EXPERIENCE 128 | Community Relations, Super Connections, and Charity Auctioneering with Nathan Scott

Nathan Scott is arguably one of Fort Collin's most interesting people, and this podcast episode was spawned in part by Nathan's introduction of so many inspiring guest candidates. He's one of the show's biggest fans, and he is journey to fascinating career from Impact role to Impact role. I. From his LinkedIn profile, I'm a teacher, connector salesman, father marketer, fundraiser, public speaker, social media specialist, media relations manager, standup comic, veteran, actor, and human being. And he forgot to update that segment to include recently trained as an auctioneer. Nathan spent time in the Navy right after high school and after a tour with AmeriCorps, he landed a leading role in up with people, a traveling collection of international musicians and actors with stops in 11 states and 12 European countries and service projects in each of 70 cities. This role is emblematic of Nathan's later and constant career, making an impact while having fun. He currently serves as a community relations specialist for Foothills Gateway and as an instructor at Farm Range Community College, and he spends extensive time in volunteer service as a super connector, spawning many hundreds of new relationships annually in our region. Nathan's a fun guy, and we had a wide ranging conversation, so tune in and enjoy. Welcome back to the Loco Experience Podcast. I'm honored today to be joined by Nathan Scott. That's right. And Nathan is the Community Relations Specialist Specialist mm-hmm. At Foothills Gateway. That's right. Yep. And, uh, also a budding entrepreneur having recently founded Betty Botter. Auctions. That's correct. And it's super exciting to be here to talk about that because of all the things in my life, which has been in a culmination of a lot of adventures and neat and interesting people that going to auction school and getting certified and all of the process there was absolutely one of the most humbling experiences my whole life. Is that a reg regulated industry? Do you have to get a license? Absolutely. Very often states, uh, require a license. Okay. Texas, for instance, that there's a certain amount of classes you have to take before you can actually go out and sell. Um, Colorado is a little bit different in that we're not actually licensed, but they do recommend that you go to some sort of form of school. Yeah. Don't make the industry look like a bunch of fools. Yeah, exactly. And I mean, there's, the, the funny thing about auctions is that there's so many niches. So for instance, while at school I learned about people that were auction, auto auctioneers, um, of course real estate and, uh, cattle, livestock. You've got estates. But my, my specialty or really where my niche I hope to, to carve out is with benefits because my whole career has been a series of public speaking, fundraising and events. Hmm. So, yeah, absolutely. It's something that, that I'm, uh, later in life discovering that I can maybe, uh, make a, make a plan. Yeah. Well, and I learned not too long ago that you're also kind of a volunteer mc and things like that. Oh, for sure. For nonprofit causes, some that Oh, yeah. Absolutely. I, if it's, I mean, I, I, for six and a half years I taught public speaking at Front Range Community College, along with interpersonal communication, and I absolutely love the process of bringing people out of their shells mm-hmm. When it comes to public speaking because nobody wants to do it. Yeah. And so knowing nobody wants to do it. That I feel like there's such a great opportunity there. Yeah. So if you, and my biggest advice is I, when I re re meet with someone that's trying to improve, I tell'em, I, I definitely don't want you to be me'cause I have to hear my own voice all day anyway. What I'd like you to do is help you find your voice. Hmm. And so, in terms of public speaking and events, I think that there's so often times that people, uh, Have never been given the chance to tell their story. And so a podcast like yours as I've listened to and others that gives people a platform, I think that there's a lot of opportunities. We've had a lot of first timers, I, I know Tim and Amy were just out this week, Linn, and, and they both said as they started talking, you know, first time podcasters here, we kinda looking at the camera. Yeah, sure. You know, hearing the microphone, it's f well, I think's fantastic because a lot of times too that the long form conversation, I'm a big fan. Going back to historically speaking like studs, turkel, you know, when you're talking about the book working, I was fascinated by that book because it was, uh, a long form interview with, uh, the average person. And when I first read that book by Studs Circle, I was always fascinated about learning and giving people the chance to tell their story. And that's what I think podcasts and public speaking allows people to do. So, I want to hang on Foothills Gateway just a little bit too. No problem. Um, and, and learn about that organization. Sure. And, and really I think the most fun is gonna be the, the life journey. Absolutely. Kind of conversation, but Well, sure. I'll give you a in, in a tiny, the 32nd nutshell. Really, what is the wonderfulness? That is Foothills Gateway is that we've been around for over 50 years and 50 years in Northern Colorado. Making a difference. Doing what? In the lives of doing what? Well, it's interesting because I brought some notes'cause I really wanted to make sure I got this right. You know what started off as a school for children with intellectual developmental disabilities and onsite therapies and all the activities that you would imagine in preschool setting. Well, that idea of two organizations came together and that's where 1972, where there was one in Loveland and there was one in Fort Collins. Okay. And so bringing those two together to start originally as a school for children with i d d was where we all started. But that has somehow in and for all of the wonderfulness of research, we have morphed into this organization that serves the intellectual developmental. Community from birth to the end of life. Hmm. Through everything from helping them to find jobs with supported employment to Yeah. Um, host home environments with sup, you know, in that way to the idea of early intervention programming Yeah. For little kids. Yeah. Meaning before they're even born, if we can identify if there is gonna be a delay that's gonna be there, yeah. We can set them up on a program before the baby even gets there with therapists and things like that. We'll be there immediately. Yeah. And so early intervention programming is fantastic in that, uh, oftentimes that children out after the age of five, they may never need our services again. If we can identify and get them into services early. Yeah. Yeah. And so we serve all of Larimer County. That's another thing important to remember. And the way in which that we do that is number one, through case management. And so we serve everybody in Larimer County with case management and the other services that. That they receive, uh, they come from our partner approved service agencies. So are you something of a, a contractor for the county in any fashions? Do you get funds from the county to help make this happen? Absolutely. And the way that those funds come through is through a mill levy, which is a property tax. Oh, wow, okay. And so that, that has been one of the major ways that we receive funding from the county to pay for source. Is that for you or is that. For the service of the intellectual development, mental disability. That's, that's for the services that we provide, right. Is that where that money is? And you've been winning that contract consistently because you're adding value to that community. And I think that's exactly it. And in terms of like not having a, a, like a end date for what that mill levy is. Mm-hmm. That the, that, that really is a huge contributor to what we can do for Yeah. The, the amount of people known revenue. Absolutely. And that might be half or more of your revenue? I wouldn't say it's more than half. I think it's probably the percentage wise, I don't have it in front of me now, but the majority, I would say more than 90% of our funding comes through Medicaid. Mm. Interesting. And so, okay. In that way, that new administrations and, you know, things and there's fees for these services. Mm-hmm. So people are invested in the Yeah. In the cause. Oh. And because of, like, I imagine after 18, somebody's kind of almost automatically qualified for Medicaid. Um, that's, or even younger than that in Yeah, that's definitely, definitely a difficult conversation to have because again, I think that each person's different and really depending on when they were identified as having an intellectual developmental disability, um, to the degree that they've got, that changes whatever the waiver is. So I'd rather not get into that much. Sure. What do I, what I want your listeners to know is that, If, if you need a resource for everything, intellectual, developmental disabilities, think of Foothills first. Yeah, yeah. And know the fact of that, you know, case management is done for everyone in the county from us. And then we are such a connecting point for resources that, yeah. I love getting calls that, you know, I just moved to the community and here's what, here's what, here's what I'm working with as far as my family goes. I said, well this, have you heard about this? Or maybe you should connect with these people. Yeah. That's about the best part about my job. Community relations. So how long have you been, um, with the organization? Foothills? I've been there for six years. Okay. And, but my career goes all the way back in nonprofit to. You know, when I turned 18. Okay. And if we wanna go all the way back to Not yet. Until, not yet. Okay. Not yet. Yeah. Six years I've been, tell Tell me about, tell me about what drew you to that cause. Well, foothills Gateway as an organization, my wife worked there when we first moved here. Oh really? It was the first job she ever had when we came to Fort Collins. And so she worked there and she was there for, I think it was right around seven months. And then she moved to get a job and she started working for Mosaic. So I'd already kind of been around that world for a long time in that I, in I d D and serving people in that way. And I mean, I really was interested in the legacy piece that, to know like, what does 50 Years of impact look like? And again, that's what drove me first to Foothills was that it's, it's an established organization. Yeah. But even though 50 years is how long we've been here, I still daily meet people that. I have no clue. Yeah. About what we do, where we are, you know, what, who we serve. And it's, it's, it's because we don't advertise. Yeah. You know, we don't have billboards. Uh, we don't, as you notice, I mean, I'm not even wearing like a logoed shirt, oring thing. Yeah, you are. But I'm not. But the idea of, of, uh, that's where my challenge of my job is just meeting people all the time and sharing, uh, our history. Yeah. Which is, is amazing. And we've served thousands of people over those 50 years. Yeah. So I'm pretty, I'm pretty grateful for the opportunity to be there. Yeah. And make an impact in my tiny little way. Yeah. I appreciate that. Mm-hmm. Um, and we'll come back, uh, no problem. To like current day stuff. I wanna talk more about the auction. Okay, sure. Uh, elements and stuff, but I think, you know, it's a good time. I think you're chomping at the bit to, to get into some of the journey stuff. Absolutely. Will. And so am I. Yeah. I think that when I listen to your show, the thing that I keep going back to is always these, these turning points, if you will, and moments and milestones in your life where, you know, one direction took you this way and could have gone a totally different way. Yeah. And that's what, yeah. So it was so great. What's the first one of those that you remember the earliest chronologically that that first off, that's a great question. In terms of like, I love the book of the Road Less Travel by MCO Peck, which you've obviously read in knowing that, uh, your first memory establishes, you know, your worldview. And I can definitely remember it because I was only maybe three years old and I remember being at a mall back when malls were a thing. Mm-hmm. And so I remember being at the mall and getting lost from my mother who had brought me. Mm-hmm. And, and when she came to pick me up, I was actually in the security room. Right. Yeah. And there was these wonderful, uh, uh, women that were working there and they were so kind and so friendly that when my mom came to get me, I didn't wanna leave. I was like, so, like, this is a cool place. I guess I just live here now. And I mean, definitely a turning point that for me, in terms of. The way to see the world is that it's a, there's always gonna be a soft place to land. And that's how I see most things. Yeah. And so, well, you've got that kind of never met a stranger mentality. I, I, I, again, talking about a journey there that is, that you, you said about one of those turning points. One of those moments about the very first, uh, it's gonna be fine. I mean, it's, there's a toy store here and there's a JC Penney, what do you need? Right. This lady just gave you an orange soda. Yeah. I was like, this is cool. This's heaven. Its about, this is fine. I don't even need to go home. So that would be one of those moments, uh, this, so where were you? Tell me about, uh, like where your family setting. Yeah. Uh, that was, uh, definitely the Midwest. Okay. I mean, I was from a manufacturing industrial town. The Quad Cities is made up of four cities along the Mississippi River. My wife lived there for several years. I think we talked Port Byron about that. I know where Port Byron is. Yes. Uh, but that town had, that's the Quad Cities, it's the home of John Deere. Yeah. Where John Deere started. There's International Harvester for that one under case International Alcoa. And there's a massive military property there called the Rock Island Arsal. What are the Quad Cities? There's four. There's Moline, east Moline, rock Island, and Davenport Daven. Those are the four. Yeah. But altogether it makes up for about 275,000 people. Okay. So combined is pretty big. Yep. For a Midwestern town. Oh yeah. Big town. And so it's tiny for a California town. But, well, when, when growing up there, I think the only thing I knew about growing up there was that I did not want to be there for anything past 18. That's when I turned 18. I wanna get away from here possible. What was your, your family environment where your family farmers or Sure. Work for John Deere. I mentioned that Arsenal, that Rock Island arsenal where it's like the big military base. My dad was there. He was employed there for 34 years. Wow. And at different points, my grandmother as a civilian or a soldier? Yeah. As a civilian. Uhhuh as like a government contractor. Sure. And so, I mean, this place built me munitions through, I mean, it goes all the way back to the Civil War. Wow. That's all building things there. And so my dad worked there, my great-grandmother. My grandma, my mom worked there. Oh wow. I mean, it was seriously, the biggest employer, a real biggest company town. Biggest, kinda like where everybody, I even, I had a portion of time where I was there where I, when I was in the Navy Reserves, I worked on the base. Yeah. But that centralized location, very much blue collar, very much factory implements. Yep. A farm implement kind of thing. Sure. But again, after 18, I just, I need, I wanted to leave. Tell me about, uh, your, your, you have siblings? Yes, I do. I've got two brothers, uh, both younger and one younger sister. So I'm the oldest. Yeah. And I'd always to be taken on nutrition type. Yeah. Like, I got to roll out, you know, I mean, and my family is, is great and I love them, but I'd always considered the world to be. Where I wanted to be and my town was always just like, this is, this can't be all there is interesting. Like I'm not into that. Like, were you a student of the world already? Oh, I can tell you that. Yeah. Ear. Early on, most of my very first memories were like vacations and trips with, I can remember my mom took me to Key West when I was very little, like four, and I remember going back to Miami to go to, or Orlando, to go to Disneyland. I can remember going as a little little kid to Seattle and it was very much a traveling kind of a family. Like we were always like going to either camp or road trip and every time I'd go to a place I'd always return to my town and think how small my town was. Yeah, yeah. Like that. It interesting, like it's so, yeah. As a little kid you're like, oh my gosh, it's so, but then, huh? Yeah. The more I got older, the more I was like, this is, there's way cooler places than here. That's really interesting. I, well, I'm contrasting it with my own mm-hmm. Growing up and I went to a high school with like 50 kids, 60 kids in it. Mm-hmm. In 10th grade, I consumed just about every Newsweek, US News and World Report, wall Street Journal, popular Mechanics, popular, like everything the library got a subscription to. I read the whole thing. Gotcha. And yet I was terrified to go to Fargo a hundred miles away for college.'cause I thought that was only where. Like smart kids from big towns went to and stuff, and I think that's, that's the, uh, dragging yourself downness of very rural America. Yeah. Oh, especially like if I think about a pre-internet, you know, the idea of Totally. Yeah. Just going to Fargo, you're like, let's say I really love comic books. I mean, where would you even begin looking? The phone book for a comic bookstore? I would go drive around and stuff. Yeah, just drive around one of a yellow pages for a thing. Then of course, just flipping through it at a payphone. Uh, the internet really changed a lot in that regard of the world being a bigger place. But I definitely think that, um, one of my other key moment experiences when you're talking about, um, and I remember this real distinctly, like being a freshman in high school, sophomore in high school, and at the time, Iowa City was only an hour away. Okay. And so the University of Iowa. I mean, it might as well have been Berkeley for my little town. I mean, it was like a big deal to go to Iowa City. Yeah. It was a college town. Yeah. Yeah. And so I remember going there and just feeling so like, and how far away is this? It's an hour. Okay. And I, I mean, we, you know, hobbled together, whatever best car we could to get there. But I remember being there and thinking like, I want to go to a college town. I wanna be around college. People like that are learning and cover different cultures. And I think you probably know this, but, uh, university of Iowa, Iowa has one of the, one of the best writing programs in the country. Oh, I, yeah. Fantastic creative writing program. Kurt Vonnegut taught there for a number of years. Oh wow. And so, like, it was always just this draw that I needed and wanted to get there. And so the other part that I didn't tell you in terms of life journey,'cause it's actually makes sense that I, I include this, that before I was even born, I wanted to go to University of Iowa. And I'll tell you why is that my mother had heard from a friend. That at the University hospital,'cause it's a teaching hospital that they would deliver your baby for free. Oh. And so obviously my parents didn't have a lot of money, so they were like, Hey, we have a coupon. Right, right. And we're gonna like get a baby delivered. And that's what exactly what happened. Oh, that's sweet. Like there was no, there was no, like, there was no obst, you know, it's different than that when you take your dog to the C S U vet teaching hospital. It's not like that anymore. But like, even from the, from birth, I'd wanted to get back to the university. Okay. And so being at a university town, Going there in high school, seeing that sort of curiousness of used bookstores and used record stores and thrift stores and just people dressing differently, thinking differently, having like real conversations. Just being your own grownup person already. Totally. Yeah. Is, and in my, you, like a little sham, uh, not shamrock, but a little, uh, Sherlock Holmes kind of guy at 1415, just interacting. I just, I just knew that my town wasn't, Good. That's all I really knew. Is that, is that it wasn't cool. And like I remember thinking, I wanna be where there's more cool things, cool people, huh? I want to be where musicians and artists and actors. I wanted to be in that scene. That's all I knew because my high school and my town, if it was there, I did not really witness it. Fair. I mean, so did you go for creative writing or what was your, uh, pursuit? I never even went to University of Iowa for school. Oh. I never even had anything to do with that. So what? I just wanted to be there, hang out. Okay. So that's where you moved to after high school? Oh man. No, no, no, no, no. Tell me. After high school, it was like I, I realized the best way I was gonna get out and have somebody pay for it. Was to join the Navy. Oh, okay. And so, like I talked to so many people that were either active duty, retired, uh, that had been in every service. I did a lot of research as a 17 year old. And so everybody I talked to in terms of like, well, what do I really want to get out of it, that all let back on Navy? And so it was either Air Force or Navy. And then Navy recruiter was just more convincing in that I'll do it. And so at 18 I was, that's cool. I was only outta high school for maybe two months and so then it was like, yep. Shipped off to bootcamp. And that's a culture shock. I'm sure it's been talked about on your show before, which was. Yeah. Not really. I mean, my, my, my wife's brother, it was an Navy guy. He was a sub sub. Uh, well that's a very specific nuclear kind of person who does that Nuclear. But, uh, I mean subs, like when Navy guys joke within each other, like when you see a group of guys standing there, you can pick out who the submarine guy is or a woman tell. It's pretty interesting. Like, they test, they test a ton to make sure that psychologically that you can do it. Yeah. Before, can you be in under water for eight months at a time. Exactly. So subs were never, for me, I knew that and so I didn't even, I wasn't even gonna try it. So tell me, tell me about bootcamp. Where is Navy Bootcamp? Uh, bootcamp was in Orlando, Florida when they still had it in Orlando. And I can tell you that there was nothing that prepared me for what, that was absolutely nothing. I mean, you see pictures and on tv, you know, you see like movies and clips of bootcamp. Sure. And then when you get there, I realize that like bell bottoms were a thing. Every day. Like they're actual bell bottoms, like big, wide leg bell bottoms, like from the seventies, they were still wearing them. And the idea was that, that, because if you fall off the ship, then you can take off these bell bottoms over your boots without having to take your boots off. Oh, okay. It's why they're bell bottoms in general. And then you can actually Is that the founding notion? Bell bottoms? That's exactly the concept of why they're bellbottoms. Yes. And then the, the fashion people stole it from the Navy people. Totally did. Yeah. You wanna go back and read your history. Absolutely. Is the, so the other part it is that, That you can actually, once you take off the bell bottoms, you can, they teach you how to make a flotation device out of the pants. Oh, and so talk about a shocker, right? You get there and like, I thought it was like a costume party at first. I'm like, why is everybody in those weird seventies bell bottoms? They're like, no, you're gonna be wearing those for four years. And circle me a little bit. I, I don't know if I'm older than you, younger than you. When is this? Oh, this is 91. This would've been 91 when I went, okay, well I graduated in 92. So you're well, right around the same. They haven't, haven't 50 all then changed. They're still wearing them. They're still definitely wearing those bell bottoms. That's fair enough. So the shock of the system of getting there and, and seeing exactly what I was not ready for was again, night and day. Everything I'd been told was great and helpful, but it had nothing to do with the actual first day scary. Trauma traumatic EV event that is, you know, when they let you off the bus, right. And they put you in this room and then you're just like having people yell, but there's like 50 more of you at the same time too. Right. So, exactly. But people came from all over and that was what was the best part about it.'cause I told you that that was always an interest of mine. Sure. So now here I am in this room with, I think there was a hundred and 175 men that were in my company. And so there had guys from New York and ge, you know, Georgia and Florida and and Alaska. And I remember like, it was so fascinating that they were all brought together through this experience. Yeah. And so I definitely. This is, you talk about those life lessons and movements and times in your life. I can distinctly remember like being there and being just terrified. Just so scared because it was, it's a pretty scary environment. It's like people are yelling at you all the time, and that's, at the time I only weighed like 125 pounds. Oh, wow. So I'm a smaller guy anyway. Yeah. Yeah. So there's huge like monster people in there. And so thinking about like intimidated and scared, I realized that I had a skillset set and a tool in my toolbox that I hadn't really utilized, which was humor. Mm. And I was able to not only tell stories and make jokes and do impressions of people in like that were the company, like the company commanders and I could make people laugh. And it was a great way to cope with the terror of knowing like something bad could happen by being able to, you know, do impressions and make jokes and interesting and everybody would like. And that didn't come out in high school at you didn't make, not at all Class clown way or nothing like that? No, in, no nothing. Your book, you were too repressed. I, I just don't think I was ever, that I realized how much power there was in that. Huh, of, of like getting people's attention, making them laugh and having that release because it is serious. Yeah. Like when you're in bootcamp, it's like constantly, like you can't smile, you can't laugh, you can't have any radio or music. And so that, it was all I could do was, it was like come up with funny things to say and do. The moment that the company commanders would leave, because there would be like this release of like, right. Oh man, did you, can you believe what he, you know, he said this or he did that? And yeah, I definitely, that was one of those moments about. Oh, if I, if I do this, then I can get attention in a positive way and feel good Yeah. About myself. And so absolutely. It was. So tell me about a good time. Tell me like the recap, the Navy tour, did you go four years, eight years? Long time. I wish to think it was something complicated, Kurt, but it was honestly the best job I ever had. I mean, it was wonderful. I was, I, the thing is that people forget is that, you know, the Navy you think of, and you're gonna go on like this, they call it med pack or like, you know, south pack where you're gonna go to Australia and Taiwan or Japan. I was, I was stationed on land for four years. There was never a ship. The whole time I was in there. Didn't need your bell bottoms. No need. Thank you for bringing that up. No need for the bellbottoms because no ship was in my future. I definitely did what's called temporary assigned duty, where I would fly to, you know, an Air Force base in say, Oregon or New Orleans or Washington. But those were always like, you know, a week two and doing what? Yeah, administration work. Okay. My work was like, it was, the position doesn't even exist anymore. It's called a Yeoman. Y E O M A N. Yeah. And basically it's a secretary. Yeah. So I wish to think it was glamorous job, but I'll be honest with you, it was amazing. Well, your job was to be entertaining and efficient and, you know, get along well with the officers and stuff. Well, was the commanding officers who was my office. That was my office. My, it was my desk. Commanding officer and executive officer. Yeah. That was where I worked at. So I mean, I had the, like the best gig ever. Yeah. Like while, while there, by the way, most people in the Navy, and I know most people listening may know this or not, but typically it's a two year rotation. So you're on the ship for two years and then you're on the shore for two years. Okay. It's a sea shore rotation, they call it. But the idea is I was in a special program where it was all shore. Hmm. So when I would tell people that they would get really upset, they're like, I just spent 14 hours. You're trying to impress girls. And you're like, no, that was never, I've, I've been the Navy, but I've never been on a boat before. Yeah. It's like, you don't wanna brag about that. You know what I mean? Not so much. But, uh, the fun part was that I saved a bunch of, uh, money. I saved a bunch of money and where I was located for the four years, Was in another I irony of it all in the desert of California, south of Fresno at a F 18 base. Interesting. So that's where, similar to Top Gun, where they would do training and they'd teach it. Mm-hmm. And I've been to Miramar to Top Gun before to see the inaction and yeah, working with pilots and everything else, it was. It was a cool place to be, but it was right in the desert. So those four years I was always going to Sequoia and Yosemite and Santa Cruz and LA and San Francisco and Napa Valley. Sound like everything's available to you. See just anything but where I was. Right. Sound like a theme here. Yeah. Yeah. Right. So for those four years, I, I, I kept trying to get as most of it as I could by saving money, taking classes, and I think I, I mean, I took a handful of college classes while there, but after four years, I, I really was okay with leaving. I was like, it's time to go. I was like, this is fun, but I don't wanna stay here. How much time off do you get in that kind of environment? Do you get like weekends off? This is fantastic. I mean, look, this is something again, I don't want to. Anybody listening, take this the wrong way. But when I got to the base, they told me it was a four day work week. Now I know you know what that is. Sure. Like 10 hour days, whatever. It wasn't like that. I mean, this is absolutely the true statement of when I got there they said, well here's the way it works.'cause this is a reserve station. Like this is where the reservists come and do their training. Mm-hmm. What happens is we work one weekend a month. And so I was like, all right, cool. Well so then I have to work that weekend. And he said yes. And so we're on a four day weekend, four day, four day work week. And I said, then we have one weekend. And he said, no, but it's gets better than that. So we come into work at seven 30, we work from seven 30 to 11. And then you can work out from 11 to one and then come back to work and work from one o'clock until three 30. That's the day. And I'm like four times a week. Yeah. And I'm like, wait, what? This sounds awesome. Really? Yeah. And it was. I had every Monday off for four years.'cause even the weekend that I did have to work, they give you Monday and Tuesday. It was fantastic. Perfect. Yeah. I like it. Look, I mean, I really had a great time. Saves a lot of time for hiking and exploring and Exactly. Sequoia, Yosemite. I mean, I was backpacking. I did some rock climbing while there, but the majority, you go to the Alabama Hills. I was a lot of John Muir Trail stuff that I did, like portions of it at different, different times. John Alabama Hills is uh, on our RV tour. It's basically after you get across Death Valley. Okay. Then you climb up and there's a bunch of, it's a little bit like vu. It looks like random rocks stacked where they don't belong kind of thing. Mm-hmm. But anyway, yeah, I've been through there like, and I took a road trip to Phoenix once. I know right where you're talking about, we didn't get time to go to Yosemite. But anyway, I digress time. So my four years was, was a great time and I was grateful for it because I knew that when I got out I was way better than when I went in. And then what? Then after that I said, look, I need, you got like a GI bill for four years kind of thing. Absolutely. But I knew that I wanted to stay in California, that I definitely knew. And so this is exactly how life happens. So I brought this map in one time to this gal that I worked with and I said, I'm gonna join the AmeriCorps program. It's a domestic Peace Corps. Sure. And so I have a choice of where I can go within the Bay Area. I can go to any county within the Bay Area. So it was Contra Costa County, San Francisco, the Tenderloin, and then there was Marin County. And I asked her, I was like, I was like, I was like, Marcy, where do you think I should go to go do my AmeriCorps time if I'm gonna be in San Francisco Bay? And she's like, well, you wanna be in Marin County, what are you talking about? And I was like, okay, cool. So I applied and I got the job. Yeah. Working, doing it was, uh, it was an AmeriCorps job doing alcohol and drug abuse prevention programming with high school kids. And so I, I've got up there and I, this is amazingly beautiful. And, and have you ever been up that part of, I don't know what Mar Marin County means? It's Oh, it's like if sort, if you've got San Francisco, then north of San Francisco, you got the Golden Gate Bridge on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge, that's where Mar Marin County is. Okay. Well we, yeah, we went through there on the way to Napa County, I guess is beautiful when we were absolutely gorgeous area. I mean, you're talking. Celebrities and just, it's expensive. Sure. And so when I got there I was like, cool, I got this job. But like I went to go get an apartment and this even in 96, they were like, they were like, okay, so it's a one bedroom but it's gonna cost you almost$1,500. Sure. And I, I was, I was, they give you a living making$1,400 a month. Yeah. They give you a living stipend, which didn't even cover that. So the good news was I had a brother or had a friend from the Navy who lived in Santa Rosa, which was an hour north of San San Rafael. And so though I asked, I called him and was like, Hey, do you guys still have a room? And he's like, yeah, you can come live with us for 200 bucks a month. Perfect. So I was, I did all of that for a year back and forth on that road. On road one. Did you get a motorcycle or anything? Or what were you driving? I did, this is where I was bringing,'cause I know you're a motorcycle guy. I did for the first, I think it was three months I was riding my. Um, I had a, I had a, uh, night hawk, a Honda Night Hawk, a six 50 night hawk. Great. Yeah. I love that bike. But again, it's funny, they made a five 50, a six 50 and a seven 50 Right. All at the same time. And they basically had equal performance. Exactly. They never got past 75. I can guarantee you that. So when I got there and I got this bike, I figured this is an easy way to go back and forth. But then it was only like a couple days before I got my windshield that I realized it's so wet and so cold. Yeah. That once I got a windshield it was fine. But that's how I got back and forth there. Was that your first bike live there? That wasn't my first bike. My first bike was a gift of an Enduro. I had a Kawasaki 70 19 72 KE two 50, which had no cover where the mufflers are every time back to every time I swung my leg back. And you're talking pre navy high schoolers? Yeah. You're, you're That was when I was like, I was given it at, at 16. Okay. And it was a two stroke, so it was so loud. Yeah. Yeah. But that was the first spike. I went, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. Yeah. I'd have to turn it off. At the end of the block and coasting a block away so that I wouldn't wake up my family when I come back. You're coming in at two o'clock in the morning? Well, maybe that's high school. But again, the point is living there in, in San Santa. Santa Rosa. Working in San Rafael. Alcohol and drug abuse treatment. Lot of high schools, lot of presentations. Did you have any training, training for this or you were just basically not worker? I took a few classes. Kind of, I took a few classes, but AmeriCorps, the greatest part about it is they give you experience and so they, they give, there was a whole list. It's kinda hard of point whole. Absolutely. Like the first, I think it was probably the first month, there's nothing but trainings on diversity and, you know, working with, you know, sometimes indigenous populations, you know, how to teach and the what we're teaching. It was good. Uh, and I enjoyed it a lot. And it was also gonna involve another education award at the end of it. That's why I did it.'cause I knew I was gonna get some money. I knew I was gonna get a job and it allowed me to stay in California. I see. That's what's up. So after that year of AmeriCorps, I knew that that contract was up and I didn't know what I was gonna do. And once again, like how we were saying life kind of, you know, sometimes steps in, well, what I'd wanted to do was, and not just wanted, I made a plan where I had applied for a Visa to go to Australia for three months. Okay. And I got this visa and I was set to go. I'd packed my stuff, and it was probably about a month before I was set to go. And I got invited to a volunteer conference in Oakland. And so it was all AmeriCorps people. And so there were speakers and everything else. And while there, uh, I saw performance because there was a group of up with people that were there. Oh, yeah. And so they were performing at this convention. And I, I didn't think anything about it, honestly. I was like, I saw it and I was like, yeah, that's, Something, you know, I was like, that's weird, but okay, cool. Nice. I didn't think anything about it. And then afterwards, this guy, he asked to talk to me and he's like, tell me what your plans are, what you're doing. And I told him and he said, you should interview to be in the cast. And I said, yeah. Mm. Okay, sure. Were your musician. I was a, no, I wasn't a singer and actor. I was just Okay. Yeah. Personable. No, I I was just personable. Yeah. I interviewed well. Yeah, that's it. And so he's like, why don't you come tomorrow?'cause the conference was three days. He's like, why don't you interview with me tomorrow and then we can talk about it? It's like, all right, fine. Next day comes. I forgot all about it and I was on my way to the hot tub and you know how you have your towel and you're like walking through the lobby. This guy stops me and he's like, Hey, are we still coming to my interview in like 20 minutes? I was like, oh yeah, definitely totes. Yeah, I just need to go grab something real quick from the room. And then at that point I felt guilty, right? Because I'm like, I committed to do the interview, go back change. I meet him on the patio or the bar for the hotel. And we sat there and we had just a fantastic, wonderful conversation. And by the end of it I said, well, yeah, it sounds neat. I said, but you know, the truth is, is I can't afford it. The program was not cheap really. And you have to pay to do it. Oh, is that right? So, yeah, I mean, what I didn't, you pay to be a part of this thing, you have to be, it's like an educational experience kinda a thing. Well then you stay with people because, so there's a intersection here in up with people.'cause I think you remember from some of our conversations mm-hmm. That my wife and I have hosted a lot of exchange students. This is exactly where I was going. And our very first one was a young man from Mexico that was here in town with up with people. See, this is why I bring it up, Kurt. I knew there was a reason I, I wanted to rope this and you into this conver this part of the conversation because it absolutely was, uh, Of wait, what? And you remember, just like I told you about those trips originally to Iowa City? Yeah. Here's this guy telling me, he's like, well, you're gonna travel the world. You're gonna do this, right? You're gonna go to 63 cities. And I'm like, this sounds awesome and scary and expensive. I have the first two, absolutely. But the third one, I don't wanna spend all of what I've saved up in four years just to go on this trip. So I didn't think anything about it still came back. And I started getting these emails and phone calls from up with people that said, oh, you know, you qualified for the scholarship. And I said, that's great, but that's not what I need. I need a lot of scholarship, like all the scholarship, like I need the whole thing. Like, pretty much. So they would call back every like week and they're like, oh, we managed to get you another 2000 and then 3000 and 5,000 and then 10,000. Then by the time that we got to a number where it was like, okay, I definitely cannot not go to that. I have to go now and so tell me about this. So it was fantastic and, and, and I like, what's the experience? Give me like an overview of the experience. I love, I love, I'd love this sort of, it's like,'cause remember I'd never even seen an actual show. All I saw at the convention was like a 10 minute kind of deal, right? That wasn't even like,'cause the show's like two and a half hours long, right? So I go back home, I pack my stuff and they're like, here's the list of what you need to bring. I did no research, nothing about the history of the organization. I. I knew nothing. I come out to, uh, Broomfield'cause they had the, the staging in Broomfield. I get there the first day and there's over, there's over 450 students that are there. Okay. And so they're from everywhere, right? Like you said, Mexico, Brazil, Cuba, Thailand. I mean, and I'm looking around and I'm, I am so like, I just, wow. I don't even, I don't even, I'm just completely taken a back. My city meter is maxing out. It was pretty big when I went to bootcamp. This, I mean, nah, but this is like taking to a new level. Completely overwhelmed. I'm, I'm just like eyes wide open. I'm just like, I can't believe how lucky I'm to be here. So we start the staging part and this is where they figure out who's actually has any talent. Yeah.'cause there were people there that worked. Incredible performers, singers, dancers, actors, uh, musicians. And so like they set you through a series of interviews and auditions and so you've gotta go in front of people. Oh, interesting. And I knew that I could act because I'd been in like a couple plays, like in third grade. And then I was, I was it, that was the end of my end of that. I was an Annie. I was an orphan in a musical of Annie. And then I was also, I played a Russian Prime Minister. In a play in seventh or eighth grade, it was called Peace Child, where I played a Russian military officer. Those were my two experiences with acting. So when I go into these interviews and they're like, Hey, read this, you know, part of the script. And I was just having so much fun that I didn't even get nervous. Yeah, you never ever had one of those moments Oh, yeah. Where you're just like, I have no stakes at all. Yeah, yeah. And so like the group of, of of men went from, you know, this many to smaller and smaller groups and smaller groups. And finally like, I'm looking and it's like me and like three other guys for this main part of the show. Oh, wow. And then there, then when they finally selected me, they said, okay, you're gonna do this part. And I'm like, well, how much is that? And they're like, well, it's like this much. And I look and it's like a lot of reading, right? And a lot of lines and a lot of like monologues. And so at that point I started to panic. I'm like, okay, so you better figure it out. How are you gonna do it? Because you're gonna be expected to do it. And it was just an absolutely wonderful experience in staging. Learn so much about, uh, about the process of acting. So does grab an up with people show. So I guess there's a, there's a play, a skit. Like are you acting the role of some kind of an mc or something introducing different music acts? I love being able to talk about this. Yeah. Because again,'cause we never gotta see it when up with people was here, right? We hosted a kid. And then they, there was like a 22 inch snow event. Right. And they canceled the show. Oh man. Well, the thing is what people forget, so I've never seen one. What I really love to, to, to illustrate is two things. One, like you, we stayed in families every single city. Yeah. And I saw, I was given so much generosity. So there's a huge logistics team that, gosh, like reaching out, trying to find families that wants to stay ahead of time. I don't even know how we like a, how you got picked some Facebook post or something. Yeah. I don't know. Well, and again, the team, this is back in when I was there when I was in N 96, that there would be a whole team of people, an advanced team, that they would meet with the community and they would recruit families. Yeah. So what to churches or different places? Whatever, wherever they could find host family. So, The family would, rotary, rotary clubs, we'll take two individuals, right? Yeah. That are men, let's say. Yeah. And like, that's who we'll host and like, and the people would completely go outta their way to be kind and generous and and welcoming. Oh my God. Yeah. Well, I think we had to give our guy a ride back and forth to the practices and stuff like that. Yeah. To the rehearsal. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. And so when you do that, you first off, that's one major part of it. And the other part of it's that every single city we would do service projects. So I mean, I, I'm talking about hundreds of everything from soup kitchens to hospitals, to daycares, habitat days, I mean builds. I mean, every single day was different. Oh, cool. And so you really worked, I I never, never worked harder. Why? Too old to sign up for with people? It was, the thing is, at the time it was only, you could be 17 to 26. Okay. At the time I was like 23. Yeah, yeah. But um, yeah, there was a limit and there was like a cutoff. And so, oh, that's good. So a bunch of old guys, right, the time and the energy, like when after staging there, they said, okay, they broke us all up into different casts. So there was A, B, and C. And so C, you are gonna go first to Europe, a, you're gonna stay in the states, and B is a combination of that. Oh, wow. And so when you got the tour list about your, like for us, for, for our cast, it was like, can you start in, in Denver? Then you go to Cheyenne and then Cheyenne, you're gonna go to North Dakota and then you're gonna go North Dakota. I mean, it was like a rock. Tour, right? Like, and you were thinking like, well most of these towns I've never heard of. Right. And then you're, you realize why, and that's kind of part of the point. Absolutely. It was totally the point.'cause then when you'd get there to say, I'll give you an example. Oh yeah. Gillette. There's a great example. Sure. I mean, if you've ever been to Gillette, I just recently, I came through Gillette the other day. There's nothing there. Not so much. There was absolutely zero there. And the first, that was like the third or fourth show and they were, they said, Hey, do you want to go do radio? And so they take me to the radio station like we're doing now. Oh, right. There's some hosts that would ask you about Yeah, it's like ask you questions, you're the local entertainment. And I look out the window and there was like, and there was seven cows. In the parking lot of the radio station. I'm like, this is a small town. Like, there's nobody but everybody came to the show. Right? Right.'cause it was so special. It was the only thing, it was like when the Harlem Globe prodders come to your town. That's a great example. You wanna see Curly and Metal, a lemon and all those. Yeah, absolutely. But the point is like, uh, truly an amazing experience that changed my life. I still have friends to this day. That came from that time and it, it, as a year, it went by. Way faster than I wanted it to. I bet. And at the end it was pretty heartbreaking and a, a huge sense of loss. Hmm. Because with a hundred and 120 people in the cast, I mean, you spend every day with these people. Yeah, I bet. And then so you go every day to No, and that's the cast of the acting thing. True. Or that's including all the musicians and the crew and everybody. That's crew. And the other thing that people forget is there's multiple jobs. So like, even though I was like, I was an actor, I still had to set up the stage. I had to build it. Right. And to tear it down, I had to do advertising and press. I had to, you know, meet with families, I mean, and recruit people, interview'em. I've never worked harder in my life than I did that year. How fun. It was cool. Yeah. So yeah, that was a year in my life that when I finished that year, then uh, had to figure out what's next and came back to, yeah. Came back to where it was my hometown, um, to try and kind of take stock. Okay. And see like, okay, well back to the quad cities, you mean? Exactly. Okay. And so it was like, okay, I've been in AmeriCorps and then I was in up with people, now I need to go to school. You know, get an undergrad degree. And so I started going to school, but my real goal is get back to Europe. And so that's all I wanted to do was study abroad. Hmm. So my first set of college was, um, to go and to be in the Netherlands. That's why I really wanted to be in the Netherlands. So I started taking classes'cause of the weeded there, I. No, it's nothing to do with that. Isn't that, isn't that Amsterdam? Is Amsterdam? No, Amsterdam is known for that. Coffee shops and that kind of thing. But, uh, just checking. It was more along the lines of, uh, by the way, I got this, this old joint sitting here in this dinosaur. Oh, you can keep that. I don't, I don't need that. Nobody's, the point is nobody's taking me up on it in the last three, four, or five episodes. So maybe you need to have a dispensary owner. So for that. Yeah. You know, well, that's true about what you're saying about coffee shops in Amsterdam. But the but my, that wasn't your motivation. My truth wasn't that, it was the idea of I had really good friends and, and several relationships and close people that were in that part of the world. So I wanted to be there. So once I was there, like from the Navy? From people? No, that was from multiple people. Yeah. Like, and again, and they were all there for the weeded? No, they weren't, not. Were from there. They were from the Netherlands. They were from Belgium. They were from Germany. A lot of'em. Okay. Sweden. Um, yeah, the Northern Europe. Yeah, exactly. The concentration of your favorite people there. Absolutely. So I'm like, I wanna get over there. And so once there, And I studied, uh, European history and, uh, Dutch and I just, I wanted to be there again. Yeah. So once I came back from studying over there, then it was everything to finish a degree at Western Illinois University and get a job overseas. That's all I wanted. Hmm. So once I finished, I came back after being in the Netherlands, then I went to Western, finished my undergrad. Uh, and that took like two years to finish, finish. And then once I finished, then I landed a job. In London. Wow. So, immediately finishing my job of, or finishing my bachelor's, I landed the job in London and it was a two year contract. One year was gonna be in London and one year in dc. Hmm. And it, it landed all, it crossed all the boxes. Do you know what, uh, Fernway is? I don't know what Fernway is. Uh, the Fernway hostel is, uh, one of my phone. Oh, I know where that is at local. Yes. But you, the, the, the word fernway. Yeah. Um, it's a little bit like wanderlust. Okay. It's like, oh, I haven't been traveling Okay. In forever. I'm feeling fernway or something to like get the hell outta where I've been. That's definitely me. Yeah. Yeah. There are, there are days that I fail fernway through, through, I should look that up a little bit, but, well, it's interesting you bring that up. It's something along that line. It's because of the fact I just met with, uh, I believe it's Monica from planting this. That a nonprofit organization that you buy a plant, they give a plant sort of like Tom's not familiar. Well, I put her, I put her in touch with you.'cause I thought you might want interview. I just talked, I just met with her last week. That's why it's so new. And that's, she's based out of Fern Way now, like part of where she teaches classes. Right. On firm way. We have a lot of connections. You, I, yeah, for sure. Absolutely. Well you're, and that's a perfect place to do plants is Fernway too. Oh, they got so much great sun in that front row. What? That's exactly it. So knowing every bit of fernway ness in me, getting me to Europe, getting me to that, uh,'cause I was working for an international, uh, cancer charity. And so when I And what was your degree in? My degree was in a, a Bachelor of Arts program. Okay. Yes, and yes, and yes, because it was a combination of all these different college classes that I'd taken. They, they just basically said, with this program I was in, it was the board of trustees bachelor's program. And he said, because of all my classes, they were just going to award me a Bachelor of Arts. But the amazing part about that was in General studies. Yeah, in general studies. That was it. Yeah. So then they said, this is the, this is the, this never happens. And again, I was at that, by then, I was like 23 or 20. No, I was 24. And they said, because you've been accepted in this program, you can take any class, any level, any department. Oh, that's, that's fun. I was, this is great because I don't want to have to sit through eight religion classes. I, I want calculus seven. Well, you could totally do that if you wanted to, but I was more interested in things like, like philosophy and, yeah. No, I, I, I enjoyed like the, the, the three and 400 level ethics classes. Yes. A lot better than the introduction to philosophy, a tiny example, the best class I ever had while working in my undergrad. It was a religion 455 class, and the class was called Personal Transformation. And I still remember the teacher, I remember the curriculum, every bit of it. It met once a week for three and a half hours. Nice. And it was such a deep dive into religion and dogma and philosophy. I was just so, I was so grateful. Yeah. Because without this degree program never would've been able to take that class. Sure, sure. Unless I was a, yeah. Fourth year philosophy, that's what I'm saying. Major something, studying to go to the priesthood. Maybe that's the only way I could have ended up in there. That's really cool. So I, uh, interesting parallel. I took, uh, three, four, maybe, uh, different philosophy classes at North Dakota State from a priest that taught at the seminary Fantastic. In Moorhead. And he was a, uh, Uh, an Olympian. Uh, okay. For Canada. Oh wow. Like in 19, I don't know, 28 or something like that. Oh, he's an older fellow. Yeah. He was like a 90 ish year, year old guy when I was taking classes from him. Listen, and your coincidences just are about ready to get weirder'cause they just got a phone call from, uh, a buddy of mine, Dr. Sullivan, who uh, uh, works now for the Moorhead Chamber of Commerce. Oh, well. So all things Fargo style. Tell him, say hi to Herb McCullough if he's still, I'm sure that he's gonna, he, he's in those circles all the time. He is where he got his doctorate from. I'm pretty old by now. I assume I'm, I'm assuming he's passed. He, he was 90, like 40 years ago. He sounds like a great guy. Yeah. 30 years ago. Well, the idea of just a great, like you said, that firmness of my personality of get out of here, go there. I loved every bit of time living overseas, working overseas. When it came back to the States to go to DC to do the second part of this contract, I just did not have a good experience in DC Yeah. I, it just wasn't, was it because of the, the fernway restriction or because it was the, the DC flying I think, I think it was dc Yeah. Like the city. Uh, and again, I, I was there for, I think it was a total of eight months. And the whole time I was there, I, I made one friend wanted to be somewhere else. I had one friend the whole time I was there. So when I left DC I truly did want to just, that's funny recap. You spend a year with up with people and you walk away with 80 friends. Yeah. A hundred. Yeah. And the, the eight months DC find one, one friend. No doubt. So when I left DC to come back again to sort of reset, uh, I, this is gonna sound strange, but I had a real, a real revel revelatory moment of, uh, I was taking care of my family at the time where I was cooking and cleaning and, and doing a lot of that. And so I really love to cook. And I thought, well, maybe I should go. You, you were living there for free and so you felt you should cook. I was obligated to cook. Yes. Absolutely. Sorry, I didn't No, it's true. You're absolutely right. It was like, well, I'm got free rent. I better just, or make some grits. So I would cook, I would cook big meals, delicious meals. And I thought, well, maybe I could do that. Maybe I could go to culinary school. Yeah. And like be a chef. Interesting. And so I applied for culinary school, got accepted, and then I had, part of the acceptance into culinary school was they needed you to work at a restaurant. Okay. And so I looked around and I thought, Hmm, what's the nicest restaurant in town that I could get a job at? And so there was a country club, and I'd worked at the country club before as a lifeguard, so I already had an in there. Yeah. And they called up, uh, the chef and he's like, yeah, come on in and interview. And so he interviewed, he got, I got the job like, as like a line cook. Yeah. Which I'd never worked in a restaurant, but he was just like me. So he is like, yeah, come in, I'll teach you. And he was a. A phenomenal teacher. Oh, cool. And so, like, why I go to culinary school, when you go, that's it. You, you completely got it. And I'm, I'm thinking to myself like, this is it. This is great. I don't need to go to, and so I actually withdrew my application from culinary school and it was at that moment that I decided I liked cooking, but I didn't wanna make it a living. So then I thought, well, where did I get my undergrad from? Where can I get a master's degree from? And equally as makes sense to get one. And that's where my grad school came in to go for communications. So then I left my back in that went back to my hometown or back to my undergrad. That's a weird experience too. Mm-hmm. Come back to where you went to undergrad and you're like, I'm Yeah. Five years later. Older, older guy or whatever. Right. And uh, yeah, soda we called it when I was in college. Students older than average. Yeah, absolutely. And so that was, that was a weird tran again transition. Yeah. You're back in this. But, uh, another great move and great decision. Uh, learned a lot about what I wanted to do for a career at that point in grad school.'cause it was all communication based, interpersonal communication. We looked at, um, you know, organizational comm, uh, public speaking of course, and just fell in love with all of that stuff. A lot. Not so much on statistics. And research based, but I loved the, the idea of how do humans communicate. Hmm. And I just wanted that. I was, I was like, I so have to get this. Yeah. And when I finished that degree, then it was a matter of, I need to take this on the road. Big surprise. You notice a pattern here. There's a, there's a guy that I took a seminar from or that did a loco thing once, and it was kind of, his definition of leadership is, is really broad. It's like anything anyone does to change the potential behavior of somebody else, kind of, and mm-hmm. When I think about like, even a communication degree, like that's how you do it. Right? Right. Like, it's, it's through your communication, both verbal, non-verbal, you know, being an auctioneer. Mm-hmm. Uh, moving people from Yeah. One place. To another, helping them move themselves. Call to action to buy something In the case of auctions. Absolutely right. Maybe your call to action is to make people cry or make'em think or you know. It is, it's a movement. You know, we started here, we built rapport. I gave you some information, and now the next step is where do we, what do you want me to do with what You said? Where's the rubber? Meet the road. Yeah, exactly. And so when I finished that degree of communications, my first job I landed was here in Fort Collins, and I knew I wanted to be here. 15 years earlier, 20 years earlier, 15 years earlier, I'd came here for a wedding. Oh really? And I, and I so loved it. Like what? In high school or something? No, no. This was a person from UP people that she was getting married and she invited me to come into her wedding. Okay. And I just, I thought I'll come and visit and see what's like, and even then, and this is where life comes all to 360, I said, I'm even then I said, I'm gonna move here someday. Yeah. So when I had the opportunity, when we grad, when, when I graduated that, uh, I found a job through the Upward Bound program teaching English. And he, as you know, that's only a summertime thing. Yeah. So it's at risk youth and it's teaching and it's at C S U with high school kids. Yeah. Oh my gosh. I got there and absolutely fell in love with it.'cause that, that it truly was, you come up with the curriculum, you, you decide what exercises you're gonna do, what. Creative writing wise, you do that. And I mean that luxury to just do whatever I wanted. I loved it. And so one of the first exercises we did with creative writing was I said, I want you to write to music. And they said, what do you mean? And it was like, we're gonna start with a prompt and then I'm gonna play some music, and I just want you to see the difference of how your stories unfold with whatever I play. Hmm. And so, you know, we would go from classical to like, you know, death metal, hard, hard rap to like Yeah. Like speed metal to Disney Show Tune. And I, and it was such a, so I, I loved being able to create as I wanted to. Yeah. And that's what the, the students, they responded accordingly. Yeah. I loved it. Well, that's quite a demonstration even there of kind of freethinking and communications and influence and, you know, seeing Yes. And I, I, I, I have a, I have a prediction. I bet that it was far more. Obvious than you expected it to be. I think. I think that things unfolded in exactly the way that they were supposed to because my next teaching job after that was probably two years later. Then I started teaching also at Front Range, where public speaking and interpersonal, that, I know most people know this, but you can teach with a Master's degree and it doesn't have to be in the subject Yeah. Of that particular department. And so I did, I got the teaching job teaching those two classes along with another job where I was doing community relations like I am now. But my point is I needed and wanted more of that teaching feeling as I said it, upward Bound. To translate that to Front Range. Oh my gosh. How much? I don't want to take too much time about Front Range, but my experience at was 99%. Wonderful. It was fantastic. I love teaching at Front Range. It was amazing. I've, I've noticed a thread of, I guess, Wanting to, uh, support or uplift those that haven't had as many advantages maybe in different ways. Is that you're, you're, you're picking up on exactly what, where did that, that come from? Like, was that with you even back in high school? Did that grow on you during the Navy? I, I, I think it's a combination of milestone people and or experiences that gave me the chance to tell my story like way I'm right now, but giving people the chance to tell me who they are and again, how far going back. Absolutely. Because even in the Navy, those experiences of being all these new people from all over, yeah. Yeah. It was, I was just like a sponge. That was kind of what your heroes modeled for you. Okay. This is a little bit I have, yeah. My mother especially, and I'll tell you why. There's a, there's a bit that I tell people sometimes if I'm doing an open mic where I'll say, you know that it's true that my mother was a birthday clown. Lemme let that sink in just for a second. Like, yes, she would go to birthday parties dressed in full clown makeup and do parties like En Entertain. Okay. Yep. And I thought, okay, that's weird. And then come to find out, way back in the day that one of my first experiences with other cultures, my, my, she had gotten a job at a, it was an. All African American preschool. That's where she worked at. Okay. So that was my first preschool. It was an all black preschool. Yeah. Yeah. So I show up there And she wasn't black, I presume? No, she was not black. Okay. Neither was I. So that was the weird part about it. It was like, I show up there and my mom said I was completely and totally just enamored with everything. Enthralled with the differentness. He's, she said I would, I walked up to this, uh, this young boy and like I just could not, I was fascinated by his hair. Right. I just was like, just like, and she's just, I get that way even today, like when I see a really amazing Afro style hair dude or something along that line, I'm like so jealous. It started right then about this experience of new cultures, new people, and again, we talked about this from when we started the podcast, going back to that very first worldview creating experience of the mall of. I, I'm, I just, if I'm in a room with people, let's say, and there's 60 people in there and there's one person that seems completely and totally awkward and really trying to keep to themselves, that's where I'm drawn. Yeah. I just go right to that person. The most different, the strangest, weirdest person. Well, thanks for introducing yourself to me in that capacity. That's cool. Uh, so many times's. True. Well, it's, I tell you, another thing I like about the Loco think tank and specifically your podcast, is that you're willing to sit down with people that have what I consider to be a non-traditional story. Hmm. And whether you're talking about the people that came, uh, here and started the shoe school or like, you know, nonprofits that are just Peter pinging Pong Guy was a great Yeah, Antonio. Oh my gosh. Yeah. He was a fun conversation. Oh, it was amazing. And I, I definitely think that that, that, as I said, long form storytelling, one and two, giving people the opportunity to share who they are, what they're about. Yeah. Again, I love to connect people with, with resources, with other people, with business opportunities, with, sometimes it's just somebody that you meet, the one person in your little town that's like, wait, you're from Australia and you've never had meat pies from the a Australian. Do you even know it exists? And then it's like the person just looks at you. What? And you're thinking, well, well, duh. Yeah. Oh my, where's that? The Watson Kangaroo. Yeah. And you're Watson. Thank you. I knew I'd come, I was like, I could see the logo there, but if you love meat pot, this, they're so good too. Anyway, I'll, I'll tell you one more example. And this actually happened because, um, I didn't know what a pokey bowl was. Oh, yeah, right. Poke. Okay. Yeah. Is that how you say it? Poke, poke, poke. If you're in Hawaii, you say poke, right? That's the bowl I'm referring. And so a friend of mine, she spent her whole life, um, and growing up in Hawaii and I told her about that place and she said, wait, what? I said, yeah, there's a place where you can go get that bowl. Like you remember, she like, oh, we had po. She's like, I'm going there like now. Like I just, I'm leaving work like by it with the address'cause I gotta get there. And again, I think that, that this community and has such a generous heart and knowing like there are things that are for the positive that are happening all the time. And when I meet somebody and I ask'em that very important question of, you know, how are you getting involved? Yeah. In the classic, you know, how do you spend your time, energy, and your money? And I think that sometimes that people, they have just never been asked of that question. Yeah. And so I think those gifts, as we said, whether it's, yeah. And as you explore that with people you can like, bless their life and bless the community by. Here's something you want, wanna do. Maybe, and I, I'll tell you this one story,'cause I definitely want to get this young lady on your podcast. And this is, it does relate to me in a tiny way, and I'll explain why as, as I tell the story. But, um, it was probably close to nine years ago now that a friend of mine introduced me to another friend. Uh, we're having dinner at their house, and I look in one of the rooms and there's a couple sewing machines in there, okay? And I said, that's cool. Like, what are you doing in there? What is that? And she's like, oh, you know, I make custom backpacks. And I was like, oh, made to order. She said, oh yeah. It's like, oh, is that you'd like that? And whatever. And she's like, well, you know, it's pays the bills. You know, it's like it, she does it, but she's like, what I really love is costuming, okay. And I said, what do you mean costuming? She's like, oh man, I love'em. My kids with preschool and like, they get their, you know, Halloween day or whatever, we work on it for months. And I said, oh, that's my grandma made. My uncle a ET costume. Very nice. Back in the day. Like a custom full. You need to send me a picture that I need to see that. Yeah, it'll be an amazing one anyway. I think so. So when I said to her, I was like, costumes was the thing, and I said, okay. So. At the time I was, I was still, uh, this is right about the time where Nick and I founded the Fort Collins ComicCon. Mm. And I'd already been involved in the first Denver ComicCon and I said, have you ever been to a con before? And she's like, what is that? Oh, I was a ComicCon is like, these are like champion costumes. These people get money a lot to put on the, and she's like, well, I'll go. And I said, great. So we met her down there. Yeah. And I have never seen more of a person that was more out of their skin in the moment of just head on a swivel of just, she could not stand still. Right. And so like cut to the next, it's like talking about the Renaissance Festival or something. Right. Cut. Cut to the next year. Right. And so she tells me she's got a team of people with five people that she's completely done all of their costumes. And so it was all, uh, steam punk, little Mermaid. Nice. The costumes were so elaborate. They couldn't even fit'em inside the hotel room. That's how big they were. They had to leave them outside. So she goes to the con and has an amazing day of nothing but people giving her compliments and accolades. And I, I am just like standing back like a proud, proud parent. Is that as a Oh, gets way better. It gets way better. Well, she could, so I cut to a year later, right. And she's like, or no, she said to me, um, can you come by? For, for some reason. Oh, I remember what it was. I had a mug that I'd found and I really wanted to give it to her'cause I knew it had to relate to what she was gonna show me. And so I, it was a, it was a mermaid like coffee mug. Okay. And so we get to her house and she's like, there's something I wanna show you. She takes me in the backyard. And so her husband had built her. Like a three car, two story warehouse workshop designed for her. Oh, and costuming. Yeah. And I opened the door and it was a full on, like, it looked like a mini sweatshop and she had machines going everywhere. Nice. And she had costumes like displayed on each wall of like different mermaid costumes. Wow. And I said, what's this? And she's like, oh yeah. I started selling mermaid costumes internationally. Right. To museums and the MER community of all over the place. And I thought, this is amazing. Yeah. And she's like, look, I want to thank you. I never would've gotten here. I was like, oh my God. I started crying. I was just like, this is beautiful. So cut to a year after that, I'm on uh, my phone and I got an email from Netflix and it said, you might be interested in this series called MER People. Oh gosh. And so I text her right away and I'm like, this whole thing is about mermaids and mermaid. Uh, culture and costume. And she said, I know I'm in the show. Oh shit. I said, oh my gosh, this is crazy. So I watched the show and like, she's like in it for like a conference scene, like a brief second. But in that moment I was, I was thinking about how ideas in germination happened, right? And thinking about when I went to her house the first time and I saw that thing and I saw the sewing machine, right? And I was just like, well, why I, it made sense to me, right? But in that moment she was probably like, whatcha talking? Only know what we know, right? Well that combined with that, I'd already envisioned her creating and making costumes in this giant setting. And all she had was two sewing machines and some backpacks. Interesting. But I thought like, oh no, you can totally do that other thing. And so it has been such a journey. I love that. And watching her, and I'll send a link if you wanted to, to her stuff and how she got her start and. It's just been so cool. And that's where I think that, that, that I go back to. We were talking about books and influences and, you know, forks in the road, if you will. Yeah. My favorite quote from Zig Ziglar is, the number one way to get what you want is to help other people get what they want. For sure. Absolutely. A hundred percent. And so like that has nothing to do with me. Costumes and mermaids and whatever else. It had everything to do with creativity and the exploration of ideas and, and ins and where inspiration comes from. I got a, a six pack of beer, uh, delivered this afternoon from a young man I met with last week. He rolled in here unannounced. Nice. Uh, and moved here from Durango. Got a job with some aerospace company in Berkeley that just laid off a third of their workforce. Okay. So he's a free agent. Okay. Just moved up here. His girlfriend, just networking. Just doing it. Yeah. He just walked in local think tank, found us on the internet and uh, Hey bud. What up? And so I met with him and kind of got to know him a little bit and I was like, man, I got a lot of people that would maybe want to have a job for this young man. So I introduced him to a few and, uh, that's awesome. He probably, you know, maybe he'll get a job with one of'em, maybe you won't, but Yeah. Like, I'm helping him get what he sons. Absolutely. Yeah. I'm helping my customers get what they want, which is access to, you know, my favorite people in the world, as you know, is Alex Coberg. You know that? Yeah. And so did I ever tell you about, how did he tell you how we met? No. Well, this is a great story. It's real short. Okay. In that, uh, I was waiting for a meeting at Whole Foods at the bar, and he was waiting for a meeting too, and he was drinking one of those sparkling water type. We weren't only drinking beer, he was sparkling water. And I was like, oh, that sounds like interesting. What, what flavor is that? And so he told me and I was like, cool, I'll take one of those. And we just started a conversation cut to three years later. Uh, I was the minister at his wedding. Oh, cool. And so fast friends. Congratulations is Alex. I didn't realize you doubt recently. That's doubt. That was it. And so then yes, that's one of my many talents is as a minister, if you need one. Fair enough. So, uh, having said that about we met, met you, I'm over one, one. I ordained one, uh, one ceremony and it's, uh, it went, I have done six. Yeah. How's your record? Six different weddings. Uh, I'm six and a zero. Six and zero. They're all still together. I know. It's pretty good. I want take credit for that. Completely. And one of, well, that's a place where we diverged. My friend didn't work out. I might just stay at oh one and just call it Oh wow. You're hanging up your stripes or my, my whatever, my priest collar or whatever that little thing is called. Yeah, the thing in your neck. Um, I think that, that, that, that, that is exactly, if I had to put, put together what my dog mom, my mission statement, my personal that is, is, is, is making sure and doing my best to help people get to where they want to go. That's, that has been from day one. I tell you what, uh, I think probably three or four times now you've introduced me to a right potential guest for the podcast. And every time, whether they've been on or not, I'm like so honored. No big deal. I'm just like flattered by that. Hey, while he's not, Yeah. You know, not related, you know, just all of a sudden, boom, you know, this person needs to be on Chris' podcast. I'll give, I'll, I'll give you one great example. Like, these could people that are actually listening to this after an hour and 15 minutes, there's a great book that I'm reading right now, and it's by the Producers of the Moth, um, yeah. Great podcast. And it's called, um, how To Tell Story. Oh. And, uh, I mean, as I read it, I'm reminded of so many of the times that my students, my friends, my family have made themselves vulnerable to share with me. Yeah. And I mean, I try to create an environment that people can do that. And I only want to tell this one story'cause it's, it's a great example of what I try to, to, to, to, to do. And the exercise for my class was, you need to tell me a story about the day that changed your life. Hmm. That's it. You think of a moment, just a day. Yeah. Just one day where you're like, this happened not a day. Nope. Not in several days. No. It's not a period of your life. Yeah. No. I have to be very specific. And I remember the student, there's so many of these, but I'm only going to like, again, one. And the student was from Ohio and he said Yes. Uh, the, the background is, I'm gonna tell the story about how I changed my life within 24 hours of quitting my job, leaving my apartment, packing my car, and traveling 18 hours straight. And I said, okay, you have my attention, right. Let's hear it. And so he was on the couch with his girlfriend and they were flipping through, you know, you know, you see those lists, best places to live. Sure. You know, a hundred ideas of where to go. And, and a flip through. They saw a picture right of Fort Collins, one picture, and they're like, we should move there. Within 24 hours, he quit his job. Right? Drove and packed all of his stuff up and drove from the town in Ohio to the Walmart parking lot that's on harmony. Okay. Within 24 hours of that, every decision was made and done and completed within 24 hours. Impressive. So anybody that tells you who is this? Oh, it was one of, of my former students. Okay. And so the idea of of, of when I hear those stories, uh, I could never. Right. Oh man. That's just, you know, if it's only for this and only for that, I, I, I think that so often in times in life, you, you have so many voices and people telling you how it can't be done. When you really only need one saying, I'm just gonna do it. Why not? Yeah, exactly. And I think that his story just inspired me in that moment of, of to do all kinds of different things. And so when you mentioned the idea as we started this conversation about auctioneering, I had already wanted to do it before Covid. Yeah. And so they said, well, you know, then during all of Covid, This was, you know, some people were crawling the walls Sure. Because they were extroverts and you had to stay home all the time. That was me. Okay. Absolutely. That was me. I just went out, hung out with my friends a lot. I still didn't do that. I was locked up, locked down. And the whole time during those two years I would practice auctioneering alone. Oh shit. That's sad. By the way. That's cool when you're trying to auction something with no one responding. Yeah. Yeah. That is the worst. That is social quicksand over here. There, there's there. Nobody, nobody's bidding. No, no bids. Okay. So like, that was such a revelation to go to auction school and be there and be completely and totally humbled by how not good I was. Yeah. Because there were people that were day one that had been, they'd been doing it for years. Huh. And again, you get better every day. Yeah. It's, and and it was 14 hours a day for 10 days. Dang. So you, you know, you can imagine drills after drills, but, I as a grown, you know, man, I thought, oh, I've got talent. How do I was so under prepared. Sure. I I hit the ground running. Yeah. Yeah. And I caught up, I believe. But it was, so, it was, again, I, I appreciated that the opportunity to be humbled. How do, actually I, there's, um, Get paid, like, well, it depends on the, the, you get cut sometimes you get for hour. It depends on the, the kind of auction. Sure, sure. The charity auctions, you probably barely make nothing. I'm, I'm glad that you brought it up because of two reasons. There's several different ways to do it by which that, like for an estate sale, a lot of times that's a percentage. Yeah. And so like 15% of everything than the house gets that. Okay. And the house being the auctioneer. Uh, a lot of, with real estate, it's different. It's a percentage there too. Sometimes it's a flat fee, and that's, as I'm starting out, I'm, I just have a simple flat fee. Sure. Depending on the auction, the size of it. But it also depends on how big the event is. Uh, the, the first one that I've, that I did, which was for Bob Blue, which is a amazing night, it was called A Night in Paris. And again, that was a, a set of items and a flat fee. And, and they had things that they really wanted to make sure they got for the different things. Yeah. Yeah. And we met all those goals. Awesome. And we had a ton of fun. But again, if you're talking about a room of 300 plus people, then I need as the auctioneer to bring in ringman and then there's collars or whatever that is Exactly. Collar, big collars. And so that way I can, you know,'cause when you're standing in front of 300 people with like a bright light in your face. Yeah, yeah. It's, it can be hard. Yeah. Yeah. But in answer to your question, it really depends on the size of the auction and what's being sold and what the agreement is. Mm. What the cause is. Yeah. Yeah. Negotiable. And I mean, the idea too is that I need to make sure that people know that this is a skill that. That I do charge for. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, and, and, and if it's a different type of event where say I'm an mc, that's a different story where I might do that for free, but for the, for auctioneering, it's paid Yeah. To do that. Well, and it's a, it is a skill as you say. And and that's why the house gets 15% on an estate sale.'cause Yeah, you could screw around. And sell everything for half as much money if you want to. Right? Sure. But if you wanna really maximize your dollars, hire a good auctioneer. I love the fact that you brought that up in and the way you did too, because I definitely think it's one of the few careers and things that have been the same for so long. Yeah. You know, you can go all the way back to the Civil War and that we're auctioning off war supplies. It's really where it started. Interesting. For what is the traditional auction like with a cane and the guy standing up there, but, uh, that, that rich history that's there that people say, you know, well there's a lot of online, and the online auctions are the thing. Sure. Whatever. There is nothing that does not get you no emotionally invested, like No, no, not at all. I go on. So before, before land prices really started going up fast in North Dakota, um, my dad bought a, a section of land. Okay. Uh, in really prime. Mm-hmm. Uh, Location. So 600 plus acres, Uhhuh, and it was right off the highway. Mm-hmm. And he was just, he wanted that piece and he was ready to bid for it. Right. And the guy that he was bidding against, when dad got the bid, he like stood up and slammed his chair against the other side of the wall and made this because he didn't win. The guy didn't win. He didn't win. Yeah. Oh, wow. And it just shows how emotionally invested. Oh man. People can be in that kind of a conversation. It's all about context too. I'll give an example from a, from a benefit auction that I was at in a small rural town in Illinois where the, it was like probably 20 things in the silent auction. And one of the things was a, a signed Elton John cd. Okay. But I'm a big fan. And then the other part was a hot wheel car. That was Dale Earnhardt. Okay. Now the Dale Earnhardt hot wheel car that was signed went for$1,400. Wow. The Elton John CD$33. Wow. And again, you have to think about who was there, right. Who bid and for how much. But again, I mean, if you knew your audience and you knew that they were gonna be a lot of NASCAR fans, you should have just front loaded that whole thing with NASCAR memorabilia. Totally. Right. But I've watched things that are worth a ton of money, go for way less than they should. And I've seen, I, I, I met with one charity auctioneer. Uh, that was a mentor for a couple years, uh, that we would talk every six months, and I had a great conversation. I said to him, what is the best item as in the most amount of money that you ever raised from one singular item? And he said, look, you know, back where my town is, there's one developer. That's the guy and everybody knows he does all the big projects. Yeah. And it was dinner for, he said it was dinner for six four course meal bottles of wine, cigars, cognac, all that fancy stuff. It went for$55,000. Whoa. And it's like, obviously it was FaceTime with this person. So each couple was in for 12 grand or 10 grand. And so it was one of those about the bidens get a lot more than that. It was, I'm not gonna get into any politics. No, we're gonna get there shortly. No, no, we're definitely not. But the idea of, of knowing your audience, knowing what, how, how exclusive or how unique this is. I absolutely love to sit down with organizations and say, what can we have in this auction that's unique Yeah. And special. And that people are like, and the people that care about this organization will find compelling. Well, one of the things that I know that I really wanted to get lately was, uh, Taylor Swift tickets. Right.'cause those are one of those things that you cannot get'em Right. Right. For like less than. Two grand. Right. And so Sure. If I knew somebody who knew somebody, that would be awesome to, yeah. A meet and greet with Taylor Swift. Well, sometimes just to ask. Yeah. Yeah. That, that's just it too, you. If you don't, that's the fundraiser. That's the fundraiser commandment number one. If you don't ask. If you don't get the answer is always no. That's one absolutely true statement. So auctioneer's been fun and I I would love to be able to talk to any nonprofit who hears this and wants to connect. Uh, yeah, I'll put my, you'll entertain the state sales too, you know, that's something that I'm, I feel like I need to do a few more. Meaning like I need to attend more and get more experience. Oh, fair enough. Fair. I can talk to people about estate sales, but it's definitely not my area expertise. Okay, fair enough. Benefits. Uh, yeah. And that kind, so how do you find it is be Betty Bidder options. Betty Options. Betty Botter. You waiting for me to do the Betty Botter? Bought Betty be, yeah. Do it. No. See, I'd say I gotta get paid to before I could start auction. You're not gonna do this. You can gimme a dollar. I'll the rhyme you the got a dollar. Betty bought Betty butter. Her bought some butter. Is that what? See almost you, you, which rub? It's almost Did it? I almost did it, but I'm not gonna do it. Almost did. It is not worth a dollar. So it's sort of like when you hook, meet a comedian, you're like, make me laugh of like, so you need to pay. Do it now. Be funny. Yeah, exactly. Be funny now. Not like that. So it's, it is interesting that this woman stopped me and she said, oh, you're getting ready to go to auction school. That's fantastic. Or no, I just got back. And she's like, oh. So it must be like all day, like, hey, bad, bad, bad, bad, better. And I'm like, I think you're thinking of umpire school. That's different. That is not auctioneering at all. That's something completely different. So yeah, some parallels, but not the same. But uh, yeah. I'm gonna call a short break No problem. And we're gonna come back and talk. Faith, family and politics. Alright. Excellent. Alright. And we're back. So we always do the mandatory faith family politics. Sure. Uh, which, which, and we only a little time, I didn't realize you were running short, so we'll make it compact. Go ahead. On the, uh, where you'd like to start. Well, I think that, and you said faith, family, and politics. Is that the three areas of those we went this whole life journey. You're wearing a wedding ring and I never even heard about you finding a girlfriend along this whole way, so Oh my goodness. Can we, my wife is fantastic. We start Okay. And, uh, you, we met at, she was finishing her undergrad and I was in grad school and so we actually, we will be celebrating 20 years. No. And another, uh, year and a half. Okay. And so the idea of being 20 years s confident from being a year and a half away still? Well, I think I'll make it this far. You know, I mean, I just played absolutely. My wife and I just celebrated 20 years last month actually. Well, congratulations. And I think that, uh, I think that, uh, when it comes to family and marriage, I think my dad said it best that he, my dad was the best example of the worst example. Hmm. And he'll say that in, in the kindness and the generosity to know that, that, uh, he was a work in progress up until probably 35. And then he really intensified, uh, by getting clean and sober and really turning his whole life around. Hmm. Uh, my, my mother in terms of family, unfortunately she passed away at only 51. Wow. And so that was tragic circumstances where she died of alcohol poisoning. So, I mean, it was definitely a, a life of, uh, Uh, life spent of, with a lot of different addictions and tragedy and, uh, overcoming adversity and at risk. Was that part of your fe way? Absolutely. Absolutely. Look, you're bringing it back around and, and you're absolutely right because it was one of those of like seeing how this is how I was raised and grew up, but I don't wanna do that. Yeah. I don't want my, I don't want myself to be treated that way. I don't want to treat my wife like that. I don't want her to treat me like that. I don't want to have addiction be part of my life. Yeah. I don't want that. That's fair. And so that's, again, you're absolutely right in that fe way journey of leaving home, and especially in, especially as I said, with the up people part of my life, to be able to see so many different types of families in different cultures of, oh, wait, what? You can, oh. Wait, what? Like, it was such an eye-opening experience that I, I truly got the, the pieces, if you will, of the bigger picture of how I wanted my relationship to be, how I want my family life to be, how I want my Yeah, yeah. Just, well, and just there's so many different ways to be than the way that was modeled for you. Yeah, exactly. Of like, that's not what I want. Yeah. So how am I gonna do different? And, and I think my whole life has been a series of those things. Yeah. So family-wise, my mom took some classes, like in community college, but she never graduated college. Mm-hmm. My dad, my dad didn't, my dad did not even graduate high school. So again, I mean, that idea of education, going to graduate school Absolutely. Things like, it's so strange. Yeah. And, and again, that fernway journey of, I, I make it a priority education. I make it a priority of. Intellectual curiosity and critical thinking. And I guess that makes a nice spring way into faith because, well, not yet though. Oh, okay. Go ahead. So you met your wife and mm-hmm. Fell in love and Yeah. Did this journey together. You guys, you, you don't have children, you do have children? Uh, we do have children. Okay. We have a, he's not a child anymore, he just turned 24. Okay. So, I mean, we're, we, uh, we raised, we raised him together and knowing the fact of that his life journey took him out of the house by the time he was 18. And I just was grateful for the fact of, you know, being a a, being a dad and raising a son was probably the hardest thing I've ever done. Yeah. But knowing he's out of the house, he's got his own life, but raising him was definitely difficult. Yeah. And I think that that faith journey of family and knowing how I wanted to be as a dad, that was all part of that journey too, of. We know what I didn't wanna be as a father. Yeah. And seeing some of those worst behaviors about, I'm not gonna treat my son like that. I'm not gonna talk to him like that. I'm not going to, you know, try to make him one thing or another or point him in this direction. Let him find his own way. And that's when I did, finally was able to find my own way. Yeah. That's what was so fantastic. One thing kind of turned around for you. Absolutely. And that's again, I think that, uh, that's where family and falling in love and raising a kid and he's out of the house and doing his thing, that I think that people forget that part of a journey of a family, that once the child gets to a point, he's not a child anymore, he is off in his own. Yeah. Yeah. That we have to look at each other again and go, oh, there you are. There you are. As my wife as opposed to the mother of my son and that kind of thing. Yeah. Yeah. And so since he left home, we've had so many great adventures. That she is equal. I'm so grateful that you brought up the idea of fernway again.'cause I definitely think that, that I've sort of like instilled in her even more fe way than she had. Yeah. Yeah, probably. And so like, our journey together has really been pretty fantastic. Well, especially once, uh, your son is outta home and now you can shake your firm ways all over the place. The world. The world is, they're our oyster. We were just talking about, uh, grand adventures and the next big thing because we travel a lot. And so whether it's Iceland or other places in, you know, France or England or South America or Canada or wherever we've been to or going to next. That having somebody to travel with, I think is an amazing part of a relationship. Yeah. What's your, what's your wife's name? Jennifer. Hi, Jennifer. Yeah. I assume you listen to this. I doubt that she'll listen to this, but that's fine. Yeah, I don't think so, but that's okay. Well, I'm gonna find her and send it to her. Well, she, she, she definitely, because what's funny is like, she knows some things I do for art that she either just knows. It's just weird part of my life, and I'll give you an example. Um, a good friend of mine, uh, Jamal, who owns Black Sparrow Media, we met Oh yeah, I met Jamal recently actually at a podcasting thing. I think another former up people person. Is that right? Yeah. And we, we didn't even even know that when we met. Okay. We were like, so wait, you were in a what? And he's, uh, like did a who? And he's, his story is amazing, is it? But, uh, when we started to talk about how his parents met, his dad is from the Bronx and his mom is from South Central. Okay. And they met and up with people. Oh, cool. And it was one of those, as we started talking about relationships and we just had so much in common, That. He's like, why don't you interview or not interview? Why don't you audition for my movie? I'm like, wait, what? What movie? And so it was an independent small feature. Yeah. Called Welcome to Hollywood. And he's like, I think there's a part that I want you to read for, and it's a mu a movie producer. And I said, okay, well, I read the script and I said, okay, I'll audition. I went auditioned. And they're like, well, you got the part, you know? I said, okay, great. As long as you don't need to get paid. We're good. Yeah. No, it got, it did pay. It did get paid. Oh. So I'm like, no, even better. So I signed my contracts and I said, okay, well then we'll just see. The first day of shooting comes and they were shooting at this, uh, country club. Real high end place. Yeah. And so I show up in my costume and everything and they're like, I get there. And I knew something was legit when the first guy had one of those earpieces in. Right. He's like, I've got, I've got Nathan. Where do you want me to send him? And they're like, send him to makeup's. All right. So I go down there and there's like full on makeup team. Dang. And I go, okay, well this is different than the last couple movies I've worked on. Oh, I wanna learn more about this. And I was like, this sounds fun. And like we get to the set and there's like a good 25 people that are part of the wow. Part of the set. And I said, okay, now I know it's legit. And so they start shooting and we did my scene, then we did my scene again. And I was just so impressed with how good it looked. Huh, interesting. And so I didn't think anything about it. And then like, probably six months go by and I get a message from Jamal and he's like, oh, just wanna tell you some good news that the movie got picked up. Wow. For the New York Short Film Festival. Oh, sweet. I said, say what? And so he sent me the link and, and the video was up on Vimeo in places like that. And so I was pretty excited about it. Yeah. Watched it a few times or whatever, and I thought, look good. Well, when I told my Jenny about it, she was like, she was sort of like, what of that? Meh, you know, one of those moments where you're really jazzed about something and then your partner's like, yeah. Yeah. It's like if I told her like, yeah, I bought some Girl Scout cookies. They were selling'em, and then she'd be like, meh. Yeah. You know, it was equally as non excited. Yeah. Jill's, uh, like, I'm Fort Collins famous, probably. You are too. Yeah. And so you'll be out to dinner with your wife. Oh yeah. And like people will know you at every location. This happens all the time and stuff. Absolutely. And you're just like, yeah, I don't really wanna talk to anybody right now. Right. It's like, and it, for her, it's like kind of an annoyance almost. Oh yeah. Big time. It's definitely not like, oh, go talk to Kurt over there. Well, and if I know you Yeah. You like, you go over there and talk for like nine minutes when you should have just left and said Hi real quick and come back. This is definitely a problem. And so Jennifer, he's sorry. Yeah. I'm definitely very sorry for that part of my personality, but in the same breath, I have a completely in supportive team and boss right now at Foothills and the la and I'll give you a great example. We were at a fundraising dinner and my director came to me and we were sitting at the table and I said, do you mind if I just go say hi to, I see.'cause it was Wade Troxel that was there. Sure. And I was like, we just had a great conversation like the day before. And I was gonna say hi. And, and my director, this is the highest compliment she, she gave, she could gimme, she said, she's like, this is what we want you here for to do. Yeah. This is why we hired you. And I was thinking, thank you for recognizing my ability to connect and know people. Yeah. Do the thing I do. And so that was exactly it. The highest praise I could have got. And. Uh, the supportive team and the nature of every bit of foothills has allowed me to meet and do what I think is exactly what I'm supposed to be doing in the exact time I'm doing it. Yeah. So, yeah. Well, thanks for that. Um, let's jump to faith. Absolutely. Well, it's interesting that my faith Yeah. We haven't talked about it the whole time. No problem. And again, it's interesting because, um, I grew up Catholic. Okay. And then I left Catholic school after eighth grade. Oh wow. And, and definitely had an influence on me. Uh, by that I mean, again, one of those classic examples of what I don't want faith to be fair. Yeah. Right. What not to do, that kind of thing. And I like to tell people, but you talk later about that, uh, priest kind of guy that influenced you a lot. Absolutely. Oh, he was amazing. And, and again, of, of what I found out in that 18, after I left 18, right? Yeah. Four 50 religion, 4 55 was. Uh, I got out of the house and I suddenly realized that faith can be in so many different forms. Mm. And I, I always like, it wasn't just the, the wasn't church gal whacking you with institution and it wasn't, you know, putting your money in the box and then it wasn't, you know, say 18 Hail Marys and call it good. What I really wanted, and I saw and discovered after 18 was there is a huge world of people that believe in all kinds of different things. Hmm. And I think that my, my, my understanding now is that I know that there's something out there that's bigger than me and that I don't have all the answers. Good place to start. That's, that's exactly where I think that the best part of what I've learned about faith is that I don't know. I know and what I don't know. That's all I know is what I don't know. And that's a lot. Yeah. That's it. And so I think that when I meet people and whether their journey is taking them, I think that I, I want to to help them discover like everything about what they believe in and why. Yeah. Because I think that being challenged in my belief system was massive. And I was challenged constantly by being in non-traditional families, being in other cultures that, well, even AmeriCorps and the Navy Oh yeah. Mm-hmm. Were non-traditional families, up with people was a non-traditional family. Yeah. And knowing that, yeah. I'm looking around of like, oh, so there's same-sex couples, there's other types of religions that, that are 89% of the population believes that like, okay, that's a country by which they pray eight times a day. And you hear it in the speakers and say Morocco as an example, and that they stop everything and start to pray right where they are. Yeah. And again, opening up my eyes to this idea that. Faith is part of who I am. And, and I think I have learned more tolerance and more understanding than I may have ever had. So you, and that's important. Do you, you don't actively participate in any, I don't background. I don't claim, I don't claim a particular like religion. I think if anything that I, that I just say that I, I have a higher power and it's not you. You know what I mean? When people ask me. Yeah. Like that's it, that's where it comes from. That dovetails nicely into politics. Uh, where do your politics lie without offending any donors or community contact relationship? Sure, it's a fine line, absolutely fine line. But I think that, I think that above all, uh, when it comes to having good conversations, that I force myself outta my comfort zone daily. And by that I mean I know the siloed, siloed ness of things like social media. Mm-hmm. Well, you're right, we all agree with me. I listen to the same things we all watch. I force myself to surround with people that don't have my similar. Political beliefs I just do is I seek them out Well, and again, that's a, that's a, that's a follow up conversation I think. Alright. Maybe for offline as they say. But, uh, in why I say that about the challenges of it, of when, if you're gonna have a belief in a dogma, whether it's in, you know, I really think that this, this is why I believe the way I do. I think that you need to be able to stand on two feet with critical thinking and evidence and facts. Yeah. That's how I look at it. And that's with anything, because without that, I think that you run the risk of having what would be a, a very one-sided conversation. Yeah. And I don't think that's any interest to me. That's fair. That's fair. Where all I'm doing is telling you what I think and you tell me what you think and then that's it. Well, one of the things that I think, you know, is supposed to be useful about like the two party system kind of thing, right? And stuff is that they, they sharpen each other right? By having better ideas and debating them and contending them in the court of public opinion, right? When that was allowed. So that'll be my question to you. On the politics side, what do you think about. Are federal government taking an active role in misinformation patrol or having a ministry of truth that's an hour long restricting That's that gonna have to be a follow up'cause that, well, your communications that graduates, I wished masters in communications. I wished that, okay, I'll give you an example. Should the federal government do, uh, restrictions on speech and a, those social platforms, consider for a second that there are always and have been parameters by which that you can say and and translate messages. And we have this through newspaper. You can go back to radio. There was always some overlying sort of like to make sure that misinformation was Yeah, there's a reason for editors. Exactly. That's a great way to look at it. I think that everything messaging wise should go through some sort of like, Checks and balances. Yeah, I heard, I heard somebody drop some anthrax in horse tooth reservoir. It's poison. Greeley's gonna all die. You know, I think that, uh, that's your aunt that posted that on Facebook. Right. And you know, you probably, she should do some fact checking on it.'cause I'm pretty sure it's not true. Okay. But who, who should do the fact checking again? That's a, that's a completely other conversation. You're not gonna gimme anything juicy. I, the only juiciness I'll give you is this one example of a workshop that used to do in, uh, my public speaking class. And it sounds very benign and easy, but when you get down to it, for some people it was very difficult. What I would do is I'd have a, I brought'em in and I'd say, listen, I need you to be able to come to class tomorrow and you're gonna give me a one minute speech on what your favorite fast food place is. And gonna gimme three to five reasons, factual reasons on why it's the best. Okay? Okay. So they come in, you know, oh, I love Burger Kings. You know, they sold, they sold more whoppers. You know, this and that. They do it your way. It's okay. Okay. And after everybody would get through, I said, okay, now, uh, you're gonna come back up there and you're gonna talk about why that exact same fast food place is the worst. Yeah, absolutely. And what I noticed is that most people could do it with a sense of humor and have fun. But I had one student who absolutely swore up and down because he'd worked there since he was 14, that Chick-fil-A was by far the best. Yeah. And for him to, he he became physically uncomfortable. Yeah, yeah. On talking poorly about Chick-fil-A. Oh, yeah. Because he was so ingrained in the dogma. Yeah. Yeah. And in the, the belief, I've seen that same thing. That was the best when I told people I wasn't gonna get vaccinated. Well again, uh, anyway, that's But he was physically Yeah, physically uncomfortable. Oh, yeah. Saying Chick-fil-A sauce isn't the best. And you've seen. Like Trump derangement syndrome too. Oh, for, for sure. Where people like get physically agitated the thought of, oh yeah, the blood pressure goes up, up and the vein starts to pop. And, uh, I, I was blessed and, and, and one more thought about in terms of, it's not controversial at all because I actually said this to my dad not that long ago, it was like a week ago, because I grew up in a household by which my father would never, ever claim a political party. Interesting conversations were always all over the board about all kinds of issues. So he was never telling me like, if you, yeah, this I agree. This is the kind of house that you are, this is who well raised. Well, I'm not a party guy. Well, you know, I haven't voted for a party in a long time. You would get, get along great with him. I'm a topics guy. That's why I pressed you on should the government have a role in protecting people from misinformation. I, I think I would look forward to that follow-up conversation because, That's, that's intense and it's heavy and I think it's important. Two minutes. But when it comes to my dad and specifically about that, not having a political party, I was so grateful, as I said, to be able to not feel like if I wanted to come to him and say, well, I heard this politician say this. He was never like shutting it down. Yeah. Fair. Or a different, you know, like I said, a different verbiage. Well, I think that's what both of our parties need, and both all of our religions need is just an openness to not try to kill the other person that has a different opinion. It'd be a good start. Yeah. Yeah. And so, what was your last question? The local experience? Two minutes. Uh, your craziest experience that you're willing to share. Craziest experience in Fort Collins from your lifetime. Oh, my craziest experience of my whole lifetime. I read that question on your thing, and I'm like, that's an hour long with the conversation right there. Yeah. But you got two minutes because we up against your totally weird experience was, uh, I came out of, uh, of dropping a library book off when I was in London and I reached down and I found a crumpled, a piece of paper that was a ticket to a movie premier. Okay. And I didn't think anything about it until I realized that that movie Premier was happening that night. Okay. And it hadn't happened yet. And so I unfolded it and I said, well, that theater's like right around the corner. So I went around the corner and, um, showed him your crumpled ticket. So my crumpled ticket, red carpet, the guy opens it up and leads me in and inside is Helena Bottom. Carter. It's Hugh Grant, it's the star of the movie. And I just sat down and watched the movie and then afterwards I got to meet him. What movie? Yeah, it, the movie was called The Parole Officer Side. Okay. Steve Cogan. But it was a totally weird experience that came outta nowhere. Yeah. Random, just simply being world. Open to the world like. And the whole time I was sitting in the seat, I kept looking, you know, wondering if somebody's gonna like invited because I knew that there was like an not being, there was an empty seat next to me. So I knew somebody was gonna come and I still's like the whole time looking over my shoulder. I like it. So I'm grateful to have been here. You amazing. Well, I've never been to a movie Premier. Premiere, but I'm gonna be optimistic. I'll find a ticket we can talk about. It wasn't the last one I was at. Either. Maybe maybe the, the Shadow Fox or whatever your Jamal's. Oh, Jamal's. Uh, black Sparrow Media. Black Spar. Welcome to Hollywood. Yeah. Yeah. Well actually that's a plug because at the Horsetooth uh, festival, the Horsetooth International Film Festival. Oh yeah. We'll be doing a premier there. So if you wanna come and see the meeting and meet Jamal. You can totally come. Yeah. I look forward to seeing'em again and, uh, while we're here thinking about it, uh, website, if people wanna look up Foothills Gateway. Sure. Foothills gateway.org is a great way to look for, uh, opening jobs and uh, ways they support our fundraisers, which we have game show coming up September 23rd. If you want to find out about more about Betty her auctions or how Betty bought her, bought some butter, but she said This butter's bitter. You can email me at Nathan Gregory scott@gmail.com. That's worth a dollar. That's easy. Oh, I've got it. Um, and then, uh, then we can get it all through there. But, uh, foothills Gateway, amazing organization helping people with intellectual developmental disabilities for over 50 years. Awesome. And, uh, keep up the great work. Thank you, Nathan. No problem. Good day sir. It's a pleasure.