EXPERIENCE 207 | Garage Operation to 20,000 Square Feet - Phillip Gottula, Co-Founder and Owner/Operator at FLEXX Productions - Leading the Northern Colorado Event Rental Industry in Service and Technology

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Phil Gattullo was my first guest to bring in a charcuterie plate, and we shared a beautiful bottle of white wine that he also brought in.

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And we talked about the business of event rentals, specifically his business, which is the leader in Northern Colorado event rentals, Flex Productions.

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The event rental industry is an interesting critter.

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Unlike a retail transaction where the customer pays and leaves with their stuff, event rental requires the business, not only to deliver.

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On time, every time, no matter what, but also the business must pick their equipment back up from the location and clean and refresh it for the next customer, Phil is an expert in the industry and shares abundantly from what he's learned, and he's a philosopher and adventurer, a dog dad and a wonderful conversationalist.

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So please enjoy as I did my conversation with Phil Gattula.

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Welcome back to the Loco Experience Podcast.

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My guest today is Phil Gattula.

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And Phil is the founder of and owner operator of Flex Productions here in Fort Collins and operations all around the state, really.

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Yeah.

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Absolutely.

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Uh, what, uh, what kind of wine did you bring us today?

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I brought us a white wine from Reprise.

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Uh, it's a winery that Stacy and I went to here, uh, this last year in the, um, California area.

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Oh, wow.

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And, uh, so That's really nice.

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That feels very honoring that you would bring one of probably, I mean, I don't imagine you'd grab three Maybe you did buy three cases and it's just kind of One more bottle.

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No.

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Yeah, it's more special than that, you know, it feels special, you know, we could talk to Stacy of, did I choose the right bottle of wine out of the cabin or not?

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So, uh, you know, but I, I enjoy a good, uh, conversation and a glass of wine.

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You are a, uh, you're, you're both things kind of a philosopher as well as a.

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Blue collar guy.

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Boy, I've never heard philosopher come out.

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No.

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You know, as far as a, far as a, uh, you know, a, a name used, I guess you're a thoughtful guy, so you always have been.

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Yeah.

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You know, I think you, you put out there, you know what you're, what you're thinking and sometimes it's not always right and agree and, you know, the, the older you get, the more.

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Wisdom and the more you want to listen.

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That's what I've kind of like taken back in the past couple of years and the experiences that, that have come in, I think, into my life.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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That's we could dig down on that a little bit later, but all right.

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Yeah.

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I dig it.

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Yeah.

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Um, I guess so it's set the stage, uh, flex productions does, uh, Big party tents all the way down to linens for your small wedding and everything in between, kind.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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We're, we're event rentals, a hundred percent event rentals.

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The part of our industry is either tool rental or event rental, and we're a hundred percent event rental, so tables, chairs, linens, dishes, China, anything.

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No forklifts, no forklifts.

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Exactly.

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You also forklift, but you don't.

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Yep, yeah, yeah, that's exactly, that's, that's, uh, that's a part of the tool rental part of our industry.

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Best Event Rental is a great owner operator for small tool rental, Arapahoe Rentals up here also.

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And do they both do event rentals too?

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Um, uh, Uh, Front Range Rental is a part of the Arapahoe Rentals brand.

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Okay.

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Uh, they bought into that, however, three or four years ago, I think, is what it was.

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And so they have a branch doing that.

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It was a great opportunity for them.

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And, uh, they do a great job at it.

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So.

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So, so, yeah.

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So basically they compete with you, but you don't really compete with them in the tool and stuff.

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You know, Kinda.

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It, what is, Friendly competition.

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Yeah.

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You know, what, what's so great about the rental industry?

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Is it's not cutthroat competition for some weird reason.

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We all bid on a project, you know, my, my biggest competitor up here, um, is, uh, a great individual.

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He runs a great operation also.

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And we sit down three or four times a year and have a glass of wine together.

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Uh, and projects come up and I bid against them and they bid against us.

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And you know, whoever gets the project, it gets it.

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And that's just kind of part of the deal.

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And I think that's what separates our industry.

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So uniquely is the collaboration, um, you know, as far as you get where it's so not other industries can be so cutthroat, you know, you go as far as to even rent stuff from your competitors.

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So you can put together a big event, 100 percent steamboat or whatever.

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Yeah.

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And vice versa, you know, absolutely.

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Vice versa.

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I mean, we all can't have the resources on certain event weekends that are super maxed out.

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And, uh, so we'll, we'll subcontract back and forth.

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Uh, between different operations depending on the, the needs.

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So I guess, can you maybe describe a little bit about the, the span and breadth?

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Like I know you said event rentals, but so there's, there's linens, there's chairs, there's tables, is there, there's heaters, there's generators, there's tents.

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How many tents can I rent?

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Yeah.

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You know, I, people.

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We'll call up sometimes and they'll say, I need to rent your biggest tent.

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And I go, yeah, you don't want to do that.

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Um, you know, and, and the reason why is tensor, they're expandable by parts, you know, and it's so, so how many linear parts do you have?

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But also I can bring in other parts from other partners if they want a ridiculous size tent, you know?

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So, um, I mean, some of the larger projects we've set are, uh, 40 to 50, 000 square feet of tent coverage, um, for, you know, Uh, 3, 200 person conference, floored, air conditioned.

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I mean, these are, yeah, these are portable buildings that we, we pretty much put up in certain scenarios.

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Interesting.

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Um, you know, and, and the industry's come really far from just, quotes, tents, where you see like a circus tent with the, the center poles.

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That's still very common for like a, uh, uh, wedding and, and whatnot.

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Sure.

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But, I mean, uh, two story glass walls.

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I mean, the industry has just come so far in the past 20, 25 years for the products that are available, uh, that we can provide now.

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So we're one of the only, um, operators in Colorado that have like glass wall and, and, and hardwall and stuff like that.

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Kind of leading edge.

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Is that your brand along the way or becoming more of your brand?

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Oh boy.

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Yeah.

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You know, I, I talked to, um, uh, an owner up here today, the, the, the, as you get.

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Through these hiccups, right?

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I mean Flex Productions and I have we talked about where like this company started.

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No, not yet I mean, we'll zoom back there and we can go there right now if you want.

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I mean It's your it's your show.

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Yeah, it's your show.

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I'm just kind of kind of working with no Well, let's talk about it because I think it's probably gonna be relevant.

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Yeah, you know, I mean, I know like COVID nation was not good for the events industry and things like that.

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So people gathering was kind of frowned upon for that first, you know, eight months of that year, the flex productions, you know, came along with a, with a buddy many years ago.

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Um, Kevin cooling and, um, uh, uh, let's back up before that through high school and college.

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I did event rentals in the Denver market area.

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Okay.

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So like boat rents was the largest operation at the time and, um, and that's kind of where I got started.

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Yeah.

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I worked where I worked for the original owner that was there, by the way, the, uh, what was the Arapahoe rentals.

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We've probably talked about this back in the past, but we've, I financed a.

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The Windsor location for what would became a Rapinoe Reynolds when I was a banker, like in 2021, probably.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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They're great operation.

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I can't see enough good about, uh, uh, Evan who, who does, is their regional manager and Lance who ran the.

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Um, uh, Windsor location, I think back then when you probably, maybe it's too, I'm too old for that kind of memory.

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So, so you, so yeah, I mean, I kind of worked your way up in the industry, learned it.

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Yeah.

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You got to high school, college did that, my degrees in computer information.

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So this is what I got out in the late nineties.

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The market was just flooded with IT guys, and so it was tough to get back into that.

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So I jumped back in the rental industry, helped manage a couple operations, um, here in Fort Collins and, and another commercial operation that was in the area.

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And then, then my old business partner, him and I, uh, jumped out, uh, because they just kind of went really corporate.

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Uh, yeah, you know, I mean, we're trying to, a lot of businesses are started because the company they work for become really annoying.

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We just wanted to make them money and, uh, and, and it was challenging for, to, to do that when we were trying to tell them what to do.

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Um, but we jumped out and started the operation in the garage and, uh, and what did that look like?

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Like what were those first, like how much cash did it take at first?

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I mean, we got a small business loan and some tables and chairs.

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And we, you know, subcontracted tents, right.

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You know, from other operators to go and do that.

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Well, we had a lot of the connections because we've been doing it in the market for so long.

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So, yeah, it's a very much relationship hospitality business.

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Right.

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So, um, you know, that's kind of how it started and that was in.

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Oh, three ish.

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Okay.

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And, um, we just kind of grew the, the business little by little.

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I mean, you're talking pop up tents at first and, you know, uh, 20 wides and then, and then just bigger and bigger and bigger.

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So, you know, um, uh, and, and so we, what was your first, uh, real location?

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Um, the first relocation was actually in the Glick Brothers Park where we're at now.

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Is that right?

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Yeah, yeah.

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We had, we got 2, 000 square feet from, from them, uh, in 03, as where we started.

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And then into 4, 000 and 8, 000 and then in 12, and we just expanded to, Right around just under 20, 000 here this winter is what we grew into Which is fantastic because we really needed to expand.

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Yeah.

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Yeah, I remember you were packed in there like sardines Last time I was there which was a year ago over So yeah, um, I wrote down some notes here just now and thinking that like the rental business is probably Like math and customer service like things depreciate You got a turn of a certain number of times per year to justify buying it things like that But then also you're only gonna turn it enough if you have really good customer service probably marketing Yeah as well, like what would you add to that operations?

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You gotta go set that stuff up To write like set all those tents up.

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You know, the generator is working Our industry is so unique I compare it to we're a five step business where I think any other industry sometimes is three steps and we'll compare it to is like a lumber company.

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So you order lumber, I need some two by sixes, some four by eight pieces of plywood.

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Order goes in, pulls it, puts it on a truck.

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They go deliver it.

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Three steps.

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Boom, done.

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Right.

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Okay.

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We are custom as far as like you're building an event on a venue, backyard.

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Field, whatever it is that you may or may not know what you actually need.

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Yeah.

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You know, and, and so, so trying to educate the client on that piece of it, and then, then going in and actually building out the entire site, um, is different.

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And so we go three steps, you know, product, um, you know, delivery.

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Out there, but then we have recovery and reprocess.

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We're more of a five step type business is really what it is.

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So that's a lot of complexity to what we do in our type of visitors is lumber delivery.

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Right, right.

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Well, and I've rented stuff from flex a number of times and it's.

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For me, the customer and probably almost all your customer, the recovery is an afterthought and so they don't even, their event happened.

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They don't really care about helping you, but you got to go in there and grab your shit and go put the chair in the glass where it's going to be reprocessed and done correctly in our facility.

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The tent material has to be.

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Reprocessed and, and, and the, it's white, right?

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So it's, it gets dirty and it's got to be cleaned.

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So what's that look like on those commercial tenants?

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Do you bring it back and then hose it all down in the parking lot or in the shed?

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You know, I used to hand scrub it and I hated doing that because we, and you got to think about the time and the cost of labor to do that, laid out a tarp and actually hand scrub it, which, uh, that's where you start in the industry.

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Once you can afford a.

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machine that actually does that.

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That is a very expensive machine.

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Uh, you put the materials in the machine.

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Uh, it tumbles it like a dishwasher, like a big, like a big washing machine, like a big washing machine.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Five foot diameter.

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So, I mean, it's a big, big piece of equipment.

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And, uh, so, and you pull the material out and you let it dry.

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But you got to rent a bunch of tents first before you can buy a.

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12, 000 washing machine for your tent washer, or more than 12, 000, way more than 12, 000.

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Yeah, these are investments that, uh, keep the business running, but don't make you money.

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Right, right.

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But, uh, it's part of running one of these businesses if you want to do it correctly.

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Well, and if you, after every big event where you got 14 20 by 20 tents out, and you've got a bunch of 30 an hour people out there scrubbing those tents like you're gonna find some writing pretty fast compared to depreciation and interest on a scale of economics.

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Yeah, right.

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Yeah, you have to get that scale before you can make it make sense Yeah, so just think so.

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Yeah that that just comes over years.

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I mean the first couple years We had a fax machine for 120 bucks and it broke or something like that and I was like, we can't spend 140 on a fax machine, you know?

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I mean, it was that tight as far as running, you know, uh, expenses.

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What was the first, um, Peach Festival, the Fort Collins Peach Festival?

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Gosh.

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Because I think that's when we first met because Tanis was the organizer of that for the Rotary Club.

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Yeah.

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You were her, her guy for the event rental stuff.

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Yeah.

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Um, I don't recall the year because we already talked that we can't recall stuff because it's been so long ago.

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It was at Hughes, you know, from what I recall.

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It was at Hughes Stadium.

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It was a brand new event.

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Um, they killed it, you know, I remember going out there and going, holy cow.

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Well, I was food trucking at the time, right?

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Cause I had my food trailer there.

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Maybe not that first year.

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I think I might've still been a banker that first year or two.

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Um, but we got acquainted at least cause I was helping her with some, I'd have to look back at photos because it's probably 13, 14, somewhere in there, 12, 13.

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Yeah.

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So, um, yeah, so you were still like.

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Uh, tell me about like that first steps of growth.

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Like, I imagine it was a ton of sweat equity at first.

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You hire a few friends for part time jobs and then it gets bigger from there.

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Yeah, I mean, the first time we actually hired some employees, and I don't even remember what year it was, call it 06 or 07.

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And our payroll was like 3, 200 bucks for like two weeks.

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And I go, Kevin, we're not going to make it.

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There's no way we're going to make it.

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This is crazy.

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You know, we can't pay this on payroll.

00:14:49.519 --> 00:14:51.928
You know, I mean, the expense was so mind blowing to me.

00:14:52.448 --> 00:14:58.379
And, uh, you know, you gotta remember, I had one or two business classes in college with a CIS degree.

00:14:58.769 --> 00:15:01.349
And so I'm, I'm very self taught within QuickBooks.

00:15:02.134 --> 00:15:04.274
And P and L's and balance sheets and all that stuff.

00:15:04.274 --> 00:15:05.943
I've just learned it over time.

00:15:06.114 --> 00:15:10.823
So I didn't have a formal background going like, here's how we do this and budgeted this and whatnot.

00:15:10.823 --> 00:15:16.134
When we first started the business, it was kind of, yeah, it was kind of trial by fire, you know, and you figure it out as you go.

00:15:16.173 --> 00:15:17.053
Tell me about Kevin.

00:15:17.134 --> 00:15:22.094
Like what was his circumstance and was he active in running the business too, or more of an investor?

00:15:22.104 --> 00:15:22.323
Yep.

00:15:22.344 --> 00:15:26.283
No, Kevin was, we were about, you know, 50, 50 partners in the business when we started it.

00:15:26.303 --> 00:15:30.974
And, um, uh, you know, he'd been in the industry for, for.

00:15:31.274 --> 00:15:34.813
Quite many years before me, even come from the tool reno side.

00:15:34.923 --> 00:15:35.313
I see.

00:15:35.374 --> 00:15:39.464
And, you know, we just met through a, a, a business that, a reno business run up here.

00:15:39.644 --> 00:15:39.854
Yeah.

00:15:39.894 --> 00:15:45.254
And, uh, that business sold and then that's when we got into the other corporate entity and then we jumped out eventually.

00:15:45.254 --> 00:15:45.583
Yeah, yeah.

00:15:45.624 --> 00:15:45.803
You know.

00:15:45.813 --> 00:15:46.124
Okay.

00:15:46.173 --> 00:15:46.754
Did it ourselves.

00:15:46.813 --> 00:15:49.114
And then how long were you guys partners in Flex?

00:15:49.384 --> 00:15:50.844
Yeah, till 2012.

00:15:51.043 --> 00:15:51.313
Okay.

00:15:51.354 --> 00:15:55.104
Yeah, 2012 he retired and sent him on his way with a little golden parachute.

00:15:55.153 --> 00:15:55.514
Right.

00:15:55.634 --> 00:15:55.854
That's nice.

00:15:55.864 --> 00:15:58.354
And, uh, you know, uh, he moved down to Costa Rica.

00:15:58.354 --> 00:16:00.014
That's a pretty cool relationship, right?

00:16:00.014 --> 00:16:00.464
Like, cause.

00:16:01.058 --> 00:16:12.384
Probably you wouldn't have succeeded without All of his experience in some fashions and connections and stuff, but also without your energy and enthusiasm and eagerness to build something, probably.

00:16:12.484 --> 00:16:12.803
Yeah.

00:16:12.864 --> 00:16:13.264
I don't know.

00:16:13.293 --> 00:16:14.874
It seems to me that it was probably symbiotic.

00:16:14.933 --> 00:16:15.274
Yeah.

00:16:15.274 --> 00:16:21.619
You know, I mean, uh, we both had, you know, the, the different pieces of the, Aspects that needed the business needed at the time.

00:16:21.778 --> 00:16:22.058
Okay.

00:16:22.119 --> 00:16:23.318
You know, it was really what it was.

00:16:23.619 --> 00:16:27.168
And what was his, uh, biggest contribution to that?

00:16:27.168 --> 00:16:29.869
It was more, he was more operational at first.

00:16:29.869 --> 00:16:32.448
He was kind of leading some of the charts, but I was more organized.

00:16:32.448 --> 00:16:44.599
I, I found out in the, uh, administrative part, I think of the work and then he was more kind of operational is where, so he was more of the field guy, more than, you know, organizing the, the, the teams and stuff like that.

00:16:45.288 --> 00:16:45.568
Right.

00:16:45.578 --> 00:16:46.839
You know, well, once you start.

00:16:47.604 --> 00:17:03.364
Like it's hard enough to point yourself in the right direction sometimes, but once you get a team That's two three people and then five ten people and then 15 20 people It's like it gets to be too much, you know for one and that's you know, we have to really organize those teams Yeah, what's what's flex look like today?

00:17:03.464 --> 00:17:10.844
Like you're growing into 20, 000 square feet Is that gonna be more people to to operate that or yeah, I mean, it's it's so night and day.

00:17:10.933 --> 00:17:37.844
I mean, we're such a unorganized no employee manual Uh, you know, fly by the night operation, you know, we, we did it correctly in, in many of the, you know, um, operational as you could, but, you know, I mean, we were, the business is organized so differently now, and I'll contribute that to the people that have actually come through the operation over the years to help add a little bit on here and add a little bit on here.

00:17:38.134 --> 00:17:41.394
And then, you know, we, we jumped into us, as you know, here.

00:17:42.138 --> 00:17:48.398
Uh, four years ago, I think, you know, we tried to self implement for a couple of years as a train wreck.

00:17:48.398 --> 00:17:54.778
And then finally, you know, we got, we got implemented and we've been running really hard, steady for the past three years.

00:17:55.078 --> 00:17:55.409
Oh, really?

00:17:55.739 --> 00:18:00.778
It's very strict, uh, not us pure, but, uh, us pure to, to what we hold.

00:18:00.778 --> 00:18:03.078
We, we hold our weekly L10 meetings.

00:18:03.078 --> 00:18:06.838
And that was the thing before, as far as I call this organization, right.

00:18:07.019 --> 00:18:08.548
You know, Oh, Hey, let's have a meeting, you know.

00:18:08.848 --> 00:18:17.239
But it was never, we had a meeting and then it wasn't, it wasn't consistent and it didn't have an itinerary where EOS has allowed us to like, have that, uh, foundation.

00:18:17.348 --> 00:18:28.388
That was one of the things I was really impressed with our, I think in this, the first full day implementation, kind of talking about the meeting pulse and the value of having that, you know, like even with our loco chapter meetings.

00:18:28.999 --> 00:18:39.409
You have a chapter meeting, and then it's a month before you connect again, and so just even shortening that pulse between Attention to the things that are important to get done.

00:18:39.538 --> 00:18:41.378
Yeah, it can really make a difference.

00:18:41.439 --> 00:18:43.213
Yeah Absolutely.

00:18:43.433 --> 00:18:44.314
Communication's king.

00:18:44.604 --> 00:18:44.923
Yeah.

00:18:44.933 --> 00:18:44.963
True.

00:18:44.983 --> 00:18:45.713
Within your team.

00:18:45.784 --> 00:18:46.084
True.

00:18:46.314 --> 00:18:54.413
What do you guys use for communication and is there, is there rental industry software that helps you do your CRM and invoices and estimates and all that kind of stuff?

00:18:54.413 --> 00:18:54.673
Yeah.

00:18:54.673 --> 00:18:56.463
We, we, uh, 2008.

00:18:56.534 --> 00:18:58.483
So yeah, originally we started on spreadsheets.

00:18:58.493 --> 00:18:58.784
Right?

00:18:58.784 --> 00:18:59.034
Right.

00:18:59.074 --> 00:19:00.334
And then we went to QuickBooks.

00:19:00.334 --> 00:19:01.354
We only had five customers.

00:19:01.364 --> 00:19:01.624
Yeah.

00:19:01.624 --> 00:19:03.903
You know, I mean, that's where you start, you know, spreadsheets.

00:19:03.903 --> 00:19:12.699
And then we went to, Uh, QuickBooks, and then we went to, uh, Point Rental, which is, you know, our industry, one of our industry softwares.

00:19:12.759 --> 00:19:15.459
Uh, they've been the leader in the industry for many years.

00:19:15.459 --> 00:19:17.509
And, uh, yeah.

00:19:17.568 --> 00:19:20.348
And so we, we've been using that since, uh, 2008.

00:19:20.368 --> 00:19:21.858
So it does our inventory management.

00:19:22.078 --> 00:19:34.199
It does our, um, our, uh, AP, you know, receivables and, and pretty much, you know, if you have just example, a hundred tables, you got to allocate where those are on X dates and that's what this software does.

00:19:36.479 --> 00:19:42.118
That seems like, were you overflowing on your own, uh, spreadsheet skills and stuff?

00:19:42.378 --> 00:19:44.949
And you're like, Oh shoot, we're going to have to get an upgrade here.

00:19:45.038 --> 00:19:51.558
Well, you know, when you start making some errors, you know, uh, and you can't track it, that's when you need to change the systems.

00:19:51.558 --> 00:19:54.759
And that's what I recall kind of happened more than anything.

00:19:54.788 --> 00:19:55.088
Yeah.

00:19:55.179 --> 00:20:01.578
And, um, I mean, you got to, uh, the amount of pieces and parts it takes to put together a tent.

00:20:02.054 --> 00:20:04.213
Um, because they're all componentized.

00:20:04.243 --> 00:20:05.653
Mm-hmm Uh, is extensive.

00:20:06.034 --> 00:20:09.963
And so if you don't have, if you allocate these parts out here Right.

00:20:09.963 --> 00:20:10.864
To each different project.

00:20:10.864 --> 00:20:11.433
Right, right.

00:20:11.463 --> 00:20:13.354
Um, you know, you, because they're probably modular, right?

00:20:13.354 --> 00:20:15.844
Like very much, you pretty much carry the same kind of tandon.

00:20:15.844 --> 00:20:17.854
You can have the 10 foot wall or the 20 foot wall or Yeah.

00:20:18.213 --> 00:20:19.023
You know, there, there's, yeah.

00:20:19.023 --> 00:20:25.864
There's some, some, some back and forth switching on, on the pieces of parts, but Yeah, you, you've gotta, yeah, you've gotta be organizing that, that part.

00:20:25.864 --> 00:20:26.223
'cause these.

00:20:26.844 --> 00:20:31.034
crown pieces that are made in Germany, you cannot go down to Home Depot and buy another one.

00:20:31.034 --> 00:20:31.604
Right, right.

00:20:31.614 --> 00:20:32.804
You kind of have what you have.

00:20:33.804 --> 00:20:37.943
So, um, uh, you, you gotta be organized in that aspect.

00:20:38.003 --> 00:20:44.913
So how do you have your crew structured in terms of, I'm imagining you're slower in the winter and you kind of ramp up your staff in the summer.

00:20:45.263 --> 00:20:45.844
There's probably.

00:20:46.209 --> 00:21:20.443
marketing and kind of operations and all the field services and then kind of the admin function is that kind of the main yeah parts of your crew actually our administrative team are what we call our client service team it's actually very busy this time of year no because they're the ones yeah that's the ones that they're they're touching base with our annuals and and if you're having a wedding in July then then they're getting that you know talking about the time I actually just inquired about the next level summit yeah yeah so I mean you get it and you people used to be able to book Three weeks, a month out sometimes, I mean, you can't do that anymore.

00:21:20.693 --> 00:21:27.903
You got to be on top of this thing four to six months ahead of the game because there's only limited bandwidth all of these companies have now.

00:21:28.253 --> 00:21:30.523
Um, and that's kind of what's changed post COVID.

00:21:30.874 --> 00:21:32.284
Yeah, that's what I was wondering.

00:21:32.294 --> 00:21:37.003
Maybe is the industry has, do you have fewer competitors now than you did 2019?

00:21:37.983 --> 00:21:46.263
Um, no, I would say there's the same in this market, but I did see about 15 percent of the industry.

00:21:46.894 --> 00:21:47.503
retire.

00:21:48.534 --> 00:21:51.544
Because they just didn't want to go through the rebuild process.

00:21:51.604 --> 00:22:03.153
And I knew after COVID I had a buddy that, that actually, you know, um, he dissolved his company that he'd been talking about getting rid of it for a couple of years and, you know, and, and, uh, in California and, and.

00:22:03.588 --> 00:22:04.759
And he was like, Phil, what do I do?

00:22:05.009 --> 00:22:08.598
You know, two or three months into this deal, we're all burning cash, just trying to survive.

00:22:08.598 --> 00:22:12.159
And I was like, Rob, I was like, you've been talking about getting rid of it forever.

00:22:12.159 --> 00:22:13.909
I was like, just, you know, do it, man.

00:22:13.909 --> 00:22:14.969
And he, and he did.

00:22:15.249 --> 00:22:19.469
And he was, he was so happy in the end that he, that he, he'd moved on.

00:22:19.818 --> 00:22:23.378
Uh, but there was guys that were on the edge, close to retirement and didn't know what to do.

00:22:23.568 --> 00:22:25.919
And those, that pushed them over, that was the catalyst.

00:22:26.128 --> 00:22:30.318
Because, uh, as I told Rob, I was like, I was like, it's going to take three years to dig out of this thing, minimum.

00:22:30.618 --> 00:22:33.368
For the amount of cash it's going to take and, and the processes.

00:22:33.638 --> 00:22:35.828
Because every, every rental operation had to eliminate.

00:22:36.249 --> 00:22:40.259
At least half their core staff, you know, just to, to, to, to make the metrics.

00:22:40.259 --> 00:22:45.689
Well, I've been surprised a little bit that events didn't come back faster and bigger.

00:22:45.699 --> 00:22:55.949
Like, um, you know, like the, the bar industry is forever changed because if people go to the bar, they go home at 10 o'clock now and get on Tinder or something like that.

00:22:55.949 --> 00:22:59.578
You know, the, the, the, there just isn't those kinds of crowds different.

00:22:59.778 --> 00:23:01.108
Some restaurants are still doing great.

00:23:01.108 --> 00:23:01.848
Other ones aren't.

00:23:02.044 --> 00:23:12.614
As good and I don't know, maybe I'm wrong, but it just doesn't feel like the, the, and maybe it's just cause I'm old, like the outdoor festivals and different things like that, that people would gather under tents for.

00:23:13.453 --> 00:23:24.034
That, uh, yes, the festival part changed post COVID and the reason why multiple factors, I think, um, a major one being cost.

00:23:24.794 --> 00:23:31.054
Think about how much your groceries and rents and insurance has gone up in the past three to four years.

00:23:31.054 --> 00:23:31.324
Right, right.

00:23:31.604 --> 00:23:40.403
That we've had to do the same thing with our rental rates to accommodate, um, you know, a folding chair I'd buy for, I think it was like 16.

00:23:40.403 --> 00:23:46.273
And I remember when I quoted them out in 2022, they wanted 37 a chair from 16.

00:23:46.273 --> 00:23:50.054
And it's re leveled a little bit because container prices went crazy, et cetera.

00:23:50.324 --> 00:23:53.253
But the, uh, festival industry.

00:23:53.644 --> 00:24:12.233
Just has got crushed in the past couple of years because of the cost of operating not only Event rolls on my side port a potties trash Security off duty PD all this stuff that's required now that you have to have these security things in place You know for these these events and whatnot and and that's the the challenging part.

00:24:12.233 --> 00:24:22.179
I think I just popped into realities for children Um, I guess it was a couple weeks ago now, and I do a, uh, prize for their luncheon donation kind of thing or whatever.

00:24:22.568 --> 00:24:30.269
But, uh, Craig was telling me about the, the challenge in still putting together the, the, um, realities ride and rally.

00:24:31.048 --> 00:24:35.788
And just how it's almost like, you know, are we gonna be able to do this for another five years?

00:24:35.808 --> 00:24:40.828
It doesn't Feel very solid that we can yeah, and part of that is because of the cost.

00:24:40.878 --> 00:24:48.759
Yep You know the county's like well We gotta hire this many police officers to shut down this many roads and this and that you know, and it's like We can do all that.

00:24:48.848 --> 00:24:49.189
Yep.

00:24:49.249 --> 00:24:53.318
Yeah, that that's it's a very true statement of what's just changing the business.

00:24:53.318 --> 00:25:02.449
Yeah so So it goes yeah, so yeah, it's math and customer service and some other things.

00:25:02.588 --> 00:25:02.959
Yeah.

00:25:03.038 --> 00:25:06.433
Yeah So what's next for you?

00:25:06.433 --> 00:25:10.544
I remember, um, you were kind of pushing hard trying to maybe expand.

00:25:12.388 --> 00:25:14.989
Elsewhere because you had a new landlord coming in and stuff.

00:25:15.128 --> 00:25:17.159
Are we okay to talk about that situation?

00:25:17.159 --> 00:25:20.219
Cause you expanded where you are instead, but still have a plan to grow.

00:25:20.489 --> 00:25:20.868
Absolutely.

00:25:20.868 --> 00:25:25.598
Our, our complex, you know, the previous landlord was there for many years.

00:25:25.689 --> 00:25:30.638
Uh, 30 plus, you know, these guys own this complex and they sold it a year and a half ago.

00:25:30.969 --> 00:25:37.419
Uh, the new landlords are, uh, uh, great more to just more corporate, not as small business as the previous landlord.

00:25:37.739 --> 00:25:39.949
So they have different ideas and concepts and whatnot.

00:25:39.949 --> 00:25:42.048
Uh, but we grew.

00:25:42.479 --> 00:25:50.088
Uh, you know, 4, 000 square feet or whatever it was this wintertime in that, in that area because we were maxed out, like you said, in the facility.

00:25:50.419 --> 00:25:55.628
So, um, we're very happy with, uh, the new layout at this point.

00:25:55.628 --> 00:25:59.058
And it's kind of given us more elbow room that we've been missing for the past couple of years.

00:25:59.058 --> 00:25:59.929
It'll create some efficiency.

00:25:59.929 --> 00:26:01.028
Did you go to the north?

00:26:01.278 --> 00:26:01.669
Further?

00:26:01.729 --> 00:26:02.588
Uh, south actually.

00:26:02.598 --> 00:26:02.949
Okay.

00:26:03.429 --> 00:26:03.719
Yeah, south, south, south.

00:26:03.719 --> 00:26:04.729
Wrap around that side instead.

00:26:04.729 --> 00:26:05.499
Yeah, absolutely.

00:26:05.999 --> 00:26:11.818
Um, I'll make sure you get on the invite list, but we have an open house, uh, April 16th.

00:26:11.969 --> 00:26:12.298
Okay.

00:26:13.098 --> 00:26:14.398
Um, yeah, absolutely.

00:26:14.709 --> 00:26:15.598
I'll write it down here for you.

00:26:15.608 --> 00:26:16.943
We'll put it on the calendar.

00:26:17.163 --> 00:26:17.963
Yeah, absolutely.

00:26:18.023 --> 00:26:19.663
So that'd be like a grand reopening.

00:26:19.673 --> 00:26:22.953
Yeah, you know, I mean, I did an open house.

00:26:22.983 --> 00:26:33.193
Uh, my gosh, I want to say it was like 2018 was last one, but we, we didn't do them any and it was, I think we had 130, 140 people there.

00:26:33.473 --> 00:26:38.034
It was, and a lot of fun, but the, we were so packed in there as you saw it.

00:26:38.243 --> 00:26:39.693
It's just, there was no place to host this.

00:26:40.183 --> 00:26:40.923
That's really what that was.

00:26:40.923 --> 00:26:41.673
Wasn't enough open space.

00:26:41.673 --> 00:26:45.263
Yeah, that's really, that's why it deterred us from actually doing it, you know?

00:26:45.509 --> 00:26:52.519
And so, yeah, we're excited to show off the, the, the, the, the expansion of this space and just, you know, kind of what we have going on right now to the, to market.

00:26:52.528 --> 00:26:54.598
So, um, yeah, it's going to be good.

00:26:54.608 --> 00:26:56.969
Well, congratulations on, on making that happen.

00:26:57.179 --> 00:27:00.628
Um, always interesting when a new landlord comes down and you're not ready to move.

00:27:01.808 --> 00:27:06.259
So you forecast like moving in a few years to a bigger facility still?

00:27:06.788 --> 00:27:09.699
You know, the goal has always been for flex to be in its own building.

00:27:09.699 --> 00:27:13.009
And I've never been shy about telling people that and where we're going to be.

00:27:13.308 --> 00:27:16.148
Um, the, the operation acquired some, some.

00:27:16.394 --> 00:27:19.273
land property on the north side of Fort Collins here a couple of years ago.

00:27:19.594 --> 00:27:25.003
And, uh, so we're, we're kind of holding that strategically, waiting for the right time in the market.

00:27:25.013 --> 00:27:31.314
But I'm hoping in, uh, two to three years that we'll have the right opportunity to, to grow into our own place.

00:27:31.364 --> 00:27:33.814
Well, you know, the cool thing is you can grow.

00:27:34.413 --> 00:27:38.943
You couldn't get barely big enough to build a new building at 12, 000 square feet.

00:27:38.943 --> 00:27:49.574
So growing to 20, 000 square feet can help you grow during that three years to Absolutely be able to build the building you actually want instead of kind of gimping into what's not quite what you wanted to build really.

00:27:49.663 --> 00:27:50.634
Yeah, absolutely.

00:27:50.953 --> 00:27:51.163
Cool.

00:27:51.253 --> 00:27:52.844
So well, that's exciting.

00:27:52.844 --> 00:27:54.068
Where is your new space gonna be?

00:27:54.068 --> 00:27:54.983
Do you talk about that?

00:27:55.084 --> 00:27:55.384
Yeah.

00:27:55.384 --> 00:28:03.584
No, I mean, no Yeah, it's uh We'll be off the Mulberry and Timberline area North of the old, uh, airpark, you know, Collins.

00:28:03.634 --> 00:28:03.973
Okay.

00:28:04.003 --> 00:28:05.193
Yeah, that's the location.

00:28:05.364 --> 00:28:28.878
It was very strategic when I looked at the the piece of land there You know from we have great access to I 25 and that's and that's one thing where we're at right now harmony in Timberline We've always had great access I 25 to to go north or south or wherever we need to be And Mulberry was one of those other strategic locations that I kind of identify I'm guessing there's probably not many companies in Cheyenne or Laramie that can Do the complexity of things that you can do.

00:28:28.919 --> 00:28:32.358
And as Wyoming grows, you know, there's probably opportunity up there.

00:28:32.419 --> 00:28:32.828
Absolutely.

00:28:32.838 --> 00:28:36.138
If I go up there now, we go up, we do frontier days.

00:28:36.169 --> 00:28:39.788
Um, you know, that's something we've been doing the past five years.

00:28:39.788 --> 00:28:46.459
I think now, um, there was an operation doing it there, but they sold and, and the new operation didn't really care to do it.

00:28:46.469 --> 00:28:47.798
So it's something we jumped in on.

00:28:48.314 --> 00:28:55.473
And, um, they're, they're an amazing client and we have the right resources to set up these large scale tents.

00:28:55.483 --> 00:29:02.074
So from a customer perspective, like I'm imagining there's some big clients, big companies that do stuff.

00:29:02.153 --> 00:29:07.544
And, um, and then also like a lot of event planners, you know, like Tannis, our mutual friend, others.

00:29:07.564 --> 00:29:08.473
Well, she's not that anymore.

00:29:08.513 --> 00:29:09.183
Don't call her for that.

00:29:09.584 --> 00:29:11.834
Um, but, um.

00:29:12.179 --> 00:29:18.868
And then you have just a lot of individuals, right, or a small business that wants to do an open house at their small business or whatever.

00:29:18.868 --> 00:29:25.489
So it's kind of this mix of regular customers and a lot of just private business to consumer.

00:29:25.798 --> 00:29:38.538
Yeah, we have a lot of annual clients that do things from frontier days to other large events and private owners that do festivals and, um, but all the way down to your just general bride.

00:29:38.778 --> 00:29:43.769
You know, so I didn't turn my ringer off Now you got to tell us who it is.

00:29:43.838 --> 00:29:44.719
Um, we'll see.

00:29:44.719 --> 00:29:45.449
It was Jill.

00:29:46.108 --> 00:29:47.138
Oh, oh, all right.

00:29:47.138 --> 00:29:48.499
Stop everything There's a picture.

00:29:48.509 --> 00:29:49.078
The boss is calling.

00:29:49.409 --> 00:29:51.608
Lenny sent some pictures of Hawaii.

00:29:52.699 --> 00:29:54.048
So we, I don't know.

00:29:54.048 --> 00:29:54.669
Did you meet Lenny?

00:29:54.689 --> 00:29:55.398
No, probably not.

00:29:55.798 --> 00:29:59.179
We have an exchange student Jill and I do from Finland Yeah.

00:29:59.298 --> 00:30:01.068
Oh, I met him at your friend's getting.

00:30:01.259 --> 00:30:01.648
Yes.

00:30:01.669 --> 00:30:02.358
Yes, exactly.

00:30:02.739 --> 00:30:07.949
So, so that is in Hawaii now for a week with the exchange class from Greenheart exchange.

00:30:07.949 --> 00:30:12.288
Like whoever pushed the 800 extra button could go to Hawaii for a week.

00:30:12.909 --> 00:30:16.939
Um, well, next time I'm going to request that we do this podcast from Hawaii.

00:30:18.419 --> 00:30:20.638
If it's your dime, I'm going, I'm ready.

00:30:20.689 --> 00:30:25.179
I'll bring my equipment, you know, bring me a couple of large clients and we can talk about this.

00:30:25.179 --> 00:30:26.999
You know, anything's possible.

00:30:27.259 --> 00:30:34.844
So you got a lot of steady Eddie, like Recurring revenue when there's not like a pandemic going on, you can count on about half of your revenue, maybe every year.

00:30:34.844 --> 00:30:39.523
I mean, yeah, at least three quarters, you know, is usually annually repeat for us.

00:30:39.973 --> 00:30:44.354
We're, we're, um, I mean, flex is a 22 year staple in this community.

00:30:44.673 --> 00:30:52.324
So we're very connected with the university and, and, uh, the city and the county and, and all these, these entities that we have.

00:30:52.794 --> 00:30:58.614
Um, you know, uh, reputation and credibility with is really what it is.

00:30:58.624 --> 00:31:05.923
You got to think when you send over a quote and a cad and whatnot, and they go, here, Kurt, here's an 8, 000 piece of paper.

00:31:06.493 --> 00:31:06.894
Right.

00:31:06.933 --> 00:31:08.273
That's a lot of trust.

00:31:08.703 --> 00:31:15.653
That's your, you're, you're saying that this organization is going to come on a Friday and execute this event for you and make sure it's done.

00:31:16.074 --> 00:31:22.233
That's one of the things that's, that's the other, when I see a five piece of the business, the challenge of our business, we're in a never fail business, right?

00:31:22.284 --> 00:31:27.979
And it doesn't matter if a truck breaks down, an employee doesn't show up, whether incident, you cannot set Mrs.

00:31:27.979 --> 00:31:31.874
Jill's wedding up on Monday when her wedding's on Saturday, right?

00:31:31.903 --> 00:31:35.513
We've got to be there on Friday or Thursday or whatever the range time frame is.

00:31:35.513 --> 00:31:36.834
You got to have a little redundancy.

00:31:37.088 --> 00:31:41.028
Even if two people are sick with COVID, you got to still figure out how to get there.

00:31:41.118 --> 00:31:42.318
We got to figure it out.

00:31:42.568 --> 00:31:51.429
And we always have, we've always executed everything we've done and adjusted when things do happen, which they will in this type of business over the years.

00:31:51.769 --> 00:31:57.979
Um, I will say, you know, to give credit where credit's due, my team is amazing.

00:31:58.038 --> 00:32:01.578
And that's why the success of the company is You aren't afraid that much anymore.

00:32:01.769 --> 00:32:02.169
No.

00:32:02.199 --> 00:32:02.469
Yeah.

00:32:02.469 --> 00:32:04.429
I mean, When's the last time you did a 16 hour day?

00:32:05.074 --> 00:32:06.723
Oh, this is a 16 hour day.

00:32:07.243 --> 00:32:09.104
Because I bet you got a lot of them in the past at least.

00:32:09.134 --> 00:32:09.773
Oh, oh yeah.

00:32:09.784 --> 00:32:10.884
Because I'd never fail.

00:32:10.894 --> 00:32:12.933
Yeah, 16, 20 hours, you know what I mean?

00:32:12.963 --> 00:32:13.273
Yeah.

00:32:13.384 --> 00:32:15.144
24, it depends on what needs to be done.

00:32:15.144 --> 00:32:15.473
Right.

00:32:15.554 --> 00:32:19.344
Yeah, you know, I, I, I, I'm lucky enough where I'm working.

00:32:19.683 --> 00:32:23.423
On the business more now than directly in the business for many, many years.

00:32:23.433 --> 00:32:23.814
Yeah, yeah.

00:32:23.814 --> 00:32:24.384
Fair enough.

00:32:25.203 --> 00:32:25.624
I dig it.

00:32:25.713 --> 00:32:30.483
Um, is there anybody on the team, um, right now that you'd like to give a shout out to?

00:32:30.874 --> 00:32:32.993
Or is that a risk leaving some people out?

00:32:33.064 --> 00:32:43.608
No, I mean, my long standings right now are, uh, Kara, she's been with the organization here 12 years and same with Maria, our soft goods manager, 11 years, I think.

00:32:44.159 --> 00:32:46.909
Um, you know, soft goods, it's, it's whole owned department.

00:32:46.909 --> 00:32:48.284
With all the linens and different things like that.

00:32:48.284 --> 00:32:49.538
Things, China, flatware.

00:32:49.538 --> 00:32:53.088
I mean, it's got its own department because it's so detailed.

00:32:53.209 --> 00:32:53.578
Mm hmm.

00:32:53.588 --> 00:32:53.999
Right?

00:32:54.068 --> 00:32:57.788
You know, I mean, how much barbecue have you spilled on one of my linens?

00:32:58.659 --> 00:32:58.989
Right.

00:32:58.989 --> 00:32:59.298
Yeah.

00:32:59.328 --> 00:33:03.588
You're laughing because you know, you know what I'm talking about, you know.

00:33:04.068 --> 00:33:10.788
Yeah, so my soft coach manager, I mean, she's the, she's the stain, you know, uh, guru, you know, in our, in our business.

00:33:10.788 --> 00:33:17.269
And when I say I'm having a barbecue and I talk to somebody, your team, do they be like, maybe you want the black linens instead of the white ones?

00:33:17.439 --> 00:33:17.788
Yeah.

00:33:17.818 --> 00:33:23.523
You know, if that fits for me, it's I'm just thinking the black probably covers the stains a little easier.

00:33:23.624 --> 00:33:24.634
We can, we can work it out.

00:33:24.634 --> 00:33:25.953
It's more, yeah, of appearance, you know.

00:33:26.044 --> 00:33:26.604
Fair enough.

00:33:26.614 --> 00:33:31.003
So, so you got those couple of gals been more than 10 years on the team.

00:33:31.023 --> 00:33:31.804
Yeah, yeah.

00:33:31.814 --> 00:33:37.144
We, we run, you know, 22 to 24 of us in the off season and then 40 plus in the on season.

00:33:37.144 --> 00:33:37.473
Okay.

00:33:37.523 --> 00:33:39.864
It's kind of our typical size right now for staff.

00:33:40.153 --> 00:33:46.834
Is that like known to most of them that they, this is going to be a summer job kind of thing or a summer plus a couple of months kind of job?

00:33:46.864 --> 00:33:47.044
Yep.

00:33:47.074 --> 00:33:59.364
We're transparent, you know, with the, the people that we do bring in each season and just say, Hey, we were ramped down right around September, October and, and here we got about three or four weeks left so they can find work, you know, to other, other areas.

00:33:59.394 --> 00:34:06.693
Um, and then if we get really, we have transition with any business and sometimes we'll, yeah, yeah, we'll, we'll have, we'll have somebody that.

00:34:06.903 --> 00:34:15.143
Is he, Hey, I'm going to retire from the organization after three or four years here, and we'll get one of those temporary people that come in in the summer and be like, this person's fantastic.

00:34:15.384 --> 00:34:18.784
Uh, bring, you know, uh, he or she into the organization full time.

00:34:19.324 --> 00:34:22.543
So that's kind of how we identify and grow within the team.

00:34:22.583 --> 00:34:22.753
Yeah.

00:34:22.753 --> 00:34:22.943
Yeah.

00:34:22.943 --> 00:34:26.554
You mostly hire for your permanent team from those temp teams kind of thing.

00:34:26.554 --> 00:34:27.083
Yeah.

00:34:27.083 --> 00:34:28.724
Hey, you don't have to do that.

00:34:28.864 --> 00:34:29.043
Yeah.

00:34:29.043 --> 00:34:29.643
Not temp teams.

00:34:29.643 --> 00:34:30.753
That's seasonal teams.

00:34:31.054 --> 00:34:32.074
Well, and it has to be that way.

00:34:32.338 --> 00:34:32.608
Yeah.

00:34:32.668 --> 00:34:40.228
Because they're just, and what keeps you busy, I'm guessing it's more of those soft goods, no tents to speak of, occasional tents, probably through the winter season.

00:34:40.228 --> 00:34:41.989
Go time, yeah, we do tenting in the winter time.

00:34:42.099 --> 00:34:43.088
Tents and heaters and all that.

00:34:43.088 --> 00:34:51.619
100%, yeah, we wall tents, heat them, uh, you know, we were up in, uh, the mountains doing, 18, 000 square foot here a couple weeks ago.

00:34:51.619 --> 00:34:52.168
Oh, is that right?

00:34:52.168 --> 00:34:58.309
Yeah, so I mean we like giant wedding or a Large corporate festival, you know what music festival?

00:34:58.358 --> 00:35:09.108
Okay, and so I mean there's stuff that does happen in this market It's just not as seldom, you know in the winter time There's another cost to heating and sure and walling and everything that comes along.

00:35:09.119 --> 00:35:09.318
Yeah.

00:35:09.318 --> 00:35:18.063
Yeah, that makes sense Well admittedly, I'm not as On the scene as I used to be 20 years ago, and you know that makes two of us current.

00:35:18.454 --> 00:35:20.474
It's hard I'm okay with that.

00:35:20.494 --> 00:35:38.659
Yeah, I really should nice 90 minutes of Netflix at the end of the day early bedtime I had I think it was Karen my team, you know here a couple years ago when I passed on like a large gala that had been like the, the go-to, I've been going to for some a thousand plate dinner.

00:35:38.898 --> 00:35:39.199
Okay.

00:35:39.199 --> 00:35:41.358
For many years, you know, since 2006.

00:35:41.478 --> 00:35:41.599
Oh wow.

00:35:41.599 --> 00:35:42.739
Is when I started in this event.

00:35:42.768 --> 00:35:43.068
Oh, dang.

00:35:43.128 --> 00:35:43.309
Yeah.

00:35:43.309 --> 00:35:44.869
And, and a couple years ago.

00:35:44.989 --> 00:35:46.969
And I was like, Hey, I, I'm not gonna go this year.

00:35:46.969 --> 00:35:49.668
And she's like, what do you mean you're not gonna go this year?

00:35:49.668 --> 00:35:51.018
You know, you've always gone to the thing.

00:35:51.018 --> 00:35:51.168
I go.

00:35:51.463 --> 00:35:52.733
Hey, I'm passing the torch.

00:35:52.733 --> 00:35:55.733
It's time for you guys to kind of take this on more and whatnot.

00:35:55.744 --> 00:35:58.103
And I go, I want to go watch my Netflix.

00:35:58.114 --> 00:36:00.623
Like, like Kurt does, um, yeah.

00:36:00.684 --> 00:36:02.853
So, you know, things change in life over time.

00:36:03.054 --> 00:36:03.463
I dig it.

00:36:03.773 --> 00:36:16.224
Um, what would you say some of your like key strengths as an owner, or maybe what you suspect some of your long time employees might say, or your past loco think tank fellow members or things like that?

00:36:16.293 --> 00:36:16.583
Yeah.

00:36:17.304 --> 00:36:19.403
What US has really done for me.

00:36:19.849 --> 00:36:25.199
Is help me put a name on what I do and what I am in the organization at us.

00:36:25.199 --> 00:36:42.449
We'll say I'm a visionary, um, with, uh, in the, the distest profile, uh, Myers Briggs PI, I a hundred percent test as a visionary within it and in, in, uh, businesses and to maybe what the, you know, your audience know a little bit more about that.

00:36:42.829 --> 00:36:44.759
It's, uh, I have the big ideas.

00:36:44.989 --> 00:36:48.889
I can speak 10 years down the road and have these great ideas and pitching to my team.

00:36:48.889 --> 00:36:50.858
And, and here's 10 great things I think we should do guys.

00:36:50.858 --> 00:36:57.708
My integrators slash operational people will pick the crap out of those things and go, Phil, great.

00:36:57.768 --> 00:36:57.889
Yeah.

00:36:57.929 --> 00:37:03.208
But, you know, operationally, you know, yeah, we, we, we don't, we can't build the tent on top of the house.

00:37:03.369 --> 00:37:07.539
It's going to look cool, but you know, you know, we can't anchor it into the roof, you know?

00:37:07.599 --> 00:37:10.778
Uh, and so they'll bring me back down to reality on that stuff.

00:37:10.778 --> 00:37:13.039
But usually one out of 10 of my ideas.

00:37:13.313 --> 00:37:15.043
We'll stick and it'll be a really good idea.

00:37:15.253 --> 00:37:20.324
And that's what good visionaries are really about, uh, within, you know, um, operations.

00:37:20.324 --> 00:37:20.813
Fair enough.

00:37:20.884 --> 00:37:25.003
You know, so And how does that, like, really impact your business?

00:37:25.003 --> 00:37:29.153
Is it like choosing the right kinds of tents and materials?

00:37:29.153 --> 00:37:31.264
Is it like advertising in the right places?

00:37:31.264 --> 00:37:36.873
Like, how does that visionary kind of really Yeah, yeah, I mean, that's a good, that's a good question.

00:37:36.943 --> 00:37:43.079
Um I would say from a product aspect, yeah, I've been able to predict that a little bit and say, Hey, here's something new.

00:37:43.088 --> 00:37:43.849
Let's try this.

00:37:43.849 --> 00:37:47.369
And, and, uh, it's different than anything else that's happening in the market.

00:37:47.878 --> 00:37:49.509
Um, some of it's trendy though.

00:37:49.559 --> 00:37:49.728
Yeah.

00:37:49.728 --> 00:37:53.628
I was going to say, just like Denver started adopting trends and then it trickles up to Fort Collins.

00:37:53.648 --> 00:37:56.528
The trends come in from the coastlines, actually East and West coast.

00:37:56.548 --> 00:37:58.298
That's where a trend, uh, comes from.

00:37:58.559 --> 00:37:59.378
I'll use an example.

00:37:59.583 --> 00:38:00.443
Chocolate fountain.

00:38:00.744 --> 00:38:01.244
Sure.

00:38:01.454 --> 00:38:02.153
Chocolate fountain.

00:38:02.164 --> 00:38:04.961
Do you remember, I mean, how popular they were 10 to 15 years ago?

00:38:04.961 --> 00:38:07.853
I'm sure I could buy a chocolate fountain to use right now or for a nickel.

00:38:07.853 --> 00:38:08.623
Oh, cheap.

00:38:08.684 --> 00:38:09.114
Yeah.

00:38:09.114 --> 00:38:09.384
Yeah.

00:38:09.414 --> 00:38:09.704
Yeah.

00:38:09.704 --> 00:38:11.994
And so, you know, everybody's like, you know, chocolate fountains.

00:38:11.994 --> 00:38:14.293
And I looked at it and I was like, man, it's such a trend.

00:38:14.648 --> 00:38:20.369
And it's a hard trend because of the temperamentalness of them, and I never got into them.

00:38:20.619 --> 00:38:26.405
And so I've avoided some of those trends that I, that I see coming in and out of the industry just by kind of being able to pick it up.

00:38:26.405 --> 00:38:29.648
Did you find somewhere that somebody could rent a chocolate fondant if they really wanted one?

00:38:29.688 --> 00:38:30.239
Oh, absolutely.

00:38:30.599 --> 00:38:37.079
There's people who recommend it up here or we cross rent it or something like that, you know, but it's just, I never got into, you know.

00:38:37.079 --> 00:38:37.518
Fair enough.

00:38:37.838 --> 00:38:38.489
These are things.

00:38:38.498 --> 00:38:47.608
So yeah, the trends come in from the coastlines usually, but yeah, I'm, I'm, I try to be as visionary and predict some of the products that, that'll make sense in this marketplace.

00:38:47.688 --> 00:38:59.309
Uh, you know, I mean, we're not in LA, we're in Fort Collins, Colorado, and there, so there is a realism of, of what the practicality of what this market not only wants to afford, uh, but also what makes sense here.

00:38:59.309 --> 00:38:59.509
Yeah.

00:38:59.509 --> 00:39:01.278
We don't have, we've only got like a.

00:39:01.804 --> 00:39:10.143
One or two billionaires or maybe a few, you know, like we don't have, and we don't have big, big companies that can drop that kind of dollars on some of the things.

00:39:10.153 --> 00:39:12.614
Yeah, it's, it's, yeah, it depends on what that is.

00:39:12.614 --> 00:39:20.934
I mean, there's only so many that can, with these large structure tents that we put glass wall on and it literally turns it into a building and people like, what do you mean glass wall?

00:39:20.943 --> 00:39:24.574
Like these are actual 13 foot high glass walls.

00:39:24.753 --> 00:39:26.713
It turns the actual tenant building.

00:39:26.724 --> 00:39:27.454
That's so cool.

00:39:27.483 --> 00:39:28.963
Really, really impressive.

00:39:29.023 --> 00:39:30.173
I wish we had some pictures of that.

00:39:30.498 --> 00:39:32.318
I have some pictures that I'm happy to share.

00:39:32.329 --> 00:39:35.338
Uh, you know, we'll, yeah, we'll catch up to it later.

00:39:35.608 --> 00:39:36.878
We got a talk going on right now.

00:39:37.378 --> 00:39:46.148
Um, so, I guess from a, like, you mentioned you didn't really have any, uh, significant business acumen in the beginning.

00:39:46.798 --> 00:39:49.798
Like, who did you, was it just kind of self studied?

00:39:49.809 --> 00:39:53.159
Did you have CPAs and accountants, business peers?

00:39:53.199 --> 00:40:04.639
Like, where did you really Build your skill set in terms of the financial management element hard hustle and And it just honestly figuring a lot out on my own.

00:40:05.548 --> 00:40:15.608
I did not And I would, I, I encourage people, uh, especially in my, the industry now to, to figure and find a mentor or anybody who getting into business.

00:40:15.608 --> 00:40:22.628
And that's something I really just didn't, uh, know about and, or, um, wasn't there in the early two thousands.

00:40:22.628 --> 00:40:22.889
Right.

00:40:23.094 --> 00:40:31.293
You know, the internet was with, you know, with the internet was, and, and, and the, the, the communications just weren't there as they are now where you can reach out to somebody.

00:40:31.664 --> 00:40:41.094
Um, that's where I, you know, I participated a couple of years in our industry, um, association, which is called American rental association, and they have a mentor mentee.

00:40:41.244 --> 00:40:52.003
program and I've actually, uh, been, uh, a mentor to a couple of different operations, uh, out there to just kind of coach and guide them and, and try to give them some, some guidance that I never had, you know?

00:40:52.304 --> 00:40:57.543
Uh, but it was a lot of just hard grind and, um, you know, uh, figuring it out on my own.

00:40:57.793 --> 00:41:07.559
And I think after the ninth year, I remember after the ninth year, I was like, You know, this, this business, this can't be great, you know, I'm failing in the, in the numbers and it, and it just didn't make sense of where things should be.

00:41:07.668 --> 00:41:10.528
And I was like, man, I've done it for 10 years.

00:41:10.528 --> 00:41:12.409
So obviously I'm doing something right.

00:41:12.429 --> 00:41:12.849
Right.

00:41:12.929 --> 00:41:17.978
And that was kind of the click and the realization is, and as, and, you know, everything's going to kind of, yeah, yeah.

00:41:17.978 --> 00:41:24.248
It kind of be okay here, you know, and you, and you think about the typical business last five years or less or whatever, you know, and that kind of thing.

00:41:24.309 --> 00:41:26.309
And did you, you took out a little bit of debt.

00:41:26.443 --> 00:41:36.333
In the beginning, did you use bank loans and debt to grow along the way, or did you mostly acquire your additional assets with cash over time, or both?

00:41:36.713 --> 00:41:37.204
Both.

00:41:37.554 --> 00:41:37.923
Both.

00:41:38.153 --> 00:41:50.494
I remember the first one, I'd have to try to figure this out of, of where we found this financing company, but I know it was like, I don't want to say shark loan, but the interest rates were crazy on this stuff.

00:41:50.713 --> 00:41:53.304
Cause we didn't have any credit or credibility.

00:41:53.554 --> 00:41:56.164
You know, as a two plus year old business.

00:41:56.164 --> 00:42:05.313
And I remember we financed some tables and chairs on it, but eventually, yeah, we, we were able to have more of that, prove a little bit of a balance sheet, you know, and, and show that to some banks.

00:42:05.313 --> 00:42:11.114
And, and that's primarily where we would do some funding, you know, make a big capital acquisition and then.

00:42:11.659 --> 00:42:23.389
So it goes, yeah, you're a good client for a bank, frankly, it seems like because you always are getting new stuff You know, you don't want to sit with a half a million dollars on your balance sheet So you can acquire a bunch of tables that yeah, or whatever.

00:42:24.199 --> 00:42:30.378
Banks like us because we have assets versus like, you know, a catering operation Right.

00:42:30.458 --> 00:42:32.478
They usually have more clientele base.

00:42:32.668 --> 00:42:33.998
Yeah, what we can loan against, you know.

00:42:33.998 --> 00:42:40.688
Yeah, if you've got a need as a caterer for Debt, it means you haven't been running an unprofitable operation, usually.

00:42:40.858 --> 00:42:41.179
Yeah.

00:42:41.438 --> 00:42:41.708
Yeah.

00:42:41.809 --> 00:42:48.929
Um, I feel like I'd be okay to have a quick break and resettle and come back for, um, the next segment.

00:42:49.168 --> 00:42:49.458
Sure.

00:42:49.559 --> 00:42:49.878
All right.

00:42:49.898 --> 00:42:50.309
Sounds good.

00:43:40.139 --> 00:43:45.889
I want to hear about where little Phil So, uh, well, let's jump in the time machine.

00:43:48.028 --> 00:43:49.429
You wanna hear where the stork came from, huh?

00:43:49.438 --> 00:43:49.989
Seven.

00:43:50.219 --> 00:43:51.208
Seven years old.

00:43:51.248 --> 00:43:53.219
Or, yeah, we can hear about the stork, too.

00:43:53.248 --> 00:43:53.949
Oh my gosh.

00:43:53.958 --> 00:44:01.048
Yeah, actually, I'll tell, uh, the stork from my, my, my parents, they said I was so ambitious to get into the world, they had to pull over.

00:44:01.384 --> 00:44:04.043
Um, on the way to the hospital, so I was born in the car.

00:44:04.594 --> 00:44:06.483
Uh, so I was, I was eager, I guess.

00:44:06.485 --> 00:44:07.503
I guess so, yeah.

00:44:07.534 --> 00:44:09.503
So, that's the story that, that my parents told me.

00:44:09.503 --> 00:44:11.043
Were you here locally, in Colorado?

00:44:11.284 --> 00:44:11.764
Denver.

00:44:11.923 --> 00:44:12.244
Okay.

00:44:12.253 --> 00:44:12.463
Yep.

00:44:12.534 --> 00:44:16.449
Oh yeah, you mentioned that you Had, uh, worked in some of the rental stores down there and stuff.

00:44:17.068 --> 00:44:18.358
What was the circumstance?

00:44:18.358 --> 00:44:22.119
Like, what kind of a family did you be born into?

00:44:22.159 --> 00:44:24.409
Yeah, I mean, middle class family.

00:44:24.469 --> 00:44:28.039
Um, parents are from, dad's from Nebraska area.

00:44:28.059 --> 00:44:30.639
It's a very small town, 150 people.

00:44:31.208 --> 00:44:31.688
Catholic.

00:44:31.688 --> 00:44:32.268
That's where I come from.

00:44:32.298 --> 00:44:33.898
Yeah, you know, um.

00:44:34.228 --> 00:44:37.039
And then my mom's side's from Quincy, Illinois.

00:44:37.079 --> 00:44:41.679
So it's a small Chicago, uh, no South Southern, right.

00:44:41.778 --> 00:44:42.789
I guess the Missouri border.

00:44:42.878 --> 00:44:43.139
Okay.

00:44:43.139 --> 00:44:44.179
So also kind of small town.

00:44:44.179 --> 00:44:44.358
Yeah.

00:44:44.358 --> 00:44:44.858
Very small.

00:44:44.858 --> 00:44:45.148
Yeah.

00:44:45.168 --> 00:44:46.239
Very small town down there.

00:44:46.239 --> 00:44:48.688
Farmers, you know, rural area.

00:44:49.079 --> 00:44:53.753
So, um, so seven, what was I doing when I was seven?

00:44:54.353 --> 00:44:55.173
I don't even know.

00:44:55.213 --> 00:44:56.594
You have brothers, sisters?

00:44:57.034 --> 00:44:57.844
I have an older sister.

00:44:57.963 --> 00:44:58.253
Okay.

00:44:58.284 --> 00:44:58.423
Yep.

00:44:58.434 --> 00:44:59.273
And how old was she?

00:44:59.273 --> 00:45:00.653
A couple years older than me.

00:45:00.673 --> 00:45:01.074
Okay.

00:45:01.414 --> 00:45:08.873
So she lives in the Denver area and um, does uh, software consulting work uh, within the healthcare industry.

00:45:08.893 --> 00:45:10.523
What would nine year old, what's her name?

00:45:10.918 --> 00:45:11.298
Nicole.

00:45:11.768 --> 00:45:14.688
What would nine year old Nicole have said about seven year old Phil?

00:45:14.739 --> 00:45:17.619
Oh, man, she would beat up on me like an older sister.

00:45:17.619 --> 00:45:19.009
Oh, yeah, absolutely.

00:45:19.148 --> 00:45:21.998
Well, her sister liked to beat on younger, younger brother, you know?

00:45:21.998 --> 00:45:23.199
I mean, that's kind of how it happened.

00:45:23.458 --> 00:45:27.268
And then, you know, when I got bigger, eventually, you know, she just developed new techniques.

00:45:28.119 --> 00:45:28.619
That's kind of what it was.

00:45:29.028 --> 00:45:31.438
More, uh, psychological techniques instead of physical.

00:45:31.438 --> 00:45:32.186
Oh, yeah, absolutely.

00:45:32.186 --> 00:45:34.873
So, I mean, that's a brother sister relationship, you know?

00:45:34.873 --> 00:45:36.679
And you said middle class family.

00:45:36.789 --> 00:45:38.699
Um, were your folks both employed?

00:45:38.759 --> 00:45:43.489
Or was your mom a So my dad, um, entrepreneur has always had his own business.

00:45:43.978 --> 00:45:50.708
Um, uh, sales, uh, kind of is what he did for, um, you know, uh, for himself and for others.

00:45:50.719 --> 00:45:52.418
Yeah, for him all himself.

00:45:52.418 --> 00:46:01.418
He kind of wrapped in between large, uh, pumps for, Uh, you know, uh, ski resorts to, um, uh, water plants to stuff like that.

00:46:01.429 --> 00:46:01.719
Okay.

00:46:01.748 --> 00:46:02.708
And a lot of that stuff.

00:46:02.708 --> 00:46:03.608
A lot of bigger equipment.

00:46:03.768 --> 00:46:04.139
Yeah.

00:46:04.139 --> 00:46:04.489
Yeah.

00:46:04.889 --> 00:46:10.659
So, you know, he had, he had a business and I remember going down to his business and he was maybe three or 4, 000 square feet.

00:46:11.278 --> 00:46:13.688
And stuff, uh, there being there as a kid.

00:46:13.958 --> 00:46:17.018
And then my mom was a CPA by, uh, by trade.

00:46:17.268 --> 00:46:23.829
Um, you know, so I should have had her spend more time with you on the number as I know, right.

00:46:23.838 --> 00:46:24.259
Totally.

00:46:24.298 --> 00:46:28.239
You know, so, so as you developed, like, were you sporty?

00:46:28.239 --> 00:46:29.208
Were you smart?

00:46:29.268 --> 00:46:31.608
Were you a nerd?

00:46:31.619 --> 00:46:34.009
Were you, uh, um, we were smart kids.

00:46:34.039 --> 00:46:39.498
I hung out with some pretty smart other buddies in, in, uh, you know, uh, in the neighborhood.

00:46:39.829 --> 00:46:44.199
Um, one is now he's an aerospace engineer, electrical aerospace engineer.

00:46:44.659 --> 00:46:56.409
And so, um, myself and, and, uh, my, my buddy, we, we would, we would build some very cool, complex, uh, you know, rockets to all sorts of various stuff.

00:46:56.409 --> 00:47:05.338
So I see a little more nerdy, but then also, uh, adventurous, active, nothing scared us, you know, take a bike rides anywhere.

00:47:05.338 --> 00:47:12.059
And you know, that, that, that genre of, uh, Still the thing, even in Denver, like the city didn't lose that'cause Yeah.

00:47:12.418 --> 00:47:13.469
You know, we were a little suburb.

00:47:13.498 --> 00:47:16.168
Suburb on the, on the east side there is kind of where we were.

00:47:16.168 --> 00:47:16.199
Okay.

00:47:16.199 --> 00:47:24.869
But, you know, uh, once the, the night lights came on, you go home and, and, uh, you hide the blood on blood on your, your, your, your shirt, your elbow.

00:47:24.898 --> 00:47:25.168
Yeah.

00:47:25.168 --> 00:47:27.778
Or, or learn to clean it out and drink hose out of the water.

00:47:27.778 --> 00:47:29.824
And that's the generation, you know, that, that we grew up in.

00:47:29.824 --> 00:47:29.983
Sure.

00:47:30.043 --> 00:47:30.344
You know?

00:47:30.719 --> 00:47:34.528
And then, uh, did you go to college then after high school or, yeah.

00:47:34.588 --> 00:47:34.739
You did?

00:47:34.739 --> 00:47:35.639
Up here in Fort Collins.

00:47:35.639 --> 00:47:35.938
Okay.

00:47:35.998 --> 00:47:37.289
Computer information systems.

00:47:37.414 --> 00:47:37.724
Okay.

00:47:37.724 --> 00:47:37.853
Yeah.

00:47:37.853 --> 00:47:38.483
You mentioned that.

00:47:38.534 --> 00:47:38.873
Okay.

00:47:39.333 --> 00:47:41.393
So how, what did that choice come from?

00:47:41.414 --> 00:47:44.784
Uh, did you, was it kind of like, yeah, he was, he was right there.

00:47:44.884 --> 00:47:45.293
Yeah, I know.

00:47:45.293 --> 00:47:50.373
I mean, computers were always the, the, the thing we, we played with in high school.

00:47:50.373 --> 00:47:51.313
It was cutting edge at the time.

00:47:51.313 --> 00:47:51.514
Yeah.

00:47:51.514 --> 00:47:56.634
And grade school, you know, and installing things on networks of the school computers that they didn't have us locked out of yet.

00:47:56.635 --> 00:48:18.878
And, and, uh, you know, just being, uh, you know, curious and figuring things out, you know, at that time, I find it interesting that like when we were About that age, and I think I'm a little bit older, if I recall, or a fair bit older, but Like, the, the adults, the teachers and stuff were like, Hey, you should study these computer things, cause they're gonna be really important in the future.

00:48:19.539 --> 00:48:19.909
Right?

00:48:19.938 --> 00:48:39.574
And now, With the AI thing and stuff, it feels like all the young people, the, the, the 15 to 24 year olds are like, Hey adults, we should all study this AI stuff a little more because it's going to be really, it feels like it's kind of flipped the script a little bit compared to what we experienced with the new technology environment back then.

00:48:40.353 --> 00:48:41.603
It's just a different level.

00:48:41.833 --> 00:48:42.398
You know what I mean?

00:48:42.398 --> 00:48:47.893
If you think about the technology for our parents and what was out there, it was cutting edge at the time, you know?

00:48:47.893 --> 00:48:52.454
And I was, I think as a kid, I was always like, why are my parents like understanding and into this stuff?

00:48:52.474 --> 00:48:56.153
You know, and I think it's just, as you get older, you don't really.

00:48:57.173 --> 00:48:59.903
care as much in a certain way or, or don't look backwards.

00:48:59.903 --> 00:49:11.233
And, and you're, you know, I'm aware of it and studying AI, but when you have the time, I think as a kid too, you can be so immersed in it and really, uh, on top of it, you know, do you know all the settings on your phone?

00:49:11.233 --> 00:49:11.543
Curt?

00:49:12.043 --> 00:49:18.724
No, like I was just like, I actually just earlier today, I, I told Alma, I was like, man, I pushed the, uh.

00:49:19.014 --> 00:49:24.173
Help polish this button on Google Gmail before I sent an email to my facilitators.

00:49:24.353 --> 00:49:32.943
It was like, it was so much better than the email I wrote before that, but damn it, I'm sending the one I wrote by myself because I can do it.

00:49:32.974 --> 00:49:33.673
And guess what?

00:49:33.684 --> 00:49:35.983
They've been doing that for 24 months now.

00:49:36.083 --> 00:49:37.193
Oh, yeah, exactly.

00:49:37.483 --> 00:49:37.914
Exactly.

00:49:37.983 --> 00:49:39.903
So, uh, yeah, so it goes.

00:49:40.273 --> 00:49:54.318
Um, and so, yeah, we kind of circled back to You know getting back into the rental industry after college and any regrets like if you Could have been a hundred and fifty thousand dollar a year computer guy for the last 20 years.

00:49:54.318 --> 00:49:55.268
Would you swap that out?

00:49:55.268 --> 00:50:14.594
I mean everything happening then everything happens for a reason I mean, you know plotted out at some point you think you're like, all right, I'm gonna do this and whatnot Yeah I mean I had no idea that the market was gonna be flooded with IT guys the way it was even with a College degree and jumping back into rental and it just kind of led to what it did Do you think you could be a good employee now?

00:50:15.233 --> 00:50:16.983
After 20 years or something.

00:50:16.983 --> 00:50:21.523
I've thought about that a little bit and I'm like, oh man, you know What if I did something else and I work for somebody else?

00:50:21.983 --> 00:50:39.639
I think if somebody offered you too much money for your for your business tomorrow, I you know, I don't get a job Well, you'd probably just I think you know, I mean, you know, I mean I'd have to do Yeah, I'd have to do something right, you know, I'd be bored Um, you know, visionaries and entrepreneurs just, they can't, you can't sit around.

00:50:40.048 --> 00:50:41.548
I would, I'd make Stacey crazy.

00:50:41.559 --> 00:50:43.248
You might not get a job, but you can do some stuff.

00:50:43.528 --> 00:50:53.759
So, so to answer your question, um, I, I think that would be a challenging, you know, after working for myself for, for so many years and, and having to, uh, report and accountability.

00:50:53.759 --> 00:50:58.489
But I think in a certain capacity, if I had the right role, then sure, maybe I could do something.

00:50:58.498 --> 00:51:02.568
You might be better at it now after a few years of EOS than you would have been.

00:51:03.003 --> 00:51:17.364
Before that sure because you I suspect if you're like me, and I'm just starting to implement a us But like I'm I'm a little better at managing myself even already that I was Without that element of kind of tracking and accountability for myself.

00:51:17.393 --> 00:51:17.693
Yeah.

00:51:18.164 --> 00:51:22.753
Uh, discipline and, uh, habits, as you know, is really, is really what it's making.

00:51:22.753 --> 00:51:25.324
I mean, having weekly L10 meetings is a habit.

00:51:25.364 --> 00:51:25.724
Yeah.

00:51:25.784 --> 00:51:26.014
Yeah, yeah.

00:51:26.103 --> 00:51:32.634
And, uh, so when you, when you can instill these good habits, right, in your life, then, then, uh, you have good things.

00:51:32.634 --> 00:51:37.353
Well, you show up once or twice and you're like, sorry, I didn't do any of my homework before coming to this meeting.

00:51:37.364 --> 00:51:40.545
Then you, like, kick your own ass so you do that better next time.

00:51:40.545 --> 00:51:41.994
You shamed yourself is what you're saying.

00:51:41.994 --> 00:51:43.215
Exactly, exactly.

00:51:44.704 --> 00:51:51.764
When I had Jennifer Lewis on, who I know you've worked with a little bit in the EOS realm, she asked me, why don't you implement EOS, Kurt?

00:51:51.795 --> 00:51:56.715
And I was like, well, because you're going to make me Do a bunch of hard things that I'm not sure what to do.

00:51:57.724 --> 00:51:58.664
You're going to hold me accountable?

00:51:58.664 --> 00:51:59.784
I don't want to be accountable.

00:51:59.784 --> 00:52:00.054
Right.

00:52:00.054 --> 00:52:01.925
And I don't even really want to hold myself to that.

00:52:02.164 --> 00:52:04.135
But, uh, you know, nine months later, here we are.

00:52:04.195 --> 00:52:07.485
Then what you do is you design the world around that.

00:52:07.485 --> 00:52:10.364
You have other people that can help with those things that you don't like.

00:52:10.614 --> 00:52:14.445
Which EOS will show those four boxes as in, what do you like?

00:52:14.445 --> 00:52:16.074
You really enjoy doing this.

00:52:16.135 --> 00:52:16.304
Yeah.

00:52:16.304 --> 00:52:16.525
Yeah.

00:52:16.625 --> 00:52:17.005
Right.

00:52:17.255 --> 00:52:23.085
And that's part of what, you know, I have a, uh, executive assistant that spends maybe five hours a week kind of.

00:52:23.309 --> 00:52:27.150
Making sure I don't miss stuff and occasionally setting up appointments for me and things like that.

00:52:27.150 --> 00:52:28.099
And that's just worth it for me.

00:52:28.210 --> 00:52:36.510
Yeah 100 percent yeah better than shaming myself all the time What you've heard that line before don't should on yourself.

00:52:38.280 --> 00:52:44.019
It's you know, I mean Again, it's about what you decide to do or do not do, but don't should all the time.

00:52:44.050 --> 00:52:44.320
Yep.

00:52:44.539 --> 00:52:44.889
Absolutely.

00:52:44.949 --> 00:52:49.309
Um, so let's, uh, let's jump into the, um, mandatory.

00:52:49.739 --> 00:52:50.400
Mandatory?

00:52:50.409 --> 00:52:50.940
Segments.

00:52:50.940 --> 00:52:51.340
Yes.

00:52:51.539 --> 00:52:53.619
The, uh, faith family politics.

00:53:36.994 --> 00:53:37.934
Oh, I remember you mentioned that.

00:53:37.985 --> 00:53:39.045
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:53:39.054 --> 00:53:40.364
I'm sure you're excited about it.

00:53:40.905 --> 00:53:43.144
Uh, we've had some fun political conversations.

00:53:43.295 --> 00:53:54.110
Um, although we're, eh, I wouldn't say we're that far apart, but we're definitely on a different, uh, uh, Bandwidth, I suppose.

00:53:54.110 --> 00:54:02.369
I'm a very libertarian kind of guy, and I think you've got some of those notions, but maybe more on the Progressive end of the libertarian.

00:54:02.409 --> 00:54:02.699
Sure.

00:54:02.769 --> 00:54:03.099
Element.

00:54:03.099 --> 00:54:03.610
Is that a fair?

00:54:03.659 --> 00:54:04.679
Yeah, assessment.

00:54:04.739 --> 00:54:08.670
Yeah I'm a little more on the conservative end of the libertarian spectrum.

00:54:08.710 --> 00:54:10.809
Yeah, I mean, I'm in the middle.

00:54:10.860 --> 00:54:21.244
I'm independent You know, this is where I land in this spectrum there You know our core values Uh, as a company or, you know, accountability, do the right thing and humility.

00:54:21.784 --> 00:54:25.195
So, uh, I try to instill the, the same thing.

00:54:25.235 --> 00:54:28.565
Uh, that's something we instill not only in our employees, but also in our clients.

00:54:28.585 --> 00:54:28.905
Yeah.

00:54:28.954 --> 00:54:37.394
If we have a client that's not working within those core values, uh, I'm not hesitant to, to move on and say, we're just not the right, uh, solution for you guys.

00:54:37.434 --> 00:54:37.864
Fair enough.

00:54:37.934 --> 00:54:41.695
And so I look the same thing within my, my, my beliefs also, you know.

00:54:41.905 --> 00:54:49.177
How, uh, how would you say Trump is doing the first, uh, I was wondering when you were gonna just like Well it's right, it's fresh.

00:54:49.177 --> 00:54:51.449
It is very fresh.

00:54:51.449 --> 00:54:58.199
And it's pretty crazy, like, we haven't seen anything as active as this.

00:54:58.280 --> 00:55:05.079
Um, but, you know, the Libertarian, he says, like, well it's about fucking time somebody acted like this and cut a bunch of shit and offered early resignations.

00:55:05.699 --> 00:55:17.614
Yeah, I, um, the That's a, that's a hard ground to dance here because as a business owner, typically I'm pretty Republican, right?

00:55:17.934 --> 00:55:21.744
You know, and I want to, I want to do better for businesses and, and have those things.

00:55:21.945 --> 00:55:22.914
Less regulation.

00:55:22.925 --> 00:55:23.315
Yeah.

00:55:23.315 --> 00:55:23.954
Yeah, exactly.

00:55:23.954 --> 00:55:31.855
You know, Colorado has been become, become so It's difficult and regulated to operate in and people go why does it cost so much to rent a tent?

00:55:32.355 --> 00:55:44.605
The compliance that I have to have for my business and the employees, right, is insane Sorry, but the Family and Medical Leave Act compliance costs me 24 out of your 200 tent rental.

00:55:44.655 --> 00:55:51.300
I just switched to a new HR firm, which is fantastic And we went through, uh, an onboarding audit with them.

00:55:51.809 --> 00:55:54.599
They had 200 questions.

00:55:54.710 --> 00:56:00.889
It took over two and a half hours to go through this audit with them and everything compliance wise that we were doing.

00:56:01.250 --> 00:56:02.889
I mean, you should see this Excel list.

00:56:02.889 --> 00:56:14.460
I, and, and, and I sat here and I go, didn't Colorado be, you know, 20 plus years ago, I mean, it was such a easy right to work state and then I always was like with employees and I was like, Hey, you know, I just have that conversation.

00:56:14.559 --> 00:56:16.519
Hey, is this working out for you still?

00:56:16.519 --> 00:56:19.750
And, and we've talked about this a couple of times and, and you're not performing in this area.

00:56:19.750 --> 00:56:22.199
And you're like, yeah, I just, I don't think my passion's with anywhere.

00:56:22.230 --> 00:56:25.480
And I was, I would always be like, Hey, maybe it's time you look for something else.

00:56:25.489 --> 00:56:26.610
I want the best for both of us.

00:56:26.659 --> 00:56:26.920
Yeah.

00:56:26.969 --> 00:56:29.210
You know, and, and we'd get a part ways and that was it.

00:56:29.210 --> 00:56:39.039
You know, there, there, there's so much more crazy complexity around running that now, which creates costs and everybody goes, why is it so expensive to live here in.

00:56:39.385 --> 00:56:40.664
In this state or area.

00:56:40.664 --> 00:56:46.534
So that that is the one hard part of, you know, going to the left side there to the right side.

00:56:46.545 --> 00:56:52.875
You know, I mean, of course I want I want better operations for businesses and in those areas.

00:56:52.875 --> 00:57:02.190
So, um, Uh, Trump's an, an individual that's pretty, I just looked, uh, Lerner County went 57 percent Harris and 40 percent Trump.

00:57:02.190 --> 00:57:05.179
So is it definitely buck the kind of national trend there?

00:57:05.230 --> 00:57:05.610
Yeah.

00:57:05.650 --> 00:57:05.880
Yeah.

00:57:05.880 --> 00:57:09.309
I mean, this is a very blue area for kind of many years now.

00:57:09.864 --> 00:57:16.375
Um, you know, so I, I, in the end, I, there should always be balance in the middle is kind of my philosophy and opinion on it.

00:57:16.425 --> 00:57:16.664
Yeah.

00:57:16.664 --> 00:57:16.914
Yeah.

00:57:16.914 --> 00:57:19.355
Um, you get too, too far one direction or the other.

00:57:19.585 --> 00:57:21.275
It creates turmoil for everybody.

00:57:21.295 --> 00:57:24.324
There should be like, uh, maybe there is polling data.

00:57:24.324 --> 00:57:32.835
That's like it's actually 19 percent Harris and 31 percent Trump and like 45 percent not too excited about neither.

00:57:33.244 --> 00:57:33.474
Yeah.

00:57:33.474 --> 00:57:45.809
Yeah, so, um, you know, I, I think a lot of people Uh, he's pretty, uh, um, uh, cutthroat and, and will make these decisions and signs all these executive orders.

00:57:45.860 --> 00:57:46.099
Yeah.

00:57:46.139 --> 00:57:54.039
I mean, I've heard from definitely other construction and farmer owners right now that are very concerned about deportations.

00:57:54.619 --> 00:57:55.650
I mean, yeah.

00:57:55.650 --> 00:57:56.440
How could you not be?

00:57:56.659 --> 00:57:57.340
Well, yeah.

00:57:57.340 --> 00:58:09.449
I mean, and, and, and heard about, uh, Uh, you know, things that are transpiring right now and this, this country, I mean, you gotta think that these farmers, some of them have half their workforce Totally.

00:58:09.454 --> 00:58:09.894
That, yeah.

00:58:09.894 --> 00:58:12.150
That, that are harvesting the, the crops and everything right now.

00:58:12.150 --> 00:58:15.030
So what is that gonna do to our food costs?

00:58:15.179 --> 00:58:16.289
Little alone availability?

00:58:16.295 --> 00:58:16.534
Yeah.

00:58:16.539 --> 00:58:16.739
Yeah.

00:58:16.744 --> 00:58:25.889
Um, no, I'm, it's, it's a concerning thing I think us as a country and it, what is gonna be the catalyst in the next month or two that either changes that or one way or the other.

00:58:25.949 --> 00:58:26.250
Yeah.

00:58:26.250 --> 00:58:27.570
No, it's an interesting, my.

00:58:28.159 --> 00:59:11.284
My hope is that the, the whole big we're getting rid of everybody kind of thing is a bunch of bluster and they really take action on the actual criminal record people or the people we just don't even know who they are, you know, um, but I've had some of that conversation with Alma and of course she's from a Mexican background and, uh, community and, you know, she knows more than a dozen people that she's like, I'm a little, A little nervous that somebody is going to come and grab them, you know, and that's what kind of a way to live is that terrible, especially if you were here going back to 2019 or 2018 or something, you've been working on your green card, you're doing these things and now you're like, Oh, am I going to be a innocent bystander to this sweep?

00:59:11.405 --> 00:59:14.784
95 percent of the people that are here usually here for the right reason.

00:59:14.784 --> 00:59:20.045
They want to work, make some money, give money to their family and, and just, you know, and have that.

00:59:20.215 --> 00:59:26.284
That dream lifestyle that any American wants to have, and they just maybe haven't gone through the process to, to get there with it.

00:59:26.295 --> 00:59:34.494
But, you know, there's a lot of jobs out there, uh, from farming to, to construction that not a lot of Americans are doing.

00:59:34.684 --> 00:59:38.105
And I think that's, that should be a concern for this, this country in general.

00:59:38.445 --> 00:59:41.005
No, I think, I mean, I think there should be consensus.

00:59:41.315 --> 01:00:06.840
Among both Republicans and Democrats honestly that we need to actually fix immigration so that we can import more people And we need to have the right kinds of standards and screening and perhaps a wall too so that we can tell the difference because like I hate to be a tinfoil hat guy, but how many like Potentially bad Chinese or Arab people came across the border the last few years.

01:00:06.960 --> 01:00:07.300
Yeah.

01:00:08.000 --> 01:00:10.139
Like it could be hundreds of thousands for all that.

01:00:10.199 --> 01:00:10.760
Oh, we don't.

01:00:10.789 --> 01:00:11.130
Yeah.

01:00:11.179 --> 01:00:11.519
Right?

01:00:11.519 --> 01:00:16.170
Like what would that do if there was an actual conflict and they were moles in our society?

01:00:17.449 --> 01:00:17.829
Okay.

01:00:18.260 --> 01:00:18.940
Tin foil hat.

01:00:18.960 --> 01:00:19.400
You know what I mean?

01:00:20.750 --> 01:00:21.280
I don't know.

01:00:21.289 --> 01:00:21.590
They might be.

01:00:22.059 --> 01:00:22.449
Yeah.

01:00:22.550 --> 01:00:28.670
Like if you were China, wouldn't you try to send a bunch of young recruits over to wreck the demon?

01:00:28.980 --> 01:00:34.710
Yeah, I mean, I, I don't know cause I've never dug down in that area and or been educated on it.

01:00:34.969 --> 01:00:45.539
So I, I, uh, uh, we could run through any scenario like that as in, but I agree with you, like the labor force is so important that if we literally bounce.

01:00:45.969 --> 01:00:47.670
You know, a significant portion of the population.

01:00:47.670 --> 01:00:54.429
Yeah, if we balance half the workers out here, there's going to be a food issue, uh, let alone construction issue, let alone, you know, et cetera, et cetera.

01:00:54.889 --> 01:01:03.829
So, um, I hope, I hope the, the, uh, talk and everything that's kind of transparent right now in the next month or two, uh, The bluster kind of slows down and moderates the action a little bit.

01:01:03.829 --> 01:01:07.280
Yeah, creates some, yeah, some, some balance, you know, is really, is really what's needed.

01:01:07.280 --> 01:01:09.119
It's been out of balance in, in a couple different ways.

01:01:09.199 --> 01:01:09.530
Yeah, that's fair.

01:01:09.539 --> 01:01:11.800
So, you know, um.

01:01:11.860 --> 01:01:16.489
Should we talk about abortion or any of those other political hot topics?

01:01:17.099 --> 01:01:23.280
I mean, I think you and I are the least qualified to talk about something like that.

01:01:24.460 --> 01:01:32.590
My blog that's going to come out tomorrow said, uh, basically one of the reasons that Harris lost the election is because she didn't really have a focus, a point.

01:01:32.590 --> 01:01:34.880
It was kind of like, things are pretty good.

01:01:34.929 --> 01:01:39.940
Continue Joe's legacy, protect women's rights and, uh, orange man bad.

01:01:40.119 --> 01:01:40.480
Yeah.

01:01:40.559 --> 01:01:41.400
You know, and that.

01:01:42.409 --> 01:01:48.619
Ultimately, she wasn't successful because she didn't kind of get to the point of what, what's going to be better with you.

01:01:48.769 --> 01:01:50.630
Um, and so, I don't know.

01:01:50.659 --> 01:01:51.460
We'll see what happens.

01:01:51.460 --> 01:01:59.474
I, you know, it's a, it's a complicated world and the unintended consequences of Any action are, are significant.

01:02:00.065 --> 01:02:08.224
I hope we get the hell out of, uh, I hope Russia and Ukraine comes to terms that are Disappointing to both of them soon and we can quit worrying about World War Three.

01:02:08.264 --> 01:02:27.159
Yeah, war's bad overall as we all know and in the the the ancillary people that are affected within those communities And, uh, um, uh, children and everybody that's affected something like that will, will, will carry that for multi generations in their lives.

01:02:27.510 --> 01:02:29.280
And that is incredibly sad.

01:02:29.719 --> 01:02:40.125
Um, we, we are so isolated here in Fort Collins, Colorado with This great blessed community that we live in and, uh, and I, I very much, uh, tell myself that.

01:02:40.224 --> 01:02:40.945
Dang, I forgot.

01:02:41.635 --> 01:02:43.875
I usually, uh, we got to the politics section.

01:02:43.875 --> 01:02:48.655
I usually offer a homegrown joint to consume during the show.

01:02:48.695 --> 01:02:49.994
Uh, is that of interest to you?

01:02:50.135 --> 01:02:51.885
We haven't talked about that before.

01:02:51.954 --> 01:02:53.655
I'm, I'm good with my, my, uh.

01:02:54.394 --> 01:02:55.105
White wine is fine.

01:02:56.034 --> 01:02:57.204
White wine and charcuterie.

01:02:57.204 --> 01:02:58.605
Thank you for the hospitality.

01:02:58.905 --> 01:02:59.304
Sure.

01:02:59.304 --> 01:02:59.724
As always.

01:02:59.974 --> 01:03:11.204
It actually, my, my percentage of, uh, acceptance has increased from like 7 percent to like 12 percent since people, since I've been saying it was my own homegrown.

01:03:11.264 --> 01:03:11.744
Oh really?

01:03:11.885 --> 01:03:12.244
Yeah, yeah.

01:03:12.244 --> 01:03:12.664
That's fun.

01:03:12.965 --> 01:03:15.784
I grew like a, one big plant and it grew like, I don't know.

01:03:16.250 --> 01:03:20.309
Quarter pound half pound or something like a ton this year, man.

01:03:20.309 --> 01:03:47.110
I remember when you know, but give it away like crazy pot became Legal or medically legal in Colorado, you know, and at that point I went I was like, it's over, you know It's gonna be here and it's gonna be legalized one hours Yeah, I knew that was the first test step for doing it and one of the reasons it's so expensive to operate a business here is because You have to have warehouse space to grow this Marijuana and it took up a lot of the warehouse space in Colorado, right?

01:03:47.130 --> 01:03:59.969
Oh, yeah rents you were four to six dollars a square foot and they doubled plus In colorado because it's a lot more lucrative to have a uh marijuana operation going in a warehouse Yeah, you know, uh fun little back.

01:04:00.030 --> 01:04:01.000
Yeah from years ago.

01:04:01.050 --> 01:04:03.590
How many total square foot do you suppose they grow in now?

01:04:04.215 --> 01:04:05.925
Oh, I, I don't, I'm hundreds of thousands.

01:04:05.934 --> 01:04:08.835
Yeah, I mean, yeah, I mean, I'm depending on the size of the operation.

01:04:08.835 --> 01:04:10.715
At least for a season there was a shortage.

01:04:10.724 --> 01:04:12.675
Yeah, is my, yeah, is my, my guess.

01:04:12.675 --> 01:04:13.074
Yeah.

01:04:13.144 --> 01:04:14.034
You know, so.

01:04:14.364 --> 01:04:21.315
What would you say as a mostly non consumer or perhaps fully non consumer, you think weed has been good or bad for Colorado or?

01:04:21.489 --> 01:04:21.920
Neutral.

01:04:23.679 --> 01:04:24.579
Probably neutral.

01:04:24.619 --> 01:04:28.489
I'm not educated enough on the tax, um, you know, revenues.

01:04:28.489 --> 01:04:30.219
Yeah, how much good has happened from it.

01:04:30.219 --> 01:04:30.989
And yeah, where those go.

01:04:30.989 --> 01:04:33.820
I mean, uh, that was enacted to where a lot that those.

01:04:33.829 --> 01:04:34.739
That was a theory, right?

01:04:34.750 --> 01:04:35.789
To go into the educational systems.

01:04:35.789 --> 01:04:36.829
The kids will be smarter if we just.

01:04:36.829 --> 01:04:49.855
Yeah, you know, and um, I, I think it was a good thing from the aspect of Um, it, it was already here before then, um, to go ahead and might as well regulate it and tax it, uh, to make it safer.

01:04:49.925 --> 01:04:57.385
Uh, I, I, I don't think that was a bad thing, honestly, um, but I, I, uh, hopefully the, the, the tax revenue has done some good.

01:04:57.434 --> 01:05:03.405
I don't know, I have never dug into where that's done, but I mean, you don't see the societal collapse that some see.

01:05:04.014 --> 01:05:06.355
Or maybe that's why we voted 57 percent for Harris.

01:05:06.364 --> 01:05:17.355
No, I mean, you know, here's, here's the thing that when, when pot became legal here in Colorado, the people that always smoked still smoked, but the people that didn't smoke didn't smoke.

01:05:17.355 --> 01:05:25.585
And it's, it really didn't change anything other than the fact that he could go down a store and buy it, you know, so I didn't really see a major change with, with anything there.

01:05:25.784 --> 01:05:26.625
That's so well observed.

01:05:26.914 --> 01:05:29.264
Like it's exactly the echo of my experience.

01:05:29.735 --> 01:05:31.894
There was a few people that were like, Ooh, I'm going to try it.

01:05:31.894 --> 01:05:32.344
And then they.

01:05:32.719 --> 01:05:37.199
Didn't, you know, people would try edibles or something like that, they're like, nah, whatever.

01:05:39.139 --> 01:05:40.900
Religion or family, would you prefer?

01:05:42.510 --> 01:05:45.059
Cause you do faith politics, faith family politics.

01:05:45.119 --> 01:05:46.690
Well, family, faith family politics.

01:05:46.690 --> 01:05:48.230
So, family now?

01:05:48.300 --> 01:05:48.750
Yeah, sure.

01:05:48.869 --> 01:05:53.909
Well, we talked about politics first, we went backwards already, cause I wanted to talk about Trump with you, get you in the hot seat.

01:05:54.230 --> 01:05:57.559
Uh, family, so we talked about your mom, your dad, a little bit, your sister.

01:05:57.980 --> 01:06:02.605
Um, Are you still in a relationship I assume?

01:06:02.735 --> 01:06:02.914
Yeah.

01:06:02.914 --> 01:06:03.655
Long term relationship?

01:06:03.655 --> 01:06:04.875
Yeah, long term relationship.

01:06:04.914 --> 01:06:13.144
Um, you know, um, my spouse, uh, partner Stacey and I, we've been together 12, going on 13 years right now.

01:06:13.675 --> 01:06:17.005
Yep, so, uh, we met through the events industry.

01:06:17.074 --> 01:06:22.719
She was doing, uh, working for, uh, Uh, Sneagrab, uh, corporate, uh, sports authority.

01:06:22.820 --> 01:06:23.150
Okay.

01:06:23.210 --> 01:06:27.670
And, uh, doing the Sneagrab tents from Colorado to Montana to Alaska.

01:06:27.829 --> 01:06:28.219
Okay.

01:06:28.230 --> 01:06:30.400
And so that was happening in Fort Collins.

01:06:30.469 --> 01:06:30.739
Sure.

01:06:30.889 --> 01:06:33.960
And I kinda, kinda hunted her down to get the business and.

01:06:34.309 --> 01:06:38.590
And she blew me off for like six months, you know, uh, to get the business.

01:06:38.590 --> 01:06:42.440
And I just kind of, you know, did that, but we ended up doing a couple of dates.

01:06:42.730 --> 01:06:46.989
She played very tough to get ah, um, I will say that.

01:06:47.079 --> 01:06:52.239
And um, uh, so I was very lucky to just kind of be able to hang out with her and get to know her.

01:06:52.300 --> 01:06:52.809
Yeah.

01:06:52.809 --> 01:06:52.811
Yeah.

01:06:53.110 --> 01:06:56.670
And then how long, um, you said 13 years together?

01:06:56.670 --> 01:06:57.329
Exclusive.

01:06:57.389 --> 01:06:57.599
Yep.

01:06:57.599 --> 01:06:57.601
Yep.

01:06:57.989 --> 01:07:02.769
Um, you're probably edging out of, does she have children?

01:07:03.449 --> 01:07:04.469
No, no kids.

01:07:04.530 --> 01:07:05.150
You don't have kids.

01:07:05.150 --> 01:07:05.639
Yeah.

01:07:05.699 --> 01:07:06.699
Yeah, no kids.

01:07:07.280 --> 01:07:08.110
Did you guys think about it?

01:07:09.065 --> 01:07:36.019
Uh, you know, that's one thing when we got together, I think what you usually do in the first part of a relationship, you talk about like, you know, kids, and we're like, we're both like, yeah, you know, we're okay, you know, yeah, you know, and that's how we kind of, that's one of the reasons we got along is we both kind of always had that same philosophy together and, and, um, you know, so it's, uh, no kids, uh, family question now, like, If all of a sudden, by some whatever, she got pregnant, like, would you be excited to have a child together?

01:07:36.050 --> 01:07:36.869
No, we're old enough.

01:07:36.900 --> 01:07:38.789
We're, we're, we're past You'd be terrified.

01:07:38.989 --> 01:07:40.550
We're past that, Kurt.

01:07:40.599 --> 01:07:41.510
Yeah, fair enough.

01:07:41.510 --> 01:07:44.480
We're past that in life, so Yeah, I wonder what I would do.

01:07:44.489 --> 01:07:47.119
Like, Jill's 44, I'm 50, right?

01:07:47.130 --> 01:07:48.489
Like, so we're past that too.

01:07:48.590 --> 01:07:48.889
Yeah.

01:07:49.150 --> 01:07:50.820
And, like, I don't know what we would do.

01:07:51.050 --> 01:07:51.219
Yeah.

01:07:51.219 --> 01:07:51.614
You know?

01:07:51.764 --> 01:07:54.764
Yeah, I mean, uh, we're, we're, uh, we're great.

01:07:54.795 --> 01:07:57.514
We are dog parents and, uh, One dog?

01:07:58.445 --> 01:07:59.344
Two dogs.

01:07:59.434 --> 01:08:02.664
You know, uh, this will come up within some of the philosophy.

01:08:02.664 --> 01:08:04.505
We had one of the dogs pass in the past couple of weeks.

01:08:04.525 --> 01:08:05.094
Oh, I'm sorry.

01:08:05.105 --> 01:08:06.795
And, uh, yeah, thank you.

01:08:06.885 --> 01:08:08.324
And, uh, So now one dog?

01:08:08.534 --> 01:08:09.335
Yeah, one dog.

01:08:09.425 --> 01:08:09.664
Okay.

01:08:10.715 --> 01:08:12.795
Let's talk about the departed dog first.

01:08:12.844 --> 01:08:15.034
Oh my god, we probably should not bring that up.

01:08:15.065 --> 01:08:20.444
Well, you might cry, but that's okay.

01:08:21.260 --> 01:08:25.260
The back story on these dogs, we travel.

01:08:25.800 --> 01:08:25.890
Okay.

01:08:25.890 --> 01:08:28.829
That's one thing that CCA like to do is travel usually once a year.

01:08:29.189 --> 01:08:31.229
Um, Puerto Rico's been one of our favorites.

01:08:31.229 --> 01:08:32.760
We've been down there four or five times.

01:08:32.909 --> 01:08:33.119
Okay.

01:08:33.180 --> 01:08:36.840
And we went to breakfast at this restaurant and they had posted on their Facebook page.

01:08:36.840 --> 01:08:40.409
We'd lot, we'd actually both come from with dogs from our previous relationship.

01:08:40.439 --> 01:08:40.710
Okay.

01:08:40.710 --> 01:08:41.010
Ship.

01:08:41.010 --> 01:08:43.890
So we both had dogs and they all passed within a year.

01:08:43.890 --> 01:08:45.510
It was absolutely terrible.

01:08:45.539 --> 01:08:45.899
Oh, wow.

01:08:45.960 --> 01:08:48.449
Uh, they were just, they, they got old and, and whatnot.

01:08:48.449 --> 01:08:49.079
It was terrible.

01:08:49.140 --> 01:08:54.385
And, uh, but we were in Puerto Rico and this restaurant posted, uh, one of the tugs and, um.

01:08:55.430 --> 01:09:00.960
Uh, uh, so I was, I went to breakfast and, and then, you know, I was like, no, no, we're not going to do it.

01:09:00.970 --> 01:09:01.630
And I surprised her.

01:09:01.630 --> 01:09:04.529
I took her over to the rescue and that dog was gone.

01:09:04.590 --> 01:09:05.470
I was a Sharpay.

01:09:05.800 --> 01:09:06.590
Oh, in Puerto Rico.

01:09:06.590 --> 01:09:06.720
Yeah.

01:09:06.720 --> 01:09:07.289
In Puerto Rico.

01:09:07.289 --> 01:09:07.460
Yeah.

01:09:07.779 --> 01:09:07.930
Yeah.

01:09:07.930 --> 01:09:10.649
It was a Sharpay, you know, kind of pity little dog and whatnot.

01:09:11.149 --> 01:09:11.829
The dog wasn't there.

01:09:11.840 --> 01:09:14.260
We made another dog and she's like, Oh, the dog will be back in two days.

01:09:14.260 --> 01:09:15.510
Her brother got adopted, et cetera.

01:09:15.739 --> 01:09:17.199
We were back like two days later.

01:09:17.409 --> 01:09:18.050
She's there.

01:09:18.069 --> 01:09:19.489
The brother didn't get adopted.

01:09:19.895 --> 01:09:27.685
And they are just, they're 12 weeks old, you know, and they're just like glued to each other, pulling on each other in the room and, and they, you, they just love each other to death.

01:09:27.704 --> 01:09:28.654
So has that been the two?

01:09:28.774 --> 01:09:29.125
Yeah.

01:09:29.534 --> 01:09:34.875
And so, and so anyways, you know, and I asked Stacy, I go, I go, which, and I was like, which dog do you want to choose to bring home?

01:09:35.925 --> 01:09:38.114
And I already knew I was screwed at that, you know, at that point.

01:09:38.114 --> 01:09:39.345
And she goes, yeah, you could stay here.

01:09:39.345 --> 01:09:39.994
They're both coming with.

01:09:40.470 --> 01:09:44.069
The rescue lady dropped the, uh, I was like, we don't leave for three days.

01:09:44.069 --> 01:09:53.210
And she's like, I'll meet you at the airport, three hours away, dropped them in our arms at the airport at eight o'clock in the morning, stood back, took a picture, uh, which I'll, I'll, I'll share with you.

01:09:53.369 --> 01:09:58.399
And we had these two dogs that we got on an airplane and all of a sudden we're dog parents, brought them back.

01:09:58.399 --> 01:09:59.789
So this is, that's 2018.

01:10:00.829 --> 01:10:04.810
And, um, and we just spent so much time with these dogs.

01:10:04.810 --> 01:10:05.399
They're our kids.

01:10:05.909 --> 01:10:07.359
And so, um.

01:10:07.939 --> 01:10:26.189
Uh, the, the one dog, um, Raina, our, our Brown Sharpay, uh, a couple of weeks ago, she just had a, um, disc bulge suddenly and, um, and it happened so quick Monday, acting weird Tuesday at the vet, Wednesday at CSU, back at CSU at four o'clock in the morning.

01:10:26.550 --> 01:10:29.350
And, uh, we had to say goodbye on Thursday night.

01:10:29.390 --> 01:10:30.239
It was terrible.

01:10:30.310 --> 01:10:30.699
Wow.

01:10:30.729 --> 01:10:31.050
So.

01:10:31.590 --> 01:10:32.720
Just intense pain.

01:10:32.970 --> 01:10:33.989
Yeah, she was in intense pain.

01:10:33.989 --> 01:10:37.460
You can spend 12, 000 to maybe have a chance to alleviate.

01:10:37.470 --> 01:10:42.829
You know, there is no cost you can put on a, your, one of your best friends and your kid.

01:10:43.439 --> 01:10:43.930
That's true.

01:10:44.170 --> 01:10:50.460
And so that, that was, it was more of the fact that we did everything we could and she was in so much pain and we just had to let her go.

01:10:50.770 --> 01:10:51.100
It was terrible.

01:10:51.569 --> 01:10:52.649
So, I'm so sorry.

01:10:52.659 --> 01:10:57.680
And that's one of the things when you sign up for these animals, they will give you the most joy and love.

01:10:57.864 --> 01:10:58.154
Yeah.

01:10:58.159 --> 01:10:58.470
Yeah.

01:10:58.470 --> 01:11:00.539
And they're incredible in so many ways.

01:11:00.689 --> 01:11:03.300
How's, uh, how's the other dog doing with their absence?

01:11:03.305 --> 01:11:03.515
Yeah.

01:11:03.614 --> 01:11:04.170
Fo yeah.

01:11:04.199 --> 01:11:06.510
Foster, I mean, they're, they're so, they're literally brother and sister.

01:11:06.539 --> 01:11:06.840
Yeah.

01:11:06.899 --> 01:11:09.569
Um, you know, so I imagine the bond is super crazy.

01:11:09.569 --> 01:11:10.619
Incredibly intense.

01:11:10.619 --> 01:11:10.890
Yeah.

01:11:10.890 --> 01:11:15.750
So, um, yeah, he's, he's, uh, you know, you can, until things are different, you know?

01:11:15.840 --> 01:11:15.960
Yeah.

01:11:15.960 --> 01:11:24.960
So, um, yeah, we had, uh, brother and sister cats, um, Bootsy that we still have, and then the king of LaPorte, uh.

01:11:25.505 --> 01:11:27.555
His name was Barley, and he got hit by a car.

01:11:27.625 --> 01:11:28.425
Oh my god.

01:11:28.435 --> 01:11:33.005
Like a week after our most previous exchange student moved in.

01:11:33.654 --> 01:11:38.925
And I wasn't around, I was out of pocket for a couple hours, so he like, carried the cat.

01:11:39.659 --> 01:11:44.289
To the backyard and stuff and man that the sister cat was a mess for a while.

01:11:44.340 --> 01:11:46.060
Yeah, she's still not the same.

01:11:46.069 --> 01:11:46.630
Honestly.

01:11:46.680 --> 01:11:47.750
100 percent Yeah.

01:11:48.010 --> 01:11:48.260
Yeah.

01:11:48.260 --> 01:11:58.710
When you have a bond like that, you know, with a, uh, animal sibling, you know, and it's, it's, it's a, it's a thing for everybody, but she was going to turn seven this last week.

01:11:59.000 --> 01:11:59.909
So it was, yeah.

01:12:00.069 --> 01:12:02.720
It was so sudden, and what not, yeah.

01:12:02.720 --> 01:12:06.640
And when we signed up for this, we said, Cool, we got 12, 14 years with these animals.

01:12:07.010 --> 01:12:10.689
And that was the traumatic part, shocking part of it, so.

01:12:10.739 --> 01:12:14.850
We, uh, I usually ask a one word description of the kids.

01:12:14.920 --> 01:12:19.770
Um, would you like to give a one word in remembrance of Rain?

01:12:19.770 --> 01:12:21.239
Or is that not enough words?

01:12:21.779 --> 01:12:25.520
Um, Man, spirited.

01:12:26.439 --> 01:12:26.649
Okay.

01:12:26.649 --> 01:12:28.340
Yeah, she was the alpha of the house.

01:12:28.409 --> 01:12:28.819
Okay.

01:12:29.050 --> 01:12:29.619
Okay.

01:12:29.960 --> 01:12:31.149
And, and Fosta is?

01:12:31.159 --> 01:12:32.050
Fosto, yes.

01:12:32.060 --> 01:12:32.479
Fosto?

01:12:32.560 --> 01:12:33.449
Fosto, yeah, her brother.

01:12:33.489 --> 01:12:37.800
And, he's like, does he feel lost without somebody telling him what to do all the time now?

01:12:37.939 --> 01:12:52.640
Yeah, I mean, she was the one like We're going, and he would follow with, yeah, I mean, he's, he's figuring it out and we're figuring it out as a, as a, as a family and we're, we're, we're making it work and it's about adjusting, you know, as humans, we're 70 percent habit every day.

01:12:52.890 --> 01:12:56.220
You get up, you brush your teeth the same way the other day, you shower the same way.

01:12:56.670 --> 01:13:04.350
There's all these habits that we had together as a family and with the dogs and having to readjust that has been probably the most challenging part.

01:13:04.350 --> 01:13:06.079
So we're, but as animals.

01:13:06.300 --> 01:13:11.210
You know, we, we, we adapt and you've got to, you got to figure out what the next new normal is.

01:13:11.210 --> 01:13:11.680
Yeah, yeah.

01:13:11.729 --> 01:13:13.329
That's what's kind of transpiring right now.

01:13:13.369 --> 01:13:14.550
Yeah, that's really interesting.

01:13:14.560 --> 01:13:16.859
Do you have a, a one word for Fosto too that you would share?

01:13:16.859 --> 01:13:24.819
Oh, Fosto is um, man, he is sensitive.

01:13:25.340 --> 01:13:25.529
Yeah.

01:13:25.840 --> 01:13:26.069
Yeah.

01:13:26.069 --> 01:13:27.270
He's a sensitive dog.

01:13:27.310 --> 01:13:31.430
I don't really, I don't really, I'm not sure the Does he come snuggle with you guys in the morning after?

01:13:31.430 --> 01:13:32.859
Yeah, I mean, they were both.

01:13:33.380 --> 01:13:36.850
Yeah, you know, I mean, these dogs broke me, broke me down.

01:13:36.880 --> 01:13:40.890
I, I, you know, when, if we want to go back to like when I was 14, right?

01:13:41.069 --> 01:13:43.010
My parents would send me back to the farm on Illinois.

01:13:43.210 --> 01:13:49.210
I'd go back for two months as a kid in the summer and learn mechanics and putting farm equipment and doing all that stuff.

01:13:49.470 --> 01:13:54.029
So I, I kind of grew up seeing You know dogs are they sleep outside.

01:13:54.029 --> 01:13:55.020
Yeah, they sleep outside.

01:13:55.020 --> 01:13:55.239
They're part.

01:13:55.260 --> 01:14:04.439
They're part of the farm, right, you know And so this, this brown little Reina dog broke me down over a six month period in our house.

01:14:04.720 --> 01:14:06.069
Because when we brought him home, I go, Nope.

01:14:06.250 --> 01:14:07.239
You were still that kind of guy.

01:14:07.239 --> 01:14:07.550
Yeah.

01:14:07.550 --> 01:14:08.510
Here's a, here's a gate.

01:14:08.520 --> 01:14:10.220
The dog, the dog lives downstairs.

01:14:10.439 --> 01:14:13.399
You know, it's in this, this room is a part of the house that was in negotiations.

01:14:13.399 --> 01:14:15.720
And the stays that it had, you know, she had to turn her thing.

01:14:15.939 --> 01:14:22.020
She would invite, uh, open the gate up and she'd walk up to the, the, the mid level and just sit on the rug right there and stare at me.

01:14:22.460 --> 01:14:26.060
And, and, and then move a foot at a time over a six month period.

01:14:26.359 --> 01:14:30.060
This dog systematically broke my emotions down over time.

01:14:30.060 --> 01:14:38.250
It was, it was terrible, you know, and then next thing you know, they're on the couch, they're on the beds and, and, and they're one of the greatest things that ever happened to me.

01:14:38.329 --> 01:14:39.300
Yeah, for sure.

01:14:39.569 --> 01:14:40.600
Well, I'm sorry for your loss.

01:14:40.630 --> 01:14:44.399
That's a, uh, yeah, it's a tough thing to go through.

01:14:44.399 --> 01:14:49.060
And, and I was just reflecting one of the, usually I get up and work for.

01:14:49.300 --> 01:14:50.300
90 minutes or something.

01:14:50.300 --> 01:14:54.130
And then I take a shower and then I climb back in bed and Jill gets up.

01:14:54.130 --> 01:15:03.430
And, and part of that whole process is Tucker comes in and says, hi, for like three or four minutes, you know, he's, he's an old grumpy dude at this point.

01:15:03.439 --> 01:15:09.710
Now he's not this nice where he once was, but he generally always comes in every morning and kind of, you know, licks Jill's nose a couple of times.

01:15:09.710 --> 01:15:18.130
And that habit, that companionship that you have is just one of the golden things in life is really what that is.

01:15:18.760 --> 01:15:20.319
Yeah, fill it with somebody, a little bit.

01:15:20.420 --> 01:15:20.739
Yeah.

01:15:20.930 --> 01:15:22.699
Some, something, some dog, somebody.

01:15:23.199 --> 01:15:24.729
Um, okay.

01:15:24.789 --> 01:15:26.029
Oh, we haven't talked about faith yet.

01:15:26.484 --> 01:15:26.875
Sure.

01:15:27.015 --> 01:15:27.284
Yeah.

01:15:27.335 --> 01:15:30.505
You mentioned along the journey that you came from a Catholic background.

01:15:30.505 --> 01:15:30.864
Yeah.

01:15:30.864 --> 01:15:36.385
So, you know, my dad's side was Catholic and then my mom's side was Christian, you know, in, uh, Illinois.

01:15:36.385 --> 01:15:39.484
So I kind of had a blended thing, but I was raised, you know, Christian.

01:15:39.654 --> 01:15:39.925
Okay.

01:15:39.965 --> 01:15:59.755
And then, um, you know, as I got out on my own, I I, I did a little bit of that, but you know, I, I, I kind of developed just my own philosophy of Phil being and not really attending any sort of denomination or, or any, never really revolted against your background, just really engaged either, you know, do the right thing to write people and, and all that.

01:15:59.814 --> 01:16:10.925
Well, I mean, I heard it in your values of humility and yeah, certainly your values have been impacted from that background, but no, uh, you don't feel an absence or a desire to.

01:16:11.694 --> 01:16:12.774
Engage more in that.

01:16:13.005 --> 01:16:13.314
No.

01:16:13.354 --> 01:16:14.024
Part of your world.

01:16:14.125 --> 01:16:34.654
No, it's, it's, you know, I, I've just kinda got my, my own, uh, complacency, you know, uh, as I'll say, yeah, you know, I mean, you know, the, the, if you look at the, um, uh, I mean, one of the things I'm interested in a lot more as you get older is like health, you know, and, and, and, and food and all that stuff.

01:16:34.675 --> 01:16:39.640
And, and if you've ever watched the, the blue zone show on, um, On Netflix.

01:16:39.640 --> 01:16:46.319
So anyways, there's, there's these five or six zones across the planet where people live to like the a hundred years old.

01:16:46.739 --> 01:16:47.659
Why is this?

01:16:47.670 --> 01:16:50.220
And that's what they went out and studied over like a 20 year period.

01:16:50.640 --> 01:16:55.579
And the three commonalities within that are, uh, food, community.

01:16:55.895 --> 01:17:01.734
And exercise, you know, and they're like, well, why are the people on the bottom of the, this Italy village not living as long?

01:17:01.954 --> 01:17:15.479
And what they discovered is like, there's hills more and this will move up here, you know, and they were getting more exercise, but the community aspect is what's so important that I've, I've found, um, as you get older in life, you know, first, when you're.

01:17:15.479 --> 01:17:19.350
19, 20, you know, younger, and you're like, ah, where's the party at?

01:17:19.449 --> 01:17:19.859
Right.

01:17:19.899 --> 01:17:20.680
You're surrounded by people all the time.

01:17:20.689 --> 01:17:21.529
Yeah, exactly.

01:17:21.829 --> 01:17:33.710
But having, um, uh, good neighbors and good family and that kind of stuff and creating that, um, uh, community aspect because we're inherently social animals and you've got to have that in your life.

01:17:34.079 --> 01:17:41.670
And so, uh, that's kind of been a little bit more of, uh, my focus as you say, faith, it's more in the community that I've built.

01:17:41.854 --> 01:17:42.614
Around myself.

01:17:42.755 --> 01:17:43.104
I dig it.

01:17:43.314 --> 01:17:43.704
I dig it.

01:17:44.064 --> 01:17:46.305
Um, any shout outs on that?

01:17:46.314 --> 01:17:48.555
Like, are you neighborhood guy?

01:17:48.555 --> 01:17:52.204
Are you a big golfer or do you have a gym that you love or a men's group?

01:17:52.395 --> 01:17:52.694
Both.

01:17:52.725 --> 01:17:54.465
You know, all, all the above here.

01:17:54.965 --> 01:17:57.694
Um, Uh, our neighbors are fantastic.

01:17:57.694 --> 01:18:02.975
We've got, uh, five plus neighbors that have, they all have kids actually.

01:18:03.414 --> 01:18:07.015
And so Stacey and I are surrounded by, yeah, the dinks that are always available.

01:18:07.015 --> 01:18:09.895
Oh, we're, we're, yeah, we're, we're the dink wads, you know?

01:18:10.244 --> 01:18:16.005
And so, um, we have, um, uh, the kids in the neighborhood are four to 10.

01:18:16.005 --> 01:18:22.244
And so we're, we're always the fun aunt and uncle of the neighborhood and have, have that kind of fun aspect to it.

01:18:23.314 --> 01:18:25.484
So that's my community that we're directly involved with.

01:18:25.935 --> 01:18:29.095
Um, business people that obviously I interact with yourself.

01:18:29.444 --> 01:18:32.845
And then, um, I get a gym here in town, uh, manic training.

01:18:33.255 --> 01:18:34.864
Um, it's, it's hit training.

01:18:34.875 --> 01:18:38.784
These, uh, they do a, uh, a fantastic job of community.

01:18:38.814 --> 01:18:39.034
Good.

01:18:39.034 --> 01:18:42.944
By the way, you're, you're probably 10 off of where you were 18 months ago.

01:18:42.944 --> 01:18:43.435
I think so.

01:18:43.475 --> 01:18:45.595
Yeah, possibly, you know, par.

01:18:45.645 --> 01:18:45.944
Yeah.

01:18:46.295 --> 01:18:47.564
I've been training with manic for almost.

01:18:47.829 --> 01:18:48.829
Almost two years now.

01:18:48.829 --> 01:18:52.859
And the one thing that attracted me to this gym where I've done CrossFit.

01:18:53.104 --> 01:18:56.045
Jiu Jitsu, Orange Theory, all that kind of stuff.

01:18:56.475 --> 01:18:59.064
The Manic Training has the social aspect to it.

01:18:59.505 --> 01:19:05.135
And so, and that's what I, I enjoy about the gym because the, the, the owner operator there is, he's small business.

01:19:05.395 --> 01:19:08.465
And he's very much about, um, creating a community.

01:19:08.954 --> 01:19:13.045
And I think that's just, uh, and, and adheres to some of the values of community that I talked about.

01:19:13.095 --> 01:19:14.284
It's not that easy sometimes.

01:19:14.284 --> 01:19:17.314
And so, kudos to him for doing that and inspiring that in others.

01:19:17.465 --> 01:19:17.774
Yeah.

01:19:17.885 --> 01:19:18.625
Um.

01:19:19.279 --> 01:19:21.069
I'm comfortable moving on.

01:19:21.710 --> 01:19:26.550
Are you ready for, um, the, uh, grab bag questions?

01:19:27.039 --> 01:19:27.880
Oh, sure.

01:19:27.930 --> 01:19:28.220
This is new.

01:19:30.229 --> 01:19:32.380
Grab three ping pong balls out of here.

01:19:33.300 --> 01:19:34.180
Do you get to grab one too?

01:19:34.199 --> 01:19:34.500
No.

01:19:34.630 --> 01:19:35.239
Oh, oh.

01:19:35.289 --> 01:19:37.229
They're, uh, I'm gonna ask you the questions.

01:19:37.239 --> 01:19:40.609
The balls are associated with a question that Dave and I have come up with.

01:19:40.829 --> 01:19:41.159
Oh boy.

01:19:41.659 --> 01:19:52.555
And some lucky listener will receive a, uh, Prize for responding back with the answer to one of your questions.

01:19:52.564 --> 01:19:58.845
So if you're listening out there, keep listening and Phil, if you would, I have a good one, by the way.

01:19:59.854 --> 01:20:06.375
It's just even like, you know, the question, well, not a question, but just, you know, people always say, cause flex productions is the company, right?

01:20:06.404 --> 01:20:06.734
Yeah.

01:20:06.805 --> 01:20:08.154
What does flex stand for?

01:20:09.425 --> 01:20:12.404
Do we, do we, do you want to, do you want to have a listener?

01:20:12.425 --> 01:20:14.335
That could be one of, that could be one of your three questions.

01:20:14.364 --> 01:20:17.435
I think, I think somebody should, why is there a double X on flex?

01:20:17.859 --> 01:20:18.560
There was two of us.

01:20:19.020 --> 01:20:19.810
Oh, okay.

01:20:19.859 --> 01:20:21.010
Yeah, that started the organization.

01:20:21.029 --> 01:20:22.560
And, and what does it stand for?

01:20:22.789 --> 01:20:25.069
Fort Collins Leading Event Experts.

01:20:25.270 --> 01:20:25.560
Oh.

01:20:26.989 --> 01:20:27.800
And then there's two of you.

01:20:27.920 --> 01:20:29.301
There's two of us that started this.

01:20:29.301 --> 01:20:29.568
Yep.

01:20:29.568 --> 01:20:32.329
So that's, that's where, that's where the, the acronym came up.

01:20:32.350 --> 01:20:32.539
That's cool.

01:20:32.539 --> 01:20:32.800
That's cool.

01:20:32.800 --> 01:20:33.550
I did not know that.

01:20:33.550 --> 01:20:34.409
You don't talk about that enough.

01:20:34.409 --> 01:20:35.890
Not, not a lot of people know that.

01:20:35.939 --> 01:20:36.319
Yeah.

01:20:36.689 --> 01:20:36.939
Interesting.

01:20:36.939 --> 01:20:39.119
So, but that's the acronym of Wareflex Productions.

01:20:39.130 --> 01:20:43.550
You should actually promote that significantly at your April 16th party.

01:20:44.185 --> 01:20:50.345
Um, absolutely, we'll, we'll, we'll talk about it and I always do the same thing, kind of say, what does it, anybody know what it stands for?

01:20:50.625 --> 01:20:52.805
And 99 percent of people have never heard of it.

01:20:52.805 --> 01:20:53.505
Yeah, I didn't know about it.

01:20:53.555 --> 01:20:53.795
Yeah.

01:20:53.824 --> 01:20:55.414
And I've been around your radius for a while.

01:20:55.585 --> 01:20:57.614
Okay, so now you can grab two questions.

01:20:58.335 --> 01:20:59.335
We'll probably choose that one.

01:20:59.395 --> 01:21:01.024
Let's get a number one here.

01:21:01.114 --> 01:21:01.984
Oh, a number one.

01:21:02.444 --> 01:21:03.904
One is on the agenda.

01:21:03.935 --> 01:21:05.175
And a number 29.

01:21:05.914 --> 01:21:06.925
Oh man, 29's been picked.

01:21:07.425 --> 01:21:07.675
Has it?

01:21:07.715 --> 01:21:08.835
Hold on, let's recycle it then.

01:21:09.385 --> 01:21:09.835
Okay.

01:21:10.835 --> 01:21:13.404
Hold on here, uh, 26.

01:21:13.994 --> 01:21:15.215
Number 1 and number 26.

01:21:15.685 --> 01:21:16.225
What do you got for me?

01:21:16.225 --> 01:21:17.255
Okay, I like that one.

01:21:17.465 --> 01:21:17.725
Okay.

01:21:17.725 --> 01:21:23.385
Number 26 is what's your favorite way to unwind after a stressful day?

01:21:24.965 --> 01:21:33.994
Um, you know, having a glass of wine, having a glass of wine is sitting out in the front yard with the pups, you know, that was, that's my, my go to.

01:21:34.470 --> 01:21:40.680
Um, you know, we live in the middle of Fort Collins, just on a, in a middle class house on a corner street.

01:21:41.079 --> 01:21:46.699
And uh, then, and one neighbor might come walking by and say hello, and then another one comes by and then I'll, Hey, do you want a cider?

01:21:46.750 --> 01:21:48.510
I love impromptu neighbor parties.

01:21:48.529 --> 01:21:52.979
Oh yeah, you know, and all of a sudden there's five or six of us out there talking and talking about the families and the kids.

01:21:53.039 --> 01:21:55.029
Uh, that's, that's an amazing thing.

01:21:55.159 --> 01:21:57.930
So do you think you guys will get another dog?

01:21:58.869 --> 01:22:02.149
Yeah, I'm sure eventually, you know, I, we're.

01:22:03.210 --> 01:22:04.239
He's kind of in betweener, right?

01:22:04.510 --> 01:22:07.319
Like a seven year old dog, you're like, well, do I want to wait seven years?

01:22:07.500 --> 01:22:08.810
Does he want to be only for seven years?

01:22:08.810 --> 01:22:10.750
No, foster needs companionship.

01:22:10.750 --> 01:22:15.380
It's very apparent as I've been walking him and meeting other dogs around, and we have neighbors with the dogs.

01:22:15.380 --> 01:22:17.050
Can I go home with them?

01:22:17.069 --> 01:22:20.619
Yeah, you know, his sparkle is back when he's with another dog.

01:22:21.085 --> 01:22:31.925
And so, um, I, I know eventually we'll, when the timing's right and a rescue is always what we, we, we do a dog that needs a lot of love and, and the, the family that we're able to give.

01:22:31.925 --> 01:22:34.375
Maybe it's worth going on a coaster or Puerto Rico.

01:22:34.824 --> 01:22:35.704
Very possible.

01:22:35.875 --> 01:22:36.475
Very possible.

01:22:37.625 --> 01:22:40.534
Uh, you know, shout out to, to Leo at Barks of Hope.

01:22:40.935 --> 01:22:44.034
Um, she is amazing solo.

01:22:44.404 --> 01:22:47.175
Uh, rescue owner down there, and that's where we got them from.

01:22:47.505 --> 01:22:49.664
She recently rescued a cow.

01:22:50.175 --> 01:22:51.064
His name is Berger.

01:22:51.085 --> 01:22:52.854
Maybe you could get a cow for fostered abuse.

01:22:54.175 --> 01:22:56.444
Well, CeCe's talked about a cow multiple times.

01:22:57.154 --> 01:22:58.114
Not in the middle of town.

01:22:58.524 --> 01:23:00.074
We don't, we don't have the place to do that.

01:23:00.074 --> 01:23:01.385
But, yeah, so.

01:23:03.409 --> 01:23:04.489
Number one was the other one?

01:23:04.899 --> 01:23:05.149
Yep.

01:23:05.229 --> 01:23:06.380
Oh, yeah, this is fun.

01:23:07.000 --> 01:23:21.789
Your favorite childhood memory Boy, um, probably my favorite childhood memories now are Hot air ballooning with the family.

01:23:22.159 --> 01:23:22.619
Interesting.

01:23:22.699 --> 01:23:36.470
Um, they had some friends that were balloonists and and so Um, we would go help set up the balloons, hot air balloons, and then you, you chase and stuff like that.

01:23:36.470 --> 01:23:36.840
Yeah, yeah.

01:23:36.859 --> 01:23:40.409
And, um, it is a very tight knit community, the ballooning community is.

01:23:40.489 --> 01:23:40.750
Yeah.

01:23:40.819 --> 01:23:45.680
And it's funny, I, I, I started with a guy who was pretty Do you do it more than once, up in the balloon?

01:23:46.020 --> 01:23:46.649
Yeah, yeah.

01:23:46.670 --> 01:23:54.460
You know, I was lucky enough to be able to go up, uh, multiple times, you know, working with this, uh, with the, the, the pilot at the time.

01:23:54.890 --> 01:24:08.340
And, um, and the balloon can be super, uh, uh, tight and, and here's a, here's another memory with, with Stacy and I were up in a steamboat at the, and, uh, Uh, they had a balloon rodeo, which they do every year.

01:24:08.859 --> 01:24:11.039
And so, uh, we were just happy to be up there.

01:24:11.039 --> 01:24:11.859
I didn't even think about it.

01:24:12.119 --> 01:24:13.390
And I was like, we got to the balloon event.

01:24:13.619 --> 01:24:16.079
And, and she was like, early in the morning.

01:24:16.319 --> 01:24:21.420
And so we ended up going to it and, um, and you know, six 45, it's like the pilots meetings in five minutes.

01:24:21.470 --> 01:24:22.439
Pilots meetings in five minutes.

01:24:22.439 --> 01:24:23.760
Now, come on, let's go to the pilots meeting.

01:24:23.760 --> 01:24:24.029
She goes.

01:24:24.284 --> 01:24:24.845
You're not pilot.

01:24:24.845 --> 01:24:26.574
We can't go to the the pilots meeting.

01:24:26.954 --> 01:24:29.454
I start talking to this pilot, you know, the pilot here.

01:24:29.454 --> 01:24:32.244
And I was like, Hey, I grew up ballooning with this guy, Marty Hill.

01:24:32.244 --> 01:24:34.185
That's been in the community for 40, 50 years.

01:24:34.185 --> 01:24:36.625
Ballooning is like, everybody knows Marty.

01:24:36.654 --> 01:24:37.225
Oh my gosh.

01:24:37.225 --> 01:24:37.364
Yeah.

01:24:37.364 --> 01:24:39.345
You know, he's like, he was like, you grew up with Marty and whatnot.

01:24:39.635 --> 01:24:44.944
And I was like, she's never been up and he go, and I go, if you'll take her up for a hop, just, you know, it'd be awesome.

01:24:44.944 --> 01:24:45.274
And whatnot.

01:24:45.284 --> 01:24:47.784
He's like, well, if we take her up, we're gonna take up with the whole time.

01:24:47.975 --> 01:24:49.135
And Stacey's afraid of Heights.

01:24:49.225 --> 01:24:53.975
Oh, and you know, this guy had been pulling for, I think it was like 26 years, super calm morning in steamboat.

01:24:54.375 --> 01:24:56.204
And, and I'm like getting a balloon.

01:24:56.204 --> 01:24:56.755
And she's like.

01:24:57.164 --> 01:24:57.975
I'm not getting the balloon.

01:24:57.975 --> 01:24:59.414
No, no, no, it was like getting the balloon.

01:24:59.414 --> 01:25:00.265
You're not going to have a better thing.

01:25:00.265 --> 01:25:01.354
It's beautiful out and whatnot.

01:25:01.354 --> 01:25:07.404
And he goes, well, I need somebody to, to have our chase vehicle, uh, runner chase vehicle, and he's like, can you drive a truck in the trailer?

01:25:07.404 --> 01:25:11.175
I was like, of course, you know, keys like that guy had met for 20 minutes.

01:25:11.204 --> 01:25:11.645
Awesome.

01:25:11.654 --> 01:25:14.055
That's how tight the ballooning community is, you know?

01:25:14.284 --> 01:25:14.425
Yeah.

01:25:14.425 --> 01:25:19.675
But your relationship with that old hat that you talked about, like you're already validated.

01:25:19.694 --> 01:25:20.055
Yeah.

01:25:20.085 --> 01:25:23.244
You know, as you know, it's, it's about connections everywhere.

01:25:23.295 --> 01:25:25.375
Motorcyclists are like that a little bit too.

01:25:25.715 --> 01:25:26.164
Have you ever been?

01:25:26.375 --> 01:25:27.125
Motorcyclist.

01:25:27.135 --> 01:25:27.824
It feels like you might.

01:25:27.975 --> 01:25:29.005
Yeah, absolutely.

01:25:29.005 --> 01:25:30.645
I've ridden for, Oh my gosh.

01:25:30.734 --> 01:25:32.545
Um, 30 plus years.

01:25:32.585 --> 01:25:33.034
Oh, really?

01:25:33.074 --> 01:25:33.435
Yeah.

01:25:33.595 --> 01:25:34.824
Do you have a ride right now?

01:25:34.875 --> 01:25:42.125
No, I, I, I have, um, uh, I got rid of a bike, but I started on like a little lady when I was maybe 10 or 12.

01:25:42.175 --> 01:25:48.734
I had a buddy that had a cabin and they had motorcycles up there and that's where I learned to ride an 80, 125, 250 and up from there.

01:25:49.289 --> 01:25:53.380
I've ridden, uh, bikes across Peru with some buddies.

01:25:53.380 --> 01:25:58.333
I rode across Italy and Corsica with some other buddies on some 1200 GSs.

01:25:58.333 --> 01:26:03.350
I mean, uh, yeah, I mean, motorcycling is a, a, a great fun sport.

01:26:03.460 --> 01:26:05.869
Um, and it's also a dangerous sport.

01:26:05.899 --> 01:26:10.220
It is very much so it's a, it's a time relative thing that I look at.

01:26:10.229 --> 01:26:14.869
It's not a matter of if it's a matter of when you go down and if you get hurt when you're going down.

01:26:14.869 --> 01:26:15.510
So.

01:26:15.510 --> 01:26:21.590
Uh, you know, stay safe out there, wear some gear, and uh, you know, and uh, yeah, but motorcycling's great.

01:26:21.960 --> 01:26:37.199
And I lied actually, because it can't be nearly as close knit as the, the hot air balloon community, because like, there's only, what, there might be 50 or 100 hot air balloonists in Colorado, maybe 250, or you know, some number, but it's not a ton.

01:26:37.220 --> 01:26:46.960
I don't know the, I don't know the stats of uh, The balloonists, um, in Colorado, but it's, yeah, it's a, it's a, I mean, uh, you gotta be a certified pilot, you know?

01:26:47.430 --> 01:26:48.640
Oh, absolutely.

01:26:49.220 --> 01:26:49.289
FAA.

01:26:49.289 --> 01:26:50.550
Is there like radios up there and stuff?

01:26:50.550 --> 01:26:50.869
Oh yeah.

01:26:50.909 --> 01:26:51.100
Yeah.

01:26:51.100 --> 01:26:52.659
You're, you're, you're a certified pilot.

01:26:52.720 --> 01:26:58.640
Uh, you know, there, there's a lot of certain amount of training you need to get licensing to go up in, uh, FAA airspace.

01:26:58.720 --> 01:27:00.560
It feels like I should just be able to, I'm a libertarian.

01:27:00.560 --> 01:27:03.939
I should just be able to build my own balloon and go up there if I want to.

01:27:04.199 --> 01:27:06.069
Uh, airplanes need to watch out for me.

01:27:06.119 --> 01:27:16.515
So, so, so yeah, so I, I, I, Uh, you, you know, yeah, you have to, uh, understand the, the air currents and the clouds and when to launch them because the only controls you have in a balloon are up and down.

01:27:16.645 --> 01:27:17.034
Yeah.

01:27:17.074 --> 01:27:22.204
You got to understand how the air currents are going to take you and where they're going to take you to be able to, to get where you kind of want to go.

01:27:22.215 --> 01:27:25.944
Well, I took a 200 level meteorology class when I was in college, so I feel.

01:27:26.329 --> 01:27:27.149
Pretty near qualified.

01:27:28.130 --> 01:27:30.020
So, um, Right, Phil says.

01:27:30.449 --> 01:27:38.779
I'll, I'll spin off to a, um, a story within business, because it's the best thing that you have in, uh, in the rental industry is these wild stories.

01:27:38.779 --> 01:27:39.680
Yeah, let's hear a couple.

01:27:39.729 --> 01:27:41.560
So, I'm going to spin off to a balloon story.

01:27:41.649 --> 01:27:42.020
Okay.

01:27:42.149 --> 01:27:53.500
Okay, so I get this phone call and this guy calls me up and he goes, How much if, because we were into helium tanks back in the day, it was pretty common in this area to, to have balloons and, uh, you know, for parties and whatnot.

01:27:54.039 --> 01:27:59.369
But, you know, this guy calls up and he's like, you know, how much will a, one of these tanks fill up and how much will it lift?

01:28:00.189 --> 01:28:07.720
And I go, I have, I usually a tank will blow up 400, eight inch balloons and, you know, 250, 12 inch balloons.

01:28:07.720 --> 01:28:10.710
You know, that was the metrics that we had when they were, he's like, but how much will it list?

01:28:10.989 --> 01:28:16.340
I was like, man, you're going to have to call somebody at CSU or professor of how this kind of works and whatnot.

01:28:16.640 --> 01:28:19.710
So this guy comes and rents like four helium tanks from us.

01:28:20.100 --> 01:28:21.100
And, um.

01:28:21.689 --> 01:28:23.640
Uh, you know, and, and rinse these tanks from us.

01:28:23.720 --> 01:28:24.770
I didn't really know who he was.

01:28:24.779 --> 01:28:31.130
And, and then all of a sudden one of my employees, like, you know, four or five days later, they're like, dude, did you check out the news?

01:28:31.130 --> 01:28:33.060
That guy that rented the helium tanks from us.

01:28:33.899 --> 01:28:37.729
Uh, his kids in the, in the fricking balloon and I go, what are you talking about?

01:28:37.729 --> 01:28:47.100
And you flip on the news and, and, you know, and all of a sudden we have this thing called the balloon boy and, and I'm going, holy shit, you know, what, what, what did we do here?

01:28:47.100 --> 01:28:48.350
But I was like, we didn't do anything.

01:28:48.729 --> 01:28:50.500
Uh, you know, he ran out of the tanks for us.

01:28:50.500 --> 01:28:55.000
We just supplied this and he did whatever he did, you know, yeah, you know.

01:28:55.524 --> 01:29:01.314
So, so, you know, I mean, it, you know, this, this whole thing goes down and, and I call him up because he's supposed to return them.

01:29:01.314 --> 01:29:02.475
Do you remember when that was?

01:29:02.685 --> 01:29:05.194
Like 06, 07, something like that?

01:29:05.265 --> 01:29:06.454
Uh, that was 11.

01:29:06.625 --> 01:29:07.185
11?

01:29:07.204 --> 01:29:07.534
Oh, wait.

01:29:07.534 --> 01:29:07.864
Okay.

01:29:07.875 --> 01:29:09.875
I believe it was 11 if I recall right.

01:29:10.225 --> 01:29:13.454
And for listeners that have no idea what you're talking about, do you want to give a synopsis?

01:29:13.454 --> 01:29:14.175
The balloon boy just.

01:29:14.340 --> 01:29:25.689
Google the balloon boy, you know, and it was a guy that kind of, it did a hoax, you know, of, of, you know, my kids in this balloon and, and, and, and just wanted some notoriety and whatnot.

01:29:26.420 --> 01:29:27.800
But anyways, we're a rental company.

01:29:27.819 --> 01:29:29.989
We're supposed to, the stuff's supposed to be returned by X date.

01:29:29.989 --> 01:29:30.199
Right.

01:29:30.210 --> 01:29:30.659
Oh, right.

01:29:30.699 --> 01:29:35.560
And so like a week goes by and I call him up and we're like, Hey, Richard, you get, you gotta bring these tanks back to me.

01:29:35.560 --> 01:29:39.149
You know, we, we, you know, we're, we're, we're, we're rental company and whatnot.

01:29:39.189 --> 01:29:42.850
So he, he, he's like, he's like, I can't leave my house.

01:29:43.869 --> 01:29:44.250
Come get it.

01:29:45.550 --> 01:29:50.029
So I go down there, and I pick up to his house, and it's media row.

01:29:50.170 --> 01:29:53.460
There is 20 freaking cameras up and down the road there.

01:29:53.600 --> 01:29:55.409
And I pull up and park, you know, just unmarked pickup.

01:29:55.409 --> 01:29:58.069
Did you drive your, yeah, I was gonna say, did you drive your bandit truck?

01:29:58.069 --> 01:29:59.670
Yeah, no, absolutely not, you know.

01:29:59.710 --> 01:30:00.960
I didn't want anything to do with this.

01:30:01.500 --> 01:30:02.739
And so, yeah, I pull up right there.

01:30:02.920 --> 01:30:04.470
And they're like, hey man, you can't park there, you know.

01:30:04.470 --> 01:30:22.085
And I was like, Oh, I'm here to pick up the helium tanks 20 cameras mobilize off these tripod boom on their freaking, you know Who are you with whatnot and I go private company walk up knocking the door, you know And I get in there and it's like blacked out at his house The curtains are drawn and i'm like, what are you doing, man?

01:30:22.175 --> 01:30:23.324
I was like, i've seen the healing tanks.

01:30:23.324 --> 01:30:24.185
Where are the healing tanks at?

01:30:24.185 --> 01:30:24.465
You know?

01:30:24.635 --> 01:30:26.225
Load them out of the truck and then get out of there.

01:30:26.854 --> 01:30:28.435
And so Did it ever come out or anything?

01:30:28.494 --> 01:30:30.984
Oh no, I just, I didn't want anything to do with it at all.

01:30:30.984 --> 01:30:31.585
You know what I mean?

01:30:31.585 --> 01:30:32.885
This guy is on national news.

01:30:32.885 --> 01:30:33.725
Well, for sure.

01:30:33.734 --> 01:30:35.385
In sort of whatever trouble at the time.

01:30:35.385 --> 01:30:36.454
I had no idea.

01:30:36.984 --> 01:30:39.385
So, uh, there's my balloon story.

01:30:39.385 --> 01:30:39.854
I like it.

01:30:39.954 --> 01:30:40.404
I like it.

01:30:40.404 --> 01:30:40.795
Yeah.

01:30:40.954 --> 01:30:45.265
Um, is that, would that be your loco experience?

01:30:45.265 --> 01:30:46.295
Your crazy experience?

01:30:46.295 --> 01:30:50.255
Or do you have some other crazy experiences of your lifetime that you'd like to share?

01:30:50.255 --> 01:30:58.694
The most, you know, the, the thing about the, Tenting industry is we install these big sails, right?

01:30:58.755 --> 01:31:06.375
Big sails Yeah, and if they become unanchored and weather elements, which they can even if you take the most serious precautions, right?

01:31:06.404 --> 01:31:08.435
They're still temporary structure slash tents.

01:31:08.505 --> 01:31:22.960
I've seen your dudes like screwing those big Like 18 inch long things and to anchor the tents down, but we were very we're very serious Uh, professional work with industry standards are very safe conscious about what we do in our industry.

01:31:23.369 --> 01:31:30.449
We had an incident and, uh, this was a subcontracted tent that I didn't, we didn't install, but it was a big enough part of your operation.

01:31:30.500 --> 01:31:30.890
Yeah.

01:31:30.890 --> 01:31:32.859
You know, and this is back in oh six.

01:31:33.194 --> 01:31:38.244
When we just, we didn't have products like this, a hundred by a 260 foot tent.

01:31:38.505 --> 01:31:38.975
Okay.

01:31:39.015 --> 01:31:43.305
So 26, 000 square feet for a 800 person gala.

01:31:43.335 --> 01:31:46.305
You're talking to like basically a rodeo event center.

01:31:46.444 --> 01:31:47.715
This is, yeah, yeah.

01:31:47.774 --> 01:31:48.255
Kind of thing.

01:31:48.734 --> 01:31:50.104
So this is a large tent.

01:31:50.164 --> 01:31:52.774
A, uh, microburst came through.

01:31:53.119 --> 01:32:00.890
Pulled a hundred and forty, forty two inch pins, stakes, out of the ground and threw this thing a hundred feet, uh, to the east.

01:32:01.159 --> 01:32:02.789
Um, and Before the event?

01:32:02.840 --> 01:32:03.409
Before the event.

01:32:03.409 --> 01:32:03.979
Okay, thank God.

01:32:03.979 --> 01:32:06.399
Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:32:06.470 --> 01:32:06.500
Right.

01:32:06.500 --> 01:32:07.970
Before the event, about four days before.

01:32:08.050 --> 01:32:08.369
Okay.

01:32:08.369 --> 01:32:13.920
You know, and so Um, and thank God nobody was standing to the east of where this thing landed.

01:32:14.060 --> 01:32:19.279
The center poles, there's 12 center poles on this thing, they're 35 feet high, they weighed 900 pounds each.

01:32:19.329 --> 01:32:20.000
Oh damn.

01:32:20.039 --> 01:32:22.789
I mean, there would have been You are talking about a sale.

01:32:22.920 --> 01:32:31.189
Yeah, I mean, it, it, it, it, it, it, in, in it, in it, um, and you know, it scared me mid, my core, because in the end, as the leader of this organization Yeah, yeah.

01:32:31.579 --> 01:32:36.199
I'm responsible for the safety of the consumer, the employees, and everybody.

01:32:36.600 --> 01:32:39.850
Um, and we changed a couple of systems there, but there was nothing really we did wrong.

01:32:39.850 --> 01:32:41.970
It was one of those freak happenstance things.

01:32:42.270 --> 01:32:44.300
And we just, we, I was lucky.

01:32:44.329 --> 01:32:46.140
It was lucky, the people were lucky that were there.

01:32:46.369 --> 01:32:48.560
They were all on the right side of the tent when it happened.

01:32:48.899 --> 01:32:52.539
And, um, so that's one of those instances that I'll forever remember.

01:32:52.800 --> 01:32:59.329
I was just thinking to myself, like Like, you're talking about a hundred by two hundred and sixty foot space, right?

01:32:59.850 --> 01:33:22.010
And, like, the ships that we sail across, used to sail across the ocean with, might have, like, you know, a triangular, a three triangular fifty by X or whatever, you know, the actual air catching ability of a sailing ship is probably only a tenth of what your tent was, like, in terms of ultimate square footage.

01:33:22.039 --> 01:33:27.930
Yeah, these, the tents are incredibly Powerful in the wind and even a 20 by 20 foot 400 square feet.

01:33:28.199 --> 01:33:44.550
You cannot control in in big wind scenarios yeah, we do trainings with our employees as far as like When we're in wind scenarios and what to do and and the the tents not value zero, you know it's about staying safe and And, um, and either anchoring it down or creating a safe situation.

01:33:44.640 --> 01:33:45.510
And how did that work out?

01:33:45.510 --> 01:33:49.140
What, cause you said you subcontracted this, uh, I guess that was his problem.

01:33:49.140 --> 01:33:50.140
Cause his failure.

01:33:50.159 --> 01:33:50.520
Yeah.

01:33:50.720 --> 01:33:55.020
Well, it's still my problem because we're the, we're the name of the face of the, of the actual client.

01:33:55.100 --> 01:33:59.270
Um, we ended up, the event ended up moving indoors was the best solution.

01:33:59.619 --> 01:34:04.909
Uh, we did try to deploy another system, but it rained for two days straight and it just became a mud.

01:34:05.300 --> 01:34:08.659
pit in this field, and it was an adjustment we made.

01:34:08.670 --> 01:34:09.489
Did you say 2011?

01:34:10.149 --> 01:34:13.039
Uh, that was, oh, no, wait, wait, oh.

01:34:14.029 --> 01:34:15.930
No, that was early, you said 06 or something like that.

01:34:15.930 --> 01:34:20.979
Yeah, oh, 2011 was, was Balloon Boy, and No, this was not 06, I'm sorry.

01:34:21.369 --> 01:34:27.194
Um I was just thinking, I think I went to Telluride Bluegrass Festival in 2011, and it was Like rained all weekend.

01:34:27.425 --> 01:34:28.975
No, it was 13 or 12.

01:34:29.024 --> 01:34:29.345
I don't know.

01:34:29.395 --> 01:34:30.225
Anyway, I digress.

01:34:30.965 --> 01:34:32.215
Yeah, yeah, don't matter.

01:34:32.395 --> 01:34:42.295
So, Phil, if people think you're cool after listening to the show and they want to make sure they get all their event rentals from you and from now on, um, you want to send them to where?

01:34:43.529 --> 01:34:45.029
Um, flex Productions.

01:34:45.029 --> 01:34:48.390
F-L-E-X-X-X productions, two Xs Yeah.

01:34:48.390 --> 01:34:49.979
Is our website.com.

01:34:50.100 --> 01:34:50.760
Um, yeah.

01:34:50.819 --> 01:34:55.800
And whenever our reach out to one of our team members, we have an appointment module on our website.

01:34:55.920 --> 01:34:59.489
We book you an appointment where they can make an appointment and come by and have a, have, have a tour.

01:34:59.550 --> 01:34:59.819
Yeah.

01:34:59.819 --> 01:35:07.890
I mean, have a, have we have a tour and, and a glass of wine, uh, you know, water what, whatever, when people come in, because we want them to be comfortable.

01:35:08.130 --> 01:35:10.675
It is a, we create an experience when people come, come in for sure.

01:35:11.154 --> 01:35:15.784
They, if you're a bride and a groom, you really don't know where to start with some of this stuff.

01:35:16.185 --> 01:35:21.515
And so our job is to really kind of coach them and say, here's your Alucard solutions.

01:35:21.545 --> 01:35:26.935
And, uh, and, and where we can come in and help and guide them to where they want to go within the vision that they have.

01:35:27.005 --> 01:35:27.064
Yeah.

01:35:27.064 --> 01:35:36.354
We didn't focus on it, but like your showroom area there, like where you've got different kinds of fancy levels of plates and silverware and all these different kinds of linens and different things.

01:35:36.685 --> 01:35:37.555
Got to touch it and feel it.

01:35:37.784 --> 01:35:38.614
Yeah, absolutely.

01:35:38.635 --> 01:35:41.234
You know, people are welcome to come in and see our operation.

01:35:41.604 --> 01:35:43.314
We, we enjoy when people come to see what we do.

01:35:43.694 --> 01:35:47.895
Anything you would ask me or, uh, declare before the year?

01:35:48.414 --> 01:35:50.085
Well, I'm trying to remember how you and I met each other.

01:35:50.085 --> 01:35:52.074
I think, was it really peach fest?

01:35:52.114 --> 01:35:52.835
I think so.

01:35:52.885 --> 01:36:05.125
I think I'm, I think actually, I think I might've been bears backyard grill, the, the food trucker guy that was doing grilled half peaches, but I was also involved with like the, you've been in Rotary forever?

01:36:05.125 --> 01:36:06.685
Yeah, I've been in Rotary for about that long.

01:36:06.685 --> 01:36:06.744
Yeah.

01:36:06.744 --> 01:36:09.744
And I was in the planning committee there and stuff like that for that event.

01:36:09.744 --> 01:36:12.925
So it's possible it was before then, but right around that time.

01:36:12.954 --> 01:36:13.284
Yeah.

01:36:13.289 --> 01:36:18.805
Yeah, because I had the, I had the food trailer with the, uh, red and red and blue umbrellas on top of it.

01:36:18.810 --> 01:36:21.778
Mm-hmm It was grill and peaches that mm-hmm One of those first years.

01:36:21.778 --> 01:36:21.779
Anyway.

01:36:22.175 --> 01:36:29.244
I think it's just interesting how time flies so much as you, as you kind of get older and you think back to like, Oh my gosh, how long was that?

01:36:29.314 --> 01:36:31.614
You know, and, and trying to figure that out.

01:36:31.664 --> 01:37:00.119
Um, it's, uh, um, You know, uh, that's, uh, those are the great times, you know, as far as I'm concerned and, and I'm, I'm impressed of, you know, Kurt also use a small business where you've kind of come with the think tank and, and how far it's come and, and I was lucky enough to, to be a member and, yeah, seven, I think it was seven years and, and then, yeah, and being possibly a member in the future and, and, and where the think tanks come and, and how much, uh, you know, you gave to the, you give to the business community as far as that.

01:37:00.149 --> 01:37:03.159
So I think that's, that's a lot of scrappiness.

01:37:03.159 --> 01:37:03.175
Yes.

01:37:03.175 --> 01:37:07.295
So, uh, whether you're in a garage or in kind of a virtual setting like this.

01:37:07.295 --> 01:37:08.244
Yeah, absolutely.

01:37:08.454 --> 01:37:08.805
Awesome.

01:37:08.845 --> 01:37:10.104
Well, Phil, Godspeed.

01:37:10.295 --> 01:37:10.625
Yeah.

01:37:10.694 --> 01:37:11.135
See you next time.

01:37:11.135 --> 01:37:11.545
Thanks, man.

01:37:11.704 --> 01:37:12.135
Appreciate it.

01:37:12.145 --> 01:37:12.564
Cheers.