100% Humboldt
Humboldt County CA USA is the home of some of the most iconoclastic, genuine, and interesting folks in the world.
We are getting curious about the movers, shakers, and difference makers in Humboldt County CA-Home of the giant redwoods, 6 Rivers, and the vast Pacific Ocean.
We will discover what makes people live/evolve in the beautiful, diverse, isolated, and ever-changing Northcoast of California 100%!
Listen in and learn what it is to be 100% Humboldt!
100% Humboldt
#64. Melissa Sanderson's Journey: From Fortuna's Dairy Farm to Leading North Coast Journalism, Embracing Media Transitions, and Celebrating Humboldt's Community Connections
What happens when a dairy farm girl from Fortuna grows up to become a dynamic force in community journalism? Join us as Melissa Sanderson, publisher and owner of the North Coast Journal, shares her captivating journey from her humble beginnings to her significant role in promoting local narratives. Melissa recounts her formative years in advertising at the Times-Standard and Tri-City Weekly, where she faced unfamiliar territories and learned the ropes of the industry. Her passion for her hometown of Humboldt County shines through as she navigates career transitions and embraces the challenges of a rapidly changing media landscape.
Our conversation takes a delightful turn as we explore the quirky dynamics of working in radio station management and the surprising opportunities that arose from strong professional relationships. Melissa offers an insider look at the integral role of print media and its unique ability to foster community connections, even in a digital age. From the origins of the North Coast Journal to the pivotal influence of individuals like Jennifer Fumiko Cahill, we ponder the importance of integrity and relationships in shaping a successful career while celebrating the resilience of print media amidst digital disruptions.
Reflecting on the charm and eccentricities of Humboldt County, we ramble through tales of Eureka's Christmas tree, earthquake rendezvous points, and the significance of originality in community development. The episode wraps up with a vibrant discussion on media promotion, highlighting Scott Hammond's "100% Humboldt" project, and a heartfelt invitation for listeners to engage with us on social media. With gratitude and anticipation for future conversations, we celebrate the spirit of Humboldt and its enduring impact on journalism and community life.
About 100% Humboldt with Scott Hammond
Humboldt County CA USA is the home of some of the most iconoclastic, genuine, and interesting folks in the world.
We are getting curious about the movers, shakers, and difference makers in Humboldt County CA-Home of the giant redwoods, 6 Rivers, and the vast Pacific Ocean.
We will discover what makes people live/evolve in the beautiful, diverse, isolated, and ever-changing North Coast of California 100%!
Listen in and learn what it is to be 100% Humboldt!
Find us on You Tube, Linked In, Facebook, Instagram, and Tik Tok!
Ladies and gentlemen, friends and neighbors, it's Scott Hammond on the 100% Humboldt Podcast with my new best friend, melissa Sanders-Sund. Hello, hey, how's?
Speaker 2:it going Good. How are you? It's going good.
Speaker 1:Tell us who you are. What do you do? What's your day job?
Speaker 2:I am the publisher and owner of North Coast Journal, inc. Which is a huge job.
Speaker 1:I bet it's a big job. Yeah, how long have you been owner and publisher?
Speaker 2:Let's see April 1st 2021. But who's counting? Yeah, everyone thought it was a joke. Like you're like a month into COVID, I think that's the day I took ownership.
Speaker 1:Is it 2021? Okay, 2021. So right in the middle of COVID?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think COVID was over by yeah. By then we were like on the ramp up. Yeah, we were going uphill.
Speaker 1:Nice, yeah. So I want to talk about the paper, but I want to talk about you first. So you came up through the daily the time standard.
Speaker 2:Yeah, born and raised in Humboldt County. Oh, 100% Humboldt 100% Humboldt, 100% Humboldt.
Speaker 1:Sohum right or Ill Valley.
Speaker 2:Ill River Valley. I was born in Fortuna, fortuna. I got some dairy background, sure, some PG&E background. I'm all over the map with my family.
Speaker 1:Are you guys a dairy family?
Speaker 2:Yeah, my grandfather was a dairyman.
Speaker 1:Wow, so so get up and milk those cows, do your job, yep yeah. Wow, that's no, thank you. I had to get up early twice this week. I hate that.
Speaker 2:I love going to the barns and feeding the calves Once you're awake. It's fun. Yeah, it's great. Yeah, so did you go to fortune?
Speaker 1:high. Yeah, what'd you do after that? Yeah, so did you go to Fortuna High. Yep.
Speaker 2:What'd you do after that Humboldt State? And then I got.
Speaker 1:Cal Poly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, it was Humboldt. Humboldt State Go.
Speaker 1:Humboldt.
Speaker 2:Did some College of the Redwoods stuff, wanted to be a teacher, wanted to be an EMT. When my grandma got sick, I was like I could do this. I could do a lot of different things. Sick, I was like I could do this, I could do a lot of different things. Ended up settling on this like marketing, business world and next thing I knew I was at the time standard selling ads.
Speaker 1:Selling ads. So how would we know about that? Because I sold ads. But we'll come back. So what'd you study at Humboldt? Was it journalism?
Speaker 2:Business.
Speaker 1:Perfect, perfect, yeah Great department.
Speaker 2:I went in with wanting to be a teacher and I'm like yeah this isn't going to work.
Speaker 1:Because I worked at a school. The truth is teaching and sales, actually, when you do one of those diagnostics for job interests they're very similar.
Speaker 2:I bet yeah, you could go either way. It's all about talking to people and just.
Speaker 1:Educating.
Speaker 2:Listening, which I'm not a great listener. I like to talk.
Speaker 1:Please, that you're in the right spot, I guess. So what'd you do at Type Standard?
Speaker 2:Sold ads.
Speaker 1:In Old Town Downtown. I was the.
Speaker 2:Old Town rep.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:And I hated it.
Speaker 1:Why.
Speaker 2:Because I was from Fortuna.
Speaker 1:Oh, I see.
Speaker 2:And I wanted to be the Fortuna rep.
Speaker 1:Oh.
Speaker 2:Because I knew everybody.
Speaker 1:Who was the Fortuna person? Brian?
Speaker 2:No, no, I don't remember who it was actually when I started.
Speaker 1:Yeah, at Tri-City he was the Fortuna guy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but I wanted to be Fortuna. Uh-huh, and they're like no, this is your people in Old Town. You have to only stay in that area.
Speaker 1:Territorial.
Speaker 2:And I'm like, well, that's stupid.
Speaker 1:Right, why would you do that? So, nick, back in the day, they used to have these things called newspapers and they would be delivered to your home or you could pick one up on a rack and read it. And I worked for the Tri-City Weekly, which is a shopper. You remember that and do you remember that?
Speaker 2:I do.
Speaker 1:It was around right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And our great nemesis was the Times Standard Daily Paper.
Speaker 2:You know, I never saw it as a nemesis. Well, because you guys owned us at that point well, there were two different products they were, but I mean the tri-city was around before the internet makes it sound so early.
Speaker 1:Pre-internet. That's ancient, no. Tri-city was started by a christian organization, church, called the Gospel Outreach.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:And they started as a free paper and it was free classifieds and they were amazing and the shopper just got panache and it got better and they threw money at it and made money and one day Dean Singleton your owner at the Tri-Time Standard, not your owner today came to the Eureka and bought it from my boss and friend, ron Pelleggi. Have you heard of Ron Pelleggi? Yeah, yeah, great guy, good friend, and he gave him a giant check and he goes and he let him stay on a year, which was really fun.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:And so it was at that time that I left after that and became a cable guy.
Speaker 2:But yeah, you and I share a common experience and that is slinging ads yep, I was just mentioning that when I was at the time standard, I would remember you would come in and you would sling loaves of bread.
Speaker 1:Oh, you had at all of us. Oh, don't tell nick that it was so fun.
Speaker 2:I'd be like sitting there. It'd be like 4 30 on like a friday, thursday or friday. I was always late afternoon. You would come in and be like anybody want bread, I got bread. You just walk through the whole building Barsulia. And you're like Santa with your sack of toys. People would love it.
Speaker 1:Dude, they'd get a fresh loaf of like.
Speaker 2:It was like prawns, yeah, prawns bread, was it big loaf?
Speaker 1:I would not do white bread, I would do, like the killer, whole wheat. Get out of here. That yeah. No, I had a hookup that I can't say anything about.
Speaker 2:Oh, it's so funny.
Speaker 1:And I get a whole trunk load of bread, which is just fine. Yeah and hey, friends, friends, in print.
Speaker 2:I wish I had kids when I work there and they're $4 a loaf now. I mean, I would have been like yeah, here comes Scott, here comes Santa Scott Bread. I wasn't eating a lot of bread back then, Right right, it seemed healthy. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Anyway, that's funny. So where did you go from the time center? Did you ever go to like to Eureka Reporter?
Speaker 2:No, I call it my rebound job, which was just to I don't want to say get out of the time standard, but I had had, I'd been finished with the time standard, I had a baby and I was ready to move on. So I worked at it's no longer a thing, but it was 95.5. The Bay, oh yeah, 555 the bay. Oh yeah, and I managed that radio station yeah, and it was there where I met a writer by the name of jennifer from miko cahill.
Speaker 1:Oh, was she a dj?
Speaker 2:she was a sales rep there, oh that's funny and I walked hi jen, we don't know each other, but hi the lady who owned the radio station lived in sacramento, right, and she goes. I want you to go by the station and meet with the sales girl there and the DJ. So here I walk in and I meet this DJ and Jen. And that's right, he was. She's not a good sales person.
Speaker 1:How'd she do in sales? How are her numbers?
Speaker 2:She talks too much person. How'd she do in sales? How were her numbers? She talks too much. She makes fun of people and, like you either, love her or you hate her.
Speaker 1:You're fired or you get a really big order.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but her and I were like a duo Nice, so we had a good like year run at that radio station until she got her job at the journal as a writer.
Speaker 1:You propped it up. I remember you were the DM.
Speaker 2:We had fun yeah.
Speaker 1:Who all worked there.
Speaker 2:It was literally like me and Jen.
Speaker 1:And then John Ford was there for a minute.
Speaker 2:No, he wasn't there when I was.
Speaker 1:there Was he a DJ too.
Speaker 2:I think, I don't know. I don't really know him very much Before you. He was in a different media space than I was where I had come from. Print.
Speaker 1:Who am I thinking of? They actually interviewed me for my book when I made Book First.
Speaker 2:It could have been John.
Speaker 1:I went on the air one morning.
Speaker 2:There was Shannon, a girl named Shannon, and I remember her because her mom was a housewife and I love the housewives.
Speaker 1:Like a TV housewife.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like the real housewives is that her mom up in willow creek. I. It might be housewife of orange county yeah, if you shannon, if your mom wants to come hang out her mom is uh, what's her name? Well, her her stage name was quinn. I remember that's her name. Yeah, that's, is that her real name?
Speaker 1:that's her last name and the ladies is it is quinn her first name. That's her. Is that her real name? That's her last name.
Speaker 2:And the lady's is Quinn, her first name, quinn's, her first. Quinn was her first name, yeah.
Speaker 1:And it's Quinn somebody. She raises chickens in Willow Creek, no way.
Speaker 2:It's a really nice person. Yeah, yeah, I don't know her personally. She was on the I was Willow Creek, like Shannon, your mom's Quinn that's cool. So, yeah, she was there, and then we had a few sales reps throughout the time. But yeah, jen bailed on me, went to the journal.
Speaker 1:And did what Became a writer.
Speaker 2:She became a writer yeah, and then she told everybody over at the journal how you need to get Melissa Really yeah, and then she told everybody over at the journal how you need to get Melissa Really.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then To come and sell.
Speaker 2:Yeah, or to be a sales manager. They needed a sales manager.
Speaker 1:Heard the cats.
Speaker 2:And I'm like I was pregnant with my son and they're like, yeah, come to the journal. And I'm like I'm not going to go, I'm pregnant. I'm not supposed to make life decisions when you're pregnant. So they waited, and Jen, the first day I went back to the radio station from maternity leave. Jen's like she's back, guys, and they were calling me.
Speaker 1:Get her.
Speaker 2:And like two weeks later I was at the journal. That's cool, yeah, huh.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and get her like two weeks later I was at the journal. That's cool, yeah, huh, yeah.
Speaker 2:So judy and carolyn, made the offer, you couldn't refuse. Yeah, yeah, they were. I think they were scared, though, because who knows?
Speaker 1:yeah yeah so I was the they knew what they were doing.
Speaker 2:but I just tell brian all the time and I even told jen right, she goes, tell them how great you are at selling. I go. I'm not great at selling at all, I just present the opportunities. People can choose to take my advice or not and really the only reason why I feel like I've done so well is because I am 100% humble.
Speaker 1:That helps.
Speaker 2:I've never left. I've always been here. Never left, I've always been here. I went from living in my parents' house getting married to my high school boyfriend I guess you could say right out of high school and then, 21 years later, two kids, two kids. Nice, how old are your kids? 13 and 11. 11., 11.
Speaker 1:11. Fun yeah, so I just and ten eleven, eleven, eleven fun, yeah.
Speaker 2:So I just never left and I try to maintain great relationships with everybody that I meet imagine doing that and I mean sure I piss some people off. A lot of some people don't like me come on but'm loud.
Speaker 1:How could they not like you? What's not to like? So so, filling, filling the gaps. So Jen is your writer.
Speaker 2:Jen is one of the writers.
Speaker 1:She's a chief writer. What's her title? She is the arts and entertainment editor and your sales guy, Brian, who's your senior sales.
Speaker 2:He's my senior guy.
Speaker 1:He's a real senior, hey, brian, and Brian's a great friend of mine and loved Brian to death. So that's the connection there. So tell me more about how the journal came about. I want to go there. So Carolyn and Judy started this thing. Well, no, they bought it and they came from the Arcata Union. Yeah, when I was a young man with more hair, there was this 100-year-old paper called the Arcata Union. It was amazing. It was a really well-run hometown paper, right, and they were part of that team.
Speaker 2:Right and Judy, if you listen to this.
Speaker 1:Judy, I'm going to text this to you.
Speaker 2:You can write in the comments and correct me. She would too, judy, do it to you you can write in the comments and correct me. She would too, judy do it. Uh, they were holding her voice back. They weren't letting judy be judy that's rough and judy took it upon herself and I'm I'm not exactly sure how she acquired the journal. I'm not. I think I've heard rumors and say that there was a prior person that had started like one or two issues of the journal.
Speaker 1:I think there's more. I think it had a couple, at least a few years.
Speaker 2:So they got it.
Speaker 1:And it might have been a monthly.
Speaker 2:It was a monthly. Yeah, it was a monthly and it was like a magazine type of style yeah. So they've done a lot in their 30 plus years.
Speaker 1:And they don't want weekly yeah, yeah, so what is the North Coast Journal?
Speaker 2:The North Coast Journal is about politics, people and entertainment and art. I mean it's not a breaking news type of newspaper. It's investigative reporting on deep issues that are in our community or elsewhere that we are a part of. But it's it's different than any other media in Humboldt County. People like to compare us to other outlets and I like to tell at least advertisers or people in the community that we do investigative reporting. We don't really do press releases or car crashes or things like that.
Speaker 1:Right or AP yeah.
Speaker 2:We're busy investigating. So that's the main part of the editorial side, and then also the entertainment. Has we have Humboldt County trained too, if you're having an event? You're putting it on our calendar.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, it's the first thing you do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's free, it goes online, it goes in print and it goes to everybody in Humboldt County. The journal is an audited publication that we have an audit that we can provide to people. That shows what people read, who reads it.
Speaker 1:Big credibility. Yeah, yeah, that's huge.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so because of that we're able to have a big stance in the community and really be able to provide the things that no one else can and the journalism that we're putting out. We don't want to waste our time on the car crashes, right, it's just not a part of our it's already covered.
Speaker 1:We see it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's not real news. It's just part of life, right, unfortunately, no dumpster fire here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the other one, yeah, no. I think it's great. So you're more diverse than just the paper. Right Talk to me about like the shop in Ferndale.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay, because you guys are really diversified under your watch, right?
Speaker 2:So when I bought the North Coast Journal, the prior owner of the Ferndale Enterprise reached out and I ended up acquiring the Ferndale Enterprise newspaper.
Speaker 1:That's the Titus family.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that paper is like 147 years old. It's a paid subscription newspaper and it goes to more than just people in Ferndale. It has a reach throughout the United States.
Speaker 1:Still publishing, yes.
Speaker 2:So that is also ran by the team at the journal. And then when I bought the paper because I live in the Valley, I mentioned that I needed an office in Ferndale and when I said that, next thing I knew I had Guy Fieri saying I own the bank.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 2:I can't get any banks to come to Ferndale and I got this empty building sitting here. I heard you needed an office and I go. Well, what the heck am I going to do with a bank? It's a beautiful bank. I walk through the bank with his dad, jim, and a few other members in the community store slash Flavortown guy memorabilia.
Speaker 1:Slash Flavortown Is that his brand? Yeah, okay.
Speaker 2:Welcome to Flavortown. Yeah, he does this whole thing. So I have a little like eight by eight office that I work out of in Ferndale.
Speaker 1:In the back of the store.
Speaker 2:Yeah, in the store. So that way I don't have to drive to Eureka every day.
Speaker 1:You have a cashier, do you do the ring?
Speaker 2:So I hired my cousin Katrina. She was driving to South Fork High every day from Fortuna with her prior job and I was like why are you doing that? Like you can work for me in Ferndale, perfect. And then she brings her baby to work with her, behind the register, everybody loves the baby, everybody loves the baby rad and we've made it like a real community store hub.
Speaker 1:It's got a lot of cool products, all Humboldt.
Speaker 2:All Humboldt products by Humboldt makers. I am the lowest consignment in the county so like we take very little to let people display their products, we have other sources of income so we don't need to take a big chunk.
Speaker 1:And Guy Fieri's paying the rent.
Speaker 2:Guy Fieri, I wish.
Speaker 1:Is Guy cool? Yeah, yeah, he seems like a great guy.
Speaker 2:He is, he is. I can see why people give him bad rap. I've learned now that, like when you see him in Ferndale, like he's in his he's at home, yeah, just relax. But when it's when the people bar barrage him like he's a celebrity, when he's at home, right is when you get the.
Speaker 1:Oh he is he's an idiot, yeah, whatever but no, he's super sweet super nice, he's probably on guard and his son, hunter is um.
Speaker 2:He very much like we had the earthquake last week and like within 20 minutes. Hunter's like are you okay? Is everything okay? Holds hunter 27 does he live in town uh, they live in healdsburg or windsor, I believe. So he's getting married to like a pickleball player. Professional pickleball player why not?
Speaker 1:who wouldn't?
Speaker 2:yeah, they're great I'm a pro yeah really good we added an escape room in the building too.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's cool.
Speaker 2:Because the building's so big.
Speaker 1:Is it really that deep?
Speaker 2:There are so many rooms that the banks would use to hold their paperwork and things like that. So there's no windows or anything, they're just empty rooms. So I concocted this crack the vault like escape room.
Speaker 1:There's a vault in there.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So people had to find the keys to the vault and they had to figure out which box number one, and we went through about 200 groups. People loved it, so now it's a locker room. You got to get a hall pass before you get in trouble.
Speaker 1:Okay, you changed it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I was tired of tourists coming in to Ferndale going what's there to do in this town?
Speaker 1:Nothing to do. There's nothing to do, walk around by fudge.
Speaker 2:I go. Did you go see the dead people at the cemetery? And they're like, oh yeah, we did that.
Speaker 1:Go look at the steeple a cemetery and they're like oh yeah, we did that. Go look at the steeple, go see the cows.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we did that. Do you know Paul up the steeple? I do know Paul.
Speaker 1:He parked his bug in front of the store the other day.
Speaker 2:Oh he's a Volkswagen guy. He has a beautiful red Volkswagen.
Speaker 1:He had it all decked out. Do you know Shannon Dixon who runs Pearson's?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was just texting him an hour ago, he's great. I didn't think you'd bring up Shannon Dixon.
Speaker 1:Shannon Dixon. He's great. No, he's a neat guy. He was in production graphic artist at the Tri-City when I was there. No, way. He was the Pearson dude.
Speaker 2:And now he's the Pearson dude. He was at the Tri-City.
Speaker 1:He was amazing.
Speaker 2:The stuff that I learned. Yeah, brian was trying to tell me that jack ricky and dan ricky were brothers dan ricky.
Speaker 1:Who's dan ricky?
Speaker 2:picky, picky, picky and january. I think they spell it different they do, and I'm like I don't know, yeah, so we also. While this, this leads in well to my, to our next thing please segue the Journal, and CJ Inc has a new magazine out on the streets called my Humble Life.
Speaker 1:Oh did you bring one.
Speaker 2:I did not.
Speaker 1:Oh, no props.
Speaker 2:Maybe we might have to put you on I know, so I got tired of everybody saying why don't you ever write about me? And I go. You don't want us to write about you buddy.
Speaker 1:No, ask Joe.
Speaker 2:You know he might make a. Can I say it on air? Maybe, Blank moves.
Speaker 1:I don't know, what that means.
Speaker 2:A male part moves.
Speaker 1:Oh, I don't know what that is. Can I say it you could say whatever, well, go for it.
Speaker 2:Top 10 dick moves oh great.
Speaker 1:You're in the running.
Speaker 2:I mean, that was this year right.
Speaker 1:The one top 10 that you don't want to be part of no no.
Speaker 2:And if you're like Rex, you make it twice in one year. Wow, he's got the record.
Speaker 1:The Rex-erd yeah Rex, hey, Rex Bone.
Speaker 2:Does he listen?
Speaker 1:Shout out Probably not.
Speaker 2:Oh. Yeah he may. Hey, I'm on it, he might.
Speaker 1:Is he a 100% Humboldt guy? I think he might. I think he is Kind of be, I think he is.
Speaker 2:You need like something else for like when our parents were born in Humboldt. So because I was thinking I'm like 200, but then both of my parents were born in. Humboldt. So then that might be 400. And then my grandpa was born in Lolita.
Speaker 1:So that was multiplied again 400% Humboldt.
Speaker 2:But then we go to Italy, so I think, and then it stops.
Speaker 1:So you're Italian. Italian, what's your maiden name?
Speaker 2:Well, my maiden name is huber, which is german, and then my mom's maiden name was sinistraro are you related to mary huber from um state farm, huber walter h-u-b-e-r.
Speaker 1:No, okay, no curious I'm not.
Speaker 2:There's not a lot of hubers around here that I'm related to hi mary? Yeah, I've had that asked her you before. But yeah, no, sinistros, and that's me.
Speaker 1:Sinistro, he was a.
Speaker 2:I've got a golf pro in Fortuna. That's a cousin.
Speaker 1:Greg, yeah, greg, yeah, does he still run the club down there?
Speaker 2:I believe yes, and then Glenn was a principal superintendent down in Fortuna.
Speaker 1:You Fortuna, you Fortuna. Folks are all like.
Speaker 2:We stick together Dialed in, but I'm in Ferndale now a lot.
Speaker 1:So that works Okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So the other publication is called what now?
Speaker 2:My Humble Life.
Speaker 1:What's that about? So that?
Speaker 2:is nothing but good news. It's every month and it's directly mailed to people's houses, huh, so you might pick up one. You might see one when it's not all the time. So, like every other quarter, you might get one.
Speaker 1:Is it in your rack in Old Town that I just walked by?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you'll see it in the racks.
Speaker 1:I was on my way to Dick Taylor Chocolates in Old Town, eureka, nice, segue, and I saw your rack there and I thought, yeah, I'll grab something later.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I like to feature prevalent business owners in the community that do great things all positive.
Speaker 1:Like humble heroes Kind of. Yeah, recognize veterans. Yeah, does that ring a bell?
Speaker 2:I think it does.
Speaker 1:Nick says yes.
Speaker 2:And only good news. I don't want any bad.
Speaker 1:Dude, it's all good.
Speaker 2:It's all good.
Speaker 1:Tears of joy, tears of happiness.
Speaker 2:Throw the bad stuff in the journal, yeah no, I can't throw it in the journal. Yeah, so the good news bucket yeah so I have Jack. Rickey is going to be Mr January.
Speaker 1:So look for Jack on the cover. He's done a lot for the community.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so not Dan Rickey's brother.
Speaker 1:His son runs one of the Shafers, I think right.
Speaker 2:His son-in-law.
Speaker 1:Tyson Okay, yeah, good, yeah, well, that's cool. So what else? So there's subscription revenue, there's the store, there's the online piece.
Speaker 2:Tell us about your online traffic. Are you guys pretty happening? We're all right, we're not like some of the other media outlets in Humboldt County, but that's not what we strive to do. I actually, when I took ownership of the North Coast Journal, I said I don't really care about website, I'm all about the print product. I believe in the freedom of the press, I believe that stuff online can be deleted and that it's not really honestly covered by First Amendment. I think that I mean I'd love to see a Eureka Reporter website up still.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that'd be fun. They pulled it all down, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that doesn't exist they pulled it all down, right?
Speaker 1:Yeah, that doesn't exist.
Speaker 2:They lost the lawsuit. It's gone Too bad.
Speaker 1:Do you guys print on Western Web across the bay?
Speaker 2:Yeah, here locally.
Speaker 1:What's his name? Still around that?
Speaker 2:Steve Jackson.
Speaker 1:Steve Jack hey, steve legend.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he called me today.
Speaker 1:He used to print in Paradise, the Paradise Post.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think I'm his biggest account. I mean we're printing two newspapers a week in addition to a monthly magazine and all work we do for clients. So we print stuff for a lot of the chambers here locally and it's all just because we've built this network, we know so many people and you know, it kind of just comes easy to the people that I have on my team.
Speaker 1:Respect and integrity and all that stuff. Yeah, I mean.
Speaker 2:I asked Brian I go why are we good at selling in Humboldt County? And he goes because of the relationships. Duh, can I talk about Brian for just a sec.
Speaker 1:Sure, I love Brian. Can I talk about Brian for just a sec?
Speaker 2:Sure, I love Brian.
Speaker 1:The reason that he's good in sales, Mr Total Listener.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Oh, really, he can listen to me, just go on. And at the end he goes do you want to buy an attic? I go, sure, of course I do. You're such a great salesman. He didn't do anything, he just. I'm sorry, oh yeah, oh yeah, he listens well and assesses need and dials it in.
Speaker 2:He presents the opportunity. That's all it takes.
Speaker 1:Consultive sale.
Speaker 2:Get in front of them and see if they need it.
Speaker 1:He's a wonderful guy. I love the guy.
Speaker 2:I love him.
Speaker 1:So your journalism is award winning, but the paper is too. Talk about some of the journal awards.
Speaker 2:Well, not just writing. The journal awards Well, not just writing. Our writing pretty much wins California newspaper awards for our division Every year. Whatever we put in, we'll take some sort of award home with it.
Speaker 1:Now, is this of small papers independently owned, or could it be?
Speaker 2:It could be any own, any kind of own.
Speaker 1:The San Diego Readers probably has several branches right or Chico News and Reviews.
Speaker 2:It depends on how much circulation you are. So I believe ours is between like 15 and 25,000 per week, and then we are compared to newspapers of our caliber. We are compared to newspapers of our caliber. So some of the awards that we've won, fad has just killed it in terms of the investigative reporting awards. And then during COVID, we took this one award and this was for all alternative weeklies throughout the United States.
Speaker 1:So everybody.
Speaker 2:Everybody who's in this all-weekly group.
Speaker 1:The Academy Award.
Speaker 2:It is. It's like it was in Goes to Thad. It was in Boston, wow, and we had two categories where we could win. And when you win, you have to get up on stage and take a shot because it's alternative. Weekly world right A shot of what.
Speaker 2:A shot of tequila or whiskey, I think it was clear. So it might even be vodka, I don't know why not Winner, winner. We had two people up. It was Jen in the food category with one of her writing, and then the other one was our production department, and they entered the COVID cover that we did. That was a fabric template for a mask, and you would fold open both the pages and then you could lay out your fabric and cut out the, and we won with that Very clever.
Speaker 2:Oh, it was so good to win.
Speaker 1:Very clever.
Speaker 2:Oh, we got up there.
Speaker 1:Unlike the American flag that goes in the center at Fourth of July that you put in your window.
Speaker 2:That's so clever Huh.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and did Jen win for food?
Speaker 2:She lost that year. Oh, she had. There's another alternative weekly paper that has a really good food writer and that's like her arch nemesis, is Jen competitive like that?
Speaker 1:No, not at all Okay.
Speaker 2:No, I don't think she cares when she loses, but she loves to win. Hi, jen, that's cool. She's going to remember every word of this podcast.
Speaker 1:It's funny she's like the narrator here, she's like the threat. So tell me more about uh, the the layout is one. Awards the the format yeah as well.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, all kinds of stuff, the ads, um, oh, okay. So people, always, now that I own the journal, people come to me and they think I can do anything and you're so rich oh yeah, so rich driving the jag out there yeah, I got the honda with a broken bumper in the back because I'm too busy to get it fixed.
Speaker 1:You're running 10 businesses in one.
Speaker 2:Anybody wants to trade out some auto repair? I'm your girl.
Speaker 1:I love trades. We traded all the time Tires Trips.
Speaker 2:I need somebody to come do that for me, jewelry, I just don't have time to go talk, oh back in the day I could tell you stories that were crazy.
Speaker 1:Oh, I've heard some stories Jewelry and trips and prayers.
Speaker 2:Brian said at the Tri-City that was like your Christmas party.
Speaker 1:Often it was we would have. I don't know who this guy was, it was Chet the Jet. He would come in from Oregon and he'd come in with a list of things that he wanted to trade for. He needed a set of tires and this, and that We'd go out and we would trade out a set of tires at wherever Malkin Kovakovich.
Speaker 2:Oops.
Speaker 1:Doesn't matter where.
Speaker 2:God, I haven't heard that name in forever.
Speaker 1:I know it wasn't there. And then Chet in turn, would have coupons and he would have hey, do you want to go to? Oh, here's the Hilton in Eugene, or here's the Marquette.
Speaker 2:It was just some random guy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's reputable sort of.
Speaker 2:And you just took him to your clients and said hey, this guy's got some stuff.
Speaker 1:No, we'd just go get the stuff for him and then we would give them advertising and he'd give us coupons for the Mark Anthony in Ashland or whatever. So I know. Or a limo ride in Eugene. So I actually took the kids to. I can't believe I'm telling this story. So on a trade-out deal in my commission was a trip to Eugene with a limo ride, four nights in the penthouse upstairs at the Hilton in Eugene, which was cool, Okay, and like unlimited McDonald's coupons, which was a big thing if you're a kid, For all of your kids, the ones we had at the time, yeah.
Speaker 2:Okay, how many Was that eight?
Speaker 1:I don't think we had eight, I think we had five, four, five and they kind of remembered that and a couple of fancy restaurants. Oh for sure Nobody ever rode the limo in Humboldt County.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:Much less our kids, who didn't even get to go to McDonald's.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:It was big doings Anyway. So trading and media funny story. Wow, talk about digress. Yeah, whoa. So you're a publisher and you're super wealthy and people hit you up all the time and wonder I'm wealthy with the free paper. And you're powerful. You're a power monger and humble yeah.
Speaker 2:With the free paper and you're powerful. You're a power monger and humble, yeah, so everyone's hitting me up. Oh, you're their publisher. Can you write about this? And I'm like no, I'm not a writer. Doesn't work that way, I am not a writer.
Speaker 1:Plus, you keep a separation right.
Speaker 2:Correct. Ad department sales department, but I'm the publisher so I control them right.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:No, I don't, you should, I should.
Speaker 1:You could, I could. Are that Brian and Jen?
Speaker 2:But I don't and I hopefully never will. How do you walk that balance? It's hard, it's really really hard, and it's really hard with the ferndale enterprise I bet that is what's. That's the toughest, because it's old school it's old school and I have writers that that might not be of that community's liking sometimes and it's a small community and I hear about every single minute thing and nine times out of ten. I have no control over it. It is what it is. Write a letter to the editor.
Speaker 1:I don't do that. Do they do that?
Speaker 2:Some of them do. I love the ones that go on Facebook and write the letters to the editor.
Speaker 1:Do you publish them?
Speaker 2:No, they'll put them on their own Facebook page.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's dumb.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah, and then people will show me and I'm like what?
Speaker 1:I have 500 friends that just heard all about you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and of course they agreed with you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're all your friends.
Speaker 2:I noticed that you do publish a lot of oppositional stuff in the journal.
Speaker 1:We try.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you should check out this week's we got Judy Hodgson comment Judy Hodgson, your former publisher. She wrote a letter to the editor.
Speaker 1:I love it, by the way. We were at her winery last summer and she loves you.
Speaker 2:I hope so.
Speaker 1:She digs you.
Speaker 2:I did everything she wanted, and that is how I was raised. That's cool If you worked for somebody.
Speaker 1:you worked, you did it. I was like Carolyn too. She's great.
Speaker 2:I love her too.
Speaker 1:She's still in the area. Yeah, fernandez, yeah, gosh, that's going back. Yeah, they're here.
Speaker 2:Huh, it's great.
Speaker 1:What history I know that's cool. You got a cool job.
Speaker 2:And then here I am now just trying to do these papers that people think I don't do. But that brings me back to an award that I won first place on Please. So I am a numbers person and when I don't write. But finally in the enterprise, I was like I have to tell these people what I do. I have to tell these people what I do. So I made a graph chart of our company and it started at the top with me, and it explained every job by every person and how we all functioned and worked together to make everything work, and we entered that in one of the categories.
Speaker 1:Was it funny or is it just?
Speaker 2:No, it was just like our actual flow chart of our company and I took first place Because you did that. And it's because it was so done well.
Speaker 1:Was it? Did they graphic it up for you in the art department?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, holly in our art department, who's been there forever, she's really good. She needs to make a lot more money than I do and a lot more money than she already is.
Speaker 1:Shout out to Holly Hi.
Speaker 2:Holly, holly. Big shout out to Holly.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And we have Rory. Do you remember Rory in the?
Speaker 1:Time Standard. I know his name Was Thad at Time Standard too.
Speaker 2:Thad. Yeah, we may have a nickname for the journal.
Speaker 1:Oh, what is?
Speaker 2:it TS West.
Speaker 1:TS West.
Speaker 2:Because so many of us worked at the TS.
Speaker 1:We're all emigrants from the Time Standard Refugees.
Speaker 2:Thad and I started on the same day.
Speaker 1:Gypsies.
Speaker 2:Yeah, refugees, thad and I started on the same day. Gypsies, yeah. And then I brought Khalil. We got Khali to come over, I know her. And then Mark Boyd came over.
Speaker 1:I know Mark.
Speaker 2:And then Brian.
Speaker 1:Brian Walker. He came from Suddenlink, but via the time standard.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:And he was at Tri-City yeah.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 1:Tri-City, yeah, and Tri-City, yeah, right. This is more about Brian Walker, maybe, than anything.
Speaker 2:And Jen.
Speaker 1:And Jen. Oh, I'm sorry. So I have a question, and that is in an environment where print has been not dead, but it's been dying for a decade or more with the internet Part of why I left the Tri-City because it was on its way out. The internet killed it, which is fine. It is what it is. How do you see what you're doing changing? I like to think of it as you're sort of like vinyl making a comeback.
Speaker 2:We are.
Speaker 1:I mean, I think of that metaphorically as a record. It's not CDs or cassettes anymore.
Speaker 2:I just left the office before I came here and Brian mentioned to me that one of our other sales reps at Asia was just reading in the New York Times about how print is making a massive comeback right now.
Speaker 1:I would like to read a paper.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and the thing about the journal is it's never dipped. It's always had the same set of readers, the same printing, if not more than it's ever had.
Speaker 1:Whereas the daily is really dipped right. The numbers would tell us all that. Just fact without ripping on them.
Speaker 2:It's just fact yeah, I heard that it's not. They're not good remember they were 25 30 000 on sunday when I was, when I worked there, it was 32 000 on sunday. I remember selling yeah, that's huge. And and when I sold ads there it was, it worked and that's why it was easy. And then we got to the. I remember the turning point and you weren't there. You were, at sudden link, the owners of some I don't think it was singleton, it might have been singleton did he have a cane?
Speaker 1:he did at the end he was.
Speaker 2:I think he was ill there was a man with a cane that came into the Time Standard office and they said we're no longer selling print, we are selling digital. And they changed the way we all were being paid a day told that had to tell our clients how great print was and how great the time standard was, and then we had to tell them oh no, you don't want to buy that, we're buying this imaginary digital thing.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And that's, that was the downfall of them.
Speaker 1:Selling futures that day yeah.
Speaker 2:That day.
Speaker 1:No more print.
Speaker 2:And yeah, so that's what really makes me drive hard with the journal is that it's there. It's never going away, so your numbers never dipped in your audits.
Speaker 1:No, that's amazing.
Speaker 2:Even during COVID.
Speaker 1:That's incredible.
Speaker 2:We never wanted to change. So, if anything during COVID people, just if they couldn't get it on a rack, they would just go online and read it. Sure, because it's free on a rack and it's free online. Yeah, I don't think I'll ever ask for a paywall on the journal website and that's a big thing in the digital world, huge, and I'm like why?
Speaker 1:It hurts me when I have to pay for the other.
Speaker 2:Another thing I'm pretty big on right now is what's going on in the government with, like the bills and such that they're trying to pass. So there's been a well there's a 1328 that was going on and it's more in the media industry. So it's basically like so when that and Jen write an article and it prints in the newspaper, mark Zuckerberg doesn't know, he doesn't know what's in there, but as soon as we take those words and we put them on our website, they're fair game.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's the bill.
Speaker 2:So they take.
Speaker 1:So he could steal his story.
Speaker 2:They take our stories and sure they give us credit. So they take, so he could steal his story. They take our stories and sure they give us credit, but ultimately they're getting the revenue because they're reading them on their apps.
Speaker 1:So they're getting the revenue and we're not getting nothing. So the PBS special, where there's a reduction big time of news sources in the world. Yes, big time of news sources in the world, so they're reduced down to these few news sources who are creating organic news. Thank you, thad.
Speaker 2:Giving this content to these corporations that are just getting bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger.
Speaker 1:Who didn't?
Speaker 2:pay for it? Yeah, bigger and bigger and bigger. Who didn't pay for it? Yeah, and here we are trying to make our own websites grow. So then we can get those ad revenue. But we we also are turning papers over every week and doing things like that and we can't produce enough content because that's not our MO Breaking news, things like that and we also try and stay really true to Humboldt. So I don't have Google ads on the journal website.
Speaker 1:You won't see that you don't have ads at all.
Speaker 2:We do.
Speaker 1:They're local.
Speaker 2:Shannon Dixon's Pearsons is on there, shannon.
Speaker 1:Did they rename the store Shannon Dixon's Pearsons. So what do you like about Humboldt? I love Humboldt, I don't like Humboldt. Okay, love Humboldt, wait, that's Rex's motto. I know, love Humboldt, you love. Okay, love, love, wait, that's Rex's motto.
Speaker 2:I know.
Speaker 1:Love Humboldt. He also signs his Facebook. He stole it from me, did he? He probably, rex. What do you enjoy about living here? What's cool for you? Well, I don't know anything else.
Speaker 2:That's the first thing, that's okay. I panic when I hit the bridge, the Golden, the Golden Gate Bridge. That's about as far as I'll go.
Speaker 1:We were just there. It's horrible.
Speaker 2:It's horrible. My dad, when we go to San Francisco Giants games, he would be like we'd know as soon as we get to like Tiburon. It was San Francisco mode. You gotta shut up.
Speaker 1:Right, because dad's freaking out.
Speaker 2:He's got to focus. Traffic's doing crazy and that I could not imagine living somewhere like that.
Speaker 1:We were just there Monday by the ballpark. It took 25 minutes to go a quarter mile.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It was total gridlock and I'm losing my humble mind. My ever loving humble mind.
Speaker 2:Yes, and it's terrible. I'm really, truly, I feel like I'm an introvert. I like to be a homebody, I like to not be around a lot of people. Humble is that? Yeah.
Speaker 1:You could do either.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and I don't know, I don't know any better.
Speaker 1:So what do you do when you're home having fun? What's your when you're not being published, or everything?
Speaker 2:That's a really hard question because I the last since I bought the journal, I I've been go, go, go, go, go, go, go go go, go, go.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, yeah, time to relax a little. It's Christmas, you know.
Speaker 2:I know and that's the worst I'm gonna chill a little bit here. Yeah, like if I get an idea, I will just, if it makes sense I will do it. There's no stopping me, it's a stopping me, it's 100% Is that ADD OCD. I think I have ADHD a little bit. Yeah, that's definitely a thing. I will just drive and go.
Speaker 1:I got accused of that. It really offended me and I told somebody I go. Then my boss told me I got ADD and she goes duh, thanks for nothing.
Speaker 2:Well, my really good friend that I achievers have it trust she has it, and I'm just like her, so there, there it is.
Speaker 1:So what's our, uh, what are our issues? Just our, our, our caddy issues in your mind, and what are we doing to solve them? What, what, what can we do? What's our problem?
Speaker 2:uh, I don't think we're original oh, yeah, good one I want to put pressure on humboldt county to get original to get original, to think outside the box so jobs or what, okay, I don't okay, we're.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay.
Speaker 2:We're getting deep.
Speaker 1:I know.
Speaker 2:The Christmas tree yeah.
Speaker 1:Ferndale.
Speaker 2:I don't think Eureka really needed to do what they did.
Speaker 1:Oh, here it comes, ferndale. Okay, it wasn't original, it's not a spruce, I know, but it wasn't original. It's like they could like the skywalk.
Speaker 2:That's awesome, that's original, that's original it's like they could like the skywalk. That's awesome, that's original. That's original and like do more with that, Give it something more. But instead it's just another tall tree. With lights on it With lights on it, but we already have that.
Speaker 1:Well, wait a minute. So now the skunk train tree that you have to travel to Right and it's on private land. Is it a redwood?
Speaker 2:And I think that's a redwood too, but it's not really about the tree. I'm just using that as an example.
Speaker 1:It's fair Was Ferndale, the largest Christmas tree in the nation.
Speaker 2:Living Huh, still in the ground.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it hurts to lose that, doesn't it?
Speaker 2:And they've been well. I could care less.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a nice thing.
Speaker 2:I just think that the 90-year tradition with the firemen. If you go on YouTube, type it in and watch the video of them hoisting the lights in the morning.
Speaker 1:It's a whole thing.
Speaker 2:It's a little moving.
Speaker 1:It's way up there too. How big is the tree?
Speaker 2:Like 160 feet or something and like to watch all the guys like pull the lights up and like they get the College of the Redwoods baseball team. I think helps.
Speaker 1:They weren't there during the earthquake, were they?
Speaker 2:No, it was already lit on December 1st is when we lit it this year.
Speaker 1:Were you down in Ferndale for the earthquake.
Speaker 2:I was.
Speaker 1:I bet that shook at the bank. Huh, oh, it was. Yeah, it was, oh crap.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and the bank. Now is the lawyer guy still around that sues everybody that has businesses.
Speaker 1:He's gone, he's been gone for 20 years. Thank God Is his name Singletary.
Speaker 2:Singleton.
Speaker 1:Singleton.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:He was a super turd.
Speaker 2:He was awful. The bank building is in Ferndale, built in 1911. The doors open in. Oh they don't open out. Oh, so when the earthquake hit, katrina had her baby in the stroller.
Speaker 1:His name is Rad.
Speaker 2:Yeah, trying to get out, but she's got to open the door in and push the stroller out at the same time, and with nine kids, you know how hard that is. I've never tried that and I'm coming from the back room yelling, keep going, and I ended up just shoving him out the door while everything was still shaking.
Speaker 1:Oh, it was the longest minute.
Speaker 2:It was awful so downtown Eureka.
Speaker 1:I walk out it's a set from a Hollywood movie. There's sirens, bumper to bumper traffic, which there never is at 11 in the morning in Eureka. Yeah, people in clusters and groups that have evacuated already from downtown.
Speaker 2:Oh, because of the tsunami.
Speaker 1:The tsunami piece was really interesting. Here it is like 30 minutes later and there's gridlock. It's like no, you would have drowned by now if there was going to a tsunami. Is going to be there in 15 minutes.
Speaker 2:Right, that's all you got.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So it's like no, you get out of your office. You run like hell, like really fast, uphill, yeah, and get out of there Uphill.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and get out of there, so we know where our zone is at the journal. It's a part of our safety meeting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're in the zone.
Speaker 2:We are in the zone. Where does it stop.
Speaker 1:You know where it stops. Sixth or fifth.
Speaker 2:The local beer bar. So that is our meetup spot.
Speaker 1:Joni just laughed at it. My wife was just telling me she goes run. No, we telling me she goes um run. Uh, go now, we're gonna rendezvous at the local or something. And they had to correct it. Uh, what was it? The local bar, the local, ah, something. It was funny because there's a bar called the local there's the local. Did you guys go to local?
Speaker 2:well, yeah, it's right up from the journal office where is that? It's by domino's Pizza there on 4th Street.
Speaker 1:Oh, the cider bar.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's our Tsunami.
Speaker 1:That's your rendezvous point. Rendezvous point Hilarious Love it in the morning, cider yeah.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, but then so I was in Ferndale and I get the alert on my phone and I'm not even in the zone. Right, ferndales? Would they be in a flood zone, not on Main Street? When you drive on 211 going over to Ferndale 1, pay attention to the tsunami signs. You're entering, you're exiting, you're entering, you're all the way as you wind.
Speaker 1:Cubs and Go's.
Speaker 2:But in up through the town. Yeah, the Main Street, you're not in it, you're okay, yeah, so everyone's freaking out we're gonna go to the graveyard in ferndale they're like we're going up the wildcat. Yeah, I'm like dude, we're not even in the zone that's so funny.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you want us to be more original?
Speaker 2:yeah, I think that I think we can be a little bit more original creative yeah, like I just yes so reinvent arcata cannabis, reinvent cal poly, reinvent no old town, no just to like think outside the box, a little bit Like when we bring something new to the county, or like a new business or something like that. It's different, it's not something that we have already.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I feel like I just see so much repetitiveness here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's funny because there's such a creative element, yeah, and artists and people, entrepreneurial, that are great yeah, and yet no one else has done an escape house for a while there was one in Old Town.
Speaker 2:There was one in Old Town. It went out. It went out. The people moved away and it's something that we don't have within 250 miles. It was fun. We don't have within 250 miles. It was fun and I've had my. One of my biggest groups that loves to come through is Providence Health. They're bringing every department through.
Speaker 1:Really they do that as like a group thing.
Speaker 2:And they do it as like a team bonding thing. That's cool. It's really fun to watch. I've had the Fortuna Police Department do it. I had the Sheriff's Department do it.
Speaker 1:Wow, yeah it's. Can we do Scott Hammond's State Farm team you can Get a team together. I have a team.
Speaker 2:Maybe I could live stream it.
Speaker 1:That would be.
Speaker 2:Thank you. People beg me all the time. They're like could you put this on YouTube so we could watch it? I'm waiting for a proposal in the escape room. I feel like it would be a perfect place for somebody like the last thing before they get out of the room they open the box and there's the ring.
Speaker 1:Oh, I know, right, that's original I know, look at you, I like that I have my bucket list. So everybody sat here and said our problems are housing, homelessness and health no and you're saying originality, yeah, which could solve all three of those yeah, I like that I mean, everybody has those problems.
Speaker 2:They're never going to go away, right? So let's just be a little bit original in how we do things, from everything from a from businesses to how we put a road in bring music in that's original yeah that'd be cool.
Speaker 1:so, in the future, what are you thinking for rad and your two kids? What's, what's this, what's this county going to be like? What would you? What's your vision? What would you like to see if you could wave the publisher wand and make it all magical? God?
Speaker 2:You know, I don't know what's going to happen, but what would you like? I'd like it to stay, as I don't want to say wholesome I don't think that's the word but I don't want it to look like San Francisco.
Speaker 1:Oh no.
Speaker 2:I don't want that's what I don't want it to look like San Francisco. Oh no, I don't want that's what I don't want. I think that the tech industry needs to not be anywhere up here. I don't want to. I don't really want to see that.
Speaker 1:We're going to house him. We'd have to get real original.
Speaker 2:I mean, I know that my son wants to be like his dad. He wants to build houses. He wants to, you know, learn how things work. I like to see more of our trades.
Speaker 1:A hundred percent. A hundred percent Humboldt trades yeah.
Speaker 2:And like, just don't rewrite the book on the easy stuff.
Speaker 1:Now, what about cannabis in this? I it's, it's on, it's boom and bust and we're busting, so what? Um where do you see that going?
Speaker 2:I see, I think cannabis should be treated like alcohol. Just period. If there's a liquor store, have a dispensary. If there, that's it. I think it's exactly like alcohol.
Speaker 1:Taxed to the hilt Stupid Brewed in a place. It's just like beer Sold at a store.
Speaker 2:It's just like beer.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean, you're going to be able to smoke it now while you eat. That's just like having a beer.
Speaker 1:Not sure how to do that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I just think that, yeah, we've all. We've all, or not all we. A lot of people just think cannabis is just like this drug. And it's not. It's just like it's, it's a, it is a drug.
Speaker 1:Alcohol is a drug it's not my dad's ditch weed, though it's.
Speaker 2:It's pretty potent it's I mean, if you're a, if you consume cannabis, you're probably okay yeah you're just fine you're just super stoned no, I, I don't even think it's that I watched my son come home and get lit I think there's two types of consumers in humboldt County. There's the young let's get high group like your son. Then I think there are the highly functioning society that is using it.
Speaker 1:He's been vaping all day in his store.
Speaker 2:All day. Nobody even cares, you don't even know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, okay and drinking vodka.
Speaker 2:Exactly, it's just like vodka. They could have been having a couple beers at lunch, true, or cocktails, and no one would think anything of it okay, that's it.
Speaker 1:That's it. Okay, here it comes. This is speed round. Are you ready because we have like three minutes? Okay, number one for this dick taylor peanut butter, dark chocolate oh, I love peanut butter do you like dark chocolate? Yeah quiz question number one favorite restaurant go?
Speaker 2:oh, this is easy.
Speaker 1:It's not open yet oh, the one in arcata that's opening. No, what is it the?
Speaker 2:Ivanhoe Woo. Question number two. It will be open in January.
Speaker 1:Favorite cup of coffee.
Speaker 2:Main Street Coffee in Ferndale's. Caramel Macchiato Extra Scolding Hot.
Speaker 1:Ooh I like that Okay. Number three when do you go for gifts, gift buying?
Speaker 2:Humboldt's hometown store.
Speaker 1:Why? Where's that at?
Speaker 2:Only Humboldt made items.
Speaker 1:Do you have gift baskets? Do you wrap a basket there? No, I hate that Can you ship stuff there?
Speaker 2:We can. We have an online site. But my newest thing I can make custom gifts. So if you want your face on an ornament, I can do that in five minutes.
Speaker 1:Sweet Okay.
Speaker 2:Come on in.
Speaker 1:Last question we make you take a day off during Christmas and you get to do whatever you want. What are you going?
Speaker 2:to do. I'm going to get a case of Diet Coke my dog. I'm going to lock my room and I'm going to stay in there all day With a case of Coke and I'm going to door dash whatever food I want to my back door and I don't want anyone to bother me. And I'm going to watch the Housewives.
Speaker 1:Oh which one, it just doesn't matter.
Speaker 2:All of them.
Speaker 1:Nice.
Speaker 2:All of them and a little true crime.
Speaker 1:Nice. That's the most definitive answer I've gotten in 63 of these Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, this is for you. Thank you, congratulations. Last question before you go what's your legacy? What's on your tombstone? What are we saying at your celebration of life, as Thad and Jen and Brian and me and everybody comes to say words about you?
Speaker 2:How many words do I get?
Speaker 1:Well, you got a minute and a half, you got a minute Go.
Speaker 2:Oh no. What would people say if I died?
Speaker 1:No, what would they say when you're there? What's your legacy? What do you want to be remembered for?
Speaker 2:She was loud. Okay Dang, she didn't really care about anything. How could that be true? They call me the ice princess.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah God, she was a hard worker. Good, she never met an animal she didn't like. Good Wielded power, heavy power with the publisher. Yeah, yeah, yeah, um shoot. I mean I, I I'd like to say some other things, but I'm gonna hold it back because if you really know, know me I love it.
Speaker 1:Okay, well, maybe that's the next time that's enough that's good. Yeah, hey, thanks for being on the show. Hey, thanks for having me. What's the next time? That's enough, that's good. Hey, thanks for being on the show. Hey, thanks for having me. What's the quickest promo ever Ready? Scott Hammond, 100% Humboldt. Like us on Facebook and Instagram and TikTok and podcast, and on Access TV and social media, youtube. Like us. Share us. I think you guys might Hope you will. And thanks for being on the show. Really appreciate you, melissa.
Speaker 2:Love it. Thank you for having me Follow. You got to follow.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, follow. All right, we're going to follow, thanks.
Speaker 2:No problem, thank you.
