EXPERIENCE 158 | Scouting a New Path with Shani Canillas, Owner and Editor of The Scout Guide Fort Collins

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My guest today was Shanie Canelius, owner and editor of the Scout Guide for
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Collins. The Scout Guide is a visually appealing coffee table kind of book
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featuring classy storytelling pictorials of gold standard local businesses. It's
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a franchise concept that has a strong foundation in the southeastern part of
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the country but is increasingly spreading west. Shanie picked up her first
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Scout Guide in Boseman, Montana and the organization has grown from 82 to 90
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established communities in 2023. Shanie acquired the Northern Colorado
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franchise in the summer of 2023, venturing out from a long career of making
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impact with local standout companies such as Otterbox and Safebill. Shanie is
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also a mother and a fiance and we explored how her life events shaped her
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career trajectories. We talked about discernment and crafting the makeup of
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such a publication or of a local think tank chapter and we talked about some
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of the interesting businesses and community impact stories that will be part
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of this first edition. I'm always amazed by the stories of those who will
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leave a comfortable six-figure income to venture into an entrepreneurial life
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of uncertainty. Shanie is an amazing example of that and I'm certain that you
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will enjoy as I did my conversation with Shanie Canelius. Let's have some fun.
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Welcome to the local experience podcast. On this show you'll get to know
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business and community leaders from all around Northern Colorado and beyond. Our
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guests share their stories, business stories, life stories, stories of triumph
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and of tragedy and through it all you'll be inspired and entertained. These
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conversations are real and raw and no topics are off limits so pop in a
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breath mint and get ready to meet our latest guest. Welcome back to the
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local experience podcast. My guest today is Shanie Canelius and Shanie is the
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creator I guess owner and editor of the Fort Collins Scout Guide or the Scout
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Guide Fort Collins. Yes it's the Scout Guide Fort Collins and most people
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including myself not too long ago have never heard of a Scout Guide I
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suspect around here. Yeah that's correct. So why don't we just start there what
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is what is the Scout Guide? So the Scout Guide overall it's a publication it's
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different in a way though from most publications that we're used to here in
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Northern Colorado and I would argue throughout most of the US typically when
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people think of a publication they think of a you know a magazine and they
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think of coupons or a lot more editorial content or window coverings
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that sort of thing and the Scout Guide was actually created by two women
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Susie and Christie in Charlottesville Virginia and they wanted something
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different they both were local business owners there and wanted something
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that was more elevated something that was more creative so less editorial it's
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more about the visuals telling a message. Yes thank you thank you so they
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decided to start something a little different where we hire professional
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photographers we go and do professional photo shoots which is different they
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really like for the advertisers or that what I like to call the community
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members to be more of the elevated type businesses so it's kind of a who's who
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so to speak or who's the best of the best within each market and so we really
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try to find those businesses that are set the gold standard and so that's our
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job and that's why it's called the Scout Guide because each market owner literally
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goes and scouts each and every business that's in in it and we look at it from
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various different points of view so customer service if it's a restaurant what
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was the experience like what is the food like so you'll like go eat at a
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restaurant yeah and then not mention anything about Scout Guide sometimes
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sometimes I do if I really really like them sometimes I do if I if it's not the
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best experience I just back away slowly yeah yeah yeah yeah and so it seems a
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little bit like a coffee table book yes it is it is it's a beautiful coffee
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table book our design team which is based out of the headquarters in Charlottesville
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they do a fantastic job so it's not the shiny thin gloss paper used to
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sing a magazine it's a thicker matte paper yeah it's got they've got their
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gold stamp medallion logo on the front so it's it just has a lovely pop to it
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it's it's um very beautiful compared to other things I've seen and how did
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you come across this thing like was you is it new in your awareness yeah it was
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brand new and it was actually completely by you know chance I was working a
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corporate job that I had been doing for about eight years and at that time I was
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an account manager and a business development rep for a business out in
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Loveland and so most of the west states were my region and so we were a
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municipal we did contract services so building department services and so yeah
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safe and so my clients were municipal clients and so I went to Bozeman
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Montana because that city was one of my clients and while I was there found a
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Bozeman Scout guide in my hotel room and was really impressed with it and just
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thought how different when I first picked it up had no idea what it was
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carried it around with me for several days and kind of checked out all of the
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places that it suggested to go to Bozeman and every place that I went yeah
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every place that I went to had not only an elevated experience but a unique
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experience and something that was a little outside the box and so ended up you
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know I got back home and I didn't think that I could take it with me so I
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left it in the hotel room and and then I liked it so much that I actually got
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online and paid money to buy one and have it short to my house now I know I
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could have just taken one from the hotel but I got it in my house and it was about
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a week later I looked at the QR code on the back using my phone and realized
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that it was a franchise opportunity and I was really looking to get into
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something that gave me some more creativity in my career I had not been
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looking but you were been bored for a while I had been I had been yeah board
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isn't quite the word I there was it was we were owned by private equity and
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that that comes with certain pressures and so I was bored of isn't one of those
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well I guess a little bit but anxiety over performance and they're always trying
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to squeeze exactly every ounce of production out of you that the possibility
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that's yes that's very true and so I had years before that I had tried to start
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my own photography business because I was always really obsessed with
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photography I still am I really love it I'm very amateur but I thought I
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would be good enough and I actually did some really amazing photos but it was
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really difficult to try to start something ground up on my own right and then
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my fiance and I tried to start kind of an interior decorating business got the
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LLC for it and everything and but it just again was that same situation of
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ground up with no real support right and you're leaving like a six-figure well
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a six-figure job right yes like okay how do I adjust my income from quite a bit
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almost nothing for like a few years yes and we were actually putting a bunch
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of money into you know buying equipment and buying things that you would use
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for you know interior decorating and that sort of thing so I wanted to do
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something of my own I felt the need to be an entrepreneur it was it was very
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fascinating to me and I thought it's what ultimately would make me happy and
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but you know again the six-figure career right right right the health and
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retirement all that it it and what I deserve for health insurance right right
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and so just kind of gave up on the idea and thought well you know I'll just
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ride this out and then whenever I found the scout guide it was because it was
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already so established we're in 90 cities now at the time we were in 82 cities
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so they were already really well-known mostly in the South East area okay but
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we're making their way west I guess into the cool cities first yeah that's right
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that's right yeah and they were I think I think that market closed but they were
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in San Diego so they did reach all the way to the west coast there's Newport
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Beach California so so they've slowly moved west and so because they were
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established they had you know they would give you a website they would build a
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website for you they would give you all of the tools and the training to get
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started it felt more palatable like something I I could buy off and do and so I
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went through the training and July 10th was kind of my very first day where I
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woke up and I was like I'm gonna go sell this today to somebody and it was a
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little nerve-wracking to kind of step out I had always had a job where I was
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facing with clients but not in the same way where what I was selling was
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literally for me not for a big company right right well and with Saple especially
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you're talking about you know missed municipalities you know exactly yes
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there's only so many of them you know who could be a customer who isn't there's
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a lot of difference and something like this where there's three thousand
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small businesses in the region or yeah and it was exciting for me in that way
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because I think for Saple you know what I was initially what I was selling
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were inspection services or plan review services or being a building official
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we you know we would yeah essentially contract that outsourced yeah in our
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field people go and do it and I didn't have a huge passion for that not to say
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that it's a man's world because there are certainly some very strong women
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that work in that industry but it wasn't my passion and so when I found this
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when I started really processing on the fact that I could create a
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community of people that really care about you know Northern Colorado Fort
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Collins especially that really want to advocate and support and lift each
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other up that was exciting to me and and obviously I mean I've never been a
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big box chain shopper and I don't really like you know I'm not eating an apple
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bees I like the little mama pop places so it was it was kind of aligned with
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your values yeah yeah so when you and I first rushed against each other you
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had a whole bunch of nonprofit leaders right that you were treating the
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coffee or something ginger and baker and now is that part of like the scout
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guide strategy guide like fighting some of the amazing nonprofits and helping
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build connections through the business industry there yeah it certainly is here
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so I think when we initially talked I was explaining a little bit how each
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market owner kind of has that you know we have to follow scout guide brand so to
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speak because at the end of the day it is still a franchise but we have that
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capability or discretion to kind of choose the the vision for our market and
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Northern Colorado is going to be very very different from Charlottesville
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Virginia Virginia or Newport Beach right so for me it was kind of what what is
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the thing here in Northern Colorado that everybody knows about I mean I think
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everybody could say they know about our beer right we've got enough breweries but
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a lot of people don't understand that we have a ton of amazing nonprofits that
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do some really great things and so I was also really good friends with Claire
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Bouchard she's a good friend of mine and she works with the Noco Foundation and
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so I met with her got a glass of wine and she said you know have you
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thought about bringing some of the nonprofits together you know alone they
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don't have deep pockets to be able to pay for advertising in this kind of
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publication but together they might be able to share the cost and get it
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together and so I said I think that's a great idea and plus the
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community foundation would chip in too that would be right yes so yes the
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community foundation is going to be involved in the guy there and the guy yeah
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yeah we're very excited to have her she's just a dear friend of mine and I
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think the world of her but yeah so we've got some great great nonprofits and I
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chose five of kind of the bigger nonprofits that are I would say well
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recognized in Northern Colorado but then I wanted to do something to elevate a
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couple of the smaller nonprofits just to help them get some exposure in their
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efforts to grow so so we've got seven in total
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like shared pages yeah so it'll be a nice two-page spread so it'll be yeah so
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we're really focusing on I'm sure you know we were just voted most peaceful
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place to live for Collins and so our kind of our direction there with the
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scout guides is yes we're this amazing peaceful place to live but there are
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also areas of Northern Colorado that aren't thriving that aren't you know
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aren't living their best lives essentially and so that's kind of the message we're
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trying trying to push keeping it uplifting still but yeah but no it's pretty
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easy to live in Fort Collins and think that it's all you know raspberry bushes
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and you know whatever but there is a lot of challenge you know I think there's
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what I think there's like several hundred maybe 700 kids that are kind of
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technically homeless right now yeah yeah living on couches and in cars
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sometimes and different things yeah and so we've got the Matthew's house and
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in as part of the spread and they're incredible they do an amazing thing to
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help kids so I think that's a that's a big one for us got you I wondered how much
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of the toolkit there was but mostly it's just okay start scouting yeah yeah it
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really is I mean they kind of go through you know they take you through all of
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the the technology stuff so we have like a CRM database and we've got you
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know the website we've got social and those sorts of things and then they go
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through kind of a sales training and yeah a few other things like how do
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I can best practices if you get leads or do you have to fill all your own
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leads yeah yeah so the website has an advertise us advertise with us link and
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so I can get leads through that so essentially those do come through the
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website but I would say everyone that's in my guide are leads that I've
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used a lot of them yeah so well I was just observing to myself how there's
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some similarities between your business and mine with with our peer advisory
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chapters you know I'm I'm I'm an evangelist for this what I think is a better
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way to be in business and be the business leader or whatever it's been
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official and not you yeah right you know I've kept it in my pocket a whole
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bunch of times when I haven't coffee with somebody like I don't do anything
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important I don't know usually they know what I do with stuff but like they don't
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ask me if they could be a member I don't ask them because I know the answer
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already yeah I've had to give that that you know I'm sorry I don't think it's
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the right fit explanation before that's kind of hard because you want to feel
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that would be better than not you I've been using not you for not you not
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you but it is an interesting thing right like I don't know if you've been
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approached by people yeah yeah yeah I have and at the end of the day what I my
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first go to is always what would my community members think about that
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business because they all know we've had the same conversation you are a very
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elevated business we are a step up we are the goal member right so I always
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that's kind of the first thing I process on is what would my what would my
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members think about yeah yeah that is us being in there the restaurant that we
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were just talking about the restaurant tour what is it ginger and bigger well
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no but the the Asian restaurant the Japan go Japan go yes yes and he's an
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interesting one because he's not even open right right right and I don't know
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if he's already signed up or what but you know we had a very successful
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sushi restaurant in Boulder for 25 years yeah had you been there before yes oh
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you have oh good I used to dance with a dance company in Boulder and so I would
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drive to Boulder three days a week for rehearsal and often after rehearsal we
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would go eat and so he's not just slipping in he had some due diligence yeah yeah
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yes so Japan go is one of our local favorites and we loved it there so it was
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always really packed so I'm and I'm really excited to see them here because the
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spot that they're at which is where mainline used to be and then Rio was
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there to rarely after their fire it's huge oh man Lulu's not gonna like them
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being there very much it's a little bit of a competition well Lulu's been
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kind of underperforming for a while yes yes I do agree with that there's a
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freestyle yeah I never waited for your answer if you wanted to smoke that
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join or not we can't right here so like tell me about the other communities like
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how did you investigate did you talk to other franchisees and things like
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that like how much due diligence did you do or were you just kind of in
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swoon from your bow has been experienced well a little bit of both so once I
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realized it was a franchise I was I felt like it was something it's interesting
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it really gave me a physical feeling that I was like wow I really want to do
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this it was almost just pulling me and so I reached out to Ellery at the time
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she was the market owner for the Boulder guide so we have Colorado guides in
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Denver Colorado or Denver Boulder and Aspen and so I reached out to Ellery and I
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said hey can I you know pick your brain for just a little bit so we went and met
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and had coffee and I asked her a million questions and she was fantastic and she
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was very inspiring she had done prior to the scout guide she worked with CEOs
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and did brand strategy with them and so she was really intelligent and I you know
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she likes it I probably I'm not dumb to like it yeah yeah and so how long
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did she been doing it so she was on her first volume also so yeah so she was
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brand new but like the way that she was already feeling successful and was
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like really loving it got me excited about it so yeah yeah and it was quite the
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process so once I reached out to them and said I was interested in buying the
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market for Fort Collins you you go through several different meetings so they
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make you build your own they didn't just say yes right away no no it was it was
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quite a they made me build my own P&L report for I think it was a five-year
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period year over year what my financials would look like hypothetically and I am
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not of huge numbers girl and I definitely am not a spreadsheet girl but I
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like worked for a whole day like googling how how do you do these equations in
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in Excel and then I ended up delivering what they said was one of the best
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P&L reports I ever seen so I was like oh sweet but then you had to go through
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panel interviews with the CFO with the two owners right it was quite a
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process to get approved to buy the market and so do you know what their like
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success rate is I think you mentioned San Diego when I closed down San Diego
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close so you mean success in terms yeah like how many get launched or maybe
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stick around for more than like three years right because you can keep
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momentum yeah most of them so when you buy the franchise you own it for five
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years okay you can rebuy it again after that those five years I see guides that
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are in and this is I guess the only way that I've been able to see the
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successes that I see guides that are in their you know 10th 11th 12th volume
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meaning 10th 11th 12th years yeah all of them that I see are typically three
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four years and up so there aren't very many that don't last I think I think the
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scout guide from the headquarters they do a really good job very very well
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yes Melissa I can't remember her last name but she she does their kind of
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she's their business yeah yeah and she's really good at well it's such an
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interesting thing there's so many industries and franchises is a good
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example but there's definitely some franchise companies that are like oh
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yeah sign here yeah you know but also there's others like like I have
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Mark Torres from Cheetah Hut on a few months ago and you know they're
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definitely screening their buyers as much as they're you are you are you
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Cheetah Hut people right right you know because if you're not then you're just
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gonna give us some crappy stores and Louisville Kentucky and we don't want
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right and it's not gonna work exactly exactly well not was one of the things
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when I started kind of going through that process one of my questions was
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because I had looked through a lot of their guides digitally online and because
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they were so saturated in those southern and eastern states it was very
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south culture so it was a lot of I suppose yeah it's gonna really be okay and
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Aspen and was Aspen brand new to um Aspen has been around a few years so Aspen
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in Denver Denver just did their 11th year so okay they've been around they've
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been around for a while but you saw a lot of in the those guides the southern
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guides pastel floral print dresses and like big hair and and yacht and you know
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it was just very like very Florida kind of feeling in Virginia and the
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South Carolina feel and so I thought well is this really gonna work in Northern
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Colorado because that's not what we are in Colorado we're you know we're not
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fancy like we're not fancy like that and we really don't care to be we don't
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trust people that are fancy like that exactly our people from Boulder for that
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matter so we'll see how the pink goes they're gonna be great I'm confident I'm
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confident they're for college people yeah they are for college people they're
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really really sweet when I met Aaron for our first initial meet she came
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with her baby and her baby was so sweet and she was just you know baby on
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hip talk in and it was it was nice to see the very laid back so do you want to
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talk about some of your other advertisers that signed on early or or brag
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about them I'm gonna actually interview a handful of them yeah as part of a
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kind of a little mini series I suppose but tell me like who or some of your
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favorites and why some of my well ginger maker obviously they're one of my
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favorites I was trying very hard to get them in the very beginning starting in
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July and it literally took me where we're in in February I don't think I got
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them on until January right and I and Kate made the Kate you went there for
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17 meetings I did I did oh yeah I was like stalking in the background like
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hi Ginger no it was actually Kate Cooper who who she pretty much is
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Ginger's right hand woman and she was a person I was trying to get and she's so
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incredibly busy I mean she oversees all of their events there and you name it
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she's on it so but I was very excited not just because like it's Ginger and
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Baker I love the building I love their food but it was also about Ginger buys
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everything local you know she uses all of the local agricultural businesses as
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much as she can she uses the local like she uses old elk for for their whiskey
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and I I really have respect for the businesses that actually do something to
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help the community yeah and most of mine do most of mine do there are very few
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that don't do something to kind of give back whether that's donating to
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nonprofits or getting out doing volunteer or giving volunteer time to their
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employees I just I love I love that and I was kind of an overarching theme yes it
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is so I was excited about Ginger and Baker on that one I was actually really
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excited about the reserve by old elk also mainly because I'm not a huge
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whiskey drinker I can drink a their honey smoked old-fashioned is delicious and
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I do like that but it's not my wine is typically my go-to but when I found out
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that Kurt Richardson was the founder of it I was immediately like oh I got
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to talk to them because I think Kurt and Nancy Richardson just do so many
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amazing things for the community and I worked at Otterbox in the earlier days
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when he was still kind of more a part of the company he was there doing
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around a lot yeah and so I just I think that what they do for our community is
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amazing and I couldn't imagine that if he was the founder of some business it
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would be anything but great so yeah I don't know if he had too much involved
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on an individual basis he's just an investor in talent yes you're an amazingly
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talented distiller well here's some money and we now own this distillery
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mostly me I don't know any of those details but I mean he's got a master
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brewer that is out of this world and there I've all messed up but I think it's
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called their slow-cut process or their slow-cut proofing yeah yeah it's
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different I keep hitting that sorry is different in that my understanding is
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that normally when they're adding water on a daily basis it can be you know
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and I'm going to get this wrong but like a taste table spoon of water or
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something a day to start proofing it whereas at the reserve they literally do
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like a drop or two of water so it's this much slower process it takes a lot
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longer because you more of those refined multi-tastes so yeah and I thought
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that was another interesting aspect to it too and plus the the people that
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work there are just fantastic I've become so how about some some smalls some
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of the smaller these are big well-established yeah those are big ones so you
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know I would say yeah so light and live yoga they just celebrated their
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first year anniversary Julia Tomkins who owns it who I believe you are you are
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gonna meet with her she's a fantastic so she's been in the wellness world in
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Fort Collins for years and years and years and I knew her from gosh way back
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I guess this would have been 11 years ago our daughters went to preschool
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together and so I knew her way back in the day when she was teaching yoga at
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different different yoga studios yeah sometimes more than one yeah yeah and then
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when I started the scout guide I wanted a yoga studio so I started researching
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and found hers and reached out not even knowing that she was the one that
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owned it and then she reached back out to me and I was like oh my gosh wow
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you own your own studio now that's amazing but she does something that's this
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bigger than just yoga she has every year she has what she calls the
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crowded table where she picks a nonprofit of her choice which actually this
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last year the nonprofit that she chose is one of the nonprofits that I'm
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buying it to be into my shared spread it's called the Marshall Effect and so
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she had a crowded table event and she sells tickets for anywhere from 75 to
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250 bucks people buy the tickets and then she gives all the proceeds to that
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nonprofit and so she lets you know gives them the stage so to speak for them to
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talk about what they do and so she does that at the holidays she got brought
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all these local vendors and some really really talented ones that I knew of
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but didn't realize like they didn't have a brick and mortar or anything but she
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brought them to set up their booths and so she helps support our community in
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many different ways that's what I didn't ever for somebody that's got a young
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yoga gym right and you know right right and she's got you know two teenage
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girls but she she's very passionate about what she does and I think when you
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end up talking with her you she's just very she's a deep straightforward no
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nonsense like you know person which I find my charms were not that effective on
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her usually I can I can I can woo people better than that's very good with her
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but she was a little business like yeah well that's a she emailed today I saw
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that she said yeah I'm really interested so I'm sure you didn't vendor anybody
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else that comes to mind yeah so Rafi who owns cement I would say that's another
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smaller one he's I think also just had his first year anniversary and Rafi was
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used to be one of the three owners of social union and I believe it was
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Rhodesio yeah and he broke off to do his own thing and I just think what he's
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doing is fantastic he his places you can go there and get coffee you can go
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there and get really nice high-end cocktails you can go there and get my
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favorite thing there's the Muhamara it's this amazing dip with their homemade
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pita bread that's like yeah I was I'm actually remembering when I was reading
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his Mediterranean kind of style menu there yeah and I was I'm drooling right
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now the descriptions of those things float off the page and I was just there
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for a coffee oh man I so I'll be done there soon Rafi yes yes I have a lot of
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meetings there because it's it's a neat space inside too because you walk in
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and the main level is kind of where the kitchen is so you either go upstairs or
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you go downstairs yeah almost like an old tri-level house yes yeah that's what
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it feels like and so upstairs is a little more you know active and lively and
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downstairs is where I tend to have a lot of meetings because it's it's just kind
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of more quiet down there but I mean just amazing cocktails and it's a great
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place when you go for clients it's like do you want coffee or do you want to
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drink and I get all sorts that are like you know all the way coffee or all the
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way so yeah tell me when the first time you mentioned kind of having this
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entrepreneurial it's maybe for a while but didn't really know how to
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scratch it like what was the first time you said to yourself internally at
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least I would like to want to business someday yeah so when I moved so when I
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moved to Fort Collins in 2002 I had come from San Diego and my son was six
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months old okay and I hadn't finished college yet but I was like oh my gosh now I
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have a baby I better do something with myself and so went back to school at
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CSU ended up getting my bachelor's in communication studies took a semester
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off took six months off couldn't figure out what on earth to do with it so they
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went back for my masters you're gonna got my masters and so I was teaching yoga
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and spin just trying to figure out and I did communication studies I guess yeah
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and so then this is when become fit used to be open it was right above where
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El Monte used to yeah so I was a yoga and spin instructor there okay and it was
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just trying to figure it out and then one of my clients was like you should try
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Otterbox Otterbox at this was in 20 11 yeah and they were like I mean growing so
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faster right it couldn't hire not well communications was a big part of what
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they do like to open markets whatever right exactly so went to Otterbox got a job
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there and I was a supervisor in the customer service department but then they
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also let me do the training for the department alongside a couple of other
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people we led training classes up to 2550 people and so at that point that was
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where I first had the thought that wouldn't it be really cool to have my own
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corporate training kind of consulting business and that's what I really
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thought I wanted to do for a long time and was there for about three years and
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then ended up getting recruited to go into the federal government sphere by
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another one of my clients a different client it become fit and went over to the
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federal government sphere and it was it's what I did for the next eight and
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eleven years so I was at federal for three and then over at Safe Bowl for eight
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so yeah this episode is sponsored by Loco Think Tank Loco Think Tank provides
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00:31:54.880 --> 00:31:58.960
pure collaboration for business owners we build smart safe places to help
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00:31:58.960 --> 00:32:02.520
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we do and who we do it with our model features gift-back minded business
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00:32:10.320 --> 00:32:15.240
minded individuals to add to our membership facilitator team local community or
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just mention the Loco Experience Podcast on your application to learn more
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visit our website at locothink Tank.com that's l-o-c-o think tank dot com oh so
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that's interesting that you spent time with both
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autobox and safe build a couple of dynamic local companies yes yes
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autobox during my time at autobox it was in the earlier years from 2011 to I
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think about the middle of 2013 so they were on this huge trajectory and at
427
00:32:51.320 --> 00:32:55.920
the time it what felt like they couldn't keep up with their systems or
428
00:32:55.920 --> 00:33:01.240
processes because they were just growing so fast they were the first big thing
429
00:33:01.240 --> 00:33:06.120
on the market and so you know there was a lot of change over that time that
430
00:33:06.120 --> 00:33:10.960
I was there there was almost constant change every six months how many people
431
00:33:10.960 --> 00:33:15.640
were there when you got there and when you left oh gosh you know so when I
432
00:33:15.640 --> 00:33:20.520
first started let's see I think the customer service department was
433
00:33:20.520 --> 00:33:24.960
probably about we were in one of the one of the upstairs rooms in the
434
00:33:24.960 --> 00:33:30.040
headquarters office and I would say maybe 20 people and then by the time that
435
00:33:30.040 --> 00:33:36.720
I left in 2013 we were in a separate building had a whole floor and I would
436
00:33:36.720 --> 00:33:43.280
say maybe 200 people oh yeah it had grown so at least if your department is
437
00:33:43.280 --> 00:33:49.360
relevant they like 10x to that department in those years and that when I was
438
00:33:49.360 --> 00:33:52.920
going so when I was helping train the new customer service reps I was also
439
00:33:52.920 --> 00:33:56.960
managing a team of 22 so it's like I would go to train a class of 50 and then
440
00:33:56.960 --> 00:34:01.360
run back and check on my team of 22 to you know and so it was it was really
441
00:34:01.360 --> 00:34:04.480
exciting and really fun I loved it there I even volunteered to write I wrote
442
00:34:04.480 --> 00:34:07.600
some of their blogs and you know gotten a little bit involved with the marketing
443
00:34:07.600 --> 00:34:13.160
team there was Mary there those days Mary Mary yes nerdy mind yeah she was there
444
00:34:13.160 --> 00:34:16.760
yeah yeah yeah yeah I was thinking that was probably about that time yep she's
445
00:34:16.760 --> 00:34:21.600
great so I want to come back to the the business journey a little bit and
446
00:34:21.600 --> 00:34:25.440
we'll we'll linger on outer box and safe bill but it's time for the time
447
00:34:25.440 --> 00:34:36.080
machine okay where were you in first grade first grade I was in Rogersville
448
00:34:36.080 --> 00:34:41.080
Missouri Rogersville yeah so I was born in Harper City which is near L.A. and I
449
00:34:41.080 --> 00:34:45.040
believe I was about two okay I think I was around two when we moved to Missouri
450
00:34:45.040 --> 00:34:49.800
my dad wanted to move some more quiet rural far away from L.A.
451
00:34:49.800 --> 00:34:56.360
where were you from in California Harbor City which is near L.A. it's near L.A. and
452
00:34:56.360 --> 00:35:02.560
it's kind of kind of the ghetto now but back then I guess it was but yeah so we
453
00:35:02.560 --> 00:35:06.800
moved to Missouri so I grew up you were around a whole bunch of other people
454
00:35:06.800 --> 00:35:12.720
from California that moved Missouri yeah I know nobody knows Rogers no one moved
455
00:35:12.720 --> 00:35:18.040
to Rogersville like it was I graduated high school with 82 people it was a very
456
00:35:18.040 --> 00:35:23.260
small rural community and you know I used to have a little Honda 50 motorcycle when
457
00:35:23.260 --> 00:35:26.480
I was eight years old and all the neighbors knew me and I'd you know be
458
00:35:26.480 --> 00:35:29.680
hauling ass down the street and you know they're like the cops are gonna pull
459
00:35:29.680 --> 00:35:32.080
you over shady it was just this little neighborhood like this little
460
00:35:32.080 --> 00:35:36.760
community where everybody knew everybody and so I grew up there tried to get
461
00:35:36.760 --> 00:35:41.600
back to California a couple times I took off and went there at 18 with a friend
462
00:35:41.600 --> 00:35:45.880
of mine and told my parents I'm moving to California and that didn't last
463
00:35:45.880 --> 00:35:49.440
two weeks later is like yeah the money ran out I was like okay head
464
00:35:49.440 --> 00:35:54.280
between my two or to tell between my my legs so came back and then at 22 I
465
00:35:54.280 --> 00:35:58.240
did move out there and then live there for eight years before we came here
466
00:35:58.240 --> 00:36:02.520
what was your family dynamic in in Rogersville was it you have siblings as well
467
00:36:02.520 --> 00:36:07.320
yeah yeah so I have a sister she is 10 years older than me oh wow there was a
468
00:36:07.320 --> 00:36:12.760
little boy in between us but when he was born with congenital heart disease so
469
00:36:12.760 --> 00:36:17.440
he passed away at 10 months old and hence the big age gap right in my sister
470
00:36:17.440 --> 00:36:20.880
and myself because I think my parents are between right right ready for the
471
00:36:20.880 --> 00:36:26.200
next one yep yep and so we were 10 years apart which is why you were kind of
472
00:36:26.200 --> 00:36:30.640
free range yeah yeah riding a motorcycle around town with the driver's license
473
00:36:30.640 --> 00:36:39.160
yeah I know I know yes so my sister she once she moved out you know I was still
474
00:36:39.160 --> 00:36:43.480
only seven or eight and so I was kind of like an only kid at that point so for
475
00:36:43.480 --> 00:36:47.600
most of my growing up through middle middle school high school it was really just
476
00:36:47.600 --> 00:36:53.120
me and my parents and what did what did they do for a vocation so my mom did
477
00:36:53.120 --> 00:36:59.440
retail here and there my dad worked for 3M the 3M company I'm the first
478
00:36:59.440 --> 00:37:03.600
person that actually graduated college from my whole family and so and I think
479
00:37:03.600 --> 00:37:09.320
that extends through even my extended family on both sides so I was always
480
00:37:09.320 --> 00:37:14.760
very driven kid and always knew I wanted to do something great and yeah my
481
00:37:14.760 --> 00:37:18.640
parents time and time again would always say oh my gosh we're so proud of you so
482
00:37:18.640 --> 00:37:23.160
yeah so you were a great student probably involved in some sports or some
483
00:37:23.160 --> 00:37:29.040
smart kid contest and stuff like that yep I yes I was in track and volleyball
484
00:37:29.040 --> 00:37:34.000
was very good at both I was in choir and then was chosen to sing in an opera
485
00:37:34.000 --> 00:37:39.120
actually when I was 17 years old really what are you a soprano I was a soprano
486
00:37:39.120 --> 00:37:43.000
yes I don't sing anymore but yeah I was a soprano so I sang in deflator
487
00:37:43.000 --> 00:37:51.080
mouse which was that's a famous choice yes and it was never my jam in terms
488
00:37:51.080 --> 00:37:54.400
of like you were honored to be chosen and stuff and you could do it physically
489
00:37:54.400 --> 00:37:59.040
yeah yeah practicing at 30 hours a week was not exactly super exciting right
490
00:37:59.040 --> 00:38:04.560
right so yeah so yeah we had a great family we were very had a middle class
491
00:38:04.560 --> 00:38:09.840
family you know a lot of people would have thought that my parents had a lot of
492
00:38:09.840 --> 00:38:13.960
money because we always had nice thing my dad was was always had to have the
493
00:38:13.960 --> 00:38:17.360
nicest boats or the nicest cars and the nicest things but he was the guy that
494
00:38:17.360 --> 00:38:22.120
would you know buy something because he had stellar credit and then would like
495
00:38:22.120 --> 00:38:25.360
work his tail off and work overtime and pay it off and then you know and so
496
00:38:25.360 --> 00:38:29.080
that was that was really kind of how I grew up and some of my friends were you
497
00:38:29.080 --> 00:38:32.360
know from families that had tons of money and you know they'd be walking around
498
00:38:32.360 --> 00:38:36.760
with all their like Ralph Lauren polo stuff and I was like trying to borrow it
499
00:38:36.760 --> 00:38:42.160
from you know my mom or my sister like I remember there was a commercial and
500
00:38:42.160 --> 00:38:46.760
you might remember because you're not too far off from age but I was like hi
501
00:38:46.760 --> 00:38:52.280
I'm mr. Johnson and I've got an amazing house a beautiful car a wonderful
502
00:38:52.280 --> 00:38:55.600
boat yeah how do I do it all I'm in debt up to my
503
00:38:55.600 --> 00:39:02.200
I do and you know how stupid like how stupid were we with the back in the 80s
504
00:39:02.200 --> 00:39:09.040
I like just ridiculous and I definitely did my my fair share of accruing some
505
00:39:09.040 --> 00:39:13.600
debt I was younger and I can honestly say that now I mean not that I'm like
506
00:39:13.600 --> 00:39:17.720
debt-free but I I'm so much more well there's good debt and they're bad
507
00:39:17.720 --> 00:39:20.200
debt right right right you know want to buy a house that's good right that is
508
00:39:20.200 --> 00:39:23.160
good to buy a new piece of equipment for your business yeah that's probably
509
00:39:23.160 --> 00:39:32.320
good yeah yeah I want to borrow a bunch of money to buy a Porsche 911 so yeah tell
510
00:39:32.320 --> 00:39:35.920
me about this transition you said you you tried to take off for California at
511
00:39:35.920 --> 00:39:44.120
18 false started and then at 22 just really I had gone to Mizzou in Colombia
512
00:39:44.120 --> 00:39:48.400
okay okay a little bit and I just couldn't figure out what I wanted to do I
513
00:39:48.400 --> 00:39:54.400
really my dad was very strict when I was growing up and so it was kind of the
514
00:39:54.400 --> 00:39:57.280
first time when I did go to Mizzou that I didn't have a curfew and I didn't
515
00:39:57.280 --> 00:40:01.840
you know I was able to kind of do what I wanted to do and and so it gave me
516
00:40:01.840 --> 00:40:06.640
this little thirst for freedom or freedom and so I ended up saying I want to
517
00:40:06.640 --> 00:40:11.880
take a break from college and I moved out to California and lived in LA for
518
00:40:11.880 --> 00:40:15.800
just about a couple of months and then ended up moving down to San Diego in the
519
00:40:15.800 --> 00:40:22.360
state in San Diego for about eight years and met my first husband there dated
520
00:40:22.360 --> 00:40:26.560
him pretty much the whole time I was there we had our son and then we moved
521
00:40:26.560 --> 00:40:30.560
here when he was six months old and then had our other two children our two
522
00:40:30.560 --> 00:40:35.640
daughters here yeah and then you finished up school later to you so when I got
523
00:40:35.640 --> 00:40:39.040
here yeah when I got here almost immediately because as soon as you have a
524
00:40:39.040 --> 00:40:43.840
baby you have this like OSHA at moment like I've got to do something to you
525
00:40:43.840 --> 00:40:49.920
know financially to take care of myself and my family now and so I yeah went
526
00:40:49.920 --> 00:40:53.520
back to school and I initially thought I was gonna go back for psychology which
527
00:40:53.520 --> 00:40:58.600
was what my major was at Mizzou and then I took I got to about the point where
528
00:40:58.600 --> 00:41:02.440
you started taking those 300 400 level classes or elevated classes and I
529
00:41:02.440 --> 00:41:05.240
realized that if I was gonna do psychology I would have wanted to get a
530
00:41:05.240 --> 00:41:10.840
PhD but because I was a non-traditional I was already 30 years old right I was
531
00:41:10.840 --> 00:41:15.000
like I'm not doing it so yeah the counselor said you know you might want to
532
00:41:15.000 --> 00:41:18.640
look into communication studies because there's some very interesting things
533
00:41:18.640 --> 00:41:23.960
oh yeah psychology it is like non-verbal communication like why do we you
534
00:41:23.960 --> 00:41:29.000
know so it gave me some of that same some of those same bits of psychology that
535
00:41:29.000 --> 00:41:33.440
I loved without having to go kind of the medical route yeah interesting and then
536
00:41:33.440 --> 00:41:37.800
we we talked about kind of first job at Otterbach's and so yeah our first
537
00:41:37.800 --> 00:41:42.280
real job anyway right yeah well not is that true you had jobs in California I
538
00:41:42.280 --> 00:41:46.400
assume yeah but I wouldn't call those like real you know I was a nanny for a
539
00:41:46.400 --> 00:41:51.600
family for a while and I for a while I I worked the front door to Jazz Club
540
00:41:51.600 --> 00:41:55.580
you know they're they're not like they're not like jobs to speak of that you
541
00:41:55.580 --> 00:41:59.840
can make a career out of yeah so you get to Otterbach's and it's just like
542
00:41:59.840 --> 00:42:05.280
part of chaos basically tell me about that and if there's anybody that
543
00:42:05.280 --> 00:42:12.240
deserves a shout out as a mentor oh gosh yeah I mean I loved Otterbach's I
544
00:42:12.240 --> 00:42:16.440
really did I would say of all of the kind of bigger companies that I've worked
545
00:42:16.440 --> 00:42:22.680
for the culture there was by far my favorite now I think it also was because
546
00:42:22.680 --> 00:42:25.840
it was early and new I don't know what they're like now yeah but you know I
547
00:42:25.840 --> 00:42:29.920
think well they were intentional yeah very intentional and so you know they
548
00:42:29.920 --> 00:42:35.280
sent the team to Zappos to like go and learn about how to run the best
549
00:42:35.280 --> 00:42:39.400
customer service department and they would always you know there were the pin
550
00:42:39.400 --> 00:42:44.280
ball machines and all sorts of events that we got to do and so and I felt
551
00:42:44.280 --> 00:42:48.920
that every quarter when we had our quarterly meeting at the Lincoln Center
552
00:42:48.920 --> 00:42:52.160
Kurt was always there and would really speak from his heart and so you got the
553
00:42:52.160 --> 00:42:56.400
sense that it was this genuine passion that he had for not just not just the
554
00:42:56.400 --> 00:42:59.680
business but like for the people who were helping him grow his business so it
555
00:42:59.680 --> 00:43:04.680
was wonderful I mean I had some great people that I worked with Zach Vandermy
556
00:43:04.680 --> 00:43:11.240
Nate Childs of course you know I interacted with Kurt quite a few times because
557
00:43:11.240 --> 00:43:17.320
I taught yoga for free there on the top floor of HQ sometimes early in the
558
00:43:17.320 --> 00:43:21.040
morning and he would come in he would he was doing I think like a CrossFit class
559
00:43:21.040 --> 00:43:24.640
out in the back parking lot and so he would come in and go through the room to
560
00:43:24.640 --> 00:43:28.040
go to the kitchen and make a smoothie and I'd be like hi Kurt and so you know
561
00:43:28.040 --> 00:43:33.280
I got to know him briefly but he was really great I think there were some
562
00:43:33.280 --> 00:43:37.640
amazing amazing leaders there that I worked with that there's just too many to
563
00:43:37.640 --> 00:43:42.080
really shut out I was just thinking about my my blog that I need to finish up
564
00:43:42.080 --> 00:43:45.640
because it's coming out in a couple days is I just want to know you're trying
565
00:43:45.640 --> 00:43:53.440
yeah this month and kind of that like as an employee if if a boss appears to be
566
00:43:53.440 --> 00:43:58.360
trying to connect with you to set up systems you know the maybe the pinball
567
00:43:58.360 --> 00:44:00.800
machine isn't anything I actually care about but I could see that you're
568
00:44:00.800 --> 00:44:04.760
trying right right you're spending money sending us to Zappos and stuff and
569
00:44:04.760 --> 00:44:08.760
you're talking to us at the employee meetings and whatever and you know
570
00:44:08.760 --> 00:44:13.160
it's not easy to especially something that that high growth right to keep
571
00:44:13.160 --> 00:44:16.440
your arms around the culture kind of yeah and they would send so they would
572
00:44:16.440 --> 00:44:21.520
send the the executive wouldn't send them but the executives would voluntarily
573
00:44:21.520 --> 00:44:26.120
come and sit in the customer service department and listen to calls and we
574
00:44:26.120 --> 00:44:29.160
always thought that was really great because the customer service department was
575
00:44:29.160 --> 00:44:32.640
kind of like the you know you weren't as cool as the marketing department and
576
00:44:32.640 --> 00:44:36.320
definitely not as cool as like the product development any of that you
577
00:44:36.320 --> 00:44:40.160
know it's so we were just like just the customer service department but they
578
00:44:40.160 --> 00:44:44.840
would come and sit and listen to calls and like give us feedback and you know
579
00:44:44.840 --> 00:44:48.040
they would they really lifted up I think at the time there were 13 of us that
580
00:44:48.040 --> 00:44:51.240
were supervisors in that in that department and they would lift us up and
581
00:44:51.240 --> 00:44:54.800
really seeing us praises and they gave awards at all the quarterly meetings
582
00:44:54.800 --> 00:44:58.840
and stuff and so it really did feel like they cared yeah they were trying yeah
583
00:44:58.840 --> 00:45:04.600
they were trying yeah so what that convinced you to leave
584
00:45:04.600 --> 00:45:08.640
out our box and go into the federal government yeah so out our box and I don't
585
00:45:08.640 --> 00:45:13.440
know if it's different now but then they did not do so when I initially
586
00:45:13.440 --> 00:45:17.880
started they did profit sharing with the employees the the full-time
587
00:45:17.880 --> 00:45:23.920
salary employees and so that was amazing when when I first started because
588
00:45:23.920 --> 00:45:29.960
those were pretty yeah yeah but then it got to be they had to hire so many
589
00:45:29.960 --> 00:45:33.060
people because they were growing so much that the profit sharing check start
590
00:45:33.060 --> 00:45:37.760
going down a little bit and so then I was hoping for well maybe I can go
591
00:45:37.760 --> 00:45:40.520
into the learning and development department and become one of the corporate
592
00:45:40.520 --> 00:45:43.920
trainers like officially an official title because I could show up kind of a
593
00:45:43.920 --> 00:45:50.800
category or two right right and they just it was really difficult to hop from
594
00:45:50.800 --> 00:45:54.120
one department to another and it was really they didn't do raises they didn't
595
00:45:54.120 --> 00:45:59.040
do annual raises and so as I once I got pregnant with my first daughter and my
596
00:45:59.040 --> 00:46:04.640
second child I was like I've just got to do something financially better for my
597
00:46:04.640 --> 00:46:08.480
family I hated leaving I actually cried when I the day my last day there I
598
00:46:08.480 --> 00:46:13.960
hated leaving there but for you know financial reasons I had to and so went to
599
00:46:13.960 --> 00:46:18.760
the federal government sphere because it was you know it was they did communications
600
00:46:18.760 --> 00:46:24.880
help too right well yeah I actually did government proposals oh okay and so
601
00:46:24.880 --> 00:46:29.880
those were contracts for like U.S. Air Force Academy in Fort Carson in Fort
602
00:46:29.880 --> 00:46:34.800
Benning so like $350 million contracts and so you you know get a percentage of
603
00:46:34.800 --> 00:46:40.960
that pie and it's financially wonderful really you actually work for the
604
00:46:40.960 --> 00:46:47.560
government no no no no no no we were we were contractors yeah excuse me as
605
00:46:47.560 --> 00:46:52.800
for the federal government I did they were facilities maintenance services so
606
00:46:52.800 --> 00:46:56.040
we did all the facilities maintenance for all the big government interesting and
607
00:46:56.040 --> 00:46:59.400
then so like how much money are we talking about here is this some of that
608
00:46:59.400 --> 00:47:06.040
federal government graph that we're not graphed but well so I really started
609
00:47:06.040 --> 00:47:09.200
making more money actually when I went to the municipal level so I was really
610
00:47:09.200 --> 00:47:14.160
kind of getting that that career that skills set yeah so I started out
611
00:47:14.160 --> 00:47:18.200
writing government proposals for the federal government and that I cannot tell
612
00:47:18.200 --> 00:47:22.800
you it's probably one of the most scary experiences I have ever had like the
613
00:47:22.800 --> 00:47:25.920
government puts out a request for proposals yeah that's right and then and
614
00:47:25.920 --> 00:47:30.880
the companies that can do those services are like okay let's right in the company
615
00:47:30.880 --> 00:47:36.040
that I worked for in Boulder was called Kira and they already had the contract
616
00:47:36.040 --> 00:47:39.800
so a lot of our contracts were just repeats right so we already knew we were
617
00:47:39.800 --> 00:47:43.720
gonna have a pretty good chance of winning them as long as they were happy with
618
00:47:43.720 --> 00:47:48.000
our our field workers and our building officials right right so what did you
619
00:47:48.000 --> 00:47:52.200
bring to it then really just make sure the words read really good like I don't
620
00:47:52.200 --> 00:47:55.720
quite understand yeah so I was definitely using my reading and writing skills
621
00:47:55.720 --> 00:47:59.280
from communication studies in that and the first day that I showed up
622
00:47:59.280 --> 00:48:05.260
literally my boss handed me an RFP and said I want you to read this RFP get
623
00:48:05.260 --> 00:48:09.400
familiar with acronyms and I thought oh my gosh I didn't even know half of what
624
00:48:09.400 --> 00:48:13.960
I was reading right what is this and then he gave me a proposal a couple days
625
00:48:13.960 --> 00:48:17.160
later and so okay this is the proposal that we wrote to respond to that RFP
626
00:48:17.160 --> 00:48:22.480
that you read so now get familiar with how we addressed and so it kind of started
627
00:48:22.480 --> 00:48:27.100
from there and then he would have me filling out the forms which the forms for
628
00:48:27.100 --> 00:48:32.960
federal government can be you know just out of balance hard antagonizing yes
629
00:48:32.960 --> 00:48:38.280
yes yes so I had to learn how to do like you know SF 33 forms where you know
630
00:48:38.280 --> 00:48:41.720
they were just awful and so federal government was really where I got my
631
00:48:41.720 --> 00:48:47.340
feet wet and learned about compliance which was you know in the in the world of
632
00:48:47.340 --> 00:48:51.880
proposals compliance is everything down to like a word can get you disqualified so
633
00:48:51.880 --> 00:48:57.560
I really spent most of my time in federal writing the proposals and then
634
00:48:57.560 --> 00:49:06.240
it was you know it was it's interesting because I I'm type A and very
635
00:49:06.240 --> 00:49:10.560
detailed oriented and so for me it was kind of a a weird satisfaction that I
636
00:49:10.560 --> 00:49:15.640
do think most people would hate but I loved putting all my papers out on the
637
00:49:15.640 --> 00:49:19.680
floor and making sure that you know everything aligned with exactly I mean
638
00:49:19.680 --> 00:49:23.680
because you would have a binder like this thick of all the compliance pieces and
639
00:49:23.680 --> 00:49:26.480
the sections and everything that had to go in every reference better be
640
00:49:26.480 --> 00:49:30.240
point to the right reference page yeah just disqualified yourself virtually and
641
00:49:30.240 --> 00:49:34.080
it was real it was it was a really challenging job but it actually made me
642
00:49:34.080 --> 00:49:38.920
feel like I was using my degree for something really cool and so there I
643
00:49:38.920 --> 00:49:43.640
didn't make a ton of money my my boss did he was the VP of business
644
00:49:43.640 --> 00:49:47.720
development so he made great a great paycheck and I got paid decent you know but
645
00:49:47.720 --> 00:49:53.520
it was kind of my outside of of outer box it was my first step into what I
646
00:49:53.520 --> 00:49:57.400
would say was a salary that was like good for being early in my career I was
647
00:49:57.400 --> 00:50:03.400
only in my third fourth year right so then at some point I started feeling like
648
00:50:03.720 --> 00:50:08.720
so a lot of people from that business left a lot of the higher executives left
649
00:50:08.720 --> 00:50:14.800
and it just changed the change the structure of the whole team and so I looked
650
00:50:14.800 --> 00:50:17.960
for something a little less stressful than three hundred fifty million dollar
651
00:50:17.960 --> 00:50:23.200
contracts and so I started looking at the municipal level and there it was just
652
00:50:23.200 --> 00:50:26.760
very different it was more of a churn and burn like the proposals were more
653
00:50:26.760 --> 00:50:31.960
much smaller and went out quicker but there wasn't the same level of stress and
654
00:50:31.960 --> 00:50:38.040
it was great so I ended up getting a job as managing a team so then I wasn't
655
00:50:38.040 --> 00:50:41.080
writing as much and I was more or less kind of managing and at one point I had
656
00:50:41.080 --> 00:50:45.800
about a team of seven between you know graphics and it's a safe bill so
657
00:50:45.800 --> 00:50:51.240
were you looking at the municipal marketplace as an alternative and then I said
658
00:50:51.240 --> 00:50:54.400
hey there's this place called safe bill right here and down yeah there's a
659
00:50:54.400 --> 00:50:59.840
safe bill and so what was hilarious is my like I think it was in my very first
660
00:50:59.840 --> 00:51:04.360
week that I started there I was walking down the hall and this was still
661
00:51:04.360 --> 00:51:09.440
when safe bill was quite small compared to where they are now and so I think
662
00:51:09.440 --> 00:51:13.320
there were only eight of us in the work inside the you know the headquarters
663
00:51:13.320 --> 00:51:22.080
yeah yeah and who's the guy that was the head of their finance forever Tom Wilkes
664
00:51:22.080 --> 00:51:26.880
Tom Wilkes so it was my point of contact for banking stuff was oh I don't
665
00:51:26.880 --> 00:51:31.160
know the banking side yeah because I was I was Mike was on our board at the bank
666
00:51:31.160 --> 00:51:35.880
yeah yeah and so and he was my customer and so I did say built banking stuff
667
00:51:35.880 --> 00:51:48.960
from what like oh eight to 13 I guess yeah and I started oh 15 to 20 oh so
668
00:51:48.960 --> 00:51:54.640
you were much later so there was a woman gosh and her name is escaping yeah she
669
00:51:54.640 --> 00:51:59.160
was the CFO when I was there and then she retired and then Tom Wilkes Tom
670
00:51:59.160 --> 00:52:03.280
Wilkes was running financials while I was there but yeah I was going down the
671
00:52:03.280 --> 00:52:09.280
hall and and I went to go walk past Mike McCurdy and I said to him what the
672
00:52:09.280 --> 00:52:13.240
hell are you doing here and he goes I run this joint what the hell are you doing
673
00:52:13.240 --> 00:52:17.000
here and because the old I had known him from when I was teaching it become fit
674
00:52:17.000 --> 00:52:21.200
him and his wife Mary Pat would come in and they would take our spinning
675
00:52:21.200 --> 00:52:23.800
classes in our yoga classes and everything so I just knew I'm like that's
676
00:52:23.800 --> 00:52:27.960
funny how become fit is actually the hub of most of your career yeah yeah well
677
00:52:27.960 --> 00:52:33.800
yeah and become fit was was owned in part by Matt or by Pat Magokran who owns
678
00:52:33.800 --> 00:52:37.360
all the rios oh I didn't know that yeah yeah well and he had El Monte there that
679
00:52:37.360 --> 00:52:41.120
was you know struggling yeah but there there his office was in that same
680
00:52:41.120 --> 00:52:46.400
building right right right so yeah he he just knows everybody and so I think
681
00:52:46.400 --> 00:52:49.440
there were a lot of people that came there because he but you know they knew him
682
00:52:49.440 --> 00:52:53.080
right right which is a great guy Pat's a great guy yeah I need to get him on
683
00:52:53.080 --> 00:52:58.280
the podcast oh you should he's he's just fantastic I I have so much respect for
684
00:52:58.280 --> 00:53:03.560
him worked you know worked there at become fit he actually when I was planning to
685
00:53:03.560 --> 00:53:07.800
leave banking and start a restaurant he like consulted with me donated two or
686
00:53:07.800 --> 00:53:13.320
three four hours of time yeah try to talk me out of it kind of but
687
00:53:13.320 --> 00:53:20.640
anyway yeah I find it'd be a very thoughtful yes yes yes especially yes
688
00:53:20.640 --> 00:53:25.440
very he's very intentional about the things he says and the advice he gives yeah
689
00:53:25.440 --> 00:53:30.000
yeah if I can get him on here to smoke a joint yeah yeah he totally would he
690
00:53:30.000 --> 00:53:36.960
totally would I know he would yeah anyway so oh so you're yeah pretty small
691
00:53:36.960 --> 00:53:44.520
shop still it was a pretty small shop yes and then yeah our team kept growing
692
00:53:44.520 --> 00:53:50.040
and growing and then inevitably they asked me the leadership team asked if I
693
00:53:50.040 --> 00:53:55.680
wanted to move to an account manager slash business development role okay and
694
00:53:55.680 --> 00:53:59.400
so I was like sure and then that's when I think they're really good that
695
00:53:59.400 --> 00:54:02.880
that's where this is for your salary right right as soon as you you know
696
00:54:02.880 --> 00:54:07.160
or if you're a rainmaker then then you can earn that yeah yeah and I was
697
00:54:07.160 --> 00:54:13.240
traveling quite a bit because I had all the states in the west except for
698
00:54:13.240 --> 00:54:19.600
California so it was very busy very busy time and and it was really fun I
699
00:54:19.600 --> 00:54:23.960
enjoyed it for I did that the last three years that I was there and I really
700
00:54:23.960 --> 00:54:29.160
enjoyed it but it was again you know going back to private equity and I I think
701
00:54:29.160 --> 00:54:35.000
sometimes just the expectations of private equity ownership it's it's hard on
702
00:54:35.000 --> 00:54:38.840
for sure people who are working within the business because they they need
703
00:54:38.840 --> 00:54:44.160
that to see the numbers and you know and private equity was probably already
704
00:54:44.160 --> 00:54:48.960
involved yeah yeah when you started but Mike was still there and kind of
705
00:54:48.960 --> 00:54:52.640
running things whatever and then a couple few years later he was gone and so
706
00:54:52.640 --> 00:54:57.000
his influence was probably yeah so he became a board member with the private
707
00:54:57.000 --> 00:55:02.800
equity firm and so yeah and you know and a lot changes when you're growing the
708
00:55:02.800 --> 00:55:05.640
same thing like with autobox when you're growing that fast because we were
709
00:55:05.640 --> 00:55:10.520
growing in every year given these you know seemingly outrageous numbers that
710
00:55:10.520 --> 00:55:14.120
we thought no one could hit but then as a company we would hit them and so
711
00:55:14.120 --> 00:55:18.440
you know so it just it made the you know took the care a little higher every
712
00:55:18.440 --> 00:55:23.760
year right there's that no good deed goes unpunished right right yeah exactly you
713
00:55:23.760 --> 00:55:27.200
had a great year looks like next year you'll probably miss your bonus because
714
00:55:27.200 --> 00:55:34.600
you'll never get that number it's yeah yeah tell us all the time so yeah so it
715
00:55:34.600 --> 00:55:39.840
goes so you know I just said I had hit a point where I think I was hitting burn
716
00:55:39.840 --> 00:55:45.240
out a little bit for me kind of feeling wishing that I could find something
717
00:55:45.240 --> 00:55:50.920
that filled more of that creative side of of me and the things I love to do but
718
00:55:50.920 --> 00:55:56.840
still be able to utilize my strengths you know in building relationships and
719
00:55:56.840 --> 00:56:02.920
and I you know as silly as it sounds making an Instagram post multiple times a
720
00:56:02.920 --> 00:56:06.760
day and being able to like write editorial content for website I'm it's not
721
00:56:06.760 --> 00:56:11.160
easy so it's still tapping into the communication study side what I do what
722
00:56:11.160 --> 00:56:14.960
that was pretty interesting is though the scout guide is like almost all the
723
00:56:14.960 --> 00:56:19.560
other stuff was about words and definitions and compliance and regulations and
724
00:56:19.560 --> 00:56:24.440
now it's like take the pretty pictures and make the pop yeah no it is it we're
725
00:56:24.440 --> 00:56:28.920
very we're all about telling a business story or who they are what they want
726
00:56:28.920 --> 00:56:34.320
to be what area of their business are trying to grow with imagery yeah and so
727
00:56:34.320 --> 00:56:39.640
we could take hoolian wand for example yeah when I first met with them they
728
00:56:39.640 --> 00:56:43.960
said you know we pump out so many weddings but we'd kind of like to pull back and
729
00:56:43.960 --> 00:56:48.520
not do so many weddings because that's a huge you know mental yeah it's a big
730
00:56:48.520 --> 00:56:53.600
endeavor and they'd like to be able to do more of like a chef's table of it
731
00:56:53.600 --> 00:56:56.880
where they're making the food they want to make and people buy tickets and get
732
00:56:56.880 --> 00:57:01.720
to just have an experience in their space and so for our photoshoot we kind of
733
00:57:01.720 --> 00:57:10.600
pushed that chef's table idea and so I think you know in some ways it's a neat way
734
00:57:10.600 --> 00:57:14.680
to be able to tell a story without having to use the words now they're there
735
00:57:14.680 --> 00:57:18.320
will definitely be the editorial content on the website right now I'm just
736
00:57:18.320 --> 00:57:22.720
focused on getting the first volume out but once I get it out I'm gonna have oh
737
00:57:22.720 --> 00:57:26.840
does the website then have like stories attached to a lot of these pictures and
738
00:57:26.840 --> 00:57:30.880
stuff like a monthly newsletter I'll be doing a spotlight probably once a
739
00:57:30.880 --> 00:57:35.320
month on one of my businesses you know all sorts of stuff well that'll be good to
740
00:57:35.320 --> 00:57:40.280
be able to exercise your your righty skills right yeah definitely and I think
741
00:57:40.280 --> 00:57:43.600
it will be it would be really nice and get a lot more activity right now I'm
742
00:57:43.600 --> 00:57:47.680
just and I've been very transparent with my clients that like there's it's a
743
00:57:47.680 --> 00:57:50.920
beautiful website the scout guide built it for me but there's just not a lot
744
00:57:50.920 --> 00:57:55.480
on there because they said don't focus on it get your guide build build your
745
00:57:55.480 --> 00:58:02.640
brand and then you can get that out yeah in this transition at safe
746
00:58:02.640 --> 00:58:07.440
built from you know kind of a back of the house to front of the house in a lot of
747
00:58:07.440 --> 00:58:12.280
ways so that account manager was that like you said that they asked you if you
748
00:58:12.280 --> 00:58:17.280
wanted to do that it seemed like but like talked to me about that transition
749
00:58:17.280 --> 00:58:26.800
yeah so it's interesting I so right in 2019 when COVID hit I was going through
750
00:58:26.800 --> 00:58:35.280
divorce okay and so I had moved into a place in Timnith kind of in had my two
751
00:58:35.280 --> 00:58:40.400
daughters with me was living on my own and so I had gone to my boss at the time
752
00:58:40.400 --> 00:58:45.920
and said hey look here's what's going on and when you go from being a duel
753
00:58:45.920 --> 00:58:51.000
income household to it's just you right that you know not that I was making bad
754
00:58:51.000 --> 00:58:54.980
money but like now that it was just me and I had a lifestyle and bills that
755
00:58:54.980 --> 00:59:00.500
met here right and then now I went whoop so I said here's the thing I you know
756
00:59:00.500 --> 00:59:03.100
I think I'm probably going to start looking for a different job because I
757
00:59:03.100 --> 00:59:08.660
mean and they came back very quickly with like no even for a long time like
758
00:59:08.660 --> 00:59:14.060
how about we give you this role and so I took it and and I I actually really
759
00:59:14.060 --> 00:59:20.340
enjoyed it I think I love I don't think I know I love being with people I love
760
00:59:20.340 --> 00:59:24.420
building relationships building community and when you're doing proposals even
761
00:59:24.420 --> 00:59:28.140
if you're managing them I had a lot of that face time with my employees but I
762
00:59:28.140 --> 00:59:31.620
didn't have it elsewhere with the decision makers I really knew if you were
763
00:59:31.620 --> 00:59:35.180
doing a good job or not right right right we got the proposal or not yeah yeah
764
00:59:35.180 --> 00:59:40.220
I mean based on winning if we won I was good you know and so I think I was
765
00:59:40.220 --> 00:59:43.620
dying a little bit to get from behind the computer and do something that was
766
00:59:43.620 --> 00:59:49.740
more forward facing with people and so I jumped at it was like yeah and you
767
00:59:49.740 --> 00:59:53.900
know I did I loved it other than the fact that I again going back to I
768
00:59:53.900 --> 00:59:59.020
didn't have so much passion for building where you like a week on a week off
769
00:59:59.020 --> 01:00:02.900
with your kiddos or something so you plan trips or was it no we've got a
770
01:00:02.900 --> 01:00:07.180
weird schedule because my ex-husband is a he's a firefighter and so they have a
771
01:00:07.180 --> 01:00:12.820
really wonky schedule and so it was always kind of like I would have them for
772
01:00:12.820 --> 01:00:15.220
two days he would have them one I would have them two days he would have them
773
01:00:15.220 --> 01:00:18.060
and then he would get like once a month this like what they call it Kelly
774
01:00:18.060 --> 01:00:22.500
weekend where he gets you know a weekend with them and so it was it was very
775
01:00:22.500 --> 01:00:26.540
difficult so I would have to be very well because you're traveling to go to
776
01:00:26.540 --> 01:00:31.820
meet with Boseman and stuff like that right so I would try and travel on a like
777
01:00:31.820 --> 01:00:35.420
if I knew I would try and travel when he was gonna have his Kelly weekend
778
01:00:35.420 --> 01:00:40.780
like a Thursday Friday you know so it was yeah and it you know it really hasn't
779
01:00:40.780 --> 01:00:45.660
it seems like now I'm running at mock speed because I still have one that's in
780
01:00:45.660 --> 01:00:49.420
eighth grade and so dropping her off at school picking her up from school which
781
01:00:49.420 --> 01:00:52.700
I you know I love being able to do and I'm so fortunate that I make my own
782
01:00:52.700 --> 01:00:56.900
schedule but it the scout guide has really grown and gotten super busy to where
783
01:00:56.900 --> 01:01:01.180
I'm like the night before I go to bed I have to look at my calendar go okay what
784
01:01:01.180 --> 01:01:06.180
am I where am I tomorrow right well and even with unrealistic private equity
785
01:01:06.180 --> 01:01:12.460
owners and stuff like that there's kind of a here's the expectation when when
786
01:01:12.460 --> 01:01:15.780
you've got your own business it's like what when you push stop yeah when all
787
01:01:15.780 --> 01:01:19.940
the work is done yeah I don't know and I have a hard time doing that so my my
788
01:01:19.940 --> 01:01:24.540
fiancee is he's lovely and very tolerant of my you know sometimes you're a
789
01:01:24.540 --> 01:01:28.020
little bit wrapped up in it right now but yeah in a few months here you
790
01:01:28.020 --> 01:01:33.260
be published yeah yeah yeah for a few months yes so I'm often and he he's
791
01:01:33.260 --> 01:01:38.340
actually also in publishing which is hilarious so he he's in publishing also for
792
01:01:38.340 --> 01:01:42.900
the home ag down in Denver okay and so there are some days where we're both just
793
01:01:42.900 --> 01:01:48.180
running and then I'm like can you pick my daughter up from school right right
794
01:01:48.180 --> 01:01:53.980
I found myself in Evans and he's like no maybe your son can pick her up so
795
01:01:53.980 --> 01:01:58.020
that I'm like taxi my son can you get your sister and he's like 20 years
796
01:01:58.020 --> 01:02:03.020
something with me so he's like seriously mom if you give me gas money right
797
01:02:03.020 --> 01:02:09.580
well it feels like we're transitioning into the next phase and kind of
798
01:02:09.580 --> 01:02:13.060
starting with family anyway so what do you tell me about this hunky guy that
799
01:02:13.060 --> 01:02:16.940
how you just mentioned and call him your fiancee yes he's wonderful his name is
800
01:02:16.940 --> 01:02:24.220
Matt he we met so this is gonna sound bad is and you know don't judge because it
801
01:02:24.220 --> 01:02:29.780
didn't all happen this way but he actually worked at Safeville also okay and so
802
01:02:29.780 --> 01:02:35.260
we knew each other for five years working there just as co-war what's his
803
01:02:35.260 --> 01:02:40.420
last time Royer yeah Matt Royer oh I know him you do yeah back in the day he
804
01:02:40.420 --> 01:02:44.620
was there for quite a while oh yeah he was there for yeah he was like the number
805
01:02:44.620 --> 01:02:49.540
two yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah I made him back in the day yeah yeah so
806
01:02:49.540 --> 01:02:53.660
he was there yeah yeah he actually interviewed me when I started there and so
807
01:02:53.660 --> 01:02:58.100
and I remember thinking like you know I was like who is this guy because he
808
01:02:58.100 --> 01:03:01.100
was all slimmed in his chair with his arms back like this and I was like okay we're
809
01:03:01.100 --> 01:03:11.480
at an interview like so yeah so we worked together for five years and I was
810
01:03:11.480 --> 01:03:16.100
married he was married I we never know nothing about that connection was like
811
01:03:16.100 --> 01:03:20.780
like not at all like not at all we would go to holiday parties and I would you
812
01:03:20.780 --> 01:03:30.780
know talk with no opposite that all that and then when my marriage started kind
813
01:03:30.780 --> 01:03:36.820
of crumbling I was really kind of looking to get out and do other things and
814
01:03:36.820 --> 01:03:39.660
so I joined there were a few people from Safeville that joined this kickball
815
01:03:39.660 --> 01:03:43.420
team that was in birthed and I was like sure I'll join the kickball team and so
816
01:03:43.420 --> 01:03:48.460
he was on that too and so we just kind of started to get to know each other's
817
01:03:48.460 --> 01:03:51.460
friends and after the kickball games we you know a group of us would like go out
818
01:03:51.460 --> 01:03:57.180
and get drinks and whatever and so it wasn't much it was about a year later he
819
01:03:57.180 --> 01:04:00.900
started going through a divorce and so we kind of had that thing in common and
820
01:04:00.900 --> 01:04:04.940
it was one of those things where when you have been through the devastation of
821
01:04:04.940 --> 01:04:09.140
a divorce which even if you're the person that is making that decision to get
822
01:04:09.140 --> 01:04:14.620
divorced it's still just as devastating it's still awful and so well and you
823
01:04:14.620 --> 01:04:22.140
kind of touched on something I remember Doug Johnson actually said years ago as
824
01:04:22.140 --> 01:04:27.020
a wisdom exchange in a business thing he was like you know people have this
825
01:04:27.020 --> 01:04:29.900
expectation that when they go through the divorce that their standard of
826
01:04:29.900 --> 01:04:36.540
living is gonna stay the same no that's absolutely not absolutely never like
827
01:04:36.540 --> 01:04:42.180
only if you're like freaking Jeff Bezos or something right right yeah no it
828
01:04:42.180 --> 01:04:46.540
does not it is not and it was you know that the financial adjustment was hard
829
01:04:46.540 --> 01:04:51.340
but I think for me I think that the time that I got divorced my youngest was
830
01:04:51.340 --> 01:04:59.260
nine and she it took its toll on her the hardest for sure and so it was really
831
01:04:59.260 --> 01:05:05.700
hard for me because I had made that decision that I had been with my ex
832
01:05:05.700 --> 01:05:10.300
husband we were together 23 years from the time we were 22 and so it was
833
01:05:10.300 --> 01:05:14.260
really all three of our kids were together if you're comfortable talking about
834
01:05:14.260 --> 01:05:18.380
it like what changed like you were good for 20 I've been I've been married for
835
01:05:18.380 --> 01:05:25.220
21 years right yeah almost 21 years yeah I think because we met so young and
836
01:05:25.220 --> 01:05:31.460
then there was a time when I was right before I got pregnant with my son that I
837
01:05:31.460 --> 01:05:37.060
started kind of really trying to assess what I wanted to do with my life and I
838
01:05:37.060 --> 01:05:42.140
think that he would have been perfectly happy if I would have been more of a
839
01:05:42.140 --> 01:05:46.460
not necessarily like a stay-at-home mom but somebody who wasn't you becoming a
840
01:05:46.460 --> 01:05:52.660
high-achieving woman very I think being as career driven as I was not that he
841
01:05:52.660 --> 01:05:56.900
was threatened but I just don't think that it's the direction he saw he wanted
842
01:05:56.900 --> 01:06:02.740
you to have as a family going more mom time stuff yeah yeah and yeah and so more
843
01:06:02.740 --> 01:06:07.740
being my wife time less being a career girl whatever right and so if you know
844
01:06:07.740 --> 01:06:14.540
and then my dad passed away in 2016 and then after that my dad was my my best
845
01:06:14.540 --> 01:06:17.660
friend my whole life like he was my absolute everything and it was a pretty
846
01:06:17.660 --> 01:06:24.580
tragic and and and sudden yeah and so a lot changed for me in that year after
847
01:06:24.580 --> 01:06:29.420
he passed and then I started really really assessing because I no longer had
848
01:06:29.420 --> 01:06:33.500
that person that I felt was my biggest cheer here yeah and so I was kind of
849
01:06:33.500 --> 01:06:40.780
looking to to someone to be that person to fill that gap and it just wasn't
850
01:06:40.780 --> 01:06:45.020
there and so I started thinking about where the kind of the second half of my
851
01:06:45.020 --> 01:06:48.700
life was going to go versus where the first half of my life had been and I think
852
01:06:48.700 --> 01:06:51.580
by the time we got divorced I had literally been within for half of my life
853
01:06:51.580 --> 01:06:59.180
and so I wanted someone who wanted to really see me succeed and celebrate in my
854
01:06:59.180 --> 01:07:05.700
victories and and not be not to use the word threatened but not to be you know
855
01:07:05.700 --> 01:07:13.620
like second guessing yeah yeah and so then if we fast forward back to start
856
01:07:13.620 --> 01:07:18.500
playing kickball started becoming friends with Matt and our friendship really
857
01:07:18.500 --> 01:07:24.420
started flourishing and so he would come over sometimes and meet my girls and
858
01:07:24.420 --> 01:07:28.100
we were trying to like not really be dating yet right right wanted to kind of
859
01:07:28.100 --> 01:07:31.020
be dating but we were you know we're trying to take things very slow because we
860
01:07:31.340 --> 01:07:35.340
it's just hard it's right right right when your girls are you're nine or something
861
01:07:35.340 --> 01:07:42.220
right yeah nine and ten of those thirteen nine and thirteen so then over time it just it
862
01:07:42.220 --> 01:07:46.060
just continued to get stronger stronger and stronger until your girls are like
863
01:07:46.780 --> 01:07:51.580
what are you gonna ask him out yeah no they weren't so my daughters were like
864
01:07:52.620 --> 01:07:56.540
we like him you know and even their friends at one point then after we started
865
01:07:56.540 --> 01:08:01.500
dating my my older daughter was on the cheerleading squad at Fort Collins High School and
866
01:08:01.500 --> 01:08:06.380
and her friends would come up to me they all call me Mama C and they'd come up and they'd be like
867
01:08:07.580 --> 01:08:11.180
Matt when are you gonna propose to Mama C we're like awkward
868
01:08:12.460 --> 01:08:20.380
so so yeah it's cool so we got engaged in the end of 2022 and so yeah we're
869
01:08:20.940 --> 01:08:28.060
deserve date on the calendar 2026 we're thinking September 2026 he proposed in Barcelona and I think
870
01:08:28.060 --> 01:08:31.900
we're gonna go back there for the wedding so we're last year we were focused on getting
871
01:08:32.860 --> 01:08:40.300
my daughter out to college at CU Boulder against my wishes I know um and then this year was all
872
01:08:40.300 --> 01:08:44.700
about buying the guide and getting it launched and so I think next year we'll put some effort
873
01:08:44.780 --> 01:08:52.380
for planning a wedding and make it happen in 2026 I like it I like it um one thing we always do in
874
01:08:52.380 --> 01:08:58.540
this show or almost always is uh ask our guest to provide a one-word description of their children
875
01:08:59.100 --> 01:09:04.860
oh you got a one-word description how about the girl that went to CU what's her name
876
01:09:04.860 --> 01:09:11.420
Addy hi Addy her name Addy is independent is that that's the only in first word
877
01:09:11.580 --> 01:09:16.300
well that's why she went to CU is because you tried to discourage her yes she from when she
878
01:09:16.300 --> 01:09:23.260
was a little baby like my other two always wanted me to hold them and carry them around and she was like
879
01:09:23.260 --> 01:09:28.780
she's like the playpen's fine she's like put me down please just put me down and she would fuss
880
01:09:28.780 --> 01:09:33.340
when I would try to be walking her bouncing or rocking or just sleeping I remember my mom told me
881
01:09:33.340 --> 01:09:38.860
one day she said just lay her down and I'm like but that's never gonna work and I laid her down and
882
01:09:38.860 --> 01:09:45.340
you know of course she went to CU so she is my fiercely independent child for sure
883
01:09:45.340 --> 01:09:51.180
that's a very distinctive thing like that can't be one in 10 babies that actually is that way
884
01:09:51.180 --> 01:09:57.340
very early yes I mean from the beginning like from the very beginning and I used to get so paranoid
885
01:09:57.340 --> 01:10:02.460
because it's like and then my mom of course I think at the time they said don't put babies on
886
01:10:02.460 --> 01:10:08.380
their belly all because the sad stuff was going right and and my mom flipped her over on her
887
01:10:09.020 --> 01:10:15.420
you know on her on a belly and she talked her little she looked like her nickname was peanut because
888
01:10:15.420 --> 01:10:18.780
she just would pull everything in and she looks like this little tiny peanut and she would just go
889
01:10:18.780 --> 01:10:24.620
right to sleep but I would be like hovering over when she's still breathing so yeah she's
890
01:10:24.620 --> 01:10:31.820
she's my independent one my older my son my older one he's my wild one he's your 13 year old
891
01:10:31.820 --> 01:10:39.420
yeah 22 oh he's okay yeah yeah the one so he's yes very he's my wild child well child
892
01:10:39.420 --> 01:10:45.500
well I'm sure he's insanely intelligent they always used to say in school he was really smart but
893
01:10:45.500 --> 01:10:52.220
also very disruptive and he hasn't quite found his mojo yet hasn't quite found his mojo yet
894
01:10:52.220 --> 01:10:58.940
but he's really working on it and we have a a very close mother son relationship I get him
895
01:10:58.940 --> 01:11:04.140
where most people don't and so we're really close um it sounded like a pretty easy grace person
896
01:11:04.140 --> 01:11:09.020
I am I'm a pretty laid back mom and I think that was also another area where with the first husband
897
01:11:09.020 --> 01:11:14.380
you know it was a much more strict and these are my boundaries and you have to fit in that box and
898
01:11:14.380 --> 01:11:20.780
I was more of a well let's talk about it kind of parents so yeah needless to say my two older ones
899
01:11:20.780 --> 01:11:27.900
like chose to live with me full time after right they're like okay yeah mom's easy
900
01:11:29.180 --> 01:11:34.140
which you know I don't I don't know if that's a good or bad thing but I do my best yeah and then
901
01:11:34.140 --> 01:11:40.460
the 14 year old she's my baby she has always been kind of my my funniest kiddo she's hilarious
902
01:11:40.460 --> 01:11:48.140
she's gorgeous she's um oh what's her name Lily and what's your boy's name Caleb Caleb hi Caleb
903
01:11:48.140 --> 01:11:58.700
yeah and uh you have a one word for Lily vivacious oh that's a big word she's everything she does
904
01:11:58.700 --> 01:12:06.300
is big yeah she's uh yeah when she's funny she's hysterical when she's upset you know it when
905
01:12:06.300 --> 01:12:15.340
she's upset she's hysterical just to turn a word twice yes yes uh yeah she's she's just um
906
01:12:16.300 --> 01:12:21.500
she does everything big very big but she always she always likes to come back and know that
907
01:12:21.500 --> 01:12:26.940
mom's still got her back you know so when Matt sometimes has to travel or whatever she's like
908
01:12:26.940 --> 01:12:32.220
all right sleep with you moving out in mom's bed you know and at 14 I mean it like
909
01:12:32.220 --> 01:12:36.300
kisses my heart sweetly because I'm like I love that she's still like that time with you so yeah
910
01:12:36.300 --> 01:12:43.580
it's really cool um did Matt bring any yes kiddos too yes and so we we all call them we both
911
01:12:43.580 --> 01:12:50.220
call them ours um all of them are ours so we have five together so we've got he's got two girls
912
01:12:50.220 --> 01:12:55.420
so between the two of us we have four girls so we'll have four weddings which is like frightening
913
01:12:56.220 --> 01:13:01.500
and then just the one set on my side but his two girls uh Isabelle is his oldest and she's
914
01:13:01.500 --> 01:13:08.460
20 and she goes to school up in Grand Junction at Mesa okay very smart so we get along well um
915
01:13:08.460 --> 01:13:13.500
and then his his youngest daughter Raina she is in high school um goes to servant high school
916
01:13:13.500 --> 01:13:19.180
okay and um she's graduating this year we're not sure where she's going but could be Washington
917
01:13:19.180 --> 01:13:28.460
state she's in a question rider so she does the jumper the jumping thing um she is more she's the
918
01:13:28.460 --> 01:13:34.780
most quiet she's the most kind of like introverted one um so we take full advantage when she's in
919
01:13:34.780 --> 01:13:38.940
those good moods where she's wanting to talk and hang out we'll sit at the dinner table
920
01:13:38.940 --> 01:13:44.540
just like just do lay it for a while yeah yeah yeah but she's also very independent but a little
921
01:13:44.540 --> 01:13:50.380
more quiet than my independent so yeah she she kind of goes her past she's also very smart too
922
01:13:50.380 --> 01:13:55.820
all of them are really smart let's seem strange because you and Matt don't seem that
923
01:13:56.140 --> 01:14:09.580
strange what what uh what was it that um really drew him to you to suppose in those days
924
01:14:10.620 --> 01:14:17.820
Matt yeah like why do you keep going around sounds like he was not getting the milk for free and not
925
01:14:17.820 --> 01:14:22.300
putting a ring on it for a while but he was staying involved in your life as a friend and
926
01:14:22.300 --> 01:14:30.380
so Matt tells me every day we've been together uh let's see I think this year will be five years
927
01:14:30.380 --> 01:14:34.940
and he tells me multiple times a day he's like you're so cute you're so cute you're so pretty and
928
01:14:34.940 --> 01:14:41.420
he's constantly complimenting me so if I had to say what drew him I think it was first that he
929
01:14:41.420 --> 01:14:50.780
thought it was cute right but then second um he he was very before me he was very much like I put
930
01:14:50.780 --> 01:14:57.900
all of my time and effort into my career and my children and that's what he did so he never he
931
01:14:57.900 --> 01:15:05.980
didn't really go out and have any fun he you know he just he didn't give himself the own his own
932
01:15:05.980 --> 01:15:10.380
space yeah to enjoy life in some ways and I've always been that was part of what you were like
933
01:15:10.380 --> 01:15:16.620
yeah you need some space and like let's go let's go do stuff let's and so I think that was really
934
01:15:16.620 --> 01:15:22.380
well and even you go do stuff maybe all the time it seems like yeah all the time yeah all the time
935
01:15:22.380 --> 01:15:27.820
and I always have I mean I'm I love having good friends around I'm kind of an extroverted
936
01:15:27.820 --> 01:15:32.860
introvert yeah so I love to be around people but then I need my reset time where it's totally
937
01:15:32.860 --> 01:15:38.300
downtime me time but when you know we're big boaters on the reservoir so like every weekend
938
01:15:39.340 --> 01:15:44.460
yesterday we rode our Harley's up to Carter Lake and well you know so I just I like to
939
01:15:45.020 --> 01:15:50.620
adventure is a big thing yeah and I think that was uh I think that was something really um that's
940
01:15:50.620 --> 01:15:56.620
writing for him one thing I say is uh you know I don't know what I'm looking for when I'm looking for
941
01:15:56.620 --> 01:16:01.900
a friend or this is that or whatever but I know if somebody seems to really like me it makes it a
942
01:16:01.900 --> 01:16:10.300
lot easier for me to really like them yeah for sure for sure and I know I mean I I can I make friends
943
01:16:10.540 --> 01:16:19.020
really easy but well there's like friend and then there's like I really like yeah yeah we have we
944
01:16:19.020 --> 01:16:23.820
have about a handful each of us have about a handful of friends most of them couples together
945
01:16:23.820 --> 01:16:31.020
that we really love to do things with on a consistent basis you know I love I love the events
946
01:16:31.020 --> 01:16:36.860
with with you know the community with the scout guide I feel like I'm becoming friends with a lot
947
01:16:36.860 --> 01:16:43.740
of them at a different level than just uh we work together um but you know sometimes I I need that
948
01:16:43.740 --> 01:16:48.620
day where I'm like I am not getting out of my pajamas and I might not brush my teeth until new
949
01:16:48.620 --> 01:16:56.860
I'm just not and so and that's okay too I uh I get an Odell's onesie this fall and it's changed my life
950
01:16:56.860 --> 01:17:05.740
honestly I haven't loved that I love that um let's drift over into politics or faiths
951
01:17:06.220 --> 01:17:17.820
oh gosh whoo that's a hard one both are hard for me um you know so we'll start with faith um when I
952
01:17:17.820 --> 01:17:27.340
was little my dad used to drive me to church I was I was as a baby I was Catholic but they wouldn't
953
01:17:27.340 --> 01:17:33.660
go to church with me because after their son Alfred they called him a little out after he passed
954
01:17:33.660 --> 01:17:40.940
they kind of really rejected faith but they would still drive me off if right why would God
955
01:17:40.940 --> 01:17:46.380
do this to an innocent baby it was more of the right struggle there and so they would but you
956
01:17:46.380 --> 01:17:51.900
would get off a church yeah and so I remember going as a kid and then like once I got to be in
957
01:17:51.900 --> 01:17:54.540
middle school high school and had my own opinion about it I was like I don't want to go and they're
958
01:17:54.540 --> 01:18:02.780
like okay well that's fine so then I didn't really have you know organized religion yeah and then
959
01:18:03.020 --> 01:18:10.780
my my first husband at the time a boyfriend he was raised Christian his mom went to church like
960
01:18:10.780 --> 01:18:19.900
two days a week he was you know had strong faith and so when I was pregnant I made the decision we
961
01:18:19.900 --> 01:18:24.060
had gone to church a few times and I made the decision I was going to get baptized Christian
962
01:18:24.940 --> 01:18:29.660
and so I did that that was here that so that was after I had my older daughter my second child
963
01:18:29.660 --> 01:18:34.940
and so we did that here in Fort Collins okay and it was at a I used to be called North Point
964
01:18:34.940 --> 01:18:44.300
oh yeah which was down Old Town and non-dominational yeah yep yep and so I did that but I I started
965
01:18:44.300 --> 01:18:48.300
to really struggle we moved there then we like tried the like mega church for a while went to
966
01:18:48.300 --> 01:18:54.380
Timberline and then I just I really struggled with I really struggled so you got baptized when
967
01:18:54.380 --> 01:19:00.220
you weren't really quite sure yeah and I think I was trying to do it because I thought it would
968
01:19:00.220 --> 01:19:07.340
be important to like give my children a foundation yeah um but it just wasn't it wasn't that
969
01:19:09.100 --> 01:19:15.420
you haven't rejected Jesus necessarily well so where I was I just I was trying to do what I
970
01:19:15.420 --> 01:19:21.820
thought was right right but then I started realizing that a lot of the people in church were I did not
971
01:19:21.900 --> 01:19:27.340
I was not the same as them like the way they talked and they were like oh my goodness we're just
972
01:19:27.340 --> 01:19:32.060
it was so like you had to be this perfect human being to be Christian and I was like I can't do
973
01:19:32.060 --> 01:19:38.220
that and I have tattoos everywhere I mean you saw it yeah yeah and I cuss like a sailor in my normal
974
01:19:38.220 --> 01:19:44.620
like I have a pot of well fuck that I know and I felt like I couldn't be that person which is
975
01:19:44.620 --> 01:19:49.260
probably spent some time together because I go to church I proclaim and I cuss and I've smoked
976
01:19:49.260 --> 01:19:55.580
joints sometimes on the podcast but I never saw those and I never saw those people yeah yeah
977
01:19:55.580 --> 01:20:00.300
yeah I get it because I've experienced a lot of yeah like I've definitely there was like there's
978
01:20:00.300 --> 01:20:05.260
a good mind that's one of my best friends today that was when Jill and I were volunteering for youth
979
01:20:05.260 --> 01:20:11.980
group at Mountain View which is right next door over there um he was a recovering Catholic at that
980
01:20:11.980 --> 01:20:18.380
time uh but eventually became like literally one of our strongest Bible knowledge pastors
981
01:20:18.380 --> 01:20:23.580
just poured himself into it and he's like this years ago like when we was first legalized it's like
982
01:20:23.580 --> 01:20:29.980
I'm just kind of like trying to reconcile like being a person of faith and like
983
01:20:31.740 --> 01:20:37.340
regularly consuming marijuana yeah oh my son who's 22 says god put it here right well that's kind
984
01:20:37.340 --> 01:20:46.620
of where I'm at honestly like and and and and is it appropriate for me as something that claims
985
01:20:46.620 --> 01:20:54.380
to follow Christ and and believe in God that to be abusive of it no right you know can I have a
986
01:20:54.380 --> 01:21:04.300
puff down here in there yeah yeah um and so anyway I'd encourage you to um explore the truth
987
01:21:04.300 --> 01:21:09.740
more than the church yeah um and even I've met with a lot of people in this podcast and otherwise
988
01:21:09.740 --> 01:21:14.380
that aren't part of an organized church because they can't get over the hypocrisy that they see
989
01:21:14.460 --> 01:21:22.940
sometimes and like they know something created this ball of life in the middle of a apparently
990
01:21:22.940 --> 01:21:29.740
damn near empty universe and whatever else like whatever that that unmoved mover is so well certainly
991
01:21:29.740 --> 01:21:36.860
after so I had kind of walked away from from a walked away from it for a while and then after
992
01:21:36.860 --> 01:21:43.660
my dad passed um sorry I kind of jumped in there no that's okay no no it's okay but that
993
01:21:44.620 --> 01:21:51.340
that yeah really changed things for me because I go well and I started having a lot a lot of
994
01:21:51.340 --> 01:21:59.180
experiences that I still I think sometimes people will say well you know you missed him and you were
995
01:21:59.180 --> 01:22:03.980
trying to see what you wanted to see or hear it was more like hear what you want to hear um and
996
01:22:03.980 --> 01:22:10.140
I'm like I just don't think so I think my dad was really trying to let me know that he was still
997
01:22:10.220 --> 01:22:17.340
there and it was okay and so here's a perfect example he so after he passed the boat that he had
998
01:22:18.140 --> 01:22:25.900
I inherited okay and I had it kept it for six years we took it out almost every weekend in the
999
01:22:25.900 --> 01:22:32.220
summer on the reservoir and then at some point I decided it was time to sell it it was getting
1000
01:22:32.220 --> 01:22:37.900
older and so we sold it which was a really difficult decision right because it's part of dad well
1001
01:22:37.900 --> 01:22:45.980
and he he drowned oh shoot the boat yeah oh shit and so that boat had so much sentimental meaning
1002
01:22:45.980 --> 01:22:54.940
for me wow and so it was it was extremely hard but I was like I knew he left it for me because he
1003
01:22:54.940 --> 01:23:01.500
wanted me to carry that legacy of boating on for me and my kids which I do and my my kids love
1004
01:23:01.500 --> 01:23:07.420
boating and so it came time that I was like okay we just need to sell it and then you know so we
1005
01:23:07.420 --> 01:23:13.500
last year we got a new boat we might have been two summers ago but anyway one day we're driving
1006
01:23:13.500 --> 01:23:19.020
in the place where we park it over off crossroads and we're going to back it in and pull it in our
1007
01:23:19.020 --> 01:23:25.340
space and as we're driving down the center aisle I look over and I almost like like felt the sick
1008
01:23:25.340 --> 01:23:32.540
feeling because my dad's boat is now literally parked across from our boat and I really think it was
1009
01:23:33.420 --> 01:23:40.460
it's it's I really think that my the spirit of my dad is always trying to let me know that he's
1010
01:23:40.460 --> 01:23:48.540
still here in some in some way and so I I will never deny that I have great spirituality strength
1011
01:23:48.540 --> 01:23:56.060
and and belief and faith in I just don't know what what I don't know what and I am kind of a
1012
01:23:56.060 --> 01:24:01.340
how can any of us really know unless you put all of your faith into this one symbol or this one
1013
01:24:01.340 --> 01:24:06.460
booker this one and that's where I struggle yeah well and that's I definitely feel you there I've
1014
01:24:06.460 --> 01:24:12.140
I've described it on this podcast before so some will be bored but for me I feel like everybody
1015
01:24:12.140 --> 01:24:18.620
the world has kind of always had a blurry view of what God really is sure and the clearest view
1016
01:24:18.620 --> 01:24:24.620
that we have of his nature is probably from Jesus because it's just he said a lot of things and
1017
01:24:24.620 --> 01:24:29.020
he wrote down like right after and stuff it doesn't seem like copycat and stuff like the Muhammad
1018
01:24:29.020 --> 01:24:36.460
stuff you know and with a twist and and look at the fruit right you know and told me I'd just
1019
01:24:36.460 --> 01:24:41.660
encourage to explore that a little bit more yeah yeah yeah and uh and no pressure on no judgment
1020
01:24:41.660 --> 01:24:45.980
either no it would be nice to come back to a place of feeling like I know exactly and I feel
1021
01:24:45.980 --> 01:24:53.340
really rooted in something I think it was also even for me hard to lose my dad that way because
1022
01:24:53.340 --> 01:25:00.140
it didn't make sense it didn't make sense and there's still no answer which is really you kind
1023
01:25:00.140 --> 01:25:05.580
of go back to a response much like your parents response when they lost their boy yeah yeah yeah
1024
01:25:05.580 --> 01:25:12.380
and uh so I don't know yeah and my dad always had we always had music and common my dad was a singer
1025
01:25:12.380 --> 01:25:18.700
my dad was a very talented singer and I remember being five years old and singing on a stage with him
1026
01:25:18.700 --> 01:25:24.060
and um so we always had this love of music and common and after he passed away there would be
1027
01:25:24.060 --> 01:25:29.420
songs that we would have like saying together they you know like Linda Ron stat blue by right
1028
01:25:29.420 --> 01:25:33.820
we would sing that karaoke together sometimes yeah and I'd be standing in Starbucks and there's
1029
01:25:33.820 --> 01:25:40.700
all this progressive music playing and then all of a sudden Linda Ron stat blue by you comes on
1030
01:25:40.700 --> 01:25:47.980
and I'm like daddy wait wait a minute um I'm gonna flash back to the family category for a minute
1031
01:25:47.980 --> 01:25:52.780
and give you just a few minutes to talk about your dad and in your mom a little bit too if you want
1032
01:25:52.780 --> 01:25:57.260
but it's obvious that your dad is like your big hero in life he was my big hero in life yeah
1033
01:25:57.340 --> 01:26:05.100
definitely it was uh yeah it was very um growing up anything I I did I had whatever my dad did
1034
01:26:05.100 --> 01:26:09.980
I was right next to him so if he was fishing I was fishing if he was you know out cleaning the boat
1035
01:26:09.980 --> 01:26:14.940
I was out cleaning the boat and so we were kind of two peas in a pod and um I was always very close
1036
01:26:14.940 --> 01:26:21.420
to my mom too but I was definitely a daddy's girl and until I got into high school and then I
1037
01:26:21.420 --> 01:26:26.060
remember my mom would always cover for me when I would like break her few or like I came home drunk
1038
01:26:26.220 --> 01:26:32.060
one time after prom and I drank too much and I was sick and my mom came in the bathroom and she was
1039
01:26:32.060 --> 01:26:39.580
just like I am not gonna tell your father about this but you better get to bed so my mom is like
1040
01:26:39.580 --> 01:26:46.140
I definitely it's funny because I'm very much like my dad in one way and in some ways like the
1041
01:26:46.140 --> 01:26:53.660
kind of sassy cussing person I get from my mom for sure and so very close with both of my parents
1042
01:26:54.300 --> 01:27:01.500
my my sister lives near my sister now they kind of live together in Arizona but um yeah like my
1043
01:27:01.500 --> 01:27:07.580
relationship with him was was amazing and uh so was this like a maybe it's stirring up or maybe
1044
01:27:07.580 --> 01:27:15.020
it's cathartic but did your dad like get run over by a boat or no so no yeah so when I
1045
01:27:16.620 --> 01:27:22.540
when I left and moved to California at 22 my parents retired and they built their dream home
1046
01:27:22.540 --> 01:27:28.700
on taberock lake in Missouri where I well I grew up near taberock lake yeah so um like a dream home
1047
01:27:28.700 --> 01:27:37.020
basically yeah it was beautiful log home like just stunning just stunning and um we had boated
1048
01:27:37.020 --> 01:27:41.340
my whole life I mean I don't remember not ever boating from the time I was a real little kid
1049
01:27:41.340 --> 01:27:48.540
and so they were living their dream life and my dad was always a what I would I would
1050
01:27:49.260 --> 01:27:56.940
call a high functioning alcoholic um and I think as he got older so when he was still working it was
1051
01:27:56.940 --> 01:28:00.860
like during the week he'd come home and he'd have a beer and then I'd go to bed but then after
1052
01:28:00.860 --> 01:28:05.820
retirement there's like no reason not to have another one yeah so he was more of a week in warrior
1053
01:28:05.820 --> 01:28:11.580
when he was working and then on the weekends you know it was like party time um and then when he
1054
01:28:11.580 --> 01:28:18.620
retired it was just it seemed to get heavier and more um and the day that he passed him my mom
1055
01:28:18.620 --> 01:28:23.740
were out with their best friends they had been boating all day long my mom had said he was scheduled
1056
01:28:23.740 --> 01:28:30.460
to have a stress test on his heart two days after he passed because he had been he was the guy that
1057
01:28:30.460 --> 01:28:35.740
would stay outside for like five hours and work on his landscaping and work on the the logs and
1058
01:28:35.740 --> 01:28:40.860
just perfecting had the most beautiful lawn everywhere they lived and she said he would come
1059
01:28:40.860 --> 01:28:45.900
in after like 45 minutes kind of profusely sweating and out of breath and yeah so they were
1060
01:28:45.900 --> 01:28:51.900
concerned that something was going on with his heart he had had a stint put in in late 40s and so
1061
01:28:52.860 --> 01:28:57.740
the only thing we can so anyway they went on this long boat ride and they were going to have lunch
1062
01:28:57.740 --> 01:29:03.980
at this this place on the other end of the lake and they docked and the women walked up my mom and
1063
01:29:03.980 --> 01:29:09.820
her best friend walked up and then my dad and his friend Chuck stayed down to tie the boat to the
1064
01:29:09.820 --> 01:29:15.900
dock and Chuck remembers hearing a splash but didn't pay any attention to it and then realized
1065
01:29:16.620 --> 01:29:22.940
once he was done tying up that like my dad wasn't there and so he had probably had a heart attack
1066
01:29:22.940 --> 01:29:32.220
fallen on the boat yeah and so um so he gets in the water starts kind of screaming for help and
1067
01:29:32.220 --> 01:29:36.220
after some time I think it'd been about five minutes um there was a 17 year old I still don't
1068
01:29:36.220 --> 01:29:40.220
know who this is um I just haven't gone down that road yet but I think eventually I'll
1069
01:29:40.220 --> 01:29:46.060
look into it once I once I'm better to deal with it but he was in the restaurant eating and he was
1070
01:29:46.060 --> 01:29:52.940
a swimmer yeah and so he dove in the lake and managed to find because lake water so much right
1071
01:29:52.940 --> 01:30:01.180
right anything so he managed to find my dad and and drug him up out of the water and so they
1072
01:30:01.980 --> 01:30:08.540
tried CPR they did CPR and at one point they revived him well and he was kind of alert and doing
1073
01:30:08.540 --> 01:30:15.100
okay and they got the air flight they airlifted him to the hotel and we got the call about
1074
01:30:15.100 --> 01:30:19.820
seven p.m. in the evening I got it for my sister and she was hyster- whoops sorry she was hysterical
1075
01:30:19.820 --> 01:30:24.700
and um I kind of cussed her out because I think I was in shock and denial a little bit and I was
1076
01:30:24.700 --> 01:30:30.220
like what are you talking about and so um long story short I left on a plane at three a.m.
1077
01:30:30.220 --> 01:30:36.780
the next morning to go fly to Springfield Missouri where they had taken him and they had
1078
01:30:39.260 --> 01:30:44.700
put him in an intentional coma so that we could get there and then we had about five minutes
1079
01:30:44.700 --> 01:30:51.340
with him and before he passed but I think that he knew I was there I climbed up on the bed with
1080
01:30:51.340 --> 01:30:57.500
him and I was just calmly whispering in his ear that it was okay which is crazy because losing
1081
01:30:57.500 --> 01:31:04.220
your you know your person I took it totally out of being about me and wanted him to know that it
1082
01:31:04.220 --> 01:31:09.020
was okay because they had said there was no way he was gonna come back from that and he had drowned
1083
01:31:09.020 --> 01:31:13.100
and so they had tried doing test on the brain the heart but if the body is flooded they just can't
1084
01:31:13.100 --> 01:31:19.020
say exactly what happened and so I was just like it's it's okay we're here we made it you can go
1085
01:31:19.020 --> 01:31:27.740
and so he passed very quickly after that and um you know it I after word I took the approach of
1086
01:31:29.420 --> 01:31:35.260
I really felt like it was in a weird way kind of like it was meant to be because like he would
1087
01:31:35.260 --> 01:31:41.100
it he didn't typically boat that late in the year September 25th when he passed typically labor day
1088
01:31:41.100 --> 01:31:47.820
was the big last boating weekend and there were a lot of weird things um you know the heart the
1089
01:31:47.900 --> 01:31:52.540
stress test that he was gonna get done and so I think there was probably a heart attack or a stroke
1090
01:31:52.540 --> 01:31:58.940
or something that happened but it's hard not knowing um it really did a number on my sister for a
1091
01:31:58.940 --> 01:32:05.980
long time she was really messed up about it so I I think I I kind of gave it over gave it over in a
1092
01:32:05.980 --> 01:32:12.300
way that it was it was his time to go yeah yeah so that's faith right there yeah it really is
1093
01:32:12.300 --> 01:32:19.100
honestly yeah so yeah oh we go to the crossing it's uh shields and horse tooth 10 a.m. on
1094
01:32:19.100 --> 01:32:25.660
sundays it's right up the lake is right there afterwards oh yeah yeah what's it called the crossing
1095
01:32:25.660 --> 01:32:30.380
is the church that we go to is that on what the street is that on uh it's across from the
1096
01:32:30.380 --> 01:32:37.020
Hibachi steakhouse oh yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah just a kind of a whatever but it's full of like me and
1097
01:32:37.020 --> 01:32:42.140
jill are old people there it's so full of young people and their babies and marriages and it's
1098
01:32:42.140 --> 01:32:48.140
just cool to be part of a vibrant growing young church yeah yeah so let me yeah yeah thank you I
1099
01:32:48.140 --> 01:32:55.580
like that I just I didn't like the feel before where yeah you know just everybody was like well it's
1100
01:32:55.580 --> 01:32:59.740
easier for me because I don't care what anybody thinks about me yeah yeah well and so like I'm
1101
01:32:59.740 --> 01:33:03.500
actually a baby but I was gonna say because I'm a so I don't know if you know anything about the
1102
01:33:03.500 --> 01:33:11.260
anyogram yeah what are you I'm a three oh yeah seven achievers I'm a maverick a seven eight oh yeah
1103
01:33:11.260 --> 01:33:18.220
yeah that's what well that's funny that's what um my ex-husband was seven but Matt is a seven eight
1104
01:33:18.220 --> 01:33:22.940
okay that's a seven eight I think no wonder why you like me he hasn't fully taken the test
1105
01:33:22.940 --> 01:33:29.980
yet but I'm guessing no I do I like house conversations I think it's great let's uh let's jump
1106
01:33:29.980 --> 01:33:37.340
on to happier thoughts and go to politics oh well that's a that's a fun one so I I will be
1107
01:33:37.340 --> 01:33:41.900
completely transparent that I don't know enough about politics to have super deep conversations
1108
01:33:41.900 --> 01:33:53.820
about them fair I have always kind of fallen more to the side of liberalism simply because I am
1109
01:33:53.820 --> 01:34:04.300
the type of person that wants things to be fair for everyone um I have my yeah so in my
1110
01:34:04.300 --> 01:34:09.980
relationships in my relationships in the past that was a point of tension often you're like yoga
1111
01:34:09.980 --> 01:34:18.140
girl I am real girl and you put your effect to these manly men conservative leaning yeah what's
1112
01:34:18.540 --> 01:34:30.380
well because they're right uh they like girls who care um no I'm I'm a dirty libertarian so I'm
1113
01:34:30.380 --> 01:34:35.820
kind of like the worst of both worlds or the best of both worlds if you will yeah you know and a lot
1114
01:34:35.820 --> 01:34:42.380
of people say oh I know think what you will about Trump but he did great things for our economy
1115
01:34:42.380 --> 01:34:46.620
and I am more of a humanitarian and the fact that I'm like I don't give a shit what he did
1116
01:34:46.620 --> 01:34:53.740
he also didn't start any wars he didn't start any wars but he also I will say I will never call
1117
01:34:53.740 --> 01:35:01.900
myself like a you know you don't have to crazy you know crazy feminist or anything but the way
1118
01:35:01.900 --> 01:35:07.420
he talks and has treated women that that is something that is just yeah he's disturbing I would
1119
01:35:07.420 --> 01:35:11.340
never want him to be in a room with my sister for no and I'm like you're supposed to run the
1120
01:35:11.340 --> 01:35:15.180
country and I'm sorry the country is actually made up of a lot of women too like you know so
1121
01:35:15.180 --> 01:35:20.220
that's where I struggle I think if we were to have any amazing president in my opinion Michelle
1122
01:35:20.220 --> 01:35:25.820
Obama would be a fantastic president okay I loved Obama I thought he was trying to do some really
1123
01:35:25.820 --> 01:35:32.700
good things um you know health care sometimes hits or miss right I think right now yeah the health
1124
01:35:32.700 --> 01:35:38.380
care that is created is not better really unfortunately it's not better and I know everybody makes
1125
01:35:38.380 --> 01:35:45.820
the joke that like it can Biden still even like have sane same mind of what he's talking about
1126
01:35:45.820 --> 01:35:50.380
and I hear all those things that I get I do get all of them I think at the end of the day for me I'm
1127
01:35:50.380 --> 01:35:55.820
trying to when I think about politics like you know Matt and I I'll never forget this I could never
1128
01:35:55.820 --> 01:36:01.660
talk about politics with my ex because we were so radically different that like it became an argument
1129
01:36:01.660 --> 01:36:05.820
and one of the things I loved about Matt even though he's he falls more on the Republican side
1130
01:36:06.300 --> 01:36:11.820
um we sat down and he was like do you want to vote together and I was like what like you mean
1131
01:36:11.820 --> 01:36:17.340
you want to read all these things together and we did and it was really cool and he was okay for
1132
01:36:17.340 --> 01:36:22.780
you voting the other way than what he was yeah yeah and in the end we like convinced each other
1133
01:36:22.780 --> 01:36:26.860
of some of the smaller things you know they were voting on that like but but what about this what
1134
01:36:26.860 --> 01:36:30.460
about this and it was a really really cool conversation and that was one of the things I was like wow
1135
01:36:30.460 --> 01:36:34.860
if I can talk about money and politics with you because I couldn't do that before right that's
1136
01:36:34.860 --> 01:36:39.660
a huge bonus because a lot of people can't talk about politics and money with their spouses so great
1137
01:36:39.660 --> 01:36:46.620
I saw a good meme from the Babylon B a couple days ago and it was uh congress fears that if new funding
1138
01:36:46.620 --> 01:36:55.820
is not approved for Ukraine that the work would end what I mean we don't want the war to end so
1139
01:36:55.820 --> 01:37:03.180
we know why would we want that to happen so you saw my big ambulance out here by the way I did
1140
01:37:03.260 --> 01:37:09.500
so that's been nicknamed tank okay and I'm my plan as of now is to have a silhouetted
1141
01:37:10.060 --> 01:37:16.620
tank on this side of it yeah um with coming out of the barrel like the old bang yeah yeah yeah
1142
01:37:16.620 --> 01:37:23.820
the banner kind of yeah I was gonna do uh make commerce not war um but I I gotta suggest it
1143
01:37:23.820 --> 01:37:30.700
over the weekend that was a bill do not destroy oh I love that and and that's like the most like
1144
01:37:30.700 --> 01:37:37.660
it actually affects the GDP in a positive way when you use a bomb to blow up a school in Afghanistan
1145
01:37:37.660 --> 01:37:42.060
right right right that isn't right that isn't that isn't building humanity that's
1146
01:37:42.060 --> 01:37:48.220
minusing humanity so anyway I've been yeah and maybe I'm just innocent I don't think that China
1147
01:37:48.220 --> 01:37:53.580
and Russia represent a threat to the world if we quit being such a big swing and dick I agree
1148
01:37:53.580 --> 01:37:57.660
like why do we think we're just so amazing I mean how long is it gonna take for people are like
1149
01:37:57.660 --> 01:38:04.380
we're kind of sick of your shit right well about 20 years ago um pretty much like 23 years ago
1150
01:38:04.380 --> 01:38:08.780
to be exact well and like we buy everything from them we buy everything well and like when you do
1151
01:38:08.780 --> 01:38:14.940
a Ukraine military bill for $65 million it's like here you crane here's your 65 million you can
1152
01:38:14.940 --> 01:38:22.460
use it to buy 65 million worth of war equipment from us yeah consulting whatever else it's like okay
1153
01:38:22.540 --> 01:38:27.900
well yeah yeah anyway you know it's funny I used to for a long time and it's interesting it was
1154
01:38:29.260 --> 01:38:32.540
when I worked at safe belt maybe it was because I was working kind of in a government sphere
1155
01:38:32.540 --> 01:38:36.540
right I would watch the news in the morning and I felt a lot more in tune with all the different
1156
01:38:36.540 --> 01:38:43.180
things going on and now I'm in this space where my life feels really well I know where the cool
1157
01:38:43.180 --> 01:38:51.660
restaurants are like I just want to go connect with good people yeah you know and so I find myself
1158
01:38:51.660 --> 01:38:57.580
waking up in the morning and not really wanting to put the TV on anymore yeah I like coffee and I
1159
01:38:57.580 --> 01:39:02.380
do my thing and it might mean that I end up being ignorant over some things which I'm okay with
1160
01:39:02.380 --> 01:39:08.700
that if I don't know the crazy being annoyed yeah yeah you know and a lot of the things once you're
1161
01:39:09.740 --> 01:39:14.700
you know I've never understood all the things in politics like when you know you sit and watch
1162
01:39:14.700 --> 01:39:19.900
some of the news and some of the things going on I'm like what does that mean so I'm like I'm
1163
01:39:19.900 --> 01:39:23.500
never going to be the smartest person in the room when it comes to politics but I know what I feel
1164
01:39:23.500 --> 01:39:29.740
and I know what what I wish for for our country which is like which is such a liberate you know
1165
01:39:29.740 --> 01:39:37.420
liberal thing to say like I want people here to be treated well now do I want it to be okay
1166
01:39:37.420 --> 01:39:41.420
that we're paying taxes for people who come over illegally no I don't agree with that I don't
1167
01:39:41.420 --> 01:39:48.780
think that's fair but you know so so I'm not I'm not like all lovey-dovey and feely you know I want
1168
01:39:48.780 --> 01:39:54.060
what's right for a country but I also don't want you know it to be like put a big advantage of
1169
01:39:54.060 --> 01:39:59.500
or lose our meritocracy right right right that's a really dangerous threat right now like this
1170
01:39:59.500 --> 01:40:05.100
like Harvard's dick and buy this cludding gagal after she was a terrible anti-submitting her
1171
01:40:05.100 --> 01:40:14.060
answers to congress what happened oh she the Harvard president like her and Penn and MIT like all
1172
01:40:14.140 --> 01:40:21.900
basically said it's okay for our students to create an anti-Jewish environment on the campus
1173
01:40:21.900 --> 01:40:27.020
because they're just exercising like it's okay for them to threaten freedom of speech yeah yeah
1174
01:40:27.020 --> 01:40:33.660
and they do this in congress when and whatever and then nothing really happened it just kind of
1175
01:40:33.660 --> 01:40:38.780
happened Harvard's board stood behind this gal and then the internet started digging into her
1176
01:40:38.780 --> 01:40:46.060
and it turned out like nine or four eleven papers had significant plagiarism oh my gosh and she
1177
01:40:46.060 --> 01:40:51.820
was like one fourth as qualified as the average Harvard president before her but she happened to be
1178
01:40:51.820 --> 01:40:57.820
a black lady so it was good until he still stood behind her for a while now but she's not the
1179
01:40:57.820 --> 01:41:01.740
president anymore she's just a seven hundred thousand dollar a year nine hundred thousand dollar
1180
01:41:01.740 --> 01:41:07.260
your professor wow she's still there even though she committed significant plagiarism and
1181
01:41:08.460 --> 01:41:16.540
is arguably highly anti-Semitic yeah unbelievable right anyway so yeah well and I've heard that
1182
01:41:17.580 --> 01:41:24.140
there are now schools trying to or parents parents trying to get past that their kids
1183
01:41:24.780 --> 01:41:31.340
yeah use litter boxes or something ridiculous like that is that real oh yeah it's like what's
1184
01:41:31.420 --> 01:41:36.140
that's something wrong with the parents there's so much that's parenting that's really back to stop
1185
01:41:36.140 --> 01:41:40.780
like and we don't have a time to know this is all this is all the global warming
1186
01:41:40.780 --> 01:41:48.460
narratives fault in a lot of ways because women girls aren't valuing themselves as much as they
1187
01:41:48.460 --> 01:41:52.700
used to because we don't value the babies we need to value the babies yeah because I got to go
1188
01:41:52.700 --> 01:41:59.020
through this other crap there's other hard stuff yeah and if you don't value the babies then
1189
01:41:59.020 --> 01:42:03.100
why would I go through all that hard stuff I'll just turn into a boy yeah or have a girlfriend yeah
1190
01:42:03.100 --> 01:42:12.540
or be a furry right be a furry yeah right which is just it's hard for me I mean I I like to
1191
01:42:13.980 --> 01:42:19.980
I see we're almost time up for time here but like I see that um you know some people are like I don't
1192
01:42:19.980 --> 01:42:28.300
quite identify this way or that way okay um okay but like when you've got I don't know I don't
1193
01:42:28.300 --> 01:42:33.020
maybe I'm afraid to go yeah I've got some fans that that might offend no I'm you know I've
1194
01:42:33.020 --> 01:42:39.340
and I've got a lot of friends actually right now who's who's girls were girls and now they're
1195
01:42:39.340 --> 01:42:45.500
they themselves and some have had top surgery some of yeah have gone farther and I just think
1196
01:42:45.500 --> 01:42:51.020
the tragedy it's it's like one thing like if you're if you're girls are the best woman 30 and you
1197
01:42:51.020 --> 01:42:56.380
still feel that way but right when when it's happening with like when you're 15 when you're 15
1198
01:42:56.380 --> 01:43:02.220
no I'm sorry I think when I was 15 oh my god not that I thought about that kind of stuff but
1199
01:43:02.220 --> 01:43:07.660
I had no idea who I was at 15 I was a little tiny guy like I was trying to get boy to like me I was
1200
01:43:07.660 --> 01:43:15.180
like right well I so I my situation I went to seventh grade as a four foot 11 hundred and eight
1201
01:43:15.180 --> 01:43:20.620
pound person oh you're tiny and at the end of I was curt the squirt and at the end of tenth grade
1202
01:43:20.620 --> 01:43:26.620
I was a five foot one a hundred and twenty pound person wow so I was still tiny and I was depressed
1203
01:43:26.620 --> 01:43:32.860
and I was like just felt so and I was suicidal a little bit in those years for a while like I
1204
01:43:32.860 --> 01:43:36.940
remember thinking after this football season maybe I'll think about it you know I never really
1205
01:43:36.940 --> 01:43:42.300
got deep into it because I love football season that much more yeah yeah but but I got down you
1206
01:43:42.300 --> 01:43:50.300
know and and you know then I got tall and I got I was always smart I got handsome yeah later like
1207
01:43:50.300 --> 01:43:55.660
30 like I was pretty eaten homely when my wife picked me up you know and we do we go through so many
1208
01:43:55.660 --> 01:44:03.820
things I mean I went through I went through seven years of an eating disorder off and on and I
1209
01:44:03.820 --> 01:44:08.860
think for women it especially hard and I wasn't even a woman yet it was big or skinny but like you
1210
01:44:08.860 --> 01:44:14.140
were eating too much or not oh not enough not enough yeah yeah I was kind of both and that was
1211
01:44:14.140 --> 01:44:18.700
a psychological thing and that was huge back then that was right it's the same kind of thing going
1212
01:44:18.700 --> 01:44:24.140
on now with the furries and the right right right and I remember everybody not everybody that's an
1213
01:44:24.140 --> 01:44:31.980
exaggeration in generalization but a lot of girls in middle school high school early college were
1214
01:44:32.940 --> 01:44:37.420
you know taking laxatives not eating making sauce throw up doing all these things and it was kind
1215
01:44:37.420 --> 01:44:42.700
of but that was also during the Kate Moss phase right where everything you saw in the media was
1216
01:44:42.700 --> 01:44:49.020
be skinny be skinny be as small as you can do you want a controversial question yeah so I've got
1217
01:44:49.020 --> 01:44:54.940
a I've got a friend that has a theory that one of the reasons that the world is that crazy now is
1218
01:44:54.940 --> 01:45:03.180
partly because women are so feelings driven and they vote that way as well and like these things
1219
01:45:03.180 --> 01:45:09.420
that we've talked about the anorexia bulimia and now frankly much more concentrated in depression
1220
01:45:09.980 --> 01:45:16.300
trans expectations things suicide as way huge it always used to be all the boys and now it's girls
1221
01:45:17.020 --> 01:45:24.060
like do you think he's got a point like I like we're not going to take the right away from women to
1222
01:45:24.060 --> 01:45:30.460
vote but like just no charge for women to be more intentionally logical and less feelings driven
1223
01:45:30.940 --> 01:45:34.860
I think it's a I think it's a generalization but I think that there could be some truth
1224
01:45:34.860 --> 01:45:40.700
to that generalization because women are communicators right and communicating to some
1225
01:45:40.700 --> 01:45:46.620
they're just not about a feeling right so it's it's this bidirectional like you give and you receive
1226
01:45:46.620 --> 01:45:52.140
you've given you receive and I think a lot when you think about men again another generalization
1227
01:45:52.140 --> 01:45:56.860
is like we don't give and receive we do we just like if we're upset we're going to go play
1228
01:45:56.860 --> 01:46:00.860
basketball or we're going to go right whatever the thing might be so I do think
1229
01:46:01.980 --> 01:46:06.940
there's some truth to it but I do think it's also part generalization because I know some women who are
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01:46:09.740 --> 01:46:15.820
fierce in nature and make all of their decisions based on logic and you know they're very
1231
01:46:15.820 --> 01:46:22.140
analytical and they in a lot of the women in my in the scout guide group like when I because we
1232
01:46:22.140 --> 01:46:26.220
get together once a month like with a nice group and you know sometimes when we have these
1233
01:46:26.220 --> 01:46:33.660
conversations you can definitely differentiate between the ones who are like who was like I just
1234
01:46:33.660 --> 01:46:38.220
felt so this or that the other and the others who were like sitting back and just a kind of
1235
01:46:38.220 --> 01:46:44.460
observing and you can tell that they're they're processing right right so well and confessional I'm
1236
01:46:44.460 --> 01:46:49.580
probably much more feelings driven than the average man which is a super power arguably
1237
01:46:49.580 --> 01:46:56.700
of mine yeah and so probably why you're so good at this because you you know the questions to ask
1238
01:46:56.700 --> 01:47:01.740
that make the conversation feel very natural and back and forth where it's like so Matt interesting
1239
01:47:01.740 --> 01:47:05.980
story before we end here when I first met him when I first started working at Safe Belt we went
1240
01:47:05.980 --> 01:47:13.260
through this like sales training thing at Embassy Suites and I was sitting in between him and he
1241
01:47:13.260 --> 01:47:21.420
was the COO and I was sitting neck him and the CEO okay and which was Mike or not Mike at that
1242
01:47:21.420 --> 01:47:28.220
not Mike at that time it was Greg Toath at the time and so we had to take this so this wonderful
1243
01:47:28.220 --> 01:47:33.260
woman calling Stanley do you know her don't she's fascinating she's really interesting you strike
1244
01:47:33.260 --> 01:47:38.540
she she has books written and I run the podcast she does sales yeah sales leadership she had us do
1245
01:47:38.540 --> 01:47:45.740
this like emotional intelligence quiz and then we got a whole book back and so on the last page of
1246
01:47:45.740 --> 01:47:52.140
the book was this bar graph of like where your strengths are right and my emotional intelligence is
1247
01:47:52.140 --> 01:47:57.020
extremely high like I was like top of the bar and almost everything and I'm so we're looking at this
1248
01:47:57.020 --> 01:48:01.660
and she comes over and at that time I was just managing the proposal team and she goes why are you
1249
01:48:01.660 --> 01:48:08.060
in proposals you should be doing something but then she looks over him and which caused me to kind
1250
01:48:08.060 --> 01:48:15.740
of look over and their empathy scores were like Matt's where yeah which I think is fascinating
1251
01:48:15.740 --> 01:48:23.660
and Greg yeah fascinating because Matt's actually very empathetic but I think in his work environment
1252
01:48:23.660 --> 01:48:27.820
yeah I think he has these he's got a developed trait of being able to shut that off so he can just
1253
01:48:27.820 --> 01:48:32.780
make rational decisions kind of right so in that compartment right compartmentalizes it out it's
1254
01:48:32.780 --> 01:48:36.860
a work environment so he's answering like he would a business person yeah yeah and I was like wow
1255
01:48:36.860 --> 01:48:43.180
women not all I can't generalize but me I don't answer that way I answer how I feel maturity at the time
1256
01:48:43.180 --> 01:48:52.700
not how I am yeah yeah well and I yeah probably that's true also that men have kind of a work
1257
01:48:52.700 --> 01:48:58.380
mode and a not work mode more in some ways because they know that if they're at home and they're
1258
01:48:58.380 --> 01:49:03.100
just always in work mode they're not gonna connect with the woman very good they will have one
1259
01:49:03.340 --> 01:49:09.340
right not for log yeah yeah sometimes I hear Matt on calls and all like walk by and I'll be like
1260
01:49:13.740 --> 01:49:18.700
you know that he's doing what he's got to do to like yeah good enough the charge so yeah well let's
1261
01:49:19.580 --> 01:49:24.460
let's wrap it up with the low co-experience the your craziest experience that you're willing to
1262
01:49:24.460 --> 01:49:29.420
share my crazy experience oh my gosh wow I was from anytime in your lifetime so
1263
01:49:29.740 --> 01:49:38.380
could be a moment a week a month I don't know tell me about this well if you want to or maybe it's
1264
01:49:38.380 --> 01:49:45.180
part of it the random trip to California when you're 18 and coming back yeah so that was crazy that
1265
01:49:45.180 --> 01:49:54.380
was definitely crazy so I had graduated and my friend Connie and I decided that we were just
1266
01:49:54.380 --> 01:49:57.580
gonna take off and go to California and we were gonna be beach bombs and we were gonna like figure
1267
01:49:57.580 --> 01:50:07.420
it out when we got there yeah and so her her mom had this huge jar like you know as tall as that
1268
01:50:08.060 --> 01:50:13.020
that's my clean jar down there yeah it was huge it was bigger more like a water bottle thing
1269
01:50:13.020 --> 01:50:18.780
or whatever her mom had always thrown her change in there we're gonna still moms change
1270
01:50:18.860 --> 01:50:26.300
sure and we're gonna take seal take my silica at work and go get a grand am was a Chevy yeah
1271
01:50:26.300 --> 01:50:31.820
funny actually funny at grand and I said your car is old you need to make sure it's gonna get
1272
01:50:31.820 --> 01:50:37.660
us to California and so she goes and gets it checked out and she's like we're good we're good
1273
01:50:37.660 --> 01:50:46.780
he said my car would make it there so we take this jar in bags of corn and this was okay back
1274
01:50:46.780 --> 01:50:52.460
in the day okay and the grand house like drag it to the back no we took it and like change
1275
01:50:52.460 --> 01:51:01.660
did we get to San Diego I think our first job we got was that like this I could only compare it to
1276
01:51:01.660 --> 01:51:07.580
like like we're gonna be the movies or something or what was your father we just we had a friend
1277
01:51:07.580 --> 01:51:11.980
a friend that was like years older than us but he was like he like had graduated two years
1278
01:51:12.060 --> 01:51:16.860
yeah but he goes we're cute and he's like yeah you come yeah yes and he lived on the beach
1279
01:51:16.860 --> 01:51:22.700
and mission beach surfed every day was like yeah come stay here like a studio apartment or like
1280
01:51:22.700 --> 01:51:29.900
we're coming we're on our way and uh yeah so we drove got all the way to San Diego got jobs like
1281
01:51:29.900 --> 01:51:34.380
you know that place on harmony wahu's it's like a fish taco yeah yeah it was kind of like that
1282
01:51:34.380 --> 01:51:39.420
yeah San Diego and we got these jobs and then we showed up and we're like oh my gosh we have to
1283
01:51:39.420 --> 01:51:46.860
wear these stupid uniforms like absolutely not and so we quit after the first day and so the
1284
01:51:46.860 --> 01:51:53.900
money that we had taken from her mom lasted us for about two weeks and then after that we're like
1285
01:51:53.900 --> 01:51:59.420
this is so stupid and she like all of a sudden like started breaking down like I need to go home
1286
01:51:59.420 --> 01:52:03.980
and got really homesick and so we uh yeah you're like I guess I'm going to
1287
01:52:04.140 --> 01:52:11.340
tacked up and drove back up yeah I think that qualifies yeah that was all part of that like I
1288
01:52:11.340 --> 01:52:16.380
said I went to mizu and then after mizu I was sort of like I need to go find out this is after
1289
01:52:16.380 --> 01:52:24.860
like your first year of mizu yeah yeah so yeah yeah so I you know kind of lived my free bird life
1290
01:52:24.860 --> 01:52:28.540
for a few years there if somebody's listening to this and they want to check out the scout guide
1291
01:52:28.540 --> 01:52:33.740
or contact you do you want to tell them how to find you yes absolutely so um you can always
1292
01:52:33.740 --> 01:52:40.380
reach out to me uh directly via email which is uh shane well sorry it's not shane it's s
1293
01:52:40.380 --> 01:52:47.980
canelius which is c-a-n-i-l-l-a-s at the scout guide.com you can go to my instagram which is t-s-g
1294
01:52:47.980 --> 01:52:54.860
fort callins um like done probably yeah I'm not super active on linkedin instagram's the big one
1295
01:52:54.860 --> 01:53:02.940
and then um if you go to the website uh um the scout guide.com forward slash fort callins you
1296
01:53:02.940 --> 01:53:09.580
can find my website there so yeah all right well this was fun thank you thank you for listening
1297
01:53:09.580 --> 01:53:15.020
to this episode of the loco experience podcast produced and sponsored by loco think tank
1298
01:53:16.620 --> 01:53:22.220
this is your producer alma ariana check out our website at thelecoexperience.com to find all of
1299
01:53:22.220 --> 01:53:28.060
our episodes nominate future guests or leave us a message you can also find us on instagram
1300
01:53:28.140 --> 01:53:33.740
facebook and linkedin at the loco experience to support the show please subscribe and share it
1301
01:53:33.740 --> 01:53:41.020
with your favorite people until next time stay loco