The LoCo Experience
The LoCo Experience is a long-form conversational podcast that dives deep into the journeys of business leaders, entrepreneurs, and changemakers in Northern Colorado. Hosted by Curt Bear, Founder of LoCo Think Tank, the show brings real, raw, and unfiltered conversations—where guests share their successes, struggles, and lessons learned along the way.
LoCo Think Tank is Colorado’s premier business peer advisory organization, founded in Fort Collins to help business owners gain perspective, accountability, and encouragement to grow both personally and professionally. LoCo chapters bring together business owners at all stages of the journey into professionally facilitated peer advisory chapters, led by experienced business veterans. These groups provide a trusted space to share challenges, seek advice, learn togethter, and support each other’s success.
The LoCo Experience Podcast extends this mission beyond the chapter meetings— bringing the wisdom, insights, and stories of local business leaders to a wider audience.
Our triad mission with this podcast is simple:
Inspire through real stories of resilience and success.
Educate by sharing valuable business insights.
Entertain with engaging, unfiltered conversations.
If you love “How I Built This” and the free-flowing style of Joe Rogan - but with a Northern Colorado focus - you’ll enjoy The LoCo Experience! Our closing segment, "The LoCo Experience," asks guests to share their craziest stories — and we get some doozies!
It’s a passion project with purpose, and we invite you to listen, follow, and share, and maybe consider sponsoring. Know someone with a great story? Nominate your favorite business leader for an episode!
The LoCo Experience
EXPERIENCE 207 | Garage Operation to 20,000 Square Feet - Phillip Gottula, Co-Founder and Owner/Operator at FLEXX Productions - Leading the Northern Colorado Event Rental Industry in Service and Technology
Phil Gottula was my first guest to bring in a charcuterie plate - and we shared a beautiful bottle of white wine he also brought in - and we talked about the business of event rentals. Specifically, his business which is the leader in Northern Colorado event rentals - FLEXX Productions.
The event rental industry is an interesting critter. Unlike a retail transaction where the customer pays and leaves with their stuff - event rental requires the business not only to deliver - (on time, every time, no matter what!) - but also the business must pick their equipment back up from the location, and clean and refresh for the next customer. Phil is an expert in the industry, and shares abundantly from what he’s learned.
And - he’s a philosopher, an adventurer, a dog dad, and a wonderful conversationalist. So please enjoy, as I did, my conversation with Phil Gottula.
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Music By: A Brother's Fountain
Phil Gattullo was my first guest to bring in a charcuterie plate, and we shared a beautiful bottle of white wine that he also brought in. And we talked about the business of event rentals, specifically his business, which is the leader in Northern Colorado event rentals, Flex Productions. The event rental industry is an interesting critter. Unlike a retail transaction where the customer pays and leaves with their stuff, event rental requires the business, not only to deliver. On time, every time, no matter what, but also the business must pick their equipment back up from the location and clean and refresh it for the next customer, Phil is an expert in the industry and shares abundantly from what he's learned, and he's a philosopher and adventurer, a dog dad and a wonderful conversationalist. So please enjoy as I did my conversation with Phil Gattula. Welcome back to the Loco Experience Podcast. My guest today is Phil Gattula. And Phil is the founder of and owner operator of Flex Productions here in Fort Collins and operations all around the state, really. Yeah. Absolutely. Uh, what, uh, what kind of wine did you bring us today? I brought us a white wine from Reprise. Uh, it's a winery that Stacy and I went to here, uh, this last year in the, um, California area. Oh, wow. And, uh, so That's really nice. That feels very honoring that you would bring one of probably, I mean, I don't imagine you'd grab three Maybe you did buy three cases and it's just kind of One more bottle. No. Yeah, it's more special than that, you know, it feels special, you know, we could talk to Stacy of, did I choose the right bottle of wine out of the cabin or not? So, uh, you know, but I, I enjoy a good, uh, conversation and a glass of wine. You are a, uh, you're, you're both things kind of a philosopher as well as a. Blue collar guy. Boy, I've never heard philosopher come out. No. You know, as far as a, far as a, uh, you know, a, a name used, I guess you're a thoughtful guy, so you always have been. Yeah. You know, I think you, you put out there, you know what you're, what you're thinking and sometimes it's not always right and agree and, you know, the, the older you get, the more. Wisdom and the more you want to listen. That's what I've kind of like taken back in the past couple of years and the experiences that, that have come in, I think, into my life. Yeah. Yeah. That's we could dig down on that a little bit later, but all right. Yeah. I dig it. Yeah. Um, I guess so it's set the stage, uh, flex productions does, uh, Big party tents all the way down to linens for your small wedding and everything in between, kind. Yeah. Yeah. We're, we're event rentals, a hundred percent event rentals. The part of our industry is either tool rental or event rental, and we're a hundred percent event rental, so tables, chairs, linens, dishes, China, anything. No forklifts, no forklifts. Exactly. You also forklift, but you don't. Yep, yeah, yeah, that's exactly, that's, that's, uh, that's a part of the tool rental part of our industry. Best Event Rental is a great owner operator for small tool rental, Arapahoe Rentals up here also. And do they both do event rentals too? Um, uh, Uh, Front Range Rental is a part of the Arapahoe Rentals brand. Okay. Uh, they bought into that, however, three or four years ago, I think, is what it was. And so they have a branch doing that. It was a great opportunity for them. And, uh, they do a great job at it. So. So, so, yeah. So basically they compete with you, but you don't really compete with them in the tool and stuff. You know, Kinda. It, what is, Friendly competition. Yeah. You know, what, what's so great about the rental industry? Is it's not cutthroat competition for some weird reason. We all bid on a project, you know, my, my biggest competitor up here, um, is, uh, a great individual. He runs a great operation also. And we sit down three or four times a year and have a glass of wine together. Uh, and projects come up and I bid against them and they bid against us. And you know, whoever gets the project, it gets it. And that's just kind of part of the deal. And I think that's what separates our industry. So uniquely is the collaboration, um, you know, as far as you get where it's so not other industries can be so cutthroat, you know, you go as far as to even rent stuff from your competitors. So you can put together a big event, 100 percent steamboat or whatever. Yeah. And vice versa, you know, absolutely. Vice versa. I mean, we all can't have the resources on certain event weekends that are super maxed out. And, uh, so we'll, we'll subcontract back and forth. Uh, between different operations depending on the, the needs. So I guess, can you maybe describe a little bit about the, the span and breadth? Like I know you said event rentals, but so there's, there's linens, there's chairs, there's tables, is there, there's heaters, there's generators, there's tents. How many tents can I rent? Yeah. You know, I, people. We'll call up sometimes and they'll say, I need to rent your biggest tent. And I go, yeah, you don't want to do that. Um, you know, and, and the reason why is tensor, they're expandable by parts, you know, and it's so, so how many linear parts do you have? But also I can bring in other parts from other partners if they want a ridiculous size tent, you know? So, um, I mean, some of the larger projects we've set are, uh, 40 to 50, 000 square feet of tent coverage, um, for, you know, Uh, 3, 200 person conference, floored, air conditioned. I mean, these are, yeah, these are portable buildings that we, we pretty much put up in certain scenarios. Interesting. Um, you know, and, and the industry's come really far from just, quotes, tents, where you see like a circus tent with the, the center poles. That's still very common for like a, uh, uh, wedding and, and whatnot. Sure. But, I mean, uh, two story glass walls. I mean, the industry has just come so far in the past 20, 25 years for the products that are available, uh, that we can provide now. So we're one of the only, um, operators in Colorado that have like glass wall and, and, and hardwall and stuff like that. Kind of leading edge. Is that your brand along the way or becoming more of your brand? Oh boy. Yeah. You know, I, I talked to, um, uh, an owner up here today, the, the, the, as you get. Through these hiccups, right? I mean Flex Productions and I have we talked about where like this company started. No, not yet I mean, we'll zoom back there and we can go there right now if you want. I mean It's your it's your show. Yeah, it's your show. I'm just kind of kind of working with no Well, let's talk about it because I think it's probably gonna be relevant. Yeah, you know, I mean, I know like COVID nation was not good for the events industry and things like that. So people gathering was kind of frowned upon for that first, you know, eight months of that year, the flex productions, you know, came along with a, with a buddy many years ago. Um, Kevin cooling and, um, uh, uh, let's back up before that through high school and college. I did event rentals in the Denver market area. Okay. So like boat rents was the largest operation at the time and, um, and that's kind of where I got started. Yeah. I worked where I worked for the original owner that was there, by the way, the, uh, what was the Arapahoe rentals. We've probably talked about this back in the past, but we've, I financed a. The Windsor location for what would became a Rapinoe Reynolds when I was a banker, like in 2021, probably. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They're great operation. I can't see enough good about, uh, uh, Evan who, who does, is their regional manager and Lance who ran the. Um, uh, Windsor location, I think back then when you probably, maybe it's too, I'm too old for that kind of memory. So, so you, so yeah, I mean, I kind of worked your way up in the industry, learned it. Yeah. You got to high school, college did that, my degrees in computer information. So this is what I got out in the late nineties. The market was just flooded with IT guys, and so it was tough to get back into that. So I jumped back in the rental industry, helped manage a couple operations, um, here in Fort Collins and, and another commercial operation that was in the area. And then, then my old business partner, him and I, uh, jumped out, uh, because they just kind of went really corporate. Uh, yeah, you know, I mean, we're trying to, a lot of businesses are started because the company they work for become really annoying. We just wanted to make them money and, uh, and, and it was challenging for, to, to do that when we were trying to tell them what to do. Um, but we jumped out and started the operation in the garage and, uh, and what did that look like? Like what were those first, like how much cash did it take at first? I mean, we got a small business loan and some tables and chairs. And we, you know, subcontracted tents, right. You know, from other operators to go and do that. Well, we had a lot of the connections because we've been doing it in the market for so long. So, yeah, it's a very much relationship hospitality business. Right. So, um, you know, that's kind of how it started and that was in. Oh, three ish. Okay. And, um, we just kind of grew the, the business little by little. I mean, you're talking pop up tents at first and, you know, uh, 20 wides and then, and then just bigger and bigger and bigger. So, you know, um, uh, and, and so we, what was your first, uh, real location? Um, the first relocation was actually in the Glick Brothers Park where we're at now. Is that right? Yeah, yeah. We had, we got 2, 000 square feet from, from them, uh, in 03, as where we started. And then into 4, 000 and 8, 000 and then in 12, and we just expanded to, Right around just under 20, 000 here this winter is what we grew into Which is fantastic because we really needed to expand. Yeah. Yeah, I remember you were packed in there like sardines Last time I was there which was a year ago over So yeah, um, I wrote down some notes here just now and thinking that like the rental business is probably Like math and customer service like things depreciate You got a turn of a certain number of times per year to justify buying it things like that But then also you're only gonna turn it enough if you have really good customer service probably marketing Yeah as well, like what would you add to that operations? You gotta go set that stuff up To write like set all those tents up. You know, the generator is working Our industry is so unique I compare it to we're a five step business where I think any other industry sometimes is three steps and we'll compare it to is like a lumber company. So you order lumber, I need some two by sixes, some four by eight pieces of plywood. Order goes in, pulls it, puts it on a truck. They go deliver it. Three steps. Boom, done. Right. Okay. We are custom as far as like you're building an event on a venue, backyard. Field, whatever it is that you may or may not know what you actually need. Yeah. You know, and, and so, so trying to educate the client on that piece of it, and then, then going in and actually building out the entire site, um, is different. And so we go three steps, you know, product, um, you know, delivery. Out there, but then we have recovery and reprocess. We're more of a five step type business is really what it is. So that's a lot of complexity to what we do in our type of visitors is lumber delivery. Right, right. Well, and I've rented stuff from flex a number of times and it's. For me, the customer and probably almost all your customer, the recovery is an afterthought and so they don't even, their event happened. They don't really care about helping you, but you got to go in there and grab your shit and go put the chair in the glass where it's going to be reprocessed and done correctly in our facility. The tent material has to be. Reprocessed and, and, and the, it's white, right? So it's, it gets dirty and it's got to be cleaned. So what's that look like on those commercial tenants? Do you bring it back and then hose it all down in the parking lot or in the shed? You know, I used to hand scrub it and I hated doing that because we, and you got to think about the time and the cost of labor to do that, laid out a tarp and actually hand scrub it, which, uh, that's where you start in the industry. Once you can afford a. machine that actually does that. That is a very expensive machine. Uh, you put the materials in the machine. Uh, it tumbles it like a dishwasher, like a big, like a big washing machine, like a big washing machine. Yeah. Yeah. Five foot diameter. So, I mean, it's a big, big piece of equipment. And, uh, so, and you pull the material out and you let it dry. But you got to rent a bunch of tents first before you can buy a. 12, 000 washing machine for your tent washer, or more than 12, 000, way more than 12, 000. Yeah, these are investments that, uh, keep the business running, but don't make you money. Right, right. But, uh, it's part of running one of these businesses if you want to do it correctly. Well, and if you, after every big event where you got 14 20 by 20 tents out, and you've got a bunch of 30 an hour people out there scrubbing those tents like you're gonna find some writing pretty fast compared to depreciation and interest on a scale of economics. Yeah, right. Yeah, you have to get that scale before you can make it make sense Yeah, so just think so. Yeah that that just comes over years. I mean the first couple years We had a fax machine for 120 bucks and it broke or something like that and I was like, we can't spend 140 on a fax machine, you know? I mean, it was that tight as far as running, you know, uh, expenses. What was the first, um, Peach Festival, the Fort Collins Peach Festival? Gosh. Because I think that's when we first met because Tanis was the organizer of that for the Rotary Club. Yeah. You were her, her guy for the event rental stuff. Yeah. Um, I don't recall the year because we already talked that we can't recall stuff because it's been so long ago. It was at Hughes, you know, from what I recall. It was at Hughes Stadium. It was a brand new event. Um, they killed it, you know, I remember going out there and going, holy cow. Well, I was food trucking at the time, right? Cause I had my food trailer there. Maybe not that first year. I think I might've still been a banker that first year or two. Um, but we got acquainted at least cause I was helping her with some, I'd have to look back at photos because it's probably 13, 14, somewhere in there, 12, 13. Yeah. So, um, yeah, so you were still like. Uh, tell me about like that first steps of growth. Like, I imagine it was a ton of sweat equity at first. You hire a few friends for part time jobs and then it gets bigger from there. Yeah, I mean, the first time we actually hired some employees, and I don't even remember what year it was, call it 06 or 07. And our payroll was like 3, 200 bucks for like two weeks. And I go, Kevin, we're not going to make it. There's no way we're going to make it. This is crazy. You know, we can't pay this on payroll. You know, I mean, the expense was so mind blowing to me. And, uh, you know, you gotta remember, I had one or two business classes in college with a CIS degree. And so I'm, I'm very self taught within QuickBooks. And P and L's and balance sheets and all that stuff. I've just learned it over time. So I didn't have a formal background going like, here's how we do this and budgeted this and whatnot. When we first started the business, it was kind of, yeah, it was kind of trial by fire, you know, and you figure it out as you go. Tell me about Kevin. Like what was his circumstance and was he active in running the business too, or more of an investor? Yep. No, Kevin was, we were about, you know, 50, 50 partners in the business when we started it. And, um, uh, you know, he'd been in the industry for, for. Quite many years before me, even come from the tool reno side. I see. And, you know, we just met through a, a, a business that, a reno business run up here. Yeah. And, uh, that business sold and then that's when we got into the other corporate entity and then we jumped out eventually. Yeah, yeah. You know. Okay. Did it ourselves. And then how long were you guys partners in Flex? Yeah, till 2012. Okay. Yeah, 2012 he retired and sent him on his way with a little golden parachute. Right. That's nice. And, uh, you know, uh, he moved down to Costa Rica. That's a pretty cool relationship, right? Like, cause. Probably you wouldn't have succeeded without All of his experience in some fashions and connections and stuff, but also without your energy and enthusiasm and eagerness to build something, probably. Yeah. I don't know. It seems to me that it was probably symbiotic. Yeah. You know, I mean, uh, we both had, you know, the, the different pieces of the, Aspects that needed the business needed at the time. Okay. You know, it was really what it was. And what was his, uh, biggest contribution to that? It was more, he was more operational at first. He was kind of leading some of the charts, but I was more organized. I, I found out in the, uh, administrative part, I think of the work and then he was more kind of operational is where, so he was more of the field guy, more than, you know, organizing the, the, the teams and stuff like that. Right. You know, well, once you start. Like it's hard enough to point yourself in the right direction sometimes, but once you get a team That's two three people and then five ten people and then 15 20 people It's like it gets to be too much, you know for one and that's you know, we have to really organize those teams Yeah, what's what's flex look like today? Like you're growing into 20, 000 square feet Is that gonna be more people to to operate that or yeah, I mean, it's it's so night and day. I mean, we're such a unorganized no employee manual Uh, you know, fly by the night operation, you know, we, we did it correctly in, in many of the, you know, um, operational as you could, but, you know, I mean, we were, the business is organized so differently now, and I'll contribute that to the people that have actually come through the operation over the years to help add a little bit on here and add a little bit on here. And then, you know, we, we jumped into us, as you know, here. Uh, four years ago, I think, you know, we tried to self implement for a couple of years as a train wreck. And then finally, you know, we got, we got implemented and we've been running really hard, steady for the past three years. Oh, really? It's very strict, uh, not us pure, but, uh, us pure to, to what we hold. We, we hold our weekly L10 meetings. And that was the thing before, as far as I call this organization, right. You know, Oh, Hey, let's have a meeting, you know. But it was never, we had a meeting and then it wasn't, it wasn't consistent and it didn't have an itinerary where EOS has allowed us to like, have that, uh, foundation. That was one of the things I was really impressed with our, I think in this, the first full day implementation, kind of talking about the meeting pulse and the value of having that, you know, like even with our loco chapter meetings. You have a chapter meeting, and then it's a month before you connect again, and so just even shortening that pulse between Attention to the things that are important to get done. Yeah, it can really make a difference. Yeah Absolutely. Communication's king. Yeah. True. Within your team. True. What do you guys use for communication and is there, is there rental industry software that helps you do your CRM and invoices and estimates and all that kind of stuff? Yeah. We, we, uh, 2008. So yeah, originally we started on spreadsheets. Right? Right. And then we went to QuickBooks. We only had five customers. Yeah. You know, I mean, that's where you start, you know, spreadsheets. And then we went to, Uh, QuickBooks, and then we went to, uh, Point Rental, which is, you know, our industry, one of our industry softwares. Uh, they've been the leader in the industry for many years. And, uh, yeah. And so we, we've been using that since, uh, 2008. So it does our inventory management. It does our, um, our, uh, AP, you know, receivables and, and pretty much, you know, if you have just example, a hundred tables, you got to allocate where those are on X dates and that's what this software does. That seems like, were you overflowing on your own, uh, spreadsheet skills and stuff? And you're like, Oh shoot, we're going to have to get an upgrade here. Well, you know, when you start making some errors, you know, uh, and you can't track it, that's when you need to change the systems. And that's what I recall kind of happened more than anything. Yeah. And, um, I mean, you got to, uh, the amount of pieces and parts it takes to put together a tent. Um, because they're all componentized. Mm-hmm Uh, is extensive. And so if you don't have, if you allocate these parts out here Right. To each different project. Right, right. Um, you know, you, because they're probably modular, right? Like very much, you pretty much carry the same kind of tandon. You can have the 10 foot wall or the 20 foot wall or Yeah. You know, there, there's, yeah. There's some, some, some back and forth switching on, on the pieces of parts, but Yeah, you, you've gotta, yeah, you've gotta be organizing that, that part.'cause these. crown pieces that are made in Germany, you cannot go down to Home Depot and buy another one. Right, right. You kind of have what you have. So, um, uh, you, you gotta be organized in that aspect. So how do you have your crew structured in terms of, I'm imagining you're slower in the winter and you kind of ramp up your staff in the summer. There's probably. marketing and kind of operations and all the field services and then kind of the admin function is that kind of the main yeah parts of your crew actually our administrative team are what we call our client service team it's actually very busy this time of year no because they're the ones yeah that's the ones that they're they're touching base with our annuals and and if you're having a wedding in July then then they're getting that you know talking about the time I actually just inquired about the next level summit yeah yeah so I mean you get it and you people used to be able to book Three weeks, a month out sometimes, I mean, you can't do that anymore. You got to be on top of this thing four to six months ahead of the game because there's only limited bandwidth all of these companies have now. Um, and that's kind of what's changed post COVID. Yeah, that's what I was wondering. Maybe is the industry has, do you have fewer competitors now than you did 2019? Um, no, I would say there's the same in this market, but I did see about 15 percent of the industry. retire. Because they just didn't want to go through the rebuild process. And I knew after COVID I had a buddy that, that actually, you know, um, he dissolved his company that he'd been talking about getting rid of it for a couple of years and, you know, and, and, uh, in California and, and. And he was like, Phil, what do I do? You know, two or three months into this deal, we're all burning cash, just trying to survive. And I was like, Rob, I was like, you've been talking about getting rid of it forever. I was like, just, you know, do it, man. And he, and he did. And he was, he was so happy in the end that he, that he, he'd moved on. Uh, but there was guys that were on the edge, close to retirement and didn't know what to do. And those, that pushed them over, that was the catalyst. Because, uh, as I told Rob, I was like, I was like, it's going to take three years to dig out of this thing, minimum. For the amount of cash it's going to take and, and the processes. Because every, every rental operation had to eliminate. At least half their core staff, you know, just to, to, to, to make the metrics. Well, I've been surprised a little bit that events didn't come back faster and bigger. Like, um, you know, like the, the bar industry is forever changed because if people go to the bar, they go home at 10 o'clock now and get on Tinder or something like that. You know, the, the, the, there just isn't those kinds of crowds different. Some restaurants are still doing great. Other ones aren't. As good and I don't know, maybe I'm wrong, but it just doesn't feel like the, the, and maybe it's just cause I'm old, like the outdoor festivals and different things like that, that people would gather under tents for. That, uh, yes, the festival part changed post COVID and the reason why multiple factors, I think, um, a major one being cost. Think about how much your groceries and rents and insurance has gone up in the past three to four years. Right, right. That we've had to do the same thing with our rental rates to accommodate, um, you know, a folding chair I'd buy for, I think it was like 16. And I remember when I quoted them out in 2022, they wanted 37 a chair from 16. And it's re leveled a little bit because container prices went crazy, et cetera. But the, uh, festival industry. Just has got crushed in the past couple of years because of the cost of operating not only Event rolls on my side port a potties trash Security off duty PD all this stuff that's required now that you have to have these security things in place You know for these these events and whatnot and and that's the the challenging part. I think I just popped into realities for children Um, I guess it was a couple weeks ago now, and I do a, uh, prize for their luncheon donation kind of thing or whatever. But, uh, Craig was telling me about the, the challenge in still putting together the, the, um, realities ride and rally. And just how it's almost like, you know, are we gonna be able to do this for another five years? It doesn't Feel very solid that we can yeah, and part of that is because of the cost. Yep You know the county's like well We gotta hire this many police officers to shut down this many roads and this and that you know, and it's like We can do all that. Yep. Yeah, that that's it's a very true statement of what's just changing the business. Yeah so So it goes yeah, so yeah, it's math and customer service and some other things. Yeah. Yeah So what's next for you? I remember, um, you were kind of pushing hard trying to maybe expand. Elsewhere because you had a new landlord coming in and stuff. Are we okay to talk about that situation? Cause you expanded where you are instead, but still have a plan to grow. Absolutely. Our, our complex, you know, the previous landlord was there for many years. Uh, 30 plus, you know, these guys own this complex and they sold it a year and a half ago. Uh, the new landlords are, uh, uh, great more to just more corporate, not as small business as the previous landlord. So they have different ideas and concepts and whatnot. Uh, but we grew. Uh, you know, 4, 000 square feet or whatever it was this wintertime in that, in that area because we were maxed out, like you said, in the facility. So, um, we're very happy with, uh, the new layout at this point. And it's kind of given us more elbow room that we've been missing for the past couple of years. It'll create some efficiency. Did you go to the north? Further? Uh, south actually. Okay. Yeah, south, south, south. Wrap around that side instead. Yeah, absolutely. Um, I'll make sure you get on the invite list, but we have an open house, uh, April 16th. Okay. Um, yeah, absolutely. I'll write it down here for you. We'll put it on the calendar. Yeah, absolutely. So that'd be like a grand reopening. Yeah, you know, I mean, I did an open house. Uh, my gosh, I want to say it was like 2018 was last one, but we, we didn't do them any and it was, I think we had 130, 140 people there. It was, and a lot of fun, but the, we were so packed in there as you saw it. It's just, there was no place to host this. That's really what that was. Wasn't enough open space. Yeah, that's really, that's why it deterred us from actually doing it, you know? And so, yeah, we're excited to show off the, the, the, the, the expansion of this space and just, you know, kind of what we have going on right now to the, to market. So, um, yeah, it's going to be good. Well, congratulations on, on making that happen. Um, always interesting when a new landlord comes down and you're not ready to move. So you forecast like moving in a few years to a bigger facility still? You know, the goal has always been for flex to be in its own building. And I've never been shy about telling people that and where we're going to be. Um, the, the operation acquired some, some. land property on the north side of Fort Collins here a couple of years ago. And, uh, so we're, we're kind of holding that strategically, waiting for the right time in the market. But I'm hoping in, uh, two to three years that we'll have the right opportunity to, to grow into our own place. Well, you know, the cool thing is you can grow. You couldn't get barely big enough to build a new building at 12, 000 square feet. So growing to 20, 000 square feet can help you grow during that three years to Absolutely be able to build the building you actually want instead of kind of gimping into what's not quite what you wanted to build really. Yeah, absolutely. Cool. So well, that's exciting. Where is your new space gonna be? Do you talk about that? Yeah. No, I mean, no Yeah, it's uh We'll be off the Mulberry and Timberline area North of the old, uh, airpark, you know, Collins. Okay. Yeah, that's the location. It was very strategic when I looked at the the piece of land there You know from we have great access to I 25 and that's and that's one thing where we're at right now harmony in Timberline We've always had great access I 25 to to go north or south or wherever we need to be And Mulberry was one of those other strategic locations that I kind of identify I'm guessing there's probably not many companies in Cheyenne or Laramie that can Do the complexity of things that you can do. And as Wyoming grows, you know, there's probably opportunity up there. Absolutely. If I go up there now, we go up, we do frontier days. Um, you know, that's something we've been doing the past five years. I think now, um, there was an operation doing it there, but they sold and, and the new operation didn't really care to do it. So it's something we jumped in on. And, um, they're, they're an amazing client and we have the right resources to set up these large scale tents. So from a customer perspective, like I'm imagining there's some big clients, big companies that do stuff. And, um, and then also like a lot of event planners, you know, like Tannis, our mutual friend, others. Well, she's not that anymore. Don't call her for that. Um, but, um. And then you have just a lot of individuals, right, or a small business that wants to do an open house at their small business or whatever. So it's kind of this mix of regular customers and a lot of just private business to consumer. Yeah, we have a lot of annual clients that do things from frontier days to other large events and private owners that do festivals and, um, but all the way down to your just general bride. You know, so I didn't turn my ringer off Now you got to tell us who it is. Um, we'll see. It was Jill. Oh, oh, all right. Stop everything There's a picture. The boss is calling. Lenny sent some pictures of Hawaii. So we, I don't know. Did you meet Lenny? No, probably not. We have an exchange student Jill and I do from Finland Yeah. Oh, I met him at your friend's getting. Yes. Yes, exactly. So, so that is in Hawaii now for a week with the exchange class from Greenheart exchange. Like whoever pushed the 800 extra button could go to Hawaii for a week. Um, well, next time I'm going to request that we do this podcast from Hawaii. If it's your dime, I'm going, I'm ready. I'll bring my equipment, you know, bring me a couple of large clients and we can talk about this. You know, anything's possible. So you got a lot of steady Eddie, like Recurring revenue when there's not like a pandemic going on, you can count on about half of your revenue, maybe every year. I mean, yeah, at least three quarters, you know, is usually annually repeat for us. We're, we're, um, I mean, flex is a 22 year staple in this community. So we're very connected with the university and, and, uh, the city and the county and, and all these, these entities that we have. Um, you know, uh, reputation and credibility with is really what it is. You got to think when you send over a quote and a cad and whatnot, and they go, here, Kurt, here's an 8, 000 piece of paper. Right. That's a lot of trust. That's your, you're, you're saying that this organization is going to come on a Friday and execute this event for you and make sure it's done. That's one of the things that's, that's the other, when I see a five piece of the business, the challenge of our business, we're in a never fail business, right? And it doesn't matter if a truck breaks down, an employee doesn't show up, whether incident, you cannot set Mrs. Jill's wedding up on Monday when her wedding's on Saturday, right? We've got to be there on Friday or Thursday or whatever the range time frame is. You got to have a little redundancy. Even if two people are sick with COVID, you got to still figure out how to get there. We got to figure it out. And we always have, we've always executed everything we've done and adjusted when things do happen, which they will in this type of business over the years. Um, I will say, you know, to give credit where credit's due, my team is amazing. And that's why the success of the company is You aren't afraid that much anymore. No. Yeah. I mean, When's the last time you did a 16 hour day? Oh, this is a 16 hour day. Because I bet you got a lot of them in the past at least. Oh, oh yeah. Because I'd never fail. Yeah, 16, 20 hours, you know what I mean? Yeah. 24, it depends on what needs to be done. Right. Yeah, you know, I, I, I, I'm lucky enough where I'm working. On the business more now than directly in the business for many, many years. Yeah, yeah. Fair enough. I dig it. Um, is there anybody on the team, um, right now that you'd like to give a shout out to? Or is that a risk leaving some people out? No, I mean, my long standings right now are, uh, Kara, she's been with the organization here 12 years and same with Maria, our soft goods manager, 11 years, I think. Um, you know, soft goods, it's, it's whole owned department. With all the linens and different things like that. Things, China, flatware. I mean, it's got its own department because it's so detailed. Mm hmm. Right? You know, I mean, how much barbecue have you spilled on one of my linens? Right. Yeah. You're laughing because you know, you know what I'm talking about, you know. Yeah, so my soft coach manager, I mean, she's the, she's the stain, you know, uh, guru, you know, in our, in our business. And when I say I'm having a barbecue and I talk to somebody, your team, do they be like, maybe you want the black linens instead of the white ones? Yeah. You know, if that fits for me, it's I'm just thinking the black probably covers the stains a little easier. We can, we can work it out. It's more, yeah, of appearance, you know. Fair enough. So, so you got those couple of gals been more than 10 years on the team. Yeah, yeah. We, we run, you know, 22 to 24 of us in the off season and then 40 plus in the on season. Okay. It's kind of our typical size right now for staff. Is that like known to most of them that they, this is going to be a summer job kind of thing or a summer plus a couple of months kind of job? Yep. We're transparent, you know, with the, the people that we do bring in each season and just say, Hey, we were ramped down right around September, October and, and here we got about three or four weeks left so they can find work, you know, to other, other areas. Um, and then if we get really, we have transition with any business and sometimes we'll, yeah, yeah, we'll, we'll have, we'll have somebody that. Is he, Hey, I'm going to retire from the organization after three or four years here, and we'll get one of those temporary people that come in in the summer and be like, this person's fantastic. Uh, bring, you know, uh, he or she into the organization full time. So that's kind of how we identify and grow within the team. Yeah. Yeah. You mostly hire for your permanent team from those temp teams kind of thing. Yeah. Hey, you don't have to do that. Yeah. Not temp teams. That's seasonal teams. Well, and it has to be that way. Yeah. Because they're just, and what keeps you busy, I'm guessing it's more of those soft goods, no tents to speak of, occasional tents, probably through the winter season. Go time, yeah, we do tenting in the winter time. Tents and heaters and all that. 100%, yeah, we wall tents, heat them, uh, you know, we were up in, uh, the mountains doing, 18, 000 square foot here a couple weeks ago. Oh, is that right? Yeah, so I mean we like giant wedding or a Large corporate festival, you know what music festival? Okay, and so I mean there's stuff that does happen in this market It's just not as seldom, you know in the winter time There's another cost to heating and sure and walling and everything that comes along. Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense Well admittedly, I'm not as On the scene as I used to be 20 years ago, and you know that makes two of us current. It's hard I'm okay with that. Yeah, I really should nice 90 minutes of Netflix at the end of the day early bedtime I had I think it was Karen my team, you know here a couple years ago when I passed on like a large gala that had been like the, the go-to, I've been going to for some a thousand plate dinner. Okay. For many years, you know, since 2006. Oh wow. Is when I started in this event. Oh, dang. Yeah. And, and a couple years ago. And I was like, Hey, I, I'm not gonna go this year. And she's like, what do you mean you're not gonna go this year? You know, you've always gone to the thing. I go. Hey, I'm passing the torch. It's time for you guys to kind of take this on more and whatnot. And I go, I want to go watch my Netflix. Like, like Kurt does, um, yeah. So, you know, things change in life over time. I dig it. Um, what would you say some of your like key strengths as an owner, or maybe what you suspect some of your long time employees might say, or your past loco think tank fellow members or things like that? Yeah. What US has really done for me. Is help me put a name on what I do and what I am in the organization at us. We'll say I'm a visionary, um, with, uh, in the, the distest profile, uh, Myers Briggs PI, I a hundred percent test as a visionary within it and in, in, uh, businesses and to maybe what the, you know, your audience know a little bit more about that. It's, uh, I have the big ideas. I can speak 10 years down the road and have these great ideas and pitching to my team. And, and here's 10 great things I think we should do guys. My integrators slash operational people will pick the crap out of those things and go, Phil, great. Yeah. But, you know, operationally, you know, yeah, we, we, we don't, we can't build the tent on top of the house. It's going to look cool, but you know, you know, we can't anchor it into the roof, you know? Uh, and so they'll bring me back down to reality on that stuff. But usually one out of 10 of my ideas. We'll stick and it'll be a really good idea. And that's what good visionaries are really about, uh, within, you know, um, operations. Fair enough. You know, so And how does that, like, really impact your business? Is it like choosing the right kinds of tents and materials? Is it like advertising in the right places? Like, how does that visionary kind of really Yeah, yeah, I mean, that's a good, that's a good question. Um I would say from a product aspect, yeah, I've been able to predict that a little bit and say, Hey, here's something new. Let's try this. And, and, uh, it's different than anything else that's happening in the market. Um, some of it's trendy though. Yeah. I was going to say, just like Denver started adopting trends and then it trickles up to Fort Collins. The trends come in from the coastlines, actually East and West coast. That's where a trend, uh, comes from. I'll use an example. Chocolate fountain. Sure. Chocolate fountain. Do you remember, I mean, how popular they were 10 to 15 years ago? I'm sure I could buy a chocolate fountain to use right now or for a nickel. Oh, cheap. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And so, you know, everybody's like, you know, chocolate fountains. And I looked at it and I was like, man, it's such a trend. And it's a hard trend because of the temperamentalness of them, and I never got into them. And so I've avoided some of those trends that I, that I see coming in and out of the industry just by kind of being able to pick it up. Did you find somewhere that somebody could rent a chocolate fondant if they really wanted one? Oh, absolutely. There's people who recommend it up here or we cross rent it or something like that, you know, but it's just, I never got into, you know. Fair enough. These are things. So yeah, the trends come in from the coastlines usually, but yeah, I'm, I'm, I try to be as visionary and predict some of the products that, that'll make sense in this marketplace. Uh, you know, I mean, we're not in LA, we're in Fort Collins, Colorado, and there, so there is a realism of, of what the practicality of what this market not only wants to afford, uh, but also what makes sense here. Yeah. We don't have, we've only got like a. One or two billionaires or maybe a few, you know, like we don't have, and we don't have big, big companies that can drop that kind of dollars on some of the things. Yeah, it's, it's, yeah, it depends on what that is. I mean, there's only so many that can, with these large structure tents that we put glass wall on and it literally turns it into a building and people like, what do you mean glass wall? Like these are actual 13 foot high glass walls. It turns the actual tenant building. That's so cool. Really, really impressive. I wish we had some pictures of that. I have some pictures that I'm happy to share. Uh, you know, we'll, yeah, we'll catch up to it later. We got a talk going on right now. Um, so, I guess from a, like, you mentioned you didn't really have any, uh, significant business acumen in the beginning. Like, who did you, was it just kind of self studied? Did you have CPAs and accountants, business peers? Like, where did you really Build your skill set in terms of the financial management element hard hustle and And it just honestly figuring a lot out on my own. I did not And I would, I, I encourage people, uh, especially in my, the industry now to, to figure and find a mentor or anybody who getting into business. And that's something I really just didn't, uh, know about and, or, um, wasn't there in the early two thousands. Right. You know, the internet was with, you know, with the internet was, and, and, and the, the, the communications just weren't there as they are now where you can reach out to somebody. Um, that's where I, you know, I participated a couple of years in our industry, um, association, which is called American rental association, and they have a mentor mentee. program and I've actually, uh, been, uh, a mentor to a couple of different operations, uh, out there to just kind of coach and guide them and, and try to give them some, some guidance that I never had, you know? Uh, but it was a lot of just hard grind and, um, you know, uh, figuring it out on my own. And I think after the ninth year, I remember after the ninth year, I was like, You know, this, this business, this can't be great, you know, I'm failing in the, in the numbers and it, and it just didn't make sense of where things should be. And I was like, man, I've done it for 10 years. So obviously I'm doing something right. Right. And that was kind of the click and the realization is, and as, and, you know, everything's going to kind of, yeah, yeah. It kind of be okay here, you know, and you, and you think about the typical business last five years or less or whatever, you know, and that kind of thing. And did you, you took out a little bit of debt. In the beginning, did you use bank loans and debt to grow along the way, or did you mostly acquire your additional assets with cash over time, or both? Both. Both. I remember the first one, I'd have to try to figure this out of, of where we found this financing company, but I know it was like, I don't want to say shark loan, but the interest rates were crazy on this stuff. Cause we didn't have any credit or credibility. You know, as a two plus year old business. And I remember we financed some tables and chairs on it, but eventually, yeah, we, we were able to have more of that, prove a little bit of a balance sheet, you know, and, and show that to some banks. And, and that's primarily where we would do some funding, you know, make a big capital acquisition and then. So it goes, yeah, you're a good client for a bank, frankly, it seems like because you always are getting new stuff You know, you don't want to sit with a half a million dollars on your balance sheet So you can acquire a bunch of tables that yeah, or whatever. Banks like us because we have assets versus like, you know, a catering operation Right. They usually have more clientele base. Yeah, what we can loan against, you know. Yeah, if you've got a need as a caterer for Debt, it means you haven't been running an unprofitable operation, usually. Yeah. Yeah. Um, I feel like I'd be okay to have a quick break and resettle and come back for, um, the next segment. Sure. All right. Sounds good. I want to hear about where little Phil So, uh, well, let's jump in the time machine. You wanna hear where the stork came from, huh? Seven. Seven years old. Or, yeah, we can hear about the stork, too. Oh my gosh. Yeah, actually, I'll tell, uh, the stork from my, my, my parents, they said I was so ambitious to get into the world, they had to pull over. Um, on the way to the hospital, so I was born in the car. Uh, so I was, I was eager, I guess. I guess so, yeah. So, that's the story that, that my parents told me. Were you here locally, in Colorado? Denver. Okay. Yep. Oh yeah, you mentioned that you Had, uh, worked in some of the rental stores down there and stuff. What was the circumstance? Like, what kind of a family did you be born into? Yeah, I mean, middle class family. Um, parents are from, dad's from Nebraska area. It's a very small town, 150 people. Catholic. That's where I come from. Yeah, you know, um. And then my mom's side's from Quincy, Illinois. So it's a small Chicago, uh, no South Southern, right. I guess the Missouri border. Okay. So also kind of small town. Yeah. Very small. Yeah. Very small town down there. Farmers, you know, rural area. So, um, so seven, what was I doing when I was seven? I don't even know. You have brothers, sisters? I have an older sister. Okay. Yep. And how old was she? A couple years older than me. Okay. So she lives in the Denver area and um, does uh, software consulting work uh, within the healthcare industry. What would nine year old, what's her name? Nicole. What would nine year old Nicole have said about seven year old Phil? Oh, man, she would beat up on me like an older sister. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Well, her sister liked to beat on younger, younger brother, you know? I mean, that's kind of how it happened. And then, you know, when I got bigger, eventually, you know, she just developed new techniques. That's kind of what it was. More, uh, psychological techniques instead of physical. Oh, yeah, absolutely. So, I mean, that's a brother sister relationship, you know? And you said middle class family. Um, were your folks both employed? Or was your mom a So my dad, um, entrepreneur has always had his own business. Um, uh, sales, uh, kind of is what he did for, um, you know, uh, for himself and for others. Yeah, for him all himself. He kind of wrapped in between large, uh, pumps for, Uh, you know, uh, ski resorts to, um, uh, water plants to stuff like that. Okay. And a lot of that stuff. A lot of bigger equipment. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, he had, he had a business and I remember going down to his business and he was maybe three or 4, 000 square feet. And stuff, uh, there being there as a kid. And then my mom was a CPA by, uh, by trade. Um, you know, so I should have had her spend more time with you on the number as I know, right. Totally. You know, so, so as you developed, like, were you sporty? Were you smart? Were you a nerd? Were you, uh, um, we were smart kids. I hung out with some pretty smart other buddies in, in, uh, you know, uh, in the neighborhood. Um, one is now he's an aerospace engineer, electrical aerospace engineer. And so, um, myself and, and, uh, my, my buddy, we, we would, we would build some very cool, complex, uh, you know, rockets to all sorts of various stuff. So I see a little more nerdy, but then also, uh, adventurous, active, nothing scared us, you know, take a bike rides anywhere. And you know, that, that, that genre of, uh, Still the thing, even in Denver, like the city didn't lose that'cause Yeah. You know, we were a little suburb. Suburb on the, on the east side there is kind of where we were. Okay. But, you know, uh, once the, the night lights came on, you go home and, and, uh, you hide the blood on blood on your, your, your, your shirt, your elbow. Yeah. Or, or learn to clean it out and drink hose out of the water. And that's the generation, you know, that, that we grew up in. Sure. You know? And then, uh, did you go to college then after high school or, yeah. You did? Up here in Fort Collins. Okay. Computer information systems. Okay. Yeah. You mentioned that. Okay. So how, what did that choice come from? Uh, did you, was it kind of like, yeah, he was, he was right there. Yeah, I know. I mean, computers were always the, the, the thing we, we played with in high school. It was cutting edge at the time. Yeah. And grade school, you know, and installing things on networks of the school computers that they didn't have us locked out of yet. And, and, uh, you know, just being, uh, you know, curious and figuring things out, you know, at that time, I find it interesting that like when we were About that age, and I think I'm a little bit older, if I recall, or a fair bit older, but Like, the, the adults, the teachers and stuff were like, Hey, you should study these computer things, cause they're gonna be really important in the future. Right? And now, With the AI thing and stuff, it feels like all the young people, the, the, the 15 to 24 year olds are like, Hey adults, we should all study this AI stuff a little more because it's going to be really, it feels like it's kind of flipped the script a little bit compared to what we experienced with the new technology environment back then. It's just a different level. You know what I mean? If you think about the technology for our parents and what was out there, it was cutting edge at the time, you know? And I was, I think as a kid, I was always like, why are my parents like understanding and into this stuff? You know, and I think it's just, as you get older, you don't really. care as much in a certain way or, or don't look backwards. And, and you're, you know, I'm aware of it and studying AI, but when you have the time, I think as a kid too, you can be so immersed in it and really, uh, on top of it, you know, do you know all the settings on your phone? Curt? No, like I was just like, I actually just earlier today, I, I told Alma, I was like, man, I pushed the, uh. Help polish this button on Google Gmail before I sent an email to my facilitators. It was like, it was so much better than the email I wrote before that, but damn it, I'm sending the one I wrote by myself because I can do it. And guess what? They've been doing that for 24 months now. Oh, yeah, exactly. Exactly. So, uh, yeah, so it goes. Um, and so, yeah, we kind of circled back to You know getting back into the rental industry after college and any regrets like if you Could have been a hundred and fifty thousand dollar a year computer guy for the last 20 years. Would you swap that out? I mean everything happening then everything happens for a reason I mean, you know plotted out at some point you think you're like, all right, I'm gonna do this and whatnot Yeah I mean I had no idea that the market was gonna be flooded with IT guys the way it was even with a College degree and jumping back into rental and it just kind of led to what it did Do you think you could be a good employee now? After 20 years or something. I've thought about that a little bit and I'm like, oh man, you know What if I did something else and I work for somebody else? I think if somebody offered you too much money for your for your business tomorrow, I you know, I don't get a job Well, you'd probably just I think you know, I mean, you know, I mean I'd have to do Yeah, I'd have to do something right, you know, I'd be bored Um, you know, visionaries and entrepreneurs just, they can't, you can't sit around. I would, I'd make Stacey crazy. You might not get a job, but you can do some stuff. So, so to answer your question, um, I, I think that would be a challenging, you know, after working for myself for, for so many years and, and having to, uh, report and accountability. But I think in a certain capacity, if I had the right role, then sure, maybe I could do something. You might be better at it now after a few years of EOS than you would have been. Before that sure because you I suspect if you're like me, and I'm just starting to implement a us But like I'm I'm a little better at managing myself even already that I was Without that element of kind of tracking and accountability for myself. Yeah. Uh, discipline and, uh, habits, as you know, is really, is really what it's making. I mean, having weekly L10 meetings is a habit. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And, uh, so when you, when you can instill these good habits, right, in your life, then, then, uh, you have good things. Well, you show up once or twice and you're like, sorry, I didn't do any of my homework before coming to this meeting. Then you, like, kick your own ass so you do that better next time. You shamed yourself is what you're saying. Exactly, exactly. When I had Jennifer Lewis on, who I know you've worked with a little bit in the EOS realm, she asked me, why don't you implement EOS, Kurt? And I was like, well, because you're going to make me Do a bunch of hard things that I'm not sure what to do. You're going to hold me accountable? I don't want to be accountable. Right. And I don't even really want to hold myself to that. But, uh, you know, nine months later, here we are. Then what you do is you design the world around that. You have other people that can help with those things that you don't like. Which EOS will show those four boxes as in, what do you like? You really enjoy doing this. Yeah. Yeah. Right. And that's part of what, you know, I have a, uh, executive assistant that spends maybe five hours a week kind of. Making sure I don't miss stuff and occasionally setting up appointments for me and things like that. And that's just worth it for me. Yeah 100 percent yeah better than shaming myself all the time What you've heard that line before don't should on yourself. It's you know, I mean Again, it's about what you decide to do or do not do, but don't should all the time. Yep. Absolutely. Um, so let's, uh, let's jump into the, um, mandatory. Mandatory? Segments. Yes. The, uh, faith family politics. Oh, I remember you mentioned that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm sure you're excited about it. Uh, we've had some fun political conversations. Um, although we're, eh, I wouldn't say we're that far apart, but we're definitely on a different, uh, uh, Bandwidth, I suppose. I'm a very libertarian kind of guy, and I think you've got some of those notions, but maybe more on the Progressive end of the libertarian. Sure. Element. Is that a fair? Yeah, assessment. Yeah I'm a little more on the conservative end of the libertarian spectrum. Yeah, I mean, I'm in the middle. I'm independent You know, this is where I land in this spectrum there You know our core values Uh, as a company or, you know, accountability, do the right thing and humility. So, uh, I try to instill the, the same thing. Uh, that's something we instill not only in our employees, but also in our clients. Yeah. If we have a client that's not working within those core values, uh, I'm not hesitant to, to move on and say, we're just not the right, uh, solution for you guys. Fair enough. And so I look the same thing within my, my, my beliefs also, you know. How, uh, how would you say Trump is doing the first, uh, I was wondering when you were gonna just like Well it's right, it's fresh. It is very fresh. And it's pretty crazy, like, we haven't seen anything as active as this. Um, but, you know, the Libertarian, he says, like, well it's about fucking time somebody acted like this and cut a bunch of shit and offered early resignations. Yeah, I, um, the That's a, that's a hard ground to dance here because as a business owner, typically I'm pretty Republican, right? You know, and I want to, I want to do better for businesses and, and have those things. Less regulation. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. You know, Colorado has been become, become so It's difficult and regulated to operate in and people go why does it cost so much to rent a tent? The compliance that I have to have for my business and the employees, right, is insane Sorry, but the Family and Medical Leave Act compliance costs me 24 out of your 200 tent rental. I just switched to a new HR firm, which is fantastic And we went through, uh, an onboarding audit with them. They had 200 questions. It took over two and a half hours to go through this audit with them and everything compliance wise that we were doing. I mean, you should see this Excel list. I, and, and, and I sat here and I go, didn't Colorado be, you know, 20 plus years ago, I mean, it was such a easy right to work state and then I always was like with employees and I was like, Hey, you know, I just have that conversation. Hey, is this working out for you still? And, and we've talked about this a couple of times and, and you're not performing in this area. And you're like, yeah, I just, I don't think my passion's with anywhere. And I was, I would always be like, Hey, maybe it's time you look for something else. I want the best for both of us. Yeah. You know, and, and we'd get a part ways and that was it. You know, there, there, there's so much more crazy complexity around running that now, which creates costs and everybody goes, why is it so expensive to live here in. In this state or area. So that that is the one hard part of, you know, going to the left side there to the right side. You know, I mean, of course I want I want better operations for businesses and in those areas. So, um, Uh, Trump's an, an individual that's pretty, I just looked, uh, Lerner County went 57 percent Harris and 40 percent Trump. So is it definitely buck the kind of national trend there? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, this is a very blue area for kind of many years now. Um, you know, so I, I, in the end, I, there should always be balance in the middle is kind of my philosophy and opinion on it. Yeah. Yeah. Um, you get too, too far one direction or the other. It creates turmoil for everybody. There should be like, uh, maybe there is polling data. That's like it's actually 19 percent Harris and 31 percent Trump and like 45 percent not too excited about neither. Yeah. Yeah, so, um, you know, I, I think a lot of people Uh, he's pretty, uh, um, uh, cutthroat and, and will make these decisions and signs all these executive orders. Yeah. I mean, I've heard from definitely other construction and farmer owners right now that are very concerned about deportations. I mean, yeah. How could you not be? Well, yeah. I mean, and, and, and heard about, uh, Uh, you know, things that are transpiring right now and this, this country, I mean, you gotta think that these farmers, some of them have half their workforce Totally. That, yeah. That, that are harvesting the, the crops and everything right now. So what is that gonna do to our food costs? Little alone availability? Yeah. Yeah. Um, no, I'm, it's, it's a concerning thing I think us as a country and it, what is gonna be the catalyst in the next month or two that either changes that or one way or the other. Yeah. No, it's an interesting, my. My hope is that the, the whole big we're getting rid of everybody kind of thing is a bunch of bluster and they really take action on the actual criminal record people or the people we just don't even know who they are, you know, um, but I've had some of that conversation with Alma and of course she's from a Mexican background and, uh, community and, you know, she knows more than a dozen people that she's like, I'm a little, A little nervous that somebody is going to come and grab them, you know, and that's what kind of a way to live is that terrible, especially if you were here going back to 2019 or 2018 or something, you've been working on your green card, you're doing these things and now you're like, Oh, am I going to be a innocent bystander to this sweep? 95 percent of the people that are here usually here for the right reason. They want to work, make some money, give money to their family and, and just, you know, and have that. That dream lifestyle that any American wants to have, and they just maybe haven't gone through the process to, to get there with it. But, you know, there's a lot of jobs out there, uh, from farming to, to construction that not a lot of Americans are doing. And I think that's, that should be a concern for this, this country in general. No, I think, I mean, I think there should be consensus. Among both Republicans and Democrats honestly that we need to actually fix immigration so that we can import more people And we need to have the right kinds of standards and screening and perhaps a wall too so that we can tell the difference because like I hate to be a tinfoil hat guy, but how many like Potentially bad Chinese or Arab people came across the border the last few years. Yeah. Like it could be hundreds of thousands for all that. Oh, we don't. Yeah. Right? Like what would that do if there was an actual conflict and they were moles in our society? Okay. Tin foil hat. You know what I mean? I don't know. They might be. Yeah. Like if you were China, wouldn't you try to send a bunch of young recruits over to wreck the demon? Yeah, I mean, I, I don't know cause I've never dug down in that area and or been educated on it. So I, I, uh, uh, we could run through any scenario like that as in, but I agree with you, like the labor force is so important that if we literally bounce. You know, a significant portion of the population. Yeah, if we balance half the workers out here, there's going to be a food issue, uh, let alone construction issue, let alone, you know, et cetera, et cetera. So, um, I hope, I hope the, the, uh, talk and everything that's kind of transparent right now in the next month or two, uh, The bluster kind of slows down and moderates the action a little bit. Yeah, creates some, yeah, some, some balance, you know, is really, is really what's needed. It's been out of balance in, in a couple different ways. Yeah, that's fair. So, you know, um. Should we talk about abortion or any of those other political hot topics? I mean, I think you and I are the least qualified to talk about something like that. My blog that's going to come out tomorrow said, uh, basically one of the reasons that Harris lost the election is because she didn't really have a focus, a point. It was kind of like, things are pretty good. Continue Joe's legacy, protect women's rights and, uh, orange man bad. Yeah. You know, and that. Ultimately, she wasn't successful because she didn't kind of get to the point of what, what's going to be better with you. Um, and so, I don't know. We'll see what happens. I, you know, it's a, it's a complicated world and the unintended consequences of Any action are, are significant. I hope we get the hell out of, uh, I hope Russia and Ukraine comes to terms that are Disappointing to both of them soon and we can quit worrying about World War Three. Yeah, war's bad overall as we all know and in the the the ancillary people that are affected within those communities And, uh, um, uh, children and everybody that's affected something like that will, will, will carry that for multi generations in their lives. And that is incredibly sad. Um, we, we are so isolated here in Fort Collins, Colorado with This great blessed community that we live in and, uh, and I, I very much, uh, tell myself that. Dang, I forgot. I usually, uh, we got to the politics section. I usually offer a homegrown joint to consume during the show. Uh, is that of interest to you? We haven't talked about that before. I'm, I'm good with my, my, uh. White wine is fine. White wine and charcuterie. Thank you for the hospitality. Sure. As always. It actually, my, my percentage of, uh, acceptance has increased from like 7 percent to like 12 percent since people, since I've been saying it was my own homegrown. Oh really? Yeah, yeah. That's fun. I grew like a, one big plant and it grew like, I don't know. Quarter pound half pound or something like a ton this year, man. I remember when you know, but give it away like crazy pot became Legal or medically legal in Colorado, you know, and at that point I went I was like, it's over, you know It's gonna be here and it's gonna be legalized one hours Yeah, I knew that was the first test step for doing it and one of the reasons it's so expensive to operate a business here is because You have to have warehouse space to grow this Marijuana and it took up a lot of the warehouse space in Colorado, right? Oh, yeah rents you were four to six dollars a square foot and they doubled plus In colorado because it's a lot more lucrative to have a uh marijuana operation going in a warehouse Yeah, you know, uh fun little back. Yeah from years ago. How many total square foot do you suppose they grow in now? Oh, I, I don't, I'm hundreds of thousands. Yeah, I mean, yeah, I mean, I'm depending on the size of the operation. At least for a season there was a shortage. Yeah, is my, yeah, is my, my guess. Yeah. You know, so. What would you say as a mostly non consumer or perhaps fully non consumer, you think weed has been good or bad for Colorado or? Neutral. Probably neutral. I'm not educated enough on the tax, um, you know, revenues. Yeah, how much good has happened from it. And yeah, where those go. I mean, uh, that was enacted to where a lot that those. That was a theory, right? To go into the educational systems. The kids will be smarter if we just. Yeah, you know, and um, I, I think it was a good thing from the aspect of Um, it, it was already here before then, um, to go ahead and might as well regulate it and tax it, uh, to make it safer. Uh, I, I, I don't think that was a bad thing, honestly, um, but I, I, uh, hopefully the, the, the tax revenue has done some good. I don't know, I have never dug into where that's done, but I mean, you don't see the societal collapse that some see. Or maybe that's why we voted 57 percent for Harris. No, I mean, you know, here's, here's the thing that when, when pot became legal here in Colorado, the people that always smoked still smoked, but the people that didn't smoke didn't smoke. And it's, it really didn't change anything other than the fact that he could go down a store and buy it, you know, so I didn't really see a major change with, with anything there. That's so well observed. Like it's exactly the echo of my experience. There was a few people that were like, Ooh, I'm going to try it. And then they. Didn't, you know, people would try edibles or something like that, they're like, nah, whatever. Religion or family, would you prefer? Cause you do faith politics, faith family politics. Well, family, faith family politics. So, family now? Yeah, sure. Well, we talked about politics first, we went backwards already, cause I wanted to talk about Trump with you, get you in the hot seat. Uh, family, so we talked about your mom, your dad, a little bit, your sister. Um, Are you still in a relationship I assume? Yeah. Long term relationship? Yeah, long term relationship. Um, you know, um, my spouse, uh, partner Stacey and I, we've been together 12, going on 13 years right now. Yep, so, uh, we met through the events industry. She was doing, uh, working for, uh, Uh, Sneagrab, uh, corporate, uh, sports authority. Okay. And, uh, doing the Sneagrab tents from Colorado to Montana to Alaska. Okay. And so that was happening in Fort Collins. Sure. And I kinda, kinda hunted her down to get the business and. And she blew me off for like six months, you know, uh, to get the business. And I just kind of, you know, did that, but we ended up doing a couple of dates. She played very tough to get ah, um, I will say that. And um, uh, so I was very lucky to just kind of be able to hang out with her and get to know her. Yeah. Yeah. And then how long, um, you said 13 years together? Exclusive. Yep. Yep. Um, you're probably edging out of, does she have children? No, no kids. You don't have kids. Yeah. Yeah, no kids. Did you guys think about it? Uh, you know, that's one thing when we got together, I think what you usually do in the first part of a relationship, you talk about like, you know, kids, and we're like, we're both like, yeah, you know, we're okay, you know, yeah, you know, and that's how we kind of, that's one of the reasons we got along is we both kind of always had that same philosophy together and, and, um, you know, so it's, uh, no kids, uh, family question now, like, If all of a sudden, by some whatever, she got pregnant, like, would you be excited to have a child together? No, we're old enough. We're, we're, we're past You'd be terrified. We're past that, Kurt. Yeah, fair enough. We're past that in life, so Yeah, I wonder what I would do. Like, Jill's 44, I'm 50, right? Like, so we're past that too. Yeah. And, like, I don't know what we would do. Yeah. You know? Yeah, I mean, uh, we're, we're, uh, we're great. We are dog parents and, uh, One dog? Two dogs. You know, uh, this will come up within some of the philosophy. We had one of the dogs pass in the past couple of weeks. Oh, I'm sorry. And, uh, yeah, thank you. And, uh, So now one dog? Yeah, one dog. Okay. Let's talk about the departed dog first. Oh my god, we probably should not bring that up. Well, you might cry, but that's okay. The back story on these dogs, we travel. Okay. That's one thing that CCA like to do is travel usually once a year. Um, Puerto Rico's been one of our favorites. We've been down there four or five times. Okay. And we went to breakfast at this restaurant and they had posted on their Facebook page. We'd lot, we'd actually both come from with dogs from our previous relationship. Okay. Ship. So we both had dogs and they all passed within a year. It was absolutely terrible. Oh, wow. Uh, they were just, they, they got old and, and whatnot. It was terrible. And, uh, but we were in Puerto Rico and this restaurant posted, uh, one of the tugs and, um. Uh, uh, so I was, I went to breakfast and, and then, you know, I was like, no, no, we're not going to do it. And I surprised her. I took her over to the rescue and that dog was gone. I was a Sharpay. Oh, in Puerto Rico. Yeah. In Puerto Rico. Yeah. Yeah. It was a Sharpay, you know, kind of pity little dog and whatnot. The dog wasn't there. We made another dog and she's like, Oh, the dog will be back in two days. Her brother got adopted, et cetera. We were back like two days later. She's there. The brother didn't get adopted. And they are just, they're 12 weeks old, you know, and they're just like glued to each other, pulling on each other in the room and, and they, you, they just love each other to death. So has that been the two? Yeah. And so, and so anyways, you know, and I asked Stacy, I go, I go, which, and I was like, which dog do you want to choose to bring home? And I already knew I was screwed at that, you know, at that point. And she goes, yeah, you could stay here. They're both coming with. The rescue lady dropped the, uh, I was like, we don't leave for three days. And she's like, I'll meet you at the airport, three hours away, dropped them in our arms at the airport at eight o'clock in the morning, stood back, took a picture, uh, which I'll, I'll, I'll share with you. And we had these two dogs that we got on an airplane and all of a sudden we're dog parents, brought them back. So this is, that's 2018. And, um, and we just spent so much time with these dogs. They're our kids. And so, um. Uh, the, the one dog, um, Raina, our, our Brown Sharpay, uh, a couple of weeks ago, she just had a, um, disc bulge suddenly and, um, and it happened so quick Monday, acting weird Tuesday at the vet, Wednesday at CSU, back at CSU at four o'clock in the morning. And, uh, we had to say goodbye on Thursday night. It was terrible. Wow. So. Just intense pain. Yeah, she was in intense pain. You can spend 12, 000 to maybe have a chance to alleviate. You know, there is no cost you can put on a, your, one of your best friends and your kid. That's true. And so that, that was, it was more of the fact that we did everything we could and she was in so much pain and we just had to let her go. It was terrible. So, I'm so sorry. And that's one of the things when you sign up for these animals, they will give you the most joy and love. Yeah. Yeah. And they're incredible in so many ways. How's, uh, how's the other dog doing with their absence? Yeah. Fo yeah. Foster, I mean, they're, they're so, they're literally brother and sister. Yeah. Um, you know, so I imagine the bond is super crazy. Incredibly intense. Yeah. So, um, yeah, he's, he's, uh, you know, you can, until things are different, you know? Yeah. So, um, yeah, we had, uh, brother and sister cats, um, Bootsy that we still have, and then the king of LaPorte, uh. His name was Barley, and he got hit by a car. Oh my god. Like a week after our most previous exchange student moved in. And I wasn't around, I was out of pocket for a couple hours, so he like, carried the cat. To the backyard and stuff and man that the sister cat was a mess for a while. Yeah, she's still not the same. Honestly. 100 percent Yeah. Yeah. When you have a bond like that, you know, with a, uh, animal sibling, you know, and it's, it's, it's a, it's a thing for everybody, but she was going to turn seven this last week. So it was, yeah. It was so sudden, and what not, yeah. And when we signed up for this, we said, Cool, we got 12, 14 years with these animals. And that was the traumatic part, shocking part of it, so. We, uh, I usually ask a one word description of the kids. Um, would you like to give a one word in remembrance of Rain? Or is that not enough words? Um, Man, spirited. Okay. Yeah, she was the alpha of the house. Okay. Okay. And, and Fosta is? Fosto, yes. Fosto? Fosto, yeah, her brother. And, he's like, does he feel lost without somebody telling him what to do all the time now? Yeah, I mean, she was the one like We're going, and he would follow with, yeah, I mean, he's, he's figuring it out and we're figuring it out as a, as a, as a family and we're, we're, we're making it work and it's about adjusting, you know, as humans, we're 70 percent habit every day. You get up, you brush your teeth the same way the other day, you shower the same way. There's all these habits that we had together as a family and with the dogs and having to readjust that has been probably the most challenging part. So we're, but as animals. You know, we, we, we adapt and you've got to, you got to figure out what the next new normal is. Yeah, yeah. That's what's kind of transpiring right now. Yeah, that's really interesting. Do you have a, a one word for Fosto too that you would share? Oh, Fosto is um, man, he is sensitive. Yeah. Yeah. He's a sensitive dog. I don't really, I don't really, I'm not sure the Does he come snuggle with you guys in the morning after? Yeah, I mean, they were both. Yeah, you know, I mean, these dogs broke me, broke me down. I, I, you know, when, if we want to go back to like when I was 14, right? My parents would send me back to the farm on Illinois. I'd go back for two months as a kid in the summer and learn mechanics and putting farm equipment and doing all that stuff. So I, I kind of grew up seeing You know dogs are they sleep outside. Yeah, they sleep outside. They're part. They're part of the farm, right, you know And so this, this brown little Reina dog broke me down over a six month period in our house. Because when we brought him home, I go, Nope. You were still that kind of guy. Yeah. Here's a, here's a gate. The dog, the dog lives downstairs. You know, it's in this, this room is a part of the house that was in negotiations. And the stays that it had, you know, she had to turn her thing. She would invite, uh, open the gate up and she'd walk up to the, the, the mid level and just sit on the rug right there and stare at me. And, and, and then move a foot at a time over a six month period. This dog systematically broke my emotions down over time. It was, it was terrible, you know, and then next thing you know, they're on the couch, they're on the beds and, and, and they're one of the greatest things that ever happened to me. Yeah, for sure. Well, I'm sorry for your loss. That's a, uh, yeah, it's a tough thing to go through. And, and I was just reflecting one of the, usually I get up and work for. 90 minutes or something. And then I take a shower and then I climb back in bed and Jill gets up. And, and part of that whole process is Tucker comes in and says, hi, for like three or four minutes, you know, he's, he's an old grumpy dude at this point. Now he's not this nice where he once was, but he generally always comes in every morning and kind of, you know, licks Jill's nose a couple of times. And that habit, that companionship that you have is just one of the golden things in life is really what that is. Yeah, fill it with somebody, a little bit. Yeah. Some, something, some dog, somebody. Um, okay. Oh, we haven't talked about faith yet. Sure. Yeah. You mentioned along the journey that you came from a Catholic background. Yeah. So, you know, my dad's side was Catholic and then my mom's side was Christian, you know, in, uh, Illinois. So I kind of had a blended thing, but I was raised, you know, Christian. Okay. And then, um, you know, as I got out on my own, I I, I did a little bit of that, but you know, I, I, I kind of developed just my own philosophy of Phil being and not really attending any sort of denomination or, or any, never really revolted against your background, just really engaged either, you know, do the right thing to write people and, and all that. Well, I mean, I heard it in your values of humility and yeah, certainly your values have been impacted from that background, but no, uh, you don't feel an absence or a desire to. Engage more in that. No. Part of your world. No, it's, it's, you know, I, I've just kinda got my, my own, uh, complacency, you know, uh, as I'll say, yeah, you know, I mean, you know, the, the, if you look at the, um, uh, I mean, one of the things I'm interested in a lot more as you get older is like health, you know, and, and, and, and food and all that stuff. And, and if you've ever watched the, the blue zone show on, um, On Netflix. So anyways, there's, there's these five or six zones across the planet where people live to like the a hundred years old. Why is this? And that's what they went out and studied over like a 20 year period. And the three commonalities within that are, uh, food, community. And exercise, you know, and they're like, well, why are the people on the bottom of the, this Italy village not living as long? And what they discovered is like, there's hills more and this will move up here, you know, and they were getting more exercise, but the community aspect is what's so important that I've, I've found, um, as you get older in life, you know, first, when you're. 19, 20, you know, younger, and you're like, ah, where's the party at? Right. You're surrounded by people all the time. Yeah, exactly. But having, um, uh, good neighbors and good family and that kind of stuff and creating that, um, uh, community aspect because we're inherently social animals and you've got to have that in your life. And so, uh, that's kind of been a little bit more of, uh, my focus as you say, faith, it's more in the community that I've built. Around myself. I dig it. I dig it. Um, any shout outs on that? Like, are you neighborhood guy? Are you a big golfer or do you have a gym that you love or a men's group? Both. You know, all, all the above here. Um, Uh, our neighbors are fantastic. We've got, uh, five plus neighbors that have, they all have kids actually. And so Stacey and I are surrounded by, yeah, the dinks that are always available. Oh, we're, we're, yeah, we're, we're the dink wads, you know? And so, um, we have, um, uh, the kids in the neighborhood are four to 10. And so we're, we're always the fun aunt and uncle of the neighborhood and have, have that kind of fun aspect to it. So that's my community that we're directly involved with. Um, business people that obviously I interact with yourself. And then, um, I get a gym here in town, uh, manic training. Um, it's, it's hit training. These, uh, they do a, uh, a fantastic job of community. Good. By the way, you're, you're probably 10 off of where you were 18 months ago. I think so. Yeah, possibly, you know, par. Yeah. I've been training with manic for almost. Almost two years now. And the one thing that attracted me to this gym where I've done CrossFit. Jiu Jitsu, Orange Theory, all that kind of stuff. The Manic Training has the social aspect to it. And so, and that's what I, I enjoy about the gym because the, the, the owner operator there is, he's small business. And he's very much about, um, creating a community. And I think that's just, uh, and, and adheres to some of the values of community that I talked about. It's not that easy sometimes. And so, kudos to him for doing that and inspiring that in others. Yeah. Um. I'm comfortable moving on. Are you ready for, um, the, uh, grab bag questions? Oh, sure. This is new. Grab three ping pong balls out of here. Do you get to grab one too? No. Oh, oh. They're, uh, I'm gonna ask you the questions. The balls are associated with a question that Dave and I have come up with. Oh boy. And some lucky listener will receive a, uh, Prize for responding back with the answer to one of your questions. So if you're listening out there, keep listening and Phil, if you would, I have a good one, by the way. It's just even like, you know, the question, well, not a question, but just, you know, people always say, cause flex productions is the company, right? Yeah. What does flex stand for? Do we, do we, do you want to, do you want to have a listener? That could be one of, that could be one of your three questions. I think, I think somebody should, why is there a double X on flex? There was two of us. Oh, okay. Yeah, that started the organization. And, and what does it stand for? Fort Collins Leading Event Experts. Oh. And then there's two of you. There's two of us that started this. Yep. So that's, that's where, that's where the, the acronym came up. That's cool. That's cool. I did not know that. You don't talk about that enough. Not, not a lot of people know that. Yeah. Interesting. So, but that's the acronym of Wareflex Productions. You should actually promote that significantly at your April 16th party. Um, absolutely, we'll, we'll, we'll talk about it and I always do the same thing, kind of say, what does it, anybody know what it stands for? And 99 percent of people have never heard of it. Yeah, I didn't know about it. Yeah. And I've been around your radius for a while. Okay, so now you can grab two questions. We'll probably choose that one. Let's get a number one here. Oh, a number one. One is on the agenda. And a number 29. Oh man, 29's been picked. Has it? Hold on, let's recycle it then. Okay. Hold on here, uh, 26. Number 1 and number 26. What do you got for me? Okay, I like that one. Okay. Number 26 is what's your favorite way to unwind after a stressful day? Um, you know, having a glass of wine, having a glass of wine is sitting out in the front yard with the pups, you know, that was, that's my, my go to. Um, you know, we live in the middle of Fort Collins, just on a, in a middle class house on a corner street. And uh, then, and one neighbor might come walking by and say hello, and then another one comes by and then I'll, Hey, do you want a cider? I love impromptu neighbor parties. Oh yeah, you know, and all of a sudden there's five or six of us out there talking and talking about the families and the kids. Uh, that's, that's an amazing thing. So do you think you guys will get another dog? Yeah, I'm sure eventually, you know, I, we're. He's kind of in betweener, right? Like a seven year old dog, you're like, well, do I want to wait seven years? Does he want to be only for seven years? No, foster needs companionship. It's very apparent as I've been walking him and meeting other dogs around, and we have neighbors with the dogs. Can I go home with them? Yeah, you know, his sparkle is back when he's with another dog. And so, um, I, I know eventually we'll, when the timing's right and a rescue is always what we, we, we do a dog that needs a lot of love and, and the, the family that we're able to give. Maybe it's worth going on a coaster or Puerto Rico. Very possible. Very possible. Uh, you know, shout out to, to Leo at Barks of Hope. Um, she is amazing solo. Uh, rescue owner down there, and that's where we got them from. She recently rescued a cow. His name is Berger. Maybe you could get a cow for fostered abuse. Well, CeCe's talked about a cow multiple times. Not in the middle of town. We don't, we don't have the place to do that. But, yeah, so. Number one was the other one? Yep. Oh, yeah, this is fun. Your favorite childhood memory Boy, um, probably my favorite childhood memories now are Hot air ballooning with the family. Interesting. Um, they had some friends that were balloonists and and so Um, we would go help set up the balloons, hot air balloons, and then you, you chase and stuff like that. Yeah, yeah. And, um, it is a very tight knit community, the ballooning community is. Yeah. And it's funny, I, I, I started with a guy who was pretty Do you do it more than once, up in the balloon? Yeah, yeah. You know, I was lucky enough to be able to go up, uh, multiple times, you know, working with this, uh, with the, the, the pilot at the time. And, um, and the balloon can be super, uh, uh, tight and, and here's a, here's another memory with, with Stacy and I were up in a steamboat at the, and, uh, Uh, they had a balloon rodeo, which they do every year. And so, uh, we were just happy to be up there. I didn't even think about it. And I was like, we got to the balloon event. And, and she was like, early in the morning. And so we ended up going to it and, um, and you know, six 45, it's like the pilots meetings in five minutes. Pilots meetings in five minutes. Now, come on, let's go to the pilots meeting. She goes. You're not pilot. We can't go to the the pilots meeting. I start talking to this pilot, you know, the pilot here. And I was like, Hey, I grew up ballooning with this guy, Marty Hill. That's been in the community for 40, 50 years. Ballooning is like, everybody knows Marty. Oh my gosh. Yeah. You know, he's like, he was like, you grew up with Marty and whatnot. And I was like, she's never been up and he go, and I go, if you'll take her up for a hop, just, you know, it'd be awesome. And whatnot. He's like, well, if we take her up, we're gonna take up with the whole time. And Stacey's afraid of Heights. Oh, and you know, this guy had been pulling for, I think it was like 26 years, super calm morning in steamboat. And, and I'm like getting a balloon. And she's like. I'm not getting the balloon. No, no, no, it was like getting the balloon. You're not going to have a better thing. It's beautiful out and whatnot. And he goes, well, I need somebody to, to have our chase vehicle, uh, runner chase vehicle, and he's like, can you drive a truck in the trailer? I was like, of course, you know, keys like that guy had met for 20 minutes. Awesome. That's how tight the ballooning community is, you know? Yeah. But your relationship with that old hat that you talked about, like you're already validated. Yeah. You know, as you know, it's, it's about connections everywhere. Motorcyclists are like that a little bit too. Have you ever been? Motorcyclist. It feels like you might. Yeah, absolutely. I've ridden for, Oh my gosh. Um, 30 plus years. Oh, really? Yeah. Do you have a ride right now? No, I, I, I have, um, uh, I got rid of a bike, but I started on like a little lady when I was maybe 10 or 12. I had a buddy that had a cabin and they had motorcycles up there and that's where I learned to ride an 80, 125, 250 and up from there. I've ridden, uh, bikes across Peru with some buddies. I rode across Italy and Corsica with some other buddies on some 1200 GSs. I mean, uh, yeah, I mean, motorcycling is a, a, a great fun sport. Um, and it's also a dangerous sport. It is very much so it's a, it's a time relative thing that I look at. It's not a matter of if it's a matter of when you go down and if you get hurt when you're going down. So. Uh, you know, stay safe out there, wear some gear, and uh, you know, and uh, yeah, but motorcycling's great. And I lied actually, because it can't be nearly as close knit as the, the hot air balloon community, because like, there's only, what, there might be 50 or 100 hot air balloonists in Colorado, maybe 250, or you know, some number, but it's not a ton. I don't know the, I don't know the stats of uh, The balloonists, um, in Colorado, but it's, yeah, it's a, it's a, I mean, uh, you gotta be a certified pilot, you know? Oh, absolutely. FAA. Is there like radios up there and stuff? Oh yeah. Yeah. You're, you're, you're a certified pilot. Uh, you know, there, there's a lot of certain amount of training you need to get licensing to go up in, uh, FAA airspace. It feels like I should just be able to, I'm a libertarian. I should just be able to build my own balloon and go up there if I want to. Uh, airplanes need to watch out for me. So, so, so yeah, so I, I, I, Uh, you, you know, yeah, you have to, uh, understand the, the air currents and the clouds and when to launch them because the only controls you have in a balloon are up and down. Yeah. You got to understand how the air currents are going to take you and where they're going to take you to be able to, to get where you kind of want to go. Well, I took a 200 level meteorology class when I was in college, so I feel. Pretty near qualified. So, um, Right, Phil says. I'll, I'll spin off to a, um, a story within business, because it's the best thing that you have in, uh, in the rental industry is these wild stories. Yeah, let's hear a couple. So, I'm going to spin off to a balloon story. Okay. Okay, so I get this phone call and this guy calls me up and he goes, How much if, because we were into helium tanks back in the day, it was pretty common in this area to, to have balloons and, uh, you know, for parties and whatnot. But, you know, this guy calls up and he's like, you know, how much will a, one of these tanks fill up and how much will it lift? And I go, I have, I usually a tank will blow up 400, eight inch balloons and, you know, 250, 12 inch balloons. You know, that was the metrics that we had when they were, he's like, but how much will it list? I was like, man, you're going to have to call somebody at CSU or professor of how this kind of works and whatnot. So this guy comes and rents like four helium tanks from us. And, um. Uh, you know, and, and rinse these tanks from us. I didn't really know who he was. And, and then all of a sudden one of my employees, like, you know, four or five days later, they're like, dude, did you check out the news? That guy that rented the helium tanks from us. Uh, his kids in the, in the fricking balloon and I go, what are you talking about? And you flip on the news and, and, you know, and all of a sudden we have this thing called the balloon boy and, and I'm going, holy shit, you know, what, what, what did we do here? But I was like, we didn't do anything. Uh, you know, he ran out of the tanks for us. We just supplied this and he did whatever he did, you know, yeah, you know. So, so, you know, I mean, it, you know, this, this whole thing goes down and, and I call him up because he's supposed to return them. Do you remember when that was? Like 06, 07, something like that? Uh, that was 11. 11? Oh, wait. Okay. I believe it was 11 if I recall right. And for listeners that have no idea what you're talking about, do you want to give a synopsis? The balloon boy just. Google the balloon boy, you know, and it was a guy that kind of, it did a hoax, you know, of, of, you know, my kids in this balloon and, and, and, and just wanted some notoriety and whatnot. But anyways, we're a rental company. We're supposed to, the stuff's supposed to be returned by X date. Right. Oh, right. And so like a week goes by and I call him up and we're like, Hey, Richard, you get, you gotta bring these tanks back to me. You know, we, we, you know, we're, we're, we're, we're rental company and whatnot. So he, he, he's like, he's like, I can't leave my house. Come get it. So I go down there, and I pick up to his house, and it's media row. There is 20 freaking cameras up and down the road there. And I pull up and park, you know, just unmarked pickup. Did you drive your, yeah, I was gonna say, did you drive your bandit truck? Yeah, no, absolutely not, you know. I didn't want anything to do with this. And so, yeah, I pull up right there. And they're like, hey man, you can't park there, you know. And I was like, Oh, I'm here to pick up the helium tanks 20 cameras mobilize off these tripod boom on their freaking, you know Who are you with whatnot and I go private company walk up knocking the door, you know And I get in there and it's like blacked out at his house The curtains are drawn and i'm like, what are you doing, man? I was like, i've seen the healing tanks. Where are the healing tanks at? You know? Load them out of the truck and then get out of there. And so Did it ever come out or anything? Oh no, I just, I didn't want anything to do with it at all. You know what I mean? This guy is on national news. Well, for sure. In sort of whatever trouble at the time. I had no idea. So, uh, there's my balloon story. I like it. I like it. Yeah. Um, is that, would that be your loco experience? Your crazy experience? Or do you have some other crazy experiences of your lifetime that you'd like to share? The most, you know, the, the thing about the, Tenting industry is we install these big sails, right? Big sails Yeah, and if they become unanchored and weather elements, which they can even if you take the most serious precautions, right? They're still temporary structure slash tents. I've seen your dudes like screwing those big Like 18 inch long things and to anchor the tents down, but we were very we're very serious Uh, professional work with industry standards are very safe conscious about what we do in our industry. We had an incident and, uh, this was a subcontracted tent that I didn't, we didn't install, but it was a big enough part of your operation. Yeah. You know, and this is back in oh six. When we just, we didn't have products like this, a hundred by a 260 foot tent. Okay. So 26, 000 square feet for a 800 person gala. You're talking to like basically a rodeo event center. This is, yeah, yeah. Kind of thing. So this is a large tent. A, uh, microburst came through. Pulled a hundred and forty, forty two inch pins, stakes, out of the ground and threw this thing a hundred feet, uh, to the east. Um, and Before the event? Before the event. Okay, thank God. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Right. Before the event, about four days before. Okay. You know, and so Um, and thank God nobody was standing to the east of where this thing landed. The center poles, there's 12 center poles on this thing, they're 35 feet high, they weighed 900 pounds each. Oh damn. I mean, there would have been You are talking about a sale. Yeah, I mean, it, it, it, it, it, it, in, in it, in it, um, and you know, it scared me mid, my core, because in the end, as the leader of this organization Yeah, yeah. I'm responsible for the safety of the consumer, the employees, and everybody. Um, and we changed a couple of systems there, but there was nothing really we did wrong. It was one of those freak happenstance things. And we just, we, I was lucky. It was lucky, the people were lucky that were there. They were all on the right side of the tent when it happened. And, um, so that's one of those instances that I'll forever remember. I was just thinking to myself, like Like, you're talking about a hundred by two hundred and sixty foot space, right? And, like, the ships that we sail across, used to sail across the ocean with, might have, like, you know, a triangular, a three triangular fifty by X or whatever, you know, the actual air catching ability of a sailing ship is probably only a tenth of what your tent was, like, in terms of ultimate square footage. Yeah, these, the tents are incredibly Powerful in the wind and even a 20 by 20 foot 400 square feet. You cannot control in in big wind scenarios yeah, we do trainings with our employees as far as like When we're in wind scenarios and what to do and and the the tents not value zero, you know it's about staying safe and And, um, and either anchoring it down or creating a safe situation. And how did that work out? What, cause you said you subcontracted this, uh, I guess that was his problem. Cause his failure. Yeah. Well, it's still my problem because we're the, we're the name of the face of the, of the actual client. Um, we ended up, the event ended up moving indoors was the best solution. Uh, we did try to deploy another system, but it rained for two days straight and it just became a mud. pit in this field, and it was an adjustment we made. Did you say 2011? Uh, that was, oh, no, wait, wait, oh. No, that was early, you said 06 or something like that. Yeah, oh, 2011 was, was Balloon Boy, and No, this was not 06, I'm sorry. Um I was just thinking, I think I went to Telluride Bluegrass Festival in 2011, and it was Like rained all weekend. No, it was 13 or 12. I don't know. Anyway, I digress. Yeah, yeah, don't matter. So, Phil, if people think you're cool after listening to the show and they want to make sure they get all their event rentals from you and from now on, um, you want to send them to where? Um, flex Productions. F-L-E-X-X-X productions, two Xs Yeah. Is our website.com. Um, yeah. And whenever our reach out to one of our team members, we have an appointment module on our website. We book you an appointment where they can make an appointment and come by and have a, have, have a tour. Yeah. I mean, have a, have we have a tour and, and a glass of wine, uh, you know, water what, whatever, when people come in, because we want them to be comfortable. It is a, we create an experience when people come, come in for sure. They, if you're a bride and a groom, you really don't know where to start with some of this stuff. And so our job is to really kind of coach them and say, here's your Alucard solutions. And, uh, and, and where we can come in and help and guide them to where they want to go within the vision that they have. Yeah. We didn't focus on it, but like your showroom area there, like where you've got different kinds of fancy levels of plates and silverware and all these different kinds of linens and different things. Got to touch it and feel it. Yeah, absolutely. You know, people are welcome to come in and see our operation. We, we enjoy when people come to see what we do. Anything you would ask me or, uh, declare before the year? Well, I'm trying to remember how you and I met each other. I think, was it really peach fest? I think so. I think I'm, I think actually, I think I might've been bears backyard grill, the, the food trucker guy that was doing grilled half peaches, but I was also involved with like the, you've been in Rotary forever? Yeah, I've been in Rotary for about that long. Yeah. And I was in the planning committee there and stuff like that for that event. So it's possible it was before then, but right around that time. Yeah. Yeah, because I had the, I had the food trailer with the, uh, red and red and blue umbrellas on top of it. Mm-hmm It was grill and peaches that mm-hmm One of those first years. Anyway. I think it's just interesting how time flies so much as you, as you kind of get older and you think back to like, Oh my gosh, how long was that? You know, and, and trying to figure that out. Um, it's, uh, um, You know, uh, that's, uh, those are the great times, you know, as far as I'm concerned and, and I'm, I'm impressed of, you know, Kurt also use a small business where you've kind of come with the think tank and, and how far it's come and, and I was lucky enough to, to be a member and, yeah, seven, I think it was seven years and, and then, yeah, and being possibly a member in the future and, and, and where the think tanks come and, and how much, uh, you know, you gave to the, you give to the business community as far as that. So I think that's, that's a lot of scrappiness. Yes. So, uh, whether you're in a garage or in kind of a virtual setting like this. Yeah, absolutely. Awesome. Well, Phil, Godspeed. Yeah. See you next time. Thanks, man. Appreciate it. Cheers.
