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

My guest today was Cheyney Cornelius, owner and editor of The Scout Guide Fort Collins. The Scout Guide is a visually appealing coffee table kind of book featuring classy storytelling pictorials of gold standard local businesses. It's a franchise concept that has a strong foundation in the southeastern part of the country, but is increasingly spreading west. Shani picked up her first Scout Guide in Bozeman, Montana, and the organization has grown from 82 to 90 established communities in 2023. Shani acquired the Northern Colorado Franchise in the summer of 2023. Venturing out from a long career of making impact with local standout companies, such as OtterBox and SafeBuilt. Shani is also a mother and a fiance, and we explored how her life events shaped her career trajectories. We talked about discernment and crafting the makeup of such a publication or of a local think tank chapter. And we talked about some of the interesting businesses and community impact stories that will be part of this first edition. I'm always amazed by the stories of those who will leave a comfortable six figure income to venture into an entrepreneurial life of uncertainty. Cheyney is an amazing example of that, and I'm certain that you will enjoy, as I did, my conversation with Cheyney Cornelius. Welcome back to the Loco Experience Podcast. My guest today is Cheyney Cornelius, and Cheyney is the creator, I guess, owner and editor of the Fort Collins Scout Guide, or the Scout Guide Fort Collins. Yes, it's the Scout Guide Fort Collins. And um, most people, including myself, not too long ago, have never heard of a Scout Guide, I suspect, around here. Yeah, that's correct. Yep. So, uh, why don't we just start there? What is, what is the Scout Guide? So the Scout Guide, um, overall it's a publication. it's different in a way, though, from most publications that we're used to here in Northern Colorado. And I would argue throughout most of the U. S., typically when people think of a publication, they think of a, You know, a magazine and they think of coupons or a lot more editorial content or window coverings, deck, redo is that sort of thing. Um, and the scout guide was actually created, by two women, Susie and Christy in Charlottesville, Virginia, and they wanted something different. They both were local business owners there and wanted something that was more elevated, something that. was more creative. So less editorial, it's more about the visuals telling a message, beautiful pictures. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. So they decided to start something a little different where, we hire professional photographers. We go and do professional photo shoots which is different. Um, they really like for the advertisers or that what I like to call the community members to be more of the elevated type businesses. So it's kind of a who's who, so to speak, or a who's the best of the best within each market. And so we really try to find those businesses that are, Set the gold standard. And so that's our job and that's why it's called the Scout Guide because each market owner literally goes and scouts each and every business that's in, in it. And we look at it from various different points of view. So customer service, if it's a restaurant, what was the experience like? What is the food like? Um, so you'll like go eat at a restaurant and then not mention anything about Scout Guide. Sometimes. Sometimes I do if I really, really like them. Sometimes I do if I, if it's not the best experience, I just back away slowly and say, yeah, yeah. So it seems a little bit like a coffee table book. Yes, it is. It is. It's a beautiful coffee table book. Um, our design team, which is based out of the headquarters in Charlottesville, they do a fantastic job. So it's, not the shiny thing. used to seeing in magazines. It's a thicker matte paper, right, and it's got, they've got their gold stamp, medallion logo on the front. So it's, it just has a lovely pop to it. It's, it's, um, very Beautiful compared to other things I've seen and how did you come across this thing? Like was you new in your awareness? Yeah, it was brand new and it was actually completely by you know chance I was working a corporate job that I had been doing for about eight years and at that time It was an account manager and a business development rep for a business out in Loveland. And so most of the West states were my region. And so we were a municipal, we did contract services. So building department services. And so, yeah, yep. And so my clients were, municipal clients. And so I went to Bozeman, Montana because that city was one of my clients. And while I was there, I found a Bozeman scout guide in my hotel room and was really impressed with it and just thought how different when I first picked it up, had no idea what it was, carried it around with me for several days and kind of checked out all of the places that it suggested to go to in Bozeman and every place that I went to, yeah, every place that I went to had, um, not only an elevated experience, but a unique, experience and something that was a little outside the box. And so, ended up, yeah, You know, I got back home and I didn't think that I could take it with me, so I left it in the hotel room and and then I liked it so much that I actually got online and paid money to buy one and have it shipped to my house. Now I know I could have just taken the one from the hotel, but I got it in my house and it was about a week later. I looked at the QR code on the back using my phone and realized that it was a franchise opportunity and I was really looking to get into something that Gave me some more creativity in my career. Had you been looking? I had not been looking, but. But you had been bored for a while. I had been, I had been, yeah, bored isn't quite the word. I, there was a, it was, we were owned by private equity and that, that comes with certain pressures. Um, and so I was. Boredom isn't one of those. Well, I guess a little bit. But anxiety over performance and always trying to squeeze every ounce of. Production out of you that yes, that's yes, that's very true. And so, I had years before that I had tried to start my own photography business cause I was always really. Obsessed with photography. I still am. I really love it. I'm very amateur, but I thought I would be good enough. And I actually did some really amazing photos, but it was really difficult to try to start something ground up on my own. Um, and then my fiance and I tried to Start kind of an interior decorating business. got the LLC for it and everything, and, but it just, again, it was that same situation of ground up with no real support underneath me. Right. And you're leaving like a six figure well into six figure job probably, right? Yes. Like, okay, how do I adjust? That's my income from quite a bit to almost nothing for like a few years. Yes. And we were actually putting a bunch of money into, you know, buying equipment and buying things that you would use for, you know, interior decorating and that sort of thing. So, um, I, I wanted to do something of my own. I felt the need to. be an entrepreneur. It was it was very fascinating to me, and I thought it's what ultimately would make me happy. And but, you know, again, the six figure career, the health insurance, retirement, all that it, it is overheld insurance. Yeah, right. And so Um, just kind of gave up on the idea and thought, well, you know, I'll just ride this out. And then, um, whenever I found the scout guide, it was because it was already so established. We're in 90 cities now. At the time we were in 82 cities. So they were already really well known, mostly in the Southeast area. Okay. Um, but we're making their way West. Um, I guess into the cool cities first. Yeah, that's right. That's right. Yeah. And they were, I think. I think that market closed, but they were in San Diego, so they did reach all the way to the West Coast. there's Newport Beach, California, so, so they've slowly moved West. Uh, and so because they were established, they had, you know, they would give you a website, they would build a website for you, they would give you all of the tools and the training to get started. It felt more palatable, like something I could bite off and do. And so I went through the training and July 10th was kind of my very first day where I woke up and I was like, I'm going to go sell this today to somebody. And, uh, it was a little nerve wracking to kind of step out. I had always had a job where I was facing with clients, but not in the same way where, what I was selling was literally. for me, not for a big company, right? Right. Well, and with safehold, especially you're talking about, you know, miss municipalities, you know, exactly. Yes. There's only so many of them, you know, who could be a customer who isn't, there's a lot of difference. And yeah, something like this where there's 3000 small businesses in the region, right? Yeah. And it was exciting for me in that way, because I think for safe built, you know, what I was Um, initially what I was selling were inspection services or plan review services, or being a building official. We, you know, we would essentially contract with them and outsourced in our field, people would go out and do it. And I didn't have a huge passion for that. Not to say that it's a man's world because there are certainly some very strong women that work in that industry, but it wasn't my passion. And so when I found this, when I started really Processing on the fact that I could create a community of people that really care about. Colorado, Fort Collins, especially that really want to advocate and support and lift each other up. That was exciting to me. And obviously, I mean, I've never been a big box chain shopper and I don't really like, you know, I'm not eating an apple because I, I'm, I like the little mom and pop places. Uh, so it was, it was, um, aligned with your values. Yeah. So when, you know, when you and I first rushed against each other, you had a whole bunch of nonprofit leaders, uh, that you were treating to coffee or something at ginger and Baker. And now is that part of like the scout guide strategy guide, like finding some of the amazing nonprofits and helping build connections through the business industry there? Yeah, it certainly is here. So I think when we initially talked, I was explaining a little bit how each market owner kind of has that, you know, we have to. follow Scout Guide brand, so to speak, because at the end of the day, it is still a franchise. But we have that capability or discretion to kind of choose the, the vision for our market. And Northern Colorado is going to be very, very different from Charlottesville, Virginia, Virginia, or Newport beach. Right. So for me, it was kind of what, what is the thing here in Northern Colorado that everybody knows about? I mean, I think everybody could say they know about our beer. Right. We've got enough breweries, but a lot of. people don't understand that we have a ton of amazing nonprofits that do some really great things. And so I was also really good friends with Claire Bouchard. She's a good friend of mine, and she, um, works with the NoCo Foundation. And so I met with her, got a glass of wine. Community Foundation. Yep. Yep. And she, um, said, you know, have you thought about Um, and nonprofits together, you know, alone, they don't have deep pockets to be able to pay for advertising in this kind of publication, but together they might be able to share the cost and get it together. And so I said, I think that's a great idea. And plus of the community of foundation would chip into that. Right? Yes. So yes, The Community Foundation is going to be involved in the guide. They're in the guide. Yeah, I know. Yeah. And we're very excited to have her. She's just a dear friend of mine and I think the world of her. Um, but yeah, so we've got some great, great nonprofits and I chose five of kind of the bigger nonprofits that are, I would say, well recognized in Northern Colorado, but then I wanted to do something to elevate a couple of the smaller nonprofits just to help them get some exposure in their efforts to grow. So, so we've got seven in total. Um, and so we're, we're really focusing on, I'm sure, you know, we were just voted most peaceful place to live Fort Collins. And so our kind of our direction there with the scout guides is yes, we're this amazing peaceful place to live, but there are also. areas of Northern Colorado that aren't thriving, that aren't, you know, aren't living their best lives, essentially. And so that's kind of the message we're trying, trying to push, keeping it uplifting still. But, but, um, no, it was pretty easy to live in Fort Collins and think that it's all, uh, you know, raspberry bushes and, you know, Whatever, but there is a lot of challenge, you know, I think there's what I think there's like several hundred maybe 700 kids that are kind of technically homeless right now. Yeah, yeah. Um, living on couches and in cars sometimes and different things. Yeah. And so we've got the Matthews house in the, in as part of the spread and, they're incredible. They do an amazing thing to help, kids. So I think that's a, that's a big one for us. Gotcha. I wondered how much of the toolkit there was, but mostly it's just, okay, start. Yeah, it really is. I mean, they kind of go through, you know, they, they take you through all of the, the technology, technology stuff. So we have like a CRM database and we've got, you know, the website and we've got social and those sorts of things. Um, and then they go through kind of a sales training and, um, Yeah. A few other things. Some best practices and things. Like how to, how to get best practices if you're finances. Do you get leads or do you have to fill all your own leads by, like, library research and whatever? So the website has an advertise us, advertise with us link. And so I can get leads through that. So essentially those do come through the website, um, but I would say everyone that's in my guide are leads that I've. Directly. You spotted them, hunted them, and killed them. Yeah. Hunted. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. So, um, well, I was just observing to myself how there's some similarities between your business and mine with, with our peer advisory chapters, you know, I, I'm, I'm, I'm an evangelist for this, what I think is a better way to be in business and be the business leader or whatever. It's beneficial. And not you. And not you. Right, right. You know, I've kept it in my pocket a whole bunch of times when I'm having coffee with somebody. Like, um, you know. I don't do anything important. I don't know. Well, usually they know what I do and stuff, but like, they don't ask me if they could be a member. And I don't ask them. Because I know the answer already. Yeah. I've had to. Just give that, that, um, you know, I'm sorry, I don't think it's the right fit explanation before. That's kind of hard because you want to feel really invited to the community. That would be better than not you. I've been using not you for quite a while. Just kidding. Yeah. Not you. Not you. I don't, I don't, I don't say that. That's funny. But it is an interesting thing, right? Like, uh, I don't know if you've been approached by people over the years? I have. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I have. I have. And, and at the end of the day, what I, my first go to is always, what would my. community members think about that business because they all know we've had the same conversation. You are a very elevated business. We are a step up. We are the gold member, right? Right. So I always, that's kind of the first thing I process on is what would my, what would my members think about that business being in there? Um, the restaurant that we were just talking about, the restauranteur, uh, what is it? Ginger and Baker? Well, no, but the, the Asian restaurant, the sushi restaurant. Oh, Japango. Japango. Um, and he's an interesting one because he's not even open, right? Uh, and I don't know if he's already signed up or what, but, you know, he had a very successful sushi restaurant in Boulder for 25 years. Yeah. Had you been there before? Yes. Oh you had? Many times. I used to Oh good, okay. I used to dance with a dance company in Boulder, and so I would drive to Boulder three days a week for rehearsal, and often after rehearsal we would, Go eat. And so he's not just slipping in. He had some due diligence. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So Japan go is one of our local favorites and we loved it there. So it was always really packed. So I'm, and I'm really excited to see them here. Cause the spot that they're at, which is where mainline used to be. And then Rio was there temporarily after their fire. It's huge. Oh man. Lulu's not going to like them being there very much. It's a little bit of a competition. Lulu's been kind of underperforming for a while. Yes. I do agree with that. I do agree. Sorry. Uh, this is a freestyle, uh, we can talk about whatever we want. Oh, and I never waited for your answer, and if you wanted to smoke that joint or not, we can. Right here on the video. No, um, so, uh, so, uh, so, um, Like, tell me about the other communities, like, how, did you investigate, did you talk to other franchisees and things like that? Like, how much due diligence did you do, or were you just kind of in swoon from your Bozeman experience? Well, a little bit of both. So once I realized it was a franchise, I was I felt like it was something it's interesting. It really gave me a physical feeling that I was like, wow, I really want to do this. It was almost just pulling me. Um, and so I reached out to Ellery at the time she was the market owner for the Boulder guide. So we have Colorado guides in, um, Denver, Colorado, or. Denver, Boulder and Aspen. And so I reached out to Ellery and I said, Hey, can I, you know, pick your brain for just a little bit? So we went and met and had coffee and I asked her a million questions and she was fantastic. And she was very inspiring. She had done prior to the scout guide, she worked with CEOs and did brand strategy with them. And so she was really intelligent and, um, I, I really, she likes it. I probably, I'm not dumb to like it too. Yeah. Yeah. And so I, how long had you been doing it? So she was on her first volume also. So yeah, so she was brand new, but like the way that she was already feeling successful and was like really loving it. Um, Yeah. Confidence is contagious. Yeah. And it was quite the process. So once I reached out to them and said I was interested in buying the market for Fort Collins, um, you, you go through several different meetings. So they make you build your own. They didn't just say yes right away either, probably. It was, it was quite a, they made me build my own PNL report for a, I think it was a five year period year over year, what my financials would look like hypothetically. Okay. And I am not. of huge numbers girl. And I definitely am not a spreadsheets girl, but I like worked for a whole day, like Googling, how, how do you do these equations in, in, uh, Excel. And then I ended up delivering what they said was one of the best panel reports I've ever seen. So I was like, Oh, sweet. But then you had to go through panel interviews with, the CFO with the two owners. It was quite a process to get approved, to buy the market. And so it was, you know, like success rate is. I think you mentioned San Diego when it closed down. San Diego closed, so you mean success in terms of Yeah, like how many get launched or maybe stick around for more than like three years, right? Because you can keep momentum for a while. Yeah, most of them, so when you buy the franchise, you own it for five years. Okay. Um, you can rebuy it again after that, those five years. Um, I see guides that are in, and this is I guess the only way that I've been able to see the success is that I see guides that are in their, you know, 10th, 11th, 12th volume, meaning 10, 11, 12 years. all of them that I see are typically three, four years and up. So there aren't very many that don't last. I think, I think the scout guide. From the headquarters, they do a really good job in it. Candidates well and up. Very, very well. Yes. Um, Melissa, I can't remember her last name, but she, she does their kind of she's their business person and she's really good. Well, it's such an interesting thing. There's so many industries and franchises is a good, good example, but there's definitely some franchise companies that are like, Oh yeah, sign here. Um, You know, but also there's others like, like I had Mark Torres from Cheap A Hut on a few months ago. Oh, yeah. And, you know, they're definitely screening their buyers as much as their, you know, are you, are you Cheap A Hut people? Right, right. You know? Yeah. Because if you're not, then you're just going to give us some crappy stores in Louisville, Kentucky, and we don't want that. Right, and it's not going to work. Exactly. Exactly. Well, and that was one of the things when I started. kind of going through that process. One of my questions was because I had looked through a lot of their guides digitally online and because they were so saturated in those, um, Southern and Eastern States, it was very South culture. So, um, it was a lot of like, yeah, it's going to really be okay. And Aspen and was Aspen brand new too? Um, Aspen has been around a few years. So Aspen and Denver, Denver just did their 11th year. So, um, they've been around, they've, they've. But, um, you saw a lot of in those guides, the Southern guides, pastel floral print dresses and like big hair and yachts. And, you know, it was just very like. Very Florida kind of feeling and Virginia and South Carolina feel. And so, I thought, well, is this really going to work in Northern Colorado? Because that's not what we are in Colorado. We're, we're, you know, We're not fancy like that. We're not fancy like that. And we really don't care to be either. Right, we don't trust people that are fancy like that. Exactly. Or people from Boulder, for that matter. We'll see how Japanga goes. Oh, Japanga's gonna be great. They're gonna be great, I'm confident. I'm confident. They're Fort Collins people. Yeah, they are Fort Collins people. They're really, really sweet. When I met Erin for our first initial meet, she came with her baby and her baby was so sweet and she was just, you know, baby on hip talking and it was, it was nice to see that, very laid back, so. Do you want to talk about some of your other Advertisers that signed on early or or brag about them. I'm gonna actually interview a handful of them Yeah, as part of a kind of a little mini series I suppose but Tell me like who are some of your favorites and why some of my favorite well ginger and Baker Obviously, they're one of my favorites I was trying very hard to get them in the very beginning starting in July and it Literally took me where we're in end of February. I don't think I Got them on until January, right? And I, and Kate, maybe you went there for 17 meetings. I was like stalking in the background, like, Oh, hi Ginger. No, it was actually Kate Cooper who, who she pretty much is Ginger's right hand woman. And she was a person I was trying to get. so incredibly busy. I mean, she oversees all of their events there and, and you name it, she's on it. So, um, but I was very excited, not just because like it's ginger and Baker. I love the building. I love their food, but it was also about ginger buys everything local. You know, she uses all of the local agricultural businesses as much as she can. She uses the local, like she uses old elk for, for their whiskey. Um, and I, I really, Have respect for the businesses that actually do something to help the community. And most of mine do, most of mine do. There are very few that don't do something to kind of give back, whether that's donating to nonprofits or getting out and doing volunteer or giving volunteer time to their employees. I just, I love, I love that. And I was kind of an overarching theme. Yes. It is. So I was excited about Ginger and Baker on that one. Um, I was actually really excited about, um, the Reserve by Old Elk also, mainly because, um, I'm not a huge whiskey drinker. I can drink a, uh, their honey smoked Old Fashioned is delicious. And I do like that. but it's not my, wine is typically my go to, but when I found out that Kurt Richardson was the founder of it, I was immediately like, Oh, I got to talk to them because I think. Kurt and Nancy Richardson just do so many amazing things for the community and I worked At Otterbox in the earlier days when he was still kind of more a part of the company. He was there doing a lot Yeah, and so, um, I just I think that what they do for our community is amazing And I couldn't imagine that if he was the founder of some business it would be anything, but great. So, yeah. And I don't know if he had too much involved on an individual basis. He's just an investor in talent. Yes. Oh, you're an amazingly talented distiller. Well, here's some money. And we now own this distillery. Right. Mostly me. I don't know. I don't know any of those details. Right. Right. That's been my perception. Yes. Yes. But I mean, he's got. Uh, a master brewer that is out of this world and there I'll, I'll mess it up, but I think it's called their slow cut process or their slow cut proofing process is different. I keep hitting that. Sorry. Um, is different in that my understanding is that normally when they're adding water on a daily basis, it can be, you know, and I'm going to get this wrong, but like a taste tablespoon of water or something a day to start proofing it. Whereas at the reserve, they literally do like a drop or two of water. So it's this much slower process. It takes a lot longer, but gives you more of those refined malty tastes. So yeah. And I thought that was another interesting aspect to it too. And plus the people that work there are just fantastic. So how about some, some smalls? Some of the smaller. These are big, well established brands. Yeah, those are big ones. So, you know, I would say, um, yeah, so Light and Live Yoga, they just celebrated their first year anniversary. Um, Julia Tompkins, who owns it, who I believe you are, you are going to meet with her. She's a fantastic. So she's been in the wellness world in Fort Collins for years and years and years. And I knew her from, gosh, way back, I guess this would have been 11 years ago, our, our daughters went to preschool together. And so I knew her way back in the day when she was teaching yoga at different, different yoga studios. Um, sometimes more than one. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and then when I started the scout guide, I wanted a yoga studio, so I started researching and found hers and reached out, not even knowing that she was the one that owned it. And then she reached back out to me and I was like, Oh my gosh, wow, you own your own studio now. That's amazing. But she does something that's. That's bigger than just yoga. She has every year. She has what she calls the crowded table where she, um, picks, uh, a nonprofit of her choice, which actually this last year, the nonprofit that she chose is one of the nonprofits that I invited to be into my shared spread. Um, it's called the Marshall effect. And so she had, um, a crowded table event and she sells tickets for anywhere from 75 to 250 bucks. People buy the tickets and then she gives all the proceeds to that nonprofit. And so she lets, you know, gives them the stage so to speak for them to talk about what they do. And so she does that at the holidays. She got brought all these local vendors and some really, really talented ones that I knew of, but didn't realize like they didn't have a brick and mortar or anything, but she brought them to set up their booths. And so she helped support our community in many different ways for somebody that's, uh, a young yoga gym, right? And, you know, some of this for a while, right? Right. And she's got, you know, two teenage girls, but she, um, she's very passionate about what she does. And I think when you end up talking with her, she's just very, um, she's a deep, straightforward, no nonsense. Like You know, person, which I find my charms were not that effective on her. Usually I can, I can, I can woo people better than I did with her, but she was a little business like, yeah, well, let's say she emailed today. I saw that she said, Hey, I'm really interested. So you didn't offend her. Um, anybody else that comes to mind? Um, yes. So Rafi, who owns Persemon, I would say that's another smaller one. He's, I think, also just had his first year, uh, anniversary. And Rafi was, used to be one of the three owners of Social Union. And I, I believe it was Rodizio Grimm. Yes. Yeah. Um, and he broke off to do his own thing. And I just think what he's doing is fantastic. He, His places you can go there and get coffee. You can go there and get really nice high end cocktails You can go there and get my favorite thing. There's the muhammad ah, it's this amazing dip with their homemade pita bread. That's like Yeah I was I'm actually remembering when I was reading his mediterranean kind of style menu there. Yeah! And I was I'm drooling right now. As the descriptions of those things float off the page. And I was just there for a coffee. Oh man. So good. So I'll be down there soon. Yes. Yes. I have a lot of meetings there because it's, it's a neat space inside too, because you walk in and the main level is kind of where the kitchen is. So you either go upstairs or you go downstairs. Almost like an old tri level house. Yes. Yeah. It's what it feels like. And so upstairs is a little more. You know, active and lively. And downstairs is where I tend to have a lot of meetings because it's just kind of more quiet down there. But I mean, just amazing cocktails. And it's a great place when you go for clients. It's like, Do you want coffee? Or do you want to drink? And I get all sorts that are like, you know, all the way coffee or all the way a drink. So agreed. Yeah. Um, tell me when the first time you mentioned kind of having this entrepreneurial itch, Maybe for a while, but didn't really know how to scratch it. Like what was the first time you said to yourself internally, at least I would like to own a business someday. Yeah. So, um, when I moved, so when I moved to Fort Collins in 2002, I had come from San Diego and, um, my son was six months old and I Hadn't finished college yet, but I was like, Oh my gosh, now I have a baby. I better do something with myself. And so went back to school at CSU, um, ended up getting my bachelor's in communication studies, took. I took a semester off, took six months off, couldn't figure out what on earth to do with it. So I went back for my master's degree, got my master's. And so I was teaching yoga and spin, just trying to figure out Master's in communication studies, I guess? Mm hmm. Yeah. And so then this is when Become Fit used to be open. It was right above where El Monte used to be. So I was a yoga and spin instructor there. Okay. It was just trying to figure it out and then, um, one of my clients was like, you should try Otterbox. Otterbox. This was in 2011. They were hiring like crazy at that time. And they were like, I mean, growing so fast. Right. They just couldn't hire enough. Well, and communications was a big part of what they needed to do. Right. Right. Like to open markets, whatever. Right. Exactly. So, went to Otterbox, got a job there and, um, I was a supervisor in the customer service department. But then they also let me do the training for the department alongside a couple of other people. We led training classes up to 25, 50 people. And so at that point, that was where I first had the thought that wouldn't it be really cool to have my own corporate training kind of consulting business? And that's what I really thought I wanted to do for a long time. Um. And was there for about three years and then ended up getting recruited to go into the federal government sphere, um, by another one of my clients, a different client at become fit and went over to the federal government sphere. And it was, it's what I did for the next eight, nine, 11 years. So I was at federal for three and then over at safe bill for eight. So I'm going to grab a quick break. Yeah. Oh, so that's interesting that you spent time with both OtterBox and SafeBuilt, a couple of dynamic local companies. Yes, yes. Um, OtterBox, during my time at OtterBox, it was in the earlier years from 2011 to I think about the middle of 2013. So they were on this. huge trajectory. And at the time, what felt like they couldn't keep up with their systems or processes because they were just growing so fast. They were the first big thing on the market. And so, um, you know, there was a lot of change over that time that I was there. There was almost constant change every six months. How many people were there when you got there? And when you left? Oh, gosh. Um, you know, so when I first Started, let's see, I think the customer service department was probably about, we were in one of the, one of the upstairs rooms in the headquarter office. Mm-Hmm. And I would say maybe 20 people. And then by the time that I left in 2013, we were in a separate building, had a whole floor, and I would say maybe. 200 people. Oh wow. So yeah, it, it had grown. So at least if your department is a lot relevant, they like 10 X to that department in those three years or whatever. Yes. And that when I was going, so when I was helping train the new customer service reps, I was also managing a team of 22. So it was like I would go to train a class of 50 and then run back and check on my team of 22 to. You know, and so it was, it was really exciting and really fun. I loved it there. I even volunteered to write, I wrote some of their blogs and, you know, gotten a little bit involved with the marketing team there. Was Mary there in those days? Mary Merritt? Yes. Nerdy mind. Yes. Yes. She was there. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I was thinking that was probably about that time. Yep. She's great. Um, so I want to come back to the, the business journey a little bit and we'll, we'll linger on OtterBox and SafeBuilt, but it's time for the time machine. Okay. Um. Where were you in First grade. First grade. I was in Rogersville, Missouri. Rogersville. Yep. So I was born in Harbor City, which is near LA and I believe I was about 2. Okay. I think I was around 2 when we moved to Missouri. My dad wanted to move somewhere quiet, rural. Somewhere far away from LA. Where were you from in California? Harbor City, which is near LA. Okay. It's near LA and it's It's kind of, kind of the ghetto now, but back then I guess it wasn't as cool back then. But uh, yeah, so we moved to Missouri. So I grew up. You were around a whole bunch of other people from California that moved to Missouri, right? No, no, no. Nobody moved to Missouri. Rogersville. No one moved to Rogersville. Like it was, I graduated high school with 82 people. Um, it was a very small rural community and you know, I used to have a little Honda 50 Motorcycle when I was eight years old and all the neighbors knew me and I'd, you know, be hauling ass down the street and, you know, they're like the cops are going to pull you over. Shady was just this little neighborhood, like this little community where everybody knew everybody. And so I grew up there, um, tried to get back to California a couple of times. I, I took off and went there at 18 with a friend of mine and told my parents, I'm moving to California. And that didn't last long. Two weeks later, it's like, yeah, the money ran out and I was like, oh, okay, head between my tail or the tail between my legs. So came back, um, and then at 22, I did move out there, um, and then lived there for eight years before we came here. What was your family dynamic in Rogersville? Was it, you have siblings as well? Yes. So I have a sister, she is 10 years older than me. Oh wow. Um, there was a little boy in between us, but when he was born with congenital heart uh, disease, so he passed away at 10 months old and hence the big age gap between my sister and myself because I think my parents were very A lot of grieving between Right. Right. Being ready for the next one. Yep. And so, um, we were 10 years apart, um, which is why you were kind of free range. Yeah. Uh, riding a motorcycle around town with no driver's license. I know. Yes. So my sister, um, she, once she moved out, You know, I was still only seven or eight. And so I was kind of like an only kid at that point. So for most of my growing up through middle, middle school, high school, it was really just me and my parents. And what did, what did they do for vocation? Um, so my mom did retail here and there. Uh, my dad worked for 3M, the 3M company. Um, I'm the first person that actually graduated college from my whole family. And so, and I think that extends through even my extended family on both sides. So, uh, I was always a very driven kid, um, and I always knew I wanted to do something great, and, um, yeah, my parents, Time and time again would always say oh my gosh, we're so proud of you. So yeah, so you were a great student Probably involved in some sports or some smart kid contests and stuff like that. Yeah, I Yes, I was in track and volleyball. I was very good at both. I was in choir and then Was chosen to sing in an opera actually when I was 17 years old. Really? What are you a soprano? I was a soprano. Yes. Yes. I don't sing anymore, but yeah, I was a soprano. So I sang in Deflatermouse, um, which was, uh, that's a famous choice. Yes. Yes. It's a famous opera. Yeah. And it was never my jam, you know, in terms of like music, you were honored to be chosen and stuff and you could do it physically. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Practicing at 30 hours a week was not exactly super exciting. Right. Right. So, yeah. So, um, yeah. Yeah, we had a great family. I mean, we were very kind of middle class family. Uh, you know, a lot of people would have thought that my parents had a lot of money because we always had nice thing. My dad was, was always had to have the nicest boats or the nicest cars or the nicest things, but he was the guy that would, you know, buy something cause he had stellar credit and then would like work his tail off and work overtime and pay it off. And then, you know, and so that was, that was really kind of how I grew up. And some of my friends were, you know, From families that had tons of money. And, you know, they'd be walking around with all their, like Ralph Lauren polo stuff, and I was like, trying to borrow it from my mom or my sister. I remember, um, there was a commercial and you might remember, cause you're not too far off from age, but, uh, it was like, hi, I'm Mr. Johnson and I've got an amazing house, a beautiful car, a wonderful boat. How do I do it all? I'm in debt up to my eyeballs. I do. And you know, how stupid, like how stupid were you? Back in the eighties? I mean like just ridiculous and I definitely did my fair share of accruing some debt when I was younger. I can honestly say that now, I mean, not that I'm like debt free, but I I've. So much more. Well, there's good debt and there's bad debt. Right, you want to buy a house? That's good. Right. That is good debt. You want to buy a new piece of equipment for your business? Yeah, that's probably good debt. Yeah, yeah. You don't want to borrow a bunch of money to buy a Porsche 911? Probably not. So, um, so yeah, tell me about this transition. You said you, you tried to take off for California at 18, false started, and then at 22, um, just really I had gone to Mizzou in Columbia for a little bit and I just couldn't figure out what I wanted to do. I really, my dad was very strict when I was growing up and so it was kind of the first time when I did go to Mizzou that I didn't have a curfew and I didn't, you know, I was able to kind of do what I wanted to do and, and so it. It gave me this little thirst for freedom, more freedom. And so I ended up saying I want to take a break from college and I moved out to California and lived in L. A. for just about a couple of months and then ended up moving down to San Diego and stayed in San Diego for about eight years. Um, met my, uh, first husband there, dated him pretty much the whole time I was there. We had our son and then we moved here when he was six months old and then had our other two, um, children, our two daughters here. Um, and then you finished up school later too, you said at CSU. So when I got here, yep, when I got here almost immediately because as soon as, you know, You have a baby, you have this like, oh shit moment, like, uh, I've got to do something to, you know, financially to take care of my, myself and my family now. And so I, um, yeah, went back to school and I initially thought I was going to go back for psychology, which was what my major was at Mizzou. And then I took, I got to about the point where you started taking those 300, 400 level classes more. Elevated classes and I realized that if I was going to do psychology, I would have wanted to get a PhD But right because I was a non traditional and I was already 30 years old, right? I was like, I'm not doing it Yeah, the counselor said, you know, you might want to look into communication studies because there's some very interesting things Oh, yeah, psychology. It is. It's like nonverbal communication. Like, why do we, you know, so it gave me some of that same, um, some of those same bits of psychology that I loved without having to go kind of the medical route. Yeah, interesting. Um, and then we, we talked about kind of first job at Otterbox. or first real job anyway, right? Like, uh, well not, is that true? You had jobs in California, I assume. Yeah, but I wouldn't call those like real, you know, I was a nanny for a family for a while. And I, for a while, I, I, uh, worked the front door at a jazz club. I mean, you know, they're, they're not like, they're not like jobs to speak of that you could make a career out of necessarily. So you get to Otterbox and it's just like, Pot of chaos, basically. Yes. Yeah. Tell me about that and if there's anybody that deserves a shout out as a mentor or, oh gosh. High growth, uh, elements. Yeah. I mean, I loved OtterBox. I really did. I would say of all of the kind of bigger companies that I've worked for, the culture there was. by far my favorite. Uh, now I think it also was because it was early and new. I don't know what they're like now, but you know, I think they were intentional. Yeah. Very intentional. And so, you know, they sent, um, the team to Zappos to like go and learn about how to run the best customer service department. And, um, they would always, you know, there were pinball machines and all sorts of events that we got to do. And so, and I felt every quarter when we had our quarterly meeting at the Lincoln Center, Kurt was always there and would really speak from his heart. And so you got the sense that it was this genuine passion that he had for not just the business, but like for the people who were helping him grow his business. So it was wonderful. I mean, I had some great people that I worked with, uh, Zach VanderMeeden, Nate Childs. Of course, you know, I interacted with Kurt quite a few times because I taught yoga for free there on the top floor of HQ. Uh, sometimes early in the morning and he would come in, he would do, he was doing, I think like a CrossFit class out in the back parking lot. And so he would come in and go through the room to go to the kitchen and make a smoothie and I'd be like, hi Kurt. And so, you know, I got to know him briefly, but, uh, he was really great. I think there were some amazing, amazing leaders there that I worked with that there's just too many to really even shout out. I was just thinking about my, my blog that I need to finish up because it's coming out in a couple of days is, uh, I just want to know you're trying. Yeah. Uh, this month. What's that about? Kind of that. Like, as an employee, if, if an, if a boss appears to be trying to connect with you to set up systems, you know, the, maybe the pinball machine isn't anything I actually care about, but I can see that you're trying. Right. Yeah. You're spending money sending us to Zappos and stuff, and you're talking to us at the employee meetings and whatever, and you know, it's not easy to, especially something that's that high growth. Right. to keep your arms around the culture, kind of. Yeah, and they would send, they would send the, um, the executives, they wouldn't send them, but the executives would voluntarily come and sit in the customer service department and listen to calls. And we always thought that was really great because the customer service department was kind of like the, you know, you weren't as cool as the marketing department, and definitely not as cool as the product development, or any of that. You know, so we were just like, And the customer service department, but they would come and sit and listen to calls and like give us feedback. And, you know, they would, they really lifted up. I think at the time there were 13 of us that were supervisors in that, in that department and they would lift us up and really sing us praises. And they gave awards and all the quarterly meetings and stuff. And so it really did feel like they cared. Yeah, they were trying. Yeah, they were trying. They cared. So what the heck? convinced you to leave OtterBox and go into the federal government? Yeah, so OtterBox, and I don't know if it's different now, but then they did not do, um, so when I initially started, they did profit sharing with the employees, the, the full time salaried employees, and so that was amazing when, when I first started because those were pretty decent shots. Profitable years. Yeah. Um, but then it got to be, they had to hire so many people because they were growing so much that the profit sharing checks started going down a little bit. And so then I was hoping for, well, maybe I can go into the learning and development department and become one of the corporate trainers, like officially an official title. Cause that gets you up kind of a category or two in the pay scale and stuff too. And, um, they just, it was really difficult to hop from one department to another and it was really, they didn't do raises, they didn't do annual raises. And so as I, once I got pregnant with my first daughter and my second child, I was like, I've just got to do something financially better for my family. I hated leaving. I actually cried when I, the day, my last day there, I hated leaving there. Um, but for, you know, financial reasons I had to, and so went to the federal government sphere because it was. You know, it was a contract. They needed communications help too. Right. Well, yeah. I actually did, um, government proposals. Oh. Okay. Um, and so those were contracts for, like, U. S. Air Force Academy and Fort Carson and Fort Benning. Interesting. So, like, 350 million contracts. And so you Um, and I got to, uh, you know, get a percentage of that pie and it's financially, uh, wonderful. Really? Yeah. You actually work for the government when you get those kind of No, no, no. No. So we were No, it was some kind of a contractor. Contracting services. Yeah. Gotcha. Excuse me. As, um, for the federal government, I did, they were facilities maintenance services. Ah. So we did all the facilities maintenance for all the big government entities. Oh, interesting. And then, so like, how much money are we talking about here? Is this some of that federal government graft that we're, not graft, but, uh, Well, so I really started making more money actually when I went to the municipal level. So I was really kind of getting that, that career, that skill set kind of, yeah. So I started out writing government proposals for the federal government and that I cannot tell you. It's probably one of the most scary experiences I have ever had. Like the government puts out a request for a proposal. Yeah, that's right. They put out a RFP, RFI. And then companies that can do those services are like, okay, let's do this. Right. And the company that I worked for in Boulder was called, uh, Kira. And they already had the contract. So a lot of our contracts were just repeats. Right. So we. Um, but they were already knew we were gonna have a pretty good chance of winning them. Um, as long as they were happy with our field workers and our building officials. Right. Um, but, So what did you bring to it then, really? Just make sure the words read really good? Like, I don't quite understand. Yeah. So, I was definitely using my reading and writing skills from communications studies in that. Ok. And the first day that I showed up. Um, literally my boss handed me an RFP and said, I want you to read this RFP, get familiar with acronyms. And I thought, Oh my gosh, I didn't even know half of what I was reading. I was like, what is this? And then he gave me a proposal a couple of days later and said, okay, this is the proposal that we wrote to respond to that RFP that you read. So now get familiar with how we address. And so it kind of started from there. And then he would have me filling out the forms, which the forms for federal government can be, you know, just. out of bounds hard antagonizing. Yes. So I had to learn how to do like, you know, SF 33 forms where, you know, they were just awful. And Federal government was really where I got my feet wet and learned about compliance, which was, you know, in the in the world of proposals, compliance is everything down to like a word can get you disqualified. So I really I spent most of my time in federal writing the proposals and then it was, you know, it's interesting because I, I'm type a and very detail oriented. And so for me, it was kind of a. a weird satisfaction that I do think most people would hate, but I loved putting all my papers out on the floor and making sure that, you know, everything aligned with exactly, I mean, cause you would have a binder like this thick of all the compliance pieces and the sections and everything that had to go in each section. Right. Every reference better be pointing to the right reference page, otherwise you just disqualified yourself virtually. And it was really, it was. It was a really challenging job, but it actually made me feel like I was using my degree for something really cool. And so, um, there I didn't make a ton of money. My boss did. He was the VP of business development. So he made a great paycheck and I got paid decent, you know, but it was kind of my outside of, of Otterbox. It was my first step into, um, What I would say was a salary that was like good for being early in my career. I was only in my third, fourth year. So then at some point I started feeling like the, so a lot of people from that business left, a lot of the higher executives left and it just changed the. And so I looked for something a little less stressful than 350 million contracts and so, um, started looking at the municipal level and there it was just very different. It was more of a churn and burn. Like the, the proposals were much smaller and went out quicker, but There wasn't the same level of stress and it was great. So I ended up getting a job as, uh, managing a team. So then I wasn't writing as much and I was more or less kind of managing. And at one point I had about a team of seven between, you know, graphics. And this is at SafeBuilt, by the way? At SafeBuilt. So were you looking at the municipal marketplace as an alternative? And then they said, Hey, there's this place called SafeBuilt right here in town. Yeah, there's this place called SafeBuilt. And so what, what was hilarious is my. Like, I think it was in my very first week that I started there, uh, I was walking down the hall, and this was still when Safe Belt was quite small compared to where they are now. And so, I think there were only eight of us that worked inside the, you know, the headquarter building. Yeah, yeah. And, um, Who's the gal that was the head of their finance forever? Uh, Tom Wilkis? Tom Wilkis. So it was My point of contact for banking stuff was Oh, I don't know for the banking side. Anyway, cause I, I was, Mike was on our board at the bank. Yeah, yeah. And so, and he was my customer, and so I did safe built banking stuff from Like, oh, eight to 13, I guess. Yeah. And I started, uh, oh five, uh, when did I start? 2015. 20. Oh, so you were much later. 23. 2023. So there was a woman, um, gosh. And her name is escaping. Yeah, she was the CFO when I was there, and then she retired and then Tom Wils. Oh, that makes sense. Tom Wilkis was running financials while I was there. Gotcha. But yeah, I was going down the hall and, sorry, and I went to go walk past Mike McCurdy and I said to him. What the hell are you doing here? And he goes, I run this joint. What the hell are you doing here? And because the old, I had known him from when I was teaching at become fit him and his wife, Mary Pat would come in and they would take our spinning classes and our yoga classes and everything. So I just knew I'm like, that's funny how become fit is actually the hub of most of your career. Yeah. Well, yeah. And become fit was. Um, but the podcast was owned in part by Matt. Or by Pat McGochran who owns all the Rios. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah. Yeah. So, and he had El Monte there that was, you know, struggling for years and years before. And there, there, his office was in that same building. Right. Their cooking kitchen was in that same building. So, um, yeah, he, he just knows everybody. And so I think there were a lot of people that came there because he was, you know, they knew him. Right. Right. Which is a great guy. Pat's a great guy. Um. Yeah, I need to get him on the podcast actually. Oh, you should. Yeah. He's just fantastic. I, I have so much respect for him, uh, worked, you know, worked there at Become Fit for about three years. He actually, uh, when I was planning to leave banking and start a restaurant, he like consulted with me, donated two or three, four hours of time. Yeah. Tried to talk me out of it, kinda. Should've. Um, but anyway, uh, yeah, I found it to be a very, uh, Thoughtful. Yes. Uh, business person. Yes. Especially. Yes. Very. He's very intentional about the things he says and the advice he gives. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. If I can get him on here to smoke a joint and drink a couple of brewers it'll be a good Yeah. He totally would. He totally would. I know he would. Yeah. Anyway. Um, so, oh, so you're, yeah, pretty small shop still. It was a pretty small shop. In that space. Yes. And then, um, yeah, our team kept growing and growing. And then. Inevitably, they asked me, the leadership team asked if I wanted to move to uh, an account manager slash business development role. And so I was like, sure. And then that's when I think they're really good. That's where the six figure salary comes in, because as soon as you, you know, if you're a rate maker, then, then you can earn that kind of, yeah, yeah. And I was traveling quite a bit. Because I had all of the states in the West except for California. So it was very busy, very busy time. Uh, and, and it was really fun. I enjoyed it for, I did that the last three years that I was there and I really enjoyed it. But it was again, you know, going back to private equity. And I, I think sometimes just the expectations of private equity ownership. It's, it's hard on the people who are working within the business because they, they need. the, to see the numbers and, you know, and private equity was probably already involved when you started, but Mike was still there and kind of running things and whatever. And then a couple of few years later he was gone. And so his influence was probably, yeah. So he became a board member with a private equity firm. And so, um, Yeah. And, you know, and a lot changes when you're growing, same thing like with Autobucks when you're growing that fast because we were growing and every year giving these, you know, seemingly outrageous numbers that we thought no one could hit, but then as a company we would hit them. Right. And so, you know, so it just, it made the, you know, took the carrot a little higher every year. Right, right. And there's that no good deed goes unpunished. Right, right. Yeah, exactly. Oh, you had a great year. Looks like next year, you'll probably miss your bonus because you'll never get that number. It's yeah, yeah. Tell us all the time. So it goes, yeah, so it goes. So, um, you know, I just said I had hit a point where I think I was hitting burnout a little bit for me and kind of feeling, wishing that I could find something that filled more of that creative side of. Of me and the things I love to do, but still be able to utilize my strengths, um, you know, in, in building relationships. And, and I, you know, as silly as it sounds, making an Instagram post multiple times a day and being able to like write editorial content for a website. I'm, it's not easy, so it's still tapping into the communication and study side of what I do. What I thought was pretty interesting is. Those, the scout guide is like almost all the other stuff was about words and definitions and compliance and regulation. And now it's like, take the pretty pictures and make the people want to see them. Yeah, no, it is. It, we're very, we're all about telling a business's story or who they are, what they want to be, what area of their business they're trying to grow with imagery. And so we could take Hooli and Juan, for example, when I first met with them, they said, you know, we, we. Pump out so many weddings, but we'd kind of like to pull back and not do so many weddings because that's a huge You know mental. Yeah, it's a big endeavor and they'd like to be able to do more of like a chef's table event where they're making the food they want to make and people buy tickets and get to just have an experience in their space. And so, um, for our photo shoot, we kind of pushed that chef's table, um, idea. And so I think, you know, in some ways, it's a neat way to be able to tell a story without having to use the words. Now there, there will definitely be the, um, Editorial content on the website right now. I'm just focused on getting the first. Oh, right volume out But once I get it out, I'm gonna have oh, does the website then have like stories attached to a lot of these? Yeah, so I plan to do like a monthly newsletter. I'll be doing a spotlight probably once a month on one of my businesses You know all sorts of stuff. Well, they're good to be able to exercise. Yeah. Yeah. Yes writery skills, right? Yeah, definitely and I think it will be it would think it would be really nice and get a lot more activity right now. I'm just, and I've been very transparent with my clients that like, there's, it's a beautiful website. The scout guide built it for me, but there's just not a lot on there because they said, don't focus on it. Get your guide built, build your brand, and then you can get that out. In this, uh, transition at SafeBuilt from, you know, kind of a Back of the house to front of the house in a lot of ways so that account manager was that Like you said that they asked you if you wanted to do that. It seemed like but like talk to me about that Transition. Yeah, so it's interesting. I so right In 2019, when COVID hit, I was going through a divorce, and so I had moved into a place in Timnath, kind of, and had my two daughters with me, was living on my own, and so I had gone to my boss at the time and said, Hey, look, here's what's going on. And when you go from being a dual income household to it's just you, that, you know, not that I was making bad money, but like now that it was just me and I had a lifestyle and bills that met here. Right. And then now I went, whoop. So, um, I said, here's the thing. I, you know, I think I'm probably going to start looking for a different job because I need, and they came back very quickly with like, no, you've been for a long time. Like, how about we give you this role? And so I took it, and, and I, I actually really enjoyed it. I think I love, I don't think I know. I, I love being with people. I love building relationships, building community. And when you're doing proposals, even if you're managing them, I had a lot of that face time with my employees, but I didn't have it elsewhere with the decision makers. Right. Barely knew if you were doing a good job or not. Right. Well, you know, you got the proposal or not. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, based on winning, if we won, I was good, you know? Yeah. And so, uh, I think I was dying a little bit to get from behind the computer and do something that was more forward facing with people. And so I, I jumped at it and was like, yeah, then, you know, I, I did, I loved it. I, other than the fact that I, again, going back to, I didn't have a huge passion for, Building insurrections. Were you like a week on a week off with your kiddos or something so you could plan trips or was it just No, we've got a weird schedule cause my ex husband is a, he's a firefighter and so they have a really wonky schedule and so it was always kind of like I would have them for two days, he would have them one. I would have them two days, he would have them one. And then he would get like once a month this like, what they call the Cali weekend where he gets, you know, a weekend with them. And so it was, it was very difficult. So I would have to be very Well, because you're traveling to go to meet with Bozeman and stuff like that, right? So, so I would try and travel on a, like, if, if I knew, I would try and travel when he was going to have his Kelly weekend. So I did like a Thursday, Friday, you know, so it was, it was, yeah. And it, you know, it really hasn't, it seems like now I'm running. Um, at mock speed because I still have one that's in eighth grade. And so dropping her off at school, picking her up from school, which I, you know, I love being able to do and I'm so fortunate that I make my own schedule, but it, the scout guide has really grown and gotten super busy to where I'm like the night before I go to bed, I have to look at my calendar and go, okay, what am I, where am I tomorrow? Right. Well, and even with unrealistic private equity owners and stuff like that, there's kind of a, here's. The expectation when, when you've got your own business, it's like, when do you push stop? Yeah. When all the work is done. I don't know. And I have a hard time doing that. So my, my fiance is, he's lovely and very tolerant of my. You're a little bit wrapped up in it right now, but in a few months here you'll be published and you'll be chill for a few months. Yes. So I'm often, and he's actually also in publishing, which is hilarious. So he, um, he's in publishing also for, uh, the HOMAG down in Denver. Okay. And so there are some days where we're both just running and then I'm like, Can you pick my daughter up from school? You know? Right. Right. I found myself in Evans. And he's like, no, maybe your son can pick her up so that I'm like texting my son, can you get your sister? And he's like 20 or something living on his own. Yeah, he's 22. So he's like, seriously, mom, if you give me gas money. Right. Haha. I love it. Well, it feels like we're transitioning, uh, into the next phase and, and kind of starting with family anyway. So why don't you tell me about this hunky guy that you just mentioned and call him your fiance. Yes, he's wonderful. His name is Matt. Um, he, we met, so this is going to sound bad and you know, don't judge cause it didn't all happen this way, but he actually worked at Safeville also. And so, uh, we, Knew each other for five years working there just as cohorts. What's his last name? Royer. Royer. Yeah, Matt Royer. Oh, I knew him. You do? Yeah, back in the day. He was there for quite a while. Oh, yeah, he was there for I think Yeah, he was like the number two ish. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I met him back in the day. Yeah. Yeah. So he was there forever. Yeah. He actually interviewed me when I started there. And so and I remember thinking like I was like, God, who is this guy?'cause he was all slumped in his chair with his arms back like this. And I was like, all cash. We're at an interview. Like, at least be respectful And so, um, yeah, so we worked together for five years and um, I was married, he was married. I, we never, nothing about that connection was why, like, not at all. You both weren't married later at all? Like Not at all. We would go to holiday parties and I would. You know, talk with MI wasn't in the corner. No, I'm kidding. No, no, no. the opposite. That okay. The opposite. All that. Um, and then, uh, when my marriage started kind of crumbling, I was really kind of looking to get out and do other things. And so I joined, there were a few people from Safe Built that joined this kickball team that was in birth It, and I was like, sure, I'll join the kickball team. And so he was on that too. And so we, um, just kind of start. started to get to know each other as friends. And after the kickball games, we, you know, a group of us would like go out and get drinks and whatever. And so it wasn't much later. It was about a year later. Um, he started going through a divorce. And so we kind of had that thing in common. And it was one of those things where When you have been through the devastation of a divorce, which even if you're the person that is making that decision to get divorced, it's still just as devastating. It's still awful. And so, um, well, and you kind of touched on something. I remember, uh, Doug Johnson actually said years ago, uh, as a it as a wisdom exchange in a, in a business thing. He was like, you know, people have this expectation that when they go through the divorce, that their standard of living is going to stay the same and that's absolutely not true. Almost never. Like only if you're like freaking Jeff Bezos or something. Right, right. Yeah. No, it does not. It does not. And it was, you know, that the financial adjustment was hard, but I think for me, I think that The time that I got divorced, my youngest was nine. And she, it took its toll on her the hardest for sure. And so it was really hard for me because I had made that decision, um, that. Um, I had been with my ex husband, we were together 23 years, um, from the time we were 22. And so it was real, all three of our kids were together. If you're comfortable talking about it, like what changed? Like you were together for 20, I've been, I've been married for 21 years, right? Yeah. No, almost 21 years. Yeah. I think because we met so young, um. And then there was a time when I was, right before I got pregnant with my son that I started kind of really trying to assess what I wanted to do with my life. And I think that he would have been perfectly happy if I would have been more of a, not necessarily like a stay at home mom, but somebody who wasn't Was you becoming a high achieving woman threatening to him? Think being as career driven as I was, not that he was threatened, but I just don't think that it's the direction he saw us, he wanted you to have as a family going more mom time stuff and Yeah. Whatever. Yeah. And so, and more being my wife, time less being a career gal, whatever. Right. And so it, you know, and then. Um, my dad passed away in 2016 and then after that, and my dad was my, my best friend my whole life. Like he was my absolute everything and it was a pretty tragic and, and, and sudden death. And so a lot changed for me in that year after he passed. And then I started really, really assessing because I no longer had that person that I felt was my biggest cheerleader. And so I was kind of looking to, to someone to be that person to fill that gap. it just wasn't there. And so I started thinking about where the kind of the second half of my life was going to go versus where the first half of my life had been. And I think by the time we got divorced, I had literally been with him for half of my life. And so, um, I wanted someone who wanted to really see me succeed and celebrate in my victories and, and not be, not to use the word threatened, but not to be, you know, like second guessing maybe a little bit or something. And so then if we fast forward back to, um, I started playing kickball, started becoming friends with Matt and our friendship really started flourishing. And so he would come over sometimes and meet my girls and we were trying to like not really be dating yet. We wanted to kind of be dating, but we were, you know, we're trying to take things very slow because we, it's just hard. It's complicated. It's complicated. Your girls are, you're nine or something, right? Nine and 10, 11, 12, 13, nine and 13. Then over time, it just, it just continued to get stronger and stronger and stronger. Until your girls are like, when are you going to ask him out? Yeah, no, they weren't. So my daughters were like, uh, we like him, you know, and even their friends at one point, then after we started dating, um, my, my older daughter was on the cheerleading squad at Fort Collins high school. And, and, uh, her friends would come up to me, they all call me mama C and they'd come up and they'd be like, Matt, when are you gonna propose to Mama c And we're like, awkward, you know? So that's cool. So yeah, it's been cool. So we got engaged, um, in the end of 2022. Okay. And so, yeah. We're, is there a date on the calendar here? Uh, 2026, we're thinking September, 2026. Uh, he proposed in Barcelona and I think we're gonna go back there for the wedding. So we're, last year we were focused on getting. But my daughter out to college at CU Boulder against my wishes, I know, um, and then this year was all about buying the guide and getting it launched. And so I think next year we'll put some effort towards planning a wedding and make it happen in 2026. I like it. I like it. Um, one thing we always do in this show or almost always is, uh, ask our guests to provide a one word description of their children. Oh, you got a one word description. How about the girl that went to see you? What's her name? Addie. Hi Addie. That's her name. Addie is independent. Is, that's the only and first word that comes to my head. Well, that's why she went to see you is'cause you tried to discourage her. Yes. She, from when she was a little baby, like my other two, always wanted me to hold them and carry them around. And she was like, she's like the playpens fine. She's like, put me down, would you please just put me down? And she would fuss. That's when I would try to be walking or bouncing or rocking her to sleep. I remember my mom told me one day, she said, just lay her down and I'm like, what? That's never going to work. And I laid her down and you know, of course she went to sleep. She is my fiercely independent child for sure. That's a very distinctive thing. Like that can't be one in 10 babies that actually is that way very early. Yes. I mean, from the beginning, like from the very beginning, and I used to get so paranoid because it was like, and then my mom, of course, I think at the time they said, don't put babies on their belly, they have to put on their back, right? And my mom flipped her over on her. You know, on her, um, on her belly and she tucked her little, she looked like her nickname was peanut because she just would pull everything in and she looked like this little tiny peanut and she would just go right to sleep. But I would be like hovering over with like deer eyes like, is she still breathing? So yeah, she's, she's my independent one. Um. My older, my son, my older one, he's my wild one. He's the one that, he's your 13-year-old? Yeah, 22. Oh, he's okay. Got, he's the older, so I had the, the one son. He is, um, yes, very. He's my wild child. One wild child. Well, I am sure he's insanely intelligent. They always used to say in school he was really smart, but also very disruptive. and. He still hasn't quite found his mojo yet, but he's really working on it. And, uh, we have a, a very close mother son relationship. I get him where most people don't. And so we're really close. Um, and then like a pretty easy grace person, I am, I'm a pretty laid back mom. And I think that was also another area where with the first husband, you know, it was a much more strict and these are my boundaries and you have to fit in that box. And I was more of a, well, let's talk about it. Kind of parents. So yeah, needless to say, my two older ones like chose to live with me full time after. Right. They're like, okay, bye mom's easy. 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 the 14 year old, she's my baby. She has always been kind of my, my funniest kiddo. She's hilarious. She's gorgeous. She's, um, Oh, what's her name? Lily. Lily. And what's your boy's name? Caleb. Caleb. Hi, Caleb. Yeah. And, uh, do you have a one word for Lily? Vivacious. Ooh, that's a big word. She's, everything she does is big. Yeah. She's, uh. Yeah, when she's funny, she's hysterical. When she's upset, you know it. When she's upset, she's hysterical also. Just to turn a word twice. Yes, yes, yes. Uh, yeah, she's, she's just um, she does everything big. Very big. But she always, she always likes to come back and know that. Mom still got her back, you know, so when Matt sometimes has to travel or whatever, she's like, all right, sleeping with you, movie night in mom's bed, you know, and at 14, I mean, it like, kisses my heart sweetly because I'm like, I love that she still likes that time with me. So, yeah, it's really cool. Um, the Matt bring any kiddos too? Yes. And so we, we all call them, we both call them ours. Um, all of them are ours. So we have five together. So we've got, he's got two girls. So between the two of us, we have four girls. So we'll have four weddings, which is like frightening. Um, and then just the one son on my side. But his two girls, uh, Isabel is his oldest and she's 20. And she goes to school up in Grand Junction at Mesa. Very smart. We get along well. Um, and then his, his youngest daughter, Reina, she is in high school, um, goes to Severance High School and um, she's graduating this year. We're not sure where she's going, but it could be Washington state. She's an equestrian rider. So she does the jumper, the, Jumping thing, um She is more, she's the most quiet, she's the most kind of like introverted one, um, so we take full advantage when she's in those good moods where she's wanting to talk and hang out, we'll sit at the dinner table for as long as, yeah, yeah, yeah, but she's also very independent, but a little more quiet than my independent, so, yeah, she, she kind of goes her path, she's also very smart too. All, all of them are really smart. That seems strange, because you and Matt don't seem that bright to me. Just kidding. Yes, honey! What? What, uh, what was it that Um, really drew him to you, do you suppose, in those days? Matt? Yeah. Like, why do you keep coming around? Sounds like he was not getting the milk for free and not putting a ring on it for a while, but he was staying involved in your life as a friend and whatever. So, Matt Tells me every day. We've been together. Uh, let's see. I think this year will be five years. And he tells me multiple times a day. He's like, you're so cute. You're so cute. You're so pretty. And he's constantly complimenting me. So if I had to say what drew him, I think it was first that he thought it was cute. Right? But then second, um, he, he was Before me, he was very much a, like, I put all of my time and effort into my career and my children. And that's what he did. So he never he didn't really go out and have any fun. He, you know, he just, he didn't give himself the own his own space to enjoy life in some ways. And I've always been part of what you were like, Yeah, you need some space. Let's go. Let's go do stuff. Let's. And so I think that was really well, and even you go do stuff, maybe all the time. All the time. Yeah, all the time. And I always have. I mean, I'm I love having good friends around. I'm kind of an extroverted introvert, so I love to be around people, but then I need my reset time where it's totally downtime, me time. But when, you know, we're big boaters on the reservoir, so like every weekend, yesterday we rode our Harleys up to Carter Lake and, you know, so I just, I like to go do stuff. Adventure is a big thing for you too. And I think that was, uh, I think that was something really, um, inspiring for him. One thing I say is, uh. You know, I don't know what I'm looking for when I'm looking for a friend or this or that or whatever. But I know if somebody seems to really like me, it makes it a lot easier for me to really like them. Yeah, for sure. For sure. And I'm that way. I mean, I can, I make friends really easy, but Well, there's like friend And then there's like, I really like, yeah, we have, we have about a handful, each of us have about a handful of friends, most of them couples together that we really love to do things with on a consistent basis, you know, I love, I love the events with, with, you know, the community with the scout guide. I feel like I've, I'm becoming friends with a lot of them at a different level than just, uh, we work together. Um, but. Yeah. You know, sometimes I, I need that day where I'm like, I am not getting out of my pajamas and I might not brush my teeth till noon. I'm just not. And so, and that's okay too. I, uh, I got on Odell's onesie this fall and it's changed my life, honestly. I haven't, I love that. I love that. Um, let's drift over into Politics or faith? Which do you prefer? Oh gosh. Whew. That's a hard one. Both are hard for me. Yeah, tell me about it. You know, so, we'll start with faith. Um, when I was little, my dad used to drive me to church. I was, I was, as a baby, I was Catholic, but they wouldn't go to church with me because after their son Alfred. They called him Little Al after he passed. They kind of really said, rejected faith, but they would still drop this to us if Right. Why would God do this to an innocent baby was more of the struggle there. And so, they would But, you dropped your kid off at church. Yeah. Oh, fascinating. And so, I remember going as a kid, and then like once I got to be in middle school, high school, and had my own opinion about it, I don't want to go. And they're like, okay, well that's fine. So, then I didn't really have You know, organized religion. Yeah. And then, um, my, my first husband at the time, uh, boyfriend, he was raised Christian. His mom went to church like two days a week. He was, um, you know, had strong faith. And so, um, when I was pregnant, I made the decision, we had gone to church a few times and I made the decision I was going to get baptized Christian. And so I did that, that was here, so that was after I had my older daughter, my second child. And so we did that here in Fort Collins. And it was at a, it used to be called North Point. Oh yeah. Which was down in Old Town. And non denominational. Safeway. Yep, yep. And so I did that. Um, but I, I started to really struggle. We moved there. Then we like tried the like mega church for a while, went to Timberline. Uh, and then I just, I really struggled with, I really struggled. You got baptized when you weren't really quite sure. Yeah. Yeah. And I think I was trying to do it because I thought it would be important to like, give my children a foundation. Yeah. Um, But it just wasn't, it wasn't that, you haven't rejected Jesus necessarily. Well, so where I was, I just, I was trying to do what I thought was right, but then I started realizing that a lot of the people in church were. I did not, I was not the same as them. Like, the way they talked and they were like, Oh my goodness, we're just It was so like you had to be this perfect human being to be Christian. And I was like, I can't do that. And I have tattoos everywhere. I mean, you saw the And I cast like a sailor in my normal Like, I have a potty Well, fuck that. I know! And I felt like I couldn't be that person. We should probably spend some time together, cause I'm I go to church, I proclaim, and I cuss, and I smoke joints sometimes on the podcast. And God still loves me. But I never saw those. And I never saw those people. Yeah. Yeah, I get it. And so Because I've experienced a lot of Yeah. Like, I've definitely There was a, there's a young man that's one of my best friends today that was, when Jill and I were volunteering for a youth group at Mountain View, which is right next door over there. Um, he was a recovering Catholic at that time. Uh, but eventually became like literally one of our strongest Bible knowledge pastors just poured himself into it. And he's like, this is years ago. Like when we was first legalized, it's like, I'm just kind of like trying to reconcile, like, Being a person of faith and like regularly consuming marijuana. Yeah. Oh, my son who's 22 says, God put it here. Right. Well, that's kind of where I'm at, honestly. And, and, and is it appropriate for me as somebody that claims to follow Christ and believe in God that to be abusive of it? No. Right. You know, can I have a puff down here and there? Yeah. Yeah. Um, and so anyway, I'd encourage you to. Um, explore the truth more than the church. Yeah. Um, and even I've met with a lot of people in this podcast and otherwise that aren't part of an organized church because they can't get over the hypocrisy that they see sometimes. And like. They know something created this ball of life in the middle of a apparently damn near empty universe and whatever else, like whatever that, that unmoved mover is. Mm hmm. Well, certainly after, so I had kind of walked away from, walked away from it for a while, and then after my dad passed, um, Sorry, I kind of jumped in there with a editorial. No, that's okay. No, no, no, it's okay. But that, um, that Yeah. Really changed things for me. Where did he go? Well, and I started having a lot, a lot of experiences that I still, I think sometimes people will say, well, you know, you missed him and you were trying to see what you wanted to see or hear. It was more like hear what you want to hear. Um, and I'm like, I just don't think so. I think my dad was really trying to let me know that he was still there and it was okay. And so here's a perfect example. He, so after he passed. The boat that he had, I inherited. Okay. And I had it, kept it for six years. We took it out almost every weekend in the summer on the reservoir. And then at some point, I decided it was time to sell it. It was getting older. And so we sold it, which was a really difficult decision. Right, because it's part of dad. Well, and he, he, he drowned. Oh, shoot. The boat. Yeah. Oh, shit. And so that boat had so much sentimental meaning for me. Wow. And. So it was, it was extremely hard, but I was like, I knew he left it for me because he wanted me to carry that legacy of boating on for me and my kids, which I do. And my, my kids love boating. And so it came time that I was like, okay, we just need to sell it. And then, you know, so we, we last year we got a new boat. It might've been two summers ago, but anyway. Um, one day we're driving in the place where we park it over off crossroads and we're going to back it in and pull it in our space. And as we're driving down the center aisle, I look over and I almost like, like felt this sick feeling because my dad's boat is now. literally parked across from our boat. And I really think it was, it's, it's, I really think that my, the spirit of my dad is always trying to let me know that he's still here in some, in some way. And so I, I will never deny that I have great spirituality, strength and, and belief and faith in. I just don't know what, what. I don't know what, and I am kind of a, how can any of us really know unless you put all of your faith into this one symbol or this one book or this one, and that's where I struggle a little bit. Yeah. Well, and that's, I definitely feel you there. I've described it on this podcast before, so some will be bored, but for me, I feel like everybody in the world. has kind of always had a blurry view of what God really is. And the clearest view that we have of his nature is probably from Jesus. Because it's just, he said a lot of things, and he wrote down like right after and stuff. It doesn't seem like copycatted stuff like the Mohammed stuff does, you know? Uh, and with a twist, and look at the fruit. You know, and so to me, I'd just encourage you to explore that a little bit more. Um, and uh, and no pressure on it, no judgment either. No, it would be nice to come back to a place of feeling like I know exactly and I feel really rooted in something. I think it was also, even for me. It's hard to lose my dad that way because it, it didn't make sense. It didn't make sense. Totally. And there was still no answer as to why. Is really, you kind of going back to a response much like your parents response when they lost their boy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And uh, so I don't know. Yeah. And my dad always had. Means or is. We always had music in common. My dad was a singer. My dad was a very talented singer and I remember being five years old and singing on a stage with him. So we always had this love of music in common and after he passed away there would be songs that we would have like Sang together that you know, like Linda Ronstadt, Blue Bayou. Right. We would sing that karaoke together sometimes Yeah, and I'd be standing in Starbucks and there's all this progressive music playing and then all of a sudden Linda Ronstadt, Blue Bayou comes on and I'm like Daddy? Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Um, I'm gonna flash back to the family category for a minute and give you just a, uh, few minutes to talk about your dad and your mom a little bit too, if you want, but it's obvious that your dad is like your big hero in life. He was my big hero in life. Yeah, definitely. It was, uh, yeah, it was very, um, growing up. Um, anything I, I did, I had, I was where, whatever my dad did, I was right next to him. So if he was fishing, I was fishing. If he was, you know, out cleaning the boat, I was out cleaning the boat. And so we were kind of two peas in a pod and, um, I was always very close to my mom too, but I was definitely a daddy's girl and, um, until I got into high school. And then I remember my mom would always cover for me when I would like break curfew or like I came home drunk one time after prom. And. I drank too much and I was sick and my mom came in the bathroom and she was just like, I am not going to tell your father about this, but you better get to bed. I love it. I love it. And so my mom is like, I definitely, it's funny because I'm very much like my dad in one way and in some ways like the kind of sassy cussing. person I get from my mom, for sure. And so, very close with both of my parents. Um, my, my sister lives, uh, near my sister now. They kind of live together in Arizona. But, um, yeah. Like, my relationship with him was, was amazing. And, uh So was this like an Maybe it's stirring up or maybe it's cathartic, but did your dad like get run over by a boat or No, yeah, so when I When I left and moved to California at 22, my parents retired and they built their dream home on Table Rock Lake in Missouri Where I well, I grew up near Table Rock Lake. Yeah, so Their dream home. Yeah, it was beautiful log home like just stunning just stunning and We had voted in my whole life. I mean, I don't remember not ever voting from the time I was a real little kid. And so they were living their dream life. And my dad was always a what I would, I would call a high functioning alcoholic. And I think as he got older, so When he was still working, it was like during the week, he'd come home and he'd have a beer and then go to bed. But then after retirement, there's like no reason not to have another one. Yeah. So he was more of a weekend warrior when he was working and on the weekends, you know, it was like party time. Um, and then when he retired, it was just, it seemed to get heavier and more, um, And the day that he passed him and my mom were out with their best friends, they had been boating all day long. My mom had said that he was scheduled to have a stress test on his heart two days after he passed. Because he had been, he was the guy that would stay outside for like five hours and work on his landscaping and work on the logs and just perfecting. He had the most beautiful lawn everywhere they lived. And she said he would come in after like 45 minutes. Profusely sweating and out of breath. And so they were concerned that something was going on with his heart. He had had a stint put in, went in the late forties. And so the only thing we can, so anyway, they went on this long boat ride. And they were going to have lunch at this, this place on the other end of the lake and they docked and the women walked up, my mom and her best friend walked up, and then my dad and his friend Chuck stayed down to tie the boat to the dock and Chuck remembers hearing a splash but didn't pay any attention to it and then realized Once he was done tying up that like my dad wasn't there and so he had Probably had a heart attack falling on the boat. Yeah, and so So he gets in the water starts kind of screaming for help and after some time, I think it had been about five minutes. There was a 17 year old, I still don't know who this is, um, I just haven't gone down that road yet. But I think eventually I'll look into it once I'm better to deal with it. But he was in the restaurant eating, and he was a swimmer. And so he dove in the lake and managed to find, because lake water is so murky, he can't see anything. So he managed to find my dad and, and drug him up out of the water. And so they, They did CPR and at one point they revived him and he was kind of alert and doing okay. And they got the air flight, the air lifted him to the hotel. And we got the call about 7 p. m. in the evening. I got it from my sister and she was hysterical, sorry, she was hysterical. And um, I kind of cussed her out because I think I was in shock and denial a little bit and I was like, what are you talking about? And so, um, long story short, I left on a plane at 3 a. m. the next morning to go fly to Springfield, Missouri, where they had taken him. And they had, uh, put him in a, an intentional coma so that we could get there. And then we had about five minutes with them and before he passed. But I, I think that he knew I was there. I climbed up on the bed with him and I was just calmly whispering in his ear that it was okay, which is crazy because losing your. you know, your person, I took it totally out of being about me and wanted him to know that it was okay because they had said there was no way he was going to come back from that. And he had drowned. And so they had tried doing tests on the brain, the heart. But if the body is flooded, they just can't say exactly what happened. And so I was just like, it's, it's okay, we're here, we made it, you can go. And so he passed very quickly after that. And, um, you know, I, afterward, I took the approach of, um, uh, I really felt like it was In a weird way kind of like it was meant to be because like he would he didn't typically boat that late in the year It was like September 25th when he passed Typically Labor Day was the big last boating weekend and there were a lot of weird things You know the heart the stress test that he was gonna get done and so I think there was probably a heart attack or a stroke or something that happened, but It's hard not knowing. Um, it, it really did a number on my sister for a 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 way that it was, it was his time to go. Yeah. Yeah. So that's faith right there. Yeah, it really is, honestly. So, I'll, uh, we go to the crossing. It's, uh, Shields and Horsetooth, 10 a. m. on Sundays, if you want to remember. It's right up, the lake is right there afterwards. Oh, yeah. Yeah. What's it called? Uh, The Crossing is the church that we go to. Is that on what street is that on? Uh, it's across from the Hibachi Steakhouse. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just a kind of a, whatever. But it's full of, like, me and Jill are old people there. It's so full of young people and their babies and marriages. And it's just cool to be part of a vibrant, growing, young church. Yeah. Yeah. Let me know. Yeah. Thank you. I like that. I, I just, I didn't like the feel before where, you know, just everybody was like, well, it's easier for me because I don't care what anybody thinks about me. Yeah. Well, and so like, I'm actually a baby, but I was going to say, cause I'm a, so I don't know if you know anything about the Enneagram. Yeah. What are you? I'm a three. Oh, an Achiever. Yes, I'm an Achiever. I'm a Maverick, a 7 8. Oh, yep, yep. That's what, well, that's funny. That's what, um, my ex husband was a 7, but Matt is a 7 8. Okay. 8. Interesting. I think. No wonder why you like me. I think. He hasn't fully taken the test yet, but I'm guessing. I do, I do, I do like you. No, I do. I like house conversations. I think it's great. Let's, uh, let's jump on to happier thoughts and go to politics. Oh, well, that's a fun one. So I will be completely transparent that I don't know enough about politics to have super deep conversations about them. Uh, I have always kind of fallen more to the side of liberalism simply because I am the type of person that wants things to be fair for everyone. Um, I have my Yeah, so in my relationships, in my relationships in the past, that was a point of tension often. Yeah, you're like yoga girl, uh, liberal girl. I am yoga girl, I am, I am. But you're attracted to these manly men, conservative leaning. Yeah, what the hell? Son of a bitch. What the hell? Well, it's cause they're right. Uh, just kidding. That's so funny. But they like girls who care. Yeah, that's funny. Um, no, I'm a, I'm a dirty libertarian, so I'm kind of like the worst of both worlds, or the best of both worlds, if you will. Yeah, you know, and a lot of people say, oh, I know, think what you will about Trump, but He did great things for our economy, and I'm more of a humanitarian in the fact that I'm like, I don't give a shit what he did for the economy. He also didn't start any wars. He didn't start any wars, but he also, I will say, I will never call myself like a, you know, You don't have TDS. Crazy, no, crazy feminist or anything, but the way he talks and has treated women, that, that is something that is just, Yeah. He's disturbing. I would never want him to be in a room with my sister for an hour. No. And I'm like, you're supposed to run the country. And I'm sorry, the country is actually made up of a lot of women too, like, you know, so that's where I struggle. I think if we were to have any amazing president, in my opinion, Michelle Obama would be a fantastic president. Okay. I loved Obama. I thought he was trying to do some really good things. Um, You know, healthcare sometimes hits or miss, I think right now, the healthcare that is created is not better. Really? It's not better. It's not better. And I know everybody makes the joke that like, it can Biden still even like have sane, sane mind of what he's talking about. 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 trying to When I think about politics, like, you know, Matt and I, I'll never forget this. Like I could never talk about politics with my ex because we were so radically different that like, it became an argument. And one of the things I loved about Matt, even though he's, he falls more on the Republican side. Um, he, we sat down and he was like, do you want to vote together? And I was like, What? Like, you mean you want to read through all these things together? Actually talk about this stuff, or whatever. And we did, and it was really cool. And he was okay for you voting the other way than what he was voting. Yeah. And in the end, we, like, convinced each other of some of the smaller things, you know, that we were voting on that, like, but, but what about this? What about this? And it was a really, really cool conversation, and that was one of the things I was like, wow, if I can talk about money and politics with you, because I couldn't do that before. Right. That's a huge bonus, because a lot of people can't talk about money. Politics and money with their spouse is so great. I saw a good meme from the Babylon Bee a couple days ago, and it was, uh, Congress fears that if new funding is not approved for Ukraine, that the war could end. What? I mean, we don't want the war to end, so we better figure this shit out. No, why would we want that to happen? So, you saw my big ambulance out here, by the way. I did, it's awesome. So, that's been nicknamed Tank. Uh, and I'm, my plan as of now is to have a silhouetted Tank on this side of it. Yeah With coming out of the barrel like the old bang. Yeah Kind of yeah, I was gonna do make commerce not war But I I got a suggestion over the weekend. That was a build do not destroy Oh, I love that and and that's like the most like it actually affects the GDP in a positive way when you Use a bomb to blow up a school in Afghanistan, right? Right, right. That isn't right. That isn't that isn't building humanity That's minusing humanity So anyway, I've been, and maybe I'm just innocent. I don't think that China and Russia represent a threat to the world. If we quit being such a big swing and dick, I agree. Like, why do we think we're just so amazing? I mean, how long is it going to take for people are like, we're kind of sick of your shit. Right. Well, about 20 years ago, um, pretty much like 23 years ago, to be exact. Well, and like, we buy everything from them. We buy everything. Well, and like when you do a Ukraine. Military bill for 65 million dollars. It's like here Ukraine. Here's your 65 million You can use it to buy 65 million worth of war equipment from us. Yeah Consulting and whatever else it's like, okay. Well, yeah. Yeah. Anyway, you know, it's funny I used to for a long time and it's interesting it was Um, when I worked at Safebelt, maybe it was because I was working kind of in a government sphere, but I would watch the news in the morning and I felt a lot more in tune with all the different things going on. And, um, now I'm in this space where. My life feels really healthy. I just want to know where the cool restaurants are and the sweet boutiques and stuff. Like well, and it's like I just want to go connect with good people. Yeah, you know And so I find myself waking up in the morning and not really wanting to put the TV on anymore And I'll have my coffee and I do my thing and it might mean that I end up being ignorant over some things Which I'm okay with that if I don't know everything. It's kind of better than going crazy. Yeah. Yeah. You know, and a lot of the things once you're, you know, I've never understood all the things in politics. Like when you sit and watch some of the news and some of the things going on, I'm like, what does that mean? So I'm like, I'm never going to be the smartest person in the room when it comes to politics, but I know what I feel and I know what, what I wish for, for our country, which is like. Which is such a liberate, you know, liberal thing to say, like, I want people here to be treated well. Now, do I want it to be okay that we're paying taxes for people who come over illegally? No. I don't agree with that. I don't 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 what's right for our country But I also don't want, you know, it to be like, put up. Take advantage of, or lose our meritocracy. Right, right, right. That's a really dangerous threat right now, like this, like Harvard's sticking by this Claudine Gagel after she was a terrible anti Semite in her answers to Congress. What happened? Oh, she, the Harvard president, um, Like her and Penn and MIT like all basically said it's okay for our students to create a anti jewish Environment on the campus because they're just exercising like it's okay for them to threaten freedom of speech. Yeah Yeah, and they do this in Congress and whatever and then nothing really happened it just kind of happened Harvard's board stood behind this gal and then the internet started digging into her and it turned out like 9 of her 11 papers had significant plagiarism in them. And she was like 1 4th as qualified as the average Harvard president before her, but she happened to be a black. Lady, so it was good and so they still stood behind her for a while now, but she's not the president anymore She's just a seven hundred thousand dollar a year nine hundred thousand dollar a year professor. Wow She's still there, even though she committed significant plagiarism and is arguably highly antisemitic. Yeah Unbelievable, right Yeah. Well, and I've, I've heard that, um, there are now schools trying to, or parents, parents trying to get past that their kids use litter boxes or something ridiculous like that. Is that real? It's like, what's that's something wrong with the parents. That's parenting. That's really messed up. And we don't have a time to, this is all, this is all the global warming narratives fault in a lot of ways. Cause women. Girls aren't valuing themselves as much as they used to because we don't value the babies. We need to value the babies because they got to go through this other crap, this other hard stuff. And if you don't value the babies, then why would I go through all that hard stuff? I'll just turn into a boy. Yeah. Or have a girlfriend. Yeah. Or be a furry. Right. Be a furry. Yeah. Right. Which is just It's hard for me. I mean, I, I, I, I like to I don't know. I see we're almost up for time here, but like I see that, um, you know, some people are like, I don't quite identify this way or that way. Okay. Um, okay. But like when you've got, I don't know, I don't know, maybe I'm afraid to go there. I've got some friends that that might offend. No, I'm, you know, I've, and I've, I've got a lot of friends actually right now who's Who's girls were girls and now they're they them's and some have had top surgery some have Gone farther and I just think it's a tragedy It's it's like one thing like if you're if you're girls are the best 30 if you're 30 and you still feel that way but right when when it's like When you're 15 When I was 15, oh my god, not that I thought about that kind of stuff Yeah, I had no idea who I was at 15. I was a little tiny I was just trying to get a boy to like me. I was like, ooh. Right. Well, I, so I, my situation, I went to 7th grade as a 4'11 108 pound person. Oh, you're tiny. Wow. And at the end of, I was Kurt the Squirt. And at the end of 10th grade, I was a 5'1 120 pound person. Wow. So I was still tiny and I was depressed and I was like just felt so and I was suicidal a little bit in those years for a while like I remember thinking after this football season, maybe I'll think about it. You know, I never really got deep into it because I love football season that much more. But but I got down, you know, and, and, you know, then I got tall and I got, I was always smart. I got handsome later, like 30, like I was pretty homely when my wife picked me up, you know. And we do, we go through so many things. I mean, I went through, uh, I went through seven years of. And I think for women, it is especially hard. And I wasn't even a woman yet. Like, big or skinny? What? Like, you were eating too much or not enough? Oh, no, not enough. Not enough. Yeah, I was, yeah, I was kind of both. And that was a psychological thing back then. And that was huge back then. Right, it's the same kind of thing going on now with the furries and the boy stuff. Right, right, right. And I remember everybody, well, not everybody, that's an exaggeration and generalization, but a lot of girls in, middle school, high school, early college were, you know, taking laxatives, not eating, making themselves throw up, doing all these things. And it was kind of, but that was also during the Kate Moss phase, where everything you saw in the media was be skinny, be skinny, be as small as you can. Do you want a controversial question? Yeah. Um, so I've got a, I've got a friend that has a theory that. One of the reasons that the world is crazy now is partly because women are so feelings driven, and they vote that way as well. And, like, these things that we've talked about, the anorexia bulimia, and now, frankly, much more concentrated in depression, trans expectations. Suicide has become huge. Suicide is way huge. It always used to be all the boys, and now it's girls. do you think he's got a point? Like, like, we're not going to take the right away from women to vote, but like, just no charge for women to be more, I do think intentionally logical and less feelings driven. I think it's a, I think it's a generalization, but I think that there could be some truths to that generalization because women are communicators and communicating To some degree is feeling, right? So it's, it's this bi directional, like you give and you receive, you give and you receive. And I think a lot when you think about men, again, another generalization is like, we don't give and receive. We do. We just don't do. Right. Like if we're upset, we're going to go play basketball or we're going to go like whatever the thing might be. So I do think there's some truth to it, but I do think it's also part generalization because I know some women who are, um, fierce in nature and super logical and make all of their decisions based on logic and you know They're very analytical and totally and a lot of the women in my in the scout guide group Like when I because we get together once a month like with a nice group and you know Sometimes when we have these conversations you can definitely Differentiate between the ones who are like driven. It was like I just felt so this or that the other and the others who are like sitting back and just kind of observing and you can tell that they're, they're processing differently. So well in confessional, I'm probably much more feelings driven than the average man, which is a superpower arguably of mine. So probably why you're so good at this, because you, you know, the questions to ask that make the conversation feel very natural and back and forth where it's like, so Matt, interesting story before we end here. Sure. When I first met him, when I first started working at safe belt, we went through this like. Sales training thing at, uh, Embassy Suites and I was sitting in between him and he was the COO and I was sitting Him and the CEO. Okay, and Which was Mike or not Mike at that time? Not Mike at that time. It was Greg Toth at the time. Yeah, I remember. And so we had to take this so this wonderful woman Colleen Stanley. Do you know her? Don't she's fascinating. She's really interesting. You strike, she, she has books written and she does sales. Yeah. Sales leadership. She had us do this like, um, emotional intelligence quiz, and then we got a whole book back and so on the last page of the book was this bar graph of like where your strengths are and. My emotional intelligence is extremely high. Like I was like top of the bar and almost everything. And I'm, so we're looking at this and she comes over. And at that time I was just managing the proposal team. And she goes, why are you in proposals? You should be doing something with people, but then she looks over at him and which caused me to kind of look over and their empathy scores were like. Yeah. Which I think is fascinating. Oh, and the CEO. And Greg. Yeah. Fascinating. Because Matt's actually very empathetic. But I think in his work environment. Yeah. I think he has these compartments. He's got a developed trait of being able to shut that off. So he can just make rational decisions kind of. So in that compartment, right, he compartmentalizes it out. It's a work environment. So he's answering like he would a business person. Yeah. Yeah. And I was like, wow, women. Not all, I'm, I can't generalize, but me, I don't answer that way. I answer how I feel majority of the time. Not how I am right now. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and I. Yeah, probably that's true also that men have kind of a work mode and a not work mode more in some ways. Because they know that if they're at home, and they're just always in work mode, they're not going to connect with their woman very good. No, they won't have one. Right. Not for long, not for long. Yeah, yeah. Sometimes I hear Matt on calls and I'll like walk by and I'll be like, Who are you? You know, but he's doing what he's gotta do to, like, Yeah, get it done. Lead the charge. So, yeah. Well, let's, uh, let's wrap it up with the Loco experience. Yes. Your craziest experience that you're willing to share. My crazy experience, oh my gosh. Wow, I wasn't expecting that. From any time in your lifetime. So, ooh. Could be a moment, a week, a year. a month. I don't know. Tell me about this. Well, if you want to, or maybe it's part of it, the random trip to California when you're 18 and coming back. Yeah, so that was crazy. That was definitely crazy. So, um, I had graduated and my friend Connie and I decided that we were just going to take off and go to California and we were going to be beach bums and we were going to, like, figure it out when we got there. And so, her mom had this huge jar, like, you know, as tall as that. That's my coin jar down there on the floor, actually. Yeah, hers was huge, though. It was like this big around. Way bigger. More like a water bottle thing or whatever. Her mom had always thrown her change in there. We're gonna steal mom's change jar, and we're gonna take, steal, take my Celica, and we're gonna go So she had, she had a Grand Am. What was that, a Chevy? She had a Grand Am. Pontiac, actually. Pontiac, Grand Am. And, I said, your car is old, you need to make sure it's gonna get us to California. And So she goes and gets it checked out and she's like, we're good. We're good. He said, my car to make it there. So we take this jar in bags of gold and this was okay back in the day. Okay. And the grandad was like dragging in the bag because you got bags of quarters. We took it and like changed it and did the thing. Oh, okay. Good. That was, that's easier. we get to San Diego. I think our first job we got was at like this, I could only compare it to like, um, Like we're going to be in the movies or something? Or what was your plan really? No, we just, we had a friend, a friend that was like years older than us, but he was like, he like had graduated two years before us. Yeah, but he knew your girls were cute and he was like, yeah, you can come stay with me. Yes, and he lived on the beach in Mission Beach. Surfed every day, was like, yeah, come stay here. He had like a studio apartment. We're like, we're coming. We're on our way. Yeah. So we drove, got all the way to San Diego, got jobs, like, you know, that place on Harmony Wahoos. It's like a fish taco place. It was kind of like that in San Diego. And we got these jobs and then we showed up and we were like, Oh my gosh, we have to wear these stupid uniforms. Like, absolutely not. And so we quit after the first day. And so the money that we had taken from her mom lasted us for about two weeks. And then after that, we were like this. It's so stupid. And she like all of a sudden like started breaking down like, I need to go home and got really homesick. And so we You're like, I guess I'm going too. Packed up and drove back home. Yeah. I think that qualifies. Yeah. That was all part of that. Like I said, I went to Mizzou and then after Mizzou, I was sort of like I need to go find myself. So this is after like your first year in Mizzou and you're like, all right, fuck this, let's roll. Yes, yes, yes. So, yep, yep. So I, you know, kind of lived my free bird life for a few years there. If somebody's listening to this and they want to check out the Scout Guide or contact you, do you want to tell them how to find you? Yes, absolutely. So, um, you can always reach out to me, uh, directly via email, which is Uh, Shaney, well, sorry, it's not Shaney. It's S Cornelius, 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 Fort Collins. Um, LinkedIn probably. Yeah, I'm not super active on LinkedIn. Instagram's the big one. And then, um, if you go to the website, uh, um, the scout guide. com forward slash Fort Collins, you can find my website there. So, yeah. All right. Well, this was fun. Thank you. Thanks for being here. Thanks