EXPERIENCE 215 | Igniting Passion for Business through DECA with Edward Rinehart - Graduating Senior at Rocky Mountain High School and Future Business Leader

I met Edward Rinehart at my Rotary Club, where he was sharing his journey with DECA - Distributive Education Clubs of America - an organization that prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs in marketing, finance, hospitality, and management through educational programs and competitions.  Colorado had 9,000 participants in DECA programs in 2024, with the top competitors advancing through District Competitions to State and International.  

Edward has been involved in DECA all four years of his high school journey, made it all the way to International his Freshman year, and has served on the Leadership Team ever since.  He won the State Competition in Entrepreneurship this February - and we’re wishing him luck at Internationals in May!  

This is a different journey than most of our LoCo Experience episodes - just getting started.  But I learned a lot, and enjoyed a wonderful conversation - and you will too!  So especially if you’ve got kiddos still in school, or grandkids going to high school soon - or if you might want to be a volunteer judge for the District or State competitions - I hope you’ll tune in and enjoy my conversation with Edward Rinehart.  

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I met Edward Reinhardt at my Rotary Club where he was sharing his journey with deca, the Distributed Education Clubs of America, an organization that prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs and marketing, finance, hospitality, and management through educational programs and competitions. Colorado had 9,000 participants in DECA programs in 2024 with the top competitors advancing through district competitions to state and international. Edward has been involved in DECA for all four years of his high school journey. Made it all the way to the international competition his freshman year, and has served on the leadership team ever since. He won the state competition in entrepreneurship this February, and we're wishing him luck at internationals in May. This is a different journey than most of our local experience episodes just getting started, but I learned a lot and enjoyed a wonderful conversation, and you will too. So especially if you've got kiddos still in school or grandkids going to high school soon, or if you might want to be a volunteer judge for the district or state competitions, I hope you'll tune in and enjoy my conversation with Edward Reinhardt. Let's have some fun. Welcome to the Loco Experience Podcast. On this show, you'll get to know business and community leaders from all around Northern Colorado and beyond. Our guests share their stories, business stories, life stories, stories of triumph and of tragedy. And through it all, you'll be inspired and entertained. These conversations are real and raw, and no topics are off limits. So pop in a breath mint and get ready to meet our latest guest. Welcome back to the Loco Experience Podcast. My guest today is Edward Reinhardt and he is a student here in Fort Collins at Rocky. So let's do jump right into like, um, DECA as a program. So the, the purpose of it is really for kind of practical experience for business students Yeah. Ish. In, in a way get them thinking bigger Uhhuh. So I think what the best thing that DECA provides is kind of get to dip your toes in a little bit. Get to see, is this something that I want to do in my future? Do I want to be a finance person? Do I want to do marketing? Do I want to be an entrepreneur? All those kinds of things. And it, it lets you. Test it out before you have to go and get that degree or, or even pick a degree co Right. Course for college, whatever, all those things. Yeah. Because that can be very costly or to make that kind of decision, especially really early on in life, and it provides those kinds of opportunities to say, yeah, yeah. Do I like this? Do I, do I like these concepts of marketing? Do I like entrepreneurship? Do I like working on these 20 page reports? Yeah. Is this something that I could see myself doing for the rest of my life? Well, and even getting a chance to probably interact with a number of business people and things like that. Is that true? Yeah. At the, at the, especially at the international level, you get to meet a lot of people, uh, but also in the local level. Like I, in my experience, I've networked and talked to a bunch of business leaders Sure. Around here. Yeah. You weren't scared to come on the local experience podcast. Right. I got to meet you. Yeah. So there's a lot of different opportunities involved with that, and it's, it's a very lower, low stakes experience. Mm-hmm. But it, it. You know, in a way provides avenues for, okay, this is what I might be doing as a sports marketer or as a marketing professional. Yeah. As a finance individual. Is this a, a, a nonprofit organization or is it like a four H kind of thing almost, or a Rotary club? I think they're a 5 0 1 C3 is what they're officially listed as. But so they're an international, uh, nonprofit with associations listed around the world. Oh, right. Like almost like chapters or whatever. Right. Yeah. So there's 50 50 associations in the United States. Okay. And then there's, I don't remember the exact count, like 14 international associations, so, okay. Germany, Japan, uh, Mexico, Canada, yeah. Are some of the big ones where they can get enough traction. India, uh, all have pretty big international associations where they have also, similar to the way it runs in Colorado, for example, they also do it. In those countries. And are you doing the same thing at the district level, say the pitch competition, the case study kind of, um, analyses, if you will, and then I guess they're judged by somebody. Yes. They're judged by either a lot of time, like parent volunteers, but also business people. Sure. So yeah, there's, there's kind of a, a lot of different forms of competition. So there's the, there's the official DECA competition. So you go to your district competition, which qualifies you for the state, which qualifies you for the international competition. Okay. So those are the three steps up. And then in Colorado specifically, and in a couple other states, there are these invitationals, which are kind of practice, almost like club team. Right. And they're a lot, they're a lot more low stakes, a lot more fun. But like anyone can sign up for'em, but you have to pay for'em. And it's like, does your, does your school, so does Rocky Mountain High School want to go to. X, Y, Z. Yeah. Yeah. Invitational. And it's more optional. Yeah. So like everyone has to go to the district competition, and then if you qualify from districts, everyone has to go to state. And if you qualify for state, everyone has to go to internationals. Like that's like kind of like the, everyone does that. Yeah. And then the internationals is more like, oh, do we want to go for the weekend all the way down to Denver to go due to that one? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Is international still upcoming? It was a state conference that just happened. Kinda, yeah. So state just happened. We had the biggest state competition ever, actually. Okay. It was, that was so much work for at least me and my team. Okay. And then internationals will be in May, it'll be the third week of May in the us Yeah. It'll be in Orlando, Florida. Okay. Yeah. Orlando's good at hosting large groups. And how many people will take part in the internationals? 23,000 plus. Wow. It's one of the larger high school competitions, like all students. And then there's other supporting people, or that's all the people. So that's, that's all. Competitors. Okay. So then, so that's all students? That's all students, yeah. And then that's not even counting the, there's 10,000 other people, the, the judges doing stuff. People behind the scenes, right? Yeah. Yeah. A hundred thousand other people. Probably. Probably, yeah. Interesting. If it was like a Lego competition, it would be, uh, you maybe more fun to watch, who knows? But depends on if you like business a lot or not. Yeah. Um, wow. That's what a big, uh, and how about at the state level in Colorado here? How many people it done that? So we have 9,000 members really across the state. And does everybody make it to state? So not everyone makes it to state. Yeah. So everyone gets to compete at districts. Yeah. And actually in some districts, so we have 13 districts around the state at some really big districts. So Cherry Creek has. 500 members in their chapter. Okay. Like, it's massive. And that's just con, that's just in making up juniors and seniors. They only let juniors and seniors. Wow. And that's 500 members. Oh. So they get to send more than two kids to state, right. Or whatever. Right. So they do a pre districts. Mm. So you have to qualify from there. So, so you have to, they decide who goes to districts and then they send from districts to qualify to state. So they have four different ways that they get to go. Yeah. So we had almost 2,750 people at our state competition participants. Yeah. Oh wow. Colorado is the ninth. Is the ninth largest. It's in the top 10 of association size. Yeah. Yeah. So we're a very sizable state. And then how many people get to go to international outta that 2,750 at State? I mean, it depends. Uh, I didn't tell you to gather your statistics side of time. Um, it kind of depends. So. Most events send six people in Colorado. Oh, wow. And I think there's 30 something 40 around 40 events. Okay. Okay. And how do they tier them? Are there, it depends on part technology, this, or different industries or, so there's like different, so they do it based on like cluster. So there's marketing, entrepreneurship, finance is sports, no sports on its own marketing, finance, entrepreneurship. I, I should be able to name all these. That's all right. So there's several different, there's, there's several different clusters. And then depending on the amount of people that participate in each individual event, get to go. So no one does accounting, right? So if you wanna get to internationally, you go accounting track, you might, no one does the accounting events. So they send five people and usually there's like. Different stages at the state competition. So there's like a, there's like initial and then there's a final and you have to, you have to qualify through, get through the qualifiers almost to, to the final, right? Yeah. Yeah. It's kind of like tiered. There's no final, you just, you do your one thing, the final, and then you know it automatically if you make it to international, because no one does accounting well. But the most popular one is like apparel. Everyone wants to do apparel marketing. Okay.'cause like, that's something really interesting. Yeah, for sure. You get to talk about clothing and like, doing very every day stuff. Maybe even bring some fabric and Right. That's a lot more fun. So that one has, like, there, I, I don't know exactly how many, but judging off of the 300 people that were in my event, I'm gonna guess over 500 people in the state and that one event. Oh wow. So that's a lot more people. A lot. Totally. More ways that you have to go around. Yeah. Yeah. Um, describe like. Uh, like is it, is it the pitches and the case studies and, and it's just kind of, is it different design kind of things? And is that of curricula that's kind of across the whole spectrum or do different chapters and things kind of design, like, let's do this. Yeah. So there's like a DECA curriculum Okay. That DECA gives out. Yep. At the national level. And not everyone does that. It kind of depends. And then you're learning stuff that's applicable in your class. So the whole idea is, okay, so you're learning. Marketing concepts Yep. In your classroom. So I'm, I'm in marketing 1 0 1 right now. Okay. For example, right. I'm in Marketing 1 0 1, I'm learning the, the four Ps, right? Price, price, place, promotion, and product. Yep. Okay. And I sometimes people define it differently. Sometimes there's five. So, so those are, those are the deck of four Ps. Right? Right. Those are the things that you need to know for Deca. Oh, right. Cool. And I can learn that in my marketing class, and then I can see that on my marketing role play, and I can say, oh, wow, I learned this in class. Let me, let me talk about this. Right. Okay. So like, my, my role play is gonna ask me to come up with a promotional campaign. How do I talk about the four P's that I learned about in class? And apply that to, to this? Yes. In this role play. Yeah. Okay. So I'm asked to make a promotional campaign for this ice cream parlor. Right.'cause I'm the head of marketing. Sure. For example. And then I have 10 minutes to come up with that. So, so it's designed to work in tandem, and then how do I do that better than the other people? Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. So how am I a little bit more creative? Or do you're a little more insightful about your marketplace, right? Your customer demographic, all those things that I can come up with. And probably gathering information on your customers and things like that becomes part of Well, you're, you're kind of just making that up as you go. Gotcha, gotcha. But, uh, you're storytelling a bit, right? You're making assumptions, but they're valid, you know, grounded in some reality. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So like, if, if it says like, okay, you're head of marketing for this ice cream place and it's in a mid-size city and you want to target like teenagers, right? Okay. So I have to come up with this promotional plan. I come up with a promotional plan. I talk, I talk about my four Ps, and then I come up with my target market and I do all, I got the best plan. It's, uh, ice cream promotions with teenager produced music in the park. Perfect. Right. And I'm your judge and I like that a lot. Boom. I give you, you know, a 90 plus on your role play and you do really well in your exam that you have to take beforehand. Yeah, yeah. You win and then you get to go on a state and then you do that again. You go on internationals, you do that again. King of the world, like that's cool. Cool. So it's like both subjective and objective based on, right? Yeah. So not probably just your plan. But also your pitch, your charisma, your connection to the judges. How many judges are typical? Um, one to two. Okay. You can have up to three. Okay. Okay. But it's like one to two. So it could just be one decider. Yeah. Their nephew automatically wins. That's, it's actually happened before that you get someone that you're related to or, you know, and there's, there's issues with that, but, right. Maybe invite a second judge just to validate a little bit. I, I like in a finals, so if you, if you have a second role play where they kind of use that to determine, like amongst finalists. Yeah. Yeah. They, they usually have two judges. And were you too busy organizing this year to participate or did you also enter into the competition? So I did participate this year. Okay. So, uh, I participated in entrepreneurship. Okay. Uh, which was my role play. And then I did a pitch, which was international business plan. Okay. I did not do well in international business plan this year. There are. Like a lot of that one's really competitive position. Yeah. So, so that one's like the Cherry Creeks valor's, uh, really good, good, good programs of the world. Okay. And they spend a lot of time on that. Yeah. Yeah. Fortunately I did not do very well this year, but uh, I came in first place. You got the state? Yeah. Well, everyone goes to state for the written actually. Okay. You automatically qualify for the written because there's not enough that do writtens. Okay. So you automatically qualify to state, there's no preliminary, but for districts you have to qualify. So I came first in districts for entrepreneurship. Okay. All right. I came first in the state for entrepreneurship. Okay. So I was state champion for entrepreneurship and now I'm going to internationals. Oh. Well, I thought you said you didn't do that well for International Business plan. Oh, so you did both? Yeah, you can do both simultaneously. Oh, I see. So sorry. I was in addition to running the state conference, so. Gotcha. So you went to, you're going to international in the entrepreneurship side? I am. And tell me about like. Your pitch or your case study or what you were, what? And is it the same? Will you go to international with the same effective plan with some polish? So, uh, a little bit going a little bit deeper into like how it works. Yeah. You, you get, you show up to your call time, you have a little time, and it says, okay, Edward needs to show up at eight 50. So I show up at eight 50, I sit down and then there's like someone waiting for me, and then we all wait for everyone to show up. Okay. And at the same time, someone else is going like, giving their pitch. Yep. And then we get taken to a room, and then they tell us to wait. Okay. And in front of us is our, is our like plan that we have to come up with. So it, it gives us our summary, like, and our challenge that we have to solve. Oh. And we have, and then they're like, okay, wait, don't flip it over yet. Oh. Like this is, this is the thing. Like, don't flip it over. So they wait, they're like 3, 2, 1. You get 10 minutes. So you flip it over, then you have 10 minutes to read it over. So then I read it over and it's like, okay, you are to assume the role of CEO of X company, your Jo Wow. Your, your goal is to, you know, increase sales by 10%. How do you do that? And then it's like, and then it gives, gives me, and then it gives me, like, it gives me like four objectives Yep. That I have to hit at the same time. And then I have 10 minutes and one sheet of paper to draw everything up. Like, you know, do I wanna draw my graphs? Do I wanna draw a marketing plan? Do I wanna draw an advertisement? Do I wanna draw a T-shirt and pretend like that's my product? Whatever I wanna do, I have 10 minutes to do that. Okay. And they say 10 time's up. Drop your paper, drop your pencils. Wow. Okay. Collect your notes. And everybody's got the same question every, everyone's in different events. Okay. And then they take us back. You find your judge. So I find ENT, which is the shorthand for my event. I shake my hand, not judge him. Hi, I'm Edward Reinhardt, I'm the CEO and I'm meeting with my CFO, but I've never met this person before, but I'm supposed to as like pretend. Yep. Here's what we're gonna do. This is my CFO. And be like, I'm really excited to speak with you. My CFO wink wink on this opportunity. So this is how we're gonna increase sales by 10%. And I have 10 minutes to explain that. And then I show her my notes. This is how we're gonna do it. Yep. And then. And then someone goes on the, did they get to ask you some questions? Do you have to defend? They have to ask me two predetermined questions. Okay. They ask me my two questions, and then some judge comes on the loudspeaker says, you have one minute remaining. So then I'm like, oh, crap, I have to hurry up. And then I finish it up, shake their hand, walk out, and then that's it. That's the whole thing. Wow. And I'm sorry, but I'm kind of imagining like a diving judge where you're like, okay, did they execute the dive? No, that's the whole thing. How hard was it? You know, this kind of thing. And they're, the judges are like, no. Yeah, because they're talking to how many kids? 20 over the day, each person, each person comes, all comes up with something else huddle. And something boils out of there. Right? Yeah. And then, and then they decide, okay, who's making it to tomorrow? Yeah. And then tomorrow. Okay. Everyone sees the same judge. Oh, okay. So, so we're in like different sections. So it's kind of like a. Kinda like bracket style. Yeah. Yeah. So, so everyone, everyone tries to make it out of their bracket. Yeah. Yeah. More like heat style, right? Kinda like heat than bracket because you're not facing just one person. I guess more like round robin. Round robin heat. Yeah. Yeah. So then everyone tries to make it out their heat. Yep. To then face one all, all each other against the same judge. Okay. And then the judge is like, okay, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Interesting. And then that's it. And is that judge familiar with these other kids already? No. Or is it a fresh judge? Fresh judge. Okay. That's good. Brand new, fresh judge. That's pretty cool. And then in addition to the case studies, everyone takes a test and the test accounts for a smaller portion of the score, but it can be the determining factor. Sure. In some cases. So I. Recently at the state conference? Yep. I did not have the highest role play score. I actually had the third highest role play score. Oh. But I had the highest test score. Okay. So I ended up winning. Yeah. Yeah. Congratulations. Just by that. Congratulations. That thin, thin margin. And did number two get to go to international too? So top six. Okay. So, so you'll have to face'em again? Potentially kind of, uh, or in the heat form. They'll, so they, so it's, it's region protected. Oh. So I won't see them in my heat. Yeah. Again, um, unless you make it to the final finals. Unless we all make to the finals. Right, right. Those Cherry Creek kids are probably there too, which is when I'll see them again. Yeah. Assuming I even make it there. So I've been once before. Okay. I did not make it to the finals. I was immediately eliminated. Right. Right then and there. So I made it to internationals and then just cut. But that was like your freshman year or something? That was my freshman year. That's what I thought. Yeah. Um, and was that in entrepreneurship as well? Or what were you, what did you make international in then? So there's a special event, special type of event called principles. Okay. For first year DECA members. Okay. Yeah. So principles of marketing, kind of foundations level stuff. Yeah. Marketing, management, finance and entrepreneurship. Yep. And I did the management one and I made it, I was state champion my freshman year. Uh, and then I made it all the way there. But my very first round got cut. Okay. Didn't make it outta heat. Did not make it outta my heat. Yep. But, you know, it's okay. Were you competing against kids that were sophomores, juniors, seniors. So any or just freshmen in your case? Case? Anyone who could, anyone who's a first year I a member? Could be. Oh, so like a senior that just signed up could also be competing against a freshman. Yes. Interesting. Yeah. But as long as they're fresh. Yeah. They had to be freshies. Yeah. Or fresh to the program. Brand new to Deca. Yeah. And is there any place to go within Deca? Like you're graduating, I assume you're gonna go to college somewhere or something. Is there an extension of that at the next. It's phase. Yeah. So there is collegiate deca. Okay. I It's lame comparatively. I mean, I like to don't have to say it. I, ill say it. I think so. I'm more prefer I, I'm preferential to high school Deca'cause that's what I've done my whole life. Fair. Um, it's smaller. Yeah. There, but it, it's more specific. Right. So I don't know if you're familiar with like college case study competitions? Not particularly. But I've met, you know, people within the CSU faculty at different levels and the entrepreneurship and business programs. And there's a lot of different kind of opportunities. Right. And the college kind of wants to curate some of it. I assume. It's, it's, it's a lot more akin to a collegiate case study competition where it, it's more geared towards like maybe a consulting interview where they'll. Give you a lot more data in the moment where you're like, okay, what's turnover ratio? Not quite the 10 minute exercise drill. It's because they're funneling so many people mm-hmm. Through in your case, right? Yeah. Like, it's almost like a battle royale. Well, and at the end of the day it's, it's also like we're high schoolers, right? Fair. So like, what can you really be asking of us? Like, I mean, you seem about as smart as most people I talk to in this room, so, you know, but like, you're not gonna be asking a high schooler about like debt ratios. Yes. You haven't got that deep yet. Yeah. Like you have, you have not learned that in any of your finance classes. Fair. But like, that's what you're gonna be asking in collegiate, DECA, it's gonna be a bit more. Specialized before we like jump back to learn how you got so smart. By this time, let's talk about what's next for you a little bit. Like, uh, do you have a college picked out? Have you been accepted to some Ivy League Choice financial school or something like that? Um, so I'm actually wearing it right now. Oh, that's Villanova. Uh, Virginia. Virginia, yes. The University of Virginia. Cavaliers. Cavaliers. Yes. Wahoo wa Wahoo wa That's their what? They tight song's. What? Yeah. Okay. Um, that's, is that a family history or anything like that or just, uh, they gave you a nice fat scholarship, let you in. Um, yeah. Pretty decent family history. And my mom went, my dad went, my aunt went, oh wow. My uncle got his MBA. I think my other uncle went there for something great uncle went. Okay. Um, is there a Reinhardt Hall or anything? No, we don't have names on buildings. All right. Yeah. Not that kind of family. Quite, no, no. All right. Uh, but just excited about it sounds like I loved, loved the school. Very excited. Um, loved it forever. Yeah. Growing up watching UVA basketball 2019 was about, were you kind of a shoo in because of all that family history, or did they have to use like, minority points to get a lot of white guy in there? I think, well, they actually, they actually got rid of that. Oh yeah, that's right. Yes. There's no more, no more legacy stuff. Yeah. Um, you Virginia's one of the few states, uh, one of five, including Colorado actually, to outlaw legacy admission. Oh, is that right? Yeah. Oh, your school. I'm, I just, you know, having gone through the whole process. Right. So you were a little bit scared you might not get in. I've learned, I've learned about this stuff. They actually sent my parents, the, the alumni association sent my parents just flies a letter a week before I was supposed to get my. My notice, um, if I got in or not. They sent a letter and they're like, Hey, by the way, we have no, just so you know, like, like we don't have any, we can't control anything. Like, yeah. Sorry. If doesn't, doesn't matter how much you donate, sorry. If he doesn't get in, like donate a bunch. But it doesn't, but continue. Give us money if he doesn't get in. Right. He's, but like when I saw the letter, I was like, whoa, are they telling him that I didn't get in? I'm sure it was terrifying.'cause it was like just one week before and I was like, did I not get in? Like, why are they, why are they sending a letter right now? Before I expected it, this was strange, but fortunately That's hilarious. I got in and when was that? Uh, early December. Okay. mid-December. So I guess it came in like December 17th was when we got the, December 7th was when we got the letter and I found out on the 13th. Okay. Was, was when I got in. Cool. Well, congrats. Thank you. I appreciate it. Uh, when will you be moving out that way? Mid October or Midgut or So orientations like July. Oh, wow. And then, uh, move in days like August something. Okay. If I'm not mistaken. Yeah. Yeah. Do you have family out that way too, or your folks, do they grow up in that region and then Colorado? So my dad's from Baltimore. Okay. And then my mom's from Louisiana. Oh. Uh, but I have two extended family members, or I guess an aunt and another aunt. Okay. And then their families, they're in Richmond, Virginia. Yeah. So this is, so the UVA's in Charlottesville. Okay. And that's in Richmond. I don't know if you're familiar with Not really. Like take me the map a little bit. So, so they're just an hour away. Oh, sure. So, uh, yeah, I think it's Easter. That's nice. That's perfect. It's just an hour. That way they won't just be showing up on you. Right. But you can go for a weekend and hang out. Have some nice, yeah. If I really need to get a lag dinner, you know, that kind of thing. Oh, by the way, do you wanna open your, uh, your short gift here? Yeah. Normally it's like stimulus wine glasses. Oh. I'll get you some hot sauce before we leave here too, but, uh oh, thank you. I love hot sauce. Yeah. You've got, uh, that's of ping p pong balls. Yeah, ping pong balls and some loco think tank cups. I thought that would be like your beer pong starter kit. Kinda not for another three years. Well, you go to college officially. Officially then. Uh, well, and a and then a little travel kit. Oh, nice. I figured very much. You seem like you're gonna travel a lot in your world. Probably will be. Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, um, I guess, uh, if there were, you know, two, three things that you were gonna say that you learned from your decade experience so far, um, what would be the, like, I know I've got in my past Yeah. In business, just a few like pivotal things where it just really changed how I thought of that. No, that's a really good question. Um, and maybe it's just one. Don't, no, I, no, I, I can, I can come up with some stuff. All right. Um, number one I'd have to say is like, just the power of networking and connection. Mm. Mm-hmm. Um, deck is great for meeting people. It's such a massive club, especially, you probably know people all over the state and all over the world at this point, especially in, in Colorado. Yeah. You get to meet so many people, so many amazing people. You get to do such amazing things. Um, I always like to say. Um, like with everything, and I think this is true with everything in life, you get out what you put in. And that is so true. With Deca, it could just be a club. Yeah. Like you, you could, it literally could have a couple friendships be like, you just show up to the meeting, you learn a couple little things. You just go to some of the competitions, like you just do it to learn a couple things. Like, and that's great. Like I, like, that's literally what it could have been for me. But, um, and actually freshman year, that's what it was going to be. I used to like, so I used to think that the people on stage doing what I did this year, like as a state officer Yeah. Were the lamest, lamest people ever. Like, well, they are just kidding. Like, no, no. It's kind of true. It's true and not true. Like, like I used to think like drinking the Kool-Aid was the lamest thing ever. Yeah, yeah. Like. But as, as time went on, I was like, it's not cool. Huh? The teachers are encouraging this stuff, right? Because it's really good for us. It's good for you. Yeah. Like to, to put everything in, like go all in. Yeah. Yeah. Love it. Like dig it. Really go. If you're gonna be in the band, learn how to play that clarinet Exactly. To the best of your ability. Exactly. So I think Deca going, I kinda lost my message there. Yeah. Networking. Yeah. Meeting people, like going all out, expanding your horizons, expanding your horizons, I think was one of the best things that I learned from Deca. I've met so many amazing people. I've made so many great friends. I don't know if my ex team is ever gonna watch this episode, but if you are Yeah, they will. I, I'll, I'm gonna send this to them. I love them so much. They're some of my greatest friends of all time. That's cool. I've learned so much from them. They're amazing people like your team to put on the district event kind of thing. Is that what you're talking about here? That, uh, the state officers. Cool. So the former state officers, do you wanna give a shout out to anybody? Shout out to Ramo. Shout out to Alan Kayden. Devin Charise Braxton. I, I have so many people I to talk to. Sophia Hadley. Uh, Abby. Abby. Uh, oh my God. We're at 10. I need a couple more tech. Uh, I'm sorry if I'm forgetting you. I'm sorry. You still loved Yeah, but meeting them and meeting so many other people, especially in my school. Yeah. I would not be where I am today if it weren't for Yeah, yeah. Those opportunities. Yeah. One of those, those kids' Dad might give you a job somewhere. Yeah. You just don't know. Who knows? Yep. Um, and so studying what at, uh, Virginia Cavaliers. Um, so that's kind of a complicated question. Okay. So right now I'm in the College of Arts and Sciences. Okay. Uh, and I th what I think I was technically admitted to. Economics. Okay. So I think I'll be an economics major. Alright. And I might stay there, but I ha I can apply to the business school next year. Oh, I see. So you can't just get right into the business school. Mm-hmm. No. So hopefully, well it's actually, it's actually commerce. Oh, interesting. Yeah. Oh yeah.'cause it's a commonwealth and stuff. They use those kind of old englishy terms and stuff. So I'll be, I'll be studying commerce with a specialization in quantitative finance. Is Virginia like thicker with Brits than other of the New England states? Uh, kind of just based on like. Who decided they were the big boss state in the early days and stuff. I mean, I guess so. It feels, my last name Bear is a, is a old English name. Okay. And there were bears in New York, like in 1715 or something like that. Uh, and we were very unsuccessful'cause there's still only like 50,000 of us in the whole country. You know, we had an early start, but we didn't, we're breeders very good apparently. Um, but I just, curiosity wise, I was just, I was watching a video the other night about where the Scandinavians settled in the US and different places. And I'm, I guess Virginia's probably a melting pot now'cause everybody gets sucked to the honey neck or Washington DC Yeah, you got, you got Nova, which is wild. You got Arlington and all that stuff. Right. All that too. But even just Washington DC is like a magnet. It's a melting pot of sorts. Right? Mm-hmm. Um, and how far away from DC are you then? Uh, I know the train ride is like three and a half hours. Okay. Which is really nice. So it's like Richmond is below. DC and then like C Charlotte over then Cville to the west. Yeah. Okay. Little go. Cool. So is it up on a river over there or something like that? Or where's, why is Charlottesville where it's at? Um, it's right by Monticello. Okay. Oh, so, so this is, so they say this is Thomas Jefferson's University. Gotcha. So he, he built, and that's kind of a complicated thing to say, right. He more or less instigated instated because he was basically broke himself most of his life. He, he developed, got rich people to make that he developed the university. Oh, interesting. Cool. And he created the idea Yeah. Of the, of the University of Virginia. Yeah. Yeah. He was gone before it got nearly as cool as it has become. Right. Presumably. Um, interesting. Okay. Well, Godspeed there. That seems like a, uh, a good path to pursue. And like any notions, are you. Like, have an emphasis in finance and business, or do you wanna be an entrepreneur? Do you wanna be a marketer? Um, I mean, it will kind of depend on a couple of things. Uh, I'm not usually it's early. I'm not usually a math guy. Okay. Um, so if I end up learning the, like learning how to do the math. Yeah. Yeah. Um, I'll do finance, but I have, I have to like the math Yeah. To be successful. Yeah. So, uh, if I learn, if I learn how to, like the math, I'll do finance Well and even deeper economics. Right. Or like economic theory or go, I'll go deep into economics. Yep. If I hate the math. Yeah. I'll do marketing Fair. Yeah. So, you know, I got two paths. I get it. Yeah. Um, you seem like a psychology guy a little bit too. Uh, I've been told that I should be a therapist. My mom, my mom wants me to be a therapist. Wow. Or like a psychologist or something. Yeah. Yeah. Um, well, marketing makes a lot more money and basically uses the same principles, so Right. Just take a ex, get an extra emphasis on psychology during your marketing journey. Yeah. It wouldn't be a bad idea. So, um, let's, uh, let's kind of zoom back. We always zoom back in the time machine to little Edward of wondering, uh, like you kind of said, you know, you thought the deca nerds were for dorks early on, right? Like, describe your, your early years, uh, and maybe your family background just a little bit too. What are your folks up to? Where'd they come from? Yeah, so I, you said Baltimore, Louisiana. I guess we'll go. How'd they get here? We can, we can go way back. Let's go with way back. Where were you born? So I was born in Dallas, Texas. Oh, okay. And my dad back then was a consultant with. Bain. Okay. I think. Yep. That was one of like the big five shop. Yeah. So he was, he was kind of hopping around. Okay. He was doing a bunch of different stuff. At some point he was consulting on stuff, stuff, being smart. Yeah. I, I'm not sure what project he was with back at Bain. Um, I do know at some point before I was born, he was with Pricewaterhouse Cooper. Okay. Working on the B two bomber. Oh, interesting. And he found out that we were invading Afghanistan three weeks before we invaded Afghanistan. Oh wow. And that was kind of a mind blow for him. Yeah. Um, but, uh, so my parents met at Virginia. My dad always likes to say that if he wasn't so stupid, he wouldn't have met my mom.'cause he took a fifth year to finish college Fair. All right. Um, I did that by election. I was like, if I get outta college, then I gotta go get a job. Like this is pretty fun here. So they met, um. My mom was finishing, actually, I think my mom, my mom graduated early and my dad graduated late. Okay. So it's kind of funny. Yep, yep. Um, they met, uh, then my dad went to go work for a little while. Then he got his master's at Tuck at Dartmouth in Master's of Business Association. Okay. MBA? Yeah, he got his MBA at Tuck, and then I was born Okay. Uh, in Dallas. That's when they moved down there. And then my dad stayed around there shopping around a bunch of different consulting groups, I think. Interesting. And then did he have a specialty? Was he a finance guy? Was he an idea guy? So he has a background in, uh, it's always interesting to me engineer people that come outta college and then they just like become consultants. So he is, he's a background in, uh, eng. Oh my God. What kind of engineering? Mmm. Systems engineering. Yeah. Or industrial, that kind of process. Engineering kind stuff. System engineering. So he's, he's a really good thinker. Yeah. He's really good at math. And then he added some business sense to that. Yeah. And my mom was a nurse practitioner for a while. Okay. So, and she was practicing for a while. Um, and then my dad got called up to Honeywell to do strategy for them. Okay. Uh, and that moved us to Louisville. Oh, Kentucky. Interesting. So, so we were there for a little under a year. Alright. So at that point I was six. Okay. Yep. Dallas. And that's where you start remembering things. Kind of Dallas for five years. Then we moved to Louisville for six. And in that span, both my sisters were born. Okay. So I'm five years older than my youngest sister. Two or, uh, just under three years older than my middle sister. Okay. And did your mom leave her career? At some And my mom, my mom stopped working, uh, right as we left Dallas. Gotcha, gotcha. As far as I understand, I think ish. Right. Timeline. Little, it's not like a documentary project. It's fine. Um, so then moved up to Louisville, but your dad was doing well enough in his career. Right. But even though he had a couple more ankle biters, he could still swing it with your mom at home, right? Yeah. So moved and then moved again. He got pulled over to Hawk Oh, water company. Yeah. Over here in Loveland. Led Dan in Loveland. Yeah. And then he was doing mergers and acquisitions for them for a while. Oh yeah. And then, yeah.'cause they were rolling up quite a few other companies for a while. Mm-hmm. Before they got rolled up. Right, right. It was like a tumbling cascade. And then that, that was so that, so he was with owned by Danaher, which is like the big industrial conglomerate. Yep. Outta Finland or something? No. Where's Danaher? Sweden? It's over there somewhere. I don't, I don't really know. I don't think it's Germany. I feel like it's one of those other Nordic countries instead. I think so, yeah. And it doesn't matter. Um, it's not the Swiss at least. Yeah. So he's doing, it's the signs of it issues. That's, that goes back to before we started this conversation. Anyway. So he was doing, uh, strategy and mergers and acquisitions for them. As for, again, as far as I understand, kind of rolled up with Right. The, the water company here into the Uhhuh water and all that stuff. And then he moved to Trojan, which is the Canadian system, the condom manufacturing business? No, Trojan Technologies. Oh, okay. Yeah. Uh, the Water UV filtration company, which is a sister company to Hawk. Oh, also owned by Danaher. Okay. Yep. And then he got moved into more of a strategy role at Danaher after that. So he did marketing there. Okay. And then he got moved to a strategy role at Danaher and he kind of. Headed the combining of all of the water companies into one. Oh, interesting. And he did that faster than the timeline assumed for. Yeah. And in that time, Dan, her CEO left and got replaced, and when he was done, there was nowhere left for him. Wow. So he left. Yeah. Or he kind of got forced out, kind of left. Yeah. It, it was just kind of over. Yeah. Um, it was time for him to go, it's not you. It's not me. It's just time. It's time to go. Yeah. So he left and he looked, shopped around for a job for a while, and then, and this is years ago now? No, this is, was two, six months ago. Two, three years ago now. Okay. And at that point in time, an old friend ended up at KKR, the private equity firm. Yeah. Yep. And he said, Hey, we're acquiring private, or we're, we're acquiring industrial physics. Okay. Which is another industrial firm. Yep. Uh, they do packaging like testing. Okay. Yep. So if you want, so like, have you ever wondered like why. The can is that thick. Sure. That's what they do. Yeah. Yeah. So, so they like test the thickness of cans and like exactly why it is the way it's, yeah. Yeah. What's it gotta be If you're looking for cheap, if you're Apple, you're like, what's it gotta feel like to be just next? Right? Yeah. You know, when I get that new iPhone Right. All those things, how much do I have to spend in that box? Right. To get it to feel just nice. So, so they do like packaging and stuff like that. Interesting. All right. They're like, we need a COO. Do you wanna be our COO? And my dad was like, sure. So now he's the CEO, he is like kicking guard Jason. So that's what he's doing right now. Alright. Um, so I've been Sounds like a jack of all trades, right? So he's just like a COO for higher at this point. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I've been following his business stuff my entire life. You're kind of a fanboy a little bit, one would say. Yeah. Um, so I've been kind of more inclined to that. Yeah. Um, that adventurous kind of, uh, corporate ladder. Yeah. Yeah. Kind of. You know, fixing things. Although he, he's an interesting case because he kind of, you know, he was in corporations, but doing consulting, which is almost kind of a one man band kind of a role a lot of times. Yeah. But now he's found ways to fit himself well into actual C suite kind of roles and stuff. Yeah. I mean, he's worked his way up. He does, he does a lot of stuff. Yeah. Fair. But a big battery guy. Yeah. But, uh, so like, it's always been something that I'm like, oh, I'm just gonna do what my dad does. I'm gonna be a businessman, like as a kid. So I've always, I've always found myself like. Oh, like, I'm, I'm just gonna be a businessman. Like why not that? And, and then at one point in time, like, oh, I wanna be a doctor. And then I took AP biology. Okay. And I started volunteering at a hospital. Yeah. And AP biology taught me that I could not get through med school. And I, volunteering at a hospital taught me that I hate hospital. You wouldn't wanna be very AP could, could hospitals. Right. Um, so then I'm like, okay, yeah, definitely not this, let's go back to being a businessman. Yeah. Yeah. And I found that I love deca Cool. Freshman year. Well, it gives you such a chance to experience probably brushing up against people in all kinds of different industries too. Right? Like, you don't have to follow your dad's footsteps. Exactly.'cause you're probably wired differently than him in some ways. Oh, I'm not as much of a math guy as he. Right. Maybe you could follow up with math. Maybe at my age he was doing calculus three and I barely passed Calculus one. Yeah, fair enough. Well, that was part of my encouragement and my engineering pathway. It was like, ugh, CAL two was. Brutal. You know? And, uh, and I job shadowed somebody that was like a civil engineer and talked to a guy that was like a mechanical engineer. I was like, Ugh. Like, yeah, you like sit in a cubicle and draw stuff most of the time, or you go, you know, on the job sites and make sure they're building the bridge right. And stuff. It just doesn't seem that exciting. Right. So I digress. Well, I mean, like my dad. So it's good to get out there and get experience. Right. Bumping into people that do lots of stuff. No, I, I think that's been like my favorite part. But like, my dad tells me his favorite part of college was when he took Q Theory. Okay. And he learned about, he did simulations, learning about how lines work and like, what's the most efficient way to get people into an airplane. Mm. And like all that stuff. Yeah. And I'm like, you find that fun, like zipper traffic and stuff like that. Like that's, that's fun for you. And he's like, yeah, I love it. And I'm like, okay. Like, uh, you know, things might click together for you. Whatever. Whatever floats your boat dad. Like what gets you excited? I like the, the large scale problems. Okay. Like, like that's why I love doing entrepreneurship as an event because you can get literally any kind of like different kind of role play. Yeah. Or that's what we call like the case studies, like role play because, uh, for example, like at the state conference I got one which was apparel based. Yep. Which, which felt like a marketing one. And then the next one I got was operations focused. Okay. So it was literally back to back like totally opposite ends. Yeah. Yeah. Come up with a promotional plan. Yeah. Okay. Now come up with a way that you can fix these, this rubbernecking in this, in this business. Be a fast thinker kind of. Right. Like it's, it's totally different. Yeah. You know, I think just off my quick sense, uh, because you know, if anything, one of my skill sets is recognizing talent, and especially with your mom saying that she thinks you should be a therapist or a psychologist or whatever, like moving people getting. Teams to accept change. You know, that kind of stuff is one of the most important things in business always. But even more so in today's kind of cynical, what's in it for me world. Right. Um, so that might be at least an emphasis that you consider, well, my dad says I should be an organizational leadership. Yeah. Yeah. That seems, but he, he's like, that's 30 years down in your career. I'm like, right. Well, but that doesn't mean you can't kind of emphasize that study along the way. Right. You know, get some deep principles. I think they have a, I think they have a leadership add-on that you, like a minor in leadership seems likely at my school. Yeah, I know, I know. Uh, I was looking at CU for a while. I know that they have a really good leadership school. That was if, if Virginia didn't let you in Yeah, that was kind of the back, basically that was back option. I actually found out my acceptance from CU and Virginia on the same day. Oh, wow. Yeah. I I found out Virginia like five hours bef No, not the five hours, like three hours before cu. Yeah. And. It was kind of funny because also that same day we had family like Christmas card pictures. Yeah. And my mom's like, Edward, you cannot cry if you don't get in because we can't take these pictures with your eyes being right. And I'm like, okay. Wow. Thanks mom. Way to be supportive. It would've been pretty funny to take a family, uh, picture for Christmas with your CU sweater on that day. Your made the decision. Your uncle. No, but even if you were going to Virginia, but all your uncles and aunts and stuff and be like, oh, he must not have got into Virginia. That stupid policy. They changed because legacy. Right. Anyway, I digress. Yeah. Um, what else would you want people to know about your kind of deca experience, I guess? Well now we've gotten into me in high school. I guess we kind of talked about all my childhood. Yeah. Um, so now I guess we got into me in high school. Yeah. So the reason why I joined Deca Yeah. Was because I, we had, we were going to move. Oh. Um, I used to live, we used to live on the south end of town. Okay. So I was going to Preston. Okay. Middle school. Yep. And we were gonna move to the north end of town and I had no desire to do International Baccalaureate. Okay. So I was like, I'm not going to putter. Okay. So what's the next closest school? Okay. Rocky. Okay. And we already knew some people going to Rocky, so we're like Okay. So you School of choice to Rocky Camp. So we got Lucky School Choice in Rocky, um,'cause we now live in Old Town. Um, where do you live? Uh, just by Lee Martinez. Uh, we're, my wife and I live at, uh, LA Porte and Whittcomb, basically. So I see, I see your bus all the time. My, my ambulance camper. Yeah. Um, but so we're like, okay. Yeah. Like, might as well, you know, go to Rocky. Yeah. So we went to Rocky. I knew nobody except that one family. Mm. So I'm like, oh gee, this is kind rough. Right. I might as well, I'm not good at baseball. Or maybe you are. I dunno. I'm not good at baseball. I used to play lacrosse. I'm re I'm retired now. Retired. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, but, uh, I, I used to play lacrosse. Okay. Uh, but I'm like, oh geez, I don't know anybody. Um, how, how do I make friends? Yeah. Yeah. Um, join some clubs, I guess. So I went to like five different club meetings. Okay. And I'm like, hate this one. Hate this one. Hate this one. Let's hear. Which, which clubs did you visit? Uh, I went to like, you don't have to, I don't even remember. I went to, I went to Deca. I went to like an, an art club. I don't even, what am I, what was I even doing? You were bored and lonely. I, I guess so. I went to, I admire your Splunk though.'cause a lot of times people just kind of suffer. Yeah. You know, they're like, uh, I am here new in this school, I don't know anybody and I'm just gonna like, be here and kind of suffer. But you're like, no, this isn't gonna work. I good. I went to, I went to like, um, a chess club meeting. Okay. Which I didn't hate. I've always kinda liked chess. And then I went to like this, this like general like board game, like lunch club meeting. Okay. It was more just like, you know, get together, meet some people. And that wasn't bad either. Yeah. But I, I went to, uh, I went to Deca and I was like, this is weird. Like, this is strange. It felt like a cult. And, but I met some people because they're too. It, it's, you gotta drink the Kool-Aid. Like, like, I'm like, why are you so excited about this? Yeah. But I was like, okay, whatever. I'll, I'll keep going. Like, it seems like a decent opportunity to get to meet some people. And I met some friends and so I kept going freshman year. Right. Kept going, went to this district competition.'cause like why not? Turns out I won. I came in third place, barely qualified by the skin of my teeth to state. I'm like, okay, wow. I guess I'm good at this. Yeah. At that point I had made some friends, so I went to state, did not, had no expectations, barely studied. I was like, okay, this freshman year I'm just gonna go have fun and see what it's about. Yeah. I ended up winning the whole thing in my event and I was like, okay, wow. This is crazy. I'm going to internationals. I have some great friends now. Like, let's, let's go. Yeah. Yeah. And at this point I had met someone that is going to have a lot of impact on me. Um, hew, I don't know if you're watching this Henny. Woo. Yeah. Okay. Henny. Um, had a lot of impact on me. Uh, we both ended up going to internationals together that year. She, uh, and I both go internationals and we're making fun of the people on stage. This is where the whole, the door deck is a cult come from, comes from and we're like, oh my God, we could never do that. Like, that looks so weird. And at this point, I had applied to study abroad in Switzerland. Mm. Yeah. So I'm like, oh man, I can't really do DECA again. So I was like, okay, I'm gonna go study abroad in Switzerland. I leave, um, August, so fall semester, sophomore year I leave August and I, I go and I have a great time. I meet 50. Do they have DECA in Switzerland too? They don't, they don't have DECA in Switzerland. Okay. Um, I meet, uh, some amazing people. Sure. I make 52 best friends. Uh. Again, fantastic experience. Yeah. I ski and hike every single day. We travel, we see some incredible things. Like we study, I take art history while I'm there. Mm. We study artwork in the class. We travel all over in the classroom and then we go and we see the actual pieces. Well, not just in Switzerland even. Yeah. Like, it was like, that's like in one of the most insane experiences. Yeah. So I come back and I decide that I'm gonna do a written presentation. So, so those are the things you can join up midyear. I'm gonna do a pitch competition so you can do those kind of late. Okay. So it's not a role play or a case study. It's one of those where you can go in, it's a qualifier kinda Right. You go straight to state, you submit a 20 page presentation. Oh, wow. So, so I do that, um, zero expectations for that. Again, I, I turn out that I'm a finalist, but I don't make it to, to internationals. I'm like, okay, whatever. Yeah. I didn't have any expectations for this. So I continue on, make more friends, you know? But, but what that, what that taught me in, in Switzerland, what Switzerland taught me was how to drink the Kool-Aid.'cause you're with 50 people in such a course. Experience it. I didn't have a phone. Oh, wow. Like there's no technology. Oh, dang. So I, I handwritten, I hand wrote everything. Like I, I learned to love stuff and, and like to really get into things. Yeah. So that like, kind of taught me how to drink the Kool-Aid. So fast forward, yeah. We're gonna skip kind of over my spring semester'cause nothing really happened. Yeah. We're now into junior year and Henny, who's a year above me, also learned how to drink the Kool-Aid. Okay. She's now running and she she's been involved that year you were gone. Right. She is now running for that position. Okay. That I thought, thought was, that I thought was ridiculous. The super dork or No, she now has it, she now has the super dork position and she wants you to join her team. Well, and and I'm like, okay, well now he's doing it. I might as well do it.'cause I trust her and like she, she's inspired me to do all these things. She's not a dork. So maybe it's, she's not a do, maybe it's not dork. Like she's doing all these cool things and inspiring all these people and, and doing amazing things. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm like, I'm gonna do it. So I decided to go out there and do it. I compete in my, in all my usual events. I do entrepreneurship, I do bad at it. I, I don't even, I, I qualify for state, but I don't even make it as a finalist. Yeah. I don't make it to internationals, but I get the super dork position. Right, right. And I, I, now you're an organizer. I start to drink the Kool-Aid even more. And, and Heni, she goes on to do amazing things. She's at UCLA right now. Okay, fantastic. Yeah. Yeah. And, uh. Do you have a crush on her, by the way? No, I do not. Okay. Checking. She's just, she's a mentor. Right. Fair. We'll, we'll give it that. Yeah. Um, I, I go on, I get the super dork position, and now I'm organizing, and over the summer I learn some amazing things, you know? Yeah. Like, they teach me how to be a leader and organizational stuff, how to delegate all those great things. And then we move on to, uh, through the school year. Okay. Now I'm leading competitions. You have your successor coming up to now, now my successor is coming up and I'm actually meeting with her this weekend. Yeah. I'm giving her my Instagram password and Yeah. Yeah. Gonna, here's the torch, right? Yeah. Kind of. And then I'm stepping away, then I'm done. Yeah. I'm, I'm actually kind of glad that it's over. Yeah. But it's a lot of work. How many hours do you think you put in this last, say, 12 months from right now? Probably seven a week. Seven hours a week. For a year. Yeah. Yeah. That's not unsubstantial. And then during the events and stuff, it's. I mean much more. It was probably 16. Right? That's a lot for each day. Yeah. Yeah. It's a lot of work, but, uh, a lot of emails, lot of, yeah. Lot of un responded. Communications a lot of unresponded to emails. Yeah. Um, hopefully I wasn't one of those people. No, not yet. Okay. Good. Um, mostly, uh, other people. Yeah. But like, you learn a lot of things. You meet all these people and you, you do all this stuff and you have great experiences. Yeah. And then you go on and then you pass on the torch and now I'm done. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And that's it. And that's how I'm here. I dig it. I dig it. Well, thanks for being here. I think we should take a quick break. Yeah. And then we'll come back into some of our closing segments and uh, go from there. Okay. And we're back. Um, so I guess a first question coming back from the break is, uh, what questions do you have for me? Like, I've been peppering you, I, you know, you know my background a little bit. I was a banker for a long time. Yeah. But small business, not big business. Uhhuh kind of on the opposite end of the spectrum of what your dad's been involved with, for example. Um, what questions do you have for me? Maybe about small business in general? Um, I, you kind of asked this question a lot about your people, so I'm gonna ask you, what's your kind secret sauce? What do you My secret sauce? Yeah. What do you like to do? Like, what, how do you find your success? How do I add value to the world? Yeah. Um huh. That's an interesting question. You know, I think probably I'm discerning about people. Um, you know, as a banker, I could tell who had that combination of like personal horsepower and a good idea that they could make money on so that they could pay the bank back. Mm-hmm. Um, and within my role at Loco Think Tank, you know, finding people that will fit well and add value to chapters, um, my special talent is identifying special talent I've said before. Yeah, that's good. You know? Yeah. And I've always had an easier time recruiting smart people to work for me or with me, or in the case of our chapter facilitators, you know, to be part of the team even though I don't pay'em that much, you know? Right. But they're awesome and I love them. Yeah. No, that's, yeah. That's great. Yeah, so that's probably. Where I probably add the most value to things. Yeah. Okay. And then I guess kind of my other question is, if you weren't doing the Loco think tank right now, what would you be doing right now? Like, if I had to go get a job, if, if, let's say everything didn't work out the way that it was working out. Yeah, yeah. How would it be working out? Mm-hmm. You know, I guess my emergency plan would probably to become a banker again. Yeah. Right. Like I, I know I could be a pretty good banker without too much, you know, I know the, I know the job, right? I know a lot of people. You got the background, I got the background and I got most of the skillset. You know, I don't really wanna do the spreads anymore, so make sure we've got a credit analyst or something to do some of that kind of leg work. But, you know, I could definitely do that. I wouldn't be eager about it. Right. Um, oh yeah, I have to give all this up and go back to, yeah. Yeah. What numbers? You know, sadly, I. In the last five years or so, my, uh, my voice has gone downhill so I can no longer expect to win. Like America's Got talent for my immaculate singing skills or anything like that. Don't have the range anymore. I mean, you were just, you sang for us earlier, that was pretty bad. Well, I, I'm not saying I don't have mad skills, but it just isn't quite into the making money territory, right? Yeah. Uh, plus all the travel and stuff. My wife would be like over it pretty quickly on that, um, Twitter media sensation, you know, something like that. I could, I could see you as an influencer. Yeah, just like find videos of people doing dumb things and add my commentary on top of those videos. You got that radio voice. Have Ava be my producer and be like, you guys, you'll never guess what happened today. Uh, no, that's probably not me today on the internet. I don't really like criticizing people, honestly. Like even when they're dumb. Like, I just kind of like, oh, you're being dumb. Uh, but I don't prefer to point it out directly. You wouldn't really add much value in that way? No, not really. I mean, well, I could recognize special UNT talent when I see, there we go too. Go. So I guess I could just use the reverse polarity of my special. Yeah. Well what if you were to just be like a, like a scout or something? Like a scout, like a, like a talent scout. Oh yeah. Maybe. But if you're good, if you're, but there's no media anymore. Hardly. That's true. I guess in Hollywood's reeling, like, I don't think they got room really for a startup talent scout with no experience, I guess. Yeah. I could start my own firm. I'll get you the best. Uh, you know, I, I guess that would be an interesting thing actually, would be like executive recruitment or something like that. Yeah, there you go. You could be a headhunter. Yeah. That, that's actually would be pretty fun work. Um, although miserable, like. Yeah. A lot of people, people, people turn you down like, nah, I'm good where I'm at Right. All the time. Right. So, I don't know, be just poaching MDs from a, from different profess. Well, I don't know if I can recognize talent in the doctor perfe. Like, it feels more like the, the managing directors are. Oh, yes. Well, the people I don't, I know don't, aren't MDs. They're like. General managers. Okay. Yeah. You know, or owners. Or founders and in other places. Right. But most of my network has owned businesses for 10 to 20 years, and so they're nearly unemployable. So I can't really rely on my existing network. So I don't know. I don't know. Um, let's go into our, uh, we touched a little bit. We, we always talk about faith, family, politics, right? And that's kinda just my flavor of saying, you know, we shouldn't have things that we don't talk about in the world. Um, let's talk a little bit more about your family, if you don't mind starting there. Okay. Yeah. Um, let's talk about your sisters. Okay. We haven't, uh, done much, uh, but mentioned that they got born. Yeah. And they're five and two and a half years younger or something like that. Yeah. So Helen is. Uh, oh my gosh, I'm a terrible brother. 15. Uh, no, 16. Sorry. Uh, because there's like, uh, yeah, there's a time you almost just three on, just, just under three years. So she just got her license. Driving with her is terrifying. Okay. Not that scary. I'm just kidding. Yeah. Um, well, any new driver's a little bit scary, but Nah, she's good. She's a good driver. Yeah. Um, yeah. So how, is she like a good friend to you or is she She's great. Got her own friends. My sisters are my best friends. Oh, good. Honestly, I love them so much. I love it. They're great. They support me in everything. Um, I think that they're the greatest people on earth. You think they'll be more successful than you? They could be. Honestly, we see how the fates go. Yeah. We'll see how, we'll see how it turns out. Okay. I I, I hope that they are. Yeah. I'm gonna be honest. I like that. I like that. Uh. Yeah, Helen is great. She's doing her own stuff. She just got back from studying abroad. Okay. Also in Switzerland. Oh wow. So same program. Same thing. Yeah. Yeah. No phone, no computer. Oh wow. No technology. So all that, she just got back from that. She had a great time as well. Super successful in that program. Yeah. So, yeah, that's a neat thing. Glad that she's glad that she's back home. And was that something that your family had else was been exposed to or you found it and she, you had a great time and so it's actually a really funny, not that funny, but like, it's funny to us, we used to go to camp for a month in the wilderness. Okay. In covered wagons. Covered like Conestoga wagons, like on trail. We'd sleep in there for a month and while, while we were gone, our parents would get to beach, not have you there for a month. Right. Yeah. So, uh, they were in Vail or Beaver Creek or something? Yeah, yeah. On a weekend trip or something. And they were, there was also this conference. Of like American cardiologists. Yeah. And they were in the hot, my parents were in the hot tub and these two New York cardiologists get in and they start doing the small talk thing like, oh, do you have kids? Yeah. One's just starting freshman year. And that was when I was just starting freshman year. Yeah. Oh my gosh. You starting freshman year, you have to hear about this program. It's called Swiss Semester. They study abroad in Switzerland. And my mom was like, oh my gosh, that's so great. And they're like, our daughter's getting in, she's going next year. And like, it just was so, oh wow. Like kind of serendipitous where like it just worked out. And then my parents picked us up two weeks later and they're like, Edward, this sounds incredible, you know, for this thing, you should, you should research this. Like, they weren't, they didn't say I had to do it, but like, they gave us, they gave me the link and I'm like, oh my gosh, this sounds incredible. I called like, I networked with the. With like the head of the program, I'm like, Hey, my name is Otra Reinhardt, like, I'm interested in your program. Can I talk to some people? Yeah. And he gave me like 10 phone numbers. I called three of'em, had great conversations with them, and I'm like, I'm doing it. Done. That's it. And then I, well, I applied, I got in, well, you got a Swiss name, right. Got tree, all that right. And then my sister did the same thing. She found out it was right for her. Yeah. Applied. Really cool. Successful. Do you think little sister will do it too? Maybe. Um, and tell me more about her. So she is 14. Okay. Nope. Yes. 14. No, she's 14. All right. Again, I, I feel like they are 10. In my mind. Yeah. Yeah. Um, she's 14 and I feel like she's gonna be president one day. Okay. Um, she is so opinionated. Oh, she, no. In like, the best way possible. Well, I mean, this plays confidence for somebody of that age, right? She is so opinionated. She's so like headstrong. Um, she's wonderful. Uh, she just got her first boyfriend. Ooh. Which is kind of, is it scary for Big Brother or are you, you're just like, oh, I do whatever you want. I'm worried. Have you gone to the boy in the background and been like, listen, not at all. Do best treat what's, what's her name again? Eliza. Eliza. Um, I, I think that she can handle herself. You're not worried about her? No, I'm not worried about her. I think she'll be all right. Uh, but it is a little like, whoa. This is kind of crazy. Yeah. Um, but she loves it. Like, like being the littlest. Yeah. Yeah. I think I like getting to see us. My mom likes to say she came out of the womb talking in full paragraphs. Right. Because she just saw us and just been studying you guys forever. Just been trying to catch up ever since. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, nice example. Uh, but she's so smart. She's way smarter than me. Yeah. Like just add a could be better at math if she wants to. Out of base intelligence. Yeah. Yeah. She just core processor speed. Just so much smarter. Which matters a lot less than you think. Right. Just so you know, like, no, I, I'm not intimidated, like, but you were talking about calc and stuff and be a little scared about the math thing as you study, but the, there could well be just a tipping point where it just starts to make better sense. Right. And, uh, so don't give up hope on that. Oh no, I'm not. Even if you're a little slow. I'm not, I'm not done. I'm not, I don't think you're slow. I'm not giving up. You're way over a hundred on the IQ thing. I'm not giving up yet. I'm, I'm still there. But she is, she is like. Wicked smart. She's super opinionated. Like catch all the things. Um, your mom, uh, also, well, she's Betsy. So Betsy. Hi Betsy. You'll probably listen to this, I suspect. So there's Eliza and Betsy. They're both Elizabeth. Oh, sure. Um, born in Louisiana, new Orleans. Does she talk funny? No, not anymore. Never. Never. She was kind of, never did. She was a city girl. Uh, yes. This not the country Creole, like I'm Yeah. You down, down there swamp? No, no, no. She's, uh, just New Orleans. Um, we, massive family on her side. Um, uh, she. Did really like Catholics or something. I mean, we are Catholic, but that's just, you know, big family. Yeah. I was just, there's certain religions, especially that tend to have bigger families. Right. If they're from Utah, then they're Mormons. If they're from, we're we're Spanish. Oh, really? Yeah. I don't know, like what that really entails. Well, most Spanish are Catholic. Yeah. You know, so, so her, so her mom was Bonos. Oh. Or de bans. Okay. Like originating for de Bonos. Yeah. And then, uh, her dad was Vin, which is French. Okay. Um, and they, so Po Devin was like New Orleans Yeah. Royalty. Right. So they, so I don't know if you're familiar with Mardi Gras? Little bit? You know, I haven't been, but do you know I just came from there actually. Oh, cool. Do you know the, uh, the crew of Rex? Mm-hmm. That's like the Mardi Gras parade. Like the Okay. They, they call'em crews. Okay. Um. I have had, I'm directly related to three kings of Mardi Gras. Oh, interesting. Which makes me New Orleans royalty. Interesting. It doesn't really matter anymore. So after you're 21, you'll like get to ride one of those floats or something? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. It doesn't really matter. Right. It's all fake. Uh, my great grandmother always liked to say one day your royalty and you're into the paper, and then the next day they're wrapping you up in the fishes. It don't matter.'cause because you're in the newspaper and then they're using your paper to wrap the fishes up. You Yeah. So it, it's really, it's that 15 minutes of fame, basically. It's all fake. Right. Like, enjoy it. But at the of the day, it doesn't matter. Interesting. So that's kind of like her. Yeah. Yeah. She grew up in this real like New Orleans. Yeah. Almost the Aristos C and this, like this New Orleans bubble. Yeah. Yeah. But her, my, my grandfather had this really great perspective of, this isn't everything. Go out and see the world. Mm mm-hmm. So she went to the University of Virginia. Yeah. She met my father there. My dad. Switching gears. Sure. Went, uh, grew up in Baltimore, just outside, uh, now, like City and Baltimore at that time, he grew up, was probably a fairly prosperous town in comparison or, uh, not 76 comparably. So it was when he was born, so, okay. Yeah. It kind of was the eighties. Think eighties, yeah. Yeah, because the naval base there and different things like it was, it hadn't fallen into as much crime and stuff as it has become. I don't know. When, when is the wire based off of? I dunno. Is, is that the nineties? I think so. It wasn't, it wasn't easy Still. I've never seen it. Um, but he didn't grow up in Baltimore, right? He grew up, he grew up outside and went to a private school. Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, in T City, so that's like 40 minutes outside the city. Yep. So, but like Baltimore area. Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, he went to a private school, really good in school, also went to the University of Virginia. That's where they met. And the rest is kind of history. Were they like on like Donkey Kong right away? Yeah. Actually no, I don't think my mom liked my dad very much at the beginning. Uh, he used to have a less than she does now. He used to have a ponytail and an earring. Okay. Uh, and he followed. Are you, do you know Phish? Sure. He followed Phish for a summer. Wow. Like he used to be this total, I mean, he still loves. So this Catholic g from Louisiana, he still loves, grabbed a fish head out and turned him into a businessman with, uh, bane, I guess So ish. Something must have happened there. He still loves, uh, like jam bands, but uh, like he cut the ponytail off, took out the earring and Well, and the cool thing about music and especially improv music, jam bands, things like that, it's like. Yeah. Almost a manner of thinking and free flow and like his ideas around efficient lines and stuff like that could have been thought about while he was tripping around mushrooms at a Phish show. I don't, he, he actually wasn't into any of the recreation stuff. Oh. He was just a music guy. Only just loved the music. Oh. You don't see that many people just saying he maybe just doesn't tell you. I don't know. No, no. He's actually very adamant about it. Oh, he alright. Interesting. Um, and that grew up in my music taste too. Fair. I like all that stuff as well. Yeah. Yeah. Widespread once in a while, whatnot. Not widespread, no. Phish and actually now new newer band. Goose. Goose. A Goose. Oh, I've heard of that. Yeah. But not, it wasn't a thing when I was like younger and going see, but yeah, mu music's a big part of my family. Cool. So we don't actually play, but we just love to listen. Yeah, fair enough. Yeah, like if, if you go to your house, there'll be music in the background. Usually something playing a lot of times. So, so that's like more often than the tv? More often than the tv. Yeah. I dig it. So that's like kind of a. A little bit about my family. Yeah, I dig it. Um, faith or politics would you prefer to talk about, uh, we'll talk about faith a little bit. Alright, sure. Yeah. Uh, baptized Catholic. Yep. Raised Catholic. And I guess we'll get St. Joe's or, uh, no. Or here? Not in here. Not here. Uh oh. Yeah. You didn't come here until, how old were you when you got here? I was six To Fort Collins. Already To Fort Collins. Oh, I was thinking you moved to like the second stop before that.'cause it was Texas. Oh, and that was, you were six when you came here. Yeah. Sorry. Yeah. I thought you came a little bit later. I think there was another chapter. No, five when we left Dallas turned six in Louisville, then we moved. Okay. I thought you spent more time there. Sorry, I was planting a little, little later. Yeah. So, okay, go ahead. Um, so I was born baptized, or born then baptized Catholic. Yeah. Um, my dad is Protestant. Something of some sort. He's not, he's not too invested. Not Catholic. Um. And my mom was Catholic. Yeah. Uh, everyone on my fam my mom's side is Catholic, basically. But you guys haven't been too involved or? Um, not right now, no. Okay. Uh, we're, we're more in line with, uh, like a lot of Jesuit stuff. Okay. Uh, I'm not sure if you're familiar a little bit. Um, I guess tell me more if you're familiar. Uh, it's very, very big in New Orleans. Yeah. And, and the whole idea is it's very educational. Right. It's very schools, it's very service. Very service based. Okay. Um, which is why they have a lot of schools. Um, yeah. And the, the, the motto is men for others. Okay. Uh, it's very, uh, kinda action oriented. Action oriented. Service oriented. Okay. Um, and there's not a lot of that around here. Yeah. Um, and we just aligned with that a little bit better. Okay. So that's just haven't really made space. Your dad weren't around that. That's kind of, that's kind of my raisin. Yeah. Have you, have you. Individually studied at all, or like when you examine or you kind of, this is the faith background of my family and so I'm good. Uh, yeah. More, less like, have you explored a question of faith for yourself? Less, more or less. That's kind of like your dad's a Protestant, your mom's a Catholic. Do you see the discernment there? I am a, well, the reason why my dad, my dad actually, as far as I understand, I mean, I'm kind of speaking for him here. Yeah. I think that he would be a Catholic if it weren't for transubstantiation, for trans transubstantiation. Tell me what, I don't know what that is. So the, so are you familiar with communion? Sure. Oh, so thinking the body or the Eucharist, right? Like the body is the actual body, so, so. Or the bread is the actual body. Most Catholics, and I'm, I'm pretty sure the Catholic view is the actual body and blood is when you, if you dip the bread in the blood, that's the actual body and blood. So, so when they, so when they perform the sacraments Yeah. You are actually transforming the body and blood into the actual body and blood. That's what the Catholic View is. Yep. And the Lutherans, right? No, not the Lutherans. So, so when, well, some of the Lutherans, some the, I think some of the Lutherans, yeah. So when, because that was part of the reformation movements within the Lutheran church too. Oh, there was a Lutheran Reformation Yeah. Of sorts. Um, oh, I'm not familiar. But part of it was like, that's what, like the Pentecostals and the Lutherans are, I don't, I I get confused. I do too. But it does, like, I, I kind of agree with your dad. Like it's hard for me to grab those little piece of bread and be like, okay, this is the body of Christ, you know, and eat it. And I recognize some from,'cause I'm a non-Catholic Christian, if you will. Okay. And I recognize the power and the significance of acknowledging. A belief in something, you know? And I think it's metaphor, this is my body broken for you. Um, so anyway, I'm kind of on your dad's team there. Yeah. I, that's something that he just can't get behind, so Yeah, I get it. Um, fair enough. I don't blame him, but uh, that's something that I just, you know, are the Swiss, probably Catholics and Lutherans would be my guess. I think. I don't know if I had guess. I think so. I have no idea. I don't know. Um, I don't know. I enjoy watching little, like videos. So my dad, my dad is the Swiss, my dad is a Swiss one. Yep. And my mom is the Catholic one. Yep. But I think a lot of Swiss are Catholics too. I think so because they're pretty close to Italy there, where the Roman Catholic church was pretty dominant for a long time. Well, and then my dad's also Irish. Oh. Which is usually Catholic too. But no, they, they weren't, I don't think my, they were Irish Catholics. Oh, interesting. Yeah. I think they were the starved Irish, the Catholics beat the shit out of the Protestant Irish for a long time. I think we were the starved Irish. Interesting. Okay. They, they came over because they took the potatoes. I think that's, I think that's what interesting. I think that's what we were, that's not funny. I, I don't know exactly, but, uh, as far as I, so it goes well, maybe in your, uh, early year of college here, you can get a little deeper into your face study and, uh, examining more for yourself. Yeah. I think that's always a worthy cause. Uh, but I'm, I'm pretty secure in my faith. Yeah. I I So you identify pretty much as Yeah. Catholic, even though you haven't had a lot of. Like interaction with church services or people. I mean, I, I go, we go Oh, you do to for more or less. Like, we, we try to go as much more than Christmas and Easter. Right. Okay. Fair enough. I Sorry, I got the wrong impression. No, no, it's all right. Um, but your dad's not as much? No, he comes with us. Oh, he does? He just doesn't go thing. He just doesn't de because he doesn't Yeah. Buy that part. Right. Interesting. Okay. Yeah, that's, I, I don't know it, I try to talk to my wife about these things and she's like, I just don't care about any of those kind of differences between Baptists and Reformed and Presbyterians and Catholics and Right. It just doesn't matter to me. We're all Christians. That's one take. Yeah. Um, although Catholics disagree, generally, uh, I, I, I feel like I tend to have a more Jesuit approach, which is just love. How is your service? Love, love everybody. Yeah. I dig it. I think probably the ideal, uh, approach, regardless of what faith you adhere to, um, politics, we are, I don't know what, maybe a month in 40 days into Jesus feels so much longer. Um, I guess gimme, uh, gimme a couple things that you like about the new administrations and a couple of criticism so far. I don't know if I can do that first part. You can start with the latter if you'd like. I'll keep, I wanna keep this part brief. Um, I feel like we're lacking empathy right now. Hmm. And that's kind of hard. Um, like the, the whole federal government workers Yeah. Send your email. What these grants are canceled that, that lacks. I feel like that lacks empathy. Okay. Um, and I, I feel like we're lacking perspective Yeah. On some things and, and. Are you 18? I am 18. Did you vote? No, I did. I did vote. Okay. So you had a vote last fall? Yes. It wasn't for Trump, I presume. It was not, it was not for Trump. Um, so I guess as a, as an economist myself, um, what do you think America should do about its kind of debt ball? Is it like not really a problem, or do we need to I'm not educated enough on the, no, on the topics. I mean, we collected about 6 billion in TA or 6 trillion in taxes last year and spent eight and a half. Um, I mean, I, I, obviously, I know that that's an issue just right, just seeing the numbers. I characterize it to my employee, Alma, as like, if you and your husband made a hundred thousand dollars a year and you spent 140 for like 10 years, you'd be in tough shape even though you have this like, really good economy, right? And you shouldn't run yourself into a, like, we were literally at like a 31% deficit last year. In 2020 or 2024, uh, which is so much, it's like if you made$2,000 a month spending 3,200, right? No. Like I, I, I understand. So I, I get it that we, the empathy thing, but what do we do about it, I guess? Uh, uh, I don't think that it comes from cutting money from Bangladeshi and moms and children that are starving and as, as a, as a world powerhouse. You say that foreign aid does good things sometimes, and now there's, we have a response. I feel like we have a responsibility Yeah. As, as a powerhouse. Well, or do we to do good or do we create people dependent upon this kind of thing and make it worse sometimes. I I, okay. If you wanna, I dunno if that's my, my, okay. If we wanna talk about like dependency. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I think that there are good things that come with aid if we, if we wanna talk about like Well, yeah. Like strategy. Totally. Like moving people to your will. We'll talk, we'll talk about like Marshall plan Sure. Post World War II percent. Yeah. We, we had a hundred percent influence among the Greek and Middle Eastern countries Yeah. For a really long time because of the, in the aid that we had for, of amongst rebuilding those countries. Right. Well, and right. Like right now China's got tremendous influence on a lot of African nations because of all the infrastructure investment they're doing. Absolutely right. So like, is that, is that wasteful spending or is that them being smart planning for the future? Uh, and I think that's the argument for, I, you know, what I think is wasteful, this, I think spending a lot of money on a plane that doesn't work on a plane, that doesn't work. We we're behind on on. Oh yeah. I hate, hate any more spending, frankly. So I think that, you know, we could save a lot of money there. Yeah. I don't think saving$10 million on, on that versus on a, on a food program for Bangladesh. Yeah. For, for starving bangladeshian mother and children. Mm-hmm. When we could be saving a trillion dollars on a plane that we gave to already overfunded military contractors that aren't doing any, you, you will not get me arguing against cutting military spending. Um, but it is only a small part ultimately of our, of our de deficit problems. Um, medic obligatory spending, Medicare, Medicaid, social Security is 61% of our budget right now. Um, and debt services like 12. And, and at the end of the day, this, a lot of this is just my opinion. Yeah. Yeah. And I don't No, I know. And you're not, you're not a student. I'm not a of politics necessarily yet. But I, I think that's my challenge is like, yes, it always sucks. Like some of those grants that. Trump's cut and stuff are gonna affect CSU, it's gonna affect forest service different, you know, and those people won't buy money at small businesses and things like that. And like, we gotta stop, like we gotta stop spending so much more than we take in as a nation, otherwise we're gonna be broke and China's gonna be the boss and then shit will be bad. Anyway, that's my soapbox. Right? Um, do you wanna do the ping pong ball challenge? Sure, we can do that. Ah, so this is, uh, you're gonna pull three of those balls out. Okay. And each one has a number on it. And the corresponding question is here on this printout. Do I get a pass, um, a pass if I don't like the question? Yeah, if you don't like the question. Okay. It's a family show. Seven. It's seven. How do you find, how do you define happiness? Oh, okay. Yeah. They're not crazy ISTs. Okay. Yeah. It was like, oh, yeah, yeah. Nothing crazy. Is this like hot seat? No. Yeah. The, the politics section is done, you know, seven. Uh, how do I define happiness? Yes. Hmm. How do you measure it? That's kind of, I don't feel like you can measure happiness. Like I can't put happiness in a bottle and Yeah. Yeah. No. Like, oh, this is, it's not quantitative. So much happiness I have. Yeah. But you were glowing when you were like, talking about your leadership team with deca earlier and stuff. I, okay. I guess your dimples were flashing heavy. Um, if I were to measure happiness, I, I'd say it's in like, experiences with people. Okay. Um, I'd say if I were to talk about like when I'm a, when I'm the happiness Yeah. Yeah. When I'm the happiest. Yeah. Yeah. I'm with people I care about and I'm doing something. It doesn't have to be something like mind blowing. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm, I'm doing something. With someone that I care about. Yeah. Well, in those uncomfortable experiences, I've, I've heard it said before, you know, you, you, you laugh a lot during the fun times, you know, when you're riding a rollercoaster and stuff. But when you go camping and it rains all weekend and you struggle through it with some people you love, you know, those are the things you remember fondly and even like your decade experiences and stuff, you're with people and it's not a struggle, but it's not easy. Right. No, absolutely. You know, you're, I wouldn't say that it all, any of it was easy. Sure. But I, I had a lot of fun. Yeah. Um, we, we, there was, there were a couple tears when it was over. Mm. Um, but like we, we always said like, oh, we can't say goodbye because we're never, it's not goodbye. It's, bye for now. It's bye for now. It it, we'll see you later. Yeah. Yeah. Um, like, and that was like a, a big moment of that, like, yeah. Oh, we're, we're crying in the room. Yeah. Yeah. I get it. For sure. Cool. Uh, next question. Okay. Number two being Ava collaborated on this one. This is one of Ava's. Would you rather fight one horse size duck? Oh, I love this question. Or 100 duck size horses. A hundred duck size horse, one horse size duck, or 100 duck sized horses. Um, I'm gonna go one horse-sized duck. And why? Why? Okay. I've, I would never, I would totally go for the hundred duck size horses outside, just like screaming. Um, okay. I'm gonna go one horse size duck because I've spent a lot of time with horses. Okay. Um, at my summer camp, I, I've spent. A decent amount of time of horses and so you try to mount'em and ride'em. I would ride them and, but but a duck. So you're talking about a horse-sized duck here. It's gonna have a different handling characteristics. So Okay. Horses kick really hard. True. And even if it's a duck sized horse, like that's gonna come up to like my knee, that's gonna hurt a whole bunch of little kicks. And there there's like a hundred of'em. Like I'm not gonna be able to take those. Those they gonna swarm you eventually. I'm not gonna be able to take those on a stampede at, at some point stampede. I'm just gonna get like knocked over and they're just gonna be kicking me in the head. Okay. Okay. So let's say, let's, so, so let's contrast that to the horse size. Duck ducks are, how are you gonna go about ducks is stupid. Okay. So if even like, even something large that's still stupid, right? So I can, I feel like I could. And we were talking about a 1200 pound duck here. Outmaneuver it. Alright. And how are you gonna take it down? I'll like climb up on it and then like wrangle it out. Sl Yeah, like get around its neck.'cause his neck will be like kind of just choke it out. Yeah. Still kind of thing. He's gonna have like a four foot long neck. Right. That'll be fine. All right. Just get on his back, ride out like horse for a while, then choke it out. Tire. Tire it out. Yeah. Choke it out. All right. Yeah, right. That'll be fine. That's cool. All last question. 26. 26. What's your go, what's your go-to way to unwind after a stressful day? Oh, that's a good question. Especially for like old people that have been like stressed out for years and stuff. You can hand that to me. Yeah.'cause I get stressed out all the time, I'm sure. Um, I, so I like to meditate. Okay. It's a big one for me. Um. Assisted unassisted. Just silent. I'm gonna just like, kind of just sit, just quiet. Sit. Um, my dad says a phrase. Uh, sometimes I sits and thinks and sometimes I just sits. That's kind of true. Yeah. Um, listen to music. Read a book. Yeah. Maybe just scroll on my phone, like, just mindless. Let my brain rot for a minute. All right. Um, just any, like, just, you know, just deep, deep plug. Just deep. Yeah. Take a moment. Do you do anything? Um, workout sometimes. Yeah. Yeah. You look like you've got pretty big pipes. Oh, thanks. Appreciate, you know, for a young guy, you know. Now we're gonna do the loco experience. Okay. Your craziest experience of your young life so far. Crazy experience other than voting for Kamala. Just kidding. Oh my God, I'm just, don't even get me started. Craziest experience of my life. My short, short 18 and a half year old life. Yeah. Yeah. Um. Hmm. Might be just a moment. Might be yours. There's been a couple highlights semester abroad, there's been a couple highlights. Any near death experiences, anything like that? Um, hopefully not. I'll go with one that I, Betsy don't listen though if No, no, no, no, no. She heard this story near death. Okay. Um, that I thought was probably okay. Crazy. But, uh, it turned out to be Okay, so going back to summer camp. Okay. We were, this is the month long summer camp. Month long summer camp in the Rocky Mountain National Park. Okay. We were on a mountain bike overnight, so we go on a 20 mile mountain bike. Yep. You know, up the mountains, bring your tent in the backpack kind of thing. Well, no, they, they actually ship our stuff. Oh, that's nice. Uh, but we, you know, we have most of our stuff in our packs and then they, they ship out the tent in the food, but that's it. Everything else we have to bring ourselves. Right. And we, we ride the bikes up the mountain. Then we, we meet the, we meet the, the bus, not the bus, the truck. We unload it. They get all your gear. We stay the night and then we ride it back. The next day when we were making dinner, we heard this blood curling scream in the forest. Okay. And it was terrifying. Like literally like sounded like a woman being murdered in cold blood. And then soon after we heard someone of your stature, like someone with your voice, a man voice, a man voice screaming in cold blood as well. Okay. And it was, it was terrifying. Like, like literally woman screaming, man screaming, and then a woman screaming again. And we were like, what did, like we just hear like a double murder, suicide like crazy, right in the woods. Like serial killer thing. Just go off and it's me. And like. 14 other dudes. Okay. And we're in the woods and we're like, oh my God, there's no cell service. And what do we do? Right? So we do you have like a camp leader or something? We have a counselor and he's, you know, 19, right? He's definitely not fighting off whatever it is that killed that dude. And we're like, what the hell is happening? And we're like, everyone get all the sharp things into one corner and someone grab the ax and we're gonna go all get together at this one point and we're gonna, like, we get all our safety protocols together. And someone's like, where's the SAT phone?'cause we have a, we have a satellite phone. Hey, just in case. So we call camp, we're like, we just, what, what, what do we just hear? And camp's like, uh. Call the Rangers. We can't do anything about this. So we call the rangers. Okay. Rangers come out, the Rangers are like, we can't do anything about this. Let's get the police out here. And all of a sudden our campsite and the surrounding like 10 mile radius is an act of crime scene. Okay. Turns out they couldn't find anything. Um, it, that's all, that's it. It they, they nobody knows all night. They look, they look for stuff. They got like dogs with flashlights and could not find anything. Okay. Um, they think a dude was murdered by a mountain lion and like dragged away. Really? At the end of it? Yeah. Uh,'cause like they never found him. Or like some, some guy ended up going missing. Okay. But it was kind of unrelated, but we're not really sure. So like, you maybe heard the cat scream and so, so the cat cats can do that apparently. Yeah. They can mimic like a woman or they, they like can scream like that. So you may have heard a mountain bike. Mountain Lion, lion killed and then the dude getting like mauled. Damn. Yeah, it was, didn't find no blood or nothing, though. I don't think so. Like, it seems they, they didn't really update, they didn't really update us and like, but those valleys are so big sometimes and like we kind of all forgot about it, but that was definitely one of them. Like you could hear something from three miles away. Probably some, sometimes it's just still and quiet. Yeah. In those mountain valleys. And it's just like echo. Well we were, we were like, we were like all chilling out, you know, like we were making our, like our chicken and like chicken rice and whatever. Interesting. Interesting. And then all of a sudden, like blood curling. Do you wish there was a little more closure to that or do you think that's, you kinda forgot about it. It's just like, whatever, whatever. I mean, whatcha you gonna do about it now? Exactly. Be careful if you go back up there. There's definitely like some ghost haunting us now or something. Well, um, I guess, you know, thanks for being here. If anybody wants to follow. Thanks having your journey. Yeah. Do you got like a LinkedIn page or anything like that? Uh, yeah. Edward Reinhardt on LinkedIn. All right. Yeah. I also have Instagram. Alright. Uh, Edward Reinhart, do you wanna see pictures from the Cavaliers? Uh. Football season this fall, fall or anything like that? Think my Instagram's on private, but Oh, I'll, I'll, I'll accept, I'll accept most people. As long as you don't seem weird, you should keep it on private. Don't get my fans that crazy. Um, anything you wanna close with? Um, no. Thank you for having me. Yeah, this was a great opportunity. Um, love sharing my story. I love talking about Deca as you could tell. Um, if you know anyone in high school yeah, send'em to Deca. Send'em to Deca, uh, send'em this episode. We were talking in the break and Ava's dad told her to get into Deca and she's like, oh, those dorks. I would never, you never know. You might regret not doing it at some point, right? Well, you were calling'em dorks too before you turn into one and now you don't think it's like, you think it's cool. Okay. Last message. Drink the Kool-Aid. Drink the Kool-Aid. I love it. Thanks Edward. Yeah. Thank you guys. Speed.