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The LoCo Experience
The LoCo Experience is produced and sponsored by LoCo Think Tank - and sometimes others! Our mission is to uncover as much business education as possible while getting to know the founders and leaders of amazing organizations. You'll feel like you really know our guests after each episode, and if we're doing our job well, you'll learn business principles and tips from them along the journey and be both inspired and entertained. Episodes feature a range of local and regional business and community leaders as guests in a conversational interview format. The more interesting the journey, the better the experience!
The LoCo Experience
EXPERIENCE 190 | Where Every Client in a Big Deal - Talking Full-Service Marketing & Events with Christine Forster, CEO and owner of Big Deal Company
I met Christine Forster at a big fun business event of some sort (we both can’t remember!) - circa 2022 - and we had a short but lovely conversation, and she was super interested in what LoCo Think Tank was all about, and gave me her card with encouragement to connect. And then - her card got lost in the shuffle and we didn’t connect proper until this podcast conversation!
As much as I love sharing a conversation with someone I’ve known for years, it’s quite special to me when I get to know someone in the podcast studio. Christine started her business in 2006 as My Big Day company, and their first events were imagined and created as a service to the community - not for clients! Their very first event - The Adult Prom - was for adults of any age who missed out on prom in their high school years - or just wanted a redo - and where participants dressed in the fashion of their high school days. The NOCO Easter Keg Hunt is an annual scavenger hunt that takes place in downtown Fort Collins and Loveland - and will continue in 2025 in its 17th year! These early events were all about community - and grown ups acting how they feel inside!
Christine was full-time employed in marketing and advertising for over a decade while she grew her business, and they did a lot of wedding planning and event execution in the early years. My Big Day has grown steadily and transitioned to become Big Deal Company in recent years, and Christine has built a team of marketers and event planners that now put on over 100 events annually - and do full-service marketing for their events clients - and only do weddings on a very selective basis. Christine left the security of her day job in 2022 for the joy of being a full-time entrepreneur, and hasn’t looked back.
And - all these business facts don’t tell the tale of the person. Christine and I went over 2 and a half hours in this podcast conversation, and we probably could have gone a couple more. We talked business and ideas and chased squirrels and shared laughs and we drank 2 bottles of white wine. I left the conversation more convinced than ever that she is indeed - and considers all of her clients - a big deal - and so I hope you join in and enjoy my conversation with Christine Forster!
The LoCo Experience Podcast is sponsored by: Logistics Co-op | https://logisticscoop.com/
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Music By: A Brother's Fountain
I met Christine Forster at a big fun event of some sort. We both can't remember circa 2022. And we had a short, but lovely conversation and she was super interested in what Loco Think Tank was all about and gave me her card with encouragement to connect. And then her card got lost in the shuffle and we didn't connect proper until this podcast conversation. As much as I love sharing a conversation with someone I've known for years, it's quite special to me when I get to know someone in the podcast studio. Christine started her business in 2006 as My Big Day Company and their first events were imagined and created as a service to the community, not for clients. Their very first, the Adult Prom, was for adults of any age who missed out on prom in their high school years or just wanted a redo and were participant stressed in the fashion of their high school days. The NoCo Easter Keg Hunt is an annual scavenger hunt that takes place in downtown Fort Collins and Loveland and will continue in 2025 in its 17th year. These early events were all about community and grownups acting, how they feel inside. Christine was full time employed in marketing and advertising for over a decade while she grew her business. And they did a lot of wedding planning and event execution in the early years. My big day has grown steadily and transitioned to become big deal company in recent years. And Christine has built a team of marketers and event planners that now put on over 100 events annually and do full service marketing for their events. Clients. And only do weddings on a very selective basis. Christine left the security of her day job in 2022 for the joy of being a full time entrepreneur. And hasn't looked back and all these business facts don't tell the tale of the person. Christine and I went over two and a half hours in this podcast conversation, and we probably could have gone a couple more. We talked business and ideas and chase squirrels and shared laughs. And we drank two bottles of white wine. I left the conversation more convinced than ever that she is indeed and considers all of her clients. A big deal. And so I hope you join me and enjoy my conversation with Christine Forrester. welcome back to the Loco Experience Podcast. I'm here today with Christine Forrester and she is the CEO of the Big Deal Company. That's right. And uh, where every client is a big deal. That's right. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Yeah. Thanks for being here. Um, probably for a lot of our people, they, Might not even know about the big deal company because you guys are intentionally behind the scenes a lot. We are. You don't actually see event planners if they're doing their job well, right behind the scenes and marketers too. We're at home on our computers making magic happen for your business. We are both, we are full service marketing, full service events. Okay. Yeah. So, um, maybe can you talk to me about like, what a, What a great client is for you. Or maybe even, are you allowed to share examples of people you work with? Or is that kind of private? Sure. Well, yeah. I mean, we have license. We can. Yeah. We try not to pick favorites, right? Yeah. Every client is a big deal. That's our motto. Uh, so. Oh, full service. Um, everything is a lot. You could use a few different examples of events, even if you wanted to not pick one. Sure. Yeah. So, um, we're the marketing of the events. It's traditional marketing because we have advertising and broadcast backgrounds, um, but also, um, event execution. And so we, we manage everything from retreats and conferences. We still manage some weddings, but it's not largely the bulk of our business, festivals, you name it. Uh, we're, we try to do it all, but we select only those that we know we can do well. We average about a hundred events a year. And maybe, maybe a description of. Some of the kind you said some festivals and stuff, but for people most over half of our listeners in northern Colorado. Yeah, so Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So maybe that would be a little easier for me to imagine sure so When starting out we did a lot that we created just on our own So it was our own original events that we did for the community just for fun Really? So our very very first event as a new business was So, uh, this was the very first adult prom in northern Colorado. And so, um, it was super unique in that you could dress in whatever, um, year you wanted to dress in, or, you know, kind of genre. Um, maybe missed out on prom, or you want a prom re do, that was the whole concept. We also originated the Easter keg hunt, which has been here for 16 years now? Easter keg hunt? Easter keg hunt. Keg hunt! Scavenger hunt for adults on foot. Okay. To find different kinds of drinks. beers on tap or whatever? Kind of. You, it's a way to have folks visit different businesses, but, um, to get there, you have to solve a clue. So you're hunting for Easter eggs as adults hidden around old town, Fort Collins and downtown Loveland. And then we write all of the custom clues that would help get you to the next business. So it could be a crossword puzzle. It could be, you know, an, um, an obscure reference to something. And so The teams come together and try to solve it to get to the next stop. The next stop they get to drink or they're hunting for an egg and then that takes them to the next stop. And these were some of the events that you created basically to announce your presence. And capabilities to the marketplace or it was just for fun or like, talk to me here. So it seems like a lot of work just to, or do you actually make money on these? You charge 50 bucks a piece to be in the prom or whatever, a hundred bucks a piece. Originally there was no business plan. It was just, I just knew that I was good at planning events and I wanted to give adults something to look forward to. Cause I felt like as a, as a person who was beyond my college years, I in the workforce, um, on the side. So this wasn't full time way back when it was just, I want to do something that's fun. It's intentional and it's very creative. Were you a single person at this time? I was. And in fact, I see your wedding ring now and we can talk about that later, but, uh, I assume that your husband would be like weirded out if you were scheduling this prom event that he wasn't included. I had a date. Um, he left halfway through. But no, I honestly, I remember pitching the idea of the Easter cake hunt to my boyfriend at the time. And he was like, I don't get it. It'll never work. No one will want to do that. And here we are. And it sells out every year. Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah. But it's, it's, I haven't. taking part because I'm an old married guy. You don't have to be single to do any of these events. Okay. But the idea was for us to take my wife to prom if I wanted to. You could. Yeah, you could. Um, the idea is really to help people feel young again. Um, and just act how we feel on the inside, even though our years might say something else. So that was the original thought. There was no business plan behind it. Uh, you know, pay for it was the thought. You said you were working a regular job. Full time doing media and always knew I had event planner skills in the background, but hadn't pieced it all together just yet. I had to start the business because I, uh, had folks asking me to work for them on the side. So clients saying, Hey, we like what to do. Could we hire you to do X, Y, Z for a company outside of. And so once I got my first little W2 in the mail saying, Hey, You have to pay taxes on this. That's what started my company. There you go. Yeah. So it was always just about the people first and it still is the people now. And when was this? Uh, we are 18 years old, 2006. Okay. Okay. Yeah. And how long was it a side hustle for you? Uh, up until very recently. So I, I am a serial worker, so I've always had multiple jobs. I, I was doing side gigs before side gig was a phrase or, you know, so, uh, I worked in media. Um, and then I also worked in software for the media and had a really, really great situation where I traveled for a living, but also could remote work from home and before remote work was really a thing. And um, this was just my fun. And then I had people start calling me and saying, Hey, how are you? I like what you're doing. Can I work for you? And I'm like, I don't even work for me. It's just, it's fun. I just do it. And it just grew and grew and grew until now it is what it is. And it has to be full time because it's quite large. And what, uh, what, what is your team? Is your team also a bunch of freelancer part timer things and side hustlers and moms that want to stay involved? And. Yeah, it's a very unique makeup. So, um, the we attract folks who like to bring joy to others. And so that's where that's what's in all of our nature in our core. One of your questions was, who's your ideal client? It's people who care about others and give back. So we really only work with businesses who are Authentic and kind and care about the community. Um, so it lends itself to a lot of nonprofits, but also really, really wonderful business owners. And, um, naturally big deal. We were my big day at the time. So we, we rebranded two years ago. Okay. Yeah. I think that's, we first met and you were my big day. Yes. Yeah. Were you trying to focus on event planning or wedding planning at the time? No, event planning at the time. Um, but we wanted it to be generic enough where your big day could be anything. But in hindsight, it really lended itself more to weddings. So we knew we had to make the name change. Just a rebrand takes quite a bit of effort and money. So we did. Um, but so yes, we are, um, you know, we have employees, but we're also contractors and, um, it's very customized for everyone's work style, lifestyle. We, I support a lot of single moms. Right. And one, that's part of the reason to develop the marketing agency, part of it, cause that's consistent. It is. Revenue and activity for any kind of business, whereas events might be, you know, Local Think Tank probably does eight or, I mean, eight real events a year and then another dozen little things. Sure. Um, but that's quite a bit. That's way more than most, you know, probably most do four to six events a year or something like that. And so that's like, you got to do a big push, get 150 people there for the, in a showroom for this thing or whatever. But then, then there isn't much to do after that until the next event. And then all of a sudden your people are like, Hey, when's the next time you need a bunch of help? Right. Yeah. It's a peaks and valleys industry. That is for sure. It it's got seasonalities, but also, um, every client is a little bit different in what they need and when. And so we've always been marketing first because of my background in broadcasting and so agency work, media buys, uh, knowing how to reach the right target audience, but. Event planning is a passion, so you put the two together, you still can't have an event without marketing it, so they go hand in hand. Do you take clients that don't need events? We do. We have a, we do have a handful of clients that don't do any events, but they've utilized us when they're having something like an open house or ribbon cutting where, you know, it's It's not part of their regular routine, but you can still do that, you would still do that. Yeah. Um, and their cause is sufficiently cool that your people want to work on it. Yes. Exactly. Exactly. All right. Yeah. Um, like. Uh, what's the secret to like, like, right now we've got an event coming up called ThinkerFest. I don't know if you've seen it yet. I saw it. You haven't registered yet. I haven't. I looked it up last night. We're lagging in our registrations behind our targets here. Yeah. Um, like what, what are some of the principles of, not that you should really tip your hand too much, but, um. We love when people share of the things they've learned from doing things for a long time, you know, and, and some of our listeners are really small, they can't afford you yet. Right. Uh, so what, what would you say are some of the top two, three, four things when it comes to getting attendance to an event? Uh, yeah, that's a tricky one. And actually it's more, more tricky this year or these past two years than ever before. Yeah, I noticed. We had this big lull. Where we couldn't do anything, and then a big comeback where we couldn't do anything. Yeah, yeah. Excited to do anything. Please let me do something. Yes. And now everyone is back. Everyone's having events. Statistics are showing that smaller events are more popular than large events. More, um, intimate events where you're getting to know people. You have those, um, in person true connections. Yep. Is the trend right now. But as far as advertising, um, and marketing, not everyone has a massive budget where they can spend everywhere. You can't do Right, right. YouTube and radio. Radio commercials and TV ads. Yeah, all of it. So you have to be strategic. We, we recommend a handful of things and there are some, there are some low cost ways to get the word out. Um, your current customers, clients, partnerships are the best. Still, word of mouth is still the strongest. And no traditional broadcaster wants to say that. But the messaging to them is the most important, right? Yep. Like, why do they care enough to, you know Yeah. And if someone's going to pick up your event or talk about it, there's got to be some sort of sizzle. What makes it different? And I think that's one thing our business is always focused on and done. Well, is that we always are looking for those unique creative touches. What makes it different? We will advise our clients on it, whether or not they take the advice or not. You have to stand out. Otherwise it just won't work. It won't be what you want it to be. You don't realize this, but I'm interviewing you right now about doing some event stuff for Loco Think Tank. I love it. Um, so, so that's a big, you know, that's a big thing, just differentiating, standing out. Like there's so many choices and options available to people that you can't, uh, other, other main things that come to mind? Uh, folks want to know that they're getting a good deal because everything is so expensive right now. Your cost to put it on is double what it was two years ago. Right, right. And people want to get it for half as much. Yep. Exactly. Exactly. I'm not going to say their name. We had a client that just suggested to us today that they should be getting their venues for free because of how Who they are. How much exposure they bring to their venue. Yes, and while Yes, I would I would love to live in a world I think it would be so cool if I could for my services 100 percent trade for your services And we all win and there we don't even need money because we all just help each other out. Yeah, you grow corn Yeah, I make beer Everyone's happy. It doesn't It's just like if you picture, um, press release writing, our media is very different than it was 10 years ago, five years ago. But when, if I'm someone who is going to write an article and publish it, no matter where it is, if it, any kind of medium, it, there has to be something that's There's gotta be sizzle, there has to be something grabby, someone has to die, someone has to be near death for them to pick it up. So just, uh, so and so is announcing this event won't do it. And so you have to have those creative words. Yes, AI can help you, but AI is fouling it up left and right. And so the human, the human touch for both events and for those press releases are what matters. I dig it. Um, like, where do you want to take this, uh, if you were, yeah, like, I mean, like, where would you like to take the big deal company and, you know, In the future, like more of what you're doing now, what you want to do, or like, would you like to really niche even further into just nonprofits or like, what are you, what are you, what's your vision? Like, it feels like you've kind of gotten where you plan to get, even though you didn't really have a plan where you, when you started and I might be wrong, but it, but it feels like you've really like, okay, what's, 2027 look like what am I pointing out again? It is so tough because every day I'm speaking for the entire team here, we wake up and pinch ourselves saying, Oh my goodness, like, this is so cool. We're, we got here and it wasn't ever, um, planned out on a piece of paper. Now I have lots of business plans for other things. I've been a serial entrepreneur, but, um, for this particular idea, We are writing it and loving it and we're always planning a couple steps ahead, but we're not doing 10 to 20 years, which I'm kind of embarrassed to say that because so many people do. No, I don't think anybody wise plans 10 years. Okay. Five? Five maybe. Sure. Or at least aspirations, you know. Yeah. The goal, this is going to sound cheesy, the goal is not, I don't have a number in mind. My goal has always been to make sure I can afford. A happy life for myself and for everyone who works with me. Um, we want to take care of our clients and we want them to be happy. And it matters to me that my team can pay their bills and live comfortably. Their kids have food to eat and that we're doing an excellent job. We just want to give back in our community. All of us feel unanimously about that. And so the actual number of what we make isn't the goal. The getting there, not too fast, but. So it's not painful is, is the goal. So we want to get further, but we're not saying, all right, mic drop at a certain time. Like once we hit this, we've hit our goal. And what I think I'm hearing is if you can get to the point where those first few things are true, you're living the lifestyle you want, you're, you know, Yeah. And if the business can be generous also in the community, especially within perhaps the community that you've been building and sponsoring events for and things like that, like that would be pretty fulfilling. Yes. And we're there. So what business owner, what business owner says. Did it done. So it feels weird to say that we always want more. We want more clients. Yes. We're always working hard to get more clients, but right now it's more about scaling the business. So it's less about, um, the, the work that takes more time, but doesn't make as much money it's adjusting so that we're serving. New clients, bigger clients, and then, um, the other stuff that takes more time. Just saying we can't do that anymore. It's moving to the next step. Mm hmm. Yeah. And that's probably more like the, the actual marketing stuff sometimes, or you, will you like potentially outsource some of that, or you're just going to try to eliminate certain services perhaps? Ooh, um, I think it's. Both, but I think it's clients with it's clients with the smaller budgets that are just kind of testing the waters. We want more clients that are serious and actually respect the work, the educations we have. Yeah. That's fair enough. Um, what have you, like, learned about the business community through working with all these different kinds of folks? Like, how would you characterize, uh, well, let's do two categories. Okay. Nonprofit leaders, because that's a major segment. Mm hmm. Like, what are some of the commonalities there in the clients that either really fit or that you really love? And the same thing for the, kind of, private sector. Purpose driven, but for profit segment, what do you learn about just entrepreneurship and those people? Cause nonprofits are entrepreneurs too. Yeah. I, I've learned a lot. I've learned that, um, where we live in Northern Colorado are some of the most generous, thoughtful, spirited community minded folks I've ever come across. Uh, in fact, there was a statistic that came out about. I want to say it was just less than a year ago, Kurt, um, about how many nonprofits we have. I think it's since 2022 is the stat. In Colorado, so the entire state, we've increased the number of nonprofits we have by 60%. So I think most people would tell you no, um, that we have so many nonprofits doing similar things. If we could combine forces, it really comes to, it comes down to resourcefulness. In my observation, a lot of really small nonprofits have to really Totally underpay their employees, they have to really squeeze their volunteers and things like that. So sometimes that can be better served with a little bit more depth of organization. Sure. Because so many of the donation dollars have to go to overhead, not to actual client services. And those real, real small ones. Yeah. Well, and if you think about who you see sponsoring everything, um, everyone's knocking on the same doors asking for the same sponsorship. Yeah. So, and that comes down to us because sometimes we get asked to do that or help with the introductions and you, yes. So. Yeah. It's like, okay, this, this company sponsors a lot of things and I've got, I've got Um, and so we have a lot of different clients that all want an introduction to First Bank. Right, right. Or 15. Yes. And so you, um, if we were to consolidate the work and also at a larger level, the resourcefulness. So think about how many of them need someone to run pay, payroll, work on the books, marketing Yeah, be an HR compliance person. Yeah, development director. So these are all roles that are important. The same across all of the nonprofits. If there was some collaboration, sharing of resources. Well, and that's kind of the theory behind United Way and realities for children, and they both come with their own sets of. ethical and actual challenges. You know, there's always somebody that is the decider of who gets the money and stuff like that. And that person comes up with too much power and then it gets weird. Somehow or her. Yeah, it's true. So yes, to answer your question with non, with, with, sweeping across both sectors. So nonprofit and for profit, we are just among some of the most generous, thoughtful people I've ever come across. And that is fun. And, um, it also can come with a lot of stress cause there's a lot of ownership and doing the right thing, which we are all about for us and for our clients. And so, um, I would say that's, that's one thing we notice across all. Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes, well, and sometimes. assumption of what the right thing is and what you know to be the right thing. And as a steward of your staff's time and resources and your businesses finances, the right, the two right things aren't the same. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. Fair. It's hard. We've, so we've learned a lot. Um, we've learned a lot about what we're willing to do and whatnot. I think everyone has to learn that when they're growing up in business. Um, yeah. Gosh, a lot of the hard technical stuff. Um, we had a client once that was getting sued over a mistake they made and it was their mistake. They didn't realize it was their mistake and they wanted us to share in the mistake and having to figure out in the background how to figure out who was to blame and how to handle that really uncomfortable conversation and that every business should have a lawyer or some sort of. You know, at least a resource in that space. Um, those sorts of things you learn along the way. And, um, I, I'm grateful that we grew gracefully over time and it wasn't just, you know, lit up overnight trying to patch holes in the levy. Yeah. Um, what can you share, uh, like the most complex event that you've planned, your team has planned? Gosh, we have a lot of them. You know, or maybe a couple of examples, if that's easier or better. Sure. Um, it's there, the most complex events are where you're leading up or doing something over a long period of time because of all of the paperwork people process and then expectations at the end. Okay. So currently right now we were contracted to help CSU with a really large conference. So you're dealing with a university, tons of departments, lots of paperwork just to get fired up. Um, and then there's often red tape. In the middle. You've got to get through that work to the next step. Um, and you're planning typically at least a year. At least a year out in this case, two years. But, um, Oh, and actually we have another one. So, um, I'm not going to say their name, but they're, so we're dealing with the city entity. Again, paperwork processes, people, legal, um, risk, fire department, police department, all of these entities, road closures, potentially in certain things, whatever. And every event planner will tell you the same thing. It just depends on the type of contract you commit to. Um, If you have to turn around something in a very short period of time, it's often difficult and most folks on the receiving end of your services have no idea that's even going on in the background. Totally. Totally. They don't care that it's an emergency for you. Yeah. Yeah, that's an interesting thing. Uh, we have, uh, I often joke that at Loco Think Tank, we have a time machine, a just in time machine. And that's not really ideal for event planning. Um, so, uh, you know, just reflecting on that and, uh, the utility of thinking ahead. Yeah. There are some of the, um, most, um, Challenging things about event planning are the people. And so you're constantly pleasing people. It doesn't matter what kind of event it is. Our number one job is to make people happy. And for events, it's specifically the feeling that you get at the end of the event. Was it successful? Did everyone have fun? Because there's the ownership on the company that threw it, or if it's a private party, um, making, making sure they feel like it was exactly what they wanted, because not Everything that they pictured in their head or pinned on Pinterest actually comes about because we're living in an Instagram world where, you know, we all have these visuals, but often that costs a lot of money. Right. That chandelier was actually 16, 000 to rent for the day. Right. Right. And it's like, It's the very same thing with marketing. And so, um, everyone has a different idea of what they want the end result to be. And for example, we had a client yesterday or yesterday, um, last week where we went back and forth, I don't know, a month on a poster. Okay. We turn out so many creative materials a day, um, and we often feel like we, we have the degrees, the certifications, we have the time, we have the, the number of eyeballs, because we're a big enough team where we're, we're all looking at things, to feel good about we turn out, what we turn out, but if a client comes back and scraps it and says, no, start over, That can sting a little bit. So, um, there can be an elongated process with that. That's, you know, typically not hard stuff. It just can hurt the ego a little bit. Yeah, yeah, sure. Well, and it's relational and it's, uh, sometimes that client is wrong, but it doesn't mean you don't have to still provide a number two option. Yeah, right. Right. Client is always right. So, yeah, it's always making people happy. You know, I heard today that the right clients are always right. And the other ones can go pound sand. It wasn't put quite like that, but, uh, you get the picture. Yes, I get it. There was actually a statistic, or there's a statistic every year. Um, I haven't seen it in the last, in the last calendar year, but, um, Um, event planning specifically is constantly rated, um, in the most stressful jobs of America every year in the top 20 or top 10. And it's because of, it's always about making people happy. Right. And it's so funny because we're not saving lives. We are making people happy. We are not doctors. I'm not doing heart surgery. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They're just looking for a good time. Yeah. You know, they're not like hoping you save mom. Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. But the, my phone is always on, the clients are always calling and asking questions and can you change this or do this, and have you thought about this? And um, you are always. Working on, well, currently I'm probably personally working on 20 events right now, but we're always planning and thinking ahead and it's never out of your head. You never just kind of let go of it. And, um, you know that there, everything is on the line. So it's financial and it's ultimate joy and happiness. And often you're working with someone who maybe isn't the CEO, but they're the executive admin. And their job is to make sure that CEO has the best holiday party they've ever had. And so, um, there's a lot of stress with that. Um, what do you use for, like, you've got mostly a remote team, correct? Like you're occasionally together probably or some of you, but like, how do you, do you have a software platform or a project management platform or how do you communicate all the things that need to be done sometimes two years from now? Yes. Oh gosh, we use a lot of software. In fact, I, um, have been a speaker at a couple of events. Just on software that small businesses can use and giving a variety of tiers of costs because we've tried it all and having a media and software background. Um, there's some things that just work better than others. Sometimes we get really comfortable in what we're using and then the newest and latest and greatest will come out and you're like, Oh, but I like this. I know how to use it. I want to have to try it. Start all over. But we do. We're pretty nimble. Um, so it for marketing and events. We use. All kinds of stuff. We use Google as our main platform for storage of documents and collaboration. We've, we've used Dropbox and a couple of other things to collaborate with clients, but we want real time where we can both be in a document together and have some different security. Uh, so that's what we use to collaborate. We use, I love spreadsheets. So, um, we use a lot of spreadsheets and we use Google for mail. So our calendar, so we can all share. So it's a lot of collaboration, but there are a number of other softwares we use to do our design work and, um, to do cross checking and collaboration. So is it mostly spreadsheet stuff as far as like the actual event management? That's kind of the true source of knowledge kind of on like the timelines different things like that. It's a piece of it We do we use Trello Which is software for a lot of? visualization Of events and, um, the marketing, right? Like you can hear some of the design cues that need to be for the advertising literature and you, you are on the social media posts, you're on the magazine content, uh, hey, we did it. We need a press release about this. Yep. For these outlets. Yes, we do. So we use a lot of spreadsheets too, where we have one project management spreadsheet where we're all in there. Everyone has their own here. The clients I manage here, here's what I'm working on this month. And then we assign things and then we use our calendar to deliver the tasks and make sure they're done. So. Are you both the main rainmaker and the main project manager, or do you have somebody on your team that really helps you out in one or both of those roles? I do. We have a lot of helpers, so everyone wears a different hat and owns different roles. But yes, I no longer do my own business, social media. I am no longer the lead on most events, on some, depending on the client. Yep. There are some that are a little bit Um, more challenging than others where I feel like I'll carry this load because I don't want to stress anyone out too much. Um, so, uh, yes, we do have doers. I am still my own bookkeeper. Oh, wow. That's a, that's a tough one for me to give away. I don't know why. I don't know why. Do you love numbers or money? It doesn't seem like you love either of those things. I purposely chose my degree to avoid numbers altogether. Right. I hated math. No, I like them now. What, what would it take for you to. Like decide to just outsource your bookkeeping. It doesn't seem very complex. I mean, I have an accountant. Yeah, I have an accountant. I think I, I really like being in there and I didn't think I would like it. Well, you know, the one thing that's interesting is when you're in there, then you see opportunities for. Saving money or hey, we spent all this on this. We didn't even use it. Yeah, you know things like that So I I can appreciate that. I like to see patterns. I like to see outliers and I also like to see You know, we keep track of and there's not a software that really does this but you know in kind what did we give? What was our gift to the community of our services that we didn't charge for so yeah, I kind of track it Oh, what did What gift did I give a client this month? I track it all. I'm a little bit nerdy about it and I didn't think I would be. Yeah. Yeah. That's okay. Yeah. Um, I try to ask surprising questions from time to time. Um, who's your favorite team member? Yeah. Kid. Um, well, we'll talk about your children later. No. Do you have any, like people that have been with you for a long time that you should actually at least call out and say they've grown so much or they're so. Integral to who we've become. Yes. Well, Carrie was number one, actually. Carrie, um, Carrie and I met when it was just me. We actually had, actually, this was one of the lessons learned. We had someone that worked very short time who kind of wanted to learn the business, um, and I took her under my wing. Paid her for all of her work, but really taught her how to own a business, how to be an entrepreneur. She decided not to go to college. So she was just out of high school and learning. Yeah. She decided that she was gonna take what she learned from me and do better and be my competitor. Nice. Didn't work out for her. Right. So she was number one, but we we don't really acknowledge that. Carrie has been with me since the get go. Um, so there was an, a newspaper article that was out about our business, um, when it was still very young and, uh, Carrie was in a different phase in life and looking for something new and exciting that would feed her soul. And she called me and said, Hey, I saw you in the paper. Can I get you a coffee and can I get to know you? And we have been friends and coworkers ever since. Nice. Yeah. That's pretty neat. Yeah. So there are a number that have been So she's your favorite, really. Well, hmm. I'm just teasing. Carrie, you're not her favorite. She actually rolled her eyes at that. Love Carrie. No, just kidding. I'm teasing. Love Carrie. Did stand up in her wedding, if that says anything. Fair. So, yes, we have team members that have been with us for a very long time, and I'm so proud of where everyone has been. Um, how far they've come and actually that we're all still together. That's, I mean, that says a lot, really, really, you haven't had too many, like people jump, they've enjoyed being a part of your, yeah, we've had some interns. Sure. And so that's short lived, but, um, no, just kind of, um, I don't know. I hope that everyone feels like I treat them. I treat them like family. Everyone feels appreciated and, um, has. What they need to fill whatever their gap is in their life right now, or fulfill them as a, you know, mom, worker, successful. Did you, as you kind of made the brand transition from my big day to the big deal company, um, Did you also do some work on like, who are we, you know, the mission, vision, values kind of stuff. And was that different between the two? Did you refresh that or revise it? Good question. I did two things for myself that I would highly recommend to anyone who's considering starting a business or growing their business. So, uh, one was we did have a, um, coach come in who helped us. Figure out who we are, find all the right words. And it wasn't just mine. So, um, she's actually in a consultant on our team. So, Katie came in and she interviewed each person and had very strategic questions and then put them all together so that we could find out patterns about what was important to all of us and the words that we used. Kind of like one of those word puzzles where the bigger, the more, more repeats, the bigger the word is. Kind of. Yeah. So we did mission, vision, values. Okay. Um, and the kind of clients we want, because everyone likes different kinds of their job and their work. And so we did a, um, she interviewed all of us, then she reported back data, then we did an exercise as a team. And then we took that data, and this is before AI, then together came up with other words to say what we're saying that didn't sound generic, that were really thoughtful and meaningful to all of us. And that's how we got what's on our website. So that was item number one. Was making sure we're all on the same page and we're in agreement about who we are and where we want to go. Did that feel comfortable to you? Yeah. To let other people weigh into that and stuff? Yeah. Oh, for sure. Yeah. It's not all about me. And then, um, and then the second thing was, oh, I hired, um, A very expensive, um, very expensive, what do you want to do with your life coach? Oh. Because I was at a crossroads, leaving corporate America, making a very comfortable salary that was helping fund this dream of fun and just making sure everyone has fun. Right. And said, okay, I'm going to work for myself. What do I want to do? Right. What do I want to comment? What do I have to do? Yeah. How am I going to pay the bills? Right. So, um, He was worth every penny. He used to be the, gosh, I forget his role with Starbucks. Um, he's in Canada. He was referred by a very good friend of mine. And in fact, we have a call next week just to catch up. He is stellar and he only works with empaths, um, business owners who have vision and care first about community, second about making money. Okay. Yeah. I think I qualify for all those things. There you go. Uh, but I'm probably not going to hire you, Mr. Dude, but, you know, I've got a lot of people locally here. Plus, I'm not really a Starbucks guy. I'm a local guy. So, so it goes. He worked for Starbucks. He's now, he owns his own business. It's fine. Yeah, I'm just teasing. Um. What else do you want to share? Do you have some notes on your business that you would like to make sure we cover before we jump in the time machine? Well, you had asked, or one of the things was, uh, like, kind of give the progression of business. I think one of the, um, the most early memories I have of who I was, or if you could identify, she's going to be this when she grows up, and I did not know what I was going to be, was, um, in sixth grade. Okay. I, I went to this very small private Christian school in Michigan, that's where I grew up, and, um, we were very, we weren't allowed to dance. And so it was very footloose. Right. We, uh, we weren't allowed to dance, have dances, or, um, you know, commiserate with public school kids, like do anything together. Oh, you don't want to mix with them. It wasn't that they were bad. That just, it was very small school. They might make you dirty somehow. Yeah, probably. Small school, kind of small minded. Yeah. So I had a sit down meeting with our principal and gave him a list of reasons why we should be able to dance and have, invite kids from other schools. He agreed to it. And I planned our very first school dance. Oh, wow. I made the tickets. They were handmade and copied on a copier and handed out. You were allowed to invite kids from other schools. Um, hired the DJ, figured out how to get, you know, food, snacks. I don't even remember how that worked. All I know is that I collected tickets at the door and everyone thought I was a teacher and I was so disappointed because here I was just beyond my years and I just wanted people to have fun. Um, and I just wanted to meet, meet more people outside of our small little school. Yeah, yeah. So that was my very first event. Um, and I still actually have the ticket that I made to the very first event I ever planned. Let's actually, we're going to jump in the time machine even farther back. Okay. Eventually. Okay. But before we do that, let's go back to the, just the first few chapters of my big day. Okay. Like you were happily employed. You said you had just had folks kind of calling on you and asking for. Yeah. Basically outside services. Yeah. Like, like under the table work, basically is what I'm hearing. They didn't want to hire your employer to do stuff, but they just wanted your brain on their problem. I was 27 being asked to coach large businesses. Oh, interesting. Yeah. It was, um, Yeah. Mind blowing, but I, I probably exuded some confidence and certainly had been in the media long enough. So I started in the media at a younger age, so I was still in college and I, um, worked in radio and worked my way up. So I was doing promotions, events and being on air and then started in sales. Okay. So you were like when radio was in its heyday, you were like an on air personality. Oh my gosh. It was the best. It was the best. Where were you? Were you here? No, I was in Michigan, Kalamazoo, Michigan. Okay, yeah, yeah. Uh, and, yeah, I've met Home of General Mills, is that right? General Mills is Battle Creek. Yep, Battle Creek, Michigan. okay. Right next to Kalamazoo. Okay, fair enough. Yeah. But, um, at the height of, uh, Beyonce's fame and Britney Spears, or early on, I should say, I met NSYNC before anyone knew who they were. That was the, that was the year. the years I was starting off in radio. Uh, it was, it was really fun. So yeah, having, having a lot of background really helped, um, solidify my knowledge of what I was doing and, um, coming up with really creative promotions. So, uh, clients would really, my job was to sell ads, but to sell more ads, you had to come up with, well, what would, rather than saying buy this chair, Right. What can you do that's creative or different? And that's where my brain just excels. First annual chair sale. Or whatever. Not grabby. Well, whatever. But some kind of event. Some kind of a thing. Uh huh. Something of interest to differentiate. Yeah. How do you make yourself, um, stand apart? So clients start, start to realize that. grabby. It says, really does not. Okay. Not that. Ha, ha, ha. Ha, ha, ha. Ha, ha, ha. No, so, uh, not all ideas landed, of course, but yes, that was, that was the start of my big day. Okay. And then it just kind of, you just found this gal Katie and eventually and whatever else and it just kind of a little, little bit at a time, a little bit at a time until you're doing a hundred events a year. Just kind of, well, dropped the boyfriend who didn't like the Easter cake. Right, right, right. And then, yeah, it just, it just grew. And so, um, originally it was our original events and then it grew into, um, taking on like weddings were kind of low hanging fruit, you know, huge staff for a wedding. Um, and then it just went on from there. And I don't actually recall what the largest event we did where I was like, Ooh, can I handle this? I always felt a little bit, maybe more confident than I should have been. And it was always fine. Yeah, I, uh, I did food trucking for a while and I left banking trying to start a restaurant and then I ended up with a food trailer and I, I executed a handful of like 150, 200 person caterings with my food trailer event. And then it got to where, like, if I had just a 40 or 50 person catering, I barely planned ahead. I barely pull it off sometimes, you know, sometimes you have to do that. I know they say fake it until you make it, but I, I don't, I've never faked anything. I just really felt confident that I could do it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Did. Yeah. I like it. I like it. All right. Now I'm ready. Okay. Time machine. Okay. We are going to the shores of Kalamazoo river. Okay. No, I don't know. There is a Kalamazoo river. It seems likely. I mean, there's a lot of, Stuff in Michigan, good reasons to have a river there. Great lakes wouldn't have just come out of nowhere. So like talk to me even about first grade, like what was your, you're already part of a Christian family, I suppose. Was it already in Michigan? Yep. So I'm born and raised in Michigan. Okay, Clarkston, Michigan. First grade, um, I Was always I was always that kid that tried really hard. I don't know that I was extra smart I didn't I wasn't always all A's I had good grades because I think I tried harder than most but not because I was the Smartest kid in the room. I'll never forget the first and probably only time I've ever Cheated in school. Okay was a spelling test for the word orange And I remember opening up my little desk and peeking and trying to, I I'm sure we have a study list or something like that. Yeah. And I got caught and I'll never ever forget that day. Do you remember the teacher's name? Um, yes. So I know all of my teachers names. No shit. Yes. Okay. I got most of mine, but by no means all of them. I am still friends with my kindergarten teacher. Now she's getting up there in years, but we had excellent teachers. I love it. Yeah, I loved, yeah, I loved them all. And then I asked my husband about his, he doesn't remember a single name, but clearly my teachers were doing something right. There was definitely a connection and yeah, small classes, very small classes. I think you have the same. I read your bio. Yeah. Graduated with a class of five. It's true. Yeah. Uh, what was your class size? Not, not in high school. You probably got some flip through, but what about in elementary school in those early years? Eighth grade might've been a class. It was under 20. Yeah. Yeah. Let's. Tiny, right? Like so much relationship. Yeah. Yeah, or not. Right. You're either embraced or embraced. Yeah, right. So, uh, so you get busted you get in trouble. I did get in trouble I'm sure it wasn't a harsh punishment, but I do remember you were embarrassed Oh feeling so horrible, but I really really really wanted to get an A It was that first like moment of what's more important doing the right thing or getting the great cast me the setting a little bit Um, siblings, was your dad, like he worked for Ford or GM or something, I know, or I don't know. Auto industry is always what I think about, or the grains industry, right? Everyone does. Yeah. So, um, hardworking parents. My mom went back to work after, you know, we were in school. One sister, her birthday is today, um, younger sister. Okay. Yep. Um, she's a VP, does marketing herself too. She's a VP for, um, a company and does all the, uh, she oversees graphic design and marketing for a company in also in Detroit. Um, uh, you said mom went back to work. Dad was just kind of like, yeah, blue collar. Um, very, very hard worker. We actually went to school for, um, the restaurant industry. I'm forgetting what the name of the degree was at the time. Cause it wasn't hospitality, culinary, something, something, whatever. And really, really wanted to do that. And then when he got into it, realized it wasn't a great place to be a family man. Cause he was never home. It was off hours and, um, worked in settings where it was a lot of celebrities and whining and dining and just wasn't a good place for a nice Christian man to be fair. So, um, yeah, the blue collar kind of regular and he was raised that way or deep for your family? Yes. Yeah. And my mom is one of seven raised in a very small house in Dearborn, Michigan, home of the automotive industry, Ford. Um, and I come from a Ford Mustang. Family, I think still to this day, most of our family members own Mustangs and like are loyal to the Ford. So, um, my grandpa was an engineer for Ford and he was the original, he was the designer of the actual emblem that is the Ford Mustang. Oh, no shit. And we, in our family somewhere, one of my uncles has it. Um, has the original one that was designed in cast, um, where they made the mistake of, you know, the Mustang is running forward on both sides of the car, but they originally only made one cast. So it was like running backwards on the other side. So we have the wrong cast or the mistaken cast. That's probably worth it quite a bit, actually. If anybody out there wants to make an offer, uh, wait until Christine inherits that from her uncle. Yeah, right. So, well, that's really interesting. I actually, uh, the ambulance you might have seen on my social medias? Yes, yeah. That's my very first Ford I've owned in my entire life. Really? Yeah, because we were Chevy guys, you know, it was just that way. One or the other, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was either like that or that. Catholic or Lutheran too, you know, my family wasn't either. Um, so yeah, so you're like Focused on high achievement, good grades, you know, were you sporty, were you sassy, did you have, did you kiss a boy before you were a sixth grader? How did you know? It just seems like your style. I was telling my, I have, I have twins that are five in kindergarten this year and I was, there's such a stark contrast and I can tell who's going to kiss a kid first. Um, so yes, my first kiss was in kindergarten. I was the aggressor. That's reasonable. That's pretty common before fifth grade. My nickname was Kissy instead of Chrissy. Oh gosh. Yeah. Back up boys. Um, So yes, very Christian family, do gooders, high achievers, yeah, all of us. So they were revolted by the fact that reports came home that you were like trying to kiss all the boys at kindergarten. I think it was just I was so friendly and it was frowned upon. But no, I You're an independent thinker too, I think. Was. Yes. So, my kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Bailey, actually, um, my mom still tells me to this day, she had, um, she had a, the first parent teacher conference with my parents, and I had very, very strict parents. They had exceptionally strict parents. Um, she, um, I had said, don't be hard on Chrissy because she will be harder on herself than anyone else will be hard on her at the, they didn't call it perfectionist at the time or OCD or whatever it is now. I'm all of those things. Um, but yes, I beat myself up more than anyone else. Yeah. Yeah. Um, yeah. Oh, gosh, I had a really interesting question and then I just lost the handle on it. Oh, I wanted to know what your family's like, ethnic heritage is, if you're willing to share your, your heart, a hard read from a physical appearance standpoint. I've been, um, assumed Italian over time, depending on the weather. Kind of one of the instincts. Yeah. Hispanic. Could be. No, we are, um, I'm 50 percent German and then also Hungarian and Czech. Okay. Yeah, yeah. All right. I mean. I mean, normal Northern USA. I'm North Dakotan, you know, and there's just a mix of whoever couldn't stomach living on the coast. Right. Or New York or whatever. My husband also was born in North Dakota. And he also is German, 50 percent German. And I think Russian. Something else. So we're just, you know, kind of a mixture of white. I like it. Yeah, yeah. Well, Caucasian. Caucasian. I mean, that's, I think the Ukrainians is where the Caucasians originally were from. Yeah. Even. Yeah. Anyway, I digress. Just a melting pot. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, and so you're cruising along through school, getting good grades, being all sassy, stopped kissing so many boys by the time you grew up a little bit later. Yeah. Um, for a while and then started kissing'em again in seventh and eighth grade. I was a serial dater. I actually, I moved to Colorado site unseen. Okay. Took a job here. I took a job transfer. With yourself? Like, after college? after high school, whatever? Was in corporate America for a little bit in Detroit, and then did some research. I realized I might have seasonal depression disorder. I could just feel, you know, I was in the snow belt. Kalamazoo's in the snow belt. And then Detroit, not much better. So, uh, second state to Seattle in overcast days. Or, Washington. And so, um, I did some research. One of my best friends worked at the weather channel long before Google had all the answers. I called her and I said, here are the things that I need about where I'm going to move. I'm just, I'm going to, I'm out of Dodge and, um, color. It was Colorado or California and California. I know a lot about, and I was open to it, but I thought who moves to Colorado? Isn't that just snow more snow than I have in Michigan. Right. And no one knows unless they come here and they're like, it used to be that way. Like 10 years ago, that was common where people were like, Oh, you live in Colorado, isn't it super cold and snowy there? Yes. I'm like, well, no, we're like a whole bunch of latitudes south of you, uh, just saying. Yes. This was 20 years ago, and I moved here on that off chance. And when I came here, I was single and, um, the hard worker doing great, made a lot of friends. And, uh, yeah. Instantly with amazing people that are still here. Did you like move to Denver for a radio job or up here even? No, I actually, I took a job in Fort Collins, um, trying to get to Denver, um, but landed in Loveland was the place where I could find a great apartment. And then Like a radio job? Uh, Not to disrupt you, or can you talk about this phase? Yeah, I worked in television. In TV, okay. Yeah. Like doing what? Like weather girl? Oh, no, no, no. So I was, I was voiceover talent, but sales. So yeah, sales, marketing, advertising campaigns. Gotcha. Okay. And, uh, so I fell in love with it and single. Didn't know a lot of people. Online dating was still relatively new ish, and I became a serial dater. And it was so bad. Crash and Burn, which I'm hearing, is the case now still. I, this was when blogging was still pretty new. I came up with a blog called the Misadventures and Misfortunes of Meeting Mr. Right. And it, was kind of my outlet for how bad it was. But I had a lot of fun doing it, and who knew I would be a blogger. You became semi famous from it, almost? I got a lot of attention, but, um, it was just an outlet, and it was fun, and then I you told all these stories about how terrible boys are? No, it wasn't about that, but it was just like, really like, Um, really, really can this many bad dates happen to one person? And it was shocking the things that I dealt with, but. I'm not surprised. I mean, I. Dating is hard. Well, and like one of the shitty things around the, about the world today and you know, my, my wife has some single girlfriends and things like that and I've had over the years and whatever. And like, there is really an unfortunate deficit in proper men. Yeah. Yeah. Um, Improper women, frankly, because they've been conditioned to be terrible too, uh, but mostly because of the existence of improper men, you know, and manipulation of the online system and blah, blah, blah, and all that. So I, I, I haven't had any bad dates with shitty guys myself, just saying, but I can imagine how they might feel. Go. Oh, man. Yeah, I've had some of the worst of the worst and I had a friend who also moved out from Michigan and Slept on my couch for a while and I come home every night She's actually actually the one who came up with the title of the blog and she's like I don't I don't know how this is Possible. I don't know how you had this many bad dates. Can you share one or two of your Of the quick stories while we're on this chapter, nothing I say is quick. Let me think of some of the worst. I mean, everything from like asking me to pay for the date at the end of it, or like, um, just like, just like. Lies, lots of lies. Um, yeah, gosh, they're actually married or they've been dating somebody for two years and they're engaged, but they just decided to get on Bumble real quick just to make sure, yeah, really bad, really bad stuff or just like close to rapey situations where, you know, you're like, you thought you were with someone who put out, you know, said they were one thing and then clearly were something else and it was just scary, shocking. And maybe I'm a little bit too trusting. Um, But yeah, there are quite a few like that. In fact, I'll never forget this one date I had in Boulder. Um, I, I can't remember why he didn't want to drive or maybe we met up, but I ended up driving my Jeep. And I remember he kicked off his flip flops and here, I'm from Detroit, full makeup, big hair, dress up for everything, like Midwest, we still had to wear pantyhose. He's got cargo shorts on and flip flops. So this is, I'm still exploring the new world of Colorado and what dressing for a date was. So part of that was on me. But he kicked off his flip flops and put his feet up on my dashboard and rolled the window down and I was like, okay, that's the way this is going. I am clearly not dressed for feet on the dashboard. Right. And your feet are the first feet that have been on my dash, motherfucker. Like I just cleaned that dashboard because of my OCD and I wanted it to be nice and sparkly. Yeah, so, um, yeah, and that wasn't a bad date, but it was just like, gosh, how did we, how did we meet and had all of this stuff that we wrote about ourselves and we were connected? Right. How could it instantly be like, Oh, you're so wrong. Not in any way compatible. I appreciate that. Um, I'm going to call a quick break. Okay. Um, but yes, I've, I've said more inappropriate things on this podcast than you would imagine. Um, but not that inappropriate. So, um, you know, if you want to really get crazy, it's been 10 weeks since anybody smoked weed with me on the podcast. Oh my gosh. So can I tell you, I've never smoked a cigarette or smoked weed. I'm actually highly allergic to smoke. So I will be hospitalized. To smoke or nicotine? Oh, no shit. To smoke. Well then I definitely won't let up. All right. That's cool. But I have tried the gummies. But yeah, if I'm in a plume of smoke and it gets into my lungs, it gives me bronchitis or pneumonia. Oh, that's crazy. Like within 24 hours. Wow. Well then I definitely won't do that. I know. So I would love to take you up on your offer. No. That would be disturbing. Well, if we do it again, um. Gummies. I'll give us some mushrooms. I haven't done that yet. I did mushrooms with my acupuncturist episode 99. She had gifted them to me for my birthday and I had a couple left and it was okay. She was a little bit, a little bit sideways for part of it's okay. You know, the, the stuff that the, the, um, medicinal miracles that can come out of stuff that we've made. Illegal is incredible and I want to know so much more. I've always been very straight laced That's why I've never smoked a cigarette because I'm like, I want to be president someday and I'm not going to be but I've always like, I've had that restraint where it just doesn't matter to me that much. I'm not really tempted, but um, now when things become legal, all of a sudden I'm like, Oh, eyes wide open. And why wouldn't I try that if it can help me feel better? Less anxiety. Things like that. Sure. I like that notion. Yes. I actually, both my, I think my husband had, had tried smoking it, but we both tried the edibles once it became legal. Cause again, both straight laced, not a tattoo on our bodies, nerd alert. He was a rocket scientist for NASA. Bye. So if that tells you anything about our relationship, and so both of us are like, Oh, it's legal. We feel like we can do it and try to, I forget which birthday it was, but, um, we went to a comedy show. We took a little bit and went to a comedy show. At the time, the dosing wasn't quite accurate. It was the worst night ever. I was so sick that I almost died. I should have been hospitalized. Really? You just took like what was supposed to be one dose, but it like blew you up? Half of what we thought, so it was, um, it was a Reese's pieces, but there was probably like a hundred milligrams in there. And like, I'd never even done five, let alone 10 or a hundred. So my husband's like, it's not kicking in. It's not kicking in. I need you more. And we're like trying to have like a good night into my night. And it was, It was hours later and still hadn't kicked in and then when it kicked in, it was death. I mean, I was violently sick. Oh, so it took forever to kick in for you, but then it just blew up. So bad where I was like, why haven't you called 9 1 1 yet? Could barely breathe. Puking my guts out. Oh man, I'm so sorry. Yeah. But then I had tried gummies after that in a safe space with some friends when the dosing was corrected. And I was like, Oh, this is what it is. And then learned a lot of interesting things about my friends. Let's choose who we do this with next time. Where did we jump off? Oh, I think we were like, You were doing the dating blog thing and stuff like that, doing TV, radio, whatever, and kind of leading up to, ultimately, well, you, you found your way to Colorado and then, and then we kind of lit up to big deal, but was there any major milestones in your career after that? You worked in radio too? Is that right? Yeah. This is backing up just a little bit. I owe my career, in general, to Febreze. Febreze came out in 1997. Yeah, that's right. Um, I was driving down the road. I was, um, I worked three jobs. Uh, at the same time while I was in college, and I was listening to the radio at four o'clock in the morning going to my first job for the day, and there was, um, a morning radio show, they called him a stunt guy, was doing a challenge with like Diet Coke and Febreze, and so the stunt guy was doing some competition where he had to shoot down, you know, empty Coke cans, and he If you did, whatever the thing was, you won tickets to a concert. And if you didn't, you won a bottle of Febreze. So it was a promotion for Coke, a promotion for Febreze and they put it together and he was hilarious. And I was like, man, this is what I want to do. Because in college I was taking, I actually took a course to figure out where I was going to go because I was good at a lot of things, but not great at any one thing where I was like, that's it. And there was all this pressure. To pick your major. Right, right. And I wasn't there yet. Right, right. So, um, I went up to him and I said, I want your job. How do I get it? And that was what launched my career because it took me months for them to even allow me an interview. So I would sit out, I would sit in the waiting room of that radio station in my little JC Penney suit, hoping to get an interview. No shit. That is interesting. Like that's persistent. Why why were you I don't know what it was on that like there is that allure There was something about his being able to make people happy and the idea that it was bringing these two brands together And so I knew behind it there was marketing and so he had they had to come up with something that would make coke happy And Febreze happy brand was launching do you know listeners happy? And win tickets and like, all of that spoke to me and I said, I want to do this. I've just been thinking about a reason that, something we should do for the Loco Experience podcast is have, and maybe, I should probably require every guest to bring a gift and then the listeners can answer a question or do something to engage and they can win that gift. Right? Prove that you listen to it and do this thing and then you can win a gift. Oh my gosh, I love it. Um, and I don't know what that looks like necessarily, but we keep it local and whatever. Yes! Oh my gosh. And I totally agree. I totally messed it up. I, so it's actually Clean Shower was the competition. Febreze was another story that came right before it. Oh my gosh. Can you believe this? Cause I still keep it in my shower. It's like my little tribute to this contest. So kudos to Clean Shower, actually. I know, I love branding. So it was Clean Shower, which I still use to this day, but that was, it was Coke and Clean Shower. And, um, I'm still loyal to the brand because I feel like that was the launch of everything. That's really cool. I love those kind of like epiphany moments. Yeah. Along the way. But I didn't know it at the time. Well, sure. It took forever to figure it out. But like, that was it where I said, this is it. And then just past that, I wanted to be full time on the air. So I, at the time I said, I will work for free. I want to learn the business. And of course. It was like, for sure. Um, and so they eventually gave me an on air shift and I was on air for quite some time. And then when I graduated, I said, okay, this is what I want to do. I'm here. I have the degree. And they said, well, we don't have anything, but when we do, we'll let you know. And when something finally came available after I got a first full time job, they said you can do overnights at 18, 000 a year, or you can work in sales. You start at 32 plus you make commission. So. I chose couldn't afford to take the overnight job. I took, I took the sales and I said, I'm going to, I will work in sales. I'm not going to like it, but I will do it so long as you let me still be on air. And they said, okay, so I worked, so I worked seven days a week. I worked sales Monday through Friday. I was on the air Saturdays and Sundays. And, um, but you were building a personal brand. Yeah. Even though ultimately it didn't transfer or whatever, but you. Yeah. I don't, I, I loved it and it wasn't so much the ego cause that's why a lot of people go into that work. It's feeding the ego, but um, it was bringing the fun. So I loved every, before every show I would do two hours of show prep and I would like look at, you know, like celebrity birthdays and what's going on in the news and read everything I could. So I had stuff to talk about. For a basically unpaid role. For, yeah, I think I made 5 and 30 some cents an hour at that point. Um, but yeah, it was, I worked for a top 40 station, so it was all like, what's trendy within what's topical. And, um, but my very first client where I felt like this was the cat, the. Catapult or the catalyst of me building thick skin, which I still don't have, but, um, I had, I knew I had it. Um, so I had to have it for this business that I'm in now and was then, was, um, typically when you start as a salesperson, you're given a list and that list is a lot of clients that are leftovers that no one wants, rough clients, people that used to advertise with us and no longer do, think that we suck, get them back on air. Right. And so I got my list starting my. Job at 32, 000 a year plus commission and, um, had a mentor. He went with me on the road. My first day on the job was I had to show up to a client and try to collect on their bill. That was like over six months past. Oh, never having done this in my life. You're 20 years old, 21, 22, whatever. And. This client was a former male stripper, known as Sweet Pete, who opened up a store for strippers with their attire. Oh, okay. A stripper's specialty store. Uh huh. So, high heels. Split crotch panties, and my job is to You're like a little church girl trying to get into the radio business. It was so bad, like, this could not have been a worse combination. So my job is to collect from You can't even look at the split crotch panties. Oh my god, I was so uncomfortable. I was sweating walking in the door. So, it was so uncomfortable. Confrontational and my mentor didn't help me at all. He just sat there and watched me try to negotiate. Well, this man, like I had the paperwork shaking in my little hands in front of me. You signed this, sir. He smacked it out of my hands. I got a paper cut and I was just like, I can't believe, this is what I signed up for. This is what I'm making money on. This is not what I wanted, but I stuck with it and I did well. And I became the top salesperson within a couple of years. And. That's how we ended up in Colorado. So interesting. It's such a like surprising path for you to choose in some ways. Like, even though I can tell your values were pretty well cemented, uh, during, you know, your childhood and stuff, your willingness to poke at the edges of That bubble that was created in your, uh, growing up experience was apparent. Yeah. Yeah. I, being in the media, uh, it was a very salty experience. My parents know nothing about what I learned or saw. There's a whole lot of cuss words and sexual innuendos and, Um, it's just such a very different experience for a young, Christian, naive, female, coming from a tiny town. Well, and you were probably pretty back then. Just kidding. I'm just kidding. You're very pretty right now. Once upon a time. But, like, you were probably a looker and got all these, like, 50 year old fat radio dudes, like, You called it literally, I'm not kidding. Yeah. So the sitting on with my little JC penny skirt, little suit, trying to get the interview, literally, I'm not even joking. The program director who is still alive, Dr. Dave Matthews, um, Asked, he intentionally dropped a pencil and asked me to bend over and pick it up during the interview. Like these are the days when this happened, I'll never forget it. And I did it because I knew I was going to get the job. Right. If you did it, if I did, yeah. If I did it, yeah. And I had a car dealership where he would only allow me in the building if I showed up in a skirt. Yeah, this is, this was it. It's disgusting. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So we were just talking about, I was just talking, I have an exchange student. He's been living with me for a month and we were just talking about kind of the, like why, what happens in the U. S. matters. To people in Finland because he's like kind of like, you know, even Finland politics doesn't matter and American politics doesn't matter and stuff and we got to talking about the what was the 2017 2018 like ladies like say something when somebody smacks you on the ass when they're not supposed to or what what was it called? the we We should know, we should know this, right? Right. Yeah. It was like, obviously kind of an awakeness movement among ladies and whatever. And it was, you know, it took down Weinstein and whatever else. Um, yes, I, it was all about, anyway, I was very much understanding and in agreement with this moment because I was a receiver of it for a very long time. Well, and one thing that was extraordinary to me in my banking career, um, as I got to be in my. I guess I would have been in my late 20s, early 30s, and I'm an officer of the bank. You know, I'm one of the bosses and I've got all these generally beautiful young women that work for me. But also, like later in my career, there was a couple of gals that were peers. So they had become lending officers or operations officers. And so they were on an equal standing and they were like, Kurt, you're such not like a pig. Yeah, right. And we've been, it's so accustomed to, they're basically being male pigs in this industry that. You're like, awkwardly not that way, and I was like, I don't know, I'm from North Dakota, like I'm from a farm country where women are equals and partners and helpers and, you know, and can, and you don't abuse that power, uh, or privilege. Well, it's, it's everywhere. Still is. Was more then. In fact, is it, um, I don't know his, the right name. Is he P. Diddy? Sean Puffycombs? Oh yeah, Diddy. Diddy got arrested. Yeah. Um, so. And it wasn't just women, he had dudes like, under slavery too. So. So much. Yeah, I think it was just a matter of time before people say it's all feel like it's okay to speak out and yeah, and well, and where I was going with that and this, you won't drift into politics yet. We didn't transfer it. And like five years later, we're like, giving top women's swimmer awards to some dude and having dudes beat up women at the Olympics. And it's like, we listen to what women need and all the pressures they face. And then we were like, what is a woman? It means nothing to me. Yes. You can turn into a woman, young man, Mr. seven year old. I know, I know. It's, I. I, I have really young kids and so I, um, think often like, how am I, how am I going to talk about this at their level and help them understand and what do I need to tell them versus what should we not speak of, you know, what's history or what's under the rug or what do you tell your parents? Yeah. Like even that story of in your job interview, like I would feel like in today's world, like I would get. A lawsuit immediately. If I gave that question to any of my applicants for my part time internship, it was, yeah, I should, it was expected and assumed. I didn't know that because I hadn't been in that world yet. So I learned a lot and I became. Very, very tough and aware. And I think it helped me because I was raised in such a sheltered world. It helped me be a little bit more prepared. Um, I don't know that I would redo anything, but if I, at the time, I know that if I had said something, I just wouldn't have a job, right? Like it just, you know, it would just be like, right. But you also didn't have to go a next step further. Like you could defend yourself against an actual, it was already misconduct. So I don't want to say that, but an actual. Physical threat. Yeah, right and we it was already if you were strong if if you were strong if you're not if you stood up To Billy's. Yeah. Yeah, it was already well known in that particular position that the sales manager at the time, it was rumored she had slept her way to the top with whom I'm not sure, but one could imagine because she wasn't bright, she was very attractive, but any of us could have done her job, um, that she slept her way up and she was sleeping with clients literally in her office while we were working and could see her with like lipstick smeared across her face after she had a meeting with the client grow to get to get clients. Yeah. Well, and that's, like, I hate to say it, uh, and this is awkward even to say it, but like there's also truth to the fact that women have special powers to close deals. Right, like she was abusing female privilege while your bosses were abusing male privilege in some respects. That wasn't fair to her clients and customers or station either, or to herself, um, because you know, a dude in that role couldn't have closed that deal. No, no. And I know this is not the same way anyway. Hot, hot. Taboo topic. But even here, when I came in Colorado and I was working in sales for the media, there was a client locally, he's no longer the owner of the business. So I feel comfortable saying this, but he would only do business or do contracts over drinks. Okay. And, uh, the largest company. The largest contract I ever closed was, I closed it, we had cocktails, it was a long night, and that was expected. You take them to concerts, you wine, you dine, you know, kind of part of the job. He texted me that night and asked me what color my panties were. And the uncomfortable situation, knowing that I had just done my largest deal, and if I tell him to go pound sand, I would lose all of that money. I would lose that client for my company. Or if I just say nothing and pretend that the text never came through. Sorry, I out what would come out. Yeah. Um, or do I acknowledge it and play along with it, but then draw the line somewhere? Hopefully I'll let you figure out what I did. Well, I think I knew who it was already. His first name starts with an M. No. Oh, it doesn't? No. Okay. All right. No. Okay. No. All right. I'll come up with another guess. No, I mean. Yeah, we don't need to talk anymore about it. But, um, what would I have, what did you do, or what would I have done? I said I'll let you, I'll let you guess what I did. I'm gonna say I'm gonna say number three like what's the harm play it out. See what happens. They're pink motherfucker. Yeah, it probably weren't But it's either creepy married married kids pillar of the community, right like you don't want to ruin his life You can tell me after certainly I will don't want to ruin mine. I like it. Um, but start with a tea No, okay, man, you know a lot of shady people dude I know a lot of people and I have guesses on who the potentially shady ones are, you know And some of them call themselves Christians As he did. Yes that's that's probably like if I have a what's the thing when something annoys you like Like a pesky little, or yeah, those things, uh, pet peeve pet peeve. Okay. Yes. And it's not even a pet peeve because it's like a, a giant pet anger alligator is people that call themselves, especially Christian men that do stuff like that. Yeah. You know, and, and they, they, they, I don't care what they, if they tarnish their own name, but don't tarnish the name of Christ. I'm sorry. I find that, uh, in my own personal life, very challenging. Being a Christian, being among people who I know can't speak English. Um, when we all say love everyone, love one another, can't really love everyone or can't appreciate things about everyone where that we, we don't get to choose about who is good and who's not. That's not our job. That's, that's one of my pet peeves. Oh, that too. Oh, 100%. Yeah. It's all or nothing. Love or not. Yeah. Yeah. Agreed. Um, and so interesting. Um, we'll talk about it later. I like that. Um, So it feels like we're kind of coming to the end of the journey part. We're like, we're coming up to the big deal company. Is there other big chapters, other big moments in that anybody else want to call the carpet so that when they're listening to this, they're going to be like, shit, she's talking about me, the dirt, you know, no, I actually confidential. What is this confidential call outs? That would be actually a pretty interesting segment of the local experience podcast too. Oh my gosh. Yes. I would love that. Um, Yeah, was it the taxicab confessions? Yeah. Right. I don't like that. Yeah. Yeah. But it would be it would be an interesting segment because almost everybody's had a betrayal But then but it's such a small town. You couldn't really have confidential call. It's actually Function well, I've had plenty in my life. Thankfully a lot of the lessons learned were in Detroit, but Here, yeah, certainly. I mean, there's Are people kinder and nicer here in Fort Collins than Detroit, or is it kind of the same shit, different setting? I would say there's actually something to the Midwest. That's actually better. Yeah, I love the Midwest. But no, I think we're a melting pot here. Right. And so I can't really, like, categorize people. Right, it's hard to read. Yeah. That's an interesting thing about the Midwest is people don't really move there much. And if they do, they're pretty resonant. And so there isn't a lot of different kinds of, um, like ethics, I guess. Right. Like ethics are actually different in New York and California and Oklahoma and Texas and Canada. And that doesn't mean one is necessarily wrong as long as you know, the. Rule book that you're playing by in the culture that you're playing by. And that's maybe part of the problem with the rule world. Yeah. Like trying to have a global society. We aren't all playing with the same rule book. Ooh, I like that. Yeah. About what's appropriate. Because you think your rule book is, well this is what I know. Right. But that's not the way, you know, and we're trying to talk to each other. Right, right. And you think we're both doing the right, the same thing or the right thing. Right, right. Yeah. And I've experienced that. Like, we had a Turkish exchange student. My wife and I don't have kids, but we've, uh, had like a dozen exchange students now. Ooh, cool. And we had a 15, soon turning 16, Turkish student. Yeah. Karim. Yeah. Uh, Karim Karahan. Mm hmm. Neat young man. Yeah. Um, and he didn't respect my wife nearly to the level that he needed to, because he was living in our home, you know? Ooh. And so I had to like Yes. Put it down. This is the way it is here. And it wasn't his fault. Yeah. Like the way he grew up was totally, he was living within the boundary lines. Yes. Uh, and that's kind of the same even, you know, in like in New York or somebody thinks you're an asshole, they'll just tell you here we have the Colorado slow, maybe, do you know the Colorado slow? Maybe. No, no. Tell me. That's like when a client prospect doesn't actually tell you no, but they never tell you yes. It's the slow maybe and you just kind of like oh, I'm writing that just suffer through it forever or I've, I've learned to like push for the no. And then sometimes I get, yes. Like when I push for the no, I'm like, listen, I've, I've, I've emailed you every six months for the last three years since you said you were interested in local think tank. Like, I'm not going to email you again. Right. Like here's the application. And here's the do not contact button. Push one of these. Actually, I haven't quite done it that directly, but I'm actually pretty tempted now that I think about it. Like just take yourself off my list or say yes. Let's get involved. That is good. I have a, I have a slow, maybe brewing right now. And we've had a verbal since April. Oh God. Yeah. And, but this is big money and we have a great relationship. It's just get her done. Yeah. We have a contract coming on Friday. I will let you tomorrow, I will let you know if that's slow maybe action. It was a piece of advice from my first banker, uh, boss in banking and he, and he basically said, um, you know, a banker's job is to give a yes or no answer. Yeah. A slow maybe is. It's like the worst thing you can do for your client because they just don't know whether they need to go find a different bank. Right. And he also said at the same time, like if you can say no in a way that makes them feel Want to refer their friends and know why the answer is no. And so they come back when it's yes. Yeah. Like that's ideal. It was great advice. Yeah. And it works for radio sales, event planning, local think tank. Like, like, honestly, you're prime for local think tank membership with your business. You totally need it. Like you're navigating so many interesting things. You've got a profitable, useful, successful business that you, that you Don't really know what you'll do with in five or 10 years, who should be the next leadership team, all those things like there's great reasons for you to be involved. I, I was thinking that just last night as I was just looking through everything and kind of prepping and preparing like, ah, it's quite honestly, I am. A victim of my own, um, I'm such a planner. I overplanned. So my calendar is beyond, and I'm really great at committing and doing absolutely everything I can do. And, but I often reserve time just to think, just be, just, just to be. Yeah. Cause I'm so busy making sure everyone else enjoys life. Um, and then when it comes to networking. So that was one of my things for myself, uh, both last year and this year was just give more time to myself to grow the business and be the face of the business, because often my team is the face I'm behind the scenes, just getting her done. And, um, I've done a pretty good job at that and learned some lessons about what I want to be part of, or who I want to work with. Yeah. Yeah. And so I think it, it takes a lot of intention. And then when I commit to something, I commit. And so I don't want to commit to a bunch of things and just not show up. It just wouldn't feel great. I don't want you there for that either. Yeah. So, um, I agree. We'll talk more about it after this. Yeah. But you're the right kind of people. Like, you and I have a lot more alike than we have different. Yeah. It seems. Yeah. Um, and it's weird how you, I, our first conversation was like, you Yeah. It was already apparent that we had a lot of residency in our perspective, I suppose is the right way to say that. Yeah. Yeah. Just helping, helping others grow and acknowledging that what anyone else is working on or what they think is important is important and wanting to support their business and working with genuine, authentic, caring people. That's what I care about. Totally. Yeah. Yeah, I could tell that from get go. I dig it. Um, let's do, uh, let's do the closing segments if, unless you have things you want me to ask you about before then. No, I, oh gosh, please. I have so much content. I could go on for hours on this. Well, let's just jump in. So we always talk about faith, family, politics. Yes. Okay. In your preferred order. Uh, faith, I'm, so I was raised Christian, baptized as a baby, Lutheran, my whole family is Lutheran. Lutheran? Lutheran. Frankly, I don't see that many Lutherans that serious about it. You know, like in my experience, we are Catholic light. And so that is what everyone says, at least in the Midwest, but where I was raised, there's a church, a bar and a gas station on every corner, fourth corner could be a random. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, but so many churches, so many bars and so many gas stations. Um, cause you're, you know, it's urban sprawl. So you've got to gas up everywhere you go. I used to drive two hours. Michigan and Minnesota are a lot the same in Wisconsin where there's just like, There's so much productivity to the land that there were farms every quarter mile way back in the day. The only need are 40 acres to raise a family kind of. And so now there's just all these little hamlets, you know, roadside bars and different things, whatever. That's true. That's true. Um, so yeah, raised, born, raised, came out here. And actually when I started looking for churches, went to all the Lutheran churches and just found the right one for me and still there 20 years later, Which one? Redeemer Lutheran. Yeah. Yeah. They have such a pretty building and it's just neat. P. T. That's the pastor. P. T.? Pastor Tim. Okay. Um, but, so, quite honestly though, we haven't been super involved. I always had a job that required a lot of travel, a lot of nights and weekends. And so, Sundays have been like, almost always the only day where I have a chance to breathe and do stuff at home. Yeah. And so, it was pick or choose, which really can, you Yeah. Mess with your mind, um, growing up where you're supposed to be, but want to be, but choose other. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and so I've been a little bit better at being more involved and more committed. So yeah. Faith. Wait, was it faith? Family politics. Yeah. Well, I'm not, you're not done with faith yet. We're going to talk more about it. Oh, I can't breeze over it. Well, and I was just, uh, I went to tabletop networking the other day and, uh, they were like, we haven't seen you in so long. And I was like, yeah, you and my pastor, you know, it's summer, sorry. Um, and. Like, talk to me about, there must have been a season, college days, radio days, maybe where you were like, am I, you know, uh, or not, maybe, yeah, questioning, you never, you never, where did you, where did you have your, like, like, well, and Lutherans are different, right? They're like dip the baby or they sprinkle them and then they're good. Right. That, that baptism moment when you were like, yes, I'm an adult and I can say for sure that I affirm my faith. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. This is going to sound crazy. I don't know that I ever questioned it. And I don't, for me, it's not so much the label. So I don't care if you're Presbyterian, Episcopalian. Honestly, if you believe in something, I feel like the, the higher power that we all believe in, or that those of us who believe in something, some, somewhere, Might be the same for everyone, but we call it something different. Um, so I don't judge the others, even though some religions say you should, because this is who we are. And we definitely have family members who say, if you're not Lutheran, you're not going to heaven. I don't believe that. And more so, even if you're not Catholic, you're not going to heaven. So I, for me, um, but also if you're not Christian, you're not going to heaven. And I feel like that's. Kind of assuming jobs role, God's role. Yeah. Uh, in being the decider in some ways. I know that's what I'm supposed to say and believe, but I just feel like if I, I, I believe in what I believe. I believe in what I've learned. I've never questioned it. I've looked into it. I took all the courses, learned all the other religions. So it's not as if I'm turning it off and not listening, but I do, I'm just feel confident in that. I was raised in what I, what my family believes in. I feel comfortable in it. I don't feel the need to go anywhere else. I have gone to a lot of the other churches and learned about the other religions and maybe some of it is just comfort and just familiar. Curiosity. Yeah. Whatever. Yeah. Fair. Yeah. Um, so yeah, I've just, just, You're happy there. This is who we are. I haven't questioned it. Yeah. No reason to really like push that envelope or whatever. But also not, I don't like the judging part of religion like we talked about. And that's why I say faith, family, politics, not religion because I think of religion as kind of a yucky thing. Yeah. It's something, I don't like the bad connotation that comes with that. Maybe that's why. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um. Um. Um, like one of the things that Christians would bind over is kind of the, I guess, grace over performance are most Christians at least. And that was for, for my own faith journey. Like I was kind of a cynical, uh, congregational church attendee, but didn't really know the good news, if you will. Um, and then like, cause I was always like, it was when the Irish Catholics were bombing the Protestant English back in the day and I was like, well, Why are the Christians bombing each other? That seems weird. Um, you didn't really have a challenge to that. You were just kind of contented. Yeah, and I don't know why. I can't No, that's awesome. I think that's a blessing to not have. Yeah. That's right. And I've known so many people. I had dated plenty of men that were raised Catholic. My husband. Father, raised Catholic, lived with the nuns, like, did the dormitory thing, and had nothing great to say about religion. In fact, there is a cemetery in North Dakota with my entire family, from his bloodline, in there. Which, His dad was the first one who chose not to be in there. I mean, the whole cemetery is foresters. Because of how he felt about the Catholic church after his experience. That's pretty intense. Kind of romantic. If we're with all the foresters, even though they could care less about North Dakota. It's so weird. Well, and that was the weird thing. Like when I was growing up in North Dakota, It was mostly Lucernes and Catholics. Yeah. 90%. And it was all good. Like, there was really no criticism each of the other unless a Catholic girl started dating a Lucerne boy or vice versa. And it was so weird that it was like, Yeah, rumble rumble. I know. Same. I know. Because we went to prison. Private Lutheran school. And they were basically the same shit. Uh, ish. Well, although different. Anyway. Basically. All right. We've covered faith enough. Okay. You want to beat it up anymore? Anything you want to more say there? Uh, family? You want to talk about these little ones you've been producing the last few years? Mary, yes. Or, you want to talk about your, your sweetie first? Ah. Where'd you grab him at? Yeah. Where were you? My gosh. We were some of the early adopters, that's what you say in software, of um, it was a match. com. What was it? Oh, shoot. What? It's the one with all the science. Harmony. E Harmony. Harmony. Thank you. Yeah. Yes. You're some of the early adopters. Okay. Harmony. And it was his last day on the platform and my first just trying it out. I heard a similar story. What's his name? Yeah. Kevin. Hi, Kevin. I assume you'll be listening to this eventually. Hopefully. I don't know. My wife never listens to mine, but whatever. It's fine. Get it together. Love you, Jill. Uh, we, um, We started communication there, but then took it quickly offline. And you were like, where were you at the time? So I had, um, I had been in Colorado for, I think, two years? Okay. And ironically, I had just moved out of the apartment I had moved here for. Like, you know, sight unseen, and bought my first house. Oh. And he had moved here. After a relationship had just ended, he was a rocket scientist for NASA, left that career, moved back to Colorado, and the apartment complex where I was, I had just moved out of and the next week he was in it. Moving in. That's funny. Shopped at the same grocery store and all that same stuff, but never passed it, never crossed. It was just kind of funny, um, in the background. Would he have ever hit on me or talked to me in public? No. He is very much introvert and not, um, in any way the extrovert that I am. We connected on eHarmony. Fun fact, um, the science behind, uh, a lot of those dating platforms that first initiated, um, is that you, you match people based on their likenesses. Yeah. eHarmony was based on things that you both dislike. Hmm. And so, we both Oh, that's way better in some ways. Dislike, and, and that's actually the way we can find commonalities with each other even stronger. Is that, um, so we both disliked the same types of behaviors or have the same intolerances for things. Yeah, yeah, yeah. While one, people would look at us and say, gosh, you guys have like such different interests, nothing in common. At the core, we have the same dislikes and for whatever reason it works. Well, and the same dislikes is a lot like the same values in a way. Apparently, we have it and it worked. Yeah. Was it just on like Donkey Kong? Yeah. Like right from the start? Easy peasy. The entire time. Yeah. Honestly, like, uh, whatever they did works. I am like That shit worked good. I even told him like, we should write testimonials. We should get the eHarmony t shirt. Right. We could be on a t shirt. He's like, I am not going to be on the ads for eHarmony. How long did you guys date before engagement and engagement before marriage? Uh, dated for two years before engagement, another year before marriage. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, who married you? Who did you choose? Um, so, our pastor wasn't available, um, we picked a Lutheran pastor up in Estes Park because that's where we wanted to be. Our first date was in Estes Park, and so someone was willing to do it, but actually the two person for the ceremony. The venue was the main thing. Venue. Yes. Yeah. And just like the feeling. Yeah, yeah. We wanted, we wanted our guests to have the little mountain getaway cause everyone came from out of town. Yeah. And then, um, one of my, my best friends or my, my, the mother of my best friend, um, is a deacon in the, um, Presbyterian church. She is the one who actually, um, Yeah. I actually got married in a Lutheran church. Yeah. Yeah. The one on Elizabeth. Okay. St. John's Lutheran maybe. Oh, okay. Yeah. They just have gorgeous stained glass and it fit well with our reception at Ptarmigan afterwards. Oh, neat. Yeah. And we weren't really part of a church that had like a good place to get married at the time. Yeah. So it was like, we were shocked. That was actually the funnest part of the wedding planning was like figuring out where we're actually going to get married. Yes. Can be fun. Can be stressful. Well, you know, the, the cool thing, um, number 11 on the reasons it's better to be a guy than a gal is a wedding plans. Take care of themselves. That is a mouthful. That's like spot on though. Pretty much. Yeah. As long as she's got a mom that's fully involved, you know, I don't even need to be. So Kevin and I are two planners. I'll never forget, we sat down at Old Seas in Loveland and had like a beer, yet a meeting about future before he even proposed. We sat down and he doesn't remember this when I tell him, we sat down with our little pads of paper, two little nerds writing out, how is this going to work? So when we Plus you're like in your little thirties by now, right? We are Late twenties maybe? Yeah. So we got married. Yeah. We were in our thirties. We started dating. Yeah. Um, so we wrote down how it would play out and who would pay for what. And so I was going to sell my town home. He had just sold his house in Utah. Here's the money that's coming from here. What's going to, so I fully funded a very expensive wedding where he took his money he made on his house and paid for the deposit on our current house. We bought a house together before we even got married, which was kind of unheard of for our little Christian families. Yeah. Yeah. But it's just how it played out. Yeah, it all worked out fine. What, uh, why was he inclined to have a second and third date with this, uh, what do you call it? Extroverted radio personality person. I don't think he had any. I don't think he had yet met someone quite like myself, because he was so introvated. The gal he was with before we were together was an accountant. A yawn factory. Straight lit. In my opinion. And I've only heard stories. Basically I blew his mind and he was like, I want more of that. That's what his friends and his family say, he will never admit to that. I think I am still a bit much for him, but he's along for the ride. Right, right. He's signing up now. He's on the plane. Might as well land it. Yep. Oh, what was the big draw for you for him? Something I'd never had before. So he is reliable, consistent, If he says he's going to do something, he does. He, um, his OCD runs deep, but I, um, he'll never forget. I was sitting in an airport once with a good girlfriend of mine where, um, she had this aha moment. She just had to share with me. And, um, she said, Christine, we've been dating the wrong guys our entire lives. Cause I had dated comedians, artists, Musicians. All these extroverted, like, interesting people. Like, just loud, generalized personalities. You were supposed to be that person in the relationship. So, um, it was just all these people that were competing with our loud personalities. Yeah. And she said, we need to date nerds. We need to date them because they are the ones who will get her done and they are going to make great husbands. Yeah. And I was like, wait, I don't see this. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I've dated football players. I've dated famous people. What is going on? And so then when I met him, I was like, Oh, I get it. I get what she's saying. Because it's someone who's offering that consistency and just, I'm up here. Next Tuesday. Floating. Here's where I'll be. Yes. Next Wednesday. He's keeping me grounded. Yep. I dig it. Yeah. It works. Um, I'm going to call a short break again, um, everything I could have done to promote this experience ahead of time to promote what we're doing here. Totally. Oh my gosh. Like I could give you a list of things that we could have done, or I could have done for you to help promote this, just the fact that I'm here. Just this one particular conversation. Yes, just that we're talking. Yeah, yeah. Um, because, uh, There are not everyone cares, but some people do I would have been happy to thank you for featuring me Yeah, and after the fact to write when it goes on sure But yeah, there's so many things that I could have done to help Make this even more. I'm sorry for that fly. That's buzzing around you right now Him and his life if he comes close enough to me Did I get it? Looks like you might have got it. Did I get it? The master of eagles. We may not put this part in there. Uh, octopus. Whatever, uh, the video is playing and I think we're going to start doing like the whole video here soon, too It was kind of beyond our desire for a while But yeah, I've been hearing from Mormon people. They just like to watch people interact with each other, you know, and oh my gosh Can I tell you one of my guilty pleasures? Sure. I don't know where this came. Oh, I didn't get him. I'm not a ninja Okay. Well, I think you got him and then you let him go I'm kind hearted. Yeah. Uh, one of my guilty pleasures is that I don't know where this came from. Again, when chose a degree that didn't require math and have never been interested in anything that required extensive studying, like being a lawyer. Now I'm addicted to true crime. Cannot help myself. Interesting. And I'm also, I'm, I never thought I'd get like really into podcasting. I like really resisted it for a while because came from radio. Radio was my first job. Right. Loyal, loyal to radio. And so, um, it's, it's not, but it hurts the numbers, right? So it hurts the numbers that are reported. And so, um, I still believe in live radio. I still love it. I do too. Yeah. Yeah. I listen to a lot of radio. Good. Thank you. But I, but there is one podcaster. She's not, she's a YouTuber. I can't believe this is me now. But I watch her and, um, she does commentary while she's watch, watches, um, court trials and she gives you the information about what's going on in the background. She's spicy. She sprinkles in swear words. And now she's like the number one. Podcaster, YouTuber for court trials. Oh, interesting. I adore her. Do you want to shout her out? Her name is Emily D Baker. What's up Emily D Baker? She's great. I am a follower. I'm a subscriber and I know, and so I'm like, oh gosh, this podcast thing. It's catching on, but I'm just a little late to the game. I think you would enjoy being a podcast host, actually. I think I would. I've thought about it. Like, I think this is really exciting what you do. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. No, you would, you would like it. Um, just because even just among your hundred events a year and the clients around those events and getting a lead on that, but also just like, you've got so much to share. And the cool thing about a podcast is if you stick it there, like anybody can listen to it freaking seven years from now. And if it was useful to them, it could change their life in some small way. Yeah. I've listened to a number of event podcasts, really trying to get engaged and see if I can learn something. Um, gosh, this is going to sound horrible, but I always, I always leave disappointed. I didn't learn anything. I could have given better advice. I've had more life lessons. I feel like I'm a little bit more hardened and, um, a lot of it is just fluff. I don't feel like they're, they know what they're doing yet. But, um, yeah, I just, well, I don't know what I'm doing either. Um, but, but my target is really to invite really interesting, inspiring and entertaining people into the studio. And then I think the rest of it kind of takes care of itself. I like that. And sometimes I fail at that, like mostly in my selection. Yeah. My preparation is certainly a fail every time, but my selection sometimes fails too. And then it actually looks like a, Oh, that's gotta be, oh, when you get people who can't really talk or it's a little bit uncomfortable. Yeah, well, we just had one the other day and I won't name names, but my husband, she wrote the next day. Like, I didn't really have authority to speak for my employer in this kind of space. And, you know, some of the questions were very uncomfortable and blah, blah, blah. I'm like. So you obviously didn't read the format overview, and you didn't listen to any examples, and you didn't book the appointment with me to ask questions when we were offered it. And so thank you for wasting three hours of my time and two hours of my staff time. Your time is valuable. I think we talked about it before. It was so annoying. I mean, I was so frustrated. Burned. And, like, I just, it just taught me a lesson, like, only talk to people that can actually speak freely. Don't talk to employee and that's part of why I, you know, I don't know if you, you probably don't believe the same as I do, but I feel like Free speech is under severe attack in our nation, and it's really only the entrepreneurs and the people that have the freedom in some way or another Yeah. To speak freely that do. It's free limited speech. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. It's an interesting, we'll get into the politics of it shortly. Yeah. I want to talk about your children. Okay. Um, so, how many do you have? I have three. Three? Yes. And one kind of older and a couple littles, right? I have an eight year old, two five year olds. Okay. Twins. Yep. Uh, yeah. They're an adventure. It is. It's a lot. So, um, we, we generally do a one word description of the children. I don't share this in my format overview because it, Would create too much angst, but, uh, would you like to try for a one word for your eight year old? And give him, give him or her a name, too, if you would. Sure. So Campbell is my nugget. He was my nugget before he was born. My nugget? Yeah. And so, um, it was a, a word that was popular. I actually can't remember who made it popular, but I was like, Ooh, someday if I get to have kids or I'm going to have a nugget. And so the way that I told my husband I was pregnant, I've got a nugget inside me. Uh huh. I gave him a package of chicken nuggets because we had tried for a very long time, years and years and years. And so for, I made dinner, but I gave him nuggets in the little McDonald's container and he opened it and they were cold, but it said nugget coming soon. And it took it, it took him a while to like get it, but then he, from there he was our nugget. Yeah. I got it. That's sweet. Um, like 10 years or something, maybe five, more than five anyway. Yeah. It took, I think was a surprise when you told him? Yes. Yeah. Surprise. I mean, he knew we were trying and yes, in fact, I think to date at the only fertility clinic we have in Northern Colorado, I think we have the largest file. Oh, wow. Mm hmm. Oh, wow. Not a proud stat. Yeah, yeah. Certainly set us back a bit. Uh, Dr. what's his name, uh, Jill and I worked with one, too, uh, for a while and we, we had a couple of miscarriages and it was frustrating and sad and then I was in the midst of trying to make more than 15, 000 in a year, you know, I just can't really throw down for this right now and that's part of why we've had so many exchanges. Yeah. It's a beautiful thing. Because that's just a different upper, we call it like short periods of adulting. Yes. You know, you've got like years and years. That is beautiful. Now, what, what you have done is beautiful. Yes. We, we. Again, overachiever from the get go. Well, you've done it beautiful too. But it took a lot of patience. Most people don't have that much. And even the doctors were like, What is this? Interesting. Kudos on you for pushing hard. Yeah. The twins. Twins. twins? So, uh, Sullivan and Sloan. Okay. And twins, age five, turning six here soon. Um, Sloan. Identical twins? Fraternal twins? No. Fraternal, because boy and girl. Oh, Sloan is a girl. Yep, Sloan girl. Um, yeah. Or Sullivan could be a girl too, I suppose. Actually, all of them have last names as first names, which I've always loved. I love that. And they have nick well, nicknames. Kind of nicknames, but they're all, um, Irish and Scottish, even though we aren't, that is not our genetic makeup, but I've always loved those names. And, um, their names just describe them so well. We had lots of other colorful things picked out that my husband did not agree to, but I'm happy with their names. And Sloane is very spicy. She's sassy. She is, oh, um, Sloane's one word. She's Sloane. Sassy, but how about Sullivan? What's his one word? Oh my gosh. He is just Everything. I don't, I don't even know that. He's the everything bagel of a child. Yes. Oh my gosh. Where is, uh, Sloan is like the spicy sauce. Yeah, she's feisty. Actually, feisty is her word. We say it all the time. She is a born leader. She has been ever since she came out. We knew it. I just adore her. It's funny because two of the kids look nothing like me. Kevin is very, um, he's a redhead, uh, freckly, very, very white. And I So you got the super nerd. When you targeted a nerd, you were like, I'm all about the nerd now. Yeah. I'm sorry, Kevin. I'm just playing. Mega nerd. Yes. And then Sullivan looks like me. Oh. And so he actually asked me in the car this morning on the way to school, he said, Mom, why do we have big cheeks? They make us extra cute. I don't know. I don't know. Cause Kevin's family is like all thin string bean and I'm just a little bit more curvy and like dimples and yeah, yeah. That's Sullivan. I love it. Yeah. He's just my cheeks. Do you want to talk about your folks? Elsewise in your family, a tree that were impactful to your young lady growing into a awesome woman kind of journey? So i'll tell you a story that describes my family in a nutshell. Okay Uh, so when I was pregnant with Campbell I had for some reason like some trauma came up and I don't know where it came from still to this day I don't know where it came from and I was I was terrified to give birth in the hospital. I was terrified to be naked and feel vulnerable and weak and like, uh, in pain, even though this was your first delivery, first delivery. I played sports my entire life. I have been in tremendous pain and been in hospitals. I was fearful of this kind of pain. I don't know why. So something came up and someone said, yeah, maybe get some therapy for this. It's coming. Right. It's going to happen. Yes. It's coming. Went to a therapist who specialized in EMDR. That's where you do some like, uh, tapping and trying to figure out where stuff came from and try to desensitize yourself. In that session, here I am two months from delivery, she says, I'm sensing that you have some childhood trauma. Let's talk about your parents. And I said, lady, we don't have that kind of time. I have a baby coming in two months. Let's cut to the chase because she wanted to go back in time. And this was going to be like a very long session. Yes. So, I mean, and you had felt some stuff maybe around, like, faith and restrictions around that and stuff? No, not around religion. I think maybe just around, like, conflict in the home or difference of opinions. Okay. I feel like I'm, I've never. You were kind of a pushy young person and, not pushy, but willing to express your thoughts. Yeah. I felt like I was very different than who I was raised by. And not a bad thing. I love my parents. My parents are great. Sure. Still alive. Still alive. Awesome people. But I feel like I'm just different. And had a hard time being different. My dad has no ability to understand why 90 some people would be members of loco think tank and pay me every month to put these little group things together and whatever and why the hell I would do a podcast. Yeah. That's even farther outside the norm, but, but yeah. There's no, I've had to just say they are who they are. They believe what they believe and I'm okay with who I turned out to be. So I would say that. Uh, that like summarizes everything. Yeah, yeah, that experience of that is, I assume you kind of dumped that out eventually or a little bit at least. Yeah, I'm, I'm honestly. You seem like you're way past it. I, I always have been. Both of my parents have this really cool entrepreneurial spirit. And, um, my dad gave me my very first book about entrepreneurship, called Startup Nation about two guys in Detroit and how they like give advice on starting your own business. I read it cover to cover and, um, my dad has been his own small business owner, my mom and her, also herself, but just kind of happened across it just like, these are our talents, we're going to figure out how to make money on them. Really cool. My sister too. And so I thought, I got that from them and I appreciate it, but a lot of the other stuff that comes from their genetic, maybe their upbringings, I don't necessarily agree with, but I think that's most of us just like, and it just, the way it was isn't how I'm choosing to raise my children. So let's agree to disagree. And And And Like, I think it's honoring that you're still, um, comfortable in the faith of your family and stuff, although less, uh, convicted, if you will. Like, I think it's a prison if you get it too much, right? For me, it's not black and white. I feel like there's a lot of gray, and I think that gray is just, I choose to love. And so, I don't want to be I don't want to be, um, defined by any one belief that's of one religion. I feel like if we all just agree that to love everyone and try to understand them, and if you don't understand and appreciate that we have differences, we could all get along much better. It's a tough thing to do. Well, I mean, Jesus had that pretty famous line where, you know, he's pressed into a corner, which of the the Ten Commandments is most important, you know, love your neighbor as yourself and love the love the Lord your God above everybody else. Yeah. I mean, And it doesn't, you don't have to, like, define that God necessarily in such a structured way as many faiths choose to do. That's what I can certainly love your neighbor. Yeah. That's easy. Yeah. I mean, that's not always easy. It isn't. Yeah. I can choose not to love my neighbor who is a convicted sex offender. I don't harass him, I don't treat him poorly, I don't kick his dog when he walks by. We just know that's not the neighbor that we invite over for New Year's Eve. And neither do the children ever linger in front of his place. Not our buddy. Not our buddy. Yep. Um. So faith and family, we've kind of covered politics. We are, this is your hot one, Kurt. We are T minus. What is this today? Today is like the 18th or something of September. So we're six weeks away from the world either ending. Because Kamala was elected, or Trump was elected, but the world will end regardless, according to the other party. I'm really not looking forward to the next day. Honestly, I Right? Just, the turmoil. There's gonna be a high level of freakout the next day. Just when we thought it was bad, it's worse. Yeah. Yeah. Because I remember, I remember very distinctly writing in my son Campbell's baby book, um, just things that were going on in the world and like, you'll never believe this happened. You know, at this time, man, there was this crazy guy who was on TV, was actually like put on the ballot for the presidential election. Oh, that'll never happen. And he won. And so, so when you have kids, you can actually, you You can write the White House and actually, actually send them, ask them to send, it's an acknowledgement of the baby's birth and they do for every baby if you write them. So President Trump welcomed Campbell to this world. I'm like, we just missed the timeline. But it was, I couldn't believe it was actually happening. There's so much that I can't believe is actually happening. It almost feels like I'm living in another world with all of it. And I'm not. I'm not super, um, impassioned about politics, as I know many people in fact Like you couldn't believe it was happening as a negative thing, or as a positive thing, or as an indifferent thing? I am just, um It was shocking to me too, I don't, if you've read it in my blogs, I've, uh, observed that You know, Bill Clinton basically talked Donald Trump into running for president because he was pretty sure his wife could beat that guy. I remember we talked about that. Did we really? Yes, we did. We did. And I, um, I have, I, I've always felt like there are, there are people and there are politics. As a person, I don't know that I've liked many of the people we've had in recent years. Um, I am, I'm more, I vote based on issues locally, so I care about what's affecting me in my local community and those that I, I feel like I have more of a power over. I believe in voting in general because I, I know a lot of people who feel like my vote doesn't matter. Um, I, I know that that's a sentiment because it's just so polarizing. Many people don't even want to be involved. I'd rather not. I don't want to mark it. Chalk on the stick. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like, uh, my history or just my folks who I interact with, I have a lot of folks on both sides. Sure. Most, most of my. I mean, non profit leaders are by and large Democrats. Yeah. I think. For what it's worth. I think most everyone in my circle, those who are, I'm close with, are, um, very compassionate. I would say probably are Democratic, but we don't talk about it. Yeah. I'm a Democrat. I'm, uh, independent. I'm independent. And so I've always felt more like, uh, I care more about what the person does rather than what the person says. Yeah, yeah. I pay attention, but I also don't listen to it every day because I will drive myself crazy. Yeah, yeah. It will be the only thing I think about and it will drive me crazy. What are your Do you want to talk about your politics personally? Like the things that are actually important to you? I mean, we've got these wedge issues like abortion and I don't know what else is a wedge issue anymore, but like just the size of government, like how much federal government should be involved versus state and local, things like that. Well, I think where I live right now, because I live in Loveland, um, It's tough not to see that politics are really, really uncomfortable. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm a commissioner for the city. Oh, you are? So I have to be careful with what I say. Okay. Um, because, and, and my job, I'm not a, um, a commissioner. I'm not a, it's not like city council, but not city council. I'm not a county commissioner. I'm a commissioner that serves on a board. Okay. So I volunteer my expertise towards the city. I make, um, I advise based on, uh, funding and decisions that we take to city council for final approval. Okay. Those that have expertise in one area. So it could be. Right. Airport. You're trying to gather the right opinions and views to actually inform the council. Yep. So the experts inform the experts, inform that figureheads that inform the council or report to the council council approves or doesn't approve. Yeah. So as a commissioner. Um, I feel like I, I don't, I can't broadcast an opinion one way or another, but um, I do make, I'm more involved or more in the know about what's going on in the city because I listen. I watch the city council meetings and I, um, sit on a commission where we get reports from the city council. So we know what's going on. Um, It is such a hot mess right now that it's easy to get distracted by that. And it's a welcome distraction from national politics, right? So I do listen to, and because I have littles, I choose not to have it on in the car because it is death. And it is just, it's sad. It's so much anger. Oh my gosh. Yeah. And so what I, um, I don't know if anyone has Alexa who's listening, but I, that's the device we have in our kitchen, um, before the kids wake up, I will say, um, play my newsfeed. And so what I have scheduled on my newsfeed are a variation of all the different newses so that I can get a variety of what their version of what the top stories are. Sure. Sure. And that is all I get when I get NPR 5 minutes and the Daily Wire 7 minutes and whatever else. It's a sprinkling so that I can feel like I'm being objective on whatever they feel they're being objective on. And that's how I get my news. Now, everyone gets it different ways. Facebook is not the way I get my news. Right. I've intentionally, anytime I see something that's political come up, blocked it because I can't trust that it's authentic. Well, you don't want it to necessarily be. pollute the way you receive information in the future. Yeah. Yeah. One of my, uh, most recent podcast guests earlier, no, last week about this time was, uh, Ben Asti. Uh, he, uh, I'll stay us. I don't forget. It's a Frenchie name. Anyway, uncle Benny, right? He's running for county commissioner. And, uh, we were talking about it and fricking county commissioners make a buck 50 now. And, uh, so they are everywhere. When, so this is the beginning. If you, if you're still listening, John Cofalas, um, I'm running for your spot. If I get your endorsement, I will win, um, because I'm kind of a crazy libertarian, not really Republican, but John likes me. And I think I could add value because of my economics background and stuff. So that's, that's my promise to my future voters here in Lerner County is that if, if I can get John Cofalas's endorsement, I will run for Lerner County commissioner in 2026. I love everything about this. John is amazing. He attends I like him a lot. We do a lot of He's been on the show. Yeah. We, I, I saw that. We've, we've, uh, we, we plan a lot of non profit events and he comes to nearly all of them. He comes to so many. And all the commissioners do. I mean, I don't know when they're ever home. Yeah. It's a big commitment. I see John a lot of places. I don't see the others very often, personally, but Wow. They tried to He's the, he's the tallest, uh, the tallest midget. I'm just kidding. Oh no, that's, I'm wrong, I'm just, John, I'm just kidding. We talked about that in my podcast with him about what it was like to be, cause I was five foot one until I was 10th grade, 11th grade. Yeah. And then I like ended up at six two. And so we talked about kind of that notion of being like, Oh, cause he's like five, three, five, four, five, five. I don't know. He's, he's a really small man. He's way less than five, six, uh, and just anyway, he was such an honest commentator on that. Like I just respect him and appreciate him so much. Yeah. He is amazing. I don't know anyone who doesn't love him, but barely to be that person, to be so adored and so, um, That is the kind of high integrity kind of person he is. And even if I disagree, like some of our things, we disagree on what the right policy would be or the regulation or whatever. But I always have trusted that his heart was in the right place. Yes. I think, I think to, to me. Knowing that I have a political influence, I've known, I'm known as a neutral party. I'm really open minded and try to be as helpful as possible in all things. Um, if I could have that credibility, if I could earn that and be that respected, that would be. The right seat for me. I have joined, join me at the county commissioner's office. Uh, maybe in 2028 I'm going to wait until my kids are a little bit older than yes. Uh, have we covered enough politics for your preferences? Sure. More than enough. All right. Um, I'm going to give you two minutes. Two loco experiences, and if one of them is amazing, I'll give you a third. But you said you've got a lot of crazy stories that you could share. I have a lot. So, I'll give you a little teaser, and you can say which ones sound interesting to you. Alright. Okay. Crazy things that have happened in my lifetime that people won't believe. Wine I had I had to think hard on these so I'm a Guinness Book World Record Holder, which I think is kind of fun. We gonna pour the rest of this in because it's I love that you host exchange students. I did as well. My family did when I was in high school, but we actually When things were all crazy hadn't a pair living in our house Who kissed a boy, had sex for the first time and drove a car for the first time while she was in our household. And it all went very badly. I nearly actually didn't live or have kids. I found out the day that I was, um, going to deliver our son, Campbell, who's eight now. That I probably wasn't going to survive the delivery and had to decide what I was going to do. I was on a date when I was, this was when I was 25. I was dating. Drugged, abused and held hostage in my own apartment, which is, this is probably not a family friendly story, but, well, we don't, we marked every episode explicit anyway. Yeah, that one is very explicit. Um, wow. I was an RA in college, which, you know, is not surprising'cause of my leadership. Um, I was an RA and I. I had to deal with a suite mate that was disabled but wasn't qualified as such, um, and was sent to college while her parents were going through a divorce. So I was her babysitter while I was in charge of students across from me that were Muslim, African American, Hispanic, and a serial sex offender, all in a suite together. And then my favorite story. is, um, my Vegas cab ride story. But I can't even tell you anything about it unless you choose it! Oh, shoot. It's been a life. I've been told I should write a book, but I don't have the time. You're one of the first people that came with, like, a book of crazy experiences. So many crazy things. I've told people before that I've got, like, 10 crazy experiences that would be in the top 20 of my 200 episodes here. So, uh, but it's not about me. Um, I do want to hear about them though. Will you tell me one at the end? You said you wanted to ask me a couple of questions. Yeah, because um, do you want to do that before the loco experience? Let's do it. Let's do it. Okay. All right. Okay. So I mean it shouldn't be about the loco. I love, no, no. So I honestly I think I My biggest enjoyment in life is learning from others. I think and many other entrepreneurs are very successful people in life say Don't you're not the smartest person in the room. You surround yourself with the smartest people in the room. And, um, I don't know that I've ever done that intentionally, but I know that I just feel fulfilled and I learn more if I learn from others. And so many of the things I've learned in life, I didn't learn firsthand. I heard someone else's experience and I said, Ooh, don't want to do that. So I, but. But that's not what I want to ask you. I'm so curious who you think the right fit is for someone who's kind of curious about what you do and what, what could I do with my business or where could I go? Am I a good fit? Is where I'm at in life some, uh, a good collaborator? Would I be of benefit to others? Oh, like would you be qualified to local think tank membership? Yeah. A hundred percent. Your skill set would bring a lot of value to others first and foremost. Um, so that's what I'm looking for first and foremost is like, who can I bring in that would make the community stronger? You know, and so they, they need to have enthusiasm. They need to be thinkers. They need to be focused on what they can do. And in your case, you've got all this experience in. Broadcasting, advertising, marketing, event planning, all these things that other business leaders need to know more about. And, sorry. Can you hear it in the microphone? Yeah, yeah, he landed right on there. You get him, get him with your chopsticks. I don't know. We haven't had flies in here before. Did you bring them in? I don't know. I live by a farm. It's possible he rode with me on the way here. I'm pretty sure not. Um, so yes, I mean, first and foremost, we'd find a good place for you. And we'd have a longer talk about where that might be because that's part of my, I call myself the mixologist. So, I'm not only trying to figure out what chapters need what skills, but who's gonna jive personality wise with what chapters and things like that. And everybody, you know, it's kind of like Jesus said, if a man doesn't work, he should not eat. Yeah. Or whatever. Well, every member of Loco Think Tank needs to carry some water. Like they need to have something that they bring to the conversation that's beneficial to everybody else in the room. Yeah. And they need to have enough humility to know that they're not the smartest person in the room. At least not at every topic. Yeah. Um, and so, like I just complimented Alma earlier today that her combination of confidence and humility is like right in line, and so is yours, with Yeah. Our culture, like you have to be both confident and humble to really be a great leader over time. Ooh, I like that. That's so important and not found everywhere. Um, gosh, I've been a part of so many different networking groups where you're like, uh, it's this, why are we here? What am I going to get out of this? If it's just exchanging business cards, like that's, that's not mine. I call local the anti BNI. Like we ask our, our members not to do significant business with each other because that would be a block to bring Significant challenges to the whole room and processing it. So, like, don't hire the, there might be a financial advisor in your group or a marketing agency but you have to clear it with the group before you hire them because it could represent a conflict where you can't bring a hard problem to the group because the person that the conflict is with is in the room. And so we're totally kind of on the opposite end of the spectrum. It's a safe place, like intentionally curated. Um, and you're a co curator, so that's part of our, part of our culture that you would probably appreciate is that, like, if you want, if you said, hey, I want to be a member of Loco Think Tank, where would I fit? Well, we'd spend some more time together, I'd talk about the groups, the leaders of the groups. There's three of them that, um. I think could be candidates and we would talk more about that. And then once we found out which one we thought together was like the, probably the best first choice, then I would introduce you to the leader, the facilitator of that group who doesn't own it, you know, but I pay them to deliver the goods. And they would meet with you and say here's a little bit more about all of our members because I'm not there. I don't, I only know so much. What do you bring? What's your business like? Why would you like this? What would you gain? What are you hoping to gain? What would you, what could you give? And if they like you then they can invite you to visit. Okay. And then step three is everybody that's already paying for membership. Gets a veto on this new person. So like, I'm not the owner of the group. The group owns the group. Did I see that the capacity is 12 or that's the ideal number? Some are over or some under? No, over. No, over. No. Yeah. No, I mean, we want everybody to have at least one month where they're the focus. Okay. There's 12 months in a year. Um, and then yes, several are under, we've got probably. We've probably got, we got nine groups times 12 is, I don't know, 111. We've probably got 20, 25 seats available right now, um, between the various groups, you know, and, and then we'll open new groups where we're a supply constraint. So one thing that listeners or you can keep your eye on is if you have amazing business leaders that exit, we usually give them six months to kind of get Scratch their itches, and then they find that they have a, uh, they're not fulfilled by the lack of leadership that they're allowed to give. And if it's, if it's women, it's an itch. If it's men, it's an itch. It's sometimes an itch to get scratched in wrong ways. You know, they, they, they, we're just more susceptible sometimes, you know? So, you know, you sell your business and then you start golfing a lot. And then the 28 year old, the golf course looks really cute. And then you're like wreck your marriage. And then your kids don't like you anymore. Like just give yourself something else hard to do. So we try to give these people something. That isn't a heavy lift. I call it a light yoke that you can carry. And then me and Alma and our team, like we do the yucky stuff. We do the billing, we do the newsletter, the marketing, we do events and stuff that we don't really know how to do very good, you know. But we're going to try to take the yucky stuff off so you can just show up and be a leader. Yeah. Focus. Yeah. And have other experienced folks help you focus on what's next. Yep. I think that's what. is lacking for me and so many business owners searching out for this sort of help through networking is that we're, we're made this promise or like, come try us out. And it's just do more networking and what's next will happen. But what do you really want? No. Next. I've actually been a part of a group who I love and I want to support and I've offered educational sessions and how can I, you know, help instruct others and coach others? Cause I'm a little bit older, not brand new, but also I still want to get something out of it. I still have to get something out of it. And so here I felt like I'm giving more than I'm receiving. And that's okay to a certain point. But if I'm investing a lot of money, it has to be worth it. I have to feel like I'm, I'm really learning from others in this case. I wasn't. Um, and I'm, I don't know that anything else has fit that. Yeah. So I'd like that you offer that one thing that you might enjoy in the future, probably when you get things a little bit more sorted, but I think you would find a lot of love in the idea of taking that one, two, three person business and helping them get to become a five, six, seven, eight person business. Yeah. You know, so that's the facilitator role. That's what my landlord Moses Horner does. He was a member for like 20 years. six or seven years and got really good, got his business pretty dialed. And now he gets to like serve this group of trying to take the two, three, four person business and turn it into a six, seven, eight person business. That's pretty cool. Yeah. Yeah. There's, there's something that feels really good about that. And I've, you know, I've gone to, I've paid tons of money for these major conferences where you're learning something. And I, I love all of that, but I feel like as we get, Older, more dialed in with our business. You have to be strategic. Easier to nudge than we are to. Wholesale change. Like some of those conferences and stuff are designed to change you from, you know, this to this. Yeah. And we're just too resistant. We're humans. I don't want your full program. But better to go from here and nudge to here, nudge to here, nudge to here, you know, and just have that pressure to get focused on the right thing. Yeah. Pointing to where you want to become. Yeah. So anyway, I hope that answers your question. Thank you. Yes. Yeah. I think what you, what you offer is exciting. And the way that you deliver it is so humble and Undercover, you're not very loud. I've seen you at many networking things and you're just, Hey, I'm Kurt. Here's what I do. And you, you're not pushy, which I love about sales, you know, here I am trying to sell the color of my panties if you listened earlier. to close a contract. I didn't, it was not me. Oh, what did you do? You didn't answer the question. One, two or three. I didn't. Uh, so when he, so this was a text in the middle of the night, post drinking, post signing contract said, what color are they? I wrote back. Wouldn't you like to know? Oh, that's a good answer. And just, that's actually the perfect response, uh, because it wasn't leaving him hanging. Yep. And it created a little intrigue. I don't know. Ugh. Yuck. Gross. Um, we'll talk after the, after the microphone's off. You can tell me who that was. Cause I'm so curious. I'm sure I know who it is. Um, uh, do you have any more questions for me? Or should we just, oh, so I have, I have your, your thing. So hostage, Campbell, almost dying. R. A. Crazy stuff. And what's the last one right here? Vegas. You're here for Vegas. Oh, that was the one that, I have to choose that. If I want to hear the story, Vegas cab ride. Um, so I'm going to choose two, right? I can choose two if you want, we've got the time. So I got the Vegas cab ride. And, you know, I guess I want to hear about Campbell, because, like, it would have been really easy, I'm sure, to be like, I want to stay alive for sure, or something, and I, I, I Yeah, okay. Yeah, anyway, is that fair? I didn't have a choice. Yeah, so I didn't actually have a choice. Do you want to go there first? Sure. Okay. He had We had not tried for a while thinking, if it happens, it happens. We were so incredibly happy as adults, traveling the world, doing all this stuff. Super fun stuff. He's a rocket scientist. You're like, whatever. Don't need kids. We're fine without them. But then we're like, oh, if it happens, it happens. Well, then it didn't happen and they're all sudden. Well, why is it not happening? Right? Let's try and we come from these families with all these kids 27 first cousins like it feels weird. I should have this huge family so then we started trying and panicking about it that we couldn't get pregnant and So we finally did And I was pregnant with, um, Campbell, didn't know what I was having, what I was having. So I didn't know boy, girl, just, I wanted it all to be a surprise, be special. This was just going to probably be our only child. And um, complications with the pregnancy throughout, but not horrible. Just like, just discomfort, whatever, puking and whatever. I was, uh, he was upside down the entire time. And I had something called placenta previa pretty common. So it's where the placenta. It blocks the exit. Oh, right. And so, um. Just got to move that out of the way and get it done. It typically does. It shrinks, it moves up, and fine, magic happens. That didn't happen for me. Okay. So, upon delivery day, so I had to deliver early, I was three weeks early, go to the hospital, they do the ultrasound to see where everything is at. The doctor pulled me aside and said, it's fine. I don't know how to tell you this, but I'm going to be honest with you. She's amazing. She's still a practicing doctor at, um, or at, uh, the women's clinic clinic. Okay. Um, she said, I don't know where to cut. Um, cause I had to get a four C section, emergency six C section. She said, I don't know where to cut. You're going to bleed a lot. We've ordered another doctor. We have your blood type. We're going to, we've ordered up all the blood. Right. You're gonna bleed a lot. Oh shit. You probably will lose all of your lady parts. She said you probably could die. I need you to sign this paperwork Because I had to figure out like what happens with when I die like do I donate organs? So there wasn't really an option, like, either way you're under high risk, whether you try to deliver or not. So basically my placenta was covering everything. When they cut me open, I will bleed a lot and I will probably lose a lot of blood. They will have blood to replace me. We're at a blood shortage right now. But you gotta keep it full. Yeah. Oh, is this 2020 or something even? This was 2018. Oh, okay. We've been at a blood shortage for quite some time. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And so, it's just like, it was pretty bad. I remember responding to that. I donated it in 2018 because I saw it email and it was like, way low. Same. I'm a donor because it is so bad right now. Everyone, donate your blood if you can. Um, so, uh, she said, there's a chance. Call your parents. Call. Everyone say you love them. Like we've got to head in, prepare yourself because you most likely will die. Like, so, um, I filled out all the paperwork, said goodbye to my husband. My parents came to the hospital, even though I told them not to, because I was like, already, like, this is just nonsense, right? They were bawling. And so it made me even worse, crying, saying goodbye. So then again, I don't know what I'm having. I don't know if I'm under anesthesia. Um, she somehow magically cuts me like it's at, I have this like jarred scar, didn't cut the placenta, didn't bleed out, had all this extra medical staff, just the right depth. She pulls the baby up. I'm so out of it. I don't know if I'm in heaven. I don't know if I've died. So I, she, they say it's a boy, but I'm like watching, looking down rather than looking up. And I think I've died. So I said to my husband, am I alive or am I dead? So like, normally I'm supposed to be celebrating that I like had a baby. But I don't actually know if I'm in heaven watching this from up above. Yeah. So that was my birth experience. That's anesthesia for you, right? Easy. Like sometimes you just don't even know the circumstance. Didn't feel a thing. But I knew going in that I had a high chance of dying and that at the, at the very least, she said, at the very least you won't be able to have more children. And I was okay. I didn't even know if I could have this one. Wow. Wow. How do you feel the next morning, um, or maybe that afternoon, like when you woke up properly? This is so weird. This is who I am as a person. I was confident I was going to live. I was confident I was going to be fine, whether I died or I lived like, yeah, not a lot. There's no reason to think that. Yeah. Everyone else was crying. But I love that. It's going to be fine. Yeah. Whether I die or I live. Yeah. Figure it out. Like, I honestly don't know why. But I was such a blessing that is honestly, like during the COVID days to follow and weird shit like that, like knowing I'm going to be fine if I die is such a blessing. Yeah, I was at peace no matter what. Yeah. Now do I want my husband to raise my child? Yeah, our child alone, like this nerdy redheaded dude, like, yeah, he's good, but he's not good without me. Shit. And to have to do that at the last minute. So that wasn't, that realization wasn't until we got to the hospital and they did the ultrasound and it was like, this is emergent, you have to do it now. But also, Figure out the paperwork because like, do you want to be a vegetable? Like all that stuff. Wow. What a rough thing. Okay. Crazy. That was crazy. The same story. Vegas. We're going to Vegas cab ride now. Okay. Let's hit the Vegas cab ride. Yeah. No, we're hitting the Vegas cab ride for sure. You're like, I can't believe I'm going to share this story, but no, it's here. We are. We're almost two bottles of wine and we might as well share it. I, I love Dateline. I'm obsessed with like. True stories that actually happened to people. I mean, I love movies and I love fiction and all that, but really, I love true stories. That hap like things that happen to real people. So inventors, love any of those movies, documentaries, and movies made on true stories. Sure. Like the math guy from way back, this, uh, whatever, mind, A devious mind, amazing mind, whatever that show was, all of it. Sign me up for all of it. What's that movie with? Um, oh my gosh. A Brilliant Mind. That was what it was, the Cocaine, how Cocaine came to the United States. Johnny Depp. Oh my gosh. Oh, uh, let me introduce you to my little friend. No, Johnny Depp. Um. I don't know. Oh, what is it called? Oh, it's so good. It's so good. It was a series. No, it was an, uh, it was a movie all about how he was the one who brought cocaine, it was marijuana too, but cocaine to the United States. Oh, really? And flew it in from Columbia. Interesting. It's fantastic. The soundtrack, all of it. But to know, like, to know that history, but then it's colorized by Hollywood, of course. This is not Hollywood, but this actually happened. Um, so. I, um, I'm obviously a talker. I love to know a lot about people. I ask a lot of questions. Right. Right. Same. So, I'm in the, the business world. I have to go to Vegas regularly for conferences. I'm in Vegas. Uh, I get one night off where I don't have to host a client event or do some sort of like meet and greet party. Get a night off. I get to go gamble. Just kind of live it up a little bit. You're a single girl at this time. I don't even know. I'm not doing anything scandalous. I'm just, I'm just, I just want to go play the slots, play some blackjack. So you're 30 or something, right? This is before your husband, but. Ooh, it's right before I'm pregnant with my son. Oh, so you're married. Married. I am married. Okay. So go to for a conference. Um, I've never been to the. Old town or the old strip. All right. So I'm not off the strip. Old town, Vegas. Take a cab. Say, I want to go to the old town. Never been there. It turns out it's a long ride compared to where I was staying on the strip. So I get a cab driver. I don't like awkward silence. I asked him a couple of questions about himself, about, you know, where are you from? Cause most cab drivers in Vegas are not from Vegas. And so he loves talking and I love listening. So. He starts to tell me he's from Crystal Lake, Illinois, and I said, Oh my gosh, I have, I have family from Crystal Lake, Illinois. I'm from the Midwest. And he said, Oh my gosh, my family's famous. Like, I'm sure they've heard about my family. Okay. This is, okay. What's your family's name? And he says Romano. So I'm thinking Ray Romano from Comedian, and he's been in a couple sitcoms. Yeah, yeah, one I watched a lot. Romano, yeah. Everybody loves Raymond. Everybody loves Raymond, yes. That's great. So I'm thinking, I'm like Googling in the back, Crystal Lake, Illinois, Ray Romano. Um, he's, he's not Ray Romano, but I'm assuming he's And he says, no, um, my parents were murdered and the case has been cold. And so they're still trying to figure out what happened to my family. And so I'm all in. You're listening. Date line. Exactly. I'm listening. You were just talking about your love of date line and what not and you might be a lawyer in your next life. Yeah. Yeah. So, I just, I'm like, gosh, okay, so, this is random, because I'm thinking I'm with a celebrity. You're like Menendez thing. No, no, no. I am with someone whose parents have been murdered. Okay, I'm all in. Tell me about it. So he just speaks and tells me all about it and everything and why he's in Vegas and the whole thing is just so strange and I'm, I can't believe I'm having this conversation. I actually don't want to get out of the cab because he's so interesting, but I do, I gamble, I gamble, I leave. Go back to the hotel, do my job. And then I have to travel back to Vegas a couple of months later. And I'm thinking in my head as I'm in the airport, everything I need to do when I land, I'm like, Oh, I've got to get a cab. Cause you Let's call Mr. Romano, cause I'm so curious about the end of that story. I never Googled Romanos, Crystal Lake, Illinois. I was just listening to him and then I went on and I gambled. So I'm like, Oh yeah, Romano, Crystal Lake, murders. Crystal Lake is where Jason was. Oh, like Friday the 13th? Yeah. So, yeah. So, like, you can't find a thing. So now I'm like, oh gosh, remember the details, Christine. Google Crystal Lake, Illinois. Murders. Cold case. So I do. Everyone, Google it. Because you will find, um, an article pops up. And it's about to happen. Older individuals who were murdered in the middle of the night and their case was unsolved. And so I read the whole article and then at the end of it, it said, if you know the whereabouts of the son picture of the man whose cab I was in. Please call this detective. And I'm like, this, no, I'm sitting in an airport going, there's no way I'm literally sitting on the carpet. There's no chairs available. He's confessing to, he was confessing to you about his crime because everybody wants to confess. Like it's, it's kind of go back to faith, like Christianity and like, well, but it's, it's almost impossible for a human to harbor a secret. I'd agree with that. Yeah. It's really tough. Yeah. Yeah. So I googled it. Okay. Found it. All right. Called the detective. You're like, I'm gonna call this guy for a cab ride here shortly. Why not? He's no longer on the case. It's cold. It's really cold. I mean it happened a while ago. New detective was on it. That person was available. I'm sitting in my flight is boarding. I'm like, hey, this is weird But this might be the guy you're looking for for this cold case I was in a cab in Vegas and this guy was telling me about his how his parents were murdered and he said So at the time there was, uh, there wasn't a financial reward at that time, but they were looking for his whereabouts. And he said, uh, can you get the cab? Do you have the cab receipt from this cab ride and know the cab company? Like, actually I save everything for my expenses. When I get back from this trip, I will call you. So I called them. I sent them the receipt, found the cab company, the actual cab I was in. They identified him. And at the time he wasn't a person of interest. It was just like, they were trying to keep track of brevity. Yeah. So at that time, all I knew what he had told me was that his parents were murdered in the middle of the night. He went out to Vegas is what he said was to get away from it because it was so hard for him. They couldn't find the killer. It was going to take quite some time. The case took forever and that he was just waiting for his money to come in. So his parents were worth a lot of money. Right. His brother was still back in Crystal Lake, Illinois. And, um, he just felt like he needed to get away. So the detectives were looking for him. He was just, um, someone who they wanted to keep track of. Yeah. They were just curious. You know, somebody that's going to get a bunch of money. When this case closes, no. So I give them that information. Fine. Thank you for sending that. Done. A year later, it pops into my head again, because I go to Vegas every year for this conference. I'm like, oh gosh, whatever happened, Crystal Lake. Um, Googled it. All of the sudden, person of interest. And I call the detective on the case and I say, hey, I called in and just like, this was so weird. Like I sat in the cab with this guy and I gave a testimony, but I don't know if it matters or if it was helpful. And they're like, hold, we will get back to you. Then all of the sudden. There's a new judge or new someone who's helping with this case and they fired it back up. It was no longer a cold case. Yep, yep. And they're looking for this dude. And so, they ask for me to give my story again to make sure it's what I gave before. Um, then I get a subpoena in the mail that they want me to testify because he actually was a person of interest and they were going to try to take him to trial for the murder of the parents. They had arrested him already or something? Yeah, they, they had arrested him, but again, like it was, it's so loose. Yeah, unless you got any witnesses and shit, you got nothing really. So now I'm pregnant with my son and I'm supposed to fly to Vegas and who knows how long this trial is gonna be and I just sat in a cab with this dude and listened to his story that I felt like didn't feel quite right. So, uh, at the end of it, there was, he was loose lips, like you said. Someone, no one wants to hold on to secrets. He's a chatty Kathy. He's telling anyone he knows about how his parents were murdered. So enough other people have come forward. It was you and a dozen other people that he told about this shit. So they subpoenaed me, but then because I would be hotel and flight cost to go to Vegas, they chose some other folks. I didn't have to go testify. But yeah, he, he actually was found guilty of murdering both of his parents in cold blood in the middle of the night. Stabbed them to death and, um, because they were worth millions of dollars. They had a bunch of collectibles if I remember. Does the brother get all the money then? I think he does. So here's, here's the crazy stuff, Kurt. So he knew that his parents were worth a lot of money. Right before they were murdered, they wrote him out of the will. So he wasn't going to get anything anyway. I know. So like, he was crazy. They, they didn't trust him. And my instinct, I was only in a cab with him for a short period of time, but I was like, God, this is crazy. Something doesn't feel right. Yeah. Well, I'm glad that you didn't have the same instinct with me, otherwise you would never be here at the local experience. We're right here together, by ourselves. You might not get out But actually we're just gonna drink the rest of this wine. I love it. Okay. I'm gonna smoke some weed and be out of here soon. Okay. Do you want to tell people how to find you? Hmm. Hmm. Probably should as I sip my wine. I mean, that's why you're here is to like tell people that you're cool and buy me for services in the future. Yes, so we are Big Deal Company. Every client is a big deal. We are BigDealCompany. com That's it. Done and done? Done and done. What do you think about motorcycles? Oh, is this a loaded question? Just curious. So, I love the idea of riding motorcycles. I've had actually a lot of bad experiences on motorcycles, so I no longer partake. My husband has had a couple motorcycle crashes, so we have decided that is not a good, safe family choice. He needs some more training is what I'm hearing. Kevin? Is it Kevin? Is it Kevin? Kevin, I will teach you. I have told him that, um, And your boys need motorcycles in their lives. I'm just saying, Christine. Oh my gosh. No, no. Dude, back roads, like red feather, like little dirt bikes, motorcycles, like. Fine. We're right now a golf cart family, so you can just off road in a golf cart. We'll turn you into, they could be four wheelers or whatever, but. Boys need dirt. They do. Oh my gosh, my kids get so much dirt. Oh, so much dirt. Yeah. I hope, on a scale of 1 to 10, how much fun have you had in this conversation? Ooh, 10! Yeah, this has been great! Alright, good. How about you? It's been very fun, yes. Like all of 10. At least a 9. I mean, I got a lot of interesting people. Yeah, there could be some wiggle room, sure. But it was pretty good. Alright, we'll just cut it there. Alright, cheers. Thanks.
