CARNY TO CONGRESS EP 8 - Peter O'Flinn

Presented by Bay Water Boat Club.

Transcript

SPEAKER_06 0:00

Welcome to the Carney to Congress podcast. Used to be the Baywater Boat Club Hour. I'm here with a good friend of mine, buddy who's been here for a long time, Peter O'Flynn. What's up, buddy? Thanks for having me, man. It's great. Great having you here. Tell people what you do, all the businesses you have, from newspapers to Christmas lights, to Fourth of July lights. We have great Fourth of July lights here, so I brought some by light up next to the city.

SPEAKER_02 0:24

A couple more hours. Yeah, maybe 20 years. And um so we we we were talking with each other because you started advertising around magazine, Spotlight News magazine. Um I know another club member was working with us, and you asked her, you know, what's been working well? It was uh Lori, um Mayor's uh wife. Yeah. And from there, here we are. Yeah, man. A long time ago there. Yeah, so um that's how we got started there, and then um just through my magazine, um, I I we essentially were in the business of helping businesses like yours, right? That was the that was the the concept, among other things that we do. Um, and I really just I wanted to I wanted to benefit from the magazine like you've benefited from the magazine, so that's where a lot of different ideas were tossed around, things that we were looking at trying, and that's really where we landed on Light Up Naples, and that's really taken off. And um, what are we in going into I think our seventh Christmas season, right? Maybe it's eighth, I losing track of how you count it. But for those first, I believe it was two seasons, we did not promote the lighting company at all. Like we wanted to make sure that we knew what we were doing, and I was very concerned about like the onslaught of leads and people that'd be reaching out to us when I started promoting it. And and while it's a high class problem, you know, it c it's still an issue, and you want to make sure that you can put your best foot forward and be ready to go. So uh yeah, that's pretty much uh light up Naples in a nutshell.

SPEAKER_06 2:16

Yeah, light up Naples. I remember when we met at Rotary, Katie was working, your wife working at uh fish house. Yes, the fish house there. Uh, you know, and then that's before you had kids. Now you got two little girls. Well, not little anymore. They're yeah, getting bigger and bigger.

SPEAKER_01 2:33

Is one driving yet or no?

SPEAKER_02 2:34

She's going to be in a few months, man. It's absolutely crazy. That's nuts. Um, yeah, like I I was I was doing some stuff on our uh on our lighting website, and we've been relaunching a lot of new pages and working with my web designer.

SPEAKER_06 2:50

So I'm just gonna let you know that.

SPEAKER_02 2:51

I've known this one for a long time.

SPEAKER_06 2:53

Jake, Jake, I was already pissed earlier, you know.

SPEAKER_02 2:56

Basically, I gave her this picture of like, and I've known her the whole time I've been in town. So what am I? 16 years? I gave her this picture of my family. It's like we gotta have a good family photo in the picture. Um in the in the website. We put this picture out, and like she's like, Oh my gosh, I can't believe how big your daughters are. I'm just like, no, this picture is like eight years old. And then I sent her another picture um when Molly just graduated from middle school. And it's just like, I don't know, man. It's like when you you know, like you time is easier to be told through your children and because the changes.

SPEAKER_03 3:32

I mean, we look different than when we met, yeah, but not like my daughter looks more covely, not like I'm more comfortable.

SPEAKER_02 3:39

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_06 3:40

So it's it's crazy with with girls, like so just to like to just to jump back, like in a carnival business, right? So we're we go to these fairs in Michigan in the summertime, so you go to these places for like one week, and you get to know these families, and you'll see like a uh you know, a 14-year-old girl or whatever, and you come back the next year and it's 15, and it's completely different, and it's just that awkward stage, like guys have it too.

SPEAKER_02 4:04

You're just like, whoa, but anyway, so yeah, it's uh it's changing quick for sure, you know. And the the the the my my daughters are they're amazing, they're great. Thank God for Katie. They're they're they're she's an amazing mom. Um, but you know, like the challenges aren't uh they're not black and white like they were when they were younger. You know, and like those first few years, you know, I I see a lot of it's a little more cut and dry. It's like you need your diaper changed, you need to eat. Now it's just this, it's not always clear and you do your best. Yeah. You know, whether it's me or whether it's Katie, sometimes it's not abundantly like obvious the right path.

SPEAKER_06 4:48

But we get there. That's cool, man. That's great. So yeah, so he's we got if you come by our marina on Benedict Road, uh, we usually have the the tree lit up and it's the American flag right here, and we got floodlights over here. I mean, we got a big year, 250th anniversary. Uh so it's I was gonna like take a trip. I think I'm just gonna stick around here and hang out, hang out with my mom and just kind of chill out and hang out down here because there was ideas about going up to DC, but I think that's gonna be just crazy up there. It's I mean it's gonna be.

SPEAKER_02 5:18

I mean it'll be a different type of fun, that's for sure. A different type of vibe. I mean, you can see just like we're out here right on beach road. I mean, I don't know if you guys are filming this during peak season, but like it sounds a lot different. It's a lot, it's a lot different energy. Yeah, I don't have to plan ahead as much for where we're going. No, um just hop in a car. Don't get me wrong, I miss the the the peak busyness of of season, but I love the fluctuation and the change that we have here. It forces you to look at things differently.

SPEAKER_06 5:47

So, like, when do you start putting Christmas lights up? I mean you're you're doing you're signing people up right now, contracts, yeah. But when do you start working?

SPEAKER_02 5:56

Like, you sign people so we're working on it in terms of planning displays, design displays, science displays every month of the year, even in December for the following year. Um, we last year got started the last week of August. At this point right now, I like I I did that because I had a client who was like pushing for it even earlier. We didn't really need to do it. I I did it anyway. This year we're more than likely we're more than likely starting the first week of September. That's what I have scheduled right now. So right now, I think I've got three quarters of September full. Um we're at just about half of last year on the books, which is where I expect to be this time of year. Um, so it'll start in September. Now people say, oh my gosh, how do you do this in September? Well, when we got started with this, I saw other companies that have been in town, you know, they they start in July. Um, it's it's just we're not plugging everything in. We're not leaving on, we're not putting up wreaths, we're not putting up garland bows, all that stuff, weight. So most of our displays are done in a two-stage installation so that way we can pack as much in as possible when we get to that November time. But the other thing that's really helped us and change quite a bit, and we really started changing this way about three years ago was being able to pre-build a lot of the interior projects. So a lot of that stuff with the Christmas trees themselves.

SPEAKER_06 7:18

Like my mom, she's got a 16-foot or a 14-foot Christmas tree in her house, right? And she did it. That's a lot of work. Oh, yeah. She did it for years, yeah. You know, years lined up, but all this and we have a theme, and she loved doing it. It was her thing, right? Right. And then uh I was like, this is this is like we need just a regular kid's tree, right? With our old ornaments. So we'd have like a small little four foot off to the side that just had our old stuff, you know. Uh, but she's like a couple years ago, she's like, All right, I'm done. That's too much.

SPEAKER_02 7:49

But I see Katie does these, and well, and some of the families that we work with, we will do that grand 12-footer, nine-foot tree, and then we'll also set up another tree for them as like what you call the family tree. Uh typically call that where they've got their ornaments that some of the kids decorated when they're dealing with people who just come in for the week and want everything set.

SPEAKER_06 8:10

Some of that for sure. Yeah, and they just want to come in, do the week down here, and then go home.

SPEAKER_02 8:15

Yeah, yeah. I mean, this one uh this one I'm thinking of over in Talus Park, you know, they came in on Christmas Eve, you know, and they're not here. And then I can't recall if they're here for 10 days, 20 days, but then they're gone. And it's like, well, God bless you. I'm not in a rush, I'm not really in a rush to take your tree down. We have other customers who are living in their houses, so like if they're not there, then we just stack that down toward the end of it. And now, since we already know them, they were a first-year client last year, we're going to push them into putting that tree in in October because no one's there, you know. And uh we we've got some UV exposure, so it's not like I want to put it up very early. We were mindful out of those things. The tints are good, but you just want to be careful with some of that type of stuff. But yeah, being able to being able to work in advance is great for a lot of reasons because November is just absolute madness, it's absolute craziness. Anything that we can do prior to that is always going to take some of that pressure off. But um, it it just it also takes the creativity to another level when you don't have club members walking by you all the time, you don't you don't have property manager, you don't have the clients critiquing or giving feedback, or even just being better, better but even nice and offering you a soda or water, you know, like there are projects where I put an extra person on because our clients just like to some of them like to talk more. So I have to have someone there to talk with my customer so that everyone can like, yes, you can talk and work at the same time, but it's a little bit different. I I mean I would just equate it to just like if you have dozens of members walking by, your best guy who's washing boats, you want him to be friendly with your members, he's not gonna wash the boats fast. Yeah, I know, and that's fine, there's nothing wrong with that. So it's just all those little pieces where when we're in a controlled environment in our showroom, we can do something, look at it, be like, oh well, I think we can make this look a little bit better if we take this white flower out and replace it with this other white flower that has a different glitter trip. I mean, Katie has so many different varieties and versions, and I don't have the eye for this, she does, you know, so she can do a better job when we can test it because like in the midst of season, it will look good and it'll look great, but we don't want to start redoing and trying things when we're in a client's home. You know, like most people aren't looking for a new best friend to hang in at their house all day with them while you work on their property. You know, like most people you want to be in and be out as quick as you can. We really picked up the efficiency a couple years ago when we had a Naples Illustrated photo shoot that they shot the cover in September. Our customer had all this stuff. We didn't used to do that customer's interior, but they had like a coastal theme, like all those aquas and the stuff that's real popular around here. But that's not what they wanted on the cover of the magazine. They wanted that traditional red, red, white gold, you know, uh poinsetas, all that normal stuff. So thank you, Coca-Cola, for giving us the colors. We we the Santa Claus. So that was that was the first time we put all our trees on wheels. So, like, just like how you guys have this desk chair right here that's on wheels, there's different versions of that. You slide the pipe right onto the wheel. Now you're dealing with the limitations of the six and a half to seven and a half.

SPEAKER_06 11:34

It's like our server with the hurricanes. We can we can wheel the server out now, then wheel it back. There you go. No more hurricanes.

SPEAKER_02 11:41

Oh man, there's a whole other yeah, hurricanes definitely affect the Christmas light installation season. It's right in the peak of it. Yeah, came out. I mean, I got September. I've got the radar, like everyone is required to have that wink radar on their phone. I'm looking at it all day. There's usually a point in the fall where like we've been looking at it every hour for weeks, and then all of a sudden we don't look at it again until now. Um, but you know, we we you can work in the rain, you can't work in lightning. Yeah that's that's not okay. So uh we're very, very mindful of that. But you know, there was one year we didn't even have a hurricane that got in our way, but we are getting shut down at 1 30, 2 o'clock every day by lightning. So um we have been fortunate in the in the bad storm years that everything outside of the storm has been has been workable.

SPEAKER_06 12:32

I mean, that's why our I think that's why you do good with it because you have those people that are like is our boat club, right? We got people that don't want to deal with the hassle. They don't want to deal with the aggravation, they just want to come down and have a good time. Yeah. You know, and we have people that come into the boat club and it, you know, people ask us all the time. It's always this is my line I always love using. You know, they're like, well, is availability good? You know, can can I get a boat whenever I want? I go, well, do you fly commercial or private? Well, I fly commercial. I go, when you call Southwest, the next call you make is to me. Because you're buying that ticket a week out or you know, a few days out, and I have boats available. You got people in your boat club that fly private? I go, yeah. And they're still in the boat club because they just don't want to deal with the hassle. Right. So the availability is there, you know. And there's that thing where the people just don't want to deal with the aggravation of a boat. I've had a guy who had a Hinckley, which is a beautiful, beautiful boat. Like a million-dollar picnic boat is what it is. It's like wood. So they got them in Benita Bay, you know, you see them there, there. And he's like, I'm just done. Because every time I come down, there's something broken.

SPEAKER_02 13:31

Or there's a concern in a part-time job for some people that don't want to delegate this to a house manager or whomever else. And then people don't. So this is the easy button.

SPEAKER_06 13:40

Yeah, people don't take care of it, like yourself, you know. And I'm gonna say when you you hop on a boat, 98% of the time the radios work, you know, the live wells work, 98%, not not a hundred, but we've got, you know, we've got speakers if we have, or we have but you know, there's certain things we or we switch it to a different boat that gets you out there and makes it simple. Uh, but you know, that's what's that's what's nice about that. That's what you can you can cater to that clientele down here. Yeah, um, you know, and that's what we do with Baywater is we kind of cater to a different clientele. We own the property here, we cater to a certain clientele. We don't do half days with our club, you know, we don't do part-time. This is full-time, year-round. The boats, you know, I'm not here. And I have people tell me and say, Well, I'm only here four months out of the year. I go, Well, do you have a house here? Yeah. Do you pay for it when you have it here? Are you not here? They're like, Yeah, well, this is what we do at Baywater. There's other clubs out there, but it gives you that availability to go out there and just show up and take the boats out 15, 20 times a year versus taking it out three times a year. Yeah. You know, and that's the thing where you have your people that want to come in and just or simple as like even with your your customers in spotlight, because you your your magazine goes into Benita Bay, goes into Shadowwood, goes into where people read it, and people still read newspapers here. It works.

SPEAKER_02 14:53

Yeah, it works. My you know, uh not all of my best customers, but most of my best customers in my lighting company come from an introduction to through the spotlight. Probably holding it in their hand.

SPEAKER_06 15:04

I mean when we do an open house is here, that's the thing. They're always holding it in their hand.

SPEAKER_02 15:08

We did a demo a couple weeks ago in Coil Creek, and I went inside afterward evening demo demonstration, set up our light show so what we can do as far as landscape lighting. And when I'm leaving the gentleman's home, he had the back, the ad, the back cover just taped to his front door, like with the reminder, Peter's coming to meet with me tonight, you know, at sunset. Yeah, so yeah, it's a real thing, and I have tried other publications because it works for me. I want to try other stuff, I have to try it. There's something about I it just it's it's the right mix. Yeah. For whatever reason, for I mean, I've got to be able to do that.

SPEAKER_06 15:43

It's just not a coupon book, you know.

SPEAKER_02 15:45

We've been we've been at it for a long time now, and we get it to the right people, and it's it's pretty cool to see that now, you know, we get to benefit just like you have from it over all these years. I mean, when we met each other, I mean what this place was like fifth of the size, or small. I mean, it's it's really cool to see.

SPEAKER_06 16:06

Yeah, no, no, we're gonna the the the dock just grows and grows, and both can come here and go. There's all kinds of stuff. I don't know, it just happens overnight. There you go. But like what was uh I remember one of our club members says it takes ten years to be an overnight success. Which is kind of like yeah, that makes sense, you know. That does make a lot of sense. Because it, you know, before you know it, your kids are older. You're like, oh man, where you know, where'd we go? You know, what was that uh this is pretty funny? What's your daughter say when you're driving in the car? That's pretty good. Remember their signs on the car?

SPEAKER_02 16:39

Oh my gosh, lettered truck, lettered truck die. Yeah, yeah. Well the thing is like I've been driving around in the I've been driving around in my FJ, which is nice because it doesn't not cover it in all the logos, but I'll tell you the branding, it keeps me in check. It is a good, it is a really good thing. Um, it matters, you know, the impressions, um, the the increases in the the the importance of our lead tracking of people telling Naomi in our office that they heard they heard about it just through the truck wrap. I mean, it's it's phenomenal. But yeah, I mean, you know, there's probably things that you do when that Baywater logo isn't on the side of your truck. Well, I got it on my truck.

SPEAKER_06 17:21

It's it's very it's very like it's very dark. It's a little subtle. It's subtle, it's there. But the best is when my dad, when he used to drive the orange hummer all the time, right? And I had this old lady call him one time. Can you tell that guy who drives an orange Hummer obnoxious that he needs to slow down? Oh my gosh. I go, yes, ma'am, I'll have that conversation with them right now. And I think my dad actually got one phone call for himself. You yes, sir. Well, we'll we'll have a chat with him. I'll I'll have a talk with him right now.

SPEAKER_02 17:50

You know, it's like you know I actually tell this story I'm about to say like to all of my new guys every year that are gonna be driving my trucks, is that it's a different standard when you're in my truck versus when you're in your truck.

SPEAKER_07 18:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:07

And I uh when I was what was this? It was like my second job out of school. This we were in Denver, right? When I yeah, I was in the mountains. So I um I was running this uh cleaning and restoration company. This guy was awesome. He started this um this restoration company from from nothing. Um he had when I was running it. We were just over 20 trucks, and I get this one morning. I rate, I rate, not a customer. This lady is just absolutely livid. Um, why is your truck flashing its lights at me right now? You know, and she's in the left lane, probably driving 10 miles under the speed limit. It does not matter, right? You don't do that, you don't do that, and like the I still remember this guy's name. Um, great guy, hard worker, one of the best techs that work with me, but this concept just for whatever reason didn't resonate with him. And I'm like, look, Steven, this lady is now likely to share this experience with who knows who. You it's impossible to track the impact of this. You know, on your own time, it's all good. I got no problem with this. You I get it. I would be doing the same thing. In fact, I said to him, I was like, why do you think I drive around town in an unlettered truck when I could be taking one of the company trucks because I can get places quicker? You know, this is again back at the back over the mountains. So you gotta you gotta be aware of all these things.

SPEAKER_06 19:31

Like this is that apple will go ten times further than a good one.

SPEAKER_02 19:34

That's that's for sure. And and and there's just new ways to share information nowadays that can get spread quickly, but it always spread quickly when it's someone who's you know not too happy with you.

SPEAKER_06 19:47

I understand that. Well, I know we used to have well before we had the hurt, before Ian, we had all our boats wrapped for the boat rentals, and then those all disappeared.

SPEAKER_01 19:55

They all they all blew away. They were across the bay and all that. No, I remember coming down here, man. Yeah, they were literally I'm looking out.

SPEAKER_06 20:04

We're yanking them back.

SPEAKER_02 20:05

So a video of you and you and Larry just before we went out right away. But I mean crazy. We one of them was right in the middle of the road here.

SPEAKER_06 20:12

Oh yeah, a couple of them. And that's the thing is where we have it, or if we're gonna wrap them now again for season, get out there. I remember I took uh a buddy of our Jim Magnus, you know, James and Jim. Yeah. So we took them out, we went skeet shooting on the boat, yeah one of our rental boats. And I have a skeet shooter and it was a carpeted deck, so I just screw that baby right into the ground, and it was Jim on the back and uh his son on the front, and I'm driving, and it was like we've done this a few times, which is fun. You have you uh seal shots so it rusts, you know, and the pigeons, the clay pigeons are biodegradable, so I'd you know make sure all the plastic stays on the boat, and we just went out there at sunset, and we did it several times where it was flat calm, so you just go out, no big deal. Well, this day it was like kind of onshore just a little bit, so we're kind of just out in the golf, and I just I understand. This is after hours, um, but it was just on shore, and it was a little rough, nothing too crazy, but it was just kind of blowing a little bit, so we're kind of near shore, and I talk to the Coast Guard. Yep, as long as you're 500 feet off the beach, you know, you can discharge firearms, there's nothing against it's not legal or anything. Yeah, okay. So we're there, and this boat has the lettering on it, and well, the wind was on shore, so we're just blasting away, and all of a sudden they start calling the marina, you know, calling and calling and calling, and they're like, they're invading. You got some people, some renters out here invading. They're just shooting, they're shooting birds, they're shooting seagulls. And I'm like, no, no, we're not. So we got the cops coming. So then, so then my buddy who's a cop here logo, he's like, hey Adam, there's like people blowing us up at the station. Can you can you? Go somewhere else.

SPEAKER_02 22:02

Did you get any of the 911 calls?

SPEAKER_06 22:04

Yeah, 911, because you're calling the the the police, the locals 911. And they're like, what's going on here? Well, this boat from Baywater. Like, oh okay, this is Adam. So I can't call. The guy's no longer with us, but he's like, Adam, you're killing me, man. Can he go somewhere else? You know, there's like you're invading. It says Baywater all over a side. Well, next time we're gonna cover the name. But it was this funny thing. There you go. Oh man. I think I might have hid the boat for a night because I just didn't know, you know, what's going on here. But uh yeah, that's that's a long time ago.

SPEAKER_02 22:36

Hey, there's a time and there's a time and place for the no logos. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We gotta we gotta use no logo trucks in some of the communities for late night service. They don't they're okay with us being in there, but they're not okay with us being in there. Oh, the HOAs?

SPEAKER_06 22:49

Oh, I've got a lot of fun with HOAs. There was door knocking, had a lot of fun. A lot of fun. Man, I never remembering that that article in Florida politics with you you see the picture of you in the computer driving right by the arm between that's office. Up in my office.

SPEAKER_02 23:06

That probably helped you.

SPEAKER_06 23:07

It did. It's up in my office. I have it framed in my office, and it's Adam Botana scoots past Jason Mobbs for district. How many doors did you knock on? 10,237. So, but yeah, like I was going to the Forest Country Club. The Forest Country Club, and they reported me, like they sent me a cease and desist letter. I remember it saying, please reframe uh please, what was it? It was some kind of term, and I was like, oh, please control yourself or you know, uh something, I'll think about it. But it was just like, man, I I put that up in my office. So Forest Country Club, sorry, I can't help you out there. There's some good people in there, but I mean, again, I remember, I remember, you know, because you you think about it, like your door knocking, and then I like remember Jim Dotti, who is our attorney, Jim Dotti from Rotary, good guy. I was like, hey, can you research this for me? What is this?

SPEAKER_01 23:58

Am I am I soliciting? Am I not? He goes, but if you just leave it on the door, it's different, right? A not a thing on the door.

SPEAKER_06 24:05

He's they're not selling, you're not selling, but you're kind of in a gray area, so it's kind of a weird situation. Because then because I was trying to get in these communities, so the first 5,000 doors I legit walked because that was before COVID. You know, that was from January to April. So like I remember parking my truck at Fishtail Marina in Fort Myers Beach. Yeah, and I just got two stacks and I just walked. I think I had to walk like 28,000 steps that day. It was some kind of craziness. And at worst, it's like a seagull tried to crap on me. Legit. Like I'm and it was always the worst because it was the one target, they'll go after you.

SPEAKER_01 24:40

And he was looking on an accident. No, no, he was looking. I was like, he's so bitch.

SPEAKER_06 24:45

Like it went plop, pop, plop. And I looked up and he's like, you know, he's just sitting there looking, like it's like, but you walk, okay, and it you have the streets, right? And there's canals, and so you walk, you hit the door, and it's always all the way at the bay. And the next one's like the next canal. So you're like walking for 15-20 minutes to get there, and there's nobody home. Damn it. So I just write, you know, sorry I missed you. You know, and that was on the beach. That wasn't bad. I wasn't getting communities, but then I went to Getty Communities because that was after COVID. My dad's like, you know what, we're gonna get you a scooter, yeah. And an electric scooter, and that was the best thing ever because it was hot and I was always cuddly, but I lost like 30 pounds. Like I look good.

SPEAKER_02 25:21

But walking is the best exercise.

SPEAKER_06 25:23

And I would just sit there and ride that scooter, and you get like a little cool breeze because you're not hitting every door, you're just hitting the you know, I got an app that says this person, Jake here, is a super Republican, Peter here is a Republican, but doesn't vote every time.

SPEAKER_02 25:37

So it tells you that data that you have is amazing. It was huge, it was great. Who's actually voting?

SPEAKER_06 25:42

Not just who they're voting for, it just says it said that who they're registered with who they're registered, and they actually have voted. And they have actually voted. It doesn't say who they voted for, but it just but it just said, okay, you figure. Okay, this is Republican, this is deep ready to go there. So I was going into these communities, and I just started having club members from Baywater call me in, like over at the Strand or over at uh the place, and it worked out, and then the HOA started going after the the members because you can't let him in here because he's soliciting and stuff like that. And they kind of gave a couple guys some crap, like Shadowwood, they reprimanded one of our members. So I talked to Jim Dowdy, and he goes, Well, what you do is you ride in with them, so you just go through the gate with them, and then once you're at their house, you get out and be like, Alright, see ya. And that's what I start doing. Yeah. So I was at Shadowwood, and it's always the last street. Like, I'm done. So there's a lot of doors in Shadowwood. There's probably, I want to say a thousand doors, probably, homes in Shadowwood, maybe a little less. Yeah, a little less. You know, right here, yeah. So there was probably 500. No, but it was it was probably 200 people in there that I had to talk to. Those were super re those are residents of Florida, those are people that vote. Those are people I had to get to the door and see them. Of that 200, there's probably a hundred people home. So that's kind of the thing that there's what month were you knocking? So this was in, so this would have been May, June. Oh wow. So that's you know, so there's usually but it's usually about 50% of the people are home. We have a lot of retirees here, so there are people that don't, you know, that work, don't work on the, you know, during the week or whatever. Um, but the deal was this is where my campaign guy goes, if you get behind those doors and there's a hundred doors back there, you're gonna piss off 10% of the people. But you know what? I'm gonna piss off five, I'll take the 45 votes. You know, because they're gonna and then probably the five that I pissed off yeah are gonna vote for me anyways.

SPEAKER_01 27:39

Yeah. But they're gonna be like, I remember the one with some miserable people, man.

SPEAKER_02 27:45

It happens. Sorry, Jake. You just you just happen to step into their life.

SPEAKER_06 27:50

Uh, but yeah, no, I remember the one. This is this is pretty bad. This is this is hey, we'll probably have to remove this. Probably not, but so when I was door knocking, my app, right, is your door knocking, you're going through, and it says like uh home, not home, you know, not interested, support or on support, you know, just stay away. Yeah. So I go knock on these doors in these kid communities, they're like, How would you get in here? Oh, you know, I got an uncle Tom that lives over here. I'm I'm running the kid, you know, you learn, and a guy got mad and he goes, you know what? You shouldn't be in here. This is a private community. You shouldn't do this. I don't want to see you here again, you know, and I'm just not gonna vote for you. So instead of hit on support, because I wanted to make sure everybody liked me, I hit not home. Totally fine. Yeah, did this a few times, did all that, knocked all the books, like knocked everywhere. So my came and goes, Oh, we're gonna refresh the books. We'll go back to the ones that are not home. So this is over in Spanish Wells, and I remember this clear as day. And I'm walking there, and I was like, Oh, okay. You know, while you know, get the scooter, I grab the guy's. Figure it up when you're halfway up the driveway. No, no, I grab this newspaper to bring the newspaper to the door because that's something you do. Yeah, you know, I hit the door and he opens the door, he goes, Botana, already lying like a politician. I can't, I just like I was running. I was like, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, he's already lying like a politician. Slam the door. I was like, oh. So then I had to think about who were the because there were some people that were really there's you getting guns pulled on you?

SPEAKER_02 29:29

Uh St. Carlos Park. Katie did when she was like, she was like, what were we? She was like 22, and she was doing some like like you probably pay people to help you with stuff. Yeah, we're not. So she was hired by this guy who was running for the state house. Oh, really? I don't know. Yeah, and but she had a rollerblades because she's like super fast with her rollerblades. And yeah, this dude pulled a shotgun on her and these two other guys that they're with.

SPEAKER_06 29:51

Yeah, I don't think she'd be doing it by the way.

SPEAKER_02 29:53

I mean, it was but I mean Hey, it was San Carlos Park, it was totally cool.

SPEAKER_06 29:57

The guy comes in there, he's shirtless, you know. I got some other stories. But he's shirtless with Janes. He goes, You Democrat or Republican. I call I'm Republican, and he's got it hidden behind the door. He's like, Oh, you're Republican? Okay, let me put my piece down. Thank you. Nice to meet you. I was like, Jesus Christ.

SPEAKER_02 30:14

Thanks for clarifying what was happening here.

SPEAKER_06 30:17

Thanks. It's and it's the primaries, it's the primaries, sir, but I appreciate it. Oh man. Well, yeah, I mean, there's there's some guys that come to the door and it's like an old guy and they just have a straight shirt, just a button-down shirt. You don't look down because you don't know if there's there's there's I didn't see pants, I seen legs, okay? I didn't look anymore. I didn't know what it was, but it was just a straight shirt. Just just long button shirt, I'm like, eh. And the amount of cat pee that you smell at doors. Oh my gosh. How people like you walk up to these doors, Jake, and and there, there's like it's the foyer. And these are nice houses. This is like in Sanibel. Yeah. And there's some nice houses. There's so much dog crap. So much dog crap in in the in the in the in the the doorway, the the foyer. I'm like, wow. How do you how do you live?

SPEAKER_02 31:06

It's I I you know, some people just can't smell it, I think, after time, and it goes to the meme to it. But well with that company I was telling you with that I was running back in Colorado, it's like they had a big rug cleaning division, and like one of the guys who had worked with him had been there for decades, um, every certification you can imagine. And we're talking cleaning cat and dog pee out of rugs that are worth fifty thousand dollars. I mean, you can get in trouble with that. But yeah, man, I mean, they'd come in, he'd be uh go into his shop and be like, what's that smell? And it's like he's got this amazing hand-made rug, and that's what the smell is.

SPEAKER_06 31:48

Peter did our lights like three years in a row. Every time Peter comes, the honeypot guy comes. And he's just sitting here like every time. Like he comes on Fridays. So Peter says, I'm gonna come on like a Thursday. And it like was a holiday guy. He's like, I come day early, like every time.

SPEAKER_03 32:05

I thought you were messing with him. Like everyone, I thought you were rescheduling him to come.

SPEAKER_06 32:10

Like, it's just I mean that sounds like something I would do, but no, not that bad.

SPEAKER_02 32:14

Yeah. Well, no, those guys are those are nice guys that you got doing the hey, they got a good sense of humor.

SPEAKER_06 32:21

It's money, it's money, right? Hey, it works.

SPEAKER_02 32:24

You guys keep pumping that thing out.

SPEAKER_06 32:26

Yeah, it goes there. Oh man. So, but uh no, so what it what uh what's exciting for you know what you're looking for this year? I mean, how's how's business like in general? What's like what are your what are your thoughts on everything going on in Benita? What do you think about downtown and all that?

SPEAKER_02 32:42

I mean, you are a newspaper, so yeah, I mean there's a heck of a lot of changes. Um, you know, I don't go out to all these events in the evenings like I used to, because that time is more with my kids, it's a little bit different. So, you know, I'm a lot of those conversations I used to have with a lot of people around town, every chamber of commerce, every networking event you can it's evolved a lot more, definitely not drinking as much because all those types of things. But overall, um like I said earlier, I've always enjoyed the seasonal pace change around here. It forces you to take a look at your business, right? If you're going a thousand miles an hour all the time, then you're going a thousand miles an hour all the time. This uh invites and almost forces me to really take a step back, look at everything, see how things are really going.

SPEAKER_06 33:32

Look around who's not washing boats, you know, who's who's holding stuff up.

SPEAKER_02 33:35

I mean, seriously, you know, you're like, all right, who's who's keeping busy? And there are a lot of things that we have to work ahead of and plan for and get done in terms of like the lighting company and prep work. Um there is always more that can be done in advance. But that goes with the magazine as well. You know, most of the annual long-term agreements that are worked through are worked through out of season. So, you know, a lot of that stuff, October, September. Yes, it varies. Yes, everyone's on their own schedules, but um, it's a critical time for planning and preparation um so that you're ready to go, so you can make the most out of that peak time. Because you know, people ask about the lighting company, like it's oh, what do you do? It's a seasonal thing. Well, like we're all seasonal.

SPEAKER_06 34:20

Yeah, but you do it's not just light up, it's well that's true.

SPEAKER_02 34:23

And I do that's we do landscape lighting. Landscape lighting and we did some lighting for one of our clients for a wedding they had on their property. We've done limited event lighting. I'm really not trying to get into event lighting um because like Christmas is enough of a deadline um to have the daily deadlines throughout the season. You know, again, we do those here or there. It's not something I'm actively going after or promoting. Um, I I like Christmas is six months for us, it's every bit of six months. Um, the instance.

SPEAKER_06 34:52

Kids still enjoy Christmas?

SPEAKER_02 34:54

They do, they know where everything comes from. But you were right in your um in your I don't know what the word is it awareness, drawing my awareness of this, you know, because like you know, the your growing up in your association with the fairs and the other events you did and some of the lighting stuff you guys do, it's like it's all tied to it. Yeah, for sure. And kind of it kind of but you get you asked what I'm really focused on, and what I'm really like, yeah, I I mean talking about the whole there's the economy of the town, and then there's my company is what I'm focused on. And what I'm really focused on this year is making everyone in our organization's lives easier and smoother, really. Like, um I we're we're growing, I'm happy that we're growing, but we have opportunity to do the same amount of work in a way more efficient manner to make it as as smooth as can be. Um I I talk with a lot of other install companies throughout the country. I do some business coaching as well. I've got a great network of guys that we learn from back and forth throughout all that. There there's always something I'm picking up.

SPEAKER_06 35:58

And it's crazy. Like I belong to a like a rental, boat rental, jet ski rental uh Facebook page. Okay, and I just read through, you know, like oh, there's there's you know, why reinvent the I mean, oh, that's a way to do it. Just kind of peek and see, you know.

SPEAKER_02 36:14

There's always a lot of good stuff in there, and a lot of those groups can get real negative, and that's fine. You just filter through that with your own eyes, and you find you find the gold amidst all of that.

SPEAKER_06 36:23

When we first started the rental business, we went rentaboats for a while. Like when Donna Marco was like, How do you do this? Because we didn't have any clue, you know. All right, well, we gotta get a piece of paper, okay. We gotta sign this out, okay. All right, what do we do now? Oh, we gotta get a contract. Let's go rent a boat. We still kept the contract.

SPEAKER_01 36:39

That's so bad.

SPEAKER_06 36:40

Oh you know, paying for the groceries, man, paying for the groceries.

SPEAKER_02 36:47

That makes a lot of sense with the way you're doing it. You can go to every marina, rent one, and take the best 10% from everybody. What do they do best? What can we learn from this?

SPEAKER_04 36:55

And what can you be more in it? Like, why are they why are we doing it that way? What's going on with that?

SPEAKER_02 36:59

And competition does make you better. As much as some of these guys drive me nuts, um, they they keep you sharp, um, they keep us pedaled to the floor all the time. Like this is a year-round thing. We're working on it all year round. While the installs for Christmas are only happening, you know, September through December. Um, there's a lot, lot more.

SPEAKER_06 37:22

Well, like at look at us right here. We've got Freedom right next door, which is a corporate. That's a huge one. Yeah. They're they're all over the country. And we get people off them, and I'm sure they get some people off us. I'm sure it's more we than F them than MLF us, just saying. But you know, it's just a lot of people.

SPEAKER_02 37:36

Well, you're both club, both clubs, but you're it's an entirely different thing.

SPEAKER_01 37:42

The thing I can tell is type of service, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:45

Family operation, that's a corporate structure. Like it's just different.

SPEAKER_06 37:48

It's just you can tell from just looking at the docks, it's all younger people over there. A lot of their members are younger, they're like young family, young kids. People have you know, that's just like are they here on vacation or they actually live here? Well, I think they're just part-time, you know, they're in and out, or they're from another place, or because they have like, oh, we can we can use a boat up here, and we've had members that join other clubs up north and join this club down here because they want the nicer boats down here. Uh, and we've got members that are members of freedom and members of us too. You know, there's some some of us that have that, but it's just just that clientele is a little different, and then just the stuff that we offer. We have uh, you know, we have the nicer boats, we got the bigger stuff, we got the live bulbs, we got the trolling motors. But it's like your lights, you got the twinkle lights, the other guys don't have the twinkle lights, so you just do one color, right? I mean, how many times are they gonna have white lights? But I mean, I guess that's what everybody does.

SPEAKER_02 38:38

That's what most people are doing. Like it when you look at every commercial display, like you're you're the anomaly, but you guys can do whatever you want, and like this looks awesome here. Like, you know, a patriot patriotic display. I mean, over the year we've done other stuff with you before, like the hot pink, lime green, aqua. That looks awesome for this, you know, whether it's like a tiki hut, like we're sitting under, or any type of you know, restaurant type theme. Real, it's in your face, it's loud. So I had an HOA. Um, this board loved us. We already worked for them for years. They absolutely loved the pictures of your marina. Everyone on the board loved it. They wanted to do it for their um. I was not smart enough at the time to tell them no, you shouldn't do that. Yeah, right. Because they were all ecstatic, they're all and they were all still, they're still happy with what they got. But what we also got for them was a whole bunch of complaints that they had to deal with. We ended up just coming, and they the unfortunate part was like they were also happy and they loved it, but they were tired of dealing with all that. So I said, look, I'll just we're just gonna come in and we're gonna change it for you. We're just gonna come in and change it for you. I still I remember I took this phone. There had been a number of emails back and forth. I was on my way back from KeeBus game from one of Molly's soccer games. Uh spoke, not the board president, but the the one who most recently was a president who just stepped down and like, look, we Paul, we want to help you. We're gonna make this right, we'll take care of this. But in the same time, like she was grateful, but she didn't want to change it. But when you're dealing with homeowners associations, that you in my view, you want to try to please as many people as possible, and you should also be aware that it is impossible to please every person. So you go for making as many people as possible and you accept that it will be an unreasonable goal to keep everybody happy. And as long as you do that, you're you're good. We work with a lot of a lot of different homeowners associations, they all have different personalities, different styles, the way that decisions are made are vary from place to place. But yeah, as far as all the different different colored lights, I mean when you look at our portfolio of work, there's a lot of cool creative stuff. Um, but it's on a disproportionate basis of what we actually do.

SPEAKER_01 40:47

See, our our stuff's always on your own. Well, it's fun. Yeah, like we like doing stuff like this.

SPEAKER_02 40:52

Like one of our first homes we ever did is this, it's like what you call like a frozen theme, but it's all these shades of aqua, blue, a cool white, not the warm white, but that cool white that plays off it really well. Um people like to see that, and when we're flipping through our hardcover portfolio book in a client presentation, they're like, Oh wow, that's so cool, and they get excited, but they don't want that. Yeah, they want the traditional, you know, green garland, ribos, warm white lights, make it look amazing. This is a conservative area, that's a conservative display, it works great for like but people like to see that we can do that function creative stuff because it's it's fun, you know. I mean, look, we got started doing this because it was fun.

SPEAKER_05 41:33

Hold on, that's that's something you you know. Well, baby Jesus. You know, with uh no?

SPEAKER_00 41:38

I'm all jacked up on Mountain Dew.

SPEAKER_05 41:40

Oh damn.

SPEAKER_00 41:42

Say, always some people will get that rookie hanging out in the background here just chilling.

SPEAKER_06 41:48

I don't want to interrupt. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_07 41:51

Doing great.

SPEAKER_06 41:51

Yeah, he's doing he's just chilling.

SPEAKER_02 41:53

He's just chilling. Oh man. How many Mountain Dews do you drink every day? Um not anymore.

SPEAKER_00 42:02

Not anymore, but it was six, it was about you know I was buying a 12 pack every two days. I know that's what I would do.

SPEAKER_06 42:07

Every day I was buying a 12 pack when I was when I was a kid. Uh the cube, remember the Pepsi Pepsi cube? That was like the 24 cans?

SPEAKER_01 42:13

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 42:14

Oh, we the Pepsi points going for those. I don't remember it's some absurd number. It's like whatever, like 50 grams of sugar in those, and like the Dr. Peppers. When I I used to work with this dude, he must have had like seven Dr. Peppers all day long. The skinny guy was like, I don't know, no kidney functions.

SPEAKER_06 42:32

Well, I went to the doctor because the doctor's like, You f are you sexually active? It's like 12, so possibly. But uh, he's like, Yeah, he got something going on there, and then he talked to my parents like no, and then he talked, he's like, You know, how much soda do you drink? Yeah, you know, it was that thing where like you're hot, you're thirsty, I'll get him out and do. I mean the stuff is addictive.

SPEAKER_02 42:52

Yeah, you drink it every once in a while, you're like, Oh, that tastes so the sugar is so like I've really gotten into these um Coke Zeros. All right. I had drink way too many of them. Like, I've been having like four or five a day, which is not okay. And I like and I start drinking coffee at 4 30 and I'm just pounding coffee.

SPEAKER_06 43:10

So I do the the busy coffee in the morning, which is pretty good. It's busy, it's that means it's like it's ice coffee ice espresso you get from Publix and it's good. Like you just pour it over ice because I'm more gonna it's a cold brew that's cold brew.

SPEAKER_02 43:23

Okay, so well that you can make that super concentrated.

SPEAKER_06 43:27

I just do a little bit of coffee, a little bit of a little cream in there, and that's it. But I'll do like every other day, I'll like that afternoon. I won't get a coffee. Like, I'll go to Starbucks or Duncan is actually better than Starbucks, my opinion. It's cheaper. Yeah, um, but I'll get like a monster, like one monster, one orange monster, and that's good. But I mean the amount of soda I used to drink was insane. And then we were talking about like your water, right? Because I was watching some guy online and he does he does it like in these deep dives into water, like what's the difference? You know, the Fiji water, the Atlantic water, spring water. Water, Poland Springs, and like that pH matters, man. Oh, it does. But I remember like we're talking about Benita Springs Utilities. Yeah. Like they have really good water. Oh, yeah, they do. Benita has really good water. Like, I just I don't even have you know, like, we gotta filter in your fridge. I'm like, nope, I just reset the button every time.

SPEAKER_01 44:16

We got like because it's we have the best.

SPEAKER_02 44:18

Remember when we both ran for the utility board, got our asses kicked? Yeah. That's my first run.

SPEAKER_01 44:22

A long time ago. Yeah. Um the guy was the guy interviewing me and goes, You're so young. Why are you running? I was like, ah, you know.

SPEAKER_02 44:28

No, but so I don't know how long ago this was, but it's like we had a series company come to my mind.

SPEAKER_06 44:34

I remember. I remember you telling me the story a long time ago with Katie, right?

SPEAKER_02 44:38

He came to like fix a faucet in the sink. And he's relatively new, I don't need to say who the company it is, and they've since been bought out, but like they have a whole pitch and a whole kit to show, like, okay, now here's like this changes this color. So now look, like, be we can change it, we can make it look like this. And Katie hears him on the phone with the office, like, all like, what am I doing wrong? It's not doing what you said. Like, this is like it's because we got awesome water. Yeah, like there's there's nothing wrong with it. That's something that's and I have like an extra filter on my fridge, but I drink it right out of the sink in my bathroom in the morning in the morning.

SPEAKER_06 45:15

Remember Jake, I gave you tap water one time, like that was good. Yeah, yeah. I go, is that out of the tap? I was like, Well, that's all I got, but yeah.

SPEAKER_02 45:22

If I'm at one of my friends' houses in Collier County, like I can taste the chlorine like clear. And I don't know if it's because I'm so used to our water, and I do wonder if like maybe I would notice that if that was what was being called.

SPEAKER_06 45:33

Well, I do like I have it happen like every once in a while here, I'll s I'll start sneezing in the shower. And what it is is when they're cleaning out because they added it. And they do that changeover, yeah. They clean out, and it happens, and all of a sudden I'll just start sneezing in the shower. I was like, what is going on? And it's you know, the steam or whatever, but it's uh they're they're cleaning up because they have to, you know, sterilize the pipes at somewhat, so they do put some, but like these pinch utilities does a great job. Like the water is amazing, but I mean it does like if you have any faucets or anything, like it you can't you can't get it undone because the calcium, there's a lot of calcium in it. Yeah, see, I mean, like you get a uh like a Y or a hose, like that that puppy ain't coming off. You're gonna beat it with a hammer.

SPEAKER_01 46:17

This is the stuff you're not gonna do.

SPEAKER_02 46:19

Some kind of quick release deal.

SPEAKER_06 46:20

Yeah, it's just a little different. But uh no, we have got great water here. I'm very springs. But yeah, it was funny as we're talking about Poland Springs. Oh, Poland Springs is you know, they they drove they they drew down a well, I think it was in New York or something, but now they're going to some lake. Well, like Zephyr Hills is a big thing. Because Zephyr Hills, like I like when I'm ever around, I get Zephyr Hills, yeah. Spring water, you know, like and the thing is they go, because in the 80s and 90s, we drank so much soda. America did this, like, all right, we're doing it. And it's like a 5,000% markup on a bottle of water. That's I mean, that's how much you know that's what it is. It's uh it all started with uh Pepsi was Aquafina, yeah. Because there was always like the spring water, you always had the Perrier and stuff. But I remember like in our business, in the carnival business, like we're selling water by the bottle? Are you kidding me? Like, yeah, so just a buck a bottle, and uh, you know, that was back in probably the mid-90s, and that's when it started. And then Pepsi came out with Aquafina, that's just pretty much their their water they use. It's filtered, and then Dasani came out from from Coke, and then now you have all the other ones in Fiji and all that. But I just do this at for Hills, spring water at 7-Eleven or whatever. So see, we talk about everything out here, right?

SPEAKER_02 47:33

Well, I've been to a few, like when I've I remember like when BSU did their expansion, I went there for the they had some ribbon cutting and they had like the BSU bottled water. And he's like, This is the only place you can get this. Like, is that was the only time we get it in your special event. But yeah.

SPEAKER_06 47:47

No, we just gotta do like I'm trying to get in the legislature now. It's because we have bottled waters everywhere, like in our committees and stuff, and then we have a lunchroom where we actually it's probably five times the size of this Tikiana, but it's an actual place where it's only members are allowed in the in the house office building, and they serve lunch and breakfast and lunch there. So it's a actually a lot of stuff. Like all the new uh representatives I say, hey, block an hour out for lunch, no matter what. You're not that busy. You can block out an hour and go there and sit in a lunchroom and just talk.

SPEAKER_02 48:19

And you meet well, that's networking time. Oh, yeah. I mean, that's you know the prime networking time.

SPEAKER_06 48:23

You know, and that's where you just like meet everybody and they have bottles of water. I was like, you know, we just need to go to the spring water in a can aluminum can just get away from the plastics and stuff like that. So I'm I'm I'm lobbying for that in the cabin, just to get, you know, aluminum cans, just making a difference. It's one way to change the the mindset of uh elected.

SPEAKER_02 48:42

I mean, I I couldn't tell you the last time I left my house without my you know yeti water and uh and my sunglasses. Like they have to I have to leave the house with those things. It's just normal. It's just and my kids too.

SPEAKER_06 48:55

It's like everywhere they go, they have we're gonna do aluminum cans and we're gonna have yeti bay water yetis, I'll get you one. It's you two jigs, rocket, rocket, you know. But we're gonna do that here. And for the members, you know, you want to fill it up. If we had bottled water here that we had complimentary, couldn't members come in and get like 12 of them like guys, come on, come on, come on, come on, you know.

SPEAKER_02 49:17

Well, I just I it's just what's normal, and it's like even like at the airport, they have it's so easy now. Like they have the thing where you just put your bottle in and I just pound my water right before it goes through security, they got the thing filled up right when you walk through it.

SPEAKER_06 49:29

No, I mean it's it's a lot better than the soda we used to drink all the time. You're sitting there like with the just sluggish.

SPEAKER_02 49:34

I mean I've made a new push just since yesterday. I've only had one soda since yesterday. Really?

SPEAKER_06 49:40

Oh I'm like so you're making a Coke zero, huh?

SPEAKER_02 49:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 49:43

Why don't you just do the regular Coke?

SPEAKER_02 49:45

Because uh the sugar just messed me up. And I know it's like, oh, your body knows what to do with the sugar, you're you're just drinking with all this poison, I'll just take any chances on the plate. They avoid it.

SPEAKER_06 49:57

I know it's good. I don't know, man. I was like, I thought about that. I was like, you know what? That's a good point.

SPEAKER_02 50:03

If the ants don't eat it, but no, no, I've I've tried Coke sugar, it's good. I just like I don't sugar is a disaster. Like I just feel and I can't prove any of it. Like, this isn't some like I'm not qualified to talk. Don't take my advice. But it's like I think that like when I have a margarita, the sugar is a bigger problem than the tequila.

SPEAKER_06 50:23

For me at least, that's just amigos, blanco, a little shot of pineapple.

SPEAKER_02 50:28

Just stick with the lime juice, you're all good.

SPEAKER_06 50:30

Yeah, you know, I like the I like the uh what is it, skinny? Yeah, you know, if they actually make a good one, yeah, that's good. Just give me that.

SPEAKER_01 50:38

No, I mean I don't need all the sour milks and all this.

SPEAKER_03 50:40

That's the way to do it.

SPEAKER_01 50:41

Yeah. When I mean tequila's an upper. It's okay. Yeah, I love it. It's a little different. I'll tell you. It works.

SPEAKER_06 50:49

I'll tell you stay away from the vodka.

SPEAKER_01 50:51

When's the when's the tequila bar opening here? Omar's Tiki bar?

SPEAKER_06 50:55

Well, we just got okay to open the ship store. Okay. But so my toilet's over there. I gotta have a lift station for the Omar Sticky bar. So I'm gonna work on it over the summer.

SPEAKER_02 51:05

How does that work with the alcohol license? Is it like a club? So it's not it's not really like a restaurant.

SPEAKER_06 51:10

No, beer and so like for the package license because it's members taking it. Okay, I don't need to have that. So as a as a marina, I don't need to have restrooms because I'm not serving food. Okay. That's but we have the restrooms here for our members, right? Right. But when you serve food, you have to have a restroom. And when we have a restroom here that for that like legitimate, we have to hook up the sewer. So right now we have it hooked up on a tank, and that's why your guys come every time you're here. So okay. It's it's it otherwise I gotta build a restroom that's 14 feet way up in the air with a ramp and all this stuff. This way I build a trailer, it's portable, I can get it out of here if a storm's coming. Yeah, and then now I can hook it up to sewer once we hook up the sewer and go from there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 51:57

So you guys are efficient as hell. It's pulling this out of here. We got we got the up here.

SPEAKER_06 52:03

We got 10 pounds of crap in a five-pound bag here. That's what's going. Alright, we're getting close. Um thanks for having me, man. No, thank you. This was fun. See, it's easy when you're just bullshitting talking about whatever. I mean, people listen.

SPEAKER_02 52:16

This is like what breakfast used to be at brewery for you.

SPEAKER_01 52:20

I mean, it's just talking. It's good. You know, we're back at Spanish Wells.

SPEAKER_06 52:24

Really? The morning club, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 52:25

Oh wow. Yeah, it's when did that change?

SPEAKER_06 52:28

Uh a couple weeks ago. Oh wow. It's nice. Good. I mean, it's back in the old room where we used to be, but it's morning and it's circle. It's you can't check out Julie?

SPEAKER_01 52:38

They've probably redone that club twice since I've been probably.

SPEAKER_06 52:40

But Julie's there. Now I got Julie involved in Rotary.

SPEAKER_02 52:43

So you're like, you're technically in the club, but you don't really go because you're in the well, because I've got to run around and stuff.

SPEAKER_06 52:49

But you know, I started going to like uh I've been down to North Naples a couple times. Yeah. They meet on Thursday morning. Now we go into Tuesday mornings. We're Tuesday mornings now. We're not Wednesdays. Okay. Tuesdays. So I'll go down to North Naples at Bears Paw. It's pretty good. It's a fun club. Yeah. It's fun. It's it's there's jokes and you know, it's like when George was there. I mean, our club's great still, but yeah. Uh and I'll go to uh Pelican Bay, they meet at the Hilton down at Naples on Friday mornings. Okay. So I just kind of bounce around. I've been to Sanibelle, and it's actually a great way to kind of check in. Check in and just say hi, Adam, head boat washer, part-time legislator, part-time carney. Uh, all the things. Get the hats, just keep switching. Oh man. Keep switching.

SPEAKER_02 53:36

It looks like you're uh still enjoying the politics, as you say.

SPEAKER_06 53:41

Yeah, I mean it's it's you know, we take care of our area and do some stuff. I I feel like I'm uh sometimes like just a backstop, like just the normal guy. Like uh I didn't go to Princeton, I didn't go to Harvard. I've uh you know, we got employees I've hired and fired, you know, but like hey, you know, this does this I mean this sounds good, but this ain't gonna be good. You know, like communism sounds good on paper until you add the human element that is not good, you know. So there, you know, I I enjoy it. Uh started as a hobby and still is, you know, you know, and but we're doing good. But uh yeah, having fun. We're doing the podcast now. We got Jake here. Jake killing it. Doing a great job. It's been quiet behind the scenes.

SPEAKER_00 54:25

It's been letting you guys do it.

SPEAKER_06 54:26

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we're there. Uh, but uh thanks for tuning in. We're here every Sunday morning now from 6 to 7. And you can look us up online at carney2congress.com. Just Google carny2congress.com. Uh, we're presented by Baywater Susan Boat Club. We love having a Bonita business on here, Peter, with Light Up Naples. Is there a number they can call you if they want to have uh something more? Is it just light up Naples?

SPEAKER_02 54:53

Yeah, 239-228-8700, but lightupnaples.com, lightupnaples.com. You got say that one more time a little bit slower. 239-228-8700. There you go. Yeah, but we got new videos on our YouTube channel every single day. We've got thousands of photos on our Google profile. Most extensive lighting portfolio you'll find in our region.

SPEAKER_06 55:18

Stop by and see us. We got an open house this weekend, also. So come on over, see us here at the boat club. If you want to come over and join the club, great deals, good times, come on over and get us, uh, get you out here on the water and have some fun. Bay Water Sousa Boat Club, the exclusive club of Southwest Florida.