Episode 51- Tim McLaughlin

Episode 51 features Lourdes alum Tim McLaughlin. Tim tells us about his time at OLOL and his current career at Blink Advertising.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
We are live July 15th, 2025 hereon Facebook, right Christiana
back with Mr. Tim McLaughlin, class of 1984 from Our Lady of
Lords Regional School. Tim, how's July treating you?
July is treating us good. Did a little, little early
vacation over the 4th of July. We go down to, we're out here in

(00:20):
Pittsburgh, so we go down to Deep Creek, Maryland, about a 2
hour drive, little little lake house and do nothing for a week.
So, so it was, it was good startand then back now.
And you know, our our work this time of the year it's a little
iffy. You're trying to track people
down and people off on vacation.So usually August things start

(00:43):
to RIP it and RIP it and get back at it.
So. Yeah, for sure.
And Tim, you're keeping busy. Can you tell everyone what's
been going on for you the last however long?
Yeah, Yeah. No, it's been.
Yeah, quite, quite right. Yeah.
You know, we left the left the the greater smoking area.
I mean, come out here to Pittsburgh.
Went to University of Pittsburghback in 84 through 89, got

(01:07):
quickly into the marketing. I mean, my degrees in exercise
Physiology, but just, you know, career terms and got into
marketing and advertising and new Sprint way back in the early
90s and really kind of fell in love with it.
It, it matched my personality, it matched the, what I'd like to
do. The money was good, you know, so

(01:29):
everything about it. So I, I've, I've never left
since 1990 and, and, and, you know, so bounced around, worked
in print and then was in cable TV for quite some time.
And then about 15 years years ago ventured out on my own open
an agency Blink advertising. And we've been we've been at it

(01:51):
out here. I mean, we serve a wide range,
not just Western Pennsylvania. We, you know, cover our
tentacles, cover a couple other States and employees scattered
throughout the country. So, so yeah.
So we're, yeah, we're keeping atit and keeping busy and trying
to navigate this new, this new environment.
Man, it's, it's interesting. Every day I'm, I'm taking more,

(02:14):
I pay attention now more than I ever did at Our Lady of Lourdes.
I can tell you that I'm I'm learning every day, taking
classes, tutorials to try to keep keep ahead of the curve.
It's good stuff, Tim, And I meanyou, you said working in print
advertising now in digital advertising.
Can you tell some of the youngerpeople watching us what it was
like working in print advertising?

(02:34):
Oh, I mean, it was so we were a direct mail publication, you
know, went out to about 800,000 homes here in Western
Pennsylvania. And, you know, it was, you know,
you're tucking magazines under your arm, knocking on doors,
getting, you know, copy from people.
Look, going back, laying out ads, you know, going back,

(02:57):
showing them collecting money. I mean, it was mucking and
grinding. When they say guerrilla
marketing boots on the ground, Imean, that's what we did.
You know, quick on your feet, you had to think quickly.
You were making call after call and you know, but it was, it was
fun. It was, it was every business
year, you're talking to a furniture store, then you're
talking to a car dealer and you're talking to a pizza shop

(03:18):
and you're talking to a financial planner.
You know, I love the, the variety of of that.
You know, Tran, you know, Fast forward to today, this is 90% of
what I do. You're on zoom call people, you
know, a half a mile away. They're like, let's jump on a
Zoom call. Let's do it.
We, you know, need to do and, you know, and just being able to

(03:39):
conduct business. I think we mentioned a little
bit before we got people scattered throughout the
country. So it gives you, you know, a
wider array of talent that you can pull.
And if somebody, we've had a couple of our folks that, you
know, lived, lived here and wanted to relocate, who cares?
You know, I mean, go ahead, as long as you're available and do
good work, you know, it doesn't matter where you live.

(04:01):
So, so, yeah, but that it's, it's and the speed of what
things changed now, you know, I always joke when I talk to our,
our clients, especially in the digital world, I'm like, listen,
all I ask is don't hold me accountable for what I'm saying
to you today, because in four months from now, it's going to
be different, you know what I mean?

(04:22):
So you just have to, you have towork with us and, and we'll work
with you. And, and as you know coming, you
know, being in the, you know, inthe media side for that little
bit, it just changes rapidly. Yeah.
Tim, what are some of the hot trends right now in digital
digital? So it's, you know, I mean, it's,
there's, there's a lot, you know, one of the, one of the
things that is really, really hot now, you know, I mean,

(04:44):
obviously the AI stuff is, is just mind boggling.
And we're trying to find, you know, that balance.
You know, we've, we've always embraced tools.
AI is a tool. And, you know, so for us, it's,
it's, it's finding that balance,you know, what people are paying
for our years of expertise and our ability to be able to, you
know, creatively think and offerthe services and the things that

(05:06):
we do, not just going to chat, say, hey, here's what we want.
Anybody can do that, you know, but I, I, I liken it to go into
your doctor. And if your doctor gives you a
list of all your blood work, yeah, he's being able to do that
faster. But you, as you know, Brian, you
don't know what that means. So, yeah, you can get the data,
you can get the information, andwe do too.
But what does that mean? How does it fit into the to the

(05:29):
big picture? And, and we spend most of our
time, you know, on, on that side, the strategy, you know,
customer personas trying to understand that.
The nice part is that the, the, the AI platforms have allowed us
to do some of the, you know, theadministrative work and the

(05:49):
others part a little bit quicker.
So if we're going to spend 5 hours on something, instead of
spending, you know, 3 hours thinking and two hours doing,
we're now be able to spend 4 hours thinking and an hour
doing, you know, because we're, we're putting more of our brain
trust to the thinking. But one of the cool things
that's coming out now, you know,I mean, you know, where when you

(06:10):
go on Google, you know, your Instagram posts are now going to
basically supersede and become as part of the search.
So if you're, if you're an influencer or you have a good
following or whatever else it isthat's going to, for that,
that's just going to pop right in there as, as a searchable,
findable, you know, item that what, what folks are, are

(06:31):
looking for. So, so taking what clients do
from a marketing and advertisingperspective and integrating all
these social platforms and managing that so they can be
found and searched, you know, is, is, is pretty cool.
It's pretty cool to be able to do that.
You know, one of the other really neat things and I, I can

(06:51):
share it with you, you can pass it on to your listeners.
You know, we have, we made a couple acquisitions throughout
the years and one was most recent about a year ago.
And with it came some technologyand it's a hyper targeted Geo
fencing tool that allows, you know, smaller businesses or
somebody who wants to maybe reach out and, and reach a

(07:13):
business that might have 30 locations.
You know, say, if you're an outside sales Rep for, you know,
for Clear Channel or for somebody else and say, I want to
be in front of these 30 different furniture stores, you
know, and how do I get my name in front of them?
You know, you could be right. You could do old school direct
mail, you could drive your car, you can knock on them, or you
can put a little Geo targeted adjust around their business.

(07:36):
Hyper targeted. So, so you can do that in 30-40
different locations for, you know, 5-6 bucks a day.
You know, you can do stuff like that, that you're able to really
hyper target. So that way somebody, anybody
who's in that place, you know, everybody's using their phone
for Geo location services. 100% right.
You know, I mean, even if they have it turned off, then your ad
doesn't see him. So that's that's a pretty cool

(07:59):
that's a pretty cool advancementthat we're seeing and a lot of
people using it. Yeah, it's called QJAM, a little
neat little tool that we so. Yeah, that is pretty neat.
And I mean, it's so crazy how these companies are able to
target people. I mean, like you said, working
in the radio field, we were ableto target be people based off of
their, you know, just what they listen to with the iHeartRadio
app. And it's wild.

(08:20):
It is wild. Now you guys are able to target
and find customers for your clients.
Yeah, yeah. And that's what we do.
And it's the that's, it's funny,it's the constant refinement.
You know, we, you know, we, we, we send out ads, we gather data,
we revise and we redeploy, you know, and then we do it again
and again and again. Because as you know, those

(08:42):
algorithms always get smarter, you know, and it gets your
message in front of people and then continually going after,
you know, new opportunities while still trying to keep, you
know, your, your old regular faithful.
But then, you know, traditional media hasn't died.
We do a lot of traditional media.
We do a lot of outdoor and radioand traditional broadcast

(09:03):
television, cable TV. There's still a lot of people,
you know, Western Pennsylvania is still a traditional market in
a lot of ways. So, so it's a blend of the two
and that's always, it's always afun part.
That you honestly answer my nextquestion about traditional media
and do you do you feel that it'sgoing to still continue, it's in
the trend of traditional media still going to go up?

(09:25):
Is it going to go down in your opinion?
What's your thoughts on? I think, you know, there's
always, you know, the entertainment value of it and
live, live TV and live sports, you're not going to, you're not
going to reply. You know, people will, people
will. They'll binge their Netflix
show. They'll watch all that stuff.
They'll hold down for a weekend.But when the Steeler games on or

(09:48):
the Eagles game on or the Phillies games on, they don't,
yeah, they can watch the highlights later.
But if you're a fan, you're going to be part of it.
And that's, I don't know. I don't know if that's ever
going to. And, you know, so there's all
the ancillary stuff that comes with it, but you know, with all
these other platforms, all the streaming platforms, you know,
we're, we can message in front of them and you know, you look

(10:08):
at these little devices too, youknow, I mean, that's, that's
where it blends the two together.
But we see the best results whenthere's a blend of traditional
and digital together. Digital works great by itself.
Digital or traditional works great by itself.
We see some clients that just venture into both those worlds,

(10:29):
but when the two weave together,that's where we see the greatest
results. Tim, what's your thoughts on and
you brought up sports and a new way that teams are making money
with advertising is they're starting to put logos on the gym
floor or maybe on the uniforms. Did you ever think did you ever
think that ever be the? Case, you know, I, I never, I

(10:50):
never thought, you know, I mean NASCAR has been doing that for,
you know, you know, and and I'm not a big soccer guy, but I
know, you know, soccer's, you know, always has logos and stuff
on it. WNBA, you know, they've embraced
it. I would love, you know, I'm a
big sports guy. I go to a lot of sporting events

(11:10):
out here. I would love if they're going to
do that if my team had a logo onit.
I would love if it somehow lowered the cost of my my entry
to get into the stadium. Well, if, if, if that, but if
that's not going to be the case,then why do it?
You know, I mean, to give the team more revenue and, you know,
you know, pay these, you know, pretty exorbitant salaries for
the players. But the, the cost, I mean, the,

(11:34):
the cost is, it's getting there.It's it's getting cost
prohibitive. I mean, I, you know, I'm not
bragging, but I, I do OK. And I, I revisit, you know, the
amount that, and games that I can go to and spend and
whatever, because it's just starting to bump up there.
And, and it's, it's a, it's a cost to go to, to check to

(11:54):
these, to check these games out,you know, in person, which I
love, you know, for entertainment for, you know,
networking and just reconnectingwith buddy.
Yeah, you're 100% right. And I mean, now it seems like a
lot more people are going to like minor league events because
they're still somewhat affordable.
I mean, just take your family out.
Kind kind of like Knoebels, honestly.
Yeah, yeah. And I mean.

(12:15):
It's just crazy how much these concerts and events, I mean,
Taylor Swift, her concerts, WWE,they were just in the news for
how much they're charging. It's wild.
We, we, they were just out here in Pittsburgh and I had a client
reach out to us about asking about getting some tickets.
And, you know, the good old days, every media outlet was a

(12:35):
media sponsor. I could get tickets anytime I
wanted. Those days are over, you know,
So we're buying them. We're trying to find creative
ways to, you know, get them in there.
But yeah, you know, it's, it's easy.
You can drop thousand 1500 bucksto get a couple of people to go
to an event easily. Easily.
Yeah. It's wild, it really is.
And Tim, Pittsburgh, can you tell us a little bit about

(12:57):
Pittsburgh? I've personally never been
there. What's it like living out in
Western PA? So I'll tell you, Brian, so the
funniest thing, you know, you know, listen, I came, we had a
couple 100 kids in our class. I was, I mean, my first lecture
when I came to University of Pittsburgh, there was 410 kids
in, in our one lecture. And I was like, what the heck
did I get myself into? You know, I mean, coming from a

(13:19):
small little coal mine in town and coming out here.
But the thing that I loved aboutPittsburgh and the people that
know about it is it is so community and I would say
ethnic, diverse and broken up that it's, it's not a big city.
It's like 20 little Shamokins next to each other.
So you have. Yeah.

(13:40):
And that's the thing. Like I live in this little
community called Aspinwall. My office is a mile away that's
called Sharpsburg. I could take a 3 minute walk and
I'm up into O'Hara Township or Fox Chapel or Indiana Township.
I mean, we go across the bridge to where you know, my good.
But Joey, Joey Witt, you know, Joey Witt and I see each other
all the time. Joey Witt lives 15 minutes away.

(14:01):
That's another little community.And, you know, they all have
their local fiefdoms, their little local governments, local
police forces and, you know, which is good and bad.
You know, there's a lot of ways to that.
And, you know, you know how thatis and where municipalities
might make sense to, you know, join forces.
But that's what I loved about it.
You know, you got the little town, You know, listen, we grew

(14:21):
up in the time where I grew up in the 80s, you know?
Yeah. The Polish church.
You have the Irish church. You had the Italian church.
And that's how Pittsburgh is very diverse, ethnically diverse
areas that still ring true. You know, there's Greek festival
days, there's a tout Little Italy days.
There's, you know, the Irish festival, you know, a, a strong,

(14:43):
you know, things that we didn't have growing up.
You know, there's, you know, youknow, obviously a pretty large
African American policy or population out here.
And you know, a big Jewish population, Asian, you know,
Carnegie Mellon is close by a big, you know, a big Asian
population. We didn't grow up.
I mean, we didn't, we weren't seeing that in the 80s in
Shamokin, PA. So, so it's just awesome to have

(15:05):
all, you know, and with it, it'sbringing all these neat food
places too. I mean, the food scene in
Pittsburgh is off the chart. Love it, Love it.
Yeah. Yeah, It's permanis.
Oh, yeah. I have two permanis within, you
know, easy, short driving distance.
You know, three of them, actually.
Yeah, Yeah, Permanis is good stuff.
Yeah, I mean that's that's awesome stuff.

(15:26):
And I mean, you brought up Shamoj and some of the heritages
and the food that's back here. I mean, Tim, it's awesome.
Some of the food over here. You can definitely agree.
I'm. Sure.
Listen, my mom, God, God bless her, she just turned 95 and she
goes over to Transfig in Ukrainian and they make the the

(15:47):
the pierogies, they'll make the Easter eggs, you know, at that
time of the year. And I have friends out here,
Joey and his wife, that I alwaysget an order for the place for
the Easter egg and the pierogiesand and everything else that
goes on. So.
So yeah, you can't. You can't beat good old coal
region. Ethnic food, Yeah.

(16:09):
Definitely, and I mean coal region's very unique and
obviously one of the main reasons why we are here today is
good ol O lol yeah. Can you tell us about your OLOL
experience? I'll tell you I loved it.
I mean, I I'm, I don't know why.I mean, I'm one of those guys.
I loved high school. I go back, you know, I go back
to that time again any, any day.It was just, it was a great

(16:31):
experience, you know, great friends, you know, we grew up
together kind of as little rivals.
You know, when you have St. Kashmir and St.
Stan's and St. Ed's and West Catholic and, you
know, Saint Mary's and Holy Spirit, you know, all the, you
know, we grew up kind of, you know, you know, playing against
each other. And then all of a sudden now

(16:51):
we're all on the same team. And you know, so, so that was,
that was always good. You know, I mean, listen, the
education, I mean, for what whatwe had, I, I felt prepared, you
know, coming out to a big campuslike University of Pittsburgh,
you know, and I know things get a little bit tougher, you know,

(17:12):
and getting the economics over overtime, you know, for, you
know, private school, whether you call it a Catholic school,
whatever one, it becomes a little bit, a little bit
tougher. And I know the challenges, you
know, that Lords and Shamo can face back that way, but I
wouldn't change it for anything.I've still, I mean, half of my
connections and people that I see and connect with and talk to

(17:35):
are still from high school and growing up.
I come back and visit my mom usually for about four or five
days once a month. And when I come back, it's like
a little mini reunion all the time, you know, whether it be at
Covered Bridge or at, you know, over at Oliver's, that's another
little go to, you know, the Coney's always there.

(17:56):
But our heritage, you know, so many good, so many good places
now to go and hang out and reconnect with Shore.
You brought up Joey Wet, who aresome other people that you were
close with in high school you play sports with?
Yeah, Joey Witt, you know one, he'll again lives out here.
He and he's been out and he wentto Duquesne, he went to
Susquehanna and went to Duquesnefor physical therapy.

(18:18):
He's been out in Western Pennsylvania and Pittsburgh area
for quite some time, too. You know, Joey Sandry, you know,
it's still keeping top of Joey Sandry with Steve.
Steve Mashieski, Greg, you know,you're.
Yeah, Greg, you know, and then, you know, and then Robbie

(18:38):
Tedisco, you know, he had that, you know, T, as we call them.
He had that horrific car crash about 10, almost now, 11 years
ago. And he and I, he was in my
wedding, I was in his and you know, it was, it was a tough go
for him for a little bit, but heand while Eddie was shoot up,
you know, another blast from thepast.

(19:02):
Eddie's kind of the voice of everything back there,
everything. You can't go anywhere without
running to Eddie. So we've we've kind of become
the the de facto social group for Robbie Tedisco and T comes
out here, We go to football games, basketball games, hockey
games, baseball games. Eddie takes him down.

(19:22):
He went down to would see young Bobby Chesney down at JMU.
They want to go do them. Yeah, you know when he was at at
his other place. So.
Yeah, so still a lot of great. I mean and I'm leaving a ton of
other people out I connect with or see when I get back for sure.
Tim, can you tell us about Lordsbasketball when you were there?
I mean, always a powerhouse. And basketball, you, you were a

(19:43):
part of it. Go ahead.
Yeah, yeah. That was such a good time
obviously there with Coach McKay, which myself, Greg and
Steve Mashieski reconnected withCoach one or two times when I
was back had lunch up at 2 guys and yeah, just talking about
those those days. I mean, that was just good.

(20:03):
I mean, talk about a just a feeder program.
You know, my dad, you know, obviously CYO got, you know, you
know that with with your pap andyour dad and uncle, you know,
all playing. And that was just such a good,
good feeder program. Those CYO to to bring it up in
the Lords, you know, I mean, I was an OK player.

(20:23):
And but when you started bringing everybody from all
those other schools, I just lovebeing part of the team, you
know, You know, giving Coach McKay or run for his money every
town and you know, so but it wasit was good time and good
basketball. I mean, my senior year we were
we were state final four. That was that infamous going up

(20:44):
over the mountain when the bus got stuck and you and your
cousin Greg, we ended up slidingdown in our, you know, dress
shoes halfway down the mountain till the bus could get down
there. They made us get off the bus,
walk down. We were going to down somewhere
in Harrisburg to play the lone Catholic and didn't end up, we
didn't, we're end up on the wrong side of it.
And they, he gave us no grace, man.

(21:05):
We got there about 10 minutes before tip off.
We were still getting dressed inthe locker room while the game
was started, you know, because we got, we got the five starters
out in the court right away. It was still a close game.
But yeah, that was, yeah, that was some good times back then,
sure. So then from OLOL out to
Pittsburgh University, I know you talked a little bit about it
earlier. Tell us what it's like being a

(21:26):
Pit Panther man. Yeah.
You know, it's it like anything that has its challenges.
I mean, they've had their moments, you know, and with this
landscape of NIL and everything else that goes in, you know, I'm
a pretty big supporter to university and I attend a fair
amount of their events and, you know, get to talk to the coaches

(21:46):
and all that kind of stuff. I like the direction.
I was always proud, you know, you know, Pitt always, you know,
they always had recruited good kids.
They were, you know, good athletes.
They good in the community, you know, and and you know, it's a
good feeder program for for the NFL now, even the NBA.
We got a couple kids going in there, always perform well that

(22:08):
they perform better in the NFL than they did when they were at
Pitt. You know, you get Larry Fitz,
Aaron, you know Aaron Donald, you get, I mean every running
back between Shady McCoy and oh.Yeah, James.
Connor, Connor and Curtis, Curtis Martin, you know, I mean,
you go back and got guys all over, you know, all over the
place playing now and a ton of like interior alignments between

(22:31):
OTA and Solinsky and all those guys, you know, a lot of a lot
of good players, but they never seem to quite just get it where
they needed to on the field, youknow, at Pitt.
But Henry, you know, I mean, forget Henry.
Yeah, I mean, Heidel left Pitt and went out and won himself a
stable. So it's.
Awesome. I never I again University of
Pitt. Great place.

(22:51):
I mean, it's a big time in Pitt right now.
Aaron Rodgers is in town. Yeah, yeah, he's doing a he's,
you know, he's an interesting, interesting character too.
But for sure, man, he has taken Will Rod, Will Howard, sorry,
under his under his wing. I don't know if I, you know,
from the personal side of it, maybe not.
But from a football side, if I'mthat kid, I'm going to listen to

(23:13):
everything Aaron Rodgers tellingme.
So. So we'll see.
Yeah, we'll see what Steeler football, but that's going to
be. Yeah, it's a rebuild time for
the Pens right now. Yeah.
I'm, I'm kind of excited though,I mean, as an employee for
technically also the welts, welts bear baby pens.
Mm, Hmm. We're very excited.
It's a very exciting time. Yeah, it's gonna take time.
And now, you know, we just heardnow.

(23:34):
I mean, it's been kind of brewing for a while about Mario
and and Buckle, those guys stepping back in from an
ownership level would be nice. You know, I hated to see Sully
go. I mean, he was a good, he was
just a good guy, good coach. But you know, when you don't
make the playoffs three years ina row with with the roster like
that, sometimes everybody just needs a new voice.
So yeah. Yeah, and I mean, how long do

(23:57):
you think we're going to have Sid the kid?
Boy, I think and I think maybe two more, I think they
everybody's saying this is goingto be Malkin swansong, you know,
and then who knows with Latang, But I think Sid, I think Sid
thinks he has and he does look how look at the level he played
last year. I think he hasn't he has, he
knows he has some gas in the tank and just a great ambassador

(24:19):
for the for the team and for thecommunity.
I mean, he's the kind of guy you, you know, and.
Final athlete, I'll ask you about thoughts on Paul Skeens.
Dude, I'll tell you you so my again, taking my buddy Robbie,
you know, when we go there and he was at a skeens game and he
was like, like it hit. You can hear it differently.
You know, he's blind and and we're sitting, you know, right

(24:40):
up in the club seats looking right down over it.
And man, when that ball pops, it's it's a it's a whole
different. It's a whole different kind of
Game Boy, I wish they could get him some runs.
You know, that would be, you know, that would be that would
be nice. But I'm kind of glad I know
people, some people were kind ofroughing up the fact that he's

(25:02):
starting the All Star game. I mean, how do you not start
the, I mean, he's 4, you know, 4:00 and 8:00.
But what is A1? It was 198.
Yeah. Yeah, low twos now I think yeah,
you got you can't look past the wins when they're not getting or
not getting support, right. I hope that you know, they were
just talking about the commissioner MLB saying like

(25:22):
this and we got it, we got it. We got to change his system here
so these these other team can doit.
I mean, other teams have done it.
Pirates are just and nutting is cheap, you know, so and hasn't
built around getting some bats. So so we'll see.
But I go, I go to pirate games. Beautiful stadium.
You ever want to come out? That stadium is it's just a
beautiful, it's a beautiful evening to watch a game.

(25:44):
Yeah, I heard it. I heard it's awesome out there.
I mean, it's it's beautiful stadium, Pirates, Steelers,
Pens, I mean, Pittsburgh right now it's just it seems like it's
it's only gonna get better from here as a.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Can be sure, yeah.
So Tim, you brought up, you go back to Shamogam once in a
while. We had your brother on a little
bit ago, but your brother's really getting involved in the

(26:05):
city of. Shamoka Oh yeah, yeah.
Thoughts on it as an outside? I don't want to say an outsider,
but someone you know. Yeah, I'll tell you, you know,
where, where Shamoka was 10 years ago.
I mean, 10 years ago. I mean, I came back just to see
my mom. I mean, there was nothing.
I mean, there was nothing going on.
And, you know, and that didn't happen overnight, you know, that

(26:27):
that that happened just because things were neglected and
ignored, you know, and all the things that, you know, my, my
brother and everybody else trying to address.
And they are addressing it now. I love coming back.
I mean, you got food choices. Yeah, sure.
There's blight and garbage and other stuff.
Yeah. You know, yeah.
I mean, but you got to have a plan.

(26:48):
You got to keep places from getting to that point.
But you know, a lot of times, you know, I mean, I read sound
off. I don't know why I, you know,
punish myself. I read sound off and some of the
Facebook groups and, and I don'tmean this disrespectfully, but
the majority of the people commenting really don't
understand, unfortunately, how local government works.
You can't just go in and take somebody's property.

(27:10):
You can't just go and say and find them.
You can find them and they ignore it.
And it's a, it's a sometimes A2 year process.
You know, again, I was a local government out here.
We were fortunate in our community.
We didn't, we have very, very and a lot of it was you never
let him get that way. You know, you, you kind of got
to squeeze some of the people, the out of town property owners,
you know, there's, there's, there's all those kind of

(27:31):
factors going in, but you got tostart somewhere.
You know, some people expect that you're just going to clean
the whole town up. It didn't happen overnight.
It's not going to be cleaned up overnight.
So yeah, there's a lot, they gota lot going on.
You got home rule coming up, youknow, which is, you know, it's,
it's, you know, there's a lot ofa lot of people on both sides of
that fence, you know, bringing our points up to what it is.

(27:52):
But, you know, it's one way or the other.
It's either the state takes overand gives you a loan and you got
to pay him back pretty quickly, or you keep it under the control
of of the local folks. But, you know, if I'm a local
resident, I'm saying with it's been under control the local
folks and they've proven that they haven't been good stewards
of the community, you know, the budget and everything else.
You know, my brother, I know my brother and he's not going to

(28:13):
get involved if they're not going to try to make efforts and
make those changes and do it. But he can't do it by himself,
you know? Yeah, I just hope no matter who
wins that election, they got to work together.
You got to put all the other BS aside.
It's Caddy. It's childish, you know, You
just got to put it aside and getand get well.
I've always, I've always trustedyour brother.
He's a good guy. He, he lives and breathes that

(28:36):
area. I mean, I remember years ago and
I was like, dude, you got to getout of there, You know, I mean,
just, you know, go do something.And man, he, he stuck it out,
grand it out and no. And now he's in a position
where, you know, he can, he can hopefully make a bigger impact
than he has. And there's a it was a good
ground. Like, you know, my Sean, my
nephew's back there. He taking a, you know, that's
what you need. You need guys like you.

(28:57):
I mean, you know, I mean, you don't need 5960 some year olds
like us back there. Yeah, we can help.
But seeing some of that youth movement and when I go back, I
see some classmates, I see theirkids there.
I love to see it. I'm glad to see they have
opportunity to stay there. You know, there's, there's a lot
going on. You know, AOAI know some people
can it can be a little bit of a lightning rod, you know, a
blink. We do a ton of tourism, you

(29:20):
know, work for Happy Valley, youknow, boy, for a pick guy, I
spent a lot of time in State College area.
It's tough sometimes. Yeah, yeah.
And you know, we do like Happy Valley Agritourism and Happy
Valley Visitor Bureau. I mean, the things and stuff
that we do just to bring that tourism in, you know, I mean,
there's only so much the local community can do to support

(29:41):
itself. When you bring in those outside
dollars, those people tend to come in, that's vacation for
them. They're spending, you know,
they're going to the restaurants, you know, gets to
hopefully some lodging. Can, you know that Brap house,
you know what he's trying to do there?
That's pretty impressive. So yeah, another classmate, Dane
York, moves this place down, youknow, down right next to the
Coney, you know, the champion. Yeah, they're going to be doing

(30:02):
that. So love seeing all of it.
Love seeing all of it. So, so yeah, keep.
I mean, I, I do my part when I'mback, you know, try to be a
cheerleader for the area. You know, I talked to Justin
Bainbridge, you know, every now and then, you know, I try to, if
I see good ideas in another community or municipality, you
know, I mean, I'm fortunate thatI, I have maybe a little bit

(30:23):
more exposure and, you know, maybe somebody back there, all I
can do is introduce them to it and say, hey, here's something
that's going on out here, take alook at it and share some ideas.
So. Good stuff man.
Yeah, yeah. Good stuff.
Yeah. They're getting there.
They're getting there. I'm.
I'm excited for the direction it's going.
It's going to take a while. You know, I may not see it all
happen, but you know, it'll be nice.

(30:43):
It'll be nice. We just need good people.
I think that's a big thing, Justhaving good people who genuinely
care. Like you said, that's huge.
Yep, Yep, sure does. Sure.
So, Tim, final couple questions for you just before we call it.
First question is more or less on the professional side, what
advice would you have a young person wanting to get into the
advertising marketing? You know, it's so funny, and

(31:06):
that's a great question. And I tell this I do a fair
amount of mentoring. I have office hours at
University of Pittsburgh and Point Park.
You know, I'll go around and mentor some getting into space
is our industry is more of a mindset than it is a skill.
And they you have to want to be in this industry.
You have to, you want to have tobe the, the, you know, I always

(31:29):
say it's about putting your own prejudices and your ignorance is
aside because sometimes I have to think like a young, you know,
unwed African American girl. That's, you know, expecting a
child because that's who the client asked us.
They have to reach. And other times I'm speaking,
you know, like somebody who has a family office and billions of

(31:51):
dollars too, because that's who they think.
I can't think like me. That's that doesn't nobody cares
what I think. They care with the people that
they're trying to reach and I, Isee probably the, the biggest
hurdle for young folks entering into our industry is they, they,
they got to leave your politics out the side.
You know, you're going to do things, you know, that you may

(32:13):
not, you know, again, we're not talking anything illegal, you
know, but we're talking about you may be, you may be asked to
do work that that may be fundamentally you, you don't,
you don't fully understand the benefits.
And if, listen, if you want to just only work with things and
passions that you believe in, have at it.
That's, that's, that's powerful.If you can find and make a
living out of it. But a lot of times, you know,

(32:35):
you may be working with a manufacturer that, you know,
bring stuff from overseas. And if you're against that,
then, but if you can, if you're going to have to say, all right,
how do I, how do I make all thishappen?
And, and sometimes it's just I see it get in the way where
somebody who they don't believe in the product, you don't have
to believe in it. You have to understand it and
you have to message that, get the messaging for that product

(32:57):
or that company or that businessor that individual and get it
out there. And young folks struggle with
that. They really struggle with.
So that's probably the biggest advice you got to leave your own
personal ignorances and an agenda aside and and just focus
on what the task at hand and andget the work done.
That's good, that's good stuff. And my final question for you

(33:18):
today is can you give any advicefor someone watching on why they
should choose Lords? Yeah, I would say, man, that
that that individual attention that, that, that you're going to
get, even back then when, you know, the size of our school
was, you know, it was never as big as smoking and whatever.

(33:38):
But for the other schools aroundthere, you just got that
individual attention. You know, I mean, we grew up
with that Catholic upbringing. I'm, I'm not, I'm not, I would
be disingenuous for me to say that that's the main fundamental
reason to go to a place like Lourdes.
I think it's the personal attention that you're going to
get. You know, based on what I've

(33:59):
seen, the resources are there teachers, you know, it's, it's a
good quality, a group of teachers that are there, you
know, I mean, so and, and you know, because there is a cost to
it. Maybe you are, you are kind of,
you know, getting, getting fellow classmates that are
serious about their education. They're not there because they
just have to be there. They're there because they and

(34:21):
their parents understand the investment that they're they're
#1 capable of making. Not everybody can.
And I know Lords does what they can to help subsidized that.
But but yeah. So I I would say if it's if they
can get there and they can do itand they like that, that kind of
attention that and. And for some folks, that's
what's needed, you know well. Well, Tim, thanks again for

(34:41):
giving us some of your time today.
Hope you stay cool. It's it's hot out there.
It's. It's rough.
Yeah, yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm going to wait till after 5 to go cut
that grass. But I'll do what I can.
But I appreciate. It well everyone, thanks again
for watching Tim McLaughlin and myself here on the podcast.
I'll do all the great rest of your day.
Stay safe and stay cool because it's too hot out.
See ya.