From Small Town Roots to Big Careers—and Finding Your Way Home

Some conversations feel like a catch-up over wine—and then turn into something deeper. This episode is one of those.

I’m joined by Aimee Goeman, someone I knew of growing up in small-town Iowa but didn’t truly know until now. Our families crossed paths the way they do in rural communities—through church, farming, and familiar names—before life carried us in different directions. Years later, we sat down to talk about what sticks with you from where you’re from… and how you carry it forward.

Aimee shares what it looks like to build a successful corporate career while still nurturing creativity, passion projects, and a deep connection to community. She now spends part of the year back in Belmond to be near family, reminding us that “coming home” doesn’t have to mean leaving anything behind.

This is a light-hearted, thoughtful conversation about ambition, authenticity, and the quiet pull of belonging—especially in this season of life.

In this episode, we talk about:

• How small-town roots shape who we become
• Building a big career without giving up creativity or connection
• Passion projects as a form of joy, not pressure
• Why community feels different in midlife
• The idea that you never fully leave your hometown

Links & Mentions from This Episode

• The Ramsay Boutique (Belmond, Iowa): https://ramsayboutique.com/
  
  
• Midland (band): https://www.midlandofficial.com/
  
  
• Mark Wystrach (Lead Singer, Midland): https://www.instagram.com/markaroo
  
  
• The Steak Out (Sonoita, Arizona): https://www.azsteakout.com/our-story
  
  

If you’ve ever felt pulled between where you came from and the life you’ve built, this conversation will feel like a familiar—and comforting—exhale.

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Transcript

From Small Town Roots to Big Careers—and Finding Your Way Home

This week's conversation feels like sitting down with someone you've known your whole life and then realizing you could talk for hours. Aimee Goeman and I grew up in the very small town of Belmond, Iowa and went to the same church.

 we really didn't know each other. We were in nearly different generations. 

Life took us in different directions through big careers, lots of travel and plenty of growth along the way. So this conversation felt like a catch [00:01:00] up, but also like a discovery. We talk about the ways small town roots shape you, corporate careers that look successful on paper, but evolve over time coming home in unexpected ways, and why community and connection hit differently at this stage of life.

Aimee feels like someone I've known forever, or at least someone I could easily share long conversations and good wine with, and I think you're gonna feel that too. Here is Aimee Goeman.

[00:01:27] Penny Fitzgerald: And you're in Belmond? I'm in Belmond, yep. We are heading back to, uh, Scottsdale New Year's Eve. 

[00:01:34] Aimee Goeman: Mm-hmm. We always show up at a friend's house on New Year's Eve with a bottle of wine. We're like, hi, we just in town. Um, our stuff's in the car. 

 So you've been doing podcasting. Is this okay? So this whole thing's recorded, video recorded too.

Uhhuh? Yep. All right. You'll edit out the parts that are weird. 

[00:01:49] Penny Fitzgerald: Yes. Okay, well, I'll leave some of them in 'cause those are kind of fun. 

[00:01:52] Aimee Goeman: Penny. I just drove a tractor for the first time I saw that on social media [00:02:00] and I kept, like, I ran over a bunny and I was recording, you know, and I edited that out and then later I went back, I'm like, I'm gonna make a blooper.

Stood out there like, like whatever. Sorry, bunny. Now I know how to stop that tractor, but I didn't. So, um, yeah. So anyway, the blooper rules can be kind of fun. Okay.

[00:02:24] Penny Fitzgerald: So let's back up a second. Tell, tell my audience what you do. I know you travel for your job a lot too, right? 

[00:02:32] Aimee Goeman: Yes. So I am in, I guess I could summarize it by saying I'm, I'm in corporate advertising, I'm on the media end of things, and I specialize in social and digital media.

So I have a niche where I go and I'm the relatable person between a brand, like, I don't know, PepsiCo and influencers that might Oh, content. So, we'll pr My role is to sell in, you know, large campaigns and ideas to [00:03:00] bring it to life. I have a team of people that can then connect and cast the right influencers.

We produce the content and then we have a media strategy that amplifies that content to people that we know that drink certain kinds of beverages or whatever, Uhhuh. Um, so that is my corporate job. I've been in this specific industry for 12 plus years. 

[00:03:22] Penny Fitzgerald: Wow. Yeah. So you're the kind of the liaison between all the parties, like the marketing team and the influencers and the branding.

And so I'm 

[00:03:31] Aimee Goeman: kind of that lead strategy or sales liaison, Uhhuh. And then there are teams that, you know, do the casting and teams that manage the talent and that kind of thing. So I'll step away Wow. Once the deal gets kicked off. Um, so my lead role, yeah. Is sales. Okay. Both side of the 

[00:03:46] Penny Fitzgerald: organization. Have you seen a shift in that too?

I feel like influencers are, influencers are kind of having to change their business model a bit and be a little bit more real. 

[00:03:58] Aimee Goeman: Yeah. Um, it's been [00:04:00] an interesting arc. So, you know, I was 12 years ago is the infancy of influencer really is where it started. Right. And when we started, we were getting what they were calling test budgets.

So you would have a, so the, my, our main clientele are CPG, so anything. PepsiCo or, um, J&J Kenvue or General Mills, any, anything you can buy in a grocery stores who we call 'em. And so they were using test budgets to be like, this is weird and new. And then the arc swung and it's now so mainstream.

Yeah. Um, that we have to measure, we have to be able to measure sales lift on every campaign that we do. Like how many increment incremental units of product did we move? Oh man, apart, you know, that kind of stuff. Mm-hmm. It has really changed and I would say there was, it started out super authentic and raw.

Uhhuh kind of swung a little bit to where it was very polished and produced, and now it's kind of swinging back into that not so raw, but more the authenticity is important. Authenticity is important. There are, [00:05:00] they call it brand safety. You can't, you know, say certain things or be associated with content that has said certain things.

So it's kind of an interesting arc. It's, it changes a lot, I guess. 

[00:05:12] Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. Well, not only that, but they, then the algorithms changed. So what went viral last week would be totally different this 

[00:05:21] Aimee Goeman: week. Yeah. We don't know if the algorithms are right. So we think we know, we think we put enough content there, we can kind of figure it out, but they don't tell us what the algorithms are, you know?

Yeah. So that is a constant change. And then, you know, on the media side of it, um, meta for instance, will just raise their prices. So you may have put it to a client how much their thousand medias, their ccpm is gonna be uhhuh by the time the campaign runs. They just decide, change it. So, oh man.

Profitability management, it's just a really complex. Um, you know, and there's, I've got, there's a digital side of the media, so this would be stuff that you see [00:06:00] on, um, banner ads or, you know, as you're scrolling through the internet or whatever. Mm-hmm. That's much more widget focus, so that's not mm-hmm.

Strategic and complicated as having a human content creator in the mix. Mm-hmm. Easier to do and execute. Um, but there's so much more competition in that space 'cause anyone and everyone can do it. So we do have that side of it too. That's easier. But this content creation, just, you know, it's, it's so difficult.

The company I work for actually made an acquisition into studio, created content. So we, we go in a studio and produce it. It looks like an influencer created it. Oh really? The brand had helped script it. Oh. And that's important for like, um, pharmaceutical companies that have super regulatory approvals or alcohol companies, uh, or even J&J consumer product can do now they're called.

So they have very, so those kind, it, so the look and feel of an authentic piece of content produced by [00:07:00] you and me is still, still, but they just like to have a lot 

[00:07:04] Penny Fitzgerald: more control over it. I can see that for those regulated brands or those regulated products that you have to say the right thing or you could kill somebody.

[00:07:13] Aimee Goeman: You know what I mean? Exactly. But some of these brands like will not say the carbonated, you know, beverage brands, but some of them are just like. So strict, or you can't have talked about our competitor for 10 years. I'm like, what? So some of the things just make it difficult. And I have said to clients before, I don't think you want influencer content.

I think you just wanna create branded content. And that's the realm you should be in a, not try to pay someone to be authentic and influencer audience because you're making it fake. You 

[00:07:41] Penny Fitzgerald: know, 

[00:07:41] Aimee Goeman: it's 

[00:07:41] Penny Fitzgerald: not authentic. 

[00:07:42] Aimee Goeman: Exactly. Like you have stripped away the influence side of it. It's gone. So now just go to a studio and produce it.

[00:07:49] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:07:50] Aimee Goeman: There's a fine line to walk and the brands want, want what they want and the influencers have an audience and a voice mm-hmm. That they, you know, protect as well. So 

[00:07:56] Penny Fitzgerald: yeah. 

[00:07:58] Aimee Goeman: It keeps you on your toes, 

[00:07:59] Penny Fitzgerald: keeps you, yeah, [00:08:00] for sure. Yeah. Well, and consumers I think are getting more savvy. I feel like they're, you know, they can feel that inauthenticity.

[00:08:06] Aimee Goeman: Mm-hmm. 

[00:08:07] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. 

[00:08:08] Aimee Goeman: And they're okay with it. If it's so far, if it's trendy, schemey thing, like they're fine. It's a joke, right? Everyone's on some certain, you know, jokes it, but, uh, and they've always been okay being advertised too, as long it provides some value and that's where the authenticity comes in. Like it can't, has to either be educational or entertaining or something.

It can't just be cheesy and skeevy. You know, you see content that looks forced like scroll. You just scroll right past it. 'cause it's gross. Yeah. Yeah. So for sure. 

Can we talk about some of your travels? Interesting travel story Sunday night? Well, I, yeah. Okay. So tell me, I see these stories. Uh, yeah. So I traveled a lot for the, for [00:09:00] work for years until COVID. Like sometimes I didn't come home on weekends even 'cause it was just easier to. Fly to the next place. You know, 

[00:09:06] Penny Fitzgerald: I remember seeing some of your posts about, oh, here we go, you know, some of the speed bumps along the way maybe. 

[00:09:16] Aimee Goeman: Yeah. I do have, well this, there was a speed bump on Sunday, so I have a nickname. Can I swear on here? Can you edit? Sure. We're not censored.

Okay. It's shit magnet because if something's gonna go wrong, it will happen to me. And it was mostly around travel related stuff. Uhhuh, because that's just what stuff goes wrong, right? But, um, Sunday we were coming back, um, my husband's daughter is at Cornell University and we'd gone to, she's doing the wine, uh, agriculture program.

Oh fun. Ivy League fully paid for scholarship, uh, Ivy League education and growing grapes for wine making. I'm like, yes, this is Eonology. Yay. So we went out there [00:10:00] and went wine tasting and it was funny 'cause I had been on like a two month wine fast. I had not had any wine. So I was really looking forward to tasting wine and I don't think this is where I'm gonna go.

This is not where you wanna break a wine fast. New York wine is not. I mean, Reese, if you like Riesling, it's okay. 

 there was some, an oak chard that I liked and Really, yeah, there were a couple of those.

There were probably my favorite one of the day was a Riesling uhhuh, but I'm such a traditional like. Napa cab drinker that it was, oh yeah, that's way different. I need to go drink red wine. Had been two months since it had any alcohol. And then I got there and I was like, what do you mean there's no cabernet today?

Hadn't done any research. So, uh, anyway, we were flying back from Syracuse. And we had a very short, like 36 minute layover in O'Hare. Oh. And I'm like, we're not gonna make it. We're not gonna make it. And uh, there was an elderly woman on the aisle and then there was of course the aisle.

Oh. And then there was my husband in the aisle seat, [00:11:00] and I was in the window seat and she had a medical emergency. Oh. she was probably, I think they said she was 76 or 78. Her daughters were on the plane. So I just saw her pass out and, oh no, hear her, you know, vomit on herself.

And I turned around and I didn't see the part where she lifted her head and continued to, oh no. I looked down at my leg and I'm in the window seat across the aisle. Oh my God. Looked at my leg and I said to my husband, what is that? What's on my leg? And he's like, yes. I said, yes. What? He has the same thing that's on both of my arms and my sweatshirt.

It's on your leg. I mean, it was everywhere. 

[00:11:43] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh my God. No. And 

[00:11:45] Aimee Goeman: I thought, you know, I don't miss travel. Oh my God. But we did, I mean, you know, an O'Hare taxi is usually 20 minutes at O'Hare. And we got emergency taxied right to the gate off that plane. Okay.

 it was crazy. So, [00:12:00] oh my God. 

[00:12:00] Penny Fitzgerald: And she, she's 

[00:12:01] Aimee Goeman: okay. She turned, she's okay.

It was so gruesome. It was just, she was just sick and sick. And then, you know, you look at the flight attendants and they, they're sitting there and the daughter's like, you need to call for a medic or something.

So I had to yell at the flight, attend. I'm like, call over the PA for a medic. This woman out. Oh my God. It was a little scary. I thought I was watching something very scary happen. 

[00:12:24] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh yeah. That could have turned really bad. 

[00:12:26] Aimee Goeman: Yeah. Which, I dunno if you've been a flight when that's happened before, but that's bad.

Mm-hmm. Oh yeah. They'll just, yeah, lay 'em right out in the aisle. 

[00:12:35] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh. 

[00:12:37] Aimee Goeman: And do chest compressions and it's terrifying. I, 

[00:12:40] Penny Fitzgerald: yeah. I have not witnessed that firsthand. No. 

[00:12:43] Aimee Goeman: Okay. Yeah. 

[00:12:47] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh my God. Okay. 

[00:12:49] Aimee Goeman: So that's the 

[00:12:50] Penny Fitzgerald: fun part of 

[00:12:50] Aimee Goeman: travel. Where have you been lately?

[00:12:55] Penny Fitzgerald: Uh, well we went to Belmond a few. Yeah. 

[00:12:57] Aimee Goeman: That's so fun to see you there. Big [00:13:00] metropolis of 2,306 people. 

[00:13:02] Penny Fitzgerald: Yes. Wow. Yeah. Well, it was Fall festival or something going on that, that day downtown. Very fun. Then I saw it on social media. We happened to be in Clear Lake for a family reunion, decided to come down.

Okay. So now you have the Ramsay Boutique that you opened. How'd you, how'd you manage that or how did you decide to do that? 

[00:13:26] Aimee Goeman: So we had, um, during COD. So during COVID or before COVID, I started an e-comm business and I had always had a side hustle where I would consult with small businesses on social media.

'cause the role I'm in, in my corporate job, I'm not hands on, right? So I'm not the one doing the ad placement, creating the ads. I'm just brokering the deals and think and think strategy. Mm-hmm And then I tell someone else what we're trying to get done and someone else makes the magic happen on the keyboard.

So I started consulting with businesses. There was a wine store in that I did their content management for [00:14:00] and helped them do a bunch of strategy. So it just helped me understand a little bit better behind the scenes what actually happened. Someone goes into the meta platform and tries to place media buys, like, now I know it 'cause I do it myself.

So we started, I started an eCom business where we were doing drop ship from companies overseas. So basically taking out the middleman wholesaler and they would ship directly to clients. So I whole, I had the website. I place the order with them, they ship it directly to my clients. It shows up in, you know, 10 days or whatever it was.

Mm-hmm. But then COVID hit, and now if you remember all those shipping containers that were sitting out and it would take mm-hmm. Weeks for the product to get delivered. And I thought this, this model is not working anymore. And um, around that time we had been wanting to come back and have a seasonal home in Belmond near my family because my brother had just moved back and started a family.

Oh, I've been gone for 20 some years. I've missed out on all these things. I kind [00:15:00] of wanna be here for part of this. So we came back and bought that building you came to on Main Street. And the idea was it would just be a warehouse for product and we would continue this e-comm model ah, out orders that we get, but.

That building had a main street facing front window and door. And I thought, 

[00:15:20] Penny Fitzgerald: here we go. 

[00:15:22] Aimee Goeman: What if we just did a little cosmetic update on this warehouse and, uh, turned it into a tiny boutique? And that's what we ended up doing. It's so cute. Thank you. It's, it's a so cute an acting project. So we're in the middle of flipping over for holiday now, so we'll open our holiday open house on Saturday.

My mom, who you know Yes, is a decorator, so it's been a really good partnership. So go to market and make the purchases on the items. Um, and then I will, like, I stripped out all the fall a couple weeks ago, and then she comes in, I bring all the holiday stuff out and lay it out into what I call my merchandising stories.

And then she [00:16:00] decorates for, spends two weeks Decorat decorat in her mind. She just gets to decorate it. A boutique. That's so fun. So I went in there yesterday and I'm like, mom, it's like a little elf comes in and makes magic. Literally she wants me to leave. So we plan it. I'll leave town for a weekend. I'm out of her hair, you know, she in process.

And then it's, and then I come back in and do some merchandising of it. 

[00:16:22] Penny Fitzgerald: Yep. 

[00:16:23] Aimee Goeman: Open. We just open a couple weekends a month. It's just, you know, it's my, yeah. Creative outlet and passion project. It's a fun community thing. It's like I'm pretty active in the community. We're trying to pass a, a bond to build a new pool.

'cause our pool got shut down, so it's kind of a place to be in the center and hub of everything. 

[00:16:42] Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. '

[00:16:43] Aimee Goeman: cause a lot of people come in chit chat and it's a really good place to network with, with people too in the community. 

[00:16:49] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. It was a great place to grow up. Yeah. 

[00:16:53] Aimee Goeman: Are you, were you in Belmond? 

[00:16:55] Penny Fitzgerald: We were on a farm outside between Mel Belmond and Meservey.

Yeah. [00:17:00] Okay. Yeah. Yeah, just north of the church. 

[00:17:02] Aimee Goeman: Oh, okay. 

[00:17:03] Penny Fitzgerald: Okay. Yeah. Just 

[00:17:04] Aimee Goeman: farming in a field there the other day. Yeah. 

[00:17:06] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. 

[00:17:07] Aimee Goeman: Okay. 

[00:17:08] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. Yeah. It's a good place to 

[00:17:10] Aimee Goeman: grow up 

[00:17:11] Penny Fitzgerald: it. Yeah. I tell people it was a great place to grow up, but I wouldn't wanna visit.

[00:17:17] Aimee Goeman: Not much going on. I someone I know, but I gotta tell you, you know, we spent half the year in Scottsdale, uh, which is Uhhuh. Crazy. Buzzing as busy as you want it to be. We say Scottsdale's for friends and Iowa's for family. Ah, mind the, the low key season. Mm-hmm. You know, it's kind of nice to slow down once in a while.

You don't have to have a fancy car. You don't have to wear, in fact, if you wear fancy clothes, you kind of get looked at sideways, you know, it's a mm-hmm. Complete opposite of, it's not stale sometimes, uh, where everyone's trying to keep up with, you know, it's just a, oh, different vibe. So I don't find it, I don't know that I would love it full [00:18:00] time.

Right. We don't, we don't dislike it. It's just kind of an exhale when we get here. 

[00:18:05] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh yeah. I can see that. Well, plus the weather in the summer is 

[00:18:09] Aimee Goeman: better than Arizona. Pretty 

[00:18:10] Penny Fitzgerald: darn good. Yeah. How did you convince Tad to come back? 

[00:18:15] Aimee Goeman: I am a salesperson. Well, there 

[00:18:17] Penny Fitzgerald: you go. 

[00:18:19] Aimee Goeman: Him to come back in November, I think is when we, so he, I, he would come back with me for July 4th Yes.

Mess every year. And maybe, you know, one other time during the year in between. So he was seeing the best of it. Right. So I, yes. Better to be than July 4th and Belmond, Iowa. It's just, that is the best place to be on 

[00:18:38] Penny Fitzgerald: 4th of July. Yeah. 

[00:18:40] Aimee Goeman: I mean, fireworks, like, incredible fireworks, uhhuh and paid and just all these, it's just, it was, it's magical, right?

Mm-hmm. And he's always said, you know, he grew up in Southern California, like, you know, just, wow. He was always like, yeah, I could do, I could do that. I think I could do that. And, uh, we had really [00:19:00] wanted the home we're in now, which my grandmother, my dad's mom, um, was living in and. I thought, gosh, this would be great.

It's on the golf course. He would love it. But my brother had moved back, started a family, and she's living in the house. And I thought, I'm just kind of ready to be back. And my, I was back visiting and my dad's a realtor in town. Oh. And there's, I can see it out my window. There's a condo, Uhhuh. And he had had that condo listed for sale for a year and said, I just need to check on it.

'cause the woman who owns it lives in Arizona and she's not here. So I went in with him to look at it and I was like, huh, I, I'll buy this. This is great. So, uh, it just, it was just gonna be a seasonal thing. So I think we bought that in November. And this is not a joke. My grandmother took her walker from this house where I'm sitting now and just walked two doors down the day we closed on it.

Uhhuh walked up the front steps of the condo I just bought. And she said, huh, I like that you got something new. I think I [00:20:00] wanna move and get something new. I'm like, what? I would've just bought your house. Oh my God. Was Is that Lois? Lois, yeah. She, oh my God, she's super feisty. And I was like, are you serious, grandma, buy your house.

And instead, I just bought this one and it sat on the market for a year before we, you know. Oh, she did. She moved, she moved the, the town home, the condos at the other end of the neighborhood here. And, um, we ended up buying her house and we were selling our condo, uh, within two weeks of it being on the market.

So we lucked out. You know, the, that all worked. Oh gosh. Yeah. Wow. Tad really wanted, he liked a small town. He wanted to be on the golf course. He, and he does, he's golfing already. He's golfing right now, I think. Oh, broad short. That goes up out in the number seven fairway, and he golfs all day. Oh, that's perfect.

So he likes it. He does definitely need to have his Arizona time too. Uhhuh. The weather here kind of gets him down. He prefers more the sunshine. We're [00:21:00] big hikers. Mm-hmm. There's a lot of hiking. Mountainous hiking to do. Yeah. Uh, in, in North Scottsdale. So, um, but yeah, that, that was it. He liked the small town.

In fact, I think what it was, Penny, we were back in the summer, it probably in July, Uhhuh and um, cl Klemme has had like ag days or they had something going on in the summer. Uhhuh, my younger brother, drove us the back gravel roads between Belmond and Klemme. Prob, what is that? 15 miles maybe? Or maybe Uhhuh.

And the sun was setting and it was Oh, beautiful. Late summer. And I remember he looked at me and he goes, okay, I can do it. Okay. That's how we get you. That's how we get you. Exactly. That's how we get you. So, yeah. So it's kind of been, you know, wanted to come here. And it's interesting because. Scottsdale. Um, we're actually in a very small community called Cave Creek, which is at the far north end

it's a, I always say you go out to Cave Creek, you go to a restaurant, you [00:22:00] sit at a bar and you meet people at the bar that you kind of know, but maybe don't know them at all. You have a nice conversation and nobody knows anything about you until you get in the parking lot. And one person just gets in their like SUV normal car, you know, and drives away.

Yeah. Someone else gets in there, you know, Bugatti and drives away Oh, geez. On their horse and rides home. Like, you don't know who's got the horse and who's got the really expensive, everyone just kind of normal there, you know, Uhhuh, uh, so we love Cave Creek. Um, but we, he likes to be there because it's, it's more the social thing, the hiking, there's mountains up there, so he kind of really needs to have both of those.

So do I. Um, but it's my family here and my little nieces. Yeah. You know, so for me, I just wanna squeeze 'em up as long as I can. 

[00:22:43] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. 

[00:22:44] Aimee Goeman: I get that. For sure called sleepover season, where it's like, you know, a couple months before we'll leave for the season. I just try and have sleepovers. Every Friday night he's ready to have my wife back.

I'm like, oh, I got, you know, sleepover. Yeah. [00:23:00] 

[00:23:00] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. That makes November worth it. 'cause November, I feel like in Iowa is always, it's kind of dreary, kind of always. Just this taupe. Everything's taupe 

[00:23:09] Aimee Goeman: and windy. Mm. Put the wind here, it's just so windy. 

[00:23:15] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. 

[00:23:16] Aimee Goeman: Damp and miserable. But there's no snow. 

[00:23:20] Penny Fitzgerald: Well, it's not pretty yet.

The snow hasn't kind of washed everything. It's still just gray and brown. 

[00:23:27] Aimee Goeman: Remember is sad. 

[00:23:28] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. 

[00:23:30] Aimee Goeman: Wah w wa. Exactly, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. It's been good to come back, like be involved in the community, something small like this. Mm-hmm. Where in North Scottsdale it's like you're just a cog, you know, it feels, you feel quite disconnected to community.

Mm-hmm. And here it's been, you know, we're just on boards and nonprofits and just everything you do see the output of the work that you're doing. Oh, 

[00:23:54] Penny Fitzgerald: nice. 

[00:23:55] Aimee Goeman: It, it just hits different, you know? 

[00:23:57] Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. Well, yeah, and you're making a [00:24:00] difference there, you know, you've 

[00:24:01] Aimee Goeman: got family and ties. That's true. That's true.

It definitely impacts what we're doing. Impacts the people around us too, that we 

[00:24:07] Penny Fitzgerald: mm-hmm. 

[00:24:08] Aimee Goeman: Yeah. Yeah. That makes a difference. 

[00:24:10] Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. So I have a confession to make. Mm-hmm. About New York wines. Okay. 

so I do this retreat for women called Wine Camp.

Okay. Fun. And yeah, I take people to, um, off the beaten path. Okay. Wine regions and, you know, everybody's, well, if you're a wine lover, you've probably been to Napa, you've probably been to maybe Washington or Oregon. You know, I mean, some of those places are more well known, but people don't, don't think of like Texas Hill Country or Virginia or Finger Lakes.

So, 

[00:24:44] Aimee Goeman: or it was Finger Lakes. Are you taking a wine retreat 

[00:24:46] Penny Fitzgerald: there? I'm taking them to Finger Lakes. Yeah. Is it?yeah, it's next summer. It's, um, July 30th through August 2nd. Okay. And we're staying, I've taken over an entire resort,

[00:24:58] Aimee Goeman: big retreat? 

[00:24:59] Penny Fitzgerald: [00:25:00] Big retreat? Well, 30 of us. Yeah. the resort will hold 30. So yeah, we are, we're gonna have, um, two days of wine tours, shopping experiences around the area. Gonna finish with a, um, sunset boat cruise on Seneca Lake. 

[00:25:14] Aimee Goeman: Nice. 

[00:25:15] Penny Fitzgerald: Gonna be amazing.

Yeah.

[00:25:17] Aimee Goeman: 30 people that's bigger than what some wineries can even hold there. It looked like. Well, we'll, 

[00:25:21] Penny Fitzgerald: yeah, we we're gonna get creative with how we do that. Yeah. Yeah. Super fun. Very fun. Yeah. Just a lot of connection and girl time and you know, meeting some new friends and having just a lot of fun together.

[00:25:35] Aimee Goeman: Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah. Um, where my daughter stepdaughter will be working next summer. Oh yeah. Be one of the places you like. We went to the winery where she had her hands on the grapes that we were drinking. Oh my God. 

[00:25:50] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. I need to talk to her. Yeah. I'll connect you guys. That'd be great. Yeah. I'll get her on the podcast even and talk about, oh, you know, the area and the grapes and the whole thing.

Yeah. [00:26:00] Build it up a little bit. 

[00:26:01] Aimee Goeman: Oh yeah, that would be a great idea. 'cause she, yeah. All that, I mean. I, we've been drinking wine and going to Napa and Sonoma, those places for 20 years. Mm-hmm. But you hear her talk about it and I'm like, okay, chemist, I dunno what you, it's said to me, but I just know about grapes and Uhhuh fermentation at high level.

But she took all this like, technology down and I thought, okay, that's, that's, oh, I'm gonna geek out for sure 

[00:26:26] Penny Fitzgerald: with her because 

[00:26:27] Aimee Goeman: I'll 

[00:26:28] Penny Fitzgerald: connect you guys. Yeah. I love to highlight women in, in the industry, especially 'cause it's been, you know, a lot of men most of the time. But now it's, I mean, women have better palettes, have more finesse.

It's a lot more, you know, it's just fantastic to see women taking the reins. And 

[00:26:43] Aimee Goeman: That's funny. She said, uh, she's the on, well now that she's at, she was at a community college before this that specialized in winery. Yeah. Uhhuh. She was the only female in her class. Really. So we met a bunch of, like, we would go back to the cellar room or whatever and a [00:27:00] bunch of the men were there and I'm like, where are the, no, she goes, I was the only woman.

Oh. So yeah. Not a lot. I I did see another woman in the lab at Cornell when we were there. Mm-hmm. Doing testing on the Riesling that they were working on, but yeah. Yeah. 

[00:27:18] Penny Fitzgerald: Interesting. 

Yeah, I've, I've heard, um, cab Frank is a big, 

[00:27:21] Aimee Goeman: we did try some Cab Frank, 'cause I was like, I want Cab. She's like, I can get you Cab Frank. It's, um, different than what I've normally had. It's 

[00:27:30] Penny Fitzgerald: not a Cabernet Sauvignon, 

[00:27:34] Aimee Goeman: so, um, but honestly, 'cause I thought Penny, that's what I would like more because I, I really wanted that red wine.

It was just Roman. Yeah. Yep. Uh, but I did say my favorite wine of the day, um, was a Ries. 

[00:27:47] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. You know, when you get a good one, they are really complex. Lots of layers of flavor that, that little bit of mineral and almost petroleum kind of, and that doesn't sound very good, but it is 

[00:27:59] Aimee Goeman: [00:28:00] what? Petrol on the nose for sure.

Yeah. Oh, and we were at this, gosh, I've gotta find, it was our favorite stop, um, of the day, and I can't remember the name of it. I'll get it to you, but they do not do any manipulation on the wines. Mm-hmm. I'm adding, they're just are letting it be what it is, which is interesting. Okay. Yeah. 2023 Riesling and in 2024 Uhhuh, they were like completely different wines.

Wow. Totally wines. But they were both Riesling from the same vineyard. Yeah. A year apart. Just no extra yeast or whatever meant, you know, in 

[00:28:32] Penny Fitzgerald: there. It was just, yeah. Just wild yeast. Wow. That's, you know, that's just so fun to try. That's how you learn. I think about a grape too, is, you know, try side by side from different.

Vintages, different vineyards, different producers, but you can really see a difference when you put 'em side by side. 

[00:28:50] Aimee Goeman: Yeah. It's fun. That's, it's kind of, wine tasting is just fun, you know what I mean? It's fun. When I first started going to Napa, I was all into the tasting, [00:29:00] you know, and then at some point, you know, 20 some years later, we were just drink.

I said to my husband, I haven't tasted wine. I feel like we just drink it. That's kind of where, you know, and I walked in, I, me, I mentioned this wine, uh, store in Cave Creek that I had done Yeah. For, for years. And I walked in there on a Tuesday afternoon during the, you know, middle of the day one time. And there was a man, just this one man in there.

And this was last year. And he was sitting there with a notebook and taking notes. And I introduced myself and he said, well, sit down with me and taste this wine that I'm tasting. I sit here every day and taste a bottle of wine and take notes. And I said, well, walk me through your process. 'cause it had been a long, literally, probably 20 years since I tasted the, you know, all the notes.

And I am not kidding you. It was two hours and one and a half glasses of wine. That's how slowly we tasted and talked about, we, you know, debated what we tasted. Yes. Different palate history than I do. And I kept saying, why are, what are you [00:30:00] lick wet rocks? Like why are you getting wet rocks on everything, you know, jokes about it.

But it was, it was, I came home and said to Tad, like, I just taste it. He goes, what do you mean you taste wine? I like, no, we just drink wine. I tasted a glass and a half of wine for two hours with this gentleman. It was wonderful. I miss it. I 

[00:30:19] Penny Fitzgerald: love that. It was fun. Geek out on 

[00:30:22] Aimee Goeman: it. But I mean, just all the different things once you open your mind and think about what, what's going down the hatch.

[00:30:30] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. 

[00:30:31] Aimee Goeman: Savor it. It's different than, ooh, I like this, or this is good. It's got much more, you know, layers to it and I just don't take the time to do that sometimes. 

[00:30:38] Penny Fitzgerald: Well, yeah, 

[00:30:39] Aimee Goeman: I 

[00:30:39] Penny Fitzgerald: think 

[00:30:39] Aimee Goeman: most of us don't 

[00:30:40] Penny Fitzgerald: take the time, you know. Well, and the same is true of food. 

[00:30:45] Aimee Goeman: True, 

[00:30:45] Penny Fitzgerald: true. I would eat fewer m and ms if I just tasted them.

[00:30:50] Aimee Goeman: Well, I just got my third bag of Halloween candy 'cause the first two was gone. So, and, but I will say I got laughed at, at the grocery store because I also bought a tube of toothpaste. [00:31:00] I'm buying candy and toothpaste. I'm like, I know it's balance. You guys Yeah. All about balance. 

[00:31:07] Penny Fitzgerald: That's right.

Oh my gosh. Okay. So yeah. Um, we are recording this like what, two days before Halloween? Yeah, 29th. So, yeah. It is the 29th. Yep. This is why I don't, I don't buy candy for Halloween. 

Because I'd eat it. 

[00:31:26] Aimee Goeman: Well, my strategy has for years has been to buy plain m and ms. 'cause I won't, I'm not a big chocolate eater. I don't really like m and like they're not my favorite. Mm-hmm. So then they just sit there and they'll sit there till next year. I just won't eat 'em. Year. I love candy.

And this year I bought those dang nerd cluster candies, you know? Oh, those are the nerd clusters. 

[00:31:47] Penny Fitzgerald: I have not had one myself, but I've seen them. Oh my 

[00:31:50] Aimee Goeman: gosh. Do yourself a favor and don't start so good. Uh, and so yeah, now I'm on my third bag trying to go [00:32:00] through those. But we some judgment. So my mom's neighborhood in Belmond, they call it Candy Cane Lane.

And I have seen, um, I've been there helping her hand out candy and she will do a head count for how many people stop in. She'll count it and she'll have 350 people. Dang. We just talked about the population of Belmond. Right. Thousand people. So that's a pretty high percentage of people that come through.

Our neighborhood is on the golf course, fewer homes. And, um, I'll leave a, like, we'll be here for a little bit, but then, we'll at my brother's house for a traditional thing with their girls only Uhhuh bucket of candy out in the driveway. And we'll come home and it's still full of candy. No one even what know what the deal is.

But three 50 people at my mom's and we'll have like, you know, 10, they don't come to our neighborhood. 

[00:32:52] Penny Fitzgerald: People haven't gotten the memo that you leave a bucket out there 

[00:32:56] Aimee Goeman: apparently because then guess who's got to eat it. Exactly. [00:33:00] So we're doing candy at the boutique next week too. Is what'll happen.

There'll be people. Oh, there you go. Yeah, yeah, 

[00:33:10] Penny Fitzgerald: yeah. Well, so tell me a little bit about the pool project too. I've been seeing some of it on Facebook and Instagram. 

[00:33:16] Aimee Goeman: We are so close. So when we moved back here, our pool in Belmond, I mean mm-hmm. If you swam in the pool, you were so Oh yeah. Seven years old.

And, um, it was having so many issues that two years ago they kept closing. So this would've been my second year living back in Belmond in the summer, they would have to close the pool because they were constant issues breaking Really? And, uh, I had just, yes, I had just moved back and a friend of mine's mother had fallen and had a, um, brain hemorrhage.

And we had a group of us, a group of friends of us had done a fundraiser for her. And, um, I mean, this was a testament to who they are as in the community. But the group of women worked together and we raised $50,000 in one night. From this Oh wow. Community. And so we [00:34:00] were like, you know what? That kind of felt good.

What is our next cause gonna be? Mm-hmm. So the group, we were sitting actually at Donna's bar in, we were on our way back from the Clear Lake Fall Festival, and we were belied up to the bar on our way home, having one beer on the way home. And we thought, let's just fix this pool. I think we can go, I think we can raise enough money to fix whatever's wrong with the swimming pool.

So we approached the city as a committee and they said, sure, we just had an analysis done and we will see how much money it's gonna cost to fix all the problems. But once you open that can of worms, now you get coated. To the state, you have to bring everything up to code. And this was a 67-year-old pool, so they had a budget to fix it.

Oh. Of $1.4 million uhhuh. And that could include finding or fixing the 30,000 gallon a day leak of water. Whoa. So the city said, we're not even gonna reopen the said, the pool's [00:35:00] closed. We're never gonna open it again. It's too old. That's too much money. And they didn't, they didn't tell us that. Oh, everybody else did.

And we had, you know, been working to raise money and so we quickly regrouped and I said, okay, who's in now? We're gonna build a pool. It's another, this is another animal. Mm-hmm. 6 million. Do you know, five to $6 million to build it. Dang. And every one of 'em raised their hand, said, okay, we're in, let's do this.

'cause kids are, you know, they're gotta have a pool. 

[00:35:29] Penny Fitzgerald: It's kind of the community center and summertime. 

[00:35:32] Aimee Goeman: Yeah. It's um, and. On my sales career side of it, you know, every year, I mean, we're selling eight to $10 million, or I am, you know, just in media and campaigns a year. Um, we did $2 million in eight months for this pool.

Dang. I have never been more proud of any kind of sale or accomplishment that this group has done in eight months from a town of 2000 people. [00:36:00] So the amount of generosity from those people that stepped in and gave huge sums of money, small businesses, gave huge sums of money, grants, huge sums. Mm. Um, just a tremendous amount that came in, um, in a very, very short period of time was incredible.

So we are, we've got just over $2 million raised on hand. Our budget is 5.2 is what we, you know, have for the pool budget. And we're asking the community to approve a bond for $3 million. And that will almost get us there. There's another grant we'll be eligible to apply for, but we have to pass this bond vote.

[00:36:37] Penny Fitzgerald: Hmm. 

[00:36:38] Aimee Goeman: For that to happen. So, 

[00:36:39] Penny Fitzgerald: yeah. And what does that mean for, um, the voters? Like what does that, how will you raise that money? 

[00:36:45] Aimee Goeman: Um, so we've got the 2 million raised, we need 3 million more. That will be this bond. Mm-hmm. And the city will sell off bonds, basically. Okay. And add debt to what the city already has as debt.

So the biggest concern, the biggest. I call it a [00:37:00] battle. The biggest challenge, you know, there's, I'll probably never work on a government project again. It's been very challenging. Oh, you think so many rules about things you can't do. Like we had an electrical company that said, I'll provide electrical services in kind, and the government won't let you accept it because it's a government project over certain dollar amount.

So it's like, gosh, you know, it just makes it difficult. Lots of, lots of, I felt like the entire two years I've been on this project, it's been navigating this labyrinth of things. We can and cannot do a lot of mental exercise. Um, but the, we got to a point where actually, um, I believe we actually really impressed the city financial planner who's based in West Des Moines, because this group had raised so much money.

He was like, holy smokes. I've never seen anything like it. Um, and like, we've got this challenge. No one wants their taxes to go up. Mm-hmm. And the mm-hmm. Up, you know, like. $2 and 98 cents a month or whatever it was. Mm. And um, we [00:38:00] got on the phone with him in December and just started just, I call it skull crushing, like really getting together and trying to figure out how can we make this work.

And he figured out a way to layer the debt in. So there's old debt that falls off and debt that goes on. So the tax rate remains steady. Now there's a difference a couple times where the tax rate would jump up, but he's using local option sales tax to pay down that delta. Oh, nice. Even, and it was just a genius way and he figured out if he does the pool and there's a huge repair on one of our main thorough affairs that needs to get done, if he couples those two together, there's a better interest rate and it's just better.

So he really figured it out and how to do this. So now I, I don't think there's any reason to vote against it except that people mistrust city government. So I'm hearing. Are you sure the taxes won't go up? I'm like, well, here's the tax plat for the next 25 years, showing it going down Uhhuh, you know, not going up.

And [00:39:00] they just don't believe it. They're just, there's just mistrust in government. I think so. Mm-hmm. So, um, I'm taking carloads of people that I wanna make sure it gets to the polls on Tuesday. Took the day off of my job just to make sure that people get out there and vote because it's time. And if we don't pass it this year, we already had a year delayed because some petitions were put forth, um, and that delayed it.

Right? Oh. So every year we delayed it cost us $200,000 just for Yeah. For paperwork, you know, dang. A, a slide is $200,000, so if we don't pass it this year, we can't have a slide. You know, those kinds of things. So, oh gosh, it gets done. Um, but I have, I've learned so much from this process that I do think it actually, it's probably in a couple things, um, leading this committee and organizing it and.

I moved into a leadership role about a year and a half ago, and I thought, okay, this is, I like leading people from actually formally doing. It was enjoyable and I think [00:40:00] my next gig might be in corporate fundraising. I mean, I, it just nice different, when you're raising money for something that impacts the community or benefits an underprivileged group, it hits so much different than, not that I don't love my customers what I'm doing, but just hits different than mm-hmm.

Selling soda. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It has a little bit different feeling in your gut. 

[00:40:29] Penny Fitzgerald: The impact is greater. Yeah. Yeah. It feels good. It does feel good. Something else that's really cool is the committee coming together and solving problems over a beer. Isn't that fun? It's very fun. We were, I mean. 

[00:40:45] Aimee Goeman: So when our friend's mom had that accident, it was just like, oh my, you know, oh my gosh, this is, she had rehab, extensive rehab and, and mm-hmm.

Um, so that fundraiser, and I think we all, we'd never done this before. We'd never done this big, none of us had done one of these things and just Uhhuh [00:41:00] just kind of came together and clicked, and we looked at each other at Donna's at mm-hmm. The, the bar said, we all kind of liked it, it felt good to do it.

Mm-hmm. We, we think we have a knack for it. Um, where else can we take it? And that's just, it's, I'm not gonna say it's been roses the whole time. This has been a very stressful project. Oh, sure. Had timelines and deadlines. So my next project will probably not have timelines and deadlines on it. We're already working on it, but, um, this one did, and it, it feels a little bit different pressure, and some people don't perform well under pressure, you know, and other people step up and pull.

It feels like you're pulling people along. So it's, it hasn't been easy. Mm-hmm. Um, but it has been rewarding, I 

[00:41:43] Penny Fitzgerald: think, for us. Mm-hmm. Yeah, for sure. You'll have to let me know how it goes on Tuesday. Well, well you'll know. I'll watch. Yeah. I'll be watching 

[00:41:54] Aimee Goeman: we putting it on the social. So yeah, with the good vibes out there, we [00:42:00] need to 

[00:42:00] Penny Fitzgerald: Yes.

[00:42:01] Aimee Goeman: Sending them to Belmond. Yeah. Yeah. Two. Yes. Um, okay, so we've been talking about really fun things and, and you mentioned Cabernet. You love, love Cabernet. But at the end of every, uh, podcast conversation, I love to ask, what's your favorite cocktail or glass of wine? So other than Cabernet, do you have another favorite? I mean, I feel like there's so many, and it would just be ous alcoholic if I started. 

[00:42:28] Penny Fitzgerald: There's no judgment on my podcast. 

[00:42:31] Aimee Goeman: Um. So I love wine and I, you know, really love, there's a Cabernet Sauvignon. Uh, actually it's a merlott that we love, but we just love, you know, very earthy red wines. But I did get into, uh, tequila a few years ago and uh, actually on my, in Arizona, there are about four of us that have birthdays in February, and we always did thing, we went to a tequila tasting and got schooled on, it's a whole thing.

I was bougie drinking that, [00:43:00] um, you know, clear tequila and they're like, no, that's Blanco. Yeah, the Blanco's not worth that. It's Reposado. I'm like, what? You know, I take my college mindset of brown tequila and put that on the shelf over here and like reopen my, that's a different animal. Yeah. Uh, and so yeah, actually really kind of enjoy and just neat.

Sometimes I'll salt my on a neat glass with tequila on the box, but I don't do margaritas. I don't, it doesn't make my stomach so well, I just, yeah. Nice. Too much acid and sugar in margaritas. Uh, things don't set well as I get older, so I gotta be careful. Oh girl. Oh, what the heck? I know. Turn things off. I don't sleep.

And that's too, like I didn't have drink for two months here thinking Yeah. What's that about? Well, I, I, if I drink now, I don't sleep. I'm at this phase with my hormone. Crazy. If I drink, I'm not sleeping. Um, so I took two months off thinking I'd get to sleep [00:44:00] through the night. One of these, 

[00:44:01] Penny Fitzgerald: yeah. 

[00:44:02] Aimee Goeman: The night.

Four nights in two months, I still am not sleeping. 

[00:44:05] Penny Fitzgerald: Okay. Well that's kind of, you know, in my mind that's a good thing. Then I don't have to stop drinking. Right. So that's not gonna help. Keep having your wine. It's 

[00:44:13] Aimee Goeman: okay. Have a glass. I know, I know. So, um, yeah, that's probably my favorite. If someone has nice tequila, I'll do that.

Otherwise, it'll be a glass of wine. Okay. And I point too, Penny, where we had a, uh, went to Italy and we did a tour with this private tour guide. And I remember him saying to us, I said something about we had this nice, this is what it was. It was our Sullivan wine. It was expensive wine, but we had saved it for years because we only want it for special occasions, Uhhuh.

And we went to a, um, vacation on the, we had a riverfront property. We corked that first bottle of wine. It was vinegar. Oh, corked. The second bottle of wine vinegar. No, no. Our wine has gone off. So that, uh, Giancarlo [00:45:00] had said to us, drink the good wine on Tuesdays. Life is too short. You never know if Wednesday's gonna come.

[00:45:06] Penny Fitzgerald: I used to say something very similar 

[00:45:08] Aimee Goeman: like, this is my Tuesday wine. I, someone used to say to me, what do you drink on Tuesdays? And then after that Giancarlo statement, when we were home, I'm like, I drink the good stuff on Tuesdays 'cause whatever I want. Well, just because it's not Saturday life's too short for that.

Yes. But we got home from that trip and we thought, oh my God, our good wine is going off. We better drink it. So we started drinking. I mean we were drinking like $20 bottles of wine. And now these are not 20 bottles. Wine drinking those every day. And it's very hard. It ruined us. It's very hard to go back.

It is very hard to go back. So, um, but that's what I say, life's too short to eat, to, to drink sw. So just drink good stuff. Mm-hmm. 

[00:45:52] Penny Fitzgerald: And 

[00:45:52] Aimee Goeman: with it maybe. 

[00:45:53] Penny Fitzgerald: And enjoy it. 

[00:45:55] Aimee Goeman: Enjoy every sip. Yeah. That's right. Savor [00:46:00] it now. I was reintroducing how to taste it. 

[00:46:04] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah, there you go. 

[00:46:08] Aimee Goeman: Yeah. 

[00:46:09] Penny Fitzgerald: Okay. So what's a favorite memory shared with friends?

[00:46:12] Aimee Goeman: A favorite memory? Oh no, this is so broad. A favorite memory shared with friends 

[00:46:21] Penny Fitzgerald: or 

[00:46:21] Aimee Goeman: family. Um, I feel like everything's about alcohol, but 

[00:46:27] Penny Fitzgerald: not a 

[00:46:28] Aimee Goeman: post. Um, so a couple years ago, gosh, maybe two summers ago, um, some very good friends of our from Minneapolis mm-hmm. Who actually, she was a client of mine through my advertising business.

And I remember she said to me one day, I'm gonna have to tell you no on this advertising plan, but I hope that we can be friends outside of work. Our husbands get along and so we're, we travel together. So, um, we had met in Napa and gone to Yosemite, um, 10 years earlier. [00:47:00] Is that right? 10 years earlier we had done this trip and now it was 10 years after that we were redoing the same trip again, but we invited some more friends of ours.

Oh, fun. Who had since moved from Minneapolis. They were now in, uh, Seattle. So we all met in Yosemite and then went wine tasting in California. Mm-hmm. We brought them, it was interesting because Tad and I had gone to Sullivan the first time we went to Napa, which was 20 some years ago, and we've been a member for 20 years and we call, we said we're bringing friends, we haven't been back to the winery.

We're bringing friends. Can we do a tasting? And you know, Napa tastings we're like, maybe they're $25 a person. Yeah. Now they used to be free and if you buy mm-hmm. Wa it, and they said to us, um, okay, we will reserve the tasting room for you. I'm like, I don't know that you need to do that. And she said, well, we only have private tastings is what we do, so we can cater to the attention to the people that are there.

I said, okay. When we were there 20 years ago, it was just like a [00:48:00] folding table outside, but that's not, yeah. Nice. And she said, so it'll be three $50 a person. I said, oh my God, what? We're not gonna go. We're not gonna go. And she looked this up and she's like, well, I've had you as a wine member in here since 20, uh, 15.

I said, no, it was like 2004 that I was out there. Mm-hmm. She was like, oh, we revamped our database in 2015. We didn't even go back that far anymore. But you haven't been here since then and taken advantage of any of the things we do. So bring your group and we'll just taste you for free. 'cause 

[00:48:32] Penny Fitzgerald: I would say so.

[00:48:33] Aimee Goeman: Right. So, wow. Was that the most amazing wine tasting we've ever Yeah. Was beautiful room, beautiful setting. Gorgeous. Of course, they all joined the wine club too, then it was, oh yeah. Really nice. But, oh, what? We walked around the pond and we laughed so hard. They just, they just let us have fun, you know?

Yeah. Not in front of anyone that we need to. It's one, there was a private tasting, so there's nobody else on [00:49:00] premises except us. We could be. Yeah. It was a good time. So, yeah, that 

[00:49:03] Penny Fitzgerald: was, that sounds amazing. 

[00:49:05] Aimee Goeman: Yeah. 

[00:49:06] Penny Fitzgerald: Where was that? What, what winery called? Sullivan. 

[00:49:09] Aimee Goeman: Sullivan, okay. Yeah, it is. They're really good.

Merlots. Mm. Right. What's that movie line? I will not drink F'N Merlott. We do. We love it. And we love it. 

[00:49:21] Penny Fitzgerald: I love a good merlott. Yeah, yeah. 

[00:49:23] Aimee Goeman: Yeah. Good juice, 

[00:49:25] Penny Fitzgerald: so Yeah. Yes. Good juice. It's go juice, it's, yeah. Exactly. 

[00:49:31] Aimee Goeman: Exactly. 

[00:49:32] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh, that's awesome. Okay. Is there anything that I haven't asked you that you want to share?

[00:49:38] Aimee Goeman: Oh, I think this has been great. I, this has been so fun. Fun. Um, I'm gonna introduce you to Kaylee and I wanna hear more about like this wine trip that you guys put together. Oh 

[00:49:48] Penny Fitzgerald: yeah. Yeah. It's gonna be amazing. Um, it's been growing every year and just a really great time for girlfriends to connect. 

[00:49:55] Aimee Goeman: So you're the organizer of the trip?

Mm-hmm. Yeah. [00:50:00] Is this, do you just do one a year? One a year? 

[00:50:03] Penny Fitzgerald: Yep. 

[00:50:04] Aimee Goeman: I know some of, some people that will go to take people to Italy and a more of a food base, more than wine base. Yeah. Sounds like a very similar kind of 

[00:50:11] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. We'll do some 

[00:50:12] Aimee Goeman: food things too. Arizona wine country. And then you're gonna laugh at me when you hear this, but if you go No.

Uh, food and wine, I think it was a year ago, woke them up as the next wine frontier Uhhuh. They're, there's some not so good wineries, but there are excellent, excellent wineries down there. Um, probably four or five. And it's beautiful. Mm. Country. It's like rolling hills with weak colored grass and hairy winkle blue sky.

It's just stunning scenery down there. 

[00:50:45] Penny Fitzgerald: I love the desert Southwest. It's so gorgeous in Arizona. Yeah. Jeff and I were down there, Hmm. More than 20 years ago and went to a couple of wineries. I, I wanna say is it Benson? Is Benson. That's when you 

[00:50:59] Aimee Goeman: were down [00:51:00] there. You were? Yeah. 

[00:51:00] Penny Fitzgerald: Was that it? 

[00:51:02] Aimee Goeman: No. Um, so Sonoita is the area down there.

Okay. Um, and it's interesting, a lot of the tasting rooms are down in Sonoita, but the Benson areas where a lot of the fields are. 

[00:51:12] Penny Fitzgerald: Okay. Yeah. We drove through there and tasted some 

[00:51:15] Aimee Goeman: wines. They were good even then. Yeah. Well it's totally different landscape now. It's totally changed. It is. It's interesting.

There's a rancher community and there's the wine growing community and I don't know. Okay. But that's all there is down there. So it's an interesting, it's interesting. God, this was a fun memory. I was down there wine tasting with a girlfriend of mine. Three years ago, and, um, and I'm gonna forget the name of the Grammy winning group that he was in, um, I'll tell you in a second while I look this up, but we went to the steakhouse.

There's like one steakhouse Uhhuh in this, in this place. It's a tiny little town. And it was really weird. It was like, there was, we were in the bar and there was a little pony wall that went to the restaurant. And in the back of the restaurant was a band [00:52:00] playing Uhhuh. So you could see we were in the bar and there was this older gentleman sitting at the bar and everyone that came in would take their cowboy hat off and shake this man's hand.

It was like kissing the ring. Wow. And so, and everyone that worked, um, behind the bar, they were beautiful looking people. Good looking. I thought, God, we're in Sia. We're in the middle of rancher. Nowhere land. What's the cowboy Mafia? I thought there was this one gentleman that was prettier than the rest of the people working at the bar.

Just said he had piercing blue eyes, a red bandana tied, tied around his neck, you know, denim shirt that was opened up a little bit. And I thought, God, he just looked different than the rest of 'em. You know, the band started playing a song. Okay. Midland, have you heard of the group? Midland? I've heard of it.

I'm 

[00:52:52] Penny Fitzgerald: not familiar too much. 

[00:52:53] Aimee Goeman: There was a song I recognized. The band started playing that song and this little bit different looking cowboy from behind the [00:53:00] bar jumps over the pony wall from the bar and goes on stage and grabs the mic from this guy that s singing the song and starts singing. He's the lead singer from the group Midland.

And this cover band was singing his song. Oh my God. Cover band. Didn't know his, so we said to our waitress, what is going on? And she's like, oh. That old man that everyone's shaking hand. That's Mr. Wystrach. He Wystrach, he owns this bar and his whole family's in town for reunions. So they're all working behind the bar.

And his son is the lead singer for Midland. Oh my God. Okay. I'm gonna send you his profile to look at and he, okay. He was remarkably different than anybody else in that bar. Okay. What? And so we went back the next year with our husband, had to recreate this experience. Uhhuh just, yeah. 

[00:53:44] Penny Fitzgerald: You can't do, yeah, that's a, that was a magical moment.

[00:53:48] Aimee Goeman: A magical moment. I thought, God, 

[00:53:49] Penny Fitzgerald: good time. That's probably my favorite fun, uh, memory about one. That's fun. Yeah. Okay, so I'm gonna have to include all these links in the show notes so people can go look this all up. [00:54:00] 

[00:54:00] Aimee Goeman: I'll make sure we put his profile on there too, so. Okay. Okay. You'll be thanking 

[00:54:06] Penny Fitzgerald: me for that.

I'll, okay.

Oh gosAimeeAmy, this has been so fun. 

[00:54:14] Aimee Goeman: Thank you for inviting 

[00:54:15] Penny Fitzgerald: me. Thank you. Thanks for being here. Yeah, we um, we may have to have a sequel at some point 'cause I feel like we have more to say. 

[00:54:23] Aimee Goeman: I would love that. 

 thank you for inviting me. It was very nice chatting with you. 

[00:54:26] Penny Fitzgerald: Good to see you. Good to see you. Bye. 

Bye.