EXPERIENCE 261 | Building Community and Belonging with Dustin Peyser, Founder and President of the Timnath Chamber of Commerce

In this episode of the Local Experience Podcast, I sat down with Dustin Pyser, the founder and president of the Timnith Chamber of Commerce. Dustin shares how he co-founded the Chamber alongside early adopters and supporters driven by his passion for local business and community building. We discussed the Chamber's rapid growth to 55 members and his innovative initiatives like the Click Local Business Listing Platform. Dustin was inspired and supported throughout by his wife Crystal, a likely future guest on the show. For Dustin creating a Timnith Chamber is a bit of a legacy project and a way to be truly a part of the community that he moved to and loves. After jumping into the time machine, Dustin recounts his move from upstate New York to California and eventually to Timnith, overcoming insecurities and challenges along the journey and ends with a truly low co-experience. An emotional story of his near arrest upon returning from a cruise over a paperwork mix up with the military that had him labeled as AWOL from a decade prior. He's a fun guy and a fellow commuterian and I know you'll love my conversation with Dustin Pyser. Let's have some fun. Welcome to the Local Experience Podcast. On this show you'll get to know business and community leaders from all around Northern Colorado and beyond. Our guests share their stories, business stories, life stories, stories of triumph and of tragedy and through it all you'll be inspired and entertained. These conversations are real and raw and no topics are off limits. So pop in a breath mint and get ready to meet our latest guest. Welcome back to the Local Experience Podcast. My guest today is Dustin Pyser and Dustin is the founder and president of the Timnith Chamber of Commerce. Yes, thank you to the show. You said co-founder, I was supposed to even mention that but let's get into that. Yeah, it's funny to say that the idea of always presenting myself as a co-founder is more of the fact that there wouldn't be a chamber without those who join and participate in the general well-being of it. And those people were there just as early as I had ever been. I sure those first five or ten made you feel like you weren't an idiot for trying this. Yeah, I was a little worried because I didn't realize at the time like a normal average person could launch a chamber. I was under the assumption that it was a non-government organization kind of thing or something. 100% and the fact that you could I was like, oh my gosh, especially being in Timnith specifically based on its potential at the time, which was about three years ago or so. I thought so did you find yourself did you move to Timnith and find yourself there and you're like looking for the Timnith Chamber and there isn't that kind of that story or how does it go down? Sort of. So I'm from upstate New York. I moved to California when I was 20. I spent about 20 years out there and then about 15 years ago I met Crystal who is my now my wife. We just got married in 2024. So we've been together for like 15 years. Finally made it official. Yeah, yeah, I didn't hear it. It just was non-stop, but I actually proposed on a podcast. She has a podcast of her own. Oh, and she was expecting it or not. She was not. No. It was my risk maneuver. It was. She could have just not published it if she was like, why did he think you I would ever say yes, but if a girl's been with you for 12 years, chances are she's in if you're in. Yeah, and I knew that. It's like imagine if someone came in right now and just interrupted your situation or the podcast whether I'm on it or anybody, but like you have to be dialed in in the zone. You're presenting, you know, you're on your toes to anything that might come out of your guest mouth at any time. So you're you're you're just trying to focus in. Yes, and I come storming in and I just wanted a way in which to capture it because she films her podcast and have. Was she doing solo or she was talking with somebody. She in this particular one was doing it solo. Okay. She was talking about vulnerability. So she does has a podcast for independent retailers called rooted in retail. And so she like you, which I just learned are about 250 episodes or so is a ton of work. And I don't remember the exact episode number, but I had had the ring for some time and just hadn't really had the real plan or the nerve to do it. The topic of the podcast being vulnerability, I realized was sort of the whole back of why I hadn't proposed, you know, 10 or 12 years prior to that. So it just felt right. So I just basically went down to the basement and I grabbed the ring and went up there and was like, hey, baby. So she was filming and she was pissed. And when she realized what was happening, it completely switched it up. But I felt first you were interrupting. And then you were very sweetly interrupting and vulnerable. So if I might, why was that vulnerable for you? Did you like come from a broken home or something or why were you scared to make it official with a woman that from our prior conversations. I know you like think is the bees needs. Yeah. And that's a really great question. No one's I'm not sure anyone's ever asked me that feeling. And I think that just comes from even at the highest level of effort in anything. I think there's a fear of rejection. And then there's just a general self identity of who you are and then committing committing perhaps with another person and the lack of individuality. Which is also important. And just having already done all of the things like we had we were I think on our six or seventh house together. It's kind of like we move in a real estate agent also. So moving is easy. Smart investments. Yeah. So it's just we've done all of the things we had been together forever very close within our family and our friends. And so we essentially were already living a married life. It was just a formality at that time. And I wanted to capture it in a way that was special. And I had a number of ideas that aren't really important at this point. But to do it on that podcast and have it recorded in a natural reaction without having to bring in other people to you know throw flowers. Yeah, I'm not on the jumbo tron. I keep it. We control the video and we have it forever. So it actually worked out quite good. And so I respect the hustle of a podcast us in general because you know as we were talking about a little bit early before this is you know she's had a number of episodes prior to even the rooted retail which the amount of production that goes into it. And you just as the host having to be on your toes. Yeah, like a lot of a lot goes into it. And to facilitate a conversation and keep your guests as as forward and sort of showcase. You're sitting in a spot where you're you're trying to be one or two steps ahead of whatever is going to come out of my mouth at any given time probably so you know saying. Yeah, so I respect that. And well, I want to go to her as well because as I've studied business and brands and even a recent talk at the AI summit yesterday, which you should have been there. I was. Oh, you were. I will. I went to the thing after. I was not feeling great. I did not get good sleep. And I did want to see the secondary part of it. The presentation parts through the first paper was really the best one. But anyway, he was talking about how kind of consumers notions about the company's vulnerability and it's who it is and who it isn't and that kind of stuff is really a part of a brand driver these days. Yeah, just putting yourself out there is huge and whether it's proposing or trying to sell a product like you're going to be judged. And I had a lot of those feelings when launching the chamber having no experience in building a chamber only having been a member of a chamber once many years ago as a real estate agent. It's like, oh, you've got to be a you've got to be a you've got to be a part of the chamber. This was in this to California. I didn't really know no disrespect to this, but I joined assuming something different, I think. And I felt it could be there. Yeah, I just felt it could be done better. And so I wanted to build a chamber in which the value was received at the moment in which they join sort of like buying a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Like you give money. I give you a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and you have that amazing peanut butter and jelly sandwich and it doesn't even matter what happens. Yeah, and you might yeah, you don't really care what happens the next 364 days. So identifying and solidifying the value proposition of being a member of the chamber is, you know, in any chamber, I think is probably a work in progress. And the insecurity part of the vulnerability. I look at like a four Collins chamber and and Hutchinson. And I was like, she's forgotten more than I know about running a chamber. So it's not because she's old. She's very wise. Yes. And she's in it and she's doing it. And so, you know, until just recently, I've just been very intimidated and sort of siloed within the timid chamber specifically without really any kind of outreach to other chambers beyond. I met with the chambers are a thing that's stronger together to though, you know, when we have these, you know, no cult regional chamber events and stuff like that. Like three or four chambers together can put together a heck of a nice event and have some amazing speakers and things like that. A million percent that the, what is it? It's the regional business after hours with the four Collins chamber. Yeah. Is that coming up? I missed that. It's not that I know. I think it's April or something like that. It feels like. Yeah. I think they do too. And I think the fallen spring is kind of. It's the most amazing event. I want to go back to, like, you must have done some research. Like, you said I didn't even know you could start a chamber. But then somehow you found out that you could, like, what was? Did you start like an LLC? Like, did you meet with somebody that started a chamber? You get on forum boards on Facebook? Like, how do you go about checking it out? That's a good question. So when we, when I met my wife 15 years ago, you know, it was sometime that we were together before the COVID days hit. And at that time, we came here for a wedding. And I think she had a speaking engagement sometime shortly after, like, the heavy days of COVID. And being in real estate, I like to just drive around and look at houses. And there's so much new construction in North County here. I call it North County. Yes. I lived in North County, San Diego, but I just love looking at all the new houses and cruising around. And when I came into Timnith randomly, I don't even know. I think it was just following all the new home signs. And it just happened to be a kind of I'm going to Timnith. Yeah. I fell in love particularly with the Main Street, not for what it is, but for what it could be. Yeah. And was I think what it will be to yes, like I'm kind of a far side of guy. And you know, part of me wants to buy a office building in downtown Timnith. Now to put local think tank and because in 10 years, it's probably going to be worth a fortune. Yeah. And not only yes, you know, the home builder building down there, I forget his name. Well, there was the savant building. Yeah. Did he sell it or something? He I think it's nice to all state insurance. Just a member of the chamber. That building right there. Yeah. One next to it, the old firehouse, I this like this just brings up a bunch of things. But so we essentially found a property in Timnith. It was a Hartford home. They did a great job. It was the model home. And it happened to be for lease for 18 months. Okay. So since we weren't really in any kind of rush to move to Colorado, it was kind of on a whim, honestly. But the reconnection to my wife's family sort of became important through the days of COVID. Sure. Well, getting the fuck out of California. Yeah. Well, yeah. And that's been a big thing. They were locked out for a long time. And like, you can't wipe your butt with a hex pass. Yeah. It was a big deal. And the coming, when we finally came here and moved 18 months later, we basically sold everything within our house. We had an estate sale sold our furniture. And every single thing with the exception of a carload of stuff, which we basically packed in my wife's car in a car. She had a Lexus, which isn't that big of a car and drove a car car, not like a car car. Yeah. So we didn't, we just, it was so liberating and leading up to that, it was fine. Because on Amazon these days, you can basically find anything. For 18 months, we just shopped the things that we would want when we made the move. And when it was getting time to move, we hit buy. And all that shit was shipped to my wife's dad's house. So when the house finally became available to us, we moved all, we must have opened hundreds of boxes of Amazon stuff. But what was also funny is we bought the home staged. So it had all new furniture, like plates, cups, dish soap, every single thing you could think about. The toilet bowl cleaners, like every single thing that you could want for a house came. And it was surreal because there's almost like we're living in some other life, very different from anything I've ever done in New Yorker in California. But I just fell in love, particularly to Main Street and thought, I want to do something really cool here. And I didn't know 100% what it would be, but as an easy out, I got my real estate license. Yeah. They have been in real estate already. Yeah, in California, license real estate agent for like, I think I'm on 13 or 14 years. So it just felt like the move is to get license. Sure. But then to like start a business from scratch in a space where there's no real connection. You're in love. Yeah, yeah. So my wife's grandma's house and some aunts and uncles. And I just felt like the pursuit of trying to start over in that way wasn't as sexy. So I ended up working with my wife's business for some time shortly or later on. But the building on Main Street, the one that you're talking about, the old Savant Building, which is now all state. The old firehouse is this amazing shell of a space. And I thought we need to do something there. So we spoke with an amazing wine bar. Look a restaurant or something. Yes. 100%. So met the town, told them we're working on in conversation with a wine bar and four Collins who are on the the verge of making the sale. And we want to bring a wine bar to Main Street and Timnith. And as the unfolding of that happened, the numbers just didn't work. Yeah. We had inspection reports on that on that building. And I hadn't really seen the inside of it. Yeah. And then when I saw the inside, it was like, it will cost somewhere between one million and six million to make it hospitable. Kind of. It was just such a such a shame. But I have a passion for building things and connecting people and loving small business and just the story of small business in a few. And to facilitate that in a way that the fact that there wasn't a chamber in Timnith already seemed crazy. But if you really look at it at the time, I think there's 125 businesses in Timnith. And that's from Costco's and Walmart's. Right. Probably independent businesses is much smaller. Yeah. Two thirds of those people are probably real estate agents. You know what I'm saying? Right. Yeah. I thought, what if we could establish a chamber and accommodate some sort of thing in which we'll proceed. Timnith pride. Yeah. You know, like to me, like, so we have a, we actually have a website that we haven't launched yet. This is kind of the first public mention of it even. We've got a campaign. We're going to launch probably toward the end of Q1 here with our members first kind of first look. But it's a, we have the website local for local. Okay. You know, we're crazy about local business kind of thing. And that's the notion. Like if you're, if you're Fort Collins, you know, it's awesome for you to shop for Collins. If you live in Timnith, you know what, maybe you should shop Timnith and maybe not just Costco. Yeah. You know, props and Costco. Yeah. 100%. Good job. Be there Costco. Sure. Timnith loves your sale. Yeah, they do. That does a lot of great things for the town. And like if you can find your plants at that little plant store right downtown Timnith instead of at Costco, then do that. Yes. Because it just will be a lot more direct impact on the local economy. Your plants will be healthier. I promise. Even though Costco employees care about the plants in their greenhouse, if they have a greenhouse, I don't know if they do. No. But the Walmart does, I think. The Walmart's probably got plants for sale. Yeah. You know, you're going to get a boring ass crappy plant from Walmart. Whereas the hidden stem is going to have some unique things and some well loved and cared for and propagated plants. And she's a total stud and her blood sweat and tears go into that. And in fact, at the time in which we moved, she and her family were renovating that space. And I thought, oh shit, that's a cool building too. I just want to have all the buildings. Yeah, just get buildings, man. Just suck them. Just suck them all. Well, but they probably can't. You can't collect collect much rent right now. I mean, stores have struggled to be retailers. There was a little gift shop down there and stuff that struggled for it seemed like. So I was a banker. I don't know if we talked to you. A little bit. Yeah. So I was a banker for 15 years. And so like just with the eyeball test with retail businesses, I can kind of tell. You know, I can go into a restaurant. If I go in there three times, I've got a pretty good gauge about what revenue that restaurant's doing in a year. Yeah. And the same thing for a retail store or a gift shop. And you know, it's easy to change from a. You know, in downtown Fort Collins, there was a lot of retailers that years ago would do a million plus and sales. And then, you know, as Amazon. So I'll refrain from criticizing too much because of the convenience factor for you guys. Yeah. But, you know, as Amazon has claimed territory and stores like Costco and others, you know, they offer some compelling prices. Yeah. And also like it's the same stuff. And, you know, for me, most of those dollars go out of town. And sometimes it's more expensive. Yeah. It's true. My own Amazon, anti-Amazon crusade started in COVID nation actually. And the fall of 2020, the Wild West really had been canceled. And, but I was a volunteer for a made up one because it was a fundraiser for the Matthews house. So we ran like putter trail to Greeley and back instead of the wild and it was super hot and it was miserable. But I was a volunteer because I, I spray my calf and thank you shout out to Matthew Fougate, a realtor competitor of yours. Right on. No competition. He ran my legs instead of me and he was like a minute and a half faster per mile every mile. But, but I popped into Manwilder's hardware in Windsor. And they had what I now own, which is a blackstone grill and grittle combo. Mm hmm. Are you familiar with the blackstone stoves? No, I am not. I'm thinking the egg, but it's not it. Yeah, no, this is actually just more like a simple stove for camping and stuff. And one side has a pot boiler. So you can use it to cook with a pan or you can put the grill attachment on top of it and then you got a 18 by 18 grill or something. The other side has a grittle, 18 by 18 cast iron grittle. And Manwilder's had that for 200 bucks. And my wife and I are avid campers. We love getting out into the, the nothingness just hanging for a few days. And so I got on my phone and wanted to make sure it was a good brand and stuff. I never really heard of it. And I found one on Amazon. Oh, $199 bucks. Yeah, fun one on Amazon. Great ratings. $299 for the same thing. Yeah, that's not common to find it like that. Not too much, but that was, it was that price on all of Amazon. Because it was COVID nation. They were maximizing profits. Yeah. But Manwilders was like, and you know, Manwilders bought that thing for like 120 bucks. Yeah. And was selling for $199. Yeah. Amazon probably bought a million of them for $65 a piece and was selling for $299. Yeah. And I just kind of that turned for me. I was like, you know what? You guys will rip me off every chance you get probably. And Manwilders, meanwhile, has been sponsoring the local football team for Windsor High School for 50 years. Yeah. That's an amazing point. That the connection to community in that way is very difficult. Just in trying and no disrespect obviously to the bigger businesses within Timnith. But to get their attention to have them support their chamber is a difficult one. Yeah. You can't find a decider. Well, you can't not just, well, yes. Yes. That's true. Even when you think you got it. Right. You don't. Right. You know what I'm saying? Or that person moves on or the person upstairs from them was like, nah, I don't think we need to. Yeah. And the people that you think are the deciders, they're great. They're amazing people. They themselves are like, shit, yes. We support blah blah blah or whatever. But to make it work in that way, there's a lot of things that happen when you start a business and assumptions are one of them. And so I assume that it would be easy to get the support of a bigger business to back some initiatives. So is that where you started? Like, let's go back to that. How do you start a chamber? Yeah. What was your place in life and what did you actually do to prepare to like make it public that you were going to do this? Yeah. So I have a big pursuit for purpose. We don't have kids. Yeah. I feel like, until just recently, I felt like my parents died when I was young. I met a eight-year-old girl at Windsor at a play who was just bouncing back and forth with her and her family or her guard. Not a babysitter, but a friend of the family. She said something that really caught me. And so, and I probably can get in that later. But, you know, my parents died when I was 30 and 35. And I've used that as, I've just looked at that and have ever since been in a rush to have the most possible impact in the shortest period of time. What's your legacy going to be? Yeah, what's the point of all of this? Yeah. My wife and I are 51 now. We don't have kids. We've hosted a bunch of exchange students, which I highly recommend because every international kid wants to come to Colorado and give you and crystals some, you know, five months of adulting. Yeah. He does a semester kind of thing. Yeah. There's some obligations to take them to school and whatnot. But it's awesome. And having that cultural experience. So, highly recommend. But also, I've been feeling that kind of thing, you know, where it's obvious we're not going to have children. And so, what is the legacy of my life? Yes. Local think tank is built similar in a way in which a chamber is where it can proceed you depending on who's going to fill your shoes. Yeah. You're the face of the entity for the most part. You've got a small team, but maybe it's them sometime because we don't know necessarily what's going to happen tomorrow. And I just have the sense where it could all be a wrap and like, how do I do some shit that's really cool that I love and feel like I could make a difference. That's why you don't even really talk about your real estate. Yeah. You've been almost none of your time dealing with that these days. It's a chamber focus. Yeah. And I do pursue real estate in some ways based in ideas that I can do something for a particular person in which nobody else can. One of the things with my real estate business that's quite powerful is the fact that I'm licensed both here and in California. Yeah. So you can help California move out here. I can help California move out here. And in fact, I just sold an amazing. We almost no listeners in California, by the way. Yeah. Well, that was an art thing. When I started the chamber, I'm like, I just have always heard this impression of people like hate non-California people. And I'm probably more of a California person than I am a New York person. But if they think that they've never said it to my face. It's true. I don't care. You know, that's one thing to come in and you're an asshole. Yeah. If you come in and you're cool. Yeah. Yeah. I talk about Northern Colorado. Just recently I brought this up that we're a melting pot for sure. You know, we've got New Yorkers. We've got Texans. We've got Californians. We've got a ton of Nebraska's and Minnesotans and North Dakotans and stuff. And so we're a melting pot. But it's a it's a white cheese fondue. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. You're not going to find much in variations of colors. Like that for CSU to for bringing in quite a bit more color than any other conduit. Yeah. A lot of those kids stay. Yeah. You know, and but yeah, that would be an interesting thing to see evolve over time. I'm sure it will. Yeah, and the secrets out. I feel like just based on the amount of development that's happening here. It's just space. Like in California, for instance, you know, they're not building anymore real estate west. Like the ocean cuts that off. Here, you can build in every single direction with perhaps an exception to the west of where we're at because you get that mountain. But still, you can plug a coaster to in there, you know. So it's just different. And then the quality of life, I think, is quite good. The weather, especially this year has been amazing without the winter. I don't speak for everybody on that. Yeah. I know a little more snow if I had my brothers. Yeah. I love the reconnection to seasons because it had been a long time since we had a fall and a proper winter and snow in the holiday season. Yeah. I love that. I feel like that's the way you were at Orange County or we're we're at it in Cali. We were in San Diego County. Okay. Like North of San Diego, but. Yep. About an hour north of San Diego, just right by Camp Pendleton and the borderline to Orange County. Yeah. It actually driven that span. Oh, yeah. It's beautiful. It is. The coastline there is really remarkable. You can take that shit all the ways up and it's just the most pleasant ride. And you know, a lot is changing. And San Diego with any of County, especially, has got like less weather, even than LA or San Francisco or anything. It's just like 67 to 74, pretty much every day. Yeah. It's amazing. I would always say this. It's just amazing how good weather makes you feel on a regular basis. What was especially cool with the California experience was when I was in New York, you know, I grew up just like everyone else. I think for the most part in many ways where I'm a small town New York kid from upstate New York, like three hours away from New York City and all the New York Troy area. And so the idea was to grow up, go to college, get a good job with benefits. And that's the ship that everybody's trance. Preferably for the government, if you can. A million percent. Or at least a union shop. Yeah. A hundred percent. And those are the two ones that people talk about all the time. And it's like such an old way of thinking. However, and no disrespect obviously to anybody who does that. But I landed a job with the post office. And I had friends who came out to California on the fly. One of our buddies was living in New York and decided he wanted to go back to California. So some of my friends moved out there. And I came out to visit them on spring break. And the weather drew you. I was like, what is this? I felt like all the girls were beautiful. The scene. There were just so many things. Because the damner are. Yeah. Like I'm sure there's ugly girls in California, but you don't see them out. No, and it's just a presentation of lifestyle. It's, well, it's, it's funny because it's true. And no, you know, I'm not picking on anybody who, you know, it's nothing like that. It's just a, it's a life experience. You don't want to fill it up for a week. I can imagine. Because when I moved to Fort Collins, I was like, I have so many pretty girls here. Yeah. Anyway, I think it's, it's, you know, it's just a thing. But I was a mailman in, well, I'm sorry, let me rewind. So my friends went out and I came out to visit them from college. And then I was like, holy shit, I gotta live here. So I went back to New York after the vacation. And I basically said, I'm just going to move to California. And I went to California for like six months. And it didn't work out because I was like working a Victoria's Secret as a stockable. Yeah. Another job at a liquor store, right in Carlsbad Village, which was like just, I was 20. You couldn't get a transfer with the post office. Well, I didn't think about that because actually I'm telling the story wrong. I ended up not, it didn't work out the first time. So I went back to New York, then I got the job with post office. Okay. And then it dawned on me that once I had hit a certain level within the post office, I could transfer. Yeah. And I was a clerk at the time. So I was like sorting mail in the in-house. And then... You earned your way up to that kind of? Kind of, yes. If you want that. Like, I'd rather just be a mail carrier personally. Yes. So I could be outside walking around a lot. Yes. But not in New York as much as zero. No. No, I thought about like times I think about like, wouldn't it be cool to do it again? Because it's just so peaceful when you're on the street. But the most amazing thing was I had the mo... I had like a killer route right in Carl's Bad Village, which is just south of Oceanside, and north of Del Mar, and La Hoia, and all of that, and right along the coast, right along the beach. And I would just be out there like every day listening to like a Joe Rogan podcast, or two or three sometimes in a row. Because they're longer podcasts kind of like yours. You know, it's only six Joe Rogan podcasts from Palm Desert to Fort Collins in a car. Is it really? Well, maybe. Yeah. I mean, three hours. Because I actually had that experience because Jill got sick with COVID on the way to Palm Desert one time back in the COVID days. Yeah. And so we didn't fly back because she was all COVID. And so we drove back in a like a rented little Geo Metro, whatever the current model of the Honda. Yeah. Because anyway, I digress. Matt, you're measuring the time. But it was. It was six Joe Rogan. It was six Joe Rogan. It was about 18 hours, 17 hours, you know, to drive back from Palm Desert. I miss that. I miss just being on. I was preparing. Is it interesting lifestyle just walking around? Yeah. Yeah. And I wear shorts and a button short sleeve shirt uniform every single day of the year. Oftentimes I work on Christmas Day because I had no family out there. And I would listen to podcasts, a lot of music when I decided to get my real estate license, which I did after I met my wife. Because when I met my girlfriend at the time, Crystal, she like owned her own business and shit. And I was like, oh, someone that's, that's the thing that people can do. Like they could just create something and people will pay them to do that. Right. And I, in New York, that wasn't really a thing. No. No. Except for if you were like an Indian immigrant and then you have a little retail store or something. 100%. Cool. What do they call those little stores? Oh gosh. They're called Bullegas. Bullegas aren't great. Yeah. I think Bullega is what they call a lot of them because there was like this whole thing where the Bullegas were selling all the weed before it got legalized there and stuff. And then they cracked down and the Bullegas are like, what the fuck, man? Like, that's a big part of our business. Yes. It's sort of like an unspoken thing that happens there. Well, and still they do what is not licensed. Yeah. So New York, actually, there's a big, there's a big thing about New York. They're actually only collecting like 25% of the weed taxes they should because almost all of their distribution is not licensed. Interesting. Yeah. Yeah. And it's just corruption, right? It has to be because it's greased in the right hands or something, somehow where they are not getting shut down because in Colorado, if you're up or you go, unlicensed weed store, they would come down to you like a pile of shit and they want that money. Yeah. You know, it's just a matter of figuring it out and where you're doing it. I'm sort of Colorado leading that, that sort of direction by that, but at the time that was happening, I was already living in California. I forgot to offer. I've got a day of homegrown there if you want that. Oh. I don't smoke, but thank you. I love that. Yeah. It's here always available. A lot of times it goes six or 10 weeks between people taking me up on the offer. I'll always drink your beer, but I never smoke your pot. Never. Well, you know, I did when I was 17 years old, I smoked, and we bought at Blunt some bodies of ours, and it was a roach blunt, and I had never smoked one of those before. I don't know what a roach blunt means. Imagine a roach. Oh, a blunt rolled out of roaches. Yeah. Yes. Okay. So for listeners out there, aren't we savvy? Because I've been a low grade pot smoker for 30 plus years now, about 30 years. Roaches is like the end of the joint. So a joint is just one of these, you know, just like this, and then you smoke it. And then the end, it runs out of juice, but the end part is actually where all of like a half of the potency of the whole joint gathers as like this almost like an oily thing. Yeah, forget what it's called. And so if you, yeah, take that material and roll it into the blunt. A blunt. So a blunt is a, is a Philly blunt. It's a cigar and a lot of cultures, especially the black communities, but also weed smokers in general. Yeah. We'll empty the tobacco out of the blunt, but keep that big, the tobacco leaf wrapper. And that wrapper becomes then like, you know, it's basically the biggest two of my fingers. But full of roaches. Look at us teaching the kids. Yeah. Just so you know, you want to get high? Yes. So there's four of you that went off the rails or three of you? Oh, it was me. Not only that, but it scared you off forever. Well, I think I had PCP in it too. I didn't know it's time. Oh, dude, I was wondering if I would share that like I grew that in my backyard. And I trust the weed. I don't trust the experience. Dude, I fucking thought I died and came back to life. I mean, I can get into a place within this story, which many of my closest friends know. But it fucking, it fucked me up. And I've been somewhat scared. I've smoked a couple of times. Recovery from that the whole time. It was part of your why you didn't ask your wife to marry you for 10 years. Yeah, well, yeah, I'm like, don't, it's like. They've all known what this one time had. Yeah, that rose blood. Yeah. And I get shit all the time. Yeah, I get shit all the time. I don't judge on it. I'm not trying to push you out of here. Yeah, no, no. And I've actually thought because I was a smoker. I smoked cigarettes for many years. My mom died of COPD. I fucking, that when we walked into the hospital to grab her stuff the next day. Fortunately, I was, I was able to be in New York for that. I had a pack of marble lights. I just bought it probably the night before because at the time, obviously, I was, you know, I'm just smoking time with the stress. I fucking just threw that shit in the trash. I never smoked a cigarette ever again. But I missed the act of it. And I also loved getting high. Yeah, well, you can grow up to six plants in your backyard. I only grow one because it produces plenty for me. Yeah. But then you don't have to worry about PCP. Yeah. Roach oil. Anyway. And, you know, there's just so much science to it that I wasn't paying attention to when I was 17 years old. I want to, if I were to ever smoke again, I just want to be chill and just take the edge off. I don't want the paranoid stuff. And fortunately, perhaps that happened because I was talking to you before about my experience in living in California. We lived essentially in a cul-de-sac called McKinnon Court. I just sort of planted myself in a spot where it was these four houses, four bedroom houses. So when I moved there, instantly became friends with like 15 guys, all my same age. So I got lucky to live. Bro town. Bro town, big time. I got lucky to live there because I instantly was plugged into what now is family. But an experience in which I didn't have to work to make the friends. They were just already there for me. And then after the years, you sort of become friends with their friends. And we had this little community. But the things that would happen in that cul-de-sac, I wonder if the experience of, you know, not being able to handle my pot, like avoiding me from like doing crack and like. Right. Going off the rails. Yeah. Yeah, cocaine. Like it's snowing in California, if you know what I mean. For sure. So you never did any of that. No, no. I like beer. I love bloody marries and I love beer. Not liquor, even speaking. No, I like alcohol just in general. Margarita, like at all. Yeah. Plus wine, whatever. Red wine, white wine. I'm hesitant to take pills if I break a leg or something. So, um, and I, you know, I've, I've gotten shit from that when I was younger. Nobody gives me shit anymore, obviously, but because it's just a different thing. Well, no, I don't hate. I also don't hate on it too. Yeah. Right. Like it was. Man, it's fascinating how. Like with the whole opioid epidemic and things like that going on. And. You know, I've been just kind of like when I started smoking weed. I was 20 or something 19 in college or whatever. And in my hometown of central North Dakota, it was verboten. Hmm. Very much so. Like I was a bad kid because I was a 19 year old kid in college that smoked weed. And everybody damn well knew it. Yeah. Like when I come over, we go, that's Kurt Bear. He's home from college and he's supposed weed now. Curse high again. Yeah. Like I smoked weed four times that first year or six. That's small tension. Man. They just, they're going to come out at your house or torches and pitchforks. And then I just kind of stuck there. I was like, you know, I'm a, you know, I was part of a group of guys. Also a community, but we were chosen more than just the cul-de-sac. But like, I guess it was kind of the cul-de-sac because it was, it was literally the president and the secretary of the, the fraternity across the street from my apartment. Oh, sweet. And then like four other guys that would get together and hang out and listen to Bob Dylan. And smoke weed from a bong because it was healthier. You know, get that water bubble going instead. And it's fun. And it's fun. Yeah. The interesting to have different bongs or stuff, whatever. And we were all like the high, we were mostly all Dean's list. Most semesters, you know, we was the president and the secretary of the fraternity. One now, you know, they're high-fluent lawyers and successful people. And like some people that I haven't shared this story on the podcast before. There was a guy in my, I guess, sophomore year of college when I, I got a DUI, my midway through my sophomore year of college. And after that, I was like, to my roommates. I'm not drinking so much anymore. It's too dangerous. But I wouldn't got a dugout. And I found somebody to sell me some weed and I'm going to smoke weed instead. And I'm going to use like going to class and being successful as my measure. If I'm not going to class, if I'm not getting good grades, then I'm going to stop that too. But I know I'm going to stop drinking because, or drinking so much because I was drinking too much. And in that time frame, there was, there was a guy that was like the little brother of one of my larger friend group, my roommates, friends. And he smoked some weed with me and stuff. And then he got into Coke and then meth and then some shit. And then a girlfriend broke up with him and then he committed suicide. Yeah. And it was, it sucked. You know, and his older brother kind of blamed me for getting his little brother into the weed, which led to that. And I guess it was a gateway, right? Like, I don't know, but I didn't, I never did Coke with him. I never did meth and then I never, like he found new friends, he got a job at a bar. And then he was surprised when his girlfriend broke up with him. I was like, well, dude, you're, guess what? Not good at it. Life is a gateway. Yeah. Yeah. But it was, it was frankly, emotionally it was one of the hardest periods of my life because I had like, there was a few people that were like, curts the bad guy for introducing weed to this, this, this tribe. Yeah. Of sorts. Oh, that's too bad. It was, I don't know. I'm sorry, here's what it is. You know, I'm sorry to that family. Like I would have never passed him that joint if I knew he was going to like take up meth three months later. Yeah, he just months later or something was fast. I had a similar situation. It's one thing if you're partying amongst friends and they make their own choices. It's another thing to blame someone else for the acts of an individual who is basically an adult. I had a friend, an amazing guy. We called him Big Al. He was always the life of the party. He was a California guy. He was actually a Modesto area. But he was like just the most amazing dude. He loved to party. And when partying with him, you just felt good. And we saw a decline within the things that he was doing when he partied. Like I was saying before about it snowing in California. Yeah. That's cocaine. That's not icicles falling from the sky. Yeah, yeah. But it started with that. And then it got to be meth. And then there was like a sort of a disappearing act of it. And me and Crystal were in New York City. And we were at a play. And we were still living in California at the time. But it was Alan. And he called. And he told us some of the shit that he was dealing with at the time, which we had no idea of the darkness that he was in. And he's like, I'm going to bounce back from this. And he fucking did. And he took up. He was a big dude. He was like probably 375 pounds. 63. Might have been taller than that. He might have been more than that. But he was just a big guy. Big motherfucker. Big motherfucker in spirit and in personality and the kind of guy that you just do. Yeah, do the best guy. He fucking bounces back. And takes up hiking. Finds this amazing woman is about to be a dad. He would go and hike the Sierra's. And he decided to hike the Sierra's in November. And he fell. And he died. And even on the bounce back of things, you know, it's like I was saying. Life still gets you. You just never know. Well, if you say life is a gateway drug or a gateway to the next chapter. Yeah, you know, it's stressful when your friend dies. Maybe you've never smoked pot before. And you're amongst friends who you love, who you share and celebrate that one guy with. And he liked to smoke pot. So in order to sort of serve the memory, you smoke a blunt or whatever. And then if you become, you know, a junkie later, was it ever your fault that he decided to do under those sort of circumstances? It's like the craziest thing. And it's fucked up. I feel like that anyone would put blame on. Well, that's why. So I'm sorry that. That's why I mean part of my personhood, I suppose. In a manner of speaking is, you know, God is there and real and good. Because if that's not true, then we're all just kind of a product of the things that have happened to us. And the, you know, we're just walking meatbags. Yeah. Like, and, you know, I want to both preserve. And acknowledge the notion that the things that happen to you and, you know, people that have a lot of trauma in their childhood or things like that. Like there's reasons they have to work through some stuff. And like we still all have free will. You know, and you have to make decisions that are right for you. Yeah. You just never know from one day to the next. And you just got to do the best you can with what you got. I have this thing that I say all the time. And since I've got, you know, your audience, it's like I asked people. Have you ever heard the greatest story ever told? I've watched the movie. Yes. But have you ever heard the story? No. I don't think so. Well, it's the one you tell yourself. You know what I'm saying? Because there's only one story ever really matters in anything. For sure. And it's the way in which you perceive and act upon the way you think about life and yourself. And yourself. No matter what happens outside of it. Actually, that's a plug. We've got a local workshop coming up. A healthy relationships workshop with Becky from IOMEE. Okay. Which is a local counseling firm. But she's going to dip into also like your relationship with yourself. A bit in that workshop. Because I was just having conversations with a friend today. And I was commenting how my neighbor gave me some mushrooms. He found more mushrooms than he needed in his freezer. And he was like, you know, I feel like I should have these. Hey, good for you. And so we were talking. And he was like never, never done it. I never had him in my whole life, you know. And his comment was, you know, I've heard that taking mushrooms kind of opens up kind of the things. And your tracks kind of aren't the same as they were, which can be really good. But I know of me that like nobody talks bad about me more than me. Yeah. And I'm concerned that I could like multiply. Yeah. You know, I'll open that door to that darkness. Exactly. Yeah. The darkness is the thing. Let's just keep that door closed. Yeah. My wife's like, you got issues. And I'm like, yeah, I probably do. I feel really confident about them. And they will work themselves out in time. As long as I repress them. Yeah, just push it down. Push it down. I don't know. Like that's one of the, like I've. I'm not saying that this one because I've done mushrooms like 20 times. That's a handful of times and smoked so much. She would be embarrassed to know. More proud. And no, not proud. But and like, I believe that I've got a relatively healthy perspective of myself and view upon others and things like that. And that's maybe why I. I don't know. But why would I explore with those? I think it's mostly my adventures. Yes. This is my curiosity. Yeah. Like I find a little bit of joy in the adventure of being a little bit loopy on mushrooms and walk around the forest. Well, you have the, you have. And I don't have fear. That's the thing. I don't have fear of me turning into some kind of a psychopath that's going to start like. Grabbing kids at the elementary school. Or weird shit. Or whatever. Lots of rails with other chemicals. Yeah, that's the line. You know, you, you don't have the fear. And so to a byproduct of your efforts of how many mushrooms you do or if you're doing acid. Like fear isn't living in the background. With me, it is. Even with pot. Yeah. Yeah. You're scared of that joint a little bit. Well, well, yeah, kind of it. And I know that's weird. I know that for a lot of people that's lame. And people make, may say that is lame. Nobody would just talk to us. We can keep that. So the idea is, yeah, we can keep that. But these people too have probably freaked themselves out. But like, I thought, like, I mean, going back to that PCP joint. Yeah, man. I was in a whole nother, a whole nother spot. You wouldn't give me like a window to the world. Like where you fucked up for 10 hours and like robbed a gas station while you were there. I was in the streets of a small town in upstate New York called Valley Falls. And I thought I died and I, that I wasn't having. Now imagine this. I don't know what day of the week it was. But it was the kind of day where people were outside. Yeah. It was a warm day for a chick. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so I felt a huge sense of overjoy. I passed out first. And I thought like my body was floating above myself. Yeah. And that I had seen myself on the ground. It gets very deep. For the most basic part of it. Like I, after I got, I guess. You're physically you were actually up and around. No, I was on the ground. But I was, I could feel my body standing above myself. And it probably was just for a few moments. And then my friends sort of, you know, came and got me to collect my thoughts. I think I may have just passed out in fear. Or sometimes I'm like, fuck, man, maybe I died that day. I don't know. But the interesting part. There's kind of a good funny. But like I'm just walking, trying to collect my thoughts of the moment of what just happened. Because I never even passed out before I ever in my whole life. But we're walking and I turn this bend. And there's a church there, a beautiful stone church. And I think it just triggered the thought of like, I'm in heaven. And I freaked out in the street. And like was so excited. And my pants came down. And I'm like, going through the street. And I'm like, how old are you? I'm 17 years old. Good. Yeah. I was off the rails. And then I'm like talking to people. I don't know what my pants are. With my pants down. My box was on. But like, I'm not sure I was wearing pants when I decided to talk to this old couple. It was a more than a couple. It was like these old people like talking with each other on their porch. I'm telling them I just died. And that I'm in heaven. And I'm like, thinking that they are in heaven. You're in heaven too. Yes. Yes. I'm like, I'm thinking about it now. Like, why didn't my friends say, dude, really in? Yeah, we're not in heaven. Like they were liking that shit. And they're like, I remember them. There was even cell phones to get me out of the time. No, no. God, thank God. Because there's some of the shit that's, you know, I've done. I'm so grateful for the fact that they could not have been recorded. Because there's a number of times I would have been that guy. A number of those. Are you worried about potential future Tim, the Chamber of Commerce members, canceling you because of this blunt joint story? You know, I wonder. I wonder about those kinds of things, but. They probably cancel me over my story, just now. I thought about stuff like that. Honestly, I, just like anybody else, I want to draw on people who are like myself. If it's not a fit, there are other choices within Chambers. Obviously that you can get that fixed. You can get that level. Anybody is going to talk candidly about their life. For it to be restricted for, you know, a job kind of. I'm not sure it's worth it. I don't get paid. One of the real job it would be, but. Yeah. But who wants one of those? You know, what I want right now. Yeah. Is to take a break because I have to pee. Yeah, let's do it. And we'll come back together. We'll come back to that question about like, how did you launch this? Yeah, right on. We went on a whole other spot. It was very fun. You are a little bit cally because I'm like North Dakota. Although I'm one of my sweater vests today, but a lot of times when it gets up to 45, I'm like in a polo. Got to take advantage of it. Yeah. Given the opportunity of choice, I would wear shorts and flip-flops every day. But can't pull that off. I think bring that another inch closer. There you go. Good. Something like that. I'm not going to bring mine in half an inch closer to. Are we recording already? Yeah. Okay. And we're back. Yes. That was fun. We didn't actually pee together. We peed separately. No, we peed separately. But both enjoyed it. Yes, I did. Yes, thank you. You know, oh, I was going to mention to you that you're hold now. I am 47. Oh, so you're not very much younger than me. No. I'm 51. And I thought you were closer to like 42 or something. What I was going to warn you is that the bladder gets weaker and weaker through the 40s. I'm hoping it stops now because. And I drink a lot of water. And so I pee like 15 times a day. Wow. I don't drink any water. And I need to definitely do that. Dude, it's so good. Yeah. You got to get in a habit, which is hard. Yeah, do you have a water dispenser or carry a water bottle around? I brought a water bottle in here. I did. That was just by default. I don't know how that happened exactly. If I were like dehydrated, I'd drink a little bit of water. Yeah. For me anyway, since I started drinking water like my bank, when I worked in banking still, like bought a water dispenser and it was right outside my office and I started like drinking more water. Yeah. And it's my health, the number of colds I get, the number of illnesses. And it's annoying as heck to pee all the time. You know, and I'll be on a road trip. I'm like, I used to be like, go 100 miles. Easy. You know, I'm like 75 sometimes. You know, but I just... You're like one Joe Rogan podcast instead of, you know, three. Right. Yeah. One Joe Rogan podcast is two pee stops, for sure. Everything is measured by a Joe Rogan podcast. So you get like, I wasn't going to go back to that question. This is the third time. I'm not going to ask it. Oh, sure. Yeah. Yeah. So you're you're you're you're you fell in love with downtown Tim. I think it's potential in particular. You love local business. You want to be a part of something that would be a legacy. You'd learn that a regular person can just start a chamber. Yeah. If you want to. Yeah. And then like, where do you where do you start? Like you just start by going to Costco and they're like, yes. But then it took you a year to get a no. No. Well, like what was those first few activities where you were like, and you register it? I did. Yeah. We're going to be at the time of the Chamber of Commerce and hey, everybody, let's go have coffee. I bought I bought the URL. I bought all of the things registered the business as a 501c3, which was the first mistake. Because a chamber runs as a 501c6. Right. I didn't know the difference at the time. And then you know, you get into having to fix that. And so there was some adjustment there. But I had talked to the general public as a whole, like. It's condoms with surveying. Yeah. Generally whatever. I went to the BBB. I went to the SBDC. I met Michelle Vance. Sure. Yeah. I spoke with her. Another person. Windsor Chamber President and other. She does some other stuff. Yeah. Economic development now, right? Yeah. And she was in Wellington before that. That I'm not sure. She is a pretty cool cat. She is a very cool cat. In fact, when I was introduced to her through Melissa Kellogg-Luke. Oh. You know her too? Sure. Yeah. She was nice enough to make that introduction in the very early days of the chamber. Which might have been actually 20. Well, it would have been the very early part of 2024, I think, maybe the back end of 2023. But if you ever seen that movie, the social network where Justin Timberlake comes in, and he drops his two cents and leaves, that's kind of how I felt like with Michelle Vance. Okay. She had so much amazing feedback to structuring it. And she's just chill as could be. Right. I was really blown away by her willingness to shed light on what that looked like. She's like, just do it. Yeah. Yeah. She's like, I'll give you all of the things. And everybody that I had spoken to, you know, some of the town itself I had spoken to were all on board. And so what I decided to do is hold what was going to be six monthly meetings at the town center open to the whole general public. I created a Facebook event page. I had some automation within my social profiles because I got all the chamber social profiles and started launching it. And one of the things too that I probably had I still struggle with a little bit is actually just putting myself out there and talking. So I experiment with tons of technology and I had like robot people like pitching with the chamber was. And so on the very first meeting, we probably had like 30 people there. And I had a presentation and never done anything like it at the time. And they're like, yeah, we thought we're going to come here to some like weird shady pyramid scheme kind of like the feedback that I got was quite good. But many of them showed up to the next one and the third one and by the third one, people joined the chamber. This was before we even knew what it was. I just wanted to outline a proposal of what it might look like and get the feedback so that people could be heard and be implemented in it. And so, you know, I tried to early establish a board. So I talked to a number of businesses in Timnith, some of the folks at the SBBC, the BBB. And I didn't I had the visual of what it would be to be on the board. And I just wasn't calm. It didn't seem as though I was getting people on board to the level in which I was ready to go, which I totally got because these people have jobs. Yeah, these people like got shit to do. I've been on a nonprofit board a couple of different times and you know, it's a tour to get more people on that board. Yes, it's a ton. I totally get it. Plus it was very early. So I could look at it and be like, there's a really good chance some of these people may have thought that we will not be around in six months. And so I then later found it more interesting to perhaps not have a board because I can pivot very easily. I have launched things with the Timnith Chamber that I thought were amazing. Couldn't necessarily get off the ground and then I just cut it. And at six o'clock on a Sunday night. If you had a board, you had to take three months to launch it. Yes. And then two months to shut it down when it didn't work. 100%. So the ability to act quickly has been a bonus. I see now the members of our chamber, which you know, we've been around for about a year and a half or so. We have like 55 members. And I feel like that's really good considering, you know, at the time, the town itself only had 125 plus businesses or whatever. It was very well received. The vulnerability part, like were you talking about before? I had a lot of self-doubt. I had a lot of like, who am I worried about the judgment? I still get a little bit. This Cali guy coming in Timnith. The Cali guy, nobody knows coming out of the word work has only lived in Timnith for like whatever. And so I had some real concerns about that. But in time, and with every day, I feel more confident about what we got going on. And so like the back end of last year. I analyze the offerings of our chamber and dialed in a value proposition that I feel really good about. And so to have the conversation is much easier now. You know what you're selling a little bit. I know what I'm selling. Hey, where the Timnith chamber? We're going to do some stuff. Here's the price. It was kind of like that. But every single person, every single person was super supportive, willing to give me the time to chat. They still are. I like, I watch some of our members do stuff like our nonprofits, host an event or a 5K for instance. And obviously I go and I look at what they do and I'm just like, so proud. And it's so weird because these are adults. But I'm just so proud of them. And for having them in the chamber and the organization. You know, I'm, I'm there with you on that. Like I went to the Windsor Chamber event recently and met a number of folks. But one of them was like a couple that has a painting company. You know, and it wasn't a big painting company. And the, as I chatted with them, the wife was clearly the business operator. And the husband was the specialist that knew how to paint and had been in painting for a long time. Yeah. But she had the Gusto Chutzpah, whatever you want to call it, to turn it into a business. And they've got six other painters working for them now or something like that. And what do they think? You know, and it's for most of us, you know, even young Ava out here. You know, I got to make sure I got enough money to pay her every month when it's pay roll time. And to be able to provide for families and through the value provide to a community and whatever fashion that is. I think that's just, they're my favorite people as business owners for sure. Yeah, it's a different kind of breed. And in all, in life, as in small business, it's peaks and valleys. And even with the chamber, for instance, I'm pretty sure I'm the only person losing sleep over the chamber. You know, I don't think anyone is like obsessed with it, but I kind of want them to be. They hold me accountable. If I say stuff, I need to do it. And what I learned very early was stop saying stuff. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, just do it and see how it goes. I don't think anything requires major announcements and stuff. We just launched a platform called Click Local, which is basically an online business listing syndication service. So instead of just posting your business to Google, we take your business information. We put it on like 55 plus sites or whatever. Oh, wow. We branded it. You do it or you have a software zappier kind of. Something like that that can do a lot of it. 100%. So my wife, she, she had a business called Crystal Media, which nobody knows what that is. But then turned it into rooted in retail so that you could assume that she helps people in retail. Sure. And then found that the idea of having launched the chamber, I thought, is there an independent retailers association, which they're strangely was not. So she changed again sort of the rooted in retail is now the podcast, but the business Crystal Media from the roots of what it is became the independent retailers association, which now everybody knows what that exactly what that is similar to a chamber of commerce. She had a product which. I'm not sure if I can even say the name, but she had the same product essentially. I contacted the provider of the service in which did that and bought rights to wait labeled it for. Yeah, because I'm not a technologist. So someone else can do it and we can make it a product of our own kind of like what I would said when building a chamber in which you get the value the second you sign up. People will pay our membership fee probably just for that service. Yeah, if you can get on a bunch of different posting boards, listen, you know, you could hire credibility with SEO search and or you know these days it's AI search, right? That's an amazing point. And to that point, one of the difficulties could I mention the last probably even being a member of a local chamber of commerce is actually a credibility builder with those AIs. Big time because they're scraping it out there like, oh, this plumbing company is not just a plumbing company. It's got some reviews on Google and stuff, but it's and it's also a member of the chamber of commerce. I think that goes a long way and the AI search is the most interesting part because when we were selling that product for a root in retail or the association or whatever, people are like. We don't care about anything else, but Google because that's the only place people look right and that's a hard objection to handle. And it was true. At the time, two years ago, it was true. Yes, but now think of the input into a Gemini or Chachi PT. If your business now is seen in 55 plus sites instead of just that Google, the chance of being output mentioning your business rise significantly. That's one part. The other part is the way in which the platform is handled is the information is uniform throughout. So there's no variations of information or disconnected stuff. So if you go to Timothy.com and click, click local, you can run a scan on your business and see what it looks like. I've actually asked Ben to do kind of an audit of local think tanks, social channels and other places. Because I'm pretty sure I built my Google page back in 2018 and haven't really updated it substantially since my LinkedIn page for local think tank is probably a little more current. Facebook is more dated even maybe than the Google page. And I'm like, we should probably be saying the same things and all these different platforms about what local think tank is. Yeah, if you confuse, you lose. So simplifying your message. Yeah, it's all aligned. We're the same organization. We've been, but just use different words in a way of describing us. And that's probably not a positive thing. Yeah, it could lead someone astray or there's some variation of a different business with a similar name in which their phone number is showing up under your profiles. There's a lot of that kind of stuff that happens. There's no other local think tanks. There's only one and I've been able to discover. Real estate agents, for instance, if they're working under a cold well banker like myself, there could be variations within names and contact information and website stuff that like take someone off the rails on what they're actually looking for actually get you where you want to be. Yeah, I think what the recent statistic as far as search online is like the 80 20 flop. Now we've got 80% of people making their searches on AI. Really? That's, I'm not sure that's concrete, but I think it's something. Well, even if you just search Google, it gives you the AI summary first, which is powered by Gemini anyway, I'm sure. Yeah, direct point information without the looking through it. Yeah, I'm going to just ask my question. Yeah, let's just get to the point. You know, the clock is ticking. Right. You just want to cut to the chase and, you know, the AI world, you know, even with the chamber, for instance, we take advantage of a ton of AI stuff. Because in many ways, I wouldn't say I'm a one man team. I have an amazing assistant. Her name is Paige after after the trying to establish the board and not necessarily working out. It just became clear that leaders of the Timnith Chamber will be self identifying. We'll know the people that, yeah, they'll rise up and that's happened. And it's such a relief to see that come to fruition in some level. You want to get some kudos to Paige? Yeah, Paige didn't kind, yeah. So she was the backbone to the chamber side, the Timnith Chamber side of an event that we did in September at Pedro's coffee shop. Shout out to Pedro's. I've actually got a coffee meeting there on Friday. Do you? We've been at first time. Oh, sweet, right on that. Cool. That's where we had a Zoom call when we had first met. Oh, you're right, Paige. I was sitting on the Makadio. Yeah, I love that. It's like, I live in Wild Wing. So it's like right across the street from my house. Yeah, yeah. And so I just love that. But we did it like a huge event. And I told her at the time that I don't have the capacity to handle a lot of what it's going to take to do this. We did it in conjunction with the Severance Chamber. And we had a couple of girls over there. We were amazing. But me personally did not have the bandwidth to really play that out. And she did not give a shit. She like did everything as it represented the Timnith Chamber because we were traveling a ton. I was working with my wife and um well, and you don't strike me as a super detail oriented person. No, I'm a little space cadet a little bit. Yeah, me too. Yeah, a lot of us. Yeah, I like the madness. Um, um, I, I restrain it by. And it's really my self hard for people that are organized like that. To be like, oh, we got 55 members. Well, we're just going to make sure we either email off to every 55 person. Listen to this. And the event gets listed here. Yeah. Like it's not that hard for them. For me, like doing five of those things a month and be like, oh, just shoot me. Yeah. The newsletter. I tell my, I tell my members. And then just everybody in general, we constant contact actually, by the way, shout out to them. They provide constant contact their services to chambers of commerce for free. So I, um, the platform is great, but I dread the newsletter. But it's my blood sweat and tears, a summary in which all of the things. Yeah. It's like all of the things as it relates to the chain because I want to be respectful with someone's inbox. Um, and be, be cautious of annoying people. One big long one. One huge. Gosh, you should see the one I sent out just in December. It was the longest one of all time. People I thought, but it was too long. Didn't read. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, probably. So I have, I've revisited how I'll do that. And in fact, the January one, I've got to get out soon. But, um, I, I dreaded that. And it's just one of the things that need to be done. Um, I love doing the events, obviously. I love the creative thought of, you know, what this chamber could be is becoming. What's ahead for the year ahead? Well, you have specific goals. You want to get that 55 number to 75 or two? Um, I would love to, um, yeah, I think 75 is great. Honestly, I don't have much in the way of written goals on it. Um, much of what I love about it is it has been a draw organically over having to make the pitch. Um, the idea of creating products and services within the chamber that are a draw. In a place in which they feel safe to make that investment. If I could just do that really, really good, people will come. Yeah. Um, I don't, I'm not motivated by income generated by the chamber. I don't get paid by the chamber. Um, any shortages. I don't know. I don't know. I still never have not a dollar. Have I? I've invested. So you're living off your wife's income pretty much. Well, now, yeah. Well, I sold a really nice house and, and Timnith on the reservoir. Like, I sold a couple of houses at last, this last year. Yeah. So I'm like living off that. Um, right. But, I mean, but you're not, your goal isn't to like have a chamber that feeds your pocketbook that much. It's mostly to have a legacy in a community. It sounds like that's most important. I feel it needs to pay you for your time. I don't let it. Hmm. Don't let it fester. Like, I can understand diverting some of that revenue to early employees. Let's see the vision and things like that. But you won't work as hard on it after a few years of not getting paid at all. Yep. I don't want you to grow to resent it. Yes. Yes. And you'll never be able to find somebody to replace you. Like, if you got hit by a bus and you're not paying yourself nothing, then the chamber is dead. Yes. If you're paying yourself five grand a month. Yep. Maybe you could find somebody or the your successors or whatever it could find somebody to take the gig. That's an amazing point. And that is sort of the way in which I need to train the thought of getting paid. I had a conversation with a member this morning. And, um, one of the things about not getting paid for the chamber up until just really recently. Also, I got an amazing bookkeeper now who joined in trade. And she is just a total stud. You'll see her. She's the only bookkeeper. LGH Financial is. Shout out to LGH Financial. Yeah. She's a stud. I've never had someone to do the books. I had quick books on doing the stuff. But, um, I had a general estimation of my personal investment within the chamber. But didn't really know exactly. So, if there's a shortage, I got to pay that shit. Um, and we've hit that a couple of times. And I have no shame in any of that. But one of the things that I, I've said in the past is if I don't get paid, the judgment I receive for what I've created doesn't matter as much. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? So it'd be one thing if I'm getting paid and it sucks. But if it sucks and I'm not getting paid, like I feel good about it. Well, that's another reason to pay yourself. Well, yes. Even if it's $1,000 a month, then you've got that obligation to make it great. Yeah. You got to build something in which, you know, people will be interested. And that's a little make it grow anyway. Yeah. You know, uh, Ann, but especially the foot soldiers, Suzanne Miller and others. And in, in, in Loveland, Indiana and whatever it like, they're the people that really make it enjoyable to be a chamber member. Yeah. Yep. Um, the, the facilitating of the conversation, I think is really important. And, um, we've gotten good at doing that. Even at its lowest level, the capacity in which I have to do events in the way in which a Windsor or for Collins would do just doesn't exist necessarily as a one man team. As of right now, our members, um, if they don't like it, they're not telling me and I would assume based on my relationship with the majority of them that they would. And I would hope that they do. We have members who I've never met, who I've never spoken with. I can't, yeah, I can't get them on the phone. They don't respond to my email. I write them letters. There's a number of them. Yeah, believe it or not. Yeah. Um, and it's like, I just want to talk to these people. So if you're any one of those people, give me a shout because I just really curious to the why. And I want to be certain that the value is being received. I measure the level of success of the chamber based on its renewals. So right now, we're five for five. That means the first five people that ever signed up for the chamber have renewed their membership. That's a huge success, especially for the people that were there when it was nothing. Um, and, you know, the back end of, or the mid part of last year, I sort of realized that there's got to be a point in which we have our founding members. I refer to myself and always have from the very beginning as a co-founder because there is no chamber without its members. Or even the people who never joined, but are always there to support the vision of it. And that has been pretty much everybody. It's, it's one thing to say, um, a founder or co-founder. I just pulled the trigger and then had the world supported. People said yes. Yes. So they are as equally responsible for the fact that there's a chamber in Timnith than myself. I just facilitated the way in which it is done. You know what I'm saying? Yes, but you sell yourself short. Well, it's a ton of work. I mean, it's just the same as me saying there wouldn't be a local think tank without those first, you know, seven members that signed up 12 years ago next month. Yeah. And that's true. But there's definitely wouldn't be if I wasn't around hustling. You know, like you wouldn't, you were out hustling. Yeah. And, you know, just to take. There's always got to be a founder, you know, a creator. Yeah. So I do appreciate the sentiment because you're right. I've done a lot of consulting with the Small Business Development Center. And sometimes people are. Yeah, I didn't know that I'm like a year ago. I was there for 15, 16 years. Yeah. I think I had mentioned this when we first chatted, but your name had come up a number of times. Not just through the SBDC, but maybe what's the BBB? There was at least two or three people who are like you need to talk Kurt. You need to talk Kurt. So yeah, in those conversations, a lot of times people have these ideas, right? And they're like, they're almost scared to tell me as a consultant with the SBDC. And I'm like, you know, ideas are great. They're important, but all the perspiration that takes to take an idea from an idea to something is what anybody that wants to steal your idea doesn't have. Yeah. And there wasn't like, there wasn't going to be somebody else out there creating the Timeless Chamber. Maybe three years from now or something. Who knows? Like, I don't know. But, you know, without the shoe leather that you spent and the Facebook ads, the events that you organized and all that, it wouldn't, it wouldn't be. Yeah. So yeah. And there was be okay with that. You know, and have some pride. Well, thank you. I appreciate that. I'm proud of what it is. I'm excited for its future. Having moved here from having being from New York and having lived in California for the second half of my life. This is sort of like the third section of my life. Yeah, not sure. Like 20 years in New York, 20 years in Cali. Yeah, pretty much. And even split. You know, coming here, Colorado is great. I love the idea of a reconnection to family, which we didn't have much of that in California. So to be back and to celebrate Christmas and Thanksgiving with Crystal's family is a lot of charm. But also what's happened there is I've always had the feeling and I've shared this with my people is I live often. I don't live. I've often sometimes I guess have the feeling that I live vicariously through the life in which my wife created here 15 years ago. So the chamber has been my way in which to create my own life. And the fact that I like sort of get like in some cases I've gotten teary eyed watching the success of our members, particularly the nonprofits. We have joy and justice, which is a nonprofit that looks out for really battered women and violent households. And she has an amazing story and she's like doing the shit and doing it at a really high level. And like I just like I get emotional to seem and thinking about it. And then it's you know. That's what our facilitators get at loco at a lot of times. You know, those the folks that lead our business chapters, they've been there. They've been successful. Don't need a job. But for them to be able to see other people find you know mile markers of success along their journey and to be right there in the room when some of those decisions won the way we made. It's a little bit the same for you. I'm sure. Yeah. And for me, you know, I know some of those stories. I'm not in the meetings all the time, but I love it when I see it plan come together. Yeah. It's it's just so relatable and this is their life. It's like they didn't have to do this. They didn't have to they could have just worked at a Costco or a Walmart. Not that there's anything wrong with it. But it's also working under the clock of someone else. I love real estate because the ability to both be working and not working at the same time is an amazing thing. I close deals on vacations in Hawaii or we're at a casino in California. And I've got to write up a contract on pull up the laptop right in the middle of the hallway there and dial it in. I love answering the phones and being accessible to the people at any given time when the trade off is that I can be anywhere I want at the time in which I am answering that phone. Yeah, especially in today's world, you know, where a phone call or a zoom or an email can get just whatever document everywhere. Yeah. It's an amazing time to be alive. It's an amazing time to launch a business, you know, the ability now, particularly with AI. The trajectory of life as a whole is headed in a direction in which it is more about asking the right question than knowing the answer. Curiosity is brilliance in today's world because the ability to take that and mix it up with some other shit for an output that is otherwise never ever heard of. But possible possible based on technology, I got into this thing recently of just like building apps. I don't know anything about code, but my mind works in a way of putting ideas together to create. I don't know what I'm going to do with any of these apps. I deal in sports cards and memorabilia is a hobby and I've got that for some time. I created an app that basically you can put in your card information and it will tell you an estimation of what it's worth. What you might want to do with it, whether you want to keep it or send it to grading. Does the AI go out to the marketplace somehow and figure out what those similar things are selling for? Yes, so it's an internet data scrape. I'm sure. So if you go to collecting all that app, you can check it out. It's like a freemium version, but I'm just more interested in the creation than the outcome of cash. Yeah, yeah. The facilitating of the conversation. I was saying earlier, we got a Facebook group in that world that has like 11, 10 or 11,000 members. It's just fun. It doesn't feel like work. I created, I created an app an hour before this meeting for a restoration company. There are issues in that world related to leads coming in from whether you are in the insurance part of it or in the adjustment part of it. Okay. So how I understand it, and I don't know anything necessarily about restoration. I know a restoration as it relates to real estate, but the back workings of insurance and all that. Right, right. I just know of a problem. And I'm like, I want to explore a solution to that problem. So I built it like it's done right now. I did it in like an hour. I'm like, I wanted to take a nap before I came here, but then I'm like playing on my phone. And once I get started, I don't stop. And so the ADHD brain a little bit a little bit. Yeah. But it's the ability to create in a way in which wasn't available to me a year ago, even just based on the technology of life. So asking the right questions and not only asking, but taking action on it. Yeah. Without any real concern of the outcome, you know, like I'm indifferent to whatever comes of these. Right. If someone's like, holy shit, this is really cool. And I want to give you tens of thousands of dollars for it. Right. Like that would be cool. But you might have to grow it a little more. I have to do it. I mean, you're there when you're not. Yeah. Like the yesterday's AI panel that the BBB did in conjunction with the SBDC. That's a lot of letters there. But they did a pitch session. And I'm looking at the things in which we're being pitched. Eight ideas. All good. The technology is based AI specific and it's one thing to create it. It is another thing to get people invested in it. Totally. And that's what I suffer with because a big part of it is I, unlike the people that presented at that yesterday, put themselves out there where I'm more reserved and shy. Yeah. Like with you, for instance, we've never actually met in person, but through a couple conversations and chat, like I feel comfortable enough, I know you. So it would be more connected. Yeah. But I'm never going to knock on your door and try to tell you why to buy my stuff. Yeah. I want my stuff to catch your eye and you think it's cool and then join it. That's hard. Yeah. That's the hard part. When I first got into business, it was like you can spend all your money shouting from the rooftops to tell people about this great, you know, my case, a food truck that you build or a local thing, tank thing. And it's just, it's hard. You can't keep up. You know, the costs are too high. You run out of money before you get enough customers. Yeah. When I was before I had left the post office to become a mailman, or I'm sorry, before I left the post office become a real estate agent, I was obsessed with obtaining the knowledge. So I switched from the Joe Rogan podcast to any number of real estate-related podcasts, bigger pockets and all the other things, all of the stuff that is out there. And I think every real estate agent is going to tell this will resonate with them. Is they are being sold every day harder than they are selling houses. The people pitching them the products, whether it's Zillow Leeds or any of those things, the, hey, we're no offense to these guys, because I appreciate the house, because they're doing the time. Like the consumer has become the product. Yeah, the, the, you know, I made texts I get in a weekday of, I'm a local investor looking for investment properties in Northern Colorado. Or, and they come from both California and Colorado. Like, they don't know that I don't even live in California. But although that's somewhat frustrating, I appreciate the hustle. So I think like, you know, you don't have the hustle for any other ideas right now. You got the hustle for the chamber. Yeah. And if you're going to have value through your ideas, I think that's good. Hi. This is Clint Jasperson, managing partner at Purpose Driven Wealth. We believe financial clarity leads to a life of contentment and purpose. Our mission is to guide clients through the complexities of wealth management, retirement planning, and legacy using a values driven, stewardship based approach focused on provision, contentment, and enjoyment. With more than a century of expertise through thriving, we offer tailored strategies to help individuals and families achieve their goals and embrace generosity. Whether you're navigating a life or business transition or planning for the future, we're here to partner with you every step of the way. To learn more about Purpose Driven Wealth, call 970-330-741. We're going to get you out of here in 20 minutes or less from now, but I want to talk about Crystal Week. Okay. We've brushed on her a little bit, but talk to me about the circumstances of life. You were a lowly postal guy and she had her own business and she was super cute and you had a big crush. Something like that. Yeah, something like that. We have dear friends who were dating at the time and Crystal had just moved to California. She had come out for a cousin's military retirement. Okay. Big military space, obviously, in Diego County. Sure. I used to be in the Marine Corps and she just fell in love with it. So she actually decided to move. And on her third day, she and our mutual friends, Jeff and Julie, who were dating at the time, were looking to fill that sort of third leg. Sure. It just happened to be me that they called me. And my Dustin's always available. Dustin's always running. He don't do anything. He had a girlfriend. It was sort of a random thing, but we totally hit it off and had an amazing time. And I just tend to start slow. And that's what I did, obviously, from... You didn't chase her off right away. No, no. In fact, she was like about to be split. But we were probably dating for, I don't know, six or four months. Honestly, I have no idea these numbers. I'm just saying what sounds about right. But she might. She probably knows. She like actually... She's like, our first day was February third. She quizzed me. She quizzed me the other day on something. She's like, do you remember what I was wearing that night? What's cool is, this was early. So this would have been 2009, something like that. She just happened to be carrying like a handheld camera, video recorder thing. So we actually got our first night on film, which was kind of cool. Which doesn't sound... Like not the whole thing, right? No, we'd like to karaoke and party. Yeah, so it wasn't like commonplace, I don't think, to have cameras on your phone. And it wouldn't have been a place in which I'm going to record anything. So we just happened to have that. It was a slow start. All of my friends loved her and were giving me shit because it was taking me forever to make a general commitment out of it. Make it official. Yeah, and I had just bought my dad had just died. And I just had my first house. And we had left the cul-de-sac. Yeah, well, I bought it. And basically, when we were living in California in the cul-de-sac, I invited all of the roommates that I had at the time. And I'm told them, we're going to leave... We are living in Cardiff. Excuse me. We're going to leave Cardiff and I got a house in Vista. In an neighborhood that's maybe questionable at best. We won't be at the ocean, but your rent would essentially be half. Assuming that nobody's going to do that, well, they all did. And in fact, one of them brought his girlfriend. So there was like a bunch of us in this... I think it was 1200 square foot house. Oh, gosh. Yeah, so that was the time in which some of the roommates were since moving on. And I happened to have a room available. So I asked her to move in and a very long story short. It's been that we've been together ever since. But she's commanded the business world, particularly in independent retail. She's just been in that space as long as we've been together. And she has an amazing following. There are some really great people in there. I'm going to have her on too. I know. Cool. You said she would be a great guest. Yes. And she loves the art of a podcast and respects your facilitation of the conversation in the way in which you do. Because not everybody's got that gift. Thank you. Yeah, no, I think it's a good job. Yeah, you do. Even when I listen to my own podcast, I'm like, that did pretty good job. Yeah, yeah. It's not everybody does. And it's weird because some of those people, without giving any examples, like perform better within the reach. And I just don't get it. So anyway, it's an art. And why did she find you so compelling? Like she just didn't have many friends. She was new out there and stuff. Maybe. That's a good question. I'd never really understand. You're actually very charming and quirky. So I think that's good. Well, maybe that was it. But, you know, I worked for the post office. So I just had an everyday job and did the thing. And, you know, I like to hang out and party and have a good time. My focus is often just that. And I think that gravitates, especially when you're, you know, younger. Yeah. Yeah. It's a lot cooler when you're 30 than when you're 50. Then two days ago from the road that way. You know what I'm saying? Hey, I have a gift for you. Oh, sweet to you. Yeah. Oh, so this is a local cooler with some sweet on board cups or party cups. Right on. Local experience shades and some stickers. Nice, man. Well, thank you. Enjoy that. Okay. I appreciate that. Thank you. And we're going to jump into the local experience. Okay. Which is the final segment. But before we do, I am going to go green shots, right? Green shots, yeah. I love that. Yes. We'll be right back here. Okay. Tell them joke. You can do it anytime. Oh, God, man. Not when it's put on pressure like that. But, um. Hmm. Not even a dad joke. Oh, no. Why is it so hard? Yeah. In a moment when you have all of the jokes, can't pull one up that quickly. It's a strange thing. You know what I'm saying? That would have been my go to moment for the greatest story I ever told. Even comedians, like don't seem to be able to just like pull up jokes on command. Yeah. They're index and it's situational. Yeah. I could, I pulled up just now when I were talking about it. Um, why didn't, why didn't people like the nosy pepper? Hmm. Because it gets jalapeno business. Okay. Okay. That, that, that ranks. So before we do. Yeah, why not? We're drinking. We are drinking whizcal. Okay. And whizcal is a product of our new spirit sponsor. Seed and spirit distillery here in Fort Collins. They're in the funk works building over on Lincoln. And in six months or so, they'll have a tasting room and oyster bar. No. Over there. Like. For real. Like east coast west coast oyster. Oh, yeah. Oh, sweet. Is there anything that could exist here at all? Because the closest, the closest thing is jacks. But they're not even going to have a real kitchen. It's going to be an oyster bar and tasting room. So they'll have food trucks if you want, like real food. Oh, hell yeah. Because you can't really get full on oysters. I mean, you could. Yeah. It cost a lot for me anyway, because I could get like four dozen probably. So anyway, thanks to season spirit distillery for being our spirit sponsor in the new season ahead. I love that. Yeah, thank you. Joel, thanks Jess. This episode is sponsored by Loco Think Tank. Loco Think Tank provides spirit collaboration for business owners. We build smart, safe places to help business leaders navigate every stage with a business journey and we love what we do and who we do it with. Our model features gift-back minded business veterans and the role of Loco facilitators. And we're always looking for abundance minded individuals to add to our membership, facilitator team, local community, or to feature on this podcast. Listeners of this podcast who go on to become members of Loco Think Tank get their sixth month of membership for free. Just mention the Loco Experience Podcast on your application. To learn more, visit our website at locothink Tank.com. That's l-o-c-o-think Tank.com. Did you try like four different drinks that I was on an empty stomach? Yeah, I walked home that night. Sometimes they just hit you and you're like, oh, I'm not where I was even 10 minutes ago. Yeah, no, I've had that a few times in the show where I'm like listening to myself. I'm like, I'm slurring right now. That just says you're having a good time. So, shall we toast? Let's cheers to you and your efforts in putting this together in the back workings of going side. Okay, and I want to also toast to small business people everywhere. Yes. In Timnith, in Timnith Chamber, but also in Perthin and Windsor and Fort Collins and Leapport. Yeah. And all those little towns. Yeah. Keep up the good fight. Cheers. We'll do tasting notes on the mezcal. You like that? A little fire. It's basically a young whisky hybridized with mezcal. So they get whatever the base spirit agave, nectarine kind of stuff and they smoke it somehow. And then they mix it with their young whisky to create what's nobody's made with whisky before. Oh, I'm actually not, I'm just putting it together now. It's whisky and tequila. It's mezcal and whisky. So it's a blended spirit of whisky, young whisky and mezcal. Okay. Hmm. I do like it. It would be good in a margarita with some jalapenos and some cucumber. I agree with that. Next time. Next time. I'll put a special order in when Crystal's on the podcast. You've got to have those spicy margaritas. Especially if you could like muddle, muddle the cucumber and the jalapeno even to get that flavor throughout instead of having to like have floaties. Yep. It would be fun. Yep. I like that idea. I've got one of those and I'll bring it if she makes the podcast. So it feels like you may have shared your craziest story already with me. What did we call that? No, it was a blunt made out of... Roach blunt. Yeah. Maybe a little PCP in there. Like that's just a small portion of the things to follow. I have a follow up story which was a byproduct of that and I won't get into too much detail. Okay. So same day, same time. No, years later. Okay. Crystal and I were on a cruise. During the time in my younger years, I joined the army and a number of things went down. That I think were a resignation of that experience of having smoking pot. Okay. Like a byproduct of that? A byproduct. Yeah, I think that's a better word of it. And there's a number of complexities into that made part of the story. Okay. I almost want to dig into that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Another time. I'm excited. It's interesting. Yeah. So I was supposed to join the army. I did join the army. I did the swearing in and had an episode of sorts on the layover too. I think I was going to. I think I was going to Georgia. I'm imagining like cheats from that teacher in Chong where he's like, I never did it before. I had nothing to do with the drugs. It was or the pot. It was. It was the mindset in which I lived after that day for a period of time. Yeah. That essentially on my layover, I didn't go any further. And this was in 2001. Okay. So they're like expecting you at the army. Yeah, it was like, I think I'm out. Yeah, it was a paperwork thing. And ultimately was a paperwork thing. But so many years later, ten years plus later, Crystal and I are first real sort of vacation together. I was like a crew. Okay. My buddy invited us to join for a family members. I think it was our 80th birthday. So there's like 40 family members and then like me and Crystal. And we were on a carnival cruise. Had the most amazing time. Like I'm not even sure I can tell this story. I can tell this story. We have very few listeners. Okay. Yeah. Well, I'm not sure if she wants me to tell. Oh, okay. You know, and speaking up with her after. Speaking of like the chamber people of whether or not they would, you know, join up cancel me. Yeah. Which I, I, you know, I don't want to invite that. But so imagine yourself partying this girl who you've been dating with for a little bit. So we partied hard and good. Yeah. I mean, it's a cruise ship. Yeah. Very last night. I don't know if I could do this. Yeah. Very good. This is like fucked up. You should, you could ask Crystal. I'm going to just give it to you and then we'll let the gods handle the rest. All right. Is that cool? Yeah. If you had in the heaven just like tell me dude, we can't publish that. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Cool. Because I, you know, I'm looking at the crazy part. I think the, the, the weed thing which is not that crazy was kind of the, the thought process where I might go. But since we're here and drinking this delicious stuff. Yeah. Let's do it. So we partied hard and good. You want to sit more. Yeah. I'll take some more. Yeah. That's good. Yeah. Yeah. Let's do it. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. So. You want more too for me? So. Wiz Cal. Everybody. Wiz Cal from Seed and Spirits. Yeah, it's good. It's good. Especially when you're about to get into some crazy conversational stuff. But. So we partied and by partying, I mean, made sweet love the night before the end of the cruise. The next morning, the doors to our room on the cruise. We had one of those rooms that were like sort of closet rooms. Basically. Yeah. Was pounded on very early and Crystal had answered. She'd got squared away and answered. And it's like six border patrol people all blacked out. The black gloves, like sort of like the military people that sort of. Yeah. Yeah. Sort of remember there was a time in which like those cops started dressing like that man. It was it was like at that time with the black everything was blacked out. It wasn't like that. That pretty blue. It was like the black stuff. And. They came in raging and were looking for me. And. They basically said get up and I had no pants on. Nothing on under the. I was in bed essentially. So I'm like I got let me just grab my jeans or whatever. And so I grabbed my I pull them on under the blanket or whatever. And they pull me out and they tear the room apart. And they wouldn't. Crystal and I were just dating now for probably like six six weeks. I wonder what's that six weeks about six months. Maybe she had no idea. This was the back end of this story. I had no idea. I had no idea. No. They like cuffed me and pulled me out. If anyone treat you nicely. No. If anybody's ever been on a cruise you know the day that you port back and everyone is just sort of hanging around and they do the call and you like go off and this is before anybody got off the boat. Yeah. And they cuffed me and dragged me through everybody who I just partied with. Right. I don't know how long it was. I was like that guy doing all of the things and they pulled me off. And I had no idea what was happening. I thought it was some sort of disconnecting communication and maybe they had me mistaken for someone else. Right. And they wouldn't tell Crystal anything. And they pulled me out in front of everybody. I was appalled. I had confused loss. Embarrassed. Embarrassed was like 6.30 in the morning or 7. Maybe. I have. I know that I never. You're back at Port. So you're back in the USA? Back in the US. We were in Long Beach. And they take me out and they put me in a cop car. And the officer, nice guy, was he couldn't share the reason in which I was there. I went to Long Beach jail. Still not knowing why I'm there. What's going on? Nobody would communicate with me whatsoever. And then had to take me that same day that afternoon. It was a Sunday. I had never been in jail. Never done any. Had you had police interactions before to speak of? No. No. Nothing. I was fucking scared. Sure. It got worse. So it gets real worse. So then they're like court. You can't go to court. I guess when you go to jail or whatever, like you go to court that day, or you're like presenting in front of the judge, there was none of that. So I knew that I was sleeping over basically. Okay. Thinking I was staying in Long Beach, which I felt was like, okay, at least I'm here. I've got a sense of the goings on. There's a thing in jail called politics. Basically racism. Okay. Long Beach is a better place to be in jail than some other places. Yeah. I knew sort of about, I guess it's called politics. That's how I understand it. But it's basically, you hang out with white people. If you're white, you hang out with black people. If you're black and Mexican or whatever. I don't get down like that, naturally. So they're like, since you are staying here, we got to put you in LA County jail. But when I heard that, there is one thing to be in jail, but it's another thing to be in LA County jail. Yeah. And I was... That's like East LA. Yeah, very much. And I was fucking petrified. Back to the teacher's home. Yeah. You're like, somebody's going to turn me into their girlfriend for the night. Kind of. I was mad. I had no idea. So they put me in, I think they called the patty wagon or whatever. They cuffed up with these two other guys. And like, they... I think they knew that I had never been to jail. I had no idea what to expect. This is where the shit gets funny. So I'm in LA County jail now. I don't know how long I'm going to stay there. And I am fucking petrified. So they line you up and they do the search thing. And you're basically naked. And you're lined up along... With all these other people. Yeah, like three or four other guys, it gets worse than even this part. I'm lined up with like three or four other guys with like three or four cops behind me. And naked. And they say something which I can sometimes remember. I'm not for the sake of time. I'm going to try to remember exactly what they said. But I thought he said, get on all fours. I think he said something about putting something on the floor. But I heard, get on all fours. So I'm with like seven dudes, eight dudes, cops and criminals or whatever. I don't want to say criminals because there's a really good chance that some of those people were as innocent as I was. So I get on all fours. And the cops behind me are like, say that for the shower, faggot. And I was like appalled of where I was. And who I was dealing with at the time. Well, and frankly, probably three-quarters of the people that they bring through there are appalled. No, well, at least half are appalled or maybe whatever. But a lot of people are also appalled. When he heard that, I felt like nothing in the world. I think about after I'm like, that's so funny. Yeah, like giving him that much power. Giving him that much power. But there was another cat that was similar in that way. So you get your, you get your clothes back on because they do the search or whatever. And then they put you in. They basically put you in a room this size. And I'm not kidding. What is this? Like eight by 14 or something? Yeah, 12 by 10, something like that. With like 20 other dudes, literally. And they give you a plastic bag. And they say put all of your clothes with the exception of your boxers or briefs in the bag. Well, as you know, when I was in a rush to like get clothes on the cruise ship. I didn't have boxes. So then I'm like sitting in this room with like 25 other dudes like no cops. It was just me and like some other fuckers that are like straight out of like gangster movies. Right. And that was a good going out of there. Nothing good happening in that room. Especially when you're the only dude with your weiner out. And you were like, just hold in the back. I tried to make a case. You're like, I don't have underwear. Well, no one, you know, nobody was talking to you. They didn't care at all. Yeah, well, not only that. There was no, there was no police presence in that room. It was like a holding tent because you're getting ready to go in the showers. This sounds like something. Or two shit. But. So this is crazy though because you never do anything. I didn't do anything. You're well, I would like to kill those. But we only got five more minutes. So basically, I'm holding the bag in front of myself and naked, the only guy naked. Then we get in line to go in the showers. And there was these old time like guys. I probably didn't even in a jail or whole life. Like giving me the rules now. Now I'm here in how it works. Right. You pick up the soap. The indicator that you're ready for that. Yeah, not like there's that and there's like don't talk to anybody from any other race No matter what you do. Wow, and So I'm like, okay, I'm staying here and did the shower stuff and If you've ever seen the show I think Oz is the best example of what I was in it was a basically a cell block I guess I had no at that point. I knew it had something to do with having joined at the army At the time I thought that all was good because it had been 10 years I'd worked for the post office. I bought a house. So I was very easy to find To to escalate things I have no idea when I'm leaving I'm in this cell with this guy. Fortunately, he was cool. It smells like piss. They basically had you as a deserter a deserter Yes, that's exactly what they got me on so The the this place smell like piss So I took the bar that there was like a soap squeeze thing and I just remember like wiping on the floor My sisters connected politically and my mom who was alive at time was freaking out And they were like doing all of the stuff to get me out because they it was clear that it was a misunderstanding Crystal who lived in Pittsburgh at the time because she had moved to take in a job actually stayed in Long Beach And it's like Roach moach motel or whatever and came to visit me And the jail yeah, like she found out where I was because they wouldn't they wouldn't tell her anything right and so basically They finally get my case and they come in it's like in the middle of the night They're like here's a one-way ticket to Fort Silo, Oklahoma. I'm not sure if that's a side back up for the army If you like they like you need to go back to the army So they check me out. It's like 11 o'clock at night. I have to get I get out I'm in the streets of LA in the middle of the night. I have to figure out how to get back into San Diego So I get I had some cash. So I go and I get A taxi or whatever this is before Uber they let you keep your cash I guess to a rental car Yeah, they take all your shit and they give it back when you check out and as I was leaving this one cop It's like there's that a wall or like so judgy as shit. I'm like, oh fuck like you know, I'm like dude You don't even know me. I'm like I was so pissed because I'm like I just got off a cruise ship to me I'm like so like on the defense. I'm like this dude's probably never been on a cruise and what I'm just so fucking pissed at that point So I go I get I take the the rental cart or I take a taxi to LAX I get a rental car. I drive three hours to Vista at the time I smoke like a whole pack of cigarettes. I get into my house. I see my roommate I'd been in LA County for like seven days at that point. I give them a big hug I just start crying. I go into my bed. I lay down. I close my eyes I had to get up an hour later because they're like if you are not it is close to know where you're at She knows yeah, you're like here's what's going on. Yep. She was she had gone back to Pittsburgh after she stayed to visit me Then that's when I was like I this is my girl Like I did like that. I love you through the glass kind of thing which is so fucking weird Talk about it, but we've been together ever since we met essentially yeah, so I know you got to go but basically I lay down for an hour. I take that rental car. I take it back to LAX I have a one-way ticket to Fort Sill Oklahoma. They go there I'm in like a military jail with like I keep saying like an um so we might have to do so on about that but the the idea of Being there with these are military recruits people who are active right Like the criminal section of that. So I was with guys there that were the actual bad guys. Yeah I was with I was with like army and military people who were shooting Podest like civilians for fun kind of place So I'm like, I'm not sure actually got better and then you're they wake you up at 4 in the morning your mop It's like you're in the military which in which I had never had any experience whatsoever and then they own you know Yeah, like the high-level military people. I don't know if generals or whatever We're walking through the hallways and they like hid all of the The people that were in this facility like in the bathroom. So they couldn't be seen by this one guy and I just happened to pop out and the way he looked at me. It was like so I don't know the word is but Look in looking at you in a way that's so like your shit You're like less than a cockroach to me. Yes, and Another thing too the police. Oh my gosh. It's just gets worse But the police LA County like I was I Ended up liking the criminals who in which I was right more I Would be in like prayer like these these guys would do prayer circles and they would like be apologetic to all of the things that they have done It was just so such a powerful experience and then the cops the way the cops. Yeah, I treated them like such shit Which I get and I don't wear things. Yeah, I was I was so disgusted It changed it changed the dynamic of the way in which I look at life in general and So how did it go down like did you go to South Carolina? I did. Yeah, I spent four or five days there You're supposed to stay there for a month for a proper Dispatch or whatever to the military. I had essentially never joined because I never Signed that last paper. Yes, the last paper or whatever So they were able to expedite the process They like shader heads actually we kind of fucked up. We fucked with you unnecessarily Maybe they'll I'm not sure that responsibility will ever be taken, but that's why they let you out early Yes, because they knew that they didn't really have the right to treat you like a yeah, a fuck head like a day And I don't I didn't hear anything of the story that makes me want to delete it right well good. Okay cool It makes me think you're that much cooler honestly. What a fucking like I've never had That kind of a crazy should happen to me that wasn't my own doing yeah, all the crazy stuff that's happened to me I've done to myself I found it like two years later in paperwork with the military of the communications at the time We're happening between my mother and the the military controls whoever they were right there was one piece of paper that was Not essentially seen within the process and in I was essentially the release the post office was gonna Wanted to fire me because they said I lied on my application because I never brought the military up And so long story short instead of like any sort of dishonorable discharge or anything like that. I got Basically an annulment as if nothing ever happened. Yeah We'll forget it you forget it. Yeah, don't talk about I'm not sure I'll ever forget it I hope that they don't listen to this podcast and find me like I said my door and send him down to the It's done. I made sure it was done. Yeah, no disrespect to military. No disrespect to police or anybody I any of that they're just doing the thing the experience of someone who is not essentially guilty or what they thought I was in the way to be treated honestly I've interacted with a lot of people that have been in trouble with a lot in the past and come out of that situation and stuff and the Like most of us have done stuff that we could go to at least jail for yeah, if not prison. Yep, you know And the way that the some of the some of the justice system treats people that have been there is really rough Yep, so sad, but anyway, we have to leave it there whatever we could talk for another one more chairs brother one more chairs It was fun. Yeah, thank you. Thank you for having me Thanks for being here cheers brother Thank you for listening to this episode of the logo experience podcast proudly produced and sponsored by logo think tank Colorado's premier pure advisory organization This is your producer Ava Menus to find all of our episodes or nominate a future guest check out our website at the logo experience.com You can also find us on Instagram Facebook YouTube X comm and LinkedIn at the logo experience to support the show Be sure to follow subscribe and share until next time stay logo