EXPERIENCE 57 | Dr. Bobby & Jaime Cawthron, Former Owners of Aspen Grove Veterinary Care & The Cabins at Aspen Grove

I guess today we're Dr. Bobby and Jamie Cotherton, former owners of Aspen Grove Veterinary Care and the cabins at Aspen Grove. And Jamie is now a local facilitator and as a former member of local think tank. Jamie is also the founder of Path Forward Business Consulting and Dr. Bobby remains as Chief of Staff for Aspen Grove Veterinary. So these guys sold their business last year and we had a great conversation about kind of the purchase of that business back in 2006, the growth of the business through the 15 years intervening, the challenges of COVID, the building of a team, and we talked really about that vetting process of deciding who should be the person that employs your employees that you've built over this time and you know accept your values and the things that you've come to create as far as a business. We talked also a lot about the love story of meeting each other at Texas A&M and their various backgrounds. We talked about politics a little bit. Dr. Bobby is part of the Yang Gang which is kind of cool and we just really had a lot of fun sharing stories about like finding those critical moments in business and making the best out of what seems at one point to be a tough situation. So I hope you tune in. These guys were a lot of fun. We laughed more than probably almost any of our podcasts so far but we also shared a lot of really smart business guidance. So tune in and enjoy. 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. Episodes 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 local perspective blog posts because I'm lazy to infer to listen and 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. Welcome back to the LOCO Experience Podcast. This is your host, Kurt Bear and I'm here today with Dr. Bobby and Jamie Cotheren and they are the former owners of aspirin Grove veterinary care as well as the cabins that aspirin Grove. And Jamie's now founded a path forward business consulting and has become a LOCO facilitator after being a long time member I should mention and Dr. Bobby remains the chief of staff at the veterinary clinic as well as the best veterinary doctor in town. So let's just start like describe aspirin Grove to me if you would maybe Dr. Bobby to start with that. Sure. Currently it's oh how many doctors do we have now? We have four doctors currently. We are a small animal hospital. I consider it a full service hospital including everything that you might need for your pet including you know boarding and daycare but on the medical side you know we're gonna have everything from your urgent care needs all the way through preventative medicine and geriatric care for your dogs and cats and yes we seem to be you know we're down to just dogs and cats at this time. We used to do some exotics but those doctors have kind of made their way in the world. Some went on to other interns and externships to kind of learn more and become boarded in those types of things and so currently we are doing dogs and cats. Dogs and cats. Jamie did you have anything to add? So no big animals, no lizards, no snails. Not anymore. You used to do those when I was younger but I got too old for that. Well it's probably not that much margin and those little guys either right? You can't fix a gerbil for... You'd be surprised what people will do for little gerbils and hamsters and ferrets and lizards. You'd be surprised. Well farm good. I'm like if I could buy a replacement for less than the price of this one you know I haven't bonded that much with my lizard. Yeah some people really do it's it's pretty wild. So and then how many like support staff and things like that and tell me about the dog daycare? Sure we have a total of 30 staff members are boarding and daycares a set of we have a Kindle Manager and her staff that manage all of the daycare and boarding part of it and then on the medical side of course we have our nurses that that are our main support staff for the doctors and of course the front desk which we call our CSRs and they are also managed directly through what we call a hospital manager. Very cool. Yeah you guys can't see this at home but Bobby's looking at Jamie and she's giving them hand signals for how many employees and stuff because as most of our friends know Jamie knows probably a lot more about the practice. I always always say I was just the train monkey that could do surgery. Well the doctor stuff. You're a well-trained monkey though. That's right. That's a bit in town. So I want to talk about like where did Aspen Grove come from? It was in a business that you guys acquired. I'm trying to remember did you start it from scratch? No so we actually moved here from Austin and Osex when we purchased it was an existing practice when we purchased it. It was one doctor and we had two support staff one CSR and one technician and then Bobby and I. Yeah. That was it. And you're rolled in a town like you found it on biz by cell or a broker or something like that. Well yeah there was a broker and we came in to visit. It was time for us to move on in our careers and so we were looking for a practice. We thought if we had to move we might as well move somewhere great and so we started looking at other states besides Texas. So were you a business owner before that? No. No. So it was like trial by fire right from the start? Yeah. I mean yeah I mean to a certain extent there was opportunities and they had clients and stuff so it's totally in sense to acquire a practice. Yeah so one of the what we were looking for one of the requirements was we wanted real estate along with the practice. We didn't want to lease a building and so that of course cuts the inventory about in half but we looked at a couple of practices in Taus, Albuquerque, Oregon. There's of course practices in Texas both of our families live there and wanted us to stay but and then this one came up in in Fort Collins and so we flew up. Yeah and we actually we had lunch at Austin's in Old Town and decided it's where we wanted to live. Yeah just that quick. Yeah. It sounds like you were evaluating only practices in cool places to live as well. So I grew up in Northern New Mexico and Los Alamos so I was ready to go back to the mountains. It took me a couple years to convince Bobby there were other states in the Union besides Texas. So let's talk about who you guys were immediately before that and we'll jump back into the business journey. You were living in Austin. Dr. Bobby were you the vet working in a practice? Prior to? Correct. So when I graduated from vet school I went directly into what's called a mixed animal practice. It was me and another gentleman who was the owner and I was there for six years as in what's considered an associate vet and area and spent that whole time you know if you will getting out of vet school getting comfortable with medicine and and doing a little bit of everything so. Right small team so you get to touch all the and it's Texas so that's big animals, little animals, whatever. We did a little bit of everything absolutely so we were doing a lot of that stuff before we made the decision we wanted to kind of own our own practice and build our own practice at that time. Jamie's like I got a trained monkey I got to do something more I'm excited with it this. Jamie what were you doing immediately before? So my background is actually in marketing and PR. Okay. So I was working I was the marketing director at St. Gabriel's Catholic School in Austin. No. Prior to that I worked in I was the public relations coordinator for Central Texas Medical Center. We had our daughter and I stayed home with her for a year or so and then did some freelance work. I did a lot of work for Southwest Texas State University College of Business. No one of your emails and stuff are always so good. A lot of email experience I guess. Yeah. Okay great. So take me into that like it's you with two staff with the doctor that sold the practice I presume did he stick around for a while or whatever. It was actually a pretty tough transition with the previous owner. We actually had a lot of problems and litigation honestly that came with that and so yes she was there for the initial part of it but was not with the practice very long. Quickly you're like if you're going to be like this before it was just yeah I was the only doctor there at that time. Yeah and like as some things like reflecting back if you knew then what you know now like different questions you could have asked or would you would you take it back you wouldn't have taken it back anyway right. I would not have taken it back. I mean it was really difficult and scary at the time because we literally didn't have any money we put all our money into you get a loan too. Oh yeah absolutely. Big loans. Big loans but then we had to put a big down payment so it took all of our our cash so we just kind of moved up here. Banks do that sometimes they're like well we want to get as much down payment as possible but they leave you without any cash to like if it doesn't work just right. Right well we had you know we had a line of credit for our capital for the practice but just personally we sold most of our furniture because it was too expensive to move across country and so we moved up here with our daughter in our dog and we had a futon and I think a camping chair in our in our apartment to begin with and then no I wouldn't change it at all I I would say looking back it's really important and we tried to just kind of go in smoothly not make any waves just ease our way into the business where what we should have done you can't have a beginning without an end and so we didn't really feel comfortable ending things and we really should have made a clear end from her rain into hours yeah yeah I mean like I would change you know the new bosses here here's some of the new rules or whatever even and they don't have to be like all new rules right right right right right right but I think there has to be an end in those scenarios in a new beginning yeah so this is circa 2006 yep did like was there other staff turn over and things like that then associated her no the two yeah the two staff members they stuck with us and the the previous owner I guess about three months after we took over she moved down the street and opened up practice she was meeting people on the side of the road we lost and you know when you buy a business there's always going to be a certain level of attrition that you expect but we we lost it was 60 70 percent of the the client list that we had just acquired oh my gosh we went through most of our capital basically through staff absolutely or yeah I mean you can it's a whatever yeah yeah it felt like it at the time but we we used most of our capital that we had fighting her through lawsuit right and then leaving it with no capital market I think yeah I think we had like ten thousand dollars left in our in our reserves we'd spend everything else on attorney's fees and fighting and we I just I remember we sat down and we made a conscious decision that we were done we're not going to fight her anymore we didn't care what she did we're never going to speak her name and we're just going to use what little money we have left to build the practice that we want we kept our a list clients which was really what we wanted we lost BCD yeah everyone else and so we just we built the practice that we wanted and we've never spoke about it again yeah well here we are yeah speaking about it yeah yeah but you know so it's good to know you know for those that might be listening you know that due diligence and in Colorado it's so hard to even enforce and non-compete anyway so and that's what it comes down to and I think Jamie says it best when they say the though our contract is only good if both parties agree to it right consigned it all you want otherwise a handshake is better a handshake with agreement is better than a contract without agreement exactly yeah for sure good point and we learned that I guess the hard way and and but moving forward was was the best thing we could have done and just let that go yeah fair enough so talk to me about like hitting the turn then I mean we so there's a little thing that happened in 2008 two years after we purchased the practice which was the great recession yeah and so that was also part of probably about when I met you Jamie the first time that being I'm meeting yeah so there was still some struggles through all of that where everybody was just having a hard time but you know we yeah I got to say though we once we made that decision to grow right and um and started networking and getting out and meeting people um Fort Collins really embraced us I feel like um and we never had it down year even through 2008 so in 2010 I think we started doing some remodel to the building yeah and we were getting loans from the bank and we did so well through the recession that like our attorney show that you could make positive yeah our attorney and our accountant had to write letters explaining why we made money but this was legit yeah so we really and what do you attribute that to like good service marketing combination of all those things I think it's all of those things I think um Bobby is an incredible doctor with excellent bedside manner and communication um very caring and so we were providing a service um that people wanted and Fort Collins really responds to relationship building and networking yeah we just went out and started making relationships with people and we're just so grateful we were embraced yeah yeah that's cool yeah and we don't always embrace everybody when they come from tech haha it's weird so um like what was your team size say by 2010 you I mean did you just kind of slowly add as you get more and more clients is that kind of the model of growth well you add a new services here in there too sure yeah so we it was very planned growth planned and deliberate growth we didn't just hang a shingle and they will come um every year we did very detailed and um planning and it was what type of medicine did Bobby want to practice how do we attract those types of cases like adding new skills that are deliverables to the right model yeah how we're going to achieve the goals that we've set for ourselves is it added service do we um do we extend our hours do we add staff and you always kind of go through growing pains on you know you go to this cusp of oh we've got so much business we can't keep up is it enough to hire a new staff member and then it'll go down a little bit the next month and you just kind of eat up and then you finally we got to add somebody did you follow like a planning model or bringing any outside consulting or things like that like how did you learn how to be a business owner uh just see the pants some of the people say it's smart you are really so a lot of it I learned um just at work and yes we had a very specific model that we used um and I it's an adaptation of a model that I learned at from St. Gitterville's Catholic School um when I sat on their marketing committee it was a very committee driven and it was a woman that was writing a book on business development and so it was kind of an adaptation on that I don't think she actually ended up publishing it but it is a very uh simple and effective method of goal planning and setting and deliverables and how are you gonna get from A to B yeah a little bit in the vein of a library familiar with the business model canvas have you seen that it's like a business plan on a page you know what sort of alley proposition how do we serve our customers but yeah probably different than that but still the simple that gets done is uh is a good model to have so when did the you did a remodel when did the doggy daycare start to come around we honestly had doggy daycare from the beginning yeah so um and it was really limited it was the I can't remember we had seven or eight kennels when we first purchased the practice um seven she says um and and signals and we did very little daycare so um and that was partly because we didn't have the staff for it so it was a lot of overnight boarding more than daycare but it was pretty obvious from the beginning that that was an extremely popular thing in this area um people wanted daycare they wanted to socialize their dogs and groups um you know they felt guilty going to work and not being home with their pets and they wanted them to have right that fun and that care during the day um and so that we started expanding pretty quickly because we saw that yeah it was never in our original business plan because we just wanted to be a hospital we wanted to focus on patient care we didn't even want to really have a lot of retail we didn't want any distractions away from patient care was our original business model getting into the community and seeing what people wanted the services they were willing to spend money on what they need and what they need and you're like given people that care and you're like if you just had access to better pet food we wouldn't have all these problems well I never really expanded much into retail right okay the the boarding in daycare that was really what the market demanded yeah absolutely I just interviewed Heidi Gennall uh republican candidate for governor but founder of camp bawa yeah and uh really talked about her business journey and yeah you know it's one of those right plays right time a little bit but she really was a visionary unless she saw that people would want that consistent experience and you know videos so they could see their little sweetie pies jumping around with the other doggies and I know you guys had that right from the start too or nearly uh we never did the video never did no no I did I called around to in fact camp bawa was one of the people I called in some other um facilities that had the online video monitoring and all of them said oh my god don't do it and it came down to um it was an it nightmare yeah um especially when people are traveling out of state out of country and then and with issues they're contacting you saying I can't find my sweetheart yeah okay yeah your csr's end up becoming it text for people and just fielding the phone calls was was difficult in finding the company that could provide the services for a reasonable price and so we never ended up doing a good job sorry for misremembering that I remember taking the tour when you did the huge edition the two stories yeah no no no we we um instead decided to take a simpler method that wouldn't expand the bandwidth of our staff something that we could do easily and so we just did a smug mug page you dropped your pet off you get a link texted to you and the staff would just take pictures and upload them every day so you could go on and see that was the the solution to that no we don't have fair enough so generally the growth was just kind of organic you know I know you guys focused a lot on team and and like communicating your values I remember seeing like your values in the wall and you're talking about the retreats that you would go on every year and stuff yeah was that something that started from the start or was that something that got more and more so I feel like the more staff we got the more challenging it was for sure and so we had do you want to tell him the Atlanta trip oh I mean that was kind of the start it was so at one point you know we're Johnny on the spot right we're the two owners and we're we're doing everything at that point and I for my license I have so many hours of continuing education that to complete each year and so we went to the AVMA conference in Atlanta Georgia so we flew out several hours away from Colorado and in the midst of that we had an exodus of of staff members that were disgruntled and unhappy that had left in the middle of this trip and so now we're stressed in Atlanta trying to get back because you know people patients need care people needed to be you know cared for and I think that's when we started thinking about the leadership team yeah so we did have I think it was three right and it up walking out and then the rest was a lot yeah about a 10 or 12 14 or yeah the rest of the staff of course stepped up and they did they really held down the four and took care of the patients and helped us out we're super grateful to them but it was okay what just happened yeah yeah and what did happen what was it like staged coup and just one disgruntled employee so you guys mess up something um all of the above yeah it came down to and it was really odd I don't know exactly I remember her name I won't even say her name but she was one of my main CSRs and I thought we had a really good working relationship every time I asked something she'd be like oh I've got it I'm here I left a list of things that needed to be done when we left and she gave me a hug and was like don't worry Jamie we've got this everything is great but behind my back I did not know that she was super disgruntled she didn't like me giving her lists of things to do she didn't like she just didn't like it and so she um she got two other staff members you know and happy as well I riled up and they just left their keys on my desk and walked out so I don't I don't honestly know what happened um it was it was a shock it was a shock but I think there's some introspection when we have those situations happen and and it did help to kind of propel us towards I think sitting down and really having other people just as committed to the development and the path of the practice so that you know everybody was on board yeah looking back it's probably not a bad thing that it happened because oh you never gotten stronger we were never gotten stronger through that when we were in Atlanta we just sat down and we're like okay this can never happen again like what are we gonna do to change the the atmosphere our culture you know everything yeah right so we came up with our we changed our values we changed our mission statement we came up with the leadership team we um decided to start having these leadership retreats like we did a ton of planning on how we were gonna reorganize yeah um the culture of the practice to reflect what we thought we already had you stood for yeah well and it's easy when there's seven of you for people to kind of touch and feel the values and the things and whatever things change a lot as you grow and you don't really nobody really prepares you for what happens as you're a group of people grows even from seven to 10 to 12 yeah to 15 it everything changes dynamics change and nobody nobody really talks about that or helps you these I mean maybe they do nobody talked to me about well I was courting you for a local thing tank by about that time probably yeah you were reluctant so um any any like big milestones along the way kind of I want to uh jump back a little bit into the way back uh soon before we get to the exit story but like what were some of the milestones on the way leading up to that you know I feel like all of our milestones happen around a town we were on vacation in Mexico and found out that we won business of the year the football and chamber oh I remember yeah we were 2018 or 2014 2014 okay yeah yeah so that was that was a big one that was exciting so they don't prep you for that they're not like it's not like because you donated so much or anything like that no no no I don't think I have to do that I had to refer to members no no no I mean you you know that you're nominated because they send you a form and you have to fill out they're like you've been nominated and then you fill out the application and you give them um a ton of information you answer questions if they ask you and so we knew we were in the running but um no I yeah no I I didn't think we had any chance of winning I just was like why not I should have someone nominate me for local thing yeah it would be pretty good publicity I imagine yeah yeah it's um I just need to do something cool yeah and and after that I was a judge for a couple years I'm not gonna say which years yeah right confidential but um I was a judge for I think three years and so and I can say from experience which made me even more proud that we won we scrutinize the crowd out of every and we talk about everything and that's pretty cool yeah it's um so aside from doctrine dr. Bobby did you like oversee the medical staff and things like that but you didn't do like they're scheduling necessarily things like that but you did oversee like they're training their credentialing some things along that medical service provision line right so that was mostly where I tended to be a part of the practice was um managing the medicine um the quality of medicine what we provided and and how we grew from that standpoint so it was in my purview across the board on what we were gonna do what we could do what we thought was important um and you know I was there helping with a lot of that but um yeah scheduling and a lot of that for the nurses we we did leave up to like a head nurse most of the time from the day to day yeah I would say he's really at the helm of the growth of the practice as well so when we're doing our planning right Bobby is the one that decides well this is the direction for example um you know urgent cares it's interesting medicine yeah so to some extent and so but but we're not gonna we're not gonna advertise hey come in for urgent care unless he's trained the staff right he gets a list of equipment that he needs and so when he says okay the staff is trained we've got the equipment that we need I feel comfortable that we can advertise and we can bring in patients that's when we kind of he lets me lose to go the marketing communication stuff happening and hiring and whatever right yeah so so maybe like the the kind of visionary leader of the practice remains you Dr. Bobby and you're kind of the integrator more of the vision you're exploring the new territories new service offerings things like that yeah but I think Jamie brings a lot of vision to the practice because you know I can come up and say hey I think we should do this um but um as far as implementation and and how do we actually you know bring that um bring that out bring that to fruition um it takes a lot of moving parts and and that's not necessarily my wheelhouse I'd definitely defer uh to her and a lot of those scenarios so it was definitely a team effort for sure um and then having to monetize because we have a business to support we've right you got a loan to pay a loan to pay it's you know it's how we pay our mortgage into the grocery store we got 30 families that are depending on us for salary you know yeah and so but then how do you make sure that the medical team isn't pressured by finances right and so the way we did that was um I carried it all Bobby never knew what our finances were oh well he didn't even have he wasn't even a signer on our checking account like really he had he had zero access or knowledge yeah of money um and so I think that's really kind of cool because it is it's there's an inherent conflict of interest in the practice of medicine you know and and in lawyering you know every layers like yep you need more services right I I love my attorney I don't think you would ever do that um I yeah so we we kind of had this Chinese wall there that he it was really important to me to not share so if we were at the beginning you know if we if I was worried about payroll or you know how are you gonna make a payment it just I carried all the stress by myself because I didn't want him going into a room yeah and making our need to just sell a couple surgeries even unconsciously he would he would never do that consciously but unconsciously you never yeah well everybody's honest when there isn't any pressure to be dishonest right right so yeah so Bobby's never had what what what what unless I shared it with him he never I tell you got like a big fat offer that he's like what what wait a minute but I want to come back to that though let's I want to go on a get to know journey and let's go to third grade for you doctor Bobby absolutely where you at I mean uh northeast elementary school in Snyder Texas my teacher is Missou Grusset who I still follow on Facebook that's awesome where is where is Snyder Snyder is in the middle of now where West Texas it's literally about an hour and a half away from Abilene Lubbock San Angelo right in the middle of all that area I've been through both of those you know like an Abilene yeah so you might have been near Snyder fair enough fair enough it's just oil fields and cotton farming and cattle ranch and Snyder is a town of still a town of 12,000 people last time I went through it and it hadn't changed populations and it's the biggest town for about 80 miles around it is like county seat and yeah and yeah I'd say it's one of the bigger towns in the area right right yeah but it's got a high school of a few hundred kids and whatever yeah I graduated with 225 things something like that it wasn't small yeah but it wasn't huge she it's funny that you said third grade with Su Grusset she still she's still sent that she's a high coup that you wrote in third grade she still sends him stuff that he wrote his work from third grade we have a board that it's on the crush on she's amazing she I hope I hope you posted and and you tag her and she hears that he has gotten everything that she has sent and kept it and I love it yes well you should definitely make a point to tag Su when you post this in your Facebook yeah so what kind of a kid read did you like dig animals right from early and stuff like that sure absolutely and my my family had a lot of ranching background my grandfather did that till he died ranched in the west Texas area as well as so my dad and my mom grew up in Pagosa Springs Colorado actually kind of ranching was was you know what they did up there they moved to Colorado city Texas is where my dad ended up first going back to coming out of the army and he was part of the mostly the oil fields there most of that time but we had a lot of ranching in the family so cattle and horses were always a part of my life and of course cats and dogs you know we had a tons of barn cats and pet dogs inside dogs outside dogs those kind of things yeah it was pretty common any bunch of siblings or anything yes so I have two sisters and a bit of a complicated family history but yeah so a couple of sisters and I kind of a typical middle class oil field existence out there normal existence thought it was a great place to grow up at the time I would never go back there again thinking back on it you know there's just nothing out there as far as that goes but had a great time growing up there and a lot of my push towards veterinary medicine was actually came about when I started high school and I had kind of gone through middle school and didn't know what I wanted to do with my life right and was taking no extra curricular activities in high school because I tried a bunch of stuff in middle school and didn't necessarily make a baseball team didn't yeah I mean I was five foot nothing and I couldn't play football in Texas so he didn't have much of a choice but the FFA teacher so featured farmers of American teacher called me up in the summer was like hey you need to you need to do this you need to join the ag department you need to take this class and you join FFA and I was like okay sure why not and then you know and it really stuck and it was a great experience my friends only not only from middle school went through high school together that way through that that kind of department we went to college together and it was a defining moment for me to cool really think about animals more and where I wanted to go with a career and veterinary medicine tended to kind of sneak up on me in the middle of high school and really kind of pushed for that as I was graduating cool and where did you head off to school right so I went to Texas A&M university which is the at the moment was the only vet school so it was kind of pretty obvious that's where I wanted to go we of course had closer schools in West Texas there was Texas Tech and Texas A&M is where in college station Texas yeah so it's in kind of a bit more south easterly if you will it's outside of Austin a couple hours outside Austin couple hours outside Houston like between Austin and Houston basically yeah and I went there for undergraduate as well as when I got accepted to vet school and went and completed my doctorate through that program as well so let's bounce to your lovely wife Jamie you came from what's a what's a laboratory there Los Alamos yes that that place yes it was always you'd had a scientist or something yes he is he remains a scientist he remains a scientist I'm trying to remember dad don't get mad if you're listening he's either an engineer or a physicist he's got his same same thing yeah he's smartest man I know but he was he was the computing and community and where'd he come from because not many people come from Los Alamos so both of my parents grew up in Texas in South Texas in Evality they they went to high school together and became smart kids got some advanced degrees and went to Los Alamos to create some bombs and different weird things exactly like where they still are happily creating bombs today so describe like your third grade existence you know I do not remember third grade I remember fourth grade because of fourth grade tell me about fourth grade my my teacher was Mrs. Garcia and she was the best teacher I had I credit all of my study skills I think to her and in the fourth grade you're very driven for sure that was were you you're fairly tall were you like an early tall you're like early tall beating up all the boys when you were in fourth and fifth grade because I got beat up a lot by tall girls but I was in fourth and fifth grade I'm like I am very tall I was tall young and I hated being tall oh I'm so sorry what you're not tall compared to me I'm always in the center back I don't consider the first girl I ever danced with was 510 when I was 5 1 and she took pity on me and danced with me and thank you Leon Albrecht you know and so I'm glad I grew a few inches of college just so I can meet you that's exactly right so tell me about awkwardly tall Jamie and fourth grade with Mrs. Garcia I we are the basketball team no no I'm actually not good at basketball everybody else that no I'm not good at basketball I I did play volleyball but that was really just something to kill time before ski season started oh okay sure because is there a ski mountain right there Los Alamos has a pride well it was private at the time a private ski hill we had a I was on the Los Alamos ski team oh okay so that's your special talent raced all over the state of New Mexico oh cool what was your like slalomies race yes okay wow that's the one I would be the best at because I can't really turn tight but I can go as fast as you want to go I'm not scared at all no scared I've crashed I crashed from like 50 miles an hour but 20 times and you're still alive you may want to have a little get out I want to go slow as possible no I just have a tip-down kind of guy I really like going fast too my ratio of how fast I go compared to my level of skill is off the charts so you're terrified for other people I'm not scared but that's part of the the real all right so all the skiers yeah watch out for the guy the bright yellow coat so you were tearing up the ski slopes was kind of your past time average student or better than average student I know I would say it was an average student yeah and then where did you head off to schools that that's Texas ain't it okay yeah for your undergrad and that you didn't go to graduate school yeah certainly not okay so so you go off to graduate or to college and what were you studying my degree is in journalism with a focus on public relations was in the okay journalism so you've got right into your field basically although journalism not so much but communications ultimately right yeah so it was I was never I never took the classes like I was never going to be on TV or a newspaper journalist but I did focus on the the communications and the PR aspect of it fair enough fair enough and then we kind of heard kind of your your journey from there I want to hear the love story I was going to see you focused on journalism and cute veterinary students or something like that yeah she had a type for sure oh there's a story there there was a pretty yes no there sounds like we did not run in this not even close no no no so I I had a lot of fun in college you're a party girl I was I I had a lot of fun in college I would call myself an average student I I was dedicated I put myself through school those were the girls I hung out with you know I supported myself I didn't have anybody support me I put myself through school yeah had a job but I did I did have a lot of fun um Bobby spent his time in the library the only time the only reason we met is because he had found out he'd just gotten into vet school and he was out partying and he was letting his 4.0 slide to like a 3.9 because he'd already been doing some type of vet school it's so that's what you're like who's that's what we finally like we had met a little bit earlier than that though oh right you did okay yes I was working in a laboratory at anam and a friend was moving into your apartment so the first time I ever met her was helping this friend move into Jamie's apartment you're like who is that exactly but then you heard she had a reputation of a party girl well no it's kind of funny so I hate shoes I love shoes I hate wearing shoes yeah and so every woman in the world you understand what I'm talking about um it's so I'm helping I'm helping Bobby move in I don't have any shoes on and he's very concerned about my feet and he just kept asking don't you want to give us some shoes on right what did you drop blocks and these are concrete stairs and asphalt that you're on right it's so kind of dangerous no you crazy person so there's both an instant attraction and some fascination with look how much different this person is that I am that's true that was so yes but he didn't want to date me on true so you guys uh was it like a once you got reconnected there was it like an instant no he actually didn't want to date me oh you had to chase him for a while so there's there's two very um different perspectives of the story yes that sounds like a chapter should we have just one and then the other yeah I think so go ahead go ahead and tell them the the false truth in the novel there are neither details this episode is sponsored by logo think tank logo 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 we love what we do and who we do it with our model features gift back minded business veterans and the role of local facilitators 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 logo think tank get their sixth month of membership for free just mention the local experience podcast on your application to learn more visit our website at locothinktank.com that's l-o-c-o thinktank.com so I was at the time dating a boy that Katie who was a roommate or a mutual friend did not like because he was kind of a jerk and it made me cry and um she was like you need to date like a real man you need to get rid of this guy I'm gonna set you up with Bobby and I was like okay whatever and so she's trying to set up this dinner for him to come over and um Bobby refuses to come he's like she's the worst shoes what she's moving Bobby's like no I don't want to go and so the dinner never happens um and I think it was at her ring dunking that is when we actually have our first date yeah that's true yeah so the true story is they called me up and they wanted to have dinner on a Thursday night and I had just you had a test on Friday I exactly had a test on Friday but I didn't have just a test I had the mug so this is first this is the first semester first year of vet school first test but they called them combined test which was we are taking 24 credit hours this semester oh you walk into your combined exam six weeks into the semester for your first combined exam which is they stack all the tests together and they hand them all to you and they say you have eight hours to complete this test and it's all of your classes that day at that moment so you have anatomy and physiology and virology you could have taken it it was for dinner it was prudent but you could have scheduled a different date that's all I said I was like best scheduled a different date and then yeah now did you eat dinner I had Taco Bell in the locker I'm gonna side with Bobby here because it would have seemed like he was a dick if he like came for an hour it would have like he would have been thinking about nothing else except for his stupid test the next day if he was there exactly it would have been fair to you it makes me laugh it's the first time I've ever in my entire life asked out a boy so yeah well you got to say no like as a man especially a man with a wife he's tall she's not talking it's the heel okay so I'm gonna stop picking it you guys so where did the like actual love stories start then like you just right so there's a tradition at an M where when you get your class ring you go dunk it in a picture of beer and retrieve it the third time that year you went out boozing exactly and you ran into Jamie again there she is again and we connected at that time and yes we started talking and we became best friends yeah my wife and I became best friends for a year before we never did it yeah there was so I I was working I was taking a semester off I was working at as a bank teller so college station Brian college station two separate towns almost run in together you don't really know when you leave one into another we were living in college station my branch was in downtown Brian my car broke down and I was supposed to be at work at like 5 a.m. or something the early shift and so I wasn't sure how I was going to get to work my car wasn't working and Bobby shows up at my apartment I didn't even ask he just shows up take to take me to work oh like you texted him like my car is broken or something well no he knew we didn't have text at the time all right this was way and not only did he just show up he wasn't even in his pajamas he was like dressed with a cowboy hat on like he was ready for the day this was Texas come to come take me to work I didn't have to ask or anything it was just well what time am I supposed to be there in the morning and he just came and what a sweet yeah I wasn't even like you're smitten right from there yeah of course yeah yeah yeah and I was smitten from the very beginning right so let's get the love story we'll catch up to that just a little bit more later but um we kind of jump back into the the the world of hey we moved for Collins didn't know anybody did you know anybody in Fort Collins or no we got a soul alley we knew alley she was in preschool all right and how old was she she was four yeah she was four she went we got here and we enrolled her into spring great country school yeah yeah very cool yeah so let's get back into the Aspen Grove journey you're popping along your 25-30 employees whatever you've got the thing humming pretty good it seems like maybe the last few years just kind of slow incremental growth yeah people don't Jamie didn't barely work it seems like it's kidding no you were always working but he did have it pretty figured out yes so um after the Atlanta trip and we really honed in and focused on changing the culture getting the leadership team um and then everything kind of developed from there on how we're going to onboard people how we're going to train yeah so all of those pieces started falling into place um and we got managers that were training and then I was able to start delegating some of my duties and and working reasonable out instead of 60 hours a week or around 45 yeah yeah were there any like key people along that journey whether it's outside looking in or key staff members that really took on you know an an unusual amount of the responsibility of turning that into a well-eiled machine over that time absolutely I think there's a lot of people that we had in our corner um I I hesitate to start naming how I've scared I forget some there's so many um I we can leave it there is fine no I mean I think we could at least acknowledge Shane and and what he did for the practice absolutely Shane sacred was was instrumental um and helping us I think he helped us interview every manager we hired really yeah he would yeah absolutely I didn't realize that was one of his special talents uh you know I don't know I used him a little differently he didn't ever ties that that was how he was he was my kind of sounding board for everything um and so absolutely Shane I I do say like Barb Eines was she took me around and and really introduced me to it a lot of people and to get into her wing she was amazing she still is amazing yeah um and then of course endless Jason and Randy who were our first hires I think Jason he did I mean he was Johnny on the spot but not only he was a great technician but he helped with the building and if we had plumbing issues and yeah so we did have some great people that were just absolutely integral and and keeping the place going in times where we didn't have you know all the money in the world to do the things that we wanted to do you know the place you never do right you've always got unlimited wants and limited me right yeah and there you know we did have some issues with with staff you always do nobody nobody gets along all the time there's always going to be you know people that yeah would be better somewhere else but I would say the majority of the staff members that we hired have been amazing yeah yeah and really we wouldn't have achieved anything without the team members that we hired and and when they move on you know it always it hurts a little bit but it's always it's better for them and they always had reasons to go when you get kind of a limited timing letter right yeah absolutely yeah absolutely and sometimes people just need a change and and I don't fault anybody I've always said I just want everybody to be happy yeah and their career isn't if that's at Aspen Grove it is and if it's somewhere else you know yeah I'm just happy how would you describe like the super Aspen Grove like person like are there sort of characteristics a Grover how would you describe like the super the ideal Grover ideal Grover the ideal Grover is you know our core values were communication compassion and integrity yeah and so I would say that so somebody those that would describe so somebody who likes people yeah of course you have to like animals everybody likes and that's a given right right but we we're not in the business of just taking care of animals we're in the business of taking care of the people right sure yeah because people learn a lot of stress when their pets especially if it's end of life and stuff like that absolutely every client that comes in is in a state of heightened emotion whether it's happy or sad yeah right so you you have to even just to check up for their sweet new puppy yep it's still a heightened experience and yeah you have to kind of manage that and yeah I think the optimal Grover is somebody that walks in the door with a smile in their face just looking forward to those interactions and and really kind of just helping people with problems um getting them solutions and just helping that animal bond and and that's our the biggest thing that we've always wanted to do and part of why we wanted our own practice was we wanted to have that ability to um make a place that people wanted to come to yeah as our ultimate goal for sure it always smelled really nice there and was just attractive physically especially after remodel and stuff but I'm also a client no after I'm sure so bring me back to hey somebody called they want to buy our practice is that like the right place to go next with this business journey or is there some things in between no I mean had you thought about it not telling it all you hadn't really planned for it now really maybe another three or five years because you guys are young and whatever I mean I we always ran it with the intention to sell it's it was always from the very beginning we were never going to retire from Aspen Grove it was an investment in our future that's the reason we wanted the real estate right yeah it is a business it's our passion but it's also it's a business so we always ran the practice with the idea that it was going to be sold um into a certain extent I just don't think we we're in the position in the world these days where you know you can bring in an associate and expect them to kind of purchase the practice from you yeah individuals purchasing practices prices are too high the capital is not there they can't do it anymore we were extremely lucky on that side of it independence especially in your industry but also other industries it's it's just hard for an independent to even compete oh we found that out yeah yeah so um there is an interesting trend happening that most people don't know about in Fort Collins um we were one of the last hospitals in Fort Collins to sell most other hospitals had already sold to oh even all the ones that sound like homie family names absolutely absolutely so the trend is a corporation comes in and buys the practice but they keep all the local branding so nobody really knows right um and so we were I think one of sex that was still left in Fort Collins that was and um it's really hard to compete with wages and benefits and you know the buying power the buying power oh so you guys were feeling pressured by all these kind of relatively new entries because 10 years ago almost all the vets were independence right absolutely yeah yeah so that's a big industry shift yeah well and then COVID hit and all of the the pressure that was put on small business you know all of the the pay time off right sick time you had to close you know and the PPP helped a little bit but it's there was a lot more that was happening than the PPPs could cover right and so it was it at least brought it to the forefront where we started really thinking about you know how you know how do we transition really how do we transition out of the you know the practice at some point like there was even though you've been growing growing growing right margins were starting to season pressure there's in the hiring process and the wages and I think that pressure was building up and you know again we had always thought about how we're gonna you know you know move forward and there was a certain extent that this was a bit more of my passion project than maybe Jamie I kind of shrug her your shoulder into it for a non-my passion yeah that's that's what she does and which is I'm grateful for and part of the discussions were you know next chapter in her life and what that meant for her and and so all of those things kind of accumulated into you know is this the right time to at least consider things and that's when we started discussing it with corporation certain corporations okay yeah yeah so it wasn't completely unsolicited you kind of wouldn't say that we get solicitations all the time right yeah it's easy to respond to one of those yeah it's easy to respond but it was you know and we we did not take the highest offer you were like selecting your suitor absolutely because the highest offer was with a company that neither one of us have much respect for and we're definitely not gonna work for yeah right and it wasn't just about the money when we sold it's you know we had staff to take care of yeah we've come to love all of our clients and patients and and so and when did that happen that was so the first contact was what it was April May earlier so we closed in May okay so probably yeah probably March February March it was a pretty quick it's about a year ago now but yeah it's fast it was a pretty quick close it was gonna be quicker but we had a COVID outbreak at the clinic and we had to shut down and so that pushed the closing and the the company was very supportive and I was able to call them and they're like okay this is what we've done with other practices right there's what we say you're like oh wow there's some it's the resources absolutely it's a great company that was sold to it's they're do you want to give them a shout out is it allowed or not really well everybody's already it's a vet corps vet corps is the is the company and it's a fabulous company to work for and how many clinics do they operate around we're the only ones in northern Colorado I think they're the closest one they've got a couple in Denver and Colorado's colors rings but we're the only one in Fort Collins today but so they have hundreds and hundreds across the country they've got 500 right total about 500 across the country they started back E so that's where they're mostly concentrated but they have them in almost every state it sounds like to do it right and you guys kind of took your time how do you evaluate your shooter in a situation like that sure excellent question yeah I mean uh many many different things and part of it was you know what are they bringing to the table to help us in continuing to provide for our staff that was a big big part of it the benefits and abilities that a large corporation can bring what all are they bringing also how much autonomy we have as a practice in the sense of you know where the practice continues to go and that autonomy continues to fall on the shoulders of myself and our hospital manager which has been nice yeah and there's a lot of times and when we go to them where we ask this question hey should we be doing something different here or this way and they go okay here's some guidelines but it is up to you you do you on what you want to do at that place we do not want to change what you have built at this point um we're here to support and to expand and to build but we're not here to change which has always been nice yeah it's really do you're happy with the choice absolutely absolutely great good nothing you could really say anything if you weren't so you had a problem you had a couple of months probably of like hanging around and doing some stuff yeah so I was under contract um to help with the transition um and so I've done and I still do some consulting with them with Ashley calls me yeah so I've done everything that you're not like talk to the hand no no absolutely no I would never do I wouldn't do that to Bobby I wouldn't do that to the to the clients the patients that we've required and Ashley who we promoted from within to take my position and um no it's you're happy yeah absolutely absolutely and I'm happy with the with the transition and the company and I was so grateful that Ashley was there that we could yeah feel comfortable and it was familiar with the whole organization that's a huge plus yeah for sure well I'm sure for your whole team was there was there any significant turnover after the acquisition not because of the acquisition yeah just because of the great resignation and all the other things it really was we had a we had a lot of COVID parts of that where there was turnover and just a lot of satisfaction like we just say COVID like because people didn't want to wear a mask or they did want to wear a mask or they didn't want to fight about it with each other they were getting sick sick they were scared about outbreaks and scared yeah I think there was a decent amount of fear we and not that we didn't go to certain provisions to help with like herb signs stuff like that yeah you're very conscientious yeah the the the measures that we take even before we closed I don't think people understand like the level of stress yeah that the staff feels and I get that curbside isn't fun for anybody yeah the level of stress like trying to deal with all this stuff is we're trying to get sick yeah you're trying to and you have all new systems and processes and you're trying not only to do what's best for the patient and the client now you've got this added level okay we've got you know we're in a pandemic and so the stress level of everybody at the client I think it's I think it's every small business no I think it's every small business and I don't think the general customer or client understands what small business employees are going through so yeah I do think there was some of that but I would not say that there was anything where nothing extreme yeah and they was like oh my gosh I hate this corporate situation it was if anything they were like we get paid more and we have better benefits 100% right absolutely there's no offense you guys I'm sure you did the best you could within the boundaries of your abilities yeah you were telling me Jamie that like it supplies like these big vet corpse and stuff could be amazing because stuff for like half as much as you guys because I got better buying power yeah I was in charge of inventory and then when we switched accounts I was like oh my goodness right I've been getting fed over for years but like that's amazing the market should solve that it should go to small business but I agree I can't say but you don't how to fix it I don't know you know but I can't say that at least vet corps I did see a lot of that extra money that's coming in because they were saving our medical supplies whatever it did go to wages that's where it flows to instead and it should yeah and and so they they do take care of the poor starving vet supply manufacturing companies that was really suffering for things so what's that look like Bobby are you under contract for a while y'all then and then like you want to be there for a long time potentially or you guys going to go out move somewhere and go on a grand adventure or don't even know yeah we I don't know if we know 100% I am under contract for a couple years and so far I don't necessarily see what's Texas here we go oh my gosh no I'm trying to buy this other business I'm like ready I mean I feel like we are if you know we're committed to four columns yeah we really love four columns we love Northern Colorado everything that it provides we do want to travel more and we've started to do more of that we've had more opportunities to do that especially with some coverage right right what's the last place you went that was what Costa Rica Costa Rica everybody loves Costa Rica Costa Rica was it your first time yes sir it was yeah it went to everybody was to everybody like researchers how to move to Costa Rica after visiting Costa Rica I can't say we didn't do that yeah oh yeah we went with 13 friends oh wow it was kind of a celebration of of the cell of the practice and we had a bunch of friends and yeah we went to Timorindo where he spent it and it was awesome yeah so yeah very cool so um is there anything else in the business journey that's really worthy of oh I had a question I was going to ask because your husband and wife working together but with this Chinese fall between you like was there ever a time that you guys questioned like why do I have to work with my husband or my wife or whatever I don't know if I never did I'm sure Jamie's like true professions right here I don't know remember when we first started and I don't know what we never fought inside the practice in front of staff for clients or anything right but there was one time I was so mad at you was when we first started and you got in the back see I wouldn't let you in the front seat you got in the back seat the car I was like you're sitting in the back and I can see I can see you're in the rear view mirror and I go scour over and he looks at me and he goes gladly we just needed to like he's like you're not sitting in the front seat no problem but other than that I mean we we spent we spent a lot of time prior to purchasing at writing job descriptions who had decision-making ability and so we really didn't step on each other's choice I think I couldn't have had a better business partner and my new adventurer I'm a little sad that Bobby's not going to be there yeah I'm trying yeah yeah yeah I keep trying to convince them to come to come with me but it it it's deliberate you have to really work at it and you have to decide who's going to do what and then you just trust each other to do it well I think it's obviously you guys had established a high level of trust if he's like well I know we've lost a bunch of customers I know we have a bank loan I know we've gone through this litigation thing right but I'm going to trust that the payroll tax people are going to come and put a padlock on the door right and I mean to a certain extent it was really nice for me to just kind of pretty consistently step in the practice and just concentrate on patient care and said this this this will this will happen if I just concentrate on patient care all of these things will get fixed if we just continue to do what we're supposed to be doing and I can say you never asked me about it try not first of your mind it was on my mind of course but I never we never discussed it yeah I was able to compartmentalize things if you will and again just kind of focus on on the parts that I had control of sleep better at night probably and get better patient care every day yeah yeah it was all about that and and if we push enough I come from unfortunately a background if you just work hard enough it's gonna it's gonna work itself out and so I just kept working hard yeah that's what I have perspavirances the words perspavirance and perspiration and perspavirance need both of those things I like it so let's take a quick break and then we'll come back and do the closing segments so we were just going to jump into the uncomfortable closing segments of faith family politics and which topic would you prefer to start with oh my goodness go for it you share as much as there's little as you'd like yeah I'm gonna start with you don't for a Catholic school family family I'm not talking politics not at all talk politics all right yeah Bobby can take that one so start with family for us Jamie um so one of the things I like to start with is uh what's your daughter's name Aaron Ali and how old is she now she's 19 whoa and is she off to school she's at Flagstaff in a you oh cool I love that town about a motorcycle in Flagstaff rented a car drove it on the Flagstaff this cool BMW guy that I'd met at a rally oh yeah hosted us for three days in his little guest house and let us ride his motorcycle around the area and we didn't have to buy it but if we did then we could ride it home oh wow it was super cool yeah just north of Flagstaff like 15 miles anyway so good for her it seems like a great community a great university we rode through there it's just awesome a one-word description for Ali she's the best I think the best is okay I can't you know it's not one word we were just we're just listening to Tina Turner this morning actually in that song simply the best right better than all the rest yeah I couldn't help but think of Ali during that song yeah that's pretty cool so only child did you guys plan that did you decide or was it something that you struggled with or didn't know it was and I you don't have to talk about you can tell me no it's okay and she knows this story um and so no I never wanted kids um when we got married we even talked about not having kids and I told Bobby you know if if you want a family I'm probably not your girl yeah I'm not interested in that so it was it was a surprise um when I got pregnant well you sort of changed your perspective on that in the last 19 years it you know it changed this five minutes after I found it took me it took me a minute to process but then as an parent knows you yeah you become protective immediately but um you know God gave me the best kid ever and I just didn't need another one I why do I need another one when I have Ali she's the best yeah what would you like to say about your daughter Bobby she has pretty she's a pretty cool kid she's by all means she's a teenager who she take after more oh man I think she's a good mix between the two of us she's got she's got my tenacity and Bobby's brains yeah which is gonna make her fierce yeah yeah and that was the word I was gonna use it's pretty fierce that's cool that's cool in a good way yeah you know because she's super sweet and she's super protective of her friends and yeah she definitely so she exhibit the values of the grovers she does do think so yeah yeah so talk about um I guess family on the next juncture out like uh you were a you know a bomb builders kid or something Jamie no touching me a little bit about that background rumors get started I was not a bomb builder you don't take this out of context I gotta clip this nobody take that when you're congress or something they're gonna cancel you so tell it just but yeah you mentioned that you kind of put your own self through college and work and stuff like that and so was that you know my suspicion is that was more of a cultural decision that it was a financial decision for your family maybe they could have supported you more but uh so I um or if you got better grades that were covered oh I bet that was before too so I I have a great family um I grew up in New Mexico of course I would spend my summers with my grandfather out on his ranch um so all the all the fun summer stories with your friends that my daughter has I don't have because I was always out at the ranch starting from kindergarten Papua would have to come and he'd fly me back and walk me to class because I didn't want to leave um the ranch and even through high school I was out riding horses roundnut cattle fixing well I'd laid under the truck and watched him for sure sure um and so you really had that really interesting I love my family yeah um I was very close with my cousins growing up um and my aunts Jeannie and Mary and I moved to Texas out of high school my parents got a divorce when I was a senior in high school um and so I think there's some people in this world who just might be better off not being married that they're great people separated but they just don't they're not happy together and I think that that's who my parents were they're both excellent mother excellent father just their relationship didn't work out surprise you it was a lot of headbutting a lot of your growing years it um I don't know if it surprised me it it was kind of a shock to the system I would say because my dad and I were very close growing up um and so it let's train yeah there was a strain on the relationship there um after the divorce that lasted a couple of years and likely we've gotten our relationship back since then um so when I was in college you know that strain on the relationship was still there and my parents were still you know as part of your self-reliance and drive I suspect they were still working through the divorce and all of the logistics and finances that that come with that right and so and I don't know a lot like I'm the kid it's not I don't know everything that happened um with that and so I I did not have a lot of support I think my mom she gave me you know everything that she could um my dad and I were at a strained point in our relationship he definitely had we had a better relationship and I was kinder to him right he wouldn't he would never hesitate to support me or my sister um so I think it was probably a choice yeah that that I did and my dad said when I went off to college he said son the the farmers at a point now where we could we could help you a little bit with your schooling but I think it gave a lot more out of it if you pay for yourself it you know it it's a growing experience and there's nothing that that makes you appreciate what you have one of the smartest things he said really yourself yeah yeah nothing I think everybody should do that or you shouldn't help your kids because especially you know that was 7,000 year all in now it's it's very it's it's you know 37,000 it's a lot different now yeah yeah but it yeah it made me who I am yeah Bobby what what would you share about your extended family obviously a much different kind of environment um to a certain extent yeah not necessarily I suppose either yeah so I had a lot of divorce in my family as well so my mother and father split when I was actually four years old and my stepmother and my father split when I was in middle of high school yeah and um so there was a lot of that kind of you know where do you guys like gun shy when it came time to be falling in love with each other and stuff no that shit didn't matter it didn't and and you know uh biomains living in west Texas there was not even in the oil fields of west Texas you know it's there's a lot of feast and famine yeah um the reason I was able to go to school was through scholarship opportunities yeah otherwise I would not been able to go to college yeah and so through academics NFFA that's where you're kind of your rope to get out of west Texas to get out of west Texas yeah and so yeah so we both had some interesting family background and um I uh am close semi close with my mom and my sister my dad passed away at a young age and so he's no one with us but um uh yes I one of the things I'm super proud of is is just providing to my daughter um what it means to have a a good relationship by integrity high communication that kind of thing and with compassion right those are your things yeah which wasn't necessarily I think in either one of our you know upbringings right and so that yeah is is something that you could help learning that together yeah of course yeah I mean I've been very counseling and stuff and I still you know I'm still using your tools Josh I'll be back when oh we never been to counseling no no we haven't no awesome yeah I can say just be kind to each yeah no well that's I mean that's a big part of it's a huge really listen and be kind and say when you've got something on your mind right yeah so yeah well I hope that the next how many years of marriage be 24 March uh 14 and uh so may you have another 24 worry free years yeah and after that if there's struggles it'd be too late to really bother too much so politics or faith Bobby's willing to take the politics politics what do you want to talk about with politics what do you want to talk about with politics so we've got this open forum yeah what's the uh I just a guy at the race gave me ice at the Indy car race I was describing in the break um and he had a let's go brand and t-shirt on yeah uh what do I won't say you up with that I personally think that uh upcoming elections I think everybody should take a look at other third party candidates hey awesome and really think about some of the policies that they're trying to bring about because right now our system is very broke whether you lean towards democratic or republican both are not working for us at this point and I think that if you look towards some of the other ones I hope that some of the policies with what's called the forward party would be something that people should be thinking about yes days so who is leading that charge do you Andrew Yang yeah yeah is the guy you're Yang I really at least love a lot of his ideas a lot more than I have ever loved any of the other it's cool policies that have been out there yeah so and I know it's a struggle for a third party I hope there's some major changes in our political system that allows that to come about yeah because I think it would really balance things out um and help yeah country truly help the country out so I'm uh my first uh presidential ballot went to Ross Perot yeah and I've never voted a mainstream candidate for president yeah um I voted for Kanye in the last election but yeah I voted 451 people in my recounting who voted for Kanye I thought it was a more of a protest vote than Joe I wrote in Andrew Yang this last time as well I really did unfortunately I know he didn't gain any real trash yeah and Tulsi Gabbard was the other democratic candidate that I actually could yeah kind of stomach they're right kind of perspective but Yang and Yang didn't even though like part of me as because I would describe myself as more of a libertarian leaning kind of guy yeah better not perfect right when you try to create a topia you create hell on earth usually um but uh so like the biggest thing I'm challenged with and I think you have to test it out is that universal basic income hell yeah but I think the lack of bureaucracy that could go as a universal basic income of like don't bother me with no mouth and well for applications or bother me with no nothing here's a thousand bucks a month for everybody yeah or whatever and that use it wisely and I I think that could you know the part of that the humanity part of that is that you know it does several things it allows the student to have the ability to be in school instead in necessarily killing themselves with a full time school and full time job to pay for things it can provide money to help with daycares for people that are struggling with that yeah that are still working two jobs it gives a bit of perspective that the stay at home mom has some worth that they have something in our society that you know should be monetized a little bit and I you know I'd like the idea the unfortunate part of it is it doesn't seem like they necessarily want to get rid of a lot of those things that you mentioned well that's the thing that's for me that's the either or like if we're going to do a universal basic income it's because we can get super trim on everything else right and have a lower ultimate cost to everybody I think you'd have to have some universal health care that's associated with that if you did that yeah basic income I think you could I think you could trim back everything else and say okay this is the rest is up to left up to you guys to figure it out have you checked out mark cubans health care plan I'd looked at it a tad bit I never really it's worthy of looking into because it's the most creative plan I've seen that combines a competitive marketplace with the desire not to ever bankrupt anybody yeah like if you have a big bill right like the most you you have to pay back into the machine is like seven and a half percent of your income like for life but otherwise it covers your shit you know anyway but I don't I don't think it's a bad idea I think something needs to change and the one thing about the affordable care act that just didn't really do anything is they never really attack the cost of health care right now they just said hey you have to have health insurance but did it really provide more affordable health care it really didn't it didn't it made you made people provide it and they're like well here's the price yeah all it did was for us because we used to keep fairly inexpensive high deductible policies it just increased our monthly premiums all that did was all it did for us yeah yeah I appreciate that perspective I well and I have I posted a blog some time ago that give me liberty or give me health yeah and like there has to be incentives in health care for people to stay healthy other than just I'll go broke if I get cancer right you know so that's one of the challenging things for medical practices is I think so too anyway so what else would the freedom the gang gang be in favor of outside of the universal basic income and some of that like military standpoint and some of that yeah so part of he does believe in universal health care as well as the UBI and he talks about how to pay for and a lot of it is cutting back on the budget to the military because it's it's pretty outstanding there so Ukraine right right so yeah that's a tricky situation there of course and I'm not sure but if if you do look at all of his policies I think from a political standpoint in America I think there's lots of things including you know getting some of these senators and congressmen and then of you know term limits are part of his overall plan as well as you know handling some of the things I think there's a lot of good stuff that comes through that party in his policies oh but I don't know what he would say about Ukraine I haven't necessarily heard anything about you know those kind of foreign entanglements and how far to take things that's the tricky thing you know I'm it's all about I'm all about no war until it like starts to seem like it's going to be worse not to yeah I don't disagree when I see some of the pictures of homes and people and stuff like that it's hard for me to not say hey somebody needs to step in right and if not us who kind of yeah and I don't understand anyway I don't know enough about European politics why NATO can't step in with air support and some of these kind of things but I guess it would just escalate things yeah because Russia's got 2000 nuclear bombs and I guess it's all that Jamie what would you like to chip in on this topic it seems like as much as you'd like to shy away you've got a couple things to say about politics Ukraine whatever I don't have anything you don't we talk about this all the time you don't want it on the record I can say that the Ukrainian people have have really been an inspiration right there's an image out there of just the citizens stepping up and there's an image of it must have been a seven-year war when they got their second amendment yeah right she was a seven-year-old woman was up there you know she had a machine gun and she was taken up arms fighting for her country where's the freedom party in regards to gun control yeah I mean some of the details I don't necessarily agree with with that because I tend to lean more towards fairly open second amendment stuff at the moment because I do believe the government can overreach on many different occasions yeah sometimes we need to be able to do it Joe Rogan conservative he's for universal basic income he's for universal health care he's for gun rights he's for how about where you had marijuana legalization complete you know legalization yeah federal legalization right yeah okay you're Joe Rogan Libertarian I can't stand half of things he says well doesn't matter your politics line up Jamie I'm sorry to deviating away from you when you were just getting warmed up but I had to tease your husband a little bit it's okay I see what you don't talk about but I know I shouldn't right that you're really canceled because you try to cancel a show do you want to just jump over to faith Jamie would that be better sure okay so you you work for a Catholic like paper thing is that your background or is they just tired some some pagans pagans wanted they got a filler quota right no not believers are you sure no I I was actually raised Church of Christ in okay in northern New Mexico and it's not like if you're in South Texas you know I was allowed to swim and you didn't have to wear skirts right no no it's so it was just a I don't know what church of Christ means necessarily it's like not congregational necessarily yeah so it's three prongs so it's they teach on the Bible so it's just a very it is a conservative Bible-based religion I want to get too deep into it but no I'm not so you were raised that way it's generally adhered to what they taught you or do you kind of yeah yeah I believe I believe in God and Jesus and I'm baptized and um I I did work for a Catholic Church we did go to Mass every Wednesday is the first time I've ever been to a a Catholic Mass and and I have to say there's a lot of things about the Catholic Church that I don't necessarily agree with but I can say that their Mass is beautiful um I've actually been a Mass before I didn't mind going um the it is a very beautiful ceremony I was not allowed to participate in the Lord's subourity like I got West and but it was I didn't mind it it was it was a beautiful it's a beautiful religion on the surface yeah well and we probably shouldn't talk about Catholics when you're like church of Christ anyway right or have you really engaged as adults and so one of my best friends in Texas was Catholic she worked at St. Gabriel's as well and so I do know a little bit no but I mean in church of Christ or have you engaged in other churches since you've been living in Fort Collins and raising children and all these things so not in Fort Collins um I am sad to say we have not found a congregation that we have consistently gone to we really like crossroads in Leveland is out and so when we go yeah we know our very last food trekking events was that crossroads church there they had some fallfest thing yeah it was a miserable failure for me other people made it unwell that yeah no we've we've participated in them I like how granular they are they do a lot for the community it's a it's a great it's a great church um it's with the clinic and I'm a little embarrassed to say you know owning your own business having a child yeah Sundays were like our only day off so yeah Sundays was the day of rest and that includes um skipping church it well and we we would we would apologize for that we were frequently due like Bible studies at home with Ali um just by herself and and um she she never really loved going to Sunday school by herself she didn't have a sibling to go with and um it wasn't anything that she let like she hated going and being the only kid and um and so it was we we ended up yeah we just did we just didn't really find your community at that level too much yeah yeah yeah you can come to archer anytime if you want to I can't say though you know my first job I did stay home with her after she was born for a year and a half yeah and um my first job back I was the church secretary at the church that we were members of Texas it was Sunset Canyon Baptist church yeah let's kind of like your home church still yeah it's kind of funny I was friends with the pastor Lonnie and they he and his wife were over for dinner I think I can't remember what we were talking about or where we were in um somebody brought up that Baptist don't drink as I was drinking a beer and I was like what Baptist don't drink and Lonnie just laughed and he was like what are you talking about yeah it wasn't too strict of a Baptist church yeah well I think that's part of it and like being offensive this part of the fascination and beauty I guess of like the Protestant thing I met somebody recently that came from he went to an Eastern Orthodox church like he left a cousin church of my church and went to an Eastern Orthodox he was the kid of missionaries in the Protestant line and stuff and one of the things that he mentioned was that you know the Eastern Orthodox Church has kind of basically been the same for like two thousand years yeah and they've got kind of a lot of the same like structure and iconography and stuff like that whereas the Protestant churches especially that broke away from the Catholics splintered then into a thousand more splinters and so what is the thing that we are you know when everybody went you know the Methodist or like it's all about the method man you know and the Baptist is like no it's how your dog come dude I think that as humans we can get really wrapped up in the weeds yeah yeah and we we tend to mess a lot of the main that's why the good stuff from Jesus is like when he boils it down like you know love your neighbor as yourself and love God you know with all your heart soul whatever yeah and you can have a personal relationship with God and Jesus instead of having to go through somebody yeah yeah well I think that's yeah yeah yeah and that's the big big part of it if you will yeah yeah no regrets no regrets yeah I don't anything Bobby that you'd like to add to that was your did you have a face back on in your family or was that something that you came to after to a certain extent so my my mother was Catholic I was actually baptized in the Catholic faith when I was a baby and then my dad was Baptist and so most of my upbringing upbringing was in the Baptist churches of Texas of Southern Baptist invention and those kind of things they didn't drink your dad wasn't a very good Baptist he wasn't very good and so yes and those nuances are I get those things but yeah and I will admit that you know we've we've bounced around quite a bit I still think we keep our faith but we haven't necessarily found a church home that yeah we've settled into and I don't disagree life has has been part of that you know trying to to get through life at the moment well for you that you find a good spot well then our daughter got into sports and we were traveling every Sunday right I really children own their parents these days yeah that was actually a whole element yeah but that doesn't mean that God is an important and a relationship with him wasn't yeah yeah that's cool I appreciate the way that you frame that so the local experience it's our final segment the craziest story that you would be willing to share you there was some mention of Vegas something something but and you can make it a joint story we've done it where we do Jamie's story and Bobby's crazy story and then those craziest story together you guys make this segment you're oh wow I mean there was there was two stories that came out of Vegas we could definitely do I guess if you wanted to do lead it lead us in well I think she needs to say hers first because it's much better than mine okay mine's more grossing it so we were just recently in Vegas and we were going to the Shania Twain concert oh yeah and we were having dinner at Planet Hollywood and there was sitting next to us was a very large group of very drunk women and they would spontaneously break out into Shania Twain's song yeah they were having about 12 people there yeah they're having a very good time and so we're trying to kind of ignore them and we're having fun and um Bobby gets up to go to the restroom so he's gone and I'm sitting at the table and one of these very lovely drunk women she walks by me and as she's walking away she is wearing um it was off the shoulder sequins one piece jumper and as every woman out there knows they're very hard to go to the restroom and you have to zip it and unzip it yourself well she hadn't latched the zipper and it was starting to come down about three inches so she was walking away I could see that it was gonna be a problem it's gonna be a problem very soon and so I didn't want to like chase after her into her group of these 12 women and so I was trying to decide what to do and one of her friends started walking towards me towards the table I was like oh great I'll just tell her I'll just tell her and so I stopped the woman and I say hi are you do you happen to be friends with this beautiful woman that's wearing the white sequins jumper and she kind of turns around and she points at the woman as she's like her I'm like yes I go I you know she came back from the restroom I noticed the back of her zipper is coming down thinking that this woman would just very discreetly go and help her friend out and she she stands up and she turns around and she screams very loudly in the restaurant and she goes hey or so she and everybody looks at her for that yeah hey or and everybody's looking and I think Bobby is walking up to the table at the time and she turns around and she goes this is she looks at me and she points and she goes this crotch monitor says you're zippers coming down Bobby's just standing there he goes what did you do I was just trying to be helpful and so she's so dry she won't leave our table and she's showing his pictures of her friends she's there she did the first girl get her zipper I don't even know she got her zipper fix and so we finally like everybody let me go to the concert the next night or at the Bellagia we're having a very late dinner it's like 11 o'clock at night and we're sitting down on like they're I don't know at some room and we can see it's right below where the fountains are and so I'm watching the fountains are going off and the lady that's sitting next to me her shirt is on inside out inside out and so I notice this and I'm like uh Bobby I have to say something Bobby's looking at me he's like don't you dare and I'm like I'm just looking and it's really bothering me he's like oh my god you are a crotch monitor how would you dare tell this is like stay out of it it did you know he wouldn't love he's saying he did he restrained yourself but I really I mean do you say like your shirts on inside out how many times a year do you tell somebody that they got something in their teeth I've never actually seen somebody I would if I saw somebody was something in their really you never have I've never seen a new body was something oh my god I do it at least three times a year yeah yeah but you know whatever so you're just a crotch monitor yeah yeah I like it I like it Bobby you're all right so we'll go with the Vegas continue with the Vegas because this was interesting this was actually after the Shenai twin concert oh same trip same trip damn I mean these things happen to us right yeah well you was a part of your own right so we're coming out of the Shenai twin concert and we don't want to stand in line for the restrooms inside the concert hall because they're getting backed up so we're like okay let's let's go out and everybody's kind of pleasant like a ladies show the boys room isn't backed up right and so we're going out and we hoard of people you know where the nearest restroom is and so we go to the nearest restrooms and Jamie goes off into hers but there's already a line forming for the women outside the door and I go in and they're starting to be a line forming up to men's and there's a bunch of urinals and a bunch of stalls and I'm standing there waiting in line next one to open up as a stall right right around the corner so I go in and unfortunately this stall has been destroyed you know it's side of the road gas station it destroyed right and thank goodness all I need to do is stand here right I can it might be overflowing but it's over flowing in the floor I don't really care what's floating out I'm going to work I'm going to work through this so take care of business and you know flesh with my foot and step on out and as I'm stepping out again to younger drunk women are in the men's bathroom come up to me directly to me and go is there just urinals in here and I was like well no and I just left this one but you don't want to go in there and they look at me like I did something wrong right but you're just trying to keep them from all the fun yeah no he comes out and he's telling me the story and I'm like you took credit for the and then I realized oh they think he was they looked at me weird because they think I did this you totally took credit right so I needed to find them it wasn't me if you can't lose that much status right even with the random stranger yeah are they out there right now they're probably out there maybe they'll listen to this time maybe they'll listen to this time class or remember that bathroom that was destroyed after 9.20 and no it was somebody before you at least somebody warned them yeah you tried to be a good guy you didn't destroy the bathroom I did not not that you didn't even realize so we haven't even mentioned it but Jamie you're a facilitator for local think tankers as well you would like sold your business and took over for the seven and a half year facilitator Andrea Grant right well I was a member of the group and so my group of course knew when we were contemplating selling and I presented them with a different offers and they helped me of course issue process what I was going through and I love my group so much so when I sold I did ask them I was like I can't will you guys please not kick me out like I'm not ready to leave yet and so I stayed out I don't even know you probably know I gave you kind of a waiver because I was like well it's not really legit but I guess I'm not like as long as she's paying you know whatever she's smart she'll bring value yeah so they very graciously let me stay for a couple of months because I wasn't ready to leave I didn't know what I was going to do with my life and I needed the import and input and support from them so and then when Andrea announced they were that she was leaving they asked if I would be interested in taking over a facilitator so hopefully they think I'm doing a good job has it been what you hope for like is there anything that surprised you serving in that role from a member of a facilitator perspective it's different from being a member it's it's a little more difficult for me to keep my mouth shut right yeah it's it's easier with my group because we were we all know each other and they know me and they know my background and yeah and so we're familiar we're friends when I was subbing for Brandon's group it was it was a little bit more difficult to to fall into that facilitator ask questions because you yeah and that's a great thing like well no that that group yeah I wouldn't do that that group had some really great people in it every every group does yeah that's kind of my criteria I want people that I would want to have in my backyard yeah yeah so it's it's um it's not so much giving my opinion as asking questions and leading you know towards so it's a better conclusion so people have uh uh uh consulting things that they want to engage with you how do you find a path forward consulting you just have to know the email right now websites kind of a broad process Jamie Catherine on LinkedIn is probably the right thing right uh yeah so I have started path forward I'm not I'm not quite sure where I'm going with that I do have a few people I've consulted with um but I'm really really more interested in this other business really really I think your time is honestly better spent in a lot of ways of like selling and rehabbing or buying and rehabbing and selling businesses you could make a pretty good living just doing that the rest you know I'm really really excited about this business that I'm trying to purchase um so we probably shouldn't jinx it by talking about it too much is that true probably I I mean I don't know it's I've told I've told so many people but no I we're after five already yeah we will see yeah for next time next time and Bobby um if people have a critter that's not a hamster or a lizard dog or a cat only uh where can they learn what Asmond Grove absolutely they can check out our website at asmondgrovevett.com okay um that's up and running of course forever and um has lots of great links lots lots of information I've got tons of videos on there of different subjects if you just want to learn more about your pet and things that that might occur with your pet um that's all available and uh anytime you want to talk to me directly just give us a call and I've got one one and a half last questions do you guys have family pets yourselves yes and what what do you got currently we have two Labrador's one well their lab mixes of course because I never I always get these rescue dogs right right um so one black and one yellow lab okay June bug and ladybug lady bird oh so cute and no birds no lizards no birds no lizards nothing like that yeah and kids allergic to cats outside of the um Labrador's like yep what dog breed is your favorite secret favorite secret favorite yeah standard I was gonna say standard pools are pretty big dog I'm gonna get a standard pool and I'm gonna puff baller I like it for sure but they they're very well behaved and accountable and social is what you like I love terriers too I hate to say yeah so boastans and and caverns and some of those guys I love next door is uh Moses has a Boston Terrier and I've got a snaker well you've missed you've met Tucker before he's just did yeah well I love those dogs thanks for that bit of profile awesome have a great day thanks thank you bye bye thanks for listening to this episode of the Logix Freyens podcast you enjoyed 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 logix Freyens.com to learn more and find our library of episodes until next time stay local