EXPERIENCE 254 | NOW This is NOCO - With Ben and Kelsi Harris of This is NOCO

Now This is NOCO! - Ben & Kelsi Harris, Owners of This is NOCO and the NEW Discover NOCO Magazine

On today’s episode of The LoCo Experience podcast, I’m excited to introduce Ben & Kelsi Harris to our listeners!  They are the owners of the This is NOCO media company, and recently expanded their offerings through acquisition of Discover Fort Collins magazine - which will be adding editorial and community content and rebranding as Discover NOCO this spring!  

And - they’ve recently come aboard the team for The LoCo Experience podcast - Ben in production and Kelsi managing social media and Co-Hosting a new short-form Business & Community News segment on The LoCo Experience!  

Ben & Kelsi came back to Northern Colorado in 2020, escaping Covid-nation in California, where they worked together at a Christian camp - and Ben rekindled his production business, The Hype and the Heart at that time.  The opportunity to acquire NOCO Date Nights Instagram page surfaced in January 2024, and they’ve grown their following and rebranded to This is NOCO in the summer of 2025.  They are all about local, and together, we’re LoCo for Local, and so please welcome to the show - and to the team - and enjoy my conversation with Ben & Kelsi Harris of This is NOCO!

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Music By: A Brother's Fountain

Transcript

Speaker 6: 0:00

On today's episode of the Loco Experience Podcast, I'm excited to introduce Ben and Kelsey Harris to our listeners. They're the owners of the This is NOCO Media Company, and recently expanded their offerings through acquisition of Discover Fort Collins magazine. Which will be adding editorial and community content and rebranding as Discover NOCO this spring, and they've recently come aboard the team for the Loco Experience Podcast, been in production, and Kelsey managing social media and co-hosting a new short form business and community news segment on the Loco experience. Ben and Kelsey came back to Northern Colorado in 2020, escaping COVID Nation in California, where they worked together at a Christian camp and Ben rekindled his production business, the Hype in the Heart at that time, the opportunity to acquire NOCO Date Night's Instagram page surfaced in January, 2024, and they've grown their following and rebranded to, this is Noco in the summer of 2025. They're all about local and together we're loco for local. And so please welcome to the show and to the team and enjoy my conversation with Ben and Kelsey Harris of this is Noco.

Speaker 4: 1:06

Let's have some fun. Welcome to the Loco Experience Podcast. On this show, you'll get to know business and community leaders from all around Northern Colorado and beyond. Our guests share their stories, business stories, life stories, stories of triumph and of tragedy. And through it all, you'll be inspired and entertained. These conversations are real and raw, and no topics are off limits. So pop in a breath mint and get ready to meet our latest guest.

Speaker 2: 1:42

Welcome back to the Loco Experience Podcast. My guests today are Ben and Kelsey Harris. And Ben is the founder and executive producer at the hype in the heart, and Ben and Kelsey are co-founders of This is Noco. Mm-hmm. Which is primarily an Instagram page, but also YouTube and tiktoks and stuff, and also the owners of, uh, paper Magazine, currently known as Discover Fort Collins, but soon to be known as Discover Noco.

Speaker: 2:08

Yes. Starting in March.

Speaker 2: 2:09

Yes. Good job of co-branding.

Speaker: 2:11

Yes, we're working on it.

Speaker 2: 2:12

And nice job on the graphics, on the, uh, new business card. Thanks for sharing. Oh, well,

Speaker 3: 2:15

thank you.

Speaker 2: 2:16

Yes. So, um, let's just start out with you, Ben, because you've been in business for yourself for quite a while.

Speaker 3: 2:24

Yeah,

Speaker 2: 2:25

yeah.

Speaker 3: 2:26

Technically, I've been in business for myself in one form or another, probably since I was. 15.

Speaker 2: 2:31

So you're unemployable.

Speaker 3: 2:32

I'm really, I, I can't Oh yeah.

Speaker 2: 2:33

You can be a contractor. Yeah. But, uh, if you want to, uh, hire me,

Speaker 3: 2:37

I think I've actually held maybe two jobs since high school.

Speaker 2: 2:41

Interesting.

Speaker 3: 2:42

Working for someone.

Speaker 2: 2:43

And were you doing this kind of work as a 15-year-old or

Speaker 3: 2:46

no? No. I've had businesses in all kinds of different realms. Okay. So I had a painting business for a while. I had a, uh, you know, I started off with like a lawn mowing business. Sure. Um, so it's been various types. I didn't get into video production until college.

Speaker 2: 3:01

Okay.

Speaker 3: 3:01

And then

Speaker 2: 3:02

just been there,

Speaker 3: 3:03

been there a

Speaker 2: 3:03

little bit ever since.

Speaker 3: 3:04

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 3:05

That's really cool. So what do you do like, uh. Like, what kinds of projects do you take on your, your name is kind of compelling. The hype in the heart?

Speaker 3: 3:14

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 3:14

Even though I couldn't read my own writing.

Speaker 3: 3:16

Well, the name comes from the idea that to have, um, a good handle on marketing and communicating with people is. You know, a compelling story has to have two elements. Mm. The hype.

Speaker 2: 3:28

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 3:28

Something exciting, something worth seeing, something that draws you in and the heart. Mm-hmm. You have to have substance behind it. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 3:34

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 3:34

So that's, that's where the name kind of came from and, uh, it's been hard to explain to people ever since.

Speaker 2: 3:40

Well, to me it's kind of signifies a little bit toward that hero's journey kind of thing. Mm-hmm. Where you have to be both bonded to that character and also excited for all the, the, the, the hurdles and challenges they're overcoming and trying to connect with their audiences.

Speaker 3: 3:55

Exactly. Yep. Yeah. And so it was born out of, uh, uh, 2020. I was, we were leaving a job, we were leaving a state, uh, we were leaving California during the height of the pandemic. And, uh, nobody was hiring weirdly enough, so I was like, okay, I guess I'm just gonna, you know, I ran my own video production business before, um. We moved to California and then I was like, all right, we'll just start it up back and we'll do it again. Very cool. So how hard could it be? So,

Speaker 2: 4:21

uh, yeah,

Speaker 3: 4:22

it was born out of, uh, just a necessity of this is what we can do right now to make money.

Speaker 2: 4:27

Yeah. And do you have a specialty area where you work or certain types of clients that you work? That heart thing makes me think maybe you do some stuff with, uh, you know, passion forward kind of businesses and stuff more. Mm-hmm. But I don't know.

Speaker 3: 4:41

Yeah. Oddly I've kind of stumbled into, I work in the tech

Speaker 2: 4:45

Oh.

Speaker 3: 4:46

Industry a lot, so I do, I have a lot of larger tech clients that just kind of keep me busy.

Speaker 2: 4:50

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 4:51

So all the time. So they, they really kind of pay the bills. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Um, so I, I do that a lot and, but I also do have more of a, yeah, like you said, a heart. Heartfelt mission forward kind of nonprofits and, and ministries and that sort of thing.

Speaker 2: 5:04

And a lot of free labor for this is Noco, I imagine.

Speaker: 5:07

Mm-hmm. All the time.

Speaker 2: 5:09

And that seems like it's your baby, your vision first. Is that fair? You're like, I got this super skilled husband.

Speaker: 5:16

Yes. I always say that. I film the things and then tell Ben to make it look nice.

Speaker 2: 5:20

Yes. And so, yes. Yes. So tell me about, this is Noco Kelsey, if you don't mind. Like, uh, I know it started as a date night something. Yeah. Date night Foco or something like that.

Speaker: 5:29

Yeah. So, um, Anastasia and Sean actually started it as Noco Date Nights. Um, and they started that in. Would've been like the very end of 2022. 2023. Okay. And it was just an Instagram account that highlighted their weekly date nights. Oh. Um,

Speaker 2: 5:43

just told those stories.

Speaker: 5:44

Yep. Just told their stories of what they did when they went out. And then she found that people were interested in what to do for a date night. So she started this weekly schedule and she would post five events that were happening every day. Yeah.

5:56

It's

Speaker 2: 5:56

Tuesday night, here's something you

Speaker: 5:57

can do. Yep. Here's something you could do for date night. Um, and people really liked that, um, in that

Speaker 2: 6:03

these are friends of yours, is that

Speaker: 6:04

No, we didn't know them at all.

Speaker 2: 6:06

Alright.

Speaker: 6:06

Um, I followed the account. Yeah. I was like, oh, I loved this. Um, and people liked it. She grew to like about 5,000 followers in a year and then she went, wait, I don't actually want a job in social media.

Speaker 2: 6:18

Yeah.

Speaker: 6:18

I don't want to be on social media. I'm gonna close the account. So in December, 2023, she just put up a post that said. Sorry, we're shutting down.

Speaker 2: 6:26

Oh,

Speaker: 6:26

this, um, I don't, we don't wanna do this anymore.

Speaker 2: 6:29

And you're like, no.

Speaker: 6:30

And so I sent the post to Ben and just said, oh, like one of my favorite Instagrams is closing. And he goes, well, DM them. See if they'd give it to us instead.

Speaker 2: 6:39

Yeah.

Speaker: 6:39

It's like, oh, okay. So I dmd her and said, would you sell us this account? And we got coffee. And, um, a couple people, she got coffee with probably five people that week.

Speaker 2: 6:48

Okay.

Speaker: 6:49

And, um, she picked, we really clicked and she picked us. And in December of 2023, we bought NOCO Date Nights.

Speaker 2: 6:56

Okay.

Speaker: 6:57

And essentially ran it as it was for

Speaker 2: 7:00

largely

Speaker: 7:01

unchanged, like a year. Largely unchanged. Didn't change the name.

Speaker 2: 7:03

Well, and you guys have a. 2-year-old or something. So I'm imagining date nights became harder and harder to accomplish. Is that

Speaker: 7:09

Yes. Mm-hmm. When we bought NOCO date nights, we, that baby Ira was six months old. Mm-hmm. Okay. Um, so we say that we went from one kid to two kids and one business to three businesses.'cause we also actually started a candle business.

Speaker 2: 7:24

Oh,

Speaker: 7:25

that same time.

Speaker 2: 7:26

Yeah. That candle of can that you guys

Speaker: 7:27

gave me. So we started that the same time. I say I was bored on maternity leave. I don't know that anybody ever gets bored on maternity leave, but I did. Um, and so we ran it as it was and. That was super fun. For like a year. Yeah. A year and a half. Yeah. And then we kind of said, well, what are we doing with this? How are we gonna make this an actual business? To be totally honest, we didn't really want to just be in the spotlight of it all the

Speaker 2: 7:53

time. Right. You're not there to be an influencer. Yes. Like at least, unless like somebody's gonna pay me to, it's a lot of work. Right. To create all the content and to edit it. Mm-hmm. And stuff.

Speaker: 8:04

Yes. It's a lot of work and yeah, we didn't really want to be the influencers, especially in the local setting. There are so many other cool things to highlight that are not just us. Yeah. Um, and so we,

Speaker 2: 8:17

we, we share that heart a little bit. That's like why I have this podcast is I don't want, I'm kind of Fort Collins famous, but I'd rather elevate other people's stories than

Speaker: 8:25

Yes, exactly.

Speaker 2: 8:26

Share with the community what they're doing.

Speaker: 8:28

Yes. That's where I'm like, I can use the platform I have in that same way to share other things. So in like April we went to lunch at Locus Cider, RIP, locus Cider, and uh, met Shep Dan.

Speaker 2: 8:43

Mm-hmm.

Speaker: 8:44

And from that conversation, kind of an entire business model was born.

Speaker 2: 8:48

Really.

Speaker: 8:49

And so we, his story was so cool. And wherever he lands, I will tell everyone'cause his story is so cool. Okay. And from that conversation, we decided. To branch out of date nights and into all of NOCO and to start doing more feature forward.

Speaker 2: 9:09

Yeah.

Speaker: 9:09

So to feature other people to write full written articles on them, to use Ben's skills to do video features on them. Yeah. And Dan was our very first one.

Speaker 2: 9:19

And were you like linking the articles? I'm, I'm kind of an Instagram noob. Like I have an account, I've had it for years, but I didn't even know you could like, sell a page or change the name. Um, but so would you like link to the articles like,'cause I think of Instagram as pretty pictures and cool reels.

Speaker: 9:37

Yes. Which is one of the challenges is that getting people out of Instagram and to read the articles.

Speaker 2: 9:42

Right.

Speaker: 9:43

Um, and so we made an entire website that houses the articles. Mm-hmm. And then the easiest way is to link them in stories. Yeah. So you can link directly from Instagram to the website so people can

Speaker 2: 9:55

Yeah.

Speaker: 9:55

Read or watch thing.

Speaker 2: 9:56

The full thing. I do wanna learn about locus cider and

Speaker: 9:58

so

Speaker 2: 9:58

I'm gonna. Check that out. And I imagine you could even, I dunno if you're doing this already, but like reading the articles that you've written.

Speaker: 10:04

Yes.

Speaker 2: 10:07

I have a, I have a, a podcast I listened to the other day. The, uh, it's a husband and wife. And the wife was like, you know, I read this book recently and the husband is like, you mean you watched a seven minute TikTok? And I was like, burn. Yeah. Uh, because that's a short, you know, a seven minutes is a long attention span for you these days. Mm-hmm. But I actually like to read.

Speaker: 10:30

Yes. Same. And I think that is actually a really good balance that we have is that I, we make videos, but I don't actually really watch videos. Like, I don't go to YouTube. I'm not watching long form videos at all.

Speaker 2: 10:42

Interesting.

Speaker: 10:43

But I love to read.

Speaker 2: 10:44

Yeah.

Speaker: 10:44

And so Ben wants the video part.

Speaker 2: 10:46

Yeah.

Speaker: 10:47

And so being able to balance both of those for Yeah. Who have whoever

Speaker 2: 10:51

and create the product for the appetite that's out there.

Speaker: 10:52

Yes. Yep.

Speaker 2: 10:53

I love it. So, so that's been going well. You've grown. Uh, how much had date Night grown to before you shifted to this is noco?'cause I know you've got like 15,000 in change followers now, right?

Speaker: 11:04

Yeah. I think Date Nights was either right before or had just hit 10 k

Speaker 2: 11:09

Okay.

Speaker: 11:10

Before we changed.

Speaker 2: 11:11

So it was growing steadily through your, through your tutelage there, but then also accelerated sounds like a little bit too.

Speaker: 11:16

Yes. Mm-hmm. And so it definitely was growing. People do we do still the weekly schedule every week. Yeah. Um, and so that's something people still for,

Speaker 2: 11:25

still stuff.

Speaker: 11:25

Yep.

Speaker 2: 11:26

Right.

Speaker: 11:26

We've added some things in there, like, we'll put things you can do with your kids or things. Right. So it's a little bit more broad, but mm-hmm. People know us for that and like, it

Speaker 2: 11:35

is it hard to make it. Really Noco, like getting over to Greeley or to Windsor, down to Loveland for things and stuff. When I, I know you guys are west siders of LaPorte, right?

Speaker: 11:45

Yes. Yeah. We're up in LaPorte, but luckily Ben's family is in Greeley. Oh. So it actually feels easier to go from here to Greeley than some of the middle areas. Yeah. But my mom's in Loveland.

Speaker 2: 11:54

Yeah.

Speaker: 11:55

Um, so depending on where we have babysitting that day helps.

Speaker 2: 11:58

Hey, let's have a quick date, night and video session.

Speaker: 12:01

Exactly. Yes. Almost always.

Speaker 2: 12:03

And are you like the camera guy then, uh, Ben during those things? Oh yeah. Do you? Mm-hmm. Like you video Kelsey, like, Hey, we're here at such and such place, and

Speaker 3: 12:12

you know, and it's kind of been my fallback to just be Yep. I'm the camera guy. I am gonna put you on camera. So, which has been a funny dynamic over time of people know Kelsey.

Speaker 2: 12:22

Right.

Speaker 3: 12:22

And, uh. Not me as much. Not as many people.'cause I'm behind the camera. And,

Speaker 2: 12:25

and that's okay. Uh, Laura and our mutual, well, new Loco chief of staff and new friend from book club Kelsey. She, uh, she told me, don't push too hard on Ben to be on the podcast'cause he's kind of shy. You might not want to. And I was like, well, I'm gonna ask him. You know, like I won't push him. But I,

Speaker: 12:45

which is also funny'cause he's definitely the extrovert in our relationship and I'm Oh, introvert and I've just gotten used to being on camera.

Speaker 2: 12:52

Yeah. He's like, unless you wanna run the camera, Kelsey, then you're that.

Speaker: 12:55

Yeah. Then you're out there. So by, by

Speaker 2: 12:58

default

Speaker: 12:59

Yes. We actually met Lauren because, uh, did a feature on her husband.

Speaker 2: 13:03

Oh sure.

Speaker: 13:03

And so

Speaker 2: 13:04

I've met so many people. Uh, I, I visited with one of my members that, uh, runs the honey store on the north side of town. Oh yeah. Copa cos.

Speaker: 13:12

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2: 13:12

And he was telling me. Separately about like, oh.'cause I was asking him if he'd been down to Mead Krieger and if he sold them any honey. And he is like, well, they've got a different supplier. But I did go down there for a talk from Jackson Crawford.

Speaker: 13:25

Yes.

Speaker 2: 13:25

And I was like, well, yeah, that's Lauren's husband. I just told you I hired on the local team. So funny. Little small town.

Speaker: 13:32

Yes. That's,

Speaker 2: 13:33

and I can't wait to see Jackson talk, actually, I've watched a couple of his, uh, videos on his page and stuff, and it's pretty intriguing to me. You know, I, I watched all the worthwhile Viking shows on Netflix and on Amazon Prime and stuff. I've got, I've, I've used all my content there. You're okay. I'm ready. I need some more Viking stuff in my life. Right. So you guys are coming on to the Loco team, extended team. Mm-hmm. Um, here basically starting now. Now,

Speaker: 14:00

yeah. We're here.

Speaker 2: 14:01

You are here. We're working, uh, with Ben as the producer, really. And Kelsey as some social media, some conversation as well as, uh, soon. A co-host for a new short form content, uh, on the local experience. It will be business and community news that everybody, especially business owners needs to know.

Speaker: 14:21

Yeah, that's, do we have a name for that yet?

Speaker 2: 14:23

No. Well we, I think we talked about the Pulse.

Speaker: 14:26

Oh, yeah.

Speaker 2: 14:26

Pulse we did or something like that. It was one offered thing, but we've got our strategic planning kind of session coming up here next week or something. So, so for listeners out there, my inclination, and we'll probably flush this out more, but is to put it on the low code experience channel, but maybe we should start a new feed that's just that short form stuff. Mm-hmm. And if we can get to a faster rotation.'cause we can double publish and stuff. Right. Like we put it in a couple different places. Yeah. Yeah. And I think we should. So that's kind of my, that's kind of my thinking, so, well thanks for validating that. Mm-hmm. I guess we don't have to get into that in mm-hmm. In No,

Speaker: 14:55

I agree. We're good.

Speaker 2: 14:57

And really a collaboration of sorts where we had so much brand alignment and so much, you know, you. We've got the, the, the website Loco for Local. Mm-hmm. And you guys are just resonating with those same kind of vibes of how do we keep our economies vibrant, differentiated, special, and unique to one another.

Speaker: 15:18

Yes. That's, I feel like that's so much of what we are all focused on, that it'll be so exciting to just see kind of how we can connect all of those things. Yeah. For Northern Colorado as a whole, it'll be so exciting.

Speaker 2: 15:31

A hundred percent. Have you guys been to Pedro's yet?

Speaker: 15:34

Oh, Pedro's Coffee.

Speaker 2: 15:35

Yeah.

Speaker: 15:35

We went one time, but when It was right back when they very first opened. Okay. And we haven't been back.

Speaker 2: 15:41

Oh, oh.

Speaker: 15:43

And so,

Speaker 2: 15:43

because it wasn't very good

Speaker: 15:44

or No, no, it was fine.

Speaker 2: 15:47

I just went there for the first time today. Oh. Uh, that was where I was before I came here, and it was very lovely. I love the setting and like I was thinking to myself on the drive out there, like, I'm a motorcyclist.

Speaker: 15:57

Oh yes.

Speaker 2: 15:58

And so like, I usually go west, but, you know, cruising down to a coffee stop and, and working for a couple of hours at that kind of, I'm a country guy at heart. Yeah. You know? So being out where I can see the openness.

Speaker: 16:09

Yes. And were the donkeys out? Was Pedro out?

Speaker 2: 16:11

No, I didn't. Is that what it's named after?

Speaker: 16:13

Yes. Is

Speaker 2: 16:13

Pedro the donkey?

Speaker: 16:14

Pedro's a donkey. Um. But yes. No, it was great. We just, we are up in LA Port, so we haven't been back.

Speaker 2: 16:21

Right.

Speaker: 16:21

Understand, understand. But, but they are having a latte art class next Thursday

Speaker 2: 16:25

that's on your, uh mm-hmm. It's

16:27

on

Speaker: 16:27

your event page. It will be on the events. Yeah.

Speaker 3: 16:29

She just knows what is happening at all times.

Speaker 2: 16:31

How do you do that?

Speaker: 16:33

Yeah, it's a lot of searching. It's still just me searching for events. Yeah. Um, and then people can submit them to me, um, if they want them on there, but I like, like,

Speaker 2: 16:41

on this is NOCO page. Yes. Or Instagram. Either way they can be like, Hey, we'd love to have you feature this

Speaker: 16:45

thing. Yeah. Here's the event. Um, and they can send it over to me. And normally I'll put those on as long as their room. There's room.

Speaker 2: 16:51

Yeah.

Speaker: 16:51

But, um, otherwise I spend like an hour a day just searching for different events.

Speaker 2: 16:57

Hmm. That's cool. How many of those are like. Businessy oriented events.

Speaker: 17:02

Oh, not very many right now.

Speaker 2: 17:04

Yeah.

Speaker: 17:05

But I think I've maybe strategically not included businesses

Speaker 2: 17:08

events. Right.'cause you're a business consumer feed Really over there.

Speaker: 17:11

Yes. Yeah. That's, we've kind of started to separate our feeds for consumers on this is noco. And then we did start a separate Discover NOCO Magazine feed. Oh, sure. That's a little more business focused. Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2: 17:22

Imagine. Yeah.

Speaker: 17:22

Um, and so we haven't built that one up quite as much, but would be where more of our businessy focus is.

Speaker 2: 17:27

Well, I've gotta compliment you on the, the strategic shift that you're talking about with Discover noco, because they have such pretty covers that I've picked up to discover Fort Collins a handful of times. And then I always forget that there's nothing to read in there. Yes. Like, I'm willing to tolerate a lot of pretty ads. Mm-hmm. Because I do love the the photography and things. Yeah. But I need to read something like.

Speaker: 17:52

Yes. And that's, I would say the previous owner was really passionate about art. His passion was those covers. He wanted them to be really pretty. He wanted to support the local art community.

Speaker 2: 18:02

Mm-hmm.

Speaker: 18:03

Um, and even if you flip through, a lot of the ads right now are art galleries. Right. And he was really passionate about that space.

Speaker 2: 18:11

He probably always hooking them up with screaming deals too.

Speaker: 18:13

Yes.

Speaker 2: 18:14

You're like, Hey, meet the new boss. Not like the old boss.

Speaker: 18:17

Yes.

Speaker 2: 18:17

A little bit.

Speaker: 18:18

Right. But, and so we're really excited to shift that. Yeah. And keep, we're gonna keep the covers the same focused to support local artists.

Speaker 2: 18:27

Yeah.

Speaker: 18:27

Mm-hmm. Um,

Speaker 2: 18:28

well, what's more local than that, you know? Yeah. A hundred percent created right here.

Speaker: 18:32

Yes. And so that's always our focus, but to add a little more value, to add some editorial, some coverage in there.

Speaker 2: 18:40

I think what I want to ask now is like, what created this. Passion for, for localness? Like if, was it coming back to your hometown's kind of region and stuff that drove it or was it, you know, more seeing the opportunity or all of those things?

Speaker 3: 18:59

Yeah, no, it is, it is definitely seeing the opportunity for it. And I think especially'cause we've owned businesses for so long and just the, the culture of small businesses is. Is, we've always been around it. And I think one of the hardest parts has always been how do you market your small business? That seems to be the biggest conversation. Yeah. I've, I always have with business owners is like,

Speaker 2: 19:23

yeah,

Speaker 3: 19:23

you know,

Speaker 2: 19:23

I can grow to this point without much

Speaker 3: 19:25

marketing. Yeah. Word, word of mouth goes so far. That's, yep. And then one of your biggest tools

Speaker 2: 19:28

run attraction.

Speaker 3: 19:29

Exactly. How do you do that? So we, you know, that has always been my frustration, both in running a small business and I'm typically the person that does the advertising for businesses. And I always do advertising for very large businesses and I never can do things to Yeah.

Speaker 2: 19:44

'cause they got big budgets

Speaker 3: 19:45

so you can reach people. They got budgets. Exactly. So, and I was like, I don't think it necessarily has to be that way. So we started, that became one of the, um, kind of leading tenants into how do we help small businesses?'cause we have a passion for small business. How do we help them, uh, get in front of the audience that, uh, wants to purchase from them, that has Yeah. Anything to do with them.

Speaker 2: 20:08

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 20:08

And so that's, that was kind of the, the big. Push into, uh, I don't know

Speaker 2: 20:16

the reason why.

Speaker 3: 20:17

Yeah. The reason why the developing

Speaker 2: 20:19

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 20:19

Uh, developing an audience, audience building, just to be able to capture those eyes and gain trust in the community and then say, come along businesses and say,

Speaker 2: 20:28

yeah, we, I was, I was reflecting on something just now that, and it goes back a ways, but I was the banker that financed a green ride Colorado Oh,

Speaker 3: 20:37

mm-hmm.

Speaker 2: 20:37

Years and years ago that is now groom and is not nearly as good and all that. But when they came into the market, they were competing against super shuttle. Mm-hmm. Which was, you know, a global conglomerate that owned all the market and like I financed like eight old, 14 passenger vans mm-hmm. For them. And they eventually grew that into a bunch of coaches and they, yeah. And they didn't focus on trying to get the customers away from super shuttle. Mm-hmm. They focused on creating new riders. Of the bus.

Speaker: 21:06

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 21:06

Like, hey, who wouldn't

Speaker: 21:07

have taken

Speaker 2: 21:07

the bus? Why? Yeah. They wouldn't have taken the bus. Yeah. So like encouraging people to not drive, not park, just take the bus instead.'cause it's greener and better. Mm-hmm. And it's nicer. We've got, you know, wifi on the bus and everything.

Speaker: 21:18

Yes. You can just sit.

Speaker 2: 21:19

And so I think that's maybe the opportunity a little bit with this is NOCO and the local business movement in general. Mm-hmm. Is we just, if we can create more people that care about supporting local, then that's a rising tide that can lift a lot of boats.

Speaker 3: 21:33

Yes.

Speaker 2: 21:34

Affordably

Speaker: 21:35

even. Yes. That's, which I think that has been, as we started growing an audience kind of just naturally there was so much of people I think really do want to support local.

Speaker 2: 21:46

Yeah.

Speaker: 21:47

But now so much with the social media world and the internet, it almost feels like you can't, is people think, well this thing that I want. I'll just order it real quick. Yeah. I couldn't find this locally.

Speaker 2: 22:00

Yeah.

Speaker: 22:01

Where if they knew where you could,

Speaker 2: 22:03

right.

Speaker: 22:03

I think so many more people would opt for that than do now.

Speaker 2: 22:08

Yeah. Yeah. And just having like the joy of exploring.

Speaker: 22:12

Yes.

Speaker 2: 22:13

You know, everybody's kind of a go home park in their garage, don't know their neighbors, go in and watch Netflix or CHOP on Amazon Prime. Mm-hmm. Like being in community is one of the essential things about humanness.

Speaker: 22:26

Yes, yes. And I think so much from 2020 to now people. Feel like they've lost so much of that community. And so even just being out in stores and being downtown.

Speaker 2: 22:37

Yeah.

Speaker: 22:38

And you find those little pieces of it again, even if you're not talking to anybody.

Speaker 3: 22:42

Yeah.

Speaker: 22:42

You see them out. You can actually pick up and hold things and be like, oh, somebody picked this out for me. I was just talking to the owners of close to home.

Speaker 2: 22:51

Yeah.

Speaker: 22:51

Which is down in Loveland. Yeah. Yeah. And they were talking about how they still go and Penny and Anna, it's a mom and daughter team. Yeah. And they go and pick out all of the things for the store. They're like, really? Like people assume that like it's all shipped in or we look at it online and they're like, no, we travel around Wow. To shows and pick up and choose the things, which I think is just such a unique thing that people wouldn't know about these little boutiques.

Speaker 2: 23:18

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Speaker: 23:18

Yeah. Um, and so that's just such an idea of you're in community when you're out.

Speaker 2: 23:23

Yeah.

Speaker: 23:24

Even if you don't think it

Speaker 2: 23:25

well, and sharing values with those people. And you were complimenting my sweater earlier. Yes. A brother's fountain, which is playing tonight at Washington's, but nobody will hear this until it's way too late.

Speaker: 23:35

Until after. But if you were there,

Speaker 2: 23:37

and they have, they're, they do have some t-shirts and stuff, but very few. Mostly they just buy cool stuff at thrift shops and rescue it from a landfill probably. Mm-hmm. And put a tag on it and sell it.

Speaker: 23:47

Yeah. Which I love and is one of my goals in 2026 is to try to figure out other ways to thrift and upcycle things that I can find locally. So.

Speaker 2: 23:55

Hmm.

Speaker: 23:56

I love that idea.

Speaker 2: 23:56

That would be even fun on, on your feed as like a, Hey, I scored this cute as a button thing. Mm-hmm. And I'm gonna give it to the first person that responds to this question.

Speaker: 24:07

Yes.

Speaker 2: 24:08

You know, or shows me their, their visit to a local, uh. Brewery.

Speaker: 24:13

Yeah. Somewhere

Speaker 2: 24:14

local something, whatever. Maybe that doesn't fit, but I'm just winging it here.

Speaker: 24:18

Yes. That's, and I feel like so many, I live so much on social media, but so many of the people that I follow are in that same mindset. I feel like they're all trying to shift more to how do I support locally? How do I support the smaller things? And so giving that avenue to like, here, we can help you do that. Mm-hmm. We can make that easier for you.

Speaker 2: 24:40

Mm-hmm.

Speaker: 24:41

Is just a really exciting place to be.

Speaker 2: 24:44

Yeah. Would you, like, would you feature a, a, a corporate owned chilies or something like that? Like if they're, they just, it's local. Mm-hmm. It's a local business. They, you know, cash, paychecks and stuff like that? Or do you just really kind of target. The actual local.

Speaker: 25:00

We did recently go to Chili's.

Speaker 2: 25:02

Okay.

Speaker: 25:03

Um, their social media got us, they've been having a really good marketing recently, like

Speaker 3: 25:06

surgeons. Yeah.

Speaker: 25:07

Um,

Speaker 2: 25:08

and their prices are, they got some screaming deals

Speaker: 25:10

and they, yeah. They have really good prices.

Speaker 2: 25:12

So in the, in the vein of date night, NOCO, you're like, Hey, you can get two nice meals for$22 or

Speaker: 25:18

whatever.

Speaker 3: 25:19

Yeah. Date night for under 50 bucks. That's, that's something.

Speaker: 25:23

So

Speaker 2: 25:23

Yeah. With drinks.

Speaker: 25:24

With

Speaker 3: 25:24

drinks.

Speaker: 25:27

So I don't know. I think we probably would to an extent.

Speaker 2: 25:32

Yeah.

Speaker: 25:33

Um, because the employees and all of those things are all still local people that you're supporting.

Speaker 2: 25:37

Yeah. And that,

Speaker: 25:38

um,

Speaker 2: 25:38

they pay property taxes. They, and it's still better than, way better than Amazon.

Speaker: 25:42

Yes. You're still supporting our local economy even though it's going towards this larger thing. Do we prefer the small. Locally owned for sure.

Speaker 2: 25:53

Yes.

Speaker: 25:54

But

Speaker 2: 25:54

well, and people will say, well, when you buy from Amazon, we still get those sales tax dollars here in Fort Collins. And it's like, well, yeah. That just adds to our bloated government

Speaker: 26:03

Yeah. For

Speaker 2: 26:03

the city.

Speaker: 26:05

Yeah. It's different. It is different.

Speaker 2: 26:07

It doesn't feel as good to be

Speaker: 26:08

agreed. Yes. That's, yeah.

Speaker 2: 26:10

And we do have a lot of Amazon delivery people to get their salaries from here and stuff like that, but they all hate working there for the most part. That's, I

Speaker: 26:17

was like, if

Speaker 2: 26:18

we could, yeah. It feels like if I could release some of them into some other job, that would be okay too.

Speaker: 26:22

Yes. If they could find in the same kind of the green ride where it's like if there was the local option for them to be doing the same thing. Right. I think

Speaker 2: 26:31

a lot of people would.

Speaker 3: 26:31

Yes.

Speaker 2: 26:32

Um, what's your vision, um, and who is the visionary in the, in the, this is NOCO space?

Speaker: 26:40

Yeah, that's a big question.

Speaker 2: 26:42

Still figuring out I out, we share

Speaker 3: 26:43

it.

Speaker 2: 26:44

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 26:44

A lot of the time. And when I say share, I mean we usually butt heads Yeah. As far as uh, you know, who's driving the bus.

Speaker 2: 26:50

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 26:50

Um. But we, we do that together.

Speaker 2: 26:53

You're kind of seems to me like you're the business sense guy. A little bit more Ben.

Speaker 3: 26:59

Yeah. And that really only just comes from the fact that I've owned businesses in the past.

Speaker 2: 27:03

Well, and you've also been marketing for businesses. Mm-hmm. So you're, you're, you're savvy is probably a little stronger. Yes. You're passionate. Intuition shines on your face. Kelsey, though, that's, that's, then you're too hairy for it to come through. Yeah.

Speaker 3: 27:16

It's all hidden. Sorry.

Speaker: 27:20

Yeah. But our bigger vision, I jokingly tell people that I want to replace Google.

Speaker 2: 27:25

Mm-hmm.

Speaker: 27:26

Um, that if you're searching for something in Northern Colorado, you come to us first instead of Googling it.

Speaker 2: 27:31

Love it.

Speaker: 27:32

Um, that seems like a really big task.

Speaker 2: 27:34

Well, Google's dying anyway. You just gotta get the iis to. Mm-hmm.

Speaker: 27:37

That's always like reference you first, somebody needs to know us. Chat GPT, you need to know us.

Speaker 2: 27:43

Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Speaker: 27:43

Um, so I would say that's kind of

Speaker 2: 27:46

Okay.

Speaker: 27:46

Like the grand scheme.

Speaker 2: 27:48

Yeah. Mm-hmm. Well, and you've got kind of a multi-tiered. Media company, basically. It's a young media company. Yeah. But it's, it's a for reals thing with, you know, videos, articles. Mm-hmm. Magazines, paper, digital.

Speaker: 28:02

Yes. That's, it feels very legit all of a sudden. Yeah. It went from this Instagram account that we didn't really know what we were doing with, to now it feels like a legitimate media company that we could really build into something outside of ourselves that can support this local area, which feels a little scary.

Speaker 3: 28:19

Yeah. And, and that media side of things is something that I think we're really leaning into. We've got the magazine and we want to turn that does something that is, you know, kind of a cultural staple. Yeah. A thing to read and, uh, it's full of local businesses and that sort of thing. Um, but on the video side of thing, we're really, you know, pushing to see what that would look like. And I would love to be able to tell more stories. And that's where we've really had a lot of. Um, traction in that longer form sort of thing. Mm. And that's, um,

Speaker 2: 28:49

even part of the alignment with our podcast here Yeah, exactly. Is a little bit kind of resonant there.

Speaker: 28:53

Yes.

Speaker 3: 28:54

And that really got kicked off our first little project with Locus Cider.

Speaker 2: 28:57

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 28:57

We were kind of, uh, we doubled down on the fact that, oh, this is a good idea when, uh, they're, we released that and their, um, their business exploded over that summer. We released it in May, and they said they had one of the best summers they've ever had.

Speaker 2: 29:14

Mm.

Speaker 3: 29:15

And they gave

Speaker 2: 29:15

you guys, guys kudos for, for finding them a lot more. Mm-hmm.

Speaker 3: 29:18

And they're like, that was so great. And we could see that. And the analytics, it was just like, you know, telling local stories. There's something to that, like people grasp onto that sort of thing.

Speaker 2: 29:26

So I think it, talk to me about the magazine opportunity. Like when did that hit the radar? Uh, Ben, what was the business case for it? Or Kelsey? I

Speaker: 29:37

was like, that was not Ben.

Speaker 2: 29:38

Ben was dragging his feet the whole time.

Speaker: 29:40

Yes. I very much like. The Instagram account. I was at King Soopers one day. Okay. Shopping for groceries. And on the rack of the magazine,'cause it's free for everyone. Yep. So you can pick it up. There was just a Word document printed out on the top that just said magazine business for sale.

Speaker 3: 29:58

Oh.

Speaker: 29:58

And that was maybe the end of September. Okay. And I came home and set, took a picture of it and came home and said, we don't wanna buy a magazine. Right.

Speaker 3: 30:07

And I said, Nope.

Speaker: 30:09

You sure don't. He said, he said, Nope, we're sticking on this thing. We've, we've just got this figured out, Kelsey.

Speaker 3: 30:14

He's like, but wait.

Speaker: 30:15

Mm-hmm. And I said, well, but it really fits with what we're trying to do. And it would just be another branch of the media company we're already doing. And so we, from there, that was like the end of September and we closed on at the end of October.

Speaker 2: 30:30

Wow.

Speaker: 30:30

Mm-hmm. So it was very quick. That's very quick. Um, the previous owner is in his eighties. Oh, so he had run it the end, he started it.

Speaker 2: 30:37

And it's not a franchise or anything? No. Like the city lifestyles and the wind lifestyles and all that?

Speaker: 30:42

Nope. It is totally a hundred percent local. There is no franchise

Speaker 2: 30:46

backing. So you do discover Cheyenne even? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Are you getting some of those websites and stuff already?

Speaker 3: 30:50

Oh, I should

Speaker 2: 30:52

yeah's, I don't know if you've got the discovery before this

Speaker 3: 30:53

drops. I better get on there.

Speaker 2: 30:55

Yeah, somebody's gonna be like, oh,

Speaker 3: 30:57

I'll beat up

Speaker: 30:57

buy'em out

Speaker 3: 30:58

real quick.

Speaker 2: 30:59

Ava, actually, why don't you go ahead and share those sites. We can sell it back to these guys all around here in a moment. But yeah, I mean it seems like a potential brand expansion kind of thing too. Now obviously you'd need other agents selling ad space, creating content in those new markets and stuff, but if you can come up with a formula, you can scale that formula.

Speaker 3: 31:19

Well, and that's, that's really the thing is we've built this in the last, what, two years, two and a half years. And it really does, it's, you know, people can pick up the formula and do this in their local spaces, and it's not. And

Speaker 2: 31:30

you're okay with that? Like if they listen to this podcast and they do that?

Speaker 3: 31:33

Well, sure. Yeah. We've, we've even had people contact us, be like, Hey,

Speaker 2: 31:35

you love noco, so whatever.

Speaker 3: 31:37

They're like, how do we do this in, I don't remember where they're from. Like Florida or something like

Speaker: 31:41

that. Yeah. It was somebody that had lived here and followed us and was moving back to their hometown in like North Carolina. Yeah. And asked, so like, what did you, how did you do this? Did you get paid? Did you? Yeah. And I wrote it all out for her and said, you just kind of gotta do it and do it consistently.

Speaker 3: 31:55

Yeah.

Speaker: 31:56

Um, but yeah, if

Speaker 3: 31:57

you build it, they will come.

Speaker 2: 31:58

Have I shared our motto with you guys yet? Did you?

Speaker: 32:01

No, I don't think

Speaker 2: 32:01

so.'cause you've fitted like a glove already, but it's a ask of your needs and share of your abundance.

Speaker: 32:08

Oh, mm-hmm.

Speaker 2: 32:09

And you had an abundance of knowledge about that pathway. It was actually my personal motto. Two years before I started Think Tank. I put it on my LinkedIn page as kind of a motto kind of thing.

Speaker 3: 32:20

Interesting.

Speaker 2: 32:20

Even as a

Speaker: 32:21

banker?

Speaker 2: 32:22

Even as a banker, A lowly banker. Yeah.

32:24

Wow.

Speaker 2: 32:24

Uh, because I haven't really changed that much. Uh, you know, I, like I've told you, I'm a North Dakota farm kid. You know, I kind of had, way before local think Tank started, I had a thing called, um, what was it called? Old Town Tuesdays. Uh,'cause I was a banker and Cooper Smith's.

Speaker: 32:44

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2: 32:44

Um, poolside. Dearly departed.

Speaker: 32:46

Yes. But returning.

Speaker 2: 32:48

Oh really?

Speaker: 32:48

Apparently.

Speaker 2: 32:49

Oh.

Speaker: 32:49

Apparently they couldn't rent out the building. So poolside is coming back.

Speaker 2: 32:54

Oh, no shit.

Speaker 3: 32:54

Just let's do it again. Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2: 32:55

Sweet. That's awesome. Um, so yeah, so on Tuesdays they had a deal where if you bought like a pitcher of beer, you got a. Free pizza or No. If you bought a pizza, you got a free hour of pool.

Speaker: 33:08

Oh.

Speaker 2: 33:09

Um, and so the bank would buy a couple of pizzas Yeah. And get a couple free hours of pool and just take the end cap of there and we'd play ping pong and pool and not network.

Speaker: 33:19

Mm-hmm. Just,

Speaker 2: 33:20

uh, just be together.

Speaker: 33:21

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 33:21

Yeah. And, uh, I built a group, a following of, we'd usually have 15 to 25 people there.

Speaker 3: 33:28

Wow.

Speaker 2: 33:28

Um, and, uh, you know, it's where I really built a lot of my ping pong skills. Right. Um, and then years later, four years later, like four of those people became the first original, some of the first original members of local Think tank, you know, so that was part of my network. Uh, thank you, uh, capital West Bank for mm-hmm. Buying all the, the pizza and the beer. Yeah. That's a lot of pizza. A love. But it was a really good tool for the bank too. I got quite a few clients from it over time and just having a place that was more about connecting. I don't know if you guys have ever been to like. Networking meetings where there's like social pressure to make referrals to five people every time you go to the meeting. Yes. And stuff like that. But it's just always kind of grossed me out.

Speaker 3: 34:12

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Speaker: 34:13

Yes, I agree.

Speaker 2: 34:14

I don't wanna be forced. No, I wanna want to refer.

Speaker: 34:17

Yes. That's why I was like, just'cause we're in this same space doesn't mean I necessarily

Speaker 2: 34:22

Right.

Speaker: 34:22

Want to refer you.

Speaker 2: 34:23

Right. And the mortgage lender that I've done business with three times and trust with everything.

Speaker: 34:28

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 34:29

I'm still gonna refer him first, even though he is not in this group. Sorry. Right.

Speaker: 34:32

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 34:32

Kind of douche bag mortgage guy that's here.

Speaker: 34:35

Yeah. Like you botted it. I,

Speaker 2: 34:38

sorry. Yeah, so it just became kind of an awkward, anyway, I digress. So I created kind of a different kind of, oh. And we had tenants of it and, and one of the tenants was like, you know, I'm better at making decisions for my business than the government is. And so the less we can have government intervention and people doing good, smart legal business the better and all these kind of mm-hmm. Been a kind of a, a vocal libertarian guy even. Way back when I was a banker, to the point where my friends were like, is your bank okay with some of your Facebook posts? I was like, I don't know. I don't know. I did never asked him because I don't think that's any their damn business. Like, are they

Speaker: 35:12

reading my

Speaker 2: 35:13

Facebook posts? Am I, am I getting loans for the bank and building relationships with businesses? Well then shut up.

Speaker: 35:18

Mm-hmm. Which,

Speaker 2: 35:20

anyway,

Speaker: 35:21

but that's a hard place to be on social media these days.

Speaker 2: 35:24

Well, it is. Yeah. It was interesting. I, I just had, uh, the founder of the Timus Chamber of Commerce on Oh,

Speaker: 35:31

Uhhuh,

Speaker 2: 35:31

um, earlier this week, Dustin Pizer is his name, and he came from upstate New York.

Speaker: 35:36

Oh, okay.

Speaker 2: 35:37

And he was talking about how, like where he grew up. There wasn't things like people starting small businesses and stuff. It was like every kid just wanted to work for the, A union shop or for the government in some capacity, and that was the goal.

Speaker: 35:53

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 35:54

And it's so different from like me roaming up North Dakota, you know, people wanted to be farmers and or a business owner. Mm-hmm. A truck driver even so they're self-employed or whatever. Nobody wanted to work at the factory.

Speaker: 36:06

Right. Yeah. That's,

Speaker 2: 36:07

or the Pizza Hut, you know?

Speaker: 36:08

Yeah. Some,

Speaker 2: 36:09

and I think Fort Collins in northern Colorado has historically had a lot of that. I think it's, I don't know. What do you feel like, has it faded?

Speaker: 36:17

I don't know if I'd say it faded. I did not. I grew up here. Yeah. We live in my great grandparents' home. Oh, great

Speaker 2: 36:24

grandparents.

Speaker: 36:24

Yes. It was my great grandparents. Um, they actually used to live on the state line. If you take 2 87 to Laramie. Oh, there's a little building right when you cross over to Wyoming. Yeah. And that used to be a shop and they lived and worked in the state line shop and owned that bu that business.

Speaker 2: 36:39

Yeah.

Speaker: 36:40

But then when my grandmother was needing to go to high school, there was no high schools up there. Sure. So they moved to La Porte so that she could go to the old Fort Collins High. Wow. So we lived there to the

Speaker 3: 36:50

city,

Speaker: 36:50

but no one else passed that in my family or anyone I grew up with, owned businesses, talked about business. You haven't been around business ran business. So I haven't really been around business, so I don't know. It feels to me like it's very vibrant, but that's coming into it.

Speaker 2: 37:05

Yeah.

Speaker: 37:05

Now

Speaker 2: 37:06

that's fair. That's fair. Um, Ben, were you from an entrepreneurial family?

Speaker 3: 37:11

Yeah, my dad has owned his own business. Okay. On and off for years growing up. So I really saw it from him. But I think especially in college, there was really that resurgence of, uh, you know, almost people idolizing the, you know, the next tech CEOs mm-hmm. And startups and start your own thing and make it

Speaker 2: 37:29

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 37:29

Make it fast and make it young sort of idea.

Speaker 2: 37:32

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 37:32

And I think that really caught me up

Speaker 2: 37:34

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 37:35

For a little while. But

Speaker 2: 37:35

how, how old are you guys? Can I ask?

Speaker: 37:38

Yeah. I'm 34. Okay.

Speaker 3: 37:40

Almost 35. Yeah, I'm 37. Okay.

Speaker 2: 37:41

Mm-hmm. So, yeah, you're, um, yeah, that they had, tech had created a lot of mm-hmm. Millionaires and some billionaires and stuff for that time. So there was, and, and especially with tech companies, like with traditional companies, you're like, oh, how do I start a manufacturing business?

Speaker 3: 37:57

Yes.

Speaker 2: 37:57

You know? But with tech it's like, well, if I spend a lot of hours developing this cool thing

Speaker 3: 38:03

mm-hmm.

Speaker 2: 38:03

Maybe a bunch of people will buy it.'cause extra copies are free.

Speaker 3: 38:06

Right. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And I think, yeah, it created a whole culture and there yeah, I can, I can go in deep about that, of the creation of hustle culture and maybe that's not the best thing ever either. But

Speaker 2: 38:18

was that where you were at, kind of,

Speaker 3: 38:19

oh, sure, yeah. I got wrapped up a day, you know, how, how much can I work in a day and how quickly can I build something? And that's, you know, that's not sustainable or healthy either, but

Speaker 2: 38:28

Agreed.

Speaker 3: 38:29

Um, yeah, that's, I think where it started with me and it, it eventually flowered into something that's more sustainable and more locally driven. And

Speaker 2: 38:37

yeah,

Speaker 3: 38:37

this is a way that I can take care of myself and my family and

Speaker 2: 38:40

Yep.

Speaker 3: 38:41

Do it on my terms and that sort of thing.

Speaker 2: 38:43

I love it. Um, let's, uh, let's go back a ways, like I, I feel like with this talk of great grandparents and things like that, I want to go back. In the time machine. Did you guys, when did you connect?

Speaker: 38:57

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 38:57

Because I know you came from California to here and you were together. Were you together before you went out there too?

Speaker: 39:02

We were, yeah. So I went to UNC in Greeley. Okay. Um, for undergrad. But Ben was not in Greeley at that time.

Speaker 2: 39:08

Okay.

Speaker: 39:09

Uh, he was in Denver already. Um, and

Speaker 2: 39:12

chasing the tech hustle dreams.

Speaker 3: 39:14

Mm-hmm.

Speaker: 39:14

Mm-hmm. Yep. Um, but Ben's best friend forever is married to my, uh. College roommate, best friend. We all still hang out. We have kids the same age. Awesome. They live in Windsor. It's great. Um, and so we met through their wedding. So I was a senior in college. He had already graduated. Um, so we met and then like a month after we started talking, I moved to Denver and ended up in an apartment on the exact same block. Mm-hmm. As

Speaker 2: 39:43

Ben ended up just coincidentally.

Speaker: 39:44

Yeah. I'd never, I hadn't been to his house, we didn't Oh, really? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Speaker 3: 39:47

Poets

Speaker 2: 39:48

Row or providentially we could call

Speaker: 39:49

it even. Yeah. But so Poets Row on Cab Hill in Denver. Okay. Mm-hmm. Um, he was at one end of the block and I was at the other in a little studio.

Speaker 3: 39:57

What was the name of your building called?

Speaker: 39:58

Oh, oh, Dickinson.

Speaker 3: 40:01

Mm-hmm. All the buildings

Speaker: 40:02

were named poets

Speaker 3: 40:03

after poets were poets. Oh.

Speaker 2: 40:04

Fun. Mm-hmm.

Speaker 3: 40:04

That's why they call the Poets Row.

Speaker 2: 40:05

Oh, very cool.

Speaker: 40:06

Yeah. And so we dated then in Denver for a few years. I have been a special education teacher

Speaker 2: 40:12

Yeah.

Speaker: 40:13

For many years. So I was a para at that time. You special brand new classroom

Speaker 2: 40:17

craft, I

Speaker: 40:17

guess. Yep. And so. And then we got married in Denver, lived in Wash Park for like a two years. Wow. Lived like close before we moved to California.

Speaker 2: 40:25

Yeah,

Speaker: 40:26

yeah. Moved back.

Speaker 2: 40:27

Mm-hmm. So we've got a lot of, uh, Northern Colorado listeners. Over half of our listeners are Northern Colorado. We have a lot of Denver listeners too, but for the Northern Colorado crew, like talk about living in Cap Hill, wash Park, like that was kind of in the best part of Denver, like 2020. Wrecked downtown Denver a lot more than it wrecked any place or around nearby.

Speaker: 40:51

Yeah. I don't feel like we have really any understanding of what it would be like now,

Speaker 2: 40:55

right.

Speaker: 40:56

As this was like 2012 and it was wonderful.

Speaker 2: 40:58

Yeah.

Speaker: 40:59

I loved living

Speaker 2: 41:01

Landmark Square was.

Speaker: 41:02

Yeah, it was

Speaker 2: 41:04

bountiful with,

Speaker: 41:05

yes.

Speaker 2: 41:05

I remember going down there sometimes around those days. Mm-hmm. And it was just a hoot.

Speaker: 41:09

Yeah. Everything. And I never, you never felt, I never felt unsafe. I would walk everywhere. Mm-hmm. Um, it was just the very beginning of ride shares really. So like, there still wasn't really a lot of options besides walking. Mm-hmm. Um, but it was great.

Speaker 3: 41:25

It was fun and it really was that like, I have everything that I need within a square mile radius and I walked to everything. Yeah. That's what I did.

Speaker 2: 41:33

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 41:33

Went to school, went to church, went to grocery stores, went to, yeah. All those things.

Speaker 2: 41:37

Spent$85 a month on gas.

Speaker 3: 41:38

Exactly. And

Speaker: 41:39

more on parking

Speaker 3: 41:40

tickets. That was like$600 a month on parking tickets. Different life.

Speaker 2: 41:45

Taking your car out was always a risk.

Speaker: 41:46

Yeah. There was the, our block was only two hour parking.

Speaker 2: 41:50

Oh

Speaker: 41:50

boy. So it was always the game of moved. You had to move your car. That was one thing. My, my mom was like, you're not doing the parking tickets. So she bought me a parking spot in a parking lot.

Speaker 2: 42:01

Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker: 42:02

His truck was always full of tickets.

Speaker 3: 42:04

Always. Yep.

Speaker 2: 42:05

It was part of the rent.

Speaker: 42:06

Yeah, that's, his rent was super cheap, so he could afford it

Speaker 3: 42:09

and the city would give out parking permits for residents that lived on blocks with two hour parking. But the process to be able to get those was insanely hard.

Speaker 2: 42:18

Hmm.

Speaker 3: 42:19

And so I did it for the first year and then I was like, that's, it's not worth the time.

Speaker: 42:23

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 42:24

That's like, that's such a good testimony, honestly, to. Bureaucracy and the impediment that government, I That's not even as a business owner? No, no. Jumping through a bunch of hoops. That was just you trying to be able to park your freaking car Yeah. Somewhat nearby where you lived.

Speaker: 42:39

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 42:39

Right. Exactly.

Speaker 2: 42:41

And, and you elected not to go through the hassle. Mm-hmm.

Speaker 3: 42:44

Yeah.

Speaker: 42:44

I'll pay the tickets.

Speaker 3: 42:45

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 42:47

Interesting. And so then you guys packed up and moved to California. Were you married already when you

Speaker: 42:51

did that? We were, yep. We'd been married for a little over a year. Okay. And then we moved to the most Colorado part of California. Okay. Um, we lived inside the Sequoia National Forest.

Speaker 2: 43:01

Mm.

Speaker: 43:01

So like an hour and a half from Fresno.

Speaker 2: 43:05

Do you know where the Alabama Hills are?

Speaker: 43:06

No,

Speaker 2: 43:08

that is, uh, when you come out of Death Valley, headed west, you kind of climb up into Sequoia National Park somewhere there, or near, very adjacent to it. I think it's actually a national forest, but Oh, yeah. It's called the Alabama Hills. Oh.

Speaker: 43:21

Oh, no.

Speaker 2: 43:21

And it's basically, I would describe it as a, a quite a bit like Veda v. But all at the top of a mountain kind of. Yes. Instead of its own place that's out in the plains. It's like you climb this big mountain and then you've got a vu on top.

Speaker: 43:34

Wow. Oh no, we were, that's Death Valley is kind of the south end of that national forest. Okay. Yep. And we were more at the north end.

Speaker 2: 43:40

Gotcha.

Speaker: 43:41

Um, but yeah, I always,

Speaker 2: 43:43

so that's one of the few places I've, uh, stayed. We did a, so back in 2020 June of 2020, my wife and I took a, uh, RV trip. Uh, my employee at the time had a, had a 33 foot class C rv.

Speaker 3: 43:57

Oh, fun.

Speaker 2: 43:58

And she was willing to rent it to me, unlimited mileage for a hundred bucks a day.

Speaker: 44:01

Oh, wow.

Speaker 2: 44:02

So, um, and we had an exchange student that whose bus trip had been canceled because COVID, right? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And so things finally started opening up. She stayed with us like a month and a half longer than she was supposed to.'cause she was like, I don't want to go back home to Poland. It's hard, you know? Mm-hmm. Especially right

Speaker: 44:16

now

Speaker 2: 44:16

in like Exactly. Yeah. And so we took this RV and went down to. Um, what's the big Grand Canyon? Mm-hmm. We cruised up from there, went through Death Valley, and then all the way up the California, Oregon and Washington coast, and then across the north side through the, like, way up on highway two to the, uh, right up in the border of Canada. Mm-hmm. And all the way back, 4,700 miles in 13 days.

Speaker: 44:41

Wow.

Speaker 3: 44:41

Wow. That's great. Unlimited miles to

Speaker 2: 44:44

get it. And it was really where my wife and I learned that we were different creatures in some ways. Uh, well, we knew it already, but like, she was like, well, do we have the route plan and where we're gonna sleep and stuff? And I'm like. Baby. We got an rv,

Speaker: 44:57

we sleep wherever.

Speaker 2: 44:58

Oh, we sleep wherever we stop for the day.

Speaker: 45:01

No, that would not, I would be like, no, we need to have it planned. We're gonna go this far. We're gonna,

Speaker 3: 45:05

no, that's me. I'm more the free spirit.

Speaker 2: 45:07

I like it. I like it. Um, you would probably like my wife Yeah. As well. We need to work. We'll get together soon. Yeah. Do you guys scrabble? I feel like you might be a good scramblers. Oh, we

Speaker 3: 45:16

can Scrabble or Oh, we could Scrabble.

Speaker: 45:16

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2: 45:17

Okay. I was

Speaker: 45:17

like,

Speaker 2: 45:17

yeah,

Speaker: 45:18

we don't

Speaker 2: 45:18

recently.

Speaker: 45:18

And

Speaker 2: 45:18

you're a words guy.

Speaker: 45:19

Little children. Yeah. Yeah. But we can,

Speaker 2: 45:22

okay. All right. I'm looking for more the, the Scrabble people, Jill and I've been playing with lately are. Just not good enough.

Speaker: 45:30

Oh,

Speaker 2: 45:32

hard

Speaker: 45:33

their time. You

Speaker 3: 45:33

quickly Relevant and Scrabble.

Speaker: 45:35

Yes.

Speaker 3: 45:36

You

Speaker 2: 45:36

know,

Speaker: 45:36

fast.

Speaker 2: 45:36

Yes. Kurt, Jill Boats are in the low two hundreds and the other people are in 1 10, 25 zone. Like it's never gonna turn your way.

Speaker: 45:44

No. Yeah. Like we could stop Actually,

Speaker 3: 45:47

what would a handicap for Scrabble be? You only,

Speaker 2: 45:49

maybe you get five letters instead of seven or something.

Speaker 3: 45:52

Oh, okay. I was gonna say you have to do it in Spanish or something.

Speaker 2: 45:56

I go Spanish thought I

Speaker: 45:57

was like,

Speaker 3: 45:57

who can check?

Speaker 2: 45:58

I good. Zero there,

Speaker 3: 46:00

see?

Speaker 2: 46:01

No.

Speaker: 46:01

Yeah, you get some.

Speaker 2: 46:03

So, so you make this decision, I guess, or tell me about the circumstances you were

Speaker: 46:09

Yeah, that's him.

Speaker 3: 46:10

Yeah. So I, I, I ran my own video production business in Denver. Yeah. Doing that same sort of thing. And Kelsey had just gotten her job at a school that was like her dream job. It was in the dream classroom. Uh, the person she was working with, it was. Everything had a line. She loved it. Um, I got a call, I was getting kind of burn out. You're

46:29

like,

Speaker 2: 46:29

let me go ahead and disrupt this. Yeah, definitely. She's too happy.

Speaker: 46:31

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 3: 46:32

I was getting kind of burnt out. I would, I was reaching the point in my career where I was like, I don't have any more hours to sell. Uh, and I don't necessarily love the clients that I'm working for. It's not necessarily fulfilling. I, I'm open to a change.

Speaker 2: 46:44

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 46:45

Um, but I had a, an old producer boss of mine reach out and he had just gotten a job, uh, as a producer in California and said, Hey, I'm looking for someone to come on board. You guys wanna move to California? Associate

Speaker 2: 46:57

producer,

Speaker 3: 46:58

basically,

Speaker 2: 46:58

kind of, or whatever.

Speaker 3: 46:59

He's like, you wanna come on board? You wanna move to California? He said, no, and I wife kill me. Her. Yeah. And so I just casually said, Hey, uh, you know, Paco emailed me and he said he wants me to move to California.

Speaker: 47:13

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 47:13

Do you wanna, do you wanna move to California?

Speaker: 47:15

And I had never lived outside of Colorado.

Speaker 2: 47:17

Yeah.

Speaker: 47:17

Um, and so I said, well, like we can consider it. And I was like, at the very least, if they're gonna fly us out there for an interview

47:23

Right.

Speaker 2: 47:23

We got a nice weekend away.

Speaker: 47:24

Mm-hmm. We can go on a trip. So we did that. We went on a trip. Um, and the location is very unique in that it is far away from everything. It's a very small community. Um, but it is gorgeous. It is one of the prettiest places Yeah. That I've been

Speaker 3: 47:41

living in the Saquoia National Forest amongst the giants.

Speaker: 47:45

Yeah. And so when we came back, I, that dream job, which still love it, was at an elementary school in Denver and I was with my mentor teacher. So I had been a para in her classroom before. And then the job opened up to teach next with next door to her.

Speaker 2: 48:01

Mm-hmm.

Speaker: 48:02

And I came back and I went to talk to her kind of about this opportunity and she said, well, my husband got a job back in Kansas City.

Speaker 2: 48:09

Hmm.

Speaker: 48:09

So we're moving.

Speaker 2: 48:11

Oh,

Speaker 3: 48:12

and so you crippled the special ed

Speaker: 48:14

department school? Yep. So I said, oh, well I think we're gonna move two then. And so in one fell swoop, both special education teachers left.

Speaker 2: 48:24

And what kinda work, if I may been what, what was this job like? Out in the middle of the boonies?

Speaker 3: 48:31

Mm-hmm. Yeah. So it's a, it was a Christian camp Okay. Out in Sequoia National Forest. And they predated the national forest, so that's why they could still exist there. Okay. So it was 340 acres of, of land there. And they ran

Speaker 2: 48:42

undisturbed wilderness

Speaker 3: 48:43

except wildness,

Speaker 2: 48:44

cabins and stuff they've built over the years.

Speaker 3: 48:46

And then this Christian camp plopped right there in the middle. Right on a lake. And, uh, they are, that is like their hometown, but they, they have ministries that were all over the US Okay. So they did stuff in Hawaii and internationally and Massachusetts. Massachusetts, yep.

Speaker 2: 49:01

So creating a bunch of content to support, here's the amazing things where kids will enjoy if they sign up for one of our camps.

Speaker 3: 49:08

Yes. Yeah. And so my, my job was in the marketing and communications department, so, which focused on a lot of either fundraising or, uh, ministry outreach and that sort of thing. Yeah. So they were very media forward and I think that is what has grown their brand.

Speaker 2: 49:20

Hmm.

Speaker 3: 49:21

Uh, quite a bit.

Speaker 2: 49:21

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 49:22

Um,

Speaker 2: 49:22

and probably gave you some different chops than you'd had before too.

Speaker 3: 49:25

Oh yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Working inside of the nonprofit space, uh, was huge. And I, I, you know, I contributed to the raising of millions of dollars and actually understood storytelling from that perspective

49:36

and

Speaker 2: 49:37

mm-hmm.

Speaker 3: 49:37

Um, so that was great. And I got to manage a team of. Probably a dozen kids. Oh, cool. College age kids that did a lot of the, the grunt work and

Speaker 2: 49:44

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 49:44

Yeah. Shooting and editing. You weren't

Speaker 2: 49:45

behind the camera for a while. You were like mm-hmm. Telling these guys to get behind that camera.

Speaker 3: 49:49

This one. Exactly. So, and that was a lot of fun.

Speaker 2: 49:52

Well, teaching others is very fulfilling. Yes. You know, I like learning, but teaching is just as fun sometimes.

Speaker: 49:58

Yes. It's a different, yeah. A different experience, which is fun,

Speaker 2: 50:01

but, and what was your experience out there at Kelsey?

Speaker: 50:02

Yeah, so that's kind of the big catalyst and, well, like, can we do this? Is, well, what am I gonna do? Yeah. I have a master's degree. I need to be doing something. And, um, they actually have a small charter school.

Speaker 2: 50:16

Oh.

Speaker: 50:17

In the camp property. It's a public charter school. Oh, wow. Um, but it's mostly for the camp employees children.

Speaker 2: 50:23

Yeah.

Speaker: 50:24

Um, but there were also other like national Forest families or people that didn't want to drive down into Fresno. Right. That wanted to come Okay. The other direction.

Speaker 2: 50:33

Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker: 50:33

Um, and they needed a special education teacher.

Speaker 2: 50:36

Oh, wow.

Speaker: 50:36

And so I ended up getting to run the entire special education department for K 12. Um, and so it really, that's awesome. You could tell it was really the right direction.

Speaker 2: 50:46

Well, and. You know, I don't wanna use Providence too much, but gosh, it seems that you've had the visuals on Providence more than a couple times in your lives together.

Speaker: 50:56

Absolutely. That's,

Speaker 3: 50:57

it became very apparent in our, when we flew out there to interview that all of a sudden they went from pursuing me, uh, to pursuing Kelsey. Right.'cause it was a lot harder to find a credentialed special ed teacher that would move there. Move there. Yes. Rather than a video producer.

Speaker 2: 51:12

Right. I was

Speaker 3: 51:12

like, oh.

Speaker 2: 51:13

Well, and frankly, if you didn't have each other, it would've been a tough move for either of you. Mm-hmm. Yes. Just for the isolation of it, I imagine.

Speaker 3: 51:20

Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Speaker: 51:20

Yes. Together, it really worked. And we got to, then, we didn't have kids yet, so we just got to go out every weekend and explore the forest, and we got an overland vehicle and Oh, what you get? We would just go camping. Uh, we had an TER back then.

Speaker 2: 51:33

Okay.

Speaker: 51:34

That's a pretty

Speaker 2: 51:34

good four wheeler

Speaker: 51:35

actually. Mm-hmm. I miss it. I miss it.

Speaker 2: 51:38

We had an old montero for a while. It was similarly capable and, uh, they're just kind of light and, you know, not a big, big powerful engine or anything, but just put it in granny and get where you want to go. Thank

Speaker 3: 51:48

God us everywhere we need to go. We, you know, we got into the rooftop tent thing. Cool. And we just, we could just. Hundreds of miles of, of fire road,

Speaker 2: 51:56

right?

Speaker 3: 51:56

Yeah. Out there. So we could just go and explore new space every time we went out.

Speaker 2: 52:00

Yes. Hikers, fishers. Did you catch your dinner? Sometimes?

Speaker 3: 52:04

We did a lot of fishing. Yeah.

Speaker: 52:05

I'm not a, I'm not, I don't go fishing. We'll eat'em. Very boring. I'll eat them. And I, when I was growing up, I didn't like fishing then either. I would sit on the bank and read and my mom would say, well, if you're not gonna fish, you're gonna clean em.

Speaker 2: 52:16

Oh.

Speaker: 52:17

So she would catch the fish.

Speaker 2: 52:18

That's

Speaker: 52:18

a deal. And then I had to clean'em, so

Speaker 3: 52:21

I think I would rather get into fishing.

Speaker 2: 52:23

Right, exactly. That would've been like the, you know what, I need a fishing rod mom.

Speaker: 52:26

I'm like, it's fine. But no.

Speaker 3: 52:28

So yeah, it was, it was an outdoor dream, you know? There's a lot of stuff to do. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 52:33

So, and how long did you guys stay there?

Speaker: 52:34

We were there from 28. 19 to 2018? No, 18 to 2020.

Speaker 2: 52:40

Okay.

Speaker: 52:41

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 52:42

And like did they three

Speaker 3: 52:43

years, 2017. 17 to 20.

Speaker: 52:46

Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 52:48

And did they kind of like shut down during COVID Nation and they were like, well. You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here kind of thing or

Speaker 3: 52:57

Well, they had to stop running events, right, obviously. Mm-hmm. And then yeah, there were the, the California lockdown measures.

Speaker 2: 53:04

Sure.

Speaker 3: 53:04

Um, and even we were,

Speaker 2: 53:05

sorry you're in a forest, but

Speaker 3: 53:07

we were isolated not letting, you know, public in and out. We were isolated. You the chance

53:11

of

Speaker 2: 53:11

COVID making it to you was almost numb.

Speaker 3: 53:13

Um, yeah. But we still had at home orders,

Speaker: 53:16

so we still weren't in our community of like 300. Yeah. We still weren't even supposed to go

Speaker 2: 53:21

and talk to each

Speaker: 53:21

other stuff. To our, yeah. To our friends for dinner or Oh gosh.

Speaker 3: 53:24

But yeah, we, we worked from our kitchen table, her doing school stuff and me doing video production.'cause we were still doing some, you were stuffing with the

Speaker 2: 53:34

kids

Speaker: 53:34

or whatever, who were their parents. The houses were all close enough that we could, I could like look out the window and see them, but we would have to zoom. Um,

Speaker 3: 53:43

and so we did that for three months from March to May. And

Speaker: 53:47

yeah, we, yeah, we didn't leave them mountain.

Speaker 3: 53:48

Thankfully. We had made the decision that we were. Moving back home anyway. Yeah, we, at this point we had a six month old.

Speaker 2: 53:54

Okay.

Speaker 3: 53:55

Yeah. Or so,

Speaker 2: 53:56

made it easier kind of.

Speaker 3: 53:56

And so we were gonna, we were moving back to Colorado anyway, so we were just letting the clock run out. But

Speaker 2: 54:02

part of what I wrote about in that, uh, blog that followed our big trip out there was like in Death Valley, in the little town, we stopped in for lunch, just outside of Death Valley. Like, don't wear your mask in that restaurant.'cause they were like having none of it. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Uh, and just the diversity. And then we went to Pike Place Market like a week after it opened. And there were more vendors there than there were people. Those people were terrified in Seattle.

Speaker: 54:27

Completely different. And even within California, if you would've gone San Francisco to the Valley,

Speaker 2: 54:34

right.

Speaker: 54:34

Totally different reactions to everything. Imagine

Speaker 2: 54:37

the agrarian economy. They're like, and that was what I told people a little bit back in those days. I was like, you know, in North Dakota, like you, you get sick. You don't get sick, and if you get sick, maybe you die. Maybe you don't die, but life moves on. Mm-hmm.

Speaker: 54:50

Yeah. Everybody is still,

Speaker 2: 54:54

and that wasn't the way it was in the city here.

Speaker: 54:56

No. And it's been, it was very interesting to kind of watch that balance of like, well, what do you do?

Speaker 2: 55:03

Well, and who's right? You know, nobody really knew who was Right. We each had instincts. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Speaker: 55:08

But,

Speaker 2: 55:08

well, and we got so much different, um, risk analysis profiles. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Like, I'm a motorcyclist. I've done, you know, I told you I was gonna have a local experience episode where the, the times I've just about killed me and my wife together, it's gonna be part of my local experience. And so I've got a higher risk profile than some. I'm like, you know, oh, there's a one in 100 chance you might die if you go out in public. Oh, well that's one in a hundred. That's nothing. You're like, that's great for other people. They're like, one in a hundred. Well, you're gonna freak.

Speaker: 55:40

Yeah. For me, I'm like,

Speaker 2: 55:40

freak freak.

Speaker: 55:43

Right. It's a high risk.

Speaker 2: 55:43

I'm like, I could go out 20 times without risking too much.

Speaker: 55:46

That's, but during that, that's, my mom was still working. My mom has been a nurse my entire life,

Speaker 2: 55:51

so you got to hear

Speaker: 55:52

the stories. So she, yep. So she was still working as a nurse at that time. She was in Texas. Um, she, she's had a journey since, but she's now back here in Loveland, but, and so we got to really hear some stories, which I think made,

56:07

she

Speaker 3: 56:07

saw the worst.

Speaker: 56:07

Yeah. I think made being in the forest actually feel ideal.

Speaker 3: 56:12

Sure.

Speaker: 56:13

Where I was like, well, I can go out and see the deer. Right. And I can be in my kitchen and still talk to my friends without knowing they went down and who knows Their risk exposure. Right. The mountain. I was like, oh, this is actually nice. Yeah. Like, so

Speaker 3: 56:28

for places to be locked down and. Made to stay in your home, like where we lived was ideal'cause Yeah,

Speaker 2: 56:34

for sure.

Speaker 3: 56:35

We, we got to a point where we're like, we have to leave the house, we have to do something. We would always pile in our Yeah. Uh, extera and we would go hunt down the same, uh, herd of, of deer around the property. Every day. We'd go, you know, after an hour of driving fire roads, we'd find them and sit and watch.

Speaker 2: 56:50

Oh, that's cool.

Speaker: 56:51

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 56:51

That became our entertainment for a while.

Speaker 2: 56:53

Jill and I were actually on a hiking kick starting months before we were snowshoeing through January and then March we were hiking and uh, it was crazy. Like we'd go out hiking and it was like us and four other cars and six Amazon trucks and that was pretty much it. On the road. Yeah. For a few weeks there.

Speaker 3: 57:13

That's bizarre. Yeah,

Speaker 2: 57:14

it was bizarre

Speaker: 57:14

for sure. It was just such a, yeah, a weird space.

Speaker 2: 57:17

So, so you get like ready to depart California. Did you know you were gonna come back to your great-grand?

Speaker: 57:26

Yes, we did. So my mom. Has owned two homes. One in Loveland, one in my great grandparents, four forever. Um, but she was considering selling Mm. My great grandparents' home, which growing up I didn't think I would've had any sort of reaction to. Yeah. I honestly did not think I wanted to live in northern Colorado. Mm. Um, my uncle lives in Brooklyn and I had always said I would live in Brooklyn.

Speaker 2: 57:49

Okay.

Speaker: 57:50

Um, which would still be awesome. But, uh, she, when she thought about selling it, I had a much stronger reaction than I thought I would, and I was very upset. Um, and so we then asked, well, if we're gonna move back, especially then after COVID and everything, I said, well, we have to have a place that we know we can land. We can't come here and not have a rental house or have, and we were coming from a ministry which historically transitioning from Yeah. That to. Regular rent prices Yes. Can be a struggle.

Speaker 2: 58:27

Right.

Speaker: 58:27

Um, and so she agreed to let us rent the house from her. So we knew at a

Speaker 2: 58:32

scream and family deal probably too.

Speaker: 58:34

Yeah. Oh yeah. That's,

Speaker 2: 58:35

especially while you didn't have much income figured out. Yes. And Ben has to restart his business basically.

Speaker: 58:40

Yeah. Yes. So she really helped with that. I don't really know how else we would've gotten back. We probably still

Speaker 3: 58:46

be in California.

Speaker: 58:47

Yeah, that's, and so, um,

Speaker 2: 58:50

oh God bless her.

Speaker: 58:50

Yes. And then about a year later, in a very similar, very, very. Gracious way. She ended up selling the house to us. Oh. Um, that's, and so now we own it. Um, which kind of solidified our location. Yeah. A little bit more than I think we had even planned when we moved back.

Speaker 2: 59:07

Yeah.

59:08

Yeah.

Speaker: 59:08

Um, but it's worked out and now I love it. And our kids get to grow up there, which is great.

Speaker 2: 59:12

Do you, you don't have dreams right now of moving to Brooklyn?

Speaker: 59:15

No dreams right now of moving to Brooklyn. That's good. I would love, it's not great place for kiddos. Would love mostly to my, I would love mostly to just like, be able to go there for a summer.

Speaker 2: 59:24

Yeah.

Speaker: 59:24

And be like, oh yeah. Like, let's experience New York.

Speaker 3: 59:26

What's a summer home in Brooklyn? Cost? Do you know?

Speaker 2: 59:29

I don't know. But, uh, maybe you can live with uncle.

Speaker: 59:33

I was like, they have a standalone house with a yard.

Speaker 2: 59:35

Yeah, that works. So

59:36

we

Speaker: 59:36

could fit somewhere.

Speaker 2: 59:37

That works. Well, the cool thing about what you're building here is, is if you get a little more scale to it, obviously and get penetration in markets and stuff. You can pretty much do most of what you need remotely. And so you could take eight weeks in Brooklyn.

Speaker: 59:50

Yeah. Take some time and or

Speaker 2: 59:52

whatever,

Speaker: 59:52

which would be great. Yeah. To be able to kind of have it established, um, which would be awesome. No, our dreams have really shifted the other way for me from moving to the big city to, uh, we would like to have like five to 10 acres of land. Okay. Which seems as unattainable monetarily. Currently as moving to Brooklyn, but

Speaker 2: 1:00:11

once your media empire grows, doubles a few more times then

Speaker: 1:00:15

mm-hmm.

Speaker 2: 1:00:15

Should be manageable.

Speaker: 1:00:16

Yeah. Interest

Speaker 3: 1:00:16

rates drop a little bit.

Speaker 2: 1:00:17

That would help too. Yeah. Right. So do you have, don't have any real property to speak of at your La Porte place?

Speaker: 1:00:24

No. No. It's right

Speaker 2: 1:00:25

in town

Speaker: 1:00:25

kind. Yeah. It's in LaPorte as in town as you can get.

Speaker 2: 1:00:29

Gotcha, gotcha. Urban, the urban part of LaPorte.

Speaker 3: 1:00:32

Yes.

Speaker 2: 1:00:33

Can you walk to, uh, the swing station or anything like that?

1:00:36

We

Speaker: 1:00:36

can, yeah. We can walk to the swing station. Walk to Oma.

Speaker 2: 1:00:39

Nice.

Speaker: 1:00:39

Um,

Speaker 2: 1:00:39

so you know that you got everything covered. I really do. Yeah. That's work good. Yeah. And we're back just like that.

Speaker: 1:01:35

Easy.

Speaker 2: 1:01:36

So earlier in the conversation, um, you mentioned getting into some longer form content as well. Uh, care to share more about that.

Speaker: 1:01:46

Yeah. I would say that's Ben's passion area, so.

Speaker 2: 1:01:48

Okay.

Speaker 3: 1:01:49

Yeah. We've just started getting into, uh, what are some of the longer form stories that we could tell around town? Yeah. And some of, we've just been experimenting with different things. We did kind of a, oh, I don't know what that ended up being. Maybe a 15 minute little program with, uh, the gardens over on Spring Creek about gardening and agri and horticulture. And we got to meet with one of their lead horticultural horticulturalists and, uh,

Speaker 2: 1:02:15

nailed

Speaker 3: 1:02:15

it. Yeah. And do, do a, like a little a think HGTV

Speaker 2: 1:02:20

kind

Speaker 3: 1:02:20

of like, like segment sort of thing.

Speaker 2: 1:02:21

Like a mini doc

Speaker 3: 1:02:22

almost. Yeah, exactly. And so, um, our most recent project we just released, it was about a 22 minute little short documentary about, uh, beer here in Northern Colorado. So I got to go meet with all, uh, not all. There's a lot, meet with some of our favorite breweries, um, all across Northern Colorado. We tried to get one in every city

Speaker 2: 1:02:44

Okay.

Speaker: 1:02:44

Except Windsor.

Speaker 3: 1:02:45

Yeah. We didn't get to Windsor. Oh, bummer. And then just do a little deep dive on their experiences as small business owners in a fairly saturated field here in Sure. Northern Colorado.'cause we have the reputation of being a big beer town.

Speaker 2: 1:02:59

Sure.

Speaker 3: 1:02:59

And so getting to talk to everyone from odell, who's been here forever.

Speaker 2: 1:03:04

Yep.

Speaker 3: 1:03:04

All the way down to, you know, very, very small indie band as they would call it.

Speaker 2: 1:03:09

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 1:03:09

Uh, like, hello Brew over here.

Speaker 2: 1:03:11

Yeah. Hello. Brew Co.

Speaker 3: 1:03:12

Yep. Hello Brew Co. So, um, and they're just, you know, neighbors right there. And so getting their perspective on everything from, um, why they love doing what they do, uh, what are the challenges. Of being in such a saturated field. What is, what has the beer industry been like since COVID?

Speaker 2: 1:03:27

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 1:03:28

So those sort of things. And so

Speaker 2: 1:03:29

yeah.

Speaker 3: 1:03:30

Yeah, we just released that and we, we did a premiere night. Is

Speaker 2: 1:03:33

that on, this is Noco or is that a separate release? That's like a YouTube,

Speaker 3: 1:03:37

it's on our YouTube channel format

Speaker 2: 1:03:38

kind of

Speaker 3: 1:03:39

thing. For sure. And it's all the episodes we raise released to Episodically. So there they're five, five-ish minute episodes. Okay. Up on, um, this is noco.com. You can find it and there's like a little article write up on e every episode Cool. Sort of thing. So we just did that and that has led to some fun things. We're now sponsors of Fort Collins Beer Week

Speaker 2: 1:03:57

Oh.

Speaker 3: 1:03:57

Um, this summer. So we're excited to be a part of that and

Speaker 2: 1:04:00

yeah.

Speaker 3: 1:04:00

Yeah. So, yeah. And, uh, we're, we, we've got probably a dozen ideas of different things that we want to do.

Speaker 2: 1:04:07

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 1:04:08

Yeah. Here in, in Colorado, so

Speaker 2: 1:04:11

that's really fun. Jill and I have, uh, we like to go to the, the, uh, trivia night at. Uh, Breckenridge Brewing sometimes. Oh. Mm-hmm. And, uh, I noticed that they've got some kind of a Winter Brew Fest thing coming up at the end of February there.

Speaker 3: 1:04:24

Yep.

Speaker: 1:04:24

Yeah, that's,

Speaker 2: 1:04:24

uh, which there used to be a brew fest every month just about it seemed like. Mm-hmm. And it's been kind of a, a less common occurrence, so I thought about checking that out. This, this spring here. Yeah. I think, why not? While I think's in February it looks

Speaker: 1:04:36

great.

Speaker 2: 1:04:37

Um, and it's funny, like when I was 30, the, uh, pay$40 and drink as much as you want was a lot more compelling.

Speaker: 1:04:46

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:04:47

Now I'm kind of like, how about if I pay$25 and drink one third as much as I could?

Speaker: 1:04:53

Yeah. Mm-hmm. Gimme a set amount and I'm good.

Speaker 2: 1:04:57

You cut

Speaker 3: 1:04:58

me off at six. Yeah. Good.

Speaker: 1:05:00

Yeah. Even we went to like the Great

Speaker 3: 1:05:02

American Beer Festival.

Speaker: 1:05:03

Great American Beer Festival. Oh, you

Speaker 2: 1:05:04

did?

Speaker: 1:05:05

And I don't think I could do it now.

Speaker 2: 1:05:07

Right.

Speaker: 1:05:07

That's I you that I would've been like 25 and that seemed great,

Speaker 2: 1:05:12

right?

Speaker: 1:05:12

Yeah. But now I'm like, I don't think I could even enjoy all the beers I'm tasting. So

Speaker 3: 1:05:17

when you have 81 ounce pores,

Speaker 2: 1:05:19

right?

Speaker 3: 1:05:19

Oh. And in afternoon,

Speaker 2: 1:05:21

that's a lot.

Speaker 3: 1:05:22

It all blends together.

Speaker 2: 1:05:22

It, right. One of my favorite, uh, signs, actually, bathroom signs. I'm a, I'm a bathroom sign aficionado of sorts. Um, is that the Timus Brewery or Beer Brew Beer Works or whatever. Oh, beer works, I think it's called. Mm-hmm. And it, in the men's room, you probably wouldn't know Kelsey. Mm-hmm. But it says, uh, in dog beers, I've had only one.

Speaker: 1:05:47

And see, my brain goes to bathroom signs would be a great Instagram account. People would love that.

Speaker 2: 1:05:53

Yeah. There you go. But you have to recruit Ben to the guy. The far fewer bathroom signs. I was like, what is, like,

Speaker 3: 1:06:01

what is the art. Seen in women's bathrooms.

Speaker 2: 1:06:04

Yeah. Do they have'em on the back of the toilet door and stuff, or No? You just above the sink sometimes. But that's a mirror usually.

Speaker: 1:06:10

Yeah, that's a mirror. I guess we don't really have an art scene in women's bathrooms

Speaker 2: 1:06:15

at Uretal are a very captive market. Like you're gonna look at the wall in front of you

Speaker 3: 1:06:19

Yep.

Speaker 2: 1:06:20

While you're standing there. Period.

Speaker: 1:06:22

Wow. I've never thought about that.

Speaker 2: 1:06:23

Yeah.

Speaker: 1:06:24

So they, but do they put like marketing material there or just like funny signs

Speaker 3: 1:06:27

sometimes.

Speaker 2: 1:06:28

Yeah. Both. Yeah. Huh. Um,

Speaker 3: 1:06:30

otherwise you look at the gr the graffiti.

Speaker 2: 1:06:32

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 1:06:32

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:06:33

You

Speaker 3: 1:06:33

learn

Speaker 2: 1:06:33

what you don't do is look over at the guy next to you ever,

Speaker 3: 1:06:36

ever. No.

Speaker: 1:06:37

Yeah. That whole situation is, I'm glad I don't have to deal with that.

Speaker 2: 1:07:24

So, um, what I think I might want to do here is we have these, uh. A random question generator. Oh,

Speaker: 1:07:32

okay.

Speaker 2: 1:07:33

And when we have a solo guest, we, uh, we usually do three random questions, but with you guys, I think let's just do two each. Okay. And we'll be relatively brief'cause we've been talking for quite a while already. But grab two balls out and then you can pass this bowl back to me. Okay. To each Oh,

Speaker: 1:07:52

to each. Yes. You get some too.

Speaker 2: 1:07:54

And then I've got this, uh, this question list here. Oh, this

Speaker: 1:07:57

is

Speaker 2: 1:07:57

my

Speaker: 1:07:57

favorite number. 27. Excellent.

Speaker 2: 1:07:59

That's a favorite number

Speaker: 1:08:00

I thought. Yeah. 27.

Speaker 2: 1:08:01

Interesting. That's too big for a favorite number it seems like.

Speaker: 1:08:05

Yeah. I'm not really sure why, but it is. Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2: 1:08:08

Were you that age when you met Ben? No. You were only 22.

Speaker: 1:08:10

Yeah, I was 22.

Speaker 2: 1:08:13

Um, do you wanna start Kelsey?

Speaker: 1:08:14

Sure. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:08:15

You wanna start with the 27?

Speaker: 1:08:16

27?

Speaker 2: 1:08:17

I can get my reading glasses out here. That's all easier. Oh, this is a fun one. What's the strangest way you've ever injured yourself?

Speaker: 1:08:27

Oh, I haven't been injured. I haven't really been injured that much.

Speaker 2: 1:08:32

Really? That's good for you.

Speaker: 1:08:33

No, no. I've only broken one bone.

Speaker 2: 1:08:35

Okay. Was it strange?

Speaker: 1:08:37

It wasn't strange. The aftermath was a little more strange. Um, my mom's gonna hate that I'm telling this story. Let's hear it then. I love

Speaker 2: 1:08:44

it. I like it already.

Speaker: 1:08:46

I, um, have always been a skier. Okay. My mom was a skier. I learned to ski when I was in like middle high school. I decided that I needed to be cool and I wanted to learn to snowboard. And so I went snowboarding and fell like in the parking lot, like not even on.

Speaker 2: 1:09:03

Okay.

Speaker: 1:09:03

The hill fell when I was like at the bottom wearing my snowboard and fell back and hurt my wrist. Oh. And I told my mom that it hurt and she said, no, you're not hurt. Go get your skis outta the car. You can just ski the rest of the day. Yeah, set of snowboard. So I did. I went skiing the rest of the day. The next day, mom, my wrist really hurts. She's a nurse, as I mentioned, so No, it doesn't. You're fine.

Speaker 2: 1:09:25

Oh,

Speaker: 1:09:26

go to school the next day. Mom. My wrist really hurts. No, you're fine.

Speaker 2: 1:09:30

Scaffold

Speaker: 1:09:30

bone. It took probably three or four days until she finally took me to the doctor and I had broken my wrist and she loves that. I tell everyone that

Speaker 2: 1:09:42

I'm sure

Speaker: 1:09:42

she did not take me to the doctor, but that's, yeah. That's the only time I've broken a bone. I, yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:09:48

All right.

Speaker: 1:09:49

I'm pretty

Speaker 2: 1:09:49

risk averse, so. Yeah, exactly. We, we've, we've come to know that between each other, which will be fun for us being co-hosts of that new program. Um, Ben, would you like to choose a number?

Speaker 3: 1:09:58

Sure. I got 26. Alright.

Speaker 2: 1:10:00

Right. Make be easy

Speaker 3: 1:10:01

on you.

Speaker 2: 1:10:01

Five. What's your go-to way to unwind after a stressful day?

Speaker 3: 1:10:06

Oh, go-to way to unwind lately has been a lot of what my kids call rough play.

Speaker 2: 1:10:14

Oh.

Speaker 3: 1:10:14

Um, so they just,

Speaker: 1:10:15

I don't know

Speaker 3: 1:10:16

that that's

Speaker: 1:10:16

unwinding.

Speaker 3: 1:10:17

Yeah. Well it's, it's fun in its own way. Yeah. But, uh, it's a lot of Yeah. Wrestling I get on the ground and they really, you know, give me everything they've got. Yeah. And they're combined nine years of life. I love

Speaker 2: 1:10:27

it.

Speaker 3: 1:10:27

I love it. That's a lot of fun. But I'm also very into pipes. I like pipe tobaccos and that sort of thing, so when I can like old

Speaker 2: 1:10:33

school, like

Speaker 3: 1:10:34

Yep. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Old

Speaker: 1:10:35

man.

Speaker 3: 1:10:35

Yep. Very old man sort of stuff. So,

Speaker 2: 1:10:37

are there certain tobaccos out there that you favor?

Speaker 3: 1:10:40

Um, that I favor? Probably not. I'm

Speaker 2: 1:10:43

the, the variety of it

Speaker 3: 1:10:44

kind of. Yeah. I love the variety of, and

Speaker 2: 1:10:45

the pipes it sounds like too. Mm-hmm.

Speaker 3: 1:10:47

Yep. A lot of aromatics, so I like the, the smellier ones. Okay, nice.

Speaker 2: 1:10:51

Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 3: 1:10:52

You know, themed caven dishes and that sort of thing.

Speaker 2: 1:10:54

Okay. Interesting.

Speaker 3: 1:10:56

So I like those when it makes sense to be able to enjoy those.

Speaker 2: 1:10:58

Yeah. I like, I like wrestling with children as well. I don't have any of my own, so it gets awkward sometimes. That's,

Speaker: 1:11:05

I was like, so that's a different,

Speaker 2: 1:11:09

alright, Kelsey, you're back on.

Speaker: 1:11:10

I'm 25. We're just going straight down

Speaker 2: 1:11:12

five. Dang. You guys are right there. What's one thing on your bucket list that you're determined to accomplish?

Speaker: 1:11:19

Oh, I think I would like to go to Italy.

Speaker 2: 1:11:22

Okay.

Speaker: 1:11:23

Um, I've been to Spain, been some other places, but not Italy. But, um, my maiden name is Maggiano. Um, Magno. Maggiano. Maggiano, which used to be Maggiano. Okay. Um, and then at some point the Double G got dropped.

Speaker 2: 1:11:36

Yeah.

Speaker: 1:11:36

Um, and so my mom and all of my mom's family is very Italian.

Speaker 2: 1:11:40

Oh, very cool.

Speaker: 1:11:41

So I think that's what I'm determined. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:11:44

Well check out Ravena when you go. Okay. Uh, it's, uh, east of Bologna and south of Venice, a couple of hours.

Speaker: 1:11:50

Okay.

Speaker 2: 1:11:50

And, uh, my wife and I hosted a student from Italy last fall. So Sarah from Ravena stayed with us from August through December.

Speaker: 1:11:59

Okay.

Speaker 2: 1:12:00

And, uh, she was a little sister of Enrico who stayed with us three years prior.

Speaker: 1:12:05

Okay.

Speaker 2: 1:12:05

So it was our

Speaker: 1:12:05

first And neither of those are the one from Poland?

Speaker 2: 1:12:07

No, that was back in 2020. Okay. Okay. We've hosted 12 now. Oh, wow. Including Sarah. So that's our little hobby.

Speaker: 1:12:12

That's very cool.

Speaker 2: 1:12:13

And they can't work for pay while they're here. And so you could basically get one that could watch your kids at certain times for date nights and stuff.

Speaker 3: 1:12:21

Wow.

Speaker: 1:12:21

Why can't they work for pay?

Speaker 2: 1:12:23

Well, because they're on a student visa.

Speaker: 1:12:24

Oh. And

Speaker 2: 1:12:25

they don't have a work visa. They

Speaker 3: 1:12:26

don't have a work visa.

Speaker 2: 1:12:26

Okay. So yeah, if you pay'em, you have to pay'em under the counter. Yeah. You gotta cash. Shouldn't do it all but. But they would probably go for a little walking around money too. Yeah. Gift.'cause their parents or gift cards. Exactly. Well, even just, uh, yeah, some cash. Yeah. For watching my kid. Huh. But anyway, you know, usually they're 16, 17 years old is the ones we've hosted. So that's fun. Lemme know if you want a connection there sometime, but we're hoping to go actually back for Sarah's high school graduation next in 27.

Speaker: 1:12:53

Okay. Okay.

Speaker 2: 1:12:53

And visit the family and her

Speaker: 1:12:54

folks

Speaker 2: 1:12:55

have reached out a couple times, but like, you can stay here whatever you want for as long as you want. We're here. Yeah. And so it's been kind of a neat, uh, having that, uh, multi, uh, kid

Speaker: 1:13:08

Yes.

Speaker 2: 1:13:09

Sequence. It just kind of cements that bond and we've had zooms with them and their parents over the years. Cool. That's

Speaker: 1:13:15

really

Speaker 2: 1:13:15

cool. It's pretty neat. So anyway, for what it's worth. Okay.

Speaker: 1:13:17

That's cool.

Speaker 2: 1:13:18

Um, maybe we'll see you over there. Yeah.

Speaker: 1:13:20

Ravenna.

Speaker 2: 1:13:20

Yeah. All right, Ben, what's your, uh, what's your other number?

Speaker 3: 1:13:23

The last one is 1212.

Speaker 2: 1:13:29

If you could time travel, would you visit the past or the future? When and why?

Speaker 3: 1:13:37

Hmm. When and why? Past or future? Yeah. I don't know. I think it would probably be a lot of fun. I don't know if I'd have the guts to go to the future. Maybe they'll leave that. Leave that to the end. Leave that a mystery. Yeah. But I, so I think I would go to the past, I'm not sure when,

Speaker 2: 1:13:56

whatever time period they were smoking all the cool pipes.

Speaker 3: 1:13:58

Right. When that was more socially accepted.

Speaker 2: 1:14:01

Dig it.

Speaker 3: 1:14:02

No. So, yeah, I don't know. Time. I don't know. Kelsey and I love to have little arguments of, well, as a, as a white guy, I can visit any time in period in history and I'd be fine.

Speaker: 1:14:14

Yeah, that sounds like that's a very different answer for that question.'cause I was a history major in undergrad.

Speaker 2: 1:14:18

Yeah.

Speaker: 1:14:18

But I, we discuss a lot that anything I would wanna see in history. Wouldn't have been for me.

Speaker 2: 1:14:24

Oh, interesting.

Speaker: 1:14:25

I would've been in the other, the other, so that's,

Speaker 2: 1:14:30

talk to me about that. Like Maggiano doesn't seem like a, uh, it seems like pretty Italian name. Yep. Which, so your mother is black then, or

Speaker: 1:14:40

No? My, uh, so Maggiano is my mom's last name. I grew up to a single mom.

Speaker 2: 1:14:45

Yep.

Speaker: 1:14:45

Um, so it was just me and my mom.

Speaker 2: 1:14:47

Okay.

Speaker: 1:14:48

Um, and she's very Italian. I only knew my Italian side of my family. Gotcha. Growing up. My dad is black. Um, he lives in Alabama and I did not know him Okay. Until I was 32.

Speaker 2: 1:14:58

Oh, wow.

Speaker: 1:14:58

Okay. So I just met him and my younger sister. Um, okay. Just

Speaker 2: 1:15:01

a couple years ago.

Speaker: 1:15:02

Just, yeah. Two years ago. I've met them twice now.

Speaker 2: 1:15:04

That's interesting.

Speaker: 1:15:05

Um, and so yeah, growing up here in Fort Collins, that was a very different,

Speaker 2: 1:15:11

you were the darkest Italian that anybody had ever

Speaker: 1:15:12

met. Mm-hmm. Yes. That's, but even like my hair, I Right. It was a very hard conversation often of like, well, I'm very clearly black,

Speaker 2: 1:15:21

right?

Speaker: 1:15:21

But then when you see me with my family or how I was raised and things, it doesn't fit people's perception.

Speaker 2: 1:15:29

Yeah.

Speaker: 1:15:29

And that has always been a balance.

Speaker 2: 1:15:32

You've had very limited, almost nominal exposure to black culture.

Speaker: 1:15:35

Oh, yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:15:36

Aside from what you've watched on videos and TikTok and stuff,

Speaker: 1:15:38

right? Yeah, very little. And go, I went to UNCI never really was

Speaker 2: 1:15:43

a part of that. Yeah. There was three other black people there too. Yeah. Except for on the football team, there was a few more. Yes.

Speaker: 1:15:46

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2: 1:15:47

Interesting. So that's always been, so is that something that you would like to change? Is it compelling to go stay with your dad in Alabama for a month or something?

Speaker: 1:15:55

Well, now knowing where in Alabama my dad lives, I'm not sure that I would wanna do that. Uh, he lives on a farm, like a, a family farm. It's a hundred, like a hundred acres in the middle of absolute. Nowhere

Speaker 2: 1:16:08

right

Speaker: 1:16:08

in the south, a subsistence farm almost. Mm-hmm. Kind of. Yeah. So I would, I would rather go stay with my sister who lives in Covington, Georgia. Okay. And has like a little more of a town fair. Um, but, so I don't know. When I was growing up before I knew my dad's side of the family.

Speaker 2: 1:16:22

Yeah.

Speaker: 1:16:22

I dreamed of it. I wanted to go to an HBCU, I wanted to live that and really experience that. And then it just never really came to fruition. Sure. And now as an adult, I would like my kids who present much more white. They're one quarter black at this point.

Speaker 2: 1:16:41

Right, right,

Speaker: 1:16:41

right. Um, but I would like them an

1:16:42

extra

Speaker 2: 1:16:42

white guy. You married here too? Very. That's

Speaker: 1:16:44

so white. So I would love to, but I also think I just met with Andrea Zen of the kind, well kind collective.

Speaker 2: 1:16:55

Okay.

Speaker: 1:16:56

Um, and we were talking the other day about how historically everybody says Fort Collins is so white, Fort Collin, which it is. But we are also not giving it the chance to like kind of see that shift. And even coming back in 2020, there are so many more people of color Sure. Of black people and all different nationalities Sure. That I see around. Yeah. And so really I would like, I think rather than experiencing what we consider black culture, I would love to be a part of what that culture is here. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:17:28

A, a more colorful melting pot here in Northern Colorado, kind of. Yes. Yeah. The previous producer and, and my right hand gal for four years was Alma Ariano. Mm-hmm.

Speaker: 1:17:38

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2: 1:17:39

Uh, and uh, she is from a Hispanic family. Her folks were born in Mexico. Yeah. And she was born in California and uh, local think tank And, and me in particular was really one of her first brushes with like. White guy culture in Northern Colorado.'cause she goes to a Hispanic church. Oh yeah. And was mostly homeschooled and just never really got into it. And it was, for me, it was like a, a huge blessing.'cause it got me some awareness of what that was like.

Speaker: 1:18:09

Yes.

Speaker 2: 1:18:09

Uh, for her and her family. And even like what it's like having Trump be elected and deportations possible for some of her fellow church goers. Mm-hmm. And stuff.

Speaker 3: 1:18:21

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2: 1:18:21

You know, I think if you're in relationship with people, you can really build upon understanding and perspective and community so much more.

Speaker: 1:18:29

Yes. And that's, and I think we have so much of that here, but even that where you're like, well, it on both sides. It was really your first experience with that

Speaker 2: 1:18:38

totally

Speaker: 1:18:39

thing. And it allowed, yeah. That connection, that growth to see here in Northern Colorado, we do have even like that fear of deportation, those things that like. We wouldn't know if we weren't in

1:18:49

relationship.

Speaker 2: 1:18:50

Yeah. Help me to understand.

Speaker: 1:18:50

Yes.

Speaker 2: 1:18:51

A little bit better otherwise. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, thanks for acknowledging that. It's, uh, I'm sure it was, huh? Did you find, like, as a kid growing up to a single mom also, uh, in LaPorte school, I reckon mm-hmm. Kind of, right? Mm-hmm. I reckon kind of right? Yeah. Like did you, did you feel like you were discriminated in any significant fashion or

Speaker: 1:19:15

No, not really to say that to your perception. Say that my, from the single mom side, my mom worked, she is the hardest worker I have ever known. So that there was, there would've never noticed a difference in what my life was in comparison to my friends who had. Two parent households.

Speaker 2: 1:19:31

Sure.

Speaker: 1:19:31

Um, and still now she

Speaker 2: 1:19:33

was still at basketball games or whatever your school things necessary. Oh,

Speaker: 1:19:37

she was, yeah. She was our soccer coach. Oh gosh. She worked impressive. Nice. As a nurse.

Speaker 2: 1:19:41

Wow.

Speaker: 1:19:42

And then would come home and sleep while I was in school and then coach my teams.

Speaker 2: 1:19:45

Wow.

Speaker: 1:19:46

She That's lovely. So to this day, she is the biggest supporter. She is the one out right now taking the magazine places.

Speaker 2: 1:19:53

Oh.

Speaker: 1:19:54

So in that respect, no.

Speaker 2: 1:19:56

Yeah.

Speaker: 1:19:57

Uh, as a black person, I would say not to the extent that people expect. I think.

Speaker 2: 1:20:06

Yeah.

Speaker: 1:20:06

I, whenever I interact with people, they almost expect that I've had more. Discrimination Yeah. In my life than I feel like I have, which maybe I'm just blind to it and, but it hasn't affected me. Yeah. Maybe

Speaker 2: 1:20:20

it's not a racist culture most places anyway.

Speaker: 1:20:24

Yes. And so there were definitely experiences growing up. Um, I don't know how much you know about LaPorte history, but it used

1:20:31

to

Speaker 2: 1:20:31

have a, well, there was a church that was pretty crazy over there that was like anti Jew, anti-black. Yep. KKK Frenchy kind of stuff.

Speaker: 1:20:38

Yes. You can see that church from our house.

Speaker 2: 1:20:39

Okay.

Speaker: 1:20:40

Um, and so they were pretty active still when I was growing up.

Speaker 2: 1:20:43

Okay.

Speaker: 1:20:43

But they never bothered me. You could

Speaker 2: 1:20:45

ride your bike past the church and nobody liked,

Speaker: 1:20:47

nobody through Sheets came out. I did know some kids at school that went to that church.

Speaker 2: 1:20:51

Okay.

Speaker: 1:20:52

And they definitely made some comments, had

Speaker 2: 1:20:55

okay

Speaker: 1:20:55

statements. One random kid had a picture of Martin Luther King Jr. He would throw darts at, in his house. Yeah. And like would just bring up as like, this is a funny joke,

Speaker 2: 1:21:03

but probably the rest of the kids disqualified them from being relevant anyway. Yes. And so it's like, oh, hey, lose. F

Speaker: 1:21:10

Yeah. Like, okay, cool. Good

Speaker 2: 1:21:11

job expressing how illusory you are. Even more Uhhuh.

Speaker: 1:21:14

Yes, yes. Um, and that's kind of how it was

Speaker 2: 1:21:17

Yeah.

Speaker: 1:21:17

All growing up.

Speaker 2: 1:21:19

Well, and growing up in Greeley, that's quite a bit more diverse, but it's, you know, Hispanic what, like probably 25, 30% Hispanic. Mm-hmm. I mean, was it then when you were there too, or is that increased? Yeah, probably similar. Maybe it's increased some,

Speaker 3: 1:21:31

I think it's probably increased. I mean it, the entire town has increased, but

Speaker 2: 1:21:34

Sure.

Speaker 3: 1:21:35

But it probably, it wasn't something that I really came in contact to with a whole lot.

Speaker 2: 1:21:39

Okay.

Speaker 3: 1:21:39

So I grew up kind of, uh, then when growing up was the far west end of Greeley.

Speaker 2: 1:21:44

Okay.

Speaker 3: 1:21:44

And I went to a small charter school.

Speaker 2: 1:21:46

Gotcha.

Speaker 3: 1:21:46

So I had, you know, 48 kids in my graduating class. Yep. Yep. So there just wasn't a lot of diversity in general.

Speaker 2: 1:21:52

Sure.

Speaker 3: 1:21:52

So,

Speaker 2: 1:21:53

makes sense. Um, a small charter school, like a Christian school or

Speaker 3: 1:21:57

No, no,

Speaker 2: 1:21:57

just a, just

Speaker 3: 1:21:58

small charter school.

Speaker 2: 1:21:59

Interesting. That's a tiny.

Speaker 3: 1:22:00

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:22:00

School

Speaker 3: 1:22:01

setting. Very much so. And I, I started going, I was homeschooled up until third grade. Okay. And then started going to the, the school in third grade. And I went all the way through high school. So,

Speaker: 1:22:09

oh. But the graduating classes are probably bigger now.

Speaker 3: 1:22:12

I'm sure they are.

Speaker: 1:22:13

He was like the first,

Speaker 2: 1:22:14

it was like

Speaker: 1:22:15

opening

Speaker 2: 1:22:15

a brand new charter school.

Speaker 3: 1:22:17

Charter school. So

Speaker 2: 1:22:18

that's kind of cool. Um, we're gonna go into the Loco experience next. Great. Um, and you can drop those balls back in there if you want to get rid of them. Um, but before we do, uh, I have to take a moment to thank our sponsor. Our spirit sponsor is Seed and Spirit Distillery.

Speaker: 1:22:34

Oh, yes. I've got to meet them.

Speaker 2: 1:22:36

Oh, good. Yeah, they've got a quick, quite a place. They're, they're, they're literally like harvesting the corn that they sprout and ferment. Yes.

Speaker: 1:22:43

It's such a cool concept.

Speaker 2: 1:22:44

Um, they have a, a product called Wiz Cal that's an option

Speaker: 1:22:48

like mezcal, but

Speaker 2: 1:22:48

whiskey. It's whiskey and mezcal. Oh. So, uh, yeah, it's kind of a hybrid between those. They, they, they made, they invented it. It's the first, like those are our two

Speaker: 1:22:57

favorite.

Speaker 2: 1:22:58

Oh, is that spirits? Right. So

Speaker: 1:22:59

that.

Speaker 2: 1:23:00

So that's, that's an easy sell. Mm-hmm. Or, or the infinity bottle. So what I'd like to do is have a a half shot, uh, of either of those and you can choose.

Speaker: 1:23:11

Excellent. I'll take some Wizz. Cal. I don't know that I'm brave enough for,

Speaker 3: 1:23:16

I, I really want to try the Wizz cow, so I think

Speaker 2: 1:23:18

I'm

Speaker 3: 1:23:18

gonna do that.

Speaker 2: 1:23:19

Alright. That sounds good.

Speaker: 1:23:21

Yeah, we, around the table, we just discovered mezcal like in the last like year.

Speaker 2: 1:23:25

Oh, nice.

Speaker: 1:23:25

And it's been,

Speaker 2: 1:23:26

my wife hates mezcal.

Speaker: 1:23:28

Oh, does she not like the smoky?

Speaker 2: 1:23:29

Well, she hates tequila.

Speaker: 1:23:30

Oh, okay. So

Speaker 2: 1:23:32

that would do it.

Speaker: 1:23:32

Yeah. Those go together.

Speaker 2: 1:23:33

And, and, and she also doesn't really like smokey things either, so. Yeah. Mezcal is like a terrible thing made worse.

Speaker: 1:23:41

Yeah. She's like, I'm out

Speaker 3: 1:23:42

tequilas.

Speaker 2: 1:23:45

And so, uh,

Speaker 3: 1:23:47

out of a tin cup.

Speaker 2: 1:23:48

Any, uh, yeah, we do love tin Cup. Any interest in a toast? Is there a, let's, let's toast to, uh, good relationships and prosperous. Uh, collaborations.

Speaker: 1:23:57

Collaborations. Cheers.

Speaker 2: 1:23:59

Cheers.

Speaker: 1:24:06

Oh,

Speaker 2: 1:24:06

you can take, that is my

Speaker 3: 1:24:07

new favorite thing.

Speaker 2: 1:24:08

No shit. That's so good. I love it.

Speaker: 1:24:10

That's so good. I like the Smoky of the mezcal, but you get like that whiskey front.

Speaker 2: 1:24:16

Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. No,

Speaker 3: 1:24:18

that's good.

Speaker 2: 1:24:18

I love it. When do

Speaker 3: 1:24:19

they open? We gotta go get a bottle.

Speaker: 1:24:21

They're open,

Speaker 2: 1:24:21

aren't they? Oh, they've been open for a while. Yeah, they've got the, uh. Funk Works. They've been in the back of Funk Works for a while, and Funk Works shut down. And so now they took over the whole building.

Speaker: 1:24:29

Oh, I didn't know that.

Speaker 2: 1:24:30

And the front where Funk works was the, the public area is gonna be a tasting room. An oyster lounge.

1:24:37

Oh

Speaker: 1:24:38

yes.

Speaker 2: 1:24:38

An oyster lounge. Yes. Uh,'cause they don't wanna put a full kitchen in, but oysters, you're gonna shuck'em in, whatever, so you can shuck them and whatever. Yeah, yeah. And they've got a processing room and stuff, and then they'll have food trucks outside.

Speaker 3: 1:24:48

Fun.

Speaker: 1:24:48

That's super

Speaker 2: 1:24:49

fun for real food. So, uh, yeah, I just got the tour when I picked up my, my first,

Speaker: 1:24:54

uh, spirit space. Yeah, I know. I was like,

Speaker 2: 1:24:55

inventory.

Speaker: 1:24:56

That's, is that space open yet?

Speaker 2: 1:24:59

What's that?

Speaker: 1:24:59

The front space?

Speaker 2: 1:25:00

No, not yet. Okay. Maybe June-ish.

Speaker: 1:25:02

Okay, great.

Speaker 2: 1:25:03

So it's in a, it's in a construction state right now. That's

Speaker: 1:25:06

Uhhuh.

Speaker 2: 1:25:06

But they've got a 150 barrels of different. Elixir is in the back. Oh. And stuff like that. So, um,

1:25:13

yeah.

Speaker: 1:25:13

It's a

Speaker 3: 1:25:14

new date night here,

Speaker: 1:25:15

Uhhuh. That's, I

Speaker 2: 1:25:15

I was like, that's a perfect feature. Yeah. Sounds like a biopic. Yeah. Mm-hmm. I can connect you guys, uh, here, uh, sometime soon.

Speaker: 1:25:22

Yeah. Yeah. I was like, that would be great.

Speaker 2: 1:25:23

It's worthy of a tour even ahead of that time probably to kind of get some advance

Speaker: 1:25:27

Yes.

Speaker 2: 1:25:27

Knowledge of it going around the community.

Speaker: 1:25:29

Yeah.'cause that's, I was like, I would love to spread,

Speaker 2: 1:25:31

build that

Speaker: 1:25:31

buzz. Especially'cause they're so unique in how they're doing things that it would be great.

Speaker 3: 1:25:36

We did beer. I've been kind of feeling like we need to do a Northern Colorado spirits tour.

Speaker 2: 1:25:40

Yeah.

Speaker: 1:25:41

So

Speaker 2: 1:25:41

Mount Mountain does a great job too.

Speaker: 1:25:43

Yes. Got some. We just went there for the first time.

Speaker 2: 1:25:45

Oh

Speaker 3: 1:25:45

yeah.

Speaker: 1:25:46

And it was so good.

Speaker 3: 1:25:47

Yeah. And they had just, uh, bottled their.

Speaker: 1:25:50

Or they just tapped their single malt.

Speaker 3: 1:25:52

The single malt.

Speaker: 1:25:53

They said they only tap a couple every couple years.

Speaker 2: 1:25:54

Couple

Speaker: 1:25:54

years.

Speaker 2: 1:25:55

He let me taste that last time I was in there actually, or it was probably a year ago now, but he was like, here, try this.

Speaker: 1:26:01

Mm-hmm. It's very good.

Speaker 3: 1:26:03

They had one of the better R I've ever had though.

Speaker 2: 1:26:05

Rice. I'm kind of a rye whiskey guy. I I You're not, you don't like that? I don't like the rye. Interesting.

Speaker 3: 1:26:10

I like'em.

Speaker 2: 1:26:11

I don't know how you can like bourbon and not like rye. That's, I don't know,

Speaker: 1:26:14

the rye just makes me go. Am I,

Speaker 2: 1:26:19

so the final segment is the Loco experience and Miss Risk Averse here. I know, I was, I've really thinking about it. Do you wanna do a shared local experience or do you wanna do independent ones? Um,

Speaker 3: 1:26:34

I don't know if I've

Speaker 2: 1:26:35

have any, do you have any shared local

Speaker: 1:26:36

experiences? I was like, I don't know if we have a shared one. The one I've been thinking of is from when I was a child.

Speaker 2: 1:26:43

We

Speaker 3: 1:26:43

can do separate.

Speaker 2: 1:26:44

Why, why don't you start us off, Kelsey, because it sounds like Ben's is gonna be more interesting anyway. Yeah, but maybe not.

Speaker: 1:26:50

That's, I was like, I was like, this one is interesting.

Speaker 2: 1:26:52

Maybe it's banger. I don't know. Let's hear it.

Speaker: 1:26:54

But it's not something that I did, it's something that was attempted to do, done to me.

Speaker 2: 1:26:58

Oh boy. Okay.

Speaker: 1:27:00

So my mom was a single mom, as we've talked about, but uh, we also went on trips every summer, like three week long road trips.

Speaker 2: 1:27:08

Oh wow.

Speaker: 1:27:08

And so one year we took my best friend, who was also named Kelsey. So Kelsey and Kelsey

Speaker 2: 1:27:13

with

Speaker: 1:27:13

a y

Speaker 2: 1:27:14

and an eye, or

Speaker: 1:27:14

she was a y and she's blonde hair, blue eyes. But we wouldn't tell people that we were twins. My mom. And we were born like 10 days apart.

Speaker 2: 1:27:22

Oh, how

Speaker: 1:27:22

cool. And my mom would tell people on the trip that we were twins and they would just look at her and it was very funny. But. One on this road trip, we were at a hotel and

Speaker 2: 1:27:33

and where were you road tripping to

Speaker: 1:27:34

This time was out west. Okay. So I think we were probably somewhere in the desert of California.'cause we, our goal was Disneyland, but we'd always go like the long way.

Speaker 2: 1:27:43

Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker: 1:27:43

Um, and we were at a hotel and Kelsey and I were swimming and my mom was doing laundry.

Speaker 2: 1:27:49

Okay.

Speaker: 1:27:49

And the hotel. And we were doing that game when you were kids where you'd see who could stay under the water the longest.

Speaker 2: 1:27:55

Sure. Two minutes and 34 seconds is

Speaker: 1:27:56

fine. Yes. Oh wow. Um, and Kelsey popped up before me and there was an older man. On the other side of the pool that had jumped in the water and was coming at us. And so she grabbed me and pulled me up and he, you're like, you

Speaker 2: 1:28:12

ruined

Speaker: 1:28:12

it. Mm-hmm. And we ran out to my mom and thought everything was fine. And later that night, the hotel room that we were in got a phone call on the hotel phone. And it was that man from his room telling my mom that he knew that she was alone with two girls and that he was going to essentially come and take us.

Speaker 2: 1:28:30

What, how old were you

Speaker: 1:28:32

in second grade? Second or third grade.

Speaker 2: 1:28:34

Ew.

Speaker: 1:28:35

Yeah. And so she had to call the police. We had to go to the front desk. Um, but we didn't have anywhere to go in the middle of the night. So I remember like, she pushed the, like beds and chairs against the door. Right. We called the police. I believe they came and got him and nothing came of it. But I like think of that experience Whoa. In pools to this day.

Speaker 2: 1:28:57

Ew.

Speaker: 1:28:57

Yep. That's where I was like, I just,

Speaker 2: 1:29:00

I mean mm-hmm. And it sounds terrible, but. Like a, you know, a 16-year-old girl is pretty, kind of an attractive and stuff. Yes. But even to a normal man that knows you shouldn't touch that. But a two segregator, but yes. Definite.

Speaker: 1:29:14

Yeah. No, yeah. We were

Speaker 2: 1:29:15

definite

Speaker: 1:29:16

children.

Speaker 2: 1:29:17

Yes. Ew. Mm-hmm. I'm sorry, that just disturbs me. Yeah.

Speaker: 1:29:20

It was.

Speaker 2: 1:29:20

And good on your mom for being a woman of adventure and courage.

Speaker: 1:29:25

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:29:25

For something like that. And I hope that didn't take the wind out of the feathers for, uh, doing more trips and stuff.

Speaker: 1:29:31

No. We continued

Speaker 2: 1:29:32

and she sounds like an amazing woman. I wanna meet your

Speaker: 1:29:34

mom one those days. She is. Yeah. We'll get you guys together. She is great. But having a podcast, no, she didn't even tell us the extent of what we said on the phone. She just was like, okay, we're going. She still, I'll tell you. Okay. We're going the next day. Let's go to Disneyland.

Speaker 2: 1:29:45

Right.

Speaker: 1:29:45

And

Speaker 2: 1:29:46

well, and also, but just for fun, you could help me push this bed up against the door. Right.

Speaker: 1:29:52

It's a new game. We're gonna all sleep together in this bed against the wall, like, but

Speaker 2: 1:29:56

wow. So, okay.

Speaker: 1:29:58

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2: 1:29:58

Weird gross.

Speaker: 1:30:00

Yep. Gross. Thanks

Speaker 2: 1:30:00

for sharing, Ben. You're on.

Speaker 3: 1:30:04

So I've, I've worked in video production for, uh, oh, nearly two decades now.

Speaker 2: 1:30:10

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 1:30:10

So traveling with, uh, with video gear is always super interesting and fun. So I always have stories of like 10

Speaker 2: 1:30:17

grand where the gear

Speaker 3: 1:30:19

Yeah. And take, you're taking a lot of equipment with you and it always looks suspicious in

Speaker 2: 1:30:23

Okay.

Speaker 3: 1:30:24

In any of the TSA stuff.

Speaker 2: 1:30:26

Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 3: 1:30:27

Um, so we always play a game of like, how many times am I gonna get pulled this time by security? Mm-hmm. So, um, which story should I tell

Speaker: 1:30:36

my brain went to The Bahamas, but I don't know.

Speaker 3: 1:30:38

You're going Or the Romania romania's a different one. I'll tell two real quick. Okay. Sounds good. So I went to The Bahamas and, um. Every single time.'cause I, you know, I have a shotgun mic that's, uh, you know, has a long, looks like a shotgun microphone and it goes into a big steel tube.

Speaker 2: 1:30:52

Oh gosh.

Speaker 3: 1:30:53

And, uh, sometimes there's even a cord that kind of sticks out, so it looks, you know, nefarious Kinda

Speaker 2: 1:30:57

like a bomb.

Speaker 3: 1:30:57

Yeah, exactly. And so I always get pulled, uh, pulled into, I'd say more often than not, get pulled into back rooms or at least to the side.

Speaker 2: 1:31:04

Right.

Speaker 3: 1:31:05

And get everything out. Put it all back. So, um, but I went to The Bahamas one time and, um, it was my first time traveling internationally with the amount of gear that I was traveling with. Okay. And so I got pulled, um, by customs and I had to lay everything out and they said, how much is this all worth? And I told them, uh, naively told them exactly what it was worth. Mm. It was, you know, pushing$30,000 worth of equipment. Mm. And, um, they. All of a sudden came up with all of these new, uh, import taxes and fees mm-hmm. That had come along with

Speaker 2: 1:31:36

looking

Speaker 3: 1:31:36

for a little, bringing that, you know, little

1:31:38

grease

Speaker 2: 1:31:38

for the

Speaker 3: 1:31:38

pocket. And I was like, I, you know, 25 years old, 24 years old. I'm like, I don't have that kind of money. Yeah. I worked for, to be able, I'm like, so they said, okay. I mean, until you pay us, like we can't leave. So I And how much

Speaker 2: 1:31:50

were they trying to squeeze you for?

Speaker 3: 1:31:52

The initial amount was like$7,000. Oh my. Or something like that. A$7,000 fee to be able to bring commercial Oh, come on. Equipment in and, um, so, you know, there was a language barrier there, but there was, uh, yeah, I had, I sat in a back room of a, uh,

Speaker 2: 1:32:09

whoa.

Speaker 3: 1:32:10

Of a, like a little TSA, uh, airport. Uh, for nine hours before, uh, the production company that I was traveling for was finally able to wire over some money, essentially as bribe money.

Speaker 2: 1:32:24

Wow.

Speaker 3: 1:32:25

And so I ended up, I think they only did like 2200, but still it was one of those situations that like you pay or

Speaker 2: 1:32:32

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 1:32:32

And so I was like, okay, well

Speaker 2: 1:32:34

you can leave your stuff here or you can pay.

Speaker 3: 1:32:35

Yep. Mm-hmm. So that was crazy. That was the longest stint that I've been stuck in a back room

Speaker 2: 1:32:40

Right. In

Speaker 3: 1:32:41

the

Speaker 2: 1:32:41

airport. Yeah. Terrifying. Were you guys. You were younger, you guys weren't together or anything like that? We, we were together. We were not

Speaker: 1:32:46

married.

Speaker 2: 1:32:46

We weren't

Speaker 3: 1:32:47

married. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:32:47

Were you there too?

Speaker: 1:32:48

No, I was at home.

Speaker 2: 1:32:50

I was gonna be like, yeah, you were like hanging out, wondering when he gets to come out of the back room,

Speaker 3: 1:32:54

just like what happened

Speaker 2: 1:32:55

to Wild.

Speaker 3: 1:32:56

And the other experience, I was shooting some documentary content in Romania, um, which was a very fascinating experience. Uh, but, um, they have some fairly strict laws as far as like what you can film and where you can film it.

Speaker 2: 1:33:10

Okay.

Speaker 3: 1:33:10

And that sort of thing. And, um,

Speaker 2: 1:33:12

interesting.

Speaker 3: 1:33:13

It was the end of a trip and we, you weren't supposed to fly drones and that sort of thing in this, in the, uh, we were in, in that area or whatever. In Bore. We were right in the downtown Bucharest.

Speaker 2: 1:33:22

Okay.

Speaker 3: 1:33:23

And, uh, we wanted to do one last, it was like a last shot before we got in the plane the next day. Okay. Uh, so we wanted to do, um, just like a shot. You know, going from our team all the way up to seeing the city sort of thing.

Speaker 2: 1:33:35

Okay.

Speaker 3: 1:33:36

Um, I was like, we have to do it really quickly.

Speaker 2: 1:33:38

Yep.

Speaker 3: 1:33:38

Um,

Speaker 2: 1:33:39

packed the

Speaker 3: 1:33:39

drone back up after we're done. This is, we get outta there. So,

1:33:41

so

Speaker 2: 1:33:41

you knew it was illegal, but you did it

Speaker 3: 1:33:43

anyway. We knew it was frowned upon. I like your style. I didn't, yeah. So we, we did the drone shot and then, um, police showed up pretty quickly.

Speaker 2: 1:33:51

Oh.

Speaker 3: 1:33:51

Um, and the person that we were with told us to just, they said, get rid of it. Send it, just do something. And so I just sent it as high up as I could to where you couldn't hear the whirring anymore.

Speaker 2: 1:34:01

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 1:34:01

And got out our phone and we were just pretending to be taking a selfie as they were kind of out and they were saying, what are you doing? Filming for a TV show sort of thing. Yeah. Yeah. And then, uh, they went on their way. But that's, that's the closest I've ever been

Speaker 2: 1:34:13

to. How long

Speaker 3: 1:34:13

did the

Speaker 2: 1:34:14

drone stay up there?

Speaker 3: 1:34:15

Uh, it's got like a 25 minute battery light. Okay. So it could stay up there for a while.

1:34:20

A

Speaker 2: 1:34:20

while, but if they wanted to ask you a bunch of questions, you were gonna be like, and my drone's coming back Yes. Before, because they probably automatically home, right? Like,

Speaker 3: 1:34:28

yeah. If it's running outta battery, it'll just, it'll just come and land and it makes a whole lot of noise while running beeping and stuff. So that was the closest I've ever been to, was smart. Uh, you know, they were only like 18 years out of, outside of communism. Right. So they're still,

Speaker 2: 1:34:42

and then it's a real,

Speaker 3: 1:34:43

and it's a

Speaker 2: 1:34:43

prison cell and probably a bribe to get out of there too.

Speaker 3: 1:34:46

Right. So that was the closest I think I came to.

Speaker 2: 1:34:49

What were you doing in Romania?

Speaker 3: 1:34:50

Yeah, so I was shooting some documentary content for, um, a nonprofit out there that works with, um, uh, kids in foster care or kids in orphanages because of their stent in, in

Speaker 2: 1:35:02

commun

Speaker 3: 1:35:02

communism segments.

Speaker 2: 1:35:03

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 1:35:04

Uh, they had a lot of, uh, kids in foster care. So it was talking about. Them and that, that whole thing

Speaker 2: 1:35:11

and trying to bring'em over to America or just that

Speaker 3: 1:35:13

whole No, it was, it was a, it was a

Speaker 2: 1:35:15

kind of more of an investigation of what's this circumstance

Speaker 3: 1:35:17

kinda thing. Yeah. And supporting a nonprofit that was out there that they would work with the orphanages to be able to find them, care and find them, you know, things that they need and that sort

Speaker 2: 1:35:26

of thing. Kids really struggle when they don't have somebody to attach to. Kind of, you know,

Speaker 3: 1:35:30

very

Speaker: 1:35:30

much. Yes. Which, that's the stories of that, of the baby babies were very sad.

Speaker 2: 1:35:35

Heartbreaking.

Speaker 3: 1:35:36

Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:35:37

Well, I think it's a good time to wrap up. Yeah. Um, would you like to tell the listeners where to find your channels, magazines? I know the magazines all here and there and everywhere a little bit.

Speaker: 1:35:48

Yep. The magazine is any, like 50 plus locations, so if you see it, it is free, grab it and pick it

Speaker 2: 1:35:54

up increasingly in Windsor and,

Speaker: 1:35:55

and Greeley, Greeley and

Speaker 2: 1:35:57

stuff too

Speaker: 1:35:57

soon outside of Fort Collins. Um, right now it's mostly Fort Collins and Loveland. And then you can find us at, this is Noco on any socials or this is noco.com. Mm-hmm. Um, for all of the longer form,

Speaker 2: 1:36:10

dig it. Yeah. And look for Ben's work in the production studio here shortly. And uh, the first episodes of Noco Pulse. Yeah, we'll go Pulse for now. Something like that. Uh, maybe in a month or even a little bit less. Something like that. Yeah. Yeah. Soon. So I'm excited.

Speaker: 1:36:25

Yeah. I

Speaker 3: 1:36:25

was

Speaker: 1:36:26

like, and if I can, you'll see this on social soon.

Speaker 2: 1:36:28

Oh, well you could do it. I'll clip this one right up. Yeah, you got it. You got it. You got full access as far as I'm concerned. Hey, appreciate your time here today. Yeah. And, uh, so looking forward to working with y'all.

Speaker: 1:36:37

Yeah, it's gonna be great.

Speaker 2: 1:36:39

Alright. Got speed.

Speaker 5: 1:36:44

Thank you for listening to this episode of the Loco Experience Podcast. Proudly produced and sponsored by Loco Think Tank. Colorado's premier pure advisory organization. This is your producer, Ava Manous. To find all of our episodes or nominate a future guest, check out our website@thelocoexperience.com. You can also find us on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube x.com and LinkedIn at the Loco experience. To support the show, be sure to follow, subscribe, and share. Until next time, stay Loko.