The GM Who Proves that the Best Business move is Knowing Your Audience.

Jason Martin isn't just the General Manager of Alaska Business, he is a living legacy representing 3 generations right here in  Alaska. Whoever said that the Last Frontier is a limitation? It's a launchpad.

 From the start at Stellar to becoming one of Walmart's youngest managers to leading statewide marketing for the Odom Corporation, Jason has built a reputation for sharp strategy. Better yet is his and sharper wit. He co-founded Scared Scriptless, Alaska's longest-running comedy improv troupe, and spent over two decades in local theater - a background that quietly explains everything about how he reads a room, leads a team, and tells a story. 

When he's not running one of the state's most respected media brands, you'll find him on the trails or the water, biking or kayaking through the same landscape that's kept three generations of Jason's family calling Alaska home.

Produced by Upper 1 Solutions

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Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:05

It's been a few weeks since I've done one of these again.

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Me too.

SPEAKER_03 0:08

And I don't know if you've had a chance to watch the few that I've done.

SPEAKER_00 0:11

Yes, and love them.

SPEAKER_03 0:12

It's completely impromptu. And even just signing up with Upper One to start offering podcasts to some people that I bump into from now and again. Sure. People that maybe I know I've been introduced to, I find that after about 10 minutes talking here and candidly, I find that we have one degree of separation. And that's why we coined that as the title for the podcast. And I love it. It's just um, and you're one of those people that came to mind. Now, interestingly enough, when I emailed you, um I wasn't thinking it was you. You have been referred for a podcast. When I keep asking people whether I'm at F Street or I'm at Rotary, give me somebody really interesting, somebody fun.

SPEAKER_00 0:58

I can have and they were like, Jason Martin will know that person, but he is not that person.

SPEAKER_03 1:02

You were referred so out of context so many times, four or five, that I wasn't connecting that it was you because I'm horrible with names and I just wasn't placing it. Yeah. So there thank you. Yeah, I appreciate that actually. That's good. Um, so I appreciate your um ability to clear your schedule to be here and for the good work that you guys do for people like hey, you guys, your team has been so good to us over the years. So I feel like I know you in tandem. But I would um why are you in Alaska?

SPEAKER_00 1:33

That's a great question, Paula. Um uh name dropper two that I just did there. I used your name in a sense.

SPEAKER_03 1:38

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 1:39

Uh that's an old trick. Um, so I I was born here forever ago, um, about 21 years ago. Yeah. Um double plus half of that. Um, so I've been here a little while. Uh third generation Alaskan. Uh spent the majority of my life fantasizing about the real world that was as a as a small child, was everything that wasn't Alaska. Right. Like Alaska wasn't really, even as a kid, it wasn't real to me. It was just the place you live until you get to go where you want to go. Right. Um, so I spent most of my life just fantasizing about outside of Alaska and getting out of Alaska. And um, being a third generation Alaskan, uh uh just a ton of family up here, had uh half a dozen cousins and uh dozens of aunts and uncles, and we would have these lavish, massive, huge family ordeals up at Nancy Lake uh every year for Christmas and Thanksgiving and all summer long. It would just be all of the cousins up there trying to see who can drown the other ones, um, always with life jackets. So it never really succeeded. We never succeeded in killing any of us off that way. But um, but we did try. Oh, good, good, good, yeah. Yeah, yeah, you gotta try.

SPEAKER_01 2:38

All the best people.

SPEAKER_00 2:39

All the best cousins. Uh, and uh I the the older I got, the more I appreciated Alaska. So the the the more I adapted to ha uh hobbies here, including like ice climbing and rock, um, getting outside and seeing Alaska in a different way. It wasn't just, you know, in the car on the way to Nancy Lake was kind of what my view of Alaska was. It was either Nancy Lake or it was Anchorage, um, or occasionally Seward, you know, if we did trips like that. Um, and it wasn't until it was like my my senior year in high school that my folks and I and my my sister as well took a took a trip to Denali. Um she was leaving to be an exchange student in Australia for a full year. So this was like our our our swan songs the last time I was gonna see my sister for a whole year. Um and you know, who else, who's who other who other uh person am I gonna pull their hair? Uh certainly not my own. Um I had more then. But uh so we we go up to Denali and because of a car breakdown issue with with our uh this Toyota minivan that we were driving, uh what was supposed to just be a weekend up at Denali ended up being uh a full week that we that we ended up waiting for this part for the Toyota uh to show up. Um so we ended up just getting to know the the the staff at this uh the uh the cabins that we were staying at. Uh and we saw more of Denali than you ever could in a weekend trip. So uh and getting to know the staff there. They they took us on basically like these fam tours, like these familiarization tours. Right. So we got to go back on trails that you wouldn't normally get to as a tourist. And yeah, so and and and I and I just felt like I'm seeing Alaska for the first time. I'm seeing it in a new way. And I saw, you know, I'd driven by Denali on the way to Fairbanks half a dozen times at that point in my life, and dozens more since then. But that was the first time I'd gone into the park and seen Denali from like from the base of it, and you're looking up and you can't look in any direction and not see Danali. And it was just like I it was there, there have been moments in my life, dozens probably a month, uh, that I'm awe-inspired. Um, I wake up every day trying to find something inspiring and something amazing about that day. Um, but that was one of those moments in my life that I just realized like I just felt so both powerful for being on this planet with this massive rock that I'm standing in front of, and so insignificant all at the same time. Uh and it just made me fall in love with a lot of time. Right, that's it. That's it, that's all I think. I'm very deep.

SPEAKER_03 4:59

I'm very deep, as deep as a shadow pond, um, maybe a mud puddle.

SPEAKER_00 5:03

Um, and everybody's entertaining. So uh that was really when I started uh a passion for Alaska and when I really realized this is where I want to be. Right. Uh and then that's when my hobbies started taking off that were outdoor activities in Alaska. It wasn't like dreading the winter, it was celebrating. It was getting outside and snowshoeing and and uh um did a little bit of cross-country skiing when I was younger, learned I didn't love that. Uh love snowshoeing though, just because you can get off trail, you can go wherever you want to. Uh, and ice climbing just because you can see things that otherwise you wouldn't get to see from anywhere else in Alaska but from the top of a peak. Right.

SPEAKER_03 5:34

Um what I love about that is um very similar upbringing. I'm I keep saying I'm fourth generation Alaskan, and my dad came to the top 40 under 40. Oh yeah. And I was presenting, and he said, you know, you're sixth. So I don't I've got some stories in my family because I don't know, somebody was running from the law or something. I don't know. I've got to figure out how far that's right. Um so uh I thought that was interesting, but also raised in Anchorage, and my venture was always from Anchorage to Big Lake because we had a island on the south end of the lake. And somebody mentioned the other day and laughed at me and said, you know what you just described. You said, Well, I lived in a trailer and that we were homesteaders, but on the weekend I'd get to go to our island. And she said, That's a little bit of a contrast there.

SPEAKER_00 6:18

The juxtaposition was like, You would understand that, right?

SPEAKER_03 6:20

And I I really didn't see all of Alaska growing up. And I think some of us that were born in Anchorage in particular, we didn't venture out because we had adventure right out our back door, not to be too funny. It was not exactly a metropolitan center, so to speak. Um, and I just find that interesting that it's I would get in the back of a truck because I'm a little more mature than you are. No, you're not. So I I would I remember getting super excited because we got a new refrigerator and we had a refrigerator box. So we put that in the back of the truck. And my cousin and I sat in there and played cards on the way to Big Lake. And right, you know, those are some of my favorite stories. But we really didn't get off the road system that much other than to go to the lake.

SPEAKER_00 7:02

Yeah, same some like the same upbringing that's that funny. Yeah, and we were just passing Big Lake to go to Nancy Lake. Yep. Um and we were bouncing around the back of a Pontiac station wagon at the time with no seat belts, just me and my sister and whatever cousins happened to tag along to that uh for that road trip up to Nancy Lake. So that's so good. Seat belts, man, who needs them?

SPEAKER_03 7:19

My cousin and I were just we had dinner the other night, just an impromptu dinner, and we brought up that story about being in the back of the truck. And do you remember that time it was raining? We were um we were sitting on the top of two by fours in the back of a pickup truck to hold them down. And we were only seven and eight, I think. And we looked back, we're like, was that wise parenting? I'm not really that sure. They might have wanted to off us. We don't we're not confident.

SPEAKER_00 7:43

Which is cheaper than sandbags. That's exactly what you're doing. Throw a couple kids back there to keep the the two by fours from bouncing out of the bike.

SPEAKER_03 7:48

Oh, we were laughing so hard. Boy, they wouldn't let you get away with that now.

SPEAKER_00 7:50

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, apparently. That's even less than no seat belts. My wife and I learned over the years.

SPEAKER_03 7:55

Oh, yeah, I learned the hard my kids learned the hard way.

SPEAKER_00 7:57

Not what a ski rack is for. That's right. Transporting children.

SPEAKER_03 8:00

Weird.

SPEAKER_00 8:00

Weird.

SPEAKER_03 8:01

They frown on that.

SPEAKER_00 8:01

Yeah, the neighbors do.

SPEAKER_03 8:02

Yeah. So you mentioned, did you have you lived here the whole time or did you go outside for any period of time? Have you lived in the Lower 48 at all?

SPEAKER_00 8:10

No, this is it. I I've had the great luxury of traveling, and with my amazing wife, we we do a fair amount of traveling and get to see things, but not really dive deep the way I've had the opportunity here as a, as a, as a lifer in Alaska. Um, so I've never lived anywhere else outside of Alaska. Uh and never, I, you know, in until like this last winter, I never really wanted to. Right. Um, I spent my teenage years trying to get out of Alaska, only to realize I love Alaska. And now as an adult, I still love Alaska, but I don't love the winters that seem to get longer every year.

SPEAKER_03 8:38

This one was rough on me. Yeah. It's the first time I've got a very good friend that lives down in Colorado. And I said, I'm gonna utter some words that you've never heard from me. And that was, I contemplated not living here. And that's never happened to me before. And it was it, this was an incredibly long winter.

SPEAKER_00 8:55

And yeah, my wife and I as well. We were just like, you know, like when is it gonna be over? When are we gonna, you know, when is the snow gonna melt? When can we get outside? And inevitably, you know, we get that that false spring and we get uh we all get excited and we go out there and we start doing our our sunshine dance that turns into apparently a snow dance because none of us are doing it right. Uh exactly. So we end up with our second and third winter. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 9:14

And we have this year, it's been something else. And sometimes a windstorm right in the middle just to make sure we're awake.

SPEAKER_00 9:20

Just keep us in check. That's right. Just remind us.

SPEAKER_03 9:23

Yep, I can understand that completely. I except for I got a really when I said that out loud, it was like talking about a best friend or a relative. I got a ping of guilt. Same thing, same exact feeling. It's yeah, Alaska's a family member, it's not necessarily a geographic location. Yep. So that's kind of it gave me goosebumps already.

SPEAKER_00 9:43

Oh, same, same exact same exactly. This is a superpower of mine, is goosebumps. And I just had that because I've never been able to put my finger on what that feeling is. No. Um, as as I became an adult, more and more of my family were moving outside of Alaska. So there's fewer of uh of our contingency up here now. Uh, and they've all moved down to the Pacific Northwest, where we had some some other family and a lot of history there as well. Um, and I and it was always just like, how can you leave Alaska? How do you do that? Like it would feel like leaving a family member behind. It is. Um, which at times I'm sure my wife has thought about doing with me. But um uh and the one time at Walmart with our happened in our home this morning and it was my husband.

SPEAKER_03 10:20

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 10:20

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:20

You can go to work now.

SPEAKER_00 10:21

Yeah, you're we're done now. You're free for the day. Okay, if I have to. Um yeah, and and and I've never been able to put into words what that is when I tell somebody like, oh man, I'm I'm kind of ready to move out of Alaska. Yeah. Um, again, my entire life here, but the winter's just being so long. Maybe, maybe really what I am is ready to be a snowbird. I'm ready to, I just don't have the money to support that lifestyle of having two completely separate homes. My my grandparents were able to pull it off, and they have a home down in uh Arizona. So they do the snowbird thing and did it magnificently for years and years. Um, so maybe I'll just crash on their couch.

SPEAKER_03 10:54

I mean, why not? Every winter just go down there and crash on their couch. I'm sure they won't mind. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 10:58

I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 10:58

I think my dad started doing that, um, snowboarding, and I I never saw him uh with that potential either. Um, so anyway.

SPEAKER_00 11:06

When you said your dad did, I thought you meant crashing on your couch. Yes, yes, no, showing up unexpectedly. Just I'm here, Paula.

SPEAKER_03 11:12

Yeah, no, it would be the other way around. Yeah, yeah, and in Arizona if I could. Um so what what keeps you here outside of the love for Alaska? What how did you get into working where you work?

SPEAKER_00 11:22

You know, like anybody's sorted past.

SPEAKER_03 11:24

As a vocation, you know, early on.

SPEAKER_00 11:25

Yeah, I uh I mentioned the station wagon that we were bouncing around in on weekends on the way up to Nancy Lake. Uh I I kind of grew up in the station wagon, um, not because we were without a house, but because um my dad had just started uh at the time Alaska Journal of Commerce. So in delivering these, uh the newsprint that we were taken out to all the different locations, my sister and I would sit in the back as child labor um before child labor laws existed. Um and and he he he still says, Um, or at least I still remember this, that child labor laws don't apply when you're family. So we would, even as kids, we would joke about that.

SPEAKER_03 11:56

Like, that's kind of oh no, it was that's a that was a theme in my house. It was, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:01

Ours as well. It's just like, okay, it's time to go to work. I'm like, wait, I I don't work for you. What are you talking about? Like, I got toys to play with. Um, but every Sunday we'd be up early uh before church and we'd be in the back of the station wagon throwing the throwing the journal of commerce out to all the different locations. So kind of kind of bounced around with newsprint or um the the journal as a as a small child. And then into high school, um, I would go and uh visit my dad because uh I I went to Stellar High School here in town. Um and we didn't have our own bus service. So to get home, I'd have to walk to his office, which was only, you know, it doesn't sound like much, like a mile and a half away. Um but in the wintertime, that seemed like it seemed like I might as well have been climbing Denali. You probably were. Yeah, yeah, and in a t-shirt and jeans. Yes, exactly. You know, to Alaska and you're a teenager. Yeah. Right, right. Um, so uh, or with my massively oversized moon boots that we had at the time. Uh so I'd I'd go to his his office and there wouldn't be much to do. So I would find things to entertain myself. So they had one of the one of the literally one of the fastest computers in the state. Oh wow uh was one of these machines that they had. Uh, because my my dad was an early adopter of a lot of the technology. Um so when, and this is gonna date myself to even make the reference, um, it was a Lasermaster machine. So anybody who's listening or even watching, um, or even watching. That's right.

SPEAKER_02 13:15

The the two people.

SPEAKER_00 13:16

Right, right. Hi. See you again, mom. Thanks for thanks for tuning in. Um, so it the this Laser Master machine was was massively advanced, and it was just for typesetting and just for making uh newsprint magazines, things, things of that nature. Um, but in addition to that, they had a PC that was top of the line uh that I wanted to play video games on. But the art director at the time is like, well, no, you can't play video games on this. This is a this is a business machine. Right. But I'll tell you what, if you design ads, because I I because I would doodle and stuff like that, she's like, if you if you want to, if you want to design ads, then and and and you can help me finish my job early, then anytime after I'm done with my job, you can take over the computer and play your video games. And I was like, Dad, is that cool?

SPEAKER_01 13:55

And he's like, Yeah, that's fine, whatever you need. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:57

Um, so it kept me out of his hair and uh it got her job done even faster. So I learned to to I learned graphic design uh just through a passion of PC gaming and wanted to get back to uh PC gaming and kick her out of the office. So I had time to play video games on this supercomputer at the time. Um, so again, that's so then I'm I'm doing art, uh I'm doing design, uh, graduate high school. I still have a love of of PCs and technology. Uh and I started a freelance business doing um uh graphic design. Um and I think I have the record for like the this isn't this isn't real, by the way. I think I have the record for like the most companies that closed because they worked with me. Oh, there you go. Yeah, so there was a there was a coffee shop that was amazing uh over on Spinnard.

SPEAKER_03 14:38

Red Lantern Award kind of thing. Exactly. Yeah, yeah. Still proud.

SPEAKER_00 14:41

Congratulations. That's right. You have the Red Lantern. Like, that sounds fantastic, as long as I don't know what it means. Um then you do you learn what it means, and you're like, oh, that's not so great. Um, so yeah, so I designed this amazing menu and logo. And uh the the uh if there's old schoolers here that lived in Spinnard or frequented Spinard, the the coffee shop was called the Java Joint.

SPEAKER_01 15:00

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 15:00

Um so I made their first ever logo, which was this coffee cup with a highlight that was the J from the Java, and then a shadow, which was de J from the joint. So it was Java joint in highlight and shadow, black and white, coffee and cream. And it was just like, oh my gosh, I'm firing out all cylinders. This is what I was meant to do. I'm supposed to be a graphic designer, I'm gonna take over the world. And two weeks later, they're like, we can't pay you, we're closing. And it's like, oh, okay, I understand. Yeah. Yeah. And then, you know, and then fast forward is a decade later, and Wien Air was doing a reboot. This is in the late 90s, uh, when they were looking to start the airline again. So they put out a uh, they had an RFP for tail art. Okay. And I was like, oh my gosh, this would be incredible. And I was like, I could probably charge hundreds of dollars for tail art. Uh, and this, again, just to date myself, predates the internet for purposes of like detailed web searching and things like that. So I couldn't just go to the internet and say, how much should I charge for tail art as a graphic designer? So I but there was a book, um, Pricing and Ethical Guidelines, I think it's the name of it, for graphic designers. And it has projects just to kind of make sure everybody stays on the same page for pricing. Right. So you don't go too crazy or even underbid. Um, so uh I was going through there and there's a few things, and basically it kind of says, like, this is a logo, you need to charge more for it because it's gonna live for a long time and you're gonna put a lot of time into this. You can't really charge by the hour for something like a logo. Um, which by the way, the upper one guys, I don't know if you've seen their logo, the guy who designed that, the original logo, he's amazing. I'm not gonna say who he was, but I know him very personally. Uh, that's a one-degree situation. Um, so with with that, uh, I designed this tail art and they loved it, and it was amazing. And and my art was gonna be on the tail of Ween airplanes as they as they did this. And then they closed it. Yeah, exactly right. Yeah. So that was like the theme song for for probably half a dozen companies. Oh. Um, another one I had the great fortune of working with through Alaska Business was uh Great Land Air Cargo. And they were flying caribou aircraft at the time. So the caribou aircraft, they weren't, there weren't too many of them up here. Um, but one of their pilots took this amazing shot out of the cockpit down into this uh field of tundra of this herd of caribou.

SPEAKER_01 17:08

Right.

SPEAKER_00 17:08

So it was a shadow of a caribou aircraft and this herd of caribou across the tundra. And they're like, we don't know what to do with this, but do something. This is what we want. And so I'm looking at it down, and and and this is uh this is early in Photoshop's ease of manipulation and before AI, where you could just be like, hey, make this herd of caribou in the shape of Alaska. Yes. Uh, which is what I did over weekend. Oh, did you really? So yeah, cut cutting and pasting all these little caribou to make the shape of Alaska. And this one caribou shadow was the island of Kodiak was the shadow of this caribou. And I was like, this is amazing. And they're like, we love it, except and I'm like, oh, they're closing. And they're like, no, no, no, nothing like that. I'm like, oh, thank goodness. Except now we have two caribou aircraft. Oh. So we want two shadows. Okay, no big deal. That's great. As long as you're not closing, that's great. That's good. So I designed this ad, it's amazing. Um, they loved it, and it went on t-shirts and billboards and signs and everything. Yeah, and it was just really cool to see my art out there. Sure. Uh, and in a way that I hadn't expected when it was just a business card or something like that or a print ad. So it really took on a life of its own. Um, and then they had two mishaps with their aircraft the very next year, and they ended up having to close because of those airplane mishaps. When you only have two aircraft, it's pretty tough to keep a flight operation without planes. Um, I learned. Uh turns out. It turns out, turns out. So um I was I was then again thinking like I am, I am, yeah, just a death stroke on any companies I work with. Um, although we I bucked that trend more recently. So the companies that work for now, they're great. They're great, all of them. Um otherwise the magazine would have closed years ago. Uh so a long answer to your original question of kind of how did I find my way into into print and publishing, um, which maybe was a question. It's been so long and my ADD took over. Um But this is great.

SPEAKER_03 18:48

It'll be one question and we'll be done. That's great. All right, all right.

SPEAKER_00 18:50

Thanks for showing up, Paula. This was great. Yeah. Uh so then fast forward um, because this was basically a real-time uh report on my my history with uh with print and uh the magazine. And I I never thought I was being groomed for uh taking over as my uh in my father's shoes. He was the general manager at Alaska Business before me. Um and then uh I worked at the magazine for 13 years. My son was born. Um, and then I got the the the great uh luxury of any stay-on home dad before this was before this was common. And I was able to do some remote work largely because of the um the the inroads that Charles Bell, my amazing business partner and friend, uh, was able to do with Alaska Business. So he was working remote even in early 2000. Oh, okay. I mean, like literally in the year 2000. Um, so he was doing it before it was very common and before the tools existed uh to make that very easy. So when when my son was born, it was much easier to be a stay-at-home dad and easier to to work remotely. Um, so I was able to do that and then found out I just really enjoyed that and didn't really want to go back to work. So I I got to stay stay-at-home dad permanently and and uh full-time uh for several years. And then my uh my dad unfortunately passed away. Um that was 2013. Um, and then I went back to the magazine at that time, mostly just to kind of rally the troops and say, hey, look, you know, my my mom is now the business owner and everybody here is gonna be taken care of. We're not closing the magazine, we're not selling the magazine. And I was really just there with, I mean, my thought was I was there to find a replacement for me. I was there to find a new general manager to take over for my dad. Um, and then over the over the weeks, I became not just familiar with but fond of the whole team that we had. Uh, and really, you know, because it it it went from being me trying to help them to realizing how much they were actually helping me in this in this transition. Um, it gave me something really positive to focus on with my father's passing, that it wasn't just like, oh, this, you know, obviously death sucks. There's no way, no easy way to say it. Um, very poetic. There's going to be t-shirts made uh after this. But uh, but it but it gave me something to focus on that wasn't sorrow and it wasn't grief. It was positive. And it was, how can I help this team? How can I make sure that they feel safe and comfortable and taken care of in this transition? So again, I wasn't I wasn't aware as being groomed, but even at this point in in my father's uh life or afterlife, he continued to teach and groom me. Um and I realized like this is where I want to be. And there was a staff meeting that was held. Uh usually I'm the one who's calling a staff meeting, and they're like, We're having a staff meeting. Come on into the office. I'm like, what okay, am I being fired? Like, what's happening right now?

SPEAKER_01 21:20

How does that work?

SPEAKER_00 21:21

Yeah, yeah. So so they're like, we don't want you to go. We don't want you to Oh, that's so great. We don't want you to find a replacement. We enjoy working with you. We we love what's happening with the magazine. Um, and it was just it was this like choking back tears moment, like, this really is where I want to be, but I didn't really acknowledge that. And I had yeah, yeah, and and it did. It meant something all different when and then went home and told my wife, like, this was the weirdest day ever. Like they held a staff meeting, and that the team told me that they wanted me to stick around. And I was just like, I don't even know what to do with this information. It was like being given a job offer. That's right. And you're like, Do I do I really want to take it?

SPEAKER_03 21:52

Is there a camera? I would I'd be like, I'd be thinking I was getting punked, but that's just a different thing.

SPEAKER_00 21:56

Yeah, and I totally again goosebumps. Like, I totally did. In that moment, I'm just like, What you guys? having a staff meeting to convince me to stay. Okay. Okay. That's interesting. But um and and it was fantastic. And it and it uh it changed my life in that moment because I I knew right there that everything led up to that point. I knew right there that all those long weekends of throwing newsprint out of the back of the the station wagon every piece of it meant something. Yeah and everything was was one more brick. Yeah exactly yeah very very on the job uh training and uh uh and even and even you know even the simple simple and silly things like uh uh comedy improv uh I'm a huge fan of theater so theater and improv really taught me a lot about business because I mean much like this interaction you don't have a script I don't have a script I know we don't know where this is going right I don't even know who you are Sally um so um it was just it it it it's it's just interesting always looking back how the path was kind of always set I just couldn't see forward but looking back you can only see the path where you came from uh and even something like improv is such a day-to-day skill set that I employ with uh with work and and and surviving waking up each day and interactions and things like that. So sure.

SPEAKER_03 23:06

So everybody else I've asked um and um I so far I I love Chris Palmo's here. I interviewed him but um uh can you sing?

SPEAKER_00 23:16

No no not should we try? Um I've heard several of your podcasts that do have people singing and I was I was concerned that that was a common theme throughout it really wasn't but it just seems to have taken on a life of its own so oh so now that's that's your thing? I don't know. So it's one degree of singing that's right that's exactly right. It might be 12 degrees of singing poorly um we got to work on your segue so Paula Sway.

SPEAKER_03 23:39

Okay no segue just okay now embarrassing I've talked about anybody's work.

SPEAKER_00 23:43

Oh yeah and I don't like to talk about work.

SPEAKER_03 23:45

I genuinely don't I don't know that that that to me is one of those like weather conversations like oh the weather is by reputation I know that and also in just meeting you the briefly the few times you you're not one to to brag or pontificate or you're um I don't know about pontificate I can certainly do that but for different reasons for different reasons. Yeah not self-serving in a in a conversation so um this is really cool because you're obviously excited you know um sometimes what I'll ask employees like zero to 10 what's your job satisfaction and yeah you don't have to tell me because it's obviously a 13.

SPEAKER_00 24:17

Yeah yeah it's um yeah I I I genuinely love getting up and going to work each day. I love the team I love the the the the family we've created um and it said you know you you'll often spend more time at your office with coworkers than you will with your own family. And that's something we've really tried to get away from at Alaska Business. We really want to get people back to their families and back to their life uh because this is supposed to serve you know work is supposed to serve your life not the other way around so we we we we try to think about it more as life work balance instead of work life balance. We want to put that life in front of work. So we do things like forcing weekends and we do uh like three day weekends we have a uh we make up holidays every month just to make sure we have a three day weekend every month that's great um we do half day Fridays in the summertime just to make sure people are out and enjoying the time with their family.

SPEAKER_03 25:01

So and it was not a financial decision for me. I did that I just started closing at noon on Fridays.

SPEAKER_00 25:07

And that's year round for you?

SPEAKER_03 25:08

Yeah just year round I just decided it's a let's just get it done. That way if somebody really has a passion for something, a project they're working on or something they have some quiet time. But more likely than not they've they've got family time or friend time and and that suddenly is an open space for them to do that.

SPEAKER_00 25:24

Right.

SPEAKER_03 25:25

So that's what we shoot for.

SPEAKER_00 25:26

Okay so I'm not avoiding your question about singing I'm just trying to figure out what song it would be. Oh so you're tracking you're tracking you're tracking yeah I'm still it's still yeah there's there's gears turning in the background. Um it would probably have to be a duet though.

SPEAKER_03 25:37

No no nope that's against the rules the rules you do see that didn't you see that yeah the the fine print that said there are no rules I it's just that's a little smaller than that.

SPEAKER_00 25:45

You should have paid more attention.

SPEAKER_03 25:46

That's right. That's right.

SPEAKER_00 25:48

We do have an attorney I didn't bounce that particular concept how about this and can you answer this? What song can you um belt out when you're all by yourself and um you think well that's a song I could sing at karaoke well so um so well my favorite karaoke story not that you asked but I'm gonna segue into that um was during uh production of I think it was I mean I'm trying to remember I did uh did some shows with Ampere Community Theater over the years and it was either I think it was I remember mama um and we went to uh Asia Garden out on Old Seward Highway and I wish you know if if somebody's listening in and they're not from Alaska you've named so many points that somebody growing up here it's their staples and it but it but but it was Adam Sandler's uh I won't swear uh and say piece of shit car so I'll say piece of crap car because I don't want to swear okay um but uh Adam Sandler piece of shit car and it it it's such a funny song in that it's it's just I mean Adam Sandler's not a great singer neither am I um but it's just a funny song it's just a fun song about this guy who's got his first car and it's just garbage. Yeah yeah um and and and I guess that also segue of a segue so this will be a rabbit hole or maybe a side quest for us. One of the things I love about theater and comedy um is people who commit. And that's what improv is and that's what business is and that's what life is. It's just you got to throw yourself into it. Even if you don't know what you're doing, throw yourself into it and figure it out as you go. But um I I I just have a great uh uh admiration for Bruce Willis not many people know he had a singing career and he actually had I think as many as three studio albums he had to oh did he really yeah I did not know that uh not a great singer but fun yeah to listen to because he really throws himself into it so uh for for the listeners out there all of you be sure to Google uh Bruce Willis singing and you'll find uh that he's both no it's not getting you off the hook you can't refer to yeah listen to him because um I'm every bit as good as I'm every bit as good as he is um maybe not even that good uh yeah yeah so you really put me in the spot here Paula I appreciate that yeah that's all right you can keep tracking I'm trying to remember what duet we were gonna sing what was that again do you remember no it's still no nope still no okay nope I'm tracking I'm tracking um yeah happy birthday Mr President that's too easy no okay all right that was my best Maryland that's all I had um it was good yeah yeah you didn't know I was gonna do we were gonna do some impersonations too so how about this my one word of advice for my kids is travel while you can go somewhere that makes you insanely uncomfortable yes um where you don't know the language and you have to make do and that's great advice reminds you how insignificant we are and significant at the same time we can have such an impact on someone that we don't speak the same language with. Right, right.

SPEAKER_03 28:44

Second piece when you do that make sure you carry around with you one good joke. Oh yes that also good advice yes so that you can pull it out of a time of conflict where you're uncomfortable even if you just hear it in your own brain it can make you giggle have you got a good joke improv?

SPEAKER_00 29:03

So that's just it that's it that that's the that's the opposite of improv, right? It is yeah so I I have never tried to memorize jokes because I'm more interested in the truth of that moment. Like what's funny right now is not what I can bring with me. It's what we find together. I agree uh so that's always gonna be more interesting and more entertaining. Um but that that's one of the things you know in improv where you tell somebody you do improv and they're like oh okay tell me something funny be funny. Yeah it's like well I'm I'm not a trained pony. Tee me up yeah yeah yeah right yeah set it up for me let's talk let's figure out what is funny or or what is real between us before we find that funny um so man I'm I'm gonna pump this one down. If you if you've never heard Bruce Willis man he's funny right you should because so Google and he can sing. Right. Google Bruce Willis has jokes.

SPEAKER_03 29:50

Because I don't like I sadly I don't think I'm gonna get him on our podcast.

SPEAKER_00 29:53

It's true. Unfortunate but uh but we'll we'll see. Again and that that I love that the name of the podcast uh for that reason just because we are all so connected um and I wonder what the one degree or two or three or five of Bruce Willis between the two of us wouldn't that be a couple might be to find out.

SPEAKER_03 30:09

It wouldn't take long would it we'd find out I um Liz back at the office I told her I wanted to make a big wall um similar to this where they could um we could put each person's uh picture right and then make a sort of a murder string right of how everybody how do you know this person so we're um starting down that road oh I would love to this has just been evolving this is I mean this there is no reason for me to be doing this I get insanely nervous but it's easier for me to talk one-on-one with people um I was low in a low point with our community and I was tired of hearing people complain yeah and always about the same topics that everybody has a solution for the problem that hasn't been solved yet and to be uh remain nameless whatever problem that is in our life and I thought well I've got to do something about it so I started in my alleyway picking up trash that was somebody else's trash um I reached out to some neighbors hey do you think you could help me here's a common problem we're having in our neighborhood and then I thought well that's that's good but I was actually getting a little bit resentful um because you're trying to hold everybody up around you including you've got your own family and your own problems and your own challenges and you know the self um employment thing I saw it going so much differently all that income and flexibility having fun all the time the best of all of it yeah so then I thought well the the way I get to know people one-on-one um is is a lot more comfortable for me than trying to work a room or network or go to functions that's really uncomfortable for me and it wears me out so this was just a I should try a couple of those you know and it was upper one that just said you know what you should try and then Rick ordered the light for the backdrop and then you're committed as a well yeah right and that I felt obligated. Yeah now you have to and now it's kind of fun. So I took a break for about six weeks and um I told you your name kept popping up I've got about three other guests that I'm gonna that don't know me at all. And I just keep and everybody keeps saying yes. And it's so it's totally informal. Yeah and um what does it take to be an Alaskan so as a like longtime Alaskan for instance you mentioned Spinnard my dad grew up in Spinard when it was a different city because it was actually right it was outside of town right and um so when I when you talked about that um what what led you to saying yes today?

SPEAKER_00 32:35

That's a great question because I uh so in in in in our one degree uh between you and I um your name has come up so many times uh and and we've used your services with Alaska business we've we've that's the police blog that's the blotter that's the you're listening into the police right right different different that was different okay uh the most wanted there yeah um anchor is most wanted there's Paula right there that's why I don't do impromptu jokes it was great no I loved it I loved it um write it down use it using your comedy um uh so with with it was easy to say yes to you because I see you all at all the same business functions I see you at all the same places we serve on a board together we do um uh but it's a secret board we can't talk about that no I don't know if we can or not I don't know it's and are we supposed to show up uh I don't know they haven't had meetings in months I know so and then they cancel them then I was wondering do they cancel them for everybody or just me? Okay I was wondering the same thing. So it it does make me feel better to know that it's not just me that they're canceling on.

SPEAKER_03 33:32

That's right. Yeah so we're really know they'd be we talking about them on a podcast right but are we? Because it's I mean and who is it?

SPEAKER_00 33:38

I can't say I know but maybe I can I don't know um and yeah and and and seeing you in in all of these different business circles you've always been this um this this this business professional that I admired from a distance like I didn't know you uh except for seeing you at all these things like wow Paula's really connected and and and Charles a friend of ours in common is like you need to talk to Paula she's incredible um and and I've been by your shop and you're always you always just look so together like I'm just like man I wish I looked that together when I'm at my own place of business. For real like every time I stop by your office on delivering magazines or or or whatever it might be and and you're running from one place to another and it says oh hi Jason and and you're just like wow she's so together and she has all this stuff figured out and I do use your first name by the way I do say hi Jason. It's just connecting all those different things because you again it's so many different and that's where it comes back to the and and that the idea of that horrible term for it but but apt like that murder board would be amazing. Just seeing all the different connections between businesses and people that would just be amazing to see uh you know in a in an office place. Um and new people come into your office you could take a quick Polaroid of them put them up the wall and a string of people they know just this living you get me more goosebumps there's more goosebumps let's do this together. So I I I've always seen you around at all these things and you've always been this this this person honestly this person that I aspire to be as a business leader. Like the the yeah and and you don't realize this but that's who you are like this you were this amazing person out there that everybody knows and everybody speaks positively of and I'm like man I hope somebody one day talks that nicely about me as they do Paula. So when when that offer came up I was like absolutely a chance to hang out because again we we have shared lunches we've been sitting at the same table we've never really had a chance to connect so just get to sit down and talk to you like oh that's gonna be incredible. Yeah yeah so thanks for coming on my podcast you've been doing if if they could sing a song oh yeah no anything other than Marilyn Monroe singing Happy Birthday.

SPEAKER_03 35:34

Nope nope nope but I'll practice and I'll pro I'll promise to do it in the next year. For the sequel. Yeah for for a sequel. That's right. That's right yeah. So you also mentioned growing up in a in a station wagon I grew up in the back of a pewter belt because my dad was a truck driver. Yeah yeah and then when I was in town my mom ran a local uh Despinas address store and she used to be a buyer for that so I learned to like clothes and trucks. So I had Tonka trucks and lawn darts. That's right. That's right. Yeah well my lawn darts were naked Barbies because I didn't want to get the clothes dirty.

SPEAKER_00 36:10

So I just leave the clothes inside because they're easy to wash off and it makes perfect sense through them way up in the sky yep they can deadly they can take out an eye I'm telling you so can lawn darts I know we had one stuck in the side of our home uh that we had to explain later when my dad is like why is there like a bullet size hole in the siding of the house I don't know dad. I don't and he's like and why does it match the exact diameter of this lawn dart? Like maybe because we were throwing them at each other and didn't think they'd stick to a house thought they'd stick to the yard right they're lawn darts, not house darts.

SPEAKER_03 36:41

See I just had an uncle that was two years older than me and he used to shoot a baby gun at my feet and tell me to dance. Yeah so I you know and this was normal.

SPEAKER_00 36:49

That's really no different than what you do when you bring a guest on the show and you're like okay sing monkey sing and you just start shooting us in the foot with the with the or kicking me under the table so nobody knows.

SPEAKER_03 36:57

Do we really know? That helps well my mom is you could voice you could voice over.

SPEAKER_00 37:01

Right right that's right. Yeah yeah we'll have them fix that uh hi mom hi mom hi wife okay so your your favorite childhood story uh that's really Alaskan like right right other than bouncing around the back of the station wagon um man so many it's it's uh again with a lifetime to look back on the the knee jerk reaction isn't even really my story but I was there for it but my sister had a fascination for hot air balloons uh this was in the 80s when hot air balloons were all over the skies in the summertime up here uh because insurance wasn't what it is today.

SPEAKER_01 37:33

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 37:34

So but any any gorgeous sunny uh weekend you'd look up and there would just be dozens of hot air balloons flying around um and and and for me it was just like pretty to see them in the sky and for my sister it was a fascination that she wanted to be in one. So for her might have been 13th or 14th birthday um we went to we went downtown to the park strip where there's dozens of these balloons filling up uh with hot air uh and and my uh parents had had got this for her for her birthday uh a chance to ride one of these hot air balloons so she gets in the hot air balloon and um she uh they take off and uh my dad had had had taped with like electrical tape like this orange tape on the top of our station wagon a big X so she could see us uh from the air so as we're following her as she travels all over town um uh my my memory is and this may be Cloudy and if my sister is watching I'm sorry um that she was scared we weren't going to be able to find her like so she would land somewhere and this predates cell phones so it's not like they're just like oh yeah we're on the corner of 9th and L come pick her up. I was like, no she's walking home from wherever we landed. That's right. So uh so my dad and my mom want to make sure she knew where we were as we're following her all over all over town and the wind blows and takes hotter balloons wherever they might go. So and it was taking us towards our elementary school which is in in the neighborhood we grew up this is Tudor elementary school. So we're we're driving back through there um towards the the the elementary school like this is incredible she's gonna land at the elementary school but it was looking like they were going to land on the roof like oh that's not gonna work out well. So so they they gave it some more some more heat they took off and we're like okay well they were we're gonna go wherever else they're gonna land next some other big field. But they don't go very high and they're almost like skimming the treetops at neighborhood level. So we're we're tracking them now through our neighborhood and they land in our front yard the actual front yard of of Oh you're kidding and my sister had nothing to do with it. She was she wasn't telling like oh you need to land here like I'm so scared I'm gonna have to walk home at least this way it won't be a long walk. So the hotter lands right there in our in our in our front yard. Oh that's fantastic. Yeah she gets out of the basket and basically right into the house and it was just this magic moment like of all the things in the universe like all the places she could have landed in Anchorage she ends up right in our front yard and delivered right back to our doorstep uh you know squishing any fears of her never coming home because she you know landed on flat top and couldn't find her way back. That's fantastic. Yeah so just a funny little uh funny little thing there but uh oh my gosh now have you been up in a hot air balloon never in a hot air balloon nope nope that doesn't fascinate me flight does I love airplanes I got a chance to go down to Vegas and do uh thing called air combat USA uh my wife at the time had just been accepted into uh the FBI so she was going into the FBI Academy so she had one more round of testing that they were doing down in Vegas for her.

SPEAKER_03 40:16

They let her in married to you?

SPEAKER_00 40:17

Yeah right I passed a background oh my gosh it's weird it's weird uh and they interviewed me and that was weird too like but no you're you you're hiring my wife not me why do you need to talk to me? And I was at Alaska Business at the time so they did this like interviewslash interrogation at the office. Yeah so they just show up and we're like yeah we're the FBI here to see Jason and everybody's like oh he's in trouble. Like that's worse than getting called the principals office the federal agent they came to you. Yeah that were door to door serves there. So uh so we're down in Vegas and I get to do this air combat USA. So you fly in a plane with an actual military pilot. Oh and these are military pilots recruited from all over the world and mine was Barron was his name that was his call sign he was a Luftwaffe pilot who was a German uh jet fighter pilot and now we're flying in these marchetes these Italian built stunt planes um that can do all these amazing maneuvers and it's a thrust to weight ratio as close to a jet without being a jet uh because these are stunt planes meant meant to do incredible things. And it had uh had lasers on it and sensors on it. So anytime you hit the trigger you're you're firing a laser at your opposing aircraft. So more than just like a simulator or a dog fight on a video game. This was real world with real Gs and fighting against another person, a human on the other end of the stick and flying at uh yeah and it was incredible just a just an amazing experience. That's great. Yeah super fun. So never in a hot air balloon but I did get to fulfill a childhood dream of being a jet fighter pilot for the weekend. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 41:40

I um used to have fascinations about the balloons much like your sister but also deathly afraid of ledges. I'm good with heights I can ski I would go to LSK and go see heights as long as you're connected to the ground. But standing up on the edge, even talking about it here my palms start sweating and I can watch shows where people are climbing or if they're standing on a ledge, my palms are sweat watching a movie. It's just terrible so I never did it until um I was 40 and my best friend said I have a lifelong dream of going up in a hot air balloon. And of course they weren't in Alaska then so we went to California and much like your sister except part of it was our fault. You ended up in my sister's front yard no but we ended up right on the top of a school they blew hot air in it we ended up skimming the top of the trees missing a house and by then all the school children were coming out trying to find someplace safe to land and we ended up landing in the middle of not we didn't make it to Alaska from California but somebody's front yard. Isn't that fascinating? That must be a common landing place for Hutter I don't know the the pilot said this has never happened in the 30 years I've been doing this and if you girls would have been on time. So I um yep so I I took the fault for that one. But um Because you were late they ended up landing in a they it had something to do with the way the wind shifts and that and they they can kind of predict with some accuracy when that little window time that they should be going up and he was avoiding us going out over the ocean.

SPEAKER_00 43:10

That seems like it seemed like it's unless you'd your life jackets and sadly I didn't know enough to be scared. But then afterwards I thought huh that I probably should have been more scared than I was were there life jackets on board? Did they have emergency equipment? Did they walk you through like hey if we go over the ocean no swim that way.

SPEAKER_03 43:28

Because we're we're inland quite a ways but they said it doesn't take much to get up just over the top of what they call mountains. They're so cute. Right 200 300 that's right um that it doesn't take much of a wind gust to get where it's not controlled you can't you can't get back.

SPEAKER_00 43:44

I was in California um and I was told to drive into the valley uh I was filming on a on a on a TV show and um I had to drive uh I had a rental car this this is a long time ago I had GPS but it wasn't like Google Maps GPS it was like put putting The latitude and longitude to find it. So I'm driving out into the valley and I'm like, where is the valley? Like what are they talking about? And I'm expecting something like the Chugach. I'm expecting something like Campbell Creek Valley. Right. And it was just rolling hills between larger hills. That's right. That's right. But I was I I had a lot of trouble finding the valley because it didn't look like anything valley I was used to.

SPEAKER_03 44:22

I had an experience like that the first time I drove by myself in Arizona because all of the streets are exactly the same. Everything looks exactly the same. And I'm so used to here growing up that you know, the ocean is oh, I've gone too far. The mountain, oh, I've gone too far. Um the military base. Oops, yeah. You know, so you always know right where you're at.

SPEAKER_00 44:40

And there you just have flat.

SPEAKER_03 44:41

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 44:41

Flat and sand. Yep. It was Oh, I want to get back to something you said earlier. You said you get nervous at these. Is that right? Oh, yeah. Really? Oh. Because you're such a natural no.

SPEAKER_03 44:50

Yeah. This is me practicing and getting out of my comfort zone and Alaska being more important to me than um my negativity about it. So it's to for me to look across the room and see people that I admire, and that um I don't feel worthy enough or strong enough to just introduce myself and strike up a conversation. So instead I put them on the spot and ask them to sing. It's much better.

SPEAKER_00 45:13

Right.

SPEAKER_03 45:14

I feel much more comfortable with that.

SPEAKER_00 45:15

Ha ha ha, dance monkey. Um that that fascinates me that uh that you that you aren't that you don't feel more natural in that setting. Like you project this, this, this, this aura of confidence that anytime I've seen you ever, I'm just like, man, I want to be that good. I want to look that good in in crowd, and I want to work a crowd that well. Uh so you just you fake it really well. So I want to learn to fake it as well as you do. That's great. But even like sitting here, like I have forgotten that there's cameras. I've forgotten that there's microphones. We're just we're just, yeah, it's just two people hanging out. Um, not that you're looking for my advice and I don't have any good advice.

SPEAKER_03 45:49

You didn't ask me my joke. This is gonna be the most unsavory thing I've ever said. Yes. And it's gonna tie all my conversations on this side of the table together. Okay, because I happen to be in Croatia sitting with a group of people and a girlfriend from here. Uh, we had traveled over just kind of on a short term, go over for 10 days, um, having a great time. And these individuals were trying to talk to us back and forth. And so we were loosely translating, but then um we started telling jokes. I said, tell me a joke, and then we realized that even with a translator, humor isn't international at all. And the way that words literally trans translate is horrible.

SPEAKER_00 46:34

Right, literal translations can write a joke.

SPEAKER_03 46:38

Because I'm a lot dyslexic and also forgetful, and I get nervous. So jokes are not my thing.

SPEAKER_02 46:44

Right.

SPEAKER_03 46:45

And the only ones I can remember are my dad had a bumper sticker for from Peterbilt. Mom wants Pa to get a new Peterbelt. That's I remember that. And then the other one is um why do attorneys wear neckties?

SPEAKER_00 47:04

Because they want to look good in court. Huh? Yeah, no, I I imagine it's something preferior. Right, right. We'll fix this in post. Oh, yeah. See?

SPEAKER_03 47:15

Now translated loosely in Italian and then to a dialect that is Croatian, it did not translate at all, especially to the men, because the literal translation was way off date.

SPEAKER_00 47:28

Did you ever find like how it translated and then translated? I'm not gonna repeat that. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 47:33

The joke is better than the translation. Right, right. It's cleaner. Yep. So and I now have grandkids, so I gotta be, you know, and they might be watching.

SPEAKER_00 47:40

They're one, they're the other ones watching. So it's my mom and your grandkids watching the show.

SPEAKER_03 47:43

My mom used to lecture me, you know, would you do that in front of your grandmother? And I skirted a lot of those things through life. And then, you know, she passed on, and I'm an only child, so who am I going to embarrass? But now I've got grandbabies.

SPEAKER_00 47:56

So that's who you're gonna embarrass?

SPEAKER_03 47:58

That's that's I gotta clean it up. Yeah, I gotta clean it up.

unknown 48:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 48:01

I I I didn't have a great role model in my grandmother because she was cool. She was she was a hip. And she was, yeah, she uh she drove a red Camaro. Oh, that's fantastic. Yeah, right. And it was like, that is not an old person's car. What are you doing driving this like amazing machine? She's like, Well, I gotta get back and forth from Anchorage to Nancy Lake fast.

SPEAKER_01 48:19

Oh, that's a girl.

SPEAKER_00 48:20

Okay, so it makes sense for you to have uh a Camaro. Um, and she drove fast and and she listened to cool music, and she wasn't like the grandmother you typically uh would expect. Um, and it it it just always uh fascinated me how like she wasn't the stereotypical grandmother. And and that was on my mom's side. On my dad's side, I had a very stereotypical uh grandmother who, you know, is this proper, is this prim, you know. Um, and it was just just the the difference between the two. Even as a kid, I was just like, but how can they both be grandmothers when they're both so different? Yeah, and I've got to be very, very uptight around one and I get to be fun and free with the other. And and I think that also probably is a lot of where I find my uh my passion for fun and my hope uh is is just in those in those rides out to Nancy Lake with with my grandmother and her Camaro uh when we'd when we'd get to ride. And and because it was a small enough car, she couldn't take all the grandkids. So it was a pretty big deal. Yeah. Yeah, when you get the lottery and you get to ride up to up to Nancy Lake instead of bouncing around in the back of the station wagon without a seatbelt. Um, but just the talks we'd have in the on those on those hour and a half uh road trips out there. Memorable. How great is that? And and so here's here's a fond Alaskan memory that all of the cousins and and and myself have is that on this this car ride with my grandmother driving up to Nancy Lake, she said, of all the mountains you see, you can pick anyone and it's yours.

SPEAKER_03 49:41

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 49:41

And it was like, what I don't know what that means.

SPEAKER_03 49:43

Oh, tell me which one you just like.

SPEAKER_00 49:45

Am I getting a plot of land? And she's like, no, no, just whatever it means to you, whichever one is important or significant to you or means something to you. Um, but but as a kid, I was just like, I absolutely know which one it is. And driving out there, we would drive by and you'd see Pioneer Peak, right? And it's this gorgeous, flat uh backdrop to everything Palmer. And when you're when you're out there in the in the real valley, not like uh California. Um, but the the in in in driving back on the on the uh the Glen Highway there, uh in front of Pioneer Peak is this small little sad uh tortoise-shaped hill that is right in between um, I think it's in between like right by the little Sioux right there.

SPEAKER_03 50:23

Um the butte.

SPEAKER_00 50:24

Yeah, yeah. It's out of the butte. It's is is it's a little turtle, little turtle rod. It is. Uh and it's just got this little bit of green covering it, no massive trees or anything like that. But it's just this cute little turtle. It is tortoise-shaped.

SPEAKER_03 50:36

I never thought of that being a turtle, but now I won't be able to look at it.

SPEAKER_00 50:39

And I had this whole myth and this lore and a backstory for the, you know, much like Sleeping Lady has her own uh story. Um, this little Turtle Rock became this. Yeah, so it was Turtle Rock, and that was that was my rock, and that was of all the of all the mountains I could choose. I was like, I definitely want Turtle Rock.

SPEAKER_03 50:58

What is Turtle Rock? Well, I got goosebumps to start with because Pioneer Pete Cast happens to be my favorite. Yes. Because I think it is a an exquisite example, not standalone, but all by itself. It's it's obviously much more majestic than the ones around it for whatever reason. It's just so beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 51:14

Yeah, that one got picked. Yeah, definitely, definitely in creation. That was like somebody had their hand in creating that just majestic looking flat.

SPEAKER_03 51:26

Right, that nobody took home. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 51:28

That would be the puppy I would pick. That is the cats I have picked. That is the husband my wife has picked, the one nobody else would take. Uh so I've got a long history of that.

SPEAKER_03 51:35

Well, that's yeah, nice, nice. And is she still in the FBI?

SPEAKER_00 51:39

She's not. No, no, no. Uh so she's moved on. She uh has her own private practice. She's a psychologist.

SPEAKER_03 51:45

Oh, fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 51:45

It's how she can put up with me. Um analyzing going over the table.

SPEAKER_03 51:50

Ah, that's fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 51:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 51:52

She went from profiling to analyzing, basically.

SPEAKER_00 51:54

Yeah, basically just me. Oh, good. I'm a full-time job for her.

SPEAKER_03 51:56

That's right. That's right. That's good. That's good. Okay, well, uh, what's one thing you would hope that people would know about you? How about one thing that you want your kids to say about you?

SPEAKER_00 52:06

Yeah, um uh just joy. Just joy. Find joy in the moment, find joy each day. Um, every day, wake up, be grateful for something. Um because what we leave behind is pretty I mean, we we have the potential to leave behind something very significant, and that is our memory, the memory of us, um, even more so than what we did, uh, but who we were, uh, because that carries through generations, and that's not a thing that eventually will stop being a thing. That is a purpose and a and a life mission, and finding joy and being joyful, and waking up each day looking for joy, finding that thing today that's going to uh inspire you, going to give you goosebumps. Um, if it's a gorgeous sunrise or a baby giggling at uh Fred Meyer when you're shopping, whatever that might be, and that that thing to to to seek and find and share that joy and to be able to pass that on.

SPEAKER_03 52:58

That's lovely. Yeah, that was really lovely.

SPEAKER_00 53:01

It's too long for a t-shirt though. So I'm probably have to workshop it a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 53:04

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was great. That was really great. Yeah. And what was the best part of your day so far?

SPEAKER_00 53:08

This is honestly, this is it. Really? This is pretty rad. It's it's it's really unfortunate that Kevin forgot to push record. Yeah, okay. All again. Yeah, backwards. Yeah. I'm glad you have your script though. That's really hard.

SPEAKER_03 53:18

Yeah, that's yeah. No, yeah, that's it's a pretend script. That's but when you start talking about heights, I heck, I can, you know.

SPEAKER_00 53:23

So you've never done more heights things? You've never done like skydiving or I mean the hotter balloon is a lot.

SPEAKER_03 53:28

No. Okay. No, I I started to, and then I got the Elvis outfit and I was ready for it.

SPEAKER_00 53:34

With the Elvis outfit for skydiving?

unknown 53:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 53:36

Well, what doesn't everybody?

SPEAKER_00 53:38

I do not. No, is this a movie reference?

SPEAKER_03 53:40

No, it's a it's not. It's actually real life I can see.

SPEAKER_00 53:42

Oh, because you would there was a whole group of skydivers that were dressed as Elvis impersonation.

SPEAKER_03 53:46

That's correct.

SPEAKER_00 53:46

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 53:47

Yes. All right.

SPEAKER_00 53:48

Now was it because you couldn't sing as well as the king, or you just weren't ready to jump out of my house.

SPEAKER_03 53:51

No, but I did go on the fat the um the race car track. But with the NASCAR or yeah, they they have a NASCAR in it's in Vegas. Oh, yeah. They have the NASCAR but then they have the little baby cars.

SPEAKER_00 54:04

So interesting side story and one degree of separation.

SPEAKER_03 54:07

So this is a Go kart, but then that sounded like a kid's toy. So I wanted it to say, you know, something race car.

SPEAKER_00 54:12

It's no longer. But it was a go-kar track. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 54:15

Not not to diminish or no, but next to it is a there's a NASCAR. I just didn't get to drive one of the big cars. They didn't let me.

SPEAKER_00 54:21

So I think I was gonna say, in our one degree of separation, when I did this Air Combat USA, the the parent company that that is over the Air Combat USA is over that the NASCAR adventure where you get to go for a weekend to be a NASCAR driver. So it's it's the same company. So I was like, look at this. In our one degree of separation, we did the same adventure. I like going fast. We were in a go-kart. Yeah. I like going fast in a go-kart. I could do that. You had a cool grandma.

SPEAKER_03 54:43

I had gro cool parents. They were only 18, 19 when I was born and lived up on Hillside before it was cool.

SPEAKER_01 54:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 54:50

So um my dad, for my fifth birthday, I got a um a horse when I was three. I got my snow machine because I was an only kid. Oh, that's it it keeps me busy.

SPEAKER_00 55:01

And then he my stupid sister, every year she'd get gifts.

SPEAKER_03 55:04

That's oh geez.

SPEAKER_00 55:05

That should have been mine. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 55:07

Yeah. So that's really cool. Yeah, yeah. So I I liked I liked going fast because he used to drag race. And then he was a truck driver. So I I liked that part of things. And then I liked coming downtown. And my my grandmother was a um a waitress in the Westward Hotel right here. And and then my aunt was uh downstairs. And do you remember Saturday Night Live? I think it was the telephone operator.

SPEAKER_00 55:33

Oh, yeah, yeah. Uh Lily Tommer. Was it Lily Tommer?

SPEAKER_03 55:36

Yeah, was that it might have been, I don't know what show it was on.

SPEAKER_00 55:38

Yeah, I think it was SNL.

SPEAKER_03 55:40

It was back then. They still had those kind of she was a telephone operator. Yeah, so I went down and got to play with those for a while. And yep. So that's how I I think I got um interested in different businesses. And I like finally being sort of business agnostic and learning about what people do and what drives them to do it. And it's naturally interesting. Right. That led to this conversation because then there's that whole other layer of what keeps you in Alaska when you could be doing this. These talented people that I, you know, from afar admire, what keeps them here?

SPEAKER_01 56:12

Right.

SPEAKER_03 56:12

And then um, it's always interesting because it's it, there's a common thread. So um that common maybe that's what I'll call it on the murder wall.

SPEAKER_00 56:21

Well, and that that would be so cool too. Like even to have your murder board here.

SPEAKER_03 56:24

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 56:25

When you have people on the show and you're like, okay, you know this person, you know this person, and and now we are looped back here with our three degrees of separation.

SPEAKER_03 56:31

Done.

SPEAKER_00 56:32

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 56:32

That would be awesome.

SPEAKER_00 56:33

Yeah, just that that the idea of that fascinates me because I I'm I I love um genealogy. My my grandfather's passion was genealogy. They would travel and and find family relatives and things like that. Um, and he's literally centuries and centuries worth of family tree that he's that he was able to put together. And I was able to modernize that and get it computerized where he was, it was all written records that he was keeping. But just that that lineage and the way we're all connected, like looking back over centuries of family and bloodline like that is just fascinating to me. But that same family we choose, and especially up here in Alaska where we are very disconnected, we are very far from the lower 48 and the rest of the world, like we do choose these people we interact with. We choose these connections we make. And to see like a family tree of business would be so fascinating. Like, and like each person you have on the show, you have them and you have who they're connected to and how they connect you with or connected them with you in the show. Uh, and just start putting these pieces together of this massive murder board just because there's no better word for it. Makes it sound so menacing but fun at the same time. Uh, but that would just be amazing to see. And like what a cool look at business in a snapshot, look at community in a snapshot. And that does like business sounds so boring, but when you think about what it is, it's people. That's right. And it's the relationships that we forge and the the, you know, and we're very fortunate at Alaska Business. We've got 40 years of history. We've got relationships with businesses. We have advertisers that are still advertising with us today that were there 40 years ago. Um, and to see those types of relationships and connections, like we have a CRM, a customer relations management software, but it's very, you know, it's it doesn't show you the depth of relationships. It shows you who that current person is, but doesn't show you how you first got connected with them and how they were first connected with business and how that business was connected to somebody else.

SPEAKER_03 58:16

And I think that's the important part of your magazine. In fact, is I think the pendulum has swung a little bit for us at my office. We do some recruitment.

SPEAKER_00 58:24

Which is people AK, if you weren't sure. People AK.

SPEAKER_03 58:27

No, no. This is an advertising spot. But what I found is that there's more face-to-face necessary now, that we still rely on nonverbals. And that's much more difficult to do when it's on a Teams or on a Zoom or otherwise. Even if it's a remote position, really getting to know who you're working with and for, I think, is still important. And I think that um that kinesthetic value of a magazine, I I just dig that. I can still make notes on it and process things. And um and you do that within your business to connect people. I think there's the right moves or something in the back. It's just great. Yes, I can highlight it. And what brought grandma and grandpa here?

SPEAKER_00 59:07

Uh so my grandfather on my uh my mom's side, uh, Waldron is last name there. So you might know the Waldron pond, Waldron Lake, Waldron Street. There's some Waldron stuff up here. Okay. Uh so we were up here before statehood. Uh my great-grandfather uh was the first city planner for Anchorage. So when it was merged, when it was migrating from a tent city to an actual city, he was the city planner. That's right. Um and and because this was a time when you didn't have a lot of um experts in subjects, um, I guess I guess he was good enough. So he, I don't think he actually, and maybe late enough to say to share this family secret, I don't think he was actually like an actual engineer, but he was also designing buildings downtown. So like the downtown courthouse. Yeah. There's a there's a uh a cornerstone that has his name on it.

SPEAKER_01 59:54

Oh, that's great.

SPEAKER_00 59:55

Um and it's now the visitor center downtown. But if you go in there, you see the the the the Waldron name on there, because he was one of the first um city planners and designed this building that I again I don't think there was ever any architecture in his in his actual story, but he he could draw real well, like, hey, I drew a picture of a building, let's make it. Um so so even before statehood and back as far as Tent City, my family was up here doing that. And then um on my granddad, my mom's side, my great-granddad started anchor sand and gravel, not because they needed um not for the money necessarily, but because they needed the sand for the cement for the buildings for the downtown. And there wasn't a purpose, there wasn't anything providing that need. So, uh providing that service anyway, because the need existed, but they didn't have the sand and the gravel. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:41

First time I uh rolled a snow machine was in that gravel pit. I wasn't supposed to. The one at which one does at Anchor Sand and Gravel on um on Old Seward. There was a gravel pit out there. That they owned way out by where the is that the one out on Sea Street now?

SPEAKER_00 1:00:57

Is that the same one? Where Lowe's is. Yeah, yeah. Okay, yeah, the Sea Street one. Yep. That's right. Oh, it is, yeah. It's in between Sea Street and old uh Seward Howard. Yep. Yep, yep. So great stories. Yeah, I've never rolled a snow machine out there, but I did get my dad's Subaru stuck in the mud out there, that same gravel pit. Same thing.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:14

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:15

So yeah, again, one degree. Right there. We were both stuck in the same gravel pit.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:18

It's true. It's true.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:19

So you had some explaining to do.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:20

Uh a little bit, a little bit, not too bad. And sadly, I didn't roll a snow machine again. I think I was six or seven then.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:26

You say sadly, like sadly.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:28

I did it a couple weeks ago, or excuse me, a couple of years ago. Good concussion, broken collarbone, and my snow machine had two miles on it. It was brand new. That is sad. It was just so sad.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:38

Yeah, the collarbone, that'll heal. Oh, broken snow machine, that's sad.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:42

I made my husband drive me directly to um CC out in Eagle River Um before we went to the before we went to the hospital because I was heartbroken.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:51

Right. Yeah. So you're you're you're turning in your snow machine before you're getting emergency services for yourself.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:55

Yeah. Yeah. So anyway, there's that. Snow machines. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm snow machines.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:00

So and that again just fascinates me. Like this idea of one degree and like how many degrees there are even between not just you and I, but anybody you you sit across the table from, especially in Alaska. We're all connected. Uh and finding those connections just fascinates me.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:14

Okay, so one person that I should interview.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:17

Oh, yeah. Um, well, um, Charles, Charles is amazing. Charles is amazing. Yeah. Oh, and he and he pawned you off on me. Or pawn me off on you. Um, yeah. Uh yeah, he's incredible. Um uh Bruce Posey is amazing. Yeah. He's he's just phenomenal. He's one of the first people I admired in business in Alaska. Oh, really? Um, because I saw stuffy, I knew people who were stuffy, I saw stuffy business. And anytime uh Bruce Posey walked in, he just had this air of calm about him. And he just wasn't like this stuffy guy. And the first time I met him, I was a 19, maybe 20-year-old. Uh, got introduced to him. It was kind of one of those, like, he's a friend of my dad's, so I'm not gonna remember who this guy is. Yeah. And fast forward, and it's five years later, I'm in my early 20s. I'm um had been doing a few uh shows, and he said, uh he said, Jason, I loved you in Guys and Dolls last weekend. And I was just like, You know my name? And you saw a show with me? Yeah, yeah, Vern, Vern McCorkle, who was the the publisher at the time. He's like, Yeah, Vern and I went and saw it uh Saya Gaza Guys and Dolls, and you were just great. Just want to say you really did a different thing. I was just like, this guy remembers my name from years ago and remembers and and and knows that I've been doing theater because he mentioned other shows that I had been in in the meantime. So it was just such an amazing because I can't do that. Like, even sitting across the table from you, I know you're Paula because we talked about it. Right, right, and I know she's in people like, yeah, but what else? Like, because there's there's just so many people that we interact with, and it's so easy to miss those details. But Bruce Posey is the kind of person who I love people who can do that. All those details are important. Yeah, and Charles is the same way. I just have such respect for people who can do that. Um, Charles and I were at uh it was a top 49ers event, um, and we're all these people, and it's just a wash of names and people, and I wish I could be as good as he is or Bruce Posey. Yeah, I agree.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:01

I share that desire. I yeah, and you yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:05

You a good old you, what's your name? We should yeah, we should get name tags for this. So you yeah, yeah. I am me. This is me. Um, and there was a woman approaching us, and I was like, Man, I know her. I have spoken with her, I should know her name. Uh and and Charles says, Yeah, we haven't met her yet. She was on our cover six months ago, but her name is, and she works at and and he knew this from seeing her on our cover.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:26

And he's a genuine authentic person, too.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:28

It's not and it's not it's not because he sells, because he doesn't. He just builds relationships, and it's so amazing. You I I always thought of like salespeople are like used car salespeople. You know, like, you need this. You don't know you need this, but you need this, and I'm gonna sell it to you. It doesn't matter what you say, I'm not gonna take an overancer, you're not gonna lose a flat to you, get my car, I'm gonna sell you a car, here's a car, take your car. It's like, okay, I'll buy your car if you're just gonna let me leave. Here's$12,000. Can I go now? Oh my gosh. Um but it worked for my wife again, not because she was begging me, but because I was selling myself that way on her. That's right. Uh, but but again, yeah, Charles just doesn't do that. He's just he builds a relationship. He just talks to people, finds what their needs are, and then lets the relationship naturally uh progress.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:06

That's fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:06

I'm just yeah, I'm just I really love people who love people. That's uh that's great. One of the things also that appealed to me so much about your show is like the just how real it is and not scripted, like I have 10 questions we have to get through. Let me, I don't, I don't not listening to your answer because I'm I'm I'm ready to ask you the next question. Like just the real interactions that you have here.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:23

And I have such an admiration for people who ha employ other people. Um, and on this side of COVID, even though we're starting to see that in the rearview mirror, it still has had such a significant impact on so many businesses and uh talking to people that oh, work was so hard, to try and explain to them what it's like to be a small business owner and to what keeps you up at night, you know, that those kind of questions that people ask. Um, and I used to get asked that in when I was working in medical in a different capacity and working for other other individuals and for boards. When you wake up and Middle of the night as a small business owner, and you know that you have payroll to make, right? It's a different, it's like being a parent in some ways. It it that burden. So your story about your staff actually wanting you to stay and them promoting from within, promoting you within, I think that's just extraordinary. And it's um nicely done. That's the best part of my day. Awesome.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:24

Awesome.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:25

Got anything else to share? What should I have asked? Uh maybe, maybe some.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:32

Um hey Jason, what has inspired you at work? Uh I'm glad you asked, Paula. Okay, thank you. You you just reminded me of something when I first I'm very good at delegating. You fantastically delegated the role. Yeah, and now uh host the show. Uh so the way Jason would respond to that question, you just ask through Jason. Um, when I first went back to work at uh Alaska Business, there was a lot of juggling, like what, how do I decide what's important? And a decision that seemed so important to an advertiser. Like I want to make sure I'm doing right by the advertiser. Um, but I also want to make sure I'm doing right by the readers of the magazine. So we want to make sure this decision will benefit them. But I also want to make sure whatever I'm doing is a good decision for the business and the people who work here. Um, and I just felt like it was constantly like like Play-Doh being pulled in all these directions, uh, trying to make the right decision. And the one that's going to benefit the most people isn't necessarily the best decision. Yes because I have to look at, well, what's going to be best for the business long run. Um and and it it it just was that this was the thing that was keeping me up at night. And this is what reminded me of it when you said that. Like it it's really the only thing in business since since being back uh as general manager that has kept me up until I fixed it. And and I fixed it by by framing it all differently. So I had these different, uh, you know, these different masters I was trying to serve, and I was trying to make sure everybody was happy and and I was making decisions based on all factors. And I was just overcomplicating the decision process, the the decision making process. Um, I tried the magic eight ball for a while. That just didn't work as well.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:04

No, no.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:04

Um yeah, I had to do that.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:06

Hope is not a business plan.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:07

It's not, it doesn't work well. Weird. Um it fits nicely on a t-shirt, but not as not as a business model.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:12

Joey and hope.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:12

Yeah, both good. But uh yeah, it doesn't pay bills either. No. So um yeah, fidget spinner that says yes, no, maybe that by itself wasn't enough. So I really needed a different way to to to problem solve and figure out what was important in these moments. Um, and and and it was and it just got me back to that moment where it was this team. That's why I'm here. I came back to make sure they were safe. I came back to make sure because they were there when my father passed away. Like they this was traumatic for them in ways that I couldn't understand. But I needed to uh to to ensure that they felt comfortable and safe in this new environment that we were making together. Sure. So that became my my my sole purpose, my sole focus was this team. Um, and anybody who is from Alaska Business who's listening to this has heard the story a thousand times. So forgive me.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:58

They're sleeping right now. Didn't you hear that?

SPEAKER_00 1:09:00

That's good. That ages ago they dozed off and like, oh, Jason's on the Unpolished show this week. Never mind. Um so they're getting a great nap right now. Um but but uh but I put on a post-it note, 23, and that was a number of employees plus dependents. So them plus their spouse, them plus their kids.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:15

Because that people don't understand, I think.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:17

Yeah. And as a business owner, I didn't have to serve the the advertiser um because I knew if I served my team, they would serve the advertiser. I didn't need to serve our reader because I know if I serve my team, our editorial team would serve that reader. So all of the decision making got so much simpler when I just removed all the static and I removed all the extra noise and really focused on and focused every decision on what was important. And that was that that 23, that that number of people working at the office plus their dependence, the people who are counting on them, because our advertisers count on us, but they count on those, that, that group that we've already formed. So as long as I'm doing right by them, I know I'm doing right by everybody else. I know I'm doing right by the the the trickle-down effect there. As long as I'm being positive to those 23 people and making the right decision, even if even if it's something as hard as letting somebody go, you know, that used to be a devastating nights up and dread before you let me know. Yeah. And that's goosebumps right there, Paula. Yes, yes. That's absolutely true.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:16

Because if I'm I'm gonna see them in Costco. Right. I mean, and we don't need to we don't need to be awkward. Yep. Um, here's what I'm gonna say when another employer calls. Here's what it's and um it I've had people come back um and work again or say thank you, you know, all that cross-training. I thought you were just being mean to me, but what it did was set me up for the job I'm in now.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:39

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:40

You know, just all these stories. And um, I don't think until you've had a career for a while, do you get the full circle of maybe you did do some things right in the beginning. Um, because all all I can see in the rear view mirror are the things I should have done different or better.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:55

It's just the way but that that's also positive because that's how we grow. As long as you can see those opportunities for growth. You look back and say, oh, I could have done that different. Yeah. Not because I'm dwelling on what I did wrong, but because I'm setting myself up for doing it right next time.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:07

Yeah. I pride myself in saying that's part of my education so I can support other people not making those particular they they can make up all new creative mistakes. They don't have to make the ones I already did.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:17

Yeah. You can already move them for them.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:19

I'm freeing them from those mistakes.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:20

Yeah. Yeah. So even a decision like that, like letting somebody go, is so was so difficult until I got the framework in and and uh in mind, that 23. Like if I'm letting this one person go at the benefit of all these other people because maybe they they aren't performing or they're not doing that.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:36

And usually at the benefit of that person too.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:38

In every example, yeah, yeah. They move on to other things that are better fitted for them. Um and and we also try to get, um, especially in in in in a positive exchange, a positive move, um, we try and help them find a new place to land, something that is more in line with what they want for that that one degree of separation reason that that we know that and this is somebody we've loved and cared for and worked with and and want the best for them.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:59

So And there's no reason we can't part ways and be friends.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:01

Yeah, yeah. Don't want to be bad breaker-uppers. Just want to make sure everybody that it ends positively for everybody. So and again, once I got that framework in mind, it just it made every decision better. It made everything simpler on for on my desk, and um it it removed the sleepless nights. That's what um yeah, it just made it so much easier once I got that framework.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:21

That's really great.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:22

Well, good. Well, now I'm gonna free you.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:24

Thanks. I'm fired. Oh, Paula.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:28

Well, thank you so much for your time. This has been incredible. Thank you for having me. Nothing more blessed than somebody's time. Um, we only have something that we only have a certain amount. So and you've dedicated some here today, and I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:39

And this really has been the highlight of my day. So thank you. Thanks. Thanks for being the highlight of my day.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:43

All right.