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This week on the podcast, Randall sits down with Kathryn Taylor, co-host of the Girls Gone Gravel Podcast and Chief of Staff at Feisty Media. Looking at inclusion in the sport of gravel cycling and how Feisty Media is looking to build a brand centered around helping active, performance-minded women find the resources they need to do the things they love.  Episode Sponsor: Bike Index, a free, non-profit bicycle registry and stolen bike recovery platform.  Girls Gone Gravel Podcast Fiesty Media Support the Podcast Join The Ridership  Automated Transcription, please excuse the typos: Girls Gone Gravel [00:00:00] Craig Dalton: Hello, and welcome to the gravel ride podcast, where we go deep on the sport of gravel cycling through in-depth interviews with product designers, event organizers and athletes. Who are pioneering the sport I'm your host, Craig Dalton, a lifelong cyclist who discovered gravel cycling back in 2016 and made all the mistakes you don't need to make. I approach each episode as a beginner down, unlock all the knowledge you need to become a great gravel cyclist. This week on the podcast, my co-host Randall Jacobs is gonna take the reins. Randall did an interview with Catherine Taylor of feisty media and a co-host of the girls gone gravel podcast, Catherine. And the team at feisty media are helping active performance minded women find the resources they need to do the things they love. Many of you may be familiar with Catherine's work with Christie Mon on the girls gone gravel podcast. Christie is also a former guest of this podcast, and you can refer to that episode. We did about the big sugar gravel event. If you scroll back a little while in your feed, before we jump into the conversation I wanted to thank this week's sponsor bike index bike index is a nonprofit bicycle registry and stolen bike recovery platform. In fact, take a moment, hit pause, and go register your bike. It takes five to 10 minutes. The hardest part is locating your serial number, but once it's in the system, it's a free resource. Bike index has no business talking to you. They're hoping to just sit there in the background as a utility, but God forbid your bike goes missing and gets stolen. Bike indexes. One of the only resources you're gonna find online to help coordinate the efforts of recovering your bicycle. They're a nonprofit. Everything they do. Any donation you make is tax deductible. Registration is free, so you really don't have any excuse other than time to register your bikes. Go on, hit up bike index.org and get your bike registered with that said, let's jump on over to Randall's conversation with Katherine. [00:02:05] Randall: Katherine, thank you for coming on the gravel ride podcast. It's great to have this conversation. It seems like we have a lot of alignment in terms of the types of community building projects that we're most interested in and obviously our shared love of this particular sport. So, would just love to start with what's. What's your background with the sport? How did you end up doing a podcast called girls gone gravel . [00:02:26] Kathryn: Well, it's funny. I'm as many of the guests that we've actually had in our podcast, I've learned there's a lot of burnt out triathletes that end up in gravel. And that was definitely me. So I was really involved in triathlon for about 10 years. I raced coached. I even worked at a triathlon store. That was one of the top triathlon online retailers in the company. And I got really burned out from it because it's all about checking your power and your wants and. A lot of training all the time. And a friend of mine that was in the tri club was doing this race at the time called dirty cancer. And sh because she had heard this woman named Alison Terick on a podcast and she had never rid her bike more than 20 miles, but she signed up for the 200 mile event and was training through the company that I coached with. So I wasn't her coach, but one of my coworkers was her coach. And so I just heard all about this journey to this crazy gravel. Race. And I was like, oh, this sounds kind of fun. I think I'm gonna get a gravel bike instead of a traveling bike. And so I got a gravel bike and I would go out, she would go be doing like five laps of this local 20 mile loop. And I would go out and do one lap with her and just started to love it and love the adventure. And then started hosting some rides on the weekends for local community women. And Got into that. And then it's actually a funny story. So I was working at a bike shop at the time. And when I bought the bike, the bike shop owner was like, well, I don't think you're gonna like gravel because it's hard. And that made me really mad yeah. [00:04:00] Randall: oh [00:04:01] Kathryn: yeah. And so I had way too much wine one night and I woke up at two in the morning and I was like, I'm gonna start an Instagram account. It was when Instagram was. Starting to grow. And I was like, girl's gonna gravel, that's it. So I got the handle at two in the morning and I just started sharing like community pictures and it grew. And that ended up eventually turning into a podcast and now has become a whole brand where we have events. We have a little team, we, you know, go do cover, live events. We're done a few other things in the future, so yeah, that's, that's how it got started. [00:04:34] Randall: And I'm curious, where were you living at the time and what timeframe are we talking here? [00:04:38] Kathryn: So it was 2019. It wasn't that long ago. And I was living in Atlanta, Georgia. So, and, and there's not a ton of gravel around Atlanta. You really have to drive. So it was really in the Southeast the gravel scene. Was much behind kind of the Midwest Northwest, Northeast gravel. It was really just starting to come onto the scene. And the, and people didn't know about things like, you know, Unbound or, or any of those things at the time. My friend Lauren was the first person that any of us ever knew that had gone and done, you know, at the time it was dirty Kansas. So, so yeah. That's, that's where I was living. [00:05:15] Randall: One of the obvious questions that, that, you know, came up to me prior to us recording today was, you know, what was your inspiration? And I kind of feel like I got a little bit of a taste of it when you're talking about that bike shop person. I think that the industry has catered to a particular audience that mostly looks like me, frankly for a very long time. And there is a dire need for more accessible on ramps to other people who wanna participate. And it seems like you, you feel a niche And half the population. It's not really a niche I'd love to hear more about that inspiration and how you've gone about it. [00:05:49] Kathryn: Yeah. So I had been a part of Atlanta tri club, which is the. Probably the third largest triathlon club in the country. And I was one of the coaches for Atlanta tri club. I also was on the regional board for USA triathlon. And we were doing a lot of initiatives in the women's space at the time. And so I, I started to see, there were a few things, if you could do, you could really increase women's participation in the sport. And I had a, a good friend that we were doing. A lot of these things kind of side by side in that. And she, she actually passed away very unexpectedly in 2019 and. [00:06:27] Randall: to hear that. [00:06:29] Kathryn: Thank you. It was yeah, she, it was a, a brain aneurysm. So just out of the blue and I kind of looked back at her legacy and I was. I wanna continue this, but the triathlon space, isn't where I feel the passion anymore. At the same, I was starting to get into gravel. And at the same time I had another friend that was an ultra endurance cyclist. Her name is Danny Gable, and she's done all these crazy ultra endurance adventures. And I started hearing her stories about cycling and how male dominated it was and started looking into it. And I was like, oh, I think there are some things that we could do. That will really bring women to the forefront that are really simple things like telling women stories, giving women a place to connect with each other giving them a space and, and everything just happened to come together right around the time of the pandemic. That's when Christ and I started the podcast and we started a private Facebook group. The, I was like, oh, a couple hundred people. And within, I don't know, two months, it was like 5,000 people. And we were doing, you know, all kinds of webinars and stuff. Over the summer, cuz everybody was stuck at home. Laura King actually had connected with me and she said, Hey, we were gonna do this, this camp or this weekend with rooted, but we can't do it because of the pandemic. But do you wanna do it like just a virtual DIY gravel? Summer thing. And so we did like every Friday we would do a webinar where women could come on and learn for free. And, and so it just, everything started to come together and the community really naturally formed. And it it's really cool because now I go to races and people will say, oh, I heard the podcast. Or I followed your stuff or I'm in the Facebook group. And that's the reason I decided to come do this event or, you know, This inspired me or so. And so story inspired me. So, I think I started rambling, but that's kind of my, my very long answer to your question. It was really [00:08:18] Randall: is entirely the point. [00:08:20] Kathryn: Yeah, but, but I it's been driven by what the community wanted all along. You know, so. [00:08:25] Randall: Well, and I was sharing before we started recording that I actually heard about you and your work from one of our listeners who, who came up to me at rooted Vermont, her name escapes me is actually two women. So if you're listening please drop me a note and remind me your name and just thank you for the introduction. And I asked them, who should we be bringing onto the podcast to talk about community and to elevate their work. And you were the first person that they mentioned. So, there's clearly a deep resonance with what you do. So you have a background having worked in shops, you've been a pretty serious triathlete. You had your own journey into the sport. I'm curious to unpack that a bit. What was it like when you were first getting into cycling or endurance athletics generally? How far back does that go? And what aspects of that experience do you think were different as a consequence of being a woman versus a man coming into it . [00:09:16] Kathryn: Yeah. I actually got into triathlon when I moved to Atlanta. So it was like 2010, I think, 2009, 2010, somewhere right around there. And had lived a lot of places. I had moved there. I was living with my parents and I'd always wanted to do a triathlon. I was a swimmer growing up. I was a really bad runner, but I'd never, like, I'd only ridden my Walmart bike around town. I'd never ridden like a real bike. And so I Googled triathlon. Atlanta and team and training was actually having a info session for their summer training program. So the options were like, sit at home with my parents and watch wheel of fortune, or go meet a bunch of strangers and maybe raise money to do an event. So I ended up signing up for team and training and, and that experience really informed everything I did from then on out. The, the team in training chapter in, in Georgia is, is one of the strongest team in training chapters. At that time was one of the strongest team in training chapters in the country. And they were just so great at bringing people in and teaching them everything from, you know, how do you ride a bike? How do you prepare for a race and, and creating a community around it? And I didn't know anything, like I showed up at my first ride with my mom's bike. That was Just a, like a towny bike and Umbro shorts and a t-shirt everybody was there, there, you know, try bikes and their kits and stuff, but people had just made me feel so welcome. And so part of it, even though I felt like I don't belong here at that moment. And then took me through every piece of it from. Falling over in the parking lot, three times is the first time I tried to clip in and, you know, a woman stayed with me and rode with me that whole day to teaching me, you know, everything about the bike. And then on the contrary, I'd be like, oh, I'm gonna go to this group ride, which would be primarily guys and primarily a race instead of a group ride, like the Tuesday night race, but they didn't communicate that. And so I remember one time I was up I. Dog sitting with my parents or something. And so I was at their house, which is in the north side of Atlanta. And it's really hilly. It's kind of, you're starting to get up into the Appalachians. I went on this ride and I didn't have like a Q sheet. They didn't give them out. They didn't communicate. They didn't say hello at the ride. I was like, okay, well I can hang. I'm a travel now. And I got so lost. Didn't know where I was. Didn't have anybody to call to get back. Finally, like somebody came by and pointed me the way back to town. And I thought if that were my experience, like the first time I showed up at a group ride, I would've never, I would've walked away from the bike. I. Forever. And and I've heard that experience from so many women of just having horrific experiences. The first time they walk into a group ride or a bike shop. And so I just want women to feel confident and be excited about, you know, that, and, and so, because I had such a great experience with team and training and saw the difference, it just it informed the way I wanted to contribute to the community. [00:12:23] Randall: That's great. And I have a confession. I was absolutely one of those men who treated every group ride like a race. I came into the sport, very hard charging and just wanted to compete and go hard and crush it and go into the pain cave and all the things that are associated with that very aggressive more ego driven aspects of the sport that make it so inaccessible. And, it's in recent years that I've come full circle and seen the opportunity to not just take what I've learned and to help bring someone in but also the huge benefit that I get personally from just slowing it down and taking the time to connect and facilitating. So I'm curious, how do you define your community? You have your podcast listeners, you have your Facebook group. What is the extent of the community? How do people interact with you now? How many people are in involved ? What's the structure of it? [00:13:12] Kathryn: Yeah. That's well, just real quick before we move on from like the group ride. Cause I do want like, it's okay. If you have a really hard, fast charging group ride, right. Like I think that is totally fine. And it's appropriate for some people. It's the communication and helping people understand and even saying, like being able to say. this isn't for you. If somebody shows up that's not ready or like I'm willing to sacrifice my night for you. So like, I don't wanna get rid of the group rides that people love to go out and smash themselves on. I just wanna make sure there's spaces. What that, when we say we're welcome to new people, that we're actually welcome to do people [00:13:47] Randall: Yeah. I, I think that that's a really valid point. And if you're going to have a ride that you're opening up to a broader audience, having something in place, whether it be, Points where somebody can break off, to cut the ride shorter or having different groups going at different paces and making sure you have a ride leader for each one of those groups I think goes a long way towards avoiding that sort of scenario that you were describing, where you have a bad experience. And then it's like, well, the bike is not for me. [00:14:13] Kathryn: Yeah. Yeah. So at our community, we, we have several different layers. So we have obviously the podcast we have a free Facebook community called women, gravel, cyclists, and that's women from all over the world. I think it's like between 14 and 15,000 women right now. And it's, it's still. I thought it would fall off after the pandemic, but it's still really active. We have a, when people join, we ask them they're how long they've been riding gravel. And I would say at least a third of them are brand new to gravel cycling. So they're coming to look for advice on bikes, saddles, Shammy, how to train, what events to do, how to find friends. And then we do, we have a small team of about a hundred women Or just a little bit more connected within us. And then this past year, we had our first gravel festival, our women's gravel festival, which is not a competitive event. It's literally just three days of hanging out, having parties riding and learning. And our first one we had about 220 women and we're getting ready next week to announce the 20, 22 dates. 2023 dates. What year are we in? So we'll be back in Bentonville next year for our next one. And we may be able to bump that number up a little bit. [00:15:33] Randall: It's a great location, by the way, the bike infrastructure there is, is quite incredible. And the community there too is it's one of the, one of the country's great cycling communities at this point. [00:15:43] Kathryn: yeah, we were lucky we snapped up Amy Ross. Do you know, have you ever met connected with Amy Ross? [00:15:48] Randall: I don't believe so. Tell me more about her. [00:15:50] Kathryn: She has been in the bike world for a long time, worked for different brands like Santa Cruz that she worked for. Wow. One of the big mountain bike things I can't remember, but her husband's NA Ross. He was a professional mountain biker and they moved to Beville. She was the had a bike Beville. and so she had left bike Bentonville. I was going through, and that's the group that like, if you wanna do an event in Beville you go and you talk to them. So she was, we'd had her on as a podcast guest I'd driven through Bentonville was checking it out. She was like, well, I'm leaving bike Bentonville. And I was like, do you want a job? and so we hired her as our event coordinator on the ground. Basically two weeks later. So she contracts for us as our event coordinator for that event, which makes a huge difference when somebody is in the community day in and day out to, to put together a really great community event. [00:16:40] Randall: And in terms of where people gather online and find you online? Is it primarily the Facebook page, what's your software stack look like? [00:16:47] Kathryn: Yeah. We have a website, girls go gravel. We put, I actually write a lot of the articles and then a woman Celine Jager. Everybody probably knows in the gravel space. Also she works with us at feisty media, so she writes some for us. And then I have another woman from CNN that I pull in a little bit here and there to write articles for me. Her name is Claire and we write a lot of stuff based on what people ask for in the Facebook group. So we're taking. Somebody's asking a question and we're like, oh, we see tons of answers. And I'm like, well, that's an article. So we create a lot of content. So we get a lot of visitors to that site just because we're creating content that people are searching for. From our Facebook page we have our Instagram page and then we have just private Facebook communities. We, we tried like things like slack or other communities and it's, it's just hard. It's hard to get people to go off of Facebook. I know everybody wants them to, but it's so hard. [00:17:42] Randall: We had the same kind of discussion when we started the ridership, we built it in slack initially, or I should say we got it started in slack, the community built itself from there. And there were certain challenges that we saw with Facebook that we wanted to avoid. But slack is great because it's a great communication tool and it is something that people are already using for work in a lot of cases. But then you can't do a lot of the things you'd wanna do like event coordination or dealing with club membership. Then again, Facebook has its own issues. I'd actually love to unpack this a little bit because I've had this conversation with Russ over at path, less pedals and Monica Garrison over at black girls do bike. I'm curious, what are the things that you. Like about the platform and that we're enabling. And what are the things that frustrate you that you would ideally avoid in migrating to something different? [00:18:32] Kathryn: What I like about Facebook is people. Whether they say it, they people say they wanna get off Facebook, but they're still staying there. And a lot of people are lurkers, but they participate in groups. And Facebook has gone really in, on groups in the last few years, because they've seen that trend. Right. So. they're promoting that. And I, I also worked for a tech company for a little while in Atlanta, and I learned it's really hard to get people to use something they're not already using from that that experience, you know, that's the biggest challenge. Yeah. And slack, it just felt like the conversation was really, could be really stagnant a lot of times. Because if people. If they didn't use it for work, it was hard to get them to like, get excited about it. And if they used it for work, sometimes people were like, I'm already on slack all day long. I have PTSD from the dings so, We also one of our communities within Feist, the feisty ecosystem, tried to use my new networks and that also wasn't a good fit for the same reasons. So, so that's why I've stayed on Facebook. I think I have somebody that helps manage the posts if it were just, and, and then I have another person on our team that actually helps manage like all the people coming into the community now and like, The community is really good actually at, at self-regulating so if somebody, if a spammer gets in or if somebody we have a no assholes rule, I don't know if I can cus on your podcast, but we have a no assholes [00:19:53] Randall: Oh, go, go, go right ahead. [00:19:55] Kathryn: And so, they're really good at reporting that and. You know, like we watch it and catch those things and delete them, or just kind of, don't let people get away with being jerks. And I've seen that on a lot of other, especially gravel, Facebook groups that I've been on. There's some real jerks in those groups and the way they can give feedback to people is just it's mean what I don't like is I when not everybody's on the platform and then you. Facebook sometimes is like, I don't think you need to see that anymore. So you have to go to the group if you want something. So, and then the, the other thing I've seen, and I think this is a characteristic of women, we really like to give advice. And so I'll see somebody post something I'm like, oh, they're about to get overwhelmed with like, so much advice about, you know, like, like, so and so just ask like, I'm just, I'm new to riding and I wanna do this 25 mile event. What should I do? And somebody's gonna like give them like a step by step nutrition plan. And I'm like, just go ride your bike. right. Make sure you have water and food when you go out. So people and they mean well, but I, I just see I'm like that they're gonna overwhelm this poor person with like so much. About things. So, so that's why I try to take things and then put, put that into good content. That's a little bit more succinct on our website. [00:21:18] Randall: What are the things that you either are doing off platform, so off of Facebook or that you wish you could do, but you just don't have a tool that works well with your current [00:21:27] Kathryn: Sounds like you all are creating a tech product. [00:21:29] Randall: Well, we've been working on the side with a, like constructing a mighty network and we have a concept for that. So whenever I talk to community organizers, I wanna understand those issues cuz , our vision is to create something that's like a community of allied clubs that share a common infrastructure, and then that organization, it would be a nonprofit. And so, we're starting to do little things like coordinate group rides in the mighty network. Chapter for the ridership and then post that within the slack group to, to get people to join. And it's not seamless , but it's a way of slowly experimenting with it. We have a couple of clubs that have brought their members into their club space in the ridership mighty network. So we're not so much building a tech product as much as we see that there's an opportunity to build a better place for people to come and find out, what to ride, how to ride it and take care of it where to ride, who to ride with and what events are happen. And right now, there's not a one stop shop for that. So maybe you find the girls gone gravel podcast or the podcast that we do or some other resource. So you find some forum, but there's not like a clearing house or one place where you can go and just say, I live here, what's happening near me. Who's near me that I can ride with. What are the recommended tires for my terrain? Things like this. It's very fragmented. [00:22:48] Kathryn: Yeah. Yeah. I would agree on that. Like, one of the things that I know the community wants is they would like they would like to find more people to ride with and more local local things. You know, like regional, because we, especially cuz we're a worldwide group. So people are like you know, every day somebody will be like, I'm in Africa, I'm in here, anybody here that I can ride with. So, those connections and that, you know, that would just become a full-time job in our Facebook community. If you started managing all of those little mini groups and, and like you all, like, we don't, the Facebook community's free. Like it's like, everybody's a volunteer. That's doing it. My job is with feisty media and girls go, gravel came under feisty media. So I get quote unquote paid as a part of that. But I mean, I spent, you know, thousands of my own dollars and hours building everything for before that ever happened, or we ever made a dollar off of anything. So I wish we had that. And then also kind of the step back from that, one of the reasons I haven't been willing. Try to create things around group rides, as I would really like some kind of course or training that you need to go through to be a certified like girls can gravel group ride or something like that, just because of the experiences that I've had. And it's not, I don't want like this massive training, but I want things like you should introduce yourself to people when they show up, it seems like duh, but I think people just get nervous a lot of times if they've not led things in the past or. you know, make sure everybody knows the route, like little things like that. And I just haven't had the capacity to create that, [00:24:27] Randall: Yeah. Well, and these aren't unique to women or to any particular demographic, one of the folks that we've had on the group is Monica Garrison over at black girls do bike. She also started that as a Facebook group with people reaching out . And it's now, a hundred plus chapters and a hundred thousand women around the world and they're organizing events and doing all this stuff. And the challenges that they have are no different than the challenges that we have. And what you're describing too, so there should be some basic toolkit for someone to be able to organize a ride and people need to be able to sign up to post a route, to have a legal waiver. Right. That covers everybody. You know, you're not getting sued for trying to get people together. But then also having some protocols that are in place, like you're describing, introduce yourself, you're expected to arrive on this at this time. Here's the equipment that you should have. It's self-supported. And I think that these things can be largely standardized in a shared infrastructure. And if that were created, then you could leverage the expertise that this much bigger community of people who just wanna ride. You'll have some lawyers in there, you'll have some people who have a lot of technical expertise in there. And then this toolkits available to everyone, you don't have to be an expert in any domain to leverage it. [00:25:35] Kathryn: Yeah, that sounds really smart. And, and, you know, back in my triathlon days, I definitely, there were definitely men that I saw that if they didn't come in looking like a triathlon body, they were treated differently often. So it, it is not just a women issue. Like you said, like it's, it's, it's human issue. And every, I, I just go back to, everybody wants to have a place that they belong and they wanna feel. They're wanted places. And so if we can create those spaces for people, like at the end of the day, when I look at group rides, I'm like one ride a week. Me like riding at the very back of the pack at a super slow pace is not the end of the world for somebody to feel like they belonged. [00:26:16] Randall: Yeah. Everyone has something to gain from having a, common space for diverse people to come together. [00:26:22] Kathryn: Yeah, I was actually talking to Abby Robbins. The first non-binary athlete to finish Unbound. And so Abby just received a good bit of attention. And then there was I can't, I don't know which company was doing a, a video about them, but Abby was at Unbound camp and they were tell at the gravel festival. Abby was telling me about an experience that they were on a ride at a gravel camp. Ended up just like talking to this dude for a long time. Like it was a great conversation. And then the guy was like, oh, well, we should ride some Unbound together. And Abby was like, well, you should know, like, there's gonna be a camera crew following me because of this thing. And the guy was like, oh, what's the thing. Abby said, you know, I'm a non-binary athlete and the guy as well, you should know, like I'm a conservative Christian. And Abby was like, I would've never, and they had a great conversation and Abby was like, I would've never had this conversation. I'm like, I'm sure this, this, somebody that's like in this very conservative Christian camp would also have never like sought out a non-binary athlete to have a conversation with coming from a very conservative Christian background in my past. So I'm like, that's the beauty of it. Right? You experienced these people that you would've never experienced in these points of view and these conversations that shape your life. And I, I just love that about our sport, you know, [00:27:37] Randall: I find that gravel amongst all the different cycling disciplines does seem to be especially amenable to those sorts of really healthy and welcoming dynamics because there's no one thing that is gravel and there's no one type of bike that is a gravel bike. You can, much more so than in other disciplines , ride what you got or get started with what you got. If you ride it on mixed terrain, it's a gravel bike. And yes, you can have fancy equipment, but then also, there's lots of different ways to be a part of it. And we see that in our listenership and within the ridership and even amongst customers that ride the bikes that my company makes. But it's also, you have people of all different abilities who are going for it. It's very different than say roadie culture especially competitive roadie culture, or even mountain bike culture had a little bit more of that festivaly type atmosphere, but then also has its aggressive, hard edge to it too. [00:28:29] Kathryn: Yeah. I never feel like I'm cool enough for mountain biking. I'm like I gotta up my game or something. [00:28:36] Randall: So tell me a bit more about feisty media and how that collaboration started who's involved and the scope of its mission and what it's doing currently. [00:28:47] Kathryn: Sure. So feisty media is a, a women focused media company. So it's, we actually all women on our team. Although we, we would hire men and we focus primarily in the endurance sports space and the whole conversation is about creating an empowering culture for women. And, and we go, we really hone in on the culture piece because there's so much within culture that has. Has given women messages, whether it's about motherhood, whether it's about diet culture, whether it's about equality in sport, that, that if you can address the cultural piece, like a lot of the dominoes will fall. So as an example, one of the reasons that women often under fuel on the bike is because the message of diet culture that you need to look a certain way. And so if you go back to like, actually. We should be fueled and we should be fed when we're riding. And like this message of diet culture is causing us to not do that. So, so we really kind of, we kind of addressed that, but we're, we're kind of fun and cheeky and yeah, so feisty was started by this woman. Her name is Sarah Gross and she was a professional triathlete for 14 years. So back in the day when I was doing triathlon, I actually had a. Triathlon podcast with this friend of mine, Bethany who passed away. And Sarah was a guest on our podcast. And then when Bethany passed away, Sarah reached out to me and she said, I'm so sorry. They wanted to do at one of their events, an award in Bethany's honor. And so, we just kind of got connected through that. She came to Atlanta for the marathon trials. Right before COVID shut the world down, but it was the largest women women's field in the marathon trials ever. So, I helped her do some live coverage for that. And I was like, Hey, they came out you know, starting a podcast, everybody keeps asking for it, but I don't wanna edit a podcast on my, like, by myself again, so much work. Would you be interested in expanding beyond triathlon? And she said, yes. And so. And then she was also like, Hey, we're starting to really grow. We could do some contract work. Would you be interested in some contract work? I was like, sure. And so it, it just, we started with the podcast. I was doing a little contract work within. I think six months, six or eight months, I was working full time with them managing some of our brands. We, we have feisty triathlon. We have our women's performance brand. We have feisty menopause, which is what Celine Jager leads. So that was the brand that I was brought on to manage at first. And then the girls gone gravel brand. And is that all that we have? So within that we have about eight podcasts that fall under. Kind of those different topics. And yeah, so then when we decided to launch a gravel festival, we just brought girls gun gravel fully under the feisty brand, which for me is so great because that was, we were talking about systems. That was a lot of what was stopping me is like, these are all things I can do. I can figure out the financials. I can figure out. The contractors, but it's not stuff I wanted to do. [00:31:48] Randall: Mm-hmm mm-hmm [00:31:49] Kathryn: being able to say, we have a team that's gonna put this festival on. We have money that we can invest in the front end. So I'm not risking my own money for things. It just really opened up the door for us to be able to, to try and experiment with some more things. So it's been a, it's been a great partnership and, you know, part of what we do is we highlight what's happening in the women's fields, but then we also create educational materials. For women for training or racing or those cultural pieces. And then we create communities. So that's the third piece of it. [00:32:20] Randall: Well, I wanna take a moment to highlight. I'm just looking through some of the articles and it's like training and breastfeeding for active moms, or how to handle your period when you're on a gravel ride. These are things that are women's issues, but then also you can look at them as part of accessibility. As well, and these are not resources that I see in any of the media that I'm granted, it's not targeted at me of course, but [00:32:42] Kathryn: Yeah. Now you're gonna get the ads. Now that you've come on our site. [00:32:45] Randall: Yeah. But in just looking at some of the content here, it's obvious why this needs to exist. It is obvious why this is such a core part of making this sport accessible. And in fact, I would even add that it would be beneficial for some of, at least these headlines to exist in media sources, that men or people who don't necessarily need them are at least seeing so that they're aware that this is an issue for this particular group of people that you may be riding with [00:33:11] Kathryn: well, because Celine yer, who does our hip play out pause, which is our menopause podcast. You know, she does a ton of gravel writing. Her husband puts on unpaved and she's like I'm out at gravel rides all the time or gravel events and all these guys come up to me that their wives are like hitting perimenopause or menopause. And they're like, thank you so much for your podcast. I understand so much more about what my wife's going through. She's like, it's so weird having these conversations with guys while I'm racing a gravel of it. [00:33:36] Randall: That actually brings up a great question, what would be the bits of wisdom or knowledge that you would wanna share? To our audience, either for women listening or for men listening to help them be more aware of issues that women face when they're entering the sport or participating in the sport. [00:33:53] Kathryn: Yeah. I mean, I think like the more we can normalize conversations around periods and pregnancy and, you know, menopause, all those things even. especially with the guys we ride with. Right. Cuz that's sometimes what makes it awkward is we're like, Hey, I don't wanna say that. I need to stop on this ride because I have my period, but I really kind of need to stop along this ride. You know, so, or pregnancy it's I feel like a lot of times it's expected that the, the mom is gonna just take this long break while the dad, you know, if they're both into cycling. You see with Laura and Ted king, I just put a post up on Instagram the other day, celebrating Laura, because this is her choice. Like she, she wants to do this, but she wanted to come right back to writing. She wanted to come right back to directing the event. That's not what the choice that every person wants to make, but for so long, the choice was you're a bad bomb. If you wanna do these other things well, for the, the message for the dad was. Yeah, good for you. You're making it all work, you know, celebrating them because they were able to, to hold all those things together. And so, so, so I think like that's a, a big thing is just kind of being okay with normalizing those conversations and like, they feel awkward at first, but like, I don't like go around asking women at the group. Right. If they're on their period and they need to stop, like, don't get weird. [00:35:14] Randall: But maybe if you're organizing a really big group ride, be mindful of the fact that you need a place for people to be able to access a bathroom, or an isolated patch of woods where they can get well off the road. [00:35:25] Kathryn: Yeah. Or, or event directors, you know, we've had talk somebody, when we posted that period, article an event director reached out to me and he said I feel really dumb asking this question, but we wanna offer feminine supplies at the aid stops and I don't know what to buy. Can you just tell me what to buy? And I was like, I love that you asked me this question, [00:35:42] Randall: Hmm. [00:35:42] Kathryn: right? Like we're, we're talking to Laura about coming back on the podcast because she's doing Leadville and is it next weekend is Leadville. And she's like, I have to stop and pump along the way. Like this is the first time I've ever done a race. I'm gonna have to stop and pump. Does Leadville have any place to stop and pump? I don't know. but it'll be interesting to hear. you know, how that plays out for her. So, so yeah, I think like the more we can just say this is, this is normal. Just, just like a guy can just stop and pee on the side of the road, because it's easy. I've been on group rides with guys where it's like, everybody just stopped and is going all of a sudden I'm like, I, I don't know what just happened, but I think I'm gonna go too, since everybody else is [00:36:21] Randall: I'm fortunate. I have an older and two younger sisters and my older and immediately younger sister both have three kids each. And so children and breastfeeding things like this. I've been kind of normalized in my world. But I see how culturally, it's still something that's very uncomfortable for a lot of people. And certainly I also had my adaptation too, even being surrounded by it in my family or with female friends who had kids and had to stop and pump, and just understanding that and not having it be a big deal. I think it's part of a broader cultural shift that's needed to support mothers, but also fathers in playing a more involved, more mindful role that acknowledges the biological realities, and doesn't push it into the shadows. But actually celebrates it. [00:37:06] Kathryn: Yeah, I agree. It's I love seeing, like, I, I love watching Ted and Laura because Ted's like, you know, he obviously was a high level pro he's. They both race in the pro category, but Ted's obviously has more visibility in that because of his background. But, you know, he is also saying, well, I'm not gonna do this event, so Laura can do this event or like, we'll switch. [00:37:29] Randall: Yeah. [00:37:30] Kathryn: ride times and just, and just saying, this is a part of our family, this is something that's important to her. You know, and, and just making that the norm. And so I think they're a really great family. That's kind of leading the way for what that can look like. Yeah. [00:37:44] Randall: Yeah, there's there's a very central role that a mother plays early in a child's life in terms of attachment and so on. But at the same time the gender roles that our society generally has people play, has so much of the burden falling on the woman. And I think it's a missed opportunity, frankly, for a lot of men to connect with their kids really early on. [00:38:05] Kathryn: Yeah, and full transparency. I do not have kids. But you know, just having had many conversations with women, seeing, you know, in the sport of triathlon women, once they had kids, they were done. And now we're seeing like all these moms come back and race at the top levels after they've had. Had children and you're seeing that in the sport of running and gravel's such a new sport and especially the pointy under the spear is a really new sport as far as the pro racing. But I think we're gonna start to see that more and more as well with women saying, I wanna have a kid and I also want to continue to race at this level. And, and we know women can for a long time race those long distances at a high level. [00:38:47] Randall: One of the formative relationships I had in high school was with a then student teacher. She was somebody who was very supportive of me during the difficult periods of high school. And I reconnected with her a few years ago, and she was doing elite triathlons . She's in her mid, late forties, I believe has had two or three kids and just crushes it just as competing at a very high level. And it's really impressive to see what is possible. And it also Dispels a lot of the assumptions about what life can be like for women after having kids. [00:39:21] Kathryn: Yeah, well, Scotty Laga she won the outright Arkansas high country. She's twin boys that are, I can't remember how old they're eight or. And she was racing pro when she got pregnant and decided she wanted to continue racing. And you know, Ernie was racing as well and they just made that choice for their family. Like she actually has the more potential in her career. So, you know, which isn't the choice for everybody. Right. But it's, it's just like saying it doesn't have to be the way that society's always said it should be that you're a, you're a bad person or you're a bad mom. If you want to do these. [00:39:53] Randall: There's inevitably trade offs, but I think that there should be a lot more support from the father and the broader community so that a woman can continue to pursue being a complete version of herself even after kids [00:40:06] Kathryn: Yeah, exactly. [00:40:08] Randall: So what is the longer term vision for feisty media? [00:40:11] Kathryn: We really wanna create something. That's a little bit like the south by Southwest for women in endurance sports or women in sports where there's a place where women can come and gather and learn and have experiences together and, and, you know, connect and, and just feel like, feel like all those pieces, the community, the education of what we're learning about women's physiology and how that impacts. You know, our training and the way we approach life. And and yeah, just like the unique ex opportunity for brands all come together. It was really funny Randall. Like we, when we had our gravel festival, one of the brands there, so 220 women, one of the brands made more money at our festival than they did all three Belgium waffle rides last year because women were coming in an environment. They just felt comfortable and they wanted to spend money and we heard people were like we wish you would've had more brands there because we went, we came to spend money at the festival. And so, so I, I just think there's so many opportunities for creating those, those educational and gathering spaces. So, so that's where we're going. We're four years old, so. right now, we're really focused on bringing together the community and, and we really listen to what does the community want? And we try to create, create that from, for the community, instead of saying, this is what we, you know, it's the, the classic tech, right? Know your audience and then build, solve the problem the audience needs solved. [00:41:42] Randall: As I think. The initiatives that we're involved in, that reminder to validate the vision, getting out of one's own head and one's own biases and going out and actually listening. And what is it that, that the people who are already with you, what is it that they need with the problems that they have? So we've covered a fair amount of ground in terms of how you got your start. Both as a, as a cyclist and with girls gone gravel collaborations and so on. Is there any areas that we didn't cover that you wanna dive into before we split up today? [00:42:10] Kathryn: I think those are the big ones, you know, I think just the more we're celebrating, we're creating space for all people and gravel and, and just saying when the whole community is there. We're all better. I think that's really powerful. The, the other big thing that we try to do is to, is to support the pointy end of the field. And it's not because that's who our everyday person is. Right. But I think the more we can elevate the women's field in cycling and, and kind of create fans and create support around that. The more, it gives people opportunities to see somebody. I'll just give an example. My little niece, I was taking care of her. She had COVID a few weeks ago. So aunt cat got called in to take care of her. And she was feeling much better. She wanted to go on a bike ride. So we were out riding bikes. And then I showed her a video of Kate Courtney when we got back. And she's like, Ugh, she's amazing. Do you think I could ever do that? And that was she's six and I was. You can, but like, if I, if there weren't women like Kate Courtney, that I could show her videos of that are doing those amazing things at six years old, she wouldn't like, see that and dream, like I could do that. Right. And so, just, just being able to see those, those amazing women out there, I think is really important for the future cycling. [00:43:24] Randall: Well, I think you definitely set an example as one of those women, who's doing the work to make it a lot more accessible in allowing little girls like your needs to dream. So thank you for coming on the podcast to share your story. And I look forward to continuing the conversation. [00:43:38] Kathryn: Yeah, we'll have to connect at one of the events soon. [00:43:41] Randall: Absolutely. [00:43:42] Craig Dalton: That's gonna do it for this week's edition of the gravel ride podcast. Big, thanks to Randall and Catherine for that interesting interview. I love what they're doing over there at girls gone gravel, and I hope you go check out their podcast. We'll have links in the show notes for everything they mentioned during the show. And another big, thanks to our friends over at bike index, a nonprofit that's out there helping people get their stolen bikes back. Simply head over to bike index.org and register your bike today. If you're interested in connecting with me or Randall, please visit us in the ridership. That's www.theridership.com. That's a free global cycling community, connecting riders from around the world and sharing information about the sport we love. And if you have a. Please drop a rating or review. That's usually helpful in our discovery until next time here's to finding some dirt under your wheels.

Listen to this fascinating podcast about the Organization for Safety, Asepsis and Prevention (OSAP).  Michelle came to be the ED of OSAP a couple years before the pandemic, when the previous work of OSAP became ever more prominent and pertinent to every dental office.  In this podcast, Michelle describes how OSAP works, as well as what its services offer to members and to all dental professionals.  She specifically describes the training offered in infection prevention practices important to us all. Bio: Michelle Lee, CPC began her tenure as Executive Director of the Organization for Safety, Asepsis, and Prevention, in 2018. She has more than 30 years of experience in the dental and healthcare industries. Her experience includes leading the Southeast's largest dental and medical staffing firm, as well as consulting with dental practices, providing leadership and team development training. Michelle is passionate about OSAP's mission to be the leading provider of infection prevention and control education, training, and credentialing that supports safe dental visits. Foundations: Building the Safest Dental Visit . www.cdc.gov/oralh...t.html Certificate Program: www.osap.org/certificate-program

Field Agronomist of the Iowa State University Extension and Outreach Washington County Rebecca Vittetoe discusses the upcoming Women in Agriculture Farm Crawl scheduled for August 27.

a coming storm, a fog bank, a wall of unknown, the leftover, a place of refuge intense, heavy, big, beats, cello, midnight door, southeast, yearning, adventurous The post REVERIES 22 #35 “approach” first appeared on Luke Janela.

This week on Beer Sessions Radio, Jimmy talks to Brent Manning from Riverbend Malt House in Asheville, North Carolina, about their process of producing high quality craft malt at a large scale. The duo discuss the trends in craft beer, craft malt, and the future of a more sustainable beer industry. Grab your green headphones and dig in on the convo with us right now!Brent kicks off the episode with a brief introduction of his environmental consultant background, and how he turned to craft malt through his craft beer passion. He'll also give you a glimpse of the early day struggles with his ‘artisan' kiln, before introducing us to the fanciest equipment whose name Jimmy can't even pronounce. Brent continues to present us with a more local and more creative future for malters and brewers nationwide, before diving into Craft Malt Week this Sept. 27, organized by the Craft Malsters Guild, where he is the founder and president.After a short break, we will return to a discussion on distilleries using craft malts and Brent's experimentations with different types of grains. He'll also share an exciting trend of brewers converting to using locally sourced and malted grains as a triumph against international maltsters, along with a crazy story about a couple from the Netherlands who came to a Craft Malt Week. Last but not least, Brent closes the show with an amazing growth report for South East craft beer and malt, along with his mission being a bridge between farmers and brewers nationwide. Photo Courtesy of Brent Manning.Heritage Radio Network is a listener supported nonprofit podcast network. Support Beer Sessions Radio by becoming a member!Beer Sessions Radio is Powered by Simplecast.

Bill Fairman 00:00:03 Greetings folks. So, you know, we love self storage. We love 'em so much. We ended up buying some. So in this episode, we're gonna talk about lessons learned right after this. Thank you for joining us on the real estate and investors show hard money for real estate investors. We are Carolina capital management, private lenders for real estate professionals. So if you're looking for us to take a look at one of your projects, go to Carolina, hard money.com. Click on apply. Now, if you're a passive investor looking for passive returns, click on the accredited investor tab, and don't forget to like share subscribe, hit the bell. And don't forget about Wednesdays with Wendy is just a shadow of herself. Apparently our lights are not focused in properly, but Wendy does, excuse me, 30 minutes per person on Wednesdays. Anything you wanna talk about real estate. She donates her time to do this. So sign up on this link and we have one over in the chat, which by the way, we have a chat, it's either gonna be on the right side of your screen or underneath, depending on the platform that you're viewing us from. So if you wanna leave any comments, nasty or not can put 'em there,   Jonathan Davis 00:02:02 You know, bill, this is the most excited I've seen you in a lot. Yeah.   Bill Fairman 00:02:05 I'm getting ready to leave.   Wendy Sweet 00:02:06 Or I thought maybe it was cuz I was back. Yeah,   Bill Fairman 00:02:08 That   Wendy Sweet 00:02:08 Too. We had some great calls on Wednesday yesterday too. Wow. Five excellent, excellent calls. I just, I'm always amazed at the different topics and just really, really good stuff. Really good   Bill Fairman 00:02:23 Stuff. That would be a good way to take a couple of questions and then we can yeah. Do 'em here on the show and answer them. You don't have to say who asked them, but yeah, it might be good topics for,   Wendy Sweet 00:02:35 Well, I'm actually putting together a book from them that we'll talk about just all the different topics, cuz it's just so vast. It's, it's amazing all the, all the options in real estate. In fact, we talked about that yesterday. I, I don't remember which one I was talking to, but that, you know, you get into real estate and you think that it's, you know, fix and flip, right. You know, that's what you think it is. But my goodness, everything gets really broken down into a multitude of different options. And then when you choose that option, there's a multitude of different options for that. Right. You know, the layers are, are definitely, it just goes on and on doesn't it it's depending   Bill Fairman 00:03:14 On market timing, there's all kind of different ways to,   Wendy Sweet 00:03:18 And that's the key. My bro is figuring out what's going on. My green bro. That's and he is green today, but it's, it's, that's the key is really figuring out what's going on around you. And what can you do to go into that toolbox and use? What's gonna work for what's happening in that market.   Bill Fairman 00:03:41 Neat keeps real estate so interesting is exciting, constantly changing and evolving, but you know what? It's still the same. It's all that's right about the numbers. It's just different ways of tackling it based on different right   Wendy Sweet 00:03:54 Markets, basically the same, that's the   Jonathan Davis 00:03:56 Similar conversation that we, we had, I think at the last employee luncheon learn or whatever that we had talking about, you were saying the market is cyclical and you know, it's just all these things. And while that's true, the things that throw it, the occurrences that throw it back into that cyclical motion are never the same,   Wendy Sweet 00:04:18 Right? Like   Jonathan Davis 00:04:19 So good point. It, it keeps happening, but it's never the same thing that, that   Wendy Sweet 00:04:23 Pushes it over there. Trigger pushes   Jonathan Davis 00:04:24 It back. So that's the exciting part is we know it's cyclical, but we never know what will cause that cyclical motion.   Wendy Sweet 00:04:30 Yeah. Yeah. Great point.   Bill Fairman 00:04:32 That is true. But the, the majority of the time it's rate related,   Jonathan Davis 00:04:40 But what causes the, we had the same, but what causes the rate? It's never the same thing.   Bill Fairman 00:04:45 That's   Wendy Sweet 00:04:46 Right.   Jonathan Davis 00:04:46 We don't say the fed or the fed responding.   Bill Fairman 00:04:49 We, we know that the fed doesn't cons doesn't control   Wendy Sweet 00:04:52 Mortgage rates.   Bill Fairman 00:04:52 Yeah. The fed is always behind it's the market that controls rates.   Wendy Sweet 00:04:56 Yeah.   Bill Fairman 00:04:57 So   Wendy Sweet 00:04:58 Really good stuff. We do   Bill Fairman 00:04:59 Have a little bit of breaking news. Speaking of rates, breaking news, the average 30 year fixed rate mortgage dropped to 4.9, 9% for the week.   Wendy Sweet 00:05:21 Really? I don't know   Bill Fairman 00:05:22 That. Not from 5.3. Oh all the way down to 4 9, 9. Wow.   Jonathan Davis 00:05:27 And it was at five, five. What didn't they? Yeah.   Wendy Sweet 00:05:30 Brian Maddox said that would happen,   Bill Fairman 00:05:32 You know, excuse me. Keep in mind. It's still gonna fluctuate for a while, depending on slow downs and that type of thing. But a lot of people were pulling money back over in stocks and it worked out well. Yeah.   Wendy Sweet 00:05:46 Yeah. That's, that's   Bill Fairman 00:05:47 Good. At least for some of those folks that have been kind of sitting on the fence and hoping that they wouldn't spend half their life paying their mortgage off. All right. So let's, let's get this show on the road. Yeah. So a while back we were fortunate enough to purchase some self storage. She hasn't told the story. So because it could be fortunate or unfortunate. I'm not sure yet because we, you know, we land in that space and we love the space, you know, why don't we own any yeah. You   Wendy Sweet 00:06:23 Know what I mean? Why don't we own   Bill Fairman 00:06:24 Everything? So we're, that was cause we couldn't afford it. We're we're dipping our toes always can and, and Wendy is taking the lead on   Wendy Sweet 00:06:31 This. Yeah. Taking the lead and the middle and the behind on it. But you know, that's what I said I would do. And that's what I'm doing because the team here is so awesome that I don't even really have to do anything in the loan on the loan side of life anymore, which is sad, but also very exciting. But it opened me up to be able to do this. And you know, our mom, she might not be online now, but she will watch this. And she has seen me all my life. I don't just bite things off to chew. I bite them off bigger than they really need. It's an elephant at every opportunity for me. And,   Bill Fairman 00:07:10 And we, we call that jumping in with both   Wendy Sweet 00:07:12 Feet. Yeah. Yeah. And, and I always ask myself, why in the world are you doing this? And, but I always land on my feet, thanks to God. And you know, the same thing has happened here. We didn't just buy one storage facility. We had to buy two. And, and I'm so glad that we did though, because they've really been very different in the approach. The reason why we bought them were for really two different things. You know, one, one was a little bit bigger. One was, you know, that one's located closer to us. One's located farther away. It just, it's amazing how the two have reacted differently to what we're doing. And I'm kind of doing the same due diligence for both. But one came out to be a whole lot easier to work with, which is the one we didn't think would be than the one that we thought would be the breeze has turned out to be extremely challenging. Let's   Bill Fairman 00:08:17 Let's, let's talk about two. One is more of a conventional way of looking at cell storage all in one   Wendy Sweet 00:08:24 Land. Yeah. That's the one in Crossville, Tennessee.   Bill Fairman 00:08:27 And then the other one in Mexico, Missouri.   Wendy Sweet 00:08:29 Yes. Always wanted to go to Mexico, but not in Missouri, but is,   Bill Fairman 00:08:33 Is several parcels,   Wendy Sweet 00:08:35 Several parcels. And it's in a downtown neighborhood like it's downtown, but it's split up into four different parcels that are all within a block or two of each other. It didn't have a fence around it. They were painted brown and we'd gone in and were camouflaging them. They were camouflaging 'em they're, you know, not, no good lighting the weeds growing up everywhere. And, and so we we've done the rehab side of that almost complete for, for the most part, you know, with the new gravel and drainage and gutters and painting it. And it, it looks like a completely different place and it's now a hundred percent full. So now we're getting in starting to raise the rates and cuz you don't really wanna be a hundred percent full. You wanna be in the mid nineties   Bill Fairman 00:09:33 When this is recorded, we'll leave a link through some before and after   Wendy Sweet 00:09:37 Photo shots. Yeah. I forgot to send Scott some pictures of that and   Jonathan Davis 00:09:41 You don't wanna be a hundred percent full because if you are, you're   Wendy Sweet 00:09:43 Not charging enough. That's exactly right. I'm competitive in the market. Yeah, that's exactly right. It's, I'm glad that I have my hospitality background being in the hotel business and of course have a short term rentals as well because there's things about self storage that are really similar to the hospitality industry. D a little different than your regular long term rental, but very much like your short term, you care about occupancy, you know, driving up the rates on a daily, weekly or monthly basis based on what your occupancy is and what your competitors are doing. When I was in the hotel business, we had one particular hotel in Montgomery, Alabama and comfort in quality in there was a Marriott courtyard and a, a Fairfield all on different corners. And each, each, you know, we were the first ones comfort on that corner. And as everybody built a new hotel, you know, our occupancy was going down.   Wendy Sweet 01:10:42 So we would send the other, we knew nights that that other people were gonna fill up first. So we started sending their front desk people pizzas and say, Hey, we have rooms. So I say that because it's important to understand your competition. Yeah. And what they're doing and be on a friendly basis with them because there are plenty of the newer self storage facilities out there that are full. They, or they don't have the sizes that people need and you want them to recommend, you know, us. Yep. You know, cuz I don't mind being number two. It's okay. You know, we can still number two yeah. Or walling in it. So, so that's been, it's been really unique to me in that it's so much like the hotel business and, and the automation from it is really exciting too, because self storage is exploding. So, so all of the vendors that have to do with self storage, you know, they too are exploding and growing and what they're doing, where, you know, you, you can book a unit on your phone and you're key to get in is on your phone. You tell   Jonathan Davis 01:11:52 Like you can buy, buy like automated drones that when someone like security drones, when someone's on the property, they will circle and go to that's. Right. Like it, it gets   Wendy Sweet 01:12:01 Pretty high tech that's right. It does. Now they're running about $32,000 a pop. So we probably won't be getting any of those anytime soon. Well, but some of the bigger storage, but if you're   Bill Fairman 01:12:10 Hanging out around our facility for no reason, you never know, we may have   Wendy Sweet 01:12:14 One, you hear that buzz above you. Yeah. That's what we're looking for. But it's, it's, it's just amazing how automated it is. And you know, and another thing too, in self storage, you definitely wanna do that. Cost segregation study and take advantage of the, the, you know, tax opportunities that you're gonna have to be able to do that. So, so it has, you know, sell storage has so many different real estate types that are related to other segments of real estate that you're in. And they kind of all come into this one spot, which is really, to me, it's really exciting. I think   Bill Fairman 01:12:53 It's neat. So if you're doing fix and flip and other things and you're having trouble finding contractors and supplies, is it the same for self storage?   Wendy Sweet 01:13:03 It's similar, but not as bad, you know, I'm looking for people who can install fences, I'm looking for a painter, I'm looking for masonry guy that can repair that roofers.   Jonathan Davis 01:13:16 The things that are really like backed up are windows lumber,   Wendy Sweet 01:13:20 Trusses appliance   Jonathan Davis 01:13:22 Appliances. Right.   Wendy Sweet 01:13:23 So I'm not feeling all that you   Jonathan Davis 01:13:26 Concrete slab block and metal   Wendy Sweet 01:13:27 That's right. That's exactly right. And even like, you know, our Crossville Tennessee property had T one 11 siding. I had   Bill Fairman 01:13:37 No   Wendy Sweet 01:13:37 Idea what that is. Well, it's like fake panel. It's like the paneling from the seventies, but it's for the outside of a building. So it's, it's on the, the, you know, where the Eves come to the end. So it's really just on the ends of the building and it's all rotten. It needs to be replaced. And my goal or thought pattern was just to replace it with the same thing. But you know, my roofer comes in and goes, you know, we can replace that siding with metal rather than T one 11. Well, heck yeah. I'd love to have it replaced in metal. It's custom cut. And it's actually a little bit cheaper for us to do it that way and it'll last a lot longer. So, so I'm really, really excited   Bill Fairman 01:14:17 By that. So they using the same materials they would use for a metal roof.   Wendy Sweet 01:14:19 That's exactly right. And we're getting roofs put on, on some of the   Bill Fairman 01:14:23 Building. So corrosion resistant.   Wendy Sweet 01:14:24 Exactly. Exactly. So it works. So, but you know, the first thing I did before we bought these is I immersed myself in first of all, the North Carolina self storage association, a dear friend of mine Wende long invited me to accompany him to go. And it was, you know, just one of the best things I ever did. I'm so grateful that he, he directed me to do do that. And then I went to a bigger self storage convention in Las Vegas. You know, my favorite town, everybody knows I hate Las Vegas, but it's called inside self storage. And that was, you know, really, really good with all of the, the classes, the seminars, the vendors, there were, I don't know, 3000, 4,000 people there. It was really big, but very, and it was interesting to see too, who, who, who, who the owners are, you know, who is it? 52% of the people that own self storage is mom and pop, you know, real, similar to single family, burnt out landlords, you know, and that's who you wanna buy your properties from. So   Bill Fairman 01:15:34 Smaller multifamily too.   Wendy Sweet 01:15:36 Exactly. Exactly. And then you've got, you know, a few co corporations that have, you know, hundreds of facilities and are just doing really, really well.   Bill Fairman 01:15:47 And, and a lot of those are now developing new versus trying buy old. Cause it's cheaper to develop than it's to purchase.   Wendy Sweet 01:15:54 That's exactly right. And what was, and it   Bill Fairman 01:15:57 Functions more like they want it to   Wendy Sweet 01:15:58 Function. That's right. And go ahead, Owen,   Jonathan Davis 01:16:01 To build on that, you know, looking for, you know, those old box stores where they, you know, I think when we were talking with Fernando angel Luci, you know, they to self storage exclusively, I think you said it saves almost six up to 60% of build costs. If you can just get one of those shells at a decent price and go inside there. So you've seen a lot of people do that.   Wendy Sweet 01:16:24 Well, and that's, what's another, you know, we   Bill Fairman 01:16:26 Say, so start looking for coals. Yeah.   Wendy Sweet 01:16:29 Because they're going down. I'm just kidding. No, no, we love go.   Jonathan Davis 01:16:32 But I mean, like I swear, every Kmart is every old Kmart I think is   Wendy Sweet 01:16:36 Yeah. Self support. That's so true. That's, that's very true. And the other thing that, that we talked about when we first started this conversation, excuse me, was we talked about how like, its, if you go into fix and flip now, you know, it can be, get broken down into so many different types of things that you're gonna focus on. Well, self storage is the same way you're gonna have, you know, the self storage that doesn't have the fence around it. It's located kind of in a neighborhood it's, you know, low key a C class is what I would call it. Right. Then you've got your self storage that are a little more uppity. They have the fencing and they're really nice. And that kind of thing. Then you go to your, a class, which is your, you know, five, six story, temperature control, you know,   Bill Fairman 01:17:26 There's like an office building.   Wendy Sweet 01:17:28 Yeah. Yeah. So, so there's variations of that. One of the things that we're really pushing though at this inside cell storage, they really were just starting to talk about RV and boat parking. And you know how you can, if you have solar on the top of your RV cover, you know, if you're gonna build a cover for it, you get a 30% tax abatement for that, that if you're not putting walls on that building, it's not really an improvement.   Jonathan Davis 01:17:54 So it's not tax it doesn't add value to the assessment.   Wendy Sweet 01:17:58 So you don't, don't have to pay more taxes for that. So there's all kinds of little things that you can look for there. But one of the things that I have really learned when I'm looking at new properties is to really search for properties that have land or, or space a certain amount of space. And you need to understand what you need. Like you're gonna have to have 30 feet all around that space for turnaround and back in and that kind of thing. So you wanna make sure that you have space to be able to add our van boat parking and you don't have to have a cover on it. You just, you know, show 'em where they can park and, and you have no overhead for that, but   Bill Fairman 01:18:36 Gravel. Yeah. And that's one of the benefits of not having the big bucks, right. That you're doing or the new development, because they're paying a lot more for the land and they want to utilize it with we'll call it dwellings. Right. But if you're buying a, you know, a mom and pop that's out a little bit, the land was already cheaper. Right. And if they have land there, then you can either have portable units that you can put in there or you can turn it in the boat and RV and   Wendy Sweet 01:19:03 Yeah. And the cool thing about the portable units is portables are just that they're portable. So you can put those units in places where your local zoning won't allow you to do any kind of a permanent structure. So you're allowed to add additional space by having those portable units. But really when you sit back and look at the cost of the portable unit, why not turn it into just parking   Jonathan Davis 01:19:30 Spot? Yeah. The parking spot. I mean, yeah. It'd be beneficial if you have zoning that has like, you know, you know, offsets that are, you know, extreme, like, you know, like in some places it could be like 50 foot. Yeah. It's like, well, you know, 50 feet's a lot. Well, he can get a lot of portable units and 50   Wendy Sweet 01:19:45 Feet. Yeah. So   Jonathan Davis 01:19:46 That, but you know, that, that might be an   Bill Fairman 01:19:48 Opportunity gets back to work with what you have. Yeah. Based on the market conditions. That's   Jonathan Davis 01:19:55 Exactly right. I saw where some someone said we've seen a lot of seller financing for the smaller self storage facilities on the note side. I mean, yeah. I mean, makes sense. I mean, most of those on the smaller ones are, like you said, owned by mom and pop they're already paid for, they either built to themselves are paid it off or inherited it or whatever the case may be. Right. And they're just looking   Bill Fairman 02:20:15 And they're used to the cash flow.   Jonathan Davis 02:20:16 Why not continue cash flow?   Wendy Sweet 02:20:18 Well, and they're smart enough to know that if they, if they get all that money, they're gonna have to pay uncle Sam right off the back, you know, why not taking in increments? And if, you know, push comes to shove and they're not paying me, I just take the facility back.   Bill Fairman 02:20:33 If you go in and improve it and raise the rents. Yeah. And you're not paying, they they've got a place that's worth more money.   Wendy Sweet 02:20:39 Yeah. That wouldn't be mad. So, so some of the, the piles of number twos that I stepped in was, but this one turned out to be a good one was I didn't walk the property properly before we closed do that. How do you   Jonathan Davis 02:20:57 Walk it   Wendy Sweet 02:20:57 Properly? Well, you need to go inside units when you're there. And you should have a map of the units with you when you're doing that. And look for dead space. Like our prop, the property in Mexico, Missouri had 13 more units than we thought. You know, I always love when that,   Jonathan Davis 02:21:20 That that's a good, yeah,   Wendy Sweet 02:21:21 That's a benefit. They actually didn't have doors on 'em that it was just a building that was empty and it looked like it had doors, but it didn't. So, so that's a, that, that was a plus. But the other thing that it, that it hurt by not walking that property is, you know, when you're looking at a property you're looking for damages and things that you're gonna have to do to, to replace, but by not going into the units, I wasn't able to see the terrible job they did by putting a roof and a ceiling and how some of them were leaking. And there was a lot of masonry things on just the insides of the doors that I would not have noticed. I would've noticed had I opened up those doors and, and walked in. So, so   Jonathan Davis 02:22:07 Look at every single unit,   Wendy Sweet 02:22:09 I, I would do everything possible to get, get my eyes on every one of 'em. If I could,   Bill Fairman 02:22:14 Of course, that's hard to, do you have locks from the owners on those doors? You can't get in to see   Wendy Sweet 02:22:18 All yeah, that's true. I mean, it, it takes planning ahead to be able to do that, but plan to be there two or three times to be able to, to stick your head in there. And I know   Jonathan Davis 02:22:27 That I talk with Fernando. I mean, they usually, when they go look at a facility they're, it's like a one or two full   Wendy Sweet 02:22:34 Day. Yeah. They do a good job of due diligence, Fernando and Luci, their company does a great job, job title wealth. Yeah. They do a great job of due diligence. I, I just love what they're doing. The other thing that I can tell you was a real challenge and it still is. I don't quite have my arms around. It is the property in, in Missouri had a software program in place already called web storage, which isn't one that we stayed with. But the other one Crossville, Tennessee was run by the epitome of good old boy. And they literally kept everything on a sheet of paper. Like when somebody pay, they hand write, 'em a receipt, zero, zero software whatsoever. And it has, it has taken a long time to get all of that uploaded correctly. And they weren't even taking debit cards or, or any kind of credit card. They would take cash only. And I think a lot of that had to do with that under the table thing, but we kinda got that. It's amazing track.   Bill Fairman 02:23:44 They have multiple facilities. So if they're doing   Wendy Sweet 02:23:47 Multiple, yeah, yeah. That company that we, that would be hard, keep that we purchase that from actually has four other facilities in the area. And they're all being operated the same way. It blows my mind. It's a lot of work. Well somebody's making necessarily work.   Bill Fairman 02:24:01 I don't know, know if you don't have to   Wendy Sweet 02:24:02 Pay taxes on that gas? Well, when, when we closed on that, there were three people that were five years late or longer three that were, that still had stuff in there. Now we cleaned out a total of 33 units since we've had it. And just a few months of people that were were late, but you know, five years or longer, one guy owned owed $8,000 over $8,000 and, and had never been there. What was his monthly rate? I think he was sitting at 45, 40 $5,   Bill Fairman 02:24:34 Takes a while to get to 8,000 balance of   Wendy Sweet 02:24:37 $45. And the rates had not been increased in three years. And I mean, it's, it's, it's definitely work in progress. In fact, Alex is there now cleaning out three more units today. So we're working that one. It's it's coming along. So understanding the software and the books and that kind of thing. I mean, what, what I got was printed out on a sheet of paper, but it was all faults. It was just all fault. So that, that was a kind of a, a disappointment. And then the other thing that I've run into is the local government in Tennessee has not been very easy to work with in getting our corporation set up and, you know, so we can get our banking. You know, we bought it with one of our companies that has the word trust, cuz we bought it in a trust and they don't like that word trust.   Wendy Sweet 02:25:32 So we've really been going around for almost 45 days now, tell 'em we didn't make that word. I know it's for real. So try just trying to get them to respond to that and get it so we can actually deposit the thousands of dollars in payments that we have sitting on the desk waiting to be deposited is, is kind of frustrating. So those are kind of the, the good, bad and ugly items that I've been dealing with at this point. But I'll tell you, I, you know, I'm really excited about self storage. I'm looking forward to buying two more here real shortly.   Bill Fairman 02:26:07 Wait, wait minute. Before you do that, I want to give you an opportunity. Okay. To give the last word,   Wendy Sweet 02:26:14 Oh,   Bill Fairman 02:26:19 I have to use those graphics whenever I can go ahead.   Wendy Sweet 02:26:22 Okay. It's super istic. They SPOC.   Bill Fairman 02:26:28 So if you were gonna wrap it up with your last phrase yeah. Instead of the word, what would you do?   Wendy Sweet 02:26:33Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid.    Bill Fairman 02:26:37 Says the person that jumps in with both feet. Well,   Wendy Sweet 02:26:40 And I'm still here. I'm still kicking. I've messed up more than most people have been successful, but you know what? You learn from everything that you do.   Bill Fairman 02:26:51 It's called earning why you learned. Yeah.   Wendy Sweet 02:26:54 Right? Yeah. The, the thing is, is, you know, you definitely wanna do your homework, but don't let fear stop you. It's just a few more zeros. And I know everybody goes, whoa, but it it's it's it's well worth it. It's exciting. It's doable. Anybody can do this. Yeah. Anybody can do this. You just need to do your homework and hook up with the right people.   Bill Fairman 02:27:17 And it is very recession resistant.   Wendy Sweet 02:27:19 Yes. Yes.   Bill Fairman 02:27:20 It's low maintenance costs. Once you get everything in place and you can automate a whole lot of it, right?   Wendy Sweet 02:27:28 Yeah. Oh, this is funny. So I love this question. Where are you buying last? The last two? I don't know. We're looking and that's the other thing too, is we can doesn't really matter where it is.   Bill Fairman 02:27:38 We would prefer to be in the   Wendy Sweet 02:27:40 Southeast in the Southeast, cuz that's where we are, but it doesn't really matter. But this other question from Alva.   Jonathan Davis 02:27:46 Yeah. Elder, I was looking at a mom and pop storage unit in the market is close to one of the corporate storage companies. Should I be afraid?   Wendy Sweet 02:27:52 No, no. They've already done all the homework. They've   Jonathan Davis 02:27:55 Done the homework, but, and, and again, that's the, the microcosm of what self storage is. It's not a zip code. It's not a county, it's not a city. It is literally a one to three, three mile radius.   Wendy Sweet 02:28:07 And your customer is not the same customer that the big corporate storage company has   Bill Fairman 02:28:12 Keeping in mind, same customer, the, the big companies they're raising their rates every six months. And you're gonna get people that are saying, all right, I'm done with this. I'm moving to someplace. That's gonna be a little bit cheaper. It may not be as pretty as this one, but we bought just more sense.   Jonathan Davis 02:28:30 We bought probably the ugliest storage units. You could   Wendy Sweet 02:28:32 Totally the ugliest. That's not what brown on brown, what   Jonathan Davis 02:28:36 They look like. It's what's the potential for them.   Wendy Sweet 02:28:38 That's right.   Bill Fairman 02:28:39 That's   Wendy Sweet 02:28:40 Great   Bill Fairman 02:28:41 Question. Yeah, no, that, that is, that is a great question. All right, listen, we need to wrap this thing up because we've been   Jonathan Davis 02:28:50 Great advice   Bill Fairman 02:28:53 Going on and on about this, but we have a lot more, we're gonna do some updates on this as we go forward and let you know what Wendy has stepped in. Because again, she's doing all this for us. So   Jonathan Davis 02:29:04 What's the purpose of the last word. If you have it, no matter who gets to,   Bill Fairman 02:29:11 Okay. Jonathan is now being cut off, cuz I'm going to this camera. Now   Wendy Sweet 02:29:16 Let me get out of the shot.   Bill Fairman 02:29:17 Thank you so much for joining us on the real estate investor show. By the way we are speaking in the, at the quest, excuse me, expo in September. We have a link in the chat over there for a 30% discount firm in 30. So check that out once again. Thanks again for joining us on the real estate investor show hard money for real estate investors. We are Carolina capital management. We are private lenders in the Southeast real estate professionals. If you'd like to like us to take a look at one of your projects, then click on, oh, first you have to go to Carolina, capital Carolina, hard money.com. Yes. What they said and click on the apply. Now, if you are a, what is it? An accredited investor looking for passive returns, click on the accredited investor to have, I am sliding out quickly. He's already on the plane. Thank you. Don't forget the like share subscribe, hit the bell. And don't forget about Wednesdays with Wendy. Have a great week and we'll talk to you later. Bye y'all.

Audio surf report and surf forecast on August 05 for Central Florida and the Southeast. Your host, Buddha, will also enlighten you on current events in the surfing industry and talk about events and entertainment happenings in the local and regional area. Buddha's also sure to dig up some new music that will get your feet groovin'. Stay tuned for more ... Surrrrrrrf Guru.

After experiencing the driest July since 1935 the first hosepipe ban of 2022 is in place in the UK.Residents in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight are the first to face a ban, and will be followed by people in Kent and the South East from August 12th.To add to drought concerns, river experts have reported the source of the Thames has dried up for the first time on record.Some experts have criticised water companies for the way they've controlled our water supplies and dealt with leaks.We speak with meteorologist Dr Rob Thompson from the University of Reading about how we got into this situation. Plus Climate Lecturer John Grant from Sheffield Hallam University explains how we can change our water usage to deal with future droughts.Follow us on Twitter for more news @EveningStandard See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

TGIF! We are so excited to chat with our ATL sister and the host of Beauty Translated Podcast, Carmen Laurent!   Carmen Laurent is here to chat about being Queer and Trans in the Southeast, Demi Lovato, finding community, and her fabulous new podcast – Beauty Translated.    Good Judys Brigitte and Ellasaurus present Woo Girl!, an intimate series of convos with some of our most favorite judys. These weekly mini-episodes will be full of embarrassing stories, heartwarming memories, and gag-worthy gabs with the world's finest woo girls, guys, and thems and theys!    Good Judy is a podcast about queer art, news and pop culture hosted by two Atlanta queens, Ellasaurus Rex (@queen_ellarex) and Brigitte Bidet (@brigittebidet). Tune in every Tuesday with Brigitte and Ella as they discuss the latest news, chat with very special guests, and crown a Good Judy and Bad Judy of the week.   Good Judy is part of the WUSSY Podcast Network, hosted by WUSSY Mag (@wussymag)   Produced by Jon Dean @jondeanphoto   Podcast Art created by Nick Sheridan @glass.knuckles   Podcast Music by DJ Helix @1djhelix   Donate to our Patreon Page! http://www.patreon.com/goodjudypod   Follow Good Judy Podcast on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/goodjudypod/   Follow Good Judy Podcast on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/goodjudypod

Rob Beardsley founded Lone Star Capital in early 2018, a multifamily investment firm focused on acquiring and operating workforce housing throughout Texas and the Southeast. Since then, Rob has been involved in over $100MM of multifamily acquisitions and published the number one book on multifamily underwriting, The Definitive Guide to Underwriting Multifamily Acquisitions. He has written over 50 articles and hosts the Capital Spotlight podcast. We talked to Rob about mastering the underwriting process, the ins and outs of institutional capital, and how you should approach it. Announcement: Download Our Sample Deal and Join Our Mailing List   [00:01 – 03:20] Opening Segment  Rob talks about his background. How multifamily attracted him to get started; [04:13 – 09:30] Underwriting How he met his partner; The importance of understanding what you are looking for when partnering up; What pushed Rob to master the underwriting deals; He talks about his book “The Definitive Guide to Underwriting Multifamily Acquisitions”; [09:30– 28:32] Institutional Capital 101 Gives and takes of institutional capital; Retail investing Vs Institutional investing; How you can build a network of institutional investors; How to build a relationship with a private equity group or an institutional fund; He talks about his first deal with an institutional investor The downsides of institutional capital; He talks about the LSCNY Summit  [28:32 – 35:00] Round of Insights Apparent Failure: His first capital raise.   Digital Resource: All In Podcast   Most Recommended Book: Getting More   Daily Habit: Journaling   #1 Insight for Investing: You need to have a thesis beyond just the numbers.   Best Place to Grab a Bite in New York:  Kuuramen   Contact Rob: To learn more go to robbeardsley.me or lscre.com. To find out more about the LSC NY Summit click here.   Tweetable Quotes: “You can do a deal together and if it doesn't work out amazingly - no hard feelings. You don't ever have to do a deal together.” - Rob Beardsley   Thank you for joining us for another great episode! If you're enjoying the show, please LEAVE A RATING OR REVIEW,  and be sure to hit that subscribe button so you do not miss an episode.

South East Melbourne Phoenix CEO Tommy Greer discusses their latest signings and the prospect of Bronny James coming to the NBL.

Cory Hedgecock, Southern Nationals Series Champion; Cody Bryant, Langley Speedway winner; and Jarrett Wagman, Cordele Speedway winner are this week's guests.

Leslie Awasom is the Director of Operations and Co-founder of XSITE Capital Investment LLC. Leslie bought his first investment property in 2017 and transitioned to multifamily investing in 2019. Leslie and the XSITE Capital team host a rapidly growing multifamily-focused meetup in Maryland. They provide resources and add value to individuals interested in growing their wealth and changing their financial future.   Leslie is a trained Nurse Anesthetist and entrepreneur who lives in Hanover, Maryland. He is a husband, father of two beautiful girls, and a son, and loves to spend his spare time reading and flying drones.   [00:00 - 05:15] Opening Segment   Leslie Awasom is the director of operations and co-founder of Xsite capital investment LLC. He manages the company operations market, data analysis, cash flow, and budget. Leslie started in real estate in 2017 after coming across one of Robert Kiyosaki's “Second Chance: For Your Money, Your Life and Our Money They founded Xsite Capital Investment and it is currently sitting on 125 million assets under management.   [05:15 - 10:34] Accepting The Abundance Mindset: Not losing when you provide value to others.   The company's journey wasn't always fast but it was perfect for where they are now. The company is solely focused on acquiring multifamily properties and believes it is still a solid asset for long-term wealth growth. They are conservative with their projections and keep their rent growth in some markets while dialing it back in others. They also help others who want to start their own multifamily company.      [10:35 - 15:55] Underwriting Deals    The company has been underwriting deals to deals that they close at 134 to 1, which is based on their last few deals. There has been softening in the market, with re-trading happening and brokers asking for offers to be submitted even if they are lower than what was asked in the past. The key to success in this market is understanding the story behind the numbers and being able to trend them monthly. One way that the asset management team can affect the numbers is by implementing water savings programs or having a qualified maintenance person on staff.     [15:56 - 18:28] Closing Segment Reach out to Leslie  Links Below Final Words         Tweetable Quotes “Stay on top of your numbers. You got to be able to trend everything monthly. understand what those numbers mean and how you could influence those because that's where the key and that's where you have the power as asset management to make these assets perform very well.” - Leslie Awasom ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Connect with Leslie  visit their website at xsitecapital.com       Connect with me:   Facebook   LinkedIn   Like, subscribe, and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or whatever platform you listen on. Thank you for tuning in!   Email me → sam@brickeninvestmentgroup.com Want to read the full show notes of the episode? Check it out below:   [00:00:00] Leslie Awasom: some of the tools that we use project, we kind of dial it down a little bit. And we like to go into every deal, having enough cushion. Within the deal, such that if something goes wrong, we still fall within our numbers or even better.  [00:00:12]  [00:00:24] Sam Wilsons: Leslie. Awasom is the director of operations and co-founder of X site capital investment LLC. He manages the company operations market and data analysis, cash flow and budget. Leslie, welcome to the show.  [00:00:36] Leslie Awasom: Hey, thanks Sam. Thank you so  [00:00:37] Sam Wilsons: much for having me. Hey man. The pleasure's mine, there are three questions. I ask every guest who comes on the show in 90 seconds or less. [00:00:43] Sam Wilsons: Can you tell me, where did you start? Where are you now? And how did you get there?  [00:00:46] Leslie Awasom: Yeah, absolutely. I started in real estate in 2017 after coming across one of Robert Kiyosaki book, second chance at your money in your life and just got interested in real estate and building um, more like a solid financial future for myself. [00:01:00] Leslie Awasom: Then along the way, discovered multifamily investing came in contact with my two amazing partners. We found that exec capital investment to focusing on multifamily investing in 2019. And we've been growing ever since. It's been an amazing journey for us, our company and our investors. [00:01:15] Leslie Awasom: Currently sitting on 125 million of assets under management it's growing investor community and have great, a great food that we've been able to help grow the minds of over 1500 people so far. And is that number, it keeps growing every day,  [00:01:29] Sam Wilsons: man. That's fantastic. When you say you've been helpful or grateful to grow the minds of 1500 people, what does that mean? [00:01:37] Leslie Awasom: So we have a monthly educational event. We provide a lot of educational content. We host every Tuesday evening on the writing class where we teach people interested in multi-family how to own the, write these properties, or how to evaluate these deals for themselves as investors. [00:01:51] Leslie Awasom: And we also have like monthly educational events where we bring in experts in the country from other aspects and finance and real estate to teach members of our community. And we provide a lot of educational content via email to our list as well. So, it's just something that we really enjoy doing and that's something that's part of our call mission. [00:02:08] Leslie Awasom: Gotcha,  [00:02:08] Sam Wilsons: man. That's really cool. So you guys have scaled to 125 million in assets, under management, and I guess that's five years that's pretty great. Did you have any investing history in real estate before you went into multifamily?  [00:02:20] Leslie Awasom: So we actually went into multifamily in 2019 Sam. [00:02:23] Leslie Awasom: So, so we scaled that in about two, in about three years. Yeah. Prior to that, we individually had experience in single family investing. Our CEO had some a long track record of investing in like, startups and angel investing and real estate as well. And I did some real estate and all the third partner had a financial service business. [00:02:42] Leslie Awasom: So that's the background we came into when we informed our.  [00:02:45] Sam Wilsons: Gotcha. That's really cool. Tell me what are some things you know, that you think about, I guess, in this now three year journey in multifamily? Like what are some things that you feel like you've done really well that other people should emulate? [00:02:58] Leslie Awasom: I think one thing we've done really well is it's like really. How was the right word really absorbing or like, really accepting the abundance mindset, right. Really adopting that philosophy of an abundance mindset and really understanding that we do not lose anything by providing value to others. [00:03:15] Leslie Awasom: And actually it's actually like kind. To some extent it's selfish mindset because the more you give to other people, you actually get way more in return. So that's something that has worked really well for us that we've done really well. We give a lot of our time and we give a lot more to members of our community. [00:03:30] Leslie Awasom: And because of that, our community has grown tremendously. We've also done a really good job at finding the right assets that, that keep our investors safe. Being very conservative and our, on the writing. That's one thing that we are very proud of how conservative we are on the deal that we bring to market so that our investors are safe when they come to invest with us. [00:03:50] Sam Wilsons: What are some things, when you say, the more you give the more it comes back to you, but like when you say that, what are, what would you say would be a standard, some something that you'd, or ordinarily have thought, man, I'm not gonna do that. I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna share that information or I'm not gonna give that. [00:04:04] Sam Wilsons: What are some things that come to mind that you feel like, Hey, you know what? We decided to be really liberal with this and share it as much as we can.  [00:04:10] Leslie Awasom: It's just for example, we have a lot of people that come to our platform that are looking to start their own, our multifamily company as well. [00:04:17] Leslie Awasom: Ordinarily some other person will look at this as some kind of competition. I'm not gonna show them exactly how we do stuff. We don't, however, whatever you want to learn, we show it to you, whatever resources we took to get over there, we share with. So is that another thing is like, for example, like the underwriting class we do, we've been doing that every Tuesday night going on to about a year now. [00:04:35] Leslie Awasom: It's something that take, and it's not something that we charge anybody for. And so, even people that are coming on board that are learning and going and doing this on their own as well, We really enjoyed doing it. And but, because we are given that much, we've met some really amazing partners that see that and value that. [00:04:51] Leslie Awasom: And that also share that kind of an energy. And they've also helped in our growth significantly.  [00:04:56] Sam Wilsons: Got it. That's really cool. What are some things maybe that if you could do it over, if you went back and said, man, let's rewind three years, something that would make maybe speed things up that would maybe save some heartache. [00:05:07] Sam Wilsons: What's something that you feel like was not, we'll called a mistake, but something that, that you said, man, I don't wanna repeat that.  [00:05:13] Leslie Awasom: I probably should have brought in a third partner, our CEO, Dr. Juda only much earlier than we did because bring in a what now our third partner, Dr. Juda only he came along in the process a little bit later. [00:05:24] Leslie Awasom: The company initially started with Tenny and I. We probably would've brought him in early because he just came in and just made like the final leg of the tripod and just brought in this amazing energy and and intelligence and integrity and tenacity that has really pushed us forward. [00:05:41] Leslie Awasom: So that's probably one thing I would've done differently, otherwise, everything else I'll keep it the same. My journey might not have been the fastest. we had some failures and struggles along the way, but it was it was perfect. It was perfectly designed to put us to where we are today. [00:05:55] Leslie Awasom: That's great.  [00:05:55]  [00:05:55] Sam Wilsons: Let me ask you this. Lastly, you said you brought your third partner on and it's all worked out. Great. What did you guys realize that you were missing? Like, what was it you're like, gosh, we just need a third person in this, to really make this thing. [00:06:08] Sam Wilsons: Hum. What were the components that were missing in, in, in that you guys realize you need to bring somebody on? What was that?  [00:06:14] Leslie Awasom: So we needed that somebody that had that vision that could keep us like aligned and focused in , on who we are the company we're trying to build and the community that we're trying to build. [00:06:24] Leslie Awasom: Because initially well, we just got really excited about the possibilities that multifamily presents for. For ourselves and members of our community. And we just went out running we didn't really have like a true identity as a company and focusing on what was really key to us. So we needed that person that had that kind of that, leadership aura, if that's the best way I could describe it. [00:06:45] Leslie Awasom: And Dr. Oney is, was a perfect person. And we are grateful that he came on board when he did.  [00:06:50] Sam Wilsons: That's that's really cool. And are you guys solely focused on acquiring multifamily? Yes. Right now what do you think about the multifamily market right now?  [00:07:00] Leslie Awasom: It still has it's a little bit riskier than it was a year ago because of the changes in interest rates and everything that's happening in the economy. [00:07:08] Leslie Awasom: But we think, I believe multifamily is still a very solid asset for long term wealth growth and world generat. We just have to be a little bit more conservative than we were before with some of the projections that we make on some of the growth and be more, selective in the markets that we're investing and the kind of assets that we're investing, just to decrease the amount of our risk exposure that might come along. [00:07:29] Leslie Awasom: If we have some significant changes to the  [00:07:31] Sam Wilsons: economy, when you say you're changing your growth projections, is that saying, Hey, we're gonna dial back what we think we can sell this for. Is that saying, Hey, we're gonna cut back on, what our rent projections are gonna be. I mean, is that even going so far as saying, Hey, what if we have a rent decrease? [00:07:47] Sam Wilsons: I mean, what do you mean when you say. Tweaking your growth projections.  [00:07:51] Leslie Awasom: Absolutely. It's a little bit of both. We project it, for example, if in the past we're projecting a 10 basis point increase in cap rates on on a yearly basis on exit, we might project a little bit higher depending on the market. [00:08:03] Leslie Awasom: Some markets we are doing even like a 15% annual in, increase 15 basis point increase in cap rates annually onto. Our rent growth. We are keeping our rent growth in some markets. Maybe the first year we have some in the other years we keep it flat. So, it just depends on what the kind of data we see from our data sources in each of the markets that we go into. [00:08:24] Leslie Awasom: So whatever like some of the tools that we use project, we kind of dial it down a little bit. And so that it keeps, we like to go into every deal, having enough cushion. Within the deal, such that if something goes wrong, we still fall within our numbers or even better.  [00:08:39] Sam Wilsons: Got it. Tell me about your role there inside of the company. [00:08:42] Sam Wilsons: What is it specifically that you handle?  [00:08:46] Leslie Awasom: So I handle the operations of the company on the company side. I make sure that we are meeting like we have the right systems in place to meet the goals that we set for ourself. Every year we meet and we come up with quarterly goals and we come up with annual goals as well. [00:08:59] Leslie Awasom: So, my role in there is to make sure that we are using the systems that we have created and other systems are working constantly evaluating constantly working with our employees to make sure that we can make our working process more efficient. And I'm also involved in the management of our assets. [00:09:15] Leslie Awasom: Manage the property managers making sure that they're keeping up with the KPIs that we set for each property, make sure that the properties are performing according to what we on the road or better. So, once our acquisition team, for example, finds an asset and they think that it's a good one for us to review and they've gone to the underwriting, I take that underwriting and I have to review it compared to what our business plan, what our typical business plans are and do some more. [00:09:38] Leslie Awasom: Checks and balances on it to make sure that it's a right asset for us to go into. So, I'm more of the, on the back side of things, just making sure that the numbers are right and everything is, functioning properly  [00:09:49] Sam Wilsons: What's the timeline. This is just a totally kinda left field question. Yes. [00:09:53] Sam Wilsons: What's the timeline from when you guys identify a potential asset on the acquisition side, get it through underwriting, get it to you, get you to review the underwriting and then say, Hey, yeah, this is a potential to make an offer. What's how long does that take? It usually  [00:10:06] Leslie Awasom: takes about three days. Because that Christian team is very busy and that's probably one of the most developed part of our business. [00:10:13] Leslie Awasom: We have a very solid team, so we have someone that goes in and finds the assets and stop to the brokers. Then pass it over to underwriting. They're underwrite it and they usually send it out to me. =, within three days after getting more information from our property managers, our debt brokers and our tax consultants. [00:10:29] Leslie Awasom: So within three days I get it and review everything and see if it makes sense to pursue any further or we pass. What is your  [00:10:36] Sam Wilsons: current, do you, I mean, if you don't know this, that's fine, but I bet you do. What is your current number of deals you underwrite to deals that you close what's that  [00:10:45] Leslie Awasom: ratio right now is about 134 to one. [00:10:49] Leslie Awasom: See, I knew you knew. And that asked to to best on final, not even close . Yeah.  [00:10:55] Sam Wilsons: What? Geez. So yeah. Okay. That's the best and final that's not even to  [00:10:58] Leslie Awasom: close. Yeah. Yeah. That's based on what we've done so far from the last from our last deal. So it's been crazy. We've been reviewing a ton of deals, but made a few best on finals, but it's not nothing is, has come through yet. [00:11:10] Leslie Awasom: Have you seen any  [00:11:10] Sam Wilsons: softening in the market or any I guess just any changes of note.  [00:11:16] Leslie Awasom: Yeah. Our feedback from our brokers is that there's a lot of re trading happening on some of the properties. So in the past we would talk to brokers and our underwriting might be a few millions below what they were asking. [00:11:27] Leslie Awasom: And we will ask if it could submit an offer and they tell us no, but this time around, it doesn't matter how low the offer is they actually to submit because , they want owners to see that things are changing with the interest rates. This deal still have to cash flow. Most owners still have expectations from when we were at a 2% interest rate in, and a 6% interest rate climate. [00:11:48] Leslie Awasom: So it's gonna take some time to adjust, but I do feel like it it is adjusting slowly.  [00:11:53] Sam Wilsons: It is. Yeah. And that's, there's lots of arguments, eight different directions on why interest rates won't affect cap rates, why interest rates and cap rates are completely, disconnected. [00:12:02] Sam Wilsons: And then you hear it the other way around. And I don't know which ways up to be honest in the end. But it is but just to confirm, you're confirming, what we've been hearing is that there are some re trading happen. We have, we are seeing some softening in the market as a whole and just, it is interesting to hear that, Hey, you know what, gimme your offer. [00:12:19] Sam Wilsons: So at least I can take it back. And that's been the word from the brokers too, is like, we need something to take back to our sellers, just so they understand that this is where the market is now. So yeah. Yeah. E even as you. As a buyer, you might feel like you're sending in an offensive bid, which is okay. [00:12:34] Sam Wilsons: Yeah. But. That's what they're asking for.  [00:12:36] Leslie Awasom: Yeah. Because if you think about it at the end of the deal, the deals still have to cash flow. Yeah. Maybe the cash flows might not be as, as robust as they were a few years back. But buyers would not buy deals that are doing a negative cash flow that are really that tight. [00:12:49] Leslie Awasom: So. It's just a higher risk. So, I do believe some softening would happen, but maybe not as drastic as as people think it might get, just because multifamily is still a very strong asset class with a lot of growth potential still.  [00:13:01] Sam Wilsons: Yep. Yep. Absolutely. I think that's really cool. [00:13:04] Sam Wilsons: Give me gimme one thing, one, one nugget on the asset management side that you say, man, here is something that. you just gotta have in order when you're the asset manager,  [00:13:15] Leslie Awasom: You like, you gotta stay on top of your numbers. You gotta Be able to trend everything on a monthly basis. Guys, stay on top of your numbers, understand what those numbers mean and how you could influence those numbers because that's where the key really that's where you have the power as an asset management to make these assets perform very well. [00:13:34] Leslie Awasom: So you really do have to understand the story behind those numbers and what role you could play to, to affect those.  [00:13:40] Sam Wilsons: Give me an example of a number you feel like that is something that you can directly influence that you should really be paying attention to.  [00:13:48] Leslie Awasom: I tend to look at it from a much bigger picture, but the simple things for example, just going into a property you might see a water bill that's been outrageous where as an asset management, you might come in and implement some kind of a water savings program, and you're able to decrease that and increase your NOI tremendously. [00:14:04] Leslie Awasom: And the other piece is like maintenance cost. Like, what I've found in some of our assets is like, by having a very good qualified maintenance personnel on staff that is well paid, but that has several skills. Right. You could provide a lot of tools for the, for that person front, and it's gonna save you a ton in maintenance upfront. [00:14:23] Leslie Awasom: And which is something that we're experiencing one of our assets, which is like finding the right qualified maintenance on site person that has those skills that you don't have to outsource a lot of the jobs that are involved in this assets that could save you a ton of money on your maintenance cost long. [00:14:40] Sam Wilsons: Yeah, absolutely. Do you guys help find that maintenance person or is that the property manager's job? It's the  [00:14:46] Leslie Awasom: property manager, but we try to kind of give a direction of of where we want to go. And our property management team has a lot of exposure. In the Southeast market. So they have a large footprint and they can kind of, it's just about giving some side sort of direction and then they go out and look for that person for you. [00:15:02] Leslie Awasom: So, so it's one of the things we talk about our property management team up front. When we taking over these assets. Yeah,  [00:15:08] Sam Wilsons: absolutely. What do you do when you aren't getting the numbers you want from the property management team? And I, what I mean by that is when, Hey, I need the last week's report on Monday morning, and then Monday comes and goes and you don't have those numbers. [00:15:20] Sam Wilsons: What do you do?  [00:15:21] Leslie Awasom: Well, you just have to remind them the importance , of getting those numbers on time. My, our approach has been to empower whoever we work with to take responsibility for what they're doing so that we don't have to sit on top of them every day. And and we promote good behavior. [00:15:37] Leslie Awasom: Right. So we focus in on what you're doing, right. And we promote that and we push that forward and we found that has really worked very well. And our property managers, our team members are ready to go above and beyond for us because they feel like they're part of the journey of this asset. [00:15:52] Leslie Awasom: They feel like they're part of the journey that are investors are joining us along. The way we, so, so, so far it has worked really well. And if there's something that is not done, right, like not getting a report out on time, we'll point it out to you and then hold you to the higher expectation, but make you feel like you are the one who is coming up with a much higher expectation. [00:16:09] Leslie Awasom: Like, so the property manager's gonna set the goal to have this on time by this time, then we'll hold you accountable.  [00:16:15] Sam Wilsons: Right. I love it. I love it. Lastly, thank you for taking the time to come on today and really give us the insight into what it means to be an asset manager. What it means on the underwriting side, how you guys are finding opportunity, what you guys are doing to stay competitive, your thoughts, really on the market. [00:16:31] Sam Wilsons: And then just talking about your, the way you educate. Your investors, your educational events that you put out. I think that's really cool what you guys are doing. Certainly appreciate you coming on. If our listeners wanna get in touch with you, learn more about you, your every Tuesday underwriting event, any of those things, what is the best way to do that? [00:16:47] Leslie Awasom: First off? Thank you, Sam. Thank you so much for having us on your platform and giving us opportunities to continue to share on what we do to the larger community. Yes. You could get in touch with myself or any one of my amazing partners by write our information is all available on our website, which is, www do X as in XLOPHONE, S as in Sam it capital.com. [00:17:10] Leslie Awasom: XSITE capital.com. Feel free, reach out to any one of us. We love talking to, to, to people and learning more about ways that we could help you at Tuesday underwriting classes every Tuesday night at 8:00 PM. If you are interested in that as well, there will be a means for you to join our community, to become part of getting communications about everything that we do. [00:17:29] Leslie Awasom: So, come join us. However way we could help you in your growth journey. Don't hesitate to reach out to.  [00:17:34] Sam Wilsons: Fantastic. Lastly, thank you again. I appreciate it. Have a great rest of your day.  [00:17:38] Leslie Awasom: All right. Thank you so much, Sam. Thanks for having me.

Sonia Almodovar joins me this episode to do a little update for our audience about what's been happening at Southeast Nebraska CASA and talk about what's coming up in the future.  To find out more: https://southeastnebraskacasa.org/

Terrible floods swept through Southeastern Kentucky last week. We talked about it, the response to them, and how you can help. In addition to that, Jazmin talked about a new ruling in the abortion lawsuit from an appellate judge which re-institutes a ban on abortion in the state. In the second half of the show we talked to Kelly Jones, the Democratic candidate in the 68th District in Northern Kentucky (Campbell County). She told us why she's running for office, which issues she's most passionate about, and what messages are resonating in her district.

Blake Ratajack began investing in real estate with the purchase of his first single-family residence in 2012. Since then he has grown to having five real estate companies in three states that manage both residential and commercial properties across the South East and Midwest. Blake and I discuss how to pitch a deal. For more information or to get started in multifamily investing, please visit: https://www.multifamilyinvestingacademy.com/.

Homeless advocates worry as outdoor deaths increase in Anchorage. Community leaders in Southeast say the lack of affordable housing is contributing to a labor shortage. And a 17-year-old stops in Unalaska during his quest to become youngest person to fly solo around the world.

Greg Hill has a deep passion for learning. Greg—the Head Cider Maker and Production Director at the Urban Orchard Co. in Asheville—is one of the first graduating cohorts of A-B Tech's Craft Beverage Institute program. He completed a Master's in Education and Training and is currently working on a Ph.D. in Education and Training. A lifelong learner, Greg believes that standardizing education and training can help increase the progress of the craft beverage industry. Greg joins me today to discuss how he's working to lead community colleges toward standardizing education to improve the craft beer industry. He explains the differences between the ways community colleges and universities educate and train professional craft brewers. He also shares his thought process for hiring brewers and underscores the importance of seeking further education in a field you're passionate about.  This week on Consuming the Craft: ●     Greg's background, his experience at A-B Tech, and his work as Head Cider Maker●     His dissertation on standardizing the education of brewers●     The role of community colleges in improving the craft beverage industry●     Why standardizing education can improve the craft beverage industry●     The responsibility of educators in producing professionals for the craft beverage industry●     Why hands-on learning in the craft brewer industry is as important as classroom instruction●     Bringing non-brewing skills, work experience, and education into the craft beverage industry●     The power of networking●     Booze Clues: aging cider like fine wine and a drink of straight wheat whiskey Connect with Greg Hill: ●     Urban Orchard Cider Co.●     Urban Orchard Cider Co. on Facebook●     Urban Orchard Cider Co. on Twitter Consuming the Craft Thanks for tuning into this week's episode of the Consuming the Craft Podcast, brought to you by AB Tech's Craft Beverage Institute of the Southeast. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review wherever you get your podcasts. Apple Podcasts | GooglePlay  Be sure to share your favorite episodes on social media to help us reach more craft beverage enthusiasts. Visit our website to learn more about AB Tech and the Craft Beer Institute of the Southeast.

Audio surf report and surf forecast on August 03 for Central Florida and the Southeast. Your host, Buddha, will also enlighten you on current events in the surfing industry and talk about events and entertainment happenings in the local and regional area. Buddha's also sure to dig up some new music that will get your feet groovin'. Stay tuned for more ... Surrrrrrrf Guru.

In this newscast: U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan supports House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan; Two refugees from Ukraine resettle in Juneau; UAF and UAS offer a new graduate degree in marine policy; Oath Keepers member and Wasilla Rep. David Eastman gets sued for disloyalty; Outdoor deaths in Anchorage spike; The National Weather Service says a break in the rain is coming after irregular dumps 

During the twentieth century, drugs were administered with much less care that in the current medical settings. Your host, Pat Iyer, recalls sometimes-fatal insulin shock therapy being administered to psychiatric patients. However, the rising number of deaths from medical and medication errors in the U. S. has made this crisis a significant issue, both in medical and legal arenas. Christine Dorman, a critical care nurse practitioner, has a doctorate and is a legal nurse consultant who specializes in critical issues. She brings her expertise to our discussion about how medication errors occur and how they can be prevented. She describes the many safeguards in place to ensure that the right medication is administered to the right patient, by the right route, at the right time, and at the right frequency. The participation of onsite critical care pharmacists further reduces the margin of error. Nonetheless, errors continue to occur. Christine and Pat discuss a Vanderbilt Hospital case wherein a nurse inadvertently administered a paralytic agent, Vercuronium, with tragic consequences. She also describes some other medicines that should be administered with great care and oversight. Knowing which drugs require the most attention and supervision helps an LNC in analyzing a medication errors case. In addition, Christine recommends checking dosages, patients' weights, the administration of antidotes. The LNC also needs to be or become familiar with the correct dosages and routes of delivery. Pharmaceutical companies continue to introduce new and diversified medications, a situation that makes their correct prescription and administration challenging for hospital and family medical practices. For you, as an LNC, this is an important area for learning. This podcast will help you learn more. Join me in this episode of Legal Nurse Podcast to learn about Critical Care Medication Errors with Christine Dorma How many people die annually due to medical errors? What are the five rights of the patient? How does an onsite critical care pharmacist help to prevent medicine errors? What ethical challenges do medical personnel face regarding self-reporting errors? How can an LNC investigate whether a medication error was made? Join us for our 6th Virtual Conference LNC Success is a Livecast Virtual Conference 2-day event designed for legal nurse consultants just like you! Pat Iyer and Barbara Levin put together THE first Legal Nurse Consulting Virtual Conference in July 2020. They are back with their 6th all new conference based on what attendees said they'd find most valuable. This new implementation and networking event is designed for LNCs at any stage in their career. Build your expertise, attract higher-paying attorney clients, and take your business to the next level. After  the LNC Success Virtual Conference, you will leave with clarity, confidence, and an effective step-by-step action plan that you can immediately implement in your business. Your Presenter of Critical Care Medication Errors with Christine Dorma Christine Dorman is the owner and lead nurse consultant for Vantage Point Legal Nurse Consulting (VPLNC). She has been a nurse for over 30 years. She began her career in 1991 as an LPN, became an RN in 1995, earned her BSN in 1999 from Florida International University, MSN with certification specialty as an ACNP (Acute Care Nurse Practitioner) from Barry University in 2005, and most recently obtained her DNP(Doctor of Nursing Practice) in Health Systems Executive Leadership from University of Pittsburgh in 2021. She has an extensive nursing background in med-surg, telemetry, pulmonary, trauma, adult critical care, and advance nursing practice. She currently works as a critical care nurse practitioner in Southeast, Florida. Connect with Christine https:www.vplnc.com

On tonight's KRBD Evening Report:A father and two young children are rescued from a Ketchikan-area trailPlus, a look ahead at Founder's Day in Metlakatla,And a look at some of the races on the ballot across rural southern Southeast.

Ryan Blackburn breaks down the biggest moves made in the Southeast Division. Between the Atlanta Hawks, Charlotte Hornets, Miami Heat, Orlando Magic, and Washington Wizards, which team will be the best? Which team will give the Nuggets the most trouble? Which awards might be won by a Southeast player? Ryan shares his thoughts on each team and their matchups with the Nuggets next season.

This episode is brought to you by National Office Systems Leadership Southeast Georgia Board of Directors Jesse Bentley and Jared Downs joins the Tuesday episode of The Commute to discuss Leadership South East Georgia's Program, economic development and regional collaboration.  Subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts

A wild summer episode discussing Ric Flair's final match, travel robes, tampering, Kawhi Leonard's win %, important "swing" players for teams in the Southeast division, and a lot more.NOTE: Keith gets the NFL news in here completely wrong.Support the show at Patreon.com/FastbreakBreakfastEpisode 646 (S8 Ep. 77)

We have another collection of interviews to share from the most recent Brando Jones Songwriter Sessions. This week's lineup includes Garrett Huffman, Mancel Butler, Mark Englehart, and Mark Gibbs.  (Tim Lee's Interview to be featured on a future episode)It was a great time talking with these four gentlemen, and we're thrilled to share this next installment of our Brando Jones Summer/Season 3 Kickoff (featuring a couple tracks from Garrett Huffman and Mark Englehart).As always, we close out the show with 'This Day In Music', followed by our schedule rundown (courtesy of our partners at Palmettoshowcase.com).  Thank you UMMPod Nation! We'll see you next week!!Support the show

In this newscast: Early voting begins for the Aug. 16 elections; Candidates for Alaska's U.S. House seat appear at a candidate forum; Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve starts its own cruise ship monitoring program; Some refugees from Ukraine are living aboard a former state ferry in Ketchikan; Wildlife monitors in Metlakatla collect the live invasive European green crabs for the first time 

Audio surf report and surf forecast on August 01 for Central Florida and the Southeast. Your host, Buddha, will also enlighten you on current events in the surfing industry and talk about events and entertainment happenings in the local and regional area. Buddha's also sure to dig up some new music that will get your feet groovin'. Stay tuned for more ... Surrrrrrrf Guru.

In this newscast: Alaska records its first case of monkeypox; Gov. Mike Dunleavy signs a bill that lets tribes apply to create their own public schools; A preview of local election ballot questions coming  up in Monday's Juneau Assembly meeting; Conditions in global energy markets are making liquefied natural gas projects more attractive; A labor union negotiates a tentative contract to make some of Alaska Airlines workers the highest paid employees in the industry 

In this newscast: Congress passes a $280 billion bill to subsidize domestic production of computer chips; The public comment period closes soon on NOAA's Alaska Fisheries Science Center draft research plans on climate change; Federal officials announce plans to spend $401 million in grants and loans to expand internet for rural parts of 11 states including Alaska; Four children are dead after an apparent murder-suicide in Fairbanks; Ironman Alaska athletes scramble to get their bikes to Juneau in time for the race; The Sitka Tribe of Alaska is expanding surveys to see where the local herring egg harvest ends up; Researchers try to refine how they count a declining Aleutian tern population when its range is almost 10,000 miles; The Tanana Valley State Fair bans poultry because of the threat of avian influenza

We take a trip out of the Northern Plains and get an update on what is going on with crops in the Southeast as well as a discussion about corn earworm pressure and what to look for. Leslie Lloyd with AgriGold joins Jesse Allen in this update. Learn more online at https://www.agrigold.com

John & Ravi check out a graph released of the central area for CFB recruiting for each school.

Audio surf report and surf forecast on July 29 for Central Florida and the Southeast. Your host, Buddha, will also enlighten you on current events in the surfing industry and talk about events and entertainment happenings in the local and regional area. Buddha's also sure to dig up some new music that will get your feet groovin'. Stay tuned for more ... Surrrrrrrf Guru.

The Southeast has lost about 99% of its native grasslands. When Brittney Viers started working as a biologist on northern bobwhite quail conservation, she realized being a botanist would was critical to revelaing the bird's relationship to its habitat. Brittany works for Quail Forever, which strives to preserve remnant grassland habitat and restore degraded habitat for quail in Tennessee. Plus: Making biologists talk to landowners, the North America Grasslands Act, ticks-on-baby problems, and mountain "balds." 3:00 Botany, biology + grasslands 6:00 Studying bird health by studying plant/grassland health 8:00 Quail Forever 11:00 Coordinating regional conservation partnership programs for grassland health (ecosystem-level conservation = doesn't give a hoot about state lines) 13:00 Northern bobwhites in the East: Challenges with successional environments, lack of escape cover, thermal cover for the winter... habitat is paramount 16:00 Invasive species and herbicide use 17:00 Predators are not the main reason for quail decline 19:00 "Quail" to Westerners vs. Easterners 21:00 When biologists are REQUIRED to do landowner workshops... and the power of grassroots outreach (pssst... it can happen over a tailgate) 25:00 Hosting quail habitat workshops in places where land management is working 26:00 North America Grasslands Act 27:00 Southeastern grasslands... not the same as the tall-grass prairie of the Midwest 28:00 Many grassland birds are struggling 30:00 Grasslands in the Southeast have declined by 99% 34:00 It's hard being a grassland specialist in an area with dwindling grasslands -- they're fountains of biodiversity 36:00 There's something special about grasslands for the human soul 37:00 "Balds" - mysterious open areas on the tops of mountains 39:00 Southern grasslands -- rhododendron to cacti (they can vary greatly in makeup) 42:00 Woody encroachment: The timbered look isn't natural in a lot of parts of the Southeast 44:00 The absence of fire on the landscape 46:00 Blackbelt Prairie in Mississippi 52:00 Blueberry hunting with babies, then de-ticking your baby in the car 54:00 Listeners... a special Artemis announcement! #nospoilersintheshownotes 56:00 Artemis Program Manager job... share it with the best people in your sphere!

Good News: After some struggles to get offshoot wind farms going in the UK, the largest single turbine is slated to be built soon, Link HERE. The Good Word: A lovely thought from Thorin Oakenshield from The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien. Good To Know: An odd and fun fact about bats giving birth! Good News: […]

Connor Zilisch, Hickory Motor Speedway winner; Brad Teague, NASCAR veteran and current Kingsport Speedway racer; and Billy Hribar, NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Racing Series, “Advance My Track Contest” winning track promotor from Jennerstown Speedway are this week's guests.

In this newscast: Bartlett Regional Hospital names its next CEO; The state reports 123 new COVID cases in Juneau over the last week; Republican Tara Sweeney sets her eyes on the regular election cycle in her campaign for Congress;  An invasive species of crab is discovered in Alaska for the first time; Gas prices are falling much slower in Alaska than elsewhere in the country; The National Weather Service says a glacial dam release is underway on the Taku River 

This week we are joined by Tim Birdsong of Texas Parks And Wildlife Department to discuss an interesting species he has worked with for over 12 years and it's a Black Bass species that is only found in Texas. And that species is the Guadalupe Bass! It's amazing what Texas Parks And Wildlife Department has done to bring this species back from a rocky past. Topics Include: What is a Guadalupe Bass and what is their natural home range Spawning habits Habitat they thrive in Smallmouth hybridization issues Where to catch the next state record The effort TPWD put into this resource How the efforts to conserve this species has effected what other state agencies are trying to do for other species across the Southeast. And Much MORE! If you enjoy this episode then please leave us a 5 star review on iTunes/Apple or Spotify and share the show with a few buddies! You can find more details about the Guadalupe Bass by clicking the link below. https://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/wild/species/gdb/ https://tpwd.texas.gov/fishboat/fish/management/guadalupe-bass/ Join our Southern Waters Fishing Facebook Group by clicking the link below https://www.facebook.com/groups/522631395963181 Follow us on Facebook and Instagram! https://www.instagram.com/southernwaters_podcast/ https://www.facebook.com/SouthernWatersFishingPodcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pop quiz: the shape of a drinking glass can affect the flavor and aroma of liquor—fact or fiction? John Lyda and I put this question to the test. The brewmaster extraordinaire, John Lyda, is the former Sr. Vice President of Highland Brewing Co. and current full-time instructor at A-B Tech's Craft Beverage Institute of the Southeast. He is highly regarded in Asheville for introducing the community to different beer styles that would lay the foundations of the Beer City. In this episode that John and I have been planning for a couple of semesters, we share a bottle of Lurgashall Mead Vintage 2004 and describe how different glassware affect a drink's aroma and flavor. We briefly discuss the history of mead and how it's made. We explain how the variety of honey impacts the taste of mead, reveal the mean age of the students at the CBI, and describe how drinking liquor can affect your vocal register.This week on Consuming the Craft:●     Booze Clues: A bottle of special reserve mead from Sussex, England●     Our 2021 Gold Award from the NC NPR●     Volatile organic compounds and how glassware affects the taste of liquor●     Different glassware for different kinds of wine●     The history of mead and how it's made●     The mean age of students at the Craft Beverage Institute●     How the type and variety of honey affect the final taste of mead●     How wine and spirits affect your vocal registerConnect with John Lyda:●     John Lyda on LinkedInConsuming the CraftThanks for tuning into this week's episode of the Consuming the Craft Podcast, brought to you by AB Tech's Craft Beverage Institute of the Southeast. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review wherever you get your podcasts.Apple Podcasts | GooglePlay Be sure to share your favorite episodes on social media to help us reach more craft beverage enthusiasts.To learn more about AB Tech and the Craft Beer Institute of the Southeast, visit our website.

Leslie Zinn is the co-founder and CEO of Arden's Garden - a cold-pressed juice, smoothie, and vegan foods company on a mission to cultivate an oasis of health and wellness. Arden's Garden started in Leslie's mother Arden's kitchen in the early 90s. Twenty-five years later, Arden's Garden has two production facilities in East Point, Georgia, 17 retail store locations throughout Metro Atlanta, and more than 1,000 partners in the Southeast region.

In this newscast: Only incumbents file to run in Juneau's local elections; The state Department of Law lays out the limits of using state funds for homeschool on private classes; Village public safety officers train on how to respond to opioid overdoses; Seafood processors in Petersburg are working 17-hour shifts because chum salmon is coming in volumes they've never seen before; Wrangell's annual Bearfest comes out of pandemic hibernation this week

Audio surf report and surf forecast on July 27 for Central Florida and the Southeast. Your host, Buddha, will also enlighten you on current events in the surfing industry and talk about events and entertainment happenings in the local and regional area. Buddha's also sure to dig up some new music that will get your feet groovin'. Stay tuned for more ... Surrrrrrrf Guru.

Residents of the Interior face power outages and falling trees during high winds. After a year in office, Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson reflects on the city's response to homelessness. And chum hatchery operators welcome strong returns in Southeast.

On tonight's KRBD Evening Report:Chum salmon returns in Southeast are beating expectationsPlus, Sitka's tribe looks at how far herring eggs travel every springAnd, the Forest Service restores salmon habitat near Petersburg

What does powerful leadership in healthcare look and sound like? My guest Liz Bruno describes the qualities and behaviors that matter most when creating a culture where everyone thrives. You'll want to catch every minute of this interview because Liz drops wisdom bombs throughout our entire conversation. Liz is the Vice President and Chief Learning Officer at Baptist Health System in Jacksonville, Florida. She's an advanced practice psychiatric nurse who's held leadership positions in learning and development for a number of health systems in the Southeast. Since joining Baptist Health in 2015, Liz and her team have designed and implemented innovative programs in both the clinical and leadership development arenas. You'll discover: The distinction Liz makes between empathy and compassionThe negative impact that fatigue has on a leader's behaviorWhy self-awareness is a critical component of effective leaderWhy Liz says everyone needs a coachHow Baptist Health helps employees connect with each other and with patients

Dan Handford of PassiveInvesting.com interviews multifamily investing experts Michael Vaysman and Mike Sanghvi about an 88-unit apartment deal they closed in December 2021 in Huntsville, Alabama. Michael and Mike used to work in the private equity space for several years, transacting thousands of large development and value-add deals. Eventually, they went out and did it on their own and founded Standifer Capital, a real estate investment company focused on unlocking value in real estate across the Southeast. Today, they go into the details of this acquisition.

Amy has always been drawn to growth and expansion and knew that she could support and serve even more people through investing in multifamily real estate. Her skillset, heart-set, and mindset were a perfect fit for real estate and she is now, providing clean, safe, affordable housing to working-class families. [00:00 - 05:58]Opening Segement Amy Sylvis, founder, and principal of Sylvis capital, a real estate firm that invests in large multi-family properties and emerging markets Amy discusses her journey starting out in Clarksville, Tennessee and acquiring properties in Augusta, Georgia; Decatur, Alabama; and Evansville, Indiana. Amy says that one key to success has been partnering with other professionals in the real estate industry and managing properties effectively. [05:58 - 11:40] Evansville is a great market due to its growing economy and strong infrastructure investments by the state government. The construction of a new bridge between Indiana and Kentucky will make rail lines more accessible. Amy created a massive spreadsheet and let her VA populate it looking for trends that would Help them focus on their growing market. Amy has an MBA and a Background in Biotech where data analysis was a part of her work. She said that understanding numbers and how they change over time are good to stay ahead. [11:40 - 17:05] A Miracle Medication Came to The Market that has greatly improved Amy's health. Amy discusses how having a setback in life can be difficult, but that it is important to have hope and faith. Amy shares that, after going through a debilitating disease, her personal health journey has been a gift in that it has given her a new perspective on anything is possible. She emphasizes the importance of mitigating risk when it comes to real estate investments, citing the potential for a recession and interest rates rising as potential risks. She also recommends market research as a way to hedge against potential risks.   [17:05 - 18:09] Closing Segment Reach out to Amy Sylvis Links Below Final Words   Tweetable Quotes “The true gift of this perspective. I knew from a very young age how precious life was and that tomorrow wasn't guaranteed. So it was up to me to really take advantage and live life to the fullest and really led me to this career because I wasn't sure how long or if at all, I could trade my time for money.” - Amy Sylvis     ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Connect with Amy Sylvis by emailing her at reachout@silviscapital.com or  visiting sylviscapital.com         Connect with me:   Facebook   LinkedIn   Like, subscribe, and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or whatever platform you listen on. Thank you for tuning in!   Email me → sam@brickeninvestmentgroup.com Want to read the full show notes of the episode? Check it out below: [00:00:00] Amy Sylvis: truly understanding where numbers are and how they change over time and being able to just track them and synthesize, Hey, is this getting better or worse? Is this a trend? Is this a blip on the radar? I humbly present to you that it's a bit simpler than maybe it sounds, I think the hardest part is just, compiling the data. [00:00:17]  [00:00:29] Sam Wilson: Amy Silvis is the founder and principal of Sylvis capital a real estate firm that invests in large multi-family properties and emerging markets throughout the United States. Amy, welcome to the show.  [00:00:40] Amy Sylvis: Thank you so much for having me, Sam. What  [00:00:41] Sam Wilson: a pleasure's mind. There are three questions. I ask every guest who comes in the show in 90 seconds or less. [00:00:45] Sam Wilson: Where did you start? Where are you now? How did you get.  [00:00:48] Amy Sylvis: Sure. So started with my first property in Clarksville, Tennessee. Yes. And what, how did I get there? It was a 10-year-long journey of trial and error and some personal medical issues and all sorts of interesting bumps in the road, but it is a story of the persistence never giving up, and making sure I followed my calling. [00:01:08] Sam Wilson: That is incredible. Now you're based in Los Angeles, right? Yes. So I mean, Clarksville, Tennessee, while for those of you that don't know, it's kind of a submarket almost of Nashville, correct? Clark Clarksville is north and west of Nashville. IFM not mistaken. Yep. how in the world did you end up buying a property in Clarksville? [00:01:26] Sam Wilson: This is now a decade.  [00:01:27] Amy Sylvis: No. A couple of years ago. Okay. A couple of years ago. Yeah. Okay. Yes. Yeah. It took me 10 years to get into this space. I've been in this space for a couple of years now. Yes. so thankfully I'm not crazy enough to buy in California learned that lesson. I live here because of my family, but, right control and. [00:01:42] Amy Sylvis: Eviction moratoriums that are still in place two and a half years post COVID. I am not interested in buying in, the state that I call home. Right. Instead, I'm a big market research guru. Endlessly studying markets saw that there was mass migration into the greater Nashville MSA. I knew that, although there was a ton of institutional competition in the main city going an hour Northwest, as you said of this incredible city with great economic growth, job announcements, and people moving, it was such a great space to be in my journey. [00:02:14] Sam Wilson: Right. And if you did that two years ago, I mean, gosh, that's Tennessees had just nothing but influx. Of residents, even, or ever since then, so that's absolutely fantastic. What do you feel like? So, so, so you bought a property in Clarksville. Where else have you acquired since  [00:02:29] Amy Sylvis: then? [00:02:30] Amy Sylvis: Yes. So we also own in Augusta, Georgia. As a GP owned in Evansville, Indiana, right across the border from Kentucky. Yes. And Decatur, Alabama, just outside of Huntsville.  [00:02:45] Sam Wilson: Yeah. Well, Huntsville's another one of those markets. I mean, not actually too far from it's just straight down 65. From, ex Clarksville is 24, but then 24 to 65 and still is not a far jump from Clarksville then down to Decatur, Alabama. [00:02:59] Sam Wilson: So that's really interesting. How were you able, I guess you, in a couple of years time to acquire so many assets.  [00:03:05] Amy Sylvis: Partnership. I am a self-admitted only child's type a personality that loves to, be self-reliant. And if something needs to be done, gosh, darned, I'm gonna go out and get it right. [00:03:15] Amy Sylvis: Or do it. But, I had great mentorship and realize that I can go further, faster. By partnering with other folks in this space. So, amazing partnerships with people that live in the Southeast and great property management is the recipe to get that going.  [00:03:30] Sam Wilson: Wow. Yeah. Good property management. [00:03:32] Sam Wilson: that's harder in some of these more other than say Huntsville. I mean, I think it would be harder in places like Clarksville and places like that to find good PMs. How have you done that?  [00:03:42] Amy Sylvis: Yeah, we have one property management company that we work with that has scaled with us. So they're outstanding. [00:03:48] Amy Sylvis: Yeah. They have done us. Good. And we have a mutually beneficial relationship there.  [00:03:52] Sam Wilson: Wow. So one that has scaled across all of those assets and all of those various Places you said that you love research, right? Yes. So I'm really curious about what research took you to Evansville, Indiana. it's right on the Ohio River. [00:04:07] Sam Wilson: It's at the bottom of the state, but. I don't know that I've spoken with anyone out of 500 and I don't know where we are when this goes live. We'll be pushing 600 episodes. It's investing in Evansville, Indiana. So  [00:04:17] Amy Sylvis: let's talk about it. Yeah. Yeah. So think Chatanooga 10 years ago. Okay. [00:04:22] Amy Sylvis: Lots of parallels. I know that's a hot take. That's a bold thing to say. Fair, but Evansville is the third largest city in the great state of Indiana. Yep. Indiana sometimes is deemed not as sexy. As maybe some of the Southeast markets, but my goodness is it pro-business. The state government is investing heavily in infrastructure, particularly in Evansville, always a dynamic, really dynamite sign that a market is emerging. [00:04:47] Amy Sylvis: Toyota's bringing a bunch of jobs to the MSA good manufacturing jobs. We're seeing healthcare jobs and hospital expansion there. All of those really great key metrics, as well as decreasing property taxes, which you very rarely hear these days may not stay. But yeah, quite stunning. They've got a state law that property tax can't be more than 2% of the value of the property. [00:05:11] Amy Sylvis: So it's a great environment.  [00:05:13] Sam Wilson: Wow now that's that's. Yeah I are a Hoosier. I wore a Hoosier. I am a Hoosier. Okay. I lived there for 30 years, so I know this state fairly well. But yeah, I mean that so which is, I just surprised, yeah, Evansville that's really intriguing. [00:05:26] Sam Wilson: That's just not something, yes. I would've really thought about, you mentioned the word that the state is, or you mentioned the phrase, the state is heavily investing in infrastructure. What does  [00:05:35] Amy Sylvis: that. Sure. So specifically in the Evansville area, you may be familiar, but there's for the most part, kind of a disjointed disconnected two lane highway going from most of the way from Evansville up to indie, right? [00:05:49] Amy Sylvis: That's changing, they're building an actual freeway building up the li the infrastructure there for logistics, which is another industry that's growing in the great city of Evans. They're redoing the bridge to make it wider and will robust across the river over to Kentucky, making rail lines investing in there and partnering, doing a public private partnership there as well to help with logistics. [00:06:11] Amy Sylvis: So yeah, when the state's willing to invest in doing some of that infrastructure, it's always a good sign.  [00:06:16] Sam Wilson: Yeah, absolutely. No, that's really intriguing. There's a lot of there's a lot of parallels and things that you mentioned between Evansville. And Memphis, except for the fact that the state is investing heavily in infrastructure. [00:06:28] Sam Wilson: I mean, I'm thinking about things like rail lines you're on the water, mean Ohio river for our listeners that aren't familiar with. The Midwest is enormous. It's one of the largest feeders into the Mississippi. So, the, in, in the amount of goods that are transported up and down from grains to goods, I mean, up and down the Ohio is is pretty incredible actually to see. [00:06:47] Sam Wilson: and again, for those of you who aren't listening, that just the fact that they're building a larger bridge, between Indiana and Kentucky is a really it's a really big step, cuz that will actually connect. Now that I think about it, that would then connect really all the way down to Memphis, which is if we get a major highway running through there, that'll be really awesome. [00:07:03] Sam Wilson: So yes very cool. I love that. How, what resources did you use to research this and say, I mean, cause it's one thing to find a newspaper article like, oh whoop you do. They're building a new bridge across the Ohio. We really don't care. No one pays attention, but to aggregate all this data takes time. [00:07:18] Sam Wilson: How did you do  [00:07:19] Amy Sylvis: that? It does yeah, it, it is quite frankly taken quite a bit of time. I've got a massive spreadsheet, I use some VAs to populate it, but you know, really looking at trends from the milk and report that comes out every year to simple things like job growth announced by the bureau of labor statistics. [00:07:36] Amy Sylvis: A amazing resource that is paid, but for me, it's worth it called housing alerts.com. I don't know if you've heard of them. They're mostly single family focused, but as we know. Single family proceeds. Multi-family, it's a leading indicator by about 12 to 18 months. So a lot of great statistics and forecasting by demographers and economists have that site and pump out that data. [00:08:00] Amy Sylvis: So I really look for overall trends, not just, a blip in the radar, but you know, consistent kind of green. In all of those metrics,  [00:08:08] Sam Wilson: is this something you've been kind of, traditionally trained in is in synthesizing this data and then coming up with a conclusion? Cause I think you can throw a lot of data at a lot of us, myself included in this. [00:08:19] Sam Wilson: And I just kinda, I look at it for an hour and I go. What does this tell me I don't even know how to make sense of this. How do you compile all this into something that's meaningful?  [00:08:28] Amy Sylvis: Yeah. So, I think I, to, to answer your question, not overly trained, I do have an MBA. I do have a background in biotech where, data analysis and all of that has been. [00:08:39] Amy Sylvis: Part of, how I've been trained, but nothing specific, but truly understanding where numbers are and how they change over time and being able to just track them and synthesize, Hey, is this getting better or worse? Is this a trend? Is this a blip in the radar? I humbly present to you that it's a bit simpler than maybe it sounds, I think the hardest part is just, compiling the data. [00:09:00] Sam Wilson: Right. Right. And then paint, painting the picture and saying, okay. Yes. Are things moving? What is the general direction that things are moving in that's really, awesome. I love that. Talk to us about what it means to, I guess, have a setback in life. Like what's a setback look like in life for you, and then how have you overcome. [00:09:19] Amy Sylvis: Sure. I love to talk about this just because everyone has setbacks in life, right? None of us gets through this life without a setback or a bump in the road. Right? So it's, not whether you get knocked down, but whether you get back up I was born with cystic fibrosis. Some of you may have heard of this. [00:09:37] Amy Sylvis: It is a genetic disease that impacts about 30,000 people in the us. And when I was born in 1981, my parents were told that I would live to maybe be 12 years. spoiler alert in two weeks, I turned 41 . but growing up there really wasn't much medication or treatment. And I was in and out of the hospital quite a bit with virent lung infections that were resistant to antibiotics. [00:10:00] Amy Sylvis: and it made it really. To attend school regularly. And as I became an adult, hold down a job regularly, because the nature of the illness is progressive deterioration of my lungs in addition to several other organs in my body. So, it. Yeah, there were some bumps in the room there. Happy to dive in with whatever direction you wanna go down. [00:10:22] Sam Wilson: Wow. I guess, where does that bring you today? Some mm-hmm something has either changed medically or medicinally or something where, we get to have this conversation today. Yes.  [00:10:33] Amy Sylvis: well, really scientifically, Explanation until about three years ago as to why I was doing so well. [00:10:39] Amy Sylvis: And what, brought me so far, I say, maybe my hopeful attitude and my faith is how I explain that. But thankfully, a miracle medication did come to the market for the vast majority, not all of people with cystic fibrosis right before the pandemic in November of 2019. And. Almost all of, kind of my struggles. [00:10:58] Amy Sylvis: I'm no longer in and outta the hospital. All of this has virtually disappeared. So, I get to enjoy the great health and live like most people, thankfully. Wow.  [00:11:08] Sam Wilson: Wow. That's gotta be just, I mean, literally life changing. Yes.  [00:11:13] Amy Sylvis: Yeah, it was, there were again, a bump in the road where COVID came and , so I didn't get to fully kind of experience it until quite recently, but. [00:11:21] Amy Sylvis: The true gift of it is this perspective. I knew from a very young age how precious life was that tomorrow wasn't guaranteed. So it was up to me to really take advantage and live life to the fullest and really led me to this career because I wasn't sure how long or if at all, I could trade my time for money. [00:11:40] Amy Sylvis: And that was a big realization where I thought, although I'm sure my parents would've taken care of me, I wanted to be financially independent, not be a burden on them. So, gosh, darn, I'm gonna figure out a way to generate income regardless of my health. So I can continue to pay my bills and live by myself and have a prosperous life. [00:11:57] Amy Sylvis: So, that is really one of the gifts of going through that struggle that has led me to where I am  [00:12:01] Sam Wilson: today. Wow. Wow. That's an incredible perspective. And not one, I think that many of us, would imagine or be able to share if it's like, Hey, I've had a debilitating disease, the bulk of my life, and yet it's been a gift in its own. [00:12:14] Sam Wilson: Right.  [00:12:15] Amy Sylvis: Yeah, that perspective is everything right? Because there truly are. I mean, it's hard when you're going through it, right. I can relate to, maybe people have had other struggles with, family or health or, an inordinate number of things. But, I think it is so important to look back. [00:12:28] Amy Sylvis: Once things do pass as they always do sometimes sooner, sometimes later and see what the gifts are because they're, they are there and they can be utilized as a superpower moving forward in.  [00:12:40] Sam Wilson: Wow. Wow. That's really cool. What did you do before you got into multifamily real estate?  [00:12:46] Amy Sylvis: I was in biotech. [00:12:47] Amy Sylvis: Raise your hand if you're surprised. but the notion that I could be involved in, developing and distributing medications to people that all also suffered, grievous illness was just really fulfilling. And it was a space I was very comfortable in, both personally, but of course, professionally. [00:13:05] Amy Sylvis: So I was there for 13 years doing.  [00:13:06] Sam Wilson: Right, right. Wow. that's absolutely cool. I love that. Let's talk a little bit. Let's take let's thank you for taking the time to really share your sure. Personal health journey and using that as a springboard to say, Hey, look, anything's possible. So, thank you again for being so willing to talk about that. [00:13:22] Sam Wilson: Certainly appreciate it. Of course. Let's go back a little bit. And rewind the tape to the data conversation, a touch, and just kind of caught maybe not so much look in the rear view mirror, but maybe look a little bit out the windshield and say, all right, what do you see? You guys, you're in the multifamily space, right? [00:13:37] Sam Wilson: And it's been crazy hot, been lots of money flooding into it. And we have this potential recession on the horizon. We have inflation that's outta control. People are calling for stagflation, which wouldn't surprise me in the slightest. Where are we going from here? And how are you guys preparing for  [00:13:52] Amy Sylvis: it? I love this question. [00:13:54] Amy Sylvis: Let me get out my crystal ball. thank you.  [00:13:57] Sam Wilson: You're the first person that's ever said. You have one  [00:13:59] Amy Sylvis: it's my superpower. No, you it is all about mitigating risk, right? Because none of us has a crystal ball, but, to your point, there are ways we can hedge ourselves. We can protect our investment, protect our investors contribution to our investments by a going back to market research. There is no one United States real estate market. Right. We all remember 2008 when some markets, I'm in LA completely tanked. [00:14:25] Amy Sylvis: Right. Other markets, some in Texas were like recession, what? Housing Christ, who, right. It really, it was. Almost a non-event it's a great reminder that there are markets in the United States that are so robust and job fr or economically friendly job friendly. All of this. It's not to say, we assume that there won't be issues, but you can really hedge yourself with a recession. [00:14:49] Amy Sylvis: And, being in a market that has recession-resistant industries where we know historically jobs aren't being cut and mentioned Decatur, Alabama. The FBI is expanding thousands of jobs there. The United States space force, which is such a wild thing to say, but that's a real thing is located from Denver to Huntsville. [00:15:09] Amy Sylvis: These are recession resistant jobs. Not to say that there won't be layoffs or pay cuts, but they really position ourselves, to have still great renter d