The LoCo Experience
The LoCo Experience is a long-form conversational podcast that dives deep into the journeys of business leaders, entrepreneurs, and changemakers in Northern Colorado. Hosted by Curt Bear, Founder of LoCo Think Tank, the show brings real, raw, and unfiltered conversations—where guests share their successes, struggles, and lessons learned along the way.
LoCo Think Tank is Colorado’s premier business peer advisory organization, founded in Fort Collins to help business owners gain perspective, accountability, and encouragement to grow both personally and professionally. LoCo chapters bring together business owners at all stages of the journey into professionally facilitated peer advisory chapters, led by experienced business veterans. These groups provide a trusted space to share challenges, seek advice, learn togethter, and support each other’s success.
The LoCo Experience Podcast extends this mission beyond the chapter meetings— bringing the wisdom, insights, and stories of local business leaders to a wider audience.
Our triad mission with this podcast is simple:
Inspire through real stories of resilience and success.
Educate by sharing valuable business insights.
Entertain with engaging, unfiltered conversations.
If you love “How I Built This” and the free-flowing style of Joe Rogan - but with a Northern Colorado focus - you’ll enjoy The LoCo Experience! Our closing segment, "The LoCo Experience," asks guests to share their craziest stories — and we get some doozies!
It’s a passion project with purpose, and we invite you to listen, follow, and share, and maybe consider sponsoring. Know someone with a great story? Nominate your favorite business leader for an episode!
The LoCo Experience
EXPERIENCE 238 | Walk in Faith with Kyle Speller - Public Address Announcer and Team Chaplain for the Denver Nuggets & More!
Kyle Speller has been the voice of the Denver Nuggets, Team Chaplain, and Community Ambassador for over 2 decades. He’s the Founder of KSG Voice, a Middle School Counsellor and Athletic Director at Global Village Academy in Aurora, also an Associate Pastor, Husband, Father, Grandfather, and Servant of Christ.
We met up only a few hours after the assassination of Charlie Kirk - but he'd been working all day, and I broke the news to him.
Kyle has an inspiring journey, and was a very insightful guest, so please join me in enjoying my conversation with Kyle Speller.
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Music By: A Brother's Fountain
Kyle Speller has been the voice of the Denver Nuggets team, chaplain and Community Ambassador for over two decades. He's the founder of KSG Voice, a middle school counselor and athletic director at Global Village Academy in Aurora. Also an associate pastor. Husband, father, grandfather, and servant of Christ. Kyle has an inspiring journey and was a very insightful guest, so please join me in enjoying my conversation with Kyle Speller.
Speaker 9: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.
Speaker:Welcome back to the Loco Experience Podcast. My guest today is Kyle Speller. Kyle has a lot of titles. He's the PA announcer for the Denver Nuggets, as well as the team chaplain. He is the founder of KSG Voice. He's a middle school counselor for a school. He'll tell us about, he's a husband, a father, and a servant of Christ. Hey, there it is, and I'm so honored to have you here. Thank you. Thank you. You might be the most famous person to be on the show. Okay. Yeah, probably I would that, I mean, we had, we had Heidi gal on, I had Heidi on Heidi Gal when she was running for governor. Oh, she's the Camp Bow Wow. Founder. Okay. We didn't really talk about the gubernatorial run. We talked about her entrepreneur journey. Right, right. Uh, which was very mm-hmm. Spectacular and awesome faith guided as well. Mm. But thanks for honoring me with, uh, a local celebrities presence. Oh wow. Okay. You're pretty fancy. We'll take that. If you feel me fawning over you. You, I like to say flattery will get you everywhere with me. Yeah. Uh, it's probably less effect. Um, tell us about, uh, like how you spend your time. It's approaching basketball season. Mm-hmm. So maybe we can start there. Like how does that impact your, your rhythm and
Speaker 2:routine? Yeah. For me actually right now, I'm like really excited'cause I'm excited about this team that we've got now. I feel like we've got a lot of parts that we've been needing and, um, you know, can we talk about that a little bit? A little insider's analysis? Sure. I mean. Not, not, I, I don't have that much inside. Yeah. I, I just, I've got what, pretty much, but tell me what you see someone else has, but for me, yeah. Just being able to finally say that we have depth mm-hmm. Um, that, you know, that guys that can come, doesn't come to all ride on Yoic kind of thing. Right. Guys that can come in and contribute big time. We've got, we've got shooting, we've got defense, we've got depth, we've got, and we, we have a, a real, uh, backup center that, um, I'm so excited to, to have him. The, the reason why is because I've always seen Yoic go against him, and I've seen the way he's played him, and so I'm like, he, he's with us now. He's tough. Yeah. And so, um, yeah, that's, it's gonna be awesome. It's worth
Speaker:it keeping him on the bench just to keep him outta Yoko's face. Hey, I just can't, I'm teasing whoever you are,
Speaker 2:but, uh, yeah. So looking forward. Looking forward to this season. I'm, I, you know, I, I definitely would love to have a couple more parades. Can we,
Speaker:uh, can we jump into, before we get into the life of, of the voice mm-hmm. And all the different things you do. I wanna talk about nuggets because mm-hmm. Like being the team chaplain mm-hmm. I can imagine is a really unique place. And without breaking any non immunity or anything, is, is faith a pretty big component of this team? I'm sure it's very diverse from backgrounds.
Speaker 2:Well, what it is like, or how does that work? Yeah. In the NBA, it's a little bit different than the other leagues. Like, uh, for the NFL, there's a team chaplain and they're just, that they only work with their team. Same thing with MLB. Okay. Um, and, and NHL as well. But in the NBA, we have a unique, um, opportunity where we are able to have both teams come together. The whoever wants to participate or whoever wants to take part in child service comes together. And so we do that. And so Oh, like before a game? Before every, every game. Before every game. Both teams From both or players? From both teams? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Oh, interesting. Yeah. And so it's a pretty special dynamic because it allows us to build, you know, relationships throughout. Yeah. Because guys in the league, you know, trade deadline guy, they're here and then they're gone. Right, right. And, but that's a way to maintain
Speaker:that. Well, in a lot of times those backroom contacts and things, not gonna say backroom, but it is in your case, almost a backroom contact. Yeah. You're like, Hey, you should actually get this guy. Both because of his basketball ability, but also he's just a great, honorable guy, you know? Yeah. And he'd be great on the team or whatever.
Speaker 2:Yeah. No, not really. The
Speaker:owners and managers don't care about all that stuff. No, not at all. Because they're, they're not involved in it. They look at the numbers. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Not involved in that part of it all. So it's very anonymized. Yeah. It's, it's a sacred time.
Speaker:It's a sacred time. Is it like, I don't wanna talk percentages, but is it, like, are half of NBA players kind of Facebook people? No, I wouldn't say that. 20%, 30%. So like that, it just kind of fluctuates. And you don't have to
Speaker 2:be to participate. Right, right. I assume. And you don't have, there's no like, real hard number either. There's guys that are, it's hard to be that famous and that rich. Right. Well, and believe God is, needs to be too big of a party of your life, it feels like. No, I wouldn't say that either. I think it's just based on, you know, their, their roots and who he's called and who their foundation is and, and just their journey all along the way. Right, right. And so there's guys. Plenty of guys that, you know, they came from nothing. They're, they're, they, they were raised, uh, in the church and continue on. There's guys that find Christ along the way. Yeah, yeah. It's just whatever the Holy Spirit is doing. But overall, it's not really a culture of faith so much. Mm. In, in the, I wouldn't say that either. Okay. Because everybody is kind of got their own Right. It just depends on the individual, what's their drivers. And so some, some people come to chapel, but some people. Uh, just do things at their locker. Yeah, yeah. Or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. And so for me, the role as a chaplain though, is not just for the players, it's for the team as a whole, and it's for the actual arena, I would say as a whole. I, I kind of say the, the arena is kind of my, my, the, my, my church or what. Yeah. And, and what I mean by that is, is really, you know, the fan, everyone from the fans to ushers, to security, to the officials, to players, to, to greeters, to coaches, whoever, whoever needs prayer at that point in time. It is, it's up for me as a chaplain to just be obedient to whatever the Holy Spirit is. Well, and even in your role
Speaker:as an announcer with all the kids watching and all this and that, to be honoring to God in that mm-hmm. And the way that you talk about other players and teams and stuff, I imagine it's a, it should be instinctual and it seems like mm-hmm. You've developed that very strongly.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I. For me. I, like I said, I'm just trying to be obedient. Yeah. Whatever, whatever the Lord, my, my prayer before I walk in the building every game is, Lord, don't allow them to see me or hear me. Allow them to see you and hear you and whatever it is that I'm doing. Yeah. And just cause me to sit down and you rise up and you be glorified. I love the way you talk about that and just whatever, whoever, whoever, it doesn't matter if it's the, the person in the back hallway that you don't see that's, you know, guarding the stairwell. Right. That no one sees, no one cares about stocks, the hot dog, buns, whatever. Yeah, exactly. You know, that person needs Christ too. And, and so it's up for me to, if the Lord is saying, go talk to that person, go pray with that person to do it. And so, yeah. Cool.
Speaker:I dig it. Well, you, uh, joined us, uh, and gave kind of an opening exercise for our next Level summit a few weeks ago. Oh yeah. And, uh, how did it go? How did it go? Oh, it was great. It was awesome event, and so Awesome. Thanks for kicking it off. Good. And, and Richard did a great job in the workshop in the afternoon and yeah, a good time was by all, I've got his book, so I can't wait to read that. Yeah, yeah. Well, and you met a bunch of our people and stuff. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Uh, shared a bunch of insights on, on trust and mm-hmm. Man, not to jump right into current events, but crazy day to day with Charlie Kirk being killed. I haven't heard any of that. You haven't heard in the middle school the entire day. Okay. Yeah, so like I, I just wrote my blog about trust'cause and kind of the heels of that mm-hmm. And the distrust of the wealthy and different polarizations. But yeah. Charlie got assassinated in the middle of, you have to forgive me. Who's Charlie? Charlie Kirk is, uh, he's kind of a. A, a college campus, um, political debater kind of guy, very trumpy kind of guy and stuff. I think
Speaker 2:I've seen some of his videos. Yeah. He's a younger guy right? He took 31 years old.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Father of a
Speaker:couple.
Speaker 2:And like I, I just Yeah. Got captivated by some of the videos. Just different ones, um, you know, different subject matter. Yeah. Yeah. And like there'd be people like yelling at him. Right. You
Speaker:know,
Speaker 2:and
Speaker:stuff like that. He's kinda like the most hated figure on the right by the left. So he's gone. He's gone. Yeah. He got shot through the throat today while he was debating about, uh, violence from the left. Jesus. Um, and it's just gonna increase the mistrust, um, in our country so much. Mm-hmm. Um, and so anyway, I've been knowing that and doing that as part of why I poured a shot of bourbon in my coffee today. Wow. So I just, uh, well, I do it for my podcast pretty regular, just to grease the skids. But it's a sad thing and I'm, I'm, I'm nervous. It feels like a nine 11 kind of moment where things aren't gonna be quite the same going forward. Mm-hmm. Um,'cause when you get to violence like that, you know, it's just, yeah. I mean, Trump was crazy. I mean, Trump's crazy a little bit, right? And so somebody thinking he was crazy enough to shoot on him was sad, but un explainable a little bit, you know? And that's what circuit services for, is for those kind of folks. But if regular people can't talk about what they think without risking, getting shot at, that's a sad day.
Speaker 2:I mean, the world we live in now, it's just for me personally, I pray over my children, my wife and myself, every day before we even walk out of the house. I always just pray a covering over them. And that's, that's a part of, because it's a routine for you tomorrow, tomorrow's not promised to anyone. And, and, you know, it could, you could be driving in traffic and someone pull up on you and, and all of that. And, and, uh, that's just, that's just horrible. That's just horrible.
Speaker:Sorry to hit you with that. Um, and wow, it's just been on my mind a little bit. Mm-hmm.'cause it's, I'm, I'm a philosopher at heart a little bit. Mm-hmm. And a sociologist, I think. Mm-hmm. And I, I don't, I don't know where it goes, you know, it's hard to predict. Mm. Hopefully nowhere dumb. Mm. You know, we always have to be able to talk it out. That's the point. Right. You know, and, and to attack those that. Spend most of their time talking and debating, you know, it's just such a crushing thing. So was it, was it, was it live or something? Oh yeah. His wife was there. A bunch of people were there. It was a live event in front of thousands, and somebody then, they haven't caught the person they shot from a building a couple hundred yards away. Ooh. And yeah, like right through the back of his, like right through his throat, basically while he was talking. Mm-hmm. Sorry about that. Mm.
Speaker 5:Yeah, that's So it's a nervous day. Yeah.
Speaker:And we can clean some of this up if we decide to, but it's also an interesting place to just process things when things are fresh.
Speaker 3:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:So how old are your
Speaker 2:kids? I've got twin, 23-year-old sons. Okay. A 26-year-old daughter. And yeah, I think about that type of stuff. Just all the time. Yeah. Yeah. Just, you know, just, just because you just never know. Yeah. And so. You know, for, for us, obviously, we're just like, well, just make sure you know where you're going.
Speaker 5:Mm. Yeah. If, if, if, yeah. Yeah. When,
Speaker 2:when, when your time is up. When, yeah. Yeah. Just make sure, am I, let's make sure we meet Peter. Ticket, punch and validated meet. Yeah, we meet, meet, we meet in eternity and in, in, with our Heavenly Father. And so
Speaker:I'm gonna circle back to your, your faith component a little bit and where you kind of. Mm. Develop kind of an abiding faith you mentioned mm-hmm. Catholic roots in our previous conversation and stuff. Mm-hmm. But I wanna, I wanna hold off on that because I wanna catch an idea of the spread of, go back to the question I first asked. Mm-hmm. What's your life look like a little bit? Not just the chaplain stuff mm-hmm. Not the PA stuff. Mm-hmm. Like more from a timeline, what's a week look like? Are you still a full-time counselor or near full-time counselor? Yeah. When you're the nuggets announcer.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Absolutely. Okay. Middle school counselor, um, guidance counselor. I make sure to clarify that, but, um, by day, um,
Speaker:so it's more like, not kids having big problems, it's more of like career counseling and focusing and stuff or Yeah. Just support
Speaker 2:for them at, at the school. Yeah. Yeah. I'm kind of like, you know, I'm in the city and so a lot of, a lot of children, they don't necessarily have. A lot of male role models, and so I get to be that individual and, you know, preferably make an impact in their lives. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I always said I never wanted to work with middle schoolers and uh, God's got jokes, so, so I'm there and, um, um, but yeah, by day that's where I am. And then, you know, during the, during the season, I head straight from there down to the arena. Okay. Um, there's things I do for the nuggets during, you know, through as a community ambassador as well, and so I'll go and Okay. Speak at schools. You're there pretty regularly. Um, yeah, well just kind of for the games, but also outside that, yeah. There are boots on the ground and as well, and so that
Speaker:includes probably
Speaker 2:in the off season too.
Speaker:Absolutely. They'll hook you up with an elementary school to go talk to or this or that or whatever. Our rotary club. Yep. Yep. We'll
Speaker 2:do stuff for, you know, like Special Olympics or Yeah. You know, different things like that. Yeah. Yeah. So, um, just to have our presence there. And so, so there's that. Um, and then, yeah, full-time husband and father as well. Um, but the kids, the kids are most, they're outta the nest, I presume, like it's them kids now. Yeah. And so no grandkids yet. I have one grandfather. One granddaughter, okay. Yeah. Yeah. And, and so, uh, just, you know, just trying to pour into all of them and, you know, their, their situations are different now, now that they're adults, you know, it's just more about trying to continue to be a voice of wisdom Yeah. In, in their lives and, and, uh, just continuing, continuing to pray for'em. And, and, um, other than that, um, just spending time with, with my wife and. And just kind of keeping other places spin. Well, you do a
Speaker:little bit of this, a little bit of that, you know, like mm-hmm. The talk you had for us, and I'm sure you Absolutely. Maybe mc events occasionally through that. I just gotta request this earlier and I gotta check the calendar on that one. Yeah. I like it. I like it. Keeping busy. And you're an
Speaker 2:associate pastor? Mm-hmm. Or something like that as well. And so they're at service on a weekly basis for, for the most part. And yeah, I'm kind of the, uh, one of the ones, if our pastors has to be gone or whatever, I'm he'll every six weeks or something. Somebody else has to give the servant and put something together. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I like it. But yeah, just serving, just serving, just serving. That's, that's all. Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. When the Nuggets games
Speaker:close up, like they're, what do you mean they go until 11:00 PM or 10:00 PM or, oh,
Speaker 2:yeah. It depends on when we start, right? So a 7:00 PM game. Then I'm leaving the arena about 10 30 or so. Okay. Uh, and eight, I guess say a quote unquote eight or eight 30 game. I say that in quotes because that's normally national television, so Oh. That means eight 30. That really means 8 45. Gotcha. After the 15 minutes of commercials. Yeah, exactly. And extended out. Oh, extra commercials between, yeah. All of that. And so, so that's at midnight. Yeah. Getting home kind of thing. 1130,
Speaker:midnight. Yep. And then, uh, school, back to school the next morning. Yeah. Yeah. That's, uh, yeah. You work hard. Yeah. Just, but you don't, you love it. It's, it's all because especially with the kids being on their own. Now imagine it's easier than it was when you first started even. Yeah. Well, or maybe they were already kind of high schoolers when you started. How long have you been doing it? No,
Speaker 2:this is my, the start of my 21st season.
Speaker:Oh, dang.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I had it in my head as like a little over 10. Oh yeah. So 20 years, 21st season. Yeah. So it's been, yeah, since they were little and all, but I would always. You know, be it like I was my son's, I was their coach, their club coach, their club basketball coach. Wow. So I was always at their things and could always, you know, manage whatever or, or manipulate the schedule to where I could be at their things and still take care. Wow. Because I always, for me personally, I just. I, I never, my father, father didn't miss either one of those things. No. And my father never saw me play, and I just said, my kids would never even know what that felt like as far as I was concerned. And so I was always at every volleyball game. My daughter played volleyball and all my son's basketball games, as many as I could be at, even, even now, one of my sons is still, he's in college now. This is his last year. Oh, okay. But he is on the football team, and so go to watch his games as much as possible. Just went last this past weekend. And they won their first game? Or was it the first one? They lost their first game. It was up in Washington, but they won their first home game, which is, we were there. Okay. Was CU or was this, uh, Mesa, Colorado. Mesa. Oh, sure. Oh, sure. Yeah. Nice. And so. Yeah. And just enjoying that. And you know, like I said, I just, my, I I, I just said they would never know what that was like to not have their father there, that's for sure. Yeah. Um, and I, I've been able, God's been able, God's honored that in every way.
Speaker:You know, when we first got acquainted and, and when we were kinda discussing whether, uh, you should come up for the event and stuff, you were sharing some of your story of. Kind of God's provision in preparing you for mm-hmm. The nuggets job. Mm-hmm. Can we absolutely dive into that season a little bit? Yeah. And, and maybe even go back to the start of that kind of prison ministry element. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. We'll, we'll jump back all the way to grade school, but mm-hmm. For the purpose of this, I think I want to hear about that story.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. So, yeah, for me, I, uh, played basketball and, and just through our church we had, um, a prison basketball ministry. Oh, through the church. Okay.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:Interesting. And so, uh, because there, you know, can you tell me this
Speaker:church, was it a big church, like in urban Denver kind of thing? Yeah. And so you had a bunch of, bunch of ballers? We were all right. Yeah. As long as Kyle was there.
Speaker 2:No, no, no. But I contribute, I'm sure. But yeah, we, we had a prison ministry where there is a group that would go and, and do services at all the prisons.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker 2:But we were the prison basketball ministry and it was just, um, special. It was my favorite basketball I ever played. Really? It was just playing in the prisons. And, uh, there's guys even to this day that will come up to me that were in the prison and they remember and That's cool. It was just because it was just powerful. It was like, post-college for you, you're kind of starting your career doing this and that. Mm-hmm. Whatever. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And so. We would, we had like a 21 game season. Okay. And we would play every, every year and we would just come back. Is it one prison
Speaker:or is it rotating year?
Speaker 2:No, all the prisons in Colorado. Okay. Which is, so we would go everywhere from, you know, up north to Sterling Correctional. Oh sure. There's four facilities there. We would play all four of those guys. Oh wow. We would go to Lyman Correctional, we'd go all the way up to Kit Carson. Oh dang. That's so cool. We'd go to Buena Vista, rifle Reno Wal, uh, down in Walsenburg. Sure. Uh, uh, the, just went through the Walsenburg this spring, actually. Love that town. Yeah. FCI, Florence, FCI Englewood. Uh, dang. I think that one just closed down. But, um,
Speaker:and this is all just volunteer and you guys are probably practicing before time and stuff. Gotta have some plays and stuff like that. There's a coach and kind of,
Speaker 2:or something. Uh, one of our, one of the pastors there, he was our coach and one of our sponsor and, and, um,
Speaker:and he had been a college player or something too? Or he just,
Speaker 2:no, I don't think so. Not really. He just loves sports. Mean, just loved basketball and, and he's, he was a, he had a missionary's heart. Yeah. And so we would go to like Colfax and we would feed the homeless and stuff like that. Yeah, yeah. Very. And we'd go to the hotels and shop. Very active church kind of you'd say. And we would feed them and all. And so, okay, so you got
Speaker:this 21 game season, you're rolling around and Yeah. And so did you start as an announcer right away? No,
Speaker 2:just at halftime of every game. We would always just share a little message. Okay. And that was kind of, that was the purpose and the reason, you know, we open up in prayer, closing prayer, but at halftime we would share just a little me message, a little nugget. And so, but, uh, we would do that. And so we had like a portable speaker that we would bring in. Sure. You know, everything had to be checked, you know, in order to come in and all that stuff. Right, right. Make sure you're not bringing anything in. And so yeah, just out of the, just the Lord just laid on my heart, just do the player introductions and, and all, and, and for me, I always loved the Chicago Bulls when Michael Jordan was there. Sure. And so when the guy, the PA announcer, Ray Clay would do those announce, you know, the, the, now that, that Yes. I would always get bumps. You would imitate that, goosebumps and all that. Yep. Absolutely. And so I would do that in the prisons before every game, Uhhuh and I would announce some prisons. You couldn't say the person's last name and we couldn't say our last name. Right, right. Or vice versa or whatever. Um, but just to kind of set the atmosphere and you know, and would there'd be like a bunch of people watching too? They'd be inmates. Right. It's just inmates I assume there's not that much going on. Right. So, and, and the inmates were the referees as well. So and so they're, and and they, like, they would bet on the games and whatever. Like with cigarettes or something? Yeah. Literally, yeah. Kool-Aid and all that stuff. And, okay. And so the, like, there'd be times where we wouldn't get the call and we, what is up? Hey, I got two cigarettes on this game. Yeah. Or they're like, you know what, we've gotta live here. You don't, so you're not getting that call. And so, but any case, I would do that before every game. And little did I know that was. Preparing me for when an opportunity opened up. And what was the rest of your life like at this moment in time? You had just working little kids, right? Sounds like, yep. Little kids and working, um, just at that point in time. Um, let's see. I was, that was like 95 or so, so I was just, yeah, just working. I was. Uh, I think I still, I was with FCA fellowship or Christian athletes. Oh, okay. Was the urban director there, which is how, you know Scott Kessel. Yep. And then, uh, from there I went and I went on time, uh, full-time staff with this particular church at that point. Oh see, okay. As a youth pastor and, um, yeah,
Speaker:just, just so this was just kind of extra hours and, you know, show off to the senior pastor how committed you are to the cause and stuff. No, I'm teasing you.
Speaker 2:I don't, he he loved the prisons at that point in time, but, and you loved basketball. Yeah. That was amazing. It was a perfect combination. And people and men and the Lord. Mm-hmm. And just pouring into men. Absolutely. And just having a heart for inmates, you know, that, that's one of the, our, our commissions as well. The, the inmates. Those, those were when you were in prisons. When I was in prison, you visited me is what Jesus said. And, uh, for the widow and for the hunger and, and so, yeah. Um, you know, man, I can imagine feeling.
Speaker:For some of those men like to hear their name, what, even if their last name isn't there, but hear it on the pa. I'm sure
Speaker 2:at that point it was just, yeah, and I wasn't the Nuggets guy at that
Speaker:point in time for sure. It was just, you're just a dude. Yeah. But, but they haven't been, felt, some of them celebrated, some of'em had. Wives and kids and stuff. Yeah. But for the most part, they got left behind when they went to prison. Boom, is my guess. Boom. Like, I don't know that way. And so
Speaker 2:it's a moment, like I said, to set the atmosphere. Yeah. First time in a while anybody has said my voice and celebrated it at all, you know? Right, right. And just be a blessing and Yeah. And so, and then we would play. Yeah. And, and we would do, like, we would do weekends, so we would do like, you know, two different, two or three different facilities. Right. On a Friday night we would play, and then we'd play a morning game on a Saturday and go to the last one game on Saturday night. Back on church On Sunday. Yeah. And it was just like I said, so Wow. Best basketball. I just, I just loved that time. That's cool. I cool. I missed that time. Yeah. Yeah. And um, I played ball in, um, preparation,
Speaker:like early high school. Mm-hmm. I actually lettered in basketball in seventh grade. Where, where? Here in Colorado? Uh, no, in Buchanan. Uh, North Dakota.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow.
Speaker:Yeah. We had a high school of only 50 kids and like three kids got a DUI. Mm-hmm. Uh, my seventh grade year. And so they didn't have enough players. I had to got called up, I played, I played, uh, till halftime of the B squad game. Yeah.'cause I was a four foot 11 seventh grader, but I could shoot and I could dribble. Hey. And uh, and then I had to go into the locker room and then come out and
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker:You know, then play and get all my shots blocked for a while until I figured some stuff out. Yep. That's one way to learn. That's true. But anyway, that we would travel, like we would go to Wing. Mm-hmm. Uh, which was about 80 miles away. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Um, because they're just. Weren't that many small schools Yeah. That you could play and have it be somewhat competitive. And we still got our butts kicked all the time. I mean, I'm, I'm not a baller by any means, you know, you'd still take the floor with me for sure. Three of me would be needed to beat you. Um, but I love the game. Yeah. And I love the travel. Travel and going into these Yes. Like
Speaker 6:other schools, right? Mm-hmm. And,
Speaker:and like you've got the faithful 20 parents Yep. On our side that came out and then they've got the 80 kids as parents at their, the school you're visiting great memories, right? Yeah. Just these little dinky gyms, but comradery Yes. And trust. Yep. You know, when you pass to somebody, don't miss it. Mm-hmm. You know, but Absolutely. You can miss it some.'cause nobody hits it all the time. Right. You know, it's all an odds game. Yeah. And prison's kind of like that. Mm. Like especially getting outta prison. Mm. And staying out. Yeah. Right. And believing it in yourself. That's the deal. Like how can you increase those odd odds not getting, being
Speaker 2:institutionalized. Right.
Speaker:Forever prisoners.'cause we have too many forever prisoners and there's a lot of money in it.
Speaker 2:Yep, yep, yep. Yeah. Well then there's a lot of people that are outside, that are outside, have never been in prison, in the prison facility, but they're in prison in their mind. Yeah. In the spirit. Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. True. That and so, so yeah, doing this, that was the training ground. Yeah. Right. Like how many, no, probably like, I wanna say about five years or so. Yeah. And. It was just a great time, but it was God's preparation. And then one day there was just on the Nuggets website, I was a Nuggets fan and it just said, grab your microphones. Interesting. If you were the PA announcer for the Nuggets, how would you do the, uh, player introductions? Wow. And submit your Oh, just send an audio recording here, basically. Yeah. And at that point in time, I was working at the Comcast Media Center in Littleton. Okay. And then, so I had access to a studio Oh, right. A recording studio.'cause it was Yeah, yeah. A television studio out there. Huh. And, um, myself and the engineer, it literally took five minutes to record a demo. Right. Like bing, bing. And we sent it in and they said mine was the only one that they liked. And they brought me in. They received thousands. What, uh, and so it was all God.
Speaker:That's what I say. Like what if you hadn't, like had you established your voice at all by that time? Outside of the prison ministry? No. Were you announcing at church or saying, you know, anything like that? Like if you hadn't have seen that website Right. When that happened, nobody would've been like, Hey Kyle, you should definitely be the voice of the nuggets. You nothing like
Speaker 2:that? Not at all. So in 90 19, 99, I was a rookie free agent with the nuggets. Oh. And so, and I got cut, but I'm, while I was there, but, but you didn't hold a grudge While I was there, I met a guy by the name of Tommy Shepherd. He was like marketing or player personnel. One of those guys. Yeah. And, um, he's no longer there now, but, um, I remembered asking, you know, when I got cut, you always want a second chance and that type of thing. Yeah. And at some point I had reached out to him just asking. Because I think I had the idea, do they, you know, do they ever need a backup announcer for nuggets? Right. And so I reached out to him and he gave me the name of an individual that was, uh, one of the game entertainment, uh, managers at that time. And so I reached out to him and never heard anything for years or years before. Yeah. And then it was just that one day I just saw that and I showed it to my wife and she said, that's your job. And that's so cool. Yeah. And that was just powerful.
Speaker:Yeah. That's, uh, it's, I think women have. My, my wife told her mom like after our second date. Mm-hmm. Like, I'm gonna marry Kurt. That's the, yeah. You know? Yeah. Like they have that, men are always like second guessing God, but God speaks to women sometimes I think a little bit more clearly than he does to us knucklehead. My hardhead, my
Speaker 2:wife shares that she shared with her best friend than I think I met my husband. Is that, that's what she said. Right away after,
Speaker:right away. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I've almost like dudes will go along for the ride on that, but I almost only heard that story from the. Girls' perspective. Mm-hmm. They're the ones that somehow, I don't know. Mm-hmm. Um, at least the good ones. Mm-hmm. I don't know. Hey, how it goes. So that the, the God ordained ones, how about that? So do you like, not to get into your business, but do you like, make a ton of money doing this? Is it like a pretty lucrative gig or It's it's pretty much equivalent
Speaker 2:to a part-time job. It's a NICE's It's a
Speaker:good paying part-time job. Correct. Right. Like instead of making 30 bucks an hour, you make some number, way more than that. But yeah. Not like, I'm not making, I'm not 400 grand a year being this guy. No, no I'm not. They'd sign another rookie free agent instead if they had that much money to spend to that role under,
Speaker 2:under
Speaker:like a contractor. Right. Or an NIL deal. Do do you have dreams of like building a bigger audience, like starting a podcast or doing know, I don't know. You got a cool, cool voice. You got a big, uh, message for people. I
Speaker 2:just, I, I, I literally, if God calls you hell to Yeah. If, if, if, if that's what the Lord let, let us to do. Yeah. And that, that would be what I would do. Alright. I'm not, I don't do any of it for any celebrity or anything along those lines. Yeah. I truly, the, like, the words that resonate in my mind and in my, my spirit is just you build got a platform, he'll give you a platform. That's what my, my pastor says that all the time you build, got a platform, he'll give you a platform. So I'm just about trying to build God a platform however he wants to do it. My answer is yes. Do you
Speaker:get to like, be yourself in that way as the pa announcer? Like, do you ever get to mention thank God or beyond that or It's kind of Not really. No. You just, you have to
Speaker 2:kind of keep it pro and Yeah. And whatnot. No, that's cool. And but here you get two. I remember. Yeah. I remember one year I, uh. Um, so like my favorite announcements at the arena are what I call, call response ones. And so like I'll say Jamal Murray for one, two, and then the crowd will go three, you know, so whatever. When I say something and the crowd, they actually, it is like proud work if you're a comedian, right? Mm-hmm.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And so I, um. One year. It was early on, I, I was saying, can I get an Amen? You know, crowd, crowd responded, amen. Right. And then they're like, sort, yeah, we got, so
Speaker:I was like, okay. Well you, you've had, you've got tenure now, so you could do it. Amen. Once in a while probably. Oh, I have, that's good. That's good. Every now and then. I know,
Speaker 2:but it slips out. It depends. Yo Yoic throws another, you know, full court shot and makes it, can I get right? Oh shucks. That's interesting.
Speaker:Um, and so like what do you do? Do you have hobbies? Do you go hiking? Do you travel with your, with your wife? Mm-hmm. What's she up to, by the way? And Right. Does she a name? What's her about? Her? Yep.
Speaker 2:My wife, her, uh, Tamika is her name. Tam? Yes. And so, and actually we're at the same school together, so she works with the elementary Oh, cool. School age. And I'm with the middle school. Yeah. Yeah. So, um, and she's a counselor as well? Mm-hmm. Or a teacher? Mm-hmm. Absolutely. Okay. Counselor as well. And so, but, uh. Yeah, we actually, we, we just found that we, we love to go on hikes, so we're, we're starting to ramp up on that a little bit, right? You were
Speaker:fully invested in children raising and now Absolutely. You had a little gap
Speaker 6:season. You're like, what do we actually like to do?
Speaker:Exactly. We've been doing 20 hours a week of kid chasing for 20
Speaker 2:years and all their games and everything, and lots of travel and, and you know, with the club teams and, you know, volleyball may, you soon have, have
Speaker:12 grandchildren, so you're once again, up to that level of commit. We'll see way.
Speaker 2:But yeah, now we're just, yeah, we love, we love the beach. We love, um, something that we did this past summer. Um. We just took time because we don't, we hardly have any time to watch television. Right. And so, but we, throughout the entire, there was one series on Netflix. It was a, it was a show called Suits. And so it was something that we, we uh, we, we wound up watching. It had nine seasons. And so, oh boy, we, we, throughout the summer, we, like, we tune in every time you had an extra 90 minutes or 60 whatever Yeah. And watched episodes. Oh, that's funny. And so we got caught up in that. That was pretty funny. And, uh, but yeah, we, we'll do things outside and, and, uh, we love to just, we love, you know, music, jazz, that type of thing. Yeah. Just spending time with whatever, whatever comes to, to mind.
Speaker:Do you wanna zoom into the, uh, the realtime machine now and go back to like little first grade Kyle? Oh, first
Speaker 2:grade Kyle was still in New York City.
Speaker:Okay. And is that where you
Speaker 2:were born? Raised? Yes. Okay. Born, born. I was, I grew up here. I grew up here in Denver. Okay. We moved here when I was eight. Okay. And, um, so
Speaker:zoom me to New York City'cause you probably remember it.
Speaker 2:I do
Speaker:a decent amount.
Speaker 2:I do. Absolutely. Um, there like, like I said, single parent home. Yep. Only child. Do you, when did your dad separate from the family from day one? Never. Never was involved. Yeah. When my mother told, I mean, he was like, I would go, I remember a couple of times spending. Uh, like I would spend the weekend with him, but that didn't last very long at all, and so Gotcha. Um, my mother, she always told me, she said, when I was born, she knew that he wasn't going to be there, and so she asked God to be my father in the, in the, uh, delivery room. Interesting. And he had, did she have support? Yeah. My, so you had grandparents family and Yes. There. Um, but where we were, we, I'm, I'm from Crown Heights, the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, New York. And, uh, uh, is that good, bad, tough, eh, back then, it wasn't the greatest, it wasn't the worst, but it wasn't the greatest. Okay. And, um, but she really, she wanted. To raise me in a better environment, that's for sure. So she got you out of the worst? Yeah. And it was either here or San Diego. And she chose here because we had relatives here at that time.
Speaker:And what was her, did she have a
Speaker 2:vocation? She was a, a, an everything and everything. A secretary at that point in time. And office administrator. Yep. And that's what she did. So
Speaker:just enough to kind of keep a modest place paid for and maybe some family support here and there. Yep. I didn't
Speaker 2:know that. We, she, my mother, she was my hero because I didn't know that we didn't have it like that. You know, she always made sure I had everything I needed. Um, we always had a roof over our head and Sure. And all of that. And she was very consistent with that. And, um, she, she sacrificed. Everything for me and you. I just, she's, she's gone on in heaven now. I'm sorry. And I just never young for that. I always wanted to be able to, to try to repay her, but I could never repay her. It's the only, only way I can repay her is to just try to live for Christ. Is that as much as possible, is she your
Speaker:big
Speaker 2:motivation
Speaker:in that
Speaker 2:regard? One of them. One of them for sure. But um, just my love for Christ is Right. Thats plenty of motivation too. Yeah. And so, but I was just so blessed there. So what took you guys
Speaker:to. Well, I guess first, like tell me about like living in New York as an elementary school kid. Mm-hmm. In those days, you're, this is probably what I time guess the mid eighties or something? Early eighties.
Speaker 2:Early eighties, late seventies. Okay. Okay. And so, you know, I, I tell my kids, you know, I, I even in, in kindergarten, I was on the subway and in first grade I was on the subway by myself, you know, and second grade too. And, and I took, you know, the train back and forth to school and came home and those types of things. I was kind of free range, I guess they call it a latchkey kid or whatever, or whatever. Yeah. Well, I call it free range because I think
Speaker:that's sounds nicer.'cause that's the, I was raised too, even though I could have gone home anytime, but they just trusted us to be out. Well, Anna and I
Speaker 2:would go to after school, there were like a, a day, not a daycare center. Yeah. But, um, an afterschool program. We would go over there, like a church affiliated. Was she actively involved? Yeah. Were you already at this time? She raised me and the church. Um. And we were at, you know, like that it was called Mission for Today in Brooklyn. I think it's still around too. Um, that I would go there after school. And, um, but yeah, raised in a church. St. Anthony's is the church that we went to there. When we first moved here. Uh, we joined a church called New Hope Baptist Church, uh, which is still going today. And that was to Denver? Mm-hmm. Like New York City. To Denver. To Denver. Yeah. And what
Speaker:precipitated that?
Speaker 2:That was, like I said, just her wanting to raise me in a better environment. Yeah. And so she left all of that, everything, like started applying
Speaker:for jobs in
Speaker 2:Denver or whatever kind of thing? Absolutely, absolutely. Interesting. Her first job was with, um, um. Blue Cross Blue Shield. Okay. I remember the, on Broad Broadway, there's the big silver building there that was there. And then, and then it was also during the oil boom. Oh. Uhhuh. And so she worked for a company called Petro Lewis Oil. Okay. You know, and that was when oil, so she was like a career woman when that wasn't really common yet Right. At the time. Right. Right. And so she, uh, but like I said, she, she just, she just,
Speaker:she, one of our best friends, uh, my wife's best friend is a single mom of two career women. Mm-hmm. And it's really impressive when they raise awesome kids. Yeah. And they also like mm-hmm. Can achieve success because that's a big burden. And she was she single most of this time? You didn't have a stepdad around or nothing like that until
Speaker 2:later in what year? My. Uh, like seventh grade. Yeah. Seventh grade. Yeah. She, she remarried an individual that was from New York that came out here. He chased her out. Yeah. It, it, that didn't work out either. It didn't, didn't work out. And, um, yeah, by the time I was a freshman in high school, that, that had dissipated as well.
Speaker:So talk to me about like your, like you got a new place, you're a big kid. Probably. Were you a big kid early too? So, like seventh grader, you're like six, five. I was always tall. Wanky. Okay. Gotcha. I always
Speaker 2:one in the class, you know, for the most part all the way throughout in high school there were a couple guys taller than me, but Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Definitely in grade school. And, uh, so was
Speaker:basketball always your game too?
Speaker 2:Fell in love with basketball in the fifth grade. Okay. Um, it, I. Picked up my first. So by the time you came out right, like mm-hmm. Or eighth grade came out in the third grade. Third grade, okay. Yep. Yeah. And then, um, but I was, uh, at the, um, in the summertime I would go to a, uh, summer camp, summer day camp Mm, mm-hmm. At the central YMCA downtown. Mm. Mm-hmm. And that was where I picked up the basketball for the very first time down there and shooting in that gym down there. Um, and that was also around the time when the, uh, Showtime Lakers were, you know, in, in their peak. And that, and that really caught my eye. And so I fell in love with a Lakers and Magic Johnson at that time. Sure. So I joined our middle. I was more of a Celtics guy myself. Okay. You know? Yep. And I, we can talk about that later. Mm-hmm. But I wore number 33 for Kareem, and I dig it, and I, and that was, that was kind of the start of that. And so, but then. So I fell in love with those guys. And then, um, at our banquet, our athletic banquet, um, Alex English, they brought in Alex English for our, our athletic banquet, and I can't remember who that was. Aha. Number two, Alex English, he's his number two hangs in the rafters at the arena. Oh, sure. Yeah. Well that was before
Speaker:I moved out here and became
Speaker 2:a Nuggets fan. Yeah, absolute. I'm a Timberwolves
Speaker:fan, you know, originally Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,
Speaker 2:oh. But, uh, that was when I also, well, that's became a Nuggets fan. Yeah. Yeah. As well. And Okay. And so just in meeting him and, uh, it was awesome because actually last season, uh, we brought him out for a halftime and, and to kind of honor him and recognize Yeah. And so I got to meet him and I got to tell him, Hey, you're the reason, you're part of my inspiration, dude. Yeah. I still have his
Speaker:autograph and all of that. That's really cool. Yeah. So were you standout right away? Or were you kind of middle? You never were really a standout. No,
Speaker 2:I was just in, in grade school. I was just the tallest kid. Right. And I just love to play Rebo better, Kyle. Yep. Don't dribble. Stop by or shoot it. Just pass
Speaker 6:it to
Speaker 2:our guards. Exactly. Sorry. That's it. So, oh, I knew I wanted to play and then when I got to high school, I, um, I went to, uh, Regis High, Regis High School. Okay. And, uh, tried out for the team. I, I made the freshman team at the beginning. Um, and then I, um, the next year I made jv and then my junior and senior year I was varsity. Mm-hmm. And, uh, I had opportunities, I had, you know, I had a, some D one offers or whatever, but my grades, I screwed around. I messed up. And so like, because you
Speaker:had a little too much free range or
Speaker 2:Yeah. Just, just not studying. I mean, you seemed really
Speaker:smart.
Speaker 2:Uh, could have studied, could've got good grades. Yeah. Wasn't book smart. And at Regis it was definitely, you know, more that, much more rigorous and so, yep. Um, yeah, I didn't get it done in the classroom the way I should have. And so, so D one didn't, yeah. I wasn't for too much wasn't eligible. Right. And at that point in time, it's nowhere near like, what's going on today. Right. At that point in time you had to become what they called a proposition 48.
Speaker:Yeah, I remember
Speaker 2:that
Speaker:phrase. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And so that meant that you could go, but you'd have to sit out your freshman year to become eligible and so you'd only have three years left. Yeah. And that was that. So, or you could go to a junior college and play and, and so that's what I went the junior college route. And that was Gunison? No, no, the big metropolis of Torrington, Wyoming. Oh dang. Colder up there, isn't it? Population 5,000.
Speaker:Was that a your, well, I guess New York City's kind of cold sometimes too, but not like Torrington.
Speaker 2:Well, Torrington is windy, right? And it got cold. Cold is cold, but windy and cold is a different thing. That New York cold and that East coast and that way more humid and whatnot. Yeah, it's cold to the bone fair. That, that mid, you know, that, that Kentucky cold. Yeah, that's No, no. And so,
Speaker:but quite a culture shock for you anyway. Like you went from one big city to another big city and now you're in 20,000 population Torrington. Or five? 5,005.
Speaker 2:And so, and, and we're there,
Speaker 6:were you a single guy or did you
have
Speaker 2:a Oh yeah, yeah, I definitely Single guy. Yeah. Yeah. And, and messing around and living it up. You know, my, I'm, I'm on my own now and. And not locked in. Yeah. And so missed out on a few more opportunities as well. I wound up transferring from there to Adam State and it was Adam State College in Alamosa, Colorado at the time. Okay, at Gunison. Alamosa. Yeah. Now it's Adam State
Speaker:University. Yeah. Okay. But um, so you got your poop in a group a little bit and got down to Alamosa or they just No. Saw your potential in a basketball team? No. What happened
Speaker 2:was then, that's when I gave I, between Eastern Wyoming and Adam State, is when I asked Jesus to be my Lord and Savior. So you wanted to change the scenery kind changed, yeah. I changed overnight, instantly, overnight. And, uh, it was June 29th, 1991. Yeah. Yeah. So then I hit Adam State and you know, now I'm just playing. Now you're
Speaker:kind of playing, living clean. Yeah. Studying
Speaker 2:more probably. Absolutely. And we even started when you're not out chasing girls and it Oh, you did? Yeah, we started a church there. Oh.
Speaker:So like, talk to me about that. Mm-hmm. So like with like the person that led you to Faith or something? No. Or, so you, yeah. Talk to me about that. You found Christ
Speaker 2:in Wyoming and then cruised down? No, no. Found Christ here. Uh, there's a ministry called the Voices of Faith, a youth choir. Oh. And I joined that choir. I just loved the way that they sang and I joined that choir and just, they needed baritone or bass or whatever. Yeah. They always need a bass. And our, our leader, uh, she's gone on to heaven now too as well, but Pastor Yvonne McCoy. Okay. And, and she was a. Uh, you know, just a, an amazing woman of God. And anyway, she just poured into a lot of young people. Yeah. And I was just one of them that she poured into. Yeah. And it was that journey there that, um, where I found myself in my room just asking Jesus to just surrendering, surrendering. And it was on that night. And so, yeah, when I got to Adam State, yeah. There was no more partying. All that stuff was done. And, um, there was one of the guys that was there, he was a student, but he was on the football team. He was also a pastor. He was, he was a licensed, you know, pastor. He had his, his father's church. Was he like a student
Speaker:older than average or something, or? No, he just grew up in the church and Yeah, his father had a church dial in and
Speaker 2:he was his, one of his, his, you know Sure. He was a pastor on, on his father's. Yeah. Yeah. And just, you know, just, and so we just started a, a, a church there and in the student union Uhhuh, and on Sundays we, he was. He was the, like the pastor, I was his deacon and yeah. Yeah. And we would just do Sunday services there. And what happened? Like just students would come trickle in, we'd have, you know, different ones. Did
Speaker:it grow and prosper? Did like not really. Yeah,
Speaker 2:it was just, yeah, just for the student. It, like, we didn't take an offering or anything, like all the signs, they were just coming and hear the word. Oh, cool. And then go, everybody go their separate ways. And was it church or was it college
Speaker:sanctioned? Um, or did you just stand up on the table kind of and start preaching?
Speaker 2:Yeah, they, they, they were
Speaker:okay with it. Yeah. They gave
Speaker 2:us a room upstairs and That's cool. It was like a conference room and we, they, you know, there was no one using it anyway, so. Right. It's super slow on Sundays anyhow. Yeah. Huh. And uh, that's cool. Yeah, they allowed us to do that and it was just,'cause the church there didn't feel like for a lot of us didn't feel like home and what we, well did our own thing.
Speaker:That was kind of the season of life when. It was super uncool to be like a 20 something and go to church like it. The churches were all kind of declining and the only thing was, at least in my experience mm-hmm. In Minnesota was where I lived at the time. Mm-hmm. But it was just kind of a declining mm-hmm. Thing. And Fort Collins, you know, started it a little bit more cool to become going to church when you're, you know, uh, but that was a little bit later. It feel like the tide mm-hmm. Bottomed out. So you were looking for a cool place to go to church. Yeah. Or for kids to go to church. Something that was
Speaker 2:just more relatable. Right, right. And so we had a little choir, like different, you know, people, just other students and it was just us and we just did it. And it's not
Speaker:denominational. Your, your faith journey is very much because you grew up in the Catholic church, you mentioned at least Catholic school. Catholic school, okay. But never a Catholic church. Baptist church. And so Oh, interesting. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2:yeah. And so, but I, you know, I don't get caught. I'm the church I, that device is, doesn't matter. Denominational. There's not gonna be a Baptist section in in heaven or Lutheran. You don't think they'll be sitting up
Speaker 6:front? I think that, just kidding. No, not at all.
Speaker:Those the do are sitting in the back just for thinking that I'm just,
Speaker 2:I'm just trying to hear. Well done. That was all. I, Lord, lord have mercy. I love it. And so, but yeah, that's what we did there. And then my senior year is when I got involved with, we had a, a new coach that came in and he brought in, um, FCA Fellowship of Christian athletes. Okay. And I was, he asked me to be a, in his huddle and, and um, I did that and um, I became. Uh, the FCA Colorado Player of the Year or something like those Oh. Lines and so, yep, yep. That was kind of started. You had a good season kind of thing or whatever, and that,
Speaker:and then you basically got a kind of a job, right? Where you Yeah.
Speaker 2:Right out they were, they were looking for an urban director and, and they, I guess they had had their eyes on me the whole time or whatever. Interesting. I, I think the area director at that time had identified me as someone that could be that individual, and so they were kind of watching me. I had no idea. Yeah. Yeah. But, um, yeah. And if you go back to Denver
Speaker:now, then
Speaker 2:Hmm. As an urban director, is that Yeah, I came back to, to Denver. Yep. When I graduated, that was my, you probably met your wife the next few years, or where did she come along? Met her at church, and so I was singing in the choir, and, uh, I was, because they always knew bass. Yay. And I was in the top row, and all of a sudden one day I said, Hey,
Speaker 5:hoo.
Speaker 2:Okay. And I'm like, all right, I'm supposed to be focused on the lore, but I, hey, can't help but notice that shape. And so I, one day I, I went to look for her, didn't find her. And then one day I think I went to look for her again and I saw her out there and I was like,
Speaker 5:oh, oh, okay, okay.
Speaker 2:And then I didn't see her again. And then our pastor that was there at the church, he had gotten married and I just saw, I was at the wedding reception and I turned around and there she was. And she was trying to, uh, go and actually meet. With the, the lady that was our, from the Voices of Faith, our leader, she knew her and she was trying to go say hi to her, and then she was in the back office. And so I just, I was on staff. Oh, I know. I'll tell you there. How you doing? Can I get your number while we're on our way here? And I worked it. Was
Speaker:it like love pretty quick after
Speaker 2:that or, uh, who
Speaker:pretty quick?
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah. We, uh, just for me, I, my, I was, I was praying and asking. You'd been around for a long time. Yeah. Nobody felt led like cheated. No. And, and just, uh, and I just. I was just drawn to her and just, you know, I just, she was just, I just, when I met her, it was just an over overwhelming like, sense of peace. Hmm. You know, like she's just peaceful.
Speaker:Huh.
Speaker 2:And, and I just, and
Speaker:it hasn't always been that way, but mostly pretty good. Sounds like. Yeah. Right, right. Um, well, I mean, that's humans, right? Like we're, we're all a little bit up and down side to side, but, uh, she's my boo.
Speaker 2:She's my boo. That's cool.
Speaker:And, uh, yeah. Three kiddos later. Mm-hmm. 20 how many years? Married. 27. 27, 27. Me and Jill are at 22 this year. Let's get it. Let's get it. So it, it's, it's so cool. Like mm-hmm. I mean, I hate to say it, it's not in all humility, it just feels like the way everybody's supposed to do it. It is. But gosh, it, it's so uncommon anymore. Like right, with 22 years, we're like in the 20th percentile at the wedding thing where you get to keep dancing the longer you have been married and stuff like that. Right. And there's, right. Yeah. So it goes,
Speaker 2:we, yeah, we're, we're just at a point where, you know, there's only one way out. Right. That's the die out. That's it. But, uh, yeah, no, it, you know, we, we work with other couples and different things like that as well, and, um. We're actually in the process of, of, uh, writing our, our a book as well, a marriage book. And, and, uh, do you wanna, do you want, is it gonna
Speaker:be out like in the spring or anything like that? You wanna for foreshadow it a
Speaker 2:little bit? We're hoping to have it ready by December. Okay. By Christmas time. All right. And then do like a big push if for Valentine's Day. Sure. You know, like, do you have a title, working title? It's called Corporate
Speaker:Marriage. Corporate Marriage. Corporate Marriage. I guess that's kinda like working together on the marriage kind of thing, or like why that term?
Speaker 2:It's, it's what I've basically what it, what it was just the, the Holy Spirit was just showing, there's a lot of parallels in, in life. Like in basketball we say ball is life because there's so many parallels in basketball mm-hmm. Or any whatever sport that you're in, in life. And so I, when I, when I got my MBA, I went through a program and, and I started seeing a lot of parallels in my MBA of how that could apply to a household and how that you could apply these principles. A lot of to marriage as well. Sure. Everything from, um, keeping a
Speaker:healthy balance sheet.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Yeah. Right. You know where I'm going. Corporate
Speaker:culture. Yep. ROI and communications, KPIs, whatever as well. Yeah,
Speaker 2:yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. And so, well that's,
Speaker:there's some things, one of my favorite things to do is actually recruiting. Corporate escapees into the small business. Mm-hmm. Or the mid-size regional, you know, some of the folks you met up there. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Like a lot of them can't pay, you know, the 120 or 140, 50,000 plus benefits that Right. Real big corporates like Woodward and whatever else can pay their awesome people. Right. But they can pay a hundred Right. Or 110 and not grind you up into a fine powder. Um, but those corporate people bring a lot of skills too, right? Absolutely. They've got a lot of training, they've got a lot of investment into how to lead, how to manage, how to pay attention to the right things, numbers, mm-hmm. Metrics, KPIs. Absolutely. You know, and, and some of translating some of that to a marriage, isn't it? Right. Okay. Is that what we're doing? That's the hook. Sorry to jump ahead. No, no, that's it. That's it. Cool dude. And so I think that's fun. Yeah. Do you have like a. Like a three parts or five main things, or
Speaker 2:we, it's, uh, broken down in 11 chapters. Okay. And, and so, but there's like eight, you know, areas that we, we kind of hone in on. Yeah. And so everything from like corporate governance to human capital and you know, all Yeah. So, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so we'll see. I dig it. I dig it. But in any case, you know, just for us, you know, just walking through marriage through life as well, you know, for, I always say like, the easiest way I can put it. For people with marriage because you know what you were talking about, they don't last. And it's, it's, it's so rare. But yeah, for us as believers, the only way it lasts. You've got, you here, your spouse here, you've got God at the top, and the closer you draw to that triangle, he'll, the closer he brings you together.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah. That's the, when people say what's the secret of marriage or whatever, you know, they ask that question. That's my answer.
Speaker:That's, that's one visual thing I always think about is that same thing, like get closer and, and follow. Yep. Um, and at our marriage, our pastor said, you know, this notion that it's a 50 50 thing is completely stupid. If you're not doing a hundred percent, a hundred percent, then you're doing it wrong. Exactly. You know, and so, exactly. Apologies and, uh, uh, sorry to my wife for those times, I went out and wasn't giving my a hundred percent. Amen. Um, amen. And I'll try to do it less. Yep. I feel like it's a good time for a break. And we have a ping pong ball challenge. Oh, uh, this is my random question generator. All right. And so what we're gonna do is have you draw three of these balls out, uhoh. Oops. I dropped one. And, uh. Uh, you can answer all three of them and, uh, we'll choose one. Alright. Um, to be our favorite question and somebody needs to write it and, and we'll give'em a prize. So, alright. Uh, so just grab three of those out of there? Yeah. 1, 2, 3. And you can go in any order. All right. Highest, lowest, whatever strikes your fancy. Wait, this one is blank. Oh, that must come from the ping pong. The, in the room. I picked it up and put it in there. Let's go. Ah, all right. That's, there
Speaker 2:we go. That's funny. All right. I miracle. Picked up two random balls. Let's do it. Numerical order. Eight. Eight.
Speaker:Number of new beginnings. What music or artist most reminds you of your childhood?
Speaker 3:Ooh.
Speaker:Music or artist? Yeah.
Speaker 2:Most reminds
Speaker:me of childhood. Think you were, what you were, like you said, late seventies. Yep. In
Speaker 2:New York City. So that's. So I, I immediately go to, um, Casey in the Sunshine Battle. That's cool. Shake, shake, shake, shake your boot day boot. Shake your booty. Yeah, that's because it was disco back then. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker:Even the Rolling Stones had some disco songs from those days. Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Um, who? Yeah. Yeah. That was there. It is. Who's,
Speaker 5:that's trying to meet you.
Speaker 6:Okay. Thank you. That's good. So the disco and Casey particularly, that was childhood. Yeah. I dig it. Casey.
Speaker:Yep. All right. Um. Anybody else, like since then, do you have any favorite music now?
Speaker 2:I mean, my favorite song, if you come to the arena, you, you hear that one? Okay. Pause. The music. Our, our dj, he, whenever, when I walk out of the tunnel, I've got my theme song that I come out to as well. Okay. What is that? It's Cameo Candy. You must s that one
Speaker:for us a little bit. Yeah. I'll, I'll, I'll sit back.
Speaker 4:Boom. Oh yes. Love it. It is just
Speaker 5:candy.
Speaker 4:I can feel it,
Speaker 2:right? Walk. Oh yeah. That's, that's, thank you for that. That's the Jab Loving it. Favorite song. That's, that's the one. It it, it sets the tone for the night. I dig it. I dig it so
Speaker:much. Um, next ball, please. All right. What are we going for? 10. Quick succession. What's a hobby or skill you've always wanted to pick up, but haven't yet? That's a good question.
Speaker 2:Uh, kind of exploring that though. It's one that, and I don't know that I will ever pick it up.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker 2:I've always, like I said, I would love to surf. Oh. But not just surf. Like I would love to experience what it's like to go through a pipeline
Speaker:Oh. Where the
Speaker 2:water is just
Speaker:totally like big wave surfing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I would love and not dying. Yes. You need a lot of practice to do that before you could be not dead, but, but I would, I would've
Speaker 2:loved to have experienced that. Well, these
Speaker:days though, actually, like you can hire one of those guys that ride the Seadoos. I'm not gonna do it just to drop you off wherever. You know, as long as you,
Speaker 2:they get into the pipe, how what you do with that pipe is gonna be Yep. They can get me there. But yeah. But yeah. The experience. What? Yeah. I could only imagine what that sounds like. Yeah. It's probably tube. Yeah, I bet there's like a certain kind roar that is just unlike anything else. Yeah. You know, the water just totally like that. Yeah. So that would've been one. Yeah. Not, probably not gonna happen.
Speaker:Maybe, um, what? Those wingsuits might be a similar feeling in some ways. Oh. Where the people are doing? No, I'm not gonna do that either. No, that one's not gonna happen. I love to swim and yeah. Surfing sounds a little more rational. Yeah. Let's have that last number. Uh, 13. 13. What's a book, movie or a podcast that's had a big impact on your life? The Bible, the word of God. Yeah. Period. Still is there a book? That's a big book, but is there a book, uh, within that, that's been most impactful to you? And maybe let's mm-hmm. Let me, let me get an Old Testament fave and a New Testament
Speaker 2:fave. Um, old Testament would be, well, definitely in the 23rd Psalm. That's one. I was kind of raised on that one. Every Thanksgiving we, we had to recite that as well. Is that the walk us me through green pastures thing? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. The Lord is my shepherd shall not, I shall not want. Mm-hmm. Um, other than that Old Testament, I mean, I, so would you say the whole book of Psalms or the Yeah. Sal and Proverbs? Yeah. Yeah. Proverbs. Like, there's many times where I'll just do a proverb a day. Mm-hmm. And you know, just the book of wisdom. Yeah. Um, but there, there's just. Just so many. Yeah. Like Isaiah, all the prophecies going on there. Mm-hmm. And there's just no way that, you know, that, that Jesus, I mean, he's just fulfilled like, oh my gosh. That was my
Speaker:first, uh, season in, uh, Bible study fellowship. Mm-hmm. Uh, right after I became a Christian. But then we studied the history of Israel in the minor prophets. Mm. I was like, oh, yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Made the right decision. I kind of, I kind of made the decision on faith. Yep. And then I got so much more information to justify my faith. Absolutely. Absolutely. It was like the,
Speaker 2:the one two punch for me. Mm-hmm. And then two others that stand out for me in the book. The Book of Esther. Mm-hmm. I did a study on that one recently. God is not mentioned. Right. And he's not mentioned, but he was there all along. Totally. Woo. I'm getting my arm. Yeah. Just standing up on that way. It's a total favorite of mine. He orchestrated the whole thing. Right. That's just, oh man. That's. And then the book of Jonah. I was, I, there was a revelation at that one at the very end that that's, that's where, you know, we, God's word is alive. It's the living and the, when you read the book of Jonah, when you, if when you get to the end, you under, you realize he's talking to you, the reader mm-hmm. At the end there. And so in the, the New Testament, for me it's, uh, the book of Romans that's, uh, that was the one, especially the seven chapter and then the eight chapter. It's,
Speaker:it's like the, the comprehensive, uh, overall study guide to the New Testament in some ways. Absolutely. You know, Hebrews a little bit is like that. Mm-hmm. But Romans even more so. Yeah. Yeah. I was just thinking about Jonah a little bit and. I'm self critiquing myself a little bit. I feel like I might still be in the reluctant Jonah part of my journey. Yeah. You know, I know God's got a special hand on me and has blessed me in different ways that are spectacular, but I haven't probably given myself as fully as you have and been as dedicated in some ways, and I'm not kicking and screaming. Yeah. You know, I'm going along for the ride, but maybe not. Mm-hmm. Pushing for his will be done, you know, where, where it can
Speaker 2:impact it. There's a little bit of Jonah, I should probably read a and everybody, I should probably read that book a little more closely. Perhaps every, just whenever, wherever, wherever, wherever you find yourself, where the, you find yourself, where the Holy Spirit is taken. You just roll with it. Yeah. Roll with it.
Speaker:Let me ask you about, um, most important men in your life. Mm-hmm. Um, you, you've mentioned, you know, a dad that wasn't really there, a stepdad. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. But you must have had some amazing male influences along the way.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Um, so like I said, God, my mother said, she asked that God to be my father. Yeah. And he was in so many different ways, and he still is to this day. Uh, my current, my pastor now Pastor Alvin Simkins, he's a definitely a, a a a a even father, 50-year-old. Something year old perhaps. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. He's someone I can go to, you know, just words of wisdom or whatever, or just for me, I'm visual, so I'm just, I just observe him. Mm-hmm. I observe how he's gone through tragedy and different things and how he walked through that with the Lord and how, and it just has taught me so much. Yeah. And he's just always, he's a, um, always pouring into men and, and he's just poured into me. And, and so there's, you know, individuals like him, um. Um, one, another pastor that, uh, he, he just recently passed away, uh, Reverend Peters, um, from New Hope Baptist Church. He was a father figure for me. Um, there were certain, there was a couple of deacons that were there, deacon Ely and, uh, deacon Henderson that, uh, that, you know, my mother was able to call on them during some dark patches and, you know. Yeah. Can you, can you speak to them and speak to, you know, right. When you were being an naughty kid, you mean? Absolutely. That was part of why you weren't getting good grades, I reckon. Totally. Totally. Yeah. But, you know, at just different points and, and then there was just people that I looked up to that I, you know, they didn't know that I was looking up to'em. I just, yeah. From a, from a distance. Um, and, uh. Yeah, I would just watch, watch how they carried themselves. Yeah, yeah. Or whatever. And, and so there's, um, you know, just lots of people like that. And then, uh, being in a, in a single parent home, but being an only child, yeah. Back then I, I watched a lot of television. Okay. And so, you know, uh. There was a fictional character, but the Cosby Show Sure. You know, for me, you know, oh, bill Cosby, he was, he was the man, Keith Cliff Huxtable. He was, he was a father figure for me, man, it's such a
Speaker:tragedy that he had all those acqui. I, I used to, I was in speech when I was a, like a seventh, eighth grader. Mm-hmm. And I always gravitated towards the Bill Cosby stuff. Yeah. And, and one of my speeches where I killed it was, uh, was my favorite line of his was, I don't know, the secret to success. Mm-hmm. But the secret to failure is to try to please everybody. Mm. And you can't quote that anymore.'cause it's a Bill Cosby quote and it is not Proverbs and it's not Romans, but Right, right. He was a smart dude. Yeah. At insightful. And I, I learned a lot. Yeah. Yeah. I learned a lot. That's cool. Um, are you open to the, to talking about race relations? And Yeah. Yeah. I mean, yeah. A little bit. Yeah. Like I could see that, you know, Scott Kissel was a brother from another mother when you guys were interacting and stuff. Yeah. You've been in an urban environment. Mm-hmm. Mostly. Mm-hmm. You know, we're five years removed from the BBL M days and stuff, all that stuff. Yeah. Are we better, worse, is the same as when Obama took office 20 years ago or whatever. It's been like, yeah. How do we
Speaker 2:get there? Like, I think our, you know, the, the landscape I, for me, I don't really expect for it to get better. Hmm. You know, the, that's part of prophecy, the devil's place
Speaker:in the world is to keep a, a stick in that pot or something. It's a simple world
Speaker 2:we, that we live in. And so I don't, I don't expect for it to get better. Um. I fully anticipate the second coming of our Lord and Savior. Yeah. And, and so I don't have those expectations, you know, there's lots of different voices and all that. Um, but, but yeah. Interesting. Okay. Yeah. For me, as far as race go, I, I was raised there. Like I said, there was lots of people that took me in, that my mother relied on. Yeah. And they were from every race. I wondered about that. Yeah. Yeah. And so one of my father figures were the Knicks and the Pritchards. And those are Caucasian brothers. Yeah. And um, also the Medina and Yeah. And they, they all took me, there was a lot of people that played a role in my life. Yeah. Yeah. And, and so for me. I, I love just being a part of, you know, multiple races and whatnot. Even where we live in, in Denver, it's, it's like a, there's like different cultures and different people that are there and whatnot. Yeah. And so, yeah.
Speaker:Yeah. This is a sensitive question,, but it feels to me like back in those days, like there actually was quite a bit more racism almost from whites to black. Mm-hmm. But I don't know. My, the question is, and that's why we can censor it if you want to mm-hmm. Is do you think there's more racism from whites to black or black to whites in today's world?'cause in some ways it feels kind of, yeah. Both ways. Uh, more magnified. And that's what I would say. I think it's probably both ways. Um, was it that way then, like was there racism from blacks to wakes in the early nineties, or was that not as much of a thing?
Speaker 2:It's just for me, it just wasn't my experience wasn't your experience anyway. I mean, I did experience racism, I did experience that. Um, you know, I, I, you know, I know I've had the conversation, you know, the police conversation and the tending to, and, and you're a big, and I've scary black guy, right? Yeah. I've, I've had that, but I'm also like, for whatever reason, I, I, I just, I pray that it's just a Christ in me. People feel safe ish. Welcome to, and open to, to approach me. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it doesn't, and it doesn't matter who they are, doesn't matter to you either. No. And I mean, but I've experie, I've, yeah, I've experienced different things, but I just. I don't know. I just, I think I'm, I, I don't know. I just have the love of Christ in my heart. Right. Well, and I, I'm thinking about my
Speaker:own church when I, when I ask that question apart because mm-hmm. Like, we've got a pretty multicultural church mm-hmm. Little church, 250 people or something.
Speaker 3:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Not that many black couples, not that many white couples. Right. Not that many Asian couples, but a lot of mixed race couples. Mm-hmm. Um, and there's, in my mind, no sense of Right. Any kind of racist stuff. We're all sons and daughters of Christ in that building especially. Yeah.
Speaker 2:That's kind of where I am with it. Yeah. I don't ignore, you know, history or anything. I don't take it for granted. I don't, um, uh, I don't, uh, I'm not living bitter or anything like that. Right, right. I, I, I'm just focused forward. That's part of turning a new chapter. Yeah. Not even that. You ever had that much. Life and, and time is, is precious. Yeah. And so for me that's, it's just not a focus of mine. Sure, sure. I really, yeah. I was just like in prison,
Speaker:everybody's the same race mostly. Is there racism in prisons? You had that ministry going for a long time or Probably, but I, I, we, we weren't like, were your prison teams you were playing, was it a mix of whites and Hispanics and blacks and whatever? Yeah, they were. Yeah. I dunno, to me that just feels like part of the, we're all the same camp here. Yeah. That's, or on the inside, you know, that's the same class much more than Yeah. They were the prison race. Right. Kind of. Yeah. I don't know. That's intriguing. Mm-hmm. And I hope you're not, I don't sense any offense in these questions. I'm just curious as a sociologist, armchair guy of
Speaker 2:sorts. Maybe it's just Yeah. That my experiences that for, I was fortunate where lots of people took me in. Yeah. Lots of people played a role in, in my life. And they just so happened to be people of different colors. Yeah. Yeah. And my color too. Right, right, right. And so it was, it was every color. And, and I think maybe that was mean. All of our experiences
Speaker:have kind of a, a Joseph coat, kind of a experience of many colors, right? Mm-hmm. I don't know. I think it's'cause I grew up in white bread, North Dakota, like. There was one black person in my region. Oh, when you say that too, region. You know
Speaker 2:my, so my uncle was the first black veterinarian in North Dakota. Oh,
Speaker:is that right? Interesting. He lived, when
Speaker 2:it was called, he lived in Powers Lake. Okay. Which is about 70 miles in some direction from Minot.
Speaker:Oh wow.
Speaker 2:Probably
Speaker:so. West of Minot maybe. I'm from about 70 miles south and east of Minot. Okay. Yeah. I don't, I don't know where exactly. Do you know why not Minot? Uh, why not? Minot freezes the reason. Okay. I believe that there's an Air Force base up there and, uh oh. Yep, yep, yep. That's probably, I went there once to visit him. Okay, cool. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. So, so you've experienced, was it summertime, so, oh yeah. Okay. Nothing wrong with the winter. No, don't mess with the winter in North Dakota. Are you ready for our, it was July 4th as a matter of fact. Oh yeah. Perfect. With that week, that's like, yeah, the fireworks, you can't even shoot em until like 10 30.'cause it's still light outside. Yeah. The low co experience is our namesake of the podcast. Mm-hmm. And so that's, uh, for us, the closing segment as well, the craziest experience of your lifetime that you're willing to share with our listeners.
Speaker 2:Ooh, I have to think of that one.
Speaker:And it might be a moment, could be a near death experience just about get run over by a semi on I 70 when you were hitchhiking. I don't know. Oh, uh, getting called by God at this moment in time. I remember I got hit by a motorcycle. Oh.
Speaker 2:If, if that's I was being disobedient. Was, and that was, as a kid, I was riding a, my bike in City Park. I wasn't supposed to be there. Okay. And, uh, it was myself and my next door neighbors and we were riding our bikes. It's, that's back when kids rode their bikes all over the place. Right. And, and so bring it back. Bring it back. Yeah. We did that. And so this is in Denver, I guess not New York. Yep. Denver. Denver City Park there. And, and, uh, was trying to cross one of the streets. And this guy, they used to have like city park, the roads there used to be open and there'd be cars in there and all of that. And yeah. Yeah. So some guy was flying on his motorcycle and, and I got hit. Oh, dang. And so I got busted. Oh. I was more concerned about getting in trouble.
Speaker 6:You snuck out?
Speaker 2:Yes. And what
Speaker 6:happened?
Speaker:Did you break any bones? You go down, he broke. No,
Speaker 2:he broke his collarbone and all that. I came away with that little scratch out there. No, that was it. And I was just more nervous and scared about getting in trouble. Did you, did you get away with it? Like No, no. There was, cops got grounded stuff and whatever else got grounded. Yeah. I, I got my bike taken away for like a year. Wow. Yeah. Oh dang. It was a tough one.
Speaker:What's your mama's name? Hi, Shirley. Shirley. Spell her. Shirley. Yeah. I wish you were still with us. Yeah. Um, and uh, thanks for being strict with this boy. Yep.'cause he might've got into a lot more trouble if it wouldn't have been for that strong mama. Sure. Would've. Um, do you have any subjects, does jour your book name again? Do you wanna repeat that for We're gonna close up this show here. Sure. Corporate marriage c corporate marriage. Look for that early next spring. Yeah. Get it for your wife for Valentine's Day. Yeah. If you're a good God-fearing man and it comes out in time. Yeah, exactly. I know. Those last edits and stuff are always fun. Just wanna pour into people. Pour
Speaker 2:and that's something that my wife and I were able to, to come together and do and so it'll be special.
Speaker:Oh, you'd probably turn it into like a workbook or something else too, to kind of, yeah. I don't have its workbook. I remember our time of uh, uh. Premarital counseling. Mm-hmm. You know, I was a young Christian. I wasn't raised in the church. Mm-hmm. But I was searching and then also met this very beautiful Christian girl, and so that accelerated my process a little bit. Get a room. Well, but not until you're married. Yeah. But, but that time of coaching. Well, and even recognizing that couple had been together for 30 years. Mm-hmm. Um, you know, you're approaching that number here shortly. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And like, you're not, yes. You're married to the same person, but not the same person. Not really, you know? Right. We've literally have changed like all of ourselves. Yep. Like three times by now. Absolutely. You're up on four. Absolutely. You know, so you aren't the same person, you don't have the same pursuits, the mm-hmm. The mother of three young children's. Right. One of which is nursing is a whole different mm-hmm. Psyche and metabolism and mix of Right. Everything. Everything than this mama That right. Is. Waiting for more grandkids Right.
Speaker 2:To, you know, or whatever. We, we found, um, old, you know, home videos back, you know, that we shot with a camcorder. Mm. Right. And so we found a box of them and we were able to, and I actually have the cam, so I was able to, you know, hook it up to the television, help you get rid of them, and Oh, I. Hook it up to the television and Oh, cool. And we were just watching and just reminiscing and like in tears, you know? Yeah, yeah. And then just looking, looking at like how young we were and, and what
Speaker:was on that guy up there
Speaker 2:couldn't even grow a
Speaker:goatee. That's you. That's me. Yeah. My beautiful wife looks the same. Yeah, I know, right? I can't do the center part anymore because the hairline won't support it. Hair. What? Hair? It
Speaker 6:looks like you've got something going on there. You keep it clean. Yeah. Just over the years it looks like eyebrows is what I grown out. Exactly. Yep. That was back then. Way back.
Speaker:Do you have any advice for like a young Christian man listening to that whatever his place in life, he's mm-hmm. You know, 15 to 22. Yeah. Setting his
Speaker 2:pointer. Abso the advice is, yeah, to build. If you build God a platform, he'll give you a platform. Whatever you do, you know, the scriptures work as unto the Lord. Um. But yeah, whatever you're doing. Like for me, the thing I tell young people all the time, you were uniquely created. There's something that you can do that no one else could do. Nobody else in the world is gonna do quite like you. Um, some of us have many talents. Some of us may have two, one big focus, right? Whatever it is. But do it as unto the Lord, use it because God gave that to you. That's a part of your purpose. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of times, especially as young men, we're always trying to figure out our purpose and, and we do that even as older men and whatnot, but that's a part of it. It's a part of what God is placed in you. So work it.
Speaker:Dig work at. I have a, I'm in the Rotary Club and we have a vocational service award that's coming up here soon. Mm-hmm. And if you were in my Rotary Club, I would nominate you for the vocational service award. Aww. So, hey, sure. Appreciate
Speaker 2:B Pal. Thank you. Absolutely. God bless. God bless you. God bless you. You be blessed. Give'em heaven.
