EXPERIENCE 254 | Keep it Fimple, Fupid! - With Johnny Fimple, Founder of Resonate - a Fimple Plan

In this episode of the LoCo Experience Podcast, I had an intriguing conversation with Johnny Fimple, Founder of Resonate, a Fimple Plan.  Johnny is a business coach, and shared his journey from being a passionate drummer in the music industry to pioneering a unique coaching perspective centered on improving employee-customer interactions. 

We delved into his early years as a musician and music store manager in San Francisco, his transition into the restaurant and retail sectors, and how his personal and professional life evolved, including meeting his wife Natalia.  Resonate focuses on enhancing business communications and fostering a positive work culture, driven by Johnny's vast experience and genuine enthusiasm for helping others succeed. 

His approach combines practical business wisdom with the improvisational spirit of a jazz band; he shared a lot of Fimple wisdom, and we shared a lot of laughs, so please tune in and enjoy my conversation with Johnny Fimple. 

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Music By: A Brother's Fountain

Transcript

Speaker 7: 0:00

In this episode of the Loco Experience Podcast, I had an intriguing conversation with Johnny Ple, founder of Resonate, A PLE Plan, johnny is a business coach and shared his journey from being a passionate drummer in the music industry to pioneering a unique coaching perspective, centered on improving employee customer interactions. We delve into his early years as a musician and music store manager in San Francisco, his transition into the restaurant and retail sectors, and how his personal and professional life evolved, including meeting his wife, Natalia. Resonate, focuses on enhancing business communications and fostering a positive work culture. Driven by Johnny's vast experience and genuine enthusiasm for helping others succeed. His approach combines practical business wisdom with the improvisational spirit of a jazz band. He shared a lot of PLE wisdom and we shared a lot of laughs. So please tune in and enjoy my conversation with Johnny Ple.

Speaker: 1:30

Welcome back to the Loco Experience Podcast. My guest today is Johnny Ple, and Johnny is the founder, CEO of Resonate, A PLE plan. Hello. Hello. Thanks for having me. Welcome to the studio, Johnny. Absolute honor to be here, sir.

Speaker 2: 1:47

Very, very excited to be here.

Speaker: 1:48

Well, we are desperate for guests, and so I called you. I wouldn't do that, my friend and your friend Scott Kissel.

Speaker 2: 1:59

Yes.

Speaker: 1:59

Said you should really have Johnny and his story on your podcast. He's a cool guy. Yeah. And then I had coffee with you twice.

Speaker 2: 2:06

Mm-hmm.

Speaker: 2:06

And, uh, I agreed. And so here we are. Happy New Year. We haven't seen each other, I think.

Speaker 2: 2:12

Yeah. Happy New Year to you. It's,

Speaker: 2:13

uh, prior to the text this morning that said, Hey, are we still on for this afternoon? Oh,

Speaker 2: 2:16

yeah. Uh, yeah. You know, our, our friend Scott Kissel. Wow. What a, uh, powerhouse in Fort Collins. Right. He, uh, when he says, you should meet somebody, it's for real. Things just

Speaker: 2:27

happened. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 2:28

Yeah. And meeting you, uh, that first time over at, uh, ginger and Baker was awesome. Uh, you are one of those people that people should know. Oh, well.'cause you, you make a difference. Uh, absolutely up here in Fort Collins and just, uh, how you influence businesses and people and make them better. You're a good person to know for sure. I like

Speaker: 2:49

to say, uh, flattery will get you everywhere with me. And so thank you for that. Feels good. But it's not about me. It's about you. Right. You

Speaker 2: 2:59

Well, it, it's, it's tough. I don't like, uh, ever. Promoting myself, really, it's, it's been a tough, uh, struggle the last two years, uh, since I started Resonate. Uh, I've been told, you know, you're a public speaker, you're, you're gonna be putting out a book. You need to be able to be comfortable selling yourself. And, and I constantly challenge that back and say, it shouldn't be about me. It should never be about me. It's about the people that I'm serving or helping. And, uh, it just feels good. It just feels good to help. And I think that's why you and I connected on such a cool level at the beginning.

Speaker: 3:33

Yeah, I would agree. That's always been, you know, I don't want, I'm not the guru. I'm the guy who knows some gurus and try to bring them into a room with each other and stuff.

Speaker 2: 3:43

Yeah. Well, you are, you know, they say you wanna surround yourself with better people, and you're one of those, those people. So you, you have a, a wisdom and you have a persona about yourself. I've seen you in rooms with people, uh, down at the Rotary and just everybody, they look up to you professionally. And that says a lot about you, you know, and, uh, whatever. I can learn from you, that's what I'm here for, you know, and if we can partner up and help each other and help other businesses or just people in general, that's what it should be about

Speaker: 4:15

businesses. Uh, I actually just, uh, um, popped in to get some beverages for the, for the local office fridge at the little gas station next door.

Speaker 2: 4:24

Right.

Speaker: 4:24

And, and there's two guys, uh, or two, uh, uh, two people that I see working there. It's a, a guy that's. I would say he's Middle Eastern, perhaps like, I don't know, Syrian or Lebanese or someplace Jordanian over there. Um, and then his wife I found out today is, uh, I would say she's Chinese origin and it's never anybody but the two of them there. Like he works three days a week. She works four.

Speaker 2: 4:54

Wow.

Speaker: 4:55

Yeah. And, uh, I didn't know that. And he's just the friendliest guy and, you know, I just really had a nice, lovely, you know, first time I've seen him this new year conversation with him and just talking about, I mean, like, and he drives up from Denver, what they bought this business. Wow. This, you know, Chinese food slash liquor store slash convenience store. Wow. And, uh, and it's, it's one of my new favorite places to, to, to shop. And now that I know, it's kind of a, a first time entrepreneurial couple, you know, driving up from Denver every day. Yeah. And they, they're dreaming about moving to Fort Collins if they can make the store work, you know, they got some work to do.

Speaker 2: 5:34

You want, you wanna support him. Yeah. Because the way they make you feel probably. Right.

Speaker: 5:38

Very much so. Yeah. No, he's always very kind and he's like the, he's got the best personality of like the best Uber driver.

Speaker 2: 5:46

Yeah. Okay. I've had a few of those myself. Yeah, no, I, I, I, I can relate, you know, uh, some examples I've used in the past, uh, it doesn't matter what company I've ever worked for, I always use seven 11 as an example, just as a business model, you can have the exact same product right on the street two blocks away. That other seven 11 is just drowning in sorrow. And this seven 11 is rocking because they have the two people like what you're talking about. They have people that in here that give it, give a shit. See if I can gus,

Speaker: 6:21

you could guys,

Speaker 2: 6:22

we mark

Speaker: 6:22

em all explicit

Speaker 2: 6:23

just in, in case. Oh, okay, great, great. You know, and, uh, it's, it's about the, it's about the connection with the customer and it's how you sell a Twinkie. It's not just selling a Twinkie. It, it is really getting to know that customer and getting to know their name and talking to'em daily and getting that rapport because it's genuine and authentic. And that's, that's typically how I coach. And that

Speaker: 6:45

was kind of your secret sauce, if I remember correctly. Yes. Is, is really helping leaders, not just themselves, but their greater teams.

Speaker 2: 6:54

Yeah.

Speaker: 6:55

Um, to be able to communicate that kind of, you're welcome here and we're glad you're here. Kind of personality at whatever role they're in.

Speaker 2: 7:02

Yeah. Yeah. It's, uh, for me it's about the number one customer is your employee, right? So, uh. Over years, 30 plus years of leading teams, I have found that, you know, your customer is your employee, not the customer. You know, you, if you treat your employees right, everything else takes care of itself. Everything takes care of itself, whether you're having a bad day or not. If you engage with your employees and you are sincerely and being a sincerely being with them and being authentic, it works. And things just start to happen and it's contagious throughout the day. Yeah. And then that graduates into a weekly thing and then a monthly thing, and then next thing you know, you're like, bam, I have culture. Holy cow. Everybody cares. I love it. Okay. And then the sale start increasing. Everybody's like, wow, what's, what's going on here? And it's like, that's when you sell and you tell them what you guys are doing is special, and it's us against the world mentality. And if it is a let's do everything right by everyone, let's do, let's serve, let's help. Uh, it just creates more business. Yeah. Because people, customers want to be around business, uh, people that care, they want to be around, uh, businesses that have the right attitude. They certainly don't want to go in and spend their hard earned dollar in a place where the person could give a, you know what?

Speaker: 8:29

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I, I, I almost had dinner on Friday night last week with, uh, with my wife at. Texas Roadhouse.'cause we had a$20 gift card laying around and we had some stuff to do on the south side of town anyway. And then we didn't,'cause the wait was so long and we were the fourth couple deep looking for a spot in the bar.

Speaker 2: 8:51

Oh, wow.

Speaker: 8:51

And frankly, a lot of the reason for that is because they do a really good job of training their people to be welcoming. Yeah. To be kind and eager to serve. Um, and so whoever the manager is of the Texas Roadhouse down there at Timberline and Harmony. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 9:08

I think you're doing a good job. I, I visit because your

Speaker: 9:09

food's not that great, but you're always busy.

Speaker 2: 9:12

I, I'm with you there. So I, I am, uh, we are a avid fan of that particular location. We have been for six years. It was the first to go order we ordered during COV.

Speaker: 9:25

Oh, interesting.

Speaker 2: 9:26

Okay. So we weren't expecting much. And the person had the mask on and they're, and they're saying, Hey, you know, welcome to Texas Roadhouse. They didn't care that COVID was happening. They wanted to earn us as a customer. We got home and I swear to God, the food was exactly like you would have it, you know, on the plates. And so we became a fan and we talked to them every single time. We came back through COVID and then after we, we, they actually celebrated when we were able to come in and sit down Hmm. As a customer, they're like, Hey, this is your first time. Let's make sure they have a special time.

Speaker: 10:00

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 10:00

And that's what it's about. It's about giving, you know, the same and receiving the same kind of energy. Uh, they always have a consistent, just like what you said, the word consistent, uh, service there. And that company, the owners or the managers are, uh, invested in the company. Oh, they are? Yeah. They're part owners. So there is an ownership there. Oh, cool. And, and so if you're a leader in any business, again going back to the seven 11 or, or, or any other business, if you treat it as, if it's your shop, it's Johnny's business or whoever's business on there, and you are able to

Speaker: 10:36

Johnny's Texas Roadhouse.

Speaker 2: 10:37

Sure. Which I would love to have someday. Wouldn't that be great? Um, you know, my, I don't know if my wife would want me to eat meat every single day, but, uh, no, it's, it's, uh,

Speaker: 10:48

they got blue and onions too, or whatever

Speaker 2: 10:49

they do, bounce offs that that meat didn't

Speaker: 10:52

take

Speaker 2: 10:53

was some, and their dessert. Rock everything. Rocks. No, it's, it's about if you can get your employees to think ownership too, uh, that it really changes to own

Speaker: 11:00

their role.

Speaker 2: 11:01

Yeah. It, it, it changes being welcoming, it changes everything. So you're on the topic of restaurant restaurants, in my opinion. Uh. The host and the dishwasher are the most important people in the building. And I, I, some people are laughing right now, but I'll tell you why. The host sets the tone, right? So the family of five comes in, they've had a long week, you know, five day work week. Everybody's tired, like, I am too tired to cook. Let's go. They go into the restaurant and the host can make or break that moment. Yeah. With just the way they exchange the look.

Speaker: 11:34

Yep.

Speaker 2: 11:34

The body language, uh, to the tonality of the voice. And, and if it's a 19-year-old, 20-year-old, uh, person who doesn't have a lot of experience, uh, it can show or they can just be so eager that they are there to serve and they were hired because they had the right stuff in the interview. You can tell a lot about the place right away as soon as you walk in the first 30 seconds of a business. And then you go, you have your experience, you have your food. The food may be mediocre, and then you leave and the host is amazing again. You, you, you remember and remember the, the bookends of the transaction.

Speaker: 12:12

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 12:12

So if you're a restaurant owner, you're listening to this. There you go. And then I, now I go to the dishwasher. The dishwasher then tells the general manager what dishes,

Speaker: 12:22

which plates are

Speaker 2: 12:23

still

Speaker: 12:23

full

Speaker 2: 12:24

were and which ones were empty. And, and then they figure out, hey. Was it a line check that w failed? Did we miss something as far as an ingredient? Or people just aren't digging that right now? Yeah, they're, they're into something else entirely. Like, like some of the items that Texas Roadhouse has, they have some amazing, uh, apps. So

Speaker: 12:41

we have a, a what we call a fixed giving party every year, ah, in November. Sure. Um, and it's, you know, a Friendsgiving and I, I make, uh, I smoke a Turkey and I roast a Turkey. Oh. Uh, and then my wife makes a couple things, but then everybody brings something too.

Speaker 2: 12:57

Sure.

Speaker: 12:58

Like, we've had as many as five cranberries one year, which was kind of sad. Uh, they were different kinds of cranberries, but it was a lot.

Speaker 2: 13:04

Sure.

Speaker: 13:04

Um, but it's always interesting to see which side dishes like are empty. Yeah. And which ones still have half or two thirds left, you know, you're like, well, the empty ones are the winners. Yeah. And, uh, you know, from a restaurant perspective, if you've got whatever this, uh, beef stroganoff dish, but it's coming back with a plate half full every time, you need to know that as the, as the chef, as the manager.

Speaker 2: 13:32

Yeah. Yeah. I agree. It's, it's huge. Interesting. Yeah. And again, you, a restaurant is its own model. You can equate, uh, how well things sell, how well they are consumed based on the way the recipes executed, you know? Sure. And, and the passion of the kitchen manager. There's a lot of. Restaurants that have a lot of burned out managers right now. You know, they made it through CO maybe they were half employed. You know, there, there's multiple reasons why a kitchen manager is fried right now. And, you know, if they are burned out, you can tell on the menu. When you are sitting there and you're eating the food as a food connoisseur, myself or a foodie, we pick our places to go to eat. And we truly enjoy. We truly taste, we, we decide, hey, does this taste like cardboard or does this, you know, wow, is this chef, where are they from? You have to ask the server, Hey, where does your chef train? You know, it's, it's, it's that type of enthusiasm that has to come back as a consumer back to the business to help some of these places out so they can get re-energized and understand that, hey, customers are happy with our product, or customers are, they're not happy with this. It tastes like cardboard. What should we do?

Speaker: 14:44

Yeah. Yeah. I, I want to go to the start of resonate.

Speaker 2: 14:50

Yeah.

Speaker: 14:50

And like, what was your circumstances in life, because there's a lot of business coaches out there and, uh, yeah. The reasons for getting into the profession, I think is a big part of what drives success and, you know, what they've done before.

Speaker 2: 15:06

Yeah.

Speaker: 15:06

And we'll get into that later, but what was your circumstance in life

Speaker 2: 15:09

circumstance? Yeah, excellent question. So, um, I was actually, I was actually fired from a job and, uh, it was a. It was a situation where I had never been fired before and I looked at this as an opportunity. I'm like, what do I do? Do I, do I crawl up and, and fail and hide, or do I, do I have the confidence and knowing that I know what I'm doing and not just listen to that prior boss. And so part of this has been motivational purely in the sense that I just wanna show everybody that I, I do know what I'm doing, but the other, the bigger part of this is the passion that I have to help businesses grow. And, you know, I've been doing it for, what, 35 years? Uh, I have excelled in every single business, uh, profession that I've been a part of. Yeah. Uh, I absolutely love building business from the numbers side, from the people side, from the customer side. There's not an angle I don't love about it, whether it's a,

Speaker: 16:16

can I ask where, where were you fired from? What were you?

Speaker 2: 16:18

Uh, yeah, so I, I, I was told not to say, but Oh, okay. Uh, it was, uh, ace handyman. Um, so I went ahead and just said it. And he's actually a couple blocks over from here, and I just, oh wow. I re, I re-engaged with him not too long ago. So this is, uh, I'm interesting. I'm confessing a story in front of people right now. Uh. He was the one who introduced me to, uh, BNI networking. Okay. And that, and I had no idea about BNI, I was told, Hey, go down to Boulder and uh, let's, let's get some presence down there and through the BN

Speaker: 16:53

Oh, so you're gonna open a new market

Speaker 2: 16:55

for Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker: 16:55

Him or something.

Speaker 2: 16:56

Yeah. And we did, and it went really well. And I'd say within four or five months, you know, if we had, you know, one to two techs going out, uh, seven to 10 jobs a week, I had us up to 10 techs over 90 jobs a week.

Speaker: 17:10

Oh, dang.

Speaker 2: 17:11

Yeah. So we flip flopped the business, uh, percentage. So if 65% of it was coming from Northern Colorado, I now had it generating from superior, Lewisville, Boulder, that whole southern area Oh wow. Of, of the front range. And I'm like, wow. BNI works one, two, he was right to send me down here. Um, and we were growing at a very, very healthy, positive rate. Went not too fast or anything like that, but it was just a, he brought me in to do exactly what I do, and that is to grow business. He actually recruited me to come in. So our, our dispute was over pure moral compass. And I don't. I don't shift my moral compass on anything. As far as the, the non-negotiables of business, you don't, uh, allow two employees to fight. Um, you don't steal from a company. Uh, no sexual harassment is allowed. And, you know, if somebody is going to, um, put themselves in danger or one of the other employees in danger because they were intoxicated during a shift, it is our obligation as a manager or leader to make sure that that doesn't happen again.

Speaker: 18:22

So he, he had some bad employees.

Speaker 2: 18:23

We had a family member that I had to compete with, a family member of his. So, uh, that person was excluded from all policy. And we just went back and forth. And, uh, finally I was, I was told on a Sunday morning you hit the door and one week later resonate started. So I was completely motivated. Are

Speaker: 18:45

you comfortable with sharing that? Do you want that you were square?

Speaker 2: 18:48

I'm totally comfortable sharing it. Sure. So I started resonate, uh, it was already, that

18:54

must

Speaker: 18:54

have been in your cooker already.

Speaker 2: 18:55

It was, yeah. You were already thinking

Speaker: 18:57

about

Speaker 2: 18:57

it. Yeah. For three or four months it was going. My LinkedIn had kind of changed. I, I loved the name resonate because, uh, from a musician, I was a former musician, uh, drummer. And just the word resonate works for me.

Speaker: 19:12

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 19:13

It's a beautiful way of, of, of transcribing sound and

Speaker: 19:16

Well, and as somebody that's. Watched a lot of, uh, like jam bands and stuff over the years, when, when a band is really resonating

Speaker 2: 19:26

Yes.

Speaker: 19:26

You know? Yeah. And all the different, you know, there might be four or five, six pieces to the band and it's just flowing and everybody in the audience is connected to that experience of those, that band being together.

Speaker 2: 19:38

Yes.

Speaker: 19:38

Or a good jazz quintet even, or

Speaker 2: 19:41

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker: 19:41

Whatever. Yep. It's a, it's a pretty cool thing to see that kind of improvisational yet cons, I don't know. Yeah. It's a, it's a special thing when, when bands are really in that zone

Speaker 2: 19:52

and, and I, I, I pair, I pair the two together. Right. So exactly what you talked about with being a manager or leader, you have to constantly improvise. You have to constantly read the staff and that, and that's the, the equivalent of a conductor looking at your symphony in front of you. And if somebody's outta tune, you've gotta call'em out and say, Hey, you're outta tune. Let's, let's get you in, in, in pitch. Let's do this, let's do that. And you get it to where everybody is in line with each other, they're aligned with the song and everybody understands the tempo. And so that is my angle for

Speaker: 20:29

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 20:30

Business coaching. Yeah. And it's always been extremely effective because people love the music side that I can inject into my business theory, or, or I should say business model. Um, I've got, what, 20 plus years of music industry and I, I've met you name it. In the industry, whatever. And if I didn't play with them, I knew'em. If I didn't live with them, I, I played with somebody who knew'em. So I, I equate some of the leadership, uh, skillset to, um, particular musicians and, uh, rock icons basically. I mean, I started when I was 18. I started going to the MTV awards down in LA in 88 when it was really cool. I mean, really cool to go there. And you're at a after party and you've got Guns and Roses, you've got Bonjovi, you got ice tea, you've got Madonna, George, Michael to share to, uh, the Cure. Everyone's right there. And you're an 18-year-old kid going, wow, what is this? You know? Hmm. And so you meet some of these people and they, some of'em had huge egos and they're like, who are you kid? And then there was others that were like, laser focused on you. Mm-hmm. And one in particular was, uh, David Bowie had the chance to meet him. He would've been 2002. It was actually here in Denver, um, at the O2 festival. And he was nothing about David Bowie. He wanted to know about the buffalo up at Genesee Park. He wanted to know about, you know, is it really the altitude? Does it really get you, every time I sing here, I always have to have the mass. But does it really not matter once you're here for a while and you're looking at this guy going, he's got a blue eye and a brown eye, I just can't even listen to what he say.'cause I'm so emphatic of what is going on here. I'm, I'm sitting behind a rock odd, but what I'm getting at is. You have leaders, even in current day right now, in bigger positions other than companies. We can go into politics. I don't, we don't have to, but Sure. You have ego and ego is the biggest killer.

Speaker: 22:32

I was just talking with my crew today, how, uh, the way, the way I read it on the current circumstance is Trump's like, hey, like everybody says Norway. It's the Norwegian Peace Prize. Right? It's the Norwegian Peace Prize. And everybody said, I should have got the prize. And even the person that you gave the prize to Yeah. She gave it to me because she knew I should had the prize and, uh, I want Greenland.

Speaker 2: 22:57

Yeah.

Speaker: 22:57

And you just say, I'm sorry for not giving me the peace prize, otherwise I'm gonna raise holy hell war.

Speaker 2: 23:03

Yeah.

Speaker: 23:03

Against you guys for not giving me the peace prize.

Speaker 2: 23:05

Yeah.

Speaker: 23:05

And I want Greenland. Um, sorry, I'm working on my trumpet impersonation. No, that's pretty rough. That was my first actual effort at it.

Speaker 2: 23:13

That that actually wasn't that bad. It was good. I, yeah, I, I just, uh, I, working in some of the industries that I have, you have people that are far up in the, in the chain where they just, they don't lead down. They talk down. Hmm. And it's because their position, they feel like they can do that and it just demoralizes a staff and imagine that on a bigger level. Yeah. Obviously to governments you have, you have. Horrific things going on. And in my opinion, I is because we, we don't have somebody that's serving the people. We have somebody that's, that is serving their own, um, angle. And, you know, I get it. If you're a CEO, you're like, well, I, I just wanna make money. I just wanna make money. I just wanna make money. But, uh, from an

Speaker: 24:00

organic, well, the cool thing about politics these days is that. If you get into politics, you could make a lot of money really fast. Like,

Speaker 2: 24:07

yeah.

Speaker: 24:07

Even with a modest salary of 175,000 a year or something, you can add millions to your balance sheet in a matter of one congressional term.

Speaker 2: 24:15

I, I unfortunately, am not one of those people. I, uh, I thought about running. Yeah, I, I thought about running for a local office. I thought about, uh, being anything just to make a difference, right. Uh, in a positive way and see people, uh, attracted to the fact that, uh, I would be working for them. Every single thing that they want done. I would be working for not, it's not my agenda. It really is the people's agenda and, you know. I take that the same angle in a leadership position where I always said, if you could, if you were ever to interview any of my old employees, they would tell you. Johnny would always say, he is your assistant.

Speaker: 24:55

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 24:56

I'm here to help.

Speaker: 24:57

Yeah. Remove challenges and opportunities

Speaker 2: 24:59

or

Speaker: 25:00

roadblocks from

Speaker 2: 25:00

you. Yeah. Uh, because a, a leader, uh, whether I am one or not, you know, that's for them to decide, but I, my job was to make their job easier. Yeah. And not to, uh, steamroll through and say, you have to be, you have to suffer through this, so you can't go home to see your family. It was, how can I make the shift as easy and as fun for them as possible? Because that, I found, was brought productivity, and productivity brings money. Money brings raises, and that's what makes the employee happy. Yeah, totally. It's, it's a chain reaction.

Speaker: 25:31

So did you like have like a framework developed already? Did you have to go out there? Did you have to get, like, licensed to be a coach or something? Is there a fle way? Uh, book

Speaker 2: 25:44

there, there is a, there's a, I'm sure there's a PLE way. I didn't take it because, uh, two years in, I sometimes feel like it's my first day in the office with Resonate. Uh, and what's funny is I know how to run somebody else's business, but when it comes to running my own, I'm like, Ooh, you know, I, Ooh, day one again. Day one again, you know? Uh, but

Speaker: 26:03

that's one of the challenges of being a coach, frankly, is Yeah.

Speaker 2: 26:07

You

Speaker: 26:07

know, if you're keeping really long term coaching clients. You're kind of doing it wrong.

Speaker 2: 26:12

Yeah.

Speaker: 26:12

Uh, and yet you don't want to, like, you know, it's hard to always have brand new clients get'em, uh, regularly. So it's nailed a tricky

Speaker 2: 26:20

Yeah. You nailed it.

Speaker: 26:20

Tricky business to get established in.

Speaker 2: 26:22

You nailed it. I, I am not certified as a coach. I, my angle is experience and with experience breeds knowledge, with knowledge brings wisdom. Right. So, um, if somebody asks me, Hey Johnny, which I get a lot in the, specifically in the hiring area is, uh, Hey, could you help us hire? Um, I have on my website, I've, I've interviewed well over 10,000 applicants in my career. So I have a knack or a, uh, a little bit of an extra, I, I wouldn't call it a gift'cause I hate using that word, but I, I would say I have, I have some really good experience in reading people and I can tell when somebody's giving the, the owner. An answer that they know is, is expected, or, you know? Yeah.

Speaker: 27:11

You know,

Speaker 2: 27:11

when the, when the interviewer is asking the question, well, tell me about a time that really challenged you and how did you deal with it? You know, it it, those are, you can

Speaker: 27:19

tell when it's a rehearsed one versus

Speaker 2: 27:20

one. Exactly. I, so I like to throw in right angle, left angle questions that are not rehearsal, that are right in between two totally different questions so that they're like, wow, what did I, what just happened? And it creates that honest answer. And that's the answer we're looking for. Uh, and I, I'm gonna break this down as, as simple as this, this is it, it is a really ridiculous question, but it tells me so much about a candidate. So I'll say, tell me how to describe in detail a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Usually get two responses. One is the re the applicant will go a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Why would I want, you know, it's immediate. Like, why do I like

Speaker: 28:04

almost dismissal?

Speaker 2: 28:05

Yeah. They think it's a joke, which that's not your person. Yeah. Right away. That within that first instance, it tells you that's not your person. Or the person's be like, they're going to contemplate and they're gonna say, okay, I'm gonna walk into the kitchen. I'm gonna start with a cabinet. I'm gonna open the lefthanded, uh, side. I'm gonna get a, a fork for my peanut butter, or a, a knife for my peanut butter. I'm gonna get a spoon for my jelly. Get out two pieces of bread and they start describing it. Right? And so every. Description they're talking about, I'm checking on a piece of paper with tally marks. If it's 10 or under, that person is not detailed. If it's 11 to 20, you're in a good sweet spot with that person. If it's 21 or more, then you're, you're dealing with somebody who is Ty, who's typically very anal retentive, and they're gonna be analyzing everything you do and everything you do in the company is wrong. So it, it helps you guide, it helps you guide the interview. I'd like

Speaker: 29:01

to try it. Could I try it?

Speaker 2: 29:02

Yes, please.

Speaker: 29:03

So, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich is a high calorie, uh, high fat and, uh, sugar product that, um, poor people eat or teenagers. And just kidding. Um, I'm not really a fan of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. My wife is, and she grew up much wealthier than me, but, uh, yeah, yeah. Sorry.

Speaker 2: 29:32

No, it, it's, it's the,

Speaker: 29:34

as an economist in a bit of a foodie though, it, it's, it's kind of, it's fine.

Speaker 2: 29:39

You could, you could find it to be trivial. It, it's really not about the peanut butter and jelly sandwich. It's, it's

Speaker: 29:45

about the construction of it.

Speaker 2: 29:45

It, it's about them listening to the question, taking it seriously and describing to us in detail how they would methodically handle. Situation that they know about. So same thing like in the trades. Hey, walk me through how you would patch a six by six inch hole in drywall. I guarantee you, 90% of the time, every time I ask this question, it is a, well, I just, I, I grab some tape and mud, I, I throw it on there and I spread it around. It's just, that is not the guy. You want to go into a million dollar house

Speaker: 30:22

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 30:22

To fix that hole for that lady who is staring at, to make sure that that is done right. You want the person that's gonna tell you the type of material they're gonna use, the process, how they're going to square it up, how they're gonna add a patch, how they're going to, uh,

Speaker: 30:37

gonna remove the exterior surface. Yeah. In a 12 by 12 area, so that I can focus on the six by six hole and still have a good

Speaker 2: 30:44

Yeah. And that person is your next teacher, leader, trainer of your company based on how they answer that question. That's cool. Okay. So it really does tell you a lot. So 35, 35 years in, I can ask all those regular questions that are on interview sheets everywhere, but everybody understands what they are, they already know what they're getting. They people are Googling companies questions, interview questions from prior people that didn't get hired.

Speaker: 31:11

I would say one of your special talents, um, because I've been able to be somewhat successful in my career in banking and local think tank because I can put myself into the. Owners eyes.

Speaker 2: 31:25

Yeah.

Speaker: 31:25

A decent amount. And imagine what it's like and resonate with them because of that, what you do really well is put your brain into the, the frontline and the employee's eyes and to the customer's perspective when they're interacting with these employees and stuff.

Speaker 2: 31:42

I love that. That's

Speaker: 31:43

awesome. Like I would say in some ways, probably one of your softer spots is interacting with the owners of these companies.'cause you're so good at imagining the, the operational elements. Uh,'cause that's been partly your, your role, like you were the obstacle remover a lot of the stages of your career.

Speaker 2: 32:04

Yeah, that's, uh, that's a, that's a really cool way of looking at it. I, I would say that, um, when I do coach a, a business owner, entrepreneur, a solo person, a husband, wife, a scenario, I give them their perspective. I give them the customer's perspective. I give them the employee's perspective. And they need, they need to hear that. They need to see it because half the time, no more than half the time, they're wearing eight to 10 hats. Sure. And they don't have time to, to just kind of let it all go and say, okay, now let's focus on this and do it and drive it correctly. So where I come in, uh, as I've had on my LinkedIn, uh, as a fractional, uh, fixer is. I can go in and recognize a problem immediately. It can be via paper, uh, p and l. It can be walking in the building. It can be literally the first 30 seconds of walking. It can, your

Speaker: 33:02

hostess is terrible, just saying.

Speaker 2: 33:06

Yeah. Or you've got a mouse, you know, going across or, you know, the, the, the first three people that I walked past didn't even engage with me.

Speaker: 33:15

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 33:15

You know, I mean, it, it, you can, we can do this brick and mortar retail, you can do it via a phone call when you're calling in and you're asking for somebody. You can tell by that vibe on that just by the voice of the customer or voice of the employee on the phone. They're if, if they're engaged or not. Sure. You know, and it's like, that's what I focus on. I focus on the behaviors, the tonality, um, and the energy and engagement given to me as a customer. And that is my coaching moment for the owners.

Speaker: 33:44

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 33:45

You know, or the leadership on what they can do to improve.

Speaker: 33:48

So somewhat your, your focus of your coaching, the PLE plan is, uh, is really communications between the owner and their teams.

Speaker 2: 33:58

Yeah.

Speaker: 33:59

And really understanding, translating, uh, communicating well.

Speaker 2: 34:04

Yeah.

Speaker: 34:04

You know, what we're here for. What constitutes a, a victory in the eyes of management, in the eyes of customers, uh, et cetera.

Speaker 2: 34:12

Yeah. And I, and I like to, I like to make, I like to create a. A, a, a room of ideas and basically get the person to think, the employee, the owner. Think just a little bit outside the box, because that is why I started my deal. Because it is not your typical business coach model. It is not a MBA from Princeton type deal, where the, it is solid books training. Hey, you've gotta do it this way. This is pure 35 years, boots on the ground. Well, it's

Speaker: 34:49

improvisational, it's jazz.

Speaker 2: 34:51

Yeah. And it has to be more. And, and, okay, so you look at that, some of the greatest players in jazz never even were taught.

Speaker: 35:01

Sure.

Speaker 2: 35:01

They, they just, they taught themselves same way with rock music or any other, uh, deal. But, you know, music is a beautiful thing to me. And when you, when you see or hear that soloist, that quartet, that symphony, uh, it rock, it doesn't matter if, if they're all in sync and they're in it and they can literally just look at each other, or it is a way that they swipe the, the hand up on the guitar, just a few frets, and that tells the bass player, okay, he needs to now drop to a d. Those are the, oh, those are beautiful moments. Yeah. And that's, and that's really, it kind of gives you goosebumps, right? It's like, uh, that's, I love that about managing and leading,

Speaker: 35:45

right.

Speaker 2: 35:45

Getting with team and, and just finding that.

Speaker: 35:48

You're not like, you know, your way around a balance sheet and a p and l and things like that. Yeah. Like, you understand that, you know, ultimately that those are the, the outcomes of the behaviors that are expressed.

Speaker 2: 35:59

Bingo. Yep.

Speaker: 36:00

Right. And meanwhile, uh, uh, MBA graduate from CSU with no business experience, has got all the finances and probably a lot of communications theory and leadership stuff, but almost no practical experience about making the sausage, you know, building the widgets and selling them to the people, whatever that is.

Speaker 2: 36:22

Yeah. You, you are right on the money on that. It's, uh, and, and look, I'm not disregarding, uh, education in any way, shape, or form. Sure. I, I love the fact that, you know, uh, somebody comes out, schooled, uh, and wants to be the best that they can be in a, in a business coach scenario. I think there's 50 some odd business coaches up in Northern Colorado alone. What makes the difference is. The impact with the customer. So if I have somebody who hires me and I have just blown them away, I have given them everything that they thought about, dreamt about, uh, felt about, and I have solved those first three gigantic frogs that are in the room. I know I'm getting hired again. You know, I, I've, I've been doing this two years now. I've got, what, 16 Google reviews, 16 clients that have said, you are five

Speaker: 37:16

stars baby.

Speaker 2: 37:17

Five star baby. You know, I just got accredited with, uh, better Business Bureau, uh, which a lot of coaches don't have. Uh, but what I would say is, uh, every coach brings a beautiful angle to teach a team. You know, you, that's why you look at the NFL. You have four teams now that are where they are because the coach has an ability to bring in their players that they want to take to the championship. And, and what I like to think that I'm different with a coach is from other coaches is I can go into a room fairly quickly and analyze the staff, analyze the leadership within seconds, and just understand, okay, this is toxic, it's healthy. Um, it's unproductive. It needs help. It needs 30 days help. It needs literally a two hour conversation. Or this is a real quick fix of 15 minutes. I, I will not charge a customer for a month's time, something that I could fix in 15 minutes. I if it's really, it's just a matter of. Changing some verbiage with phone or changing verbiage with how they talk to their employees, which I have done. It makes the world of difference. And once you turn the employees into that customer, it, everything else again, takes care of itself. And they see the flip of the pancake, they see the business grow, and within a week it's like, wow, okay, we have double digit comps. Uh, okay, we have some more CSAT scores that have come in. We are crushing it now, guys. Wow. Okay. Now everybody gets, they start leaning in and that's the special sauce. That's the B12 that Johnny PLE brings.

Speaker: 38:52

I did that. What, uh, did you develop that over time, that kind of employees as customer thing or was that part of the foundation of the PLE plan or even before that you were already walking it, living it kind of,

Speaker 2: 39:03

yeah, it was

Speaker: 39:04

well before probably.

Speaker 2: 39:05

No, that's a great question. I, I was, I was promoted, uh, to an assistant manager back at warehouse music in, uh, cord Madera, California. And I was promoted over two of my roommates. Uh, and that really began the immediate shift of, okay, you can't be friends with these guys anymore. You have to become a, a leader. You have to be the supervisor because your boss says you have something special.

Speaker: 39:30

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 39:30

That you can lead and do something right? And I had gas. I, I had the give a shit attitude. So, um, you know, once you are able to get through those difficult situations, difficult conversations with a roommate and say, Hey, I mean, you know,

Speaker: 39:44

did you quit being friends with them or

Speaker 2: 39:45

no? Uh, they didn't wanna be my roommate afterwards. Like, I'm the boss of you now. I, I, I didn't like that. It, it was horrible, uh, position for me to be in, but what a huge, uh, uh, notch on the, on the belt to learn, right? You, you just learn how to deal with that scenario going forward all the way to the 89 earthquake. How to deal with crisis management. You know, the entire building is, is shaking. You've got 6,000 videos that are cr, you know, falling on the ground. You've got, uh, employees that are cry, crying, uh, stories to go a mile. I've got the LA riots. You've got, uh,

Speaker: 40:22

we'll come back.

Speaker 2: 40:23

Yeah, we'll catch it on the,

Speaker: 40:24

on the time machine part.

Speaker 2: 40:25

All, all the way to COID, you name it. But you know, it's, uh, all that, all that experience, um, I learned over the course of years of what to do and what not to do. So in essence, resonate was just really, um, again, a hundred percent confidence in knowing how to shift a business into the positive.

Speaker: 40:45

Um, what are your, like is this your career for the next 20 years? God willing.

Speaker 2: 40:51

Yeah.

Speaker: 40:51

That's your plan? Yeah. And then whatever, sail off into the sunset somewhere.

Speaker 2: 40:55

Yeah. Plan is, uh, 2026 here. Uh, book is coming out. First book is coming out. Okay. Uh, that will hopefully launch two and three down the road. Uh,

Speaker: 41:05

is that, is that, uh, do you have a title already?

Speaker 2: 41:07

Title, uh, yeah. Everything Matters. The, the 10 Fle Principles of What to Do and What Not to Do in Business. So I, I literally just printed it out today. Uh, I'm working with Intelligent Inc. Uh, okay. Of, uh, uh, Australia. And we just fit with each other on LinkedIn.

Speaker: 41:25

I think everything should be like, you should do What's that? It, it kind of sounds like a lisp or something. When you say it's a it's a pimple plan. You could like, kind of do a lot of exercises, could have that kind of thing. Sure. Or maybe mix in some like, uh, like Asian, uh, stereotypes or something about RS or stuff. I don't know. Just as a, as a, as a, as a catch, as a hook.

Speaker 2: 41:52

Sure,

Speaker: 41:53

sure. Or maybe not. I don't know.

Speaker 2: 41:54

No, no. I, I keep

Speaker: 41:56

working on it.

Speaker 2: 41:56

Yeah. No, I, I'm, I'm picking up what you're throwing down. Uh, I, uh,

Speaker: 42:00

just stick with the pimple only probably.

Speaker 2: 42:02

Well, some, but they joke about it.'cause every time, if I'm doing a keynote and I hear somebody when we're going through the question and answer stage, when somebody says, well, you know, it's really simple. Really. And I'll, and then I will immediately go, it's really pimple. Yeah. And then it, it connects us all again. That, Hey, this is, this is my message to you. Keep it

Speaker: 42:20

ple OpID.

Speaker 2: 42:23

I love that.

Speaker: 42:23

You can use that

Speaker 2: 42:26

kiss kiss of, kiss of No.

Speaker: 42:28

Keep it pimple

Speaker 2: 42:29

or kif. Keep it ple. Yeah. Right. I'll say that 10 times fast. Uh, yeah. Although

Speaker: 42:35

I don't know what KIF is.

Speaker 2: 42:36

No. Keep it ple. Fued. Yeah. Kif. But, uh,

Speaker: 42:40

ki I know what KIF is.

Speaker 2: 42:42

Yeah. Ke and that short for Yeah, I, I,

Speaker: 42:45

anyway.

Speaker 2: 42:46

Okay. So, uh, yeah. So 15.

Speaker: 42:49

Yeah. And speaker, like, is that part of your like

Speaker 2: 42:52

Yeah.

Speaker: 42:52

You were talking about that early on, like, you need to write a book, you need to get out there and speak

Speaker 2: 42:56

Yeah.

Speaker: 42:56

And stuff.

Speaker 2: 42:57

Yeah. So I, I uh, I graduated with, uh, national Speakers Association this last summer. Oh, okay. Uh, down in Denver. You went through

Speaker: 43:04

their bootcamp

Speaker 2: 43:05

or something? Yeah, yeah. It was one year and it, everything I thought I knew how to do. You are unlearned. Oh yeah. It's like Yoda, you know, like you must unlearn what you've learned, you know? Yes,

Speaker: 43:15

yes, yes.

Speaker 2: 43:15

And you are talking to an audience and you think it's a, it's about you're, you're telling things and they're like, no, no, no, no, no. You have to pretend like you are in that audience and you are talking to them, and you are on their side, and you understand what they feel, and, and, and yes, your delivery has to, and it's like. Wow. So yeah,

Speaker: 43:35

you're not delivering a sermon, nor are you doing a lecture.

Speaker 2: 43:38

No.

Speaker: 43:39

You know, you are commiserating together and thinking about what we do about it.

Speaker 2: 43:42

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You, yeah, it is a, it was a huge mental shift for me and wow. How much I grew last year as, as a speaker. And, uh, so that is one of the angles, that is one of the revenue streams that, uh, uh, resonate has. So that's really the focus. I like to go, not because it pays really well, but because I really truly get off and, I mean, get off when I see a hundred, 150, 400 people and I see light bulbs

Speaker: 44:15

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 44:15

On top of their head. A lot of

Speaker: 44:16

leverage

Speaker 2: 44:16

on that conversation after something I said it, it is, it's like giving a sermon really, you know, it's like, uh, and that is, it is not about going up there and selling Johnny Fimmel. That's not, what's about it, is about communicating and connecting and understanding their pinpoints, their pain points, their, uh, what they need and, and offering that value and, and educating and giving them everything that they want to hear. And, and it really is easy. It really is easy once you figure that out and. People want to feel good. People want to get better. Uh, people want to walk away from something like that and be inspired. And, and my job entirely is to inspire. I think that's the ultimate core value of Resonate, is to, uh, inspire people. And, and whether it's in a business or, um, relationship or team or whatever, whoever's hiring me, uh, Longmont Humane Society, when they hired me, what, what an amazing, what amazing task that was. Uh, you're dealing with, you know, up to 250 volunteers. Volunteers,

Speaker: 45:25

right.

Speaker 2: 45:25

And they are cleaning. You're trying to

Speaker: 45:27

make them care.

Speaker 2: 45:28

Yeah. Well, they care. They care. I was brought in to bring in the connection from CEO to volunteers.'cause you have volunteers that are cleaning, you know, pins of, uh, dog poop and, and cats and, and they're dealing with that, that they

Speaker: 45:44

have a terrible job that they're

Speaker 2: 45:45

doing

Speaker: 45:45

for free,

Speaker 2: 45:45

but they're doing it because they love animals.

Speaker: 45:47

Right.

Speaker 2: 45:48

And so my task was connect the CEO to those feelings.

Speaker: 45:52

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 45:53

And I did so with a story, and that is my angle. Again, I, I use story as my way of getting through the bs, getting through the day-to-day kaka, as I call it. Yeah,

Speaker: 46:05

yeah.

Speaker 2: 46:05

To, uh, make a difference. And I used a story when I was seven years old. I had my German Shepherd was. Sliced and diced at the legs from a neighbor because it was humping their dog and we had to bring it into the local.

Speaker: 46:20

You mean he like cut

Speaker 2: 46:22

him up? Well, yeah, yeah. Cut him up with a hatchet.'cause he was doing, uh, uh, uh, a rooftop. He had just moved in. They were building their house. Yeah. And

Speaker: 46:30

he caught your dog humping his dog. And like

Speaker 2: 46:32

our dog went over there and, you know, things were happening. And I see the owner jump off onto the hillside and then you just hear dog, you know, just,

Speaker: 46:40

oh damn

Speaker 2: 46:41

dude. Copernicus, uh, was his name. Okay. Doing his, you know, doing his do. And he had grabbed him, I guess by the collar and, and slit the legs and whatnot.

Speaker: 46:49

Oh damn.

Speaker 2: 46:50

Dog came over back over to our, our house and my dad, we called the, the sheriff department. We, and they said, there's nothing you do'cause your dog trespassed on their property. So the lesson I learned early, obviously when you're seven years old is, uh, was compassion and empathy. And that was from, uh, a lady named Sally and she was at the Denver Humane Society. I remember we had to take Copernicus in to give her away'cause we had to keep her chained from that point on, after she healed. You can't chain a gigantic German Shepherd. They just, they need, yeah. This is up in Conifer. You know, where're, they're running around and doing their thing. Wow. So we, uh, we had to give her away. And I'm at the parking lot and I'm, I'm crying. And, and the lady, Sally comes out and she holds my hand and she crouched down. She looks at me in the eye. She goes, Johnny, we, we will take care of Cape. We'll make sure that she finds the right home.

Speaker 4: 47:46

Hmm.

Speaker 2: 47:48

I never forgot that. And I gave that speech just over two years ago to that whole staff, and I was looking at the CEO in the eye when I was doing it, and the, it, it happened, they all understood. And I said, the reason why you guys need to understand why you're so special is because of what you do every single day. What you're doing for this, the animals, what you're doing for the companions, what you're doing for, uh, you know, all the, all the pet owners in the world. And the connection was made. And the CEO came up to me afterwards and was shaking my hand. He's like, man, I didn't understand. I didn't understand things until now. And, and he was brand new three months in the role. Yeah. And it's like, you know what? It's all

Speaker: 48:36

probably excellent at being an administrator in a lot of things. Yeah. But didn't understand the passion that

Speaker 2: 48:41

Yeah.

Speaker: 48:41

So many of his employees and volunteers had for the work.

Speaker 2: 48:44

And it's about making a difference that that really comes. That's another resonate thing is, is what are you gonna do now? What are you gonna do above that to make a difference? It's not about just being a transactional customer or employee, it's about what are you gonna do to make a difference in that person's life. You know, uh, what are you gonna do to, uh, you know, we don't know what they had to deal with before they walked in the store. We don't know what they had to deal with before they made that phone call. And it's up to us to explore that quickly, find and get there and, and really just from a humanistic point of view, just get that line with them to where you can communicate and say, look, I'm here for you. I'm, I'm gonna do whatever I can to make sure you have a better rest of your day. That's what earns that raving fan for life. It's, it's about being sincere and authentic.

Speaker: 49:37

Talk to me about like where your services are most, your experience maybe is most applicable. I've heard you talk a lot of stories about like food industry and kind of service industry in general. Is that your kind of key demographics in that space or,

Speaker 2: 49:54

yeah. Uh, tha that's a great question. Um. So I spent, uh, almost eight years in the restaurant, restaurant industry, downtown Denver. So I'm well versed with that industry. I understand what they do and have to deal with on a daily basis. So whether they're a small restaurant in the middle of Nebraska or Vegas, uh, which is where I trained for three months straight, uh, with Hard Rock Cafe, you see everything. You see everything. Yeah. You see, you know, people's fingers getting cut to, uh, people dropping glasses, whatever you name it. So

Speaker: 50:28

I cut the end of this finger off. Five times.

Speaker 2: 50:31

Yeah,

Speaker: 50:31

just a little bit. Yeah. Like the nail is there. It's all, but it's a lot narrower than

Speaker 2: 50:35

this

Speaker: 50:36

other

Speaker 2: 50:36

finger

Speaker: 50:36

on

Speaker 2: 50:36

this side. Yeah, that's, that's a juicy one right there. Yeah. Uh, so yeah, restaurant have a, a big experience there. The trades, uh, home improvement. I spent time with Lowe's, uh, almost eight years. Uh, ACE,

Speaker: 50:48

less than that with a handyman.

Speaker 2: 50:49

Yeah. Ace handyman about six months. Uh, which I choose not to use as my career. I use that as a learning tool, but mainly a motivational tool. But yeah. Uh, retail, just front facing. Yeah. Whether, uh, I've, I've even had a, um, you know, insurance, Allstate has, has had me come in. Any of those kind,

Speaker: 51:09

kind of service oriented

Speaker 2: 51:10

Yeah.

Speaker: 51:11

Customer interactions with, with clients kind of thing.

Speaker 2: 51:14

Yeah. Because not every owner is the same. Uh, not every entrepreneur is the same and they don't treat their employees the same. Yeah. Every single building is different. And so if I am brought in, they're bringing me in because they feel like I can make a difference or, uh, you know, I can, I can, I have some experience

Speaker: 51:32

really in helping to connect that, that owner or leadership team to the front lines. Yeah. Is really your special sauce seems like. Yep. I have to go pee. And so I'm gonna call for a break. And, uh, we'll come right back here soon.

Speaker 2: 51:45

Sounds good.

Speaker: 52:35

Were you a singer too in your

Speaker 2: 52:37

Oh, no, no. In the shower maybe. Uh, but as I get older, my voice does to, I can't do the falsetto anymore. No. I was a, I was a drummer. I started at seven,

Speaker: 52:49

seven years old.

Speaker 2: 52:50

Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker: 52:51

Can you set the scene for me? Sure.

Speaker 2: 52:53

Yeah. Like

Speaker: 52:54

you were, were you Yeah.

Speaker 2: 52:55

Yeah. Uh, older brother started playing violin.

Speaker: 52:59

And where, where are we at here?

Speaker 2: 53:00

Uh, we're in Colorado. Okay. Uh, up in Conifer.

Speaker: 53:03

Alright.

Speaker 2: 53:03

And, uh, so

Speaker: 53:04

born and raised there?

Speaker 2: 53:05

Yeah. Okay. Born and raised. Yeah. Okay. I'm a native. Uh, it's not a lot of us around anymore, but, well,

Speaker: 53:10

I mean,

Speaker 2: 53:11

they're around. You just have to plenty. Yeah. You just have to find him. But yeah, I, I, uh, music was my thing early. Uh, first couple albums, uh, I think I, I remember watching American Bandstand and I saw Pat Benatar. I'm like, wow.

Speaker: 53:25

Cool.

Speaker 2: 53:25

And I remember, uh, di Clark, uh, Dick Clark going, Hey. You're what, 90 pounds and you sing like you're a gigantic gorilla, you know? And she's looking at'em like, what did you say to me? But yeah, she's, she was short, she was small, tiny little thing. Yet she had that operatic just rock

Speaker: 53:45

Yeah. Projection

Speaker 2: 53:46

voice. And I just remember seeing that. Wow. That was awesome. I was watching the drummer, uh, Myron Racker, uh, who I would later see his drum set at a Hard Rock cafe out in St. Louis. Awesome. To see that. It was the exact same one that you see in the video, you know, like, wow, that's so cool. But that started it, and I, I had her You were

Speaker: 54:04

a fanboy from the start.

Speaker 2: 54:06

Well, I was, I, I Music lifestyle. Yeah. It started Early Stray Cats on Cassette Stray. My parents. It was, yeah, it was, it was early. My dad, how old

Speaker: 54:21

are you?

Speaker 2: 54:21

I'm 55.

Speaker: 54:23

You are? Okay. Yeah. So I'm 51. Yeah. I'll be 52 this summer. And so you were just that few years ahead of me.

Speaker 2: 54:29

Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker: 54:30

So everything that you thought was leading edge was actually mainstream by the time I was that age.

Speaker 2: 54:35

Uh, well, you know, I don't know if I have this stuff. I was leading edge at the time, but what, what I'd say is I had, I had my dad who was, who had I, I have his 50 albums of the Great performances on Classical. Oh wow. So I have all, so. He was playing that, uh, my older sister is playing, uh, fog hat to ac DC to Led Zeppelin Cashmere. And that's an amazing story right there. And then my brother had Devo, uh, he introduced me to Billy Idol, which would end up being one, one of my favorites. Uh, was

Speaker: 55:09

he older also, or He was younger.

Speaker 2: 55:11

Yeah. Older. Older brother. Four years older, bro. Older, older sister. Five years. And so I, I had all these albums. I remember always being late to the school bus stop because I would always have to put on ac DC, black and black, or I'd have to put on cashmere, uh, song remains is the same, and just hear what was going on. I just, I, I, it was, it was it just. It had to happen. And, uh, talk to me

Speaker: 55:34

about the, the setting. What was your, what was your family doing in Conifer?

Speaker 2: 55:38

Yeah. Uh, my dad, uh, was a insurance agent downtown for a company called Western Farm Bureau, which is now the Art Institute on Lincoln. And, uh, uh, Broadway. The

Speaker: 55:51

Farm Borough didn't turn into the Art Institute?

Speaker 2: 55:54

No, no.

Speaker: 55:54

The building, the tenant changed.

Speaker 2: 55:56

Yeah, the building. Yeah. The tenant was changed. Uh, so he, he commuted every day from Conifer down to Denver, whether it was winter, summer. Interesting. Yeah, it was, it was.

Speaker: 56:05

Today. In today's world, a lot of times people are like, they moved to Conifer'cause they're pretty well to do.

Speaker 2: 56:10

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker: 56:11

But it sounds like your family was okay, but mostly it was lifestyle.

Speaker 2: 56:14

Yeah,

Speaker: 56:15

yeah. Like, I wanna live up here in the States.

Speaker 2: 56:16

Yeah. I mean, I, I, we originally started in a house in North Glen till I was four. I don't remember much about that, but we ended up getting the house up there and, uh, yeah, I just remember the pink shag carpet with the green, uh, walls and whatnot. And, uh, you know, my, so they

Speaker: 56:33

bought a fixer upper up

Speaker 2: 56:35

in

Speaker: 56:35

Conifer,

Speaker 2: 56:35

basically. Yeah. And you, uh, we drove by there. My family and I drove by there this last summer and it's, it's just a, it, it's the same house, but it's not, you know, it's, it has Sure. The new roof, all that whatnot. But anyways, uh, it was, uh. It was there and I would have the pillows. My brother, as I stated, was playing violin. I think he had to do it for school and he hated it. So he dropped that. He got into the drums. Uh, he brought home that one of those rubber practice pads Sure. With the dime that you would draw around and you, you know, play. And he did that I think for a week. And I just started on it. And he goes, well, you have to make sure the tips, you know, hit inside that circle. And I was just fixated and I just, I, I just, it started from there.

Speaker: 57:21

Born to be a drummer.

Speaker 2: 57:22

Well, I, I just, I gravitated towards, because I'm just naturally that energetic kid. Uh, my brother will still say and make fun of me about in the early years where I would throw myself the Nerf football and I'd dive and catch it. I'd throw the Nerf football and I'd do that for hours while they were watching Happy Days. The Incredible Hole Dynasty. Yeah. Interesting. I didn't care about tv. I just wanted to play football or just do things that were physical and drumming really channeled my, if I had a DHD, who knows. Sure. Uh, I just, it channeled everything, uh, correctly for me so that it was my. It was my go-to in Happy Anger, you name it. I went through it. Uh, I just, it happened, uh, yeah. My, my first drum set piece was, uh, Toto Africa in, um, uh, high school. Mm-hmm. And I remember I had failed Mr. C's algebra class one year already, and I was in his class again. We just, we could not stand each other, you know, on the

Speaker: 58:25

cusp.

Speaker 2: 58:26

Yeah. And he comes up to me after, afterwards, he goes, you know, Mr. Pu, you know nothing about algebra, but you're pretty good on drums. And that's when I knew Okay. He never gave me a compliment. Yeah. In algebra. Yeah. So this must be something cool. Uh,

Speaker: 58:41

well, it's that action oriented it. Like even that carried through to today. Like you, the, the business owner sitting in their office, you know, in a pedestal is interesting, I guess. But really the stuff going on at the front lines.

Speaker 2: 58:54

Yeah.

Speaker: 58:55

Those interactions, those commun, those communications, that action oriented as part of the business.

Speaker 2: 58:59

Yeah.

Speaker: 59:00

Has

Speaker 2: 59:00

I, I never thought And

Speaker: 59:01

where you resonate.

Speaker 2: 59:01

Yeah. No, I never thought about that way. Uh, and it just, uh,

Speaker: 59:05

so you didn't do the best in school, is that

Speaker 2: 59:08

Uh, no, I was an average C student until my mom said, you have to go to summer school or you're not gonna graduate. Uh, because I just didn't, school was not my, yeah. Was not my thing at the time. Uh, music, I was completely saturated in it. Uh, I just, I didn't care about anything else. And, uh,

Speaker: 59:28

they knew you down at the record store, how far away was the closest brick? Uh, because you had to actually do that, right? Like

Speaker 2: 59:33

Yeah.

Speaker: 59:34

It was my generation that got the Columbia house cassette things You probably did too, but you were a little older.

Speaker 2: 59:39

Yeah. No, I, I ha I went down that road up

Speaker: 59:41

12 cassettes for a penny.

Speaker 2: 59:42

A penny. Yeah. I remember that. I, I think by the time I was outta high school, I probably had, uh, a hundred cassettes. Wow. I had a hundred vinyl. I mean, I was already in there. Uh, I had Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich's original drum battle on, on Verve. You know, I, I was a purist as, as what they would call it. And so the local, there was a lot of local music stores, but the best one was down in Quarter Madera. Uh, uh, and that was when I was in Novato, uh, during my high school years. It was, uh, village music, which, uh, if you went in there, he had everything. And I, you, it was a field trip, so when you went down there, you were there for three, four hours. And my parents didn't care if I took the bus down there. I said, I'm going to village music. They knew I was going there. I wasn't going to get into mischief. I was going there to find that really hard to find, you know, cool piece of vinyl. And they just had everything and huh. And it just, it saturated. Uh,

Speaker: 1:00:44

how did you know, what was that cool piece of vinyl at the time?'cause the internet didn't really exist yet, right?

Speaker 2: 1:00:50

Uh, no, not at all. Uh, and that's a great story. What

Speaker: 1:00:53

were your connections to. Uh,

Speaker 2: 1:00:56

it, it was just, uh,

Speaker: 1:00:57

magazines and different

Speaker 2: 1:00:58

things too.

Speaker: 1:00:59

Yeah. You, you had, uh, radio stations would talk about stuff, I suppose.

Speaker 2: 1:01:02

Yeah. Radio stations were huge and the Bay Area had amazing, uh, radio stations. Uh, God, where, where do you start with, uh, they had, uh, so

Speaker: 1:01:10

talk to me about this. What was that? So you moved from Conifer to the Bay Area as like a middle schooler or

Speaker 2: 1:01:15

something? Yeah. So my parents had gotten divorced. Okay. Uh, when I was 10. Uh, and then my, my mom remarried within two years and we, she had custody of us and we moved out to the Bay Area. So the music scene out in the Bay Area at that time, 84 to 88. So lemme just put it in a nutshell. You had, uh, at that time the Red Hot Chili Peppers who were still not signed.

Speaker: 1:01:42

Wow.

Speaker 2: 1:01:42

Uh, you had Jane's Addiction who was still not signed, but

Speaker: 1:01:45

super popular. Both of'em. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:01:46

They were getting there, right? Yeah. They were heading up and down the coast. You had Exodus, you had Metallica who had just put out, uh, uh, what Ride The Lightning, I think, whatever the first one was. Mm-hmm. My apologies. Uh, Metallica fans. Uh, yeah. And, and it was just, it was the beginning of, of Beautifulness. You had Santana, you had Journey, you had Bonnie Rai, you had Huey Lewis. Um, and I was in bands at that time.

Speaker: 1:02:09

Thanks for mentioning Huey Lewis by the way.'cause my wife kind of criticizes me when I list him among the awesome musicians of the era. But he brought the news man. He was solid.

Speaker 2: 1:02:19

He he did, he had some And

Speaker: 1:02:20

the

Speaker 2: 1:02:20

saxophone brought it back.

Speaker: 1:02:22

Yeah,

Speaker 2: 1:02:22

yeah, yeah. He had some great albums. Uh, sports was, he had what, five number one hits? Yes or Yes. Or maybe six number one hits.

1:02:29

And

Speaker: 1:02:29

I can't play any of'em.

Speaker 2: 1:02:30

No.

Speaker: 1:02:31

In the car with my wife.'cause she just

Speaker 2: 1:02:33

Wow. Okay. Okay. That, uh, but he was competing against Michael Jackson at the time. Right. And, and he was crushing it on the radio.

1:02:40

Yeah.

Speaker: 1:02:40

Yeah,

Speaker 2: 1:02:41

because he was a great, they were a great song. Group, they had five people. Um, you had, uh, God, I wish I, I'm so bad, John. So

Speaker: 1:02:50

you, you moved to Paradise from your

Speaker 2: 1:02:52

perspective. Yeah. Yeah. So I, I And

Speaker: 1:02:53

how old were

Speaker 2: 1:02:54

you? Uh, I was 12 when we moved there, and I was playing in band 16, 17, 18. Okay. Uh, by the time I was 19, I was playing at the Stone in San Francisco, opening up for the psychedelic furs. Devo cool. King of four East Bay All Stars would be Brad Gillis from Night Ranger. Um, uh, you had, so

Speaker: 1:03:18

you were striving at

Speaker 2: 1:03:19

this time? Yeah, it was everywhere. We, we were at Fantasy Studios rehearsing, and I remember Santana, the band Santana was in the, uh, room right next to us and we're like, we shouldn't even be playing it. It's, it's, it's embarrassing. We, we should just stop. We were called ArcLight at the time and Arc light. We, we had

Speaker: 1:03:37

a RK.

Speaker 2: 1:03:38

A-R-C-A-R-C. Yeah. A you know, like from a, from a Flame.

Speaker: 1:03:43

Oh, oh

Speaker 2: 1:03:43

yeah. Uh, to uh, to welding. Yeah. It was the bright light. So we're we're, it was too

Speaker: 1:03:47

bright for you to see where your sunglasses,'cause we're gonna be rising through the stratosphere shortly.

Speaker 2: 1:03:53

We had our first band's name was Pink Camouflage. And, you know, I put lace all around this, the drum set. When you're a high schooler, you don't, you don't think you just do, right? Yeah. But, uh, being around. All of the great musicians, um, you know, you, you, you and working at that record store there, you'd have Joe Satani come in, Steve Perry come in, Diana Ross would come in. Uh, anybody that was in the Bay Area, they came into my music store. So I, this is

1:04:24

the

Speaker: 1:04:24

one where you got promoted to

Speaker 2: 1:04:25

be

Speaker: 1:04:25

the

Speaker 2: 1:04:26

boss of your

Speaker: 1:04:26

roommates.

Speaker 2: 1:04:27

Yep. And so it was great. So, um, I, I think my energy and enthusiasm to music was contagious to the point where, uh, and I'll talk and it's, it's in the book that I'm putting out this year, I used a story with Denny Kamasi, the drummer from heart. So, uh, I was on break, uh, eating lunch at Warehouse, and I get a call on the radio, Hey Johnny, we need you out here for classical department. And uh, I get out there and I see this guy and he's all dressed up, like, you know, you could tell he just had that vibe about him. He's got a little kid next to him. He is got his hair all black and spiky and you know, the jewelry and everything. And I go, Hey, how can I help you? And he goes, Hey, I'm looking for a, a gift for a friend of mine. A very special friend. I need something from Pavarotti. Do you have anything that's really cool? And I said, actually, yeah, I just got in this box set. It's one of 175. It's poverty's, uh, greatest hits from Italy. I recommended, I said, you have to have this. It's

Speaker: 1:05:28

written in Italian.

Speaker 2: 1:05:29

Signed. Yeah. Yeah. You have signed, you have to have this. It was numbered on the back. He goes, and he looks at me and he grins and he goes, okay, I I like you. Do you have anything else? And I, I recommended like 10 other, like double CD sets and everything. And he's just getting a kick out of it because I was so, you're

Speaker: 1:05:46

such a nerd about the classical

Speaker 2: 1:05:48

Yeah.

Speaker: 1:05:48

And

Speaker 2: 1:05:48

everything

Speaker: 1:05:48

else.

Speaker 2: 1:05:49

Yeah. And I said, I said, who are you? You look familiar. And he goes, what you think? And I go, yeah, you, you're, who are you? And he goes, I'm Denny Kamasi. I go, you're, you're the drummer from Heart, you know? And he goes, yeah, yeah. He goes, uh, that's cool. I said, I love the album alone. Your drumming is amazing. And I went into just how I, I sit, I have my Simmons drum set in my room, and I just play all the songs from the album. And he just loved that I was into it. And I didn't care that he was famous. I just wanted to talk to him about music. Yeah. Yeah. And, and that really was another connector for me as a, as a, as a manager, as a leader, as a whatever. Just, just to get that, that connection with somebody so that they understand it is really about engagement. Right.

Speaker: 1:06:37

Well, and I was just thinking to myself that, you know, I teased you about the flattery. We'll get you everywhere with me.

Speaker 5: 1:06:42

Yeah.

Speaker: 1:06:43

But. Uh, not if you're a flatterer. Um, like if you're sincere and in, and in your case of talking with that drummer, you were sincere about, you know, you weren't flattering him. If you, if you were like, you know, I want to get this from you, or that from you because of whatever, that would've been a whole different story. But because he knew that you respected his heart

Speaker 2: 1:07:07

Yeah.

Speaker: 1:07:07

And he appreciate, you appreciated what he had created. Yeah. Like that's, you know, you can say it's flattery, but it's whatever. That is

Speaker 2: 1:07:16

it, it's right. It's, it's being a raving fan. And, and it's hard to deny a raving fan. You know? It real, it really is. And he came back after every tour that I was, I worked at that store for a year and a half, two year, I'm sorry, two and a half years. And he would come back and he'd say, is Johnny here? Hey, can you recommend something else? Yeah. Let, let's talk music again. And, uh, and he's, he's telling me about Montrose, the, the experience with recording with Sammy Hagar. And I'm like, my God, I'm getting information here that no one else is getting, and I'm just soaking it in. And it's just like, man, thank you so much. You know, just thank you for making my year my, my, my wife for doing this. And, and it just tended to go that way for me. Uh, every single place I ever ended up going. I, I, you know, uh, music store, I was selling instruments at. Uh, about two years later, we had the chance of getting either Lars Ulrich, um, Steven Adler from Guns N Roses or Troy Luta and

Speaker: 1:08:21

like to be in the store

Speaker 2: 1:08:22

to do an in-store drum tech. Right. Uh, session. And I remember Lars was on tour and at the time we didn't really want him, per se. It would've been nice, but the, the, the word on the street at that time was that he was just extremely attitude. Just attitude. Gotcha. Just in vibe with what I thought we should have with the customers that I had coming in.

Speaker: 1:08:44

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:08:44

Yeah. We needed someone who was gonna be grassroots real. And it ended up being Troy Lata from Tesla. And, uh, he was with the Eric Martin band beforehand, so we brought him in. Uh, my boss said, Hey, you can interview him in the office. You know, it's your day. Make it how you want. I still have the drum head, you know, from Troy saying, what a special day. Johnny Fimmel. Thank you. Uh, we, we talked drums all day long and he came in and he just, he was a regular drummer talking to fans, you know, and that's what was so cool about it. And uh, and

Speaker: 1:09:20

were you playing music and drumming for other bands and stuff? Yeah, during this time too. Yeah. Trying to make your break, did you? Yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:09:26

Yep.

Speaker: 1:09:26

Do that for a long time

Speaker 2: 1:09:28

or, yeah, I did. Uh, I would later move to la uh, move back to Denver for a while. Uh, try to finish college. Never did. Um. I got into a band called Fallen from Grace. We recorded, sold out all of our copies. We decided to make this bigger into Hollywood. I'm like, I'm certainly not the best drummer in the world. I know I'm not. And out of LA you've got 8 million people at the time. 5 million of'em are musicians. There's

Speaker: 1:09:55

1000

Speaker 2: 1:09:56

drummers

Speaker: 1:09:56

that are way better than me.

Speaker 2: 1:09:57

At least way better. But I was young, dumb, and you know what? And I, we just wanted to go there. And so we did. The guitar player ended up, uh, moving to Vegas with a girlfriend. The, the bass player ended up not, he just wanted to be a rock star before we even played a gig. And then there was Johnny Mle playing drums on a third, uh, level rehearsal off of Hollywood. I had to load all of my drums upstairs every fricking night out of my little Honda Civic. Huge. VE Oh, Honda Civic. Honda Civic,

Speaker: 1:10:27

yeah. Same.

Speaker 2: 1:10:28

Which, by the way, has more square footage than, uh, a Pathfinder. Those

Speaker: 1:10:32

things were the best cars. Like those. Yeah. Uh, yeah. The early Honda Civics, like the eighties, the cr uh, the v something that was, was a special one.

Speaker 2: 1:10:40

It was, it was the SI that I had kind

Speaker: 1:10:41

of

Speaker 2: 1:10:41

the,

Speaker: 1:10:41

the drop back thing.

Speaker 2: 1:10:42

Yep. Yeah. And it had

Speaker: 1:10:43

50 miles to the gallon. Never broke. Ever.

Speaker 2: 1:10:46

Yeah. I had 289,000 on that thing. That, and it fit an eight piece drum set in there, eight piece drum set. Right.

Speaker: 1:10:52

Didn't have enough room for a girl.

Speaker 2: 1:10:54

No. No. And even when I drove down to San Diego for a gig, uh, a girl asked if she could, you know, come home or we'd go to the hotel together. I don't, I don't have room. You have to drive

Speaker: 1:11:05

yourself. Yeah. My drums, I, it is my career baby.

Speaker 2: 1:11:07

Yeah. But I, no, we, uh, I I would,

Speaker: 1:11:10

you could follow me to buy a house.

Speaker 2: 1:11:11

Right. But I would, I lucked out, uh, I started at Guitar Center Hollywood and I was a drummer, and they said The only way you're gonna make money is if you sell guitars, so you better learn some guitars. Yeah. So I had to learn chords. Next thing you know, you've got, you know, Nick six coming in Twiggy from Marilyn Manson. You've got John Oates coming in for an acoustic. Sure. I mean, I, it, it was all in front of me and, and it was natural for me because I had so much earlier exposure, like we just talked about. But then, uh, a transformable situation happen where, you know, I had written on a list what I truly wanted in life. I wanted to play in a band. I wanted to play in a band on weekends and just make money playing drums. And I get this gig with this small moonshine label. It's an electronic label. They're like, well, we want you, uh, we'll take you at, you know, at the time it was 38,000 a year. I'm like, yeah, that's awesome. You know, it's back in the nineties and Yeah. So I took it. I was, I was You

Speaker: 1:12:06

was an apartment with only two roommates

Speaker 2: 1:12:08

at that price. Yeah, I was ecstatic. Next thing you know, the director of sales is like, Hey. A friend of mine who works for Capricorn Records, they need a roommate and they need'em now, but you have to go to a party first and they need to see if you're gonna vibe. And I'm like, okay, what is this? What kind of party is this? What does this mean? So I go and I meet the main girl, her name is Julie Duffy. And, and, uh, they're like, well, the other person is not here. Uh, we're vetting for him. I'm like, well, what is this? So the end of the night, everything's cool. I'm responsible. I'm not partying too much or crazy. And they're like, yeah, we like you. We want you to be the roommate. And I'm like, well, what's, what, what is this mystery? What, what's going on here? What am I missing? They're like, well, it's, it's Mike Lenon from the Googo Dolls. So I'm like, okay, cool. So now I'm a roommate with Mike Lenon from The Goo Dolls, and they had that hit, uh, Iris.

Speaker: 1:13:01

I saw actually, um, one of my first big rock and roll concerts. I saw Guns N Roses in the Use User Illusion Tours. Yeah. At, uh, Fargo Dome was my first really big concert, or actually my first real concert.

Speaker 2: 1:13:15

Yeah.

Speaker: 1:13:15

But then not too long after that, uh, Bush with Guo Dolls. Yeah. And no doubt.

Speaker 2: 1:13:22

Yeah.

Speaker: 1:13:23

Before it was what's her name and no doubt, Stefani. Yeah, Quin Stefani. And she made Bush and the, the Google dolls look like a bunch of fools, frankly, in my opinion.

Speaker 2: 1:13:32

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker: 1:13:33

Like Bush was fine. Google Dolls was a little better, but yeah, no doubt was so much better. And I could tell that that gal had a talent and

Speaker 2: 1:13:41

yeah,

Speaker: 1:13:42

there was a girl in college that I had a huge crush on that looked just like Gwen Ani. Oh yeah. And

Speaker 2: 1:13:49

yeah.

Speaker: 1:13:49

Yeah. Sorry you never said yes when I asked you out, but not, sorry, not sorry. Because I've been married to Jill for 20 years now. I'm pretty sure you weren't stable enough for anybody to be married. Not long. Um, but that's just me muttering to myself.

Speaker 2: 1:14:02

Oh, I love it. I love it.

Speaker: 1:14:04

So anyway, um, that's my experience with Goo Dolls. No doubt.

Speaker 2: 1:14:08

Yeah. Uh, no, it was, uh, it was good. And I, we

Speaker: 1:14:12

So you were roommates with

Speaker 2: 1:14:13

Yeah. And why

Speaker: 1:14:14

did he want roommates? Does he, was he not like maybe

Speaker 2: 1:14:16

he was never there. He was always on tour. That,

Speaker: 1:14:18

that song, right. He just wanted a place, a crash when he was in Los Angeles.

Speaker 2: 1:14:20

Yeah. Yeah. And he had a, a Ford Ranger truck that was what, uh, probably an$18,000 truck at the time. He never spent any money. He was really good with his money. Uh, he did not live the rock and roll style that everyone thinks that you should.

Speaker: 1:14:38

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:14:39

And, you know, we'd have, uh, you'd he's probably still

Speaker: 1:14:41

alive.

Speaker 2: 1:14:42

Yeah, he is. Uh, he is actually. But you'd have, uh, limp Bizkit. You drop Kick Murphy's coming over. We partied four to five nights a week, and after two years of that, I'm just like, my God, I can't do this anymore. I just, you just need a break. Uh, and so I had a great run.

Speaker: 1:15:00

And you're what, like in your late twenties? By the

Speaker 2: 1:15:02

time? Time, yeah. I was, I was, uh, mid twenties, so I went through this whole thing from 27 to 30. Age 30, I decided to move back to Colorado. Hmm. And just kind of get my life back in together. Yeah. You know, it's time to grow up

Speaker: 1:15:13

and it turns out partying five nights a week and making$38,000 a year isn't getting my retirement plans advanced.

Speaker 2: 1:15:19

No. But it, it, it gives a lot of great story. Right. For sure. Uh, and they, they, I had some amazing times. Would not take a second of them back Yeah. At, at all. Um, a band I was in, uh, CS we toured, uh, recorded, um, I played with some lifelong heroes of mine. Daniel Ash from Loving Rockets, recorded an album with him in Keoki, uh, DJ Keoki, who was, uh, his brother actually had a club down here in Denver. Um, I, I can't remember the name of it. But anyways, uh, it was, it was a great time. You

Speaker: 1:15:52

know, if, I'm just gonna interject here. Yeah, please do. As an observation, I think if you were as passionate about drumming as you were about music, um, you might have been a better drummer.

Speaker 2: 1:16:05

Oh, wow.

Speaker: 1:16:06

Like you were super passionate about music, all of it.

Speaker 2: 1:16:10

Yeah.

Speaker: 1:16:10

In some ways. Yeah. And drumming was cool. It was a way to be adjacent to it and stuff, but

Speaker 2: 1:16:16

I, I tried, I I had some great teachers over the years. I, uh, okay. So you

Speaker: 1:16:21

invested,

Speaker 2: 1:16:22

you were charged. Yeah. I, I played, I played and I had, I had a few highlights. From a drumming point of view, um, where I was told I was good, but honestly, the reason why I maybe if I'm, if I'm shoveling it to the side just a little bit is because it physically it was so tough.

Speaker: 1:16:41

Oh yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:16:41

Um, we would be on, it's pretty

Speaker: 1:16:43

brutal.

Speaker 2: 1:16:43

Yeah. We'd be on tour. Uh, you'd play 25 nights out of a month, and of that you have three days off and you're, you're, you're playing drums for two to three hours at 130 beats per minute. And it just, it just, it's

Speaker: 1:16:57

like an F1 driver.

Speaker 2: 1:16:59

Yeah. But I don't understand how these, the, the big guys have been doing it for 30 years, you know? Yeah. The, the, the Bruce Springsteen drummer, even Tesla, Troy is still playing. All these guys are still playing and playing and playing. It's like, my God, how do they do it? I just got burned out, uh, physically. Yeah. And, and I, that's interesting. I, I mean, yeah. Music.

Speaker: 1:17:21

I wonder if they flow more somehow, like it doesn't. Wear on them physically as much because they're just not trying quite as hard in some ways.

Speaker 2: 1:17:29

Um, I I probably just, I probably, I always learn the hard way, so I probably did everything wrong.

Speaker: 1:17:37

No, I'm not saying that at all.

Speaker 2: 1:17:38

No, but,

Speaker: 1:17:39

but I mean, you, you, you know that feeling like when things are just kind of flowing when your team is

Speaker 2: 1:17:44

Yeah.

Speaker: 1:17:44

You know, engaged and they're, the people love them every, you know, when you're

Speaker 2: 1:17:47

Yeah. Yeah. I, I was a pay to play drummer for a while and, and I lost interest in that. Yeah. I, I, the, the band I was in last before that was pure Heart, soul and that was falling from Grace. Uh, and I still have that cd. My kids listen to it. That's what my wife, uh, is it on Apple

Speaker: 1:18:06

Music?

Speaker 2: 1:18:07

Uh, maybe. I don't know. I, I found a, I found a used copy for a Buck Nice. 50 at this place down in, uh, second Spin Records on Colorado Boulevard in Denver about a year and a half ago. I'm like, wow. Somebody finally,

Speaker: 1:18:20

at least my kids can hear

Speaker 2: 1:18:21

it. Gave it up. Yeah. But my, my kids love it. It's, uh, it, it was pure heart and, and, and passion, what I put into it. I love drums. I have my drums set up downstairs now. Okay. My kids tinker on it a little bit. Yeah, yeah. You know, but, uh, I never wanna force it on.

1:18:35

I

Speaker: 1:18:36

know. What I really hear from you is a love and a passion for like, all of music, that, that was meant to be more of a compliment than an insult because I

Speaker 2: 1:18:43

No, no, I didn't take it as an

Speaker: 1:18:44

insult. Yeah. Because it just seems like you just love all of music, all the people, all the personalities, all the

Speaker 2: 1:18:50

don't we need it though.

Speaker: 1:18:51

Glory the industry. Right? Yeah. It's amazing what people can create together. I,

Speaker 2: 1:18:55

you, you, you think about the, uh, the brilliance of a, of a composer, Mozart, Bach, any of the, that some of'em are doing it without being able to hear that much, or how they're able to compose a, an orchestra, a symphony. Yeah. And the complexity that they

Speaker: 1:19:12

did. It's like doing super high level math in your head.

Speaker 2: 1:19:15

It is

Speaker: 1:19:15

almost,

Speaker 2: 1:19:16

it is.

Speaker: 1:19:16

Right. Because you can't hear it until

Speaker 2: 1:19:17

you hear it. Yeah. And it, and it's all here. It's just a matter of how it connects. And for me, I just, I felt, I felt the connection heart string wise with music early, very in tune with it. Um, and it just affects me in such, uh, to the point where I, even on, like now on my LinkedIn, I'll put playlists for an opening shift, playlist for a mid shift close, uh, music for a closing shift for staffs if they want it. Hmm. Over the years, I crafted music that I know motivates, and when it's to be chill and when it's just to be coasting.

Speaker: 1:19:53

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:19:54

And when you need to just pound it to the metal, you know, it's like interesting. Um, music is so influential.

Speaker: 1:20:01

Before we move back to your move back to Denver, um, do you have favorite local bands in music that you, uh, try to make sure you see?

Speaker 2: 1:20:10

Uh, you mean at that time or right now?

Speaker: 1:20:13

No,

Speaker 2: 1:20:13

now. Right now. Yeah. Now. So I, while we're here, yeah. I am so disconnected as far as, uh, seeing bands at night here. I just, I have a fourth, I have

Speaker: 1:20:22

small kids.

Speaker 2: 1:20:23

Right. But, but I, I will say that, uh, no. A coworker of mine turned me on to Billy Strings. Sure. Um, who is the fact that he. Can jam with tool and jam with anybody from the dead, like

Speaker: 1:20:39

leftover salmon.

Speaker 2: 1:20:40

Yeah. You, you name it. Uh, yeah. The samples, who, you name it. An amazing musician who is completely channeled incorrectly with what they're supposed to be doing because they trust

Speaker: 1:20:51

like the consummate professional.

Speaker 2: 1:20:53

Yeah. But they trust what they're doing. They love what they're doing, and the intention is real. And that's why he is blessed and doing everything that he wants to do and jamming with anybody. He wants to be, they, they are attracted to him.

Speaker: 1:21:07

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:21:07

And it's like the entire industry is coming to him, not he's being discovered. It's the fact that he has stayed his course.

Speaker: 1:21:16

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:21:16

And he's just being a pure musician and everybody's just like, wow, who is this guy? And they're finally figuring out genius.

Speaker: 1:21:24

I love that.

Speaker 2: 1:21:24

Yeah.

Speaker: 1:21:25

Um, so you moved back to Denver. You're 30 ish years old, you're

Speaker 2: 1:21:29

ish

Speaker: 1:21:30

trying to like get your

Speaker 2: 1:21:31

Yeah.

Speaker: 1:21:32

Uh, new track established, I guess, a little bit.

Speaker 2: 1:21:35

Yeah. Yeah. So I, I figured, you know, it's time to, uh, grow up and, and you know, the pressures of life were like, Hey, you need to have a family. You need to have kids and whatnot. And, um, it never was in my mind to have a family get married. It just wasn't. Uh, and then all of a sudden I get recruited by Hard Rock Cafe and my world just changed. It was,

Speaker: 1:22:02

Hmm.

Speaker 2: 1:22:03

They wanted me to be the voice for the customers and be able to talk about all of the memorabilia that was on the walls.

Speaker: 1:22:11

Oh, fun. Were you recruited to come to Denver?

Speaker 2: 1:22:14

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. As well? No, I was in Denver, but I was recruited by the company. I didn't even know they had a heart rock cafe in Denver. Right. And I front Denver. I'm like, really? They're like, we got

Speaker: 1:22:23

this kind of, yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:22:24

Where's the, where is it? They're like, 16th Street Mall. I'm like, no way. I've been down there like a year ago. And, and that, that was the key was like, okay, wow. Uh, how do we make a difference? Yeah. So that everybody understands that it's here. So they brought me in as from the retail side to build the business. Uh, it was a 600 square foot store, 600 square feet, and it, they went, I've

Speaker: 1:22:47

been in there

Speaker 2: 1:22:48

a couple

Speaker: 1:22:48

times

Speaker 2: 1:22:48

and they were doing under a million. They're like, we need it to do over a million. I'm like, no sweat. So we went to, I think 2.5 million in a year and a half. We were top of the rock, which means you're the best cafe in the world. Twice in the seven years I was there. We had some great leadership. My boss, Sean Finney, John, Lindsay Li, Liz

Speaker: 1:23:08

Riley. It was your. Passion.

Speaker 2: 1:23:10

Yeah.

Speaker: 1:23:10

For

Speaker 2: 1:23:11

music.

Speaker: 1:23:11

Music,

Speaker 2: 1:23:12

yeah.

Speaker: 1:23:12

And the whole thing, not just the drumming.

Speaker 2: 1:23:14

Yeah. Yeah. That's what propelled you

Speaker: 1:23:15

to success

Speaker 2: 1:23:16

in that.

Speaker: 1:23:16

In

Speaker 2: 1:23:17

some

Speaker: 1:23:17

ways

Speaker 2: 1:23:17

it just worked because Yeah.

Speaker: 1:23:18

And your understanding of the front line.

Speaker 2: 1:23:20

Yep.

Speaker: 1:23:21

Yeah. And the people that interact with the customers.

Speaker 2: 1:23:22

Thank you for connecting. Yeah. It was, uh, it was a blast. It was not a job again, it was not a job. Just like the music industry, you know, you're, you're told to go to a music release party for the cure. Oh. You have to have five drinks. Okay, that's fine. You know, but you're selling the album, no big deal. It was 25 years of not working. And, and Hard Rock was a great feed for me into that next realm where I'd meet my future wife. Okay. Uh, and then do you wanna

Speaker: 1:23:50

say hi to her now?

Speaker 2: 1:23:51

And Natalia Hi. Hi, Natalia, are you there? And kids? Uh, yeah. You know, you know who you are. Uh. It changed everything, changed the trajectory of my life. Um, I would have kids, which I never thought I could have. Uh, everything is meant to happen the way you have. I

Speaker: 1:24:11

slept with a lot of women and nobody ever called me and said,

Speaker 2: 1:24:13

Hey, you got

Speaker: 1:24:14

baby.

Speaker 2: 1:24:16

They call it the zip code rule. Well talk about that some other time. Yeah. But, you know, it was just not in my brain to think, okay, I need to, you know, it's not, I just wasn't mature enough. I, I didn't think I'd be a good enough dad.'cause the dad I had was amazing. And I, I felt, I felt challenged. Like there's no way I could ever live up to the way my dad was a dad for me. And, uh, you know, once Did

Speaker: 1:24:41

you stay in close contact with your dad then?

Speaker 2: 1:24:43

Uh, he, he died in 2003. Okay. So he, he passed, uh, show that

Speaker: 1:24:47

many years after you.

Speaker 2: 1:24:48

Yeah, yeah. And he died early for me. I was 33 and my mom passed in 2018. My dad. And

Speaker: 1:24:55

you were in California most of that time

Speaker 2: 1:24:57

between, yeah. Yeah. But he was, he was the full. Supporter of music. He said, you do whatever you wanna do, but just make sure you go at it a hundred percent. You know? Um, and he helped me get the first drum set. He, uh, he helped me buy the first three cassettes when I was young. I mean, he was just, he was just there.

Speaker: 1:25:16

So what made you feel like you wouldn't be a good dad? That,

Speaker 2: 1:25:20

I don't know. It's just, it's a, it's a maturity thing really. Yeah. You know, uh, you know, I get, I, I looked at my older brother, my older sister, they had kids. I'm like, there's no way I could do that.

Speaker: 1:25:29

Well, and plus you were like going to rock and roll concerts Yeah. And staying out until two o'clock in the morning and partying four nights a week. Yes. When you were 29 years old with a bunch of other crazy LA people.

Speaker 2: 1:25:42

Yeah. Yeah. I remember inviting.

Speaker: 1:25:44

So you're conditioned to not be responsible.

Speaker 2: 1:25:46

Right. And, and

Speaker: 1:25:47

then all of a sudden you fell in love and had to be responsible.

Speaker 2: 1:25:49

Yeah. And it, it changed the moment I saw the strawberry and the strawberry was the size of Olivia.

Speaker: 1:25:56

Mm.

Speaker 2: 1:25:56

When she's up on the screen and they're like, uh, you have a, you have a, you're gonna have a, that's

Speaker: 1:26:02

your daughter, I guess.

Speaker 2: 1:26:03

Yeah. Okay. And, uh, I, it was the first time intentionality happened, uh, providing feel happened. Um, it just, I, it was a, it was a just a immediate shift of, okay, you need to be your father now. Yeah. And I, I was excited and. Never looked back. Never looked back. It's an amazing experience.

Speaker: 1:26:27

So how did that play out for you? Like, uh,

Speaker 2: 1:26:30

so we, we worked together. We met each other through work. Uh, we agreed that one of us had to leave'cause you were not allowed to f fraternize. A manager was not allowed to fraternize with the help. Okay. And we knew something was there. Uh, we hiked this, uh, love, hope, strength, uh, fundraiser. It was the singer from the, the alarm or the call, please forgive me. Love, hope Strength. So it was, uh, bone marrow cancer research.

Speaker: 1:26:57

Okay.

Speaker 2: 1:26:57

Uh, and so John Lindsey, a buddy of mine who worked for Warner Brothers, he set it up. Uh, we had Kevin Bacon, we had, uh, Cy Kerin from the Fix. We had the singer from the alarm, um, uh, Kevin Bacon's brother. We, we would raise help, raise money, uh, more people that hiked Pike's Peak. The more people that hiked of the Veil Pass, it'd be a thousand dollars per person. Wow. You know, we raised almost$80,000 in two years. We had 19 matches. Uh, and that was, that was the philanthropic, philanthropic side of things that just felt amazing. Um, these people partnered with us because. We had built that trust new relationship there. Yeah. We, we just, we just, yeah. You just know how to deal with them. And, uh, Natalia was on that hike and at the top she goes, I wanna buy you a beer, Mr. Pimple. And I'm like, you can't'cause I'm your manager. And she goes some other time. And the way she looked at me, I knew, uh, was a special moment. And, uh, I think Olivia was a result of date number three. So we knew, we knew right away, uh, and we got married and, and, and now I've got a family of four and just, I wouldn't look back at.

Speaker: 1:28:17

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:28:17

Ever.

Speaker: 1:28:17

And so did, were you the one that left, you went to?

Speaker 2: 1:28:20

No, actually she did. Okay. Uh, she, she quit and, uh, she finished her college. Uh, she was Kam la at CU Denver. She would get her master's through, um, uh, OSU, uh, Oregon State University, uh, data analytics and statistics. Complete brainiac. I was the heart of the marriage. She's the brain. You're

Speaker: 1:28:42

the action guy. She's the thinking girl.

Speaker 2: 1:28:44

Yeah. Yeah. So, um, she's the better half for sure. She keeps me, uh. Smart. She keeps me thinking. And how did

Speaker: 1:28:52

you guys find your way up here to Northern Colorado?

Speaker 2: 1:28:55

We decided on Fort Collins. Uh, I had been up here a few times. Uh, loved the vibe of it, loved the culture. We, we didn't wanna live in Denver at that time. Um, you know, things were shifting in 20 12, 20 13, 20 14 down there. Uh, when you worked downtown, you saw the Democratic National Convention, a hundred thousand people. You saw, uh, protests coming through, you know, 50,000 people walking down 16th Street Mall. You see, you saw people getting run over by buses. You saw people coming in with a sword, you know, threatening the whole staff. I, you know, you, you see ugly,

Speaker: 1:29:32

you wanted to get away from urban.

Speaker 2: 1:29:33

Yeah. And ultimately when, and when you have a, you

Speaker: 1:29:36

got a bun in the oven, you're like, let's get this oven somewhere safer.

Speaker 2: 1:29:39

Yeah. You just, it is amazing the shift and you just want to get into a safe place. Uh, at that time we decided to move to Oregon 2015. Uh, my mom was diagnosed with a, um, a fatal lung disease. And so we decided to get Olivia close to her, uh, to have a grandkid close to her. And I, I wanted to take care of her, um, and help her out and to her final days. And, uh, and then, you know, we obviously had. We had two miscarries after that, so we just had enough of death up there. So we decided let's get back to Colorado, but maybe not Denver.

Speaker: 1:30:20

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:30:21

We research. We research, we research. Uh, that's what she does for a living. She's like, Fort Collins has amazing schools. Um, the crime isn't bad. They have a lot of areas in pink, which meant good.

Speaker: 1:30:33

The AKA was close by.

Speaker 2: 1:30:35

Yeah. Aka. Which is a

Speaker: 1:30:36

legendary,

Speaker 2: 1:30:36

I love that place.

Speaker: 1:30:37

Venue as well.

Speaker 2: 1:30:38

Yeah. Which if you drive by it and you've never seen it, you can drive right by it and not know it's there. Right. Yeah. It's, it's, it's just tucked away in that little bit of goodness.

Speaker: 1:30:45

I, uh, one of my best con I would, I, I actually listed it as a top three ever and I think I stand by it.

Speaker 2: 1:30:52

Wow. Wow. Okay.

Speaker: 1:30:53

But, uh, we are Robinson and Green Band. So Bob Weir. Yeah. Uh, Chris Robinson and Jackie Green. Yeah. Ooh. I saw them at AKA in, I don't know, 2016 or something like that.

Speaker 2: 1:31:07

Wow. And he just passed.

Speaker: 1:31:08

Yeah. Just passed last weekend.

Speaker 2: 1:31:10

It hurts. That one hurts.

Speaker: 1:31:12

That was such a good show too, because Chris Robinson was just exploring his not black keys rates. Yeah. Yeah. And stuff. And I, I also saw Chris Robinson in Boulder one night at, it was a 1:00 AM concert.

Speaker 2: 1:31:26

What?

Speaker: 1:31:27

So that he played with the Black Keys.

Speaker 2: 1:31:29

Black

Speaker: 1:31:29

Crows in Black Crows, yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry. Black Crows.

Speaker 2: 1:31:32

Yep.

Speaker: 1:31:32

My bad.

Speaker 2: 1:31:32

No, you're

Speaker: 1:31:33

good. In Denver. And then came to be part of the Chris Robinson Trio or something like that. Oh my

Speaker 2: 1:31:39

God.

Speaker: 1:31:39

In Boulder with a concert that started at 1:00 AM

Speaker 2: 1:31:42

That's awesome.

Speaker: 1:31:44

It was awesome.

Speaker 2: 1:31:44

That

Speaker: 1:31:45

is cool. It was one of the crazy, I I had to agree to be the designated driver. Um,'cause I could, I could smoke weed, but

Speaker 2: 1:31:51

in Boulder.

Speaker: 1:31:52

Yeah. Well, I, like, I was allowed to, like everybody else was drinkers mostly. Sure, sure. But I was like, I'm fine just not drinking, but I'll just smoke weed.

Speaker 2: 1:32:00

Yep.

Speaker: 1:32:00

And that was relatively safe comparably in those days especially.

Speaker 2: 1:32:04

Sure.

Speaker: 1:32:05

Uh, pre legalization. Yeah. But yeah, that was like a 2007 or eight concert or something like that. Probably. And, uh, yeah, drive it. Remember we stopped for breakfast at like five o'clock in the morning at an IHOP or something like that. Yeah. Like in Longmont, you know, which is cool. It's a whole different mind phase. And you probably experienced this so much more than me. Like,

Speaker 2: 1:32:29

uh,

Speaker: 1:32:29

yes

Speaker 2: 1:32:30

and no.

Speaker: 1:32:31

Being at the wrong time, at the wrong state of mind, you know, you're like,

Speaker 2: 1:32:34

or the right place

Speaker: 1:32:35

at the right state of mind. Oh, the, the sun is rising and yet,

Speaker 2: 1:32:38

yeah.

Speaker: 1:32:39

Oh boy. Am I ready for bit?

Speaker 2: 1:32:40

Yeah. So, okay. Let's talk about Chris Robinson. So he was with the Black Crows?

Speaker: 1:32:45

Yes.

Speaker 2: 1:32:46

Um. It was beef.

Speaker: 1:32:47

Yeah. Sorry Chris, if you're listening to

Speaker 2: 1:32:49

this. No, no.

Speaker: 1:32:49

Totally meant Black Crows not black

Speaker 2: 1:32:50

kids. No, no, no. Yeah, so you have them, you have the B 50 twos, you have Ziggy Marley, uh, on a Trio tour. Oh wow. It was out, out in Oakland, uh, the Omni Theater. And my buddy was doing lights and this company, he called Studio Fog, so he did fogging lights for all the bands in town. So he's like, Hey, do you wanna come down? I'm like, yeah, I wanna see the B 50 twos. And I kinda wanna see the Black Crows.'cause they were hot at that time. This would've been 90, 96 ish. And

Speaker: 1:33:18

Chris Robinson was dating like the hottest chicken in Hollywood at the

Speaker 2: 1:33:21

time. Uh, yeah. Hudson, right? Katie Hudson. Yep. Yep. And so, uh, we're there.

Speaker: 1:33:26

Hey Katie, if you're listening,

Speaker 2: 1:33:28

hi. I don't know you, but good. Well, you're really cool. Uh, so he's setting up everything on stage. My

Speaker: 1:33:33

wife would probably let us have a threesome if you checked it out, Katie, there's not very many women that she would love that, but she thinks you're super awesome.

Speaker 2: 1:33:41

For us, it would be, uh, for us it would be, uh, Rachel Weiss,

Speaker: 1:33:45

I dunno who that is.

Speaker 2: 1:33:46

She's, uh, David Craig's, uh, wife. Okay. She was in, uh, oh, she's been in

Speaker: 1:33:51

David Craig, or Daniel Craig.

Speaker 2: 1:33:52

David Craig from James Bond, his wife, uh, Rachel Weese. Is Daniel

Speaker: 1:33:56

Craig.

Speaker 2: 1:33:56

Daniel Craig, sorry. Uh, Rachel Weis.

Speaker: 1:33:58

Oh, so his wife. I'll look her up.

Speaker 2: 1:33:59

Yeah, she's, yeah, she's, uh, yeah, she's, anyway, she's cute. I

Speaker: 1:34:02

digress.

Speaker 2: 1:34:03

Jill, if you're listening to this, sorry to tell you. Yep. Uh, but we, uh, we get to it. Uh, he's setting up everything on the stage. The tour bus comes up and they open the doors and it's just a. Bellowing cloud of, of weed. And, and Ziggy comes out with this joint, the size of a football. I kid you not, it is rolled. It's like he was almost double handling. They're just, they're winding this thing up and it's taking forever. It's like, wow. That is, that's how they do it down there. Right? And so, uh, yeah, uh, getting high was an understatement. Uh, just being in that backstage area, everybody was completely baked. And that's contact

Speaker: 1:34:44

buzz.

Speaker 2: 1:34:45

Yeah. And that's, that's where I earned my name, uh, kickstand Johnny. Uh, because I, I,

Speaker: 1:34:52

if you could high, you just stand there.

Speaker 2: 1:34:53

I, I, I can't. I just, I just turn into a

Speaker: 1:34:56

zombie. It takes the action orientation out of you.

Speaker 2: 1:35:00

Right? Well, this was years ago. Uh, businesses I would

Speaker: 1:35:05

do Probably still true.

Speaker 2: 1:35:05

Yeah. No, I don't kick stand anymore. But yeah, I would lean up. I'd be the guy leaning up against the wall and just staring and just, uh, thinking about everything and anything. And, uh, it was a good time. Uh, it was a great story, uh, being a part of

Speaker: 1:35:20

The only reason I'm attracted to her is because of how much she reminds me of my wife.

Speaker 2: 1:35:24

Well, uh, yeah, sorry. No, I just, uh, so yeah, Natalia, uh, she is,

Speaker: 1:35:32

Let's talk about it.

Speaker 2: 1:35:32

Yeah. She is, uh, Eastern European.

Speaker: 1:35:35

Okay.

Speaker 2: 1:35:35

From Belarus, which is a, a hot country right now. Yeah. Yeah. She moved here in 2006, 2000. That's like

Speaker: 1:35:43

Russia's only friend.

Speaker 2: 1:35:45

Not really just for the leader, not the people. The people can't stand what's going on.

Speaker: 1:35:50

Are they more like Lithuania kind of style in terms of their culture and stuff?

Speaker 2: 1:35:54

Yeah, like the

Speaker: 1:35:54

Baltics or whatever.

Speaker 2: 1:35:55

Yeah. Lithuania, if you go back

Speaker: 1:35:57

dystonia, whatever.

Speaker 2: 1:35:58

Yeah. It's very, um,

Speaker: 1:36:01

my wife and I hosted a kid from Finland.

Speaker 2: 1:36:03

Yeah.

Speaker: 1:36:03

And he talked a fair bit about

Speaker 2: 1:36:05

Yep.

Speaker: 1:36:05

Like the consequence of Russia, bad kind of policies and stuff like that on there.

Speaker 2: 1:36:11

Yeah. So you have Lukashenko, who literally is, is uh, who tries to look like a, he's standing on his own leader. Mini leader Putin. Yeah. MiniMe Putin. But he's, he's actually big, he's a gigantic guy. He is like six, seven, uh, from what I understand. But, uh, Natalia actually was in the same, uh, room as Putin at one time, and she said how short he was, uh, and how he, this time he was still. I think he had just gotten outta the KGB or whatnot. Anyway, she, she moved here in 2006, uh, to pursue her education she had, um, and to

Speaker: 1:36:48

get the hell out of there.

Speaker 2: 1:36:49

Yeah. Yeah. The, the opportunities are limited because, uh, a lot of the men, um, you think about from, uh, demographic, uh, they were annihilated during World War ii, so there was almost zero men. So the ratio is, is five to one for women. And the men that are there are literally alcoholics as she states. There's, there's just no future, there's nothing to do. So, you know, she's, so if

Speaker: 1:37:16

you're looking for some hot chicks with a Russian accent,

Speaker 2: 1:37:19

yeah.

Speaker: 1:37:20

Go

Speaker 2: 1:37:20

to

Speaker: 1:37:20

Belarus.

Speaker 2: 1:37:20

Well, don't go there. Just, uh,

Speaker: 1:37:22

wait here for them to show up. Right. It seems like easier hunting if you're over there though,

Speaker 2: 1:37:28

saying, yeah, yeah, yeah. But, you know, so she moved here. Her mom helped her out, uh, to get here, and she had uc, Berkeley, uh, on the radar where they wanted her. I mean, she's, she's smart. She's, she's uber smart. And, um. You know, when you graduate high school there, they call it the gymnasium. It's the equivalent of of earning your college degree by the time you're 18. That is how competitive the Russian Ukrainian, uh, Belarusian background is with education. They are strict and they put you through, I mean, you're there from 7:00 AM till 7:00 PM Push

Speaker: 1:38:03

you hard.

Speaker 2: 1:38:04

Yeah.

Speaker: 1:38:04

If you're, if you're, if you got the stuff.

Speaker 2: 1:38:05

Yeah. And even if you're, if you wanna be a gymnast, if you want to be, you know, any Olympic you are,

Speaker: 1:38:11

any kind of a high

Speaker 2: 1:38:13

achieve that's, yeah. It's all in. And if you fit the profile, even if you don't want it, they push you in it.

Speaker: 1:38:19

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:38:20

Interesting. So she had to get out, she was able to get out that time. Uh, she became a US citizen in 2016, right after we moved to Oregon. Um,

Speaker: 1:38:30

and she like came to Denver, finished her schooling and went to the Hard Rock Cafe kind

Speaker 2: 1:38:36

of thing. Yeah. Well, okay. So she, she, uh, started off as a J one, uh, which is the terminology for Visa working Yeah. Student visa, right? Yep. Student visa working up in Estes Park, uh, as a server, and then she would later move out to San Francisco. Uh, where uc, Berkeley didn't happen for her. She ended up going to San Francisco State for a little while.

Speaker: 1:38:59

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:38:59

Um, and then it was just, it, it's expensive out there, friend of her. So

Speaker: 1:39:03

basically she was an elite

Speaker 2: 1:39:05

Yeah.

Speaker: 1:39:06

From her nation of Belarus

Speaker 2: 1:39:08

and started, started from scratch

Speaker: 1:39:10

here. Worked hard for a long time, for 10 years

Speaker 2: 1:39:13

Yeah.

Speaker: 1:39:14

To eventually gain her citizenship.

Speaker 2: 1:39:15

Yeah.

Speaker: 1:39:16

Despite already having babies here too.

Speaker 2: 1:39:18

Yeah.

Speaker: 1:39:20

Right. Yeah. When did Olivia came along? Years before.

Speaker 2: 1:39:22

Yeah. Olivia happened. Well, Olivia happened in 2014. Yeah. Uh, but we, you know, and we have friends. I'm

Speaker: 1:39:29

just kind of trying to set the stage for what kind of effort it

Speaker 2: 1:39:32

Right.

Speaker: 1:39:33

Has historically taken to be part of our country, you know?

Speaker 2: 1:39:36

Well, she worked her butt off. Yeah. Yeah. She, she started off with, uh, hotels with changing. Uh, cleaning rooms to, uh, becoming a waitress to then working at a higher end restaurant to then Yeah. Uh, and

Speaker: 1:39:51

learning English. Meanwhile, probably,

Speaker 2: 1:39:52

well, she learned English at the age of six.

Speaker: 1:39:54

Oh, wow.

Speaker 2: 1:39:54

Uh, it was just her calling. She said, I, I wanted to learn. Uh, her older brother taught her how to Wow. How to learn English. She is a linguist. Uh, she has five languages under her belt. Wow. Um, including Latin. Um, she is just extremely, uh, and so

Speaker: 1:40:11

why did she say yes to second and third date? You got lucky in the third

Speaker 2: 1:40:16

date you said? Uh, for whatever reason, she just said, I knew when I saw Johnny Ple, you know, he was he was the fle

Speaker: 1:40:22

plan.

Speaker 2: 1:40:23

Yeah, the fle plan was working. The, the force was strong with the fle plan. We just, uh, we just connected You just vibed? Yeah. I saw her out in San Francisco. I was at a training seminar for Hard Rock. I was, uh, being trained as the kitchen manager position. Oh, interesting. And she was a server there. And I'm like, wow. I'm like, oh, there's Rachel Waste. No, it's, her name's Natalia. What? And, and, uh, I was there for a month. Obviously nothing happened. But on the last day I said, Hey, I have to go back to Denver. It was really nice meeting you. And she tells me to this day, she goes, it made me sad when you said that I, we saw a lot of manager and trainings come through, but when you told me that you were leaving, it bothered me too. And I

Speaker: 1:41:01

Oh, so she was out there, not in

Speaker 2: 1:41:02

Denver. Yeah. Yeah, this was in San France. So she would transfer out two years later.

Speaker: 1:41:06

Oh, wow.

Speaker 2: 1:41:07

And our financial assistant says, uh uh, Hey Johnny, do you remember a girl named Natalia Ava? I'm like, no, I don't. I'm, she goes, well, she remembers you, uh, during the manager train. I'm like, oh, okay. She, well, she's gonna be here tomorrow. I'm like, okay, great. So I'm doing the shift the next day. Did you see

1:41:24

her?

Speaker: 1:41:24

You're like,

Speaker 2: 1:41:25

oh, PJ calls. I go upstairs that Natalia, and she turns around. I'm like, oh shit. I am, I am so screwed.

Speaker: 1:41:32

That's cool.

Speaker 2: 1:41:33

And uh, so it was. We actually stayed away from each other. And it was weird because it's like two magnets that are trying to stick. Yeah. They know they want to, but they're, when they're both positive, it doesn't work. I spent two years getting to know her as a worker and I got to know her. I really, truly, we became friends, coworkers. Yeah. Like I just respected her work

Speaker: 1:41:57

and meanwhile she rebuffed like all the other boys.'cause she had a crush on

Speaker 2: 1:42:00

her manager. She did. And I thought that was interesting. And I started to see that. And then, uh, yeah, finally, uh, the hike, you know, for, uh, veil happened. And I am like, I've never had a girl ask me out, ever. I, which is funny, uh, you'd think, but she asked me out and I, you know, for the drink and I said, no, we can't do that. And, uh, we had a conversation. She just said, well, you know, one of us has to leave. Then I quit. Yeah, I quit. I'm like, okay, great. It's on.

Speaker: 1:42:28

That's cool.

Speaker 2: 1:42:28

And uh, it's, it's been great ever since. But when we decided to move to Fort Collins, it was because of the schools. We wanted Olivia to be in a great school. Uh, the crime was low. And just, I remember the vibe of Fort Collins when I'd been up here many times before and it just has a very special feel. And it was very similar to Eugene and Springfield and Oregon. You know, you have U of O. And then you have blue collar, you know, you have educated, you have, you know, non-educated. It, it's just, it was a, a similarity in population. Um, and it was outside of Denver. Yeah. And so we said, let's try it. So when we moved, I actually got, had got promoted with Lowe's at that time I was working at Lowe's out there as a smaller store. Got the promotion to the hundred four and fourth location. They were gigantic. A flagship store, run a

Speaker: 1:43:18

big shop,

Speaker 2: 1:43:19

144,000 square feet during COVID. You want to tell

Speaker: 1:43:24

selling building supplies like crazy.

Speaker 2: 1:43:26

Dude, it was like day one as a manager all over again. You're like, you thought you knew what to do

Speaker: 1:43:31

and people quitting and not showing up. Yeah. And

Speaker 2: 1:43:34

yeah.

Speaker: 1:43:34

Oh, I got, what's that? What was it? Oh, fun employment.

Speaker 2: 1:43:37

Yeah,

Speaker: 1:43:38

the fun employment was super fun for employers.

Speaker 2: 1:43:40

Yeah. You, uh, because you're a roommate, you can call out for two weeks Right. Of someone who had COVID and, and I'm not taking anything against people who truly had COVID I and didn't get

Speaker: 1:43:49

paid for it.

Speaker 2: 1:43:49

That's right. Right.

Speaker: 1:43:50

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:43:50

But as a manager, I, if you have 200 people in a building, you're now hiring 20% of your staff just to cover the people who are sick.

Speaker: 1:43:58

Well, and how can I possibly validate whether or not your roommate actually got COVID or not?

Speaker 2: 1:44:05

Yeah. You can't. I have

Speaker: 1:44:06

no idea.

Speaker 2: 1:44:06

No,

Speaker: 1:44:06

I have to take a word for it. Yeah. Because it would be like racism or something to not take your word for it.

Speaker 2: 1:44:11

It tried my patience for sure. Sure. But I also, it sharpened my sword as a manager. Sure. As a leader, you, you had to make, uh, on the spot decisions you have CDC sending in a letter saying, okay, here's your permission slip to be on I 25. Right. So when the police pull you over, yeah. You can say you are a store of need because you sell toilet paper.

Speaker: 1:44:33

Right.

Speaker 2: 1:44:34

Like, this is crazy. So

Speaker: 1:44:35

fucking

Speaker 2: 1:44:35

wacka dude. Freaking apocalypse right after that happened. Right. So

Speaker: 1:44:38

Jill and I were hiking, we were hiking a lot of those times. Like we were in a big hiking phase before that, like starting that January.

Speaker 2: 1:44:44

Right, right.

Speaker: 1:44:45

And the number of days that we would go out and it was like us and the Amazon people and that was it in the, in the driving on the roads and stuff. It was like,

Speaker 2: 1:44:56

yeah. It

Speaker: 1:44:57

weird I a hiking trail.

Speaker 2: 1:44:58

Yeah. It was it,

Speaker: 1:44:59

and it was just me. Us and Amazon that get to go would be outside. I mean, a few more, but

Speaker 2: 1:45:04

yeah, it was,

Speaker: 1:45:04

it was lonely neighborhoods. Sometimes

Speaker 2: 1:45:06

it was weird. And when you had to have a counter of, you could only let 20 people in at a time for an hour because of the square footage calculation. CDC would say you could only have one person for 100 square feet.

Speaker: 1:45:19

Sorry, your story's gigantic.

1:45:21

But

Speaker 2: 1:45:21

yeah. So I've got time

1:45:22

to

Speaker: 1:45:23

spread out.

Speaker 2: 1:45:23

Right. So my job was to be the joker, the entertainer outside and say, okay, next person in, you know. Oh

Speaker: 1:45:29

gosh.

Speaker 2: 1:45:29

Uh, and you have people outside waiting for an hour to, to get in and it's like, you know what? My job was to make the experience. Yeah. An experience. And so you learn as a manager, as a leader. How to make the staff inside happy and

Speaker: 1:45:42

customers

Speaker 2: 1:45:43

happy. Well, like some host

Speaker: 1:45:43

hosts or hostesses can say, sorry, sir, but there's a, um, one hour wait before you can get a table and make it sound like a privilege.

Speaker 2: 1:45:54

Yeah.

Speaker: 1:45:54

And others can be like, sorry, it's an hour. Wait, what do you want? You wanna be on the list or not?

Speaker 2: 1:46:00

Yeah. And it's, and

Speaker: 1:46:01

I, I don't really care. I don't really, I would prefer you not be here.

Speaker 2: 1:46:04

And I, I just talked to an old boss of mine who was in charge of that building. She's now a district manager. Her name is Kim Seamer. Uh, so she, she goes, Johnny, I was just talking about you the other day. I go, really? She goes, yeah. I was telling the staff how positive you can make an experience and I used you as an example during COVID when you had to hold 200 people in life trying to entertain these folks for an hour. Right. And it's like, you know what? It's all a mindset. And so that is one of my keynotes that I talk about all the time. And it, whenever hired mindset is key to anything in life, uh, whether it's a job, uh, relationship, uh, anything. Uh, if, if your mindset is correct and you choose the right path, everything intentionally seems to work out. If you have the wrong, if you have the glass is half empty, which a lot of people do. It is really tough to make it through a day. Yeah. And it's like, why if you're gonna be at a job for eight to 10 hours, why not make it the best that it can possibly be? And that was, uh, I feel like my gift that I felt like I could give to people was, uh, yeah.

Speaker: 1:47:14

Hold on, hold on. We, we are actually entering into our, the, the final segment is the local experience. Sure, sure. But before we do that,

Speaker 2: 1:47:20

sure.

Speaker: 1:47:20

I wanna give a shout out to Seed and Spirit Distillery. Me and Johnny been drinking the Wizz Cal.

Speaker 2: 1:47:26

Love it

Speaker: 1:47:27

this evening and enjoying it.

Speaker 2: 1:47:28

Yes.

Speaker: 1:47:29

And so before we go into the local experience, you have two choices.

Speaker 2: 1:47:33

Ooh.

Speaker: 1:47:33

Uh, and we don't need that big glass. Okay. Because we're gonna do shooters. Oh my God. Um, so you could either have a, a, a shot or a, a weed ram if you prefer a Okay. Wizz cal.

Speaker 2: 1:47:43

Okay.

Speaker: 1:47:44

Or a sipper from the infinity bottle, which is probably 10% gin, 40% bourbon, 30% tequila, 8% whiz Cal. Wow.

Speaker 2: 1:47:58

I think I want to, I want to,

Speaker: 1:48:00

you wanna sample the infinity bottle?

Speaker 2: 1:48:01

I want to play for a hundred.

Speaker: 1:48:03

Okay. That's what we'll do. We'll just do, uh, do a nice little Wera,

Speaker 2: 1:48:09

I

Speaker: 1:48:09

love it. Of each of these. And then the next segment is our close. Oops. Okay. That's more than a weed ram. Sorry about that. I can take that one if you want. I'm closer to home. Oops. That one's the same size.

Speaker 2: 1:48:20

It's all good.

Speaker: 1:48:23

And, uh, salute to you. Johnny Pel.

Speaker 2: 1:48:26

Salute to you, sir. Ker bear. Amazing individual.

Speaker: 1:48:29

Looking forward to the next, uh, chapter.

Speaker 2: 1:48:31

Likewise.

Speaker: 1:48:32

Hmm. Tasting notes. It kind of works.

Speaker 2: 1:48:41

Yeah, it does. I feel like Godzilla, I feel like I could breathe some

Speaker: 1:48:47

fire right now. Let's rip the top off of this building right now. Write the light up. Uh, light up shells.

Speaker 6: 1:48:55

It's Godzilla.

Speaker: 1:48:57

It's Godzilla. Zebra. You can't say LS when you're imitating. That's right. That's right. Chinese people, Japanese people. That's

Speaker 2: 1:49:05

please, please forgive me. She, Ray.

Speaker: 1:49:10

So the, uh, the, the final segment is our loco experience. Okay. And that's the craziest experience that you're willing to share with your potential future customers. Your wife and daughter will listen to this, but we're looking for something that's a little bit Loko.

Speaker 2: 1:50:13

Okay. Um,

Speaker: 1:50:14

and I think you

Speaker 2: 1:50:15

probably have, is it something I chose to do or something that happened to be by accident?

Speaker: 1:50:18

Hmm. You know, most of the terrible things that have happened to me, I've done to myself. But okay. Um, if something, you know happened to you and it deserves a ranking in this setting that's worthy as well.

Speaker 2: 1:50:34

Well, I'll just make it, I'll make it quick on the, I'll, I'll do two quick ones. I'll

Speaker: 1:50:39

put the Wizz cow back up on the table here. You get,

Speaker 2: 1:50:41

uh, wow. So, uh, mistake number one not to make, and I, I give this to any, I tell any father, any person who's trying not to wake somebody else up. When you are up in the middle of the night and you have a sleeping baby, and you have a dog who wakes up, uh, at any moment if you're trying to be as quiet as you can and it's early in the morning and you're trying to get ready for work, make sure that you grab the right tube in your bathroom. What I mean by that is. Instead of grabbing toothpaste, I grabbed a tube of ice hot

Speaker: 1:51:22

iic hot. Oh, okay.

1:51:22

I

Speaker 2: 1:51:22

was thinking

Speaker: 1:51:23

preparation

Speaker 2: 1:51:23

H but yeah, no, and, and I, I had put that on my toothbrush and I put it in my mouth, and I have never screamed higher than any in the history of time. It hurt so bad. It took almost an hour to get that burn off of my tongue. And it was, it was, it was, it was inflamed. My mouth was inflamed. And so my, my lesson to you is please keep the icy hot away from the toothpaste.

Speaker: 1:51:51

Okay. That is a crazy experience. So.

Speaker 2: 1:51:55

Yeah. Yeah. That's number one. Then number two is just what every teenager does. Um, you either strip or streak through high school naked with a mask on, which is what I did. And I was, this

Speaker: 1:52:07

is in San Francisco, I guess.

Speaker 2: 1:52:08

Yeah, Nevada, which I was the fastest and I didn't get caught. So if that, if that student faculty is hearing this now, I'm officially the one who finally got caught, but I was the only one who didn't get caught'cause I was the fastest to run away.

Speaker: 1:52:21

So you successfully straight

Speaker 2: 1:52:23

through your high school? I successfully one, yeah. There was eight of us and I was the only one that didn't get caught and they didn't rat me out. And it's because I was fast. I was really fast. That's

Speaker: 1:52:29

impressive.

Speaker 2: 1:52:30

Um, yeah. So that's it.

Speaker: 1:52:32

Did you, you didn't do any sports?

Speaker 2: 1:52:34

I did. I did. Okay. I did, we didn't talk about that much. I did track, but I switched, uh, immediately. I actually had a, a scholarship.

Speaker: 1:52:40

I like the drumming.

Speaker 2: 1:52:42

I do, I like to beat on drums. I like to beat on drums. No, it was, uh, I had a, I wasn't good in school, but my track and field abilities were amazing. So I had University of Puget Sound send me a full ride. Yeah. And it was the only offer I had. And my mom's like, you gotta take this. You're stupid if you don't. Yeah. And I, and I didn't take it and I, I chose music and you know what I. Sometimes think about it, but I don't regret my choice because music was my, was my avenue.

Speaker: 1:53:12

Yeah. That's really cool.

Speaker 2: 1:53:14

Yeah.

Speaker: 1:53:14

What was your event? Were you a sprinter or a,

Speaker 2: 1:53:17

uh, long, long fire. Yeah. More short distance for sure. And hurdles. 200,

Speaker: 1:53:20

400?

Speaker 2: 1:53:20

Yeah. I did everything except pole vault. I could not pull vault to save my life. That's too scary. And shot put, I couldn't do that either. Well,

Speaker: 1:53:27

that's

Speaker 2: 1:53:27

for

Speaker: 1:53:27

bigger muscle people.

Speaker 2: 1:53:28

Yeah, I'm, I'm just, I so picture six one, but 150 pounds. I was fast. I ran, ran like a bird. And, uh, my daughter has the genetics now. She is 11 years old, five feet tall. And she is super fast. Smoking

Speaker: 1:53:43

fast.

Speaker 2: 1:53:43

Oh, I can't wait to see when she gets older

Speaker: 1:53:46

for people listening to this and they're like, you know what, that Johnny PLE guy, I, I think I need me some PLE plan in my life. Um, would you like to share your website or, uh, LinkedIn profile or anything?

Speaker 2: 1:53:59

Sure. Yeah. You, yeah. It's uh, uh, resonate@johnnyfle.com. Uh, you can find me on there. My Google business page is on there. My webpage, uh, it's all there for you. LinkedIn, it is resonate@johnnyfle.com. Um, it's all there. I'm, I, I really am interactive. I answer everybody's comments. I am very more giving than I receive, meaning I comment and I'm engaged in everybody's posts that are positive and that are actually meaningful. In leadership. I don't just say, Hey, great. You know, I, I really get into the true leaders that are out there. There's some amazing ones that are, are in my sphere that I constantly learn from. Um, I never claim to be an expert, but what I will say is that, again, if you're surrounding yourself around other good leaders, you learn from them. You, you're influenced by them. And, uh, in my case, they, they happen to say the same thing about me, but, which is great. But again, I've got a great team of people around me who believe in me, uh, believe in the message. Uh, and the message is just pure and simple. It is to inspire and make people better, uh, to their best abilities.

Speaker: 1:55:21

Well, and what I think we explored today a little bit was if you're a leader and, and you're, you want to connect better to those front lines and inspire them to the things and want to be there, Johnny might be your guy.

Speaker 2: 1:55:35

Yeah. I'm not everybody's flavor, but I am very, I can, I can influence for sure.

Speaker: 1:55:41

One last question.

Speaker 2: 1:55:42

Sure.

Speaker: 1:55:43

One ice cream flavor only for the rest of your life.

Speaker 2: 1:55:47

Oh. Ooh. Uh ooh. That's tough. Can I make it seasonality?

Speaker: 1:56:01

Nope.

Speaker 2: 1:56:01

Or it just has to be one. Just one. Okay. Yeah. Uh, it's gotta be cookie dough.

Speaker: 1:56:05

Okay.

Speaker 2: 1:56:05

Yeah, it's gotta be cookie dough because I always love that little chunk of cookie dough in there. It's just, I take it, I take it. It's a, it's a beautiful thing. Uh, but, you know, uh, I gotta throw this in there. The, uh, Mexican chocolate by Trader Joe's or the Pumpkin Spice, those two rock as well. Anything from Cherry Garcia?

Speaker: 1:56:27

I thought I

Speaker 2: 1:56:27

was gonna

Speaker: 1:56:28

say Cherry Garcia.

Speaker 2: 1:56:30

I love ice cream.

Speaker: 1:56:31

See that Bob Weir doesn't have an ice cream? Yeah, we would, we would give you kudos right now.

Speaker 2: 1:56:35

Oh. And you know, John Silverstein, good friend of mine, is a gigantic deadhead, uh, one of the biggest I I've ever met. And he has really helped me appreciate the Grateful Dead for what they are and, uh, to lose Bob Weir. Doesn't matter what your fan club is, what genre of music, uh, we lost a gigantic, gigantic person in the industry. He was just an amazing individual.

Speaker: 1:57:02

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:57:03

Salute to Bob Weir.

Speaker: 1:57:04

To Greenland.

Speaker 2: 1:57:05

To Greenland.

Speaker: 1:57:07

Alright. Let's call it.

Speaker 2: 1:57:08

Thank you, Kurt.

Speaker: 1:57:09

Cheers for now.

Speaker 2: 1:57:10

Thank you.