S4E1: YMI Talking to Dante Trapasso from The Swiftwater Hotel

Season 4 Premiere of YMI Talking is here! We're now featuring the Poconos & Lehigh Valley!

We’re kicking things off with Dante Trapasso, President of Trap Enterprises and Swiftwater Hotel. From growing up around the family business to earning his place within it, Dante shares the story behind their success including the expansion into hospitality and iconic spots like Desaki.

This episode dives into legacy, leadership, and what it really means to build something from the ground up (and carry it forward).

Tune in to hear how hard work, opportunity, and family roots shaped one of the region’s standout businesses!

For more info on YMI insurance visit our website at ymiagency.com

Or give us a call at 610-868-8762 to see how we can better protect your business and family.

Transcript

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are involved in the Pocono Mountain Visitors Bureau. Talk to me about the different things you're involved with and why. Yeah. Well, Visitors Bureau, I was asked to to join the board of the visitors bureau once we started construction Went to, Swiftwater, obviously made a lot of sense. I know a lot of the people, you know, a lot of the, the, chairman of the board, crisp and then, Bill Corvino from Great Wolf, I used to go to Great Wolf, and I was, you know. Yeah, ten years old. Bring my buddies and go over there. So you see. My mom used to work reception, and we used to go at 6 o’clock in the morning with her, and sit, and wait until the water park opened, and sit there all day until she was done working. Okay. And a lot of people, especially in the area, they have those formative memories of, of going to these water parks. So, it was it was a, it was a natural progression for me to kind of join that board. And, you know, my father's not one to sit around at meetings. He doesn't like that side. You know, I like that side of it. So it made sense. And it was a good kind of like, hey, why don't you go? So I joined there, and that's been wonderful. Welcome to YMI Talking! A podcast where the guests are so good you'll wonder why the host is even talking. In each episode, you will hear one of the leaders of the Lehigh Valley’s vibrant business hub. They will tell you the keys to their success, the mistakes they've made, and what they have in store for the future. Here is the host of YMI Talking, from YMI Insurance, Jimi Honochick. Hey, that's me. And we're here with season four and I am joined by a brand new face, Modesty Angelopoulos. Hello. Hello. I am so excited for season four. Me too. You will be joining us? Yes, my first time. Yes. And I don’t think that you should be scared. I think you're going to be a natural. I might slay. You will slay. Oh, slay is like your your buzzword. It is slay. I'm. I'm working on doing it. It's not really in my vocabulary yet. Not yet. Just like sneak, wasn't it? But. Oh, snatch. Yes. Yes. I love that little modesty isms. Yes. So season four. We are up here in the Poconos now. We're going to do Lehigh Valley and Poconos, and it makes sense. We have an office up here. There's incredible businesses up here. And today, we have the incredible list of incredible businesses. Dante from Swiftwater. It was awesome. It was awesome. He's having him. Just this is.... Yeah. He threw that invitation out there. We need to take advantage of that. We should. Yes, because it's awesome. He gave me a tour through it. It's such a cool place. I haven't been personally there, but I've seen the TikToks and videos, and I think we just start showing up and bugging Dante. I say we should. Hey, Dante, like you guys show up in our bathing suit. Hey, I heard there's a pool here. Eat it. Dante hates us already. Oh, no. But this episode was great. I think season four is going to be awesome. They are our sponsors, Swiftwater. And so every episode, we're going to be playing a little clip about how awesome they are. And then we're going to do a little segment. We didn't have it ready to go for Dante, but I think the segment is going to be, you know, the swiftwater is the best trip you can take in the Poconos. It's the best day. So what was your best vacation? Let me think. I think my first time cruising with the Nick. Nice. Because I've never been on a cruise. We went to Bermuda. You guys love cruises. We do love cruises. I need you to talk to Trish and convince her that cruises are awesome. They are awesome. But actually, think about going to Greece this year. Not thinking about it. I've been holding my PTO. When? September. For a total of ten days. Oh, that will be my best vacation. Yes, but Bermuda and St. Martin have been one of the best. I'm a beach person. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's great. And the Swiftwater is the best vacation you can take here in the Poconos. Oh, yeah. Yes. So we are going to go live, with the episode with Dante it is so good. He's inspiring, like, truly inspiring to, like, hear him talk and everything he's doing for us here in the Poconos. Here we go. Season four. We are here and we are starting this off with someone who is doing such incredible things in the Poconos. Season four, we're coming to the Poconos. We are here. There's so much good business, and we found someone who's at the center of really all that awesome stuff that's happening, Dante Trapasso with, you know, Trap Enterprises. You've got the Swiftwater to Saki. I don't know how you make time for us, but I'm really thankful that you did. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. And, you know, it's wonderful connecting with you. I'm super, super excited to talk today. Yeah. This is going to be great. I mean, let's start with it's a family business, right? Yeah. You grew up watching your dad do it. Talk to me through that process because, you know, it's a family business here. Oh, yeah. I grew up watching my dad thinking I'm never going to do that. And he's actually the opposite. Really? I really, genuinely, from the moment I could really think, yeah, like this is what I wanna do. I like it. Awesome, because I can do everything under the sun. That's what I, I love about development is we touch a lot of different businesses. We've done a lot of different things. And especially, you know, in my father's history and what he's been able to do and, you know, just in my short time working, it's really it's really been awesome because every day I wear a different hat, I'm doing something completely different. And I love it. Yeah. Like, I could never just clock in, you know, do the same stuff and clock out. But, you know, from a young age I saw that and primarily with the restaurant we built, Saki, I was seven years old. I remember, you know, grinding during the construction. And it's like, it's it's kind of a staple of the area because you were the actually the world's largest sushi restaurant. What? You fun? Yeah. I didn't know that. Usually. Like, we haven't, like, technically checked I, I've checked I've done the research out. Yeah. Perfect. But, no, I mean, it's it's so much fun. I mean, I started off washing dishes, being a busser, and I was a bar back, and then I started doing sushi. I was a sushi for a while, really. A lot. So, yeah, I do sushi, learn how to do bocce, because for me, it's always like a jack of all trades mentality. So finally just threw me in there and said, get to it. And so that's the best way to do it. Yeah, that's over it. Yeah. And for me, I'm so happy that he did that because those formative years, you know, I was able to kind of learn work ethic, you know, the simple things that are needed. But also now being in more of a leadership position, I'm able to say, hey, I understand that position. And whether it be, you know, using the hotel example from the front desk to a house man or the restaurant, you know, busters or even hibachi guys, like, I know all the positions because I've done all the positions. And, you know, whether it be two weeks, two months, two years in that position, I, I understand it. Yeah, I know when somebody, you know, for my chain, I don't know when somebody is actually going through a problem and we can work through it together. So the family business side of it, I mean as you know, it's kind of fun. Yeah. It is truly what I've always wanted to do. That's incredible. Something that you touched on there that, you know, kind of stood out to me. We did a tour of the Sweetwater. You gave me a tour, and we walked through, and, you know, a maintenance guy came through. Just a random maintenance guy. And you guys were best friends, like, oh, yeah, you you've done all the roles, but you also know all the people there, and it's a big enterprise. Yeah, yeah. We have a 75 employees and it's with water disagree. It's you know, people are in and out a lot of times because we seasonal. But you know, let's say 40 people there. And one main thing, the one maintenance guy that you're talking about, we have a team of people, honestly, that work for our family across all the businesses, probably 15 people that have been there from anywhere from 10 to 15 to even 20 years plus. And they are our family and for all intents purposes, like I've grown up with a lot of these people. Zach, when the guys, you know, that you've mentioned, I've known for ten years, him and I grew up together. I mean, we're both, you know, young men. Yeah. So we were able to, you know, work together. But then, you know, I helped him by his first house. Hey, I bought my first house. He helped me. Yeah. So it's a lot of things that, you know, we've kind of banded together. I mean, Jodi is is our controller. I've known her since I was born. Like, she literally, you know, she was practically there. Yeah. So she's she's literally a part of our family. Mickey. Stevie, Leo. I learned, making sushi with Leo when I was 11 or 12. He's still there, you know, and we're just friends. Yeah. We're family. So I love it. And I think it's important from a leadership standpoint to try to make that connection because if not especially from the family business side of it, very often you can kind of be immediately discounted. Like here's the boss's son. And he doesn't know nothing. And if you don't make that connection with somebody then automatically you're just going to be kind of cast it out to the side. So for me it was it was always important to know and understand the position but also know the people, because we're working together. We have a common goal, which is to make this the best hotel, the best restaurant, the best whatever. So yeah, it's it's been it's been a lot of fun. There's so many places I want to take this conversation and it's hard to just focus in on one. But something you commented on there is you're a young man and you are like it. You don't give that off, though. I feel like, you know, the moment I met you, I was like, this guy is running a successful business, and it's very clear that you have those business chops, but you're doing it at such a young age. Like, do you feel that, responsibility, like, how do you overcome that? I mean, I've always been an old soul. Yeah. So ever since I was a kid, you know, I acted older, I had older siblings. I'm the youngest of all my cousins, of all my siblings, I just I've always been having to rise to that level. And I like it. I don't mind it. Yeah. I don't think I ever, you know, sat there and thought to myself like, oh, I wish I could be a kid. I think I like that. I was like, I want a job. I want to get to work. You know, like, yeah. Yeah, exactly, exactly. And I think when it comes to the business aspect of it, I really, I think my age helps me a lot. I'm 25 now. And for me, I think what's so important is that I embrace that I lean on other people. I ask them, how would you do this? Like, you know, our maintenance team growing up, obviously, you know, constantly doing construction. I've picked up things over the years, but that's something that you can always learn something new. So I, I always lean on them. I ask, hey, how would you tackle this problem? I was thinking this. What would you do? Yeah. And pulling them in and giving them the agency to come up with a decision. Oftentimes when the decision I have, like I have something in my head I don't really have necessarily one thing I want to do. But once I give them ownership of an idea, they're going to run with it way better than me saying that this is it. We're doing this, by the way. I want it done like that. And they're, you know, disgruntled sitting there like, well, I could have saved three days if I did it this way or whatever. Yeah. So you know that that applies to marketing, that applies to, you know, sales and applies to even front desk operations. You know, how we speak with our guests and how are we going to sell packages with our concierge service? How are we going to approach a table and sell them a higher end sushi? Or just like they want appetizers and they want to get in and out. So every single one of those things that try to pull somebody in and allow them to make some decision or some direction, whether it be one small part of a bigger decision. Yeah. Or maybe it is just the whole decision. So that's that's been a huge help for me especially at a young age because if not and you start demanding coming in right. Slamming your fist. It's not going to work. The the best part of this podcast is just stealing ideas from great minds like yours. Like you come in with, you know, you're clearly doing an incredible job. So I'm just here to steal from you. It's really it's like, oh, you're going to have to steal my. So, you know, walk me through sort of how you got into the business. So you grew up, you know, in the family business, and then you go away to college. Did you know you were coming back into the family business? Yes. So originally I wasn't going to go to college. I was like, why would I waste a time? I already know what I want to do, but my father actually convinced me to go. And I think then I started to see the value. And part of growing up is you got to realize, like, hey, like, I know what I know, I know what I don't know. Yeah. And I didn't know a lot. So I figured, let me go and learn. And I'm so grateful that I did. I went to Villanova. So school business, I majored in real estate, and I got minors in business law, economics and finance. Because I kind of knew I could. I went to Villanova and I majored in communications. I could do any more than that. One of my best friends is actually a bunch of my buddies did, and all of them were doing some great thing. Yeah, yeah, it's, it's a wonderful school. Oh, yeah. It's, an awesome area. And I'm so thankful I went there in particular, because it was far enough. And, you know. Hey. We're here. Yeah. So that's knocking on my door. But also close enough where I can kind of, you know, and bring my friends up to the restaurant. Yeah. You know, we'd have like that. Connections have a lot of fun. And growing up in a family business like you are around your family all the time. So Villanova gave you a chance to kind of spread your wings a little bit, which was definitely needed. Yeah, yeah. I think it's, as you mentioned, family businesses. You're it's one in the same. Everything starts blending. Yeah. And you're like me once you know, like, but I took that opportunity to go, and I'm, I'm so thankful because we were able to, you know, I was able to kind of bring a new perspective to the business and say, hey, I know we were doing it that way, but this is another way that works. Or here's another avenue that we never even considered, or here's a way to finance this, or here's a way to look at that, or here's a way to market that, or, hey, by the way, what we were doing, you shouldn't do that. So, I think that it was it was an amazing time and it was amazing experience and a lot of things I was able to inject. And I've found now the balance between the two and I'm, I'm really, I'm really thankful for my time there was awesome. Did your dad was he receptive when you came back with these ideas? And you're saying we should initially. No, no. Yeah. No, I mean, you always had a little resistance. Yeah. Sorry I interrupted you. No, no, that was the gist of the question. I mean, you know, did did you and your dad butt heads or were you always having a good working relationship? I think it depends. I have to give him a lot of credit, a lot of things he was very receptive to. And I think a lot of things sometimes the simple things. Yeah. He was not you know, and I think I'm extremely appreciative because over the course of the last 3 or 4 years I, you know, now we found a good blend. Right. Know when to push. Yeah I know in Nepal I know what to, you know hound on him. I don't know what to just feel like you're like 73 years old I can't you know right. So I think that is that's definitely something that in the beginning I had to address and, I'm, I'm, I'm happy at how it's kind of landed. Yeah. Now, definitely, definitely times in the beginning where it was. It was a battle. Yes. No. It's great though. So the swiftwater is, you know, kind of the big marquee thing at the moment. I would say talk to me about what the swift water is, what makes it unique. You are our season four sponsor, and so we're going to have an ad about kind of what makes it so awesome, but I'd love to hear it from the source. Yeah. Yeah, totally. So, speaking of college, it was my senior year. We, we had a bunch of land behind us, and we originally we were going to just sell it and go to a hotel chain and just be like, no, we're not in the hotel business, but kind of, what's amazing about our business is we can be in any business. And so we said, why not just build it ourselves? Yeah. And the idea originally started with, hey, we'll just we'll build a hotel. These are researching. You start thinking, you start, you know, taking ideas. And we say, well, yeah, we got all these franchises. They just take all your money. We built the restaurant. Yeah, yeah, there's franchises for restaurants, but we did it on our own. We could just do an independent hotel. Yeah. So we kind of go with that. You know, American spirit. Just get it done attitude. We're like, we're just going to build something completely different. And and we looked at, you know, we looked at the market and it was something that this is this the Poconos in my home. We know more about it than I venture to say. Most anybody. And we know what makes it amazing. We know what makes it beautiful. And we know that there's so many things that you can do here. So we originally took the idea of, like, the Pocono Mountains being our amenities. We knew we didn't have that much land to go and build, like a sprawling golf course, or go and have a crazy spa or have a casino or have things that like would be a big draw. Yeah. But for us, we knew that our experience and our expertise in the area could benefit us and our relationships. We leveraged those to create packages to say, hey, you're coming to the Poconos, you need to ski at this resort, not that resort. You need to go to this restaurant, not that restaurant. You need to go to this business. Not that business, and not to push those away to the side. But if you're gonna come here and spend your hard earned money, you want to have the best experience possible. And we use our expertise to kind of tailor and, you know, make that itinerary and experience exactly what we want or what the guest wants. So figured that and then, you know, there's some beautiful hotels in the area, but we're kind of in the heart of the Poconos. You draw a 30 minute radius, you're hitting everything. Yeah. And there's some beautiful resorts that are kind of out there. So we figured, hey, we're going to we're going to be a, you know, medium sized hotel, really 100 rooms. But we're going to differentiate ourselves through the details and through the, the build and the service. So, I mean, we have things like the punch Bowl suites, which are rooms with their own pools. And the coolest thing. Yeah. Well, you know, you on TikTok. Yeah. Yeah. All over TikTok. Yeah, I think so. Yeah. You guys just let me know you're hooked up. Especially being so close. You know, you take the middle of the week, I'll just. I'll give it to you. Okay. The deal. But yeah, we we have the punch for suites. We wanted to, you know, have a beautiful restaurant inside room an amazing bar, outdoor seating, indoor outdoor swimming pool that's heated to 90 degrees year round. Again, one of those things that you get out there, especially right now, it's snowing. You swim out, it comes down. The steam's coming up. As you say. I'm not as cool as modesty. I'm not on TikTok, but on on Instagram. I have seen, you know, videos of people at the pool with the snow coming down. And it's the coolest thing. Yeah, yeah, it's it's a lot of fun. And we I that took off better than I thought it was going to I, you know, I took inspiration from you know, resorts in like Vail or Aspen. You know where they have that kind of that feel to it. And I feel you're lucky. And I mean, it's cool. We were going to do an indoor pool and an outdoor pool. Yeah. So I said, just make it one. Yeah. I mean like, make it fun. Yeah. And make it unique. Make it cool. I mean, so, then, you know, we were able to eliminate a hot tub, make it all, you know, 90 degrees. Yeah, yeah, but it, you know, it really started, you know, growing and scaling. And as I was kind of rounding off my senior year, we were like, let's, let's do this. And my dad was like, okay, you're in charge. And I vividly remember graduating. I got like my office set up and, you know, I'm in this big office building. It's just me. And I sit down and I start work and I just think to myself, I'm like, I have no clue what I do, and I've never even worked in a hotel room. Well, that's what I was going to say. Yeah. So different than a restaurant. Yeah, yeah. It's incredible that you were able to take that and run with it. Well, I mean, it really is like anything in life, you just jump right into it, you figure it out. I mean, I think, you know, you have to have the wherewithal to be able to, you know, determine, okay, I need to do this. I need to do that. But also, I learned how to learn both at Moravian and and Villanova. So just put a problem in front of me. I'll figure it out. I mean, like, just don't be like physics or chemistry, I think. But like, other than that, like, any life problem, any business problem with enough time and I had time because we had a, you know, two years to build a building. So I figured I might take advantage of these two years and, and actually learn. So I, I got a certificate from Cornell. Can I pause real quick? Can I pause? Do you stop and, like, reflect on yourself just how impressive you are at 25? Like, I was not doing the things that you're doing and you have a successful, incredible hotel that you're running. You have I don't know where you're going with Cornell. Sorry to interrupt, but no, it's okay. But like all the things you've done, I hope you do take time to pause and just reflect on what you've accomplished up into this point. Well thank you. I mean, I, I really appreciate that, but I mean, I just keep moving back for me. Like, really, it's I don't even say that to be, it's actually weird. You said that my my girlfriend, you know, we were on the phone right before this. Yeah. And she was like, do you think we need to relax a little bit? We do. We take time. I don't want to say, yeah, I'm always working. I, I set strict guidelines. You know, I go to the gym every morning. I'm very disciplined with that. I when I leave, you know, we get dinner every Friday. Me and my girlfriend, we designate that as, like, our day together. When I leave, I completely drop everything. I don't bring work home with me. I don't bring my laptop with me. I don't bring anything with me that I get in the video game. I still play video games for friends. Yeah, yeah, I we're here. I play basketball twice a week. You know, I started coaching basketball. I like being active. I was never somebody that can sit down, do nothing. But I think part of that is I, I just very rarely think to myself like oh this is cool. I just, it's just, it's just words. Yeah. Life like when am I going to sit around do nothing. Right. Exactly. And I have an opportunity. I've always said like we're in a big race not to, you know, oversimplify it, but I got a huge head star. You think I'm going to jog to the end. I'm running faster than the guy in the bag I love that. Yeah. You mean like why, why would I not take advantage and opportunity that you have. Yeah. Yeah. When you're so smart and you're doing it the right way I think. Yeah. Oh you're learning everything from everyone and then taking it and to be your own boss. I feel like that's the best way to be a boss. Yeah. I mean, look, I'm incredibly blessed with an incredible opportunity. Now. I kind of roll with it. Yeah, yeah. So what's next then? Right? Like, we are in such a great space for you guys. You know, I feel like the hotel has really established itself as sort of this, this gem in the Poconos to ski. We need to explore that a little more time. Dinner there? Yeah, yeah, yeah, that sounds great. And that is obviously an established landmark here. So what's next? You obviously are not a person who's going to kind of sit back and relax. I don't think, no, no, we have a conference and event center. We're putting the foundation, today as we speak. So that'll be 13,000ft². And I'll have, like, four meeting rooms, beautiful bar, 30ft ceilings, beautiful indoor outdoor patio area, similar to kind of the area that I showed you outside. Yeah. And that's going to be a wonderful addition because in the hotel industry, kind of we had no clue this really existed. But the meetings and corporate end is so important. I mean, especially in the Poconos, you sell out on weekends. I don't even have to try. I don't have to market. Really. It just does itself. Just by sheer demand. But, you know, Sunday to Thursday, you got sellers room. Yeah. So that's where the corporate side came in. And we have small 30 person meeting room. Now that we were like, we got it. We got to change that. So we had some more land next to us and we said, hey, why not? We're going to, you know, build something that was originally going to be some townhouses from the other project that I mentioned, and we said, all right, we're going to switch that and pull those out and put a conference event center here. So that'll be opening fourth quarter of this year. Depends on who you ask. Yes. My dad will be open, you know April. Yeah yeah yeah. You know boy turns out in November. But we'll see. Hopefully it gets open as soon as possible. The winter hasn't helped, but that will be a great addition to the hotel. And then what I really want to do is right next door is, is put a spa. Small spa, nothing crazy, you know, just to, you know, it's our number one request. People come in, they want the spa, and the property lends itself to more of that. Feels like that does look like. Yeah. So, with that, and then we're doing, 356 townhouses in the area behind it, behind the hotel. We have 60 acres on Sullivan Trail, likely trying to work together to find some kind of cool idea, like, not quite a top golf, but something around that realm. For the area. But, you know, a lot of different projects you probably have, you know, 6 or 7 different things in the pipeline. So awesome. I, I want to, I want to use the momentum and carry the momentum and I want to take the, you know, take the business and corporatized it a little bit more and keep the, the family roots and keep the accessibility, like you mentioned prior, that is, you mentioned probably about, the connection that we have with the employees. I don't want that to go away. I don't want to get too big where I don't know people. I don't know their families. I don't know what's going on with their lives. But I want the company to scale in a way that we're able to tackle a lot of these problems, and we're able to create new businesses and run with each one of these things. But still keep the integrity of who we are. So that's where that's where I want to go. And, you know, we'll see how we get there. And what's great and we haven't really talked about it, is this is all Poconos based. You know, Poconos is an incredible place. Like, having grown up here. You know, I think we take it for granted sometimes. But talk to me. You obviously are deeply tied into the Poconos. I mean, it's it's my home. I've lived here my entire life. I really, truly do love it. I love the four season aspect. I love the people. I love the accessibility. Like, last Friday, I had a run into New York City. Yeah. I don't have, you know, Philly, if I go there, you have down the Villanova an hour and a half. So it's nice because you kind of get that, you know, tucked away feeling it's not too busy, it's not too crowded. But at the same time there's a lot of things going on. And you know, obviously we're in the, hospitality tourism industry. So this is kind of the place to be in the northeast. Yeah. So I really think that's what's, you know, made the area so amazing and, you know, us as a business and individually, we kind of take a different approach to a lot of different development firms or companies or whatever. You know, we specialize in one region, one area, one territory, but we kind of touch every asset class. So a lot of companies or, you know, they only do self-storage or we do self storage. We've done drug and alcohol rehab centers, you know, restaurants, hospitality. You know, commercial development, medical office building, residential, large scale development, small scale residential development. So like, a lot of those different things and kind of what I alluded to earlier, it allows you to wear a lot of different hats. And especially in a small community, you meet everybody. Yeah. I mean, when you're touching all those industries, you know, this guy knows that guy, and that guy knows that girl, and she does this and he does that, and it makes it so much easier. And especially somebody that's grown up here's I love that. Yeah. So that's what makes it so amazing. Yeah. And I'm here I want to build it up. Yes. Yeah. And that's what we love about you. And the reason I wanted to get you on here. So, you know, I grew up in the Poconos and I grew up as a kid, and I was like, yeah, it's cool. It's a beautiful place. I have fun with my friends. And then I came back as an adult, and it was at the awards that we were all at. And and I'm looking around, I'm like, this place is incredible from, you know, the community aspect, from the social aspect, from the business aspect. And you guys kind of sit in the middle of all of that. And so it's a unique place for you guys to, to be and to be part of that community. Yeah, I think it's I think it's a great thing. And I think a lot of people, you know, kind of like what we were trying to do with the hotel. We want people to rediscover the Poconos. We don't want them to think, oh, water parks and Heart-Shaped tubs or Hershey best. They have champagne. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. We we want to kind of change that narrative. So, so before there was kind of our, you know, flag that we could throw down and say, hey, like, here's something different, here's something new, here's something, you know, creative. And I want to take that kind of mentality and inspiration and continue to run with it. And bring new businesses and bring a new feeling to the area and be able to kind of change the narrative a little bit. Don't lose the intention because, look, I live nine minutes away from here. I don't want to, you know, turn this thing into I don't want to say Lehigh Valley, but like, you know, Philadelphia or something. It's not going to happen. But what I think needs to happen is we need to modernize the area. We need to embrace industry. We need to be able to take this and say, hey, let's lean into the things we're good at. The tourism isn't going away, right? How can we lean into it in a smart way that benefits our community, and that allows the town to to grow without losing what makes it so beautiful, so both things can exist. And I think right now, unfortunately, you know, we run into a little headache with that. But I think from a development standpoint, I want to see trees all around us. I want to see what makes the Poconos amazing. And I want to see the community members, you know, benefit from it. Yeah. So how can we bring and how can we marry all those ideas together? And I think it's certainly attainable. Yeah. We usually pull 4 or 5 clips from these, but I feel like this is going to be a 30 minute long clip. Like you are just walking clips. It's been incredible. And they give, a couple things I want to hit and we're like, out of time. So this is, this is I got I got enough time. So if you want to get real good, good. You're involved in so many things. From Chris Barrett is going to be here later. I you are involved in the Pocono Mountain Visitors Bureau. Talk to me about the different things you're involved with and why. Yeah. Well, Visitors Bureau, I was asked to to join the board of the visitors bureau once we started construction Went to, Swiftwater, obviously made a lot of sense. I know a lot of the people, you know, a lot of the, the, chairman of the board, crisp and then, Bill Corvino from Great Wolf, I used to go to Great Wolf, and I was, you know. Yeah, ten years old. Bring my buddies and go over there. So you see. My mom used to work reception, and we used to go at 6 o’clock in the morning with her, and sit, and wait until the water park opened, and sit there all day until she was done working. Okay. And a lot of people, especially in the area, they have those formative memories of, of going to these water parks. So, it was it was a, it was a natural progression for me to kind of join that board. And, you know, my father's not one to sit around at meetings. He doesn't like that side. You know, I like that side of it. So it made sense. And it was a good kind of like, hey, why don't you go? So I joined there, and that's been wonderful. I recently joined, the board of Ed, NCC. So helping out there a lot with the hospitality program, working on, something really cool with the Pocono campus and trying to transform and bring in, you know, more of the tourism hospitality side and, you know, obviously lean into it, kind of like what we're talking about. The salvation Army, that was one that was, you know, near and dear to our hearts. I, I've always been a part of the Salvation Army, but I recently joined more recently, a couple of years ago. Now, join the, board for the East Stroudsburg Division. So we help there. We do a fundraiser every year, the Red Kettle Gala. We've raised over half $1 million and one for the Salvation Army. So we help there. ESU, I was asked to be on the board for the hospitality program, so just, you know, more of these, avenues where I can kind of impact change and and be able to get in there and, and meet new people and also help more people. So, however I can do that wherever I can do that. I mean, you know, sometimes all it takes is getting on a, you know, hour or two hour call every quarter. Yeah. But, you know, it opens you up. It exposes you to a lot more things where you're able to go out there and you're able to one help the mission that you actually care about. I'm not going to join something, just a joint. Right. But it also benefits, you know, everybody else because I'm able to kind of take a new perspective on things. So especially as a young person, it's yeah, it's really nice because I think the I've been able to bring a lot of life to a lot of these boards that, you know, might have been doing the same thing for a long time. Yes. Yeah. So what did we not hit that we should have hit. What do you want a chance to talk about? Whether it's the psyche or any of the things. You know what. What would you like to talk about? I don't know, two of them. I, no, I'm just I'm extremely appreciative. I think, you know, it means a lot, when people do ask me to be a part of things and I think, you know, you mentioned something before about, like, you know, I never like to sit and think about it. I actually think like the opposite. I'm like, oh, you want to talk to me? Like I got something to say, and I don't mean that, like, you know, to to pat myself on the back, like, genuinely like, I'm like, really honored, like, I, I like this, like, this is, this is cool. And I'm happy that, you know, people want to talk with me and they want to hear and I'm not blabbering on. I tend to talk too much. But, you know, I, I'm really honored and I just want to thank you. It means a lot. Well, know the thanks is to you. I wish you guys, your family, your your entire company is doing for the area is what it needs, right? We need people who want it to be the beautiful place that it is. But be more than that too. Yeah. And definitely so thank you for that. And thank you for coming on here down to thank you guys. Thank you. Really appreciate it. Absolutely. All right. Boom speak. That was awesome. That's great. That's great. That's my first time. So where did you put the mouse behind me. Know where to put it I know. for listening to another episode of the Why Am I talking podcast. If you enjoyed this and want to hear more content from amazing personalities in the Valley, please subscribe. Leave a rating and drop us a quick review.