EXPERIENCE 223 | Building a Social Enterprise with Joe & Melissa Basta of Tellus Outdoor Gear

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In this episode of the Local Experience Podcast, I sat down with Joe and Melissa Basta, co-founders of Telus, an outdoor apparel brand and social enterprise based in Fort Collins.

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They share their founding story, focusing on their commitment to sustainability using recycled or organic materials, and donating 100% of their net profits to environmental initiatives.

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Melissa explains her role in overseeing marketing and the company's give back programs.

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While Joe discusses his background in Outward Bound and Peace Corps, which influenced their company's mission and values, they discussed the challenges and successes of launching their flagship store in Fort Collins.

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Telus was seated with funds from the sale of a previous business Rodell, which Joe developed into a vertically integrated vanilla extract business, connecting hundreds of farmers in Madagascar with millions of shoppers at Costco and Trader Joe's.

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The conversation also delves into their personal lives, including their mutual early life crises that led them to meet in the Peace Corps, their family dynamics and children, and how they balance their personal and professional lives.

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Joe and Melissa emphasized the importance of experiences, travel and flexibility for young people figuring out their career and life journey.

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And the episode wraps up with a thoughtful discussion of the future of their business and their commitment to making a positive impact on the planet.

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They've got great gear, a wonderful mission and strong conversation skills, and I know you'll enjoy getting to know my latest guests, Joe and Melissa Basta.

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Welcome back to the Loco Experience Podcast.

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My guest today are Joe and Melissa Busta.

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Sounds like our rhymes like rhymes with pasta.

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Mm-hmm.

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And they are the co-founders and chief volunteers at Telus.

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And so fun to say it this way.

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But, uh, Melissa, why don't you tell us what TELUS is all about?

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Well, Telus um, is an outdoor apparel brand local here to Fort Collins.

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We started, um, probably about three and a half years ago.

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Mm-hmm.

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Um, and we opened, officially opened, uh, our flagship store, big flagship store right here in Fort Collins in December of 2023.

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Okay.

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And tell us, uh, is outdoor gear of all sorts, is that right?

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Like.

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Uh, rain gear, backpacks.

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Mm-hmm.

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Like all of it.

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Um, when you think of what people like to do, uh, who live here in Fort Collins, I would think of, you know, anything you do outside biking, hiking, you know, paddle boarding.

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Um, yeah.

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We have everything from, you know, outdoor pants that you would hike in, uh, to shorts that you would hike in, um, to performance wear for running and, um, just working out.

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Isn't that, or walking your dog.

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Isn't that a crowded space?

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Like isn't there too many brands in that space already?

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It is a crowded space.

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Um, uh, but we're doing things a little bit differently.

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Um, a couple things that set us apart are we made the choice to make all of our products, uh, using recycled or organic materials, and we're a social enterprise in that we give back 100% of our net profits to environmental initiatives.

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Interesting.

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Are you allowed to retain net profits to grow your inventory and grow?

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We are.

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Yes.

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Okay.

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I mean, we cover overhead and then reinvest.

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Okay.

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Fair enough.

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But if, if the owners aren't gonna take any money out of this is what I'm hearing.

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Yes, that is true.

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That's so awesome.

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And, uh, how long did this sit in the cooker for?

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Like was this an idea for years or did it like, after I knew you had a business journey before Joe and you had a prior career.

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Mm-hmm.

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Yes.

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I would say it, it stewed for a while.

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And this is actually probably a better question for Joe to answer because it, it goes all the way back to his days, um, probably stemming from your days in Outward Bound and then coming outta Peace Corps and.

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Let's do it and where you're at.

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Sure.

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So, um, right outta college, I was a, actually, um, I worked for Colorado Outward Bound.

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Okay.

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Did that for, uh, two seasons.

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I was, uh, an instructor for out outdoor leadership program.

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Okay.

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Uh, really, uh, gave me the bug for all things outdoors, especially in Cal, Colorado.

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I was stationed in Silverton, Colorado.

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Uh, worked with, uh, disadvantaged use, um, 21 day programs out there.

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Okay.

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So we're actually, uh, out in the wilderness for 21 days.

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Were you trained to do this?

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Were you like a counselor or something?

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Uh, upward Bound does train train you I see.

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As an instructor.

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Okay.

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So you, you do it an intensive training for a few months prior to the program starting.

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Gotcha.

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Gotcha.

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So, uh, and I actually, I was a student of Upward Bound when I was 16, which it did a lot for me as well.

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Oh yeah.

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And, uh, so I got the bug early on in my life.

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So I was always in, in the mountains, playing in the mountains, hiking the mountains, camping in the mountains, uh, for many, many years.

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And I was always a gearhead.

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And, uh, anytime my body, you know,$200 plus jacket, I was always evaluating it, wondering why this pocket was here, wondering why there wasn't a pocket there.

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Mm-hmm.

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Durability, longevity.

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It was, you know, actually rainproof or.

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You know, rain res resistance.

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Yeah.

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So, uh, when I sold my previous business, uh, which was here in town in 2019, um, in 2020, obviously COVID hits.

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And that was really the time that Melissa and I started talking about can we build a true social enterprise within this space?

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Which as you mentioned, is a very crowded space.

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But where we really differentiate ourselves is the a hundred percent give back, give back.

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After all, you know, all of our employees are play paid, our utilities are paid, uh, overhead, uh, reinvesting in the company.

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So, uh, so far so good.

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Uh, we've been able to, to give these past, past two years now to the Nature Conservancy, which is our main giving partner.

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Okay.

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Um, it's actually through the, uh, Boulder chapter and in, in the giving you get to choose, uh, point of sale.

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Uh, what's dear to your heart?

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Uh, it's reforestation here within Colorado Conservation US wide, which is called, uh, America the Beautiful, as well as, uh, coral Reef Protection, which is an international program with them.

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Yeah.

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That's coral's such a fascinating element of the world.

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Mm-hmm.

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Uh, have you heard this?

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That if they have the same kind of coral from the same part of the world, but you take one piece and put it under a bucket, under a sink in the uk, it'll still blossom at the same time.

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Interesting that coral wood in that original destination or in Brazil did not know that.

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Yeah.

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They're all like somehow, like telepathically con itself?

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No, they're like, I dunno.

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They're connected somehow.

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Interesting.

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Even without access to tides or water or Wow.

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Sun or moon, they somehow reproduce the same species on the same day they bloom together.

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It's interesting.

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I mean, we, we follow a fair amount of groups, um, in coral Reef work through our, um, social media and watching the ones that have the coral reef gardens is really interesting in how they, I mean, they're literally underwater gardens.

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Yeah.

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And I was just watching actually, a.

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Meat Eater podcast, our meat eater video the other night.

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Mm-hmm.

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On all the fish that are around all the oil rigs off of Texas and Louisiana.

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Mm-hmm.

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Especially in particularly, they started decommissioning them and tipping'em over and stuff, but then other boats would hit'em sometimes and different things.

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And so they would generally just leave'em stand now and they're like, there's coral growing all over.

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Yeah.

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Essentially becoming a reef itself.

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Yeah.

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It's becoming a reef right there.

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So interest.

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Anyway, I digress.

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Interesting.

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Mm-hmm.

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So a, a sustainable cause.

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So over time you want it to grow and grow presumably.

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Right.

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Offer more products, employ more people, um.

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Correct.

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And give more dollars.

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The, the more we we grow, the more we can give Yeah.

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To these causes.

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And so only being a year and a half into it, we're, we're still, you know, in startup mode.

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Sure.

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You know, here in Fort Collins with our flagship store being here, as Melissa said, off of Lyndon Street, downtown Fort Collins, and then online sales.

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So we, uh, we are a little different.

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We're direct to consumer, so we do not sell wholesale Okay.

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To any wholesalers.

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Like, can't get it on Amazon or anything.

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You can't get it to Amazon or REI Nice.

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Locally here at Jack's.

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Uh, and the reason why we're doing that mainly is first off, we, we do have lower volumes.

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Yep.

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We have very high quality goods as far as, um, we stand behind them.

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I, I think we, we, we produce roughly 36 pieces, um, mostly clothing.

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Um, some accessories like duffel bags, backpacks, um, and as Melissa said, all made out a recycle and organic material, but, uh, really direct to consumer gives us, you know, more profit, you know, to us that we can give, you know, to the causes.

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Yeah.

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Fair enough.

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Is there any other companies doing that?

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Uh, most of our competitors, the majority of the, our larger competitors, obviously you got Patagonia, you have Nor Face, you have Coda Epoxy, the majority of those companies, it's 1% back to the planet.

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We're right, right.

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We're a hundred percent back to the planet.

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In other categories, are there companies, did you study other completely give back kind of organizations?

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Good question.

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Good question.

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I, I was in the, uh, food product, uh, business prior to this business, uh, for 20 years.

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And we specialized in baking ingredients and really, uh, I was.

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Always fascinated with Newman's own, which was okay, your, your first really upscale food products.

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Mm-hmm.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Uh, and so here, here, here, you, you have a guy like Paul Newman, successful Academy Award winner.

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He race cars.

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Right.

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Right.

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He accomplished everything he wanted.

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And so later in his career, he actually started Newman's own, you know, food products.

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I, I believe starting with salad dressing and now I believe, I believe there's probably about 40, 50 different products.

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Yeah.

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So that's a hundred, a hundred percent of those profits go to charitable causes.

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Okay.

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And so I was always fascinated with that concept and that model.

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Yeah.

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Which gave us the idea that was kind, inspirational product, you know, towards this in industry, the outdoor apparel industry.

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Yeah.

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How does shipping work and stuff, if you're, uh, you gotta become experts at.

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Shipping then too, right?

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If you're direct cons to consumer, you're using FedEx or Correct.

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Whatever.

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It's, it's, that's one of the easiest parts is, you know, we get an order in and we ship it through UUPS, United States Postal Service or FedEx.

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Yeah.

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You know, when an order comes in and it just, whatever size box, whatever price is, you probably have the system even checks it out.

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You order a large jacket and a t-shirt and a mug.

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We, we back it up and actually re recycled recycled bags from post consumer recycle bags and, uh, then we deliver it to your doorstep.

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I dig it.

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Mm-hmm.

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What's your like timeline you like, are you trying to spin this thing up and then be able to, I mean, you're not very old.

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But, you know, running a startup is hard and like, how, what do you, what do you wanna achieve here?

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Sure, sure.

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Um, the first, uh, really three to five years we wanted to focus here locally on spreading the word here in northern Colorado.

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Yeah.

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Um, you know, over this area has grown to about 185,000 in population.

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Yeah.

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I think we just touch the surface of getting our message and, and, and the word out of, you know, and we're, we're actually in the River district, which is not in downtown, um, Fort Collins.

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It's not on the square.

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It's not, yeah.

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It's kind of on the edge.

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Yeah.

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Mm-hmm.

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It's on the edge.

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On the edge.

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It's a growing upcoming area.

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Yep.

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So we're a bit of a destination, you know, word of mouth on a referral basis.

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So really we want to focus strictly on the flagship store.

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I believe, you know, with Fort Collins being such a vibrant economy with Colorado State University being here, and a lot of parents come in, students come in, they go back to, to their homes in different parts of the country.

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Mm-hmm.

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Yep.

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And what we're finding out, you know, uh, with that is the word is spreading to these different locations.

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Yeah, yeah.

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Uh, we have, you know, parents that stop by the store.

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Mm-hmm.

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They, they buy a piece or two and, um, I would say probably about 50% of our online orders are coming from reorders mm-hmm.

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For people who've actually visited a store.

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That's cool.

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Fort Collins.

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Mm-hmm.

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And with Fort Collins being a, a, a tourist destination as well.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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That's, that's really helping, helping us tremendously.

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Well, and like good job making your brand highly visible, but not obnoxious on every item you have.

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Like, you can't miss it, but it's not like we like to call it simple elegance.

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Yeah.

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That's cool.

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Yeah, I think that's great.

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Um, and so really this kind of market, I just, a couple weeks ago I had a Russian economist on and he talked about the, the importance of kind of organic growth brands that get so kind of much love and attention and strong and popular within their.

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Region.

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They don't need to be spun up by a bunch of private equity or have a bunch of investors, but they get, they catch on and then they're able to kind of escape the gravity of that region.

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Mm-hmm.

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Yeah.

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And we're very fortunate to be, you're looking at the two primary investors, so, right.

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You know, in previous companies I worked with private equity, e equity, I worked with banks.

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Um, and really we wanted to start this off small where we don't have that pressure from outside groups.

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Uh, really trying to ramp you up to, you know, how do you, how fast can you get to your first million?

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How fast can you get to your, you know, your$5 million in sales?

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So, so you really hit the nail on the head as far as growing organically.

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Mm-hmm.

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There's really no pressure on our end to, to ramp this up, you know, uh, going from zero to 60 in 3.2 seconds.

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Yeah.

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We really do want to take our time and do, yeah.

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It could be a slow money play regardless.

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Correct.

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Melissa, how do you guys divide what you do?

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What are, what are each of you best at in this vision, in this journey?

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You know, that's a good question.

00:13:50.246 --> 00:13:55.167
Um, you know, one of our big company, um, slogans is Adventure with Purpose.

00:13:55.256 --> 00:13:59.397
And I feel like, you know, our backgrounds what we each bring to the table.

00:13:59.397 --> 00:14:03.386
Um, you know, Joe being, you know, the big outdoor person and you know.

00:14:04.361 --> 00:14:06.162
Being in the gearhead, whatever, all that.

00:14:06.162 --> 00:14:07.542
Yeah, the gearhead and all that.

00:14:07.542 --> 00:14:12.611
Um, and my background's really in public relations and public affairs and over the years I've worked on lots of issues.

00:14:12.611 --> 00:14:22.272
So for me, the part of the business that I work most on is kind of our outward facing, um, working with the marketing team, but then also on the give back.

00:14:22.331 --> 00:14:28.422
Um, and so I spent a lot of time kind of researching the organizations, um, and we eventually landed on the Nature Conservancy.

00:14:28.422 --> 00:14:30.761
So I would say I do a lot of that piece.

00:14:30.792 --> 00:14:36.251
Um, Joe focuses a lot on the operations, um, with his background from his previous business as well.

00:14:36.251 --> 00:14:36.792
I think.

00:14:37.211 --> 00:14:38.922
So we compliment each other that way.

00:14:39.042 --> 00:14:39.522
Um.

00:14:40.886 --> 00:14:41.697
Do you have anything to add to that?

00:14:42.267 --> 00:14:45.807
No, I, well, we, we definitely have two different complete skill sets.

00:14:45.836 --> 00:14:45.956
Yeah.

00:14:45.956 --> 00:14:53.636
With, with me Melissa's background in public relations, uh, her previous employment well with National Geographic, which she is very humble.

00:14:53.636 --> 00:14:55.947
She doesn't like to bring that up.

00:14:55.976 --> 00:14:56.667
Talk more about that.

00:14:57.057 --> 00:14:58.527
So, uh, yeah.

00:14:58.557 --> 00:14:59.846
And then supply chain too.

00:14:59.846 --> 00:15:00.927
I, I have a, mm-hmm.

00:15:01.256 --> 00:15:03.761
Pretty, pretty substantial background in supply chain.

00:15:03.836 --> 00:15:05.966
And our goods are made in Vietnam.

00:15:06.027 --> 00:15:09.297
Uh, we chose Vietnam'cause they're known for higher, higher quality goods.

00:15:09.326 --> 00:15:09.626
Okay.

00:15:10.017 --> 00:15:13.287
So a hundred percent of our products are made, um, in Vietnam.

00:15:13.317 --> 00:15:15.386
Uh, obviously we designed'em here locally.

00:15:15.567 --> 00:15:21.476
Uh, we worked with a local designer as well as Collaborated Lake in Colorado State University, who has a great fashion and design school here.

00:15:21.476 --> 00:15:21.836
Okay.

00:15:22.017 --> 00:15:23.937
Yeah, that was my next question, school.

00:15:24.206 --> 00:15:26.126
So, yeah, talk to me more about the design.

00:15:26.157 --> 00:15:28.496
Like how many designs did you launch with?

00:15:28.557 --> 00:15:28.947
Where did you.

00:15:29.547 --> 00:15:30.447
Come up with them.

00:15:30.447 --> 00:15:31.886
How much were you involved?

00:15:32.037 --> 00:15:33.297
Oh, very involved.

00:15:33.447 --> 00:15:34.346
Very involved.

00:15:34.407 --> 00:15:41.397
Uh, I, I really, uh, play by if, if, if I'm not going to wear it, I'm, we're not going to produce this personally.

00:15:41.427 --> 00:15:43.167
And I think Melissa can say the same.

00:15:43.496 --> 00:15:46.647
It's, it's, it's a pretty intense, uh, tedious process.

00:15:46.647 --> 00:15:47.006
Yeah.

00:15:47.277 --> 00:15:49.226
You, you start with obviously the design.

00:15:49.287 --> 00:15:55.197
Um, and then once you get that design down, obviously textiles and fabrics is a, a big, very big part of that.

00:15:55.201 --> 00:15:55.471
Yeah.

00:15:55.471 --> 00:15:55.672
Mm-hmm.

00:15:55.917 --> 00:15:57.417
Um, being fairly limited.

00:15:57.456 --> 00:15:59.677
Getting back to recycled organic materials.

00:15:59.797 --> 00:15:59.976
Yeah.

00:15:59.976 --> 00:15:59.977
Yeah.

00:16:00.366 --> 00:16:01.506
Um, we've come a long way.

00:16:01.506 --> 00:16:06.126
There's some Great, and can you like, look through catalogs looking for these recycled organic materials?

00:16:06.126 --> 00:16:08.557
Or how do you, you work, you work directly with the textiles?

00:16:08.947 --> 00:16:09.096
Okay.

00:16:09.096 --> 00:16:13.236
So, um, the vast majority of our textiles and our fabrics come from Taiwan.

00:16:13.326 --> 00:16:13.417
Mm-hmm.

00:16:13.956 --> 00:16:18.307
Um, we do have a, for our duffel bags, we do use a, uh, US textile here.

00:16:18.397 --> 00:16:18.966
Um, okay.

00:16:18.966 --> 00:16:25.386
Which is a, a great product that's, it's a hundred percent waterproof, a hundred percent recycled, and that goes in our duffel bags and our backpacks.

00:16:25.807 --> 00:16:33.486
Uh, so once you, once you kind of nail that down, you go through different variations of prototypes, uh, we probably averaged four prototypes per piece.

00:16:33.517 --> 00:16:33.876
Okay.

00:16:33.907 --> 00:16:37.476
Where you're, you're, you're changing dimensions, your changing in styles.

00:16:37.517 --> 00:16:37.576
Yeah.

00:16:37.846 --> 00:16:38.447
Yeah.

00:16:38.506 --> 00:16:41.267
Collar size all the way to your cuffs.

00:16:41.297 --> 00:16:41.356
Yeah.

00:16:41.657 --> 00:16:47.897
You know, um, so there's a substantial capital investment to launch something like this, but there is the intellectual mm-hmm.

00:16:48.136 --> 00:16:50.626
Investment is probably even more substantial in a way.

00:16:50.631 --> 00:16:57.976
So prior to opening up this store current, we spent roughly about two years really on deep dive on RD Yeah.

00:16:58.037 --> 00:16:58.996
Behind all those.

00:16:58.996 --> 00:17:03.886
So we spent, uh, close to two, two and a half years, um, developing the products.

00:17:04.307 --> 00:17:07.967
And then we launched the store in, um, December, 2023.

00:17:08.207 --> 00:17:08.537
Okay.

00:17:09.106 --> 00:17:09.616
Talk to me about.

00:17:10.406 --> 00:17:16.017
Uh, I guess not aspirational brands, because I think you're trying to be the best brand in your space.

00:17:16.047 --> 00:17:16.136
True.

00:17:16.317 --> 00:17:20.332
But what were you wearing before, I guess is probably the right way to answer that or ask that question.

00:17:20.332 --> 00:17:20.936
Great, great question.

00:17:20.936 --> 00:17:21.626
Great question.

00:17:21.626 --> 00:17:22.856
Good way to bring up the competition.

00:17:23.307 --> 00:17:28.916
Uh, you know, uh, really for, uh, for me personally, I, I think Patagonia does, does a fantastic job.

00:17:29.007 --> 00:17:34.017
Um, you know, they got a 50 year, both Patagonia nor Face has a roughly a 50 year headstart on this.

00:17:34.017 --> 00:17:34.196
Yep.

00:17:34.707 --> 00:17:37.767
Uh, Patagonian, in our opinion, they're doing a lot of the right.

00:17:37.767 --> 00:17:38.432
Things.

00:17:38.491 --> 00:17:42.422
Um, they have many, many products, you know, we're just a fraction of their products.

00:17:42.422 --> 00:17:46.922
Uh, they're very transparent, uh, which we, we stand by that as well.

00:17:46.922 --> 00:17:49.142
We, we want to be a hundred percent transparent.

00:17:49.231 --> 00:17:54.961
Uh, but we wanted to come out of the gates with a hundred percent of our products made out of either recycled organic materials.

00:17:54.991 --> 00:17:56.342
Yeah, I believe, uh.

00:17:56.692 --> 00:18:04.342
Patagonia, this is, and don't quote me on this, but I believe they touted about a year and a half ago that about 70% of their products are Okay.

00:18:04.342 --> 00:18:06.021
Are made outta recycling the organic materials.

00:18:06.021 --> 00:18:06.112
Yeah.

00:18:06.561 --> 00:18:11.842
I think it might be a little bit higher now, but, uh, they're, they're probably in the realm of 300 different products where Right, right.

00:18:11.842 --> 00:18:13.162
You know, compared to 36.

00:18:13.166 --> 00:18:13.217
Yeah.

00:18:13.221 --> 00:18:13.402
Yeah.

00:18:13.402 --> 00:18:14.301
It's quite different.

00:18:14.872 --> 00:18:16.731
And then we just started phase two.

00:18:16.761 --> 00:18:19.882
Um, I, we call that phase one with those initial products.

00:18:19.942 --> 00:18:22.251
We, we were just wrapping up phase two right now.

00:18:22.342 --> 00:18:22.642
Okay.

00:18:22.642 --> 00:18:24.051
So you've been back in the design room?

00:18:24.051 --> 00:18:28.912
We're back in the design and yeah, we're back in the design phase of things, uh, which is exciting.

00:18:28.942 --> 00:18:34.942
Um, these are gonna be more lifestyle pieces, um, which we're very excited about, but you're always thinking a year ahead.

00:18:35.031 --> 00:18:40.251
So everything that we're doing now is going to land roughly a year from now, roughly 12 months.

00:18:40.281 --> 00:18:48.231
So, um, just, just to pull a product out of a place like Vietnam, once you place that order, it's takes about six to eight months to bring back into the country.

00:18:48.231 --> 00:18:48.321
Mm-hmm.

00:18:48.686 --> 00:18:55.527
Now, I think, wasn't Vietnam one of the first, uh, countries to be like, we wanna make a deal, uh, on the tariff thing?

00:18:55.767 --> 00:18:56.846
Is that my memory?

00:18:57.237 --> 00:18:57.477
Yeah.

00:18:57.477 --> 00:18:59.037
Our heads have been definitely spinning.

00:18:59.396 --> 00:19:11.067
I'm sure you've been noticing there's some talk about tariffs and stuff with, uh, all, all this commotion, uh, and, and this dialogue about tariffs the last two months, uh, it's, it's put a lot of mid-size and small companies a bit of in Abin.

00:19:11.426 --> 00:19:11.846
Yeah.

00:19:11.852 --> 00:19:12.082
Yeah.

00:19:12.237 --> 00:19:21.356
Um, you know, since we're kind of newbies in the industry, we're not, well, no bargaining power throughout and we're, we're working with very, very small minimums.

00:19:21.477 --> 00:19:25.467
So, uh, we're hoping for some clarity here, um, soon.

00:19:25.497 --> 00:19:25.707
Yeah.

00:19:25.707 --> 00:19:28.977
We're hoping to stay with, uh, a, a number of our manufacturers who.

00:19:29.767 --> 00:19:35.856
We traveled, uh, several times to Vietnam to hand select these manufacturers who we feel they're doing all the right things.

00:19:35.862 --> 00:19:36.001
Yeah.

00:19:36.126 --> 00:19:36.186
Yeah.

00:19:36.366 --> 00:19:45.666
So we, we, we hope we can continue those relationships, but, uh, once again, uh, if we do need to pivot to other countries, um, that's what we're gonna be forced to do.

00:19:45.666 --> 00:19:45.787
Mm-hmm.

00:19:46.297 --> 00:19:50.287
But as it stands now, we just can't stomach the, uh, tariff difference.

00:19:50.287 --> 00:19:58.146
It's about two and a half times than what we were paying previously in a company our size, especially with a hundred percent give back, it, it just wouldn't make any sense.

00:19:58.146 --> 00:19:58.237
Mm-hmm.

00:19:58.477 --> 00:20:01.777
Um, that$250 jacket's gonna end up being a$400.

00:20:02.436 --> 00:20:03.188
Right, right, right.

00:20:03.366 --> 00:20:04.446
Just makes it impossible.

00:20:04.477 --> 00:20:04.807
Right.

00:20:05.106 --> 00:20:07.477
So, um, let's, uh.

00:20:08.217 --> 00:20:10.017
I think we'll come back to tell us a little bit Sure.

00:20:10.076 --> 00:20:12.237
And, and some of the products and design.

00:20:12.507 --> 00:20:23.096
But I wanna hear a little bit more about the business journey leading up to, um, and Joe dropped a, that you, you were with National Geographic for a time, is that mm-hmm.

00:20:23.457 --> 00:20:26.906
Yeah, it was, it was a short a time I, coming out of Peace Corps.

00:20:26.906 --> 00:20:37.527
Um, I ended up working for the channel, um, in their communications department working on public relations to launch the channel in markets outside the United States.

00:20:37.527 --> 00:20:37.616
Oh, wow.

00:20:37.616 --> 00:20:38.846
So the channel was fairly new.

00:20:39.027 --> 00:20:39.207
Yep.

00:20:39.446 --> 00:20:49.196
Um, and so my work was, you know, really working on getting the channel up and running, but then also, um, promoting some of the, you know, our, our filming the films that we make.

00:20:49.196 --> 00:20:49.346
Oh, sure.

00:20:49.886 --> 00:20:50.126
Yeah.

00:20:50.217 --> 00:20:55.676
Um, it's an incredible place to work, a place where, you know, turnover's very low, but you learn a lot from a place like that.

00:20:55.676 --> 00:20:58.676
Just, you know, the behind the scenes that goes.

00:20:59.156 --> 00:21:02.336
Into making those documentaries and just all the good work they do, you know?

00:21:02.517 --> 00:21:02.666
Sure.

00:21:02.936 --> 00:21:09.987
Um, there's the nonprofit side of National Geographic, and then there's the for-profit side, which is, you know, kind of their, the magazines, the channels.

00:21:10.227 --> 00:21:10.346
Okay.

00:21:10.346 --> 00:21:11.636
That are income generators.

00:21:11.636 --> 00:21:14.396
And then you have the Society which funds all the research.

00:21:14.757 --> 00:21:16.467
Oh, is that, and the explorers and mm-hmm.

00:21:16.467 --> 00:21:26.696
So it's almost like the Rotary Foundation or something like that, where there's this bucket that's been set aside through the membership and the profits generated by films and documentaries and whatever.

00:21:27.297 --> 00:21:27.507
Mm-hmm.

00:21:27.511 --> 00:21:32.096
I didn't, so it was, you know, I got to work on another example of kind of that the public, private, yeah.

00:21:32.096 --> 00:21:32.876
Social enterprise.

00:21:33.086 --> 00:21:33.297
Mm-hmm.

00:21:33.717 --> 00:21:34.257
Interesting.

00:21:34.346 --> 00:21:34.586
Mm-hmm.

00:21:34.737 --> 00:21:35.997
So, um.

00:21:36.731 --> 00:21:41.922
And then your career from there went into more PR especially kind of thing?

00:21:41.922 --> 00:21:45.912
Well, so coming out of college, I worked for a public affairs firm in Chicago.

00:21:46.271 --> 00:21:46.541
Okay.

00:21:46.541 --> 00:21:55.301
Uh, and that, you know, was an agency where I worked with, you know, several different clients and, you know, over the years there you kind of learn about what you like working on and what you don't.

00:21:55.301 --> 00:21:59.622
And the projects that I gravitated towards were the ones that seemed to give back more to the community.

00:21:59.951 --> 00:22:03.642
Um, you know, I can think of one specifically, it was a project called Art Smart.

00:22:03.821 --> 00:22:11.291
It was run by Marshall Fields at the time, and it was trying to bring, you know, art education back into the, you know, to inner city youth.

00:22:11.297 --> 00:22:11.326
Yeah.

00:22:11.652 --> 00:22:11.711
Yeah.

00:22:11.801 --> 00:22:14.832
Um, and so I, those were the kinds of projects I gravitated toward.

00:22:14.832 --> 00:22:17.922
And then there were some that, you know, weren't as fun, um, yeah.

00:22:17.922 --> 00:22:19.061
Or weren't as meaningful.

00:22:19.511 --> 00:22:22.541
Uh, and then, um, I think Joe, you were in the same boat.

00:22:22.541 --> 00:22:33.432
We both kind of had this early life crisis, um, where, you know, I was maybe four years into to that job and decided I needed to make a change, um, and wanted to get more.

00:22:33.926 --> 00:22:35.336
Involved in work like that.

00:22:35.696 --> 00:22:42.116
Um, and so that's what led me to become a Peace Corps volunteer and Oh, you did it later?

00:22:42.122 --> 00:22:42.352
Mm-hmm.

00:22:42.471 --> 00:22:43.136
We did it later.

00:22:43.196 --> 00:22:44.096
Oh, interesting.

00:22:44.096 --> 00:22:44.277
Yeah.

00:22:44.281 --> 00:22:48.027
I, I, it was something I noodled on being from Central North Dakota mm-hmm.

00:22:48.267 --> 00:22:49.196
In a real small town.

00:22:49.196 --> 00:22:52.346
Like, I didn't even know anybody that I'd ever been to Peace Corps.

00:22:52.346 --> 00:22:52.436
Mm-hmm.

00:22:52.676 --> 00:22:56.426
But I'd learned about it and kind of looked into it, but I would've done it like right after college.

00:22:56.432 --> 00:22:56.551
College.

00:22:56.876 --> 00:22:57.086
Right.

00:22:57.146 --> 00:22:58.287
Which is what most people do.

00:22:58.317 --> 00:22:58.676
Yeah.

00:22:58.886 --> 00:23:00.957
Um, so I looked at a lot of different things.

00:23:00.957 --> 00:23:05.336
I was kind of, like I said, I was having the early life crisis and evaluating do I go back to school?

00:23:05.457 --> 00:23:05.576
Yeah.

00:23:05.576 --> 00:23:08.426
Do I need to change, you know, my job?

00:23:08.547 --> 00:23:12.086
Um, am I, do I just need an outward bound moment?

00:23:12.896 --> 00:23:12.987
Right.

00:23:13.616 --> 00:23:17.967
And, you know, peace Corps was one of the options on the table when I looked at everything.

00:23:17.967 --> 00:23:21.446
It, it kind of put together, you know, I wanted to be at the grassroots level.

00:23:21.446 --> 00:23:24.116
I wanted to be more connected to community project work.

00:23:24.446 --> 00:23:26.487
I wanted to be overseas somewhere.

00:23:26.517 --> 00:23:26.606
Mm-hmm.

00:23:26.846 --> 00:23:29.366
Um, and I also, you know.

00:23:29.892 --> 00:23:32.051
Wanted to be supported in some capacity.

00:23:32.051 --> 00:23:36.432
And so being Peace Corps volunteer, you know, they do provide you support, they provide you with insurance.

00:23:36.432 --> 00:23:39.132
If something happens, you know, they're there to evacuate you.

00:23:39.612 --> 00:23:41.592
Um, and so I, I just.

00:23:41.951 --> 00:23:43.061
I jumped off the edge.

00:23:43.122 --> 00:23:43.721
Interesting.

00:23:43.811 --> 00:23:44.051
Mm-hmm.

00:23:44.471 --> 00:23:46.122
And what did that look like for you?

00:23:46.122 --> 00:23:54.882
Like, like do, do they, do they pay you actually, like, do you come home from Peace Corps with more money than you left with and they provide you housing and stuff?

00:23:54.882 --> 00:24:05.237
Or is it pretty much like a It is, you get, while you're serving, you have a monthly stipend and it's kind of based off of the country that you live in, you know, and and how much, how much you need to eat.

00:24:05.326 --> 00:24:05.676
Right.

00:24:05.676 --> 00:24:08.201
And it's basically for, for, it's about that much food and housing.

00:24:08.531 --> 00:24:08.741
Right?

00:24:08.862 --> 00:24:09.551
Food and housing.

00:24:09.582 --> 00:24:09.612
Okay.

00:24:09.701 --> 00:24:10.781
Uh, it's not very much money.

00:24:10.781 --> 00:24:12.041
I think mine was maybe.

00:24:12.457 --> 00:24:15.576
Um, you know, right around$300 a month.

00:24:15.696 --> 00:24:16.176
Okay.

00:24:16.386 --> 00:24:17.317
Uh, so very small.

00:24:17.317 --> 00:24:24.336
And then after you complete your service, they give you, I can't remember how much it was, but maybe it was like$2,500 when you come out to kind of, okay.

00:24:24.636 --> 00:24:26.362
Pay deposit on the next apartment.

00:24:26.362 --> 00:24:26.761
Mm-hmm.

00:24:26.842 --> 00:24:30.247
Maybe make a change in your insurance plan because they're not gonna cover anymore.

00:24:30.277 --> 00:24:31.201
Put a down payment on a car.

00:24:31.362 --> 00:24:31.721
Mm-hmm.

00:24:32.497 --> 00:24:33.007
Interesting.

00:24:33.037 --> 00:24:33.307
Okay.

00:24:33.311 --> 00:24:33.442
Mm-hmm.

00:24:33.521 --> 00:24:37.386
So it is largely a, a give back kind of a notion right from the start.

00:24:37.386 --> 00:24:37.477
Mm-hmm.

00:24:37.717 --> 00:24:38.646
Strictly volunteer.

00:24:38.652 --> 00:24:38.801
Mm-hmm.

00:24:38.977 --> 00:24:39.457
Yeah.

00:24:39.517 --> 00:24:39.666
Yeah.

00:24:39.727 --> 00:24:40.717
Covered just enough.

00:24:40.747 --> 00:24:40.836
Mm-hmm.

00:24:41.082 --> 00:24:41.586
And, and where were you?

00:24:41.586 --> 00:24:42.007
Peace Corps.

00:24:42.396 --> 00:24:43.596
So I was in Haiti.

00:24:43.777 --> 00:24:44.257
Okay.

00:24:44.406 --> 00:24:44.767
Oh, wow.

00:24:44.797 --> 00:24:44.946
Yeah.

00:24:44.946 --> 00:24:48.396
And I was down there from, in cme, 96 to 2000.

00:24:48.487 --> 00:24:48.906
Okay.

00:24:49.176 --> 00:24:49.477
Okay.

00:24:49.477 --> 00:24:52.896
So it was unfortunately, probably better then than it is now.

00:24:52.896 --> 00:24:53.076
Oh.

00:24:53.196 --> 00:24:53.346
Mm-hmm.

00:24:53.707 --> 00:24:55.777
It was probably the, the.

00:24:56.352 --> 00:25:00.221
Most stable period in the history of the country, recent history of the country.

00:25:00.221 --> 00:25:04.481
And, you know, I was very fortunate to be there at that time and see it when it was like that.

00:25:04.481 --> 00:25:05.051
Yeah.

00:25:05.112 --> 00:25:05.442
Yeah.

00:25:05.446 --> 00:25:05.596
Mm-hmm.

00:25:05.876 --> 00:25:06.076
Interesting.

00:25:06.432 --> 00:25:08.892
And was your Peace Corps tour also in Haiti?

00:25:09.311 --> 00:25:09.672
Dominican.

00:25:09.912 --> 00:25:10.751
Dominican Republic.

00:25:10.781 --> 00:25:11.172
Oh, okay.

00:25:11.172 --> 00:25:13.451
So it's connected to Haiti.

00:25:13.451 --> 00:25:16.842
Um, Melissa definitely had the, uh, tougher side side of the island.

00:25:16.961 --> 00:25:17.291
Sure.

00:25:17.291 --> 00:25:17.922
For, for sure.

00:25:18.342 --> 00:25:24.912
So I, I was a Peace Corps volunteer from the 2000, or I'm sorry, um, 19, was it 97 to 2000?

00:25:24.912 --> 00:25:27.372
So I was roughly, um, six months behind.

00:25:27.402 --> 00:25:27.852
Gotcha.

00:25:27.852 --> 00:25:28.632
Roughly a year behind.

00:25:28.842 --> 00:25:29.711
And that's where we met.

00:25:29.832 --> 00:25:38.077
And how, because like they would do some trainings for all the Peace Corps people from time to time, or like you were on the beach, on the Haiti side and you saw her Oh, that's, or that's, that's right.

00:25:38.142 --> 00:25:45.852
Um, actually, I, I went to school, uh, one of my best friends from, from undergrad went, went, had a study abroad program with Melissa.

00:25:45.942 --> 00:25:46.031
Okay.

00:25:46.031 --> 00:25:48.311
It was a summer program in, in London, I believe.

00:25:48.317 --> 00:25:48.396
Mm-hmm.

00:25:48.477 --> 00:25:49.721
And, uh.

00:25:49.721 --> 00:25:54.731
He, and when I mentioned I was going to the Peace Corps in the Demic Republic, he mentioned Melissa's name.

00:25:54.821 --> 00:25:55.031
Okay.

00:25:55.031 --> 00:26:04.122
And, uh, this is right when, you know, internet was coming out in the late nineties, so we would write from time to time we were actually hit by a major hurricane.

00:26:04.152 --> 00:26:08.981
Uh, right when we got down there, we were trading notes and we both got Dengue fever at the same time.

00:26:09.192 --> 00:26:09.281
Mm-hmm.

00:26:09.701 --> 00:26:11.172
Survived that obviously.

00:26:11.801 --> 00:26:15.402
Uh, and then roughly it was about two weeks before you left the country.

00:26:15.402 --> 00:26:15.491
Mm-hmm.

00:26:15.731 --> 00:26:17.981
You'd never been to the Dominican Republic side.

00:26:17.981 --> 00:26:20.592
And she reached out to me saying, Hey, are you gonna be around?

00:26:21.041 --> 00:26:24.011
And I was, was gonna be in the capitol at this given weekend.

00:26:24.011 --> 00:26:30.432
And, uh, it was Super Bowl weekend, which is when all the, all, all, all the, all the male, of course the male volunteers.

00:26:30.432 --> 00:26:30.551
Yeah.

00:26:31.241 --> 00:26:37.271
All the male volunteers would, would find, you know, the, the, the one TV screen, the one bar that Super Bowl's playing in.

00:26:37.602 --> 00:26:43.362
And I said, Hey, I am gonna be around, but if you wanna join 15, 15 US for a Super Bowl, by all means join us.

00:26:43.362 --> 00:26:44.922
And the the rest is kind of history.

00:26:45.011 --> 00:26:45.402
Really.

00:26:45.551 --> 00:26:45.761
Yeah.

00:26:45.836 --> 00:26:50.876
Was it just like there wasn't any other, uh, ladies or fellas around for either of you after that?

00:26:50.876 --> 00:26:57.777
Um, it's just that, you know, the funniest thing is Kurt, is we, we were both living in Chicago in the same time in the nineties.

00:26:57.777 --> 00:26:57.836
Hmm.

00:26:57.926 --> 00:26:59.876
We, and we had no idea.

00:26:59.902 --> 00:27:05.156
We, we interviewed at the same Peace Corps, peace Corps office in Chicago, roughly six months apart.

00:27:05.636 --> 00:27:11.457
And when we started talking, uh, we realized that we lived roughly four, four blocks away from each other.

00:27:11.967 --> 00:27:12.656
And fascinating.

00:27:12.656 --> 00:27:16.196
We, we shared the sa same el el stop, the same train stop.

00:27:16.826 --> 00:27:20.576
You know, we, we probably saw each other, you know, from time to time and didn't know it.

00:27:20.576 --> 00:27:22.317
I used to, you know, run in the mornings.

00:27:22.317 --> 00:27:27.642
I would run right in front of her, you know, apartment, you know, which with not knowing that she was there, of course, obviously.

00:27:27.642 --> 00:27:27.644
Of course.

00:27:27.648 --> 00:27:27.896
Yeah.

00:27:28.561 --> 00:27:30.932
And so the, the stars kind of aligned.

00:27:30.932 --> 00:27:32.192
I'm like, you gotta be kidding me.

00:27:32.221 --> 00:27:32.281
Yeah.

00:27:32.281 --> 00:27:36.932
That's, uh, here we are in the Peace Corps, in, in, in this, you know, developing country and we're meeting each other.

00:27:36.991 --> 00:27:37.082
Mm-hmm.

00:27:37.711 --> 00:27:41.521
And then after the Peace Corps, that's where you actually went to, uh, DC mm-hmm.

00:27:41.522 --> 00:27:44.102
And I, uh, after the Peace Corps, I came straight here to Fort Collins.

00:27:44.221 --> 00:27:44.731
Oh, yep.

00:27:44.971 --> 00:27:47.041
So you had to, had to slow coax her out.

00:27:47.192 --> 00:27:47.821
Back outta here.

00:27:48.092 --> 00:27:49.261
Took me a couple years.

00:27:49.622 --> 00:27:53.221
Uh, so I moved here in 2000 and, uh, she moved out here in 2002.

00:27:53.227 --> 00:27:53.457
Mm-hmm.

00:27:53.791 --> 00:27:55.021
And what did you move here for, Joe?

00:27:55.321 --> 00:27:57.872
Uh, actually it was, uh, the business opportunity.

00:27:57.872 --> 00:28:06.241
So the, uh, name of the business that I, uh, bought into was by the name of Custom Blending that's been in town for right off a link lane by the old airport.

00:28:07.021 --> 00:28:11.551
Uh, and then I did a, uh, roughly an eight year buy-in into the company.

00:28:11.701 --> 00:28:11.971
Okay.

00:28:11.971 --> 00:28:13.531
I changed the name to Del.

00:28:13.567 --> 00:28:18.037
Vanilla, um, which we're known for baking ingredients as I mentioned previously.

00:28:18.636 --> 00:28:23.946
Um, uh, a DM very large company, um, fortune 500 company bought us in 2019.

00:28:24.067 --> 00:28:24.336
Okay.

00:28:24.487 --> 00:28:29.826
Facility is in Harmony Tech Center, just, uh, just north of Fossil High School.

00:28:30.126 --> 00:28:30.967
Um, still there.

00:28:31.057 --> 00:28:31.386
Yeah.

00:28:31.477 --> 00:28:32.797
Uh, a d m's doing a great job.

00:28:32.797 --> 00:28:33.906
They're still growing the business.

00:28:34.537 --> 00:28:38.406
Uh, retained the vast majority of our employees and our, our, our head managers.

00:28:38.977 --> 00:28:40.987
Um, so it was a great relationship.

00:28:41.076 --> 00:28:41.886
And how like.

00:28:42.866 --> 00:28:44.606
You came here to buy into this thing?

00:28:44.606 --> 00:28:47.852
Like were you already in the industry or were you like Good question.

00:28:48.092 --> 00:28:54.326
Shopping for a good question Ingredient lending company in Chicago, I was a, I was a partner in a restaurant and catering business.

00:28:54.356 --> 00:28:54.656
Okay.

00:28:54.656 --> 00:28:56.067
So I was always kind of a foodie.

00:28:56.366 --> 00:28:57.027
Okay.

00:28:57.027 --> 00:29:02.636
And, uh, and then Asma said we both had early life crisis, uh, being, being in food service.

00:29:02.666 --> 00:29:04.376
Uh, you know, your, your weekends are gone.

00:29:04.376 --> 00:29:05.426
Your holidays are gone.

00:29:05.457 --> 00:29:05.666
Yep.

00:29:05.666 --> 00:29:05.667
Yep.

00:29:05.696 --> 00:29:11.366
I was working, you know, September 1st to January 1st, seven days a week, your families are getting together for holidays.

00:29:11.366 --> 00:29:13.707
You're, you're missing these, these precious moments.

00:29:13.767 --> 00:29:13.886
Yep.

00:29:14.277 --> 00:29:17.517
And it takes a certain type, you know, to be in the restaurant business.

00:29:17.576 --> 00:29:21.386
Uh, so I realized in my late twenties that I, I wanted to take a different path.

00:29:21.386 --> 00:29:21.446
Yeah.

00:29:21.446 --> 00:29:22.707
But I wanted to time out.

00:29:23.247 --> 00:29:25.707
Never, never studied abroad in my undergrad.

00:29:25.767 --> 00:29:33.027
And that was you, you know, my moment to say, Hey, I'm, I'm gonna jump off the edge and, you know, go to, to, to a foreign land.

00:29:33.057 --> 00:29:33.356
Yeah.

00:29:33.356 --> 00:29:34.737
And, and rethink things.

00:29:35.277 --> 00:29:41.967
And through a friend, actually, uh, one of my best friends, um, his, uh, it was his future father-in-law that owned this particular business.

00:29:42.146 --> 00:29:42.178
Oh, okay.

00:29:42.182 --> 00:29:44.247
And he was looking at an exit strategy at the time.

00:29:44.396 --> 00:29:44.636
Okay.

00:29:45.116 --> 00:29:47.156
Um, his, his name's John Conway.

00:29:47.156 --> 00:29:49.977
Um, he's been in, in this community for many, many years.

00:29:50.037 --> 00:29:53.037
Um, he, he grows, his, his whole family grew up here.

00:29:53.037 --> 00:29:55.166
I, I think he came in, in, in the seventies.

00:29:55.916 --> 00:29:59.727
And, uh, we, we hit it off and, uh, bus started buying into the company.

00:29:59.731 --> 00:29:59.842
Oh, okay.

00:29:59.842 --> 00:30:03.326
Uh, started with roughly, uh, seven employees at the time.

00:30:03.942 --> 00:30:10.991
Uh, ended up, so the buy-in wasn't super huge'cause it wasn't a real, but it was, it was mainly focused on, um, food service.

00:30:11.021 --> 00:30:16.092
Um, like US Foods, uh, Yancy's back in the day that US Foods bought Shamrock Foods.

00:30:16.096 --> 00:30:16.176
Yep.

00:30:16.571 --> 00:30:16.721
Yep.

00:30:16.721 --> 00:30:20.981
And then I really pivoted the company towards retail, um, retail food products.

00:30:20.981 --> 00:30:21.311
Okay.

00:30:21.402 --> 00:30:21.761
Okay.

00:30:21.971 --> 00:30:31.991
So with vanilla being a kind of our pillar, um, other baking, cocoa, lemon extract to almond extract, uh, we, we really kind of hung our hat on about seven products.

00:30:32.382 --> 00:30:32.531
Hmm.

00:30:32.592 --> 00:30:36.221
And with vanilla, it's 70% of your world's vanilla actually comes outta Madagascar.

00:30:36.521 --> 00:30:36.821
Yeah.

00:30:36.942 --> 00:30:46.392
So I had this crazy idea is that we're gonna start a processing facility in Madagascar, be the first North American, uh, company to do that, uh, to get vertically integrated.

00:30:47.142 --> 00:30:48.221
You know, within vanilla.

00:30:48.642 --> 00:30:55.001
So over the course of 15 years, we, we started a farmer network as probably changed your quality profile and your cost profile completely.

00:30:55.001 --> 00:30:58.632
We took about 30% of the supply chain by doing that.

00:30:58.662 --> 00:31:05.711
Um, McCormick being the 800 pound gorilla in the industry, uh, we were able to do a little bit of damage, especially with those products.

00:31:05.771 --> 00:31:06.012
Yeah, yeah.

00:31:06.116 --> 00:31:10.481
Um, so we work with about 80% of your North American retail grocers.

00:31:10.511 --> 00:31:12.912
Uh, Costco was our largest account for many years.

00:31:12.912 --> 00:31:14.261
They, they still have that account.

00:31:14.321 --> 00:31:18.192
Uh, trader Joe's, a large portion of my business back then was, uh, private label.

00:31:18.731 --> 00:31:21.011
Uh, and then 50% was under our own brand.

00:31:21.011 --> 00:31:24.071
So you can still go into places like King Supers and see the Dale brand.

00:31:24.071 --> 00:31:24.642
Yeah, yeah.

00:31:24.701 --> 00:31:27.852
But we did all of, uh, the Kirkland Signature, um, um.

00:31:27.872 --> 00:31:30.301
Worldwide with, with Costco, huh?

00:31:30.301 --> 00:31:33.152
A hundred percent of Trader Joe's, which still comes from Fort Collins.

00:31:33.241 --> 00:31:33.842
Interesting.

00:31:33.902 --> 00:31:41.912
Uh, Kroger, which still comes from the factory of Madagascar there or whatever, processing plant beans come from, from Madagascar, and then their process here in Fort Collins.

00:31:41.942 --> 00:31:42.481
Oh, wow, okay.

00:31:42.481 --> 00:31:43.082
Still today.

00:31:43.382 --> 00:31:43.622
Yeah.

00:31:43.682 --> 00:31:50.342
So, but, uh, bittersweet, uh, selling that business, uh, with my business partner, Dan, Dan Berlin, who's still local here.

00:31:50.491 --> 00:31:50.731
Oh.

00:31:50.731 --> 00:31:53.192
Um, and, uh, yeah, so that's where.

00:31:54.251 --> 00:32:01.842
We still had a, a kiddo in the house and, uh, you know, like, like I said, COVID hit and so I'm like, we gotta, I gotta do something with myself.

00:32:02.592 --> 00:32:02.862
Yeah.

00:32:02.951 --> 00:32:05.442
And, and Melissa and I were looking at each other and I'll tell us this.

00:32:05.442 --> 00:32:05.531
Yeah.

00:32:05.537 --> 00:32:06.942
I'm like, can we pull this off?

00:32:07.001 --> 00:32:10.541
So she's been, she's been a trooper, you know, on this journey.

00:32:11.021 --> 00:32:15.791
And especi especially focusing on, on the mar marketing and, and the public relation aspects of the company.

00:32:15.912 --> 00:32:16.001
Yeah.

00:32:16.001 --> 00:32:18.221
Did you tell me that you grew up in an entrepreneurial family?

00:32:18.672 --> 00:32:19.301
I did not.

00:32:19.422 --> 00:32:19.721
Okay.

00:32:19.721 --> 00:32:20.321
I did not.

00:32:20.321 --> 00:32:23.201
My, my, my dad was in, in the insurance industry.

00:32:23.201 --> 00:32:23.501
Okay.

00:32:23.561 --> 00:32:23.741
Yeah.

00:32:23.771 --> 00:32:24.521
How is it that you.

00:32:25.102 --> 00:32:29.511
Like, what skills did you bring to the table to move to Fort Collins and be part of this company?

00:32:29.751 --> 00:32:32.271
Uh, getting back to the restaurant catering business.

00:32:32.571 --> 00:32:32.692
Yeah.

00:32:32.721 --> 00:32:35.902
I guess you, you understood that industry and how to Yeah.

00:32:35.902 --> 00:32:37.731
And understood the nuts and bolts of, yeah.

00:32:37.761 --> 00:32:37.971
Cool.

00:32:38.241 --> 00:32:42.892
And then we did small, small business developments, um, in the Peace Corps.

00:32:42.951 --> 00:32:43.672
Oh, I see.

00:32:43.821 --> 00:32:47.602
So, oh, so you'd had kind of a business training background of sorts?

00:32:47.602 --> 00:32:47.991
We, we did.

00:32:47.991 --> 00:32:48.112
Okay.

00:32:48.186 --> 00:32:53.781
So, so I, I really, it was funny, my dad, I'm sorry to, it's sorry to like not give you enough credit.

00:32:53.781 --> 00:32:54.082
No.

00:32:54.082 --> 00:32:58.311
With my dad being in corporate America, he told me as a young man, he goes.

00:32:58.676 --> 00:32:59.696
Start your own business.

00:33:00.866 --> 00:33:04.886
And he got that, he, he, he really, he stuck that in my head at a very young age.

00:33:04.886 --> 00:33:08.696
So kind of coming out of undergrad, I had my head around like, I gotta start my own business.

00:33:08.696 --> 00:33:11.336
I gotta start my own business ing dad said, start my own business, and which I did.

00:33:11.336 --> 00:33:12.207
So yeah.

00:33:12.297 --> 00:33:17.606
Uh, on our, I'm personally on my third business and less has been part of two, two of the businesses.

00:33:17.757 --> 00:33:18.297
Okay.

00:33:19.106 --> 00:33:20.636
What was the, what was the third?

00:33:21.446 --> 00:33:22.767
Uh, the third is telus.

00:33:22.826 --> 00:33:23.067
Okay.

00:33:23.366 --> 00:33:26.741
Or the rather, the, the first was the restaurant in Chicago and the second Oh, gotcha.

00:33:26.761 --> 00:33:27.807
The second was ELL here.

00:33:28.011 --> 00:33:28.301
Okay.

00:33:28.307 --> 00:33:28.767
Okay.

00:33:28.767 --> 00:33:32.846
So before he coaxed you back out to Colorado here, you guys had a venture together right then?

00:33:32.846 --> 00:33:36.477
So early on in the ELL days, Melissa headed up our marketing efforts as well.

00:33:36.537 --> 00:33:37.317
I see, I see.

00:33:37.317 --> 00:33:37.826
I supported.

00:33:37.892 --> 00:33:38.501
Supported.

00:33:40.047 --> 00:33:46.436
So, um, Melissa, what were your other, uh, elements and how did you feel about this entrepreneurial lifestyle?

00:33:46.467 --> 00:33:51.686
'cause I'm, I'm guessing as a small seven employee business that's pivoting.

00:33:51.686 --> 00:33:53.396
There's probably a lot of interesting times.

00:33:54.477 --> 00:33:54.987
Yes.

00:33:54.987 --> 00:33:58.346
I mean, you know, um, you know, we're a slowly growing team.

00:33:58.346 --> 00:34:03.926
You know, we're what, we're four people with some contractors on the side, um, helping us kind of move this forward.

00:34:04.017 --> 00:34:04.436
Oh, with Telus?

00:34:04.436 --> 00:34:04.497
Yeah.

00:34:04.497 --> 00:34:08.396
Are you talking about specifically Telus or No, I was thinking about the, the early for Collins days.

00:34:08.396 --> 00:34:11.186
Like you had young children already.

00:34:11.306 --> 00:34:11.396
Mm-hmm.

00:34:11.427 --> 00:34:13.376
How many At that time we had three girls.

00:34:13.376 --> 00:34:13.407
Okay.

00:34:13.496 --> 00:34:14.246
Uh, young.

00:34:14.246 --> 00:34:19.856
And so, yeah, I, I continued to work up until we had our third, and then it was, you know, it became too much.

00:34:19.887 --> 00:34:32.186
Um, but some of the things I supported were, you know, the marketing, the pr, um, and then also when they decided to get more involved in Madagascar and helping them research like opportunities there to, you know.

00:34:32.726 --> 00:34:34.947
Support the local economy somehow.

00:34:34.976 --> 00:34:37.376
Um, and what was, what did that program end up being?

00:34:37.376 --> 00:34:43.407
I, as far as the farmer, the surge, the Farmer network with Surge, we built that to roughly 2,500 farmers.

00:34:43.527 --> 00:34:44.007
Oh, dang.

00:34:44.007 --> 00:34:44.097
Yeah.

00:34:44.637 --> 00:34:44.786
Yeah.

00:34:44.967 --> 00:34:48.086
So we started with 50 and we built it up to 2,500 farmers.

00:34:48.356 --> 00:34:50.666
So that, that's where the supply chain piece really.

00:34:50.666 --> 00:34:51.567
Mm-hmm.

00:34:51.568 --> 00:34:51.568
Really.

00:34:51.626 --> 00:34:51.987
Right.

00:34:51.987 --> 00:34:54.686
And probably even consistent growing methods.

00:34:54.686 --> 00:34:58.592
So they're helping you create consistent products that we, we had things like old team of agronomist.

00:34:58.771 --> 00:35:02.427
Uh, a large portion of our product was organic when organics were taken off.

00:35:02.606 --> 00:35:02.666
Huh.

00:35:02.666 --> 00:35:04.407
You know, in the early two thousands.

00:35:04.436 --> 00:35:05.996
Um, so that was a lot of fun.

00:35:06.056 --> 00:35:09.987
Brought me back to my Peace Corps, brought both of us back to our Peace Corps days.

00:35:09.987 --> 00:35:10.317
Yeah.

00:35:10.317 --> 00:35:10.318
Yeah.

00:35:10.556 --> 00:35:20.666
So, uh, in this new endeavor would tell us, you know, getting back to places like Vietnam, it's very exciting for us, you know, getting, once again, getting us back to where we kind of started.

00:35:20.666 --> 00:35:21.027
Right.

00:35:21.027 --> 00:35:28.197
Well, and I guess having, uh, been already kind of had that early life crisis in the adventure of going to Haiti, you were.

00:35:28.916 --> 00:35:33.476
I guess fairly comfortable with this kind of entrepreneurial, not knowing what the future holds.

00:35:33.476 --> 00:35:34.467
Always lifestyle.

00:35:34.496 --> 00:35:34.916
Mm-hmm.

00:35:35.277 --> 00:35:35.396
Yeah.

00:35:35.396 --> 00:35:42.177
I guess, you know, when you, I get after an experience, psych Peace Corps, you're, you're open to a lot of, you know, new experiences.

00:35:42.237 --> 00:35:42.327
Yeah.

00:35:42.327 --> 00:35:46.916
'cause I think everything, you know, you're doing in peace Corps's, it's a lot of new experience, you know?

00:35:47.246 --> 00:35:47.306
Yeah.

00:35:47.306 --> 00:35:48.657
Everything is, is, you're right.

00:35:48.657 --> 00:35:49.827
It's, everything's new.

00:35:50.396 --> 00:35:58.166
Um, but when I think about the early days at Rodell and some of the things, you know, that I helped the team with going all the way back to that very first trade show that we did.

00:35:58.556 --> 00:35:58.646
Mm-hmm.

00:35:59.007 --> 00:36:05.007
Um, where, you know, we had no idea it was, you know, putting a, a small six foot table.

00:36:05.126 --> 00:36:15.987
You know, we were surrounded by all these other big companies with their big, fabulous booths, and there we were with our little six foot table and a handful of new products that you were trying to, um, bring to the table.

00:36:15.987 --> 00:36:16.527
And, um.

00:36:17.067 --> 00:36:19.856
And it worked, you know, but we were willing to throw it out there, you know?

00:36:19.862 --> 00:36:19.911
Yeah.

00:36:19.916 --> 00:36:25.047
We didn't look pretty and polished and you know, I feel like, you know, Telus was that small right now.

00:36:25.137 --> 00:36:27.476
Um, like Rodelle was back in the day.

00:36:27.536 --> 00:36:27.831
Yeah, yeah.

00:36:28.016 --> 00:36:37.376
Um, you know, nobody knew Rodelle and, um, you know, we threw it out there and started with the six foot table and the two of us at a food show, the Fancy Food Show in San Francisco.

00:36:37.376 --> 00:36:45.177
And, um, you know, here we are today, kind of, you know, pushing the same little rock along with Telus, which we're back to the six point table.

00:36:45.266 --> 00:36:46.586
We're back to the six foot table.

00:36:46.632 --> 00:36:51.746
Well, and, and it's been giving a little bit of money away already, which means you don't have to feed it anymore.

00:36:51.867 --> 00:36:55.947
You know, I assume you had to feed it quite a bit of money on a quite a bit of time at, at first.

00:36:56.067 --> 00:37:03.987
So we were able, um, which we were very happy about, we were able to, it was$23,000 we were able to give the Nature Conservancy.

00:37:04.047 --> 00:37:04.556
That's awesome.

00:37:04.556 --> 00:37:07.527
This passed, um, what month?

00:37:07.527 --> 00:37:08.007
A month ago?

00:37:08.097 --> 00:37:08.186
Mm-hmm.

00:37:08.427 --> 00:37:08.907
Oh, nice.

00:37:08.911 --> 00:37:08.952
Yeah.

00:37:09.476 --> 00:37:09.686
Yeah.

00:37:09.686 --> 00:37:12.686
So that's, uh, well, and I'm sure, I don't know if you had like a.

00:37:13.692 --> 00:37:16.396
I'm sure you wrote like a business plan and, and stuff like that, but mm-hmm.

00:37:16.476 --> 00:37:23.112
But, you know, there's this portion is, is for our future and this is how much we can give Telus to get, to get established, you know?

00:37:23.141 --> 00:37:23.592
Correct, correct.

00:37:23.657 --> 00:37:27.552
And, and to not have, once again, that pre that financial pressure.

00:37:27.581 --> 00:37:30.882
So, um, you know, we don't draw a salary, the two of us mm-hmm.

00:37:31.121 --> 00:37:33.041
Which changes the entire business model.

00:37:33.072 --> 00:37:33.402
Totally.

00:37:33.402 --> 00:37:33.641
Right.

00:37:34.331 --> 00:37:41.262
And, uh, you know, we're not hand to hand to mouth where, you know, we're trying to put food on the table, which we were definitely during the Rode days.

00:37:41.711 --> 00:37:42.222
Sure, sure, sure.

00:37:42.461 --> 00:37:43.512
So we, we lived that.

00:37:43.512 --> 00:37:51.641
So Melissa's lived that and she, she, you know, she's seen the craziness of, you know, starting, you know, business, you know, from, from the grassroots up.

00:37:52.121 --> 00:38:00.431
So here we are again and hopefully, you know, some of our knowhow, you know, being in our mid fifties now, uh, we were able to expedite the whole, whole entire process.

00:38:00.492 --> 00:38:00.717
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:38:01.061 --> 00:38:02.891
Can we talk about some of your favorite products?

00:38:03.101 --> 00:38:03.282
Sure.

00:38:03.461 --> 00:38:04.992
Maybe, can I start with you, Melissa?

00:38:05.021 --> 00:38:06.132
Is this for Telus?

00:38:06.161 --> 00:38:06.822
Yeah, for Telus.

00:38:06.822 --> 00:38:07.061
Yeah.

00:38:07.737 --> 00:38:09.836
Well, I wear my flannel that, that I love.

00:38:09.836 --> 00:38:13.431
I mean, I'm a flannel person and you know, I wear these, you know, it's got snaps too.

00:38:13.592 --> 00:38:15.507
I can dress snaps, I can dress up, I can wear it in the yard.

00:38:15.507 --> 00:38:16.766
I can, you know, hike.

00:38:16.797 --> 00:38:26.126
Um, uh, I also love our sun shirts because I, I, uh, I've had too much sun over the years and so my skin, um, likes to hide from the sun.

00:38:26.126 --> 00:38:26.606
So fair.

00:38:26.606 --> 00:38:28.436
If you see me out and about, I'm usually, you know.

00:38:28.871 --> 00:38:30.731
Wrapped up with sunscreen and a hat.

00:38:30.731 --> 00:38:35.382
And, um, so our, probably the UPF 50 shirts that we just came out with this spring.

00:38:35.382 --> 00:38:35.621
Okay.

00:38:36.012 --> 00:38:37.811
Um, which are kind of made for the water.

00:38:37.902 --> 00:38:39.641
Uh, they're soft.

00:38:39.672 --> 00:38:41.621
Um, you know, they dry fast.

00:38:41.681 --> 00:38:43.512
Uh, they have UPF 50.

00:38:43.512 --> 00:38:44.711
Mm-hmm.

00:38:44.713 --> 00:38:47.141
Um, we have it in a hoodie and a quarter zip.

00:38:47.202 --> 00:38:48.882
Um, we have it in a tank for women.

00:38:48.882 --> 00:38:55.061
So, you know, if you're paddle boarding or you're, you know, you know, hiking in full sun, it's a, it's a great option.

00:38:55.152 --> 00:38:57.327
I see so many more people wearing water shirts these days.

00:38:57.327 --> 00:38:57.567
Mm-hmm.

00:38:57.652 --> 00:38:58.842
That seems smart to me.

00:38:58.996 --> 00:39:00.851
Even, even socially as a lifestyle.

00:39:00.942 --> 00:39:01.331
Yeah.

00:39:01.436 --> 00:39:01.726
Yeah.

00:39:02.052 --> 00:39:02.411
Totally.

00:39:02.621 --> 00:39:06.581
And then I tear our vest, you know, you know, being in Colorado, you know, a vest.

00:39:06.581 --> 00:39:09.927
I mean, it's kind of part of the, is it a puffy vest or it's a down vest.

00:39:09.936 --> 00:39:10.286
Uhhuh.

00:39:10.286 --> 00:39:10.407
Yep.

00:39:10.407 --> 00:39:10.527
Yep.

00:39:10.632 --> 00:39:11.262
It's just kind.

00:39:11.286 --> 00:39:13.572
I, I feel like you live in Colorado, you have to have a vest.

00:39:13.572 --> 00:39:16.032
And of course, I'm gonna say Telus is the best.

00:39:16.251 --> 00:39:20.572
It says down, doesn't count as a recycled product, but it's very natural.

00:39:21.172 --> 00:39:21.411
Actually.

00:39:21.411 --> 00:39:23.601
We use it is recycled sound.

00:39:23.601 --> 00:39:23.605
Oh, recycled down.

00:39:23.610 --> 00:39:23.786
Oh.

00:39:24.322 --> 00:39:29.032
Which actually, um, comes from it from great quality pillow cases and mattresses.

00:39:29.061 --> 00:39:29.452
Yeah.

00:39:29.907 --> 00:39:36.507
Asia, they, they, they, uh, they consume a lot of poultry as far as, uh, goose duck.

00:39:36.567 --> 00:39:37.077
Sure.

00:39:37.137 --> 00:39:40.766
You know, uh, so, uh, we were able to get to use a hundred percent recycled down.

00:39:40.766 --> 00:39:41.157
Interesting.

00:39:41.217 --> 00:39:45.748
So ours is certified RDS, which is like recycled down standard, I think is what it is.

00:39:45.753 --> 00:39:45.882
Mm-hmm.

00:39:46.161 --> 00:39:46.601
I think that's it.

00:39:46.711 --> 00:39:47.001
Down.

00:39:47.577 --> 00:39:47.757
Yeah.

00:39:47.757 --> 00:39:48.177
Interesting.

00:39:48.626 --> 00:39:49.001
How about you, Joe?

00:39:49.161 --> 00:39:50.666
Do you have a couple of favorites?

00:39:50.697 --> 00:39:50.876
Yeah.

00:39:51.266 --> 00:39:54.597
Uh, I have to lead with, especially this time of year old town button down.

00:39:54.597 --> 00:39:57.597
So, so all of our products have local, is that what that is?

00:39:57.896 --> 00:40:00.626
No, this, this is the, uh, foothills Flannel.

00:40:00.806 --> 00:40:01.706
Okay, gotcha.

00:40:02.067 --> 00:40:10.467
So we, we, uh, so the old town button downs, it made out a really interesting fabric by the name of Sea, sea Wall, which, uh, we use in about a half a dozen of our products.

00:40:10.467 --> 00:40:13.077
So it's made out of, uh, pulverized oyster shells.

00:40:13.137 --> 00:40:13.436
Oh.

00:40:13.556 --> 00:40:16.376
Blended in with a hundred percent, uh, recycled polyester.

00:40:16.467 --> 00:40:17.036
Oh, interesting.

00:40:17.041 --> 00:40:17.802
Plastic bottles, actually.

00:40:17.902 --> 00:40:19.047
Oh, plastic bottles, yeah.

00:40:19.047 --> 00:40:19.916
Mm-hmm.

00:40:19.918 --> 00:40:21.746
Um, so that's a really great fabric.

00:40:21.927 --> 00:40:22.317
Interesting.

00:40:22.317 --> 00:40:23.487
But that's, that's more of a lime.

00:40:23.487 --> 00:40:24.567
So oyster shells make it.

00:40:25.181 --> 00:40:26.152
Durable or durable?

00:40:26.152 --> 00:40:33.536
Uh, actually it, it, it makes it a really smooth, uh, consistent, uh, um, fabric and it's really soft on the skin.

00:40:33.657 --> 00:40:33.806
All right.

00:40:33.806 --> 00:40:37.527
Um, it has anti microbial qualities to it.

00:40:37.527 --> 00:40:37.586
Okay.

00:40:38.396 --> 00:40:41.186
And, uh, yeah, it's just a, it's a fantastic product.

00:40:41.186 --> 00:40:45.626
Uh, we, we make, um, our performance shorts, shorts out of it, so we make some joggers out of it.

00:40:45.626 --> 00:40:45.717
Mm-hmm.

00:40:46.106 --> 00:40:47.032
The old town button down.

00:40:47.351 --> 00:40:47.532
Yep.

00:40:47.681 --> 00:40:48.342
Oh, turn button down.

00:40:48.342 --> 00:40:49.092
I like it.

00:40:49.097 --> 00:40:55.032
And then, uh, you know, our shell is, is a great, um, a great shell, long, long speak shell.

00:40:55.032 --> 00:40:55.211
Okay.

00:40:55.242 --> 00:40:59.532
Which is of course another local one landmark that we steer at on a daily basis.

00:41:00.072 --> 00:41:05.081
Uh, that's an extremely durable, you know, hard shell that I, you can wear, you know, once again as a rain shell.

00:41:05.081 --> 00:41:05.083
Mm-hmm.

00:41:05.297 --> 00:41:07.992
As well as a, a ski, just a, which is fantastic.

00:41:07.992 --> 00:41:08.711
A casual jacket.

00:41:09.282 --> 00:41:13.601
So that's another one of my favorite, you know, coming off the ski season, I, I constantly will wear that.

00:41:13.601 --> 00:41:16.601
And, uh, getting back to our duffles, I mean, uh, our duffles are a lot of fun.

00:41:16.601 --> 00:41:23.742
I mean, we just went a, went a trip to visit, uh, most of his family, Indiana, and it's just a great weekend, uh, duffel.

00:41:24.041 --> 00:41:24.251
Yeah.

00:41:24.402 --> 00:41:25.661
That myself and the kids are using.

00:41:25.722 --> 00:41:25.811
Mm-hmm.

00:41:25.811 --> 00:41:30.251
Oh, something, uh, that my wife got us that we just used for the first time this weekend is little.

00:41:30.731 --> 00:41:35.802
Packable things so you can, you know how the expandable suitcases have the thing?

00:41:35.802 --> 00:41:36.072
Mm-hmm.

00:41:36.327 --> 00:41:40.422
Well, so you can do the same thing uhoh like your shirts and your pants and stuff like that.

00:41:40.481 --> 00:41:42.101
And then you can carry it compress.

00:41:42.521 --> 00:41:45.072
You can take a week's worth of stuff in your duffle bag that way.

00:41:45.072 --> 00:41:45.161
Mm-hmm.

00:41:45.402 --> 00:41:45.702
Right, right.

00:41:45.702 --> 00:41:47.831
So you might consider that as a future product.

00:41:48.222 --> 00:41:51.791
I like that because it would fit well to expand the capacity of your existing line.

00:41:51.791 --> 00:41:54.882
I like, we were taking, we're taking a hiking trip in Scotland.

00:41:54.882 --> 00:41:55.931
Scotland with, there you go.

00:41:55.931 --> 00:41:56.231
Yeah.

00:41:56.231 --> 00:41:56.771
Next month.

00:41:56.771 --> 00:41:58.842
So you might not have time to develop it before then.

00:41:58.847 --> 00:42:01.061
I have to look into, well, I might have to use it now, right.

00:42:01.242 --> 00:42:02.416
To see what you think about it's accused.

00:42:02.416 --> 00:42:02.697
Yeah.

00:42:02.766 --> 00:42:03.056
Yeah.

00:42:03.056 --> 00:42:03.456
Kind of like the pack.

00:42:04.237 --> 00:42:08.952
But I heard, and I was kind of, I don't wanna say I'm suspect, I was a scoff.

00:42:08.981 --> 00:42:10.811
I wasn't a scoffer yet, but I was suspect.

00:42:10.811 --> 00:42:11.021
Yeah.

00:42:11.021 --> 00:42:13.601
But then I like packed it and I was like, huh.

00:42:13.601 --> 00:42:19.722
I actually got twice as many shirts in this space as I would have my si my sister swears by the, it'll make you double big, heavier.

00:42:20.217 --> 00:42:22.842
Uh,'cause you got so much stuff in there now, but yeah.

00:42:22.842 --> 00:42:25.092
For a big trip like that, I think it makes a lot of sense.

00:42:25.092 --> 00:42:25.117
That's great.

00:42:25.362 --> 00:42:25.722
That's great.

00:42:25.722 --> 00:42:26.472
So for what it's worth.

00:42:26.561 --> 00:42:26.711
Yeah.

00:42:27.041 --> 00:42:28.452
Um, cool.

00:42:28.452 --> 00:42:33.791
And by the way, we, uh, we, we normally have a giveaway, um, as part of our thing here.

00:42:33.791 --> 00:42:37.242
Is there, um, would you like to giveaway a tell us hat or something like that?

00:42:37.362 --> 00:42:40.751
By all means, for one of our folks, by, by all means, we can support you with some hats.

00:42:40.751 --> 00:42:40.871
Okay.

00:42:41.021 --> 00:42:44.952
Even like, since we've been talking about the duffle, I can, I can support you with the duffle Okay.

00:42:44.952 --> 00:42:45.942
Which, which is great.

00:42:46.032 --> 00:42:46.302
Mm-hmm.

00:42:46.307 --> 00:42:47.621
Then you don't have to worry about sizes.

00:42:47.652 --> 00:42:48.731
Um mm-hmm.

00:42:48.791 --> 00:42:52.302
And, uh, clean Canteen is, you know, it's co-branded.

00:42:52.302 --> 00:42:54.762
Uh, it's made out of 90% recycled steel.

00:42:54.762 --> 00:42:55.871
Those are our coffee mugs.

00:42:55.902 --> 00:42:56.322
Oh, sweet.

00:42:56.322 --> 00:42:57.253
We'll be more, more than happy to.

00:42:57.257 --> 00:42:57.476
Mm-hmm.

00:42:57.561 --> 00:42:57.791
Okay.

00:42:58.271 --> 00:43:00.192
Well, let's do a, let's do a hat and a coffee mug.

00:43:00.311 --> 00:43:00.581
Okay.

00:43:00.641 --> 00:43:01.902
Uh, but it's, we have a game.

00:43:02.327 --> 00:43:03.197
That's associated with it.

00:43:03.197 --> 00:43:03.677
Oh, okay.

00:43:04.036 --> 00:43:06.797
You might not like this game unless,'cause there's some awkward questions in here.

00:43:06.887 --> 00:43:07.532
Oh boy.

00:43:08.112 --> 00:43:13.849
So I'm gonna have you guys draw two questions each, two ping pong balls each, all Melissa.

00:43:13.851 --> 00:43:13.972
Oh no.

00:43:14.056 --> 00:43:18.197
And uh, here, I'll hand it to you and you guys can have, have up there on the couch with you.

00:43:18.197 --> 00:43:30.376
And then each of these, you can't look, each of these questions is tied to, some of'em are, are like legit business questions and some are, um, not nothing, nothing non-politically correct all the way.

00:43:31.847 --> 00:43:32.536
Who would like to start?

00:43:33.286 --> 00:43:34.306
I have number 16.

00:43:34.306 --> 00:43:38.027
Number 16 Or, yeah, I guess, or 91 depending on how you look at it.

00:43:38.476 --> 00:43:38.717
Know what?

00:43:38.717 --> 00:43:38.987
This one's?

00:43:38.987 --> 00:43:39.646
16.

00:43:39.737 --> 00:43:43.996
Who has had the most significant influence one person on your life?

00:43:44.686 --> 00:43:44.746
Hmm.

00:43:44.746 --> 00:43:46.666
Gosh, that's an interesting question.

00:43:46.666 --> 00:43:49.277
Um, and you can't pick Joe and good call.

00:43:49.336 --> 00:43:51.527
That, you know.

00:43:51.586 --> 00:43:52.291
Um hmm.

00:43:53.967 --> 00:44:02.427
I would have to say, um, probably one of my first, out of my first job out of college, I worked, I told you at that public affairs firm.

00:44:02.427 --> 00:44:02.487
Yeah.

00:44:02.516 --> 00:44:05.726
Um, by the name of Jessica Urman and Associates in Chicago.

00:44:05.726 --> 00:44:13.047
And I would have to say, uh, one of the owners, you know, just a very dynamic person, um, hardworking, incredibly smart.

00:44:13.077 --> 00:44:21.266
Um, you know, I just, I learned so much, um, from him and just the kinds of work that he liked to do and the projects that we had.

00:44:21.297 --> 00:44:21.356
Yeah.

00:44:21.356 --> 00:44:23.427
And just he was such a thoughtful leader.

00:44:23.487 --> 00:44:24.081
Yeah, yeah.

00:44:24.081 --> 00:44:24.282
Yeah.

00:44:24.777 --> 00:44:28.706
I'm reading a book right now from a recent guest, uh, it's called Life Entrepreneurs.

00:44:28.711 --> 00:44:28.802
Mm-hmm.

00:44:29.396 --> 00:44:33.507
And it's kinda like not just building the business that you're looking to build mm-hmm.

00:44:33.507 --> 00:44:34.331
But building the life you're looking to build.

00:44:34.331 --> 00:44:34.601
Mm-hmm.

00:44:34.686 --> 00:44:36.927
It sounds like he was living a very intentional life.

00:44:36.931 --> 00:44:37.001
Mm-hmm.

00:44:37.081 --> 00:44:37.802
And business journey.

00:44:37.992 --> 00:44:39.539
Yeah, I would say so for sure.

00:44:39.543 --> 00:44:39.681
Mm-hmm.

00:44:39.766 --> 00:44:40.137
That's cool.

00:44:40.257 --> 00:44:40.617
Thank you.

00:44:41.217 --> 00:44:43.286
Uh, Joe, what number would you like to believe it or not?

00:44:43.286 --> 00:44:44.067
I got number one.

00:44:44.186 --> 00:44:48.206
Number one, what's your favorite childhood memory?

00:44:49.226 --> 00:44:51.146
Favorite childhood memory.

00:44:51.206 --> 00:44:56.876
Um, I, I, I guess there would be, uh, they, they all kind of intertwined.

00:44:56.876 --> 00:45:01.527
But, um, my, my father from Brooklyn, New York, a funny story.

00:45:02.126 --> 00:45:04.436
He, uh, was an avid camper.

00:45:04.496 --> 00:45:05.847
He, he loved the outdoors.

00:45:05.847 --> 00:45:09.416
He, he loved the, the, the culture and the history of American Indians.

00:45:09.476 --> 00:45:09.777
Okay.

00:45:10.137 --> 00:45:14.907
And, uh, be being, uh, this is when you didn't wanna live in Brooklyn, New York, back in the fifties.

00:45:14.936 --> 00:45:14.996
Yeah.

00:45:15.086 --> 00:45:25.646
Um, so he, he, he was a big influence on, uh, but it was, it was basically all of our camping, all of all of our vacations were, were, were camping where we, we, we started with a Volkswagen bus.

00:45:26.126 --> 00:45:36.146
It was, uh, almost a scene out of a circus where you open up the door and, uh, myself, my brother, my sister, two dogs, uh, and my parents, uh, would camp in this Volkswagen bus.

00:45:36.146 --> 00:45:36.237
Oh, wow.

00:45:36.746 --> 00:45:44.217
And, uh, I actually, I like upstate New York, kind of, well, actually, I, I, Adirondack, I don't know the region ly grew up, I partially grew up in Los Angeles.

00:45:44.217 --> 00:45:44.277
Oh.

00:45:44.862 --> 00:45:46.931
So in the seventies, I grew up in Los Angeles.

00:45:46.961 --> 00:45:47.112
Okay.

00:45:47.112 --> 00:45:48.972
And my dad got relocated to Chicago.

00:45:49.092 --> 00:45:55.302
And, um, this is, uh, so basically, um, from 1974 to 1982, I was in Los Angeles area.

00:45:55.302 --> 00:46:01.722
So every vacation we would, we would go and get in this Volkswagen bus and just go explore different national parks.

00:46:01.992 --> 00:46:02.112
Yeah.

00:46:02.112 --> 00:46:02.112
Yeah.

00:46:02.652 --> 00:46:08.771
Um, we, we would go up to Yosemite, um, we would go up to, uh, Sequoia, national, national Park.

00:46:08.771 --> 00:46:13.452
We would just, uh, we went to, um, you know, the deserts, uh, in the Mojave.

00:46:13.572 --> 00:46:15.882
It was, uh, it was just fantastic.

00:46:15.942 --> 00:46:18.552
So I would have to say all those trips.

00:46:19.001 --> 00:46:19.242
Right.

00:46:19.271 --> 00:46:20.771
Very, that was foundational too.

00:46:20.771 --> 00:46:24.492
Giving back to the seed of, you know, my love for the outdoors.

00:46:24.492 --> 00:46:24.672
Yeah.

00:46:24.942 --> 00:46:26.021
Hence, you know, Telus.

00:46:26.027 --> 00:46:26.097
Mm-hmm.

00:46:26.177 --> 00:46:26.376
Right.

00:46:26.922 --> 00:46:27.251
I like it.

00:46:28.152 --> 00:46:29.862
Alright, Melissa, you ready for your second question?

00:46:30.702 --> 00:46:30.731
Mm.

00:46:30.731 --> 00:46:31.302
Let's see.

00:46:31.302 --> 00:46:32.771
Number 29.

00:46:35.052 --> 00:46:38.561
What's been the most surprising thing about this business for you?

00:46:38.561 --> 00:46:39.431
About Telus?

00:46:40.092 --> 00:46:41.442
Gosh, that's a tough one.

00:46:41.532 --> 00:46:41.891
Um.

00:46:43.871 --> 00:46:48.161
I think that is a tough question.

00:46:48.161 --> 00:46:50.652
What has been, can you read that one more time?

00:46:50.652 --> 00:46:50.742
Yes.

00:46:50.742 --> 00:46:52.452
What's been the most surprising thing?

00:46:53.112 --> 00:46:56.081
Like you spent a couple years planning and thinking and Yeah.

00:46:56.202 --> 00:46:59.922
Um, and now, now two and a half years doing kind of more, right?

00:47:00.251 --> 00:47:00.311
Yeah.

00:47:00.311 --> 00:47:02.052
December, 2003.

00:47:02.056 --> 00:47:02.317
Yeah.

00:47:02.317 --> 00:47:03.077
23 or 23.

00:47:03.217 --> 00:47:03.637
Mm-hmm.

00:47:05.836 --> 00:47:09.702
I guess, I don't know what the most surprising thing about it is.

00:47:09.777 --> 00:47:14.291
I, I, I wanna say that, you know, it, it's been harder than I thought it would be.

00:47:14.561 --> 00:47:14.621
Hmm.

00:47:14.891 --> 00:47:16.092
Uh, to get to this point.

00:47:16.152 --> 00:47:24.641
Um, there's so many, you know, coming out of, you know, watching Joe go through, you know, what he did with vanilla and the supply chain and everything.

00:47:24.641 --> 00:47:24.702
Yeah.

00:47:25.331 --> 00:47:28.362
I feel like there's so many more layers to this industry.

00:47:28.422 --> 00:47:28.512
Mm-hmm.

00:47:28.751 --> 00:47:34.271
Um, that we both learned a lot, um, in this journey, just in how things work.

00:47:34.302 --> 00:47:39.612
Um, but yeah, I def I thought it would be, I didn't think it would be this challenging, um, but.

00:47:40.512 --> 00:47:42.762
I feel like, you know, we've risen to all the challenges.

00:47:42.762 --> 00:47:42.822
Yeah.

00:47:42.911 --> 00:47:48.101
Um, and so it's just another part of the journey is, you know, everything that we've learned, um, and we've learned a lot.

00:47:48.101 --> 00:47:52.632
So, um, I feel like af at this point, we're in a really good space.

00:47:52.632 --> 00:47:52.692
Yeah.

00:47:52.722 --> 00:47:56.501
So I feel like a lot of the things that we had to learn that were hard, are behind us.

00:47:56.681 --> 00:48:00.641
We understand how they work now and, and we're stronger for it.

00:48:00.702 --> 00:48:01.032
Yeah.

00:48:01.632 --> 00:48:03.342
You know, I think that's a lot of entrepreneurs.

00:48:03.402 --> 00:48:03.492
Mm-hmm.

00:48:03.731 --> 00:48:08.831
Uh, if I knew how hard it was gonna be, I wouldn't have told my boss what I told him.

00:48:10.362 --> 00:48:11.592
You have no idea until you're in it.

00:48:12.402 --> 00:48:12.552
Yeah.

00:48:12.552 --> 00:48:12.641
Mm-hmm.

00:48:12.882 --> 00:48:12.972
Yep.

00:48:12.972 --> 00:48:13.211
Fair enough.

00:48:13.782 --> 00:48:15.282
Uh, Joey, your second number please?

00:48:15.282 --> 00:48:16.211
I have number 10.

00:48:16.271 --> 00:48:16.931
Number 10.

00:48:19.632 --> 00:48:23.681
What, what's a hobby or a skill you've always wanted to pick up but never have?

00:48:23.681 --> 00:48:24.942
At least not yet.

00:48:25.507 --> 00:48:26.472
I, I know the answer.

00:48:27.342 --> 00:48:27.972
You do.

00:48:28.121 --> 00:48:28.967
I know the answer to this.

00:48:28.967 --> 00:48:29.289
What's the answer?

00:48:29.351 --> 00:48:30.311
But I'm gonna see what you say.

00:48:30.972 --> 00:48:32.981
A hobby or a skill.

00:48:32.981 --> 00:48:34.692
Um, well there, there's a few of'em.

00:48:34.842 --> 00:48:36.402
Um, I would say, um.

00:48:38.097 --> 00:48:40.226
Kite surfing would be okay.

00:48:40.472 --> 00:48:41.036
One Okay.

00:48:41.036 --> 00:48:43.047
That I would really like to pick up.

00:48:43.226 --> 00:48:48.567
Um, actually painting is a, is another one that I would really like to pick up.

00:48:49.407 --> 00:48:54.027
Um, which I haven't, and those are probably, what was your thought?

00:48:54.027 --> 00:48:54.056
I.

00:48:54.161 --> 00:48:55.407
The guitar.

00:48:55.467 --> 00:48:55.688
The guitar.

00:48:55.842 --> 00:48:57.012
Well, I picked that up though.

00:48:57.012 --> 00:49:03.072
I, I've started, well, that's when, when I went I, I, I, I play my, my, I I am up to eight songs.

00:49:03.072 --> 00:49:03.222
Guitar.

00:49:03.222 --> 00:49:05.351
Well, let's, like, talk to me what you could actually play via song.

00:49:05.592 --> 00:49:07.211
That's exactly, he's working on it.

00:49:07.211 --> 00:49:08.411
I'm still in the basement.

00:49:08.501 --> 00:49:13.782
I'm working on my repertoire as far as, uh, but I'm probably up to about eight to 10 songs on guitar.

00:49:14.172 --> 00:49:15.972
Um, but that is something I actually picked up.

00:49:15.972 --> 00:49:16.061
Mm-hmm.

00:49:16.302 --> 00:49:17.862
And I'm talking about things I've never done before.

00:49:17.867 --> 00:49:18.447
Understood.

00:49:18.452 --> 00:49:18.492
Understood.

00:49:18.521 --> 00:49:18.641
Mm-hmm.

00:49:19.512 --> 00:49:20.081
And then travel.

00:49:20.172 --> 00:49:21.311
I mean, we're avid travelers.

00:49:21.371 --> 00:49:25.992
Uh, we, we, there's still, you know, many, many places on our bucket list that we would like to go to.

00:49:26.291 --> 00:49:31.242
Well, for our, uh, listeners out there, I'm gonna be the selector and the.

00:49:31.717 --> 00:49:38.347
Person that first writes in with the answer of Joe's early camping trips to the National Parks of California.

00:49:38.947 --> 00:49:39.067
Mm-hmm.

00:49:39.306 --> 00:49:43.567
Uh, that is the winner of the Telus, uh, gear Coffee mug and hat.

00:49:43.746 --> 00:49:44.016
That's it.

00:49:44.407 --> 00:49:48.547
And so, uh, yeah, just write that into us on any of the social medias, Instagram or LinkedIn.

00:49:48.996 --> 00:49:51.126
And, uh, first person to respond.

00:49:51.157 --> 00:49:52.266
We'll get that prize.

00:49:53.016 --> 00:49:57.126
Um, I'm gonna call a break and, uh, we'll get back in just a couple minutes.

00:49:57.456 --> 00:49:57.726
Awesome.

00:49:59.706 --> 00:50:00.186
How we do?

00:50:00.456 --> 00:50:00.817
Great.

00:50:01.177 --> 00:50:01.327
Okay.

00:50:01.327 --> 00:50:02.706
You have such a nice voice.

00:50:02.706 --> 00:50:04.327
I feel like I'm, you does have the radio voice.

00:50:04.536 --> 00:50:09.757
I sound like, you know, I have the cold and I can hear myself both coming off.

00:50:09.757 --> 00:50:12.637
Everybody that listens knows that they get colds too.

00:50:12.786 --> 00:50:12.996
Mm-hmm.

00:50:13.422 --> 00:50:14.766
And, uh, so yeah.

00:50:14.766 --> 00:50:15.277
Don't sweat it.

00:50:15.666 --> 00:50:16.896
Um, I'm gonna take a quick potty break.

00:50:16.902 --> 00:50:17.081
Okay.

00:50:17.197 --> 00:50:17.496
Okay, great.

00:50:17.496 --> 00:50:20.556
When we come back, we'll jump into the time machine a little bit more.

00:50:20.586 --> 00:50:20.916
Okay.

00:50:21.097 --> 00:50:26.827
Even into the earlier years of, uh, what, like the family dynamic that you grew up in a little bit.

00:50:26.827 --> 00:50:27.067
Sure.

00:50:27.427 --> 00:50:28.987
Um, we'll talk more about your kids.

00:50:29.802 --> 00:50:30.161
Excellent.

00:50:30.161 --> 00:50:36.702
And, uh, that journey and what they're off to do, and we'll get a little bit of advice for the next generation as well.

00:50:36.911 --> 00:50:37.001
Cool.

00:51:27.021 --> 00:51:28.132
And we're back.

00:51:28.612 --> 00:51:42.141
And so what I wanna do, uh, once we're back in the second half here is jump in the time machine right away, because we kind of started with the romance years and didn't really find out about, about young Melissa and young Joe.

00:51:42.141 --> 00:51:50.572
And so if I may, um, where did I, where would I have found you as a, as a 5-year-old young lady, Melissa?

00:51:50.572 --> 00:51:51.351
Five years old.

00:51:51.351 --> 00:51:56.452
I was, um, one of three girls in Indianapolis, Indiana.

00:51:56.481 --> 00:51:56.871
Okay.

00:51:57.472 --> 00:51:59.782
Um, oldest, youngest, middle, middle child.

00:51:59.842 --> 00:51:59.961
Okay.

00:52:00.112 --> 00:52:08.782
Um, you know, I'm an Irish twin, so my older sister is only 14 months older and my younger sister, she's just a couple years behind.

00:52:08.871 --> 00:52:09.021
Yeah.

00:52:09.472 --> 00:52:12.981
Um, and yeah, I was just doing what, I guess five years.

00:52:13.447 --> 00:52:16.237
Five year olds, do you know, playing in the backyard?

00:52:16.327 --> 00:52:20.342
Um, were your fam, was your family from there, your parents and stuff?

00:52:20.342 --> 00:52:20.501
Yes.

00:52:20.521 --> 00:52:21.061
All my family.

00:52:21.217 --> 00:52:23.527
I come from a very large Irish Catholic family.

00:52:23.527 --> 00:52:23.646
Okay.

00:52:23.706 --> 00:52:34.597
So, um, I would say the first time I took Joe to one of our family Christmas parties, I put a name tag on him and I said, if I don't introduce you, introduce yourself, because I'm probably related and I just haven't met them yet.

00:52:35.077 --> 00:52:36.637
Oh gosh, interesting.

00:52:37.177 --> 00:52:39.547
So, um, and what was the family dynamic?

00:52:39.817 --> 00:52:42.097
Was your mom a stay at home mom?

00:52:42.097 --> 00:52:42.936
Did she work?

00:52:42.936 --> 00:52:44.302
What was your dad involved in?

00:52:44.402 --> 00:52:49.657
No, my dad was probably at that point, he may have already been divorced, so Oh wow.

00:52:49.661 --> 00:52:49.902
Okay.

00:52:49.902 --> 00:52:52.717
You know, he had us three girls and then remarried.

00:52:52.746 --> 00:53:01.356
Um, so I would say, you know, growing up probably someone who I spent a lot of time with was my grandmother, um, especially in the summers.

00:53:01.447 --> 00:53:01.717
Yeah.

00:53:01.777 --> 00:53:04.262
Uh, you know, when we were out of school, so Interesting.

00:53:04.297 --> 00:53:09.277
And she was from Indianapolis, um, born and raised, uh, in Indianapolis.

00:53:09.277 --> 00:53:09.456
Yeah.

00:53:09.456 --> 00:53:10.206
So it's big.

00:53:10.206 --> 00:53:11.422
Also a big influence on your life.

00:53:11.422 --> 00:53:11.661
Mm-hmm.

00:53:11.742 --> 00:53:12.021
Presumably.

00:53:12.021 --> 00:53:12.422
Mm-hmm.

00:53:13.101 --> 00:53:14.512
And was that traumatic?

00:53:14.512 --> 00:53:19.911
I mean, that divorce wasn't, now everybody gets divorced, but in those days it was pretty unusual.

00:53:20.606 --> 00:53:27.021
Um, yeah, I guess I, I, um, you know, I don't think about it too much anymore.

00:53:27.021 --> 00:53:27.351
I guess.

00:53:27.351 --> 00:53:27.711
I Sure.

00:53:27.952 --> 00:53:30.141
Um, uh, yeah.

00:53:30.351 --> 00:53:32.331
But you, you adapted well, I adapted regardless.

00:53:32.391 --> 00:53:35.331
And, you know, I feel like they were divorced at such a young age.

00:53:35.331 --> 00:53:38.302
It was, you know, there was a lot of things you don't remember.

00:53:38.391 --> 00:53:38.632
Sure.

00:53:38.722 --> 00:53:39.592
Um, but yes.

00:53:39.652 --> 00:53:39.742
Yeah.

00:53:39.742 --> 00:53:42.112
I mean, a lot of us don't really start having memories until we're five or mm-hmm.

00:53:42.351 --> 00:53:43.132
So, right.

00:53:43.161 --> 00:53:45.862
Were you good student right away?

00:53:45.862 --> 00:53:49.041
Were you introvert, extrovert, sporty?

00:53:49.371 --> 00:53:50.181
Um.

00:53:50.496 --> 00:53:51.007
Sporty.

00:53:51.007 --> 00:53:52.117
I played all the sports.

00:53:52.146 --> 00:53:57.277
Um, you know, I, I don't know, maybe back then it was part of just how we went to school.

00:53:57.487 --> 00:53:59.527
You stayed and did all the afterschool activities.

00:53:59.527 --> 00:54:03.847
So, you know, I did brownies, I played volleyball, softball, and I ran track.

00:54:03.847 --> 00:54:05.677
I did, you know, all the things.

00:54:05.737 --> 00:54:05.827
Mm-hmm.

00:54:06.306 --> 00:54:12.157
Um, as a good student, I would say that just maybe depended on the time or the teacher.

00:54:12.456 --> 00:54:13.297
Or the teacher.

00:54:13.297 --> 00:54:13.597
Right.

00:54:13.597 --> 00:54:17.376
That's what I spend most on for me, how engaged or not engaged I was.

00:54:17.376 --> 00:54:24.036
So I would say probably, you know, a decent student and then later in high school, maybe a little distracted.

00:54:24.036 --> 00:54:24.067
Okay.

00:54:24.427 --> 00:54:30.996
And then, you know, couple, my first couple years of college really distracted by boys, by, no, just fun.

00:54:31.206 --> 00:54:31.356
Yeah.

00:54:31.356 --> 00:54:32.887
Just kind of, you know, I don't know.

00:54:32.887 --> 00:54:35.976
College is, you know, it was likes Oh, this whole new world out there.

00:54:36.876 --> 00:54:37.086
Fair enough.

00:54:37.327 --> 00:54:37.777
Yeah.

00:54:38.016 --> 00:54:39.516
To the point where my counselor was like.

00:54:40.117 --> 00:54:40.867
We need to have a talk.

00:54:40.867 --> 00:54:42.101
You need to suck it up and get a little better grade.

00:54:42.101 --> 00:54:45.427
You need to slow down and yeah, let's change this dynamic a little bit.

00:54:45.427 --> 00:54:47.856
I have all those talks as well, so I was like, okay, maybe it's time to pay.

00:54:47.856 --> 00:54:50.077
And which is how I ended up doing study abroad.

00:54:50.617 --> 00:54:57.342
Uh, and meeting Joe's friend Craig, who actually ended up introducing us was, yeah, my counselor was like, you know, we, you're gonna need, if you wouldn't have been a crappy student mm-hmm.

00:54:57.431 --> 00:54:58.742
Never would've had that conversation.

00:54:59.012 --> 00:54:59.302
Yeah.

00:54:59.661 --> 00:55:01.942
I changed my major, um, at that point.

00:55:02.077 --> 00:55:07.896
And then, um, you know, because I did that, I needed some extra coursework, so it was like, okay, I'll do, I'll do a study abroad.

00:55:07.896 --> 00:55:09.036
Like let's make this fun.

00:55:09.036 --> 00:55:09.306
Interesting.

00:55:09.306 --> 00:55:12.126
You know, it doesn't have to be the same old, you know, routine.

00:55:12.126 --> 00:55:12.128
Yeah.

00:55:12.132 --> 00:55:12.942
Um, really cool.

00:55:13.652 --> 00:55:13.942
Yeah.

00:55:14.302 --> 00:55:14.797
I like it.

00:55:14.797 --> 00:55:15.726
That's a little bit of me.

00:55:15.726 --> 00:55:16.597
Yeah, I like it.

00:55:16.777 --> 00:55:28.356
Joe, uh, tie machine to your, uh, 5-year-old self or so, five year, um, as I mentioned, I, I was in, uh, Los Angeles Thou, thousand Oaks, California.

00:55:28.567 --> 00:55:31.146
Um, just, just northwest of Los Angeles.

00:55:31.206 --> 00:55:32.887
Great, great time to grow up there.

00:55:32.947 --> 00:55:35.106
Um, it was in, in the seventies and.

00:55:35.407 --> 00:55:38.586
You had all the Hollywood magic going on in there.

00:55:38.586 --> 00:55:38.856
Yeah.

00:55:38.856 --> 00:55:40.177
Super vibrant economy.

00:55:40.266 --> 00:55:45.487
And, uh, believe it or not, in our, in our local neighborhood, they, they filmed, uh, MASH back.

00:55:45.606 --> 00:55:46.327
Oh, really?

00:55:46.327 --> 00:55:47.916
Not too far away from our house.

00:55:47.976 --> 00:55:49.987
Um,$6 million, man was a big one.

00:55:50.047 --> 00:55:53.407
Uh, which was filmed a locally, uh, little house in her prairie.

00:55:53.467 --> 00:55:53.856
Wow.

00:55:53.887 --> 00:55:55.056
Which was another one.

00:55:55.416 --> 00:56:05.496
So, um, it was just a great time in that area, um, full of ranches and, um, oh, it was, um, vineyards and, um, fruit, fruit gardens.

00:56:05.527 --> 00:56:10.987
Um, and it was like, kind of like a Tom Sawyer and h Huckberry fin type situation.

00:56:10.987 --> 00:56:12.186
Have brothers to share this.

00:56:12.306 --> 00:56:12.907
Uh, yeah.

00:56:12.907 --> 00:56:13.626
Sisters.

00:56:13.626 --> 00:56:15.217
I got a, I'm the youngest of three.

00:56:15.306 --> 00:56:15.606
Okay.

00:56:15.606 --> 00:56:18.547
I got a, a middle brother and a oldest SI sister.

00:56:18.666 --> 00:56:18.996
Okay.

00:56:19.117 --> 00:56:19.447
Okay.

00:56:19.657 --> 00:56:21.817
And what, what had you in California there?

00:56:21.817 --> 00:56:23.317
What was your, your family.

00:56:23.706 --> 00:56:25.177
Up to your dad or dad?

00:56:25.177 --> 00:56:31.056
Like I mentioned, he was in the insurance industry, uh, starting an office, a local office there for Zurich Insurance.

00:56:31.056 --> 00:56:31.086
Okay.

00:56:31.086 --> 00:56:35.311
Which is still around, um, was out in like in New York and they moved him out to LA or whatever.

00:56:35.311 --> 00:56:35.512
Chicago.

00:56:35.512 --> 00:56:36.391
Chicago was born in Chicago.

00:56:36.396 --> 00:56:36.936
Chicago, sorry.

00:56:36.936 --> 00:56:37.056
Yeah.

00:56:37.056 --> 00:56:39.217
When I was four, we moved out to Los Angeles.

00:56:39.217 --> 00:56:39.516
Okay.

00:56:39.516 --> 00:56:40.177
A big, big change.

00:56:40.177 --> 00:56:40.806
Big move.

00:56:40.836 --> 00:56:42.726
Uh, especially coming from the Midwest.

00:56:42.757 --> 00:56:46.027
Um, my mom was a, uh, actually a grade school teacher.

00:56:46.327 --> 00:56:46.657
Okay.

00:56:46.657 --> 00:56:47.137
As well.

00:56:47.226 --> 00:56:49.056
Um, she, she was an educator.

00:56:49.612 --> 00:56:52.371
Practically her whole career, uh, which was great.

00:56:52.371 --> 00:56:55.492
So, um, very, very positive experience.

00:56:55.492 --> 00:57:07.342
We, we had this large ranch behind us, of which we used to on jump the fence and there was a creek and there was horses, and then there, there was cattle, which I remember getting, getting chased up a couple trees, you know, from, from a couple bulls.

00:57:07.342 --> 00:57:10.027
But like I said, it, it was really interesting.

00:57:10.161 --> 00:57:13.431
Uh, just a happy go lucky and really just got drawn to California.

00:57:13.431 --> 00:57:16.822
Like a whole bunch of other people were being drawn to California in those years.

00:57:16.822 --> 00:57:17.121
Right.

00:57:17.121 --> 00:57:17.907
Was, it was kind of the beginning.

00:57:17.907 --> 00:57:19.431
It wasn't just wanna be Ruby Stars.

00:57:19.431 --> 00:57:19.432
Yeah.

00:57:19.438 --> 00:57:19.702
Beginning, yeah.

00:57:19.702 --> 00:57:24.172
The beginning of, uh, people really getting imported into, into California.

00:57:24.202 --> 00:57:27.442
So it was just a really good time, really good time to be there.

00:57:27.442 --> 00:57:30.561
I, for personally, I would've moved back, uh, in this day, day and age.

00:57:30.681 --> 00:57:31.041
Sure.

00:57:31.101 --> 00:57:32.061
So timing?

00:57:32.061 --> 00:57:33.021
Timing was everything for us.

00:57:33.021 --> 00:57:33.112
Yeah.

00:57:33.226 --> 00:57:33.347
Yeah.

00:57:33.802 --> 00:57:34.672
And how about you?

00:57:34.672 --> 00:57:36.052
Same, uh, kind of.

00:57:36.356 --> 00:57:37.617
Doing all the sports.

00:57:37.916 --> 00:57:39.177
I was very big on sports.

00:57:39.206 --> 00:57:40.617
Uh, very similar to Melissa.

00:57:40.617 --> 00:57:45.387
I was a big soccer player, um, baseball, um, player, uh, basketball.

00:57:45.416 --> 00:57:46.407
Played all the sports.

00:57:46.407 --> 00:57:50.577
Probably more, much more focused on sports than I was as far as school's concerned.

00:57:50.577 --> 00:57:50.786
Yeah.

00:57:51.476 --> 00:57:53.186
Uh, definitely distracted at school.

00:57:53.186 --> 00:57:54.717
I had very, very active mind.

00:57:54.717 --> 00:58:00.686
Uh, still do, it was hard, hard to really kind of hone in, you know, still, you know, my focus.

00:58:00.777 --> 00:58:03.086
Uh, but, uh, I obviously got through school.

00:58:03.086 --> 00:58:05.036
I got, I got through high school, I got through undergrad.

00:58:05.577 --> 00:58:07.407
Uh, but yeah, sports was a big part.

00:58:07.436 --> 00:58:10.376
Uh, I was, I was introduced to playing, playing golf.

00:58:10.376 --> 00:58:12.806
I ended up, uh, playing a little college golf Oh, okay.

00:58:12.806 --> 00:58:13.257
As well.

00:58:13.797 --> 00:58:15.327
So, uh, just a lot of fun.

00:58:15.387 --> 00:58:15.536
Yeah.

00:58:15.536 --> 00:58:16.887
Do you still play, still play?

00:58:17.097 --> 00:58:18.177
Uh, it's more social.

00:58:18.237 --> 00:58:20.126
It's, it's a social outing for me.

00:58:20.126 --> 00:58:21.717
It's, it's, it's kind of a walk in the park.

00:58:21.717 --> 00:58:24.686
Don't as much track of your handicap as you once did.

00:58:24.867 --> 00:58:25.376
No, no.

00:58:25.376 --> 00:58:31.467
Uh, it funny thing is I, I practiced so much back in the day as I absolutely hate practicing.

00:58:31.472 --> 00:58:36.987
Like, like I could, could easily use some chipping practice, which, right.

00:58:36.987 --> 00:58:42.327
That's, that's really kinda the last thing I want to do is so I just go out there and just kind of hit it, you know, these days.

00:58:42.356 --> 00:58:42.836
Yeah.

00:58:42.836 --> 00:58:42.838
Yeah.

00:58:43.496 --> 00:58:55.047
And so, um, I feel like we've kind of covered the, the romance days, but maybe set me to the, the circumstance when you guys first started, your family, um, you were in Chicot.

00:58:55.586 --> 00:58:56.547
No, we were here.

00:58:56.606 --> 00:59:00.987
You were here, we were, we, we raised our families, our family right here in Fort Collins.

00:59:01.047 --> 00:59:02.217
So you came here for that job.

00:59:02.217 --> 00:59:03.717
Had a, had not too many years.

00:59:03.717 --> 00:59:03.927
And then.

00:59:04.717 --> 00:59:07.297
Uh, we dated roughly two years mm-hmm.

00:59:07.536 --> 00:59:14.347
After we got back from the Peace Corps and, uh, we were basically bouncing back and forth from DC and in Fort Collins.

00:59:14.376 --> 00:59:14.586
Okay.

00:59:14.586 --> 00:59:15.577
We did that for two years.

00:59:15.577 --> 00:59:19.266
So every, every two, three weeks we would take turns on who's visiting who.

00:59:19.536 --> 00:59:20.016
Interesting.

00:59:20.047 --> 00:59:27.786
And, uh, I'll never forget this, she and Melissa actually had a conference for a National Geographic in Las Vegas, uh, roughly at that two year mark.

00:59:28.237 --> 00:59:33.157
And we were actually having breakfast underneath the Eiffel Tower at the Paris.

00:59:33.157 --> 00:59:35.556
At Paris, Paris Resort Hotel.

00:59:36.186 --> 00:59:41.586
And that's when the conversation came up of, what do you think about me, you know, moving to Fort Collins.

00:59:41.827 --> 00:59:43.626
She was, she was working very hard.

00:59:44.077 --> 00:59:45.306
I mean, you've been working many hours.

00:59:45.336 --> 00:59:45.456
Mm-hmm.

00:59:45.697 --> 00:59:46.896
Back for National Geographic.

00:59:46.896 --> 00:59:50.197
And then we both know each other, said, all right, let's give it a shots.

00:59:50.226 --> 00:59:50.317
Mm-hmm.

00:59:50.556 --> 00:59:54.847
And then, uh, we got engaged, uh, soon after that and was right.

00:59:55.202 --> 01:00:02.552
Right after our, we got married in 2002, first child right around the corner in 2003, our first daughter out of three.

01:00:02.612 --> 01:00:04.802
And, uh, we call it the express package.

01:00:04.922 --> 01:00:05.251
Right.

01:00:07.081 --> 01:00:13.876
We, we, once again, we met at a later age, so we, we met at 30, so we, we both kind of knew what we wanted at that point in time.

01:00:13.882 --> 01:00:14.072
Mm-hmm.

01:00:14.072 --> 01:00:14.492
Yeah.

01:00:14.492 --> 01:00:14.492
Yeah.

01:00:14.521 --> 01:00:24.302
Figured gonna have a family time as now, uh, married at 32, first child at 33, and then we, we, uh, were pretty consistent having two other girls about two and a half years apart from each other.

01:00:24.902 --> 01:00:28.351
Um, Fort Collins, once again, a great place to, to raise a family.

01:00:28.652 --> 01:00:29.521
Very, very happy.

01:00:29.702 --> 01:00:35.597
Um, with, with, uh, um, I used to call it a one horse town, and now we're probably about a six horse town here in Fort Collins.

01:00:35.597 --> 01:00:35.876
Right, right.

01:00:36.016 --> 01:00:42.512
We used to live on the south side of Fort Collins, and then, uh, in 2007 we moved to Ris Canyon, uh, in Bellevue.

01:00:42.632 --> 01:00:43.322
Oh, is that right?

01:00:43.322 --> 01:00:43.411
Mm-hmm.

01:00:43.411 --> 01:00:47.431
We're at the base of the Foothills, so really been enjoying our time out there.

01:00:47.521 --> 01:00:47.612
Mm-hmm.

01:00:47.617 --> 01:00:52.681
Well, if you see a, uh, I, I love Ris Canyon because it's one of the only places in the.

01:00:53.481 --> 01:01:01.731
World that I've experienced where most of the automobile traffic will pull over and let you pass if you're on a fast coming motorcycle.

01:01:01.791 --> 01:01:02.782
Mm-hmm.

01:01:03.112 --> 01:01:04.702
They're respectful motorcycles.

01:01:04.777 --> 01:01:05.067
Yeah.

01:01:05.072 --> 01:01:05.092
Yeah.

01:01:05.092 --> 01:01:09.262
If they're respectful and, uh, cyclists, we get a ton of cyclists mm-hmm.

01:01:09.501 --> 01:01:10.132
In that area.

01:01:10.731 --> 01:01:14.842
Um, and, you know, we kind of prefer cows over people these days.

01:01:15.996 --> 01:01:16.416
That's fair.

01:01:16.567 --> 01:01:17.047
That's fair.

01:01:17.496 --> 01:01:19.836
Um, let's talk about these girls.

01:01:20.077 --> 01:01:20.677
Mm-hmm.

01:01:20.916 --> 01:01:22.567
Uh, I'm not very good at math.

01:01:22.686 --> 01:01:23.257
What's that?

01:01:23.317 --> 01:01:25.836
Uh, math, but the oldest one, age-wise now.

01:01:25.836 --> 01:01:29.556
So the oldest, she actually just graduated college.

01:01:29.737 --> 01:01:29.827
Oh yeah.

01:01:29.827 --> 01:01:31.717
And she graduated from Butler in Indianapolis.

01:01:31.777 --> 01:01:32.052
Oh, congrats.

01:01:32.052 --> 01:01:32.887
And two weeks ago.

01:01:33.456 --> 01:01:38.467
And she's staying in Indianapolis for the next year and kind of in a gap year space.

01:01:38.467 --> 01:01:41.226
She studied well'cause she's got 27 cousins and Right.

01:01:41.586 --> 01:01:43.387
All bunch of family, some different things around there.

01:01:43.657 --> 01:01:49.626
But, you know, it's funny, she started in California and then after sophomore year decided she wanted to be in Indiana, so she transferred.

01:01:49.686 --> 01:01:51.067
Um, and what's her name, if you don't mind?

01:01:51.067 --> 01:01:55.777
Her name is Emma and she just finished, um, her degree in psychology at Butler.

01:01:55.777 --> 01:01:58.086
She wants to go back, um, for grad school.

01:01:58.086 --> 01:01:58.117
Okay.

01:01:58.567 --> 01:01:59.947
But wanted to take a time out.

01:01:59.947 --> 01:02:00.007
Yeah.

01:02:00.036 --> 01:02:01.507
Um, for the next year.

01:02:01.507 --> 01:02:03.427
So she's kind of working on what that looks like.

01:02:03.936 --> 01:02:09.157
Uh, then we have Mary, our, our middle daughter, um, she just wrapped her first year at.

01:02:09.472 --> 01:02:10.911
University of Missouri in Columbia.

01:02:11.331 --> 01:02:11.362
Okay.

01:02:11.931 --> 01:02:17.601
And, uh, she is studying, she just told us yesterday, it's a new, she kind of pivoted.

01:02:17.632 --> 01:02:18.711
Um, she was an art.

01:02:18.711 --> 01:02:25.896
A person, um, going in as an art major, and now she's moved into textile apparel management.

01:02:26.166 --> 01:02:26.556
Okay.

01:02:26.646 --> 01:02:27.637
Which is interesting.

01:02:27.637 --> 01:02:27.862
Interesting, interesting.

01:02:27.867 --> 01:02:28.206
Mm-hmm.

01:02:28.447 --> 01:02:28.536
Right.

01:02:28.536 --> 01:02:30.367
She wants to take over dad's company someday, or mom and dad's.

01:02:30.577 --> 01:02:30.666
Mm-hmm.

01:02:30.666 --> 01:02:31.387
Which would be fantastic.

01:02:31.806 --> 01:02:33.246
Which is, which has been fun.

01:02:33.246 --> 01:02:34.536
Um, so she's home for the summer.

01:02:34.536 --> 01:02:39.336
She just got home, uh, a few days ago and is only home for nine weeks.

01:02:39.336 --> 01:02:42.246
So she has become my assistant Oh.

01:02:42.246 --> 01:02:43.146
For the summer.

01:02:43.356 --> 01:02:43.867
I love it.

01:02:43.867 --> 01:02:44.797
She's loving it.

01:02:44.797 --> 01:02:45.007
Yeah.

01:02:45.007 --> 01:02:58.896
It's all, it's everything from, um, you know, like house projects to you get to shadow me as a tam major, um, shadow, you know, us at meetings and things and kind of listen and learn, um, and see if this really is something you wanna pursue.

01:02:58.987 --> 01:03:01.056
What's the nickname of that college or whatever.

01:03:01.146 --> 01:03:03.367
Um, the program she's in is Tam.

01:03:03.367 --> 01:03:04.302
Well, but the University of Miz.

01:03:04.322 --> 01:03:04.862
Oh, Mizzou.

01:03:05.101 --> 01:03:05.422
Mizzou, yeah.

01:03:05.422 --> 01:03:05.702
Mm-hmm.

01:03:06.101 --> 01:03:06.862
Actually, my, one of my.

01:03:07.177 --> 01:03:08.407
Best friends from Fort Collins.

01:03:08.407 --> 01:03:10.266
His daughter just completed her first year there.

01:03:10.507 --> 01:03:11.586
Oh, they might be friends.

01:03:11.646 --> 01:03:11.737
Mm-hmm.

01:03:12.036 --> 01:03:15.786
Uh, Roth is, uh, Jillian, Jillian Roth would be her name.

01:03:16.327 --> 01:03:24.847
So ask around, we'll ask you and, uh, and your third, and then our youngest is, uh, sophomore or she just finished her sophomore year at Putter High School.

01:03:24.907 --> 01:03:25.266
Okay.

01:03:25.416 --> 01:03:25.956
Go putter.

01:03:25.961 --> 01:03:26.202
Mm-hmm.

01:03:26.317 --> 01:03:26.947
Go putter.

01:03:26.947 --> 01:03:27.876
She's an Impala.

01:03:28.056 --> 01:03:28.146
Mm-hmm.

01:03:28.387 --> 01:03:32.766
Um, and yeah, she's just kind of, you know, getting through the high school years and Yeah.

01:03:32.797 --> 01:03:36.697
Um, you know, she's got a good head on her shoulders.

01:03:36.757 --> 01:03:40.117
Uh, she just went, um, she made it to the state championship.

01:03:40.117 --> 01:03:40.146
Ooh.

01:03:40.177 --> 01:03:41.436
Tournament in tennis.

01:03:41.436 --> 01:03:41.467
Okay.

01:03:41.976 --> 01:03:43.416
Uh, impressive playing.

01:03:43.416 --> 01:03:43.567
Yeah.

01:03:43.597 --> 01:03:44.766
Double tennis for Pooter.

01:03:44.797 --> 01:03:46.476
So she had a good season this year.

01:03:46.536 --> 01:03:50.646
Um, and yeah, she just finished her last day of school yesterday.

01:03:51.202 --> 01:03:51.621
Oh wow.

01:03:51.831 --> 01:03:51.922
Yeah.

01:03:51.927 --> 01:03:52.246
Mm-hmm.

01:03:52.402 --> 01:03:53.452
A lot of that transition.

01:03:53.782 --> 01:03:59.601
Um, Joe, one of the games we play in this, in this conversation is one word description of the kids.

01:03:59.601 --> 01:04:03.141
And since Melissa just did the, the legwork there, maybe you wanna of all three?

01:04:03.202 --> 01:04:03.442
No.

01:04:03.442 --> 01:04:04.972
One, one word for each.

01:04:04.976 --> 01:04:05.606
Oh, okay.

01:04:06.742 --> 01:04:07.086
Yeah, that's pretty good.

01:04:08.842 --> 01:04:09.351
Alright.

01:04:09.382 --> 01:04:11.271
Um, I, I'll start with the youngest.

01:04:11.271 --> 01:04:16.161
Uh, I, I would say, uh, tenacity is, uh, a big one for, for, for our youngest.

01:04:16.161 --> 01:04:17.722
She always likes to persevere.

01:04:17.842 --> 01:04:18.052
Yeah.

01:04:18.561 --> 01:04:21.021
Uh, middle child, one word.

01:04:23.211 --> 01:04:23.722
Social.

01:04:24.922 --> 01:04:27.831
I would say she's extremely social and creative.

01:04:27.831 --> 01:04:29.092
I would, I would throw that out there.

01:04:29.572 --> 01:04:31.192
Uh, oldest, I would say pensive.

01:04:31.581 --> 01:04:34.101
Uh, she, she's, I don't even know what pensive means.

01:04:35.242 --> 01:04:38.572
Cautious, cautious, prudent out, humble, prudent.

01:04:38.632 --> 01:04:40.641
Um, everything is well thought out.

01:04:40.762 --> 01:04:40.911
Yeah.

01:04:41.061 --> 01:04:41.572
Interesting.

01:04:41.606 --> 01:04:41.896
Yeah.

01:04:42.052 --> 01:04:42.351
Yeah.

01:04:42.442 --> 01:04:42.802
I like it.

01:04:43.101 --> 01:04:44.032
That was a bit of a curve ball.

01:04:44.032 --> 01:04:44.722
You there?

01:04:45.021 --> 01:04:45.112
Yeah.

01:04:45.711 --> 01:04:46.222
Well, yeah.

01:04:46.222 --> 01:04:49.882
I didn't, if I've warn you about it, then you wouldn't have so much hard time with it.

01:04:49.942 --> 01:04:51.711
Would you, would, Melissa, would you agree with those?

01:04:51.771 --> 01:04:52.552
Yeah, pretty much.

01:04:52.552 --> 01:04:52.762
Okay.

01:04:52.762 --> 01:04:53.692
Mm-hmm.

01:04:53.693 --> 01:04:53.693
Okay.

01:04:53.722 --> 01:05:08.601
So, um, if you were like giving advice not just to your daughters, but just the world, uh, a young person in the world, kind of at that same phase in the whatever it is, 18, 20, 22, figuring out.

01:05:09.231 --> 01:05:12.922
You guys both had the blessing of early life crisis kind of.

01:05:12.922 --> 01:05:13.311
Right?

01:05:13.311 --> 01:05:21.621
But there's a lot of people that are pensive about the world and where I should try to get educated so a AI won't take my job, and different things like that.

01:05:21.621 --> 01:05:21.891
Right.

01:05:21.891 --> 01:05:25.641
Like what kind of advice would either of you could start really?

01:05:26.452 --> 01:05:26.786
You want me to go?

01:05:27.052 --> 01:05:27.231
Sure.

01:05:27.891 --> 01:05:35.032
I would say, you know, one of the things I think everybody should do is just go have experiences.

01:05:35.092 --> 01:05:37.282
You know, just try new things.

01:05:37.672 --> 01:05:37.851
Yep.

01:05:37.911 --> 01:05:44.061
You know, if it's, you know, you know, if you're in a major and you feel like it's not working, it's okay to change.

01:05:44.242 --> 01:05:44.331
Mm-hmm.

01:05:44.766 --> 01:05:50.782
Um, but put yourself out there, you know, at the university level, get involved, get involved in things maybe you haven't tried.

01:05:50.842 --> 01:05:50.931
Mm-hmm.

01:05:51.472 --> 01:05:57.862
Um, you know, like for us, for myself, you know, um, when I was in college, you know, I tried the school paper.

01:05:57.891 --> 01:06:00.742
Um, I, you know, tried selling ads for the school paper.

01:06:00.742 --> 01:06:05.842
I worked on the editorial side, and then I did study abroad and that opened so many doors for me.

01:06:06.052 --> 01:06:06.172
Mm-hmm.

01:06:06.411 --> 01:06:06.501
And.

01:06:06.996 --> 01:06:10.476
Um, you know, it just, it, it introduces you to new experiences.

01:06:10.476 --> 01:06:13.327
It teaches you life lessons, whether they're positive or negative.

01:06:13.686 --> 01:06:13.746
Yeah.

01:06:13.746 --> 01:06:16.507
You're all, you're constantly learning from them and I think it's so valuable.

01:06:16.746 --> 01:06:17.677
A lot of saying yes.

01:06:17.681 --> 01:06:17.711
Mm-hmm.

01:06:17.791 --> 01:06:18.271
At least once.

01:06:18.541 --> 01:06:18.831
Yeah.

01:06:19.086 --> 01:06:23.976
So I think it was the quote from the high school or the college graduation that I thought was really impactful.

01:06:24.007 --> 01:06:27.336
Um, you're born with a brain, but life gives you a mind.

01:06:27.697 --> 01:06:29.677
And that was at Butler's graduation.

01:06:29.677 --> 01:06:30.996
That was by one of the keynote speakers.

01:06:30.996 --> 01:06:32.436
And I was like, that's really powerful.

01:06:32.467 --> 01:06:33.547
You know, when you think about it.

01:06:33.547 --> 01:06:38.527
So it's filling your mind with all these experiences and it kind of Totally, you become who you are because of it.

01:06:38.527 --> 01:06:39.711
Well, it's something that AI can never do.

01:06:39.731 --> 01:06:40.152
Mm-hmm.

01:06:40.512 --> 01:06:42.067
You know, it can't go have experiences.

01:06:42.067 --> 01:06:42.487
It just.

01:06:43.146 --> 01:06:44.617
Like is a mirror of sorts.

01:06:44.621 --> 01:06:44.731
Mm-hmm.

01:06:44.811 --> 01:06:45.452
On, on language.

01:06:45.452 --> 01:06:45.452
Mm-hmm.

01:06:45.896 --> 01:06:46.836
Which means nothing kind of.

01:06:46.836 --> 01:06:47.197
Yeah.

01:06:47.202 --> 01:06:47.572
Mm-hmm.

01:06:47.766 --> 01:06:49.567
I love that Joe.

01:06:49.567 --> 01:06:50.766
Uh, sure.

01:06:50.827 --> 01:06:51.847
Any reflections there?

01:06:51.847 --> 01:07:03.757
Um, along the same lines as Melissa just mentioned, I, I believe the, the youth, you know, just looking at my own children and nephews and, and some nieces and, you know, friends around us.

01:07:03.891 --> 01:07:11.527
I, I think there's a lot of pressure on, on, on the youth today, on really figuring out at, at an early age who you want to be when you grow up.

01:07:11.586 --> 01:07:11.797
Yeah.

01:07:12.246 --> 01:07:16.717
And, uh, un unless you're specialized, which a lot, a lot of kids are, you know, very specialized Sure.

01:07:16.717 --> 01:07:17.887
As far as where they want to go.

01:07:17.887 --> 01:07:23.492
But I think there's this really too much pressure at, you know, within your, your teen years of, yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:07:23.617 --> 01:07:24.097
What do you want to do?

01:07:24.097 --> 01:07:27.036
Choose something, you know, what do you want to do for the rest of your life?

01:07:27.036 --> 01:07:29.947
And they feel like they're, they're a bit stuck at times.

01:07:30.007 --> 01:07:30.458
Yeah, yeah.

01:07:30.458 --> 01:07:30.458
Yeah.

01:07:30.577 --> 01:07:36.487
And, uh, I, I just would just, you know, for those, for those kids, I would say change is okay.

01:07:36.516 --> 01:07:36.697
Yeah.

01:07:36.697 --> 01:07:38.257
You know, if something's not working, try things.

01:07:38.262 --> 01:07:38.527
Try, try.

01:07:38.527 --> 01:07:39.606
Don't get into a bunch of debt.

01:07:39.606 --> 01:07:40.492
Try something new.

01:07:41.827 --> 01:07:42.697
Get a job, right?

01:07:42.697 --> 01:07:44.166
Say, right.

01:07:44.197 --> 01:07:45.487
Uh, you know, either that or tent.

01:07:47.586 --> 01:07:50.766
I'm a big proponent on, uh, getting a job at an early age.

01:07:50.766 --> 01:07:54.637
I, I started personally working when I was 12 as a, as a caddy at, at a, yeah.

01:07:54.637 --> 01:07:55.206
As a scene, right.

01:07:55.206 --> 01:07:56.887
Outta Caddy Shack outside of Chicago.

01:07:56.887 --> 01:07:57.456
It was kind of funny.

01:07:57.456 --> 01:07:57.666
Mm-hmm.

01:07:58.356 --> 01:08:01.626
Um, but, uh, I would say, yeah, um, once again, don't be afraid of change.

01:08:01.686 --> 01:08:03.697
Um, I would throw out their travel too.

01:08:03.757 --> 01:08:04.626
Don't be afraid.

01:08:04.626 --> 01:08:11.467
Um, we've, especially being Peace Corps volunteers, we really emphasize to our kids to have a chance to study abroad.

01:08:11.527 --> 01:08:15.396
If you ever get a chance, see what the other side of that fence looks like.

01:08:15.396 --> 01:08:18.817
And I'm not, I'm not just talking about, you know, going to Cabo on a family.

01:08:19.567 --> 01:08:19.806
Right.

01:08:19.806 --> 01:08:20.587
That's not traveling.

01:08:20.587 --> 01:08:29.976
You know, I'm, I'm talking about if you do get any, any type of opportunity to travel, especially to a developing country, you, you really, really understand.

01:08:30.006 --> 01:08:32.372
You know, what, what makes the world go around and Yeah.

01:08:32.431 --> 01:08:34.657
And what it looks like on the other side of the fence.

01:08:34.716 --> 01:08:38.256
So you mentioned earlier, Joe, that you did Outward Bound when you were like.

01:08:38.481 --> 01:08:40.516
16, 16 or something and mm-hmm.

01:08:40.936 --> 01:08:44.987
Um, also that a lot of times it was troubled youth kind of situation or whatever.

01:08:44.987 --> 01:08:47.296
Did you get into some trouble that got you there?

01:08:47.301 --> 01:08:48.377
Or, or No.

01:08:48.381 --> 01:08:51.377
So, so I would say, uh, I would say the vast majority are bound.

01:08:51.377 --> 01:08:54.827
Uh, there's a very similar program up in Wyoming by the name of Noles.

01:08:55.516 --> 01:09:01.337
So this is, uh, really based on that outdoor education, OO opening, uh, opening yourself up to.

01:09:01.761 --> 01:09:02.631
The outside world.

01:09:02.992 --> 01:09:12.771
Um, so I would say the vast majority of students, both for Knowles and Outward Bound are, are kids, you know, in their teens, um, that, that are just interested in, in the outdoors.

01:09:12.777 --> 01:09:12.886
Yeah.

01:09:12.891 --> 01:09:13.221
Yeah.

01:09:13.221 --> 01:09:13.341
Gotcha.

01:09:13.341 --> 01:09:13.641
In general.

01:09:13.792 --> 01:09:19.551
Um, and then they do put you in different leadership, you know, roles within the programs.

01:09:19.551 --> 01:09:24.561
So each, each, each student within the program gets a chance to be a leader.

01:09:24.862 --> 01:09:25.101
Yeah.

01:09:25.612 --> 01:09:25.641
Okay.

01:09:25.641 --> 01:09:30.412
One thing I loved about Outward Bound, and this actually came from the Native Americans, is you did a three day solo.

01:09:30.502 --> 01:09:35.992
So you, you would actually have to stay by yourself for three days in a given area.

01:09:36.381 --> 01:09:39.442
Uh, limited on very, I mean, literally, I think without your phone.

01:09:39.502 --> 01:09:41.362
Oh, no, there wasn't a phone.

01:09:41.362 --> 01:09:42.891
Well, in 1986 there was no phone.

01:09:42.891 --> 01:09:45.921
I, I'm proud to say I didn't get my first cell phone until I was 32 years old.

01:09:46.431 --> 01:09:53.032
Um, but uh, you would have like 12 Ritz crackers, a little bag of raisins and peanuts and, uh, you basically would fast and, uh Oh dang.

01:09:53.032 --> 01:09:55.582
For, for the American Indians, it was a bit of a vision quest.

01:09:55.612 --> 01:09:55.761
Yeah.

01:09:55.761 --> 01:09:56.032
Yeah.

01:09:56.367 --> 01:09:57.506
But it's a time to reflect.

01:09:57.511 --> 01:09:57.731
Mm-hmm.

01:09:57.851 --> 01:10:05.247
And, uh, for the disadvantage use, it was, it was a big deal for I'm sure, especially inner city kids, really reflecting on who am I?

01:10:05.487 --> 01:10:06.417
What am I doing?

01:10:06.417 --> 01:10:07.466
Who do I want to be?

01:10:07.556 --> 01:10:07.676
Mm.

01:10:07.737 --> 01:10:08.936
How do I treat others?

01:10:08.966 --> 01:10:11.667
Fascinating, you know, who's important to me in, in my life.

01:10:12.117 --> 01:10:18.237
Um, and that's just, that's outside of, you know, obviously hiking and doing peaks and just being in outdoors.

01:10:18.237 --> 01:10:21.266
So, um, yeah, it just really did a lot for me.

01:10:21.266 --> 01:10:22.377
It, it changed my world.

01:10:22.556 --> 01:10:22.886
Sure.

01:10:23.096 --> 01:10:23.546
Sounds like it.

01:10:23.817 --> 01:10:24.386
Yeah.

01:10:24.386 --> 01:10:24.387
Yeah.

01:10:25.016 --> 01:10:26.546
Um, let's talk about the store.

01:10:26.636 --> 01:10:28.497
How did you choose a location?

01:10:29.697 --> 01:10:35.037
We spent about six months looking for a location, uh, old town's a tough place to, to, to find, yeah, yeah.

01:10:35.037 --> 01:10:36.087
To find retail space.

01:10:36.146 --> 01:10:39.296
Um, and so when we were looking, we were looking at roughly.

01:10:40.011 --> 01:10:42.681
1500 square feet to 2000 square feet.

01:10:42.712 --> 01:10:46.521
Um, we were looking for something new that we could put our own signature on.

01:10:46.521 --> 01:10:52.641
So, um, our location, which is right across from El Burrito, right in, right in between Ginger and Baker and New Belgium.

01:10:52.731 --> 01:10:54.712
Uh, really very close to to the river.

01:10:54.771 --> 01:11:00.712
The, the Pooter over there, uh, was a brand new location, so we were able to get pretty creative with the space.

01:11:00.742 --> 01:11:01.131
Gotcha.

01:11:01.131 --> 01:11:04.912
As we were going after kind of a rustic contemporary feel and like Yeah.

01:11:04.912 --> 01:11:05.152
Yeah.

01:11:05.646 --> 01:11:08.197
Um, it was, which, you know, very natural look.

01:11:08.226 --> 01:11:14.947
Um, you know, our veneer on the walls is, um, a beetle kill from Wyoming that we, we use for, for the wood siding.

01:11:15.577 --> 01:11:21.877
Um, but we looked, of course, everybody wants to be off of mountain and college, uh, which is very limited, very limited space.

01:11:21.881 --> 01:11:23.947
The restaurant space there was available briefly.

01:11:24.006 --> 01:11:24.096
Mm-hmm.

01:11:24.902 --> 01:11:30.332
It might make, might not make sense to make a retail, to, to rehab that space would've been difficult.

01:11:30.332 --> 01:11:33.212
So, so our location ended up being, in my opinion perfect.

01:11:33.212 --> 01:11:33.301
Mm-hmm.

01:11:33.542 --> 01:11:38.612
Uh, 1600 square feet, perfect size for what we wanna show as far as our goods are concerned.

01:11:39.122 --> 01:11:44.042
And I do feel that the, the quote unquote river district, the up and coming area Yeah.

01:11:44.131 --> 01:11:50.822
Uh, is really in the next five years, uh, it's, it's really going to be a true part of Old Town, I believe That's correct.

01:11:50.822 --> 01:11:51.032
Yeah.

01:11:51.032 --> 01:11:52.561
And that, that's right around the corner for us.

01:11:52.591 --> 01:11:52.681
Mm-hmm.

01:11:52.921 --> 01:11:56.162
They gotta kind of figure out what the story is with the parking situation.

01:11:56.162 --> 01:11:57.931
Is the city actually gonna support.

01:11:58.356 --> 01:11:59.462
Parking over there is limited.

01:11:59.731 --> 01:12:00.381
It's very challenging.

01:12:00.421 --> 01:12:03.037
I hope this, uh, city is, I hope the city is listening.

01:12:03.037 --> 01:12:04.777
Listening and being very proactive.

01:12:04.837 --> 01:12:04.987
Yeah.

01:12:05.046 --> 01:12:10.027
'cause that's, that's where the development gonna going to be happening, you know, for, for Old Town.

01:12:10.537 --> 01:12:11.466
So, um, yeah.

01:12:11.497 --> 01:12:12.636
Parking is limited.

01:12:12.636 --> 01:12:18.516
You have that space right across the street from Ginger and Baker that has become public parking, but that's gonna change, change soon.

01:12:18.692 --> 01:12:18.981
Yeah.

01:12:19.146 --> 01:12:19.296
Yeah.

01:12:19.537 --> 01:12:21.186
There's gonna be an apartment complex there soon.

01:12:21.306 --> 01:12:22.056
Oh, is that right?

01:12:22.056 --> 01:12:22.266
Yeah.

01:12:22.567 --> 01:12:23.226
Oh, dang.

01:12:23.226 --> 01:12:25.596
So, yeah, it's even gonna be more limited.

01:12:25.747 --> 01:12:29.737
So, and it's even changed since in the last two years, that whole area.

01:12:29.737 --> 01:12:29.827
Mm-hmm.

01:12:30.067 --> 01:12:31.747
It's just, it's constantly developing.

01:12:31.957 --> 01:12:32.016
Yeah.

01:12:32.016 --> 01:12:34.207
So we're, we're very happy to be part of that community.

01:12:34.777 --> 01:12:36.697
Talk to me about, uh, Fort Collins.

01:12:36.726 --> 01:12:40.596
Like, you know, the internet was here, but barely doing much.

01:12:40.596 --> 01:12:43.176
When, when you guys moved to town respectively?

01:12:43.176 --> 01:12:44.077
About the same time I did.

01:12:44.077 --> 01:12:44.497
Really?

01:12:44.497 --> 01:12:44.527
Okay.

01:12:44.617 --> 01:12:47.796
Uh, and, uh, you know, it's grown and developed.

01:12:47.796 --> 01:12:52.926
Would you, is this home for a long time or if you were gonna move, where would you move?

01:12:53.346 --> 01:12:57.636
After the kids are out the nest and Teis is working on its own or whatever.

01:12:57.636 --> 01:12:59.377
I, I think I can speak for both of us.

01:12:59.377 --> 01:13:00.457
We're, we're, we're not moving.

01:13:02.016 --> 01:13:03.332
We're, this is, this is home to us.

01:13:03.332 --> 01:13:03.731
Mm-hmm.

01:13:03.907 --> 01:13:08.556
We raising, raising our three girls here in Fort Collins, it, it's, it's been a pleasure.

01:13:09.096 --> 01:13:15.546
And just getting back to, we as a family, we do all, all things Colorado as far as far as outdoor recreation.

01:13:15.577 --> 01:13:15.787
Yeah.

01:13:16.221 --> 01:13:18.771
I have two, two daughters that I'm very proud of.

01:13:18.771 --> 01:13:21.952
I'm proud of all my daughters, but they out scheme me now as far Oh, okay.

01:13:22.731 --> 01:13:25.431
So they're, they're beyond me on all mountain terrain.

01:13:25.431 --> 01:13:27.351
I'm like, okay, you guys go, I'll, I'll meet you up.

01:13:27.351 --> 01:13:27.412
Yeah.

01:13:27.681 --> 01:13:28.197
Catch up to you.

01:13:28.226 --> 01:13:29.962
I'll meet, meet you at the bottom of the chairlift.

01:13:30.442 --> 01:13:46.042
Uh, so it just, just all things Colorado, getting back to the hiking, getting back to the, to the camping, uh, you know, the backpacking, um, the skiing, you know, the, the fishing, um, which I've never, I'm a terrible fisherman by the way, but especially with my dad growing up in, you know, Brooklyn, New York.

01:13:46.042 --> 01:13:46.462
Yeah.

01:13:46.462 --> 01:13:46.462
Yeah.

01:13:46.641 --> 01:13:47.601
He was a terrible fisherman.

01:13:48.351 --> 01:13:49.881
So, uh, no, we're not going anywhere.

01:13:49.942 --> 01:13:54.832
Um, we, we do have a, a, a place up in Winter Park that is kind of our getaway.

01:13:55.011 --> 01:13:55.252
Sure.

01:13:55.462 --> 01:13:57.292
And we absolutely love it up in Tabernash.

01:13:57.322 --> 01:13:59.421
Um, been going up there for 20 years.

01:14:00.082 --> 01:14:01.341
Uh, the city has changed.

01:14:01.341 --> 01:14:08.091
Um, we, we moved here, I believe the population was 60,000, and now we're up to, you know, hovering, getting close to 190,000.

01:14:08.091 --> 01:14:08.391
Right.

01:14:08.391 --> 01:14:09.502
So, you know, three times.

01:14:09.712 --> 01:14:10.641
Three times the size.

01:14:10.646 --> 01:14:10.817
Yeah.

01:14:10.822 --> 01:14:11.091
Yeah.

01:14:11.096 --> 01:14:17.572
When, when we moved here with that, uh, obviously getting back to city planning, uh, there's a lot, a lot that goes, goes into that.

01:14:17.662 --> 01:14:17.931
Yeah.

01:14:17.931 --> 01:14:19.221
So, you know, we used to rotate.

01:14:19.421 --> 01:14:22.631
You know, three, three restaurants and now we're up to, you know, maybe eight.

01:14:22.631 --> 01:14:26.952
You're, you're a, you're a pretty, uh, good looking guy with a good business history and stuff.

01:14:26.952 --> 01:14:29.832
Maybe some, some local politics for you, Joe.

01:14:30.042 --> 01:14:31.002
Is that a temptation?

01:14:31.391 --> 01:14:31.476
Uh, no.

01:14:32.737 --> 01:14:32.957
No.

01:14:33.016 --> 01:14:39.641
Uh, to see Telus grow, um, is going to be very gratifying for both of us.

01:14:39.641 --> 01:14:44.952
And to getting, getting back to that, give back a hundreds, the more we grow, the more we can give away.

01:14:45.072 --> 01:14:45.311
Yeah.

01:14:45.702 --> 01:14:54.252
Uh, you know, being in, in, in my mid fifties, you know, getting back to travel and bucket list and we will be empty nesters in a couple years.

01:14:54.761 --> 01:14:59.471
Uh, definitely, definitely wanna focus on some, getting back to the personal hobbies.

01:14:59.561 --> 01:14:59.891
Yeah.

01:14:59.891 --> 01:14:59.893
Yeah.

01:14:59.898 --> 01:15:01.212
We definitely wanna focus on that.

01:15:01.212 --> 01:15:07.481
Um, politics, to me, that's, that's a, that's a, that's a tough place, dangerous brand, especially if you've got a brand, especially this day and age.

01:15:07.542 --> 01:15:07.932
Yeah, yeah.

01:15:08.171 --> 01:15:09.521
These parties are so divided.

01:15:09.612 --> 01:15:14.141
I mean, I'm, I'm the independent, you know, out there that I argue, argue both sides.

01:15:14.231 --> 01:15:17.862
You, and so I've been registered in independent for over 20 years now.

01:15:17.952 --> 01:15:18.341
Um.

01:15:18.462 --> 01:15:24.311
But it's, it's, it's a bit of an ugly, you know, business as far as politics are concerned this day and age.

01:15:24.311 --> 01:15:43.301
It's, uh, I, uh, my blog last, this actually that went out today, probably earlier today, kind of was bemoaning the fact that both parties seem to be leading our nation into bankruptcy, uh, you know, from a federal level, uh, just to, with different spending priorities.

01:15:43.452 --> 01:15:43.782
Exactly.

01:15:43.841 --> 01:15:57.521
But neither one of'em seems to care that we're, you know, borrowing a third of what we're spending as a, as a federal government that just don't work well, just crossing the aisle this day, day and age is, is just, it's not there as it used to be.

01:15:57.671 --> 01:16:03.072
Um, we, we grew up with Democrats working together with Republicans and vice versa.

01:16:03.372 --> 01:16:03.641
Yeah.

01:16:03.641 --> 01:16:07.811
Um, and we haven't seen that in quite some time, which is very unfortunate as far as far as I'm concerned.

01:16:07.811 --> 01:16:07.902
Right.

01:16:08.051 --> 01:16:12.761
Which is being productive for the, you know, em, betterment of, of the country.

01:16:13.612 --> 01:16:20.122
And, uh, I, I just hope that they can start, you know, these two parties can start working together and not, not be so divided.

01:16:20.391 --> 01:16:23.511
We'll be in a tough place if they can't start figuring it out a little bit because mm-hmm.

01:16:24.771 --> 01:16:29.872
If everything that Trump does is terribly evil to everybody on the other side and vice versa mm-hmm.

01:16:30.112 --> 01:16:31.671
It's hard to ever find that compromise.

01:16:31.671 --> 01:16:32.511
Mm-hmm.

01:16:32.572 --> 01:16:37.101
So, um, any, uh, questions for me?

01:16:39.471 --> 01:16:45.231
You have a wonderful radio voice by, by the way, and, uh, I'm sure you can make a career out of it.

01:16:45.442 --> 01:16:47.662
Uh, well, can anybody make a career?

01:16:48.051 --> 01:16:49.192
Where is your future?

01:16:49.462 --> 01:16:50.317
Where is my future?

01:16:50.322 --> 01:16:50.476
Mm-hmm.

01:16:50.872 --> 01:16:51.082
Hmm.

01:16:51.141 --> 01:16:51.981
That's an interesting question.

01:16:51.981 --> 01:17:05.301
I think it's here as well, you know, as a headquarters, Fort Collins, um, I would love to, you know, see Loco think tank continue to grow, uh, as a concept outside of Northern Colorado.

01:17:05.421 --> 01:17:05.962
You know, and I.

01:17:07.042 --> 01:17:16.402
In my ideal world, it would grow in such a way that would allow me more flexibility to travel and do podcasts with interesting people around the, around the country.

01:17:16.671 --> 01:17:22.702
I think I, I love the, the, the notion of doing podcasts for a living someday, but we're a long ways away from that.

01:17:22.702 --> 01:17:22.703
Mm-hmm.

01:17:22.792 --> 01:17:23.061
Mm-hmm.

01:17:23.391 --> 01:17:33.502
Um, and, uh, you know, as you probably know, in navigating those, those business decisions along the way, it's such a lonely place.

01:17:33.506 --> 01:17:33.646
Mm-hmm.

01:17:33.726 --> 01:17:33.728
Mm-hmm.

01:17:33.921 --> 01:17:42.622
And, you know, there aren't that many organizations doing what local think Tank does and supporting, especially the little guys in that seven employee Sure.

01:17:42.681 --> 01:17:51.832
Realm where you started and, you know, vetting out that decision to go from, you know, a, a more of a wholesale to a retail brand.

01:17:51.832 --> 01:17:51.832
Mm-hmm.

01:17:52.131 --> 01:17:52.221
Mm-hmm.

01:17:52.462 --> 01:17:57.261
And I thinking about, and then actually building an integrated business.

01:17:57.322 --> 01:17:57.412
Mm-hmm.

01:17:57.652 --> 01:18:00.981
You know, those are, that vertical integration was really the secret to your.

01:18:01.386 --> 01:18:03.006
Long term success it seems.

01:18:03.396 --> 01:18:03.487
Sure.

01:18:03.636 --> 01:18:05.947
You know, so, so how do I build an integrated brand?

01:18:06.096 --> 01:18:06.337
Mm-hmm.

01:18:06.787 --> 01:18:10.447
Can I do something with the podcast and the, and the think tank chapters and things like that?

01:18:10.447 --> 01:18:11.032
I think you can.

01:18:11.032 --> 01:18:11.311
Mm-hmm.

01:18:11.591 --> 01:18:11.671
Probably.

01:18:11.912 --> 01:18:12.271
I hope so.

01:18:12.332 --> 01:18:12.752
Mm-hmm.

01:18:12.997 --> 01:18:13.567
That's the goal.

01:18:14.046 --> 01:18:14.886
Yeah, that's great.

01:18:14.886 --> 01:18:15.152
I think you can.

01:18:15.152 --> 01:18:15.511
Mm-hmm.

01:18:15.702 --> 01:18:17.856
Well, I sure appreciate you guys taking time to be in here.

01:18:17.856 --> 01:18:19.506
I really appreciate what you're doing.

01:18:19.506 --> 01:18:31.296
Honestly, I think the notion of having a sustainable enterprise in that space, um, is just grand in it, on its face and like your products are bomb.

01:18:31.926 --> 01:18:32.106
Thank you.

01:18:32.106 --> 01:18:39.487
Like, I can't wait until I have like five of your, uh, gear items in my itinerary instead of just, we, we co-brand a lot.

01:18:39.487 --> 01:18:40.777
That's a big portion of our business.

01:18:40.806 --> 01:18:40.987
Yeah.

01:18:40.987 --> 01:18:43.386
That's gonna be my facilitator gift this year.

01:18:43.386 --> 01:18:44.197
It is gonna be that.

01:18:44.886 --> 01:18:47.256
And, uh, I'm looking forward to making those deliveries.

01:18:47.556 --> 01:18:48.072
Thank you, Kurt.

01:18:48.122 --> 01:18:48.511
Thank you.

01:18:48.511 --> 01:18:49.296
So thanks for being here.

01:18:49.327 --> 01:18:49.627
Thank you.

01:18:49.627 --> 01:18:50.018
Appreciate it.