EXPERIENCE 208 | Superconnector in a Small Package - Ann Baron, Founder and CEO of Northern Colorado Community

Ann Baron is the Founder and CEO of Northern Colorado Community - an events and networking and business support organization with members across Northern Colorado - as the name would imply!  

Ann has lived an extraordinary journey, in some ways starting when was adopted from a South Korean orphanage at 4 years old, and raised by a family in Oregon.  She became a teacher fresh out of college - didn’t like it - and went into her father’s industry of Insurance.  She moved to Colorado with State Farm and did everything from Claims to Sales Training, and later worked in Payroll, Business Development for the Loveland Chamber, and did freelance event planning and more before launching NOCO Community.  

Ann is wise beyond her substantial years :o) - and shares abundantly from her practical toolkit on networking and sales.  Tune in and sharpen up your skills, and enjoy, as I did, my conversation with Ann Baron.

Also - congrats to Ann for winning Best of NOCO for 2024 Networking Organization!  

The LoCo Experience Podcast is sponsored by: Purpose Driven Wealth Thrivent: Learn more

💡Learn about LoCo Think Tank

Follow us to see what we're up to:

Instagram

LinkedIn

Facebook

Music By: A Brother's Fountain

Transcript

0:00

Ann Barron is the founder and CEO of Northern Colorado Community, an events and networking and business support organization with members across Northern Colorado. As the name would imply, Anne has lived an extraordinary journey, in some ways starting when she was adopted from a South Korean orphanage at four years old and raised by a family in Oregon. She became a teacher fresh out of college, didn't like it, and went into her father's industry of insurance. She moved to Colorado with State Farm and did everything from claims to sales training, and later worked in payroll, business development for the Loveland Chamber, and did freelance event planning and more before launching NoCo Community. Anne is wise beyond her substantial years and shares abundantly from her practical toolkit on networking and sales. Tune in and sharpen up your skills and enjoy, as I did, my conversation with Anne Barron. Also, congrats to Anne for winning Best of NoCo for 2024 Networking Organization. Let's have some fun. Welcome to the Low Cove Experience podcast. On this show, you'll get to know business and community leaders from all around Northern Colorado and beyond. Our guests share their stories, business stories, life stories, stories of triumph and of tragedy, and through it all, you'll be inspired and entertained. These conversations are real and raw, and no topics are off limits. So pop in a breath mint and get ready to meet our latest guest. Welcome back to the local experience podcast. My guest today is Anne Barron and Anne is the founder and owner of Northern Colorado community. Thank you. Welcome, Anne. Thanks for having me on your podcast. I wanted to share with you that, uh, usually Jill asks me who's on my podcast this afternoon and she's like, Oh, that's nice. And today she's like, Oh, yay, give her a hug from me. So Jill says hi. Hi. Tell Jill hi and give her a hug from me too. Yeah, you sure he's got to stay together. Sure people unite. When, when my, uh, when my uncle John, uh, who passed on about a year. But, um, when he first met my wife, Jill, uh, or I guess she was, she was still my girlfriend that at the time and she's like, Oh, pocket size. You ever get that? Uh, that compliment? I don't. That's cute though. I like it. Pocket size. I like it. Or people say about our little dog Tucker that he's travel size. Yes. That's probably more normal for dogs than for spouses. For people. That's alright, I don't take any offense. I think it's cute. So, uh, tell the people a little bit about Northern Colorado Community. What, uh, what does that mean? What are you doing? Yeah. So Northern Colorado community was founded by me over eight years ago. So it's a boutique networking group that the goal is to see the businesses thrive and grow and be that resource to the small businesses in Northern Colorado. And you're especially focused on. I guess pure networking. Is that a fair statement? Yeah, that's true. You do some activities and lunch and learns and stuff, but it's mostly about the networking. Yes, that's correct. So we have business after hours, we have a happy hour, we have mind maps, lunch and learns, um, activity night. So we do a good variety of events. Yeah. And, and the purpose, the goal is really to connect people who need to connect with each other, kind of. Right, right. To get, get folks in front of folks they want to get to meet or be a referral partner. Yeah. Very good. Can you talk about what a monthly rhythm looks like? Like, what are you doing? Like, all these different kind of connecting events. You feel free to do a shameless plug, that's fine, it's cool. You shamelessly plug so many good causes in the community that I can't help it. Anna and I also are, uh, together on the Ambassador Board for Realities for Children, so we've been fighting over the, uh, Ambassador, what's the? Trophy. The Ambassador Trophy, uh, last few quarters. Yeah, exactly. Well, uh, thanks for asking. So we do have three to five in person events each and every month. So they vary from a happy hour to a business after hours, lunch and learn, a salon, an activity night. So we really try to change it up. And my other saying this year is, I'm putting the fun back into networking. Okay. Um, instead of just kind of the same old boring. you know, thing that everyone does. We do, we might do axe throwing, we might do a vision board, putt putt, and we might do a mind map. So we do a lot of different things. Very good. Very good. Um, And do you do a lot of events like with, with your member locations or in things or not always just kind of wherever you find fun stuff to do? Yeah, that's a good point. So generally, we do try to do events at a member location, especially the business after hours are all member and you're going to be hosting one. Yeah, we've got another one coming up this year. In August, I believe. But we do do those at a member business. Um, that's one of the benefits of being a member. I have to say like the happy hours and the socials, those are actually, um, you know, whatever fun brewery, winery, there's a lot of them around in town. And, um, generally a lot of them don't market through networking because they can get businesses other ways. But, um, but anyway, so. They don't join networking groups necessarily. That's not their thing. Yeah, not generally, but yes, uh, usually. But they sure like it when you bring people in. 25 people to the brewery. Yeah, yeah. Tuesday afternoon. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, they always welcome it. Um, we've take, we've brought people to Verboten. I see you have a Verboten, um, container. Oh yeah, I've been using this forever. Beer for all is their theme. Yeah, no, Angie and the folks over there. So that was our first, uh, I kind of lifted their first or their tagline for my first one, which was pure advisory for all when local think tank was first getting going. I like it. Yeah, it's always good to borrow good themes. Yeah. So, um, anyway, we, we do do a lot of fun events. We're going to do a luau up at sunrise ranch in early May, and that's for men and women professionals. So we're going to have a Hawaiian food and pig roast it could be but maybe if I talk nice Kimberly Yeah, I could help you with the pig roast. That'd be fun. Yeah, so it'd be a lot of fun. Okay, very nice And how did you like come to put this together? Like what was the? The inclination or have you kind of built what you were trying to build when you, when you set out or did you not really know what you're trying to build when you set out? Well, I think when you're a new person, a new business owner, you don't know what you don't know at the beginning. Just one moment here. Sure. A lot of talking. It is. And I have to say, I'm more of a morning person, but hey, this is good. Make me do something in the afternoon. I'm sorry. No, no, that's great. It all works out. I can get you a cup of coffee to follow the tea if you need to. Yeah. So, um, what got me started was I, as we shared, um, I was in the chamber world and really enjoyed that helping and meeting and connecting small businesses. And then it kind of had an aha moment. About nine or 10 years ago, and I thought, maybe I could do my own networking group and just charge a small fee. And if you remember, Kurt, you and I talked about it, I charge only 149 for the year for members to join. I'm pretty sure I told you to raise your price. People are like, what are you doing? Are you going to make any money? So we're now at almost 500 for the year. But the point, still very affordable. Yeah, exactly. So I just thought I'd Uh, put it out there, see who joined, um, folks like you and Eric Whedon and Pecky Calloway. Folks just jumped on board right, right away because they already knew me. And so they already trusted me and felt like that regardless what happens, they wanted to be a part of the group. And it's grown and we have great members like you and, uh, Blue credit union and alpha graphics um, computer doctors. Yeah, we have a lot of just wonderful professionals who are part of the group. Yeah. No, it's been a really steady, like, it's fun. I'm probably guilty of only coming to maybe a few, a few events a year, you know, maybe, maybe a dozen or so once a month or something, but the Like some of the people that have been there for years are still there. You know, while you still see a lot of new faces and get to meet a lot of new people, you've grown a lot, and so that's nice to always see, but there's still some of those stalwarts that have been bumping around there for, you know, almost since you started. Yes, there's definitely the, the early adopters, as you know, with groups that trust you, regardless what you're going to do, what's happening with the group down the road. And then, uh, this last, I don't know, I guess I just decided to kick into gear. Kurt's probably about like, you've been, you should have been doing that like 20 years ago. But anyway, no, Kurt's always been very kind to me. But, um, in the last 40 days, I've had 18 new members join. That's awesome. Yeah. So it's, it's great. That's great. I hope you keep growing it. And is that the vision? Do you want to do anything different with it in the future? Just kind of more of what you're doing or would you want to franchise it to other communities or grow more regionally? Right. Great questions. Probably more doing what I'm doing because I really enjoy being able to be hands on and get to know everyone. I'm not saying I wouldn't franchise, but that's probably not a goal of mine right at this point. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you mentioned already. Like. You're a lot older than you look, like, I don't remember how old you are, but I know you're quite a bit older than me and you look younger. Oh, thanks. Um, so like you said, you could retire if you chose to or whatever, but, um, Um, I guess, would you want the Northern Colorado community to live on beyond you? Are you, like, would you try to find a successor? Or will you just do this until you're 93? Because I can see you being healthy and fit and running around having tea with people. 20 years, 30 years from now, still, well, I'll probably do it as long as I can. I mean, I can definitely see probably seeing doing this 10 or 20 years. There's a lot of, um, networking leaders that have done it for a long time. And I don't know. That's a good question about as far as would I have like a successor or person that would be put all this stuff together every month and handle the plethora of emails. Right, right. How many email introductions, how many connections with people a month do you think you have? Either an email introduction, or a coffee, or a tea, or just a meeting, or Oh boy. It's like five to ten a day, isn't it? Um, yeah, I would say, especially with a lot of the onboarding of new members, I'd probably say I do probably close to a hundred in a month. And then that's not including my other in person meetings, Zoom, phone calls. Yeah, your free consultings with your existing members, stuff like that. Yeah. What do you think your special sauce is? Like, when you've gotten your head underneath the hood of a of a small business person, maybe a first or second year. High opportunity, uh, but maybe not getting as much traction. How do you help them the most? Well, I would say the, obviously the, well not obviously, but I think the free consulting, um, I've had folks, double their income. I've had folks say they, um, obtain the most customers through my networking group. But the thing is really getting to know the folks and what their need is and what will help them and be that resource. So some of them it's they want to be a speaker. Some of them, they just want a little help How to do customer attainment, customer retention, uh, maybe how to use their time. And so there's just a lot of different ways. You're a bit of a strategist in general, but also a connector is I think what I'm hearing. Yeah, so for instance, there's, um, it's not just the events, but for instance, it's. Someone might say, Well, I had someone say, I'm gonna think it over. That's kind of a common thing when you're trying to sell a service or product. I'm going to think it over. Sure. And really, sometimes it's just better. There's a sound or training thing, but sometimes it's better just to get to the know, like, Okay, Susan, that's okay if you don't want to be a part of the group, but that's all right with me, you know, and it's not maybe the group for you, and that's okay. That's not a problem. But if you get people to the know, then you don't spin your wheel, spin your wheel. Oh, that's so smart. Wasting time talking to folks. You still are friendly, and you still are very You leave the door open to potentially, but you're not gonna spend any time on it. You're still very positive to them when you interact with them. So, like, the What's the technique, not to steal from Sandler, like you say, but how do you, how do you get, do you just, do you declare the no almost? Is that what I heard you saying there? Well, this is not new to me, but just saying something like, well, Kurt, maybe this is not the group for you, or this is not the time. And then people can either, you know, Um, you know, give off, get off the potter, you know what? So. Kind of indicate to you through that, that's almost your way of asking for the sale. Yeah, exactly. You're right. And it's the, the takeaway, but just not a new way of kind of strategizing or doing a sales technique. And then people will go, well, actually I am interested or no, I don't really think this is the group for me now, or I'm going to think, think about it. And if they say, I want to think about it. maybe a few months down the road, they might say check back. And the thing is, is you want to then check back with them because if you don't, then it just, you know, really won't ever probably resolve into a new client. I talk about, uh, even on this podcast, I've talked about the Colorado slow, maybe you've experienced it. Yeah. You know, the where they don't really want to quite say yes, uh, but they don't want to say no. But, you know, I think I'm, uh, uh, refresh that. I've got some techniques to change that. Um, what's your, like, if you were going to describe Northern Colorado, especially the small business community to somebody listening from far away, maybe in a city somewhere or whatever, um, how, how would you describe, Our region here. Oh, wow. Especially your little slice of it. Well, I would say the folks are very friendly, and I do think people do want to be a community and support and help one another. Yeah. Um, it's not a big city here, as you know, so. Folks, folks do get to know each other and you will bump into people even out of the grocery store or just out about town. So you always want to keep things positive, no matter how things happen and whether they become your client or not. You just want to keep things positive and the door open, like you said, but, um, and it's a fairly safe area. I think folks have, we have a good education system. We have, um, Fairly safe area to live. So I think there's a lot of positives. Um, I recently went to a new hairstylist and she had moved here from another state and I asked her Why did you pick Colorado and why did you pick Fort Collins is where she lives? And she said she did her research and this area was in one of the top like 10 or 20 towns. Sure. To live in, in America. Yeah. And then she also looked at culture, and then the type of work she does, so. And where did she come from? She came from California. Okay. Southern California. Yeah. So, yeah, she just, she liked it here, and she decided to move here. And you were a West Coaster too, before, right? Mm hmm. Like Oregon? Yes, exactly. So I lived in Oregon for over 30 years. Okay. And how did you land in, in Colorado? Colorado. Colorado. I moved here with State Farm Insurance, it was a company relocation and move, yeah, just stayed. Okay, we'll circle back and jump at the time machine to your earliest years, uh, but, uh, I was curious, and, and did you, you, so they, they said hey, Do you want to come to Loveland and work at our big State Farm office here? That was when they built that new building over there and whatnot. Right, that's correct. So they built that new building. They did a countrywide call for anyone who was a State Farm employee to apply for the job. And I lived in Washington State, so I applied for the job. Didn't think I would get it. They flew me out with other people for an interview. Didn't think I would be hired. They hired me, and they actually hired me at a job level higher than I applied for. Oh, wow. Oh, wow. You must have made a good impression. What did you think? Like, had you been out to Colorado before? We had just driven through it as a family, as a child, but I had not really been in Colorado. I did like it. I do have to say, coming from the Northwest, that it, it was pretty dry and barren. Yeah, it's flat and, and um, there wasn't, except for where it's not flat. Yeah, exactly. And there wasn't quite as much like variety of restaurants and things to do, but that's changed a lot in the last few years. It has. Yeah. The last 10 years, especially, but it's always kind of punched above its weight. In terms of restaurants and things to do, um, and what have you seen really change, especially in Northern Colorado in that time? Well, I think there has been more of the variety, like culture and restaurants and variety of activities to do that I didn't see when I first moved here about 30 years ago. I think in my banking days earlier, um, Like, there was kind of an anti regionalism, like Fort Collins was Fort Collins proud and Loveland was, you know, proud to be Loveland, and they still have that, but now there's so much more of an acknowledgement that, hey, a third of your, you know, people drive over here for their jobs and vice versa. And there's really no point in being other than, uh, regional friends and partners and, uh, you know, bringing the smart people up out of Denver and bringing their businesses with them and stuff. Yeah. You are right. There's definitely more of being cooperative in the different towns because I saw a lot of the towns kind of being in their own silo. So Fort Collins kind of stated themselves, It's Greeley, Loveland, but I do think there's more of a coordination between the towns with resources and, and connecting. I think some of those small businesses really help drive that, you know, if you're a small business in Berthoud or Johnstown or Windsor or something, you probably will need to expand your service area ultimately to build a sustainable size. Yeah, that, that is very much the case, and I do find that quite a few of the business people own more than one franchise or business in more than one town. Yeah. So one of the, the newer clients, Alpha Graphics, they own the Loveland one, but now they own the, the Greeley location too. Yep, yep, yep. So it, it makes sense, and none of that, those towns are that far apart. Yeah, it makes it fairly straightforward to have staff even shift staff from the Greeley store to the Loveland store if you need to for something or whatever. Yeah, right. Um, well, I think, you know, if you were gonna give, um, because I would say, you know, you've got a lot of established business people that have been in business for 10 plus years, but also you're still a gathering place for a lot of First, second, third year kind of business people to, to get their start in the networking world and kind of have connection. What do you see are some of the, the consistencies among the people that succeed? Like, what do they, what do they got to bring to the, to the, to the table to make it? Yeah, so I would, I would say consistency and top of mind awareness, as you know, is that just keeping your face out there for people to know you're still around, that you're in business. Um, because people have a short memory and they forget, you know, that you're still in business and you still have that service or product. And a lot of times people aren't going to need what you're selling right away. It may take time. They might like, Oh yeah, I need that roof. I had the hail damage. Now I need, who is that roofing person? Right. So those are examples. Some perseverance is, is one of the things then. Yeah, and then always building those positive relationships when you go to events, just really, really making sure that you're positive, even if things don't go the way you, you want, but don't be expressing that when you're out in a group. Um, if you're with a friend, that's fine, but if you're on a networking group, you want to keep it upbeat that things are going well and that you're, uh, positive about your business. So you're not talking trash about me and other circles or anything like that. I've heard over there. He pays for his membership, but he doesn't show up very often. So you just want to get, um, keep the relationships being really positive and, and ongoing. And there's some folks that I have known for 15, 20 years, and they suddenly decide to join the group. So it's just timing. Sometimes it's not, not Like there's anything wrong with them or with the group. It's just timing for them, you know, it's easy to say yes to things And you've probably experienced this as well where you say yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes And then you realize that you've got to start saying no to some things. Otherwise Mama's going to say no more, you know, or whatever, your relationships can be challenged by, you know, especially if you're, you and I both have it in common that we're married to introverts more. Yes, that is true. We're, yes, my husband's a writer, so he's definitely an introvert. But the other thing I would say is also find your, your peeps or your, your tribe. Yeah. And. It may not be my group, it might be a Chamber of Commerce, it might be a BNI, but find the people that you really click with and that you feel like you could refer business to them or do business with them or vice versa. Yeah, I'm sure you have some members that are members of yours and other organizations as well. Yes, many of them. Yeah, many of them are in multiple, yeah, networking groups. But yeah, I think one, my boss years ago said, you know, find three groups, one that you're really invested in, one that you always attend and you consistently participate in, one that you are on the boundaries of, and don't spread yourself too much thinner than that. Yeah, that's great advice, and that's what I do say to folks who are new to networking is, two, three, four. two or three groups, three at the most, and then be involved, somewhat involved in, in those groups. Yeah, I dig it. Um, let's jump in the time machine, shall we? Okay. I would like to be one of those, uh, you know, the rapper type guys, but I don't have the skills yet. I can see you doing that. I can see it. I don't have to get some lessons, but anyway, we landed our time machine. And, uh, you were sharing with me when we, when we booked this podcast Um, you were raised your first few years in an orphanage, right? So I was born in Seoul, South Korea, and I was in orphanage until I was four years old. And then I was adopted and raised in Oregon. So, yeah. Do you know the circumstances? Were you, were your parents killed in some fashion? I don't know. I wish there was more records, but there was no paperwork. So it was probably where I was. Dropped off at the orphanage and my parents, for whatever reason, couldn't or won't be able to take care of me. But thankfully, I had a really great loving family that raised me. And so you land in a family in Portland, Oregon? In Eugene. Eugene, okay, the college town. Yes, yeah, University of Oregon. Go Ducks! And so, like, uh, talk to me about probably some early memories. You're seven years old, you're starting to go to school. Did you have siblings? What was your family environment? What did your parents do? Yes, I had three brothers. Okay. So I was the middle child. Okay. So like I said to people, uh, or shared, is that I had to play basketball and football with my brothers, but they would not play Barbies with me, but anyway. Were they natural born children of your parents? So one of them, my oldest brother, was their biological son. And then the other two brothers were adopted from Korea as well. But none of us are blood related. But we would, you know, fight like, fight the same. Yes, exactly. Fair enough, okay. And what did your parents do? What were they up to in Eugene? Right. So my dad was an insurance agent for state farm insurance. That was the connection with getting into insurance for 20 years, but yeah, he was a successful insurance agent in Eugene and he did that for 31 years. Oh, wow. Okay. And your mom mostly chased, uh, four little rugrats around. Yeah. So it was a full time job for her. She was a state home mom, but my mom was the type of person that every meal was homemade and she, Clean the house herself and they had a big garden canned and did all that stuff. So everything about the house was kind of on her dial. Yes. And what was the range in age, um, from the oldest to the youngest? Um, yeah. So the, I had a brother who was two years younger and then one, two years older. And then my oldest brother was eight years older than me. Oh, wow. So it was almost a second, uh, Second path or more kids kind of yeah, kind of like a second group of yeah I checked second group a little the older brother was almost An uncle figure or something probably by the time you guys were getting teenager. Yes So Paul my oldest brother was eight years older. So he was almost like a second dad. He was I was, when I was four, he was already 12 or 13. So he was older in school and, but, um, a great brother and cool. We've got a lot and we all got along. What was young Ann like when you got to, uh, say early years in school, um, were you sassy and outgoing already? Were you? More reserved. I was actually quiet. I mean, I was always a social person and had friends, but no, I was kind of the nerd and the bookworm and would volunteer at school. I was always the person out there, like helping at sports events, helping take the money and one year book and. Yeah, all that stuff. The, uh, overachiever, but also, uh, striving to make good relationships with the teachers. Sounds like a brown nose a little bit to me. Teacher's pet. Damn people. You weren't a hall monitor, were you? No, I wasn't. That's good. I don't mind. I'm good for all the other stuff, but the hall monitors. I got, I got that. No good time for them. Or bad memories of all monitors, right? Were you, uh, uh, Were you, this is going to be a terrible question, but Were you like height challenged right from the start? Like, first grade, second grade? Oh, was I always short? Yeah. Oh, yeah. So when I was, like, 12 years old when most girls get their growth spurt. I was always please please God Let me be five foot tall at least nope didn't make it four foot ten. Yeah, I'm sure we've talked about it But do you know that I was like four foot eleven in seventh grade? And then I was still only five foot one at sixteen going into my tenth grade year Oh, wow, so I was Kurt the squirt All through in my high school like I was like your size basically and I was surrounded by all these My, like, 7th and 8th grade friends were abnormally big, too. They were all like 5'10 5'11 6 tall, and then there's Kurt at 4'11 So you got your, you got your growth in, uh, in high school? Yeah, last high school, and then first year of college I got the last inch in there, or something like that. But I was convinced I was never going to be fit. Like, I was kind of doomed to a, which is basically the same as, uh, four foot ten or whatever you are. Well, and for guys, I think it's much worse for them when they're shorter than average. It's harder for them. When you're a girl, you're just pocket sized. Like, every guy kind of wants to have pocket sized girls. Makes them look tall and strong. Yeah. Yeah. I actually dated someone in college who was 6'4 That was interesting. But anyway, yeah. So you're doing all kind of the nerd stuff, getting good grades, Dean's List, uh, things like that. Um, helping out in the journal, newspaper things. Right. Yes. I help out with the yearbook and then at different activities whenever they'd have basketball, there's always, you know, a place where you buy your tickets. I'd help with that. So. You weren't a cheerleader or anything like that? Well, you're nice and small. They can throw you around. I thought that was a bonus. I'm not athletic, though. Okay, alright. I'd probably, like, do a split and, you know, break something. Fair enough, okay. So, um, you're getting close to the end of high school. Did you have a plan, or did you know what you wanted to do from there? Yeah. Well, so my plan since I was a little girl, because my dad was an insurance agent, that I would work for him when I got, when I graduated high school. Really? You were eager for that? Uh, I don't know. I think my dad was more so. He just kind of channeled you in there. He's like, man, she's really smart and hardworking. I'll have, I'll build an employee. So, uh, I started working for him. I was only 17 years old. Okay. Started working for him in his insurance office. All right. And, uh, I have to say, you know, I don't know if you've worked for family, but it's quite challenging. You know, um Not too much, but yeah, I can understand even even Jill and I have found for our relationship because we work together for some in the food truck business and things and it's just In a business, I need somebody to keep me inside the guardrails and stuff like that and and Jill does that for our household? But I didn't work that great for us. So I don't know that tension between father daughter there, too Yeah, I think we were too much alike. So it yeah, but we did it for six years Um, yeah, My dad had the highest average auto premium when I was working for him. Oh, so he was killing it. Um, we were selling, he was a high producer in life insurance. Um, mainly because Oh wow, that was early for State Farm too. Yeah, exactly. Mainly because you were I was helping him write and talking to folks. Oh, interesting. And then, uh, decided that, um, after six years that was enough of working with dad. Alright, alright. So, I went on to college to Oh wow. To get a degree in, in education. Oh wow. Oh wow. I wouldn't, wouldn't have guessed that. Why education? What, uh Well, it kind of went back early on, like a second, third grade. So I was, um, as you can probably imagine, being adopted and coming to a new country, I, I don't know. I guess I had issues, but anyway, so my mom and dad helped me back. Um, so instead of going to third grade, I repeated second grade. Wow, okay. Um, but, but Because I was a little bit more advanced than the other students, I already knew how to read. So I was sitting there reading to the kids and also loved reading. And I thought, oh, I want to be a teacher. Oh, wow. And that was the motivation. And then you kind of got railroaded into the State Farm thing. And then you're like, okay, I'm out of here. I'm going to go be a teacher. Yeah. So I decided to go and get my degree in education and actually taught for four years in Portland, Oregon. Okay. Okay. That was kind of your first Were you Were you living on your own and stuff, even while you worked for your dad? Yeah, most of the time I was living on my own. Okay, so just a single gal in Eugene. Yeah. Yeah? Yeah, Eugene, Oregon is, I don't know if you, you probably know, it's like the runner's capital. I mean, you had a lot of athletes that lived there. So you dated a lot of, uh, Oh, no, no, no. My goal is to make you blush. No, I was just like one of these really slow, I don't know what the word is, but I always did everything late. Like I didn't get my driver's license until I was 20 years old. I didn't have a boyfriend until I was 20. I just, yeah. You weren't in a hurry. Yeah, I wasn't. Pretty sheltered, but yeah, that's fine. So okay. And what was the the home environment? What was the the family dynamic if you will like was it? Like did you have all your meals together with all these siblings and stuff to go to church on Sundays? Yeah, exactly all of that. So we ate pretty much every meal together Once in all occasion when we'd go out for dinner But that was I don't think going out for dinner was as common back then so it was more rare but Yeah, and then we regrouped Lutheran, so we went to the Lutheran Church and went through Confirmation and all that, Catechism, yeah. Sure. Um, okay, so we moved to Portland? Yes. And you're teaching, uh, what kind of? Eighth graders. Okay. Yes. And it stuck for four years. Right. What, uh, like talk to me about that experience. What were the pluses and minuses? Well, I enjoyed it when the kids got the aha moment and really enjoyed learning. And, uh, I had went, this one student, we were doing a session on, uh, on poetry. And the student at the end of the four weeks said, I really thought I was going to hate this, but I really enjoyed it. So try to make it fun. And, uh, but the stress was it, you have 38th graders in one room. I can imagine that. Hormones and things going on. So, yeah, it was, it was kind of a stressful job. Fair enough. And so what did you, what, what ring did you pull? What did you do? Uh, you mean to move on? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, then, um, after four years decided that, and it was a pretty tough school. It was inner city. So there was a lot of fights and gangs, teenage pregnancy and things going on even back 30 years ago. But anyway, then I looked around and thought, well, State Farm is a good company to, to work for because not for dad, but for State Farm. Yeah. Yeah. Because my dad, I knew with him being an agent, I thought, well, they have good benefits, good pay. Sure. Um, Be a stable job. So I applied and got hired and little did I know at that time that only 3 percent of the people who applied actually get hired. So I was one of the few and did that for two years. twelve years. Including the time out here? Uh, yes. Correct. Right. Yep. Eight years out in Colorado with State Farm. And what were you, what were, like, uh, were you an agent or were you working in, in an office itself or more in the headquarters style? Right. More in the headquarters. So I started as an underwriter. One of those hated auto underwriters. Right. And then when I came out here, I was a supervisor in their office. Life insurance division. Okay. And then I moved into the disability claims as a disability claim examiner. Interesting. Yeah. Is it what, talk to me about the insurance industry. Like what is, how do they, like, it feels like those three things are all unrelated to some extent, like life insurance and claims, like, is it more about just understanding the company and man or managing people well, like what were your talents that got you moved around? Well, I think I'm a good talker, Okay. But, um, yeah, so that's a good question. But they do all do in-house training, so they train you so you don't have to have experience in those areas. Okay. And, uh, I moved from Oregon to Washington and then Washington to Colorado. So they had great relocation plans. Yeah, fair enough. Um, and then, uh. Like, what were your, did you fall in love along the way here yet, uh, still? Oh, you mean like get married? Yeah, yeah. So, um, I did get married when I was in Oregon. Okay. So, this is when, I think it was when I was a school teacher. Okay. So, I, I, I met, um, a guy and then we were married for 11 years. Okay. But it was very dysfunctional, so. Okay. It was, uh, it was really unhealthy. So, you came out to here with, uh, Him in Colorado, and then it was about over by that time? Yeah, so we, yeah, he moved out here to Colorado, and then Because I knew Mike was your second husband. Yes, you're right, yep. And how long have you been with Mike? We've been married for 15 years. Okay, so you were with State Farms still, probably Actually, I was working as an independent insurance agent when I met Mike. I haven't gotten to that chapter yet. So you, so you left State Farm. Yeah. So, sorry. So this is like one of those don't do what not to do kids. Um, so I had this cushy job, owned a house, two cars paid off, went to Hawaii every year for vacation. So, you know, it was, I was, um, getting paid pretty well and life was good. Then I decided, Oh, I'm going to do it. Jump into my own business, my own job. Interesting. And, uh, did not have enough. savings and so within a year or two the runway was too short to Yes get to take off and you probably have seen people do that. Yeah, so it went from owning house two cars paid off Vacation hawaii almost every year to where everything I owned was in a small vw beetle. Oh, dang. Yeah. I lost my house uh Of course, around this time, we were divorcing, so my husband got one car and I got the other. So yeah, it was a bit of a shock. That was quite a, like, you probably, I told people after banking and when I was first in food trucking, um, that I hadn't really eaten much humble pie, uh, before that point in life. But then that was kind of all that was on the menu for a few years. Does that sound like a similar circumstance? You kind of got moved up and up and up in State Farm and then all of a sudden you jump and you're like. Oh, the traction isn't, isn't easy. Plus you have relationship challenges probably going on at the same time. Right. Right. So it, so it, you just have to, what I say to people is count the cost and before you decide to go into your own business. And so it's okay to keep that day job, you know, if you want to, or you can handle doing both of them. But, but the plus side of all of that is that it wasn't tied down to any place or location. And so around this time, my mom was very ill in Oregon and I, I knew she was probably close to passing on. So I was able to just pick up everything in my VW, my VW bug. Didn't even need to rent a trailer. To Oregon. Uh, and uh, so I moved back to Oregon and, um, unfortunately my mom passed away three months after I moved there. Well, but it was awesome for you to be there with her, I'm sure, and I'm sure a huge blessing to the rest of your family that you could do that. Yeah, I was glad to be there and then I could help my brother with his state and stuff like that. That's why God took all that stuff away from you, so you could just drive out to Oregon. Volkswagen. Yeah. And then basically, um. I don't think that works that way quite. Well. He allowed it, certainly. Yeah. I do think you. When you look back on things, you think, yeah, there's a reason. But after being in Oregon for eight months, realized I really miss Colorado, um, had a good group of friends and things. So moved back to Colorado, of course, starting all over with a job that I did when I was 17 years old, working in a state farm office as a, basically a secretary. And, uh, of course the fancy word, they call it a CSR customer service representative. And, uh, did that for a while. Was it with one of the popular state farm offices? It was, uh, with a state farm agent. Yeah, locally. And then, um, obtained my insurance license. And then there was a job opening for an independent insurance agent. So I applied for that. Got, was hired. Okay. And did that. And, uh, I enjoyed the, the sales and helping customers. But they, uh, didn't pay very well. They were, they were owned by a bank, interesting enough, but they pay me less than 30, 000 a year to be their insurance agent. And, um, when I asked for a pay raise, they said, nope, we don't have the money to do it. So that's when I realized that I needed to find a different job. Took me two years, about, about a year to find a different job. And that's when I got hired at the chamber of commerce. Um, and was that directly into like the member kind of engagement thing? And who was, was, David must have been the person there at the time or who was running the chamber in those days? Oh, it was Brian. Yeah, Brian Wilms was the chamber president. I remember that. Right, right. So he hired, hired me. But, uh, yeah, I loved it. And that was a great experience. Did it for a season? Would you go back? Like if, if State Farm, uh, offered you your old, old, old job back for six figures, would you take it today? I really would. I mean, even though it was a great job and it helped me, you know, So you With moving around and all that. too. Yes, build the skill, they trained me. But it was a little bit like what I say to people like being a square peg in a round hole. I didn't really fit the corporate type of mentality. Yeah. Of where you just. You had too many fresh ideas. Yeah, you do what they say and you know, they ask you to jump and you say, how high should I jump? But I had too many creative ideas and they really didn't like it. They really didn't want that, so. It was part of, you could move around from department to department and freshen those places up, but in the long term, it might not have felt comfortable for you. Right, right. Well, you didn't know what you didn't know after a little while of being out in the real world, kind of, you're like, huh, no, I like this, this, this. Yes, you're right. And you probably know, too, being a business owner for quite a while is that I don't think I could work for someone else again unless it was a unique situation. But I really do like being my own business owner and setting my own schedule. That being said, I start working at 5 or 6 o'clock in the morning. Sometimes I go until 7 or 8 at night. Right. Jobs and meetings and events. Yeah. No, you're you're a hustler for sure Well, I feel like that kind of brought us back to present day Normally, we'd like to take a quick break here. Okay stretch and then we'll get into some of the other segments All right. Sounds good. All right. Cheers. Okay. Thanks We're going to jump into some of the mandatory talking segments now. Okay. Um, we always talk about faith, family, and politics. What? Cause, cause that's what mama told me never to talk about. Um, or some people say that, but I know you're a fairly liberal, uh, at least, uh, liberal speaking person. Um, We've had a lot of fun conversations over the years. So, so talk to me about, uh, where do you want to start? You want to start with, well, I guess let's, can we start with politics? Let's start with politics. Cause yesterday Donald Trump was inaugurated for his second term. And, uh, You know, I'm just kind of curious. We've never really talked politics before, you and I, I don't think. Well. Seems like it's probably not something you pay too much attention to. I'm, I'm going to be PC and say, I think everyone needs to, you know, vote for the person they think is right for them and, and probably not get into a lot of politics. Okay. Yeah. But we can talk family. Okay. Yeah. Okay. That'll do it. Thanks. Bye. Bye. Bye. Just like that. Can we talk local politics? You want to talk about, uh, business y, politics y things? Or are you just going to try hot tea? Yeah, I really, I really pretty much stay, obviously have an opinion, but yeah, I usually pretty much, as far as in the public realm, stay away from that. I know he's trying to lure me in. Well, let's try to give people whiskey to just begin the podcast, but you just asked for hot tea. So I guess I can't, uh, um, is that more of a, is that more of a business decision or something you just don't spend too much time with? Yeah, I mean, I do have opinions about politics and religion, but I basically it's a business decision there. I think everyone's gonna. Have their thoughts on, you know, who they vote for. You don't want anybody to cancel you for saying you voted for Trump or not for Trump or whatever. What religion they are or aren't, so, yeah. Can we ask specific questions around it? Uh, like, no. I'm going to kill you, Kirk. Okay. We won't ask about the executive orders. We won't ask about the pardons, January 6th pardons. Can I ask about that? No, we're not going there, Kirk. I know. All right. You're close enough I could, I could. If you crawled over that table slowly, you could get to me. This is why he's like more than arm length away from me. That's right. Just far enough. I got a poker stick over here. I can keep my guests away. Um, is that same for faith in that regard? You don't prefer to talk about that? I mean, it's important to me. Yes, definitely. Do you remain in the, in the Lutheran church? Um, actually, no, I went more non denominational. Okay. Okay. All right. Bye. Do you want to give your pastor a shout out or anything like that? Do you do that? No. Not that he's bad. He's a good pastor. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's just kind of a private matter for you. Yeah. Yeah. Is that kind of traditional, like for your family? Was that? Kind of like just kind of one of those things. We just don't talk about like I wonder if that's a Do you remember is that more of like a business person and so that we just don't talk about that? Yeah, I think yeah, because I just want to keep things on a business level. So yeah, that's You're gonna make 50 percent of people unhappy Well, and I think that's one of the reasons I I talk about it because I want people to know that we're just like, we can still all be friends. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I do agree. And, and I have friends who are on all spectrums of, you know, religion and politics, but yeah. You're kind of a low judgment kind of a person, it seems like. No, I'm pretty high judgment. You are? Okay. But I keep it to myself. Yeah. Yeah. Although I did, I have a funny, I have a, I have a funny story about my husband. So he was speaking to the Rotary today in Loveland. Okay. So poor thing. Oh cool. He was the program or whatever? Yeah. He was the speaker. So I was like, okay, honey. Yeah. Are you going to wear clean clothes today? Yes. Are you going to, are you going to do this? You're going to take your business cards? Yes. You were like setting him up for success. I was trying to help him like, okay, now you're going to be in front of these people. Just so you know. Um, all right, well then we're left to talk about family. Um, we're going to start with Mike, your, your husband for, what did you say, you've been a, 13 years? 15 years. 15 years ago. Yeah, we've been married, yeah. Um, and like, tell me about that. Was that a match. com thing, or? It was a match. Oh, no shit? Yes, it definitely, it's a match success story. Well, was it that specific website, even? Yeah, it was. It was, it was match. com. And that was the season, right? Like, match was kind of dominating everything. Yes, true. For that little season of time. Yeah, and I say to people, I probably, if we had not met at a match, I don't think we would have met at all. Because Mike's an introvert, I'm an extrovert, I don't think we would have been in the same circles, or probably talked to each other. Sure. And what did he, like, what did he tell the Rotary Club about today? Um, he talked about going to Comic Cons, and about writing, and Okay. Um, and, uh I would describe him as a very philosophical, very thoughtful, very, uh, he's more vocal about his politics than you are. Oh, yes. Oh, yeah. And, uh, but also a very, uh, like accomplished comic book writer. Artist and author right? Like he writes some of his own books and illustrates them? Is that right? So he's the writer and he works with the artists. Oh he does? I thought he was just the, I thought he was both. Yeah, yeah, that's alright, no worries. But he's the writer and then he works with artists all over the world. Okay. And he is very accomplished. He's very good. Literally written thousands of comic books and he's won the Eisner award two times and the ink pot which is similar to winning the Oscars Okay in the comic book world. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, very interesting What was what was your first date with this comic book nerd? You're a nerd too. Like that's why Might have found each other. Well, so for instance, you probably know this big comic thick comic books are called graphic novels Yes, which I did not know They were just becoming popular when I was like going to college or at least as far as I could tell You Oh, really? So he said he wrote graphic novels. He didn't say he wrote comic books. I'm thinking he's writing some porn or something. I didn't know what it was. Right. So then we go on You're like graphic cow. It's like, okay. So we go on our first date, um, and we meet at Abel's, Avogadro's. You still went out with him even though he's You thought he was a porn artist or something? Well, I thought, we'll meet in public. So he brings along a comic book that he wrote. Okay. And I thought, well, okay, fine. But I'm kind of a skeptical person. So I went down to the local comic book store later on and said, Do you know Mike Barron? Yeah. And he's a, is he a comic book writer? And they said, yep, they pulled a comic book off the shelf. And like, yep, he wrote this. Oh, interesting. So, so we went to Avvo's and I, and Mike has heard this story many times. Avvogadro's number. Yes, exactly. And, uh, I've said, shared this story in front of Mike several times. But anyway, uh, we went there and it was like the middle of the afternoon because, well, we're old. So I guess we go to. You know, go on a first date at like two o'clock in the afternoon. And then, um, uh, he shows up and I show up and it's really loud in there. You know, they have a lot of loud music. It's like a Saturday afternoon. They got bands playing. It's a weekday, but they just have that overhead music was on really loud. So then he's yelling at me, like, what do you want to drink? I'm like, Oh, I'll have a Pepsi or Coca Cola. And then we sat there and we talked for 15 minutes. Then he gets up and says, I have to leave and feed the dogs. What the hell? What? So, so I'm thinking oh my god 15 minutes and he's already leaving. He doesn't feed me. He's you know, kind of yeah, he's just out. Yeah He's he's just gone. It's not like I'll be back in 10 minutes or something. No. No, he just he just left Poor thing. So anyway I had remembered. Was it because he was crushing on you too hard? I don't know what the problem was. But a girlfriend a long time ago had said, now give them a second date unless they're an axe murderer. I'm like, okay, fine. So then we went on a second date. We went on a picnic down at Benson Park and that turned out good. Much better. And he stayed longer than 15 minutes. That's funny. Did he ever give you a description of a reason why he Well, my Like he forgot to feed the dogs? I don't know. No, my gut feeling is that he was trying to make sure I didn't have a horn and tails and I look like my picture. Oh, so he was just scoping you out almost on the first round. Yeah. I think he was just like, okay, does she look like a picture? Because as you know, a lot of these dating sites, the person looks about 40 years older than the picture and about 200 pounds more. It's true. I don't know. I haven't been on a dating site in years. Well, you're lucky. But, um, and so you guys, uh, had a third date and a fourth date. Um, what was it? About Mike especially that, that drew you to that third and fourth dates. So what, so You never were married before, but whenever you've been through a marriage, you kind of like, I don't want to do this again, you know, make the same mistakes. Exactly. So I had made quite a long list, like 20 items of what, if I got married again, what the person would be like, like they need to be smart and cause I'm short, you know, certain height, not overweight. They need to have a college degree. I tend to like guys that are very complected, you know, light hair, like colored eyes. Educated, humor, like animals and kids. And so it was like, Mike, Mike is one of those people, like the more you know him, the more you like him, because he's really is a person of his word. He's really smart. He's hard. He's hard. He likes me too. We haven't really shared enough time together, but I know what you like each other kind of. Yeah. Yeah. That's yeah. He's hardworking. So I just, I really fell in love with the person that he is, but he's a person of his word, is genuine. He's kind. He loves our dogs and he loves kids. He's like really great with, if there's young people who want to learn how to get into comics, he'll take time for free to talk to them and give them tips and help. So I, and, and he's got a very quirky sense of humor as you know, he does, he does. Um, I'm curious, this is a little bit out of left field cause we were just talking about Mike, but your voice, do you have some accent? Um, and is that from, like, time in the orphanage, or was it time with your older brothers and family, or how, like, talk to me about that. Well, yes, and I have been asked that. So I was four years old, so I'm assuming that I knew Korean. Yeah. Living in Korea for four years. Probably. And then when I came to America, learned English, obviously. And then my mom, uh, when I was younger, she worked with me, like, we would, you know, say rhymes and poems together to help me because there's certain letters in English that are not in the Korean language, so. Okay. Yeah, I didn't really think to consider like When your adoption was and yeah, so that's so your younger brother probably has less of an accent Yes, it was only like two when he came over. So well, he was actually four years old But he had been adopted by another American family when he was a baby and then unfortunately They gave him up and then our family adopted him. So he never had any Right. He'd always been around English speaking people. Right. Interesting. Okay. Sorry to mention that. I just, no, no, I have had people ask me that, like, where's that accent from? Like, I don't know. I might, my parents were Midwest and I grew up in Oregon. Right. Like it's like, uh, well, it's like, Partially adopted early child stuff, plus, you know, just an intuitive learner, obviously, as a young person, so. So, um, talk to me about your, your siblings, and your, um, your mom's gone, your dad's probably gone by now, too, is that true? Yes, right, yes. Are your brothers still all around? Yeah, so I have three brothers. Okay. And, uh, one lives in Oregon and one lives in Washington State. And then we have, every family has a black sheep, so we have the black sheep brother, he lives in Arizona. All right. Yeah, we don't talk to him, but it's okay. Do you have hopes to rekindle? Um, I have forgiven him. I mean, I still love him, but he, he basically, um, like one example is he did not come to our mom's funeral, even though our parents were there. Our parents adopted him, too. So he was, he was mad about things. At a certain point, he just, yeah. Yeah, so, yeah. You can't chase people, can't make people do stuff. Right. And, and, at this point in my life, I really decided I want to be around people who are positive, and have things good going on in their life, and they're not complaining all the time, so. And that, and he does that, he complains all the time, too. You go out to Oregon on a regular basis still, is that, that's to see one of your brothers, mostly? Right. Right. Right, so I have a youngest brother that lives in, near Portland, and then the oldest one lives up in Washington. So I get to go out and visit them quite often. Oh, just by the Seattle area, so it's not too far. Yes, exactly. Yeah, my, I think I mentioned my wife's twin sister lives in Vancouver, Washington, or actually, Gosh, I forget the name of the town, but it's just, just down the road from Vancouver. So right. But it's on the Washington side, right. But in the Portland MSA kind of thing, Washougal, Washougal, now I finally remembered it. Aaron, if you're listening, I remembered the town you're living in. She's actually coming out here, uh, just in a few days, uh, we've got some family, uh, my wife. Jill's nephew is, is likely to be the state champion wrestler for the 215 weight class. Yeah, he's a beast. And so we've got, we've been arranging places to stay in Denver for the big state tournament coming up. That's great. Anyway, I digress. Um, it's, it's a family thing though, right? Like, so you've never, have you had, have your brothers had, uh, kids and stuff too? Cause you, you don't, you and Mike don't have any children. Yeah, we don't have any. We have the fur babies. Yeah, yeah. The four legged, uh, four legged. But my one brother that is the oldest one, he has two children. Okay. And then they each have kids, so he has, he has grandkids. Gotcha. And then the one in Arizona, he had three daughters. Okay. And he's a grandpa too. So you've been around some, some kiddos here and there, but. Yeah. Your, uh, and fur babies are what? Cats or dogs? They're dogs. Okay. Yeah. What flavor? Oh, they're Mutts. They're all rescue dogs. We do, uh, we do one word descriptions of the children. Would you like to give a one word description of each of your dogs? Okay, sure. Uh, give them their name and their rough description and then a one word description. Alright, so, so Bob. Who, if you folks follow me on Facebook, I have words from Bob and I would say he's on the spectrum. Okay. He's your autistic dog? He's autistic. Yes. And then I have an old dog named Mac. Hi Mac. She's, she's crazy. Hi crazy Mac. I love you. And then we have a little dog named Freddy and he's sweet. Oh. Yeah. One normal one, the other two are crazy. Fair enough. Um, let's see. I think that's the Faith Family Politics as much as you would let me get out of you. Would you like to? What did you think about the Carrie Underwood, uh, uh, song on the inauguration? Did you watch that? I did watch that. That was pretty sweet. That made me really Like how she invited people to also sing with her in that situation. Yeah, and the soundtrack didn't work for some reason. Right, right. She still But she could, she nailed that. Yeah, she still went through and did great with the song. Well, so I know that you voted for Trump by the fact that you watched the inauguration. Ha ha. No comment. You don't know, I might watch every inauguration. Um, we're, um, we're, we're doing a, Ha ha. You're so funny. We're doing a special segment next, and it's, uh, the, uh, Ping Pong Ball Awkward Question Challenge. Oh, okay. Yes, and, uh, at the end of this segment, one lucky listener will win the prize that Anne has brought. Would you like to share what it is? Sure, so I, I enjoy doing artistic things, and if you were talking about Oregon, I don't know if people can see them. Yeah, there's cameras shining right at you. But these are pictures that I took. Pictures of Oregon that you've taken and turned them into greeting cards? Right. Oh, how pretty. So there's four of them, and these are all pictures. Pictures of places that I've been at in Oregon. They're all the, the ocean thing, kind of, I thought would be a good idea to, but yes, that's what I'm giving away. I love it. So, um, So we're, I'm gonna pull out, uh, this bowl. And there's going to be three professional or business or awkward questions in there. And so we'll be back in a couple minutes. Alright, sounds good. Alright. So, here's our new game to win a prize from one of our guests. And so, for the Custom, Greeting cards, we'll say, from Anne Barron. So choose three of those ping pong balls. Does it matter the color? No, it doesn't matter the color. Let's just have some variety in there, and then I will read the questions right here. So we've got 29, 30, and 8. So there's 8. I'm gonna read the other two. Myself before I choose the order. Okay. I've got'em. So I've got, uh, 29 is, uh, what's your death meal? Oh, death row. Row, Oh my gosh. So, uh, 30. What's the most surprising thing about running your business? Okay. And then eight is. What's your proudest achievement in business? So those are two a little bit similar. So I want to start with the business questions and then we're going to make the prize this week. Uh, if a listener, uh, DMs us on our Instagram page, I think we'll, we'll share it on our Instagram, but, uh, then the answer to Ann's question of what's your death row meal, that will be the prize. Okay. Yeah. We're doing a little, we're doing a little audience interaction. Great. So let's start with the proudest achievement in business. Proudest achievement. Wow. I would actually have to say starting my own business, and I feel like it's rather successful. Just getting it off the ground. Yeah, getting it off the ground and sticking with it for over eight years, because I have a really short attention span. Those people who know me really well know that I kind of jump around a lot, but this is something that I love. It feeds your passions? Yes. I love it. I love it. And um, so the most surprising thing about running your own business? The most surprising thing? I think it just takes a lot longer than you think it's going to build to what you would like it to be. So it's, I, I would have to say probably this last year is really built to the momentum and really kind of gain speed. Yeah. Where you want it to be or whatever. Yes. That's, uh, when we started Loco Think Tank, um, or when I started Loco Think Tank originally, but we, it's never been a me. Um, but a couple of years in, I had to do some. Some thinking about, uh, what Loco really stood for. And, and we settled with perspective, accountability, and encouragement was our main kind of pillars at the time. Right. And the thing you're speaking to is encouragement there. Like, even, like, even now, where you want to be is still, a fair distance away from you, where you are. And a lot of times as entrepreneurs, we can imagine like where we want to be and be like, well, you suck. Cause you're not where you want to be yet. But that's part of what makes us entrepreneurs. And so that encouragement from other chapter members in our case, or in your case, all the people that you're around that have seen you grow Northern Colorado community. They can be like, yeah, you're, you know, you're doing some great things. You might be, you know, You know, it might have took you eight years to be where you hoped you'd be in four. Mm hmm. Um, But it's perseverance to get there. So I think that's good wisdom Okay. Now you're Death Romeo. So you've been sentenced to death, but you've got the best chef you've ever met and You can have as many courses as you'd like Mike's right there with you if you want him to be And I'm gonna add to it to the Death Romeo Any any guests at your table? Would just be you and Mike in that situation Well, that's a great question. I would probably say eating Dungeness Crab with melted butter. Eating what? Dungeness Crab. Okay, yep, yep. Dungeness though, not king. Yeah, I grew up in Oregon. Dungeness Crab is the best. Alright. And fresh strawberries and then rice. Or noodles. Okay. Just like that? Yeah. Um, is it all together? Or these are courses? Probably all together. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and then accompanied by I'd probably just eat by myself. I'm on death row. I'm like, I don't want anyone else there. I just want to think about this shit. Eat my crap. What did I do? Oh, I killed too many people. Dang. Dang. You're wrongly convicted though, I was wrongly convicted. I didn't really kill those AIDS raiders. Yeah. They said Donald Trump killed them and they set you up for it. Yeah. Um, and then, uh, Oh, uh, accompanied by like, not just the people, but You mentioned earlier, you're not a teetotaler, but you don't really care about drinks or wine or whatever. Would you have a glass of red wine or would it be tequila if you're death rowing it? If I was probably going to drink some, it'd probably be like plum wine or some kind of a sweet wine. A very sweet wine. Daiquiri, that type of thing. Okay. Something real sugary and sweet. Alright, alright. Who cares about what's sugary if you're on death row? Right, if you're on death row, it doesn't matter what your waistline is looking like. Um, all right. Well, thank you. Thank you for completing all three questions. So the answer, uh, for listeners, uh, probably Dungeness Crab gets you there. If you DM our, our crew at the Loco Experience podcast, thanks for playing. We'll come up with more awkward questions next week. And then, uh, Encouragement to young people. Um, I'm thinking most, especially like, Maybe the, the middle schoolers or the, or the 15 to 20 year olds in the world today that are going to have to figure out, you know, you got kind of railroaded into dad's insurance agency, right? Like, not really, but yeah, it's kind of a little bit, you know, like I didn't know, like people told me I was smart at math and so maybe I should be an engineer. I was like, I don't know. I don't know what an engineer is or does. And thankfully I was blessed to have people that introduced me to engineers. I go spend a half day with them and be like, Oh, that's. Lame. But how do you, how do you figure that out? Who do you, yeah, what is your advice to the person that's figuring out what they want to do with their path? Yeah. If it's a middle school or high school, I would say probably go out and visit like what you did, different jobs or careers that you think you might be interested in, talk to those folks, find out what it's like, and also don't be afraid to fail. I mean, there's going to be things you're going to try and it's not going to work out or be really what you think it's going to be, but that's okay. I've had a lot of jobs that I thought, well, this was not going, going the way I thought it was going to, but that's fine. You just, you learn it. You learn from it. You put it in the pasture. Yeah. You learn from everything too. Yeah. You're a silver linings kind of gal, aren't you? Yes. Um, okay. And finally, the, the closing segment, the loco experience. And this is the craziest experience of your lifetime that you're willing to share. Okay. So I would say probably And probably the scariest was when I was living in Oregon in college, and my girlfriend and I, we were driving along the Oregon coastline. Okay, on the Pacific Coast Highway. Yep, Pacific Coast Highway. It was dark, and it was rainy, and we were talking about how she's a thrill seeker personality. Okay. So, she was driving rather fast. Okay. On a rainy road, and then all of a sudden, the car hydroplanes and goes cliffside towards the ocean. Oh, dang. And I'm thinking, okay. This is it. Yeah, I'm done. And I was 24 years old. I thought, this is it. We're dead. And all of a sudden the car just stops. So there's two passengers in a car and we just stop. We're, we don't go down into the ocean, thankfully. And just slid off the road, but it stopped. It stopped. Yeah. And, and there's not a scratch. There's no damage on the car. They come and tow the car. The car is drivable. We don't even have a bruise or a scratch on us. Nothing. And I asked, I wrote my autobiography about four years ago and I asked my girlfriend, I said. What stopped us? Do you remember what made us stop? And she said it was a bush. I don't know if you believe in angels or higher, you know, uh, higher I don't know if you do either, cause we wouldn't talk about it. I, so I do believe that there's something beyond myself. Uh, so I do really feel like my life was protected and saved that day. Like a guardian angel kind of an experience. Right. Because there's no reason a bush would stop a car going 60 miles, 60, 70 miles an hour on a road from going down. Yeah. Yeah. But, um, anyway, so that was kind of a pretty bizarre. You like stopped it and you like got out of the car like, okay, I guess we're not dead. Yeah. So I got out of the car and then there were some friends who were following us. So I flagged them down and we caught a tow truck and said, the car is drivable. We, we didn't even have a scratch on us. Nothing was wrong with us. But you let him, did you drive it home? Yeah. She was able to drive a car home. Yeah. She's like, okay. The car didn't even have a damaged grill or anything. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, you just mentioned, and I forgot to introduce you as author and owner and founder of Northern Colorado Community, but you wrote an autobiography. What inspired you to do that? So I wrote the autobiography four years ago. I wanted to do it when I was 60 years old, but I did it at 61, at least got it finished. But the point was, I think, more reflecting on my life and then also hopefully people learning. Maybe things I did right and things that not to do like I said, the thing when I left the corporate world and ended up with a VW bug was all my worldly processions. But anyway, so it was kind of catalystic, kind of a catalyst on life lived. Yeah. And you get to that point in your life, you think, well, I'm going to look back on it and Got it published. It's on Amazon. Right. Okay, and what's it called? It's called Soul Girl. S E O U L. Okay. Soul Girl. Sure. Yeah, that makes sense. Born in Seoul. Yeah, yeah. South Korea. Yes. What an interesting path you've had to Did you And maybe we're not quite done yet, but did you, like, struggle with your cultural identity in any fashion? I'm imagining that in the, maybe not in your, probably more so in Portland, Seattle, there's a lot of Korean and Asian communities, but maybe less so in Eugene? Yeah, that is very true. Yeah, there's more multicultural in Portland and around the Seattle area. So growing up in Eugene The high school I went to had 1, 200 students, so it was a good size high school. And there was probably less than 20 non white students in that whole school. Oh, that's totally white. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And so I did get teased and things when I was growing up. But the thing is, is that most people get teased for something. Maybe you were when you were short. I was quick to squirt. Yeah. Or they're too skinny, too, too heavy, whatever. Yeah. Whatever. Too tall, too short, but the thing is, is it's what makes you and you just learn to be resilient and yeah, and move on with it. Have you ever visited Korea? I did actually. So I was 39 years old and I went on a tour with other adoptees. So everyone in the group were all adopted and raised in America. Was that like a big common thing at the time? Like this was doing a tour of Korea. Like when you were, when you were. I don't know how old you are quite, but like, was this post Korean War? Was there like a wave of adoptions that happened? Was Korea really in tough straits? That's why there was a lot of kids being adopted and stuff? Yes, exactly. Korea was a very poor country after the war. And, um, so I'm 64 years old. And the Korean War was, I believe, in the late 50s. So there was a lot of, uh, babies, um, due to different reasons. Um, unwed pregnancies, or people couldn't afford to raise their children. So there was a mixed race. Yeah, was there even like American soldiers and Korean ladies and whatever? Yeah, right. And, and, uh, Whether professional or non professional kind of style, probably. And then back in those days, mixed race. children were discriminated against or looked down on. So, um, there's a lot of reasons, but Are you, do you know, have you had testing or anything? Are you Korean Korean or are you, like, potentially like a white Korean? I, I haven't had testing, but I think I'm probably Pretty much majority Asian of some kind, whether it's Korean, Chinese, Japanese. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm just kind of one of those people, I don't want to do the DNA test. No, it's okay. You wouldn't talk about it even if you did. Thanks for sharing. Um, listeners are, some of them are going to want to, Check out Northern Colorado Community. You want to give them a pointer. Right. So the website is NorthernColoradoCommunity. com. That was easy. And, and the Facebook page, same name, same thing. And you can contact me at either place, so. Yeah, you can find her. If you drop her a note, she'll contact you back pretty quick. Right. Well, and you've lived a very interesting journey, and you continue to add a lot of value to the, to the business community here in Northern Colorado. So Thank you. Yeah, thank you for being here. Thanks for having me. And I know you voted for Trump. Thanks for having me as a guest. I'll kill you later. No, no, it was fun. much. Appreciate it. Thank you for listening to this episode of the Loco Experience podcast. Proudly produced and sponsored by Loco Think Tank, Colorado's premier peer advisory organization. This is your producer, Ava Manouse. To find all of our episodes or nominate a future guest, check out our website at thelocoexperience. com. You can also find us on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, X. com, and LinkedIn at The Loco Experience. To support the show, be sure to follow, subscribe, and share. Until next time, stay loco.