Experience 44 | Season 1 Wrap-up and Get-to-Know with Alma Ferrer

On today's episode of the LOCO Experience, I sat down with Alma Ferrer, our everything associate here at LOCO Think Tank. She's the master of all things digital and my super helper on the show. Alma and I discussed some of the highlight moments from season one, and we shared some of the changes coming up for season two of the LOCO Extrins, as Little Riverban would say, it's time for a cool change. The latter part of the show is my favorite when we get to know Alma a little better. This is a change of pace episode, but I think you'll love it. Alma's a thoughtful, funny, and courageous young lady, and I'm proud to have her on the team. She serves wisdom beyond her years on big topics like change and acceptance, as well as an inspiring LOCO experience. Tune in and love it. Let's have some fun. Welcome to the LOCO Experience Podcast. I'm your host, Kurt Bear. This show is produced by me and my team, and sponsored by my small business, LOCO Think Tank, and sometimes others. LOCO hosts feature a range of local and regional business and community leaders as guests in a conversational interview format. Our guests are interesting and successful people with unique business journeys, and the more business education and unbarnished truths we can uncover, the better. You'll feel like you really know our guests after each episode, and if I'm doing my job well, listeners will find business principles and tips from their journey, and a greater appreciation for each of our guests. Woven into these long format experience episodes are occasional thoughtful episodes, topically focused snippets of five to fifteen minutes, where our guests unfold important and timely business truths. And also, I'll read the LOCO perspective bug post, because I'm lazy to infer to listen and then to read, and maybe you do too. Thanks for tuning in, and if you'd like to show a please subscribe, review, and share it with your favorite people. This is your host, Kurt Bear, and I'm here with Alma Ferrer today. And we're going to do a recap episode, basically, of the year behind and the year ahead, and almost going to ask questions and be interactive otherwise. I'm just here talking by myself, and that would be weird. I mean, I think I need a list of questions to ask you. Why? I don't know what to do. We don't do it that way here. We just go not script it. I mean, it to be planned. No, you're going to enjoy this. It's unscripted. Okay. Yeah, you showed up early in the LOCO experience podcast. You really met us last March, so we were 10 and 15 episodes in or something like that, probably. Yeah. And more than that, even, because we're already close to 20. So we were pumping out episodes pretty good there at the beginning, kind of slowed up a little bit at the end, especially recently. So what I would recommend is that maybe why don't you go to the anchor list of episodes, and maybe a good leading question. I'll teach you how to interview right here. So what inspired you at was a reason for making the LOCO experience podcast? Good question. I guess it's combination of factors. I've really found a lot of value in listening to like long form conversations. Obviously, Joe Rogan is the king of the industry in that regard. But then also when I really enjoyed from the start was how I built this. And that's an MPR podcast with Guy Razz. And so LOCO experiences a fusion of those two things in my mind. I was part of the creation of a previous podcast. I don't know if you know that even the of the small business storytellers with Seth Silvers and Seth and I were probably having a beer one day and talking about what kind of a podcast concept there could be. And ultimately we co-created the storytellers. The first episodes were recorded in my office down at the America building with a loud exhaust fan in the background. And you can't find those. There was never went live. But like a year later, Seth dusted the concept back off and really put it to life. And it's been a great show. I don't think he's still producing new episodes. But we did. He did probably 40 of them. And I was like the guest host color commentator guy on the first 10 or something. So LOCO experiences my second podcast effort. Cool. Cool. So pretty similar to the like original first one that even the storytellers was shorties 20 to 30 minutes. Not really the same more about tactics and business tips and things like that. And it really to some extent, it was what Seth wanted to create. I just gave it a good name. That was my biggest contribution. But it wasn't what I wanted to create, which was these long form conversations. Really good to know people. One of the things I hear always from my guests on the podcast is I felt just so connected. And we just I just don't have those kind of intense experiences like that. Not to say that this is intense, but we're walled off. But it's me and you and a couple of microphones in our headsets. And it's pretty different. So anyway, sorry to ramble on there, but that's the reason to create the LOCO experience and because I think I want to inspire, I mean like the deeper purposes, I want to inspire more people to start businesses. I think if we all work for giant corporations or the government, it isn't really that great for humanity in the future. I think the small business spirit and being able to start something that exists maybe even after you're gone in terms of enterprise. I think that's the heart of America in a lot of ways. And we're losing it. And so if we can have people that come to listen to the LOCO experience like either navigate their own business journey better because they picked up some tips and learned some things from other people's mistakes, they don't have to make those mistakes themselves necessarily. And if we can inspire people to launch new businesses because of some of the ideas that are shared here or the confidence they get because they feel more equipped. I don't know what I don't know is what I hear a lot from people that would like to start a business. But by hearing some of these stories, you can feed that in and it just becomes part of your fabric over time. And so I hope that part of the thought comes. Yeah. Yeah. I think that doesn't make sense of if everybody worked in like corporations or the government. We found that out how important like small businesses and like the minimum wage people are. Right. And how they're actually maybe more really more important right the people to bring us our food. Yeah. And farm for us. And yeah, we don't we won't die without Facebook. That's true. All right. We might die with Facebook. This episode is sponsored by LOCO Think Tank. LOCO Think Tank provides pure collaboration for business owners. We build smart, safe places to help business leaders navigate every stage with a business journey. And 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 locothinktank.com that's l-o-o-c-o-thinktank.com. So I guess tell me how it was getting all your guests and kind of like like choosing who's going to be on you and stuff. I would like to say I was super systematic about it. But if you know me very well, that's probably not one of the first guests we had on was the Whiteness. Actually experience episode number one was Eric and Kim Whiten and the fire was burning at that time. The Cameron Peak fire. And they had been when they first moved to Colorado. It was a starting over situation for them. And they were maybe two years in and their home in risk canyon was burned to the ground. And they had four hours from the first whisp of smoke to like getting out of there before they got burned up. And they didn't know for weeks whether their place was burned or not because the whole place was. So pretty intense, a circumstance. So that was early on Lance Psycho was our episode two F9 productions and he had me on his podcast previous to that a couple months before they have Monday morning coffee with special guests and inside the firm is Lance's podcast shout out to Lance. And Lance started the he was the first really to delve into what we I guess the first podcast with Eric and Kim was a local experience a crazy experience of going through that fire that was a big focus of the podcast. But in Lance's episode unbeknownst to either of us we ended up talking about how he discovered when he was in his low 30s that his dad wasn't his dad and it was this Brazilian entrepreneur church leader guy that had been there as an exchange student in their high school years. It was this whole drama and it was like so share more about this people and that Lance really started a reinforced maybe as a trend that this is a safe place where no topic is off limit and you can just be you and and that's really probably the biggest expectation of our guests is we want you to just be you and be comfortable with that and be humble enough to know that sometimes you as a dumbass silly mistakes and because it's those stories that really oftentimes are more impactful and more memorable for our listeners than I've been pretty much perfect sense I was bored and then life went easy and then here I am nobody wants it that story doesn't exist first of all so those were a couple of the early ones and so a lot of times it was just who I was around at the time Aaron Everett is a good friend he was episode three we talked all about real estate and and even with him like what it's like to be the the son of a wealthy well-known person and of unique pressures of that the Everett built a lot of Fort Collins with between the mall and a whole bunch of residential and commercial real estate and he's third generation and what do I do with where my family's been was part of that question Mike is a great friend episode four with Rocky Mountain Westy and Vancafe he's an original co-founder of Locothec Tank he's a guy that said hey bear you should start a thick tank with all the people and then I guess episode five Mike Gugliato is one of our facilitators and so that started a trend also of hey when we're going to have these chapters that are facilitated by awesome people let's let them tell their story so that the people that are just like snooping us on the website or whatever they can listen to Mike talk about his journey yeah and Mike went from journalism student with a curious mind to CEO of a 1000 person newspaper organization with 24 locations whatever 25 year career and that's just a super smart super curious guy when he worked for Locothec Tank for a thousand dollars a month or whatever being a facilitator and and he loves it and he does a great job with it so that's what I don't think that was even the heart of the plan and oh gosh episode six experienced six with Cameron Lenty and Ben Gates Ben was a banker buddy of mine that had gone to work for an oil field services company that was founded by this oh gosh it was like 21 when he launched it Cameron did and he's 31 now has 200 some employees and does all these things and and the three of us drank a bottle of scotch so that was the worst I've ever really got got ripped on the podcast by the way if anybody's listening out there that's part of the whatever you your desires I'll have it here for you if it's red wine if it's whiskey bourbon marijuana even we can do that so yeah that's some of the earliest episodes in there yeah so with that and reflecting on your guests and episodes what are some of your highlight or favorite or most crazy experiences I guess of all the episodes oh gosh I think I was just thinking about Cameron and so his story of basically spouting off and saying that he could build a concrete pad for a natural gas facility when he'd never driven a bulldozer before and never worked in construction didn't know anything really about it but got a handshake deal and building a pad and that's you know how he started his construction company he's just like YouTube yeah he just watched YouTube videos on how to drive a D7 cat and so there that's a cool experience oh highlight episode nine Becky lordsson with Naomi I remember when I went to a like a social for their chapter and Becky's husband was there and said to me at that time you know you really changed Becky's life with this local think tank thing and that's can be hyperbole or whatever but then during the episode she talked about how in 2019 before she was a local member and she was probably in her third year of business at that time she made ten thousand dollars net profit and then in 2020 she made a hundred thousand and so I was like you TEDx like the wonder her husband said we changed her life but when it wasn't local necessarily there was a drastic upswing in demand for mental health services Naomi is a membership organization that and she was already on her way I could I can spot talent that's one of my special talents and I knew Becky was gonna be a successor but yeah the like to understand the magnitude of that change for her and to just have people be alongside her when she was undergoing that change and growth in her business and stuff so that's a highlight I don't know if we're just supposed to run around and pick out highlights like that it seems a little bit redundant eventually but that was definitely oh I got the other I just uh changed the page another highlight was Zach Rickurio challenging me on my libertine maybe uh laissez faire perspective on vaccines and like concerns about things like medical industrial complex and things like that and he was like man I can say it as a Christian I think you're on the wrong side of this and so we but that's part of what I want to build as well as a environment where it's okay to disagree and to reflect and like to for one person to think that they've had all the right answers is pretty asinite generally that was a highlight oh I had the mayoral candidates on so that was leading up to the election in April and so I had Wade Troxel and his endorsed candidate choice which was oh gosh what is her name oh Molly Molly's gold and Molly of course got beaten up by not literally but by by Jenny art became our mayor by a pretty wide margin and and I had Jenny and then the third candidate Gary Horrick on as a follow-up episode to the the outgoing mayor and his endorsed candidate and actually I came to really like Jenny as part of that conversation as well I think she's a very pragmatic individual very community focused and disagree or agree rather on all the things but I have no doubt that she is for Collins forward and and a great representative for our city in that role so that was pretty fun first foray into politics of sorts yeah oh yeah we did the a look back at the low-code journey basically me as the guest with Rory as the interviewer on episode 14 that was pretty fun maybe the fit my maybe my favorite I don't know I just I love the brothers fountain episode 20 you met those guys at the backyard party and their AJ story about finding a dead frozen moose standing in snow and steamboat and bringing that rack home illegally as it turns out it was just such an engaging story and they have stories anyway JJ's they've done only music they're doing a new only music planning it now it might be like the Mississippi Valley almost but they depart with no money only music and to get gas money or a place to sleep or whatever they put on like shows and stuff find community connections and don't have a plan just music and they've done it in Africa yeah so there's some inspirational brothers and there's two brothers AJ and JJ but then they have a band of brothers another half dozen oh they're at the magic rat coming up in January so if you're eyes open for that so that's got another good one more questions I that just came to my mind how yeah like hearing those experiences from other people it's I could do anything then you know like I could actually if I was a musician I could just go anywhere and just do that you know I could just do that that these are regular people that just oh yeah got up and did so they're no smarter than me aren't you yeah no they have more talent they've been playing music more yeah I like those experiences that aren't like this is like a business journey but just experiences are really cool to listen from especially as someone growing up and transitioning to an adult or whatever that's yeah I could do anything but I don't want to stick to the job then work there and stay there like rest of my life or just kind of do nothing or nothing not fun but nothing crazy experience and so I think a lot of your guests are very inspiration I guess also with their business journeys for everybody else but also just as a regular person that maybe doesn't even have does not want to open a business or doesn't even do anything with a business they're just regular right their career path doesn't have to be a fix to well and even you and I'll turn to the table a little bit here but you were coming onto the local team right about that time because I did the recording and release with the brother is not too far away from when we did the backyard so we did a you were part of the team that that served a backyard what we did a roast beef and roast ham a flung raising dinner about maybe three weeks or so after you started with local I think yeah I think so yeah for like three weeks so let's talk about your local experience just a tiny bit you applied to be our intern in March yeah I was working at a bakery before then and I was like I want to cut a real job something that would I can grow in just not really a lot of room for growth where I was at and I knew I wanted to learn business I don't know what it is which is business and sounds like like Google internship it's not supposed to do is get an internship I don't really have like direction from my parents or kind of that you should do this next kind of okay and so it's mainly like just culturally they don't really feel like it's their play you're smart to figure your own stuff out I think so it's kind of all I just she just does it like my very first job was working at a pretzel store in the mall and I just I was like I don't know I guess I got a job about 16 and I just went to indeed and literally applied at every single this is cool apply this is cool apply until somebody called me and that's like I'm a first job and it is not like telling my parents like oh I got a job so I need to drive okay I immediately got my license so it's kind of I just do it yeah I gotta get done and so same thing with logos kind of like I need I want to actually get a real job in something cool but it was more cautious with my selection this time of applying yeah I do had a couple of jobs since the pretzel shop and then later the bakery yeah it was only the pretzel shop and the bakery and then besides that I was like under the table kind of random jobs you told me about a fun cleaning job that you had one time I did a clean to like apartments and houses and stuff for a little bit and then I also wrote that a chicken farm and like de-gutted chicken that was I only went for a diet that was too gross for me but I did that and so I have always had that like I guess I want to do more than just stay where I'm at yeah the growth mindset yeah and so when I saw logos like this is perfect this is like literally all kinds of business this is literally organization of business about business that helps business owners and business people get more business even though that's like this one's perfect and it's like more cutting internship and I think that's what I want to do or learn more about than other places in business and so this is perfect and so do my best at the interviews and everything I was preparing I was like all kinds of stuff and I got it obviously here I am and it's been great Rory was the marketing person here at loco and I think day one like week one that I started at Rory's leaving and that was a little bit of what not the whole reason why I was here but it's who's gonna teach me now who's gonna right show me what to do but at the same time I was like that means that then I have more room for growth and I can do more maybe more through like trial and error kind of stuff but it's so cool and so well and thankfully Rory had she invested in you pretty well in terms of understanding what was here what was needed and all that yeah and will she is like me with a process organization mind and so the way that she taught me everything really stuck in my head because it's exactly how I learned things and so I did soak up all the everything that she taught me and was pretty well equipped with like processes and how to do the newsletter right step by step so I cannot mess up except you do come regularly with here's a I have some ideas on how to do the newsletter better yeah I think at first I had to learn everything and then be comfortable with then changing it and so now that's where I'm at whereas I want to change a lot of things yeah because I know now you know what's going on yeah we're changing some things with the podcast we're gonna change some things with the website coming up here there's that's one thing I've appreciated about your perspective I think is you're probably even more comfortable with change than I am I feel like I'm fairly open to it but sometimes I'm like I don't want to learn more new things I already have too many things in my little head so good we're glad you're here you're coming up on a year soon nine months in or something like that 10 months and and taking classes still at front range and I'm just scanning some of these other episodes looking for nuggets there's a episode 30 Craig and Molly Sucker the realities for children founders and just a real high impact nonprofit organization really happy to have had that conversation with them anybody should tune in this was a funny one experience 32 with Cheryl Benedict Cheryl was is an author and was introduced to me by a mutual friend and by the end of the podcast Cheryl was like can I be a member of local take like you're in West Denver a long ways away but we really resonated and enjoyed each other's company you know Jeff Bale was real fun so was Oli Devatchi they were a couple of bolder based business people that have had really interesting journeys Oli is an experienced 28 I'd still like to get him into a facilitator role and we're ready to grow down to that Longmont my neighbors business neighbors Jeff Willie and Noah Klein with the laser tag and especially right here the escape lounge opening like this week the looking glass escape lounge is opening next door so those are some that's actually one of our one of our higher oh and then Jacob Leece the winter mind group subsequently his company has been absorbed and merged and he's now the CEO of a much larger company called pop actor so just seeing people in an interesting place in life as well on that conversation with with Jacob was very much in line with that so anyway not to distract so what are some of the changes coming for the podcast you want to talk about that for the people that are listening out there sure yeah we are starting our season two and so some changes are just a new look of the podcast overall format will mainly stay the same and we in this look experience season one we did have shorts episode where hosted by somebody else besides Kurt Debra some mostly Rory but yeah some also and so for this now season two we're changing into it would be clips from the long format ones and they're gonna be called thought bubbles yeah which I love the name thought bubbles and so it's like kind of one nugget really more more shorter like maybe I don't know like five minutes maybe yeah five minutes or also having one person specifically interview them and tell us that one nugget yeah but for the most part it is much more shorter kind of topic hold yeah and so it's like I was saying yeah I could be listening to a long format episode and then that was really good I want some dessert so now I'm gonna listen to a thought bubble or to transition into listening to a podcast listen to a thought bubble and that was good now I wanna now I have time for a long format one so I like that we're gonna be having that and also just a name I think it's really fun and goes with it as long as also changing that like the new cover art that'll be coming out with Kurt's caricature cartoon phase yeah cartoon no face yeah what do you think about that change like instead of just the look it was the local experience with Kurt Baron Roy Char initially and then it just became the local experience but now it's let's local experience with Kurt Baron is that featuring me a little more prominently I struggled against that what do you yeah I mean for me when first seeing this whole podcast and having to edit all this stuff I was kind of like I see the podcast cover I have no idea what this podcast is about but the main the whole also had the whole point is that Kurt is interviewing people kind of well the beginning of this Roy but the main long format ones in person like the cooler but because you're in person and stuff was at the Kurt mainly just Kurt so all the other podcasts out of you see it's your hosting and it's like it's the made person right although I do try to make our guests talk a lot more than I do no yeah yeah but you're interviewing them I guess I guess like different if I interviewed someone that's obviously like the podcast episode would play differently and like also the person is if you're comfortable and so I think it also has to do a lot with who's interviewing and especially because you're the one that like knows all these people and makes them feel comfortable and they at the end they feel amazing and so I think having it like yeah Kurt is more in yeah I guess present more in the podcast for season two I think is a good change as to because everybody knows you and so one that helps for people to listen to the podcast but also I think that's just to me how every like all the not that all the other podcasts like we need to do what everybody else is doing but I guess keep it familiar yeah yeah everybody else listening to podcasts um it's been one of my big surprises I think is accepting or acknowledging that I'm significantly gifted in this yeah space I've as I reflect between my banking years and all my local conversations with business leaders and stuff at least a thousand people have I like gotten to know yeah and in a lot of ways that's my favorite podcast episodes I can really appreciate like my episodes with Aaron and Mike there's some of my longest friends and stuff but Lance I had really just gotten to know and so unfolding his story with him was really quite interesting and even one of our you know upcoming guests Elizabeth Ladoo I really just had a short conversation with her on the phone before booking her for the podcast and then we really got to know each other right here like this yeah and so I really probably have that and yeah and to see how much people enjoy that time spend with me telling their story I think it is just a joy that I don't want to let go easily yeah that's what I was saying of that like the Jorogan experience like Joe Rogan but also like his guess oh this person was on there I'm gonna watch it but it's also Joe Rogan so like I want to also listen to Joe Rogan and not because he's Joe Rogan but because he's funny who he is yeah he's super engaging and nonjudgmental and hopefully I can be some of those things yeah same I think it's the same like space here when you're interviewing and staff so I think to me it does seem right to have you like it's okay to own that space a little bit more and I think giving our team yourself and who ever the ability to capture a thought bubble with somebody and to be co-creators of this podcast as well as fun yeah I think that is definitely like we can do that for like the thought bubbles and stuff but I think like the experience has to stay just you for sure but we were thinking of having the thought bubbles a separate podcast then the experience but then I have to go and find that podcast and so it made it like extra work for one the listener and also us yeah yeah me I guess to have to like double edit everything but I think once experience gets like bigger and stuff I think it's what would be really cool to have yeah anybody can can I guess do without bubble yeah yeah I think that would be great if we could have our whole membership in our community just sharing thought bubbles and be a searchable database of topical expertise yeah I think what's that thing of share your abundance and stuff like that ask of your needs and share of your abundance yeah yeah so it's like we also another change we want to be more I guess present in social media and be more active as to like at the end of episodes or when we post it what is something that you want to learn next we're having this guest what are questions that we should that you want to know for more engaging with our listeners and stuff which I'm also excited for because I don't see too many podcasts through that and if there's a podcast that I like man I really want to learn about this thing hmm it's just really cool to be able to you know do that um so I'm hoping that we can really get on that and do that for the season two yeah I wonder if we should you think we should actually create a local experience podcast page unlike LinkedIn too I think so it's a business focused podcast it's its own thing even though it lives under the local think tank tent here I think that's also the change that I want to see and like to do is to have the podcast be its own thing that that's yours but it's not necessarily a logo in case local think tank fires me someday I can take my podcast and again it's more again also with the changing of the season for season two it's also being more I was calling it like not genuine but like we're open current bears podcasts like I'm Kurt bear like I own local think tank and I'm and this is my podcast that's like about Kurt bear like you basically did this being able to you know own that I it really feeds my ego I appreciate that we don't that's not so good but more like connecting with I think it's important to connect and like really know better the person that's hosting and to be like cool I know Kurt bear I don't really have to know more but like now I get to listen to the interview like whoever the guest is so changing that language a little bit into more Kurt talking perspective yeah yeah so I like where it's going and I'm very like just try it you know like if it doesn't work then we can change it back yeah no probably won't change it back it's just more like keep changing into its final when it's right yeah yeah I like it I guess what else is on your mind I want to do be more intentional with with featuring our members we used it as a bit of a door opener with people we wanted to sign up to loco in the past and I think that's fine and and maybe we can capture thought bubbles in that way but I didn't really feel super authentic yeah and so I want to have people on as my guests that I want to have on my as my guest yeah and so we're gonna be intentional about me entering through the chapters and picking somebody wanted to be members a month to be on the show yeah like that we're again it's like separate from logo think tank like logo think tank produced and sponsored but if you come on the podcast it doesn't mean like we're trying to make you join could be cool if you did use information right but that's not really the point of why you're here you know and we're not gonna sit here for a two-hour commercial about like that's I wouldn't want to like be a guest because this dude just wants me to do I want you to come he's gonna sell on me yeah I think you're good I'm recovering from the rollout my first day off of isolation right now and you're brave for being here in this room with me uh technically I think since you're already like at the end like I there's nothing plus your your super recovered and and double-vaxed right so yeah fully vaccinated are you gonna get your booster probably not I think I'm young and what if you are not allowed to go to concerts or whatever if you don't have that I guess I have one I don't go to concerts but or whatever yeah yeah restaurants maybe I guess but if it's necessary if I need to go to school or something I need to freaking have a booster then fine I'll get the boot I don't really care as long as I like I need to if I need it then yes but if it's just like a want to I want to go do this thing that's fun when you booster okay well you can't do that so if you actually face consequences then yes I guess so here you're a little bit more compliant than I am in that character department I think I'm compliant and also the reason why I'm like so open and okay with a change is just faith whatever oh yeah it's faith and kiddo workout like no I'm not gonna worry about it guy wouldn't have made it this way yeah if he's not freaking out right now because things are out of his control exactly it's the same thing for when I applied for loco I first interview super good with girl I was like he kind of cried talking about loco it's like I said it's good and so I was like yeah I think that's good that's good and then I had my second interview with Rory and I just versus like that but I was like Dean I don't think she liked me I like feel like I was just talking random stuff and I did not do good and I just went up a little while I die for a day or something I feel like I did not do good on my second interview and then I immediately was like like actually I don't care like I know Kurt like we like we did I do good on first interview so if anything Kurt will like he can just like he's the boss anyway right I was like so it doesn't matter and I put that faith again you know what if I get it then it is for me and if it's not for me then I don't want you know God's not gonna give me the job and that's that and I would be happy with that too I kind of meditated and prayed about it and was like God let it be what your plan is and if it's not I'm feeling well now but it's okay right because like but it really wants his job but it's okay whatever you choose whatever is going to happen and then let it be like that and like having I guess that makes me okay with whatever yeah like you should know that you were Rory's first choice too I don't know if you know that a little bit but not really was never yeah we brought it for for candidates I mostly I had phone calls with people or zooms or whatever but then we brought four people back for a second interview that Rory would share and and then picked the favorite after that so talk to me about that how do you reconcile both like free will and faith do you think about questions like that sometimes yeah well like God's not to decide or if I'm gonna hire you or not I'm to decide it right yeah I think it's that's been discussed a lot and like my church and stuff as the youth group I was like we're curious it was like and it's basically there's a plan of God's I was just impressed by anything like planned out but you I don't know because they also believe in predestination and so that kind of adds to that a little bit oh in terms of your salvation at least yeah just mainly for that but it's more like the end point that is we'll say the same like that and I guess of you and so again whatever happens in between is I think we decide but so you could go on a crazy bender starting here with your turn 19 not that extreme because I do know predestined yeah but that's the point where what if you're predestined to die like yeah in a gutter you don't know and of people that like they're like yeah I'll just be saved because I know that's my end thing faith and so I'm gonna do whatever I want and then I'll just be back and they died doing the whole stuff that I wanted so it's like the point is that you don't know yeah but I think it is free will but at the same time like you can freely walk into the things that are bad for you yeah and I also don't think that I think it's technically oh it's hard to get a hell unless you're like a murder or something but like you don't go to hell or whatever for sinning necessarily more like for not like accepting god or like believing in that stuff which is what I believe and I'm also very oh you believe something different that's cool doesn't affect me I guess yeah yeah but it is also my job to share what I believe just for you to know it and like you you do whatever you want with the information that I shared basically not like your job with me but your job as a human as a Christian that I need to share it and I'm like I'm gonna force you to we're pushing on you but like now it's your free will like to choose what you want with that information and then that would you know it's complicated but I think have you ever read my old blogs I'm sure you've read most of them that have come out but I wrote about this in the fall of 2020 on virtue is the title but I basically reflected on the ten commandments eventually I circled around to that and observed that when you say it commandments that makes it sound all bossy whatever I mean but really it's also I just rephrased it for the modern time and said these are ten principles for your best success in life if you try to not do these things it will be better for you generally speaking yeah for me like believing in something or this like mean as a Christian it's it's a lifestyle also and I said yes it's I guess an religion but it's that's the reason why I had my whole experience with it and I didn't like heck no one would be a Christian no I'm not doing that when I turn 18 I'm leaving like somewhere I don't know I don't care where somewhere right far away and it's just layman but I don't want nobody to tell me what to do I don't want to feel judged for not doing that and feeling left out because of my choices but it's because it's just choosing not to live that life so I'm like oh I have to stop doing this I have to stop like doing that and it's as changing everything I don't want to leave that stuff so that's I think a reason why people don't do it but for me it was like we need to stop because we need to stop that like that's weird like why would you know what God's not gonna love me that I have to be forced to like do all these rules and so it makes no sense that sounds suspicious and so to me and but then it's just like then learning about God and learning being in my life it makes sense actually I don't know I like trying to follow the rules yeah so much as it is to if I'm going to believe then I should set my direction thusly and my character and my behaviors that but at the same time it's like once you decide to follow that or whatever then then that is a whole process too you're not like no you're not you don't have to drop everything day one now that you decided no it's a process it's a transition like you have to worry about anything it's at your own pace I've worked on the 60 year plan okay that's not but when you it's truly from your heart then it's like easier I guess to do that and so that's kind of what I did but yeah I think that's because of my faith I'm okay with anything and everything I'm okay with sometimes I get scared or something like I can bury you right now I'm okay with that literally I don't do I'd be okay with that because like that I quit my job at the bakery because of COVID and it was kind of like because you didn't feel comfortable and a little bit my first shop I ever had was at the petrol shop and that was like COVID was starting and well we can the mall is so dead like we can only have one person working in your under 18 until you can't work the machine oh gosh then I can't work at all like technically I was like I don't need money technically so it's like yeah I've built to pay I was like so I guess that's fine but it's like why am I here then so I quit that and I went to the bakery and it was good but I had already was I was trained in everything I was trained in frosting baking and decorating and in front of how everything in front of house and back of house and it was because I'm young they're not gonna make me a higher title or anything like that and you're limited to where you could go a little bit but at the same time I was like I want to grow more like this feels like I've completed everything here yeah and I need to actually get as I said cut off the real dog yeah of what I want to do but how does COVID figure in well because of COVID it was like there's not a lot of people so we can't really we don't need that many employees right right so your hours were going down and down and down and then with school it was like then I can't work less so it's um barely working and then I was I don't know I was like I guess I'm not needed then I thought that I was needed to like because I was cross-rained in everything yeah yeah but then I was realizing you guys are fine without me actually so then I can leave like I feel okay to leave I guess yeah that was like the opposite land here because you got here there's like hey Roy is leaving we super need to go yeah and I like that too because that was something new for me but I loved like my past jobs like the first job that was just fun like I had fun it was a little stress was like a six year old and some people are mean especially like in working in food are like best for like people are mean but as for someone just as like care I was like okay what like we're in the mall it's a pretzel what do you want from me like just take your pretzel leave and so I was able to like everything I've just learned so much and I do having a toolbox of all the things I've learned skills and stuff and there I learned how to multitask and especially like working fast paced and honing in on just look I'm not thinking like things gonna get done fast and also leading a team as well I did that a little bit in training people and a second job also I had to train people again multitask cross-training we're missing two people today it doesn't matter like I'm doing both of those things at the same time should I be worried about you running out of things to learn here I don't think so yeah not for a while until I like I know that UX is what I want to do and where I'm going I think again that's it's showing that like well I went I started marketing and then marketing is okay and then I did web graphic design because wait that's how my brain works and I learned how to do that and then realized I'm not sure and then fine I found out about UX user experience design and then this is like literally like using all the skills that I've learned would you say that you have a pretty easy time putting yourself in other people's shoes I think because of my brown or something I analyze a lot and so part of for me in order to understand something if I have to do that then yes but if I don't know like the details of the situation to I can't really like put myself in okay so it's more of a systemic thinking thing instead of to the extent that I have a gift in that it's more about like the emotional perception and things like that maybe that's my instinct is to put myself in behind their feelings and years would be more their situation there's a place in the system what's outcomes are going to be yeah it's mainly like that like when I'm talking to someone they're like oh I'm going to do this and then I'm okay what do what can what do I have for my life to be able to tell you or but it's not really putting in your shoes more of analyzing and then comparing it with information that I have in my head yeah to then help you yeah so I'm not a big I'm not good with helping people crying or like feeling stuff people know that for me go crying somebody else's show yeah I was like I don't pat your back oh no right just be happy I don't know what to tell you good thing I don't need that too much should we get back on top I care just a little bit it will have to co-brand this one the almost rare special guest I love it so now that we've reflected and looked back at season one and a little bit about the changes coming up ahead what are like real coming up like who's excited about yeah but also what's planned for season two already as like guest wise and stuff like that I guess we've got a few episodes to release that we recorded this fall I mentioned already Elizabeth Ladoo with transition strategist which is like a business succession planning guide firm that she founded some 20 years ago and and she's also been a I guess a chair or the women presidents organization which is a peer advisory thing like me she's been in that organization for forever and so she's going to be a great guest it drops a lot of knowledge bombs there's a couple of thought bubbles in there for sure I've got the last the last business loan that I made when I was a banker black bottle brewery Sean Duck is is going to be released here soon waypoint real estate is coming up in the first five episodes that's Josh Grinsey and and Greg Raider and they're five years old and with 35 employees so they've grown that firm very fast and really created quite a crew and there's one more out there but I can't remember oh two more Jeff Jensen is one of our facilitators now that just joined the team about two months ago so got his journey ready to release and one more escaping me the Jamie oh Jamie contouring we need to get her and she's a new facilitator for us a longtime member and she and her husband sold their business last year I mean so he's the veterinarian she was the business manager basically and and he still works for the acquiring shop and and like I said we you know had to kick her out because she didn't own a business anymore but she wanted to be a facilitator and and so that was fun one of the guests I'm excited about is Heidi Gennall I've been an email correspondence with Heidi Gennall she's a candidate for governor and I said that next time she plans to trip up to a Fort Collins area here we can get her on the schedule of having a podcast and she was the founder of Camp Balow oh yeah yeah so she has a business journey history that I'm gonna focus more on her business journey and learnings and things like that than I am on how she can challenge Jared Polis in the governor's race first she'll have to get through the primary and she's a political outsider so who knows I'm not clear that what her odds are but I really like her what I've seen her writing so far and I mean really a focus on crime and economy and and just the things that I think we're most prudent to care about I'll write Willie Nelson again but I don't know if he's gonna respond Joe Rogan I'm thinking I should just pepper Joe Rogan by the way if we get if anybody has connections to amazing guests that are helpless in her ship and just really enjoy I've got a partnership with the Edwards House Abby Stout as a long time member and it was actually one of my favorite guests as well of a first season her story is very inspirational but we'll put you up in a beautiful boutique hotel just just 10 blocks away from the the local offices and and I don't pay oh maybe I'll donate a little bit to your favorite charity but we don't have a big budget for booking those big guests but I guess that would be probably where I would transition next in this is we know a lot of people and I'm gonna have no shortage of guests we've got approaching a hundred members at local think tank and each one of them has a great story that should be told almost that sounds like a lot of editing but we don't and not everybody wants to be on it and we got some help coming in I hope and then the other so if you got connections to those even more famous business people around here I just wrote one of our members that I understand has a good relationship with the momfruits the momfruits the so that you've heard of JBS and Greeley the beef plant over there momfruits started it they built a huge momfruit beef company and eventually got acquired by JBS and then they took that money and either I think they started the Kalbaraaki's baseball team oh what yeah so the momfruits at least have most of the ownership if not all or a lot of the ownership of the Kalbaraaki's very faithful family as well they're part of the the momfruit college of business over at UNC and just very regionally impactful and a journey that I'd love to just I don't know anything about like how do you start your first beef plant yeah I don't know anything about that industry so knocking on wood hoping to hear back in a positive way but that's what we'll be looking for is those kind of folks I'd love to get Kurt Richardson on Martin Lind is said he would do it but he's too busy over the winter season here but look him up again in the spring I think the McWinnies would be a great story to tell probably Brinkman's even Brinkman construction yeah so I don't yeah more than anything it'll be the amazing people that I come across every day every month I meet him here I meet him there I've known him for years and they're cool if I wouldn't have you over to my backyard for a lovely dinner party you're not coming up my podcast and so you know who you are I don't know I don't have many people that I wouldn't have over to my backyard actually yeah so anyway and what else do you want to ask me should we just wrap up I think that's it's all I got oh the local experience you could ask me what maybe I should ask you do you have a craziest experience of your whole life that you'd like to share I haven't been alive for too long to do what is your birthday January I don't 26 second 22nd okay coming right up yeah I feel like I was thinking about that the other day or maybe it is dream to something not much like crazy I've never cut the head off a moose or no but never done that I feel like I've done something but not crazy enough obviously to remember other than just a nice experience a nice experience was my family and I went to vacation to visit my parents family in Mexico City and I don't know what happened I was a kid so I don't like know the reason why but we ended up staying there for six months seven months and so my mom was kind of like school back in the United States started so you're going to go to school here and so I was in fourth grade and I was I guess all of a sudden you transferred to Mexico City school yeah it was very fun very different and I guess having that experience to be able to see the difference of like schooling and like culture and stuff was really interesting and so it's like a kid my guess where like there is no lunch it's just a lady that comes brings home cooked meals and we're just buy it and wow okay PE and not really anything just jumping jacks if you're good to go like literally no structure no structure and very strange it's oh you didn't know that every field trip we have the next day there's no schools nobody there's no one I don't know there's no announcements like how would I know this and I went to school and I walked to school and so there was nobody like it was just the teachers and nobody said this information to me and some of my teachers you can just show with me can you help me grade papers and I was like oh I will grade my peers they there was no English teacher like they were transitioning to get English literally oh oh my nose English I was like I guess and the teachers and so it's a draw little figure of a body on the board and like see what the parts are like hand and I was like this is the hand and they're like hand and I was like okay this is the head didn't look like a head and that was so strange to me like why am I teaching but it was that like just fun experience and like I love it meeting people and so that was just so fun and well and that probably set the stage for who you've become more than you know yeah and I think that does does have part of that is it's part of me yeah and experience as long as a crazy experience but it's an experience that I had I don't know that's pretty crazy I guess it's not crazy like yeah I took a bunch of acid but it's a pretty unusual experience and especially how you were putting that position to even teach English yeah and it's right in line with our model that ask of your needs and share your abundance yeah and at that age my parents are I already knew I parents already taught me to write in read in Spanish and everything so it wasn't too hard but it was like we're gonna do this and it's like what does that mean like what is that but it was just very strange like not structured like here's a whole entire project and I'm like okay I need to get a poster board and stuff and over there it's not go to Walmart or get stuff it's there's a store specific for crafting and paper stuff okay and so we didn't have a car so it's like walking everywhere so I had to go do that I spent night like all night doing it and I got the next day and the teachers oh yeah I forgot about that if you have it it's cool if you don't like it's fine like you'll pass and I'm like I spent all this time on this and nobody cares were you by yourself like walking around no I was like with my sister like my mom because I don't know where I was saying right well yeah walk around Mexico City I was nine and I guess back then he was safer ran out it's not safe my family won't really go right now but like I learned what I get everywhere like I knew where everything was and it's like yeah if I take the like the train or the bus right now I just need it on the third stop I'd get off here and I'd be at this place and because it'd be like commuting everywhere but it was very like yeah like no structured as to like how am I like did I learn anything honestly I think it's everything I already knew it was learning how to measure things and a little bit of learn about centimeters and yeah you know this like how are you where are you guys learning this this is a fun experience I technically didn't really have any friends I just sad but it was more like what is this and say this in English and I was like oh dog like oh my god that's so cool and so I was like oh it's okay like just use me for my English but it was a great experience to you know be able to be there and like basically live in Mexico City and to really see how different it is than living here and wow you don't have this so that's like normal in the United States or the streets too just how it looks it's well over here it's like super clean and we gotta do this and you have to if even the simplest thing like you have to go to the right of the street for an emergency vehicle over there it's nope you're stuck in traffic because we're not moving like why like why wouldn't you do that kind of your blessings when you have that opportunity sometimes yeah so it is that wow like understanding the whole like why people go to the United States why it's like America is the land of like opportunity and stuff and now understanding that and also learning that more through I think also very important like business owners and small businesses where you just started that like opportunity to do that and also knowing people you know my family and people around me that came here that were like with nothing and now they own businesses and and now they like they're doing great and it's that they have that opportunity where over there it's really difficult to really accomplish really big things and so me getting a little bit of seeing that not necessarily like you know as a kid but just seeing how different it was and I guess then being grateful and understanding what I do have like back home was it was changing back living back to the United States was also very different was strange to me because I was used to so many things and just seeing the streets and stuff was like wow this is so nice so much that it's just a street literally just a street was like but it's so nice in Mexico and we were going to play garage and there's no grass there's no grass anywhere and I was like why isn't there grass what if I fall it's just concrete like how is this a playground and he was like it's like greenery everything's like nice taking care of and I just felt like wow this is like luxury or something even that's just like the street I live on that's awesome that you know even back then when you were nine ten years old you feel like you had those thoughts and yeah I think especially later as you got older I think I definitely I didn't know it back then but I would analyze a lot of things yeah and really take note so it's my sister's oh it's a playground whatever's in Mexico I'm like wait we have grass this doesn't have grass so we have this and this doesn't have this and why kind of like questioning the emergency vehicles yeah like why didn't like that for what that doesn't make sense or the same thing as to like why isn't there like why isn't the school like have actual lunch it's just my mom would give me money and it's okay by the lunch from the lady that makes home-cooked meals and I was like well that means that I don't have to get the lunch so I would just buy like frozen like juices like ice cream popsicles and that'd be my lunch oh because I can like nobody's like telling me you have to get an apple and a fruit or you have to get an apple and a juice you know or like milk no you whatever you want and yeah that like not structured for me was like I need to have things structured but as a kid it was like okay this is fun and stuff but I was like but why like why isn't it there's utility in that structure yeah and I was like this is strange to me I'm so used to like nope you have to do this it's like why I don't know you just have to because that's how it is so we've done the local experience the faith family we haven't really touched on politics and I don't I'm not going to put you on the spot on politics but migration is obviously a really big deal that now with huge caravans coming from Guatemala and Central America and even less Mexicans proper than a lot of other places so talk me about that it's a big because I have relative ignorance of that topic I suppose it doesn't seem to be technically directly but you've first-hand experience and your families or your mom and dad are both immigrated from Mexico yes but they both came here like back then my mom was explaining to me like back then you could like my dad he got us a citizenship and then he fixed like the papers for my mom while my mom was in the United States yeah so now you just got a green card to kind of yeah so now you have to in order to like if you're here legally to fix or get citizenship or anything you have to be sent back to where you're from fix it and then come back which is okay pause my whole life and like my whole family able to do that and so I to me I was also very I don't know how that is we're just all here I don't know how that works until now I've met and talked to people and learned how they got here yep I had to take my two kids and we walked like for five days or something you know it's dangerous and this happened to me almost died like things like that it's like it's trucks and cartels are moving people yeah big money and it's pretty oh my gosh but it states I was like wow like if you guys didn't come here like if my parents didn't do anything like that impacts me like where would I be I'd but maybe in Mexico or something and I'd be a different person and everything would be different and I wouldn't meet all the people that I know now and so to me it's because I the people that I know none is telling me my family because my family didn't have to like go through that like I guess crazy experiences of coming to America but the people that I know my other close friends their family did have to do that and now seeing how it is where it's yeah like I built I came here for the opportunity and I did everything I pay my taxes and everything but oh people now threatened me like I'm a deport you so I'm just like you have anything I'm working harder than you what are you talking about and so then seeing people that knowing people that did have to wear deported and it's a have their whole family they literally work their job or if anything they work like an agriculture or something it's like gotten chickens or whatever it's yeah there's people that do that too so it is to me like I understand the whole like there's bad people that come through and I was like yeah but I was like I think maybe that the bad people is a lot less than good people maybe but I was like that's a point where that's also that whole system is not even correct or so do you think we should open it up more and love I don't think so I think if anything it should just be easier to come like as a regular like seeking opportunity kind of person like without having to do like almost apply like you're coming to college or something not that but there should be a better like system process to do all that stuff if you don't go through that process then you don't get the cheese almost kind of whereas right now it's kind of for the opportunity I have to almost die to get here and seeing all that stuff and knowing someone who was young I think she's maybe 20 and she came here and she's yeah she's I went alone to some girl she's like that's really scary as a girl to have to do that by yourself with people you don't know and like men you don't know and seeing those people and my mom she worked at a detention center for minors and there was a lot of children that weren't either separated from the families or came alone like 10 year olds who came alone and she's their shoes were glued to their feet because they were like walking for days and stuff or girls that are like 13 that are pregnant or a lot of people that are like they're all like traumatized they're kids when it's that the whole like I guess now me being able to see the difference of both those lives I guess is I understand why coming to America versus me or I guess somebody else that was born here whatever this is normal like what I guess it's America's or whatever hard to take it like you could could have taken it for granted without experience going to Mexico and now knowing people that are understanding that yeah and it's very yeah wow like I I can do anything like I it's much more open for me to do anything and it's now it's then now that people are here like they came in legally and now to then be a citizen like that takes a long time to that's so many things to go through so many loopholes to do I know one person recently that they were like beat beat up on the train for this guy dropped his wallet and he got up was like oh sir like your wallet and he immediately was like why are you trying to sell my wallet and then started beating him up like he got he got beat up like he was beat by two other people like just him and from that experience it was like dang like he got beat up but the good thing was that because he was beaten up assaulted by someone he can take that to court to then get a citizenship really literally so it's he doesn't have to go back to Mexico to then fix all of that all his like citizenship he can stay here because it's almost like a silent mold or something like kind of so I guess now it's not a joke just overlining yeah but now it's kind of like well if you are sure it's a ship come here and then get beaten up by someone and then then you can fix here it's interesting you said it should be easier we got to wrap up being you get I love it like yeah appointment I see and yeah I guess just tell people where to find us or find it uh look a thing tank you can check out like a pink tank at like a thing take that calm we got the Twitter no we don't have the Twitter we got insta Instagram look at the tank L-O-C-O think tank.com yes all right say goodbye to the people Alma goodbye thanks for listening to this episode of the Logo Experience podcast if you enjoy this program share with your favorite people and please leave us a review on your favorite listening platform subscribe to never miss a latest interview and check out the logoexperience.com to learn more and find our library of episodes until next time stay local