October 20, 2024 • 63 mins
Have you ever wondered how small acts of kindness can ripple out to create significant change? Join me for a thoughtful conversation with Mike, the former mayor of Parker, as he shares his transformative journey from an average citizen to a community leader dedicated to empowering others. Mike's stories from his Cub Scout days remind us that leaving places better than we found them is a lesson that can shape a lifetime. We tackle the pressing issues of today, including how social media and technology have impacted our sense of personal power and community responsibility.
Through engaging anecdotes, Mike illustrates the profound impact of simple, meaningful gestures. We discuss how society often waits for external solutions, which can lead to a loss of personal power. Mike uses baseball as a metaphor for life's challenges, showing that even the greatest athletes face failure but find success through persistence and the courage to keep swinging. This episode is a testament to the power of taking action, no matter how small, and the importance of stepping up despite fears of inadequacy or potential failure.
As we explore Mike's unexpected path to public service, we uncover the challenges and rewards of local politics and community service. From misconceptions about land development to the emotional trials of dealing with community tragedies, Mike offers insights into how we can all contribute to community healing and resilience. We wrap up with Mike's inspiring work with justice-involved youth. Get ready for stories that inspire hope, resilience, and the enduring power of community.
Connect with Mike ⬇️
https://www.mikewaid.com/
https://cafemomentum.org/
https://generationstogenerations.com/podcast
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Ordinary People Extraordinary Things.
I'm so glad you're here.
I'm your host, Nancy Brucher,and I get to talk to ordinary
people just like you about realstories, stories of faith and
hope.
Would you do me a favor,Wherever you listen, could you
give us a five-star rating orwrite a review?
(00:21):
This really helps other peoplefind Ordinary People
Extraordinary Things, but alsoif they see a review or five
stars, they know it's worththeir time.
Thank you so much for helpingus out with that.
Thank you for joining OrdinaryPeople Extraordinary Things.
I'm here with Mike.
Mike, thanks for coming on.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
It's my pleasure and my honor to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
So excited to have you.
I have known you from afarbecause you have been the mayor
of Parker, so I'm sure you'llget that a lot of.
I have no idea who you are, butyou seem to know who I am.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
It happens a lot.
Yeah, it's actually kind ofcool.
I've even had instances whereI've been in other states and
I've run into someone.
I was with the family one timein Scottsdale Arizona.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Oh states and I've run into someone.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
I was with the family one time in Scottsdale, arizona
, oh yeah, and we were in alittle gift shop in downtown and
as I was walking down the aisle, someone was walking opposite
me and just said good morning,mayor.
As I walked by and it didn'thit me at first, because it used
to happen all the time, andthen I had to stop and think, oh
my gosh, I'm in a differentstate and they still recognize
me.
So it's kind of cool.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
That's awesome, yeah, so if people don't know who you
are, how would you describeyourself?
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Ooh, I honestly, I'm just an average guy.
I'm just someone who's herehoping to make the world a
better place.
Who?
I love people, I love thingsthat are happy, I love informing
and educating people and, mostimportantly, I really, really,
really love showing people howpowerful they really are and
showing how they don't needpermission to be powerful.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Oh, those are all good.
It is.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Unfortunately, the world we live in more often than
not strips away people's power.
You know, whether it'srelationship situations, whether
it's employment, whether it'sjust general mental health and
anguish, it just seems likethere are so many roadblocks and
so many things in the worldright now to strip away your
(02:16):
ability to feel powerful and tobe happy with making those
changes to make our futurebetter.
One of the things growing upit's a funny little story.
I used to tell that when I wasa Cub Scout I grew up in
Albuquerque, new Mexico, and Iremember very vividly going on
one of our first big campoutsand I'm an outdoorsman, I love
camping, I grew up hunting andfishing and all this kind of
(02:38):
stuff.
But going on one of the campoutsand when we got done, as we're
cleaning up, I remember theleader, the camp leader said
okay, boys, clean up, but makesure you're leaving it better
than you found it, so that thenext group can have a better
experience than you did.
And that always stuck with methrough my life.
And that's really, you know,that basic tenet that I've
believed in is that we all havethat obligation to do something
(03:01):
every day to make our tomorrowsbetter than our todays.
And if you think about it, it'sjust such a simple concept that
society has lost.
You know, if you can imaginewhat, if everybody just every
day did one thing to make ourworld better, the place would be
pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Yeah, why do you think that's been stripped away?
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Well, I think it's been stripped away for a lot of
reasons.
I mean, you could sit andexamine a lot.
I hate to sound like the bigold stodgy, you know old man
complaining about all the youthand that technology and stuff
like that, but honestly, socialmedia and the Internet has
brought so many blessings to usas humans, but it has also
(03:49):
brought so many detriments, inmy opinion.
You know, if you think about it, this is another kind of story
and I apologize.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
I tell lots of stories, so you're going to get
lots of stories today.
It's great.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
If you think about when we were younger and in high
school, before the Internet,before cell phones Didn't have a
cell phone.
Before social media, before anyof that.
What if it's a Friday, okay,and your locker is in the same
hall as my locker and I thoughtyou were cute and maybe you
thought I was cute, but I wasn'tquite sure if you did and so
I'm with my buddies and, youknow, I kind of go up to you and
(04:20):
we're chit-chatting with youand I'm getting the wrong
impression.
I'm getting the impression thatyou think I'm, you're into me,
so I lean over and let's say Ijust I go for it, I shoot my
shot and I lean over and I giveyou a kiss right.
And you're not interested.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
And you push me back and slap me across the face.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Okay, and then it's done, and then it's done, right
what?
Speaker 2 (04:39):
happens.
The two or three buddies thatare around me are going to laugh
at me.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Right.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
The two or three girlfriends that are around you
are going to go.
Ooh, he's weird, right, and mybuddies will probably tell
another buddy or two, yourgirlfriends will probably tell
another girl or two, but thereality is, by Monday probably
no one's going to remember.
I mean, I'm going to beembarrassed as anything.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
You're going to be embarrassed, but by Monday
Tuesday, wednesday it's probablygone and forgotten.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Take that same scenario in today's world.
And if that happened at the sametime you're a freshman in high
school and that same situationhappens by the time that slap
happens within seconds.
Everyone in the school has seenthe Snapchat video that someone
just took of you slapping meand within the hour, probably
(05:29):
everyone at the neighboring highschools has also seen it and by
the end of the day, it'sprobably gone viral and it's all
over the state and the worldand everywhere else, right?
Well, you're dealing withhumans who don't have fully
developed consequence portionsof their brain yet, and now
you've just thrown something infront of them that is truly
(05:52):
representative of their entireworld going away, right?
So for me, the speed ofdelivery of information and the
reason I tell that story inrelationship to doing something
to make our world a better place, and why that power has been
stripped away that speed oftransfer of information means
two things has happened to oursociety.
(06:13):
One is dissemination ofeverything good, bad or
indifferent is instant.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
Instant yep.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
And two, it's allowed us to become lazy.
If I receive a message from youand I know who you are or have
an idea of who you are, Iimmediately accept that as fact.
When the reality is, I couldsit here and make a social media
meme that says you knowwhatever.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
I want to say Right.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
And there will be a group of people who believe it.
And now that perception becomesreality, there will be a group
of people who believe it.
And now that perception becomesreality, so that's where I
think society, that ability tofeel powerful in who you are,
has been stripped away, becausepeople I hate to say it this way
people have become lazy withinformation and communication is
instantaneous.
Now there's no longer that timeframe for your brain to vet and
(07:02):
catch up.
Now take all of those conceptsand put it into the brain of a
13-year-old.
From a physical standpoint andI'm going to screw this up
because I'm not a biologist mywife's a biology teacher, so
when she hears this she'll tellme I'm right or wrong.
But I believe it's the frontallobe of your brain which is the
(07:22):
consequence processing portionof your brain.
That is literally consequenceprocessing portion of your brain
.
That is literally the last partof your brain to develop as a
human and that develops in your20s.
So you've taken someone who is13, 12, 14 years old, whose
brain truly isn't fullydeveloped yet to understand
consequences, and put them inthis world where they have
(07:43):
access to all the informationpossible instantly and no
capability of discerning what'slegitimate, real or fake.
It just adds to a lot ofproblems.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Yeah, yeah, do you like you said, you want to do
something every day to make theworld a better place?
I think that everyone would say, oh, I like that idea, but the
reality is that we don't do that.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Yeah, but how Right right the how becomes the
question, right Do?
Speaker 1 (08:14):
you think it's because we're looking for
something so grand, 100%.
We have to buy someone a car.
I have to pay a mortgage, right, right.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Is that where we're?
Speaker 1 (08:26):
going in quicksand of not even doing anything because
we're looking.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
The concept is called analysis paralysis.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Okay, okay.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
You start analyzing how to do this right?
Everything we're bombarded withnow is one-upsmanship.
Is how can this viral meme orthis video or this reel outdo
the one that I just saw and thesensationalism of it has to get
bigger, bigger, badder, badder,badder, right?
Okay?
Well, the reality is, if youwant a true effect on someone,
(08:59):
it's not these large things,it's the little pieces that make
that big change.
I'll give a couple of quickexamples.
Like, one of the things I alwaysused to always tell my boys is,
whenever there was a largechallenge or a large task in
front of them, I'd say justremember how do you eat an
elephant?
And you eat an elephant onebite at a time.
Right, if you sit there andfocus on the size and the
(09:21):
grandeur of this elephant or thething that's in front of you,
you're going to spend more timenot solving the problem than you
are overanalyzing the problem,right?
It's the same kind of thinghere that when all of us I truly
believe innate in every humanand their soul is to do good,
right, and you want the world tobe better, but you start to
look at things and go gosh, well, I can't save someone's life
(09:45):
today.
I can't buy someone a car today.
I can't feed a family of 10today, but you know, what you
can do is you can have a smallchange.
You can do something little.
It can be as simple as lookingsomeone in the eye and
acknowledging that they're ahuman.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Yeah, saying hello.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
There's a little thing that I did and again, I'm
way off topic and in topic orwhatever.
I just kind of ramble.
But years ago I wrote anarticle about how to watch
someone go from being invisibleto visible, and the example I
used was go to Disneyland.
So here is the happiest placeon earth, right, every aspect of
(10:21):
Disneyland is meant to exudejoy and happiness.
It's even in their tagline thehappiest place on earth.
Well, if you want to see how onesmall, insignificant, what
seems to be insignificant action, how that can make someone go
from being invisible to visible,well, when you're at Disneyland
and you're waiting in line toget on a ride any ride at all.
(10:42):
Well, when you're at Disneylandand you're waiting in line to
get on a ride any ride at allyou're going to see highly
trained people who work therethat are guiding you along the
line.
Right, sir, you'll be the next.
You know, get into aisle threeor whatever, right?
Well, when you're going throughthat line and the person you
come up to, that person stop,look them in the eye and just
(11:05):
say two words Thank you, that'sit you will see someone turn
from invisible to visible infront of you because they are no
longer a signpost.
They are a human who is beingseen.
That small action, that smalllittle thing, has made someone's
(11:26):
world better.
Made that person's world better.
That's one action that you cando right.
There's this.
I don't know if I wouldn't callit a parable, but there's this
saying about two people walkingon the beach and the beach is
covered in starfish.
Have you heard this one?
Yeah, yeah yeah.
And the little boy's picking upthe starfish and throwing them
(11:48):
back in, and the mom or dad,whoever's walking with them,
says what are you doing?
There are so many starfish youcan't possibly make a difference
in all of them.
And the little kid can pick upone starfish and say, yeah, but
I can make a difference in thisone, right.
And the little kid can pick upone starfish and say, yeah, but
I can make a difference in thisone.
Right, that's what we can do.
You don't know when you'regoing to have a demonstrable
(12:10):
impact on someone's life, but weshould all make that attempt to
be better and to do better.
The opportunities will be theresometimes to do the big and
grandiose things, but it's thoselittle things.
I'll give another example.
There was a gentleman that Iknow that had started a
nonprofit years ago.
He came from the music industry, you know rock and roll guy and
(12:33):
music producer and he startedthis nonprofit years and years
ago here in Colorado.
Where he would bring it was ananti-teen suicide program and he
would bring in not national,national acts, big acts, but
national acts.
They're kind of a little bitmore under the radar and they
would play concerts at highschools and middle schools and
then they would use that as theopportunity to bring kids in,
(12:55):
have these free concerts andthen talk to them about how
powerful they are and mentalhealth concerns and to help
advocate for them, showing themthat suicide is not the
direction to take.
Well, he gave me this exampleof how, you know, these concerts
take a lot of planning and alot of work to put on right, a
lot of money and all the thingsAt the end of one of the
(13:16):
concerts, when he got done andhe's picking up and cleaning up
and they're wrapping things uphe said this young lady walked
up to him and just said thankyou for for doing this.
And he said, of course.
And she handed him a letter.
It was her suicide note and shewas planning on going home that
(13:37):
day and taking her life.
And because of the actions, ofwhat she learned there, she
decided not to Like how youcan't get more powerful than
that, right, because ofsomething that he did, that he
had a passion for, there isanother human on this planet who
(14:00):
is alive.
That's the thing, and too oftenin society, in my opinion, is
that people have been trained torely on someone else to solve
their problem.
That's the epitome of givingaway your power.
I'm struggling mentally, I'mstruggling financially, I'm
(14:20):
struggling in my relationships,I'm struggling in whatever.
I'm going to sit here andstruggle until somebody else
comes and solves my problem forme, until the government says
here's a program that will allowyou to eat, or an organization
will come in and say I will giveyou this pill and the pill will
make you feel better so you canbe happier in life.
(14:41):
They've been trained to justwait around for that Again.
That is the clearest way ofsomeone stealing your power.
When you have the ability to sitthere and change your life,
become powerful for the better.
So I took us way off course onthat one.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
No, that was good.
I was just thinking that I dowonder if it's a lot of social
media or just stories that youhear of that it does almost
paralyze you not to do thesesmall things, because I think
innately we understand that thatworks right, like I think in my
(15:23):
own life, what has really madea difference?
Sometimes it's just a kind word, someone seeing that I'm
struggling and saying, hey, canI pray for you?
Hey, when I say I'm fine,someone's like oh, I don't think
so.
And that meant so much.
Someone bringing me a meal.
These are all all small things,but they make a big difference.
(15:47):
But I think about you know.
It's almost three years since Istarted this podcast and
sometimes I didn't want to start.
What if I'm not successful?
What if I'm not having as manydownloads as these famous people
?
Speaker 2 (16:03):
so is it worth.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
So is it worth my time Is it worth my time, and I
think that's such a goodreminder that it doesn't have to
be.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
What's the saying about the longest epic journey
or whatever, starts with onestep, and that's what it is.
I'm a baseball nut and with myboys I would always use
different examples of baseball,and one of the best ones is you
will never hit a home run if youdon't swing the bat In baseball
terms.
(16:37):
My oldest son was a baseballplayer in high school and I
remember one time when he wasstruggling with am I not good
enough?
Am I you know, I failed becauseI struck out or this or that.
And I asked him at the time.
I said, chris, who do you inyour opinion, who is one of the
best baseball players playingright now?
And he goes Todd Helton.
(16:58):
I said okay.
I said so, let's pull up hisstats, and I don't remember the
exact number, but I think ToddHelton's batting average at the
time was about 350.
What that means is for everytime he went up to bat, two of
the three times he failed.
He did not accomplish what hewas up there to do, right, only
(17:19):
a third of the time he did, butyet he was considered and now
he's in the Hall of Fame.
Wow.
He was considered by my son oneof the greatest baseball players
of the time, which was yeahRight.
What other capacity in yourlife are you allowed?
Do you give yourself thepermission to fail two out of
three times and still consideryourself one of the greatest?
(17:42):
right we set these unreasonableexpectations for ourselves.
I need to look a certain way, Ineed to be a certain weight, I
have to be a certain proportion,I have to be.
I'm not smart enough, I'm nottall enough, I'm not funny
enough, I'm not, you know,outgoing at whatever it is.
Those are self-imposed walls,right?
Spend the time and energylooking at how you can convert
(18:04):
those walls to bridges and thatis where you really find, you
know, happiness and joy.
That then exudes to thosearound you and it is like a drug
.
Once they get a taste of that,then those people want to be
leaders in happiness around them.
And that is like a drug.
Once they get a taste of that,then those people want to be
leaders and happiness aroundthem, and that's what makes the
world a better place.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
Yeah, oh, that's good .
So you were mayor of Parker.
How long were you the?
Speaker 2 (18:26):
mayor.
I was mayor of Parker for twoterms, so that's eight years.
At the time I was term limitedin that role.
So I was on town council forfour years, first limited in
that role.
So I was on town council forfour years first, then elected
to mayor, then reelected tomayor and then I was term
limited.
(18:46):
The town's charter has changed,so people can I could have.
If I was mayor now I could haveserved longer, but even with
that option, being elected tooffice for three terms, so for
12 years.
And then I was on the town'sspecial licensing authority,
which is an appointed board, forfive years before I ran for
office.
So 17 years is a career rightand I'm of the belief that
everyone should have theopportunity to serve their
(19:08):
fellow citizens.
I'm not a fan of careerpoliticians.
I'm not a fan of politicalpositions being used to advance
your political career.
We are all neighbors who shouldbe supporting each other.
So after that amount of timeeven if I could have run more
times I was ready for someoneelse to take the reins.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
Yeah, Is that why you started in your political
career?
I might say it's because youfelt a need to serve.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
So in a way, to be quite honest, I had no desire or
knowledge to run for office andit sounds ironic because my
degree in college is inpolitical science and economics
A little funny side story withthat.
The reason I had that as adegree was I put myself through
college a very loving family butwe were not of means and I
(19:55):
started in community collegebecause at the time it was $99 a
semester.
I grew up in New Mexico so itwas really affordable to go.
The credits transferred to theUniversity of New Mexico, but I
didn't know what I wanted to bewhen I grew up.
And I'm not going to lie, mygrades weren't great.
I liked sports and I likedgirls a lot too much.
You know way too much forschool right.
(20:16):
So I didn't study as much as Ishould.
Grades out of high school weremediocre at best.
Got into community collegebecause that's what I thought
you were supposed to do.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
Right, that was very common, right?
You just go to college Likethat's what you have to do.
Yeah, right.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
And I remember being a senior in high school and my
counselor me going to thecounselor saying what do I need
to do, what classes do I need totake?
And the counselor looked at mygrades and said well, why don't
you just take what sounds fun?
Counselor knew I was not themost astute of people, so I did.
(20:51):
I took classes that sounded fun.
Then the next year comes up andI go to my counselor at
community college and said okay,what classes should I take next
year?
And they looked at my gradesand said just take what sounds
fun.
Well, I did this game, you know, for three years and now I'm at
the University of New Mexico.
My friends are talking tocompanies about jobs.
I have no idea what I want todo or what I want to be.
(21:12):
And I sat down and thecounselor starts to tell me the
same song and dance and I'm like, okay, look, I've been paying
for this out of my own pocket.
I've already invested a lot ofmoney in me.
No, I'm not just going to dothis.
I said what is the quickest wayout of college?
She could have said a nursingdegree, accounting, you know,
(21:32):
lawn bowling, whatever, and Iwould have gone that route.
She looked at what classes Itook.
That sounded fun and she goes,your quickest path out is
political, science and economics.
And I said, done.
And so that's what I did, withno desire to go into politics.
But when my wife and I moved toParker in 2000, one of again,
(21:52):
one of the pieces that my dadyou know, one of the pieces that
my dad, one of the values mydad instilled in me, was always
serving your community when youcan.
My dad was a Marine.
He worked in a lot ofcapacities to serve the
community, my mom as well.
And so it was just a logicalthing that when we moved to
Parker, I was starting abusiness at the time and I
(22:15):
walked into Town Hall and said,hey, I want to volunteer, I want
to serve some way.
How do I serve?
And at the time I remember CarolBaumgartner was our town clerk
at the time and Carol kind oflooked at me and she was, you
know, the short little olderlady and she was just kind of
like, well, I don't know, thetown special licensing authority
has a vacancy and they at thetime handled all the it was
(22:38):
funny to say, the hotel liquor,to see hotel liquor and cabaret
licenses.
So that was a problem.
Because everyone hears cabaret.
It thinks exactly what you do,they go ooh, cabaret right well
at the time.
So I was on the little speciallicensing authority.
I was the chair of it for fourof the five years.
Cabaret licenses in coloradomeant a dance floor oh, that's
(23:02):
funny.
So if you had a dance floorback then you had to get a
cabaret license.
And it was the funniest thingbecause any time someone with a
dance floor it's a separatelicense they'd have to apply for
it.
It goes out to public notice.
We'd have a line of little oldladies no strip clubs in parker,
no, and it's like those arecalled.
(23:23):
Those types of businesses werecalled sobs, sexually oriented
businesses, and we, no one hasever applied.
Well, one person did a longtime ago, but at any rate people
don't apply for thosebusinesses like that's not a
parker thing, but cabaret thename people would go crazy on.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
So I, I served on they need to change that name
well, it's gone.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
Now they don't.
Yeah, the laws have changed.
That's no longer around.
Liquor laws have changed quitea bit since.
Back then too, there used to belicenses.
If you sold packaged liquor, adifferent license.
If you just had wine, anotherone if you had full spirits.
You know, now you have a liquorlicense.
It's just kind of one thing yeahit's much easier, but I so I
was like, okay, cool, so Iserved on that committee as just
(24:03):
a way to give back, and then Igot to learn more and more about
the town and how it operatesand the incredible staff that
work here in the town of Parker,and then the opportunity came
up for me to look at running fortown council.
I did first office I ever ranfor in 2008, was blessed to be
elected.
(24:23):
There were three positions open, because every two years
there's an election, you serve afour-year term and there's six
council members so they rotate,and I had the third highest
votes out of, I think, six orseven people, so I got elected
to town council.
Then four years, so that was2008.
2012 is coming along and I wasplanning on rerunning for
council and a friend of mine whowas on council with me Scott
(24:45):
Jackson is his name he was goingto run for mayor and at the
time during his campaign, he wasdiagnosed with cancer.
He's a survivor.
Everything worked out.
But I remember him pulling measide, saying I just don't have
it in me to do this.
You should run for mayor.
So I did?
(25:05):
Blessed to be elected in 2012.
Then, in 2016, ran forre-election, was again blessed
to be re-elected and then in2020, retired from being mayor.
That's awesome, that's a greatstory.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
What was the hardest thing about being mayor?
Speaker 2 (25:25):
The hardest part about being mayor was people's,
and this kind of goes back towhat I was saying before about
this sounds very negative, butabout how people now have become
lazy and the hardest part aboutbeing mayor is when people
(25:50):
choose to not put even a littlebit of time into finding out
what is real, what the role ofgovernment is, what the role of
their local government is what acabernet is, what a cabernet is
, what a cabernet Not cabernet,that's a wine.
Oh, I'm sorry, cabaret, darn it.
Yes, darn it, but that was oneof the hardest pieces.
However, I chose to use that.
Instead of a difficulty, turnthat into an opportunity.
(26:12):
So I really tasked myself withtrying trying to become the
conduit between government andits people and its citizens.
So a lot of my job waseducating people.
So when someone would say, oh,the open space behind my house
is being developed, how can youlet them develop that?
And I would say why do youthink that's open space?
(26:34):
And they would say that and.
I would say why do you thinkthat's open space?
And they would say well, myrealtor told me that.
Well, that's not, it's owned bysomeone.
That land is owned by somebodyand that owner has the ability
to do legally what they'reallowed to do with that land.
Open space is a legaldesignation and that land behind
your house is not open space,it's just privately owned land
(26:56):
that hadn't developed yet.
You know, it's interesting.
Right now Parker has about70,000 citizens in the town
limits.
When Parker was incorporated inthe early 80s it had about 300.
And I would tell people, if youweren't one of those 300 people
, then you moved into someoneelse's hometown and made it your
(27:19):
own.
How would you feel if those 300people said no, you're not
allowed to move here.
Right, everybody living inparker, except for those I think
it was 383 people moved intosomeone else's hometown yeah and
they embraced and they now loveto call this home.
It's the same way.
(27:39):
So, because of you know, againback to what made it so
difficult was people get sowrapped up into the negativity
and, you know, hate and all ofthis that we see on a national
level and they I don't know why,but they feel that they have to
apply that to the local levelwhen it comes to politics and
(28:00):
they really shouldn't.
The people serving in anelected role in the town of
Parker or the city of Lone Treeor anywhere locally, any local
municipality, these are yourneighbors.
These are people who are thereto help make their community
better and give of their timeand their talents to do that.
And the hardest part is whenpeople just want to immediately,
(28:22):
you know, discount you orassume that because they read
something on Nextdoor thatthat's the facts.
And then they become lazy andnot look at the facts.
And so a lot of my time wasjust doing that.
But again, that was difficult,but I took those as
opportunities.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
How did you not?
Or maybe you did, but some ofthis must become very personal.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
How do you not take that on Sure?
Does that make sense?
Speaker 2 (28:51):
Well, and you do.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
You always do take it on.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
And that's part of it .
But I always said and I'm anon-traditional kind of guy, I
try to be a straight shooter,and that was also in my role as
being mayor I would tell peoplethere's only three things that
are going to get you kicked offthe Mike Island.
So, whether it's a friend onsocial media or whatever, I
(29:17):
never discount someone's opinionwhen it's different than mine.
In fact, we all have theGod-given right to our opinion.
That's why God gave usindividuality, so we can have
our opinions.
It's a very powerful tool.
However, the three things thatget you kicked off Mike's Island
if you bring my family into asituation.
So if you're threatening ordisparaging my family, they
didn't get elected.
My wife and boys didn't getelected, I did so.
(29:38):
The moment you bring them in,we got a problem.
You question my faith.
You question my integrity.
Okay.
Having a different opinion fromsomeone is not questioning
someone's integrity.
Yes.
Right.
Questioning someone's integrityyes, right.
But saying things that aredirect accusations of integrity
(30:01):
without having any information,that's just dirty pool, that's
just being mean.
And there's enough meanness andugliness out there.
So outside of that we can alllive harmoniously on the Mike
Island.
But bringing it in personally,there are times it was very,
very, very heavy load.
I'll use an example of one.
This one, this one was toughwhile I was married.
(30:22):
I almost said married.
It's what it felt like beingmayor a lot of times.
While I was mayor there wasthis unfortunate time where in
one week three young kids,separate from each other,
committed suicide in Parker.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
Yes, I remember that.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
They were not friends , they didn't have relationships
.
It just worked out that threeyouth decided their only
recourse was to end their life.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
And I am not a mental health therapist.
I don't pretend to be a mentalhealth therapist, but what I do
know is the government, inquotes, has invested millions,
if not hundreds of millions ofdollars to address teen suicide
and it has presented no positivechange.
There are stacks and stacks ofbooks, then binders and
(31:08):
workflows to say what you'resupposed to do to help address
teen suicide and they are notworking.
So when that happened, Idecided, I decided to.
I said look, I'm going to callan emergency town hall meeting.
We reserved the PACE Center.
I said we're going to have openmicrophones, anyone who wants
to come heal and talk you'rewelcome.
I said, however, who is notwelcome to come are therapists?
(31:32):
I said we're not here.
This is not going to be a time.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
This is not a fix it.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
Exactly.
This is a time for healing.
I don't want someone to walk inand feel intimidated by a line
of therapists saying this iswhat you should do to make
yourself feel better, or here isthe notebook that this
government department says youshould follow to make yourself
heal and feel better.
That's not what this is about.
We're going to be here as acommunity.
(31:59):
There's going to be twomicrophones and anyone who wants
to come up can talk, and it wasa beautiful evening of people
just healing and crying and allof the things.
Well, emotionally, that's verydraining to go through, but it's
very rewarding.
Your heart is full.
It's hard to explain how yourheart can be broken and full at
(32:20):
the same time.
Well, about two days later Iwas getting ready for my day.
I happened to be at FikaCoffeehouse, one of my favorite
coffee spots here in Parker onMain Street, and I was kind of
back on my own a little bit andI know the workers they're the
baristas and I have my cup ofcoffee and I'm just kind of
processing what my day is goingto be like that day.
And a woman walks up to me andshe goes Mayor Wade, can I talk
(32:44):
to you for a second?
I said sure, and she says myname is blankety, blankety,
blank.
And she threw a few initials atthe end and she is a mental
health therapist that deals withsuicide, teen suicide
specifically.
And as I'm sitting there andshe looks at me and she says I
just want you to know how muchdamage you caused by not
(33:04):
allowing us to be there thatnight.
And it was one of the few times, I mean what is trying to keep
it clean in terms of no swearwords, but what a selfish thing
for her to do.
She put herself above thehealing that these people needed
to have and they didn't need tohave someone tell them how to
(33:25):
heal.
At that point I kind of bangednot banged, but I kind of
dropped my coffee cup.
The barista, who knows me, sawthis interaction kind of happen
and I literally said you, youknow what I give up, and I just
sat back and I just went into myhead.
It was such a hard time for meto hold that, that emotion, that
(33:52):
responsibility, that load oftrying to help and then have
someone's ego come in and kickyou in the teeth.
Right, that was tough and I'vehad situations like that from
time to time.
What I have found for me thebest catharsis I have, and I use
that example because I learnedthat day I did something for the
(34:15):
first time that I've recycledmany times since then.
She left.
She obviously could tell that Iwas upset about it and it was
all I could do to not give her areal piece of my mind.
Right, I'm sitting there andthe barista kind of turns to me
and she was like I'm reallysorry, mike, that was really
uncard, how hurtful and thankyou, thank you, thank you.
(34:35):
I have found that when I'm atmy lowest, when I have the
largest burden on my shoulders,when my soul is just aching for
whatever reason.
I have to double down and makea concerted effort that moment
to improve someone else's life.
So that moment, that morning Iwent and I drove down to one of
(34:59):
my two favorite donut shops andI bought three dozen donuts and
I drove over to our policestation and I walked in and I
said hey guys donuts on me today.
Here you go and I walked out.
Doing something for somebodyelse is the most cathartic,
(35:23):
healing thing that, as humans,we can do, and so when those
burdens get hard on me, I put itin God's hands and I say where
do I need to give today?
What do I need to do, whetherit's donuts?
or whether it's running intosomeone at the store and you
just know something's not rightwith them and you give them a
hug, right, doing something,allowing the world, allowing God
(35:45):
, allowing your faith to takeyou where you're needed.
And again, like we were sayingearlier, it could be just
something small or it could besomething grandiose, but that is
the best way to heal thoseburdens.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
Wow, so I have never heard anyone say it like that,
and it just makes so much sense.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
It does.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
It's not to go into yourself, but to pour back out,
even though that's probably thelast thing you want to do.
Speaker 2 (36:12):
Absolutely.
It's the last thing you want todo.
Speaker 1 (36:14):
I am done with people .
Speaker 2 (36:16):
Right.
Speaker 1 (36:16):
I am discounting them .
Right, right.
Like you said, I am done yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:22):
Yeah, and that's the time to double down.
That is the time to say, okay,I need to push extra hard,
because all of these otherthings right now are telling me.
What I need to do is I need tojust go lock myself in a room
and cry, or again to getsocietally, or go lock myself in
a room with a bottle of booze,or go lock myself in a room and
(36:42):
put something in my arm, or fillin the blank of a lot of worse
things that could go down Righta lot of addictions.
Right, that's the time for youto say, okay, I am hurting, Let
me take that and use it for good.
You know, from the concept ofhurting and emotions, this is
another thing I used to alwaystell my kids Both of my boys,
(37:02):
they're 22 months apart, or 23months apart.
They could not be more opposite.
It's hard to believe they camefrom the same people.
Right, they are both wonderfulhumans, but they're very, very,
very different and they haveboth have the emotionally their,
their ups downs, challenges,attributes, all that kind of
stuff.
Well, I remember telling my sonswhen they were young and
(37:24):
struggling with emotions, anger,you know all of these things I
would say okay, look, you haveto remember that your emotions
are a gift from God.
Anger is a blessing.
That is a gift that God createdfor you to have, gift that God
(37:48):
created for you to have.
Now, if you're using that angerand it's not making a positive
change, it's not affecting apositive change, then you're
taking a beautiful gift God gaveyou and you're wasting it.
So don't use it for that.
If you being angry at anotherkid or a person, or at me or
whatever, can make a positivechange or a positive outcome,
then 10 times out of 10, I willsupport you being angry.
(38:09):
But if it can't, you're wastingthat beautiful gift from God
right.
And so often in today's world weare not allowed to express our
emotions when appropriate.
And these emotions are toolsagain, gifts from God, right.
And these emotions are toolsagain, gifts from God, right.
So, when you're feeling thatjust overload of life and your
(38:29):
soul is damaged and you've beenkicked in the teeth and kicked
in the gut and all of that, thatis the time to say, okay, I
need to really embrace thesegifts, and one of them could be
I just need to sit here and cryfor an hour.
One of them could be I need togo to the gym and put all that
anger into that bar of weightsor the heavy bag.
I'm going to go beat the snotout of this heavy bag for a week
(38:52):
, right.
Or I'm going to go out for arun, or I'm just going to do
something like that, right.
Those are all tools, gifts thatGod gave you to do and you need
to.
When you're feeling thatoverloaded feeling, that's the
time to take that energy andturn it into something that will
benefit somebody else.
You can still feel like garbageright, but taking that energy
(39:15):
will make someone else's lifebetter than our.
Everyone's.
Speaker 1 (39:18):
Vibration goes up and everyone feels better, so
that's so good, and I was, youknow, I think we all are.
Oh, humanity, it's so terrible,and this and that, and, and I
was wondering what you do whenyou feel like that Is that.
Is that what you do?
When you just get down on oneperson or everything, or society
(39:43):
, or it's.
Speaker 2 (39:44):
It's tough, tough, I mean, especially right now.
Again, if I go back to the, theway, social media and the
internet and our phones, I meanwe are all connected 24 7 and
it's hard, very hard, todisseminate between truth and
fact and and fiction andmanipulation and all these
pieces.
And there are times where itjust seems like everywhere you
(40:05):
look you're getting dumped on,like there's just negativity all
around you.
Right, you are obligated tomake that change.
If sitting there on your phonefor an hour is making you feel
like crap, then put the damnphone away right.
That is the truth, but we have ahard time doing that as humans
(40:26):
right now.
I don't know why we do, but Ithink some of that stems from
all of us have a naturalyearning to be connected to each
other, even the mostintroverted person and, I'm
sorry, my wife and some friendsand we get in this discussion
about this.
I'm obviously a veryextroverted person and I don't
use the term introvert as apejorative.
I'm not being negative towardssomebody, but I think sometimes
(40:48):
it becomes too convenient forpeople to say ew, people, I'm
going to be introverted and juststay away from people instead
of addressing what the worldreally is around them.
You can still be an introvertand still interact with people.
Speaker 1 (41:01):
I'm an introvert.
Right, right yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:03):
But you're not locking yourself in the room
blaming the world for or nothaving a conversation with
people.
I'm an introvert, right, right,yeah, but you're not locking
yourself in the room blaming theworld for or not having a
conversation with you, exactly,exactly.
So I think it almost seemssometimes in vogue to be ooh
people suck.
Speaker 1 (41:16):
I'm gonna, you know, I'm gonna kind of do this.
Speaker 2 (41:18):
Why Like again, what makes a?
How does that affect a positiverole in the world?
If you can convince me thathating people and staying locked
in your room and complainingabout stuff all day can somehow
make the world a better place,then I'll lock the door for you.
You know what I mean.
But we have to use thoseenergies that are around us to
(41:42):
make the world better.
Speaker 1 (41:43):
Yeah, energies that are around us to make the world
better, yeah, so you were anelected official and we are.
Everyone knows November,november is coming up and I
there's excitement, there'sscared, there's frustration.
I mean a million things, but Iwould say a lot of it is there's
(42:04):
a lot of fear, right, correct,going on with it.
What would you say to peopleabout this time and about an
election?
I feel like we just get moreand more polarized, more and
more scared, more and morefearful, more and more hateful.
Speaker 2 (42:19):
Right, right.
So a couple things to it.
One of it is it's your fault,so a couple things to it.
One of it is it's your fault.
What I mean by that is this isa small group of people on both
sides, who are manipulating youto do what they want.
That is the ultimate power grabthat's out there.
(42:40):
If you notice, the messages ofhate and the messages of
division aren't coming from thebottom up, they're coming from
the top down.
Look at campaigns now on anational level and I'll address
local as well.
On a national level, peopledon't talk about why one side is
(43:01):
better than the other.
They talk about why the otherside's worse than them.
Truthfully a little side note,I'm going to editorialize, so if
I had a little light to go onto tell everyone this is just my
own personal opinion, not ofthe podcast or anything like
this when I talk to people aboutelections and I'd listen to
people about elections and I'dlisten to people about elections
(43:23):
, especially this cycle I rarelyhear someone say my candidate,
I'm voting for my candidatebecause of these five things
that he or she are going to doto make the country better.
All you hear is oh, he's evilbecause of this or she's
incompetent because of this.
So they're making their voteagainst someone, not for someone
(43:48):
.
What a ridiculously bad premiseto have out there right, and the
reason it's there is becausethat's what the controlling
organizations want us to do.
We are much easier to manipulatewhen we're divided than when
we're strong Right and again,this isn't a Republican thing,
(44:09):
this isn't a Democrat thing,this isn't a Trump thing, this
isn't a Harris thing.
This is the fact that I havediscussed it, that those two
people are the best we can seatas a nation.
So, at a national level,unfortunately, people fall into
(44:31):
this cycle of, and themisinformation and manipulation
on both sides is beyondridiculous.
At the national level, let'stake it down to the local level,
because the reality is thisLocal is where the national
level.
Speaker 1 (44:47):
Let's take it down to the local level, because the
reality is this local is wherethe magic happens.
Speaker 2 (44:49):
It really is, but we get so wrapped up that we assume
it has to be the same down here.
Right, that has got to bleeddown, that it's got to be.
We have to be one againstanother or this or that.
Here's my advice.
First off, I will never tellsomebody who they need to vote
for.
I'll tell someone who I'm goingto vote for.
If I endorse a candidate, I'llsay why and I don't do many
endorsements, but if I, you knowI'll give information.
(45:12):
But I will never steal yourright and ability to form your
own opinion.
God put a lot of time intocreating our self-awareness and
our individual opinions.
Wow, what ego would I have tohave to think that I should be
able to steal your opinion fromyou?
But at local elections, myadvice is this.
(45:33):
It's a novel idea Talk to thecandidates, reach out and ask
them a question what's importantto you?
When I ran for office, do youknow how many people actually
reached out to me unsolicited tosay I'd like to know your
opinion on blank Two?
(45:53):
I could count the total numberin three elections on both hands
.
Wow.
Right.
And one of the frustratingthings for me is when someone
would come to me and they wouldsay I'm so happy I voted.
I'm going to vote for you.
You are amazing and I would go.
Thank you very much.
What about me makes you thinkyou're amazing?
(46:13):
That I'm amazing.
Well, you're such a nice guy,thank you, that's a great
attribute, but what am I goingto do to make part?
What position do I have thatyou really support?
Well, you know, you just seemlike you care.
Well, I do.
I believe everyone cares.
I believe Trump and Harris bothcare about our country.
(46:36):
I don't think neither one ofthem hates the United States,
right, but obviously they havedifferent opinions.
So what is it about me thatmakes you and it's crazy how,
how few times people can go Ilike your position on pro small
business or on economicdevelopment or on enterprise
(46:57):
design you know all of thesethings, they would just go.
You just seem like such a goodguy, right.
The part that really torques meis that when someone would go,
well, it's because you're a.
Republican.
Oh guess what?
I know some really nastyRepublicans that have ethics
that I wouldn't scrape off thebottom of my shoe.
I know some Democrats who arethe most honorable, hardworking
(47:20):
people I've ever met in my life.
The Republican and Democratdoesn't make someone good or bad
, right, that just kind of putsthem into a bucket, right, and
unfortunately there are a lot.
I mean, I have I never talk badabout candidates directly, so
I'm not going to say anythingspecific.
But I know currently electedRepublicans who have lied to my
(47:41):
face in this community we're inright now, who've lied to my
wife's face, who are asunethical as they come.
But just because they have an Rat the end of their name,
there's the assumption that, oh,they're going to be better than
the one that has the D or the Iat the end of their name.
Right, and that's just wrong.
I mean, again, we are allneighbors.
Talk to the.
(48:01):
So the local level.
The biggest advice I can say istalk to the candidates who are
asking you for the ability forthem to serve you.
Ask them what's important toyou and see what their answer is
.
If you don't want to or don'thave the ability to, here's
another one.
Talk to the people who theywork with.
Call up someone at town hall,call up staff, go into the parks
(48:32):
and rec department and say canI speak to a manager please?
And they go how do you likeworking with XYZ?
Or walk into the policedepartment and say how is it?
How do you feel working withso-and-so?
I just want to know how theyare.
Those are great ways to get.
Don't trust an endorsement fromsomeone who's in a different
position you know, 45 miles away, in another city just because
that endorsement has an R or a Dat the end of their name.
Like, these are our neighbors.
(48:52):
We need to remember that.
Let's be neighborly to eachother and talk to them and find
out if they have this, if theyhave the same value set that you
do, and if they don't, that'sokay.
Give them a hug, give them ahigh five and go.
I appreciate you.
You know that's not what I'mdown with, but that's fine.
When I talk to people who wantto run for office, the one piece
of advice they always saywhat's the best, biggest piece
(49:14):
of advice that you can give me?
And I would tell them don't beafraid to say I don't want your
vote.
I remember I was downtown onetime in Parker when I was
running for mayor and I had thislittle old lady kind of stop me
.
And she goes I really want tovote for you.
You seem like a great young guy, but you don't look Republican
(49:36):
enough.
And I went what do you mean?
So this was actually it wasn'tmy first term, it was my second
term.
This was happening becauseduring my first term I started a
fundraiser every year I woulddo for pediatric cancer research
and it was called Shave theMayor.
Oh, yes, yes, yes and I wouldgrow my beard real long, dye my
hair, auction off the color ofmy hair and we'd raise lots of
(49:58):
money for pediatric cancerresearch.
Well, she goes, and I wasstanding there in shorts that
day and I have tattoos on my leg, I have tattoos on my arm, I
have piercings I had.
My beard was probably.
My hair was probably rainbowcolored or pink or purple or
whatever I had auctioned it offfor.
And she goes.
Well, you have tattoos and youhave a big beard and you know,
(50:20):
weird colored hair.
She goes you don't lookRepublican enough.
Colored hair.
She goes you don't lookrepublican enough.
And I said, okay, so would youprefer a clean-cut socialist?
Well, no, because you know theydon't have values or they don't
.
Blah, blah.
I go.
Well, what am I missing?
You can't vote for me becauseof how you love what I represent
, you love what I do, but youdon't like how I look.
(50:41):
She goes, yes, and I said,ma'am, please don't vote for me.
And that was something that Isee candidates all the time
chasing votes as opposed to justbeing authentic, and you know I
there's.
There's one other story I tellagain.
(51:01):
I'm not giving specific names,but of a political person here
who in one room, if the room isa bunch of business owners, this
person will be the mostpro-economic development person
you will ever see and literallyin that afternoon can go into a
meeting of people who want nomore growth in Parker and say we
(51:22):
have too much growth, no morebusinesses should be allowed, we
should not issue any morebuilding permits.
Blah, have too much growth, nomore businesses should be
allowed, we should not issue anymore building permits.
Blah, blah, blah.
That's someone who's chasingvotes, who will say whatever
they want to, just try to grabany vote they can, because if
they can get into office thenthey can do good things right.
Well, you know what Selling yoursoul is.
That doesn't benefit anyone.
Stick to who you are, beauthentic, stick to who you are.
(51:45):
So I tell that to candidates,and that same applies for just
citizens.
Like when you talk to someone,ask those questions that are
important to you, and if theanswer doesn't mesh with you,
that doesn't mean the otherperson's evil.
Yeah, I think we need to getthat out of our head Absolutely
yeah, it's so crazy nowadaysthat the concept is if you don't
(52:06):
look, act or think like me,it's not that we're different,
it's your evil.
And that's just the wrong placeto be.
Speaker 1 (52:13):
Yeah, yeah.
What was the best thing aboutbeing mayor?
Speaker 2 (52:25):
favorite part?
Not think I know my favoritepart about being mayor was how I
got to work with kids so much Imade it a point to really
really try to empower youth andshow them how powerful they
really are.
I've had the privilege ofspeaking at every single school
in Parker except for one, andalmost every school in Douglas
County and even some schools inDenver County and Arapahoe
County and others.
(52:45):
Wow.
Everything from kindergartenthrough high school.
One of my favorite ones was Iwas invited to a kindergarten
program here in Parker, andthere's a book that I used to
read to my boys when they werelittle called Duck for President
.
Speaker 1 (52:59):
Okay, have you ever heard of this book?
Yes, it's the one that has allthe animals right in the farm.
Speaker 2 (53:04):
Yeah, the duck decides he doesn't like the fact
that the farmer does this.
So the duck wants to run forthe and the duck eventually
becomes president.
You know, it's just such a cutelittle book, right?
Well, they didn't know thatthat was one of my favorite
books to read, read my kids, andthis kindergarten had me in and
the funny part is when I wouldtalk to high schoolers you could
have high schoolers attentionfor an hour hour and a half,
(53:25):
tops right Kindergarteners.
You got about five minutesright and then they're gone
right.
So it was such a cool way theyset it up.
The whole thing was for me tocome in and read Duck for
President to the kids and thenthey set up voting that day for
the kids on what their who,their mascot was going to be for
the classroom and what snackthey were going to have that day
Nice.
(53:46):
But the kids would have toindividually go to the teacher
to register to vote and thenthey would take their ballot for
each of those two and put it inthere and that would decide
what was going to happen thatday.
And I still have the book.
The kids all signed the bookand they wrote this wonderful
thing on it for me.
But sitting there reading thisbook to the kids, I mean it
actually brought me to tears,thinking of reading to my boys
(54:08):
and seeing how engaged theselittles were for five minutes
until it was time to vote.
But that kind of experienceworking with the kids and
showing them that their electedofficials, even their mayor, is
not the most important person inthe room.
I say this to people all thetime, including elected
officials, at any point in timeif you're a mayor, you are the
(54:31):
least important person in anyroom Because any perceived power
you think you have is a giftgiven to you by your citizens.
You didn't earn that.
All you did was win a popularitycontest.
That's all it is right.
So, understanding, you know,helping these youth understand
(54:51):
their role in government andtheir role as just humans, how
powerful they really are.
So that was the best part ofbeing mayor.
Speaker 1 (55:00):
Oh, that's good.
Speaker 2 (55:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (55:01):
This has been so good .
This has brought so many thingsup that I had no idea I've
enjoyed our time so much.
Speaker 2 (55:08):
Absolutely it's my pleasure Anytime.
As you can tell, I love to talk, so I apologize if.
I rambled too much, oh no.
Speaker 1 (55:13):
I do like to end with three things.
What is your favorite Bibleverse or story?
Speaker 2 (55:18):
Sure Well so actually I'm going to pull it up here
because I'm always bad aboutremembering exact wording and
scripture numbers, so myfavorite is Matthew 6, 17.
And it's.
But when you fast, anoint yourhead and wash your face so that
you may not appear to others tobe fasting, except to your
father, who is hidden, and yourfather, who sees what is hidden,
(55:41):
will repay you.
I think that's something associety we need to learn, we
need to remember.
It's not about bragging onyourself.
It's not about showing I'm thebest Catholic that's out there
and I'm fasting, or I have myashes on my forehead on Ash
Wednesday early in the morningso everyone during the day can
see it and know that I'm abetter Catholic than they are.
(56:02):
It's not about that.
It's about being humble.
It's about answering toyourself and to God of how you
are improving our world.
It's not about bragging orshowboating or having the right
filter or the right angle whenyou take your picture, or the
right number of friends or theright number of streams or
followers or any of that.
It's about being a good human,and you don that.
(56:24):
It's about being a good human,and you don't have to brag about
being a good human.
Just be a good human.
Speaker 1 (56:29):
That's good.
No one has ever brought up thatparticular verse.
Speaker 2 (56:33):
There we go.
I'm a trendsetter.
Speaker 1 (56:35):
What are you grateful for?
Speaker 2 (56:37):
Right now.
I'm grateful this week,specifically in my new role as
the executive director of CafeMomentum Denver.
Specifically in my new role asthe executive director of Cafe
Momentum Denver, we are arestaurant that will be opening
up, where we bring justiceinvolved, youth, so kids 15 to
19 who have just been releasedfrom jail.
We bring them in and teach themhow to run front of house, back
of house, give them life skills, pay them on a year Long paid
(57:00):
internship all this this week Iwas blessed to bring in
internship.
All this this week I was blessedto bring in 10 of our
ambassadors from other statesand these are youth who've been
through the program in otherstates, who are successful in
life and are leading andinspiring other kids.
So I brought in 10 of them thisweek to meet with kids who are
currently incarcerated inColorado in the metro area, to
(57:25):
show them where our new home isgoing to be in Denver, the place
that our restaurant is going tobe open and our community
center is going to be.
And then I got to take them toRed Rocks yesterday for a hike.
Oh, fun and so these kids arefrom Dallas, from Atlanta, from
Nashville, I think.
All except for one of them havenever been above 1,000 feet
above sea level and hearingtheir questions and getting to
(57:47):
talk to them and just learnabout them as humans.
These are all kids who've beenin jail, who've made mistakes.
One of them had been in jail 19times before he entered the
program.
Wow.
He was originally from Cameroon.
He was originally from Cameroonand the system is set up to not
(58:08):
allow these kids to get outonce they get in.
Our juvenile justice system isbroken.
That's just the reality of it,and this program has taken these
kids who were on a path ofself-destruction and destruction
to others and have turned theminto the most amazing leaders
you will ever see.
There's one of them that wasthere that I didn't know the
(58:30):
story of her.
While she was working in therestaurant, they did a pop-up
dinner and she didn't know it,but the president and CEO of the
company that owns Taco BellKentucky Fried Chicken Pizza Hut
I think it's called Yum Brandsor something like that anyway
happened to be one of thepatrons that day and he was so
impressed with her that he andhis wife paid for her college.
(58:53):
Oh, wow.
There was another gentlemannamed Cameron, who's in
Nashville.
He actually left the programearly, I believe, because while
he was in the program at adinner a local restaurateur who
owns a bunch of very successfulrestaurants in Tennessee was
there, was so impressed by him,offered him a job as a chef on
the spot and he still to thisday currently works for this guy
(59:16):
.
Speaker 1 (59:16):
Wow so these.
Speaker 2 (59:17):
You know, there's a young lady named I'm Unique and
I love it because her name is Iapostrophe Munique, but if you
said I'm unique that's her nameher name that she was given.
She was incarcerated as well andnow she is uh, she is a junior
in college and she is a youthleader at her school in in
(59:38):
Dallas and she has.
They have created the I'munique fund and it's a program
to help fund, to help kids geton track when they've made bad
decisions.
So these are humans that madevery poor decisions, were
incarcerated and found a pathout of the system through Cafe
(59:58):
Momentum.
So for me this week, theyinspired me getting to hang out
with these amazing humans.
Speaker 1 (01:00:04):
That's so cool.
Yeah, we'll have to link thatin the show notes.
And this is exactly what we'retalking about mostly, for this
whole thing is what kindnesshave you shown or what kindness
have you seen from someone inthe last week?
Speaker 2 (01:00:18):
Well, honestly, watching the kindness from our
ambassadors, when we were at theFoote Juvenile Detention Center
here in Arapahoe County, theybrought in some currently
incarcerated youth to meet withour ambassadors and we had a
screening.
We have a documentary that wasdone about Cafe Momentum.
They were doing a screening ofthe documentary.
(01:00:40):
You know how earlier I talkedabout turning someone from
invisible to visible atdisneyland.
So, as they're bringing inthese youth to meet with our
ambassadors and the way they putit is some of their situations
are very hot, so they have tothey're spaced out, they have to
be very cautious ofinteractions from different,
(01:01:01):
from kids, because for violenceand all this kind of stuff.
So as they all are brought in,you can sense this bravado, this
you know I'm I'm a tough kid.
You know kind of stuff sittingat angles in their chair and you
know not really making I kindof all this kind of stuff.
So as they're bringing them in,all of a sudden a couple of the
ambassadors who are in theirown kind of section stand up and
(01:01:22):
walk over to them, start, startshaking their hands, look them
in the eye, go hi, I'm so-and-so, what's your name?
And then all the ambassadorscame over and started doing that
and you saw you could thepalpable feeling in the room of
the tension just going away.
And what happened?
They were seen.
These youth acknowledged thatthese are humans sitting there.
(01:01:45):
They're not only going to beknown as criminals.
They're not only going to beknown as someone who's done
something wrong.
They're a human that deservesto be loved and respected and
acknowledged.
And just that little handshakeand eye contact changed these
humans and you could see it infront of you.
Such an inspirational moment.
(01:02:06):
I wish we obviously weren'tallowed to record anything.
I wish we could have recordedthat.
Because it just brought it.
It made your heart swell seeingit, so that was mine.
Speaker 1 (01:02:16):
That's so good.
Thank you for your time.
Speaker 2 (01:02:18):
Absolutely, I've so enjoyed getting to know, you my
pleasure.
Speaker 1 (01:02:22):
So many tidbits just for myself in this.
Speaker 2 (01:02:25):
Wonderful, wonderful.
I'm always appreciative ofpeople like you, who want to
gather and just talk about waysto make our world better.
So thank you for all you'redoing.
Speaker 1 (01:02:36):
Thank you Well remember.
On Ordinary People,extraordinary Things, your story
is his glory.
Thank you for joining OrdinaryPeople Extraordinary Things.
I hope that this podcast wasimpactful for you.
I will see you in two weeks fora brand new episode of Faith
and Hope.
Don't forget to give us afive-star rating and write a
review so that others can findOrdinary People, extraordinary
(01:02:59):
Things.
Welcome to Ordinary People Extraordinary Things.
I'm so glad you're here.
I'm your host, Nancy Brucher,and I get to talk to ordinary
people just like you about realstories, stories of faith and
hope.
Would you do me a favor,Wherever you listen, could you
give us a five-star rating orwrite a review?
(00:21):
This really helps other peoplefind Ordinary People
Extraordinary Things, but alsoif they see a review or five
stars, they know it's worththeir time.
Thank you so much for helpingus out with that.
Thank you for joining OrdinaryPeople Extraordinary Things.
I'm here with Mike.
Mike, thanks for coming on.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
It's my pleasure and my honor to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
So excited to have you.
I have known you from afarbecause you have been the mayor
of Parker, so I'm sure you'llget that a lot of.
I have no idea who you are, butyou seem to know who I am.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
It happens a lot.
Yeah, it's actually kind ofcool.
I've even had instances whereI've been in other states and
I've run into someone.
I was with the family one timein Scottsdale Arizona.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Oh states and I've run into someone.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
I was with the family one time in Scottsdale, arizona
, oh yeah, and we were in alittle gift shop in downtown and
as I was walking down the aisle, someone was walking opposite
me and just said good morning,mayor.
As I walked by and it didn'thit me at first, because it used
to happen all the time, andthen I had to stop and think, oh
my gosh, I'm in a differentstate and they still recognize
me.
So it's kind of cool.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
That's awesome, yeah, so if people don't know who you
are, how would you describeyourself?
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Ooh, I honestly, I'm just an average guy.
I'm just someone who's herehoping to make the world a
better place.
Who?
I love people, I love thingsthat are happy, I love informing
and educating people and, mostimportantly, I really, really,
really love showing people howpowerful they really are and
showing how they don't needpermission to be powerful.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Oh, those are all good.
It is.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Unfortunately, the world we live in more often than
not strips away people's power.
You know, whether it'srelationship situations, whether
it's employment, whether it'sjust general mental health and
anguish, it just seems likethere are so many roadblocks and
so many things in the worldright now to strip away your
(02:16):
ability to feel powerful and tobe happy with making those
changes to make our futurebetter.
One of the things growing upit's a funny little story.
I used to tell that when I wasa Cub Scout I grew up in
Albuquerque, new Mexico, and Iremember very vividly going on
one of our first big campoutsand I'm an outdoorsman, I love
camping, I grew up hunting andfishing and all this kind of
(02:38):
stuff.
But going on one of the campoutsand when we got done, as we're
cleaning up, I remember theleader, the camp leader said
okay, boys, clean up, but makesure you're leaving it better
than you found it, so that thenext group can have a better
experience than you did.
And that always stuck with methrough my life.
And that's really, you know,that basic tenet that I've
believed in is that we all havethat obligation to do something
(03:01):
every day to make our tomorrowsbetter than our todays.
And if you think about it, it'sjust such a simple concept that
society has lost.
You know, if you can imaginewhat, if everybody just every
day did one thing to make ourworld better, the place would be
pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Yeah, why do you think that's been stripped away?
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Well, I think it's been stripped away for a lot of
reasons.
I mean, you could sit andexamine a lot.
I hate to sound like the bigold stodgy, you know old man
complaining about all the youthand that technology and stuff
like that, but honestly, socialmedia and the Internet has
brought so many blessings to usas humans, but it has also
(03:49):
brought so many detriments, inmy opinion.
You know, if you think about it, this is another kind of story
and I apologize.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
I tell lots of stories, so you're going to get
lots of stories today.
It's great.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
If you think about when we were younger and in high
school, before the Internet,before cell phones Didn't have a
cell phone.
Before social media, before anyof that.
What if it's a Friday, okay,and your locker is in the same
hall as my locker and I thoughtyou were cute and maybe you
thought I was cute, but I wasn'tquite sure if you did and so
I'm with my buddies and, youknow, I kind of go up to you and
(04:20):
we're chit-chatting with youand I'm getting the wrong
impression.
I'm getting the impression thatyou think I'm, you're into me,
so I lean over and let's say Ijust I go for it, I shoot my
shot and I lean over and I giveyou a kiss right.
And you're not interested.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
And you push me back and slap me across the face.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Okay, and then it's done, and then it's done, right
what?
Speaker 2 (04:39):
happens.
The two or three buddies thatare around me are going to laugh
at me.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Right.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
The two or three girlfriends that are around you
are going to go.
Ooh, he's weird, right, and mybuddies will probably tell
another buddy or two, yourgirlfriends will probably tell
another girl or two, but thereality is, by Monday probably
no one's going to remember.
I mean, I'm going to beembarrassed as anything.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
You're going to be embarrassed, but by Monday
Tuesday, wednesday it's probablygone and forgotten.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Take that same scenario in today's world.
And if that happened at the sametime you're a freshman in high
school and that same situationhappens by the time that slap
happens within seconds.
Everyone in the school has seenthe Snapchat video that someone
just took of you slapping meand within the hour, probably
(05:29):
everyone at the neighboring highschools has also seen it and by
the end of the day, it'sprobably gone viral and it's all
over the state and the worldand everywhere else, right?
Well, you're dealing withhumans who don't have fully
developed consequence portionsof their brain yet, and now
you've just thrown something infront of them that is truly
(05:52):
representative of their entireworld going away, right?
So for me, the speed ofdelivery of information and the
reason I tell that story inrelationship to doing something
to make our world a better place, and why that power has been
stripped away that speed oftransfer of information means
two things has happened to oursociety.
(06:13):
One is dissemination ofeverything good, bad or
indifferent is instant.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
Instant yep.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
And two, it's allowed us to become lazy.
If I receive a message from youand I know who you are or have
an idea of who you are, Iimmediately accept that as fact.
When the reality is, I couldsit here and make a social media
meme that says you knowwhatever.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
I want to say Right.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
And there will be a group of people who believe it.
And now that perception becomesreality, there will be a group
of people who believe it.
And now that perception becomesreality, so that's where I
think society, that ability tofeel powerful in who you are,
has been stripped away, becausepeople I hate to say it this way
people have become lazy withinformation and communication is
instantaneous.
Now there's no longer that timeframe for your brain to vet and
(07:02):
catch up.
Now take all of those conceptsand put it into the brain of a
13-year-old.
From a physical standpoint andI'm going to screw this up
because I'm not a biologist mywife's a biology teacher, so
when she hears this she'll tellme I'm right or wrong.
But I believe it's the frontallobe of your brain which is the
(07:22):
consequence processing portionof your brain.
That is literally consequenceprocessing portion of your brain
.
That is literally the last partof your brain to develop as a
human and that develops in your20s.
So you've taken someone who is13, 12, 14 years old, whose
brain truly isn't fullydeveloped yet to understand
consequences, and put them inthis world where they have
(07:43):
access to all the informationpossible instantly and no
capability of discerning what'slegitimate, real or fake.
It just adds to a lot ofproblems.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Yeah, yeah, do you like you said, you want to do
something every day to make theworld a better place?
I think that everyone would say, oh, I like that idea, but the
reality is that we don't do that.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Yeah, but how Right right the how becomes the
question, right Do?
Speaker 1 (08:14):
you think it's because we're looking for
something so grand, 100%.
We have to buy someone a car.
I have to pay a mortgage, right, right.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Is that where we're?
Speaker 1 (08:26):
going in quicksand of not even doing anything because
we're looking.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
The concept is called analysis paralysis.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Okay, okay.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
You start analyzing how to do this right?
Everything we're bombarded withnow is one-upsmanship.
Is how can this viral meme orthis video or this reel outdo
the one that I just saw and thesensationalism of it has to get
bigger, bigger, badder, badder,badder, right?
Okay?
Well, the reality is, if youwant a true effect on someone,
(08:59):
it's not these large things,it's the little pieces that make
that big change.
I'll give a couple of quickexamples.
Like, one of the things I alwaysused to always tell my boys is,
whenever there was a largechallenge or a large task in
front of them, I'd say justremember how do you eat an
elephant?
And you eat an elephant onebite at a time.
Right, if you sit there andfocus on the size and the
(09:21):
grandeur of this elephant or thething that's in front of you,
you're going to spend more timenot solving the problem than you
are overanalyzing the problem,right?
It's the same kind of thinghere that when all of us I truly
believe innate in every humanand their soul is to do good,
right, and you want the world tobe better, but you start to
look at things and go gosh, well, I can't save someone's life
(09:45):
today.
I can't buy someone a car today.
I can't feed a family of 10today, but you know, what you
can do is you can have a smallchange.
You can do something little.
It can be as simple as lookingsomeone in the eye and
acknowledging that they're ahuman.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Yeah, saying hello.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
There's a little thing that I did and again, I'm
way off topic and in topic orwhatever.
I just kind of ramble.
But years ago I wrote anarticle about how to watch
someone go from being invisibleto visible, and the example I
used was go to Disneyland.
So here is the happiest placeon earth, right, every aspect of
(10:21):
Disneyland is meant to exudejoy and happiness.
It's even in their tagline thehappiest place on earth.
Well, if you want to see how onesmall, insignificant, what
seems to be insignificant action, how that can make someone go
from being invisible to visible,well, when you're at Disneyland
and you're waiting in line toget on a ride any ride at all.
(10:42):
Well, when you're at Disneylandand you're waiting in line to
get on a ride any ride at allyou're going to see highly
trained people who work therethat are guiding you along the
line.
Right, sir, you'll be the next.
You know, get into aisle threeor whatever, right?
Well, when you're going throughthat line and the person you
come up to, that person stop,look them in the eye and just
(11:05):
say two words Thank you, that'sit you will see someone turn
from invisible to visible infront of you because they are no
longer a signpost.
They are a human who is beingseen.
That small action, that smalllittle thing, has made someone's
(11:26):
world better.
Made that person's world better.
That's one action that you cando right.
There's this.
I don't know if I wouldn't callit a parable, but there's this
saying about two people walkingon the beach and the beach is
covered in starfish.
Have you heard this one?
Yeah, yeah yeah.
And the little boy's picking upthe starfish and throwing them
(11:48):
back in, and the mom or dad,whoever's walking with them,
says what are you doing?
There are so many starfish youcan't possibly make a difference
in all of them.
And the little kid can pick upone starfish and say, yeah, but
I can make a difference in thisone, right.
And the little kid can pick upone starfish and say, yeah, but
I can make a difference in thisone.
Right, that's what we can do.
You don't know when you'regoing to have a demonstrable
(12:10):
impact on someone's life, but weshould all make that attempt to
be better and to do better.
The opportunities will be theresometimes to do the big and
grandiose things, but it's thoselittle things.
I'll give another example.
There was a gentleman that Iknow that had started a
nonprofit years ago.
He came from the music industry, you know rock and roll guy and
(12:33):
music producer and he startedthis nonprofit years and years
ago here in Colorado.
Where he would bring it was ananti-teen suicide program and he
would bring in not national,national acts, big acts, but
national acts.
They're kind of a little bitmore under the radar and they
would play concerts at highschools and middle schools and
then they would use that as theopportunity to bring kids in,
(12:55):
have these free concerts andthen talk to them about how
powerful they are and mentalhealth concerns and to help
advocate for them, showing themthat suicide is not the
direction to take.
Well, he gave me this exampleof how, you know, these concerts
take a lot of planning and alot of work to put on right, a
lot of money and all the thingsAt the end of one of the
(13:16):
concerts, when he got done andhe's picking up and cleaning up
and they're wrapping things uphe said this young lady walked
up to him and just said thankyou for for doing this.
And he said, of course.
And she handed him a letter.
It was her suicide note and shewas planning on going home that
(13:37):
day and taking her life.
And because of the actions, ofwhat she learned there, she
decided not to Like how youcan't get more powerful than
that, right, because ofsomething that he did, that he
had a passion for, there isanother human on this planet who
(14:00):
is alive.
That's the thing, and too oftenin society, in my opinion, is
that people have been trained torely on someone else to solve
their problem.
That's the epitome of givingaway your power.
I'm struggling mentally, I'mstruggling financially, I'm
(14:20):
struggling in my relationships,I'm struggling in whatever.
I'm going to sit here andstruggle until somebody else
comes and solves my problem forme, until the government says
here's a program that will allowyou to eat, or an organization
will come in and say I will giveyou this pill and the pill will
make you feel better so you canbe happier in life.
(14:41):
They've been trained to justwait around for that Again.
That is the clearest way ofsomeone stealing your power.
When you have the ability to sitthere and change your life,
become powerful for the better.
So I took us way off course onthat one.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
No, that was good.
I was just thinking that I dowonder if it's a lot of social
media or just stories that youhear of that it does almost
paralyze you not to do thesesmall things, because I think
innately we understand that thatworks right, like I think in my
(15:23):
own life, what has really madea difference?
Sometimes it's just a kind word, someone seeing that I'm
struggling and saying, hey, canI pray for you?
Hey, when I say I'm fine,someone's like oh, I don't think
so.
And that meant so much.
Someone bringing me a meal.
These are all all small things,but they make a big difference.
(15:47):
But I think about you know.
It's almost three years since Istarted this podcast and
sometimes I didn't want to start.
What if I'm not successful?
What if I'm not having as manydownloads as these famous people
?
Speaker 2 (16:03):
so is it worth.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
So is it worth my time Is it worth my time, and I
think that's such a goodreminder that it doesn't have to
be.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
What's the saying about the longest epic journey
or whatever, starts with onestep, and that's what it is.
I'm a baseball nut and with myboys I would always use
different examples of baseball,and one of the best ones is you
will never hit a home run if youdon't swing the bat In baseball
terms.
(16:37):
My oldest son was a baseballplayer in high school and I
remember one time when he wasstruggling with am I not good
enough?
Am I you know, I failed becauseI struck out or this or that.
And I asked him at the time.
I said, chris, who do you inyour opinion, who is one of the
best baseball players playingright now?
And he goes Todd Helton.
(16:58):
I said okay.
I said so, let's pull up hisstats, and I don't remember the
exact number, but I think ToddHelton's batting average at the
time was about 350.
What that means is for everytime he went up to bat, two of
the three times he failed.
He did not accomplish what hewas up there to do, right, only
(17:19):
a third of the time he did, butyet he was considered and now
he's in the Hall of Fame.
Wow.
He was considered by my son oneof the greatest baseball players
of the time, which was yeahRight.
What other capacity in yourlife are you allowed?
Do you give yourself thepermission to fail two out of
three times and still consideryourself one of the greatest?
(17:42):
right we set these unreasonableexpectations for ourselves.
I need to look a certain way, Ineed to be a certain weight, I
have to be a certain proportion,I have to be.
I'm not smart enough, I'm nottall enough, I'm not funny
enough, I'm not, you know,outgoing at whatever it is.
Those are self-imposed walls,right?
Spend the time and energylooking at how you can convert
(18:04):
those walls to bridges and thatis where you really find, you
know, happiness and joy.
That then exudes to thosearound you and it is like a drug
.
Once they get a taste of that,then those people want to be
leaders in happiness around them.
And that is like a drug.
Once they get a taste of that,then those people want to be
leaders and happiness aroundthem, and that's what makes the
world a better place.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
Yeah, oh, that's good .
So you were mayor of Parker.
How long were you the?
Speaker 2 (18:26):
mayor.
I was mayor of Parker for twoterms, so that's eight years.
At the time I was term limitedin that role.
So I was on town council forfour years, first limited in
that role.
So I was on town council forfour years first, then elected
to mayor, then reelected tomayor and then I was term
limited.
(18:46):
The town's charter has changed,so people can I could have.
If I was mayor now I could haveserved longer, but even with
that option, being elected tooffice for three terms, so for
12 years.
And then I was on the town'sspecial licensing authority,
which is an appointed board, forfive years before I ran for
office.
So 17 years is a career rightand I'm of the belief that
everyone should have theopportunity to serve their
(19:08):
fellow citizens.
I'm not a fan of careerpoliticians.
I'm not a fan of politicalpositions being used to advance
your political career.
We are all neighbors who shouldbe supporting each other.
So after that amount of timeeven if I could have run more
times I was ready for someoneelse to take the reins.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
Yeah, Is that why you started in your political
career?
I might say it's because youfelt a need to serve.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
So in a way, to be quite honest, I had no desire or
knowledge to run for office andit sounds ironic because my
degree in college is inpolitical science and economics
A little funny side story withthat.
The reason I had that as adegree was I put myself through
college a very loving family butwe were not of means and I
(19:55):
started in community collegebecause at the time it was $99 a
semester.
I grew up in New Mexico so itwas really affordable to go.
The credits transferred to theUniversity of New Mexico, but I
didn't know what I wanted to bewhen I grew up.
And I'm not going to lie, mygrades weren't great.
I liked sports and I likedgirls a lot too much.
You know way too much forschool right.
(20:16):
So I didn't study as much as Ishould.
Grades out of high school weremediocre at best.
Got into community collegebecause that's what I thought
you were supposed to do.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
Right, that was very common, right?
You just go to college Likethat's what you have to do.
Yeah, right.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
And I remember being a senior in high school and my
counselor me going to thecounselor saying what do I need
to do, what classes do I need totake?
And the counselor looked at mygrades and said well, why don't
you just take what sounds fun?
Counselor knew I was not themost astute of people, so I did.
(20:51):
I took classes that sounded fun.
Then the next year comes up andI go to my counselor at
community college and said okay,what classes should I take next
year?
And they looked at my gradesand said just take what sounds
fun.
Well, I did this game, you know, for three years and now I'm at
the University of New Mexico.
My friends are talking tocompanies about jobs.
I have no idea what I want todo or what I want to be.
(21:12):
And I sat down and thecounselor starts to tell me the
same song and dance and I'm like, okay, look, I've been paying
for this out of my own pocket.
I've already invested a lot ofmoney in me.
No, I'm not just going to dothis.
I said what is the quickest wayout of college?
She could have said a nursingdegree, accounting, you know,
(21:32):
lawn bowling, whatever, and Iwould have gone that route.
She looked at what classes Itook.
That sounded fun and she goes,your quickest path out is
political, science and economics.
And I said, done.
And so that's what I did, withno desire to go into politics.
But when my wife and I moved toParker in 2000, one of again,
(21:52):
one of the pieces that my dadyou know, one of the pieces that
my dad, one of the values mydad instilled in me, was always
serving your community when youcan.
My dad was a Marine.
He worked in a lot ofcapacities to serve the
community, my mom as well.
And so it was just a logicalthing that when we moved to
Parker, I was starting abusiness at the time and I
(22:15):
walked into Town Hall and said,hey, I want to volunteer, I want
to serve some way.
How do I serve?
And at the time I remember CarolBaumgartner was our town clerk
at the time and Carol kind oflooked at me and she was, you
know, the short little olderlady and she was just kind of
like, well, I don't know, thetown special licensing authority
has a vacancy and they at thetime handled all the it was
(22:38):
funny to say, the hotel liquor,to see hotel liquor and cabaret
licenses.
So that was a problem.
Because everyone hears cabaret.
It thinks exactly what you do,they go ooh, cabaret right well
at the time.
So I was on the little speciallicensing authority.
I was the chair of it for fourof the five years.
Cabaret licenses in coloradomeant a dance floor oh, that's
(23:02):
funny.
So if you had a dance floorback then you had to get a
cabaret license.
And it was the funniest thingbecause any time someone with a
dance floor it's a separatelicense they'd have to apply for
it.
It goes out to public notice.
We'd have a line of little oldladies no strip clubs in parker,
no, and it's like those arecalled.
(23:23):
Those types of businesses werecalled sobs, sexually oriented
businesses, and we, no one hasever applied.
Well, one person did a longtime ago, but at any rate people
don't apply for thosebusinesses like that's not a
parker thing, but cabaret thename people would go crazy on.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
So I, I served on they need to change that name
well, it's gone.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
Now they don't.
Yeah, the laws have changed.
That's no longer around.
Liquor laws have changed quitea bit since.
Back then too, there used to belicenses.
If you sold packaged liquor, adifferent license.
If you just had wine, anotherone if you had full spirits.
You know, now you have a liquorlicense.
It's just kind of one thing yeahit's much easier, but I so I
was like, okay, cool, so Iserved on that committee as just
(24:03):
a way to give back, and then Igot to learn more and more about
the town and how it operatesand the incredible staff that
work here in the town of Parker,and then the opportunity came
up for me to look at running fortown council.
I did first office I ever ranfor in 2008, was blessed to be
elected.
(24:23):
There were three positions open, because every two years
there's an election, you serve afour-year term and there's six
council members so they rotate,and I had the third highest
votes out of, I think, six orseven people, so I got elected
to town council.
Then four years, so that was2008.
2012 is coming along and I wasplanning on rerunning for
council and a friend of mine whowas on council with me Scott
(24:45):
Jackson is his name he was goingto run for mayor and at the
time during his campaign, he wasdiagnosed with cancer.
He's a survivor.
Everything worked out.
But I remember him pulling measide, saying I just don't have
it in me to do this.
You should run for mayor.
So I did?
(25:05):
Blessed to be elected in 2012.
Then, in 2016, ran forre-election, was again blessed
to be re-elected and then in2020, retired from being mayor.
That's awesome, that's a greatstory.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
What was the hardest thing about being mayor?
Speaker 2 (25:25):
The hardest part about being mayor was people's,
and this kind of goes back towhat I was saying before about
this sounds very negative, butabout how people now have become
lazy and the hardest part aboutbeing mayor is when people
(25:50):
choose to not put even a littlebit of time into finding out
what is real, what the role ofgovernment is, what the role of
their local government is what acabernet is, what a cabernet is
, what a cabernet Not cabernet,that's a wine.
Oh, I'm sorry, cabaret, darn it.
Yes, darn it, but that was oneof the hardest pieces.
However, I chose to use that.
Instead of a difficulty, turnthat into an opportunity.
(26:12):
So I really tasked myself withtrying trying to become the
conduit between government andits people and its citizens.
So a lot of my job waseducating people.
So when someone would say, oh,the open space behind my house
is being developed, how can youlet them develop that?
And I would say why do youthink that's open space?
(26:34):
And they would say that and.
I would say why do you thinkthat's open space?
And they would say well, myrealtor told me that.
Well, that's not, it's owned bysomeone.
That land is owned by somebodyand that owner has the ability
to do legally what they'reallowed to do with that land.
Open space is a legaldesignation and that land behind
your house is not open space,it's just privately owned land
(26:56):
that hadn't developed yet.
You know, it's interesting.
Right now Parker has about70,000 citizens in the town
limits.
When Parker was incorporated inthe early 80s it had about 300.
And I would tell people, if youweren't one of those 300 people
, then you moved into someoneelse's hometown and made it your
(27:19):
own.
How would you feel if those 300people said no, you're not
allowed to move here.
Right, everybody living inparker, except for those I think
it was 383 people moved intosomeone else's hometown yeah and
they embraced and they now loveto call this home.
It's the same way.
(27:39):
So, because of you know, againback to what made it so
difficult was people get sowrapped up into the negativity
and, you know, hate and all ofthis that we see on a national
level and they I don't know why,but they feel that they have to
apply that to the local levelwhen it comes to politics and
(28:00):
they really shouldn't.
The people serving in anelected role in the town of
Parker or the city of Lone Treeor anywhere locally, any local
municipality, these are yourneighbors.
These are people who are thereto help make their community
better and give of their timeand their talents to do that.
And the hardest part is whenpeople just want to immediately,
(28:22):
you know, discount you orassume that because they read
something on Nextdoor thatthat's the facts.
And then they become lazy andnot look at the facts.
And so a lot of my time wasjust doing that.
But again, that was difficult,but I took those as
opportunities.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
How did you not?
Or maybe you did, but some ofthis must become very personal.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
How do you not take that on Sure?
Does that make sense?
Speaker 2 (28:51):
Well, and you do.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
You always do take it on.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
And that's part of it .
But I always said and I'm anon-traditional kind of guy, I
try to be a straight shooter,and that was also in my role as
being mayor I would tell peoplethere's only three things that
are going to get you kicked offthe Mike Island.
So, whether it's a friend onsocial media or whatever, I
(29:17):
never discount someone's opinionwhen it's different than mine.
In fact, we all have theGod-given right to our opinion.
That's why God gave usindividuality, so we can have
our opinions.
It's a very powerful tool.
However, the three things thatget you kicked off Mike's Island
if you bring my family into asituation.
So if you're threatening ordisparaging my family, they
didn't get elected.
My wife and boys didn't getelected, I did so.
(29:38):
The moment you bring them in,we got a problem.
You question my faith.
You question my integrity.
Okay.
Having a different opinion fromsomeone is not questioning
someone's integrity.
Yes.
Right.
Questioning someone's integrityyes, right.
But saying things that aredirect accusations of integrity
(30:01):
without having any information,that's just dirty pool, that's
just being mean.
And there's enough meanness andugliness out there.
So outside of that we can alllive harmoniously on the Mike
Island.
But bringing it in personally,there are times it was very,
very, very heavy load.
I'll use an example of one.
This one, this one was toughwhile I was married.
(30:22):
I almost said married.
It's what it felt like beingmayor a lot of times.
While I was mayor there wasthis unfortunate time where in
one week three young kids,separate from each other,
committed suicide in Parker.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
Yes, I remember that.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
They were not friends , they didn't have relationships
.
It just worked out that threeyouth decided their only
recourse was to end their life.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
And I am not a mental health therapist.
I don't pretend to be a mentalhealth therapist, but what I do
know is the government, inquotes, has invested millions,
if not hundreds of millions ofdollars to address teen suicide
and it has presented no positivechange.
There are stacks and stacks ofbooks, then binders and
(31:08):
workflows to say what you'resupposed to do to help address
teen suicide and they are notworking.
So when that happened, Idecided, I decided to.
I said look, I'm going to callan emergency town hall meeting.
We reserved the PACE Center.
I said we're going to have openmicrophones, anyone who wants
to come heal and talk you'rewelcome.
I said, however, who is notwelcome to come are therapists?
(31:32):
I said we're not here.
This is not going to be a time.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
This is not a fix it.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
Exactly.
This is a time for healing.
I don't want someone to walk inand feel intimidated by a line
of therapists saying this iswhat you should do to make
yourself feel better, or here isthe notebook that this
government department says youshould follow to make yourself
heal and feel better.
That's not what this is about.
We're going to be here as acommunity.
(31:59):
There's going to be twomicrophones and anyone who wants
to come up can talk, and it wasa beautiful evening of people
just healing and crying and allof the things.
Well, emotionally, that's verydraining to go through, but it's
very rewarding.
Your heart is full.
It's hard to explain how yourheart can be broken and full at
(32:20):
the same time.
Well, about two days later Iwas getting ready for my day.
I happened to be at FikaCoffeehouse, one of my favorite
coffee spots here in Parker onMain Street, and I was kind of
back on my own a little bit andI know the workers they're the
baristas and I have my cup ofcoffee and I'm just kind of
processing what my day is goingto be like that day.
And a woman walks up to me andshe goes Mayor Wade, can I talk
(32:44):
to you for a second?
I said sure, and she says myname is blankety, blankety,
blank.
And she threw a few initials atthe end and she is a mental
health therapist that deals withsuicide, teen suicide
specifically.
And as I'm sitting there andshe looks at me and she says I
just want you to know how muchdamage you caused by not
(33:04):
allowing us to be there thatnight.
And it was one of the few times, I mean what is trying to keep
it clean in terms of no swearwords, but what a selfish thing
for her to do.
She put herself above thehealing that these people needed
to have and they didn't need tohave someone tell them how to
(33:25):
heal.
At that point I kind of bangednot banged, but I kind of
dropped my coffee cup.
The barista, who knows me, sawthis interaction kind of happen
and I literally said you, youknow what I give up, and I just
sat back and I just went into myhead.
It was such a hard time for meto hold that, that emotion, that
(33:52):
responsibility, that load oftrying to help and then have
someone's ego come in and kickyou in the teeth.
Right, that was tough and I'vehad situations like that from
time to time.
What I have found for me thebest catharsis I have, and I use
that example because I learnedthat day I did something for the
(34:15):
first time that I've recycledmany times since then.
She left.
She obviously could tell that Iwas upset about it and it was
all I could do to not give her areal piece of my mind.
Right, I'm sitting there andthe barista kind of turns to me
and she was like I'm reallysorry, mike, that was really
uncard, how hurtful and thankyou, thank you, thank you.
(34:35):
I have found that when I'm atmy lowest, when I have the
largest burden on my shoulders,when my soul is just aching for
whatever reason.
I have to double down and makea concerted effort that moment
to improve someone else's life.
So that moment, that morning Iwent and I drove down to one of
(34:59):
my two favorite donut shops andI bought three dozen donuts and
I drove over to our policestation and I walked in and I
said hey guys donuts on me today.
Here you go and I walked out.
Doing something for somebodyelse is the most cathartic,
(35:23):
healing thing that, as humans,we can do, and so when those
burdens get hard on me, I put itin God's hands and I say where
do I need to give today?
What do I need to do, whetherit's donuts?
or whether it's running intosomeone at the store and you
just know something's not rightwith them and you give them a
hug, right, doing something,allowing the world, allowing God
(35:45):
, allowing your faith to takeyou where you're needed.
And again, like we were sayingearlier, it could be just
something small or it could besomething grandiose, but that is
the best way to heal thoseburdens.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
Wow, so I have never heard anyone say it like that,
and it just makes so much sense.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
It does.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
It's not to go into yourself, but to pour back out,
even though that's probably thelast thing you want to do.
Speaker 2 (36:12):
Absolutely.
It's the last thing you want todo.
Speaker 1 (36:14):
I am done with people .
Speaker 2 (36:16):
Right.
Speaker 1 (36:16):
I am discounting them .
Right, right.
Like you said, I am done yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:22):
Yeah, and that's the time to double down.
That is the time to say, okay,I need to push extra hard,
because all of these otherthings right now are telling me.
What I need to do is I need tojust go lock myself in a room
and cry, or again to getsocietally, or go lock myself in
a room with a bottle of booze,or go lock myself in a room and
(36:42):
put something in my arm, or fillin the blank of a lot of worse
things that could go down Righta lot of addictions.
Right, that's the time for youto say, okay, I am hurting, Let
me take that and use it for good.
You know, from the concept ofhurting and emotions, this is
another thing I used to alwaystell my kids Both of my boys,
(37:02):
they're 22 months apart, or 23months apart.
They could not be more opposite.
It's hard to believe they camefrom the same people.
Right, they are both wonderfulhumans, but they're very, very,
very different and they haveboth have the emotionally their,
their ups downs, challenges,attributes, all that kind of
stuff.
Well, I remember telling my sonswhen they were young and
(37:24):
struggling with emotions, anger,you know all of these things I
would say okay, look, you haveto remember that your emotions
are a gift from God.
Anger is a blessing.
That is a gift that God createdfor you to have, gift that God
(37:48):
created for you to have.
Now, if you're using that angerand it's not making a positive
change, it's not affecting apositive change, then you're
taking a beautiful gift God gaveyou and you're wasting it.
So don't use it for that.
If you being angry at anotherkid or a person, or at me or
whatever, can make a positivechange or a positive outcome,
then 10 times out of 10, I willsupport you being angry.
(38:09):
But if it can't, you're wastingthat beautiful gift from God
right.
And so often in today's world weare not allowed to express our
emotions when appropriate.
And these emotions are toolsagain, gifts from God, right.
And these emotions are toolsagain, gifts from God, right.
So, when you're feeling thatjust overload of life and your
(38:29):
soul is damaged and you've beenkicked in the teeth and kicked
in the gut and all of that, thatis the time to say, okay, I
need to really embrace thesegifts, and one of them could be
I just need to sit here and cryfor an hour.
One of them could be I need togo to the gym and put all that
anger into that bar of weightsor the heavy bag.
I'm going to go beat the snotout of this heavy bag for a week
(38:52):
, right.
Or I'm going to go out for arun, or I'm just going to do
something like that, right.
Those are all tools, gifts thatGod gave you to do and you need
to.
When you're feeling thatoverloaded feeling, that's the
time to take that energy andturn it into something that will
benefit somebody else.
You can still feel like garbageright, but taking that energy
(39:15):
will make someone else's lifebetter than our.
Everyone's.
Speaker 1 (39:18):
Vibration goes up and everyone feels better, so
that's so good, and I was, youknow, I think we all are.
Oh, humanity, it's so terrible,and this and that, and, and I
was wondering what you do whenyou feel like that Is that.
Is that what you do?
When you just get down on oneperson or everything, or society
(39:43):
, or it's.
Speaker 2 (39:44):
It's tough, tough, I mean, especially right now.
Again, if I go back to the, theway, social media and the
internet and our phones, I meanwe are all connected 24 7 and
it's hard, very hard, todisseminate between truth and
fact and and fiction andmanipulation and all these
pieces.
And there are times where itjust seems like everywhere you
(40:05):
look you're getting dumped on,like there's just negativity all
around you.
Right, you are obligated tomake that change.
If sitting there on your phonefor an hour is making you feel
like crap, then put the damnphone away right.
That is the truth, but we have ahard time doing that as humans
(40:26):
right now.
I don't know why we do, but Ithink some of that stems from
all of us have a naturalyearning to be connected to each
other, even the mostintroverted person and, I'm
sorry, my wife and some friendsand we get in this discussion
about this.
I'm obviously a veryextroverted person and I don't
use the term introvert as apejorative.
I'm not being negative towardssomebody, but I think sometimes
(40:48):
it becomes too convenient forpeople to say ew, people, I'm
going to be introverted and juststay away from people instead
of addressing what the worldreally is around them.
You can still be an introvertand still interact with people.
Speaker 1 (41:01):
I'm an introvert.
Right, right yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:03):
But you're not locking yourself in the room
blaming the world for or nothaving a conversation with
people.
I'm an introvert, right, right,yeah, but you're not locking
yourself in the room blaming theworld for or not having a
conversation with you, exactly,exactly.
So I think it almost seemssometimes in vogue to be ooh
people suck.
Speaker 1 (41:16):
I'm gonna, you know, I'm gonna kind of do this.
Speaker 2 (41:18):
Why Like again, what makes a?
How does that affect a positiverole in the world?
If you can convince me thathating people and staying locked
in your room and complainingabout stuff all day can somehow
make the world a better place,then I'll lock the door for you.
You know what I mean.
But we have to use thoseenergies that are around us to
(41:42):
make the world better.
Speaker 1 (41:43):
Yeah, energies that are around us to make the world
better, yeah, so you were anelected official and we are.
Everyone knows November,november is coming up and I
there's excitement, there'sscared, there's frustration.
I mean a million things, but Iwould say a lot of it is there's
(42:04):
a lot of fear, right, correct,going on with it.
What would you say to peopleabout this time and about an
election?
I feel like we just get moreand more polarized, more and
more scared, more and morefearful, more and more hateful.
Speaker 2 (42:19):
Right, right.
So a couple things to it.
One of it is it's your fault,so a couple things to it.
One of it is it's your fault.
What I mean by that is this isa small group of people on both
sides, who are manipulating youto do what they want.
That is the ultimate power grabthat's out there.
(42:40):
If you notice, the messages ofhate and the messages of
division aren't coming from thebottom up, they're coming from
the top down.
Look at campaigns now on anational level and I'll address
local as well.
On a national level, peopledon't talk about why one side is
(43:01):
better than the other.
They talk about why the otherside's worse than them.
Truthfully a little side note,I'm going to editorialize, so if
I had a little light to go onto tell everyone this is just my
own personal opinion, not ofthe podcast or anything like
this when I talk to people aboutelections and I'd listen to
people about elections and I'dlisten to people about elections
(43:23):
, especially this cycle I rarelyhear someone say my candidate,
I'm voting for my candidatebecause of these five things
that he or she are going to doto make the country better.
All you hear is oh, he's evilbecause of this or she's
incompetent because of this.
So they're making their voteagainst someone, not for someone
(43:48):
.
What a ridiculously bad premiseto have out there right, and the
reason it's there is becausethat's what the controlling
organizations want us to do.
We are much easier to manipulatewhen we're divided than when
we're strong Right and again,this isn't a Republican thing,
(44:09):
this isn't a Democrat thing,this isn't a Trump thing, this
isn't a Harris thing.
This is the fact that I havediscussed it, that those two
people are the best we can seatas a nation.
So, at a national level,unfortunately, people fall into
(44:31):
this cycle of, and themisinformation and manipulation
on both sides is beyondridiculous.
At the national level, let'stake it down to the local level,
because the reality is thisLocal is where the national
level.
Speaker 1 (44:47):
Let's take it down to the local level, because the
reality is this local is wherethe magic happens.
Speaker 2 (44:49):
It really is, but we get so wrapped up that we assume
it has to be the same down here.
Right, that has got to bleeddown, that it's got to be.
We have to be one againstanother or this or that.
Here's my advice.
First off, I will never tellsomebody who they need to vote
for.
I'll tell someone who I'm goingto vote for.
If I endorse a candidate, I'llsay why and I don't do many
endorsements, but if I, you knowI'll give information.
(45:12):
But I will never steal yourright and ability to form your
own opinion.
God put a lot of time intocreating our self-awareness and
our individual opinions.
Wow, what ego would I have tohave to think that I should be
able to steal your opinion fromyou?
But at local elections, myadvice is this.
(45:33):
It's a novel idea Talk to thecandidates, reach out and ask
them a question what's importantto you?
When I ran for office, do youknow how many people actually
reached out to me unsolicited tosay I'd like to know your
opinion on blank Two?
(45:53):
I could count the total numberin three elections on both hands
.
Wow.
Right.
And one of the frustratingthings for me is when someone
would come to me and they wouldsay I'm so happy I voted.
I'm going to vote for you.
You are amazing and I would go.
Thank you very much.
What about me makes you thinkyou're amazing?
(46:13):
That I'm amazing.
Well, you're such a nice guy,thank you, that's a great
attribute, but what am I goingto do to make part?
What position do I have thatyou really support?
Well, you know, you just seemlike you care.
Well, I do.
I believe everyone cares.
I believe Trump and Harris bothcare about our country.
(46:36):
I don't think neither one ofthem hates the United States,
right, but obviously they havedifferent opinions.
So what is it about me thatmakes you and it's crazy how,
how few times people can go Ilike your position on pro small
business or on economicdevelopment or on enterprise
(46:57):
design you know all of thesethings, they would just go.
You just seem like such a goodguy, right.
The part that really torques meis that when someone would go,
well, it's because you're a.
Republican.
Oh guess what?
I know some really nastyRepublicans that have ethics
that I wouldn't scrape off thebottom of my shoe.
I know some Democrats who arethe most honorable, hardworking
(47:20):
people I've ever met in my life.
The Republican and Democratdoesn't make someone good or bad
, right, that just kind of putsthem into a bucket, right, and
unfortunately there are a lot.
I mean, I have I never talk badabout candidates directly, so
I'm not going to say anythingspecific.
But I know currently electedRepublicans who have lied to my
(47:41):
face in this community we're inright now, who've lied to my
wife's face, who are asunethical as they come.
But just because they have an Rat the end of their name,
there's the assumption that, oh,they're going to be better than
the one that has the D or the Iat the end of their name.
Right, and that's just wrong.
I mean, again, we are allneighbors.
Talk to the.
(48:01):
So the local level.
The biggest advice I can say istalk to the candidates who are
asking you for the ability forthem to serve you.
Ask them what's important toyou and see what their answer is
.
If you don't want to or don'thave the ability to, here's
another one.
Talk to the people who theywork with.
Call up someone at town hall,call up staff, go into the parks
(48:32):
and rec department and say canI speak to a manager please?
And they go how do you likeworking with XYZ?
Or walk into the policedepartment and say how is it?
How do you feel working withso-and-so?
I just want to know how theyare.
Those are great ways to get.
Don't trust an endorsement fromsomeone who's in a different
position you know, 45 miles away, in another city just because
that endorsement has an R or a Dat the end of their name.
Like, these are our neighbors.
(48:52):
We need to remember that.
Let's be neighborly to eachother and talk to them and find
out if they have this, if theyhave the same value set that you
do, and if they don't, that'sokay.
Give them a hug, give them ahigh five and go.
I appreciate you.
You know that's not what I'mdown with, but that's fine.
When I talk to people who wantto run for office, the one piece
of advice they always saywhat's the best, biggest piece
(49:14):
of advice that you can give me?
And I would tell them don't beafraid to say I don't want your
vote.
I remember I was downtown onetime in Parker when I was
running for mayor and I had thislittle old lady kind of stop me
.
And she goes I really want tovote for you.
You seem like a great young guy, but you don't look Republican
(49:36):
enough.
And I went what do you mean?
So this was actually it wasn'tmy first term, it was my second
term.
This was happening becauseduring my first term I started a
fundraiser every year I woulddo for pediatric cancer research
and it was called Shave theMayor.
Oh, yes, yes, yes and I wouldgrow my beard real long, dye my
hair, auction off the color ofmy hair and we'd raise lots of
(49:58):
money for pediatric cancerresearch.
Well, she goes, and I wasstanding there in shorts that
day and I have tattoos on my leg, I have tattoos on my arm, I
have piercings I had.
My beard was probably.
My hair was probably rainbowcolored or pink or purple or
whatever I had auctioned it offfor.
And she goes.
Well, you have tattoos and youhave a big beard and you know,
(50:20):
weird colored hair.
She goes you don't lookRepublican enough.
Colored hair.
She goes you don't lookrepublican enough.
And I said, okay, so would youprefer a clean-cut socialist?
Well, no, because you know theydon't have values or they don't
.
Blah, blah.
I go.
Well, what am I missing?
You can't vote for me becauseof how you love what I represent
, you love what I do, but youdon't like how I look.
(50:41):
She goes, yes, and I said,ma'am, please don't vote for me.
And that was something that Isee candidates all the time
chasing votes as opposed to justbeing authentic, and you know I
there's.
There's one other story I tellagain.
(51:01):
I'm not giving specific names,but of a political person here
who in one room, if the room isa bunch of business owners, this
person will be the mostpro-economic development person
you will ever see and literallyin that afternoon can go into a
meeting of people who want nomore growth in Parker and say we
(51:22):
have too much growth, no morebusinesses should be allowed, we
should not issue any morebuilding permits.
Blah, have too much growth, nomore businesses should be
allowed, we should not issue anymore building permits.
Blah, blah, blah.
That's someone who's chasingvotes, who will say whatever
they want to, just try to grabany vote they can, because if
they can get into office thenthey can do good things right.
Well, you know what Selling yoursoul is.
That doesn't benefit anyone.
Stick to who you are, beauthentic, stick to who you are.
(51:45):
So I tell that to candidates,and that same applies for just
citizens.
Like when you talk to someone,ask those questions that are
important to you, and if theanswer doesn't mesh with you,
that doesn't mean the otherperson's evil.
Yeah, I think we need to getthat out of our head Absolutely
yeah, it's so crazy nowadaysthat the concept is if you don't
(52:06):
look, act or think like me,it's not that we're different,
it's your evil.
And that's just the wrong placeto be.
Speaker 1 (52:13):
Yeah, yeah.
What was the best thing aboutbeing mayor?
Speaker 2 (52:25):
favorite part?
Not think I know my favoritepart about being mayor was how I
got to work with kids so much Imade it a point to really
really try to empower youth andshow them how powerful they
really are.
I've had the privilege ofspeaking at every single school
in Parker except for one, andalmost every school in Douglas
County and even some schools inDenver County and Arapahoe
County and others.
(52:45):
Wow.
Everything from kindergartenthrough high school.
One of my favorite ones was Iwas invited to a kindergarten
program here in Parker, andthere's a book that I used to
read to my boys when they werelittle called Duck for President
.
Speaker 1 (52:59):
Okay, have you ever heard of this book?
Yes, it's the one that has allthe animals right in the farm.
Speaker 2 (53:04):
Yeah, the duck decides he doesn't like the fact
that the farmer does this.
So the duck wants to run forthe and the duck eventually
becomes president.
You know, it's just such a cutelittle book, right?
Well, they didn't know thatthat was one of my favorite
books to read, read my kids, andthis kindergarten had me in and
the funny part is when I wouldtalk to high schoolers you could
have high schoolers attentionfor an hour hour and a half,
(53:25):
tops right Kindergarteners.
You got about five minutesright and then they're gone
right.
So it was such a cool way theyset it up.
The whole thing was for me tocome in and read Duck for
President to the kids and thenthey set up voting that day for
the kids on what their who,their mascot was going to be for
the classroom and what snackthey were going to have that day
Nice.
(53:46):
But the kids would have toindividually go to the teacher
to register to vote and thenthey would take their ballot for
each of those two and put it inthere and that would decide
what was going to happen thatday.
And I still have the book.
The kids all signed the bookand they wrote this wonderful
thing on it for me.
But sitting there reading thisbook to the kids, I mean it
actually brought me to tears,thinking of reading to my boys
(54:08):
and seeing how engaged theselittles were for five minutes
until it was time to vote.
But that kind of experienceworking with the kids and
showing them that their electedofficials, even their mayor, is
not the most important person inthe room.
I say this to people all thetime, including elected
officials, at any point in timeif you're a mayor, you are the
(54:31):
least important person in anyroom Because any perceived power
you think you have is a giftgiven to you by your citizens.
You didn't earn that.
All you did was win a popularitycontest.
That's all it is right.
So, understanding, you know,helping these youth understand
(54:51):
their role in government andtheir role as just humans, how
powerful they really are.
So that was the best part ofbeing mayor.
Speaker 1 (55:00):
Oh, that's good.
Speaker 2 (55:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (55:01):
This has been so good .
This has brought so many thingsup that I had no idea I've
enjoyed our time so much.
Speaker 2 (55:08):
Absolutely it's my pleasure Anytime.
As you can tell, I love to talk, so I apologize if.
I rambled too much, oh no.
Speaker 1 (55:13):
I do like to end with three things.
What is your favorite Bibleverse or story?
Speaker 2 (55:18):
Sure Well so actually I'm going to pull it up here
because I'm always bad aboutremembering exact wording and
scripture numbers, so myfavorite is Matthew 6, 17.
And it's.
But when you fast, anoint yourhead and wash your face so that
you may not appear to others tobe fasting, except to your
father, who is hidden, and yourfather, who sees what is hidden,
(55:41):
will repay you.
I think that's something associety we need to learn, we
need to remember.
It's not about bragging onyourself.
It's not about showing I'm thebest Catholic that's out there
and I'm fasting, or I have myashes on my forehead on Ash
Wednesday early in the morningso everyone during the day can
see it and know that I'm abetter Catholic than they are.
(56:02):
It's not about that.
It's about being humble.
It's about answering toyourself and to God of how you
are improving our world.
It's not about bragging orshowboating or having the right
filter or the right angle whenyou take your picture, or the
right number of friends or theright number of streams or
followers or any of that.
It's about being a good human,and you don that.
(56:24):
It's about being a good human,and you don't have to brag about
being a good human.
Just be a good human.
Speaker 1 (56:29):
That's good.
No one has ever brought up thatparticular verse.
Speaker 2 (56:33):
There we go.
I'm a trendsetter.
Speaker 1 (56:35):
What are you grateful for?
Speaker 2 (56:37):
Right now.
I'm grateful this week,specifically in my new role as
the executive director of CafeMomentum Denver.
Specifically in my new role asthe executive director of Cafe
Momentum Denver, we are arestaurant that will be opening
up, where we bring justiceinvolved, youth, so kids 15 to
19 who have just been releasedfrom jail.
We bring them in and teach themhow to run front of house, back
of house, give them life skills, pay them on a year Long paid
(57:00):
internship all this this week Iwas blessed to bring in
internship.
All this this week I was blessedto bring in 10 of our
ambassadors from other statesand these are youth who've been
through the program in otherstates, who are successful in
life and are leading andinspiring other kids.
So I brought in 10 of them thisweek to meet with kids who are
currently incarcerated inColorado in the metro area, to
(57:25):
show them where our new home isgoing to be in Denver, the place
that our restaurant is going tobe open and our community
center is going to be.
And then I got to take them toRed Rocks yesterday for a hike.
Oh, fun and so these kids arefrom Dallas, from Atlanta, from
Nashville, I think.
All except for one of them havenever been above 1,000 feet
above sea level and hearingtheir questions and getting to
(57:47):
talk to them and just learnabout them as humans.
These are all kids who've beenin jail, who've made mistakes.
One of them had been in jail 19times before he entered the
program.
Wow.
He was originally from Cameroon.
He was originally from Cameroonand the system is set up to not
(58:08):
allow these kids to get outonce they get in.
Our juvenile justice system isbroken.
That's just the reality of it,and this program has taken these
kids who were on a path ofself-destruction and destruction
to others and have turned theminto the most amazing leaders
you will ever see.
There's one of them that wasthere that I didn't know the
(58:30):
story of her.
While she was working in therestaurant, they did a pop-up
dinner and she didn't know it,but the president and CEO of the
company that owns Taco BellKentucky Fried Chicken Pizza Hut
I think it's called Yum Brandsor something like that anyway
happened to be one of thepatrons that day and he was so
impressed with her that he andhis wife paid for her college.
(58:53):
Oh, wow.
There was another gentlemannamed Cameron, who's in
Nashville.
He actually left the programearly, I believe, because while
he was in the program at adinner a local restaurateur who
owns a bunch of very successfulrestaurants in Tennessee was
there, was so impressed by him,offered him a job as a chef on
the spot and he still to thisday currently works for this guy
(59:16):
.
Speaker 1 (59:16):
Wow so these.
Speaker 2 (59:17):
You know, there's a young lady named I'm Unique and
I love it because her name is Iapostrophe Munique, but if you
said I'm unique that's her nameher name that she was given.
She was incarcerated as well andnow she is uh, she is a junior
in college and she is a youthleader at her school in in
(59:38):
Dallas and she has.
They have created the I'munique fund and it's a program
to help fund, to help kids geton track when they've made bad
decisions.
So these are humans that madevery poor decisions, were
incarcerated and found a pathout of the system through Cafe
(59:58):
Momentum.
So for me this week, theyinspired me getting to hang out
with these amazing humans.
Speaker 1 (01:00:04):
That's so cool.
Yeah, we'll have to link thatin the show notes.
And this is exactly what we'retalking about mostly, for this
whole thing is what kindnesshave you shown or what kindness
have you seen from someone inthe last week?
Speaker 2 (01:00:18):
Well, honestly, watching the kindness from our
ambassadors, when we were at theFoote Juvenile Detention Center
here in Arapahoe County, theybrought in some currently
incarcerated youth to meet withour ambassadors and we had a
screening.
We have a documentary that wasdone about Cafe Momentum.
They were doing a screening ofthe documentary.
(01:00:40):
You know how earlier I talkedabout turning someone from
invisible to visible atdisneyland.
So, as they're bringing inthese youth to meet with our
ambassadors and the way they putit is some of their situations
are very hot, so they have tothey're spaced out, they have to
be very cautious ofinteractions from different,
(01:01:01):
from kids, because for violenceand all this kind of stuff.
So as they all are brought in,you can sense this bravado, this
you know I'm I'm a tough kid.
You know kind of stuff sittingat angles in their chair and you
know not really making I kindof all this kind of stuff.
So as they're bringing them in,all of a sudden a couple of the
ambassadors who are in theirown kind of section stand up and
(01:01:22):
walk over to them, start, startshaking their hands, look them
in the eye, go hi, I'm so-and-so, what's your name?
And then all the ambassadorscame over and started doing that
and you saw you could thepalpable feeling in the room of
the tension just going away.
And what happened?
They were seen.
These youth acknowledged thatthese are humans sitting there.
(01:01:45):
They're not only going to beknown as criminals.
They're not only going to beknown as someone who's done
something wrong.
They're a human that deservesto be loved and respected and
acknowledged.
And just that little handshakeand eye contact changed these
humans and you could see it infront of you.
Such an inspirational moment.
(01:02:06):
I wish we obviously weren'tallowed to record anything.
I wish we could have recordedthat.
Because it just brought it.
It made your heart swell seeingit, so that was mine.
Speaker 1 (01:02:16):
That's so good.
Thank you for your time.
Speaker 2 (01:02:18):
Absolutely, I've so enjoyed getting to know, you my
pleasure.
Speaker 1 (01:02:22):
So many tidbits just for myself in this.
Speaker 2 (01:02:25):
Wonderful, wonderful.
I'm always appreciative ofpeople like you, who want to
gather and just talk about waysto make our world better.
So thank you for all you'redoing.
Speaker 1 (01:02:36):
Thank you Well remember.
On Ordinary People,extraordinary Things, your story
is his glory.
Thank you for joining OrdinaryPeople Extraordinary Things.
I hope that this podcast wasimpactful for you.
I will see you in two weeks fora brand new episode of Faith
and Hope.
Don't forget to give us afive-star rating and write a
review so that others can findOrdinary People, extraordinary
(01:02:59):
Things.
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