EXPERIENCE 217 | Community, Support, and Continuous Improvement with Wade Keith, Partner & Brand Manager of Breeze Thru Car Wash

Wade Keith grew up in Alabama, and came to Colorado as a raft guide - but after he found love and wanted to start a family he decided to pursue a professional career.  This journey included stops at Enterprise Rent-a-Car, Odell’s Taproom, Otterbox, and now approaching 15 years “Working at the Carwash”.  But - not just any car wash - Breeze Thru Car Wash, the dominant membership car wash club in Northern Colorado.  Wade is now a partner in the business, and serves as Brand Manager and is also a community ambassador of sorts - and he’s a very insightful guy.  

This episode digs into the business of washing cars - the capital investment, the recycling of water, the continuous finding and development of entry level employees - and the heart of Wade’s why in finding joy in this journey.  

Wade’s journey was heavily impacted by a health scare - early in his relationship with his wife - in which an infection nearly severed his spine - and left him still unable to do some of the things he loves.  But he finds joy in his work, and in his music, and in his family - and you’ll hear about all of those things and more, so please join me in enjoying my conversation with Wade Keith.

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Wade Keith grew up in Alabama and came to Colorado as a raft guide, but after he found love and wanted to start a family, he decided to pursue a professional career. This journey included stops at Enterprise Rent-A-Car, odells, tap Room, OtterBox, and now approaching 15 years working at the car wash, but not just any car Wash Breeze Through Car Wash. The Dominant Membership Car Wash Club in Northern Colorado. Wade is now a partner in the business and serves as the brand manager and is also a community ambassador of sorts, and he is a very insightful guy. This episode digs into the business of washing cars, the capital investment, the recycling of water, the continuous finding, and developing of entry level employees and the heart of Wade's. Why in finding joy in this journey? Wade's journey was heavily impacted by a health scare. Early in his relationship with his wife in which an infection nearly severed his spine and left him unable still to do some of the things he loves. But he finds joy in his work and in his music and in his family, and you'll hear about all of those things and more. So please join me in enjoying my conversation with Wade Keith. Welcome to the Low-Code Experience Podcast. I'm here today with Wade Keith, and Wade is the brand manager and partner at Breeze Through Car Wash. Thanks for having me, Kurt. Appreciate it. Thanks for being here, Wade. Um, so let's start with those boots. Actually, uh, Durango Boots is not a sponsor of this show, but you were gonna give them a ringing endorsement for me. Oh yeah. I mean, I've, I've had so many different pairs of boots over the years and then, but every single one of'em hurt. So I finally found a pair where I can wear'em all day. I mean, I, I mean, I literally live in these things. They got tread on the bottom too. They got like a rubber sole, so it's. Different than a lot of cowboy boots are kind of smooth. So almost replaceable. Are those not replaceable? Oh, I don't, I, I'm not real sure, but haven't worn'em out yet. Yeah, I think, I think, and I think that's why they're so comfortable is, uh, because of the, the, the bottom of this. I mean, all the other boots that I've had are just, they're hard and they hurt. Yeah. But these work, these work, these are good. I will always buy these forever and always. Okay. Well I dig it. Plus you get a nice little, like one and a quarter inch lift there. Oh yeah. I mean, I'm just trying to get taller every day. Yeah. So, uh, I guess let's just, uh, start with the, uh, basic question. What does a brand manager do? I don't think I know that many brand managers. Oh man. Well this is so funny'cause we had this conversation earlier today, like, uh, a brand manager that I know and, and, and I think about my buddy, uh, Chris Cox here in town. He's, uh, he's one of my best friends. It sounds like he made, he's been on the podcast actually. Oh, has he? I believe the, the, the CBD store and No, no, no. This is a different guy. This is the, this is the guy that's a singer in our band. Okay. Uh, he's a real good friend of mine and, uh, and he's, I mean, he's a like a traditional brand manager. So like he, when somebody starts a business. They have to build out the brand, first of all. So, um, I've taken a lot of notes from him, but, uh, I kind of think of a brand manager more of his role. So he, he, he puts together all the graphics, builds out the brand standards guides. Yeah. Yeah. This is the fonts, this is what it's supposed to look like, the colors. Yeah. We've done a little bit of that with local over. Yeah. Yeah. And you've got very good branding. I love your logos. It props to you guys. Uh, and I think of a brand manager more of that, and, um, in his, you know, the role he does, I, I mean I'm always bouncing ideas off of him, but builds out the brand, what it's supposed to look like, what it's supposed to feel like, strategy behind it. Um, that's kinda like your traditional brand manager. Yeah. And then they, those types of brand managers turn that over to, uh, marketing and advertising. So they give the assets to somebody else and then they do the advertising. Right. Um, but in like my role, I'm kind of responsible for all of it. I'm responsible for, you know, coming up with, is that your logo? Yeah. And, and this is something that was developed before me. Uh, my role now is I just kind of, every couple years I enhance it a little bit. But we build out the brand, what it's supposed to look like, how consistent it's supposed to be. But in my role, we're also responsible for the advertising piece of it as well. Okay. So, uh, it really kinda depends on you, uh, uh, who you ask, but in my mind, like a brand manager's more builds out the brands for other people and then turns the, the turns that over to somebody to do advertising. We kind of do a combo package. Okay. Okay. In my role specifically. Well, and I know that you're also pretty involved with the team and internal comms and things like that as well, so that sounds more an expansion still on the brand, or is that part of completing the brand? Well, I, I think it's unique to like, small business. Right? Right. You know, I mean, in small business you have to wear multiple different hats, uh, you know, for a while, you know, and so it, you know, I'm part of, I do the advertising, the community involvement. Our department's also responsible for the back end of the membership program that we offer. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Um, but I'm also on the leadership team as well and we, we develop a lot of strategy and, you know, planning and that sort of thing. Let's, uh, let's set the stage a little bit with breeze through car wash because it's become like over the last. 15 ish years, maybe less than that, but has really grown a lot to become kind of the dominant, like the only regional brand I would say in a lot of ways in the car wash industry, Northern Colorado and maybe beyond. Yeah. We're, we're, we're in, uh, Cheyenne. Okay. As well as here. We have, um, we're gonna be expanding. Okay. I can't, can't let everything out the bag yet until the building's built, but, uh, we will be expanding, but it's been a, been a good deal for me. Um, never in my life did I think I'd be working in the car wash industry. What, and did you sing it a lot when you like first got going and stuff? I, that is the theme song of the industry. It's kinda like, it's kinda like, uh, playing sweet home Alabama. When you're from Alabama. It's like you play it so much. Right. So when you go to the car wash stuff, it's, you almost don't hear it. Yeah. But something that's unique about the car wash industry, and I've heard this a lot over the years, is like, you don't find the car wash industry. The car wash industry finds you. And that's exactly what happened to me when I moved out here. Um, I had actually, I was a, I was a RAF guide, um, canyon City, um Okay. On the Arkansas River. Yeah. Yep. Met my wife. I was like, wow, you're cool. And she was, I wish I made enough money to keep you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, she, she had a good, stable job. And I'm sitting here just scrounging. I was living the dirt bag, RAF guide life, you know, I was voluntarily homeless for like seven months living outta the back of my truck, you know? And that's, and then wasn't the skiing in the off season? I, from rafting? No, I didn't do that piece. I, I didn't do that piece. I went back home. But, uh, I met her and she was moving to Fort Collins. I never even heard of Fort Collins. Uh, all the other raft guides were talking about Fort Collins is Fort Collins at, so I had to check it out. Helped her move up here at the end of the season, uh, fell in love with her, fell in love with the area. And then, um, it, I'd already graduated college and so I got a job at, uh, enterprise Rent a car. And I worked there for a while. Okay. And I. And um, and then I moved a, another local brewery in town and that kind of stuff. But because I was working there, they were building a car wash down the street and developed a relationship with majority owners at that time. Oh. And they had always been wanting me to come work for'em and I was always like, I don't, I don't wanna work at the wash. They just thought you were a charming guy, like getting bar at the brewery or whatever you was that, what were you doing for the brewery? Um, I was working public facing. Yeah. I was working in the tap room. Right. I had, uh, I was kind of done with enterprise, worked over at Odell Brewery, which Yep. Yep. And, uh, worked over there in the tap room for a while and, uh, he, he came knocking and, you know, said, we want you to come work for us. And I said, okay, I'll come work at a car wash. And it is been just like, why?'cause they were offering you more money than working at the, or just upward advancement opportunity. Yeah, yeah, yeah. More of that being wanted. Yeah. Being wanted. I actually, I actually was like, yeah, I'll try this out. Yeah. See what's happening, you know, and, and so I did. And uh, and did you have a marketing degree or? I, I did have a marketing degree. Okay. Okay. And what's what's interesting about that is like, I got it a long time ago and then, and I mean it, and I didn't You use my you it for 10 years? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I did all these other things where I didn't do anything with marketing or advertising. And it's funny, like all this stuff you see today was not even developed when I had my marketing degree. Sure. So, I mean, I kinda had to relearn how to do all that stuff. So I spent. About two years. Really. Like, really like, like hammering home, relearning how to do advertising, marketing. And when was this? Can you circle me? Oh, geez. Um, let's see, 2000, oh, 15 years ago. Okay. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ish. 2010. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. There you go. Ishish. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. 2010. Fair. Okay. But, uh, I mean, I started off at the, in the car wash. I was just directing people in, being a customer service attendant. Okay. And then, and then one of the majority owners decided to retire, and I was like, Hey, uh, I have a degree. And I'm also a pretty creative guy. Yeah. And that's, that's when I moved into that position. And did you buy in right away? Like they let you Um, not right away. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it took a little bit of time. Yeah. Yeah. You know, you, we, we like to, you know, promote from within and then be established before that offer. And how big was the company at this time? About four locations. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And was ground level. Yeah. We're at 15 now, right? Yeah. Yeah. So what were those four locations? Do you remember? Um, or, or two flag. I always say two flagships, but, uh, the one on Mulberry for Cols. Sure. That's one I all go to. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's right down the street from here. Yep. Uh, Cheyenne Del Range. Uh, we had one in Longmont, it still do, it's Camp Pratt. Okay. And then our Greeley location. Oh, so you had like a big widespread and then started filling in to. Be more kind of between those spots from there. Yeah. Yeah. We like to offer the additional value of having locations close to one another so you can use your pass at any of the locations. Yeah. It's, it's a, it's a pretty good benefit that we offer. Yeah, yeah, for sure. I, I should actually do a, a, a breeze through tour sometime and just go see how Is the flagship still the flagship or are there some nicer ones? Uh, I mean if Mulberry's always gonna be It, that was the first one. You know, our second one came not too long after that in Dell Range and Cheyenne, but I'd love to give you a tour. We had, uh, the Fort Collins Running Club come out the other day'cause we're a sponsor of the, uh, horse tooth half marathon. Yeah. We did a practice run and, and one of the guys, Chris was there. He, uh, he was really into seeing the back, back end of everything. So I, I gave him a tour of the site and he, and he was really in interested in the equipment, that kind of stuff. Yeah. And it was, it was pretty cool, man. He was, was really excited about, he's got car wash business too. Yeah. He might even be looking at it right now. But yeah, we gave him a tour and he loved it. It's interesting. Yeah. Yeah. That is really an interesting benefit. Like, and it's a funny thing because it's part of like, obviously I'm, I'm a shopper of convenience, you know, and so if another car wash moved even closer from my office to breeze through, I would consider it. But that's about the only thing I would consider. But I do find value in the fact that you're a regional brand and I can go to any of those breeze throughs and I never ever do it. Well, yeah. What, what is your, do you have data on that? Like when people do you, do you track that at all? Like, do we track who do you know when somebody that usually goes to Mulberry goes to Harmony or to Longmont and gets their car wash? We do track it. Yeah. Yeah, we do track it. We, we see some statistics. It says this is your home site. Yep. And these are the other sites that you visit. Some people are probably all over. They're like real estate agents in the region and they just go to the breeze through whenever they see one, almost. So they always get a fresh car. Well, it's a, it's interesting you say that'cause I always think about a persona of like a real estate agent who their, their reflection of their own personal brand as the way that their car looks. Totally. They're putting people in a car all the time. Or you think about Uber or Lyft, we were just talking about it a minute ago. Yeah. I mean, you know, you, you, oh for sure your, your reflection of your brand. You should charge those guys more and mean less.'cause I'm like a once every 10 days to two weeks, if I remember You said it, not me. Well, you know, it, it was interesting. Some car wash companies don't allow ride shares to, to be a part of their program. I mean, they probably do now because the car wash industry's become so competitive. People are building all over the place. Mm-hmm. We actually have a lot of outstate competition coming in right now too. Oh, is that right? Too interesting. And it's like big corporates. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. A lot of places outta Arizona and Texas and, well, my favorite stories are of the, the local brand, uh, beating off the big corporates when they try to come in. I just had Zach George on and Yeah. And uh, you know, valley Crest just tried to come in. A few times, which is a big national, but between Lindgren and, and Zach, they're kind of just too strong. Yeah. You know, they haven't had enough market share. Well, there, there is a pretty good benefit of being the local guy. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. I mean, for instance, you and I were at the Realities for Children event Saturday night. Totally. You know, and then I think I maybe at the Rotary Club, I believe. Right. And then, which you should come again, by the way. Yeah. Yeah. I thought you were gonna come on board maybe. Yeah. You shoot me an invite. Yeah, we should. But it was funny, I mean, there was, I think last summer, there was like two weeks there where we saw each other like four times, stretch in two weeks. And I looked at you and I said, should we just start carpooling all this stuff right together? And it was, it was pretty funny. But, but the town gets smaller and smaller as you live here more and more years. Yeah. And you're not gonna, you know, if you got some out-of-state competitors coming in, they're, they're not gonna care about the communities the way we do. Oh, a hundred percent. I, I turned into a Antiaz Amazon guy. Yeah. Um, during Covid Nation, actually, when I bought a, a Blackstone Grill at Man Weiler's Hardware, Uhhuh$199 for a 18 inch griddle and an 18 inch, uh, grill with a pop boiler that you can, you know, take that off. I was like, that's sweet. Like I should buy that. And so I looked up the reviews and of course Amazon pops up 2 99 for the same thing. Yeah. And like, man, Weiler's is probably paying 130 bucks for that thing and selling it to me for 1 99. Yeah. And donating to the football team in Windsor. And meanwhile, Amazon's paying$64 from the. Manufacturer direct probably and selling it for 300. Yeah. I You said the bitches. Yeah. I, I'm not gonna give you any more money. Uh, and I like, I like the same thing. I like to support the local businesses. I mean, because people support us, you know? Yeah. And it's, and it, and it helps bring up the community instead of buying something somewhere else and having it ship to you. Yeah. I mean, sometimes you have to do that. Sure. But when I can, yeah. There's times I have either my wife or Alma here at Loco buy me something from Amazon that I can't really get easily otherwise, but Yeah. Uh, personally I still never buy anything from Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Sorry, Jeff Bezos. Yeah. Yeah. But you can still come on the podcast if you want me to. Yeah. Yeah. Convince me. Yeah, invite me. I wanna sit in the back room here and watch you guys talk. It'd be pretty interesting. Yeah. Yeah. That'd be fun. Yeah. Um, so, so pretty small operation at that time. And, and so when you got promoted to kind of. Not maybe your current role, but some portion of your current role. Was that a few years in? Yeah, it was a few years in, I think it was probably about three years in, we, we developed our unlimited wash pass program. Okay. And, um, I, I, I put that together, not, not a hundred percent side by myself. Yeah. We put it together, charge, but majority of the work You the charge, you were the project manager. Yeah. Yeah. Majority of the work. Um, I, you know, I, I, I did and then, and then, uh, we went to. We flew around the nation. Um, breeze through Car Wash is a very, uh, established car wash chain Oh. It is? In, in our whole entire industry. And so we Oh, I didn't know that. I thought this was a local brand. It is a local brand, but I'm just talking about our reputation Yes. Within the whole industry. Yeah. Yeah. I mean a lot of, and we, and we're really good about building relationships with even our competitors and other people. Um, but we've established relationships all across the nation. So I flew around a lot of different places, saw how they run their program and took notes and we built it out. Yeah. And, um, nice job of slowly ramping up that, uh, monthly membership dues without making it feel too expensive. Right, right. It felt really cheap when I first signed up. It was Oh man was like, yeah, I know. And it's come a long way. It's like, but I'm sure costs are up a lot. Right? Like, labor's up probably 40% since you first started that program. It is. A lot of costs are up soap, I mean all, just all kinds of stuff. And water's going up too, right? Yep. Yep. And, and, and do you guys get like a special pass? So you recycle a lot of water, right? Yes. Spin it back through. Yeah. So really, and thank you for asking this question. This is something I'm super passionate about and I didn't even know the answer by the way. I was curious guy. Well, the, it's interesting way it works. So the water that goes underneath the conveyor, a lot of that is reclaimed, like 50% of the water is reclaimed. Okay. So on average it takes about 50 gallons to wash a vehicle. Okay. So 25% of it's reclaimed, but the, the, the, the soap and that kinda stuff that needs to be on fresh water.'cause you can't do the reclaimed water over that. Gotcha, gotcha. And so, so the reclaimed is more of the rinse part kind of, uh, not, uh, not necessarily the rinse, but the high pressure applications. Oh, sure. Right. You're asking good questions. We need to get you an application here. Yeah, yeah. But like, like when you go through and you see the high pressure that comes home, you got it bust, you got a guitar in here, we'll bust it out. Um, but like the high pressure applications, getting the big stuff off that, that's reclaim. But realistically, you know, I was, I was talking to other people about it, like it's all recycled. Right. It all gets, goes down the drain, it gets, it goes down to, yeah. The plant out here near the Environmental Learning Center, it's treated it's re-released, goes into Falls Creek, uh, reservoir, then it's re-released into the Pooter between, um, um, Tim and Windsor. Right, right. Yeah. So it's, they drink it in Greeley. Yeah. Yeah. There you go. Car wash water in Greeley. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, that's pretty cool. You know, I mean, it's, it's, it's a better option. Oh, for sure. Well, I mean, if you think about the Colorado River Yeah. You know, like virtually every drop of that has gone through like a few different phases on its way down. Oh man. It's these days. Yeah. I mean, it's just a trickle when it gets to the. To the border. Yeah. I mean, it doesn't even hit, hit the ocean. Is it done at all anymore? No, I knew it was kind of virtually used up. I know a couple years ago they released some stuff and it finally went back, flush it out a little bit. But in't that, in't that crazy, like, think about this like the, the Colorado River, and it goes through all these different states and doesn't even reach the ocean. Right. But the water from the Colorado River comes down to Adams Tunnel and fills up, uh, like Carter Lake Horse, tooth Reservoir or Boulder Reservoir. Mm-hmm. So we've got water in this town that is from the Colorado River, and potentially some of that water might even reach the Gulf of America now. Right. You know what I mean? So, yeah. I mean, it it's not supposed to flow east. Yeah, that's an interesting thing. Huh. But, but water from the Colorado River does flow east. And we get it first. We get it first, like everybody else drinks it after it's already been kind of through the thing. Yeah. But we get it right out of the tap just about. Oh yeah. Yeah. I'm a, I'm a big, I'm a big river guy. That's why I moved out here. I was a raft guide. And that's, that's, that's Were you a raft guide in Alabama? Um, not commercially, but I've, I'll take a raft down in all those rivers any day. Okay. But, but that's not where I started. I started, I started, started here and that's what brought me to Colorado, so. Gotcha. Yeah. That desire, well, you were like. Uh, how, how old are you? I am 45. 45? Mm-hmm. So the internet existed when you were getting outta high school and researching what to do with yourself a little bit and stuff. It really didn't for me. Yeah. Like I came out here without the benefit of being able to look up what Fort Collins was like. Barely. Except for like at the library. Right. And, uh, so how did you get interested in rafting? Like, it seems like, I don't know, maybe I'm wrong. I've never been down to the southeast, but it doesn't feel like, you know, it feels more like in an, you know, slow rafts down the river than to a cookout. I love the fact that you just busted out the air banjo. That is so awesome. And you were in tune too. Good job. Yeah. Um, for me it was, I don't, okay, so this is what I always joke about, right? We could talk a lot more about Alabama. We will, but Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I could chat about it all day. Uh. I always joke that my name, you know, my name's Wade. Wade for reason'cause of double, double first name, right? Yeah. That is total Alabama thing. Wade Keith, right? Waiting. Yeah. Yeah. Wade Keith. You know, it must be an Alabama thing. Like Ricky Bobby, you know. What's your middle name? Uh, my middle name's Wade. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. My first name's Douglas, but uh, so you got three first names? Yeah. Douglas Wade. It's a hundred percent an Alabama thing, right? There's, there's all kinds of people running around with two first names, two last names in Alabama, but, uh Oh, okay. This is so funny. But, uh, so I was, I always joke that, uh, you know, my name's Wade and I was put on this earth to walk through the water. Okay. Right. Because that's what Wade is, is walking through the water. I don't know, I've just always been a, a fan of, uh, of rivers and lakes. We have a, a lake house in Alabama, and, uh, I've just always been a, a fan of doing that. And for me, uh, I've just always kind of had a bit of an extreme part of my personality that I needed to cater to. Uh, used to rock climb a lot. Uh, you probably know this, I have, I had a bad injury years ago where I, I had to get my neck fused. I can't, uh, I can't climb anymore. Um, but I really wanted to do it when I was in college. Um, they had a kayaking class and I took it and I, I went to like six sessions and then on the sixth sessions at the very end, I finally learned how to roll a kayak up. Okay. Um, and then I didn't do it for a while. Originally I was, I had a job, uh. Rafting in Tennessee. Okay. Only a Cohi river. But then I, I was like, you know, I've been in the south my whole life. Let me go venture out and see what else is out there. So I decided to take a job out here and that's what brought me out here. Okay. And those companies are always looking for smart young men that wanna be raft guides, I imagine, right? Yeah, I can. I mean, it's hard work long hours. It is, it really builds a lot of character. I mean, I was terrified of, uh, of rafting, but, um, during training we had to jump out and swim through all the rapids and, you know, doing that two months straight every day. Yeah. For a while. Really burnt, burnt that outta me to be scared of it. Yeah. And now, I mean, we, we do all kinds of stuff. I mean, we, we have a goal to, to, to do a new stretch of river every year. Last year I got four new stretches in. Oh, cool. And, um, the year before that, it was a couple of stretches. So your injuries don't happen for you in that space. Um, they do, but the, the, the, the Kay kayaking piece I've had to kind of step back from, um, when we had small children, I didn't kayak as much, uh, because we had to bring kids down the river. And so the, i, I kind of traded in a kayak for a fly fishing rod. Okay. And so, and now, and now I wade through the water and, and fly fish a ton. So that's, I got, I got too many hobbies, but that was anything involved in the river is my home. I, uh, you know, the title of this podcast is the Lo the Loco Experience. And I was just remembering one of my own that I might as well share here. Um, when Jill and I were first dating, I don't know if I've, I don't think I've shared this on the podcast before. Uh oh. So, so we, uh, we went up the Pooter to, to float down the river. Of course, like everybody does, I'm sure you probably have, or, uh, probably a hundreds people of times people. Yeah. So, um, but I didn't, I was broke, uh, and I, I wanted to be with Jill, my new girlfriend, right? And so I bought like a double raft from Walmart, like for$40 or something, this crappy little plastic thing. Instead of just buying us each a$25 inner tube or something,$20 inner tube. Um, and as we're going down the river, it's starting to lose air. It's starting to lose air. And, um, so we're sitting on the edges so that we don't hit our butts on the bottom too bad during the low spots. And then Jill gets boop out. Like by a big rock and she's four foot 11 and not a strong swimmer. And she was definitely very freaked out. And I like waited for a little bit, jumped out, got into position to catch her, like she's literally tumbling down the river. Somehow I was able to get my footing and when I jumped out and stuff and I possession myself and I catch her and she tumbles me off my feet. And we both are bobbing for a while and like for her it's really serious. She's frantic, she's like freaking out. And somehow through probably massive amounts of adrenaline, I was able to catch her and get my footing in like up to my groin water running really fast. So I can't really even re, I don't know how I did it, but I did and I caught her and I got us over to shore, which turned out to be an island, which after she settled down a little bit, we had to cross, but it was only like knee deep. And uh, then I bought some inner tubes for floating down the river. And she got a life jacket. Yeah. And she only always wears a life jacket anymore. So you weren't wearing a life jacket? Neither of us. No. Yeah. Or were you wearing shoes? Uh, no. Okay. Yeah. And we had probably two beers each, already, three maybe. You know? Well, the good thing is, uh, the people who are trained, uh, the RAF guys are trained, are, are, are trained to recognize stuff like that and talk to you about it. But, but, but, but you know, if I would've seen you out, there've been like, Hey, life jacket, shoes. Yeah. Well, I mean, the river's pretty humbling, you know? I mean there's, it totally was like, I was, you know, a North Dakota kid. Yeah, yeah, yeah, right. I didn't have any respect for that level of water power. Yeah. And it's cold too. I mean, this stuff's coming. This, this is coming straight out of Rocky Mountain National Park. It's not like the stuff in the south where, you know, it's, it's pretty warm. Right, right. Yeah. Yeah. But the river's, river's taught me a lot. Yeah. Have you had a, well, you'll have a local experience later. Maybe that'll be related to your injury. Yeah, we can talk about that later now. But, but tell me about, maybe while we're talking about rafting, tell me about like, rafting close calls.'cause they probably won't make your Okay. I mean, I've had, I've had quite a bit, uh, the, the, and we'll get back to, to the car wash. Oh yeah, yeah. You're good. You're good. I, I mean, you've, you've hit a really soft spot for me here. Or, or, not a soft spot, but like, something I'm really passionate about. So the, the closest call or the most, uh, exciting, I'm gonna say exciting, but it was scary at the time was when I met my wife. Okay. So I met this beautiful woman that, that was super smart, very kind still is, all of those things. And I was like, I am really trying to impress this, this lady. And so we were at a, uh, she worked at a different rafting company than me and so and so, but I was trying my best to always try to hang out at that rafting company somehow after work. And so 4th of July. Um, long time ago, uh, probably 2005 or six. Um, everybody's down there hanging out, partying. It's 4th of July and we're, this is done in Kansas City? Kansas City, yeah. And, uh, a truck full of guys pulled up. It's probably about, at this point, it's probably like 10 o'clock at night. Okay. And they're like, we're running the gorge, the roll gorge is what we're talking about. And I'm sitting there, I'm like, oh, you guys are crazy. You guys are gonna go out like after we've been partying and you're gonna go down the gorge. And then I look over and this girl I'm trying to press is, is sitting there. She's like, well, yeah, we're going. And I'm like, well, of course I'm gonna go. Right. Right. So I, I rallied my buddy, uh, Chad and Mark, still great friends of mine. Um, and I'm like, Hey, let's go down the river. And she's going and uh, and so they said, okay, well we're gonna pick you up'cause you have to go up this big hill to, and then you have to dip down to the put in for the gorge. Right. I imagine. Yeah. Yeah. And so we go up to the top of the hill, we get all of her stuff, um, we get ready and they come by to pick us up. And I'm like, oh, okay, cool. Where's the girl? They were like, oh, she's in the other car. And I was like, okay, cool. So we get her stuff and we get down to the put in. When we get down to the Putin, um, I'm looking around, I'm like, where's the girl? Where's the girl? And they're like, oh, she didn't make it. The owner of that company came out and started yelling at him. So she bailed out. And so the whole reason that I'm doing this that I am pretty intimidated about going is for the girl. You knew it was dumb, but Yeah. Yeah. It for the girl. And she didn't show up. And I was like, well, okay, well we're gonna go down. And so by this time it's probably 12 30, 1 o'clock in the morning. Okay. And we're going down the royal gorge. Is there a moonlight? Yeah. I, I, I don't remember. I mean, maybe, I don't know. Well, it seems like it'd be dark as heck otherwise. And I don't know if you've been down the world gorge, but it's world class whitewater. Haven't four class fours, high water. You know, it could get to class five. So we're going down and we get in this rapid called sledgehammer. Okay. Right. Right. Mean they don't ever give rapids, you know, you know. Nice. Nice. Until sledgehammer, until somebody dies. Double death. Falls. Falls. I mean, there's one on the Pooter called Killer Bridge. Right, right. You know, it's, it's not Death by Decapitation is another one on the Pooter. That's way up. And he was going down and he goes, uh, he goes, oh, there's a rock. And we parked on top of the rock and he goes, oh man, this isn't a good place for us to be. And then we all flipped and then we ended up floating downstream, and it's in the middle of the night. And I mean, I ended up swimming out. This is just you and your buddies or with some other people? These were people I didn't even know. Right, right. Because I was going for, you know, to press the girl. Right, right. Well, and there's one boat or two, there's like four of us. Okay. Four boats. Okay. And, but we flip, I ended up swimming out at, at the very top. Everybody else ended up swimming way down. And they couldn't find me for a while, so they thought I'd drowned. Oh shit. There was another girl, and it's called Recirculation. If they get in a big hole. Sure. Like you, you get down, it's like an undertone and it keeps pulling back and back. Yep. Yep. So this girl got recirculated multiple times. They got her out, she threw up and all this kind of stuff. Okay. But it was, it was, it was chaotic. It sucked the contacts outta my eyes. I couldn't see the rest of the trip. But we ended up finally getting all of her stuff together. By this time it's like 2 30, 3 o'clock in the morning. Right. And then we get back in the boat and we, then we end up, we, we get all the way through the gorge, we take out, and then we end up going home. And then three hours later I had to wake up and do two raft trips the next morning with customers. Afternoon session. But. You know, I, I mean, we, it was a great story. My buddies laugh about it. My buddy Chad was with me. He's the drummer that plays with us, uh, in our bands and, and, uh, we, we still talk about it to this day. And you know what? I impressed the girl enough. She married and we, we got two kids. We live in Fort Collins, so it worked out. Yeah. Yeah. Was she impressed by it or did she say like, that was dumb? I she had to been impressed by it because it showed some commitment. You know what I mean? I I'm gonna ask her that question tonight. Yeah. You know what I mean? I wonder, I wonder you caught her attention anyway. I've, I sure did talk her about that. Yeah. Yeah. So, so let's go back to car washes. Sure. Let's talk about the car wash business a little bit. Like, um, as one of those customers that only uses it once in a while and stuff, it's like, wow, I get this really nice service, these friendly people waving me to the right place and stuff. But like, what's the, what's the dynamic of it? Like, how do you find enough people? How do you choose your pricing? Like, what are the margins, what are the costs? A little bit, if you wanna talk about big, big numbers, you don't have to get into the details. Well, you have, um, yeah. I mean, it's, it is an interesting business, right? Like. It's an interesting business. There's a lot of moving parts, right? Yeah. You've got, and, and it is, if you ever go to, if you ever get a chance, or if anybody that's listening to this, it's interesting. Go to the International Car Wash Association trade shows. I mean, you Okay. It's, it's either like the second or third biggest trade show that ever happens in Vegas every year. Really? Yeah. It's huge. You walk in, there's equipment everywhere. I mean, you have to, you've got, uh, and I'm not much of the maintenance guy, but it's, um, but you kind of know what you're rocking as far as gear. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you have to get, did you use the same gear in all your car washes? We try to, um, we try to. Um, and sometimes there's supply chain stuff going on. Yeah. And that kind of stuff. We have had to deal with that over the years, but we try to make it consistent among every location. Yep, yep. Right. Like even right here or a product, a convenient, consistent, friendly car wash experience. So we try to make things as consistent as possible. Yeah. So when you go to this one and this one, it's hard to make everything super consistent. Sure. But you've got the cost of the, um, you've got the cost of the equipment. You've got, which is what. Oh, I mean like$5 million, 2 million, 2 million, something like that. Yeah. For the, for just the equipment, not the building. Right, right. But just the sprayer and the spinners and the pumps and the whatever it used to cost 4 million to build'em ground up. Now it's eight. Now it's eight. Okay. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I mean, I mean, it's So the big capital investment. Yeah. Yeah. Um, I could have a bucket and a sponge, and I could be a car wash. You could, you know, with a hose, but how much would it take me to wash my car at home? How many gallons? Uh, 150. Really? That's on average what it takes the amount of water that somebody uses, and that goes straight down to the storms. Sure. Right. And if you're ever wash it at home, research it. Right.'cause a lot of people don't wash their car correctly. They use one or two buckets, and then they're just wiping stuff right back into their, their vehicle. Okay. It's good to use a four to six bucket technique. Oh, wow. Yeah. Yeah. So reach, if you're gonna do it at home, just research it. Oh, dang. Research it pretty good. Because most, most people, I, and if I, I don't know the percentage, but if I had to put a percentage on it, like 95% of people don't wash their cars correctly at all. Well, I just wash my motorcycles mostly by hand. Oh yeah. Um, but I only use a one bucket method basically, you know, but it's pretty dirty by the end. Well, you can always hit up that University of YouTube and learn why, but I always watched the. The, the shiny spots first. Yeah. So I hit the windshield, the tank, the the side covers the pipes, you know, the, the, the stuff that's cleaner and shinier Yeah. With the, with the fresh soap. And then I get into the break areas and the wheels Yeah. And the yucky stuff. Yeah. When you get in the break areas that you got the brake dust. Right. And that's really gonna, you know, some people wipe off that, never. Never. And then put it right back on their clear code. I've never, ever, uh, washed the tank after I've washed the wheels. Yeah, yeah. But the, the car wash, I mean there's, so anyway, yeah. There's a lot of moving points.'cause you got so big capital investment. Yeah. You gotta replace that stuff every 10 years or something. Oh. Um, something like that. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I know we upgraded some, some of our conveyors to this like flat conveyor and that was a big investment. Mm-hmm. Um, it's a little bit better for the customer experience'cause you're not going into like a trough. Yeah, yeah. You know, instead of it's flat. Yeah. You don't like drop in. Yeah. But, but there's a lot mean, there's, there's the point of sale systems that you have to deal with and then you have all the equipment and then you have employees and paying them a good wage. Yeah. I mean, right now at this time, we start our employees at$17 an hour. Mm-hmm. Just at the base level. Okay. Um, down in, down in Boulder County it's a little bit more, it's 18. Right, right. Yeah. But, uh, but there's all that. Then there's the training and the systems. Right. And then it. The, the hard, how much is the training? What's that? Uh, how much training on the front end? Oh. Um, it seems likely a lot like hours and hours. Yes. Yes. Uh, before they get to be around people, kinda, yeah. And I, and I may be quoting this incorrectly'cause training's not what I oversee. I Sure. I'm trying to, I'm trying not to. Yeah. Try to do everything. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I get it. But, uh, we do a couple of, uh, a couple of days of training in, at our headquarters. Now our headquarters is here in Fort Collins. Yeah. But we do a couple days of training, then they go out into the field, and then they do field work, and then they come back for some additional training. Right, right. But it's nonstop training. We, you can go through different levels of training. Mm. And then it makes you more promotable. But it's, it, it really is, it's nonstop training. Mm. And not a lot of people think car wash is, oh, you gotta train and do all that much. Yeah. I mean, there's equipment, there's the soft skills that you have to teach the employees. You do the best, honestly. Yeah. Like your employees. I've hardly ever had a negative interaction with, I don't think I have. Yeah. Had a negative interaction, you know, at, at least it was like, well, that was an, an inspiring thumbs up on the Right. Right. You know, and that's, and that's what we really pride ourselves on. Yeah. Is, I mean, you may even see some, um, some billboards around the area that say friendly faces ahead. Mm-hmm. You know what I mean? Because that's, we know that's a pretty good competitive advantage of ours. Sometimes you go to a car wash and you see somebody that's directing you in that has a look on their face, like they're a serial killer and you're like, wait a minute, I don't know if I trust this. You know what I mean? Right. But our employees, we do, um, we do hire, uh, professional and friendly is, is that's our values. So professional, you want take me through some of this. Yeah. You said you just freshened up a little bit of the phrasing here. Yeah. We, we, we switch this up, uh, and we do this probably once every, uh, year and a half to two years, but, uh, our values are professional and friendly, so we, um, we define professional just two. Yeah, yeah. But after we had define it and you'd be like, yeah, there's like eight. Yeah. So, but we define professional as people who are respectful, responsible, honest, and hardworking. Okay. Um, and somebody that's friendly, uh, needs to have a smile on their face and a positive attitude. Mm-hmm. Because sometimes, you know, the whole smile positive attitude, sometimes the only interaction they have with our employees is, is, is nonverbal. Yeah. Right. And so when we go into our, our, our training and our, our hiring, I mean our hiring, I mean, what we really do is we look for people that can fit within that and within those parameters. And that's the people we hire. I like it. I think that's, uh, it's so simple. Yeah. Right. Like anybody can understand what the expectations are. Yeah. A little bit. Like we have all have an idea about what being responsible is. Yeah. So I did that. I think, I don't know, I, I feel like a lot of times we get too complicated with value statements and this and that. We're like, here's this big list. Do all these things. Yeah. And it's overwhelming. Yeah. Right. And a lot of times people define this stuff and it just sits on a wall somewhere. Sure. You know, and people never reference it or they don't build their training and their systems and their advertising plans and that kind of stuff around what they're, the, the, to me, this is what we call the quality policy. Right. This is, you know, this is what, this is what we do and we need to, we need to breathe it, live it, you know, in everything we do. There was a company I worked for one time, um, and it, there was a. Yeah. There was some attention from when I hired because they said all this stuff. They said, Hey, we're gonna hire you and this is what we represent and this is what we do. But then when we got into the company mm-hmm. It was completely opposite. Yeah. And a catchphrase I use all the time is like, does the inside match the outside? Yeah.'cause with that company I had it said, well, the outside said this, but the inside said something different. Right, right, right. And so for, for us, you know, our value is integrity as far as our customers think, but really we'll rip them off every chance we get. Right, right. And so for, for us, it's like, Hey, this is what we say we do. Let's make sure that both the customer and the employee experience match what we say we do. So what's it take to, to, to bring that, to be? Because it seems like that's kind of your passion to some extent, is to, to walk the walk that you talk a little bit and even in your community engagements, like how do you make it f how do you fulfill it? Yeah. Like, to me that seems So I guess just by way of relevance, like with local think tank, we've got, you know, we got really nice inspiring mission, vision values. They're fairly simple, easy to explain. And aside from like telling them I feel like I do a really poor job of like, giving examples of living them and kind of being real about that. Or like, how, how do you, like, what, what's the effort level necessary to actually, I. Put that into action. I'm smiling because Kurt, you're asking some good questions that I'm passionate about. So thank you for that. Um, employee experience, right? Yeah. You, you survey'em, right? You, you, you one, you wanna map out the employee's experience. Mm-hmm. Right? So you say, Hey, I'm bringing an employee in, right? This is, so before you bring'em in, it's like, what kind of advertisement do we have that's bringing'em in? What does it say? What are the words that we use? Sure. Can we get some people to self eliminate so we don't get a right. So many damn people. And then two, you, what's the first thing that happens when you bring in employee in, you bring'em into orientation. Yep. Right? So it's important in orientation that, uh, you mention the things that are the most important and you use the same verbiage that they saw in the advertisement. And you use examples of how they do that, right? I think about, you know, have you ever heard somebody say, Hey, when I was brought into the company. We did things this way and now we do'em a different way and stuff like that. Right? Like if you bring'em in, in on day one, like let's say if like sales or something like that, I'm just using an example. Sure. Is super important to you. Well, on day one you need to be talking about it, right? So for us, like customer service, no, professionalism is a, yeah. Is a huge thing. Yeah. Professionalism, right? We are using that, that verbiage and we're using examples of how to do that. So we kind of keep nurturing that because in orientation is when you're going to remember that's the stuff you remember the most, right? This is the most important stuff that I have to remember throughout my whole entire employment. So as long as you're, you're hitting on these things and you're at orientation right? When they got onboarded, that's how you kind of keep reiterating it as well. Yeah. Yeah. And then I mean, if you look at your employee, your employee experience, it would be mapped out different from ours and than any of these businesses right there. Well, yeah. Well I was just thinking my employer experience is so much different too. Yeah, yeah. Like how many employees do you have in your 15 locations? Uh, 200. Around 250, right? Yeah. You know, and I've got Ava out here running the podcast. She's been with me since August and Sure. Almost been here for four years. And so I haven't had to kind of develop that systematic, but I can see how like, even with different roles that I hire, like affirming what's the most important thing. For your spot. Yeah. You know, right up front. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, and, and I think that, and it goes through different stages, right? You've got, here's the hiring phase, here's the orientation phase. Mm-hmm. Here's the, you know, middle employment stage or the, you know, when you, when you're in the field stage, middle employment, uh, kind of towards the end of the employment, um, um, the exit interviews, and then what happens afterwards, right? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, a, a zen moment for us is when we have an employee that worked for us for a long time. They move on to a different business and they can always come back and say, Hey, I developed my chops at Breeze through car wash. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That is a super win for us. Well,'cause not everybody can graduate to be part of the, the management team. Right. Right. Eventually or whatever. Like, you just, you might not grow that fast. Yeah. Might not have room nor need. Yeah. And some, some people may wanna just wipe down cars for 5, 5, 6 years and then be done, you know what I mean? So what is your, uh, average kind of duration of employee? Do you know that kind of numbers? Oh, that's more than the hr. It's more on the hr. I mean, I, but it's not super fast turnover. It feels like when I, when I go through the car wash,'cause I do every month at least twice to make sure you're not making too much money on me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You see, you see, you see the same employees. Yeah. I, you know, I don't, I don't know, like again, you know, I, I try to dip my head in all the different departments and understand it, but, you know, over the last year or so, I'm like trying to be laser being focused on what I'm responsible for and what I can control. Okay. Um, and that's the brand and the community engagement mostly. Brand community. And then what happens on the backend experience of the unlimited Wash Pass program. I dig it. Yeah. Yeah. But, uh, I mean, we've had a lot of site managers that have been around for a long time. There's a lot of people that are, I mean, their career will be with Breeze through car wash. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And I, and that's me. That's probably a pretty decent job. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Like, like manage. When you see a site manager that's like. Kind of generally the operations manager of the, that whole location Yeah. Kind of thing. Yeah. We've got site manager, uh, regional managers, and then, um, we've got a training department. We have a whole maintenance department. Sure, sure. Yeah. Yeah. We've got a lot of different things going. But when you're the boss at that location, that's the site manager. That's the site manager, yeah. And then a regional manager might manage three or four or five sites or something like that. Yeah. We've got, at this time we have three regional managers. Um, you know, some of'em take the north region then, then we have a west region, then we have kind of a south region. Yeah. Yeah. And they're kind of a sounding board and obstacle remover for their site managers. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Somebody that can bring the real problems from the front lines up to headquarters, kind of. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. To some extent. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's, it's been a very good deal for me and all the other people that have worked for our company's, I'm sure. Yeah. It's, it, it, and it, again, it's so surprising'cause it good. Never even think about it. Well, it's good people. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Right. Like it was, you know, spray ones and$9 a shot for your car wash for a long time. Even when people, my, my, my best friend growing up actually worked at JetStream Car Wash, which was the only automated car wash in Jamestown, North Dakota. And it was expensive. Like I, he, he started working where it was 3 35 an hour. And it was a rough job. You got wet every day, all day, and it was wiping stuff down a lot. There was a certain manual element, but it was already like six bucks a shot to wash your car way back then. Yeah. And so for you guys for 18 bucks a month or whatever it is now, even though it was 12 a few years ago. Oh yeah. Yeah. Uh, but you know that it's, it's a pretty good value proposition. It is, yeah. And we always, um, we always position it where, you know, if you buy two washes within a month, um, the, the wash passes is less than if you bought two washes per month without having the wash pass. That makes sense. Yeah. Like, I mean, it, it makes it easy. Yeah. For the value buyer. Yeah. Uh, even if you only wash your car once a month, which is true for me sometimes. Yeah. It still feels like the right value. And there's, and there's, uh, there's a lot of different type of business models when it comes to washe. Sure. You've got the self serves where you kind of go in, you do it yourself. I have to do that for my annual camper. Yeah. Yeah. It's a little too tall. It actually, it would be pretty fun to show up there sometime. Yeah. I didn't, I didn't know you owned that when you pulled up. I was like, Ooh, I wanna go look in that and see what's going on in there. Oh, we can check it out after this. But you've got the, what's called self-serve or, um, sorry. In bay automatics, which is kinda like your gas stations. You pull in and you sit and it goes around your car. It's more of your touchless option. Yep, yep. Ours is what you call, we have. We have two of the other business models. It's, it's, um, an express exterior. Okay. Um, where you go through on a conveyorized, uh, wash, and then you get free vacuums afterwards. Sure. And then there's a flex model. Oh. And a flex model is, uh, you can get, you can get the exterior done or you can pull around to get, um, express interior services. Oh, right. So we do the interior. It's not a detail. Yeah. It's not a detail, but quick vac wipe down. But it's Quick Vac. Quick vac. And we, and that's included in the membership. We have a membership for that. Oh, I see. Yeah. Yep. And that's, um, and a handful of locations offer that. Yeah. Maybe even Mulberry too. Not Mulberry. No, it's only in, it's only in Greeley and also in Longmont. Okay. And then we also have something that's a little bit, uh, it's more like the Casey's car wash experience from back in the day. Yeah. Yeah. And, and, um, or maybe still. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And, and, and Jeremy over at Casey's does a fabulous job, uh, and, um, that's more of a full service. Right, right. Where you can go in, you can get a detail, you drop your car off a proper detail, but they, they also offer some of the similar services we do as well. Okay. Gotcha. And so you copied them and, you know, and, and I'm friends with Jeremy and, and man, I, I love what he's doing. I love how he's participating in the community like we do. Yeah. Yeah. I'm, I'm a big fan of them. Fair. Yeah. I like that. I love that kind of, uh. Cooperation, I suppose. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I dig it. Um, and so yeah, that model of having that, that membership pass, do you some, are some car wash locations like way busier than others in terms of like the percentage of people that wash regularly? Um, yeah. I mean, in our markets, uh, yeah. I mean, you know, over in Greeley we, we get a lot of volume over in Greeley. Gotcha. Yeah. There's a lot of folks washing cars over there. Yeah. Yeah. Um, well, and it's, the thing I think is cool is that it actually defends value, right? Like, cars depreciate slower if they're kept clean, they, they absorb less heat energy from our Colorado sun when they're clean and therefore fade slower. Yeah. I mean, we're all, that we're a mile, you know, we're a mile high here, so the, the sun is pretty brutal on, on, on vehicles, but it is a, you know, you bring up, uh, something pretty interesting. It, it is maintenance, you know, during, you know, during all the, the, the covid shutdowns and all that kind of stuff. You know, one of the essential businesses, uh, to stay open was maintenance shops. Sure, sure. We were a maintenance shop. Right, right, right. You're, you're, you're maintaining your vehicle, right? Well, I bet you were pretty slow. Um, and everybody had a membership, so it didn't really matter that much. We, yeah, we were, we were slower for a few months. I mean, nobody drove around, right. That, that was a gaunt man. I had to, I I, I am looking back at it. I mean, I've worked every day for like, three months straight. Really? Right. Because it was just kinda interesting'cause it's like, you know, we're competing with other people, but we're, we're, we're friends with'em. Um, so, you know what we all got together as, uh, as, uh, competitors and said, you know, if you're gonna do something special to combat this covid stuff, we will too. So one, one of our competitors said, Hey, we we're gonna shut down the vacuums'cause of the spacing thing. And it wasn't really something we wanted to do, but we wanted to, you know, you know, we wanted to make sure that, you know, we're not keeping ours open to have a competitive advantage over this guy during this kind of period that was of not knowing. So we, we, we all got together and we, we did kind of the same thing at the same time. Um, and, um, but then what they call that collusion? Yeah, no, like I couldn't get vacuums anywhere now just, well, yeah. I'm teasing. Yeah. Oh yeah, yeah. But no, I get it. I know you are, but it was, but you know, it was like, Hey, I'm, we're wanting to do this. Will you do it too? And then we came together and. I mean, that was, you know, everybody was super stressed at that time, but I Oh, for sure mean in, in our department too, we handle a lot of the backend support. So it was nonstop me having to answer questions. Mm-hmm. And people, you know, I'm not getting the same value and I'm like, this is, yeah, you probably get, this is a weird time. Right, right. We're doing the same thing our competitors are doing. And that was the fair thing to do. And I, that, that's one thing I love about this company. It's, you know, we really look at that ethically and we, you know, and especially during that weird time. Yeah, yeah. You know, we, we, we did the same thing everybody else did. Do you wanna talk about the, the leadership team at all? Do you wanna give some kudos or, uh, shout outs at all to the rest of your partners that are in the head office? Oh, yeah. Is that within your purview you allowed? Yeah, I mean, we've got, uh, I mean, our president, uh, y'all, y'all probably know Justin Salisbury for sure. Yeah. Um, great. He, one thing I really respect about Justin Salisbury is he's, he's really big into, uh, leadership and he actually runs an organization within the car wash industry called Leadership Worth Following. Oh, cool. And what that does is it's, it's, I saw him talk about that a little bit at a chamber event or something like that. Yeah, you probably did. Yeah. And I think that's really cool because it's, what it's doing is it's not just bringing up people from our team. Um, it's bringing up the car wash industry. Yeah. Right. Because for the longest time, and I think we're real, the car wash industry's breaking out of the stigma. Um, but it was like, oh, car wash is, yeah, it's a Oh yeah, it's a cover coverup for Draw. Can't get a job at McDonald's. Yeah, yeah. Oh, they're professional. Right. You know, it's like Breaking Bad hasn't helped us out at all. Right. I mean, there was literally one point where we had to go in and make a video about what you're gonna be doing at the car wash.'cause it ain't breaking bad. You know what I mean? Forgot about that. Yeah. But I, you know, I really respect Justin, uh, and, and, and. All areas. Um, you know, he is a good friend of mine. He really, you know, we hold each other super accountable and we, we kind of manage each other up a lot. Cool. Um, but I really respect the fact that he's super into leadership and he's not only bringing, you know, our company up as far as leadership, but he's bringing the whole industry up. Yeah. You know, um, the majority owners, John, Janice, Andrea, tons of respect for all of'em. Okay. Um, I mean, I, I think of John and like I always call him John was who recruited you in originally? Yeah, he was one when, when I first met. Um, you know, I always, John and Janice, they're, they're married. Okay. And then Andrea is John's sister. But, uh, I always, always think it's funny because it's like, I consider them my Colorado mom and dad because Oh, wow. You know, even though they're not that much older than me, but I mean, I can go to John about investment, uh, advice, you know, looking at profit loss statements, marriage discussions. Oh, oh, yes, yes. Tons of, I mean. If Yeah, tons of marriage discussions. I, I, I really respect, uh, all of them tremendously. I mean, there's been times too where, you know, I've really needed something, uh, really for my, my own, um, mental health. Yeah. And, and John's been there for me. John Angen, both. So is the leadership team largely you and Justin Elsewise, like, uh, we've got, and then seven of us, all those site managers, I guess. Okay. Yeah. We've got, uh, um, uh, well, the regional managers. The regional managers, right. The three region managers. Yeah. They, they, Justin, yeah, they kind of, they come in, um, uh, every other meeting. I see. But for the most part, it's, um, a majority of the, the owners Yeah. Yeah. That are in that as well. But, uh, yeah, we've, we've got, uh, president, CEO, VP of administration, administration, assistant hr, director of maintenance, brand manager. Okay. Yeah. Uh, and director of training. Oh, yeah, yeah. Director of maintenance is a big, big job. It's a huge job. HR director, probably a big job. And, and Kenny Harmon is our head of, of maintenance and does an outstanding job, right? Yeah. He is, you know, you know out, I forget which, uh, what, what the program's called, but you know, where he was like, this person's a talker. This person's a supporter, this person. I mean, he is, he is Enneagram, maybe. What's that? Enneagram or a different one? Yeah, I, I forget what it's called, but he is a doer and he is also, he gets a doer, a super supporter. Oh. And. Yeah. But we, we've, we've got a really, really great team. Cool. I am, I am. Uh, I mean, I can't say anything negative about any of them. I like it. And the professionalism piece that happens in our meetings, right. It just is, stands out above everything. That's cool. It's really neat to be part of a company that you invested in fully. Yeah. And, uh, you know, I don't bring a lot of non-owners on and, but I really enjoyed, you know, getting acquainted with your story and your brand and, and, uh, and your personal journey. And so we're gonna come back from a break and go back to Alabama. Rock and roll. Okay. Alright. And we're back. So, um, I thought when we, when I. Was taking a break just now that we should talk about music. Love it. I know that's a big part of your life as well. Yeah. Um, are you actively in a music thing now? I've got a couple of things going on. Um, okay. You know, right now we have a, a dad band going on. Okay. Uh, we're called the, uh, the dfs, the ds? Yeah, the DITs, like the dad. I, no, no, no, no. Somebody told me it. Somebody told me that it's your name. Well, no, it doesn't stand for that. It stands for the devoted involved Loving Fathers. Oh, yeah. Somebody told me it stood for something different. So I, I've been, uh, yeah, I've been, uh, called a bil before. Oh, okay. Gotcha. Uh, it's a beard. I'd love to fondle. Oh, okay. Uh, which my wife wasn't impressed when I told her that story, but, uh, yeah. DFS is nice. Devoted, devoted, devoted, involved, loving fathers. Oh, that's pretty nice. I don't, it, it, it's, it's kind of a dead thing that we're doing with our friends right now, so it's kind of a jam, a practice. We just have fun. You've been in public yet? Um, no, not yet. Yeah, I mean it's Who are the other Ds in your life? Oh, my buddy Chad that a raft guy with. Sure. My buddy Jeff, he's a firefighter. Um, I, my, uh, John who's a regional manager with us. And then, uh, my buddy Chris, the brand manager I was talking about earlier today. Nice. Amazing, amazing graphic designer guy. So I kind of messed around with that a little bit. I have another thing going on. And what do you do? What's your, what's your instrument? Oh, uh, guitar in that right now. Yeah. I played bass for a long time in town. Okay. I was in, and then, um, after I took about a 10 year break, um, I, uh, started concentrating on guitar, so I'm working on that. It's like come, it's been coming soon for like two years, but, uh, yeah, we'll be doing something. Okay. Alright. Before too long, maybe you would play for like super cheap for a local think tank social or something like that sometime. Yeah, we could, yeah, we could, you could have a very big budget for the band, but we always like live music. Yeah. We just, we just need somebody to give us a shot. But, uh, I played with another guy named, uh, uh, Chris Mu in town and we played down at Lucky Joe's. Okay. Yeah. That Do the things you play or? Yeah, we both, we both play play. You both play and, yeah. Do you sing too? I don't sing. No. No. Working towards it, but, okay. But then, um, then I play with, uh, and I have kind of a house jam that we do a couple Sundays outta the month with a local musician. His name's, uh, Carlton Pride. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So I, yeah, I've been told I need to go see Carls and Pride. It's, uh, yeah. What's his name? Charlie Pride's kid. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He's, uh, he's been a mentor to me for a long time. Oh, wow. He was my neighbor and it was fun. I got to meet Charlie one time. Oh. Uh, when my, when my daughter was super young. Oh, wow. Uh, she was, uh. Uh, Carl or Charlie was over at Carlton's house and asked me if I wanted to come over. I was like, oh, heck yeah. I wanna hang out with Charlie Pride. So we actually sat on a couch together like this for about three hours and we watched, uh, Texas Rangers baseball and then, um Oh wow. And also Judge Judy, they were, him and his wife were a big fan of Judge Judy and we watched, it was fun. Fun. But I, I regret it'cause it's like he was holding my daughter when she was a little baby and stuff. Oh. I was like, I should have got a picture of Right. You know, that. But Charlie was super cool. I'm sure. Yeah. I mean, he, he passed away a couple years ago, but super cool man. That was Carlton a full-time musician and just does this kind of jam thing from time to time. Yeah. Yeah. It's, you know, we do. He lives here though. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. He does. And um, we knew him'cause we were neighbors and he should be on my podcast at some point. Yeah, he would be an interesting, I'm sure he's got some really, really cool stories. Well, in deep Roots in Old Nashville Right. Or whatever. He was in Dallas. Yeah. Dallas. Okay. Yeah. Oh, so that's, uh, Texas based is where Charlie Pride was from. Yep. Yep. Okay. Yeah, if he's, yeah. Yeah. And presumably, yeah. Yeah. Well, um, but he's got, he's got a lot of stories of, with interactions with a lot of famous musicians. Yeah. Yeah. He'd be an interesting one to bring on the show sometime. For sure. Well, if you're listening to this, uh, Carlton on I'm open. Yeah. Yeah. I'll share'em the link. Fair enough. Yeah. So, um, so you dabble here and there. Do you like. Do you ever take money for it? Sometimes not, not much When we, when were in, never with the expectation of profit. Right. Right. That's kind of the, but um, back in the day when we played a lot, but like right now,'cause I'm getting back into it, I had to take a break for like 10 years. Mm-hmm. I mean, the business needs were taken over. We had a second child and I had to, there was a time when we were down at the swing station and I saw my buddies driving up to the river with their kayaks on top of the car. And I'm like, I'm playing a gig right now. It's two o'clock in the afternoon, they're going boating. It's like I gotta eliminate something. So I eliminated something and it's been about 10 years, so I'm trying to get back into it. Okay, cool. And because of the fusion, holding a 13 pound base over my shoulder for hours at a time Yeah. Started to hurt me. So that's why. Interesting. That's one of another reasons why I transitioned trying to transition over to guitar. But yeah. We'll be doing something soon. It was funny, I was telling, I was at, earlier today, I was down at KRFC'cause I, we, we do a lot with KRFC Oh. And we're, um, and so I was, uh, down there talking with them and there was this meme, you know how they do the memes on of the Halloween costumes and stuff. Sure. And it's like, you know, you know, it's like mid middle age musician and they, there's these couple of bullet points and one of the bullet points was like, coming soon. I was like, yeah, I've been saying that for like two years. Yeah. You know, one thing though, I, I love the old guy bands around here. Yeah. Like, there's. Kind of a, a, a number of different kind of groups that are kind of garage bandy things, but yeah. The, those guys do great work. Yeah. You know, it's not the same as that, that 24-year-old angst kind of thing. But it, it has a, what, you know, when I went golfing years ago, there was these guys that were like, well, you, you've had a, have a golf coach to teach you how to golf, but we'll teach you how to score. Yeah. Uh, and it's different than knowing how to golf. It's like not making big mistakes, figuring out how the crowd works. A little bit like some of those old guy tricks just really worked good. Well, if it's interesting, um, a good friend of mine is, uh, Lance Ruby, which you may know Lance, he plays in a lot of the Bagram Good. And the painters. Sure. I know Grandma Sugar Britches. Oh, sure. I've seen both of those. Um, musketeer Grip Weed, he's the guitar player of all those. Oh, yeah. You know, all these bands, right? Yeah, for sure. Yeah. I've known Ben from Musketeer Forever. Oh yeah. Yeah. And so we were, we went to a, um, nuggets game last, uh, Friday night, and I was kind of, I was telling him about me podcasting. Oh, okay. So I was, I was kinda asking him a bunch of questions just to see if I can kind of like carry on an interview kinda like this. And, uh, one thing he was talking about was like, when he was younger, he, uh. He said when he really started to develop his chops is when he started playing with people twice his age. Hmm. Right. Mm-hmm. And it's kinda like what you're talking about. Yeah. It's like the golfers how to score. Right. You know? Right. You learn how to play a note, but how do you Yeah. Like how do you, how do you do intention? And, and there's a lot of things, right? Like there's the band dynamic, um, which is, you know, you gotta have people in there that, that can jive together. Mm-hmm. You know, one of these terms that you hear sometimes is like, lead singers that have LSD, which stands for lead singers disease. You know, you wanna kind of avoid that. Kinda like Napoleon syndrome. It's different. Yeah. Yeah. And he, he also talked about, uh, you know, it, it's good to, you know, uh, have band members that have multiple talents, like, and I was like, oh, interesting. Like what? He's like, you know, somebody that can do social media as long and also play an instrument, that kind of stuff. Mm-hmm. And the other thing, it was like, you know, play with a lot of different people so you can build a bench and also see different styles. Mm-hmm. And you know, a lot of musicians, I know they have like three different projects going at once. Right.'cause you never know when one's gonna end and then another one's gonna start and that kind of stuff. I don't know how you guys make room for it. Like, I'm actually a, a, like, humbly when, when I'm singing at church, I'm one of the top 10 male voices in the room. Right. Like, I got a pretty good singing voice, but I've never learned how to play guitar. Yeah. And so I'm a little jealous. Um, and like, where am I gonna fit it? Like, what, what do I cut? What things do I cut out to spend eight hours a week playing guitar? Right. Well, it's you, you kinda have to like make a decision, right? Yeah. And, and like, like with the, with the dead band, you know, it's kinda like we're all, you know, we're all priority. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The vote involved, loving father. Just wanna make sure that sticks. Uh, but I heard a laugh come from the other room when we said it earlier. That's pretty funny. Yeah. Well we we're, we, you know, we all have, we're all dead. Yeah. Real time. Right. If you're devoted, blah loving father. Right. You need to prioritize family first. Yep. Right. You know, that kind of stuff. That probably a real job too. Right. Right. But it is gotta be a mindset. It's like, you know, this is what I focus on. You know what I mean? Yeah. This is what I focus on. So I, I I go home and I play basically every single night. Really?'cause I, I feel like I'm making up for lost time. Yeah. Yeah. You know what I mean? So is that kind of your, like, for me, honestly, that's cooking dinner. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like I'm, that's where I express my creativity a lot is just figuring out what to, I made John Alaya last night, you know, on a Monday, uh, and it was delicious. Oh, nice. You know, so for me that has been my creative outlet. A little bit question, do you ever use AI to come up with recipes? No. It is funny, my buddy Chris that I've, I've talked about Yeah, the brand manager guy, he, he talked about, he was like, I go home and he is like, I look, I, it goes, I look in the, I look in my pantry and I was like, okay, I've got this and this and this and this. Yeah. And he drops an AI and it spits out a recipe for him. And he is like, and then that way I don't have to like, like, like research something. Go to the, or think, yeah. Yeah. He goes, I don't have, I just use what I have at home. I plug it into ai. Oh, that sucks. And then, because I consider that to be one of my strongest talents Yeah. Is like looking at what I've got left in the fridge from, you know, whatever, shopping on Sunday, but now it's Friday. Yeah. Because I don't really plan meals. I, I buy based on sales and what looks nice and, and whatever. And then the meals come together from my brain. Nice. Uh, but if like, if AI could do it better and use up also that other thing. Yeah. I don't know. That's interesting. I might have to try it. Just plug in what you got the AI and it'll spit out a recipe, huh? That is uh, yep. None of us are gonna have jobs here. Right, right. Well, the car wash will have a few. Well it's, it's interesting'cause like AI is in the car wash industry, you know, I'm sure. I mean that's, that's a lot of the conversation that's going on right now. I mean, one thing that's interesting is like a call center. AI service now. Right. Oh, wow. And it, and the AI can learn all your stuff really fast. Right? Right. And see one thing that, you know, oh dang, we, yeah. So call centers are probably really suffering, or at least will be in five years if they're not already. Right? Right. Yeah. I mean, because you gotta train that Filipino person a lot before they, because a lot of'em work for like four or five different companies. Right. They gotta learn all these things. It support stuff like that. Yeah. Yeah. It's very interesting. And it's, I mean, like, and even the ai, the, the system that we're vetting out, you could call other companies that are using it right now. And you don't even know that you're talking to an AI person. I won't mine to sound like Joe Rogan. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You've called Loco Think tank. Yeah, no, just kidding. Might would be Gilbert Godfrey, right? Yeah. No, no. That might have an opposite effect on the customer experience. How do enhance trust? Yeah. Yeah. I think maybe, uh, what, oh, what was that guy That, and now the rest of the story, I don't know, from way back when it was a radio show and now you know the rest of the story. Oh, yeah. I don't know who it is. Anyway, I digress. Yeah. Paul Harvey. Paul Harvey. Okay. I know who you're talking about. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Anyway, I would trust him. But it's interesting because it, uh, it could fill a gap too, right? Because we're not, you know, we're not answering the phones twenty four seven. Oh, right, right. But now we have something that can, well, and probably answer. 90% of the questions that people call in about. Right? Yeah. Yeah. And, and what we learned is like, you know, frequently asked questions, you put as much of that stuff on your website as you possibly can because that's where AI's pulling from. Oh, sure. And so that, oh wow. Yeah. Something maybe a little nugget for you to take away from this. Right. Yeah. I haven't updated my frequently asked questions since Rory was my employee, like in 20 19, 20 20. There you go. Right. Yeah. And it's intriguing, huh? Yeah. And so anytime we have somebody that asks a question, we document it, and if it happens more than once mm-hmm Then we put it on the website and then now AI can look at that and say and ask question. Oh, I know. Question the answer to that question. Yeah. Oh, so crazy. It probably learns in its off time. It doesn't have to like go learn in the moment'cause it's already fed itself. Like Alma has already kind of fed. Chat, GPT, like all the local think tank stuff. Yeah. Like, you know, as much as you can about us. Like be thoughtful of that when you create stuff for us. Yeah. Same for you. Probably. Or maybe you're not using it as intentionally or differently. Um, I'm not using as much, but my marketing communications coordinator. Yeah, that's, I mean, he, he, his name's Steve. He's a, he's a, he's a whiz at all this stuff, man. It's like, it's, it's funny'cause now I'm becoming my parents. It's like, like technology, you kids? Yeah. Like, like can you make it, do that thing? Yeah. Yeah. Like talent, technology wise, I'm like, I feel like I'm falling behind, but like, he's so good at it, you know? But, uh, but it's interesting, like the AI stuff, like even, even when the car wash industry, like there's a, a system, there's a camera system. So like if you're going down, like through the car wash and somebody hits their brakes and they start to, you know, go backwards or something, there's technology that actually stops our whole entire system because it shows a box around a car, right. And if you go outside of that box, it says, oh, this person's out of, right out of the area and it'll stop the whole conveyor. That's interesting. So it's, it's very interesting. All the AI stuff that's coming down the pipeline. Oh, I'm sure. I just changed yesterday morning or, or actually Sunday night, my furnace quit working and I screwed around, did this and that. And then I ended up like taking out the flame sensor and sanding it off. And what the flame sensor does is like. The flame goes off, but then there isn't a flame, then it stops it from pumping natural gas into your house while the furnace is not running. Okay. Same kind of thing. Like, but that was old school. Like, it's this little sensor thing that, um, detects this one thing. Right. With your systems you can detect so many different things. Yeah. You know, even when the station is unoccupied or all Yeah. So much. But it's all about safety ultimately. Right. For your people and your customers. Really. There's, I mean, we, our safety program is so extensive. It's like we, and now you, and we do it just because we're responsible. Sure. But you know, at the same time, you know, you have to put all these things in place. Well, and those manufacturers of. Those equipments and things like that are probably got a very rigid protocol too. Yeah. Um, I wanna, before we go into some of our closing segments, I wanna go back to Alabama. Okay. Uh, when you were wa through different, the locust for River Different Lakes, the Locust Fort River. Yeah. So, so CME and Alabama, so Alabama's. So there's Mississippi by Louisiana, Alabama's adjacent to Georgia and above a little part of Florida. All right. And where are you in that state? Uh, the north part North. Okay. So that's just south of Tennessee? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it, it was, it was probably two and a half hours to Chattanooga. Okay. Okay. Mm-hmm. Um, and like, what kind of a background were your parents? Uh, what were they up to? Did you have, you said you had one sibling? Yeah, I have, I have one sibling. Okay. We, we are from a small town. Okay. Um, you mean, uh, like a thousand? Well, what's interesting, so this is,'cause I heard you say you graduated with a class of six. Five. Five. So my graduating class was 66 people. Okay. And we were the biggest school in our county. Oh, wow. Okay. And it, and I looked at some, some statistics recently about the population. Oh, wow. And it, so it was all little towns. Yeah. Yeah. And it hadn't, hadn't grown that much. Yeah. I mean, we were, we were a dry county forever and then Oh wow. And then they finally released it, I don't know, I'd have to say probably 10 years ago, maybe. It's been a little bit longer than that. Oh, so when you were growing up, you grew up in a dry county? Yeah. Yeah. And all the, a lot of the counties around me were dry. Okay. Yeah. So is that, that's pretty normal. And did the kids. Not drink then? No. They have to drive to the county next to'em and go by their alcohol. They're two counties over if they have to, and then they have to drive back. I was like, that's not so safe. Consider they're already drunk. By the time they get back to our county. If you, if you do a BWE double RUN beer run and you gotta go over, you know, to the next county and you know, and everybody's, it's like it wasn't the safest thing. And then the counties next to us were the ones that were getting the revenue right. You know? And so, but uh, yeah, that's kind of one of those fixed it, but actually fucks it up more. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Kind of things, right? You don't, all you do is cost your county a bunch of tax revenue. Yeah. Yeah. And make your kids burn more gas. Yeah. And be more unsafe by driving over and get their booze. Although it probably did decrease the prevalence some or not. Yeah. I'm not, I'm not sure at all. Not for your, everything. Everything. All, all the decisions that made enhancements happened after I left, so not fair enough. Yeah. So, so you're in this kind of small town environment. What, were you a good student? Were you an athlete? Were you an adventurer? Like, oh man, how much do I disclose here? So, lets see here. So, yeah. Um, so I was in, I played basketball my whole entire life. Hmm. Uh, well, you know, until I graduated when and when I was in college, I just played rec stuff. But same ba basketball was a big thing for me. Okay. Um, music was always a big thing for me. I was in the band. Okay. I was, um, I was in the band. I was very passionate about that. I played the trombone in the maritime. Actually, my next door neighbor has a lot of Alabama. Uh, history there too. Oh really? Yeah. They, they're from Alabama. Yeah, he's from Alabama too. Oh. I might be related to him. Maybe. Um, so there was a band out here that played downtown on, on Mountain there at the, what's Pat Stryker's place? The Armory. Okay. That was from Alabama, uh, last fall. Oh man. Oh, I know who you're talking about. Because all my buddies were sending it to me. That was his neighbor that was like his neighbor for a long time. And he used, one of his kids used to play for that band. Yeah. And that, that's interesting.'cause all my friends were like, you gotta check them out. I'm like, I'm at a cheer competition and I can't do this, you know? Anyway, but yeah. So that is, I lied to you earlier. I don't that, that's my other Alabama connection basically with my next door neighbor. Okay, gotcha. Yeah, so it's, uh, so I was always passionate about band. Um, and, and it is good that I did that.'cause I still, you know, I went on to put down the trombone, played bass for 10 years in a blues band around here. And uh, so that was, that was cool. Which, which blues band. It's called the Deja Blues Band. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I've seen you before. Oh yeah, I have, I have. Okay, gotcha. We, we will have some side conversations after this, but I played bass in that band for a while, but that was cool because I took that experience and I was able to tra you know, still do those types of things these days. I wasn't much of a football person. Uh, football in the South, as you know, it's, it's practically a religion. Yeah. Uh, you know, it's, it was funny'cause people, if you move me and you aren't really built for football so much. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh, yeah. We're kind of scrawny. Right, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We get hurt too easy. Yeah. We got a tape worm. Yeah, I get it. Well, we don't run fast enough. Yeah. Yeah. For the skinny guys, we run too slow for the big guys. We're just not big enough. But, uh, yeah, I mean, so that was a big thing. It was, I always joke about it'cause it's kind of funny, everybody Saturday was watching Alabama football, uh, Alabama or Auburn. Yeah. If you ever moved to Alabama from a different state, you have to choose a side because people are gonna start asking you, are you an Alabama Auburn fan? But I mean, everybody would be sitting in there watching a national championship and I'd be in there like, like fixing up my skateboard or something. I never was interested in it, but when I went to college, it was a big deal. So I, uh. My logo here, my original logo. Yeah. Uh, this cost me$175 from a Clemson tiger, uh, attendee. At the time, my co-founder's daughter was attending Clemson and drew me that up. Oh, cool. Which I thought was pretty good. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. She did a great job. Well, it's, it lasted us like eight years or something. Well, what's cool is you can do a lot with, uh, you know, with the, with the logos too. You can just do a lot with just straight up text. Yeah. You know? Um, yeah. Uh, what's the guy's name? Stanley Kubeck or what? AK Riak. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, my buddy Chris, I've been telling you about the brand manager guy. He did a whole series of posters and it was just in text. Oh, oh, fun. And they loved it and it just used a specific text and that kinda stuff. Um, pretty interesting guy. So, anyway, that's my, you know, I don't like Clemson is where my logo came from. Yeah. It's close. South Carolina, that's almost, it's right above Georgia, right? Yeah. It's a couple states over. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So tell me about Alabama, like your community, what was it driven by? Was it like. Little farms and stuff around there. Were they raising crops? Was it, yeah. Tell me about like the, maybe if you know the atmosphere Yeah. The atmosphere, the scene. Yeah. Um, in my experience, it would, where I'm from was always pretty boring. Okay. Right now, I mean, I, the same as where I'm from, I, I love where I'm from. Like, it's funny now, now, now at the age I am with how busy everything is around here. I love going back home and sitting on a front porch, right. And playing guitar and band and banjo and all that kind of stuff. I absolutely love it. But like, growing up, I would, believe it or not, I was a pretty social guy, so I needed to, I wanted to be out in the city scene and all that kind of stuff and be, you know, talking to people, which is what, what was that for you? What was the closest city? Bi Birmingham, which was our north. Okay. Yeah. And then Tuscaloosa. And that was a pretty big city, right? Yeah. Half million or more. Yeah. I haven't looked at the, the, but a big city population in a while, but I would say it's probably about the size of Colorado Springs. Okay. Yeah. Um, Tuscaloosa's, Tuscaloosa smaller, but that was closer. Yeah. And I actually think CSU now, don't quote me on this, but I think CSU is bigger than Tuscaloosa. Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's, I mean, I mean, that's where I grew up too. Like Jamestown was 20,000 people. 40 years ago and 20 years ago and now and 60 years ago. Yeah. Yeah. It is about the same though. About the same. Yeah. Yeah. But I, um, so, um, it, there a lot of people have a lot of land around there and that kinda stuff. It's not like out here, like, it is hard to get land. Sure. So, um, I, I enjoyed where I, I enjoyed where I lived more when I got to discover more of the things that I, I appreciated. So I was into rock climbing, I was into kayaking, and when I've figured out how to do those things, I appreciated where I was from more often because a lot of the, a lot of rock climbing spots in Alabama are in, in my hometown as well as the, is water, rivers. Okay. Okay. Yeah. So that was part of what plugged you into kind of the outdoor sports scene in some ways, I suppose. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And so I, uh, the older I got the more appreciated because I got to branch out more. Yeah. But, uh, but where I went to high school was 25 minutes away from, um, where I lived at, and so Oh wow. Yeah. And so, like, until I got my driver's license, you know, I was the last person in my class to get the driver's license. I kind of was just stuck at home all the time. Oh really? You know what I mean? And so that, that was always kind of boring for me, but it was, it was a good thing. Did, did you come from a, like a faith oriented background or something? Um, yes. Right. Like, I assume that's kind of. Bible built headquarters almost. It is, yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Um, it is. And um, but yeah, it's What were your folks doing? My, uh, my folks, so my mom, um, she was a bookkeeper Okay. For, for HVAC company. Okay. Um, my dad worked for the phone company. Okay. Yeah. Like fixing the telephone wires or whatever. Yeah. Climbing, climbing poles. Yeah. Yeah. And that kind of stuff. Yeah. There's a lot of times where my dad would just wake up in the middle of the night and go to work. Right. To put me and my sister through college. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks. Thanks dad. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So it was very much a middle class family environment, like they were probably doing better than a lot of your compatriots around you or, yeah, we were doing pretty good. Yeah. We were doing pretty good. You, you were almost upper middle class in that region. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there was definitely, both mom and dad had a pretty decent job. Yeah. Yeah. Comparably. Yeah. We weren't balling, but we weren't, we were in trouble. Right, right. You know? Yeah. So, I'm sorry to just get a kind of a gauge of that environment, like Yeah. I mean, for me it was, uh, I, I absolutely love my, where I'm, uh, I'm, I'm from, right. Yeah. And, um, but when I was, when I was younger, I got bored a lot. And so that's, that's why the guitar thing into play first came to Colorado and this and that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And so, and that's, and did you go to college out there? I did. Okay. Yeah. I went to the University of Alabama. Which is Birmingham? No, that's Tuscaloosa. Tuscaloosa. Okay. Yeah. Oh, so that was right there too. That's Roll Tide. Okay, gotcha. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, but I did, I did go to school, uh, at the University of Alabama at Birmingham for a little bit. Okay. But, but ultimately I ended up in Tuscaloosa. And then what, like, talk to me about that season. Did you said you had finished college. Did you finish it before you moved to Colorado? I did. I graduated and then I took off. And then you took off and like, you didn't think about trying to get like a real job for five years and then it took a couple more years to actually do it. Well, I wanted to play around before I got a real job. Yeah. And, and because I graduated, there was always this thing in the back of my head. I was like, I gotta get, I gotta get a career. I gotta get a career. And so that's why I only did the RAF guide thing for two years. Oh, okay. Looking back at it, I, I think everything fell into place just perfectly for me, but looking back Oh, for only two years? Yeah. Only two years. Oh, I thought you did it longer. I'm sorry. No, I did it for two years, but I've always been a private guide. Like I'll go guide all my buddies and do all that stuff. Oh, gotcha. I did it for two years. And, um, the reason I only did it for two years is because I, I did, my parents put me through college and that it was time for me to say, Hey, thank you for this. Here's my career. Let me, let me get off your finances. I see your dependency for I see, I see. You know, a certain level. And that was kind of your, your outlet to being independent from Yeah. That obligation. Yep. Yep. Do you, uh, do you take private raft. Tours now I'll bring all my buddies down. Yeah. Yeah. Do you have a, when do you, when, when does the Pooter become raft bull? Um, well, lemme see. Ish. Yeah. I mean, not until June really, right? Yeah. Well, may Really? Yeah. May. And, and I've seen, I've seen the, I've been up on it in April before. Okay. Yeah. Like the end of April, but may, it starts to kick up. Okay. It kind of always depends, like, there's been years where it's been like mid-May before I even, it starts running, but like last couple years, it seems like it starts running in April. Hmm. Okay. I mean, it's low water, but it is super cold and you get stuck on rocks. Well, yeah. I've got an exchange student right now that came to, he's from Finland where there are no rivers. It's just flat. Really? Pretty much, yeah. Yeah. Uh, it's right. We're adjacent to Russia and stuff, but he is leaving like May 10th or something like that. And so we were bummed out the other day. We were like, well, you kind of came in August after the rivers are too little and you're leaving before they get big enough. So. Sorry, you'll have to go rafting in Spain or something. Like, we can't help you. I've got, I've got some suggestions for you. Okay. After this of where he, y'all you can bring him? Yeah. Alright, let's, let's talk about it. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, we've got at least one or two weekends still left to try to figure something out or we, he's very willing to skip school. Okay. Yeah. So. All right. I would be too, if I got, you got to go. Right, right. Plus he doesn't get any credit for, like, his school here doesn't count toward his school in Finland, so. Sure. Whatever. Yeah. As long as you get C's we're fine. Like, as you tried a little bit. Yeah. I have a, uh, a bucket here. Alright. Oh, I don't know what this is. The, uh, I think I know what that is. Random or outlandish. Oh, by the way, we didn't ask, but do you, do you want to give a gift away from Breeze through car wash as the prize here? Uh, I can, I can, yes. I can supply you with a gift. We can do something, something, whatever,$25 gift card I got you. Three months membership or something like that. Yeah. I mean, do I need to commit to it now or tell you afterwards? Well, the, the, the, the winner is claimed by responding to affirm that the, listen to your answer of one of these questions. Okay. That's how we do it. Okay, I will do, I will do a three month wash pass. Okay. All right. Three month wash pass. And then we'll decide as these questions unfold, like which question is the right one? Okay. But basically we're trying to get people to like listen all the way through.'cause it gets kind of tiring after an hour and a half. Sure. And Amy was sitting here, she's like, Hmm. Um, so not really, but, but it's a podcast. It's a long form podcast. So, okay. Grab three numbers out of there. Each of those three numbers is attached to a question on this list. And then after your answers I'll declare which one is the winning answer. So I know, yeah. Anyway, we didn't talk about this before, but we did talk about it in the email that I sent you, but you didn't read it. That's okay. No. Which numbers do you have? Um, I think this is, that's a six, right? Looks nine. A six. Oh, no, it's'cause the line underneath it. So that means the six. Ooh. I like this one. I've only asked this question once before. Uhoh. If you could only eat one color of food for the rest of your life, what color would you choose? I would, I would probably say green because it's the healthiest. Yeah. Alright. But I, I, did you eat a lot like avocados, lettuce, right? Yeah. Yeah. And, and I'm now at the age where I really have to think about what I eat. Right, right. It is never happened before, but now I'm like, oh, if I eat that, it's weird. I'd like to have chocolate pudding, but Yeah. Yeah. So, so, so I would have to say green'cause it's the healthiest option. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's reasonable. Yeah. Cool. All right. Alright. What's your, what's your second number? Seven. Seven. How do you define happiness? I, how do I define happiness? Oh, man. Um, so dedicated, uh, what was it? Dedicated intentional dads. Oh, devoted involved loving fathers. Yes. Okay. Yeah. Uh, that seems like part of the beast. So, so what makes me happy? What makes me like the happiest is when I can assist other people with reaching memorable moments. Hmm. So that's my motto in life, is like, I want to be able to provide my services to other people so it rises them up. Yeah. And, um, so I, I mean, an example is one thing that I do, and it's the most purposeful thing that I do every year, is I, is I help prepare the speaker for our employee appreciation dinner. Do their speech. Yeah. And wow. It's a, it's a long process and you're taking somebody that's never done public speaking and you're asking them to stand in front of a room of 400 people to speak. And when they deliver that speech and they get to the end and I see them like, like really elevate their theirselves. Yeah. Because public speaking, you changed their whole life. I mean, you do public speaking. I do it, you know, I mean, it's one of the, the hardest things to do when I see, when it gets to that moment, when it gets to the, you know, when they get done and everybody goes to them with standing ovation, that is the happiest moment that I achieve in it throughout the whole entire year. That's cool. Yep. I like that, that, that lifting up of somebody and, yeah. Right. Can't, can't argue. Right. Can't add. You feel that right? Because you've shown it too. Oh, for sure. Yeah. Whatever. I see. You know, whether it's staff or a member or whatever, just somebody get beyond where they thought they were gonna be. Yeah. You know, whether it's a year or three years or whatever timeframe or six weeks ago. Yeah. So. Awesome. That's the zen moment. That is the zen moment. Yep. What's your last number? Um, it's a one. Hmm. Uh oh. Your favorite childhood memory? My favorite childhood? Or earliest or notable? Memorable. Well, I don't know. So I'm gonna go with earliest. Okay. Because, and it's not, it's not my favorite. And it definitely was not my mom's favorite. Okay. But it was like the first thing I ever remembered. Yeah. Yeah. Um, we had a, if my mom listens to this, she'll, she'll recognize this. I love you, mama. Yeah. I love mom. Uh, love all my parents. All my family. Um, there was a, uh, we had a little doghouse, a little handmade doghouse that kind of set off to the corner of our property. And, um, one time I just went down and I hid in it for hours. Okay. And my mom did not know where I was and she panicked and freaked out. And we had. We had, we had like, all the neighbors were over by the time it was over. Right, right. Like everybody was there. And I'm just hanging out in there just being quiet. I think I fell asleep right at one point. I woke up because, I mean, I was there for hours, you know? And I remember like, uh, you know, walking out of it and like there was all these people, my mom come running up and like crying and just freaking out'cause she thought I'd went missing. Yeah. Um, but that was literally the first memory I ever had in my life. And it's interesting. It is. Like, why was that my first memory? Maybe because it was, it was shocking to people for sure. You know, and, and the only, and my mom and I were talking about it last time I was at home and she, she would remember, uh, she was just talking about how like, like she just freaked out about it. But that definitely wasn't my favorite memory as a kid, but it was my earliest memory as a kid. Yeah. And I think I was around like four or five. Hmm. Yeah. That's cool. I's need to remember that. Yeah. And, um, maybe I just remembered it'cause it was, you know, it was just like, like, well, traumatic. It was traumatic, right? Yeah, yeah. But your mom was all freaked out, but also you were just Yeah. You impacted all these people's day. Yeah. Yeah. And I was like, I am never gonna do that again. But as far as like, favorite memories, you know, I, I think of a, a lot of times when I was at our, our lake, right? Mm-hmm. That's, that's, you know. Going to the lake and being at this property that we've owned, our homes, our life, um, the memories that we built there, and just the solitude of being there Yeah. Is very impactful. Is that something that like you want your kids to own someday or be part owners of or whatever with their a hundred percent, that kind of thing? Yeah, a hundred percent. It, it, it, it's just so far away, but, you know, we need to put plans in place to make sure we we're there a lot. But let's talk about your wife because you've, you've kind of talked about her a little bit without really naming her. Oh. And so I'm gonna take from those questions, I'm gonna say your definition of happiness. Made the most fun win. So the first person to contact us on either the Instagram or the LinkedIn accounts and share a synopsis of Wade's description of how you define happiness. We'll win a three month wash pass. There you go. So email it in. Um, so we started talking about your wife. Okay. And I think we should talk more about her because she's obviously been probably the most impactful thing in a lot of ways in your life. I feel like, uh, you know, from our conversation I feel like we heard a lot of, uh, like appreciation of her influence in your life. Yeah. Um, I mean, I'm a, I'm a, I'm pretty, you know, an outgoing person and I Yeah. You know, kind of overly sometimes I've been, I've been, I've been, uh, accused of, yeah. Accused of being a. Overly extroverted. And she's, you know, she's kind of the opposite. So she, she, she keeps me really kind of balanced in that sort of thing. Um, what's her name? Gretchen. Hi, Gretchen. Yeah. Hi Gretchen. You'll probably listen to this. Yeah. You'll probably take a listen to it. I, you know, I, there was a defining moment where I knew that she was absolutely the one. Um, so when I first moved to Fort Collins, I moved up here and I, we just kinda met, we've been dating for two summers. Okay. And, and is this the same girl that you went down the river for? Yes. Okay. Same girl. She making sure. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Well, when I met her I was like, this is the one, right. Yeah. But I, I had met her at the end of the summer, went back home to Alabama for a couple months, and then I came back for a second summer. She was wanting to come up here and because she had just moved here from Canyon, been there basically her whole life Yeah. And was ready to get out. And, uh, so I actually convinced her to come back a final season. She didn't really want to because she just moved up here and she came back. We hung out for a couple, couple months and then she came back up here and I moved out here. But shortly after I moved here, I, um, I developed an infection on my spine. Yeah. Um. And it was a, an abscess. And in this abscess, so this is before you guys were like a thing all the way. We were, we were dating. Yeah. Yeah. You know, but we weren't, you know, we weren't married, we weren't engaged. I was still kind of boyfriend status. She had no obligation to you. Right. Right. She could have, could easily said, I'm going this direction. And, you know, and I, you know, it wasn't like solidified. Sure. You know, but she loved you. You loved her. Yeah, she did. And I, she clearly, she, she, she loved me and I loved her. And um, but like shortly after that, I developed this infection on my spine. I weighed the bones in my neck. Um, and this infection actually almost severed my spinal cord. Yeah. Um, from the neck down. I could have easily been, was this from a previous injury or something? Or how My friend's dog knocked me down the steps, uh, and it broke my toe and I don't, I have a high tolerance for pain. I, I, I don't know where bacteria got in there, but bacteria traveled up my blood screen. So how on your plan? A column and ate ended up in my neck and it was eating away the bones of my neck. Wow. And then this happened like basically overnight. And so, um, I went through this major medical scare, at least the symptoms for it. Yeah. Happened, right. It probably took a while to develop, but all of a sudden you're like, I mean, I can't do anything. I just woke up one morning and it hurt, you know, and it was shortly after that injury happened and, um, and so. She's dating this, this guy that she met from Alabama who was hanging out, living with her at the time. And, um, and now I'm going through this major medical scare where I may possibly never walk again. Yeah. You know, if they wouldn't have caught it when they did, it could have severed my spinal cord and I'd have been paralyzed from the neck down. Wow. And it was a very scary moment for her, especially because she was ready to, you know, start a family, meet someone and move, you know, that direction. And now she's having to deal with somebody that Right. Might have to be dealing with, you know, a possible disability rest of their life. I can have no kids and a dude with a wheelchair to take care of for the rest of my life. Right. Right. And I, and you know, and if, if the worst case scenario would've happened, and if the worst case scenario would've happened, I would've said, move on. I'll, I'll, you know, I'll, I have parents that can take care of me, but you go enjoy your life. Um, but she stuck with me through the whole entire thing. I mean, we, we, we talk about it that these days. She's like, yeah, I was waking up in the middle of the night having to be a sponge bath. Was this like after your second summer together kind of thing? Almost, yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And so all these, and I had, I had somebody at work one time. She goes, you know, if she gave me some advice, she said, you know, if you're going the right person in your life, that's going to, you need to be with is somebody if you go through a major obstacle together. Well, we went through that. I was the one that was hurt. She wasn't, she stuck with me and, uh, we got through it. I'm here today. I'm here to able to talk about this. We've got a good career, but it could have easily went a different direction, and I'm very appreciative for her, her kindness. Yeah. Um, honestly, just her heart, she's, well, there's a lot of selflessness right there. Right. A wonderful per person in that area. A lot of young people today and always have always been selfish. Right. And so that's a really interesting indicator. Yeah. And so, I mean, we, we, we jived great before that. We jive even better now. Um, you know, every, all relationships have their ups and downs. Yeah. We've had a few where it's been down, but not a, not a whole lot. Yeah. Um, and I, and she's very patient, uh, with me. She's very, she, you know, she's just a wonderful person altogether. And I, I think, God, that, you know, that, that, that she's in my life. Yeah. And so, um, very meaningful. Well, thanks Christian. Yeah. For taking by. Yeah. Oh yeah. A hundred percent. Yeah. Um, you've got a couple of kiddos. Yeah. We've got two. We play a game. Uh, uh, one word description. Would you like to try that game? One word description? Yeah. All right. The kids. Yeah. This was in the, this was in the email too. Yeah. Yeah. I read that. It's hard. Yeah. Like it's just one word, but you can expand. Uh, who's the older. Uh, Campbell is okay. Yeah. He, do you have a word for her? Uh, him, yeah. Um, Campbell's a hard name, right? Yeah. Yeah. We named him after Wayne Campbell party. On, right, on party on Wayne. Yeah. Actually, it's funny, my, one of my best friends, he's a musician as well, his name is, uh, Robert Klein, but his middle name is Campbell. Yeah. So that's where we got it from. But I always say Wayne Campbell party on Wayne party on Wade. Um, I, he is, uh, one word description, hardworking. Oh, yeah. He's, he's really, um, he's, it, he's really into golf right now. Okay. And like, like he's decided that's his sport. He's gonna be a golf pro. Yeah. And I am, I am not a golfer. I've never been a golfer. Yeah. You know, um, but he is, he is working real hard every day to figure out how he can get money where he can support himself and his own support. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm like, I'm like, go buddy. Right. Go, go. You do your thing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And so that's a pretty thinker as well, sounds like. Yeah, I'm, I'm very appreciative of him. I'm doing that because I, I saw a little bit of myself in that like Yeah, yeah. Started, well, nobody from Alabama went to Colorado to bra guide. Yeah. Right. Like nobody that you grew up with. No, no. Left hardly. No. No. Yeah, yeah. You're exactly right. Like a lot of people, you know, they, they go to college, they get crazy, then they move back and that's what they do the rest of their life. Yeah. I'm like one of the few that, or they move to Birmingham. Yeah. Yeah. Or something. But they don't go to Colorado or they don't really go to New York, you know? No, no. I don't know anybody I from, I mean, right. Seattle, whatever. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's same from North Dakota. I mean, we're like, even though we're far different, like North Dakota's as cold as shit, and Alabama's as hot as you can get. Right. But we're the same in terms of like culture of like exploration isn't really part of, part of the do. Right. Yeah. You do your thing and then you come back home kinda. Yeah. But, uh, so anyway, yeah. Oh, no, no. I mean, I a hundred percent agree with you. I always joke about that. Good for Campbell that he is got that explorer's Gene too. Yeah. He's, he's just hardworking. Like, he, he, he's like, I need money for this. And he goes and finds, like, he walks around the neighborhood. He's, he's shy, but when it comes to that kind of thing, he, he is, um, he, he's very, uh, he's very good at it. And, uh, the next can Candace? Candace, yeah. She's three years younger. Okay. She's, um, I would say that she is. Outgoing like her dad. Okay. So outgoing. You said your, your son was a little more like your mom personally was Yeah, yeah, yeah. A little more reserved, but Candace not so much. Yeah, right. Like even at the event that we were at this last weekend, she was standing on the chair and she was waving, you know, Hey, there's a bit over here at the point appreciation dinner. I brought her up on stage so she can announce one of the winners, and she's standing on stage talking to microphone in front of 400 people. Yeah. Yeah. So she's, she's got more, I wasn't ready for that at 10. Yeah, yeah. But she's all about it. Right. And, um, I mean, I know we said one word, but she's pretty motivated as, as well as, especially with her sports and that kind of stuff. Yeah. So, I mean, they're both hardworking, which I appreciate. It's not something, you know, we keep hearing these things about today's generation where it's like, Hey, get off the couch and go get a cute job. You left the video games. I don't, I have zero concerns with those two about doing kind of thing. So do you have a, a spot of advice maybe for the next generation? Uh, I kinda shifted gears on you here, but like, if you're thinking about you when you were, you know, anywhere from 22 to 25 when you were kind of getting your career going, but you were still kind of goofing around like, what's, what's real in today's world and relevant, what's real in today's world? Like, like what would I give, um, my kids advice? Yeah. Somebody in a, well, not just your kids, but somebody in a. Maybe a more similar spot to you were when you were starting your real career path, put yourself in uncomfortable situations. Yeah. Right. I, I think about the most growth, the biggest growth moments that I've ever had in my life is I forced myself to do something that was uncomfortable to me. Yeah. Yeah. I think about the example we used earlier about, you know, the rafting where I was terrified to swim rapids, but I ended up committing and agreeing to throwing myself out of the boat on purpose to swim through rapids for three months straight to get past that. Yep. Yep. Um, you, we talked a little bit about the, um, the employee appreciation dinner and the speaker. Sure. Right. Um, I had a bucket list item to get a standing ovation. And so what we used to do is we used to bring in a speaker from the outside to come in and speak to the employees. Sure. And one year I was sitting there thinking, I was like, well, this person just spoke, but the only person that's gathering any value out of this is the CEO of our company because this is, this was the, the president of the manufacturer. Right. And so I, I committed, I said, Hey, I'm doing the speech next year. I have a story to tell and I work toward it and we're leading up to it and. I almost bailed out. And thank goodness Justin Salisbury called me and said, dude, don't do this. You commit this. Commit, commit. Thank goodness he, he taught me off that cliff. And I went in and I, and I was so nervous. I was, I was so intimidated about doing this. It's an uncomfortable situation, but I ended up being very vulnerable too. Right? Yeah. And I gave, and I gave a 20 minute speech and everybody stood up and he, the CEO of the company, John, came over and goes, man, you nailed it. And I was like, thank you, John. I mean, John doesn't give us a lot of advice like you did good a whole lot. But hearing that from, yeah, I was like, that's amazing. Those were two extremely uncomfortable situations that I had to throw myself into. But they were the biggest. Growth moments. Yeah. Yeah. So, and uh, when I hear people say, no, I don't wanna do it, I'm scared. I'm like, mm-hmm. Okay. Well prepare and then just move forward. You may, you may, you know, it's like going through a rapid, right? You may be scared about going through the rapid, but let's coach you up. Here's the line. Yeah, yeah. You go this line, if you end up flipping upside down your kayak and end up swimming, guess what? I'm gonna be at the bottom and I'm gonna save you. We're gonna pull, pull you out, but we're gonna keep telling you to do it until you get through it. And then when you get through it, it's like muscle memory, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's, so I would say put yourself in uncomfortable situations and work through it, because that is gonna be your biggest growth moments in your life. Yep. I, you know, reflecting, like, I felt totally underqualified to be on a nonprofit board the first time I was, and that was a huge season of growth. And also, ironically, yesterday my blog came out and the, the picture was a person standing in their comfort zone, a circle, and then over here is where growth occurs. Yeah. And it's basically exactly what you just said. Like, I've been resonating on that same thought, right? Yeah. I mean, yeah. I mean, it's, you wanna grow. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Put yourself out there. I dig it. Um, so this, the, the closing segment is our loco experience. Yeah. Your craziest experience. Like is it that, that infection thing, or is there another experience that you wanted to, to share? The craziest experience that I've ever done in my life, I mean, the, the, the infection piece. Sure. That's, that was pretty crazy thing that happened to me. But that was like a slow rolling kind of thing in some ways and whatever. Okay. So the craziest thing I've ever done in my life is I spent 17 days rowing a raft down the Grand Canyon. Oh, fun. Yeah. And you know, if, if you're in the whitewater world Yeah. You know, there's this, there's a saying, it says, are you, which side of lava falls are you on? And what that means is, um, lava falls is the biggest rapid in the Grand Canyon. Okay. And, um, if you're on this, the, the opposite side of it means you've never done the Grand Canyon, but if you're on the north side of it, it means you've done the Grand Canyon. Um, this trip. We spent 17 days in 2017 with 17 people going down and, and going down the river. Were you being paid or you were before I was the guide. Okay. I was, I was the guide, so I was rowing a raft. Okay. Now the rapids in the Grand Canyon, they're on a scale of one to 10. Oh. Instead of the five that we have. Right, right. And so, but the biggest one is Lava Falls. And so going into this trip, it was extremely, um, it was extremely nerve wracking for me because I am dealing with something, an issue in my neck. Yeah. If something goes wrong, then I could get severely hurt. So this is like after you've recovered something from your situation? Yeah. This is after years after. Yeah. This is years after. So, so I had to prepare for it. Mm-hmm. And I had to condition myself to do it. And the rapids in there were crazy nuts. Big. Right. It was nuts. But I, in the back of my head, I was always very intimidated about it because I had an issue that I had to deal with. Mm-hmm. That if something went wrong, I could easily get hurt. And, um, the trip ended up being beautiful. None of none of the rafts flipped. We had two people that swam the whole time. It was two kayakers, but that was it. Okay. So for the most part, it was a successful trip. The beauty about this trip is like a lot of us didn't know each other, but we ended up being a tribe. Like as we went down the river, we got tighter and tighter and tighter and tighter and tighter. And every single day we woke up and, um, you know, there was a brand new adventure. Like even the last day I was like, this is the last day. There's nothing cool gonna happen. Well, I ended up falling asleep and I woke up in the, in the middle of the night and there was a ring tail cat that was like sleeping next to me. And I was like, oh, what is it? Oh, alright, we'll hang out. That's cool. So I ended up, you know, you know, bunking with a ringtail cat the last night. But the most, it was a crazy trip. But the, the, the most important thing that happened to me on that trip was, I forget what day it was. It had to have been day nine or something. I had this. This feeling in the back of my head up until this point in my life, up until this defining point in my life that this, this neck injury that happened to me was like a, a disability. Right. So I tread it. I I treated it like a disability. Yeah, yeah. Right. I was like, okay, I'm, I can't do this, I can't do this, I can't do this.'cause this is a disability. And I was always concerned about it. So we got to this beach and we were unloading all of our stuff and we got set up camp and, um, my best friend Chad, was on the trip. He was the doctor on the trip, right? Yeah. And, uh,'cause he has a medical background. And I said, Hey man, where is this I'm looking for, for this? And we needed it for camp. And he said, well, it's in my rocket box next to my seat. So I walked over and I opened up the rocket box and there was a neck brace at the very top of the, uh, the rocket box. Mm-hmm. It was a neck brace right at the top. And I looked at it and it was like front and center, right? It was like, yeah, right there. This is the most important thing. And in Chad, he's like, you know, he's my best friend Wade. You know, I got him. This is a priority for me. If anything happens. I got him and I lost it. Like, I, I, I completely lost it. I, I ended up crying. I swear it had to been. An hour straight. And, and people were walking by and they were like, is weight okay? Is weight okay? And because I was just, I was just crying, and it was just years, and it was just years and years and years of buildup of this issue is like, why, you know, I always thought why did this random Yeah. Medical thing that could've easily like, you know, killed me or even, you know, severed my spinal cord? Why did it just randomly happen to me? And for years I had this mindset of it being like a disability and it was gonna pull me backwards. You know, this per kind of thing. This is pulling me backwards. It's pulling me backwards. It's pulling me backwards. And in that moment, I mean, I, I just let everything out for an hour, right? Yeah. And then, and then when I got done, I remember standing up thinking, I've got a people that care for me. I got other people that care for me. They're watching out for me. We're all doing this together. We're a tribe of people. We're going down the river. This is a safe environment. I have, I have a system. You know what I mean? We have, yeah. We know what we're doing. We know what we're doing. We've prepared for this. Everything's gonna be fine and it's gonna be fine for you for the rest of your life. Hmm. So quit thinking about. This major injury that happened to you as a disability, but think of it as an opportunity. Hmm. And to move past it. And it was that one defining moment that helped me get over all the things. Yeah. That had been pulling me backwards for so long. Yeah. Yeah. And it completely changed my mindset and my life. Did it, I'm just speculating here, but like, even though your wife stuck with you through those earliest seasons of that injury and stuff, it was, it was holding you back somehow anyway. And it let you guys get closer and stuff too. It is. It did. Yeah. I mean, yeah. I mean there's, even though it was such a sucky thing that happened, there's been so much positive things that's happened around me being able to look at what happened and confess the thing and think about it from a different, in a different lens. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I can think about it being like, why me? Why me? Why me? Why me my whole entire life? Because I was always a very active guy, you know? Right, right. You know, and it, you know, because of the injury, it has prevented me from doing other things. But I mean, it happened, but now I have a different mindset and I can talk to other peoples about. My experience and you know, the things that I went through Yeah. You know, well, and whatever that thing is that's holding them back Right. Or makes them feel is unfair or whatever. Right. Because when I first moved out here, when that happened to me, I knew two people in town, me and Gretchen. Yeah. I, I, I moved to a new area away from everything I've ever been used to. And I, I've been implanted in this new town where I don't know anybody else. And then this major thing happens. I had no support system and I had to find the support system. What drives your community engagement and helping everybody want a place to, to connect Bingo if they need help. Right. And that's why I think because of that one situation that happened to me, I think that's why I care so much about providing for this community the way that I do. Yeah. Yeah. Well and each of, each of those employees could be just like you in some small way. Yeah. Yeah. Or each of those people, each of those nonprofit organizations. Yeah. Yeah. So that's really cool. Thanks for reflecting on that. Sure. Like that's a really neat thing. Yeah. Um, like everybody knows how to find breeze through car wash, but uh, just like breeze through car wash.com. Right. Breeze through car wash.com, follow some social, you'll see what we do for the community. Like should we find you on LinkedIn? Oh, so that we can find out when the old, the DPH band is no. Like, gonna actually have a proper show. I, so, so, or how, how do we find out? Like how do my listeners find out how to come to your show when you finally Yeah, I, I know, bring it outta the garage. Oh, man. I, I, I know Kurt will know. I don't know when that's gonna come to fruition. Right, right. It's one of these things, it's like we're just hanging out and we're having a good time. We'll play some shows every, again, well watch the Local Experience podcast, uh, yeah. Link Instagram station and we'll, we'll share that there for sure. Yeah. And by the way, I, I, uh, LinkedIn I don't do too much on, but I, I am on Instagram for sure. That's like, that's like my jam. I have to pick like one because it's part of my job. It's like, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You got good pictures at Instagram anyway. Yeah, yeah, you do. Yeah. That's, you don't have a lot of people commenting, which is like, I'm like, I appreciate that. Do you have any questions of me before we wrap this up? Uh, by the way, thanks for being here. Thanks for sharing that story. You're welcome. Yeah. Um, um, I don't have any questions for you. Sorry. I have, that's good. You can ask me anything. I know, I, we'll edit it out if it doesn't make me appear to be smart. And, uh, uh, well, I mean, I've personally, I'm just, I'm just curious about like, the podcasting and, uh, but I, I think I might just ask you questions later on because that's like a full on like Yeah, it's a real thing for sure. You gotta love it. Yeah. But. Yeah. You, you might enjoy it. Well, I mean, I just hear, I hear a lot of people talking about podcasting these days and like how to make it a thing. My Steve, our um, marketing communications coordinator's been doing it for 16 years. Oh wow. And he's, he's very well versed in it. Okay. Even coming down here. Love to meet him with some time. Oh yeah. You, it would be good for you to meet him. He's, yeah, he's on geek cast up net. A real proper pro. Like I just kinda a winging it kind of guy. No, you're doing well right here. I but I, you know, I would love to pick your brain sometime about how, you know, how this all works and you know, and even if it's something I never do, I just still like to understand how everything works. Yeah. You know? For sure. But we'll, we'll, we'll connect at another time about that. You can buy me lunch and, uh Right, right. I'll give you the full tour. Right. I owe you'cause last time you program everything. Yeah. You, uh, you bought last time. I did. I did. Yeah. So, well, thanks for being here. Yeah. Appreciate it. Godspeed. Yeah. And, uh, Douglas Wade Keith. There you go. I'll see you next time. Yeah. Thanks man. Appreciate you.