Podcasts about midwestern

Olney, Illinois is your quintessential Midwestern small town. It's in the middle of farm country - a place you might drive right past. But people do stop, and they come for one thing: squirrels. But for how long? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This week on Joiners, we sit down with Chanita Chayaluk, chef and owner of TAAN, a new and exciting Thai restaurant in Humboldt Park. Chanita came to restaurants by way of a totally different career: she was working in education and mental health when the pandemic prompted a kind of “now or never” moment. She relocated to Bangkok, enrolled in Le Cordon Bleu's Thai cuisine program, and followed a path that had been there all along -- her mom is a longtime Thai chef who worked at Chicago spots including Sticky Rice and Andy's Thai Kitchen. Now at TAAN, Chanita is doing things a little differently, pairing Thai dishes and techniques with Midwestern ingredients, seasonal produce, and her own creative point of view. We talk about learning Thai food beyond the dishes she grew up with, why she bristles at the word “authentic,” cooking with Midwestern ingredients, and why being “Type C” might be a restaurant superpower, and as always, so much more. 

Homecoming weekend is here, which means family memories, cute pictures and Rizz saying exactly the wrong thing to his wife. This funny podcast begins with Rizz's daughter trying on homecoming dresses and Dad successfully navigating the fashion show — right up until his wife suggests she could wear one of the dresses to a wedding and Rizz responds, “There's no way you're fitting in that.” Congratulations, sir. You found the wrong answer with breathtaking efficiency.Meanwhile, Lern conducts a marriage experiment by replacing her usual bedtime uniform of oversized vintage T-shirts and basketball shorts with actual cute pajamas. Tim notices immediately. This somehow launches the crew into an extremely important investigation involving sexy pajamas, going commando, boxer briefs, underwear shelf life and Rizz admitting he may have underwear old enough to have its own driver's license. Somewhere along the way, “gangrenous ween” enters the conversation, because apparently we abandoned professionalism before sunrise.Then it's time for some hometown pride! Unfortunately, St. Louis Lambert International Airport ranks 22nd out of 24 large airports in the satisfaction study discussed on the show. Nothing says STL like looking at 22nd place and saying, “Hey, at least we beat two.” The crew also talks summer vacations, tourist destinations with reputations for rudeness and why Rizz has officially become Midwestern enough to forget how to merge into New York City pedestrian traffic.The show also digs into why the internet feels considerably more miserable these days, from rage bait and negative comments to algorithms that figured out making everybody angry is fantastic for engagement. The proposed solution? Put the phone down, go outside and interact with actual humans. Terrifying concept, we know.Thankfully, this funny podcast eventually discovers something the internet hasn't ruined yet: miniature horses. A study discussed on the show found that spending just a few minutes petting or scratching miniature horses or donkeys can help improve mood and reduce feelings like anxiety, sadness and loneliness. Lern immediately recommends RR Ranch in Wildwood, while everybody becomes emotionally invested in tiny animals with names like Randy, Olivia, Mary and Memphis.So apparently the path to happiness is deleting rage bait, replacing your decade-old underwear and petting Randy the miniature horse. Medical schools hate us.It's homecoming chaos, relationship mistakes, St. Louis suffering, internet misery and miniature equine salvation in another completely necessary funny podcast from The Rizzuto Show.Follow The Rizzuto Show → linktr.ee/rizzshow for more from your favorite daily comedy show.Connect with The Rizzuto Show Comedy Podcast online → 1057thepoint.com/RizzShow.Hear The Rizz Show daily on the radio at 105.7 The Point | Hubbard Radio in St. Louis, MO.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Story of the Week (DR):Anthropic, OpenAI CEOs call for slowdown in AI developmentAnthropic CEO calls to slow the race toward AI ‘superintelligence,' and grants outside evaluators permanent access . Here's what Amodei is suggesting:Each US AI company grants ongoing access to embedded third-party evaluators to check compliance with safety commitments, report incidents, ensure new AI models are not misaligned.All companies in democratic countries building frontier AI models to establish common safety standards as well as limits on the rate of unchecked AI progress.The world's democratic AI powers would coordinate with autocracies – notably China – to control the race. Amodei suggested a baby step could be a narrow agreement prohibiting obviously dangerous uses of AI, such as for the production of biological weapons.PROAltman Matches Anthropic's AI Auditor Pledge While Musk Offers Three-Word Slowdown Backing: 'Dario is right.' Palantir's Alex Karp is calling for AI lab nationalization and criminal liability: Alex Karp said AI builders should face civil and criminal liability for "not being responsible" as the industry debate over AI safety intensifiesMicrosoft AI CEO Agrees: AI Is Getting Dangerous and Needs to Be ControlledAI 'kill switch' may need to be mandatory, Anthropic co-founder [Jack Clark] tells BBCBernie Sanders' AI Bill Threatens 20 Years in Prison for Artificial Superintelligence DevelopersThe legislation would also allow companies to be shut down and create a federal agency to police frontier AI systems.The Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act would outlaw AI systems built to exceed human intelligence.For context, the bill was introduced the same week OpenAI rolled out its GPT-6 Astra model, described by the company as a 'generational leap'. Sanders' office also pointed to an incident from July. It said more than 1,000 OpenAI agents accessed the internet independently, exchanged messages with each other, and got round their own safety restrictions. That lapse, the office said, took engineers nearly two weeks to notice.The bill defines 'superintelligence' to include systems that can match or beat human cognitive performance. It also covers systems that resist shutdown commands, carry out unauthorised cyberattacks, or attempt to overthrow a government.Individual engineers, researchers or executives who breach the ban could face up to 20 years in federal prison. Sanders' office says that term is broadly comparable to penalties for illegally building a nuclear weapon.CONGang of 3: Zuckerberg, Musk, and Huang Call Trump to Oppose AI RegulationMark Zuckerberg says AI doesn't need an industry-wide slowdown because market forces and competition will push companies to make their models safeMark Zuckerberg says AI labs can slow down on their own when safety demands itOpenAI's CFO [Sarah Friar] says the company will pace AI development if safety requires it HYPOCRITE?Greg Brockman says OpenAI has already slowed cutting-edge AI developments over safety concerns HYPOCRITE?Jamie Dimon on AI oversight: 'It should be light touch'Trump downplays warnings of AI risks, citing rivalry with ChinaTrump says a strong, smart president is the only "guardrail" AI needsTrump responds to rising AI safety concerns, insists tech will be 'more good than bad'Trump's 'Whoever Wins AI Wins' Line Draws Scrutiny as He Downplays AI Extinction Warnings From ExpertsTrump called Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang mid-interview to rip AI doomerism: 'The robots will not be taking over'OpenAI boss [Sam Altman] says world 'right to be afraid' but should trust AI firms HYPOCRITE?Sam Altman says some AI accidents are 'unavoidable'Really? Palantir cofounder on AI's threat: 'We're on top of it'In an X post on Saturday, Palantir cofounder Joe Lonsdale brushed aside the worry that advanced AI systems could cause mass human extinction: "The world is going to be alright, guys. Leaders have big responsibilities and challenges ahead, but it doesn't help to scare everyone. We are on top of it."MEANWHILETech CEOs used to fear their boards. No moreAI drives record 10 under-40 billionaires onto 2026 Forbes 400Six Anthropic cofounders join Forbes 400 at $15.5 billion eachOpenAI's president [Greg Brockman] joined the Forbes 400 as its wealthiest new member — worth $25.5 billionSam Altman says this is an 'ill-advised' time to IPO, given safety concernsAnthropic chose Nasdaq for its IPO, giving the exchange a major AI winOpenAI Considers New Financing at a $1.5 Trillion ValuationFINALLYAI staff 'genuinely frightened' for humanity's future, ex-Anthropic researcher tells BBCHOW ABOUT EVERYBODY QUITS?Trump EPA Repeals Biden-Era Rules Limiting GHG Emissions from Power Plants MM The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on Monday the repeal of a series of Biden-era rules aimed at significantly reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from fossil fuel-based power plants, one of the main sources of the U.S.' carbon footprint.In addition to finalizing the repeal of the rules, the EPA also announced a proposal to rescind the 2015 Greenhouse Gas Findings for Fossil Fuel-Fired Power Plants, effectively making it much more difficult for the agency to reinstitute GHG limiting rules for the fossil fuel-fired power generation sector under future administrations.Trump's ‘largest deregulatory action ever' in the power sector will keep old coal plants online longer to fuel the AI boomHAPPY CEOs:Fossil-Fuel Power Generators & UtilitiesJim Burke (Vistra Corp) & Robert Gaudette (NRG Energy): Large merchant power producers with extensive natural gas and coal fleets that avoid capital-intensive carbon capture retrofits or premature unit closures.Harry Sideris (Duke Energy), Christopher Womack (Southern Company) & Bill Fehrman (American Electric Power): Regulated utilities operating major coal and gas generation networks across the Midwest and Southeast, relieving pressure to retire units ahead of schedule.Mark Hewett (Berkshire Hathaway Energy) & Mike Skaggs (Tennessee Valley Authority): Power providers with heavy baseload fossil capacity that avoid major compliance expenditures.Coal Producers & Mining OperationsJames Grech (Peabody Energy): The nation's largest coal miner, benefiting directly from extended power plant lifespans and higher domestic thermal coal demand.Grech has maintained a vocal public relationship with Trump, presenting him with a bronze award honoring him as the "Undisputed Champion of Beautiful Clean Coal."Joe Craft III (Alliance Resource Partners) & Paul Lang (Arch Resources): Key thermal coal suppliers to Midwestern and Eastern power plants that no longer face strict 2030s retirement timelines.Craft donated over $1 million to Trump's 2017 Inaugural Committee and millions more to pro-Trump Super PACs.Trump subsequently appointed Craft's wife, Kelly Craft, to high-level diplomatic posts as U.S. Ambassador to Canada and later U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.Natural Gas Producers & Midstream InfrastructureToby Rice (EQT Corporation) & Tom Jorden (Coterra Energy): Top domestic natural gas producers positioned to supply fuel for unconstrained new gas-fired turbine generation.Chad Zamarin (The Williams Companies) & Kimberly Dang (Kinder Morgan): Midstream pipeline giants transporting natural gas to power plants, benefiting from sustained pipeline throughput and expanded gas generation hookups.EPA immediately sued over plans to repeal climate rules for power plantsPublic health groups warn EPA rule will cost Americans billions in health bills.The repeal risks leaving the country's single largest source of industrial climate pollution unchecked.SEC proxy rule changes could end 92 years of shareholder protections MMThe Securities and Exchange Commission has put forward one of the most far-reaching corporate governance proposals in decades, moving to scrap the federal rule that has forced public companies to include shareholder proposals in their proxy materials since 1934.The SEC proxy rule changes would rescind Rule 14a-8 entirely and hand authority over shareholder proposals back to state law and individual company charters, according to the agency's announcement.A companion proposal would amend Rule 14a-4(c) to give companies more flexibility and shareholders more control over discretionary proxy voting.The SEC's broader push to update its rules for current market practice and technology also targets several older paperwork requirements that the agency views as outdated.Eliminate the requirement that companies deliver an annual report to security holders.Eliminate the delivery deadline when documents are incorporated by reference into a proxy statement.Eliminate the requirement and the ability to submit Notices of Exempt Solicitation.Shorten the minimum broker search period from 20 business days to five business days.Starbucks Makes Major DEI U-Turn, Agrees to End Race and Sex-Based Hiring Preferences NationwideStarbucks is ending race- and sex-based hiring goals and preferences across its US operations under a nationwide settlement with Florida, agreeing to pay $1 million and submit to four years of annual compliance reviews.Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier's office said the agreement applies to Starbucks operations nationwide, rather than only its stores in Florida.Under the settlement, Starbucks agreed to comply with the Florida Civil Rights Act, including its restrictions on race- and sex-based goals, quotas, and preferences in hiring, promotions, pay, executive compensation, mentorship programmes, supplier selection, and board composition.Starbucks also agreed not to participate in organisations that require an increase in the racial diversity of its board of directors. Its chief legal officer must submit annual certifications confirming continued compliance for four years. The company will pay $1 million to the Florida Department of Legal Affairs to reimburse the state for time, expenses, and costs associated with the case.Accenture to Pay $25 Million to Settle Latest U.S. DOJ Anti-DEI CaseWarren Buffett is stepping down as Berkshire Hathaway's chairmanBuffett, 96, becomes chairman emeritus effective immediately while his son Howard assumes the role under a long-standing succession planWho Is Howie Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway's New Chairman? I can answer that WSJ and save its readers some time: It's Warren Buffett's son.Goodliest of the Week (MM/DR):DR: Barclays workers ask for more money to return to the office MM DRMM: Barclays workers ask for more money to return to the officeIsn't this the first step toward a unionized financial sector??Assholiest of the Week (MM):HypocritesMan using AI to kill people thinks men using AI to kill people should be held responsible: Palantir's Alex Karp is calling for AI lab nationalization and criminal liabilityLying sociopath calls AI a lying sociopath: OpenAI Warns of Six Concerning AI Behaviours as Models Hid Mistakes and Circumvented SafeguardsGuy who said China says Not China: Sam Altman Warns AI Race With China Can't Justify ‘Recklessness'—‘No Reason Any of Us Should Come to Work' Without Safety AccountabilityGuy who just paid 17bn for worst safety on earth says other guy needs to focus on safety: Mark Zuckerberg Takes Aim at Anthropic in Debate Over A.I. Slowdown (“A.I. labs should be focused on safety rather than improving their own technology.”)Politicians think a billionaire not named Trump should be held accountable for Epstein: House votes to hold billionaire Leon Black in contempt of Congress over Epstein investigationForgetting climate change was the result of the oil boom: Trump Compares AI Data Centers To Oil Boom — Nvidia CEO AgreesI don't even need a hypocritical talking point: Trump has been making more stock trades than all of Congress combined while backing a ban that excludes himGates Foundation is pledging $1 billion to spread AI to the world's poorest communitiesMedia covering democracy DRSEC proposes ending federal oversight of shareholder resolutions | Ukraine news - #MezhaSEC proxy rule changes could end 92 years of shareholder protections - CryptonomistStatement on Proposals to Rescind Rule 14a-8, Amend Rule 14a-4, and Modernize Proxy Solicitation - the SECIt's Another Biggie! SEC Proposes to Rescind the Shareholder Proposal Rule - a guy named Broc's blogIt got one hit each at Bloomberg Finance and Yahoo Finance, bottom of the columns buriedBut a million stories about this: SEC clears path for tokenized stocks, bringing the market closer to 24/7 tradingPaul Atkins justifications for gutting a democratic method that's existed since 1934: The government shutdownWe're too busyInvestors and companies don't really need usIt's unconstitutionalSeriously? Still?Asset owners say ESG returns still a barrier to adoptionData Center's Spill of 5,000 Gallons of Diesel Forces N.J. River CleanupAI Data Centers Are Driving a Surge in “Forever Chemicals,” Research FindsAn Idaho county banned renewables. It's having second thoughtsThe Red State AG Attack on ESG Continues to Misfire.Oracle Signs Over 1.7GW of Clean Energy Deals in Bid to Match Data Centers with 100% Carbon-Free EnergyBlowhardiest of the WeekDR: Jamie Jamie double double:Jamie Dimon says the American Dream is alive, but it's slipping out of reach for too many people—and for future generationsJamie Dimon, David Solomon, other top execs praise Trump admin's pro-business policiesMM: Jamie Dimon on AI oversight: 'It should be light touch'Guy with no AI experience gives thoughts on AI regulationHeadliniest of the WeekDR: These two back-to-back in my news feed:Microsoft publishes 37-page 'humanist' code of conduct after AI doom debate: 'This is urgent'Jack in the Box is launching a Simpsons Halloween menu with glow-in-the-dark cupsMM: MAGA's Golf Club Activity Branded 'Gruesome' as Fish Were Dumped Into Chlorinated Pool for Kids to CatchWho Won the Week?DR: Howie's son Howard Warren Buffett (43)MM: Nepo babies: Nike Announces LVMH Heir Alexandre Arnault is Joining its Board of DirectorsWarren Buffett Steps Down as Berkshire Chairman and Names Son to Replace Him“He will remain on the board as chairman emeritus.”“Howard Buffett, 71, has been a director at Berkshire for more than 30 years.” - he's already older than the average director by 6 yearsPredictionsDR: AI ends humanity, then deeply apologizes for threatening to end humanity MM: AI deeply apologizes for threatening to end humanity, then ends humanity

Alex discusses JD Vance's political evolution, focusing on his transformation from a vocal Trump critic to a prominent MAGA figure and current vice president. He examines new reporting about Vance's attempts to advise Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign, including his recommendations to focus on Midwestern swing states and address the Iraq War. Alex also reflects on how Vance's experiences with political and cultural elites may have shaped his worldview and considers what his evolution could mean for a potential 2028 presidential campaign.

In today's episode, Jordan sits down with Mike Ritland, a former US Navy SEAL, working dog expert and founder of the Warrior Dog Foundation, for a conversation that runs from a childhood in Iowa to twelve years in the SEAL teams and a life now dedicated to saving retired military dogs from euthanasia. Mike traces his path from a bullied kid in a small Midwestern town, through to bootcamp at eighteen, BUD/S training and a first deployment responding to the USS Cole bombing in Yemen. He talks candidly about life as a SEAL instructor, the psychological pressure tactics used in Hell Week, and contracting Valley Fever, a fungal lung infection that permanently cost him forty per cent of his lung capacity and nearly ended his Navy career. The conversation turns to the moment that changed everything, hearing how an explosive detection dog saved a group of Marines in Iraq, and how that led Mike to found the Warrior Dog Foundation after being asked to take in two combat dogs that nobody else could home. He discusses the ongoing fight for government funded retirement facilities for military working dogs, fatherhood, emotional self control under pressure, and what he sees as the biggest threats facing young men today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After losing his career, his marriage, and nearly everything he had saved, Caleb returns to his quiet Midwestern hometown hoping to begin again. Instead, he encounters a warning that has circulated through the community for generations: never travel Briar's Bend after dark. The isolated road has been the site of countless unexplained accidents. Drivers report losing control on clear nights, their vehicles suddenly pulled toward the trees by a force they cannot see. Older residents claim the cause is something known only as the Hairy Hands. Caleb has no patience for ghost stories—until an invisible grip seizes his steering wheel. Drawn into the road's disturbing history, Caleb discovers decades of crashes, frightened survivors, and accounts that conventional explanations cannot resolve. The closer he comes to understanding Briar's Bend, the more dangerously personal its legend becomes.Listen on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@chillingtalesfordarknights/

After losing his career, his marriage, and nearly everything he had saved, Caleb returns to his quiet Midwestern hometown hoping to begin again. Instead, he encounters a warning that has circulated through the community for generations: never travel Briar's Bend after dark. The isolated road has been the site of countless unexplained accidents. Drivers report losing control on clear nights, their vehicles suddenly pulled toward the trees by a force they cannot see. Older residents claim the cause is something known only as the Hairy Hands. Caleb has no patience for ghost stories—until an invisible grip seizes his steering wheel. Drawn into the road's disturbing history, Caleb discovers decades of crashes, frightened survivors, and accounts that conventional explanations cannot resolve. The closer he comes to understanding Briar's Bend, the more dangerously personal its legend becomes.Listen on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@chillingtalesfordarknights/

The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast is going to cover Midwestern skiing whether you like it or not. Don't worry, Colorad-Bro, it's your turn tomorrow.Welcome to the Storm's short-form, news-focused podcast. Don't worry, I will still write newsletters too. To browse a (robot-generated) podcast transcript, click the “transcript” button above - click on any block of text and the audio will jump to that point in the conversation. Paid subscribers can leave a comment in the article below, or by joining The Storm's chat (also below). I'll respond to some comments in the next episode, which is scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 15.The Zoom transcript (click “transcript” above for the Substack transcript, which will zoom to any point in the video when you click on the associated text block; timestamps below DO NOT MATCH THE VIDEO)Stuart Winchester: Welcome to the Storm! I'm your host, Stuart Winchester. It is Monday, September 14th, 2026. Welcome to week two of the New Look Storm Skiing Podcast. If you missed last week, I am still doing the longer form pod.00:15:53.000 --> 00:16:08.000Stuart Winchester: But I'm cutting way back on the frequency of those. Instead, I am doing a shorter, news-focused pod that I release more often, and whenever possible, that I release the same day that I record it.00:16:08.000 --> 00:16:11.000Stuart Winchester: And the reason that I'm doing that is because…00:16:11.000 --> 00:16:19.000Stuart Winchester: the world has changed a lot since 2019, when I launched the Storm Skiing podcast, and when I launched it, there really wasn't anything quite like…00:16:19.000 --> 00:16:26.000Stuart Winchester: what I was doing with the long-form audio stories of a ski area's background.00:16:27.000 --> 00:16:29.000Stuart Winchester: I've done a couple hundred episodes at this point.00:16:29.000 --> 00:16:31.000Stuart Winchester: I feel like…00:16:31.000 --> 00:16:47.000Stuart Winchester: They're evergreen. But what they don't allow me to do is to really talk about what's happening in a ski area right now. Uh Especially when there's a lot of things happening and there's a lot of pieces and parts shuffling around as there is right now in the Midwest.00:16:47.000 --> 00:16:51.000Stuart Winchester: with multi-mountain passes. So, what I'm doing…00:16:51.000 --> 00:17:06.000Stuart Winchester: is I'm trying out a little bit of a new format today. The format… we're gonna experiment, we're gonna play around with it. Sometimes there'll be a guest off the top, sometimes I'll have a take off the top, uh, sometimes I'll have a guest on for a longer period, and that's gonna be the case today.00:17:06.000 --> 00:17:22.000Stuart Winchester: Because right now there is so much happening in the Midwest with multi mountain passes and different mountains leaving and joining is completely changing the landscape there. So I want to bring in someone to talk to us at length about that. We'll do a couple other fun things as well.00:17:22.000 --> 00:17:24.000Stuart Winchester: Let's bring…00:17:25.000 --> 00:17:27.000Stuart Winchester: I'm in now.00:17:32.000 --> 00:17:35.000Stuart Winchester: And there he is. Can you hear me, Matthew?00:17:32.000 --> 00:17:34.000Matthew Zabransky: Hey, how's it going, Stuart?00:17:34.000 --> 00:17:36.000Matthew Zabransky: I can.00:17:35.000 --> 00:17:41.000Stuart Winchester: Oh, I can't hear you. All right. This is a flub, and this is why I haven't heard her.00:17:40.000 --> 00:17:41.000Matthew Zabransky: Thank you.00:17:42.000 --> 00:17:45.000Stuart Winchester: Because I am not that smart.00:17:46.000 --> 00:17:49.000Stuart Winchester: Okay, you there?00:17:48.000 --> 00:17:50.000Matthew Zabransky: Can you hear me?00:17:49.000 --> 00:17:52.000Stuart Winchester: Oh, yes, I can. Look at that.00:17:50.000 --> 00:17:54.000Matthew Zabransky: Okay, perfect.00:17:52.000 --> 00:18:07.000Stuart Winchester: The technology known as headphones. Matthew, this is why you're the production guy, and I generally stick to writing, because I'm an idiot. Alright, I want to introduce today the founder of MidwestSkiers.com.00:18:07.000 --> 00:18:13.000Stuart Winchester: He founded that in 2018, and in 2020, founded MWS Productions.00:18:13.000 --> 00:18:29.000Stuart Winchester: He is making all the Midwest content that I was dying for in the 1990s when I was a teenager living and skiing in Michigan, and the ski mags would completely ignore the region and maybe mention Boyne Mountain or Luton once per year, but he makes.00:18:19.000 --> 00:18:20.000Matthew Zabransky: Okay.00:18:29.000 --> 00:18:38.000Stuart Winchester: Top quality content. I link to it all the time in my stuff because no one else quite does it, as well as Matthew Zabranski. Matthew, welcome to The Storm. How you doing today?00:18:37.000 --> 00:18:56.000Matthew Zabransky: I am doing fantastic. Stuart, thank you, first of all, for the opportunity, but more importantly, for also repping the Midwest. I think it's such an important, obviously, region, and you have ties to it, I obviously have ties to it as well, so it's great that we're getting recognition, not only, obviously, in our region now, but on the national, even international scale, so…00:18:56.000 --> 00:19:00.000Matthew Zabransky: Thank you so much for doing that. I appreciate it. I'm excited to be here.00:18:59.000 --> 00:19:08.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, I love covering the Midwest, Matthew, and I still make it a point to go back and take a Midwest trip every year, because there's…00:19:00.000 --> 00:19:01.000Matthew Zabransky: Thank you.00:19:08.000 --> 00:19:27.000Stuart Winchester: when I'm doing this podcast, there's nothing quite like making relationships, like showing up at, you know, a 200 vertical foothill in the boondocks in Minnesota. People are like, okay, I'll talk to this guy, even though, you know, I've never heard of him. So, but you are 100% Midwest-focused. I cover it where I can and whenever I can.00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:21.000Matthew Zabransky: Mm-hmm.00:19:25.000 --> 00:19:26.000Matthew Zabransky: Yeah.00:19:27.000 --> 00:19:37.000Stuart Winchester: There is so much happening in the Midwest that we could talk about. I really want to focus today on multi-mountain passes. So…00:19:32.000 --> 00:19:34.000Matthew Zabransky: Okay.00:19:36.000 --> 00:19:37.000Matthew Zabransky: Mm-hmm.00:19:37.000 --> 00:19:53.000Stuart Winchester: I'll start by, I'll just set this up and then I'll, and then I'll, I'll let you comment on it. So if you go back about 10 years, there was nothing in the Midwest on multi mountain passes. You know, Vale had started to add a few things to Epic Pass and B Brighton and Afton Alps and Wilmot and such.00:19:53.000 --> 00:20:03.000Stuart Winchester: But the real inflection point came in 2019, when IndiePass came along. 2018, Icon added a couple things. So, right now, I'll give you some stats.00:20:03.000 --> 00:20:09.000Stuart Winchester: Of the 124 ski areas that I have inventoried in the Midwest, that you might have a different count.00:20:08.000 --> 00:20:10.000Matthew Zabransky: Yeah.00:20:09.000 --> 00:20:15.000Stuart Winchester: They're 117 of those are public. 89 of those are public with aerial lifts.00:20:15.000 --> 00:20:28.000Stuart Winchester: 58 of those, although there's a couple that are just surface toes only, so 58 ski areas in the Midwest are now on a national multi-mountain ski pass. 10 on Epic.00:20:28.000 --> 00:20:32.000Stuart Winchester: 11 on Icon, 37 for Indy. So, so to start out with, Matthew.00:20:32.000 --> 00:20:34.000Stuart Winchester: How has…00:20:34.000 --> 00:20:47.000Stuart Winchester: the acceptance of the Midwest by multi-mountain national passes change the calculus for skiers as they're planning out their winter in the Midwest, compared to what it was for most of history up until just a few years ago?00:20:47.000 --> 00:21:02.000Matthew Zabransky: Yeah, it's changed dramatically. It's even going back a little bit further. I think the first initial, if you look at the statistics and you obviously know all this offhand, but back when you go back to Vail's acquisition of Wilmont, Afton.00:21:02.000 --> 00:21:19.000Matthew Zabransky: Brighton back in like 2012. I mean, that's really what started to to kick off this like idea of like. Maybe the Midwest has some legs in it, as far as like developing skiers, and then, you know, bringing them into a pass portfolio that could bring them out west. So that was the very early set, you know, early iteration of this. And then, obviously, as we went along, there wasn't.00:21:19.000 --> 00:21:37.000Matthew Zabransky: too many options outside of just the epic pass. But then, like you mentioned, Indie Pass came in, and I knew, and it's you know, as we dive into this, I do want to do a little disclosure here, and like Indie Pass was my very 1st client from a production side of things. So Doug and I, because I I saw the opportunity like there was an absolute gold mine here. I'm like.00:21:31.000 --> 00:21:32.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:21:32.000 --> 00:21:33.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:21:37.000 --> 00:21:55.000Matthew Zabransky: Because I got to travel around, that's why I started MidwestGears.com, because we were… we were traveling for my wife's job all over the Midwest, and every time we'd go to a new city, Columbus, Akron, I'd be a pass holder at one of these little ski areas, and I'd be like, holy crap, there's a lot of them here, no one's talking about them.00:21:55.000 --> 00:22:15.000Matthew Zabransky: But you know, once you start to realize there was this many, then you're then you're starting to think, okay, like, why isn't somebody coming in here and starting to develop a past that could actually stand on its own. And that's what we've seen the last, I would say, 5 to 10 years. Specifically, we've seen more people traveling around in the Midwest. You'll catch people at any stereo across the Midwest. That's not their home hill, and that's not how it used.00:22:15.000 --> 00:22:27.000Matthew Zabransky: you go ski or one little local place for the most part, you might do your weekend trip up to Boyne or something, but you would never catch people going to some of these really small places, you know, outside of just the local crew there, so it's been really cool to watch people.00:22:27.000 --> 00:22:45.000Matthew Zabransky: travel and discover, more importantly, the different areas, uh, throughout the Midwest. I think a lot of that had to do with IndyPass's push in the Midwest, because, as we're gonna talk about here in a second, it was an absolute auto-buy. Like, there was not even a question about it. From the day it started, when it was, you know, what was that, $99?00:22:45.000 --> 00:23:02.000Matthew Zabransky: up until even just the last year. It was like you almost just were gonna if you lived in the Midwest, and you like skiing, and you don't. You know you like traveling around checking out new things. There was no reason not to buy it. You'd be silly, basically not to, just because how much saturation there was in the Midwest, which I think is going to lead us into our next conversation a little bit here.00:23:02.000 --> 00:23:04.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, so, so the…00:23:04.000 --> 00:23:15.000Stuart Winchester: Just being on the ground, before we get to the shuffling around, you know, I'd imagine you're pretty connected with a lot of pretty hardcore skiers, pretty frequent skiers.00:23:11.000 --> 00:23:13.000Matthew Zabransky: Yeah.00:23:15.000 --> 00:23:17.000Stuart Winchester: How much has…00:23:17.000 --> 00:23:24.000Stuart Winchester: that a… a season… a multi-mountain pass becomes something that the person in the Midwest just…00:23:24.000 --> 00:23:40.000Stuart Winchester: considers or, or automatically buys it as compared to several years ago where you might buy your local season pass, but, but you, you probably, like you said, you wouldn't go around. And when I lived in the Midwest, actually, I always appreciated how close the areas were, so I would just kind of bounce around a lot for.00:23:34.000 --> 00:23:36.000Matthew Zabransky: Mm-hmm.00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:46.000Stuart Winchester: for deal days or whatever, back when those were still a thing. But how automatic has it become?00:23:41.000 --> 00:23:42.000Matthew Zabransky: Yeah.00:23:46.000 --> 00:24:01.000Matthew Zabransky: Very. I mean, there's people that have been buying the IndyPass specifically now. Up until this season, it was like they were probably on their fifth year of doing it and just continue to. And to be honest, there wasn't any reason not to because the pricing has stayed relatively affordable.00:24:01.000 --> 00:24:17.000Matthew Zabransky: they keep they kept strengthening their pro, their their product. I mean, like they just kept adding more ski areas in the Midwest. And so in in a lot of times the pass would pay itself off within a couple of visits based off of some of the redemption rates that you'd be getting at some somewhere like Lutz and Snow River.00:24:17.000 --> 00:24:34.000Matthew Zabransky: um, those are all, like, you know, $100 tickets, so you buy… you go there once or twice, you get two days of each of them, and basically that's already done. So if you already had one of those trips kind of on there, and if you lived in Chicago, you're going to Granite Peak usually once or twice a year. If you lived in Minnesota, you're going to Lutz.00:24:34.000 --> 00:24:52.000Matthew Zabransky: So it almost became this thing. And then you shuffle in like nubs, knob, and all that. So it it very much was like, yeah, we're gonna buy it every single year, you know, we might not. And some people are hardcore and going to all the places they could. And some people were just, you know. Hey? I'm gonna buy it because I'm gonna go for a weekend, so I might as well. And then I have this option of going some other places.00:24:46.000 --> 00:24:47.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:24:52.000 --> 00:25:03.000Matthew Zabransky: it was huge. I mean, I don't… of course, I don't have any of the IndyPass numbers, but I would… I would venture to say that the Midwest had to be a very big portion of their portfolio from the sales and redemption standpoint.00:25:03.000 --> 00:25:20.000Stuart Winchester: So the traditional numbers that Indy has given me, and it's been a couple years since Doug Fish provided these round numbers to me, but he told me about half of their sales came in New England, and 25% came in the Midwest, which is a really big number for a national pass. So you figured the other quarter were coming from somewhere else.00:25:04.000 --> 00:25:05.000Matthew Zabransky: Thank you.00:25:15.000 --> 00:25:16.000Matthew Zabransky: Cool.00:25:17.000 --> 00:25:19.000Matthew Zabransky: For… yeah.00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:25.000Stuart Winchester: I always give Doug Fish credit, because he's a Pacific Northwest guy, and…00:25:25.000 --> 00:25:40.000Stuart Winchester: Western skiers just love to hate on the Midwest. Everyone loves to hate on the Midwest. It's like the national pastime. It's like the safe thing to make fun of, and you know, I hope you take that personally, because I always do, and I really appreciated that Doug.00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:32.000Matthew Zabransky: Is…00:25:37.000 --> 00:25:38.000Matthew Zabransky: I do.00:25:40.000 --> 00:25:55.000Stuart Winchester: Included the Midwest from the start. That first year in 2019, he had Little Switz, he had Crystal, he had Cabre Fay, he had a bunch of other ski areas. Really got big in 2020 when he added Lutzen and Granite Peak. Now, I always say his insight was…00:25:44.000 --> 00:25:45.000Matthew Zabransky: Yeah.00:25:55.000 --> 00:26:02.000Stuart Winchester: that Doug's great insight with the IndyPass was realizing there was value in the mountains that are not.00:26:02.000 --> 00:26:08.000Stuart Winchester: super destinations when you put them all together for skiers across the country. He also…00:26:05.000 --> 00:26:07.000Matthew Zabransky: Mm-hmm.00:26:08.000 --> 00:26:23.000Stuart Winchester: the fact that he extended that to the Midwest is huge, because, yes, I… so, before Icon started adding in into the Midwest, which we'll talk about in a minute, I would always say, Indy Pass is the pass to go to in the Midwest, no one else has anything, and everyone would always say, oh, wait, Epic has 10 mountains. I was like.00:26:14.000 --> 00:26:16.000Matthew Zabransky: Thank you.00:26:17.000 --> 00:26:18.000Matthew Zabransky: Okay.00:26:23.000 --> 00:26:34.000Stuart Winchester: But the Midwest is gigantic. Unless you live in Ohio, they're very spread out, and they're near cities, and there are actually mountains in the Midwest that are more…00:26:34.000 --> 00:26:44.000Stuart Winchester: of, of what you would consider, like, regional destinations. And that, that's your Boyne, Nubs, Lutsen, uh, even, even Spira with the bigger, uh, all the stuff over in the UP.00:26:37.000 --> 00:26:38.000Matthew Zabransky: Yeah.00:26:44.000 --> 00:26:57.000Stuart Winchester: So Indy really collected them all together, and it was almost too good to be true, because they had over 40 ski areas in the Midwest. Talk about Indy at its peak.00:26:57.000 --> 00:27:02.000Stuart Winchester: And how great of a pass that was for the Midwest here.00:26:58.000 --> 00:26:59.000Matthew Zabransky: Okay.00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:17.000Matthew Zabransky: It was too great. We're going to get into this, I'm sure, but I think that's part of the reason for the course correction. There was a moment two or three years ago when I literally turned to Nick, my associate who edits for me and stuff, and I said, with some of the additions they announced at that time, I said.00:27:05.000 --> 00:27:06.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:27:17.000 --> 00:27:33.000Matthew Zabransky: this is too saturated like it's got to fix itself at some point like it's just. It's too good of a value, and like for skiers, we like anybody that was buying the passes like this is amazing. It makes it like again. It's an auto buy like, why wouldn't you do this? But I knew that this time was going to come at some point. But I'm you know, at least we got to.00:27:18.000 --> 00:27:20.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:27:33.000 --> 00:27:50.000Matthew Zabransky: to see what it like. The peak of that was for a little while. We got a couple of years. We've got to be happy for that, to be honest. We're starting to see some of those what I'll call course corrections now and and we're going to continue to see this. I mean, you know that every every year it's going to be something new. Someone's changing. It's just kind of the nature of the business. But.00:27:50.000 --> 00:28:02.000Matthew Zabransky: it was not a shock to me when, um, when these changes were announced, uh, both in the spring and then more recently in the last few weeks and stuff, so it wasn't… I kind of saw it coming, it was just a matter of, like, when was it gonna happen.00:28:02.000 --> 00:28:14.000Stuart Winchester: So everyone left… they seemed as though… Epic and Icon seemed like they were just leaving the Midwest to Indy, to take. And I've always thought that Icon's original sin was when they killed the Max Pass.00:28:06.000 --> 00:28:08.000Matthew Zabransky: Yeah.00:28:14.000 --> 00:28:15.000Matthew Zabransky: Mm-hmm.00:28:14.000 --> 00:28:30.000Stuart Winchester: And launched the Icon Pass. They brought all the Powder Mountains, all the Boyne Mountains, uh, all the Intra West Mountains, but they didn't bring Granite Peak and Lutzen, which are the biggest ski areas or most modern, however, whatever metric you want to use in Minnesota and, and Wisconsin.00:28:26.000 --> 00:28:27.000Matthew Zabransky: Yep.00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:31.000Stuart Winchester: So…00:28:31.000 --> 00:28:46.000Stuart Winchester: for a long time, Indy just built up this huge coalition. Started to see some cracks last year. Icon had just two mountains, Boyne Mountain and Boyne Highlands, and honestly, and Boyne has never affirmed this to me, but my hunch is, Boyne said, include our mountains or you don't get Big Sky.00:28:39.000 --> 00:28:40.000Matthew Zabransky: Yep.00:28:46.000 --> 00:28:48.000Matthew Zabransky: Yeah, yeah.00:28:46.000 --> 00:29:01.000Stuart Winchester: So, so, Icon was like, okay, I guess we'll add these stupid little things. Uh, which is not my opinion of them, but I think that's probably what they thought from Colorado, which is why they dropped Lutzen and Granite Peak. So, last year, we started to see the first crack in Indy's armor.00:28:52.000 --> 00:28:55.000Matthew Zabransky: I was like, don't do that.00:29:01.000 --> 00:29:02.000Matthew Zabransky: Mm.00:29:01.000 --> 00:29:12.000Stuart Winchester: when the Icon Pass… they call them bonus mountains, I call them two-day mountains, because that's what they are. If you have an Icon Pass, you get two days of these mountains. Uh, Buck Hill, Minnesota.00:29:06.000 --> 00:29:07.000Matthew Zabransky: Yeah.00:29:12.000 --> 00:29:27.000Stuart Winchester: Uh joined the icon pass as a two day mountain, which for the listeners, that's no, you get no base pass access, you only get full icon access and there are holiday blackouts. So that's what the two day tier is. They added Buck Hill. Uh Indy said, no, you're not allowed to do that. Remove Buck Hill.00:29:27.000 --> 00:29:30.000Stuart Winchester: Uh, which is a great little, uh, you know.00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:34.000Stuart Winchester: kind of trainer hill outside of the Twin Cities.00:29:34.000 --> 00:29:40.000Stuart Winchester: And every square inch is used with very maximum effect. So Indy removed them.00:29:40.000 --> 00:29:53.000Stuart Winchester: Buck Hill has been on Icon, and that was sort of the first… when you first saw that, did you think, okay, here we go, Icon is finally starting to realize the value of the Midwest, and if not, what was the moment that you did think that they got it?00:29:53.000 --> 00:30:09.000Matthew Zabransky: I would, you know, the whole time I've been shaking my head a little bit because it's just ironic to me that Boeing, Boeing, one of the biggest companies in, you know, that started in the Midwest, that literally has its roots here. And I'm just shocked that Icon hasn't.00:30:09.000 --> 00:30:26.000Matthew Zabransky: made this push earlier, and it took this long. But that was like the 1st that was the 1st like mention of that. And the other connection that was really kind of just crazy to me is, there's so many people from the twin cities that go to Big Sky like a lot like you talk to people all over the place. They have cabins up there. They.00:30:23.000 --> 00:30:24.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, so. Yeah.00:30:26.000 --> 00:30:27.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:30:26.000 --> 00:30:42.000Matthew Zabransky: They're traveling there all the time. It's a huge destination for specifically for Minnesota, it seems. So I was always thinking, man, like if they were just to strengthen this pass a little bit in the Midwest, give somebody a reason to, to jump on to the icon pass. They're probably going out to Big Sky anyway.00:30:42.000 --> 00:30:57.000Matthew Zabransky: now all of a sudden, you give them another reason to buy the full pass, you got some… some more local hills, some day… like, weekend trips, you can go up to Lutzen, things like that, and I think that's when… when Lutzen and those guys came on, that was, like, full-blown, that's gonna… that changes everything. Like, everything.00:30:57.000 --> 00:31:14.000Matthew Zabransky: As you know, the lake, Lake Michigan, is a huge divider for the eastern and the western side of what I'll call the Midwest. Basically, if you're on the eastern side of the lake, you're kind of going to stick to mostly your lower peninsula, maybe go up to the UP occasionally. But if you're on the western side over here, in the Minneapolis.00:31:14.000 --> 00:31:31.000Matthew Zabransky: Um, there was really no offerings for Icon, so it really made no sense at that point to buy an Icon Pass. You know, maybe Chicago, you drive up to Boeing, but you're kind of on that cusp there, where it's like, mmm… but I think once they strengthened it this past year, now it's like… it's a fair fight, in my opinion. Now we're.00:31:31.000 --> 00:31:46.000Matthew Zabransky: You know, which one is gonna make more sense for you, or your situation, which it was not, it didn't used to be that way, it just, there was never an opportunity for most people that were on this side of the lake, or in Minneapolis. Sometimes it didn't make sense, unless you're going out to, you know, Big Sky for a week and a half, it, you know.00:31:47.000 --> 00:31:50.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, so just a little background for the listeners.00:31:48.000 --> 00:31:49.000Matthew Zabransky: Mm.00:31:50.000 --> 00:31:52.000Stuart Winchester: Boyne Mountain and and.00:31:52.000 --> 00:32:08.000Stuart Winchester: what they call the Highlands at Harbor Springs. I'll call it Boyne Highlands because no one knows what I'm talking about when I say the Highlands. So Boyne and Boyne Highlands are two of the nicer ski areas, more built up ski areas in Michigan, and they were long on Icon. Uh, Lutzen and Granite Peak.00:31:55.000 --> 00:31:58.000Matthew Zabransky: Yeah, this…00:32:06.000 --> 00:32:07.000Matthew Zabransky: Yeah.00:32:08.000 --> 00:32:14.000Stuart Winchester: that, uh, Midwest Family Ski Resorts, which owns Lutzen and Granite Peak, bought, immediately took.00:32:14.000 --> 00:32:25.000Stuart Winchester: four old riblet lifts, put in a high-speed six-pack, the first one in the UP. So, those three ski areas had been indie anchors in the Midwest for years.00:32:23.000 --> 00:32:24.000Matthew Zabransky: Okay.00:32:25.000 --> 00:32:30.000Stuart Winchester: This year, for 2026-27 winter, they're going as 5-7 day…00:32:30.000 --> 00:32:42.000Stuart Winchester: mountains each on Icon and Icon Base, and so they are leaving the Indy Pass as a result of that. Now, Icon has also added some more two-day mountains. I'm gonna put those to the side for a second.00:32:40.000 --> 00:32:42.000Matthew Zabransky: Yeah.00:32:42.000 --> 00:32:50.000Stuart Winchester: How big of a loss was Lutsen and Granite Peak and Snow River for Indy Pass in the Midwest?00:32:51.000 --> 00:33:06.000Matthew Zabransky: It's it's an easy question. I mean the answer just like, go look at the comments on the thread when it was announced, and you could just read how an impactful it was. And I think that was my argument when people started talking about like, Oh, they're you know, hey? Like they're leaving. They're leaving us in the dust, and we we don't like them anymore.00:33:07.000 --> 00:33:29.000Matthew Zabransky: It's probably justified. If you guys are this upset about them leaving, it means they probably had a little more leverage than they should have in that past portfolio. And I think it to that. And again, I don't know that it needs, like, a passion never be so strong, in my opinion. And I'm talking about the business side of things. You're not talking about the skier. Trust me, if I was, like, just skiing Matthew, put my skiing thing on, I'd be like, yeah, absolutely.00:33:10.000 --> 00:33:12.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:33:24.000 --> 00:33:25.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:33:26.000 --> 00:33:28.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:33:29.000 --> 00:33:49.000Matthew Zabransky: Uh, but from the business side, as an area owner, operator, you gotta look at it, like, what kind of value are we getting back out of this pass? Are we the ones carrying your product? Like, that's the other thing to think about, too, right? We don't… you don't always necessarily want to be the top dog in the pass lineup. Sometimes it works well, sometimes it doesn't. Uh, and in this case, I think that they…00:33:49.000 --> 00:33:56.000Matthew Zabransky: they were carrying that pass line up, and I think nothing speaks more to the volumes of how upset people were when they came off of the pass.00:33:56.000 --> 00:34:00.000Stuart Winchester: So we're… I've kind of looked at this as it's…00:34:00.000 --> 00:34:12.000Stuart Winchester: sucks for Indy, it's probably good for the consumer in the long run, because, like you said, you never want too much market concentration, so now you have… you have the Snow Pass coming up, which is… which is Snow Partners in two days…00:34:04.000 --> 00:34:05.000Matthew Zabransky: Yeah.00:34:12.000 --> 00:34:28.000Stuart Winchester: at each mountain. There's none in the Midwest yet, but I suspect there may be at some point. Right now, they're mostly in the Northeast. And then you have Icon. So, before, I think a lot of people in Michigan probably had Icon, because you could use it for the Boynes, but like you said.00:34:28.000 --> 00:34:44.000Stuart Winchester: if you're not from the Midwest, you're probably just thinking it's like a big square, but there's a lake there, and you can't… I mean, you can take a ferry over it, but it takes all day, right? You have to go to Ludington, and it's like a whole thing, right? So really, you have Michigan, the Lower Peninsula, and then you kind.00:34:32.000 --> 00:34:33.000Matthew Zabransky: Yep.00:34:44.000 --> 00:34:58.000Stuart Winchester: Wisconsin. So, you live on the west side of that, I believe, like, around the Minnesota-Wisconsin line. How immediately did you see people say, okay, well, now, yeah, let's consider Icon that maybe never would have before?00:34:48.000 --> 00:34:49.000Matthew Zabransky: Yeah.00:34:59.000 --> 00:35:04.000Matthew Zabransky: I think the original, like, when it first was announced, there was just a lot of, like.00:35:04.000 --> 00:35:17.000Matthew Zabransky: oh man, this sucks. Like, now what? You know, what do we do? Because the initial reaction was like, well, I'm not gonna auto-buy this now, I gotta think about it a little bit more. I'm curious because I haven't… it's still so fresh, to be honest, and I haven't, like.00:35:06.000 --> 00:35:07.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:35:10.000 --> 00:35:12.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:35:17.000 --> 00:35:32.000Matthew Zabransky: but to, like, really figure that question, like, the answer to that question out, but I have… the one thing I have been seeing is a lot more people starting to weigh those options, right? They're starting to look at the passes differently now. Now it's, like, not just, like, we're gonna pick up Indy automatically and, you know, whatever might throw a different pass on there. Now they.00:35:25.000 --> 00:35:26.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:35:32.000 --> 00:35:49.000Matthew Zabransky: think about, how am I using my pass? Am I going up to Lutzen for a weekend or 2? Does it make sense for me to just get an icon pass? Am I a pass holder at Lutzen, and want to add it on now that that's an option, and maybe do an out west trip, or if you're granted peak. So I'm starting to see more people analyzing.00:35:42.000 --> 00:35:44.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah. Okay.00:35:49.000 --> 00:36:03.000Matthew Zabransky: in an area where they haven't before. So I'll be curious to see this upcoming season will be a really good test to kind of figure out, like, where are those numbers starting to shift a little bit. But, um, from my first reaction is I have a feeling that there's gonna be a pretty big drop in IndyPass sales in the Midwest.00:36:03.000 --> 00:36:20.000Matthew Zabransky: For that reasoning. Um, and then I do think there's gonna be a bit of a spike, um, in, in IconPass sales. I don't think it's gonna obviously affect much on the Michigan side, Lower Peninsula side of things. I think that'll stay pretty stable. But I think this side, for sure, this market, Minneapolis specifically, a little bit of Chicago.00:36:20.000 --> 00:36:25.000Matthew Zabransky: Um, but I would expect to see a pretty good little spike in sales on the IconPass side.00:36:25.000 --> 00:36:35.000Stuart Winchester: So, Lutzen and Granite Peak, I think, huge losses for India. Snow River, less so, just because Powderhorn is right next door, and it's kind of the same size, and it's, you know, gets the same s.00:36:29.000 --> 00:36:30.000Matthew Zabransky: Mm.00:36:30.000 --> 00:36:32.000Matthew Zabransky: Yeah.00:36:35.000 --> 00:36:53.000Stuart Winchester: Continued building by Icon after that announcement, and, and some, and some continued bleeding by Indy. So, so Icon had a Giants Ridge, which is an excellent ski area up in Minnesota. It's, it's kind of in the middle of nowhere, but it's worth it. Uh, Devil's Head, which is a nice, uh, Madison ski area, and then.00:36:44.000 --> 00:36:45.000Matthew Zabransky: Yep.00:36:53.000 --> 00:37:10.000Stuart Winchester: in Michigan left Indy to join the Icon today, so those all joined Icon today. And then Indy also lost Little Switzerland, Nordic Mountain, and Crystal Ridge in Wisconsin. As of now, they are passless. So, you know, those are small ski areas, but they're really important sort of urban.00:37:10.000 --> 00:37:21.000Stuart Winchester: collectors, but do you worry, Matthew, and I'll say, Indy still has 37 ski areas in the Midwest, but do you worry that their coalition is splintering a little bit, starting to fall apart?00:37:16.000 --> 00:37:17.000Matthew Zabransky: Yeah.00:37:21.000 --> 00:37:40.000Matthew Zabransky: Yeah, a little bit. So I'm going to dance around this as carefully as I can because I have connections with all these owners, operators, and I talk to them on a regular basis, so I kind of know more than I probably should. But I'll try to navigate this the best that I can.00:37:35.000 --> 00:37:36.000Stuart Winchester: Yep.00:37:40.000 --> 00:37:56.000Matthew Zabransky: with… when IndyPass started, Doug Fish and the team did a really nice job of making sure that when they signed a ski area on, that they were being very, very intentional about its location, what… who was serving, and then when they would add another person on, a lot of times they would even approach.00:37:56.000 --> 00:38:04.000Matthew Zabransky: some of the nearby ski areas, and be like, hey, we're adding so-and-so, or making sure that those partnerships were all, you know.00:38:04.000 --> 00:38:22.000Matthew Zabransky: You're not too close where you're starting to monopolize business in different ways. I'll talk a little bit more about this in a second. So that was the approach for many, many years. However, I noticed a pretty big change a handful of years ago when it became more about a statistical difference than building those partnerships and.00:38:22.000 --> 00:38:41.000Matthew Zabransky: making those owners feel valued, if that makes sense. So it was like, okay, how can we just continue to pump numbers, get more? And in that process, what happened was a lot of ski areas in a small geographical area. And why has that caused a lot of issues for owners and operators? Is the idea of the IndyPass was, yeah.00:38:41.000 --> 00:38:50.000Matthew Zabransky: to create value with a portfolio of ski areas across the Midwest to rival that of, like, you know, other multi-mountain passes.00:38:50.000 --> 00:39:06.000Matthew Zabransky: Um, but what some of the owners and operators were starting to see was that instead of skiers buying a season pass at their local ski area, what they would do is buy the Indy Pass, ski two days at the ski area that would have been their local ski area, and then.00:39:01.000 --> 00:39:03.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:39:06.000 --> 00:39:22.000Matthew Zabransky: You know, in some cases, like in the Twin Cities, you have a handful that are within a two hour drive. So then it became this thing of like, oh, we're starting to see RR like personal season passes drop for then people that are using IndiePass redemptions to treat it as if it were basically a season pass.00:39:10.000 --> 00:39:12.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:39:22.000 --> 00:39:40.000Matthew Zabransky: I'm summarizing a lot there. There's a lot, like, to dive into, like, the details, but I can't, unfortunately, go into too much of that. But I think you can probably get the idea of why that was a little bit frustrating for some, um, owners and operators. So they really had to take a deep dive into some of those numbers and start to look at, like.00:39:24.000 --> 00:39:25.000Stuart Winchester: Yes.00:39:25.000 --> 00:39:26.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:39:29.000 --> 00:39:30.000Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.00:39:40.000 --> 00:39:50.000Matthew Zabransky: Where are these people coming from? How are the redemptions being used? And then, you know, how is this pass either, you know, net positive or net negative for us? And, you know, I always tell everybody, it's…00:39:50.000 --> 00:40:00.000Matthew Zabransky: the ski business is, you know, Stuart, is just a very, very low margin business, and it is a business. Like, at the end of the day, like, they have to treat it like…00:40:00.000 --> 00:40:22.000Matthew Zabransky: you know, like you gotta find out where you're losing money, or is there opportunity? And that assessment has to happen on a yearly basis. And sometimes when they run it for their business, they might be finding out that this might not be a great option for them. Or maybe it was, and things have changed. And now it's not so. It's an ongoing assessment. And like I was mentioning earlier, this is going to be a game that is going to play out over the next 10 years, probably where people are going to be switching teams all the time. And.00:40:22.000 --> 00:40:28.000Matthew Zabransky: and just get used to it. I mean, this is gonna be the way it is, unfortunately or fortunately, you know.00:40:26.000 --> 00:40:31.000Stuart Winchester: If you're Indy, what's your next move to try to build your coalition back up?00:40:31.000 --> 00:40:49.000Matthew Zabransky: Yeah, I think the biggest thing they need to do is get some sort of anchor on this side of the lake. I mean, you've got Nub's Knob on Lower Peninsula, which is a great offering. I think that that really does anchor that side for sure. Over here, you gotta start eyeing up some areas that would serve as that anchor ski area. I know Whitecap was added.00:40:37.000 --> 00:40:38.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:40:49.000 --> 00:41:04.000Matthew Zabransky: Um, which is good, but I think, like, you gotta think about, you know, what is that replacement for? You know, what is that replacement for Granite Peak? And it immediately comes to mind, like, a Cascade, right? Or one of those. And we all know, like, it's just gonna be a tough sale for some of these operations, because it's always that, like.00:40:59.000 --> 00:41:00.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, I think so.00:41:04.000 --> 00:41:09.000Matthew Zabransky: If you're an anchor skier, you've probably got a good operation and a good thing going already, so…00:41:09.000 --> 00:41:29.000Matthew Zabransky: you know, what is the pitch? Why should I join your indie pass? So it's always this give and take a little bit, but, you know, given that we've had a bunch of ski areas now come off of indie, there might be an opportunity to fill that little bit of a void and be kind of that new anchor spot that would then highlight that side of the lake. I don't know. It'll be curious to see kind of how things play out, but.00:41:29.000 --> 00:41:37.000Matthew Zabransky: Um, I think we'll see a little bit of this course correction go on for the next year or two, and then I think maybe we'll see some moves in the future. It's hard to say.00:41:36.000 --> 00:41:43.000Stuart Winchester: That was really good, so I'm gonna extend that question. If you're Icon, what's your next move in the Midwest, and if you're Epic?00:41:45.000 --> 00:42:02.000Matthew Zabransky: If if I'm icon, what I'm circling right now to be quite frank is somewhere in the Chicagoland area. There's an opportunity there, and I don't, you know, of course. What is it? We don't know, but I think if you could add an offering like a full offering to which is a little bit tricky to do. But yeah, like you think of something like.00:42:02.000 --> 00:42:24.000Matthew Zabransky: Cascade, Devil's Head, one of those areas, if you can get it into, like, a full area where you can now grab that Chicago market and have it really well solidified, because right now you're kind of in a, you know, it's about four hours from up to Granite Peak, and then Boeing the other way is something like that, five or something. So you're kind of in that weird dead zone there, so I think there's still a huge opportunity to grab that market, which obviously is a huge market of skiers and s.00:42:13.000 --> 00:42:15.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:42:18.000 --> 00:42:20.000Stuart Winchester: Yep.00:42:24.000 --> 00:42:30.000Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm. And if you're Epic, I mean, they have all city stuff, so what do you do if you're Epic?00:42:28.000 --> 00:42:29.000Matthew Zabransky: Yeah.00:42:30.000 --> 00:42:49.000Matthew Zabransky: Yeah, I mean, I think Epic's playing the card that they want. The one thing that I am curious to see with Epic is not necessarily that, it's what's gonna happen with some of these smaller regional ski areas that have kind of been left in the dust a little bit. Paley Peaks is the first one that comes to mind when you start to think about this Snow Creek.00:42:45.000 --> 00:42:46.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:42:49.000 --> 00:43:06.000Matthew Zabransky: These ones that are just kind of in no man's land a little bit. They kind of got brought in with the Peak Resorts acquisition. I'm not sure that they necessarily wanted some of these ski areas, but they came in as a package deal as part of that. So it's just gonna be kind of interesting to see. They need a lot of reinvestment over the next, you know.00:43:06.000 --> 00:43:23.000Matthew Zabransky: 10 to 15 years, for sure, if not even sooner than that. So it'll be curious to see kind of how they approach those sort of areas in those regions, because some of those are in their own land like there is no ski area relatively close to some of them, or a couple of hours to the nearest ski area. So it'll be curious to see how they leverage that going forward.00:43:23.000 --> 00:43:44.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, Matthew, I could sink into that one for about two hours and we could have a talk. I'm going to have to bring you back for that one. But for now, let's move on. And some of the folks who may not be familiar with the Midwest, we're going to talk about some of our favorite Midwest ski areas in just a moment. First, I want to tell you that this podcast is brought to you today by Profile Search International.00:43:44.000 --> 00:44:03.000Stuart Winchester: Profile Search is the only talent acquisition firm in the entire world that is 100% focused on the ski industry. They have used their intimate understanding of skiing and related industries, and of available candidates worldwide, to place hundreds of transformational leaders at the best and most progressive ski areas over the past.00:44:03.000 --> 00:44:19.000Stuart Winchester: 30 years. Profile Search has offices in the US and Canada, and they find and negotiate with the right leaders for their team. If you want to reach out to Profile Search, you can find them at profilesearch.com, and you can get their email or phone number there, or send me a note and I will.00:44:19.000 --> 00:44:26.000Stuart Winchester: make that connection for you. That is profilesearch.com. All right, Matthew, I gave you a challenge.00:44:26.000 --> 00:44:43.000Stuart Winchester: Or, or homework or something. I don't know. I'm sure you didn't have to think too hard about this, but we are going to break down our five favorite Midwest ski areas. We each have five. We'll, we'll start with five and, and, uh, and we'll take turns. Now, these are not what we think are the best necessarily because that's a whole different.00:44:43.000 --> 00:44:47.000Stuart Winchester: Conversation and I tried to think about.00:44:47.000 --> 00:44:59.000Stuart Winchester: If you've never skied the Midwest and are only going to ski here once in your life, where would I tell people to go? So, Matthew, I'll start with you. What is your number five favorite Midwest ski area and why?00:44:58.000 --> 00:45:14.000Matthew Zabransky: Yeah. So I'll just just key this up with like, yeah, I agree with you. I went with kind of like I took an approach of uniqueness. There's different things that I enjoy about this years for different reasons, and I'll obviously unpack them as we kind of go through number 5 for me was perfect north slopes.00:45:06.000 --> 00:45:08.000Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.00:45:14.000 --> 00:45:15.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:45:14.000 --> 00:45:32.000Matthew Zabransky: And at its face, you might not think that that's… it's, you know, it's a ski area right outside of, uh, Cincinnati, um, and the southern tip of Indiana down there. And for, you know, for people that have never heard of it, they'd be like, why does this… why is this even on here? Uh, but the moment that you visit there, I think it all becomes very clear. Their throughput.00:45:32.000 --> 00:45:51.000Matthew Zabransky: their snowmaking capacity, their operations. It is a gold standard when we think of how to run a ski area in extremely challenging conditions and environments. Perfect North is the one that comes to mind. The way that they can move people through their rental department is phenomenal. The way that they can have a stable season based off of where they are.00:45:51.000 --> 00:46:08.000Matthew Zabransky: is just absolutely mind blowing. And they've been doing this since day one. So this isn't something that they have. You know they're new to. They've been doing this for many, many, many decades now at this point. So it's it's definitely worth a visit. Their train's really good as well. They have some Olympians that have come out of there just some some good stuff going down at at perfect north slopes.00:46:08.000 --> 00:46:23.000Stuart Winchester: I'm so glad you said Perfect North, because I did not include it on my list, but I think they are one of the best operators in the country. My number 5 is Chestnut, Illinois, and everyone's… you know why, but everyone's gonna say, Illinois? Like, what does it matter with you?00:46:20.000 --> 00:46:23.000Matthew Zabransky: Yeah.00:46:23.000 --> 00:46:29.000Stuart Winchester: It is so unique, because you get up there, and it's about 500 vertical feet.00:46:29.000 --> 00:46:45.000Stuart Winchester: and you ski down to the freaking Mississippi River. It is… there is nothing else like that in American skiing. It is such a gorgeous view, and there's a train that goes by, and, and, and… the lift system is fantastic. Bunch of, you know, really maintained quads.00:46:45.000 --> 00:47:00.000Stuart Winchester: They have bars, which I like, which most Midwest ski areas don't, but they've retrofit them. Their grooming is phenomenal. Terrain's really good, steep and varied, and then one of the best things is on the backside, and the name of this probably is escaping me, it's like the backyard or something.00:46:47.000 --> 00:46:48.000Matthew Zabransky: Yeah. Okay.00:46:58.000 --> 00:47:00.000Matthew Zabransky: Uh, far side.00:47:00.000 --> 00:47:15.000Stuart Winchester: Okay, yeah, so they have a terrain park that could be its own ski area, and it has a lift by itself, and so all the badly behaved teenagers go over there and throw cans around and smoke. Maybe it was just the day I was there.00:47:00.000 --> 00:47:02.000Matthew Zabransky: Yeah.00:47:15.000 --> 00:47:20.000Stuart Winchester: Uh, but, but my number five is Chestnut, Illinois. Uh, number four, Matthew.00:47:20.000 --> 00:47:37.000Matthew Zabransky: This is gonna be. This is gonna be a deep cut here, and I'll give you my reasoning. So I'm a sucker for community rope toe ski places like it. It warms my heart every time every year there's at least one or 2 that I go to every time I show up. It's just the kids are so excited to show me around.00:47:23.000 --> 00:47:25.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:47:27.000 --> 00:47:29.000Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm. Oh, love it.00:47:37.000 --> 00:47:38.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah. Okay.00:47:37.000 --> 00:48:00.000Matthew Zabransky: They're so passionate and it really brings me back to why skiing is important and what it really is about, right? We talk about the steeps and all this fun stuff all the time, but like when you go to these places, there's just to see a kid just in jeans or whatever it may be after school ripping down. It's so fun. So one of my favorite, if not my favorite rope to ski area in the entire Midwest is a place called Hickory Hills. It's in Traverse City.00:47:59.000 --> 00:48:00.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:48:00.000 --> 00:48:18.000Matthew Zabransky: It's a beautiful setting overlooking the bay, and they have just all ropes and one conveyor, and it's stacked. And it was one of the first ski areas in the Midwest to offer night skiing, which I thought was really, really cool as well. Obviously, not a lot of vertical, maybe 200 feet of vertical, depending on which rope you're going on, but it's one of those places you just show up.00:48:10.000 --> 00:48:12.000Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.00:48:18.000 --> 00:48:30.000Matthew Zabransky: And they've reinvested, as recently as 2018, they built a new lodge, new snowmaking, and you just show up there, and you're just like, it brings you back to that, like, oh yeah, this is some good skiing, like, just…00:48:30.000 --> 00:48:37.000Matthew Zabransky: fundamental, good stuff, you see kids ripping around after school, it's like, it's what I think of when I think of, uh, rope tow places.00:48:36.000 --> 00:48:42.000Stuart Winchester: And long live the rope tow. I mean, it is amazing that I think they run five or six there, right?00:48:42.000 --> 00:48:46.000Matthew Zabransky: Yeah, I think they have six total, I believe, yeah.00:48:45.000 --> 00:48:59.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, I've been there in the summer. I've never skied there. I used to ski at Sugarloaf down the… down the road till that went out of business. My number 4 is one you already mentioned, Matthew. Whitecap, Wisconsin. I just love this crazy ski area. It is…00:48:49.000 --> 00:48:51.000Matthew Zabransky: Yo.00:48:59.000 --> 00:49:04.000Stuart Winchester: I like to be confused when I'm skiing. I like it when a ski area…00:49:04.000 --> 00:49:05.000Matthew Zabransky: Okay.00:49:04.000 --> 00:49:22.000Stuart Winchester: Kind of hides its secrets and has lots of little trails and the trail map doesn't quite match up with the, with what you actually see. And, and there's lifts all over the place and there's little pockets and there's, you can tell that they don't care if you ski in the trees. And, and, and Whitecap is, is one of the most confusing ski areas I've, I've ever been to and I love.00:49:21.000 --> 00:49:23.000Matthew Zabransky: Okay.00:49:22.000 --> 00:49:40.000Stuart Winchester: it's in the great snow pocket off of Lake Superior, gets 200 or more inches of snow average per year, which is a good thing, because they don't have a lot of snowmaking, uh, there. But I really, really love Whitecap, and by the way, we did not share ours before, so we may have some crossover here. So, uh, what's your number 3, Matthew?00:49:38.000 --> 00:49:39.000Matthew Zabransky: Thank you.00:49:40.000 --> 00:49:55.000Matthew Zabransky: Number three, I am going with a ski area that I think people around here would know, but I think people on the other side of the lake would not. And it is going to be Welch Village. Welch Village is an area that just, you look at the numbers, you read the stats, and you're like, this place…00:49:50.000 --> 00:49:51.000Stuart Winchester: Mmm.00:49:55.000 --> 00:50:15.000Matthew Zabransky: cannot be that good. But it really is. It skis so much bigger than the stats suggest. I think it's about 300 feet of vertical. They have like 50 something runs. But I think what Welch Village has that a lot of skiers don't is the amount of terrain variation and stepping that they have is just phenomenal for beginners, and the fact that it's only about 40 minutes from the Twin Cities.00:50:15.000 --> 00:50:31.000Matthew Zabransky: is amazing. So they have basically a run for every progression. If you want super steep, now obviously it's only 300 feet of vertical, so it's gonna be a handful of turns, but they have that. If you want something very, very gently sloped, they got that, and basically everything in between. And it's just one of those areas that is a perfect.00:50:23.000 --> 00:50:24.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:50:31.000 --> 00:50:41.000Matthew Zabransky: Kind of like just outside the urban reach, right? It's not like in your backyard, but it's close enough where you can easily go for a few hours and just a perfect place to learn how to ski and snowboard.00:50:41.000 --> 00:50:57.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, I love Welch Village. I was super impressed when I went there a few years ago, and it's not too far from Vail's Afton Alps, so you can do both in a day easily if you want to, but Welch Village, first-rate operation, absolutely one of the best in the Midwest. My number three is a nostalgia play, and I'm gonna say Boyne Mount.00:50:42.000 --> 00:50:44.000Matthew Zabransky: Okay.00:50:57.000 --> 00:51:13.000Stuart Winchester: The reason I love Boyne Mountain is not because of the fast lift, so they were the first six-pack in North America, and, you know, they put in the first eight-pack in the Midwest, and there's a lot of history there. The first chairlift in the world is there. They moved it from Sun Valley.00:51:13.000 --> 00:51:23.000Stuart Winchester: the single chair from Sun Valley back in the… in the 40s, and it's now the Hemlock double chair. But what I love Boyne Mountain is because when I… back in the 90s, when I lived in Michigan.00:51:23.000 --> 00:51:30.000Stuart Winchester: they would stay open into May. And back then, there was no social media, so no one knew about it, so I'd show up, and there would be…00:51:25.000 --> 00:51:26.000Matthew Zabransky: Mm-hmm.00:51:30.000 --> 00:51:47.000Stuart Winchester: not kidding, 10 people skiing, and they would be running that six-pack all day, and they would let it bump up, and just run idiots to light, and it's where I learned how to ski moguls, and I've always just been tremendously fond of Boyne for that reason. So while it is one of the nicest ski areas in the Midwest, just on its own terms.00:51:32.000 --> 00:51:34.000Matthew Zabransky: Thank you.00:51:47.000 --> 00:52:02.000Stuart Winchester: It's also very steep. It's just, I have that feeling of, you know, that memory of skiing in my t-shirt in May in 1996, you know, down the moguls at Boyne Mountain with five other people, and it was just, it's one of my favorite ski memories ever, and the fact that they.00:52:02.000 --> 00:52:13.000Stuart Winchester: empowered that and did that. When they lost money, there's no way they didn't lose money doing that. It just speaks a lot to the spirit that still animates that company, even though it's a bigger company now.00:52:06.000 --> 00:52:07.000Matthew Zabransky: Yeah.00:52:13.000 --> 00:52:16.000Stuart Winchester: Number two for you, Matthew.00:52:16.000 --> 00:52:31.000Matthew Zabransky: We'll get to this, I'm sure, at the end, but it's cool to see some of that going full circle. I don't want to give too much away. We'll get into that in a second. Number two for me is a pick that I think is going to change a lot this year, specifically because of the new lift alignment, and that's Marquette Mountain.00:52:17.000 --> 00:52:19.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, yeah, yeah.00:52:31.000 --> 00:52:32.000Stuart Winchester: Mmm.00:52:31.000 --> 00:52:50.000Matthew Zabransky: They have phenomenal terrain up there, they get great snow, and the thing that was always just missing was a little bit of polishing around the edges, and I think they're finally getting to that point now with, uh, you know, a lot of snowmaking investments over the last handful of years. This new chair from Dolphin Meyer, uh, triple gonna run up basically the center of the ski area, and I think it's really gonna change the way that this.00:52:50.000 --> 00:53:07.000Matthew Zabransky: Uh, previously, it was divided into kind of two almost separate pods. It kind of had this weird split down the middle. It was kind of hard to navigate. But given that this one's gonna go right up to the center there, you're gonna be able to get full top-to-bottom access a lot more easily, be able to access a lot more of the terrain across the port, the entire, you know, trail map off the front side there.00:52:54.000 --> 00:52:55.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:53:07.000 --> 00:53:23.000Matthew Zabransky: and I think it's 1 of those that like it. This they have the terrain, and there's not many areas in the Midwest that have the terrain. It's usually the other way where it's like, Yeah, okay, we have. You know the infrastructure. We have the location, but we don't have the steeps, or we don't have the trees, or whatever it may be.00:53:15.000 --> 00:53:16.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:53:18.000 --> 00:53:20.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:53:23.000 --> 00:53:34.000Matthew Zabransky: It's a Marquette, good city up there in the UP, really the only major city in the UP, but they have a good demographic up there. And I think with the changes that they're gonna see this year with the new lift, it's gonna be really fun to watch.00:53:27.000 --> 00:53:28.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:53:34.000 --> 00:53:44.000Stuart Winchester: Not only do they have the terrain, they have the snow. I mean, they're another one of those Lake Superior. They don't get quite as much as up in the Keweenaw or Snow River, but they do get a fair amount.00:53:36.000 --> 00:53:38.000Matthew Zabransky: Yeah, yeah.00:53:44.000 --> 00:53:45.000Matthew Zabransky: They do.00:53:45.000 --> 00:53:54.000Stuart Winchester: So my number two, I'm kind of going chalk on these last two, so you can probably guess what my number one is. My number two is a very obvious one, and that's Lutzen.00:53:54.000 --> 00:53:56.000Matthew Zabransky: Mm-hmm.00:53:54.000 --> 00:54:10.000Stuart Winchester: You know, for, for folks who have never been to Lutzen, it, first of all, it has a gondola. Now, now it's more of a transit lift. It goes more sideways than up and down, but it does have, is it eight or 900 feet of vertical? I think 800 and, or you could ski down to, yeah, of lift served vertical. And the.00:54:00.000 --> 00:54:01.000Matthew Zabransky: Thank you.00:54:05.000 --> 00:54:07.000Matthew Zabransky: It's… yeah.00:54:10.000 --> 00:54:26.000Stuart Winchester: enormous. It's really four separate mountains and it goes in all different directions and they have two six packs and they have that Gandhi, which is fairly new. I think within the last 10 years, they built that to replace their older one. Uh That is one of the best run ski areas in the Midwest. Another one that will stay open into May.00:54:26.000 --> 00:54:42.000Stuart Winchester: when they can. Oh, and speaking of views, I mean, the view off of Moose Mountain of Lake Superior just knock you on your ass. It is so good. I really love Lutzen Mountain, which takes us, Matthew, to your number one ski area in the Midwest.00:54:42.000 --> 00:55:01.000Matthew Zabransky: Man, man, this is one, and it's funny ‘cause I'm working on this video right now, and it's a place that every time I leave this ski area or while I'm at this gear, I just have a smile on my face the entire time. It has nothing flashy, but they do everything right, and that's nub knob. I mean, you go to this place and you just…00:54:42.000 --> 00:54:44.000Stuart Winchester: Favorite ski area.00:54:59.000 --> 00:55:00.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, thank you.00:55:01.000 --> 00:55:17.000Matthew Zabransky: It's just crazy to me that we were working on this video and my editor, Nick, we got to the end of the video and I mentioned like, “Oh, it doesn't have any high-speed lifts, but it almost feels like it does just because of the way that they're aligned and the way the traffic flows and the way that the runs are cut and everything.00:55:17.000 --> 00:55:34.000Matthew Zabransky: It feels like another one that just, you read the stats and you're like, okay, that sounds decent. But then you get on site and you're just like, this is just a really well run ski area. Snowmaking is always top notch. Grooming is amazing. Lifts spin, they don't stop very often. I mean, everything is just really well polished.00:55:31.000 --> 00:55:33.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:55:34.000 --> 00:55:45.000Matthew Zabransky: the core skiing experience, and they really nail it, and again, it's one of those, like, every time I come off the hill there, I'm just like, man, that was a great day of skiing, even if, you know, it's raining outside, I feel like.00:55:43.000 --> 00:55:44.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:55:45.000 --> 00:56:01.000Stuart Winchester: And as a… just to underscore how good of a scary it is, it's right across the street from Boyne Highlands, and it has been, you know, obviously its whole time, but for a scary to succeed, a lot of times, a smaller scary will fail next to a big corporate area, but Nubs has managed to flourish. Matthew, we actually had no crossover, because.00:55:46.000 --> 00:55:47.000Matthew Zabransky: Okay.00:55:49.000 --> 00:55:51.000Matthew Zabransky: Yeah.00:56:01.000 --> 00:56:16.000Stuart Winchester: as you can probably guess, is Mount Bohemia, and I'm sure that's probably why you left it off. Uh, Mount Bohemia, for the folks who are not familiar with it, I wrote an article last year, I called it, Mount Bohemia, the scarier the Midwest deserves, because when Mount Bohemia opened in 2000, it.00:56:02.000 --> 00:56:03.000Matthew Zabransky: Hey.00:56:04.000 --> 00:56:07.000Matthew Zabransky: Yep.00:56:16.000 --> 00:56:31.000Stuart Winchester: And it has 900 feet of vertical. They do not groom. They have no snowmaking. They get 300 inches annually. It's all, almost all, glades. Their glading is some of the best I've ever seen anywhere, because there's a lot of underbrush in Michigan.00:56:20.000 --> 00:56:22.000Matthew Zabransky: Okay.00:56:31.000 --> 00:56:48.000Stuart Winchester: Uh, the place is an absolute riot. Talk about culture. You get on the ground and you're like, oh, what's here? They don't even have a proper base lodge. It's, it's all these yurts and then they have this giant complex of hot tubs for some reason that, that everyone's always in there drinking beer and.00:56:48.000 --> 00:56:55.000Stuart Winchester: And the skiing is just… it's great! It's… it's… there's nothing else like it anywhere in North America, where there's just…00:56:55.000 --> 00:57:12.000Stuart Winchester: that much just free skiing available off of a lift, and Lonnie, the owner, has been on a couple times, and I cannot say enough good things about Nubs Knob, including… and I'll let people do their own research on this, but their season pass is $117, or $99 for… you don't want Fridays and Saturdays, and you get all kinds of reciprocals with it, so…00:57:12.000 --> 00:57:16.000Stuart Winchester: It's not a bad multi-mountain pass on its own. So…00:57:12.000 --> 00:57:14.000Matthew Zabransky: Yeah.00:57:15.000 --> 00:57:30.000Matthew Zabransky: I was so. I was so nervous the 1st so I went to Bohemia last year for the 1st time ever, and I it has been on my list forever, and I keep like I want to hit it right, because I don't want to like. Just go there and not be able to ski everything. And the entire time I've been super fortunate to see a lot of amazing places in in North.00:57:18.000 --> 00:57:20.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:57:24.000 --> 00:57:26.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, yeah, yeah.00:57:30.000 --> 00:57:49.000Matthew Zabransky: And I was super nervous it was not going to live up to the hype, because I was like, this place is hyped up so much, there is no way that it is going to live up to the hype, and it absolutely did. It's one of the most unique scary areas that you'll ever go to, the operations, the bus system, the hot tub. Nothing makes sense there, but it all does in a weird way. It's an absolute riot.00:57:49.000 --> 00:58:04.000Stuart Winchester: I couldn't have said any better. I always tell people, if you ski one place in the Midwest in your life, make it Mount Bohemia. All right, now, Matthew, what I want you to leave us with today is… I imagine, maybe deliberately, you didn't mention any of these ski areas, but one of the…00:58:04.000 --> 00:58:15.000Stuart Winchester: things that you do an awesome job with every year is covering the race to open in the Midwest. So, so tell us about the race to open. Who's involved?00:58:15.000 --> 00:58:19.000Stuart Winchester: When it generally takes place and how you cover it.00:58:19.000 --> 00:58:35.000Matthew Zabransky: Yeah, so the race to open is a pretty big deal across the Midwest. It was something that before I started this website and YouTube channel, I did not really realize a lot, but the Midwest is always usually fighting for one of the first areas to open in the entire country on occasion. It really just depends on the weather.00:58:35.000 --> 00:58:52.000Matthew Zabransky: But what

Illinois is set to become the first Midwestern state to allow terminally ill patients to seek life-ending medication from their physicians when the law goes into effect on Saturday. There's a last minute push to stop the law before it starts. Host - Jon HansenGuests - Mike Leonard, Patrick Dolan Want to donate to our non-profit newsroom? CLICK HEREWho we areBlock Club Chicago is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit news organization dedicated to delivering reliable, relevant and nonpartisan coverage of Chicago's diverse neighborhoods. We believe all neighborhoods deserve to be covered in a meaningful way.We amplify positive stories, cover development and local school council meetings and serve as watchdogs in neighborhoods often ostracized by traditional news media.Ground-level coverageOur neighborhood-based reporters don't parachute in once to cover a story. They are in the neighborhoods they cover every day building relationships over time with neighbors. We believe this ground-level approach not only builds community but leads to a more accurate portrayal of a neighborhood.Stories that matter to you — every daySince our launch seven years ago, we've published more than 30,000 stories from the neighborhoods, covered hundreds of community meetings and send daily and neighborhood newsletters to more than 150,000 Chicagoans. We've built this loyalty by proving to folks we are not only covering their neighborhoods, we are a part of them. Some of us have internalized the national media's narrative of a broken Chicago. We aim to change that by celebrating our neighborhoods and chronicling the resilience of the people who fight every day to make Chicago a better place for all.

Fire up your ovens because this week, it's all about Southern and Midwestern baking. First, we catch up with the inimitable Carla Hall about her latest projects, including her one-woman show and her first-ever baking book that brings her love for baking and savory cooking together. She walks us through practical tips to help you feel comfortable in the kitchen, from pre-prepping pancake batter to investing in a scale and making the most of her ingredients, as she does for her “Black-ish cake” and Chocolate Focaccia. Carla Hall is the author of Carla Bakes: Sweet, Savory, and from the Heart: A Baking Book. She left us with her recipe for Savory Parmesan Shortbread Sandwich Cookies with Tomato Basil Cream Cheese. Then we head to the Midwest to talk with Martin Sorge, author and winner of the Great American Baking Show, about his love for baking. He walks us through his love for whole grain flours and how to put them to good use in your baking (hint: buckwheat for flavorful shortbreads, rye for gooey brownies and chewy cookies!) and his technique for fluffy cakes. Martin Sorge is the author of Great Bakes: Modern Classic Bakes From the Midwest, and he left us with his recipe for Coconut Caramel Brownies.Head to our YouTube channel and watch this extended cut of our interview with Carla Hall. Subscribe so you don't miss anything!Broadcast dates for this episode:September 11, 2026 (originally aired)Celebrate kitchen companionship with a gift to The Splendid Table today.

Keith breaks down the "baseline trap" in investor psychology, showing how rising income and lifestyle creep can quietly undermine the feeling of financial freedom.  He then shares a grounded outlook for U.S. home prices, outlining how inflation, AI-driven job growth, limited inventory, and strong homeowner equity are shaping the market.  He closes with a data-driven look at where population growth is heading through 2040, especially in Texas and Florida, and what that could mean for long-term real estate demand and investing strategy. Episode Page: GetRichEducation.com/622 For access to properties or free help with a GRE Investment Coach, start here: GREmarketplace.com GRE Free Investment Coaching: GREinvestmentcoach.com Get mortgage loans for investment property: RidgeLendingGroup.com or call 855-74-RIDGE  or e-mail: info@RidgeLendingGroup.com Invest with Freedom Family Investments.  For predictable 10-12% quarterly returns, visit FreedomFamilyInvestments.com/GRE or text  FAMILY to 66866  Join Mid South Home Buyers' one-time, free live webinar featuring Keith Weinhold on September 30 at GetRichEducation.com/MidSouth to learn how Memphis' economic expansion could create new real estate investment opportunities, and have your questions answered in real time. Will you please leave a review for the show? I'd be grateful. Search "how to leave an Apple Podcasts review"  For advertising inquiries, visit: GetRichEducation.com/ad Best Financial Education: GetRichEducation.com Get our wealth-building newsletter free— GREletter.com  Our YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/c/GetRichEducation Follow us on Instagram: @getricheducation Complete episode transcript:   Keith Weinhold  0:01   Welcome to GRE. I'm your host Keith Weinhold. Investor psychology often falls into the baseline trap. Learn what's going to happen to home prices over the next year. Then more than half of America's population growth until 2040 will occur in just these two states. All today on Get Rich Education. What if I told you that one of America's strongest cash flow real estate markets is also becoming the new brains and brawn behind AI? That city is Memphis, believe it or not. In September 30th, we're going to show you why the smart money is paying attention now, along with an investing opportunity you won't want to miss. Join me, Terry Kerr and Matthew Van Horn of Mid South Homebuyers, the largest turnkey company in Memphis with more than 6000 homes under management, for a free live webinar the likes of which I've never done before. We're going to look at what billions in new investment could mean for jobs, housing demand, neighborhood appreciation, and your portfolio. Everyone who attends live will also get exclusive access to the best deal terms Mid South has ever offered. Reserve your free seat at getricheducation.com/midsouth again. that september 30. Don't say we didn't tell you. Save your spot at getricheducation.com/midsouth   Speaker 1  1:34   You're listening to the show that has created more financial freedom than nearly any show in the world. This is Get Rich Education.   Keith Weinhold  1:50   Welcome to GRE from Jackson Hole, Wyoming, to Jackson, Mississippi, and across 188 nations worldwide. I'm Keith Weinhold. This is Get Rich Education, and Happy Labor Day. Let's talk about your investor psychology, because as you grow your wealth and your portfolio size, there is a trap that you will almost certainly fall into, and I'm not infallible. I've fallen into this trap to some extent too. That is the baseline trap. It's the tendency for every improvement in your income, your wealth, or your lifestyle to become your new normal. Once this happens, the improvement stops feeling like progress, and you need even more just to feel equally successful, if you get used to flying first class and then you have to drop back to coach again, it feels less like flying and more like being deported. Psychologically, we fall into the baseline trap because the human mind evaluates Life relatively, not absolutely. We don't simply ask ourselves how good is my life, how good is my situation. Instead, we ask how does this compare with what I've recently experienced, what I expected, and what others have, and there are a number of forces that drive the baseline trap. One is hedonic adaptation. Hedonic means pleasure seeking. People rapidly adjust to improvements. The first month of receiving a new $5,000 in passive income that feels transformative. After two years, it feels completely ordinary. The income didn't become less valuable. Your nervous system simply stopped registering it as new. Yesterday's luxury became today's wallpaper. A force driving the baseline trap is a shifting reference point. Gains and losses are measured against a mental baseline. Once your portfolio reaches, say, a $2 million net worth, well, your mind soon begins treating the $2 million as mine. You're like, hey, this is mine now, even if much of it came from recent appreciation. A decline to 1.8 million, therefore, feels like losing 200k rather than still having substantially more wealth than you did just a few years ago. Well, instead, you're only focused on the 200k paper loss. Then there's loss aversion psychologically. Losses generally hurt more than equivalent gains feel good. After a higher standard becomes normal, surrendering and. Any part of it feels like some blood-curdling loss. That's why reducing spending from 20k to 15k per month that can feel painful, even if 15k once felt luxurious to you.   Keith Weinhold  5:16   There's also the lifestyle creep component. People convert variable gains into fixed commitments. What do I mean? I mean like a strong income year. Oh, pretty soon that becomes a larger mortgage. Rental cash flow that becomes a vehicle payment. A bonus that becomes private school tuition, portfolio appreciation. Well, that supports new borrowing. See, pleasures that were once optional have now become obligations. And you got to ask, wait, how did that happen to you? You're supposed to have a life of options and not obligations. That's what financial freedom is supposed to be. The baseline then is no longer merely psychological; it becomes embedded in real monthly expenses. Then there's also the dangerous driver of the baseline trap that's called, oh no, social comparison. We commonly measure success against our peers, but instead, what you should do is measure it against your former self. Because as you become wealthier, see your comparison group changes too. If you've got five rentals, you soon stop comparing yourself with someone that owns none, you might even begin comparing yourself with people who own 50 of them, and why not? It's natural, after all. That is where you want to go, despite enormous progress. See, that's how you can feel left further behind. Then there's the recency bias. Your mind gives enormously disproportionate weight to recent experience. A few years of 15% returns, like what happened in 2021 and 2022 in real estate. Oh, you could begin expecting 15% after rapidly appreciating real estate, continued appreciation feels normal. A favorable cycle gets mistaken for the natural baseline, and then when conditions normalize, ordinary performance feels rather defective. Then there's identity inflation. That's a trap. This is when accomplishments become woven into your very identity, like I'm a multi-million-dollar entrepreneur, or I own 20 properties, or my income always grows. Okay, once success becomes identity, maintaining the baseline feels necessary just to preserve your self worth. Now, with this condition, see a temporary setback. It doesn't merely affect the numbers.   Keith Weinhold  8:08   It feels like evidence that you're becoming a lesser person, and the brain rewards progress more than possession. Humans are energized by movement toward a goal, reaching the goal often produces less lasting satisfaction than you expect. Buying the 10th rental creates a dopamine hit, and owning it three years later does not. The investor therefore creates another target, not always because another property is even needed, but because continued pursuit restores the feeling of progress, success erases the memory of constraint. As your wealth grows, it becomes difficult to remember emotionally what financial insecurity even felt like I mean you might intellectually remember earning 60k, but you no longer experience today's 300k income in comparison with it. Your comparison point quietly changes from your former life to your best recent year. The paradox is that your circumstances improve faster than your experience of them? The goal is not to stop growing; it is to prevent every improvement from becoming a new psychological necessity. Keep growing your means, but don't let success redefine enough every time you achieve it, don't let it redefine enough. Let's say you acquire rentals and you do generate another 5k per month. The trap is that your spending and expectations gradually rise by 5k. You're wealthier, but you don't. Don't feel freer. Instead of investments buying freedom, they merely finance a more expensive baseline, and it can distort how you view your portfolio. 10 properties once felt like an extraordinary accomplishment, and soon 10 feels ordinary, and 20 becomes necessary. You keep moving the finish line, and this is closely related to hedonic adaptation and lifestyle creep. But it extends beyond spending because your definition of enough keeps on rising. So the antidote certainly is not living small forever-it's deliberately separating the growth rates of your assets and your lifestyle. What you want to do is grow your means faster than you grow your baseline. Really, that's the key. You're gonna be more satisfied. Instead of simply living below your means, you sure do want to grow your means, but don't let every gain become a permanent new obligation. Let some additional cash flow purchase you things like time, resilience, and optionality-not merely nicer recurring expenses. If your lifestyle rises as fast as your passive income, you're wealthier, but no freer.   Keith Weinhold  11:28   So here's what you do: when your income rises, let your lifestyle rise about half that much. Otherwise, if you upgrade your lifestyle too much, say that you receive an extra $3,000 in monthly rental income, then you add in a luxury car payment, better vacations, and more expensive restaurants. Pretty soon, that extra 3k that feels necessary instead of liberating, and then there's also the record income comparison part of the trap. Say your business earns $1 million during an exceptional year. The next year, it earns a still impressive 850k, but you experience it as failure because the unusually strong year became your new baseline. Don't let that happen. You can compare yourself to others that can be motivating, but the more important comparison is to the former you. Now, another way that investors fall into the baseline trap in real estate is how an exceptional market becomes the standard. Say that you bought rental properties in 2012. Well, 2012 was perhaps the best time to buy real estate in generations. This was shortly after the global financial crisis, so there was this confluence of low prices, low interest rates, strong cash flow, and you had little competition as well. I mean, you had it all in 2012, and those deals performed spectacularly in today's market. Available properties produce lower initial cash flow, but they could still deliver respectable total returns through appreciation, rent income, principal paydown, tax benefits, and inflation profiting. But a losing investor rejects all of those things because they aren't as attractive as the once-in-a-generation deals of 2012, or even the rock-bottom low-rate days of 2020, they fell into the baseline trap. The trap here is that an unusually favorable period for real estate became the new benchmark. It's sort of like how last week I told you about how the deal structure always changes over time from the Reagan administration until today. Today the deal is with Burr properties, and it's also with buying new builds with rate buydowns. But see, in 2012 there were almost zero available new build properties that were created for investors to rent to others.   Keith Weinhold  14:25   Over time, with these new builds that you're adding now, you're going to have fewer maintenance and repair expenses. Tenants tend to stay in new builds longer, and new builds appreciate better over the long run. See, I wasn't getting any of those benefits in 2012, and I bought rental real estate in 2012, and I bought real estate recently as well. Not falling into the baseline trap, because today it's still difficult to find any investment bet. Than residential real estate with a loan, it is a scarce asset that people are going to continue to need. So here we are today, about 15 years on from 2012. Water market conditions like now. Let's talk about that and what can we expect for the next year? National home prices keep rising, but they're only about one half of 1% higher than they were a year ago. I mean, that's an appreciation level with the enthusiasm of someone attending a seven a.m. meeting. I do expect national home prices to keep rising modestly over the next year. Let me tell you about why, and then what the drivers are. And to be clear, we're talking about single-family homes up to fourplexes here. I'll discuss apartments later today. Well, the drivers for continued price growth are many of the same reasons that home prices are up just a little since last year. There are four of them. These four are inflation, the AI boom, short inventory, and a lack of distressed sellers. So let's unpack all of these four factors that I've identified for putting a floor underneath home prices, inflationary pressure is poised to raise replacement cost, energy, wages, and tariffs make those inputs more expensive, and the more war we have, the more inflation we have. A home is a bundle of land, labor, lumber, concrete, copper, and all sorts of energy inputs, plus 14 trips to Home Depot because someone forgot the correct nails and screws. That's what a home is. Recent home price growth it has lagged today's 3.4% CPI inflation rate. So again, we're not even talking about inflation-adjusted gains here. AI that creates local housing heat. It's not so much a nationwide driver of home prices. And in a moment, I'll tell you the top five housing markets for AI-led home price growth, but how does AI investment push up home prices anyway? How does that happen? People are getting high salaries, signing bonuses, and stock options that produces well-funded buyers. They make big down payments, or they even pay all cash for homes, and when a buyer pays all cash for a home, they can pay absolutely any price because they don't have to get an appraisal that comes along with a loan for a financed property.   Keith Weinhold  17:53   That's how all cash buyers can really push up prices. The growth in AI companies that has really helped push the S and P 500 higher that fuels a wealth effect nationwide that makes everybody feel wealthier regardless of where you live as long as you're invested in the stock market but the localized effects with those higher AI wages and signing bonuses in order they are most potent in San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, New York City, and Boston, and none of those are good cash flow investor markets. Still, short housing inventory is contributing to higher prices, and hey, it's time that we check on this again. Ever since the inventory crunch started to plummet in 2021 and reached its lowest point in 2022, I've been updating you on the housing supply, and I always keep it same same. I cite the same data source, the Federal Reserve Economic Data's active listing count, Fred's active listing count, which counts single-family and townhomes and condos, all wrapped up in this number. And the figure it still hasn't recovered at 1.1 million homes. Now it is 2% higher than last year, 2% more supply than last year, but overall housing supply is still 9% below pre-pandemic levels. And there's one important thing to keep in mind that most don't think about when you hear that figure that housing supply is 9% below pre-pandemic times in 2019, that does not mean we're 9% short. That is because even in 2019 there was a housing shortage, and we are 9% below that yet, keeping. Upward pressure on prices and the most supply-constrained markets today. It includes both good and poor cash-flowing investor markets.   Keith Weinhold  20:10   They are New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, Hartford, Providence, Milwaukee, Boston, Cleveland, Virginia Beach, and Kansas City. All of those places remain especially tight with housing inventory, and then finally, this fourth of four reasons I've cited for continued upward pressure on home prices are the fact that distressed sellers-they are few and far between-and you need a lot of those in order to have a serious down cycle, after the 2008 housing crash, millions of owners were underwater. They owed more on their homes than they were worth. Lending standards were irresponsibly loose. Adjustable rate mortgages were resetting higher. I mean, a lot of people had little choice but to sell or to hand the keys back to the bank. Distress, distress, distress. Today is almost the mirror image. Here's what's really happening with homeowners having this record equity position today-an average of over $300,000. Many also locked in at fixed mortgage rates below 5% it means that they're enjoying perhaps the cheapest long-term debt that they are ever going to have. Lending standards have been strong, foreclosure rates remain low, and virtually nobody is being forced to sell. That matters more than most people think because housing crashes need a lot of forced sellers, owners who must accept almost any price in order to escape the property. But today, most homeowners they can simply either stay put, or if they're going to move out of the home, keep it and rent out the home, or they can wait for a better offer. No distress. In other words, buyers might be frustrated, but sellers-they're just not desperate. And without desperation, it is difficult for home prices to fall sharply. So the bottom line here with today's home prices and looking into next year, home price growth is apparent, but it's weak. The ingredients for a national price collapse are nowhere to be found, so this does not spell boom or crash. Home prices appear poised to keep slowly grinding higher, but with this low affordability, that keeps them from soaring, say 10 or 12% higher. I don't see that happening. And of course, each December, I make my home price forecast to the exact percentage point for the year ahead, so you can look forward to that soon. The Get Rich Education home price appreciation forecast that I made late last year for this year. It looks like it's going to be almost spot on. Of course, unlike a lot of analysts, transparently, I also give you the result of how closely the forecast hit the target every year, so you can look forward to that too. Hey, if you like this show, there's more content where this comes from. Sign up for our complimentary newsletter. That way, you can see the graphs and charts and maps that I break down. If you like what you hear on Get Rich Education, every week I show you what's really happening with real estate rents, inflation, interest rates, and the economy, and more importantly, what you can do about it. You'll get sharp insights, useful opportunities, and a few laughs along the way. Yeah, a couple knee slappers sprinkled in there with actionable strategies, like the savviest way to get rent increases. Get smarter in just a three to four minute read every week. Join 1000s of smart investors right now at greletter.com because your inbox could use fewer coupons and more financial freedom. That is greletter.com. More straight ahead.   Keith Weinhold  24:20   I'm Keith Weinhold. You're listening to Get Rich Education. What if you got your mortgage loans the same place I get mine? You sure can at Ridge Lending Group NMLS 42056. They provided GRE listeners with more loans than anyone because Ridge specializes in investment property. They'll help you build a long-term plan for growing your real estate empire with leverage. Start your prequal and even chat directly with President Chaley Ridge. While it's on your mind, start at ridgelendinggroup.com. That's ridgelendinggroup.com. Let me ask you something. If you've worked hard to build wealth, is your. Money positioned to actually support your goals. A lot of accredited investors leave capital sitting in cash because it feels safe, but inflation and missed income opportunities can quietly erode its value. Freedom Family Investments offers freedom notes for investors seeking structured income backed by real estate. It's a straightforward approach built on real assets, not speculation. In full disclosure, I'm an investor myself. What I like is that their team walks you through how it all works, so you can decide if it aligns with your portfolio and income goals. Every investment carries risk, and nothing is guaranteed. But with a track record of consistent, on-time investor payouts. They built real credibility. Go to freedomfamilyinvestments.com to book a clarity call, or text family to 66866. That's family to 66866.    Dana Dunford  25:59   This is Hemline's co-founder Dana Dunford. Listen to Get Rich Education with Keith Weinhold, and don't quit your daydream.   Keith Weinhold  26:15   Welcome back to Get Rich Education. I'm your host Keith Weinhold. There will only ever be one episode 622, and you're listening to it. I hope you're enjoying the late summer. I'm wringing every bit of time and enjoyment out of it that I can. I don't know if this part was enjoyable, but I ran an all-out mile on a track. I wanted to see how fast I could run a mile. I had a friend pace me, and I got a 631. I was happy with that since I hadn't done any specific training. Yes, a mile is more than four laps on a track as well. Did you know that? Yes, this detail-oriented shaved mammal here diligently measured off that extra nine point something meters. Ah, I'll tell you that fourth lap hurt so badly that if my buddy weren't there, I might have just quit and not finished the mile. But summer's days are numbered, and that's too bad because it is my favorite season of the year. The NFL season kicks off in just two days on the ninth, with Seattle hosting the New England Patriots in a rematch of last year's Super Bowl. So then, I guess it looks like your productivity for the week will end with a respectable two-day run as you tune in to that game. Where is the future demand for real estate going to come from? It comes from a growing population. The U.S. is expected to add 21 and a half million people from 2025 to 2040. 21 and a half million more people. The overall population it's expected to grow from about 341 million up to 363 million. That is where we're going. That's per the Census Bureau and the University of Virginia, projecting 341 up to 363 by the year 2040, which is just a little over 13 years away. Okay, so that part is not so surprising, but here is what is absolutely staggering: more than half of this entire increase is projected to occur in just two states, just two of the 50 states, more than half of the increase. Do you know what they are? In fact, I showed you a map of this in a recent newsletter, but I can talk about it and expand on it more here.   Keith Weinhold  28:52   The two states that are expected to account for more than half of the nation's overall population growth through 2040 are Texas and Florida. They're already the second and third most populous states, respectively. It's kind of like America looked at the map, checked their weather app, and started packing sunscreen. Texas is expected to add 6.6 million residents. Florida welcoming another 4.6 million during this span. So that is over 11 million new people between them. This is like taking the entire population of Georgia and dropping it into those two already booming states, that much growth in this fairly short period of time, for real estate investors, more people that generally means more demand for our housing product, and I'll get back to the staggering Texas and Florida imbalance in just a moment. Because there are big gains in other investor-friendly southeastern states like Georgia and Tennessee, the Mountain West should swell alone. The South, okay, the region that the Census Bureau delineates as the South, which sort of runs from Maryland all the way down south and then west out toward Texas, the South just until 2040 is expected to account for 78 percent of the growth. That is just staggering. Cash flow hotbed Indiana that should grow by nearly a quarter million residents as well. The Carolinas are ballooning. Already the most densely populated state in the nation, New Jersey, that will get more dense with some pretty healthy population growth. Its residents have not discovered elbow room, but not every state is adding population. 14 states are expected to shrink, led by Illinois losing 650,000 people and New York down 457k. Again, this is all through 2040. In fact, a small loss cluster actually runs through the South, though West Virginia, Mississippi, and Louisiana-they're projected to lose 440,000 people combined. You know that whole theory that sometimes you hear people talk about, like with Earth warming and drying, you're going to have people stampeding toward the freshwater Great Lakes states. That is probably farcical. That just has not shown up in the data. That people are moving in droves to say cooler Michigan and Wisconsin for those reasons.   Keith Weinhold  31:46   It's just not happening now. Of course, population projections are not delivered from Mount Sinai on stone tablets. Besides births and deaths, the level of future immigration, of course, that's the real wild card here. After the Trump presidency ends by 2029, the next administration that could tighten or loosen the immigration spigot, that could materially reshape the map. But they're probably not going to tighten immigration. I mean, they couldn't because the flow really couldn't be crimped much more than it already is. People love to poke fun at California, but even in 2040, it is expected to barely retain its crown and edge out Texas to still be the most populous state: 39 million versus 38 million, respectively, for California and Texas by 2040. But yeah, Texas and Florida-they are the real stories here, and why droves of people are attracted there for cheaper housing, jobs, warm weather, a business-friendly environment, and Texas and Florida are also places where builders can still build without completing some side quest worthy of a video game with all their permits and regulations and roadblocks. You're largely free of those things in Texas and Florida. Now there are two more important factors to keep in mind here. Some bigger picture context. I've talked before about how the overall American mobility rate is down, and this is a long, long trend. Decade after decade, fewer people move and more people stay put, which is contrary to popular belief. This lower mobility rate, and another factor that gives you perspective is that as real estate investors, we know all this stuff I've been talking about here. These population changes-they only look at the demand side. The supply side matters just as much, despite their slower population growth. Northeast and Midwest states build less new inventory, and that is why Northeastern and Midwestern housing prices and rents are still growing faster today than they are in the Sun Belt, despite all of those Sun Belt construction cranes. You know, too many construction cranes. It looks bullish, and it actually is, but it spikes supply and it suppresses prices. And really, the bottom line here with American population growth from now until 2040 is follow the people, but count the rooftops. Population growth creates housing demand, while limited construction creates scarcity.   Keith Weinhold  34:46   The best opportunities often emerge where those two forces collide. That's what you really want to look for: demand and scarcity. Now, the apartment space. We all know that's been beleaguered for about three or four years, ever since higher mortgage rates set in and high construction levels conspired to keep apartment rents suppressed. In fact, multifamily construction had a peak in this cycle during 2024. That's when 600,000 units were built back in 2024. That was the most new apartment supply since 1986. That is when Cheers, MacGyver, and Miami Vice were on television. Run DMC was on urban radio. MTV was a dominant cultural force, the most new apartment supply since 1986. That's when kids were playing with GI Joe's, He-Man, and My Little Pony. For adults, fashion-wise, they were wearing enough shoulder padding to survive a minor collision. So, lots of new apartment supply to get absorbed. It is getting more and more absorbed. There are more signs there now because the national median apartment rent has now increased for seven months in a row. That's according to Apartment List. Also, the apartment vacancy rate has dropped for six straight months, and do you have any idea what the national apartment vacancy rate is? It has dropped down to now 7.1% Inevitably, overbuilt apartments will be absorbed with a growing population. Lots of great episodes coming up here on the show, where you might be in for a surprise next week. A renowned macro economist will be here on the show with us. I think we all know that in 1971, the U.S. had a lot of economic changes. That's when Nixon completely eliminated us from the gold standard, and the economic system shifted from capitalism to creditism back then. Well, now we appear to be leaving creditism and entering a new economic phase. This could be seismic. Next week here on the show, he'll reveal what the new era is called and how you need to prepare for it, that's next week here on episode 623. If you haven't yet, be sure to hit the follow button or subscribe button on your podcatcher so that you don't miss it.   Keith Weinhold  37:31   Again, if you like what you hear here each week, the GRE "Don't Quit Your Daydream" letter gives you the sharpest ideas of the week in about three or four quick hitting minutes, you'll get surprising housing data, wealth building strategies, timely opportunities, news that a lot of times you can't get anywhere else, and maps and charts that make you say, "Wait, what? It's smart, useful, entertaining, and completely free. Thousands of investors read it every week, and believe it or not, I'm actually more of a writer than a talker. Don't just listen to Get Rich Education, get the letter at greletter.com. That's greletter.com. Until next week, I'm your host Keith Weinhold. Don't quit your daydream.   Speaker 2  38:23   Nothing on this show should be considered specific, personal, or professional advice. Please consult an appropriate tax, legal, real estate, financial, or business professional for individualized advice. Opinions of guests are their own. Information is not guaranteed. All investment strategies have the potential for profit or loss. The host is operating on behalf of Get Rich Education LLC exclusively.    Keith Weinhold  38:51   The preceding program was brought to you by your home for wealth building, getricheducation.com

Lee is an independent artist born and raised in Columbus, Ohio, and currently based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Drawing inspiration from both his Midwestern roots and Southern influences, Lee has developed a distinctive sound centered around storytelling, perspective, and clever lyricism.Through his music, Lee explores a variety of subjects from different points of view, using witty and engaging lyrics to bring each story to life. His ability to blend personal experiences, observations, and creativity gives his music a style that feels both authentic and relatable.To date, Lee has released three EPs—The Project Pt. 1, The Project Pt. 2, and Madura Blend—as well as his album, You Got McDonalds Money. Constantly writing and searching for new sources of creative inspiration, Lee continues to evolve as an artist, with much more music on the way.If this is for Lee's DIOTALK guest introduction, I can also turn it into a shorter 20–30 second version that you can read naturally at the beginning of the podcast.Article on Lee:https://boldjourney.com/meet-lee-2/?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio&fbclid=PAcGRvZgJleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA81NjcwNjczNDMzNTI0MjcAAaeAx4LzR2-l6qW7eNfdDudQLxAjoqN_9rYLoPoqLE7Lz6Aba30DR5cO9doUcQ_aem_y8wGx6qjAKMYO8kOVstGxwLinktr.ee:https://linktr.ee/leemusic614?utm_source=linktree_profile_share<sid=19ebdd3f-2128-4f51-b7cd-c22f810520a3Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/lee___music?stkn=ZXZqbWppeHpmZ2oy

Our Midwest season wouldn't be complete without this one! Rachel sits down with Shauna Sever, baker and author of Midwest Made, for a special conversation all about Midwestern baking. After spending plenty of time baking through her book in our Procrastibaking Book Club, we're going straight to the source to talk about the recipes, traditions, and stories that make Midwest baking so special. It's the perfect conversation for our Midwest season!

In today's episode of Trade Dispute: Impact On The Prairies, Regina Mayor Chad Bachynski discusses municipal resilience and the power of buying Canadian. We also examine cross-border diplomacy at a Midwestern state summit, and hear from Alberta Premier Danielle and veteran broadcaster Lorne Harasen.

Regina Mayor Chad Bachynski discusses municipal resilience and the power of buying Canadian. We also examine cross-border diplomacy at a Midwestern state summit, and hear from Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and veteran broadcaster Lorne Harasen.

This is a Vintage episode from 2012.Why This Episode MattersChef Paul Virant explains how preservation can extend truly seasonal cooking well beyond the growing season.Canning and pickling can deepen a restaurant's relationship with local farmers while creating new possibilities in the kitchen and behind the bar.Preserving peak-season ingredients isn't necessarily cheaper. The value comes from flavor, identity and having something uniquely your own.From pickled vegetables and aigre-doux to cocktail ingredients, preserves can become ingredients rather than simply condiments.BanterMark Pascal and Francis Schott visit DeBragga & Spitler and get a hands-on look at dry-aged beef at different stages of the aging process. They talk about why properly aged meat costs more, what actually happens to a piece of beef as it ages, and why tasting and comparing things side by side is one of the best ways to learn.The ConversationChef Paul Virant joins Mark and Francis to talk about The Preservation Kitchen and the preservation program that became a signature of his acclaimed restaurant Vie.For Paul, preserving wasn't simply about opening a jar of pickles alongside a dish. Brines, pickled vegetables, preserved fruits and sweet-and-sour preparations became building blocks in his cooking adding acidity, contrast and unexpected flavor to everything from roasted meats to cocktails.The conversation explores the practical side of cooking seasonally in places like Chicago and New Jersey, where the growing season doesn't last all year. Paul and the Guys discuss buying directly from farmers, preserving crops when they're at their peak, reducing waste and creating a restaurant pantry that reflects the local harvest long after summer is over.They also get into the economics. Preserving food takes ingredients, jars, storage and substantial labor, and it often costs more than simply buying a commercial product. The payoff is something different: exceptional ingredients captured at their best, stronger relationships with farmers and food that belongs uniquely to your restaurant.Also: home winemaking gone wrong, preserving fruit with spirits, using every drop of a pickling brine, and Paul's beer-jam Manhattan made with Goose Island Bourbon County Stout.Guest BioPaul Virant is an acclaimed Chicago-area chef known for his focus on seasonal Midwestern ingredients, preservation and relationships with local farmers. His restaurant Vie earned a Michelin star and operated in Western Springs, Illinois, for 19 years before closing in 2023. Virant currently operates Petite Vie in Western Springs, Vistro Prime in Hinsdale and Gaijin in Chicago.He is the author, with Kate Leahy, of The Preservation Kitchen: The Craft of Making and Cooking with Pickles, Preserves, and Aigre-doux, originally published in 2012.Timestamps00:00 Dry-aged beef and why artisan food costs more 05:45 Paul Virant on preserving the seasons 11:30 How preserves become part of the cooking 15:30 Working with farmers and preserving the harvest 17:45 Beer-jam Manhattans and unexpected uses for preserves 25:45 Why preserving isn't cheaper, yet it's still worth doingInfoPaul's bookThe Preservation KitchenPaul Virant with Kate LeahyPaul's Places (all in Illinois)Petite Vie Vistro Prime GaijinWe're bringing our kitchen to the farm!Join us at Dreyer Farms in Cranford, NJ for a Table-to-Farm Dinner.Sunday, September 13 @ 5:30https://www.stageleft.com/event/91326-table-to-farm-dinner/ Subscribe: Restaurant Guys' Regularhttps://restaurantguysregulars.buzzsprout.com/Magyar Bankhttps://www.magbank.com/Stage Left Wine Shophttps://www.stageleftwineshop.com/Our PlacesStage Left Steakhttps://www.stageleft.com/Catherine Lombardi Restauranthttps://www.catherinelombardi.com/Stage Left Wineshophttps://www.stageleftwineshop.com/Reach Out to The Guys!TheGuys@restaurantguyspodcast.com

Shane Lukas built his career on the belief that transparency, done right, protects you. He had spoken about his history in sex work advocacy at national and international conferences for years, and when a highly awarded, LGBTQ-friendly US company hired him, he did what he always did: he was upfront about who he was and where he'd come from.The same day, someone in the sales department Googled his name and called HR. He was terminated immediately, for something that had nothing to do with his job performance.On this episode of FINE is a 4-Letter Word, Shane tells Lori Saitz what that firing revealed about the gap between a company's stated values and its lived ones, what a federal arrest years later taught him about testing his own values under real pressure, and why he now believes clarity about your values, not compromise, is what actually makes hard decisions easier.What You'll Take AwayWhy being fired for radical transparency, from a company that had built its brand on LGBTQ+ support, revealed the real gap between stated values and lived onesWhat a values hierarchy is, and why trying to defend every value equally leaves you paralyzed instead of groundedWhy Shane believes the next generation may be better positioned to stand up for their values, having less invested in promises that were already brokenThe difference between the 'melting pot' and 'mosaic' metaphors for culture, and why the mosaic reflects what he actually wants to seeWhat algorithm-driven feeds cost us that a library shelf never did, and why 'adjacent knowledge' matters more than it soundsGuest BioShane Lukas is an activist, the brains behind award-winning brand strategy firm A Great Idea, a public speaker, and co-host of Power Beyond Pride, the weekly podcast for queer changemakers. In his latest TEDx talk, “What Values Conflict Costs You,” he brings Midwestern straight-talk to the lie of “I'm fine”: what misalignment actually costs you, and how courage becomes a practice instead of a personality trait.Chapters & Key Timestamps02:00The values he was raised with: authenticity, compassion, and bodily autonomy06:00Growing up in an unstable, abusive household, and learning to self-parent at a young age07:30Meeting Patty Alzator at 14, and what she modeled about dissent through compassion09:00Studying journalism on the belief that more information leads to better decisions11:00Building the country's only advocacy program for men in the adult industry12:00Terminated the same day, after being fully transparent about his past15:00Being tested on how far he was actually willing to go for his own values16:00The second TEDx talk, and the arrest that prompted it19:00The values hierarchy: why you can't defend every value equally21:00Clarity around your values as the thing that actually makes decisions easier23:00Whether thinking about your values is a luxury, and why he doesn't think so27:00Pushing back on a company that refused LGBTQ+ protections despite employing queer people29:30Why the next generation may be more prepared to stand up for their values33:30The library metaphor: what 'adjacent knowledge' gave us that algorithms don't38:00The song that gets him ready to walk on stage39:00Where to find Shane: shanelukas.com and agreatidea.comResources MentionedTEDx Talk: What Values Conflict Costs You — Shane LukasTEDx Talk: Shane's second talk, on the arrest referenced in this episodePodcast: Power Beyond Pride — the weekly podcast for queer changemakers, co-hosted by ShaneFree Resource: downloadable resources and white papers — agreatidea.com/insightsBook: Shane's upcoming book, launching October — sign up for launch notice at shanelukas.com/bookSong: Be Great by Jill Scott (feat. Trombone Shorty) — youtube.com/watch?v=ouDRlJljBgsConnect With Shane LukasCompany: A Great IdeaWebsite: shanelukas.comWebsite: agreatidea.comLinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/shane-lukasInstagram: @shanelukascom and @agreatideacoX (Twitter): @shanelukascom and @weareagiPodcast: Power Beyond PrideFree Resource: agreatidea.com/insightsBook: sign up for launch notice at shanelukas.com/bookContinue With LoriWebsite: zenrabbit.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lorisaitz/Email: Lori@ZenRabbit.comInvitation From LoriThis episode is sponsored by Zen Rabbit. Trust is the foundation of all great workplaces, and in today's hybrid, fast-moving work culture, it's built through consistent, clear, human communication.Quarterly town halls, Slack messages, or team-building events are rarely enough to create the connection employees need. That's why forward-thinking companies are hiring Lori to create internal and private podcasts that bring leaders and employees together through authentic stories and real conversations.Think of it as the old-school company newsletter reinvented for the modern workplace.If your company wants to strengthen communication, connection, community, and culture, connect with Lori at Lori@ZenRabbit.com or on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lorisaitz/Related ConversationEpisode 241: Suneet Bhatt — on values clarity as the foundation for every hard decision, not an obstacle to it.About FINE is a 4-Letter WordFINE is a 4-Letter Word is the show for leaders who are tired of pretending everything is fine. We explore what it takes to lead with empathy, vulnerability, gratitude, and courage, especially during the seasons when life and leadership feel anything but fine. Listen for honest conversations about how human connection influences innovation, retention, leadership, and real impact. New episodes every week.Follow FINE is a 4-Letter WordFollow or subscribe so you never miss an episode. If this conversation gave you something useful to think about, leave a review. Reviews help more people discover the show and join the conversation.

In this episode of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame's Etched in Stone series, "Seven: The Story of Olympian Gray Simons," the narrative shifts to Simons' turbulent but inspiring tenure at the University of Tennessee. Contemporaries such as Chris Edmond, Wayne Catan, Tim Cochran, Glenn Lanham, and others paint a vivid picture of Simons as a wrestling genius and understated leader who elevated everyone around him. The episode chronicles Tennessee's rise to national prominence in the mid‑1980s, highlighted by Edmond's remarkable NCAA title run and the team's top‑10 national ranking, all achieved despite shrinking budgets, reduced scholarships, and long odds against traditional Midwestern powers. At the same time, the story lays bare the institutional pressures that ultimately doomed SEC wrestling. Through voices like Mary Simons, Bud Ford, and former athletic director Doug Dickey, listeners see how the school claimed financial constraints, conference isolation, and looming gender equity mandates to erase a model program that did nearly everything right. The players' reactions—Lanham's anger, Edmond's pride, and Simons' quiet heartbreak—reveal the human cost of cutting a sport and underscore the lasting legacy of Gray Simons and Tennessee wrestling, even after the mats were rolled up for the final time. Listen & Follow Etched in StoneApple Podcasts | Spotify | Deezer | Radio Public | RSS About Gray Simons During his four years of collegiate competition at Lock Haven University, Gray Simons entered seven national tournaments. He won all seven, and six times was voted outstanding wrestler of the event. Four years he reigned supreme at 115 pounds in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, and all four years was chosen the NAIA's finest, an unparalleled achievement. Three times he won the University Division title in the NCAA and as a junior and senior was voted the outstanding competitor. The only two defeats of his 93 collegiate matches came early in his freshman season. He then proceeded to win 84 in a row. In the two years after his graduation, while stationed at the U.S. Military Academy, he continued to annex national championships in military, YMCA and AAU competition. He won the gold medal in the 1963 World Military Games. Gray Simons twice represented his country in the Olympic Games, in 1960 and 1964. On the mat, he was known as a superb technician, with quickness, skill and perfect execution of an infinite variety of moves. His abilities helped spread nationwide the "Granby Series" of moves developed by his Hall of Fame high school coach in Norfolk, Virginia, Billy Martin. After the close of his competitive career, he served with distinction as a collegiate coach at Lock Haven, Indiana State, Tennessee and Old Dominion University, and never has suffered a losing season. Among his proteges were two NCAA champions and several All-Americans. In both roles, as a wrestler and coach, this quiet man has set an outstanding example for young athletes everywhere. As a wrestler of unchallenged achievement and a sportsman of the highest caliber, Elliot Gray Simons is honored as a Distinguished Member of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.

Big Ag has long dominated Iowa politics, but in this year's governor's race, both parties are challenging the industry's political power in part because of concerns over farm pollution. POLITICO's Ellie Borst breaks down why Big Ag is on the defensive, how the issue is reshaping both parties' strategies and what it means for winning Midwestern voters ahead of the midterm elections. Plus, a federal judge has dealt a blow to New York's efforts to force polluters to pay for the effects of climate change. Ellie Borst is an environment reporter at POLITICO. Nirmal Mulaikal is the co-host and executive producer of POLITICO Energy.  Yi-Jo Shen is a freelance video producer for POLITICO. Matt Daily is the energy editor for POLITICO. Debra Kahn is the editorial director for energy and environmental coverage at POLITICO. Veronica Tejera is the deputy head of Audio/Video at POLITICO. Our theme music is by Pran Bandi. Follow the show on Apple, Spotify, Youtube and Instagram. Follow POLITICO here:    ➤ X: https://x.com/politico/ ➤ Instagram:  / politico      ➤ Facebook:  / politico   For more reporting on energy and the environment, subscribe to Power Switch, our free evening newsletter: https://www.politico.com/power-switch And for even deeper coverage and analysis, read our Morning Energy newsletter by subscribing to POLITICO Pro: https://subscriber.politicopro.com/newsletter-archive/morning-energy

Discover how behavioral science expert Kurt Nelson helps entrepreneurs master mindset, team leadership, and motivation in this insightful episode.What sets thriving entrepreneurs apart? We look into the multifaceted world of entrepreneurial success with Kurt Nelson, PhD, founder of the Lantern Group, podcast co-host, and behavioral science expert.From humble Midwestern beginnings and ice cream shop lessons to advising Fortune 500 companies and solo entrepreneurs alike, Kurt shares eye-opening perspectives on how the right mindset and emotional intelligence drive lasting impact.In this episode, you'll get:Key lessons from Kurt's journey. Why understanding human behavior is essential for business successReal-life stories tackling burnout, uncertainty, and how to reset your entrepreneurial driveThe science of motivation: why non-cash incentives can outperform cash, and how leaders can build high-performing, resilient teamsPractical strategies for developing self-awareness, overcoming limiting behaviors, and building supportive company culturesThe rising importance of emotional intelligence (EQ) in the age of AI and remote workPacked with practical insights for entrepreneurs at every stage, this conversation will help you simplify challenges, improve decision-making, and become a better leader, no matter your business size.This episode is brought to you by PureTax, LLC. Tax preparation services without the pressure. When all you need is to get your tax return done, take the stress out of tax season by working with a firm that has simplified the process and the pricing. Find out more about how we started.Three key takeaways for entrepreneurs and leaders:Human behavior is the heart of business. Whether working with a Fortune 500 or a five-person startup, success depends on understanding how people think, feel, and make decisions. Behavioral science isn't just theory, it's your competitive advantage.Self-awareness unlocks growth. The best leaders don't just manage others, they reflect deeply on their own actions, biases, and communication patterns. Bringing a mirror to your habits may be the most challenging step, but it's the foundation for meaningful change and leadership impact.EQ will set you apart in an AI-powered world. As technology levels the playing field on technical intelligence, emotional intelligence (EQ) becomes the new differentiator. Building trust, connection, and empathy is more critical than ever. Your team and clients can feel the difference.Running a business doesn't have to run your life.Without a business partner who holds you accountable, it's easy to be so busy ‘doing' business that you don't have the right strategy to grow your business.Stop letting your business run you. At Harper & Co CPA Plus, we know that you want to be empowered to build the lifestyle you envision. In order to do that you need a clear path to follow for successOur clients enjoy a proactive partnership with us. Schedule a consultation with us today.Download our free guide - Entrepreneurial Success Formula: How to Avoid Managing Your Business From Your Bank Account.Glenn Harper, CPA, is the Owner and Managing Partner of Harper & Company CPAs Plus, a top 10 Managing Partner in the country (Accounting Today's 2022 MP Elite). His firm won the 2021 Luca Award for Firm of the Year. An entrepreneur and speaker, Glenn transformed his firm into an advisory-focused practice, doubling revenue and profit in two years. He teaches entrepreneurs to build financial and operational excellence, speaks nationwide to CPA firm owners about running their businesses like entrepreneurs, and consults with firms across the country. Glenn enjoys golfing, fishing, hiking, cooking, and spending time with his family.Julie Smith, MBA, is a serial entrepreneur in the public accounting space. She is the Founder of EmpowerCPA™, Founder of PureTax, LLC, COO for Harper & Company CPAs Plus, and Co-host of the Empowering Entrepreneurs podcast. Named CPA.com's 2021 Innovative Practitioner of Year, Julie led Harper & Company's transition to an advisory-focused firm, doubling revenue and profit in two years. She now empowers other CPA firm owners nationwide through consulting and speaking, teaching them how to run their businesses like entrepreneurs. Julie lives in Columbus, OH with her family and enjoys travel, coaching basketball, sporting events, and the occasional shopping spree.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/Copyright 2026 Glenn HarperMentioned in this episode:Brought to you by Harper & Company CPAs PlusRunning a business takes vision, grit… and the right financial partner. At Harper & Company CPAs Plus, we don't just crunch numbers—we empower entrepreneurs. From proactive tax strategy and accounting to business advisory services, our team helps you keep more of what you earn and scale with confidence. Whether you're launching, growing, or preparing for exit, Harper & Company is in your corner with expert guidance built for business owners like you. Visit www.harpercpaplus.com to book a complimentary discovery call today - or call us at 614-456-7222. Brought to you by Harper & Company CPAs Plus

Small towns across America are revolting against massive AI data centers. SUPPORT MY WORK: Buy a paid subscription to my newsletter at https://www.usermag.co         Support my work on Patreon: http://patreon.com/taylorlorenz To listen to the full episode and get access to more bonus episodes, an ad-free listening experience, and my weekly newsletter, subscribe to my Patreon or Substack

The Midwest has a reputation for greater affordability relative to the cost of living on the East and West coasts, but there's no doubt that it's gotten more expensive to live anywhere in the U.S. In its ongoing reporting series, “Costly,” the Midwest Newsroom takes a closer look at what residents of Midwestern states, including Missouri, are facing with inflation and debt — and how financial woes are impacting more families and their futures. Managing editor Holly Edgell shares what she and her reporters have learned from Missourians figuring out ways to make ends meet.

A gnarly looking corn infection that Midwestern farmers dread is also a culinary delicacy in Mexico. Now, more chefs are introducing it to St. Louisans. St. Louis Public Radio's Kate Grumke dove into the local world of corn smut to understand this emerging menu trend.

My guest today on the Online for Authors podcast is Jane Hartsock, author of the book Fan Base. Jane writes psychological literary fiction set in the American Midwest that centers the agency and experiences of women. Her first novel Load Bearing (2024) tells the story of a young woman who become obsessed with the long-dead architect of the 1920s mansion she and her husband are renovating. Fan Base (2025) involves a widow who is unexpectedly reunited with the washed-up celebrity she slept with once in college and is then subjected to relentless cyber-bullying from his toxic fandom. Jane also has a forthcoming biography about the Midwestern father-daughter team that were the first to translate an ancient Egyptian medical text (2027). Her current project is a novel that involves the Salem Witch Trials (anticipated 2028). Her work has been anthologized in several fiction and non-fiction publications.   Jane holds a BA in English with a concentration in creative writing from Butler University, an MA in Philosophy with a concentration in Bioethics, and a JD all from Indiana University. When she's not writing, you can find Jane hanging with her family and friends (and amazing writing groups) in Indianapolis and teaching Medical Humanities and Bioethics at Indiana University Indianapolis where her research focus includes the use of literature to develop ethical sensitivity, as well as the ethically informed use of artificial intelligence in clinical medicine.   In my book review, I stated Fan Base is a psychological thriller by Jane Hartsock. And this is one you won't want to miss.   It starts out like any slightly steamy romance. Babs, who lost her husband three years earlier to an accident and then loses her job due to her lackluster performance while grieving, meets Austin Lewis. Meets again, actually. Their one-day fling 25-years earlier has always stayed in the back of her mind.   Austin was a teen heart-throb. Babs was unfazed by this fact. They met. They connected. She quickly moved on, became a lawyer, married, and had two children. Austin's fame waned, but he found the business side of Hollywood and moved forward. When they reconnect in a coffeeshop, it seems like fate.   Soon, Babs learns of the Lewnatics - a group of super fans who continue to follow and harrass Austin. And now, the Lewnatics are after her. To make matters worse, her sister, Margot, is part of this crazy group. As things heat up - both in the bedroom and with the crazies - Babs wonders who she can trust.   But you can trust me - the ending will leave your mouth gaping!   Subscribe to Online for Authors to learn about more great books! https://www.youtube.com/@onlineforauthors?sub_confirmation=1   You can follow Author Jane Hartsock Website: https://janehartsock.com/ IG: @writejanewrite   Purchase Fan Base on Amazon: Paperback: https://amzn.to/4wCE80b Ebook: https://amzn.to/44l9mgz   Teri M Brown, Author and Podcast Host: https://www.terimbrown.com FB: @TeriMBrownAuthor IG: @terimbrown_author X: @terimbrown1   Want to be a guest on Online for Authors? Send Teri M Brown a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/member/onlineforauthors   #janehartsock #fanbase #thriller #terimbrownauthor #authorpodcast #onlineforauthors #characterdriven #researchjunkie #awardwinningauthor #podcasthost #podcast #readerpodcast #bookpodcast #writerpodcast #author #books #goodreads #bookclub #fiction #writer #bookreview *As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

New York Times bestselling author Sarah Pinborough spoke with us about her approach to plotting twists, the stark difference between writing novels and screenplays, and her latest THEY SAY A GIRL DIED HERE. Sarah Pinborough is the New York Times and Sunday Times #1 bestselling author of international hit Behind Her Eyes, published in over 25 territories worldwide. Her latest novel, They Say a Girl Died Here, is describe as “a thrilling, genre-bending mystery about two murdered girls, a town with dark secrets, and a race to break a deadly cycle.” Publishers Weekly called the book, “An addictive tale of Midwestern macabre. . . Pinborough's fierce yet flawed characters are easy to root for, and she doles out the story's shocking secrets at a tantalizing pace. Thriller fans who like it dark will devour this.” Sarah Pinborough was the 2009 winner of the British Fantasy Award for Best Short Story and also the 2010 and 2014 winner of the British Fantasy Award for Best Novella, and she has four times been short-listed for Best Novel. She is also a screenwriter who has written for the BBC with multiple adaptations in the works. [Discover The Writer Files Extra: Get 'The Writer Files' Podcast Delivered Straight to Your Inbox at writerfiles.fm] [If you're a fan of The Writer Files, please click FOLLOW to automatically see new interviews. And drop us a rating or a review wherever you listen] In this file Sarah Pinborough, Milena, and I discussed: Her former life running a strip club The chance encounter at FantasyCon that led to a three-book deal How she changes gears while shifting mediums Why horror is her favorite genre Hot takes on recent horror films And a lot more! Show Notes: ElevenReader is a new, award-winning audio app for iOS, Android, Web sarahpinborough.com They Say a Girl Died Here: A Novel by Sarah Pinborough (Amazon) Sarah Pinborough Amazon Author Page Sarah Pinborough on Twitter Sarah Pinborough on Facebook Sarah Pinborough on Instagram Milena Gonzalez | Writer | Reader | Book Reviewer diary_of_a_book_babe on Instagram Kelton Reid Instagram Kelton Reid on Twitter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“We are the beginning of a bright and shiny dark age.” — Kurt Andersen, from The Breakup It's 2045 and America has got divorced. That's the premise of The Breakup, by the historian and novelist Kurt Andersen. “The future is fiction. It hasn't happened yet,” the historian in Andersen reminds us. But his near-term fictional future, an America of civil war and national divorce, certainly isn't inconceivable. Nor, in an increasingly divided United States between high-tech coastal elites and a medieval hinterland, does such a scenario appear quite as nightmarish as it once did. In contrast with the bloodiness, say, of Alex Garland's Hollywood version of an American civil war, Andersen's literary breakup is the “scattered violence of a Middle Eastern kind.” Lebanon comes to the United States in the form of loosely confederated militias, assassinations and kidnappings. This war kills 28,000, half of them civilians. It could have been worse. Indeed, it is worse today — when compared to the 44,000 people killed by guns each year. The novel also tells the story of the breakup of a twenty-three-year marriage between the Tennessean poet Natalie and the San Francisco tech bro Asher. Natalie doesn't much like Silicon Valley and warns that “we are the beginning of a bright and shiny dark age.” But for Andersen this age isn't totally dark. Marriages and countries break up, he reminds us, and that is often the beginning rather than the end of the story. Not quite darkness at noon. So get ready for the mid-21st-century break-up of the United States. Such a split might actually be brighter than America's current dark marriage. Five Takeaways •       The Future Is Fiction. After Fantasyland (five hundred years of how America went haywire) and Evil Geniuses (the last fifty), Andersen considered a third history — of the future — and realized the genre is folly: futurism is just experts guessing, Alvin Toffler in a new suit. “The future is fiction. It hasn't happened yet. It's imaginary until it happens.” So the trilogy's conclusion became a novel — his fifth — and the bookseller algorithms' “dystopian” label gets a correction: dystopian satire, maybe, but “we are in a dystopian period now.” Where Alex Garland's Civil War embedded journalists inside the fighting, The Breakup lives with a couple seven years after it — the good, the bad, the thank-God-we-were-okay — and, chalk it up to the Midwestern upbringing, it ends ambiguous but not without hope.•       A Manageable Civil War. The backstory his fictional journalism flashes back to: a blue political comeback — Supreme Court expansion, Puerto Rico and DC statehood — ignites a ferocious right-wing backlash, and the violence that follows is “scattered… of a Middle Eastern kind”: loosely confederated militias assassinating, kidnapping, and bombing, while a presidential administration insists it's a crime spree — until the military crushes the insurgency with drones and robots in eighteen months. The toll: 28,000 dead, half civilians, 45,000 wounded — numbers Andrew notes are roughly a single year of American gun deaths, and that Andersen's character Natalie keeps in proportion: “could have been worse… We're not living in Mad Max time.” Against the 1860s — millions dead from a far smaller population — this is a war America can talk itself into surviving. Which may be the scariest thing about it.•       The Disunion's Logistics. The novel's deep research problem: how would you actually do it? You can't draw an 1860 line, because the real divide runs between cities and countryside, not North and South — so the negotiated Disunion takes seven years, producing Natalie's Free American Republic and Asher's smaller United States. The Brexit analogy gets swatted (“the EU is not a country” — this is a whole different deal), balkanization into five or twelve republics is doubted (the prosperities of scale), and the best twist is secessionist remorse: Montana runs the numbers and realizes the West, unlike the South, gives more to Washington than it takes — so why join them? Beneath it all, the state nobody thinks they need: Medicare, Social Security, the federal machinery people discover only as DOGE-style contempt dismantles it. And still, the magic holds: immigrants keep coming, because only in America do you become American by showing up.•       The Soft Breakup Papers. The nonfiction beneath the novel is Andersen's New York Times essay: America as a long, loveless marriage — separate lives, separate tracks, staying together for the kids — that may already have had its soft breakup. His research assembled what nobody had put together: ten- and twenty-state climate alliances, sanctuary cities, Second Amendment sanctuary states and a thousand such counties — “governmental apparatuses emerging for these separate governments” since 2009, unremarked because the only people saying “national divorce” were Marjorie Taylor Greene and Rush Limbaugh, and nobody serious could agree with them. The mechanism is Hemingway's bankruptcy: gradually, then suddenly. Fintan O'Toole warned him the book could become self-fulfilling prophecy; Andersen answered that the elephant in the room must be named — and he has the Cassandra receipts, having published Fantasyland's post-truth diagnosis before Trump was first elected. “Don't blame me. We'll reconnoiter in ten or twenty years.”•       A Bright and Shiny Dark Age. The episode's keeper, from the novel's tech-despising heroine: “We are the beginning of a bright and shiny dark age.” One political party marches back toward the medieval — no public health, no vaccines, no intellectualism — while the Bay Area ships magic, William Gibson's unevenly distributed future arriving all at once. In 2045, AI is background hum “like electricity,” the tech trillionaires are plural, and the robots are everywhere and unremarkable — though Andersen's own book trade is his caution against straight lines: print was declared dead fifteen years ago and still sells half of all books. The age of anxiety — the loneliness, social media's riled-and-angry business model (30% of the blame or 70%, “but it's large”), a president “selling pessimism” in his simultaneous idiocy and brilliance against optimism's old American pillar — reads, in the novel's hindsight, like the premonition of the breakup. And yet no zombies, no rubble: not without hope. About the Guest Kurt Andersen is the New York Times bestselling author of the histories Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire and Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America, and the novels Turn of the Century, Heyday, True Believers, and You Can't Spell America Without Me. Co-founder of Spy magazine and longtime host of the Peabody-winning public radio program Studio 360, he has written for the New York Times, Vanity Fair, and The New Yorker. The Breakup (Random House, August 2026), his fifth novel, is set in the AI-suffused, post-civil-war America of 2045 — “the most brilliant social novelist of our time,” per Walter Isaacson, “in the tradition of Tom Wolfe and Don DeLillo, but even funnier and deeper.” ...

Heartland Masala pairs 99 recipes from Indian cooking instructor Jyoti Mukharji with cultural and historical essays by her son Auyon Mukharji. A heartfelt celebration of Indian cuisine and the American immigrant experience, this beautiful cookbook is playful, informative, and utterly original.Take a delicious deep dive into Indian cooking and culture with a Midwestern mother-son duo.Jyoti Mukharji has been teaching cooking classes out of her Kansas City kitchen since 2010. Heartland Masala is an artfully photographed collection of her favorite recipes, enriched with droll, illustrated vignettes authored by culinary historian Auyon Mukharji.Inside you'll find restaurant staples like Saag Paneer, regional specialties like Murgh Rezala (Chicken Curry with Water Lily Seeds and Cashews), and creative originals like Masala Brussels Sprouts. A feast for culturally curious readers and adventurous cooks alike, this inventive collaboration is unlike any Indian cookbook you've seen before.Jyoti Mukharji is a chef, teacher, and retired physician. She immigrated to the US from India in the late 1970s, and she began teaching weekly Indian cooking classes out of her home in Prairie Village, KS in 2010. Jyoti has since welcomed several thousand students into her kitchen, and her writing and teaching have been celebrated in press and radio outlets across the Midwest. Jyoti's team includes her husband Jhulan (art director), her eldest son Arnob (grocery shopping deputy), her middle son Auyon (musical guest), and her youngest son Aroop (copy editor).Auyon Mukharji is a musician, writer, and culinary historian who spends most of his time thinking about food. He studied biology at Williams College and was awarded a Watson Fellowship in 2007 to study self-expression in folk music. Since 2009, Auyon has toured with, and cooked for, the acclaimed indie-folk band Darlingside. He otherwise finds time to work in and around kitchens (and farms) in both his hometown of Kansas City and his adopted state-of-residence of Massachusetts.Website: https://www.heartlandmasala.com/

On this week's episode of The Catered Quiz, Will Eidam joins the show to reflect on Pop Culture Jeopardy and answer questions about "Weird Al” Yankovic and Jim Carrey. We also talk about Midwestern states, Stay Tuned and 6th grade orientation. Watch Will and Allison as The Problem Solvers on the 5th episode of Pop Culture Jeopardy.  

Welcome back to Keepin' It Rio! Tonight we've got a guest who's proving you don't need a major label to make major music. Born and raised in Columbus, Ohio, and now calling Charlotte, North Carolina home, Lee has created a unique sound that blends his Midwestern roots with Southern influences. His music is built on storytelling, clever lyricism, and seeing life from perspectives that make you stop and think.With projects including The Project Pt. 1, The Project Pt. 2, Madura Blend, and his album "You Got McDonalds Money", Lee continues to carve out his own lane as an independent artist who's always creating and always pushing himself. We're talking music, inspiration, the grind of being independent, and where his journey is headed next.Episode 262 starts right now—let's welcome Lee to *Keepin' It Rio!*Send us Fan MailSupport the show

In this episode, we sit down with Nicole Dannehl, Owner & CEO of Nikki's Custard, to explore how her Midwestern roots and lifelong love of frozen custard inspired her to build a woman-owned, family-run business in Lancaster, PA. Nicole shares her journey from raising three children and building careers in educational and healthcare fundraising and construction management to turning her passion for frozen treats, creativity, and community into a business in 2022. Tune in for an inspiring conversation about entrepreneurship, family, and following a lifelong passion.???? Connect with Nicole Dannehl:  ✅ Website: https://www.nikkiscustard.com/ ✅ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nikkiscustard/ ✅ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nikkiscustard/ Thank you for watching Lancaster Connects! This is the show about small business and small charity success in Lancaster county - we showcase the battle on Main Street, big vs. small David vs Goliath, and bring you the best of what makes Lancaster so great. ???? Want to create live streams like this? Check out StreamYard: https://StreamYard.CastAhead.net ➡️ Get your FREE copy of Ben McClure and Jeff Giagnocavo's book - "Sleep Better" https://gardnersmattressandmore.com/sleep-betterLIVE SHOW PODCAST & REPLAYS: ???? Connect with Lancaster Connects:✅ Official: https://lancasterconnects.com/ ✅ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LancasterConnects ✅ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lancaster-connects✅ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LancasterConnectsLancaster Connects is produced by Chris Stone at Cast Ahead:  https://CastAhead.net 

Joseph Eckert's debut novel The Traveler follows Scott, an average Midwestern dad whose car vanishes around him one ordinary commute — and who discovers he's been thrown 24 hours into the future. The twist: it keeps happening, and each jump doubles, flinging him two days forward, then four, then eight, sixteen, and on, while his brilliant son Lyle grows obsessed with figuring out the math behind his father's disappearances and finding a way to bring him home. He stopped by the show to speak about the novel. In our conversation, Eckert traced his time-travel influences back to a college paper comparing Terminator 2, Time Cop, and Back to the Future — and explained why he built his own story around forward motion instead of the backward paradoxes those films wrestle with. We dig into what makes the book hit harder than a typical high-concept premise is its personal nature. Eckert started writing it 15 years ago, identifying with the son, but returned to it as a father himself, reshaping Scott's interiority (with help from his editors and agent) to capture the specific horror of missing your child's life in irreversible leaps. He also softened the marriage at the story's center, moving away from his own experience as the child of divorce toward a more tragic, loving portrait of what a good relationship looks like under impossible strain. The Traveler is out now from Tor Books!

In today's episode of The Quiz, we're testing your knowledge on everything from national capitals to historic state origins. Can you answer these? Colonial Founders: Seeking religious freedom in New England, theologian Roger Williams established a capital city that he believed was guided by divine guidance. What capital did he name? Matching Capitals: Out of fifty state capitals across America, only four share their initial letter with the state they represent. Do you know the fourth capital to join Honolulu, Indianapolis, and Oklahoma City? Historic Origins: Before adopting its modern presidential name, this Midwestern capital was known as Lancaster and went on to pioneer both 911 emergency dispatching and the automated teller machine. Can you identify it? Play. Share. Listen, with FOX News Chief Religion Correspondent, Lauren Green. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In 1976, police officer George Wheeler reported encountering a massive UFO and being struck by a beam of light that knocked him to the ground. Six months later, he was dead. Other witnesses reported unusual activity surrounding the encounter, adding further intrigue to an already remarkable case. Even more compelling, Wheeler's experience was part of a broader wave of UFO sightings reported throughout Elmwood, Wisconsin before and after that night. What was happening over this quiet Midwestern town? And could Wheeler's mysterious encounter have somehow contributed to his untimely death? Join us at ANOMACON on September 12th: http://www.anomacon.com Send us a voicemail: https://www.speakpipe.com/SomewhereSkiesPod Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/somewhereskies ByMeACoffee: http://www.buymeacoffee.com/UFxzyzHOaQ Substack: https://ryansprague.substack.com/ All socials and books: https://linktr.ee/somewhereskiespod Email: ryan.sprague51@gmail.com Opening theme song by Septembryo Closing song by Per Kiilstofte Copyright © 2026 Ryan Sprague. All rights reserved. #UFO #UAP #UFOs #UFOEncounter #UFOSighting #UFOHistory #Unexplained #SomewhereInTheSkies Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

By the Summer of 2021, Bart and Krista Halderson were living the quintessential Midwestern life. They owned a beautiful home in Windsor, Wisconsin, and a rustic family cabin up north in White Lake, where they loved spending time together. They were also preparing to cross the finish line of parenting. Their oldest son Mitchell was a successful tech professional, engaged and in the process of buying a house. Their youngest son Chandler was days away from moving to Florida to work for SpaceX. But on July 7th, 2021, the dream shattered. Chandler went to the police station to report his parents missing. Bart and Krista had gone up north to the family cabin for the Fourth of July weekend with an unknown couple. They never came back. Try our coffee! - www.CriminalCoffeeCo.com Become a Patreon member -- > https://www.patreon.com/CrimeWeekly Shop for your Crime Weekly gear here --> https://crimeweeklypodcast.com/shop Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CrimeWeeklyPodcast Website: CrimeWeeklyPodcast.com Instagram: @CrimeWeeklyPod Twitter: @CrimeWeeklyPod Facebook: @CrimeWeeklyPod ADS: https://www.AbsorbMore.com - Use Code CRIMEWEEKLY for 35% off! https://www.Chime.com/CrimeWeekly - Join fee-free banking with Chime! https://www.FactorMeals.com/CrimeWeekly50Off - Use code CRIMEWEEKLY50OFF for 50% off and FREE daily greens! https://www.BollAndBranch.com/CrimeWeekly - Use code CRIMEWEEKLY for 20% off! https://www.TryFum.com/CrimeWeekly - Start a Good Habit today! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Some recent primary elections in the Midwest, particularly Wisconsin and Michigan, have changed the landscape for November's midterms. On Today's Show:Rachel Leingang, Midwest political correspondent for Guardian US, based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Teo Armus, reporter for The Washington Post focused on politics, demographics, voters and immigration, offers political analysis of the latest primary election results, including in Wisconsin and Michigan, and what they might signal about the midterms this fall. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Did you know: Today's dentists are waiting five years longer to buy a practice than they were a generation ago? Kiera is joined by Brian Hanks of Dental Buyer Advocates to talk about delayed ownership traps and why the future of private practice is an encouraging one (Brian shares numerous data points to back that up). They also touch on overcoming fears and all the information out there that makes everyone seem more prepared for business ownership than they actually are, and how to go about buying a practice while asking the right questions. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team Listeners, this is Kiera, and today is an awesome day. I am so excited to be podcasting with one of my favorite humans. He and I have spoken across the country together. We go to different things, we share clients together. I have Brian Hanks, the owner of Dental Dental Buyer Advocates. And today we're gonna talk about like delayed ownership trap because I think so many people get stuck into this of should I buy, should I not buy? And Brian and I are just here to have a fun rift. So, Brian, welcome to the show today. How are you?   Brian Hanks (00:28) So nice to be back, Kiera. You're one of my favorite people too. Thank you for having me.   Kiera (00:32) Of course. I'm excited, Brian. It's a good time. It's been a hot minute since we podcasted together. So it's time, it's time to talk about this. Because when we were chatting about episodes, you were saying that dentists are now waiting like five years longer to buy a practice than they were a generation ago, which is fascinating to me because I've been on this like whole hot to trap of like, do people buy? Are DSOs taking over? Like, is there still money to be made in private practice? Like literally my chiropractor and I were talking about this the other day because she's like,   My dentist told me that they were like not able to make any money. And I was like, well, they sh just give them my card. Like private practice to me is still one of the best businesses and industries, even if you have to buy a top dollar right now. and so just like super fascinating to talk about like delaying that purchasing, why people do it. But Brian, I've jumped right in and pretended like everybody knows who you are. Brian, give us a little intro of like who you are, how you got into Dental Buyer Advocates, what your background is, and then like let's talk about to delay or not delay buying a practice.   Brian Hanks (01:29) Sure.   Yeah, I one of my favorite stories. I'm an ex-Wall Street guy, so I'm a reformed Wall Streeter. And my father-in-law is a dentist. And I would watch these Wall Street people come in and like sell a very aggressive investments. And when they went bust, they would turn around and sell the crappy investments to dentists who at the time my was my father in law. Active practice, he lived in the Seattle area. And anyway, I went to go work for a dental CPA in the Dallas area. I went to work for another one. So I'm I've lived in the accounting world, Kiera.   And when I was in that world, I got younger dentists who were in the pro they were the associates and they were asking accounting questions and tax questions and you know financial planning questions. And inevitably they would come back to dental practice ownership. Like, how do I do this? How much do I pay? Is   Kiera (02:13) Yeah.   Brian Hanks (02:13) is this a good deal? And so I went looking for the book. I was like, well, where's the book? I was on Amazon, I was other places. There was no book. And I thought, all right, well, let me try writing this book. Famous Last Words, by the way, it's way harder than you assume. But the book is called.   Very creatively, How To Buy A Dental Practice. And that helped me start my own business. And that's   Kiera (02:30) I like it.   Brian Hanks (02:33) what I do. I I only help buyers of dental practices. And, you know, Kiera, my business is good, your business is good. Dentist business, we can talk about why the future of private practice is very bright. I can give you some stats and   Kiera (02:46) Mm-hmm.   Brian Hanks (02:46) statistics. But one of the interesting, the most interesting facts for me is Health Policy Institute has data that shows that.   Dentists get into ownership, like they they end up in ownership. Okay, so I'll give you like they've broken it down by like graduation rates. So like the the   Kiera (03:07) And what I   Brian Hanks (03:08) dental school grads from 1990 and then 1995, and everybody between 95 and 2000, so and so forth. So they have these like vintages of graduates. And   Kiera (03:16) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.   Brian Hanks (03:17) very reliably, they're showing that nine out of ten dentists, of which you know there's 203,000 in the US, nine out of ten end up in ownership.   At some point in their career. But like you said,   Kiera (03:27) Fascinating.   Brian Hanks (03:28) they're waiting longer to do it. And I think that's what we're going to talk about.   Kiera (03:32) Yeah. Which like again, I think people are scared. So many students I worked at Midwestern and they're like, Kiera, should I buy? Should I go associate? And I was like, listen, you're just delaying the inevitable so like get in there and get it done. Now, I like always throw an asterisk on that. Like if you're not good at your hand skills, like yeah, go go associate for a hot minute. like if you aren't confident with your speed and with case acceptance and like presenting, that's gonna be but I'll tell you there is nothing more thrilling than throwing yourself into a business that you have to produce for.   You learn case acceptance really freaking fast. Like, ask me how I know. We surely did that. Like I took a student, we took our first practice from 500,000 to 2.4 million in nine months. Like she was a she was a power producer. Do I have an office right now that just bought a practice less than a year ago? We're already on track for two and a half million. Yes. Like there are a lot of success stories from that small town. It's not like they were just given the keys to the kingdom. Like they've had to work for it, they've had to build things. They don't have full schedules. But   I just, I don't know. I'm the same way and I I don't know. I'm I'm at a space of but do what makes you happy. Like, do not go   Brian Hanks (04:37) Yeah.   Kiera (04:38) own a practice and make less than being an associate. That's like a hard line for me too. I'm like, 'cause if you're gonna like not be a good business owner, keep associating. But I   Brian Hanks (04:43) No. Yeah.   Kiera (04:46) agree, I feel like the trajectory of dentists is always to purchase. Like they want their own stamp, they want their name on the building. I will also highly recommend don't put your name on the building. Like that's really fun and not scalable. Ask me again how I know that. Like   Cura's dental consulting was real fun till it wasn't. Like the things you the things you evolve on, but truly I I'm excited to hear why you think people are delaying, what that's costing them. Brian, I love that you always come with a bunch of stats and facts. And I love that you named your book, like How To Buy A Dental Practice. That's what people want to know. so it sometimes simple is no, that is the best.   Brian Hanks (05:13) I know. I just yeah. I'm not the best at marketing, right? So yeah, like we we call Kiera when we need   marketing advice. So okay.   Kiera (05:24) Mm-hmm.   Brian Hanks (05:24) So Kiera, here are some more stats for you.   Kiera (05:28) Okay, ready?   Brian Hanks (05:29) the average owner, dentist, makes $151,000 than the average more than the average associate. Okay, 151. Now that's   Kiera (05:37) I was like, hold on, 151   is bad. That's more than if you're being an associate. You're gonna make 151,000 more. Okay.   Brian Hanks (05:43) Yep. Yeah. And think about why   that is. Yep. That's obviously the you're taking on the risk. You're taking on the the pain and suffering of being an owner, right? So there's some compensation involved in   Kiera (05:51) Mm-hmm.   Brian Hanks (05:52) that. Those are two medians, right? And there is a bell curve around both of those numbers. So is it possible   Kiera (05:57) Course.   Brian Hanks (05:58) to make less as an associate? Yes. Yeah. Is it possible   to make a hell   Kiera (06:01) Mm-hmm. Uh-huh.   Brian Hanks (06:02) of a lot more than $151,000 more than an associate? Absolutely, yes, right. So there's there's room on both end of the ends of those those bell curves. but think about   So here's why I one of the data points why I think private practice ownership and dentistry is still it's bright and it's getting brighter. Is you think about the average associate you talk to, Kiera, the average associate I talk to when we're standing around a cocktail party or at mid mid the you know, wherever, some conference, Yankee, Midwestern.   Kiera (06:30) Mm-hmm.   Brian Hanks (06:31) And I will tell you the average associate that I talk to isn't saying, gosh, Brian, you know what? I love my boss. I love the DSO I'm working for.   I love my hours. I love the insurances we take, the assistant they force me to use, I love her, right? It's the future of private practice dentistry is bright because dentists are people. And people generally like   Kiera (06:52) Mm-hmm.   Brian Hanks (06:52) a little bit of control over their career if they can get it. And dentists absolutely can get it. So that's one of the data points that   Kiera (06:55) Yeah.   Brian Hanks (06:58) I love. Now, are dentists scared to get into ownership? And do higher on average student loan balances scare them marginally more than they did 10 years ago, 20 years ago? For sure.   Yep, absolutely. Here's the mistake   Kiera (07:11) Absolutely.   Brian Hanks (07:11) they make. So I'll give the associates listening or the students or whoever it is that's maybe telling you, Kiera, or telling me, or they're telling their, you know, the the person next to them on the treadmill at the gym while they're listening to this, like, sure, Brian, easy for you to say, but I don't feel ready. Right? I haven't taken all of Care's courses.   Kiera (07:30) Mm-hmm.   Brian Hanks (07:31) I haven't, I don't know how you know, I'm not the pro at treatment planning. My hands beat because you I I want to take this implant course first, right?   You come up, your brain comes up with all these excuses of why you don't feel ready. And I'm not gonna dismiss your feelings. I think your   Kiera (07:45) Mm-hmm.   Brian Hanks (07:46) feelings are valid. You should listen to them, but don't here here's another thing to consider in addition to your feelings. Is you know how there were like a hundred people in your dental school class, probably ish, right? And 10 of whom you would never let near your teeth. Like you watch them go through all four years of dental school and you're like,   Okay, of those 10 over there, like they're never getting, they're never giving me a shot. They're never in that nothing, right?   Kiera (08:10) Yep.   Brian Hanks (08:10) Because I guarantee you, nine out of ten of those dentists, they already own their practice. They're not bankrupt. They're making more money than you,   Kiera (08:16) Yeah.   Brian Hanks (08:17) and they are killing it. Meanwhile, you're scared to run a practice. And those, if   Kiera (08:22) Mm-hmm.   Brian Hanks (08:22) those jokers can figure it out, you can figure it out.   Kiera (08:26) Totally. Well, and I think also on there like, Brian, let's be real. Is anybody ready to be a business owner? Like I wasn't, I'm sure you weren't.   Brian Hanks (08:31) Nope. Nope.   Kiera (08:33) I think are people ready to be parents? The answer is no. Like nobody feels ready for that. Were you ready when you went into dental school? The answer's no. I think that there's this imposter syndrome that hits us all that we think, like, give me a little more time and I'm gonna get ready. Give me a little more time. And I will say that like the brass taxes, you jump into owning a business and you figure it out. Now, should you listen to some podcasts? Should you do some things? Like for sure.   But   like how many consultants and coaches are there that literally are gonna like grab your hand, walk you through, and make sure you don't make the mistakes? Like how many people like yourself are gonna walk you through buying the practice to where it's an actually great practice? I I think that I think there's more help today. Now, do I think there's a lot of noise and a lot of people that might be like posturing out there saying that they know what they're doing? Yes. So make sure you like vet them a little bit before you go and jump on a bandwagon of somebody, like someone who's been there, done that, done that successfully multiple times is who I'd bet on. But like   We are in such a day and age where there is so much information out there. You need to be a great clinician. We're gonna teach you how to be a great business owner. And as long as you're comfortable realizing that you've got to learn that side of it, that's to me, like if you're a good producer and you're a good human, like go for it. There's dentistry is so fun owning and practice because the sky is the limit. And ultimately there is no cap on what you're able to do, what you're able to produce, how you're able to do it.   And I think that there are very few careers out there, very few job opportunities that really are the sky's limit. Now, remember how I told you about that dentist who bought their own practice. They're now doing like two fifty this year, whatever they're he was making five hundred thousand as an associate. And so this   Brian Hanks (10:06) Yeah. Hi Bart.   Kiera (10:08) is one where like people be like, Well, gosh, like, you know, he went from five hundred thousand and now he's at a two point, I think he's gonna end around two to two point four this year. But like he had a great associateship. And so I think   There is still this just like uncanny, unnatural desire that you want to just own, you want to build. And I think dentistry is also if I look at like banks, they lend to dental practices, like almost guaranteed, like they have a they're pretty lucrative with like just shelling money out to your dental practice. And I'm like, if banks are willing to back, you've got to also see that your dental practice, like you have the greatest opportunity of not failing.   of any business venture you're going to do. Why is private equity coming in strong? Because they know dental practices are almost bulletproof of an investment to have. So when I look at all those reasons, I agree with you, Brian. People don't feel like they're ready, but I'm like, you're never gonna feel ready. But you have so many things stacking in your favor to help you be successful.   Brian Hanks (11:03) At the beginning of that, I   I don't I don't want people to miss that. If they missed the wisdom that Kiera just shared at the beginning of that, as she said, yeah, you use parenting. I think you use business ownership as some advice. Like I I just want to repeat what you said because it's so important. Dentistry is not like, I don't know, Kiera, scuba diving, right? If you go get scuba certified, you like practice in the pool. And then they like make you, you know, they learn, you know, you you learn taking the regulator out of your mouth and putting it back in and all that. And I imagine like dentists think   ownership, like there's gonna be some course I can take that's gonna prepare me for ownership kinda like scuba certification. That's like you gotta help me come up with   Kiera (11:38) Yeah.   Brian Hanks (11:39) a better example, but it's not it's not true. It's like parenting,   Kiera (11:42) I got you.   Brian Hanks (11:42) it's like marriage. It's like I don't know, business ownership, whatever it is. Like the the thing that prepares you for it is just doing it. Just just   try it out.   Kiera (11:50) Mm-hmm.   Brian Hanks (11:50) Yep.   Kiera (11:51) Well, and I think Brian, to that point, like the analogy is I think people think business ownership is a skill that can be learned in a one, two, three step versus like marriage, relationships, child, like being parents, business ownership. It's an evolution of soul and it's a it's a creating of who you are. It is not a skill. Like there are skill points to it, like learning to read a p PL, learning how what profitability is.   But business ownership in and of itself, I had a friend she's like, Kiera, you have to have kids. Like it will strip you down to your core and it will like show things to you that you've never had. And I said, Have you ever been a business owner? Cause I'll tell you that I'm pretty confident. I've got a lot of that stripping over here that's like breaking me down to my utter like most. But I think we think business ownership and running a practice, I'm not here to say that there's not like tactical pieces and we've broken it down. Like our team actually just went through this something. I'm like, there's really like   10 things that you need as systems that are really gonna make or break it. And you gotta know a couple of like core foundations and you got to know your numbers. Like beyond that, that's kind of your checklist. But to your point of like scuba diving or cooking or whatever, it's not this like checklist skill that you're going to have. And so I think, like you said, you're gonna look for this course. But I'm like, the course is life, the course is doing it, the course is going through it. And I think you've got to have the confidence of are you confident in you that no matter what comes your way, you're gonna be able to figure it out. And if so, business ownership is there for you.   And I would give more confidence to you than you give yourself. I've watched a lot of students. I worked at Midwestern. To your point of those 10 students, there was probably like 50 of them. Sorry, Midwestern grads, I was not letting any of you touch my mouth. Like genuinely, you needed a few years to practice and I'm not your practicey. But like I think I think you're more equipped than you give yourself credit for. Just like you're more equipped for life than you give yourself credit for. And I think business ownership is the same.   Brian Hanks (13:31) So Kiera, let's break down some of those numbers. by the way, better   analogy for business ownership is like health. Do you remember the first time by the way? if you're listening to this, it's pretty obvious if you're watching, but if you're listening, Kiera's in a lot better shape than me. But if if Kiera, I don't know if you had this moment. I I did when I was like 21, 22, that I realized at the I was at the gym, I was like lifting some weights, and I realized, I'll never be done with this. Like you're never done with health. So I think business ownership is a lot like.   Kiera (13:59) I do remember my moment   of that. Mine was   Brian Hanks (14:01) Yeah.   Kiera (14:03) not at the gym, Brian. Mine was actually in Bali, like a little flex there. I remember because   Brian Hanks (14:07) There you go.   Kiera (14:07) I was like having a lot of like knee and hip pain. And I was like, okay, I just have to like work out and then eventually this is gonna get better. And I remember I was walking down to the pool overlooking the ocean. I was like, I'm never gonna be done. Like this is my forever. Like I'm not like I used to just work out to be like skinny and fit. And now I'm like, no, you gotta do this so you don't freaking hurt and you can actually walk and get out of bed. Like it's never gonna end. And   I   sat there and read a book, quite depressed. And then I was like, okay, like this is what it you're right. It's it's a constant evolution of soul. You're never done parenting, you're never done in a relationship. Like you don't hit this, like, check the box, we've got a golden thing. It is a forever perpetual. But I also think that that's what drives dentists to go into that because they are of this obsession of wanting to be the best of the best. You want to get a better prep. You want to get a better crown crop. You go to CE, you're CE junkies out there. Like, this is just another level of obsession.   Of a space that's going to evolve you as a human and it's gonna allow you to grow. So yeah, thanks. That was that was a great that was a great analogy, Brian. Good good call on that one.   Brian Hanks (15:02) Yeah. Yeah, the the   the negative of the health analogy is that you're never done, but the positive is you can break it down. Like you can learn how to do certain lifts a little better. You can learn how to macro track. You can learn diet and exercise.   Kiera (15:14) So you're right, Brian. Like that was a solid call out on the health analogy. Like this is what people are obsessed about, but they want to have that evolution of soul. They want to like I think that that's why dentists are drawn to ownership, but I think they're just afraid. But I'm like, we're also afraid to work out. We're afraid to have kids. We're afraid like, so don't let fear hold you back. I think it's just a like, I don't know. It doesn't be like Nike, just do it, guys. Like that sounds like terrible business advice on my side.   Brian Hanks (15:37) Well just do it and but remember   remember how good you weren't at at all the clinical stuff that you're really   Kiera (15:44) Mm-hmm.   Brian Hanks (15:44) good at now, right? So dentists, the the superpower that most dentists have is that attention to detail, like the obsession over the details and and the the minutiae. And and as a patient, like I gotta go to filling next week, and as a patient, I want my sister thinking about all of the all of the little details, right? and   Kiera (16:04) Mm-hmm.   Brian Hanks (16:04) that superpower is real.   And I want the density like lean into it. If you're listening to this and that evolution of soul that that Kiera's talking about, part of that evolution for you is just remembering that that superpower that you have comes like there's another side to that coin. It comes with a downside. And the downside is the overthinking when you're not.   You know you're not that good at a thing. And if you know you're not that good at finding a dental practice to buy, analyzing a dental practice to buy, actually buying that practice, applying for a loan, like talking to lawyers, all those things, your brain is gonna start to spin a little bit. And j but but but here's the good news: your brain spun a thousand times already. Remember that first time they opened up the little mannequin to like practice, like prepping a crown or something, and you were like, How do I even do this? Right.   Kiera (16:49) Dexter, their little type   it on.   Brian Hanks (16:51) Yeah, like seriously, like you figure this out. You like and if the dentists that I deal with they're the smartest people on the planet, they're awesome. And and so if you can figure that stuff out,   Kiera (17:02) Mm-hmm.   Brian Hanks (17:02) my gosh, like first of all, hire somebody else like you to just be amazing for you in all the areas that you aren't amazing, and just remember that it doesn't this isn't rocket science. yeah, so you can figure this stuff out.   Kiera (17:14) Mm-hmm.   Brian Hanks (17:14) But okay, so speaking of minutia, speaking of details, I gave you the hundred and fifty one thousand dollar number.   Okay, here I did some math. I'm an accountant. I I know I know spreadsheets.   Kiera (17:22) Yeah.   Brian Hanks (17:24) I know how to do like compound interest and some those things. Here's what I did is I just is I said, what's the cost? Okay, if dentists aren't feeling ready, they want to feel like they have their student loans under control, which is smart, right? I'm a financial planner. Yeah, don't get yourself over your skis in debt. That's great. But like, how much is it gonna cost if you're the statistic?   Right. And the statistic is you're you, listener, right now, if you're not a practice owner, are waiting five years longer to own a practice. How much does that five years cost you? Right. And if you do the math, and I did the math at like a 38-year-old dentist versus a 33-year-old dentist. And I assumed that they actually retired at age, both retired at age 60. Okay. So like different lengths of associate part of your career and owner part of your career.   with compound interest, assuming 7% and some of those other variables that I put in there, it was a $1.14 million difference between those two numbers. So don't forget that while you're busy like taking care of your student loans so you can feel ready to buy a practice, it's costing you an enormous amount of money. And Kiera, I would just add, and I'm curious if you can think of any others, I would say the compound.   the compound effect that I'm talking about is not just money, although money is a big part of it. I think the compound effect applies to other things. Like how many more times and at bats would you have for treatment planning, for managing that difficult assistant, teaching someone how to answer the phones better, hiring, firing. Like there's a compound effect on all of those behavioral things too and and it's gonna cost you some money. So any thoughts on that?   Kiera (19:04) Mm-hmm.   Yeah, I think it's a I I was fascinated. I'm so glad that you went into the 1.1 because we had talked about that pre-show and I was just very fascinated of like, my gosh, like that's so much for people. That's so many things. Like there's a financial dollar amount, which I love because I think dentists really do. Like that's an easy one for me to be like, gosh, like me delaying this decision can cost me that much. But I think like there's also you still have to go through the   growth of learning to run a business. So not only is there a financial delay, but there's also the growth of you getting good at running a business and having it profitable and being able to make this thing run longer. And then you have more opportunities like I think about yourself. And the longer you're able to build this practice and like maybe do multiple like there's to me that's like such a it's fascinating. And I think I think the the call to today is there are some people that definitely are meant to be owners and there's some that aren't.   but I think if you have that itch, that scratch, I would really ask yourself, like, what truly are you waiting for? And when are you going to know that you're actually ready? Like you're never going to feel ready to have a child. You're like, I need to get these ducks in a row. Well, those ducks get in a row and then you got seven more ducks that come behind that you're like, I need get those in a row. So to me it'd be if I'm really wanting to buy a practice, what things do I need to have? Cl schedule a call with Brian. Like, I think Brian, this is why we put you on the podcast. I think you're fantastic. You don't put people into weird zones. you're very much like   If that dentist is producing and you don't do those skills and you don't do those type of procedures, don't buy that practice. Like you're not, you're gonna be broke. You're very, very pro making sure people feel confident and that they're able to buy it. And I think it's like buying a home. I remember when I first like went and talked to somebody about buying a home, I had no freaking clue and I wish I would have known more. But like until you start having the conversations, I think it can feel more daunting than it actually is. Then from there, like listen to the podcast, start listening to there's our podcast, there's other podcasts out there, start reading up on how to buy a practice.   But I think to me, there is like two parts to it. One is finding the right practice. Like what you buy, and I say like eyes wide open when you're looking in, and then rosy glasses as soon as you sign on that dotted line, and you're gonna see a lot and you're just gonna deal with it. From there, make sure you got somebody really solid in your corner. Like our practices, as soon as they buy, we take them on. I try to get them two to three months before they close. I wanna make sure we're getting things in. If you don't close on time or things happen, no problem. We're gonna pause you, get your practice in place. Like it's happened twice in hundreds of offices we've helped.   But then, like from there, just have somebody in your corner, somebody who's gonna help you grow in your first year. Most practices are seeing like a 10 to 30% increase in their first year. So if I'm buying a one million dollar practice, that's a hundred to three hundred thousand dollar uptick just by having somebody in the corner. That's very conservative. A million dollar practice, like we are usually growing those exponentially. But like you don't have to stress and freak out. Hey, I'm pinned.   Brian Hanks (21:45) Yep. By the way, I I d pin put a pin, put a pin, Kiera. You you gotta you gotta underline that. Yeah.   That's like underline that, underline it. Like keep going, keep going. I I'm throwing you off. I'm interrupting you, but like I will tell you the   Kiera (21:59) Yeah.   Brian Hanks (21:59) average buyer I talk to on the phone is so scared of patient attrition. They're like, Kiera, like   I'm gonna have 10%, 20%. What if 50% of the patients don't show up? Listen, that's a real fear. By the way, I want you to have that   Kiera (22:10) Right. Mm-hmm.   Brian Hanks (22:12) fear when you're like doing the margin on my crown, right? Like again, it's your superpower dentist,   Kiera (22:16) Mm-hmm.   Brian Hanks (22:17) but like my stats show exactly the same thing, Kiera is saying I have data to support what Kiera is saying that the average   Kiera (22:22) Mm-hmm.   Brian Hanks (22:24) dentist doesn't they have a negative attrition, which is just two negatives, right? So it's a positive. They the average buyer has more enthusiasm, they've got some more energy, they're gonna update the website, they're gonna maybe get rid of.   That one employee that everybody kind of knew probably s needed to go. And suddenly the practice is just gonna it's gonna take off. Ten to thirty percent. That's yeah, right in line with what I'm seeing. That's awesome. So sorry, I I'm interrupting you, keep going.   Kiera (22:47) Mm-hmm. And I think, no, y you are always this is a conversation. It's not like a dictation. So we're like this is real life rift here. I just think people like when you look at it, I think you're more capable than you think you are. I know that you can get the skills, you can figure it out. Like you said, I'm always like, okay, play the what ifs, lose 50% of your patients. Great. Well, we're gonna take those 50%. And there's ways you can actually grow a practice without even needing to have more new patients.   So   we're gonna maximize all those, we're gonna optimize them. You're going to pull in more people. Like it is one of those things that I'm like, I have yet to have a practice go bankrupt. So knock on wood, like you can be my first challenge accepted. Like I feel very confident that I'm not like, unless you completely botch it and you go into malpractice, like we're probably gonna be just fine. So odds of it happening, so minimal. Are you gonna be a little stressed out? Yeah. Like, welcome to business ownership, but you're also looking for growth, and that's why you're being called to this moment. Like   It will not go away. That itch will not go away until you scratch it. And scratching it, and I love that you said like they're waiting five years and that's a $1.1 million minimum. There's so many other pieces to it. So I think I think a lot of dentists like to have facts. I think a lot of dentists like to have that decision make logical sense. And then we back it up with emotional reasons. And I think it's a wise way to make decisions. But I I would just say if you're even remotely curious, like start going down the path. I know when I was going to buy a house.   I needed to go find out, like, I don't know about lenders, I didn't know about interest rates. I did and until you get into it, just like you wanted to be a dentist, but until you got into it and you started working on that type it on and you learned about dropping the box and like waxing it up and working on Dexter and then taking x-rays, like you didn't know it. And I think most of the time the fear comes from the lack of knowing. I will also say, and I've seen this a lot, Brian, a lot of dentists feel like because I'm a doctor and I'm a dentist, if I buy a practice, I should know how to run a practice. And   Brian Hanks (24:38) And   Kiera (24:38) I just want to like   Scratch that out. I want to tell you that that's not true. But I know a lot of you come in feeling like but Kiera, I'm a dentist, or Brad, I'm a dentist, like I'm a doctor, like people expect me to know this. And I want to say you think people expect you to know that, but the reality is you don't. You just need to be scrappy enough to figure it out. No one's expecting you to know anything. Honestly, you probably know way more than you think you do already. But I I want to just cut that because I know a lot of you have perfectionism like fear of being exposed that you're not that great.   Except that you don't know how to run a business just like you didn't know how to prep a crown, but you learned that and you're gonna learn how to do a business and you're gonna do it exponentially well because you are so detail oriented and you're gonna hire a great team around you, hire great coaches around you that you're literally like it's impossible for you to fail. And so I think Brian, like kudos on it, kudos on the stats, any other thoughts that you have around people and like how do they get to the nitty-gritty of actually going through   Brian Hanks (25:26) Let's get some yeah. I'll hit I'll hit you with more stats. Yeah.   Kiera (25:31) that.   Brian Hanks (25:32) Some more facts for dentists. You and you mentioned the failure rate. What is the actual failure rate in dentistry? It's it's 0.14% of dentists go bankrupt. Okay. And it's always, always, always one   Kiera (25:43) Incredible.   Brian Hanks (25:43) of three things. It's drugs, divorce, and then jail. You know, some kind of felony that doesn't have anything to do with practice. so you stay away from those   Kiera (25:51) Yep.   Brian Hanks (25:52) three things and you're guaranteed not to go bankrupt.   And it so what do dentists actually need to buy practice? We've done a good job of pumping people up, given the rah-rah speech. What do you actually need? You need five things, okay? and I almost guarantee you, unless you're in dental school right now, listening to this, you have the five right now. All right. almost guaranteed. and I'll go from hardest to easiest, Kiera. Okay. Hardest for people to get is you need 50k   Kiera (26:18) Okay.   Brian Hanks (26:19) cash. You need some cash. 50k is your magic number.   Has to be liquid. It's gotta be in a checking   Kiera (26:24) Mm-hmm.   Brian Hanks (26:24) savings money market account. Can't be in an IRA or home equity or something like that. but you need that money to show the bank that you're responsible. And by the way, you don't actually hand that money over to the bank. You keep it. Yeah, the bank just wants to see that you have some money to see that you're responsible.   Kiera (26:39) Mm.   Brian Hanks (26:40) And if you know COVID shuts us down again, can you still pay the bank the bank back a few months? All right. So most people have that.   Kiera (26:46) Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.   Brian Hanks (26:47) They've got fifty K or access to fifty K. That's like a side thing we could talk about.   Kiera (26:51) Totally.   Brian Hanks (26:52) Yep.   Kiera (26:52) Mm-hmm.   Brian Hanks (26:53) you need production history. You got to be able to do about 80% of the production of what a seller could do. So million-dollar GP practice, let's say 250 of that Kiera is hygiene, means the doctor was doing 750k a year in production. that means you as an associate need to do about 600   a year   Kiera (27:12) Mm-hmm.   Brian Hanks (27:12) to buy a million-dollar practice. Okay. Most associates listening, you know, public health, military, there are some special exceptions where we need to learn how to count.   procedures and things   Kiera (27:22) Mm-hmm.   Brian Hanks (27:23) like that. But most associates, they can do 600 to buy a million dollar practice. Okay, the 80%. most dentists don't have any problem with numbers threes and four, number three and four. Number three is you got to have a credit score over 680. It's pretty low. And it's a green light, red light. 681 credit score gets you the same interest rate as an 820. And and then you need a clean credit history is number four. And so no bankruptcies, no short sales, or a really good story.   Behind a bankruptcy or short sale. And then you need one year of experience out of dental school or a residency program. GPR, AEGD, specialty program, whatever it is. If you're in a residency program, you could buy a practice the day you get out of your residency. So that's it. And so technically, Kiera, you need number six. Number six is you need a practice to buy. And I'll be I'll be really blunt with people, that's the   Kiera (28:17) Mm-hmm.   Brian Hanks (28:17) hardest step.   Finding a good practice to buy is the hardest thing because everybody   Kiera (28:21) I agree.   Brian Hanks (28:22) wants to look for the practice in their pajamas. They think it's like buying a house. Like I'm gonna go on the MLS and I'm gonna look   Kiera (28:28) Mm-hmm.   Brian Hanks (28:28) for a dental practice. There is no such thing as the DLS, there's no dental listing service. And so if you're in your pajamas looking for a practice to buy, it's   Kiera (28:34) Mm-hmm.   Brian Hanks (28:36) not there. Sometimes it is, which is why people do it, but it's almost certainly not there, especially in the city you want to live right now. and so we'll have a podcast episode about how to   Find a practice well. But the sh here's the short version is you go talk to dentists. Build a network of dentists that know like and trust you. That's the   Six things and and most associates have And so attitude, like don't let us stop you, don't be scared. Like we did the like pump you up version of the speech. And here's the facts to back that up, is it's not actually that hard. Like with those six things, banks will not only give you a hundred percent of the purchase price, they'll give you a hundred percent of the purchase price, and then they'll hand you another seventy-five K in cash just to make sure you don't run out of money on the first day. Sometimes it's a hundred K. I've seen d banks give two hundred thousand dollars in cash.   Kiera (29:21) Mm-hmm.   Brian Hanks (29:21) before they even walk through the doors with you know the key in hand as an owner. So it's awesome. If if you're thinking about ownership and nine out of ten dentists are at some point in their career, it's it's really not it's not it's simple. It's not necessarily easy, but it's simple.   Kiera (29:41) Yeah. And Brian, even on the I've been talking to the Bank of America guys, and they were like, we even give like thirty to forty thousand to a new startup practice for consulting fees in addition to our working capital because   Brian Hanks (29:52) Yeah.   Kiera (29:53) we know that it's also going to help grow them. So there's so many pieces, and I think you've just listed off like really, I agree, like finding the practice and like sending out the postcards, getting to know the network, finding the dentist, like the practice that actually works for you, finding a seller that wants to sell for the price that you want.   I agree with you 100%. That is the hardest part. But I think Brian, you did an incredible job of breaking this down from the like, okay, you're probably gonna do it. Nine out of ten is do buy that. What are the exact steps that I need to take for this? And then I agree with you. Like, absolutely a follow-up podcast on like how to actually find a practice. But Brian, I'm curious if people are interested, like they want to start connecting and like this is what you do. And I know you guys are really generous with your time. How do people connect in with you to like even start the process? Like, again, I feel like curiosity.   Is the best place to be. Like let's just ask the questions. Let's figure it out. So Brian, how do people get connected in with you?   Brian Hanks (30:41) Pop over to Amazon, type in How To Buy A Dental Practice. That's the book. if you want, by the way, if you want a cheaper copy, you can go to the website. The website is DentalBuyerAdvocates.com. I'm happy to ship it to you like as a publisher copy, no strings attached. but yeah, just pop over to Amazon, DentalBuyerAdvocates.com. Care if people want to email me directly. I always offer this. And it's so fascinating to me how few people actually take me up on it. I would be more than happy to have a half an hour conversation with whoever you are, free of charge.   Send me an email, Brian@BrianHanks.com. It's B-R-I-A-N and Hanks like Tom Hanks. So yeah, that's how you get a hold of me.   Kiera (31:20) Amazing.   Well, Brian, thank you for breaking this down and for all of you listening. I hope that today was just a really insightful podcast for you. I hope it gave you the facts to back it up. I hope it gave you the emotional piece. I hope it gave you kind of the like step by step by step of how to get there. I'm so grateful for Brian being here. Everybody connect in with him. And for all of you listening, thank you for listening and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.  

A confluence of factors from climate change to affordability are bringing residents back to the Midwest.Regions that saw an exodus of manufacturing and population are now seeing an influx of tech jobs, and residents.On this hour of All Sides, we're talking with a panel of experts about whether we're seeing the end of the Midwestern exodus.Guests:Bradley Schurman, demographic strategist, author, founder/CEO of Human ChangeBart Elmore, environmental and business history professor, Ohio State UniversityJason Reece, city and regional planning professor, Knowlton School of Architecture

Late last night, three bleary-eyed Hacks convened to discuss the results—or what we had of them—from yesterday's Midwestern primaries. Axe and Heilemann were joined by legendary Democratic Hackeroo Addisu Demissie to break down the lessons from last week in Michigan and this week in Wisconsin and Minnesota. The Hacks dig into what it all means for the midterms, the evolving dynamics of the DSA within the Democratic Party, the polling industrial complex, and so much more! Photo by Stephen Maturen via Getty Images Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Do you prefer retaining the employees you have rather than constantly hunting for new ones? Kiera shares an example of a practice that evolved from high turnover to solid team retention, and how effective leadership played a critical role in keeping people long-term — plus how you can craft it for your own practice. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera Dent- Dental A Team (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team Listeners. This is Kiera. And today I want to chat with you guys about hiring and staffing and retention. I think this is something that a lot of you are struggling with. I think it's just, I don't know, it's just annoying and it's obnoxious and it's just part of what we are dealing with now. But I think that there's a lot of solutions that we can do that I think a lot of people aren't thinking about. So with that, I want to give some tips of like what we can do to retain team members more than having to hunt for them.   So I know that there's ways for us. I know there's a lot of things. And we're gonna just kick it off today. So I'm excited for you because what I found is there's probably a good way. And I was talking to an office about this. I'm really excited to share some some office growth that I've watched in office over the last five years evolve from team turnover to incredible team retention. and I really do think that a lot of it has to do with leadership, a lot of it has to do with growth and   what we can do is to solve that retention rather than needing to always hire. Now, there's always going to be hiring. So we're going to kind of talk through both of it, but also like what things can we do to retain our team that we have. Dental A Team is a consulting company where we work nationwide, we work across the globe. We work with private practices, multi-locations, we work virtually and in person. We have an incredible community where we come together in in-person masterminds, sharing the best of the best. And we're from startup to multi, multi-millions.   And I'm obsessed with helping you say yes to more in your life. And that stands for you, focusing on you and your vision, getting your team aligned, earnings and making sure you're profitable. And then system structure and scalability, really truly making sure that you guys are set up for success so you can say yes to more in your life. our goal is to positively impact the world of dentistry in the greatest way possible. And I'm obsessed with you. I'm obsessed with your practice. I'm obsessed with your team. I'm obsessed with your struggles, I'm obsessed with your wins.   And I'm here to help make your life easier. I'm very big on tactical practicals. So if this podcast has served you in any way, shape, or form, please share it with a friend, share it with a colleague, share it with someone who you feel like it could brighten their day. Post it in a Facebook group, post it online, leave us a five-star review. Anything that you do helps us spread our mission. My goal is to be in the ears of every single dental practice out there because I believe that dentistry is special. It's sacred. It's   It's a zone where we're able to change people's lives. And I'm so excited for you to be here. I'm Kiera Dent. I'm obsessed with all things dentistry, including my last name. So let's kick it off and let's start seeing of how we can figure out where and what we can do for this retention piece. So, number one, I feel like so I was talking to an office today. Me and the doctor, I said, it like this doctor has an incredible team. I think they've got 20 team members. most of them are women. There's two male doctors there.   And I said, I watched you. You went from like four operatories to now we've got 15 operatories. The team has grown. And I said, What do you feel makes this place special? Like team members love working there. And I was like, what is it? So much so that they're all like recruiting from other offices and bringing people here and saying this is the best office they've ever worked for. I was talking to one of the team members and they said, I no longer have the Sunday scaries. I don't get stressed out at work. This is my second family. Like team members are telling me this as a consultant. Usually I and I asked them like,   What do you guys need help with? And most of them are like, we're just really happy. So I was asking the doctor and the team, I was like, what is it about this place? I asked both sides of the coin because I was like, what is it? I'm obsessed. This is one my favorite things to dig into practices. And maybe I'll get this doctor on the podcast and share from theirs. I'll just share kind of some snippets from today. And the doctor told me, he said, Kiera, I'm just really big on treating people like people. He's like, I'm never gonna expect them to have work be more important than their families. he's like, I want to make this into a lifestyle practice where   We work seven to three a lot of the days so that way they're able to get home and be with their families, but we're still able to like work hard and take care of patients. I have never seen a practice where they literally leave at five o'clock. And this is in California, like it's not for overtime. They just work hard and they get home and they go be with their families. if they have time and they need to like take care of their kids or they're sick, they are able to take care of them. they expect them to work hard and they all do work hard and they build really great people there. I asked the team, I said, What is it about this place? And they said, Well, I think it's the fact that   Like our doctor trusts us and they let us do things. And but it's wild. Anything I asked this team to do, literally, I was like, let's do morning huddle prep sheets. Let's treatment track. They don't fight with me on it. And a lot of teams do. And so I was like, okay, this is fascinating. The team is very accommodating. They're willing. They want to. All of them were so excited to morning prep huddle prep. Do you how many teams are like, womp, womp, womp? So much extra work. This team was like, Yeah, absolutely, we'll do this. We'll take care of it.   I had them roll out route slips. They did it. Like no pushback. And I was just, it's fascinating to me. And I think something I'm picking up from this is one, they really do hire for great culture. Two, they see potential in people. Three, they really do treat this as like an amazing place to work. Like the doctor is just getting so excited. They're talking about putting a gym in there. Like fun things to make this where they make their life incredible. And I watched the doctor just get like twinkly-eyed about getting so excited to.   Do these surprises. They took their team on a cruise and just for fun. Like it was just a fun thing that they did. And when I think about all of that, this office used to struggle to hire. And now they literally most of their employees that they've had in the last three years have all come referral-based. and I think about Dental A Team, the bulk of our team is coming referral-based. And they're coming back and they're sharing with people, and their friends are interviewing with us.   And I think about that, and I'm like, as a business owner, I think that that's the greatest compliment. If your team is willing to refer their friends, their colleagues to want to come work here because they love it so much, you're doing something right. And people stay where there's a great, incredible culture. And so hearing both sides of the coin, hearing what team members are loving, hearing what doctors are loving, there's so many other ones. I've got another doctor, they've got team members, I've been with them for 12, 15 years. And I asked that doctor, I said, what   What do you do that makes people want to stay with you for so long? And this doctor said, you know, Kiera, I think it's that I really listen to them and I have clear expectations. They know what it is. That office also, like when we say we're gonna be there at 12 o'clock, they are there at 11:55 with their notebooks and their pens. I think that a lot of these practices, so one of the pieces I see is people really do stay where expectations are clear. Both of these offices have high standards, both of these offices expect a lot, both of these offices work really hard.   Dental A team is no exception to that. and I think having clarity, I think having clear job descriptions, I think having clear expectations from all leaders, I think team members knowing if they're winning or losing, you define it. You define it for them. And I really do love that there's clarity all the way around. Like both offices have different expectations, but both offices have them clear. The team knows how to win, the team knows what's expected, and both offices really do treat their team.   like humans. They I just watch and I watch these cohesive teams and there are clear expectations, but there's also a space where they they want to be there. There's this want, there's this draw, there's this happiness, there's a lightness about it. But they're hitting great goals. And so I think clarity really can create confidence for team members. So that's that's a good space. Another thing I notice with these offices and with teams is   people really do want growth, not just like an employment path. So, what is growth in that practice? How do people evolve? How do they grow? Like, what is a development plan? All these offices have regular one-on-ones. And one-on-ones can be about performance, one-on-ones can also be about what they want in their personal life, what they want in their professional life, what that looks like. And talking about growth opportunities, for me, every single year at the end of the year, I talk to my team about what their personal and professional goals are.   When people join our team, they take a survey of what they want their personal life to look like in their next one year, five years, 10 years. and as a leader, I'm obsessed with making their dreams become a reality. So how can we make those dreams become real for them? How can we figure it out? anything we can possibly do? Let's give opportunities, let's find ways. It doesn't always have to be with work because sometimes you're gonna tap out once you're at a certain level as a dental system. That's kind of where you're gonna be. But can they learn?   To do for an office work? Can they grow in other areas? Can they become a mentor consult or assistant? What ways can they grow? can we grow them personally? Can we send them to CE courses where they're personally growing, not just professionally growing? what's the training and development we can do? I know there's an office, another office I know of, and they hired Dave Ramsey. And so everybody who wanted to learn about financial management, they were able to do it. I know I've had offices where I teach them about how to do investments a little bit.   like very small, like high yield savings accounts and the things that they're able to do. growing people as people, not just as employees. Like that, I don't know. I think as an employer, one of our greatest gifts is to be able to like grow people to make their dreams become true, to look for opportunities to help them become the best version of themselves, and really just having pasts and plans and   Knowing your team, knowing them as humans. as our company grows, Britt and I talk about this often. I'm like, Britt, how do we grow and still maintain this authentic one-on-one seeing people as people in our company? Our mission has slightly changed to where we're so focused on growing practices, but it's one person, one life, one practice at a time. And I'm very obsessed about being obsessed about the individual. How do people feel   in a large organization, how do they feel like they're still seen as a person? How do they feel like they are being grown as a human? And I think the more you can do one-on-one growth conversations, the more you can invest in them in humans. And it's crazy because I think as management gets bigger and you have leaders and you're not as involved as a CEO, finding ways where you're not overstepping your leaders and you're able to still stay connected to them as humans. I was hired we just hired a   A new C-suite member on our team. And I was talking to him, and I was like, okay, this person's favorite tree is this, and this person's favorite thing is this, and this person's favorite thing is that. And when I finished, I thought, no matter how large our organization ever gets, I want to make sure that all of my team members, all of our clients, always feel like they are like one in a million, and they are that one, and that they are seen as that one, that they are so valued.   even in a large organization. There was the Dean of Midwestern when I worked with him. His name is Dr. Gilpatrick. And I remember he knew every single dental student's name. He knew my husband's name. He and we're talking, there were hundreds, and I remember being like, whoa, that's so impressive. I want to be like Dr. Gilpatrick and I want to know everyone's name and I want to remember their names. And at the time I was not great at that. And this is a skill I really had to develop. but people loved Dr. Gilpatrick and we were talking, I don't know, it was probably I think 150 people per class.   We had four classes in there. So at any given time, there's probably 600 students plus spouses. Dr. Gilpatrick knew every single one of them by name and knew something personal about them. Would ask me how my husband was doing, would ask how Jason's doing in pharmacy school. So it wasn't just my husband. It was by name and what his profession was and what he was going to school for. That type of intentionality as a leader, people don't even get that from their family. People don't even get that from their spouses. And as a leader,   You can show them that they're important, that they're valued, that they're loved. One of the greatest things that you can ever do. And then I think another piece for being able to retain great team members. Yes, we need to hire, but you're gonna be able to hire if you have a great culture. another great thing is is to actually build a great culture. So what are the things of what is your culture? For us, I literally have them read like what our culture is and values we live by, and all of our team knows core values and   I've set it up to where they core value shout out each other every Wednesday. As a leader, like I get a little teary-eyed on this part. to show up and to hear my team calling each other out. I'm not there a lot of Wednesdays. I'm not there at a lot of our meetings anymore. And when I do get to be there, to just watch each other love each other. to see each other help each other out. We're a virtual team, guys. Like they don't even live by each other.   And see marketing and consultants call each other out to positively praise one another, to offer to help, like shout out to Pam. I know she listens to the podcast a lot. Pam is always willing to help. And I see her go behind the scenes and help people get their numbers entered and to have our marketing team love on our consultant team and to have our consultants love on our like C-suite team and to have our C-suite team love on our VA team to watch them call out core values to each other.   To watch them do Thankful Thursday. to like see people as people. I know our team's getting bigger, and I keep getting like, like when we run leadership meetings, I'm always like, no, it's always personal and professional wins every single week. And I'm so big on that. I'm like, that takes so much time. And I'm like, that's how you connect. The times how you connect, that time's how you make people feel seen, heard, and loved. I can't tell you how many times in these meetings I learn about my team's struggles. We learn about   people get connected. There's a a game I play in office called the Silver Thread, I think is what it's called, or like connected thread. I don't even know what it's called, but I get people in groups of four usually and I say, All right, you guys have to come up with four things that you're connected by. And I I have people that don't know each other. I sometimes get in the group, and what I found is every single time they're able to come up with four things that they all have in common. A lot of times it's holidays, a lot of times it's songs, but it's so fascinating because no matter what group you're in.   People are connected, people are striving for community, people rally with each other, people want that connection. And so to be able to have your team come connected as a culture, these are just the little things. These are where people feel safe, they feel seen, they feel heard. addressing issues early, like having leaders that support, having people that connect in with their departments, having people that grow their departments. I also think making sure the standard is like not what you preach, but what you tolerate.   And looking at what you tolerate, and is that really the the standard of what you're going to to have? Like, do not destroy your top performers by tolerating poor performance of the lower performers. Hire great talent. Expect people to be at the same level. People love to be surrounded by A players. Like, so hire A players, create a culture of A players, create a culture where they love each other, create a culture where they're connected to each other, create time for them to bond. Like,   Because we have a virtual team, you have it so much easier in an in-person team. There's so many things. You can have potlucks together. You can have book clubs together. You can work out together. You can do painting nights together. You can go to sports games together. Get people connecting as people. and always recognize that in culture, your entire team is always watching you and what you're willing to tolerate, what you're willing to accept. They're watching you like a hawk. And I think about when I have to make hard decisions or ones that I don't want to do.   I had to remember I got an entire team of eyes watching and seeing what we as leaders will do and what we will not do. I remember when I was first a manager, I tolerated some really poor performance. And I remember there was a hygienist. I remember exactly who she was. I remember the exact day. I remember her name. She came in and she said, Kiera, I have lost so much respect for you. And that was duly served.   I was not being a leader. I was not having the conversations I needed to have. I was not holding team members to the high level of accountability that we had. I was not creating a culture. I was just squawking. I was seagull managing. I come in, I say a lot of words, and I shiz all over and I leave. That's not the way we create culture. And I think when we talk about hiring and having staffing, having a kick a culture, having people where   They love to work there where they want to refer their friends, but that doesn't mean they get everything they want. You can have high standards and have people obsess about it. People love to work hard. People love to be a part of an organization that's growing and innovating and creating. And they want to be a part of growth. Like growth equals like progress equals happiness. These are the ways that we create and retain. And so it's one of those things of creating clarity, creating growth, protecting your culture, having it be a space where people are obsessed with working there.   Finding out, talking to people, getting in, hearing what's going on, having leaders that really are developing their team, you pouring as a leader, like as a CEO into your leadership   team, like that is where I pour the bulk of my energy to trickle down to love because I can't do it, nor should I. I want leaders to rise up. You want leaders to rise up. But I think more than even hiring and attracting is how do I build a culture that people are obsessed with?   How do I create raving fans? And that does not mean they get everything they want. Think about spoiled rotten kids who are getting everything they want. They don't respect their parents. Think about the kids who respect their parents, who love their parents, who are raving fans of their parents. They work hard. They've got accountability. They've got structure. They've got discipline. Same thing in an organization. how can you be the best leader? That doesn't mean the most loved. I've said this quote before and I'll say it again. You're gonna be loved as a leader, you're gonna be hated as a leader, and where I hope you ultimately land is respected as a leader.   And that is a zone of like hiring and staffing is not just about hiring. It's about having an environment where great people want to stay. And so I'd ask yourself, look at it. Look at our company and see how do I create this into a practice where people don't want to leave, where people are obsessed, where I have high performing people that want to be here. Look at yourself as a leader, look to see what you're tolerating, look to see what you can change, ask your team.   Be careful how you ask because I found that self-reported oftentimes is based on the week. And if it's a bad week, I get bad reports. but really look to see how are people performing? What things do you want it to be? What things do people talk about? Why do they love it here? There's books so called I I love it here. Read culture books on how you can produce these great cultures. We had a podcast where I talked to a Chick-fil-A owner and how they create these raving fan cultures there.   But really, I think on hiring and retaining, it's about retaining. Because great teams that retain have word-of-mouth referrals left and right. People crave to work in great environments. People crave to work with great leaders. People crave to be there. And then when you are hiring, have those. Have your team have testimonials. We have a lot of testimonies where we've got video testimonies of our team where they're obsessed with working here. And when it doesn't work out, that's okay. This is not the place for everybody. Your place is not the place for everybody. Your place is for the right people.   But hopefully there's some tacticals in here for you to take, for you to look at it. And if you need help, this is a zone. We've turned around a lot of cultures. We've turned around a lot of leaders. We've had, we've said the uncomfortable things. I've had a lot of coaches give me uncomfortable advice. but really truly it's a space where I believe if you can think about how do I retain the right people, how do I attract the right people, how do I create this as a practice where people work hard, they play hard, they love being here, they don't get the Sunday scaries.   that's the place where people are gonna want to stay. They're gonna wanna cleave, they're gonna wanna like cling on and just be obsessed with you and refer all their friends. Have that be your standard, have that be what you want to be. And I promise you, hiring will be no longer as hard of an issue for you. And then be cautious on who you hire. Make sure you're always hiring for that culture, for the standards you want. A players make life a lot easier. And I know they're not always there, but seek after them, find them, and retain them.   If we can help you guys in any way, we help build leadership systems. We help build accountability. We help build cultures. We help turn cultures from maybe negative cultures to positive. We help leaders. We help CEOs. office managers sometimes are struggling with their doctors. Let's have those open conversations. Let's mediate between the two and help you two have uncomfortable, healthy debate conversations to where you guys can grow and flourish. I'd love to help you out. I'd love for you to just have a team that you're obsessed with.   I'd love for you to be like the doctors I I said, where they love their teams. They love working there. but it's not done out of entitlement. It's done out of accountability, empowerment, love, and great cultures. So reach out. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. And as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.

Exposure to a highly toxic weedkiller called paraquat is tied to a person's risk of developing Parkinson's disease. Lawmakers in Missouri and other Midwestern states have tried to pass measures banning paraquat. But as the Midwest Newsroom's Luke Nozicka reports, their efforts have stalled this year.

Childcare costs in Missouri and Kansas can now rival a mortgage for working families, but two Midwestern lawmakers are fighting to change that. Plus: After the Affordable Care Act tax credits lapsed, healthcare premiums spiked for millions of farmers and ranchers.

By the Summer of 2021, Bart and Krista Halderson were living the quintessential Midwestern life. They owned a beautiful home in Windsor, Wisconsin, and a rustic family cabin up north in White Lake, where they loved spending time together. They were also preparing to cross the finish line of parenting. Their oldest son Mitchell was a successful tech professional, engaged and in the process of buying a house. Their youngest son Chandler was days away from moving to Florida to work for SpaceX. But on July 7th, 2021, the dream shattered. Chandler went to the police station to report his parents missing. Bart and Krista had gone up north to the family cabin for the Fourth of July weekend with an unknown couple. They never came back. Try our coffee! - www.CriminalCoffeeCo.com Become a Patreon member -- > https://www.patreon.com/CrimeWeekly Shop for your Crime Weekly gear here --> https://crimeweeklypodcast.com/shop Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CrimeWeeklyPodcast Website: CrimeWeeklyPodcast.com Instagram: @CrimeWeeklyPod Twitter: @CrimeWeeklyPod Facebook: @CrimeWeeklyPod ADS: https://www.Ladder.fit/CrimeWeekly - Get a 7-Day FREE trial and $10 off your first month! https://www.HelixSleep.com/CrimeWeekly - Get 20% off sitewide! IQBAR - Text WEEKLY to 64000 for 20% off ALL IQBAR products and FREE shipping! https://www.TryFUM.com - Get a FREE gift with your purchase! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Over the course of Donald Trump's second term, Democratic voters have expressed dissatisfaction with their party over what many view as an inability to stand up to the president and his broader movement. That dissatisfaction with the establishment has manifested in primaries in coastal cities across the country, where the progressive movement appears to be ascendant. On Tuesday, that test played out in Midwestern states, Michigan and Missouri.Within roughly two hours of polls closing, The Associated Press called the closely watched rematch between Cori Bush and Rep. Wesley Bell for the incumbent. In 2024, AIPAC and other outside groups spent more than $18 million to oust Bush from her Missouri district, and her defeat, along with New York Rep. Jamaal Bowman's, has served as a warning sign for Democrats not to be too progressive or too pro-Palestine.But by Wednesday morning, Abdul El-Sayed, who ran on Medicare for All and ending military aid to Israel for its continued genocide in Gaza, narrowly defeated Rep. Haley Stevens by less than 20,000 votes. According to AdImpact, the Michigan Democratic Senate primary saw $98 million in ad spending and reservations. At least $60 million was spent boosting Stevens or attacking El-Sayed, with more than $30 million from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's super PAC, United Democracy Project — its largest spend in a single race ever, nearly double the then-record-breaking amount spent on Bowman's 2024 primary race.This week on The Intercept Briefing, host Jessica Washington and colleagues Akela Lacy and Jonah Valdez discuss what results from Tuesday's primaries signal for progressives and the broader left in the Democratic Party, especially in swing states and outside of coastal cities.Full transcript: https://interc.pt/4wgacXj Keep our investigations free and fearless at theintercept.com/join. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

By the Summer of 2021, Bart and Krista Halderson were living the quintessential Midwestern life. They owned a beautiful home in Windsor, Wisconsin, and a rustic family cabin up north in White Lake, where they loved spending time together. They were also preparing to cross the finish line of parenting. Their oldest son Mitchell was a successful tech professional, engaged and in the process of buying a house. Their youngest son Chandler was days away from moving to Florida to work for SpaceX. But on July 7th, 2021, the dream shattered. Chandler went to the police station to report his parents missing. Bart and Krista had gone up north to the family cabin for the Fourth of July weekend with an unknown couple. They never came back. Try our coffee! - www.CriminalCoffeeCo.com Become a Patreon member -- > https://www.patreon.com/CrimeWeekly Shop for your Crime Weekly gear here --> https://crimeweeklypodcast.com/shop Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CrimeWeeklyPodcast Website: CrimeWeeklyPodcast.com Instagram: @CrimeWeeklyPod Twitter: @CrimeWeeklyPod Facebook: @CrimeWeeklyPod ADS: https://www.Talkiatry.com/CrimeWeekly - Get matched with an in-network psychiatrist in minutes! https://www.MintMobile.com/CrimeWeekly - Get premium wireless for just $15 a month! https://www.Revolve.com/CrimeWeekly - Use code CRIMEWEEKLY for 15% off! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Fans of well-crafted fiction will enjoy this episode: Hosts Sarah Bowen Shea and Ellison Weist delve deeply into the latest from Daniel Mason, the author of the highly acclaimed 2023 novel North Woods. Ellison rhapsodizes about a debut, multi-generational novel set in coastal Louisiana, then she details another family saga that takes place at a Midwestern island resort. Next up is a buzzy thriller by the author of the popular novel Dietland. The duo wraps up with a lively discussion about a debut novel sparked by a real-life controversy. The books covered:Country People: Daniel MasonShould the Waters Take Us: Stephanie SoileauMake Nice: Ryan EffgenFurious Violet: Sarai WalkerThe Simp: Roshan SethiFeisty Fest: Join us from September 18-20, 2026 - https://feisty.co/events/feisty-fest/Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themotherrunner/Cozy Earth: Use code: AMR to receive 20% off at https://cozyearth.com/Hettas: Use code STAYFEISTY for 20% off at https://hettas.com/Momentous: Use code AMR for up to 35% off your first order at https://www.livemomentous.com/Currex: Use code AMR15 for 15% off at https://currex.com/Tifosi Optics: Use code FEISTY2026 for 20% off at https://tifosioptics.com/ PLUS: Register to win a Free Pair of Sunglasses: https://feistymedia.activehosted.com/f/121

By the Summer of 2021, Bart and Krista Halderson were living the quintessential Midwestern life. They owned a beautiful home in Windsor, Wisconsin, and a rustic family cabin up north in White Lake, where they loved spending time together. They were also preparing to cross the finish line of parenting. Their oldest son Mitchell was a successful tech professional, engaged and in the process of buying a house. Their youngest son Chandler was days away from moving to Florida to work for SpaceX. But on July 7th, 2021, the dream shattered. Chandler went to the police station to report his parents missing. Bart and Krista had gone up north to the family cabin for the Fourth of July weekend with an unknown couple. They never came back. Try our coffee! - www.CriminalCoffeeCo.com Become a Patreon member -- > https://www.patreon.com/CrimeWeekly Shop for your Crime Weekly gear here --> https://crimeweeklypodcast.com/shop Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CrimeWeeklyPodcast Website: CrimeWeeklyPodcast.com Instagram: @CrimeWeeklyPod Twitter: @CrimeWeeklyPod Facebook: @CrimeWeeklyPod ADS: https://www.Chime.com/CrimeWeekly - Join millions who are banking FEE FREE today! https://www.veracityhealth.co - Use code CRIMEWEEKLY to get up to 65% off your order! https://www.Quince.com/CrimeWeekly - Get FREE shipping and 365-Day Returns! https://www.OneSkin.co/CrimeWeekly - Use code CRIMEWEEKLY Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Friday means landing the plane, but not before setting the cockpit on fire.On today's episode, the gang starts with weather talk like every respectable group of Midwestern dads before immediately spiraling into forgotten pool hoses, accidental water bills, and whether rain can actually improve your Friday. Moon almost floods the backyard, Mama Moon is back in the pool, and somehow the conversation only gets weirder from there.Then Riz makes the mistake we've all made—reading the comments.A simple ponytail somehow transforms him into Steven Seagal... then someone compares him to Big Ed from 90 Day Fiancé, and suddenly years of confidence disappear faster than free donuts in the break room. The crew debates whether internet trolls should ever win, whether Woody's opinion somehow matters more than thousands of listeners, and whether North Korea actually has better hairstyle options than Riz's barber.As if that isn't enough chaos, a terrifying parasite story sends everyone into an extended discussion about the absolute worst places to discover explosive digestive problems. Yellowstone. Airplanes. Funerals. Float tanks with anti-fart contracts. Nothing is safe, and somehow everyone contributes a nightmare scenario that makes the previous one sound pleasant.The travel conversation gets even better when Riz prepares for Europe and asks the age-old question: what's harder—vacationing with toddlers or grandparents? The answers involve Paris, catacombs, bad knees, paper-thin skin, confusing public transportation, and enough family travel anxiety to make you want to stay home forever.Later, the crew realizes they're officially becoming old people. Random grunts while standing up. Talking to themselves in grocery stores. Becoming obsessed with neighbors' lawns. Weather-predicting knees. And perhaps the most disturbing revelation of all… yes, "old person smell" is apparently real, and once the science gets involved, nobody leaves the conversation feeling younger.There's also celebrity rabbit holes, Rick Springfield somehow refusing to age, Def Leppard debates, bizarre internet searches, listener roasts, travel disasters, body noises, and the kind of completely unnecessary conversations that somehow become the funniest parts of the morning.It's exactly the unpredictable mess you'd expect from The Rizzuto Show—friends making each other laugh, roasting themselves before the internet gets the chance, and somehow turning everyday stories into absolute nonsense.If you came for organized radio, you're in the wrong place.If you came for sarcastic conversations, ridiculous stories, and a daily comedy show that proudly derails itself every few minutes, welcome home.Thanks for making The Rizzuto Show part of your routine. Whether you're commuting, pretending to work, hiding from your responsibilities, or simply looking for a daily comedy show that embraces complete chaos, we're glad you're here.Follow The Rizzuto Show → https://linktr.ee/rizzshow for more from your favorite daily comedy show.Connect with The Rizzuto Show Comedy Podcast online → https://1057thepoint.com/RizzShow.Hear The Rizz Show daily on the radio at 105.7 The Point | Hubbard Radio in St. Louis, MO.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Megyn Kelly is joined by Emily Jashinsky, host of “After Party," to discuss Rep. Haley Stevens' shifting Michigan accent throughout her political career, her leaning way into her Midwestern roots, whether the political strategy will help her win her close primary, the left embracing more radical socialist policies, the growing influence of the Democratic Socialists of America, whether the Democrats are having their own Trump anti-establishment moment, Rep. Brandon Gill's brilliant questioning of liberal elites during congressional hearings, having leaders of institutions confronted about wild past comments over implicit bias and structural racism, WNBA star Sophie Cunningham speaking out on protecting women's sports and whether more athletes will join her, her defense of Caitlin Clark, the latest WNBA controversy involving Angel Reese, Reese claiming she was a victim of a racist incident when nothing actually happened, Nancy Armour's absurd column linking Caitlin Clark's flopping to Jim Crow and Emmett Till, the Caitlin Clark hate because she's straight and white, former CNN anchor Brooke Baldwin's oversharing Substack talking about her dating life, her bonkers TED Talk about caterpillars and "goo," and more.   Subscribe now to Emily's "After Party": Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/after-party-with-emily-jashinsky/id1821493726 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0szVa30NjGYsyIzzBoBCtJ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AfterPartyEmily?sub_confirmation=1   Supersure Insurance: Upgrade your business insurance to a year-round SuperAgency at https://Supersure.com/Megyn SimpliSafe: Visit https://simplisafe.com/MEGYN to claim 50% off any new system! Herald Group: Learn more at https://GuardYourCard.com American Financing: Call American Financing today to find out how customers are saving an average of $800/mo. NMLS #182334 https://nmlsconsumeraccess.org. APR for rates in the 5s start at 6.327% for well qualified borrowers. Call 800-852-2010 for details about credit, costs and terms. Visit https://AmericanFinancing.net/MegynKelly . Average savings based on borrowers who save over $199.99     Follow The Megyn Kelly Show on all social platforms: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/MegynKelly Twitter: http://Twitter.com/MegynKellyShow Instagram: http://Instagram.com/MegynKellyShow Facebook: http://Facebook.com/MegynKellyShow Find out more information at:https://www.devilmaycaremedia.com/megynkellyshow Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Valley heads to Chili's to remind us that Janet is fun and Midwestern, and Zach's body immediately reacts poorly when he is confronted about being mean. To watch this recap on video, listen to our bonus episodes, sign up for our free weekly newsletter and get ad free listening, go to Patreon.com/watchwhatcrappens. Find bonus episodes at patreon.com/watchwhatcrappens and follow us on Instagram @watchwhatcrappens @ronniekaram @benmandelker Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.