EXPERIENCE 191 | Investing in Relationships and Opportunities with Anthony’s Pizza & Pasta - A Conversation with Andrew Rauch and Garrett Brizendine, President of FR Companies, LTD and CEO of EPIQ Ventures, LLC.

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The business journey we're featuring in today's episode started when Garrett fell in love with Andrew's sister and later married and took a great leap forward during the COVID pandemic when Garrett became the owner operator of a standalone Anthony's Pizza and Pasta location in the Central Park area of Denver.

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He was working a full time job in the automotive industry, raising young children and worked nights and weekends to quickly prove to be the most innovative, profitable and forward thinking operator in the network.

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Though Anthony's had been established 40 years ago, the brand had grown stagnant at 18 locations and had inefficiencies in its supply chain and marketing functions.

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Garrett proposed an acquisition of the franchise to Andrew and his partners at FR Companies, and they eventually settled on terms with the franchise owner, and effective February 2024, Epic Ventures LLC was formed to make the acquisition.

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Much has happened since, including a new partnership to serve Anthony's Pizza at Red Rock shows, revenue growth and increasing happiness of franchisees, And a new location on Harmony Road in Fort Collins that was open for only a few days when we had this conversation.

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Today's conversation reveals wisdom through story on business acquisition and finance and the cultivation of relationships that tie it all together.

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Northern Colorado has already seen a lot from MFR companies, but the best is likely yet to come.

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And Anthony's Pizza and Pasta is a cornerstone brand for what lies ahead.

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So please enjoy, and learn from, my conversation with Andrew Rausch and Garrett Brizendine.

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Camera's already going.

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We'll, I'll lead us in here in a moment.

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So, Andrew Rouse, President of FR Companies, and then Garrett Brizendine, CEO of Epic Ventures, one of FR's subsidiary companies, and the proprietor of Anthony's Pizza and Pasta?

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Correct.

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Currently, or currently focused on?

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Yeah.

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Correct.

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Okay.

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And we'll probably just stay on Anthony's for a while.

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Yeah.

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Like, where is it at now?

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What's it doing?

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How did you get involved?

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What are going to be some of the secrets to success?

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How did you get involved, Garrett?

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Things like that.

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Uh, after we linger there for a while, we're going to jump in the respective time machines.

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Um, and go back to when you were a first grader and you were a first grader.

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Probably far apart, I'm assuming, but I don't know.

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And then kind of weave those stories.

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Um, how old are you and you?

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Oh, 38.

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And I'm 36.

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Okay, so they'll be very timeline similar, uh, regardless, and then, um, and then we'll touch on the Faith Family Politics segments, the Loco Experience, and that'll be a wrap.

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Cool.

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Kurt, what's the typical duration?

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Just out of curiosity.

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We do as much as two hours.

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Okay.

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There it goes.

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And I don't have any kids, and when I brag about how Seldom I get sick.

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They're like, yeah, well, you never you're never around children.

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Like that's not like a superpower you have You're just not in snot machine land all the time Right All right Okay, I'll lead us in here Welcome back to the loco experience podcast my guests today are Andrew Roush and Garrett Brizendine and Andrew is the president of FR companies and And Garrett is the CEO of Epic Ventures, one of their subsidiary companies, and the operator of Anthony's Pizza and Pasta.

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Thanks for being here, guys.

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Thanks for having us.

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Yeah, it's a pleasure.

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Yeah, um Andrew, why don't I start with you?

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Can you just kind of set the stage of I guess even the relationship between Epic Ventures and FR companies.

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Yeah, yeah.

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Or maybe kind of define those just a little bit because they're not very illustrative.

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Yeah, absolutely.

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Epic Ventures was formed earlier this year in anticipation of purchasing the Anthony's Pizza and Pasta brand.

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But I think it all started a couple years ago.

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And I'll kick it to Garrett to explain exactly how and when we got to Anthony's.

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And it's a pretty cool story, actually, Garrett, you want to?

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Yeah, so it kind of, uh, will probably come out in the family detail, uh, later on in the show as well.

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But early on in, I guess, uh, you know, the pandemic.

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Looking for a way to diversify kind of our holdings of my full time job, the, their development business with FR.

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Um, we found the opportunity to purchase a stand alone franchised location of an Anthony's Pizza and Pasta, Central Park, um, kind of on the east side of Denver area.

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Okay.

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I was very familiar with the location itself, going to school, kind of in that area, in college.

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Sort of push pause for just a moment.

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You were working a full time job unrelated, but you were involved with FR companies.

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So I was working a full time job unrelated and Andrew is my brother in law.

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Okay.

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Yep.

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Yep.

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So I was familiar with their, um, business model and how they were venturing into, um, franchising and retail locations a little bit away, um, from their normal development in real estate, commercial and residential.

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And so at that time I was also looking for an avenue to be able to Kind of diversify my investments and, and look for a way to get out from underneath the full time position of a 40 hour a week job, uh, the automotive industry for 13, 14 years.

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And, uh, again, early in the, early on in the pandemic, an opportunity kind of arose in restaurants.

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There weren't too many people looking to get into restaurants.

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Yeah.

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A lot of people looking to get rid of their restaurants.

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A lot of opportunity, I think for investment there.

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And, uh, we were pretty adamant about finding a longstanding business.

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That wasn't a start from the ground up, you know, bootstrapping, correct.

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And we wanted to buy an already outstanding brand.

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Or an outstanding, I guess, retail location, and then be able to improve upon it.

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Um, so I got the wild hair that, you know, full time job, um, during a, but during the pandemic, like I need somebody crazy enough to, um, invest with me in the restaurant and I found him and my brother in law and, uh, and it was, uh, you know, it was a leap of faith and something that we went in together about three years ago, three and a half years ago, and that same idea, that same concept about.

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Identifying a legacy opportunities, longstanding brands to improve upon rather than starting from the ground up was the key to identifying the franchise system, the company, um, the brand itself, the trademark, everything that came with the licensing as a step that I really wanted to take.

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We found, um, you know, profitability, um, to be positive there, the brand to be positive.

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And so their, um, business model shifted from You know the real estate into franchising and retail locations and then kind of in an investment, um private equity Um relationship and that's when a couple of years down the line.

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We'd proven that the brand was successful We've proven that the business model was successful And they were and I We were able to come to an agreement on how we would be able to execute on the acquisition of the overall brand of the franchise of the franchise system as fr with fr as the kind of private equity funding and as the business that we had built in the retail side in an equity stake to provide us Both retail operations and franchise licensing rights, um, of the brand itself.

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Interesting.

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Yeah.

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Really interesting.

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So did you keep your job for a while while managing this pizza shop?

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standalone shop for a while, right?

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Yep.

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So I kept my job until February when we finalized the acquisition of the parent company.

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So for the first three years, um, we had.

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Um, operated that I had and through management and through kind of a proper organizational structure took its toll.

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Um, there were a lot of, uh, stressful nights of my wife being like, why are you doing this?

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What's the end game here?

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Let's just to be, you know, to be pissed off from time to time, but we were, um, You know, we were lucky enough to be able to expand our retail footprint from just that one location to opening up an actual, um, new DMA or, uh, an awarded point kind of downtown, um, by course field at McGregor square, considered a non traditional point did really well in sales had really good, um, you know, um, unit economics for it that made it a successful one.

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And that allowed us to kind of build out what we understood.

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To be the successes behind, to be the reasons why this brand, this model phase of growth or whatever, can, uh, And maybe I'll shift it back to you, Andrew.

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What was the, what, I guess, was the scale of Anthony's Pizza and Pasta?

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How long had it been around?

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Uh, some questions like that.

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Yeah, there were a couple key metrics that were attractive from the investment perspective.

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But, you know, initially when Garrett and I got together, for me, it was a passion project.

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It was like, hey, I want to do something with my brother in law.

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This sounds like a lot of fun.

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And as we got into it, yeah, there was certainly some stress, but there was also some, we opened up each door and we saw the opportunity behind it.

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And we realized, yeah, let's keep going with this thing.

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Cause there's opportunity to do more locations and get involved with the current owner and kind of get in their ear and let them know like, Hey, we're serious about this thing.

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And when you're ready to sell it.

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We're right here to buy it from you.

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Well, and so it took you kind of three years to prove that you were the best operator out of all those franchisee locations.

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Or maybe two years to prove that, and then one year to figure out what that looked like.

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I think we could prove it right away.

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I think we were some of the only serious guys within the group.

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Just because they hadn't been serious enough in choosing their franchisees, or?

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I would say more of just a stagnant brand at the time.

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Okay, fair.

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Great franchisees, right?

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Like, really good people running good operations.

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But just, you know, kind of maybe tired of the current ownership group and wanting to see their business grow and prosper.

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And we came in with some new technology ideas.

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New ways of marketing, just kind of picking at it over the last three years.

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And, you know, Garrett's done a really nice job of, of staying in touch with the owner and saying, Hey, you know, we're standing here whenever you're ready to go.

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Interesting.

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I think that, uh, and no guarantees, right?

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Correct.

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Like you might find yourself with one pizza location for 25 years and you're working nights and weekends, Garrett.

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Yep.

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And that's, uh, I think that the hardest part wasn't.

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Necessarily convincing or proving to the current ownership at the time that we were the best operators to do this.

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And I learned this, um, after finalizing the acquisition that it's more about.

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Proving to the outside world that you're the best one for this investment and that you know how to execute and that you know how to take the necessary steps after the acquisition to make it a profitable and beneficial investment.

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Cause we knew from the get go we were, but.

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You know, there's, there's an outside world that they're looking at just the executable factor and not just you against your competitors or your other franchisees.

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It's you against the rest of the.

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Industry, if you're the best one to do it.

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Right.

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Right.

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Well, and maybe we can take a step back even.

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And the way I think I understand FR companies, it's, it's yourself and previously a significant partner at least, or maybe still, but, and then like a block of investors that put capital up for you guys to build houses previously and now other stuff.

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That's a good way to describe it.

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A longstanding, a great friend of mine and good business partner for over Um, and I joined forces years ago and we started in a real estate investment that grew to a pretty large home building company.

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Um, we do some small local developments and continue to build the real estate portfolio till today and uh, ultimately decided to, Venture out and get into franchising and continue to stay optimistic with our investments.

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Fair enough.

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And kind of have figured out how to like raise a chunk here.

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I imagine it's like equity and loan investment vehicles and things like that.

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Try to get Wealthy people a little better return right and end something more fun than yeah investing in the New York Stock Exchange Absolutely fun and scalable to right right make more impact.

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Yep.

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Um, so let's turn the focus back to Anthony's like What's the, what do you guys sell?

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Like, what's the pizza style?

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What's the, it's Anthony's Pizza and Pasta, right?

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Like, what kind of, like, where's your niche in the marketplace?

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Yeah, so, uh, Anthony's Pizza and Pasta founded in 1984 in downtown Denver as a true New York style pizza in Colorado.

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True to, uh, the recipe that Henry Mann created coming from New York, brought it with him.

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We have not changed our recipe in 40 years.

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We still make the thin crust.

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You know from scratch daily make our dough in house our sauce in house cut our veggies fresh every day Um, and Sicilian, a couple of different Italian inspired and New York, uh, inspired salad dishes, pasta dishes, heroes, desserts, um, really kind of that stereotypical pizza wings, some good, you know, soul food in the big ziti, um, chicken parmesan, meatball subs.

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I haven't been down.

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Is it like?

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Counter service.

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Yeah.

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So it'd be considered kind of a, a fast casual restaurant.

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So we USR segment and a little bit of a mix of both dine in with, you know, make it, uh, we were not in a Chipotle style, um, thing.

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So we make everything again, the pasta, the baked ziti, we bake it there and then bring it to the table.

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We do a large dine in delivery and takeout business.

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It's bits splits about a third, a third, a third.

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Oh, wow.

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Okay.

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Yeah.

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Oh, that's a lot of delivery and takeout then.

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Yeah, yeah, which is nice because you don't need a whole bunch of real estate costs.

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Exactly, a whole bunch of real estate costs, yeah.

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I mean, you want the business to be able to pay for the real estate, uh, when you get that opportunity, but Absolutely, yeah, I think, uh, smaller footprints and second generation commercial spots is, is part of our success.

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Fair enough.

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And, um, where's your new location?

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You said you just opened one a couple weeks ago.

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Yeah, yeah, so it's down off of, uh, Harmony.

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At 2550 East Harmony Avenue.

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Sure.

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Um, over there by the Chiba Hut and uh, Smashburger.

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Yeah, yeah, like right, kind of between the Front Range Village and the, the gym over there, 24 Hour Fitness and whatnot.

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Yeah, exactly.

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Cool.

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That's a, probably a good restaurant row kind of space these days.

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Yeah, we hope so.

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It's come out the gate.

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It's you know, it's had a couple of really strong days Yeah, I think you know, although we've had some challenges opening up a new store I think it's gonna be probably a top performing location.

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Hopefully.

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Let's talk about Challenges.

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I like to hear about challenges.

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Was it with the city, with staffing, with permits?

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I think on our side the challenges came from Having, you know, a 40 year company that this is unit number 19 and, um, going from scratch, right?

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We talked about buying a business in which we can improve upon.

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And I think that this was the first, um, task we took over, uh, after the acquisition of saying, okay, let's see what opening one of these looks like from the build out to the equipment to onboarding of all of the, um, you know, software systems and subscriptions.

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And so really looking at it from concept to finalization.

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I would call them, you know, opportunities of our next one.

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We open and then we open better next time.

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We open and it keeps going.

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And we're always going to have those, um, challenges that we run into, whether it's permitting, staffing, you know, product delivery, logistics, all of that.

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Um, but just re refining it and tuning it in every time is, is key.

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And how.

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I'll have the other Anthony's locations found their customers like what are your marketing vessels you mentioned kind of?

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Changing the way it was being marketed and kind of setting this tone on that Yeah, absolutely.

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I think, you know, some of the new tech we've brought is, um, you know, we've done a lot of, a lot in the digital space, a lot of, obviously we've got a great brand manager, his name's Peter counter.

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Okay.

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He's actually had left the business prior and now has come back to join us.

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Oh, seeing some of the changes we've made.

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And so he's re energized, which is fantastic to see, you know, um, but we're doing a lot, there's a whole brand fund that, uh, every store contributes to.

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Okay.

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And then we determined in house with Peter.

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and how the spend will play out.

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Gotcha.

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Gotcha.

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And you know, the, um, 40 years, most of the franchisees, I think average around 15 to 20 years in their current, uh, units right now.

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So they've had kind of a burst of growth and then kind of stagnated for a while.

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Getting involved with the schools and the local organizations is really a pillar of the Anthony's kind of success too.

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So yeah, a gift certificate.

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Oh, I'll know who the, We're talking about having, I would like to actually, um, have like buried in the conversation like we could do it right now.

00:18:33.200 --> 00:18:41.410
Like first listener to respond to the local experience podcast gets a 10 gift card or a 20 gift card at Anthony's Pizza and Pasta.

00:18:41.559 --> 00:18:41.839
Yeah.

00:18:41.970 --> 00:18:42.160
Love it.

00:18:42.160 --> 00:18:43.324
25.

00:18:43.324 --> 00:18:44.487
25.

00:18:44.487 --> 00:18:45.650
Absolutely.

00:18:45.650 --> 00:18:47.240
Sounds like we just did it.

00:18:47.240 --> 00:18:47.640
Done.

00:18:47.660 --> 00:18:47.970
Yep.

00:18:48.099 --> 00:18:48.509
All right.

00:18:48.509 --> 00:18:50.000
Well, first listener to respond.

00:18:50.000 --> 00:18:51.064
Once you hear this, uh, look me up.

00:18:51.064 --> 00:18:54.480
I'll make sure you get a 25 gift card mailed to you.

00:18:54.930 --> 00:18:55.180
Love it.

00:18:55.259 --> 00:18:56.259
And, uh.

00:18:56.359 --> 00:18:59.509
So anyway, well, I don't know if people are listening.

00:18:59.509 --> 00:19:14.519
That gave you, you only win once every quarter, just so you know, we're not going to be spreading this stuff around all over the place, but, uh, what we might do it every episode, but each individual, but I don't know, we've got to do a strategic thing, you know, it's like one of those ideas I put a pin in.

00:19:14.529 --> 00:19:16.640
These are the opportunities that we found out too.

00:19:17.119 --> 00:19:17.390
Right.

00:19:17.410 --> 00:19:19.519
Next time we're going to do it better.

00:19:19.519 --> 00:19:22.960
So overcome them though, and got open and, uh, yeah.

00:19:23.164 --> 00:19:23.525
Here we are.

00:19:23.575 --> 00:19:25.055
Got open, really successful.

00:19:25.065 --> 00:19:42.190
Sales are strong out of the gate, but You know, I think going back to the idea that a lot of delivery take out business, we have the opportunity to start smaller, start by taking care of our consumer in front of us first, and then start expanding our area of ability to serve through delivery, through.

00:19:42.230 --> 00:19:43.500
Third party services.

00:19:43.880 --> 00:19:46.660
Um, but we just want to make sure that we can handle that growth.

00:19:46.990 --> 00:19:50.230
Um, kind of stepping on our toes or something else.

00:19:50.700 --> 00:19:56.210
Uh, how does supply chain work for, uh, what I would call probably a kind of a small franchise, right?

00:19:56.210 --> 00:20:01.240
You're not like not big enough to get super love from anybody, but too big to not get some kind of love from somebody.

00:20:01.589 --> 00:20:09.920
This is a really good one, Garrett, to, uh, a little bit upon, you know, how we took the business over and provided a new supplier to the next talk a little bit about how that went.

00:20:10.109 --> 00:20:16.384
So, um, Anthony's Pizza Head, for the longest time, had their own in house distribution through a company called Stellini.

00:20:16.384 --> 00:20:20.884
So the previous owner handled all of the distribution and the purchase contracts.

00:20:20.884 --> 00:20:24.954
They, um, switched over to Greco, which is a subsidiary of Cisco.

00:20:25.115 --> 00:20:25.234
Oh.

00:20:25.305 --> 00:20:26.355
About five years ago.

00:20:27.265 --> 00:20:40.825
And it was probably one of our largest opportunities to improve unit economics from the get go, because there was, uh, contracts in place that were not beneficial to a system of our size, to franchisees, to operate, um, in a beneficial manner.

00:20:40.855 --> 00:20:44.845
And we were able to negotiate a switch to Shamrock distribution.

00:20:44.855 --> 00:20:56.265
We talked to us foods, to Cisco, um, they're, let them know they're competing with each other, let them know that we're, you know, and it's not just about who's going to give the best price, right, because there's a lot that goes into it from.

00:20:56.789 --> 00:21:05.170
Product choices to, uh, logistics, um, from delivery days to delivery times to how much outer and stock they have.

00:21:05.190 --> 00:21:22.960
Long story short is we were able to finalize a contract with Shamrock Food Distribution that would save our franchisees over, um, about 170, 000 to 250, 000, which equates to about 10 percent of their food costs, which could lower their unit economics again down to 170, 000.

00:21:23.420 --> 00:21:31.000
a 25 percent COGS number, which on a million dollar AUV scenario can be a significant savings.

00:21:31.660 --> 00:21:35.799
Um, going back to the opportunities of things we knew we can make immediate impacts for.

00:21:35.930 --> 00:21:36.099
Yeah.

00:21:36.109 --> 00:21:47.250
Um, so in, in a scenario like a franchise, licensed rights, we negotiate the contracts upfront, negotiate rebates, cost per case, before you even got a done deal.

00:21:47.279 --> 00:21:47.700
Yeah.

00:21:47.700 --> 00:21:50.126
That's what I was starting to wonder.

00:21:50.126 --> 00:21:50.472
Yeah.

00:21:50.472 --> 00:21:58.450
We have to make sure that it works right at some offer extremely low prices, no rebate program for advertising, some offer really low prices, but terrible.

00:21:59.349 --> 00:22:11.130
delivery schedules, vice versa, and navigating each one of those deal points to ensure that we get the most savings for franchisees, but not in lieu of providing them positive customer service, good delivery schedules.

00:22:11.130 --> 00:22:14.269
Well, and the franchise or a company has to make a buck too.

00:22:14.329 --> 00:22:15.150
Yeah, absolutely.

00:22:15.150 --> 00:22:17.289
And that's where that 2 percent royalty comes in.

00:22:17.420 --> 00:22:25.230
I mean, 2 percent rebate comes in, not only are we lowering our cost of goods to our own franchisees, but, you know, capitalizing on that 2 percent rebate.

00:22:25.839 --> 00:22:26.660
It's been fantastic.

00:22:26.920 --> 00:22:28.750
That's going to be fascinating, negotiating a company.

00:22:29.480 --> 00:22:35.454
package of that complexity, without actually having Yeah, a deal on the deal done.

00:22:35.974 --> 00:22:36.154
Yeah.

00:22:36.285 --> 00:22:36.515
Yeah.

00:22:36.515 --> 00:22:37.275
It was a big win.

00:22:37.285 --> 00:22:46.375
You know, when you take over a business and you see some opportunities, like I discussed earlier with doors opening up, like this was a huge one, not only the 2 percent rebate, but the hundred thousand dollar fee.

00:22:46.755 --> 00:22:47.164
Yeah.

00:22:47.275 --> 00:22:52.984
Um, in order to, you know, there's a lot of things that you have to incur a lot of costs, you incur illegal fees, reviewing all of that.

00:22:52.984 --> 00:23:03.109
So we got them to cover a lot of that, um, ahead of time by, by cutting us back kind of, uh, A contract signing amount in order to cover a lot of those expenses.

00:23:04.029 --> 00:23:10.259
One of the things I was pretty adamant apart on with this acquisition was I, I had a very specific number in my mind of, of.

00:23:11.420 --> 00:23:14.089
Uh, the, um, monetary involvement that we needed.

00:23:14.099 --> 00:23:15.309
And I wasn't going to go past that.

00:23:15.329 --> 00:23:22.240
So I've been trying to negotiate these contracts of basically like, you've, you've got to cover this if we're coming to you and it's been successful so far.

00:23:22.369 --> 00:23:23.599
Uh, Garrett, I have a question.

00:23:23.660 --> 00:23:26.230
How did you, you said you were working in the automotive industry.

00:23:26.240 --> 00:23:26.410
Yeah.

00:23:26.519 --> 00:23:28.789
You seem like really smart about a lot of things.

00:23:28.789 --> 00:23:37.414
Is that all just happened in the last eight months or knock on the automotive industry, Yeah, I've met a lot of less smart automotive people.

00:23:37.444 --> 00:23:37.625
Yeah.

00:23:37.625 --> 00:23:47.404
So I actually, uh, I joined, you know, the, the restaurant space was about three years ago when we bought this and had to say, okay, well now what I, what am I gonna do with it?

00:23:47.404 --> 00:23:54.875
And so learning a lot of that came from their FRS experience in the QSR world and franchising, us talking and learning a lot of that.

00:23:54.875 --> 00:23:57.785
But, uh, in the automotive space, I guess you can call it.

00:23:57.785 --> 00:24:03.664
But I, I joined the, uh, Toyota executive rotation program outta college and kind of did all their.

00:24:04.394 --> 00:24:05.815
You know, fun traveling jobs forever.

00:24:05.835 --> 00:24:08.964
So you've been around smart people for know, I've ventured into them.

00:24:08.964 --> 00:24:12.394
They stay out of the, you know, the They don't get into food service.

00:24:12.394 --> 00:24:14.244
Yeah, I know.

00:24:14.244 --> 00:24:23.099
Between food service and automotive, we don't always have, you know, the best reputation for, uh I was a banker, so can't, uh, hurt me.

00:24:23.099 --> 00:24:24.119
He's a construction guy.

00:24:25.809 --> 00:24:28.230
Um, so what do you think?

00:24:28.250 --> 00:24:31.890
Like, are you happy with the way it's shaped up so far?

00:24:32.609 --> 00:24:32.900
Yep.

00:24:33.000 --> 00:24:39.210
I'm extremely excited about, uh, what we have to look forward to you and I'm having the most fun I've had in a very long time.

00:24:39.319 --> 00:24:41.829
And so this is your 19th location.

00:24:41.900 --> 00:24:42.690
Did you have just.

00:24:43.210 --> 00:24:49.420
Is it just the two that are house locations then, or did you acquire some other franchisor locations with that?

00:24:49.500 --> 00:24:55.130
Yeah, we actually adopted the, um, Evans location, we call it the DU location recently.

00:24:55.160 --> 00:24:58.279
We're working on another acquisition down on 7th and Colorado.

00:24:58.480 --> 00:24:58.849
Okay.

00:24:58.960 --> 00:25:03.549
Um, we just opened up Red Rocks earlier this summer, and so we're selling pizza at Red Rocks.

00:25:04.005 --> 00:25:07.234
Super fun, great opportunity, great brand awareness.

00:25:07.255 --> 00:25:10.214
And here's a coupon for your next, uh, delivery order.

00:25:10.265 --> 00:25:11.105
Yeah, exactly.

00:25:11.434 --> 00:25:11.984
Exactly.

00:25:12.744 --> 00:25:21.345
And, and only, you know, not only that, but seeing our brand just littered all over the stands of red rocks, it's just, it's, it's really, it's a cool, cool thing to see.

00:25:21.345 --> 00:25:23.734
So, um, we are doing some really cool things.

00:25:23.734 --> 00:25:25.924
We signed a contract to hopefully be at the airport.

00:25:26.440 --> 00:25:27.369
Here in the coming years.

00:25:27.410 --> 00:25:27.930
Oh, wow.

00:25:27.980 --> 00:25:34.019
And so, yeah, just kind of look to continue the brand with traditional and non traditional locations anywhere we can.

00:25:34.029 --> 00:25:50.430
You know, when I think about a small franchise or like this, or a small business, I mean, you're not a huge enterprise, especially the franchise company, like it feels really daunting to approach Red Rocks and say, Hey, why don't you have an Anthony's pizza and pasta there yet?

00:25:50.440 --> 00:25:50.880
Or DIA?

00:25:51.150 --> 00:25:54.200
Like, can you maybe talk to that a little bit?

00:25:54.200 --> 00:25:56.809
I You know, exactly how that came to fruition.

00:25:56.809 --> 00:26:05.710
You know, we've got a great partner in Joe, uh, Jeremy Betlock, who had a relationship with a gentleman that works at the city and County of Denver that kind of runs and operates.

00:26:06.039 --> 00:26:06.950
How would you call it Garrett?

00:26:06.960 --> 00:26:11.799
The amusement side side events and venues.

00:26:11.829 --> 00:26:12.190
Okay.

00:26:12.700 --> 00:26:12.950
Yep.

00:26:12.950 --> 00:26:15.359
So relationship building, you know, that was, that was huge.

00:26:15.369 --> 00:26:16.710
So network effect is part of it.

00:26:16.710 --> 00:26:17.140
Exactly.

00:26:17.369 --> 00:26:18.019
Absolutely.

00:26:18.019 --> 00:26:19.380
But not only the network, it was.

00:26:19.730 --> 00:26:21.849
We can, we can show that we can execute and deliver.

00:26:21.880 --> 00:26:22.829
Yeah, exactly.

00:26:23.029 --> 00:26:24.099
And they're happy to have us.

00:26:24.559 --> 00:26:26.700
Again, a little rocky setting that one up as well.

00:26:26.769 --> 00:26:29.920
However, um, we couldn't be happier with the opportunity.

00:26:29.960 --> 00:26:32.039
And, uh, we hope to be there for a long time.

00:26:32.039 --> 00:26:34.519
Next summer you'll be selling pizzas left and right.

00:26:34.579 --> 00:26:35.569
Yeah, exactly.

00:26:37.160 --> 00:26:43.829
The Red Rocks location is actually at least By volume, our largest, uh, sales when it's operating.

00:26:43.829 --> 00:26:46.849
Cause it's only seven months for a 12 month span.

00:26:46.849 --> 00:26:51.039
It may not have the highest sales volume, but during the months of operation, it's the number one on the per hour.

00:26:51.039 --> 00:26:53.380
It's probably way over the top, right?

00:26:53.430 --> 00:26:54.359
Like it's late.

00:26:54.359 --> 00:26:56.119
It's only in those months when it's open.

00:26:56.119 --> 00:26:59.250
It's only open 40 or 60 hours.

00:26:59.400 --> 00:26:59.619
Yeah.

00:26:59.619 --> 00:27:02.079
I mean, five, four hours, five hours a night.

00:27:02.150 --> 00:27:02.289
Yeah.

00:27:02.339 --> 00:27:02.680
Right.

00:27:02.960 --> 00:27:04.289
And not every night, you know?

00:27:04.359 --> 00:27:04.640
Yeah.

00:27:04.940 --> 00:27:05.490
Interesting.

00:27:05.569 --> 00:27:06.589
What a fascinating model.

00:27:06.599 --> 00:27:06.819
Yeah.

00:27:06.970 --> 00:27:08.769
The airport one seems like that could be.

00:27:09.184 --> 00:27:16.204
Uh, even more opportune, right, with that model and kind of the lack of anything very compelling at the airport that isn't there.

00:27:17.845 --> 00:27:22.035
Yeah, I think DIA has some really good opportunity in the near future.

00:27:22.105 --> 00:27:27.674
They're opening up a whole new concourse and, uh, you know, I bet we, we get that opportunity here in the near future.

00:27:27.674 --> 00:27:28.674
I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.

00:27:28.994 --> 00:27:30.494
And what would you like to take it to?

00:27:30.525 --> 00:27:33.765
I mean, maybe I'll, or either of you, I mean, who's driving this bus?

00:27:33.785 --> 00:27:42.285
You get to drive the, the Anthony's bus more, and you're kind of still looking for other, you know, Retail restaurant opportunities, honestly.

00:27:42.285 --> 00:27:42.474
Yeah.

00:27:42.474 --> 00:27:45.954
I think like I'd fit in more on the business development, bigger picture.

00:27:46.025 --> 00:27:46.775
Where are we going?

00:27:46.884 --> 00:27:48.555
Like, what does it look like longterm?

00:27:48.555 --> 00:27:55.234
And then Garrett's, you know, he's doing a fantastic job of holding it down day to day and leading the company from a strategic standpoint.

00:27:55.315 --> 00:27:56.805
So maybe that question is yours.

00:27:56.805 --> 00:27:59.654
Like, uh, is it a Colorado franchise for a while?

00:27:59.654 --> 00:28:05.295
If somebody from Florida calls and said, Hey, we've got a airport here in Orlando, we'd look at Anthony's pizza and pasta.

00:28:05.444 --> 00:28:07.535
I mean, you know, we talk about a hundred units.

00:28:07.535 --> 00:28:07.644
Yeah.

00:28:07.744 --> 00:28:09.954
I think that's kind of our goal that we set our eyes on.

00:28:09.954 --> 00:28:14.884
We, that's our near term goal where like Garrett and I want to come up for air and be like, okay, we got 200 units.

00:28:15.204 --> 00:28:16.355
What does it look for us?

00:28:16.375 --> 00:28:18.095
What does it look like for us right now?

00:28:18.184 --> 00:28:19.825
And then where do we want to take it from here?

00:28:19.825 --> 00:28:24.924
And I think we can see from where we sit today to what that looks like to get to that 100 units.

00:28:25.345 --> 00:28:28.085
But first and foremost, there's a lot to do in Colorado, right?

00:28:28.255 --> 00:28:32.525
We could lay down another 20 units and we could, we could do that within the corporate structure.

00:28:32.964 --> 00:28:36.785
Or we could, you know, really perfect our system and then go out and sell other franchisees.

00:28:36.795 --> 00:28:37.164
Gotcha.

00:28:37.164 --> 00:28:37.575
Gotcha.

00:28:37.575 --> 00:28:41.174
So it's a combination of the two staying opportunistic is key.

00:28:41.464 --> 00:28:46.904
So you're trying to kind of, you got to kind of build that kit that lets other franchisees know that, Hey, if I.

00:28:47.299 --> 00:28:48.460
Pull the trigger on this.

00:28:48.490 --> 00:28:49.730
I'm going to be successful.

00:28:49.740 --> 00:28:54.769
And part of how you can prove that is by being successful with new locations and things like that.

00:28:54.819 --> 00:28:55.490
Absolutely.

00:28:55.490 --> 00:28:57.059
Unit, unit economics are key.

00:28:57.059 --> 00:29:06.250
And then, you know, Garrett keeps telling everybody once, you know, Garrett and Andrew can actually make a pizza and duplicate it, that's when we're ready to go back out and sell franchises.

00:29:06.250 --> 00:29:07.500
That's how we know we're ready.

00:29:07.589 --> 00:29:14.630
And so once your employees can train you guys, once we have the processes in place, right, that's what it comes down to.

00:29:14.630 --> 00:29:15.700
Scalability is.

00:29:16.759 --> 00:29:25.619
The reason that we were able to put the money together and that FR saw the benefit was that we all agreed we weren't going to grow until we were ready to grow.

00:29:26.039 --> 00:29:29.089
We don't know exactly what that looks like yet, but we know we aren't there yet.

00:29:29.349 --> 00:29:37.720
And so we have the scalability, the training processes, the documentation and, um, the support in house, uh, to do that.

00:29:38.279 --> 00:29:44.039
Talk to me about, uh, like individual unit economics on sell me on why somebody even.

00:29:44.329 --> 00:29:44.630
Yeah.

00:29:44.680 --> 00:29:48.809
After they listened to this episode is going to be like, Hey, I want to put up Anthony's and Greeley.

00:29:48.829 --> 00:29:49.789
Yeah, absolutely.

00:29:49.799 --> 00:29:57.450
I think, uh, you know, it all starts where he was discussing a little bit before his second gen spaces and our usable square foot for how much we're able to sell.

00:29:57.450 --> 00:29:58.990
So affordable rent is a factor.

00:29:58.990 --> 00:30:03.539
Yeah, affordable rent, uh, a location that's, you know, considered to be white boxed or a little bit more.

00:30:03.539 --> 00:30:08.769
We can make, um, work with our, with our, um, operation.

00:30:08.829 --> 00:30:09.269
So.

00:30:09.680 --> 00:30:12.160
Affordable rent and then our cogs.

00:30:12.170 --> 00:30:19.859
So a lot of our, um, you know, key index or our key, our KPIs from labor to cogs to our rent numbers all really work.

00:30:20.619 --> 00:30:22.194
Um, and yeah.

00:30:22.765 --> 00:30:28.345
Our cog number cogs number in pizza is a, a very competitive number around 25%.

00:30:28.384 --> 00:30:34.095
And that's because we're able to take something from scratch and make it into a value, flour and water together.

00:30:34.095 --> 00:30:35.295
You don't have very much labor.

00:30:35.585 --> 00:30:39.174
Well, we don't have it in the spinner thingy for a while and then flatten it out.

00:30:39.224 --> 00:30:42.035
And then when we make the pizza, we need a highly skilled individual.

00:30:43.214 --> 00:30:59.375
I mean, that's what we're saying once we know, but, but the idea is that we're able to take You know, products that inherently aren't that expensive and make them into a valuable product through skilled, um, individuals to work, but not a ton of individuals.

00:30:59.384 --> 00:31:02.105
So our rent is, um, is low.

00:31:02.105 --> 00:31:07.414
Comparatively, we try to stay in the 6% Yeah, six to 10.

00:31:07.414 --> 00:31:09.115
And we're normally on the low side.

00:31:09.305 --> 00:31:16.394
That's lower than, I mean, 15 is what, uh, Reno from egg and I told me was manageable 15 percent occupancy, but that was for a full service.

00:31:16.404 --> 00:31:16.605
Sure.

00:31:16.605 --> 00:31:16.825
Yeah.

00:31:16.825 --> 00:31:17.585
For full service.

00:31:17.585 --> 00:31:23.414
When we have 70 percent of our business going out the doors, we can facilitate a smaller footprint.

00:31:24.065 --> 00:31:32.359
And then our COGS numbers can stay below, you know, 25 percent or so, our cost of goods, and then our labor should be 30 percent and under, you know, All in.

00:31:32.450 --> 00:31:38.220
And so when you look at all of those things combined, it makes for a really successful model.

00:31:38.259 --> 00:31:41.789
So again, it's been a 20, 25, 30 percent net profit.

00:31:41.809 --> 00:31:49.119
If you, yes, if done correctly, yeah, if done correctly and managed correctly, it can, and it also allows for smaller AUVs if needed.

00:31:49.160 --> 00:31:51.890
We have a 950, 000 average unit volume.

00:31:52.680 --> 00:31:54.809
Million dollars, our goal, average unit volume.

00:31:54.809 --> 00:31:55.950
And we're right there.

00:31:56.130 --> 00:31:59.440
Um, but we do have stores that are successful in their own right.

00:32:00.369 --> 00:32:02.430
Profitability around 650, 000.

00:32:02.430 --> 00:32:02.890
Right.

00:32:02.890 --> 00:32:03.269
Right.

00:32:03.410 --> 00:32:04.534
And so when you combine all those things.

00:32:04.534 --> 00:32:06.809
So a break even, you get into a tough economy.

00:32:06.970 --> 00:32:10.720
The way this model is kind of set up is you can weather that storm kind of, or whatever.

00:32:10.940 --> 00:32:12.940
And capitalize on it if you have the higher sales.

00:32:12.980 --> 00:32:13.490
Yeah, yeah.

00:32:13.569 --> 00:32:14.049
Interesting.

00:32:14.349 --> 00:32:16.599
Well, and once, after you pass break even.

00:32:16.720 --> 00:32:17.039
Yeah.

00:32:17.529 --> 00:32:18.500
Gross equals net.

00:32:18.509 --> 00:32:18.890
Correct.

00:32:19.230 --> 00:32:19.740
In theory.

00:32:19.839 --> 00:32:20.079
Yeah.

00:32:20.569 --> 00:32:22.049
Although it always seems to slip away.

00:32:22.089 --> 00:32:22.819
Always somehow.

00:32:22.839 --> 00:32:24.349
Well, that is, that's pretty compelling.

00:32:24.349 --> 00:32:28.924
I mean, um, and, Why would I choose over Domino's?

00:32:30.545 --> 00:32:31.894
A very different product.

00:32:31.974 --> 00:32:34.934
You know, I think, you know, you never want to come on and bash a different product.

00:32:34.934 --> 00:32:38.795
I think Domino's does a good job with the system of Best 6 pizzas around.

00:32:38.795 --> 00:32:39.694
Exactly, yeah.

00:32:39.694 --> 00:32:45.815
They get pizza out to people fast and they've really, you know, focused on the trackability and the timing aspect.

00:32:46.394 --> 00:32:47.214
That's not us.

00:32:47.835 --> 00:32:51.865
But you can come get a great New York style slice of pizza from us.

00:32:51.904 --> 00:32:54.105
And so, you know, it's just different.

00:32:54.105 --> 00:32:54.744
And probably what?

00:32:55.174 --> 00:32:55.954
Twice as much?

00:32:56.424 --> 00:32:57.375
Like what's the delivery?

00:32:57.375 --> 00:33:01.285
What's your kind of a large pepperoni pizza delivered?

00:33:01.355 --> 00:33:07.305
You know, it's a, it's a little bit more convoluted than that because you know, the 6 pizza, you know, 12, 14.

00:33:07.305 --> 00:33:13.275
Yeah, I don't, let's ignore Domino's, but a big nice pizza delivered for me and two of my friends, or three.

00:33:13.325 --> 00:33:17.765
Our 18 inch pizza, New York style cheese pizza is 21.

00:33:17.765 --> 00:33:17.835
75.

00:33:17.835 --> 00:33:18.125
Okay.

00:33:19.240 --> 00:33:20.619
Pepperonis on it for 25.

00:33:20.660 --> 00:33:21.960
Yeah, yeah, exactly.

00:33:21.960 --> 00:33:28.839
And so that, that feeds around four people, a family of four, two large slices, and I think going back to the why us is that.

00:33:29.394 --> 00:33:39.595
There's a lot that goes into, you know, startup costs, what, what space you have to build out and then what model you have from a royalty standpoint and all of that.

00:33:39.595 --> 00:33:47.515
So there's different royalty, um, amounts 4 percent to 8 There's startup costs that are different.

00:33:47.525 --> 00:33:55.194
And ultimately if you look at the QSR or restaurant industry, that 10 to 15%, if you can make that you're, you're doing really well.

00:33:55.224 --> 00:34:03.154
So whether or not you're selling 2 million at a dominoes, Or a million with us, you're looking at the unit and economics that tend to work out to 10%.

00:34:03.184 --> 00:34:05.045
So it's about what you want to be involved in.

00:34:05.565 --> 00:34:07.984
It's about what you want to be doing on a day to day basis.

00:34:08.235 --> 00:34:27.610
Having the dining opportunity is significant and, and just a, a better product ultimately, one of the things I was thinking about with that, uh, second generation locations, as you phrased it is, you know, Because I lived in Colorado Springs, and that's part of why I think of it this way, because Colorado Springs just kind of grew out in bands over time.

00:34:28.050 --> 00:34:39.114
But one of the things about the second generation locations, or even of your Harmony location now, is You know, that was on the edge of town when that area was built, which isn't ideal for delivery or carryout.

00:34:39.554 --> 00:34:44.364
You want to be surrounded by homes, you know, and that's kind of what a lot of those second generations are.

00:34:44.364 --> 00:34:46.684
This grown out, but the other people are still there.

00:34:46.755 --> 00:34:47.414
Exactly.

00:34:47.414 --> 00:34:47.625
Yeah.

00:34:47.625 --> 00:34:48.894
We're looking for rooftops.

00:34:49.614 --> 00:34:49.835
Absolutely.

00:34:49.835 --> 00:34:51.894
And it, and it doesn't quite have to be main on main.

00:34:51.925 --> 00:34:52.135
Right.

00:34:52.135 --> 00:34:53.565
It doesn't have to be the prettiest real estate.

00:34:53.574 --> 00:34:53.994
Right.

00:34:54.034 --> 00:34:54.364
Right.

00:34:54.699 --> 00:34:57.429
Most of our business, like you said, is leaving, heading out the door.

00:34:57.929 --> 00:35:00.610
And, uh, yeah, it can certainly be second gen for sure.

00:35:00.690 --> 00:35:01.000
Yeah.

00:35:01.070 --> 00:35:07.050
I think that today's, uh, you know, digital storefront, we are available to a significant amount more customers than it used to be.

00:35:07.050 --> 00:35:08.289
You had to drive by and see it.

00:35:08.289 --> 00:35:09.019
Let's go there.

00:35:09.019 --> 00:35:09.519
And so.

00:35:09.885 --> 00:35:13.344
While it's not main on main, we're in front of everybody's eyes online.

00:35:13.414 --> 00:35:19.954
If we do it right, if we market correctly, if we're in the right places, we're getting just as many eyeballs as somebody that's in grade a real estate.

00:35:19.994 --> 00:35:20.264
Right.

00:35:20.264 --> 00:35:28.445
Well, and every time the pizza is just, you know, it's twice as much as it would have been from dominoes, but it's more than twice as good, you know?

00:35:28.445 --> 00:35:29.644
Right.

00:35:29.644 --> 00:35:32.284
And cause cause 25 bucks still isn't very much.

00:35:32.405 --> 00:35:32.635
Right.

00:35:32.635 --> 00:35:33.494
We're still talking about pizza.

00:35:33.505 --> 00:35:34.985
We're talking about a steak dinner.

00:35:34.994 --> 00:35:35.344
Yeah.

00:35:35.344 --> 00:35:59.289
Well, in Cheap Ahood, Yeah, 16 mark, you know, you know, we try to talk about for one sub, you know, people don't want to hear though, you know, pizza is still considered a, uh, a cheap buy, I think, and having even two subs for 33 versus one large 18 inch pizza for 25 bucks, it, it doesn't, it's not really seen that way.

00:35:59.800 --> 00:36:02.469
And so we're trying to create the value conversation around.

00:36:02.619 --> 00:36:06.010
It doesn't seem like a lot until you see that we bought flour.

00:36:06.230 --> 00:36:08.659
And we have water every day, and we're making it into pizza.

00:36:08.659 --> 00:36:10.380
Yeah, we slice the vegetables.

00:36:10.619 --> 00:36:13.349
Not just a pass through pizza thing, frozen, and then to you.

00:36:13.360 --> 00:36:15.449
We're making it from scratch.

00:36:15.460 --> 00:36:16.519
Significantly different thing.

00:36:16.579 --> 00:36:16.860
Yeah.

00:36:17.369 --> 00:36:24.829
Um, what is the, uh, like the best thing about pizza?

00:36:26.829 --> 00:36:35.400
I think if you look at our brand, as Anthony's, I think we're really leaning into being able to see people throw the dough.

00:36:36.425 --> 00:36:44.045
The romance of somebody throwing pizza dough in the air and, and making it from scratch, you know, that's something we're looking at leaning into.

00:36:44.094 --> 00:36:48.755
How do we systematize that, but also, you know, keep that as a staple for us.

00:36:48.764 --> 00:36:51.985
And I think for me, that's a really cool thing to come into the store and see.

00:36:52.264 --> 00:36:52.565
Yeah.

00:36:52.795 --> 00:36:53.105
Yeah.

00:36:53.465 --> 00:36:56.224
I would agree that that made in house fresh daily.

00:36:56.224 --> 00:37:03.900
And then what's really cool about pizza to me is While inherently it's not, uh, just how Americana it is.

00:37:03.940 --> 00:37:04.429
Totally.

00:37:04.440 --> 00:37:06.929
It's, it's along there with burgers and fries, right?

00:37:06.940 --> 00:37:17.030
French fries and pizza seem to be very Americana, even though they're Well, and even though, like, pizza is Italian or whatever, margarita, but that was like, like, that was the thing.

00:37:17.139 --> 00:37:19.219
Like, here you want a margarita pizza or you want nothing?

00:37:19.639 --> 00:37:39.659
Like, and we're throwing pineapples on there, even though that's freaking disgusting, you know, we're doing just about whatever, you know, peanut butter stuffed jalapeno peppers on top of your pizza, I mean, it kind of embraces that diversity and you can make a pizza almost, you could almost Make a pizza of every international style.

00:37:39.730 --> 00:37:40.099
Absolutely.

00:37:40.110 --> 00:37:41.659
Like you could make a Brazilian pizza.

00:37:41.730 --> 00:37:41.929
Yeah.

00:37:42.139 --> 00:37:43.590
Right, you could make a Mexican pizza.

00:37:43.590 --> 00:37:45.429
You could make a Swedish pizza.

00:37:45.869 --> 00:37:46.800
Yeah, absolutely.

00:37:46.800 --> 00:37:50.530
Where I come from in North Dakota, they have sauerkraut and German sausage on pizzas.

00:37:50.599 --> 00:37:51.110
Oh, geez.

00:37:51.190 --> 00:37:51.860
All the time.

00:37:51.920 --> 00:37:53.289
Yeah, no, it's normal there.

00:37:53.300 --> 00:37:54.329
I'm gonna take notes on that one.

00:37:54.349 --> 00:37:56.590
With a horseradish white sauce.

00:37:56.840 --> 00:37:57.119
Yeah.

00:37:57.530 --> 00:37:58.519
Yeah, the German pizza.

00:37:58.550 --> 00:37:58.809
Yeah.

00:37:58.889 --> 00:38:00.010
You can take that if you want to.

00:38:00.360 --> 00:38:00.559
Yeah.

00:38:00.619 --> 00:38:01.239
Specialty.

00:38:01.250 --> 00:38:02.070
German immigrant.

00:38:02.590 --> 00:38:02.829
Specialty.

00:38:04.170 --> 00:38:05.050
We could name it the Kurt.

00:38:05.500 --> 00:38:05.829
Well.

00:38:07.530 --> 00:38:10.550
I'd be honored, but, uh, um.

00:38:11.179 --> 00:38:15.840
What else, uh, business wise, is there some other things about Anthony's that we should talk more about?

00:38:17.349 --> 00:38:23.500
Yeah, you know, I think we're having a lot of fun with this right now and I think, you know, it's a really fun path that we're on.

00:38:23.500 --> 00:38:26.940
It's super scalable and, um, You like learning, don't you?

00:38:27.260 --> 00:38:27.789
I do.

00:38:28.320 --> 00:38:28.599
Yeah.

00:38:28.610 --> 00:38:29.099
I can tell.

00:38:29.670 --> 00:38:30.030
Yep.

00:38:30.425 --> 00:38:33.425
So yeah, I mean we're celebrating 40 years this year.

00:38:33.454 --> 00:38:37.755
I don't know if when you get down to the Harmony You'll see a pair of skis that we did with Icelandic.

00:38:37.815 --> 00:38:43.054
Okay partnership this year to give away a bunch of skis at our restaurants Oh cool.

00:38:43.065 --> 00:38:45.710
Going back to the idea that It's made it 40 years.

00:38:45.719 --> 00:39:06.179
It's a longstanding brand in Colorado, and we're just unbelievably excited to get fresh eyes on it, to get a fresh perspective, keep its authenticity in the Colorado marketplace, the brand that it is, but see how we can just improve upon it a little bit, iterate on it and get it to a more scalable, more valuable, um, larger brand ultimately.

00:39:06.300 --> 00:39:08.010
And Andrew on, on the.

00:39:09.054 --> 00:39:16.394
perspective, you said you're doing a few building projects and things like that, but low, low volume on the real estate side.

00:39:16.394 --> 00:39:19.644
Are you actively looking for more restaurants or other opportunities?

00:39:19.644 --> 00:39:19.804
Yeah.

00:39:19.804 --> 00:39:23.804
If you've been following the real estate market locally, obviously like pricing's gone crazy, right?

00:39:23.835 --> 00:39:26.364
Opportunities for investment are, are scattered.

00:39:26.445 --> 00:39:29.525
And so that either takes you outside of Northern Colorado.

00:39:29.965 --> 00:39:32.465
For opportunities, or you're looking at some bigger projects.

00:39:32.574 --> 00:39:35.554
And right now things just aren't penciling like they used to for us.

00:39:35.844 --> 00:39:37.715
But, uh, but you'd open to getting back.

00:39:38.364 --> 00:39:38.985
Absolutely.

00:39:38.985 --> 00:39:39.224
Yeah.

00:39:39.454 --> 00:39:40.135
And we certainly do.

00:39:40.135 --> 00:39:44.085
We've got a number of projects still on the board and so it's been fun.

00:39:44.094 --> 00:39:46.574
That'll, that'll continue to be a staple within our business.

00:39:47.355 --> 00:39:48.804
Well, that's the nice thing about real estate.

00:39:48.835 --> 00:39:53.644
Like the, the secret to success in restaurants is.

00:39:54.920 --> 00:39:57.690
More, uh, elusive a little bit with real estate.

00:39:57.690 --> 00:39:59.489
A lot of it's just numbers.

00:39:59.550 --> 00:40:02.500
It's math, you know, how can I, how fast can I sell this?

00:40:02.500 --> 00:40:04.530
How much, how much interest on the loan?

00:40:04.690 --> 00:40:05.789
And it's cyclical, right?

00:40:05.840 --> 00:40:09.019
Like there's, there's been a lot of opportunity here over the last decade.

00:40:09.030 --> 00:40:18.840
A lot of people making really good wealth and accumulating units and, uh, Ultimately, we'll have to see the market cycle a little bit around here for a good investment opportunity to come back.

00:40:18.949 --> 00:40:30.780
Well, we'll, uh, we'll dip into that part of the journey, but on the way back through actually, because, uh, after we take a short break here, we're going to jump in the time machine and go back to second grade for both of you.

00:40:30.840 --> 00:40:31.570
Oh, okay.

00:40:31.650 --> 00:40:32.110
That should be fine.

00:40:32.110 --> 00:40:32.250
Great.

00:40:32.380 --> 00:40:33.119
Here we go.

00:41:16.275 --> 00:41:17.056
And we're back.

00:41:17.556 --> 00:41:19.786
And we're jumping in the time machine.

00:41:20.206 --> 00:41:20.536
Ready?

00:41:23.376 --> 00:41:24.965
Um, second grade.

00:41:25.065 --> 00:41:26.115
You're older, Andrew?

00:41:26.115 --> 00:41:26.965
A little bit, yep.

00:41:27.416 --> 00:41:29.036
Uh, where were you in second grade?

00:41:29.195 --> 00:41:31.885
Yeah, Bergen Elementary, Evergreen, Colorado.

00:41:32.085 --> 00:41:32.425
Okay.

00:41:32.771 --> 00:41:34.431
Yeah, fantastic place to be from.

00:41:34.431 --> 00:41:34.891
Bergman?

00:41:35.371 --> 00:41:36.280
Bergin.

00:41:36.371 --> 00:41:37.141
Bergin.

00:41:37.190 --> 00:41:37.550
Okay.

00:41:37.561 --> 00:41:38.291
Bergin Elementary.

00:41:38.440 --> 00:41:38.771
Okay.

00:41:38.971 --> 00:41:39.331
Alright.

00:41:39.661 --> 00:41:42.010
Um, and what were you, what were you up to there?

00:41:42.010 --> 00:41:45.001
Like your family moved there?

00:41:45.030 --> 00:41:45.501
Lived there?

00:41:45.501 --> 00:41:45.811
Yeah.

00:41:45.811 --> 00:41:46.731
Yeah, that's where I grew up.

00:41:46.800 --> 00:41:48.291
Um, family's still there.

00:41:48.291 --> 00:41:48.369
Okay.

00:41:48.371 --> 00:41:51.820
And, uh, yeah, nice little mountain community west of Denver there.

00:41:51.871 --> 00:41:57.871
And, uh, yeah, I'd imagine second grade, playing a lot of sports, little league, big time.

00:41:57.951 --> 00:41:58.371
Yeah.

00:41:59.396 --> 00:42:00.396
Brothers, sisters?

00:42:00.416 --> 00:42:01.746
Yeah, I've got two sisters.

00:42:01.856 --> 00:42:01.985
Okay.

00:42:01.985 --> 00:42:04.925
So I've got a younger sister named Taylor, Garrett's wife.

00:42:04.996 --> 00:42:05.235
Yep.

00:42:05.246 --> 00:42:06.346
And then older sister.

00:42:06.346 --> 00:42:06.826
Hey, baby.

00:42:06.916 --> 00:42:07.025
Hello.

00:42:08.545 --> 00:42:11.815
Older sister named Jamie, and Jamie's about two years older than I am.

00:42:11.815 --> 00:42:15.525
And then Younger sister is, uh, about eight years younger than me.

00:42:15.585 --> 00:42:16.135
Oh, wow.

00:42:16.155 --> 00:42:19.025
So, uh, yeah, that's why you were teasing him about robbing the cradle.

00:42:19.826 --> 00:42:21.186
I'm six years older than my wife.

00:42:21.545 --> 00:42:23.626
Uh, guarantees.

00:42:23.635 --> 00:42:25.115
She's going to be around to take care of me when I get old.

00:42:25.126 --> 00:42:26.335
That's what I'm hoping for.

00:42:26.335 --> 00:42:28.766
She's already, she's already having to get around.

00:42:29.675 --> 00:42:32.556
And what was your, was your dad an entrepreneur?

00:42:32.606 --> 00:42:36.335
Was he, yeah, family has always been entrepreneurial.

00:42:36.365 --> 00:42:42.206
You know, my grandfather owned an insurance business and then my other grandfather owned a boxing company.

00:42:42.900 --> 00:42:47.170
And, uh, not boxing, like, boxing people's stuff up and sending it somewhere or something.

00:42:47.170 --> 00:42:47.655
Exactly, yep.

00:42:47.655 --> 00:42:49.358
Wood crates, ship them on rail car.

00:42:49.358 --> 00:42:49.601
Okay.

00:42:49.601 --> 00:42:51.061
Um, interesting business that he had.

00:42:51.061 --> 00:42:53.800
You know, you can call it supply chain management now.

00:42:54.751 --> 00:42:55.840
Right, different kind, but yeah.

00:42:55.840 --> 00:42:56.400
Yeah, sure.

00:42:56.931 --> 00:42:59.740
And, uh, yeah, my father owns an excavation business.

00:42:59.791 --> 00:43:00.150
Okay.

00:43:00.170 --> 00:43:00.871
Up in Evergreen.

00:43:01.150 --> 00:43:03.110
And, like, for residential basements?

00:43:03.150 --> 00:43:05.420
Yeah, residential, like commercial.

00:43:05.451 --> 00:43:06.150
Okay, cool.

00:43:06.231 --> 00:43:14.501
He's been, uh, 45 years up in, uh, up in the mountains there with that business, and, uh So you grew up in business and in construction a little bit?

00:43:14.510 --> 00:43:14.561
Correct.

00:43:14.621 --> 00:43:15.880
Yep, absolutely.

00:43:15.960 --> 00:43:18.320
Alright, Garrett, you're in the hot seat.

00:43:18.320 --> 00:43:21.831
Yeah, second grade, back in, uh, Santa Monica, California.

00:43:21.981 --> 00:43:23.061
Uh, born and raised.

00:43:23.121 --> 00:43:23.471
Okay.

00:43:23.481 --> 00:43:25.731
Until I moved out here for college, but Yeah.

00:43:26.195 --> 00:43:28.965
Just, you know, doing the normal, uh, I guess, what would that be?

00:43:29.195 --> 00:43:30.246
Elementary school?

00:43:30.295 --> 00:43:30.715
Yeah, yeah.

00:43:30.925 --> 00:43:31.786
About there, so.

00:43:31.865 --> 00:43:33.905
What was the, what was the family setting?

00:43:33.916 --> 00:43:37.025
I have a, uh, older brother named David who's in Utah now.

00:43:37.036 --> 00:43:37.286
Okay.

00:43:37.286 --> 00:43:42.646
Also kind of in, uh, land and real estate, um, acquisitions and selling and stuff.

00:43:42.646 --> 00:43:45.666
And then my mom is still out in Southern California.

00:43:45.806 --> 00:43:46.065
Okay.

00:43:46.076 --> 00:43:47.465
And my dad's in Florida now, so.

00:43:48.065 --> 00:43:54.626
They went opposite directions, make holidays while you were uh, probably about the right same time.

00:43:54.626 --> 00:43:57.976
I don't know how I will, how old you are in second grade, like eight or something.

00:43:57.976 --> 00:43:58.295
Yeah.

00:43:58.295 --> 00:44:00.695
So I think they split when I was nine or 10.

00:44:00.746 --> 00:44:01.096
Okay.

00:44:01.545 --> 00:44:03.755
So more time that way then.

00:44:05.376 --> 00:44:07.146
They didn't move across country at that time.

00:44:07.635 --> 00:44:09.536
Um, just kind of recently, uh, a couple of years.

00:44:09.536 --> 00:44:12.224
Brother's two years older.

00:44:12.226 --> 00:44:14.206
So he'd be, uh, Andrew's age.

00:44:14.266 --> 00:44:14.615
Okay.

00:44:15.565 --> 00:44:20.175
And, uh, like not to get personal, but like, what was that like when your parents split?

00:44:20.606 --> 00:44:23.496
You know, I, God, you guys were nine and 11 or ish.

00:44:23.505 --> 00:44:23.965
Yeah.

00:44:24.246 --> 00:44:30.885
I think, uh, I don't know about the exact psychological differences in this situation, but there was obviously guys in behind the curtain.

00:44:30.885 --> 00:44:32.666
Well, you know, they, it's not that they didn't, but.

00:44:32.880 --> 00:44:38.681
There's obviously a difference in, uh, in experience, even between two years.

00:44:38.751 --> 00:44:39.041
Right.

00:44:39.271 --> 00:44:43.240
So, um, at, at nine or 10, maybe I was shielded from it.

00:44:43.251 --> 00:44:44.541
Maybe I didn't understand more.

00:44:44.541 --> 00:44:46.240
Maybe that's just my personality.

00:44:46.451 --> 00:44:50.090
Um, but it, it was noticeable, obviously it impacted us.

00:44:50.090 --> 00:45:03.846
There was some significantly harder times and then you'd hope for, but it wasn't something that, that to me, at least in longer timeframes, um, felt defining part of my life, right?

00:45:03.876 --> 00:45:05.365
Well, it's a different generation.

00:45:05.775 --> 00:45:14.766
My dad was a product of a divorced family and his mom and dad got divorced when they were, when he was like 12, you know, and kind of like 10 through 12.

00:45:14.766 --> 00:45:21.025
And it like, dad became the man of the house at 13, basically, and it colored his whole life after that.

00:45:21.416 --> 00:45:37.266
Well, it's also, I guess, Maybe only just my experience only speaking from experience, but we know, I think from statistics that divorced households are part of the large, you know, is kind of the norm in the United States a lot of the time, especially 20 years ago.

00:45:37.266 --> 00:45:41.255
And you know, married California is a leading state in that kind of stuff.

00:45:41.315 --> 00:45:41.865
Exactly.

00:45:41.865 --> 00:45:45.871
So, It never was something that was actually out of the complete norm for me.

00:45:45.871 --> 00:45:47.460
It wasn't great.

00:45:47.471 --> 00:45:47.762
I love it.

00:45:47.762 --> 00:45:53.481
Well, and you're, whatever, 15 years younger than me almost, so our generations are that much different from each other's experience.

00:45:53.530 --> 00:45:53.800
Yep.

00:45:53.940 --> 00:45:55.451
Are your folks still together?

00:45:55.460 --> 00:45:55.960
They are.

00:45:55.971 --> 00:45:56.411
Yeah.

00:45:56.451 --> 00:45:58.791
And, uh, lucky enough to have my parents still together.

00:45:58.791 --> 00:46:00.521
They're both, you know, fantastic people.

00:46:00.530 --> 00:46:06.481
Doesn't mean that we don't go through our own challenges and set our problems too, but love them to death and, uh, really great role models.

00:46:06.851 --> 00:46:13.891
Well, let's, uh, let's talk about kind of that season shifting, growing into a, a, a you know, say middle school, high school.

00:46:13.891 --> 00:46:17.530
Uh, you were, I played pickleball with you, Andrew, and you kind of kicked my ass.

00:46:17.760 --> 00:46:19.831
So I'm suspecting you were athletic early.

00:46:20.030 --> 00:46:23.451
I was, yeah, I was lucky enough to play every sport growing up.

00:46:23.451 --> 00:46:28.161
And, uh, you know, I gravitated towards football and then obviously you saw me play pickleball.

00:46:28.161 --> 00:46:32.030
I was a tennis player and, uh, yeah, I just loved being active growing up.

00:46:32.181 --> 00:46:33.641
Football, like wide receiver?

00:46:33.701 --> 00:46:36.851
Um, football, baseball, track and field.

00:46:36.860 --> 00:46:37.900
Honestly, I was doing everything.

00:46:37.900 --> 00:46:38.601
Swim team.

00:46:38.731 --> 00:46:39.190
Wow.

00:46:39.231 --> 00:46:39.960
It was, yeah.

00:46:40.061 --> 00:46:41.221
Anything you excelled at?

00:46:42.101 --> 00:46:49.300
You know, baseball, specifically, I would say I played tennis well at the time, and uh, And how were your grades?

00:46:49.681 --> 00:46:51.190
You know, the grades growing up weren't great.

00:46:51.371 --> 00:46:51.880
Okay.

00:46:51.900 --> 00:46:52.411
Not great.

00:46:52.661 --> 00:46:53.121
And why?

00:46:53.181 --> 00:46:56.090
I was focused on, uh, chasing girls and sports.

00:46:56.170 --> 00:46:57.190
I see, I see.

00:46:57.360 --> 00:47:02.135
Um, you know, staying, staying on the, uh, On the list, just a, just a play ball was enough.

00:47:02.135 --> 00:47:05.016
Yeah, just get good enough grades so that you can keep playing.

00:47:05.016 --> 00:47:05.965
Sure, sure, sure.

00:47:05.996 --> 00:47:06.456
All right.

00:47:06.476 --> 00:47:06.755
Yeah.

00:47:06.755 --> 00:47:08.956
Uh, contrast with your journey, Eric Garrett.

00:47:08.996 --> 00:47:10.715
Pretty much, uh, word for word.

00:47:10.715 --> 00:47:14.914
Actually, no contrast, no contrast can be heard out of me.

00:47:15.396 --> 00:47:17.956
I leaned into sports pretty heavy in middle school and high school.

00:47:17.956 --> 00:47:18.686
What were your sports?

00:47:18.746 --> 00:47:21.596
I was, uh, football and coming from California was volleyball.

00:47:22.005 --> 00:47:33.755
Um, grades hindered or kept me back from exploring really any strong opportunity of playing at another level, except for, um, I did come to Colorado specifically to play volleyball.

00:47:33.826 --> 00:47:34.246
Oh, okay.

00:47:34.286 --> 00:47:36.356
At Johnson and Wales University in Denver.

00:47:36.456 --> 00:47:36.815
Okay.

00:47:37.096 --> 00:47:40.476
Um, mainly because I'd wanted to come to Colorado, I guess.

00:47:40.556 --> 00:47:43.346
And it was the only school that looked at my grade and said, yeah, come on.

00:47:43.356 --> 00:47:44.036
He might make it.

00:47:46.115 --> 00:47:46.766
Come on over here.

00:47:47.856 --> 00:47:50.626
Just enough to keep on the roster but nothing exciting.

00:47:50.666 --> 00:47:51.056
All right.

00:47:51.186 --> 00:47:51.646
All right.

00:47:51.706 --> 00:47:53.865
And uh, what was the college?

00:47:53.865 --> 00:48:04.065
You know, like my opportunities were limited coming out of high school I was a great athlete, but yeah similar path not not a ton of opportunity for the next what are we talking to GPA sir?

00:48:04.085 --> 00:48:10.766
By the way, two point zero one with a change my senior year To get me to a two point.

00:48:10.795 --> 00:48:12.755
You're a one point nine seven or something.

00:48:12.775 --> 00:48:15.445
One point nine nine Mr.

00:48:15.445 --> 00:48:16.335
Meyer, shout out.

00:48:16.416 --> 00:48:17.885
Gave me a bump in grade.

00:48:17.885 --> 00:48:22.456
You got him into, into his college of what was it again?

00:48:22.565 --> 00:48:23.556
Uh, Johnson and Wales.

00:48:23.565 --> 00:48:24.295
Johnson and Wales.

00:48:24.505 --> 00:48:24.686
Yes.

00:48:25.326 --> 00:48:25.585
Yeah.

00:48:25.585 --> 00:48:27.146
I mean, I was scraping right there at the 2.

00:48:27.146 --> 00:48:29.996
0 level, but I, you know, I tested well, which helped out.

00:48:30.106 --> 00:48:33.885
Unfortunately, I, you know, my, like I said, my opportunities were limited.

00:48:34.556 --> 00:48:44.481
And so, you know, went to junior college and that's when I really decided to grow up and, uh, you know, pulled straight A's and then transferred and I got Pretty much anywhere I wanted to go from there.

00:48:44.481 --> 00:48:44.860
Nice, nice.

00:48:44.920 --> 00:48:47.550
And so, pivotal, pivotal moment in my life.

00:48:47.581 --> 00:48:53.331
Yeah, was there, was there like a, uh, event or anything that led you to straighten out and buck up?

00:48:53.331 --> 00:48:55.601
Or just the embarrassment of barely getting into college?

00:48:55.601 --> 00:48:58.275
Yeah, that, you know, underperforming is a real thing.

00:48:58.445 --> 00:49:03.065
You know, reality for some people, you know, not living up to your full potential, I think hit me in the face.

00:49:03.065 --> 00:49:03.135
Yeah.

00:49:03.135 --> 00:49:03.565
Yeah.

00:49:03.606 --> 00:49:08.365
Well, and you can either become a drug addict or you can start kicking ass.

00:49:08.576 --> 00:49:08.905
Right.

00:49:09.065 --> 00:49:09.445
Kind of.

00:49:09.445 --> 00:49:13.155
I mean, that's kind of a lot of times what happens to underperformers.

00:49:13.166 --> 00:49:16.405
You can turn it around or you can just wallow in sorrow.

00:49:16.556 --> 00:49:16.655
Yeah.

00:49:16.675 --> 00:49:24.155
I found a, you know, same again, kind of same path of Dean's List in college, A's and B's in college.

00:49:24.155 --> 00:49:39.621
And I actually attributed it to my lack of ability to go home and do questions one through 40 odds in math because the teacher told me I had to or go back and try to answer questions on something I did not care about on a daily basis.

00:49:39.641 --> 00:49:40.860
I tested very well.

00:49:41.141 --> 00:49:42.371
I would not do the homework.

00:49:42.800 --> 00:49:51.951
And in college, the dynamic shifted to find something you enjoy talking about studying, doing, and then, and then do it and come back to us.

00:49:51.951 --> 00:49:55.311
And I really gravitated towards that, which I found to also be.

00:49:55.735 --> 00:50:00.965
You know, uh, uh, something that benefits you in business is you're working towards a goal.

00:50:00.965 --> 00:50:02.536
You're working on something you're passionate about.

00:50:02.536 --> 00:50:06.365
You're not just giving tasks or doing tasks on a daily basis because.

00:50:06.416 --> 00:50:06.606
Yeah.

00:50:06.606 --> 00:50:10.025
Give me a list of 10 things to do and it's none of your business why I want you to do them.

00:50:10.076 --> 00:50:12.434
And yeah, I quit.

00:50:12.436 --> 00:50:12.885
I'm out.

00:50:13.226 --> 00:50:13.576
Yep.

00:50:13.626 --> 00:50:13.885
Yep.

00:50:13.885 --> 00:50:14.335
Fair enough.

00:50:14.626 --> 00:50:17.076
So you also turned it around and got good grades and stuff.

00:50:17.376 --> 00:50:20.266
And like, When did you meet his sister?

00:50:20.735 --> 00:50:23.295
Uh, we actually met at the Well, it wasn't for a while.

00:50:23.295 --> 00:50:27.045
Well, did you warn her about California guys?

00:50:27.045 --> 00:50:30.034
I think everybody in Colorado It was too late by then.

00:50:30.036 --> 00:50:40.425
It was long too late by then, but uh, you know, we met about seven, eight years ago now, and we actually met all at the same time at a camping trip in Nebraska on Lake McConaughey.

00:50:40.485 --> 00:50:40.885
Okay.

00:50:43.025 --> 00:50:47.356
How did that, like friends of friends, everybody had a big 20 person camp out.

00:50:47.416 --> 00:50:54.856
If I could interject on this one, I think, uh, you know, Garrett was at the, was at the, uh, camping trip and, uh, you know, he got bit in the face by a dog.

00:50:54.865 --> 00:50:55.195
Yeah.

00:50:55.235 --> 00:50:55.795
Oh shit.

00:50:55.806 --> 00:50:56.016
Yeah.

00:50:56.045 --> 00:50:56.505
Yeah.

00:50:56.695 --> 00:50:57.746
And still have a scar.

00:50:57.815 --> 00:50:58.806
Not your dog, I guess.

00:50:58.846 --> 00:50:59.686
No, not mine.

00:50:59.686 --> 00:51:00.806
But you know, I was kind of blown away.

00:51:00.806 --> 00:51:03.556
I was like, wait, you're dating the guy that let himself get bit in the face.

00:51:03.556 --> 00:51:05.875
Yeah.

00:51:05.876 --> 00:51:08.646
For a while there, Andrew was adamant about like, what do you get?

00:51:08.655 --> 00:51:10.715
Who, what you keep bringing him around?

00:51:10.735 --> 00:51:11.306
Why?

00:51:11.411 --> 00:51:15.440
Like this hasn't worked out yet and then, you know, yada, yada, yada.

00:51:15.451 --> 00:51:16.181
Best thing he did.

00:51:17.101 --> 00:51:18.550
He's not all right.

00:51:18.630 --> 00:51:19.050
All right.

00:51:20.931 --> 00:51:21.771
Bit in the face.

00:51:21.851 --> 00:51:26.740
Uh, it was, uh, it was a long test and then we met Taylor and I started talking to kind of a couple of months after that.

00:51:26.740 --> 00:51:28.840
And then Andrew found out at red rock show, I think.

00:51:28.840 --> 00:51:29.389
Nice.

00:51:29.391 --> 00:51:29.740
Nice.

00:51:30.090 --> 00:51:43.300
Well, and I, uh, I like the kind of people that in their late 20s will gather in a large clump and get rowdy enough at McConaughey to have dogfights, fightings, and stuff like that, you know?

00:51:43.550 --> 00:51:49.960
Cause I think what I understand is McConaughey's like, When you want to be far enough away from Colorado that your Colorado friends don't see what you're doing?

00:51:49.960 --> 00:51:51.121
I don't maybe I'm wrong about that.

00:51:51.791 --> 00:51:54.530
I mean, it's a dry lake Is it dry now?

00:51:54.541 --> 00:51:55.800
We haven't we don't drink there.

00:51:56.431 --> 00:51:56.751
Oh, is it?

00:51:56.900 --> 00:51:57.221
No.

00:51:57.260 --> 00:51:58.231
No, it is a dry lake.

00:51:58.590 --> 00:52:00.641
No Oh, really?

00:52:00.681 --> 00:52:01.481
That wasn't stopping.

00:52:01.690 --> 00:52:10.311
Yeah, I was like, I think I heard about like Jake Plummer going out there and partying and stuff like that I'm pretty sure it's like more like Detroit lakes than it is like a lot of places.

00:52:10.311 --> 00:52:16.146
It's like Burning Man light Yeah, yeah, that, yeah, exactly.

00:52:16.675 --> 00:52:30.445
Um, so I guess, look, talk to me about, uh, let's stay on you, Garrett, for a minute, so you turn your stuff around graduate and then like, what's, what's it, you know, man, what did you find that you really wanted to study and get good grades?

00:52:30.706 --> 00:52:33.315
So I actually, uh, I think it was more about.

00:52:33.695 --> 00:52:37.266
You know some of the teachers there studying business for at a culinary school.

00:52:37.516 --> 00:52:46.306
Um, so I I kind of gravitated towards marketing and really enjoyed just the the general this was a culinary school Yeah, it was it's mainly a culinary school.

00:52:46.306 --> 00:52:48.655
Okay that has a small business program.

00:52:48.655 --> 00:52:49.085
Okay.

00:52:49.146 --> 00:52:53.666
Okay, and again Why they were like, yeah, come on, um, we need somebody.

00:52:53.735 --> 00:52:54.025
Yeah.

00:52:54.135 --> 00:53:03.735
And, uh, you know, I think it was just a matter of being in sports, finding a smaller kind of school that I could learn the marketing and the general business applications and all of that.

00:53:03.735 --> 00:53:03.956
And.

00:53:04.545 --> 00:53:07.545
Um, well, I had some really good teachers there, uh, Dr.

00:53:07.545 --> 00:53:10.056
Moulton, who I really gravitated towards.

00:53:10.056 --> 00:53:13.536
Well, it's probably almost a smaller setting for you in college than it was in high school.

00:53:13.545 --> 00:53:14.405
It was very close.

00:53:14.436 --> 00:53:16.856
You could, you could kind of lose yourself in high school.

00:53:16.865 --> 00:53:17.255
Yep.

00:53:17.465 --> 00:53:46.226
Yeah, it was very close to being a really good introduction to a university without, you know, I think if I would have gotten thrown into the true university life, I would not have been able to make that transition because I was on that line of like, uh, you know, if it was a fraternity, if it was, you know, any big sports program, it was kind of that I was forced into, In the best way possible, like playing a sport that nobody really cared about in Colorado, but had to put as much effort into it, um, as required.

00:53:46.226 --> 00:53:52.266
And then also having a small school setting that allowed me to kind of prosper with the personal relationships and stuff.

00:53:52.516 --> 00:53:54.726
And did you, where did you go for your second two?

00:53:54.726 --> 00:54:01.335
You said, yeah, I ended up going to Colorado state here and graduated with a business degree in real estate.

00:54:01.335 --> 00:54:04.525
And then I also picked up another degree in construction management.

00:54:04.525 --> 00:54:04.746
Yeah.

00:54:05.221 --> 00:54:05.541
Okay.

00:54:05.550 --> 00:54:06.710
Yeah, the rest is history with that.

00:54:06.780 --> 00:54:09.121
And then, like, where did you start your career, Andrew?

00:54:09.170 --> 00:54:13.800
Yeah, I just, uh, came out in 2009 as a struggling, uh, real estate broker.

00:54:13.800 --> 00:54:14.641
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:54:14.670 --> 00:54:15.271
And, uh, Yeah.

00:54:15.280 --> 00:54:16.871
Great real estate economy at that time.

00:54:16.951 --> 00:54:21.311
It was, it was fantastic and, uh, I was lucky enough to have some really good mentors.

00:54:21.556 --> 00:54:27.166
That showed me the side of real estate investing, which I really gravitated towards, did a lot of fix and flips.

00:54:27.505 --> 00:54:29.715
Cause there was a lot of market opportunities at that time.

00:54:29.726 --> 00:54:29.786
There was.

00:54:29.786 --> 00:54:30.385
Tons of them.

00:54:30.436 --> 00:54:31.146
Absolutely.

00:54:31.155 --> 00:54:35.626
Had a couple of really good partners at the time and, uh, learned a lot at that time.

00:54:35.635 --> 00:54:37.456
Were you partnered with Devin early on?

00:54:37.465 --> 00:54:38.365
Not, no.

00:54:38.485 --> 00:54:40.326
So I started a career by myself.

00:54:40.385 --> 00:54:43.115
Um, Marcus Valdez, still here in Fort Collins.

00:54:43.166 --> 00:54:48.106
Marcus and I did a couple of deals together and then Dave Lund, Greg and Mike Vogel.

00:54:48.431 --> 00:54:50.161
Those guys were great mentors for me.

00:54:50.161 --> 00:54:56.201
Learned a lot from those guys and was able to, to partner with them on a few deals and kind of pick up the business.

00:54:56.201 --> 00:55:04.621
And then, you know, I met Devin, he, you know, we went to college together, but we didn't really know each other in college and, uh, yeah, met after college, kind of told him what I was up to.

00:55:04.630 --> 00:55:07.351
He was also a struggling real estate agent at the time.

00:55:07.865 --> 00:55:16.195
You know, I said, Hey, there's some opportunity to, to do some renovations and fix and flips and, and make a little money this way while we're, you know, trying to figure out our career path.

00:55:16.235 --> 00:55:17.085
Right, right.

00:55:17.106 --> 00:55:21.626
And he's like, yeah, I think we can line up some, some capital and, and, and make this a go.

00:55:21.706 --> 00:55:28.246
And, uh, 15 years later, here we sit with, you know, over 90 units, commercial and residential.

00:55:28.275 --> 00:55:28.626
Wow.

00:55:28.885 --> 00:55:31.275
Have built over 350 houses in our career.

00:55:31.365 --> 00:55:31.585
So.

00:55:32.295 --> 00:55:41.356
And that was like, I mean, in 2009 through 2012, like, Being able to get to capital was the biggest thing in some ways, right?

00:55:41.356 --> 00:55:48.655
Like the conventional banking stuff had dried up, you know, you couldn't buy 17 rental properties.

00:55:49.010 --> 00:55:51.101
Yeah, yeah, there's a side hustle anymore.

00:55:51.130 --> 00:56:14.451
No, no, it couldn't and it was still difficult back then You know, we had a lot of a lot of mezzanine debt that would sign as a guarantor For a period of time you got two years to figure it out Yeah, a lot of six months or three months exactly Yep So we had a lot of faith in the you know Our surrounding people that were you know saw what we were doing and saw that we could execute and yeah, cool What an interesting thing.

00:56:14.951 --> 00:56:19.630
Um, and then, Garrett, you've got your business culinary degree.

00:56:20.110 --> 00:56:20.940
Yep, pretty much.

00:56:20.981 --> 00:56:21.791
Are you a pretty good cook?

00:56:22.121 --> 00:56:22.610
Uh, no.

00:56:22.621 --> 00:56:24.110
I never took one cooking class while I was there.

00:56:24.940 --> 00:56:26.320
Um, probably should have.

00:56:27.010 --> 00:56:27.561
Wouldn't hurt ya.

00:56:27.601 --> 00:56:28.300
Nope, nope.

00:56:28.311 --> 00:56:32.201
There were wine tasting kind of specialty classes that I dabbled in.

00:56:32.371 --> 00:56:33.099
That was a class?

00:56:33.101 --> 00:56:47.251
Um, apparently, you know, the, you're just supposed to taste the wine and never goes over that well, but I did graduate with a marketing degree and then a secondary minor in just, um, you know, general business administration.

00:56:47.956 --> 00:56:58.985
And straight away I, I joined up for, or got hired into the Toyota, uh, management rotational program based out of, uh, California and started.

00:56:58.985 --> 00:57:02.545
And how did you like just came across the newswire?

00:57:02.545 --> 00:57:06.356
So I look in, I think my parents were still a little concerned about what was next.

00:57:06.356 --> 00:57:11.965
And there was a family friend who was a, um, individual at Toyota for 25 years.

00:57:12.746 --> 00:57:13.525
I actually.

00:57:14.010 --> 00:57:29.090
Went to find a internship because I had to do an internship to complete my college degree and I waited till after senior year So I went to go ask about getting an internship and he said I don't I do we don't do internships here Especially during 2009 2010.

00:57:29.090 --> 00:57:35.181
He's like, but I think you'd be a strong candidate for our executive rotational program Do you want to go down and teach talk to HR about that?

00:57:35.181 --> 00:57:40.201
I was like sure Um, and then you go back to the college and say, Hey, if I get into this program, does that count as an internship?

00:57:41.141 --> 00:57:41.411
Yep.

00:57:41.641 --> 00:57:46.460
And, uh, they, uh, said, yeah, well, we'd love to interview you and went six months interviewing.

00:57:46.471 --> 00:57:54.864
Everything was on hold because of the 2009, um, downturn and pretty much immediately after, um, summer moved out to start at the.

00:57:55.126 --> 00:57:56.295
Customer experience center.

00:57:56.295 --> 00:58:00.806
4331 customer experience for Toyota for about six months.

00:58:00.806 --> 00:58:02.476
Answered phone calls of pissed off people.

00:58:03.166 --> 00:58:05.715
And then you just kind of rotate through every possible program.

00:58:05.726 --> 00:58:06.246
Yeah.

00:58:06.706 --> 00:58:07.666
That was kind of my experience.

00:58:07.666 --> 00:58:10.505
I got into a banking training program as well.

00:58:10.505 --> 00:58:12.896
And it was like, You're going to be a teller for a week.

00:58:13.025 --> 00:58:14.715
You're going to be a new accounts person for a week.

00:58:14.726 --> 00:58:15.505
You're going to do this.

00:58:15.516 --> 00:58:16.115
You're going to do that.

00:58:16.166 --> 00:58:16.496
Yeah.

00:58:16.596 --> 00:58:23.226
So I've done everything from service and parts to a district sales manager to customer attention and all of it.

00:58:23.396 --> 00:58:23.905
Interesting.

00:58:24.255 --> 00:58:26.085
And are you a fan of Toyota?

00:58:26.286 --> 00:58:27.326
Huge fan of Toyota.

00:58:27.335 --> 00:58:34.215
Very adamant about, you know, not only the product, but I've seen firsthand from making the decisions about.

00:58:34.726 --> 00:58:38.266
Customer satisfaction about what they do to take care of their customer.

00:58:38.266 --> 00:58:44.905
They try, customers try and back their brand up and so I'm, I'm a pretty big ag, a big advocate of both Toyota and Lexus.

00:58:44.965 --> 00:58:45.206
Yeah.

00:58:45.326 --> 00:58:49.166
From the reliability to, if that doesn't work out, what they'll do for you after the fact.

00:58:49.166 --> 00:58:57.115
I really want a Lexus, uh, GX four 70, like old school, maybe, I don't know, 2005 or something like that, that I can, the new gxs are nice too though.

00:58:57.146 --> 00:59:01.016
Well, I'm sure they are, but I don't have$108,000 or whatever.

00:59:01.436 --> 00:59:05.166
They came out with a new, uh, kind of squared off body style, but it's really nice.

00:59:05.166 --> 00:59:05.585
I dig it.

00:59:05.675 --> 00:59:06.135
I dig it.

00:59:06.476 --> 00:59:07.516
So that was interesting.

00:59:07.525 --> 00:59:12.286
Did you, were you, like, you were kind of marked for a long termer?

00:59:12.565 --> 00:59:13.065
I was.

00:59:13.065 --> 00:59:15.045
In that kind of Toyota America kind of thing, right?

00:59:15.056 --> 00:59:18.235
Yeah, they, uh, we, they were based out of Southern California.

00:59:18.266 --> 00:59:21.695
It was kind of all signs point to California if you make it through the program.

00:59:21.695 --> 00:59:24.536
It's a solid 15 years out in the field.

00:59:24.715 --> 00:59:29.556
Um, and so I was placed in Kansas City, um, for about a year and a half.

00:59:30.036 --> 00:59:32.735
And then was able to transition into the Denver region.

00:59:33.076 --> 00:59:40.255
And as I progressed through the, the, you know, levels and made it to the regional management position in the office.

00:59:40.851 --> 00:59:45.541
They were like, Hey, next stop is we've relocated our office to Texas field.

00:59:46.061 --> 00:59:46.451
Yeah.

00:59:46.451 --> 00:59:47.231
So you're going to Texas.

00:59:47.231 --> 00:59:48.391
You get to get a job in Texas.

00:59:48.420 --> 00:59:48.940
No, I'm not.

00:59:49.650 --> 00:59:53.010
Um, and they're like, well, you have to, if you want to move up, you go to Texas.

00:59:53.021 --> 01:00:00.820
It was like, so I left, I left Toyota and found a, uh, retail automotive company here locally out of New Jersey.

01:00:00.911 --> 01:00:05.130
Um, that, uh, that has, Automotive dealerships.

01:00:05.420 --> 01:00:05.661
Yeah.

01:00:05.661 --> 01:00:07.240
I spent about four years with them.

01:00:07.291 --> 01:00:07.670
Okay.

01:00:07.800 --> 01:00:14.300
Um, kind of sharing some of the, the smart things you learned from Toyota and customer service and everything else with this.

01:00:14.371 --> 01:00:15.641
It wasn't John Elway or nothing.

01:00:15.661 --> 01:00:18.221
No, it was a company called Holman out of New Jersey.

01:00:18.221 --> 01:00:21.820
They have, uh, all the CUNY brand stores down in central Denver.

01:00:21.820 --> 01:00:25.420
And they have now, I think something like 60 dealerships nationwide.

01:00:25.530 --> 01:00:26.831
So there are a top 10 automotive companies.

01:00:26.831 --> 01:00:32.240
So those things, that experience really prepared you potentially for some adventure like this too.

01:00:32.280 --> 01:00:32.650
Yeah.

01:00:32.956 --> 01:00:33.226
Yep.

01:00:33.445 --> 01:00:36.936
I'm just kind of thinking on your feet and finding a way out for this part.

01:00:38.365 --> 01:00:48.976
Um, and Andrew, you're like, you kind of, once FR tilted up and, you know, you kind of moved from fix and flips, uh, to some development projects.

01:00:49.056 --> 01:00:49.545
Yeah.

01:00:50.655 --> 01:00:55.215
Parlayed that into some new construction and, uh, we had an investor do some lot banking for us.

01:00:55.286 --> 01:00:55.806
Oh, okay.

01:00:55.835 --> 01:00:59.735
And so we decided to, you know, new construction going vertical with some houses.

01:00:59.795 --> 01:01:00.146
Yeah.

01:01:00.146 --> 01:01:01.746
That was our next block of.

01:01:02.226 --> 01:01:02.846
Exactly.

01:01:02.846 --> 01:01:03.894
Yeah, yeah, I like it.

01:01:03.896 --> 01:01:07.795
Yeah, and uh, that went well for a long period of time.

01:01:07.835 --> 01:01:11.356
We had some communities do really well, some communities do not so great.

01:01:11.766 --> 01:01:13.606
Um, we learned a ton in between.

01:01:13.726 --> 01:01:14.916
You know, had a lot of super tenants.

01:01:14.916 --> 01:01:23.260
Yeah, Old Town North was an interesting thing in that it, it, it came out of the gates and kind of, Fell on its face for a while is market timing.

01:01:23.280 --> 01:01:37.280
I financed the What's that on the river rooftops in the river from John Prouty like in 2009 as a banker, so I know slow absorption But then it really caught fire and was just going gangbusters.

01:01:37.280 --> 01:01:38.820
When was that like 13 14?

01:01:38.820 --> 01:01:47.210
Yeah 13 we Yeah, we stuck a shovel in the ground in 2013 and, uh, had a couple really cool roof deck models that were super popular.

01:01:47.210 --> 01:01:49.181
Oh, so you bought some stuff under distress up there.

01:01:49.181 --> 01:01:50.400
It was already developed?

01:01:50.420 --> 01:01:54.090
No, no, so we actually took some new, fresh designs.

01:01:54.121 --> 01:01:54.891
Okay, okay.

01:01:54.891 --> 01:01:57.001
Yeah, and, um, yeah, it just went vertical.

01:01:57.001 --> 01:02:00.300
I think we built roughly 53 houses in that community.

01:02:00.351 --> 01:02:00.760
Okay.

01:02:00.860 --> 01:02:01.951
So Yeah, cool.

01:02:01.971 --> 01:02:02.431
Yeah.

01:02:02.550 --> 01:02:07.481
Um Any big learning lessons from, uh, those seasons?

01:02:07.521 --> 01:02:12.641
Like if, if you were going to say like things that you learned in real estate that even apply to pizza.

01:02:12.641 --> 01:02:25.951
You know, I think what crosses over is, is dealing with people, being able to lead people effectively, getting them to rally behind you with, with your vision, I think that translates from industry to industry, you can take that skillset with you.

01:02:26.320 --> 01:02:31.505
What you're doing in business isn't as important as, is how you're doing it and how you're leading.

01:02:31.516 --> 01:02:39.226
And I say, you know, we've had the good fortune of having a lot of good employees down the line of us over the years, some much older.

01:02:39.931 --> 01:02:48.501
And that can get a little tricky, some younger, but ultimately being able to deal with people in a way that's effective for you and your company, I think is important.

01:02:48.880 --> 01:02:49.411
I dig that.

01:02:49.780 --> 01:02:57.710
Uh, one of the phrases I share a lot at, uh, Loco here is, uh, we look for the win, win, win, win, but we'll settle for the win, win, win if necessary.

01:02:58.161 --> 01:03:03.690
You know, and it kind of goes to that, like, especially when you're dealing with complex transactions, real estate, like you can't.

01:03:04.025 --> 01:03:14.385
Really make anybody do anything sure it's kind of around building Everybody wins a little bit kind of a circumstance even with your acquisition of Anthony's right.

01:03:14.385 --> 01:03:18.396
It was kind of a Stagnated franchise or whatever.

01:03:18.396 --> 01:03:19.545
I'm guessing it.

01:03:19.585 --> 01:03:23.865
You know, there were some of the franchisees were Annoyed that more cool stuff.

01:03:23.865 --> 01:03:36.306
It wasn't happening or whatever, but but helping those sellers Understand that hey if we take this path, we got the a route or the B route if we take the B route You It might be more fun for everybody.

01:03:36.396 --> 01:03:36.936
Right.

01:03:37.126 --> 01:03:37.496
Right.

01:03:37.956 --> 01:03:39.556
And I think that's where we sit today with Anthony's.

01:03:39.556 --> 01:03:42.141
I would classify this as a a four win.

01:03:42.521 --> 01:03:42.791
Yeah.

01:03:42.840 --> 01:03:43.050
Yeah.

01:03:43.050 --> 01:03:45.701
Win, win, win, win situation right now as it sits.

01:03:45.701 --> 01:03:49.440
And that's inherent in, uh, franchising, I think, because.

01:03:49.670 --> 01:03:50.621
Oh, so hard to balance.

01:03:51.001 --> 01:03:51.221
Yeah.

01:03:51.221 --> 01:03:55.110
They're, they're all their own, um, individual independently run businesses.

01:03:55.251 --> 01:04:01.641
And while you have guidelines and, and, you know, processes and procedures in place, you can't force anybody to do anything.

01:04:01.641 --> 01:04:08.380
And so it's about finding the common ground of success and making sure that we all can move forward and not just trying to say, you have to do this.

01:04:08.411 --> 01:04:08.860
Yeah.

01:04:08.880 --> 01:04:09.550
It's about the why.

01:04:09.581 --> 01:04:10.601
If you do this.

01:04:11.090 --> 01:04:21.590
Then more of this will happen, you know, some of that messaging, like, yeah, just encouraging people to do the things that are right, you know, showing, showing them why building the watch, building the watch.

01:04:21.630 --> 01:04:24.110
Yeah, we had a lot of apprehensive franchisees.

01:04:24.130 --> 01:04:30.760
Initially, Garrett's done a really nice job of showing people what we're going to do and then backing it up by giving them actual content.

01:04:30.760 --> 01:04:32.721
There's some action steps on the way up.

01:04:32.721 --> 01:04:36.900
And we've, we've certainly earned their trust with even within a short six month period.

01:04:36.931 --> 01:04:37.621
What a fun thing.

01:04:38.141 --> 01:04:40.146
Um, I like it.

01:04:40.275 --> 01:04:42.005
Uh, what else?

01:04:42.045 --> 01:04:49.565
I guess, uh, timeline wise, I feel like we've almost caught back up today, so we can go into the controversial segments if you'd like.

01:04:50.065 --> 01:04:51.715
Uh, let's actually do one more thing.

01:04:51.746 --> 01:04:52.096
Yeah.

01:04:52.266 --> 01:04:59.686
Um, if you were going to say about Andrew, what's his secret sauce?

01:04:59.715 --> 01:05:05.585
Like what's his special sauce when it comes to dealing with people in business and whatever that looks like?

01:05:05.865 --> 01:05:06.255
Yeah.

01:05:06.286 --> 01:05:11.516
I think that, uh, going back to the idea of how he interacts with individuals.

01:05:11.965 --> 01:05:16.286
Him and I obviously being family and friends, you know, there's been some tough decisions.

01:05:16.286 --> 01:05:17.996
There's been some tough things where we disagree.

01:05:17.996 --> 01:05:28.226
There's been some tough things where we may not see eye to eye, but the process in working through that and trying to, while he may not actually Care about both sides.

01:05:28.226 --> 01:05:30.675
You can feel that he's working through it with you.

01:05:30.686 --> 01:05:32.846
He's trying to figure out the best path forward.

01:05:32.876 --> 01:05:43.655
And it's not to be honest, you know, there's a structure in every company and at points, Andrew Devin, anybody could say, well, we're the largest shareholder do this because we said so, but we get to have that common.

01:05:43.885 --> 01:05:47.516
Discussion and lead each other towards a direction.

01:05:47.516 --> 01:05:58.905
And it may shift back and forth, not being stubborn in your, in his own decision, but either trying to help me come to the understanding of why we should go a direction or being open to adapting if needed.

01:05:58.916 --> 01:06:09.226
So that's, uh, I think, I think actually it was a talk to the Rotary Club, uh, that I gave back during the COVID nation stuff and lockdowns and whatnot.

01:06:09.255 --> 01:06:15.346
And after we had come back, but I, I talked about, The force of persuasion versus the force of force.

01:06:15.425 --> 01:06:15.726
Yeah.

01:06:16.106 --> 01:06:18.985
Uh, and how the force of persuasion is always way better.

01:06:19.755 --> 01:06:27.655
Uh, so that sounds like maybe a, Tip toward the, uh, his capability as a persuader and an empathetic, or at least a sympathetic.

01:06:28.306 --> 01:06:31.516
And then also being able to adapt if, if, you know, we're, we're wrong.

01:06:31.525 --> 01:06:49.856
But if I'm not wrong, a good amount, then I'm not pushing the boundaries enough and he has that same mentality is while I might think a certain way, it doesn't mean that I won't immediately say, well, you, I see your side of things, not being too steadfast in just an opinion, but being confident in your opinion, but also willing to.

01:06:50.070 --> 01:06:52.530
Adopt where needed and change if it makes sense.

01:06:52.530 --> 01:06:52.710
Yeah.

01:06:52.710 --> 01:06:53.570
Yeah, I did that.

01:06:53.710 --> 01:07:18.815
Yeah Same question back, but only in terms as relates to connecting with your sister He did say at one time, you know, just don't let it go down in flames because we're gonna stay friends Really awkward No, what I mean you didn't have to I guess you did.

01:07:18.815 --> 01:07:24.335
I mean, Garrett kind of brought this concept to you and said, Hey, will you help me make this amazing in some respects?

01:07:24.425 --> 01:07:24.856
Yeah.

01:07:24.856 --> 01:07:25.445
Yeah, he did.

01:07:25.445 --> 01:07:28.536
And he's done a really nice job of like staying at it, right?

01:07:28.536 --> 01:07:35.166
Like this opportunity has been kind of on our doorstep for the last couple of years, but we weren't quite ready to execute on it.

01:07:35.186 --> 01:07:36.545
We didn't know what we didn't know at the time.

01:07:37.255 --> 01:07:38.056
And now we do.

01:07:38.126 --> 01:07:39.945
And Garrett's definitely the right person to lead it.

01:07:40.306 --> 01:07:44.695
And once you have that confidence, you know what you're doing, and you've got a really good plan.

01:07:44.695 --> 01:07:44.746
Yeah.

01:07:45.021 --> 01:07:46.771
The money comes behind that pretty quick.

01:07:47.181 --> 01:07:56.420
You know, it's, it's not only, it's a bet on Garrett that I made three, four years ago now, it's a, it's an even larger bet that we're putting company and a lot of different investors behind it now.

01:07:56.420 --> 01:07:58.150
And it's becoming real for us.

01:07:58.201 --> 01:07:59.920
It's, it's been a ton of fun.

01:08:00.251 --> 01:08:00.481
I dig it.

01:08:00.751 --> 01:08:03.380
I think that was a, actually a huge thing that he.

01:08:04.311 --> 01:08:08.971
Help me learn was after we purchased the original one, I went right to this deal.

01:08:08.971 --> 01:08:10.851
I had a, I had the idea behind me.

01:08:10.851 --> 01:08:11.791
I wanted to do it.

01:08:12.201 --> 01:08:15.751
And I brought it to one person first or two people, him and Devin.

01:08:15.800 --> 01:08:17.610
And they respectfully said no.

01:08:17.711 --> 01:08:17.961
Right.

01:08:18.421 --> 01:08:20.110
And I was like, all right, well, they don't want this.

01:08:20.121 --> 01:08:21.161
They're they're stupid.

01:08:21.390 --> 01:08:25.430
But I went to 20 other banks, private equity groups, investors.

01:08:25.791 --> 01:08:29.570
And through that process, I got a lot of no's, you know, two dozen no's.

01:08:30.730 --> 01:08:37.951
And then eventually when, when I had kind of had all my ducks in a row, we had enough time figuring out the unit economics, what was needing to be improved upon.

01:08:38.001 --> 01:08:38.951
And it worked.

01:08:38.961 --> 01:08:49.841
He said, he said that exact process of like, it wasn't the deal, you know, the deal maybe worked or maybe didn't, but they weren't even really ready to look at the deal because I was the one.

01:08:51.301 --> 01:08:52.761
There's a big homework assignment here for us.

01:08:53.220 --> 01:08:57.230
And I, at the time, I wouldn't have understood that, but I do later on.

01:08:57.230 --> 01:08:57.871
So you're right.

01:08:57.871 --> 01:08:59.371
I don't know if it would have been.

01:08:59.390 --> 01:09:07.640
Well, and even building allegiance within these other franchisees and like all of that, it's, you can't, you can't make people do stuff.

01:09:07.640 --> 01:09:07.810
Yeah.

01:09:07.810 --> 01:09:11.291
You can spreadsheet anything, but ultimately you're placing a bet on that.

01:09:11.371 --> 01:09:11.640
Yeah.

01:09:11.640 --> 01:09:12.070
Yeah.

01:09:12.180 --> 01:09:12.680
Interesting.

01:09:13.301 --> 01:09:15.341
Um, closing segments.

01:09:16.070 --> 01:09:18.301
Faith, family, politics in any order.

01:09:18.430 --> 01:09:21.541
Uh, where, what do you want to start?

01:09:21.551 --> 01:09:24.881
Well, I think, you know, I think we could touch on the family element, obviously.

01:09:25.270 --> 01:09:25.310
Sure.

01:09:25.350 --> 01:09:25.511
Yeah.

01:09:25.530 --> 01:09:25.990
Family now.

01:09:26.190 --> 01:09:29.140
Brother, that's been a huge, it's been a huge pleasure.

01:09:29.140 --> 01:09:32.371
We've been able to separate our business and our family life and.

01:09:32.746 --> 01:09:33.805
That's been important to us.

01:09:33.836 --> 01:09:38.695
You know, when we got into this, we said, Hey, look, this is going to be a fun business venture, but it's not going to affect you.

01:09:38.695 --> 01:09:39.716
Just don't talk business.

01:09:39.716 --> 01:09:42.246
When you're, we talk business all the time because we, because we love it.

01:09:42.296 --> 01:09:42.525
Right.

01:09:42.576 --> 01:09:48.836
Like it's our business and we want to run at this thing as fast as possible, but we've got a lot of, a lot of commonality with that.

01:09:48.836 --> 01:09:50.666
So it's not that we like separate the two.

01:09:50.666 --> 01:09:51.960
It's just, we're able to.

01:09:52.131 --> 01:09:54.440
Take the emotion out of it and enjoy.

01:09:54.440 --> 01:09:58.291
If this thing goes down in flames, you guys are still going to be brothers.

01:09:58.291 --> 01:10:09.020
We actually promised each other that first investment in the retail space, we promised each other that we will shut the doors and basically light that cash on fire that we had to invest in the beginning before.

01:10:09.485 --> 01:10:11.155
This sours us on each other.

01:10:11.155 --> 01:10:15.376
And we were willing to do that at that time, a significant amount of cash invested.

01:10:15.376 --> 01:10:17.905
And we said, we'll burn it before this goes South.

01:10:18.336 --> 01:10:20.756
And to the point about separating it, we love talking about it.

01:10:20.775 --> 01:10:25.326
We love chatting about it, but we also go, you know, weekends without even mentioning it.

01:10:25.365 --> 01:10:30.036
And there's probably some weekends or something where on Friday, we were just like, I disagree with you.

01:10:30.036 --> 01:10:30.586
I disagree with you.

01:10:30.605 --> 01:10:32.756
And then the weekend, I don't even remember about that.

01:10:32.756 --> 01:10:33.586
Cause this is family time.

01:10:33.586 --> 01:10:34.206
This is different.

01:10:34.206 --> 01:10:37.645
So on Monday, I might be like, Oh, by the way, you know, it's, it's separating it.

01:10:37.645 --> 01:10:38.496
It's not making them.

01:10:38.761 --> 01:10:40.051
Exclusive of each other.

01:10:40.070 --> 01:10:41.751
It's bringing emotion out of it.

01:10:41.841 --> 01:11:04.640
Yeah, so I'm guessing that right now you're I mean You just opened a location a couple weeks ago Gary You're probably rocking 60 hour weeks or something like that or more than 40 Anyway, you know, I think I was I was walk I was rocking probably 85 hour weeks before the acquisition with the multiple retail locations in a full time job Yeah, while I I am a huge proponent of work life balance.

01:11:04.671 --> 01:11:11.970
I also believe that if You You know, I'm, I'm constantly kind of on, I'm kind of, I'm kind of always on thinking, working.

01:11:12.416 --> 01:11:27.775
And, and doesn't mean that I'm not making the necessary time for my family, for my health, for my own mental awareness, but it's weird that I can't really count in hours, because if it's behind my desk, it might only be, you know, eight hours a day, but if it's when I'm working, it could be 20 hours a day.

01:11:27.836 --> 01:11:32.286
It varies so much between what is work and what is not when you're kind of making things.

01:11:32.296 --> 01:11:34.195
Sometimes I'm working while I'm playing pickleball.

01:11:34.235 --> 01:11:34.815
Exactly.

01:11:34.956 --> 01:11:35.216
Yeah.

01:11:35.735 --> 01:11:36.065
You know.

01:11:36.136 --> 01:11:36.485
Totally.

01:11:36.485 --> 01:11:37.296
In between matches.

01:11:37.376 --> 01:11:37.645
Yeah.

01:11:38.126 --> 01:11:40.525
I think with, uh, Garrett, we're working on boundaries.

01:11:41.365 --> 01:11:41.636
Yeah.

01:11:41.695 --> 01:11:41.895
Yeah.

01:11:41.895 --> 01:11:43.466
I have a tendency to be up at 4 a.

01:11:43.466 --> 01:11:43.685
m.

01:11:43.695 --> 01:11:47.565
just ripping across email, texting.

01:11:47.586 --> 01:11:49.166
I'm like, why don't you have your phone on silent?

01:11:49.176 --> 01:11:51.015
That's why you have, I should be able to text you yours.

01:11:51.036 --> 01:11:51.775
You get it when you wake up.

01:11:51.775 --> 01:11:52.065
Yeah.

01:11:52.735 --> 01:11:53.115
What are you doing?

01:11:53.115 --> 01:11:54.395
He's like, you woke me up again.

01:11:54.426 --> 01:11:54.636
Yeah.

01:11:54.695 --> 01:11:54.996
Why?

01:11:55.261 --> 01:11:55.961
Put it on silent.

01:11:56.140 --> 01:11:58.180
Just get it when you get up, I'm texting you now.

01:11:58.201 --> 01:12:00.220
Cause I want to text like, I don't know what you mean.

01:12:00.301 --> 01:12:07.951
Our poor people just see that come across and just, you know, I have to, I have to, yeah, tread that very lightly because I do, I am aware of that.

01:12:08.011 --> 01:12:09.501
So you're on fire for this right now.

01:12:09.501 --> 01:12:11.440
Like this is still infecting your.

01:12:11.440 --> 01:12:11.751
Yeah.

01:12:12.060 --> 01:12:18.291
Cause I'm passionate about, I do believe, and I say this a lot that, um, this acquisition and the possibilities of this.

01:12:19.780 --> 01:12:24.131
are, could be life, life changing family, changing dynamics.

01:12:24.131 --> 01:12:28.961
And every one of your existing franchisees could have a whole different lifestyle five years from now, if you're successful.

01:12:29.001 --> 01:12:29.291
Yep.

01:12:29.341 --> 01:12:32.980
And our, our own employees from the ground level, our own families and all of that.

01:12:32.980 --> 01:12:43.161
And so I'm passionate about it kind of being a portion of my life, not separating out like, Oh, you know, play time and work time while I make mental.

01:12:43.576 --> 01:12:45.195
necessary silos for those.

01:12:45.805 --> 01:12:50.735
Um, it has been a thing that we've been working on, especially because for the first six months, I was just happy.

01:12:50.735 --> 01:12:52.615
I got someone to take another chance on me.

01:12:52.666 --> 01:12:52.926
Yeah.

01:12:52.926 --> 01:12:53.166
Yeah.

01:12:53.176 --> 01:12:54.775
I'm just ripping stuff from 3 a.

01:12:54.775 --> 01:12:54.975
m.

01:12:55.456 --> 01:13:05.565
Well, and it's so interesting to me, like, I don't know how much you were making that Toyota, but I'm guessing it wasn't nicely into six figure territory and had the opportunity to grow if you'd moved to Texas or California.

01:13:05.980 --> 01:13:15.780
You know, that's, uh, something I'm pretty passionate about as well, is that anytime I've made a career change, it's never been in a forward, immediately.

01:13:15.871 --> 01:13:22.850
And every time it works out because I'm, I'm looking for opportunity and I'm looking for, um, advancement in the longterm.

01:13:22.850 --> 01:13:25.360
I'm not looking for an immediate monetary gain.

01:13:25.461 --> 01:13:25.890
I dig it.

01:13:25.890 --> 01:13:26.740
Yeah, I dig it.

01:13:27.011 --> 01:13:28.890
Um, let's go back to you, Andrew.

01:13:28.890 --> 01:13:30.541
We haven't talked about your family much.

01:13:30.541 --> 01:13:33.890
We talked about your sister, but, um, I met your wife and her name is.

01:13:34.176 --> 01:13:34.975
Yeah, Rebecca.

01:13:35.046 --> 01:13:35.645
Rebecca.

01:13:35.676 --> 01:13:37.916
And where did you find her along this journey?

01:13:37.916 --> 01:13:39.405
Yeah, we actually went to high school together.

01:13:39.416 --> 01:13:40.105
Oh, okay.

01:13:40.105 --> 01:13:41.025
High school sweethearts?

01:13:41.036 --> 01:13:42.395
Or just You could call it that.

01:13:42.395 --> 01:13:43.695
High school acquaintances?

01:13:43.695 --> 01:13:48.725
No, we got together late in high school there and uh, I would say it got serious in college.

01:13:48.815 --> 01:13:49.176
Okay.

01:13:49.315 --> 01:13:49.576
Yep.

01:13:49.956 --> 01:13:52.045
And at CSU then, too.

01:13:52.046 --> 01:13:53.515
She's a, she's a Ram also.

01:13:53.555 --> 01:13:54.645
She's a Ram also.

01:13:54.645 --> 01:13:59.456
And what was it, uh Like, you were, you were in what high school?

01:13:59.456 --> 01:13:59.886
Rocky?

01:14:00.246 --> 01:14:00.966
Uh, Evergreen.

01:14:01.065 --> 01:14:01.435
Evergreen.

01:14:01.456 --> 01:14:02.286
Oh, so you were down there.

01:14:02.315 --> 01:14:05.756
Okay, so you brought her, imported her up from, from Denver Metro.

01:14:05.756 --> 01:14:11.006
What, what was it about you that she found most interesting, do you suspect, way back when?

01:14:11.046 --> 01:14:11.706
Oh, boy.

01:14:11.945 --> 01:14:15.810
Cause you were like a, Below average student, probably not that good looking.

01:14:17.041 --> 01:14:18.631
Oh, you were saying he's pretty.

01:14:22.461 --> 01:14:24.211
You are pretty for a man.

01:14:24.261 --> 01:14:25.451
Yeah, I appreciate that.

01:14:25.451 --> 01:14:26.600
You know, that's the moneymaker.

01:14:26.600 --> 01:14:42.030
No, I don't, you know, probably a better question for her, but, uh, I think what I was attracted to her was, you know, the fact that she's intelligent and, um, you know, she's a, she's a doctor of physical therapy.

01:14:42.301 --> 01:14:46.411
Uh, she's beautiful, and, uh, yeah, it was just, you know, love at first sight.

01:14:46.421 --> 01:14:49.810
She's very glowy, if that's a word.

01:14:49.810 --> 01:14:52.841
Like, she radiates a fair bit.

01:14:53.251 --> 01:14:54.020
She does, yeah.

01:14:54.020 --> 01:14:56.621
In a room, or in a circumstance, or whatever.

01:14:56.890 --> 01:14:58.530
Super positive human being.

01:14:58.530 --> 01:14:59.360
Yeah, yeah, that.

01:14:59.360 --> 01:15:02.730
And, uh, you know, I'm lucky enough to have her for this long.

01:15:02.730 --> 01:15:03.680
It's been fantastic.

01:15:03.751 --> 01:15:04.110
Okay.

01:15:04.110 --> 01:15:06.680
So we've got two beautiful little daughters, uh, Charlie and Evie.

01:15:06.831 --> 01:15:07.211
Okay.

01:15:07.610 --> 01:15:08.310
How old are they?

01:15:08.591 --> 01:15:10.791
Charlie's five, and Evie is three.

01:15:11.121 --> 01:15:14.161
Are you comfortable with the one word description of each child?

01:15:14.291 --> 01:15:15.820
Oh, wow.

01:15:15.970 --> 01:15:17.270
I don't know if I told you about this part.

01:15:17.310 --> 01:15:20.490
It's kind of a surprise, but yeah, if you had to put it to one word.

01:15:20.591 --> 01:15:22.680
Yeah, Charlie, I would say creative.

01:15:22.751 --> 01:15:23.140
Okay.

01:15:23.871 --> 01:15:26.270
Evie, I would say tough.

01:15:26.751 --> 01:15:28.270
And is this a boy and a girl, Charlie?

01:15:28.270 --> 01:15:29.251
I'm sorry, they're both girls.

01:15:29.261 --> 01:15:29.841
Both girls?

01:15:29.951 --> 01:15:30.261
Okay.

01:15:30.320 --> 01:15:30.671
Yep.

01:15:31.411 --> 01:15:35.600
Um So Charlie Did you spell Charlie, like, with a Y then?

01:15:35.610 --> 01:15:39.541
It's uh, C H R L I E, it's short for Charlotte.

01:15:39.541 --> 01:15:39.570
Okay.

01:15:39.706 --> 01:15:41.645
Okay, gotcha.

01:15:42.376 --> 01:15:43.685
So on the birth certificate is Charlotte.

01:15:44.345 --> 01:15:45.515
She just likes Charlie better.

01:15:45.636 --> 01:15:46.195
I like that.

01:15:46.246 --> 01:15:49.376
Yeah, I don't know enough female Charlies Yeah, they're out there.

01:15:49.666 --> 01:15:50.025
Oh, yeah.

01:15:50.025 --> 01:16:04.305
No, I've heard of them When you think about like your grandfather your father like like are you How would I say this question, right?

01:16:04.326 --> 01:16:15.270
Like is that Part of your legacy of like being in business and finding a way into business and enterprise is hankers back when you were doing those first flips or whatever.

01:16:15.270 --> 01:16:21.551
Or did you imagine being a corporate finance guy of some sort of construction management guy or whatever?

01:16:21.921 --> 01:16:32.100
I always wanted to be an entrepreneur working for yourself and, and you know, the lifestyle is, is important to me that work life balance, especially as I get older, becomes more and more important.

01:16:32.140 --> 01:16:36.416
And I, you know, I don't need a big fancy title at a big corporate job.

01:16:36.496 --> 01:16:37.435
Like that's not me.

01:16:37.515 --> 01:16:39.826
You know, I, I like, uh, setting my own path.

01:16:40.711 --> 01:16:43.190
And, um, I can be self starting in that way too.

01:16:43.280 --> 01:16:43.530
Yeah.

01:16:43.560 --> 01:16:45.371
I, I wake up hungry for it.

01:16:45.371 --> 01:16:46.501
You come with your own batteries.

01:16:46.501 --> 01:16:47.240
Absolutely.

01:16:47.240 --> 01:16:47.791
Absolutely.

01:16:47.980 --> 01:16:52.081
And I want more out of life and, you know, we've built an expensive lifestyle for ourselves.

01:16:53.511 --> 01:16:54.951
You know, it's also fun along the way.

01:16:54.961 --> 01:16:58.421
We're not building houses as fast as we used to, so we got to figure something else out here.

01:16:58.680 --> 01:16:59.001
Yup.

01:16:59.070 --> 01:16:59.490
Yup.

01:16:59.640 --> 01:17:01.570
Um, but no, we're having a ton of fun.

01:17:01.570 --> 01:17:05.280
And, uh, like I said, my wife's a physical therapist in, in town here.

01:17:05.280 --> 01:17:06.541
She's a, she's a healer.

01:17:06.780 --> 01:17:06.940
Yeah.

01:17:06.980 --> 01:17:09.070
She loves treating people and taking care of people.

01:17:09.070 --> 01:17:10.600
And, uh, That's good to know.

01:17:10.600 --> 01:17:18.690
Actually, once in a while, I lean up on my, uh, friends and members, wives, or people who are physical therapists, when I got something flaring up, I need a little work.

01:17:19.131 --> 01:17:19.610
Let her know.

01:17:19.610 --> 01:17:19.701
She'll help you out.

01:17:19.701 --> 01:17:27.411
Mostly, I just let them, I want them to teach me how to do stuff on my own, cause I'm too cheap to like, go once every week or whatever, but, you know.

01:17:27.490 --> 01:17:30.091
I think the same thing, and I just never do it on my own anyways.

01:17:30.190 --> 01:17:31.190
I've just asked you to rehab.

01:17:31.701 --> 01:17:37.490
I had a rotator cuff on my shoulder that, like, wouldn't let me, like, reach in the back seat to grab a banana.

01:17:38.121 --> 01:17:39.230
Uh, and I, but.

01:17:39.626 --> 01:17:45.246
Eight months, it took me to rehab that thing, and then, like, finally, I found progress, but, but now I know.

01:17:45.985 --> 01:17:46.405
It's important.

01:17:46.456 --> 01:17:53.791
If I had a good physical therapist, it probably would have been three, what, three months or something like that, but, anyway, um, so, Charlie and, sorry.

01:17:53.791 --> 01:17:54.126
And Evie.

01:17:54.176 --> 01:17:55.126
Evie.

01:17:55.126 --> 01:17:56.246
Short for Evelyn.

01:17:56.345 --> 01:17:59.921
And, um, Seems like you're about ready for a third?

01:18:00.051 --> 01:18:01.121
Oh, I don't know.

01:18:01.320 --> 01:18:04.020
Yeah, I think we're kind of sitting on that decision here for a minute.

01:18:04.020 --> 01:18:05.020
Yeah, alright, alright.

01:18:05.110 --> 01:18:06.661
And, you know, I labeled Evie as tough.

01:18:06.680 --> 01:18:11.690
She, um, she's one of three people in Colorado that carries a rare kidney disease.

01:18:12.030 --> 01:18:21.711
And although she's fine, We've had a very tough go with her trying to figure that you know out and what's wrong with her So like time with Children's Hospital, yeah Yep, absolutely.

01:18:22.341 --> 01:18:22.791
That's okay.

01:18:22.791 --> 01:18:27.341
Yeah, she's healthy now and I think you know, we learned a lot about it And like I said, she's tough.

01:18:27.820 --> 01:18:39.701
I wasn't laughing at you I was one of my one of our good friends from Colorado Springs when we first moved up here Jill and I Their little boy had like a heart disease Surgery thing required like right after birth and stuff.

01:18:39.701 --> 01:18:49.070
And so for a month we watched their pit bull boxer and that dog was awesome, but it wanted nothing more than to eat both of our cats that we had at the time.

01:18:49.850 --> 01:18:56.565
So it was a month of service of dedicated service, knowing that at any point in time, if we made a mistake, Our cat would get eaten.

01:18:58.235 --> 01:19:08.475
So anyway, love you, Jamie, if you're out there, but that was my, that was my closest brush and, and thank God their little boy is, uh, is doing great today and stuff like that and whatever.

01:19:08.475 --> 01:19:11.275
And may, may, uh, Evie's experience be the same.

01:19:11.326 --> 01:19:11.546
Yeah.

01:19:11.555 --> 01:19:11.975
Thank you.

01:19:12.286 --> 01:19:12.626
You got littles?

01:19:13.206 --> 01:19:13.525
Yep.

01:19:13.605 --> 01:19:16.546
Uh, one, uh, two year old daughter named Sutton.

01:19:16.826 --> 01:19:17.176
Okay.

01:19:17.235 --> 01:19:19.286
Um, and one word to describe her.

01:19:20.161 --> 01:19:21.501
I don't know why it's gonna, healthy.

01:19:23.400 --> 01:19:23.650
She's a eater?

01:19:23.650 --> 01:19:27.079
Yeah, she's an absolute unit of a baby.

01:19:27.081 --> 01:19:32.408
But I, but also, you know, I was thinking, I was like, that's gonna be, that's gonna be mean, healthy, but like, I mean it in all ways.

01:19:32.408 --> 01:19:33.581
But she listens to this when she's 10.

01:19:33.621 --> 01:19:41.680
Yeah, but she's joyful, she's, uh, she does, you know, she'll eat anything, try it, she's running around, she's playful, she's friendly, she's, Yeah.

01:19:41.895 --> 01:19:49.845
Um, it just seems like she, no emotional imbalances, no crying for no good reason because she ran into a wall.

01:19:49.865 --> 01:19:50.905
Yeah, exactly.

01:19:50.945 --> 01:19:52.725
And that even won't stop her sometimes.

01:19:53.525 --> 01:19:58.795
I've heard the wall cry more than I have when she does it.

01:19:58.796 --> 01:20:06.055
And so just, you know, on that aspect, she's, uh, I used to call her healthy when she was just a butterball little baby, uh, but it kind of holds some context.

01:20:06.055 --> 01:20:06.706
Carried through.

01:20:06.716 --> 01:20:06.735
Yeah.

01:20:07.195 --> 01:20:07.855
It carried through.

01:20:07.945 --> 01:20:08.176
Yeah.

01:20:08.395 --> 01:20:12.515
Tell me about the circumstances of, uh, meeting Andrew's sister here.

01:20:12.756 --> 01:20:13.065
Yep.

01:20:13.136 --> 01:20:13.685
A little more.

01:20:13.716 --> 01:20:14.086
Yeah.

01:20:14.086 --> 01:20:18.206
So we, uh, we all met on the beach, as I said, I, as he said, I got bit in the face.

01:20:18.326 --> 01:20:19.164
I got bit in the face.

01:20:19.166 --> 01:20:22.265
I had a big old, uh, you know, flap of nose hanging off.

01:20:22.265 --> 01:20:24.386
But you were already dating this girl at the time?

01:20:24.395 --> 01:20:25.335
Uh, no, no.

01:20:25.335 --> 01:20:25.756
No, you weren't.

01:20:25.805 --> 01:20:25.836
Okay.

01:20:25.855 --> 01:20:27.536
I mean, that's when I met all of them.

01:20:27.536 --> 01:20:28.185
Oh, okay.

01:20:28.185 --> 01:20:28.261
Okay.

01:20:28.261 --> 01:20:28.798
I think that's when they first met.

01:20:28.798 --> 01:20:28.875
Yeah.

01:20:29.895 --> 01:20:31.515
You were a part of a different group, kind of, or something ish?

01:20:31.515 --> 01:20:36.525
Yeah, I met a mutual friend at a party, um, like a holiday party or something.

01:20:36.926 --> 01:20:42.975
And I was kind of going through a transition in my own life of friend groups and people that I was hanging out with.

01:20:43.695 --> 01:20:44.466
They invited me.

01:20:44.466 --> 01:20:46.706
They're like, you want to come to a camping trip in Nebraska?

01:20:46.805 --> 01:20:52.435
The person I was riding with, I got too close to their dog, ended up going to the camping trip with a flap of my nose hanging off.

01:20:53.055 --> 01:21:00.824
And, uh, and, you know, Tay always tells me, I know there is like a, there's like a little scar there.

01:21:00.826 --> 01:21:02.706
It looks like it could have been a, what do they call that?

01:21:02.706 --> 01:21:03.365
Like the butt chin?

01:21:03.426 --> 01:21:04.136
Yeah, exactly.

01:21:04.136 --> 01:21:04.916
Like chin nose.

01:21:04.975 --> 01:21:07.775
And, uh, and still somehow I wooed her over.

01:21:09.386 --> 01:21:13.905
Between that and them saying I resemble Owen Wilson, I must have really made a good impact.

01:21:15.336 --> 01:21:21.246
Um, at the, uh, at the event for her to kind of, it wasn't anything that immediately happened after that.

01:21:21.595 --> 01:21:27.256
I was invited up to CSU games for months and hanging out at Andrew's house and something kind of progressed over there.

01:21:27.305 --> 01:21:30.826
And it kind of formed during hanging out with everybody.

01:21:30.826 --> 01:21:38.536
And then we actually became closer friends or, Oh, you guys were friends almost before the relationship with the sister really engaged?

01:21:38.555 --> 01:21:39.086
Interesting.

01:21:39.095 --> 01:21:49.355
Yeah, and so we all met at the same time, but then we all began, or began building a friendship and, um, kind of joining with the guys and the mutual friends and then that kind of blossomed.

01:21:49.456 --> 01:21:54.496
Like, how much of, I don't know how to say this quite right or ask this question.

01:21:55.126 --> 01:22:00.515
There's been a lot of things that I don't know how to properly say and what I do is just say it and then watch his face react to it.

01:22:00.515 --> 01:22:11.935
So like, I'm feeling to myself that there's potential here for, for the sister, your wife, to be like, so Andrew, you've become friends with Garrett, like, tell me why.

01:22:13.751 --> 01:22:15.690
And should I like, go out with him?

01:22:15.711 --> 01:22:18.081
Cause he keeps calling me and texting me and stuff.

01:22:18.110 --> 01:22:19.951
I don't even know if she consulted you.

01:22:19.990 --> 01:22:21.551
I mean, obviously I think she knew.

01:22:21.841 --> 01:22:23.720
Well, you said that you were in Portland late.

01:22:23.730 --> 01:22:31.060
Yeah, I think at Red Rocks, if I remember correctly, you know, you guys kind of like tapped me on the shoulder and like, I turned around and you guys were like holding hands or something.

01:22:31.060 --> 01:22:34.100
And it was like, Oh, Oh, I see what's going on here.

01:22:34.440 --> 01:22:39.320
So we snuck away like high school kids to the top of Red Rocks to kind of make out and hang out.

01:22:39.381 --> 01:22:43.400
And then she went down ahead of me to throw everybody off.

01:22:44.081 --> 01:22:49.770
And then as I came down, he's just standing there like, so yeah, and I was like, yeah, that's true.

01:22:51.381 --> 01:22:53.114
He knew exactly what we were doing.

01:22:53.256 --> 01:23:01.275
Um, but honestly, I, um, if she did consult you, going back to the idea again, like I, we had hung out for probably six months and become close as friends and stuff.

01:23:01.275 --> 01:23:03.815
No, I think that friends first is actually a really awesome thing.

01:23:04.315 --> 01:23:05.435
What was it like?

01:23:06.286 --> 01:23:07.985
Like, were you in pursuit?

01:23:07.996 --> 01:23:08.735
Was she in pursuit?

01:23:08.746 --> 01:23:09.796
Was it mutual pursuit?

01:23:09.805 --> 01:23:12.555
Yeah, I tried to fight her off for God.

01:23:12.555 --> 01:23:13.326
I don't know how long.

01:23:13.426 --> 01:23:14.086
Yeah, I'm sure.

01:23:15.195 --> 01:23:30.666
We joke about this all the time, but, uh, we definitely, you know, I think we gravitated towards each other and kind of had that flirtation thing, but then it immediately, I think one, I don't know exactly what the moment was, but there was a transition to where I was like, can I get Tay's number?

01:23:30.716 --> 01:23:35.990
And then I started texting her and saying, Hey, we should go out to, dinner, go to a show at Red Rocks or stuff like that.

01:23:35.990 --> 01:23:42.730
And I remember the specific first time we started texting, we actually left Fort Collins after I think a game or something.

01:23:42.730 --> 01:23:46.490
Then the next morning when we all stayed up here, and nothing was happening.

01:23:46.860 --> 01:23:48.180
We went to breakfast in town.

01:23:48.180 --> 01:23:50.251
And I remember getting her number from Sarah, I think.

01:23:50.251 --> 01:23:53.619
And it was an immediate like kind of transition from there.

01:23:53.621 --> 01:23:54.060
Yeah.

01:23:54.070 --> 01:24:00.470
And I think it's interesting to Yeah, not everybody transitions out of the No, no, it's not always easy.

01:24:00.480 --> 01:24:00.820
Nope.

01:24:00.951 --> 01:24:08.020
And that's a And then from there, you know, I I was I guess it would have been 29 or 30 at that point.

01:24:08.051 --> 01:24:11.890
And so I, I knew like, I'm never going to get a cuter girl.

01:24:12.211 --> 01:24:13.440
I knew damn quickly.

01:24:15.381 --> 01:24:15.680
Yeah.

01:24:15.980 --> 01:24:17.341
She'll tell you the same thing.

01:24:17.341 --> 01:24:25.730
I was like, well, I mean, I don't know how she, uh, fell in that quickly too, because she was fresh out of college, had the world in front of her.

01:24:25.730 --> 01:24:27.600
And then she was like, I like the nose bite guy.

01:24:30.211 --> 01:24:30.470
Yeah.

01:24:31.055 --> 01:24:32.836
Well, that sounds like the best I'm going to get.

01:24:32.886 --> 01:24:36.275
I feel like we had a fun, uh, fun family tour there.

01:24:36.275 --> 01:24:36.615
Quick decision.

01:24:37.355 --> 01:24:41.865
Um, do you want to do, uh, faith or politics topic next?

01:24:42.046 --> 01:24:48.036
You know, I, I, I mean, either one, both controversial, um, how do you usually lead that conversation I guess?

01:24:48.065 --> 01:24:51.036
Um, you know, sometimes we brush against faith.

01:24:51.256 --> 01:24:53.855
As part of our conversation, and I can kind of reference back to it.

01:24:53.855 --> 01:24:55.695
I haven't heard too many clues yet.

01:24:56.225 --> 01:25:00.006
I did go to, I went to a Catholic, uh, elementary school, middle school, St.

01:25:00.006 --> 01:25:04.605
Mark's, you know, I think they were nominally, my mom was Catholic.

01:25:04.666 --> 01:25:12.456
Uh, and I think that generation all had an affinity toward to lead towards one, you know, religion, if it was Christian Catholic, if you grew up in Judaism.

01:25:13.060 --> 01:25:15.930
But we were never practicing in the religion.

01:25:15.930 --> 01:25:16.711
We would go on special holidays.

01:25:16.711 --> 01:25:20.131
Didn't really know what it meant to be a Christian or a Catholic or any of that really.

01:25:20.180 --> 01:25:31.570
And then I definitely went to school in the times in which, uh, you know, it was about, you will, you know, you will learn this or you will, um, go to church or go to mass on Wednesdays and then holidays.

01:25:31.570 --> 01:25:39.831
And it definitely just kind of left me in a space of knowing that, um, I have, uh, the understanding and I have the.

01:25:40.581 --> 01:25:49.180
want to, to yearn for what the teachings are, but not have any specific religion I gravitate towards.

01:25:49.690 --> 01:26:02.251
Um, I think all of them are important in teaching and none of them have all of the answers and kind of trying to navigate through that spirituality, religion, Do you believe in some kind of a creator force?

01:26:02.251 --> 01:26:09.041
Yeah, you know, I believe in a mixture of scientific backed explanations with the fact that it doesn't explain anything.

01:26:10.801 --> 01:26:11.421
I like that.

01:26:11.470 --> 01:26:12.121
I like that.

01:26:12.570 --> 01:26:13.001
Fair enough.

01:26:13.001 --> 01:26:25.451
Uh, for what it's worth, and I think you'll resonate with this, um, Through most of my adult life, and I'm a Christian, and probably, I probably hold it looser than some people do.

01:26:25.951 --> 01:26:34.240
But, uh, the last, I don't know, a couple years ago, I tried to shift from a notion of obedience being the expectation, to surrender.

01:26:35.051 --> 01:26:39.390
Like, obedience is like, you must obey, that sounds terrible.

01:26:39.881 --> 01:26:44.666
Surrender is like, you know, I'm more powerful than you, you do what I say.

01:26:45.496 --> 01:27:02.275
Uh, and so I've shifted to that and it's actually, for me, at least, I'm not sure I do it any better either way, but at least my mental appreciation of that notion is enhanced, I suppose, just like words are very, like, there isn't that much difference from obedience to surrender, but there is.

01:27:02.275 --> 01:27:09.836
And I think that, uh, religion does a really good job in helping individualized or individuals contextualize.

01:27:10.461 --> 01:27:21.551
Some of those larger questions that I actually find, um, I actually find exciting not having the exact answers or not having the exact, the mystery is the words to put to'em.

01:27:21.671 --> 01:27:21.820
Okay.

01:27:21.826 --> 01:27:36.820
And I think that while everyone, you know, might gravitate towards the religion that they believe in, they all assist in, in verbalizing or, or putting words to what that is and how to, how that relates to you and your life and your direction.

01:27:36.850 --> 01:27:37.181
Yeah, yeah.

01:27:37.186 --> 01:27:37.216
Yeah.

01:27:37.451 --> 01:27:41.951
And I'm okay in that, um, unexplained area, that ambiguousness element.

01:27:42.251 --> 01:27:43.511
And that's for what it's worth.

01:27:43.511 --> 01:27:43.900
I'm kind of.

01:27:44.251 --> 01:27:47.001
Anti religious, uh, that's why I use the word faith.

01:27:47.011 --> 01:27:53.940
It's kind of like what moves you, what drives you, not what makes you dance like a puppet on a string or whatever.

01:27:54.501 --> 01:27:56.171
Um, anything else we'd want?

01:27:56.230 --> 01:27:57.140
Have you investigated?

01:27:57.150 --> 01:27:59.030
Have you read the Bible?

01:27:59.041 --> 01:28:01.320
Have you gone to church since you became an adult person?

01:28:01.331 --> 01:28:05.730
Um, I think that, uh, I have, I can't recall exactly when.

01:28:06.220 --> 01:28:09.350
I'm, uh, I'm not against any of it.

01:28:09.390 --> 01:28:20.051
I definitely enjoy reading or listening to kind of all again, Judaism to Christianity to Catholicism, um, have not gone to mass.

01:28:20.081 --> 01:28:24.230
But I also like if, if, you know, I know your parents are go to mass on Sundays.

01:28:24.230 --> 01:28:26.180
If they were like, Hey, Garrett, I want you to come with.

01:28:26.211 --> 01:28:26.511
Yeah.

01:28:26.801 --> 01:28:27.051
Yeah.

01:28:27.051 --> 01:28:27.511
Perfect.

01:28:27.551 --> 01:28:29.810
I'm not, you know, not against it.

01:28:30.171 --> 01:28:31.701
It's just not something I practice.

01:28:31.701 --> 01:28:32.631
Yeah, yeah, that's fair.

01:28:32.631 --> 01:28:36.439
Uh, any perspective to that?

01:28:36.440 --> 01:28:38.801
You grew up more Catholic, maybe?

01:28:38.801 --> 01:28:40.190
I did, I did grow up Catholic.

01:28:40.951 --> 01:28:42.180
Confirmed Catholic.

01:28:42.180 --> 01:28:44.161
And, you know, grew up going to church every Sunday.

01:28:44.161 --> 01:28:48.280
And you guys, you guys both kind of, or at least you said, Garrett, kind of Christian or Catholic.

01:28:49.310 --> 01:28:52.551
I consider Catholics to be kind of of the subset of Christians, but Sure.

01:28:52.990 --> 01:28:53.791
Yeah, yeah.

01:28:53.890 --> 01:28:54.030
Yeah.

01:28:54.680 --> 01:28:55.640
I would agree with that.

01:28:55.831 --> 01:29:03.440
And, um, you know, a similar thread, like I define myself as spiritual, but not following any specific religion.

01:29:03.451 --> 01:29:05.320
You still think Jesus is cool?

01:29:05.400 --> 01:29:19.621
Um, well, you know, it's yes and no, it's a complex question, but the whole stand up sit down regimen every Sunday, having to be obedient, like you said, it just doesn't jive necessarily with, with how we fit and how we want to live our lives.

01:29:19.680 --> 01:29:21.070
But I do think, you know, there's.

01:29:21.555 --> 01:29:38.875
There is a greater power out there at play, and I think being a good person in this world, paying it forward You have to think about the Ten Commandments, it's Yeeeaaah Boy, it's like, uh, it's a difficult one, cause like, I just don't, you know, think you're just gonna get, or, you know, sent to hell for some of these things.

01:29:38.875 --> 01:29:41.435
It's like, we're all human beings at, you know, at the end of the day.

01:29:41.445 --> 01:29:46.025
Well, and I think that's, probably depends on your interpretation of things, like Exactly.

01:29:46.136 --> 01:30:00.426
Um, like I've been, I've listened to Jordan Peterson for a while, and Like the word sin is like missing the target, you know, and that's one of the things that maybe frustrates me about the world today is that nobody has a target.

01:30:01.256 --> 01:30:06.525
And, you know, I miss the target all the time in different ways.

01:30:06.895 --> 01:30:09.405
Um, but that doesn't mean I don't recognize the target.

01:30:09.496 --> 01:30:24.275
And I think that's kind of maybe like where some people that are anti religious, especially, maybe not anti faith, but anti religious is like, Well, you can't tell me I'm going to hell just because I missed the target.

01:30:24.275 --> 01:30:31.275
Well, no, I'm not telling you that Jesus is a decider or God or whatever that force is that might be a decider.

01:30:31.305 --> 01:30:35.275
I don't even know if heaven and hell is real, but I do think there's a target.

01:30:36.176 --> 01:30:36.496
Sure.

01:30:36.565 --> 01:30:44.985
And, and so that's where I kind of come in is that, um, what, like, I think society is better if we agree on some targets.

01:30:45.706 --> 01:30:45.996
Yeah.

01:30:46.326 --> 01:30:46.605
Yeah.

01:30:46.605 --> 01:30:52.796
So like 10 commandments, like if I think about, um, that specific document, it's like pretty much pretty good stuff.

01:30:52.975 --> 01:30:53.336
Sure.

01:30:53.485 --> 01:30:55.815
You know, it's kind of like the bill of rights, pretty good stuff.

01:30:55.876 --> 01:31:06.536
And I think one of my, you know, going a little bit deeper into that, uh, is I think, uh, religion specifically, not just faith was to your point about identifying targets to hit.

01:31:06.546 --> 01:31:17.185
And the general idea was that you were, um, investing in the, in the learnings and the teachings to identify your North star, your truth, your direction of what your goal is.

01:31:17.185 --> 01:31:17.565
And then.

01:31:17.940 --> 01:31:25.680
And then the judgment in that position would be based on how how, um, good your goal was, right?

01:31:25.680 --> 01:31:41.490
How, how high you could aim and how high you wanted to reach towards that was, um, you know, how religious or, or, but it's turned to me into you being told what your goal should be instead of using religion as a, as a personal, uh, direction device.

01:31:41.490 --> 01:31:45.911
It's being, this is what you do instead of use this to decide what you want to do.

01:31:45.930 --> 01:31:54.940
Do you think that the, the, I guess what we'd call the, the, The aggressive left politics of our world today is a religion?

01:31:56.060 --> 01:32:01.081
I would say that in the context of religion, you, I mean, you could find anything of, uh, uh, I mean, there's no God in it.

01:32:01.780 --> 01:32:02.280
Yeah, yeah.

01:32:02.301 --> 01:32:05.570
of, I don't know if there's a specific term for it.

01:32:05.570 --> 01:32:15.631
I would say that any denomination of, of deciding a specific group of people has some connotation of, of group think or involvement.

01:32:15.640 --> 01:32:16.171
Yeah, yeah.

01:32:16.261 --> 01:32:18.451
Well, yeah, I don't think it's been defined very well yet.

01:32:18.470 --> 01:32:21.240
They haven't put their canon down, but there's a, there's a dogma.

01:32:21.520 --> 01:32:21.711
Yep.

01:32:22.400 --> 01:32:26.400
of a new religion that's forming in America, as far as I can tell right now.

01:32:27.511 --> 01:32:30.621
I would say that that exists on both sides of the spectrum too, right?

01:32:30.621 --> 01:32:38.006
There's, there's the, the politics, uh, uh, from a, uh, from a separation of church and state.

01:32:38.006 --> 01:32:48.126
We sure as hell don't have a lot of separation of church and state in the moment of either just far left politics involving a kind of a religious aspect, or right politics involving a religious aspect.

01:32:48.126 --> 01:32:50.996
And well, the far left isn't acknowledged as religious right now.

01:32:51.025 --> 01:32:51.555
Yeah.

01:32:51.605 --> 01:32:52.966
And gravitating towards that.

01:32:52.966 --> 01:33:07.496
And so I definitely think that identifying as like a specific subset of people, whether it be Christianity, Catholicism, Judaism, far left, far right, whatever that is, you're kind of saying, this is my belief system.

01:33:07.506 --> 01:33:07.765
Yeah.

01:33:07.765 --> 01:33:08.055
Yeah.

01:33:08.126 --> 01:33:09.655
And you subscribe to this or else.

01:33:09.695 --> 01:33:14.426
And I think what I've heard is both of you guys are like, I'm out if it's subscribed to this or else.

01:33:14.456 --> 01:33:17.546
Cause, and I, you know, I would say that I'm kind of in that same vein.

01:33:17.546 --> 01:33:20.649
I've been kind of libertarian, uh, type person.

01:33:21.211 --> 01:33:25.970
You know, I voted for Ross Perot with my first vote and Kanye West with my most recent.

01:33:26.720 --> 01:33:31.190
So I, you know, I'm not a fall in line and vote this way kind of guy.

01:33:31.820 --> 01:33:35.261
And I do think that there's value in like those targets.

01:33:35.261 --> 01:33:43.320
What can, you know, there are some things that we can agree as Americans that we're pointing toward, even if it isn't from a religious background, politics.

01:33:44.626 --> 01:33:45.235
Questions?

01:33:45.376 --> 01:33:49.225
Um, uh, who are you voting for in four weeks?

01:33:49.595 --> 01:33:50.256
Six weeks?

01:33:50.636 --> 01:33:53.286
I think, uh, I think Locally or internationally?

01:33:53.315 --> 01:34:03.185
Yeah, from my personal opinion, you know, with, with the divisiveness on both sides, uh, I don't know if it's beneficial anymore to identify with who you're voting for.

01:34:03.185 --> 01:34:03.485
Right?

01:34:03.725 --> 01:34:14.251
But I will tell you that, you know, on both sides, Like what, what going back to subscribe or else, like we've gotten into an era in which you have to subscribe one way or the other.

01:34:14.530 --> 01:34:27.890
When in fact there's a position in which so many points and positions and policies could be massively beneficial if we Navigated and picked From both directions.

01:34:27.940 --> 01:34:31.381
It's about finding where you can rest easier.

01:34:31.530 --> 01:34:37.001
Yeah decision not about what you really want It's so where can I rest easy if you were gonna run for public office?

01:34:37.070 --> 01:34:38.780
What would be some of your most important things?

01:34:38.780 --> 01:34:53.716
Let's rephrase that question Yeah, and I think this is one of the times in which I am the key Proponent of, I will not badmouth anybody else's position in politics because I would have no idea what to do.

01:34:54.336 --> 01:34:55.155
that's a, you know.

01:34:55.155 --> 01:34:55.275
Yeah.

01:34:55.275 --> 01:34:56.390
I'm glad I, yeah.

01:34:56.435 --> 01:35:00.261
I, I don't like as much as I could complain about the stuff that went down in Covid Nation.

01:35:00.320 --> 01:35:00.591
Yeah.

01:35:00.591 --> 01:35:03.171
It was like, I was really glad I wasn't the decider, the one, the DecisionMaker.

01:35:03.171 --> 01:35:05.091
I had to put my initials on that decision.

01:35:05.091 --> 01:35:05.390
Yep.

01:35:05.541 --> 01:35:07.100
And there's so, so many big decisions.

01:35:07.100 --> 01:35:08.121
Although I would've made better decisions.

01:35:08.541 --> 01:35:09.081
Yeah, exactly.

01:35:09.230 --> 01:35:11.240
Just saying and economics and all of that.

01:35:11.240 --> 01:35:13.820
That like, you know, I, I have to just.

01:35:14.631 --> 01:35:21.780
You know, give in to the idea that I'm going to vote for where I think my position best lies, but For you or for everybody?

01:35:21.810 --> 01:35:23.140
Well, How do you drive your vote?

01:35:23.461 --> 01:35:23.970
Yeah.

01:35:24.051 --> 01:35:29.610
Is it for the best for you or is it for what you think is the best for everybody, even if it's maybe less good for you?

01:35:29.671 --> 01:35:30.751
I'll step in on this one.

01:35:30.751 --> 01:35:36.251
You know, I voted, I voted, uh, both sides of the aisle and, you know, conservatively, financially.

01:35:36.676 --> 01:35:37.355
sound there.

01:35:37.355 --> 01:35:40.046
And then, you know, socially, I usually vote, vote left.

01:35:40.065 --> 01:35:41.336
So you're a closet libertarian too.

01:35:41.536 --> 01:35:41.926
Sure.

01:35:41.966 --> 01:35:42.225
Sure.

01:35:42.225 --> 01:35:45.185
And ultimately, you know, That's what I tell people all the time.

01:35:45.626 --> 01:35:53.466
I think what it comes down to is, is socially for me, like, what's the most important issues that really affect your local family and then the greater good of the people.

01:35:53.466 --> 01:36:06.911
And Having daughters in this world, I think the right to choose is, is very important, and ultimately I think, you know, my wife's very adamant and has, is very vocal about that one issue, it's important to our family, and so ultimately that's kind of where we lie with things.

01:36:07.320 --> 01:36:10.551
And it, and it's kind of a bummer that it comes down to one decision, right?

01:36:10.661 --> 01:36:12.331
But like, Yeah, and is that the most important issue?

01:36:12.350 --> 01:36:16.091
Because it might never affect either of your daughters or your wife in the rest of their lives.

01:36:16.091 --> 01:36:16.501
Correct.

01:36:16.640 --> 01:36:18.421
But, but that's what we have to protect.

01:36:18.421 --> 01:36:18.650
I know.

01:36:18.761 --> 01:36:19.001
Yeah.

01:36:19.020 --> 01:36:20.810
Well, I don't know, I mean.

01:36:20.810 --> 01:36:21.081
Yeah.

01:36:21.081 --> 01:36:21.220
You're welcome.

01:36:21.530 --> 01:36:39.474
It's, it's the idea that, that, that that's what it's been based off of is that you have to pick one thing that, and in any family's decision making, another family might have a different decision, but we are so singular policy based, too, that if I have to have this, or if, you know, it could be healthcare, my wife and I are the same.

01:36:39.474 --> 01:36:40.841
Well, then your party can do everything in the world.

01:36:40.911 --> 01:36:41.261
Right.

01:36:41.360 --> 01:36:46.220
And you're like, well, I hate all these things, but at least they're on my side on that.

01:36:47.511 --> 01:36:51.081
I actually wrote about that in my blog that came out today, and mine is peace.

01:36:51.680 --> 01:36:58.011
Like, it isn't abortion, it isn't Like, it's which party seems to be more in the pursuit of peace in the world.

01:36:58.070 --> 01:36:58.360
Yeah.

01:36:59.020 --> 01:37:00.860
Um What's your perspective there?

01:37:01.081 --> 01:37:02.610
What's your Oh, Trump, for sure.

01:37:03.240 --> 01:37:07.951
Yeah, that's, I mean, the military industrial complex, like, Dick Cheney just fucking endorsed Kamala.

01:37:08.291 --> 01:37:12.690
And it isn't because he thinks Trump is Hitler, it's because the war machine is hungry.

01:37:12.761 --> 01:37:14.110
It wants to keep eating.

01:37:14.511 --> 01:37:14.761
Yeah.

01:37:14.820 --> 01:37:15.581
Revenues.

01:37:15.621 --> 01:37:27.701
And like, once Trump showed that he wanted to do Abraham Accords and draw down troops and dah, dah, dah, they were like, I'm hungry for some more power and some more funding and let's see what we can do in Ukraine.

01:37:27.841 --> 01:37:28.180
Yeah.

01:37:28.350 --> 01:37:29.640
And I truly believe that.

01:37:29.650 --> 01:37:34.831
That's the like, for me, I'm not going to, I'll probably vote for RFK because Trump ain't going to win Colorado.

01:37:34.831 --> 01:37:35.131
Yeah.

01:37:35.551 --> 01:37:52.206
Um, but I hope Trump wins because I think he's, I think Kamala would be, This is beyond, but I, I think Kamala might be, feel obligated to prove that she's not weak and that she's not Joe Biden.

01:37:52.206 --> 01:37:59.796
And she might accidentally get us into a fucking World War III or damn near their kind of scenario because she wants to prove that she's a strong woman.

01:38:00.655 --> 01:38:04.716
And I'm sorry, but like, I don't think she's got Putin's respect yet.

01:38:04.826 --> 01:38:07.699
And I think, you know, you might just accidentally fuck it all up.

01:38:07.911 --> 01:38:23.220
And I think that that's where they, where my concern lies about my own ability to say, this is how I think things will happen is that I don't know necessarily about what impact each one of those things will have.

01:38:23.220 --> 01:38:23.470
Right?

01:38:23.470 --> 01:38:31.791
So when you say that you're for peace, what I'm hearing is you're actually for, United States being involved in a peaceful manner, not necessarily world peace.

01:38:31.810 --> 01:38:35.871
And I'm not saying that, that like, you know, um, that that may or may not happen.

01:38:35.871 --> 01:38:38.940
But we're the main instigators, like that's our main industry right now.

01:38:39.320 --> 01:38:45.890
A big thing we can have a competitive advantage is making bombs and airplanes to drop bombs and missiles and fucking guidance systems.

01:38:45.890 --> 01:39:01.900
And, you know, like they're talking right now about like Ukraine can't fire their long range missiles that we're talking about using to To help support the resistance, like a thousand miles deep into Russia without American troops, like showing them how to run it.

01:39:02.850 --> 01:39:14.375
And, and like, if you're firing missiles, a thousand miles into Russia and killing their nuclear facilitation facilities that make bombs or generate electricity for Moscow, like you're looking for.

01:39:15.725 --> 01:39:23.576
I think this is where, and it might be an ignorant position on my, on my part, but like going back to, I guess the, the right to choose, right.

01:39:23.576 --> 01:40:00.586
Is that I do believe that I could probably take a larger position on, on investigating or understanding the dynamics of, of world, uh, war, you know, positioning and, and training and all of that, but in the short term, and it's probably a terrible thing that we have to deal with is I'm, as you said, you know, focused, you know, Truth on building my family's business and, and trying to navigate that while maintaining a family or a, uh, personal life and ensuring that my daughter has the right to choose for her own body that I haven't had the time to actually investigate the, the dynamics of logistics of war in Ukraine.

01:40:00.626 --> 01:40:02.496
And that might hinder my ability to vote.

01:40:02.496 --> 01:40:03.046
That's interesting.

01:40:03.046 --> 01:40:07.666
This is a really fascinating conversation because I think that, I mean, that right to choose thing might.

01:40:07.716 --> 01:40:08.676
Tip the election.

01:40:08.826 --> 01:40:11.996
Very much so, because so many women are like, get away from that.

01:40:11.996 --> 01:40:12.956
My right to choose.

01:40:12.956 --> 01:40:13.315
You know?

01:40:13.315 --> 01:40:18.515
And I don't think Trump thinks he took away that from women.

01:40:18.515 --> 01:40:21.365
I think he thinks he gave it to the States, which broke a problem.

01:40:21.456 --> 01:40:21.876
Sure.

01:40:21.996 --> 01:40:22.296
Right.

01:40:22.296 --> 01:40:24.905
And if, if your daughters or your daughter's daughters.

01:40:25.145 --> 01:40:28.935
want to choose, they can move to whatever state they want that has the right to choose.

01:40:29.405 --> 01:40:30.015
In theory.

01:40:30.105 --> 01:40:30.845
That's what he thinks.

01:40:30.855 --> 01:40:31.065
Yeah.

01:40:31.065 --> 01:40:32.095
That's what I think he thinks.

01:40:32.115 --> 01:40:36.386
And I think, you know, I think giving it back to the state, you know, not necessarily the wrong call.

01:40:36.586 --> 01:40:36.855
Yeah.

01:40:36.886 --> 01:40:38.086
But, but I think Yeah, see?

01:40:38.086 --> 01:40:39.666
Well, so why is everybody so mad?

01:40:39.685 --> 01:40:44.055
Well, because, because you're talking about some of the lesser educated states not getting the right birth control.

01:40:44.115 --> 01:40:51.706
I mean, there's, there's a much But there's still smart people in Alabama that can figure out how to put a condom on or fucking get pills from Tennessee.

01:40:51.706 --> 01:40:51.765
Yeah.

01:40:51.765 --> 01:40:51.824
Yeah.

01:40:51.826 --> 01:40:52.086
Yeah.

01:40:52.466 --> 01:40:54.195
that abort their baby if that's what they want.

01:40:54.206 --> 01:41:02.345
Like, it's a, it's an open world, you can't really prevent abortion in today's world but you can maybe discourage it and I give those states the right to try if they want to.

01:41:02.345 --> 01:41:26.386
I mean, that's, and I think for me personally, I think the, the right to choose for abortion is a, is a way to describe a larger context of the two parties, which is, which is a, a, while it's a freedom party, you think of the freedom of self, uh, is more, is, you know, it, it flip flops so much from side to side, because if you went back to COVID times, we're talking about mask and shots and all of that went the other way.

01:41:26.536 --> 01:41:26.956
Totally.

01:41:26.956 --> 01:41:28.456
Well, and censorship is.

01:41:28.685 --> 01:41:29.615
It's thick in the Democratic.

01:41:29.676 --> 01:41:34.975
Like, Kamala might freaking reduce free speech a lot during her presidency.

01:41:34.985 --> 01:41:45.886
And the problem that we've run into is that if we identify with the, the want to choose or freedom of self or, or, you know, whatever they say, decency, it would mean that we're against peace.

01:41:45.916 --> 01:41:46.246
Right.

01:41:46.246 --> 01:41:47.926
And then if somebody would say, Oh, you want peace.

01:41:47.935 --> 01:41:49.988
So you're against the women's right to choose.

01:41:49.988 --> 01:41:50.335
Right.

01:41:50.336 --> 01:41:53.975
They're not, they're not self, uh, You know contained we don't live in silos here.

01:41:53.975 --> 01:42:00.886
And so it's such a Kind of a pulled two separate sides so far.

01:42:00.895 --> 01:42:06.975
Well, and it's intentional Like I think that's the message I would leave you guys is that it that there's an intentionality behind that.

01:42:07.065 --> 01:42:10.275
Yeah that issue So disappointing that it's so polarizing.

01:42:10.645 --> 01:42:17.286
It just feels like such a team sport and you know, totally Well, the three of us can sit here and have a conversation and understand each other's perspective.

01:42:17.286 --> 01:42:18.036
I think quite a bit.

01:42:18.036 --> 01:42:20.988
Yeah But that's not the norm, I think, in the United States.

01:42:20.988 --> 01:42:23.384
No, no, well, and I'd like to bring it back.

01:42:23.384 --> 01:42:23.623
Yeah.

01:42:23.623 --> 01:42:24.341
Bring conversation back.

01:42:24.341 --> 01:42:24.582
Yeah.

01:42:24.582 --> 01:42:24.820
Yeah.

01:42:24.820 --> 01:42:26.911
As part of the foundation of this podcast, even.

01:42:28.185 --> 01:42:33.314
I'm starting to have to go pee soon, but if we can be quick about our local experiences, we can get through them.

01:42:33.315 --> 01:42:34.845
Um, Garrett, why don't you go first?

01:42:34.845 --> 01:42:38.496
What's the craziest experience that you're willing to share with our listeners?

01:42:38.756 --> 01:42:39.235
Oh, God.

01:42:39.235 --> 01:42:40.336
In life?

01:42:40.336 --> 01:42:40.574
Business?

01:42:40.576 --> 01:42:41.115
Your life, yeah.

01:42:41.115 --> 01:42:41.695
Whatever.

01:42:41.695 --> 01:42:42.645
Uh, yeah.

01:42:42.746 --> 01:42:47.855
Near death, uh, your wife left you at the altar to chase her old high school boyfriend.

01:42:47.966 --> 01:42:48.275
I don't know.

01:42:48.275 --> 01:42:48.756
Whatever.

01:42:48.765 --> 01:42:50.595
Whatever crazy experience comes to mind.

01:42:50.595 --> 01:42:50.966
Yeah.

01:42:50.966 --> 01:42:55.725
You know, I think, uh, God, it put me on the spot, and I even read your email, and I didn't think through one, but.

01:42:56.301 --> 01:42:57.110
Um, wow.

01:42:57.110 --> 01:43:00.911
I, I think that there, God, this, yeah.

01:43:00.911 --> 01:43:07.060
I mean, I'm going to quit my, I would honestly say my push Toyota corporate thing and buy a pizza shop.

01:43:07.070 --> 01:43:24.020
I was going to say that's, that's probably the wildest, even though it's felt like something that I've been able to manage with, with partnerships, but quitting, uh, you know, a very healthy, um, longstanding, uh, Job at a fortune 10 company to say, I can try it and see what happens.

01:43:24.831 --> 01:43:33.541
And then also, you know, being able to have the trust given into me to afford the large equity investment, large cash investment, um, to, to put it on my shoulders.

01:43:33.541 --> 01:43:35.921
It's, it's stressful and exciting at the same time.

01:43:36.070 --> 01:43:36.600
I'm sure.

01:43:36.770 --> 01:43:37.230
I'm sure.

01:43:37.261 --> 01:43:38.520
Well, I hope you succeed.

01:43:38.751 --> 01:43:39.121
Righteous.

01:43:40.636 --> 01:43:41.876
Uh, Andrew, do you have, uh?

01:43:41.985 --> 01:43:42.805
Gosh, I don't.

01:43:42.826 --> 01:43:44.485
Not one that I would be willing to share.

01:43:45.355 --> 01:43:46.805
What's one that you wouldn't want to share?

01:43:46.805 --> 01:43:49.466
You can, uh, clip some beep beeps.

01:43:49.515 --> 01:43:53.136
Yeah, I think, um, It's been a nice journey.

01:43:53.136 --> 01:43:57.536
I think what we are doing with our business is a little crazy.

01:43:57.536 --> 01:44:01.386
Some people would call it, but you know, it's been a lot of fun and it's been calculated as well.

01:44:01.655 --> 01:44:10.945
And so, you know, just always been in an inherent risk taker and always felt like, you know, I can, I can manage, um, whatever's next.

01:44:11.015 --> 01:44:11.296
Yeah.

01:44:11.405 --> 01:44:11.586
Yeah.

01:44:11.586 --> 01:44:14.676
And so that's been a fun journey for my business career and, yeah.

01:44:14.746 --> 01:44:16.586
And I'm confident with that.

01:44:16.886 --> 01:44:20.506
I'm good at risk and I I'll let you guys leverage risk with me a little bit.

01:44:20.506 --> 01:44:21.635
Let's see.

01:44:22.015 --> 01:44:22.595
Have some fun.

01:44:23.515 --> 01:44:25.845
Well, everybody go to Anthony's Pizza and Pasta.

01:44:26.496 --> 01:44:28.036
Call for delivery or takeout.

01:44:28.185 --> 01:44:28.805
Yes, sir.

01:44:28.905 --> 01:44:29.725
Thank you for having us.

01:44:29.735 --> 01:44:30.256
It was fun.

01:44:30.515 --> 01:44:31.126
Thank you, Kurt.

01:44:31.126 --> 01:44:31.555
Thanks, guys.

01:44:31.555 --> 01:44:31.921
Appreciate it, Kurt.

01:44:32.961 --> 01:44:39.301
Thank you for listening to this episode of the Loco Experience podcast produced and sponsored by Loco Think Tank.

01:44:40.900 --> 01:44:43.081
This is your producer Alma Arellano.

01:44:43.190 --> 01:44:45.390
Check out our website at thelocoexperience.

01:44:45.390 --> 01:44:49.860
com to find all of our episodes, nominate future guests, or leave us a message.

01:44:50.240 --> 01:44:55.381
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01:44:55.761 --> 01:44:59.091
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01:44:59.310 --> 01:45:01.171
Until next time, stay loco.