EXPERIENCE 226 | Partners in Construction - Brothers in Life & Business & Faith - Chris & Patrick Elder and Austin Dodder of Elder Construction, Inc.

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In this episode of the Loco Experience Podcast, I sat down with Chris Elder, Patrick Elder and Austin Dotter, respectively, the CEO President and COO and Partners in Elder Construction Inc.

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We start by delving into the roles at Elder Construction, along with the roots in Northern Colorado.

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And previous to that, Colorado Springs Friends, since birth in first grade respectively, we explored together the history of their friendship and the founding and evolution of the company.

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We touch upon their emphasis on building strong community relationships and focus on commercial construction projects and the poor results when they dabbled in residential construction.

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The Trio shares fascinating anecdotes from their youth, including adventures and misadventures, and highlight the challenging, yet rewarding path to their current success.

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We also discussed their personal lives, relationship building and deep rooted faith, which plays a significant role in the company's ethos and leadership style.

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So please join me in enjoying my conversation with Chris, Patrick and Austin Partners in one of Northern Colorado's most highly regarded commercial construction companies, elder construction.

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Welcome back to the Loco Experience Podcast.

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I'm joined today by Patrick Elder Austin Dotter and Chris Elder in that order.

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And they are the market president for Fort Collins Northern Colorado, as well as the C-O-O-C-E-O and together the partners of Elder Construction here up in, uh, I guess what would you say, Windsor, when people ask where your off headquarters are at?

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Well, I think we say Northern Colorado Crossroads.

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We're, we're located in.

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Do you just try to be ambiguous?

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Yeah.

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Community ambiguous.

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The nature of our work takes us everywhere, so.

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Fair.

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Yeah.

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We have, while we have a headquarters, I, I'd say every job site's its own office in a sense.

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True.

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That's why you have all those little trailers that say Elder construction site.

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That's right.

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And then we also have a location in Colorado Springs, which Okay.

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Is where we're from and where the company was founded, which is why the distinction of the market president in Northern Colorado.

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Correct.

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And who's the market president in Southern Colorado?

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Uh, gentleman by the name of Steve Dewe.

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Okay.

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Runs our office down in Colorado Springs and has for the last four years.

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Okay.

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And was he around for a long time before that?

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Just not running it?

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Or has he, was he added to the team?

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No, he was added to the team.

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Okay.

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Um, he and I had known each other through a Vistage relationship.

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Okay.

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And, um, so stars aligned and, and we were looking for, uh, some real veteran leadership in that office.

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Gotcha.

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And well,'cause you started down there, right?

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Right.

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And your dad, your dad.

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The elder dad started the company.

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Elder dad started, founded the company in 94 down in Colorado Springs.

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Okay.

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And, um, you know, we, from there, we kinda grew up in the business.

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Austin, I think what makes this story fun is the relationship that the three of us have had for, gosh, going on, what is it?

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35 plus years.

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Okay.

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We, uh, we met in first grade Oh.

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Is ever since Okay.

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Have done life's journey together ever since then.

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And this was in Colorado Springs, I presume?

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In Colorado Springs.

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Okay.

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Neighborhood.

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And what, uh, like could you tell these guys apart right away, Austin?

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Was that one of the reasons they became friends with you?

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I don't know if it was right away, but, um, pretty quickly you learn to tell'em apart.

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Right.

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I mean, you know, I think one of the things that people always ask me is they're like, can you tell'em apart by looks?

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And I'm like, yeah.

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And they're like, can you tell'em apart by their voice?

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And I'm like, now I can.

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Right, right.

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I generally, in a public outings, it's kind of like on track right now.

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Like Chris, you're generally in a little nicer shirt, sometimes even slacks, you know, Patrick's more polo ish, not quite as frequently shaven, you know, uh, perhaps.

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Is that an accurate, uh, descriptor or is that just my experience?

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I think it depends on the days.

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The, the really tricky ones are when they dress the same.

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Do you do that sometimes intentionally?

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No, not intentionally.

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Just that joke is we have spare shirts at the office.

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'cause every now and then we'll show up with the same shirt on or, or one that looks a lot alike.

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And it's like, okay, who's changing?

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Somebody's s changing.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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I get it.

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So, um, so talk to me about like, why Northern Colorado do you, I'm, I'm think I remember maybe you came up for college.

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Is that true in all of you?

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Is that true also?

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We did, we did.

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So, um, you know, throughout the story, I, I wish it was more intentional than it was.

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But yeah, we came up here, um, CSU to go to school.

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Uh, how we picked CSU is, uh, I think a funny story.

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It was brilliant early admission.

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I mean, we, we all, I think both our families come from a value of education.

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And so there was this expectation, you're gonna go to college.

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Okay.

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Um, and, uh, I remember CSU came down to Eric Academy High School.

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That's where we went to school.

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Okay.

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Okay.

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And a sophomore and junior year, I guess it was.

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And, and basically they, I, I, people don't believe me when I say this, but they, they had a assembly and pitched CSU and.

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Said, Hey, if you raise your hand now, well we got this early admittance program.

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You don't have to take the SATs.

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You just, oh, you kind of, you get a free, free pass right in.

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And kind of all three looked at each other like, Hey, that sounds pretty good.

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Let's, interesting.

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Let's go.

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And we knew, uh, I don't think before we went to CSU, but we, we had heard of the construction management program.

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Well, I was gonna say, were you planning on being like in the construction trades anyway?

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Was that what you went to school for?

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Well, pat, you wanna tell that story?

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I would like to have Pat talk.

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Well, I'd love to.

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I think, um, you know, we're both from, from, uh, a family of builders.

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Austin is from a family of builders.

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I think that's just innately who we are.

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And I, I don't think I ever envisioned, that's why they give, uh, like, like shoemaker names and stuff like that.

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You know, you guys would've been opolis if you're Greek or something like that.

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Right?

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Well, probably not Opolis.

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It's probably something more complicated, but, or deck your engineer probably should have been in our last name, but yeah.

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You know, I think that's just in our blood.

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And, and CSU was a great fit for that.

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And we came up to CSU and, um, I, I very vividly remember early on my, my parents saying, Hey, this is great.

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You're going to CSU, they've got a great construction management program.

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Uh, we'll help you pay for college, but you can't go through it.

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And we kinda looked at each other and, and, and, uh, well, why not?

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That's what we want to do.

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And, you know, I think wisely at the time, my, my dad specifically said, Hey, you've gained.

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A lot of experience in construction, just growing up in it.

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Mm.

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Uh, where, where you can really close, try finance or something like that.

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Business or a business, try business leadership.

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And, uh, so went down that path and ultimately ended up in construction day one out college.

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But am, uh, very thankful that he pushed you specifically, or everybody kinda was more of a business general, not construction management.

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Well, I was in the same position where my, my dad was like, I'm not paying for you to get a construction management degree.

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Um, is that right?

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Yeah.

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That's so funny.

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He was like, you want a construction management education to come work for me?

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What if you said psychology or something like that?

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I don't know.

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Because yeah, psychology was not on my radar.

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Yeah.

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Fair.

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Um, but you know, for me, I actually came to CSU on an Air Force, ROTC scholarship.

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Oh.

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And construction management wasn't even one of the programs that they provided scholarships.

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So you had a list that you kind of had to choose from and I was like, well, civil engineering's kind of adjacent to construction management.

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So that's originally what I went to, uh, CSU for, was for civil engineering and.

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You know, to make a long story short, after two years in ROTC decided that wasn't what I wanted to do with my life, you can keep your scholarship.

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I'll do what I want.

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Yeah.

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And so, um, he doesn't take direction.

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Well, no.

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Um, and so I ended up transferring to construction management after a couple of years as civil engineering.

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Gotcha.

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So, and was dad in on that or he, yeah, after two years they were kind of like, well you paid for the first two years in college, so we'll pay for the second two.

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Fair.

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And how about you Chris?

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Uh, you had leadership business kind of same track.

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I did, I was really interested.

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Were you guys, like, were you guys like twinsies taking the same courses and stuff most of the time too, know?

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Uh, you know, strangely enough, Austin and I probably took more business classes together than Pat and I did.

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Um, I know Pat you were down kind of the management track.

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Marketing management track.

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And I went down more the real estate finance.

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Oh, I see.

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Yep.

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Sure.

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And then Austin, I only how you, we managed to take accounting classes together and, uh, but.

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We probably spent more time together in class than Gotcha.

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During those days than, than the two of us.

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But yeah, we did, um, our freshman year there was a class, uh, called Rocks, Oxford Jocks, and it satisfied the science credit.

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Okay.

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And uh, like a geology class or something.

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Yeah.

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And I remember the, uh, showing up for the final, and it was, did they say you guys don't, look, here's the backstory.

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So we, we did construction growing up for my dad.

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So that meant you're rolling out at 6 45.

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You were pushing concrete around sometimes or whatever.

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You're up early.

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So that first semester you look at the syllabus and you're like, rocks we're jocks.

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7:00 AM That's not bad.

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We we're up at six.

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And then you get to college and then you're up until 1:00 AM and then it's harder to get up at six.

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It was, uh, it was one of those Tuesday, Thursday classes and, and, uh, we showed up for the finals.

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There's two of you.

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'cause we, one would go Tuesday, one would go Thursday.

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Shared notes and Yeah.

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Easy peasy.

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Easy peasy.

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I, uh, actually I stopped buying textbooks, um, after my second year of college because I was terrible at attending class and stuff.

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And I thought, oh, I'll just read the, the book and catch up, kind of.

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And then I never really did.

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And that's not how they test anyway.

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Yeah.

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But then I, like, I couldn't skip class anymore and I was pretty much dean's list the rest of my, my college and I saved a bunch of money on textbooks.

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Yeah.

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I, I'm with you.

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So I, I, I was like an audible learner.

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I'm too, and like I had to pay attention if I was there and paying attention.

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Shit was pretty easy.

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You know, it turns out like relying on brute strength to read book by osmosis when it's sitting on the shelf didn't work very good for me.

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That's that's this guy right here though.

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Yeah.

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Chris, there were many a times where we would trade off who had to take notes in classes and we'd get to the point where we're gonna study for a test and, you know, we both boy cope in our notes and inevitably I didn't have any, you'd have three lines including like a little drawing of the pretty girl up front.

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Yeah, exactly.

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And he's like, um, where are your notes?

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And I'm like, yeah, they're up here.

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Yeah.

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And he was the guy that asked me the question You want Yeah.

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The guy that didn't buy the book and we just, you know, the night before the test be like, well, can I borrow your book and stay up all night reading the dang thing?

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Yeah.

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And, and set the curve.

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It used to drive me crazy.

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I worked so dang hard.

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Well, it's nice to have those giftings.

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Um, let's, uh, let's, before we go into the whole long journey, let's set the stage on, on elder construction and what it is.

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Who, who, who you work for.

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I, I can see you more of a commercial focus, but also some tenant finish, but mostly vertical construction of medium, small to medium size, sometimes big buildings.

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Yeah, we, I don't know.

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Yeah, we, um, talk to me about it.

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So it, it, uh, company started obviously as mentioned in 94 and we've just steadily grown over the years.

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Um, okay.

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Our portfolio, we, we stay in the commercial space.

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Um, so what that looks like is, uh, we do a lot of K through 12 charter schools, a lot of financial institutions, some light medical dental, uh, has been a big part of our portfolio over the years.

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So like nice buildings especially it sounds like.

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Yeah.

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Nice.

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And, and I think it's not so much industrial manufacturing.

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We do that too.

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Um, not, not heavy manufacturing.

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Um, and I think it's, it's very interesting.

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You look at the two markets that we serve and they dictate a lot of the work that we do.

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So, Northern Colorado, for example, I think it's newer, it's growing.

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We do a lot more ground up.

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Um, in Colorado Springs, that's a very established market, a lot of large real estate because of the, the size of companies that, that occupy.

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Mm-hmm.

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Yeah.

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Uh, we, we do a lot of large tenant finishes.

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Okay.

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So I think it's a, it's, it's really market driven.

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Okay.

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But we like to pride ourselves in, in being able to tackle any kind of commercial, um, construction project, uh, and, and get very personal.

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And it's a general contracting firm.

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General contracting firm.

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Um, do you do like public bid stuff as well?

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I must do with, you're doing schools and stuff like that, or is how, how you get a lot of your work?

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Or is it more, uh, relationship driven kind of, and people say, Hey, I need to build this building for my business?

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Yeah, it's definitely more relationship driven.

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I think that's a, a key tenet of, of what we enjoy doing.

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Um, we don't participate in the, the public hard bid market.

00:13:31.244 --> 00:13:38.744
Uh, very often, sometimes market conditions dictate that we do, but we really enjoy working with clients early on in the process.

00:13:39.073 --> 00:13:49.903
So before drawings are, are completely finished partnering with the design team, the ownership group, uh, helping really provide a, a deep pre-construction process that helps with budget construction.

00:13:49.903 --> 00:13:57.793
So not truly a design build firm, but kind of right in between with trying to get as close as you can without actually having a big design team on the, in, on the payroll.

00:13:57.854 --> 00:14:05.114
And, and we do a, a few design build projects, um, by bringing architects into the, to the project with us.

00:14:05.114 --> 00:14:05.203
Mm-hmm.

00:14:05.443 --> 00:14:14.024
But predominantly we, we work in what they call a, a, uh, construction manager at risk, where we're brought on when designs maybe 20, 30% complete.

00:14:14.203 --> 00:14:14.293
Mm-hmm.

00:14:14.533 --> 00:14:15.793
And, uh, we've really enjoyed that.

00:14:15.793 --> 00:14:19.484
It allows us to, to really engage, uh, in a relationship.

00:14:19.484 --> 00:14:24.703
It's less transactional for us and feel like we can really add a lot of value to the, to the process that way.

00:14:24.703 --> 00:14:25.004
So.

00:14:25.033 --> 00:14:25.183
Okay.

00:14:25.573 --> 00:14:33.764
Uh, it's been fun to see slower in Colorado Springs, but Northern Colorado really adopted, I think that early procurement method with, with Nan years ago.

00:14:33.793 --> 00:14:34.063
Mm-hmm.

00:14:35.144 --> 00:14:52.514
Um, and so it, it's, it's us getting involved early and, and, uh, really building the relationship and, and even the procurements in public have really shifted that well and when everything keeps increasing in price, like the month before, you know, every month it's a, it's, it's nice to get your stuff right away.

00:14:52.514 --> 00:14:52.874
Right.

00:14:52.874 --> 00:14:53.384
Nobody likes prices.

00:14:53.384 --> 00:14:53.474
Yeah.

00:14:53.474 --> 00:14:55.124
You lock in your price now.

00:14:55.214 --> 00:14:55.453
Yeah.

00:14:55.543 --> 00:15:00.734
So that, that's a big part of it is just helping the, uh, the owner and the design team design a budget.

00:15:01.004 --> 00:15:01.214
Yeah.

00:15:01.244 --> 00:15:01.543
Fair.

00:15:01.994 --> 00:15:04.813
Um, and talk to me about the team a little bit.

00:15:04.813 --> 00:15:08.984
Like, uh, maybe both contrast Northern Colorado and, and southern Col.

00:15:09.043 --> 00:15:13.844
Did you call it Southern Colorado or Colorado Springs office or That's, we call it Colorado Springs.

00:15:13.874 --> 00:15:14.624
It's interesting.

00:15:14.624 --> 00:15:16.214
Northern Colorado and then Colorado Springs.

00:15:16.244 --> 00:15:16.604
Right.

00:15:16.634 --> 00:15:20.354
It's, well'cause nobody wants to be like, it's not just Fort Collins Right.

00:15:20.384 --> 00:15:25.783
You know, Fort Collins is 35%, but probably not even 20% of your actual market.

00:15:25.783 --> 00:15:27.433
'cause Fort Collins is built out so much.

00:15:27.433 --> 00:15:28.124
Right, right.

00:15:28.783 --> 00:15:31.663
And Colorado Springs is, it's big.

00:15:31.813 --> 00:15:32.443
Yeah.

00:15:32.443 --> 00:15:33.644
I don't think people realize that.

00:15:34.033 --> 00:15:35.443
Jill and I lived down there for three years.

00:15:35.714 --> 00:15:39.823
If you haven't, if you haven't made that, that trip, uh, south of Denver.

00:15:40.033 --> 00:15:40.214
Yeah.

00:15:40.214 --> 00:15:46.663
And over Monument Hill, that's, it's uh, uh, it rivals Northern Colorado the size of Northern Colorado.

00:15:46.668 --> 00:15:46.908
Oh yeah.

00:15:46.908 --> 00:15:47.068
Yeah.

00:15:47.068 --> 00:15:49.244
And it's, yeah, just a sprawling monster.

00:15:49.423 --> 00:15:53.234
And it grew for a long time in kind of concentric circles.

00:15:53.803 --> 00:15:59.354
But is there more growth happening on the fringes or is it more growing north toward Denver now?

00:15:59.354 --> 00:16:00.313
Or what's going on with that?

00:16:01.063 --> 00:16:03.313
I think we're seeing growth northeast.

00:16:03.764 --> 00:16:04.063
Yep.

00:16:04.214 --> 00:16:04.573
Okay.

00:16:04.604 --> 00:16:07.063
Uh, and then we're also starting to see a lot of growth south.

00:16:07.573 --> 00:16:08.504
Oh, fountain.

00:16:08.774 --> 00:16:09.193
Okay.

00:16:09.374 --> 00:16:09.823
Yeah.

00:16:09.823 --> 00:16:12.374
Area just cost wise or I think the real estate.

00:16:12.614 --> 00:16:12.793
Yeah.

00:16:13.033 --> 00:16:17.548
The lands there, there isn't land that has, doesn't have big rocks in and everything.

00:16:17.548 --> 00:16:19.333
And I think that's, that's what Colorado Springs has for it.

00:16:19.394 --> 00:16:20.923
It's got space to go.

00:16:20.984 --> 00:16:21.254
Right.

00:16:21.254 --> 00:16:22.094
I mean, obviously you.

00:16:22.678 --> 00:16:25.874
It's got the s ex peak that kind of limit growth to the Yeah.

00:16:25.874 --> 00:16:30.058
The circles are kind of like, like seas, like inverted seas of growth down there.

00:16:30.058 --> 00:16:30.119
Yeah.

00:16:30.269 --> 00:16:32.038
I 25 used to split the city.

00:16:32.609 --> 00:16:32.969
Right.

00:16:32.969 --> 00:16:39.269
And now it's, say I 25 is really on the, the, the far, the far edge of Yeah.

00:16:39.269 --> 00:16:39.269
Yeah.

00:16:39.269 --> 00:16:40.259
Of the springs.

00:16:40.259 --> 00:16:40.589
Yeah.

00:16:40.589 --> 00:16:40.590
Yeah.

00:16:40.649 --> 00:16:42.328
That's an interesting, uh, perspective.

00:16:42.808 --> 00:16:45.719
Uh, so yeah, so, so like how big a team?

00:16:45.719 --> 00:16:49.948
So size wise, I, I, operationally, um, our staff's about the same size.

00:16:49.948 --> 00:16:56.038
We're running anywhere from, uh, 28 to 35 people in each office operationally.

00:16:56.099 --> 00:16:56.399
Okay.

00:16:56.399 --> 00:16:56.399
Okay.

00:16:56.489 --> 00:16:58.198
Uh, that's our construction crew.

00:16:58.349 --> 00:16:58.528
Okay.

00:16:58.589 --> 00:17:02.308
And then in Northern Colorado is where we, uh, you could call it our hq.

00:17:02.519 --> 00:17:02.879
Okay.

00:17:02.879 --> 00:17:05.278
And so we have, so there's an administrative team kind of there too, right?

00:17:05.278 --> 00:17:05.429
Sure.

00:17:05.429 --> 00:17:08.848
We've got, we've got about, uh, 10, 12 people on our admin team.

00:17:08.939 --> 00:17:09.239
Okay.

00:17:09.298 --> 00:17:11.608
Uh, accounting, marketing people.

00:17:11.669 --> 00:17:16.499
Is the C suite, is this the whole C-Suite or is there a CFO or anything like that in the mix?

00:17:16.499 --> 00:17:19.888
No, we've, um, we've got a, a director of finance and accounting.

00:17:19.979 --> 00:17:20.278
Okay.

00:17:20.939 --> 00:17:22.979
Um, with us, uh, Dana Baner.

00:17:23.003 --> 00:17:23.223
Oh.

00:17:23.229 --> 00:17:23.699
Oh yeah.

00:17:23.818 --> 00:17:24.689
I've known Dana forever.

00:17:24.719 --> 00:17:25.019
Oh yeah.

00:17:25.048 --> 00:17:25.378
Wonderful.

00:17:25.378 --> 00:17:29.578
She, she, I didn't know what she was doing after, uh, leaving her building company.

00:17:29.578 --> 00:17:31.769
Dana, if you're listening, you should come back to Rotary Club.

00:17:31.979 --> 00:17:32.608
You love it.

00:17:33.058 --> 00:17:34.648
You're such a good rotary girl.

00:17:35.128 --> 00:17:39.148
Uh, and, and you'd be welcome back with open arms and Elder would probably pay your dues.

00:17:39.749 --> 00:17:43.888
We would, uh, she's been, she came on board, uh, she's coming up on three years now and.

00:17:44.308 --> 00:17:46.888
Has really taken that side of the business.

00:17:46.888 --> 00:17:49.798
And you know, Dana, she's a wonderful addition.

00:17:50.034 --> 00:17:53.578
A, a grinder when things Yeah, I'm not, and she's kind a brilliant thinker.

00:17:53.638 --> 00:17:54.509
Well, yeah, for sure.

00:17:55.048 --> 00:17:55.888
Uh, yeah.

00:17:55.888 --> 00:18:02.578
And passionate about her work, whether whatever might happen to be so, Hey Dana, if you're listening, so, okay, so, so about a dozen, what'd you say?

00:18:02.578 --> 00:18:05.219
10 or a dozen or something on the kind of headquarters team, right?

00:18:05.548 --> 00:18:17.009
And that's like taking in all the invoices and making sure every, all the spending's allocated to the right projects and like, tell me what that team does for a contractor company.

00:18:18.358 --> 00:18:22.528
The accounting and finance team that Dana leads really, I mean, yes.

00:18:22.528 --> 00:18:23.848
Is a part of it.

00:18:23.848 --> 00:18:27.449
Is AP a part of it is AR that's going on.

00:18:27.449 --> 00:18:35.759
But you know, the biggest responsibility is just preparing financial statements, reviewing and analyzing that handling, you know, taxes.

00:18:35.765 --> 00:18:38.429
Making sure liquidity is good and the payroll taxes are paid.

00:18:38.429 --> 00:18:39.118
Yeah, exactly.

00:18:39.328 --> 00:18:42.028
Well, probably most importantly, making sure we all get paid.

00:18:42.479 --> 00:18:44.848
Um, that would be the number one priority.

00:18:44.933 --> 00:18:46.648
The, the non partners especially.

00:18:46.653 --> 00:18:46.834
Yeah.

00:18:47.368 --> 00:18:47.578
Yeah.

00:18:47.578 --> 00:18:51.719
And then, you know, uh, elements of treasury management that, you know, sure.

00:18:51.719 --> 00:18:52.469
What do we do with, with cash?

00:18:52.979 --> 00:18:53.189
Yeah.

00:18:53.189 --> 00:19:03.628
Which matters, you know, when it was a half percent it didn't really matter, but like, if you're floating in some liquidity and you're not getting 4% on a CD or something, you're being kind of dumb these days.

00:19:03.689 --> 00:19:03.749
Yeah.

00:19:03.749 --> 00:19:03.838
Yep.

00:19:04.648 --> 00:19:08.818
Well, and there's a huge risk side to our business to manage through insurance programs.

00:19:08.818 --> 00:19:12.898
So, um, gosh, that, that is an animal in of itself.

00:19:12.898 --> 00:19:16.709
Just the, the amount of policies, bonding and different things, all bonding and Yeah.

00:19:16.769 --> 00:19:21.778
GL and, and, uh, you know, the cyber policies now that have become Right.

00:19:21.929 --> 00:19:22.769
So important.

00:19:22.769 --> 00:19:40.469
So talk to me about the operations teams then maybe, uh, aside from the, the HQ kind of administrative monster, what, what talk is it project managers and then overseeing teams of,'cause do you do some of the, some of the, some of the work too?

00:19:40.709 --> 00:19:43.558
Like portions of must have to have that big accrue, right?

00:19:43.618 --> 00:19:43.979
We do.

00:19:43.979 --> 00:19:47.219
We, we self perform, um, a few scopes of work.

00:19:47.249 --> 00:19:47.519
Okay.

00:19:47.519 --> 00:19:52.439
I mean, traditionally about 85% of the work that, that we put in place is through trade partners.

00:19:52.499 --> 00:19:52.739
Yeah.

00:19:52.949 --> 00:19:54.868
Uh, in our subcontracting groups.

00:19:55.108 --> 00:20:00.598
Um, you know, we have project managers that run the, the financial side of a project.

00:20:00.689 --> 00:20:00.838
Mm-hmm.

00:20:01.078 --> 00:20:05.128
Um, handle a lot of the communication superintendents are the boots on the ground.

00:20:05.338 --> 00:20:05.578
Yep.

00:20:05.729 --> 00:20:11.368
Coordination and safety, uh, project engineers, which is a unique term to, to construction.

00:20:11.368 --> 00:20:13.409
It's basically an assistant project manager.

00:20:13.499 --> 00:20:14.219
Okay.

00:20:14.308 --> 00:20:16.199
We, we have fancy terms for everything.

00:20:16.229 --> 00:20:16.528
Right.

00:20:16.888 --> 00:20:17.939
Maybe aren't so fancy.

00:20:17.999 --> 00:20:19.798
Well, we did in banking too, but Yeah.

00:20:20.939 --> 00:20:22.469
So they're a part of the team.

00:20:22.469 --> 00:20:24.749
Project coordinators do a lot of the project accounting.

00:20:25.044 --> 00:20:26.128
Uh, estimators.

00:20:26.398 --> 00:20:33.598
So that's a communicator almost with the, with the headquarters office a little bit, or is that where that comes in somewhere?

00:20:33.598 --> 00:20:41.038
So our project coordinators, um, they handle a lot of the paperwork, the insurance, uh, project specific between subcontractors.

00:20:41.398 --> 00:20:41.519
Yeah.

00:20:41.519 --> 00:20:41.939
Uh, the payout.

00:20:41.939 --> 00:20:42.989
It's a lot to keep track of.

00:20:42.989 --> 00:20:46.138
I reckon there's, there's a lot of paperwork, a lot more than there used to be.

00:20:46.679 --> 00:20:46.858
Yeah.

00:20:46.858 --> 00:20:48.538
It's pretty heavily regulated.

00:20:48.628 --> 00:21:05.368
And a lot of, you know, the risk management steps that the project coordinators are responsible for, driven by, you know, either corporate risk teams for some of the clients or, or in a lot of cases, lenders, um Oh sure.

00:21:05.578 --> 00:21:11.489
Require, you know, lien releases and, you know, all the stuff to make sure that Right, right.

00:21:11.489 --> 00:21:16.979
Oh, there's not going to be some, nobody gets a hundred grand without, without actually having the proper invoice for it.

00:21:16.979 --> 00:21:17.219
Exactly.

00:21:17.459 --> 00:21:17.818
Yeah.

00:21:17.818 --> 00:21:20.219
Or encumbrances at the end of the project.

00:21:20.219 --> 00:21:21.058
Sure, sure.

00:21:21.058 --> 00:21:22.618
Nobody likes encumbrances.

00:21:23.489 --> 00:21:32.219
Um, so I guess, uh, from a, uh, uh, process standpoint, can you take me through like a customer journey?

00:21:32.219 --> 00:21:49.739
Say I'm, I'm a business owner, I've got a 40 employee, uh, professional services business, uh, that's been growing, and I wanna build a nice office building where I can also lease out half of it, you know, some nice office park where, where, where's that process start?

00:21:49.739 --> 00:21:50.818
Who am I talking to?

00:21:51.223 --> 00:21:52.034
Yeah, no, great question.

00:21:52.034 --> 00:21:54.970
Is there like a sales rep, Sean, right?

00:21:55.229 --> 00:21:56.864
Is one of your guys, least Sean Alban's with us.

00:21:56.864 --> 00:21:58.423
He's been with us almost a year now.

00:21:58.423 --> 00:22:03.763
He does a phenomenal job of, of kind of, uh, getting out and understanding a customer need.

00:22:03.763 --> 00:22:06.824
And, and I think, you know, every journey's a little bit differently.

00:22:06.824 --> 00:22:11.503
A lot of the journey starts with, uh, an architect that's already been brought on board.

00:22:11.624 --> 00:22:12.104
Oh, okay.

00:22:12.193 --> 00:22:14.683
Uh, a banking relationship, a broker relationship.

00:22:14.683 --> 00:22:15.074
Sure.

00:22:15.253 --> 00:22:15.433
Okay.

00:22:15.433 --> 00:22:21.973
And sometimes, so I might have already started by talking with an architect or whatever, and I've got at least the foundation of a plan.

00:22:21.973 --> 00:22:24.134
You, you know, you've got a, I'm shopping it around a little bit.

00:22:24.134 --> 00:22:26.683
I might be talking to Don, I might be talking to Elder, whatever.

00:22:26.713 --> 00:22:27.253
Yeah, yeah.

00:22:27.253 --> 00:22:28.304
You know, you've got a need.

00:22:28.304 --> 00:22:34.153
And, and generally the, the first questions are, uh, when I have a need, I'm usually, I need it now.

00:22:34.153 --> 00:22:35.743
And, and how much is it gonna cost?

00:22:35.894 --> 00:22:42.913
Uh, and so that's where we, we come in early to, to help analyze, uh, alongside an architect partner.

00:22:42.943 --> 00:22:43.034
Mm-hmm.

00:22:43.273 --> 00:22:49.273
You know, what is the space plan and what are the, the constraints, uh, what are the true needs that you have for this new facility?

00:22:49.273 --> 00:22:55.094
And, and, and then throughout the process, we will help navigate the, the municipal process.

00:22:55.453 --> 00:23:02.203
That's a significant function, uh, that, that's a significant, we've gotten a little bit more complicated permits and regulations, or it's a little bit more complicated.

00:23:02.534 --> 00:23:08.564
Uh, and just navigating that, uh, it's not like building a house where you can just run down to the, the building department and pull it right.

00:23:08.564 --> 00:23:09.374
And start tomorrow.

00:23:09.374 --> 00:23:09.763
So.

00:23:10.199 --> 00:23:15.449
There's quite a bit to, it's a long time between first conversation and first revenue for you guys, isn't it?

00:23:15.449 --> 00:23:29.759
You know, on a typical ground that it's, I would say you're probably anywhere from 10 to 14 months from, from the time the, the architects really engaged in starting the, the planning process with the city to shoveling the ground.

00:23:29.818 --> 00:23:30.028
Right.

00:23:30.028 --> 00:23:34.288
And then from there, it can be up to another eight to 10 months of, of construction.

00:23:34.304 --> 00:23:34.653
Right.

00:23:34.659 --> 00:23:35.038
Right.

00:23:35.219 --> 00:23:43.528
You know, it, it's a 24 to 36 month process and we're, we're plugging in, uh, just about everywhere in between Yeah.

00:23:43.858 --> 00:23:44.368
Helping out.

00:23:44.548 --> 00:23:44.939
Yeah.

00:23:44.939 --> 00:23:44.940
Yeah.

00:23:45.298 --> 00:23:49.078
Uh, the stuff that you guys self fulfill, what, what, what is that stuff, if I may?

00:23:49.259 --> 00:23:49.798
Sure.

00:23:50.969 --> 00:23:55.288
There's, there's always scopes of work that, uh, kind of fall between the cracks.

00:23:55.739 --> 00:23:56.189
You gotcha.

00:23:56.249 --> 00:24:02.699
Uh, a plumber doesn't handle this, electrician doesn't, so we do a lot of self perform around, um, rough carpentry.

00:24:03.179 --> 00:24:03.269
Mm-hmm.

00:24:03.509 --> 00:24:08.578
A lot of demolition, all the scopes that are really hard to, to, to quite understand the scope.

00:24:08.578 --> 00:24:14.638
Sometime on a bid portion, understand the scope or, or there's not a dedicated, uh, company out there that can do that.

00:24:14.638 --> 00:24:16.499
So we fill in the gaps and Gotcha.

00:24:16.618 --> 00:24:16.858
Okay.

00:24:17.009 --> 00:24:17.249
Yeah.

00:24:18.088 --> 00:24:22.439
So there's just a, you know, you got hammers or whatever, like, okay, crew, we do have hammer.

00:24:22.858 --> 00:24:24.028
Go take that stuff out.

00:24:24.034 --> 00:24:24.054
Yeah.

00:24:24.058 --> 00:24:24.419
Yeah.

00:24:24.419 --> 00:24:28.648
I think as a company we have, oh gosh, ten eight.

00:24:29.459 --> 00:24:30.749
Eight or 10 carpenters.

00:24:31.078 --> 00:24:31.409
Oh, wow.

00:24:31.409 --> 00:24:31.949
And they're good.

00:24:32.038 --> 00:24:32.459
Okay.

00:24:32.519 --> 00:24:35.098
You know, they're, they are true carpenters that, that.

00:24:35.578 --> 00:24:37.739
Uh, haven't been pigeonholed into one thing.

00:24:37.798 --> 00:24:37.858
Yeah.

00:24:37.858 --> 00:24:39.479
They, they're kind of Jack Wall trades.

00:24:39.598 --> 00:24:39.959
Gotcha.

00:24:40.019 --> 00:24:48.148
And so whether it's filling in the gaps or it is choosing on, on smaller projects to selectively go in and say, you know what?

00:24:48.538 --> 00:24:50.878
It would be way too complicated to bring in.

00:24:50.939 --> 00:24:51.148
Yeah.

00:24:51.148 --> 00:24:55.138
We could build up a lot of, lets, we're gonna put a mezzanine in here, or we can just do that.

00:24:55.138 --> 00:24:56.999
We don't need to bid somebody in there for that.

00:24:57.028 --> 00:24:59.128
And then there's always the end of the project, right.

00:24:59.128 --> 00:25:02.159
Where you're trying to wrap up and punch list and mm-hmm.

00:25:02.398 --> 00:25:09.659
Um, it's hard to get, you know, you think about maybe on any given project you're hiring 20 to 30 subcontractors.

00:25:09.689 --> 00:25:09.749
Yeah.

00:25:10.169 --> 00:25:13.979
You gotta get'em all back within a short amount of time to fix little things.

00:25:13.979 --> 00:25:14.219
Right.

00:25:14.249 --> 00:25:21.598
Well, and your budgets that the banker has put in front of you and is required without encumbrances and stuff, they just really are based on the function.

00:25:21.598 --> 00:25:21.989
Right.

00:25:21.989 --> 00:25:34.078
So co if Elder wants to go execute this portion of that budget because they can't get the damn framer over or the plumber over in time or whatever, then they can do that.

00:25:34.108 --> 00:25:34.318
Yeah.

00:25:34.439 --> 00:25:34.739
Yeah.

00:25:34.858 --> 00:25:35.128
Okay.

00:25:35.278 --> 00:25:39.148
And I think that's been the challenge for us is often that has been cost.

00:25:39.148 --> 00:25:40.949
We eat right.

00:25:40.949 --> 00:25:41.878
We Right.

00:25:41.884 --> 00:25:45.719
And so it's like, okay, how do we, how do we make the self perform profitable?

00:25:45.898 --> 00:25:46.199
Right.

00:25:46.199 --> 00:25:47.038
Not just a.

00:25:47.489 --> 00:25:49.034
A way to a competitive advantage?

00:25:49.304 --> 00:25:53.338
Well, or just a way to, to maintain or, or hold the schedule.

00:25:53.368 --> 00:25:53.459
Mm-hmm.

00:25:53.699 --> 00:25:54.538
Or delivery date.

00:25:54.659 --> 00:25:54.749
Mm-hmm.

00:25:54.989 --> 00:25:55.229
Okay.

00:25:55.229 --> 00:25:56.009
We got some bodies.

00:25:56.009 --> 00:25:57.713
Let's throw it at it instead of mm-hmm.

00:25:58.409 --> 00:25:59.818
Should we really have been doing that?

00:25:59.818 --> 00:26:03.808
Or should we have held others a little bit more strongly accountable for finishing?

00:26:03.868 --> 00:26:04.259
Right.

00:26:04.259 --> 00:26:04.679
Strong.

00:26:04.739 --> 00:26:05.219
Right.

00:26:05.278 --> 00:26:08.219
But when you're at the end, you just gotta, yeah.

00:26:08.338 --> 00:26:11.249
You gotta finish strong and push until you need to get there and make the deadline.

00:26:11.249 --> 00:26:13.318
So you gotta have those folks that can help you do it.

00:26:13.618 --> 00:26:29.338
Talk to me about, like starting, you said it started in 94, what your, was your father's company and then like starting up here, talk to me about that experience was like, or did you go back after college and be part of it there?

00:26:29.338 --> 00:26:36.209
Or like how do you, how do you set a tap route, you know, to get, get a launch and, and it takes a lot of capital, right.

00:26:36.269 --> 00:26:39.929
Like to, or a decent amount even just to get a insurance policy.

00:26:39.929 --> 00:26:42.753
You know, I think that, I guess that's, it was already established a little bit.

00:26:42.753 --> 00:26:42.913
Yeah.

00:26:43.108 --> 00:26:47.969
And that's, so our journey up here, um, I think we touched on a minute.

00:26:47.969 --> 00:26:53.429
We went to school here, obviously then Pat and, and Austin both went and worked for g Johnson Construction.

00:26:53.489 --> 00:26:53.939
Oh, okay.

00:26:54.058 --> 00:26:59.368
Um, pat on the estimating side, Austin, uh, traveling superintendent took'em all over the country.

00:26:59.398 --> 00:26:59.578
Yep.

00:26:59.638 --> 00:26:59.788
Yep.

00:26:59.788 --> 00:27:04.558
And, um, there was a desire, there was always a desire to do something together.

00:27:04.709 --> 00:27:04.949
Yeah.

00:27:05.189 --> 00:27:08.669
Uh, we just didn't know what it was and how we were gonna do it.

00:27:08.669 --> 00:27:16.558
So we, uh, famously joke about we, we got pretty burnout in our careers about five years in.

00:27:16.588 --> 00:27:18.239
And, uh, and what were you doing?

00:27:18.419 --> 00:27:20.939
I was doing appraisal finance work for Okay.

00:27:20.939 --> 00:27:22.108
Uh, hotel HVS.

00:27:22.114 --> 00:27:22.473
Oh, okay.

00:27:22.648 --> 00:27:23.219
Oh yeah.

00:27:23.608 --> 00:27:24.388
What's that guy's name?

00:27:24.388 --> 00:27:24.808
Rod.

00:27:24.808 --> 00:27:25.441
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:27:25.469 --> 00:27:27.419
Rod Clo or something.

00:27:27.509 --> 00:27:30.538
Yeah, I got to, I got to kind of travel the US with him.

00:27:30.598 --> 00:27:31.078
Oh, cool.

00:27:31.138 --> 00:27:35.669
And it was a fantastic, he had a quite a fascinating business was, and, but maybe he still does.

00:27:35.669 --> 00:27:35.969
I don't know.

00:27:35.969 --> 00:27:36.673
I haven't seen him in 10 years.

00:27:36.673 --> 00:27:36.953
Five he does.

00:27:36.953 --> 00:27:38.969
And, and tremendous, tremendous leader.

00:27:39.028 --> 00:27:40.138
I mean, he's wonderful man.

00:27:40.138 --> 00:27:44.338
And, and I learned so much from, from him and how, how to treat people.

00:27:44.669 --> 00:27:44.848
Yeah.

00:27:44.878 --> 00:27:45.028
Cool.

00:27:45.028 --> 00:27:53.068
I mean, and, uh, long the short though, we, we got bored, uh, decided to take a trip to Arizona together, hashed out a terrible business plan.

00:27:53.699 --> 00:27:57.269
Um, and our options were do we, do we start something on our own Right.

00:27:57.328 --> 00:28:06.388
Or do we, uh, see if, if pops is interested in, in, uh, like, Hey, you could be rn, we'll be your out kind of thing.

00:28:06.659 --> 00:28:07.019
Right, right.

00:28:07.528 --> 00:28:10.108
And Austin, what was, what was your dad involved with?

00:28:10.108 --> 00:28:11.699
You said you were also from a builder family.

00:28:11.848 --> 00:28:15.778
Yeah, so he was a, a high-end residential contractor.

00:28:15.808 --> 00:28:15.868
Okay.

00:28:15.868 --> 00:28:18.628
Down in Colorado Springs doing work down in the Broadmoor.

00:28:18.719 --> 00:28:19.288
Gotcha, gotcha.

00:28:19.288 --> 00:28:20.459
Um, big remodels.

00:28:20.459 --> 00:28:20.699
Big.

00:28:21.179 --> 00:28:21.358
Yep.

00:28:21.509 --> 00:28:21.598
Yep.

00:28:21.959 --> 00:28:24.328
Homes that we'll never be able to afford, so.

00:28:24.358 --> 00:28:24.874
Right, right, right.

00:28:24.929 --> 00:28:36.419
Um, and I think that was part of the conversation is we both had parents that were in, in the construction business, and I think the first thing was, do we want to do residential or commercial?

00:28:36.419 --> 00:28:36.479
Yeah.

00:28:36.838 --> 00:28:40.318
Was that part of the business plan part in Arizona or you already knew?

00:28:40.318 --> 00:28:43.473
Yeah, I mean, we, we pretty quickly came to the decision that we wanted to do.

00:28:43.769 --> 00:28:45.509
Commercial and why?

00:28:45.719 --> 00:28:55.709
Uh, may I, well, yeah, I mean, maybe a quick story is once we, we started the office up here as Elder Construction.

00:28:55.709 --> 00:29:04.798
We got the opportunity to do a couple of residential projects and we spun off an LLC and we're like, Hey, we'll go and do these residential projects as long as we got'em.

00:29:04.858 --> 00:29:05.068
Yeah.

00:29:05.074 --> 00:29:06.538
And, and they were miserable failures.

00:29:06.868 --> 00:29:11.848
Well, we joke that we, we would've had more fun buying two Ferrari and Smashing.

00:29:14.068 --> 00:29:20.969
Well, I probably would've been, I just had, I just had Dwight from High Craft on, uh, you guys will be right close proximity here.

00:29:20.969 --> 00:29:23.818
So you guys would probably glad you didn't run into each other's Ferraris.

00:29:24.028 --> 00:29:27.628
Well, and it, you know, it, it's just different.

00:29:28.019 --> 00:29:28.138
Okay.

00:29:28.618 --> 00:29:29.548
And what did you do wrong?

00:29:29.548 --> 00:29:30.388
Was it your fault?

00:29:30.719 --> 00:29:31.169
Whose fault?

00:29:31.348 --> 00:29:43.919
Well, I think what you're not prepared for is the end client user in residential as a commercial contractor and everything while it's still construction.

00:29:43.979 --> 00:29:47.278
I mean, the subcontract groups are very different.

00:29:47.278 --> 00:29:51.179
How you deal with, you know, authorities having jurisdiction are very different.

00:29:51.209 --> 00:29:51.298
Mm-hmm.

00:29:51.598 --> 00:29:56.159
Um, the sales process and, and the starts of builds.

00:29:56.519 --> 00:29:57.088
Um.

00:29:57.644 --> 00:30:00.013
It unless you do it all of the time.

00:30:00.134 --> 00:30:02.894
I mean, there are great residential contractors around, right.

00:30:02.894 --> 00:30:04.243
And they understand how it works.

00:30:04.243 --> 00:30:10.574
And we come from a perspective of commercial and it just, you know, our people weren't trained in it.

00:30:10.663 --> 00:30:14.023
Um, we didn't have the right subcontract base to do it.

00:30:14.084 --> 00:30:17.743
We didn't understand, you know, how to properly time out.

00:30:17.743 --> 00:30:20.233
Had you done some commercial projects first?

00:30:20.564 --> 00:30:20.894
Oh, yeah.

00:30:20.923 --> 00:30:21.433
Already.

00:30:21.433 --> 00:30:23.923
And then you got these couple of land, these couple of residential.

00:30:23.923 --> 00:30:27.344
A good idea at the time were, they were running concurrently.

00:30:27.794 --> 00:30:29.203
And I think that's exactly it.

00:30:29.413 --> 00:30:35.653
You're looking at the residential company and you're like, man, we're struggling here, but the commercial's going so well.

00:30:35.743 --> 00:30:36.013
Right.

00:30:36.013 --> 00:30:38.953
And I think we were pretty early in our leadership careers.

00:30:39.013 --> 00:30:39.223
Sure.

00:30:39.584 --> 00:30:42.913
And it was the classic case of chasing a, a shiny object.

00:30:42.943 --> 00:30:43.124
Yeah.

00:30:43.304 --> 00:30:43.544
Yeah.

00:30:43.663 --> 00:30:44.114
Normal.

00:30:44.653 --> 00:30:45.403
A hundred percent normal.

00:30:45.403 --> 00:30:49.544
And, you know, you sit back and look at it three years later and you're like, uh, never again.

00:30:49.784 --> 00:30:50.054
Yeah.

00:30:50.114 --> 00:30:51.463
So take me back.

00:30:51.463 --> 00:30:56.114
So you, so you decide to approach dad and be like, Hey, you want to, you want a good exit plan?

00:30:56.294 --> 00:30:56.534
Yeah.

00:30:56.534 --> 00:30:57.013
Pops.

00:30:57.193 --> 00:30:57.463
Yeah.

00:30:57.463 --> 00:31:01.273
And, and so Pat, so what we did, I think get right was our timing.

00:31:01.423 --> 00:31:08.743
Um, we, pat struck out and opened an office for, uh, my dad up north in 2008.

00:31:08.743 --> 00:31:13.003
So before GE Johnson or, uh Oh, you struck out independently?

00:31:13.003 --> 00:31:13.784
Yeah, independently.

00:31:13.844 --> 00:31:14.354
Oh, I see.

00:31:14.413 --> 00:31:15.013
Really.

00:31:15.013 --> 00:31:20.233
I mean, I, I'd probably have to jump in and say the catalyst was really, uh, my wife and I got married.

00:31:20.729 --> 00:31:26.009
Uh, in 2008 and she decided to do a residency program at Northern Colorado.

00:31:26.203 --> 00:31:26.493
Okay.

00:31:26.653 --> 00:31:28.078
Colorado Medical Center in Greeley.

00:31:28.439 --> 00:31:30.959
And so that really pulled us back to, to Northern Colorado.

00:31:30.989 --> 00:31:31.378
Okay.

00:31:31.618 --> 00:31:40.409
Uh, I hadn't since left g Johnson and was working with, uh, the director of pre-construction who'd spun off and started his own consulting business.

00:31:40.469 --> 00:31:40.828
Okay.

00:31:41.128 --> 00:31:46.409
But that lasted until about October of 2008 when, when the Great Recession.

00:31:46.409 --> 00:31:46.949
Right, right.

00:31:46.949 --> 00:31:53.909
Started to, to rumble up and he decided it was time to, to probably go back and work with the, the corporate machine.

00:31:53.939 --> 00:31:54.209
Gotcha.

00:31:54.209 --> 00:31:56.128
And you're like, no way, man, I'm not doing that.

00:31:56.128 --> 00:31:57.179
I'm, I am not doing that.

00:31:57.179 --> 00:32:01.229
I, I've been commuting to Colorado, or not Colorado Springs, but Castle Rock at the time.

00:32:01.229 --> 00:32:11.848
And, and, uh, so it was, it was the conversation of, boy, this seems like a pretty, uh, pretty fortuitous time to, to ask Dad if he's, uh, he's interested in Northern Office.

00:32:11.848 --> 00:32:15.058
And he was gracious about it and, and awfully excited.

00:32:15.058 --> 00:32:25.169
And, and so, you know, I even though probably you knew you were coming into some kind of a weird recessionary time or whatever, you know, I think we, I think we sensed something for sure.

00:32:25.229 --> 00:32:30.298
Um, I think there's a resilience having been a builder for, for so many years.

00:32:30.298 --> 00:32:30.358
Yeah.

00:32:30.358 --> 00:32:37.469
Especially for, for my dad owning his own business, um, you know, 2001 wasn't a great time with the.com bus.

00:32:37.473 --> 00:32:37.614
Yeah.

00:32:37.648 --> 00:32:37.798
Yeah.

00:32:37.858 --> 00:32:40.618
Especially in Colorado Springs with as much, uh, yeah.

00:32:40.709 --> 00:32:42.028
Kind of reliance in that space.

00:32:42.028 --> 00:32:43.499
That was a, that was a big space down there.

00:32:43.844 --> 00:32:46.153
He'd lived through the eighties, um, right.

00:32:46.394 --> 00:32:47.263
As a contractor.

00:32:47.263 --> 00:32:51.913
So I think we all looked at 2008, not knowing what it was really gonna become.

00:32:52.183 --> 00:32:52.273
Mm-hmm.

00:32:52.513 --> 00:32:59.413
And, uh, just blessed that he'd always run a very financial, financially, uh, conservative organization.

00:32:59.413 --> 00:32:59.473
Yeah.

00:32:59.473 --> 00:33:00.253
Keep the overhead low.

00:33:00.253 --> 00:33:03.284
And, and he, he said, sure, let's do it.

00:33:03.374 --> 00:33:07.213
And, uh, he really helped kind of get, get things started.

00:33:07.423 --> 00:33:08.503
I had some relationships.

00:33:08.503 --> 00:33:14.683
I'd been in Estes Park for about 18 months prior, prior, with g Johnson doing, doing the hospital up there.

00:33:14.683 --> 00:33:19.753
So I had some relationships and, and it gave us a great opportunity to kind start slow.

00:33:19.903 --> 00:33:20.203
Yeah.

00:33:20.443 --> 00:33:21.733
Uh, the market was down.

00:33:21.733 --> 00:33:22.844
It was pretty scrappy.

00:33:22.933 --> 00:33:23.203
Yeah.

00:33:23.384 --> 00:33:27.193
Um, and was it just you or did you ring Austin up right away?

00:33:27.193 --> 00:33:29.263
Or like what, tell me about that evolution.

00:33:29.263 --> 00:33:32.294
This would, this would've been, uh, January of oh nine.

00:33:32.294 --> 00:33:35.953
And I think we did our, uh, Arizona Summit probably in April.

00:33:36.554 --> 00:33:37.273
Okay.

00:33:37.273 --> 00:33:40.453
Guys, uh, the shingles, Hey, I got this thing off the ground.

00:33:40.723 --> 00:33:42.554
Did you have any clients established yet?

00:33:42.554 --> 00:33:43.064
I'm not doing this.

00:33:43.124 --> 00:33:45.463
Uh, you had, you were six months open or whatever, right?

00:33:45.523 --> 00:33:45.794
No.

00:33:45.794 --> 00:33:52.213
And in fact, uh, that was one of the conditions that I, I love my dad'cause he's always made us earn, make us earn it.

00:33:52.213 --> 00:34:00.673
But he said, you, you can come on the payroll, but you gotta have your contractor's license and your first project that, you know, signed up before you, you do that.

00:34:00.673 --> 00:34:01.574
So, oh.

00:34:01.739 --> 00:34:05.324
It, it was a, it was a grind from Oh, so he like rented the office for you?

00:34:05.324 --> 00:34:05.713
Kind of.

00:34:05.713 --> 00:34:07.933
But you didn't get to be on the payroll until you landed a deal?

00:34:07.993 --> 00:34:08.264
Oh no.

00:34:08.264 --> 00:34:08.958
We were in the basement.

00:34:09.543 --> 00:34:09.833
Okay.

00:34:09.833 --> 00:34:09.835
Gotcha.

00:34:10.503 --> 00:34:10.793
Yeah.

00:34:10.798 --> 00:34:11.099
Yeah.

00:34:11.099 --> 00:34:13.739
There was no office for, for at least 18 months.

00:34:13.768 --> 00:34:14.338
Gotcha.

00:34:14.338 --> 00:34:20.818
Uh, but, uh, by, by April, uh, landed our first client, uh, we got our license in, in Fort Collins.

00:34:21.239 --> 00:34:26.699
And, uh, it was about a year after that that Chris joined, and then a year after that, that Austin joined.

00:34:26.849 --> 00:34:29.699
And talk to me about that first client, if you're allowed to, or Yeah, yeah.

00:34:29.699 --> 00:34:30.514
Do they let you Great guy.

00:34:30.518 --> 00:34:31.978
Uh, uh, Dr.

00:34:31.978 --> 00:34:32.818
Meki in Mullin.

00:34:33.273 --> 00:34:33.434
Okay.

00:34:33.509 --> 00:34:36.418
And, uh, you know, he was, he was super gracious.

00:34:36.418 --> 00:34:40.259
It was a small boy, 800 square foot, 10 finish for Okay, okay.

00:34:40.259 --> 00:34:42.809
For a 10 of 10 something that most people really didn't want.

00:34:42.809 --> 00:34:43.739
No, nobody wanted.

00:34:43.739 --> 00:34:51.719
I, I couldn't even tell you what the, the contract value was, but hey, it was, if I told you you'd go, well, you can't even put carpet in a place right.

00:34:51.719 --> 00:34:52.378
These days for that.

00:34:52.378 --> 00:34:55.438
Couldn't have even buy those shoes that Austin's wearing for that margin.

00:34:55.438 --> 00:34:55.648
I loved it.

00:34:55.648 --> 00:34:55.829
Margin.

00:34:55.829 --> 00:34:56.039
Yeah.

00:34:56.039 --> 00:34:56.909
It was, it was, it was great.

00:34:56.909 --> 00:35:00.838
My wife was, you know, 36 hour shifts in residency and Right.

00:35:01.048 --> 00:35:05.518
I had a pot of coffee in the, in the basement on a card table and Yeah.

00:35:05.518 --> 00:35:07.378
Estimating and invoices at night.

00:35:07.378 --> 00:35:09.929
I, and, and, uh, superintendent by day.

00:35:09.929 --> 00:35:14.914
And, and we did that for, you know, a number of years, but overhead was low and Right.

00:35:15.173 --> 00:35:17.039
And, uh, we were having fun doing it.

00:35:17.338 --> 00:35:26.219
Uh, and then what did you guys come on doing and what was the, was there other people already on or with these of number two and number three employees?

00:35:26.219 --> 00:35:27.688
Number two and number three up north.

00:35:27.719 --> 00:35:28.048
Yeah.

00:35:28.139 --> 00:35:28.559
Okay.

00:35:28.559 --> 00:35:31.289
I think that's one of the, the things I think I'm.

00:35:31.813 --> 00:35:36.403
I think we're so blessed with is we, we all have very different skill sets and giftings.

00:35:36.463 --> 00:35:36.733
Yeah.

00:35:36.943 --> 00:35:40.393
Uh, I really enjoy the pre-construction work acquisition side.

00:35:40.423 --> 00:35:40.664
Mm.

00:35:40.934 --> 00:35:44.893
Austin's phenomenal on the operations and, and construction side.

00:35:44.954 --> 00:35:45.043
Mm-hmm.

00:35:45.284 --> 00:35:48.914
Chris has got the finance and, and business mind background and Yeah.

00:35:49.213 --> 00:35:54.914
So I think, you know, it wasn't really early on, we kind of, you, you kind of fell into your lanes.

00:35:54.914 --> 00:35:59.833
You didn't really even have to talk about it too much or like you'd go to Arizona multiple times.

00:36:00.284 --> 00:36:14.414
That was, that was why we went to Arizona and I gotta, gotta hit him on this because we're sitting down in Arizona and we're playing golf a couple of days and, you know, you'd sit down afterwards and you're having a beer and you're like, okay, how are we gonna do this?

00:36:14.414 --> 00:36:16.333
And we know what our natural strengths are.

00:36:16.333 --> 00:36:28.693
And, um, you know, like, like Patrick said, you know, Chris had finance, Patrick had pre-construction estimating and I was in, in operations, but then there are the ancillary parts of the business.

00:36:28.753 --> 00:36:28.844
Sure.

00:36:28.844 --> 00:36:30.463
Like HR and it.

00:36:31.213 --> 00:36:31.514
Right.

00:36:31.693 --> 00:36:38.773
And we all kind of look at each other and Patrick's like, well, I'll take that, but you, you gotta realize the, the iPhone had just come out.

00:36:39.989 --> 00:36:40.199
Yeah.

00:36:40.204 --> 00:36:42.539
And so it, with the iPhone, like, how hard is this?

00:36:42.539 --> 00:36:42.599
Yeah.

00:36:42.599 --> 00:36:46.858
Just buy an iPhone, sign up for the Apple Plus plan or something.

00:36:48.023 --> 00:36:51.298
He, he has yet to sign up for that function of business charge.

00:36:52.018 --> 00:36:55.619
So HR and technology have never actually landed on his plate.

00:36:55.708 --> 00:36:57.719
It was a total beaten and stretch, right.

00:36:57.719 --> 00:36:58.378
That was yours?

00:36:58.378 --> 00:36:58.559
Or?

00:36:59.579 --> 00:37:02.844
Well, it started with me until I threw my hands up, like, I don't want this anymore.

00:37:04.318 --> 00:37:06.539
And we have great people in that area of the business now.

00:37:06.539 --> 00:37:09.748
Well, you've grown enough now you can actually have a proper HR person.

00:37:10.409 --> 00:37:11.759
How do you guys handle that function?

00:37:11.759 --> 00:37:14.489
Or do you have a full-time or more than one even maybe hr?

00:37:14.969 --> 00:37:19.619
Yeah, so we have hr, we have a, um, director of training and development.

00:37:19.829 --> 00:37:20.128
Okay.

00:37:20.398 --> 00:37:23.728
Because that's one of the tenants of, there's a bunch of OSHA and things like that.

00:37:23.728 --> 00:37:25.619
And safety and Well, yeah.

00:37:25.619 --> 00:37:31.409
And you know, one of the, the core values that we have is we want constant curiosity.

00:37:31.414 --> 00:37:31.483
Mm-hmm.

00:37:31.563 --> 00:37:33.478
And so for us, um.

00:37:33.853 --> 00:37:37.063
You know, construction is what we do.

00:37:37.123 --> 00:37:38.143
It's not why we do it.

00:37:38.264 --> 00:37:38.414
Yeah.

00:37:38.893 --> 00:37:49.304
And I think a big piece of the, the why for us is, you know, we build purpose into people and the idea is that we leave the world better than than we found it.

00:37:49.454 --> 00:37:49.543
Hmm.

00:37:49.903 --> 00:37:58.574
And so, for company our size to have a director of training and development, most other companies that I, that I'm in peer groups with are like, you're crazy.

00:37:58.603 --> 00:37:58.934
Yeah.

00:37:59.384 --> 00:38:01.244
But it's foundational to who we are.

00:38:01.304 --> 00:38:01.393
Yeah.

00:38:01.454 --> 00:38:03.884
And we want our people to grow.

00:38:03.943 --> 00:38:04.304
Right.

00:38:04.664 --> 00:38:12.344
Um, so we've got Alicia Reddy, who's our, our training of, or our director of training, um, and development.

00:38:12.344 --> 00:38:19.063
And then we have an HR manager, um, that handle handles more of the compliance related aspects and the compliance.

00:38:19.063 --> 00:38:22.608
And when you fire somebody, how to fire'em without getting sued and stuff like that.

00:38:22.608 --> 00:38:28.063
And trying to keep up with the state of Colorado's legislative changes is a full-time job.

00:38:28.184 --> 00:38:28.393
Yeah.

00:38:28.393 --> 00:38:44.623
Just about how much harder is it to do business in Colorado than it was 10 years ago or when you started, like, not to like poop on Colorado, but it seems like every year, and especially the last few years, they, they make it harder and harder.

00:38:44.623 --> 00:38:49.634
And even for the really, it used to be just picking on the 50 or a hundred employee companies.

00:38:49.634 --> 00:38:53.114
Now it's like if you got five or 10, here's a bunch of new stuff you gotta do.

00:38:53.773 --> 00:38:54.014
Yeah.

00:38:54.014 --> 00:38:55.603
I, I think it's, it's definitely harder.

00:38:55.784 --> 00:39:03.313
I think what we struggle with is as we grow in size, we start to fall into those mandatory requirements, those bigger buckets.

00:39:03.313 --> 00:39:12.764
Bigger buckets, and, and it's this balance between what we feel is right and how we want to run the business and, and, and never wanting to feel like the state is running the business.

00:39:12.764 --> 00:39:12.824
Yeah.

00:39:13.094 --> 00:39:13.903
Our business.

00:39:13.963 --> 00:39:18.193
So we have those conversations quite a bit because we do wanna stay compliant.

00:39:18.344 --> 00:39:18.434
Sure.

00:39:18.434 --> 00:39:22.753
We want, we wanna honor the, the law, even though we disagree with a lot of them.

00:39:23.384 --> 00:39:24.824
Uh, and the logic behind them.

00:39:25.184 --> 00:39:27.403
Um, I, I think it's twofold.

00:39:27.403 --> 00:39:37.454
You've got the state, but I think what has also probably made business more challenging, particularly in Northern Colorado liability is probably, well in Colorado, is just the, the changes in the municipalities.

00:39:37.873 --> 00:39:37.903
Mm.

00:39:38.114 --> 00:39:43.393
So you think about if we were just working under state requirements or, uh Right.

00:39:43.963 --> 00:39:47.893
Legislation or, um, whatever.

00:39:47.923 --> 00:39:48.043
Yeah.

00:39:48.043 --> 00:39:54.974
If there was just one set of rules for building things, and it was for Colorado, but in Northern Colorado there's 10 different rules.

00:39:55.003 --> 00:39:55.184
Yeah.

00:39:55.184 --> 00:39:55.693
Rule books.

00:39:55.724 --> 00:39:55.994
Yeah.

00:39:55.994 --> 00:40:03.974
And everybody has their own nuances on how, okay, they're on this code, they're on this, and oh yeah, you only put R 36 insulation in it.

00:40:03.974 --> 00:40:05.503
It needed R 38.

00:40:05.534 --> 00:40:08.443
In this, we've now adapted and got above and beyond.

00:40:08.443 --> 00:40:09.494
We want to be this.

00:40:09.494 --> 00:40:10.934
And, and so I think.

00:40:11.699 --> 00:40:28.978
Uh, keeping up with that and especially in the education with our clients that they go, well, I, is that like a keeping up with the Joneses kind of a thing almost among city staffs and regulatory bodies, like try to show who's got the bigger rule book.

00:40:29.458 --> 00:40:31.168
I think there's an element of that.

00:40:31.349 --> 00:40:34.003
My, my carbon sensitivity is bigger than yours.

00:40:34.233 --> 00:40:35.364
Yeah, exactly.

00:40:35.634 --> 00:40:37.949
Your SWAT is as big as mine anyway.

00:40:38.009 --> 00:40:50.639
Well, and I think, you know, we, there are parts of our business, because we work in so many different municipalities, as Chris alluded to, like every project, you know, we could work in Who does that?

00:40:51.059 --> 00:40:52.679
Like, who like checks it out.

00:40:52.679 --> 00:40:57.088
Like when you get a new job in Omaha, you're like, shit, we haven't built anything in Omaha in like four years.

00:40:57.088 --> 00:40:59.518
Like, we gotta go and like figure out what we gotta do now.

00:40:59.548 --> 00:41:01.708
Well, we really try to stay in the state of Colorado.

00:41:01.739 --> 00:41:02.639
Oh, do, okay.

00:41:02.639 --> 00:41:03.088
But that's fair.

00:41:03.088 --> 00:41:05.039
We occasionally sneak up into Southern Wyoming.

00:41:05.068 --> 00:41:05.458
Okay.

00:41:05.458 --> 00:41:06.748
So you don't go that far anyway.

00:41:06.809 --> 00:41:07.259
Yeah.

00:41:07.588 --> 00:41:19.708
But I think there are a couple of places that, that have highlighted this and without getting thrown out of the room, I mean, COVID was a great example of how difficult it was to operate our business.

00:41:19.708 --> 00:41:26.278
And I think everybody faced that, that challenge, but, oh, like what are you supposed to actually do?

00:41:26.338 --> 00:41:37.438
Well, health wise and stuff, or what we ran into was, there was a point where every single municipality, whether it was, you know, Broomfield or Brighton or Fort Collins or Greeley or Loveland or Right.

00:41:37.438 --> 00:41:41.489
Colorado Springs or Fountain or Monument, they all had different rules.

00:41:41.518 --> 00:41:42.028
Sure.

00:41:42.423 --> 00:41:47.579
And so literally you have 30 projects running across the state.

00:41:47.579 --> 00:41:48.059
Right.

00:41:48.329 --> 00:41:52.768
And you're trying to navigate the rules of 30 different municipalities.

00:41:52.768 --> 00:41:55.498
And you know, I think COVID was a good example of that.

00:41:55.498 --> 00:41:57.929
But you weren't that it was just very invisible in that case.

00:41:57.929 --> 00:41:57.989
Yeah.

00:41:58.438 --> 00:41:58.739
Right.

00:41:58.768 --> 00:42:04.739
'cause it was like, like, one thing I remember was like, Greeley, there was no such thing as COVID pretty much, right?

00:42:04.829 --> 00:42:05.009
Yeah.

00:42:05.009 --> 00:42:16.018
Fort Collins, if you walked in a store without a mask, you were getting ostracized, chased out, or, or at least side, side glance or you know, what are they little cast a spell or something?

00:42:16.289 --> 00:42:17.188
A pex on you.

00:42:17.548 --> 00:42:21.418
And then Windsor was a, was a shit show you didn't know.

00:42:21.478 --> 00:42:21.659
Right.

00:42:21.659 --> 00:42:25.528
Because some were like, super, don't wear that mask in here, young man.

00:42:25.528 --> 00:42:26.608
Others were like in between.

00:42:26.639 --> 00:42:26.938
Yeah.

00:42:27.179 --> 00:42:28.253
Weld County and Larm County.

00:42:28.259 --> 00:42:28.268
Right.

00:42:28.289 --> 00:42:32.458
So winter was kind of pickle, but it wasn't like they didn't settle in the middle.

00:42:32.458 --> 00:42:35.248
You'd think they'd just be like kind of, well, it's just gonna be chill either way.

00:42:35.248 --> 00:42:36.148
Since we're halfway between.

00:42:36.148 --> 00:42:40.708
It was like, some stores were like, super, get that mask off your face, you fool.

00:42:40.708 --> 00:42:42.719
And some were like, where's your mask?

00:42:42.719 --> 00:42:43.199
Asshole, asshole.

00:42:43.204 --> 00:42:43.333
You know?

00:42:43.333 --> 00:42:43.494
Yeah.

00:42:43.554 --> 00:42:45.898
And ironically we were deemed essential workers.

00:42:45.989 --> 00:42:46.349
Sure.

00:42:46.588 --> 00:42:48.088
So we got to keep going.

00:42:48.094 --> 00:42:48.494
Which of course.

00:42:48.494 --> 00:42:49.289
Which was wonderful.

00:42:49.289 --> 00:42:52.648
We, I mean,'cause we have, I didn't even know if I was essential or not.

00:42:52.648 --> 00:42:53.518
I didn't really ask.

00:42:53.518 --> 00:42:54.268
I just kept going.

00:42:54.628 --> 00:42:55.918
They would've shut things down.

00:42:55.918 --> 00:43:02.369
I don't know that the craft, we, we made a commitment from the very beginning that we weren't gonna let anybody go.

00:43:02.548 --> 00:43:02.789
Yeah.

00:43:02.849 --> 00:43:05.639
And we, we had the resources to protect for a while.

00:43:05.789 --> 00:43:06.088
Yeah.

00:43:06.179 --> 00:43:11.818
Um, but a lot of the workers in our industry, I mean, they live paycheck by paycheck.

00:43:11.969 --> 00:43:12.179
Sure.

00:43:12.358 --> 00:43:14.518
So not working would've been devastating for them.

00:43:14.518 --> 00:43:14.579
I.

00:43:14.849 --> 00:43:16.588
Um, and it was just so interesting, right?

00:43:16.588 --> 00:43:18.239
A lot of'em were paid by the hour besides, right.

00:43:18.239 --> 00:43:20.639
So if you're not actually working well then Yeah.

00:43:20.878 --> 00:43:20.969
Right.

00:43:20.969 --> 00:43:30.599
And, and what we quickly came to recognize was our, what was gonna shut us down fast, faster than anything was building inspections.

00:43:30.929 --> 00:43:31.228
Hmm.

00:43:31.289 --> 00:43:37.559
So we are, we could only go as fast as, as building inspectors would come out and inspect the work at critical points in time.

00:43:37.559 --> 00:43:37.648
Sure.

00:43:38.009 --> 00:43:52.153
And it, that's where we saw the bottleneck was he spent, I guess, I don't know, it felt like a whole year, every morning you were looking at different, all the different municipalities and saying, okay, here's their, their requirements.

00:43:52.153 --> 00:43:55.798
So, uh, for, for their inspectors to come the Yeah.

00:43:55.798 --> 00:43:57.298
We, we gotta check, check all, all these boxes.

00:43:57.298 --> 00:44:02.128
If the inspector shows up when we don't, and we does, we've got four people in this building that could only have three we're gonna be screwed.

00:44:02.128 --> 00:44:05.998
Well, or like, okay, he's gonna show up, the inspector's gonna show up, he's gonna honk his horn twice.

00:44:05.998 --> 00:44:07.588
That means everybody's gotta get off the site.

00:44:07.588 --> 00:44:12.418
And then he could go, gonna go inspect and, and then he's gonna get back into his truck and honk again.

00:44:12.418 --> 00:44:13.798
Then everybody can go back to work.

00:44:13.798 --> 00:44:18.298
And how do you, how do you I'm maintain the five, not five feet minimum.

00:44:18.298 --> 00:44:19.798
It's funny, sad, not funny.

00:44:19.798 --> 00:44:20.400
Ha ha.

00:44:20.429 --> 00:44:22.228
From a safety aspect, right.

00:44:22.228 --> 00:44:23.039
Lifting material.

00:44:23.039 --> 00:44:23.219
Yeah.

00:44:23.219 --> 00:44:24.809
Like it was just, it was.

00:44:25.199 --> 00:44:25.739
Baffling.

00:44:25.914 --> 00:44:26.204
Yeah.

00:44:26.208 --> 00:44:26.969
Yeah, yeah.

00:44:27.088 --> 00:44:33.329
It was, I can imagine that's an interesting thing as you're trying to ride on this guy to get him out to do his inspection and he's terrified or whatever, right?

00:44:33.329 --> 00:44:33.509
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:44:33.509 --> 00:44:37.289
You're wiping down handrails or sending somebody ahead of him just Right.

00:44:37.289 --> 00:44:41.938
Hiring a commercial cleaning service to go in there and clean the place before the inspection.

00:44:42.179 --> 00:44:42.389
Yep.

00:44:42.869 --> 00:44:49.643
And, and it was interesting because the, the workforce that, that we rely on, they really didn't buy into it.

00:44:49.643 --> 00:44:53.969
They're from Greeley, and they didn't really, well, they just, I mean, a blue collar Yeah.

00:44:53.969 --> 00:44:54.958
Didn't really buy into it.

00:44:55.018 --> 00:44:55.378
Yeah.

00:44:55.378 --> 00:44:55.380
Yeah.

00:44:55.619 --> 00:45:04.043
Um, and so that was challenging because you're, you're trying to walk this fine line, but the bankers mostly did, you know, they're maybe not, I don't know.

00:45:04.043 --> 00:45:04.244
Yeah.

00:45:04.498 --> 00:45:10.139
So, uh, anyway, challeng are also, you know, uniquely suited for that environment.

00:45:10.438 --> 00:45:16.199
I remember the, the whole conversation work from home and, and not being able to go to a physical office.

00:45:16.199 --> 00:45:24.659
And, you know, one of the, the beauties to that for us is we have 30 different offices at any given point, right.

00:45:24.659 --> 00:45:26.429
They're all remote in, in a sense.

00:45:26.429 --> 00:45:35.219
So from a technology standpoint, from a communication standpoint, uh, I think we're really blessed in working in an environment that was disruptive for sure.

00:45:35.489 --> 00:45:35.759
Yeah.

00:45:35.849 --> 00:45:38.070
But not completely out.

00:45:38.338 --> 00:45:40.199
The network was still connected, kinda, yeah.

00:45:40.204 --> 00:45:44.159
We typically do, do you guys use like starlink stuff now on some of those sites?

00:45:44.159 --> 00:45:44.248
Oh, yeah.

00:45:44.458 --> 00:45:45.929
Yeah, seems like that'd be pretty handy.

00:45:46.228 --> 00:45:46.498
Yeah.

00:45:46.588 --> 00:45:52.829
Starling, I, I just saw Moses, my, uh, my landlord, Moses Horner, he's got a starlink right on the top of his Dodge Ram pickup truck.

00:45:53.219 --> 00:45:53.278
Yeah.

00:45:54.838 --> 00:45:55.108
Yeah.

00:45:55.108 --> 00:45:56.878
It's, it's great technology.

00:45:56.878 --> 00:46:01.409
We've got, I think eight or 10 of them now, uh, that go out to job sites.

00:46:01.829 --> 00:46:10.798
In 2001, there were 1 million star links a year, 13 months ago, there were 3 million star links, and now there's 6 million.

00:46:11.039 --> 00:46:11.489
Wow.

00:46:11.878 --> 00:46:15.298
So they doubled in 13 months from 3 million to 6 million subscribers.

00:46:15.838 --> 00:46:17.728
Pretty amazing technology and so convenient.

00:46:17.938 --> 00:46:18.179
Yeah.

00:46:18.179 --> 00:46:23.969
I mean, that used to be a critical pinch point for us as we started a job was how quickly can we get internet service to the job?

00:46:23.998 --> 00:46:24.298
Right.

00:46:24.298 --> 00:46:26.099
How can we get that landline from Quest?

00:46:26.248 --> 00:46:26.338
Yeah.

00:46:26.398 --> 00:46:27.809
Comcast is like, whatever.

00:46:28.498 --> 00:46:31.949
These guys are just a small peanut customer.

00:46:31.949 --> 00:46:32.068
Yeah.

00:46:32.068 --> 00:46:34.978
We've got it on the ambulance, camper, and, uh, it's bomb.

00:46:34.978 --> 00:46:42.599
Like when you're like in the middle of nowhere and like Jill's working, you know, from the truck while we're going down the road.

00:46:42.599 --> 00:46:43.708
It is really so cool.

00:46:44.639 --> 00:46:44.699
Yeah.

00:46:44.699 --> 00:46:45.599
Anyway, I digress.

00:46:45.809 --> 00:46:49.528
So what are, what is, what is the why around there?

00:46:49.588 --> 00:46:51.028
Like, and how do you communicate that?

00:46:51.028 --> 00:46:57.599
That's one of the things I wanted to, to zero in on is like, what's your pattern in communicating with the Northern Colorado team?

00:46:58.139 --> 00:47:03.418
Do the, do the Northern Colorado and Southern Colorado or Colorado Springs teams feel like.

00:47:04.034 --> 00:47:05.864
They're connected to one another.

00:47:05.864 --> 00:47:09.673
You know, culturally do you do things to intentionally do connect them?

00:47:10.123 --> 00:47:12.494
Um, so yeah, talk to me about that general topic.

00:47:12.494 --> 00:47:15.313
Whoever wants to, to chime in the why.

00:47:15.583 --> 00:47:22.483
This is one that I think we innately have always shared the same why, probably from when we were kids.

00:47:22.574 --> 00:47:22.903
Okay.

00:47:22.903 --> 00:47:34.664
I mean, I think over the years, having lots of conversations and being forced to articulate it as you're doing vision casting or you're working on core values and, uh, it starts to be more clear.

00:47:34.664 --> 00:47:37.364
You start to put, you start to name it Okay.

00:47:37.634 --> 00:47:39.103
That, that feeling you always had.

00:47:39.103 --> 00:48:18.853
And, and I think ours, ours from the very beginning was, um, just this, this idea that we're, we're all, um, have a deep faith and there there's the, uh, I'd almost call it like a kingdom building mission or why behind a, a lot of what we do, we don't openly, um, you know, you don't put it on your forehead or anything, don't put a forehead, but it, but it is in our why and it's that, you know, like Allison had talked about, it's this idea that, uh, I think all of us have been gifted with a God-given talent and it's our responsibility to, to use that talent for good in the world.

00:48:18.914 --> 00:48:19.123
Yeah.

00:48:19.543 --> 00:48:27.043
Uh, and then it's the responsibilities of those around you to help you if you don't know what it is or you can't see what it is to expose it.

00:48:27.079 --> 00:48:27.369
Yeah.

00:48:27.373 --> 00:48:27.614
Yeah.

00:48:27.704 --> 00:48:30.523
And either get you in the right seat.

00:48:31.003 --> 00:48:34.903
Or get you off the bus and into a different seat that's, that's tailored for your why.

00:48:34.903 --> 00:48:38.143
And so that was at the core of who we, who we are.

00:48:38.143 --> 00:48:41.474
And, and you know, we were talking about do you, your teams know about your faith?

00:48:41.534 --> 00:48:41.653
Mm-hmm.

00:48:41.748 --> 00:48:42.373
And do you talk about that?

00:48:42.373 --> 00:48:42.989
And how do you Yeah.

00:48:43.648 --> 00:48:46.693
But it is not required to be a Christian, be on your team.

00:48:46.693 --> 00:48:48.344
Like, no, I think it comes out, out articulate that.

00:48:48.373 --> 00:48:53.503
I think it comes out just in, um, probably the way we speak.

00:48:53.563 --> 00:48:54.344
The way we show up.

00:48:54.704 --> 00:48:55.603
I would like to think so.

00:48:55.603 --> 00:48:58.949
Anyway, you don't have Bible studies on Thursday mornings necessarily or anything like that?

00:48:58.954 --> 00:49:00.764
Uh, but we're not afraid to talk about it either.

00:49:00.764 --> 00:49:01.003
Sure.

00:49:01.018 --> 00:49:01.309
Yeah.

00:49:01.313 --> 00:49:01.634
Yeah.

00:49:01.634 --> 00:49:04.184
Um, and then, you know, we were talking about Stan Everett.

00:49:04.304 --> 00:49:04.574
Sure.

00:49:04.813 --> 00:49:05.173
Yeah.

00:49:05.173 --> 00:49:07.063
And, uh, part of the legacy project Yep.

00:49:07.123 --> 00:49:08.414
As we came on here.

00:49:08.414 --> 00:49:15.074
And, um, you know, he, he kind of, we all went through that at, at a, at a formative time.

00:49:15.164 --> 00:49:15.373
Yeah.

00:49:15.373 --> 00:49:26.233
And we were trying to wrestle with these questions and you know, this idea that you don't get to live life in this neutral, uh, position, you're either giving Yeah.

00:49:26.324 --> 00:49:26.983
A blessing.

00:49:27.074 --> 00:49:27.523
You're a blessing.

00:49:27.523 --> 00:49:27.733
Yeah.

00:49:28.244 --> 00:49:29.728
Or you're taking, or, or you're taking, yeah.

00:49:29.733 --> 00:49:29.954
Yeah.

00:49:29.954 --> 00:49:31.483
Uh, you can leave good or bad.

00:49:31.639 --> 00:49:31.929
Yeah.

00:49:31.934 --> 00:49:32.293
Yeah.

00:49:32.293 --> 00:49:36.793
And, and so weaving that into, to the, the vision casting that we had.

00:49:36.793 --> 00:49:49.213
So, um, you know, the, the core values at, at first felt like, uh, kinda that check the box exercise that you gotta do for the bank, for the business plan, but then you really start to see the application of it.

00:49:49.273 --> 00:49:55.063
And, um, you know, pat Austin, so many others that.

00:49:55.259 --> 00:50:01.139
Uh, that when we started to try to articulate it, uh, my, my father always, my father's got devalues.

00:50:01.469 --> 00:50:01.708
Sure.

00:50:01.708 --> 00:50:05.063
But they were, they were, well, you keep them quiet, you hold it in the vest in those days.

00:50:05.063 --> 00:50:05.344
Right.

00:50:05.364 --> 00:50:14.938
And so as we started to come on board, there was this opportunity to, to, and he, as he handed the company over to us, it was this opportunity to say, okay, what, let's put, let's name it.

00:50:15.298 --> 00:50:15.418
Yeah.

00:50:15.418 --> 00:50:16.409
What is important?

00:50:16.949 --> 00:50:19.528
Um,'cause your values really set the culture.

00:50:20.159 --> 00:50:22.679
And I think culture gets a really bad rap now.

00:50:22.739 --> 00:50:22.829
Mm-hmm.

00:50:23.068 --> 00:50:24.418
'cause it's, it's a trite word.

00:50:24.599 --> 00:50:25.498
It's a buzzword.

00:50:25.588 --> 00:50:25.708
Yeah.

00:50:25.708 --> 00:50:26.009
Right.

00:50:26.099 --> 00:50:34.228
Uh, but really is simply, it's just the attitudes, beliefs, it's how you show up, it's how you communicate, it's how you, what you value.

00:50:34.349 --> 00:50:34.619
Yeah.

00:50:34.708 --> 00:50:35.639
Hire what you tolerate.

00:50:35.639 --> 00:50:36.898
Hire reward.

00:50:37.048 --> 00:50:37.289
Yeah.

00:50:37.318 --> 00:50:37.918
Um, yeah.

00:50:37.918 --> 00:50:38.728
What you tolerate.

00:50:39.268 --> 00:50:47.099
And so getting really clear, really early, the three of us on how my dad did it, and then what's important to us.

00:50:47.219 --> 00:50:49.739
Then you start to build stories around those values.

00:50:50.128 --> 00:50:58.079
And then it's a lot easier in, um, orientations to say, this is who we are and this is how we're gonna show up and this is how we're gonna be.

00:50:58.349 --> 00:51:01.619
These are our non, were these are a good part of that kind of gets baked in on the front end.

00:51:01.619 --> 00:51:01.829
Yeah.

00:51:02.338 --> 00:51:03.304
These are our non, these are our non-negotiables.

00:51:03.568 --> 00:51:03.659
Yep.

00:51:03.664 --> 00:51:03.673
Yep.

00:51:03.958 --> 00:51:06.389
Um, we interview towards those.

00:51:06.389 --> 00:51:08.278
I mean, we have a, a list of questions.

00:51:08.278 --> 00:51:13.739
I think people are surprised after they get hired because they, they go, well, I didn't know you were interviewing for that.

00:51:13.739 --> 00:51:16.048
And you go, yeah, that's what this question was trying to tease out.

00:51:16.094 --> 00:51:16.384
Yeah.

00:51:16.438 --> 00:51:16.588
Yeah.

00:51:16.648 --> 00:51:18.539
And, and culture's important.

00:51:18.539 --> 00:51:20.338
Do we get it right all the time?

00:51:20.338 --> 00:51:20.639
No.

00:51:20.699 --> 00:51:21.509
We struggle with it.

00:51:21.509 --> 00:51:25.018
And I think that's been one of the challenges that we've, we've had over, I.

00:51:25.469 --> 00:51:31.438
The, the last 15 years is, um, while what we believe is the same, our core values are the same.

00:51:31.619 --> 00:51:34.588
They're a slightly different culture in Colorado Springs versus Northern Colorado.

00:51:34.648 --> 00:51:34.798
Sure, yeah.

00:51:34.798 --> 00:51:39.119
You can't be the same company that the demographics probably are different hundred percent in the office.

00:51:39.599 --> 00:51:39.659
Yeah.

00:51:39.659 --> 00:51:44.309
The, um, just the community itself is, is more conservative.

00:51:44.309 --> 00:51:47.668
It's, uh, you know, so it's, and not good.

00:51:47.938 --> 00:51:48.568
It's not good.

00:51:48.568 --> 00:51:48.809
Yeah.

00:51:48.813 --> 00:51:52.318
But in Colorado Springs, it was kinda like, which church do you go to?

00:51:52.409 --> 00:51:52.648
Yeah.

00:51:53.969 --> 00:51:58.588
Like if, like, in a business setting even really, it wasn't quite that way, but it was pretty, yeah.

00:51:58.588 --> 00:52:02.489
And it's less of that I think now, but cliquey and when I was there, I was there oh four to oh seven.

00:52:02.518 --> 00:52:02.699
Yeah.

00:52:03.148 --> 00:52:13.528
Um, as a relatively young Christian, I'd only been a Christian for a year or two, and I was like, this is weird, you know, in Park Collins, it'd be like, I've known somebody eight years and I just found out they're a Christian.

00:52:13.528 --> 00:52:15.599
You know, they actually go to the sister church of our church.

00:52:15.599 --> 00:52:16.139
I don't, you know.

00:52:16.228 --> 00:52:16.438
Yeah.

00:52:16.648 --> 00:52:18.628
In compare, in contrast, in some phase.

00:52:18.628 --> 00:52:24.539
Anyway, not to circle it around there, but No, I mean it's, it's, it's a true observation.

00:52:24.898 --> 00:52:28.168
And, um, do you know what our motto is at Loco Think Tank?

00:52:29.159 --> 00:52:29.728
Probably not.

00:52:29.789 --> 00:52:31.559
I don't if the bus was here or the ambulance.

00:52:31.559 --> 00:52:34.679
We could, we could read it, but it was actually my personal motto first.

00:52:34.679 --> 00:52:36.059
But I think you'll resonate with it.

00:52:36.389 --> 00:52:40.708
Each of you probably, which is, uh, ask of your needs and share of your abundance.

00:52:40.889 --> 00:52:41.099
Yeah.

00:52:41.248 --> 00:52:41.579
That's great.

00:52:41.579 --> 00:52:41.818
Yeah.

00:52:41.938 --> 00:52:45.478
Uh, and the implication is is that like, don't ask me of your wants.

00:52:45.478 --> 00:52:45.539
Yeah.

00:52:45.778 --> 00:52:49.228
Like the answer is no, but I will help you if you have needs.

00:52:49.228 --> 00:52:49.528
Really?

00:52:49.528 --> 00:52:50.548
And what are they actually?

00:52:50.668 --> 00:52:50.818
Yeah.

00:52:50.998 --> 00:52:53.398
You know, and then the share of your abundance, both in a.

00:52:54.518 --> 00:52:59.503
In a, in a philanthropic or giving back kind of ad standpoint, but also of your talents, you know?

00:52:59.563 --> 00:52:59.744
Yeah.

00:53:00.193 --> 00:53:09.704
As a member of local think tank, you, you're here at least in part because you've got certain talents or abilities or skills or experiences that are beneficial to this group.

00:53:10.153 --> 00:53:10.304
Yeah.

00:53:10.364 --> 00:53:10.903
And share it.

00:53:10.963 --> 00:53:11.563
Share it into there.

00:53:11.563 --> 00:53:12.494
Don't be, don't be shy.

00:53:12.673 --> 00:53:13.514
Well, I love how you say it.

00:53:13.514 --> 00:53:16.094
I, I think of it as time, talent and treasure shame.

00:53:16.184 --> 00:53:16.454
Yeah.

00:53:16.543 --> 00:53:16.844
Right.

00:53:16.934 --> 00:53:19.634
Like, and, and there's different moments when Yeah.

00:53:19.634 --> 00:53:20.954
Whatever that abundance is.

00:53:20.983 --> 00:53:22.153
Whatever that abundance is.

00:53:22.244 --> 00:53:22.574
Yeah.

00:53:22.574 --> 00:53:23.054
And the need.

00:53:23.054 --> 00:53:23.653
So that's good.

00:53:23.653 --> 00:53:24.284
I like that.

00:53:24.373 --> 00:53:24.554
Good.

00:53:24.673 --> 00:53:25.034
I'm glad.

00:53:25.034 --> 00:53:25.244
Yeah.

00:53:25.393 --> 00:53:28.693
Oh, and the side of the tank, so have you seen the tank Ambulance Camper?

00:53:28.753 --> 00:53:33.014
Well, I saw when it was an ambulance, so it's got seen, so it's got a tank silhouette on the side.

00:53:33.103 --> 00:53:33.403
Okay.

00:53:33.463 --> 00:53:34.273
And it's an ambulance.

00:53:34.273 --> 00:53:35.864
So both of those things are kind of morbid.

00:53:35.893 --> 00:53:36.579
Right, right.

00:53:36.733 --> 00:53:45.014
And so to alleviate it some, I've got like one of the old Bugs Bunny like flags hanging down outta the barrel of the tank and it says Build, do not destroy.

00:53:45.373 --> 00:53:45.614
Yeah.

00:53:45.704 --> 00:53:50.353
Uh, which I think resonates with what you were encouraging Austin, you know, leave the world better than you found it.

00:53:50.474 --> 00:53:50.864
Yeah.

00:53:51.193 --> 00:54:02.023
And I, and I think, you know, when we look at our, when we look at our business, oftentimes you, you get pigeonholed sometimes in what do you want your business to be?

00:54:02.143 --> 00:54:02.474
Sure.

00:54:02.563 --> 00:54:12.284
Um, you know, and, and do you want to be an uber efficient, uh, business model, or are you more of a lifestyle company?

00:54:12.764 --> 00:54:14.204
You know, and I, and I don't.

00:54:14.653 --> 00:54:17.143
Think we fit in either of those boxes.

00:54:17.143 --> 00:54:17.443
Yeah.

00:54:17.449 --> 00:54:17.639
Yeah.

00:54:17.643 --> 00:54:23.954
You know, I think one of the tenants that, you know, we've alluded to is we are a people first company.

00:54:23.958 --> 00:54:24.793
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:54:24.974 --> 00:54:27.373
And when it, like, Brinkman was kind of a grinder.

00:54:27.403 --> 00:54:30.943
Like, yes, you could be our sub, but we're gonna grind the crap outta you.

00:54:30.943 --> 00:54:32.833
Get the best price, you know, work.

00:54:33.313 --> 00:54:37.603
Maybe, maybe I'm fibbing about that, but, well that was at least the market impression I had maybe.

00:54:37.934 --> 00:54:38.264
Yeah.

00:54:38.264 --> 00:54:42.914
And I, uh, whereas you're like, we're not gonna like rip you off, but we would never grind ourselves like that.

00:54:43.423 --> 00:54:54.403
Well, in the same, and I, and I think our perspective is as the company, as the leaders, the shareholders in the organization are.

00:54:54.943 --> 00:54:57.373
Role is to take care of our people.

00:54:57.614 --> 00:54:57.733
Hmm.

00:54:57.764 --> 00:55:03.884
And then our people take care of the company and they take care of the company by taking care of the clients and, and the relationships.

00:55:03.884 --> 00:55:05.324
Treating yourselves with respect and all that.

00:55:05.324 --> 00:55:05.954
Well, yeah.

00:55:05.954 --> 00:55:06.704
Exactly.

00:55:06.704 --> 00:55:09.463
And I think that's a huge part of businesses.

00:55:10.063 --> 00:55:19.543
Without the design firms that we work with, without the trade partners, the subcontractors that we have, our business wouldn't exist.

00:55:19.548 --> 00:55:19.739
Right.

00:55:19.744 --> 00:55:19.903
Right.

00:55:19.903 --> 00:55:22.219
Without the communities that we build in.

00:55:22.219 --> 00:55:22.418
Yeah.

00:55:22.603 --> 00:55:23.474
We wouldn't exist.

00:55:23.503 --> 00:55:27.914
I just posted on LinkedIn the other day, uh, this year we should celebrate interdependence day.

00:55:28.543 --> 00:55:28.903
Yeah.

00:55:29.173 --> 00:55:32.864
Um, because you, nobody can do crap by themselves.

00:55:32.954 --> 00:55:35.563
Or even, you know, elder construction can't build anything.

00:55:35.563 --> 00:55:36.074
Barely.

00:55:36.074 --> 00:55:42.523
Like you could build a nice shed in the back, or, you know, even probably cooler than that, but, but you can't build a 200,000 square foot building.

00:55:42.528 --> 00:55:43.858
He's gonna compensate us then let's Right.

00:55:43.858 --> 00:55:44.713
And who's gonna inspect it?

00:55:44.713 --> 00:55:47.173
Who's gonna, you know all that.

00:55:47.233 --> 00:55:48.338
Well, anyway, continue asking.

00:55:48.338 --> 00:55:48.739
Please.

00:55:48.739 --> 00:56:00.313
And I think there's just a, you know, foundation and business there that we believe in that, you know, when you treat people the right way, they're going to like working with you.

00:56:00.494 --> 00:56:05.773
And it's not the short game, you know, we're not here for the next year or two.

00:56:06.253 --> 00:56:11.414
We want to build a company that exists beyond, you know, the current leadership.

00:56:11.443 --> 00:56:11.503
Yeah.

00:56:11.503 --> 00:56:12.704
And that's really our mandate.

00:56:12.704 --> 00:56:12.793
Cool.

00:56:12.853 --> 00:56:20.563
And, and so the way you treat clients, the way you treat your, your subcontractors, the way you treat your designers and architects.

00:56:20.954 --> 00:56:21.164
Yeah.

00:56:21.193 --> 00:56:21.378
You know.

00:56:21.943 --> 00:56:24.403
Has to be the long game, you know?

00:56:24.463 --> 00:56:31.543
And it doesn't mean that we don't hold people accountable, but we also show grace where we can.

00:56:31.784 --> 00:56:32.023
Yeah.

00:56:32.474 --> 00:56:32.804
Yeah.

00:56:32.893 --> 00:56:37.273
That's a, and oh, by the way, we work there, it's our life, right?

00:56:37.273 --> 00:56:38.173
We want it to be fun.

00:56:38.173 --> 00:56:41.594
We like, I think Austin sum up the mission really well.

00:56:41.954 --> 00:56:49.664
Uh, it's look really, if, if we can check three boxes in life with around work is so awesome.

00:56:49.903 --> 00:56:51.313
Do meaningful and challenging work.

00:56:51.614 --> 00:56:55.333
Do it with people you, you respect and enjoy and make a little money doing it.

00:56:55.543 --> 00:56:55.724
Yeah.

00:56:55.753 --> 00:57:01.153
Like, if we can do that, which we have to this point, like life is so fulfilling.

00:57:01.244 --> 00:57:01.514
Yeah.

00:57:02.023 --> 00:57:03.748
A big part of our life Yeah.

00:57:03.884 --> 00:57:04.483
Is so fulfilling.

00:57:04.483 --> 00:57:07.784
Well, you, it's like you spend more time with your coworkers than you do with your spouse usually.

00:57:07.784 --> 00:57:07.994
Right?

00:57:07.994 --> 00:57:08.443
So yeah.

00:57:08.503 --> 00:57:14.443
Why would we want to engineer a environment or a culture that we have to live in Right.

00:57:14.443 --> 00:57:16.934
That we don't like, so, yeah.

00:57:17.114 --> 00:57:21.074
Well, and I think Tom, you know, Patrick and Chris's dad said it really well.

00:57:21.074 --> 00:57:26.684
One of the first projects that we did up here, um, was this project called the Arts Hub.

00:57:26.684 --> 00:57:34.813
And it was the first time we were like, Hey, let's try out this marketing thing and we should actually like do a video and we should interview some people.

00:57:34.934 --> 00:57:39.463
And out of that, um, there's one line that Tom used.

00:57:39.673 --> 00:57:39.793
Oh.

00:57:40.153 --> 00:57:47.623
You know, says in there where he is like, you know, I've chosen to do business in a way that allows me to sleep good at night.

00:57:47.864 --> 00:57:48.014
Hmm.

00:57:48.434 --> 00:57:50.684
And I think that's what it's all about, you know?

00:57:50.684 --> 00:57:51.224
For sure.

00:57:51.284 --> 00:57:51.554
Yeah.

00:57:51.554 --> 00:57:53.864
Like, can I sleep with the decisions that I made?

00:57:54.344 --> 00:57:54.733
Right.

00:57:54.733 --> 00:57:56.563
Well, and, and your industry is a challenge.

00:57:56.563 --> 00:58:02.384
One, you, there's always, you know, a corner that you can cut and probably get away with it or this or that.

00:58:02.384 --> 00:58:07.304
And so that's, and and there's so many, I mean, frankly, business is that way.

00:58:07.364 --> 00:58:07.543
Yeah.

00:58:07.543 --> 00:58:14.804
I was gonna say in a lot of aspects, I don't, again, agnostic, most of business has, uh, that kind of conflict in there somewhere where you have to just do the right thing, you know?

00:58:14.804 --> 00:58:19.244
But when you start to, to adopt this mindset of business really should be a force for good.

00:58:19.244 --> 00:58:23.623
And I think most people, yourself included, that's why you have local think tank, right?

00:58:23.623 --> 00:58:23.804
Sure.

00:58:23.809 --> 00:58:24.733
Like that is what you're promoting.

00:58:24.733 --> 00:58:25.844
It is a ministry for me.

00:58:25.844 --> 00:58:31.574
You know, like this is business gets a bad rap and I understand why.

00:58:31.664 --> 00:58:31.813
Yeah.

00:58:31.813 --> 00:58:32.864
Because of the bad apples.

00:58:33.164 --> 00:58:33.373
Yeah.

00:58:33.373 --> 00:58:33.375
Yeah.

00:58:33.380 --> 00:58:46.153
That the platform that, that business leaders get to speak out upon the influence that they have, what they can do for, well, we're the only, is we, we should be using that power and that influence for good.

00:58:46.483 --> 00:58:46.934
Yeah.

00:58:46.934 --> 00:58:49.514
Um, and that's kind of the only independent voices.

00:58:49.574 --> 00:58:49.724
Yeah.

00:58:49.753 --> 00:58:49.994
Right.

00:58:49.994 --> 00:58:58.454
Like we were just talking about COVID Nation and whatever, like nobody that worked for Hewlett Packard could speak up and say, I'm not sure we should be manding these shots.

00:58:58.454 --> 00:58:59.893
You know, a few people did and they got fired.

00:58:59.898 --> 00:59:00.108
You know?

00:59:00.358 --> 00:59:00.708
Right.

00:59:00.778 --> 00:59:04.873
Well, or, or you just think about how lonely the office is.

00:59:05.204 --> 00:59:05.474
Right.

00:59:05.588 --> 00:59:08.264
I, I, I can while.

00:59:08.923 --> 00:59:10.273
I've never been in that situation.

00:59:10.273 --> 00:59:24.764
I feel like I can relate to, well, I would never go to work and give of my life if, if it was, if I went to downtown Denver, took an elevator up 11 stories and was in a cubicle for eight hours and didn't, wasn't connected to anything.

00:59:24.768 --> 00:59:25.574
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:59:25.574 --> 00:59:27.614
I just typed away it's like, that's not for me.

00:59:27.673 --> 00:59:30.224
I wanted to not forget about talking about peer advisory a little bit.

00:59:30.284 --> 00:59:30.614
Yeah.

00:59:30.704 --> 00:59:35.773
Uh, you mentioned Vistage and Osage, you said something about a peer group as well.

00:59:35.773 --> 00:59:48.193
Is that like a builder 20 group or something like that, or, yeah, I'm in a, a national peer group that's hosted by FMI, um, FMI as a, they are a consultant in the a EC industry.

00:59:48.494 --> 00:59:49.034
Um, okay.

00:59:49.364 --> 00:59:56.293
So it's a group of, uh, six contractors throughout the United States, and we come together twice a year.

00:59:56.384 --> 00:59:56.833
Okay.

00:59:57.224 --> 01:00:03.134
Like in person, kind of in person, big gathering, kind of industry focused speakers and different things, whatever, or, yes.

01:00:03.344 --> 01:00:03.673
Cool.

01:00:03.884 --> 01:00:04.213
Okay.

01:00:05.233 --> 01:00:08.563
And how are you longtime member of Vistage?

01:00:08.563 --> 01:00:09.733
I don't know if you've ever really talked about it.

01:00:09.733 --> 01:00:12.043
Yeah, I'm going on six years now.

01:00:12.103 --> 01:00:12.434
Okay.

01:00:12.434 --> 01:00:14.414
So I, I'd consider that long time.

01:00:14.443 --> 01:00:15.643
Yeah, it seems like, yeah.

01:00:15.643 --> 01:00:18.224
Is that with Nancy or with another group?

01:00:18.224 --> 01:00:18.583
Ron?

01:00:18.583 --> 01:00:18.586
There's another group.

01:00:18.586 --> 01:00:18.588
Ron.

01:00:18.592 --> 01:00:18.853
Yeah.

01:00:18.853 --> 01:00:28.364
I forgot I, yeah, I, Ron, if you're listening out there, we should grab coffee or something like that because I was introduced to you long before COVID, and then I just never really followed up properly.

01:00:28.364 --> 01:00:30.463
Yeah, he's been, he's been a huge.

01:00:31.378 --> 01:00:32.159
Mentor in my life.

01:00:32.248 --> 01:00:32.518
Yeah.

01:00:32.699 --> 01:00:36.719
And it sounds like the network of Vistage in general has also benefited you that it has fair.

01:00:36.719 --> 01:00:37.079
It has.

01:00:37.349 --> 01:00:43.139
You know, I think too, in my group particularly, they're, they're, I'm one of the youngest in this group.

01:00:43.139 --> 01:00:43.168
Okay.

01:00:43.233 --> 01:00:43.353
Yeah.

01:00:43.358 --> 01:00:43.438
Yeah.

01:00:43.438 --> 01:00:46.409
So the wisdom that comes down Sure.

01:00:46.498 --> 01:00:47.429
Is pretty powerful.

01:00:47.489 --> 01:00:47.909
Yeah.

01:00:47.909 --> 01:00:47.909
Yeah.

01:00:48.028 --> 01:00:50.429
And they're like, uh, you better think about this.

01:00:50.429 --> 01:00:53.699
'cause I ran into this at your, was that your first experience?

01:00:53.699 --> 01:00:54.778
It was with peer advisory.

01:00:54.778 --> 01:00:55.114
It was, yeah.

01:00:55.119 --> 01:00:57.748
And why didn't you ever return my calls before you signed up for that?

01:00:57.809 --> 01:00:58.409
Gosh, I don't know.

01:00:58.469 --> 01:01:00.568
Yeah, because I'm a gun now, Patrick.

01:01:00.568 --> 01:01:00.898
That's a long time.

01:01:01.079 --> 01:01:01.949
Have you been in one yet?

01:01:01.949 --> 01:01:02.309
Patrick?

01:01:02.458 --> 01:01:03.838
What are you, are you going on 10 years?

01:01:04.199 --> 01:01:05.548
11 years this last year.

01:01:05.548 --> 01:01:05.878
Yeah.

01:01:05.878 --> 01:01:06.659
Congratulations.

01:01:06.809 --> 01:01:07.168
Yeah.

01:01:07.289 --> 01:01:08.668
So it's been a little while.

01:01:08.728 --> 01:01:09.028
Yeah.

01:01:09.748 --> 01:01:11.608
But I was in a Vistage group before.

01:01:11.639 --> 01:01:11.668
Okay.

01:01:11.668 --> 01:01:17.219
Like, I, I basically stole Vistage's best stuff and left their crappy stuff behind, you know?

01:01:17.548 --> 01:01:26.009
Um, but, but yeah, I was a, I was a member of a trusted advisors group and had, was recruited into Bill Hunter's Vistage Group when I was running the bank for a year.

01:01:26.068 --> 01:01:26.309
See?

01:01:26.309 --> 01:01:27.628
And Bill courted me for years.

01:01:27.634 --> 01:01:27.914
Yeah.

01:01:28.108 --> 01:01:28.498
Yeah.

01:01:28.498 --> 01:01:30.509
And, uh, I don't know what it was about Ron.

01:01:30.509 --> 01:01:32.789
He just showed up one day and was there at the right time.

01:01:32.909 --> 01:01:36.148
And, and we struck it off and Cool.

01:01:36.179 --> 01:01:37.108
And it was just, yeah.

01:01:37.108 --> 01:01:37.588
It's been good.

01:01:37.679 --> 01:01:39.059
Well, anyway, Ron, you can look me up.

01:01:39.449 --> 01:01:40.108
I, I'll be you a coffee.

01:01:40.378 --> 01:01:41.489
Uh, I'm easy to find.

01:01:42.059 --> 01:01:43.679
Patrick, have you experienced any of that yet?

01:01:43.708 --> 01:01:48.838
I have, I, I've been able to, uh, to be a part of a really group, great group of guides.

01:01:48.838 --> 01:01:51.509
It's a little bit less formal than Vestige or Sure.

01:01:51.824 --> 01:01:52.574
Austin's group.

01:01:52.574 --> 01:01:55.634
It's, it's, uh, 10 of us locally here in northern Colorado.

01:01:55.634 --> 01:02:00.614
And kind of an unorganized group, if you will, or somebody organizes it, but it's not affiliated, if you will.

01:02:00.619 --> 01:02:01.543
It's, it's unaffiliated.

01:02:01.543 --> 01:02:03.554
It's, it's actually really well organized.

01:02:03.583 --> 01:02:06.554
You've had a number of the guests on, uh, in the past.

01:02:06.643 --> 01:02:06.914
Yeah.

01:02:06.914 --> 01:02:08.623
So it's one of the super secret groups.

01:02:08.713 --> 01:02:09.134
Yeah.

01:02:09.284 --> 01:02:12.224
It's not super secret, but you know, you have to know the handshake.

01:02:12.224 --> 01:02:16.153
You got a handshake and, and you gotta, you gotta have bourbon now.

01:02:16.333 --> 01:02:17.324
Well, I do have bourbon.

01:02:17.329 --> 01:02:17.838
We do have bourbon.

01:02:17.893 --> 01:02:19.273
We could have some bourbon after the break.

01:02:19.304 --> 01:02:31.184
It's a, it's a really good group of guys and, and, uh, we, we meet once a month, and I tell you what, for anybody that, uh, has an opportunity, whether it's Vistage or with you guys or Sure.

01:02:31.184 --> 01:02:36.974
Just a peer, I, there's so much wisdom and power that is gleaned, and I think as a business owner, everybody should have it.

01:02:36.974 --> 01:02:39.224
Everybody should, business owners need it a hundred percent.

01:02:39.344 --> 01:02:42.704
Think like almost every, you know, anybody that wants to be in our H ho A could use it.

01:02:42.704 --> 01:02:42.974
Yeah.

01:02:43.659 --> 01:02:50.833
But, but like, we won't go to HOAs, but for that decider role or, you know, you guys are, because you're equally yoked, is that right?

01:02:50.893 --> 01:02:53.233
Like we are 33 and a third each Yeah.

01:02:53.233 --> 01:02:55.393
Despite the attorney's advice.

01:02:55.393 --> 01:02:55.664
Yeah.

01:02:55.708 --> 01:02:56.199
Yeah, yeah.

01:02:56.653 --> 01:03:07.123
Well, I think, you know, we're in a really unique position because I look at what Austin's dad did, uh, what our dad did, uh, what so many other business owners do is they strike out on their own.

01:03:07.123 --> 01:03:14.983
And, uh, boy, I can't even imagine or fathom what it would be like to do this work by myself being the one decider.

01:03:14.983 --> 01:03:19.304
Kinda, you know, you think of the, the, the times and, and we've had some pretty.

01:03:19.673 --> 01:03:25.079
Up and down years in terms of COVID and just a lot of disruption and a lot of stress.

01:03:25.079 --> 01:03:28.349
You've got a lot of people that you're shoot, that you're, uh, shepherding.

01:03:28.528 --> 01:03:29.429
What's your payroll now?

01:03:29.518 --> 01:03:31.108
Uh, between the two offices?

01:03:31.108 --> 01:03:31.798
Yeah.

01:03:31.889 --> 01:03:34.918
Like those are not all low paid people, almost none of them anymore.

01:03:36.119 --> 01:03:39.929
Uh, and, and, but to be able to do this together is something that's pretty unique.

01:03:40.289 --> 01:03:46.469
Uh, but I think that's where, you know, even a peer group is so important is it puts like-minded individuals together.

01:03:46.469 --> 01:03:46.528
Yeah.

01:03:46.528 --> 01:03:53.373
That you can just share, Hey, I'm really struggling with this or that, and I can't share that with my number two guy and Yeah.

01:03:53.789 --> 01:03:53.849
Yeah.

01:03:53.849 --> 01:03:57.239
Anybody within the business, maybe a spouse doesn't understand.

01:03:57.418 --> 01:03:57.688
Yeah.

01:03:57.809 --> 01:04:04.349
Uh, and so it, it's a really powerful, um, way to just create community and live life together.

01:04:04.559 --> 01:04:05.128
Appreciate that.

01:04:05.309 --> 01:04:05.579
Yeah.

01:04:05.668 --> 01:04:08.338
Austin, you were gonna say something about something, I don't know.

01:04:08.878 --> 01:04:15.478
You're probably gonna give specs in the payroll and that was gonna scare everybody and No, I actually don't know what they are these days.

01:04:15.568 --> 01:04:15.659
Right.

01:04:16.918 --> 01:04:17.458
Fair enough.

01:04:17.458 --> 01:04:25.168
Well, if you got 60 of'em, I mean, those are probably mostly, I'm imagining there's a lot of six figure earners within your whole company.

01:04:25.168 --> 01:04:26.639
Most of'em are six figure earners.

01:04:26.699 --> 01:04:27.838
Well, no, I'd say half.

01:04:27.929 --> 01:04:28.378
Half.

01:04:28.438 --> 01:04:28.708
Yeah.

01:04:28.768 --> 01:04:29.998
But you know what's interesting?

01:04:30.059 --> 01:04:37.018
It's, uh, the craft is becoming more and more valuable.

01:04:37.018 --> 01:04:37.079
Hmm.

01:04:37.259 --> 01:04:40.619
And they're getting, I mean, it is really, we're seeing compression from the bottom.

01:04:40.798 --> 01:04:41.188
Hmm.

01:04:41.278 --> 01:04:45.418
Uh, not interesting, you know, the professional wages have really.

01:04:45.704 --> 01:04:48.614
Started to like those carpenters and stuff is Yes.

01:04:48.614 --> 01:04:50.114
Carpenters more in demand.

01:04:50.119 --> 01:04:50.159
Yeah.

01:04:50.159 --> 01:04:57.239
Carpenter, even laborers you, I, I joked, uh, I know Fort Collins was Oh, debating the, uh, the minimum, yeah.

01:04:57.239 --> 01:04:58.393
The minimum wage rule.

01:04:58.393 --> 01:05:00.344
And I'm like, when was the last time we paid?

01:05:00.373 --> 01:05:00.673
Yeah.

01:05:00.673 --> 01:05:02.563
For carpenter less than$20 an hour.

01:05:02.563 --> 01:05:04.543
Like, why do we, why do we have this conversation?

01:05:04.543 --> 01:05:06.523
The market is setting itself a hundred percent.

01:05:06.523 --> 01:05:13.393
I mean, I, like, I, I hire interns at 18 bucks an hour a lot of times.

01:05:13.393 --> 01:05:14.474
'cause that way you can get a good one.

01:05:14.534 --> 01:05:14.713
You know?

01:05:15.074 --> 01:05:16.333
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:05:16.664 --> 01:05:21.193
No, and I think, I think truly what's happening is their values being recognized.

01:05:21.344 --> 01:05:22.603
I mean Yeah, yeah.

01:05:22.873 --> 01:05:31.963
You know, it's not that they weren't valuable before, it's just that, you know, one of our beliefs is you should be able to live on a wage.

01:05:31.963 --> 01:05:32.414
Right.

01:05:32.418 --> 01:05:32.478
Right.

01:05:32.503 --> 01:05:42.523
You, and I think that's one of the things when we look at compensation and benefits and things like that, is, you know, they're given the same amount of effort and work in what they're doing.

01:05:42.523 --> 01:05:45.523
Their work and my work looked different, but yeah.

01:05:45.523 --> 01:05:52.664
Like, you know, with the rising costs of healthcare and groceries and I mean, you name the basket of goods.

01:05:52.724 --> 01:05:52.963
Yeah.

01:05:53.233 --> 01:05:58.483
I think it's incumbent on us to say, look, we gotta pay people fairly.

01:05:58.543 --> 01:05:58.873
Right.

01:05:58.963 --> 01:06:04.514
Um, well, and we all know, frankly, that like a high performing person gets.

01:06:05.023 --> 01:06:08.023
Two or three times as much work done as a low performing person.

01:06:08.023 --> 01:06:16.784
So if you can buy a high performing person for a hundred grand or a low performing one for 70, you're probably better off on the first category usually.

01:06:16.818 --> 01:06:17.108
Yeah.

01:06:17.474 --> 01:06:17.684
Yeah.

01:06:17.744 --> 01:06:23.293
So, and sometimes people don't even know if they're high performing or not, and so honoring it when you find them is useful.

01:06:23.353 --> 01:06:23.594
Yeah.

01:06:23.594 --> 01:06:27.313
Well, and even teams when you, when you look at assembling teams mm-hmm.

01:06:27.554 --> 01:06:29.983
Um, high performers wanna be with high performers.

01:06:30.284 --> 01:06:30.643
True.

01:06:30.778 --> 01:06:31.068
Yeah.

01:06:31.074 --> 01:06:31.393
Yeah.

01:06:31.483 --> 01:06:35.623
They don't, no, nobody wants this dead weight around here, that's for sure.

01:06:35.653 --> 01:06:35.893
Yeah.

01:06:36.043 --> 01:06:48.164
Do you guys get any help in that space or is that kind of your training development person setting the culture and do you use like DISC or other systems to kinda understand your team dynamics?

01:06:48.164 --> 01:06:51.284
Y yeah, we use a variety of different things.

01:06:51.373 --> 01:06:57.164
Um, DISC is the one that's probably, you know, the simplest to understand.

01:06:57.164 --> 01:07:05.083
And I think it's more about communication style, and that's one of the things that we often do with, um, new team members that are joining.

01:07:05.143 --> 01:07:05.293
Yeah.

01:07:05.309 --> 01:07:05.469
Yeah.

01:07:05.503 --> 01:07:13.514
Um, you know, one of the initiatives that I'm excited about that Alicia's been putting a ton of hard work into is a skills and behavior framework.

01:07:13.603 --> 01:07:13.813
Okay.

01:07:13.873 --> 01:07:16.514
And, you know, it really starts with.

01:07:17.458 --> 01:07:23.309
You know, core values and you know, what are the competencies that we expect our people to have?

01:07:23.309 --> 01:07:27.478
And then what do those competencies look like in your individual role?

01:07:27.478 --> 01:07:27.539
Yeah.

01:07:27.599 --> 01:07:29.518
How can you tell when you have acquired that?

01:07:29.579 --> 01:07:30.539
Yeah, exactly.

01:07:30.539 --> 01:07:40.588
Because I think particularly for young people or people that are, that are new into a role, um, they just want to know how they're performing.

01:07:40.648 --> 01:07:42.179
A hundred percent to your point.

01:07:42.179 --> 01:07:44.789
Like they don't know if they're high performers or not, right?

01:07:44.789 --> 01:07:51.418
'cause you know, we've asked them to do a job and there's a scoreboard, but there's something covering the scoreboard, right?

01:07:51.423 --> 01:07:51.474
Yeah.

01:07:51.509 --> 01:07:51.809
Yeah.

01:07:51.809 --> 01:08:04.259
And so trying to create, you know, transparency onto, you know, not only what are the technical skills that you need to perform this job, but you know, what soft skills do we Yeah.

01:08:04.289 --> 01:08:05.159
Do we expect?

01:08:05.159 --> 01:08:10.289
And then, you know, how do we go about training and developing those skills?

01:08:10.648 --> 01:08:14.909
And, you know, what does what, what could your career look like?

01:08:14.909 --> 01:08:22.469
And I hesitate to use the word career ladder because I think when you look at the organization, it's more of a lattice.

01:08:22.469 --> 01:08:25.259
And it doesn't mean just because you're doing this job today.

01:08:25.288 --> 01:08:25.469
Yeah.

01:08:25.529 --> 01:08:27.359
You don't want up to this one necessarily.

01:08:27.359 --> 01:08:29.668
We might figure out that you're actually be better over here.

01:08:29.698 --> 01:08:32.158
Well, and I think that aligns with kind of our.

01:08:32.939 --> 01:08:39.029
Part of our culture of like, when you find what you're passionate about, if that isn't what you're currently doing, look over do.

01:08:39.029 --> 01:08:48.929
Maybe we ought to look over here and move you into a different seat because, um, this more, more naturally aligns with the talent that you have and the passion that you want to pursue.

01:08:49.618 --> 01:08:50.038
That's cool.

01:08:50.038 --> 01:08:50.039
Yeah.

01:08:50.908 --> 01:09:04.378
Other, like, while we're kind of here in the business, I think we'll take a quick break and jump in the time machine and find those little first graders, um, pretty quick here, but is there other kinda main business principles that you guys try to try to live by?

01:09:04.378 --> 01:09:07.019
Or, or how do you guys connect as a team?

01:09:07.019 --> 01:09:13.229
Do you have like a once a month meeting and I guess the, the, the Southern Colorado guy has zoomed into there too, or whatever?

01:09:13.373 --> 01:09:14.368
We, we definitely do that.

01:09:14.368 --> 01:09:18.719
I think this is, this is fun for me'cause we don't often get to spend time together.

01:09:18.863 --> 01:09:19.594
Just the three of you?

01:09:19.594 --> 01:09:20.458
Kinda Just the three of us.

01:09:20.458 --> 01:09:20.609
Yeah.

01:09:20.609 --> 01:09:27.029
It's, uh, as the business has grown and personal lives have changed, but, uh, we definitely are very intentional.

01:09:27.118 --> 01:09:34.859
Uh, Chris and Austin do a great job of, of, of pulling us in from a, from a cadence of monthly, even to a weekly check down mm-hmm.

01:09:35.099 --> 01:09:39.269
Huddle and, and you know, I think it's finding those cadences that's important.

01:09:39.509 --> 01:09:39.719
Mm-hmm.

01:09:40.168 --> 01:09:52.498
Um, you know, the, the, the planning season of business and, and Austin can speak to this a lot better than I can, but just making sure that you're keying the rhythm of strategic planning with.

01:09:52.993 --> 01:09:55.694
You know, an assessment of people health in general.

01:09:55.694 --> 01:09:57.613
How's the organizational health look?

01:09:57.644 --> 01:09:57.913
Yep.

01:09:58.033 --> 01:10:03.644
Uh, the performance of projects and, and performance of, you know, forecasting of, of next year.

01:10:04.003 --> 01:10:09.253
Um, believe it or not, we're in a very, uh, psych cyclical business.

01:10:09.253 --> 01:10:09.344
I know.

01:10:10.394 --> 01:10:16.064
And, and you know, I, I always celebrate when we finish a project, but then we gotta go get another one.

01:10:16.069 --> 01:10:16.198
Right.

01:10:16.203 --> 01:10:16.423
Right.

01:10:16.423 --> 01:10:17.264
And we gotta get another one.

01:10:17.384 --> 01:10:20.774
Um, no different than loans and, and banking, right?

01:10:20.779 --> 01:10:21.038
Sure.

01:10:21.163 --> 01:10:21.463
Yeah.

01:10:21.463 --> 01:10:25.453
No, hopefully they, they one tough to do and you're, they pay off, you know, they, they, that's what I was supposed to do.

01:10:25.453 --> 01:10:26.623
Find somebody else to borrow some money.

01:10:26.623 --> 01:10:36.043
And so there's a, there's always a cadence in their, a rhythm to, uh, to our business and, and trying to, you know, make sure that we accurately time it and, and stay ahead of it.

01:10:36.043 --> 01:10:39.793
'cause I think as leaders in the business, that's the most important thing that we can do.

01:10:39.793 --> 01:10:43.274
If you're adding a bunch of people to the team only to lay'em off eight months later.

01:10:43.304 --> 01:10:44.743
'cause you just really can't afford'em.

01:10:44.748 --> 01:10:44.958
Right?

01:10:45.139 --> 01:10:46.243
That's not right.

01:10:46.248 --> 01:10:46.279
Yeah.

01:10:46.283 --> 01:10:50.679
And that's never been, you know, as a people for first organization, never something that, that Yeah.

01:10:50.679 --> 01:10:51.583
That we have done.

01:10:51.583 --> 01:11:01.184
And, and I think it is, you know, important to, to spend the time to think what is beyond the next six months, the next year, the next five years.

01:11:01.573 --> 01:11:09.314
Um, that strategic, strategic thinking is, you know, we ask our team to, to do that on a project, but it's, you know, it's a little bit closer.

01:11:09.319 --> 01:11:12.194
We've gotta, we've gotta be the ones that are out there a little bit further.

01:11:12.194 --> 01:11:17.384
And so it takes dedicated time to, to spend as, as an intentionality kind of to do that.

01:11:17.684 --> 01:11:17.894
Yeah.

01:11:18.373 --> 01:11:19.783
We try to connect with the team.

01:11:19.873 --> 01:11:20.323
Uh, we.

01:11:20.963 --> 01:11:24.144
We try to, to communicate, uh, every Friday with them.

01:11:25.349 --> 01:11:27.958
Companywide, like a, a email, email, video.

01:11:28.588 --> 01:11:29.158
What's going on?

01:11:29.158 --> 01:11:29.162
What's going on?

01:11:29.167 --> 01:11:29.338
Yep.

01:11:29.344 --> 01:11:29.463
Yep.

01:11:29.878 --> 01:11:34.588
Uh, we have a standing, uh, a Thursday company, monthly company meeting.

01:11:34.769 --> 01:11:34.828
Okay.

01:11:34.828 --> 01:11:36.328
Where we company-wide.

01:11:36.418 --> 01:11:36.719
Okay.

01:11:36.748 --> 01:11:44.939
Um, and where we share the same content, we use that as an opportunity to, to teach the team about business.

01:11:45.029 --> 01:11:45.328
Sure.

01:11:45.328 --> 01:11:46.708
We share our financials.

01:11:46.798 --> 01:11:47.128
Okay.

01:11:47.338 --> 01:11:49.078
Um, like all the way Yeah.

01:11:49.529 --> 01:11:50.878
Down to profit really.

01:11:51.149 --> 01:11:54.328
Um, and well, I think it's important for people to see the scorecard.

01:11:54.359 --> 01:11:54.748
Yeah.

01:11:54.748 --> 01:11:54.750
Yeah.

01:11:55.198 --> 01:12:07.889
Uh, it's hard to, to ask somebody to, to, you know, when, you know, we see that a lot just because we are, uh, doing a lot of projects or we're pushing a top line revenue number doesn't mean we're profitable.

01:12:08.338 --> 01:12:08.789
Right, right, right.

01:12:08.795 --> 01:12:12.359
We could be, just remember the, the residential project back in the day.

01:12:12.359 --> 01:12:12.538
Yeah.

01:12:12.658 --> 01:12:15.988
It's, we could go get out gobs of work with no fee and Sure.

01:12:15.988 --> 01:12:19.168
We could be ha hair on fire screaming busy.

01:12:19.168 --> 01:12:19.259
True.

01:12:19.259 --> 01:12:20.698
And everybody's like, man, totally.

01:12:20.698 --> 01:12:21.569
This is gonna be a big Yeah.

01:12:21.569 --> 01:12:24.269
You can double the size of your company just making no money.

01:12:24.269 --> 01:12:27.719
And so a lot of education about how we make money where we spend money.

01:12:27.719 --> 01:12:27.720
Mm.

01:12:27.725 --> 01:12:30.448
And we have a pretty rich profit share pool.

01:12:30.538 --> 01:12:30.719
Mm.

01:12:30.958 --> 01:12:35.429
Um, that we use, uh, that we, we share with'em every month.

01:12:35.429 --> 01:12:36.118
Here's where we're at.

01:12:36.418 --> 01:12:36.719
Cool.

01:12:36.779 --> 01:12:41.698
Um, and I do think it's important for them to understand what they can do Yeah.

01:12:41.908 --> 01:12:42.868
To impact it.

01:12:42.873 --> 01:12:43.024
Yeah.

01:12:43.029 --> 01:12:43.109
Yeah.

01:12:43.109 --> 01:12:44.819
Because they, it's a question you always get.

01:12:44.819 --> 01:12:45.238
Sure.

01:12:45.298 --> 01:12:46.319
What can I do to help?

01:12:46.349 --> 01:12:46.769
Yeah.

01:12:46.769 --> 01:12:46.828
Yeah.

01:12:47.118 --> 01:12:49.484
Uh, so show'em the, show'em the scorecard.

01:12:49.573 --> 01:12:52.003
Have you ever regretted that and have you done that for a long time?

01:12:52.394 --> 01:12:54.913
Uh, we've done it now for five years.

01:12:54.944 --> 01:12:55.243
Okay.

01:12:55.453 --> 01:12:57.613
Um, have we ever regretted it?

01:12:58.033 --> 01:12:58.184
Yeah.

01:12:58.184 --> 01:13:06.283
Was it Harry at any time or did I think we've learned some lessons on how to communicate it more effectively?

01:13:06.434 --> 01:13:06.583
Sure.

01:13:06.884 --> 01:13:12.734
Um, I think, you know, whenever you roll out something new, there are always some missteps.

01:13:13.094 --> 01:13:21.734
Um, but I think at the end of the day, what, what we're trying to show people is like, here's, here's where profit sharing starts.

01:13:21.734 --> 01:13:22.274
Like when we Yeah.

01:13:22.634 --> 01:13:24.014
This point, right.

01:13:24.014 --> 01:13:25.783
You know, it's like the margarita glass.

01:13:25.783 --> 01:13:28.333
This month it was this and this month it was that.

01:13:28.333 --> 01:13:33.524
And you know, part of that is we also want people who we don't want them.

01:13:33.524 --> 01:13:35.713
Getting the accountability that's built in is pretty cool though.

01:13:35.804 --> 01:13:39.884
Well, I think, I think there's some accountability that is really cool around it.

01:13:39.974 --> 01:13:42.644
And also you don't want people saying, well.

01:13:43.724 --> 01:13:47.293
Am I gonna go spend$8,000 on this trip?

01:13:47.594 --> 01:13:48.043
Right.

01:13:48.134 --> 01:13:49.573
Counting on a profit sharing.

01:13:49.634 --> 01:13:50.113
Right, right.

01:13:50.113 --> 01:13:52.328
You know, check, I mean, it reminds me of change.

01:13:52.328 --> 01:13:52.408
Right?

01:13:52.408 --> 01:13:53.203
It's the vacation.

01:13:53.203 --> 01:13:54.373
I was thinking the same thing.

01:13:54.734 --> 01:13:55.123
Exactly.

01:13:55.243 --> 01:13:56.774
$50 or whatever it was.

01:13:56.774 --> 01:13:57.554
Maybe it was nothing.

01:13:57.554 --> 01:13:58.064
A coupon.

01:13:58.064 --> 01:13:58.243
Right.

01:13:58.514 --> 01:14:00.344
Well, we actually had that happen, right?

01:14:00.673 --> 01:14:00.944
Yeah.

01:14:00.944 --> 01:14:02.953
And I think that's where, what do you mean?

01:14:03.014 --> 01:14:08.474
Well, we had a, we were rolling along really good before this, had a cracker, we don't call it bonus intentionally.

01:14:08.474 --> 01:14:09.283
It's not a bonus.

01:14:09.283 --> 01:14:09.493
Yeah.

01:14:09.524 --> 01:14:10.694
It's, it's profit share.

01:14:10.694 --> 01:14:11.894
It's dollars you've earned.

01:14:11.923 --> 01:14:12.194
Yeah.

01:14:12.644 --> 01:14:13.184
Guys.

01:14:13.184 --> 01:14:21.613
And so, but before we had profit, we had a bonus and it was, Hey, we weren't, we weren't sharing the books.

01:14:21.679 --> 01:14:23.173
It's, yeah, it's discretionary.

01:14:23.173 --> 01:14:24.283
It's like, okay, it's December.

01:14:24.344 --> 01:14:25.394
Hey, we're doing pretty good.

01:14:25.394 --> 01:14:28.094
We, we, we feel obligated to share that.

01:14:28.154 --> 01:14:28.304
Right?

01:14:28.304 --> 01:14:33.854
It's just part of who we are, uh, and being good stewards of, of God's money.

01:14:33.854 --> 01:14:36.554
And then you go, well, what's the formula?

01:14:36.734 --> 01:14:39.134
And you kind of go through and you're like, well, that guy's been here a long time.

01:14:39.134 --> 01:14:39.793
That guy's been here.

01:14:39.884 --> 01:14:40.003
Right.

01:14:40.003 --> 01:14:43.663
And then you, and then you just quietly hand out checks.

01:14:43.724 --> 01:14:44.024
Right.

01:14:44.264 --> 01:14:45.493
And you something good about it.

01:14:46.154 --> 01:14:47.323
And then you get into rhythm.

01:14:47.323 --> 01:14:49.094
And then you have a bad year, but you're busy.

01:14:49.274 --> 01:14:49.934
Right, right.

01:14:49.934 --> 01:14:51.163
And then you're like, look, we.

01:14:51.838 --> 01:14:53.729
We can't profit share this year.

01:14:53.729 --> 01:14:55.559
And, but people have come to expect it.

01:14:55.588 --> 01:14:55.889
Right.

01:14:55.984 --> 01:14:58.588
And so, and they've been working hard trying to get working project done.

01:14:58.588 --> 01:15:01.588
They've been, and the projects one of the reasons you're not making any money.

01:15:01.618 --> 01:15:03.179
'cause the projects have been a struggle.

01:15:03.509 --> 01:15:03.599
Right.

01:15:03.604 --> 01:15:06.988
And the inspectors aren't showing up, or it's just a, or it's just a different market.

01:15:06.993 --> 01:15:07.043
Yeah.

01:15:07.184 --> 01:15:12.238
You know, I think the market sometimes you gotta just settle for a little lower margin if you wanted to get any work.

01:15:12.238 --> 01:15:12.838
That's absolutely it.

01:15:12.904 --> 01:15:15.569
And it doesn't, it doesn't mean the team's working any less hard.

01:15:15.628 --> 01:15:16.109
Yeah.

01:15:16.109 --> 01:15:16.109
Yeah.

01:15:16.198 --> 01:15:19.708
Um, you know, I, I think we're one step away from farmers, right?

01:15:19.708 --> 01:15:25.439
In the sense that you can sew a perfect crop, but there are so many things that can impact the outcome.

01:15:25.469 --> 01:15:25.859
Yeah, yeah.

01:15:25.859 --> 01:15:27.779
And, and effort's.

01:15:27.779 --> 01:15:28.469
Not one of'em.

01:15:28.738 --> 01:15:29.399
Uh, yeah.

01:15:29.698 --> 01:15:43.229
So it is, it's important to communicate and I think it goes kind of even beyond, you know, just that aspect to can we help grow the financial acumen and maybe the business acumen of our team.

01:15:43.259 --> 01:15:44.158
Sure, sure.

01:15:44.158 --> 01:15:53.069
We would love, uh, the team to stay with us forever, but we've had so many instances where, uh, folks have broken off and done their own thing.

01:15:53.338 --> 01:15:57.088
And hopefully when they do that, they have been more prepared.

01:15:57.088 --> 01:15:57.149
Yeah.

01:15:57.149 --> 01:15:59.264
You leave'em smarter than you found them and kind.

01:15:59.264 --> 01:16:01.019
And that's, that's that whole purpose piece.

01:16:01.019 --> 01:16:03.689
Or they leave you smarter than they found you both has happened.

01:16:04.708 --> 01:16:05.548
Yeah, hopefully both.

01:16:05.548 --> 01:16:05.878
Right?

01:16:05.878 --> 01:16:10.439
Like, and, and it's something to be celebrated, not something to, you know, be upset about.

01:16:10.439 --> 01:16:12.628
That's, you know, that's important.

01:16:12.628 --> 01:16:17.639
So I think it's, it's that education around the financial acumen and, and you know, just understanding.

01:16:18.703 --> 01:16:19.394
Business.

01:16:19.453 --> 01:16:19.634
Yeah.

01:16:19.963 --> 01:16:23.173
Uh, and then how business transit transitions into life.

01:16:23.173 --> 01:16:27.734
I think that's why we're so, uh, passionate around teams and leadership.

01:16:28.184 --> 01:16:37.814
And not only does it help us as a business, but how can, how can that concept or the leadership concepts, man, what do you do?

01:16:37.814 --> 01:16:38.054
Yeah.

01:16:38.054 --> 01:16:42.194
My money tree is raining on You talk about money, that's a good sign.

01:16:42.194 --> 01:16:42.344
Right?

01:16:42.524 --> 01:16:42.703
Right.

01:16:42.793 --> 01:16:43.304
I hope so.

01:16:43.304 --> 01:16:43.663
I don't know.

01:16:43.663 --> 01:16:44.804
It looks like those are pretty dead though.

01:16:44.804 --> 01:16:45.344
That's normal.

01:16:47.399 --> 01:16:48.793
What, I dunno know what that omen is.

01:16:50.894 --> 01:16:57.404
You think, you think about business especially and, and the leadership skills that we learn in business through peer groups or through conversations.

01:16:57.404 --> 01:16:57.493
Sure.

01:16:58.934 --> 01:17:04.064
How often we don't apply that to our personal lives, you know, with personal missions and visions.

01:17:04.069 --> 01:17:04.328
Yeah.

01:17:04.333 --> 01:17:04.484
Yeah.

01:17:04.573 --> 01:17:04.814
Oh yeah.

01:17:04.814 --> 01:17:07.663
And stewardship of a p and l versus a personal budget.

01:17:07.663 --> 01:17:11.923
And, you know, I think that's where we have a lot of fun is can we bring these concepts down?

01:17:11.923 --> 01:17:18.463
Can we implement totally as a business, but is it gonna make our project manager a better coach?

01:17:18.703 --> 01:17:18.884
Yeah.

01:17:18.913 --> 01:17:20.323
Or a, or a husband leader.

01:17:20.354 --> 01:17:21.283
Or a husband dad.

01:17:21.283 --> 01:17:24.644
Can he, can he, can he walk his, his his family through?

01:17:24.644 --> 01:17:31.849
Or can she walk her family through, you know, a, a visioning exercise that creates some core values and helps set a culture of a Yeah.

01:17:31.849 --> 01:17:33.163
Of a family unit.

01:17:33.163 --> 01:17:33.969
So I, that's pretty cool.

01:17:34.048 --> 01:17:37.484
I think it all comes together in, and the financial piece is just one element of that.

01:17:38.293 --> 01:17:38.654
I dig it.

01:17:38.863 --> 01:17:39.463
Let's take a break.

01:17:39.524 --> 01:17:39.884
Let's do it.

01:17:40.033 --> 01:17:40.634
I'm gonna have a bourbon.

01:18:30.434 --> 01:18:35.804
So, um, kind of, this is part of the show where we typically, uh, jump in the time machine.

01:18:36.224 --> 01:18:40.484
So we back to Colorado Springs.

01:18:40.934 --> 01:18:41.804
All of you born there?

01:18:42.134 --> 01:18:42.434
Yeah.

01:18:42.764 --> 01:18:44.503
First grade or whatever.

01:18:44.594 --> 01:18:46.094
Yeah, I was born there.

01:18:46.184 --> 01:18:46.514
Born there?

01:18:46.573 --> 01:18:46.873
Yeah.

01:18:46.873 --> 01:18:47.533
So were we born there?

01:18:47.533 --> 01:18:48.134
Born there, yeah.

01:18:48.134 --> 01:18:48.463
Okay.

01:18:48.823 --> 01:18:50.923
Probably all in the same hospital as a matter of fact.

01:18:50.923 --> 01:18:52.274
Most likely Memorial, right.

01:18:52.279 --> 01:18:55.363
19 time, 19, uh, 1981 Memorial Hospital.

01:18:55.573 --> 01:18:56.984
Pat and I were actually, we were not.

01:18:57.524 --> 01:18:58.304
Oh, where were you?

01:18:58.333 --> 01:18:59.323
Penrose Penrose.

01:18:59.384 --> 01:19:02.894
Oh, the second, second, uh, level hospital.

01:19:02.894 --> 01:19:03.073
Right.

01:19:03.073 --> 01:19:06.913
And the way that my parents tell the story, at least my dad tells the story.

01:19:06.913 --> 01:19:12.224
We were the, they had just created a new needle natal unit Oh, okay.

01:19:12.224 --> 01:19:12.703
At Memorial.

01:19:13.304 --> 01:19:14.923
So Pat and I were the first twins born.

01:19:15.014 --> 01:19:15.194
Oh.

01:19:15.644 --> 01:19:16.993
Uh,'cause who was first?

01:19:16.998 --> 01:19:18.283
First I was 18 minutes.

01:19:18.373 --> 01:19:18.764
Okay.

01:19:18.764 --> 01:19:18.944
Yeah.

01:19:19.094 --> 01:19:19.963
My wife is a twin.

01:19:19.963 --> 01:19:20.984
We think we're not.

01:19:20.984 --> 01:19:25.963
My wife was, uh, born one minute before her sister, um, identical or fraternal?

01:19:26.144 --> 01:19:26.713
Fraternal.

01:19:26.743 --> 01:19:26.984
Okay.

01:19:27.043 --> 01:19:29.293
And, uh, 45 years ago, yesterday as a turns zone.

01:19:29.293 --> 01:19:29.354
Wow.

01:19:29.413 --> 01:19:29.623
Yeah.

01:19:29.863 --> 01:19:30.583
Happy birthday babe.

01:19:32.113 --> 01:19:32.713
See you a little bit.

01:19:33.884 --> 01:19:34.934
And my wife's a twin as well.

01:19:35.024 --> 01:19:35.743
Oh, is that right?

01:19:35.743 --> 01:19:38.354
That, that's the story for the time machine sped up a little bit.

01:19:38.354 --> 01:19:38.654
Right.

01:19:38.654 --> 01:19:38.833
Yeah.

01:19:38.833 --> 01:19:40.663
We just don't have time for that time machine probably.

01:19:40.663 --> 01:19:40.664
Yeah.

01:19:40.664 --> 01:19:41.168
He involved with that.

01:19:41.559 --> 01:19:41.849
Okay.

01:19:42.463 --> 01:19:42.673
Yeah.

01:19:42.673 --> 01:19:44.503
So, uh, first twin, so yeah, set the stage first.

01:19:44.503 --> 01:19:47.863
Twin, first twins in the hospital and born at, uh, the new needle.

01:19:47.863 --> 01:19:48.194
Needle.

01:19:48.194 --> 01:19:51.224
So my dad didn't really get a front row seat'cause there were so many people in that room.

01:19:51.224 --> 01:19:54.583
Your dad's been running the construction company for a while at this point?

01:19:54.583 --> 01:19:54.854
Kind of.

01:19:54.854 --> 01:19:57.314
Well, no situation or he was, well he was in construction at that point.

01:19:57.344 --> 01:19:57.583
Okay.

01:19:57.583 --> 01:19:59.083
But not actually running his own business yet?

01:19:59.083 --> 01:20:02.144
No, it was, uh, we were middle school when he struck out on his own.

01:20:02.203 --> 01:20:02.654
Oh, wow.

01:20:02.713 --> 01:20:03.104
Okay.

01:20:03.283 --> 01:20:06.644
And so he was working in construction, but as a foreman or as a whatever.

01:20:06.644 --> 01:20:07.423
Project manager.

01:20:07.484 --> 01:20:08.413
Yeah, project manager.

01:20:08.413 --> 01:20:08.953
Estimator.

01:20:08.953 --> 01:20:13.453
And then he was working for a family company and really kind of saw the, what writing on the wall.

01:20:13.453 --> 01:20:17.533
Their kids were coming up and, and, uh, he wasn't, they were the past of the future.

01:20:17.533 --> 01:20:19.009
He was not kinda, I mean, and he was.

01:20:19.378 --> 01:20:24.149
Uh, he, he's told us often, he's like, you know, nobody's gonna turn the lights out on me but me.

01:20:24.479 --> 01:20:24.689
Hmm.

01:20:24.689 --> 01:20:26.219
Uh, and that was pretty important to him.

01:20:26.463 --> 01:20:26.583
Yeah.

01:20:26.583 --> 01:20:26.703
Yeah.

01:20:28.139 --> 01:20:29.158
And he had a work ethic.

01:20:29.189 --> 01:20:29.668
Yeah.

01:20:29.729 --> 01:20:30.779
That was incredible.

01:20:30.779 --> 01:20:34.649
And a desire and, uh, a will and a skill that Yeah.

01:20:34.649 --> 01:20:35.519
I'm glad he did.

01:20:35.578 --> 01:20:44.338
My dad founded a farm, uh, when I was in first grade, um, that now is 10,000 acres and, you know, as a first generation wealth creator up in North Dakota.

01:20:44.878 --> 01:20:52.344
Um, and like I, he could whoop me still, like he's 70 years old and that he outworks me.

01:20:52.769 --> 01:20:53.099
Yeah.

01:20:53.248 --> 01:20:56.128
Well, he works out 45 minutes every morning pretty much.

01:20:56.128 --> 01:20:59.069
And stuff like that's, he's always got dad strength.

01:20:59.128 --> 01:20:59.548
Yeah.

01:20:59.639 --> 01:20:59.849
Yeah.

01:20:59.849 --> 01:21:00.359
For sure.

01:21:00.509 --> 01:21:02.998
It would take two of me to whoop my dad, maybe three.

01:21:03.269 --> 01:21:03.479
Yeah.

01:21:04.588 --> 01:21:05.548
To put me in my place.

01:21:05.548 --> 01:21:07.769
My dad still makes me go cycling occasionally.

01:21:08.128 --> 01:21:08.578
Oh really?

01:21:08.578 --> 01:21:10.439
And I'm like, Ooh, slow out.

01:21:10.439 --> 01:21:11.878
I can't keep this pace going.

01:21:11.878 --> 01:21:11.998
Yep.

01:21:12.269 --> 01:21:12.988
Exactly.

01:21:13.288 --> 01:21:13.439
Yeah.

01:21:13.439 --> 01:21:14.548
So Pinrose for you.

01:21:15.269 --> 01:21:15.569
Yeah.

01:21:15.719 --> 01:21:18.599
And what was your, are you first born, only child?

01:21:18.599 --> 01:21:19.048
What you got?

01:21:19.144 --> 01:21:21.179
I, I am first born of four.

01:21:21.298 --> 01:21:21.658
Okay.

01:21:21.958 --> 01:21:25.588
Um, so I have a brother that's two years younger than me that lives in Denver.

01:21:25.649 --> 01:21:29.189
And then I have a brother who's 13 years younger Oh.

01:21:29.189 --> 01:21:34.708
Than me who lives in Colorado Springs, and a sister who's 15 years younger than me and lives in the spring.

01:21:34.708 --> 01:21:35.639
Same mom and dad.

01:21:35.644 --> 01:21:36.264
Just a same mom and dad.

01:21:36.269 --> 01:21:37.109
10 year gap year.

01:21:37.109 --> 01:21:37.229
Yep.

01:21:37.498 --> 01:21:38.128
Interesting.

01:21:38.219 --> 01:21:38.429
Yep.

01:21:38.429 --> 01:21:41.069
Unusual, I guess, kind of getting the business going and stuff.

01:21:41.069 --> 01:21:42.658
Was that the circumstance or?

01:21:42.748 --> 01:21:46.139
Yeah, it, you know, my dad had an interesting journey.

01:21:46.259 --> 01:21:46.918
Um, I.

01:21:47.609 --> 01:21:52.948
In the, in the 1980s, he owned an interior trim and door supply company.

01:21:53.128 --> 01:21:53.458
Okay.

01:21:53.458 --> 01:21:58.408
Um, and down in Colorado Springs, 1987 ish.

01:21:58.408 --> 01:21:59.969
It got really rough.

01:21:59.998 --> 01:22:00.149
Yeah.

01:22:00.194 --> 01:22:00.394
Yeah.

01:22:00.748 --> 01:22:15.658
Um, you know, and probably one of the greatest lessons that I, that I tell people that, you know, one of the things I learned from my dad was when that downturn happened, um, he could have declared bankruptcy on that business.

01:22:15.689 --> 01:22:15.809
Mm-hmm.

01:22:16.168 --> 01:22:24.509
Um, and he chose to, he didn't think that bankruptcy was the right answer, and so he assumed all of that debt.

01:22:24.538 --> 01:22:24.569
Mm.

01:22:24.689 --> 01:22:27.599
And, you know, following, uh.

01:22:27.958 --> 01:22:37.349
That he went out and worked on the road and he did interior trim, um, for a couple of large, just like paying half of his income toward that debt.

01:22:37.378 --> 01:22:37.588
Yeah.

01:22:37.679 --> 01:22:39.899
And half his income toward keeping a family alive.

01:22:40.078 --> 01:22:40.798
Exactly.

01:22:41.069 --> 01:22:41.158
Dang.

01:22:41.158 --> 01:22:48.809
And it took going out on the road for many years to go out and, and earn the income to be able to, um, yeah.

01:22:48.809 --> 01:22:53.788
Pay off the debt well and probably built the skills that he needed to be a next stage guy.

01:22:53.788 --> 01:22:53.939
Right.

01:22:53.939 --> 01:22:55.753
Well, and then to some extent, yeah.

01:22:55.774 --> 01:23:04.859
And he moved on from that and went to do, um, spent a little bit of time doing some real estate, um, appraisal type stuff.

01:23:04.859 --> 01:23:20.698
We moved to Oklahoma City so that he could help one of his college friends, um, get a business up and going, and then eventually got drawn back to Colorado, um, and really entered kind of that high-end general contracting, uh, business.

01:23:21.179 --> 01:23:22.019
Just kind of out of happenstances.

01:23:23.819 --> 01:23:23.939
Yeah.

01:23:24.179 --> 01:23:27.359
My, all of my uncles are in construction as well.

01:23:27.359 --> 01:23:28.798
They're all in interior trim.

01:23:28.889 --> 01:23:29.698
And what was the cons?

01:23:29.698 --> 01:23:30.628
What was the company name?

01:23:30.628 --> 01:23:31.588
Is it I recognize?

01:23:31.649 --> 01:23:31.918
No.

01:23:32.248 --> 01:23:32.458
Okay.

01:23:32.609 --> 01:23:34.198
It's skeet daughter construction.

01:23:34.229 --> 01:23:34.469
Okay.

01:23:34.469 --> 01:23:45.748
I mean, so y But what happened was he had two brothers that were doing interior trim on this big house, and the owner ended up firing the general contractor and, and.

01:23:46.064 --> 01:23:48.224
You know, came to them and was like, do you know anybody?

01:23:48.224 --> 01:23:51.524
And they're like, well, actually, my brother might be interested in running this.

01:23:51.613 --> 01:23:56.293
And so he actually started flying back from, uh, Oklahoma.

01:23:56.293 --> 01:23:56.354
Oh, fascinat.

01:23:56.413 --> 01:23:56.894
Wow.

01:23:56.953 --> 01:24:00.104
Back to Colorado and running his job, owners of the project, his job.

01:24:00.104 --> 01:24:04.635
And you know, we eventually then moved back to Colorado Springs and Yeah.

01:24:04.635 --> 01:24:04.636
Yeah.

01:24:04.640 --> 01:24:11.594
Um, yeah, he's been doing kinda the residential construction since then.

01:24:11.684 --> 01:24:12.224
Yeah.

01:24:12.224 --> 01:24:12.225
Yeah.

01:24:12.225 --> 01:24:13.724
Um, he's trying to retire.

01:24:13.783 --> 01:24:20.774
And what kind of a, a first grader were you when you were getting ready to meet these, these brothers and what school?

01:24:21.734 --> 01:24:23.984
Uh, Woodman Roberts Elementary School.

01:24:23.984 --> 01:24:24.314
Woodman.

01:24:24.314 --> 01:24:26.173
So that's up north side of town there, or North?

01:24:26.203 --> 01:24:28.184
Yeah, north, northeast, Northwest, kind of.

01:24:28.213 --> 01:24:28.423
Yeah.

01:24:28.573 --> 01:24:30.134
I worked at Garden of the Gods Road.

01:24:30.253 --> 01:24:30.493
Okay.

01:24:30.554 --> 01:24:33.104
Uh, with Bank of Colorado there when I was down there.

01:24:33.104 --> 01:24:34.783
That, that's Wait, with Adams Bank and Trust?

01:24:34.844 --> 01:24:35.713
No, with Bank of Colorado.

01:24:35.713 --> 01:24:36.253
What am I talking about?

01:24:36.434 --> 01:24:36.644
Yeah.

01:24:37.363 --> 01:24:38.804
Uh, that's where our office is.

01:24:38.804 --> 01:24:39.524
Garden of the Gods.

01:24:39.554 --> 01:24:39.884
Oh, okay.

01:24:39.884 --> 01:24:41.144
So yeah, that was a great road.

01:24:41.144 --> 01:24:43.519
I used to go across over You went to Yeah.

01:24:43.524 --> 01:24:43.753
Yeah.

01:24:43.753 --> 01:24:46.993
And then roll up whatever that clever road was over there.

01:24:46.993 --> 01:24:47.474
Oh man.

01:24:47.594 --> 01:25:00.559
I mean, every time I drive to our office in Colorado Springs, when you get off I 25 and you're, you're heading west on Garden of the Gods and you've got Pikes Peak just in, you know, it's full beauty right there.

01:25:00.559 --> 01:25:03.253
That's one of the few places that Colorado Springs beats.

01:25:03.404 --> 01:25:06.974
Fort Collins is for many people, the drive to the office is pretty sweet.

01:25:07.033 --> 01:25:07.844
Oh, just dessert.

01:25:07.904 --> 01:25:08.743
Just enormous.

01:25:09.283 --> 01:25:09.373
Yeah.

01:25:09.373 --> 01:25:10.033
It's incredible.

01:25:10.154 --> 01:25:10.394
Yeah.

01:25:10.573 --> 01:25:11.623
You know, um.

01:25:12.764 --> 01:25:20.623
And yeah, so we all started first grade at Woodman Roberts Elementary, and, um, lived in the same neighborhood.

01:25:20.833 --> 01:25:22.003
We lived in the same neighborhood.

01:25:22.064 --> 01:25:22.243
Oh, okay.

01:25:22.243 --> 01:25:24.434
That was probably the, the big connection is Yeah.

01:25:24.469 --> 01:25:24.588
Yeah.

01:25:24.673 --> 01:25:29.113
You know, we lived what, quarter mile from each other.

01:25:29.144 --> 01:25:29.413
Okay.

01:25:29.474 --> 01:25:31.873
Um, and so we became the local bike gang.

01:25:32.203 --> 01:25:32.684
Okay.

01:25:32.684 --> 01:25:35.833
I dig it more of a kind of a Goonies, uh, style thing.

01:25:35.833 --> 01:25:36.104
Exactly.

01:25:36.344 --> 01:25:36.583
Yeah.

01:25:37.094 --> 01:25:42.764
Patrick, why don't you, uh, gimme a little bit of a summary of your family dynamic there at the same time period?

01:25:43.934 --> 01:25:44.743
Family dynamics.

01:25:44.743 --> 01:25:44.953
Yeah.

01:25:44.953 --> 01:25:47.144
Was it just you two, were there other siblings?

01:25:47.384 --> 01:25:47.444
No.

01:25:47.444 --> 01:25:52.844
So, uh, you know, my parents were, were originally from Kansas and uh Okay.

01:25:53.384 --> 01:25:55.873
Like rural Kansas or City of Kansas, or City of Kansas.

01:25:55.878 --> 01:25:56.029
Okay.

01:25:56.029 --> 01:25:57.583
In, in, uh, Topeka.

01:25:57.734 --> 01:25:58.003
Okay.

01:25:58.064 --> 01:26:02.323
Um, got married and, uh, they had a hard time having kids.

01:26:02.444 --> 01:26:02.564
Ooh.

01:26:02.684 --> 01:26:08.083
Um, and so, you know, married seven or eight years before Chris and I came along.

01:26:08.144 --> 01:26:08.444
Okay.

01:26:08.833 --> 01:26:14.923
You know, towards the end of that they, they said, you know, if we're not going to be able to have kids, let's, let's go do something that we've always wanted to do.

01:26:14.923 --> 01:26:16.423
And, and Colorado was in that.

01:26:16.798 --> 01:26:16.828
Okay.

01:26:17.609 --> 01:26:18.389
That, that picture.

01:26:18.389 --> 01:26:21.509
So, uh, I came out to Colorado and then Chris and I showed up.

01:26:21.809 --> 01:26:22.439
Okay.

01:26:22.439 --> 01:26:24.118
You know, something about that mountain error, huh?

01:26:24.173 --> 01:26:25.469
I, I don't know what it is about twins.

01:26:26.493 --> 01:26:30.658
I, I think you have a set of twins and you really consider whether you want to have kids after that.

01:26:30.689 --> 01:26:33.509
'cause it's a, it's a really rough journey at first.

01:26:33.514 --> 01:26:33.694
Yeah.

01:26:33.698 --> 01:26:34.349
Yeah.

01:26:34.349 --> 01:26:38.413
No, it's definitely the two on one when dad's off doing stuff is, uh, can be a challenge.

01:26:38.413 --> 01:26:41.639
Uh, I I think it's a, it's a blessing, uh, when the kids get a little bit older.

01:26:41.729 --> 01:26:42.269
I agree.

01:26:42.269 --> 01:26:44.908
I think as, as infants, that was challenging.

01:26:44.908 --> 01:26:53.219
But no, it just ended up the two of us and, and, uh, you know, pretty nice to always have a, a best friend to go do stuff when, yeah.

01:26:53.399 --> 01:26:53.578
Yeah.

01:26:53.578 --> 01:27:01.319
I joke with my parents now that I have two kids that are, um, different ages, different sports, different activities.

01:27:01.679 --> 01:27:03.269
You know, Chris and I were always on the same team.

01:27:03.298 --> 01:27:03.958
They barely hang out.

01:27:04.019 --> 01:27:06.689
Like literally you go one place and it's a twofer.

01:27:06.748 --> 01:27:06.929
Yeah.

01:27:06.929 --> 01:27:07.378
Yeah.

01:27:07.378 --> 01:27:09.719
It's, uh, but not, not the case for most people.

01:27:09.719 --> 01:27:11.639
So I grew up in Central North Dakota.

01:27:11.729 --> 01:27:14.099
Uh, graduated with a high school class of five.

01:27:14.099 --> 01:27:15.809
So a very rural, very rural okay.

01:27:15.809 --> 01:27:16.498
Environment.

01:27:16.588 --> 01:27:25.259
Um, and my, so my dad's dad, um, divorced from his mom when my dad was like 13 and then remarried.

01:27:25.288 --> 01:27:26.788
His older brother.

01:27:26.788 --> 01:27:27.868
My dad's mom remarried.

01:27:27.868 --> 01:27:29.309
My dad's dad's older brother.

01:27:30.029 --> 01:27:30.359
Wow.

01:27:30.389 --> 01:27:38.309
And had three, two more kids, the youngest of, which was my uncle Jim, who was eight months older than me, and in my same class.

01:27:38.338 --> 01:27:41.849
So my uncle was my best friend all through my growing up years.

01:27:42.029 --> 01:27:42.194
There you go.

01:27:42.974 --> 01:27:44.998
And he was like really big and I was like, really tidy.

01:27:44.998 --> 01:27:48.658
And so he was like my protector for my sassy mouth sometimes.

01:27:48.658 --> 01:27:49.889
He failed a few times.

01:27:50.189 --> 01:27:51.208
Anyway, I digress.

01:27:51.929 --> 01:27:55.109
Uh, but, uh, but he, but Jim was always there.

01:27:55.109 --> 01:27:55.168
Yeah.

01:27:55.259 --> 01:28:01.948
Like he and I were best friends and I would go to his house for birthday parties and stuff like that and, and we were just, it was just baked in.

01:28:02.548 --> 01:28:05.038
Um, my next youngest brother was two and a half years younger.

01:28:05.038 --> 01:28:07.833
So far enough to not have the same Yeah.

01:28:08.099 --> 01:28:08.219
Yeah.

01:28:08.219 --> 01:28:09.628
I don't know any of his friends hardly.

01:28:09.628 --> 01:28:09.988
Right.

01:28:09.988 --> 01:28:10.948
And vice versa.

01:28:10.948 --> 01:28:17.519
It was just a different kind of thing than that, that twins or even one year apart, you can kind of have that same experience.

01:28:17.878 --> 01:28:18.899
You guys Same age too.

01:28:18.899 --> 01:28:19.349
Same grade.

01:28:19.859 --> 01:28:20.069
Yeah.

01:28:20.069 --> 01:28:20.128
Yeah.

01:28:20.819 --> 01:28:24.088
And, and talk to me about like, were you smart kids?

01:28:24.088 --> 01:28:25.139
Were you sporty kids?

01:28:25.139 --> 01:28:27.029
Were you troublemakers?

01:28:27.029 --> 01:28:29.788
You said you were a bike gang, but not in maybe a bad way.

01:28:29.939 --> 01:28:30.538
Not in a bad way.

01:28:30.538 --> 01:28:30.713
I agree.

01:28:30.833 --> 01:28:37.198
I think we, I think we run the spectrum of smart, uh, you know, just tough enough to, to get along.

01:28:37.198 --> 01:28:41.609
And so like, Subaru's kind of, you're a seven and a half or whatever and everything.

01:28:41.609 --> 01:28:43.649
Like, not that smart, but pretty smart.

01:28:43.649 --> 01:28:45.208
Not that tough, but pretty tough.

01:28:45.389 --> 01:28:47.788
No, I, I, I struggled with school.

01:28:47.819 --> 01:28:48.418
I really was not.

01:28:48.509 --> 01:28:49.198
Oh yeah.

01:28:49.319 --> 01:28:50.394
Uh, just not.

01:28:50.998 --> 01:28:51.538
My thing.

01:28:51.538 --> 01:28:55.889
Focus or, uh, no, I think I had, I definitely struggled with reading and writing.

01:28:55.979 --> 01:28:56.458
Okay.

01:28:56.463 --> 01:28:57.569
It was not fun.

01:28:57.689 --> 01:28:58.918
Like dyslexic or something?

01:28:58.918 --> 01:28:59.429
Yeah, dyslexic.

01:28:59.458 --> 01:28:59.759
Okay.

01:28:59.849 --> 01:29:00.029
Yep.

01:29:00.059 --> 01:29:01.469
Um, sorry to call.

01:29:02.519 --> 01:29:02.908
It's fine.

01:29:02.908 --> 01:29:08.399
I'm, uh, I'm, I'm happy to talk about it, but,'cause it doesn't define who you are, it's just Totally.

01:29:08.399 --> 01:29:10.974
It's just, uh, I mean, for me, I was reading like, it was a challenge.

01:29:11.038 --> 01:29:14.368
I was reading huge books when I was like 5, 6, 7 years old.

01:29:14.368 --> 01:29:18.149
You know, my dad was like, what the hell you gonna read Bones of Plenty for 10?

01:29:18.149 --> 01:29:18.448
You know?

01:29:18.448 --> 01:29:19.014
I'm like, I dunno.

01:29:19.048 --> 01:29:19.738
It seems interesting.

01:29:19.738 --> 01:29:22.649
And plus I get book it points for pizza, A Pizza Hut, you know?

01:29:22.918 --> 01:29:23.338
Gosh, no.

01:29:23.338 --> 01:29:26.878
Like, I look at people that enjoy reading and I, that's something I've always longed for.

01:29:26.884 --> 01:29:28.229
I'm like, God, I wish I enjoyed it.

01:29:28.288 --> 01:29:29.399
'cause it's exhausting for me.

01:29:29.399 --> 01:29:32.788
But, um, enjoyed just being outside, I guess.

01:29:32.788 --> 01:29:33.958
We played outside.

01:29:34.168 --> 01:29:34.288
Yeah.

01:29:34.288 --> 01:29:35.009
All the time.

01:29:35.009 --> 01:29:38.038
We had a creek in front of our house, both of our houses.

01:29:38.069 --> 01:29:38.939
Monument Creek.

01:29:39.059 --> 01:29:39.748
Okay, sure.

01:29:39.748 --> 01:29:40.618
We had land around us.

01:29:40.618 --> 01:29:42.298
We built terrifying forts.

01:29:42.988 --> 01:29:43.139
Right.

01:29:43.529 --> 01:29:44.399
Not according to Code.

01:29:44.399 --> 01:29:45.029
Oh God.

01:29:45.118 --> 01:29:45.359
No.

01:29:45.363 --> 01:29:45.373
No.

01:29:45.689 --> 01:29:49.859
Dug, dug way too many tunnels and without reinforcing the walls.

01:29:49.918 --> 01:29:50.099
Yeah.

01:29:50.878 --> 01:30:02.309
Uh, we built a tree house that was so bad and so dangerous that it was the impetus of, of our dads finally saying, okay, we're gonna do this.

01:30:02.309 --> 01:30:02.609
Right.

01:30:02.609 --> 01:30:05.998
And we built, oh, the most outrageous wall we built.

01:30:05.998 --> 01:30:11.009
I say we, they built the most outrageous, the dads mostly two story, mostly tree house.

01:30:11.014 --> 01:30:11.134
Okay.

01:30:11.248 --> 01:30:13.559
That we then tinkered on for.

01:30:14.213 --> 01:30:16.859
I, I think we, we would, we would build.

01:30:17.399 --> 01:30:19.588
From the time we were little, we, the three of us built.

01:30:19.708 --> 01:30:20.009
Yeah.

01:30:20.429 --> 01:30:22.259
And we'd have other kids come over and play.

01:30:22.649 --> 01:30:30.418
And we were more, whether it was the Ford or the tree house or whatever, we, we cared more about building the thing than actually playing in it.

01:30:30.418 --> 01:30:31.288
Ramps for the bikes.

01:30:31.288 --> 01:30:33.208
And everybody else was like, we're done building now let's plan.

01:30:33.208 --> 01:30:34.769
And we're like, yeah, no, we don't plane things.

01:30:34.769 --> 01:30:36.238
You build, build something else.

01:30:37.828 --> 01:30:38.069
Yeah.

01:30:38.069 --> 01:30:39.208
It was, it was great.

01:30:39.213 --> 01:30:42.118
I mean, I could see, I'm like imagining this first tree house.

01:30:42.149 --> 01:30:42.328
Oh yeah.

01:30:42.389 --> 01:30:44.519
That's like the slums of India.

01:30:44.519 --> 01:30:53.759
And they're just like built onto, you know, when they got the lean to, attached to the lean to attach to the lean to that, that was the point when, when, uh, you know, you couldn't use dad's tools.

01:30:53.759 --> 01:30:58.918
So like, you literally just have to lean to it up and, and then we got somet twine and sub duct tape.

01:30:58.918 --> 01:31:00.809
Maybe when that thing fell down, they rebuilt it.

01:31:00.809 --> 01:31:02.729
I, you know, I, I appreciate'em.

01:31:02.788 --> 01:31:05.338
'cause they, they, they gave us a lot of leeway.

01:31:05.338 --> 01:31:09.328
They, they said, here's the skill saw, we're gonna accidentally leave it.

01:31:09.719 --> 01:31:10.533
You know, they got tired of it.

01:31:10.804 --> 01:31:15.059
Well, and the cool thing is they've got access to job site, excess materials all the time.

01:31:15.059 --> 01:31:15.328
Right.

01:31:15.328 --> 01:31:16.319
Bringing stuff home.

01:31:16.319 --> 01:31:27.298
And, um, I think they got tired of coming home every night and we'd, we'd lay out boards for'em to cut and they were like, you know, I'm just gonna accidentally leave the extension cord and the saw out.

01:31:28.439 --> 01:31:29.581
You're 11 when they get home.

01:31:29.908 --> 01:31:30.899
You're nine now.

01:31:31.003 --> 01:31:32.054
And they're nine.

01:31:32.054 --> 01:31:33.493
They can, they've seen it done enough.

01:31:33.493 --> 01:31:34.934
Maybe they can just cut their own board.

01:31:34.963 --> 01:31:35.203
Yeah.

01:31:35.474 --> 01:31:38.384
Well, but I was running a combine when I was like, 11.

01:31:38.384 --> 01:31:38.649
There you go.

01:31:38.649 --> 01:31:43.663
You know, you know, I couldn't, I had to pull on the steering wheel of the combine to push the clutch in.

01:31:43.694 --> 01:31:48.434
Like,'cause I couldn't just push it and I wasn't, what's the worst that's gonna happen?

01:31:48.493 --> 01:31:48.913
Yeah.

01:31:48.918 --> 01:31:50.594
I mean, like north the Dakota, yeah.

01:31:50.594 --> 01:31:55.963
They were coming back in a couple hours, you know, the truck would be back from the elevator and, you know, whatever.

01:31:56.293 --> 01:31:58.724
Just don't die or fall into the dumb thing.

01:31:59.113 --> 01:32:01.243
Just stay in the cab, don't do anything, don't do anything stupid.

01:32:01.243 --> 01:32:04.064
You're 11 now, so we're gonna trust you to not do anything dumb.

01:32:04.274 --> 01:32:04.604
Right.

01:32:06.014 --> 01:32:06.314
Yeah.

01:32:06.314 --> 01:32:18.673
And there were, I mean, there were times we would probably to the chagrin of our neighbors, we would go down into the creek and build dams, ice hockey, you know, we'd turn it into the hockey.

01:32:18.764 --> 01:32:19.333
Oh, that's fun.

01:32:19.333 --> 01:32:22.088
Skating rink when we were, you know, I'm, that's winter time.

01:32:22.198 --> 01:32:25.094
Like I think the EPA gets on you about that these days.

01:32:25.094 --> 01:32:27.793
Days if you build a non permitted dam existed in the nineties.

01:32:27.854 --> 01:32:28.243
Yeah.

01:32:28.243 --> 01:32:29.984
And this is more like the eighties, right?

01:32:30.283 --> 01:32:30.583
Yeah.

01:32:30.913 --> 01:32:34.543
So, um, I wanna shift the focus a little bit to family.

01:32:34.724 --> 01:32:34.934
Yeah.

01:32:34.939 --> 01:32:35.168
Yeah.

01:32:35.533 --> 01:32:40.394
Um, where did, where did you each find your, your, because you're all married, right?

01:32:40.543 --> 01:32:40.694
Yeah.

01:32:41.323 --> 01:32:44.743
And, and where, where along the journey did you find your people?

01:32:44.833 --> 01:32:45.163
Austin?

01:32:45.163 --> 01:32:48.043
I know you were the most recent'cause you were a bachelor going into COVID.

01:32:48.314 --> 01:32:49.543
Yes, I was.

01:32:49.604 --> 01:32:55.724
Um, yeah, I met my wife in November of 2019.

01:32:55.844 --> 01:32:56.384
Okay.

01:32:56.384 --> 01:32:56.444
Um.

01:32:56.759 --> 01:32:59.458
Kristen is her name Kristen, and she'll probably listen, right?

01:32:59.488 --> 01:32:59.849
Yeah.

01:32:59.908 --> 01:33:03.779
And uh, so we met on match.com.

01:33:03.899 --> 01:33:04.168
Oh, you did?

01:33:04.168 --> 01:33:05.578
Um, you know, yeah.

01:33:05.578 --> 01:33:09.359
And I was, gosh, late thirties.

01:33:09.509 --> 01:33:09.868
Okay.

01:33:09.868 --> 01:33:13.378
Um, had you just been really career focused or had you had other serious Yeah.

01:33:13.469 --> 01:33:17.248
Kind of a relationships that just didn't quite get to the finish line or some of both.

01:33:17.368 --> 01:33:17.429
Okay.

01:33:17.488 --> 01:33:24.149
Um, I think what, you know, early in my career with GE Johnson, I traveled from right.

01:33:24.569 --> 01:33:28.529
Lake Tahoe to the San Luis Valley, the veil and Steamboat.

01:33:28.529 --> 01:33:35.759
And so every 18 months to two years, you were packing up your house and you were moving, um, oh, for like a whole long time.

01:33:35.908 --> 01:33:36.179
Oh yeah.

01:33:36.184 --> 01:33:36.194
Yeah.

01:33:36.194 --> 01:33:38.399
As long, as long as the project takes kind of thing.

01:33:38.609 --> 01:33:38.698
Yep.

01:33:38.698 --> 01:33:38.969
Interesting.

01:33:38.969 --> 01:33:39.298
Exactly.

01:33:39.719 --> 01:33:45.868
And so there was a portion, you know, through my twenties where it was a very transient lifestyle.

01:33:45.868 --> 01:33:49.618
You could date a girl if you wanted to, unless she was ready to take home from mom.

01:33:49.618 --> 01:33:55.319
Like I'll see you later and good luck finding one of those and va So yeah.

01:33:55.439 --> 01:34:00.599
Anyway, just really common normal girls that just wanna find a cute guy from Colorado Springs.

01:34:00.628 --> 01:34:01.408
Yeah, exactly.

01:34:01.408 --> 01:34:02.189
Settle down.

01:34:03.929 --> 01:34:06.179
Um, you didn't find anybody in the San Louis Valley?

01:34:06.359 --> 01:34:07.378
No, no, no.

01:34:07.618 --> 01:34:09.929
There's only three girls in the whole valley.

01:34:09.929 --> 01:34:10.588
Exactly.

01:34:10.618 --> 01:34:11.338
They're all married.

01:34:12.269 --> 01:34:12.569
Yeah.

01:34:12.569 --> 01:34:17.878
And so after that, you know, after traveling, what were you building in the San Luis Valley, by the way?

01:34:18.118 --> 01:34:18.238
Ms.

01:34:18.238 --> 01:34:19.708
G Johnson building down there.

01:34:19.708 --> 01:34:21.809
I didn't know there was anything they would touch outta that nation.

01:34:21.809 --> 01:34:21.899
Yeah.

01:34:21.899 --> 01:34:35.488
So what happened in 2007, 2008 when you had the, the Great Recession is a lot of the private work that we had been doing in the mountains, um, stopped because it was all developer driven.

01:34:35.488 --> 01:34:35.849
Sure.

01:34:36.029 --> 01:34:36.328
Right.

01:34:36.389 --> 01:34:46.708
And so the state of Colorado came out with the best grant, um, and the best grant funded K through 12, um, education school projects.

01:34:46.708 --> 01:34:49.319
So you could go and get the best grants and Gotcha.

01:34:49.378 --> 01:34:52.529
So a lot of these rural communities that have Right.

01:34:52.529 --> 01:34:55.979
Schools that mean that were built in the forties or whatever Yeah.

01:34:55.979 --> 01:34:57.298
And were falling apart.

01:34:57.298 --> 01:34:57.748
Right, right.

01:34:57.779 --> 01:35:00.689
Um, had the opportunity to build new facilities, so, okay.

01:35:01.469 --> 01:35:09.179
I had spent, um, the previous six years building high-end condos and in all of these ski resorts.

01:35:10.109 --> 01:35:12.658
And you're like, we're gonna send you to San Where did you live?

01:35:12.658 --> 01:35:13.408
Where did you live?

01:35:13.408 --> 01:35:14.368
In the San Luis Valley?

01:35:14.368 --> 01:35:15.413
Like Alamosa or?

01:35:15.493 --> 01:35:16.168
I lived in Alamosa.

01:35:16.168 --> 01:35:16.229
Yeah.

01:35:16.229 --> 01:35:16.769
Okay.

01:35:16.948 --> 01:35:19.859
Well that's probably the best available option.

01:35:19.859 --> 01:35:21.779
It was tricky finding.

01:35:22.618 --> 01:35:23.698
Um, housing.

01:35:23.759 --> 01:35:29.009
We were, were just at, uh, uh, joyful journey, hot Springs, my wife and I on the way back from the anniversary, uh, trip.

01:35:29.189 --> 01:35:29.399
Yeah.

01:35:29.488 --> 01:35:31.139
Uh, so we come through there pretty regularly.

01:35:31.139 --> 01:35:41.639
It's, it's, so my dad had a good friend that lived, uh, next door to him up in North Dakota for a while, and he was like A-U-S-D-A guy and then he got transferred to San Luis Valley.

01:35:42.298 --> 01:35:53.219
And just the contrast from like,'cause we don't even have irrigation up there in North Dakota, but they got voluptuous, clay loam soils that really only need three reigns to get you through the year.

01:35:53.219 --> 01:35:56.849
And huge equipment, all of leading edge technologies.

01:35:56.849 --> 01:36:04.288
And then you, like I I, I pray for the people down there, you know,'cause it's hard'cause that aquifer's drying up and Yeah.

01:36:04.934 --> 01:36:05.224
Yeah.

01:36:05.224 --> 01:36:08.338
It's cold in California and Arizona and it's cold at night.

01:36:08.338 --> 01:36:13.618
Yeah, I've heard it's the highest, uh, what is it, the highest valley in the US altitude wise.

01:36:14.248 --> 01:36:14.519
Yeah.

01:36:14.519 --> 01:36:15.509
I think that's accurate.

01:36:15.509 --> 01:36:16.498
That makes sense mean.

01:36:16.498 --> 01:36:16.798
Yeah.

01:36:16.979 --> 01:36:18.328
It's a fascinating environment.

01:36:18.389 --> 01:36:24.418
I remember driving to work one morning and it was negative 39 degrees.

01:36:24.689 --> 01:36:24.838
Oh.

01:36:25.139 --> 01:36:27.838
I mean, and that didn't even account for the wind, right?

01:36:27.838 --> 01:36:28.019
Yeah.

01:36:28.019 --> 01:36:29.668
I mean, it was, it was brutal.

01:36:30.088 --> 01:36:30.599
Um.

01:36:30.988 --> 01:36:32.368
Well, the beautiful place to live.

01:36:32.368 --> 01:36:45.899
But it, it also, you know, the cool thing about that project after you've just built high-end condos is you get to build a K through 12 community or a K through 12 school in a rural community.

01:36:45.929 --> 01:36:45.988
Yeah.

01:36:46.618 --> 01:36:50.399
And the people, you're actually gonna make a difference in those people's lives.

01:36:51.029 --> 01:36:51.091
Yeah, they did.

01:36:51.095 --> 01:36:57.599
And the, the, the rich ass owners of your Vail project don't even care if you exist or fall off the roof and die.

01:36:57.658 --> 01:36:58.708
Yeah, exactly.

01:36:59.939 --> 01:37:00.463
And so not Dick Powell.

01:37:01.259 --> 01:37:08.399
It was, it was fun to, to interact with the board down there in the I bet superintendent of the school district and I bet.

01:37:08.519 --> 01:37:10.543
And it was a really rewarding process.

01:37:10.543 --> 01:37:11.578
So anyway, let's find this woman.

01:37:11.668 --> 01:37:17.878
So you, you, you get your mash do com account up, you get a, a pop right away and you know, yeah.

01:37:17.878 --> 01:37:30.298
I mean, it took a little while longer than that, but um, yeah, we went on our first date in November of 2019 and then as we discussed out here, COVID had happened shortly after that.

01:37:30.359 --> 01:37:30.448
Yep.

01:37:30.448 --> 01:37:35.219
And, you know, we spent a lot of time together and, um, she was here local too.

01:37:35.429 --> 01:37:35.729
Yep.

01:37:35.819 --> 01:37:41.759
She was here local, um, and, uh, had two kids from a previous marriage.

01:37:41.788 --> 01:37:41.819
Okay.

01:37:41.849 --> 01:37:47.429
So, um, we ended up getting married and have been married now for.

01:37:47.984 --> 01:37:51.734
Uh, three years and just celebrated our third.

01:37:52.123 --> 01:37:52.484
Okay.

01:37:52.484 --> 01:37:53.444
Uh, wedding anniversary.

01:37:53.444 --> 01:37:58.634
And so we've got our two boys, Connor, who's 11, Blake, who's eight.

01:37:58.724 --> 01:38:00.734
And then, uh, we've got a daughter.

01:38:00.734 --> 01:38:01.514
We, one, one together.

01:38:02.024 --> 01:38:02.144
Oh, cool.

01:38:02.234 --> 01:38:03.673
Congratulations, Madeline.

01:38:03.673 --> 01:38:07.064
Who's 16 months old.

01:38:07.394 --> 01:38:07.573
Dig it.

01:38:07.573 --> 01:38:08.189
17 months old.

01:38:08.208 --> 01:38:08.588
Dig it.

01:38:08.729 --> 01:38:10.963
So what, uh, what was it about?

01:38:11.354 --> 01:38:12.253
Was it Krista?

01:38:12.554 --> 01:38:13.033
Kristen?

01:38:13.154 --> 01:38:13.604
Kristen?

01:38:13.663 --> 01:38:18.944
What was it about Kristen that really drew you to her after that first, uh, master.com hangout?

01:38:19.003 --> 01:38:22.363
I think part of what makes us work is how different we are.

01:38:22.453 --> 01:38:22.724
Yeah.

01:38:22.934 --> 01:38:24.104
Um, my wife and I are a lot like that.

01:38:24.554 --> 01:38:24.944
Yeah.

01:38:24.944 --> 01:38:31.243
And, and so the people that know me like I am, you know, get buried in thought.

01:38:31.304 --> 01:38:35.894
I like talking about work or politics or whatever it happens to be.

01:38:36.373 --> 01:38:39.734
And generally my conversations are not very light.

01:38:40.724 --> 01:38:41.908
And so your philosopher type.

01:38:42.134 --> 01:38:42.434
Yeah.

01:38:42.434 --> 01:38:45.764
And so she's the fun one in the relationship and she's great.

01:38:45.884 --> 01:38:49.543
Um, with people and relationships and a fantastic mother.

01:38:49.543 --> 01:39:00.644
And I think one of the, one of the things about marrying somebody that has, you know, has been married before and has, has children, is you get the opportunity to observe them as a mother.

01:39:00.649 --> 01:39:00.708
Yeah.

01:39:01.033 --> 01:39:03.194
And what kind of mother are they to their children?

01:39:03.194 --> 01:39:03.434
Yeah.

01:39:03.734 --> 01:39:06.314
And not everybody gets that experience, right.

01:39:06.314 --> 01:39:06.404
Yeah.

01:39:06.404 --> 01:39:08.623
You know, you're kind of guessing like, right, right.

01:39:08.654 --> 01:39:09.014
We have kids.

01:39:09.014 --> 01:39:11.833
What are they gonna, and you see her with her kids and you're like, dang.

01:39:11.833 --> 01:39:13.304
I like the way she mothers.

01:39:13.514 --> 01:39:14.054
Uh.

01:39:14.594 --> 01:39:22.304
I think one of the things that drew me to her is, you know, just being a single mother, you work hard.

01:39:22.304 --> 01:39:22.394
Yeah.

01:39:22.488 --> 01:39:22.689
Yeah.

01:39:22.783 --> 01:39:33.253
I mean, it is the hardest job in the world and you know, not only are you trying to be a mother to two boys, but you're also trying to hold down a job and earn an income, um, and support your family.

01:39:33.458 --> 01:39:34.123
Right, right, right.

01:39:34.453 --> 01:39:37.844
So there's amount, there was a, a grit to her.

01:39:38.203 --> 01:39:38.354
Yeah.

01:39:38.354 --> 01:39:39.554
That was really attractive.

01:39:39.554 --> 01:39:40.123
And then yeah.

01:39:40.123 --> 01:39:48.104
You know, obviously, you know, her smile's great and she's got beautiful eyes and, you know, there's all that physical Yeah, exactly.

01:39:48.224 --> 01:39:50.533
So I won't go into all the details with you.

01:39:51.073 --> 01:39:51.314
Cool.

01:39:51.344 --> 01:39:53.413
Um, so yeah, congratulations.

01:39:53.413 --> 01:39:54.463
It's great to find love.

01:39:54.463 --> 01:40:00.974
You know, I've, I, I was 26, 25 when I met Jill in 27 when I married her.

01:40:01.243 --> 01:40:04.634
So what was then, yeah, that was, that, that long ago.

01:40:04.634 --> 01:40:06.283
22 years ago, last month.

01:40:06.524 --> 01:40:06.764
Wow.

01:40:06.823 --> 01:40:11.083
Uh, was that picture, but, uh, where'd the be beard come into play?

01:40:11.323 --> 01:40:15.793
I couldn't even grow a, a, a goatee until I was 30.

01:40:16.514 --> 01:40:21.644
Like I literally, I was, that's, I, I tell this occasionally, but like what I told you, I was Kurt, the little guy.

01:40:22.064 --> 01:40:27.253
I was four foot 11 in seventh grade, and five foot one at the end of 10th grade.

01:40:27.868 --> 01:40:30.328
I didn't grow in middle school, basically.

01:40:30.958 --> 01:40:34.529
Uh, and then I sprung up, but I still didn't really have puberty.

01:40:34.529 --> 01:40:38.849
Like, I still didn't really shave until I was 25 years old and couldn't definitely grow a beard.

01:40:38.849 --> 01:40:42.328
And then I got like 30 and all of a sudden I got the, the thickest beard ever.

01:40:42.868 --> 01:40:43.349
I don't know.

01:40:43.708 --> 01:40:45.149
And what are you, uh, six two?

01:40:45.929 --> 01:40:46.948
Um, 60?

01:40:46.979 --> 01:40:47.069
Yeah.

01:40:47.069 --> 01:40:47.639
62.

01:40:47.759 --> 01:40:47.908
Yeah.

01:40:47.939 --> 01:40:48.208
Yeah.

01:40:48.509 --> 01:40:50.038
No, I'm, yeah, I'm a six two now.

01:40:50.038 --> 01:40:50.698
Six, two and a half.

01:40:50.698 --> 01:40:53.759
I used to be, but now I'm six two, you know, buck 88 this morning.

01:40:53.788 --> 01:40:53.998
Yeah.

01:40:54.269 --> 01:40:57.238
I've dropped about 10 pounds since the first of the year.

01:40:57.809 --> 01:41:00.059
You know, clean living, not too much bourbon.

01:41:00.838 --> 01:41:02.338
Um, anyway, I digress.

01:41:02.399 --> 01:41:02.609
Yeah.

01:41:02.639 --> 01:41:05.519
So, uh, who's, who's next?

01:41:05.519 --> 01:41:06.538
You married a twin.

01:41:06.538 --> 01:41:08.788
Do you wanna, do you wanna talk about that relationship, Patrick?

01:41:08.849 --> 01:41:08.969
Yeah.

01:41:08.969 --> 01:41:12.838
We met in, uh, last year at college, the U Okay.

01:41:13.109 --> 01:41:23.548
Um, Chris, the, the great story about this is Chris actually knew, uh, my wife's twin sister through, uh, business classes at CSU.

01:41:23.639 --> 01:41:23.998
Okay.

01:41:24.269 --> 01:41:31.139
Uh, I got an opportunity, or, or drug, I'm not sure which, to a, a church service on a Saturday night with a good friend of mine.

01:41:31.139 --> 01:41:34.979
And, and, uh, her twin sister was sitting literally right next to me.

01:41:35.368 --> 01:41:36.689
And, uh, okay.

01:41:37.048 --> 01:41:39.208
Talk about her An amazing God story.

01:41:39.328 --> 01:41:42.179
Uh, the, the, your wife or the twin sister?

01:41:42.179 --> 01:41:42.234
My wife.

01:41:42.234 --> 01:41:42.748
No, my wife.

01:41:42.748 --> 01:41:43.288
And Okay.

01:41:43.559 --> 01:41:46.078
I had, I had met, uh, her twin sister Right.

01:41:46.078 --> 01:41:47.368
A few times just through interactions.

01:41:47.368 --> 01:41:48.029
You're like, Sarah?

01:41:48.088 --> 01:41:48.238
No.

01:41:48.238 --> 01:41:50.279
She's like, no, I'm not Sarah, I'm Susie.

01:41:50.279 --> 01:41:50.788
You're, whatever.

01:41:50.788 --> 01:41:51.479
What's your wife's name?

01:41:51.538 --> 01:41:52.860
Uh, she's, her name's Emily and Nurse.

01:41:52.934 --> 01:41:53.274
Hi, Emily.

01:41:53.399 --> 01:41:54.088
Sister's Hillary.

01:41:54.509 --> 01:41:54.748
Yeah.

01:41:55.259 --> 01:42:03.418
And, uh, so we, we, we kicked it off there and, and, uh, she finished, uh, CSU as an undergrad and then went to Creighton for medical school.

01:42:03.538 --> 01:42:03.929
Okay.

01:42:04.048 --> 01:42:09.179
And so we dated long distance for a while and then, uh, man, she's an amazing woman that, that brought us back.

01:42:09.179 --> 01:42:10.019
You didn't wanna let her go?

01:42:10.078 --> 01:42:10.738
No way.

01:42:10.738 --> 01:42:18.809
Now that dance and, uh, got back to Colorado and, and, uh, yeah, we've been married now 17 years.

01:42:18.838 --> 01:42:19.048
Okay.

01:42:19.048 --> 01:42:20.099
Celebrated 17.

01:42:20.099 --> 01:42:20.908
Two kids.

01:42:21.328 --> 01:42:23.069
A daughter, Piper, who's 12.

01:42:23.069 --> 01:42:23.399
Okay.

01:42:23.458 --> 01:42:24.988
Will be 12 in September.

01:42:24.988 --> 01:42:27.569
And his son Luke, who's nine going on 10.

01:42:27.569 --> 01:42:29.639
Our, our sons are pretty close in age.

01:42:29.639 --> 01:42:30.389
That's been a lot of fun.

01:42:30.389 --> 01:42:30.958
That's pretty cool.

01:42:30.988 --> 01:42:32.128
And a pretty neat dynamic.

01:42:32.128 --> 01:42:33.509
So, um.

01:42:34.304 --> 01:42:40.003
And she's doing some amazing things with, she's a family practice doctor by board certification.

01:42:40.003 --> 01:42:46.873
But does, uh, oh, well that's why you could take a big risk to like start a construction company with a little seed money from dad.

01:42:46.873 --> 01:42:51.344
'cause you made her a doctor gal even though she wasn't making any money out and she got a ton of student loans probably.

01:42:51.344 --> 01:42:54.283
But, you know, there was a lot of, takes the risk out a little bit.

01:42:54.283 --> 01:42:54.434
Right.

01:42:54.434 --> 01:42:55.123
Get those out of the way.

01:42:55.368 --> 01:42:58.663
But yeah, no, it's, it's been, it's been a lot of fun.

01:42:58.663 --> 01:43:01.333
And, and she's, uh, she's in private practice now.

01:43:01.363 --> 01:43:01.753
Cool.

01:43:01.963 --> 01:43:04.573
Uh, doing, uh, then there's so few private practices out there.

01:43:04.634 --> 01:43:04.873
Yeah.

01:43:04.904 --> 01:43:05.684
What, what's she in?

01:43:06.043 --> 01:43:08.713
She's, she's a board certified family physician.

01:43:08.774 --> 01:43:09.163
Okay.

01:43:09.163 --> 01:43:11.923
But she's pivoted into more functional medicine.

01:43:11.984 --> 01:43:12.344
Okay.

01:43:12.344 --> 01:43:18.974
That's the, the, uh, the, we're, we're signed up with a direct family care office here, which very similar, which I think is a very nice Yeah.

01:43:19.123 --> 01:43:25.274
Uh, business model and like, insurance companies are the worst creatures in the business.

01:43:25.363 --> 01:43:25.543
Yeah.

01:43:25.993 --> 01:43:28.429
Oh, you, it's not even really a business entire podcast company.

01:43:28.514 --> 01:43:29.743
It's not even really a business.

01:43:29.743 --> 01:43:34.243
Like you sell a government mandated product that be like, whatever.

01:43:34.663 --> 01:43:35.654
Anyway, I digress.

01:43:35.658 --> 01:43:36.974
She's, she's amazing at what she does.

01:43:36.974 --> 01:43:44.054
And, and, uh, direct primary care was kind of the transition from, from uc Health as a family physician to what she, I might wanna learn more about that.

01:43:44.113 --> 01:43:46.453
'cause I'd like the notion of functional medicine too.

01:43:46.514 --> 01:43:52.484
And, uh, it's a great blend of, of traditional western medicine, but, uh, just a more holistic Yeah.

01:43:52.484 --> 01:43:55.453
Honor the acupuncturist and the Chinese and the stuff like that.

01:43:55.453 --> 01:43:58.033
'cause some, some of their stuff works way better.

01:43:59.144 --> 01:44:00.583
Well, and it's, and you don't have to get a prescription to.

01:44:01.048 --> 01:44:08.009
Fight the side effects of the other prescription of the thing that you took to fight the side effects of the other prescription, well, prescription, whatever the attitude is.

01:44:08.009 --> 01:44:10.198
It's, it's the concept of it's always bad.

01:44:10.198 --> 01:44:11.788
Let's understand root cause.

01:44:11.819 --> 01:44:12.208
Totally.

01:44:12.208 --> 01:44:14.219
Like I, I think she uses That's awesome.

01:44:14.338 --> 01:44:19.469
The quote of Desmond Tutu of at some point you're gonna get frustrated of pulling people out of the river.

01:44:19.588 --> 01:44:19.979
Yeah.

01:44:20.458 --> 01:44:21.689
You're gonna walk upstream and Yeah.

01:44:21.689 --> 01:44:22.948
Hey, stop jumping in here.

01:44:22.953 --> 01:44:23.054
Yeah.

01:44:23.059 --> 01:44:23.399
Yeah.

01:44:23.429 --> 01:44:24.328
Who's pushing'em in?

01:44:24.479 --> 01:44:25.293
And so, yeah.

01:44:25.474 --> 01:44:26.399
So she's been great.

01:44:26.399 --> 01:44:29.668
We've been what does she have a, a practice name that people should look up?

01:44:29.668 --> 01:44:30.958
Does she take, take clients?

01:44:30.958 --> 01:44:31.469
She does.

01:44:31.469 --> 01:44:34.198
MIT md, so MINT md.

01:44:34.288 --> 01:44:34.588
Okay.

01:44:34.948 --> 01:44:35.759
Um, I like it.

01:44:35.759 --> 01:44:35.969
Yeah.

01:44:36.059 --> 01:44:37.078
So I'm gonna check it out.

01:44:37.408 --> 01:44:43.498
Um, not that I'm not super happy with my existing direct family care practice, I just want to Well, and she doesn't do direct primary care.

01:44:43.588 --> 01:44:43.828
Okay.

01:44:43.828 --> 01:44:45.748
So it's supplemental almost in that kind of space.

01:44:45.748 --> 01:44:45.809
Yeah.

01:44:45.868 --> 01:44:49.198
She really focuses on, um, chronic disease and root cross.

01:44:49.198 --> 01:44:55.618
I, uh, I wrote a blog in I think July of 2019 that was, uh, in Austin.

01:44:55.618 --> 01:44:56.849
We probably could be friends actually.

01:44:56.849 --> 01:44:59.219
We can go get some bourbon sometime if you're buying on the elder account.

01:44:59.219 --> 01:45:03.719
But, uh, give me liberty or give me health, uh, was the phrase.

01:45:03.719 --> 01:45:06.538
And it was like, you know, don't get caught up in our healthcare system.

01:45:06.538 --> 01:45:13.229
'cause they'll keep you full of pills and visits and other reasons to come back forever if they get a chance.

01:45:13.439 --> 01:45:15.899
So just do what you need to do to stay healthy.

01:45:16.349 --> 01:45:19.349
Here's some places to start, you know, stay off the treadmill.

01:45:19.378 --> 01:45:20.668
The health treadmill.

01:45:20.668 --> 01:45:21.748
Yeah, the health treadmill.

01:45:21.899 --> 01:45:22.859
Get on the treadmill.

01:45:22.863 --> 01:45:23.519
Go on the treadmill better.

01:45:23.519 --> 01:45:23.668
Yeah.

01:45:23.668 --> 01:45:26.064
Go for a walk outside, you know, but yeah.

01:45:26.069 --> 01:45:26.338
Yeah.

01:45:26.368 --> 01:45:27.623
No, they'll, they'll, or conveyor belt with you.

01:45:27.623 --> 01:45:30.958
They'll grind you up and just keep you a long time customer.

01:45:31.019 --> 01:45:32.458
We're bringing you back many times.

01:45:32.458 --> 01:45:32.698
Yeah.

01:45:32.703 --> 01:45:32.984
Yeah.

01:45:33.658 --> 01:45:35.759
Oh, would you like to share the same kind of Yeah.

01:45:35.759 --> 01:45:37.708
I met my wife Courtney in 2010.

01:45:37.798 --> 01:45:38.219
Hey Courtney.

01:45:38.368 --> 01:45:39.238
And, uh, yeah.

01:45:39.238 --> 01:45:40.408
Wonderful woman.

01:45:40.498 --> 01:45:43.769
Got married in 13, so we're coming up on our 12th.

01:45:44.158 --> 01:45:44.488
Okay.

01:45:44.668 --> 01:45:45.569
Uh, year anniversary.

01:45:45.569 --> 01:45:46.649
We've got three kids.

01:45:47.009 --> 01:45:50.519
Jackson's uh, our oldest nine, he'll be 10 here.

01:45:50.519 --> 01:45:51.583
This, uh, next month.

01:45:51.583 --> 01:45:51.743
Okay.

01:45:51.743 --> 01:45:52.984
Same age here too, with these guys.

01:45:52.984 --> 01:45:53.144
Yeah.

01:45:53.144 --> 01:45:56.219
So, uh, Jackson and Luke Pats are five months apart.

01:45:56.878 --> 01:45:59.729
Uh, we're coaching baseball together this year and having a ton of fun.

01:45:59.734 --> 01:46:00.184
That's fun.

01:46:00.328 --> 01:46:00.509
Yeah.

01:46:00.509 --> 01:46:00.988
It's awesome.

01:46:01.408 --> 01:46:03.059
Uh, they're two, was that your sport?

01:46:03.359 --> 01:46:05.458
Uh, it was golf and baseball.

01:46:05.548 --> 01:46:05.729
Yeah.

01:46:05.788 --> 01:46:06.208
Okay.

01:46:06.418 --> 01:46:06.809
Yeah.

01:46:06.958 --> 01:46:11.729
And, uh, Jack and, and Luke love to joke that they're half brothers.

01:46:11.759 --> 01:46:12.958
'cause technically they are.

01:46:13.649 --> 01:46:13.979
Oh, right.

01:46:13.979 --> 01:46:14.609
Because we're identical.

01:46:15.929 --> 01:46:16.288
Right.

01:46:16.423 --> 01:46:17.189
And, and they really are.

01:46:17.189 --> 01:46:17.578
That's pretty funny.

01:46:17.578 --> 01:46:18.988
Best friends, which is fun to see.

01:46:18.988 --> 01:46:19.798
And that's cool.

01:46:19.828 --> 01:46:25.469
Uh, then I've got a daughter that's seven and a younger son that is, uh, five.

01:46:25.588 --> 01:46:25.828
Cool.

01:46:25.889 --> 01:46:26.338
Almost five.

01:46:26.759 --> 01:46:35.399
My, uh, my closest brush with fame, actually you guys are too young probably to recognize it, but, uh, oh, and I forgot the name now from North Dakota.

01:46:35.399 --> 01:46:43.738
There is a, uh, a long time baseball player that was, he was the first player drafted in maybe 97.

01:46:43.738 --> 01:46:44.338
He kicked for.

01:46:44.804 --> 01:46:45.493
Nebraska.

01:46:45.493 --> 01:46:47.444
He was a gold glove winner for Darren Erstad.

01:46:47.833 --> 01:46:48.729
Oh yeah.

01:46:48.913 --> 01:46:49.123
Yeah.

01:46:49.123 --> 01:46:51.913
I struck out Darren Erstad two times in one little league game.

01:46:51.944 --> 01:46:52.484
There you go.

01:46:52.484 --> 01:46:54.434
And nobody struck Darren out ever.

01:46:55.213 --> 01:46:55.844
The spitball?

01:46:56.203 --> 01:47:00.583
I, no, I was just lucky I kept it up inside by the knees, you know.

01:47:00.644 --> 01:47:01.873
But anyway, I digress.

01:47:01.873 --> 01:47:03.163
But that was my favorite sport.

01:47:03.344 --> 01:47:06.224
Um, but I, I quit to go farming.

01:47:06.613 --> 01:47:06.823
Yeah.

01:47:06.854 --> 01:47:09.823
Baseball's summer storm in when farming happens.

01:47:09.823 --> 01:47:16.213
And so when I got more than like 13 and more enough to more than drive the combine once in a while, I had to just do that instead.

01:47:16.694 --> 01:47:16.963
Yeah.

01:47:17.144 --> 01:47:18.554
So it goes, I wouldn't have been a pro anyway.

01:47:18.644 --> 01:47:19.724
Look at this movie's wrist.

01:47:19.724 --> 01:47:20.144
I mean, come on.

01:47:21.043 --> 01:47:21.703
I digress.

01:47:21.974 --> 01:47:23.923
The loco experience is our closing segment.

01:47:24.253 --> 01:47:24.524
Okay.

01:47:24.668 --> 01:47:26.474
And, and I'm gonna do one for each of you.

01:48:10.773 --> 01:48:12.239
So it's the craziest experience.

01:48:12.270 --> 01:48:15.359
Oh, wait, before we do that, let's, let's dip a little bit more into faith.

01:48:15.359 --> 01:48:18.329
Have you guys all grown up in a faith background?

01:48:18.329 --> 01:48:18.930
Environment?

01:48:19.289 --> 01:48:23.699
Like started as Christians never questioned it, stayed that way.

01:48:24.149 --> 01:48:25.050
Where do you go to church?

01:48:25.050 --> 01:48:26.789
How do you keep your faith vibrant?

01:48:29.520 --> 01:48:31.140
That's a lot of questions, but there's a lot of questions.

01:48:31.140 --> 01:48:32.460
I'll, I'll start to unpack that.

01:48:32.760 --> 01:48:34.409
No, I, I think we have been blessed.

01:48:34.409 --> 01:48:43.079
We were all raised, uh, in the faith community, um, different, um, you're, you've got a lineage of.

01:48:43.380 --> 01:48:45.180
Pastors, he looks like it could be a Catholic.

01:48:45.180 --> 01:48:46.895
He's got kind of that Irish look about him.

01:48:46.895 --> 01:48:47.774
Definitely not Catholic though.

01:48:48.569 --> 01:48:49.140
Just checking.

01:48:49.145 --> 01:48:51.329
We, we actually grew up Catholic light as Episcopalians.

01:48:51.390 --> 01:48:52.230
Oh, yeah, yeah.

01:48:52.230 --> 01:48:52.231
Yeah.

01:48:52.237 --> 01:48:53.189
My wife's Catholic.

01:48:53.189 --> 01:48:57.239
And, um, you know, I, I know for me, definitely grew up in the church.

01:48:57.270 --> 01:49:04.020
It was an important part of the, the family, uh, routine and, and, and what we did.

01:49:04.470 --> 01:49:14.789
Uh, I I would say that, you know, I don't wanna speak for you guys, but for me personally, it was, it was probably high school that really, uh, solidified it for me.

01:49:14.789 --> 01:49:16.800
We had a phenomenal young life leader.

01:49:16.859 --> 01:49:17.100
Okay.

01:49:17.104 --> 01:49:19.409
In, in a gentleman named Brian Congleton.

01:49:19.470 --> 01:49:23.310
Uh, it seems like that organization has impacted a lot of unbelievable leaders over the years.

01:49:24.000 --> 01:49:24.060
Yeah.

01:49:24.060 --> 01:49:26.310
Hugely impactful for, for me.

01:49:26.310 --> 01:49:30.930
And I bet 20 of my 200 podcasts have had a, a person impacted by young.

01:49:30.965 --> 01:49:31.255
Yeah.

01:49:31.439 --> 01:49:31.890
Yeah.

01:49:31.979 --> 01:49:32.909
Anyway, just, I digress.

01:49:32.909 --> 01:49:38.069
But phenomenal, phenomenal organization and, and, uh, that really solidified it for me.

01:49:38.069 --> 01:49:47.010
And then, and then, you know, through college there was some ups and downs, uh, but then got connected with another gentleman that, that was with Campus Crusade at this at the time.

01:49:47.039 --> 01:49:47.130
Mm-hmm.

01:49:47.369 --> 01:49:49.079
Similar type organization.

01:49:49.085 --> 01:49:49.295
Sure.

01:49:49.800 --> 01:49:51.149
And haven't looked back since.

01:49:51.149 --> 01:50:06.810
And yeah, it's, it's a, it's a really big part and I think it's just a matter of, um, just perspective as we grow up and, and you say with, you know, church, I'm over in Windsor with, uh, Patrick Lightfoot and Traverse Church, which has Okay.

01:50:06.989 --> 01:50:07.710
Been phenomenal.

01:50:07.710 --> 01:50:09.060
Not familiar or, um.

01:50:09.885 --> 01:50:12.149
Is it a, an an independent organization?

01:50:12.149 --> 01:50:13.845
It's an, an independent, it was a plant church.

01:50:13.904 --> 01:50:14.385
Uh, okay.

01:50:14.444 --> 01:50:15.914
Not Episcopalian at all?

01:50:15.975 --> 01:50:16.545
No, not Catholic.

01:50:16.545 --> 01:50:17.414
Nondenominational.

01:50:17.475 --> 01:50:17.895
Yeah.

01:50:17.895 --> 01:50:19.904
Um, just a Christian organization.

01:50:19.904 --> 01:50:19.965
Okay.

01:50:19.970 --> 01:50:33.314
And, and, uh, Patrick does a great job over there and, uh, kids plug in and I think that's, as a parent, what I'm, I'm learning is, you know, that's the most important part is how do you get your kids plugged in?

01:50:33.345 --> 01:50:33.614
Yeah.

01:50:33.975 --> 01:50:36.435
Uh, they really drive, but you can't make people do stuff.

01:50:36.435 --> 01:50:36.704
Right.

01:50:36.704 --> 01:50:38.564
Like, you gotta gotta open the doors.

01:50:38.625 --> 01:50:41.385
You can, you make'em new a few, few times, but you can't make'em plug in.

01:50:41.534 --> 01:50:42.614
But you can't make'em plug in.

01:50:42.614 --> 01:50:43.784
You certainly can't make'em.

01:50:43.875 --> 01:50:46.604
Uh, you can give'em the opportunity to plug in, so, but it's hard to make.

01:50:47.654 --> 01:50:48.045
Awesome.

01:50:48.704 --> 01:50:49.095
Yeah.

01:50:49.185 --> 01:50:54.435
Um, so I grew up it, my grandfather was a pastor.

01:50:54.555 --> 01:50:54.885
Okay.

01:50:55.215 --> 01:50:58.935
Um, and started a couple of non-denominational churches.

01:50:58.935 --> 01:50:58.965
Oh.

01:50:59.039 --> 01:51:00.140
Got in Colorado Springs.

01:51:00.140 --> 01:51:00.261
Oh, interesting.

01:51:00.375 --> 01:51:02.145
The most entrepreneurial of all ventures.

01:51:02.175 --> 01:51:02.685
Yeah.

01:51:02.744 --> 01:51:03.225
Yeah.

01:51:03.314 --> 01:51:07.274
Um, I think he got sick of construction, decided to be the pastor.

01:51:07.274 --> 01:51:09.404
I'm like, okay, whatever.

01:51:09.585 --> 01:51:10.694
If you think that's easier.

01:51:10.935 --> 01:51:11.234
Yeah.

01:51:11.685 --> 01:51:12.045
Yeah.

01:51:12.135 --> 01:51:12.704
Um.

01:51:13.050 --> 01:51:22.859
And then on my mother's side, uh, she's from Nashville and my grandmother was very influential in the, uh, southern Baptist community down there.

01:51:22.864 --> 01:51:23.220
Gotcha, gotcha.

01:51:23.220 --> 01:51:26.699
Um, and did a lot, did a lot of women's prison ministry and Oh, wow.

01:51:27.000 --> 01:51:27.300
Interesting.

01:51:27.300 --> 01:51:27.511
That sort of thing.

01:51:27.555 --> 01:51:27.845
Okay.

01:51:28.229 --> 01:51:32.404
It was always an interesting dynamic because, and that's like the No, Dan and no drinking, no, none of that stuff.

01:51:32.520 --> 01:51:32.819
No drinking.

01:51:33.090 --> 01:51:33.449
Yeah.

01:51:33.539 --> 01:51:34.500
Yeah, exactly.

01:51:34.500 --> 01:51:36.180
No holding hands with a pretty girl.

01:51:36.420 --> 01:51:36.810
Right.

01:51:37.289 --> 01:51:49.800
And it was interesting because we lived in Colorado, we went to my grandfather's church that was non-denominational, but oftentimes we would go back to Nashville in the summer and spend an extended amount of time there.

01:51:49.800 --> 01:51:53.760
And then we would get to go to church with my Mimi and Papa.

01:51:53.819 --> 01:51:54.360
Yeah, yeah.

01:51:54.600 --> 01:51:58.920
You know, the southern bab, first Southern Baptist in Nashville or Donaldson.

01:51:59.640 --> 01:52:00.779
And it was a different feeling.

01:52:00.930 --> 01:52:12.840
So this is probably, this is like, it's funny when I think of like a southern church, I think of like a black church and it all gospel eyes and stuff, but that's probably not at all like what a real Southern Baptist is.

01:52:12.840 --> 01:52:12.841
No.

01:52:12.845 --> 01:52:14.524
That's like, they're like very serious, right.

01:52:14.585 --> 01:52:15.045
Or something.

01:52:15.045 --> 01:52:15.164
Yeah.

01:52:15.164 --> 01:52:15.750
It was very serious.

01:52:15.750 --> 01:52:20.399
It was fire and brimstone and even as like a fire, you better turn, you got burn.

01:52:20.550 --> 01:52:24.720
Well, you're wearing a, all that, you're wearing a tie and a, and a jacket to church.

01:52:24.720 --> 01:52:24.720
Gotcha.

01:52:24.725 --> 01:52:26.130
And it's like, oh, okay.

01:52:26.130 --> 01:52:27.090
Starting when you're three.

01:52:27.300 --> 01:52:28.170
Yeah, exactly.

01:52:28.170 --> 01:52:29.045
So, okay.

01:52:29.045 --> 01:52:29.046
Gotcha.

01:52:29.220 --> 01:52:33.689
The only redeeming fact was that we got to go to Shoney's afterwards, so, okay.

01:52:33.689 --> 01:52:36.060
Uh, that's how they, it's a pizza shop or a barbecue or something.

01:52:36.494 --> 01:52:38.805
No, if you're from the south, you know what Shoney's is.

01:52:38.805 --> 01:52:41.055
It's like the worst chain restaurant you've ever done.

01:52:41.055 --> 01:52:41.085
Okay.

01:52:41.864 --> 01:52:42.284
Alright.

01:52:42.914 --> 01:52:57.795
But, um, anyway, you know, so now, so you had this kind of diverse uh, yeah, a very experience, diverse background and, and so, um, you know, grew up in the faith and obviously we went to high school together, we attended young life together.

01:52:57.795 --> 01:52:59.444
We had that same experience.

01:52:59.505 --> 01:53:04.755
Um, and now, you know, we had gone to Traverse for quite a while.

01:53:04.814 --> 01:53:12.704
Um, but, and that was because my wife and her sons were at Traverse since almost after it was founded.

01:53:12.765 --> 01:53:13.244
Oh, is that right?

01:53:13.244 --> 01:53:19.364
Um, but just coincidentally, you're like, I started dating this girl and you, you're like, oh yeah, I know her from church.

01:53:20.340 --> 01:53:26.085
And so, you know, but what Patrick mentioned about having your kids engaged Yeah.

01:53:26.204 --> 01:53:34.425
Um, has kind of led us on a journey lately to find a church that, um, is closer to us.

01:53:34.425 --> 01:53:35.805
'cause we live in Fort Collins.

01:53:36.164 --> 01:53:36.465
Yeah.

01:53:36.675 --> 01:53:39.375
And going to Traverse was a 25 minute drive.

01:53:39.375 --> 01:53:42.314
Our kids weren't in school with the kids that are there.

01:53:42.404 --> 01:53:42.675
Yeah.

01:53:42.680 --> 01:53:44.774
And, and so it's just a different community.

01:53:44.774 --> 01:53:44.775
Yeah.

01:53:44.984 --> 01:53:45.045
Yeah.

01:53:45.074 --> 01:53:46.994
So you sampling, you find another one yet?

01:53:47.145 --> 01:53:47.595
Yeah.

01:53:47.625 --> 01:53:50.774
And lately we've been going to Overland, um, okay.

01:53:50.835 --> 01:53:55.154
In the irony of, I'm not familiar with it, but Overland Church is that they're Southern Baptist.

01:53:56.085 --> 01:53:59.859
So it's been, is it Southern Baptist Light or like all it Southern Baptist?

01:53:59.925 --> 01:54:01.305
No dancing light for sure.

01:54:01.395 --> 01:54:01.845
That's good.

01:54:01.845 --> 01:54:05.414
It doesn't seem like Southern Baptist full on would fly very good in Northern Colorado.

01:54:05.414 --> 01:54:05.775
No, no.

01:54:05.780 --> 01:54:06.074
It would.

01:54:06.074 --> 01:54:11.550
But, uh, our son, who's 11, graduated outta fifth grade and is headed into the sixth grade class.

01:54:11.550 --> 01:54:16.890
So last Sunday when we went was the first time he had to sit through big church with us.

01:54:16.890 --> 01:54:16.949
Hmm.

01:54:17.760 --> 01:54:26.460
Um, and the pastor there got into some fire and brimstone in Ephesians five, and my son looks at me and he goes, so I shouldn't drink.

01:54:27.210 --> 01:54:30.210
I'm like, uh, well, we'll talk through that.

01:54:30.539 --> 01:54:33.840
But like what it actually says, if you're on a podcast, it's okay.

01:54:33.840 --> 01:54:34.560
You could have one.

01:54:34.619 --> 01:54:37.109
And what it says is, do not become drunk.

01:54:37.109 --> 01:54:37.470
Yeah.

01:54:37.770 --> 01:54:44.220
You know, and so anyway, um, we, that's why you have to practice a lot so you can drink more without becoming drunk.

01:54:44.579 --> 01:54:56.970
And so we've been enjoying that for the last several months and, and really that decision is driven by, you know, how we ended up at Overland was really a lot of the kids that, that our kids go to school with.

01:54:56.975 --> 01:54:57.185
Yeah.

01:54:57.189 --> 01:54:57.329
Yeah.

01:54:57.359 --> 01:54:59.520
Um, and actually obviously whatever.

01:54:59.520 --> 01:54:59.760
Yeah.

01:54:59.939 --> 01:55:00.149
Yeah.

01:55:00.149 --> 01:55:01.024
And so that is a huge, that's cool.

01:55:01.260 --> 01:55:04.050
Huge consideration and a huge draw and Yeah.

01:55:04.050 --> 01:55:04.199
Yeah.

01:55:04.199 --> 01:55:04.289
Dig.

01:55:04.289 --> 01:55:05.305
You know, my, I dig it.

01:55:05.340 --> 01:55:08.880
My son is now at church camp for the first time in Nebraska.

01:55:08.970 --> 01:55:09.329
I dig it.

01:55:09.359 --> 01:55:13.079
Um, at Camp Maranatha, uh, till this weekend, so I love it.

01:55:13.170 --> 01:55:13.439
Yeah.

01:55:13.859 --> 01:55:14.340
Connor.

01:55:14.789 --> 01:55:16.109
Connor, yeah.

01:55:16.380 --> 01:55:17.729
I remember my first church camp.

01:55:18.090 --> 01:55:18.390
Yeah.

01:55:18.545 --> 01:55:18.864
I dig it.

01:55:19.949 --> 01:55:21.810
Chris, why don't you share the same Yeah.

01:55:21.810 --> 01:55:22.739
Similar journey.

01:55:22.800 --> 01:55:30.720
Uh, really young life in, in, uh, high school was the tipping point, you know, out outside of that it was very rich.

01:55:30.960 --> 01:55:31.260
Rich, right.

01:55:31.710 --> 01:55:33.960
It was kind of assumed, but not really thought through.

01:55:34.454 --> 01:55:38.715
And then maybe college, uh, started going to Timberline off and on.

01:55:38.805 --> 01:55:39.104
Okay.

01:55:39.314 --> 01:55:45.765
And when we, um, when my wife and I got married, we kind of went on a, she's Catholic.

01:55:46.005 --> 01:55:46.244
Yeah.

01:55:46.244 --> 01:55:47.385
Grew up an Episcopalian.

01:55:47.385 --> 01:55:47.414
Okay.

01:55:47.414 --> 01:55:53.835
So we kinda had that and, um, went around trying to find our place.

01:55:53.954 --> 01:55:56.055
That's a weird thing up at Timberline.

01:55:56.085 --> 01:55:56.444
Okay.

01:55:56.685 --> 01:55:56.925
Yeah.

01:55:56.925 --> 01:56:02.564
My parents, Jill and I, when we moved to Colorado Springs, we went to 17 different churches trying to find our spot.

01:56:02.564 --> 01:56:07.904
We went to the Catholic, we went to the Episcopalian church and, and really just, we went to the snake handlers.

01:56:07.904 --> 01:56:11.145
We went to the freaking, everybody, I don't know, it was a wild season for us.

01:56:11.145 --> 01:56:14.475
I think what drew us to Timber, the Timberline, uh, teaches on the Bible.

01:56:14.805 --> 01:56:15.074
Yeah.

01:56:15.164 --> 01:56:22.454
And growing up, both in the Catholic and the Episcopal Church, um, you were, you, you had a New Testament reading.

01:56:22.454 --> 01:56:23.505
You had an Old Testament reading.

01:56:23.505 --> 01:56:25.810
You had a sermon and it was on a, a calendar.

01:56:25.810 --> 01:56:25.810
Yeah.

01:56:25.935 --> 01:56:27.194
Very specific thing.

01:56:27.194 --> 01:56:29.715
It seemed very disjointed and I never learned the Bible.

01:56:30.045 --> 01:56:30.375
Yeah.

01:56:30.585 --> 01:56:38.835
Um, and so to, to start to find a, a truly bible believing church that, that, uh, teaches preaches series.

01:56:38.835 --> 01:56:42.210
You know, when you spend six months on Acts Yeah.

01:56:42.215 --> 01:56:42.494
Yeah.

01:56:42.494 --> 01:56:44.289
And you're like, whoa, I had no idea.

01:56:44.654 --> 01:56:45.765
I got, I'm so literate.

01:56:45.765 --> 01:56:49.725
So I mentioned that Father Evan from Saint Beon.

01:56:49.725 --> 01:56:49.784
Yeah.

01:56:49.845 --> 01:56:50.835
Greek churches.

01:56:50.895 --> 01:56:51.885
I gotta email you.

01:56:51.885 --> 01:56:52.215
Sorry.

01:56:52.215 --> 01:56:53.864
If you're listening to Father Evan, I gotta get back to you.

01:56:53.864 --> 01:56:54.675
But, um.

01:56:55.604 --> 01:57:00.164
Anyway, that church, the Greek Orthodox, I've been listening to their podcast.

01:57:00.164 --> 01:57:01.574
It actually, his voice is really nice.

01:57:01.574 --> 01:57:03.015
It puts me to sleep at night sometimes.

01:57:03.015 --> 01:57:04.635
Sorry, father, I don't listen to them all.

01:57:05.204 --> 01:57:12.375
Um, but they started, they were, last year May, they were on Luke 11.

01:57:13.664 --> 01:57:19.395
Now they're on Luke 15 or 17 or something.

01:57:19.395 --> 01:57:20.444
Like, that's how crazy.

01:57:20.444 --> 01:57:21.619
They are so rich.

01:57:21.619 --> 01:57:26.220
It's so they're, they're like so rich three lines a week to, to be able to just sit on it for a while.

01:57:26.220 --> 01:57:26.715
It really is.

01:57:26.715 --> 01:57:28.904
And then, and then find context in it all.

01:57:29.385 --> 01:57:30.555
We, there's a balance there, right.

01:57:30.555 --> 01:57:30.699
We loved it.

01:57:30.704 --> 01:57:33.824
And my parents have since moved from Colorado Springs to Northern Colorado.

01:57:33.824 --> 01:57:34.034
Okay.

01:57:34.454 --> 01:57:36.585
Um, they attend with us.

01:57:36.585 --> 01:57:37.904
And so it's, it's been real nice.

01:57:37.904 --> 01:57:39.135
It's, it's like cool days different.

01:57:39.135 --> 01:57:40.425
Well, they got all the different flavor.

01:57:40.425 --> 01:57:41.500
I mean the, the different flavor.

01:57:41.500 --> 01:57:42.795
They, they got the best worship, right.

01:57:42.795 --> 01:57:47.295
Like the best paid band in town and to these guys, the kids programming's incredible.

01:57:47.354 --> 01:57:47.716
Right, right.

01:57:47.720 --> 01:57:47.899
All that.

01:57:47.899 --> 01:57:49.364
And our kids want to go to church.

01:57:49.395 --> 01:57:49.635
Yeah.

01:57:50.114 --> 01:57:50.475
That's cool.

01:57:50.984 --> 01:57:55.515
Um, okay, let's, uh, we're gonna get you outta here in 10 minutes.

01:57:55.604 --> 01:57:58.664
Uh, but first we gotta have a low-code experience from each of you.

01:57:59.234 --> 01:58:01.994
So that's the craziest experience that you're willing to share.

01:58:02.579 --> 01:58:05.550
Maybe something your brother doesn't even know about that story, but probably not.

01:58:06.149 --> 01:58:13.170
Um, but uh, it could be a day, a moment, a near death experience, a faith conversion experience.

01:58:13.170 --> 01:58:16.800
A I saved my wife from falling off the edge of the cliff.

01:58:16.829 --> 01:58:19.920
I don't know, like whatever that experience is for you.

01:58:19.920 --> 01:58:21.689
Some kinda a crazy experience that pops to mind.

01:58:21.689 --> 01:58:22.680
Chris, you wanna go first this time?

01:58:22.680 --> 01:58:23.640
Well, yeah, I can go first.

01:58:23.640 --> 01:58:24.689
I see Austin smiling.

01:58:25.229 --> 01:58:26.310
He knows his well.

01:58:26.310 --> 01:58:28.680
I don't, we had some No, I'll just share or together.

01:58:28.680 --> 01:58:29.609
Is there a shared one?

01:58:29.609 --> 01:58:33.569
Do we have a shared one that you wanna share that's, that you're smiling about?

01:58:33.569 --> 01:58:35.670
Yeah, we probably have a few.

01:58:36.720 --> 01:58:37.289
Probably not.

01:58:37.649 --> 01:58:40.949
Uh, probably some of'em we shouldn't talk about our statutes.

01:58:40.949 --> 01:58:41.520
That's perfect.

01:58:41.520 --> 01:58:42.869
That's what this podcast is about.

01:58:42.869 --> 01:58:44.100
We don't have that many li Yeah.

01:58:44.100 --> 01:58:46.170
You're way past the statute of limitations.

01:58:46.175 --> 01:58:51.510
Well, well there's probably one we're all thinking about that happened in college.

01:58:52.920 --> 01:59:00.210
Um, we had been out, uh, we probably enjoying Old Town a little too much.

01:59:00.239 --> 01:59:00.390
Yeah.

01:59:00.810 --> 01:59:04.020
It wasn't the early days of the craft beer revolution kind of.

01:59:04.020 --> 01:59:10.350
And um, it's hard to kick a gauge on how strongly they're, sometimes you accidentally get drunk, you know, and craft beer For us that Natty Light was great.

01:59:10.439 --> 01:59:11.609
Yeah, exactly.

01:59:11.609 --> 01:59:12.774
And, and we Right.

01:59:13.170 --> 01:59:14.701
Had a especially 17 of them.

01:59:15.090 --> 01:59:15.390
Right.

01:59:16.170 --> 01:59:26.069
And so we had this situation in, in college where there were, uh, four of us guys that lived in our house and the next door was a house of four to five girls.

01:59:26.609 --> 01:59:29.489
And we had become really close friends with them.

01:59:30.194 --> 01:59:37.515
And so we always went to the bars together and we always had this huge group that came back to our houses, the Flotilla.

01:59:37.814 --> 01:59:38.085
Yeah.

01:59:38.085 --> 01:59:40.305
Because like we had two houses.

01:59:40.335 --> 01:59:40.664
Yeah.

01:59:40.664 --> 01:59:42.704
Or you know, eight or nine of us.

01:59:42.734 --> 01:59:42.944
Yeah.

01:59:42.944 --> 01:59:44.774
You'd catch up five other people or something.

01:59:44.774 --> 01:59:45.645
Now you gotta Yeah.

01:59:45.704 --> 01:59:46.274
It was a party.

01:59:46.515 --> 01:59:58.305
Well, uh, we had decided to come home and me and a couple of my friends had gotten diverted on the way home and were walking past the post office, uh, here in Old Town.

01:59:58.335 --> 01:59:58.784
Okay.

01:59:59.265 --> 02:00:04.664
And one of my buddies who I'll leave nameless, um, he's in a different state now.

02:00:04.664 --> 02:00:05.744
He's in a different state.

02:00:05.744 --> 02:00:06.045
Yeah.

02:00:06.074 --> 02:00:06.975
So he's good.

02:00:07.095 --> 02:00:10.755
Um, started hopping through the mail trucks and Oh.

02:00:11.085 --> 02:00:13.694
Flipped down the visor of one and the keys fell out.

02:00:13.814 --> 02:00:14.354
Oh shit.

02:00:14.954 --> 02:00:16.965
And so I know what I would do.

02:00:17.175 --> 02:00:17.385
Yeah.

02:00:17.925 --> 02:00:23.385
So we did what any 20-year-old slightly inebriated male would do slightly.

02:00:23.385 --> 02:00:25.364
And we, we drove the mail truck home.

02:00:25.364 --> 02:00:25.994
Sweet.

02:00:26.175 --> 02:00:26.595
Yeah.

02:00:26.909 --> 02:00:28.250
And so lucky a rock.

02:00:28.454 --> 02:00:28.574
Oh.

02:00:28.574 --> 02:00:36.375
We drive the mail truck home and we pull up in the front yard and, and our fourth roommate in college was kind of a stickler.

02:00:36.375 --> 02:00:39.675
He was a, uh, he wanted to be a doctor and took it really seriously.

02:00:39.675 --> 02:00:39.765
Right.

02:00:39.914 --> 02:00:40.064
Yeah.

02:00:40.064 --> 02:00:40.364
Yeah.

02:00:41.220 --> 02:00:42.944
So anyway, we, he went, went to class more than you and stuff.

02:00:43.095 --> 02:00:43.770
This is great.

02:00:43.770 --> 02:00:48.000
And like there are 20 people out there check it out and they're like, yeah, it's hilarious.

02:00:48.060 --> 02:00:50.130
Um, he's like, you need to take that back.

02:00:50.130 --> 02:00:55.260
Well, he came up and he was hot and he was like, get it outta the front yard.

02:00:55.260 --> 02:00:57.779
And we're like, okay, we gotta get it outta the front yard.

02:00:57.779 --> 02:01:00.930
But now whether we gotta do with it, can't just take it back.

02:01:00.960 --> 02:01:02.250
You can't just take it back.

02:01:02.250 --> 02:01:08.159
And the only logical thing to do is to leave it in the middle of the oval of CSU.

02:01:08.760 --> 02:01:11.100
It seems like a legit plan to me.

02:01:11.100 --> 02:01:17.460
So we took the mail truck and we drove down the alley along Laurel and cut across.

02:01:17.460 --> 02:01:21.265
This was before all the cameras recording everything that happened on CSU campus.

02:01:21.265 --> 02:01:21.505
Exactly.

02:01:21.505 --> 02:01:23.550
So anyway, we roll it up into the middle of the oval.

02:01:23.550 --> 02:01:29.640
We hop out, we do our best to dust the thing down from our prince because you're super worried.

02:01:29.640 --> 02:01:30.720
You're gonna figure it out.

02:01:30.779 --> 02:01:31.199
Right.

02:01:31.590 --> 02:01:32.250
And go home.

02:01:33.329 --> 02:01:33.333
And that's the end.

02:01:33.390 --> 02:01:34.529
And, and that's the end.

02:01:34.590 --> 02:01:35.100
I like it.

02:01:35.100 --> 02:01:36.899
That shut up in the campus blotter.

02:01:37.289 --> 02:01:37.739
Perfect.

02:01:37.890 --> 02:01:38.520
You hit the news.

02:01:38.850 --> 02:01:39.090
Yeah.

02:01:39.090 --> 02:01:42.270
So whoever's listening from CSU don't look us up.

02:01:42.659 --> 02:01:48.385
Um, but yeah, that was I probably the craziest college story that we all experienced.

02:01:48.385 --> 02:01:49.739
That's a pretty interesting one.

02:01:49.739 --> 02:01:49.949
Yeah.

02:01:50.069 --> 02:01:53.159
Um, and Dave and Steve, if you're out there.

02:01:53.159 --> 02:01:57.149
So Dave and Steve were in my banking training program and they came to visit me like two months after.

02:01:57.689 --> 02:02:03.779
And we, we were like weaving back and forth for some reason to walk back to my house from downtown.

02:02:05.430 --> 02:02:08.310
And you saw that post office Dave got lost.

02:02:09.255 --> 02:02:16.845
And like wandered around Old Town for like a couple of hours before sleeping in somebody's Volkswagen bug in the back of their yard.

02:02:17.085 --> 02:02:17.295
Wow.

02:02:17.444 --> 02:02:20.175
Anyway, so that's, yeah, I, that was what I was thinking.

02:02:20.175 --> 02:02:21.284
I was thinking about you, Dave.

02:02:21.284 --> 02:02:24.824
If you're out there listening, uh, that, that's a pretty good story.

02:02:24.824 --> 02:02:25.335
I like that.

02:02:25.395 --> 02:02:29.175
I would, I would, I, I think that that's a good way to share the experience.

02:02:29.444 --> 02:02:30.074
Is that the end?

02:02:30.074 --> 02:02:31.875
Just a shared local experience?

02:02:31.994 --> 02:02:32.085
Sure.

02:02:32.085 --> 02:02:34.064
If I've got one, nothing's gonna compare.

02:02:34.064 --> 02:02:34.484
Really?

02:02:34.484 --> 02:02:34.664
No.

02:02:34.664 --> 02:02:37.244
Who, who made the decision to drive it?

02:02:38.175 --> 02:02:41.175
Like, uh, his name is John Merritt.

02:02:41.234 --> 02:02:43.784
Oh, it's spelled, I thought Johnny Walker.

02:02:43.784 --> 02:02:44.475
You guys.

02:02:46.914 --> 02:02:51.324
But, but I mean, because you pull this thing down and like, somebody's gotta be like, dude, we're driving this thing.

02:02:51.654 --> 02:02:52.914
Uh, he decided to drive it.

02:02:52.944 --> 02:02:53.215
Okay.

02:02:53.215 --> 02:02:54.954
Like, we're still out on the side.

02:02:55.194 --> 02:02:56.335
We're on the sidewalk.

02:02:57.324 --> 02:02:58.314
He's got it started up.

02:02:58.314 --> 02:03:02.274
Yeah, he started out, is pulled out into the street and it was like pop in.

02:03:02.454 --> 02:03:02.965
Okay.

02:03:03.114 --> 02:03:03.984
It was just you two.

02:03:04.435 --> 02:03:08.064
Uh, there was, there was another, a few of you guys too.

02:03:08.215 --> 02:03:10.555
So you had a posse just to get the mail truck?

02:03:10.765 --> 02:03:11.034
Yep.

02:03:11.484 --> 02:03:12.685
And it was old too.

02:03:12.685 --> 02:03:14.694
You know, there's a, I haven't seen a new mail truck.

02:03:14.725 --> 02:03:16.284
Oh, it hadn't been driven in years, probably.

02:03:16.284 --> 02:03:16.494
Wow.

02:03:16.689 --> 02:03:20.454
It was like one of the 1970, I mean, it was a single front wheel and stuff.

02:03:20.454 --> 02:03:21.204
No, not single wheel.

02:03:21.505 --> 02:03:21.984
They're closed.

02:03:23.260 --> 02:03:23.560
Jeep.

02:03:23.920 --> 02:03:24.430
I like it.

02:03:25.060 --> 02:03:25.510
I like it.

02:03:25.750 --> 02:03:29.590
Well, um, you should have seen if there was two of'em, you could have smashed'em together.

02:03:29.590 --> 02:03:31.390
Like a couple of Ferraris in the parking lot.

02:03:31.750 --> 02:03:33.340
Yeah, we did that 15 years later.

02:03:35.380 --> 02:03:38.140
That was or dabble into residential construction.

02:03:38.140 --> 02:03:38.319
Yeah.

02:03:38.739 --> 02:03:41.649
Um, anybody wants to look up elder construction?

02:03:41.649 --> 02:03:43.239
Should they just go to your website?

02:03:43.239 --> 02:03:44.590
You popular on LinkedIn?

02:03:44.829 --> 02:03:46.210
You wanna get any commercials?

02:03:46.210 --> 02:03:47.560
You got any specials running right now?

02:03:49.239 --> 02:03:49.810
Any special?

02:03:50.859 --> 02:03:52.689
No, I reach out to us.

02:03:52.689 --> 02:03:57.609
Uh, we've got a website over construction.com inc.com.

02:03:58.029 --> 02:04:01.210
Uh, yeah, take it Chris.

02:04:01.510 --> 02:04:03.220
Yeah, no, that's, any questions for me?

02:04:03.220 --> 02:04:03.939
Thanks for being here.

02:04:04.000 --> 02:04:05.380
No thanks and thanks for sharing the time.

02:04:05.380 --> 02:04:06.010
Hopefully you had fun.

02:04:06.010 --> 02:04:06.520
Did you have fun?

02:04:06.609 --> 02:04:07.029
We had fun.

02:04:07.034 --> 02:04:07.314
We did have fun.

02:04:07.319 --> 02:04:12.819
And it's been, it's been fun our to see where you've gone over the last we started essentially together.

02:04:12.819 --> 02:04:14.199
Yeah, pretty similar times.

02:04:14.260 --> 02:04:15.609
Banking with you way back when.

02:04:15.880 --> 02:04:17.755
It's fun to see your journey and appreciate your time.

02:04:17.755 --> 02:04:18.034
Been fun.

02:04:18.039 --> 02:04:19.420
Well thanks for having us on.

02:04:19.420 --> 02:04:23.409
Send me your referrals for local think tanks since you're strong advocates for peer advisor already.

02:04:23.409 --> 02:04:23.859
Yeah, you bet.

02:04:23.949 --> 02:04:26.920
Don't give'em all to that national firm Vistage and stuff.

02:04:26.920 --> 02:04:28.840
Come on, get outta here with that.

02:04:29.199 --> 02:04:29.500
Anyway.

02:04:29.500 --> 02:04:30.100
Appreciate you Ron.

02:04:30.100 --> 02:04:30.489
Look me up.

02:04:31.539 --> 02:04:32.199
Cheers guys.

02:04:32.305 --> 02:04:32.595
Guys.

02:04:32.619 --> 02:04:32.920
Cheers.

02:04:32.920 --> 02:04:33.369
Thanks.

02:04:37.145 --> 02:04:37.435
Cool.

02:04:37.435 --> 02:04:37.755
Thank you.

02:04:37.755 --> 02:04:37.914
Thanks.