Ideas By Elliot Podcast

Great episode featuring web maven Don Nelson of Green Bay. This is really DON'S SHOW! Creative Culture vs Corporate Culture Entrepreneurism Volunteerism Blogging Nerd Tech Talk

Our first "Ask Me Anything" Episode. We did get a few questions, but this was a trial run at this. The next one will be even better!

Professor Meg Pickett from Lawrence University joins the show to talk about Pluto and roller derby!

Transcription That was breaking dawn and that is by 11 year old Maximus Troy he's my boy so he makes music for me when when I can't get other local artists on so I'm hitting the b tracks of his though so like that's that would need some work yet right but it's oh so that's like a pre-release garage version of his garage band track so break of dawn downloading on iTunes make me rich. It’s not on iTunes but… Well, technically it is on iTunes Stole the words right out of my mouth right so our podcast I should be telling everybody this from now on right this is on iTunes you can subscribe so if you go to in iTunes on Mac or whatever it's called windows? I dunno? PC something I don't know what they call that stuff anymore not Apple not Apple Cuz linux also I think has an iTunes No there's no iTunes for Linux so they have something well there's something There are ways to do it Yes I don't even know I can line it up you can do it under emulation of some kind, yeah. But uh you go to the podcast Store and iTunes search for IdeasbyElliot and it'll be there. It is pretty awesome to do that and you do that on Apple TV. I did that. And it's also up on Stitcher Radio and you can get to all that stuff I go with my website IdeasbyElliot.com. There's links to all that stuff you can play the tracks, sponsors are listed there like the awesome camcorders studios that we're in. Thanks Elliot Yeah I got it I got to do better job with that I know I'm working I'm working on it so today as you know because you're playing this and their names are already on the track, I have Christina and Heather. So a lot of firsts this time. You two are my youngest guessed yet right you're both under 20 right? Close And the first time I’ve had two official guests on. So usually some one on one. Are you slightly intimidated that you’re outnumbered?  Yeah. Well I was late for the...I recorded one with Nicole this morning and I was a few minutes late that's because I couldn't sleep last night. We had a great...a great party. Ran into Kristina's mom and dad there yeah it was and I told him about the show I don't think they understood was talking about I feel kind of bad about that. You’d be surprised. My mom is getting pretty savvy on her iPhone Fair enough it was your dad that was a little confused so fair enough thanks I think she's going to check it out yeah and so give me a full names so that you say instead of me Start with Krystina Hello, my name is Krystina Engebos You do what  I work at Titletown I manage our distribution for all of our package and traffic You have to be a little more explicit cut there’s gonna be a Titletown district I’m sorry. The Original Titletown brewing company And Heather, let’s hear from you. My name is Heather Ludwig. I just recently ended my journey at Titletown brewing company. And in fact we had a killer party last night. So how many people do you think were at this party? Did it hit your goal? What was your goal? It was pretty killer Oh well I dunno. Uh Ten? Um there was like 11 people there, sure there were 11. There were 11 people at my table. At one point it was little overwhelming with all the people there, I knew it was going to be like that.  Yeah I mean I expected to see friendly faces, yeah I had no idea it was going to be that awesome Sorry, I was making gesture cut I don’t know if Krystina is being picked up on the mic properly...ok...and she doesn’t have it pointed at her so I was like… Hello Oh yeah much better. Ok, ok, I’m sorry. And we’re not gonna cut that cut we’re all rough edges here Rough and tumble Well, maybe we’ll cut that In fact, I don’t know if I recording any of ME saying that so...I think I was off for the moment. Ok...ok, so that was like extra weird. Ultimate awkwardness for the audience. That’s how you get viewers. Uh listeners. Yeah, so I’m gonna jump to Heather cut I got a million things to talk to Krystina about. No really this scheduling of this and this whole thing was revolving around Heather Whatever Ahh, see? Jealous. No, so tell us about your new gig. Um, well, I will be joining the Pabst team very soon. I start there September first. I um, it’s a pretty exciting project. The focus is to bring brewing back to its roots. The original location down in Milwaukie. There hasn’t been a name for the new place. It’s at the very beginning stages. So do you get to help decide on the name and everything? Yeah I think there is a little input on some things or at least a vote. What’re you going to be doing there? I will be doing a lot, but focusing on brewing beer. There are going to be going down a craft path. They see where the industry I going and they want to be a part of it. I think they are looking to recreate some of the older recipes that Pabst brewed in the late 1800s early 1900s so looking to recreate some of those old recipes...um and then from there you know the rest of the lines will be open for one offs seasonal activities and things like that. That’s super cool. And you can jump on any one of this Krystina. I’m not used to having two guests. Can I jump in real quick? Yeah. Hell yes! I have a serious question here. So, the Pabst brewery, I was actually there last year for my wife’s birthday. There’s a hotel there now. That Hotel is sick! All the original brew pedals are there and it its phenomenal hotel It’s one of the coolest hotels I’ve ever stayed in. But they’re not gonna be brewing there. I assume there is a building next door. Yeah, the new facility is in an old renovated cathedral or it has yet to be renovated. It’s right around the corner from the original brewhouse inn and suites. I was just wondering cut I didn’t want the brewhouse to go away but I also didn’t wanna lose the new brewery. They’re like two awesome things...so Well that whole campus there. Compound. There’s potential for a multitude of other businesses to come in...I mean there’s unoccupied as part of the Pabst property. Yeah, it’s exciting to see what may happen in the future with that. I was gonna ask the same question cut um...few months back, Jamie’s cousin had a wedding there. You’ve been there too? Yeah, nice place. Saint Gambrinus stain glass windows… It’s gonna be like that scene in Willy Wonka where the smoke starts coming out of the chimneys again and somebody is gonna walk in and be like “nobody ever goes in, and nobody ever comes out”. We’re not gonna invite these two back as co-hosts. Ah come on They’re not fun. No. Not fun. Uhhh...I think we’re hugely lucky to have you as part of that. I’m not gonna say heading it up or put pressure on you but I feel like it’s a major, major thing company like that who’s trying to reinvent themselves like that. And I know they’re just a division or whatever but they’re a globally recognized brand name but they’ve sort of languished. But they’ve had a resurgence with the whole hipster beer thing right. But for them to get a young cool looking female brewer, that really adds to them. That really ups their “whatever you wanna call it”, their “street cred”, um Well I think it’s incredibly strategic to put the right people in the right places. Yeah. That’s a better way to put it. Yeah. But if you look at, I don’t wanna speak for you, but all the efforts we’ve done to promote Title Town, not only craft beer, it’s just, we’re, her and I are just so passionate on the industry so for Pabst to put her in that role, it’s just it’s a no brainer. Yeah, so I was talking to Krystina’s dad a little bit and I think he’s just a little in awe, he’s, as I am. I don’t know if he was just saying it back to me its perception. And I don’t know if it’s because we’re old. I’m old. He’s way older. He’s way way older. Even though technically… Dad you’re still doing good. Don’t let… Technically I’m still, I’m a grandpa. So, I uh. And he knows that. I love the guy. We love you dad. Yeah, but, um. There’s this thing we tell our kids to do. We’ve all been told to do this. Study hard in high school. Go to college. And like, follow this path and I know you went to college Krystina. I don’t know about you Heather. I don’t know what you’re degree is or if you have one or any of that stuff but, you kinda forged your own path. So tell me about that. Yeah uh I definitely took a different route, but, I think the I didn’t really know for sure until maybe 4 years ago. I had a turning moment where I went to the great taste of the Midwest where I was very um, very amazed by how much talent and uh really the local community, well the Midwest so, it stretches pretty far Kansas, Nebraska, Pennsylvania But um, just going to that event representing the passion and excitement um I realized that you know this is something I really want to know more. Our trip to the Midwest was our first real taste of the industry event we’d been to. It was really interesting to see the playing field that Titletown was on and it was really interesting to see what the industry was like. Meeting brewers and their teams and seeing what they are doing, innovation, and seeing the different systems they work on is really awesome. Yeah, I think that’s key too, meeting some of the other brewers and we were so um Starry eyed Yeah, and we work with the brew master at Titletown brewing company David Oldenburg, um, very talented, he did the *cebil* route of things. He did go to school and um, He’s wicked smart Yeah, he’s wicked smart But that works out fantastically and thank goodness for Titletown that he is out there doing that. You kinda get out to festivals where you are meeting brewers who are from all different walks of life and you kind of realize that there really is no right or wrong way  Totally wrong. They all have beards. Well you guys have giant beards Mine’s a little out of sorts this morning I brushed mine So is it Sam? Um, yeah So you know what I’m talking about. So we were joking. I dunno I walked away and he's I don't know I was there maybe you were talking with him and Gina I don't really know but I came back and he's at our table and anything like you know I work with them and I you know I brew beer and I'm like why you don't say Crazy So I thought it was pretty funny. But you know uh Sam’s a great guy! Oh my gosh! He uses his hands to speak more than I do and I do it a lot! But he is in a sort of like the stereotype at a little bit of  He very much fits the perceived idea of what a brewer should look like but there is something to be said about very small women brewers they hid behind tang up on top of vessels a lot better than the big bearded men. Yeah, that’s a great point I never even thought about... Like they shimmy into some pretty tight corners at Titletown. Anything for the team. So that’s your real value. Well, part of it. You have your Titletown brewing company shirt on. You represent. I did not, but I had it on last night. I did. It was yellow and nice. I think I have enough Titletown T-shirts to wear a different day of every month. I just found my little honey hole of shirts and there were like 40 of them in there. And I opened up a drawer and I was like oh my god there they are I thought they were gone forever I have a collection and I’ve never even worked there. My favorite is like a long dark grey shirt that is no longer available for sale, or  Maybe for trade? You gotta be putting some pretty heavy weighted goods on the table but I’m up for negotiation. Nice Nice So, uh, what brought you guys into beer? Ug, I dunno, like every other red blooded Wisconsinite I stole it outta my parent’s garage. So that was my first experience with it. No tell me more Well, they didn’t really know anything. It was always Budweiser, Miller High Life, and well I I won’t scoff at a High Life, ever. I like High Life Champagne of beers. Well, if you think about High Life, they could spin that into a whole other direction where that Champagne of Beers slogan could take of another direction, but nevertheless. I dunno my curiosity was always well maybe I’ll try something different when somebody else buys me beer when I was not 21. Gosh I shouldn’t be saying all these bad things I’ve done, but I would be like no I want something different. Grab Rolling Rock. Just anything that wasn’t Bud Light I guess. From there it kind of steam rolled. I had fat tire when nobody knew what fat tire was because it wasn’t distributed in Wisconsin. When my brother went to Colorado he brought some back he was like “you’ve got to try this beer it’s from this brewery we don’t even get it here”. I was just like “Oh my god! Where can I get more of this and …” Which brother brought this to you? My brother Nate. He used to ski in Colorado  So wait, when was your first Fat Tire? My first Fat Tire was in...He was a junior in college...hold on...2000. 2000?! Well I didn’t drink while I was in high school… Stop it...you lie. It’s beer. Beer isn’t drinking. You’re by far more craft advanced than I was. I wasn’t drinking craft beer in high school. I mean let’s not fool anyone. There were plenty of UV and lemonade nights come on I was 18 19. Yeah Much more sophisticated now that I am in my 30s Right, much more sophisticated in your band t shirt and ripped jeans And flip flops You have flip flops on? I didn’t even notice Sure do Wow This is done. We’re done here. No, I’m kinda dressed the same so umm uh uh like professionally. So you know so that’s how you sort of got into beer like a lot of people. But everyone doesn’t become world famous brew masters. I think it goes back to us talking about great taste. You know it was kind of a turning point for both of us that year and um, well it was like a...we drank the Kool-Aid...the proverbial Kool-Aid, it was like we have to do this. This has to be our life.  You said we. Did you jointly decide?  Yeah kinda. Yeah we were at the park and like we had a discussion like this is what we’re doing. Wow And both of us were bartending at the time and we had just kind of started going on brewfests Well we were lurking around that grain room in the brewery trying to scam any free magazines they would throw out. It was like throwing chum out to the sharks. They would put out a magazine that was from like 6 months to a year out and Heather would snipe it up right away. So ummmmm...that’s not what I was told. What were you told? Sean said that you got involved in the brewing process to To meet guys? Nah I’m just kidding No, he actually said that you did not have a future bartending cut you break too many glasses. Oh, yeah, well, I tell you what I washed dishes the fastest and there were some casualties but Well then it didn’t really count if you broke it and threw it away. Well sometimes I washed them and then they broke Well that doesn’t count either Nevertheless I broke a few glasses in my day but I never held one from 6 feet up and dropped it while looking Sean dead in the eye It sounds like you did Well, maybe I did. She figure if she broke them all she wouldn’t have to pour. Well, ok, let’s be fair, now they have a bar back. Now they have a guy that comes in and washes glasses. Maybe I was the catalyst for the bar back. You can tell yourself whatever you want. Nevertheless So you guys got together. You were at the park Well we were at great taste and um And you were at Madison It was kind of a combination of things. Some people were leaving the brewery and one of the marketing guys were leaving Titletown too. So it created some spaces that needed to be filled so we kind of saw it before it was officially happening. So you gotta strike when the timing is right. Yeah, basically I said is there anything that I could do. And they were like yup and gave us the crappiest job in the brewery. and they kind of raised their eyebrows and they said are you serious and I was like yeah I’ll do whatever and it started with logging kegs around, taking spent grain out Oh come on you know it wasn’t that bad No it’s not  It’s the cleaning the lines that sucked Yeah so it kinda progressed as he I think David, our brew master didn’t expect us to stop bugging him and he thought why not give em a chance to do it. So… Good for him for having that kind of foresight. Really. Right this is all due to David. Is that what you’re saying? David gave us a lot of opportunities to showcase what we learned and also put our work ethic to the the test. Yeah And he’s been nothing but what I would say how I express that he’s so smart and he’s instilled this like he’s taught us a lot. It’s really incredible and you can ask him things and if you ask him in a certain way about something he doesn’t know, he’ll stop and look at you, calk his head a little bit and he’ll come back with an answer completely over explaining things and it’s not like it was too much knowledge, but the fact that he had to think about how not to give you too much *made swooping motion over her head* so you don’t get system overload. Yeah, I know exactly what you’re saying. Anybody that’s sort of a master of their craft, no pun intended, is um they do have to distill it to something that Well to distill See how these terms I’m throwing in there? Yeah… My mind is always brewing… Gah dammit Elliot Hahahaha And you said you couldn’t do a comedy show. No I think everybody else said that. Hahaha uh yeah. So how is beer made? In simple terms Oh, well you just snap your fingers and that’s how it goes. So really your job is really easy You just...you guys are just putting a better looking face, sorry David, you’re putting a better looking face on it. Umm I wish I could snap my fingers and make those tanks fill up. It’s a really big process and right now on the production side things ok obviously you have your four ingredients: hops, malt, yeast, water. But it’s way more complex than that and to operate a brewery its way more complex than just beer. Most, yeah I mean, Yeah that’s one big misconception. Most of you time is spent preparing or cleaning vessels to make the brew happen. Like the brew day is just one day but there’s just so much more to make the day work. You know there’s milling, there’s… Or it’s like an hour in lecture you need to spend 3 hours doing homework Yeah That kinda thing um So kinda talk me through the process. Start to finish so-to-speak. How do you make beer? So you have malted barley, you can also use corn, wheat, gluten free beers use sorghum, but a source of sugar essentially. And you mill that, crack it open, expose all the sugars, mix the grain with hot water, stepe it almost like you’re making tea. That’s called wart. You then transfer you pull all your wart off your grain, you rinse your grain, I’m really watering this down I hope it’s not… Nope, it’s ok Hmmhmmhmm that’s actually quite funny she’s sparing this conversation. Ha. Oh good one Heather, yes, thank you. I thought that was just funny. I was just rolling with it. Watering it down literally. Transfer the wort, rinse your grain into your brew kettle where you boil the beer. Add your hops, different beers use different hops. Some hops are used for making beers bitter, some are used for those fantastic aromas you get. And then when you are done boiling and adding your hops, you centrifuge it, whirlpool it, drop all that stuff out, quickly cool it down and then transfer to your fermenter, where you will pitch your yeast. Ale yeast and lager yeast are different. Ales usually take about 2 weeks to ferment and lagers can take anywhere from about 3 weeks to 8 weeks. If you’re really lucky it’s 8 weeks. Why do you say that? God, well, you have to think of these tanks as like real estate. When someone is squatting in a tank for too long you can’t use it. You wanna turn these tanks over as much as you can when you have a really sluggish yeast, it’s a problem so… So uh it could take up to two months if you… Sometimes yeah So what are the faster beers? And you can use Titletown brand names or whatever. Well David was just telling me he can do one in almost 9 days. Well I think that might be true with most of the Ales. We use a house Ale yeast that’s reliable and it’s worked well for us for many years. It ferments great. So in Titletown brand names, what would be some of those? Um Not to put you on the spot. We’re using a house yeast for  All the core beers except for dark helmet. Yeah, so you’re looking at green 19, The Johnny Blood Irish Red Ale, Honey Ale Yup Now the Boathouse Pilsner, when I talk about yeast being like 8 weeks, that’s the one that when we...whenever you scale a beer to a larger system, you’re gonna have to change how you operate and working on that large of a system with that yeast strain and several other factors...um...that beer just takes a while. Albeit everything from the tasting from that beer has been really exciting. It’s gonna be fantastic. Like, the Boathouse Pilsner when it comes out, like please don’t drink it too much or too fast cut it might be awhile before it comes out again. But so So it’s well worth the wait, I mean that is our most recent, oh no it’s not the most recent medal we won from Great American Brew Festival, but it is the gold medal winner and a really tough style to nail down and uh. So which one? Boathouse Pilsner, if you can do a pilsner like that is a pilsner is a testimony to a brewer’s quality of product. Now do you think that is because the people in the public are more familiar with those? No, because if you screw up a pilsner and you can’t add bourbon or you can’t change it. A pilsner is a pilsner. It is clean and crisp and there is no hiding a flaw in a pilsner it’s very transparent.  So the like yeah Style So the people would classify that as a lighter beer right? Lighter bodied Lighter bodied yeah, that is a better way of saying it and um it’s much more complicated and takes a longer time. Yeah there are a lot of misconceptions about beer and actually I wanted to point one out when I was talking about the whole about you know people say I do not like loggers and I do not like ales. They assume one is happier and stronger than the other, but both ales and loggers can be dark and light and malty and happy. And strong ABV or low ABV. ABV is what? Alcohol by volume Okay So you can have for instance and ale that What was that there? (Laughing) Not appropriate I think she was saying that is the part that gets you messed up. Ah, well okay This is the perfect example of, look at the Honey Ale which is at 4.5% these are Title Tom brands obviously and look at the Kirty hot monster brand which is also an ale and that’s at 9% so… And both are very light in color and look very appealing and drinkable. Right And one is super-duper happy and one isn’t And you just so happen you brought some today? I don’t want to drink any beer right now Were here Laughing Wait I am still on the clock right now, aren’t I? They didn’t bring any beer here Oh can we? Would that be acceptable? Uh… I would have allowed that as long as I am not drinking it It’s your show Maybe next time? Uh yeah If you’ll have us back What? (Chuckle) I thought they already told us we couldn’t come back? We can have the battle of the beers cause it would be two different brewery’s than wont it? Oh… We don’t consider it battling Oh I thought you were going to say we don’t consider it two septate breweries No, uh we strive on focusing on craft community and collaborations So you know what? I wanna just take a brief break to ya know to thank Camera Corner Studios and you guys are going to be a part of that but I want to come back to that. So that’s part of the tease Ahh That’s the test to keep people listening What I would like to do, is I have this is your first time in this building right? Yes Or at least this building how it’s been now Yeah, is this building always been here cause the strip club cause I did not see it The building was here, it use to be a print shop for not that long though, maybe five years? I think well Is it longer than that? It probably was It just feels wrong I mean I have been told this story multiple times. It’s been an auto shop than it was a garage and na na na. Oh it was an auto shop wasn’t it? Probably a long time ago It was a long time ago, yeah This area where you are sitting use to be an auto repair area. So, uh, what I want to ask you guys and especially Kristina is uh actually, you are kind of involved with the marketing of Title Town operations. So they do video shoots in here and obviously we can do some audio recording and they can do photo and video and all that kind of stuff and there is even a little classroom thing. How do you think you could maybe use this with Tile Tom? Um? Not to put you on the spot but I think you have a marketing mind Well uh fortunately I don’t make a lot of the decisions Well what would you like to do? Well I would love to see a brewery pod cast actually, I think that would be really cool I would love to be a part of that I mean we have been listening to a lot of pod cast  I am addicting to them madly Oh my god they are fantastic Good There are a lot of different kind of Pod Cast. For instance we were listening to these guys drive to Mammoth California in their RV for a brew fest and how there breaks they were warned serval different ways on how to drive on these roads and when they finally got there their breaks were all but disintegrated.  Yeah So it’s entertaining and it’s in the industry so I would like see some sort of constant brewing news That’s even more than what I was thinking. I was thinking it would be great when we launch the new website to have a video t if you guys could do a little demo on how you do your stuff or if we could integrate into things like that. You know you could give a little talk with some tele prompters. Yeah, I don’t know, I am just thinking out loud. Maybe those are all bad ideas, but uh I want to incorporate some more videos into websites uh seeing all this stuff so that is where my head is at I don’t think you have to have bad ideas by Elliot just bad ideas You think that is a bad idea? You said it I didn’t it Oh so you are just laughing at me That is poetic But not true There is a lot of bad ideas out there I don’t they are bad until they go into execution that is where you really find out. Cause there are so many things, I am sure you run into this with beers to right? Okay, let’s try this new mix and you guys are like uhhh What was I thinking, yeah that diffidently happens But you know I actually thought something could differentiate a brewery would be that education process where you are sharing some of that. Not sharing secrets just this is how you guys do things and show the people involved. It’s like I went down to this Brecker Brewery and I’ve learned so much of appreciation for beer because of the way their tours are handled. I actually went on one of their special reserved tours. Yeah Were you know you have someone Oo did you do that cheese pairing? Yes it was fantastic See I have not done that yet People say that all the time, wine and cheese. Well why not wine and beer, I mean right? You mean beer and cheese Yes That was an awesome Freudian slip But you know that’s the thing, their pairing with the beers were just as great as the pairing with the wines. I’ll put a cheese pairing with beer against any wine pairing any day of the week. Ooo nice I am a fanatic when it comes to my cheeses and mine beer I think there is some kind of event with that face off, am I wrong Yes I am wrong So often, no yes you are right. No often time’s beer loses only because people don’t realize the components they are tasting It’s perceived differently It’s all about perceptions I had one of my best pairings in my life with one of our smoked beer with a dark chocolate cake with salted caramel sauce over the top and it was, I will put it out there. It was my best pairing in my life and I did not get to talk about it because I got cut off because of some event and the silence auction went up and everyone tried it and they did not know what the hell was going on. They couldn’t put it together if I was able to give them verbiage so they can understand what they were doing maybe they would have thought differently. Yeah It was good, I got to taste it and I know what you were going for so good job. It was good. Thank you Heather. Yup So, this spot here this well both this spot here and in this pod cast this actual space here. So Camera Corner Studios they sponsor my show so that’s what were kind of talking about that. Their goal, Nicks goal is to bring small businesses in here that can’t afford to do multiple thousands of dollars recordings photography and kind of squash those cost now and have them come in and utilize these that sit dormant most of the time because they get rented out by the day typically and even some of the things that are for sale they can get some of the cost structures down and his time is not actually that expensive when you squash it down to hourly components. You are able to gain Nick’s expertise and you can see that he goes over the top even when I was talking about things I was doing for this little Pod Cost Mmmhm You know he has all of our microphones on separate tracks and the music is on a separate track and I was like awesome and technical and complicated. There are microphones all over the place. You guys did not even know that. So there are a lot of stuff here so Nick how can people get in touch with you if they want to utilize you space here? Easiest way is to call the rental department number over at Camera Corner at 9202720148 Awesome. So that’s. Let’s look back at the collaborations amongst the two breweries. That was our tease so we are gonna kinda move back to that. So there is an annual beer that you guys do together? Yes Uhh Sort of just became sort of annual? We did a collaboration beer twice now with all the Grewmayberryes and they are most likely going to be doing another one for Grew May Craft Brew week May 2016, But we have had nothing but positive relationships. We love hanging out with our fellow brewers. It’s nice to have some solidarity because they know what you are going through and they understand the challenges that you face in your industry. We learn from each other and one success is like a success for everyone. When you have people. You know how I was saying earlier it’s not just about promoting Tile Tom it’s about promoting craft beer in general. Yeah Cause if you buy for instance a Wisco Disco today you’re probably going to buy And that Byre was at the party last night. Yeah So it’s not just about the products as the people and the people that are all involved. Not to take you off track, sorry Yeah, so I buy a Wisco Disco today and a Green Chop or a Green 19 or a pack of Land pilsner tomorrow. You know because that is what the craft beer drinkers don’t. They’re not stuck with that one blue can for the rest of their lives. They want new different stuff. Right, sure So, yeah it’s a success for everyone I love on tab and I think there was a time where people though I had an alcoholism problem. You know because it goes out to Facebook and all your friends are like hmm you drinking a lot? I am like no literally everything I drink I am putting up on Facebook. It’s about quality not quantity. Well um So you’re not checking in and like an eighteen pack of like Coors Light, all though if you wanted to you could I am sure. Yes, yes that is right. Yeah for sure. I think you can check in whatever you want but uh I don’t think I have ever checked in anything like that. You didn’t check in the ten beer bongs that you may have at a cookout? No Yeah, see No, how did you know about that?  I know about all the beer bongs in this town So they were doing kegs stands at the wedding up in Rock Island. They were doing keg stands all these people you know. A lot of them were my age or older. That’s awesome It was fucking awesome You are never too old to shot gun a beer either though. Don’t think you’re above that and now craft beers are coming out in cans which is awesome. So but they did have Title Tom beer up there to. Whose wedding was this? I feel like So this was the wedding Was it in kegs? Good cause we don’t, bottles near the beach scare me Right, right so it was in keg I do not remember what kind of beer all I know is they are Title Tom up there. It was Trisha Hawkins, I am gonna get her name wrong. I worked with her and cat is her, they’re both wives now.  Don’t know how to say that. I feel like I heard about, somewhere else said they were going to a wedding is Rock Island and I remember being really excited for them because Rock Island is super cool. Oh yeah they have never seen, never been there. I’ve never been there either. I had never been up there till What did you think of the boathouse? Like all of that Norwegian Scandinavian style? I brought max with me and he loved it, he thought it was great cause you know old ruins and he was just like he was kind of blown away by that. Well you would never expect the caliber of that Oh it’s like big think heavy It’s cool Yeah it is very cool. Except we had to like seek shelter there because of Saturday was beautiful weather and Sunday was like a hurricane. Ha ha Oh yeah we were like on the bay It was crazy around the Bay on Sunday? Yeah we took the kayaks out Oh my god Yeah It was a horrible idea We are so stupid The phone, you know where you swipe down and it tells you the weather really quickly Yeah It said the wind was like twelve miles per hours Bullshit It was wrong Very very wrong The thing about Rock Island you don’t have that capability so we didn’t know the weather was coming Oh yeah, Oh, oh, tell him.  That reminds me if you didn’t already know in severe weather there aren’t any tornados sirens North of Sturgeon Bay Indoor County.  So once you go over that bridge In Sturgeon Bay it’s like sayonara sucker Wow Fend for yourself, yeah. No I did not know that We found out when we were working in Egg Harbor in July for the Tor County Triathlon and were sitting at a team dinner and it’s a clear are of Murphy Park and were talking about what to do in inclement weather because this is huge Triathlon. They were anticipating bad weather. They were just kind of filling us in. And incidentally Sean Ryan who runs a great event was like yes, back in 1982 a tornado actually touched down right here and we look around notice how there are no trees near any of us. Wow And then the next day came and it was like the most unreal clouds that I have seen come off the water in real life and I have spent a lot of summers right on the Bay. Yeah And it was terrifying, we had to seek shelter in a pod. So I am not usually afraid of the weather but when I am on an island where our phones don’t work and. Oh yeah you guys would have been screwed, you guys would have to like hang out in that Norwegian boathouse. We did it was like an extra hour we had to wait I think for the little ferry to come back. It was crazy and people had their gear all lined up on the dock and they were like blowing off from the the rain. (Gasp) Yeah Gina has video of it. You wouldn’t believe it. Yeah it was like the ocean in Florida Hey they call it deaths door up there for a reason. They don’t mess around. Well you know we had a lot of little talk with Max about that. He thinks he is going to take over the island. He is aspirational. So I am sorry I took us a little off track on the collaboration. But now everyone knows about the Safety concerns It’s your show, so you screwed it up not me Well I get that a lot I totally screwed it up so tell me about the two beers you did collaboratively. Yes So who is involved in the collaboration and then tell me about the beer. Well Title Towns brewed both of them, well yeah not necessary because we like had to brew it there, but we had to brew it there because everyone else is undergoing expansion and Hink Bottle, I think we’re just changing out their packaging the first time so they were all focused on that. So Brad with the first collaboration with his brewery was us getting up and running and so was Badger State. So we brewed the first one at Title Town and that was that Imperial Steam beer. That was a lot of fun because the was the very first one because everyone did not know what to expect. What are we going to name it and I think Bill Trusler came up with it, Local’s Only!  So I know who some of these peoples are but you know fill in the gaps. Bill Trusler he is from where? I am sorry Bill Trusler is the owner of Hinter Land So the other breweries involved who are those? Stalemate Brewing Company.  So that was Brad Yeah Brad Stalemate, Badger State Brewing Company, Andrew Fabre and his head brewer Sam Yanda collaborated on a lot of that and then we had Hintler Land Brewing Company. Bill was involved with it, Scott Kinsman who is one of their head brewers, Joe Carl he is another head brewer there, and then from Title Town it was me, Heather, David all working on that sort of stuff. Nice, nice So the first one was called Local’s only And that was an Imperial steamed beer and actually all the clabbed beers have been Locals Only. This second time we did it for Grewbeer Craft beer week, it was a grapefruit Goza which. What does goza mean? It is a, god I am going to freeze on goza. No it is a lipsyc style beer wheat beer, brewed with salt and coriander. Okay, nice It was delicious I had some, not gonna lie And we did I with grapefruit peel So you did yours, so the different breweries No no no the Did it differently? No the collaboration like the four breweries together when we did this take on the style. We had just altered it a little. We didn’t use any Coriander so stylistically it didn’t quit follow the guidelines so we weren’t brewing it to be judge we were brewing it for people to enjoy and we thought doing something different with the grapefruit peel would be a good choice. So it was this really fantastic light body refreshing slightly tart, salty. I could drink it every day in the summer. That’s what I was going to say Mmhmm It was really good, but the collaboration happens not necessary when you are brewing it but when you’re planning leading up to it. The recipe and the ingredients and then we did a tasting panel. Do we leave it to sit on grapefruit more, do we add more salt, so everyone sat and had samples. So when are these tasting panels? Well they are always last minute Yeah they are always last minute It’s like we need to get together next week, when do you have time who can come?  It’s like I can come Okay it’s on behalf someone’s brewery All of them Yeah You could be a representative for the market I will represent the market There you go Something like that I’ve learned that I am a horrible representative of the market because I don’t drink beer like the general public does, and sometimes it’s a fault.  Uh Cause I can’t make a decision cause I would have to make a decisions that I don’t want to make about like styles. If it was up to me we would be brewing a lot more sour brews because I love sour beers right now. They are super trendy but does the mass public want, the everyday craft drinking No They want something a little more approachable Yeah yeah I like the crazy stuff So I did not like the sour beer, this is the only beer I did not like that Titletown did that was the Ned Flanders. Aw Elliot I did not like it Well it’s not for everyone Its okay You are not supposed to like every style So I did not like that, and I found other sour beers that I did like. You know it’s okay Maybe it’s more of an acquired taste, I dunno? Literally it’s like the only beer I did not want another of. Ha ha ha Well you know what, that’s the beauty of the craft industry, you don’t have to like everything Yeah I did drink the while pint I am not going to lie. I mean I am not going to let beer go to waste. Well that’s pretty damn good in all years you didn’t want to order another one of. For sure. I feel like if I didn’t have a beer that means it’s been in and out in a couple of days. I am pretty religious about trying beers. So this is interesting then, Heather was there ever a beer there that you did want another drink of or was there ever a beer there that was your favorite now that you don’t work there? Do you feel like you can answer this question? I always told David if I didn’t like it Well I know Now you get to tell the world Now you get to say what your favorite was and what was your least favorite? Oh gosh my favorites are tough, I, this sounds really boring, I always been a really huge fan of the Nutter Brown. I love that I really enjoy that beer I would have to, can I more than one favorite It’s your show You can have two Two? Well okay you can have a top five Okay (sigh) this is tough Not really, cause the ones that come to mind are probably your favorite So, there was this beer that I really hope Titletown brews soon cause I have been wanting it for a long time. Is it ABCDESB? Yes I love that beer to Tim Finster named is, way to go Tim, clever, he never thought that would be the name to. That was one of my favorites So why was it named that way Cause the style was ESB and the ABCD What’s in the ESB? Extra special bitter English style ale Yeah, okay. Even if I knew some of these things. Which I did not know that. And ABCDESB just rolls right off the tongue Right, yeah know I just, were educating Yes I don’t know what my other favorites are even though you told me I could only have two No, I said you could have a top five You said the Nutter Brown right that’s the name they have Yeah it’s called Nutter Brown And the ABCDE     Brewed for all the nutters I love those You would I like all the line So I’ll keep going these are some of my other favorites Yeah I want you to finish the list Sorry, I thought she was done I really enjoy the Pulm N Porter Oh I knew you were going to say that I did to How do you feel about the Northwestern Export? The Dortmunger What style is that? Was that in spring? Early spring, it’s a German style logger it’s more malt balance. It’s almost like a halest style logger but maultyer. Yeah I mean if, I wouldn’t be upset if I was stuck with Green 19 as the only beer that I could drink. For the rest of your life? I think there is a lot of people that say that, that is a favorite. So you’ve got the Green 19, Nutter, ABCDESB, Pulm N Porter You’ve got one more I think I, I don’t know I give up on it. I do remember one that I don’t like Mmm The Smoke a motive? The Smoke a motive was diffidently on the bottom of the list this really crazy smoked wheat beer. I am not a big wheat fan as it is so that was not very good for me. I don’t really like the pumpkin beer. Smashing Pumpkin You also don’t like that No I just pumpkin fad is just pssh it’s ridiculous it’s over the top Yeah If you want to drink, you know what? No you can drink whatever you want. I feel like pumpkin beer is just too much. They’re over, they’re over They’re not over They will never be over People love that stuff Are you kidding me? Yes, yes I am kidding. So uh we are almost at an hour because I know we all have jobs and Nick has to get going to. Uh oh what did you want to say? I don’t technically have a job till September 21st Okay, fair enough But you are moving so I am So you have moving stuff to do That not nothing, even if it’s just resting up. Maybe you need a little beauty rest. I dunno? I am taking the day, I am having a blue gold day Taking the day. Um real quick. Titletown has started putting things out in bottles and cans. Cans? When did you hear about cans? Oh, I’m sorry I just… No it’s fine, just messing with you. No the cans were done… I’m like ‘We might have to cut our first thing!’ No it’s really exciting for all of us. We did a project for Lambo field where we canned our beer. We brought in a mobile canner. The cans looked so cool! And I’m gonna make Brad make shotgun for one of our beers cuz he always makes shotgun Wisco Discos. And now he’s gonna get a Green 19 Nice! Back at cha Brad And you should bring him in here to the studio with a green screen and Oh you want a video? Shotgun challenge? Gasp! This is the kind of stuff I’m talking about. I’ll be your guys’ drivers when you’re done. She will Thank you for being the voice of reason and responsibility. We’d have to do it out in the field cause of Brad’s stomach. So which brands are being bottled and canned and so forth. So we’re doing the Jackwood Red, Green 19, both were canned for Lambo for that project. About to bottle Boathouse Pilsner pretty soon and the Dark Helmet. And Oktoberfest is being bottled right now too. Bent Tuba. Get your hands on it. Bent Tuba. What’s that? Yeah, that’s the name of our Oktoberfest. Oh I didn’t know. Yeah, it has a name. Did it last year? No. And Red Wicker is on the label. It’s awesome! It’s fantastic! It’s so great! Awesome. I mean that’s not gonna be a top seller then. Let’s be real. Actually it’s the bestselling Oktoberfest for Green Bay per package. Well if he’s on it...cuz he’s a beautiful man. Well people buy beer for many different reasons so if that’s why...then that’s ok. If you see the label it’s fantastic! It’s like because everybody knows him. Can you email me that? Or you could pick up a 6 pack. Oh it’s out now? I didn’t know that! Nobody. I didn’t know that. Well then I’ll do that. Yeah For sure Where can I pick up a 6 pack? I wanna say Festival, Woodman’s, Ridgeview Liquor most likely has it. They always keep our stuff on hand. If I could shamelessly promote them right now they… You can shamelessly promote everybody Ok That’s what we’re doing, yeah. Ok, um, they’re great friends of our too and they’ve always been good to Titletown, I mean they have it, I haven’t been in there in a while. Ummm...Your local liquor stores have it. So pretty much everywhere. Trying to be. Yeah, and anybody that’s not, how would they get it? Like if it’s the shop owner listening. Oh yes, you just have to contact your Cade distributing rep Ok And you’ll help with distributing. Could they call you and you’d hook them up? They would call me, but then I would just call cade. Plus they already know their guys from Cade Alright, just a couple more things and they probably won’t be about beer. So some of your friends last night, they didn’t have much to say about Heather. They said Heather is pretty much professional and  Ha-ha They were my closest friends obviously. I asked em how many people you wanted at your party cuz I heard the claim was that you wanted a thousand. I may have had a couple beers. She may have said she wanted 1,000 people there. We didn’t keep track but there were hundreds of people at least so I was, I mean when I walked in I was sort of taken aback cause I expected it to be you know, 5 people from Titletown and me and then it was like half the town was there. That’s a testament for both of you guys being excellent spokespeople. For Titletown and being active in the community. So good job for that. It was sort of a backhanded way of giving you a compliment. Um, I don’t know what this is all about but I’m supposed to ask you how much you like M&Ms. do you know anything about that? I enjoy M&Ms just as much as the next person. I think the implication was more so I dunno. I received a large bag of peanut butter M&Ms… Well, ok here’s how that went down. So people have asked me what your favorite food is and I can’t pinpoint anything. I can only tell them what you don’t like. Because you’re like me, we like everything. So Brooke called me and she was like… Brooke with an ‘e’. Yeah, and she was like what’s Heather’s favorite food. And she’s like “What?!” And I was like yeah, crab legs. And she was like Krystina like a snack, like a real food. A real food. I’m like, I dunno snappers. Could you find snappers? She’s like I dunno what that is. Ok, well M&Ms, I know she likes M&Ms, the peanut butter kind. Whatever, just get here. Alright, 2 last questions and we’ve gotta wrap it up, we have a hard stop in like 3 minutes. Sam said I’m supposed to ask you what the weather report is. And he thought that was hilarious. Please tell me it’s hilarious. He downloaded a kitty app on my phone that dressed as a kitty in a different costume that tells you what the weather is like so if it’s raining, the kitty is in a raincoat. That’s actually a 2-part cause then Alex asked you to make the kitty noise. *sound* We hear that many times a day. And over the walkie talkie. The story behind that is that my cats come when I call them and that’s how I reign them in. Ok, which brings me to the last one. And Rory said you’ve made cakes for your cats. Oh God. They’re disgusting. I’ve seen them in person and she says ‘They’re good! I make them with stuff that you can eat!’ Ok its Tuna, Flower, and Cheddar Cheese. You lost me at Tuna So why did you make the cake at first? It was Jaxies birthday. We put him in a hat. Heather got balloons. So I know this is supposed to be a show promotion. This is really an intervention. We’re here to stop this. The kitty madness? Yes. No! Are you with me on this Heather? Absolutely! Ok last question and then we’re out. When you come back, we’ll talk more about beer of course, when you come back, who would you like to be our guest, when you come back to guest host with me, who would you like to be our guest? Each of you or whoever you want. There would be four of us? There would be two of us. One of you and me and we’ll interview someone else. Or all 3 of us, whatever, yeah. Whatever, who would you like to see? Who would you like to have? Who would you like me to have on here? Another brewery person. I want Charlie Papazion Oh Come on! Sorry Realistically.  Brian Turner Still kind of a stretch. I just heard, I don’t know if you heard anything about this. This leatherheads thing. Oh yeah Leatherheads. I would love to have somebody from this new seven barrel brew pub thing that I coming out. I would love to meet these people and see what they have planned. Alright, so when I hunt these guys down. You wanna be a part of that. Let’s do it. You named a couple other ones, but what if I get some of the other breweries in town, do you wanna be a part of that? Yeah they’re alright. They’re alright. So that’s it. Anything else? Otherwise we’re gonna throw the track on and close out. You guys have anything we didn’t say? Always lots. Any promotional words? You want people to find you online? Pimp Titletown at all. Yeah, you can always go to Titletown Facebook page. A bunch of stuff coming up. Tap time hours are expanding too so… Awesome! Heather doesn’t have anything yet for Pabst cause we don’t even know yet if it’s going to be called Pabst. Yeah Ok Well, we do know it’s gonna be a cool place. True We do know that. So our last track is gonna be Trail of Paradise. That’s also from Max. And that will kinda take us out and we’re done. Just waiting for the play button to work. There we go. Yes. Thank you Heather. Yes You guys were awesome. This was the best show yet. You say that to all your guests. I do. I say that to most of them.

Beer-maker Terry Taylor joins Elliot in the studio for kilts and beers!

Green Bay's beer-making duo Heather Ludwig & Krystina Engebos join Elliot in the studio.  

Transcript Elliot: This is a good, like, morning jam song huh? Like Sunday morning coffee.  Man: [Laughs] Sure Elliot: So that one was called Yeti, that's from Motra, again. Running out of tracks from those nice young fellows. I'll have to pick up some more from them I think. You can find them on Facebook. Just search for Motra and it's like M-o-t-r-a if you type in the URL. I'm here today with Nicole from Sassy Girl. That's how I always refer to you. Nicole: Right. [Laughs] Elliot: Partly because I have a problem where I don't call people by their last names and then I don't know, I'm uncomfortable saying it wrong. Nicole: [Laughs] its Zich [Zeek] Elliot: And I know you told me that before, so, like... Nicole: That's why I answer to "Sassy Girl". People do just call me Sassy Girl and I just answer to that. Elliot: So, where did the name Sassy Girl come from? Nicole: Me actually. It was a nickname.  Elliot: From who? Who gave you that? Nicole: My friends. My friends, they called me Sassy Girl and I had, when I worked in St. Louis, my screensaver on my computer said "Sassy Girl," it flashed and so then when I came up here and decided to open the boutique I was thinking, "Yeah, I should really just use Sassy Girl," because that was so me and my friends were like, "Well, if you don’t we're gonna be mad because that's you." Elliot: Right. So, what kind of stuff do you carry there? Nicole: I carry women's clothing and accessories, from casual to formal. So we go from tops and jeans and casual dresses to formal dresses. I have an extensive collection of special occasion jewelry and everything plus just regular casual jewelry and handbags.  Elliot: So I know you're huge for prom season. Nicole: Homecoming. Elliot: Homecoming, I'm sorry. That's all the same to me. I don't... Nicole: Right, right. Homecoming. Elliot: And you're located in the Broadway district? Nicole: Yes, at 107 N Broadway. Right on the corner or Broadway and Walnut.   Elliot: So, you're sort of a landmark. I think you celebrated some kind of special milestone in your business.  Nicole: 11 years in July. Elliot: Which is crazy, because I've known you those 11 years.  Nicole: I know, it's crazy. Elliot: That's, uh yeah, it's totally crazy. So do you have some special lined up for that or is that all over? Nicole: That was all over. It was in July, so we always run a sale the entire month of July, the entire store is on sale. There is not an item in there that isn't on sale, which is great because that's the only time of year that the special occasion stuff goes on sale. It's pretty hefty discounts in that month, so now we're just back to, kind of, regular business where all the fall stuff is coming in and then we're heading into homecoming season, which is huge for us.  Elliot: So, like percentage wise, is that a big part of your year? Or it's just.. Nicole: Yes! Elliot: Okay. So what brought you to that point? You know, retail is hard, being in business is hard, period. Why the heck did you do that? Nicole: Why did I start? Elliot: Yeah. Nicole: You know I've always wanted to. I've always kind of wanted to do my own thing. I've worked for other companies. I have a degree in design. I went and did the corporate thing. Found out that I'm really not a corporate kind of gal. I don't have a poker face. You know, that's generally not good in the corporate world. I'm just more of an outside-of-the-box kind of person and I've always, in the back of my mind, wanted my own thing. I had actually been hoarding things for years. I had been hoarding mannequins and, you know, so by the time I decided to open my business, I had all the mannequins and everything like that. So, it was just kind of a natural transition. I quit my job in the corporate world in St Louis and came home. And, this was actually supposed to be a pit stop. I was just going to figure out what I wanted to do next and move on, and then I decided, you know what, what better time, when I don't have anything going on, to open my own. I wasn't married and I didn't have kids. It was the perfect time to do it, and I was at home where I have family and friends, so if I needed the help, I would have it, and I figured, what better place to do it than Greenbay. Who... At that time, we lagged a little in the fashion area. So I figured I could help us out in there.  Elliot: So, [coughs], excuse me. Can you bleep that out?  [Laughter] Elliot: [Laughs] Just kidding, just kidding, just kidding, just kidding. So, you've been here 11 years, but you're originally from Greenbay right? Nicole: Yes. Elliot: Yeah, and, a common thread among everybody that I've interviewed so far, is, some of the things you've touched on. They saw a need and they kind of went for it. They took some risks and they don’t fit into a box. I think that would categorize everybody so far, and probably forever because, you know, those are my people.  Nicole: Right. [Laughs] Elliot: So, tell me a little bit more about your family life, and bringing you up to where you started.  Nicole: I mean, I grew up in Greenbay. I have two sisters. We're completely different. I'm the fashion queen of the family. They don't really want anything to do with that, so I was like the oddball of the family. When I said I wanted to go into fashion, I mean, none of them were surprised. It wasn't like a, "Oh my god really, you want to do that?" I mean, for me Barbie was always dressed impeccably, so pretty much everybody knew what I was going to do. My dad was a little concerned, because fashion, what are you going to do with that? Is that a career that you're going to be able to sustain yourself with? You know, he kindda had no clue. He started to get on board, probably when he came to my college fashion show and actually saw the work that we were doing and thought, "Oh, okay, now I get it." So then when I landed my first corporate job designing, well then he was over the moon, cause he's a corporate kind of guy so that was like the best thing in life for him, when I got a corporate job. So, when I left that job, he was not very thrilled with that, and you know when I decided then to come back here and open a store, that was not a thrilling decision for him either, because it is risky. It's not a steady paycheck. It's, you know, there are weeks that, "Uh-oh, gosh, I gotta be a little creative with the money this week. I didn't do so well," and for him, that's just not in his realm. He worked for IBM for 36 years, he's a corporate guy. You get a paycheck every week. It's regular, it's steady. Being an entrepreneur isn't. It's never steady.   Elliot: I feel like the risk taking gene kind of skips a generation.  Nicole: Yes, absolutely, absolutely. My mom was behind me, I mean, as soon as I said that, "You know, I'm, thinking of opening a store," her first comment was, "Oh Honey, you'd be so great at that." I mean, if I said I wanted to be president, my mother would be campaigning in the streets, that's just the way she is.  Elliot: Yeah, and I would say, those two things, they're both supportive, but my mom and dad are sort of like the mirror image of that. Where, my mom's like, "I don't know. I would, you know, get a job," and you know, my dad has had jobs, and I think he understands, at least, you know, even if he would do it differently. But, you know, they're both pretty supportive. They're not wealthy, because they've worked jobs and they had a bunch of kids, and you know.. Nicole: Right. Elliot: Read something this morning where, Bernie Sanders, guy running for president said, "A generation ago," you know, like 30 years ago, "a one income family was making more than a two income family today." I don't think that's true. I feel like, when I was growing up, we were pretty broke. And I feel like, you know, now we all have 50" flat screen TVs and every body's got an iPhone. Nicole: True, but I also think there's more expenses nowadays too. Even just when your kids are in school, and sports. That's such a bigger expense than what it was when we were in school. I mean, you played for the school. You didn't have to invest a ton of money in it. I think everything has gotten so much more now, and I think parents are working, basically for that, to give their kids that life. I think it was just different when we were young.  Elliot: Yeah, I mean, there's a little bit of that, but kids are in so much stuff now. I wasn't in that much stuff. Like, relative.  Nicole: Yeah, I mean, I was in sports, but I also feel like, for my parents, you know, when they worked, my grandparents took care of me. I think we have less of that now, where kids have to go into daycare and stuff like that and that's a huge expense to families.  Elliot: Absolutely.  Nicole: My parents didn't have to pay a cent. My grandparents took me every day. That was just natural back then, not so much now because those generations actually work and have jobs, so they're not at home like our grandparents were.  Elliot: Yeah, but they also have summer homes and boats and you know.  Nicole: Yeah, some of them.  Elliot: Well, a lot. A lot do, I don't know. So that's hard for me too..I don't know, that just kind of hit me this morning. So, do you still design clothes? Nicole: I don't. I don't have time with everything that I'm involved in, just the daily operations.  Elliot: I was gonna ask. Like how do you do that? Because it's hard to... Like I have different parts of my brain where I have creative part where I can be creative, and I have worker drone part where I'm like churning through some work that's sort of like more mindless right, and it's hard to switch that, on demand.  Nicole: Right. Elliot: You know, like, sometimes you just can't control it and its there, right? Nicole: I also found that you know.. [Sighs] I don't want to say I'm not good at the design part, but that's just.. I found that after I had the degree in to and worked in it, that actually is not one of my passion lives.  Elliot: Really? Nicole: And I like retail, [laughs] and everybody thinks I'm crazy. Elliot: I don't. Nicole: But, I like retail. I missed interacting with customers. I worked retail all through college, so, I mean, I had a background and I've been doing it, actually, since I was 15. So, then to go into the corporate world, yeah I can design it and all that, but it's not creative design. It's design by committee. I mean, we need to have 50 meetings to decide if that shade of purple is the correct shade for that season.  Elliot: Absolutely. Nicole: So it's not creative. You're designing in a box and you're designing for the masses. So it's not, you know, it's not really a creative process and I found that... Elliot: It’s more science than art.  Nicole: Yeah it is, and so I found that it was like, well, I miss the people part of it. I miss putting the looks together. I miss merchandising the store because you know, I can give you the look. I can design the piece that goes in the store, but I can't tell them how to put it on the floor, or how to merchandise it. That's the part that I excel at, and the people part. So I found that I really like retail and I wanted to go back into it. Elliot: So I think that's amazing because I feel like we sort of, even though we're doing kind of different things, they're very similar and we both kind of came, I don't know not full circle but, you know. People think of what I do, doing computery stuff, web stuff right, you're in a closed and you're sort of like Nick is right now, sitting in the hole, with no, you know isolation chamber, and I hated that. You know, when I was whatever, when I was in middle school probably, and everybody hates everybody I think that that was probably fine, right, but I totally hate that. I get I'm not that loveable of a person, but I like other people, so that's hard. So, retail's hard, but it's rewarding. Nicole: Absolutely. Elliot: And, I get to work with small businesses, and I feel like that same thing. Some of it's just living vicariously through them and kind of helping them with things.  Nicole: Yeah, I find retail to be rewarding, just working with people on a day to day basis, and helping them find that perfect thing and the look on their face is what does it for me. You know, when they find that perfect item, or when I help a homecoming girl. When she finds that perfect dress the look of joy on her face, makes my entire day. I had a girl a couple weeks ago that I posted on Facebook. She came in, she was very frustrated, she had been looking for dresses, was kind of frustrated at that point, which makes my job a little bit toucher. I ended up pulling a dress for her, she was like. "Eh, I don't know." I said, "Just try it honey, just trust me, try it." She tried it, absolutely loved it. I thought she was going to cry. She asked me if she could hug me. I was like "Absolutely." She was so excited and she walked out of there with that dress and she's wearing it to homecoming and is super excited about it, and that made my night. Absolutely. That was rewarding.  Elliot: Yeah. So, you mentioned that you are located on the corner of Walnut and Broadway.  Nicole: Mmhmm. Elliot: Why'd you pick there? Nicole: Well, I was actually looking at other spots.  Elliot: So what are some of the ones you turned down? It's been 11 years, you're not going to break any.. Nicole: I was actually looking at that little strip mall across from Notre Dame High school. You know, just looking at different spots, just looking around, and then.. Actually, my sister, at the time, worked for channel 2, she was a news producer, and one of the reporters there Mctreevey said "Oh your sister should look in the Broadway district if she's looking to open a business," and I had been gone from Greenbay for 5, 6 years, so I was like, "Ick, no," because of course I had the vision of old Broadway. I didn't know anything that had happened down there. So then I drove down the street and I was like, "Wait a minute, this doesn't look anything like what I remember," and the corner spot happened to be open. So I called my best friend and I said, "You know, I'm kind of thinking of opening a boutique," and she was like, "Yeah, no kidding," and I said, "You know, there's a spot in the Broadway district, right on the corner or Broadway and Walnut," and she said, "That's my friend Tim Paulick's building. Go talk to him right now." So I said, "Okay, and I'm gonna drop your name," and I did and I ended up talking to the landlords Curt and Tim and submitting my business plan and everything. Low and behold I dot the spot. Elliot: Nice. Nicole: Yeah and it's a prime location on the corner. I couldn't have asked for a better location.  Elliot: So you're happy with that, and you've been there 11 years. Do you remember what time of year you opened? Nicole: July 21, 2004. Elliot: Okay, so your business is uh.. Math is hard, four months younger than Max.  Nicole: Yeah. Elliot: So that sort of blows my mind because he's a large human now. Nicole: I remember him when he was...Yeah absolutely.  Elliot: So yeah, that blows my mind. I gauge things, in terms of Max now, and I'm like, "Oh my gosh." He's going into middle school this year, so like, yeah. So that sort of blows me away. I don't think about.. I think of you as being one of the new businesses. Like that's crazy to me. Nicole: Yeah, no, I'm old hat. [Laughs] I'm a seasoned veteran apparently. [Laughter] Elliot: Oh and you totally are, and I said that the other day. You know, there are some pillars, if you will, in the district and you're one of those for sure.  Nicole: Crazy. Elliot: Yeah. So, what is your.. What do you like about being down there now? You know things have changed over 11 years, talk to that a little bit. Nicole: You know, I love the district. I think it's probably the best place in Greenbay. It's so eclectic down there. There's so many different elements, different people. I've loved to watch the changes over the years, to watch the district grow. To watch some of those empty storefronts that were there when I was there, get filled. The farmers market. You know I was there, I think it was the second year when I was there when there was a couple tables and a couple people. So to watch that just grow in exponential numbers, year -by-year, and to the point where we are now the second largest in the state, next to Madison. I mean, wow, what an accomplishment that is. It's been nice to watch Broadway become the place in Greenbay, where it used to be the place you did not want to be. That's been a great change. Elliot: So, you mentioned the farmers market's a good change. What are some of the other good changes that you noticed? Nicole: Just the amount of businesses that are down there. The retail has increased. It's become more of a well-rounded district, where you can spend the day there. It's not just a place where you're gonna visit one store and then leave. You can stroll the street. There are plenty of other stores to look at. There's great restaurants to eat at. So that's been really great. Just to see all the different people, and just to see the crowds that we get for all the events. Again, whereas Broadway you didn't used to want to come down there. Now its like, "Oh, gosh, that's going on on Broadway, let's go." I mean, how great is that! Elliot: Have you been to the new Cannery? Nicole: I haven't yet, but I sent some customers down last week, and then they came back and told me they loved it, so I was like, "Oh excellent." Elliot: So, you know, I've seen the pictures, but I took a peek in there. Last night we were there for, Heather from Title Town had a going away party. So, I snuck over and just kind of checked things out. It's really... ugh.. Pictures just don't do justice, super nice.  Nicole: Yeah. Elliot: They have, you know, I'm sure you know, but there's a little like market area where you can buy stuff and then there's sort of a restaurant area, with a bar. Really nice, probably out of my price range, but super nice. Nicole: Yeah, my customers did say it was a little pricey. Elliot: But it looks like it.  Nicole: It's not just your average, you know, but they loved it. Elliot: It's a good first date place right? Nicole: Right, impressive.  Elliot: You think everything is, uh well, let me say it differently. Do you think there's anything missing, that would help your business, that would make downtown better? You know, we talk about that Larsen Green area where we have all this stuff that people don't want. What do you want there? What kind of stuff would you like to see, happen in the district? Nicole: You know, I'd like to see some more stores. I'd like to see some more retail. A children's store would be great. We don't have that. That's not really addressed. We have a lot of women's clothing, but I'd like to see another women's clothing with an older demographic. We have, the ones that are in the district now, we kinda all have the same demographic, so I'd like to see something with, maybe lean toward a little bit older demographic. I'd like to see a home store. We used to have Fet (??? 19:41) when I started, she was down there and that was great. You know, like home, not furnishings, but more like your dinnerware. Stuff like that. I think that would be great too.  Elliot: She was probably too early.  Nicole: That, but she had a really good business, I think she left only because her husband got transferred. Elliot: Right, but I think it would be going Gangbusters right now. Nicole: Oh absolutely, absolutely she'd be doing great with all the traffic in the district now.  Elliot: So, I get mixed messages on that. You know, you talked about traffic in the district, from events for instance. I hear some of the business say that impacts their business negatively. So, what do you think about that, anything? Nicole: I feel, you know, for some of them, it is a logistics kind of thing. If it's more of a service business, then the traffic is harder for you because your clients are coming there specifically to see you, so it makes it harder for them on a Wednesday when you can't find any parking. So, I could see a service business being impacted a little bit. Retail, I couldn't understand why a retail business would be impacted negatively because it's 8,000 people walking the street and we're ringing all night long that night. Our cash register is ringing, we're running around the store helping people, we have a booth on the street, you know. For me, even if your cash register isn’t ringing that night, it's, from a marketing standpoint, where are you ever going to get 8,000 people to see your storefront? I mean, it's just free marketing. Elliot: Right, and 8,000 people that have already made sort of a mental investment in the district. They're not just seeing a billboard as they're passing by. Right? I always wonder that too, but, you know.  Nicole: For some businesses I could understand. Larger ticket items are not the thing that people are going to come down to farmers market for. So then those businesses might struggle a little bit, because that's not a decision, a large purchase is not a decision you're gonna make at a farmers market. A shirt, a pair of earrings, you’re gonna make that a farmer’s market pur.. That’s an impulse buy.  Elliot: So, You know, I think about those things, but then I think about my mom and I think, that's when she would do something like that. You know, she would say, "you know, I would like to buy a new couch." You know she's not gonna take it home maybe that night, but like, "I'm gonna buy that right now. You know, I'm in a good mood. I'm walking the street. I got some wine, I got some flowers. I need a couch." You know, or whatever, you know. Not everybody, but I just feel like you can't... Boy before we had 8,000 people on the street everybody's like, "Bring me customers!" [Laughs] So, you know, I feel like it's a good problem to have.  Nicole: Absolutely.  Elliot: So you know, we went from, my view in the district is, we went from "Uh how are we ever gonna fill these storefronts and how are we ever going to bring customers down," to "How are we ever going to find enough parking spots for all of these people?" It's pretty phenomenal.  Nicole: Right, not a bad problem.  Elliot: So the clock has the time. Not the counter, so I don't know where we're at. Nick: Oh, I'm sorry. Elliot: No that's okay. Nick: I can switch that.  Elliot: I just feel like it's about time.  Nick: It is 23...that should do it right? Elliot: And, you haven't listened to many shows, so you know, you do whatever is appropriate here, but what I like to do is, ugh... [Laughs] I just got a text from Shawn at Title Town and we're not taping it, but he said “Good morning Sir, don't forget about Christina's glass breakage." So I have to make sure to mention that. [Laughter] Elliot: It's very important to him, it's very important. So, we're gonna have at least one more listener. I'm very excited about that. Nick: Hey, you're up to what, 6 now? Elliot: No, that'll be 7. Nick: 7 cool. Elliot: I mean, I don't know if we're keeping the listeners. [Laughter] Nick: That's true. Elliot: You know, well this one's going to be huge, because it's Nicole and.. Nicole: Right, right. [Laughs] Elliot: You're notorious. Notable. Nicole: Okay, and notorious. I'm not sure [laughs] not sure if that's a good thing. [Laughs] Elliot: Notorious makes me think of that Duran Duran song. So now is when we thank my sponsor, which is Camera Corner Studios. So, they bring all this stuff to me, and I would like your take on that because it gets boring for listeners to hear what I have to say, and maybe even what Nick has to say. What do you think? When you walked in here, is this what you expected? Give me your first impressions. Nicole: I mean yeah, a little bit because I saw the pictures and stuff. I mean I think it’s great that they're sponsoring and I mean, what a nice partnership and a good thing for them to do. So that's, you're pretty luck Elliot: I am pretty lucky. I'm a pretty lucky guy.  Nick: Well, and we're here really to serve the small businesses in the area, as well as individuals that have creative minds that may not have the means to put their own production together, you know, to those out there that haven't listened to the other uh.. What are we on 7, 8? Elliot: I think this is 8. Nick: 8 counting zero, so this is episode 7. Elliot: Really, but really professional. I should have the number right. That should be at the top. Yeah, whatever we'll get it.  Nick: We'll figure it out, but if you haven't listened to the other 7 episodes, the studio's concept is that we fill in the gaps for what you don't have. If you just need a room and you're gonna bring your own camera, bring your own talent, we've got a room and that can be it. If you need to make a tv commercial and you don't have cameras, you don't have lighting, you don't have microphones, you don't have actors, you don't have voice over people, we can do all of that too. Or if you want to do a live weekly TV show, we can even do that.  Nicole: Oh maybe that’s what I should do. I should have my own TV show.  Elliot: Why not, fashion show.  Nicole: Right: Elliot: Doesn't have to be each week. Nick: And that would be the idea. So, right now we're just using the audio system, but I do have up to four different camera angles. You know, we have some 3D modeling, some post-production things here. You see the green screen is up for today. I have to take that down, it’s getting rented tomorrow, but it's really a build as you need. The more equipment that you can bring, the more talent you can lend I mean the lower your cost is going to be. Everything is build a-la-carte. So, anything from a multi-camera live stream, around $400 to $65 for a room with lights, and bring your own stuff, bring your own talent. So we can fit any budget.  Elliot: Well, from an audio standpoint, I don't know if Nicole noticed all this stuff, but there's like the crazy microphone up above. I refer to that as the just-in-case microphone. Nick: Exactly. Elliot: Is that accurate? Nick: Yeah. Elliot: You know before we used that we had an audience member and we thought that maybe the audience member would want to hoot and holler. So, things are mobile. There's extra microphones set up. You know there's, in this little box here, there's room for three other guests with me. So, we could have a little round table sort of thing. Nick: Or if we really needed to, we talked about this, I can take guests by phone if needed.  Elliot: We might have to do that because my friends that got married, they hit the road. They're back in Seattle.  Nick: Oh, Okay. We can probably do that though.  Elliot: Yeah, so that'd be fun. I would like to try, give that a try, see if that works. So you know, it's super flexible. Nick is a genius, and he's humble, but he is a genius at this stuff, and this is all due to him. I look behind me and there's this amazing contraption with wires behind, hanging out of it. I think I know what that does. Nick: Oh that thing.  Elliot: I'm not really sure.  Nick: I'm like what are you referring to? The stage box, for all of you audio technicians.  Elliot: The stage box. I don't know.  Nick: My stage box is exciting. Elliot: You know, it's like when people come to tour our place back in the day. If the things had blinkies that was amazing to the. Nick: I get the same feeling because I show our data center once in a while, and it's like, "Oh! There's a lot of boxes with a lot of things in them." Elliot: Yeah. Yeah, they're not interested in seeing the wires, or the specs. They want to see the blinkies. Nick: Right Elliot: So we had to get boxes that had blinkies. We actually did that. For a while we had a box with blinkies that wasn't hooked up to anything. Nick: Wonderful. Elliot: That was way back in the day. So, a little trade secret. Nick: Well, you just gotta put your switch back there, and you San and you'll get blinkies right?  Elliot: Right, right, and I had a friend who was a tech-nerd when we actually had our grand opening, and he's like, and this was ten years ago, and he called me out on it. He's like, "You know that's not hooked up right?" and I'm like, "Duh." [Laughter] Anyways, I digress, every time I come here I notice something... and maybe that's because I'm out in the field, but I notice new things every time I come here. So there's like a flash system with a diffuser over there. There's everything that anybody in photography or audio, would need, I think. Nick: Right, yeah, and you know a great opportunity. We've shot catalogues for people before. There's a local designer, Lucy Liu, we've shot for her.  Elliot: So product photography. Nick: Yeah, yeah, and again it comes down to if you have a photographer that you want their look, bring them in. We have the room, we have changing areas, bathrooms, you know, prep areas. So, again, give me a call at 920-272-0148. We can talk about how to make the studio work for you,  Elliot: Yeah, so do you have any other little anecdotes, or not? Nick: I do, but I'm not sure yet that I can release the names. So there are some exciting things that are coming that will definitely cement our spot. Elliot: Nice! Nick: And I will be very glad to talk about them once I know I am allowed to.  Elliot: Nice. So, uh... Nicole: That's exciting. Elliot: Yeah, Nick makes this all possible. So, I don't know if you recall, I put this post out about two months ago on Facebook, and I said, "Hey, I'm thinking about starting this podcast," and a lot of people were acting like they were interested in doing it. Right? It's a little bit harder to get them to actually commit, because I think they get stage fright, which is a little crazy, because there's only six listeners.  Nick: Well, and scheduling too. I mean, that's probably the big issue.  Elliot: No, I know, I know. It is tougher to schedule. Very true, very true, but I had like, I don't know what I was up to, there were like 40or 50 people that committed, kinda semi-committed, and then I'm like, "Oh, I'm gonna actually have to do this," and then Nick is like, "Hey, do you know how to do that?" I'm like, "Yeah!" [Laughs] Nicole: Right, right. Elliot: And he's like, "Well, I just so happen to have a perfect podcast studio for you." I'm like, "I don't have any money." [Laughs] So, he is helping me out tremendously. He is doing all the work, he had the microphones.  Nicole: That's awesome. Another small business helping a small business.  Elliot: It's amazing, so I can't thank Nick, especially, because he had his ear to the ground, but cam record studios, they have all this stuff and it's super helpful. Nick: And we're glad to be able to put the show on. Like I said, I feel like this is a show that deserves to be heard. Even if it's only by 14 ears.  Elliot: 14 ears, nice.  Nicole: 14, huh? Elliot: 7 people. I can do math, assuming they all have two. [Laughter] Elliot: Or two working ears, right? Nick: Well, technically there's six ears listening right now, so.  Elliot: Oh, true. Yeah, okay, fine. So we're boosting our numbers. So, we're like up to 20 ears.  Nick: It doesn't count on iTunes or Feedburner, whatever, but close enough. Elliot: So, you know Paul Stanley only has like one ear.  Nicole: Yes. Elliot: That's pretty crazy. Nicole: Right. Elliot: I feel like I should have known that, but he kind of keeps it under wraps, and then I read his book. His book is phenomenal if you haven't read it yet.  Nicole: I haven't read it yet.  Elliot: It's amazing I have the audio book, I should get it to you.  Nicole: Yeah, I haven't read it yet, but yeah... Elliot: And he reads it, he reads it. Nicole: Oh, that's even better.  Elliot: And he talks about this uh... And they're entrepreneurs, right? So, what I take from that is like this laser focus entrepreneurism and he tells this story, and I don't know if it's true or not. Maybe I told you this already, but he tells this story about, he would flick pennies in the road and watch Gene Simmons chase after them.  [Laughter] Nicole: I don't doubt it. Elliot: And that just... So every book I read, you know what I read has a thousand pages that has a hundred pages. I end up distilling it down to one sentence, and that's the sentence I remember out of that book. It was amazing. It's a great book, yeah. Nicole: Well, besides being a great band, they're just great entrepreneurs. They've built it into such a market, that they're not just a band. There's like a whole to-do that goes along with it.  Elliot: Right, and you know, I was thinking about that. I'm sure in the early days they probably did, but they don't do any cover songs. I can't think of any. I don't know that we have to talk about Kiss. Nicole: No, No, I don't think that.  Elliot: So, you know, they are, for better or worse, they have a sound and they are all original. So, they might not be artists like some people would say, right? They're not singer-songwriters who just, well they have some of those types of songs, they're not the typical thing and I think that turns some people off. It's too commercialized, right? But, they're selling, they're always closing the sale right? Nicole: And there's been how many years? Elliot: A Lot, a lot.  Nicole: That's a pretty long career. Elliot: Like they were old when we were young. [Laughs] Nicole: Right, I mean, that's a pretty long career.  Elliot: Yeah, so. Tell me some, I think that's something that we sort of have in common, we grew up at the same time. We're like the same age, so there are certain types of music that we like, that people who are not our age just look at us and roll their eyes.  Nicole: Oh, absolutely.  Elliot: So like, I don't think I ever really asked you, what's your favorite band? Do you have a favorite, or a couple favorites? Nicole: Current or? Cause I don't really, you know... Elliot: Either way, either way. Do you still listen to that stuff as much as you pretend to? Nicole: Oh my god yes, I am such and 80s hair band girl.  Elliot: So, I don't. Nicole: I do, totally.  Elliot: I really do not, but if I'm in the car and it come up on my, you know now I do Apple music and it has the section for you, mine looks like I'm as crazy as I probably am. There's like modern singer-songwriter stuff, there's 90s grunge and then there's some hair metal stuff, and it's weird.  Nicole: Yeah, I'm a total 80s hair band girl.  Elliot: So did you ever make the jump to grunge? Nicole: No, I did not like grunge. I did not like when that moved in and took away my hair bands. I was highly upset about that. [Laughs] Elliot: So... Nicole: I went, actually, from hair bands to hip-hop, or hip-hop and r&b. So, it was totally opposite. Elliot: So, that sort of fits your, if we're writing a book about Nicole, that kind of fits your narrative, right? About fashion and big hair.  Nicole: Right. Elliot: So, you don't have any favorites? Nicole: Oh, from that time it's Whitesnake. Elliot: You like Whitesnake? Nicole: Oh, absolutely. Elliot: Really? Nicole: Still, to this day, I love it.  Elliot: So, that's barely a band. It's really a dude.  Nicole: Well, yeah. Really, it's all about David Coverdale, really. [Laughs] Elliot: So, uh... really? Nicole: Yes! I know my friends tease me, cause they're all like, "Yeah, he's great for being 80." Which he's not, but.  Elliot: He's pretty close.  Nicole: He's 62.  Elliot: Well, see I don't know how old these other guys are, but that's, I don't know. I guess we are all older than we used to be, but... Nicole: Absolutely, that was 20 years ago.  Elliot: Here's another guy that was old when we were young.  Nicole: Right, he was already older for that time. Elliot: Right, so when someone says Whitesnake I have this vision of... [Laughs] This is crazy and weird and embarrassing, but I remember like putting... I think it was a cassette yet, I put the cassette in the little boom box thing and I would crank it up in the back yard. And, we had this neighbor with a pool, at the time, and it was in summer time I think when, you know, their hits were out, right? I don't know what year that was, but I would sit in the backyard and this girl, I don't remember her name. She went to school with me at Preble, I think, and she'd be out at the pool, and she would notice when I turned it on.  Nicole: [Laughs] Elliot: That was it that was the whole thing. I turned it on, because, whatever, it was music I wanted to listen to, but part of it was to make sure she knew that I was playing it.  Nicole: Right, trying to get the chick. Elliot: How bizarre and no I really... I don't really remember. I think she probably had some boyfriend, probably bigger than me. Whatever, I was scrawny little high school boy. So, it wasn't like that. I think I was too young for it to be like that anyway. It was weird, it was really weird. But, that's what that always makes me think of now, and Toni Contain. Nicole: Well, yeah, who doesn't think of Toni Contain? Elliot: Who subsequently went completely insane, right? Nicole: Uh, yeah, I think she's... a little spousal abuse there, on her end.  Elliot: Right, which is does happen by the way. That does happen. Sometimes wives do beat on husbands.  Nicole: Right. Apparently, she is one of them.  Elliot: And, I'm not naming any names. Nicole: [Laughs] Elliot: I'm not going to either... Gina’s very nice to me. She sent me a... I had to rush out and... Nicole: She's got to put up with you, so that's... We got to give her some points. [Laughs] Elliot: It changes you. You know, I think, you know my mom gets some criticism. She had 5 boys and, you know, we all share the same bad points. We're very different, my 4 brothers and I, are very different, but we all share the same bad points, and she had to put up with all of this.  Nicole: Oh, poor women.  Elliot: So, that changes you, and not in a good way.  [Laughter] Nicole: My dad had three girls, so he had to put up with 3 girls.  Elliot: See and to me, because all I know is boys, really. I wouldn't even... that's terrifying to me, it's scary. Nicole: Yeah, three girls. I was supposed to be the boy, and then I ended up to be the most girly. So, it's kinda what you get, a wish, you know.   Elliot: So, isn't that funny? So Max was supposed to be twin girls, because he was in vitro.  Nicole: Oh, okay.  Elliot: We just assumed that was what was going to happen, cause it's like 50/50 you're gonna have one or two. And it's like 70/30, whatever I don't know what the numbers are, it's going to be a girl. So, it's a very good change we're gonna have twin girls. So we're like envisioning we're gonna get the double thing and then we go and get the ultrasound and she's like, you know the ultra sound lady, she's like, "Looks like my three sons," and I'm like, Uh, what?" [Laughs], but I'm super glad that Max is not a girl, because I would have corrupted that poor girl, so bad.  Nicole: Probably.  Elliot: So badly. Nicole: Not that you haven't corrupted Max, probably.  Elliot: I feel better about that though. I feel less bad. [Laughs] Nick: I'm not up on my history, but would that be our first female mayor? Elliot: Oh, very true, very true.  Nick: Right? Elliot: Max is going to be mayor.  Nicole: Oh, excellent.  Elliot: He's been endorsed by Scott Eastman.  Nick: I think Randy too, right? Elliot: And Randy.  Nicole: Excellent. Elliot: And, by the current mayor, so I feel like he's got a pretty good lock on it. Nicole: I'm looking forward to it. Elliot: Unless you're running.  Nicole: No, no, I don't want that job. I have enough on my plate.  Elliot: I already warned Rhonda, you know she's gonna run, she's gonna have to get in gear, because he's gonna be ready. He's got two cycles. He's gotta wait for the next election, and then the one after that he can run.  Nicole: I can see it.  Elliot: You ready for that? Nicole: Oh yeah, I'm ready. Elliot: You ready for 18-19 year old mayor? Nick: Sure, it worked in Manatawk right? Elliot: It did work in Manatawk. So, that guy was, actually, he's a very involved guy. I think its Justin Nichols in Manatawk, and he was actually at Gina’s class reunion, and if you do the math, she is not as young as him. I don't think I'm surprising anyone there, but they had the class reunion at the Yacht club, and he happened to be there. He's in his twenties now, he's not, you know everybody gets older right, but I think he was kicking back, had a cigar in his hand, and he's aging quickly. Nicole: Politics will do that.  Elliot: In a good way, and some of the city council people were in Gina’s class and that was a topic of discussion that night. It was very interesting, so yeah, anyway, I digress. So, Nicole is super involved. Tell me about some of the things, outside of business or even business related that you're involved in that aren't your business. I know you do that runway thing, tell me about that.  Nicole: Yeah, I do the Runway for Life in May. We partner with Prevea, they are the sponsors of the event. It's a fashion show for cancer survivors. So, basically 85-90% of the models are cancer survivors. Some are going through it, currently, when they walk the runway. I'm the model and vendor coordinator for the show, so I work with all the local boutiques on setting all that up and then I work on coordinating all the models, recruiting them, assigning them to boutiques, all of that. I've been doing it, I've been probably involved with the show for seven years, on the committee for five. I think there's only two of us that have been on it that long, and it's a great show. It's extremely rewarding. It's great to see the survivors walk down the runway. We have them hold a pink rose to indicate they are a survivor and just the cheers that they get, and the claps. Some of them you can just see it on their face, it's like, "Yeah, you know, I did this." It's really exciting for them. We also have a children run in the show. So, that's a tougher run, to watch the kids walk down, and know they are going through this. Our youngest model this year was two. Our oldest was 80, she's a seasoned pro. She's done it for me for several years, so she's a seasoned pro. We always pick a local charity, the money stays local. So, every cent raised goes to a local cancer charity. So that's a great event.  Elliot: So you said you've been doing that how long? Nicole: I've been involved with the show for about 7 years and on the committee for five.  Elliot: Wow, that's amazing.  Nicole: I was the only vendor to show up to be on the committee. That's how I got it. They had a vendor meeting. I suggested that they had a vendor meeting after one of the shows, because I felt that it didn't run as smoothly that year. So, they had a vendor meeting and I was the only vendor to show up, so then I... All set Elliot: It's amazing how that works.  Nicole: Well, I guess I'll just be on the committee.  Elliot: How did you get into that? Nicole: Oh, they approached me, for the first two years, I was just a vendor. So I just barely came to the show. You know, I dressed the models. Sold at the show. That kind of thing, and then that's when I suggested, "You know, you really need to have a vendor meeting, to see what went wrong with the vendors. It's kind of a wrap up." Like I said, I was the only vendor that showed. I had suggested, "You need a model coordinator, you can't just send models into stores randomly, when we as owners, we don't know when they're coming. We're not prepared for them. They could come when I'm dealing with five customers. I can't help you find an outfit for the show. I can't give you my full attention." So I suggested having a model coordinator. So what I do is, I coordinate all the models, and then I divide them out between the stores evenly, by age, by size. You know, I make sure that everybody gets a size range, everybody gets a range of models in their 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, and then I email all that information out to the stores so they know who their models are, what size so they're prepared and then they can schedule their appointments when it's convenient for them.  Elliot: Nice. So, you have this ability to see a need and propose a fix and then implement the fix.  Nicole: I try.  Elliot: I think that that is something that, I don't know if people like....and I'm gonna say that I'm sort of like that. Probably not as good, but I think that there's, I don't know if we're born with that, or something goes wrong in our brains, but there's something about entrepreneurs that there's a clarity. There's all these possibilities, there's unlimited possibilities about what could happen and we pick one and we do it.  Nicole: Right, I always thought it was cause I was a Libra.  Elliot: I'm also a Libra. Nicole: That's... Libras are objective, they can weigh both sides of the scales. That's our sign, so we weigh both sides of the situation, we... Elliot: Quickly, and make decisive actions. Nicole: We tend to be the advice givers. Yeah.  Elliot: Yeah, and I'm not all into that astrology stuff, but I do think that those are characteristics that people like us have. Right? Nicole: Mmhmm.  Elliot: I don't know that that all means that we were born in the same month, because I don't think that's true, but I do think that I have some of that, and I know you have a lot of that. Where, "Okay, I heard this and this makes sense, so let's do the right thing."  Nicole: I think I'm pretty objective about things. My female counterparts will probably hate me to say this, but I feel like I'm more of a male when it comes to business. Men probably tend to be a little bit more objective. Women tend to be a little bit more emotional, just by nature. That's just who we are.  Elliot: I don't think it's that. I think it's just different emotions, because I think that I'm a pretty emotional guy, I think (??? 46:55) is a pretty emotional guy, but it's different. Right? And I mean, everyone's different, but I think that uh... Scott used this phrase like, "If he's happy or I'm happy, everyone around us is likely going to be happy. If we're not happy about how things are going, it's going to bring the room down." Right? I think you have a little bit of that. I think we're all, you know, I'm gonna put all three of us in that camp, right. We're, kind of, all, I'll put Gina in there too. Entrepreneurs like us, I feel like, I don't know, it's a leadership thing right? It's sort of infectious, one way or the other, but yeah, anyways, I'm just kind of thinking out loud. So, you do the runway thing and you're involved in some other organizations?  Nicole: I also do the, help out with the prom fashion show that happens every year at the Radisson. We used to partner with the Chamber and Partners and Education. It raises money for prom, like safe prom parties. So that the kids aren't out going crazy after prom. So I do that. I partner with them for that. Business wise, I'm very involved in the Broadway District. I'm on the BID board. I also had the Business Owners Organization, try to keep us all together and you know, cohesive down there. So yeah, I kind of have my hand in.  Elliot: So let's take those things, sort of backwards, so the last one you said was the Broadway Business Owners, right? And, that's another example where you saw a need, and you just kind of took the reins on that. Tell me a little bit about that.  Nicole: We used to have monthly meetings, you know, then the person that lead them, kind of, left the district, so then we kind of didn't have any. And then, somebody else took over, and they really weren't productive meetings. They were more negativity, and for me, that doesn't do anything. I think they need to be productive. I think they're important. I think, monthly, touch basis' with fellow business owners is important, because many of us, we are inside our businesses daily. We don't get to leave. We don't get to visit with each other. You know, even just as simple as, "What's going on with you? What's going well? Hey, is this working for you? This is really working for me." So, stuff like that is important. So, we weren't really having those and so I decided, you know, we need to get back on track, we need to get those. So I just decided that I would head that up. So I took it upon myself to head it up, kind of walked around, touched base with all the businesses. Let them know that, "Hey, this is going to be starting up again. I'm gonna be the point person for it. This is what we're gonna do," and so, just kind of took it on. I think it's been working well. We've had good response. I've seen a lot of business participation. I've seen a lot of people participate, who'd hadn't previously. So that's really encouraging. Like I said, I think they're important for us, to touch base as a group. We're all in the same district. We all have the same goals in mind. If I'm successful, you're gonna be successful. If you're successful, I'm gonna be successful. The success of the district depends on us. So, it's nice to have those touch basis and to see, "Hey, what’s going on? What's positive? What's negative?" You know.  Elliot: So, I think you've been doing phenomenally well with that. And you know, attendance goes up and down.  Nicole: Absolutely, you know, it depends on what's going on. Summer is a little harder for people. There's a lot going on.  Elliot: But even that being said, I feel like, attendance has been pretty good.  Nicole: Yeah, I would say, it's pretty steady.  Elliot: Like, the only one that was a downer, down for attendance wise, was for last month.  Nicole: Yeah. Elliot: But, you know I heard nothing but good stuff about yesterday. In terms of, the business owners. Everyone said, you know I saw some of the Facebook things, Gina was there. Everyone said things were very productive and you did a good job of handling that.  Nicole: Thank you, I hope. Elliot: Well, it's an impossible task right? Nicole: It is, it is. You have a lot of different personalities in the same room. A lot of different ideas. So, I guess that's part of it, where my objectivity comes in, I can't. Nothing can be personal, I have to sit back and kind of take the feedback from everybody. You know everybody has valid points, and every business owner on that street is important. There isn't anybody that's more important than anybody else. We are all important. We are that community, so.  Elliot: Well, and we don't want empty storefronts. Nicole: Absolutely not.  Elliot: So yeah, a few things come time mind there. Scott mentioned, because he's moving in next to, like Jake's Pizza, Red, like that spot there, and he mentioned the Boost Mobile store that's there and how they have some, I don't know how he characterized it, but some, you know, flashy lights, and it doesn't really fit you know? Nicole: No.  Elliot: But, that being said, I said to Scott, "I would rather it's full, the spots full, and we try to work with them, than have it empty and have to work on trying to get someone in there." So, that's where my head is usually at, but yeah, I wish they would get rid of the lights too.  Nicole: Yeah, you know, it doesn't... You know, our district is kind of eclectic and quaint, and I feel like that is more strip mall type.  Elliot: Even there, I don't, that kind of look just doesn't fit anywhere.  Nicole: No, I mean, it's bright, it's certainly... Elliot: Yeah, yeah, and I don't know. Bright can be okay, it's like the string of lights around there, I think particularly bothered him, and I see where he's come from on that. And so, that's the Broadway Business Owners Group that we we're kind of talking through, and that's all business owners, all entrepreneurs. That is a constant struggle, and I don't think I'm overstating, to try to keep that moving forward.  Nicole: Absolutely. Elliot: And, I think you do a phenomenal job of that, really, and I don't think that you get, really, enough credit for that. Cause if you stopped, it would stop, I feel. So, don't stop. I think that's really, that's important.  Nicole: No, no, I plan to keep going.  Elliot: And it's important for communication, more than anything.  Nicole: Absolutely. We're lucky in our district to have it, because, you know, I've talked to people that owned businesses in other Districts and like in Ashwaubenon, they don't have any sort of cohesiveness between business owners. They don't meet, they don't... Kinda you don't even know your neighbors. Whereas, Broadway, we're kind of a family and that was what attracted me to the spot in the first place. I did go to one of those meetings, when they had them and everybody was so welcoming and I was like, "Gosh, this is a great place. Everybody's kind of like family." I mean we all kind of watch out for each other, and it’s not a competiveness, even if we have the same sort of merchandise, or we're into the same, kind of category. We're not competitive with each other you know. We each, you know, if I don't have it, I'm going to send them to another store down the street. If they don't have it, they're gonna send them to me. I mean, we're all like that down there.  Elliot: It's exactly like most families I think, actually. Where everyone has the reaction, "Nobody punches my brother but me!" Nicole: Right  Elliot: [Laughs] Like, that's how I feel. I feel like that kind of sums it up. You know, we're going to be critical of each other, but boy anybody else is critical, we're going to be like, "No, what, no. You don't get to beat up on my friend, my family." Nicole: Absolutely, absolutely.  Elliot: So, you mentioned the BID. And I think people don't really every understand what that is. Adam is also on the bid. And you did listen to some of his, you said. So BID is Business Improvement District. So, talk to that a little bit. How do you have time for all of this stuff, first of all? Nicole: [Laughs] I don't. I think I'm stretched thin, but you know, you do what you do.  Elliot: And then, you're giving me 90 minutes today. ,  Nicole: You do what you do.  Elliot: So, awesome.  Nicole: You know, the BID is, and obviously we control the money that goes into the district from the taxes. And we kind of decide where that money goes, what it gets used for, make sure that it gets used for the district. I think we've done a good job in that. You know, there's been several projects, you know, I'm new this year, so I wasn't part of the whole planter thing, all of that. But there's been several large projects that I think the BID has taken on and it's basically to improve our district. You know, we can't say enough about that money going back into the district and just improving it. It's not always fun, because you know, there's obviously how many business owners in the district and they have ideas about how that money should be spent too. So, it's not always a fun job. Sometimes we make decisions that, yeah maybe they don't quite agree with, but we always have their best interest. It's not anything that we're just, "Oh, we just want to spend the money." We're always thinking about the district.  Elliot: Yeah, so I've been on that board since it started. Whatever, and it's amazing because I'm the only one left that was originally there, and I feel that in this last year to two years, we’ve gotten more done than ever before, but we are in a district of high expectations, and we all expect more, but I remember, very clearly, last fall, turning to the head of the landscape company that was filling the planters, and I said, "I'm gonna be impressed by what you do right?" I feel like, and it's not just me, I feel like I was so tired of those planters not having plants in them. [Laughs] Nicole: Everybody was. They were just giant garbage pit ashtrays.  Elliot: And I'm like, whatever we have to do, we're gonna do that, and there will be plants, and they will be beautiful and people are gonna walk away impressed, and I'm hard to impress. So, I'm not going to say they are amazing and they're a showcase, but they are at least up to the level that I am not embarrassed.  Nicole: It's a giant leap forward from where they were.  Elliot: So I was very happy about that sort of progress in the last year, and the benches Nicole: Absolutely.  Elliot: So those are two things I'm very proud of that we accomplished, and it sort of took, again some people taking things by the horns, but also it's easy to do that when you have... You’re like, "All these people behind me, they want this too." So that makes it easier.  Nicole: And the benches are beautiful. The benches there and the garbage cans. It just adds some color to the district, it adds... Elliot: I just think it's totally kick ass.  Nicole: Yeah, I love it. I'm gonna have to paint one next time.  Elliot: Well, yeah. I think this is something that we're gonna have to redo every 3-4 years.  Nicole: Probably.  Elliot: We'll see, but it was fun. Gina and Liz and Kyle and Max all got involved in doing that. I have a really crappy one with Packer's colors, "Yay!" Nicole: [Laughs] Elliot: But mine is not... Mine is horrible, you know, but I wanted to do one too, just to do it.  Nicole: It was a great way to get the community involved too, in a project, because we got local artists. Elliot: We got actual artists.  Nicole: Yeah, I mean it was a great way to get the community involved and it was something that needed to be done, so they're functional, but you have little pieces of the community there.  Elliot: Yeah, it was very much a whatever, a lemon in the lemonade kind of thing. Right? Because, these are things that, like, I remember walking down the street with a couple of other BID boy members. Taking pictures of all of the dilapidated things that were just like thorns in our side, right, and one of the benches was physically deteriorating, and you couldn't sit in it. You know, that's it was a safety hazard.  Nicole: Oh, absolutely.  Elliot: So, you know, we went to the city and said, you know, I just remember saying very clearly, "I will paint them, just allow this to happen," and they said, "Okay." So, you know, ultimately that's all it really takes. Which, I don't think people realize that. There's a Steve Jobs quote that I always kind of have in the back of my head. He said, "As soon as you realize that all the things around you were created by people no smarter than you, you realize that you can put a dent into the universe." Nicole: True. Elliot: And, you know, we put dents in the universe I think.  Nicole: I think so. Elliot: Okay, so BBO, BID and then working backwards again, there was one other thing that you had.  Nicole: Uh, the prom fashion show.  Elliot: Yeah, so what's that all about? I didn't even know about that.  Nicole: It's a fashion show that takes place in January every year and all of the money raised goes back to the schools. It's called "Mr. Title Town." So actually, it's, the guys compete, not the girls. The guys compete for the title, and there's scholarship money that gets awarded and they raise money for their schools. So it goes back to them having a safe prom party, an after prom party.  Elliot: Nice. Nicole: So they are not, obviously running the streets after prom, and it's usually a locked in kind of thing at the school. You know, which is great, because obviously, they can get into a little trouble. So, it's better to have an activity for them to do and make sure that they're all safe. So that's one of the things that I'm involved with. I've been involved with that since its inception, I think that it's been 7 or 8 years now, if not more. And then, one of the other things I do, quite frequently, I work with the Deca students at Southwest. They have a fashion show too. They didn't have one last year, but usually when they do have it I'm involved with that, or if... You know, we did the Shark tank, which was quite exciting. Elliot: Yeah, I loved that.  Nicole: Oh my god that was great! Elliot: So I’m glad you brought that up, I was gonna talk about that.  Nicole: Yeah, that was great. The ideas that came out of there. Just to see these students and their ideas. How exciting is that? It makes me sit back and think, oh my gosh, these are high school kids and look what they are coming up with. So, that was pretty exciting. And then, I also work a lot with the Boys and Girls Club. I go in and talk to the high school kids. They talk about entrepreneurship, I'm usually one of the guest speakers that comes in and talks to them about what it takes to own your own business. You know, it's not for everybody. It really isn't.  Elliot: So what does it take? Nicole: It takes a lot pf passion, and that's the first thing I tell them. Do something that you have a passion for. Don't start a business just to start a business, because you're gonna burn out quickly. Do something that you have a passion for, because you're going to spend a lot of time doing it. So make sure it’s something that you enjoy. And you know, I always tell them, now, start planning for that now. Start thinking about what you want to do, but know that you have to be a risk taker to be an entrepreneur and know that it's not something you do to become rich. You don't become an entrepreneur to become rich. You go work for somebody else to become rich. Because it is, your money is dependent on you. You're the face of that business. So that's all stuff that you've got to start planning now.  Elliot: So, do you think you're good at picking out entrepreneurs? You know, when you go to those things with kids? Nicole: You know, I don't know because I don't know if they're at the level yet where they're... You know some of the, by the questions they ask, I can tell that, no you're in this for the wrong. You know, you're thinking this is a get rich quick kind of thing. And don't just be an entrepreneur because you want to be your own boss. I've never been accountable to more people in my life, since I've opened a business. It's not just, oh I can be my own boss and just do what I want. You have to think, you have employees, stuff like that. It's a matter of, you know, I mean for my employees, I do just as much work as them, more, and if I didn't they wouldn't work for me. They wouldn't respect me. That's a huge part of having employees and being an entrepreneur, is you got to put in the time, you got to put in the footwork. Elliot: Yeah, so where I was going with that was, on the shark tank, I feel like, I... Well, there's this guy Darren (??? 64:21). He's been a very active Broadway volunteer too, and so you know Darren. And, I don't know, I feel like he's a BFF now, you know, and he has some of that. And, I feel like I can recognize that, and I think you can too, maybe you just haven't met as many.  Nicole: Probably not.  Elliot: I remember when I was teaching my class at NEBTC (??? 64:46), and I'm sorry to everybody else who was in the class, but you know, I had a class of about 20 people in it, and I felt like, yeah only three of you should be here, and only one of you suited to be an entrepreneur, you know,. So like, even in the profession that you think you're going into, 80% of you are going to fail. [Laughs] Nicole: Yeah, you know not everybody has what it take to be an entrepreneur. It is a special skill set. It is, you know.  Elliot: Yeah so, anything else? Oh, so I have my last question that I have to ask. I think that we'll kind of wrap things up then, unless there's anything else that you want to throw in there. So, I ask everybody, when I ask you to come back to co-host with me, who you would like the guest to be? Nicole: Oh. I don't know, I'd have to think about that. You can't get David Coverdale I'm assuming.  [Laughter] Elliot: You know, he's kind of past his prime, I bet you we could.  Nicole: He's busy on tour. Um, hmmm, that's a really good question. Have you gotten the mayor here in for one? Elliot: No, but I don't know if he was on the list. I gotta keep a list of this.  Nick: You know, I have the original list from back when you made the first Facebook post, and I looked just for the trivia, there's like 43 people on that list. He is not one of them.  Elliot: No, I know, but he said he would do it. I talked to him separately, he didn't know what I was talking about. [Laughs] Nick: What I do find interesting, before the mayor himself was nominated to the list, his wife was.  Nicole: Right, right, she actually models in the fashion show the Runway for Life.  Elliot: See, we gotta get her on.  Nicole: Brent from Title Town would be another good one.  Elliot: So this is what's going to happen here right, there's the same circle of people that just keep getting brought up. So, yeah, I'll have to... Nicole: Cause there's so much going on there, so he would be... Elliot: So he's on the list. He's on multiple lists. Brent's gonna have to be here. I'm gonna have a room full of co-hosts for Brent. [Laughter] Elliot: So you got anybody else?  Nicole: I don't know Elliot: You know, I kind of want them to be people that are interesting... Nicole: Well, Aaron Rodgers. Elliot: That everybody doesn't know about.  Nicole: Okay, well, that shoots that.  Elliot: Yeah, and you know, I feel like a lot about Brent, and no offense to Brent, because I do, I want him on in the worst way. No offense to the mayor, I love the mayor and I would love him on in the worst way, but people, they have the ability to get their own press, so to speak.  Nicole: Right.  Elliot: So you know, other people in any of these organizations that you think would be good. Anything like that. Those are the kinds of things. You know, unsung heroes, people that are interesting, people that are like us that are bubbling under.  Nicole: I think that my friend Tim Corey, who is the production manager of the fashion show. He's interesting and really that show would not go on without him. Elliot: Perfect.  Nicole: He's the one that comes up with the theme every year, he builds a lot of the sets and, I mean, just the general design direction, produces the whole show. It wouldn't happen without him. There is no way it would.  Elliot: And I don't know him at all.  Nicole: Yeah, he's interesting.  Elliot: So that's great, that's awesome, I can't wait, and I will have to have you co-host because I won't necessarily know what to ask him. Nicole: Right.  Elliot: So anything you want to... how can people get in touch with you if they want to? Nicole: They can contact me at my store, obviously, they can call me at 432... Elliot: And what's that called again?  Nicole: Sassy Girl. Elliot: Okay. Nicole: Number is 432-7277 and I'm located on the corner or Broadway and Walnut. You can also find us on Facebook, and that gets updated on a regular basis. Anything, if you want to see what we have going on in the store, it's always on Facebook. All the new products get loaded on there the day they come in.  Elliot: You're a hardcore Facebooker, I know that.  Nicole: I am, yes.  Elliot: So then, we just have this closing track that we're referring to as, "The special bonus track." I think. Nick: Indeed.  Elliot: So this is the last track on the Motra EP that they so graciously gave to me when I said, "I need some music." And I don't even know how to pronounce the name, I'm not even going to try. It's a special bonus track. You'll have to check it out. So yeah, that's it. Thanks Nicole.  Elliot: Thank you.

Entrepreneur Nicole Zich joins Elliot in the studio to discuss her business Sassy Girl, downtown, and everything else she's up to!

Elliot and Scott talk about fatherhood, family, entrepreneurship, and shared history.

(Partial) Transcript Intro: Music Cool, that was Danger of Repetition and that’s from Motra. That’s a band that I had on the other day. Motra, they played over at the Exclusive Company.  I didn’t see them yet but they came highly recommended from my, I can say hideous right.  Is that, is that does that get bleeped, my hideous sister-in-law.  Yes. That gets bleeped? Why would you say that? You don’t think she’s hideous? Well. I’m talking about Gerri. I know. I have other sisters-in-law that aren’t hideous. Hey. Oh, can we start over. I didn’t know the mics were on? What the dickens is… So, the voice you hear is Scott Eastman, which is why you’re listening. Because let’s face it this is probably the first one nobody is listening to.  No offense to all my other guests who are not hideous and of course I’m kidding I love my sister-in-law.  That’s why I took her recommendation on this band and that’s Motra. You can find them on Facebook, M-O-T-R-A, and its facebook.com/m0tra. I don’t know somebody else had the M-O-T-R-A.  Whatever, but they’re pretty phenomenal.  I listened to all of their tracks and I think they’re pretty awesome, so you should see them live and I’m here with Scott Eastman. Hey, I’m here.  So I don’t want to run short on time so I’m going to jump right into it.  Scott give me the five minute, I’m Scott and here I am world.  Give me your elevator pitch. Well thanks Elliot I really appreciate this time sitting down with you, I really do. So my name is Scott Eastman I am the... And Gina yelled at me because I didn’t have you on already.  So we’re only at this the seventh... Sorry I interrupt people, that’s what I do. We’re short on time. I’m confrontational and I interrupt people and so Gina was really mad that I didn’t have you on yet. Don’t feel bad it’s totally my fault. I saw her at the Farmer’s Market last night and as always I wanted to make sure I gave her a hug and let her know I think she’s awesome.  She was talking about your podcast and I said you know Elliot mentioned that to me once and I haven’t been invited yet.  She said he’s been doing this and this and that and that.  See to me the further it goes not being invited that’s the number I am on Elliot’s friends list.  So, if I’m number seven or whatever it is… Zero, your number is zero. Number seven which means I’m way down... But, I said that and Gina was like no I have to be zero.  I don’t know, she didn’t say that. Right, anyway. So it’s about scheduling. I was totally giving her a hard time, giving you a hard time through her. You know what if I thought that was real I wouldn’t be talking about it. Alright Okay. I only talk about fake things. Anyway it was great to see Gina at the Farmer’s Market last night; we had the Fun Photo Bus down there I haven’t gotten to do that yet. She didn’t even know we had it.  She was like well I don’t understand what you’re doing down here You know there was some drama? That’s okay, yeah I get it.  Are we talking about that today?  Are we moving past that?   It’s your show.   Hey that was yesterday let’s move to today.  So, yeah we had the Fun Photo Bus downtown.  The Fun Photo Bus is part of our business.  We’re photographers, I’m a photographer, Great Scotts Images you might have heard of us we’re kind of a big deal, not. Totally a big deal. Not at all. And for real, for real, and I have other photographer friends, I just say whatever’s on my mind.  So it’s always Scott and now Mark and Shania too.  Oh yeah the Amieson’s are amazing So that’s it, that’s my list.  So if you’re getting married, you want those guys. For sure, for sure. Or you want to change your wedding date so, that you’ve got those guys.   Yeah we’ve had that done, not all the time, but there’s been a couple of times when they’re like, oh wait you’re not available well what about this date instead.  I’ve been like okay, let’s do that. You’re amazing I’ve had photos like the head shot thing… If you see me on Facebook and it’s not too hideous for you, it came from Scott and he chooses what I wear so… I’ve got to tell you guys... He’s my fashion guru. You’re clearly listening to this because your fans of Elliot Chritenson. Elliot came to his last head shot session with a white suit, straight up Don, what was that guy on Miami Vice I’m not old enough to… It was Don Johnson; it was a straight up Don Johnson suit, white cotton pants and a white cotton jacket.  I was like what are you doing with that right now. It was really funny. So, do you remember what you told me? I don’t, remind me  I think you did.  He’s just setting me up.  So, Scott told me I need to not only take it off, I did not have it on but whatever, I can never wear it again and I in fact I have to, I am required to give it to the first homeless person that I see. It’s totally true because we need to take care of our homeless people.  So, anyway it was pretty funny.  So anyway the question was who am I and what do I do? Scott Eastman, Great Scott Images, we do weddings and portrait photography and we also do small amounts of some commercial work.  Mostly because I’m not smart enough to do traditional commercial photography, stuff with blue gels and all that amazing stuff.  There is an amazing group of commercial photographers here in the area and I’m just not smart enough to be one of them.  But if you want your business stock photography to look like what the culture of your company is, if you want it to feel like how you guys feel then we’re going to come in and do that job.  We do it in details and in authenticity.  I just don’t like to generate stuff that does not exist.  We’re not like that when it comes to weddings, or to families, or even to our commercial work.  We just like to tell the story just as it looks.  That feels real, that feels organic, that’s a big part of what we do.   So I did two photo shoots with this guy and the first one he shows up at my office and he’s like, let’s go we’re going to go get pictures.  You didn’t say they were hideous you said you’re getting some professional pictures. They were “heidious”, that’s the combination of heinous and hideous, “heidious”. And that was a few years ago already and we snuck into some abandon buildings. Right, that was when you were running for office of some sorts.  School board or garbage man or something you were running for. Well you know not only am I, I’m probably unelectable.  People think they like people that speak their mind, but we’ll see. They like the idea of people who speak their minds. They like the idea but, I’m not quite as radical as Mr. Trump but I can empathize with at least that type of thing.  So, what else, you aren’t just photography. I’m not just photography, I’m other things  Like you as a person, not your business. Yes, although, and I’m sure you know this, as a small business person, as a sole proprietorship, it really does become who you are, and it’s hard to actually get your hands around the other things you might be.  So it can consume you easily and you don’t even know it’s happening until you’re over your head So you know, part of that and for all sorts of reasons I think women can do that better than guys. Oh yeah. You meet somebody for the first time, like you officially met Nick for the first time, and you’re thinking I’m Scott and I’m a photographer.  You know you are what you do right. Even when I’m meeting people or if I’m at a wedding we make it a point to try to get as familiar as we can with everyone that’s in the wedding party not only the bride and groom, not just their parents but everybody in the wedding party.  So one of the first questions I’ll ask is, what do you do, so that helps me define who they are.  So I think you’re right that’s totally a guy thing.  We quantify… And you know I don’t like the rigid this is a male thing this is a female thing.  I’ve never really like that but I know, people hear of women pressures all the time and that is a guy pressure. You know what and there are times when I would like to say I’m Max’s dad and I would like for that to be my answer.  That’s almost never allowed, you know that would make you look soft, I don’t know. Yeah, I know that, and I’m with you, because if people ask me about, like your question, who are you besides… one of my first answers is always well, I’m a dad. I think that, well for me, and I know this is different for everybody, but for me parenthood and raising people is the most important thing I could do.  I know there’s are other people that have other philosophies and other directions and other life aims and stuff like that but for me that is the single most important thing I could do.  It’s the single most important thing I’m proud of.  When I look at my four kids, I’m like these are my kids and not only did I make them genetically, I helped to shape them and that’s a big job.  So, yeah I wish I weren’t defined by my work load you know, especially right now, it’s a weird time to ask me that question  cause we’re right in the heat of wedding season.  I think we did, or we’re doing like fifty something weddings this year.  I mean, it’s just like wedding, wedding, wedding, wedding and it’s still cool because it’s still like every wedding day is magical to me.  I still can’t believe I’m there, I can’t believe I’m telling that story.  I always, think without exception there’s always something I’m falling in love with about the bride, something I’m falling in love with about the groom, you know and it goes a long way in helping us tell their story. Yeah sorry I’m all over the place with my answer. So two quick things on that, so I actually have a bunch, I talk a lot. Sure So, on Facebook you put me to shame as a husband, you’re a good husband.  I look up to you in that way, just on Facebook and that’s not real life.  You’re probably a crappy husband, I have no idea. Yeah, Facebook is the best part of us. Ah, you’re a kick ass dad, like you beam with pride and you don’t overdo it, you know, you save it for special things but you can tell and everybody knows that about you. Yeah, and I appreciate that, I do. I’m actually a little bit misty  I know I know I am too. Yeah we do that we’re emotional  Yeah. So, and what are your four kids, your four kids. I’ve got my oldest is Allie, she’s ah, what will she be twenty-eight maybe.  So then my second is Jerad he’s twenty-six, so they both were part of the Scott Eastman family 1.0.  They were born while I was in the Navy living in San Diego this was the late eighties.  So they are both doing really, really well.  Allie is married and has a son, Liam and a step-son the boy Jacob.  I couldn’t think of his name, I saw his face, but couldn’t think of his name.  So, her and her husband Ben live here in town.  She works at Snider and he works at, umm not American Express, Ameriprise which was part of American Express at one time, so in my head it’s always American Express that pops in casually.  So, anyway they’re great they live here in town I love them a lot. And I’m putting you on spot, you don’t have notes. That’s right, I totally don’t have notes but I should although I’m forty-eight, super old. So are you claiming forgetfulness?  I totally am, are you kidding me.  What the… See I was giving you and out and you took it too far. Yeah, I’m sorry.  So my son Jared, he’s, you may not want to even know this but I’m saying it anyway because I love my kids, so Jared is a senior, will be a senior at St. Norbert.  He’s engaged to be married next January to a wonderful girl named Gloria.  He spent five years in the Army as a photo journalist and so now he’s at St. Norbert on the government’s dime as part of the G.I. bill and the Yellow Ribbon Program.  I’m really proud of him for everything that he’s done.  It’s actually kind of cool because he’s a third generation military, St. Norbert guy, so my dad went to St. Norbert and then was an officer in the Army during the Korean conflict.  And then I myself was in the Navy and then went to St. Norbert and so now Jared was in the Army and now he’s going to St. Norbert.  That’s kind of a cool thing, we’re not typical St. Norbert people we don’t wear like our collars up and Sperry boat shoes and stuff like that, that’s not really part of our bag but I am proud of that heritage. So, ah, and I want you to finish but I’ll forget, because ah I’m not as old as you but… You’re pretty close, pretty dang close. So, try not to pretend  I know right, I too try to pretend and I think I do admirably well.  But I want to, I’ll feel like a big jerk if I don’t thank you for your service and thank Jared for his service.  Like ah that’s something I didn’t do that, you make this all possible for me. Yep, and I appreciate that.  When I was in I hated every minute of it and I was young and I was married it was like right after high school.  It was the fall after my high school so I was 18, 19, 20, 21, and 22 when I was in.  Freshly married, I married my high school sweetheart and I was on submarines and so the schedule was erratic.  You never knew when you were going to be home and when you weren’t. I had a young family and I hated every minute of it, but now I see.  This was at the end of the Cold War so that was a different time so I didn’t see combat like how Jared saw combat or like how my dad saw combat.  I still think it provides significant footing foundation for who we are as people.  So whether you’re at church or you’re at a sporting event or something and it’s, “Well hey we’d like all our Veterans to stand up” and you kind of do this thing where you don’t really want to stand up, cause I don’t want to call attention to myself cause I’d rather someone else get the attention, you know but at the same time on the other side of that same coin you stand up and say yep I’m pretty proud I got to do this, you know what I mean, it’s kind of a cool thing so thank you for saying that.  So my two younger kids, Scott Eastman family 2.0, are Raye, she’s 9 and going to the fourth grade and my son Abe, he’s six and he’s going to the first grade.  And so their wonderful kids and I find that I’m a better, better’s not the right word, I’m a different kind of parent then I was with 1.0.  When I was 20 and 22 and having kids, you’re like a kid, you didn’t think you were you thought you had your whole life together, and you had all your shit and you don’t have that at all. And so, I’m actually more friends with my older kids than I am an authority figure.  But what I’ve found with my second set of kids is that, so I’ve been to concerts with my older kids, we go to movies with my older kids, movies that I want to see and stuff.  So, but with my younger kids I’ve found that I’ve got contexts to parenthood that I didn’t have the first time around, so being a parent at 40 is way different because you get what life kind of looks like.  I’m not at the end but I’m definitely closer to the end then I am to the beginning, and so there’s a context to parenthood that I didn’t have the first time around. I don’t think you need to be a shame of having more experience. Yeah, right yeah, I just now cannot touch my kids, I can’t be around them and not have my arm around them or make them hug me, you know.   I just, for me that’s the essence of what my life is about, so anyway. No that’s good, that’s good.  You know what people get to talk about those things its fine.  So, um I want to talk about me again. Yeah, let’s talk about you that’s why I’m here. No it’s not, but um and forgive me if this is not the first time I met you in person, but I remember being at a business expo… Yep, you were wearing a hair net. And you were working somewhere else and you brought some of your co-workers over to come and talk to me and ah, that never happen before you know like in the business and that changed me.   Shut up, what are you talking about right now? You changed me.  So I’m at a business expo and I don’t remember the year, which is embarrassing and ridiculous I should have written it down and I don’t think about it like… On this day my life changed forever…  But I was thinking about it when this came up with you last night and I’m like of course I want to have you there.  I feel like you’ve made me a better person. Come on. All the way around, all the way around, not only are you an excellent role model, but that changed me because I’m a competitive guy and I’m like always pushing forward and driving hard. I would love to say I’m like Steve Jobs but like no, for good and bad I’m not.  Like I don’t think that’s all bad to say that I’m not, but I’m somewhere in the middle but I’m still more of an extreme kind of person than the average person.  I don’t think that’s a surprise to anyone and that absolutely changed me.  And then there’s another time at Cup O’ Joy I think you were MCing, of course you would if you’re in the room you’re going to MC and if you weren’t I don’t know why you weren’t.  But then, I don’t even remember… I think we were there for my brother who was there for an open mic night or something, I have no idea.  I felt like I was sneaking in the back with Gina and you called us out and I was almost on the floor.  It was sort of like what you were talking about, stand up if you’re a Veteran, that’s the feeling that I had.  Like what did I do, like what did I ever do to deserve… and the thing you put on LinkedIn, I’m embarrassed about that, sort of, in a good way.  So tell me where that came from cause to this minute I don’t know why I’m deserving of that praise.  And to clarify I don’t get it from everybody.  There are a lot of people that strongly dislike me.   Huh, well, here’s what I think about Elliot Christenson, I think that when you talk about what you do or what you have been doing as far as the Internet, I mean I don’t know that if legend is too strong of a word.  So at that time, 1996 or whatever it was when people were wondering, “Inter web what the hell is that, we don’t need none of that, I don’t need none of the Internet”.  And so you and a person or two in town were the people like, this is a thing, I’m doing this thing you know what I mean.  And so no one knew, you didn’t know, who knew how the whole thing worked.  Who knew if it was ever going to stay, who knew I mean no one knew, you know what I mean.  So here’s Elliot Christenson and his wife saying we’re going to make a go of this.  We’re going to provide… we’re going to be an Internet service provider or an ISP, do we even have those anymore, I don’t even know how it works. So, yeah if I could do it all over again I wouldn’t. Well nonetheless you had the courage to say yeah I’m doing this.  And so out of that alone, stepping out and saying we’re going to do this is worth notoriety in my opinion. And so I was talking to Gina about that because there’s going to be an On Broadway business owners meeting on Tuesday. The B.B.O. The B.B.O.   I just made that up, is that really a thing.  I like to do that when people talk about things, make up the acronym. In fact you’re a Broadway business…  I am.  So you should be there actually and I’m not invited, Gina is not barred from going, as far as I know.  Which, sidebar, I think it’s actually rather unfair that she gets persecuted for my crimes, not really sure what my crimes are. Sins of the father of something like that and it shouldn’t be sins of the husband either. That doesn’t apply to any other business by the way, where there business partner is slumped in with them and… But she’s a fierce, sorry now I’m interrupting you, but she’s a fierce defender of yours. It’s your show  You wouldn’t know that, yeah we’re 22 minutes in and you wouldn’t know that it’s my show.  So, yeah Gina is a fierce defender of yours, so it only makes sense that the might lump her together, but I’ll let you finish your story.  So, the BBO, meeting… It’s next Tuesday but… But you’re going to listen to this after the meeting has already taken place. Yeah, which is safe, because other people shouldn’t be showing up to this anyway, just business owners.  I just had that discussion with Gina where, I was just kind of thinking out loud just before I came here.  I was a little jittery because I was super excited to come here and I was kind of talking through that.  I am who I am and part of that is shaped by all of these difficult experiences, compared to someone who went through Iraq or something, it’s not difficult right.  But you’re alone when you’re a business person and I have great friends, you have great friends, I am undeserving of so much of this praise you give me.  Part of the reason it stands out is because so often you feel so alone.  You think, I’m going to go in business, and of course I have automatic clients, I have family and friends, people know me and I’m likable.  And then you start to question all that and I think that’s why some people who don’t have that background of having to live through some of that, I thin k they view me different than you do.   I see. They think I’m confrontational, that’s a word that’s actually used frequently about me.  It was used about Steve Jobs too, I feel like I’m not … That’s the second Steve Jobs reference, are you muting my mic because I’m criticizing you right now. No, no, just technical issues, it is fixed now.  So anyway I don’t want to be that way.  I want to be , and in my heart I’m, compassionate, and in my heart I wear my opinions on my sleeve. Well, I think you and I are not different in that way.  We joke, at Great Scott, about how I’ve got no filter, and so when I’m somewhere I’m just going to say whatever occurs to me, often times because it’s what I’m thinking.  Someone’s going to think it’s funny and there’s a time or two where it’s completely inappropriate and wrong and so… 98 percent of the time it’s great. Right, right yeah.  So here’s the thing about being that kind of person is that I’m out there.  So, I’ve been let go from a job because I’m out there.  But the problem is that I’m out there no matter what I see or no matter who, or no matter what… mood is such a trite way to talk about it, but no matter what place I’m at and so if I’m happy, everyone’s happy because it’s a contagious happy.  If I’m down it’s like contagiously down.  So I can see in your situation, or your instance where, if someone has run afoul of Elliot Christenson then everyone knows there was a foul in this, you know what I mean.  I don’t know if that’s confrontational or just being all the way transparent.  I don’t k know that some people can handle all the transparency.  They’ll take that one piece or that one slice of the pie of your day or of your you and they’ll say this defines who Elliot is or this defines who Scott Eastman is.  That’s a horrible thing you’re missing, to your percentage, 98 percent of the pie.  And a lot of it is really good especially with some ice cream and you’re taking this one small piece and saying this defines everything Elliot is, everything that Elliot’s done or everything Elliot will ever do is defined by this 2 percent, that’s not even, you’re an idiot.  I’m not pointing at Elliot saying he’s an idiot.   Actually you just did.  Is this one of those circumstances where I’m supposed to get confrontational?    It’s a situation, in business or in life where people are missing out because they are just, they don’t want to deal with the humanity of business or they don’t want to deal with the humanity of a situation they just want to say this is how this makes me feel, this is how I’m seeing this, this is where I’m stopping, I’m not going to listen any more, I’m not going to consider any more, this is the piece I’m taking from it and this defines it for me.  And that’s a horrible misjudgment I think. Yeah, so I’ve had my feeling hurt a little bit over the last couple months  But the thing about it, when you come across the way you come across, that guy doesn’t have feelings anyway.  So if you can be caustic and you can be caustic, so people are like he like a robot, feelings if he had feelings he wouldn’t say some of the things he says.  That’s not where you’re coming from at all.  And so, it’s a hard place, it’s a hard place to be.   I have poor inaction.  I have poor inadequacy.  I want to be a team player, I want to give people the tools to improve themselves and to improve whatever we’re talking about you know what I mean, typically this stuff has to do with downtown, right.  I like to give people the tools that they can use to improve thing.  So whether that’s volunteers, the whole bench thing, or paid staff, you know I want to amplify whatever they are able to do. Sure. I tell you one thing I have no patience for is when, or when someone says, well such and such organization has a full time staff person dedicated to whatever that thing is and as an excuse to why something doesn’t get done. No that’s maybe an excuse to not do it to that level but not an excuse to not do it at all, whatever those X is.  So I’ve had some people disagree with some of that.  And that’s okay that’s not personal to me.  It hurts my feelings that some people are making that personal.  So, to wrap that up, you have made me laugh, number wise, more than anybody in the last month.   That’s awesome.  Absolutely, I think I laughed for an entire day.   That’s awesome. It was awesome.  I think you know that I needed that and I did, I totally needed that. So, ah unless you have more to say on that.   No my last thought on that is that, I believe, and listen it’s been seven years for the business so it’s not like I’m like it’s been 30 years ra ra ra… but I believe it takes a strong person to be in business for yourself.  And so you have to be super strong in one area at least to make it happen.  It often helps if you got a partner, whether that’s a spouse or a straight up business partner or whatever that can complement your strengths so maybe you’ve got two strengths to make it happen.  But the problem is that that strength can come across to other people as, as you say confrontational or as demanding or as unmovable  All sorts of things, arrogance, you have to try to balance all that stuff and change your approach with different people.  You know I do the best I can and you do the best you can, and sometimes I screw up. Yeah it’s funny, just the other day I made a post, a lot of people joke, my friend Mike Pollatz one of them, The Pollatz, founded independent printing his dad founded it and he ran it for a long time.  Now its part of some corporate something, so he’s retired now and he’s been a great friend to me and a man nd certainly a great business mentor.  But, where was I headed oh, posting on Facebook  because I… he makes fun of me…because I live my life on Facebook   

Justin Laser joins Elliot in the studio to talk Milwaukee area education, gaming and more!

Transcript So, our audience can’t hear that track, but I put the call out a few episodes back that I needed more music and I have, everybody knows Max. Maximus Troy on Facebook, you can go on Facebook. Corvo Well, he has his mythical persona too. So I have Max on [Unintelligible] Corvo. So I have to call you Corvo now? No. Or that’s your stage name? Yes. Corvo? Yes. So, my guest for the day is going to be Justin, my brother. But I wanted Max to talk about, just a little, briefly about his music there. Yeah, well, obviously you heard it wasn’t very good [Laughs]. Oh, no, I thought It was awesome, that’s why we played it. Everybody liked it. So, what’s the background on it? And I’m gonna have Justin talk about it a little bit too. I just made it on Garage Band. That’s not really anybody playing an instrument or anything, like… But you did some of the instruments? Well, in one of my other songs, I did some Ukulele, wasn’t very good. No, but I mean, like you did the Garage Band and the instruments, manually though, did you? Right. Yeah. So that’s an instrument. But I also did the loops. Sure, so does everybody. Yeah, everyone uses loops. So, our audience is saying: “Don’t have Justin at all, just have Max.” Oh, well… Yeah. OK, did you say yeah? So, ok, but this particular song what was it called? What’s the name of that song called? Well, that was “Fist Full of Caps” and if you play “Follow” then you’ll probably know what that’s referencing. Nice, ok, ‘cause I had no idea. Yeah. Caps is.. Your uncle knew, but… Caps is a currency, in like, they’re bottle caps. So, it’s “Fist Full of Caps!?” exclamation point, question mark? Yes. So, it’s like a question? Yes, ‘cause it’s like weird; they use caps as money. They use bottle caps as money. Cool. It’s weird. That’s awesome. Awesome. Yeah. So, let’s hand this over to Justin. Hold on, hold on. You have some more, yeah? You have some more songs coming up, that are gonna…I’m gonna play another one. Yeah. By another artist at the end of the show? Yeah. But then we have some other songs in upcoming shows that people can look forward to, right? Yeah. Awesome. I believe “Trail of Paradise” and there’s one other song that I can’t remember what it’s called. I’ll get it later. That’s OK. We’ll figure it out. No, I think I can figure it out. It’s very important.So…So, it’s this one, right? “Brink of the Nun” “Brink of Dawn.” Yeah. And which one did you play the ukulele on? I think it was “Trail of Paradise” my favorite when. Yeah. Well you’re a great singer and I can’t wait for you to get produced by your cousin Jordan. That’ll be awesome. Yeah. For a real album, right? Yeah. So look forward to “Light a Rocket”, “Brink of Dawn” and “Trail of Paradise” Nice. OK. Thanks Max. So then we had, Tricia wanted to say one more thing since I cut her short last time. She was… Well figured She was offended that I didn’t ask her the question that I ask everybody else, which is: “When you come back to co-host”, which in my defense you did say you were moving to Indy so I just thought maybe you wouldn’t be able to.. But I said I’m keeping my office. But, right, right. There’s all that extra stuff that I didn’t actually know, so. So anyways… You don’t listen because you’re my friend. So, fire away. I know you have a few people you wanted to bring back, so give me a couple of names. OK. Well the person I want to co-host with the most would be John Maino. Him and I have done some shows together, he’s asked me to, and we have done some events together and he is just a wealth of knowledge and he is a fun guy and he gives so much to the community for the vets and that’s just my person. Yeah, he’s a good guy though. So, I’m putting a shout out to him. Almost like when we did the challenge, the bucket The ice bucket challenge? Yeah. I’m putting a challenge out right now: John Maino I want you to be on this podcast: “Ideas By Elliot.” Thank you. OK. So if you tag him on Facebook or something you gotta make sure to tag the right episode, so this is gonna be, right? I got it.OK. Thanks Elliot my tech person. OK, thanks Tricia my Law person. [Laughs] Peace out. Bye Nick. See you later. OK, so we got all of our special guests out of the way now we can come to the main event, which is, you might not know, but he’s my brother, he’s name is Justin, but his…go ahead. Hey, how’s it going? And, so, first thing we’re gonna do is: what’s your full name Justin? Oh, it’s Justin James Laser. So, tell me about your name. Oh, my name? Well… What is up with that? Yeah. Well, I switched my last name right after I got married and part of it is my name used to be Justin Christenson and then it got shortened to like J-Christ and things like that and I just really didn’t like it and it didn’t really fit me, it’s not my style and then I talked about switching it and a number of different names came by that we thought about switching to and my wife and I both came to Laser and we both liked that, so that’s why it became Laser. So, it’s not your style. So, like when you’re up on stage, you know, you want people to be showing “Laser, Laser, Laser,Laser”? Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. What is it that you do that you’re up on stage? Oh, I’m not up on stage. [Laughs] I was just about to say this Beam Major Laser. [Laughs] Are you in the military by chance? It would have been cool to switch it; you know my first name and middle name, as well. Yeah. It could have been like Sonic Laser [Laughs] But I didn’t want to switch the middle name as well, so. It was a bit too much. OK. So what is it that you do? Like this is what guys talk about, right? You introduce yourself, you’re like: “I am Justin” and “I’m blah” and “I’m Nick, and I produce awesome podcasts”, and “I’m Elliot and I sand the beach and wear my sunglasses at inappropriate times.” So what is it that you do? So that’s all that you do is sit on the beach? No, we don’t have a beach. We’re working on it. Working on it, yeah. I’ve been to some other beaches, went to Sheboygan. Yeah. Went to Michigan. No, I don’t hang out on the beach all the time. But, what is it that you do? Well, right now I’m a courier for FedEx. That’s a pretty recent job that I’ve gotten. But I went to school for is… So, it’s very important that people have the right last name when you’re delivering packages. Yeah. Actually, they don’t even see your name. Right. This is my point. Well. [Laughs] You know, I think that air is important sometimes. Right. It adds atmosphere. I added a lot of atmosphere there. So, yeah, I’m making fun of you a lot. Yeah, cause… You are my brother and that’s whatever. So, but what is it that you did before that? Oh, I was teaching at a charter school earlier. Yeah, so talk about that. Charter schools. Yeah. So, at the beginning of last year’s school year I found about this teaching job, I teach Social Studies, so it’s always been tough getting a position teaching Social Studies and I teach either the middle school or high school level, so this is at the middle school level and it was eighth graders, and it was great. It was U.S. History, I thought: “Well, this is going to be wonderful.” Ended up getting the job and the school started off under that: “Well yeah, there’s some rough kids from inner city Milwaukee area” and yeah it was a pain ‘cause I had to move down to Milwaukee to teach, but I thought: “Well, you know but, you know, you do things correctly and the kids will fall in line” and, yeah, things started swinging at you, throwing things at you, they swear all the time and it got pretty rough. So, it was rough. Yeah.It was really rough. And then when you come to the administration and say: “Hey, listen, it’s just unacceptable behavior” and they say: “Well, you just have to deal with it. We’re not going to do anything to the kids.” Yeah, so this was a charter school with Milwaukee Public School District, right? Yeah, it was. So, you know, it’s widely recognized, I think, I don’t think I’m talking out of turn, Milwaukee doesn’t have one of the best school districts in the world or in the country, right? Yeah. And I had no illusions that the kids would be wonderful kids, but well, we’re still gonna hold the line, you know, what’s appropriate, right? So, I know you’ve told me some of the stories about that, why don’t you share some of the stories. Yeah, I mean, during the first week a kid tried to punch me in the face, right, in the first week. So, and I knew it would be pretty rough, but I thought: “Well, a kid like that, they’ll discipline them, something’ll happen.” Absolutely… You were hitting on his girlfriend, right? No, I actually I think, if I recall correctly, I asked him if he could sit down. Interesting. And you were a teacher? Yeah. And this was a student? Yeap. OK. Yeah, so he took a swing at me and…But you know there was the very situations like that; I was tackled once by one of the kids and then he was put right back into class the very next hour. As if nothing happened. So, yeah, it was pretty frustrating to deal with those situations, but generally, you know, they’re kids, they’re not just evil people trying to do bad things, so, on a day to day basis, they weren’t trying to do bad things, they just kind of did whatever they wanted Yeah. And you had to try to control that and keep them in line, and it was difficult at time and you had to have a lot of patience, but… But you had no authority and there were no consequences. No, there were no consequences. So, Trisha was talking about Tom Brady and you know he’s got his quarterback job and he has the NFL and he broke the rules and there were some consequences for that, and you know, this is a professional at the top of his game, top of his career and this is a guy who’s earned some of his notoriety and some of his, you know, he’s earned some breaks potentially, right? So why do you suppose it is that there’s no consequences? I, mean, without consequences I don’t even know why you bother having the role. I don’t, I mean, you have to have consequences and you have to stick firm to them, so…but, when kids do things, there would always be idle threats, but the kids would see right through them ‘cause they would see that nothing would happen. So, you gave me a slow starter about walking on the pole. Let me think. I don’t remember the whole story either. I was hoping you’d remember. [Laughs] It’s something about, like you’d ask the kids to… Oh, they’re supposed to walk in a single file line down the hall, and stay down the right, and they had no “what happens if they don’t do it?” Right. But then some of the kids didn’t call you out on that one? Yeah, and I mean, obviously it disappoints me. And you could tell them that, but they don’t, you know, they don’t care if you… From some extent you seen that they’re used to disappointing people, so that doesn’t make a big difference to them either. Not that they want to disappoint, but yeah, they were no real, they wouldn’t get, nothing would happen to them. I think the worse was if they were swearing, we brought it forward to the administration, and hey, if they’re swearing, you should be doing something about that, and they said: “We’re not going to do anything about swearing. They just do it too much. There’s nothing we can do to curve that.” And after that, one of the other, one of the special ed ladies that was working in the building, she quit after that ‘cause she just couldn’t take it. So, yeah, I was wondering about that because you’re bleeding her liberal. So I don’t think, that’s not a slam I’m just saying you’re of your own one in politically , or maybe towards the middle, but there are people who are on the other end politically: “Do we want to completely disenfranchise a wide array of viewpoints as teachers?” ‘Cause there are people that’ll be like: “This is off the charts insane”, and they might use stronger language than that even, and, you know, what do you do about that? Because then it becomes an eco-chamber of, you know, only teachers who are like: “Well, I’m gonna stick to this no matter what. I think these kids deserve...they have a right to an education”, you know, that mentally, right? ‘Cause that’s the whole thing: they don’t want to kick the kids out, ‘cause what do they do then? There’s a dollar value associated with each kid. Oh, tell me about that. Yeah. So, and I don’t know the exact dollar value, but each kid, you know, a kid could so many things wrong and it’d be obvious that we just don’t have the staff on hand to be able to handle a kid with that many problems, but they’d still want to keep the kid in some fashion because there’s a dollar value associated with them, and if you don’t have enough kids there, we don’t have enough money coming in and they can’t run the school. So, from some stand point that’s a business decision, but at another stand point you’re recognizing the education of all the other kids that do want to learn, and there were many of them that did want to learn and were good students, so I don’t want to paint a bad picture on all of them. But it makes it really difficult for, let’s say it’s 80% that are good, if 20% are vocally horrible, you know, they’re horribly bad, and I feel very strongly if you kicked out just a fraction of those and show that there are some consequences I think that would curve some of that. I completely agree. Yeah. So, what did you do about that? Well, to be fair, the ones that were the worst offenders, the things that were illegal like: brought drugs to school, brought other people into the building that they let into the building to beat up and fight other people, when they pulled acts like that they were removed from the school, so to be fair when they did things that were completely illegal or completely dangerous. So what happened to them then? They would remove them then. So, they would remove them for how long? They would expel them from the school. OK. Well, that’s good. And you need to show that. There were a couple, but those were really extreme situations and that’s what you’d expect. So, I could be completely wrong, but the whole time I was in school I don’t recall any of that, at all. You didn’t have fights every week? No, when I was in high school I don’t recall there ever being fights on school grounds that weren’t just immediately, like, broken up. Oh, I agree. Like, because before it would even become an issue, no teacher would ever be touched at all. I remember a girl in middle school said something to a teacher and she was out, she was suspended for, I don’t know, a few days anyways, something like that, right? Yeah. Me and you would expect a pretty harsh reaction, you know. And that was just words, and it wasn’t, there were no f-bombs, it wasn’t even really, really strong language and that sticks out of my memory. Like that was such a, not traumatic, but it was a big thing. So, I don’t know. I know that I have a lot of friends who are, they would claim, pro-education and I think that paints people who have a different view as being anti-education. I don’t really think that anybody is really anti-education. No, I don’t think so either. I think that there are some people who see some of these problems and they have different approaches to how we should’ve fixed those things. So, you know you have the typical person, Scott Walker, that gets painted as a villain in education I think a lot, and then you have people on the other end that want to do nothing and are like: ‘They’re just kids. They deserve an education.” Well, I don’t know if that’s the case, this was a charter school and Scott Walker promotes charter schools, so I don’t know if you would want it to be run that way or not, I don’t know. You think you would..? I don’t know. I don’t think he would, I don’t anybody would want it to be that way, but the system that was created encouraged running the school that way. So, because of the incentives that…the cost incentives? Yeah. The cost incentive without enough incentives to create a meaningful learning environment versus just trying to pack kids in, even if you can’t handle them. Yeah. I’ll cut to the chase a little bit. So, what happened to that school? Well, it did close down, but not because they didn’t teach kids; because of financial reasons. So, I think they could have been, that situation could have been improved if they would have taken out some of the bad seeds. I mean, that’s probably oversimplifying it a little bit, but I think that, anyway I feel like that those are some little stories to share about that I don’t think a lot of people realize how bad some of our schools are, and that’s probably not the worst school in the district. I kind of question that myself: “Could this be the worst?” I don’t know, but what are the odds that it’s the worst, that wouldn’t even make sense, like I randomly ended up in the worst school; and I don’t think it is. And there were some days that went fine. Yeah. But you’re in, like what I consider to be a nicer part of Milwaukee. Yeah, it was. You were right in the border of Milwaukee and Brown Deer, which is where you lived for a while. Yeah, and that area is pretty nice. Brown Deer is very nice. Brown Deer, Menominee Falls, that whole area is, yeah. I liked it. Now, a lot of the kids came from the inner city area, they’re all bussed up, so, quite a distance, actually. Sure. And it’s probably to their benefit, to get them to a nicer area to go to school, safer area. You think that that helped at all? Yeah, I think that that helped protect those kids from the things around them. Yeah. So at least they had a little island of escape. Yeah. Yeah. Nice So. OK. And the kids felt safe. You could tell. They felt much safer being at school than they, and they’d say that, than they do most of the time. Yeah. So, it was a safe place for them. Right. Right. So, why aren’t you teaching now? Oh, I didn’t get another teaching job right away. Afterward the school shut down I didn’t know it was going to shut down, we didn’t get much notice, and I just, sort of, came across another job randomly because of a friend right afterwards, so, at FedEx.That was really pretty handy to pick up another job right when you were left off like nothing had happen, especially when we got about a week’s notice that the school was going to close, so otherwise I would have just been unemployed for a while. So, I hear that a lot from teachers that it’s hard to get a job. Well, in certain areas. OK, so why? Why is that? We created too many teachers. I mean, that’s long in charge of that. OK, so, this becomes sort of circular logic, but I hear at times, I saw on Facebook a comment on the “Stadium Tax”, Stadiums will pay for when there’s some extra money left over, very first thing was “Put it into education.” So, if you over-simplify that, everyone would agree with that sentiment, right, I think that almost everybody is pro-education, they might not be pro-spending on education, I think that some of these stories bring to light some of the reasons why some of them might feel that way, but I know when Ben was going to college there was extra money put aside if you would promise to go teach in an inner city for, I think, two years, something like that. Oh, Ok. So, he was able to, if he wanted to, go for education to get extra money; so, I mean, we as a State, as a society, whatever, we’re putting money in to education, at the college level even, to foster more and better teachers, I guess. So, like, what do you think we should do? I mean, plenty can be spent on education, if that’s a good thing, it’s just the way you go about spending it. In what way though? When you’re talking about there being an excess of teachers for a certain area part of that is just class sizes are very large. When you have classes that are very large you have people sitting on the side with no jobs and you could be spending the extra money to have them teaching kids and most studies will show you that the smaller the class size, the student to teacher ratio, that’s always a benefit to have that as close as possible to fewer students per teacher. So, are class sizes larger than they used to be? Yeah. Yeah, they are. Yeap. So, why do you suppose that happened? Do you want to spend more money on it, you could have more… But, we’re spending more money than we ever had on education. Well, part of that is inflation, like in the Green Bay’s school district we’re not spending a ton of more, but down Milwaukee they are. Right. So, they’re spending a lot more. So, how do you answer that? How do you address that? I don’t where all that money is going down there, it’s pretty terrible. They spend a lot more per student in Milwaukee than Green Bay ever has. So those are the criticism on the other side, right? It’s neither to say that we need to spend more money, right? Yeah. But, I don’t see that working. Yeah, I don’t see that working either. And there’s… And I see a good teacher in front of me, without a teaching job. Yeah. Well, down there there’s a fundamental problem with other things. I mean, you could have the best teacher in the world in a classroom, but if the kids have a really poor upbringing, you’re not… But you’ve lived here your whole life, why don’t you have a teaching job here? Oh, here? Well, there haven’t been a lot of openings here. Why not? I think a lot of Social Studies teachers are hanging on to their jobs until they’re to the better end. Until the better end…But they’re so under paid. Aren’t they anxious to get out of it? But they’re passionate about their career. So, it’s all passion you think ok? I mean, I don’t know. You could understand why someone could be cynical about that. Yeah. No, I agree. So, they get paid so poorly but they’re gonna hang on to their job. They get paid so poorly, but there’s a waiting list to become a teacher. Yeah. I struggle with that, when I hear that we need to spend more on education. I’m like: “We have a waiting list of teachers.” Well, my reference again is to spend more, to have more teachers, not to just pay them more. Sure. But why don’t we do that? I think we should, I actually think that if you have a really great teacher and you have a classroom of 30 kids and if you could hire two reasonable teachers and have fifteen kids each that would probably be a better outcome for the kids and, I mean, they’d have more interaction on that student-to-teacher ratio, and you’d also be employing twice as many people. So, I’ve told you my theories on education, right? Where I think things are going to go where things should go. Yeah. Technology should take over. Well, yeah. I think that’ll happen in a lot of areas. So, I think, third world countries like wherever, Africa or like India even, there not really third world, but whatever, the developing world, right? They can get iPads and cheaper technology, cheap. They can get, even if they drop on the most expensive iPad, that’s going to be about a thousand bucks, even there, a teacher is going to cost more than that, and that’s just in year one, you know? So, I feel like they, you know, you can get the best educators to produce some videos and you can throw numbers at that, you know? You can’t tell me that an average Social Studies teacher can be whatever in any school district, I’m not going pick on Green Bay or Milwaukee, but anywhere is better than one of the ten best. No, one of the things you’re getting at though is if you put a computer or some video screen in front of the kids and they’re going to watch videos, and they’re going to do the activities on their own, you’re really talking about that the best kids that are going to thrive in that environment are the ones who have self-motivation, their own drive. And I think a lot of kids would… So, I think then, you would I have to change the focus. Yeah. And you have to adjust that. But I will tell you that anecdotally, Max and most of his friends will sit and watch YouTube for a hundred hours straight if they could. So, like watching videos and taking some tests, I think, online, getting through the program that way, and then using school like more like people talk about you need the social thing, I’m not saying delete the schools, I’m saying we could spend the money a lot better and not necessarily have large class sizes, but you know, we could accommodate that as we have it and be more effective. We could just have social activities for kids. Social activities, but allow them to ask questions. Like that’s the time to get some help, to get some hands on help; but the teaching, like standing up in front of the class, demanding respect and silence, and, I feel like, the case of the charter school, I feel like, because of the disruptions caused by that 20%, I fell that 80% aren’t even getting a below average presentation given to them, whereas, they could go home and get it on their iPad and it’d be great. To be fair, you’re talking about a video or presentation, and a lot of times you’re not even doing that anyway, you’re doing activities. OK. Especially in middle school, and younger kids you have a lot of activities that involve them, hands on learning, they did great into it. OK. So, they can kind of sink their teeth into it and that’s a little bit different you got to prepare the activity for them, and if you just have them watch a video, the video could give them the instructions to that activity, but they might have questions and a lot of kids have a lot of questions about how to do things, so, depends on the nature of the teaching. So, the thing that people get hung up on, the same thing with self-driving vehicles, right? They get hung up on, well that’s, they think about today’s technology applied to classrooms the way they are now; and I’m saying that we can shift faster than we are but we don’t have to take, you know, yesterday’s technology and utilize that in the present day classroom, things should change. The interaction with teachers should be a little more natural, a little more the way that it is in business, like, you know, teachers should be able to text their… teachers and students should be able to text each other in the school, out of the school and out like we do in the work place. There’s a lot of systems to communicate in and out of school; but as far as using technology, having it replace teachers. No, I don’t think…I’m not advocating that and I don’t think anybody would allow that to happen, but I think that we could make better use of the resources that we’re already utilizing; and I know, you have anything else to say about that? Yeah, I mean, there’s some schools that are called “Google Schools” and I went to a program about that and all the kids have their computer with them and they take it with them to every class, and they take it home with them and they can communicate all the time with the teacher through that system and they can do all their assignments, all their homework, right through the Google classroom system, and it’s really nice. They don’t have all their textbooks to lug around with them and they can communicate back and forth with the teacher and a lot of it is still self-paced learning, that they can do extra activities on their own if they’re ahead or if they’re struggling they can do different activities right through that entire same system. So it’s really great, and you still need somebody monitoring that, and that’s where I think the teacher might be more of a monitor or a task master… And I get you were in a Milwaukee district were a lot of the parents were hands off, do you know that I want to be more hands on, we just don’t always know how, and every year we go to the conferences and talk a little bit about this with the teachers, but I feel like they’re not understanding what I’m saying, you know, I’m like: “Max wants or needs more help. He needs more practice in Math,” and I’m not the teacher, so I’m not following the curriculum, the daily curriculum, like the teacher is,”I would like some guidance on how we can best augment that, and best work as a team on improving Max’s Math skills”, for instance, right? And I’ve had you help, like, I don’t know, maybe he needs some tutoring and I think he really needs just more practice and… I’m surprised they wouldn’t be able to give you more practice assignments for him to do. Yeah. It’s always a struggle, and then it’s always optional, it’s like worksheets, and I’m like: “I just need something that I can keep track of” Yeah. That’s why I love Kahn Academy. I think that, I feel like they have teacher resources, you log in, you can track it, no: “Oh Max did only three videos today” and you can do any of the practice stuff, so, like that, for me, that, I feel like, for me and a kid like Max, I feel like, for learning Math at least, maybe not everything, but for learning Math, it’s pretty awesome, pretty great. No, it is; and, I mean, but again, you’re going to be there kind of monitoring watching him, checking up on him, ‘cause you can put all the best tools in front of anybody and if they just sit there and don’t do them. Right. You know, that’s true? Yeah. And I think more and more those tools will be involved in education and teaching, I just think, we probably have an older generation of teachers that are still out there and they’re going to do things the ways they’ve always done ‘em and they’re argument will always be the same: “Hey all the last kids learned with this.” But yeah, I’ve always try to incorporate technology in the classroom, as much as I’ve had available. So, I don’t want to spend the whole hour blabbing about [unintelligible] We could talk about [unintelligible] Well, you know I could. So, I’m super passionate about that. You went to…spent your life in college, you know, putting your life into education, you know, I know we both care deeply about education. So, I’m just going to change topics real quick and then I want to do our “Thank Camera Corner Studios” spot. So give the few minutes intro to Justin Laser. So, a little bit about me. So, primarily lived in Green Bay all my life, so I was born in Green Bay, lived here for many years and then I went to school at UW Oshkosh and when I finished school… UW-Zero. UW-Zero or UW-Oshkosh, however you want to call it; and great school, by the way. No, it is actually. Yeah. For education and computer science they, it’s considered one of the top. Yeah. It’s really great. And probably other things too, I just know those. Nursing too is big there. Yeah. So then, went to…ended up living in Menominee for a while and I taught, actually, in Michigan technically, cause it was the Menominee High School, so I taught there for one year and I did some subbing in the area, a bunch of subbing, at the Menominee high schools in the area, and then I ended up working doing the corporate gig, you know, I ended up getting a job at Shopko for a while and then I worked for Humana for a while, but I always wanted to get back to teaching or education roles and I tried to get into more educational roles at those companies, especially at Humana when I was there, but nothing really came up, so then, when I did find out about this teaching position, I was really excited. I know you were. And I knew it’ll be a challenge, it’ll be a struggle, boy and the school was closed. That’s frustrating. Yeah, absolutely. You know, as much as a challenge it was, you know we were trying to make strides to make things better. So, yeah it kind of left me hanging. Do not shake. I just got handed my beverage from Gina. Yeah. I’ve never seen that doing it. I think one is for you and one is for me. You wanna pick? Yeah, I’m fine either way. I think they’re both for you. Well, I was…Thank you. I’m gonna use them both. [Laughs] You can have my empty water bottle. Ok. So, I’m sorry. OK, so I think you were in Fond du Lac for a little bit too. Well, that’s where I did student teaching. So, that’s right ‘cause you were in Oshkosh [unintelligible]. So was it in Fond du Lad and in Marinette or Menominee that you had me come in and talk to the students. No, that was when I was doing student teaching in Fond du Lac. Fond du Lac. I don’t remember, if it was, ‘cause I know I went up and maybe met you at the school once in Menominee, I don’t remember. You might have, I don’t know. This one Fond du Lac was kind like callous. Yeah, it was a massive school. I remember that. So, that’s where some of the money goes? Yeah, the administration, the building; and a lot of it has to go to that. I mean, you sink money into a building it’s going to last a long time, so, I mean, I understand that. So, you know what? I’ve actually changed my tune on that, ‘cause I remember when we were in high school we had the relos, remember those? Yeah. I don’t know if they got rid of those before you were there or not, they were like trailers and they leaked and, you know, it was horrible. You still learned. Well, we did still learn. So, I have mixed feelings on that. However, I do sort of subscribe, you know, ‘cause I’ve been involved in Downtown and some historical renovations and all, you know, and retaining character, and one thing that kind of stuck out in my mind, a couple of things. There’s the ‘broken window theory’, that Rudy Giuliani subscribed to in New York City, kind of don’t know how I feel about that and that’s the idea where you take care of things to such a micro level that things that crime doesn’t happen it’s kind of where it came from. So they would prosecute people for, you know, cleaning windshields in the roads when they’re not supposed to, things like that, right? And the idea is if a building has broken windows nobody’s going to care if anything else goes wrong, they’re not going to care about crime, all that stuff; and, I can see that point, but also, on sort of the, taking that to a different extreme, people talked about if you’d spend the extra money to build a good building that you know is going to last, it’s worth maintaining, you know, if you build a crappy building, you know; and you see that, you see that actually happen. It’s really inexpensive to go out to an industrial park or a suburb and build a whole building and some of those are not really well maintained and then you have a building even like this one that we’re in right now, the Camera Corner Studios, and the walls are concrete and they’re sort of non-descript, but it’s very functional and it works well and they end up being maintained. I think a big part of the reason for this studio even being here is because we wanted to reload, not we, but Camera Corner, wanted to reutilize the building rather than tear it down for a parking, you know, they purchased the property, I think for parking, I don’t know, Nick can correct some of that if I’m wrong. Yeah, pretty much. Yeah, so, it’d be a shame to tear this down ‘cause it’s a very…for what you have here, this is a perfect use for this as a studio. Yeah, it’s very nice. So, Nick has talked about this in the past and I talked a little bit about it, but I thought it was really interesting last time when I had Tricia talk about some of the facilities here, ‘cause I kind of want to get your quick take on it. Yeah, I mean, it’s really nice, it’s easy to use. Nick helped to take care of everything, actually he took care of everything for us, so that made it even easier and everything is real comfortable and it’s set up really well and I think if you don’t know how to use a lot of the equipment, like I look over and I see things that I don’t even have a clue what they are. That just lets you plug in microphone’s, that’s all I think. You know it’s a lot of microphones. You know, Nick, people that are experts in a certain field they tend to discount their own level of knowledge. I remember a thing, I feel like I maybe told you about this, I’ve said this before, this anecdote that sticks in my head. Eddie Van Halen was talking about: “Playing guitar is not like brain surgery”, and then a brain surgeon said “You teach me how to play guitar like that and I will give you brain surgery lessons.” So having expertise and being a professional at something, that is hugely valuable. Yeah. And that’s why we’ve structured the studio in a way that you build it around what you need, so maybe you’re shooting a video and you already own the camera, but you’re not familiar with lighting and green screen, so we have the screen, we have the lights and if you want someone help you with it, we have technicians available, you know, I’m one of them, but there’s also Dan and a few other guys at the store that can help out, but… So that’s something that we really haven’t touched that much, is the expertise is invaluable. You have this, whatever you want to call it, deep bench, so you have you, and I assume Dan is almost at your level. Oh, yeah. Dan actually comes to us from WLUK- Channel 11. Oh, OK. So he has a lot of broadcast television experience. He still works Packers Family Night, you know, so he’s… So, I was selling him short? So he’s right…he’s…. Yeah, and honestly, I’m the guy who picked this up in the field working as I went. But ultimately that’s what everybody really does. Yeah, you know, when I do my show I’ll talk about how you can learn things in college, but you really don’t know anything until you get a job. True that. True that. Especially if you go to UW-Zero. Ohh. Well, I mean, until you’re in the trenches, yeah. So, but that deep bench is hugely valuable, and that’s something that we really haven’t talked about, like you have, I don’t know, there’s 120 people over there, maybe more. The last count I think was 165. Yeah. And obviously all those people aren’t going to be audio-video professionals, but all of them can help. You have a huge wealth of knowledge, like that’s, I don’t think that you’re going to find that anywhere. You’re not going to find that anywhere in this area anyway. Right. So, that’s huge and I feel horrible that we haven’t really talked about that at all. The person out there, and I know a handful of the people there, but one thing that is true of every person that’s ever been there, as a whatever, an outsider, everyone there has always been, everyone at Camera Corner has always been professional, they’ve been kind, when they’re not knowledgeable they will try to seek out the knowledge, and I’m probably the worst possible customer that they could ever have, right? So, but they’re always accommodating, I’ve dealt with John I think, he deals with the Apple stuff. Amazing. Like, he’s actually genius, you know contrary to what Tricia said about me, an actual Apple genius. Well, he goes to the genius classes, you know? We send him. And that’s one of the things about Camera Corner in general, is that, all of the vendors that we work with have certain education requirement, so we get training from Extron on Crestron, Apple, HP, Nikon, Canon, they’re here all the time, and one of the things we work on doing and that I’m working on focusing more with the studio is the education side of it, so we have an area in the studio that is designed to be a classroom for eight to sixteen students, and coming soon, I don’t have anything on the calendar yet, but coming soon we’re going to have classes that are actually going to teach how to do more of your own video and audio production. We should collaborate and put out a class. Sure. Like for real. I mean, we have a teacher right there. We should figure… We do! Yeah, instructional technology. Well played. No, I think we should think about that. So, I don’t want to use up all of our stuff. No, you’re good. I mean, like I said, the studio is here and it’s available for pretty much everything you could need. We have audio recording capabilities, we have video recording capabilities, we have photography capabilities, and all of these can be combined into multimedia, and even if you want it we can do live internet broadcast or a live to tape and take that to a local station or cable provider, so lots of opportunities for you at the studio for you if want to learn more about it, feel free to reach out to me. You can get me, or anyone on my team, at rentals@cccp.com or you could also calls us at 920-272-0148 Awesome, you’re the best. Thanks. So, I always joke, and Tricia has my Elliotisms, I always joke that it’s your show, I always try to say, which by the way I have to give credit to where I stole that in a second, but really it Nick’s show, he does everything. He does the whole job. Yeah. We really did just sit down and go at it. Like, I told him that I finally got it on iTunes and I think he was a little disappointed ‘cause it took me a few weeks to even do it and then it took a week for Apple to approve it. Well, I will be honest, when we got to recording like episode 5, if I haven’t seen episode 0 out yet. It took more than a week to get on iTunes. That’s no joke. And I think that they’re doing that on purpose, I think they’re trying to keep podcast from kind of, I think they’re trying to keep the quality up, like they would say. Probably. Yeah. It’s interesting. And I should say where I totally stole the “It’s your show” thing. There’s a great podcast that I recommend to everybody it’s called “Back to Work”. I don’t know if you’ve heard that. Yeah. So, Nick has heard that. Justin probably hasn’t… Well, I don’t listen to a lot of podcasts. Well, you’re not working right now; we’re going to touch on that. Oh, that’s true. But it’s very much about productivity, so they joke about it, partly I think because the two main guys, there’s Dan Benjamin, who owns the podcast network and then there’s Merlin Mann, who’s a well-known Apple enthusiast and a well-known productivity guru, and he actually came up with the term “Inbox Zero”, which means “clear out your email inbox and don’t let email run your life. And that’s where he got sort of his notoriety from, but he’s so well-known he could probably go off and do a show on his own, I think that’s what they’re joking about when they say ”It’s your show” and they actually banter back and forth about that. So I totally stole that, and I think it’s awesome that anybody thinks that that’s a funny thing to say, because I think it’s hilarious every time they say it, because there’s just this emotion that you get that you don’t know. I think that they have a good working relationship and I’m like: “I don’t know. Maybe Merlin’s going to run away.” I don’t know. It’s really strange. So, what I wanted to touch on, Justin, is you’re not working right now, what happened? I got into a little bit of an accident right in my scooter and I busted my toe. Hit a big puddle, flipped over, skidded into it and the scooter landed right in my foot and it was pretty bad, but I mean, overall it could have been a lot worse, I was wearing my helmet I had my gloves on, things like that and I didn’t sustain any life-threatening injuries or anything like that, but I got banged up pretty well. So, it’s really frustrating, the medical system, how slow it works, like I could tell I’m in pain, I have to go in, go have a doctor tell me that: “No, you won’t be able to work,” like I know I won’t be able to work, so, I can tell. But see, that’s one of those rules that could be abused otherwise. Yeah. The outcome is quite [unintelligible]. Yeah, and just the cost of it all.It’s pretty frustrating. But, else is there to do? So, the only reason that I care about that, not really, I mean, I care that you’re in pain, you’re my brother, but whatever is right, but I am thrilled that I got to have you in here, because… Yeah. Normally I’d be working, and for the last year… You’ve been in Milwaukee, so I hardly ever see you at all. So, when we first started talking about this, even though I knew you were coming back to Green Bay, I knew you’d have a new job, you’re moving, I though you would be the last of my four brothers that I would get to have on, so you’re the first, I don’t know if you actually realize that. Oh I did realize that. So, which is pretty weird and interesting, ‘cause… Yeah, ‘cause I’m not into the technology aspects like you an some of the others are, so. Well, as I was kind of mentally preparing for today, I was thinking about and I feel like we have so much in common, but yet I few had to itemize the list of things, like there’s, it doesn’t seem like there’s a lot of overlap. So, you know, it’s awesome and I guess I’m just saying, I’m thrilled to have a great relationship with my brothers, I see other families where they’re not like we are. And we all get along pretty well. I think really well. I think really well. I think the number of times where there’ve been disagreements, almost negligible, you know even Erik worked for us for a while; he worked for us and lived with us, and even then there was no real huge anger, we would get into some squabbles about work, but that’s because we both cared about it. Well, we can have different political views and not beat each other up just because sort of: “yeah, that’s your opinion,” “that’s mine” and kind of roll with it and kind of banter back and forth with interesting arguments without having in turn into a like: “I hate you for thinking that way.” Nothing like that. Yeah. I had Ronda as a guest a few weeks ago and , you know, she’s very similar in that regard, where we seek out people who have different points and we want to talk it through, I mean we want to convince ourselves and I think everyone’s not like that. I think some people view the way we are, I’ve had people tell me that, that they feel that I’m confrontational and that’s just because I want to state things the way that I understand them and if it’s different than that then you gotta tell me. Yeah. Yeah. Break that understanding, that minimal understanding that you think you have. But that’s very true. How else are you really supposed to learn? So that’s interesting. So, we don’t have a huge amount of time left so I did want to leave you time to talk about your big event. Yeah. Upcoming event. So I have LaserCon coming up and I’m really excited, this is the third year and I guess I’ll give a little background to it. It’s a mini gaming convention and I thought it up because, I was at a convention with a good friend of mine, and we were playing a board game and I looked around and I said: “You know, there’s only like a handful of people playing board games at this gaming convention.” If you don’t know a lot about gaming conventions one of the biggest is GenCon, so if you need to look up, find out what a gaming convention is. Where is GenCon? GenCon is in Indianapolis. There’s gaming conventions throughout the State much smaller than that though, ok? So when we were at this other gaming convention, real small one, it was actually in Green Bay, and it was so small I said: “Geez this could be at my house. We don’t have to pay an entry fee and pay money to rent some place and things like that. There’s enough room. We can just set up the tables and play games just like we always do and invite a bunch people over. Heck! I could make my own little gaming convention.” So I did, and I have t-shirts for it and the first year we didn’t have a theme to it, but then we’ve going with themes; so, the second year we did a sci-fi space theme and that went over really well, we had a lot of great games that go along those lines. This year it’s going to be sort of a medieval fantasy theme to the games, so a lot of dungeon crawling games and things like that and it’s always a lot of fun seeing what different games people run and I always want enough games going on that, like, there’s multiple games running all the time and it’s been like that. It’s been fun, and it’s invite only, so you got to get invited to it by somebody. So how can you get invited? Well, I invited you, so. Well, I know, but you’re talking to thousands of people right now. Well, like maybe hundreds of thousands. So, everybody that’s been invited in the past gets a free invite to invite someone for the next year. So, it kind of will spread from there. So, how many people can I invite? Well, you, I don’t know if I trust you to invite anybody. When, maybe one, clearing by me first. So, anybody listening to this, how can they get invited? They would have to, I guess they contact me, I mean, ‘cause I’m running it, I can always invite more, so. That limitation’s really to have there as a guideline, so. So how would someone get in touch with you? To get invited? Well, probably the easiest way. If you’re going to talk about this big giant game convention… Well, it’s not giant yet, but it could be, who knows? OK. So tell me more about it and then we’ll talk about how they can get a hold of you. So it’s coming up on September 18th and 19th, and the easiest way is probably to go to Facebook and look up LaserCon 2015. How do you spell LaserCon? Just how it sounds. L-A-S-E-R-C-O-N. All in one word. And throw the 2015 in there, just to specify it, to make sure you get the, ‘cause there’s some other LaserCons out there for other, like there’s one in Australia, they’re for other things though. Like lasers? Yeah. So, laser light shows and things like that. Nick, and I we have a telepathic connection. Yeah, it’s exactly what you think. So, I wasn’t surprised to see that. But this LaserCon is better, ‘cause it’s more fun. OK, so, it’s, you said, the weekend of the … 18th and 19th, yeah. The 18th and the 19th, so Friday and Saturday. Friday and Saturday, yeah. Friday night and Saturday all day. And where is this? It’s actually, until it gets too big to have at the house, it’s going to be at the house. SO, you prefer they go to the Facebook page… Yeah, they can go to the Facebook page and look it up, so. So, it’s LaserCon and if they’re in the area I think Facebook will filter it out so that’s probably the top thing that will come out. Yeah. Well. If it’s not the first thing that comes up when they type in LaserCon, they’re probably not invited. Yeah. Right? Is that fair to say? That is fair to say. But yeah it’s been a lot of fun. I always have a lot of fun creating the t-shirts for it. So, do you want more people to come? You know? It’s kind of a fine line, like I want more people, but they need to be people that want to have fun and game, so. So, game. Yeah. That’s a whole another subject. Yeah. So talk about the game stuff. Real quick. So, like a lot of people think of board games and they think of Risk and Monopoly and think that those are some of the big ones that you might think of, we don’t really play those games, we play other board games that might be more of a Euro-style game or an Ameri-trash style game, which if you don’t know what those are… You’re not invited. Well, no… ‘Cause I don’t…I think that I know what a Euro-style is. I’m thinking that that’s like a Settlers? Yeah. Settlers of Catan is a popular one that would be a Euro-style. But, I wouldn’t know how to describe that genre. There’s more like…Yeah…It’s more of an abstract game that uses tiles and pieces to show an abstract concept and usually you wouldn’t buy victory points in those types of games; and an Ameri-trash game would be something were you just have your own armies, your own pieces and you just overwhelm and crush the other side. So, Risk would be an example of that, but it’s an easier example. There’s a lot more dents or complex versions. So, what’s your favorite game? So my favorite game right now is….So my favorite primarily Euro-style game would be Caverna, it’s a pretty new game that I got. Do they make coffee there? That’s close, it does sound like Kavarna. But Caverna it’s basically like a little building game. You build up your victory points and you try to out maneuver the other players; and it’s a very Euro-style game. And then my favorite Ameri-trash style game, which would be like just pieces and battling and so forth, would be the Axis and Allies 1914 edition, which if you know your history, you know it actually doesn’t make sense: The Axis and Allies 1914? OK. It’s a brand name. But it’s a brand name, yeah. OK, interesting. So those are your two favorites. Yeah. So different than favorites, what’s popular? What are some games, that people hear this, that don’t make it to LaserCon, because either they couldn’t figure out how to get there or they here to it after it happened, what would be some ways they could expose themselves to that culture? If you want to look up anything about the board games that I’m talking about, best place to look is boardgamegeek.com. There’s a lot of great information in, and if you don’t find out right way, whether you’re into these board games or not, you’ll see exactly what I’m talking about, the types of board games. I like to watch this YouTube video by BaseTower and it’s really friendly, really easy to watch videos and I really love their Top 10s and they talk about their favorite types of games, so they’ll talk about a genre of the game and then they’ll go through their Top 10 games of that genre that they really like and I love watching those videos ‘cause they really tell you a lot about those games and then you can tell if you’re going to like that game and that helps give you some information about it and you don’t have to read about it, you could just watch a video, have a good time, and learn about all these board games that you might want to get. So, would you recommend that people go to there’s Gnome Games in town, there’s Chimera in Appleton, I think they’re still around. Yeah. And, I forgot the name of the place in Milwaukee. Well, there’s actually a bunch of them. Well, there’s one right at the Berkshire Mall. Boardgame Barister, I think. Yeah. Max love that’s place Yeah. I mean, if you’re in the Green Bay area Gnome Games will definitely be. So you would recommend those to people? Yeah. You can checkout those games, you can find other players at those places. That’s, those are great examples. By and large still though, Magic the Gathering … That’s still the hugest? Yeah. That’s still the biggest. So, yeah. The cross-section of those two things we talked about, the gaming and the teaching, so if you’re a parent and you want your kids to be learning stuff when they’re doing that , what do you think are some…? I think a lot of the Euro-style games teach a lot of skills to kids. I in fact, when I taught Economics I used Settlers of Catan. I had a bunch of copies of it to show some of the different supply and demand, different vocabulary from Economics, I showed it in the board games. Excellent. So they can learn? Yeah, they can learn tons. And they’re not just learning about it, they’re doing it. Right. So, it’s more meaningful. Right. Awesome. So, almost ready to wrap up. So the thing that I forgot to ask Tricia last night. Yeah. So go ahead, take it from there. Alright, so if I had somebody else on the show that both you and I interviewed? Yeah. OK, just want to make sure that’s clear. So, the trick. You said I can’t pick Erin [//]. So, I haven’t, well I did give him a high-five. Oh you did? So I can’t? I’m not sure if he would remember, so I’m not sure if that counts. I’m sure he wouldn’t remember. Because he had bigger things on his mind. That was a the Super Bowl when they got the Lombardy trophy back I got to touch the trophy and he gave high-fives. So that’s why I doesn’t look the same ever since. Right. What did you do to it? [unintelligible] No, you touched it. So, in a roundabout sort of fashion you could…whatever, he’s on everybody’s wish list, right? OK. OK. So who else would you like to know? In all honesty, our other brother Erik. I think that’d be great because I think that if you and I were interviewing him, you would as all sorts of technical questions because he’s a genius with computers and then I could ask him all sorts of gaming questions, because I know more about gaming than you do and not that you don’t know anything about it, but just I know that he knows a lot, so those would be two areas that we could… Interesting. That’s why I think he would be a good person. So, the trick is I’m not going to have you back ever. OK, that’s fine. I might have you back. But I mean, I might not. If, this is an if. So these are just to invite other people. Ohhh. We’ll see, we’ll see. You don’t need to invite him. I’m just being sarcastic, but anybody else you want to mention? You like Brian? He’s on my list. Of course I’d bring him. Yeah. I mean, let’s be real, he’s my favorite brother. Well, no. He’s my favorite brother. Touché. You have that all wrong. No, I shouldn’t say that. Anybody else? Well, let’s see. No? Alright we’re cutting the music. Yeah. Yeah. You snooze you lose. Yeah. So, for the record Nick, the only person that he could invite that’s not Aaron Rodgers is his brother. I’m so disappointed I thought about other people that game a lot, but I didn’t think you’d have nothing to say to them. So, part of the things is, realistically, whether you come back as cohost or not, which I think would be great for, if it applies especially, but it’s to broaden the scope a little bit. Yeah. The chances of me doing this show at all was, I have all these people that I know on Facebook and either I don’t know them well and I question whether they should be my Facebook friends in quotes, right? Or I know them well and I want to spend more time with them and talk with them about cool things. So. I’d have to keep looking, ‘cause I wouldn’t… I didn’t mean to put you on the spot. So that’s it, I want to broaden the pile but whatever, we got two votes for Aaron Rodgers, that’s fine. Two votes? That’s… Well, you and me. We are two people. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I didn’t think your vote mattered. In this project it really doesn’t. No. No. Because I’m going to wipe out what you say and put whatever I want anyways. Oh, Ok. Yes, I do have keys. You were expecting to say “You have keys, right?”So yeah, we can cut to the music Nick, if you want to. Yeah. So this one is…Oh, oh, you might have to help me out. Let’s see, like the number, no the name of the song. Oh, “Michigan and Lake ph 2.0” Yeah. You lived there for a while. Yeah, I know. So this is by [unintelligible] Who? Right? Is that not right? You didn’t give me that info. Oh, oh. Yeah, and he’s going to be playing at the Food Truck Friday. On Friday and that’s where I talked to him quite a bit and you know, picked up a couple of CDs from him and I think he autographed the CDs for Max and I have to get some MP3s. He sent this over, so thanks Curt for putting that in there. We’re out. Yeah. Have a good one. Thank you.

Special guest Attorney Tricia Nell talks about her De Pere loving past, a brief Packers story and much, much more!

Special guest Attorney Tricia Nell talks about her De Pere loving past, a brief Packers story where she describes brief St. Norbert area bartending friendships with Brett Favre and other Packer greats. Callback to previous episode with Ald. Randy Scannell discussion about leaving Green Bay. Ms. Nell went to law school in Michigan and described some of the struggles and achievements of joining large firms, small firms, working in the family business, and starting her own technology-savvy firm. Apple "Genius" story: Nick was not impressed. Tricia was the WBAY legal consultant on the Steven Avery case. Tricia described her case prediction process. Tricia talked about her deep connection with the Packers. For instance, her fianceé proposed at an away Packers-49ers game in San Francisco. Also, there was a great story about a #chuckstrong Packers game prior to her upcoming move to Indianapolis. After the fun stories, we have the unfortunate auto accident that resulted in a brain injury that has impacted Tricia's life and has caused her to reevaluate some life priorities. We briefly discussed "patent trolls" that have impacted all sorts of businesses. Tricia presented a geeky Packers gift and talked about the Bloomburg Businessweek cover that really was all thanks to Forte Modeling. We briefly discussed the Tom Brady "deflategate case in legal terms. Before touching on Tricia's numerous non-profit efforts including the "Dancing with Our Stars" event for the Red Cross, the Boys and Girls Club, and Dress the Girls. Opening music track from Motra - Every Surrounding Dimension (ESD) Closing music track also from Motra - Hearts and Spades

Great interview with downtown volunteer and certified gemowatchamijigga guy with fancy watches. My friend Adam Funk made me laugh a little too much. I hope you enjoy getting a brief taste of this great Green Bay native and all around amazing man.