm-hmm. And they were a good team. They were a good complimenting team. And my dad actually, he's um, 76 and he just sold the business. He just retired, like, oh, it's probably been a almost a year now that he, you know, kind of sold it. So it was just, what's his name? Buzz. Hey Buzz. Congratulations on selling your business. Thank you. Yes, he's, uh, he, at first he, you know, he knew he was ready, but at the same point, when you grow something from being a baby, you know, it's hard to let that go. Did he find something else to occupy his time or what's he doing with himself? No, so, yeah. Um, he is, Just kind of at home with my mom. Yeah. And, um, he, they built like a big, big, um, four car garage type thing on their property. So that's his little stomping grounds now. Yeah. So he goes and puts his down in the little garage. And at first it was all about, you know, his time was occupied with taking things from the shop that he was keeping cuz he sold the business. So a lot of it went with the business. Mm-hmm. But there were certain aspects that he needed. Right. So then he, you know, had to organize that and put everything in its place, you know. Um, and then my mom, she, um, She had retired a while back from the school district, but in the last, um, couple years, she ended up, um, first she got breast cancer and then oh, she, uh, but that was, you know, that was re that was easy. Um, well, it's never easy. Comparably easy, but comparably easy. It was, you know, caught very, very early. But as soon as she that was settling down, she got diagnosed again with a stage four cancer of unknown primary. So they just couldn't find the mother tumor anywhere in any of the scans. So, I went back and forth a lot with her to kind of do a bunch of the, um, yeah. Treatments that she needed in the beginning and then now she's in remission. So That's good news. Yeah. And it's been really helpful now that my dad's retired to be home because, you know, she, yeah. More of him. She's just needs a little extra help here and there as she's recovering from all of her treatments and stuff. And so they work well together, you know, and he just says, I actually, you know, he was one of those that woke up at four automatically. He goes, you know, I can sleep till six now, you know, but he enjoys sleeping in a little bit more and just taking it, yeah. Slower going for walks. Yes. Reading books and newspapers more. Exactly. All of things. Yeah. So what we kind of left off on you, you were. Trying to adjust to eighth grade and this different kind of culture and big city relative to the country girl. Yeah. How was that? Did you come to embrace it or what was the rest of high school like for you? Yeah, so I think high school was a good turning point for me because eighth grade was kind of the end of middle school. Yeah. And so you're just, the friend bases are already a, everybody starts fresh kind of in high school anyway. Yep, exactly. And I was a band geek to the core. So, you know, I found my people, you know, so at school I was with the band crew, um, and I floated around with a lot of people. I loved, uh, making new friends. And then, you know, I also had my dance that I did on the side. Sure. So I think that helped me settle into being here. I definitely learned how to appreciate the weather that my parents were talking about, because when you grow up in Minnesota and somebody says the weather's bad. You're like, I don't understand, you know? Cause it's normal to get on the school bus and pull icicles off your eyelashes, you know? And somebody's like, no, that's not a thing. You're like, no, that's a real thing. You know for sure. People don't get those little things, you know, or how, how much the humidity really is. And so I'm maybe imagining that when you first got here, you were kind of a little bit maybe resentful and upset, and then as nice, beautiful spring, summer, and fall after Nice, beautiful spring, summer and fall and winter. Yes. You're like, you know, mom and dad made the right decision. Yeah. Yeah. That first Christmas was a little weird. I, we had one of those really warm Christmases where it was 60 degrees here. Right. And so I'm standing outside on Christmas day and a T-shirt, this is stupid. Why don't we move here? Yeah. And I was, where's the snow? Right? And it was like, it doesn't, I mean, yay for the warm weather, but where, where's. Where's the snow? This isn't Christmas, you know, or whatever, you know, so, but yes, I definitely learned to love Colorado and, you know, I love my hiking and, and um, kayaking and camping and all of that. So definitely learned to embrace everything Colorado has. And now I'm like, okay, I appreciate. Like my upbringing in Minnesota and I appreciate so many pieces of Minnesota, but I also very much appreciate Colorado. Now it's nice to have a lot of sunny days. It is, it is. So you show up as still kind of a band nerd and dance geek and all those kind of stuff at CSU and continued that, is that right? You were pretty active. Yeah. That was your, became your major, right? Yeah. Yep. I was, um, actually still maintaining. I had a, um, music scholarship. Mm-hmm. So I continued that. What, what were you playing by the way? Um, so I started on flute and piano. Okay. And then, um, Moved to all percussion instruments. Whoa. So depending upon what season it was like it was marching band season or concert season. Wow. They would just send me to whatever instrument they needed me to play. Dang. And then they also asked me to play the basoon. Oh. And at first I wasn't sure about it. I was like, I don't know. That's like the tuba, right? Like, well, it's the big barking bed post we call it. So it looks like, you know, it's the straight brown board thing that looks like a bed post and it's got this curly thing that comes off of it Yeah. That you blow into. Right. It's a beautiful sounding instrument. I was not really ever good at it, but, you know, it was the thing that paid, it, paid the bills, it was the scholarship goer, you know, as soon as they said this will get you a guaranteed scholarship to school and I needed that to go to school. If you need a backup basoon player, then Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Cool. And yeah, I mean, I, cuz we needed that scholarship, so, yeah, so I came here with the Basoon and Music Scholarship and then majored in dance and then eventually I, um, earned more for dancing than I did for the music scholarship. So I flip flopped my scholarship at that point. Um, cuz you couldn't have both fine arts, you can only have one or the other. Is that right? Mm-hmm. So like they just gave you a bigger scholarship in for dance side then? Yep. Okay. I didn't realize that was kind of a competitive thing. Yeah. So you usually are capped out at a certain level, but then if it's your major, they can give you just a little bit more. Mm-hmm. So that, um, that helped. And so, um, then once I got done with, uh, Colorado State University. I um, I met my future husband while you were there. While we were there? Yeah. We were both in band. Okay. Um, he was actually a band major over in Greeley. Okay. At unc. And then transferred to, I would say this is so backwards, transferred to CSU to become an electrical engineer. Oh. Cuz he knew he didn't necessarily wanna end up in New York City waiting tables. Yeah. Yeah. So, um, well they got a really good music program over at UNC as well. Yeah, they did. He had a full ride over there. Yeah. And so he had to give that up to come over and become an electrical engineer. Now he's still at scholarships, but no full ride. Um, so yeah, we were both in band on scholarship. And sat next to each other. So that's how we met. And um, so then I continued dating him and we eventually got married. Um, and then right out of school I ended up, um, getting a job at Mountain Kids. And it was just to teach dance classes. Yeah. And like anyone, when you get outta school, you just need to pay the bills. So I think I had about three or four jobs, you know, upon getting outta school, you know. Wait at this restaurant and then Exactly. Babysitting, daycare, you know, whatever it was to pay the bills. And then eventually that turned into a full-time job over at Mountain Kids. Okay. Where, um, yeah, I worked a lot of hours and had a lot of fun and raised a lot of kids and it was amazing, amazing things about mountain kids, like who are the clients there? What kind of kids? Demographics, like ages and stuff. Sure. And actually the history of Mountain Kids I always think is a little fascinating too. So Ron and Mary, I know nothing. So yeah, Ron and Mary Beretta own Mountain kids. Um, and they met, I believe it, it was at CSU as well, and Ron was, um, he was almost an, an Olympic gymnast. Oh, wow. Yeah. So he, um, was the gymnast behind Mountain Kids. Okay. And then, um, Mary was the, um, dancer behind Mountain kids. And so together they built mountain kids and um, it has, and Mary is. Uh, small lady, right? She was, yeah. Yes. Um, she's, um, she did pass away. Oh, she did? Yeah, she passed away. Oh gosh, it's probably been 10 years already. Um, she ended up with lung cancer. Oh. I don't know if I knew that. Hadn passed away. Unexpected, I think, yeah. From way back in my banking days, I remember. Oh, sure. Meeting her now that you Yes. Described it a little bit. Super, super sweet lady. Yeah. Yeah. Amazing. And, you know, she was like organic and healthy before it was even an in thing. So the fact that she had lung cancer was just out, like beyond all of us. But, um, Yeah. So they opened this program and it, first it started as gymnastics and dance, and then grew to preschool and swimming lessons and Oh wow. I didn't realize the scope. Yeah. So they have an acro and all, you know, all kinds of programs there. I think there's even like a little ninja. Ninja. So they would serve hundreds of kids Yes. Every year. Yes. Every year in different programs and anything from as soon as they walk all the way up to adults, you know, depending upon what the program was. And um, you know, my kids, they went to the, you know, anything from the day camp in the summer to the preschool, to the gymnastics, to the dance. And did I force them into that? No. I mean, in the beginning, yeah, you gotta do something right. And the preschool, there was, you know, Deanna who runs preschool was outstanding. Um, she was amazing. And she teaches the kids great things and sets'em up for school really well. Um, And then you're just like your mom. Your mom came to the school and Oh yeah. Right, right, right. Let's say you have to be here, but you should Right. You know, do something just a little bit. No, it's true. So tell me, uh, your early marriage and was, what's your husband's name? Jim. Jim. Was Jim like an engineer then? And kind of stable through all of this and, you know, occasional promotions and raises and mostly doesn't get laid off cuz it's electrical engineering or whatever. Yeah. So he ended up with Hewlett Packard. Okay. Yeah. And then became Hewlett Packard Enterprise. And he was there for Oh, early. Yeah, he was there for over, oh gosh, over 20 years. And, um, I think going on 25 years even. And, uh, just in the last year now, he actually left HPE Okay. And is now at a M d Oh, advanced Micro devices. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. They build bitter chips there now. Right? I am not going to say anything. That was awesome. Oh gosh. So, um, yeah, so he's, that's, he's been the stable one through all of this. And I mean, I was at Mountain Kids for 25 years and I think some of the only things that stopped me from being there, I, I don't know that I ever would've, you know, that was my life is being around those kids. And, um, what happened in about 2018, I wanna say it was 2018, is I tore my labrum in my hip, which is the cartilage that holds your femur bone and your hip together. Yeah. You can function with it, but it was, it, you know, it tore. Big time. Yeah. And so I needed surgery for that. So I booked that in 2019, my hip surgery. Mm-hmm. And um, it's, it was a, not a total hip replacement when they do a, um, Dr. White down in Denver did it and it's a, um, they use like cadaver tissue. Hmm. And they put you back together and it grows back. So you have an all natural labrum, um, from scratch basically. And, but it takes a long, a long time. A long time because you have to go basically a whole month with no weight on it. And then you only get 2000 steps for the next two months. So that's four months in and then after that you get to continue to work your way up. Wow. Right. So no dancing for one full year. So I knew I was doing that. Well and you had Jazz's crazy creations grown on the side and stuff. Right? Exactly. Like you already had this blog and website cuz we jumped off. It must have only been like 2012 or 14, or not even. Well, I was all, I I did both things. The website I started up in 2017. Oh, it was that late. Okay. Yeah. So you did this, this, uh, Facebook Live and different things like that for a little while. I did that for a while. Yeah. So I was doing that cuz that was just, you know, a little bit of time every week. It wasn't nice here and there. A full gig. Right. And then it'd make 500 bucks a month or something. Exactly right. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So, um, and then started the website in 2017 was still just kind of, you know, it wasn't like it was still a side hobby, it was just side money. I was like, oh, I'm gonna grow this someday. Maybe this will be some re retirement income on the side is honestly what I was thinking. Right. Just a little extra supplemental income for retirement down the road. Um, And so I took a little break from directing, which we knew I would be doing, but what we didn't expect is about, um, a month into it. Uh, well, not even that. It was two weeks after, about two weeks after. After your surgery? Of the hip surgery? Yeah. I needed to go in, um, for a different little, um, breast ultrasound thing done, and they did a biopsy and they were like, oh, everything's fine. Everything's normal. Um, we just need to remove this little lump. It's a benign papilloma is what it was called. And so we went and had it removed. And when they removed it, they said, well, the good news is we got all of the papilloma, but the bad news is we pulled out breast cancer. Oh. And so I, but it wasn't in that lump, but in the tissue, it, surrounding tissue was some cancer. Cause we tested it. Cause we test everything. They saw the cells in there when they did the whole pathology report. And, you know, I had my mammograms, I did all the stuff I'm supposed to do and it wasn't showing up yet. So it was that early. So that was a blessing in it. Um, but then with that came more imaging and more research. And then, um, about three or four months later, it led to a journey of seven weeks of radiation and um, then endocrine therapy after that, which is just, uh, a medication you take to kind of block the hormones that promote. Um, yeah, I have a colon cancer takes that still. Okay. Yes, yes. Yep. And my sister too, probably. Oh my goodness. Yeah. No, it's uh, not an uncommon, uh, condition, unfortunately. Yes. Unfortunately is very true. So you're like rehabbing from this hip surgery and like hobbling yourself in for your radiation treatment Exactly. And stuff like that. I was, yeah. And trying to go to, um, um, Rehabilitation therapy for the hip at the same time. You know, it's like you get up and you go to, you know, um, did you just take radiation? Didn't have chemo. I did not have to do chemo cuz it was caught so early. Okay. So I was very lucky for that. Um, but yeah, going through all of that at once and then my daughter graduated from high school during the middle of all of that as well. Um, and then 2020 And all was all was good. Yeah. Well then late, no, actually later then in, oh gosh, in, in 20, 20 19, then I had to have the other hip done. We found out the other hip was bad too. So I had two hip surgeries and breast cancer all in one year. Nice. So that was a little bit much. So yeah. Then we moved to 2020. Right. And in some ways I had my own little private joke when we all got shut down because, you know, um, Basically for the whole year of 2019, I was secluded at home. You shut down. I was secluded at home already. Like I couldn't get anywhere, you know, this is easy. Yeah. So I was already kind of, well, I know. Look, I, I was lucky enough to work from home at that point. You know, I had the blog to kind of survive on. Mm-hmm. It was my outlet and I couldn't get out of the house anywhere, and I was supposed to, you know, watch, um, all the germs and everything anyways. So you're staying within your own home and then, yeah. I like literally got released to be able to start going out and start doing things. And it's like, oh, we're on lockdown. And you're like, awesome. You know, but I just kept saying, well, I, I've been in training for a year. That's what I would tell everybody. I'm good. I've just been in training for a year, so, so tell me how, um, Like, we've kind of come up to modern day. How do you monetize? Like, do you, like it used to be a lot of affiliate links and stuff. Sure. Like if you were teaching people how to make wreath out of somebody's material or something, you could Right. You know, sell, get some dough. But they've, that's kind of reduced a lot these days. And like, nobody actually plays for blog subscriptions anymore. Really? Except for maybe on CK now, right? Yeah. Well, there's, I, we, we always YouTube. I don't know. Yeah. Tell me about like, I don't know anything about this world. Yeah. But I know it's real. Yeah. No, we call it diversifying your income is what we call it in the blog. Lots of little streams. Yes. So instead of putting all your eggs in one basket, um, how, how many ways can you maybe make, and what is, what are the, where do you need to put your roi? Right? Your return on your investment. Okay. For that. Right. So, um, one big way is ad revenue. So whenever you see ads on websites, those are what are helping pay for those websites. Sure. So a lot of people get angry at the ads on website. Oh, there's so many ads and. True there are, but those are what pay for our website. Mm-hmm. I mean, I don't think the average person realizes that a website, just to have a website itself almost costs$2,000 a year just to have a website. Yeah, for sure. You know, you gotta pay for the domain name and the hosting and all these pieces. Well, and you have a website that people are coming to. It's like the library almost in some ways. Right, right. Like you've got a lot of, like, mine is just for selling stuff. I'm not sure why anybody else would ha want to have an ad on my website, but Sure. For you it makes sense. Yeah, exactly. And, and two, I mean, It's, you are getting something for that. Right? So by us having the ads and being paid for that, we get to keep generating free content. Right. You know, for people. So that's what I remind people sometimes when they're so angry about the ads. I'm like, so what are some examples of ads? Like who is it? Like, is it yarn sales companies or like what, So usually you work with like an ad agency. So like there's a, you, the starting ground level is Google AdSense as one company. Mm-hmm. And that's working directly with Google. And then you work up from there and then there's Tric, she Media. Um, and then you work your way up to Adri as one of the higher ones in Media Vine, right? Mm-hmm. So they, um, basically. Kind of run the, they kind of whoever want, they put whatever they want to on there. Exactly. They own that space. They own the space. But you can, you can choose, like I can say, oh, I don't want any ads of this kind or that kind on there. Right. Um, so you know, you do have some control of what no Bacardi light ads on. Right? Yeah. So I mean, that's one way. So the ad revenue, the affiliate links still are a thing. Right? Especially like if I'm doing tutorials and I use a hot glue gun. Right. Why not? Give them an affiliate link to a glue gun or something. Um, creating e-books out of the content you're building. Mm-hmm. So e guides, things like that. Um, doing webinars, these are ways people pay, monetize, like five bucks or 10 bucks for an ebook or whatever, and Sure. Yeah. Depending upon how much content's in it, but if you make one copy, you gotta, you can have a million copies. Exactly. That's the nice thing. Yep. Yep. Okay. And, um, sorry I missed that last one. Uh, webinars or mastermind classes or events, right? Mm-hmm. So I could do things like, um, a crafting event, right? That people could pay mm-hmm. To craft with me or something like that. Um, YouTube has its own monetizing system that you can tap into. Um, so yeah, just kind of thinking outside the box of what else can you provide or do as a service, right? Mm-hmm. Like, so coaching is one of my other Oh, sure. Divers, diversifies. That's obviously like a whole. Ha coming up on half your business soon. Sure. Exactly. Exactly. And membership sites still are a thing. So either there's private content that people pay for access to mm-hmm. That are on the backside. I've seen people do membership sites where, oh, if you don't want the ads on the front side, you pay for this membership site and they can see the same content ad list. Right, right. So you're getting funded the same way. It's just, which way are you serving it? Yeah, yeah. Right. Or you get special content, you know, maybe everybody gets to see these five. Tutorials, you know, but then on the backside you get five extra tutorials a month, you know, so exclusive content and whatnot, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So many, many ways to, to skin a cat. Yeah. It sounds like on your YouTube you don't necessarily monetize it through YouTube or, I do, I actually do. Okay. So, um, yeah, I have AdSense over there cuz that's the only one they allow. Oh, sure. Um, and then other ways to monetize over on YouTube are, um, you can sell like swag, you know? Right. So if you find companies, you could sell your own merchandise or swag, um, through companies that are, work with YouTube and YouTube partners, or sometimes you can even facilitate your own ads right. Through, you know, Hey, this is my shirt. Yeah. Well, and I was thinking about, uh, I don't know if you ever see JP Sears, you know who that is? Yeah. So he always has like, you know, this. Was promoted by, you know, athletic greens and da da da da, and like Exactly. Or, or, and then also wears and sells his own swag t-shirts and stuff like that. Sure, yes. And then there's brand deals outside of even that, you just reminded me of that one. So brand deals is like, um, I'm gonna, you know, I'm gonna work with this company and maybe they have a new product like they have, or, or resin. I do like a bunch of resin. Projects that are made outta resin. And so you work with, like, you find a company like Total Boat say, and you say, Hey, I'm, I've got this upcoming project. Would you like to sponsor it? Yeah. Then they can send you free product for it, and then they pay you an allotment. You negotiate the price and what the terms are, and then you, you, you mention that in your blog post or your website, right? Or, or on the content on YouTube that this post or this video is sponsored by Total Boat. Yeah. All opinions are my own, that kind of thing. Yeah. Yeah. But they gave me free stuff to use. That was great. Yep. Exactly. Thank you. It's way better than my other stuff. Yep. And sometimes it's, it's being creative and thinking outside of the box when you're looking for those brand deals too, because maybe everybody's going to make a resin coaster or the common thing. So what else could you do that people wouldn't expect? So one thing I just did a branded deal with was for a company, um, they own, you'll see them in Walmart now. The, the brand is Circle, it's uh, C I R K U L. It's a water bottle. But they have these screw in tops that add flavor to your water. Oh yeah. You know, and you just buy these new inserts that flavor your water essentially. So if you're a terrible water drinker, this is one way to get your water. You can me adjust the dial for how much flavor you want or whatever. Well, I, sometimes I am a terrible water drinker. I just own that. I know. Sorry dancers. It's the truth. I will just own it, but add some ice and some lemon and I'm good. Yeah. But um, you know, so I do these videos that are called Shop With Me. So I go to the Dollar store or I go to the Target dollar spot or go to different stores around town and I say what I find, you know, like, check out this and maybe say what the latest new finds are, what's the new stuff in style, what's a good deal, where to find the clearance, um, you know, just these different shop with me things. Yeah. And so one of the things that I did with this Water Bottle company is I said, you know, I have these shop with me videos and I can incorporate the water bottle into the shop with me video, take it with me to the store and have it naturally fit into. This. Yeah. You know, shop With Me video where that serves many people are always looking for these shop with me videos, which kind of, I'm like, I don't know why. Sometimes I'm like, I'm not sure why they wanna watch me go shopping at the store and be like, check this out. Or I spent all my time like saying, Hey, check out this two hour podcast I produced with somebody that's locally famous and like, nobody watches it, but you. You're like, Hey, who wants to watch me go shopping? And everyone was like, I'm in. Yeah. I know. I, I, I mean, seriously, I walk in the store and I just am like, okay, here's the latest stuff at Dollar Tree. Let's, you know, or I use this for this. I guess I'm giving hints then on how I use the different things or what I could build out of different things or at the target dollar spot or where to find clearance and deals. Right. These are, these people, I guess Well's, it's kind of your community a little bit, right? Like Sure. This thrifting and diy, thrifting and crafting, and it's kind of all about, I'm a, I'm a. I guess I would call myself a, a decent home chef. Oh, sure. Yeah. I, I cook quite a bit and it's, I don't plan much. I just create fun new things. That's amazing. Tons of stuff that's in my fridge, you know, and my wife is very organized and recipe driven and stuff, and she's like, Would drive me crazy to go shopping and not know what I was gonna make with the food I was buying. And I'm like, I just buy the nice looking food and Yeah. And see that would be interesting cuz some people are like, no, if I did that, it would look like a pile of muck and, you know, I'm not sure it would taste good. Right. You know, so that's, that's a talent right there. Well, we're all wired differently and that's one thing that's obvious for me is that, uh, you have a very fast creative mind. Uh, so that when you're, when you are going shop with me, it's not like, uh, I don't know what we could do with these pipe plates, but I guess we could do something, you know? Yeah. It's you just like a fountain of ideas, just like, oh, look at this and we got all these rolling a dollar down. They haven't had these here before. Right, right. Whatever it is. Like, I just imagine. Yeah, yeah, that's true. Or just even where to find things like comparatively, um, My daughter loves TV dinners right now, so we're just gonna use this as an example. But you know, there's the banquet TV dinner at the Dollar Store and there's the banquet TV dinner at King Seebers and there's the banquet TV dinner at, you know, Walmart. Well, what one person might not know is they're like, oh, it's at the Dollar Store. I'm gonna get at the Dollar Store, but it might be cheaper at Walmart. Right, right. So it's like sometimes you think the Dollar Store is the cheapest place, but it's not. So sometimes just showing that too, or you know, is the food okay to get at the Dollar store? Well, you know, it's the same thing you get at Walmart, you know, just check the date and if they keep it frozen, it's fine. Yeah, exactly. They can't sell, it's illegal to sell, like, you know, expired food, so I'm pretty sure you're okay there. You know, I've heard that dollar stores are struggling to keep. S very many things at a dollar anymore given inflation and supply chains and stuff like that. Uh, what's your experience? I would agree. I mean, I can't blame them. I, when I think about the first Dollar Tree that came here to Fort Collins, it was, I think my daughter was a year old, so that would be back in 2002 ish, roughly. Okay. That the first dollar store came to Fort Collins, it was a dollar then, and here we are, she's g, you know, she's turning 22 and you know, we're like 21, 22 years later and they're still charging a dollar for it. Like you, you know, everything's changed prices. You can't afford to have that same amount or quantity or quality. Yeah. So the fact they raised you a dollar 25, I know a lot of people were like in an uproar. Oh, is that right? It's a dollar 25 store now, right? Yeah. They should have made it a buck and a half store right away, honestly. Yeah. Yeah. But then everybody was like, well that is a pretty big price jump. And I'm like, well, yeah, but for 22 years, like, can you blame'em, you know? Right. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I do know too that one of the other reasons people like with Dollar Tree specifically is across the country, I guess not all dollar trees are stocked as equal. Oh. So I hear that repeatedly. Like your dollar store's amazing. It has all this stuff. And then when I tell'em we actually have like$4 stores or$5 stores around in our proximity, sometimes they're like, are you kidding me? But I guess a lot of them aren't stocked as well, and I don't really, I don't really know why. And I say, well, I can't answer that, why mine is stocked better than yours. But I would ask your manager or like report something, you know? I don't know. They're corporate stores or maybe they, maybe they're franchises. I think they're a franchise. Yeah. So they're probably just less well run. Franchise store? Yeah, yeah. Would be, I guess, or maybe what they're tracking, right? Like what one store. I, I used to know like which store to go get what thing at. So if I went to this store, I knew I could go get, you know, maybe the, um, seasonal stuff better because it's gonna be less people are in this area going after that stuff. And if I want this, then I need to go to this dollar store over here because these people tend to go buy these things at that dollar store. So depending upon what I needed, I knew which dollar Store to go to. You are a fascinating, uh, calculator and computer, uh, in the way that you identify these trends and probably a sign. Do you do anything with the music education? Did you do psychology, sociology, like, that was like my second choice for a major. I was like, I'm either gonna be a music major, dance major, or psychologist. I'm not sure which. But it seems like you're highly observational and inquisitive about I. People and their motivations and inclinations and things like that. I do. I love people. I really do. I actually choreographed a dance once, called people and I picked up on mannerisms and all kinds of things so I could incorporate them into the whole show. And I just, I don't know. I really like listening to people and, and just the journey is always so fascinating to me. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and through this, uh, through your dance kind of career, you really got to be engaged with a lot of, you know, dozens and dozens of families, I assume, and have just a little slice of each of their development of that child. Yeah. Or whatever. Yes, it was a blessing for sure. I bless your own along the way. Yes. Yeah, exactly. And I always told those kids too, I don't know if they remember, but I'm like, thank you for reminding me what it was like to be a teenager again. So that, you know, it just helps you relate to them better, you know, because what's a big deal to them at that moment in life? When you're removed from it so far and, and your bubble gets bigger and bigger as Yeah. You know, the more you experience and what you do. So, you know, when they come in crying, cuz they're best friend's in a fight with them, you know, you're like, okay, thank you for reminding me where you're, you know, what that perspective is like. And then, you know, when I had kids too, then it kept me in check too because I was relating to kids at all stages of life at the dance school. Then it'd be like, okay, I had, it was like having all this practice cuz you know, sometimes the kids would come into me and say, you know, my mom put all of the clothes in a garbage bag. And I'm like, well why is it in the garbage? Because it was on the floor. And I'm like, well why was it on the floor? Cause I didn't pick it up. How many times did she ask you to pick it up? So you know, they were, they were venting it all out. But you're trying to help them like understand why maybe things are the way they are. Well and sometimes you're the special person that can actually ask them those questions and talk to'em. Because if mom said those exact same questions, Oh, yeah. There isn't a, there's a block. We're so not cool when we're the mom, you know, or the dad at that point. You know, we're just the evil, awful person. Right. By the way, I'm feeling like I'm trapping you by conversation away from your mountain time logger. Yes. Thank you. Here, I'll, I'll, I'll stall while you reach over there. Thank you. Yes, I will. I will. Gladly. And you can put it to the side table if you can reach that easier. Yeah. More comfortable. I will do that. Thank you. We, we could edit this up, but we probably won't. Yes. Thank you. Fort Collins for wonderful beer. Yes. Agreed. Agreed. So if you could look back five years from now and be like, oh my gosh, I can't believe we achieved all these things, uh, on these twin paths. Like what would you hope to be able to do from here? If I were to go back five years? No. Or just, oh, forward five years. Oh, forward five years. But can't, can't not succeed at anything you set your eyes toward. Oh gosh. I don't know, like, I don't know. I just think, or you can't be dictator of the world or anything. No, no. Like that. But like what do you hope this, these crazy creations and, and I'm sorry, I just forgot the Oh, site consulting services. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like what do you, what do you imagine and hope, uh, as next stages of development in those, cuz really in a lot of ways, you've only really been full-time working on these for two years or so. Yeah. Um, you had the dance thing and then you had the hip thing, and then you had the hip thing and then, you know, then you had the covid thing. So you're working on'em, but in a different way, I imagine. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, in some ways it was grateful cuz it blew it up for you. Yeah. I was just gonna say, I, in some ways it didn't. I felt busier, you know, in 2020 work wise mm-hmm. Than I was. Um, at least with the website and stuff is demand down for that kind of stuff now because people aren't home looking for crafts and things to do as much. It did definitely have a yo-yo effect in terms of, you know, everybody was bored so then everybody was jumping all in. Right. And then Yeah, I heard, I heard, uh, sourdough or something like that, or Friendship friend. It, it was so true. Sour starters was a big thing. You were so right. I forgot about that. I'm a kombucha guy, so it's kind of the same thing. Just different. Yeah. So I love it. I love it. Yeah, no, it totally would swing the one direction. Right. And then, and then people got kind of tired of watch, okay, I'm done watching tv, I'm done watching YouTube. Right. And things open up a little bit, so like I'm going out. Yeah, exactly. So it swung back and then you shut back down way and they're like, well maybe I should get the craft book hack. Yeah, exactly. So I mean, I think it depends. Mine, I, I did see a nice steady continuous incline, which was wonderful. I really appreciated that that mind kept growing. Um, yeah. People found your stuff and kept sharing it with their friends or whatever. Yeah. And part of it too is, you know, when I initially started, I, I didn't know what, uh, search engine optimization is, right? So, um, for those of you who are listening who are like, what's that mean? It means when you type something into Google in the search bar that finds your stuff comes up, right? So you have to do certain steps to make your stuff populate in Google, or bang or go dot go in order for it to show up. So, you know, in the beginning you're just writing these tutorials and launching them in the world and hoping somebody finds them. But the reality is nobody's going to find them unless they were already following you for some reason. Or my, uh, one of my members is, uh, Alex Swanson and, and her husband Nathan was a member previously, but, uh, They're doing some AI stuff. They're gonna be on the podcast. Actually, just before you, we already recorded. Oh, I can't wait to hear it. But years ago Alex sent me a note. Um, really love your blog. Last month it was almost completely worthless from an SEO perspective. Oh, okay. Yes. It was so fun to read, but just so you know, if that's what you're trying to do is help people find you. It doesn't do any Yeah. Well, and it's amazing how much effort has to go even into just that. Yeah. You know, because it's not, you know, if I were to try to guess on how long it takes me to start and finish just a, like, let's say I'm making a wreath or something. Well, just, besides the fact you gotta go buy the supplies, but you've got to make it, film it, photo, you know, take photos of it, edit those photos, then you write the tutorial and you edit the video, and then you have to put all this SEO stuff in there for it to be found. Mm-hmm. You know, I would say that takes two days. Just to do one really one tutorial post. Yeah. Yeah. Makes sense. Yeah. Well, I mean, that's, it's better be worth it. Right? Exactly. Exactly. So you're like, oh, it, I mean, it's just another way of owning your own business. So it is that totally slow climb that, you know, well if you do all that work and six people watch it and two people like it, it's like, well, yeah, and you do, you still like, even still some of'em flop, right? And you're like, well, that didn't work out so good. You know? What do you notice for your own content creation? Like what gets more eyeballs and, and less and, and things like that? Um, people really like the, um, seasonal, like seasonal decor. Sure. Cuz people like to decorate, you know? Right. So fall tutorials Yeah. Coming into the fall. Yeah. Or Valentine's Day or Mother's Day, whatever. Yeah. Um, and then of course anything that saves the money, of course is, is, is a big deal. The other thing that I always find that. Is the interesting one is, um, we call it when you make a post that ends up more for entertainment, even if it is a functional thing. Mm-hmm. It's just more like, I'll give you an example. I made, um, out of dollar store pans and cooling racks, I made a dollar store lazy Susan of sorts. So, you know, you took the two circular cake pants, you threw some marbles in it, and it swiveled awesome. Then you put the baking sheet on top, so now you gotta rectangle and then you bent the, the, um, cooling rack. So they were vertical. Oh, perfect. Right. So you had these sled racks and then you hung stuff on'em. Right. And then it rotates. So you could make it your spice rack, you could make it a homework station, you could make it craft storage. Right. And so people are just like, what are you gonna make with those dollar store cooling racks that I've seen before? You know? And then so then they watch it more, not because they're gonna make it. But they could see the use in it. They might make it, but it's more like, what are you gonna do with that? What's she gonna do with that? You know? Yeah. Kinda like entertainment value. Going back to the contest that you won in your Facebook live. Right? Like, I don't know if I'm gonna put some spiderwebs on my autumn reef. Yeah, exactly. I'll just throw it out there and see what happens. Yeah, I like it. So how about on the site, uh, side, on the site consulting side? Yeah. Um, that is, that is a specifically, right now it's more of a membership site. Mm-hmm. Um, so people either hire me for coaching and then I put, like, we have small group masterminds and then I put the recordings inside the membership so they get access to everything. And then as I learn more and more and more stuff, I always record these tutorials and slap them in there. Yeah. So, um, People that find me on that website, it's more, you know, they're looking for a service that I need. Like, oh, they need it help or they need, not that I'm a big IT person, so let me just say that, but if you need like some basic stuff done or how to do some things, I, I'm, I can do that. Um, or how to do your email marketing. Like we underestimate the power of, of email marketing. Let me just say that too. Yeah, I believe it. Yeah. Um, but that, that aspect is, you know, they're coming directly there. Through needing something from me. Yeah. So that is, uh, and who are they? Good question. Yeah. So, um, a lot of them are other content creators or people that are needing some help growing their websites. Yeah. Um, they might get stuck somewhere along the way. Yeah. Cuz they're looking at their analytics and they're seeing that they're flat or not growing. So what do I need to do to change that? Mm-hmm. Or what's, what's wrong? You know? And so they're coming to me for that. So it's mostly website owners or content creators that own websites or um, business people that do. You're like, okay, I just bought, you know, there's all these different email platforms and so I just moved from Convert Kit to, to MailChimp or whatever. Mm mm-hmm. And you know, I don't know how to set this up. Can you just do it? You know, these, these pieces. So Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Fair enough. Um, what else on the business front is. Worthy of discussion before we, we'll take a little break here and hit the later segments. Yeah. Anything that, uh, you'd really like to share with listeners or maybe aspiring what I would call an aspiring solopreneurs, like people to have that diversity of income streams. Like do you get lonely? Would you rather, you know, just have an office job sometimes? Do you love the content and the creation? Do you get that? Yeah. Just talk to me about that kind of special place of the multifaceted solopreneur. Yeah. I think the biggest piece I wanted to share with everybody is it's never too late, as you know, like with my parents up and moving to Colorado in a motor home. Yeah. Start it over. Starting over. And, you know, with me, who would've ever expected, yeah, I had this maybe little side thing that was kind of there, but it wasn't necessarily what I was thinking I was gonna switch to by any means. Mm-hmm. But you can always shift gears. You can always start over, um, you know, The world is your oyster. You know, there's so many things you can do. Yeah. Um, and if you have a creative outlet of any, any talent, it doesn't have to be creative, it doesn't have to be a DIY type of thing in terms of like making wreaths or crafts or whatever. But if you have a talent out there to share, then you can teach somebody something. So you can put that out there on a YouTube channel. You can put that out there on a website if that's something that interests you. And if those don't interest you, cuz you're not interested in the digital space, then there's a recreator. Right. Our parks and rec program that could be using somebody for help or find somebody else that, that space. Yeah. Go to share your talents, whatever that looks like for you. Because we all need help in some way, shape, or form. And if you've got, I mean, everybody's talented. It's finding what that thing is that you wanna share with the world and then finding the space to share it in. Did I tell you our motto here at Loko thinking? No, I'm sure you did, but I, I'm drawn to blank. I'm not, I don't know what say all the time, but it's, uh, ask of your needs and share of your abundance. Ooh. I love that. I thought you were I love that. Yeah. Well said, well said. So, um, let's just take a short break and then we'll come back and do the closing segments. Okay, sounds good. And we're back. So, um, yeah, as you know from our first conversation, the closing segments, the things that we always talk about, our faith, family, and politics. Yes. Are you excited? Maybe nervous? They're probably nervous more than anything. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Nobody ever listens to my podcast anyway. Oh my gosh, you're so funny. They might with you though, you're an influencer. Oh, I dunno. So, uh, is this different to be like in this kind of a long form? Because you're normally, you're doing like probably 15. 20 minute tutorial videos and stuff. So you get a lot of camera time, but not like you're doing stuff. It's not the real chat. It's a lot of stop and go. Yeah. So I, you know, they don't always see me because they wanna see the project or the thing you're doing. Right. Yeah. So, well, they like you. I am sure that that's a big part of it. Like, otherwise you wouldn't be popular. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah. I guess, yeah, they, they want, they're curious. They're curious of what I'm gonna make, I guess. Yeah. Yeah. What's she gonna do next? Yeah. Or say next. That's what they tune into the local experience for is what's Kurt gonna ask next? Yeah, exactly. So what do you prefer her to start with? Um, let's see. They always say, let's do, they say never talk about faith, family. Our politics is, I know that's what they say. That's why you do it. Right. Um, let's do, I guess let's attempt to do politics first. Oh. We'll get it done and over with. Okay. Um, ooh. I think they indicted our former president. Yes. For paying hush money today or whatever to hookers, I don't know. Not strippers, I dunno. Like everybody does it right? Like didn't, they'll put my gosh, do the same thing. Oh yeah. And he wrote it off and got scolded for it too or something, I don't know. Yes. So anyway, I won't lead your opinions here. What would you like to say about politics, what you were probably you're Minnesota, but outside the city. Um, so it's hard to say really. It's hard to tell what I'll, what I'll say. Yeah, it is a little bit, yeah. I suspect, uh, conservative roots, but fairly progressive kind of generally, um, on a lot of. You're, you're a closet libertarian, just like most of us. Oh, you're so funny. Yeah. Yeah. So I would say, um, for me it's not about establishing myself as a specific party or anything like that. It's more listening to what everyone, what somebody has to say and what is their action on it and what is their follow through on it. Um, so I definitely keep an open mind and, um, politics scare me. I'll be honest. You know, and sometimes, like the news even scares me. Well, it's clear to me that you value people kind of regardless of what their politics might be. Yeah. Or whatever, right? Yeah. But that wasn't really you. Yeah. I don't, I don't just pick someone because they're this or that, or, you know, anything like that. Right. So yeah, I definitely want to hear all the sides and, um, And I dig into the history of who someone is and what their background is. And do they stand behind their word and do they follow through? You know, this is, I, I do this investigating anywhere in my life, right? Like, I don't even care if it's what conference I'm gonna pick to go to this year. It's like, who's speaking? What are they speaking on? Yeah. What's their background in it? Do they know more than me? What can I learn from this? You know? So I kind of treat everything as an educational experience for myself and dig into it. And then when I find the, the way I feel like I wanna agree, then that's the direction I pick. So it's not necessarily specific to any party, any person, you know, I've heard it said recently, uh, most people are either, um, libertarians or authoritarians. Yeah. Right. You don't have to put it left. Right. Because frankly, there's both in both sides of that. Yeah. Question, right? Yeah. Like there's, but like, do you feel it's. Better for more people to have more freedom to self-regulate in things? Or will that be chaos? Or should, do we need kind of an authoritarian state to make sure that the people don't run amuck? Oh gosh, that's a loaded question. It really is. You know? Um, I kind of feel like, which do you need? What's your inclination? Well, I like, I like to go figure it out on my own sometimes. And I know not everybody else knows. Exactly. That's where's why you wanna share that knowledge? Like that's what I'm seeing in your space. You're like, you know. Well, and that's where they ask of your needs and share of your abundance comes in. Right? Right. Like you're asking of your needs. I feel like this whole story has been a lot of that. Like, I don't know how to do this, so I'm gonna research it and figure it out and this and that. Well, that's just it. So it's like you can listen to the news but then listen to both. Both the channels, both, you know, both the stations, and then figure out the truth based on, you know, cuz sometimes the news tells a story that's more geared towards the way they want you to look at things, right? So, you know, I know that I won't name names, but there are channels that both channels will tend to be more that way, right? So listen to'em both. Yeah. See what they both have to say. Read the articles. Read both. What do both of them have to say? Go Google it. Go look at, you know, well, can you trust Google though? You know, and now, especially with That's true ai, you know, it's kind of like, oh, ai garbage and garbage out. Yeah. Well, what's, you know, what's feeding into the, who's the source? Who's the source of that information? What is their background on the information? Even the AI stuff. So I'm, I'm hoping this will really happen, but down the road, AI is supposed to be watermarked down the road for websites. And so it's supposed to be D ranked or, um, less important, you know, so that way, because it's pulling from all kinds of other sources, and if people are just copying and pacing and slapping that, is it really true? Is it your word? Can I believe your word? You know? Yeah. Yeah. And so, you know, if they watermark that down the road, that will help. Yeah. You know, people have to put their real opinion and write some of it or be more behind it themselves, I guess, you know? Yeah. I've been thinking about starting my blogs with, or putting my disclaimer to be like, this is all my writing. Yes. And thoughts, not anybody else's. No. Right. AI generator paragraphs to, you know, put a libertarian bent on Freudian, you know, backgrounds or whatever. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, you can only, all you can do is do your best. Right. So just go, go, go do the research and try to sight see both sides. You know, I'm very much a girl that's like, there's two sides to every story you're ever going to hear. Yeah. So make sure to listen to them both, you know? What do you think about the, like the Twitter files and like recently it was exposed that this guy, Alex Berenson, was by name, like the government said, don't. Like, this guy's gotta have his stuff not be seen. Is that okay? Are you a free speech, uh, absolutist or a squeamish? Yeah. I don't know. I mean, I'm a good girl, so. Well, if you don't have it as I fear, then why should you fear an all encompassing government? Right? Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah, there's there's so many. You're right, there's so many. Um, the, the stretch between point A and point B is so big. Sometimes it'd be nice if we could be more in the middle, you know? Well, the truth probably isn't like halfway in between these two viewpoints, right? Right. It might be here. It might be here. It might be here. Exactly. Exactly. And that's the challenging thing is yeah, when both sides of the media machine agree. Right. And they're still lying. Right. Which happens. Yeah. You don't really like to talk about politics too much, do you? I don't, that's why I said let's go first because I'm like, oh, I hate politics. Alright, well, um, so faith or family Next And I realized I poured my tequila Oh, and I left it there. So I'm gonna get you talking and I'm gonna Okay. Walk out there, but I'm not going anywhere so don't fret. So, okay. Um, we'll go, I'm going hardest to easiest because that's what I was taught once. Yeah. Is, you know, do the things that are the hardest for you first to get them done and out of the way, get that frog and then move to the easiest. So we'll go with probably Faith Next. Okay. Okay. And so you just want me to share a little bit on you start Faith, what you like in Okay, Minnesota. Um, so let's see, faith wise, um, I come from a, a family that definitely, um, goes to church and believes in, um, Religion and, uh, I grew up going to church every Sunday. Um, the interesting, the interesting piece to that was, um, that I mostly went to church when we lived in Minnesota and when we moved to Colorado, actually this is kind of probably gonna be an interesting story. We continued to go to church. Um, and then I went to college. And when I came back for the summers, we would, you know, we'd be going to church or whatever. And we had a minister who, um, was unfaithful. Hmm. And they gave him the choice. They, they did the whole inter the review and everything. Right. And they gave him the choice to either continue, but he wouldn't be able to continue at our church or, um, But he decided not to. He decided no, he was gonna go off and pursue a different career cuz he carried that weight. And I found it very interesting that the next set of people that they brought in was a husband and wife team to be the new ministers at the church. And my first experience with them, cuz they, this all kind of took place in my trans transition from high school to college. Yeah. And so my first experience with'em, with them was, um, the husband had stood up there and he more or less did a whole sermon on the women's places in the home. Mm-hmm. And I felt like we went from a very, um, like the church that I went to, it was a Methodist church, but I, you know, I don't stake a lot into the whole Methodist thing necessarily with where we went, but they were at least fairly Yeah. Like, he would be like, Hey, it's the Bronco game, let's get this sermon done. You know, and he was, it was fun. Yeah. And we did sock hops and, you know, and, and, He was very uplifting and very fun. And when that went away and open, you know, like to just appreciating life and, and being in the moment and everything, um, and a huge Bronco fan. And so then, then the one thing, you know, then to go the swing this other direction and become the woman's place, I just remember leaving and saying to my parents, you know, I said, whoa, that was really weird. And that was very, very old school and conservative considering the direction we've moved in life. And my parents both work, you know, and what did you think of that? And, um, they slowly stopped going to that church because, you know, because it was kind of just so different and the culture changed dramatically. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and uh, like in the Midwest, in farm country and stuff like that, like. Almost invariably, in my experience, women are treated as equals in the home. And if not, the more important of the home because the farmer's out all the time. But the, the wife is there farming too, when necessary. Yeah. And, and, and it's only, I don't know what it is. I guess it's, you know, it's the, the south, the conservative kind of space or whatever. But I've always been rubbed the wrong way by that as well. Yeah. Uh, and the church I attend, we don't have women pastors, uh, because we're old school, cuz the Bible kind of says, oh, you know, that, that, that, and we have women that are great teachers and they teach moms groups and different things like that. Sure. But you know, so it's interesting being both kind of, Uh, Liberty minded and I hope very respectful and equality oriented, equal value committed and things like that. Yeah. And, you know, appreciating my church for being like, well, we just, you know, the Bible says pretty clear right here. There's, you know, women should not teach men and so we just don't do it that way. Yeah, yeah. Anyway, I digress. But, yeah. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. And so you never really got back engaged, is that what I'm maybe picking up? Yeah, so when I got married, um, my husband was not as religious. Yeah. And so, um, you know, we have our own beliefs per se. So he, um, just grew up with a lot more, uh, he was exposed to plenty of religion here and there, um, with the, you know, just the different family. Like, he'd go spend the summers and his, um, His one cousin, uncle, aunt, uncle. They were Baptist, so he got to see that. And then his, um, parents when they were married, they went to church here in town. Um, and I'm drawing a blank as to which church they went to here, but you know, it was another branch, I guess, for lack of a better word. Yeah. That's part of what turned me off for a long time when I was a teenager and into my early twenties, was all the different teams. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, and so, and then, then he met, um, it was his mom when the parents got divorced, his mom was, um, dating a man and they had deep discussions about religion and showed him even more options for what there were out there in the world. And so, you know, I think that prompted just theories and questioning and, you know, um, Who says what and where is it coming from? And, and I understand all of what he's saying and, and, and I appreciate that that's his opinion and respect. When you say he, you mean your husband? My husband, yeah. Okay. Yep. And, and that he was differing than I was. And so he, he chose and he was pretty honest and with me, and he is like, you know, I don't know that I want to go attend a church specifically. Mm-hmm. And I didn't ever wanna force him to do that. Um, and then at the same point, I had my, my son at that when he was younger, he has sensory processing disorder. And so to bring him in certain environments, he was very, um, kind of seems, it kind of gets, um, it's a d a d HD ish where it's like he, when you put him in a certain environment, stimulated almost mm-hmm. The light switch goes on and he's like a top. And then you bring him back to the quiet environment where, you know, cause he can't filter out background noises. Mm-hmm. So when he was in that, he heard everything at the same level, so then he would act out. Right. And then if you had him more in a quiet setting, he was like the normal, average boy, you know? Mm-hmm. So it was harder for me to even consider bringing the kids on my own to the church. So I just kind of knew what I believed and what I wanted to believe in. And, um, And we, you know, we celebrate Christmas and we understand what all that is. And yeah. He's never been disrespectful of me and vice versa. And then, you know, I sent the kids to vacation Bible school, so they had these experiences Yeah. In their lives and were exposed to it, and so they can make their own choices as they grew up as well. So, you know, went from being, um, you know, a Christian based pretty, every Sunday you go to church family to more of an open option. Yeah, yeah. You know, oli carte family, we're not anti-Christian. Right. And we're, you know, right. Yeah. Yeah. So that's where we're kind of at right now. And, and when the kids ask questions, I a I answer it, I let we both answer it with whatever, you know. Yeah. Our experience is, and I have to say, I mean, This was really, I thought, fantastic that I was exposed to this, but one of the things when I went through like your confirmation class, right? Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah. Um, the youth minister that we had that was running it, he actually took us to other places so we could learn. That's cool. About, so like we went to the Jewish synagogue and sat through a service there and we, you know, just because he was like, I want you to know, I want you to know what there is out there. And, and I don't know that everybody would think that is like, oh, you shouldn't do that. But I appreciated that. Well, you know, free Thinkers is who I appreciate. That's Yeah. Part of why I use the word faith rather than religion. I'm not really trying to put it in little boxes and stuff. Sure, sure. But it, um, what I think I'm hearing from you is you've still got at least a fair appreciation for your, your heritage and that realm and. Like, are we walking meat bags or do we have a soul? Did somebody or some power create us? Right. You know? Yeah. Those are all the questions that some of us never answer. Right. Right. And I mean, we were born to think, you know, we were born to, you know, which came first, the chicken or the egg. Right? Like Right, right. You can spend forever thinking about it. And that's part of the great, the great thing about our minds is to, like, some days you ask questions, and other days you ask different questions and Yeah. I, I love that about people, you know, and I love those kind of discussions as long as they don't get heated and make me feel uncomfortable. Fair enough. Well, that's part of my goal is not to make anybody feel uncomfortable or, yeah. No, no. And I wasn't meeting you by any means, but Yeah. You know, you get in those environments where they say not to talk about certain things. Oh yeah. And you totally, like I will say, going back to politics for a moment, Yeah, you can't set certain people in the same room. In my, um, my husband and his dad are two people. You don't set in the same room. Oh, is that right? Yeah. Like they sometimes will just, yeah. One will say one and the other just, I think, I think my husband likes to just antagonize it a little bit just to get the rally in more than anything. Where did his dad, uh, where did your husband grow up and like, what was that background? So they, uh, he actually grew up here in Fort Collins. Oh, okay. Yeah. Um, and his dad grew up in, um, they grew up in Pennsylvania. Okay. And when they moved out here, I think my husband was only like three weeks old or something like that. Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. Yeah. Just, and I don't know, my, my, um, My father-in-law is just very, um, opinionated. Let's just say that About, about a lot of things. Right. So it's like, this is the way things are and, um, yeah. And you're, if not, you're wrong. I am too. But I like to say, uh, just because I say something doesn't mean I think it. Right. Yeah. You know, I don't know. Sure. You know, I, I got, I've got at least a twinge of uncertainty about anything I might say. Yeah. Um, what do you like, what do you do with Jesus personally? Like just in general, like Yeah. Well he was either crazy. Okay. Or a real guy or a real, like what he was, his brandage be. Oh, okay. Sure. You know, a salvation instrument kind of person. Yeah. No, that's, Ooh, I like your questions cuz they are thought provoking. Um, so I do believe he was a real person. Um, sometimes I just really wish I could have been there to see how all this has translated through time and, and people, yeah. How far, how far away from, yeah, I think of the, the game of telephone, right? Do you remember playing telephone with your kid Right. Where you, like somebody says this and then by the time you get to the end, it's either kind of close or it's way off from what it was. Yeah. Um, so, you know, I do believe he was a real person and I do believe he probably was, did amazing and great things in the world, you know? Um, a miracle worker. I, I don't know. You know, like it's, it's a long game of telephone. Exactly. It's a long game of telephone. And so it, it could be, you know, like the, the way I was raised through church, you know, he, he did, he could, you know, heal the people and he could do all these things and he came back from the dead and all of this stuff. Um, so part of me still believes in that because of my childhood and upbringing. And then every once in a while I think, okay, what does that really look like? So he was a real person and was he just a really good person that helped people and did good deeds and was amazing, pure person, you know, you know, cuz we all know people in life that were like, oh my gosh, that person Oh, for sure is amazing. You know, and if I should aspire to be that person, you know, and well, and yeah, in most cases that person has a few dirty little secrets that you would never want to know about. That's true too. Right? You know, or Yeah. Yeah. The rumor is that Jesus didn't, but I don't know, was it was a walk of a telephone, so, I dig, digress. Yeah. Yeah. You know, one thing that's been interesting to me to learn about just lately, um, during kind of the Covid lockdowns and stuff, I ended up listening to this, uh, Greek Orthodox Church Oh, sure. Out of Loveland. Okay. And like the Eastern Orthodox religion has hardly changed in like 2000 years. Oh, interesting. They still generally run their services in the same way. And, uh, there's, I'll let you chase the Google around on it sometime. Yeah. But there's, one of the things that, that I picked up in particular from my listening was that like the idea of boxing Christians into like Methodist or Baptist or Ecclesiastic or, or, or putting God in any kind of a box Yeah. Is something that's like counter to Eastern Orthodox or Greek Orthodox. Yeah. Cause they're like, well, you can't put God in a box. Right. Nobody puts baby in a box, you know? Well, there's that, like that that the debate too, that I, I remember thinking myself. And I still think this today, and I go, it's the chicken and the egg for me. So, you know, the, the theory that God is supposed to be all forgiving, and then at the same point, if you don't believe a certain way, you're going to hell. So I'm like, wait, so if I don't do this for that, listen, the ask of your needs all forgiving if you ask though, is the thing. Right, right. So it's yeah, just that whole, yeah. If you ask, then you're forgiven. But otherwise he's, it's like he's forgiving and then, and then is he, but is he And then graceful God, it, yeah. Like Greg. Yeah. Yes. Thank you. That was the words I'm looking for. Yeah. Yeah. So just all those interesting pieces. Is he, is he a sacrifice or is he sovereign? Yeah. Yeah. Right. Uh, our Easter service is at 10:00 AM If you want to pop by on Sunday, Just saying. Nice. Uh, let's talk about your family. Do you disclose where that is? Oh, it's the Crossing Church at, uh, shields and Horse Tooth. Oh, okay. Yeah. Right. Crossing the hibachi. Okay. Yeah, it's a small, little independent church. Uh, loosely connected with other, mostly independent churches. Yeah. And the, the long time, like 20 year pastor of our grandfather church. Yeah. Like we're kind of a couple levels down or whatever. Um, recently was busted for a long term affair Oh wow. And stepped down from leadership and reprimanded and is still a part of the church and is, was selling mortgages. Um, you know, probably isn't anymore, is my guess, because the market for selling mortgages and stuff. Oh sure. But so, And our church is actually one of those churches that has like four or five pastors, because we don't wanna like fall apart when if somebody gets busted with their hand in the cookie jar. Not that we should get busted with their hand in the cookie jar, but it, it just, it doesn't have to be reliant upon one, uh, person, shepherd. Yeah. Right. It doesn't just one charismatic leader. That's the community of the church. And I think that's maybe one place where, A lot of churches got it wrong. And I guess when you're, when it's just a small church of 50 or 60 members, like there ain't enough room to have two pastors for this many members. Right, right, right, right. I don't know. Yeah. It depends upon where the funding's coming from and all of that too. Right? Sure. It's a very fascinatingly entrepreneurial industry. Um, and if you listen to my episode number 30 or so, I did, uh, interview with my pastors and one of my, my pastors helped to start the Fort Collins, uh, CSU Riot of 2013. He loaned his t-shirt so they could start the bonfire that was first kickoff. Oh, wow. It's, anyway, I digress. Oh my gosh. Um, I wanna talk about your family a little bit. Okay. Um, let's go back to CSU and, and you've fallen in love with this other band guy. What was he also playing the bassoon? Uh, yes. He was a saxophone player in a bassoon, so we sat next to each other in orchestra cuz that's where we both had to play the bassoon. And then when it was band, he was over playing a saxophone and I was still playing the bassoon at that point, so, yeah. Yeah. And, uh, tell me about that. Uh, like, was it friends for quite a while and then a little flirting and then a little more, or what was that progression for you guys? Was it pretty instant attraction? Um, so he loves to tell this story because when we met, um, he, I was dating another person at the time and so he had asked me out, And I told him no. Yeah. So when he tells the story now he is like, yeah, well I asked her out and she said, no, but he neglects to say the fact that I was actually dating someone else at the time. Right. Interesting. You know, so that little piece is always missing. I just rejected him, is all that, you know? Yeah. But, um, so yeah, then I, so we were, you know, we're friends sitting next to each other and about, you know, so many months later I had broken up with that person. Then a summer passes and I come back the next school year. Cause I think he started in like January when he transferred over. And so then that fall, at that point I was kind of more ready, so I just kind of at least more single. Exactly. I was definitely settle closer to him. Yeah, exactly. So I just said, Hey, you know, um, If you ever wanna hang out sometime, you know, yeah, let me know. And he, you know, I don't think he grabbed his pencil and paper fast enough and, uh, wrote down my number. And so he ended up cooking for me, um, at his house for our first, uh, for our first date. Um, does he still cook for your family? He does. He, he does. Um, we kind of, yeah, we split it up, we share it. Um, cuz sometimes, you know, it's easier for me to get the cooking nuts. Sometimes it's easier for him, but he definitely still likes to cook, so. Yeah. Um, he's definitely passionate about it, so, yeah. He, that's cool. Yep. That was our, that was our first date. Yeah. And were you like, when you were not single, were you like a crazy girl? No. Were you kind of keen on him or like, not necessarily like the first time he asked you out, you were just like, man, whatever. Bassoon player. Yeah, I, you know, I think I, my, I had my try not to think about that kind of stuff cuz you had a boyfriend, right? I, I was gonna say, I had my blinders on, I think. Yeah. So I wasn't, I wasn't really open to it just because I was, you know, like, okay, I was focused on now, sorry, I'm dating someone else, but Yeah. Yeah. Thanks for asking, you know, or whatever. And, um, but yeah, I mean, o obviously when I was ready it wasn't like, He had to ask me again. I was open to, you already knew he liked you. Yeah. That made it easy, right? It made it a little easier. Like yeah, you might say, but I didn't necessarily ask him out. I was like, I'll just put the feeler out there and see what happens. Right. Because if he was like, eh, now he may, maybe he was dating someone else. I, I didn't know. It happens sometimes. Right. So you guys get married shortly after school or maybe even during school then, or, um, no, it was after school for sure. Um, so let's see, I graduated in, now I'm gonna date myself 95. And then, because he Oh wow. You are pretty old, huh? Yeah. Yeah. I let me get my walker. Um, and he graduated a year after me just because he switched, you know, uh, transferred and had to change the major, so new, more classes. Um, plus engineers, they expected to be smarter. Yeah. Right. Whatever. Yeah. Um, and we got married in 97. Sure. So basically right after school, effectively. Yeah. Yeah. And then how long before? Kids. Kids came along. So my daughter was born in 2001. Okay, so you had a few, your son. 2005. So yeah, that was kind of my goal. There were bets at our wedding because they knew I loved kids so much. Like I've always loved kids. Yeah. Like kids have always been a huge part of my life. Just babysitting, being around them day, camp day, whatever I could do, I, I love. Yeah. In fact, one time we were sitting at a, a dinner for, um, When like a business dinner, we're invited over to my husband's boss's house and they have some chairs around a room and they kind of ran outta chairs, like everybody got their plates and, um, the house sit at the kids' table. I just sat at the floor. I sat on the floor because I'm so used to sitting on the, like, that's what you do when you're dance. You sit on the floor to a stretch and whatever. Right? And then there were two kids came and sat right next to me and I started having conversations with them on either side of me and Jim just kinda laughed and cuz they were like, well we can bring you a chair. And I was like, no, I'm fine. You know, it was really not a big deal to me. And, um, he goes, yeah, you, you can tell who the pe, the kind of people she talks to the most all day long. Right. Because I'm there talking to the kids on either side of me and you know, at 1.1 of'em grabs my hand and pulls me down to the basement to show me their toys and everything, you know? Well I think that's probably part of your, I don't wanna call it fame, but your persona and stuff through. Uh, your custom creations and things is that you're very kid at heart. Yeah, I do. I mean, I love watching me some Charlie Brown on the holidays and, and you know, I, if I go to Universal Studios, I go to play. Right. You know, I become a kid and I'm running around University Studio or Disney. Um, in fact, I, I got a chance to speak at, um, it was the first time I was ever at Cedar Point over in Ohio. Yeah. And they have like the most roller coasters or whatever really? And so, okay. This, this conference was on Cedar Point and I. Like, I can't even remember how many roller coasters, but we got amusement park tickets as part of being on the conference. And so I got there the first night and I was like, okay, is this weird that I'm so excited to go over by myself to go check this out? Because if you can't find Chaz, chances are she's across the street at Cedar Point. At Cedar Point, right. Because that was part of the whole conference and I had no idea. I just know they handed me the par part tickets and I was excited. I had done the research beforehand to know that it was like gonna have all these crazy roller coasters, and it's part of the conference is to get out early and go with your family. Well, I didn't know to bring my family this first time. I kind of didn't know as much about it. I just knew I was invited to speak, so I went and. Oh my gosh. I rode every single rollercoaster on while I was there. And it was Halloween time too, so I was there like running around in the fog with all the people dressed up, having the best time ever. And, and you know, at one point, you know, I got kind of lost cuz the fog that day had rolled in around, um, had gotten trapped. It's right on Lake Erie. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And the first day the fog was just really trapped in. So I kind of like kept getting, I was walking in circles, I couldn't figure out, kept going the same rollercoaster. Yeah. And um, this guy comes out and he's dressed like a, like pirate zombie and he comes out and I'm like, excuse me. And then I went, oh wait, I'm sorry. Ah, you know, tried to paint it. Like I said, okay, now can I ask you a question? And so then I asked him for help cuz I couldn't figure out how to get out of the fog, but I like it. Yeah, that exactly demonstrates my point of you being a child at heart. Yeah. Um, we always do one word descriptions of your children. Oh, wonder descriptions of my children. Yeah. No, no. Lack of challenge there. Sometimes we allow hyphens. Yeah. Um, but we haven't talked too much about your kiddos yet. Yeah. So, um, my daughter, I would say, um, does she have a name? Brielle? Yes. Her name is Brielle and I would say, um, she's brilliant. Ooh. Yeah, she's very smart. Now's Afit name then. Yeah, she's, how old is she? She's gonna be 22 this month. Okay. Yep. Yeah. Um, yeah, she can do anything. What's she doing with herself? Uh, she is about to major or just, uh, graduate with a major in zoology from csu. Ooh, okay. She would like to do some fieldwork, so if there's anybody out there that has fieldwork jobs, let me know. The, uh, the most recent Lex Friedman podcast that came out today is this guy that like got his G e D and then moved to the Amazon. Oh, wow. Yeah. You're probably like, well, don't do that. Yeah, I don't, I don't know. Well, she actually divulged me. She's like, you know, because we are a tight-knit family and even my extended family is all pretty tight. Like, my mom's one of six kids, that group on this farm. Right. And so, you know, when people get married, It's 150 people that are coming to the wedding. Right. From your side of the family. Right. Just from my mom's side. Right. You know, that's not my dad's side or the other side or the, you know, the all, all of'em. Um, so yeah, there's a, there's a lot of people there, but, um, so she just said she's not sure she's ready to be too far yet, you know. Yeah. She, she's ready to launch, but she's not sure she's Yeah. Into to be too far a lifeboat tight on the end of the deck. Right. Or the dock. I mean, even when she was picking colleges, she was trying to pick colleges that, um, were strong in zoology, but also family was nearby. Yeah. So in case there was an emergency or she just got lonely or whenever, which is where. Uh, um, did she go, so she ended up here at csu? Oh, she did. Okay. But she was considering, um, Iowa State cuz of the family in Minnesota and Iowa. Sure. And then she also considered Oklahoma State because we have part of the families down in Oklahoma as well. Yeah. So very good. Yeah. Well, I like that. Yes. So, uh, what, uh, I guess, yeah, I don't quite know my question. I was gonna ask, I'll just, oh, well you, you want, I'll move on to your son. I was gonna say, do you want me, tell me what you say about your son. So, Colin is, uh, just graduating high school. Okay. He's gonna take a gap year. He's not sure what he wants to major in yet. Okay. You know, or what he wants to do with his life. And we said that's absolutely okay. You know. Agreed. Um, so my word for him is, um, comical. Mm. He is, he is just full of sarcasm and. You know, um, he's also relentless, but, you know, one of my friends, uh, said my word was whimsical. Oh, I like that one. Uh, which is a little bit like comical. Yeah. Just doesn't have quite so much pressure, I suppose. Yeah. But I do wanna do, I, I think I wanna try standup comedy sometime, I think. Oh, that would be great. Because I have a very fast processor too. In a different way than Sure. Than you I think. Yeah, well maybe in the same way too, but, uh, not making a wreath really fast and making spiderweb out of glue. So just say, yeah, well I'm sure there's a place, there's a space in the place. Let's call him try. It's what's he enjoy, uh, spending his time doing. So, um, he loves video games. So he's definitely, he's actually, um, monetized even for his video money. Yeah. He's got performance, he's got a Twitch profile and everything. Um, but he's working at Best Buy currently. Yep. Uh, he graduated early. He graduated at Spring Break from school. And so they, they work the last semester or last quarter out where you're on a work study and then you graduate with your class still. Okay. Um, but he really, he really likes being a Best Buy on the floor as a sales guy, which, that's one of the things I've always said. He could sell the phone book, you know, so that's just one of those things that, and he means that he would never lie to you or anything, of course, but it's just something that I am not good at selling myself. And he is like very confident and very, you know. Yeah. Yeah. When he, when he wants to sell something on, if he wants to sell for himself, like Yeah. Even for himself. Right. Exactly. If he needs a new video game, negotiating something, he, he knows how to do it. He knows how to get it done. He'll, he'll even come with up to you with the whole plan. Like, he's saving money, but he needs to borrow a little bit. But here's the whole, like, how I'm gonna make it happen. And you're like, wait, we said we weren't gonna lend you. You know, you're, you're, you're right. This is your money. You're 18 now, so you need to like, figure out how to save your own money. You know, we're not doing this anymore. Oh he'll, he'll come up with some way to try to almost make you think about it at this point. You know, he's just that good at it. I've pitched a few investment schemes to my father over the years. I would confess. He mostly, he didn't invest wise. He, he's wisely too smart for that. He stayed firm, he was firm with his choices. So, um, you guys are gonna have an empty nest in like T minus, uh, do you have any like, thoughts or plans or travels or things like that? You good Jim? Yeah. So, um, it's really, really gonna be a double empt nest because Brielle actually, when she went to csu, um, She opted, that was when I just finished my treatment. Mm-hmm. And so she pleaded with CSU to not live in the dorms that first year mm-hmm. So that she could help care for you so she could be home and help out. And then right then Covid hit. So actually we were grateful. And then she realized the value of a dollar. And so she goes, is it okay if I continue to just save money? Save money, and, and live here? And we let her very much live her adult life. We had, you know, the, the basic rules, or if you're not coming home by a certain time, just please just let us know what's, what the plan is. So we'll bring, bring a boys home, and if you do bring a boy home, at least just one. Just kidding. Oh my God, that's awesome. Not really. No. Zero R one. Right. Anyway, um, so yeah. So you're gonna be facing the double whammy. Yeah. So the, because Colin too, he kind of thinks that he wants to move out with a couple of his friends and work full-time. And so yeah, we're both just like, Wow. Both at the same time. You're not ease, easier your way into it so much. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Um, my mom kind of went a little crazy when I moved out and she still had three kids left at home. Oh no. So, well there was other things involved it No, but it was actually, it was, it was emotionally traumatic for her. Like, when I was sure it was actually like my, after my second summer at home, cuz I came home for the first two summers and then I was like, well, I'm not gonna come back again. You know, and that was when she had the toughest time with it in some ways. Yeah. So good luck. Yeah. Thanks. I'm thinking about right. Yeah. Well we have some plans of like, just, I think that's the goal is instead of focusing on what you're losing, focus a little on what you're gaining, right? Yeah. Yeah. So, um, We, we hope to, you know, go up to the mountains more on a whim or, uh, the little, the little things like you're so stuck on making your vacation happen during spring break summer. Right. You know, like during, when their breaks are, wait, when the plane tickets are the highest price and so are the whatever. Exactly. And it's like, oh my gosh, we don't have to do that. We can, we can build our vacation around the, the least expensive time to go, or, you know, things like that. We could take two weeks. Yes, yes. Or, you know, we have a very, very small place up in Grand Lake, Colorado where that's where we were married and, um, we were like, we could go up there for, you know, work from up there for a couple of weeks or work on the road for, you know, take your work with you. I don't, some of that little DIY stuff on the road might be a little hard, but you know, like ideally you, I just forgot my glue gun. Exactly. I might need to go get a glue gun at the store. But you know, like just the idea that you could have some freedom to go do some other things, you know? Um, Yeah, we're looking forward to those things rather than, you know, you know, focusing on blank slate. Oh, yeah. Uh, open, open opportunity rather than all this loss coming. Yes, yes. I'm sure I'll be sad when the house is empty, you know? And because Brielle, she usually like, oh, it's bachelor night, mom, let's watch a bachelor. So I said, well, if you're not too far away, we might still have to have bachelor night. You know? That's cute. I like it. I could tell that you would be a, a great family to be a part of. So, Colin and Brielle, uh, thank your lucky stars. Oh, thank you. Um, the local experience, uh, is our final segment, and that's the craziest experience of your life that you're willing to share. Um, and since I, since we talked about Worthington, I thought I would Okay. Uh, share not my one local experience, but a local experience. Sure. Um, so. I guess it would've been mid-December of 20 of 1998. I was getting ready to graduate or maybe just had, and I, I went out to the Bise and turf in some other places, like I sometimes did. And on the way home I got a dui. Oh no. And it was my fifth year of college, or in, in my second year of college, I also had gotten a dui. So it was my second dui. I was gonna lose my driver's license for a year and pay a bunch of fines and stuff, and it was a mess. And the next morning I get called by a Community First National Bank. Uh, we would like to offer the job of credit and management trainee. Oh my gosh. And Beth Feld called me and I was like, well, Beth, uh, I'm got a pretty big hangover besides, I'm like, I just need to tell you that last night I got a DUI and I'm probably gonna lose my driver's license for a year. And so I just need to be real with you. Yeah. And uh, and she was like, well, you were our first choice out of six, so we'll figure it out. Oh, wow. Can you be here next Monday? You know, or whatever it was, or I think it was, you know, it was, I think it was two weeks from then. It was after Christmas and New Year's or whatever. Yeah. And it made a big impact on me as to, cause I, I just don't really have a, I can lie really easy, but I can't hold it. Sure, sure. Like I could, I'm a kidder. Yeah. But I, but I won't hold things. Um, and I just never really thought about anything other than that, you know, how am I gonna hide that I don't have a driver's license, you know? Right. My new job. Right. Or whatever. Yeah. And, uh, anyway, just her like taking 10 seconds to think of, and then I went to Worthington, Minnesota. So I did six months of classroom training, and then I moved to Worthington with no driver's license and no friends. Uh, and a mountain bike. Wow. And I, I crashed my mountain bike a few weeks later and broke my wrist. Oh my gosh. You were on like a streak with you. I was a tough time. Yeah. But I met a lot of good friends down there and found people that would take me to the laundromat to get my clothes washed. That is one thing about Worthington. Everybody's a buddy and every Yeah, they'll figure it out, that's for sure. So the, uh, tight and one of the girls from the bank worked at our, uh, she and her husband owned the, let's see, it was, uh, the anchor bar. No, it was the something T something. Anyway, uh, so I got some part-time bartending work. Uh, so anyway, I, I really, I enjoyed and integrated in that community of Worthington quite a bit. Yeah. Uh, in that one year. Yeah. That sense of community there is pretty amazing. Yeah. So anyway. For sure. That's one of my. 30 or 50 local experiences that come to mind occasionally. Yeah. Well, thank you for sharing. Yeah. Yeah. So, um, what's yours? Okay, so it might be a little bit of accumulation here because I feel like the story deserves it. Um, so Wash Bar, do you remember Wash Bar Washington's here, right? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, you know, you, you're going to college and you make these memories at a place like that, right? So, you know, you've got your memories of going there and dancing and whatnot. That was cuz I'm a dancer, right? So it was, that was one of the places you could afford to go. Cuz there were the other clubs in town, but gosh, it was$20 just to get in the door and then you had to pay for your drinks on top of that or whatever. Right? And I just, that wasn't in my wheelhouse. That was just not my budget. So Washington's was my affordable place. Yeah. It's the budget meat market. So as I got older, yeah. The good stuff where they have the naked butt in the basement, right. Where everybody spanks it. Right. Do you remember the butt? Oh, who doesn't? Man, if you see that in the daylight, like nobody should have been touching that. Like, no. Yes. Never. No, never. Yeah. So, um, I actually we'll disclose that. Like this is older and I have kids at this point, and so everybody's like, well, what do you wanna do? I think this was my 30th and then my 40th. I have to tell both stories because they both, you know, you never know what you're gonna get. All revolves around Washington's, it all revolves around Washington's. And so that's why we always say, I was so, but disappointed when Washingtons got torn down because it just never failed to let us down. So my, you know, it was like my, their 50th there. Yeah, I know. I might need to, I know it's coming up. Seriously. It's my 50th is only in a couple weeks, but, um, let's see who's showing. Right, exactly. Seriously, I might, uh, so. You know, we, we decide on the 30th to, to go and we got there a little early cuz we're older now. Right. We're not gonna go out at 10:00 PM at night. So we get there and the DJ's going and we're kind of the first ones there in all disclosure. Right. I been there, so let's just label that right there. Yeah, yeah. Um, and there's this guy in the middle of the floor and he's older and he's probably in his, you know, maybe his sixties at the time and he's got like a sweatband on. Mm. And he is out there like working out dense fever, like he is working out and he's got all the moose, he's got like the cigarette with you, you know, you take the cigarette out and you stomp it on the ground. Then he is got like the whole scoop up with the butt shake and, and we're all standing there. He's the sprinkler. Yeah, exactly. All this stuff. Totally working out though. He's swer up a sweat and he's drinking water and, and we're all watching him. You know, cuz we're just waiting for everybody to kind of get there. Um, all the friend group and a few of us are like, it's like he's dancing in front of a mirror. So we decide we're gonna go check it out. So the four, like four or five of us that are there go down on the dance floor and we start to dance. Sure enough, there's a mirror. So he is dancing with himself in the dance floor on the mirror. Okay. That's not even the funny part. Like that this guy's doing this, like I'm all good for you, you know, working out. Yeah, that's a great idea. So then we come off and we're, you know, my husband's standing there and you know, I just kind of said something like, yeah, so we just we're, I guess we're just talking about it. It was all, and then all of a sudden my husband goes, I know that guy. And we're like, what? That guy dated my mom. Oh God, I'm So, we're like, no. Oh. And he's like, no, seriously, that guy dated my mom a tough patch for, right. Yeah. He goes, it was a real thing. So that was that time. And you know, I'm sure there was more that happened, but that was the time that stood out. Well then we go like, move forward a decade and Yeah. Your kids are elementary school or Yeah. No, my kids are in elementary school at this point, and there was a roller skating, um, night, right. So my parents came up. So my parents are with me. The kids have gone home. I think with the sitter, the roller skating ended and we all just decide for, for. Grins, we're gonna go to Washingtons. So you know, we go do the jello shot at town Pump because that's tradition. And so we gotta go do that. And then we go over to Washingtons and we go downstairs and it's starts out little anti-climatic. The guy is just playing like pit bull song after pit ball, song after pit ball song. And I'm like, you know, most DJs have a little diversity in here, but he's just playing the same thing. There's still really not anybody there cause we're there early. Again, my parents are with, right? So keep that in mind. And so I go up to the DJ and ask him if he'd be willing to play like a Michael Jackson song. And you know, he was like, yeah, yeah. And then kind of blew me off. Well we all decide, okay, well this is just not as fun as it usually is, so let's just go dance. One more song altogether. There's probably 20 of us there. Let's just go dance. One last song altogether and then we'll go. So we get down on the dance floor and we're all just dancing. And this guy. I don't even know where he comes from. He like jumps, like he was standing on a speaker or something, jumps down into the center of the circle and gets right in my face. Like I am not even exaggerating. Oh my God. He's like a, he's probably like 12 inches away from, from my face. So he's trying to make the moves or something to pick you up cuz you're such a great dancer. I don't even know who he, like, I don't even know what he's, you don't even to do, there's no speculation. He's there moving his hand and then I'm like, am, am I supposed to just do what you're doing? Like I don't, I'm trying to play along. Right. So I'm like, okay, I, I can move my hand like that. And so I move my hand like that and then he does something else. I'm like, okay, I think I'm just supposed to copy this guy. You know, in the meantime we're all in the circle. Cause you're like a professional dancer besides, well, but, you know, professional dancing versus like being in a club experience. It's just, you know, it's just whatever. It's just different anyways. Right. Well, but you at least have the skills to do this. Yeah, I guess. Yeah. So I mean, finally I don't know what he's doing and then I kind of like. Maybe this is, maybe he's challenging me. I think. I think this is a dance off. And so I don't know. So I, I'm still trying to figure it out. This old lady in the middle of the whole thing. And so I, at one point, I don't even remember what he did, but I dropped down and like the John Travolta splits and then come back up. Right? And then all of a sudden he just like bows and backs up, right? He's bowing to me and backing up. Yeah. And then he walks over to me, he's got this digital bracelet on and it says, he holds it up to my face and I read it and it has words and it says Nice old. And I'm like, Thank you. Yes, I am old, but Okay. You know, in the meantime, of course, my best friend's there and she's recorded the whole thing and is now sending it out to everyone. Right. You know, so Yes, we Did you go viral? No, no, no, no. We were, I did not have YouTube, I don't think at that point yet. And Well, that deserves to, uh, be a viral video or something. Oh, great. Yeah. Wasn't it? Let's not, Nicole don't do that. Well, once we stop this, we're gonna go on the Washington's website and see what shows they have coming up, because I really think you should go there for your 50th. Yeah, maybe. Yeah. So it just never let us down. So every time we went and, you know, I remember a girl in like a, we called it the banana suit. She was in like a bright yellow one, like onesie, one piece outfit. Yeah. You know, and. Again, things that people should not do. She, I don't know. She was hammered, I'm pretty sure. And you know, she's trying to press all the guys and she ends up trying to twerk on the floor, on the dance floor. And we're all just standing there like, honey, you need to get up off the floor. Like, that's not a clean place. You know, like, there's just so many Just like the butt of that. Exactly. I'm like, model thing. Exactly. It was like, there's just so many stories that, and they just, they just kept happening. I'm like, oh, why do Washingtons have to tear down? It never let us down. Every time we're there something new happened. I'm sure that there is plenty of, uh hmm. What's the word I'm looking for? Uh, new memories to be had. New memories to be had at the new Washingtons. Uh, so yeah. Anyway, that's my encouragement. Okay. Um, if crafty people or website people or whatever people wanna find you, uh, do you wanna give your. Like how to find you. Oh, like to our listeners? Yeah. Oh sure. So, um, you can find the DIY stuff@chascrazycreations.com or um, if just c h a s Yeah, just c h a s cuz it's hard to have the apostrophe inside, so it's just, yeah. Chas crazy creations.com and the other website is site consulting services.com and YouTube channel's still under the same thing. Just chassis. Crazy creations. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You do a bunch of other stuff too. Do you have Instagram reels? And I do TOS and not I, I've attempted a little TikTok. I'm not very good over there yet. They're telling me they're gonna ban that shit anyway. I know, I know. And I guess I apparently should have been dancing this whole time because maybe that would've been way better. Are your hips. It's all good now. You can dance it up. If I can dance. You want to dance? Yeah. I dance with High Performance Dance Theater. That's a local company. Awesome. So we put on a few shows here. Another place to find Chaz if you want to. Yep, exactly. Yep. We'll perform at the Lincoln. We're doing our Twentie show in Chicago this summer. Oh, so oh, so you're for real if you're going to Chicago. Yep. We're performing in Woodstock, Chicago and um, yeah, so. Awesome. Yep. Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Pinterest. Well, have you had as much fun in the local experience as you hoped? I did. And more and more. Awesome. You've a pleasant host. Thank you so much. Very easy to talk to. It was fun to have you here. Thanks, Chaz. Yeah, thank you. Good day.