May 20, 2025 • 40 mins
Tanya is a hairstylist who decided to bake some cakes for some firemen. And next thing you know, she’s baking over 450 cakes a year for firemen on their birthday! We cannot wait for you to meet “The Cake Lady”.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
I now big for sixteen stations, four hundred and fifty
firefighters plus all the girls at work, and last year
I made five hundred and ninety eight. Thanks.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
That is in sane. Welcome to an army of normal folks.
I'm Bill Courtney. I'm a normal guy. I'm a husband,
a father, an entrepreneur, and I've been a football coach
an inner city Memphis. The last part somehow it led
to an oscar for a film about our football team.
(00:37):
That movie is called Undefeated. Y'all, I believe our country's
problems are never going to be solved by a bunch
of fancy people and nice suits using big words that
nobody ever uses on CNN and Box, but rather by
an army of normal folks. Guys, that's us, just you
(00:58):
and me deciding, hey, maybe I can help. That's what
Tanya Ray Piper, the voice you just heard, has done.
Tanya's a hairstylist who decided to bake some cakes for
some firemen, and the next thing you know, she's baking
over four hundred and fifty cakes a year for firemen
(01:18):
on their birthdays while still keeping her day job. This
cake ministry is all during the nights and weekends because
she feels called to do it. I cannot wait for
you to meet the cake lady right after these brief
messages from our to respond to me, Tanya Ray Piper
(01:54):
from Edmunds, Washington, Thanks for being here, well, thanks for
having me So Edmund's, Washington, Seattle area.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
North of Seattle, about thirty minutes maybe, yeah, so suburb, suburb,
got it.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
It's beautiful up there. Yeah. It is absolutely born and raised.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
No, born in Cutbank, Montana. And what exactly cut cut
cut Bank? Yeah, Montana, Montana. It's a place, a good
place to be from I bet it is very cold
and windy in the winter and hot and windy in
the summer.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
My oldest daughter and her husband live in Missoula. There's
cut Bank anywhere near Missoula.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
No cut Banks near nothing? Maybe Okay. It's fifty miles
from the Canadian border in the center of the state,
so it's prairie on the not on the pretty side
of Montana. There's you can look at the mountains from
one side, but you can look for fifty miles and
see nothing else but planes.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
That's well. First, first of all, thanks for coming all
the way from Washington to Memphis. I know it's a
track and I can't wait to get into your story.
But since we're kind of on it, tell me kind
of how you grew up. What's your background.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
My dad was a police officer and cut Bank, and
when it was time to leave there, my mom had
a couple of brothers who lived in Seattle, so that's
where we moved to. I was I think seven, So
I say I grew up in Seattle.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
I got to ask, you, say, your dad was a
policeman and cut Bank, I would think he might be
a police He was the chief of police.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
He was the chief and then he got a job
in Edmunds, Washington, and that's why we moved there. Actually
started in Bellevue and then he went to.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Edmund And that's as a police officer too.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Yeah. Yeah, he retired as a police officer.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
So siblings.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
I have three brothers, one older, two younger.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Right, and you grew up a kid of a cop.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
I did.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
What's that like?
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Hard to date?
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Yeah? When you're father carries.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
A gun on his hill, bill, my dad remembers every face.
So yeah, so I literally took I had a picture
of my father in my purse at all times. So
if somebody asked me out, I'd show him do you
know this guy? And if they said yes, I'm sorry,
I can't go out with you because it would not
(04:21):
have been.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
An that's absolutely hilarious. Yeah, so you have a travel
partner with you, some some chick named Jan Hingson.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
That is my mother.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Hey mom, how are you Jan? What's it like being
married to a lifetime police officer.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
It's different. You don't have schedules like most people. We
learned that we would have conversations at midnight with our
kids because that's when they were coming home and he
would be getting off when I was going to work, and.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
So we had a ship through the night thing. The
I blame my late night habits on my father's shift work.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
I guess. I guess that would make sense. Yeah, despite
all that, aren't you proud of your father's service.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Absolutely?
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Well. My wife is married to a guy who runs
a business and then coaches football, and so my family
and children, many times up through this very week, have
to give up a little of me so that I
can serve in the way that I can as a
(05:38):
as a coach in kids. And you know, I always
worry about balance with my own family. But I also
am really inspired and humbled by the way that my
wife and kids feel like they're part of the service
and they're willing to give up a little because of
(06:00):
the good that can come from the work that I do.
And I think Lisa kind of has warned us a
little bit of a badge of honor. I'm just wondering,
did you guys experience prod that, Hey, my dad's out
there making life better for all of us and keeping
our world safe.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Always had a soft spot for first responders in law enforcement,
especially law enforcement. Because of that, my dad worked three jobs.
He worked his regular job at Edmonds, then he would
be part time at a small city called Woodway, and
then he worked fairy traffic also directing fairy traffic at
the time when they needed that. So he wasn't there
(06:40):
a lot. I mean, he he was always there, but
then you know, he worked a lot.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
So mom was to make ends meet for three kids
of four kids and his wife.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
Yeah, I mean mom worked too, but with his shift work.
But I mean I was said Daddy's girl. Monday's were
our thing. Is that Monday's always As a hairdresser, I
always had Mondays off so that was we go to
breakfast and when I had I owned a salon for
a while and when he would come in and he
(07:15):
do my costco runs for me, so I wouldn't have
to take time out to do that. So, Yeah, retired
earlier because hearing disability, So he retired probably a lot
younger than most got it officers would.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Did you Jan, did you fill a sense of prod
that your husband was one of the guys out there
serving our communities.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
Yes, and I think he took it very seriously at
what the risk could be because he always made it
a point never to leave the house without saying this
and not always meant a lot.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Did you live with any I don't know how say this,
but did you leave with any sense of dread that
maybe my husband doesn't come home tonight.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
Because of where he was a police officer. The suburb
of Edmunds used to be very very quiet.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
It was like a bedroom.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Falls.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Yeah, so it was not difficult to trust that he
would be okay, although there was always that opportunity that
something horrible could happen. But I just I think I
had a lot of trust in the Lord that knowing
that he was protected God was watching, and that was
(08:42):
a good comfort to me most of the time, to
know that.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
I didn't have to be in control.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
There was nothing there I could do, but God was.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
But I get the sense that every family of first
responders has anywhere from at the worst dread, but at
the very least even a sense that my husband, my father,
my brother, or my uncle works in an occupation that
(09:13):
involves daily risk, and it's always got to be a
census there. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
Yeah, I think there's always that undercurrent that something could happen.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
And the fact that he kissed you goodbye every single
time he left the house indicates to me that he
had that sense.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
Yes, and our kids, I don't remember which one it was,
but said.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
Dad never leaves.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
Dad won't even empty the garbage without kissing mother goodbye.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
Okay, it wasn't that bad.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Well, that sounds like a beautiful relationship.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
I had June and word Cleaver for parents, and I
had the house that because I grew up with it,
I didn't understand what I had. That's all I knew.
But all of my friends, at one point or another
came and stayed with us because of turmoil. If they
had because our house was so peaceful. I can never
remember my parents yelling at each other or I mean,
(10:13):
I'm not saying they didn't have disagreements. They did, I'm sure,
but we never we never saw that they would. They
didn't ever fight. It was and then what you know,
I'd have friends that their parents were getting a divorce
and there was turmo, and I'm like, why would you
(10:34):
want to come to my house? Because to me, our
family was very strict and we had rules and there
there wasn't a lot.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Of no God forbid rules.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
No, I know, but I had. Yeah, all my friends
would come. And now I look back and I'm like, oh,
I had an amazing upbringing.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Jan. This thing is about Tanya, and we're going to
get back to her. But I just want to say,
I don't know what you've done in your life, and
I don't know what your legacy is, but what I
just heard, if my children say that about me and
Lisa and the way we brought up our kids one day,
that'll be enough. So well well done, ma'am.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
She is the reason I am who I am.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
I Jan, I don't know. I just sit there and
don't choke up when you hear that. That is I
mean what better legacy to Leah You've at your children
view the way they came I was the right way
and for them to give credit to who they are
to you. So thanks for being here, Thanks for giving
us a little glimpse into being what it's like to
(11:35):
be the spouse of a of a first responder. And
and wow, I hope the trip was worth you just
hearing that from your daughter, because that's pretty special stuff.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Well, she tells me quite often how important I am.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Seems like there's a lot of love in this family here. Yeah. Yeah,
And now a few messages from our general sponsors. But first,
our next live interview in Memphis will be on June
twelfth with Father Mark Hannah. Father Mark and a team
of four other civilians saved over fifty lives on nine
(12:15):
to eleven, and the rest of his team died while
trying to save more people. After nine to eleven, Mark
became a Coptic priest and hence the father title. It's
part of our lunch and listen series that we've been
doing at Crosstown Concourses, Myphis Listening Lab, and you can
learn more at RSVP at Fathermark dot Eventwright dot com.
(12:41):
We hope to see you there. We'll be right back. Okay.
That flips us to this dude named Todd hens Tom
Tom Kingson.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
It's my oldest brother.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
She is your brother. On January seventeenth, he wrote this,
Hey Bill, I'd like to nominate my sister. First of all, Tom,
we don't nominate, but thank you very much. There's no
awards being given, but I get that we got the indication.
Tanya Piper to the Army of normal folks. I love
(13:25):
for you to hear her story. This is a surprise,
so please use me as a middle man if you
decide you want to speak to her as for me.
Love your show and continue to be inspired. I discovered
your show through your visit with Mike Row. I've discovered
his podcast while recovering from open art surgery in March.
I've listened to all of his and I'm still getting
caught up with all of yours. I love the Army
(13:47):
of Dead Folks. Listening to Harriet Tubman today. Thank for
you our doing. I highlight normal folks do an extra
extraordinary things. God bless you. Tom So. Your brother's pretty
impressed by you.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
Yeah, prety impressive too. Tell me about Tom, Tom is
four years older than I am. He when I was
a child, he always wanted to do things for me,
and I am very stubborn and very strong willed, and
I would want no. It's like no, I'll do it myself.
As we got older, we became very very good friends.
(14:19):
He's always he's just a rock. He's an amazing father,
amazing grandfather, a incredible husband, and I love all my brothers.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Sorry you're getting teared up about him. That's beautiful.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
I have an amazing family.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Once again, Jan, well done. So Tom, I hope you're listening.
We heard you. I'm sure you talked to the pain
in the butt Alex or producer, and that's how Tanya
ended up here. So Tom, thanks for reaching out. And
again to all your listeners, we beg for you to
continue to give us ide this to talk about on
chop Talk. If there's some dead people that you want
(14:57):
us to talk about, Tom will tell you the Army
Dead Folks is pretty.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
Good, normal dead folks.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
And yeah, normal dead folks. And if you have if
you have ideas for people, Alex will get in touch
with them and if they've got a story to tell,
we'll have them down here and Tanya is a living
proof of that. So you grew up in flat Rock, Montana,
or edge of the River or something Montana, I don't
(15:22):
know what. What'd you call it?
Speaker 1 (15:23):
Cut Bank?
Speaker 2 (15:24):
Yeah, cut Bank, that's it. And you moved to Edmonton
Edmunds when you're seven seven, all right, And we kind
of get an idea of what your family's like. Obviously
tight k it. Obviously a father working three jobs provide
lots of love closeness. So let's go to uh. One day,
(15:45):
when you're ten years old, you decide there's something you
want to do, so with your hardheadedself, with my.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
So, when I was younger, I wanted my mom to
teach me how to make a and she says, oh, honey,
pie crust is really hard. I said, well, just show
me how. So and you're ten or younger maybe, okay,
I was a child. So she taught me how to
make pies. And then one day I came home and
I made a pie for my dad and my crust
(16:16):
was better than hers. And she's never made a pie since.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Jan you got fired. So what was this first pie
you made?
Speaker 1 (16:27):
I don't even remember. Was it cherry pie? I don't
I remember Dad's favorite was cherry pie, so probably.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Probably a cherry pie. First of all, that's sweet. A
little kid want to make a cherry pod. Learned how
to make a great crust.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
Yeah, so I did pies a lot for people. I
don't do as many pies now, but I did a
lot of pies.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
So then you, I guess this becomes a hobby.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
So I love to feed people and I like to bank.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
All right, so you graduate high school and I think
you start tell me, tell me what? So you learn
to make pause? You get this great cause now you
got kind of this hobby. You like to feed people.
But life goes on, So what are you doing.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
I become a hairdresser. I go to beauty school, worked
as a hairdresser in other salons for about three years,
and then when my dad retired, he said he wanted
to take his part of retirement invest in his family,
and they my parents opened a salon for me and
I had my salon for nine years. And Bill, anybody
(17:40):
who tells you who you when you have your own
business you have more freedom is a liar.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Yeah. Let me let me just let me just tag
on that I started my own business in two thousand
and one.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Yeah, there's no freedom, no no vacations. You work twelve
fourteen hour days. You have to deal with other.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
What do you do? What do you do when the
toilet gets stopped up?
Speaker 1 (18:02):
Called my dad? No, actually that's not true. I called
my no. I called my middle brother Nate because he
was that's he's the fix.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
Again. The point is when you own it, you figure
you're the guy or the lady or yeah, or you
know a guy, or you know a guy.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
I know a guy. I know lots of guys.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
You guys.
Speaker 5 (18:21):
Ever heard the line of the great thing of being
about being an entrepreneurs You get to make your own hours.
Speaker 4 (18:25):
Yeah, and you also get to work all the hours
you get to.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Bang your own Yeah. An entrepreneur that ended up a
billionaire that was one of my mentors, once told me
to be successful as an entrepreneur, you only have to
work half the day. Doesn't matter, it's first twelve hours,
of second twelve hours. Just work half the day. So
that's it.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
It's it, okay.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
So that was nine years.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Nine years, and then I sold my salon and I
went and worked for an ex employee. Well, actually I
least a station from her man. I was there for
seven years, and sometimes it's not always good to work
with friends. So it was when it was time to go,
I left there and I found the salon that I'm
(19:07):
in now, which I've been at it for twenty three years.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
And it is called Salons.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
Zuberends. It's a it's a play on a Zuberan and
there's there's twenty four of us in the salon.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
That's a big place. Yeah, in Seattle area, still.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
In lynn Wood, which is just you know, right next
door to Edmunds.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
Okay, got it. So years twenty three years, twenty three years.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
Yeah, twenty three years. There. I am a mentor to
all of the new stylists that come into the salon.
So I work with young you know, nineteen twenties.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Stupid people love you know what, They really stupid.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Most of the time. Yes, the ones that I have
Q right now and oh my gosh, Bill, they're amazing.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
My wife birth as a result of her an action
in her action with me for stupid people. They are
twenty five, six, seven, and eight right now, they're really really.
Speaker 5 (20:07):
Speaking, which is Max at fault for getting his car stolen.
I haven't heard the story of this week.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
What happened.
Speaker 5 (20:11):
Max's car got stolen? Yeah, how did that? That wasn't
his fault? Was a stupid person, yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:16):
I was even stupid when he got stolen or it just.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
Got Max worked very hard and bought his first house,
which I'm very proud of. When your youngest kid who
is actually they're they're now, boy, did I mess that up?
I'm the stupid person. Thirty twenty nine, eight twenty seven.
So Max just bought his first house, very excited, and
he pulled his cheap Cherokee up in front of the house,
(20:41):
popped up in his thing, left it running, unloaded his
TV to put it in his house, and after eight
sick what do you? What do you think about this? Casius?
I know stupid people, he guys.
Speaker 4 (20:53):
He's a Memphis right, yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
And he opened it. He in eight seconds, dropping his
TV off in his den. He heard his engine revolt,
ran out the front door to see his car headed
off down the street with the hat still open. He
and his buddy, who are in a truck with other stuff,
dropped the trail off the truck and chased the car.
(21:17):
And while chasing the car, because the stupid people who
are about Max's age, that stole the car because everybody
that age just stupid. We're establishing this and that was
that slun his ear pods or buds or whatever those
stupid things. Is that young people wearing their ears all
the time. I think, Alex, you have a pair anyway? Yeah, yeah, right,
(21:38):
so yeah, so they can track those apparently, so they
tracked his moving car from his ear buds. They're in
the back seat because one stupid person left his valuable
stuff in his car, and another stupid person stole the car,
tracked him, called the police why chasing him. The police
are now engaged, and now my son and his buddy
(22:01):
in a truck with three police cars are chasing his
car with the hatch open, with the hatch open the
terrible part of Memphis, to which the two stupid people
that stole the car decided, you know, this just didn't
worth it. They roll the car up on a corner,
jump out, and run off through a neighborhood and the
cops and Max pull up and he gets his car back.
Speaker 4 (22:23):
He said it costs him like three thousand dollars or something.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Well, he left a bunch of stuff in the car
that they stole, and the rearview mirror which is attached
to all of your sensors and your backup camera and
all that. The first thing they do when they steal
your car apparently yanked that off the windshield and throw
it out the window because that's where the GPS econ is.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
So oh, they didn't They didn't plan on the ear
pods and.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
The plan on the AirPods. But it has like six wires,
So now he's got a windshield with all these wires
hanging down. I didn't know, so he's going to have
to pay for that. But I think that is a
tax for being a stupid person, and I'm glad I
asked it. There's another stupid person involved, the cop that
(23:10):
made the scene at as as how, she was probably
twenty seven or eight, equally stupid. She did not engage
in the chase for the stolen car and the criminals
who stole my son's stuff, but she was happy to
give my son a ticket or leaving his car running,
just an unattended vehicle ticket. But it was in his driveway,
(23:32):
on his private property, not in the street.
Speaker 4 (23:35):
So it's is that still legal doing it in your
own private property.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
You can do whatever you want to in your private
property right if it was on the street, it had
been triket worthy. So now she showed her youth and
stupidity through writing a ticket that is completely illegal, which
is being thrown out. So that basically what happened in
about a forty five minute period of time, Mints, a
(24:00):
confederacy of dunces.
Speaker 4 (24:02):
Were you on the phone at all during any of this?
Speaker 2 (24:04):
Yes? And then I showed up to watch it all unfold,
and there was this. It was just a confederacy of
stupid people engaging with one another in a way that
now is laughable, but at the time was chilling.
Speaker 4 (24:22):
Was Lisa on the phone during this? Was Lisa on
the phone?
Speaker 2 (24:25):
Now Lisa realized that it was a confederate stupid people
who did not want to be involved, and she stated
him she.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Was the only smart one.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
Yes, I joined the ranks of the idiots for showing up.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
Just just but for the laughter.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
Well now, but at the time I was really not
happy because I was surrounded by ignorance, bliss, and superstition.
Speaker 5 (24:54):
Speaking of stupid you're supposed to have her devices.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Mine are completely closed down, all right, I love you,
so okay, anyway, you bring in people that do things
just like the story we just told. And you're there
onboarding people, and I assume part of the job is
to try to make them LISTEDID.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
Yes, So the two I have right now.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
They're going to listen to this, and we just blistered them.
We don't even know who they are.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
No, I know, but I say that all the time
to my clients about the fact that I don't. They
have renewed my faith in the younger generation because up
until give it a chance. I know, I know, but
I'm this positivity. I'm always going to find the silver lining.
(25:50):
And these two actually they blow me away with their
work ethic and they're just there. They learn, they listen,
there's sponges.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
This could be proof of life off of the planet.
I know where they come from.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
That's what I said too, And I got I got four.
I have got two more coming up that are the
same way.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
And I'm antenna or what looks like a baby arm
going out there forehead.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
They've hidden there, they've hidden the aliens. Well yet fabulous.
Speaker 6 (26:22):
We'll be right back, all right. So that's what you do.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
And at some point you decided this hobby I have
where I made a crust much better than my mother's
a ten and I've still continued to make and like it.
I want to share this.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
I started baking for all the girls at work for
their birthdays and whenever I felt the need to bake something,
and I don't want it at my house because if
it's there, then I will eat it, so I you know,
and when you and when you bake for girls women,
they love you and hate you at the same time.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
Yeah, because it's so good and.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
I make it and they eat it. And the cale,
our calendar has everybody's birthdays on it, so I always,
you know, okay, what do you want for your birthday?
And they have to contemplate because there's so many choices.
And then if there's a month that there is no birthdays,
then I look at the calendar at say random cake Day,
which means that's we need cakes.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
Okay. So my wife Lisa is fifty flophour, I don't know,
fifty three or four. Now. She's gorgeous. She is little
and cute and precious and I don't know how this
woman has eaten twenty three donuts in one setting.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
She has good metabolism, oh off, the charge tell her
not to get used to it.
Speaker 2 (27:59):
Yeah, she's fifty three now and had four kids in
four years and she's still teen nightsy. It's just it's
she's probably from another genetics. Yeah, it's ridiculous. But the
point is it's funny. What's saying. The reason I'm telling
you the story is her mother, who's seventy five, is
the same way, and they will eat. Like when we
go out to eat, Lisa will order dessert before the meal.
(28:24):
She has the biggest sweet tooth you've ever seen in
your life. There's never a meal that we go to,
regardless of how much we eat, that she doesn't order
dessert and take it home and eat it for breakfast
the next day. It's true.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
Okay, Well, now I hate her because I can't eat
any of the stuff.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
I I look at a chocolate chip cookie, I gained
two n f. It's just crap.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
Okay, I understand, Okay, But.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
Here's what these two women do. They go to the
grocery store and they come home with like six desserts.
Both of them do it. And my in laws live
in the guest house at our home, so we are
separated by a driveway. All Right, Peggy will go and
she'll buy four or five desserts. She'll take a bite
out of each, and then when Lisa leaves and comes
(29:11):
back home, all the desserts are in our kitchen because
she doesn't want to eat but a bite and doesn't
want them there to.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
Get try them right.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
Then she dumps them so she won't be have to
eat them all right because she knows if they're there,
she'll devour them in twenty four hours. And then my
wife will do the exact same thing. She'll cook her
buy desserts, have a couple of bites, and then when
Peggy goes for walk or something, she runs up and
dumps it all in her kitchen. So we have traveling
(29:38):
desserts going on at my house at all times.
Speaker 4 (29:43):
And it sounds like you're trying to justify a lot
right here, Bill.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
Well, just guess who ends up eating the desserts. Me
with women, So I understand the people with your salon
who are probably trying to be stylish and everything because
of their hair, saying.
Speaker 1 (29:59):
Cooking all the stuff, and then I come along.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
But they do it, yeah, and they eat it. They
do absolutely ever catch them like they're sneaking it, like
they're not eating it. They're eating it. Some of them.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
Oh no, they eat it proudly.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
Do you know the best way to eat a cake?
With your finger? When nobody's looking? You just dig down
on that thing and suck it up and eat it
like that, because that's naughty.
Speaker 3 (30:21):
It is.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
It is so much fundy to cook. I just don't
even utensils, and no plate, just right on the platter
it sits on, you know, and nobody's around.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
Just dig I mean, I don't know if they use that,
but they do cut it and no plate and no
fork cut it, pick it up and eat it with
their fingers, that's right. But they do cut a piece out.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
Oh did you make a cake for me? Yes?
Speaker 1 (30:45):
I did?
Speaker 2 (30:45):
Oh, get yourself back. I'm going to what is it?
Speaker 1 (30:49):
This is a cookies and cream It's one of my
signature cakes.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
Oh my god, you gotta take a picture of this
for the thing before I eat it? All right? Well,
you know, but I just want to Why can't I
eat it? I want to eat some of it? This
is best wait e cake? Just god, that's good. What
(31:13):
is that oreo in there? Part of the cake? An
oreole pound cake or something? What is it?
Speaker 1 (31:18):
It's my It's one of my signature cakes.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
So what is it?
Speaker 1 (31:22):
We'll get into it more, but the guys will go, hey,
can you make me? And I create things for them,
and this is when somebody else OREO, well, it's just
a regular bunt cake. So bun cakes look fancy, but
they're really easy to make. So that I do bunt cake.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
It's so freaking good. What is it? What's it called?
What do you call it?
Speaker 1 (31:43):
Cookies and cream cake?
Speaker 2 (31:45):
A coconut cream cake, cookies and cream cookie and cream cake.
But it's bond with it's.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
A white cake with.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
No I only waiting a cake. You want it on the.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
Other side where you didn't your fingers and put them in.
Speaker 4 (32:07):
The rest of us are gonna wait till you're done.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
That's really good. That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
I made that last night.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
I can't wait till Lisa ta he's gonna love it.
Why throughout the interview in the world all right, So
people have got to be wondering why in the world
I'm talking to you about this, because this is an
army and normal folks, and one of the things we
(32:38):
say that is really good for real and it's not
for the purposes of a show. But that is tasty, you.
Speaker 4 (32:47):
Know, her dedications.
Speaker 5 (32:48):
She got what Tanya got an arbnb I think in Midtown,
just so that she could bake you a cake and
hopefully make some other people a cake.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
Did you make that, Memphis? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (32:58):
Yeah, I made it last night after I got here.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
That is so sweet. Thank you. Well.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
I had to talk to the owner of the airbnb
and make sure that I had a working stove and oven,
and I bill I brought my own mixer, and I
brought my own buntpan and my favorite spoon and spatially
because because they might not have those things, I didn't
want to have to buy them. So my suitcase brought
my on my cooling rack because those are all things
(33:25):
that they Airbnb's never had.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
You're You're sweet, but you're neurotic as hell.
Speaker 1 (33:29):
Yes I am.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
Okay. So one of the things we talk about is,
I mean, we have featured people on the show that
have massive FABA one se threes that have grown into
you know, twenty or thirty places in the United States
doing huge things. But and that's awesome. But one of
(33:51):
the things we talk about is magic happens where you
see an area of need and you have a passion
and you use that passion to fill that area need
and that you do not have to have a mass
of five OHO one c. Three, You don't have to do.
All you have to do is have a talent and
a passion and see where that talent and passion can
(34:13):
fill into an aera need and just make somebody's life better.
That's all it takes to be a boar of the army,
and we believe there's people like that all over the world.
We also believe that there is this narrative that is
propped up by an enormous amount of power and wealth
(34:33):
in places like DC international media on both sides of
the spectrum, that that power and wealth is maintained by
crafting narratives to convince us that we're all enemies and
that there aren't that many people doing good things. We're
trying to be the antithesis to that narrative by telling
(34:55):
stories people who have passions and disciplines and use those
passions and disciplines just to make somebody's life a little better.
That's the idea. You are quintessentially that and it's not
about cooking cakes for your fellow hairdressers, although that's kind
(35:18):
of where it started.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
That's where it started, So.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
About ten years ago or so, maybe seven back in
twenty eighteen Evergreen Church and Awful.
Speaker 1 (35:34):
Actually it was the tenth anniversary of nine to eleven.
Speaker 2 (35:37):
But that church was is it the church?
Speaker 1 (35:39):
So it was twenty eleven, okay, our church was doing
a service honoring first responders on the tenth anniversary of nine.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
Eleven, which is beautiful and nov.
Speaker 1 (35:51):
So our pastor asked us, there's a list of police
and fire departments. We're supposed to sign up and bring
them invitations and cookie to this event at your church,
at our church. Yes, So I signed up for the
lin Wood Fire Department because they are the ones that
(36:11):
had responded. My dad had had a heart attack and
stroke on the same day and that station was the
ones that had responded to his his nine one one call.
So my dad and I went together and yes.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
Your dad, yeah he did, and this was your thanks
for their work for him.
Speaker 1 (36:30):
Well, I chose that station because of what they had
done for him, but it was it was years prior
to that, so that was why I chose the Linwood station.
So I knocked on the door and I gave them little,
you know, invitations, and I said, just a twenty.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
Four to seven Forloor Station, Live and Stay, which is
almost a family away from a family. Yeah, they are okay.
Speaker 1 (36:53):
So I knocked on the door and I said, you know,
told them what we were doing. And this little voice
in my head said you should have doped them for
you make them birthday. And I'm thinking conversation in my head, Oh,
that sounds like kind of fun. Maybe I'll do that.
So randomly, I when I say that I started baking
(37:14):
for fireman, I had no indication, no clue. That was
not anything that I had ever planned on doing until
I knocked on the door.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
So I said, I got to tell you something. One
of the other things we say all the time and
you're quittes. Essentially this too is we get all kinds
of people say, oh, hand wringingly, oh I really want
to be involved in help, I just don't know how,
and we say it's literally as easy as walking across
the street knocking on a door exactly, which ironically is
(37:47):
literally exactly what you and your father did. Yeah, so
you knocked on.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
The door, knocked on the door, and I said, they'll have.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
To be looking at you a little stupid right now.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
Well, yeah, of course, so I said, hey, I make
birthday cakes. If you're interested, here's my number, give me
a call. And I just left at that. About a
week later, somebody called me, which kind of surprised me anyway,
because it's like, you know, you some random person. Knox
and the door said, I want to make birthday cakes
for the fire department. And he says, well, it's not
(38:17):
just us. There's another station down. There's a main station
in the Linwood had two. There was a larger one.
I was at the smaller station and he says, like,
there's I think there was like sixty of them at
the time. And I said, well, Ken, I'll have a
birthday at the same time, so I don't care. That's
fine with me, and he says okay. And then a
(38:38):
week later I got a phone call and I said,
I just need somebody to coordinate, you know, let me
know who's having a birthday each month, and I'll bring cake.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
What does this have to do with the church thing? Though?
Speaker 1 (38:54):
Nothing.
Speaker 2 (38:55):
You've just gone nothing. You went down your own path.
Speaker 1 (38:57):
No, I yeah, okay, that was my god voice that
told me what to do. I got it, so I
listened to the I haven't always listened to that none
of us have. So I've gotten older, I've learned to listen.
Speaker 2 (39:14):
I got it.
Speaker 1 (39:14):
So that's where it started. And I'm like, so I
would get a phone call and they would give me
a list, and I found out later that I'm bringing
a birthday cake to a guy that's probably not even
at work, but his cake came and I would drop
it off at the front desk with the little old
lady volunteers. And I did that for now, my dude,
(39:38):
this is most people think, oh, you know, oh, I'm single,
I don't have I'm not married, I don't have children. No,
it was not about trying to meet a fireman. It
was not my intention whatsoever. It was because that was
what I was supposed to do. I didn't know why
I was supposed to do it at the time.
Speaker 2 (39:58):
And that concludes parton one of my conversation with Tanya
Ray Piper, and you don't want to miss part two.
That's now I'll be able to listen to together, guys,
we can change this country, but it starts with you.
I'll see you in part two.
I now big for sixteen stations, four hundred and fifty
firefighters plus all the girls at work, and last year
I made five hundred and ninety eight. Thanks.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
That is in sane. Welcome to an army of normal folks.
I'm Bill Courtney. I'm a normal guy. I'm a husband,
a father, an entrepreneur, and I've been a football coach
an inner city Memphis. The last part somehow it led
to an oscar for a film about our football team.
(00:37):
That movie is called Undefeated. Y'all, I believe our country's
problems are never going to be solved by a bunch
of fancy people and nice suits using big words that
nobody ever uses on CNN and Box, but rather by
an army of normal folks. Guys, that's us, just you
(00:58):
and me deciding, hey, maybe I can help. That's what
Tanya Ray Piper, the voice you just heard, has done.
Tanya's a hairstylist who decided to bake some cakes for
some firemen, and the next thing you know, she's baking
over four hundred and fifty cakes a year for firemen
(01:18):
on their birthdays while still keeping her day job. This
cake ministry is all during the nights and weekends because
she feels called to do it. I cannot wait for
you to meet the cake lady right after these brief
messages from our to respond to me, Tanya Ray Piper
(01:54):
from Edmunds, Washington, Thanks for being here, well, thanks for
having me So Edmund's, Washington, Seattle area.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
North of Seattle, about thirty minutes maybe, yeah, so suburb, suburb,
got it.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
It's beautiful up there. Yeah. It is absolutely born and raised.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
No, born in Cutbank, Montana. And what exactly cut cut
cut Bank? Yeah, Montana, Montana. It's a place, a good
place to be from I bet it is very cold
and windy in the winter and hot and windy in
the summer.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
My oldest daughter and her husband live in Missoula. There's
cut Bank anywhere near Missoula.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
No cut Banks near nothing? Maybe Okay. It's fifty miles
from the Canadian border in the center of the state,
so it's prairie on the not on the pretty side
of Montana. There's you can look at the mountains from
one side, but you can look for fifty miles and
see nothing else but planes.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
That's well. First, first of all, thanks for coming all
the way from Washington to Memphis. I know it's a
track and I can't wait to get into your story.
But since we're kind of on it, tell me kind
of how you grew up. What's your background.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
My dad was a police officer and cut Bank, and
when it was time to leave there, my mom had
a couple of brothers who lived in Seattle, so that's
where we moved to. I was I think seven, So
I say I grew up in Seattle.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
I got to ask, you, say, your dad was a
policeman and cut Bank, I would think he might be
a police He was the chief of police.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
He was the chief and then he got a job
in Edmunds, Washington, and that's why we moved there. Actually
started in Bellevue and then he went to.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Edmund And that's as a police officer too.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Yeah. Yeah, he retired as a police officer.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
So siblings.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
I have three brothers, one older, two younger.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Right, and you grew up a kid of a cop.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
I did.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
What's that like?
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Hard to date?
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Yeah? When you're father carries.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
A gun on his hill, bill, my dad remembers every face.
So yeah, so I literally took I had a picture
of my father in my purse at all times. So
if somebody asked me out, I'd show him do you
know this guy? And if they said yes, I'm sorry,
I can't go out with you because it would not
(04:21):
have been.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
An that's absolutely hilarious. Yeah, so you have a travel
partner with you, some some chick named Jan Hingson.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
That is my mother.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Hey mom, how are you Jan? What's it like being
married to a lifetime police officer.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
It's different. You don't have schedules like most people. We
learned that we would have conversations at midnight with our
kids because that's when they were coming home and he
would be getting off when I was going to work, and.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
So we had a ship through the night thing. The
I blame my late night habits on my father's shift work.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
I guess. I guess that would make sense. Yeah, despite
all that, aren't you proud of your father's service.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Absolutely?
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Well. My wife is married to a guy who runs
a business and then coaches football, and so my family
and children, many times up through this very week, have
to give up a little of me so that I
can serve in the way that I can as a
(05:38):
as a coach in kids. And you know, I always
worry about balance with my own family. But I also
am really inspired and humbled by the way that my
wife and kids feel like they're part of the service
and they're willing to give up a little because of
(06:00):
the good that can come from the work that I do.
And I think Lisa kind of has warned us a
little bit of a badge of honor. I'm just wondering,
did you guys experience prod that, Hey, my dad's out
there making life better for all of us and keeping
our world safe.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Always had a soft spot for first responders in law enforcement,
especially law enforcement. Because of that, my dad worked three jobs.
He worked his regular job at Edmonds, then he would
be part time at a small city called Woodway, and
then he worked fairy traffic also directing fairy traffic at
the time when they needed that. So he wasn't there
(06:40):
a lot. I mean, he he was always there, but
then you know, he worked a lot.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
So mom was to make ends meet for three kids
of four kids and his wife.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
Yeah, I mean mom worked too, but with his shift work.
But I mean I was said Daddy's girl. Monday's were
our thing. Is that Monday's always As a hairdresser, I
always had Mondays off so that was we go to
breakfast and when I had I owned a salon for
a while and when he would come in and he
(07:15):
do my costco runs for me, so I wouldn't have
to take time out to do that. So, Yeah, retired
earlier because hearing disability, So he retired probably a lot
younger than most got it officers would.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Did you Jan, did you fill a sense of prod
that your husband was one of the guys out there
serving our communities.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
Yes, and I think he took it very seriously at
what the risk could be because he always made it
a point never to leave the house without saying this
and not always meant a lot.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Did you live with any I don't know how say this,
but did you leave with any sense of dread that
maybe my husband doesn't come home tonight.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
Because of where he was a police officer. The suburb
of Edmunds used to be very very quiet.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
It was like a bedroom.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Falls.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Yeah, so it was not difficult to trust that he
would be okay, although there was always that opportunity that
something horrible could happen. But I just I think I
had a lot of trust in the Lord that knowing
that he was protected God was watching, and that was
(08:42):
a good comfort to me most of the time, to
know that.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
I didn't have to be in control.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
There was nothing there I could do, but God was.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
But I get the sense that every family of first
responders has anywhere from at the worst dread, but at
the very least even a sense that my husband, my father,
my brother, or my uncle works in an occupation that
(09:13):
involves daily risk, and it's always got to be a
census there. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
Yeah, I think there's always that undercurrent that something could happen.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
And the fact that he kissed you goodbye every single
time he left the house indicates to me that he
had that sense.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
Yes, and our kids, I don't remember which one it was,
but said.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
Dad never leaves.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
Dad won't even empty the garbage without kissing mother goodbye.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
Okay, it wasn't that bad.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Well, that sounds like a beautiful relationship.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
I had June and word Cleaver for parents, and I
had the house that because I grew up with it,
I didn't understand what I had. That's all I knew.
But all of my friends, at one point or another
came and stayed with us because of turmoil. If they
had because our house was so peaceful. I can never
remember my parents yelling at each other or I mean,
(10:13):
I'm not saying they didn't have disagreements. They did, I'm sure,
but we never we never saw that they would. They
didn't ever fight. It was and then what you know,
I'd have friends that their parents were getting a divorce
and there was turmo, and I'm like, why would you
(10:34):
want to come to my house? Because to me, our
family was very strict and we had rules and there
there wasn't a lot.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Of no God forbid rules.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
No, I know, but I had. Yeah, all my friends
would come. And now I look back and I'm like, oh,
I had an amazing upbringing.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Jan. This thing is about Tanya, and we're going to
get back to her. But I just want to say,
I don't know what you've done in your life, and
I don't know what your legacy is, but what I
just heard, if my children say that about me and
Lisa and the way we brought up our kids one day,
that'll be enough. So well well done, ma'am.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
She is the reason I am who I am.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
I Jan, I don't know. I just sit there and
don't choke up when you hear that. That is I
mean what better legacy to Leah You've at your children
view the way they came I was the right way
and for them to give credit to who they are
to you. So thanks for being here, Thanks for giving
us a little glimpse into being what it's like to
(11:35):
be the spouse of a of a first responder. And
and wow, I hope the trip was worth you just
hearing that from your daughter, because that's pretty special stuff.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Well, she tells me quite often how important I am.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Seems like there's a lot of love in this family here. Yeah. Yeah,
And now a few messages from our general sponsors. But first,
our next live interview in Memphis will be on June
twelfth with Father Mark Hannah. Father Mark and a team
of four other civilians saved over fifty lives on nine
(12:15):
to eleven, and the rest of his team died while
trying to save more people. After nine to eleven, Mark
became a Coptic priest and hence the father title. It's
part of our lunch and listen series that we've been
doing at Crosstown Concourses, Myphis Listening Lab, and you can
learn more at RSVP at Fathermark dot Eventwright dot com.
(12:41):
We hope to see you there. We'll be right back. Okay.
That flips us to this dude named Todd hens Tom
Tom Kingson.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
It's my oldest brother.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
She is your brother. On January seventeenth, he wrote this,
Hey Bill, I'd like to nominate my sister. First of all, Tom,
we don't nominate, but thank you very much. There's no
awards being given, but I get that we got the indication.
Tanya Piper to the Army of normal folks. I love
(13:25):
for you to hear her story. This is a surprise,
so please use me as a middle man if you
decide you want to speak to her as for me.
Love your show and continue to be inspired. I discovered
your show through your visit with Mike Row. I've discovered
his podcast while recovering from open art surgery in March.
I've listened to all of his and I'm still getting
caught up with all of yours. I love the Army
(13:47):
of Dead Folks. Listening to Harriet Tubman today. Thank for
you our doing. I highlight normal folks do an extra
extraordinary things. God bless you. Tom So. Your brother's pretty
impressed by you.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
Yeah, prety impressive too. Tell me about Tom, Tom is
four years older than I am. He when I was
a child, he always wanted to do things for me,
and I am very stubborn and very strong willed, and
I would want no. It's like no, I'll do it myself.
As we got older, we became very very good friends.
(14:19):
He's always he's just a rock. He's an amazing father,
amazing grandfather, a incredible husband, and I love all my brothers.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Sorry you're getting teared up about him. That's beautiful.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
I have an amazing family.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Once again, Jan, well done. So Tom, I hope you're listening.
We heard you. I'm sure you talked to the pain
in the butt Alex or producer, and that's how Tanya
ended up here. So Tom, thanks for reaching out. And
again to all your listeners, we beg for you to
continue to give us ide this to talk about on
chop Talk. If there's some dead people that you want
(14:57):
us to talk about, Tom will tell you the Army
Dead Folks is pretty.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
Good, normal dead folks.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
And yeah, normal dead folks. And if you have if
you have ideas for people, Alex will get in touch
with them and if they've got a story to tell,
we'll have them down here and Tanya is a living
proof of that. So you grew up in flat Rock, Montana,
or edge of the River or something Montana, I don't
(15:22):
know what. What'd you call it?
Speaker 1 (15:23):
Cut Bank?
Speaker 2 (15:24):
Yeah, cut Bank, that's it. And you moved to Edmonton
Edmunds when you're seven seven, all right, And we kind
of get an idea of what your family's like. Obviously
tight k it. Obviously a father working three jobs provide
lots of love closeness. So let's go to uh. One day,
(15:45):
when you're ten years old, you decide there's something you
want to do, so with your hardheadedself, with my.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
So, when I was younger, I wanted my mom to
teach me how to make a and she says, oh, honey,
pie crust is really hard. I said, well, just show
me how. So and you're ten or younger maybe, okay,
I was a child. So she taught me how to
make pies. And then one day I came home and
I made a pie for my dad and my crust
(16:16):
was better than hers. And she's never made a pie since.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Jan you got fired. So what was this first pie
you made?
Speaker 1 (16:27):
I don't even remember. Was it cherry pie? I don't
I remember Dad's favorite was cherry pie, so probably.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Probably a cherry pie. First of all, that's sweet. A
little kid want to make a cherry pod. Learned how
to make a great crust.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
Yeah, so I did pies a lot for people. I
don't do as many pies now, but I did a
lot of pies.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
So then you, I guess this becomes a hobby.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
So I love to feed people and I like to bank.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
All right, so you graduate high school and I think
you start tell me, tell me what? So you learn
to make pause? You get this great cause now you
got kind of this hobby. You like to feed people.
But life goes on, So what are you doing.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
I become a hairdresser. I go to beauty school, worked
as a hairdresser in other salons for about three years,
and then when my dad retired, he said he wanted
to take his part of retirement invest in his family,
and they my parents opened a salon for me and
I had my salon for nine years. And Bill, anybody
(17:40):
who tells you who you when you have your own
business you have more freedom is a liar.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Yeah. Let me let me just let me just tag
on that I started my own business in two thousand
and one.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Yeah, there's no freedom, no no vacations. You work twelve
fourteen hour days. You have to deal with other.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
What do you do? What do you do when the
toilet gets stopped up?
Speaker 1 (18:02):
Called my dad? No, actually that's not true. I called
my no. I called my middle brother Nate because he
was that's he's the fix.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
Again. The point is when you own it, you figure
you're the guy or the lady or yeah, or you
know a guy, or you know a guy.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
I know a guy. I know lots of guys.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
You guys.
Speaker 5 (18:21):
Ever heard the line of the great thing of being
about being an entrepreneurs You get to make your own hours.
Speaker 4 (18:25):
Yeah, and you also get to work all the hours
you get to.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Bang your own Yeah. An entrepreneur that ended up a
billionaire that was one of my mentors, once told me
to be successful as an entrepreneur, you only have to
work half the day. Doesn't matter, it's first twelve hours,
of second twelve hours. Just work half the day. So
that's it.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
It's it, okay.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
So that was nine years.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Nine years, and then I sold my salon and I
went and worked for an ex employee. Well, actually I
least a station from her man. I was there for
seven years, and sometimes it's not always good to work
with friends. So it was when it was time to go,
I left there and I found the salon that I'm
(19:07):
in now, which I've been at it for twenty three years.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
And it is called Salons.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
Zuberends. It's a it's a play on a Zuberan and
there's there's twenty four of us in the salon.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
That's a big place. Yeah, in Seattle area, still.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
In lynn Wood, which is just you know, right next
door to Edmunds.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
Okay, got it. So years twenty three years, twenty three years.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
Yeah, twenty three years. There. I am a mentor to
all of the new stylists that come into the salon.
So I work with young you know, nineteen twenties.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Stupid people love you know what, They really stupid.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Most of the time. Yes, the ones that I have
Q right now and oh my gosh, Bill, they're amazing.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
My wife birth as a result of her an action
in her action with me for stupid people. They are
twenty five, six, seven, and eight right now, they're really really.
Speaker 5 (20:07):
Speaking, which is Max at fault for getting his car stolen.
I haven't heard the story of this week.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
What happened.
Speaker 5 (20:11):
Max's car got stolen? Yeah, how did that? That wasn't
his fault? Was a stupid person, yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:16):
I was even stupid when he got stolen or it just.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
Got Max worked very hard and bought his first house,
which I'm very proud of. When your youngest kid who
is actually they're they're now, boy, did I mess that up?
I'm the stupid person. Thirty twenty nine, eight twenty seven.
So Max just bought his first house, very excited, and
he pulled his cheap Cherokee up in front of the house,
(20:41):
popped up in his thing, left it running, unloaded his
TV to put it in his house, and after eight
sick what do you? What do you think about this? Casius?
I know stupid people, he guys.
Speaker 4 (20:53):
He's a Memphis right, yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
And he opened it. He in eight seconds, dropping his
TV off in his den. He heard his engine revolt,
ran out the front door to see his car headed
off down the street with the hat still open. He
and his buddy, who are in a truck with other stuff,
dropped the trail off the truck and chased the car.
(21:17):
And while chasing the car, because the stupid people who
are about Max's age, that stole the car because everybody
that age just stupid. We're establishing this and that was
that slun his ear pods or buds or whatever those
stupid things. Is that young people wearing their ears all
the time. I think, Alex, you have a pair anyway? Yeah, yeah, right,
(21:38):
so yeah, so they can track those apparently, so they
tracked his moving car from his ear buds. They're in
the back seat because one stupid person left his valuable
stuff in his car, and another stupid person stole the car,
tracked him, called the police why chasing him. The police
are now engaged, and now my son and his buddy
(22:01):
in a truck with three police cars are chasing his
car with the hatch open, with the hatch open the
terrible part of Memphis, to which the two stupid people
that stole the car decided, you know, this just didn't
worth it. They roll the car up on a corner,
jump out, and run off through a neighborhood and the
cops and Max pull up and he gets his car back.
Speaker 4 (22:23):
He said it costs him like three thousand dollars or something.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Well, he left a bunch of stuff in the car
that they stole, and the rearview mirror which is attached
to all of your sensors and your backup camera and
all that. The first thing they do when they steal
your car apparently yanked that off the windshield and throw
it out the window because that's where the GPS econ is.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
So oh, they didn't They didn't plan on the ear
pods and.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
The plan on the AirPods. But it has like six wires,
So now he's got a windshield with all these wires
hanging down. I didn't know, so he's going to have
to pay for that. But I think that is a
tax for being a stupid person, and I'm glad I
asked it. There's another stupid person involved, the cop that
(23:10):
made the scene at as as how, she was probably
twenty seven or eight, equally stupid. She did not engage
in the chase for the stolen car and the criminals
who stole my son's stuff, but she was happy to
give my son a ticket or leaving his car running,
just an unattended vehicle ticket. But it was in his driveway,
(23:32):
on his private property, not in the street.
Speaker 4 (23:35):
So it's is that still legal doing it in your
own private property.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
You can do whatever you want to in your private
property right if it was on the street, it had
been triket worthy. So now she showed her youth and
stupidity through writing a ticket that is completely illegal, which
is being thrown out. So that basically what happened in
about a forty five minute period of time, Mints, a
(24:00):
confederacy of dunces.
Speaker 4 (24:02):
Were you on the phone at all during any of this?
Speaker 2 (24:04):
Yes? And then I showed up to watch it all unfold,
and there was this. It was just a confederacy of
stupid people engaging with one another in a way that
now is laughable, but at the time was chilling.
Speaker 4 (24:22):
Was Lisa on the phone during this? Was Lisa on
the phone?
Speaker 2 (24:25):
Now Lisa realized that it was a confederate stupid people
who did not want to be involved, and she stated
him she.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Was the only smart one.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
Yes, I joined the ranks of the idiots for showing up.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
Just just but for the laughter.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
Well now, but at the time I was really not
happy because I was surrounded by ignorance, bliss, and superstition.
Speaker 5 (24:54):
Speaking of stupid you're supposed to have her devices.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Mine are completely closed down, all right, I love you,
so okay, anyway, you bring in people that do things
just like the story we just told. And you're there
onboarding people, and I assume part of the job is
to try to make them LISTEDID.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
Yes, So the two I have right now.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
They're going to listen to this, and we just blistered them.
We don't even know who they are.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
No, I know, but I say that all the time
to my clients about the fact that I don't. They
have renewed my faith in the younger generation because up
until give it a chance. I know, I know, but
I'm this positivity. I'm always going to find the silver lining.
(25:50):
And these two actually they blow me away with their
work ethic and they're just there. They learn, they listen,
there's sponges.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
This could be proof of life off of the planet.
I know where they come from.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
That's what I said too, And I got I got four.
I have got two more coming up that are the
same way.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
And I'm antenna or what looks like a baby arm
going out there forehead.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
They've hidden there, they've hidden the aliens. Well yet fabulous.
Speaker 6 (26:22):
We'll be right back, all right. So that's what you do.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
And at some point you decided this hobby I have
where I made a crust much better than my mother's
a ten and I've still continued to make and like it.
I want to share this.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
I started baking for all the girls at work for
their birthdays and whenever I felt the need to bake something,
and I don't want it at my house because if
it's there, then I will eat it, so I you know,
and when you and when you bake for girls women,
they love you and hate you at the same time.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
Yeah, because it's so good and.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
I make it and they eat it. And the cale,
our calendar has everybody's birthdays on it, so I always,
you know, okay, what do you want for your birthday?
And they have to contemplate because there's so many choices.
And then if there's a month that there is no birthdays,
then I look at the calendar at say random cake Day,
which means that's we need cakes.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
Okay. So my wife Lisa is fifty flophour, I don't know,
fifty three or four. Now. She's gorgeous. She is little
and cute and precious and I don't know how this
woman has eaten twenty three donuts in one setting.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
She has good metabolism, oh off, the charge tell her
not to get used to it.
Speaker 2 (27:59):
Yeah, she's fifty three now and had four kids in
four years and she's still teen nightsy. It's just it's
she's probably from another genetics. Yeah, it's ridiculous. But the
point is it's funny. What's saying. The reason I'm telling
you the story is her mother, who's seventy five, is
the same way, and they will eat. Like when we
go out to eat, Lisa will order dessert before the meal.
(28:24):
She has the biggest sweet tooth you've ever seen in
your life. There's never a meal that we go to,
regardless of how much we eat, that she doesn't order
dessert and take it home and eat it for breakfast
the next day. It's true.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
Okay, Well, now I hate her because I can't eat
any of the stuff.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
I I look at a chocolate chip cookie, I gained
two n f. It's just crap.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
Okay, I understand, Okay, But.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
Here's what these two women do. They go to the
grocery store and they come home with like six desserts.
Both of them do it. And my in laws live
in the guest house at our home, so we are
separated by a driveway. All Right, Peggy will go and
she'll buy four or five desserts. She'll take a bite
out of each, and then when Lisa leaves and comes
(29:11):
back home, all the desserts are in our kitchen because
she doesn't want to eat but a bite and doesn't
want them there to.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
Get try them right.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
Then she dumps them so she won't be have to
eat them all right because she knows if they're there,
she'll devour them in twenty four hours. And then my
wife will do the exact same thing. She'll cook her
buy desserts, have a couple of bites, and then when
Peggy goes for walk or something, she runs up and
dumps it all in her kitchen. So we have traveling
(29:38):
desserts going on at my house at all times.
Speaker 4 (29:43):
And it sounds like you're trying to justify a lot
right here, Bill.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
Well, just guess who ends up eating the desserts. Me
with women, So I understand the people with your salon
who are probably trying to be stylish and everything because
of their hair, saying.
Speaker 1 (29:59):
Cooking all the stuff, and then I come along.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
But they do it, yeah, and they eat it. They
do absolutely ever catch them like they're sneaking it, like
they're not eating it. They're eating it. Some of them.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
Oh no, they eat it proudly.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
Do you know the best way to eat a cake?
With your finger? When nobody's looking? You just dig down
on that thing and suck it up and eat it
like that, because that's naughty.
Speaker 3 (30:21):
It is.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
It is so much fundy to cook. I just don't
even utensils, and no plate, just right on the platter
it sits on, you know, and nobody's around.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
Just dig I mean, I don't know if they use that,
but they do cut it and no plate and no
fork cut it, pick it up and eat it with
their fingers, that's right. But they do cut a piece out.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
Oh did you make a cake for me? Yes?
Speaker 1 (30:45):
I did?
Speaker 2 (30:45):
Oh, get yourself back. I'm going to what is it?
Speaker 1 (30:49):
This is a cookies and cream It's one of my
signature cakes.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
Oh my god, you gotta take a picture of this
for the thing before I eat it? All right? Well,
you know, but I just want to Why can't I
eat it? I want to eat some of it? This
is best wait e cake? Just god, that's good. What
(31:13):
is that oreo in there? Part of the cake? An
oreole pound cake or something? What is it?
Speaker 1 (31:18):
It's my It's one of my signature cakes.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
So what is it?
Speaker 1 (31:22):
We'll get into it more, but the guys will go, hey,
can you make me? And I create things for them,
and this is when somebody else OREO, well, it's just
a regular bunt cake. So bun cakes look fancy, but
they're really easy to make. So that I do bunt cake.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
It's so freaking good. What is it? What's it called?
What do you call it?
Speaker 1 (31:43):
Cookies and cream cake?
Speaker 2 (31:45):
A coconut cream cake, cookies and cream cookie and cream cake.
But it's bond with it's.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
A white cake with.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
No I only waiting a cake. You want it on the.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
Other side where you didn't your fingers and put them in.
Speaker 4 (32:07):
The rest of us are gonna wait till you're done.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
That's really good. That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
I made that last night.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
I can't wait till Lisa ta he's gonna love it.
Why throughout the interview in the world all right, So
people have got to be wondering why in the world
I'm talking to you about this, because this is an
army and normal folks, and one of the things we
(32:38):
say that is really good for real and it's not
for the purposes of a show. But that is tasty, you.
Speaker 4 (32:47):
Know, her dedications.
Speaker 5 (32:48):
She got what Tanya got an arbnb I think in Midtown,
just so that she could bake you a cake and
hopefully make some other people a cake.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
Did you make that, Memphis? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (32:58):
Yeah, I made it last night after I got here.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
That is so sweet. Thank you. Well.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
I had to talk to the owner of the airbnb
and make sure that I had a working stove and oven,
and I bill I brought my own mixer, and I
brought my own buntpan and my favorite spoon and spatially
because because they might not have those things, I didn't
want to have to buy them. So my suitcase brought
my on my cooling rack because those are all things
(33:25):
that they Airbnb's never had.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
You're You're sweet, but you're neurotic as hell.
Speaker 1 (33:29):
Yes I am.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
Okay. So one of the things we talk about is,
I mean, we have featured people on the show that
have massive FABA one se threes that have grown into
you know, twenty or thirty places in the United States
doing huge things. But and that's awesome. But one of
(33:51):
the things we talk about is magic happens where you
see an area of need and you have a passion
and you use that passion to fill that area need
and that you do not have to have a mass
of five OHO one c. Three, You don't have to do.
All you have to do is have a talent and
a passion and see where that talent and passion can
(34:13):
fill into an aera need and just make somebody's life better.
That's all it takes to be a boar of the army,
and we believe there's people like that all over the world.
We also believe that there is this narrative that is
propped up by an enormous amount of power and wealth
(34:33):
in places like DC international media on both sides of
the spectrum, that that power and wealth is maintained by
crafting narratives to convince us that we're all enemies and
that there aren't that many people doing good things. We're
trying to be the antithesis to that narrative by telling
(34:55):
stories people who have passions and disciplines and use those
passions and disciplines just to make somebody's life a little better.
That's the idea. You are quintessentially that and it's not
about cooking cakes for your fellow hairdressers, although that's kind
(35:18):
of where it started.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
That's where it started, So.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
About ten years ago or so, maybe seven back in
twenty eighteen Evergreen Church and Awful.
Speaker 1 (35:34):
Actually it was the tenth anniversary of nine to eleven.
Speaker 2 (35:37):
But that church was is it the church?
Speaker 1 (35:39):
So it was twenty eleven, okay, our church was doing
a service honoring first responders on the tenth anniversary of nine.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
Eleven, which is beautiful and nov.
Speaker 1 (35:51):
So our pastor asked us, there's a list of police
and fire departments. We're supposed to sign up and bring
them invitations and cookie to this event at your church,
at our church. Yes, So I signed up for the
lin Wood Fire Department because they are the ones that
(36:11):
had responded. My dad had had a heart attack and
stroke on the same day and that station was the
ones that had responded to his his nine one one call.
So my dad and I went together and yes.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
Your dad, yeah he did, and this was your thanks
for their work for him.
Speaker 1 (36:30):
Well, I chose that station because of what they had
done for him, but it was it was years prior
to that, so that was why I chose the Linwood station.
So I knocked on the door and I gave them little,
you know, invitations, and I said, just a twenty.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
Four to seven Forloor Station, Live and Stay, which is
almost a family away from a family. Yeah, they are okay.
Speaker 1 (36:53):
So I knocked on the door and I said, you know,
told them what we were doing. And this little voice
in my head said you should have doped them for
you make them birthday. And I'm thinking conversation in my head, Oh,
that sounds like kind of fun. Maybe I'll do that.
So randomly, I when I say that I started baking
(37:14):
for fireman, I had no indication, no clue. That was
not anything that I had ever planned on doing until
I knocked on the door.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
So I said, I got to tell you something. One
of the other things we say all the time and
you're quittes. Essentially this too is we get all kinds
of people say, oh, hand wringingly, oh I really want
to be involved in help, I just don't know how,
and we say it's literally as easy as walking across
the street knocking on a door exactly, which ironically is
(37:47):
literally exactly what you and your father did. Yeah, so
you knocked on.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
The door, knocked on the door, and I said, they'll have.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
To be looking at you a little stupid right now.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
Well, yeah, of course, so I said, hey, I make
birthday cakes. If you're interested, here's my number, give me
a call. And I just left at that. About a
week later, somebody called me, which kind of surprised me anyway,
because it's like, you know, you some random person. Knox
and the door said, I want to make birthday cakes
for the fire department. And he says, well, it's not
(38:17):
just us. There's another station down. There's a main station
in the Linwood had two. There was a larger one.
I was at the smaller station and he says, like,
there's I think there was like sixty of them at
the time. And I said, well, Ken, I'll have a
birthday at the same time, so I don't care. That's
fine with me, and he says okay. And then a
(38:38):
week later I got a phone call and I said,
I just need somebody to coordinate, you know, let me
know who's having a birthday each month, and I'll bring cake.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
What does this have to do with the church thing? Though?
Speaker 1 (38:54):
Nothing.
Speaker 2 (38:55):
You've just gone nothing. You went down your own path.
Speaker 1 (38:57):
No, I yeah, okay, that was my god voice that
told me what to do. I got it, so I
listened to the I haven't always listened to that none
of us have. So I've gotten older, I've learned to listen.
Speaker 2 (39:14):
I got it.
Speaker 1 (39:14):
So that's where it started. And I'm like, so I
would get a phone call and they would give me
a list, and I found out later that I'm bringing
a birthday cake to a guy that's probably not even
at work, but his cake came and I would drop
it off at the front desk with the little old
lady volunteers. And I did that for now, my dude,
(39:38):
this is most people think, oh, you know, oh, I'm single,
I don't have I'm not married, I don't have children. No,
it was not about trying to meet a fireman. It
was not my intention whatsoever. It was because that was
what I was supposed to do. I didn't know why
I was supposed to do it at the time.
Speaker 2 (39:58):
And that concludes parton one of my conversation with Tanya
Ray Piper, and you don't want to miss part two.
That's now I'll be able to listen to together, guys,
we can change this country, but it starts with you.
I'll see you in part two.
Host
Bill Courtney
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