EXPERIENCE 214 | Building Teams & Community, One Scoop at a Time - Jessica Dizmang, Owner of Ben & Jerry’s Fort Collins, Denver, and Boulder Locations and 2024 Operator of the Year

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This week, I was pleased to be joined by Jessica Dismay, the owner operator of the only three Ben and Jerry's locations in Colorado with Scoop shops located in Fort Collins, Denver, and Boulder.

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Her father had a career in corporate franchising with a stop at Ben and Jerry's and made her aware of an opportunity in Boulder.

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She was a fresh college graduate, not very inclined to work at an ice cream shop, but a couple months later in March of 2002, she became part owner and operator of the Pearl Street, Ben and Jerry's location.

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23 years later, Jessica has developed a three piece set of thriving locations on the Colorado front range, each with an empowered team.

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In 2024, she was named the operator of the year, and we explore her many lessons and learnings from along the journey.

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And she's a loco think tank member.

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Don't miss free Cone day April 8th at Ben and Jerry's locations around the nation and please enjoy as I did my conversation with Jessica Zing.

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Let's have some fun.

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Welcome to the Loco Experience Podcast.

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

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

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

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

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

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Welcome back to the Loco Experience Podcast.

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My guest today is Jessica Dizman.

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And Jessica is the owner of three local Ben and Jerry's shops.

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Correct.

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And, uh, welcome to the show.

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Thank you.

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Thanks for, this is fun.

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My first time.

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First time on any podcast.

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First time on any podcast, first time in person.

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Yeah.

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Oh, well.

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Um, I promise to be gentle.

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I, wonderful would say 90% of my guests are first timers.

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All right.

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Honestly.

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'cause they're just inspiring business people, but that isn't like who's on the podcast or necessarily unless they're topically engaged.

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Right, right.

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Yep.

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Yeah.

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Well, and you're extra smart about a lot of things.

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I would hope.

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I like to think so.

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I don't know.

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Yeah.

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Well, we all like to think so.

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Even dumb people think they're smart.

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I like to surround myself with smart people.

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Yes.

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Is that a smart thing to do?

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Yes.

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Always.

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Always.

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Um, so I guess let's just start off with, uh, let's just kinda give a recap.

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You've got the Fort Collins, Denver, and Boulder.

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Is that true?

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Correct.

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Yep.

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Those three shops.

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And I started with Boulder in 2002, so I just celebrated 23 years of doing this.

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Um, yeah.

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Single store for a really, really long time.

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Uh, and then had the opportunity to pick up stores in Denver in 2019.

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Okay.

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There were two of them at the time.

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One in Park Meadows Mall and one by the DU campus.

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Okay.

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Uh, that was lovingly, uh, about eight months prior to Covid starting.

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Oh, perfect.

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And so, yeah, that was perfect.

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Did you, and so did you pay the full price and then It was pretty close.

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So we closed one store, so the shop that was in Park Meadows Mall, we decided to close, uh, in November of that year.

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And so kept the Denver location.

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And then in 22, got really lucky and was able to purchase the shop here in Fort Collins.

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And you live here in northern Colorado?

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Windsor, Windsor.

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Live in Windsor.

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And did you then, or, and you went down there or did you move up here after you got to Fort Collins?

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Nope.

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I have lived in Windsor basically since I moved here, so Oh, wow.

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Moved here in 2002.

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Again, same, same kind of time period as the Boulder shop.

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Uh, met my husband about two days after I moved here.

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Okay.

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And he was born and raised in Windsor.

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Oh.

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So we, we, I moved up here.

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Yeah.

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Mm-hmm.

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Cool.

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Any, uh, draw to try to move closer to those two locations or the first one in Boulder?

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No.

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You were like, eh, I like Windsor a lot.

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I liked Windsor a lot.

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Yeah.

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We like it up here.

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Um, boulder's too expensive for actually afford to buy a home, especially when you just had one ice cream store.

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Right.

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Um, and yeah, no, I, I, we love it up here.

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And it was his hometown.

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We weren't going anywhere.

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I would imagine there's a lot of difference between, I'm guessing it's a little bit like a subway shop.

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Not really, but like where if you have one subway, you pretty much have to be an owner, manager and work in the shop all the time.

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When you get to three, you kind of.

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Have to not be the manager as much anymore or how has that transition been for you?

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I think so, yeah.

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I think most people, franchisees in our system, I think, yes, if they own one shop, they are owner operators for the most part, right?

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They're scoop ice cream regular, they're scoop ice cream.

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Um, I would say that that's sort of what I did.

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I would say I kind of tag myself as what I call the glorified shift manager for about the first seven years that I had that shop.

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I was young, I was only 23 years old when I, when I took over that store, had absolutely no experience, had no idea what it meant to own a business, didn't know anything about it, had never worked in an ice cream store, was basically like here was an opportunity, jumped at it and was kind of thrown into it.

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Yeah.

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And so I didn't have any idea what I was doing and so I really just sort of learned how to do the day-to-day stuff.

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I had no idea what it meant to run a business or lead people very well.

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You know, I knew how to.

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Delegate.

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Um, but I, but I didn't know how to, I didn't know how to run an organization and so it took me a really long time to, to kind of move out of that.

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We kind of say getting your head out of a dip case, and so we, okay.

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It took me a really long time to do that.

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Was it all bumping along on your own or did you start to seek like education, reading books, listening?

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Well, they weren't even really podcasts at that time, right?

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No, it was really bumping along on my own.

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Yeah.

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Um, it was, it was, that was, that's a good description of it.

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Um, I like to tease with local think tank.

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It's nice to learn from other people's mistakes Once in a while.

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Yes.

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Instead of just your own.

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Had I known'em at Local Think Tank, I think it's funny, I was reading, uh, I was engaging with somebody through a LinkedIn post actually just this past week, and they were talking about peer groups and I had mentioned that I had, you know, I've been a part of this for the last year or so, not quite.

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And she was mentioning how it would be great if there was something for new, new entrepreneurs, new people starting this.

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And my response was if you could get new entrepreneurs doing that, you know, out of the business and into doing that.

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Yeah.

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I think that that's a challenge for brand new people who are just entering the, that work type of work.

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Yeah, totally.

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I mean, you wanna just throw yourself into it.

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You're in what we call our thinkers chapters, which is kind of the mid sizers and the builders is kind of that solopreneurs up to, you know, maybe three or four employees, kind of.

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Mm-hmm.

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But you're still pedaling a lot.

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Yep.

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Um.

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Part of the rule.

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It's, it's not just a startup, you know, you have to have customers, you gotta have some things figured out.

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'cause otherwise, if you're in pure startup mode and God bless them, but you're just too much of a dumpster fire kind of, for, you can't, we can't allow that much disruption into our chapters.

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You're just so into it.

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I mean, your head, that's where your soul focus is going into your business.

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Yeah.

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And I think even with franchises or with groups, with businesses like mine, I think when you only have one, you're not really making enough money very often.

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Um, especially with pricing and inflation these days.

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You just, if you're not working in the shop all the time, you're just, there's no way to actually make it financially sound.

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Yeah.

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Well, especially as labor rates have gone up and stuff like that.

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You're like, uh, yeah, I gotta pay$20 an hour or something.

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And I've been paying myself seven.

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Yeah.

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You know, ish.

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Well, and salaries right now is$60,000 in Colorado.

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Yeah.

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So if you ask have a salaried employee, you're paying them$60,000.

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Oh, is that right?

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Mm-hmm.

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That is a huge burden.

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It's it's a lot for a small business.

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Yeah.

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Which leaves them forced to rely on hourly employees and people to rely on up and down incomes and things like that.

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So you can't really create this stable environment'cause.

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Sorry, but I can only only pay about 40 for this position.

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Well, I mean, we've, we've made it work.

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Yeah.

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Um, and so I do have a general manager at all three of my locations.

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Um, I think the goal right now would be to potentially still know, don't know what the future holds.

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Right.

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But is to add, is to add more locations and actually spread that responsibility out amongst those three people.

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That's Yeah.

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They wanna grow.

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They want that.

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So, um, so that's, you, you're on a growth path.

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You would like to Yeah.

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Have nine locations with each of those three amazing managers.

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Nine sounds like a lot, but Yeah.

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Maybe five or six.

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Yeah.

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Yeah, fair enough.

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With those same three people helping me lead it.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Yes.

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I Is there other Ben and Jerry's in Colorado?

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Do you have rights, do you have to acquire rights?

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How's that work for your organization?

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So, I'm the only franchisee in the state of Colorado.

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That's crazy.

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Yeah.

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There's, um, there's a shop in the airport, but that's a license agreement, so I'm not, I'm not eligible for that one and not sure that I would want it.

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Right.

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Not, I dunno anything about their financials or what that shop looks like or anything like that.

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But, um, so yeah, no, it is, it's, and you get about a two block radius, so there is, there is nothing.

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Oh, really?

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Like if you can build it, you can have it.

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Yeah.

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Basically.

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Interesting.

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But they also, I mean, I've talked to corporate, our corporate offices and Denver is an area that they'd be interested in growing.

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I would have basically first right to, to say yes or no.

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If I wanted a location.

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They don't find locations for us.

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Right.

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So that is something that we have to do if you wanna work on it.

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Yeah.

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Well it seems like go where the people are, I'm sure like.

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Out east, there's probably a lot of towns of 10, 20, 30,000 where there's a Ben juries.

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I think so I don't, I don't know.

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Yeah.

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I don't know.

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The demographics.

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There's, there are a lot of community shops out on the east coast.

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Right.

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Um, more community.

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I would say our driving factor in Colorado is tourism.

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So we wanna be in an area that has a lot of tourism.

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Yep, yep.

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Um, that has kind of people with luxury dollars and they're on vacation and they're spending money.

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Yep.

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Yep.

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That seems to be our sweet spot.

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Like a Breckenridge or something might be.

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Pro Street.

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Pro Street's a really good example.

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Yep, yep.

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You know, we have from Memorial Day to Labor Day, we have kind of different set of eyes on our shop every single day.

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Yeah.

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Um, and that, that helps a lot.

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Theoretically, Estes Park, but there's such a bias toward local, locally owned kind of operations up there.

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If you did a, can you do a, could you do a non Ben and Jerry's ice cream shop in Estes Park?

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Not, and sell Ben and Jerry's.

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No.

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Yeah, I've looked at Estes.

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There's, yeah.

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If I could get a spot in Estes, I probably would do it.

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Um, like you probably learned about, enough about the ice cream business to buy some other good ice cream maybe, right?

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Yeah.

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Not, not give Ben and Jerry's their 9% or whatever.

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They're actually a really great franchisor to work for.

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And I think part of, part of having Ben and Jerry's is, is the brand name.

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Right.

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Obviously where it works, at least where it works.

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Um, the brand name is great.

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Um, we're known for, you know, very specific things, uh, ice cream being one of them.

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Mm-hmm.

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Um, and, and that helps in certain communities.

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Expand on that.

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Uh, yeah, I think it, most people know how Ben and Jerry's is very socially driven.

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Yeah.

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Very, um, very progressive company.

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Corporate responsibility is the first word that flashed in my Yeah.

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Thing.

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Or social responsibility kind of.

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Yeah.

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You know, business has a responsibility to give back to the community that, uh, which it draws its support, I think is the exact quote from, from Jerry.

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Yeah.

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Um, and we take that to heart.

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Oh.

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So you get some customers that are like, oh, like in Boulder, maybe even, even they're little, I mean, vort Collins is a fairly liberal town as well, but Boulder's even more so.

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So they're like, we're buying ice cream and we're buying it from Ben and Jerry's.

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I think there's a lot of people who, who do that.

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And I think just So there's a lot of brand value in general value.

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There's a lot of brand value in that.

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Yeah.

00:10:53.607 --> 00:10:57.658
Um, I was actually just at, I don't know, little plug, but founded in Foco.

00:10:57.748 --> 00:10:57.898
Yeah.

00:10:57.898 --> 00:11:05.727
And I was at one of the sessions, um, a marketing session on storytelling, and she said, in order for your message to work, you have to have lovers and haters.

00:11:06.087 --> 00:11:09.087
And I, I actually like highlighted it in my notes because Interesting.

00:11:09.087 --> 00:11:15.057
That is how Ben and Jerry's, because if you have haters and you put out a message, people are gonna, they're gonna complain about it.

00:11:15.057 --> 00:11:15.118
Yeah.

00:11:15.202 --> 00:11:15.283
Yeah.

00:11:15.283 --> 00:11:19.648
But then your supporters and your lovers are gonna back you and they're gonna actually make, make them more loyal.

00:11:19.648 --> 00:11:26.278
So I wonder how, I was just talking with, uh, with a guy, um, about the Tesla phenomenon right now.

00:11:26.668 --> 00:11:34.923
And like my friends with Tesla's getting hate notes under their windshield wipers and stuff like that, and dealerships getting firebomb and stuff five times this year.

00:11:35.488 --> 00:11:36.327
And it's like.

00:11:37.467 --> 00:11:39.207
I don't know how, where that goes.

00:11:39.567 --> 00:11:41.607
I, um, I don't either.

00:11:41.607 --> 00:11:45.957
And, you know, just two years ago, Musk was like the man of the year or something.

00:11:45.957 --> 00:11:46.138
I know, right?

00:11:47.128 --> 00:11:50.008
And so talk about a changing, uh, brand persona.

00:11:50.067 --> 00:11:50.817
No kidding.

00:11:50.908 --> 00:11:55.168
And it, but it, I mean, it just goes to show, I mean, our, our country's 50% divided right now.

00:11:55.317 --> 00:11:55.707
Right?

00:11:55.707 --> 00:11:55.708
Right.

00:11:56.008 --> 00:12:03.717
And so, um, and so it doesn't really matter what you do, there's gonna be 50% of your, of your audience that potentially hates what you say or what you do.

00:12:03.748 --> 00:12:03.957
Yeah.

00:12:04.138 --> 00:12:10.768
And so, um, and so that's fine, as long as you know that, and you can message them to the people who are your customer.

00:12:10.918 --> 00:12:11.158
Yeah.

00:12:11.217 --> 00:12:15.717
And make sure that your values are clear and that, and that's what they're gonna buy for.

00:12:15.717 --> 00:12:17.097
Go well and not drive away.

00:12:17.097 --> 00:12:27.357
Like when I think about Ben and Jerry's, like, I think of like, from a conservative person's perspective, I, I think those kind of hippie ice cream guys Right.

00:12:27.357 --> 00:12:28.738
But their ice cream is really good.

00:12:28.798 --> 00:12:28.888
Yeah.

00:12:29.307 --> 00:12:30.628
And they come up with clever names.

00:12:30.658 --> 00:12:30.748
Yeah.

00:12:30.748 --> 00:12:35.097
And so there's not, there's nothing there for me to like boycott Ben and Jerry's.

00:12:35.248 --> 00:12:36.628
Oh, there's a lot for a lot some people.

00:12:37.707 --> 00:12:38.039
Fair enough, fair enough.

00:12:38.044 --> 00:12:39.388
There's, there's a lot for some people.

00:12:39.388 --> 00:12:40.077
And that's fine.

00:12:40.077 --> 00:12:41.457
They're entitled to their opinion also.

00:12:41.457 --> 00:12:41.577
Yeah.

00:12:41.577 --> 00:12:45.898
As long as it's, you know, a a 5%, you know, a noisy 5%.

00:12:45.903 --> 00:12:46.043
Yeah.

00:12:46.043 --> 00:12:48.688
And then the rest of'em are still ice cream buyers or whatever.

00:12:49.107 --> 00:12:53.607
I think that that's a big part of our community in general, is that there's a loud minority, right?

00:12:53.607 --> 00:12:53.967
Oh yeah.

00:12:53.967 --> 00:12:59.758
Well, something like, like 95% of the Twitter traffic is the same.

00:13:00.628 --> 00:13:01.408
500 people.

00:13:01.618 --> 00:13:01.918
Yeah.

00:13:01.918 --> 00:13:02.398
You know?

00:13:02.398 --> 00:13:03.207
Oh, that's interesting.

00:13:03.207 --> 00:13:03.472
I didn't know that.

00:13:03.472 --> 00:13:06.807
I don't know if that's really true, but probably pre, maybe it's 10,000 people are Right.

00:13:06.807 --> 00:13:06.808
Right.

00:13:07.138 --> 00:13:10.317
It's certainly not the 2 billion that are, have an account or whatever.

00:13:10.317 --> 00:13:10.408
Right.

00:13:10.738 --> 00:13:10.918
Yeah.

00:13:10.947 --> 00:13:12.418
Most of the people are lurkers.

00:13:12.597 --> 00:13:12.868
Yeah.

00:13:13.197 --> 00:13:17.187
Um, and people that say something are usually on the more frenzy side.

00:13:17.398 --> 00:13:17.638
Yeah.

00:13:17.697 --> 00:13:18.898
So that's an interesting thing.

00:13:18.927 --> 00:13:25.557
Um, so you can kind of build however many Ben and Jerry's, you can figure out how to make profitable.

00:13:26.187 --> 00:13:26.278
Mm-hmm.

00:13:26.607 --> 00:13:26.668
Yeah.

00:13:26.668 --> 00:13:27.687
Depending on where you're at.

00:13:27.717 --> 00:13:27.927
Yep.

00:13:27.927 --> 00:13:28.437
Sure can.

00:13:28.467 --> 00:13:28.798
Okay.

00:13:29.008 --> 00:13:29.187
Mm-hmm.

00:13:29.193 --> 00:13:29.352
Fair enough.

00:13:29.427 --> 00:13:32.128
So that's kind of your strategic vision, right?

00:13:32.128 --> 00:13:36.357
Like the, the, the managers are in place, seems like you think they're all pretty awesome.

00:13:36.418 --> 00:13:36.597
Yep.

00:13:36.778 --> 00:13:46.827
And so now you gotta set about probably learning some expertise about traffic patterns, real estate opportunities where you can get high traffic without paying$47 triple nets.

00:13:46.857 --> 00:13:47.278
Yeah.

00:13:47.368 --> 00:13:51.238
That's where I'm spending my time right now is, is looking for different locations.

00:13:51.238 --> 00:14:01.408
Um, I think it's really interesting and it's been cool to see my kind of career path and, you know, going from where I said glorified shift manager to now there being days where it's like, what exactly is my job?

00:14:02.128 --> 00:14:02.187
Yeah.

00:14:02.248 --> 00:14:06.597
Um, I have, I have this great leadership team, all female leadership team.

00:14:06.597 --> 00:14:08.638
I have female general managers at all three of my stores.

00:14:08.668 --> 00:14:09.748
Um, they're wonderful.

00:14:09.778 --> 00:14:10.378
Do you wanna shout'em out?

00:14:10.408 --> 00:14:11.187
They've want Yeah.

00:14:11.187 --> 00:14:13.347
Alexis and Boulder Racey here in Fort Collins.

00:14:13.347 --> 00:14:14.368
Reyna down in Denver.

00:14:14.758 --> 00:14:16.918
Um, they've all been with me for a really long time.

00:14:16.918 --> 00:14:17.128
That's cool.

00:14:17.128 --> 00:14:20.937
Um, I, I guess five years plus on all three of'em.

00:14:20.937 --> 00:14:20.938
Awesome.

00:14:21.087 --> 00:14:21.148
Um.

00:14:21.778 --> 00:14:26.788
And they want, they want to grow and they wanna be successful within Ben, the Benning Jerry's organization as much as I do.

00:14:26.788 --> 00:14:26.847
Yeah.

00:14:26.878 --> 00:14:34.768
And so they're really driving me right now almost in, in kind of where we, where we go with this and sort of the why not us mentality.

00:14:34.768 --> 00:14:34.827
Yeah.

00:14:35.202 --> 00:14:35.363
Yeah.

00:14:35.363 --> 00:14:44.518
So, um, I think it was really fun this past January we were at our annual meeting and they, they do an award ceremony on, on the Friday night of our, of our annual meeting.

00:14:44.998 --> 00:14:48.148
Um, RISI here in Fort Collins was honored with the manager of the year award.

00:14:48.298 --> 00:14:48.447
Oh wow.

00:14:48.538 --> 00:14:52.437
Um, all three of them have won it now, um, within the years past.

00:14:52.798 --> 00:15:01.138
Um, but, but I was, won our operator of the year for 2024, which was really, really, really, really amazing.

00:15:01.138 --> 00:15:05.008
Like, that was not something that I had on my Bingo card for this year or any other year really.

00:15:05.008 --> 00:15:05.307
That's awesome.

00:15:05.548 --> 00:15:10.962
Um, but it kind of shows that we're doing something right and we're building, we're building something out here that Yeah.

00:15:10.962 --> 00:15:11.123
Yeah.

00:15:11.307 --> 00:15:12.177
That is awesome.

00:15:12.177 --> 00:15:16.648
And also replicable then, so that we have the, we have the processes in place.

00:15:16.648 --> 00:15:17.727
We have the people in place.

00:15:17.727 --> 00:15:20.307
We're, we're also working EOS right now a little bit.

00:15:20.548 --> 00:15:20.577
Mm.

00:15:20.638 --> 00:15:23.607
Um, self implementing that and so kind of Right people, right seats.

00:15:23.638 --> 00:15:23.788
Yeah.

00:15:23.788 --> 00:15:26.967
And, and five year plans and one year plans and all of that kind of stuff.

00:15:27.177 --> 00:15:28.197
It is that, that hasn't turned up.

00:15:28.197 --> 00:15:29.398
Any concerns?

00:15:29.398 --> 00:15:33.207
You love those managers even more, they're in the right spot for you and stuff.

00:15:33.207 --> 00:15:33.957
I think so.

00:15:33.957 --> 00:15:34.227
Yeah.

00:15:34.258 --> 00:15:34.379
That's great.

00:15:34.442 --> 00:15:34.763
I think so.

00:15:35.128 --> 00:15:35.727
That's super cool.

00:15:35.758 --> 00:15:35.998
Yeah.

00:15:36.028 --> 00:15:45.538
I was thinking to myself as you were unfolding that story even before you started, actually I was thinking, I bet her operator of the year award acceptance speech, uh, mentioned heavily her.

00:15:46.048 --> 00:15:47.067
Uh, key team leads.

00:15:47.368 --> 00:15:50.368
I did not make an acceptance speech, but, um, nope.

00:15:50.368 --> 00:15:52.258
We just went up and, and celebrated on stage.

00:15:52.618 --> 00:15:52.648
Okay.

00:15:52.653 --> 00:15:53.607
But, but I brought them with me.

00:15:53.768 --> 00:15:55.378
Yeah, that's, that says it, that says it.

00:15:55.383 --> 00:15:55.763
Frankly.

00:15:55.768 --> 00:15:56.638
I brought them with me.

00:15:56.638 --> 00:15:59.758
Yeah, they, they, I would not have walked across that stage by myself.

00:15:59.758 --> 00:16:00.717
That is for darn sure.

00:16:00.717 --> 00:16:01.288
That's really cool.

00:16:01.648 --> 00:16:02.607
Well, congratulations.

00:16:02.607 --> 00:16:03.597
That's a high praise.

00:16:03.597 --> 00:16:05.518
And how do they, how do they criteria that?

00:16:05.518 --> 00:16:10.288
Is it like, there's judges, they could see who's making the most money, like how do they know?

00:16:10.423 --> 00:16:12.567
You know, it's not, it's not who's making the most money?

00:16:12.567 --> 00:16:13.738
'cause that was not me last year.

00:16:13.768 --> 00:16:19.437
Um, I, I don't know, to be quite honest with you, I do know that I've, I have heard that I.

00:16:19.903 --> 00:16:29.413
The kind of nomination and the, and the selection process for those awards are kind of a knockdown, drag out between field reps and, and some of the highest on the leadership team at corporate.

00:16:29.413 --> 00:16:29.442
Okay.

00:16:29.893 --> 00:16:35.773
Um, in the end, I think there was only five or six people throughout the entire company who even knows who wins.

00:16:36.192 --> 00:16:39.222
Um, and so until, until they announced it that night.

00:16:39.222 --> 00:16:39.312
Cool.

00:16:39.312 --> 00:16:41.082
And so it's kept a pretty big secret.

00:16:41.082 --> 00:16:44.442
I there's not a huge crowd, crowd of people who kind of make that decision, so.

00:16:44.653 --> 00:16:44.743
Yeah.

00:16:44.743 --> 00:16:44.802
Yeah.

00:16:44.802 --> 00:16:50.082
Um, I, I can guarantee you our field rep, uh, Amy is, was a huge part.

00:16:50.173 --> 00:16:52.962
I had to that in nominating us and, and pushing for it.

00:16:52.962 --> 00:16:55.062
And she's been part of our org.

00:16:55.092 --> 00:17:01.753
Um, she's been leading my team in our, um, Colorado area, uh, probably for at least the last five years.

00:17:01.783 --> 00:17:02.173
Okay.

00:17:02.263 --> 00:17:04.137
Um, but she's been with organization too long time.

00:17:04.137 --> 00:17:05.698
It's almost a franchise e support.

00:17:05.982 --> 00:17:06.343
Yeah.

00:17:06.343 --> 00:17:10.212
It's where she's helping you figure out how to train and hire better and whatever else.

00:17:10.303 --> 00:17:13.482
We kind of run it by ourselves out here in Colorado, but yes.

00:17:13.482 --> 00:17:14.863
That is their, that is their role.

00:17:14.863 --> 00:17:17.292
They are kind of our contact, our liaison to corporate.

00:17:17.298 --> 00:17:17.577
Yeah.

00:17:17.772 --> 00:17:20.803
Um, they come out, they do evaluations for us, you know.

00:17:20.923 --> 00:17:21.042
Yeah.

00:17:21.192 --> 00:17:25.002
Once a year, twice a year if you don't do very well, but, so once a year for us for the last several years.

00:17:25.218 --> 00:17:25.498
Right.

00:17:25.502 --> 00:17:29.952
Um, and they just make sure that we're in compliance with what we're selling and how we're selling it.

00:17:29.982 --> 00:17:30.073
Yeah.

00:17:30.373 --> 00:17:30.942
Um.

00:17:31.258 --> 00:17:32.758
But they're, but they're valuable.

00:17:32.758 --> 00:17:33.633
You do your marketing things and stuff.

00:17:33.972 --> 00:17:35.698
We do most of like great flyers, posters.

00:17:35.698 --> 00:17:36.357
We do that here.

00:17:36.478 --> 00:17:36.688
Okay.

00:17:36.688 --> 00:17:36.867
Yeah.

00:17:36.867 --> 00:17:38.907
We do all of that locally and we can kind of create that.

00:17:38.907 --> 00:17:41.157
We have some, we have materials that we can use Sure.

00:17:41.157 --> 00:17:42.538
And send off and, and use that.

00:17:42.538 --> 00:17:45.417
But yeah, I mean, she'll come, it's not as flavorful as the ice creams.

00:17:45.423 --> 00:17:45.593
No.

00:17:45.778 --> 00:17:46.407
No it's not.

00:17:46.978 --> 00:17:50.458
She'll, but Amy comes out about twice a year, sometimes, maybe only once a year.

00:17:50.458 --> 00:17:52.498
And we sit down and have either quarterly meetings.

00:17:52.498 --> 00:17:53.698
She was at our retreat last year.

00:17:53.698 --> 00:17:56.127
I started doing retreats with our general managers.

00:17:56.127 --> 00:17:56.188
Yeah.

00:17:56.278 --> 00:17:57.928
Um, we've done three of them now.

00:17:57.928 --> 00:18:02.337
So we go to Colorado Springs for three or four days and really work on the business.

00:18:02.397 --> 00:18:02.637
Yeah.

00:18:03.147 --> 00:18:03.688
That's really neat.

00:18:03.688 --> 00:18:06.597
That's, I impressed you spend that much time intentionally working on it.

00:18:06.778 --> 00:18:10.557
You know, that's, and is that for the little solo shop operators and everybody?

00:18:10.827 --> 00:18:13.708
I, you know, it's not what I did when I was by myself.

00:18:13.738 --> 00:18:13.827
Okay.

00:18:14.188 --> 00:18:18.147
Um, and so I don't know, I don't, I don't know what the solo people do.

00:18:18.147 --> 00:18:18.208
Yeah.

00:18:18.208 --> 00:18:20.248
I mean, they have, some of'em have general managers.

00:18:20.248 --> 00:18:20.998
I don't know.

00:18:21.387 --> 00:18:26.397
I think that that probably is one of the reasons why, why we were honored with that award from this past year.

00:18:26.458 --> 00:18:33.238
Um, I spend a lot of time on development and personal growth of both myself and our team.

00:18:33.268 --> 00:18:33.357
Yeah.

00:18:33.597 --> 00:18:41.847
So, um, we have, you know, leadership meetings once a week, uh, during the off season when we're a little bit slower and we're kind of in more planning mode.

00:18:41.847 --> 00:18:43.018
We actually add in a book club.

00:18:43.018 --> 00:18:45.057
So we do leadership book club, um, oh, cool.

00:18:45.133 --> 00:18:48.147
And, and we alternate those then with those leadership meetings.

00:18:48.147 --> 00:18:52.258
And so we read personal development books, we've read Atomic Habits and we've read good one.

00:18:52.258 --> 00:18:54.028
You know, we read a lot of books that can kind of.

00:18:55.032 --> 00:18:56.262
Better ourselves.

00:18:56.268 --> 00:18:56.623
Yeah, yeah.

00:18:56.653 --> 00:19:05.262
Um, and then have conversations about how then they relate to us as, as in the jobs that we're doing also, how can we take those back and put them in, into implementation in our stores?

00:19:05.383 --> 00:19:09.643
And so that's really where I've kind of found my passion is leading those girls.

00:19:09.643 --> 00:19:13.482
Like they are amazing humans who want to do good in this world.

00:19:13.482 --> 00:19:20.472
And they, uh, they lead with empathy in their stores and in their communities, and I couldn't be more thrilled to have them on my side.

00:19:20.653 --> 00:19:21.163
That's really cool.

00:19:21.282 --> 00:19:21.553
Mm-hmm.

00:19:22.182 --> 00:19:24.012
Um, have you read Anti-Fragile, by the way?

00:19:24.732 --> 00:19:27.282
I think I have it on my shelf, but I haven't read it.

00:19:27.883 --> 00:19:35.143
I was listening to a presentation this morning at, found it in Foco, and the, the presenter was talking about how like when a tree gets.

00:19:35.548 --> 00:19:38.397
Uh, threatened by wind and almost gets knocked down.

00:19:38.397 --> 00:19:42.597
It if, if it doesn't, assuming it doesn't, its response is to grow its roots deeper.

00:19:42.657 --> 00:19:42.928
Mm-hmm.

00:19:43.347 --> 00:19:44.667
And to actually become stronger.

00:19:44.667 --> 00:19:51.627
And he said it was resilience and I was like, actually the word you're looking there for there is anti-fragile it'cause resilience.

00:19:51.627 --> 00:19:58.857
You go back to where you were uhhuh, you recover your, but anti-fragile is when you're tested, you actually get stronger as a result of that testing.

00:19:59.218 --> 00:20:02.272
That is that I'll to put that on my list because I so it's really cool book.

00:20:02.307 --> 00:20:03.807
I actually think it's on my shelf.

00:20:03.958 --> 00:20:05.907
Yeah, no, I think you would resonate with it as Yeah.

00:20:05.998 --> 00:20:06.597
Uh, for sure.

00:20:06.597 --> 00:20:08.008
So anyway, yeah.

00:20:08.008 --> 00:20:14.548
I mean when it came down to when, when we ended up with three stores and a general manager at all three stores, it came down to like what is, what is now my job?

00:20:14.637 --> 00:20:14.698
Yeah.

00:20:14.968 --> 00:20:17.712
If I'm not working in the shop, if I'm not, you're not a shift manager at all anymore.

00:20:17.712 --> 00:20:17.992
Right.

00:20:17.992 --> 00:20:21.778
If I'm not a shift manager at all anymore and I still do all of our own, all of our bookkeeping.

00:20:21.778 --> 00:20:23.518
So I still do that for all three stores.

00:20:23.877 --> 00:20:27.478
Um, I work pretty closely with Rena down in Denver, does all of our catering management also.

00:20:27.478 --> 00:20:32.008
So I work pretty closely with her trying to figure out how to build the catering side of our business.

00:20:32.157 --> 00:20:33.748
Um, and networking.

00:20:33.748 --> 00:20:36.627
I've started doing the last couple of years I've really gotten more into networking.

00:20:36.627 --> 00:20:36.688
Yeah.

00:20:36.688 --> 00:20:37.738
Which I never was before.

00:20:37.738 --> 00:20:38.968
Just being out in the community.

00:20:38.968 --> 00:20:41.157
And has that been fulfilling to you?

00:20:41.218 --> 00:20:41.698
I love it.

00:20:42.387 --> 00:20:42.538
Awesome.

00:20:42.567 --> 00:20:43.768
I love it in so many ways.

00:20:43.768 --> 00:20:44.907
Not from the networking side.

00:20:44.907 --> 00:20:44.998
Yeah.

00:20:44.998 --> 00:20:47.548
I honestly haven't built my business yet at all from it.

00:20:47.938 --> 00:20:52.678
Um, with the exception of saying I think it's just made me a better person I think.

00:20:52.948 --> 00:20:56.307
Um, like I said before, surrounding myself with smarter people than I am.

00:20:56.698 --> 00:20:57.238
Um.

00:20:57.732 --> 00:21:02.502
There's something to be said about the whole, you know, you are the, the five top people you spend your time with.

00:21:02.508 --> 00:21:02.952
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:21:03.073 --> 00:21:05.502
Um, and there's, there's something to be said about that.

00:21:05.502 --> 00:21:09.373
And so I just needed to get around peers and like-minded people.

00:21:09.432 --> 00:21:12.732
Um, more business oriented, business growth type people.

00:21:12.913 --> 00:21:13.063
Yeah.

00:21:13.123 --> 00:21:16.722
And it, and it took me a little while to find'em, but I'm, I'm on my way.

00:21:16.782 --> 00:21:19.032
Well, I'm honored to be part of that in your journey.

00:21:19.032 --> 00:21:28.932
And, uh, yeah, we just, uh, our exchange student had to watch Goodwill Hunting for a class, so me and Jill and Lenny watched Goodwill Hunting the other night, and that's kind of the core of that whole story.

00:21:28.932 --> 00:21:38.623
You know, he was like the super smart kid hanging out with, you know, he was the hero to all his friends, and that's a lovely place to be, but it doesn't propel him much forward, you know?

00:21:38.623 --> 00:21:38.712
Yeah.

00:21:38.712 --> 00:21:40.093
And same for all of us.

00:21:40.182 --> 00:21:42.553
Uh, not that I'm a hero to all my friends.

00:21:43.573 --> 00:21:48.282
You, you know who you're Well, I'm looking forward to seeing how that expands.

00:21:48.492 --> 00:21:50.653
What's the, the ice cream environment?

00:21:50.803 --> 00:21:52.962
Uh, I'm, I was thinking about like Bask and Robbins.

00:21:53.143 --> 00:21:56.952
There used to be a lot more like froyo shops and stuff.

00:21:56.952 --> 00:21:59.262
Consumer habits and trends have changed a lot.

00:21:59.262 --> 00:22:03.403
Is there more or fewer Ben and Jerry's than there was five years ago?

00:22:03.432 --> 00:22:04.962
We have constricted a little bit.

00:22:05.323 --> 00:22:05.353
Okay.

00:22:05.353 --> 00:22:06.192
Um, but not much.

00:22:06.192 --> 00:22:08.772
I think there's still 225 in the country.

00:22:08.803 --> 00:22:09.163
Okay.

00:22:09.313 --> 00:22:11.593
Um, and.

00:22:12.807 --> 00:22:14.968
There were some problems, we had some development agreements.

00:22:14.968 --> 00:22:20.518
I think there were some bad stores that probably opened because they were kind of locked, people were locked into development agreements at, at a time.

00:22:20.518 --> 00:22:24.538
I think Ben and Jerry's had a different strategy for growth and maybe it wasn't necessarily the right one.

00:22:24.597 --> 00:22:24.837
Yep.

00:22:25.048 --> 00:22:27.327
Um, and so I think we've got great ones now.

00:22:27.327 --> 00:22:31.317
I think we are still, we are looking now to grow in certain areas, the brand.

00:22:31.738 --> 00:22:38.728
Um, ultimately I think it comes down to people, if you're going to have a treat, you wanna have a really good treat for the most part.

00:22:38.732 --> 00:22:38.752
Mm-hmm.

00:22:38.833 --> 00:22:38.992
Mm-hmm.

00:22:39.073 --> 00:22:42.837
Mean there are people who enjoy their frozen yogurt and they're frat free and their low fat and all that kind of stuff.

00:22:42.867 --> 00:22:42.958
Sure.

00:22:42.958 --> 00:22:43.077
Yeah.

00:22:43.347 --> 00:22:49.827
We have, um, Ben and Jerry's has gone into different markets in terms of frozen yogurt than we had Greek frozen yogurt.

00:22:49.857 --> 00:22:51.387
You know, we had, we tried them all.

00:22:51.417 --> 00:22:51.867
Yeah.

00:22:51.867 --> 00:22:51.868
Yeah.

00:22:52.077 --> 00:22:54.327
And then ultimately we backed off of all of them.

00:22:54.333 --> 00:22:54.472
Yeah.

00:22:54.627 --> 00:22:54.718
Yeah.

00:22:54.778 --> 00:23:02.518
Um, the one that is really sticking in, Ben and Jerry's is becoming a really big player in the market, and forgive me for not having all the exact information, but is the non-dairy line.

00:23:02.968 --> 00:23:02.998
Mm.

00:23:02.998 --> 00:23:05.218
And we have a really, really good non-dairy line.

00:23:05.218 --> 00:23:06.268
There's a lot of flavors.

00:23:06.643 --> 00:23:09.613
Um, I think we'll have three in scoop shops this year.

00:23:09.702 --> 00:23:10.032
Okay.

00:23:10.123 --> 00:23:16.127
Um, is it coconut based or is it Um, it is almond, it is oat milk now.

00:23:16.127 --> 00:23:16.130
Oat milk.

00:23:16.397 --> 00:23:16.688
Milk.

00:23:16.692 --> 00:23:17.143
So, yep.

00:23:17.143 --> 00:23:19.512
We just reformulate all of them.

00:23:19.512 --> 00:23:25.482
So we have, that's my favorite of the fake milks generally is oak milk, depending on sometimes coconut, but Yeah.

00:23:25.482 --> 00:23:30.282
Well we started with an almond butter one and then we had a sunflower butter one.

00:23:30.282 --> 00:23:30.673
Oh, interesting.

00:23:30.762 --> 00:23:35.323
Um, and then just for ease of manufacturing, they were like, we need to have just one base.

00:23:35.413 --> 00:23:35.593
Yeah.

00:23:35.653 --> 00:23:39.673
Um, they did a lot of research and they came up with this oat milk and it's really good.

00:23:39.678 --> 00:23:39.807
Good.

00:23:39.913 --> 00:23:40.633
It's really good.

00:23:40.633 --> 00:23:40.692
Yeah.

00:23:40.698 --> 00:23:40.768
Yeah.

00:23:40.772 --> 00:23:45.432
So, and that is just growing, that, that segment of the industry is just really growing.

00:23:45.432 --> 00:23:55.242
I was just thinking it might be controversial in today's world, but uh, doing like, uh, a raw milk ice cream would be an interesting thing.

00:23:55.452 --> 00:23:59.143
Uh, you know, label it the, uh, RFK special or something like that.

00:23:59.143 --> 00:23:59.288
I dunno.

00:24:01.387 --> 00:24:02.712
Um, I don't wanna try that.

00:24:02.712 --> 00:24:07.512
I don't think, might not, might not fit quite exactly with the, uh, cultural times.

00:24:07.678 --> 00:24:07.968
Yeah.

00:24:07.968 --> 00:24:10.452
Maybe not, but uh, yeah.

00:24:10.452 --> 00:24:10.454
That's interesting.

00:24:10.460 --> 00:24:11.607
None the west, right?

00:24:11.682 --> 00:24:12.192
Well, it is.

00:24:12.192 --> 00:24:20.772
And well, because I imagine that's gonna be a headwind for Ben and Jerry's the, you know, make America healthy again, kind of notion.

00:24:21.613 --> 00:24:22.407
Um, and.

00:24:22.768 --> 00:24:22.827
Yeah.

00:24:23.367 --> 00:24:25.678
What I think you just said is kind of the nullify to that.

00:24:25.678 --> 00:24:31.617
Like if you're gonna have a treat, which, which we all are gonna from time to time, have a treat, make it a really good one.

00:24:31.623 --> 00:24:31.772
Yeah.

00:24:31.772 --> 00:24:34.347
And, and kind of a relatively wholesome one and Yeah.

00:24:34.347 --> 00:24:35.428
And, and splurge.

00:24:35.428 --> 00:24:40.288
And I think that's also what people are doing right now is really buying with their dollars, right?

00:24:40.288 --> 00:24:40.377
Yeah.

00:24:40.377 --> 00:24:46.048
I think people are really, are spending their money with companies that they align with Yeah.

00:24:46.107 --> 00:24:46.917
Their values.

00:24:47.367 --> 00:24:50.877
And I think it's one of the reasons Ben and Jerry's has been so successful.

00:24:50.877 --> 00:24:59.367
I think it is kind of the, the proven model of, um, you know, we can do good things and we can be socially conscious and also make money.

00:24:59.458 --> 00:24:59.907
Yeah.

00:24:59.907 --> 00:24:59.909
Yeah.

00:25:00.087 --> 00:25:05.127
Um, and I think it's kind of been sort of the textbook case for, for how to do that.

00:25:05.157 --> 00:25:05.458
Yeah.

00:25:05.637 --> 00:25:10.228
And I think in today's, I'm kind of excited for our shops for this next year actually.

00:25:10.288 --> 00:25:14.248
Um, kind of recession and inflation aside dependent.

00:25:14.307 --> 00:25:14.607
Yes.

00:25:14.698 --> 00:25:24.357
Um, it's, it will be interesting to see how customers respond to a company like ours that is so outspoken on how they want the world to kind of go.

00:25:24.538 --> 00:25:25.018
Yeah.

00:25:25.407 --> 00:25:38.518
Well, I think what's really interesting, not to, to flash forward to politics, but we've kind of been brushing against it, but like the Bernie Sanders kind of populist movement from the left and the, and the Trump populist movement from the right.

00:25:38.607 --> 00:25:41.458
Both have that populous kind of expression.

00:25:41.458 --> 00:25:47.428
And, and that's ultimately like if you can get the population excited around social responsibility.

00:25:47.518 --> 00:25:47.758
Yep.

00:25:48.057 --> 00:25:48.417
And.

00:25:48.883 --> 00:25:53.563
And, and that's one of the challenges of the current time with the, with the Doge and stuff.

00:25:53.563 --> 00:26:07.573
And you got all these fake dollars floating around and all this seeming graft of sorts, you know, NGOs founded by senators, sister-in-laws that get huge grants a year after they were founded and stuff like that.

00:26:07.573 --> 00:26:08.593
It's like, okay.

00:26:09.103 --> 00:26:12.583
Um, but that's not socially responsible either.

00:26:12.673 --> 00:26:12.972
No.

00:26:13.123 --> 00:26:13.573
Right.

00:26:13.573 --> 00:26:18.732
And, and spending and having a government that spends random things in random places all the time is not socially responsible.

00:26:19.093 --> 00:26:19.182
No.

00:26:19.182 --> 00:26:19.752
Nor ethical.

00:26:19.758 --> 00:26:21.163
Right, right, right.

00:26:21.313 --> 00:26:24.673
You know, I think that that's a hard part about where we're at as a society right now.

00:26:24.673 --> 00:26:36.553
It's like, it seems like at least 90% of the people agree on where we want to be and what is actually the right percent, the right end goal, but for some reason there's this disconnect on how we get there.

00:26:36.732 --> 00:26:37.063
Yeah.

00:26:37.153 --> 00:26:44.742
And uh, and like, man, if you could be a fly on the wall or whoever can figure out how to bridge that gap right now, um, would be wonderful.

00:26:44.833 --> 00:27:05.232
You know, the scene might be set a little bit, you know, and maybe, you know, you can hate me if you'd want to about Trump, but he is probably the singular figure that could confront the Republican side of the uni party and the apparatus and beat it and then kind of come back around, get thrown all kinds of stuff at him.

00:27:05.232 --> 00:27:11.143
And now basically he made the Democratic party self-destruct itself by being only focused on Orange Man.

00:27:11.143 --> 00:27:16.363
Bad for, yeah, I a while, I mean, it feels like both parties have self-destructed, to be honest.

00:27:16.363 --> 00:27:16.542
Yeah.

00:27:16.542 --> 00:27:18.103
So they're both kind of in a state of.

00:27:18.807 --> 00:27:20.127
Upheaval, upheaval.

00:27:20.127 --> 00:27:29.067
And so, but maybe we're better as a society to have at least we should have two organized sides now that we don't even know.

00:27:29.272 --> 00:27:29.512
I know.

00:27:30.147 --> 00:27:33.178
I, it does feel like both sides are definitely unified in their sides.

00:27:33.742 --> 00:27:34.792
Kind of, I don't know.

00:27:34.792 --> 00:27:38.792
Every si every, but it doesn't make logical sense where, where it's ordered in some ways now.

00:27:38.972 --> 00:27:39.673
No, it doesn't.

00:27:39.897 --> 00:27:45.718
And what doesn't make logical, like Democrats, like Democrats were always the people who were concerned about corporate responsibility and different things like that a while back.

00:27:45.748 --> 00:27:46.048
Yeah.

00:27:46.048 --> 00:27:46.887
Now they're not, you know?

00:27:47.127 --> 00:27:47.577
Yeah.

00:27:47.637 --> 00:27:54.393
The war party has shifted from the Republicans to the, I guess the, just a few of the Republicans, the Democrats now, uh, who knows.

00:27:54.452 --> 00:27:54.833
Who knows.

00:27:55.137 --> 00:27:57.807
And that's part of the problem is can you trust what anybody's saying anymore?

00:27:57.958 --> 00:27:58.018
No.

00:27:58.137 --> 00:27:59.428
So that's the biggest problem.

00:27:59.428 --> 00:28:00.208
That's the biggest problem.

00:28:00.357 --> 00:28:00.657
Right.

00:28:00.657 --> 00:28:01.512
And so, I digress.

00:28:01.518 --> 00:28:02.097
I yeah.

00:28:02.097 --> 00:28:07.468
I mean, I, I don't, but being a brand that stands for something and stands for people Yeah.

00:28:07.528 --> 00:28:12.268
And good causes and empathy and compassion and just like equality, right?

00:28:12.478 --> 00:28:12.567
Yeah.

00:28:12.567 --> 00:28:17.577
Like, it's, it's not a hard thing to, it doesn't seem like a hard thing to be, to be for.

00:28:17.863 --> 00:28:24.147
Does a, uh, does a a sharp young man have a chance of progressing in your, uh, female dominated leader leadership team?

00:28:24.688 --> 00:28:25.050
Of course, yes, of course.

00:28:25.056 --> 00:28:26.938
That sort of just happened by, by accident.

00:28:26.938 --> 00:28:30.327
But, um, of course we did have a, we did have a.

00:28:30.643 --> 00:28:35.653
We did have a gentleman, um, assistant manager for a little while at one of the shops, and yeah.

00:28:35.653 --> 00:28:38.053
We're, we're not, you're not that bad.

00:28:38.232 --> 00:28:38.413
No.

00:28:39.038 --> 00:28:39.978
I'm teasing a little bit.

00:28:40.212 --> 00:29:01.272
No, I've worked in, uh, well, it is a different power structure, but the start of my career, I worked in banking and like at my second job in Worthington, Minnesota, it was me and the bank president and one other dude and 27 ladies, you know, but all the, all the high paid people, maybe it was four dudes, I think, but all the high paid people were the dudes and all the low paid people were the ladies.

00:29:01.272 --> 00:29:01.363
Yep.

00:29:01.393 --> 00:29:13.258
And I don't know, it was a, I don't know, I, it was over time I really enjoyed seeing banking develop into a more par mm-hmm.

00:29:13.657 --> 00:29:13.778
Industry.

00:29:13.798 --> 00:29:14.218
Mm-hmm.

00:29:14.472 --> 00:29:16.903
And I was, it was definitely progressing as I got there.

00:29:16.903 --> 00:29:22.752
And even when I, when I started my career, the lady bankers were like, Kurt, you're such not a misogynist.

00:29:22.873 --> 00:29:24.613
Like, how did you get into this industry?

00:29:26.053 --> 00:29:27.583
Um, but it's really changed a lot.

00:29:27.583 --> 00:29:36.222
And so, like, even just the other day, Nicole Stodinger, uh, yesterday won the most influential, uh, business leader in the finance category.

00:29:36.583 --> 00:29:36.913
Wow.

00:29:37.002 --> 00:29:38.018
Um, and I don't know that name.

00:29:38.028 --> 00:29:38.377
Sorry.

00:29:38.383 --> 00:29:40.242
Uh, she's the boss lady at First Bank.

00:29:40.303 --> 00:29:40.512
Okay.

00:29:40.573 --> 00:29:42.883
Like over basically everything north of Denver.

00:29:42.887 --> 00:29:42.897
Okay.

00:29:43.333 --> 00:29:47.863
And, uh, she and I were both in the 30, under 30, uh, about 20 years ago.

00:29:47.893 --> 00:29:49.153
Congratulations, uh, Nicole.

00:29:49.153 --> 00:29:51.492
Congrats on your prize from Biz West last night.

00:29:51.643 --> 00:29:51.913
Yeah.

00:29:51.972 --> 00:29:58.212
Uh, if you're listening to this, but, so the, maybe it's not quite equal, but there's definitely, I would say.

00:29:59.173 --> 00:30:03.883
Among the business lenders in the marketplace today, it's probably 35 to 40%.

00:30:04.032 --> 00:30:04.452
Ladies.

00:30:04.452 --> 00:30:07.873
Now, you know, I don't, I'm not sure of that number.

00:30:07.873 --> 00:30:14.353
I was at a meeting last week, um, with a woman who's in the financial sector and she was just introducing herself.

00:30:14.353 --> 00:30:16.212
And so she only had about 30 seconds to speak.

00:30:16.573 --> 00:30:25.438
And if I heard her correctly, I believe she said that about$35 trillion in, in wealth is going to be changing hands to females Yeah.

00:30:25.498 --> 00:30:26.413
In the next decade.

00:30:26.682 --> 00:30:27.222
Yes.

00:30:27.252 --> 00:30:31.063
That's, and they will, so they will become the most wealthy segment of people For sure.

00:30:31.063 --> 00:30:31.603
On the planet.

00:30:31.603 --> 00:30:31.992
Yeah.

00:30:31.992 --> 00:30:31.993
Yeah.

00:30:32.083 --> 00:30:33.133
Um, in the next decade.

00:30:33.133 --> 00:30:43.093
So that's, I mean, it's significant, but I'm not sure it's relevant because I think that women have been making most of the buying decisions for a long time anyway, possibly from the consumer economy standpoint.

00:30:43.093 --> 00:30:43.603
Possibly.

00:30:43.603 --> 00:30:43.992
Yeah.

00:30:44.232 --> 00:30:44.593
Yeah.

00:30:45.432 --> 00:30:48.133
But now, but now that, yeah, now they have the money to actually make that and Yeah.

00:30:48.133 --> 00:30:50.083
Are they gonna put it into stocks or are they gonna buy bitcoins?

00:30:50.532 --> 00:30:50.863
Right.

00:30:50.893 --> 00:30:53.232
That's a big questions mark for the stock market.

00:30:53.262 --> 00:31:02.982
'cause you know, 10 years ago, like there wasn't any place for the stock market to go but up because all these retirees were dumping their assets and the baby boomers were coming to be that age.

00:31:03.103 --> 00:31:03.343
Yep.

00:31:03.942 --> 00:31:07.782
And now it's like, okay, well where do you put your money?

00:31:07.843 --> 00:31:08.863
Well, yeah.

00:31:08.923 --> 00:31:12.522
And not just from the females, but from the millennials who are starting to come up.

00:31:12.522 --> 00:31:12.792
Right.

00:31:12.798 --> 00:31:12.998
For sure.

00:31:13.002 --> 00:31:18.972
Are they, are they just kind of taking their money and hoarding their money and going to like, travel the world or Right.

00:31:19.663 --> 00:31:20.742
What are they gonna do with it?

00:31:20.748 --> 00:31:21.077
Right.

00:31:21.147 --> 00:31:24.462
Well, and because, you know, it wasn't that long ago.

00:31:24.462 --> 00:31:27.222
Five, or maybe call it 15 years ago.

00:31:28.617 --> 00:31:31.978
Maybe six months salary could give you a down payment for a house.

00:31:32.127 --> 00:31:32.788
Not anymore.

00:31:32.847 --> 00:31:35.428
Now it's like a year and a half.

00:31:35.488 --> 00:31:35.548
Yeah.

00:31:35.728 --> 00:31:39.208
Or something of one person's normal salary and then you got a good down payment.

00:31:39.268 --> 00:31:39.597
Right.

00:31:40.018 --> 00:31:41.938
Um, and so it's, yeah, it's untenable.

00:31:41.938 --> 00:31:42.657
And so I guess, yeah.

00:31:42.657 --> 00:31:44.278
I might as well screw around and travel the world.

00:31:44.817 --> 00:31:50.728
It's gonna be such an interesting combination of forces as money, like what money is.

00:31:51.238 --> 00:32:00.057
Um, you know, and we got the, the reserve currency here in the United States and, and Bitcoin and gold is up over$3,000 an ounce now, I think.

00:32:00.057 --> 00:32:00.387
Right.

00:32:00.448 --> 00:32:01.077
I don't know.

00:32:01.107 --> 00:32:02.278
It, it's pretty, that's high.

00:32:02.367 --> 00:32:03.178
It's pretty high.

00:32:03.208 --> 00:32:03.478
Yeah.

00:32:03.748 --> 00:32:05.788
And so, like, what is money?

00:32:05.877 --> 00:32:07.462
Right, right.

00:32:07.617 --> 00:32:11.188
Especially with di I mean I, the whole Bitcoin and crypto, like, I don't understand at all.

00:32:11.188 --> 00:32:11.907
So I don't either.

00:32:11.907 --> 00:32:16.468
I can't even, but you basically go get it with energy, you have to gotta mine it.

00:32:16.468 --> 00:32:17.817
You gotta like run computers.

00:32:17.817 --> 00:32:19.288
It's basically just like gold mining.

00:32:19.347 --> 00:32:19.678
Yeah.

00:32:19.768 --> 00:32:22.857
But with gold mining, you dig it out of the dirt, you have something physical.

00:32:22.948 --> 00:32:23.127
Yeah.

00:32:23.127 --> 00:32:24.147
You have a physical thing.

00:32:24.208 --> 00:32:24.268
Yeah.

00:32:24.272 --> 00:32:29.067
But with bitcoin, you, you have your computer go dig it out of the, the ethos.

00:32:29.968 --> 00:32:30.028
Yeah.

00:32:30.028 --> 00:32:30.030
No, I don't.

00:32:30.036 --> 00:32:37.347
And so we have all these data centers and like things and spinning just so people can go dig bitcoins outta the imaginary universe.

00:32:37.347 --> 00:32:37.438
Right.

00:32:37.438 --> 00:32:39.298
So that doesn't make a lot of sense for me either.

00:32:39.303 --> 00:32:39.313
Yeah.

00:32:39.482 --> 00:32:41.577
It doesn't, it doesn't compute in my head.

00:32:41.728 --> 00:32:42.147
I digress.

00:32:42.718 --> 00:32:49.917
Um, so you've got kind of a, a maybe a five year plan to get up to four, then five, then six stores kind of.

00:32:49.917 --> 00:32:50.942
Is that a fair Yeah.

00:32:50.942 --> 00:32:55.198
A five year plan is to have five stores and a thriving catering business.

00:32:55.198 --> 00:32:55.678
That's okay.

00:32:55.678 --> 00:32:56.698
That's the plan for.

00:32:57.303 --> 00:32:57.958
Uh, yeah.

00:32:57.958 --> 00:33:01.798
Five years from this past catering being Ice Cream Catering.

00:33:01.798 --> 00:33:01.978
Yep.

00:33:02.188 --> 00:33:02.488
Okay.

00:33:02.488 --> 00:33:02.788
Yeah.

00:33:02.788 --> 00:33:04.883
So we, we you're not gonna make hot dogs or Nope.

00:33:04.883 --> 00:33:06.268
You know, do anything else but Nope.

00:33:06.417 --> 00:33:07.167
Ice cream catering.

00:33:07.167 --> 00:33:11.577
So yeah, we, we go to your place and scoop cups and cones.

00:33:11.577 --> 00:33:14.067
We have par, uh, Sunday parties, deluxe Sunday parties.

00:33:14.067 --> 00:33:15.268
We bring cookies and brownies.

00:33:15.417 --> 00:33:15.837
Oh.

00:33:16.347 --> 00:33:22.498
Um, I might want to hire you for, uh, April 24th at the Hutch, uh, Hutch Home Co.

00:33:22.498 --> 00:33:22.587
Okay.

00:33:23.157 --> 00:33:24.117
The former Green Cycle.

00:33:24.178 --> 00:33:24.417
Yeah.

00:33:24.688 --> 00:33:28.708
Um, it's one of our members in next level and we're gonna do a local social Awesome.

00:33:28.827 --> 00:33:34.228
And, uh, so it seems like we might as well have some ice cream since you're like literally a hundred yards away from his location.

00:33:34.258 --> 00:33:34.557
Awesome.

00:33:34.557 --> 00:33:35.188
That sounds great.

00:33:35.278 --> 00:33:37.317
I'll even walk over and carry it over with you or something.

00:33:37.317 --> 00:33:37.962
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:33:37.962 --> 00:33:38.998
No, it's so, yeah.

00:33:38.998 --> 00:33:39.417
Easy peasy.

00:33:39.417 --> 00:33:43.018
We do, I mean, we've done events from five to over 3000 so far.

00:33:43.198 --> 00:33:43.258
Okay.

00:33:43.258 --> 00:33:45.057
And we could do more than that, so yeah.

00:33:45.057 --> 00:33:46.678
We're excited about building that business.

00:33:46.887 --> 00:33:47.127
Okay, cool.

00:33:48.147 --> 00:33:50.127
Imagine that's, it's just a little cooler, right.

00:33:50.127 --> 00:33:53.998
'cause you can't put all the ice cream out right away'cause then you got cold milk.

00:33:54.087 --> 00:33:54.478
Yeah.

00:33:54.478 --> 00:33:56.968
You know, I mean, we definitely try and limit the timelines on them.

00:33:56.998 --> 00:33:57.057
Yeah.

00:33:57.057 --> 00:33:58.557
So, especially during the summer times.

00:33:58.557 --> 00:34:02.518
Um, but yeah, for the most part, the way we do it is we just do it at our, at our coolers.

00:34:02.522 --> 00:34:02.722
Yeah.

00:34:02.863 --> 00:34:04.762
Um, put some more ice creams up and Yeah.

00:34:04.782 --> 00:34:05.482
Let start getting low.

00:34:05.482 --> 00:34:06.163
We put some more up.

00:34:06.167 --> 00:34:06.208
Yeah.

00:34:06.268 --> 00:34:17.563
There's some, there's some shops that are, that do, you know, they bring kind of a much bigger setup and they have either trailers, some, a lot of stores do trailers or, or vans and they'll mm-hmm.

00:34:17.563 --> 00:34:18.402
So they do it outside.

00:34:18.902 --> 00:34:22.202
Um, some places do have kind of carts that they'll scoop out of the cart.

00:34:22.222 --> 00:34:22.443
Mm.

00:34:22.443 --> 00:34:22.802
Mm-hmm.

00:34:22.809 --> 00:34:23.367
Um.

00:34:24.072 --> 00:34:25.693
We try and keep it as simple as possible.

00:34:25.693 --> 00:34:25.813
Yeah.

00:34:25.813 --> 00:34:26.023
Why?

00:34:26.023 --> 00:34:28.333
It allows us also to get into more places.

00:34:28.333 --> 00:34:28.483
Right.

00:34:28.483 --> 00:34:31.393
We can be inside, we can be outside, and it just seems a little bit easier.

00:34:31.452 --> 00:34:31.842
Yeah.

00:34:31.842 --> 00:34:31.844
Yeah.

00:34:31.849 --> 00:34:31.887
Yeah.

00:34:31.902 --> 00:34:32.322
Why not?

00:34:32.443 --> 00:34:32.713
Yeah.

00:34:32.862 --> 00:34:33.193
I love it.

00:34:33.222 --> 00:34:33.523
Okay.

00:34:33.672 --> 00:34:36.222
Well, I will, uh, yeah, you got, you got a gig already.

00:34:36.282 --> 00:34:36.552
All right.

00:34:36.552 --> 00:34:37.032
Just right here.

00:34:37.032 --> 00:34:37.393
Sounds good.

00:34:37.603 --> 00:34:44.833
Oh, and well, should we talk about, while we're thinking about it right now, the, uh, national Free Ice Cream Scoop Day or whatever is coming up Free Cone Day.

00:34:44.833 --> 00:34:45.253
Yeah.

00:34:45.253 --> 00:34:47.922
So Free Cone Day is on Tuesday, April 8th.

00:34:48.012 --> 00:34:48.193
Yep.

00:34:48.282 --> 00:34:49.543
Um, this is an annual thing.

00:34:49.543 --> 00:34:51.103
They've been doing it since 1979.

00:34:51.103 --> 00:34:56.773
We missed, um, 2020 and 2021 from Covid and then from a supply standpoint in 21.

00:34:57.103 --> 00:34:57.432
Okay.

00:34:57.492 --> 00:35:01.003
Um, and so, oh, just couldn't get enough ice cream cones kind of thing?

00:35:01.003 --> 00:35:01.572
I, yeah.

00:35:01.572 --> 00:35:03.248
Ice cream cones, every, everything, everything.

00:35:03.342 --> 00:35:05.983
Like, it was just still kind of a Yeah.

00:35:06.103 --> 00:35:08.262
Those are the only two years since 1979 we've missed.

00:35:08.358 --> 00:35:08.648
Okay.

00:35:08.713 --> 00:35:15.853
Um, and it really is kind of, when we're talking about that socially social mission side side of it, it's really is a way for us to give back to the community.

00:35:15.882 --> 00:35:15.943
Yeah.

00:35:15.943 --> 00:35:17.293
That supports us all year long.

00:35:17.293 --> 00:35:18.552
That was why it was started.

00:35:18.882 --> 00:35:21.342
Um, Ben and Jerry did it, it was on their one year anniversary.

00:35:21.342 --> 00:35:21.432
Oh, wow.

00:35:21.463 --> 00:35:25.123
From when they, so they opened in an abandoned gas station in 1978.

00:35:25.557 --> 00:35:29.338
They always said, if we make it one year, we're scooping ice cream for everybody in the town.

00:35:29.668 --> 00:35:32.878
And so they did that and it, we still are doing it today.

00:35:32.907 --> 00:35:33.088
How fun.

00:35:33.327 --> 00:35:34.137
And so, yep.

00:35:34.137 --> 00:35:37.527
So this year, Tuesday, uh, April 8th, it's from 12 to eight.

00:35:38.038 --> 00:35:42.838
Um, and so we open late, we close early, but we're doing free ice cream for eight hours that day.

00:35:43.018 --> 00:35:43.318
I love it.

00:35:43.378 --> 00:35:45.297
Um, we partner with the nonprofit.

00:35:45.297 --> 00:35:47.262
That's sort of the way that we do, can come through the line more than once.

00:35:47.338 --> 00:35:48.117
You sure can.

00:35:48.117 --> 00:35:51.268
You just have to wait in line, but you can come through as many times as you want to.

00:35:51.273 --> 00:35:51.543
All right.

00:35:51.563 --> 00:35:51.862
All right.

00:35:51.958 --> 00:35:55.887
Um, and we collect donations for a local non-air nonprofit.

00:35:56.068 --> 00:35:56.217
Okay.

00:35:56.217 --> 00:35:59.068
And so we align with different organizations every single year.

00:35:59.398 --> 00:36:01.737
Typically, the way it's been is all three shops have kind of.

00:36:02.143 --> 00:36:05.353
Organ or partnered with a kind, coalesce, coalesce its own.

00:36:05.382 --> 00:36:05.443
Yeah.

00:36:05.503 --> 00:36:07.873
Well, in the past they've done their own organizations.

00:36:07.873 --> 00:36:08.023
All right.

00:36:08.112 --> 00:36:08.983
Um, more local.

00:36:09.432 --> 00:36:13.063
This year, all three shops are working with Planned Parenthood of Rocky Mountain.

00:36:13.123 --> 00:36:13.452
Okay.

00:36:13.572 --> 00:36:14.652
And so, yeah.

00:36:14.652 --> 00:36:16.932
So all three shops will be working with Planned Parenthood.

00:36:16.932 --> 00:36:20.382
So all of the donations that come in that day will then be, go back to them.

00:36:20.387 --> 00:36:20.538
Okay.

00:36:20.983 --> 00:36:25.393
We also ask whoever is our nonprofit, we actually ask that they come in and do the scooping.

00:36:25.753 --> 00:36:28.483
So we have signup sheets and they actually come in and scoop for the entire day.

00:36:28.603 --> 00:36:29.413
Oh, well that's nice.

00:36:29.413 --> 00:36:30.822
Wait for them to engage with the community.

00:36:30.913 --> 00:36:31.242
Yeah.

00:36:31.572 --> 00:36:36.523
It's really about building awareness for them as well as, you know, the financial side of it is, is the financial side of it.

00:36:36.523 --> 00:36:42.822
We try and do the best we can and getting as much money as we can, but whoever we partner with, we just really wanna raise awareness for what they're doing.

00:36:42.913 --> 00:36:43.123
Yeah.

00:36:43.333 --> 00:36:43.782
Fair enough.

00:36:43.873 --> 00:36:44.112
Mm-hmm.

00:36:44.713 --> 00:36:47.893
Um, and this podcast will actually come out on April 5th.

00:36:48.012 --> 00:36:48.373
Wonderful.

00:36:48.373 --> 00:36:53.563
So for those of you that, uh, listen to the first three days of its release, you will know about the frequent day.

00:36:53.563 --> 00:36:53.833
Yes.

00:36:53.833 --> 00:36:55.213
If not, you'll know about it next year.

00:36:55.217 --> 00:36:55.257
Yes.

00:36:56.112 --> 00:36:56.532
Yes.

00:36:56.563 --> 00:36:58.543
Typically in April, Tuesday and April.

00:36:58.693 --> 00:36:59.623
First Tuesday usually every year.

00:36:59.628 --> 00:37:02.713
Tuesday, not, it's not the first Tuesday, it's just a Tuesday in April.

00:37:02.713 --> 00:37:05.983
The date is usually because of holidays in April around the world.

00:37:05.983 --> 00:37:06.043
Yeah.

00:37:06.043 --> 00:37:07.577
Don't put it on Easter kind of, and what stuff like that.

00:37:07.753 --> 00:37:08.052
Yeah.

00:37:08.052 --> 00:37:12.072
And there's a lot of, and it's a worldwide event, so we do it at Scoop shops across the world.

00:37:12.072 --> 00:37:15.164
And so there's a lot of organizing in terms of what date you do it on.

00:37:15.168 --> 00:37:17.353
Oh, is it just been and Jerry's or is this for, okay.

00:37:17.353 --> 00:37:19.543
Is it how many Ben and Jerry's around the world?

00:37:19.632 --> 00:37:20.382
I don't know that.

00:37:20.413 --> 00:37:20.802
Okay.

00:37:20.952 --> 00:37:21.463
I don't know the answer.

00:37:21.463 --> 00:37:23.458
You said there's 230 or something around here?

00:37:23.458 --> 00:37:24.043
Yeah, something like that.

00:37:24.043 --> 00:37:25.737
225, 230 here in the United States.

00:37:25.847 --> 00:37:26.137
Okay.

00:37:26.233 --> 00:37:28.693
But yeah, six, it's significant more than a hundred.

00:37:29.052 --> 00:37:29.503
Yes.

00:37:29.563 --> 00:37:32.052
So Ri London, all those kind of fancy places.

00:37:32.052 --> 00:37:32.652
Australia.

00:37:32.862 --> 00:37:33.193
Yeah.

00:37:33.193 --> 00:37:33.702
Interesting.

00:37:33.708 --> 00:37:33.838
Mm-hmm.

00:37:33.918 --> 00:37:34.038
Okay.

00:37:34.393 --> 00:37:37.543
I guess every place everybody likes, uh, ice cream, frozen ice cream.

00:37:37.543 --> 00:37:37.782
Preet.

00:37:38.382 --> 00:37:38.802
Yeah.

00:37:38.893 --> 00:37:40.813
Or non ice cream or dairy.

00:37:40.813 --> 00:37:40.815
Yeah.

00:37:40.820 --> 00:37:41.262
Non-dairy.

00:37:41.262 --> 00:37:41.518
Nondairy dessert.

00:37:41.588 --> 00:37:42.197
Non-dairy.

00:37:42.197 --> 00:37:43.242
Frozen dessert.

00:37:43.242 --> 00:37:43.632
I like it.

00:37:43.842 --> 00:37:45.193
Um, well that's exciting.

00:37:45.253 --> 00:37:45.552
Yes.

00:37:45.612 --> 00:37:47.893
Um, I will, uh, mark it on my calendar.

00:37:47.893 --> 00:37:50.623
Ava, remind me after this show here to put free Cone Day.

00:37:50.773 --> 00:37:51.882
It's our favorite day of the year.

00:37:52.063 --> 00:37:55.932
If I, if I put 90 minutes aside, can I come through at least twice, do you think?

00:37:56.112 --> 00:37:56.518
Usually, yeah.

00:37:57.523 --> 00:37:57.615
We, maybe three times.

00:37:57.657 --> 00:37:58.632
We have a really good plan.

00:37:58.632 --> 00:37:58.663
Okay.

00:37:59.143 --> 00:38:00.672
We have it, we have it down pat.

00:38:00.672 --> 00:38:05.443
We've had, we've had people tell us before, like, this is the fastest I've ever been through free Cone day line.

00:38:05.443 --> 00:38:07.663
And I've been through free Cone day lines across the country.

00:38:08.563 --> 00:38:09.373
I know we know how to do it.

00:38:09.373 --> 00:38:10.333
We get through people quickly.

00:38:10.693 --> 00:38:11.532
We got a lot of volunteers.

00:38:11.592 --> 00:38:12.552
We have a lot of volunteers.

00:38:12.552 --> 00:38:12.943
I like it.

00:38:13.032 --> 00:38:13.302
Yep.

00:38:13.572 --> 00:38:22.483
Um, should we flash back to those like early, like just before you started the business time a little bit before we jump all the way back?

00:38:23.262 --> 00:38:23.293
Ah.

00:38:23.322 --> 00:38:24.612
Or do you wanna jump, jump all the way back?

00:38:24.612 --> 00:38:25.543
Let's just jump all the way back.

00:38:25.543 --> 00:38:25.663
Okay.

00:38:25.663 --> 00:38:31.572
Because I know you had a family connection, I'm remembering from when we first got acquainted to the Ben and Jerry's organization.

00:38:31.572 --> 00:38:38.833
So let's just zoom back to you as three years old or five years old, or whenever you start remembering things.

00:38:38.833 --> 00:38:38.893
Hmm.

00:38:39.313 --> 00:38:39.643
Yeah.

00:38:39.643 --> 00:38:40.873
So I grew up on Long Island.

00:38:40.902 --> 00:38:41.293
Okay.

00:38:41.443 --> 00:38:44.083
Uh, I was a pretty competitive athlete.

00:38:44.083 --> 00:38:45.612
I played soccer all through college.

00:38:45.612 --> 00:38:45.643
Okay.

00:38:45.702 --> 00:38:49.213
Um, ran, um, track and track through high school.

00:38:49.663 --> 00:38:51.853
Um, and so, but where did you land as a 5-year-old?

00:38:52.213 --> 00:38:53.682
Like, what was your circumstance?

00:38:53.802 --> 00:38:55.632
You were born, born and raised there.

00:38:55.663 --> 00:38:57.432
Born, uh, born in Minnesota.

00:38:57.762 --> 00:38:59.382
Moved to Chicago when I was six months old.

00:38:59.382 --> 00:39:00.943
Moved to Long Island when I was three.

00:39:01.842 --> 00:39:02.922
So about Long Island's, all you remember.

00:39:02.983 --> 00:39:03.702
Oh, long Island's.

00:39:03.702 --> 00:39:04.452
All I remember.

00:39:04.512 --> 00:39:04.782
Okay.

00:39:04.932 --> 00:39:07.152
Um, I have an older brother, uh, Paul.

00:39:07.152 --> 00:39:08.382
He's eight years older than me.

00:39:08.387 --> 00:39:08.628
Oh, wow.

00:39:08.628 --> 00:39:08.708
Okay.

00:39:08.708 --> 00:39:10.963
And me and his family live outside of Nashville.

00:39:11.083 --> 00:39:11.353
Okay.

00:39:11.382 --> 00:39:13.663
And I have a sister who is six years older than me.

00:39:13.663 --> 00:39:16.333
She and her family, well they live outside of Boston.

00:39:16.333 --> 00:39:19.963
Her kids are actually grown now, and one's outta college, one's at American University.

00:39:19.963 --> 00:39:19.992
Okay.

00:39:20.563 --> 00:39:22.572
Um, so yeah, I was kind of the baby.

00:39:22.663 --> 00:39:23.114
Um, yeah.

00:39:23.119 --> 00:39:23.789
Were were you an Oopsie?

00:39:24.432 --> 00:39:26.233
No, I was very much planned.

00:39:26.233 --> 00:39:26.262
Okay.

00:39:26.527 --> 00:39:26.827
All right.

00:39:26.983 --> 00:39:30.402
My parents were young when they had my brother and sister and they're like, Hey, let's have one more.

00:39:30.432 --> 00:39:31.932
My dad was in the Army.

00:39:31.992 --> 00:39:36.583
Um, my brother and sister were actually born in Germany while he was, while he was stationed over there.

00:39:37.063 --> 00:39:37.722
Um.

00:39:38.637 --> 00:39:46.077
And so I think that they went, once they kind of moved home and got settled with a real, he got settled a real job.

00:39:46.077 --> 00:39:46.199
They were from there.

00:39:46.199 --> 00:39:46.262
He was from there.

00:39:46.722 --> 00:39:54.507
Um, they decided, yeah, they wanted to do it without all of this chaos of war and army and all of that stuff.

00:39:54.538 --> 00:39:54.628
Sure.

00:39:54.628 --> 00:39:59.458
So, I mean, and having a little bit more time on their hands too, or not time on their hands, but age wise.

00:39:59.967 --> 00:40:02.697
Um, so yeah, no, I was not an oopsie.

00:40:02.697 --> 00:40:03.657
I was definitely planned.

00:40:04.257 --> 00:40:08.188
Um, sorry to ask that question, but No, I, it's a legitimate question for sure.

00:40:08.188 --> 00:40:15.983
I, I've asked my, uh, I, I was first and then my brother's two years, my sisters five years, and then another five years before my last brother Uhhuh.

00:40:16.163 --> 00:40:17.038
And he was an oopsie.

00:40:17.128 --> 00:40:17.623
He was an Yeah.

00:40:17.623 --> 00:40:17.862
Yeah.

00:40:17.862 --> 00:40:19.708
He was an acknowledged oopsie right from the start, you know?

00:40:19.708 --> 00:40:19.827
Yeah.

00:40:19.887 --> 00:40:22.318
No, and I, I shared with our kids, if there's another kid, it's an oopsie.

00:40:23.007 --> 00:40:26.063
Just so you know, if you listen, see this an future, there's an oopsie.

00:40:26.998 --> 00:40:28.108
Um, yeah.

00:40:28.163 --> 00:40:30.447
Uh, I don't, it was your dad in.

00:40:30.867 --> 00:40:32.518
In Ben and Jerry's organization already?

00:40:32.518 --> 00:40:35.172
No, no, he was, he was working for Weight Watchers at the time.

00:40:35.172 --> 00:40:35.572
Oh, interesting.

00:40:35.577 --> 00:40:38.128
That's actually what brought us from Chicago to New York.

00:40:38.128 --> 00:40:38.373
Oh, interesting.

00:40:38.378 --> 00:40:44.818
He works for the Hez company and who owned Weight Watchers, and so he was, he's always was on the franchisor side.

00:40:44.907 --> 00:40:45.148
Okay.

00:40:45.148 --> 00:40:48.387
So he was in kind of in charge of, uh, weight.

00:40:48.387 --> 00:40:49.197
That's a franchise too.

00:40:49.197 --> 00:40:49.257
Yeah.

00:40:49.492 --> 00:40:51.867
So he was in charge of the weight washers franchises for a while.

00:40:52.047 --> 00:40:52.257
Okay.

00:40:52.467 --> 00:40:58.677
Um, so that's what took us like a district manager or kind of a big No, he was the di, like the director of retail operations for Oh wow.

00:40:58.677 --> 00:40:59.577
I think that was his title.

00:40:59.577 --> 00:41:02.248
I don't know if that was the exact title, but something along those lines.

00:41:02.307 --> 00:41:06.778
How did he like, he was just a military guy like six years before He was a really smart guy.

00:41:07.047 --> 00:41:07.108
Yeah.

00:41:07.617 --> 00:41:09.237
Uh, he was a really smart guy.

00:41:09.327 --> 00:41:16.527
Uh, he is a really smart guy, so, um, yeah, he was, he he just picks things up.

00:41:16.527 --> 00:41:16.588
Yeah.

00:41:16.588 --> 00:41:17.458
He just knows.

00:41:17.458 --> 00:41:20.532
I mean, when, so he actually, he understands things.

00:41:20.538 --> 00:41:27.717
Enlisted, my dad enlisted in the Army because he didn't wanna be drafted and then be told where he, where he had to go and, and what he was gonna do.

00:41:27.717 --> 00:41:30.293
So he enlisted to try in Vietnam.

00:41:30.358 --> 00:41:31.168
Vietnam, yeah.

00:41:31.168 --> 00:41:35.217
So he enlisted my dad was like a month away from enlisting because he wanted the same.

00:41:35.248 --> 00:41:35.487
Yep.

00:41:35.788 --> 00:41:38.398
And then they ended, you know, they, they stopped the draft.

00:41:38.427 --> 00:41:38.757
Yeah.

00:41:38.793 --> 00:41:40.813
So and so that's why I was born or something.

00:41:40.813 --> 00:41:41.052
Yeah.

00:41:41.217 --> 00:41:44.487
So he enlisted, so he had a little bit of a say in where he could go.

00:41:44.492 --> 00:41:44.612
Yeah.

00:41:44.938 --> 00:41:51.418
And he ended up taking a linguistics test and passed it with like flying colors, which he had no.

00:41:52.063 --> 00:41:52.722
Education in that space.

00:41:52.722 --> 00:41:53.713
He didn't have anything.

00:41:53.773 --> 00:41:53.983
Yeah.

00:41:54.043 --> 00:41:55.813
And so he became a Russian linguist.

00:41:55.902 --> 00:41:56.293
Oh, wow.

00:41:56.322 --> 00:42:01.483
And so they moved out to California when they got first got married and he went to linguistic school.

00:42:01.813 --> 00:42:12.583
Um, and, and yeah, learned Russian, um, beside, you know, the special agents who were like learning basically how to kill people in six weeks and being shipped off to who knows if they came home.

00:42:13.063 --> 00:42:15.373
And so that's what he did.

00:42:15.373 --> 00:42:20.773
And then that's, he, they went to Germany and he listened to, uh, whatever he listened to.

00:42:20.773 --> 00:42:21.193
I don't know.

00:42:21.197 --> 00:42:21.217
Yeah.

00:42:21.222 --> 00:42:21.282
Yeah.

00:42:21.282 --> 00:42:22.693
I don't exactly know what he did over there.

00:42:22.902 --> 00:42:25.182
I know he had a red, he had one of the red phones to the president.

00:42:25.182 --> 00:42:25.213
Okay.

00:42:25.213 --> 00:42:27.523
Like that's, he didn't, but his, his office did.

00:42:27.528 --> 00:42:27.777
Yeah.

00:42:27.777 --> 00:42:27.938
Yeah.

00:42:28.242 --> 00:42:30.762
So he's was just a really, really smart guy.

00:42:31.003 --> 00:42:35.532
People picked up on his smartness right away and, and probably his dedication as well, or whatever.

00:42:35.532 --> 00:42:39.733
So yeah, we've had conversations about, um, about his time in the military and leaving.

00:42:39.733 --> 00:42:49.422
And he kind of, you know, had he, had he done it differently, he probably would've stayed in the military longer or been liked to have been an officer in the, in the military, but he didn't, so he got out.

00:42:49.422 --> 00:42:49.693
Yeah.

00:42:49.693 --> 00:42:52.302
And then kind of where he landed and how he got where he was.

00:42:52.302 --> 00:43:01.302
But eventually the, yeah, eventually he got into kind of leading franchise organizations and, you know, he was not the president of Weight Watchers or anything, but he had a good job and Yeah.

00:43:01.302 --> 00:43:01.603
Yeah.

00:43:02.233 --> 00:43:03.373
You know, he had, he worked a lot.

00:43:03.373 --> 00:43:04.032
We had a good childhood.

00:43:04.032 --> 00:43:06.378
Mom was probably able to not work, or she wanted to.

00:43:06.378 --> 00:43:06.697
She did.

00:43:06.697 --> 00:43:07.992
She wanted, she did she, yeah.

00:43:07.992 --> 00:43:10.992
She kind of had side jobs, you know, receptionist type jobs.

00:43:11.023 --> 00:43:11.083
Yeah.

00:43:11.083 --> 00:43:11.802
My whole life.

00:43:11.833 --> 00:43:14.713
Um, yeah, she worked in a couple different companies.

00:43:14.742 --> 00:43:17.112
Um, yeah, she, no, she worked too.

00:43:17.503 --> 00:43:18.072
Um.

00:43:18.807 --> 00:43:24.523
I, I think the sports part of it was, was kind of created the leadership part of me.

00:43:24.523 --> 00:43:30.972
Like I, I learned how to, well, first of all, I learned they had to work really hard, first of all.

00:43:30.972 --> 00:43:31.273
Yeah.

00:43:31.277 --> 00:43:31.297
Yeah.

00:43:31.302 --> 00:43:33.643
If you wanna be a, a high end athlete yeah.

00:43:33.643 --> 00:43:34.753
You have to work really, really hard.

00:43:35.052 --> 00:43:43.632
Um, but what I learned too was just to lead by example through that, you know, that, that, you know, the best way to get people to kind of follow you is to be the hardest worker.

00:43:43.992 --> 00:43:44.023
Mm.

00:43:44.112 --> 00:43:47.413
Um, and so I, yeah, I mean, I did that.

00:43:47.413 --> 00:43:57.163
I was, you know, captains and I played varsity all four years of high school and then went on and we created kind of a really competitive club team.

00:43:57.282 --> 00:43:57.313
Oh.

00:43:57.373 --> 00:43:58.992
I went to the University of Michigan, so, okay.

00:43:59.353 --> 00:44:05.382
Um, which didn't have a, you didn't, they had a club team that was not very well organized.

00:44:05.443 --> 00:44:05.773
Okay.

00:44:05.862 --> 00:44:10.242
Um, and so same, I, I sort of had chance meetings that led to really great things.

00:44:10.242 --> 00:44:19.003
So I met somebody on my first night that I was on campus who I had said something about playing soccer and he was like, I'm the assistant coach for the club soccer team tryouts.

00:44:19.003 --> 00:44:20.592
Like, do you wanna try out tomorrow?

00:44:20.682 --> 00:44:20.742
Yeah.

00:44:21.523 --> 00:44:30.972
So what was cool about that was there was about six or seven freshmen that were playing that year that really wanted something more than just kind of a club rec league.

00:44:30.978 --> 00:44:30.987
Yeah.

00:44:31.032 --> 00:44:31.273
Yeah.

00:44:31.302 --> 00:44:34.632
Who wanted to play competitive soccer and we're at the University of Michigan, I mean.

00:44:35.038 --> 00:44:35.248
Yeah.

00:44:35.248 --> 00:44:39.657
You know, like you had the five, fab Five was, uh, yeah, I guess it was five or 10 years later probably.

00:44:39.657 --> 00:44:41.367
But maybe not, maybe it was not our time.

00:44:41.367 --> 00:44:43.047
No, they were, they were a little bit earlier than me.

00:44:43.047 --> 00:44:43.588
I think it was.

00:44:43.617 --> 00:44:43.887
Okay.

00:44:43.887 --> 00:44:44.338
I thought so.

00:44:44.338 --> 00:44:45.523
They were for me, they, I, yeah, yeah.

00:44:45.597 --> 00:44:47.007
I was there 96 to 2000.

00:44:47.007 --> 00:44:48.507
Fab Five was probably the early nineties.

00:44:48.512 --> 00:44:48.682
Yeah.

00:44:49.047 --> 00:44:49.228
Yeah.

00:44:49.228 --> 00:44:53.952
So they, they this example of a bunch of freshmen coming in and I don't know if they won the championship, but they went to the Final Four.

00:44:53.952 --> 00:44:54.507
They did?

00:44:54.657 --> 00:44:54.898
Yeah.

00:44:54.898 --> 00:44:55.677
I don't know if they, yeah.

00:44:55.737 --> 00:44:58.228
Um, but it really was also like.

00:44:59.217 --> 00:45:10.137
Uh, just we want, we wanted to be com we wanted to compete and, and we're at this huge school that, of course, aside from the varsity team, that there's going to be some really good other soccer players.

00:45:10.137 --> 00:45:10.438
Right, right.

00:45:10.443 --> 00:45:13.708
Like, like, we're not all gonna be playing varsity sp sports.

00:45:13.708 --> 00:45:22.827
So, um, we, so we ended up actually kind of hiring coaches and, um, from the time that I was a freshman to my senior year, we went to nationals.

00:45:22.858 --> 00:45:23.907
We came in second.

00:45:23.967 --> 00:45:24.177
Whoa.

00:45:24.628 --> 00:45:27.268
In national, is that my fir my, by my senior year.

00:45:27.327 --> 00:45:31.887
And then the club team actually went on and they, they won nationals like the next two or three years in a row.

00:45:31.887 --> 00:45:31.947
Wow.

00:45:31.978 --> 00:45:33.717
So we really built this foundation team.

00:45:33.717 --> 00:45:34.768
Well, you reformed it from within.

00:45:34.768 --> 00:45:34.827
Yeah.

00:45:34.887 --> 00:45:35.307
Yeah.

00:45:35.307 --> 00:45:35.998
That's really cool.

00:45:36.027 --> 00:45:36.657
It was great.

00:45:36.657 --> 00:45:37.677
It was a cool experience.

00:45:37.677 --> 00:45:39.358
Have you done the Enneagram test thing?

00:45:40.018 --> 00:45:40.768
I have.

00:45:40.768 --> 00:45:42.297
But you're not a reformer.

00:45:42.538 --> 00:45:43.768
It feels like you're a reformer.

00:45:43.768 --> 00:45:43.858
Yes.

00:45:43.858 --> 00:45:45.682
I think that, like, you see, you wanna make it better.

00:45:45.898 --> 00:45:46.197
Yes.

00:45:46.197 --> 00:45:49.018
I think that is my, I think that's exactly who I am.

00:45:49.228 --> 00:45:51.418
I also am starting doing human design work.

00:45:51.447 --> 00:45:51.478
Okay.

00:45:51.628 --> 00:45:56.788
And I, my human design is very much that I see problems and I, and I know what needs to be done to fix it.

00:45:56.878 --> 00:45:57.612
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:45:57.748 --> 00:45:58.047
Yeah.

00:45:58.168 --> 00:45:58.527
I dig it.

00:45:58.677 --> 00:45:58.978
Yeah.

00:45:59.338 --> 00:46:05.188
Is that like kind of part of your superpower even within, like, once you got your head out of the The dip case?

00:46:05.188 --> 00:46:05.998
The dip case, yeah.

00:46:06.027 --> 00:46:06.418
Yes.

00:46:07.163 --> 00:46:09.027
I wanted the right terminology there.

00:46:09.027 --> 00:46:09.088
Yeah.

00:46:09.538 --> 00:46:10.018
Um.

00:46:10.563 --> 00:46:14.583
Like seeing and looking around and being like, okay, now I can do this and I can do that.

00:46:14.583 --> 00:46:17.943
I can, I think so I think it's taken me a little while to get there.

00:46:17.943 --> 00:46:18.003
Yeah.

00:46:18.152 --> 00:46:25.532
But yes, I think now having a, having this great leadership team, I think it's easier for me to guide them in the, in where, where they should be spending their time.

00:46:25.682 --> 00:46:25.862
Yeah.

00:46:25.862 --> 00:46:31.172
We talk a lot about how they wanna be leading and managing their teams, but it starts with time management.

00:46:31.472 --> 00:46:33.512
It starts with, you know, what are their goals?

00:46:33.512 --> 00:46:35.887
And so we set, we talk a lot about goals and I can mm-hmm.

00:46:36.152 --> 00:46:36.572
Yeah.

00:46:36.572 --> 00:46:39.288
And sometimes they're hard conversations, you know, and it's not just business goals, right.

00:46:39.288 --> 00:46:41.463
Like it's personal goals too, showing up all the way.

00:46:41.523 --> 00:46:41.913
Yeah.

00:46:42.003 --> 00:46:47.853
No, we talk a lot about, about the worklife balance, which I kind of hate that word, but also like, that's the best way to describe it.

00:46:48.242 --> 00:46:55.682
Um, I want to make sure that they are getting away from work and I am like, I am clear about like, go away this weekend and shut off your phone.

00:46:55.893 --> 00:46:56.072
Yeah.

00:46:56.132 --> 00:46:58.112
Like, don't, it's okay.

00:46:58.112 --> 00:46:58.128
It's okay.

00:46:58.773 --> 00:47:00.483
And I want them to be able to do that.

00:47:00.543 --> 00:47:01.353
And so, yeah.

00:47:01.353 --> 00:47:02.552
We have a lot of those conversations.

00:47:02.552 --> 00:47:02.913
I like it.

00:47:03.032 --> 00:47:03.182
Yeah.

00:47:03.182 --> 00:47:03.512
I like it.

00:47:03.842 --> 00:47:07.472
So we were, you were club teaming it up.

00:47:07.563 --> 00:47:07.682
Oh.

00:47:07.682 --> 00:47:08.643
What did you go to school for?

00:47:08.702 --> 00:47:11.793
I got my BA in, um, organizational studies.

00:47:11.853 --> 00:47:12.182
Okay.

00:47:12.422 --> 00:47:13.623
Graduated in 2000.

00:47:13.922 --> 00:47:14.282
Alright.

00:47:14.882 --> 00:47:17.402
Um, moved back home to Long Island.

00:47:17.583 --> 00:47:20.807
Um,'cause no job and no money and no place to live.

00:47:20.887 --> 00:47:23.523
You tried to find a job and tried to figure it out, but there wasn't really a thing.

00:47:23.552 --> 00:47:23.882
Yeah.

00:47:23.882 --> 00:47:23.884
Yeah.

00:47:23.972 --> 00:47:26.853
So I had no idea what my major was gonna allow me to do.

00:47:26.913 --> 00:47:26.972
Yeah.

00:47:26.972 --> 00:47:31.652
Like, I didn't, I I was, you know, a glorified liberal arts degree is the best description of it.

00:47:32.132 --> 00:47:36.123
Um, and so I started applying and, um.

00:47:36.688 --> 00:47:41.608
For jobs in Manhattan and ended up getting something at this private hedge fund.

00:47:42.177 --> 00:47:42.208
Okay.

00:47:42.237 --> 00:47:48.478
Um, and so I commuted for the first, I don't know, four or five months or so until I found a doing Yeah.

00:47:48.807 --> 00:47:52.677
Doing nothing of significance, to be quite honest with you.

00:47:52.677 --> 00:47:54.838
They had no idea what they wanted to hire me for.

00:47:54.838 --> 00:47:58.378
So it was this like a hundred million dollars hedge fund.

00:47:58.407 --> 00:47:58.467
Okay.

00:47:58.557 --> 00:48:01.617
That was owned by like a 27 or 28-year-old maybe.

00:48:01.623 --> 00:48:01.882
Okay.

00:48:01.947 --> 00:48:04.288
And then his partner was probably 42 maybe.

00:48:04.588 --> 00:48:08.938
And, um, the 42-year-old Jeff, um, great guy.

00:48:08.998 --> 00:48:19.677
He for some reason decided he needed somebody to go through all of their emails on all of the companies that they potentially might be titrating and have them all filed away.

00:48:19.978 --> 00:48:21.748
So they hired me to do that.

00:48:21.748 --> 00:48:21.777
Okay.

00:48:22.737 --> 00:48:27.478
To print off like every single email they ever got and file it away again.

00:48:27.478 --> 00:48:28.378
This is like 2000.

00:48:28.378 --> 00:48:28.648
Right.

00:48:28.648 --> 00:48:32.637
So we're like, we're still kind of the tech on the verge of the technological bubble.

00:48:32.757 --> 00:48:32.907
Yeah.

00:48:32.907 --> 00:48:37.288
And so filing cabinets in Manila folders and like that, that's what they wanted you to do.

00:48:37.827 --> 00:48:40.978
And about six weeks into doing that, I was.

00:48:42.492 --> 00:48:47.202
You are never ever going to look at one of these emails ever.

00:48:47.262 --> 00:48:47.713
Right.

00:48:47.713 --> 00:48:48.072
Ever.

00:48:48.222 --> 00:48:49.213
It was never gonna happen.

00:48:49.213 --> 00:48:49.753
And see what these things are.

00:48:49.753 --> 00:48:52.483
They're called folders so you could just put it in there.

00:48:52.483 --> 00:48:52.543
Yeah.

00:48:53.143 --> 00:48:54.612
And so it was really silly.

00:48:54.612 --> 00:48:57.523
And so I sort of became just the office.

00:48:57.523 --> 00:48:58.932
Like go-to person, goer.

00:48:59.172 --> 00:48:59.563
Yeah.

00:48:59.563 --> 00:49:04.242
Just sort of, they, they wanted me around, they liked me, but they didn't really have anything for me to do.

00:49:04.302 --> 00:49:07.123
And so it sort of kind of evolved into different things.

00:49:07.123 --> 00:49:11.652
And so finally the back office person, you're like, why did you get that job?

00:49:12.163 --> 00:49:14.922
Uh, I will tell you why I got that job.

00:49:14.922 --> 00:49:15.418
I mean, you're really pretty still.

00:49:15.943 --> 00:49:18.943
Uh, but I've, they just want a pretty girl in the office kind.

00:49:18.943 --> 00:49:25.663
I got that job because Jeff saw on my resume, okay, again, and remember I was 21 or 22 years old, right.

00:49:26.083 --> 00:49:26.983
I was brand new.

00:49:26.983 --> 00:49:29.532
Like I had had jobs, I had worked since I was in high school.

00:49:29.532 --> 00:49:31.813
But you know, nothing of significance.

00:49:32.202 --> 00:49:32.742
Um.

00:49:33.552 --> 00:49:39.853
I had done a dance marathon at the University of Michigan where we were, it was a fundraiser for 36 hours.

00:49:39.853 --> 00:49:39.882
Okay.

00:49:40.543 --> 00:49:44.682
Where no sleep and no sitting down and no, whatever you danced for 36 hours.

00:49:44.682 --> 00:49:46.842
I mean, I was on my feet for 36 hours.

00:49:47.052 --> 00:49:47.112
Wow.

00:49:47.503 --> 00:49:51.878
And Jeff thought that that was the coolest thing he had ever heard in his entire life.

00:49:52.237 --> 00:49:52.693
I love it.

00:49:52.753 --> 00:49:56.083
And so literally out of the entire interview, that was what he picked out.

00:49:56.083 --> 00:49:57.552
And he was like, you're hired because, tell me more.

00:49:57.552 --> 00:49:58.393
That's the coolest thing.

00:49:58.992 --> 00:50:09.672
And so, you know, I have to say that, that um, one of our, one of our members at Loco is the, the part of the band that made our, makes our lead in music A brothers Fountain Uhhuh.

00:50:09.793 --> 00:50:19.032
And they did a, a fundraiser for the homeless cause in, uh, Fort Collins, but, and they did 24 hours in the old town main stage.

00:50:19.032 --> 00:50:19.092
Yeah.

00:50:19.092 --> 00:50:21.583
Where somebody was making music for 24 hours in a row.

00:50:21.583 --> 00:50:22.032
How awesome is that?

00:50:22.483 --> 00:50:27.077
And uh, when I heard that, I was like, well, you're qualified to be in Lookout thing, think, want, you're cool.

00:50:27.438 --> 00:50:27.637
Yeah.

00:50:27.827 --> 00:50:32.052
Like, so kudos to like having the pa Can we back up?

00:50:32.172 --> 00:50:32.233
Yeah.

00:50:32.233 --> 00:50:37.242
Like what was so driving that, that was worthy cause for you at that time?

00:50:37.452 --> 00:50:38.893
I'm not gonna lie, I actually don't remember.

00:50:38.893 --> 00:50:40.452
It probably was a children's hospital.

00:50:40.483 --> 00:50:40.722
Okay.

00:50:40.753 --> 00:50:43.992
Um, was, I think was the, was the grantee of that.

00:50:44.472 --> 00:50:46.422
Um, and.

00:50:47.338 --> 00:50:49.137
I, you know, like why not?

00:50:49.168 --> 00:50:49.648
Why not?

00:50:49.802 --> 00:50:49.963
Yeah.

00:50:50.112 --> 00:50:50.402
Yeah.

00:50:50.847 --> 00:50:53.068
I think, you know, again, I was probably 20 years old.

00:50:53.128 --> 00:50:53.338
Yeah.

00:50:53.668 --> 00:50:53.967
Why?

00:50:53.967 --> 00:50:54.628
That sounds tough.

00:50:54.628 --> 00:50:56.362
It was more about with no, no constraints.

00:50:56.362 --> 00:50:59.248
Probably more of social thing, you know, let's do this.

00:50:59.398 --> 00:51:01.498
Let's, yeah, let's raise some money and go have some fun.

00:51:01.498 --> 00:51:01.947
I dig it.

00:51:02.068 --> 00:51:06.327
Um, I don't know if there was any real conviction other than that, to be quite honest with you.

00:51:06.898 --> 00:51:08.277
Probably a nice fly job, but it got me a job.

00:51:08.338 --> 00:51:10.347
Levered you into some other opportunities it sounds like.

00:51:10.378 --> 00:51:13.018
Well, that job actually really taught me what I didn't want.

00:51:13.438 --> 00:51:16.708
I will be flat out, honest with you, to work for a hedge fund.

00:51:16.708 --> 00:51:16.773
To work for a hedge fund.

00:51:16.967 --> 00:51:20.217
Um, I think I was making$28,000 a year.

00:51:20.338 --> 00:51:20.608
Okay.

00:51:20.728 --> 00:51:30.327
Um, one of my tasks was to, um, was to catalog the wine order that the 28-year-old owner had bought from France.

00:51:31.197 --> 00:51:31.257
Okay.

00:51:31.257 --> 00:51:33.807
And it was totaled more money than my salary did.

00:51:34.018 --> 00:51:34.137
Right.

00:51:34.438 --> 00:51:36.927
And it so that, so that was pretty disappointing.

00:51:36.987 --> 00:51:41.128
And then, um, and so then I got into doing the back office stuff.

00:51:41.128 --> 00:51:45.958
So I was, I had a job basically in the morning before the bell opened and after the bell closed.

00:51:45.958 --> 00:51:55.018
And it was all about reconciling the accounts and making sure that everybody that the trades went through properly that what we thought we bought is what the broker thought we bought, making sure all that stuff kind of coalesced.

00:51:55.108 --> 00:51:55.288
Mm-hmm.

00:51:55.617 --> 00:52:01.378
Um, and then in the morning it was, well that whole culture of hedge funds is, we're just a little smarter than most of their people.

00:52:01.572 --> 00:52:03.943
So, yeah, act accordingly.

00:52:04.032 --> 00:52:04.362
Yeah.

00:52:04.362 --> 00:52:11.652
And so, um, so I, so I had to then reconcile the accounts in the morning and make sure that how much money was in the bank was actually how much money we had.

00:52:12.193 --> 00:52:21.762
Um, but then during the day I didn't really have a whole lot to do because my job really was after the bell rang and making sure that everything was submitting everything to our broker, because again, it wasn't tech.

00:52:22.032 --> 00:52:25.213
I faxed it, it was all like, I was faxing information.

00:52:25.362 --> 00:52:25.538
Right, right.

00:52:25.842 --> 00:52:31.693
Um, and so during the middle of the day, then I started sitting with the owner of the company.

00:52:31.693 --> 00:52:33.463
We called, I kept his blotter.

00:52:33.463 --> 00:52:43.663
His blotter was a piece of paper, a handwritten piece of paper of what he bought, what he sold, how much, and at what price, and then calculate how much you made or made or loss that day.

00:52:43.842 --> 00:52:44.083
Okay.

00:52:44.083 --> 00:52:53.322
And so I was, I was sitting next to him and he was basically sort of then teaching me how to do it and what he was looking for and what he was paying attention to, and why he was doing what he was doing, which was cool.

00:52:53.893 --> 00:53:00.643
Um, what I learned though was that those guys made more money than I could have ever imagined in my entire life.

00:53:01.092 --> 00:53:04.483
And, um, they were miserable, right?

00:53:04.512 --> 00:53:08.652
They hated their lives, they hated their jobs, they hated their spouses.

00:53:09.163 --> 00:53:10.362
They just were not happy.

00:53:10.362 --> 00:53:11.503
How fulfilling is that?

00:53:11.503 --> 00:53:13.932
Like, basically gambling with people's money all the time?

00:53:13.963 --> 00:53:16.003
I don't, it doesn't make any sense to me.

00:53:16.273 --> 00:53:22.603
And I just, I got to the point where I realized I need to leave before I'm making that much money that I don't feel like I can leave.

00:53:22.932 --> 00:53:23.472
Right.

00:53:23.592 --> 00:53:23.952
Yeah.

00:53:24.043 --> 00:53:27.702
And so, um, so at this point, I was living in Manhattan, Manhattan at the time too.

00:53:27.702 --> 00:53:29.202
So living and working in Manhattan.

00:53:29.547 --> 00:53:32.847
Um, in a bedroom that was seriously half the size of this.

00:53:32.847 --> 00:53:35.818
I mean, you couldn't open my door all the way with a full-size bed in it.

00:53:36.208 --> 00:53:37.947
I, I mean, it was tiny.

00:53:38.398 --> 00:53:40.768
Um, third floor walk up, no elevator, no.

00:53:40.768 --> 00:53:44.068
You know, it's kind of the classic Long Island lifestyle.

00:53:44.068 --> 00:53:44.070
Very classic.

00:53:44.070 --> 00:53:44.070
Yeah.

00:53:44.076 --> 00:53:44.972
Eventually, yeah.

00:53:45.657 --> 00:53:50.458
And so I had told my company, you know, look, I am, I'm done.

00:53:50.487 --> 00:53:51.237
Like, I'm leaving.

00:53:51.237 --> 00:53:55.407
I don't really have a plan, but I know that I'm not staying here for very much longer.

00:53:55.858 --> 00:53:57.478
And they, they were great.

00:53:57.478 --> 00:53:58.378
They were like, that's fine.

00:53:58.378 --> 00:54:02.637
Just, you know, when you have a couple weeks and when you know a, a couple weeks out, just, just give us a heads up.

00:54:02.652 --> 00:54:02.893
That's cool.

00:54:03.148 --> 00:54:04.557
And I called my friend.

00:54:04.557 --> 00:54:08.847
I had, I had my best friend from college from Michigan was getting her master's degree here at CSU.

00:54:08.847 --> 00:54:08.938
Okay.

00:54:09.418 --> 00:54:11.367
And so I called her up and I said, make room on your couch.

00:54:11.367 --> 00:54:12.177
I'm moving to Colorado.

00:54:12.177 --> 00:54:13.438
No job, no place to live.

00:54:13.438 --> 00:54:15.327
I'm just, I'm just gonna make a change.

00:54:15.838 --> 00:54:19.768
And about two weeks after I had this set in my mind was nine 11.

00:54:19.768 --> 00:54:19.797
Oh.

00:54:20.307 --> 00:54:23.728
And there I was living and working in Manhattan, in the financial Wow.

00:54:23.757 --> 00:54:24.358
Industry.

00:54:24.358 --> 00:54:25.257
Not in downtown.

00:54:25.257 --> 00:54:28.467
We were, we were not, you know, we were in Times Square, our office was in Times Square.

00:54:29.038 --> 00:54:30.177
Um, and.

00:54:31.003 --> 00:54:31.813
Was like, yeah.

00:54:31.842 --> 00:54:33.373
That was a nail in the coffin for I'm, yeah.

00:54:33.373 --> 00:54:35.293
Here New York is not where I wanna be.

00:54:35.413 --> 00:54:35.652
Yeah.

00:54:35.802 --> 00:54:36.793
And so I left.

00:54:36.793 --> 00:54:37.452
And why Colorado?

00:54:38.413 --> 00:54:38.983
Seriously.

00:54:38.983 --> 00:54:40.003
Only because Courtney was here.

00:54:40.182 --> 00:54:41.532
That was the only reason.

00:54:42.282 --> 00:54:43.873
Knew it was like someplace kind of cool that I got a really good friend.

00:54:43.902 --> 00:54:44.172
Yep.

00:54:44.233 --> 00:54:46.032
I knew I wanted to leave New York.

00:54:46.032 --> 00:54:46.092
Yeah.

00:54:46.123 --> 00:54:50.023
Um, there was nothing about the East Coast that really like, kept me there.

00:54:50.023 --> 00:54:51.882
There was no reason why I needed to stay there.

00:54:51.943 --> 00:54:52.092
Yeah.

00:54:52.422 --> 00:54:56.983
Um, when I was in college, I was thinking I wanted to go to San Francisco, but I, same thing.

00:54:56.983 --> 00:55:00.822
Like I couldn't get a job without having a place to live and I couldn't have a place to live Right.

00:55:00.822 --> 00:55:01.512
Without getting a job.

00:55:01.512 --> 00:55:02.592
That's how I ended up back at home.

00:55:02.597 --> 00:55:04.637
Well, you live in San Francisco without a bunch of money.

00:55:04.932 --> 00:55:05.262
Yeah.

00:55:05.262 --> 00:55:06.072
Especially these days.

00:55:06.072 --> 00:55:06.733
But even back then.

00:55:06.762 --> 00:55:07.182
Yeah.

00:55:07.242 --> 00:55:07.512
Yeah.

00:55:07.512 --> 00:55:08.472
That was even back then.

00:55:08.472 --> 00:55:09.853
So that's how I ended up back home.

00:55:09.853 --> 00:55:11.443
And so I knew I wanted to go somewhere.

00:55:11.443 --> 00:55:15.612
I mean, even, you know, I was living in, in New York, went to Michigan for college.

00:55:15.612 --> 00:55:17.742
Like it, I wanted to be elsewhere.

00:55:17.773 --> 00:55:17.862
Yeah.

00:55:17.922 --> 00:55:19.393
I didn't want to be on the East coast.

00:55:19.393 --> 00:55:20.443
I didn't wanna be on Long Island.

00:55:20.443 --> 00:55:22.152
That's not where I wanted to spend my life.

00:55:22.693 --> 00:55:25.213
And um, so that was how I picked Colorado.

00:55:25.273 --> 00:55:28.992
Like literally was just, I know one person there, so that's where I'm gonna go.

00:55:29.503 --> 00:55:32.398
Um, so you landed here sight unseen too, basically.

00:55:32.402 --> 00:55:32.802
Basically.

00:55:32.862 --> 00:55:33.998
Or maybe you visited once before or?

00:55:34.557 --> 00:55:35.503
I had been once when I was a kid.

00:55:35.503 --> 00:55:35.652
Right.

00:55:35.652 --> 00:55:37.722
We went skiing, I think for spring break one time.

00:55:37.722 --> 00:55:40.478
But for this, for this situation, you were just like, sight unen.

00:55:40.483 --> 00:55:40.693
Okay.

00:55:40.693 --> 00:55:42.072
Moving into the great unknown.

00:55:42.163 --> 00:55:42.432
Yeah.

00:55:42.822 --> 00:55:43.992
That's really how it happened.

00:55:44.172 --> 00:55:44.322
Okay.

00:55:44.623 --> 00:55:45.012
Yeah.

00:55:45.012 --> 00:55:45.762
And so.

00:55:45.898 --> 00:55:49.228
Um, and it's just weeks after nine 11, kind of weeks after nine 11.

00:55:49.228 --> 00:55:52.827
So I left that job Thanksgiving week of 2002.

00:55:53.007 --> 00:55:53.878
2001.

00:55:53.882 --> 00:55:53.972
One.

00:55:53.972 --> 00:55:54.172
Yep.

00:55:54.297 --> 00:55:54.538
Yep.

00:55:54.538 --> 00:55:55.918
Thanksgiving week of 2001.

00:55:55.918 --> 00:55:56.577
I left that.

00:55:56.938 --> 00:56:09.447
Um, and so then kind of how Ben and Jerry's happened, just because it all happened at that same time then, so, um, so my dad at that time then, so from Weight Watchers, he again, we're kind of yeah.

00:56:09.447 --> 00:56:10.588
Years later, jumping around on time.

00:56:10.594 --> 00:56:12.373
We don't have to hit every spot on his timeline.

00:56:12.373 --> 00:56:14.818
Uh, but he, so, but he went to Baskin Robbins eventually.

00:56:14.818 --> 00:56:16.318
He ended up at, at Ben and Jerry's.

00:56:16.407 --> 00:56:16.677
Okay.

00:56:16.737 --> 00:56:20.637
So he was the director of retail operations for Ben and Jerry's back in the late nineties.

00:56:21.657 --> 00:56:25.827
Um, he, Ben and Jerry's sold to Unilever in 1999.

00:56:25.947 --> 00:56:26.038
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:56:26.038 --> 00:56:28.047
And so he was there for that transition.

00:56:28.498 --> 00:56:34.887
Um, and you know, kind of like most corporate people on a big transition like that, you stay for 18 months or something after that.

00:56:34.947 --> 00:56:35.172
Right, right.

00:56:35.398 --> 00:56:38.577
So he left corporate Ben and Jerry's at the same time that I left my job.

00:56:38.577 --> 00:56:40.918
So we were both jobless Okay.

00:56:40.918 --> 00:56:42.358
In November of 2001.

00:56:42.478 --> 00:56:54.268
And we decided to take a cross-country trip from New York to California and kind of right before we were getting ready to leave and he just left the job and he said, Hey, so there's a shop in Boulder that's for sale.

00:56:54.447 --> 00:56:59.338
And he had been the franchisor, so obviously becoming a franchisee was, you know, different.

00:56:59.338 --> 00:57:02.818
But he said, how would you feel about running an ice cream store?

00:57:03.208 --> 00:57:05.757
And I said, yeah, I don't have any interest in doing that.

00:57:05.757 --> 00:57:08.398
I didn't go to college for four years to work in an ice cream store.

00:57:08.398 --> 00:57:11.248
Again, not having any idea what it meant to be a small business owner.

00:57:11.338 --> 00:57:11.518
Yeah.

00:57:11.878 --> 00:57:13.407
Um, and.

00:57:14.413 --> 00:57:20.382
We were like, well, when we do our cross country trip, why don't we just swing through Boulder just to see what happens?

00:57:20.893 --> 00:57:23.588
And we did, and you went to Pearl Street and you're like, oh, this is pretty cool.

00:57:23.588 --> 00:57:25.873
And we went to Pearl Street and, uh, yeah.

00:57:25.873 --> 00:57:33.282
Three and a half months later, March 1st, 2002, I became part owner of this ice cream store that I had no idea what to do with part owner.

00:57:33.463 --> 00:57:37.092
So I, so you know, I was 22 or 23 years old.

00:57:37.092 --> 00:57:37.182
Right.

00:57:37.182 --> 00:57:38.532
I didn't have the funds to buy it.

00:57:38.532 --> 00:57:38.592
Yeah.

00:57:38.623 --> 00:57:44.052
And so my dad and his best friend from high school actually were the investors for it.

00:57:44.262 --> 00:57:44.443
Oh, gotcha.

00:57:44.443 --> 00:57:44.443
Gotcha.

00:57:44.472 --> 00:57:48.342
Um, but the way Ben and Jerry's works, they did then, I don't know if they still do.

00:57:48.342 --> 00:57:51.373
It was actually my dad's rule as a director of retail operations was.

00:57:51.717 --> 00:57:53.128
They wanted owner operators.

00:57:53.128 --> 00:57:53.188
Yeah.

00:57:53.188 --> 00:57:56.007
They didn't want people to just invest in the business and not be a part of it.

00:57:56.012 --> 00:57:56.163
Yep.

00:57:56.487 --> 00:58:01.318
And so whoever was running the shop on a day-to-day basis had to own at least 20% of the store.

00:58:01.318 --> 00:58:01.347
Oh.

00:58:01.887 --> 00:58:04.318
And so I was like, well, I don't have 20% of the store.

00:58:04.318 --> 00:58:06.027
So we built it into the contract and we got it.

00:58:06.027 --> 00:58:06.237
Okay.

00:58:06.237 --> 00:58:11.338
With corporate was that I was gonna earn that 20% over the first five years ing just basically through sweat equity.

00:58:11.338 --> 00:58:11.398
Yeah.

00:58:11.682 --> 00:58:11.842
Yeah.

00:58:11.938 --> 00:58:15.447
So that's how I, that's how I got started with the first 20% of it.

00:58:15.447 --> 00:58:16.077
Interesting.

00:58:16.318 --> 00:58:20.068
Um, and then did he not have loaned you the 20% or something like that?

00:58:20.068 --> 00:58:22.443
He probably could have, but we, we were able to work it around with, yeah.

00:58:22.443 --> 00:58:26.202
Guess so with corporate that guess that that's basically what he did, did finance it, sort of it in a way.

00:58:26.273 --> 00:58:26.563
Yeah.

00:58:26.568 --> 00:58:33.507
He did finance it, but then he basically, like our, his friend Jim, like everybody came on March 1st to sign all the documents.

00:58:33.507 --> 00:58:35.518
Jim left and never talked to him again about it.

00:58:35.577 --> 00:58:38.757
And my dad went on to Southern California for his last chapter of work.

00:58:39.003 --> 00:58:39.202
Okay.

00:58:39.358 --> 00:58:43.318
And I was left in Colorado with this store at 23 having no idea what I was supposed to do.

00:58:43.318 --> 00:58:43.407
Right.

00:58:43.407 --> 00:58:46.438
You got a small percentage of ownership and no idea what to do with it.

00:58:46.827 --> 00:58:47.128
Interesting.

00:58:47.128 --> 00:58:50.518
So I really, going back to what we said before, really trial and error.

00:58:50.547 --> 00:58:50.608
Yeah.

00:58:50.608 --> 00:58:53.458
Like, I just, I didn't have any other way to do it.

00:58:53.668 --> 00:58:57.717
Do you remember like some of the first big painful lessons?

00:58:57.777 --> 00:58:58.228
Oops.

00:58:58.402 --> 00:58:58.693
Yeah.

00:58:58.992 --> 00:59:00.012
Or maybe just one.

00:59:00.152 --> 00:59:01.693
We don't have to drag all of em too.

00:59:01.697 --> 00:59:02.007
Yeah.

00:59:02.188 --> 00:59:03.057
There were several.

00:59:03.268 --> 00:59:07.858
I think a lot of it was just learning how, and I'm still doing this learning.

00:59:09.418 --> 00:59:12.882
Uh, sometimes my tone is not the best with people.

00:59:12.972 --> 00:59:13.003
Okay.

00:59:13.003 --> 00:59:16.032
And so learning to how to have hard conversations with people.

00:59:16.092 --> 00:59:16.123
Okay.

00:59:16.333 --> 00:59:18.072
And not even necessarily my employees.

00:59:18.072 --> 00:59:22.992
I think a lot of times I'm really easy on my employees'cause I want them to like me and I don't want them to quit and I don't.

00:59:23.322 --> 00:59:29.833
But it was with, we had some issues with vendors at the time and, um, there was a summer that I wasn't getting any ice cream.

00:59:29.833 --> 00:59:31.663
Like they wouldn't deliver, like they weren't getting it.

00:59:31.663 --> 00:59:32.443
They weren't ordering it.

00:59:32.443 --> 00:59:33.282
They weren't delivering it.

00:59:33.643 --> 00:59:39.072
And um, yeah, I had some moments of like, how can I sell ice cream if I don't have ice cream?

00:59:39.072 --> 00:59:39.342
You know?

00:59:39.342 --> 00:59:39.733
Exactly.

00:59:39.733 --> 00:59:40.932
Something that's interesting.

00:59:41.083 --> 00:59:56.922
Um, in that, like, I don't suffer this, but, but some people that are really, really smart, like you and like your dad, they sometimes have a harder time like understanding normal people.

00:59:58.088 --> 00:59:59.088
I don't think I'm that smart.

01:00:00.072 --> 01:00:01.452
I'm not, I'm not definitely not that smart.

01:00:01.452 --> 01:00:04.003
I just, uh, I just know what I want.

01:00:04.152 --> 01:00:04.512
Yeah.

01:00:04.603 --> 01:00:06.822
And I, and I am very much like a.

01:00:07.603 --> 01:00:09.132
Why can't people just do their job?

01:00:09.222 --> 01:00:09.492
Yeah.

01:00:09.492 --> 01:00:12.612
Like if everybody just did their job, it would be really, really easy.

01:00:12.702 --> 01:00:13.063
Totally.

01:00:13.242 --> 01:00:15.762
It's, that's the blue type in Hallows actually.

01:00:15.822 --> 01:00:17.353
Uh, which I haven't taken you through yet.

01:00:17.952 --> 01:00:21.822
Uhuh, uh, we'll talk about that at, at another occasion, I suppose.

01:00:21.822 --> 01:00:26.472
But that, that kind of notion of if everybody just does the thing they're supposed to do, it'll all work out gray.

01:00:26.503 --> 01:00:26.742
Yeah.

01:00:26.802 --> 01:00:27.463
That's all you gotta do.

01:00:27.672 --> 01:00:32.893
Um, but unfortunately a lot of people like me are like, what's the purpose of this?

01:00:32.893 --> 01:00:37.693
Again, we get so flighty about do the thing, what the thing is.

01:00:37.722 --> 01:00:37.992
Yeah.

01:00:38.413 --> 01:00:38.802
That's fair.

01:00:38.922 --> 01:00:42.733
And I guess that that's part of the learning part is making sure that you're clear in what needs to be done.

01:00:42.762 --> 01:00:43.182
Yeah.

01:00:43.393 --> 01:00:43.693
Yeah.

01:00:43.693 --> 01:00:47.353
I mean that's probably like, I expect people to read my mind Yeah.

01:00:47.413 --> 01:00:48.853
A a fair bit of time as well.

01:00:48.853 --> 01:00:49.182
Yeah.

01:00:49.422 --> 01:00:51.132
I think that happens in relationships also.

01:00:51.463 --> 01:00:51.733
Yeah.

01:00:51.733 --> 01:00:53.413
More so there for me especially.

01:00:53.503 --> 01:00:53.893
Yeah.

01:00:54.492 --> 01:00:54.793
Yeah.

01:00:54.972 --> 01:01:06.702
So, um, what would you say to a, maybe an aspiring Ben and Jerry's operator, uh, in a marketplace that hasn't been claimed or has opportunity?

01:01:06.702 --> 01:01:09.432
You know, I'm thinking, I don't know, is there one in Palm Springs?

01:01:09.523 --> 01:01:09.943
Must be.

01:01:09.943 --> 01:01:10.632
There is.

01:01:10.782 --> 01:01:10.992
Yep.

01:01:11.052 --> 01:01:13.512
That seems like a kind of a location That would be good, right?

01:01:13.873 --> 01:01:13.963
Yep.

01:01:14.682 --> 01:01:17.742
There is warm places that, especially warm places.

01:01:17.742 --> 01:01:19.483
It doesn't have to be warm, doesn't have to be.

01:01:20.338 --> 01:01:21.688
It works better if it's warm.

01:01:21.693 --> 01:01:21.713
Yeah.

01:01:21.742 --> 01:01:22.032
Warm.

01:01:22.032 --> 01:01:27.838
Those, those shops definitely do better, but we have, I mean, some of our best operators, I, one of the best operators I know is in Boston.

01:01:28.108 --> 01:01:28.318
Right.

01:01:28.318 --> 01:01:29.793
You know, so it's never warm in Boston?

01:01:29.967 --> 01:01:30.958
Hardly not actually.

01:01:30.987 --> 01:01:31.378
Yeah.

01:01:31.378 --> 01:01:33.748
I mean, so it's a matter of really building your business.

01:01:33.748 --> 01:01:38.217
I mean, it, it comes down to really having a hundred day war in those, that's what we call a hundred day war.

01:01:38.757 --> 01:01:38.788
Okay.

01:01:38.788 --> 01:01:41.398
Not to minimize, um, war, but Yeah.

01:01:41.398 --> 01:01:42.688
Like Memorial Day to Labor Day.

01:01:42.717 --> 01:01:42.777
Yeah.

01:01:42.777 --> 01:01:45.898
Like you have to maximize as much as you possibly can Yeah.

01:01:45.898 --> 01:01:46.737
During that time period.

01:01:46.887 --> 01:01:46.978
Yep.

01:01:46.983 --> 01:01:47.032
Yep.

01:01:47.637 --> 01:01:50.427
And like, do you make money some of the other months too?

01:01:50.547 --> 01:01:51.358
No, not really.

01:01:51.717 --> 01:01:53.097
Like you're hoping to stay.

01:01:53.188 --> 01:01:53.608
Yeah.

01:01:53.697 --> 01:01:55.228
It is all about cash management.

01:01:55.228 --> 01:01:55.288
Yeah.

01:01:55.858 --> 01:01:56.577
From Gotcha.

01:01:56.637 --> 01:01:58.677
From September, well, October.

01:01:58.737 --> 01:02:01.228
So you're like at the low point of the cycle A little bit right now.

01:02:01.228 --> 01:02:01.557
Oh yeah.

01:02:01.557 --> 01:02:07.378
It's like every day I am watching my bank account to make, remember to sell catering to make sure that there's enough money for payroll next week.

01:02:07.382 --> 01:02:07.793
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:02:07.797 --> 01:02:08.608
Yeah.

01:02:08.608 --> 01:02:10.197
That's how, that's how this time of year definitely goes.

01:02:10.288 --> 01:02:13.108
And by end of May, you're like feeling a little better.

01:02:13.137 --> 01:02:13.347
Yeah.

01:02:13.498 --> 01:02:16.797
Uh, by the end of June you're like, oh yeah, we're feeling froggy.

01:02:16.797 --> 01:02:18.958
And, but you gotta remember goes Yep.

01:02:18.958 --> 01:02:21.777
In September, it's like, how is all this money gonna be gone again right now?

01:02:22.168 --> 01:02:22.498
Yeah.

01:02:22.543 --> 01:02:22.833
Yeah.

01:02:22.918 --> 01:02:25.797
It's kinda like a, a motorcycle dealership or something like that too.

01:02:25.797 --> 01:02:25.978
Probably.

01:02:25.978 --> 01:02:28.108
They run a kind of a similar cycle where they just.

01:02:28.512 --> 01:02:29.172
Gotta load up.

01:02:29.172 --> 01:02:30.643
'cause you're gonna lose money over the winter.

01:02:30.702 --> 01:02:31.362
Absolutely.

01:02:31.632 --> 01:02:37.963
And we have to teach our teams that too, because they don't understand, you know, we've get 16 or 17 year olds who come in and they only work for the summer months.

01:02:38.023 --> 01:02:38.112
Mm-hmm.

01:02:38.277 --> 01:02:40.418
And so all they see is this money coming in.

01:02:40.438 --> 01:02:42.222
You're you're printing money, they think Yeah.

01:02:42.222 --> 01:02:43.572
And they're like, well, where's the owner?

01:02:43.572 --> 01:02:44.864
Like, she must be on vacation this summer.

01:02:45.197 --> 01:02:46.302
Why I only making this much.

01:02:46.512 --> 01:02:46.782
Right.

01:02:46.782 --> 01:02:47.382
Exactly.

01:02:47.382 --> 01:02:51.762
And so we actually do, we try and have some education around how, how does that work?

01:02:51.762 --> 01:02:55.092
And so we, you know, some of the general managers will go through what we call a penny game.

01:02:55.092 --> 01:02:57.612
And so it kind of explains, you know, this Yeah.

01:02:57.612 --> 01:03:00.373
Out of a hundred pennies, this out of a hundred pennies, this is over already revenue.

01:03:00.373 --> 01:03:05.623
This is where all the pennies go and you take out 17 for this and you take out 20 for cents for this.

01:03:05.628 --> 01:03:05.737
Yeah.

01:03:05.737 --> 01:03:05.898
Yeah.

01:03:06.163 --> 01:03:08.083
And at the end of it, it's like, how many pennies are left?

01:03:08.083 --> 01:03:11.773
And it's like, there's not, we're like, we still have five pennies to that we owe.

01:03:12.043 --> 01:03:12.373
Right.

01:03:12.463 --> 01:03:12.913
You know?

01:03:12.972 --> 01:03:13.242
Yeah.

01:03:13.333 --> 01:03:19.512
And so we try and teach them that just because we're making a lot of money for two or three months doesn't mean that we're making money.

01:03:19.512 --> 01:03:20.682
Doesn't mean we're buying yachts Right.

01:03:20.833 --> 01:03:21.552
In the off season.

01:03:21.583 --> 01:03:21.822
Right.

01:03:22.483 --> 01:03:25.722
Um, so yeah.

01:03:25.722 --> 01:03:30.853
Sorry, I kind of got sidetracked a little bit, but, so for that operator, I guess that's part of the game Yeah.

01:03:30.853 --> 01:03:31.063
Right.

01:03:31.063 --> 01:03:35.143
Is just recognizing it's gotta be a high season and cash management se Yeah.

01:03:35.143 --> 01:03:35.802
Seasonality.

01:03:36.132 --> 01:03:39.643
I, so I actually get called frequently for what we call discovery days.

01:03:39.643 --> 01:03:41.443
People who are looking to go into the system.

01:03:41.472 --> 01:03:47.833
Um, and, uh, the number one thing I tell people is to make sure that you're aligned with the values.

01:03:47.893 --> 01:03:48.103
Hmm.

01:03:48.163 --> 01:03:53.443
Because, um, I have seen people who are not aligned with the values.

01:03:53.443 --> 01:03:54.793
And I, and I wouldn't say I.

01:03:55.168 --> 01:04:00.387
I definitely didn't start this, this kind of rollercoaster of a career as a progressive.

01:04:00.597 --> 01:04:05.277
I would never, I've never labeled myself as a progressive or a liberal ever in my whole entire life.

01:04:05.788 --> 01:04:13.617
Um, but understanding that our, our brand will make statements that will piss you off.

01:04:14.097 --> 01:04:18.237
And so whether, whether you agree with it or you don't agree with it, yeah.

01:04:18.657 --> 01:04:22.588
Understand that it will happen at some point and that you are okay with it.

01:04:22.603 --> 01:04:22.893
Yeah.

01:04:22.898 --> 01:04:23.157
Yeah.

01:04:23.248 --> 01:04:32.097
Um, and so that's the number one thing I tell people is to really understand interesting the brand and look at the way that, look at some of their messaging, the past communications and all that.

01:04:32.097 --> 01:04:33.358
Make sure and see how sure you can live with it.

01:04:33.358 --> 01:04:33.628
Yep.

01:04:33.958 --> 01:04:34.108
Um, yeah.

01:04:34.108 --> 01:04:34.588
Yeah.

01:04:35.007 --> 01:04:45.538
Well, and honestly, I was, I had some self-reflection or some curiosity when you said Planned Parenthood was the, the first consolidated cause for the free scoop day.

01:04:45.538 --> 01:04:51.057
I was like, eh, pretty edgy, you know, easier to go with respite care or Yep.

01:04:51.327 --> 01:04:53.487
So Matthew's House or something like that.

01:04:53.487 --> 01:04:53.818
Right.

01:04:53.878 --> 01:04:54.297
Yeah.

01:04:54.297 --> 01:04:59.637
So I, you know, and I think that that is me growing in my convictions.

01:04:59.757 --> 01:05:00.027
Okay.

01:05:00.117 --> 01:05:11.367
Um, that is, and, and, and allowing my general managers to embrace the causes that they want to embrace in their local communities.

01:05:11.458 --> 01:05:11.608
Yeah.

01:05:11.907 --> 01:05:21.237
Um, I think when I, the very first time I ever protested in my entire life was when Roe v Wade was overturned.

01:05:21.268 --> 01:05:21.657
Okay.

01:05:21.838 --> 01:05:22.527
Um.

01:05:22.887 --> 01:05:26.998
And, but I would also tell you that when I was in college, I was on the other side.

01:05:27.358 --> 01:05:29.277
I was arguing for the other side of it.

01:05:29.362 --> 01:05:29.523
Interesting.

01:05:29.523 --> 01:05:29.762
Yeah.

01:05:29.788 --> 01:05:35.998
And as I've gotten older, I've recognized the importance of female decision making and body autonomy.

01:05:35.998 --> 01:05:37.978
And that's, and that's where I land with that.

01:05:38.038 --> 01:05:38.248
Yeah.

01:05:38.253 --> 01:05:38.362
Yeah.

01:05:38.547 --> 01:05:41.338
And I have three children and three daughters to, to boot.

01:05:41.367 --> 01:05:41.547
Yeah.

01:05:41.563 --> 01:05:41.762
Yeah.

01:05:41.983 --> 01:05:51.838
Um, and um, and I think for a long time, even with corporate messaging, I was the one who was, who was holding back and was saying, I don't agree.

01:05:51.838 --> 01:05:59.217
I either I don't agree with it or I might agree with it, but I'm not willing, willing, but I'm scared to, to push it out to my, to, to my customers.

01:05:59.248 --> 01:05:59.458
Yeah.

01:05:59.818 --> 01:06:14.577
And the older I'm getting, the more I'm recognizing that that is why our customers resonate with who we are is because we are willing to take a stand and is because we're willing to be vocal about what we want and, and how we, how we think we should get there.

01:06:14.637 --> 01:06:14.818
Yeah.

01:06:16.467 --> 01:06:20.487
I don't disagree that this is, that this is a challenge.

01:06:20.878 --> 01:06:29.938
Um, one of my general managers asked me, we were on a call and she said, um, somebody asked about safety on Fcon Day at our stores because of it.

01:06:30.387 --> 01:06:39.358
And that to me is mind boggling that we have to worry about safety because of an organization that we chose that is.

01:06:39.717 --> 01:06:42.568
That is a proponent for women's rights and reproductive health.

01:06:42.568 --> 01:06:42.628
Yeah.

01:06:43.108 --> 01:06:46.378
And it, not just abortions, but also, yeah.

01:06:46.588 --> 01:06:52.737
Cancer screenings and STD screenings and all these other things that parent Planned Parenthood does that isn't just abortions.

01:06:53.068 --> 01:07:00.387
And so, I would say, and I, I, I hear that, but I would say I'm not too freaked out.

01:07:00.418 --> 01:07:07.197
'cause even the people that were like, like that Trump pardoned over that stuff, they were nonviolent.

01:07:07.288 --> 01:07:07.677
You know?

01:07:07.827 --> 01:07:13.288
It hasn't, it's been a long time since there was violence against Planned Parenthood that I've seen.

01:07:13.887 --> 01:07:14.128
Yeah.

01:07:14.128 --> 01:07:17.818
You know, more of the political violence has come from the left than the right.

01:07:17.818 --> 01:07:21.628
In the last eight years in my perspective.

01:07:21.777 --> 01:07:24.088
I, you know, I think what I, you know, there's a lot of violent rhetoric.

01:07:24.148 --> 01:07:24.268
Yeah.

01:07:24.268 --> 01:07:25.918
And there's a lot of fear of violence.

01:07:25.918 --> 01:07:27.237
But I, hopefully, I don't know.

01:07:27.268 --> 01:07:27.688
Maybe not.

01:07:27.688 --> 01:07:33.447
I could, I don't, I mean, don't hesitate to have one of your big friends, uh, stand around that day.

01:07:33.657 --> 01:07:38.668
Here's what I said is, is we're, you know, we've had protestors out at Fcon Day Sure.

01:07:38.668 --> 01:07:41.097
Specifically down in Boulder for various reasons.

01:07:41.277 --> 01:07:44.217
Like we've had protesters in Boulder.

01:07:44.518 --> 01:07:56.637
Um, and ultimately is what I said is, if, if you guys are in alignment and these are the causes that you guys want to support, then, then you have to take a stand.

01:07:56.637 --> 01:07:56.728
Mm-hmm.

01:07:57.043 --> 01:07:57.262
And.

01:07:57.927 --> 01:08:00.418
Does that, does that put a target on our back?

01:08:00.568 --> 01:08:01.467
Possibly.

01:08:01.737 --> 01:08:03.597
Whether it's violent or not violent.

01:08:03.628 --> 01:08:03.748
Yeah.

01:08:03.753 --> 01:08:03.932
You know?

01:08:03.932 --> 01:08:04.132
Yeah.

01:08:04.132 --> 01:08:04.293
Yeah.

01:08:04.293 --> 01:08:08.967
It, it still is going to, certainly there could be draw attention, be some number of people that won't buy ice cream there anymore.

01:08:08.998 --> 01:08:09.507
Exactly.

01:08:09.538 --> 01:08:09.748
Right.

01:08:09.867 --> 01:08:13.253
It could draw attention to, to, to us and our values.

01:08:13.253 --> 01:08:17.188
Your group catering might go down maybe, or, or won't go up.

01:08:17.247 --> 01:08:17.578
Yeah.

01:08:17.578 --> 01:08:17.818
Maybe.

01:08:17.818 --> 01:08:18.057
Right.

01:08:18.057 --> 01:08:18.837
There's risk there.

01:08:18.898 --> 01:08:19.287
Yeah.

01:08:19.438 --> 01:08:21.118
But I, I, I appreciate your boldness.

01:08:21.148 --> 01:08:21.358
Yeah.

01:08:21.537 --> 01:08:22.738
Um, if nothing else Yeah.

01:08:22.738 --> 01:08:25.677
And your embrace of what your team wants to do too.

01:08:25.738 --> 01:08:25.948
Yeah.

01:08:25.948 --> 01:08:26.307
I suppose.

01:08:26.847 --> 01:08:26.997
Yeah.

01:08:26.997 --> 01:08:30.597
So God's speed, that's, that's sort of where I'm landing now Yeah.

01:08:30.597 --> 01:08:33.148
Is, is that we have to lean into who we are.

01:08:34.018 --> 01:08:37.108
Um,'cause otherwise it's just kind of fak and inauthentic.

01:08:37.182 --> 01:08:37.472
Yeah.

01:08:37.707 --> 01:08:38.097
Yeah.

01:08:38.097 --> 01:08:49.198
No, I mean that's, uh, there are, or I like to say confront the dragon, you know, everybody in all their lives is better served, confronting the dragon and approaching the things that they're scared of.

01:08:49.228 --> 01:08:49.467
Yep.

01:08:49.618 --> 01:08:52.978
Um, and not that many people do it very willingly.

01:08:53.007 --> 01:08:53.368
Yeah.

01:08:53.427 --> 01:08:57.837
So coaching that among your team and a greater community, I think is positive.

01:08:57.868 --> 01:08:58.108
Yeah.

01:08:58.738 --> 01:08:59.787
Um, I wanna take a break.

01:08:59.877 --> 01:09:00.087
Okay.

01:09:00.358 --> 01:09:02.547
And then we will come right back and do some other stuff.

01:09:02.547 --> 01:09:03.028
Sounds good.

01:09:03.028 --> 01:09:03.387
Alright.

01:09:03.478 --> 01:09:03.778
Cheers.

01:09:54.576 --> 01:10:06.838
We kind of got the advice to the somebody that might wanna do a new, new Ben and Jerry's, but I think I want to go back to, um, a young person that's just outta college trying to figure it out.

01:10:06.838 --> 01:10:11.248
And maybe small business is interesting.

01:10:11.279 --> 01:10:19.798
Like, I don't sense any regret not working for$180,000 a year and living in a one bedroom apartment for the last 15 years.

01:10:19.979 --> 01:10:20.429
None.

01:10:20.519 --> 01:10:22.738
And being single now, probably childless.

01:10:23.309 --> 01:10:23.819
Uh, yeah.

01:10:24.144 --> 01:10:24.484
Who knows?

01:10:24.509 --> 01:10:25.439
No, none.

01:10:25.439 --> 01:10:30.689
I can't, I can't thank what this job has given me for the last 23 years.

01:10:30.779 --> 01:10:38.698
Um, I, I think when I finally started to realize how to what I was doing, um, right.

01:10:38.698 --> 01:10:47.158
Started to get good at it and, and I wouldn't say that I actually even know what I'm doing quite yet, but, um, when I started to feel a little bit more comfortable in it was actually when I started having, having kids.

01:10:47.158 --> 01:10:47.248
Okay.

01:10:47.639 --> 01:10:50.578
Um, and I didn't really have any other choice.

01:10:50.849 --> 01:10:50.939
Mm-hmm.

01:10:50.939 --> 01:10:52.140
So I guess I can, yeah.

01:10:52.140 --> 01:10:52.774
You couldn't be there all the time.

01:10:52.859 --> 01:10:53.309
Yeah.

01:10:53.309 --> 01:10:54.958
I guess I can if, if you're head in the head in the tank.

01:10:55.019 --> 01:10:55.439
Right.

01:10:55.439 --> 01:10:57.509
So I guess I can kind of even go back a little bit further.

01:10:57.509 --> 01:10:59.698
So after about six or seven years of me.

01:11:00.104 --> 01:11:02.354
You know, six days a week, you know?

01:11:02.503 --> 01:11:02.654
Mm.

01:11:02.743 --> 01:11:04.064
Down in Boulder all the time.

01:11:04.064 --> 01:11:05.173
And doing what doing that.

01:11:05.594 --> 01:11:13.484
I got burned out and, and kind of tying in some of the soccer analogy I was used to, the harder you work, the more successful you are.

01:11:13.934 --> 01:11:13.963
Mm.

01:11:13.963 --> 01:11:26.229
And that was not necessarily the case in the ice cream world because weather or traffic or construction outside my door or recession, like I, we could a lot of factors outside your control.

01:11:26.319 --> 01:11:34.423
There were a lot of factors and, and, and I wasn't smart enough, nor am I now to necessarily know how to na navigate those challenges and, and pivot.

01:11:34.604 --> 01:11:42.434
I, you know, I wasn't, I was just trying to figure out how to run a store, forget how to pivot into something else, to kind of accommodate for those, those challenges.

01:11:42.493 --> 01:11:47.384
And so I got really burned out and, but the shop was not doing well.

01:11:47.384 --> 01:11:48.703
It wasn't worth anything to sell.

01:11:48.703 --> 01:11:53.774
I, you know, I had these investors that, you know, and so I felt terrible and so we tried to keep it.

01:11:53.774 --> 01:11:56.984
I had a girl who was working for me that was, that was really great.

01:11:57.613 --> 01:12:05.684
Um, so I promoted her into a general manager role, but I actually went and got another full-time job working at State Farm for again, like$32,000 a year.

01:12:05.804 --> 01:12:05.833
Okay.

01:12:05.833 --> 01:12:06.554
Or something like that.

01:12:06.554 --> 01:12:06.734
Yeah.

01:12:07.304 --> 01:12:09.828
Um, and you're married with littles at this time?

01:12:09.828 --> 01:12:10.573
I was married.

01:12:11.264 --> 01:12:11.626
No littles yet.

01:12:11.626 --> 01:12:12.404
No littles yet.

01:12:12.493 --> 01:12:13.963
Um, yeah.

01:12:13.963 --> 01:12:15.253
No littles yet, but we were married.

01:12:15.854 --> 01:12:16.184
Okay.

01:12:16.184 --> 01:12:16.904
And, um.

01:12:17.849 --> 01:12:21.988
But that was a giant colossal failure because I did it so wrong.

01:12:21.988 --> 01:12:25.649
I took this girl who Yeah, idea was a really good employee Sure.

01:12:25.649 --> 01:12:27.689
But had no idea how to be a general manager.

01:12:27.689 --> 01:12:30.298
And I didn't train her, I didn't teach her, I didn't guide her.

01:12:30.298 --> 01:12:32.429
I just was like, here, run the store.

01:12:32.548 --> 01:12:35.009
And I like taught her how to make a schedule and stuff.

01:12:35.009 --> 01:12:35.279
Right.

01:12:35.279 --> 01:12:37.769
Like, and here, this is how you place some orders for ice cream.

01:12:37.859 --> 01:12:37.979
Right.

01:12:38.234 --> 01:12:40.708
I, I didn't, I didn't know, I didn't teach her anything.

01:12:41.279 --> 01:12:44.038
And so it was no wonder that it was giant failure.

01:12:44.338 --> 01:12:49.319
And so about six months after that, we decided to part ways, um, mutually, like I didn't fire her.

01:12:49.319 --> 01:12:49.918
She didn't quit.

01:12:49.918 --> 01:12:51.689
Both of us were like, this just isn't working.

01:12:51.689 --> 01:12:52.078
Yeah.

01:12:52.078 --> 01:12:52.079
Yeah.

01:12:52.333 --> 01:12:59.038
And I said, I, and before kind of kind made that decision, I said, we either have to sell it or I have to recommit myself to being in the shop full time.

01:12:59.279 --> 01:12:59.309
Mm.

01:12:59.639 --> 01:13:01.679
And so I said, you know what, that's what I'll do.

01:13:01.708 --> 01:13:05.548
I'll go back in and I'll try and like build this business back up to what it should be.

01:13:06.179 --> 01:13:08.639
Um, and then eventually maybe sell it and go do something else.

01:13:08.908 --> 01:13:13.469
Well, about two weeks after I made that decision and Jody left, I found out I was pregnant with our first kid.

01:13:13.859 --> 01:13:16.408
Do Memorial Day weekend of 2009.

01:13:16.408 --> 01:13:16.828
Oh, shit.

01:13:18.389 --> 01:13:19.798
How, how do I do that?

01:13:19.798 --> 01:13:20.698
Yeah, exactly.

01:13:20.698 --> 01:13:24.479
How am I supposed to be in the shop all the time with an infant over the first summer?

01:13:24.658 --> 01:13:24.868
Yeah.

01:13:25.123 --> 01:13:29.583
So, um, this is really the transformation of you to a business owner Rea Absolutely.

01:13:29.774 --> 01:13:31.184
That was a business operator.

01:13:31.283 --> 01:13:33.538
It forced me into doing something different.

01:13:33.538 --> 01:13:38.189
And so over that winter, there was a young, young kid, his name is Drew.

01:13:38.189 --> 01:13:39.719
I'm still, he's still on my LinkedIn.

01:13:39.719 --> 01:13:40.588
I love Drew.

01:13:41.009 --> 01:13:53.939
Um, he was a part-time student at cu and so it wasn't a full-time job for him, but he was, he became my like right hand manager person and, but I was able to like work with him, not just like, be like, here.

01:13:53.944 --> 01:13:54.344
Yeah, yeah.

01:13:54.359 --> 01:13:56.698
Here, here are the keys to the shop and I'm peace out.

01:13:56.878 --> 01:13:57.088
Yeah.

01:13:57.088 --> 01:13:57.984
You mentored him almost.

01:13:58.043 --> 01:14:03.059
And we sort of, I mean, you know, we did, we, we more so than I did with Jody.

01:14:03.538 --> 01:14:09.238
Um, and he ended up actually being the one who hired my now manager, Alexis.

01:14:09.479 --> 01:14:10.378
She walked in one day.

01:14:10.378 --> 01:14:13.378
She had moved here from the east coast and she walked in looking for a job.

01:14:13.378 --> 01:14:15.689
He interviewed her on the spot and hired her right then.

01:14:15.929 --> 01:14:15.988
Wow.

01:14:16.259 --> 01:14:18.448
And, um, turned out to be right.

01:14:18.448 --> 01:14:22.048
So then the best decision that I ever had was having Drew in that role and doing that.

01:14:22.139 --> 01:14:22.408
Yeah.

01:14:22.469 --> 01:14:24.328
And, and so, excuse me.

01:14:24.988 --> 01:14:32.503
And so, um, from 2009 then until, um, COVID year mm-hmm.

01:14:32.668 --> 01:14:36.868
That shop increased in sales every single year, so 10 years straight.

01:14:36.868 --> 01:14:36.929
Wow.

01:14:36.958 --> 01:14:39.658
That shop increased in sales some years double digit percentages.

01:14:39.689 --> 01:14:39.779
Wow.

01:14:40.408 --> 01:14:43.109
And it was a matter of like.

01:14:43.814 --> 01:14:45.524
Figuring, figuring it out.

01:14:45.974 --> 01:14:46.064
Yeah.

01:14:46.094 --> 01:14:58.003
Just, just understanding how to, how to work with somebody, how to train them, how to mentor them, how to empower them to make decisions, how to hire, how to, all of that.

01:14:58.123 --> 01:14:58.394
Yeah.

01:14:58.514 --> 01:15:07.394
Um, and and part of it is that, you know, Alexis has been amazing to me and she's been loyal to me and she, and she wanted to learn and she wanted to grow.

01:15:07.399 --> 01:15:07.559
Yeah.

01:15:07.634 --> 01:15:07.783
Yeah.

01:15:07.963 --> 01:15:10.479
And so it provided both of us that opportunity.

01:15:10.479 --> 01:15:11.654
You really can't make somebody learn stuff.

01:15:11.684 --> 01:15:11.743
No.

01:15:11.743 --> 01:15:12.613
It's one of a hard thing.

01:15:12.613 --> 01:15:17.564
So you can set an environment where they can and the materials and the s ps and all that.

01:15:17.654 --> 01:15:17.804
Yep.

01:15:18.344 --> 01:15:19.423
But you can't really make'em learn.

01:15:19.484 --> 01:15:19.934
Yeah.

01:15:20.293 --> 01:15:20.684
Yeah.

01:15:20.684 --> 01:15:28.963
And so that, that's really, I would say I had no other choice but to learn how to actually delegate and empower somebody else to run that store.

01:15:29.054 --> 01:15:29.113
Yeah.

01:15:29.113 --> 01:15:31.663
The right way, or it was, or it was never gonna work.

01:15:32.054 --> 01:15:33.583
And so, yeah.

01:15:33.583 --> 01:15:39.014
So that's kind of how that my, my world evolved into where it is now.

01:15:39.404 --> 01:15:40.033
Now.

01:15:40.033 --> 01:15:41.684
Like no remorse.

01:15:41.684 --> 01:15:47.953
Like if you could have made$200,000 a year for the last 20 years working in Manhattan and.

01:15:48.929 --> 01:15:50.519
No, not working in Manhattan.

01:15:50.578 --> 01:15:50.908
Yeah.

01:15:50.913 --> 01:15:50.923
Yeah.

01:15:50.969 --> 01:16:00.088
Sometimes, sometimes I wonder, had I not gotten in the store and I just moved to Colorado, still in Colorado, got some corporate thing and got some corporate job, you know, where would I be?

01:16:00.088 --> 01:16:01.048
Yeah, sure.

01:16:01.048 --> 01:16:04.948
There's, there's, there's, there's always curiosity of what could have been.

01:16:05.009 --> 01:16:05.128
Yeah.

01:16:05.458 --> 01:16:11.849
Um, but ultimately I also know that this job gave me the flexibility to also, you know, be with my children more frequently.

01:16:11.849 --> 01:16:11.939
Sure.

01:16:12.118 --> 01:16:13.378
Um, when they were young.

01:16:13.384 --> 01:16:13.644
Yeah.

01:16:13.649 --> 01:16:13.798
Yeah.

01:16:13.859 --> 01:16:21.059
And I can still to this day, like if I need to be at something at school in the middle of the day, chances are I can do what I can to be there.

01:16:21.118 --> 01:16:21.359
Yeah.

01:16:21.479 --> 01:16:22.078
Um, yeah.

01:16:22.378 --> 01:16:36.779
Well, and having had a mother that became an entrepreneur, like maybe the girls will, maybe they won't, but that is such a, to me, historically, it's such an empowering thing to people whether they go into academia or corporate or other things.

01:16:36.779 --> 01:16:40.198
That kind of grit that comes from figuring it out.

01:16:40.259 --> 01:16:40.918
Figuring it out.

01:16:40.923 --> 01:16:41.003
Yeah.

01:16:41.003 --> 01:16:42.029
And yeah.

01:16:42.118 --> 01:16:53.878
And you know, I mean, I have two teenager, two teenage girls right now, so I'm not the coolest person on the planet to them right now, but, you know, I'm, I hope that we're teaching them some, some good life skills.

01:16:53.878 --> 01:16:53.939
Yeah.

01:16:53.944 --> 01:16:54.003
Yeah.

01:16:54.009 --> 01:16:57.328
For, for the way that we're running our, you know, running our lives and our businesses and.

01:16:57.779 --> 01:17:00.359
My oldest has worked in the Fort Collins shop the last two summers.

01:17:00.359 --> 01:17:00.389
Okay.

01:17:00.779 --> 01:17:04.408
Um, you know, just very part-time, but just to kind of get her feet wet.

01:17:04.889 --> 01:17:08.248
Um, she's realizing now she's about to get her driver's license.

01:17:08.248 --> 01:17:11.698
She's realizing like, oh, it's 25 minutes away and that's gonna be expensive in gas.

01:17:11.849 --> 01:17:11.939
Right.

01:17:12.359 --> 01:17:15.328
So she kind of wants to try something different and get a job closer to home.

01:17:15.328 --> 01:17:15.389
Yeah.

01:17:15.389 --> 01:17:17.248
And I go try that too.

01:17:17.639 --> 01:17:22.078
I want her to see, you know, how other businesses are run and how other leaders lead.

01:17:22.078 --> 01:17:24.269
And I want her to have a different experience than working for.

01:17:24.269 --> 01:17:24.538
Totally.

01:17:24.719 --> 01:17:28.439
And I was very clear that when she came to this shop, like, I am not your boss.

01:17:28.439 --> 01:17:29.368
Risi is your boss.

01:17:29.604 --> 01:17:29.764
Right.

01:17:29.788 --> 01:17:34.408
And you'll go through all the same training programs as every, as everybody else, and how the same expectations as everybody else.

01:17:34.618 --> 01:17:35.368
You don't come to me.

01:17:35.578 --> 01:17:35.788
Right.

01:17:35.793 --> 01:17:37.798
You go to and vice versa.

01:17:38.158 --> 01:17:41.038
Um, so it was very clear that, that I was not her boss.

01:17:41.038 --> 01:17:43.078
I signed her paycheck, but I was not her boss.

01:17:43.198 --> 01:17:53.788
What are the teams, uh, are there like a team of like five in the low season and 25 in the high season or something like it gotta go up and down quite a bit just to manage through.

01:17:53.788 --> 01:17:54.599
Pretty close.

01:17:54.599 --> 01:17:55.139
I mean, I don't know.

01:17:55.139 --> 01:17:56.609
I'm just guessing there, but Yeah.

01:17:56.849 --> 01:18:01.889
No, pretty darn close in, in season 20 to 25 in Fort Collins and Boulder Uhhuh.

01:18:01.948 --> 01:18:03.479
Um, during the winter.

01:18:03.719 --> 01:18:04.288
10.

01:18:04.948 --> 01:18:05.099
Okay.

01:18:05.099 --> 01:18:06.599
Ish, but mostly part-timers.

01:18:06.689 --> 01:18:07.498
All part-timers.

01:18:07.498 --> 01:18:07.738
Yeah.

01:18:07.738 --> 01:18:14.338
So I, I had my general manager at the shops and then, um, and then yeah, every, almost everybody else is part-time.

01:18:14.819 --> 01:18:15.088
Yeah.

01:18:15.088 --> 01:18:15.090
Yeah.

01:18:15.599 --> 01:18:15.868
Yep.

01:18:16.048 --> 01:18:16.588
Makes sense.

01:18:16.588 --> 01:18:20.609
I mean, and Denver's Denver's less five during the winter and maybe time's a little smaller operation.

01:18:20.654 --> 01:18:21.779
It's a quite a bit smaller.

01:18:21.779 --> 01:18:22.859
And the dem the, the.

01:18:23.503 --> 01:18:25.304
Boulder one is right on Pearl Street.

01:18:25.423 --> 01:18:25.753
Right.

01:18:25.753 --> 01:18:28.948
So the Denver one is on the campus or near the campus at the u Near campus.

01:18:29.113 --> 01:18:31.033
It's right on the corner of Evans and University.

01:18:31.064 --> 01:18:31.094
Okay.

01:18:31.094 --> 01:18:33.988
Next to Pete's Cafe, but just a little smaller space.

01:18:33.988 --> 01:18:35.054
Smaller footprint.

01:18:35.054 --> 01:18:35.713
Smaller footprint.

01:18:35.774 --> 01:18:38.594
Uh, yeah, smaller sales, smaller.

01:18:38.594 --> 01:18:40.514
It's just foot traffic is not there.

01:18:40.783 --> 01:18:42.974
Demographics isn't, it's not a touristy area.

01:18:43.033 --> 01:18:44.054
Oh right.

01:18:44.113 --> 01:18:46.029
So it's just, um, it's quite a bit.

01:18:46.029 --> 01:18:50.623
So it's really, and students have money, but it's mostly their parents' money and Yep.

01:18:50.774 --> 01:18:52.753
Do I wanna buy beer or do I wanna buy ice cream?

01:18:52.753 --> 01:18:53.054
Right.

01:18:53.083 --> 01:18:54.644
Beer usually wins kind of thing.

01:18:54.644 --> 01:18:55.003
Yep, exactly.

01:18:55.123 --> 01:18:58.123
Or wine or spritzers or whatever the kids are drinking these days.

01:18:58.213 --> 01:18:58.363
Yeah.

01:18:58.363 --> 01:18:59.984
That seems mushrooms, ecstasy.

01:19:00.163 --> 01:19:08.293
We also seem to be all that, we also seem to be right off, it seems to be that they walk a different street to campus and not go right in front of our store.

01:19:08.293 --> 01:19:13.753
So we're working on that being tied in there for a while or is changing the space a little bit of an option.

01:19:13.814 --> 01:19:21.854
I can't really afford to move that location and, and Denver's a hard area right now, so Denver right now has the highest minimum wage in the state.

01:19:21.974 --> 01:19:22.274
Yeah.

01:19:22.363 --> 01:19:24.463
Um, so that makes it really challenging.

01:19:25.304 --> 01:19:27.988
Well, and downtown isn't the tourist segment that used to be downtown.

01:19:27.993 --> 01:19:28.154
Yeah.

01:19:28.243 --> 01:19:31.184
I go down to 16th Street Mall about once every couple of months.

01:19:31.184 --> 01:19:37.184
I actually have a season tickets to the ell and so I try and get over to 16th Street Mall every time I go down just to check it out and see.

01:19:37.394 --> 01:19:39.373
I'd love to have a shop on 16th Street Mall.

01:19:39.823 --> 01:19:40.844
Yeah, I would, I would love to.

01:19:41.819 --> 01:19:43.293
If they can, and they're gonna have to fix it first.

01:19:43.323 --> 01:19:44.908
They can fix it before it's gonna work.

01:19:44.939 --> 01:19:45.238
Yep.

01:19:45.314 --> 01:19:45.533
Yep.

01:19:45.533 --> 01:19:49.019
And, and there's some promising things, you know, we were just down there not too long ago.

01:19:49.019 --> 01:19:52.378
I mean, the, the construction that they've done is really beautiful.

01:19:52.378 --> 01:19:53.279
It looks great.

01:19:53.819 --> 01:19:57.493
Um, there's just some other challenges that, I mean, public safety is first and foremost.

01:19:57.493 --> 01:19:57.774
Yeah.

01:19:57.833 --> 01:20:00.029
And unless they figure that out, yeah.

01:20:00.029 --> 01:20:01.319
Big dollars will stay away.

01:20:01.378 --> 01:20:01.738
Yeah.

01:20:01.859 --> 01:20:04.019
So there's not really any other place in Denver right now.

01:20:04.104 --> 01:20:04.934
Isn't that I'm looking.

01:20:04.934 --> 01:20:05.135
There isn't.

01:20:05.135 --> 01:20:09.149
So there isn't, like Rhino is cool, but it's not, doesn't get that kind of traffic.

01:20:09.179 --> 01:20:09.479
Yeah.

01:20:09.479 --> 01:20:15.719
How about like, could you put something, uh, I like Anthony's pizza, people were here and they did a deal with Red Rocks.

01:20:15.719 --> 01:20:17.429
Could you put a bit and Jerry's at Red Rocks?

01:20:17.429 --> 01:20:18.029
I don't know.

01:20:18.029 --> 01:20:19.168
I, I, I don't know.

01:20:19.168 --> 01:20:23.788
It would be nice to be able to, um, some of those have kind of licensing deals too with other companies.

01:20:23.908 --> 01:20:24.029
Mm-hmm.

01:20:24.269 --> 01:20:25.948
I haven't, I think somebody tried to reach out.

01:20:25.979 --> 01:20:29.548
One of my employees tried to reach out to Red Rocks at one point, but I, I don't know where that went, to be honest.

01:20:29.548 --> 01:20:33.253
Well, if you want an introduction to the, the local Anthony's pizza franchisor.

01:20:33.253 --> 01:20:33.255
Okay.

01:20:34.168 --> 01:20:35.458
Uh, he got a deal with Red Rock somehow.

01:20:35.458 --> 01:20:35.729
Awesome.

01:20:35.729 --> 01:20:36.748
Or at least as far as I know.

01:20:36.748 --> 01:20:37.319
So Yeah.

01:20:37.319 --> 01:20:38.338
That's, that's a good deal.

01:20:38.338 --> 01:20:39.958
Um, I can make an introduction there or we can talk offline.

01:20:40.019 --> 01:20:40.378
Yeah.

01:20:40.378 --> 01:20:43.229
I'm looking, um, at a space in Colorado Springs right now.

01:20:43.439 --> 01:20:43.498
Okay.

01:20:43.588 --> 01:20:44.939
Um, that would be pretty exciting.

01:20:44.939 --> 01:20:52.889
And then like downtown or west side over by New our city, there's a new soccer stadium down there called Wener Wener Field.

01:20:52.979 --> 01:20:53.368
Oh.

01:20:53.429 --> 01:20:56.493
And so, um, and I don't even have an l OI site.

01:20:56.493 --> 01:20:57.658
It's all theoretical right now.

01:20:57.719 --> 01:20:58.139
Yeah.

01:20:58.139 --> 01:20:58.140
Yeah.

01:20:58.140 --> 01:20:59.729
Very, very, very, the theoretical.

01:20:59.759 --> 01:21:03.389
Well, and it's kind of theoretical that they'll be able to develop traffic, right?

01:21:03.418 --> 01:21:03.658
Yeah.

01:21:03.748 --> 01:21:06.238
Like they may be able to or they may not be able to.

01:21:06.243 --> 01:21:06.493
Yeah.

01:21:06.809 --> 01:21:10.319
We went, my wife and I lived in Colorado Springs for like three years and, uh.

01:21:10.873 --> 01:21:15.344
There was a minor league baseball team that moved and while we were there, and it was actually really cool fun.

01:21:15.493 --> 01:21:16.963
Um, I love that area.

01:21:17.024 --> 01:21:17.474
Yeah, I know.

01:21:17.474 --> 01:21:19.304
It's, it's geographically it's amazing.

01:21:19.333 --> 01:21:19.634
Yeah.

01:21:19.694 --> 01:21:20.743
I love the area down there.

01:21:20.743 --> 01:21:24.913
So, um, you ready for the ping pong ball challenge?

01:21:25.094 --> 01:21:25.423
Oh, man.

01:21:25.423 --> 01:21:25.844
I don't know.

01:21:26.083 --> 01:21:26.444
Sure.

01:21:26.503 --> 01:21:26.984
You want to?

01:21:26.998 --> 01:21:27.288
Sure.

01:21:27.288 --> 01:21:27.289
Okay.

01:21:28.109 --> 01:21:40.934
So the, the, we're gonna choose one of these questions, um, and the winner that contacts us through Instagram via DM at the Loco Experience Podcast Instagram.

01:21:41.444 --> 01:21:44.413
I got a, a, a answer from somebody to my personal Instagram.

01:21:44.413 --> 01:21:45.613
I don't check that very often.

01:21:45.613 --> 01:21:48.974
So, to the lo Experience podcast, Instagram, give us the answer.

01:21:49.304 --> 01:21:58.724
So you're gonna pick three balls outta here and they're each tied to either an interesting business question or perhaps an awkward, weird question.

01:21:58.904 --> 01:21:59.384
Wonderful.

01:21:59.953 --> 01:22:00.703
Can't wait for this part.

01:22:01.033 --> 01:22:01.604
28.

01:22:04.154 --> 01:22:07.304
What's your proudest achievement in your business?

01:22:08.293 --> 01:22:09.524
Oh, my leadership team.

01:22:09.583 --> 01:22:10.423
Yeah, that's an easy one.

01:22:10.694 --> 01:22:11.054
Yeah.

01:22:11.054 --> 01:22:13.904
My leadership team, uh, they have all won.

01:22:13.934 --> 01:22:15.493
Sorry, my mic is, yeah.

01:22:15.524 --> 01:22:18.073
They have all won Manager of the year, as we talked about before.

01:22:18.104 --> 01:22:18.283
Mm-hmm.

01:22:18.884 --> 01:22:20.774
Um, they have also all been.

01:22:21.373 --> 01:22:25.993
Hired in some for some sort of capacity from corporate for different roles, so Oh wow.

01:22:26.083 --> 01:22:35.713
Um, two of them now have served, um, in a traveling trainer capacity, which is a corporate run kind of thing where they actually go to other shops around the country.

01:22:35.833 --> 01:22:36.043
Yeah, yeah.

01:22:36.253 --> 01:22:39.793
Um, and, and, and corporate kind of subsidizes trying to get the Yep.

01:22:39.913 --> 01:22:41.384
Crappy operators fixed up a little bit.

01:22:41.384 --> 01:22:41.923
Exactly.

01:22:41.923 --> 01:22:45.673
And so either the less financially successful operators or, or brand new.

01:22:45.673 --> 01:22:49.484
So if like a store changed hands there go, so there's a new franchisee taking over.

01:22:49.514 --> 01:22:50.054
No coaching actually.

01:22:50.054 --> 01:22:52.213
They'll go in and help, help coach and work with their team.

01:22:52.213 --> 01:22:59.144
So two of them have served in that capacity and all three of them now Risi just got on, um, as a, on the manager advisory council.

01:22:59.234 --> 01:22:59.564
Oh wow.

01:22:59.564 --> 01:23:01.904
So all three of them have now sat on that council as well.

01:23:01.904 --> 01:23:02.503
That's really cool.

01:23:02.533 --> 01:23:02.623
Mm-hmm.

01:23:03.194 --> 01:23:05.684
I should probably introduce you to Jay Fayville sometime.

01:23:05.684 --> 01:23:06.314
Have you met Jay?

01:23:06.344 --> 01:23:06.793
I have not.

01:23:06.944 --> 01:23:09.134
Um, he will be a future podcast guest.

01:23:09.134 --> 01:23:20.654
He just started coming back to my Rotary club on a regular basis, but he was, he was one of a small number of franchisees for Dominoes that basically helped Dominoes, reinvigorate itself.

01:23:20.743 --> 01:23:21.163
Awesome.

01:23:21.253 --> 01:23:25.604
Um, and so, and he used to have like 28 stores or something around, mm-hmm.

01:23:25.639 --> 01:23:26.923
Around Colorado and stuff.

01:23:26.984 --> 01:23:28.394
22 A lot.

01:23:28.514 --> 01:23:28.694
Yeah.

01:23:28.694 --> 01:23:29.323
In Wyoming.

01:23:29.328 --> 01:23:29.679
Uhhuh.

01:23:29.804 --> 01:23:34.453
Um, but he's, he's a really insightful guy and he really, he was one of the people that forced change.

01:23:34.783 --> 01:23:36.703
Up the chain on Domino.

01:23:36.703 --> 01:23:37.453
That's hard to do.

01:23:37.573 --> 01:23:43.963
Not that Ben and Jerry's needs it, I'm not saying you've criticized, but if there are ways that they can improve, like that's a really cool thing.

01:23:43.963 --> 01:23:47.234
I, I was really inspired by chatting with him about, I'd love to meet him.

01:23:47.234 --> 01:23:49.243
I love the, I love to And Dominoes clearly has.

01:23:49.423 --> 01:23:49.783
Yeah, right.

01:23:49.783 --> 01:23:51.283
Like they were high, they sucked.

01:23:51.493 --> 01:23:53.029
Now they're pretty strong again.

01:23:53.179 --> 01:23:59.309
Well, and I mean, being able to change corporate culture from a franchisee perspective is, would be inspiring to hear how, how we did that.

01:23:59.434 --> 01:23:59.564
Right.

01:23:59.863 --> 01:24:01.993
I'm actually not completely powerless in this way.

01:24:03.224 --> 01:24:03.225
Yeah.

01:24:03.673 --> 01:24:03.944
Yeah.

01:24:04.154 --> 01:24:05.203
Grab another ping pong ball.

01:24:05.203 --> 01:24:05.533
All right.

01:24:06.703 --> 01:24:07.213
Seven.

01:24:07.423 --> 01:24:08.234
Seven.

01:24:09.344 --> 01:24:11.474
How do you define happiness?

01:24:12.224 --> 01:24:13.904
Ooh, that's a great question.

01:24:14.264 --> 01:24:23.984
I've told my kids this, and this doesn't answer the question right, right away, but is when they teachers or anybody asks them, what do you wanna be when you grow up to answer with, I wanna be happy.

01:24:24.014 --> 01:24:29.444
And I said, you will throw them off because everybody will be looking for you to give them some sort of answer on what you're gonna do.

01:24:29.984 --> 01:24:32.594
Um, I like that.

01:24:33.673 --> 01:24:37.783
Actually, it reminds me of the first time I went to Aspen and went for a hike.

01:24:37.873 --> 01:24:46.783
Uh, there was an amazing, probably local Aspen lady there wearing a t-shirt that said, happiness is the new rich.

01:24:47.323 --> 01:24:47.533
Oh, I like it.

01:24:47.533 --> 01:24:48.764
Or, happy is the New Rich.

01:24:48.793 --> 01:24:48.944
Yeah.

01:24:49.213 --> 01:24:51.469
Like, you'd rather be happy than rich and Yeah.

01:24:51.823 --> 01:24:55.604
And all those hedge funds, guys that were miserable and all the billionaires that.

01:24:56.338 --> 01:24:57.628
Hate their lives Exactly.

01:24:57.628 --> 01:24:57.719
Right.

01:24:57.899 --> 01:24:59.819
Taught me something very, very important.

01:24:59.819 --> 01:25:02.203
Very early, um, to, but how do you get it?

01:25:02.354 --> 01:25:02.644
Yeah.

01:25:02.984 --> 01:25:04.123
To answer the question, right.

01:25:04.123 --> 01:25:04.844
How do you get it, man?

01:25:04.844 --> 01:25:05.524
How you define it.

01:25:05.578 --> 01:25:05.908
Yeah.

01:25:05.908 --> 01:25:09.958
Ah, fulfillment.

01:25:10.019 --> 01:25:10.559
I guess.

01:25:10.559 --> 01:25:14.219
Feeling, feeling like you are doing something good in the world.

01:25:14.279 --> 01:25:14.519
Yeah.

01:25:14.729 --> 01:25:16.288
Um, right.

01:25:16.288 --> 01:25:23.368
And both raising children and sort of raising a leadership team, I guess I, sure, I guess I can find, find that having,'cause you develop people, right?

01:25:23.368 --> 01:25:24.269
There's nothing in both ways.

01:25:24.269 --> 01:25:25.349
More grand in some ways.

01:25:25.349 --> 01:25:25.859
Yeah.

01:25:25.859 --> 01:25:28.618
Um, engaging with, you know, community and connection.

01:25:28.618 --> 01:25:30.509
I think that's, that's really important.

01:25:30.958 --> 01:25:41.639
Um, which I haven't really always done before, and I will be fully transparent, but I'm working with a business coach now and sort of my word for the year is joy because I, because I had, I had lost it.

01:25:41.639 --> 01:25:41.729
Mm-hmm.

01:25:42.144 --> 01:26:01.048
I, I think that there's a lot of times where we get so caught up in financial stressors and, you know, family stressors and business stressors and that sometimes it's hard to, to, you know, kind of see where that happiness and joy comes from or to, or to take the time to find it again.

01:26:01.529 --> 01:26:04.529
Um, and so I think, um, yeah.

01:26:04.588 --> 01:26:11.429
Well, and I, if I can, I'd observe that entrepreneurs especially are usually not where they wanted to be by now.

01:26:12.359 --> 01:26:17.309
You know, and so you, you're always frustrated with yourself, which can kill your joy a little bit.

01:26:17.314 --> 01:26:17.583
Yeah.

01:26:17.963 --> 01:26:21.118
Um, yeah, I think that that, there's part of that too.

01:26:21.118 --> 01:26:28.168
And I think, and you know, there's, there's challenges of running a small business, especially a small retail business right now that we didn't foresee five years ago.

01:26:28.168 --> 01:26:36.179
I think, you know, to say that we survived Covid, I kind of put that in air quotes because I think there's a lot of small businesses who don't know if they actually survived Covid yet.

01:26:36.184 --> 01:26:36.958
Yeah, we still are.

01:26:37.168 --> 01:26:37.288
Oh yeah.

01:26:37.288 --> 01:26:38.998
We're still paying loans back.

01:26:38.998 --> 01:26:44.189
We have, um, I mean, my loans from Covid are 30 year loans, right?

01:26:44.248 --> 01:26:46.649
Like yeah, who knows if I'm going to survive?

01:26:46.649 --> 01:26:52.198
Yeah, you probably got the PPP to help for some, but then yeah, but then you, you still got the SBA loans that sort of got us through.

01:26:52.588 --> 01:27:03.389
Um, and so that's stressful, you know, and say, yeah, I have three shops and there's some days where you're like, I own and run and manage, and I'm not an absent owner of these three stores.

01:27:03.389 --> 01:27:07.139
I mean, I'm an absent owner from my team member's perspective, but not from my general manager's perspective.

01:27:07.529 --> 01:27:13.738
Um, like why, why are we still struggling kind of personally on a financial level?

01:27:13.738 --> 01:27:21.479
And I think that there is part, part of that due, you know, why I work really, really hard and I have these businesses, and yet we still kind of live paycheck to paycheck.

01:27:21.899 --> 01:27:25.679
Um, we're, we're not also, you know, living in a shack on the side of the road.

01:27:25.679 --> 01:27:27.779
Like we have a nice home and we live very nicely.

01:27:28.078 --> 01:27:33.088
But, um, that it, it's, it can grind on you in terms of, in terms of that.

01:27:33.088 --> 01:27:39.658
And so, yeah, I've re I have reached out and like I said, hired a, a coach and kind of working through some of that.

01:27:39.658 --> 01:27:40.708
And in terms of.

01:27:41.338 --> 01:27:46.349
Making sure that you do take that time to step back and it gratefulness.

01:27:46.378 --> 01:27:46.679
Yep.

01:27:47.194 --> 01:27:47.413
Yep.

01:27:47.413 --> 01:27:52.288
Um, so I have my presently app on my phone and I've been doing a gratefulness post every single night.

01:27:52.559 --> 01:27:52.738
I love it.

01:27:52.769 --> 01:27:54.719
Um, for probably three years now.

01:27:54.719 --> 01:27:57.389
And so it's a matter of finding, finding the good.

01:27:57.404 --> 01:27:57.694
Yeah.

01:27:57.698 --> 01:27:57.988
Yeah.

01:27:58.048 --> 01:28:04.859
And I think, I think our society as a whole could be a whole lot better off if everybody concentrated on finding the good instead of finding the bad.

01:28:04.859 --> 01:28:04.918
Yeah.

01:28:04.918 --> 01:28:05.969
Have one grateful a day.

01:28:05.969 --> 01:28:08.219
It would do a lot of people Good for sure.

01:28:08.224 --> 01:28:08.333
Yeah.

01:28:08.338 --> 01:28:08.668
Yeah.

01:28:08.729 --> 01:28:10.319
So that's, I guess that's where I find it.

01:28:10.408 --> 01:28:10.769
All right.

01:28:11.158 --> 01:28:11.609
I like it.

01:28:11.819 --> 01:28:15.448
Um, I, uh, and feel free to swing that out and grab another ball.

01:28:15.809 --> 01:28:26.158
I, uh, was gonna mention, we haven't known each other for that long, but I think November of 19, uh, my blog post was, uh, the balance between Contentment and Striving.

01:28:26.609 --> 01:28:27.029
Okay.

01:28:27.208 --> 01:28:28.134
Uh, I have to read it.

01:28:28.293 --> 01:28:29.639
And the answer was gratitude.

01:28:29.939 --> 01:28:30.208
Yeah.

01:28:30.238 --> 01:28:34.918
Like, if you're grateful, you can both be content in your heart, kind of have joy.

01:28:35.309 --> 01:28:35.519
Yep.

01:28:35.578 --> 01:28:36.118
Right.

01:28:36.118 --> 01:28:42.059
Have that con I can tell you're a very proud mom and all these things, and you still wanna strive.

01:28:42.748 --> 01:28:43.048
Right.

01:28:43.048 --> 01:28:44.399
You still wanna get better every day.

01:28:44.399 --> 01:28:44.488
Yes.

01:28:44.488 --> 01:28:54.988
You want your team to grow and change and develop and, and that somehow, that balance between there, there, there's some, some, some joy and gratitude and whatever else.

01:28:55.048 --> 01:28:56.908
I just finished a book not too long ago.

01:28:56.908 --> 01:28:59.548
It was called The Perfectionist Guy to Losing Control.

01:28:59.819 --> 01:29:00.359
Oh, I love it.

01:29:00.594 --> 01:29:03.628
And it was, it was eyeopening for me.

01:29:03.628 --> 01:29:04.798
I, because it really.

01:29:05.368 --> 01:29:12.929
I, I would consider my self a perfectionist and Yeah, but what it, but what it, how it explains it is, but that's okay.

01:29:13.229 --> 01:29:18.599
Like, it's okay to be a perfectionist, but, but it has to be an adaptive mentality as opposed to a maladaptive.

01:29:18.599 --> 01:29:18.988
Well, loosely.

01:29:19.054 --> 01:29:19.344
Yeah.

01:29:19.349 --> 01:29:19.738
Yeah, yeah.

01:29:19.738 --> 01:29:24.479
And so let's take this thing that you know about yourself and let's use it for good.

01:29:24.479 --> 01:29:30.599
But part of that was then that there's nothing wrong with, and I would say a female, but it doesn't matter.

01:29:30.748 --> 01:29:32.788
Male, female who wants more.

01:29:33.269 --> 01:29:33.389
Yeah.

01:29:33.418 --> 01:29:34.378
Like, it's okay.

01:29:34.378 --> 01:29:44.368
And part of it kind of our society says, you know, men can always want more, and females have always been taught, like, if you want more, you're being greedy, you're being ungrateful, you're being all these things because you want more.

01:29:44.668 --> 01:29:46.469
But actually, no.

01:29:46.618 --> 01:29:47.878
Like, it's fine.

01:29:48.088 --> 01:29:48.208
Yeah.

01:29:48.208 --> 01:29:51.899
You can, you can be happy and content and all of that, but still want more.

01:29:52.109 --> 01:29:52.349
Yeah.

01:29:52.408 --> 01:29:53.908
That, that's an okay place to be.

01:29:53.908 --> 01:29:54.264
Oh yeah, for sure.

01:29:54.333 --> 01:29:56.368
Well, I think that's, that's why you still strive.

01:29:56.399 --> 01:29:56.759
Yeah.

01:29:57.208 --> 01:29:57.899
Because I want more.

01:29:57.958 --> 01:30:00.238
Yeah, exactly what you got.

01:30:00.359 --> 01:30:00.988
Number 11.

01:30:01.078 --> 01:30:01.798
11.

01:30:03.628 --> 01:30:10.618
If you could time travel, would you visit the past or the future and why and when?

01:30:11.998 --> 01:30:13.319
Oh, that's a hard one.

01:30:13.378 --> 01:30:13.738
I know.

01:30:15.389 --> 01:30:29.009
Um, I think I would have to say I would visit the future and more so from a why, why not the past, right?

01:30:29.548 --> 01:30:30.149
Oh, done happened.

01:30:30.389 --> 01:30:30.929
Yeah.

01:30:30.929 --> 01:30:32.219
We already know what happened.

01:30:32.219 --> 01:30:32.759
I think.

01:30:32.788 --> 01:30:33.509
Um.

01:30:34.154 --> 01:30:36.673
To an extent, you know, how far, how far out?

01:30:37.123 --> 01:30:38.113
Oh, pro.

01:30:38.173 --> 01:30:39.224
Well, so where am I?

01:30:39.224 --> 01:30:39.764
Where am I?

01:30:39.823 --> 01:30:41.894
I'm 47, almost 47 years old.

01:30:42.194 --> 01:30:46.844
I mean, I feel like if I only go 50 years, I'm still, hopefully I might still be alive, but probably about 50 years.

01:30:46.844 --> 01:30:47.349
Well, you wouldn't even age.

01:30:47.529 --> 01:30:50.173
I'd be, I'd be, you would actually stay exactly the same age as you go up there.

01:30:50.173 --> 01:30:50.984
Id, I'd like to.

01:30:50.984 --> 01:30:54.673
I, you know, it'd be, it'd be cool to see where your, how your kids end up.

01:30:54.734 --> 01:30:55.064
Yeah.

01:30:55.139 --> 01:30:55.429
Yeah.

01:30:55.434 --> 01:30:58.484
Um, it'd be cool to see where we are as a community tech.

01:30:58.548 --> 01:30:59.588
I would love to see technology.

01:30:59.588 --> 01:31:01.109
So 30 years or 20 years or something.

01:31:01.338 --> 01:31:01.628
Yeah.

01:31:01.979 --> 01:31:03.509
Even 10, 40, 40, no.

01:31:03.673 --> 01:31:04.753
Like 40 or 50 years.

01:31:04.783 --> 01:31:05.024
Yeah.

01:31:05.203 --> 01:31:08.713
See where, where my kids are as adults in their lives with families and Yeah.

01:31:08.719 --> 01:31:08.748
Yeah.

01:31:08.748 --> 01:31:11.713
You know, um, see what the AI God is doing with us by then.

01:31:11.774 --> 01:31:12.583
Yeah.

01:31:12.583 --> 01:31:14.293
And, and just, yeah.

01:31:14.474 --> 01:31:19.748
That I, I mean the technology advancements would be, would be pretty darn to hard to understand, I'm sure.

01:31:19.859 --> 01:31:20.149
Yeah.

01:31:20.149 --> 01:31:20.984
Hard to understand.

01:31:20.984 --> 01:31:21.884
And pretty cool to see.

01:31:21.944 --> 01:31:22.394
Yeah.

01:31:22.394 --> 01:31:22.395
Yeah.

01:31:22.484 --> 01:31:22.844
Agreed.

01:31:22.934 --> 01:31:23.083
Yeah.

01:31:23.083 --> 01:31:23.264
All right.

01:31:23.264 --> 01:31:24.373
Are we living on Mars?

01:31:24.644 --> 01:31:24.944
Right?

01:31:25.304 --> 01:31:26.444
Like, I wanna know, right?

01:31:26.668 --> 01:31:27.109
A hundred percent.

01:31:27.828 --> 01:31:28.423
I dig it.

01:31:28.573 --> 01:31:29.024
I dig it.

01:31:29.684 --> 01:31:36.493
Um, so I am going to call the, um, the question, the answer to the question.

01:31:36.493 --> 01:31:40.814
The winner of the$20 Ben and Jerry's ice cream gift certificate.

01:31:41.173 --> 01:31:41.203
Okay.

01:31:41.293 --> 01:31:51.219
Uh, is gonna be the, uh, the proudest moment of having developed and help flourish such outstanding managers.

01:31:52.243 --> 01:31:54.344
Is that a fair Sure, fair statement.

01:31:54.429 --> 01:31:54.748
I love it.

01:31:54.748 --> 01:31:56.323
Yeah, I think that's the most concise answer.

01:31:56.323 --> 01:31:56.503
I love it.

01:31:56.984 --> 01:32:06.764
So, uh, so DM us to the local Experience podcast page on Instagram, uh, or to that same page on, uh, LinkedIn if you want to.

01:32:06.764 --> 01:32:08.144
Although we get less, less traffic.

01:32:08.144 --> 01:32:08.774
Instagram's better.

01:32:09.404 --> 01:32:12.134
And, uh, you can win that if you're the first to respond after you listen.

01:32:12.314 --> 01:32:12.673
Good luck.

01:32:13.033 --> 01:32:13.573
Yeah, good luck.

01:32:14.024 --> 01:32:20.144
Um, let's talk about this fella, uh, that you found somewhere not long after you moved to Boulder.

01:32:20.144 --> 01:32:21.149
Is that my, you remember my fellow?

01:32:21.149 --> 01:32:21.269
Yeah.

01:32:21.269 --> 01:32:22.243
Yeah, my fellow Brian.

01:32:22.663 --> 01:32:28.198
Um, yeah, Brian with a standard B-R-I-A-N or BRY standard B-R-I-A-N.

01:32:28.198 --> 01:32:29.804
Just checking it helps me to remember him.

01:32:29.894 --> 01:32:30.163
Yep.

01:32:30.583 --> 01:32:33.793
Um, yeah, Brian, I met him two days after I moved here.

01:32:33.793 --> 01:32:38.503
It was a blind date, so my friend Courtney, um, introduced me to Brian.

01:32:38.804 --> 01:32:40.694
Apparently I was supposed to meet Brian.

01:32:41.054 --> 01:32:41.594
Um.

01:32:42.463 --> 01:32:44.293
We met in January of 2002.

01:32:44.293 --> 01:32:50.623
Apparently I was supposed to meet him back in November when we did our CrossCountry trip, but I got violently ill after a restaurant experience.

01:32:50.654 --> 01:32:50.684
Okay.

01:32:51.163 --> 01:32:53.939
And, um, and didn't make it to breakfast the next morning.

01:32:53.939 --> 01:32:56.743
Oh, so this person that you knew already thought he was kind of Yes.

01:32:56.743 --> 01:32:57.283
Like right for you?

01:32:57.283 --> 01:32:59.083
Apparently she was, but I had no idea.

01:32:59.088 --> 01:32:59.298
I did not.

01:32:59.538 --> 01:32:59.658
Interesting.

01:32:59.743 --> 01:33:01.033
I did not know that was the plan.

01:33:01.033 --> 01:33:03.194
I didn't know he was supposed to be a breakfast.

01:33:03.703 --> 01:33:14.533
Um, and so, uh, yeah, so I got here on a Wednesday towards the end of January of 2002 and we went out on a blind date then two nights later.

01:33:15.373 --> 01:33:15.404
Okay.

01:33:15.493 --> 01:33:16.904
And we've been together ever since.

01:33:16.904 --> 01:33:17.024
No way.

01:33:17.113 --> 01:33:19.694
So we celebrate 20 years married in October.

01:33:19.934 --> 01:33:20.743
Oh, congratulations.

01:33:20.743 --> 01:33:21.134
Thanks.

01:33:21.194 --> 01:33:22.634
Are you doing something super special?

01:33:22.904 --> 01:33:23.384
No.

01:33:23.684 --> 01:33:28.094
Um, we talked about doing a couple of different things, but we have not, we have not settled on anything yet.

01:33:28.094 --> 01:33:35.293
I think right now we're leaning towards just going to the kind of the New England area and doing leaf peeping up there, which we've never done.

01:33:35.533 --> 01:33:35.713
Yeah.

01:33:36.134 --> 01:33:36.850
So I dig it.

01:33:36.944 --> 01:33:38.113
We're we're pretty casual.

01:33:38.113 --> 01:33:39.493
We went to Telluride for our honeymoon.

01:33:39.583 --> 01:33:39.944
All right.

01:33:40.033 --> 01:33:42.913
So that kind of like folly type Yeah.

01:33:42.944 --> 01:33:44.264
Place is kind of our jam.

01:33:44.354 --> 01:33:46.064
Are you adventurers together?

01:33:46.064 --> 01:33:47.173
Is that part of your thing?

01:33:47.173 --> 01:33:48.073
No, not that.

01:33:48.283 --> 01:33:48.823
No.

01:33:48.823 --> 01:33:49.753
You know?

01:33:50.203 --> 01:33:50.264
Yeah.

01:33:50.264 --> 01:33:50.564
What was it?

01:33:50.623 --> 01:33:52.904
It's going back to the whole joy question.

01:33:52.904 --> 01:33:52.963
Yeah.

01:33:52.963 --> 01:33:55.963
Like right now is just like we're in the middle of shit.

01:33:55.993 --> 01:33:56.264
Right?

01:33:56.264 --> 01:34:03.373
Like, it is like work and, you know, mid midlife kids and midlife like work and all, none of our kids drive yet.

01:34:03.373 --> 01:34:05.083
And so we have three kids going different.

01:34:05.173 --> 01:34:09.734
It's like, and they all stay in their bedroom until they walk outta their bedroom and say, say to go somewhere, say, mom, I need to go here.

01:34:09.793 --> 01:34:10.094
Yeah.

01:34:10.094 --> 01:34:11.833
Or I'm hungry, like right now.

01:34:11.923 --> 01:34:12.014
Right.

01:34:12.764 --> 01:34:12.974
Yeah.

01:34:12.979 --> 01:34:17.594
And so it feels like we spend very, very little time together these days.

01:34:17.953 --> 01:34:18.014
Yeah.

01:34:18.104 --> 01:34:24.463
Um, it's funny, you know, we, and what's, we laugh a lot, you know, that that was really kind of the thing.

01:34:24.463 --> 01:34:28.333
I mean, we, I was 23, 20, yeah.

01:34:28.333 --> 01:34:29.654
22, 23 when I met.

01:34:29.654 --> 01:34:34.694
He's four years older than I am and we didn't start having kids until I was 30.

01:34:34.694 --> 01:34:36.463
So we had a, we had a long time.

01:34:36.469 --> 01:34:37.609
So you were dinks for a decade.

01:34:37.878 --> 01:34:41.623
Yeah, we, so we almost, we had a, we had a good time with friends, you know.

01:34:41.623 --> 01:34:41.625
Yeah.

01:34:41.630 --> 01:34:54.644
We, we had a, we like to go out and party and have people at our homes and I like to host and so, you know, kind of much to his chagrin, we have, we had a lot of parties as we've gotten older that's sort of died down of course.

01:34:54.673 --> 01:34:54.793
Sure.

01:34:54.823 --> 01:34:56.474
It's funny, we both sort of like.

01:34:57.389 --> 01:35:00.809
Not completely cut out, but really cut out booze since the first of the year.

01:35:00.838 --> 01:35:00.868
Okay.

01:35:00.868 --> 01:35:03.208
Not through any other reason than just like, why not?

01:35:03.238 --> 01:35:03.628
Yeah.

01:35:03.628 --> 01:35:03.689
Yeah.

01:35:03.689 --> 01:35:05.849
And, um, I mean, you look slimed a little bit.

01:35:05.849 --> 01:35:06.868
Is that Thanks.

01:35:06.868 --> 01:35:07.948
I, I don't know.

01:35:08.038 --> 01:35:08.399
A little bit.

01:35:08.399 --> 01:35:08.639
Maybe.

01:35:08.639 --> 01:35:09.088
Maybe.

01:35:09.088 --> 01:35:09.149
Yeah.

01:35:09.149 --> 01:35:11.458
I mean, there's probably some calories going in from that.

01:35:11.458 --> 01:35:14.698
And so we, um, it's funny.

01:35:14.698 --> 01:35:20.788
So we actually went, I was just telling somebody we went, uh, on Sunday, we managed to scoot away from the kids for the day.

01:35:20.788 --> 01:35:24.868
And so we went up to, we went and had breakfast, which was like our thing when we were dating.

01:35:24.868 --> 01:35:28.979
Like, we would either the two of us or all of our friends, we'd meet for breakfast on Saturday and Sunday mornings.

01:35:28.979 --> 01:35:30.238
We loved going out for breakfast.

01:35:30.628 --> 01:35:35.338
So we went out to Breakfast, Rocky Mountain Estes, we went and had a late lunch in Lions.

01:35:35.338 --> 01:35:36.658
Like we just, it was great.

01:35:36.779 --> 01:35:37.048
Yeah.

01:35:37.139 --> 01:35:40.948
And as you were walking through Estes, he kind of said to me, he goes, isn't it strange?

01:35:40.948 --> 01:35:47.069
He goes, we probably would've stopped at a couple of these places and had, you know, had a drink somewhere along a long our walk.

01:35:47.248 --> 01:35:47.338
Sure.

01:35:47.338 --> 01:35:47.399
Yeah.

01:35:47.399 --> 01:35:47.399
Yeah.

01:35:47.404 --> 01:35:51.118
And he goes, we're we, neither one of us even care to do it right now.

01:35:51.118 --> 01:35:51.179
Yeah.

01:35:51.179 --> 01:35:57.868
And so it's been interesting trying to figure out like, how, how do you spend your time when that was kind of a big part of Yeah.

01:35:57.868 --> 01:35:58.559
How we spent our time.

01:35:58.559 --> 01:35:58.679
Yeah.

01:35:58.783 --> 01:35:58.944
Yeah.

01:35:59.279 --> 01:36:04.139
Um, and so that's, that's probably the biggest cultural change since 2020 in some ways.

01:36:04.529 --> 01:36:09.418
I mean, certainly a lot of people self-medicated a lot at home.

01:36:09.418 --> 01:36:09.479
Yes.

01:36:09.479 --> 01:36:14.849
And alcohol sales overall went up, but like the.

01:36:15.673 --> 01:36:17.503
Downtown bars and stuff.

01:36:17.503 --> 01:36:23.323
Like they might as well close at 10 a lot of times because everybody just goes home early now, you know, so I, or midnight.

01:36:23.354 --> 01:36:23.804
Yeah.

01:36:23.863 --> 01:36:36.884
So a guy at our, in my local think tank, actually Chad mentioned, uh, the other day in our last meeting, he said, alcohol sales have de decreased for four quarters in a row for the first time since prohibition.

01:36:37.514 --> 01:36:37.634
Wow.

01:36:38.198 --> 01:36:39.434
In, in 2024.

01:36:39.434 --> 01:36:40.573
They decrease every quarter.

01:36:40.663 --> 01:36:41.054
Yeah.

01:36:41.113 --> 01:36:42.948
And, you know, I think it'll keep going.

01:36:42.953 --> 01:36:43.724
I think so too.

01:36:43.724 --> 01:36:47.054
I mean, you used to always think that alcohol was kind of a recession proof industry.

01:36:47.323 --> 01:36:47.474
Right.

01:36:47.474 --> 01:36:49.753
And we're starting to see a change in a change in that.

01:36:49.753 --> 01:36:55.363
Well, and there's, you know, there's a, you know, weed is legal in a lot of places now.

01:36:55.363 --> 01:36:56.923
It has a lot less calories.

01:36:56.929 --> 01:36:57.139
Yep.

01:36:57.639 --> 01:36:57.939
You know?

01:36:57.939 --> 01:36:57.939
Yep.

01:36:58.094 --> 01:36:59.533
And it costs a lot less.

01:36:59.533 --> 01:36:59.623
Yep.

01:37:00.104 --> 01:37:00.434
Right.

01:37:00.434 --> 01:37:02.953
You can get high 10 times for 30 bucks.

01:37:03.073 --> 01:37:03.134
Yeah.

01:37:03.163 --> 01:37:06.373
Whereas you might get drunk one time for 30 bucks kind of thing.

01:37:06.734 --> 01:37:09.493
Mushrooms, at least in Denver, Colorado.

01:37:09.493 --> 01:37:10.304
Or you know, a lot.

01:37:10.304 --> 01:37:10.663
I know.

01:37:11.144 --> 01:37:20.533
Gosh, like when I was taking mushrooms back in college, I was one of like, you know, maybe two and a hundred people that would take mushrooms on an occasional basis.

01:37:20.533 --> 01:37:20.594
Yeah.

01:37:20.623 --> 01:37:22.543
For shows and this, that, whatever.

01:37:23.144 --> 01:37:28.123
Now, uh, like there's a lot of 40 something people microdosing mushrooms every week.

01:37:28.123 --> 01:37:29.309
I are saying the microdosing.

01:37:29.309 --> 01:37:29.310
Yeah.

01:37:29.684 --> 01:37:32.413
Regularly, or, you know, I've.

01:37:32.788 --> 01:37:36.328
It seems like microdosing sometimes is like, oh, that's microdosing.

01:37:36.628 --> 01:37:37.498
That seems like a lot.

01:37:38.434 --> 01:37:41.458
I don't know anything about it, but I, but yeah, I don't, I don't know either.

01:37:41.458 --> 01:37:45.434
I, but it seems like the, the, it's, there's definitely a shift, at least cultural change there.

01:37:45.628 --> 01:37:46.993
It's like very interesting.

01:37:47.309 --> 01:37:54.029
Well, and if, yeah, like if you go back to thinking about where this whole thing has been, like the, the Vietnam Right.

01:37:54.298 --> 01:38:05.248
That your dad was willing to sign up for, to choose his journey rather than get drafted and become a bullet stopper for some dumb ass that was high on heroin.

01:38:05.488 --> 01:38:05.698
Yep.

01:38:06.118 --> 01:38:16.109
Um, and then that kind of countercultural movement and the Nixon's ban on drugs and all that, and all the violence that's been created in Mexico and Central America for years.

01:38:16.109 --> 01:38:16.288
Right.

01:38:16.288 --> 01:38:17.009
And whatever.

01:38:17.128 --> 01:38:17.519
Yep.

01:38:17.729 --> 01:38:23.248
And even now with Trumpy being like, no, you gotta stop the fentanyl coming in from China.

01:38:23.279 --> 01:38:23.759
Yeah.

01:38:24.328 --> 01:38:24.868
Right.

01:38:24.929 --> 01:38:25.198
Yeah.

01:38:25.469 --> 01:38:25.918
Or something.

01:38:25.918 --> 01:38:26.819
'cause that's where it's coming from.

01:38:27.389 --> 01:38:29.338
Well, probably at least the core.

01:38:29.368 --> 01:38:29.698
Yeah.

01:38:29.819 --> 01:38:38.368
Um, but like, well, it's our demand here, our freaking drug obsessed culture.

01:38:38.578 --> 01:38:38.698
Oh.

01:38:38.698 --> 01:38:50.759
And then, well, I guess, I guess that's, that's probably the worst reason why is'cause there's too many people on drugs, like pharmaceuticals are taking market share away from alcohol probably.

01:38:50.759 --> 01:38:50.998
Yeah.

01:38:50.998 --> 01:38:54.144
I mean, that's a whole nother conversation with, you know, mental health.

01:38:54.293 --> 01:38:56.144
It's like a whole different, I digress.

01:38:56.144 --> 01:38:56.423
Yeah.

01:38:56.783 --> 01:38:57.344
I mean, yeah.

01:38:57.974 --> 01:39:02.923
But boo drugs just can't drink as much if you're on the, on the psychotropics.

01:39:03.038 --> 01:39:03.913
I know, I know.

01:39:04.363 --> 01:39:04.694
Yeah.

01:39:04.753 --> 01:39:05.264
I digress.

01:39:05.293 --> 01:39:05.923
No, yeah.

01:39:05.923 --> 01:39:06.913
But that, you're right.

01:39:06.913 --> 01:39:09.554
I mean, mental health, like I said, is completely different conversation.

01:39:09.554 --> 01:39:12.734
So what's Brian do with himself on a, on a weekly basis?

01:39:12.734 --> 01:39:14.743
So he worked at Vestus for about 15 years.

01:39:14.953 --> 01:39:15.043
Okay.

01:39:15.163 --> 01:39:18.974
Um, and then he left there about four years ago or so.

01:39:18.974 --> 01:39:18.975
Alright.

01:39:18.975 --> 01:39:21.043
Um, he works now for Tomar Pharmaceuticals.

01:39:21.163 --> 01:39:21.344
Okay.

01:39:21.344 --> 01:39:22.963
And so he is their site maintenance manager.

01:39:23.024 --> 01:39:26.918
So he is had kind of that corporate journey that he much more blue.

01:39:26.918 --> 01:39:28.319
You didn't more blue collar, but Yes.

01:39:28.319 --> 01:39:28.679
Yeah, for sure.

01:39:28.684 --> 01:39:31.003
But he's doing blue collar work, but in the corporate world.

01:39:31.033 --> 01:39:31.243
Yep.

01:39:31.394 --> 01:39:33.613
Doer stuff instead of thinker stuff, but Yes.

01:39:33.644 --> 01:39:33.823
Yeah.

01:39:33.823 --> 01:39:34.033
Yeah.

01:39:34.033 --> 01:39:34.274
Fair enough.

01:39:34.279 --> 01:39:34.399
Yeah.

01:39:34.399 --> 01:39:34.519
Yeah.

01:39:34.519 --> 01:39:34.719
Okay.

01:39:35.474 --> 01:39:35.684
Yep.

01:39:35.713 --> 01:39:38.623
So you've still seeing it kind of that a little bit, you know?

01:39:38.628 --> 01:39:38.998
Oh yeah.

01:39:38.998 --> 01:39:41.564
It's, it's different being in the office than in being in facilities.

01:39:41.564 --> 01:39:41.894
Right?

01:39:42.253 --> 01:39:42.644
Yes.

01:39:42.644 --> 01:39:53.923
But you also then see the way corporate does things and the way they treat their people and like, he comes home and not, not with his, he, you know, in, in the past he's come home and I'm like, this is exactly what not to do.

01:39:54.014 --> 01:39:54.104
Right.

01:39:54.104 --> 01:39:56.564
Or how to motivate people or how you want a company.

01:39:56.564 --> 01:40:04.694
Like, I, there are a couple times where I'm like, can I please just go in and talk to somebody there about I, sorry, you talked to your hr, like, this is not how it should be done.

01:40:05.264 --> 01:40:05.354
Yes.

01:40:05.684 --> 01:40:07.363
And so that gets, you know, frustrating.

01:40:07.514 --> 01:40:14.083
One of our challenges we like to do in the family segment is, uh, one word description for the children.

01:40:15.014 --> 01:40:16.184
Would you like to attempt that?

01:40:59.548 --> 01:41:00.118
Yeah.

01:41:00.479 --> 01:41:02.623
Um, you got three girls, is that what you said?

01:41:02.623 --> 01:41:02.743
Yep.

01:41:02.743 --> 01:41:03.899
So Elena is 15.

01:41:03.958 --> 01:41:04.319
Okay.

01:41:04.649 --> 01:41:08.069
Um, and she is, you can use a hyphen if you need it.

01:41:08.128 --> 01:41:08.908
Theatrical.

01:41:08.998 --> 01:41:09.389
Okay.

01:41:10.828 --> 01:41:10.860
I like it.

01:41:10.865 --> 01:41:19.559
Vivian is 13, uh, introvert.

01:41:20.128 --> 01:41:20.368
Hmm.

01:41:21.509 --> 01:41:21.988
Sort of.

01:41:22.889 --> 01:41:24.328
She's a, she's an anomaly.

01:41:24.328 --> 01:41:26.698
Uh, anomaly is more flattering, I would say.

01:41:26.698 --> 01:41:27.149
Yeah.

01:41:27.389 --> 01:41:27.929
Anomaly.

01:41:27.988 --> 01:41:28.618
We'll go with that.

01:41:28.734 --> 01:41:28.974
Okay.

01:41:29.314 --> 01:41:32.849
Uh, and Adeline is gonna be 11 in a few weeks.

01:41:33.509 --> 01:41:34.198
Crazy.

01:41:34.798 --> 01:41:38.578
I like it in all the good ways.

01:41:38.698 --> 01:41:39.059
Okay.

01:41:39.059 --> 01:41:39.389
Yeah.

01:41:39.479 --> 01:41:40.134
I like it Uhhuh.

01:41:40.139 --> 01:41:40.618
I like it.

01:41:41.069 --> 01:41:43.679
Um, so you spaced'em out pretty evenly there?

01:41:43.769 --> 01:41:44.009
Yeah.

01:41:44.219 --> 01:41:50.335
You're gonna have a nice, uh, so let's see, you've got basically whatever, seven years, yearsish years, eight years.

01:41:50.503 --> 01:41:50.948
Seven or eight years.

01:41:51.208 --> 01:41:51.389
Yeah.

01:41:51.389 --> 01:41:51.569
Yeah.

01:41:51.569 --> 01:41:52.408
Somewhere in there.

01:41:52.408 --> 01:41:53.668
And then you're gonna be empty nesting.

01:41:53.788 --> 01:41:54.118
Yeah.

01:41:54.719 --> 01:41:58.649
Are you guys excited about that time or like already looking ahead and regretting it?

01:41:59.158 --> 01:42:01.828
I am excited to have, I am excited.

01:42:01.828 --> 01:42:03.658
I, I'm excited to see what they do.

01:42:04.229 --> 01:42:04.349
Mm-hmm.

01:42:04.349 --> 01:42:11.038
Like, that's, I, Brian is definitely the one who's like, if they wanna come back and live in the house, like they have a room forever.

01:42:11.038 --> 01:42:12.389
And I'm like, no, they do not.

01:42:13.349 --> 01:42:17.729
And part of my reasoning on that is like, if they come back and live with us, and I.

01:42:18.394 --> 01:42:19.319
That we do our job.

01:42:19.319 --> 01:42:19.878
How would that be?

01:42:19.878 --> 01:42:20.158
Yeah.

01:42:20.269 --> 01:42:20.639
Kind of.

01:42:20.639 --> 01:42:29.024
And the, we didn't do our job, our job hundred percent is to raise, raise, you know, kids who are sustainable, su successful, kind, caring Yeah.

01:42:29.863 --> 01:42:32.863
Part participatory human beings in this society.

01:42:32.894 --> 01:42:32.953
Yeah.

01:42:32.958 --> 01:42:33.158
Yeah.

01:42:33.554 --> 01:42:40.154
And I really believe if, if, if they end up, and I'm not saying like if they hit a rough patch, they can come back home.

01:42:40.154 --> 01:42:40.423
Right.

01:42:40.573 --> 01:42:42.974
But like, they should be off living their lives.

01:42:42.974 --> 01:42:44.323
That's what they should be doing.

01:42:44.323 --> 01:42:44.384
Yeah.

01:42:44.519 --> 01:42:44.679
Yeah.

01:42:44.743 --> 01:42:47.774
And if they're not, then that's a measure of success for a parent ultimately.

01:42:47.863 --> 01:42:48.734
I think so.

01:42:48.734 --> 01:42:48.793
Yeah.

01:42:48.958 --> 01:42:49.118
Yeah.

01:42:49.243 --> 01:42:58.904
And so, um, but yeah, I mean we, we've definitely, you know, our oldest will be gone in two years and there's definitely like, uh, how, how, how, how did that happen?

01:42:59.384 --> 01:42:59.503
Yeah.

01:42:59.564 --> 01:43:03.073
Um, and we will miss them immensely.

01:43:03.163 --> 01:43:04.514
But, but it's time.

01:43:04.543 --> 01:43:04.783
Yeah.

01:43:05.173 --> 01:43:05.774
But it's time.

01:43:06.163 --> 01:43:09.974
Let's talk about, uh, your mom and dad a little bit more if we may.

01:43:09.974 --> 01:43:15.134
We, we kind of flattered your dad by calling him extra smart and insightful earlier, kind of along that journey.

01:43:15.134 --> 01:43:17.863
But what did he go on to do from there?

01:43:17.863 --> 01:43:21.194
And, and they're still around, or he is at least both of, yeah, they're still around.

01:43:21.194 --> 01:43:28.154
Um, yeah, so my dad, his final chapter was in, was at Jenny Craig in Southern California and retired from there.

01:43:28.213 --> 01:43:28.484
Okay.

01:43:28.663 --> 01:43:35.024
Um, my, my mom always had jobs also, so, you know, she's good role model in terms of that.

01:43:35.533 --> 01:43:36.163
Um.

01:43:37.243 --> 01:43:42.673
She, when my dad went to California, she had a really hard time with leaving the house in, in New York.

01:43:42.703 --> 01:43:42.734
Mm.

01:43:42.884 --> 01:43:44.503
Um, she had some really good friends back there.

01:43:44.503 --> 01:43:44.594
Okay.

01:43:45.104 --> 01:43:48.764
And so it took her a couple years before she was willing to move, I think.

01:43:48.769 --> 01:43:49.309
Oh really?

01:43:49.349 --> 01:43:52.033
I think the weather finally was like, all right, it's time to go.

01:43:52.243 --> 01:43:52.514
Interesting.

01:43:52.604 --> 01:43:54.944
And so she finally moved to California with my dad.

01:43:54.944 --> 01:44:00.253
They were out there for a while until about 20, uh, 21.

01:44:00.253 --> 01:44:03.404
So Covid Really, they were still in pretty good health.

01:44:03.404 --> 01:44:03.463
Yeah.

01:44:03.524 --> 01:44:07.064
And, um, they'll both be 79 this year.

01:44:07.123 --> 01:44:07.213
Oh, wow.

01:44:07.453 --> 01:44:09.493
Um, but so, you know, they were still in good health.

01:44:09.493 --> 01:44:14.173
They were traveling to see myself and our family and my brother and sister's families a couple times a year.

01:44:14.293 --> 01:44:14.474
Yeah.

01:44:14.623 --> 01:44:18.673
And Covid kind of shut that down and they missed being able to see their grandkids.

01:44:19.094 --> 01:44:22.033
Um, and so, and they mo ended up moving here.

01:44:22.274 --> 01:44:22.604
Oh, cool.

01:44:22.783 --> 01:44:23.804
So they live in Timnath.

01:44:24.253 --> 01:44:26.804
Um, my dad, when he retired.

01:44:27.673 --> 01:44:30.043
I, he's probably been retired for about a decade now.

01:44:30.344 --> 01:44:38.623
When he retired, I was like, he's gonna have a job again in six months, because it's just who he was and he never did a thing afterwards.

01:44:38.623 --> 01:44:45.493
And he has been happier as a claim, happy as a cla Like he just, he is content in that he likes playing golf.

01:44:45.493 --> 01:44:47.804
He, he takes on projects.

01:44:48.194 --> 01:44:54.253
Um, so when he first retired and they were living in San Diego, he was on the board of the Boys and Girls Club, so he kind of kept himself busy with that.

01:44:54.884 --> 01:44:58.873
Um, when they moved out here, he got really big into genealogy.

01:44:58.873 --> 01:45:04.934
I, uh, when I tell you he probably spent the equivalent of a full-time job for a year doing genealogy stuff.

01:45:05.503 --> 01:45:06.163
He did that.

01:45:06.163 --> 01:45:07.783
So he traced us back to the Mayflower.

01:45:08.144 --> 01:45:09.913
I was gonna say, you look English potentially.

01:45:09.913 --> 01:45:13.094
Well, Disney Mang is my husband's name, so my we're fishers, my is my main name.

01:45:13.123 --> 01:45:13.423
Okay.

01:45:13.694 --> 01:45:15.854
And so, so that's where your English, uh, yes.

01:45:15.854 --> 01:45:17.173
English and Irish look like.

01:45:17.413 --> 01:45:20.953
And Irish, obviously English and Irish there is very Irish, English and Irish.

01:45:20.953 --> 01:45:21.944
Well, that's not natural.

01:45:22.213 --> 01:45:27.344
Um, um, and so, yeah, so he's always, he plays golf.

01:45:27.344 --> 01:45:28.844
He's always really kept himself busy.

01:45:29.264 --> 01:45:33.014
Um, my mom, uh, is now struggling.

01:45:33.014 --> 01:45:35.234
She has, um, Alzheimer's related dementia.

01:45:35.354 --> 01:45:35.564
Yeah.

01:45:35.684 --> 01:45:40.753
And so we've been kind of dealing with that for the last couple of years and trying to manage that and, and figure that out.

01:45:40.753 --> 01:45:42.613
My dad is so kind of full-time caregiver.

01:45:42.613 --> 01:45:45.644
She's still living at home and, you know, all that kind of stuff.

01:45:45.644 --> 01:45:49.213
But, um, you've engaged with like the Dementia Together organization and stuff like that?

01:45:49.213 --> 01:45:49.514
A little bit.

01:45:49.514 --> 01:45:51.884
Found an organization called People First.

01:45:51.913 --> 01:45:51.944
Okay.

01:45:52.184 --> 01:45:54.823
Um, and they offer, um.

01:45:55.243 --> 01:45:58.394
Classes and they offer support in home support and things like that.

01:45:58.394 --> 01:45:58.453
Yeah.

01:45:58.458 --> 01:45:58.559
Yeah.

01:45:58.564 --> 01:45:59.474
Um, they've been good.

01:45:59.474 --> 01:45:59.684
That's nice.

01:45:59.863 --> 01:46:02.293
We're struggling with getting my dad on board with all of it.

01:46:02.293 --> 01:46:02.354
Yeah.

01:46:02.354 --> 01:46:08.354
You know, I think it's, that's a really hard, even accepting how real it is and stuff and how much and how much work it will become and Yeah.

01:46:08.833 --> 01:46:10.184
Starting to get that process now.

01:46:10.184 --> 01:46:10.599
So it's super hard.

01:46:10.873 --> 01:46:12.884
It's like the worst disease.

01:46:12.884 --> 01:46:13.753
And so, I'm sorry.

01:46:13.753 --> 01:46:17.474
My, my dad's mom, uh, suffered with that for like over five years.

01:46:17.503 --> 01:46:17.774
Yeah.

01:46:17.984 --> 01:46:18.884
Uh, before she passed.

01:46:18.884 --> 01:46:19.993
And it's just hard.

01:46:20.054 --> 01:46:20.354
Yeah.

01:46:20.354 --> 01:46:21.253
It's just really hard.

01:46:21.253 --> 01:46:26.863
And so we're starting to see, you know, she's getting a little bit more frail and she's, you know, wants to be home a lot.

01:46:26.863 --> 01:46:26.923
Yeah.

01:46:26.984 --> 01:46:27.613
Which is fine.

01:46:27.644 --> 01:46:27.913
Yeah.

01:46:28.123 --> 01:46:31.184
Um, but I think my dad's decided that getting a puppy is a good idea.

01:46:31.184 --> 01:46:32.323
So they're about to have a puppy.

01:46:32.323 --> 01:46:32.953
It probably is.

01:46:33.014 --> 01:46:33.373
Yeah.

01:46:33.373 --> 01:46:33.734
We'll see.

01:46:34.038 --> 01:46:36.793
You know, I mean, they're gonna be 79 with a puppy, so we'll see how that goes.

01:46:37.484 --> 01:46:41.203
Um, we'll send the, the crazy kid over and get some of her energy out there.

01:46:41.203 --> 01:46:43.514
You the puppy in next months, so, yeah.

01:46:43.514 --> 01:46:47.293
No, so that, but you know, we get to see them and so that's nice.

01:46:47.293 --> 01:46:47.359
That's cool.

01:46:47.418 --> 01:46:48.078
Um, yeah.

01:46:48.734 --> 01:46:56.264
That's who I, I meet a whole bunch of people who's moved here because their kids moved here and they're never moved back to where they were or whatever.

01:46:56.264 --> 01:46:56.323
Yeah.

01:46:56.323 --> 01:46:57.134
You know, and so.

01:46:57.373 --> 01:46:57.583
Yep.

01:46:57.764 --> 01:46:58.514
Um, that's neat.

01:46:58.694 --> 01:46:58.753
Yeah.

01:46:58.844 --> 01:47:06.404
Um, oh, we, you know, one thing we didn't talk about at all in, in this conversation so far, we often talk about faith.

01:47:07.033 --> 01:47:07.064
Okay.

01:47:07.064 --> 01:47:07.634
A little bit.

01:47:07.634 --> 01:47:10.154
And I suspect, um.

01:47:10.649 --> 01:47:16.649
That there may have been some of that in your deeper background being kind of a conservative college girl at the time, right?

01:47:16.649 --> 01:47:17.189
I don't know.

01:47:17.189 --> 01:47:18.029
I'm just guessing.

01:47:18.149 --> 01:47:18.448
Yeah.

01:47:18.448 --> 01:47:21.538
I mean, I, I, we grew up going to, I grew up gonna church.

01:47:21.538 --> 01:47:24.779
My dad was Lutheran and did not, um, did not attend.

01:47:24.988 --> 01:47:25.198
Okay.

01:47:25.198 --> 01:47:26.128
He was not religious at all.

01:47:26.128 --> 01:47:27.958
My mom grew up Catholic.

01:47:28.019 --> 01:47:31.229
Um, and, but you went to Lutheran church, you No, we didn't.

01:47:31.349 --> 01:47:31.828
No, we didn't.

01:47:31.828 --> 01:47:33.118
So we had nothing to do with the Lutheran side.

01:47:33.238 --> 01:47:33.524
Okay, gotcha.

01:47:33.569 --> 01:47:35.819
So my mom, so we went to Catholic church.

01:47:35.849 --> 01:47:35.878
Okay.

01:47:35.878 --> 01:47:38.524
So we did all of that, but not church school or anything like that.

01:47:39.003 --> 01:47:43.724
I, you know, I went through all the sacraments and I went to religion through, you know, middle school, whatever.

01:47:43.724 --> 01:47:45.448
But you went to public school as far as your regular education?

01:47:45.448 --> 01:47:45.569
Yes.

01:47:45.899 --> 01:47:46.139
Yep.

01:47:46.229 --> 01:47:46.979
All public school.

01:47:47.009 --> 01:47:47.338
Yeah.

01:47:47.788 --> 01:47:51.088
Um, yeah, it's not part of my life now.

01:47:51.208 --> 01:47:51.418
Yeah.

01:47:51.599 --> 01:47:56.849
Um, it, it has not been probably since I could make the choice to, to not go.

01:47:56.908 --> 01:47:57.238
All right.

01:47:57.298 --> 01:48:03.689
Um, your husband also the same, came from a nun or a Catholic, same, uh, Christian, not Catholic.

01:48:03.689 --> 01:48:03.689
Yeah.

01:48:04.229 --> 01:48:04.798
Christian.

01:48:04.859 --> 01:48:05.998
Um, but not Catholic.

01:48:06.029 --> 01:48:10.109
Uh, I don't, I don't know what, what denomination they were.

01:48:10.109 --> 01:48:10.168
Yeah.

01:48:10.168 --> 01:48:18.118
But, um, also I think we, you know, we got married and said we're, that's, it's just not who we are anymore.

01:48:18.479 --> 01:48:18.538
Yeah.

01:48:18.569 --> 01:48:21.868
It's not, it's not kind of the way that we want to be ourselves.

01:48:22.259 --> 01:48:22.859
Um.

01:48:24.043 --> 01:48:28.904
You know, is do I believe in some sort something, some creator force, something?

01:48:29.083 --> 01:48:29.144
Yeah.

01:48:29.323 --> 01:48:29.984
Yes.

01:48:29.984 --> 01:48:31.993
I also believe in evolution, you know, so, yeah.

01:48:32.109 --> 01:48:32.309
Yeah.

01:48:32.474 --> 01:48:37.453
Um, but we also have been really intentional about allowing our kids to explore it.

01:48:37.453 --> 01:48:40.993
So our oldest daughter actually had got baptized a couple years ago.

01:48:41.203 --> 01:48:41.293
Oh, wow.

01:48:41.474 --> 01:48:44.984
So she found some friends through a church that she really liked.

01:48:45.163 --> 01:48:45.194
Okay.

01:48:45.194 --> 01:48:47.203
And started going to some summer camps, a youth youth doing that.

01:48:47.203 --> 01:48:48.908
A youth group and this and that and Exactly.

01:48:49.088 --> 01:48:49.309
Yep.

01:48:49.309 --> 01:48:49.509
Yep.

01:48:49.694 --> 01:49:00.073
And so she was at summer camp a couple summers ago, and they, she called us in the middle of camp and said, can you guys come up early on Sunday for pickup and, and watch me get baptized and, and will you allow me to get baptized?

01:49:00.073 --> 01:49:00.074
Yeah.

01:49:00.079 --> 01:49:00.149
Yeah.

01:49:00.764 --> 01:49:01.694
And we said yes.

01:49:01.724 --> 01:49:02.923
'cause that, that's her deal.

01:49:02.923 --> 01:49:03.314
Now.

01:49:03.373 --> 01:49:11.503
Now we also told her in years prior, like, you can't get baptized this year, because we did want her to have, we didn't want her to go to summer camp.

01:49:11.564 --> 01:49:11.953
Yeah.

01:49:12.043 --> 01:49:18.583
Uh, you know, a we wanna know, she's got agencies, a reli, a religious summer camp and have fun for a week and then be like, oh, I'm gonna get baptized.

01:49:18.854 --> 01:49:22.184
So it needed to be, it needed to be intentional on her part.

01:49:22.184 --> 01:49:22.363
Yeah.

01:49:22.514 --> 01:49:25.213
Um, she needed to understand what she was doing and why.

01:49:25.219 --> 01:49:25.389
Yeah.

01:49:25.573 --> 01:49:25.634
Yeah.

01:49:25.724 --> 01:49:31.243
Um, and so now that's kind of our, our 11-year-old, almost 11-year-old is now, like, if I go to camp, can I get baptized this year?

01:49:31.243 --> 01:49:31.904
And I said, no.

01:49:32.413 --> 01:49:33.314
You know, like interesting.

01:49:33.344 --> 01:49:35.594
You're not, you have not put in the work yet.

01:49:35.594 --> 01:49:36.823
And Elena was still 13?

01:49:36.823 --> 01:49:37.363
I think so.

01:49:37.368 --> 01:49:37.429
Sure.

01:49:37.484 --> 01:49:43.783
So I said, you haven't put in the work yet to get to the point where, where you understand that responsibility and why you're doing it.

01:49:43.844 --> 01:49:47.564
And so we're, we're definitely open to them exploring it.

01:49:47.564 --> 01:49:48.673
We're not, we're not.

01:49:49.439 --> 01:49:49.798
Insulating them.

01:49:49.798 --> 01:49:51.479
You're drawn, not drawn to it by them at all.

01:49:51.958 --> 01:49:52.649
Not in the least.

01:49:52.649 --> 01:50:00.538
Well, my last guest or the, the episode that came out a couple weeks ago, like when he was 15, his family moved from California up to South Fork.

01:50:00.628 --> 01:50:00.748
Mm-hmm.

01:50:01.349 --> 01:50:07.559
Colorado, which is, I dunno where that is, it's like, it's like a town of 300 just down the hill from Wolf Creek Pass.

01:50:07.559 --> 01:50:07.588
Okay.

01:50:07.798 --> 01:50:09.658
So it's in the boonies of Southern Colorado.

01:50:09.689 --> 01:50:09.929
Okay.

01:50:10.198 --> 01:50:22.259
Um, but he started going to church with this lady from their town that asked if they could take, she could take his kid to church, and then pretty soon all of his siblings and his parents started gonna church too.

01:50:22.349 --> 01:50:22.828
Interesting.

01:50:22.828 --> 01:50:29.314
Like within about a four year span, which was an interesting, I hadn't really heard that story before Uhhuh in that context.

01:50:30.029 --> 01:50:31.738
Um, but doesn't sound like you're there yet.

01:50:32.673 --> 01:50:37.259
It's not, you know, there are times where I, I mean, I know people who are very religious and it means a lot to them.

01:50:37.259 --> 01:50:41.338
And there are times where I can see the comfort and I can see Yeah.

01:50:41.368 --> 01:50:43.769
How it is guiding them in, leading them in their lives.

01:50:43.769 --> 01:50:46.979
And, and that I think is, is wonderful.

01:50:46.979 --> 01:50:50.128
I mean, that's a great kind of guiding light for them.

01:50:50.488 --> 01:50:53.338
Um, it's just not been something that I've been drawn to.

01:50:53.368 --> 01:50:53.729
Yeah.

01:50:53.734 --> 01:50:53.793
Yeah.

01:50:54.029 --> 01:51:02.219
As a cynical person and kind of a libertarian generally, I kind of, I resonate with the phrase, uh, if there is no God, then the state is the God.

01:51:02.354 --> 01:51:02.384
Okay.

01:51:03.134 --> 01:51:06.194
Uh, and so it's like, well gross, right?

01:51:06.613 --> 01:51:08.564
So I'll just go for Right.

01:51:08.564 --> 01:51:10.514
That other intangible thing that I can't really refine.

01:51:10.514 --> 01:51:11.809
I was just gonna say, what's option C?

01:51:12.134 --> 01:51:12.404
Right.

01:51:13.003 --> 01:51:13.663
And that's fair.

01:51:13.663 --> 01:51:14.264
That's fair.

01:51:14.264 --> 01:51:14.863
A hundred percent.

01:51:15.764 --> 01:51:19.844
So, um, I'm ready to go with the low co experience if you are.

01:51:19.993 --> 01:51:20.144
Okay.

01:51:20.413 --> 01:51:31.753
Uh, the craziest experience of your lifetime that you're willing to share with our listeners could be a day, a moment, a near death experience, finding love on the slopes.

01:51:31.753 --> 01:51:32.083
I dunno.

01:51:32.474 --> 01:51:36.224
I spent a semester in college in Australia.

01:51:36.404 --> 01:51:36.734
Okay.

01:51:36.793 --> 01:51:38.743
And so, um, crazy.

01:51:38.774 --> 01:51:45.644
You're not crazy, but in the, during that, um, I was able to sky like second year, third year, it was my junior year.

01:51:45.823 --> 01:51:45.944
Okay.

01:51:46.184 --> 01:51:52.963
Um, had gotten broken up by a boy and was heartbroken and had to find, screw it, I go to Australia.

01:51:52.963 --> 01:51:53.594
Exactly.

01:51:53.594 --> 01:51:56.144
I had to like, sign my mom's name on some paperwork.

01:51:56.144 --> 01:51:58.333
I called her, but I was like, it's due tomorrow.

01:51:58.484 --> 01:52:00.734
And so I, like, I can't, it's already the mail, mail it.

01:52:00.884 --> 01:52:01.274
Right.

01:52:01.274 --> 01:52:02.413
Like, we're mailing things right.

01:52:02.413 --> 01:52:03.104
These days still.

01:52:03.194 --> 01:52:03.283
Right.

01:52:03.283 --> 01:52:04.154
Because I'm old.

01:52:04.514 --> 01:52:12.823
Um, so, uh, got her blessing and, and put in my paperwork and ended up in Australia in February of, yeah, 99.

01:52:13.333 --> 01:52:13.634
Okay.

01:52:14.144 --> 01:52:14.503
I think.

01:52:15.163 --> 01:52:22.208
Um, but so in that experience, um, it was just, you know, I mean, we just had well, so far away from everything you'd experienced before then.

01:52:22.208 --> 01:52:23.048
It was so far away.

01:52:23.113 --> 01:52:26.203
I mean, very, you know, I didn't have to learn another language.

01:52:26.203 --> 01:52:27.524
It was not, it was still very.

01:52:28.033 --> 01:52:29.054
Felt very American.

01:52:29.054 --> 01:52:29.144
Sure.

01:52:29.144 --> 01:52:32.743
And I was also, um, living with other Americans.

01:52:33.104 --> 01:52:33.194
Sure.

01:52:33.194 --> 01:52:39.283
So, so it wasn't, um, as kind of culturally immersive as, you know, you, you would like being an exchange student or whatever.

01:52:39.283 --> 01:52:39.463
Yeah.

01:52:39.469 --> 01:52:39.639
Right.

01:52:39.644 --> 01:52:44.833
Um, but, but it offered me, uh, we, you know, went camping.

01:52:44.833 --> 01:52:47.113
Did like a four-wheel camping trip for three days.

01:52:47.113 --> 01:52:49.304
We did a sail boating trip for three days.

01:52:49.543 --> 01:52:51.043
I went skydiving twice.

01:52:51.043 --> 01:52:54.224
I went bungee jumping, I climbed, I walked on a glacier.

01:52:54.373 --> 01:52:54.434
Wow.

01:52:54.913 --> 01:52:56.684
Like I did some all in one semester.

01:52:57.253 --> 01:52:58.094
Uh, between, yeah.

01:52:58.094 --> 01:53:07.363
So from February to then I, on my way home, the glacier one skydiving, actually one skydiving, the bungee jumping and the glacier were all in New Zealand on my way home.

01:53:07.604 --> 01:53:07.934
Oh, cool.

01:53:07.934 --> 01:53:15.944
So, um, but we did for spring break was when we did the three day camping and the three day parasailing, or not parasailing, but sailing excursion.

01:53:15.944 --> 01:53:17.323
So that was amazing.

01:53:17.863 --> 01:53:20.623
So, you know, koalas and lizards and, yeah.

01:53:20.684 --> 01:53:21.884
Like, well that's what I was thinking.

01:53:21.889 --> 01:53:23.024
Just so mind expanding.

01:53:23.444 --> 01:53:28.213
Like, you moved away to Michigan already, which was about as far as you could imagine at the time.

01:53:28.213 --> 01:53:29.474
At the time, yeah.

01:53:29.474 --> 01:53:30.073
Yeah, yeah.

01:53:30.073 --> 01:53:37.243
So I think I've always been open to those kinds of, you know, I've done a half iron man, I've climbed man two incline a couple times.

01:53:37.243 --> 01:53:40.005
Like I enjoy those kind of physical Yeah, yeah.

01:53:40.154 --> 01:53:41.384
Challenges and adventures.

01:53:41.533 --> 01:53:41.863
Yeah.

01:53:41.863 --> 01:53:41.923
Yeah.

01:53:41.929 --> 01:53:42.038
Mm-hmm.

01:53:42.238 --> 01:53:42.838
I dig it.

01:53:42.944 --> 01:53:43.243
Yeah.

01:53:43.453 --> 01:53:46.484
Um, was there a highlight moment within that trip?

01:53:47.293 --> 01:53:48.134
Were you ever scared?

01:53:48.404 --> 01:53:49.604
What's the scaredest you've ever been?

01:53:49.604 --> 01:53:50.564
Oh, the bungee jumping?

01:53:50.654 --> 01:53:50.984
Yeah.

01:53:51.463 --> 01:53:54.613
In terms of like physical, like pet, I was petrified.

01:53:54.613 --> 01:53:54.673
I.

01:53:55.259 --> 01:53:55.918
I was petrified.

01:53:56.069 --> 01:53:56.219
Yeah.

01:53:56.219 --> 01:53:56.849
That's an experience.

01:53:56.849 --> 01:53:58.439
I will never, I would skydive again.

01:53:58.439 --> 01:53:59.429
I would never bungee jump.

01:53:59.429 --> 01:53:59.698
Really?

01:53:59.698 --> 01:54:00.298
Yes.

01:54:00.448 --> 01:54:02.279
Oh, I feel like skydiving is so much scarier.

01:54:02.639 --> 01:54:06.658
This is why, because until you like have done enough jumps, I'm not jumping by myself.

01:54:06.658 --> 01:54:08.654
So somebody else is actually jumping out of the responsibility.

01:54:08.654 --> 01:54:09.654
I'm just attached to them.

01:54:10.618 --> 01:54:14.908
When I bungee jumped, I had to physically throw myself off of a perfectly good platform.

01:54:15.658 --> 01:54:15.899
Fair.

01:54:16.588 --> 01:54:16.889
Fair.

01:54:17.128 --> 01:54:17.368
Yeah.

01:54:17.368 --> 01:54:18.328
No, I was petrified.

01:54:18.328 --> 01:54:19.618
I will not do that again.

01:54:20.128 --> 01:54:24.689
So, um, people that want to know more about, let's talk about your Fort Collins shop.

01:54:24.689 --> 01:54:25.979
It's right down in Old Town Square.

01:54:26.038 --> 01:54:26.368
Yep.

01:54:26.609 --> 01:54:27.538
So pop on down.

01:54:27.538 --> 01:54:30.868
You won't see Jessica there unless it's an emergency staffing wise.

01:54:30.899 --> 01:54:31.229
Right.

01:54:31.229 --> 01:54:44.038
Or if you come early in me and are having a meeting, I, I still have, you know, I have onsite meetings with them at least every other week or try to, um, yeah, we, so this summer we're gonna be doing movies in the Square again.

01:54:44.038 --> 01:54:44.248
So Good.

01:54:44.248 --> 01:54:45.748
We did, we tested'em out last year.

01:54:45.748 --> 01:54:47.368
We did three of them in the square last year.

01:54:47.368 --> 01:54:48.479
So we're, we're doing that.

01:54:49.139 --> 01:54:54.418
Um, we haven't finalized the dates with the DA yet, but it should be every Monday or Tuesday in July.

01:54:54.448 --> 01:54:54.748
Okay, cool.

01:54:55.048 --> 01:54:56.368
Um, so we've got four.

01:54:56.373 --> 01:54:56.583
That's great.

01:54:56.583 --> 01:54:59.069
We used go to do Belgium for movies that New Belgium, but Yeah.

01:54:59.073 --> 01:55:01.349
You know, so we'll have moving away from beer culture these days.

01:55:01.349 --> 01:55:01.559
Yeah.

01:55:01.559 --> 01:55:02.548
Ice cream culture's better.

01:55:02.578 --> 01:55:02.969
Yeah.

01:55:02.969 --> 01:55:07.649
So we're gonna do four of those this summer, um, through July, which we're super excited about doing again.

01:55:07.649 --> 01:55:07.769
Awesome.

01:55:08.279 --> 01:55:16.649
Um, we, yeah, we offer caterings, we offer cakes, um, that shop, specifically Fort Collins and only Fort Collins right now does in in shop birthday parties.

01:55:17.038 --> 01:55:22.408
Um, so we do those early in the morning on Saturdays, typically from like, you know, 10 or 10 30 to noon.

01:55:22.469 --> 01:55:22.889
Oh, that's fun.

01:55:22.889 --> 01:55:25.078
Um, so there's a couple different birthday party options there.

01:55:25.529 --> 01:55:28.559
Um, we're doing a lot of benefit nights right now.

01:55:28.559 --> 01:55:33.118
So Tuesday nights from five to seven, most of them are full, I think through April.

01:55:33.779 --> 01:55:35.668
Um, and then we'll take a break until next off season.

01:55:36.059 --> 01:55:38.998
Oh, we're, somebody gets 20% sale, so we partner with an organization, whatever.

01:55:38.998 --> 01:55:39.059
Yeah.

01:55:39.059 --> 01:55:43.259
Between 10 and 20% we'll go to the organization, um, based off of Yeah.

01:55:43.259 --> 01:55:48.389
Their kind of, their involvement in getting people in the door and how, how engaged and active they are in doing it.

01:55:48.899 --> 01:55:51.719
Um, so yeah, Tuesday nights from five to seven, there's different organizations.

01:55:51.719 --> 01:55:52.979
I just wanna shout out that's so thoughtful.

01:55:53.519 --> 01:56:01.109
It's like this isn't a gift If you can actually get a bunch of your friends and followers as a nonprofit to come on down and buy ice cream and hang out in the square.

01:56:01.168 --> 01:56:01.439
Yeah.

01:56:01.529 --> 01:56:02.219
We'll give you more.

01:56:02.309 --> 01:56:02.578
Yeah.

01:56:02.759 --> 01:56:05.488
Like, we want to have a participant, not just a beneficiary.

01:56:05.519 --> 01:56:07.144
That's exactly how that's, I love it.

01:56:07.149 --> 01:56:07.918
Exactly how we've seen it.

01:56:07.918 --> 01:56:08.609
I love it.

01:56:08.668 --> 01:56:09.088
Is, is.

01:56:09.344 --> 01:56:11.354
We're not here to just give money away.

01:56:11.413 --> 01:56:11.743
Right.

01:56:11.774 --> 01:56:14.444
We want to support and we want to engage, and we wanna build awareness.

01:56:14.444 --> 01:56:15.493
We wanna do all of those things.

01:56:15.493 --> 01:56:15.554
Yeah.

01:56:15.559 --> 01:56:15.809
I love it.

01:56:15.884 --> 01:56:17.833
But we don't wanna, we want you to be a part of it.

01:56:17.833 --> 01:56:18.134
Yeah.

01:56:18.194 --> 01:56:20.503
And if you're not a part of it, then we're not gonna give you as much.

01:56:20.684 --> 01:56:24.734
I was part of the, my wife actually was employee number seven at the Matthews House Uhhuh.

01:56:25.184 --> 01:56:33.283
Um, and, uh, I don't know how much you've heard about them or not, but it's a little bit, kind of a full, kind of a whole person approach to human services.

01:56:33.734 --> 01:56:44.474
Um, but their coaching for their, for their social workers early on was if you ever feel like you're working harder than your client is at their success, then you need to stop working so hard.

01:56:44.743 --> 01:56:45.073
Yeah.

01:56:45.134 --> 01:56:46.904
And they need, they need to step up.

01:56:46.934 --> 01:56:47.203
Yeah.

01:56:47.413 --> 01:56:53.203
You know, and that kind of philosophy, I think could be such a benefit if it permeated more of our culture.

01:56:53.203 --> 01:56:54.163
Like, I'll help you.

01:56:54.224 --> 01:56:54.463
Yeah.

01:56:54.913 --> 01:56:57.854
But you have to, you have to show up, step up, do the work.

01:56:57.884 --> 01:56:59.144
You still have to do some work too.

01:56:59.264 --> 01:56:59.533
Yeah.

01:57:00.043 --> 01:57:00.224
Yeah.

01:57:00.224 --> 01:57:02.264
So I think that that's the biggest lesson, right?

01:57:02.264 --> 01:57:05.354
Is like, success is never going to just be handed to you.

01:57:05.458 --> 01:57:05.809
Right.

01:57:06.149 --> 01:57:11.743
You can't, you know, there's all this kind of world around manifestation and imagination and all of that, and that's great.

01:57:12.043 --> 01:57:12.253
Yeah.

01:57:12.253 --> 01:57:13.213
You need that as this.

01:57:13.213 --> 01:57:16.488
You need to be able to visualize the end goal, but you still gotta, that's, you still gotta do the work.

01:57:16.689 --> 01:57:28.363
I think that's part of the bridge between that partisan divide a little bit is the Republicans have become like, at least their appearance is that they're just too cold and they don't wanna pay people's.

01:57:28.769 --> 01:57:31.738
Social Security and Medicaid and whatever, this and that and that.

01:57:31.738 --> 01:57:37.439
The Democrats are too tolerant of half-assed this and you gotta show up and do the work.

01:57:37.469 --> 01:57:37.769
Yeah.

01:57:37.948 --> 01:57:38.309
Right.

01:57:38.309 --> 01:57:44.069
There might be times when you need help and like, you know, Jesus said there will always be the poor.

01:57:44.368 --> 01:57:44.609
Yeah.

01:57:44.819 --> 01:57:47.609
'cause there's always gonna be the the slackers.

01:57:47.668 --> 01:57:47.849
Yeah.

01:57:47.908 --> 01:57:54.208
You know, but the people that want to succeed that come from a hard place, I, I think it's a great thing for Yeah.

01:57:54.238 --> 01:57:55.559
You and every company that wants to help.

01:57:55.859 --> 01:57:56.099
Yeah.

01:57:56.969 --> 01:57:57.298
Cheers.

01:57:57.868 --> 01:57:58.979
Thank you very much for having me.

01:57:58.979 --> 01:57:59.373
I hope you've enjoyed it.

01:57:59.458 --> 01:57:59.668
Yeah.

01:57:59.668 --> 01:58:00.298
This has been awesome.

01:58:00.418 --> 01:58:00.868
Okay, great.

01:58:00.868 --> 01:58:01.109
Cheers.

01:58:01.293 --> 01:58:01.979
Talk to you next time.

01:58:02.128 --> 01:58:02.368
Yeah.