The LoCo Experience

EXPERIENCE 253 | Hey Gutsy Lady! - My Conversation with Jenna Lee Dillon, 6x Founder and CEO of Gutsy Money

• Ava Munos • Season 6 • Episode 253

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Jenna Lee Dillon spent her growing up years in Southwest Colorado - in the small town of Mancos - on the way from Durango to Mesa Verde National Park. Her father was in the real estate business - some construction but especially buy, fix, and flip - a decade before it was cool.  After high school, she wanted someplace bigger and warmer, which landed her at Arizona State University.  

Just out of school, Jenna Lee landed a job in marketing - a remote job for a California agency - and she soon evidenced her gutsy personality by starting her own freelance agency on the side, and exploring the most interesting places to live.  With stops in Austin, Chicago, Portland, Dublin and Fort Collins before finding her current home in Arvada, Jenna Lee lived the digital nomad lifestyle a decade before it was cool!  She’s a 6X Founder, and is turning one of her ventures - Screen Freed Revolution - into a non-profit in 2026.

In this conversation we explore financial best practices and emotions, the urge to start new things and to run Spartan Races, and discuss why Jenna Lee and her family should move back up to Fort Collins.  There’s lots of smart business content, many fun and inspiring stories, and plenty of laughs, so please join me in enjoying my conversation with Jenna Lee Dillon.

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Music By: A Brother's Fountain

Speaker 4:

Jenna Lee Dylan spent her growing up years in southwest Colorado in the small town of Mancos on the way from Durango to Mesa Verde National Park. Her father was in the real estate business, some construction, but especially by fix and flip. A decade before it was cool. After high school, she wanted some place bigger and warmer, which landed her at Arizona State, just outta school, generally landed a job in marketing. A remote job for a California agency, and she soon evidenced her gutsy personality by starting her own freelance agency on the side and exploring the most interesting places to live with. Stops in Austin, Chicago, Portland, Dublin, and Fort Collins before finding her current home in Arvada. Generally lived the digital nomad lifestyle a decade before it was cool. She's a six times founder and is turning one of her ventures screen Freed Revolution into a nonprofit in 2026. In this conversation, we explore financial best practices and emotions, the urge to start new things and to run Spartan races and discuss why Jenna Lee and her family should move back up to Fort Collins. There's a lot of smart business content, many fun and inspiring stories, and plenty of laughs, so please join me in, enjoy my conversation with Jenna Lee Dillon.

Speaker:

Welcome back to the Loco Experience Podcast. My guest today is Jenna Lee Dillon and she is the founder of Gutsy Money as well as a six time entrepreneur. And uh, do you still have all of them?

Speaker 3:

Uh, have three.

Speaker:

Three still?

Speaker 2:

Yep.

Speaker:

And the author of Lookup and a Problem Mom.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker:

Thanks for making the trip up from Denver Town or Denver proper. Is that where you're at?

Speaker 2:

Uh, Nevada.

Speaker:

Oh, that's way better than Denver.

Speaker 2:

Much better. Yeah. I like to say it's as close as I'm willing to get to Denver.

Speaker:

Yeah. Yeah. I think, I don't know if Littleton iss still the same. It used to have its kind of own character and Arvada has always kept its own character. Like if I had to live in the Denver metro area, it would probably be one of those

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Arvada Golden.

Speaker:

Yeah. Golden School. Yeah. That, to me, that's actually outside.

Speaker 2:

You're right.

Speaker:

Enough.

Speaker 2:

It is more toward the foothills, but

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. If, if you meet someone from Arvada, they will never say I live in Denver. Right. Right. It's very clearly I live in Arvada.

Speaker:

Right. I'm not one of those fools.

Speaker 2:

Right. Exactly. I agree with them.

Speaker:

I, yeah. So well, welcome, welcome. Uh, you spend a little time up in Fort Collins as well.

Speaker 2:

Mm-hmm. Yeah. I lived up here in 2000, from 15 to. 17 and then left for a bit, and then came back 18 through 20. Okay. And then there's a little, there's a little dream in my heart of, of coming back

Speaker:

here.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker:

Yeah. What, what, uh, what's holding you back?

Speaker 2:

My daughter goes to a really special, like, unique school mm-hmm. Um, down in Wheat Ridge. Okay. And I own a home there. Sure. And, you know, so just the, the trappings?

Speaker:

Yeah. Yeah. And it's at a low rate, interest rate.

Speaker 3:

I wish it

Speaker:

was, no, not close. Could be.

Speaker 3:

I bought in 22. It

Speaker:

was. Uh, pretty bad headed north by that time. Mm-hmm. So, um, I guess tell me first about gutsy money. Uh, gimme kind of set the stage there. That's your main employee, I presume?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah. I'm, I'm full-time in gutsy money and then I am transitioning out of my marketing agency and the other, um, organization, the plan for 2026 is to transition to a 5 0 1 C3. Oh. So, um, interesting.'cause it's basically running like a charity right now, as in I'm funding it.

Speaker:

Yes.

Speaker 2:

So I

Speaker 3:

may

Speaker:

as well if you can get other people to fund it too, that would be. Full tell. Yeah. Yeah. Can we start there? Tell me about that. Yeah, that sounds like an interesting, is it a adjacent to what you do with ZI money or what's

Speaker 2:

going on? Not at all. I am a very, I'm a, I'm a multi interested person. Yeah. So it's called the Screen Free revolution, and it's an organization that helps families reduce screen time.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Um, especially for young children. So the, the book lookup is all about traveling with reduced screen time for families who are interested in either eliminating screen time, screen time during travel, or at least reducing it Yeah. Strategies. Um, the strategies really go beyond travel and beyond screen time, and they get to the heart of, um, what motivates us as parents. And, um, one of those things being like. Is it doing what we really believe is right for our children? Or is it like pacifying people around us? Yeah, and I think that's a big part of the, the usage of screens, reliance on screens is like, keep my kid quiet in public. Yeah. So all the adults are comfortable. Right. And I get it, like, it's embarrassing

Speaker 3:

like

Speaker 2:

when our kids are

Speaker 3:

screaming

Speaker:

in

Speaker 3:

public.

Speaker:

I was just reflecting, uh, my white finale hosted a, a young lady, Sarah from Italy this last semester, and she was 16, soon to be 17. And like the last big trip we did was up to North Dakota.

Speaker 3:

Oh,

Speaker:

cool. And back for, to visit my family for Christmas. And then she went home a few days later when we came back. But I remember, and then we had a lot of great conversations and stuff, and I remember it sometimes being like. Come on, Sarah. Why are you toing or doing different things? You know, screen timing when like, we don't have much time left together and you could be looking out the window and talking about the nothing scenery that's between here and North Dakota, you know? And so I was, I was critical in my own mind a little bit. And um. We would have had more fun ultimately if we were just in conversation. Yeah. Uh, more of that time. Um, so, so yeah,

Speaker 2:

there's some, there's missed opportunities for older, for teens and adults, but when we're talking about the seven and under population, there's actually like missed brain development, um, and relational developments oh's Sure. It's like, could be life altering. So it's, it's, yeah. It's, it goes from like learning how

Speaker:

to communicate Yeah. With. People like not through text or Snapchat.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Building patience, um, learning how to regulate one's emotions when you're stuck in a boring situation. Um, verbal, you know, a lot of relational interactions is are, they can't be taught. They're picked up by relationally interacting. And when you look at a table and every single person, including the toddlers on a device, we're, we're missing those opportunities. Yeah. So, yeah. That's cool. And I get it. I'm, I'm a single parent like it is. I travel with my daughter a lot. Um, so it's challenging. And I wrote the book from that place, from that place of like, I feel you, I get it. Yet fighting yourself and you're,

Speaker:

yeah.

Speaker 2:

And yet, you know, we, we've gotta hold onto some of these things that are developmentally required.

Speaker:

So do you have any help with the nonprofit?

Speaker 2:

Uh, I did briefly. I had someone, um, helping me with web content a bit, and then she also, uh, was a, uh, I had a professional editor for my book, but she really read the book from the perspective of, you know, how's this gonna land for people? Is the tone coming through?

Speaker:

Yeah. You

Speaker 2:

know, all of that.

Speaker:

That's, that's kind of what those two things work together kind of anyway.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker:

Well, I hope that you have much success with that because it's something the world needs more of. Thank you. And I'm sure it's like, you know, how much can I let it pull me away from, you know, the, the paying job. Right.

Speaker 2:

Exactly. Exactly. And I think that it. It wasn't, it was difficult to, for me to pursue charging people for the service. Mm-hmm. Because oftentimes people don't even realize it's a problem. And so part of my service is even educating on like, what's being missed here. Yeah. And so when I can do it from a nonprofit perspective, I'll be able to get grants, I'll be able to work with libraries Totally. And organizations that support low income families and

Speaker:

Sure.

Speaker 2:

I can still

Speaker:

give it for free to a lot

Speaker 2:

of people. You can't give it for free. Exactly. Um,

Speaker:

that's cool.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Yeah. So that's good.

Speaker:

Well, thanks for sharing that. I, I hope you have a lot of, uh, uh, great achievements through that. And it'll be. The long term legacy of something like that could be so huge.

Speaker 2:

Thank you. That's, that's what I hope.

Speaker:

Tell me about, uh, gutsy money now.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Totally different track. So, gutsy money satisfies the numbers side of my brain, um, which as a writer and author, it's funny how active that's always been, but I like to say I love any number as long as there's a dollar sign in front of it. Okay. So, uh, gutsy money provides bookkeeping, tax preparation and business advisory primarily to female founders. Um, we have a very pink brand, so we're willing to work with anyone. They just have to be okay with a lot of hot pink.

Speaker:

Okay.

Speaker 2:

Um, but the,

Speaker:

I noticed your, uh, your, your water jug had the, was it high heels on there?

Speaker 2:

Yeah,

Speaker:

yeah.

Speaker 2:

Yep. I love, um, I just, why go neutral ever is my opinion. So if, if pink or purple or sparkle is available, I'm here for it.

Speaker 3:

I dig it. I dig it.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Yeah. So gutsy money, I've, I founded it as a, um, multi-time entrepreneur as you said, and I taught myself bookkeeping several businesses ago. And, um. Realized how easy it was for a business to get just like wildly out of control without a bookkeeping system in place.

Speaker:

No. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Even though we were making a, you know, the business that I took it over for was making a ton of money.

Speaker:

Yeah. Well, and even like, especially businesses with inventory.

Speaker 2:

Yes.

Speaker:

Or accounts receivable and payable. Mm-hmm. And you know, the amount of cash in the bank has very little to do with how much money you have.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Yeah. And a lot of entrepreneurs do that. Exactly. Bank account bookkeeping. So it's like, the money's in the bank. I have it to spend, the money's not in the bank. I don't have it to spend. And you can't make long range decisions like that. But we, we do.'cause, you know, there's not like a bookkeeping course that we have to pass to start a business. Right. So, um, a lot of people find themselves in a cashflow, uh, problematic situation. Sure. So we, um. I'm just really passionate about equipping all founders, but specifically female founders with, um, financial confidence. I think there's so much shame I've heard from a lot of women at least, but I think business owners in generally, there's so much shame when one starts a business, kinda like we were talking about before we jumped in here. Uh, you know, you start a business and you just have to learn on the fly. Yeah. And I think somewhere along the way people sometimes get it twisted in their mind that like they should know that and then they feel ashamed and then they don't enroll help because they feel more ashamed. And then the, the problem snowballs. Yeah. Yeah. And so yeah, we're we, you know, all my marketing and this is truly the approach of me and my team. Like there is no shaming, there is no dumb question. There is no expectation that you know this. We are here to educate.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

And also actually help with the, with the numbers. One

Speaker:

of the reasons we vibe so well in our Zoom now like three months ago or something when we connected was, you know, I think, I dunno if I shared it with you, but our motto at Loco Think Tank is ask of your need and share of your abundance.

Speaker 3:

Oh, I love that.

Speaker:

Yes. And so, you know, revealing those needs to a group of fellow entrepreneurs that takes some courage and it's good for you.

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Speaker:

Uh, and if you can share your abundance, you know, we love having bookkeeping business owners in our chapters'cause they know a lot about financials and balance sheet management and the things that too many businesses don't get. Upskilled enough.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Yeah. You're absolutely right.

Speaker:

So I love that you focus on the education element as well. Do you worry about running yourself out of, out of business, uh, opportunities?

Speaker 2:

No, because we literally have a service that's a financial health check, and we will do it for whatever period of time it is up to a year. And we, we look through their books and we provide them a full report of everything that's out of compliance, inaccurate, um, not aligned with best bookkeeping practices might be a concern in the future. We literally give them the whole report and we say, this is yours. You can price shop this, you can do it yourself. You can have us do it. And almost every person has us do it.

Speaker:

Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Um, I think they appreciate the transparency, but nobody other than bookkeepers wants to do bookkeeping. Like, like

Speaker:

let's just, that's like, it's kinda like job security, right. Like garbage bed too. You know? Nobody else really wants to, nobody wants to be a garbage guy.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker:

Um, so yeah, it's, it's work definitely. Um, and if you love numbers and you love. Smart numbers. Mm-hmm. You know, there's a, a lot of joy to be found, and especially in the helping of people reach those milestones and, you know, yes. For your, in your case, take a business that's been struggling financially that wonders how in the world they're gonna pay you on top of everything else.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker:

And then a year later they're, they're doing well.

Speaker 2:

Yes.

Speaker:

You know, and through smart decisions and, and, and all that goes with it. Right?

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's really rewarding. I have a team of bookkeepers who have. Been in bookkeeping since before I was an adult. So my, my team is extremely experienced and they, like most bookkeepers, they're, they're very focused on the books. And I think what's interesting, what's unique about gutsy money and where I get to shine, um, is I'm, I've founded a lot of businesses. Yeah. I'm boots on the ground. I know what it's like to actually run one of these businesses. And I also have that marketing business. Yeah. I was development, I have a marketing agency as well. Perspective. Exactly. So we get to have conversations that go beyond just what the, the balance sheet reflects.

Speaker:

It's a lot easier to make the books look good if you have enough customers.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker:

As it turns out. Yep. Yep. So tell me, when did you start with gutsy money?

Speaker 2:

August of 24.

Speaker:

Oh, so that's newer? Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Mm-hmm.

Speaker:

Oh, relatively new. And you, how did you find your, your bookkeepers? You just said, Hey, I'm cool. I've got a pink brand. Basically I'm focused on female founders.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Really. I mean,

Speaker:

come join my team.

Speaker 2:

Truly. I, I, I

Speaker:

mean I think that's a compelling argument.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. I said, I said Don't send me a cover letter because it's ridiculous that we're still, well, cha BT writes them I'm sure for everyone now, but like, it's silly that we're still doing cover letters. I like cover letters. You do.

Speaker:

Flatter will get you everywhere with me. And so a letter that says, I think local think tank is so cool and I really wanna be a part of it.

Speaker 2:

Okay. So matters. So you would like my approach then instead of a cover letter, I said check out the website, like really read it and let me know what about the brand or our mission like aligns with you. So they did great. They, they were very flattering. Um, but I, I really did, I only talked to people who I could tell were really passionate about Yeah. Supporting small business owners. They had skills they wanted to do that kind of work. Had skills. Yeah. I mean there's a big difference between someone who's worked in an accounting department for a corporate. Company. Totally. And someone who's actually worked with small business owners and understands the very real fear of like, am I gonna make payroll this month?

Speaker:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2:

So that's,

Speaker:

and every time you increase payroll, you're like, oh, damn. Yep. Grow enough to gotta get my the line, this guy. Yep,

Speaker 2:

yep.

Speaker:

Well that's cool. Um, and you remote team, I guess, probably. Mm-hmm. That's probably the way to do it these days. With that kind of work, how do like in that kind of setting, I guess it's like. Dropbox or some other kind of secure file stuff, or maybe there's financial industry specific stuff

Speaker 2:

that Yes, there is. Yeah. I have a, I have a, I use Financial Sense, which is a, um, very industry specific platform. It has the highest level of security available on the internet, and, um, it has all the functions I need. So I, I basically do all of my billing, all my client management through there. Yeah. All of our document, um, retrieval from clients. Yeah, document portals, kind of stuff like that. Yeah, everything. And then it, and then it integrates with QuickBooks, which is most of our clients are on QuickBooks.

Speaker:

Gotcha, gotcha. So pretty easy, really relatively straightforward. Your team is just logging in and then here's my stuff kind of thing. Yep.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. And we have an internal team chat through there. We also have other platforms, but I try to keep my tech stack low because some of my, um, bookkeepers have their own freelance clients, which is totally fine by me. I'll never get in the way of someone else's ability to earn income. And so, um, you know, one of them said at one point to me, she's like, I have like 20. Platforms that I have to check into with email and communications and all of this. And so I really saw that as an opportunity and requirement for me to streamline my tech stack. Mm-hmm. So I have, I've really streamlined it. Everything's pretty centralized.

Speaker:

Cool.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Yeah.

Speaker:

And how do clients find you?

Speaker 2:

I get a lot of clients off of, um, Facebook groups, people who are looking, I, people who are looking for services. And then I get a lot of referrals from existing clients. I have a pretty big network. I've lived in 5, 5, 5 or six different states. And I, um. I am one of what Malcolm Gladwell calls a, I always say super spreader, which is not the term super connector, not super spreader, but that's always what comes to my mind. Right. Super connector. So I, I sort of just collect people, um, everywhere I go and I have,

Speaker:

they become kinda your ambassador in that market and

Speaker 2:

people trust me. And so they look generally, whatever I'm doing, marketing, you know, screen free revolution, uh, gutsy money, people tend to refer to me. So I haven't actually ever done any advertising. I've done no paid acquisition for leads as of now.

Speaker:

I find that interesting. And so you're going into like Facebook business groups and things like that and just kind like watching the message board mm-hmm. To see who needs help with that and making sure you post once, well, hey, remember we do this and stuff.

Speaker 2:

Yep.

Speaker:

That's so, uh, smart. I'm sure. Um, I use Facebook marketplace. Mostly

Speaker 2:

buying or selling?

Speaker:

Uh, well buying, most recently we bought my wife a 2009 Porsche Cayenne

Speaker 2:

off a marketplace.

Speaker:

Nice. Yeah. And in a really nice condition, pretty blue with, uh, kind of a camel interior.

Speaker 2:

Oh, I, my Audi has a camel interior. I'm all

Speaker:

about that

Speaker 2:

life.

Speaker:

Yeah. I It's

Speaker 2:

awesome.

Speaker:

It's, you know, it's an older car and so it's, you know, risk of repairs and stuff, but it's, you know, a whatever 15-year-old car that was$75,000 15 years ago. Yeah. So it was pretty nice. Mm-hmm. And it's still pretty nice'cause it, that's how they build it.

Speaker 2:

Oh, they're so comfortable. So's awesome. Yeah. I love marketplace. Um, yeah, the Facebook groups is amazing. And I think what's helpful about that is that somebody's asking, right? Yeah.

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

So I'm not like coming at people, I see a lot of other people and, and no hate, but I see a lot of other people who are like, who do a post in the group, you know, and they're like, here's what I offer, da, da, da. When you're in a Facebook group with 30,000 other people, no one's read. No one's looking at that. Yeah. So I just wait for someone to actually ask for help and I offer it. And, you know, people hit my website probably of the, I think my percentage of people who convert and actually book a call is like 10% of the people who hit my website. But when they book a call, they're almost every single one of them works with me because my branding is so you already figured out who you server is. They know that they want what I've got or they don't. And that's great

Speaker:

either

Speaker 2:

way.

Speaker:

Yeah, that's really cool. I had a, a call today actually, uh, uh, one of those rare out of the blues and, and he said he just, he used chat GPT to look up, you know, business groups in Fort Collins.

Speaker 3:

Yes.

Speaker:

I was like, sweet. Good.

Speaker 3:

That's so cool.

Speaker:

I'm glad that chat has recommended me. You know, I have been around for a while and, uh, hopefully that continues, but, but I don't think, like you could probably tell me, is there people looking for. Business peer advisory groups. You, you said you go into a mastermind here in Fort Collins, uh, even this week, but

Speaker 2:

yeah.

Speaker:

Do people ask for that in those kinds of forms?

Speaker 2:

Um,

Speaker:

because most people I welcome to local Think Tank. Never heard of peer advisory until I tell what it's all about.

Speaker 2:

Ah, I come from a personal development background, so like mastermind and, and peer groups and things like that. It's sort of,

Speaker:

you've been around forever.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Yeah. It's hard for me to, to guess at what the general populace feels about it. Um,

Speaker:

well, and like your client base was a good example, uh, but you're probably evangelizing different. Groups and masterminds and things, development opportunities even for your clients.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I, I read

Speaker:

you right?

Speaker 2:

I like to connect people. Yeah. Yeah. I'm a big, I've got, you know, podcasts I've been on. I'm always sending guests to them or sending podcast episodes to people that I think are relevant. I love nothing more than when someone in my world connects with someone else in my world, and it's a positive outcome for both of them. Yeah. That is just like, I get, I get my kicks on that. So

Speaker:

what would you say are some of the, the biggest mistakes that, uh, not just your clients, but, but business owners have in that financial realm? Like is it just lack of anything or they Yeah,

Speaker 2:

I mean, avoidance.

Speaker:

Yeah,

Speaker 2:

definitely. Yeah. Avoid, when it becomes confusing, it's, you know, you know what it's like sweep it under the rug, stupid, like 50 hats metaphor. That's unfortunately so true. Yeah. You just, they just ignore it. Um, the, uh, sort of. Feeling like they, this is what resonated for me and why I began working with women coaches is if you go on Instagram and they, Instagram knows you're a business owner, you are gonna be flooded by all these coaches who are like, Hey, I built a a program. Just do my program and in one month you'll be working 10 hours a week and you'll be making six figures. You know that crap. And it's just, it's not, it's like, well, maybe it worked for you, maybe and monkeys

Speaker:

might fly outta my butt.

Speaker 2:

Exactly. It's a, it's a load of crap. And so after seeing business owners being targeted by that, which feels really good to the nervous system, right?'cause it's like, oh yes, just teach me everything. I don't know. Um, I got really angry because I'm like, that doesn't mean sh shit. If you don't, we mark

Speaker:

em all

Speaker 2:

explicit on Yeah, perfect. That doesn't mean shit if you don't have a financial foundation. Impossible if you, if you don't know what your cash flow, if you're not managing your cash flow. Yeah. It doesn't matter what SY system you have, you're gonna go outta business and 50% of small businesses close within five years due to cash flow issues. Okay. So, um, so I think ignoring it and then over-investing in, um, trying to combat, uh. Oh, what is it when you don't, um, when you don't really think you belong.

Speaker:

Mm. Like the imitation syndrome or whatever. Uh,

Speaker 2:

yeah. What, why? I always forget what the phrase is. Imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome. Thank you so much. Yeah. So in overinvesting, in expensive platforms to combat imposter syndrome, only to find out that like, that's just filling a hole that is bottomless until you actually patch the bottom and you really decide, look, I started this business, I believe in myself, or I don't.

Speaker:

Yep.

Speaker 2:

Um, so I see that a lot. I'll come in and look at the books and I'm like, oh, we had a lot of money Go out the door to these systems that you're a, not using, and B, like you didn't need them.

Speaker:

You were good. It's gym membership season right now.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Oh, I would've owed a Jim. I just feel like that's. It's so much

Speaker:

money. The, uh, the Battle on B had a, uh, post the other day that made me chuckle. It was, uh, planet Fitness to offer a convenient two week membership. Just for New Year's.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah.'cause it's basically how much you'll use it, but you'll pay for the whole year.'cause they make it so hard to cancel. Yeah.

Speaker:

Tell me about some of the, uh, uh, clients that you have. You have. Service businesses, mostly retail. What's, what's the, like, who gets drawn to your brand in particular?

Speaker 2:

Almost exclusively service-based and, um, businesses. We have a lot of interior designers. That's one of our, our niche niches. Yeah. And we have good referral partners in there, so we, it's just sort of continues. Um, so yeah, interior designers, real estate, construction. I tend to focus on the areas I have experience in. Mm-hmm. So obviously I had a coaching screen solution. It's basically a coaching business. I had a marketing agency. I, my dad builds as a residential home builder and met youth. I Okay, so you grew up in I was a construc. Yeah. So, um, so yeah, so I just sort of started with what I know. Um, but we tend to attract a lot of sort of two. Two types of clientele. Brand new people who they just want a foundation in place. Somebody needs to do

Speaker:

the,

Speaker 2:

and then a training. Yeah. And then they're gonna go do their books for a while until they grow enough to have us take them over. So. Oh, really? So you get

Speaker:

em set up mm-hmm. With the subscriptions and the softwares, and you're like, here's how you do debits and

Speaker 2:

here's how you do it. And then we have like a review, you know, sort of like we check in quarterly.

Speaker:

Oh, that's so.

Speaker 2:

And just help them until they grow enough.

Speaker:

It was big when, when I was finally able to let Jill go as our bookkeeper, my wife.

Speaker 2:

Mm-hmm.

Speaker:

Which she has no background in bookkeeping and not very much interest. So when we could finally hire a professional bookkeeper, it was a big deal.

Speaker 3:

It is a big deal.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. And it's really exciting. But I think for people they, I think they have a sense, which is entirely true of if I don't get this right at the very beginning, it's just gonna snowball.

Speaker:

Totally.

Speaker 2:

Totally. And so, um, I love, uh, you know, that's not the biggest part of our, our revenue, but it is where my heart is Yeah. Is getting new business owners our out Well,

Speaker:

and

Speaker 2:

they're

Speaker:

probably hyper loyal besides

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Yeah. They are. And they're so grateful and I'm so excited to, you know, to hear about their business and to hear what led them. They're so close to their why.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

If they've just founded it. Right. And they're passionate and Yeah.

Speaker:

I was thinking to myself, uh, that this feels like a, a longer term business, most likely for you. Yeah. Whether or not you're always in the weeds doing the delivery of services, but. Your clients are signing up for a long-term relationship, kind of.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, they are. Yeah. I've, I mean, I've had my marketing agency for 16 years.

Speaker:

Okay.

Speaker 2:

So it's that's a good

Speaker:

long stretch

Speaker 2:

too. Yeah. And I was doing other things. Sometimes, sometimes I scaled it back to more of a freelance thing. Sometimes I scaled it up and had teams and so, but I've had it for a long time and I am, I'm very clear that I am ready to be done with marketing, even though it'll always be a part of me. And so I, yeah. Gutsy money is really what I see being, I, I have evolutions planned for it, but I intend to, to be doing it for a long time. You

Speaker:

must be older than you look also,

Speaker 2:

I'm 40.

Speaker:

Okay. Just

Speaker 3:

barely.

Speaker:

Definitely. Then, uh, well, if a 16-year-old marketing agency, uh, you, you know, you couldn't be 14 when you founded that. Correct.

Speaker 2:

Thank you. And Correct.

Speaker:

And you're a mom too.

Speaker 2:

Mm-hmm.

Speaker:

You've had a just turned eight.

Speaker 2:

Yes.

Speaker:

You mentioned before you came

Speaker 2:

on, I'm, I'm getting in trouble when I still say seven, so I have to be Yes. She just turned eight. She. Amazing. She is, she's the reason I have stuck with entrepreneurship. Um, I have majority custody of her and there is just, I don't know how I would've done it if I had to be somewhere, you know, eight to five every single day with no flexibility.

Speaker:

Yeah. Yeah. That's one of the things we've had as a cultural element, even of our staff here at Local Think tank is like. You know, your mama needs a ride to the airport. Go give her a ride to the airport. Like we can figure that out, you know? And, uh, because of that, you know, I've, I've Ava's here, she actually went into retirement, uh, from Loco. We hired a new producer recently.

Speaker 3:

Oh, cool.

Speaker:

And then gave a trainer all up and stuff. And then she took a radio job that was exclusive and. Left and so Ava's, uh, here back in the saddle. Yeah. We think we got the next, uh, phase figured out. But um, I'm just really thankful for her to make space for the loco experience.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Oh yeah. She's, she's a gem. She's been great and, and yeah, that loyalty, I mean, I think how cool that she got to go try on some new things and really got to come back with true choice of I wanna be here. Um, but I'm sure your flexibility for life, human treating her like a human is one of the reasons she wanted to come back.

Speaker:

Yeah, I would say so. Yeah. She can chime through the wall if she wants to, but, uh, so, um, let's go to, if you don't mind, should we go to, well, I'll give you a choice. Should we go to Little General Lee or do you want to go to that first entrepreneurial enterprise first?

Speaker 2:

Well, those would align'cause the. The first one was a house sitting and pet sitting business when I was 15. So, okay,

Speaker:

let's go, let's go even further back. Okay. Let's go to, uh, let's go to 8-year-old. Oh, generally, so same, same age as your daughter now.

Speaker 2:

It's really interesting'cause that's, I, I think that's when, I rarely remember, that's what I, the earliest age that I really remember of what the experience was. Of like being, being me.

Speaker:

Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. I was eight.

Speaker:

I go back to about five. Wow. Those first years of kindergarten and first grade. I still have a lot of memories. Like I remember the election in 80. 1980 I think.

Speaker 2:

Good for you.

Speaker:

Stuff like that. Um, but that's understandable. You know, I've forgotten a lot more things than you have to. I'm getting old. So where were you at? Were you here in Colorado?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, we had just, I'm, I was born here and then we had just moved back here. Um, so it was fourth grade Southwestern Colorado, down right outside of Durango.

Speaker:

Okay.

Speaker 2:

And, and where

Speaker:

had you moved to?

Speaker 2:

We lived in Michigan.

Speaker:

Oh.

Speaker 2:

So I'd been

Speaker:

so Colorado to Michigan and then back.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Yeah. And Colorado's obviously way better, but, uh, it was a really big switch. You know, we'd lived in a larger town and I'd gone to a, a, one of the top schools in the state of Michigan and came to a very small town. You know, my hometown has 1500 people of. Graduated with 36 other kids. Yep. Um, and then just a, just a different culture. And what town is that different culture you sit down by? Um, it's called Mancuss. It's, no one's really heard of it, if you know where Mesa Verde National Park is.

Speaker:

Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

And you know where Durango is? I've been And you drive, I've been through from one to the other. And you don't blink.

Speaker:

Yep. Yep.

Speaker 2:

You'll see my hometown.

Speaker:

I've been, my wife and I and some friends are motorcyclists, so I've been around down there quite a bit. And that million dollar

Speaker 2:

highway.

Speaker:

Yeah. And well in that road that goes kind of almost from the. From Mesa Verde up to Telluride. Is it the Dolores River?

Speaker 2:

Uh, yes.

Speaker:

So there, the Dolores River Road is a real fun ride. I think it goes right. It is beautiful past Mancuss too, right there. There's like a V there thing.

Speaker 2:

Yep. Yeah. Yeah. You kind of skirt around Mancuss. And, and Dolores is a similarly sized, um, kind of special little southwestern Colorado

Speaker:

town. Yeah. What drives the economies down there?

Speaker 2:

Tourism.

Speaker:

Yeah. Even there, like, that's,

Speaker 2:

oh yes.

Speaker:

Like a place where people can live that isn't Durango, so it's a little more affordable. But most of them go to Durango for jobs and stuff.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. I mean there's ranching, there's, you know, there's definitely some other industry, but if not for tourism, I mean, there would be no way to make that. And

Speaker:

what was your, what was your family doing and do you have other siblings as well?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, I do. So my dad was in a variety of roles, but always. Always in real estate as he was building like that part of his career. And then he became a, he was flipping homes back before people were flipping homes,

Speaker:

like real estate brokerage mostly, but also,

Speaker 2:

um, more, more that he was, he had his realtor's license and then he was, he was like buying and selling homes and fixing them up about 10 years before

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Before that became

Speaker:

a thing.

Speaker 2:

Yep. Yep. So he did that. That's cool. And my mom helped him build that business. And then he, um, he's a, he's been a residential home builder for a long time.

Speaker:

Okay.

Speaker 2:

Probably 20. Years at least. Um,

Speaker:

well there was a lot of building going on down in Southwest Colorado

Speaker 2:

enough

Speaker:

later anyway.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Yeah. There was enough to To make a living. Yeah. And then my mom was a homemaker and then she held a variety of part-time jobs to help with the family, and there's.

Speaker:

Go ahead.

Speaker 2:

Yeah,

Speaker:

just little. Little. Generally only, or,

Speaker 2:

I have three siblings, so I have a brother and a sister, and then later my parents divorced and my dad had a another, so I have a half sister as well. Okay.

Speaker:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And where are you in the rotation?

Speaker 2:

I'm the eldest.

Speaker:

You're the oldest. Oh yes. So you get to set the stay under. Oh, which all the others will be measured.

Speaker 3:

Yes. Much to their chagrin. I'm like, it's not my fault. I didn't ask,

Speaker:

I just got straight A comparing you. I, that was a really good girl. Sorry.

Speaker 3:

Maybe, maybe

Speaker:

not. At least you didn't get caught much.

Speaker 3:

Right.

Speaker:

That seems like your style.

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Speaker:

Yeah. So, uh, talk to me about like, uh, were you sporty, were you play soccer, basketball, anything like that? Were you in the, the academic Olympics or the math competitions?

Speaker 2:

I loved, I loved learning. Um, I, but like many entrepreneurs, the school system wasn't a great fit for me. Attention

Speaker:

span wasn't a,

Speaker 2:

yeah,

Speaker:

super. They, they didn't challenge you every day?

Speaker 2:

Not even a little bit. And I, when I moved there in fourth grade, I was about a year to maybe even two years ahead of the curriculum. So you can imagine, yes, just I was a nightmare. Really? Yes. I was like bringing toys and playing in my desk and I would like bring a book and put it in the textbook and read, you know, terror, like talking to other kids

Speaker:

that read. I used to do that. I actually hadn't thought about that for years. The number of books that I would read inside of my textbook. Textbook, I'm reading Stephen King books and stuff, you know, and War and Peace and weird shit like that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I don't know if that maybe, it sounds like that was a similar experience for you, but just Yeah, the school system, the pacing of it being led by the, where I was from, not a lot of resources. So yeah, we were pacing on the, the most behind student.

Speaker:

I'm from North Dakota and graduated with a class of five

Speaker 2:

Oh oh wow.

Speaker:

Less than me. Yeah. And so like we trained, like we did biology one year for the freshmen and the sophomores, and then the next year they did physics for the freshman and the sophomores and rotated.

Speaker 3:

Wow, okay.

Speaker:

And it was the same for like algebra one and something else? Trigonometry, I think.

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Speaker:

Um, so no, it wasn't. Highly challenging and, and you know, as such, I dunno, I don't really like being challenged. I like coasting anyway. So for me it was a better fit.

Speaker 2:

I, I don't have much, I don't have, what is it? I have zero chill. I have, I'm not like type A, like I have to always be busy. I'm just very excited about life and I expect life to be just as exciting

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

As I am. Excited. I

Speaker:

like that.

Speaker 2:

And it,

Speaker:

I like that. We've got a bug on the curtain here. Should we get rid of him for the, he's sticky and we'll just leave him. He's happy. Um, and so. Did you graduate high school there too, you said, and, and so off to school somewhere, or what was that path for you?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, my junior year I escaped from my, in my opinion at the time, a NA in high school and went to a trade school half the day, so that was great. Oh, okay. I got to, I was in class with, you know, later in life, adults. That was really fun. And then my senior year of high school, I did it Fort Lewis College in Durango. Oh, Uhhuh, at a concurrent program. This was really neat. So by the time I left and my whole goal was just get out of the snow, so my heater in my car didn't work. My commute over to Fort Lewis every day was like, you know, fully bundled up. And so I only applied to colleges in warm weather, um, states. And so I ended up at Arizona State University where I have family flex in Phoenix. In Phoenix.

Speaker:

Oh, Phoenix, okay.

Speaker 2:

Yep. Very warm.

Speaker:

Oh, university of Northern Arizona is in Flex. That's

Speaker 2:

it. Yeah. Yep. Exactly. And that's a great school. But I went to a SU because it would be warm all year round. Sure. And that was really my qualifi

Speaker:

flavor. Flagstaff just qualified. They get snow sometimes. Yeah. Yep.

Speaker 2:

Exactly. Yeah. So I, I was in Arizona for about 10, 10 ish years.

Speaker:

Okay.

Speaker 2:

Um. Total. I'm trying to think. I've moved so much. But yeah, I graduated from there, stayed, built a pretty great network and then I was like, this is sort of soulless.'cause at the time it's, it's improved now. Well, I started

Speaker:

a marketing agency down there,

Speaker 2:

started a marketing agency Yep. For a California based company. So I, okay. Um, and then, because I was

Speaker:

Oh, so you like built clients in Arizona, but they did some of the back of the house kind of stuff or? Well,

Speaker 2:

I, I started with, I've always freelanced in addition to a career. So I was working for a California based company and then, um, they taught me digital marketing and then I was like, Hey, I could, I could do this out in the world. And so I did concurrently. I like

Speaker:

60 hours a week instead of just 40.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. There, that was the period of my life. Work hard, not smart. Um, and so I ended up moving to Austin because I was working remotely. Um,

Speaker:

cool.

Speaker 2:

Checked out Austin for a bit. Came back to Phoenix. Went to Portland. Came back to Phoenix.

Yeah.

Speaker:

You've been looking for the Choice city a little bit.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I have.

Speaker:

And found it. And then you moved to Arvada and haven't found your way back yet.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, exactly. I gotta come back to Fort Collins. It's just the dream here. It's. Such, it's big enough that I don't ever feel claustrophobic, like the small town I grew up in.

Yeah,

Speaker 2:

yeah. But small enough that it just always feels like a community.

Speaker:

Yeah. I agree with that. My wife and I lived in Colorado Springs for a couple few years, and I described that as like seven different communities that don't really like each other, but they live adjacent to each other, you know? And so Fort Collins just has a much more, you know, United vibe. Yeah. You've lived in Colorado Springs? Uh,

Speaker 3:

no, but I have a cousin who grew up there and I spent enough time there. That's the perfect description.

Speaker:

So, yeah. So yeah. Anyway, welcome, uh, back to Fort Collins. We'll predict that for your future here.

Speaker 3:

That's what I'm hoping.

Speaker:

Maybe real estate prices isn't a bad bounces. And, uh, find a great one up here.

Speaker 3:

Right. That's the goal.

Speaker:

Thank you. So, so you Austin a or Arizona? Austin what? Yeah, Portland. Portland. Portland. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Did a stint in Chicago, did a stint in Dublin, Ireland. Just

Speaker:

Wow.

Speaker 2:

Kind of,

Speaker:

and you're working remote. Somewhat freelance things. Yeah. In most of these situations. Mm-hmm. And just exploring the world. And you had a fellow in some of these years? At least. At least

Speaker 2:

later. Yeah. I was lots of fellas all, you know, just exploring the world. Little nomad life doesn't really lend itself to, uh, to long-term relationship. But then, yes, I was married and, um, my fiance turned husband and I moved back here. I actually never thought I would come back to Colorado.'cause to me Colorado was just my small hometown. Yeah. Which I had outgrown.

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Um, and then we, someone told us about Castle Rock. I don't know why. And on a whim we drove up here to Fort Collins and it was January and I just pulled up an event calendar and there was like baby yoga and music events. A bunch of bands and bands. Yeah.

Speaker:

Beer festival

Speaker 2:

coming next

Speaker:

month,

Speaker 2:

everything. And I was like, I wanna be here. I wanna be here where people are doing things. Yeah. And like making the most out of life Good. And so we moved here a few months later and I was here until 2020 when we separated. Yeah. And I headed down closer to Denver.

Speaker:

You were, um, really ahead of the curve on that kind of freelance travel lifestyle thing too. I mean, that became a lot more popular later. Um, I told you to turn your ringer off, but then I didn't. Um. But, uh, yeah, you were doing it. Were you inspired by that from somebody? Were you watching YouTube videos? Did that exist at the time or?

Speaker 2:

No. I mean, when I started working for the marketing agency that hired me first, they were like, um, we need you to write blogs. And I was like, what is a blog in relation to a business? Right. I had a personal blog, like I didn't even know that was, I didn't know what SEO was. You know, they're talking to me about SEO and I'm like, is that an acronym? Is that a word? So, um, they, they were in California and I was unwilling to move to California, so I just kind of fell into it. And they were fine with me being remote. They were getting me for a steal'cause I wasn't in California. No experience to speak of and no experience. Yeah. And, um, that just showed me that I didn't have to be location dependent. And so with them I tra I would travel and work. I moved a lot. I got used to working out of coffee shops.

Speaker:

Yeah. Really neat. Yeah. And what was some of your favorite places?

Speaker 2:

Well, I love, I love Portland. I have a best friend there, so I go there once or twice a year and it's just, it's like my American Dublin when it rains there on the cobblestone in downtown Portland. Yeah. It smells like Dublin. And um, so I, I loved it there. I loved Dublin. I actually really liked Austin, the scene. It was an incredibly difficult community to break into. Hmm. Um, it was really hard to make friends, people interesting. Were just not

Speaker:

interesting. Well, that was before people were moving there, so f rapidly

Speaker 2:

too, probably. Yeah, probably that. Yeah. So it was a lot more of actual Texas.

Speaker:

That's one of the cool things about Fort Collins. Like when I got to Fort Collins, it was kind of. Hey, welcome to Fort Collins. Where are you from? You know? Yes. And it was just very welcoming compared to Colorado Springs. They're like, you look kind of suspicious. What are you trying to get out of us? Or whatever, you know? And uh, just that I don't know how somehow the culture just feeds on itself. So I suspect Austin would be a lot easier now that they've had these

Speaker 2:

You're probably

Speaker:

right. Influxes. Especially if you were like, I'm not from California.

Speaker 2:

Right, right. Yep. Yep. Exactly. Well, and I think Fort Cohen, it does a good job of somehow, even though there's so many transplants here and they are so welcoming, somehow there's like a retention of the Colorado culture and vibe. Yeah. Whereas living close to Denver, I can tell you everyone's a transplant there too. But it doesn't really feel, they don't really fold into

Speaker:

the culture in the same way. Yeah. Not so much. So, yeah. If you're not about bikes, beer and bands.

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Speaker:

What do you doing here? What do you doing in Fort College? Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, what I wanted to ask, well, I wanted to observe actually. I've got a very special memory from Portland as well where, um, my wife and I and a couple of friends stayed at like a, maybe just a hotel kind of in downtown Portland. And I'm an early riser, even if I drink way too late the night before kind of thing. And all my friends were gonna be sleeping for a few hours yet. So I just struck off walking and I stumbled into this Portland Farmer's market.

Speaker 3:

Yes.

Speaker:

And I was like, this is like the best farmer's market I've ever seen. I've still got a Portland farmer's market bag.'cause I bought so much stuff, I needed to have a nice, uh, reusable cloth bag and I could see the. The love of that city. Uh,'cause it's just like the, the, the rivers coming together and all the bridges and stuff. Like I could walk around that town for days.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker:

Except it's too dangerous now.

Speaker 2:

Now it is. It's a lot different. Yeah. It's unfortunately a lot different. But that was probably Saturday market, which incidentally is on Sundays also. And it's, you're right. It attracts such interesting artisans. Um, you know, the food is amazing. They have um, they have like dancers, um, like street dancers. Oh, interesting. Who will come performing? I mean, it's just, it's, it's, I would go almost every weekend after I got off work. And it was never dull or boring.

Speaker:

I bought some kind of vinegar

Speaker 2:

Oh,

nice.

Speaker:

That was like a cooking vinegar kind of, or whatever. And. It was so damn good that I just treasured it. I I would use like a half an ounce at a time, you know, it was just like preserving the vinegar.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker:

Well,

Speaker 2:

if you remember the company name and it's still in business, next time I go, I can get you some.

Speaker:

That would be beautiful. I'll have to if I get on the internet, so maybe I can find it.

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Speaker:

So tell me about Dublin. How was that? Uh, like what was, were you, were you solo still and you just felt like Ireland seems cool. It's rainy there. It was rainy in Portland.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Um, well, I, I, Ireland, I think I spoke out of turn, Ireland was before Portland. Okay. Um, I, okay, that's a good story actually. So it was November of 2009, so it was my 24th birthday, no, 2008, my 23rd birthday. And I was dating this guy and he's like, oh, I really wanna travel to Ireland someday. And I was like, yes. Like this is, this is my jam. I wanna go too. Right? And then he just inexplicably broke up with me and I realized I'm waiting for someone to go with. I'm waiting. I could be waiting forever.

Speaker 3:

Right.

Speaker 2:

Screw that. And so I had a great job and I had no idea a recession was coming. So I quit my job. I sold my car, I sold my possessions and I was like, I'm just going to Ireland to Europe. We'll see what happens. And I did something called Wolfing Worldwide Opportunities on Organic farms. Mm.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Um, and so I would just go stay with people and work for them. Yeah. And they had to feed and house me. Yeah. It was amazing.

Speaker:

And you could freelance doing marketing stuff for

Speaker 2:

I didn't even actually I took, you didn't need to. I, yeah, I took the time off, um, just blew through my savings. Almost like a Peace Corps gladly kind of

Speaker:

thing.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Yeah. Just volunteered and then, and then I got such a sense for the people because I was staying with. Irish people.

Speaker:

Right.

Speaker 2:

Um, one time with a French woman who was married to an Irish man, so I got a little cross-cultural experience. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it was amazing.

Speaker:

That's really cool.

Speaker 2:

It's really great.

Speaker:

So tell me about, uh, future plans for gutsy money. Do you have like, evolution of that business?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I do. I'd like to, um, I want to make, uh, understanding about business finance and financial literacy more accessible. And obviously we all have chat GPT and we can ask, you know, give you want, can give us generic que generic answers and that's fine for some things. But I'd really like to develop an offering where we can, um, or we have courses that are really specific to the questions that I'm constantly getting asked. Mm-hmm. That actually give specific answers instead of the generic, like, well maybe if could be sort of that you kind of get from

Speaker:

internet. Well, you

Speaker 2:

can

Speaker:

make it personal that way a little bit like,

Speaker 2:

yeah.

Speaker:

One of the reasons I love doing the podcast is because I, I've seen like through all these chapter meetings with Loco that we've done. Telling stories is how people learn from each other so much. Yeah. You know, when it's a personal story of someone talking about their journey in gaining financial understanding in different ways and different things like that, like that becomes personal to the listeners as well.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker:

And um, and yeah, you don't have to say, you know, a b, c concrete was just about in bankruptcy right when they started doing this stuff and now they're doing great, but Right. But in those kind of settings, people personalize they as they travel that journey.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, exactly. I'd love to do kind of a hybrid where there's like courses that are more generic overviews, but then once they've mastered those concepts, then we actually have, like we schedule with them, okay, now let's actually look at your books and let's up. Let's teach you how to apply this. Yeah. And let's teach you how to interpret your financial reports. And because. It doesn't really matter if you have accurate financial data, if you don't know how to use it.

Speaker 3:

That's pretty true.

Speaker 2:

Right? Very much so. Um, so that'd be an evolution. I'd like to, I had my first paid speaking gig last year. Oh. And I'd like to do more of that.

Speaker:

Okay.

Speaker 2:

Um, I love teaching. So that would be, um, yeah, that's, sorry we

Speaker:

can't pay you for the podcast.

Speaker 2:

It's all good. I mean, I have amazing homemade kombucha, so that is payment that Yes.

Speaker:

We get the refill on the break here too, if you like.

Speaker 2:

Sweet. Um, yeah. So those are the, those are the evolutions. And I think I'd just like to, um, I'd like to grow my team. It's, I feel really great about, uh, my team is able to have freelance, they're able to be home when their kids get home from school or like contractors. They're all contractors. Yep. Okay. Um, even when they come on as employees, I'd like to model after a friend of mine has a bookkeeping business and full-time at her business is 30 hours a week.

Speaker:

Hmm.

Speaker 2:

And I just, I love that. I think that, you know, we've talked about Mike s creating flexible

Speaker:

lives is amazing.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Yes. Yeah.

Speaker:

Well, and. Actually my team right now, I've, I've recently hired a, a gal named Lauren Crawford and she's my chief of staff, basically integrator. And she took that hat from Ben, who's been my ops and marketing guy.

Speaker 3:

Mm-hmm.

Speaker:

But suffering under the ops hat.

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Speaker:

And shifting. And so we're gonna have like me plus a couple of smart part-timers. Yeah. You know, working on the business instead of me and a full-time intern kind of level person or that, you know, someone and I've had great interns and great employees, but just having grown up people with a lot of business experience on the team. Is that a whole different kind of. Phase for local ThinkTech.

Speaker 2:

Well in the, in the right person, in the right role for that.

Speaker:

Totally. Yeah. And not trying to wear four hats each.

Speaker 2:

Yes.

Speaker:

Yeah. Because that's always, you know, when you know it's only got two people and 10 things need to be done, there's just too many hats for most people to thrive.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it is, and it's, it's trying to be great at too many things instead of leaning into what you're already great at.

Speaker:

Do your clients interact with their service provider or do, is there a conduit through your headquarters or account managers or anything like that? No. You're,

Speaker 2:

I don't have a layer of account managers right now. That's the 2026. QI was thinking Q2, but I'm growing so fast. I think Q1 plans, so then there will be a layer, um, just to support with admin and things like that because again, I want my senior 20 plus year experience, bookkeepers doing exactly what they're great at.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Not helping people integrate their bank accounts,

Speaker:

so, right. Or hey, reminder, we

Speaker 2:

exactly

Speaker:

need those documents still and stuff like that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. We have a lot of automation set up, so I believe in having technology do as much as possible for us. But, um, as far as bookkeeping, AI won't, I don't know when it will be there, but it's not even close right now. I'm not surprised it so dead wrong. So

Speaker:

how dumb sometimes it is, even just on the stuff that it's good at.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker:

Uh, it would suggest that I shouldn't trust it for my bookkeeping for a while.

Speaker 2:

No, I wouldn't. I'm a, I'm, I'm actually, I've finally dragged myself out of Luddite status and I'm, I'm really adopting a lot of AI and technology and I'm always keeping in mind that it's not an expert, it's a doer. It's my job to be an expert or enroll the right experts who oversee the doer and then I can let the AI be the doer and just haul, but

Speaker:

yeah. Yeah. Oh, it's very effective when it gets to that place anyway, so, yeah. Um, I feel like maybe now would be a good time for a short break. Sure. And we'll jump into the second, uh, and third phases of our conversation. Okay. Alright. I think kombucha is and should be one of that kind of less alcohol revolution kind of drinks.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker:

It should spread farther. Some people are anti

Speaker 2:

Yeah. There's, I think they, I think some people try one kombucha and it's too heavy on the apple CI or vinegar and then they're just like, they're all dead to me. I

Speaker:

hate that. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Tons of them are not like that.

Speaker:

Agreed. Yeah. Agreed. And when you home brew, um, you can do so much. Sampling and variety and, and as long as the mother, uh, you know about the, the mother that floats and does this stuff. Do you know the process? Have you seen it?

Speaker 2:

I, I was explained to me once by someone, so, uh, but I haven't seen

Speaker:

it. Paquito. Yeah. So it makes like a, a, a Frisbee disc in the top of my jar.

Speaker 2:

Okay.

Speaker:

Right. And it starts out as just a little piece of the previous batch and a little bit of the juice. And then if you put it into a gallon of sweet tea, uh, just a cup of sugar and eight Lipton tea bags or some other tea. And then I use like herbal teas and different things, and then that critter grows into like a nice thick, leathery disc and that eats up all the sugar pretty much. Wow. Or a lot of the sugar and does the kombucha thing so that, you know, you have better poops and all that.

Speaker 2:

Okay. I did not know about that. Yeah. And that is a kind of magic that I think I need.

Speaker:

It's a hoot. Yeah. No, it's a, I've definitely, my, my gut health is so much better when I'm actively on kombucha.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker:

Um. So anyway, that's what I, that's what I think

Speaker 2:

about that you convinced me. That might be, that'll be my, my new, I like to start learn something new every year. That'll be my 2026 endeavor.

Speaker:

There you go. Yeah. I can uh, I can hook you up with a, with a starter for sure. If you get the, oh, I love that. The rest of the equipment I'll give you, I'll, I'll send you some pictures

Speaker 2:

Now. Is it like a sourdough starter where it needs to be like fed every single day, like it's your third child?'cause I committed to that.

Speaker:

Not all immediately kept at No, if you don't have them actively growing, you can put it in a jar in your fridge for. Couple months and not have any negative consequences.

Speaker 2:

Right. That's my pace, that's my

Speaker:

switch. And you can even actually grow a new starter if you want to just go buy a kombucha at the store, resu it, and it'll grow you a new critter.

Speaker 3:

Really?

Speaker:

Yeah. If you get the good stuff. Anyway. Yeah.

Speaker 3:

I'm mostly pleased that you're calling it a critter. That's what I gotta call it forever.

Speaker:

It's a Koby, a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast. Cool. So it's two critters really. Okay. Symbiotic critters. Yeah. And uh, yeah, if you do it right, you get this nice little leathery disc and it's a good time.

Speaker 2:

That's so cool. Right.

Speaker:

So when we zoomed, way back when

Speaker 2:

mm-hmm.

Speaker:

Uh, the first time after being introduced. I forget even from where, but it was,

Speaker 2:

I am pretty sure I stalked your podcast on the internet and just cold emailed

Speaker:

you. Oh. And I was like, hi. Is that part of the marketing plan? I'm cool. Should have me on your podcast. Basically. A lot of times I, I don't let people, I must have liked you right away. So, um, but you had a partner

Speaker 2:

mm-hmm.

Speaker:

In your business and you've subsequently had a, a partnership divorce. Yeah. If you will. Um. And you said you'd be willing to talk about it?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, absolutely. Much cleaner than my actual divorce. Um, far greater. That's

Speaker:

good. That's good.

Speaker 2:

Uh, yeah, so that's, that's kind of a cool story. So she and I have known each other since college. We met on roommates.com.

Speaker:

No, shout out this person. Is that

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Her name is Tara Rose.

Speaker:

Hi Tara.

Speaker 2:

She's amazing. She's a, she'll probably

Speaker:

listen to this too, right? She still likes you.

Speaker 2:

She does still like me. I believe that's good. Okay. Yes. Word on the street is that I very much still like her. So, um, she's a fascinating, incredible world changing human. She, most of her career has been spent in nonprofits. She's founded, uh, three that I can count, and probably more than that, um, that are still in operations, still changing lives, still affecting the world. She's just one of those people who can bring. This little spark of an idea to fruition into an incredible organization. And that's exactly what she did with gutsy money. So she, um, she and I were complaining one day about the coaches online, and she was a non-profit bookkeeper, and I'm a for-profit bookkeeper. And we were complaining about, you know, business, business owners don't need some. Pie in the sky system. They need fundamentals. They need the business fundamentals. And one of those, yeah, the

Speaker:

blocking and tackling of

Speaker 2:

business, right? Yes, exactly. Exactly. First and then maybe pie in the sky coaching if it's warranted. But um, and we were sort of on, there's a lot of

Speaker:

charlatans in that world

Speaker 2:

though. There are a lot, there really are. And it's hard to vet them'cause you can look great on Instagram. Um, and so we just. We just, um, we just, yeah, we just, we said like, we're tired of this. We wanna offer something, um, that has a very tangible outcome that we really feel will make a difference and move the needle for business owners, specifically women business owners.'cause we can align with their experience as we are. Them. And, um, she came up with the, I think she came up with the name and we just spoke from the heart and we built the website and we started, you know, sharing the message and it was really resonating with people. And I mean, she's the reason that she's one of those, she's an incubator. Yeah. She's one of those people who comes in and like holds the energy through the tough early days. Yeah. When everything feels like it's obstacles. Yeah. And she gathers the momentum of the winds and she just ke kept us going. And that was amazing. And along the way, um, she discovered that she functions and thrives better in more heart led organizations and kind of, I think probably would've taken gutsy money in that, in the more like mindset focus, helping people heal their, their money, trauma and habits and all that. And I was very much married to the numbers. These people

Speaker:

really need services.

Speaker 2:

People do. I mean they, they need that for sure. And. I was, yeah, I was really married to the bookkeeping and the numbers and the equipping women to feel confident by giving them, giving them business skills. Yeah, yeah,

Speaker:

yeah.

Speaker 2:

And so we, we spent about six months just. Not aligning over and over and over again. And that was really hard because we've been friends for 20 years and I think there were, there's still work we had to do. There's still a conversation we need to have that reckons who we were as business partners and who we are as best friends. Continuing

Speaker:

friends.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, but we had a really honest conversation in October, and I just said, I, I think you're miserable. And she's like, I am. And I was like, I'm becoming miserable. Let's fix this. Yeah. And, you know, do you, do you want out? And she didn't want me to feel abandoned and I didn't want her to feel pushed out. So how cool that we were caretaking each other. Unfortunately we were exacerbating the problem. Yeah. Yeah. And so that honest conversation led to, and

Speaker:

that's part of why you resonated with that ask of your needs thing. Mm-hmm. Like being able to be honest enough to be like, Hey, this ain't working, you know? Yeah. Which definitely. I've seen business divorces that are almost as brutal or just as brutal as, as a marriage divorce. Mm-hmm. And so I'm glad you didn't have to go through that.

Speaker 2:

Me too. Um, I think it speaks to her. And when we started this business, we said, I, like, I'm very much the plan for the worst case scenario. I've seen it in clients' businesses, I've seen stuff go wrong. I had a marketing client who had a business divorce that was very ugly. Um, and so we wrote our operating agreement for the worst case scenario. Yeah. But we said from the beginning, I, we trust each other, we trust each other's emotional intelligence to navigate this in a, in the best way. Yeah. But we're gonna have this in place just in case. Yeah. And we didn't need any of those provisions. We, we really did. Right. We split it very fairly and

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

With warm regard for each other.

Speaker:

Is she doing stuff in that mindset space now? I think founding a nonprofit,

Speaker 2:

think she's programming around that space. Yeah. Yeah. And then she still runs a nonprofit,

Speaker:

which, well, it seems like she might've got bored, like just. Doing the

Speaker 2:

Doing the do. Yeah. Doing the do. Yes.

Speaker:

In a, in a for-profit kind of environment.

Speaker 2:

Mm-hmm.

Speaker:

In that respect,

Speaker 2:

I think when you're an incubator and you have that special set of skills that enables you to truly bring something to life that didn't exist before.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

It's not the same skillset as running the business day to day and growing it. And I could have never, I, I will tell anyone this, and I've told her this, I couldn't have done it without work.

Speaker:

Didn't that spark of inspiration without,

Speaker 2:

I didn't have enough. But the, but the day to day and the scaling it and the optimizing the systems and the operations focus, but I'm also very into sales and marketing. Like I love that. I thrive on that.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

And, um,

Speaker:

well, and that can be a big value add and differentiator compare, not that you're selling your marketing services necessarily, but in that consultancy seat

Speaker 2:

mm-hmm.

Speaker:

People can feel like you're actually adding value.'cause like I've met a lot of accountants and a lot of bookkeepers over my years and not everybody's. That's sexy. Uh, you know, and they're just all backwards looking so much.

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Speaker:

And so

Speaker 3:

I'm laughing'cause I went to a conference for women in finance and bookkeeping and accounting last year and people were lovely and very friendly and I stood out. Yeah.

Speaker:

I'm sure.

Speaker 2:

I didn't look an act and move and engaged

Speaker:

them. I was a banker for 15 years before then you get it here and yeah. When I went to the Rotary Club after I was like, Hey, I'm starting a restaurant or a food trailer or something. Like, half of the people were like, oh my God, what have you done? You had a secure job. Right. And the other PA people are like high fiving me. Mm-hmm. You know, and they're excited because they knew I was an entrepreneur in banker's clothing.

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Speaker:

And I wasn't even in banker's. I was wearing swayed five finger shoes with my brown suit. Gone to business meetings and stuff only

Speaker 3:

in Colorado.

Speaker:

So I was a different stripe as well. So. Well I'm proud of you for, uh. Finding that, uh, space to talk about that. And, and I love when one of my pet peeves, honestly, and, and there's a lot of terrible people out there and I get it, but when people spend a lot of years together, whether they got married or not, and then they break up and then they hate the person immediately afterwards, that's one of my pet peeves.'cause I'm like, well, but that you're telling me you're stupid'cause you spent 12 years with that person. Right, right. So, you know, and I get it sometimes it like they get into a pills addiction or alcohol or there's a change. Something's revealed substantial change that's revealed or they been diddling the neighbor's.

Speaker 2:

Right.

Speaker:

Babysitter or whatever. Right. Yeah. But when it comes down to the, no, we just went separate ways. But I hate him now.

Speaker 2:

Right.

Speaker:

Actually, I hate that. Or I hate her now.

Speaker 2:

I think it's oftentimes the result of cu cumulative festering resentment. Mm-hmm. And that's where I think I could, you know, I could sense that in myself. Growing and I'm like, this isn't fair.'cause it's not her, it's my expectations.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

But it's very easy, I think for resentment can like snowball into hatred. Truly.

Speaker:

So we started this conversation when you corrected me on the Jenna versus Jenna Lee. And I'm, well, I'd rather have you say something than quietly resent me for the whole show. Same.

Speaker 2:

Same.

Speaker:

So

Speaker 2:

same.

Speaker:

What else do you do? What do you spend your time with your interests? Are you a avid book reader, a runner a I'm,

Speaker 2:

I'm an avid book reader.

Speaker:

Okay.

Speaker 2:

Um, I, yeah, I have a reading goal ever. I have a reading goal to read fewer books every year because otherwise I will just read books and one week is too much. Yeah. So I'm like, I I've, it's 40 this year and I'm really trying to keep it to only 40. But yeah. I love, I love reading. Not, I love nonfiction fiction. Um, I love, I'm a. Poet. So I do spoken word poetry. Oh wow. I haven't performed in a couple years, but, um, it's a great outlet for me. That's pretty cool. It's just, yeah.

Speaker:

Express. I've written a lot of poems over the years. Really? Really? Yeah. What kind

Speaker 2:

of poems do you write?

Speaker:

You know, half of'em are love poems of sorts. Mm-hmm. But also memorial poems when like, my mother-in-law passed, I

Speaker 2:

That's

Speaker:

beautiful. Uh, did this or, yeah. Different books like that. Like give'em little plaques or something. Where

Speaker 2:

do you feel like it, it helps you too

Speaker:

for sure. That's a process for you to For sure. Yeah. No, it's to heal. I, I blog as well, you know, so I like writing. I like word play. I'm sure I would love spoken word poetry.'cause I've, you would, I've, I told somebody just the other day, I've, I've, I've written the written and sung. Um, hundreds of songs, uh, in my head as I'm showering. Mm-hmm. And then the water, the words just all go down the drain. Yes.

Speaker 2:

That and road trips. They just, they get left behind on the pavement.

Speaker:

Yeah. And

Speaker 2:

I, yes.

Speaker:

So anyway, we have some

Speaker 2:

residence there, I suppose. Well, there's a slam. There was a slam poetry years ago. Pre pandemic here. I'll have to remember the name of it. But there was a reading they would do like once a month and Okay. It's just a hoot. It's fun. I think it would

Speaker:

be too. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

You would like it. It's spicy sometimes. It's, um, it's a provocative sometimes, but it's, uh, it's really hearing, it brings it to life in a way that, does anybody want to hear what the

Speaker:

old, bearded white guy wants to say? I'm not sure. It's possible in the poetry realms.

Speaker 2:

I, if I dye my hair first, worth a shot. You might be the only one. Yeah. You could just come and dress looking like homeless. And maybe that would,

Speaker:

that would give me some credit.

Speaker 2:

That would give you some cred. Yeah, because I, I've seen that

Speaker:

would be that far to go

Speaker 2:

to like for the

Speaker:

homeless look.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Um, uh, yeah, so, so I love poetry and then I run, um, Spartan races. I love obstacle course races. Okay. Pushing myself out there in the mud.

Speaker:

Do they like shock you and stuff in that one or,

Speaker 2:

yeah. Um, that's the, uh, the Tough Mudder. Tough Mudder. Yeah. Okay. And I've done that and it's, the shocks are not, that was the most scared of that, the first one I ran. Really? And it was like very minimal.

Speaker:

So it's actually not any worse than the Spartan race. Spartan's more fun?

Speaker 2:

No, the Spartan is more intense. Okay. And then they, I like that they have the different lengths. So the Tough Mudder, when I was running, it was just one length and they wouldn't really tell you how long it was, but it was like nine to 13. But it's be tough. It would be real tough. And I ran that in Arizona and it was. I always like to say it was my very first one. And I think that running obstacle obstacle course races is the most fun you can have as an adult with your clothes on, because it is just, you're just, it's, it's childhood reincarnated, right? You're crawling through mud, you're climbing shit. You're jumping off of shit. You're, you're helping other people. You're reaching down, you know, there's a lot of comradery. So you're reaching back to help somebody up. Some random dude, I don't know, is like lifting me up a wall. Just, that's pretty cool. It's, it is so much fun. Even if someone just does the five KI, I'm, I'm like a gateway drug to obstacle course races. Like I'm always trying to get people to try'em out. You're,

Speaker:

you're selling me on a little bit. It's really fun, the, the community.'cause I've, as I mentioned at the break, we, I've done a few of the Wild West relay

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker:

Long term races. And the story I refrained from telling, which I shouldn't tell, but I will, what the heck. But I, I had, so I, I had a, had a leg that was pretty long, like 7.9 miles and it was like two miles up. And then. Whatever, six miles down, uh, going down toward the Laramie River, uh, valley kind of. And, uh, I passed three people. Like I never passed anybody, Harley, but I was able to pass a girl and then a another kind of a slow guy. I hit the soft part of the line up, whatever. And then a third, a third person, I never even passed more than one before. And, but the third guy like stayed right on my tail, like a hundred yards back.

Speaker 2:

Okay.

Speaker:

And this is right as we crest the hill. And so now we got six miles down and basically at that point was when I started having to take a bowel movement really bad.

Speaker 2:

Oh yeah. The brown bear.

Speaker:

And couldn't, like, he was gonna pass me if I pooped. And so I ran six miles just squeezing my cheeks, you know, and I get down and I finish the leg and tap the new guy in. And the rudders in my van were like. You are gray, like your skin is gray.

Speaker 2:

Toxins are seeping into you.

Speaker:

Yes. You and freaking somebody in the one porta potty that was there at that exchange. And it took forever. And anyway, long story short is I wasn't right the next day either. Like it was, it was, it impacted my functional utility. I, I, I ran my leg the next day and stuff, but I was still kind of gray and I couldn't, like, my guts were like not happy.

Speaker 2:

My marathon coach Maria would say that you're a real runner now because she said you're not a real runner until you get a visit from the brown bear, as she calls it, in the middle of a race. Yeah. And you hope there's a porta-potty nearby.

Speaker:

Like I feel like if I had it to do again. I would've pulled over, taken care of business, wiped with some grass.

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Speaker:

And then passed that guy.

Speaker 3:

Right.

Speaker:

Because I'm sure I could have run so much faster. Yes. If I got rid of the brow bear first that I was carrying around on my shoulder. So anyway. Yeah, you were, were just locked in. Anyway. There's my embarrassing story for you.

Speaker 2:

That hasn't happened to me on an obstacle course race, but the startling thing is that it could happen to someone in the mud and that's sort of like, you never know my nightmare. You Yeah. You'd never know.

Speaker:

Well, I'm sure you shower off afterwards anyway.

Speaker 2:

Very much. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker:

So

Speaker 2:

maybe two showers.

Speaker:

So you're, you're a brand ambassador for the Spartan race. Uh, do you have one coming up this year? Are they, are they frequent? Where are they?

Speaker 2:

You can do them anywhere. So I, I have a dream of doing the Pacific Northwest one in Washington, and that's in September. Usually. I haven't looked at the dates this year. And then I keep trying to make the Atlanta, Georgia one work,'cause my partner has family there. And it's once again, not going to work this year. But, um, the coolest one I ever ran was in Sparta. Oh, in Greece, Barton Race? Yes. At the World Championships. Whoa. And that's like my little, like,

Speaker:

like you qualified for the world championships?

Speaker 2:

No. Goodness. No. Let me, let me back this up. You were in the Rookie club? I was just there and people were championship and I was just running the race. Gotcha. But it was pretty, it was pretty cool.

Speaker:

Yeah. I'm sure

Speaker 2:

going to run through

Speaker:

the streets. What, uh, like what, what pace are people? Is it a paste? Because you said it's like nine to 13 miles kind of thing, or Yeah. Yours, Spartan

Speaker 2:

different. So there's, there's three levels of Spartan K. So there's a 5K, a 10 K, and a 15 K. Okay.

Speaker:

Yep.

Speaker 2:

Um, but they're never exactly that because one of the, the invisible obstacle is they don't tell you how long it is, so,

Speaker:

okay.

Speaker 2:

You know, they kind of mess with you. And sometimes it's way longer than that. Like a lot longer. Yeah. Road

Speaker:

this huge hill and back down.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Yeah. Like we added three miles. Whoops. Sorry. Um, but, uh, so those are the links and you, um. Remind me what your question was. It's

Speaker:

like the fast people are like probably running seven minute miles or something like that between the obstacles.

Speaker 2:

So you have to pay extra to be in a timed, um, like corral. Oh.'cause you get to start early. Okay. And I've never done that. And I keep meaning to'cause I,'cause I could do it where I could pay to run with my age group and women.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Um, and what happens when you run in those earlier times, they don't let as many people go. So you're not um, you're not backed up obstacles. Just

Speaker:

him. Yep.

Speaker 2:

You get, you can wait at an obstacle for a while sometimes. Oh. Which kills your time. Like,

Speaker:

come on lady, get

Speaker 2:

over

Speaker:

this stupid

Speaker 2:

wall. Exactly. Like, you're not gonna make it. Give up, do the burpees, you know, like, move on. It's not happening. So I, that's my goal for this year. I wanna actually start, I, I keep an eye on my time and I always look at where I rank among women in my age group.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

And it's usually like top 20%, but I'd like to actually go out No, no. In the corral. Yeah. And just like. Nail it.

Speaker:

And is your training running mostly then

Speaker 2:

training

Speaker:

or you don't really do that, you couch to Spartan?

Speaker 2:

I did, uh, I used to do orange theory and I do a version of Orange Theory and lifting now.

Speaker:

Okay.

Speaker 2:

Um, and then I don't normally run. So you're not really putting

Speaker:

on miles?

Speaker 2:

I'm not really putting on miles because you don't really run that much. Like the most, you're running in between obstacles is two miles at the most.

Speaker:

Right.

Speaker 2:

Because it's broken up so much. So it's less about, I actually find upper body conditioning and grip strength are much more important mm-hmm. Than running conditioning.

Speaker:

Interesting.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker:

So tell me about this partner

Speaker 2:

yours. Oh's. Great. His name's Forest. He's a

Speaker:

forest,

Speaker 2:

very tall. Um,

Speaker:

like how tall he is? Very tall.

Speaker 2:

Six four.

Speaker:

Okay.

Speaker 2:

And everywhere we go. So you're very tall. He's a little taller.

Speaker:

A little taller than Youm. Six two. I was six three, but I'm shrinking a little. I was six, two and a half, but I always rounded up.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker:

Um, as you

Speaker 2:

do. Yeah.

Speaker:

cause otherwise I would meet people that said they were six three. And I'm like, but I'm taller than you.

Speaker 3:

Right.

Speaker:

And so I just, I accepted it. It was like coercion for me to exaggerate my height. Yeah. Just by not having to feel bad about calling people out on their lying.

Speaker 2:

And then time is now stealing it. Yeah.

Speaker:

Yeah. So he's six four.

Speaker 2:

He's six four. I say that because he's like, everywhere we go, everyone always remembers him. Right. He's kind of a unique name. He's very tall. Um, and so yeah, we'll go tall like a pine tree. Forest, yeah, exactly. And they're like, forest and you, what's your name? I'm like, come on. I used to be the memorable one, but not anymore. And

Speaker:

he's from.

Speaker 2:

He's

Speaker:

from, uh, Georgia.

Speaker 2:

We must not speak of this. He's from California.

Speaker:

Oh, okay. I

Speaker 2:

always tell him, when you meet people from Colorado, don't tell them you're from California. I cannot. It's, I have a reputation to protect. He doesn't

Speaker:

seem like that

Speaker 2:

though. He doesn't. No. He's, he's wonderful.

Speaker:

There are some acceptable castoffs from California. It's

Speaker 2:

true.

Speaker:

Wandering the country and a lot of douche bags

Speaker 2:

also that, also that, um, but yeah, he's great. He's, he's been in Colorado for a long time. Um, he is, has a finance background, so, um, when we first started dating, I just, I loved it because he and I could just talk for hours about business.

Speaker:

And how is he, was he a banker? Is he a investment guy?

Speaker 2:

Um, private equity, yeah. Okay. And Oh yeah. And then he is the CFO before that. So, um, he, he knows, he knows different things than I know, and so it's, he's, I've grown my knowledge so much by talking to him and, you know, I ask him questions. Yeah. Yeah. And he's done some recordings for my, for my clients of like teaching them certain things. So that's been really cool for him to like pass that along.

Speaker:

So, a personal question, I guess. Sure. But are you like. Interested in getting remarried or like is he a, we're one time divorced, divorce A two and you're gun shy a little bit.

Speaker 2:

Wonder what? I'm not gun shy. He is? Okay. Yeah. So I think what we will settle on will be a partnership that in every essence looks like marriage. Yeah. But doesn't have, as he says, um, a contract that involves the state. So

Speaker:

well, there's also prenuptial agreements that can kind of eliminate the state's, uh, influence on stuff.

Speaker 2:

Right. I think what I, what we both discovered through our interactions with the family court system is that there's ideal application. Yeah. And then there's how it actually works. And the court

Speaker:

does it however, where they want to

Speaker 2:

and the court does whatever they want

Speaker:

to. And there's so many cases where just people get wound up, uh, in the system and the system messes It

Speaker 2:

fails.

Speaker:

Yeah. Yeah,

Speaker 2:

it does. I mean, I know personal experience and then extended community, you know, there have been some great rulings that have saved children and protected spouses. And there's also just been like total. Total rendering of families. Yeah, unnecessarily. Um, because the court thought it was doing the right thing. So Yeah. Um, yeah, I think it's an imperfect system'cause it's run by humans who are imperfect. That's so it goes. Yeah. But we, um, he's great with my daughter. He's just, he taught her how to ride a bike. He's been there, he's been in her life since she was four.

Speaker 3:

Oh, wow. Okay.

Speaker 2:

Um, so, and my ex-husband and I co-parent, well, so we all celebrated Halloween together this last year, and my daughter was Taylor Swift and then my partner was a paparazzi.

Speaker:

I'll try

Speaker 2:

not to judge on that, but That's okay. I mean, she's eight. Like this is, yeah.

Speaker:

Taytay is cool.

Speaker 2:

Tay has got her hook center.

Speaker:

The other day I was singing a song in the office, like humming it along and stuff, and somebody's like, what song is that? I was like, I don't know this one. Ben, it was like Taylor, that's Taylor Swift Taylor. I was like, oh,

Speaker 3:

don't tell

Speaker 2:

anybody. You had to hang your head in shame

Speaker:

a little bit, you know? I don't know.

Speaker 2:

I won't judge you. I can't. Taylor Swift is on at my house. Stick on the day to day. So yeah. So my ex-husband was the, her security, I was a Swifty fan. Oh gosh. And he was paparazzi, so it was like a whole group. Oh, that's pretty fun costume. It was fun. I dig it. It was fun.

Speaker:

And I appreciate that you have that kind of relationship with your ex as well.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Yeah. It was a road to get here, but we're both children of divorce and we've seen the way it can go and we didn't want that for our daughter, so. Well

Speaker:

good for you.

Speaker 2:

Thanks.

Speaker:

Would you like to pay our, uh, random question game?

Speaker 2:

Oh, yes.

Speaker:

Next

Speaker 2:

for sure. Yeah.

Speaker:

Okay. So this is, uh, this is a list of 30 questions.

Speaker 2:

Okay.

Speaker:

Each attached to a different ping pong ball number. So you're gonna grab three of these balls outta here. Okay. And, uh, we'll allow you to fun, um, explore some random questions. Some are silly, some are very serious. And why don't you just grab three and then I'll take that bowl away from you and we can clear up the, the set.

Speaker 2:

All right. Perfect.

Speaker:

Okay,

Speaker 2:

we have set

Speaker:

that there.

Speaker 2:

Eight, nine and 30

Speaker:

0 8, 9 30.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Too bad we didn't get six, seven.

Speaker:

I'm gonna, we're we're in the, I'm gonna go to 31st because we're in that, uh, relationship department here.

Speaker 2:

Okay.

Speaker:

Oh, and what's this? Your partner's name? Does he have a name?

Speaker 2:

Forrest.

Speaker:

Oh, Forrest Duh. Mm-hmm. So, and it wasn't him, I know that,'cause you, you've been around, you said when you were traveling and all that. Mm-hmm. But describe your first kiss.

Speaker 2:

Okay. This is a good story. Um, as I mentioned earlier, school was a challenge for me, behaviorally, love to learn. And I had a very, um, close relationship with the middle school principal because I spent a fair amount of time at this office. You did kiss it, did you? Goodness? No.

Speaker:

Okay, good.

Speaker 2:

That would be bad. I

Speaker:

didn't wanna go

Speaker 2:

there. Uh, but his son Clint, was in my class. Oh. And, um, I, that paint me in a great light, but I basically went out with him, which is, you

Speaker 3:

know, basically in middle school you just say your boyfriend and girlfriend. Yep, yep. And. Because I wanted him to go home and at the dinner table tell his dad who did not care for me that he was dating me. And so we kissed this chase, little peck, but I was just like, forever. I have the principal's son's. I only knew first kiss.

Speaker:

I like your, uh, slight evilness there.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. Yeah. That's diabolical

Speaker:

a little bit. Mildly diabolical though. I like it. Uh, what did you say? Eight and nine were your other two?

Speaker 3:

Yep.

Speaker:

Hmm. Yeah. What music or artist reminds you of your child childhood?

Speaker 2:

Oh, Reba McEntire. Okay. And when I met her I was so uncool. And I was like, I'm gonna play it cool. I'm just gonna be normal. And I was like, I love you so much. Fancy was my favorite song, which was really inappropriate for a kid to love the song. Fancy by Reba McIntyre, which is essentially

Speaker 3:

about a prostitute. Yeah. But, uh, yeah, totally fan girl.

Speaker:

Not just a prostitute, but a mom. Her mom putting her daughter into prostitution to savor from a life of Porto.

Speaker 3:

And when I was eight, that was my favorite song. I knew every word. I didn't understand.

Speaker:

Don't let it down.

Speaker 3:

Yep. Yep.

Speaker:

Yeah. That's a great song. I could, we could sing that together if I had better microphones. But

Speaker 2:

for the sake of your audience, I'm really glad we go. We shouldn't'cause I shouldn't. Um, yeah. So I was not cool when I met her. And

Speaker:

so Are you a country girl still?

Speaker 2:

I like all music except reggae music, so.

Speaker:

Okay.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker:

Oh, why not Reggae?

Speaker 2:

I, it just irritates me. Huh? It's too chill. And that's, yeah.

Speaker:

Yeah. For good reason. Life is hard. You guys get a job and quit playing the freaking drums, the freaking steel guitar.

Speaker 2:

Eight. Yeah.

Speaker:

Fair. Fair. What's the strangest way? That you've ever injured yourself. I had somebody that was like, I've never injured myself. And I was like, what?

Speaker 2:

Strangest,

Speaker:

strangest way you've ever injured yourself?

Speaker 2:

It didn't hurt me, but I did at the age of 39, catch my hair on fire on accident.

Speaker:

Oh,

Speaker 2:

that was just last year. Um,

Speaker:

yeah. Stove?

Speaker 2:

No, just had a candle in my hand and forgot, and I had cups in my hand and I put it in my arm with all the other cups. Oh,

Speaker:

right.

Speaker 2:

It just

Speaker:

like, did you catch it pretty fast?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I caught it pretty fast, but I was just, when I tell that story, people are like, oh, you were seven. I'm like, no, I was 39. So there's, that didn't hurt.

Speaker:

You know? What's a good thing? God is smart, uh, on the way he designs things like hair is definitely very flammable, very right. Like, but it doesn't like go up like it would if it was like soaked in gasoline or something, you know? It makes so much, much noise, explos and smell. Mm-hmm. That you quickly realize somebody's hair is on fire.

Speaker 2:

The smell is what saved me,

Speaker:

I'm sure.

Speaker 2:

Because I was like, what's on me? It's me. I'm on

Speaker:

fire. Oh shit, I'm on fire. Then you just, yeah, because had

Speaker 2:

to go in for a haircut and tell my, you know,

Speaker:

I wonder like if you're wearing like lots of product, it probably would go up faster. Is pretty alcohol heavy in those products

Speaker 2:

when we were in middle school? Yeah, absolutely. If you're, so we used to take candles in middle school and spray perfume or hairspray into them and it would go

Speaker:

the blow

Speaker 2:

blowtorch. So

Speaker:

yeah.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Hairspray wouldn't have been good, but I don't wear that very often. That's good. So I was saved,

Speaker:

yeah. Saved by the lack of hairspray.

Speaker 2:

So not injured, but my pride was injured.

Speaker:

So next is, uh, the part of the conversation that you're gonna be excited about is the, well, the local experiences are closing segment, but before that we have. An option of a, of a taste. A a half a half a shot of either the Wiz Cal from our New Spirit sponsor seed and spirit distilling here locally, which like literally takes things from grain that they grow

Speaker 3:

Oh wow.

Speaker:

To the mash that they make, to the ferment that they do. And so there's hyperlocal as any business around. So wow.

Speaker 3:

Process,

Speaker:

prop store, new spirit sponsor, seed spirit or the infinity bottle is all the different, uh, spirits that have come through the podcast studio over the last really about 12 months, I think started at last, early last year.

Speaker 2:

That feels, just, feels like I'll be connected to all the people that been

Speaker:

on here to all those past conversations.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker:

Plus you said the tequila or anything like tequila is

Speaker 2:

Yeah. I burn out my relationship with tequila when I was about 22, so,

Speaker:

all right. Any

Speaker 2:

form,

Speaker:

why don't you, um, keep the guests occupied for a quick moment with a. Story. Well, I'll go grab the Infinity bottle and get it served up.

Speaker 2:

Okay, sounds good. Let's

Speaker:

see. Quick story. I

Speaker 2:

could also tell another

Speaker:

story, a book, a recommendation.

Speaker 2:

Oh, yes. Hmm. Okay. I'm, I'm rereading, uh, Brianna Weiss book right now, and it's a series of essays and she just sort of picks any random topic, but it's like, you know, 10 ways to know if you're emotionally intelligent or five things that you should look for in a, a. Friendship or five things that you should bring to a friendship. It's just really random things. But she has this way of speaking from the heart, um, that is, it's captivating. Um, it doesn't feel like self-help. It feels like someone like bearing their heart to you, but a really healthy, balanced person.

Speaker:

Yeah. It's

Speaker 2:

pretty cool. I

Speaker:

dig it.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker:

How would I know if I'm emotionally intelligent?

Speaker 2:

Um, one of, I, the one I remember the most is in an argument when someone says you do X, Y, z. You don't respond by saying, you do that too. Right.

Speaker:

That's good. Like you actually

Speaker 2:

pause and take

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

It's not tit for tat. Right.

Speaker:

Well, and I'm way harder to live with than my wife is, and so it's

Speaker 2:

good that you know that.

Speaker:

Yeah. I try, I have a phrase I use sometimes and I usually don't actually, I don't think I've ever shared it on the podcast before. Uh, but it's one of my, one of my superpowers. Is that beautiful? Women love me.

Speaker 2:

Okay,

Speaker:

good. Like beautiful of spirit, beautiful of heart, beautiful of everything. Yeah. But I apparently, I make a good impression on women in general, but especially beautiful women. I, I

Speaker 2:

love that. So

Speaker:

I think I'm doing all right.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Yeah. It's

Speaker:

hard to monetize. She still

Speaker 2:

loves you

Speaker:

and Jill loves hard, despite all of that modest, and just, Jill loves me because she's one of those beautiful women.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker:

But also she honors. Honors the fact that, uh, nice people like you, even like me.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. I do like you.

Speaker:

Good.

Speaker 2:

Um, I think that's, I think that's really cool when our partner can like, see the magic thing, even if it, even if that magic thing makes us really appealing to the opposite sex or to

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Potential partners. It's cool when they can just see that magic thing Yeah. And be like, fuck yeah. About it, instead of like,

Speaker:

yeah, I could appreciate that too.

Speaker 2:

Feel insecure. Yeah.

Speaker:

Yeah. Well, and like most people, there's always insecurities and stuff, and Jill's like, yeah, you get to meet with all these. Beautiful women, business owners and stuff that join your club and stuff like that. I'm like, but you know, I'm Fort Collins famous. Like, I can't have an affair. Like, people would turn me in like right away. I'd have to go to freaking South Park or something like that. But I don't have time.

Speaker 2:

I don't find that people who are looking to have an affair mention their wife within moments of meeting someone. And you have mentioned her numerous times, like, to the degree that I'd like to meet her, so she's

Speaker:

a, she's a peach.

Speaker 2:

Yeah,

Speaker:

for sure.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker:

Um, you might not like me as much after the infinity bottle. I, I

Speaker 2:

might

Speaker:

not, but see,

Speaker 2:

but I have a kombucha chaser.

Speaker:

I over poured you the first time, but I gave it to me.

Speaker 2:

Okay.

Speaker:

And so, uh, we should be good. Cheers. Uh, maybe Shalom.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Shalom,

Speaker:

Shalom.

Speaker 2:

Oh, that is,

Speaker:

and we have to,

Speaker 2:

that is actually good,

Speaker:

isn't it? See, there's a lot of, uh huh. There's a lot of, uh, like I said, bourbon is a big part of it. Yeah. There's a fair bit of tequila. There's a little bit of gin. There's some whiz cow in there now.'cause we just got

Speaker 2:

that. It's sweeter. It's sweeter than I expected. Hmm.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

All right.

Speaker:

It's not bad. Maybe I should, uh, bring it up, bottle it. But it, the, the, the evolution of the bottle changes. It changed so much. Like the gin came along later.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker:

And it just made itself known. Can you, can you feel the gin still? I, I can't feel it as much anymore.

Speaker 2:

I actually can't. I don't like gin. So if it was, if it was to be sensed, I would've picked it up.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Um, I didn't, it's

Speaker:

been still some,'cause I added, uh, some of the Wiz Cal and some of the bourbon from Seed and Spirits. So, uh,

Speaker 2:

I like it. The bourbon from seed and spirits I think is what's coming through like that. Just,

Speaker:

yeah.

Speaker 2:

I don't know. There's a sweetness. They

Speaker:

job

Speaker 2:

richness

Speaker:

a good, um, like I was mentioning, that's, uh, the localist, local distillery ever. Like where they actually, they bought an old combine from pue. They could harvest their corn and their wheat that they, and their ride that they grew farm. Do they have a tasting

Speaker 2:

room here

Speaker:

soon? They're, they're in the old Funk Works.

Speaker 2:

Oh, cool.

Speaker:

Yeah. So Funk works vacated and so that I pop by there to get my, my podcast supplies the other day. And, uh, he gave me the tour. But yeah, they'll have, it's actually gonna be a tasting lounge and oyster bar.

Speaker 3:

Oh yes. Awesome.

Speaker:

So, uh, give you another, another reason you're giving me so many reasons to move you, you and Forest to come up here twice a week for a while, until he says, you know what? I think we should move to Fort Collins.

Speaker 2:

Yes. Oh, I have a question for you. Okay. So, if you were helping me convince Forest to move here,'cause he's not lived in Fortt Collins, what would your pitch be?

Speaker:

You know, depending on your timeline. Um, I found out recently my, my employee Ben, like brought his wife here for a tour to Fat Weekend from Northern California. Smart. Mm-hmm. Where they had been living together when, since their marriage. And she was like on the street corner of. You know, mountain and Shields and said, you know, I could imagine living here. So that's one option. Okay. But that makes you wait until August. So you've probably gotta school start planting seeds and stuff.

Speaker 2:

Can't, starts in August.

Speaker:

Yeah. So we gotta get here sooner than that.

Speaker 2:

Mm-hmm.

Speaker:

What he does, he. He works in Denver and physically has to be there a lot, I guess.

Speaker 2:

Uh, he would, he would work in a remote. He would, he would

Speaker:

remotely He be He would be okay. Yeah. Going out once in a while, but not all the time.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. He's a mountain biker. Um, he likes hiking, but he's an avid mountain biker. He's an avid snowboarder. So our

Speaker:

mountain biking is, would be

Speaker 2:

farther

Speaker:

superb around here.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. It's great,

Speaker:

I think. Yeah. But what, I don't know. I haven't explored the Denver, but I'm sure it's less busy.

Speaker 2:

Mm-hmm.

Speaker:

We've got so many great mountain bike trails and they're not busy. Um, but

Speaker 2:

as a man,'cause I can only give him my perspective. Right. And I think that the community of women business owners is so, um, supportive and powerful here. That's a massive draw for me. Yeah. I can't really give him the, the man living in Fort Collins's perspective.

Speaker:

Well, lots of hot chicks.

Speaker 2:

Okay.

Speaker:

Sorry. That's

Speaker 2:

probably not, I'm not what you're, I'm telling that. Actually, I'll say anything to get him up here.

Speaker:

Um, you know, let's see. From a man's perspective, and he's similar age to you? I presume?

Speaker 2:

He's eight years older, but yeah.

Speaker:

Okay. So he's more like my age. He's more like

Speaker 2:

your age. Yeah. So like commu. Yeah. How easy is it to make friends break into the community? You know,

Speaker:

you know, I think for older people it's pretty easy. Okay. Like what Fort Collins doesn't really have is if you're 25 to 35 and you're single and you're looking for somebody, the pool is not, or 25 to 50.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker:

And you're looking for somebody. It's not. But if you found the person you wanna spend the rest of your life with, it's way better.

Speaker 2:

Okay. Awesome.

Speaker:

Like, just that, that's probably the, the, the one size fits all pitch. It's, you know, live in old town if you can. Mm-hmm. But you don't have to, but you sure could. It's just the two of you and one little girl, you know? Yeah. That'd so cool. You're not gonna have any more kids probably.

Speaker 3:

Right.

Speaker:

And so you get to, I mean, you've been searching for. Kind of an ideal lifestyle for a lot of your life. Mm-hmm. And credit to you, you've lived a lot of your life in that fashion, you know? Yeah. I'm a pretty girl in Dublin, you know, who wants to take me out to a fancy dinner? Yep. All that. Yep. Lots of adventure and, um, and adventured around and, and it's a pretty, you know, both Lauren, my chief of staff and Ben, my marketing sidekick, whatever.

Speaker 3:

Mm-hmm.

Speaker:

They're here over the, they all both moved here in the last three years because it's a choice place.

Speaker 3:

Right.

Speaker:

You know, and they both have young marriages and it's like, for, for the 40-year-old cool person, Arvada ain't cooler. No. You know, it's cool, but it ain't cooler than Fort Collins for that demographic, you know? Um, it might be cooler for the 60 something, I guess. I don't, I don't really know why Arvada would be cooler. May maybe for young, maybe just proximity family stuff that have to work in Denver. But you don't have to. No.

Speaker 2:

Neither doesn't

Speaker:

to, he doesn't to,

Speaker 2:

yeah.

Speaker:

So don't.

Speaker 2:

Right, right. Yeah.

Speaker:

We'll tour you around. We'll take you out.

Speaker 2:

I love that. I love that. And I think one more question, given your job in this organization that you've created, um, I know that he's considered entrepreneurship, you know, when he's in private equity

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Basically his goal, right. To go out and find a company that's ripe for acquisition, and then really after the fact, a lot of people fall outta that process. He stays in it and makes the company successful. Mm-hmm. And so he, he loves the idea of maybe one day investing in a, a struggling business and modernizing the processes and all that.

Speaker:

So you should actually look up my podcast episode with Aaron McCambridge. Okay. And he does, um, like he's invested in a few small companies and becomes their CFO controller and has some equity stake for doing that and some coaching around it. And he also helps match, make people to their right exit plan.

Speaker 2:

Yes, I love that.

Speaker:

Um, and actually, honestly, if Aaron had a really smart partner, he would love that. Interesting. Okay. Um, in that business. So that's a worthy lesson, but also just as a, here's how he could apply his skillset to create a capable. System that like, he doesn't wanna start a greeting card store. Right? Right. Like, that's not gonna be his thing. He's gonna apply the knowledge he's gained through different things he's done and, and it's a great value add. Like Aaron's a super bright guy.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. I think that would be amazing. I think there's so much more creativity to finance than people realize.

Speaker:

Totally.

Speaker 2:

And business operations and business scaling. And I think, well, like

Speaker:

who, who takes my baby when I give up

Speaker 2:

my

Speaker:

baby? You

Speaker 2:

know? Yeah. I, I sold an agency in 2022 that my ex-husband and I owned, and it was emotionally hard to let go, but then it was also like figuring out how to communicate the value.

Speaker:

Totally,

Speaker 2:

um, of the business is really, and

Speaker:

find the right buyer.

Speaker 2:

Very different. Yes.

Speaker:

Especially when you got employees and stuff and you're like,

Speaker 2:

mm-hmm.

Speaker:

You know, I don't wanna sell my business to the highest paying asshole.

Speaker 2:

Oh yes.

Speaker:

I'd rather pay, you know, sell it to the third highest paying cool guy. Yeah. Or gal.

Speaker 2:

We sold it to an amazing, um, amazing man. And we, we were on calls with people where I was like, just my interaction with you.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

I even if you offered me more money, I wouldn't sell my business to you on principle. Right. Like, I don't want,

Speaker:

I don't like you, and so I don't like you. I would not subject by clients nor my employees, your or my reputation. Your reputation. Yep.

Speaker 3:

Yep.

Speaker:

Yeah. And so that might be a worthwhile listen.

Yeah.

Speaker:

For what it's worth. Oh gosh. I used to be able to like tell you the episode number of every Oh my, my gosh, that

Speaker 2:

would be

Speaker:

amazing episode. But I don't have that anymore. I have search shots. Once I got over a hundred it changed.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, no, I'll search for it. That sounds

Speaker:

great. So yeah, Aaron McCambridge, he's the son of, uh, a long time Rotary Club member of mine.

Speaker 2:

Oh, cool.

Speaker:

And uh, so I've known him for. Gosh, 20 years.

Speaker 2:

Nice.

Speaker:

Um, overall, and he's a pretty high integrity guy too, so it's worthy of even a explorational lunch with somebody that's

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker:

In that world, but up here.

Speaker 2:

Yes.

Speaker:

Um,

Speaker 2:

yeah. I'll look that up and I'll, I'll look up his contact. And I think this interaction is exactly what I miss and love about Fort Collins is it's like you start talking about something and people want to make a connection. They wanna help each other. They wanna help each other so much. Yeah. I love that about this community.

Speaker:

Yeah. Well thanks for that. I appreciate being an ambassador to that, uh, mindset.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. For you. No, you really are. I mean, that's basically your mo So

Speaker:

last question.

Speaker 2:

Yes.

Speaker:

Oh, two more questions.

Speaker 2:

Okay.

Speaker:

Would you consider a loco think tank chapter? If you move up here,

Speaker 2:

I would.

Speaker:

Good. Glad to hear. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker:

I would. Next to last card, very final question. What is your loco experience? And that's the craziest experience of your lifetime. That you're willing to share with our listeners other than that shot of in the Infinity bottle? Oh,

Speaker 2:

well that was definitely, you know, out there,

Speaker:

not it,

Speaker 2:

um,

Speaker:

was it,

Speaker 2:

I was on room Raiders, um, the MTV show room, Raiders back in the day.

Speaker:

Room

Speaker 2:

Raiders. Room Raiders. So essentially a camera crew. It's a, it's, it's a faux dating. It's a faux dating show. Okay. So MTV shows up with a guy or a gal who's evaluating prospective dating partners

Speaker:

like the dating

game

Speaker 2:

or something at their rooms.

Speaker:

Oh, okay.

Speaker 2:

And luckily, I am a sleuth because let me tell you, let me describe my college room to you. So, like, I had two friends who were kind of shopaholics. So this was your room that you were being evaluated. This was my room that I was being evaluated by this real douche canoe. And, uh, he was, and uh, I had the piles of laundry everywhere. I had friends who would just give me clothes. So I almost never did my laundry'cause I didn't need to. My room was, I'm, I'm very, I'm a very like, scattered

Speaker:

huh

Speaker 2:

person. And at the time I was not neat at all. And so they would've come into like something that, not a hoarders episode, but like something akin to that, right? Like it would've been. So embarrassing for that

Speaker:

age of a person. Yes, yes.

Speaker 2:

Forever. Right on, on, you know, immortalized on MTV. And luckily I am like sneaky and I, when I went to record the intro session, and they don't tell you what show you're on, they're just like, you're on a random dating show on MTV. We won't tell you what it is. And when I went to record the session, my best friend and I sculpted around the property and we found these unmarked white vans and we'd watched enough MTV to know they pick you up from your house. They like kidnap you. Okay. And then the crew comes in and evaluates your room. Oh, wow. So you're not supposed to know. So thank goodness I sculpted around and found that out. We went home and turbo cleaned my room for like four hours. So I didn't look like just a complete hoarder, but they did find my, they did find my, my vibrator, my t-shirt from the Vagina monologues that says, vaginas are way cool and my football named Shirley. And so those were the evaluating factors that he used to determine he did not want to date me.

Speaker:

Your football named Shirley?

Speaker 2:

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Speaker:

It's not related to your vibrator at all, or?

Speaker 2:

Nope. I just had a football named it. Shirley wrote it on the football. Okay. I love football playing it.

Speaker:

Nice. Yeah. You, you have, you can throw a football. I can. Well,

Speaker 2:

mm-hmm.

Speaker:

I, Sarah previously mentioned, uh, exchange student. She and one of her cross country. Um, so she joined our, the cross country team while she was here. Oh, yeah. And one of her girlfriends that we all went camping in the fall and I taught those two girls how to properly throw a football. That's an important

Speaker 2:

skill.

Speaker:

It was, it was very rewarding. That is cool, uh, to be able

Speaker 2:

to, that will serve them in the future. Yeah. And people cannot believe it when, I mean, it's, you know, anyone should be able to do it, but Yeah. I can throw a mean spiral and people are like, what? What that comes from You taught

Speaker:

that girl how to throw football? Yeah. Yeah. Is that even allowed? Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. It's, it is. Dang it.

Speaker:

I've actually, I actually, I've taught quite a few, including my wife. I've taught my wife how to be a pretty good pool player as well. Nice. Um, but also I've taught several, including my wife also, but several women how to ride motorcycles, which is also very. You know, your girls aren't supposed to ride motorcycles. I don't know if you knew that.

Speaker 2:

Well, my mom worked at Harley Davidson and we had plenty of women riding motorcycles.

Good

Speaker:

for you

Speaker 2:

there.

Speaker:

So that's part, that's probably as significant to your life journey as almost any other factor in your life. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So

Speaker 2:

yeah.

Speaker:

So let's get back to your local experience. Mm-hmm. So, so you clean your room all up?

Speaker 2:

Yes. I clean my room all up. They

Speaker:

kidnap you off and off

Speaker 2:

They haul. They come kidnap me. Yeah, they kidnap me and the person goes through my room and two other people's rooms, and then they put,

Speaker:

and it's just the room. They don't get to see a picture of you or anything

Speaker 2:

like that. They, they go through and they remove all, well, they

Speaker:

can see what size your bra is and your

Speaker 2:

Yeah. And like your size of your clothes, I guess. But yeah, you're not, you're not figuring out a lot about them. And then they, they plant the three girls. Who are being evaluated, or boys, whichever way the episode's going in a van and they make you watch the person go through your room. Oh wow. And your, they record your commentary.

Speaker:

Yes.

Speaker 2:

So we started out, the guys are, it was a, it was a double episode, so it was a guy and his friend evaluating the rooms and they were total douche canoes right out the gate. You could tell just. Typical a SU bros and the, the two other girls and I in the van start bonding over how lame they are.

Speaker:

Right.

Speaker 2:

And producer, we like none of us wants, wants to date this guy. Exactly. Exactly. And the producer stops and she's like, you're supposed to be fighting over them. You can't be getting along. And we're like, but they say whatever

Speaker:

this la And she's

Speaker 2:

like, that's too bad. That's what you're here for. So unfortunately, I'm really good at talking shit. And so I got the assignment where she's like, you know, fight over them. So I talked a little more shit than the two of them. So the episode airs months later and I am irate because I look like a total, like a total bitch. B-I-T-C-H. Yes, yes. Like I look so rude and I'm actually still friends with one of the girls. Like we didn't care about those douches at all. But um, and then I also learned that you got scapegoated a little little bit. I got totally scapegoated and I learned that reality TV. I know everyone knows this now, but people didn't know it then is not real. I know. Shot gas.'cause they made us record these little individual reactions and then they edited the reactions however they wanted to. They put it wherever they wanted to to make you look any way they wanted. So they had me reacting to things that weren't even, that never happened. That's like put those, they did a narrative that they wanted. Yeah. Yeah. So anyway, that was my loco. Like I was on MTV, but I never wanted anyone to look at the episode because I look like such a witch.

Speaker:

Well, you don't seem like a witch to me.

Speaker 2:

Thank you.

Speaker:

So I'm thankful for you. Do you wanna share your website or anything If somebody wants to look you up?

Speaker 2:

I would love to. Yeah. My website is gutsy money.co. Amazing. And they can, they can find me on Instagram, they can visit my website. I encourage people to Do you have a

Speaker:

MySpace? You used to have a MySpace? Of course

Speaker 2:

I did. I tried to sign back in like three years ago, just out of curiosity. And it's mostly deteriorated, but you can sign back in.

Speaker:

Okay.

Speaker 2:

At least you could. I

Speaker:

never had a MySpace ago. I wasn't that cool.

Speaker 2:

Oh

Speaker:

yeah. Oh, I had, or attention seeking. I dunno.

Speaker 2:

I lived, I mean, I was that generation, right? I was in college when that landed. So I seemed right. Yeah, it was appalling. Um, no, no. MySpace, Instagram, uh, Facebook. That's really it. I don't do a lot of social media. It's not, um, as a marketer, I happen to know there's actually a very long

Speaker:

low, should you have a podcast? OI For yourself?

Speaker 2:

I would love to have a podcast one day.

Speaker:

Well, why not? It doesn't take very much. Really.

Speaker 2:

Look at you downplay

Speaker:

a computer and a microphone.

Speaker 2:

I

Speaker:

mean, but you could sit where if you've got a beautiful space to sit, you could do, I don't know. What, what would you do if you were gonna actually, because you said how many podcasts have, you're like a podcast. I've been on a lot. Right.

Speaker 2:

Because I, I go on them for screen feed revolution.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

And then I've been on them for gutsy money. Yeah.

Speaker:

So I'm like, your 12th podcast,

Speaker 2:

I mean, yeah.

Speaker:

20th maybe

Speaker 2:

I want you to feel special, but you're not.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Um,

Speaker:

I feel a little bit, uh, used. I dunno,

Speaker 2:

you're my first in person podcast.

Speaker:

Oh really? Yeah.

Speaker 2:

That

Speaker:

Oh,

Speaker 2:

that's

Speaker:

special.

Speaker 2:

That is special. Yeah.

Speaker:

That is different.

Speaker 2:

And this is way better. I like it in person.

Speaker:

I'm glad. I'm glad it's So what would you do if you were gonna host a podcast?

Speaker 2:

I'm curious. Oh, I've had, I've had so many ideas. I think something, it would be one of two things in the money

Speaker:

space.

Speaker 2:

It would e it would, that, it would either be business and it would be navigating business life balance, business finance. It's just really navigating entrepreneurship. Yeah.'cause I, I just like, I'm a crack fiend for entrepreneurship. Anytime I meet an

Speaker:

entrepreneur for everybody or for women. Your branding is

Speaker 2:

I could apply for women.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. It's aligned with my branding and it's what I know.

Speaker:

I was gonna share something with you. So we use this thing called Hallows Relational Intelligence.

Speaker 2:

Ooh, okay.

Speaker:

Um, which is like the next step beyond emotional intelligence, which is why I know I'm good at it. Um, in part, but anyway, with Hallows, um, the, so I'm a white, over green, white is the thinker, the idea guy, the visionary, the doesn't ever finish things. He starts kind of thing.

Speaker 3:

Okay.

Speaker:

Um, your former partner perhaps. And the green is the social relational, where it's like, I don't care what people think about my work. As long as I like me, I'm cool.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker:

The orange is the achiever entrepreneur.

Speaker 3:

Okay.

Speaker:

Um, and very driven, goal focused. We'll run over people if necessary, if they can't keep up. Yep. I know. And then Blue is the organizer. And then finally the last color is the integrator, the brown. Okay. And, uh. Ben was going through some of these for the a chapter that's coming up and he is like, boom, she's bright orange, boom, she's bright orange. And I'm like, yeah. The women business owners are much more driven in general in their personality profile than the men. Now there's certainly men that are very driven as well, but 70 plus percent of our women members at Loco think Tank.

Speaker 3:

Wow.

Speaker:

Have that kind of achiever, entrepreneur, driver type personality type. Yeah. Because I think, you know, sometimes it does definitely take them longer to establish the respect of the marketplace.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, you're right. And it's really fair of you to notice that. And I think that there was a shift in the 1980s when women entered the workforces en mass that was like, prove that I can do it, prove that I deserve to be here very much like, totally in, um, intense independence.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

And a hundred percent what I actually end up working with. When I get into these kinds of conversations with entrepreneurs, whether they're clients or friends, is we need to shift now to working with others, asking for help, um, mentorship, things like that. Totally. You don't have to be an island. Yes, exactly.

Speaker:

Exactly. Because even if you're super powerful and amazing and the smartest person ever, you still don't wanna be on an island.

Speaker 2:

No, no. Being on an island, and you can go so much farther together. And so Totally. That's sort of the conversation to your point, is like, orange is great, bright, entrepreneur driven, all of that. And how can you outsource? How can you ask for help? Totally. Like those are skills you have to learn the ability to effectively ask for help.

Speaker:

Yeah. Yeah. I a hundred percent agree with that. That's

Speaker 2:

interesting.

And

Speaker:

so, uh,

Speaker 2:

I'd like to look into that. I'm really into Enneagram, my motherhood mentor. And I do e What's your e I'm an eight.

Speaker:

I'm a seven. Eight.

Speaker 2:

Oh, I

Speaker:

like the Maverick.

Awesome.

Speaker 2:

Awesome. Yeah. I like seven eights a lot. I am, I'm probably an 8, 7, 7 wing.

Speaker:

Yeah. I'm balanced. Like I'm am. My eight and seven are pretty much the same. Wow. Which is relatively unusual. I

Speaker 2:

think. That is unusual. Yeah.

Speaker:

I don't know. I'm not a get along a good self-promoter though. Okay. Like I, I like to be in the host seat and, you know, not be the guru. I, I have a certain amount of reluctance to try to claim that spot, even though

Speaker 2:

I

Speaker:

think I'm pretty smart.

Speaker 2:

I think that that's actually the ideal guru who is still learning, still willing to listen more than they talk. I mean, I think that's, that's really a guru who I trust, not the one who's out there being a, like overtalking about how they know everything and promoting themselves too much. Yeah. So,

Speaker:

and I do, uh, my book reading is all secondary. Like, I interview really smart people and then I listen to my podcast with

Speaker 2:

them. Nice.

Speaker:

Thank you for being on.

Speaker 3:

Thank you so much

Speaker:

for having me. Appreciate you. Cut. Speed.

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Curt Bear

Host