EXPERIENCE 198 | Creating a Vibrant Business from an Innovative Product in Hibernation - Ryan Reed-Baum with TruLog, Maintenance Free Steel Siding

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My conversation today was with Ryan Riedbaum, CEO and owner of TrueLog, a company founded by his father, Ted, but that Ryan basically relaunched years later.

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To set the stage, we need to add some context.

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In the mid eighties, Ted worked for Knutson Manufacturing, building and servicing gutter and steel siding manufacturing machines.

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By the mid 80s, he'd started his own business, RMB Home Improvement, doing every kind of siding, additions and remodels, and also building log homes from scratch.

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Logs look great, but they're a pain in the butt to maintain, and very expensive to build with.

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So Ted invented and patented a technique to create roll steel log look siding, and installed the product on several local projects while Ryan was studying business and marketing at CSU by 2011, however, the product had not caught traction.

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And TrueLog was effectively hibernating.

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It was too complicated for lumberyards and home improvement stores to carry with sufficient margin, and the home improvement business carried on.

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Enter Ryan in 2012 when he invested 16, 000 of his own money For a direct to consumer marketing campaign on Facebook and sold a project for delivery to New Mexico and executed every step of the customer journey.

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Custom fit box shipped with instructions, blog look siding to cover up or replace your lap siding or finish your new construction project with a fire resistance and maintenance free finish.

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Growth was rapid from there.

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10 X for 2013 and well into eight figure revenues today, still a family business and still built on the values they had from the start, high quality products, honesty, hard work, customer service, and family.

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Quite a journey and quite a guy.

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And I'm proud to introduce our listeners to Ryan Reed Baum and Truelog, the best natural look metal siding on the market built right here in Northern Colorado and brought out of hibernation and grown by innovative marketing and customer service.

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Let's have some fun.

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Welcome to the Loco Experience Podcast.

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On this show, you'll get to know business and community leaders from all around Northern Colorado and beyond.

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Our guests share their stories, business stories, life stories, stories of triumph and of tragedy.

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And through it all, you'll be inspired and entertained.

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These conversations are real and raw and no topics are off limits.

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So pop in a breath minute and get ready to meet our latest guest.

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Welcome back to the Loco Experience Podcast.

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This is your host Kurt Baer and I'm here with Ryan Riedbaum.

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And Ryan is the CEO and owner of True, True Log, and, uh, I can say that again.

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You just say it for me.

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True Log.

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Uh, describe it for me.

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Yeah, so, uh, True Log, uh, we originated as a steel log siding company.

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I know that kind of sounds, uh, like oxymoron ish, but, uh, that is how we started.

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So we actually manufacture steel siding in the shape of a log.

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That's how we started, but now we've branched out into other metal siding products.

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Profiles.

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Oh, is that right?

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Yeah.

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And that will sell direct to consumers.

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Oh, wow.

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I was like, so they took that direct consumer model.

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I don't think you had that because I was in a chapter with you.

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probably two years ago now.

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Yeah, you know, it's, it's evolved, right?

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You were thinking about it at the time, maybe a little bit.

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Yeah.

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You start with, uh, other modes of, of, you know, getting your product out there, whether it's distribution, lumber yards, but the direct to consumer model has really worked for us.

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That's really cool.

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Really well.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Well, um, so I guess describe the operation a little bit to me.

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So your direct consumer metal siding.

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Yeah.

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Manufacturer.

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Yeah.

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So, you know, we're literally doing nothing but digital marketing to get our leads into the funnel.

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Um, we're, we've got a really white glove service to educate them about our products.

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Um, ultimately help them, you know, understand, you know, is TrueLog right for them?

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Is steel siding in general right for them?

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Um, and ultimately we get to a point of getting an estimate together.

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Basically, Hey, what is this going to cost for your project?

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Um, and if we are fortunate enough to earn that business, then that's kind of real, you know, the real work starts for us to manufacture it for them.

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And then the, the, the customer gets ultimately like a semi full or whatever of The steel siding or probably not even that much, right?

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Cause it's pretty small.

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Yeah, it really depends on the project.

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I mean, we've done anything from a super small cabin, you know, a thousand square feet up to a big church in Minnesota, you know, that can be seven, 8, 000 square feet, so real diverse group of folks that want our product.

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And then do they self install oftentimes based on kind of your education you provide, or they hire a contractor that's local to them?

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Yeah, it's about 50, 50.

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So we have about 50 percent of people self install it.

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And then the other 50 percent will find a local contractor that can do it.

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We've designed it to install very similar to other siding on the market.

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Have you ever been on like a QVC or anything like that?

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You know, we've had the opportunity to be on DIY.

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One of the tough things about it is they don't really do any branding.

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With a lot of, uh, companies, even if you look at the drill, right, that these guys are using in there, they've got the brand name scratched off or whatever.

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So nobody really knew that it was us on there, but we did have the opportunity to, to be on those kinds of shows.

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Yeah.

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I was just, I was just listening to Mike Rowe on Joe Rogan's podcast the other day and, uh, he got his start.

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Selling for QVC.

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And he's like, if you can kind of have a continuous chatter about, you know, this steel siding is the most fabulous steel siding you've ever seen.

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It turns your drab house into a log house, a crafted creation, and you can do it yourself.

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Exactly.

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That'd be perfect.

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Have a, have a piece of siding that's just turning, you know, while people watch the show.

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Well, it does.

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That would be a good, uh, I'm sure he's expensive, but he would be an amazing.

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Like, narrator for your install things or for your, like, some of your commercial things?

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Yeah, he'd be perfect, right?

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I mean, the dirty jobs.

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Because, well, and all the contractors that people hire are the people that he's trying to train.

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Exactly.

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And give them dirty jobs.

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No, that's not a good idea.

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That might be a partnership where you both win a bunch.

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That's a great idea.

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I like that.

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Yeah, you could have it for free.

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Right?

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If you get them on my podcast, I'll introduce you.

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Just kidding.

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Or wait, whoever.

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We could both try.

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We'll see what happens.

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I love it.

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Yeah.

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So that's really cool.

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So you've got a pretty big team probably of, of just like blue collar ish, make the metal bend the right way and, and project estimators and, yep.

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Sizers and sorcerers and kind of the traditional blue color, but then probably a quite a bit of digital marketing stuff to people in process.

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Yeah, we have a wide range of skilled folks at our facility.

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We've got a great team.

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Um, you know, we've got the admin side.

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That does the ordering that does all the customer facing interaction.

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Then we've got the manufacturing side.

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We've probably got about 12 guys out there that manufacture their product to spec, get it ready, ready to go.

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Then it comes into the front end again to say, Hey, customer, we've got this ready to ship for you.

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So yeah, we've got everybody, a wide, a wide array of folks.

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Yeah.

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Um, And who's your, like, leadership team at this point in time?

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Yeah, there's three of us, so, uh, me being the CEO, and then I have, uh, Mark as my COO.

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Um, and it is a family business, it started that way, so I still have my, my cousin Donnie, he's our manufacturing, um, Uh, officer, manager.

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Um, that's who we've got right now is leadership team.

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Does it make sense to kind of jump in the time machine early?

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Cause I know your dad was the founder of the company and so it might play out that way.

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And then we'll talk about a lot of the ideas you have for the future as well.

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Sure.

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Yeah, no, definitely.

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We can definitely do that.

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Seems like in this particular context, it would set a lot more for, for listeners.

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So, um, I guess when, when was Truelog founded and were you born yet?

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I, I was.

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It's a, it is a really cool story.

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Um, it was founded in 2008.

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So background on that is, uh, So it's not that old at all.

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No, not a, not at all.

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Um, my dad actually has three patents.

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Um, which, you know, not a lot of people can say he's got the patents on the log side and that's how we originally started.

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He's, uh, he's like a process by which to make it look not dumb when you're trying to make a log look in steel.

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Yeah, exactly.

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Yeah.

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And you know, it's a design patent, it's a mechanical patent, and it's a process patent.

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So we've got it across, right?

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You can have patents just on the design of something.

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But maybe not the mechanical or the way that it's manufactured and he's got all three.

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Is there some special sauce in like the way it's attached and stuff as well?

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Definitely, yeah.

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I mean, he designed the machine that now, you know, we've been using forever to run this log siding.

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Oh, cool.

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Um, so that was all, all him.

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And so I like to describe him and he would describe himself the same way as a redneck engineer, right?

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He doesn't have any formal education.

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Self taught engineer.

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Yeah, but he'd been, He's been building rule for machines since, you know, the eighties.

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So he's, he's done this.

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Um, and basically the, the story, you know, long story short is had enough people asking in his home improvement business.

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If he had something that looked like a log, but was maintenance free and just didn't at the time, right.

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He had a steel siding machine running out seamless siding, um, but eventually was like, I'm going to take a shot at this.

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And he created himself.

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He got the patents in 2008, um, and nine and some other ones after that.

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Um, but I didn't fully come on board until 2015 after graduating from college.

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So gotcha, gotcha.

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Kind of this short story.

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So when he started, you were like a teenager, early teen or something like that.

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Yeah.

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Basically had just graduated high school.

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Okay.

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Yeah.

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I just graduated high school.

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Um, then was going on to CSU to get a, uh, you know, degree in business all while, you know, I was in college.

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In college, I was watching him operate the business, helping him with marketing things, try to get this product out there.

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What are we going to do?

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All that sort of stuff.

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So helped early on as well.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Can we even take a step back further into the time machine?

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Sure.

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Um, like I want to learn about little Ryan, like, like, Four year old Ryan.

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Your dad was working kind of in the industry, but as a, as a redneck engineer working for other roller people or designing people, things like that.

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Yeah.

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So he actually started with a company called Knutson manufacturing.

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So he built gutter machines.

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He built siding machines.

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He did all of that.

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Then that was in the 80s and 90s.

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And then in 95, he opened his own home improvement business.

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Gotcha.

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Gotcha.

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He's always been really good with, you know, his hands.

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He's known construction.

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He's been around it his whole life.

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So me by the age of 12, I was working with him, you know, on the job site, along with my cousin, um, doing home improvement stuff.

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Gotcha.

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And, um, You have siblings as well.

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I've got one sister.

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Yes.

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One sister.

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She's younger.

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Oh, I met her.

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Yes, you did.

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She's an attorney.

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Yes, she is.

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Very smart also.

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Yes.

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And what's her name?

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Smarter than me.

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Uh, her name is Jessica.

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Hi Jessica, when you're listening.

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Yeah.

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And, uh, then your mom, was she, uh, active in the business as well later?

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Yeah, I got a really good diversification of, of business growing up.

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Right.

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So I had the hands on experience with my dad, the customer interaction.

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And then on the back end, I had, you know, my mom doing the book work, right?

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The accounting, the finances, all that sort of stuff.

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So I got to see the whole array of how to run a business from very early on.

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Prepping to be a CEO someday.

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Yeah, exactly right.

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Kind of.

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Here we are.

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Did you have entrepreneurial bent as you were becoming like a teenager or were you just kind of in seeped in the business itself and so there wasn't room for anything else?

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You know, I, you know, there was room, um, my dad always encouraged me to get my education, um, both my mom and my dad, uh, you know, specifically with my dad, he didn't want me to use my body like he had to, you know, up and down.

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He was a redneck engineer.

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Yeah, exactly.

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He did the same work, or harder work than most of the engineers, but he didn't get paid half as much.

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Exactly, exactly.

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So he was always like, I want you to use your head.

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to make money.

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And so I was very fortunate to be pushed to, uh, get an education and learn.

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But I had been working with him since I was 12.

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And were you Fort Collins, Eaton?

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Where were you at?

00:12:21.575 --> 00:12:22.504
Yeah, grew up in Loveland.

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Loveland.

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Okay.

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Yeah, just right down the road.

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If you know where Johnson's Corner is, that's, uh, that's where I grew up.

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Just on a small acreage out there and then went to CSU.

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Okay.

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And stayed around here.

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So you seem like kind of a country kid.

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Did you have like critters and stuff?

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That kind of acreage?

00:12:35.004 --> 00:12:36.784
Yeah, no, we had, we had eight acres.

00:12:36.804 --> 00:12:39.865
Uh, we also farmed some other leases from, from around the area.

00:12:40.065 --> 00:12:46.644
We had cows, we had horses, hamsters, you know, the, the whole gamut of things, a parakeet, you name it, we had it.

00:12:46.664 --> 00:12:46.955
Gotcha.

00:12:46.975 --> 00:12:47.235
Gotcha.

00:12:47.455 --> 00:12:47.585
Yeah.

00:12:47.585 --> 00:12:48.274
I love that life.

00:12:48.429 --> 00:12:53.809
Yeah, this sounds like a pretty interesting, uh, kind of like a, uh, like you said, a redneck lifestyle.

00:12:53.820 --> 00:12:54.919
Yeah, no, it was awesome.

00:12:54.960 --> 00:12:56.669
You'll, have you ever been to my house?

00:12:56.899 --> 00:12:57.639
I don't know that I have.

00:12:57.779 --> 00:13:01.419
We had a, we had a social there some time ago, but it's like a little farm.

00:13:01.419 --> 00:13:04.299
I got just a quarter acre, but it's right in old town Fort Collins.

00:13:04.309 --> 00:13:04.620
Okay.

00:13:04.620 --> 00:13:05.789
Chicken coop, big gardens.

00:13:05.809 --> 00:13:06.450
Exactly.

00:13:06.460 --> 00:13:08.919
You know, squirrels running all over the place, stealing from the peach trees.

00:13:09.049 --> 00:13:09.409
Yeah.

00:13:09.649 --> 00:13:19.315
And just kind of that kind of setting where there's, Just wildlife and stuff happening and work that needs to be done to feed the cows and whatever else, even if it's just feeding the damn chickens.

00:13:19.325 --> 00:13:20.004
Yeah, exactly.

00:13:20.004 --> 00:13:20.465
I love it.

00:13:20.565 --> 00:13:24.764
So, uh, well, it sounds like a pretty interesting lifestyle and Leblon was a pretty small town.

00:13:24.794 --> 00:13:29.835
Uh, still growing fast, growing fast since that time, but was probably growing really fast even in those days.

00:13:30.029 --> 00:13:34.529
Yeah, I, uh, actually went, you know, Mountain View High School hadn't even been around since 2002.

00:13:34.570 --> 00:13:39.470
So I was, you know, one of the first classes in there, um, but yeah, it's, it's grown immensely.

00:13:39.509 --> 00:13:41.730
It's basically Fort Collins Loving at this point, huh?

00:13:41.860 --> 00:13:48.019
So you get done with, you go to business or to college business, and then did you jump into your dad's business right away?

00:13:48.019 --> 00:13:48.264
Yeah.

00:13:48.365 --> 00:13:52.965
You know, I, I took a year, um, and went down to Denver, did some business consulting.

00:13:52.965 --> 00:13:57.845
I knew that I liked solving problems and I knew that I liked having different problems to look at.

00:13:57.934 --> 00:13:58.174
Yeah.

00:13:58.205 --> 00:14:05.384
Um, so I, I did some business consulting down in Denver, um, and I'll, excuse me if I ask, but how are you qualified to do that?

00:14:05.534 --> 00:14:06.534
do business consulting.

00:14:06.534 --> 00:14:07.865
You were just a rookie out of college.

00:14:07.884 --> 00:14:09.375
Yeah, I wasn't qualified.

00:14:09.375 --> 00:14:10.914
I didn't have an advanced degree or anything.

00:14:10.965 --> 00:14:13.554
No, it was just a curiosity in the right wiring.

00:14:13.615 --> 00:14:14.804
Yeah, undergrad.

00:14:14.815 --> 00:14:16.774
Um, but it's one of those things, right?

00:14:16.985 --> 00:14:19.414
It's a lot of who you know, and who can vouch for you.

00:14:19.414 --> 00:14:25.995
So I had a professor vouch for me for, you know, a position and was lucky enough to get it.

00:14:25.995 --> 00:14:26.745
But was there for a year.

00:14:27.845 --> 00:14:36.745
during this time, I was still helping with the business, you know, as I was going through school, all the summers I was working, um, would help dad with whatever he needed, um, at that time.

00:14:36.745 --> 00:14:38.684
So I was doing actually two jobs.

00:14:38.695 --> 00:14:45.044
So I was still trying to get true log off the ground while working as a business consultant, trying to figure that out.

00:14:45.375 --> 00:14:47.245
Was it profitable from the start or was it.

00:14:49.075 --> 00:14:53.514
And did he give up the handyman business pretty quickly once TrueLog launched or how did that go?

00:14:53.585 --> 00:14:54.014
Yeah.

00:14:54.034 --> 00:14:58.845
You know, it wasn't a handyman, but advanced handyman, home improvement business for sure.

00:14:58.894 --> 00:15:02.184
Um, you know, we boot and we've bootstrapped everything.

00:15:02.355 --> 00:15:08.434
Um, and so, you know, my, my mom and dad went into debt, however they could to try and launch the business.

00:15:08.434 --> 00:15:12.725
So, um, that was, you know, you got to buy these equipments and stuff too, right?

00:15:12.735 --> 00:15:13.115
Right.

00:15:13.115 --> 00:15:17.095
And, and, you know, I, I'll never forget I went to him and said, Hey, what's the marketing budget for the business?

00:15:17.095 --> 00:15:18.024
He's like zero.

00:15:18.245 --> 00:15:22.044
I said, okay, well, the marketing department, let's, let's, let's figure this out then.

00:15:22.065 --> 00:15:27.735
Um, so we have been, you know, to answer your question, we were profitable, but we were lean, right?

00:15:27.735 --> 00:15:34.815
You know, we chose to, to grow organically and to not take out a whole bunch of debt and to really, you know, bootstrap whatever we could.

00:15:34.815 --> 00:15:38.345
So we have been fortunately profitable, you know, since we started.

00:15:38.365 --> 00:15:38.664
Cool.

00:15:38.695 --> 00:15:39.065
Yeah.

00:15:39.075 --> 00:15:40.294
That's a fun business story.

00:15:41.504 --> 00:15:43.504
And, you know, it wasn't easy, right?

00:15:43.845 --> 00:15:45.674
No, there's no marketing budget.

00:15:45.715 --> 00:15:48.865
You know, you're, you've got some resources you're still looking at.

00:15:49.054 --> 00:15:49.715
Yeah, for sure.

00:15:49.715 --> 00:15:57.575
And I mean, to give you an idea of what, what actually happened is, you know, all of the savings that I had from the summers of working, I actually put my own money into the business and.

00:15:58.784 --> 00:16:00.605
But yeah, I've never really dabbled in digital marketing myself.

00:16:00.605 --> 00:16:01.264
Oh, interesting.

00:16:01.264 --> 00:16:08.345
So Facebook ads, Google ads, how to do search engine optimization, I did that to start to see, hey, is this going to work?

00:16:08.794 --> 00:16:09.014
Right.

00:16:09.014 --> 00:16:11.705
So I took a chance on that and very fortunate.

00:16:11.715 --> 00:16:17.315
Were they direct to consumer right from the start or did they try to go to lumberyards in the beginning or wholesale opportunities?

00:16:17.325 --> 00:16:17.644
Yeah.

00:16:17.695 --> 00:16:17.914
Yeah.

00:16:17.914 --> 00:16:18.934
Definitely tried both.

00:16:19.065 --> 00:16:22.134
Um, you know, just tried to see what distribution channel is going to work.

00:16:22.134 --> 00:16:28.014
That the problem we had with, with lumberyards, um, in, in the beginning, and it's nothing against them, but they're order takers, right?

00:16:28.294 --> 00:16:31.695
You know, they're going to, they're going to give the customer whatever they want.

00:16:32.014 --> 00:16:34.965
Um, so, and that's hard for me, I'm a one man show.

00:16:34.965 --> 00:16:37.955
So how can I get sales from a one person operation?

00:16:38.335 --> 00:16:41.404
Well, I figured digital marketing and that's, what's worked out.

00:16:41.404 --> 00:16:41.684
Right.

00:16:41.684 --> 00:16:42.014
So.

00:16:42.710 --> 00:16:48.610
If you would have told me that we'd be successful selling siding on the internet, I would have called you crazy, but we do.

00:16:49.370 --> 00:16:49.830
We do.

00:16:50.309 --> 00:16:51.190
That's really interesting.

00:16:51.679 --> 00:16:55.289
And is it a lot of it paid ads and things like that or?

00:16:55.299 --> 00:16:56.009
It's all paid ads.

00:16:56.299 --> 00:16:56.889
Okay, really?

00:16:56.909 --> 00:16:57.159
Yep.

00:16:57.159 --> 00:17:00.970
Yeah, so it's it's pay per click, you know on Google, you know, the Google ads.

00:17:00.970 --> 00:17:01.580
Are you using x.

00:17:01.769 --> 00:17:03.940
com or anything like that yet or just that platform?

00:17:03.960 --> 00:17:05.920
You know, I I'll have to take a look at it.

00:17:05.930 --> 00:17:12.529
The demographics have leaned more towards like the Pinterest side of thing and Facebook, you know, our, our demographic for crafty thing.

00:17:12.529 --> 00:17:12.809
Yeah.

00:17:12.819 --> 00:17:13.670
Pretty things.

00:17:13.680 --> 00:17:14.029
Yeah.

00:17:14.029 --> 00:17:16.940
You know, 55 plus is kind of been our demographic.

00:17:16.940 --> 00:17:17.970
I got a lot more money.

00:17:18.059 --> 00:17:18.789
Exactly.

00:17:18.839 --> 00:17:21.299
You know, to do their house and they're looking to spruce things up.

00:17:21.390 --> 00:17:21.660
Yep.

00:17:21.700 --> 00:17:25.400
The second house, they've got a cabin, whatever it may be, or they're forever home, so.

00:17:26.015 --> 00:17:42.634
I wonder if, because Google knows, like every, you could almost have a AI search Google to look for mountain type houses, like in places like Redfeather Lakes and stuff, and give you the addresses of the places that don't have, that aren't made of log, but have siding.

00:17:42.674 --> 00:17:42.994
Yep.

00:17:43.234 --> 00:17:43.984
No, yeah.

00:17:44.434 --> 00:17:45.285
I mean, I don't know how to do that.

00:17:45.305 --> 00:17:46.025
I'm sure.

00:17:46.714 --> 00:17:51.505
It seems like it could get actually really targeted your marketing in the future as these tools get more capable.

00:17:51.525 --> 00:17:52.174
Oh, for sure.

00:17:52.184 --> 00:17:56.055
You know, we've done mailings to some of those places like Redfeather because it's our target market.

00:17:56.055 --> 00:17:56.345
Right.

00:17:56.345 --> 00:17:57.375
I mean, it fits perfectly.

00:17:57.375 --> 00:17:57.515
Yeah.

00:17:57.515 --> 00:17:57.765
Yeah.

00:17:58.224 --> 00:17:59.085
Such an interesting.

00:17:59.095 --> 00:18:03.785
And, and so when did you launch the, the not log siding?

00:18:03.835 --> 00:18:04.184
Yeah.

00:18:04.184 --> 00:18:07.085
So, you know, early on, we, you know, We were listening to customers.

00:18:07.085 --> 00:18:10.785
That's what we try to do is just say, Hey, what is the, the market wanting?

00:18:11.125 --> 00:18:13.605
And there was a lot of people that saying, Hey, I love your wood grains.

00:18:13.605 --> 00:18:17.174
I love this concept, but can you do it in, in a vertical board and batten panel?

00:18:17.595 --> 00:18:20.535
Can you do it in more of like a cedar lap siding panel?

00:18:20.545 --> 00:18:24.180
So very early on, I started in 2015.

00:18:24.190 --> 00:18:32.000
It wasn't, you know, two or three years later, 2017 18, when we came out with, you know, a vertical board and bat and a different siding profile.

00:18:32.000 --> 00:18:32.380
I see, I see.

00:18:32.380 --> 00:18:37.490
Okay, I guess I just didn't realize that, uh, I've actually recommended your product to my father in law.

00:18:37.579 --> 00:18:37.920
Right.

00:18:37.920 --> 00:18:41.059
He's got a place up in Fox Park that's just Perfect.

00:18:41.069 --> 00:18:44.839
Kind of got worn down, normal lap siding.

00:18:44.849 --> 00:18:45.150
Yep.

00:18:46.835 --> 00:18:47.144
Perfect.

00:18:48.095 --> 00:18:52.055
And he's selling another property soon and, uh, it's going to be more liquid than normal.

00:18:52.214 --> 00:18:52.654
Perfect.

00:18:53.335 --> 00:18:53.994
Give him my number.

00:18:54.025 --> 00:18:54.414
Dale Johnson.

00:18:55.105 --> 00:18:55.884
Yeah, exactly.

00:18:55.884 --> 00:18:57.944
That's awesome.

00:18:57.944 --> 00:19:07.384
So, um, so yeah, what is next for you and, and like contrast, like where, When you joined the company in 2015, what was maybe the staff size?

00:19:07.384 --> 00:19:08.944
And I don't know, do you talk about revenues?

00:19:08.944 --> 00:19:12.355
Do you care to, maybe not on a public forum, but No, we certainly can.

00:19:12.404 --> 00:19:15.055
Yeah, you know, it's just Like, you've grown a lot, really, since.

00:19:15.095 --> 00:19:18.220
And I want to talk also about the process of becoming a partner.

00:19:18.369 --> 00:19:19.710
Partner and then the CEO.

00:19:19.710 --> 00:19:21.210
Yeah, no, we can totally do that.

00:19:21.210 --> 00:19:21.349
Yeah.

00:19:21.349 --> 00:19:23.569
So 2015, it was a one person show as me.

00:19:23.990 --> 00:19:26.599
Um, so I was doing, you know, all the office stuff.

00:19:26.599 --> 00:19:27.799
I was manufacturing their product.

00:19:27.799 --> 00:19:29.099
I was shipping and I was doing everything.

00:19:29.190 --> 00:19:29.720
Oh, really?

00:19:29.730 --> 00:19:29.990
Yeah.

00:19:30.009 --> 00:19:32.470
I mean, I was literally at my parents kitchen table.

00:19:32.490 --> 00:19:34.710
You like grabbed the business and just like took it over.

00:19:34.750 --> 00:19:35.150
Yeah.

00:19:35.359 --> 00:19:37.220
Well, how did you get the stuff manufactured then?

00:19:37.279 --> 00:19:37.559
Yeah.

00:19:37.569 --> 00:19:39.009
You had to order it from the plant.

00:19:39.309 --> 00:19:46.650
I don't know, so we get the steel in, painted how we want it, and then we put it into a roll form machine that shapes it how we want it.

00:19:46.680 --> 00:19:47.410
Oh, okay.

00:19:47.470 --> 00:19:47.769
Yeah.

00:19:47.819 --> 00:19:48.599
Oh, wow.

00:19:48.609 --> 00:19:50.470
So I was able to learn how to do that.

00:19:50.470 --> 00:19:51.769
My dad taught me how to do it.

00:19:51.920 --> 00:19:52.619
Oh, really?

00:19:52.690 --> 00:19:53.220
Okay.

00:19:53.220 --> 00:19:53.819
And so I'd say, Hey, Mr.

00:19:53.819 --> 00:19:54.220
and Mrs.

00:19:54.220 --> 00:19:56.759
Customer, and they'd place an order, I'd go run it.

00:19:56.779 --> 00:19:58.869
So was this product just kind of sitting there and not running?

00:20:00.170 --> 00:20:00.440
Yeah.

00:20:03.160 --> 00:20:03.880
Yeah, definitely.

00:20:03.890 --> 00:20:03.920
Okay.

00:20:03.920 --> 00:20:06.670
I mean, you know, we all have our strengths and weaknesses.

00:20:06.710 --> 00:20:10.880
My dad, right, we're a great duo because he knows the manufacturing side of things.

00:20:10.880 --> 00:20:11.890
He knows the machines.

00:20:11.970 --> 00:20:12.809
I know business.

00:20:13.240 --> 00:20:18.295
You know, I tell people all the time, I said, You know, Apple's a great product, but nobody would know about it without marketing.

00:20:18.325 --> 00:20:19.224
Yeah, you know what I mean?

00:20:19.265 --> 00:20:21.115
Nothing starts until you get a sale.

00:20:21.154 --> 00:20:23.305
Oh, that's so interesting You don't need finance.

00:20:23.305 --> 00:20:24.085
You don't need accounting.

00:20:24.085 --> 00:20:34.275
You don't need supply chain until you get a sale Yeah, and that's really where where I came in Yeah, yeah, you know to to sell and to resuscitate ultimately a great idea or what you felt was a good idea.

00:20:34.305 --> 00:20:35.625
Definitely Definitely.

00:20:35.644 --> 00:20:35.944
Huh.

00:20:36.305 --> 00:20:36.795
I didn't realize that.

00:20:36.825 --> 00:20:37.434
It was me in the beginning.

00:20:37.434 --> 00:20:38.664
I've been giving your dad more credit.

00:20:38.954 --> 00:20:44.174
I mean, he does have the great idea and the patents to launch it, but, but you really started the business from, from whole scratch.

00:20:44.194 --> 00:20:46.744
Well, you know, it, it, it works out, right?

00:20:46.744 --> 00:20:47.994
You have to have a good partnership.

00:20:48.075 --> 00:20:51.894
You know, I wouldn't be able to sell a product if I don't have one, right?

00:20:51.924 --> 00:20:52.295
Totally.

00:20:52.335 --> 00:20:54.424
He wouldn't be able to have sales if he didn't have a product.

00:20:54.434 --> 00:20:54.924
Right, right.

00:20:55.075 --> 00:20:56.134
It works out really well.

00:20:56.305 --> 00:21:01.154
Um, so yeah, we started with zero revenue in 2015 and we've grown exponentially from there.

00:21:01.154 --> 00:21:02.315
So it was me in the beginning.

00:21:02.315 --> 00:21:05.934
I didn't really hire my first full time employee till about 2017.

00:21:06.005 --> 00:21:06.384
Okay.

00:21:06.424 --> 00:21:07.275
So I had done it.

00:21:07.424 --> 00:21:08.964
And what was that first hire for you?

00:21:08.964 --> 00:21:11.625
And what, how did, what, how did you decide what to hire?

00:21:11.865 --> 00:21:14.055
I'm sure you were like, I got like nine people I want to hire.

00:21:14.065 --> 00:21:15.015
Yeah, no, definitely.

00:21:15.015 --> 00:21:17.815
But again, sales, it's all about selling.

00:21:17.815 --> 00:21:18.154
Okay.

00:21:18.164 --> 00:21:19.684
So I hired my first salesperson.

00:21:19.694 --> 00:21:20.875
Had everything else covered.

00:21:20.875 --> 00:21:22.234
So we just need more revenues.

00:21:22.234 --> 00:21:23.875
So then we can eventually have more people.

00:21:24.220 --> 00:21:25.359
Focus on yep.

00:21:25.549 --> 00:21:25.720
Yeah.

00:21:25.859 --> 00:21:26.859
Distribution manufacturing.

00:21:26.920 --> 00:21:27.490
Exactly.

00:21:27.529 --> 00:21:27.819
Yep.

00:21:27.819 --> 00:21:31.650
So that, that helped me to where I could run more, you know, somebody else's in the sales office.

00:21:31.650 --> 00:21:33.359
I could teach them how to do this stuff.

00:21:33.809 --> 00:21:35.650
Um, and it just kind of grew from there.

00:21:35.930 --> 00:21:36.240
Cool.

00:21:36.279 --> 00:21:37.259
Yeah, it was awesome.

00:21:37.480 --> 00:21:39.400
And like, were there big milestones?

00:21:39.410 --> 00:21:49.630
Like COVID nation seems like when people were getting a lot of juice in their, you know, mailboxes and stuff like that, or like, were there significant steps along the way?

00:21:49.700 --> 00:21:49.990
Yeah.

00:21:49.990 --> 00:21:52.890
You know, I mean, all of the growth steps are there.

00:21:53.250 --> 00:21:54.490
All different, right?

00:21:54.569 --> 00:21:58.650
Um, so a significant growth step for us was obviously getting a million in revenue, right?

00:21:58.650 --> 00:22:02.660
I think there's a lot of businesses out there that that's a good mark, right?

00:22:02.670 --> 00:22:02.779
Yeah.

00:22:02.829 --> 00:22:03.480
We haven't got there yet.

00:22:03.569 --> 00:22:07.170
Yeah, no, it's, yeah, it's, it's one of those milestones.

00:22:07.170 --> 00:22:12.019
I think the biggest milestone for us is, uh, you know, we were renting a place from a farmer friend that we knew.

00:22:12.180 --> 00:22:12.500
Okay.

00:22:12.559 --> 00:22:15.880
Right, so we were manufacturing our stuff out of, uh, an agricultural building.

00:22:16.039 --> 00:22:16.240
Okay.

00:22:16.240 --> 00:22:16.869
And shipping it.

00:22:16.920 --> 00:22:21.890
Um, ultimately we decided to, to take the chance and we, we built our own building, right?

00:22:21.890 --> 00:22:25.319
So we more than tripled the size of the building that we were in to start.

00:22:25.700 --> 00:22:29.369
And so we moved our business from Loveland to LaSalle, Colorado.

00:22:29.380 --> 00:22:29.700
Mm hmm.

00:22:29.730 --> 00:22:31.089
And that's where our manufacturing building was.

00:22:31.099 --> 00:22:32.670
So that was a really big step for us.

00:22:32.670 --> 00:22:35.160
And that was, we moved in in about 2019.

00:22:35.329 --> 00:22:35.640
Okay.

00:22:35.680 --> 00:22:37.539
Um, so that was a really good milestone for us.

00:22:37.539 --> 00:22:38.750
And that was a big, uh, milestone.

00:22:39.140 --> 00:22:44.529
Like all of a sudden your overhead went from 5, 000 a month to 25, 000 a month or something, probably.

00:22:44.529 --> 00:22:51.250
Yeah, no, I mean, you know, we went in with a business plan, uh, went into the banker, um, and they, they took a chance on us.

00:22:51.259 --> 00:22:53.720
Granted though, we had decent, you know, we had good financials.

00:22:53.740 --> 00:22:54.329
You were making money.

00:22:54.390 --> 00:22:55.539
Yeah, we were making money.

00:22:55.539 --> 00:22:59.009
So who, who doesn't want to lend money to the banker or do you still like him?

00:22:59.240 --> 00:22:59.720
Oh yeah.

00:22:59.900 --> 00:23:05.369
So at that time it was Mike Bond with Guarantee Bank, Guarantee Bank has, has been bought multiple times now.

00:23:05.410 --> 00:23:06.140
And is he even around?

00:23:06.140 --> 00:23:06.779
I don't think he's.

00:23:06.904 --> 00:23:08.005
He's out of industry anymore.

00:23:08.015 --> 00:23:08.964
He's out of banking now.

00:23:08.964 --> 00:23:09.805
I thought so.

00:23:09.825 --> 00:23:10.404
He was great.

00:23:10.714 --> 00:23:11.065
He was great.

00:23:11.095 --> 00:23:11.724
Golf stuff.

00:23:11.744 --> 00:23:12.204
Is that him?

00:23:12.375 --> 00:23:13.704
You know, I'm not sure what he's doing now.

00:23:13.704 --> 00:23:14.484
I know he's doing that.

00:23:14.484 --> 00:23:14.954
Ptarmigan.

00:23:14.954 --> 00:23:16.694
I think he managed the country club for a while.

00:23:16.755 --> 00:23:17.164
Okay.

00:23:17.355 --> 00:23:19.305
I know he's in a lot of nonprofit now too.

00:23:19.325 --> 00:23:21.795
So yeah, but anyway, shout out to Mike.

00:23:21.904 --> 00:23:22.174
Yeah.

00:23:23.414 --> 00:23:27.015
So that was 2019 when we, we moved into our new facility and.

00:23:27.454 --> 00:23:28.815
Uh, more milestones, right?

00:23:28.815 --> 00:23:34.105
You know, different product lines, uh, hiring people, um, you know, revenue goals, all that sort of stuff.

00:23:35.055 --> 00:23:35.974
So, uh.

00:23:36.005 --> 00:23:43.625
What would you say, like, from a intentional culture standpoint, um, what have you done in that space, if anything?

00:23:43.974 --> 00:23:44.414
Yeah.

00:23:44.414 --> 00:23:50.694
It's a family business, so it runs that risk of just kind of being the family and the culture develops organically.

00:23:50.765 --> 00:23:51.045
Yeah.

00:23:51.105 --> 00:23:54.869
You know, early on, you It was hiring friends and family, right?

00:23:54.869 --> 00:23:56.289
I mean, that's, that's who you trust.

00:23:56.670 --> 00:24:00.230
Um, that's what you have, but those come with their, their own intricacies.

00:24:00.230 --> 00:24:00.519
Right.

00:24:00.849 --> 00:24:03.599
Um, so, so we've really, we were a family business.

00:24:03.630 --> 00:24:04.599
Uh, it was me.

00:24:04.779 --> 00:24:09.759
I had two cousins and I had an uncle that, that all worked in the business early on.

00:24:10.029 --> 00:24:15.099
Um, and now we're, we're, we're, we're, Not just a family business, but a business that family can work in.

00:24:15.500 --> 00:24:15.849
Right.

00:24:15.849 --> 00:24:18.519
You know, so there, there's no more, Oh, you're only going to be successful here.

00:24:18.519 --> 00:24:20.930
If your family, that's, that's not how this works anymore.

00:24:20.930 --> 00:24:24.720
It's, you know, you're successful if you do the things that, you know, we need you to do.

00:24:24.769 --> 00:24:26.819
So that's really the, the big cultural shift.

00:24:26.819 --> 00:24:37.230
And we're working on a big time to just create a blue collar, you know, workforce, you know, people that can wear multiple hats and do multiple things and be okay with it and be comfortable introducing their friends.

00:24:37.595 --> 00:24:39.259
To you if they like their job.

00:24:39.289 --> 00:24:40.039
Yeah, exactly.

00:24:40.039 --> 00:24:43.130
And we've, we've had that, um, you know, I forgot another cousin that we had.

00:24:43.130 --> 00:24:46.609
He, he helped us get, you know, three employees, Uh, it's, it's awesome.

00:24:46.609 --> 00:24:50.119
Some of'em stayed, some of'em haven't, but that's how it, you know, it, it starts.

00:24:50.125 --> 00:24:50.375
Yeah.

00:24:50.375 --> 00:24:50.575
Yeah.

00:24:50.750 --> 00:24:50.930
Yeah.

00:24:51.200 --> 00:24:53.779
Um, any like, major changes in the future?

00:24:53.779 --> 00:24:56.510
Are you, how, how close do your capacity of your building are you now?

00:24:57.109 --> 00:25:04.670
Yeah, I mean, so we moved into a 17, 000 square foot building when, when we started, and now we're at, uh, we've added on twice.

00:25:04.950 --> 00:25:05.400
Oh, really?

00:25:05.450 --> 00:25:12.809
Uh, yeah, because, uh, I'll give my father, you know, crap for this all the time, but he says, uh, when we moved into the building, we'll never need any more space.

00:25:13.250 --> 00:25:15.940
And we were adding on to the building within a year and a half of moving in.

00:25:15.940 --> 00:25:17.359
And then he says again.

00:25:17.785 --> 00:25:19.255
We'll never need any more space.

00:25:19.285 --> 00:25:24.464
And we just actually finished, um, a 20, 000 square foot expansion of the building.

00:25:24.464 --> 00:25:26.434
So we're now at a 43, 000 square feet.

00:25:26.434 --> 00:25:31.615
So he no longer says that he says, well, I didn't realize how good you were at selling.

00:25:31.615 --> 00:25:33.065
And I said, yeah, you probably shouldn't say that.

00:25:33.065 --> 00:25:38.255
And so you got a runway of a couple of years, maybe, or what's your goal?

00:25:38.255 --> 00:25:39.565
Like, what are you trying to accomplish?

00:25:39.644 --> 00:25:41.375
You know, that's a, that's a great question.

00:25:41.414 --> 00:25:42.734
I asked myself that too sometimes.

00:25:43.589 --> 00:25:54.109
So some days, you know, as a business, like, I think it seems like you're, I don't know, you know, on a huge trajectory, like, I don't know what 30 or 50 percent year over year growth revenue wise.

00:25:54.119 --> 00:25:57.049
That's where we were, um, up until about 2020.

00:25:57.049 --> 00:26:00.029
And now we, we don't want to get out over our skis, right.

00:26:00.049 --> 00:26:05.549
I want to continue to grow the business at an organic pace to where we can keep our promises to customers.

00:26:06.144 --> 00:26:06.424
Right.

00:26:06.424 --> 00:26:09.855
We don't want to get to a point to where, um, you know, we're late on things.

00:26:09.855 --> 00:26:12.775
So we try and grow at a nine to 10 percent clip now.

00:26:12.875 --> 00:26:13.075
Okay.

00:26:13.085 --> 00:26:20.575
Um, but yes, in the beginning we had 30, 40, 50%, you know, compounded annual growth rate with the business, but it has slowed a little bit.

00:26:20.575 --> 00:26:21.734
And that's, that's intentional.

00:26:21.815 --> 00:26:22.025
Yeah.

00:26:22.065 --> 00:26:24.474
You know, we, again, we're fiscally conservative.

00:26:24.474 --> 00:26:28.355
So, you know, that next step for us to grow is, is quite an investment.

00:26:28.384 --> 00:26:28.884
Right.

00:26:28.884 --> 00:26:29.244
Right.

00:26:29.285 --> 00:26:30.785
We feel pretty good about where we're at.

00:26:30.845 --> 00:26:32.105
Well, it seems like you would be.

00:26:32.815 --> 00:26:38.815
Like a super acquisition target, uh, just based on your metrics and growth and your niche industry and stuff.

00:26:38.835 --> 00:26:43.724
If you've been, how many phone calls do you think you've had in the last five years or two years, three years?

00:26:44.325 --> 00:26:44.664
Yeah.

00:26:44.664 --> 00:26:46.515
You know, we we've, I've looked at that route.

00:26:46.515 --> 00:26:50.605
I've looked at private equity and getting bought out to take some, some chips off the table, if you will.

00:26:50.605 --> 00:26:54.164
Cause, um, you know, as a business owner, I've been shopping for everything.

00:26:54.164 --> 00:26:56.565
I mean, I'm sure it's down probably the last couple of years because.

00:26:56.930 --> 00:26:57.829
Money's not so cheap.

00:26:57.890 --> 00:26:58.779
Yeah, exactly.

00:26:58.789 --> 00:27:02.400
So we have, but at the end of the day, you've got to say, okay, what, what do you want to do?

00:27:02.420 --> 00:27:02.720
Right.

00:27:02.720 --> 00:27:04.900
You know, uh, what's the future look like for you?

00:27:04.900 --> 00:27:07.799
Do you want to, do you want to answer to somebody else or do you want to be the guy, right?

00:27:08.430 --> 00:27:09.950
And what are the trade offs with that?

00:27:09.950 --> 00:27:17.984
So, well, and I think about the Walker manufacturing business, you know, they were, In manufacturing for a long time before they even started making lawnmowers.

00:27:18.365 --> 00:27:18.755
Really?

00:27:18.785 --> 00:27:18.994
Yeah.

00:27:19.214 --> 00:27:19.684
Interesting.

00:27:19.694 --> 00:27:22.095
That became like the product that fueled their growth.

00:27:22.115 --> 00:27:22.365
Okay.

00:27:22.365 --> 00:27:32.224
But, but you know, they're, I don't know what they are 50 years now or something in business and you know, they don't seem to have any strong interest in, you know, getting rolled up into some.

00:27:32.619 --> 00:27:35.299
Big manufacturing conglomerate or anything like that.

00:27:35.339 --> 00:27:35.869
Yeah.

00:27:36.289 --> 00:27:37.160
You don't have to either.

00:27:37.329 --> 00:27:38.309
No, you don't have to.

00:27:38.319 --> 00:27:41.500
It, you just have to decide, you know, what, what growth rate do you want?

00:27:41.539 --> 00:27:47.059
Uh, do you want to have to answer to somebody else and their growth metrics and what kind of culture do you want?

00:27:47.069 --> 00:27:51.230
Not that, you know, all of that goes out the window when you sell it to private equity, but it gets tough, right?

00:27:51.569 --> 00:27:56.869
I mean, now you have to answer to the investors and banks and whatever it may be, whereas right now.

00:27:57.244 --> 00:27:57.845
We're comfortable.

00:27:57.845 --> 00:28:03.615
I don't have to answer to a bank or I don't have to answer to, you know, investors saying, well, you didn't get this profit, right?

00:28:03.625 --> 00:28:03.944
Right.

00:28:03.984 --> 00:28:14.474
Not that, you know, of course we want to continue to grow as we can, but at our pace, well, and if you're profitable enough, you can take some chips off the table by buying some commercial real estate that you don't occupy, right?

00:28:14.474 --> 00:28:14.775
Exactly.

00:28:14.785 --> 00:28:17.244
Or, you know, doing other things, right?

00:28:17.365 --> 00:28:17.585
Yep.

00:28:17.914 --> 00:28:23.565
Um, let's talk about, uh, like you, um, you're married, right?

00:28:24.045 --> 00:28:25.154
And when did that happen?

00:28:25.474 --> 00:28:27.265
That was in 2018, 2018.

00:28:27.835 --> 00:28:32.224
So you're really a couple, three years into this business at that point or something.

00:28:32.224 --> 00:28:32.474
Yeah.

00:28:32.855 --> 00:28:33.224
Yep.

00:28:33.505 --> 00:28:35.224
Um, and her name is Kayla.

00:28:35.244 --> 00:28:36.355
We, we live in Eaton now.

00:28:36.355 --> 00:28:37.454
We've got one son.

00:28:37.494 --> 00:28:40.585
Um, she's been on board with the business, uh, as well.

00:28:40.585 --> 00:28:46.394
She helps out, um, wherever we, we can, but yeah, it was, it was pretty, she got to see a lot of growth.

00:28:46.444 --> 00:28:47.194
I imagine, yeah.

00:28:47.194 --> 00:28:51.690
Those first couple of years being with me and there was a lot of working on vacations, uh.

00:28:51.789 --> 00:28:52.440
I apologize.

00:28:52.440 --> 00:28:52.789
Kayla.

00:28:53.079 --> 00:28:54.144
We're trying to change that.

00:28:54.144 --> 00:28:55.450
So that's nice.

00:28:55.450 --> 00:28:55.960
Yeah, exactly.

00:28:55.970 --> 00:29:04.789
Which, you know, that's because you were profitable already, you know, if you were, if you were printing red ink and going on vacation, then we'll have another conversation about that.

00:29:04.789 --> 00:29:05.559
Yeah, exactly.

00:29:06.269 --> 00:29:13.640
So, uh, and we'll talk more about your family as we come along here, but, uh, so, but it's interesting that you were like right in the throes of that.

00:29:13.640 --> 00:29:21.170
So, so you're really kind of content to just kind of ride at a steady pace and you know, do you feel like you can influence your revenues?

00:29:21.170 --> 00:29:21.599
If you.

00:29:22.630 --> 00:29:31.920
You know, if you're, uh, start to dip a little bit in monthly sales, you can like add ads and get to where you want to be, or is that changes all the time?

00:29:31.930 --> 00:29:32.200
Right?

00:29:32.420 --> 00:29:37.720
Like, can we talk more about, it seems to be at least part of your special sauce is your marketing savvy.

00:29:37.750 --> 00:29:38.200
For sure.

00:29:38.220 --> 00:29:43.079
And, you know, I think we can, uh, we've been very fortunate to, you know, grow for the last 10 years.

00:29:43.220 --> 00:29:51.015
Um, you know, and, uh, Granted, we had a really, really good economy in those, those times, um, haven't, you know, been through too many recessions to, to see what that looks like.

00:29:51.015 --> 00:29:59.755
But I do feel very fortunate because I, the, the focus and the demographic that we go after feels a little bit more insulated from a lot of those ups and downs of the economy, right?

00:29:59.755 --> 00:30:00.214
These.

00:30:00.299 --> 00:30:02.190
Folks are pretty established, right?

00:30:02.190 --> 00:30:03.980
We kind of call them the IRA spenders.

00:30:04.259 --> 00:30:07.400
Um, you know, they have that disposable income, right?

00:30:07.400 --> 00:30:10.630
That they're willing to trade for in order to get more time back.

00:30:10.630 --> 00:30:10.799
Right.

00:30:10.809 --> 00:30:15.000
That's really what our product is about is, Hey, uh, you want to never paint your house again?

00:30:15.059 --> 00:30:15.750
Right, exactly.

00:30:15.940 --> 00:30:19.039
You know, you want to make your cabin look beautiful and never painted again.

00:30:19.069 --> 00:30:19.579
Exactly.

00:30:19.579 --> 00:30:32.414
I mean, that's, that's the whole value proposition and people are willing to exchange more money for that, a premium product, if that means that they get more time, is that so of your Your non log looking siding as well, that it's a premium product.

00:30:32.474 --> 00:30:36.795
It costs twice as much as the ABC seamless guy or whatever, right.

00:30:36.934 --> 00:30:38.835
Or some number more than, yeah, no.

00:30:38.835 --> 00:30:41.365
And that's really what we're after is we're, we're a niche product, right?

00:30:41.365 --> 00:30:50.434
So we really focused on wood grains and we really focused on the aesthetic of the siding, um, versus just, um, you know, a thinner gauge steel and, and really competing with the masses.

00:30:50.444 --> 00:30:51.994
So we are definitely a niche product.

00:30:52.234 --> 00:30:53.115
And is the.

00:30:55.240 --> 00:31:00.829
The paint quality, if you will, or the finish quality that allows you to have it be a near lifetime finish.

00:31:00.829 --> 00:31:03.819
And do you have a guarantee that supports that marketing or what's that look like?

00:31:03.829 --> 00:31:04.259
Yeah, definitely.

00:31:04.259 --> 00:31:07.700
It's a 30 year warranty against your cracking, peeling, blistering, fading, chalking.

00:31:07.740 --> 00:31:09.269
Um, and steel's come a really long way.

00:31:09.269 --> 00:31:15.579
There's been a really big resurgence in it because you can do so many Like really nice looks with steel.

00:31:15.579 --> 00:31:17.390
Now you can, you can print them a certain way.

00:31:17.390 --> 00:31:19.200
You can make them look a certain way, but yeah.

00:31:19.200 --> 00:31:21.119
I mean, that's the biggest thing is, is the paint.

00:31:21.400 --> 00:31:27.619
Um, you know, the paint companies have done a phenomenal job saying, okay, how can we make this work outside?

00:31:27.619 --> 00:31:32.099
You know, what, what can we do to, to make the chemistry, uh, give us the warranty that we want.

00:31:32.119 --> 00:31:32.779
Right, right.

00:31:32.819 --> 00:31:36.849
Well, and really good paint costs extra money, you know, that for sure.

00:31:36.950 --> 00:31:46.609
It's like, uh, you know, when you look at a 30 year old, uh, BMW motorcycle against a 30 year old Honda, you know, generally the BMW looks a little nicer, or at least it used to.

00:31:46.609 --> 00:31:47.549
I don't know if they still do.

00:31:47.900 --> 00:31:48.240
Right.

00:31:48.509 --> 00:31:49.710
It was back in the day.

00:31:49.809 --> 00:31:50.000
Yeah.

00:31:50.000 --> 00:31:51.869
Kind of getting what you, what you pay for, for sure.

00:31:51.940 --> 00:31:52.420
For sure.

00:31:52.759 --> 00:32:03.734
Um, I guess what would you say aside from marketing, what would you say were some of the Big challenges to overcome, um, to, to make true log successful.

00:32:03.994 --> 00:32:14.684
Yeah, I think it's, uh, um, people, you know, people's always going to be, uh, something for business that you, that you got to figure out, you know, getting the right people in the right places or getting the right people on the bus.

00:32:14.714 --> 00:32:18.924
Um, that's always going to be a challenge, but they can also be the differentiator for you as well.

00:32:18.974 --> 00:32:23.585
And I think that has been as bode well for true log is we have great customer service.

00:32:23.605 --> 00:32:24.805
You know, we.

00:32:25.095 --> 00:32:28.144
We start and end with the person in the office, right?

00:32:28.414 --> 00:32:29.644
They help you through the process.

00:32:29.644 --> 00:32:32.265
They educate you, but on the backend as well, once you get your product.

00:32:32.654 --> 00:32:34.714
They might be calling for installation questions.

00:32:34.724 --> 00:32:37.414
So we do a really good job with the customer service.

00:32:37.444 --> 00:32:48.565
Um, but from there, I, I think it is, um, you know, manufacturing, you know, getting your processes set to be more efficient, to get this stuff out the door, panel looks just right, right.

00:32:48.565 --> 00:32:53.434
Quality assurance, all that sort of stuff and shipping it to the customer has, has kind of been tough, right?

00:32:53.434 --> 00:32:56.944
I didn't want to open other manufacturing facilities across the country.

00:32:57.015 --> 00:32:58.434
I liked being in Colorado.

00:32:58.434 --> 00:32:59.075
It's my home.

00:32:59.365 --> 00:33:01.414
I liked employing people in Colorado.

00:33:01.484 --> 00:33:07.035
Um, And I didn't really want to branch outside of that and then triangle manage those people.

00:33:07.035 --> 00:33:08.365
I really like being under one rift.

00:33:08.365 --> 00:33:11.224
So that, that was, that's always kind of tough, right?

00:33:11.224 --> 00:33:13.414
Cause now you have, how are you going to get it to the customer?

00:33:13.424 --> 00:33:13.855
Right.

00:33:13.894 --> 00:33:14.244
Right.

00:33:14.244 --> 00:33:16.785
You know, so you have to kind of figure out what your logistics are going to look like.

00:33:18.434 --> 00:33:26.424
Instead of building a new 40, 000 square foot site, would doing a eastern USA site make sense for y'all?

00:33:26.484 --> 00:33:27.954
It, it definitely could.

00:33:28.005 --> 00:33:32.704
Um, you know, if we had the numbers right and everything, it would, you know, cut down on logistics costs, right?

00:33:32.734 --> 00:33:36.619
Well, and your labor rates a little lower if you go to Could be, right?

00:33:36.880 --> 00:33:46.019
Yeah, wherever it is, but, you know, again, though, I, I like being in Colorado and, and, you know, contributing to the economy here and employing people that we've got here.

00:33:46.019 --> 00:33:48.869
All my family's here, all that sort of stuff, but it's, it's possibility.

00:33:48.910 --> 00:33:49.099
Yeah.

00:33:49.420 --> 00:33:49.670
Yeah.

00:33:49.710 --> 00:33:50.000
I don't know.

00:33:50.019 --> 00:33:51.089
It'll be a decision point.

00:33:51.119 --> 00:33:51.599
I'm sure.

00:33:51.630 --> 00:33:52.079
Yeah.

00:33:52.099 --> 00:33:54.460
Or we just have to big a builder, you know, a bigger building.

00:33:54.579 --> 00:33:55.369
Right, right.

00:33:55.650 --> 00:33:55.950
I know.

00:33:55.950 --> 00:33:57.579
I'm, I'm, but I'm sure the shipping is.

00:33:58.134 --> 00:34:01.295
Sometimes 20 30 percent of the cost of the product, no?

00:34:01.464 --> 00:34:02.275
It definitely is.

00:34:02.315 --> 00:34:08.994
And one of the things that, you know, obviously Amazon has kind of, I don't want to say ruined it for everybody, but they've set the standard and said, Hey, free shipping.

00:34:09.735 --> 00:34:14.445
So that's one of the things that I really gravitated towards as well is people love free shipping.

00:34:14.764 --> 00:34:20.519
So I've kind of just baked it into The cost of our product, or you can look at it as taking less profit, whatever it is.

00:34:21.170 --> 00:34:24.159
But you buy X amount of signing, you get free shipping and people love free.

00:34:24.880 --> 00:34:27.340
For my father in law, that's only going to ship it to Fox.

00:34:28.159 --> 00:34:29.449
He should probably negotiate a little bit.

00:34:29.460 --> 00:34:30.099
Exactly.

00:34:30.099 --> 00:34:30.340
Right.

00:34:30.650 --> 00:34:31.409
We'll give you a credit.

00:34:32.179 --> 00:34:32.980
We'll give you a credit.

00:34:34.210 --> 00:34:34.280
Yeah.

00:34:34.280 --> 00:34:35.030
That's pretty interesting.

00:34:35.039 --> 00:34:35.789
Well, that's smart.

00:34:35.789 --> 00:34:38.119
I mean, um, otherwise it would be tough.

00:34:38.159 --> 00:34:43.610
Like I see people see that, Oh, only 9, 000, but then 3, 000.

00:34:43.610 --> 00:34:49.474
Cause I have to, is that, is that a, 20 percent maybe of actual, you know, it's not, it depends obviously.

00:34:49.474 --> 00:34:50.184
Yeah, it depends.

00:34:50.184 --> 00:34:51.664
I mean, we've been very fortunate now.

00:34:51.664 --> 00:34:56.445
We've, uh, basically got third party logistics guys that are not doing nothing but delivering our products.

00:34:56.465 --> 00:35:00.704
So we fill up a truck and they take a route and then, you know, they're their own business.

00:35:00.715 --> 00:35:02.494
So then they go figure out whatever else they need to do.

00:35:02.494 --> 00:35:02.715
Yeah.

00:35:02.715 --> 00:35:02.925
Yeah.

00:35:02.925 --> 00:35:03.914
And so it's worked out well.

00:35:03.925 --> 00:35:05.804
Brokers that find somebody that's going that way.

00:35:05.804 --> 00:35:07.425
Cause your actual packages aren't.

00:35:07.719 --> 00:35:16.320
Now that I think about it, aren't super big without a lot of early long, they are long yet about 12 foot long and the pallets are four foot wide.

00:35:16.429 --> 00:35:21.619
Um, so before, I mean, we were shipping with LTL companies, FedEx, UPS, old Dominion, all those guys.

00:35:21.619 --> 00:35:22.969
And they said, Hey, we don't want you anymore.

00:35:23.489 --> 00:35:26.840
You know, I literally had execs come in and I'm a million dollar account for them.

00:35:26.840 --> 00:35:28.389
And like, well, we don't want your business.

00:35:28.639 --> 00:35:29.530
I said, wait a minute.

00:35:29.764 --> 00:35:30.565
Like, what do you mean?

00:35:30.965 --> 00:35:33.795
Like, we just, we just want these pallets that are 3x3.

00:35:33.835 --> 00:35:36.554
You know, we don't want very profile stuff to, to fit in our trucks.

00:35:36.554 --> 00:35:38.724
I said, okay, well, we'll have to figure something else out.

00:35:39.025 --> 00:35:39.304
Right.

00:35:39.375 --> 00:35:39.735
Yeah.

00:35:39.775 --> 00:35:40.905
That had to be a big, uh.

00:35:41.034 --> 00:35:42.614
It was interesting being fired by a vendor.

00:35:42.724 --> 00:35:43.125
Right.

00:35:43.394 --> 00:35:44.065
That I was paying.

00:35:44.074 --> 00:35:46.094
Did you have some time to figure that out?

00:35:46.094 --> 00:35:48.025
Or was that kind of a stress moment for y'all?

00:35:48.074 --> 00:35:48.625
Oh, for sure.

00:35:48.625 --> 00:35:50.085
Definitely a big stress moment, right?

00:35:50.085 --> 00:35:51.425
Cause it's a, it's a huge change.

00:35:51.425 --> 00:35:53.364
I had been shipping with them for six years.

00:35:53.510 --> 00:35:59.050
Um, and, you know, any type of really big change like that in your processes kind of throws you for a loop.

00:35:59.050 --> 00:36:02.789
I mean, it was, wasn't a fun day, um, but we, we did have some time, right?

00:36:02.989 --> 00:36:04.250
You know, we paid a little bit more.

00:36:04.250 --> 00:36:08.130
They said, Oh, well, you know, we'll let you figure it out until, you know, that time.

00:36:08.130 --> 00:36:14.289
But, um, Uh, we ultimately figured it out and the solution cost more or was it actually better again?

00:36:14.329 --> 00:36:15.840
It has worked out really well for us.

00:36:15.849 --> 00:36:16.599
It's less.

00:36:16.639 --> 00:36:17.130
Yeah.

00:36:17.130 --> 00:36:34.250
It's definitely less more specialties and that kind of stuff And exactly they love the fact that your shit's only 12 feet long and right right wide all the time Yeah, exactly very very profile, you know, it's it's easy to to lug around I mean we do a really good job of palletizing things Um, and, and making sure to really see it.

00:36:34.250 --> 00:36:37.094
And it all stacks almost like gutters or something like that I'm imagining.

00:36:37.105 --> 00:36:37.434
It's all.

00:36:37.434 --> 00:36:38.844
And you wrap it all up in plastic or something?

00:36:38.905 --> 00:36:39.894
It's all in boxes.

00:36:40.094 --> 00:36:40.264
Oh.

00:36:40.275 --> 00:36:41.565
So we do everything in boxes.

00:36:41.565 --> 00:36:42.255
All of our panels.

00:36:42.295 --> 00:36:42.324
Okay.

00:36:42.335 --> 00:36:43.355
All of our trims in boxes.

00:36:43.514 --> 00:36:45.775
Then we palletize it and, and wrap it up.

00:36:45.775 --> 00:36:46.275
So yeah.

00:36:46.735 --> 00:36:48.965
Super, super good packaging by our guys.

00:36:48.965 --> 00:36:49.454
Yeah, yeah.

00:36:49.454 --> 00:36:49.764
Um.

00:36:49.945 --> 00:36:50.755
Um.

00:36:51.360 --> 00:36:51.860
What else?

00:36:52.280 --> 00:36:54.920
Well, I guess let's, well, let's talk about Loco Think Tank.

00:36:54.929 --> 00:36:56.340
You're a member of Loco Think Tank.

00:36:56.590 --> 00:36:57.610
Do you remember when you joined?

00:36:58.119 --> 00:37:01.230
Yeah, we had just talked about this, I think, uh, this month, actually.

00:37:01.230 --> 00:37:03.050
I think it's coming up on about two years.

00:37:03.150 --> 00:37:03.460
Okay.

00:37:03.500 --> 00:37:07.659
I think almost to the date, I think I joined in roughly about October.

00:37:07.849 --> 00:37:08.210
Okay.

00:37:08.269 --> 00:37:09.300
Of what was that?

00:37:09.320 --> 00:37:10.250
2022.

00:37:10.849 --> 00:37:11.070
Yeah.

00:37:11.070 --> 00:37:11.309
Okay.

00:37:11.309 --> 00:37:11.789
I think so.

00:37:11.869 --> 00:37:12.019
Yeah.

00:37:12.019 --> 00:37:14.739
So it was that briefly, cause you were introduced by Emily.

00:37:14.769 --> 00:37:15.159
Yes.

00:37:15.420 --> 00:37:15.619
Yes.

00:37:15.650 --> 00:37:16.519
Um, and then.

00:37:16.804 --> 00:37:18.324
She passed not long after that, right?

00:37:18.324 --> 00:37:19.195
Isn't that two years ago?

00:37:19.244 --> 00:37:22.914
Um, that would have been, uh, yeah, it'll be two years in February.

00:37:22.945 --> 00:37:23.344
Yeah.

00:37:23.505 --> 00:37:23.894
Yeah.

00:37:23.985 --> 00:37:26.014
Um, which is a whole sad story.

00:37:26.014 --> 00:37:27.505
I could cry about any time.

00:37:27.505 --> 00:37:33.304
What, uh, I guess, what was your interest in that?

00:37:33.304 --> 00:37:34.724
And, and like, what's that?

00:37:35.039 --> 00:37:37.230
been, uh, like for you?

00:37:37.329 --> 00:37:38.670
Yeah, it's, it's been awesome.

00:37:38.670 --> 00:37:46.579
So I, you know, I was reconnected with, with Emily Kincaid by a business professor that we both had, Bill Schuster, and just wanted to connect with each other.

00:37:46.579 --> 00:37:52.710
I think that the business community is all about, and she just said, Hey, I'm a part of this, this group, right.

00:37:52.710 --> 00:37:59.349
And they, they helped me through my, my issues or my business problems, whatever it is, it's just nice to be a part of a community.

00:37:59.349 --> 00:38:00.929
I said, well, let's, let's give it a try.

00:38:01.349 --> 00:38:04.880
Um, cause cause ownership of a business can.

00:38:05.934 --> 00:38:06.175
Yeah.

00:38:06.215 --> 00:38:06.585
Right.

00:38:06.614 --> 00:38:10.155
Um, and so you want to be able to talk to other people and get perspective.

00:38:10.164 --> 00:38:13.684
Even when you're successful, even when you're growing every year.

00:38:13.965 --> 00:38:14.945
Yeah, exactly.

00:38:15.054 --> 00:38:20.824
It doesn't, uh, doesn't mean that you're, you're more popular or, or people understand that the issues that you have.

00:38:20.824 --> 00:38:21.784
So it's been awesome.

00:38:22.074 --> 00:38:26.284
Um, you know, I, I love being a part of the group, um, and just bouncing ideas off of people.

00:38:26.284 --> 00:38:28.574
It also helps me be accountable, right?

00:38:28.594 --> 00:38:30.494
Being the CEO and owner of the business.

00:38:31.005 --> 00:38:32.815
Don't have to be accountable to anybody, right?

00:38:32.855 --> 00:38:33.414
Kind of true, yeah.

00:38:33.505 --> 00:38:35.494
Except for myself and my Your wife and your guy.

00:38:35.594 --> 00:38:35.925
Right.

00:38:36.574 --> 00:38:37.324
Or whatever, right?

00:38:37.394 --> 00:38:38.755
Uh, and em and employees.

00:38:38.755 --> 00:38:44.715
Um, so it's just nice to bounce ideas off of people and know that, um, you know, You're not alone, right?

00:38:44.764 --> 00:38:50.114
People are dealing with the same issues as you, maybe just a little bit different because their business is different, but it's been great.

00:38:50.125 --> 00:38:51.855
And then also adding value to other people.

00:38:51.855 --> 00:38:56.215
I hope I have, um, you know, that's, that's another part of it as, as well.

00:38:56.215 --> 00:38:59.525
I just love talking with business and want other people to be successful as well.

00:38:59.704 --> 00:38:59.965
Yeah.

00:39:00.264 --> 00:39:01.389
You're, you're like a.

00:39:02.349 --> 00:39:04.039
business kind of guy in general, aren't you?

00:39:04.230 --> 00:39:04.960
Yeah, for sure.

00:39:04.960 --> 00:39:06.409
I mean, I love it.

00:39:06.420 --> 00:39:14.570
The, all the little intricacies of, of business, what it can provide, um, what is, what it's done, um, and just love helping people cause it's hard, right?

00:39:14.570 --> 00:39:20.630
I mean, what, what's the statistics, 70 percent of businesses fail in the first five years, or something like that.

00:39:20.670 --> 00:39:23.780
Uh, it's not easy, but if you can make it work, there's nothing better.

00:39:24.349 --> 00:39:25.079
If you were going to.

00:39:25.195 --> 00:39:36.494
Like try to, when I, so I was, uh, for our audience clarification, I was a member with Ryan, but probably for only like six months or something before I moved on to help start the next level three chapter.

00:39:37.155 --> 00:39:40.735
Um, I guess, what was my question?

00:39:40.735 --> 00:39:46.695
I, uh, gosh I just had such a good question figured out and now I lost it.

00:39:46.755 --> 00:39:48.184
I'm going to pause this for just a moment.

00:39:48.215 --> 00:39:48.534
Okay.

00:39:48.554 --> 00:39:48.934
No problem.

00:40:33.590 --> 00:40:44.440
What I was going to ask is when we were in a chapter together, like things were going well, you were growing well, making a pretty good profit margin, but you were kind of, uh, just doing everything that you did best.

00:40:44.489 --> 00:40:44.789
Yeah.

00:40:44.969 --> 00:40:47.050
Which was like too many things.

00:40:47.130 --> 00:40:47.500
Yes.

00:40:47.519 --> 00:40:54.429
Have you been able to, to settle your lifestyle down a little bit and would have been the key things that have allowed that for you?

00:40:54.619 --> 00:40:54.989
Yeah.

00:40:54.989 --> 00:40:58.300
You know, it's always been tough for me, um, to, to relinquish control.

00:40:58.300 --> 00:40:58.519
Right.

00:40:58.519 --> 00:41:05.159
I think, uh, that might be for every entrepreneur that starts a business and it's, and it's your baby, but I have, and I haven't, right.

00:41:05.159 --> 00:41:07.210
I, I still, I go to therapy for this, right.

00:41:07.210 --> 00:41:10.150
To, to, to try and get my life in balance.

00:41:10.179 --> 00:41:14.125
Um, cause It has, it has settled down more, right?

00:41:14.125 --> 00:41:15.375
I've hired a COO.

00:41:15.375 --> 00:41:16.835
I've got a production manager.

00:41:17.114 --> 00:41:22.224
I'm hiring a sales manager right now to help offload a lot of those things that, uh, that I've done.

00:41:22.224 --> 00:41:25.085
So, and I think the group You'll still always probably stay too busy.

00:41:25.094 --> 00:41:25.934
Yeah, exactly.

00:41:26.005 --> 00:41:26.275
Always.

00:41:26.275 --> 00:41:26.364
Right.

00:41:26.375 --> 00:41:28.715
You can always find stuff to fill your calendar with.

00:41:28.735 --> 00:41:32.565
But again, that, that's part of, uh, you know, the think tank group here is.

00:41:32.635 --> 00:41:35.065
They challenged me and said, Hey, well, why aren't, why aren't you offloading?

00:41:35.065 --> 00:41:36.034
Why aren't you hiring people?

00:41:36.045 --> 00:41:38.394
So, um, I do give credit to the group.

00:41:39.085 --> 00:41:40.164
You got the revenues for it.

00:41:40.164 --> 00:41:41.775
You don't need to, what are you doing?

00:41:41.974 --> 00:41:44.074
And you want to be able to take a 10 day vacation in St.

00:41:44.295 --> 00:41:50.724
Lucia if you want, without every customer getting their stuff late or, you know, the pipeline being empty when you get home.

00:41:50.744 --> 00:41:50.965
Yeah.

00:41:50.965 --> 00:41:53.994
And so it's getting the right people on, in the right seats and all that stuff.

00:41:53.994 --> 00:41:55.195
So we still work on that.

00:41:55.255 --> 00:41:55.554
Cool.

00:41:55.704 --> 00:41:57.445
Is the sales manager role then.

00:41:58.085 --> 00:42:05.364
I guess probably the sales is kind of like you're getting these electronic leads and then it's following up on all these leads with an in person touch.

00:42:05.364 --> 00:42:07.445
Is that kind of the customer journey?

00:42:07.474 --> 00:42:07.864
Exactly.

00:42:07.885 --> 00:42:08.744
Are you looking for a job?

00:42:10.025 --> 00:42:11.364
I've got, I got the micro voice.

00:42:11.364 --> 00:42:16.954
I can do some fake micro narration for your commercials and uh, I understand.

00:42:18.724 --> 00:42:32.974
No, I don't need a sales job, but it would be, I mean, to know that somebody was pretty interested in the product and to call them and talk them through the process, what it looks like, how we get the special texture on there, why, why we have a 30 year warranty.

00:42:32.994 --> 00:42:33.545
Exactly.

00:42:33.954 --> 00:42:34.364
Yeah, no.

00:42:34.364 --> 00:42:37.005
And that's the, you know, the kind of, again, the secret sauce, right?

00:42:37.005 --> 00:42:39.804
You're educating the customer they're calling and asking questions.

00:42:39.815 --> 00:42:44.965
And that's, what's really nice about digital marketing is, is a lot of people kind of have a fear and say, well, it's cold calling.

00:42:44.965 --> 00:42:45.875
It's like, no, it's not.

00:42:45.875 --> 00:42:49.385
I mean, these people have already raised their hand and said, Hey, I'm interested in your product.

00:42:49.635 --> 00:42:52.530
They've downloaded a catalog of ours or they've contacted in.

00:42:52.760 --> 00:42:54.530
Well, that's them already showing.

00:42:54.539 --> 00:42:55.289
Hey, raise their hand.

00:42:55.300 --> 00:42:56.349
They're marketing qualified.

00:42:56.349 --> 00:42:57.320
Yeah, exactly.

00:42:57.329 --> 00:42:58.139
So that's awesome.

00:42:58.590 --> 00:43:04.300
And then I suppose it's kind of figuring out how serious they are early in the conversation, qualifying them, right?

00:43:04.300 --> 00:43:06.079
Qualifying them to some extent, because you don't want to.

00:43:06.385 --> 00:43:07.454
Put a full estimate together.

00:43:07.454 --> 00:43:10.005
Cause that probably takes a few hours or a couple of hours.

00:43:10.045 --> 00:43:10.675
It can.

00:43:10.675 --> 00:43:10.855
Yeah.

00:43:10.855 --> 00:43:12.005
Depending on the project.

00:43:12.005 --> 00:43:16.554
Um, and that's another part of it where you are trying to sift through these people and see how, how serious are they?

00:43:16.864 --> 00:43:18.385
Um, and that is part of the process.

00:43:18.394 --> 00:43:25.025
So probably that's been a opportunity is to develop an actual sales process that somebody other than you is taking.

00:43:25.025 --> 00:43:30.434
And it isn't just based on your instinct, based on the, the language that the customer used in that last email.

00:43:30.485 --> 00:43:31.644
Yeah, exactly.

00:43:31.644 --> 00:43:34.864
And then, and then having somebody to be able to hire and train.

00:43:35.195 --> 00:43:37.244
Towards that, that process and that standard.

00:43:37.244 --> 00:43:41.144
And that's really what we're looking for in order to help scale that, that team.

00:43:41.414 --> 00:43:49.804
What's your communication mix with your customers as far as like phone calls, emails to do little loom videos and stuff like that to say, do it like this.

00:43:49.855 --> 00:43:50.554
Yeah, exactly.

00:43:50.565 --> 00:43:52.724
It's a, it's a lot of phone call and email.

00:43:53.045 --> 00:44:01.155
Um, you know, they'll, they'll message us, they'll email us with their, their prints or, you know, their photos with dimensions, whatever it is, and then discuss it on the phone, right?

00:44:01.344 --> 00:44:05.835
Everybody wants to know that they're actually talking to somebody on, on the other end of the computer.

00:44:06.135 --> 00:44:15.775
Um, so we have that, we send them mail, you know, we'll send them samples that they can touch and feel, so they have an idea of what the product is, and we've gone as far as even being on, you know, like FaceTime video.

00:44:16.034 --> 00:44:20.315
Oh, you know, showing customers how to install the product or helping their contractor, whatever it is.

00:44:20.735 --> 00:44:23.074
Um, our, our team does a great job across the board.

00:44:23.074 --> 00:44:23.974
They can text us.

00:44:24.014 --> 00:44:29.125
I mean, we've kind of gone to yard service, uh, find and get installed your product.

00:44:29.135 --> 00:44:29.715
Yeah, it is.

00:44:29.715 --> 00:44:57.139
But I mean, I, again, that's, that's why we're successful, you know, that's why people continue to gravitate towards our, our products, that customer service, um, anything that you would want to, uh, share with, say, an aspiring entrepreneur, um, You know, there's probably a little too specific to have kind of a dormant company your father founded and had patents for that you could just lift off with, but, uh, even just that, that 20 year old that would love to do something.

00:44:57.199 --> 00:44:57.579
Yeah.

00:44:57.579 --> 00:45:02.579
You know, I, I think for, for me, I was always interested in so many aspects of business.

00:45:02.579 --> 00:45:05.190
And I think that's what has kind of made me successful, right?

00:45:05.190 --> 00:45:10.400
I was able to do enough finance, enough accounting, enough supply chain, enough marketing, whatever it is.

00:45:10.400 --> 00:45:15.199
So, I think always continue to strive to learn more, you know what I mean?

00:45:15.219 --> 00:45:16.269
And, and you have to try things out.

00:45:16.280 --> 00:45:19.219
Even if it's not a depth of accounting or finance or sales.

00:45:19.380 --> 00:45:23.179
At least you know a little bit so then you can go talk to the banker and say, Hey, I need a loan for this.

00:45:23.179 --> 00:45:26.264
Well, you also are going to have to know How am I going to sell this product?

00:45:26.315 --> 00:45:27.985
You know, what is my business plan?

00:45:28.195 --> 00:45:30.875
You know, you have to have all that stuff in order to really get stuff off.

00:45:31.074 --> 00:45:32.574
Where do I source my materials?

00:45:32.614 --> 00:45:32.965
Yeah.

00:45:32.994 --> 00:45:34.105
What's my delivery method?

00:45:34.625 --> 00:45:34.885
Exactly.

00:45:34.905 --> 00:45:35.474
All those things.

00:45:36.014 --> 00:45:38.585
Uh, I, I would say, you know, learn, learn how to sell too.

00:45:38.784 --> 00:45:39.364
I mean, right.

00:45:39.364 --> 00:45:40.985
Like, like we've talked about this whole time.

00:45:40.985 --> 00:45:42.315
Nothing starts until you sell something.

00:45:42.324 --> 00:45:42.684
Yeah.

00:45:42.715 --> 00:45:46.264
Honestly, I think that's probably a good place for a lot of.

00:45:46.500 --> 00:45:46.739
Yeah.

00:45:46.739 --> 00:45:50.030
Aspiring entrepreneurs to start is to sell for somebody else.

00:45:50.099 --> 00:45:50.409
Yeah.

00:45:50.559 --> 00:45:52.010
That, that you like their product.

00:45:52.159 --> 00:45:52.699
Yeah, exactly.

00:45:52.699 --> 00:45:54.159
Don't try to sell something you don't believe in.

00:45:54.429 --> 00:45:54.699
Right.

00:45:54.750 --> 00:45:54.809
Yeah.

00:45:54.960 --> 00:45:55.530
That's too hard.

00:45:55.530 --> 00:45:57.679
You do have to believe in the product for, for sure.

00:45:57.719 --> 00:46:02.860
Um, but yeah, and try things out, you know, if, if you can fail small, that's, that's also awesome.

00:46:02.949 --> 00:46:06.329
Like I was able to take this position cause I was still single.

00:46:06.530 --> 00:46:09.920
I had quit my job, you know, my, my corporate ladder and I was living at home, right.

00:46:10.210 --> 00:46:16.440
So it is, I had a, um, I don't want to say an easier path, but, uh, less downside.

00:46:16.440 --> 00:46:16.610
Right.

00:46:16.610 --> 00:46:17.539
I didn't have a family.

00:46:17.539 --> 00:46:18.150
I didn't have.

00:46:18.164 --> 00:46:21.224
You know, kids or anything like that, you could go get another corporate job if you needed to.

00:46:21.284 --> 00:46:25.065
Yeah, if I failed, well I was, I was gonna be able to just step into another job.

00:46:25.065 --> 00:46:28.125
So, um, I do at least appreciate that, that part of it.

00:46:28.125 --> 00:46:34.329
But if you can small, you know, fail small, um, you know, less expensive, all that sort of stuff, like, you know, an iteration phase of Yeah.

00:46:34.574 --> 00:46:36.164
Of things just to see how things go.

00:46:36.195 --> 00:46:36.554
I dig it.

00:46:37.085 --> 00:46:37.534
Um.

00:46:38.070 --> 00:46:41.900
This is kind of the turn where we start to talk about, uh, all the other things of the world.

00:46:41.900 --> 00:46:51.250
Uh, we always talk about faith, family, and politics, and kind of anything else that really you jive with, if you have any major hobbies, or you're a baseball coach.

00:46:52.550 --> 00:46:53.389
Any of those things.

00:46:53.679 --> 00:46:55.360
Do you have an order that you'd like to take those on?

00:46:55.744 --> 00:47:00.045
Sure, we can go in the order that you said, so what, faith, family, politics, what else is there?

00:47:00.364 --> 00:47:02.034
That was the three mandatories.

00:47:02.034 --> 00:47:02.355
Sure.

00:47:02.574 --> 00:47:06.494
Yeah, I mean, uh, growing up I was, uh, grew up in the Lutheran church.

00:47:06.494 --> 00:47:08.135
I went to a private school.

00:47:08.135 --> 00:47:15.184
Which, uh, which, uh, cause I know there's like the Wisconsin, the Missouri, and maybe some other departments of Lutheranism.

00:47:15.195 --> 00:47:22.405
Well, you know, what's interesting is, uh, my grandparents are Catholic, but I couldn't get into the Catholic, uh, elementary cause it was full.

00:47:22.969 --> 00:47:25.739
So they're like, well, we still want you to be in private school.

00:47:26.090 --> 00:47:28.480
So we, I went to a Lutheran, Lutheran church school.

00:47:28.570 --> 00:47:35.809
I don't know what kind of area it's from, but it was more so about the, the education and the, and the one on one, you know, um, don't get me wrong.

00:47:35.809 --> 00:47:45.300
You know, I'm a faith based person, you know, everything happens for a reason and definitely believe in a higher power, but it was more so the, the smaller classrooms, you know, having that, that kind of one on one experience.

00:47:46.070 --> 00:47:49.190
Well, I think you're seeing kind of a uniting of faith and religion.

00:47:49.929 --> 00:47:57.889
People in the world today, and this drifts into politics, but, but even the, the Jews and the Catholics and the Lutherans and the, it's like them against us.

00:47:58.750 --> 00:48:02.719
Everybody else at this point, a little bit, because there's almost getting smaller than everybody else.

00:48:02.719 --> 00:48:10.760
You know, the Christians for a long time, you could say, well, I'm a Christian because it gave you like community power and status in the community.

00:48:10.760 --> 00:48:14.039
And now it's just like a reason for two thirds of the people to scoff at you.

00:48:14.400 --> 00:48:15.119
Yeah, exactly.

00:48:15.809 --> 00:48:16.039
Yeah.

00:48:16.039 --> 00:48:18.510
So, and you know, I continue to keep that faith.

00:48:18.550 --> 00:48:27.230
Um, you know, I don't, I don't have Bible verses memorized or anything like that, but I definitely have confidence in a higher power and things, you know, happening, you know, for you.

00:48:27.405 --> 00:48:28.824
You know, not to you.

00:48:28.826 --> 00:48:29.755
Providential.

00:48:29.755 --> 00:48:31.434
Yeah, definitely, definitely.

00:48:31.445 --> 00:48:34.804
Do you and your family do actively church stuff now?

00:48:35.394 --> 00:48:36.545
We did in the past.

00:48:36.554 --> 00:48:37.815
Um, I, I haven't.

00:48:37.925 --> 00:48:41.985
It's something that, you know, probably should, uh, strive to, to do more of.

00:48:42.034 --> 00:48:44.835
Um, you know, to just help strengthen it and keep you going.

00:48:44.875 --> 00:48:45.295
Yeah, yeah.

00:48:45.364 --> 00:48:45.815
Yeah.

00:48:45.905 --> 00:48:46.635
Um.

00:48:47.670 --> 00:48:50.869
Anything that, uh, is significant to you from that journey?

00:48:50.869 --> 00:48:55.590
Sounds like you would be an advocate for that kind of small classroom, faith oriented education, at least.

00:48:55.650 --> 00:49:02.030
Yeah, definitely, and I think it's nice to have that one on one, but I also, you know, want to give credit to my parents, too, right?

00:49:02.030 --> 00:49:13.920
I mean, you can go to those smaller schools and have that, you know, very church based learning, but if you don't have it reinforced on the back end, right, with your parents, What does it do?

00:49:13.920 --> 00:49:14.159
Right.

00:49:14.159 --> 00:49:16.489
So I was lucky enough to have both, right.

00:49:16.510 --> 00:49:22.159
My parents very involved and just reinforcing those, those teachings and why, you know what I mean?

00:49:22.199 --> 00:49:26.579
Um, so I, I would be an advocate for nothing against a public school or anything like that.

00:49:26.619 --> 00:49:28.989
That's just what my parents wanted at, at that time.

00:49:28.989 --> 00:49:35.032
But I do like living in a smaller community and, you know, knowing, knowing people and, and being able to connect, right.

00:49:35.032 --> 00:49:40.369
Versus, you know, maybe being in Cherry Creek and you're going to, you know, school of two to 3000 kids.

00:49:40.380 --> 00:49:45.130
Uh, I think our church still has, uh, a sister church out there in alt Oh, really?

00:49:45.130 --> 00:49:46.329
The High Plains Harvest.

00:49:46.360 --> 00:49:46.659
Okay.

00:49:46.719 --> 00:49:47.409
Uh, church.

00:49:47.440 --> 00:49:47.739
Okay.

00:49:48.039 --> 00:49:48.699
I think I've heard of that.

00:49:48.730 --> 00:49:54.730
We're part of a local kind of, it's called the Crossway, and so they like share pastor training programs and stuff.

00:49:54.760 --> 00:49:55.000
Okay.

00:49:55.000 --> 00:50:01.010
But they don't really, that they don't, they're not affiliated with the Presbyterians or the Lutheran or the Catholics or any of that.

00:50:01.010 --> 00:50:03.949
I've kind of gravitated toward that kind of more Libertarian style.

00:50:03.980 --> 00:50:04.039
Yeah.

00:50:04.039 --> 00:50:04.969
Non-denominational or whatever.

00:50:04.969 --> 00:50:06.469
Very non-denominational, but also.

00:50:07.250 --> 00:50:08.789
You know, an island is not strong.

00:50:09.070 --> 00:50:09.360
Yeah.

00:50:09.380 --> 00:50:19.570
You know, and so I like our model of having kind of a You know, we've got a little church in two little churches in Fort Collins, one in Loveland, one in Windsor, one in Alt, and they kind of share resources.

00:50:19.570 --> 00:50:26.059
And if somebody needs a sub on Sunday for the sermon, you know, tell me two months ahead, not a week ahead, but we can do that.

00:50:26.059 --> 00:50:26.730
Yeah, that's cool.

00:50:26.760 --> 00:50:27.090
Okay.

00:50:27.130 --> 00:50:29.579
So anyway, um, that might be a local one.

00:50:29.579 --> 00:50:31.250
You might check out if you start investigating.

00:50:31.250 --> 00:50:33.050
How old's your, uh, how old's your kiddo?

00:50:33.460 --> 00:50:35.360
He is a little over two and a half years old.

00:50:35.369 --> 00:50:35.769
Okay.

00:50:35.880 --> 00:50:41.079
So, you know, they're, Kind of another year or so when they're not a pain in the ass at Sunday school anymore.

00:50:41.289 --> 00:50:41.840
Yeah, exactly.

00:50:42.690 --> 00:50:51.090
That's one of the ways my wife and I serve is to, uh, we're floaters, which means you have to kind of be an emergency teacher or just serve the classrooms and things like that.

00:50:51.099 --> 00:50:51.559
Gotcha.

00:50:51.679 --> 00:50:52.170
That's cool.

00:50:52.449 --> 00:50:53.039
The, the.

00:50:53.190 --> 00:50:58.420
Under threes are definitely, for me, the most challenging, because I can reason with the people that are over three.

00:50:58.420 --> 00:50:58.820
Right.

00:51:00.199 --> 00:51:00.710
Exactly.

00:51:00.710 --> 00:51:01.489
They're developed there.

00:51:02.269 --> 00:51:04.360
Under that, it's, it's emotion based.

00:51:04.610 --> 00:51:05.070
Totally.

00:51:05.539 --> 00:51:09.820
Um, let's talk about, uh, I've misplaced your wife's name already.

00:51:09.969 --> 00:51:10.380
Kayla.

00:51:10.429 --> 00:51:10.909
Kayla.

00:51:10.949 --> 00:51:11.269
Yeah.

00:51:11.320 --> 00:51:12.349
K A Y L A.

00:51:12.420 --> 00:51:12.639
Yep.

00:51:12.690 --> 00:51:13.050
You got it.

00:51:13.099 --> 00:51:13.469
Okay.

00:51:13.789 --> 00:51:15.099
Um, how did you find her?

00:51:15.764 --> 00:51:19.114
So, uh, you know, full disclosure, we, we met on a dating app.

00:51:19.215 --> 00:51:19.644
Ooh.

00:51:19.695 --> 00:51:20.175
Yeah.

00:51:20.554 --> 00:51:20.974
That's okay.

00:51:21.045 --> 00:51:22.344
That's normal anymore, I think.

00:51:22.394 --> 00:51:23.505
No, it Which, was it Tinder?

00:51:23.545 --> 00:51:24.795
It was Tinder, actually.

00:51:25.894 --> 00:51:26.454
Well, then.

00:51:26.715 --> 00:51:28.925
Do you know that She'll be embarrassed she said that.

00:51:29.094 --> 00:51:29.414
Yeah.

00:51:29.416 --> 00:51:29.905
But that's okay.

00:51:29.925 --> 00:51:36.585
No, we, we tell our story because, uh, it was The only reason that it worked out is there was We had 30 mutual connections.

00:51:37.440 --> 00:51:38.599
But we had never met each other.

00:51:38.920 --> 00:51:41.159
She was at UNC getting her master's degree.

00:51:41.159 --> 00:51:44.190
I was out of college, but we had a bunch of mutual connections.

00:51:44.190 --> 00:51:46.010
And it's like, well, how do I not know this person?

00:51:46.469 --> 00:51:48.090
Um, she's from a really small town.

00:51:48.099 --> 00:51:49.340
Mutual connections on Tinder?

00:51:49.650 --> 00:51:50.190
No, on Facebook.

00:51:50.750 --> 00:51:51.429
Oh, okay.

00:51:51.900 --> 00:51:53.389
Because that would be Yes.

00:51:53.639 --> 00:51:53.909
Third.

00:51:54.045 --> 00:51:57.695
30 of the same people with 30 of your friends before she met you.

00:51:57.704 --> 00:51:58.215
No, no, no.

00:51:58.224 --> 00:51:58.505
Okay.

00:51:58.505 --> 00:51:58.925
That's good.

00:51:58.954 --> 00:52:02.085
This was in the early days when you had to hook it up to like Facebook, right?

00:52:02.094 --> 00:52:03.815
And then you got to see, Oh, I don't know.

00:52:03.815 --> 00:52:04.994
I've been married for 20 years.

00:52:04.994 --> 00:52:06.985
I have swipe left or right.

00:52:06.994 --> 00:52:07.965
Yeah, exactly.

00:52:09.114 --> 00:52:10.034
No, that, that's what it was.

00:52:10.054 --> 00:52:12.965
So we just had 30 mutual friends that we knew through social media.

00:52:12.965 --> 00:52:16.065
So that was like a swipe right automatically or something.

00:52:16.164 --> 00:52:17.684
I mean, a little bit, right.

00:52:17.684 --> 00:52:18.574
I mean, for the first date.

00:52:19.860 --> 00:52:27.429
And then what was it, uh, about, uh, you that made her say yes to, did you ask her out for the second date or did she ask you?

00:52:27.550 --> 00:52:29.179
No, I, I, it was me.

00:52:29.210 --> 00:52:35.989
I've, uh, you know, uh, traditional gentlemen tried, tried to, tried to be, uh, I had a lot of convincing, you know, to, to go out on a date.

00:52:36.000 --> 00:52:36.329
Really?

00:52:36.329 --> 00:52:37.789
We'd been talking for a little while.

00:52:37.840 --> 00:52:38.130
Okay.

00:52:38.360 --> 00:52:39.394
You know, granted, she was, uh.

00:52:39.485 --> 00:52:43.375
Uh, she was in, uh, doing her master's degree in speech language pathology.

00:52:43.375 --> 00:52:44.324
So she was busy.

00:52:44.715 --> 00:52:46.105
Um, but it's hard, right?

00:52:46.105 --> 00:52:47.005
It's hard to meet people.

00:52:47.005 --> 00:52:49.364
And it's, you know, a lot of, some people don't like dating.

00:52:49.394 --> 00:52:52.724
Um, so that, that was definitely her, but we definitely hit it off.

00:52:52.755 --> 00:52:55.934
Cause she's, uh, she's from a small farming community in Nevada.

00:52:56.204 --> 00:52:56.445
Okay.

00:52:56.454 --> 00:52:59.525
Um, so she actually played volleyball at Santa Clara university.

00:52:59.795 --> 00:53:04.494
And that's where some of these connections came in as a gal that she played volleyball with their transferred to CSU.

00:53:05.094 --> 00:53:12.934
And so, so that was one of those connections, you know, that we had, we had, um, but ultimately, you know, she got her master's degree out here and that's, that's kind of how we met.

00:53:12.934 --> 00:53:15.655
So she had the, those same, you know, qualities, right?

00:53:15.655 --> 00:53:31.130
I mean, We, we match on just about everything, right, you know, from, from a political view, faith view, you know, like work ethic, all those sorts of things we, we grew up, you know, very similar, even though we were thousands and, you know, a miles away from each other, which is really cool.

00:53:31.139 --> 00:53:31.769
So we just said a lot.

00:53:31.789 --> 00:53:32.980
We're in, we're in Nevada.

00:53:33.545 --> 00:53:35.244
So it's a small town called Urington.

00:53:35.246 --> 00:53:35.405
Urington?

00:53:35.405 --> 00:53:36.875
Urington, Nevada.

00:53:36.894 --> 00:53:39.255
It is the onion capital of the world.

00:53:39.355 --> 00:53:39.864
Oh, really?

00:53:39.885 --> 00:53:45.778
Yeah, so they, uh, they actually grow, um, the most onions, uh, that you can think of.

00:53:45.778 --> 00:53:46.494
Thousands of acres.

00:53:46.505 --> 00:53:50.824
Well, but the headquarters of the Onion Foundation or something is in Greeley.

00:53:51.215 --> 00:53:51.565
Yes.

00:53:51.594 --> 00:53:53.284
Of the National Onion Association.

00:53:53.425 --> 00:53:53.704
Yep.

00:53:54.295 --> 00:53:54.315
Yeah.

00:53:54.315 --> 00:53:59.135
So when, when I would go out there and would talk with the family and everything like, Oh yeah, we know where Greeley is.

00:53:59.304 --> 00:54:00.545
There's a lot of produce made out there.

00:54:00.545 --> 00:54:00.655
Right.

00:54:00.655 --> 00:54:04.635
It's like, well, I mean, not as much as I see here, but that's where she's from.

00:54:04.684 --> 00:54:05.045
Okay.

00:54:05.094 --> 00:54:05.485
Yeah.

00:54:05.574 --> 00:54:09.034
I went through, uh, coming up to Winnemucca.

00:54:09.125 --> 00:54:09.425
Yep.

00:54:09.505 --> 00:54:15.864
Uh, is, uh, where I was given a warning for 115 miles an hour by a police officer one time.

00:54:16.405 --> 00:54:17.135
Just a warning?

00:54:17.144 --> 00:54:17.465
No.

00:54:17.465 --> 00:54:17.715
Yeah.

00:54:17.715 --> 00:54:18.695
He was pacing me.

00:54:18.704 --> 00:54:18.735
Okay.

00:54:19.114 --> 00:54:19.675
Oh my.

00:54:19.704 --> 00:54:23.554
And, and like, you know, I slowed down for a construction zone and I sped back up.

00:54:23.594 --> 00:54:23.974
Yeah.

00:54:24.125 --> 00:54:28.554
And then he just kind of stayed right there, but didn't turn his lights on or nothing.

00:54:28.565 --> 00:54:30.445
It was a semi unmarked kind of car.

00:54:30.534 --> 00:54:31.074
Interesting.

00:54:31.094 --> 00:54:36.565
And eventually, cause I would speed up to try to get away from this, cause I didn't know if it was a gangbanger or some shit, you know?

00:54:37.094 --> 00:54:38.405
And so eventually I had this car.

00:54:38.594 --> 00:54:41.554
Audi S6 that was boosted to like 24 pounds.

00:54:41.635 --> 00:54:42.184
Oh my.

00:54:42.255 --> 00:54:44.284
And I eventually I was like, okay, screw this guy.

00:54:44.704 --> 00:54:45.974
I'm just going to put him behind me.

00:54:47.034 --> 00:54:50.744
And I got up to like almost 120 miles an hour and his lights turned on.

00:54:50.934 --> 00:54:51.505
Really?

00:54:51.644 --> 00:54:53.034
And he just let you go with a warning.

00:54:53.054 --> 00:54:58.804
Well, I told him like, dude, you can't just be like hanging on somebody's bumper through like up by Winnemucca.

00:54:58.844 --> 00:54:59.414
Yeah, right.

00:54:59.414 --> 00:54:59.885
Exactly.

00:54:59.914 --> 00:55:02.644
I'm in the middle of nowhere and you're just like hanging on me.

00:55:02.644 --> 00:55:07.500
And there's no other cars in sight in either direction for a couple of Five miles?

00:55:07.590 --> 00:55:08.500
A long time.

00:55:08.800 --> 00:55:09.349
He was like, you know what?

00:55:09.380 --> 00:55:09.835
You're right.

00:55:10.215 --> 00:55:10.755
Really?

00:55:10.775 --> 00:55:11.184
Yeah.

00:55:11.364 --> 00:55:13.525
He's like, I'll keep that in mind for the future.

00:55:13.525 --> 00:55:16.568
And also he was, he was a big fan of the Audi S6.

00:55:16.568 --> 00:55:18.275
Oh, perfect.

00:55:18.275 --> 00:55:20.304
My wife was like, you're so crazy.

00:55:20.505 --> 00:55:22.425
How did you talk your Yeah, how did you get off?

00:55:22.425 --> 00:55:23.885
Super honoring, super nice.

00:55:23.885 --> 00:55:23.974
Yeah.

00:55:23.994 --> 00:55:24.594
That's perfect.

00:55:24.594 --> 00:55:26.875
Anyway, so I've only been through that region of the country.

00:55:27.010 --> 00:55:29.280
But that's kind of in that zone somewhere up along in there.

00:55:29.320 --> 00:55:31.039
So it's about 80 miles South of Reno.

00:55:31.079 --> 00:55:31.760
That makes sense.

00:55:31.780 --> 00:55:32.110
Yeah.

00:55:32.170 --> 00:55:32.440
Yep.

00:55:32.440 --> 00:55:33.510
In a, in a small Valley.

00:55:33.510 --> 00:55:38.829
So she, you know, there's actually enough water in that Valley to raise a bunch of onions and good irrigation systems and all that.

00:55:39.159 --> 00:55:39.309
Yeah.

00:55:39.309 --> 00:55:40.280
You'd be really surprised.

00:55:40.280 --> 00:55:46.869
I mean, uh, you know, learning of that region, there was a huge glacier that turned into an aquifer there, so they pump a lot of the money.

00:55:49.199 --> 00:55:56.179
It is money, but it is water as well, uh, out of the ground, but they get a lot of, uh, their irrigation water from the Sierra Nevadas.

00:55:56.269 --> 00:55:56.619
Oh, cool.

00:55:56.630 --> 00:55:56.860
Right.

00:55:56.860 --> 00:55:58.179
So the Carson river comes down.

00:55:58.179 --> 00:56:01.780
So when you get all that snow up in Tahoe, it actually floods her.

00:56:01.840 --> 00:56:03.559
It has flooded her town multiple times.

00:56:03.570 --> 00:56:03.960
Oh, wow.

00:56:04.199 --> 00:56:04.469
Interesting.

00:56:04.519 --> 00:56:04.769
Yeah.

00:56:04.769 --> 00:56:05.590
It melts too fast.

00:56:05.780 --> 00:56:07.400
It comes down the East side of that mountain.

00:56:07.719 --> 00:56:08.250
So, yeah.

00:56:08.250 --> 00:56:08.510
Okay.

00:56:08.639 --> 00:56:08.920
Yeah.

00:56:08.989 --> 00:56:19.215
Um, and, uh, so you guys, uh, Meet, start dating anything, uh, any interesting chapters along the way where you quick engagement.

00:56:19.965 --> 00:56:26.195
Well, so she would say that it was me that wanted to live with her within six months, but I think she asked me to live with her.

00:56:26.215 --> 00:56:26.644
I don't know.

00:56:26.644 --> 00:56:27.414
It's up for debate.

00:56:27.855 --> 00:56:28.934
But either way you were.

00:56:29.005 --> 00:56:31.005
Yeah, we moved in together right.

00:56:31.184 --> 00:56:32.855
Um, about six months into dating.

00:56:33.164 --> 00:56:38.664
Um, got our first house and, and Wellington, um, she had her first job up in Cheyenne as a speech language pathologist.

00:56:38.664 --> 00:56:38.934
Okay.

00:56:39.179 --> 00:56:42.269
Um, I was still commuting to, uh, to Loveland for, for work.

00:56:42.650 --> 00:56:49.880
Um, and then we all actually know another, um, one of my mentors is Reno Caesar, the founder of the egg and I, uh, and his daughter.

00:56:50.914 --> 00:56:51.175
name.

00:56:51.175 --> 00:56:52.105
I can't remember.

00:56:52.105 --> 00:56:54.405
I'm sorry if you're listening, uh, probably not.

00:56:54.764 --> 00:56:58.835
Uh, but she's a speech language pathologist and I, so I actually know what that job means.

00:56:58.835 --> 00:57:00.164
And it's really hard.

00:57:00.434 --> 00:57:00.844
It is.

00:57:00.864 --> 00:57:01.784
It's complex.

00:57:01.824 --> 00:57:02.565
It is complex.

00:57:02.565 --> 00:57:04.744
And she was in the skilled nursing facilities and.

00:57:05.025 --> 00:57:05.775
Just really tough.

00:57:05.795 --> 00:57:07.724
I mean, those people are, are saints, right?

00:57:07.724 --> 00:57:11.215
I mean, a lot of those individuals in there are unfortunately on their way out.

00:57:11.215 --> 00:57:11.545
Right.

00:57:11.574 --> 00:57:11.905
Right.

00:57:11.914 --> 00:57:13.025
You know, and they're mostly there.

00:57:13.065 --> 00:57:19.885
She's teaching somebody that has had a stroke, how to talk again so that they can have some level of communication before they die in a year or two.

00:57:19.885 --> 00:57:20.594
Yeah.

00:57:20.594 --> 00:57:24.275
So, you know, you gotta be a special person to be in those facilities.

00:57:24.304 --> 00:57:24.764
God bless her.

00:57:24.835 --> 00:57:25.655
Yeah, exactly.

00:57:25.974 --> 00:57:27.255
So, and then we, we moved to Eaton.

00:57:27.255 --> 00:57:28.514
She dabbles in real estate.

00:57:28.534 --> 00:57:32.204
Um, so she, she does that as well, but we, we moved to Eaton about six years ago.

00:57:32.264 --> 00:57:32.625
Okay.

00:57:33.304 --> 00:57:34.264
And how old did you say you were?

00:57:35.340 --> 00:57:36.719
He's two and a half, two and a half.

00:57:36.769 --> 00:57:36.889
Yeah.

00:57:36.889 --> 00:57:38.510
And his name is, is Theodore.

00:57:38.510 --> 00:57:39.719
We named him after my dad.

00:57:39.721 --> 00:57:41.139
Um, it's Theodore Scott.

00:57:41.139 --> 00:57:44.829
So it's my dad and her dad's name on one, but we call him Theo.

00:57:45.119 --> 00:57:46.409
And then is it Reed Baum?

00:57:46.469 --> 00:57:46.719
Yep.

00:57:47.230 --> 00:57:47.369
Okay.

00:57:47.449 --> 00:57:51.309
So backstory on that is Reed is my mom's maiden name and Baum is my dad.

00:57:51.309 --> 00:57:52.500
So they combined it.

00:57:52.500 --> 00:57:54.800
So there's only five Reed Baums in the world.

00:57:55.250 --> 00:57:55.369
Yeah.

00:57:55.440 --> 00:57:56.170
Very progressive.

00:57:56.320 --> 00:57:57.110
Yeah, exactly.

00:57:57.579 --> 00:58:04.789
Um, I'm a, I'm a bear and like at Wilbur's and you know, even Safeway and stuff.

00:58:04.789 --> 00:58:07.840
There's almost no other bears, but there's like a hundred thousand at least.

00:58:07.849 --> 00:58:08.179
Right.

00:58:08.230 --> 00:58:08.460
Really?

00:58:08.559 --> 00:58:09.750
There's not that many bombs.

00:58:09.860 --> 00:58:11.309
No, there aren't.

00:58:11.360 --> 00:58:12.030
Pretty unique.

00:58:12.519 --> 00:58:18.019
Um, and what would you say, um, are your favorite things about, uh, about your wife?

00:58:18.170 --> 00:58:21.150
No, Kayla, she is, yeah, she, she's fierce.

00:58:21.480 --> 00:58:22.320
I can tell you that.

00:58:22.550 --> 00:58:22.800
Yeah.

00:58:22.800 --> 00:58:23.730
She, she's fierce.

00:58:23.739 --> 00:58:24.829
She's very passionate.

00:58:25.135 --> 00:58:26.784
Um, you know, I love where her heart is.

00:58:26.784 --> 00:58:29.054
She, she wants to help people.

00:58:29.304 --> 00:58:31.364
Um, she's fiery, right?

00:58:31.394 --> 00:58:33.394
I mean, we, she's very competitive.

00:58:33.425 --> 00:58:35.855
You know, she was a college athlete, which, which I love.

00:58:36.244 --> 00:58:37.815
Um, so Were you also?

00:58:38.144 --> 00:58:39.085
I, I was not.

00:58:39.085 --> 00:58:43.864
I, I worked in college athletics, but I did not get that gene in the, my sister did though.

00:58:43.974 --> 00:58:44.335
Okay.

00:58:44.355 --> 00:58:45.594
She, she was the athlete.

00:58:45.594 --> 00:58:48.235
I, I had to use the brain to, to get somewhere.

00:58:48.434 --> 00:58:51.034
Oh, we should talk about Jessica a little bit before we leave family.

00:58:51.385 --> 00:58:58.505
Um, I remember her as just being like super sharp for such a young person, uh, and, and just aware in her field.

00:58:58.659 --> 00:58:59.690
Yeah, she, she definitely is.

00:58:59.750 --> 00:59:01.239
She works extremely hard.

00:59:01.239 --> 00:59:02.210
She works harder than me.

00:59:02.260 --> 00:59:05.179
Uh, graduated law school from, from CU, unfortunately.

00:59:05.239 --> 00:59:06.440
I mean, we don't like those.

00:59:06.469 --> 00:59:07.139
We boo.

00:59:07.920 --> 00:59:08.670
No, just kidding.

00:59:08.699 --> 00:59:11.369
And yeah, so she works in Denver as, as an attorney.

00:59:11.440 --> 00:59:12.719
Um, and same thing, right?

00:59:12.940 --> 00:59:20.329
Both of our parents were very involved in our education and it was important for us, uh, you know, to do well in school and, and to, uh, to learn.

00:59:20.329 --> 00:59:22.659
So she, she's, uh, very dynamic.

00:59:22.969 --> 00:59:26.719
One thing we always do is a one word description of the child or children.

00:59:26.721 --> 00:59:27.119
Okay.

00:59:27.119 --> 00:59:27.449
Okay.

00:59:27.664 --> 00:59:31.635
Um, do you have a one word description, and remind me your son's name again, I'm sorry.

00:59:31.644 --> 00:59:32.094
Theo.

00:59:32.164 --> 00:59:32.835
Theo, yes.

00:59:32.844 --> 00:59:33.885
Theodoro Scott.

00:59:34.105 --> 00:59:34.494
Yes.

00:59:34.974 --> 00:59:39.425
Um, one word, and you can expand after that, but if you're gonna do a focus word for him.

00:59:39.704 --> 00:59:40.755
Ah, man.

00:59:41.614 --> 00:59:53.619
I'd say, you know, for his young age, I would say something around, I know this is two words, but very caring, you know, he, he has a, a caring nature, empathy is good.

00:59:53.619 --> 00:59:54.224
Yeah.

00:59:54.224 --> 00:59:58.235
He has a very caring nature already that you can already see develop.

00:59:58.264 --> 00:59:58.534
Yeah.

00:59:58.534 --> 00:59:58.905
Yeah.

00:59:59.054 --> 01:00:00.034
You know, he'd be like that.

01:00:00.045 --> 01:00:01.175
Don't cry, mommy.

01:00:01.175 --> 01:00:01.545
Yeah.

01:00:01.545 --> 01:00:02.224
Or whatever.

01:00:02.534 --> 01:00:03.085
Exactly.

01:00:03.085 --> 01:00:03.264
Yeah.

01:00:03.264 --> 01:00:05.375
He's definitely got a caring nature already.

01:00:05.375 --> 01:00:05.485
Yeah.

01:00:05.494 --> 01:00:05.954
I love that.

01:00:06.514 --> 01:00:07.034
Definitely.

01:00:07.164 --> 01:00:07.855
Carry him well.

01:00:07.934 --> 01:00:08.275
Yeah.

01:00:08.315 --> 01:00:08.485
No.

01:00:08.485 --> 01:00:14.394
So, you know, you, you watch the shows like Buzz Lightyear and Toy Story, he falls off the ledge and he's like, Oh no.

01:00:14.405 --> 01:00:17.295
Oh, you know, he already can see, you know, and, and.

01:00:17.534 --> 01:00:20.054
Have empathy for those emotions and things that are going on.

01:00:20.054 --> 01:00:20.795
So it's pretty cool.

01:00:20.835 --> 01:00:22.215
Pretty significant thing at that age.

01:00:22.284 --> 01:00:22.864
Already.

01:00:23.465 --> 01:00:26.275
Um, politics is the third mandatory segment.

01:00:26.335 --> 01:00:26.755
Sure.

01:00:26.855 --> 01:00:31.545
Um, it's been interesting just the last few weeks here since Mr.

01:00:31.545 --> 01:00:32.724
Trump won the election.

01:00:32.835 --> 01:00:33.204
Very interesting.

01:00:33.215 --> 01:00:39.614
Um, what did you, I guess, first, what was your instincts leading up to the election?

01:00:40.885 --> 01:00:42.994
And, and what do you think about what's happened since?

01:00:43.644 --> 01:00:45.585
You know, it's, it's always interesting, right?

01:00:45.585 --> 01:00:48.434
I, I think elections are, are different.

01:00:48.474 --> 01:00:52.405
Um, you know, I wasn't truly aware like during Obama, right?

01:00:52.405 --> 01:00:59.864
I was, had just kind of graduated high school, didn't necessarily understand for both first term and second term, but now being out of college, right?

01:01:00.014 --> 01:01:04.744
You in the real world, you get to see the effects of, of decisions, right?

01:01:05.054 --> 01:01:10.815
Whether it's taxes or it's inflation or what regulations, what, whatever it is.

01:01:10.815 --> 01:01:20.545
So, um, that very first one with, with Hillary and Trump in 2016 was kind of my, my first one of, of, uh, I don't want to say caring, but being aware, right?

01:01:20.545 --> 01:01:23.255
And saying, okay, let's, let's follow this and see what happens.

01:01:23.284 --> 01:01:30.275
Um, me initially, I have looked at it and said, I'd like a business guy in office, right?

01:01:30.275 --> 01:01:39.190
And we can debate on, you know, Trump's business prowess or whatever it is, but, I just didn't necessarily want a quote unquote traditional politician.

01:01:39.210 --> 01:01:56.280
I felt like if you had somebody with some business knowledge to run the country, at the end of the day, the government should be serving us right as as the people, right, they should be, you know, hopefully making our life better, creating a better economy for us safer cities, whatever it is, right, that those are kind of my views.

01:01:56.280 --> 01:02:01.335
And I said, Well, if you're a business person, right, Your goal is to make your business better.

01:02:01.375 --> 01:02:05.965
I mean, you don't go into business saying, well, I want to lose money and not have a good business, right?

01:02:06.025 --> 01:02:06.815
You can't do that.

01:02:06.965 --> 01:02:07.315
Right.

01:02:07.375 --> 01:02:08.114
You fail.

01:02:08.114 --> 01:02:11.894
So I was just looking for something different, I think, in that aspect.

01:02:11.896 --> 01:02:14.074
So you, you came.

01:02:14.320 --> 01:02:17.679
Came up with Trump then probably a third time Trump voter now.

01:02:17.800 --> 01:02:18.869
Yeah, definitely.

01:02:18.880 --> 01:02:26.429
And, and, you know, again, don't agree with some of the stuff that that's happened in his life or some of the way that he goes about things.

01:02:26.429 --> 01:02:27.539
You weren't there on January 6th.

01:02:28.099 --> 01:02:28.610
I was not.

01:02:28.639 --> 01:02:29.280
You'd be in jail.

01:02:29.519 --> 01:02:29.869
Yeah.

01:02:30.719 --> 01:02:32.175
What I was just laughing at was.

01:02:32.175 --> 01:02:39.635
That was when Trump met with Trudeau or whatever, and they're, you know, all fretting out about this tariffs thing and stuff like that.

01:02:39.635 --> 01:02:46.434
And Trump's like, well, they've been screwing us for a hundred billion dollars every year, you know, over the last few years.

01:02:46.474 --> 01:02:51.355
And so if you're not a sustainable business the way you are, maybe you should just become a state.

01:02:51.815 --> 01:02:54.605
I came to you and I was like, oh man, that's.

01:02:55.699 --> 01:02:57.389
Yeah, you know, there's that unorthodox.

01:02:57.391 --> 01:03:00.230
Right, if you can't figure out how to make your country work, we'll take you in.

01:03:00.230 --> 01:03:00.829
We'll take you in.

01:03:00.849 --> 01:03:06.139
Mexico saved you, bitches! Yeah, and that, that's kind of that business side of things, right?

01:03:06.239 --> 01:03:07.639
Did he go about it the right way?

01:03:07.679 --> 01:03:09.360
I don't, probably not, right?

01:03:09.440 --> 01:03:10.150
He planted the seed.

01:03:10.179 --> 01:03:17.855
That's, that's, you know, kind of out there, but yeah, I mean that's But it shows you how he's looking at The whole damn country has a big old business.

01:03:17.905 --> 01:03:18.264
Yeah.

01:03:18.264 --> 01:03:21.675
And you know, obviously we, we want to be better as a country.

01:03:21.675 --> 01:03:22.925
I obviously love America.

01:03:22.925 --> 01:03:23.605
I love Colorado.

01:03:23.605 --> 01:03:25.994
I want the best for, for us, whatever that looks like.

01:03:26.184 --> 01:03:31.474
So, so did you, it sounds like you were kind of almost politically ignorant.

01:03:31.784 --> 01:03:45.175
Like for me, I was like in my sophomore year of high school, I got three study holes on Tuesday, Thursday, because I quit chorus and I also had three So I consumed every Wall Street Journal, every U.

01:03:45.264 --> 01:03:45.344
S.

01:03:45.344 --> 01:03:55.385
News and World Report, every Wall Street ER, every New York Post, you know, just all these, and popular science, popular mechanics, like I've just been an information sponge forever.

01:03:55.465 --> 01:03:55.885
Awesome.

01:03:56.054 --> 01:04:07.324
Um, and then when I, I kind of developed my own philosophies and then when I learned about, uh, Ron Paul, The senior or Ron Paul, I guess, right.

01:04:07.355 --> 01:04:09.454
I was like, Oh yeah, that what he's saying.

01:04:09.554 --> 01:04:09.925
Right.

01:04:10.005 --> 01:04:14.525
So for me, that was like, it was kind of like this kind of conservative libertarian.

01:04:14.625 --> 01:04:14.965
Yeah.

01:04:15.065 --> 01:04:17.114
Before I knew really what that meant.

01:04:17.405 --> 01:04:17.644
Yeah.

01:04:17.644 --> 01:04:18.755
And it's the same thing, right?

01:04:18.755 --> 01:04:30.715
I mean, when you grow up in a farming community or on a farm, right, you're about efficiency, you're, you're about your, your farm, you're about stewardship of the land, taking care of the community, all that sort of stuff.

01:04:30.715 --> 01:04:33.275
So I think naturally growing up.

01:04:33.445 --> 01:04:43.815
It was more on the conservative side of things, uh, not to, to say that I don't have, you know, some of the, the liberal, you know, Democrat sort of things like, you know, cause you also want to get married.

01:04:43.824 --> 01:04:44.684
Yeah, exactly.

01:04:45.494 --> 01:04:45.744
Right.

01:04:45.744 --> 01:04:47.545
But you know, you want to help people as well.

01:04:47.724 --> 01:04:49.625
So how can you balance that in capitalism?

01:04:49.625 --> 01:04:49.844
Right.

01:04:49.855 --> 01:04:52.644
You do have people that have unfortunate circumstances.

01:04:52.646 --> 01:04:55.514
So the whole conservative side of, well, you need to figure it out.

01:04:55.545 --> 01:04:55.934
Okay.

01:04:55.934 --> 01:04:56.675
I get that.

01:04:56.675 --> 01:04:59.175
But how can we also help them and raise them up?

01:04:59.485 --> 01:05:00.295
So how can you have both?

01:05:00.335 --> 01:05:01.675
I'm probably in the middle, right?

01:05:01.675 --> 01:05:01.815
Yeah.

01:05:01.815 --> 01:05:02.945
You know, I'm, I'm more.

01:05:03.039 --> 01:05:07.320
probably the independent, but we've got, you know, two systems in America right now.

01:05:07.320 --> 01:05:17.929
So what do you think about the way that election shaped up with the, uh, what's the line I've been using the, uh, the vegetable made way for the plant, uh, without a vote to save democracy?

01:05:19.885 --> 01:05:20.885
It's interesting, right?

01:05:20.885 --> 01:05:29.144
I, you know, may not know the, the whole story or what it is, but yeah, again, that, uh, that wasn't democracy working, uh, by, by any means.

01:05:29.144 --> 01:05:34.635
I mean, you should be voted in, um, into these positions so that, that, at least at the convention, right?

01:05:34.684 --> 01:05:35.764
Like, I couldn't believe that they.

01:05:35.934 --> 01:05:38.715
Chris and Kamala as the candidate before the convention.

01:05:38.954 --> 01:05:42.735
Yeah, I mean, but again, some, some people don't look at it that way.

01:05:42.864 --> 01:05:46.184
And it's like, okay, um, that's, that's not how we were formed.

01:05:46.235 --> 01:05:49.304
Um, but if that's what you want, it can get pretty dangerous.

01:05:49.324 --> 01:05:53.605
What do you think about what's going on in Russia, Ukraine right now?

01:05:53.784 --> 01:05:54.135
Yeah.

01:05:54.144 --> 01:05:56.695
Syria is back in the hot seat.

01:05:56.755 --> 01:05:57.065
Yeah.

01:05:57.074 --> 01:06:00.420
Israel is tentative ceasefire here.

01:06:01.309 --> 01:06:04.900
I mean, what do you think about our role, I guess, that America's role in global politics?

01:06:04.969 --> 01:06:08.090
You know, I, we are the most powerful country in the world.

01:06:08.150 --> 01:06:15.949
I don't know where we sit now or, or in the past, but, um, you know, I don't think we should necessarily have to support all of these countries, right?

01:06:15.949 --> 01:06:17.670
Or is it our battle necessarily?

01:06:17.679 --> 01:06:20.840
No, but again, it's how do we help people, right?

01:06:21.099 --> 01:06:25.539
How do we, how do we, you know, have a better place to live for everybody in the world.

01:06:25.579 --> 01:06:30.250
Um, so, you know, you can get down a pretty dark rabbit hole with some of those things.

01:06:30.289 --> 01:06:32.329
I don't want to say that we shouldn't be a player.

01:06:32.710 --> 01:06:33.639
It's kind of hard, right?

01:06:33.639 --> 01:06:38.079
If you want to be a leader in the world, sometimes you're going to have to be involved in those things.

01:06:38.460 --> 01:06:44.949
Um, and of course, um, you can say, Hey, we've, we've got a lot of these defense contractors that want these things, right.

01:06:45.420 --> 01:06:50.250
You know, that want these wars, um, which I would hate to say that, uh, but it could be true.

01:06:50.610 --> 01:06:53.219
On the other side of it, it's like, no, we, we don't need this, right?

01:06:53.219 --> 01:06:58.480
The last thing we need to be is, is adversarial to each other and life's hard enough already, you know?

01:06:58.550 --> 01:07:02.550
I have a podcast recommendation is, uh, Mike Benz on Joe Rogan recently.

01:07:02.599 --> 01:07:02.920
Okay.

01:07:02.940 --> 01:07:04.079
Do you know who Mike Benz is?

01:07:04.079 --> 01:07:04.369
No.

01:07:04.809 --> 01:07:14.139
He was, he's kind of been studying the digital, uh, industrial complex and the censorship complex.

01:07:14.429 --> 01:07:18.650
And ultimately, like the stories he told Rogan about how.

01:07:20.144 --> 01:07:45.349
The, the basically digital warfare that brought the Orange Revolution y thing into Ukraine, but was ultimately rejected by Eastern Ukraine, and, you know, it's kind of the notion of trying to take countries by overtaking their, their, their mind through media, through propaganda, through different things, and that's, um, the deep, you know, Uh, roots of that Ukraine thing.

01:07:45.829 --> 01:07:50.769
And then Eastern Ukraine was like, you guys got manipulated, screw off.

01:07:51.090 --> 01:07:55.789
We got all the energy and all the water and access to the sea, right?

01:07:55.800 --> 01:07:56.550
So bite us.

01:07:56.579 --> 01:07:59.349
And the Eastern Ukraine was like, no, you bite us.

01:07:59.360 --> 01:08:02.500
We're going to go beat you guys up a little while, you know, interesting.

01:08:02.510 --> 01:08:02.719
Yeah.

01:08:02.719 --> 01:08:04.719
That was Russia claimed.

01:08:04.719 --> 01:08:13.579
And I think there's some justification that Eastern Ukraine was being abused by what Western Ukraine because of their.

01:08:14.105 --> 01:08:19.524
desire to more fully align with Russian principles than interesting West.

01:08:20.454 --> 01:08:21.965
Okay, yeah, I'll have to take a look at that.

01:08:22.005 --> 01:08:24.774
Yeah, it's pretty Yeah, that podcast is it blew your mind.

01:08:24.775 --> 01:08:43.680
Yeah, I've done that is the hard thing about all this is you don't know what what's true and you're trying to decipher through things and, and what is propaganda and what's not and what's true and what's not it's very difficult and it's it's kind of sad but and you're trying to run a damn business I just want to Sell some sighting, hire some people, help people out and do these things.

01:08:43.680 --> 01:08:56.220
But yeah, I have a good regulation, but even in terms of a local politics, like you guys would probably rather have been in Loveland or Fort Collins probably than, uh, than went to LaSalle for your factory.

01:08:56.270 --> 01:08:56.699
We did.

01:08:56.699 --> 01:09:02.390
And, you know, in full disclosure, we, we tried to work with Larimer County and the regulations were, were just crazy.

01:09:02.545 --> 01:09:02.864
Right.

01:09:02.864 --> 01:09:08.675
It's, you know, you had to have, you had to already right up front, give 250, 000 for road maintenance fees.

01:09:09.095 --> 01:09:09.385
Right.

01:09:09.564 --> 01:09:10.895
You had to do all of these things.

01:09:10.895 --> 01:09:13.694
And it's like, well, why am I having to do that as a business owner?

01:09:14.095 --> 01:09:14.345
Right?

01:09:14.345 --> 01:09:17.795
Why is it my responsibility to keep things looking nice around here?

01:09:17.795 --> 01:09:23.024
So, I mean, ultimately we did, we moved to well County, we moved our family, we moved our entire business over there.

01:09:23.364 --> 01:09:26.725
Um, not that Larimer County cares, but at some point, Right?

01:09:26.725 --> 01:09:29.935
You, you have these, this exodus of businesses, right?

01:09:29.935 --> 01:09:33.015
How much more do you think it would have cost you to have your business in Limerick County?

01:09:33.135 --> 01:09:35.104
Oh, I mean, it'd be, at this point, it'd be millions.

01:09:35.625 --> 01:09:35.984
Really?

01:09:36.135 --> 01:09:37.914
I mean, millions of dollars from, you know.

01:09:37.925 --> 01:09:40.024
Just from the start, plus also extra.

01:09:40.074 --> 01:09:40.725
Taxes.

01:09:40.734 --> 01:09:43.175
You know, right off the top, they wanted a quarter of a million dollars.

01:09:43.215 --> 01:09:44.715
That was, that was year one.

01:09:44.755 --> 01:09:45.104
Right.

01:09:45.104 --> 01:09:45.335
Right?

01:09:45.335 --> 01:09:47.305
And then what are the taxes going to be over there?

01:09:47.314 --> 01:09:47.435
Right.

01:09:47.444 --> 01:09:49.005
What, you know, all that sort of stuff.

01:09:49.045 --> 01:09:51.425
Um, I, I would say, yeah, easily in the millions.

01:09:51.435 --> 01:09:51.814
Wow.

01:09:52.274 --> 01:09:52.484
You know?

01:09:52.484 --> 01:09:57.755
And so that's, that's something that's like, okay, me as a business owner, personal property taxes, way higher in Larimer County as well.

01:09:57.755 --> 01:10:00.574
So all those machines and stuff that bend the steel for y'all.

01:10:00.625 --> 01:10:01.515
Right, exactly.

01:10:01.524 --> 01:10:06.244
You know, that, that's money that can go to employees that can go to us expanding the business, whatever it is.

01:10:06.244 --> 01:10:09.555
So, I mean, those are the decisions that business owners have to make.

01:10:09.685 --> 01:10:09.875
Yeah.

01:10:09.875 --> 01:10:13.435
But those taxes help to pay for advantages, opportunities for other people.

01:10:13.475 --> 01:10:14.255
It is true.

01:10:14.255 --> 01:10:15.074
It's a balance, right?

01:10:15.095 --> 01:10:15.685
It's true.

01:10:15.685 --> 01:10:15.885
Yeah.

01:10:15.885 --> 01:10:16.984
There, there is the balance.

01:10:16.984 --> 01:10:17.784
You're exactly right.

01:10:18.305 --> 01:10:20.164
Um, anything else that's for you?

01:10:20.166 --> 01:10:20.234
Nope.

01:10:20.484 --> 01:10:23.984
Like a political hot button or, you know, something we should do.

01:10:24.175 --> 01:10:35.095
Oh, and we didn't talk about the, to me, like Cash Patel and Hegseth and some of these really disruptive nominations are, are really fascinating.

01:10:35.095 --> 01:10:36.364
And I think, I don't know.

01:10:36.614 --> 01:10:37.914
It is very fascinating.

01:10:37.914 --> 01:10:41.585
I, you know, I think unfortunately the government is not built to run efficiently.

01:10:41.585 --> 01:10:41.795
Right.

01:10:41.845 --> 01:10:49.185
I, you know, if we take the example, Yeah, yeah, Doge, if we take the example of Argentina, I don't know the guy's name down there, but you know, Javier Mele.

01:10:49.234 --> 01:10:50.545
Yeah, he's my hero right now.

01:10:50.555 --> 01:10:53.925
Yeah, he's cutting a lot of stuff and trying to be more efficient.

01:10:53.925 --> 01:10:59.595
They're saying eight and a half percent increase in GDP, you know, for the economy is, is that why it's working?

01:10:59.625 --> 01:11:00.255
I don't know.

01:11:00.255 --> 01:11:05.680
And inflation is down from like freaking, you know, 25 percent monthly done almost nothing, right?

01:11:05.689 --> 01:11:10.170
You know that and that's what they're saying is it's it is Government spending that causes inflation.

01:11:10.319 --> 01:11:15.630
I'm not an economist I don't exactly know but you know, you can see these charts and say, okay Well something needs to change here.

01:11:15.630 --> 01:11:19.640
But again it being more efficient should make us a better country, right?

01:11:19.989 --> 01:11:23.399
Well in printing money is what allows us to make war.

01:11:23.520 --> 01:11:27.420
Yeah, because we don't have to actually pay for it Yeah, make our grandchildren pay for it instead.

01:11:27.779 --> 01:11:31.880
Yeah, it's very interesting to see what what's gonna happen, right?

01:11:31.880 --> 01:11:41.539
You know because at the end of the day you can sit here and say well, yeah, we have all this debt out but Come and come and get it right and then at that point it's it's just militaries, right?

01:11:41.619 --> 01:11:41.979
Right.

01:11:42.000 --> 01:11:44.609
It's just whoever's got bigger military, right?

01:11:44.630 --> 01:11:46.220
But then you lose your dollar status.

01:11:46.279 --> 01:11:59.750
Yeah, which is why bricks is a big thing and Trump's like yeah you bricks motherfuckers I'll tell you what Yeah, so it is interesting Well, see what you can buy with it cuz you're not gonna sell nothing to us Right.

01:11:59.810 --> 01:12:00.039
Yeah.

01:12:00.039 --> 01:12:02.539
And we're the biggest consuming, you know, nation in the world.

01:12:02.539 --> 01:12:04.310
So that, that has a lot of power to it as well.

01:12:05.039 --> 01:12:06.189
What an interesting time.

01:12:06.430 --> 01:12:12.640
It's a, it's kind of a Mexican standoff a little bit right now in the kind of power infrastructure, but we're still the big swinging dick.

01:12:12.859 --> 01:12:14.550
Well, you know, we got to stop acting like it.

01:12:14.609 --> 01:12:14.909
Yeah.

01:12:14.909 --> 01:12:17.119
And at some point you, you have to have efficiencies.

01:12:17.130 --> 01:12:19.310
You have to create a better place.

01:12:19.460 --> 01:12:20.220
Sorry for my language.

01:12:20.229 --> 01:12:21.590
So you're blushing a little bit right now.

01:12:22.670 --> 01:12:23.350
It's all good.

01:12:23.350 --> 01:12:24.609
I, I get it now.

01:12:24.619 --> 01:12:26.789
And, and, you know, it, I think he's playing chess.

01:12:26.859 --> 01:12:31.270
You know, I do think it's like, Hey, if you guys don't come to the table and talk about this, well guess what's gonna happen.

01:12:31.329 --> 01:12:31.510
Yep.

01:12:31.689 --> 01:12:33.310
Is this what you wanna do to your country?

01:12:33.760 --> 01:12:34.689
that'll be your decision.

01:12:34.689 --> 01:12:38.850
If you, if you want these 25% tariffs, you're not gonna send lumber to us.

01:12:38.880 --> 01:12:40.020
'cause who are you selling lumber to?

01:12:40.140 --> 01:12:40.350
Right.

01:12:40.350 --> 01:12:42.180
Who else in the world builds like we do?

01:12:42.300 --> 01:12:42.600
Right.

01:12:42.689 --> 01:12:43.140
Nobody?

01:12:43.409 --> 01:12:45.750
Well, if you want to kill your economy, go ahead, Right, right.

01:12:46.229 --> 01:12:47.909
I think it's, it's more of a chess piece.

01:12:47.909 --> 01:12:47.970
Yeah.

01:12:47.970 --> 01:12:51.840
Do I think it would actually happen and, and he hurt American businesses?

01:12:52.079 --> 01:12:53.069
I would hope not.

01:12:53.609 --> 01:12:53.909
Right?

01:12:53.920 --> 01:12:54.850
But he's got it.

01:12:54.859 --> 01:12:57.779
He's trying to Well, there will be some inflationary pressure from that.

01:12:57.779 --> 01:13:01.739
But also, there is likely to be a lot of increase in domestic production.

01:13:01.949 --> 01:13:02.199
Yeah.

01:13:02.239 --> 01:13:05.670
Like, I bought, I've, honestly, I bought all the cheap Chinese shit I want to buy.

01:13:06.300 --> 01:13:07.279
I don't need any more.

01:13:07.579 --> 01:13:08.229
Yeah, right.

01:13:08.229 --> 01:13:10.960
You know, I'll buy Korea's stuff or something if they figure out their stuff.

01:13:11.260 --> 01:13:12.649
Did you look at that, by the way?

01:13:12.869 --> 01:13:13.310
No.

01:13:13.479 --> 01:13:14.863
Oh, the, the whole martial law?

01:13:14.863 --> 01:13:15.380
The South Korea thing?

01:13:15.390 --> 01:13:16.579
Yeah, yeah, that was fascinating.

01:13:16.579 --> 01:13:17.260
It's just weird.

01:13:17.260 --> 01:13:21.109
It feels like the world is just turned upside down right now, and, and I'd like to see it.

01:13:21.109 --> 01:13:22.529
And mentally fragile.

01:13:22.824 --> 01:13:24.694
Yeah, like at a level.

01:13:24.954 --> 01:13:32.095
I don't think we've seen in the world since ever well You know and and you have social media and you have all this stuff You're seeing all these events now, you know what I mean?

01:13:32.095 --> 01:13:36.380
Not not to say that everybody was blind before but That's all the news is, right?

01:13:36.390 --> 01:13:37.529
It's fear sells.

01:13:37.590 --> 01:13:38.060
Right.

01:13:38.079 --> 01:13:41.220
It used to be, you know, Oh, Hitler's doing this or whatever.

01:13:41.220 --> 01:13:45.779
But now you can read a thousand stories a day about how Hitler wipes his butt.

01:13:45.810 --> 01:13:47.489
Yeah, and what's going on.

01:13:47.489 --> 01:13:48.159
Yeah.

01:13:48.159 --> 01:13:49.069
Yeah, it'll be interesting.

01:13:49.069 --> 01:13:51.710
I mean, I'd love to have more manufacturing in the United States.

01:13:51.899 --> 01:13:54.289
Are things going to be higher in cost?

01:13:54.369 --> 01:13:56.335
They might be, but I don't know what to expect.

01:13:56.335 --> 01:14:03.965
Tariffs look like, and I don't know what all of that stuff looks like, but, you know, create a better USA, you know, create jobs for, for people if, if we can.

01:14:04.024 --> 01:14:06.925
Well, I think that should be the, the job of the government in every country.

01:14:06.954 --> 01:14:07.295
Sure.

01:14:07.364 --> 01:14:09.324
Is to make their country better.

01:14:09.385 --> 01:14:09.734
Sure.

01:14:09.975 --> 01:14:10.194
Yeah.

01:14:10.204 --> 01:14:12.534
You know, and that doesn't mean they have to make other countries worse.

01:14:12.545 --> 01:14:14.095
It's not a zero sum game.

01:14:14.284 --> 01:14:14.324
Right.

01:14:14.324 --> 01:14:15.064
You would hope so, yeah.

01:14:15.114 --> 01:14:16.614
what people have to realize is that.

01:14:17.020 --> 01:14:19.439
If everybody can be stronger, everybody will be stronger.

01:14:19.460 --> 01:14:19.710
Yeah.

01:14:19.710 --> 01:14:21.380
You know, we need to have a strong middle class.

01:14:21.380 --> 01:14:23.899
I mean, I, I employ 12 guys in manufacturing, right?

01:14:23.899 --> 01:14:25.199
They say, Oh, well, it's not going to happen.

01:14:25.199 --> 01:14:27.060
Cause you know, we have robots in the Senate.

01:14:27.130 --> 01:14:27.439
Yeah.

01:14:27.439 --> 01:14:28.760
Robots are great, but.

01:14:29.100 --> 01:14:36.289
You still have to have the, the mind and, and, you know, the intricacies of a human being able to look at things and do things.

01:14:36.289 --> 01:14:39.149
Will there be robots doing stuff for you in the not too distant future?

01:14:39.210 --> 01:14:43.899
I mean, if, if Optimus, you know, with, with what Musk has, if he really comes out.

01:14:43.899 --> 01:14:45.420
It has to be kind of a humanoid robot almost.

01:14:45.574 --> 01:14:54.335
Yeah, you know, I mean, there are applications where that can work, but I think there's also applications too, to where, you know, you can, you can still have humans, you know, doing manufacturing.

01:14:54.395 --> 01:14:58.225
Um, I think another great example is John Deere wants to take all of their stuff to Mexico.

01:14:58.654 --> 01:14:59.744
Trump says, I wouldn't do that.

01:15:00.324 --> 01:15:02.225
Cause now there's going to be tariffs coming in.

01:15:02.244 --> 01:15:05.484
So keep, keep the stuff here, build factories, all that sort of stuff.

01:15:05.765 --> 01:15:09.454
I know at some point, yeah, that'll go away, but let's figure it out in the meantime.

01:15:09.465 --> 01:15:09.635
Yeah.

01:15:10.005 --> 01:15:10.404
Fair enough.

01:15:10.444 --> 01:15:10.755
Yeah.

01:15:10.824 --> 01:15:14.564
Is there any, uh, political hot topics that you would like to, to address?

01:15:15.324 --> 01:15:16.145
I mean, not really.

01:15:16.145 --> 01:15:18.435
I think, you know, we've kind of talked about it.

01:15:18.444 --> 01:15:22.244
At the end of the day, it's, I would just like people to work with each other.

01:15:22.935 --> 01:15:27.744
You told me you just wanted to drink water, but I forgot to offer you a joint, uh, or a mushroom.

01:15:27.744 --> 01:15:28.984
Do you think that's been good for Colorado?

01:15:29.125 --> 01:15:29.784
With your dinosaur?

01:15:30.045 --> 01:15:31.734
Well, you know, it's, it's one of those things.

01:15:31.814 --> 01:15:33.164
Where is the money actually going?

01:15:33.175 --> 01:15:34.585
Is it actually going to schools?

01:15:34.585 --> 01:15:35.284
I don't know.

01:15:35.295 --> 01:15:37.814
If it is, it seems like it's not doing a great job of making them better.

01:15:37.854 --> 01:15:49.635
Yeah, I mean, my mom has worked in the school district for almost 20 years, and it certainly doesn't seem like teachers are getting paid more, doesn't seem like schools are any better, but again, I am pretty ignorant to it.

01:15:49.645 --> 01:15:50.694
I, I don't know.

01:15:51.104 --> 01:15:52.885
I mean, is that money going there or not?

01:15:52.944 --> 01:15:53.925
Yeah, I don't know.

01:15:53.994 --> 01:15:55.265
Yeah, I, I don't know either.

01:15:55.555 --> 01:15:55.805
I would hope so.

01:15:55.954 --> 01:15:56.484
That's my bad.

01:15:56.494 --> 01:15:59.975
That's something usually I offer before we get started, but it seems unlikely that you would.

01:16:00.064 --> 01:16:01.795
With the Frisbee and the plants.

01:16:01.895 --> 01:16:05.335
Yeah, it's, you know, try to make all of our guests, uh, whatever their desires.

01:16:05.335 --> 01:16:05.895
That's cool.

01:16:05.965 --> 01:16:08.194
Well, we've got red wine, bourbon, and tequila.

01:16:08.404 --> 01:16:09.664
Perfect! And beer.

01:16:09.845 --> 01:16:10.774
And beer, get the gamut.

01:16:10.774 --> 01:16:11.255
And water.

01:16:11.414 --> 01:16:11.784
Perfect.

01:16:11.835 --> 01:16:12.335
And tea.

01:16:12.914 --> 01:16:17.005
Um, I feel like we might as well hit on the, uh, loco experience.

01:16:17.085 --> 01:16:17.404
Sure.

01:16:17.725 --> 01:16:21.574
So this is the craziest experience of your lifetime that you're willing to share.

01:16:21.925 --> 01:16:22.215
Yes.

01:16:22.225 --> 01:16:26.194
Knowing that your father and your mother and your wife are all going to listen to this show.

01:16:26.904 --> 01:16:27.744
No, it's perfect.

01:16:27.814 --> 01:16:28.814
It's, this is great.

01:16:28.814 --> 01:16:30.005
I, I love what you do.

01:16:30.005 --> 01:16:35.335
I love how you're connecting, you know, the business community and, and talking with people and, and getting their stories out there.

01:16:35.335 --> 01:16:36.064
I think it's awesome.

01:16:36.444 --> 01:16:37.154
Well, thanks for that.

01:16:37.154 --> 01:16:42.005
But also this is, so this is for you, your craziest experience of your lifetime.

01:16:42.015 --> 01:16:44.154
So that's the loco experience.

01:16:44.154 --> 01:16:44.595
Yeah.

01:16:44.744 --> 01:16:45.475
Oh man.

01:16:45.614 --> 01:16:47.675
Not just, not your involvement with loco think tank.

01:16:47.676 --> 01:16:48.244
Gotcha.

01:16:48.614 --> 01:16:49.465
I'm trying to think.

01:16:49.625 --> 01:16:50.345
Any near deaths?

01:16:50.345 --> 01:16:54.215
Uh, almost got married to the wrong girl?

01:16:55.984 --> 01:16:57.314
None, none of those.

01:16:57.335 --> 01:16:58.295
Got lost hiking?

01:16:58.305 --> 01:16:59.104
Had to spend the night?

01:16:59.845 --> 01:17:00.444
Pine tree?

01:17:00.465 --> 01:17:01.164
I'm boring.

01:17:01.744 --> 01:17:04.555
I'm, I, you know, I've been too good of a kid to my parents.

01:17:04.564 --> 01:17:07.564
You know, pretty straight laced since, since the beginning.

01:17:07.614 --> 01:17:10.154
Are you going to have a, uh, early midlife crisis or something?

01:17:10.694 --> 01:17:11.805
I, I hope not.

01:17:12.135 --> 01:17:14.435
I, I hope like fast cars or anything like that?

01:17:14.494 --> 01:17:17.234
I, I like, I like driving tractors.

01:17:17.234 --> 01:17:19.864
No, I'm not, not really a speed demon.

01:17:19.944 --> 01:17:28.225
Um, I, I think the overall I think crazy experience is, is I guess the business in general, well, especially picking it up with.

01:17:28.654 --> 01:17:29.654
Basically no revenues.

01:17:29.654 --> 01:17:33.404
I really didn't realize that honestly, when we got to know each other.

01:17:33.454 --> 01:17:33.715
Yeah.

01:17:33.715 --> 01:17:42.654
I mean, I guess so I, as you know, the craziest experience was, you know, going into a bank, um, you know, not, um, kind of a snot nose kid, right.

01:17:42.975 --> 01:17:57.484
Uh, presenting a business idea and asking for, you know, a couple million dollar loan to, to see if there's the business works, I'd say, you know, that that's been, you know, a single event, but what was the business before that, like how many revenues was it in the previous phase?

01:17:57.810 --> 01:18:00.500
Yeah, I mean it was next to nothing.

01:18:01.140 --> 01:18:01.479
Really?

01:18:01.560 --> 01:18:08.310
I mean it was maybe ten twenty thousand dollars, you know, cuz He we just had a website that was sitting there.

01:18:08.310 --> 01:18:09.229
We weren't working on it.

01:18:09.250 --> 01:18:11.800
We're doing anything You had to borrow a million dollars.

01:18:12.100 --> 01:18:13.819
Oh, so that was later.

01:18:13.829 --> 01:18:22.170
That was later Yeah, I mean at that point we probably had revenues of you know, four to five million in sales, you know So still the bottom line was much less.

01:18:22.199 --> 01:18:26.895
Yeah borrowing of people A few years or several years worth of profits, probably.

01:18:26.904 --> 01:18:27.185
Yeah.

01:18:27.185 --> 01:18:29.835
And there wasn't a long financial history either.

01:18:29.854 --> 01:18:30.324
Right.

01:18:30.345 --> 01:18:31.694
And we got it off the ground guys.

01:18:31.694 --> 01:18:32.555
Can we borrow 2 million?

01:18:32.784 --> 01:18:33.854
Yeah, exactly.

01:18:33.854 --> 01:18:35.914
And that I'd say that was probably the most.

01:18:36.274 --> 01:18:41.305
Singular kind of crazy event that I've had that I can think of right now because I'm pretty boring.

01:18:41.314 --> 01:18:48.734
Otherwise Well, I I almost I almost went And worked for the Miami Dolphins.

01:18:48.734 --> 01:18:49.635
I can't say that.

01:18:49.664 --> 01:18:50.074
All right.

01:18:50.435 --> 01:18:50.914
Tell me about that.

01:18:50.914 --> 01:18:58.564
I was in athletics I was in recruiting at CSU when Jim McElwain was football coach and one of the guys there His name is Drew Hill.

01:18:58.574 --> 01:19:00.654
He's now the Director of Player Personnel at Oklahoma.

01:19:00.914 --> 01:19:03.194
Got me an opportunity to actually interview with the Dolphins.

01:19:03.454 --> 01:19:04.515
That's what I thought I wanted to do.

01:19:04.515 --> 01:19:05.704
I thought I wanted to be a scout.

01:19:06.064 --> 01:19:07.314
And to do those things.

01:19:08.164 --> 01:19:09.435
And I just bombed it.

01:19:09.685 --> 01:19:11.694
Just bombed the interview completely.

01:19:12.314 --> 01:19:13.145
All the way down to Miami?

01:19:13.784 --> 01:19:16.135
It was just divine intervention, right?

01:19:16.135 --> 01:19:23.984
At that time it was kind of a crossroads of Do I stick with the family business and keep doing what I'm doing, or do I go on a different path?

01:19:23.984 --> 01:19:26.324
If you've got that job, none of this would have happened probably.

01:19:26.345 --> 01:19:26.814
Exactly.

01:19:26.814 --> 01:19:28.555
I wouldn't be in Colorado.

01:19:28.654 --> 01:19:30.154
I wouldn't be sitting in front of you, right?

01:19:30.154 --> 01:19:32.104
All that stuff, uh, happens for a reason.

01:19:32.104 --> 01:19:34.704
So I just had, uh, my first time in Miami.

01:19:34.704 --> 01:19:39.645
We, we had an overnight layover on the way back from this vacation and hung out and went to the South Beach.

01:19:39.685 --> 01:19:40.984
I was gonna say he's good at South Beach.

01:19:41.064 --> 01:19:41.364
We did.

01:19:42.055 --> 01:19:47.824
We went to the Havana something, something Havana Anejo restaurant that was really outstanding.

01:19:47.925 --> 01:19:48.265
Okay.

01:19:48.305 --> 01:19:51.925
They've got like 11, 000 reviews, this little hotel restaurant.

01:19:51.994 --> 01:19:52.534
Yeah.

01:19:53.045 --> 01:19:53.244
At 4.

01:19:53.244 --> 01:19:53.935
9.

01:19:54.375 --> 01:19:55.335
How do you do that?

01:19:55.395 --> 01:19:56.604
11, 000?

01:19:56.645 --> 01:20:01.435
Well, because they hand everybody a little card and say, My name is Julian Aram, would you please leave a review?

01:20:01.694 --> 01:20:03.314
Is this your review for Google?

01:20:03.364 --> 01:20:05.005
This is review for That's perfect.

01:20:05.005 --> 01:20:05.244
Yeah.

01:20:05.744 --> 01:20:06.595
I love Cubans.

01:20:07.034 --> 01:20:10.244
Like, they're so much different than Mexicans.

01:20:10.255 --> 01:20:12.164
Even though I love Mexicans too, but Right.

01:20:13.265 --> 01:20:18.784
It's just such an interesting, distinctive, cultural difference between the Have you traveled internationally at all?

01:20:18.944 --> 01:20:19.725
No, I haven't.

01:20:19.765 --> 01:20:22.574
Well, does Mexico and Canada Do they count?

01:20:22.685 --> 01:20:25.935
Mexico counts a little bit, especially if, like, you have to get off the resort, though.

01:20:25.965 --> 01:20:27.125
Oh, yeah, then that hasn't happened.

01:20:29.225 --> 01:20:30.114
I've been to Jamaica.

01:20:30.145 --> 01:20:31.125
Honeymoon in Jamaica.

01:20:31.125 --> 01:20:32.095
Okay, okay.

01:20:32.154 --> 01:20:33.215
But no, I, I haven't.

01:20:33.810 --> 01:20:40.260
Well, that's gonna be my goal for you in the next, uh, season here is to get yourself, uh, into some more fun.

01:20:40.260 --> 01:20:41.020
Going somewhere else.

01:20:41.039 --> 01:20:44.310
Would, would, would, uh, Kayla enjoy that?

01:20:44.560 --> 01:20:45.430
Yeah, she definitely would.

01:20:45.649 --> 01:20:50.479
She actually still has family in Italy, so her family is, uh, immigrated from Italy and settled in Nevada.

01:20:50.489 --> 01:20:50.859
Oh, is that right?

01:20:51.064 --> 01:20:51.444
Yeah.

01:20:51.494 --> 01:20:57.534
Um, so it was her great grandfather that started, um, in Italy or, you know, from Italy to America.

01:20:57.534 --> 01:21:00.354
So we'd, we'd like to go to Italy and see.

01:21:00.354 --> 01:21:07.414
So, um, her last name, her maiden name is Lommery with an O, but there's a city in Italy.

01:21:07.414 --> 01:21:09.965
That's Lammery, L A M M O R I.

01:21:09.965 --> 01:21:12.604
And that's where, you know, her family gets their, their name is there.

01:21:12.944 --> 01:21:13.314
Oh, interesting.

01:21:13.335 --> 01:21:13.685
Yeah.

01:21:13.885 --> 01:21:15.625
And what, uh, what hybrid are you?

01:21:16.859 --> 01:21:18.619
I'm as much white as you can get.

01:21:19.890 --> 01:21:23.159
I, I am, I'm Swedish, I'm German and I'm English.

01:21:23.159 --> 01:21:25.930
That's, I mean, that's, I'm a lot of those things as well.

01:21:26.210 --> 01:21:31.539
I described Fort Collins in particular as a melting pot, but we're a white cheese fondue.

01:21:32.229 --> 01:21:33.619
We are, we totally are.

01:21:33.949 --> 01:21:34.220
Yeah.

01:21:34.220 --> 01:21:38.020
Come, come from a German background that settled in Wisconsin, farmers, all that sort of stuff.

01:21:38.050 --> 01:21:40.010
And then the grandparents moved out here in the, in the seventies.

01:21:40.010 --> 01:21:40.510
So yeah.

01:21:41.050 --> 01:21:41.420
Yep.

01:21:41.859 --> 01:21:45.760
Um, do you have any good jokes you'd like to share as the final?

01:21:45.819 --> 01:21:46.649
Any good jokes?

01:21:46.649 --> 01:21:48.199
Anything that you, your go to joke?

01:21:49.569 --> 01:21:50.420
Ah, man.

01:21:51.814 --> 01:21:52.045
No?

01:21:52.074 --> 01:21:53.354
Any good dad jokes?

01:21:54.385 --> 01:21:59.295
Uh, I got, uh, Why didn't people like the nosy pepper?

01:21:59.635 --> 01:22:00.034
Why?

01:22:00.494 --> 01:22:02.234
Because it gets jalapeno business.

01:22:04.034 --> 01:22:05.064
All up in your business.

01:22:05.225 --> 01:22:06.104
Jalapeno.

01:22:06.444 --> 01:22:07.505
Jalapeno business.

01:22:07.524 --> 01:22:08.395
That's perfect.

01:22:08.395 --> 01:22:08.885
I love it.

01:22:09.005 --> 01:22:12.465
Alright, well you can, you can share that next time you have a dad joke.

01:22:12.555 --> 01:22:13.545
I appreciate you.

01:22:13.545 --> 01:22:13.984
Alright, cheers.

01:22:13.985 --> 01:22:14.545
Thanks.

01:22:14.545 --> 01:22:15.074
Thank you.

01:22:15.074 --> 01:22:15.585
Appreciate it, Ryan.