The LoCo Experience

EXPERIENCE 250 | Season 5 Recap with Ben Holtz & Ava Munos

• Ava Munos • Season 5 • Episode 250

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In this episode of the Loco Experience Podcast, we welcome Ben Holtz and Ava Munos to discuss their journeys and roles within the Loco Experience team. Ava, the outgoing podcast producer, reflects on her time at Loco and her future plans in sales, while Ben shares insights into his varied career and his growth in the Director of Growth and Operations role. We recap the season, highlighting key podcast episodes, memorable moments, and impactful guests. 

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Music By: A Brother's Fountain

Speaker 4:

Welcome back to the Loco Experience Podcast. My guests today are Ben Holtz and Ava MOUs. Ava is the producer, outgoing producer of the Loco Experience. Sadly, um, today is her, one of her last shifts

Speaker 5:

close to it,

Speaker 4:

depending on how much further training Sadie needs. We'll see. And Ben has been on the team as the Director of Growth and Operations since June. Yeah. mid-June, something like that. Yeah. Yeah. Welcome Ben. So just for our listeners' sake, so you're not wondering what we are doing here, this is gonna be our, our season recap episode where we kind of look back over those conversations. Ben wasn't here for half of them, but he is met a lot of those guests in the meantime. Um, and we'll also kind of feature Ben's life journey and what led him to become part of the team here at local Think Tank. Yeah. So if those things are interesting to you, tune in. If they're not, then uh, send it to somebody you think they might be interested. This one episode, we'd hate to miss a download. So let's start with you Ben. Um, you're six months in almost Exactly. Yeah. Or five months in, I don't know. That's exciting. Um, how is Loco think tank different than what you expected?

Speaker 6:

Different than expected?

Speaker 4:

I guess both from a inside and maybe outside. I is marketing and sales. Uh, what's this community like? Knows.

Speaker 6:

It's funny. So I met Kurt on LinkedIn. Uh, I was kind of between a couple of startup projects of my own and had a few hours to spare and Kurt said, Hey, I'm looking for this kind of person. And it was one of the most broad job descriptions I've ever seen.

Speaker 4:

I'm looking for a really smart jack of all trade. Yeah. That can do everything with a, uh, with a high, uh, energy level.

Speaker 6:

And, uh, and that's me. And I went, Hey look, this is the culmination of, uh, a lot of my experience. And, uh, then I started and it was like, can you print. Mailing address labels, newsletter address. Labels. Yeah. Website updates. And cut. No, it's, it's automation. My favorite sales calls.

Speaker 4:

Marketing.

Speaker 6:

My favorite thing that you said to me was a couple months ago, it was, you're highly qualified for the job I hired you for and not at all qualified for a lot of the jobs I need you to do because it took me like three hours to figure out the printer. Yeah. The printers. So it's been, no, it's been awesome. Uh, great to be around Kurt and the team and meet so many great local people, um, around Fort Collins and Northern Colorado. And, um, man, it's been, it's been fun. And we've had silly days out at the golf course playing milky and Yeah. Um, long, hard days doing admin at the office. So I

Speaker 4:

think you've still only beaten me once in ping pong

Speaker 6:

just once and yeah, it, it close a lot of times. Really good. Really?

Speaker 4:

I, I probably,

Speaker:

and you'll never live it down. I'll

Speaker 4:

let you win at least one time in 2026.

Speaker 6:

He told me that, uh, as well. Uh, when mice wrestle, what was this?

Speaker 4:

Rats. Rat rats.

Speaker 6:

When they wrestle or play that the smaller rat has to win at least sometimes or else they stop playing it all. Correct? Yeah.

Speaker 4:

Are you, are you approaching that space yet?

Speaker 6:

Uh, no. Kurt just called me a small rat. That's really what we're,

Speaker 4:

what I gathered for last. Well, that would make me a big rat. Yeah, big rat.

Speaker 7:

That's rats.

Speaker 4:

I have a t-shirt actually that says I'm a big rat. Do you? No. Oh, that would be a lie.

Speaker 6:

I'll make you that shirt. So,

Speaker 4:

um. Ava, what have you noticed? Uh, like you, we were in a ladies only office and then all of a sudden you were out competing pee.

Speaker:

All my Miss you. Um, I had lunch with

Speaker 4:

Alma today.

Speaker:

Yeah. How's she doing? She's good. We can talk about later. Yeah. Um, well when I, you know, I thought about this today when I first applied to Loco I was just finishing my sophomore year and I'm now almost finishing my senior year.

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Speaker:

So I feel like Loco has, yeah. Like I made it through. Um, I feel like Loco has shaped a lot of like, I dunno, I feel like of all jobs I've learned the most from this job because when you join Loco you kind of wear a bunch of different hats whether you want to or not. Um, and I came in originally for marketing and I thought marketing was, is is my current major. Um, and I, it quickly showed me I never wanted to do marketing. Um, it was, I mean, a huge learning curve, but also like you put in a 19-year-old in to market for, you know, local business, sophisticated business and we, you know, it just hit a, hit a, a block there. It was a language barrier. Yeah. A little bit, but, well,

Speaker 4:

but you used things like chat and stuff to get better at business communications and whatnot. Yeah, that's what

Speaker:

I learned the most was how to like, use my resources and like. And also how to like, just not constantly ask for help and just to kind of figure it out. Which, I mean, I still use a lot of those skills today and it got me into podcasting because, you know, Alma left that role and, and I was there to fill it. And I've loved the job so much. I've also met incredible people from this job. Um, that's like my biggest, I feel like take away from Locos the amount of networking and the amount of connections you make and like friendships you make. And also sitting in on the podcast, I mean, I'm sitting in two, maybe three, mostly like one to two podcasts a week of, you know, you're just listening to all these crazy people's stories. And it might be boring and mundane, but there's not ever a time that you don't walk away from it learning something.'cause you're listening to the entire thing out there. Say to, you're gonna learn so much from this job. But yeah, I feel like Locos taught me a lot.

Speaker 4:

Yeah. I believe that. And it's interesting to reflect on your career path. Like in college, what to do is pretty straightforward.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker 4:

You know, here's the project, here's the class, here's the textbook, the chapters and stuff. Get this

Speaker:

great pass. Take this class. Yeah.

Speaker 4:

And in your prior work you were, you know, coffee houses and Ritz Carlton mm-hmm. And stuff. Yeah. So, but even there, the job is pretty well defined. It's like totally like, here's some rich people. Yeah. Kiss their asses. Yeah. Get'em their food on time.

Speaker:

Every job I've had in like, throughout your education, it's very scripted and you have a play by play of what you're gonna do. And loca was the first thing I've ever done where I didn't have that. And I mean, you learn when you struggle, the struggle strengthens. And that I did,

Speaker 6:

there is no script when it's real stories, real people. Yeah.

Speaker 4:

And Ben, you've kind of been in a lot of different. Like big corporate, smaller self-employed for a couple years really in various van building and consulting. Oh yeah. And whatever else. How, but not probably very much in this kind of small enterprise. Right? Like it's a little bit different kind of critter to have that 2, 3, 4 person team where there's Yeah. So many things to do.

Speaker 6:

Yeah. I was trying to actually think, uh, a couple weeks ago about what's the closest thing I've done to at least the product selling this product. Yeah. Uh, in terms of memberships and community and things like that. And the closest thing I think I did, I, uh, worked at Glazer Clinics. Okay. Um, which is a coaching clinic, a sports coaching clinic company. Okay. Yeah. Um, they're headquarters in Colorado Springs. Okay. Uh, that was 10 years ago now. All right. Alright. But, uh, yeah, that was selling like programs to coaches and teams and hosting events and conferences. Okay. But even similar. Still, still a little more targeted though. Yeah. That's a lot more niche

Speaker 4:

business to consumer, more so. And you get very

Speaker 6:

specific language and very specific value props. And this is real people dealing with. The challenges of entrepreneurial life and no two stories are the same. That is true. And so how do you speak to an audience that is literally different in every way? That's,

Speaker 4:

uh, people ask me sometimes How do you keep getting new guests for the loco experience? And I'm like, dude, there's like thousands of business founders and leaders, so many out there and they all have a different story and a d different journey and most of'em are pretty inspiring. Yeah,

Speaker 6:

absolutely.

Speaker:

Um, and who doesn't wanna talk about themselves for two hours? Yeah,

Speaker 4:

yeah. Not me. And spread the word. I mean, that's why I do this job is because I don't really want to talk about myself for two hours, although, uh, uh, there's some pressure on me to get on more local podcasts. Although you often do that. I should. Yeah,

Speaker:

you definitely should. It's been a

Speaker 4:

while. I got on a bunch of them early on. And

Speaker:

you need to be in like the interviewee spot.

Speaker 4:

Well, I'm gonna be in a few weeks. Uh, one of our guests from early last year, Nate Hines. Oh yeah. Or late last, late the year before has asked to come on again, but only on the condition that he can be the interviewer this time. Awesome. And he is like a crazy philosopher guy. Yeah. So I'm really looking forward to that experience as well. Very insightful. So, um, Ben, what were you doing? Uh, just before.

Speaker 6:

What was I doing just before

Speaker:

he was like, let me try to remember.

Speaker 6:

Um, most recently and still, uh, actively, uh, I'm co-founding a startup that does business intelligence for venture capital and startups. Yep. Um, but really like the thing that I've done most consistently over the last five years, uh, was the van building business, um, that's paid the bills and that's been nuts. So, uh, 2019, uh, I was a single guy living in northwest Arkansas, working at Walmart, and dissatisfied

Speaker 8:

with my job.

Speaker 6:

Uh, I was also seeing the writing on the wall that it wasn't gonna be a permanent place for me. Okay. Um, both that I wanted to move away Oh. Uh, geo wise and, uh, I didn't feel like a fit on my team. Uh, the lateral movement that I had, I was in a new role, so I didn't have a lot of upward mobility. Um, and so I bought a van thinking maybe I'll start consulting and I'll travel and then like a, a secondhand van? Uh, yeah. A dealership down the road. Okay. Bought, uh, I guess had somebody trade one in and didn't know what it was like. The salesman literally was like, I have no idea what this is worth. It's 14 grand. Oh. Um, which was, and you're like, that's worth 25 grand. Oh, absolutely. It was, it was. Rudimentary Rudimentarily built and had, you know, some medium eyes on it anyway. Out. And what was this as a sprinter out? This was a ProMaster Ram ProMaster Dodge. Yep. Dodge Ram ProMaster. But for the money, it was awesome. Yeah. I built the rest out in my, uh, in the front parking lot in front of my apartment. Oh really? Um, and got multiple notices from the apartment, like, we're gonna evict you. And I was like, it doesn't appear that this thing works. Well, I am, uh, building a new home, so evict me all you want'cause I'm leaving. Yeah. Goodbye. And um, so I moved into that.

Speaker 4:

So you're like working this salary job and working nights and weekends to uh Oh yeah. To Oh yeah. Finish the band so you can tell them to Oh yeah. Fly a kite.

Speaker 6:

My buddy, uh, my buddy Tad, uh, shut out Tad. Um, and I set something on fire, like in the apartment courtyard. Um, we hooked up the solar panel. I was learning everything. Yeah, I was, I hooked up the solar panel on the wrong, uh, configuration. Sent a bunch of pink smoke into the apartment. It, regardless I learned a lot, but I was dating my now wife at the time. Um, and she was living in California, so backed up the van moved out there. Oh, like long distance dating kind, long distance dating. Um, oh, I didn't know that. Like, did it start

Speaker 4:

with a bunch of phone calls and stuff, or did you get together pretty regularly even?

Speaker 6:

No, no. I mean, it started with phone calls and FaceTimes. Yeah, we had a history. Um, and so, uh, there was a lot of familiarity there. It was very, very, like, um, so who broke

Speaker 4:

up with who, who calculated time before? Because you guys were dating's dated in college. A real, that's a real question. Let's dig it up. I mean, it matters for the, it matters. It matters.

Speaker 6:

Does it matter? Uh, yeah. No, it doesn't. I, I don't know if it was really this or that. It was, uh, it was really hot and cold. Ki we were in college the first time. Yeah. You know? Um, and so, so you don't keep score about that? We don't. We don't. Alright. We don't, we keep score about plenty of other things. Tell whatever. No, she's better than me, that's for sure. Um, but yeah, I moved out to California to be with her. Um, and,

Speaker 4:

and, and what were you doing for work?

Speaker 6:

I was still at, uh, the, I was still at Walmart. Okay. Um, I was sitting as Unilever at Walmart buying all their media. Okay. Um, and told my boss, Hey, I'm gonna move. And he basically said, I can buy you a little time, zoom into calls and we'll see if we can get it approved through HR for you to be remote.

Speaker 4:

COVID hadn't dropped yet.

Speaker 6:

No, this was January of 2020. Okay. Oh, and so, uh, so you had a couple months that went on for like a month and then HR was like, you can't be remote, you're fired. And then like a week later everyone was remote. Right. And I was still not rehired. Oh, damn. Uh, so I sold the van because I needed the cash Right. And made money. And then the dealership down the road in California, it was like, everything's burning down. It's COVID. So all the vans are cheap. Right. Hell, because at the beginning everybody panicked and sold off. All sorts of stuff.

Speaker 4:

Yep, yep. Home

Speaker 6:

supply. Yeah. They had a

Speaker 4:

floor plan attached to it. Yeah. I

Speaker 6:

mean, if you think about, uh, by the end of the pandemic kind of season,

Speaker 4:

oh yeah. You should have just bought a bunch of bricks and donkey

Speaker 6:

home building, home building supplies four to five x in terms of price, uh, in a lot of categories, obviously, but like, vans the same. And so, but at the beginning it was like fire sale. Yeah. And so I should've bought five vans in March. Oh, I should have of 2020. Um, well, I, I worked, I worked night and day to start flipping vans. Oh, really? So you were buying'em, fixing'em, and you still I was pulling 14 to 16 hour days for months on end to build a van. Yeah. And then we would take a month off and go for a road trip, and then we'd come home and sell it and I'd do it again.

Speaker 4:

Oh.

Speaker 6:

So I built 15 vans. So

Speaker 4:

you kind, you could kind of sort it out besides Yeah. 15.

Speaker 5:

15. So have you've been doing that for five years?

Speaker 6:

I stopped January of 24.

Speaker:

But I thought you just built, bought a van.

Speaker 4:

No, no. He sold his van. This what did you just, you just bought? So this, oh,

Speaker 6:

I just bought an old Land Cruiser. I'm gonna fix up. But that's like a, that's a, just a small little nothing. I'm not gonna money off of that. Yeah. Yeah. Just a fun project. Um, but yeah, that was, that was incredible. So built most of your jobs. That's crazy for those years. Did that for a couple years full time. Um, and had jobs in between and kind of did that as a moonlight project. Yeah. It was great. It was great money.

Speaker 4:

What, what was Alyssa doing?

Speaker 6:

Uh, Alyssa's been in graphic design, you know, and so she was with youth with a mission, uh, missions organization for years and years. Yeah. Um, left, uh, around 2020 season and she helped me on the van stuff. Okay. So there's some funny pictures of us cutting out windows and she's trying to

Speaker 4:

figure out how to use a MIT design

Speaker 6:

for Oh yeah. She's, she's figured it all out. She's awesome. Um, and, uh, no, but she went back into graphic design kind of later that year. Gotcha. Um, and has been doing it since.

Speaker 4:

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And did you continue to do marketing consulting and different things Absolutely. During this That was your Yeah, I did day jobs of sorts or whatever, gotta go have a meeting or this meeting and do some work. I've

Speaker 6:

always been like a typically, um, and some of this has changed, but, um, typically I'm a, you know, early morning work, um, and a late evening manual work or house remodel or van project or whatever. Yeah. And dig it, um, or work out. Um, and so I will, I would wake up, you know, early work, six to two, six to three, and then roll off, start working on the van and go working on the van. Yeah. Interesting. Did that for a couple years.

Speaker 4:

And then how did you find yourself in Fort Collins?

Speaker 6:

We had wanted to move here. Why here? Three years. I came, I came to visit, uh, my buddy Thomas, who lived in Fort Collins. He and I had a, a old, um, kind of just shared history, uh, living in Fayetteville, Arkansas. And, uh, he had moved out here and I came, it happened to be toured a fat weekend. And it, I mean, it's just a party. You're like, any town

Speaker 4:

that has this as a pool party, oh my God, I'm a huge, I might wanna be part of it. Huge.

Speaker 6:

That's like my, uh, that's my sport. Um, and, and it's my hobby. I love working on bikes as well. And so a bunch of weirdos drinking beer riding bikes around town all day long, dressed up. I was, I was in love. So that was probably 2017.

Speaker 2:

Okay.

Speaker 6:

Um, maybe it was 2018 and I went, I'm moving here. And it

Speaker 4:

just never worked. I wonder, I bet there's more than a dozen people in town that came here for a tour de fat weekend and were like, I'm gonna move

Speaker 6:

there. I'm staying here. It's a great weekend. Come. Well, and then two years later, Alyssa did the, or three years later, Alyssa did the same one.

Speaker 4:

I've had a number of friends came, like my, my brother and

Speaker 6:

Yeah,

Speaker 4:

his wife and like four of their friends came out for Tour to Fat weekend. One time my sister's been out for Tour to Fat Weekend, you know,'cause it's a good time of the year to travel anyway. Uh, and like, you're not gonna see nothing like that.

Speaker 6:

Oh yeah. I will not forget. Like, um, when Alyssa, my wife and I came to visit again in 21, we were standing on the corner of, um, mountain, uh, and Shields where Beavers is Okay. Watching, watching the parade go by. And she turned to me and said. I could move here.

Speaker 8:

And I was like, yes. Like

Speaker 4:

I knew it. I knew this attorney. She hadn't been before. Uh, she had not been. So it was So you used that as your sales pitch as well?

Speaker 6:

Oh, I planned that trip to be there for that

Speaker 4:

on that corner and worked. I had the ring in my pocket. Oh, are we already married? Oh, we were you married pretty quickly. That was a rapid romance.

Speaker 6:

Yeah. No, she, uh, yeah, she, uh, regrets that we have now sunk all our money into a remodel and we're there right off of this same corner where same, same corner. It's like, she dragged me here. She doesn't do

Speaker 4:

that. I was gonna say, it doesn't feel like she regrets being

Speaker 2:

here. No, we love it. She loves it too.

Speaker 4:

Um, one of the things we're gonna do is, uh, do some season recap. So I'm gonna just weave it in a little bit because one of the things that, um, we started the season on was an interview with Rick Gardner, who has been our EOS implementer. Yeah. She out to Rick. Um, and, uh, you know, yeah. Shout out to Rick. And also, um, you've learned a lot about the entrepreneur's operating system and been fulfilling the integrator role for Loco The last, I mean, not right. I guess you were pretty much right for, well, no, your second day was Yeah, our June meeting. Yeah. So you didn't know much in that. It is crazy. One Ava was, Alma was still here running that meeting. I bet that was slightly

Speaker 6:

overwhelming. And EOS is one of those things where the language. It exceeds the reach of the actual operating system. Totally. Where a lot of businesses you probably use language from EOS that you don't even know is from ES, right? Yeah. If you've got rocks for the quarter Yeah, totally. You're using EOS. Yeah. Yep.

Speaker 4:

If you're trying to catch traction with the new market, probably get some EOS stuff in there. Totally. So Rick, uh, was a favorite podcast from that first quarter. He was like a bull rider until he got hurt. He became a professional walleye fisherman. He like helped Lockheed Martin figure out why their rocket engines were setting up a harmonic vibrancy thing, even though he wasn't a mc trained engineer. He was fascinating guy.

Speaker 2:

Wild. Yeah.

Speaker 4:

Totally. And, uh, has really fallen in love with business and adds a lot to the, to the business community over here. Yeah. Um, so definitely a highlight one of the first quarter. And then another one that I remember that you have connected well with is, uh, Scott Kissel from Sky Corll Ranch.

Speaker 5:

Scott's great. Scott's so great.

Speaker 4:

What an energy. Oh, I had so many people that were like, you guys look like brothers in this picture. Oh, what a compliment to you think. Right.

Speaker 5:

That's such a compliment to you. Well, yeah.

Speaker 4:

cause he's like buff and like, good look at, he's such

Speaker:

a nice guy.

Speaker 6:

Oh yeah. You talked to Scott for a couple minutes and you feel like you've known him a lot.

Speaker 4:

True. So true. So if people are listening up there, if you wanna hear the Sky Carere Ranch story, which is an amazing venue. We had our, our next level summit up there in August, and it's, it's great, you know, great for a group of 40 to 60. Yeah. People to both have a place to eat and a place to learn, and a place to walk around in the outdoors and see turkeys and bears. Oh man. Sidebar. But right close to where Highway 14 comes together with, with 2 87 on the way back from Steamboat, I saw a flock of perhaps 60 turkeys in one of those fields that are just off of Highway 14 on the way back from Steamboat. It was, I've never seen more than like 15 turkeys together ever.

Speaker 5:

Yeah. I don't think I've ever even seen 15.

Speaker 4:

So anyway, I've got some, it's a lot. I've got some dark clothes and my, uh, shotgun silence. So we're gonna go get Turkey dinner. Um, okay. Yeah, we'll do that next weekend. If you're down. Ben was telling you earlier, he doesn't always know what I'm pulling his leg or not, which, no, I find that very endearing. You're starting to figure it out faster.

Speaker 6:

I I, I, I do know, but sometimes

Speaker:

exact question. I know he's joking. I know when he joking.'cause he'll pause after because he's waiting for a reaction. That's how I know. And if he's not joking, he'll just carry on. Then you're kinda like, what? Whoa. Oh, he just, that crowd tonight without it

Speaker 4:

being a joke. Dang. Oh. And like he

Speaker:

for real just said that

Speaker 7:

I, I'm.

Speaker 4:

Proper pretty often.

Speaker:

Proper is hilarious. You're proper

Speaker 4:

occasionally

Speaker:

when you wanna be

Speaker 4:

true. Yes. But I don't think

Speaker:

it's very often that you would need to be proper.

Speaker 4:

You know, I think I, I'm a, I'm a free speech absolutist a little bit, and if you're not gonna like example Yeah. The things that you believe in, then I don't, I don't wanna be, I'm not insulting, I'm not, you know, I would never call a handicapped person a retard, but I would totally call you a retard if you were acted like a retard.

Speaker 6:

That's a Michael Scott quote Kurt. Oh, sorry. For a reason. Well out on

Speaker 4:

it. Yeah. I, I don't know these things, it's just kind like the traction stuff. It got filtered into my brain. It got in there, it got, and it got in there, but I don't know where it went from there. So, got in there, uh, we had the harpist to a king. Oh yeah. Uh, and I went to her concert when I was in Fort Collins, Meredith Ryle, uh, she

Speaker:

was also paired with the Britain's Got Talent. Yeah. Winner. Uh, what was his name

Speaker 4:

again? His name was Ja McDowell. Yes. And, uh, both very fun. Um, and one of our top listens of, of the first quarter, especially longtime member Phil Ula, current member Ann Baren

Speaker:

And,

Speaker 4:

and

Speaker:

Hello Ann.

Speaker 4:

And then Pete Gly, who is gotta be considered like a MVP. Yeah. Uh, for Loco this year.

Speaker 6:

Yeah, yeah. Absolutely.

Speaker 4:

Uh, quick background on Pete and it's a worthy episode. He's a two 11, excuse me. But Pete is our, um, came in as our original Thinkers facilitator, um, with the departure of that facilitator in December. He came in in January and kind of helped get it off of, uh, we had only four or five members left in the chapter when he came in and now they're at nine or 10 or 11. Totally. Yay Pete. And then the next level, uh, chapter. Mm-hmm. We had a change in June on that and he is grown that group from four to now. Seven too. Yeah. So it's been amazing to, to just see what you just never know, like kudos to Kim O'Neill'cause she pressed it in the role and, uh, you, she's actually one of the members now, but that's part of it. She was getting more and more things to do and buying beer distributorships and investing in this and that and kind of started to look more like a member than a facilitator. So. Sure. So, uh, so anyway, Pete had had a great episode there. He's definitely been an MVP. What a guy. Ginger Graham returned in February with her, her hubby, Jack,

Speaker 6:

ginger, and Baker. Staple. Staple. That's Fort Collins. Is she one of your

Speaker 4:

favorites? Probably. That's been through.

Speaker:

Why do you say that?

Speaker 4:

I don't know. Just as a power woman in the community, that's really good. Back. We've had many

Speaker:

power women

Speaker 4:

on That is true. That is true.

Speaker:

But yeah, ginger and Jack were very interesting and I also had a friend that worked at Ginger and Baker, so it was interest. Did they like it? Yeah.

Speaker 4:

Kind of. Sort of. Yeah. Well, you know, it's a retail job, right? Still food service. Yeah, exactly. And that's not easy. Yeah, yeah. No, they, and they can't pay you all the money because

Speaker 6:

for the workers, for the owners even. I mean, it's Right. It's a hard industry. Yeah, totally.

Speaker 4:

And, uh, yeah, that pretty much rounds out some of the highlights not to, uh, miss Zach George from Zach, George Landscaping future local think tank member. I hope.

Speaker 2:

Ooh,

Speaker 4:

I'm gonna keep calling him once a year at least. Alright, stay on that. He's our kind of people. Plus he's got an amazing beard. Oh yeah. Better than

Speaker 6:

another compliment from you.

Speaker 4:

Yeah. Yeah. I try not to

Speaker 6:

a beard. Recognized beard.

Speaker 4:

So a fresh college graduate. Whoops. I just started playing. You just start playing your own podcast too, yourself, while you're on the podcast. I was like, oh God. What's Sadie do? No, that was me. Sorry. Sadie. You'll have to edit that out. No, I think that could stay there. That'll be fine. Yeah. It's

Speaker 6:

just really meta.

Speaker 4:

It's super meta. Uh, yeah, it's like I, I have a, I have a sweatshirt that's a bear wearing a sweater. And then on the bear sweater is another bear wearing a sweater. And you are the bear. I'm the bear wearing the sweater. Sweater of the bear wearing the sweater. Yeah. Yeah. That,

Speaker 6:

uh, it's like a Russian doll. What is the, um, series of shirts of Macaulay kin wearing the shirt of, oh, I'll find it for you later. Okay. That's fine. That sounds good. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 4:

So you, uh, also sport a beard, but I do, uh, you've started relatively recently sporting the, the bald head, the Too ball. Yep.

Speaker 6:

No. Started early. How's that

Speaker 4:

been?

Speaker 6:

What you

Speaker 5:

recently became bald

Speaker 6:

this year,

Speaker 5:

but I met you bald. Yeah, you met me bald. Okay. I was like,

Speaker 6:

you met me bald. Um, no, this, this was an evolution

Speaker 4:

and like you're basically eight months in or something to that behavior. Yeah, it's annoying.

Speaker 6:

Oh, 12, 12 months in. Okay, so last year, January or so, it was Christmas Eve last year about to go to church with my family for Christmas Eve. And

Speaker 5:

you shaved your head

Speaker 6:

and No. No. Oh. Um, but I have told my wife for years if my hair gets thin to the point where it's time, tell me it's time. And she agreed

Speaker 5:

on Christmas Eve, she said it. No, I, well, I mean, yes. Merry Christmas. I did kind of,

Speaker 6:

I was in the mirror after my shower comb my hair. I'm like, oh, this

Speaker 8:

is not right.

Speaker 4:

Oh,

Speaker 8:

damn. I

Speaker 6:

said, babe, is

this

Speaker 8:

is it time? And she said. Unfortunately it's time. It's time. So we've ever seen pictures. Think it was

Speaker 6:

January 2nd or third. Yeah.

Speaker 4:

Shaved it all

Speaker 6:

off. I

Speaker 5:

can't even imagine it.

Speaker 4:

And it's more of a pain in the butt than you'd imagine, or I've imagined way more. I've been jealous of bald heads in the past, to be honest. I don't hate the

Speaker 6:

look like, I feel fine. Yeah, you look sharp. Yeah. And I'm grateful to have a very full beard that I can still rock some kind of hair into, but uh, it is way more work to shave your head basically daily. Do you go electric?

Speaker 5:

I was gonna say, do you hit like a razor?

Speaker 6:

Oh, I've got like a big palm thing that goes all the way. It just still takes, it's like a car buffer thing and I'm good at multitasking. I do that and brush my teeth or I'll do that, whatever. But it's still like, it's a

Speaker:

process.

Speaker 4:

Yeah. So I, so it's more like woman hair. If I get, like it requires attention. The money. Yeah. If

Speaker 6:

I can really become rich, I will go get plugs for the sake of the ease. What hair plugs go, go take the hair plane to Turkey, you know. Oh, like

Speaker:

the hair implants. Oh yeah, sure.

Speaker 4:

I didn't really know that was a thing. I might

Speaker 6:

still stay bald, but then at least I have the option

Speaker:

would. That's the, yeah.

Speaker 6:

You know, then I have the option,

Speaker:

I say rock the bald.

Speaker 4:

I would say like if you could, maybe you should just go to like scream and peach and wax that ship. Regularly and then it can like, shut

Speaker 8:

up. I don't know if that happens. They don't do that for the whole head. I don't know. Maybe not. It feels like that would be the ideal outcome. Definitely. Is just like kill those follicles somehow.

Speaker 6:

Definitely is not how that works. Laser hit removal on your head maybe. Mm-hmm. But like the, the cost of that,

Speaker:

that can't be any like, easier than just like hitting like a little real cha bone on the head. Trust.

Speaker 6:

I got, I got an outfit. I've had my eyebrows

Speaker 4:

waxed. It's pretty pleasant.

Speaker:

What did they able do that They don't do that to your head. That hair is so much different. That would hurt so bad. Regardless. I am a bald man and

Speaker 4:

Yeah, he's a bald man. Well, I'm rocking it. Thanks. Here we are. That is, you are a good looking bald man.

Speaker 6:

Oh, thank Kurt.

Speaker 4:

And, uh, I'm no longer jealous of baldness, uh, after kind of

Speaker 6:

Yeah, no, it's, it's a chore

Speaker 4:

inquiring with you about it. It's a chore and stuff. I'd rather have this than, the reality is I'll stay a bald man. Hold mine for a while. It's a chore. Um, so, well, I'm sorry. Still love you. Thanks. Um, Ava, have you ever been attracted to a bald man?

Speaker:

Nobody. My age is bald. I'm gonna say no.

Speaker 2:

Thank gosh. No.

Speaker 4:

Well that's good. That's good. Um, forehead, what I'm gonna jump into, I was, yeah, I just had an actual inappropriate question I was gonna ask, but then I decided that I shouldn't

Speaker 6:

Oh, you were baiting.

Speaker 4:

No, I actually thought about what I was gonna say before I said it and decided not to.

Speaker:

Thank you guys. I really appreciate that. Standing. Hey, that's called self-control. We're self-discipline. That's called growth.

Speaker 6:

That's so proud.

Speaker 4:

Oh, I had a very unusual episode was episode two 15 with Edward Reinhardt. Oh my

Speaker:

god. The kid. Yeah,

Speaker 4:

the kid that was Theca program and stuff. I wasn't here. I don't You were here. No, you weren't here yet. That was still in April. Yeah.

Speaker:

That was interesting.

Speaker 4:

It was, you know, I thought we had a nice conversation. We've

Speaker:

never had somebody that's not like we have very little people on that. There's no life story.'cause he has done shit that aren't like ceo, he's 17, 18. Yeah, he just did deca, which is that like program in, in high school you do that like teaches you how to do like sales and you go in front of people entrepreneurship and this and that. Yeah. So that was, yeah, that was interesting.

Speaker 6:

Yeah. Have you done a follow up? No. How are things now?

Speaker 4:

Haven't heard? You know, he's only in his first semester at something, something,

Speaker 6:

but, you know, things change fast. Yeah. I suppose something, something I suppose,

Speaker 4:

uh, we had the, uh, verboten brewing a couple on Josh and Angie gr, Angie Grins. I've made that, uh, the, the Verboten North gets a lot more of my business than the verboten Loveland did. Not that. I like the, and love one is super cool. It's a great location and stuff, but I'm just not down there as much. Totally. Whereas Rebo North has a. Nice pizzas. Always good beers. Yeah, it's pretty, you know, I try not to go south of Prospect, but it's barely south of Prospect, like literally like 200 yards. Oh. I mean, so that counts. If you can wrap that, it's section in Music City into

Speaker 6:

one trip plus the cigar shop. Yeah. There's a lot of good that's down there. Yeah.

Speaker 4:

And, and Los TROs Americana right around the corner where you get your Oh yeah. Uh, tortillas and your, what do they call the fried pig? Pig skins. Oh.

Speaker 5:

Um, not Ros. No, they're, um, chicharone.

Speaker 4:

Chicharone. Chicharone. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Those are the best Chi Chicharone in town. I've never

Speaker:

tried when I've seen them all over every day. Really? With like the big thing a g guac and they, like,

Speaker 4:

I was thinking about reaching out to them. That's pig skin. Yeah. It's pig skin.

Speaker:

What's the things that are like, pig, maybe it's the same thing I'm thinking of like a chip that's like really airy. That's like, yeah, that's that same thing. That's skin pig. Just like, like why is it so like when you see, you think it would be like a flat,

Speaker 4:

when you see a ham, like a, like a whole ham and it's got like that kind of brownish Yeah. Part that's kind of thick and leathery kind of. That's that. And

Speaker:

they just like deep fry it so it just expands. Yep. Yep. Okay.

Speaker 4:

Exactly. Cut it into little pieces and drop it in the deep fryer.

Speaker:

Interesting.

Speaker 6:

Love it.

Speaker 4:

You're a Mexican food fan, you're a spice fan. Big. It doesn't, uh, mess with the, I wish this was an episode. We

Speaker 6:

were trying things. I have a, we could put some hot sauce up. I just pounded my body into submissions.

Speaker 4:

I, as you noticed in our, uh, mayoral, uh, candidate series. I get sweaty Betty when I taught sausage anymore. You

Speaker 6:

sure do. It's pretty

Speaker 7:

dis I mean, these lights don't help it.

Speaker 4:

Right? I have, well, this big forehead I have doesn't help it either.

Speaker 6:

I had an overly generous helping of, uh, one of the, the room two 17 sauce with my lunch today. Okay. It was awesome.

Speaker 4:

Changes your mood. Yeah. Um, Phil Spry, right? We had a, a rotary guest, uh, a couple of rotary guests on, uh, with David Hasi and Therese Lambert talking about our flags of honor. Mm-hmm. What did you think about that, Ava? Like, it was different than our normal format as well, but really a great pair of examples of kind of, I'm trying to remember, community service into. They're, oh,

Speaker:

this was about the, the, the, the airplanes in the Peach Festival. Yes. And the field of honor with honoring

Speaker 4:

the veterans and first responders. They were amazing and all kinds of stuff. They

Speaker:

were like, they were very informative and like clearly cared deeply about what they were doing. Yeah. And I was really upset to miss the Peach Festival. That was Did you go?

Speaker 4:

I did, yeah. I volunteered actually for a few hours. Yeah. Um, wish I could field of honor. I'm just gonna go through second quarter. Sure. Then we'll bounce back into some good stuff here. That's great. So what are you doing with yourself? This special is coming, this Ava, uh, like you were kind of like, I think I, it's time, you know, for me to leave at the end of the semester. Yeah. I gonna be job hunting and I got this job with iHeart. That's

Speaker:

cool. Yeah. So I currently pretty cool work at, uh, in, uh, promotions and marketing at iHeartRadio. Um, future steps. I really wanted to get into sales, so I've kind, talking to iHeart about it, talking to Sadie about it, talking. I'm kind of at this moment, um, I'm burnt out of having two jobs. It's so exhausting being a senior. And I have my capstones next semester, so I'm gonna hold onto one job for a minute until the bills get backed up and then I am kind of in like the next few months looking to start, like entry level sales, field sales is kind of what I wanna do the most. Um, and there's a lot of opportunity for that. A lot of it's in Denver though. I don't really wanna move to Denver. Um, my house as a whole has kind of made the executive decision that we're probably staying in our place. Oh,

Speaker 4:

is that right? Okay. Yeah, we just kind of, so if you're, if you're a business owner out there listening and you need a smart, yeah. So my name is Eva Manuse. I am,

Speaker:

um, 21 entry level sales person. I'm graduating, um, CSU right now with a marketing major and I'm getting a double concentration in marketing and management as well as a B2B selling certification. So certification. Um, yeah, so I'm looking around the Colorado area, Northern Colorado. I'm looking more as, you know, Fort Collins, Windsor, Loveland.

Speaker 4:

Would you go to Cheyenne for a good job?

Speaker:

No.

Speaker 4:

Really?

Speaker:

No. I've done so many remotes in Cheyenne. I'm over Cheyenne.

Speaker 4:

Oh, it's just such a quick drive though.

Speaker:

Yeah, it's a quick drive, but I don't wanna get hate, but I don't like Shay that much. No, that's cool. I've had some bad interactions with some people there during remotes and it wasn't fun. Can you, yeah. So my next, my next steps are, you know, for now having one job for a month or two and then going into some entry level sales, if is

Speaker 6:

the kind of person you wanna buy stuff from.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, I would agree. Yeah. Yeah,

Speaker 6:

yeah, yeah. She would crush it. Absolutely. I

Speaker 4:

think so. I mean, I think, I mean, I'm hungry. I think probably, probably not to interrupt, but I think your time here at Loco. And just exploring. Like the silly thing about me sometimes is I'll get into a 30 minute philosophical conversation that I pay you for

Speaker 3:

Yep. That you should be paying me for.

Speaker 4:

Yep. Punching off. Just kidding. Some, some, some therapy sessions for sure. But I mean, just reflecting on the kind of the wiring of, you're kind of a little more like me, whereas if they kept you away from interacting with people, most of the time it would feel like punishment. Horrible. Totally. Yeah. And so I, I think you're well poised to, that's add some value to somebody's team in that space. I would

Speaker 5:

love to,

Speaker 4:

if, if hire me, if you were smart enough to learn about business real fast, I could hire you for loco sales. But it's just a, it's a learning curve on how to sell. Look, that is such a learning curve.

Speaker:

And I feel like also if I was talking to like business owners as like a 21-year-old female, I don't know. Right. I feel

Speaker 5:

like you come across better. You guys are, I don't think I meant for that.

Speaker:

Well, I mean, sadly, um, old and bald.

Speaker 6:

Um, there's another reality where confidence matters far more than age. Uh, and I don't mean arrogance, I don't mean Shadur Sanders. Yeah. I mean, I know what I am talking about. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and there's an authority that comes behind the voice with that. And you do that well when you know, uh, you second guess yourself too often, but you do your you do. It's true. But yeah,

Speaker 4:

you've gotta I'm humble. You've gifted. You're gifted. Yeah. Gifted is special. Stop. I like to say I'm the most humble person I've ever met.

Speaker 6:

Yeah. Right. Amazing. Just the best. The best. Amazing. The, the, the most humble. Oh my God. That was the humblest president. I hated of

Speaker 4:

my ears. Um, I'm finishing up my look over on Q2 and one of my favorites and Ava let me know if you agree, but, uh oh, what? Constantine Ger, the Russian economist dude, that the instructors Oh my, that's your, that was

Speaker:

your favorite episode.

Speaker 4:

One of my favorites from LA that quarter. Um, although like he can talk,

Speaker:

I couldn't give you a single point on what happened in that conversation, so outta my realm. But that was, I he talked more than you and there's little episodes where the guest talks more than you. Really?

Speaker 4:

Yeah.

Speaker:

I

Speaker 2:

feel like I

Speaker:

talk

Speaker 4:

like less usually though. I mean, it's pretty equal. I tell little stories and stuff, but Yeah, there he was like 80 20, but he, yeah, 90 10 maybe

Speaker:

he, Kurt got like 10 words in it and he'd be like, well, let's talk about this. And he'd go into it for so long and usually Kurt's pretty good at like interrupting and like, whether it's like positive or negative, but like I feel like you're good at like, kind of like getting in there and having your own point to like convers. Yeah. I was take a conversation but you couldn't like there was no his student, he knows what he's talking about.

Speaker 4:

His he does. And I learned he a so much from Yeah. He's a professor of economics and all these kind of student of Irish and Russian economy systems and all these things. And it was. You know, I wanted to talk about Russia, Ukraine. Yeah, of course. And different things like that. And it was, it was, for me, it was a fascinating conversation. Yeah.'cause he's come from such a different angle and knowledge base that I have. Yeah.

Speaker:

And it was so like unbiased and just like straight to the point. Yeah. And like, you couldn't like really argue with it.

Speaker 4:

Well, and one of the things he really said was, you know, organic concepts that are not necessarily like private equity funded and stuff, but that get enough traction to escape the region are like the biggest drivers of economic flourishing,

Speaker:

great memory I remember making.

Speaker 4:

And so, yeah, like, like Chiba Hut strikes me as, as one of those, or one that's coming right up here, um, of the Basta, uh, the founders of Telus Gear, which is, this is my favorite shirt now, A Telus shirt. Love, I like that shirt. But Joe built a, a vanilla extract, vertically integrated business that was amazing. And, and improved lives of hundreds of vanilla farmers in Madagascar and uh, really, you know, built kind of a dynasty. Yeah. That's crazy. And then turned that into, you know, turn the wealth he got from that into a social enterprise that they'll never make any money from. Yeah. Uh, but that creates amazing clothes and gives back to environmental causes. Mm-hmm. Sustain wonderful things. Yeah. So,

Speaker 6:

yeah. I hope that business keeps growing.

Speaker 4:

I hope so too. Yeah, it feels like it should. Yeah. And it's hard, you know, it's a tough industry to break into, you know, they got nothing like the scale of Patagonia, but their products are right on that level for me.

Speaker 5:

Yeah.

Speaker 4:

I get compliments every time I wear this shirt. Same like this in my bare sweater. Yep. Or the made two shirts. I get compliments on the, you're there on Bear. So to wrap up, oh. High craft builders. Yeah. Did you listen to my

Speaker 2:

High Craft builders? I did not listen to High Craft yet. You would like that one

Speaker 4:

because it kind of fits your notion of building things, right? Yeah. And stuff. Absolutely. Travis Luther was an intense one.

Speaker 5:

That was, that was intense.

Speaker 4:

He was a, I remember meeting Travis. Yeah. Yeah. He's a memorable guy. That's awesome. Oh, he said he was gonna have me on his podcast and he hasn't shout bitch. Shout out Travis. I guess I need to reach out to him. Write it down. Yeah. Oh, I should Sadie write this down and remind me

Speaker:

Sadie's like what,

Speaker 4:

who's Travis Luther?

Speaker:

Um, do you think High Craft Builders is hiring my friends at Interior Design? I'm just

Speaker 4:

maybe, um, the, they hire irregularly. You should listen to my first interview with Mandy Mullen because she worked for high craft builders and she credited them as being like. W like her local think tank in a way that like taught her so much, taught her so much about being a professional, being skilled and gifted. If you love like beautiful kitchens and mm-hmm. Living spaces and stuff, or, or pretend that you do, yeah. You'd probably have a better chance.

Speaker 5:

What do you think the difference

Speaker:

between Hutch, um, Hutch home and design versus high craft? Do you think high craft is more like architectural? Well, Hutch is more like interior design. I'm try to explain difference. I think that's a bit true.

Speaker 4:

Like that's part of high craft's value proposition is their kind of a design, right. Build in house for both the architectural. And hu

Speaker 6:

does design build as well? They do. They do, yep. And that's their core, their business.

Speaker 4:

But I, yes, but I would say that the interior design element at Allie brings and the thoughtfulness around what the architecture should be. Another layer is. But so yes, they do that. Um, and, and Hutch has been around for five years in high craft for 30 and so, and, but otherwise, you know, mostly you'll just pay 30% more for high craft, probably. Not to knock'em, but, but they're definitely the premium, right? Uh, that's kind of how they like cost per square foot

Speaker:

show themselves as like high craft. Yeah, they're very, yeah, we're the best.

Speaker 4:

Yeah. If you want your neighbors to be like, Ooh, they did a remodel with High Craft,

Speaker 6:

they did at my neighbor's house. If you

Speaker 4:

just want a really nice remodel at a fair price, then that might be

Speaker 6:

better. I don't know. Yeah. Shout it to Hut. No

Speaker 4:

Shade. Dwight, if you hear me. No. Shade. Shade. I love you too.

Speaker 6:

I consult with Hutch, love them. Partial to them. I love that. Devi partial to them and Dwight's not a member

Speaker 4:

and Noah is, so whatever, Dwight. If you want me to say nice, nicer things about you, then you better join Loco. Think. I

Speaker 6:

don't know Dwight, but Noah's probably better.

Speaker 4:

Just kidding. Um, oh, this was a fun one. Um, the Elders. Oh yeah. Elder Construction, elder other construction. I love them. The twin brothers, Chris and Patrick, and then their business partner Austin.

Speaker:

I just liked how they were like, we were all like, they all went to CSU together and had, and had stories from CSU and then like all came together and formed this like com. Like I thought it was great. That's awesome. I loved it.

Speaker 4:

You know, I, I'm just gonna make a quick observation, Ava, in that, oh God. Some of the most wonderful and inspiring, uh, podcast guests that you've like expressed about a high percentage of them are like Christians. And I know that you weren't really raised in the church or anything, but I see a, I see a Christian future for you because you have been kind of. Drawn to, you've been drawn toward some of the kind of stronger Christian personalities. I'm, I'm a Christian too, but like those guys live a little better than I do in some ways. And, and, uh, example it and like, I forget his name now, but the big NBA guy that prayed for both of us after the podcast. The Of the Nuggets. Yeah. Charles Speller Speller. Yes. Memory.

Speaker 5:

I should be the one my

Speaker 4:

great. Yeah. And, and like I just, I just, I see it in you that you're just drawn to that a little bit. So don't, don't deny it because it's not popular, I guess is all I would say. I thought

Speaker 6:

you were gonna say bald men.

Speaker:

I thought he was gonna say something about men and I was like,

Speaker 4:

no. Well, not drawn to faith. Yeah. But Jesus, you, you should get to know him a little bit, see if you like him. That's my encouragement, because I'm not gonna have the influence on you going forward as I have had the last 18 months or whatever. So.

Speaker 3:

Oh,

Speaker 6:

and there are so many bad Christians right now too. There are. And so, so glad that you guys have found good ones. Yeah. Well they're not really

Speaker 4:

Christians. They're people, they're bad people that try to cover it over Yes and amen and make excuses. Uh, but they're not real Christians. So take that outta your, we could mind a little bit too, we

Speaker 6:

could talk about that for Oh, for sure. Seems

Speaker 4:

inflammatory. I avoid inflammatory topics on here. Okay. Let's go ahead and take a break.

Speaker 5:

Okay.

Speaker 6:

Oh yeah. Bourbon break.

Speaker 4:

Bourbon break. Uh, so Ben, when we departed for our break, we were about ready to jump in the time machine.

Speaker 3:

Ooh.

Speaker 4:

You know the sound pretty good. Ava, uh, was that a familiar sound in your. Uh, young years. That sound of uh, no, no, no, no. Okay. I thought maybe it was, that was like impulsive. Where, where were you? What was when you were just like, grew up, born north?

Speaker 6:

Yeah. I grew up north of Dallas. North of Dallas. And my folks are still there. Shout out to Scott and Ellen. Great parents. It's up Scott and he, they're together with each other too. Yeah. Yeah. How many years? Married now? 30 years. Wow. No, sorry. 35 over the summer. I was gonna say, aren't you like 35? Uh, no, I, I am 35. Wait, no, they're

Speaker 8:

old. I was

Speaker 6:

gonna say, it's gonna be longer than

Speaker 8:

that. Waitering. How long have they

Speaker 4:

been married? When they had you, like, you can, you can do this.

Speaker 6:

They didn't do 40, did they? They just did a big one. It might have been, it must have been 40 because it might have been, was 35, I think, right? Or three, four. Yeah. I'm 34. Um, oh,

Speaker 4:

well, so, so

Speaker 2:

you're

Speaker 6:

young and Wow.

Speaker 4:

So I was, cons. I was only gestational for about seven months. Uh,'cause my parents were married like. Yeah, seven months before I was born. Um, so you could have been really a fast one like me. I thought you

Speaker 6:

were saying you were very preemie. No,

Speaker 4:

no, I was full term. Oh, okay. I just had a seven month option. Oh, you're just huge. Yeah, I was like, that

Speaker 6:

would explain.

Speaker 2:

Uh,

Speaker 4:

obviously my parents didn't do anything funny before they were married,

Speaker 6:

God forbid. Right. So, yeah. Yeah. North of Dallas. Great. Uh, uh, you know, suburban upbringing. Okay. It was small town when I was little. It is now full on suburbs. So

Speaker 4:

like really north of Dallas, like far enough away to be its own town at the time. Oh yeah.

Speaker 6:

Oh yeah. Uh, now it all bleeds together if you've been through the Dallas suburbs. It's, what was the town name? Uh, Allen is the name of town, Allen, Texas. Oh yeah, I've heard of that actually. Yeah. Yeah. I just, there's like big

Speaker 4:

companies up there and stuff. Even

Speaker 6:

hate visiting. Why have you? I mean, if you've been I've to Dallas in May and it

Speaker 4:

was so freaking hot and humid that I was like, it's, what the hell is it like in June? And July's so much that

Speaker 6:

for sure. But it's, it's more I knew as early as middle school I wanted move to Colorado. Okay. Like I was, I wanted mountains. Yeah. I wanted different, you know, just, it's kind of like sterling or

Speaker 4:

something, except there's a shitload of oil in the ground. So the economy goes boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

Speaker 6:

And, uh, well, and the county that I grew up in, uh, uh, it has the number one collective debt in the country. Oh. Why? Um, it is. I don't, and I say this with all love to my parents. I don't think they participated in this kind of culture. Um, and I was very grateful for that. But I will say, like our neighbors, my friends, their parents, it was the land of the$50,000 year. Oh, everybody. Everybody's in debt up to their eyeballs kind of thing. Absolutely.

Speaker 4:

Interesting.

Speaker 6:

Every keeping up with the Joneses was every Chad, Brad and Ken drove a Mercedes and could not afford it. Um, interesting. And that is absolutely true to this day. I call Dallas the land of fake stuff. Oh, interesting. Um, fake grass, fake hair, fake tits, fake wealthy people.

Speaker 4:

Yeah. Fake mansions.

Speaker 6:

Yeah. All of that.

Speaker 4:

Interesting. Oh, gross.

Speaker 6:

It's, it's just not, it's not my fave. Yeah. But my folks are there and so I happily go see them. Do you, do you think you'll

Speaker 4:

get'em up here to Colorado at some, some point or something? Love that. We'd love to debate them with some, do you have siblings

Speaker 6:

or anything? I've got a sister. She's, uh, getting her master. She went back to school. Okay. She's in Indiana down there. Oh, in India. She's in Indiana. Okay.

Speaker 4:

So she's already open to the idea of going somewhere. Yeah.

Speaker 6:

Yeah. Um, we would love for them to come out here if they would. And, and what would, what do you think their anchor is now? Just family was it for a long time? Yeah. Um, uh, my, my dad's siblings, um, were down there. Sure. Yeah. Uh, his parents were down there and then, you know, being in a place for 35 years, you get community. Yeah. They met and lived in Austin for a long time. Your best thing is

Speaker 4:

if you can make some babies that will be the best at attractant to them. Yeah. And do it before your sister does. Otherwise they might move to Indiana or some bullshit. Yeah, no, I've already told

Speaker 6:

her if, if it happens, I'm gonna be mad at her.

Speaker 4:

Right.

Speaker 6:

Love

Speaker 4:

some. I don't, it seems like it would be wrong to, yeah. Like put your sister on birth control, like without her knowing it or something like that, so that you can have the first baby. It would, it would be, yeah. I've studied ethics a fair bit in college and since then and stuff and just,

Speaker 6:

yeah, it would be. Um, but no, uh, yeah, all shade to Texas, but all love to my fam. Um, happy to be out. Uh, and

Speaker 4:

so middle school, you started dreaming about leaving and then when did Yeah. You. Leave.

Speaker 6:

Uh, I went to Chicago for, uh, college. Okay. Uh, I played soccer, uh, and got out of there. Oh, you

Speaker 4:

were like a good soccer player?

Speaker 6:

Um, I was a collegiate athlete, we'll call it that. Oh, nice. I don't know about got a scholarship. Yeah. I mean, all of that stuff. I did all the things. Um, you went to soccer schools, did the soccer school expensive soccer coaches and stuff all.

Speaker 4:

What, what was your, what were your parents doing? Had, were in the oil industry stuff or what was the, um, were they blue collar, white collar, orange color?

Speaker 6:

No, my dad's been, my dad's been in the mortgage industry for a long time. Okay. Um, and, uh, so

Speaker 4:

selling big mortgages to people that really couldn't afford it, but yeah,

Speaker 6:

whatever. Yeah. I think he actually, uh, he's, he's been on the corporate side for a long time. Okay. Um, buying and selling loans among, and still does that, uh, and works for a company that now, uh, built their own algo. So he is a fake money trader instead of a fake money distributor. You know, I'll let him say that. Uh, but, uh, he's been in sales and account management for that kind of thing for a long time. My mom was an educator. She was an English teacher. Yeah. An elementary school teacher. And, um, I got a lot of that affinity from her. So

Speaker 4:

I, uh, and this is a little bit of a sidebar, but the, you know, the a CA tax credits thing is a really big deal right now. Mm-hmm. And I'm sensitive to the notion that there's a lot of families in a tricky spot with it and stuff. And like, basically every dollar we spend on that program is we're borrowing it, creating more national debt and forcing mostly a lot of'em are young people that are healthy. To buy a product from insurance companies that are wealthy to not be penalized by our tax system for not having insurance. I mean, if it, it's, it's legit true. Like I'm just saying, we're, we're borrowing money to buy insurance for people that are, and, and a lot of people aren't healthy and a lot of people are, you know, not at all, uh, wealthy and not headed toward that or whatever. Sure. But, but a big portion, probably 70% of the spending is to subsidize premiums for people that are young and super healthy and will be for 10 years.

Speaker 6:

Well, and there's fear of catastrophe. Right. Always. I would say that as myself. And so a big catastrophic person,

Speaker 4:

a big catastrophic policy would really be better than something that covers every doctor's visit, every co-pays and all the, and all the administrative that's Yeah. Associated with it. Anyway, I'm just Yeah. Idea.'cause I don't like the fact that we're stuck on this bullshit spot in our government. Right. Now's uh,

Speaker 6:

I think you and I share, you and I agree and disagree on a lot of different stuff. Totally. Uh, I think we share, uh, a cobel belief that things could be run better. We at the very least will always agree it could be better than it is. This can't be

Speaker 4:

it. Sure. Um, and, and that it will never be utopia. Totally. I think we can also agree. Sure. But you had like a medical. Thing, like knock you outta soccer and into marketing. I did little bit and stuff. Are you comfortable talking about that on this forum?

Speaker 6:

Um, I was, uh, headed into my, what, sophomore year of college, and, um, I was way, I was doped up on antihistamines. I was really, I was living in a dorm that had mold, like snorting the, um, well, yeah. Snorting'cause of the flow. Nail sprays, right. Just shooting up flow. Now I isn't that way. You shooting up Allegra? Uh, and Claritin D uh, yeah. No, I was, uh, I was in a building that had mold and I was having constant, um, allergy issues and then overmedicating and that led to high blood pressure. Oh, wow. Um, which led to panic. Uh, I was having in the middle of the night for months on end. Wow. I would have dreams that I was drowning or in a burning building or something where I could not breathe.

Speaker 4:

Wow. I did not know this. And, and I hope, yeah,

Speaker 6:

yeah. No, and, and all that to say. Then I had, uh, some something akin to a, a stroke or episode where I, you know, lost blood flow and lost a lot of feeling. Um, and they called it, uh, I had a doctor call it like portions of your body or, yeah. It felt like it was facing kind of a side of my body. Wow. Um, I had a good doctor called it a minor stroke. I had a doctor called it exertional syne, which basically means passing out from working out, which felt like

Speaker 8:

that doesn't feel complete to what I

Speaker 6:

experienced. Yeah. Uh, but the, the end of it was. We explored and went, oh wait, you're on how much a allergy medication. Oh. And, and it was basically salt. So you

Speaker 4:

literal at poisoning yourself. It was salt. Um, but to avoid the symptoms from the mold.

Speaker 6:

Totally, yes. Fascinating. And, uh, it was it black mold it, I, I guess, yeah. Um, they did do some remediation on the building, so worried about that. Regardless, like crazy. I, I was done, I was done playing soccer. It was kind of, it felt like a season change for me more than anything. I probably, I could have gone back. Yeah. Um, but it was more like, you know, guys, this was weird and I passed out on the track, you know, in spring training. Wow. Um, and couldn't, I couldn't speak Right. For days. Oh, oh damn. Um, and so, uh, made the decision to stop, but I took a job and then I worked two or three jobs the rest of college and Oh, right.'cause you didn't have a scholarship anymore. Um, it was awesome. It was not awesome. It was brutal. I'm sure I did. But at least you were healthier. I did the opening shift at Starbucks for many years. Okay. And then went to class, and then I went and took whatever job I could in the afternoon and then I bartended at night.

Speaker 4:

Wow. Um, got home at two o'clock in the morning or something, and then

Speaker 6:

turned around and did the Starbucks morning shift again. Damn, dude. Um, that was Starbucks

Speaker 5:

morning shift opens at like 4:00 AM too. Oh, it was

Speaker 6:

wild. Yeah. Uh, but then also, uh, I was, what, 18? No, not 18, I would've been 20. Uh, and took my first, uh, copywriting client. I was an English major. Okay. And, uh, I got a job. Writing copy for websites. And so I did that and then it was, Hey, you're pretty good at this. Do you wanna write some copy for our ads? Yeah. Uh, and this was early in the days of, uh, when they still call it Google AdWords, right? Google ad words. Yeah. Very sexy. And uh, uh, I then learned Google ad analytics and then I learned conversion rate optimization, and then I learned Facebook ads. Now Med ads. Yeah. And then all of a sudden I was running effectively a marketing agency for a couple of brands. Wow. Um, and so the rest of my way through college, I was basically a marketing consultant. Um, and didn't know what that would, would or could look like, but it led me into a career in marketing. And I always thought I was gonna live in the woods and write books and be an English major and interesting. Curl my beard and whatever else I was going to. You could still do that. Uh, I I could still do that. Uh, but this was, uh, a and still do

Speaker 4:

marketing consulting while you're there in the woods these days. It's true. Which is nice. It's true. It's a starlink for 50 bucks a month. A starlink. Yeah. You get a lot done. Um, yeah. So let me ask you, because I do this kind of thing, but like, did you have aspirations? Was, was soccer expected for you to. Pay for your college. And that was about all the expectations you had of it? No, I wanted to go pro.

Speaker 6:

You did? Um, I was, I played goalkeeper. I was always small for a goalkeeper. I'm just a hair over six foot. Yeah. Um, but uh, I'm spraying, I'm fast and yeah, I've got a few screws loose, um, as most everyone will tell me. Uh, and that's kinda what's needed. Um, so I was, I was playing at a high level. I wanted to do that. Yeah. Um, but it didn't work out. You fated

Speaker 4:

yourself among them. Yeah, I did. So that was a big humbling for you, right? It was like one of your first big tastes of humble pie, I suppose.

Speaker 6:

Humble pie. Humble pie, big time, humble pie. It's turning point in

Speaker 4:

so many people's lives, you know? And

Speaker 6:

you know, it was, it was that never taste good, but Oh, it was awful. Fuck as

Speaker 4:

it nutritious

Speaker 6:

man. And, and you know, when it rains it pours. It is real. Um, and so it was, it was that my high school girlfriend and I had gone long distance and we just broke up. Um, and brutal. And my grandma died and, you know, all this happened in like this span of a couple weeks. Yeah. And I was like, rock your

Speaker 4:

world, blank canvas about what's ahead as, as

Speaker 6:

an 18-year-old kid, you go, oh, I had my identity wrapped up in the things that I was doing. Not the person I was, um, or not the person that I am poetic. And, um, you know, looking back on it all feels silly, but at the time it's huge. It's incredibly formative to go through something hard. And so, um,

Speaker 4:

yeah. Well, and for Ava. You know, she was wrapped up in dance in the same way. You know, she was a, an incredible young dancer and still are. Uh, I'm sure she shakes a leg when she gets the right amount of caveman. Jack Margarita in her. But we'll shake a

Speaker 6:

leg, we'll do post podcast dance.

Speaker 4:

But, um, but it is, it's earth shattering. I've never Yeah. Kind of. Well, I, I mean, I broke my leg a week before I graduated high school. I guess that, well, I got a DUI the week before, the night before I got my first job offer Sure. For my first big boy job. And that's

Speaker:

gonna feel like earth shattering in the moment. Oh

Speaker 4:

yeah. I mean, I was, I I was like, they're probably not gonna hire me now. Um, did they? They did. Okay. Yeah.'cause

Speaker 5:

he was honest.

Speaker 4:

I mean, it contributed. Yeah. Great. But then I had to move to Worthington, Minnesota with no car and no driver's license. My parents are dropping me off down there, like, here you go. Brutal. Yeah. I'll see you in a year, bitch. Oh yeah. That's awesome. Uh, no, I actually got my driver's license back like a few months, like two months, three months maybe before I moved to Fort Collins. Yeah.'cause I had one year basically in Worthington and then came out here and started Fresh Roots. Yeah. So anyway, um, I wanted to jump back into the podcast, uh, season. We'll come back to you do it. Um, but one of the first in July was Julian Farr,

Speaker 3:

far

Speaker 4:

our French immigrant, uh, business entrepreneur who has momentum counseling, consulting and consulting. Consulting. And, uh. We did the math during this interview and he, uh, he, you know, started his own practice, got full, hired somebody, started a company so he could hire somebody instead of just him. Hired somebody again, hired somebody again. And at, and four years in, he was at a hundred members or a hundred employees. So he hired two people every month on the average for four years.

Speaker 5:

You said there was a better chance of you getting into Stanford than you,

Speaker:

like what? Becoming an employee.

Speaker 4:

Yeah. I mean, it's just hard to get into. Well, they're starving for employees in the counseling world because

Speaker 5:

everybody wants to be, everybody's crazy.

Speaker 4:

Well, and

Speaker 6:

well, there's a mental health crisis growing. There

Speaker 4:

is, and I think What percentage of mental health therapists currently do you think have a mental health problem? Like legitimately asking that question.'cause I think it's 40% based on anecdotal. It depends. And my own interactions. Depends

Speaker:

what, like if they're millennials or like, like I feel like if millennials definitely have a higher chance of having Right. My

Speaker 6:

telephone. So like new counselor coming in right now. Yeah. Well, my ex spouse, uh, was an LCSW, uh, mental healthcare worker. Jill, is that too? Um, and, um,

Speaker 4:

well she's not a licensed, but she's a MSW.

Speaker 6:

Yeah. Mm-hmm. Um, and uh, basically spoke of it like. Most people get into this because they need the help or they're very close with someone who needs help. Yeah. And um, which also sometimes requires help. And at the very least, yeah, it's traumatic to be that close to somebody that's having a crisis. And so it's gotta be hard.

Speaker 4:

July was solid, not to deviate away. Keep going. Uh, but Bob Houston, the founder of Colorado Youth Outdoors, uh, Bob, another strong Christian personality, uh, but left his corporate Hawk thing to have found this janky nonprofit traveling show.

Speaker 6:

Is Youth Outdoors officially a Christian organization or not? Not officially. Okay. No. Um, but Bob, but Bob, his purpose is I see. Yep. And he fairly

Speaker 4:

public about his perspective on it or whatever. Sure. Um, and like he's a man that had a vision, wanted to make families and relationships stronger. And gosh, he's a neat guy. I recommend that highly, uh, episode 2 29, uh, for anybody that is interested in a strong relationship with their kids or elsewise. Um, Moses Horner, the next episode, which Bob gave Moses a shout out during his episode, I guess the Horners have been supporters of Colorado Youth Outdoors. Oh, cool. And we held our, our fall event, the Aim to Thrive event at the CYO facility, which is right now has the Christmas lights like crazy going on. Do you know this?

Speaker 5:

Oh, I haven't seen that. Drive through. Oh

Speaker 4:

dude. It's a drive through and they have the whole place lit up and it's amazing out there. Yeah. Yeah. So if you're looking for a cheap, cheap date night for your, you and your sweetie, you get some hot cocos and go drive through there. Something like that.

Speaker 5:

Oh, how, oh my gosh, that's amazing. Yeah,

Speaker 4:

it's beautiful. I was gonna That's

Speaker 5:

crazy. It's like in another world all over the whole property. Oh yeah. What?

Speaker 6:

Yeah, it's like another world. It's like a winter, winter night. Do you remember how many acres that property is? It was in the triple digits. Oh

Speaker 4:

yeah. Maybe like pretty close to a quarter, like 140 acres or something. Something like that. And most of it's can't be developed, but the, the headquarters can. Yeah. It's really pretty. So

Speaker 5:

why can't it be developed?

Speaker 4:

Zoning? There was like a conservation easement as well as like the flood. Flood plain. Yeah, because they got all these lakes, they got all these gravel lakes and so you can't build there. But, but the part they had to raise money for and acquire is where the headquarters headquarters, because that's like the high ground. That was where they gonna put like, it should have been like 14 estate lots instead for fancy people's houses surrounded by lakes. But instead it's a youth facility, which is so much better. So much better. I was gonna say rather that than a bunch of apartments, the female wealthy people can find their other place. Yeah. Yeah. So, so anyway, Moses Horner top, uh, topnotch company thanks to in town. Maximizer, local facilitator, local facilitator friend, longtime member friend, great member of the community. He really is.

Speaker 6:

Guy Moses is awesome.

Speaker 4:

And, and Sarah's, uh, out there being one of the highest performing group real estate agents. Yeah. As well. That's part of, I like to share that story occasionally, like. She was kind of the bookkeeping slave to, to Horner painting when, when Moses I and admittedly so kind of like, and then he got really good at finances and managing and overseeing and building controls partly through his local membership. And that allowed her to get out the basement and be in the bookkeeper and go be a real estate agent instead. Yeah. And so now he can hire a bookkeeper for X and she can make five XA real estate agent. They're crushing. Yes. Well he does owe it all low code. He should probably cut my rent. Uh, but anyway, hope you don't listen to this. Moses. Love you. Do you remember that one? Uh, probably You do remember this next one with Brian and, um, Mary McKnight?

Speaker 6:

Yeah.

Speaker 4:

The, uh, turf. Turf Tamers. Chilean. Patagonia.

Speaker 5:

Oh yeah.

Speaker 4:

The owners of Turf Tamers. But we spent like the first 40 minutes talking about their property in Chile, which was part of their love story. Leave that. They're there

Speaker 6:

now.

Speaker 4:

They are in Chile right now. Yeah. Brian's on leave of absence so that he can go be in Chile for two. And he did not

Speaker 6:

invite me to come fish without he actually Brutal. But I expect that next time.

Speaker 4:

He's told me that if, when Jill and I go down to,'cause we wanna go to Brazil, but I figure if I'm gonna Brazil, I might as well like take a road trip to California. Yeah. Oh sure. It's just around the corner, 2300 miles away. It's like taking a quick drive to Michigan from here. Yeah.

Speaker 6:

More like. But No, that is, that's really lovely. Yeah. It's gonna be awesome.

Speaker 4:

But I do, I do expect, definitely before I die, I hope to be at their property in Patagonia at least twice like I wanna go.

Speaker:

That would be something else. And then

Speaker 4:

I want to go back.

Speaker 6:

Corporate retreat.

Speaker 4:

Yeah. Paid like, not a memory retreat. You can just come. We're like every have to, but yeah. That well paid for staff perhaps. But that's, that's all I meant. But if we could have our members come down there for a retreat Oh, and they all get to write it off like that seems like it would be I'm into it. Sellable. I'm into it. So, um, while we're back here in Chicago, there's a particular UR Yes. That you've been, it's time like talking about getting into the podcast.

Speaker 6:

Yes.

Speaker 5:

What is it? The real

Speaker 6:

ones know. Mallor, the ones know is what

Speaker 5:

you were talking about. That's like disgusting.

Speaker 6:

No, it's amazing. Jepson's my Lord. And I saved the dregs of my last bottle for you, for you guys. This is the very last Hey,

Speaker:

is you're talking about during, during, um, tour of Fat?

Speaker 4:

No. No, not at all. No, this is, this is a classic LA liquid. Whoa.

Speaker 5:

What is it? We're

Speaker 4:

just gonna do Little sip. There's not even like a third of a shot of each of these in there, so don't be scared. David. You're you're right. It's gonna be fine. I'm scared. Um, but yeah, I'm imagining it kind of like, so

Speaker 6:

Mylo was, is. I'm just famous across Chicago. There's, there's

Speaker 4:

enough. There's more in there than I thought.

Speaker 6:

Um, yeah, no, we're, uh, I'm gonna be nice to, with my poor, um Oh good. You know, I'll, I'll just read you the bottle because there, it, it, it speaks for itself. Mallor fragment, I

Speaker:

got full body Chills, has, has the

Speaker 6:

aroma of a full-bodied flavor of an unusual botanical. Its bitter tastes is savored by two fisted drinkers. Oh gosh. Um, and is a staple of Chicago, Chicago flag. Uh, and, uh, usually how much type of liquor is it? Uh, it's made of, uh, wormwood and other weird roots and things that you would not normally make into liquor. Not shouldn't distill this. Um, but I, I will say the tradition is okay, you take a shot of my Lord, and then you have to say, I'll have another.

Speaker 3:

I'm not, it's not gonna go because you'll

Speaker 6:

want to. Um, but that's how it goes. Cheers. Okay.

Speaker 4:

I'll have another, I'll have another, I'll have another.

Speaker 6:

Will you?

Speaker 4:

I could.

Speaker 6:

Oh God. It stays with you though. Oh God. And honestly, this is probably my 50th. It doesn't, doesn't go

Speaker 7:

away.

Speaker 6:

And the more that you have it, yeah, the more pleasant I kind of, it is. So there was a season in my life I this time feel this tastes like bourbon to me.

Speaker 4:

Suddenly it does not, it, it tastes like cough syrup, but wor so much worse. This might

Speaker 6:

be the key to my handling of spice

Speaker 4:

maybe,

Speaker 6:

is that I've just burnt my taste buds off.

Speaker 4:

Oh, maybe.

Speaker 6:

Um, but yeah, that'll put hair on your chest for sure. It reminds

Speaker 4:

me of, and it's not nearly as bad, but Jagermeister

Speaker 7:

Yeah, it's, that's what I, that that was the first thing I got from, it's got some of

Speaker 4:

that kind of, uh, what, what's the cough drop? The re ricola. Yeah. That's a rele of tone's going on in there. Yeah. And

Speaker 6:

it just stays with you. It does not go away long time. It will not really like bad

Speaker 4:

medicine like Bon Jovi bad medicine. Like it doesn't hang with you

Speaker:

bad.

Speaker 4:

Yeah. That's what it tastes like to me is really it. Stick going

Speaker:

the back your tongue,

Speaker 4:

like what was bad medicine and then sat in a drawer for 10 years.

Speaker:

I really, my entire like actually like makes like chest tell you is this like absent or something weird? Freak her out.

Speaker 8:

Not at all. Start crappy flop. I felt this exact way, like the first several times that I had, and I gotta tell you guys, I, this was, this time was delicious.

Speaker 4:

I'm actually intrigued because of my, that's so weird. And not an like, so the restaurant I first worked at when I, so when I got a DUI, here you go at college, my dad was like, well you're gonna have to start paying your own insurance now. And so I had to get a job and so I worked at the Grainery restaurant. Like around grownup kids ish for the first time in my life. Sure. And they all had a, a taste for Jagermeister. Yeah.

Speaker 5:

Yuck.

Speaker 4:

And after like two years of working there, it kind of got to the point where if somebody would say Jagermeister, I would start salivating kind of.

Speaker 6:

Oh, like Pavlov?

Speaker 4:

Yes. Interesting. And like, I've pushed back against that and my wife hates Jagermeister. But even still today, like there's small, how do you hate a small instinct to like salivate? When I hear the word Jagermeister, everybody

Speaker 6:

has the liquor. Well, not everybody, A lot of people have the liquor that will make them sick.

Speaker 4:

Yeah.

Speaker 6:

Right. Uh, I had that bad experience with lot people stick I table at Pizza Hut

Speaker 4:

with, with vodka. Uh, you did? Oh, oh yeah. Like 17 with a half a bottle of vodka in my belly, you know? Yeah. Oh

Speaker 5:

wait, yeah. Top that. It wasn't good. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 4:

So, but, so I don't really prefer vodka. Sure. Like, I know it's a beautiful empty spirit that you can just add to other flavors, but like, it's just too deceptive for me. It's a, it's a sneaky, it's like a spot. It's so sneaky. Yeah.

Speaker:

Tequila's not sneaky at all. You taste it in everything. Yeah.

Speaker 4:

And so you can't sneak a bunch of tequila past your taste buds. They're like. Stop this. Definitely. Beloit has that going for it. It's weird. Like you won't accidentally get drunk on Beloit. How strong is that? Shit, it's 35. It's 35.

Speaker 5:

Which, which is not it's

Speaker 4:

percent or proof.

Speaker:

30% percent. Okay. 70 proof. So it's still

Speaker 4:

pretty strong.

Speaker:

Yeah. But there's nothing on this bottle that says what it is besides the flavor of they don't know Unusual botanical.

Speaker 6:

Yeah. No. And it is unusual.

Speaker:

But what is it? Like what?

Speaker 6:

It's mallor. Don't worry

Speaker 2:

about

Speaker 6:

it.

Speaker:

I hate it. I never wanna, don't worry

Speaker 4:

about it.

Speaker 6:

Uh, they have the best social media marketing of any company if you wanna learn. So social media marketing, Lord, go to the mallor social media. I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go. Because they just lean into the fact that

Speaker:

nobody likes

Speaker 6:

it. Nobody likes it. Yeah. That's smart. But people keep buying it. Oh, I've got a Malor Christmas tree ornament. Uh, the mal ornament, um, was the gift set last year. You, they came with the bottle. Um,

Speaker 5:

you were talking about this with Tour de Fat.'cause you said that you had a bottle of it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. That, that's the leftover

Speaker 6:

from two to Fat. I put that in the bottle cage of my bike, biked around for two to fat and just handed it to strangers.

Speaker:

Yeah.'cause I remember you saying that. And my

Speaker 6:

favorite was, there was a shirtless gentleman that said. Is that my Lord. I

Speaker 3:

said, and he said, I need some.

Speaker 6:

He said, you son of a bitch, gimme that. No ways are you giving that. And then he took some and then he went, I hate you. And then he said, thank you. And gave it back to that's it. Yeah. You know, he got, that's a whole culture is itself. He understood the sentiment. They've started a movement, spirit of the spirit. That's, you

Speaker 4:

know, ultimately the long term goal of the local think tank. I'll have another and the local experience and, and you know, we want have a movement here. Please

Speaker 6:

sir. May I have

Speaker 4:

another, the September 6th episode. Ooh. With Roxy Tines. Roxanne. I love Roxy. Isn't she amazing? Roxanne and another spirit led lady. Just saying, I think everybody comes on the podcast

Speaker:

is a Christian.

Speaker 4:

No, not even half. I feel like

Speaker:

I'd say

Speaker 4:

not even half. Totally. Half. We'll tally it up. We'll tally half. It's a hundred

Speaker:

percent half. Way more than half. We'll tally it up in the half. We'll D it's way more than half. We're

Speaker 4:

gonna have to ask a bunch of'em.'cause I haven't half I think about this. Asked a lot of'em.

Speaker 6:

And then Kurt will decide who the real ones are and who the fuck.

Speaker 4:

Totally. I love that game. Suck. It's a such a fun game. I, we'll walk through it and then Kyle speller. Kyle Speller. But I do want to, you know, everybody should listen to 2 36 Roxy Tins. She is an amazing gal. She started the Safe Families for Children. Yeah. Chapter here locally and gosh, just like, worked an extra whole job for years Yeah. To get her thing launched with, you know, in a, in a. Basically a child or a, a social work job. Yeah. As her main job. So she already like it's one thing to work two jobs.

Speaker:

Yeah. But

Speaker 4:

when you've got some extra of those is social work. Right. And just, I dunno, she's a boss lady. She's a joy. It's hard. Kyle Speller also in September. And then, oh wait. One more worth mentioning Clint Jesperson.'cause I just talked to him today. Clint,

Speaker:

shout out Thrivent.

Speaker 4:

Shout out to Thrivent. Our sponsor, well not Thrivent. Insert a break here. Purpose Driven wealth. Purpose wealth C and uh, an

Speaker 6:

awesome actual Christian.

Speaker 4:

Yes. He is an'cause you know that he's

Speaker:

also

Speaker 4:

but crazily, so he was telling me that was funny. A couple things. Um, and I can talk about what I want to, but he didn't put a bunch of our stuff out from that conversation on his social medias like he planned to and stuff.'cause they were like, Hey, you know, we don't want you to release this on your social media channels. Yeah. Because you talked about investment stuff. And he is like, no, I didn't tell me what I did. And they're like, Hey, okay. You're right. It wasn't that, but it was, uh, something else, whatever. And then, um, oh,'cause he talked about like TA having taken mushrooms and ke Yeah. And stuff and uh, kind of a counseling fashion and kind of a reset thing.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 4:

And he is like, but that doesn't, I, I followed all your rules on this and whatever. And then, hey, we didn't like what Kurt said about this other one thing. And Clint was like.

Speaker 2:

Fuck off.

Speaker 4:

Like you can't What? Control Kurt's. What? What did you say? I don't know what I said. Even like, it doesn't really matter. Use your

Speaker 5:

imagination. It

Speaker 4:

does. I mean, but, but they were like, well, you have to censor Kurt now. And so anyway, he re-upped for sponsorship all next year and he's like in an existential crisis with Thrivent, which was the Lutheran kind of membership, brotherhood, financial services organization for years. Oh, I didn't know that. Really? But now they're Lutheran in his perception, they're like kind of taken over by a bunch of left wing non-Christians as their god for leadership team.

Speaker 3:

Hmm.

Speaker 4:

Yeah. Well, I mean, frankly for, for a organization that is founded on Christian principles, for them to be taken over by non-Christian left wingers is kind of weird. Like it's, or at the

Speaker 6:

very least if that's not where he's feeling

Speaker 4:

Right. And so he is figuring it out. Figuring if he's gonna be long term. Okay. Sorry. With him and stuff. Interesting. It's pretty wild. It's very interesting. Yeah. And not just Billy's beans, but whatever thriving if you're listening to this kind of fuck off and fly. Right.'cause he's a legit fly, right. Honest guy that will talk and also believes like me, that free speech is one of the most important. That's why it's the First amendment. Bitches.

Speaker 6:

Like also just a proper light in the community kind of. Yeah. Super good steward. Good guy of people's money. Yep.

Speaker 4:

Yeah. Oh, super. He's super talented at everything Financial. Go Clint. So anyway, there's Clint. So not to spill his beans on live. Shut up Clint. But I think it's actually the right thing. And then bonus episode number one. With Shirley Peele. Oh yeah. Shirley

Speaker 2:

Shirley.

Speaker 4:

Uh, candidate for Fort Collins Mayor. Collaboration with Old Town Spice Shop and

Speaker 5:

Matador

Speaker 4:

Matador Mexican Grill. And I just, uh, proposed, um,

Speaker 5:

yes, a

Speaker 4:

new flavor for our hot sauce.'cause we've had the smoking margarita. Yeah. Hot sauce for, for quite some time. How, when

Speaker 5:

did you come out with that?

Speaker 4:

Probably three seasons ago. Two, two and a half seasons ago with, uh, Zoe's kitchen. Great. It's good, but it isn't crazy. I want Ola. It's not a crazy experience. Ola. I want to be official local. What we're gonna do. You don't want that. Come on. It's gotta be reasonable, but it has to be crazy. So what we're gonna do, I'm both, so we're gonna do something that's, it's gonna be, uh, carrot, ginger, garlic, habanero. Okay. The, the carrot

Speaker:

is for the color.

Speaker 4:

For the color. The carrot's Mostly for the sweet ginger and the color. Okay. You won't taste carrots. You want me like, no. Did eat anyway.

Speaker 5:

Didn't think carrot would bring a sweet aspect though.

Speaker 4:

Oh yeah. Carrots are very sweet. Yeah. For a vegetable,

Speaker 6:

especially when pickled. Yeah.

Speaker 4:

Yep. And so, Ooh, we could, well we don't wanna pickle'em first. It'll cost more so carrot, ginger, garlic, and habanero. And then, um, some extra kick from some dragons breath and or ghost pepper, depending on how the taste is. Maybe both. Oh yeah. So it's gonna be a hot, bright orange thing. And loco. And the, the flavor. This time, instead of smoking margarita is. Crazy Ginger.

Speaker 6:

Crazy Ginger.

Speaker:

Well then you gotta change the label.

Speaker 4:

Well, we will.

Speaker:

Can't be blue.

Speaker 4:

Yeah. And I'm gonna talk Old Town Spice Shop in the carrier on their website and in their store. And, uh,

Speaker 6:

we take your picture, you dye your hair red, blow it up. Make that the lo logo on the label.

Speaker 4:

I could just wear like, what's that dude with the giant ginger hair? The old comedian from I have a ginger wig. Oh. Or Dynamite. Napoleon Dynamite Guy or something like that. Oh. Thought you could say like

Speaker 6:

Bati or

Speaker 4:

I don't know, somebody, but I could just wear like a crazy ginger wig and it could be me. That'd be fine.

Speaker 5:

I think should, I think we should like change,

Speaker 4:

but yeah, we'll get a new label and

Speaker 5:

put like fire hair on him. Sweet.

Speaker 4:

Yeah. Something. So anyway, that's my, that's my new brand. I love Sauce as a gift and tomato hair. I don't wanna make any money. Like, I don't wanna pay sales taxes ever. And so I'm gonna let Old Town Spice Shep sell it. Right. Or we'll give it to as a gift to our members or podcast guests. But it's, look, look for Crazy Ginger coming soon.

Speaker 6:

What if, if you made a deal with Old Town Spice Shop, shout out Old Town Spice Shop.

Speaker 5:

Shout out

Speaker 6:

where a proceed of every sale went to realities.

Speaker 4:

Mm

Speaker 5:

mm I

Speaker 4:

love those kind of branded deals. That was what Marshall Spring talked about actually. It was some of those kind of things. And so did Seed and Spirit. Oh, and I've got a verbal, I've got a verbal approval from Seed and Spirit Distillery, uh, Joel and Jess, uh, from a month ago or so. Six weeks ago. Yeah. Yeah. A couple weeks ago. Um, to be the official spirit sponsor. That's awesome. For the local experience podcast. What? I know that. So free booze for the house. Woo. Pray when

Speaker 7:

I'm leaving.

Speaker 4:

You. Pray when I'm leaving. You'd come by once a month. As long as

Speaker 7:

it's none of this. No. Lord sheed this off the shelf. Drink a lot of whiskey. Yeah, you did.

Speaker 4:

That's coming soon potentially. Sweet. That's exciting. So anyway, this mayoral candidate series, right? Right. That did. It's really cool and I really enjoyed it. Honestly. I like my conversation. Very

Speaker 2:

entertaining. All the

Speaker 4:

po, all the conversations. So shout out to Shirley Peele. Shout out to Adam Eggleston. Adam, shout out to Tricia Kaco. Tricia. She was my, I thought she was gonna win. Um,

Speaker:

he had his bets on Tricia

Speaker 4:

and then Scott Van Taten. Hove, Scotty V and then Emily Francis. Mm-hmm Emily. After I talked to Emily, I was like, oh, maybe Emily's gonna win because she was just so charismatic and I like her a lot. And levelheaded there. And then finally with Adam Hirschhorn, who we knew wasn't gonna win. We actually switched the order. Put Emily out there first.

Speaker 6:

A really, but a really kind guy. He is

Speaker 4:

a very kind guy. He

Speaker 5:

not release that type of information.

Speaker 4:

And Scotty V was super fun.

Speaker 5:

Yeah.

Speaker 4:

Uh, and so Shadow and Adam, Adam Eggleston was good comedy. We had a nice conversation as well. So anyway, the Old Town Spice Shop guy and the Matador Mexican Grill guy asked me to do this series. I had a lot of fun. I got to meet all these people and now. I've applied for the Fort Collins City Council to fill Emily's seat because she's in my district and she got the thing.

Speaker 6:

Will you know about that by the time that this episode drops episode?

Speaker 4:

No, I don't know yet know what, but I'm gonna put it out there. You're, so by December 31st is the, so if you're in district six in Fort Collins and you're able to drop anybody from the city council, like especially Emily or Tricia,'cause I know them. A note that says Kurt would actually be a really good city council person. That would be awesome.'cause they have to choose the five finalists by January 13th.

Speaker 2:

Oh, okay.

Speaker 4:

And then they have each have individual interviews with the council and then the council chooses who will serve out the rest of Emily's term until the end of November, or mid-November, whatever, 2027. Okay. So it's like a almost three year thing. So any listeners out there in district six, district six is Northwest Fort Collins. If you're wondering like a good word, wouldn't hurt. Right? Like,'cause they might just pick whoever they think is like most aligned with them, or they might kinda want to have some. Some Kurt Bear in the house. I don't know. We'll see.

Speaker 6:

There's a betting pool going

Speaker:

on laughing. Yeah. Pete doesn't have high. Pete doesn't have high hope. So our facilitator,

Speaker 4:

Pete Gly was here today for a meeting and he said, no chance in hell they're gonna sit you in the Fort Collin city council. And so I bet him Pete is official. You didn't agree to it, but it's official now. Yeah. Uh, if I get on the city council, he has to buy me lunch at cash or dinner. Probably should be dinner.

Speaker 6:

Yeah.

Speaker 5:

Yeah. And get the chocolate cake

Speaker 4:

is not a meal. Like three cores. Yeah, five cores. So is not a meal. Yeah, no. Right. And cocktails are included. Or if I win, no, if he wins, if I don't make it on the council, then I have to take him out to Chick-fil-A. Chick-fil-A. Chick-fil-A, Pete, I'll even bring your wife out. Uh, if you guys wanna go double date or something like that, that's good. But it's Chick-fil-A and no dessert. That's fair. I have it.

Speaker 6:

I think that's a fair trade.

Speaker 4:

I think it's probably right out the odds, if I'm honest. But we'll see. I don't know. I don't know either. I feel like I've, I'm a pretty pragmatic, interesting, curious guy that could add a lot of value to our city council and so that's why I apply. Totally.

Speaker 6:

Totally. And I don't know personally the criteria that they're looking

Speaker 5:

same. Like what exactly are they looking for? A one you say council looking for? Really

Speaker 4:

say that. They just say,

Speaker 6:

yeah. The question that I have in my head is, are they looking for a essentially one-to-one replacement? For the vacancy For

Speaker 4:

Emily?

Speaker 6:

Yes. Because how could I

Speaker 4:

possibly replace Emily? Like my affinity for onesies is actually similar to hers. I understood. She calls them jumpers. That's the

Speaker 6:

pro appropriate term if you're a, a jumper. A female, well, a dressed. A dressed person.

Speaker 4:

Right. Dressed for the day.

Speaker 6:

Yeah. Yeah. If you're in a onesie, like at home, I

Speaker 4:

aspire to make a male jump. They appropriate, no appropriate for professional attire. They

Speaker 6:

exist,

Speaker 4:

do you think so? No, they don't. For professional at attire. Go to work at a, like, something where I could go, go to a conference and make a presentation and this one z You're bullshitter. Yeah.

Speaker 5:

There are such a thing. I

Speaker 6:

mean, they exist. I, I wouldn't wear it to a work event.

Speaker:

I, who would like that sounds like a horrible idea. I've

Speaker 4:

wore my one Z to, to a lot of places that you wouldn't expect me to. Um, I believe that, but it's, it's great. Like I love, regardless wearing a one suit, I don't know

Speaker 6:

if you're a one-to-one, uh, exchange in terms of ideas for Emily on the council maybe. So if that's what they're looking for, that would be a hard sell. If they're just looking for a good representative from the district, great. You know, it's that.

Speaker 4:

Well it's that what I, I met with Tyler Manza yesterday. Okay. He's, uh, like number two at Economic Health and he was very pragmatic and he tells me that he thinks the culture of the city council and the city. Has shifted to try to be a lot more welcoming and in supportive and intentional about saying small businesses are awesome when we need more of them and more of them to start and to grow and what can we do to help.

Speaker 6:

And was that an issue before? It has been,

Speaker 4:

yeah. Yeah. And surely made that a 10 minute segment of our conversation of, and I and, and it is true. Like when I was a kid and all through my first 10 years, 15 year, all my banking career, the small business founders and builders were the heroes of the community. And now they're more like, oh, you got wealthy, kind of on the shoulders of poor people or something is more the culture. I when you

Speaker 5:

said poor people,

Speaker 4:

well'cause you're poor. Um, but you're also a young person. Like everybody young is poor. That's the poor people, people. That's the way it should be. I'm damn near as poor as you Ava. Just so you know. Uh, there's

Speaker 5:

no shot.

Speaker 4:

Like I bought my house when it was only 250 grand. Otherwise I'd be just as poor as you. If I had to pay$4,000 a rent month to rent my house, I'd be freaking poor as shit.

Speaker:

I was born in the wrong generation. That's all we gotta say.

Speaker 6:

Shout out to a loco member that helped me refinance my Oh, right. Yeah. Ben saved like a thousand dollars a month refinancing his house and getting

Speaker 4:

new insurance from maybe a local member. I don't know. But yeah, Justin Crowley is a man. He should be on my podcast for sure. Write

Speaker 5:

it down. What

Speaker 4:

a guy. Yeah. Thanks David.

Speaker 6:

I have, uh, yeah, I have in the months of December, uh, November, December. Yeah. Dropped your occupancy like so much. Oh my gosh. It's so nice. It's insane.

Speaker 4:

Congrats.

Speaker 6:

Thank goodness it was always the plan, right?

Speaker 5:

Right. What, I'm gonna do this, but here we are. I'm gonna chop off and make it a base. Oh, that would be a nice base if you I agree. I want pictures. Okay.

Speaker 4:

I'm gonna finish the rest of the, um, yeah, season recap. And Ava, I invite your involvement here and we'll ask for some reflections from you before we allow for the loco experience from Ben,

Speaker 3:

if you prepared it.

Speaker 4:

So had all that series. I ate so much hot sauce, I sweated so much. Yeah, it was love chicken nuggets. It was kind of rough. Oh, Evan Worsley was a favorite podcast. Yeah. And I hope to add him to the look of think tank ranks as well. Yeah, he's, and like what was cool is I, because I'm always like encouraging business and stuff and, and Evan was celebrating nine years in business. Yeah. Last spring. And I dropped him a note note on LinkedIn and was like, Hey, congrats. Seems like you've built a pretty cool company. And he was like, Hey, it was in part because of you.'cause. You helped me create my LLC and register to get my tax ID number when I was leaving my job to start this business nine years and change years ago. Mm-hmm. And thanks. Yeah. I was like, oh no, shit. Like, I didn't remember. Aw. Um, and so it, we had a slow dance to a podcast at a great podcast. And, and after his daughter wins, perhaps the state championship in basketball this year with his coaching, like he's the coach, the head coach, which I think is awesome for a dude to coach a girl's basketball team, like a elite one. I, um, then maybe, uh, maybe we'll get him in here, but if not, we'll get him in here for another podcast.'cause that would be a pretty cool experience to talk about. Anyway. Rebecca Archuleta, uh, kind of a smart gal, smart girl. A lot of insightful stuff.

Speaker 6:

Yeah.

Speaker 4:

Aaron Everett, the post-election recap, the, the big blue wave. I, I wore my, my blue Hawaiian shirt. You sure did. It was I catching, wasn't it? Yeah.

Speaker:

Bright and proud.

Speaker 4:

You know, I'm, I'm a realist

Speaker 6:

really, Kurt, in any solid color is just a wave of color.

Speaker 4:

Well, I also wore my maga uh, visor. Yep, you did. Which I picked up in, uh, on the beach in California, which was cool.

Speaker 6:

And then I locked you out of the office for the day,

Speaker 4:

you know? Yeah, I know. We won't, he said, you know what? Yeah. We won't go there. No. Um, I've been disappointed, like, honestly, I, I told my friend I had, uh. A drink with Aaron Everett the other night. Yeah. Just the first time we've seen each other since then. Really? Mm-hmm. Um, that I kind of wish I would've voted for Kanye. Um, again, again, kind of, yeah. Again. Did he run again? No, he didn't, but Right. In like, I was never gonna vote for, but I, I, I don't know. You don't, you

Speaker 5:

voted for Trump. I

Speaker 4:

mean, he's just such an asshole. That thing with Rob Reiner last weekend and stuff is Yeah. That was freaking annoying. And fucking control yourself, man. Like you got a responsibility. Yeah. And the,

Speaker:

the biggest responsibility.

Speaker 4:

Right. And like, I appreciate him kind of being addicted to Europe and saying, fucking carry your own water bitches. Like being realist with Ukraine. Like all those things I'm mostly on board with, but it's kind of always that same thing where flip

Speaker 6:

flopping realist though.

Speaker 4:

Yeah. I mean, yeah. But everybody is like, you gotta play the room. You gotta figure it out. So. Sure. You like That's one of the biggest problems with politics is that everybody's afraid to say they were wrong or to change their mind anymore. And sometimes, and I you, we have this conversation, you get information

Speaker 6:

a couple months ago

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 6:

Of, I'm inclined to vote for whoever I think will actually un unify the country. Yeah. If there could be a

Speaker 4:

person that would do that, that would be great. Because right

Speaker 6:

now it is so ugly,

Speaker 4:

terrible,

Speaker 6:

and yeah, it's gonna take massive healing.

Speaker 4:

Totally. Yeah. No. And, and probably not a therapist.'cause they're all fucking whacked out too. Definitely not Donald Trump for a third time. No, definitely not. No. And I don't know, I don't know. I don't know who that person is. I, I, I don't have an imagination of, I

Speaker 6:

know a few people who it's not Totally, totally. But I don't know. Yeah, I agree.

Speaker:

That's horrifying though, that we have no idea of anybody that could take that role and do it well. Yeah. So it goes,

Speaker 4:

you know, so it is, um, innovation integration and local experience with Joel and Jess.

Speaker 6:

Joel and Jess, Joel and

Speaker 4:

Jess. My drunkest appearance on the local Experience podcast. They could change

Speaker 6:

that

Speaker:

today. They were back in some drinks that day.

Speaker 4:

We drinks, well they

Speaker:

brought bottles and then once there's more than two bottles on the table, you know, it's just going. There were three,

Speaker 6:

I believe. Yes. There were four

Speaker:

maybe. I think they brought four bottles total. Were in the camera with like the shot. It was just all the tops of like the lids of everything. And there's like so many By the end of it, it was just mumbo jumbo.

Speaker 4:

Oh. And I, great energy. It was a really fun podcast to listen back to and I was only a little slurry at the end. Yeah. You honestly

Speaker:

didn't sound that bad.

Speaker 4:

Yeah. Um, and then I walked from here to go have dinner with Bettina. One of our former facilitators and my You

Speaker 5:

had dinner after that?

Speaker 4:

Yeah, I went downtown with another

Speaker 5:

person

Speaker 4:

with a whole family. Sat Tina and her family and then Jill and Sarah came downtown too. Oh

Speaker 5:

God.

Speaker 4:

Yeah.

Speaker 5:

Oh God. Did they notice? I'll probably like a quarter of a bottle. Well, yeah, I was, when I

Speaker 4:

got there I was like, sorry, I'm not gonna drink anything. Sorry hammered. I hammered. But by the end of the dinner, like it was lovely. Yeah. So it was lovely. After a glass of water. Don't I'll take a loaf of bread, please. Please. Extra mad. Well, she changed the day we were supposed to meet the night after the night before or something, and then she was like, can we possibly do this?'cause this and this. She was visiting for a month or something From Switzerland. She moved from here. Yeah. So Hallows, yeah. Relational intelligence that we've been using. Yeah, totally. She's here in part because the founder of that, uh, helped them get to Colorado, helped her husband get a job in Greeley at JBS, whatever. And so that's why, part of why I know of the program, but also it was just the best when we found it. And, but she's only around once in a while. But anyway, she moved to Australia, then moved to Switzerland and her daughter was with, who's the same one year older than Sarah. And so actually possible that,'cause we've hosted one of an that daughter's. Good friend Manu lived with me and Jill two years ago right after Enrico. So yeah, we just have these family interconnected. You did such a cool, uh,

Speaker 6:

before and after or who did it best of Enrico and Sarah.

Speaker 4:

Aren't they? Don't they look the same kind of? Oh it

Speaker 6:

is awesome. And I don't know if that means that it enrico's pretty or Sarah's handsome, but maybe both. But either way it's a compli I would say. Um, but yeah, that was a really funny, it was fun, uh, that you and really special that you got to host. I showed Sarah the other day. I was like,

Speaker 4:

we gotta recreate this. So awesome. I took this picture with Enco and Safeway's got these ribeye roasts on sale. So he's

Speaker 6:

been bragging about it all week.

Speaker 4:

I mean, it's 6 49 a pound. You just gotta do some work. Like not everybody feels comfortable cutting up a 12 pound chunk of meat. Yeah, I sure as hell wouldn't. Yeah, you would. Well let me teach you something young lady.'cause it might be a while before you want to pay retail. Yeah.

Speaker:

Never. Not these, not these days. Not in this economy.

Speaker 4:

But you're pretty, so you get this pretty benefit. You like got a hunky boyfriend that came by here to grab your plunger for you. The Safeway still do the pretty

Speaker 8:

face

Speaker 6:

discount.

Speaker 4:

Safeway does not. No, we got,

Speaker 5:

we did that like two years ago, so Safeway does not Oh, really? So rude.

Speaker 8:

I got it last week.

Speaker 3:

Really? Yeah. Because you go in back

Speaker:

it or what? No, I did. No, you go in the back doors. That's why.

Speaker 8:

No, it was self checkout.

Speaker 4:

That's awesome. Well, what was it, that was quick. I saw, I saw a stat recently that. Like 40% of people have have admitted to stealing from self checkout. Oh, that's, and it's actually more prevalent among like upper middle class people than it is among poor people.

Speaker:

Well, I sure as well do it. But

Speaker 4:

you do do it. You have

Speaker:

done it. You have

Speaker 4:

it. We could have, oh,

Speaker:

I'm not buying, I'm not buying, I'm not spending$15 on a box of tampons.'cause I was born this way. Sorry.

Speaker 6:

Oh, so you're just

Speaker 4:

Oh, and they're light besides, so they're expensive in light. So anything expensive in light is kind of the, well, well you just kind

Speaker:

of hit like a quick and, and no tar. Nobody, however they do tally and they will wait until it hits a felony and no longer a misdemeanor till you've hit like a shit ton in ceiling. And they'll pull and they'll bring cops.

Speaker 4:

No. Sudden they're just like, here's a bunch of footage.

Speaker:

It's, I, uh, girl. I didn't realize you had No, I don't do it without, don't you pu

Speaker 4:

you seem to know a lot about this. Yes. How do you know so much about it? Research, because

Speaker 6:

I'm, it's just research

Speaker 4:

broke. One of my favorites to listen back to this fall has been the Aaron iy and Brett Kemp. Oh yeah. From Flood and Peterson. Yeah. I, we get like nerdy on insurance stuff and I challenge them with a bunch of, you have a crazy history. Nerdy. Yes.

Speaker 6:

Um, which was super cool to hear. It was,

Speaker 4:

yeah. We were,

Speaker 5:

he just both came at the same time.

Speaker 4:

Well, he went through the same banker training program. Yeah. But 18 months later. But 25 years before we did the recording was like the weekend he came to visit and I took him out and got him shit faced almost. Exactly. Yeah. Almost like to the day. What was, what was

Speaker 6:

special about that episode?

Speaker 4:

Um, two things. I would say the, the professionalism and the, the intentionally pulling back the curtain. You know, a lot of businesses don't really want you to know how it should, how the sausage is made. Sure. Transparency. And they were pretty transparent about that's and like what really matters, what they can affect, what they can't kind of as your broker. Um, and that was probably the biggest thing, you know, and in comparing it to like Aaron compared it to like, when, when we worked for the bank, the loan committee was like the decider. If I'm like, Hey, loan's got, or Ben's got 30 grand and he wants to borrow 70 grand, he is gonna build this thing and then he is gonna sell it and he's gonna sell it for 200 and blah, blah, blah. There'll be these people, our peers we're like, I think that's bullshit. I think Ben's a big liar. He is not gonna sell it for that much, whatever. Um, but in insurance brokerage you can be like, here's this company, here's the risk set as we've defined it. Here's how many employees, here's how many assets they have and stuff. And you want it at what price? But then they can, if they get a not really, they can go, how about you? You want it? What price? So they get like all these different loan committees. Sure. To decide if their customer is a good risk or a bad risk.'cause in most cases you haven't had a big. Catastrophic loss. So they can't really decide, they don't really know Very good. The criteria to determine whether they might.

Speaker 6:

Yeah.

Speaker 4:

So anyway, that was part of my, part of my favorite part. It's cool. So, um, very interesting. I think that's probably, that was the last interesting podcast of this. Oh, it's Stu Prayer, Ruby Stu Dead, Floyd and Musketeer Grip Weed together. They're everywhere. I, I've never seen Ruby Stew'cause they're brand new. I've seen Dead Floyd at least eight times. Yeah. And I've seen Musketeer Grip weed at least 15 times.'cause I was friends with some of their like OG people back in like 99, 2000. Stu didn't come along until 10 years later. So Stu and I have known each other a long time.

Speaker 6:

That's awesome. Sue's great. And

Speaker 4:

have you seen any of those? Yeah. Which ones?

Speaker 6:

I saw Dead Floyd.

Speaker 4:

Okay.

Speaker 6:

Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 4:

At the Aggie.

Speaker 6:

Oh yeah, it's great. The Aggie.

Speaker 4:

It was pretty cool. Yeah. Have you been involved with music? Really?

Speaker 6:

Yeah.

Speaker 4:

Like outside of like, have you created music? Yeah. You have? Oh yeah. Like what kind?

Speaker 6:

What? Um. All kinds. I'm a rapper. I'm not a rapper. For me, I'm not a rapper. No. Uh, my wife is a wonderful vocal. Oh yeah. She's a singer. Vocalist. Yeah. Uh, session vocalist has done backup on tracks for people and her own music as well. Um, anything you can just say, I grew up, you know, uh, yeah, sure. Uh, I could show you. Um, but I grew up playing, you know, guitar and piano and really, uh, played four or five instruments in the band and orchestra. Really? Damn. Really? What? So I played, why haven't you told me about this before? Tuba and baritone and what? Trombone and, uh, a lot of brass for me. Yeah. But

Speaker 4:

then also guitar and more

Speaker 6:

guitar and more And

Speaker 4:

you left it all behind to pursue soccer or what?

Speaker 6:

Yeah, I mean, really. Okay. It's kinda like that sometimes. Yeah. I mean, you kind

Speaker 4:

of gotta choose what you're gonna do

Speaker 6:

when you are 16. You think you have no time,

Speaker 4:

right. You think you are the busiest person and, and then you become 22. Oh, spoiler alert. 30. 30. You have more time

Speaker 6:

than you will ever have again. And it, it is, that becomes more true every year. I'm so sorry to say. Um, can't wait. Um, but yeah, no, I played, I played a lot of stuff. I was in a, I was in a screamo band. A hardcore band, that kind of stuff. I was the screamer, I was the guitar player. What? Uh, we started out our, uh, our name was the Moist Ettes. The Moist Teles. The moist. No, it, it was not, it was really bad.

Speaker:

No, it was not just me and

Speaker 6:

a couple buddies, but we changed it. You were cool. We changed it. Uh, we became ace. That's way better. Uh, a YCE. Any,

Speaker 4:

any word that says moist in it is basically, yeah. No, it was intentionally inflammatory.

Speaker 5:

Well always tell that's even worse, right? The combination. But Ace was

Speaker 6:

cool. A YCE. It's way better. Uh, it stood for all you can eat. Um, and that's bitter. Uh, yeah. No, it was awesome.

Speaker 4:

Fuzzy tacos has the little coozies that say, eat me on the side. I love fuzzy tacos. Yeah. Anyway, that

Speaker 5:

was so random. Well,

Speaker 4:

but it is all you could eat. You know? Eat me.

Speaker 6:

Okay. That's where Kurt's brain goes. Well, what do you think about when you

Speaker 4:

think about fuzzy tacos? I don't know what you think about. I think about, uh, yummy margaritas and tacos. I

Speaker 6:

don't if they do this here. Um, but on the inside of the stall at Fuzzy's Tacos, it says we put the TNA in taco. What? I

Speaker 5:

don't get it. For

Speaker 6:

real. Yeah.

Speaker 4:

No, I was not seen that. The og fuzzy tacos coming TNA,

Speaker 6:

it was kind of dirty.

Speaker 4:

TA interesting tits and ass, I guess. Oh,

Speaker 6:

yeah. I, I, I mean, wow.

Speaker 4:

I think they, I think the og it's so that's why they're kind of like Chiba hut, like they're kind of intentionally politically incorrect. Like Chia Hut came out and kind of grew Chiba Hut

Speaker 6:

Totally.

Speaker 4:

Before Louis Weed was legal anywhere.

Speaker 6:

Totally.

Speaker 4:

Right. Like they were in banking. We used to say the scouts get the arrows.

Speaker 6:

Yep.

Speaker 4:

Uh, and Chia Hut kind of did for a while, but they've been able to like grow amazingly.

Speaker 7:

Sure. I love Cuba Hunt.

Speaker 4:

Good brand. It's a great brand and well and good, good quality, good brand and good quality. Yeah. Consist that goes a long way. Consistency. Although it's annoying as hell. That freaking big sandwich costs$17 or whatever now. But that's just annoying. You do cost anything you say it's horrible, but at least you can eat it twice.

Speaker 6:

Well, and have you been to Silver Mine?

Speaker 4:

No,

Speaker 6:

it's half the sandwich for twice the price. Oh really? And a third of the quality in my, no, I don't go. Nice. I

Speaker 4:

I really don't go anywhere with Shiva Hut if I'm being real. Yeah. Uh, shout out Shi Hut to Mark and you guys should be a sponsor. Yeah. Mark. It's Mark. Yeah. Episode 1 38 maybe.

Speaker 6:

Whoa. That's

Speaker:

incredible. You did not just pull that out. I think so. Dunno if that's right.

Speaker 4:

I'd be curious. Do you want a be a bottle ofor on it? Alert.

Speaker 6:

I'll give you a bottle of alert for free. No, but sure.

Speaker 5:

Can you buy this? Like here? Yeah.

Speaker 6:

Uh, no. Wait, they regular You didn't used to. Okay. Jepson's is, uh, that's basically all they made. They, they do have a barrel aged mallor. Oh damn. God. Awful. So extra. It's disgusting. Awesome. Um, is it 1 38? But you can,

Speaker 4:

I'm coming to it. I'm working on my way down. You can find it at the liquor store now. We'll see.

Speaker 6:

I know for a fact you can get it. The one on Mulberry, the big one. Supermarket. Mulberry Max Supermarket's. My store.

Speaker 4:

Yeah. Ooh, no. That was Greg Rader. Oh 1 39 1 30.

Speaker 6:

Kurt owes me my Lord. My Lord, my Lord. I'll buy you by every time I think about it. I think of Shrek.

Speaker 4:

Shrek would love my Lord. Pick number three. Number three. My Lord. Three. I was so close. What? Number nine Instead of one 30. Lord. Eight. That was so close.

Speaker 7:

You. That was impressive. Still nonetheless. Yeah.

Speaker 4:

Um, are you ready for the loco experience? Ben?

Speaker 6:

I am prepared yourself. Not prepared, but ready. Oh,

Speaker 4:

maybe before we go, we should have a shot of the infinity bottle. I'll get it.

Speaker 6:

Oh. How much stuff is in this right now?

Speaker 4:

Uh, all the stuff, like, everything that comes through, although I should regret some Mylo.

Speaker 6:

Uh, I think that would have made the whole thing glow.

Speaker 4:

You could taste the gin.

Speaker:

Wait, Kurt, there is the smallest there is

Speaker 6:

gin. Tiny bourbon for you. Tequila. What else?

Speaker 2:

Uh,

Speaker:

is there any like mostly that rum?

Speaker 6:

No, we don't really drink rum. I haven't seen nobody really drinks rum. Yeah. Well, this is kind of a straight or straight honest. Oh, I'm so

Speaker 4:

scared. You can taste the No, it actually tastes nice. No way. Yeah, there's no shot. This, you can taste the gin just a little bit. You, you could have barely. There's enough to cover your tongue. Ava. Don't worry about it. So this is the, the Infinity bottles supposed to be a little bit everything. It smells

Speaker 6:

nicer than I anticipated. It doesn't smell nice. Its tasty

Speaker 4:

Like this now might be a thing.

Speaker 6:

Am I gonna, am I gonna be useless tomorrow?

Speaker:

It reminds me of something yours. We didn't even cheers.

Speaker 4:

Oh, too late. What? Hell yeah, it's, sorry. Here, I'll cheers you if you need the incursion. I

Speaker 3:

do.

Speaker:

No, this is actually gone. Awful.

Speaker 6:

No it's not. No it's not.

Speaker 4:

It's not. It's got a weird floral, but otherwise it's like, these are medium shelf bourbons and tequilas. Sure. But I expected this to be much worse. Yeah, that's what I get a lot like And the gin's fading out a little bit so you don't really have the floral of the gin as much anymore. There was a time when the gin was like 25% of it. Now it's only like 10% of it. Maybe.'cause actually I haven't had to refill the gin.'cause gin. Nobody wants to drink

Speaker 6:

gin. It's hard to sell gin on. I uh, gin with a seltzer is good though.

Speaker 4:

Yeah. Yeah. Could be. Yeah. Could be that bad, huh? Ava?

Speaker:

It, you know, it's just not for you idea of when I used to steal. Like, when I first started drinking, sorry, sorry, sorry. This reminds me of when I first started drink in high school and we would steal like whatever we could off of like my parents. Yeah. And my mom always had like some like dark gross, like, oh, that's metaphor, like bourbon. And it really, really reminds me like that.'cause I don't ever drink. I honestly, you, you try

Speaker 4:

not to taste it. Honestly, honestly,

Speaker:

don't think I've drank any dark liquor from the age of like 17 till probably today. Wow. There's never a time at a party where I'm like, oh, I need to drink so bad, I'm gonna drink that dark liquor, like never over my dead body. So yeah. Interesting. So do Germa that, that's just like brought back some like

Speaker 4:

no whiskey

Speaker:

feelings? No. Like Jaden really loves like Crown and like whiskey and like, like he likes like all that stuff and I just like never am. It's really like you don't, can't

Speaker 6:

meet anybody that loves Crown anymore.

Speaker 4:

No. Crown Apple never. It used to be like kind of famous. For being, you go tasty every

Speaker:

single time it comes in the purple bag, right? Yeah. I probably have 45 purple bags. I'm like, one day I wanna like one day like crochet something out of it or like make something, make blank Like a blankie, but like, so a onesie. If you

Speaker 4:

could make we get there probably in a couple months onesie, that would be a amazing.

Speaker 5:

Do you think there's somebody that I could take

Speaker:

that to?'cause I'm really willing sell. Yeah. There's chops

Speaker 4:

that couldn't like, turn it all into a fucking thing because I collect them.

Speaker:

cause it feels like it bougie. Like when I take it out the bag, I'm like, I don't wanna tos the trash. It, I mean it would

Speaker 4:

still probably cost you$400. Oh hell no. Sorry, Jayden. It's not happening. But I could find you resources probably. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So Ava, I want to turn it to you before we let Ben do the local experience. Okay. Um, you're looking for sales, you're, look, you're stay here in Fort Collins. Stay here in Fort Collins, but you're, you're happy you came here for college? Yeah.

Speaker:

Honestly, best decision of my entire life. Um, not in like a sarcastic way. Like I, I'm so grateful for everything Colorado has given me. I feel like I got really lucky coming to Loco and I found like a great community here. And my friends have been incredible. I've lived with all of'em all four years. Wow. Of college. Yeah. My roommate, my freshman roommate that we met off of like, you know, a little app on Instagram or whatever. Awesome. We still live together today and we're planning on living together next year. Yeah. I got really lucky with friends here. Um, they're like my lifeline. Um, yeah, I don't, I don't really plan on leaving Colorado anytime soon. You know, eventually I'd like to settle down where my family is in California. Yeah. And, you know, I like to tell myself eventually I'm gonna be making the money where I can live comfortably in California,

Speaker 6:

which I don't know if that all haha everything changes. Yeah. We'll see about that. We'll see about

Speaker:

that. But that's, that's the goal, you know, I'd love to live near my brother and not have to fly every time I wanna see my family. Yeah. But it's, it's a two hour flight. Like, it's not the end of the world. Yeah. And I have DIA like the back of my brain by now. Right. So it's easy. But yeah, overall I've, I feel like my education was worth it. I'm glad, I'm glad I came into college. Right. Not right before, but honestly right as AI was being integrated because I feel like I still got like something outta my education and didn't cheat the whole way through. Mm-hmm. I fear as in five, yeah. Two years from now, higher education isn't gonna be worth it.

Speaker 4:

Just be a bunch of stupid people.

Speaker:

I mean, you, I people, including, I, you know, everybody uses chat all day. So imagine being a college student, you have 10 assignments to do and you have a shift during the day and you wanna hang out with your friends, you're gonna cheat the entire thing. So it's like there's not really, you know, a huge motivator to like get an education anymore. Like people aren't really trying as much and it really shows like

Speaker 4:

I Well, and like those tools are stupid. Yeah. They're not very accurate. I use them for stuff and sometimes they're spot on and I'm not, and then sometimes I'm, no, you're fricking stupid. Like, I know that's not true, what you just said.

Speaker:

Yeah. It's definitely frustrating and

Speaker 4:

maybe they'll get smarter, but maybe they'll just. Eat the stuff that's already been pooped out by other AI tools. Still just hope, right? Hope there's a risk of that. I hope. I think,

Speaker 6:

yeah. All like api, sorry to speak technically. Mm-hmm. Yeah, please. I think that the biggest benefit of AI coming in the next two to three years is that we'll have API list integration across all systems and that will mean data transfer happens faster. It will mean that you can talk to a system and ask it to do an action that will actually pull Right now, that's the only thing that I personally go go to it for because I refuse to be one of these nis. I don't wanna be received only use as AI for whatever, but, um, I don't think it's great as a knowledge base. Uh, we've already seen that social media is terrible as a knowledge base. Mm-hmm. Right? Yeah. And so if, how is this better in some ways learns what you like and serves up the things that you like, and you say, tell me the truth about blank's. Gonna tell, tell you blow up my, you wanna hear, serve,

Speaker 4:

blow, smoke up my skirt and tell me you love me and I'll be yours. It wants to be used. Yeah. It is

Speaker 6:

trained to want to be used. Of course it does. And therefore it's going to validate your innermost thoughts. Yep. As much as it can.

Speaker 4:

A hundred percent.

Speaker 6:

But

Speaker:

I saw it's gonna

Speaker 6:

be awesome when you go, Hey, can you connect this software to that software? Yeah. And it goes Yep. And you don't have to do, done, you don't have to do anything. That's great. Yeah. And that's what that is. Should be the intended use.

Speaker 4:

Yeah. Don't let it think for you. Let it do stuff for you. Let it give you, let it do monotonous tasks, people, tasks, bi.

Speaker 6:

Yep. All that stuff. And the, when those things are connecting to yourself, you still draw the conclusion, not it. I agree with that. Yeah. I saw

Speaker:

an interesting, um, perspective on it that, you know, like these days when you're scroll, like you can't even tell actually genuinely what's real or not. Yeah. I hope it gets to a point where it's so confusing to know, um, like what's real or not. And, and it, it's to the point where it's like it's not even worth it and kind of like the craze and the suction of social media kind of goes away. Totally. Yeah. I really hope for that.'cause it is really sad. Cross my fingers age that social media is like consuming everybody's everything. Even

Speaker 6:

now. Yeah. Even on real videos, the top comment half the time is, yeah. Is this ai, is this ai Totally. Some of the most

Speaker 4:

successful exceeding, you know, that some of the most successful and freethinking people I know have never been involved in social media. Yeah, totally. And I love them for it. Yeah. Yeah. Honestly, like, and it's cool. Totally. And so that's weird to think that,

Speaker 8:

not to say don't use it at all.

Speaker 4:

Yeah.

Speaker 8:

But,

Speaker:

but I, I, like I said, I wish I could delete it all. But like, I actually like, I, there's like a weird, like, especially with people in Gen Z, it's like you have like almost, I mean obviously it's super addictive, but like without it, you feel so outta touch, which is so sad because you should not feel outta touch with not being on search. Well, and not, not just

Speaker 6:

that. I would say, um, people use chat as a search engine. Mm-hmm. Uh, it takes much more energy, way more water. 10 times so much. Yeah. 20 times. It's causing a major pollution problem. Um, could you

Speaker:

explain that though?'cause when I say that to people, I'm like this, it's like obviously bad for our environment and they're like, how

Speaker 6:

there, there's, there's multiple arguments to be made. The big one that people are circling around and not nailing down on either side is it takes an insane amount of water to cool the supercomputer that is running AI calculation. Right? Water obviously is an infinitely renewable resource, as I learned in fifth grade. Water that goes away just means it evaporated, goes up in the cloud, right, come back, comes back down. That's more or less true. There's still power that you're using to do that, that creates smoke and steam and centers are trying to be better about it. It's all but a bunch of are going into Arizona. It's pr, right? Like there's a reason it's going in a place where people are not

Speaker 4:

well. And in the long run it's like. On satellites capturing solar energy and in the absence of heat where it cools those fuckers down real good. Totally.

Speaker 6:

Well, and it's, it, it, the reality for me in our family, it's about the environmental impact and the social impact. Right. For me, it's about the mental impact. Yeah. And if you can't do your own research, yeah. You can't be trusted. That means you're regurgitating. And I believe that outside of academia, I believe that in terms of politics, I believe that in terms of whatever day to day, just normal conversation. Yeah. Have you done your own research? Is this your thought? Or you just telling me someone else? It's, oh man. Yeah. It's goodwill hunting. Right. Oh, you've read that book too? Oh, how about them? Apples? Apples. It's that for me. Yeah. I appreciate

Speaker 4:

that. And I think that's part of why we resonate well, Ben, is that like my themes, like freethink, you know, think for your damn self. Yeah. You know, don't let somebody tell you what to think. Just mm-hmm. Think just do it, you know, work hard enough to gather enough information to make a decision, you know? Right. Maybe you can trust the news. Maybe you can trust the computers. Maybe you can trust the internet or the social medias, but maybe you can't. Yeah. But you can probably trust people not to turn it into a local think tank commercial. But you can't, like you, when you're sitting in a room with people and you're like,

Speaker 6:

and everybody's got their laptop shut. Yeah. And they've seen this and you say, I have this problem. Right.

Speaker:

And they're not waiting to speak for themselves and they're actually listening.

Speaker 4:

Yeah. Then they're like, they're not gonna be like, did you ask chat GTP what it thinks? Yeah. You can't, well, you can't gt Right.

Speaker 6:

You can't fabricate that environment anymore. Yeah. Outside of a boardroom. Yeah. Which most companies can't afford. And outside of trusted friends, which unfortunately a lot of us just don't have that many.

Speaker 4:

They don't. Well, they don't know.

Speaker 6:

And so to be able to say, come in, we'll give you unbiased opinions. Yeah. Right. Here's our experience is cool. Come

Speaker 4:

join a free thing. The local experience,

Speaker 6:

is it me? Yes. We gotta

Speaker 5:

go. Yeah. It's you.

Speaker 8:

Well tell the craziest

Speaker 4:

It's almost six 30.

Speaker 8:

What's the question?

Speaker 4:

What is the craziest, craziest experience of your lifetime that you're willing to share with our list?

Speaker 6:

Okay, cool. Yeah. No. Okay. I thought about this. I've had a lot of jobs. I've been fired from a lot of jobs. I've quit a lot of jobs. Really? Oh man. Not actually. How many jobs

Speaker 5:

have you been fired from? No, I'm kidding.

Speaker 6:

Four. Okay. Um, uh, I've broken up concrete with my bare hands. I've been fired from software jobs for whatever, everything in between. Um, I thought that I could find some weird work thing to bring in to the local experience. I don't think I can, the closest thing I have is like delivering pizzas at pizza. Uh, Papa John's. Shut up. Papa John's. Okay. Garlic. They, they,

Speaker 4:

yeah. The dipping sauce. Yeah. Um, and the pepper salad.

Speaker 6:

But I would say that the craziest thing that I've gone through or done is, um. I was, I was newly single on the side of a very sad and, uh, very hard divorce. Um, took some time to myself and went on a solo camping trip with my dog. Okay. Hell yeah. It was awesome. So I went, this is pre

Speaker 4:

van?

Speaker 6:

This was pre Van. I was in my Jeep Cherokee. Okay. And I was in Northwest Arkansas and drove, um, goodness. And actually, it's crazy that I'm even saying this.'cause this trip, spoiler alert ended in Fort Collins for Tour to Fat when I decided to move here. Oh, no shit. No way. So I drove from northwest Arkansas up through kind of the northwest. So I took a route through, um, like over

Speaker 4:

to Grand Canyon and stuff. First. And then up, or No, just, no,

Speaker 6:

I went, I went up and over. Okay. So I actually did, um, Roosevelt, shout out to the Dakotas Nice. Uh, Badlands. I did Glacier. Teton, came back down, did, uh, z like Zion and some of the Western Utah stuff. Yeah. It was Utah. Um, I, well, okay, so that was the plan and

Speaker 4:

you're like scarred from this challenge divorce thing? I was just, I was just, I was, was, and you don't need talk about it, but I Yeah. Remember that. It was weird stuff. Right. Formative for me, it was really hard.

Speaker 6:

Totally. Um, and,

Speaker 4:

and sometimes that's not really your fault, I guess is what I would say. Sure, yeah. As a man. Yeah. Because men, like the culture is right now that Yeah. Men get blamed if there's a divorce, it's because the man was somehow inadequate or, yeah. Mean or something, or if the woman cheats, sure. It was clearly the man's fault then. Sure. Yeah. No, not true. I, uh, anyway, very formative. It, it

Speaker 6:

was complicated, but yes. No, I, I won't disparage her as in any way, but, um,

Speaker 4:

but that season you were, you were in a weird place. No blame. Yeah,

Speaker 6:

but don't take the blame. Um,

Speaker 4:

that's a movie line too. I'm sure.

Speaker 6:

There, there wasn't, uh, but yes, I was in a season. Oh man, it was just awesome.

Speaker 4:

So like a month long trip

Speaker 6:

or something? Yeah, I think it was three weeks. Um, and just you and your, your dog though. Me and the dog, and saw places that I'd never seen. And Glacier is still my favorite place in the world. Say what was your favorite, not just country, um, but in the world, glacier, uh, if you haven't driven and just camped and, yeah. Experienced it. It was, it was awesome. Hiked up into Canada and just did the whole thing. Well, love it. Um, but I was on my way here, um, from, I was gonna do Teton, Zion, uh, Zion, and then go through Moab and come to Fort Collins Okay. To see my buddy Thomas. And I was in Teton, and, uh, I camped up on this ridge. And if, if you're a camper. Oh yeah. Send me a message and I will drop you the coordinates, Ben at logo, say Ben at Logo D Tank, because this is the best BLM campsite I have ever been to. Okay. Uh, it is, uh, just east of Jackson. Um Okay. Overlooking Teton. Nice. And it was, can you saved those coordinates? I saved them. Oh, I saved all you Jenny Lake over there somewhere or something of Oh, even past the highway though? Yeah. Oh, wow. But I save all my coordinates of good camp success. That's fun. Good. But I was there, it was awesome. Wind started to pick up and I went to bed, set up my tent and uh, I, I was a boy scout and so I put my fire, staked it down and everything, put my fire dead out, staked it down, like camp was set for the night, uh, did the colds of the touch and went to bed. And I woke up to a lightning strike in the campsite. What? And I look out the tent and the campsite's half on fire.

Speaker:

Oh my gosh.

Speaker 6:

And so I start to think, oh, I didn't put my fire on. Oh

Speaker 4:

sure.

Speaker 6:

Yeah. You're like, this is my fault. But low and bolt. No, it was, it was lightning strike in the campsite or, or it was the guy next. So like some trees or something. Everything was on fire. Do

Speaker 5:

you hear a strike?

Speaker 6:

Oh, absolutely. It was like all night. Crazy storm. It was already super windy, Uhhuh. And I was kind of feeling like, do I even just get in the car? Do I just sleep in the car? Right. Was kind of the thought. Right. Because it was that kind of wind. Um, but yeah, suddenly the campsite's on fire. So I go and try to use my shovel to put more out. It's outta control. I grab the dog Yeah. Out of the tent. And my pack out of the tent. And as I grab my pack goes away, my tent flies away and I am on a cliff and the tent is just gone. And, uh, if

Speaker 4:

somebody finds it, you can have it.

Speaker 6:

So I, yeah, no, I got in the car and drove down the hill. Dang. And it was probably a 15 minute drive back. Did the fire park broader? No, no. It was fine. It started to rain. Yeah. So I don't, I still don't know if it was lightning or if it was my neighbor's campsite. Right. Or if some, somehow, yeah. It could have

Speaker 4:

been just your ma neighbor's campfire didn't get di out with the wind. It, but, and it sparked, but, and

Speaker 6:

it wasn't raging fire. This was embers pouring over Oh. Into my, through my campsite. So it was very confusing. I'm dead asleep, all this stuff. Yeah. Wow. Um, but yeah, I slept in my car. That's crazy. Skipped Zion. Then I didn't sleep, so I've slept in the car. I went, well this sucks. I've got no tent. And you know. Right. What am I gonna do with Zion? What am I gonna do? Sleeping in a stupid Cherokee with no blankies and nothing. And now that I've been to Zion, I go, oh, I could have slept in the car. There's a million, whatever. But I came through Fort Collins. Oh, interesting. And, uh, so I drove straight here the next day and I threw all my stuff out on the lawn at City Park and let it dry and took a nap at City Park. Love it. And that's crazy. I remember so clearly, like, wow, this is so nice. Yeah. Yeah. And. Then going to tour the fat, tour, the fat the next morning. Did you know it was the next morning because that was a Thursday, camped at City Park, or slept at City Park Friday? Well, I slept at my buddy's. You came in late. Came in late Fri or Friday afternoon, whatever it was. Doesn't matter. Were you

Speaker 5:

planning on Slept at my

Speaker 6:

buddies? I was planning, but not until Monday. Yeah. And so I showed up and it was Saturday. It was like, oh, well the parade parade's today. Let's go downtown. And I was like, fell in love with

Speaker 4:

the, without that storm, you might not have ever been here. And so like you would've missed tour de Fat, which might not have, you might not have sold it for you. You'd have been like, I love Northern Colorado and I'll use, or California

Speaker 6:

my favorite, uh, to bring back more Christian, uh, language. I'll use my favorite sermon as an example, please. I have my, my arm is tattooed with all the story of Jonah, um, which is the story of a missionary basically who was forced into the position. Yeah. Didn't wanna be, and therefore swallowed by a whale and then burnt to a crisp. And, um, Paul Tripp. Do you know Paul Tripp?

Speaker 2:

Uh,

Speaker 6:

um, pastor in, I think New York There. It was.

Speaker 4:

I've heard the name before. It's thrown around, but I don't know.

Speaker 6:

He talks about, okay, so the whale comes and swallows, Jonah spits him out and he gets washed up on shore and he takes shelter under a plant. And then the plant withers because a worm eats the plant and therefore Jonah is like scorched by the sun. Yeah. And so he has no shelter and he has to go back into Nineveh to meet these people. And Paul trips line is, I don't know about you. But this verse says, God sent a worm to eat the plant. Yeah. So it was, God sent a whale to eat or a fish. God appointed a plant to grow up over Jonah. God sent a worm to eat the plant.

Speaker 4:

Yeah. It's time to go.

Speaker 6:

And the line was, my God is the God of worms and my God is the God of worms. Lightning and wind. In your case, man. Oh, Jewish culture. I'm sure it's a parable and not real. Yeah. We could fight on that if you want, but it's still the, the sentiment of my God is the God of worms. And so my God is the God of lightning strikes and ruined campsites that led me to hell. Yeah. Fort Collins. I think it I I'm here.

Speaker 4:

Good story.

Speaker 6:

That's good.

Speaker 4:

I think we wrapped up. Let's do it. Butter bat boom. Let's play some pink bat. Boom. Okay. Got speed.

Head Shot

Curt Bear

Host