EXPERIENCE 207 | Garage Operation to 20,000 Square Feet - Phillip Gottula, Co-Founder and Owner/Operator at FLEXX Productions - Leading the Northern Colorado Event Rental Industry in Service and Technology - The LoCo Experience

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Phil Gattullo was my first guestto bring in a charcuterie plate,

(00:03):
and we shared a beautiful bottleof white wine that he also
brought in.
And we talked about the businessof event rentals, specifically
his business, which is theleader in Northern Colorado
event rentals, Flex Productions.
The event rental industry is aninteresting critter.
Unlike a retail transactionwhere the customer pays and
leaves with their stuff, eventrental requires the business,

(00:23):
not only to deliver.
On time, every time, no matterwhat, but also the business must
pick their equipment back upfrom the location and clean and
refresh it for the nextcustomer, Phil is an expert in
the industry and sharesabundantly from what he's
learned, and he's a philosopherand adventurer, a dog dad and a
wonderful conversationalist.
So please enjoy as I did myconversation with Phil Gattula.

(01:24):
Welcome back to the LocoExperience Podcast.
My guest today is Phil Gattula.
And Phil is the founder of andowner operator of Flex
Productions here in Fort Collinsand operations all around the
state, really.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
Uh, what, uh, what kind of winedid you bring us today?
I brought us a white wine fromReprise.

(01:44):
Uh, it's a winery that Stacy andI went to here, uh, this last
year in the, um, Californiaarea.
Oh, wow.
And, uh, so That's really nice.
That feels very honoring thatyou would bring one of probably,
I mean, I don't imagine you'dgrab three Maybe you did buy
three cases and it's just kindof One more bottle.
No.
Yeah, it's more special thanthat, you know, it feels
special, you know, we could talkto Stacy of, did I choose the

(02:08):
right bottle of wine out of thecabin or not?
So, uh, you know, but I, I enjoya good, uh, conversation and a
glass of wine.
You are a, uh, you're, you'reboth things kind of a
philosopher as well as a.
Blue collar guy.
Boy, I've never heardphilosopher come out.
No.
You know, as far as a, far as a,uh, you know, a, a name used, I

(02:28):
guess you're a thoughtful guy,so you always have been.
Yeah.
You know, I think you, you putout there, you know what you're,
what you're thinking andsometimes it's not always right
and agree and, you know, the,the older you get, the more.
Wisdom and the more you want tolisten.
That's what I've kind of liketaken back in the past couple of

(02:48):
years and the experiences that,that have come in, I think, into
my life.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's we could dig down on thata little bit later, but all
right.
Yeah.
I dig it.
Yeah.
Um, I guess so it's set thestage, uh, flex productions
does, uh, Big party tents allthe way down to linens for your
small wedding and everything inbetween, kind.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We're, we're event rentals, ahundred percent event rentals.

(03:10):
The part of our industry iseither tool rental or event
rental, and we're a hundredpercent event rental, so tables,
chairs, linens, dishes, China,anything.
No forklifts, no forklifts.
Exactly.
You also forklift, but youdon't.
Yep, yeah, yeah, that's exactly,that's, that's, uh, that's a
part of the tool rental part ofour industry.
Best Event Rental is a greatowner operator for small tool

(03:31):
rental, Arapahoe Rentals up herealso.
And do they both do eventrentals too?
Um, uh, Uh, Front Range Rentalis a part of the Arapahoe
Rentals brand.
Okay.
Uh, they bought into that,however, three or four years
ago, I think, is what it was.
And so they have a branch doingthat.
It was a great opportunity forthem.
And, uh, they do a great job atit.
So.

(03:51):
So, so, yeah.
So basically they compete withyou, but you don't really
compete with them in the tooland stuff.
You know, Kinda.
It, what is, Friendlycompetition.
Yeah.
You know, what, what's so greatabout the rental industry?
Is it's not cutthroatcompetition for some weird
reason.
We all bid on a project, youknow, my, my biggest competitor
up here, um, is, uh, a greatindividual.

(04:12):
He runs a great operation also.
And we sit down three or fourtimes a year and have a glass of
wine together.
Uh, and projects come up and Ibid against them and they bid
against us.
And you know, whoever gets theproject, it gets it.
And that's just kind of part ofthe deal.
And I think that's whatseparates our industry.
So uniquely is thecollaboration, um, you know, as

(04:33):
far as you get where it's so notother industries can be so
cutthroat, you know, you go asfar as to even rent stuff from
your competitors.
So you can put together a bigevent, 100 percent steamboat or
whatever.
Yeah.
And vice versa, you know,absolutely.
Vice versa.
I mean, we all can't have theresources on certain event
weekends that are super maxedout.
And, uh, so we'll, we'llsubcontract back and forth.

(04:54):
Uh, between different operationsdepending on the, the needs.
So I guess, can you maybedescribe a little bit about the,
the span and breadth?
Like I know you said eventrentals, but so there's, there's
linens, there's chairs, there'stables, is there, there's
heaters, there's generators,there's tents.
How many tents can I rent?
Yeah.
You know, I, people.
We'll call up sometimes andthey'll say, I need to rent your

(05:15):
biggest tent.
And I go, yeah, you don't wantto do that.
Um, you know, and, and thereason why is tensor, they're
expandable by parts, you know,and it's so, so how many linear
parts do you have?
But also I can bring in otherparts from other partners if
they want a ridiculous sizetent, you know?
So, um, I mean, some of thelarger projects we've set are,
uh, 40 to 50, 000 square feet oftent coverage, um, for, you

(05:40):
know, Uh, 3, 200 personconference, floored, air
conditioned.
I mean, these are, yeah, theseare portable buildings that we,
we pretty much put up in certainscenarios.
Interesting.
Um, you know, and, and theindustry's come really far from
just, quotes, tents, where yousee like a circus tent with the,
the center poles.
That's still very common forlike a, uh, uh, wedding and, and

(06:00):
whatnot.
Sure.
But, I mean, uh, two story glasswalls.
I mean, the industry has justcome so far in the past 20, 25
years for the products that areavailable, uh, that we can
provide now.
So we're one of the only, um,operators in Colorado that have
like glass wall and, and, andhardwall and stuff like that.
Kind of leading edge.

(06:21):
Is that your brand along the wayor becoming more of your brand?
Oh boy.
Yeah.
You know, I, I talked to, um,uh, an owner up here today, the,
the, the, as you get.
Through these hiccups, right?
I mean Flex Productions and Ihave we talked about where like
this company started.
No, not yet I mean, we'll zoomback there and we can go there

(06:41):
right now if you want.
I mean It's your it's your show.
Yeah, it's your show.
I'm just kind of kind of workingwith no Well, let's talk about
it because I think it's probablygonna be relevant.
Yeah, you know, I mean, I knowlike COVID nation was not good
for the events industry andthings like that.
So people gathering was kind offrowned upon for that first, you

(07:02):
know, eight months of that year,the flex productions, you know,
came along with a, with a buddymany years ago.
Um, Kevin cooling and, um, uh,uh, let's back up before that
through high school and college.
I did event rentals in theDenver market area.
Okay.
So like boat rents was thelargest operation at the time

(07:22):
and, um, and that's kind ofwhere I got started.
Yeah.
I worked where I worked for theoriginal owner that was there,
by the way, the, uh, what wasthe Arapahoe rentals.
We've probably talked about thisback in the past, but we've, I
financed a.
The Windsor location for whatwould became a Rapinoe Reynolds
when I was a banker, like in2021, probably.
Yeah.
Yeah.

(07:42):
Yeah.
They're great operation.
I can't see enough good about,uh, uh, Evan who, who does, is
their regional manager and Lancewho ran the.
Um, uh, Windsor location, Ithink back then when you
probably, maybe it's too, I'mtoo old for that kind of memory.
So, so you, so yeah, I mean, Ikind of worked your way up in
the industry, learned it.

(08:03):
Yeah.
You got to high school, collegedid that, my degrees in computer
information.
So this is what I got out in thelate nineties.
The market was just flooded withIT guys, and so it was tough to
get back into that.
So I jumped back in the rentalindustry, helped manage a couple
operations, um, here in FortCollins and, and another
commercial operation that was inthe area.
And then, then my old businesspartner, him and I, uh, jumped
out, uh, because they just kindof went really corporate.

(08:27):
Uh, yeah, you know, I mean,we're trying to, a lot of
businesses are started becausethe company they work for become
really annoying.
We just wanted to make themmoney and, uh, and, and it was
challenging for, to, to do thatwhen we were trying to tell them
what to do.
Um, but we jumped out andstarted the operation in the
garage and, uh, and what didthat look like?
Like what were those first, likehow much cash did it take at
first?
I mean, we got a small businessloan and some tables and chairs.

(08:53):
And we, you know, subcontractedtents, right.
You know, from other operatorsto go and do that.
Well, we had a lot of theconnections because we've been
doing it in the market for solong.
So, yeah, it's a very muchrelationship hospitality
business.
Right.
So, um, you know, that's kind ofhow it started and that was in.
Oh, three ish.
Okay.
And, um, we just kind of grewthe, the business little by

(09:16):
little.
I mean, you're talking pop uptents at first and, you know,
uh, 20 wides and then, and thenjust bigger and bigger and
bigger.
So, you know, um, uh, and, andso we, what was your first, uh,
real location?
Um, the first relocation wasactually in the Glick Brothers
Park where we're at now.
Is that right?
Yeah, yeah.
We had, we got 2, 000 squarefeet from, from them, uh, in 03,

(09:39):
as where we started.
And then into 4, 000 and 8, 000and then in 12, and we just
expanded to, Right around justunder 20, 000 here this winter
is what we grew into Which isfantastic because we really
needed to expand.
Yeah.
Yeah, I remember you were packedin there like sardines Last time
I was there which was a year agoover So yeah, um, I wrote down

(10:02):
some notes here just now andthinking that like the rental
business is probably Like mathand customer service like things
depreciate You got a turn of acertain number of times per year
to justify buying it things likethat But then also you're only
gonna turn it enough if you havereally good customer service
probably marketing Yeah as well,like what would you add to that

(10:24):
operations?
You gotta go set that stuff upTo write like set all those
tents up.
You know, the generator isworking Our industry is so
unique I compare it to we're afive step business where I think
any other industry sometimes isthree steps and we'll compare it
to is like a lumber company.

(10:45):
So you order lumber, I need sometwo by sixes, some four by eight
pieces of plywood.
Order goes in, pulls it, puts iton a truck.
They go deliver it.
Three steps.
Boom, done.
Right.
Okay.
We are custom as far as likeyou're building an event on a
venue, backyard.
Field, whatever it is that youmay or may not know what you

(11:07):
actually need.
Yeah.
You know, and, and so, so tryingto educate the client on that
piece of it, and then, thengoing in and actually building
out the entire site, um, isdifferent.
And so we go three steps, youknow, product, um, you know,
delivery.
Out there, but then we haverecovery and reprocess.
We're more of a five step typebusiness is really what it is.

(11:28):
So that's a lot of complexity towhat we do in our type of
visitors is lumber delivery.
Right, right.
Well, and I've rented stuff fromflex a number of times and it's.
For me, the customer andprobably almost all your
customer, the recovery is anafterthought and so they don't
even, their event happened.
They don't really care abouthelping you, but you got to go

(11:48):
in there and grab your shit andgo put the chair in the glass
where it's going to bereprocessed and done correctly
in our facility.
The tent material has to be.
Reprocessed and, and, and the,it's white, right?
So it's, it gets dirty and it'sgot to be cleaned.
So what's that look like onthose commercial tenants?
Do you bring it back and thenhose it all down in the parking
lot or in the shed?
You know, I used to hand scrubit and I hated doing that

(12:10):
because we, and you got to thinkabout the time and the cost of
labor to do that, laid out atarp and actually hand scrub it,
which, uh, that's where youstart in the industry.
Once you can afford a.
machine that actually does that.
That is a very expensivemachine.
Uh, you put the materials in themachine.
Uh, it tumbles it like adishwasher, like a big, like a
big washing machine, like a bigwashing machine.

(12:31):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Five foot diameter.
So, I mean, it's a big, bigpiece of equipment.
And, uh, so, and you pull thematerial out and you let it dry.
But you got to rent a bunch oftents first before you can buy
a.
12, 000 washing machine for yourtent washer, or more than 12,
000, way more than 12, 000.
Yeah, these are investmentsthat, uh, keep the business
running, but don't make youmoney.
Right, right.

(12:51):
But, uh, it's part of runningone of these businesses if you
want to do it correctly.
Well, and if you, after everybig event where you got 14 20 by
20 tents out, and you've got abunch of 30 an hour people out
there scrubbing those tents likeyou're gonna find some writing
pretty fast compared todepreciation and interest on a
scale of economics.

(13:12):
Yeah, right.
Yeah, you have to get that scalebefore you can make it make
sense Yeah, so just think so.
Yeah that that just comes overyears.
I mean the first couple years Wehad a fax machine for 120 bucks
and it broke or something likethat and I was like, we can't
spend 140 on a fax machine, youknow?
I mean, it was that tight as faras running, you know, uh,
expenses.
What was the first, um, PeachFestival, the Fort Collins Peach

(13:36):
Festival?
Gosh.
Because I think that's when wefirst met because Tanis was the
organizer of that for the RotaryClub.
Yeah.
You were her, her guy for theevent rental stuff.
Yeah.
Um, I don't recall the yearbecause we already talked that
we can't recall stuff becauseit's been so long ago.
It was at Hughes, you know, fromwhat I recall.
It was at Hughes Stadium.

(13:56):
It was a brand new event.
Um, they killed it, you know, Iremember going out there and
going, holy cow.
Well, I was food trucking at thetime, right?
Cause I had my food trailerthere.
Maybe not that first year.
I think I might've still been abanker that first year or two.
Um, but we got acquainted atleast cause I was helping her
with some, I'd have to look backat photos because it's probably
13, 14, somewhere in there, 12,13.

(14:18):
Yeah.
So, um, yeah, so you were stilllike.
Uh, tell me about like thatfirst steps of growth.
Like, I imagine it was a ton ofsweat equity at first.
You hire a few friends for parttime jobs and then it gets
bigger from there.
Yeah, I mean, the first time weactually hired some employees,
and I don't even remember whatyear it was, call it 06 or 07.

(14:41):
And our payroll was like 3, 200bucks for like two weeks.
And I go, Kevin, we're not goingto make it.
There's no way we're going tomake it.
This is crazy.
You know, we can't pay this onpayroll.
You know, I mean, the expensewas so mind blowing to me.
And, uh, you know, you gottaremember, I had one or two
business classes in college witha CIS degree.
And so I'm, I'm very self taughtwithin QuickBooks.

(15:02):
And P and L's and balance sheetsand all that stuff.
I've just learned it over time.
So I didn't have a formalbackground going like, here's
how we do this and budgeted thisand whatnot.
When we first started thebusiness, it was kind of, yeah,
it was kind of trial by fire,you know, and you figure it out
as you go.
Tell me about Kevin.
Like what was his circumstanceand was he active in running the
business too, or more of aninvestor?
Yep.

(15:22):
No, Kevin was, we were about,you know, 50, 50 partners in the
business when we started it.
And, um, uh, you know, he'd beenin the industry for, for.
Quite many years before me, evencome from the tool reno side.
I see.
And, you know, we just metthrough a, a, a business that, a
reno business run up here.
Yeah.
And, uh, that business sold andthen that's when we got into the

(15:42):
other corporate entity and thenwe jumped out eventually.
Yeah, yeah.
You know.
Okay.
Did it ourselves.
And then how long were you guyspartners in Flex?
Yeah, till 2012.
Okay.
Yeah, 2012 he retired and senthim on his way with a little
golden parachute.
Right.
That's nice.
And, uh, you know, uh, he moveddown to Costa Rica.
That's a pretty coolrelationship, right?
Like, cause.
Probably you wouldn't havesucceeded without All of his

(16:03):
experience in some fashions andconnections and stuff, but also
without your energy andenthusiasm and eagerness to
build something, probably.
Yeah.
I don't know.
It seems to me that it wasprobably symbiotic.
Yeah.
You know, I mean, uh, we bothhad, you know, the, the
different pieces of the, Aspectsthat needed the business needed
at the time.
Okay.
You know, it was really what itwas.
And what was his, uh, biggestcontribution to that?

(16:27):
It was more, he was moreoperational at first.
He was kind of leading some ofthe charts, but I was more
organized.
I, I found out in the, uh,administrative part, I think of
the work and then he was morekind of operational is where, so
he was more of the field guy,more than, you know, organizing
the, the, the teams and stufflike that.
Right.
You know, well, once you start.

(16:47):
Like it's hard enough to pointyourself in the right direction
sometimes, but once you get ateam That's two three people and
then five ten people and then 1520 people It's like it gets to
be too much, you know for oneand that's you know, we have to
really organize those teamsYeah, what's what's flex look
like today?
Like you're growing into 20, 000square feet Is that gonna be
more people to to operate thator yeah, I mean, it's it's so

(17:10):
night and day.
I mean, we're such a unorganizedno employee manual Uh, you know,
fly by the night operation, youknow, we, we did it correctly
in, in many of the, you know,um, operational as you could,
but, you know, I mean, we were,the business is organized so

(17:30):
differently now, and I'llcontribute that to the people
that have actually come throughthe operation over the years to
help add a little bit on hereand add a little bit on here.
And then, you know, we, wejumped into us, as you know,
here.
Uh, four years ago, I think, youknow, we tried to self implement
for a couple of years as a trainwreck.
And then finally, you know, wegot, we got implemented and

(17:51):
we've been running really hard,steady for the past three years.
Oh, really?
It's very strict, uh, not uspure, but, uh, us pure to, to
what we hold.
We, we hold our weekly L10meetings.
And that was the thing before,as far as I call this
organization, right.
You know, Oh, Hey, let's have ameeting, you know.
But it was never, we had ameeting and then it wasn't, it
wasn't consistent and it didn'thave an itinerary where EOS has

(18:13):
allowed us to like, have that,uh, foundation.
That was one of the things I wasreally impressed with our, I
think in this, the first fullday implementation, kind of
talking about the meeting pulseand the value of having that,
you know, like even with ourloco chapter meetings.
You have a chapter meeting, andthen it's a month before you
connect again, and so just evenshortening that pulse between

(18:37):
Attention to the things that areimportant to get done.
Yeah, it can really make adifference.
Yeah Absolutely.
Communication's king.
Yeah.
True.
Within your team.
True.
What do you guys use forcommunication and is there, is
there rental industry softwarethat helps you do your CRM and
invoices and estimates and allthat kind of stuff?
Yeah.
We, we, uh, 2008.
So yeah, originally we startedon spreadsheets.

(18:58):
Right?
Right.
And then we went to QuickBooks.
We only had five customers.
Yeah.
You know, I mean, that's whereyou start, you know,
spreadsheets.
And then we went to, Uh,QuickBooks, and then we went to,
uh, Point Rental, which is, youknow, our industry, one of our
industry softwares.
Uh, they've been the leader inthe industry for many years.
And, uh, yeah.
And so we, we've been using thatsince, uh, 2008.

(19:20):
So it does our inventorymanagement.
It does our, um, our, uh, AP,you know, receivables and, and
pretty much, you know, if youhave just example, a hundred
tables, you got to allocatewhere those are on X dates and
that's what this software does.
That seems like, were youoverflowing on your own, uh,

(19:40):
spreadsheet skills and stuff?
And you're like, Oh shoot, we'regoing to have to get an upgrade
here.
Well, you know, when you startmaking some errors, you know,
uh, and you can't track it,that's when you need to change
the systems.
And that's what I recall kind ofhappened more than anything.
Yeah.
And, um, I mean, you got to, uh,the amount of pieces and parts
it takes to put together a tent.

(20:02):
Um, because they're allcomponentized.
Mm-hmm Uh, is extensive.
And so if you don't have, if youallocate these parts out here
Right.
To each different project.
Right, right.
Um, you know, you, becausethey're probably modular, right?
Like very much, you pretty muchcarry the same kind of tandon.
You can have the 10 foot wall orthe 20 foot wall or Yeah.
You know, there, there's, yeah.
There's some, some, some backand forth switching on, on the
pieces of parts, but Yeah, you,you've gotta, yeah, you've gotta

(20:24):
be organizing that, that part.
'cause these.
crown pieces that are made inGermany, you cannot go down to
Home Depot and buy another one.
Right, right.
You kind of have what you have.
So, um, uh, you, you gotta beorganized in that aspect.
So how do you have your crewstructured in terms of, I'm
imagining you're slower in thewinter and you kind of ramp up
your staff in the summer.

(20:45):
There's probably.
marketing and kind of operationsand all the field services and
then kind of the admin functionis that kind of the main yeah
parts of your crew actually ouradministrative team are what we
call our client service teamit's actually very busy this
time of year no because they'rethe ones yeah that's the ones
that they're they're touchingbase with our annuals and and if

(21:05):
you're having a wedding in Julythen then they're getting that
you know talking about the timeI actually just inquired about
the next level summit yeah yeahso I mean you get it and you
people used to be able to bookThree weeks, a month out
sometimes, I mean, you can't dothat anymore.
You got to be on top of thisthing four to six months ahead
of the game because there's onlylimited bandwidth all of these

(21:26):
companies have now.
Um, and that's kind of what'schanged post COVID.
Yeah, that's what I waswondering.
Maybe is the industry has, doyou have fewer competitors now
than you did 2019?
Um, no, I would say there's thesame in this market, but I did
see about 15 percent of theindustry.

(21:46):
retire.
Because they just didn't want togo through the rebuild process.
And I knew after COVID I had abuddy that, that actually, you
know, um, he dissolved hiscompany that he'd been talking
about getting rid of it for acouple of years and, you know,
and, and, uh, in California and,and.
And he was like, Phil, what do Ido?
You know, two or three monthsinto this deal, we're all
burning cash, just trying tosurvive.

(22:08):
And I was like, Rob, I was like,you've been talking about
getting rid of it forever.
I was like, just, you know, doit, man.
And he, and he did.
And he was, he was so happy inthe end that he, that he, he'd
moved on.
Uh, but there was guys that wereon the edge, close to retirement
and didn't know what to do.
And those, that pushed themover, that was the catalyst.
Because, uh, as I told Rob, Iwas like, I was like, it's going
to take three years to dig outof this thing, minimum.

(22:30):
For the amount of cash it'sgoing to take and, and the
processes.
Because every, every rentaloperation had to eliminate.
At least half their core staff,you know, just to, to, to, to
make the metrics.
Well, I've been surprised alittle bit that events didn't
come back faster and bigger.
Like, um, you know, like the,the bar industry is forever
changed because if people go tothe bar, they go home at 10

(22:52):
o'clock now and get on Tinder orsomething like that.
You know, the, the, the, therejust isn't those kinds of crowds
different.
Some restaurants are still doinggreat.
Other ones aren't.
As good and I don't know, maybeI'm wrong, but it just doesn't
feel like the, the, and maybeit's just cause I'm old, like
the outdoor festivals anddifferent things like that, that
people would gather under tentsfor.

(23:13):
That, uh, yes, the festival partchanged post COVID and the
reason why multiple factors, Ithink, um, a major one being
cost.
Think about how much yourgroceries and rents and
insurance has gone up in thepast three to four years.
Right, right.
That we've had to do the samething with our rental rates to

(23:34):
accommodate, um, you know, afolding chair I'd buy for, I
think it was like 16.
And I remember when I quotedthem out in 2022, they wanted 37
a chair from 16.
And it's re leveled a little bitbecause container prices went
crazy, et cetera.
But the, uh, festival industry.
Just has got crushed in the pastcouple of years because of the

(23:56):
cost of operating not only Eventrolls on my side port a potties
trash Security off duty PD allthis stuff that's required now
that you have to have thesesecurity things in place You
know for these these events andwhatnot and and that's the the
challenging part.
I think I just popped intorealities for children Um, I
guess it was a couple weeks agonow, and I do a, uh, prize for

(24:20):
their luncheon donation kind ofthing or whatever.
But, uh, Craig was telling meabout the, the challenge in
still putting together the, the,um, realities ride and rally.
And just how it's almost like,you know, are we gonna be able
to do this for another fiveyears?
It doesn't Feel very solid thatwe can yeah, and part of that is
because of the cost.

(24:40):
Yep You know the county's likewell We gotta hire this many
police officers to shut downthis many roads and this and
that you know, and it's like Wecan do all that.
Yep.
Yeah, that that's it's a verytrue statement of what's just
changing the business.
Yeah so So it goes yeah, soyeah, it's math and customer
service and some other things.

(25:02):
Yeah.
Yeah So what's next for you?
I remember, um, you were kind ofpushing hard trying to maybe
expand.
Elsewhere because you had a newlandlord coming in and stuff.
Are we okay to talk about thatsituation?
Cause you expanded where you areinstead, but still have a plan
to grow.
Absolutely.
Our, our complex, you know, theprevious landlord was there for

(25:24):
many years.
Uh, 30 plus, you know, theseguys own this complex and they
sold it a year and a half ago.
Uh, the new landlords are, uh,uh, great more to just more
corporate, not as small businessas the previous landlord.
So they have different ideas andconcepts and whatnot.
Uh, but we grew.
Uh, you know, 4, 000 square feetor whatever it was this

(25:45):
wintertime in that, in that areabecause we were maxed out, like
you said, in the facility.
So, um, we're very happy with,uh, the new layout at this
point.
And it's kind of given us moreelbow room that we've been
missing for the past couple ofyears.
It'll create some efficiency.
Did you go to the north?
Further?
Uh, south actually.
Okay.
Yeah, south, south, south.
Wrap around that side instead.
Yeah, absolutely.

(26:05):
Um, I'll make sure you get onthe invite list, but we have an
open house, uh, April 16th.
Okay.
Um, yeah, absolutely.
I'll write it down here for you.
We'll put it on the calendar.
Yeah, absolutely.
So that'd be like a grandreopening.
Yeah, you know, I mean, I did anopen house.
Uh, my gosh, I want to say itwas like 2018 was last one, but

(26:28):
we, we didn't do them any and itwas, I think we had 130, 140
people there.
It was, and a lot of fun, butthe, we were so packed in there
as you saw it.
It's just, there was no place tohost this.
That's really what that was.
Wasn't enough open space.
Yeah, that's really, that's whyit deterred us from actually
doing it, you know?
And so, yeah, we're excited toshow off the, the, the, the, the
expansion of this space andjust, you know, kind of what we

(26:50):
have going on right now to the,to market.
So, um, yeah, it's going to begood.
Well, congratulations on, onmaking that happen.
Um, always interesting when anew landlord comes down and
you're not ready to move.
So you forecast like moving in afew years to a bigger facility
still?
You know, the goal has alwaysbeen for flex to be in its own
building.
And I've never been shy abouttelling people that and where

(27:12):
we're going to be.
Um, the, the operation acquiredsome, some.
land property on the north sideof Fort Collins here a couple of
years ago.
And, uh, so we're, we're kind ofholding that strategically,
waiting for the right time inthe market.
But I'm hoping in, uh, two tothree years that we'll have the
right opportunity to, to growinto our own place.
Well, you know, the cool thingis you can grow.

(27:34):
You couldn't get barely bigenough to build a new building
at 12, 000 square feet.
So growing to 20, 000 squarefeet can help you grow during
that three years to Absolutelybe able to build the building
you actually want instead ofkind of gimping into what's not
quite what you wanted to buildreally.
Yeah, absolutely.
Cool.
So well, that's exciting.
Where is your new space gonnabe?
Do you talk about that?

(27:55):
Yeah.
No, I mean, no Yeah, it's uhWe'll be off the Mulberry and
Timberline area North of theold, uh, airpark, you know,
Collins.
Okay.
Yeah, that's the location.
It was very strategic when Ilooked at the the piece of land
there You know from we havegreat access to I 25 and that's
and that's one thing where we'reat right now harmony in
Timberline We've always hadgreat access I 25 to to go north

(28:17):
or south or wherever we need tobe And Mulberry was one of those
other strategic locations that Ikind of identify I'm guessing
there's probably not manycompanies in Cheyenne or Laramie
that can Do the complexity ofthings that you can do.
And as Wyoming grows, you know,there's probably opportunity up
there.
Absolutely.
If I go up there now, we go up,we do frontier days.
Um, you know, that's somethingwe've been doing the past five

(28:39):
years.
I think now, um, there was anoperation doing it there, but
they sold and, and the newoperation didn't really care to
do it.
So it's something we jumped inon.
And, um, they're, they're anamazing client and we have the
right resources to set up theselarge scale tents.
So from a customer perspective,like I'm imagining there's some

(28:59):
big clients, big companies thatdo stuff.
And, um, and then also like alot of event planners, you know,
like Tannis, our mutual friend,others.
Well, she's not that anymore.
Don't call her for that.
Um, but, um.
And then you have just a lot ofindividuals, right, or a small
business that wants to do anopen house at their small
business or whatever.
So it's kind of this mix ofregular customers and a lot of

(29:23):
just private business toconsumer.
Yeah, we have a lot of annualclients that do things from
frontier days to other largeevents and private owners that
do festivals and, um, but allthe way down to your just
general bride.
You know, so I didn't turn myringer off Now you got to tell

(29:43):
us who it is.
Um, we'll see.
It was Jill.
Oh, oh, all right.
Stop everything There's apicture.
The boss is calling.
Lenny sent some pictures ofHawaii.
So we, I don't know.
Did you meet Lenny?
No, probably not.
We have an exchange student Jilland I do from Finland Yeah.
Oh, I met him at your friend'sgetting.
Yes.
Yes, exactly.
So, so that is in Hawaii now fora week with the exchange class

(30:06):
from Greenheart exchange.
Like whoever pushed the 800extra button could go to Hawaii
for a week.
Um, well, next time I'm going torequest that we do this podcast
from Hawaii.
If it's your dime, I'm going,I'm ready.
I'll bring my equipment, youknow, bring me a couple of large
clients and we can talk aboutthis.
You know, anything's possible.

(30:27):
So you got a lot of steadyEddie, like Recurring revenue
when there's not like a pandemicgoing on, you can count on about
half of your revenue, maybeevery year.
I mean, yeah, at least threequarters, you know, is usually
annually repeat for us.
We're, we're, um, I mean, flexis a 22 year staple in this
community.
So we're very connected with theuniversity and, and, uh, the

(30:48):
city and the county and, and allthese, these entities that we
have.
Um, you know, uh, reputation andcredibility with is really what
it is.
You got to think when you sendover a quote and a cad and
whatnot, and they go, here,Kurt, here's an 8, 000 piece of
paper.
Right.
That's a lot of trust.
That's your, you're, you'resaying that this organization is

(31:11):
going to come on a Friday andexecute this event for you and
make sure it's done.
That's one of the things that's,that's the other, when I see a
five piece of the business, thechallenge of our business, we're
in a never fail business, right?
And it doesn't matter if a truckbreaks down, an employee doesn't
show up, whether incident, youcannot set Mrs.
Jill's wedding up on Monday whenher wedding's on Saturday,

(31:31):
right?
We've got to be there on Fridayor Thursday or whatever the
range time frame is.
You got to have a littleredundancy.
Even if two people are sick withCOVID, you got to still figure
out how to get there.
We got to figure it out.
And we always have, we've alwaysexecuted everything we've done
and adjusted when things dohappen, which they will in this
type of business over the years.

(31:51):
Um, I will say, you know, togive credit where credit's due,
my team is amazing.
And that's why the success ofthe company is You aren't afraid
that much anymore.
No.
Yeah.
I mean, When's the last time youdid a 16 hour day?
Oh, this is a 16 hour day.
Because I bet you got a lot ofthem in the past at least.
Oh, oh yeah.
Because I'd never fail.
Yeah, 16, 20 hours, you knowwhat I mean?

(32:12):
Yeah.
24, it depends on what needs tobe done.
Right.
Yeah, you know, I, I, I, I'mlucky enough where I'm working.
On the business more now thandirectly in the business for
many, many years.
Yeah, yeah.
Fair enough.
I dig it.
Um, is there anybody on theteam, um, right now that you'd
like to give a shout out to?
Or is that a risk leaving somepeople out?

(32:33):
No, I mean, my long standingsright now are, uh, Kara, she's
been with the organization here12 years and same with Maria,
our soft goods manager, 11years, I think.
Um, you know, soft goods, it's,it's whole owned department.
With all the linens anddifferent things like that.
Things, China, flatware.
I mean, it's got its owndepartment because it's so
detailed.

(32:53):
Mm hmm.
Right?
You know, I mean, how muchbarbecue have you spilled on one
of my linens?
Right.
Yeah.
You're laughing because youknow, you know what I'm talking
about, you know.
Yeah, so my soft coach manager,I mean, she's the, she's the
stain, you know, uh, guru, youknow, in our, in our business.
And when I say I'm having abarbecue and I talk to somebody,

(33:13):
your team, do they be like,maybe you want the black linens
instead of the white ones?
Yeah.
You know, if that fits for me,it's I'm just thinking the black
probably covers the stains alittle easier.
We can, we can work it out.
It's more, yeah, of appearance,you know.
Fair enough.
So, so you got those couple ofgals been more than 10 years on
the team.
Yeah, yeah.
We, we run, you know, 22 to 24of us in the off season and then

(33:35):
40 plus in the on season.
Okay.
It's kind of our typical sizeright now for staff.
Is that like known to most ofthem that they, this is going to
be a summer job kind of thing ora summer plus a couple of months
kind of job?
Yep.
We're transparent, you know,with the, the people that we do
bring in each season and justsay, Hey, we were ramped down
right around September, Octoberand, and here we got about three
or four weeks left so they canfind work, you know, to other,

(33:58):
other areas.
Um, and then if we get really,we have transition with any
business and sometimes we'll,yeah, yeah, we'll, we'll have,
we'll have somebody that.
Is he, Hey, I'm going to retirefrom the organization after
three or four years here, andwe'll get one of those temporary
people that come in in thesummer and be like, this
person's fantastic.
Uh, bring, you know, uh, he orshe into the organization full
time.

(34:19):
So that's kind of how weidentify and grow within the
team.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You mostly hire for yourpermanent team from those temp
teams kind of thing.
Yeah.
Hey, you don't have to do that.
Yeah.
Not temp teams.
That's seasonal teams.
Well, and it has to be that way.
Yeah.
Because they're just, and whatkeeps you busy, I'm guessing
it's more of those soft goods,no tents to speak of, occasional
tents, probably through thewinter season.

(34:40):
Go time, yeah, we do tenting inthe winter time.
Tents and heaters and all that.
100%, yeah, we wall tents, heatthem, uh, you know, we were up
in, uh, the mountains doing, 18,000 square foot here a couple
weeks ago.
Oh, is that right?
Yeah, so I mean we like giantwedding or a Large corporate
festival, you know what musicfestival?
Okay, and so I mean there'sstuff that does happen in this

(35:01):
market It's just not as seldom,you know in the winter time
There's another cost to heatingand sure and walling and
everything that comes along.
Yeah.
Yeah, that makes sense Welladmittedly, I'm not as On the
scene as I used to be 20 yearsago, and you know that makes two
of us current.
It's hard I'm okay with that.
Yeah, I really should nice 90minutes of Netflix at the end of

(35:25):
the day early bedtime I had Ithink it was Karen my team, you
know here a couple years agowhen I passed on like a large
gala that had been like the, thego-to, I've been going to for
some a thousand plate dinner.
Okay.
For many years, you know, since2006.
Oh wow.
Is when I started in this event.
Oh, dang.
Yeah.
And, and a couple years ago.
And I was like, Hey, I, I'm notgonna go this year.

(35:46):
And she's like, what do you meanyou're not gonna go this year?
You know, you've always gone tothe thing.
I go.
Hey, I'm passing the torch.
It's time for you guys to kindof take this on more and
whatnot.
And I go, I want to go watch myNetflix.
Like, like Kurt does, um, yeah.
So, you know, things change inlife over time.
I dig it.
Um, what would you say some ofyour like key strengths as an

(36:07):
owner, or maybe what you suspectsome of your long time employees
might say, or your past locothink tank fellow members or
things like that?
Yeah.
What US has really done for me.
Is help me put a name on what Ido and what I am in the
organization at us.
We'll say I'm a visionary, um,with, uh, in the, the distest

(36:29):
profile, uh, Myers Briggs PI, Ia hundred percent test as a
visionary within it and in, in,uh, businesses and to maybe what
the, you know, your audienceknow a little bit more about
that.
It's, uh, I have the big ideas.
I can speak 10 years down theroad and have these great ideas
and pitching to my team.
And, and here's 10 great thingsI think we should do guys.

(36:50):
My integrators slash operationalpeople will pick the crap out of
those things and go, Phil,great.
Yeah.
But, you know, operationally,you know, yeah, we, we, we
don't, we can't build the tenton top of the house.
It's going to look cool, but youknow, you know, we can't anchor
it into the roof, you know?
Uh, and so they'll bring me backdown to reality on that stuff.
But usually one out of 10 of myideas.

(37:13):
We'll stick and it'll be areally good idea.
And that's what good visionariesare really about, uh, within,
you know, um, operations.
Fair enough.
You know, so And how does that,like, really impact your
business?
Is it like choosing the rightkinds of tents and materials?
Is it like advertising in theright places?
Like, how does that visionarykind of really Yeah, yeah, I

(37:34):
mean, that's a good, that's agood question.
Um I would say from a productaspect, yeah, I've been able to
predict that a little bit andsay, Hey, here's something new.
Let's try this.
And, and, uh, it's differentthan anything else that's
happening in the market.
Um, some of it's trendy though.
Yeah.
I was going to say, just likeDenver started adopting trends
and then it trickles up to FortCollins.
The trends come in from thecoastlines, actually East and

(37:55):
West coast.
That's where a trend, uh, comesfrom.
I'll use an example.
Chocolate fountain.
Sure.
Chocolate fountain.
Do you remember, I mean, howpopular they were 10 to 15 years
ago?
I'm sure I could buy a chocolatefountain to use right now or for
a nickel.
Oh, cheap.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And so, you know, everybody'slike, you know, chocolate
fountains.
And I looked at it and I waslike, man, it's such a trend.
And it's a hard trend because ofthe temperamentalness of them,

(38:19):
and I never got into them.
And so I've avoided some ofthose trends that I, that I see
coming in and out of theindustry just by kind of being
able to pick it up.
Did you find somewhere thatsomebody could rent a chocolate
fondant if they really wantedone?
Oh, absolutely.
There's people who recommend itup here or we cross rent it or
something like that, you know,but it's just, I never got into,
you know.
Fair enough.
These are things.
So yeah, the trends come in fromthe coastlines usually, but

(38:40):
yeah, I'm, I'm, I try to be asvisionary and predict some of
the products that, that'll makesense in this marketplace.
Uh, you know, I mean, we're notin LA, we're in Fort Collins,
Colorado, and there, so there isa realism of, of what the
practicality of what this marketnot only wants to afford, uh,
but also what makes sense here.
Yeah.
We don't have, we've only gotlike a.

(39:01):
One or two billionaires or maybea few, you know, like we don't
have, and we don't have big, bigcompanies that can drop that
kind of dollars on some of thethings.
Yeah, it's, it's, yeah, itdepends on what that is.
I mean, there's only so manythat can, with these large
structure tents that we putglass wall on and it literally
turns it into a building andpeople like, what do you mean
glass wall?
Like these are actual 13 foothigh glass walls.

(39:24):
It turns the actual tenantbuilding.
That's so cool.
Really, really impressive.
I wish we had some pictures ofthat.
I have some pictures that I'mhappy to share.
Uh, you know, we'll, yeah, we'llcatch up to it later.
We got a talk going on rightnow.
Um, so, I guess from a, like,you mentioned you didn't really
have any, uh, significantbusiness acumen in the

(39:45):
beginning.
Like, who did you, was it justkind of self studied?
Did you have CPAs andaccountants, business peers?
Like, where did you really Buildyour skill set in terms of the
financial management elementhard hustle and And it just
honestly figuring a lot out onmy own.
I did not And I would, I, Iencourage people, uh, especially

(40:10):
in my, the industry now to, tofigure and find a mentor or
anybody who getting intobusiness.
And that's something I reallyjust didn't, uh, know about and,
or, um, wasn't there in theearly two thousands.
Right.
You know, the internet was with,you know, with the internet was,
and, and, and the, the, thecommunications just weren't
there as they are now where youcan reach out to somebody.

(40:31):
Um, that's where I, you know, Iparticipated a couple of years
in our industry, um,association, which is called
American rental association, andthey have a mentor mentee.
program and I've actually, uh,been, uh, a mentor to a couple
of different operations, uh, outthere to just kind of coach and
guide them and, and try to givethem some, some guidance that I
never had, you know?

(40:52):
Uh, but it was a lot of justhard grind and, um, you know,
uh, figuring it out on my own.
And I think after the ninthyear, I remember after the ninth
year, I was like, You know,this, this business, this can't
be great, you know, I'm failingin the, in the numbers and it,
and it just didn't make sense ofwhere things should be.
And I was like, man, I've doneit for 10 years.
So obviously I'm doing somethingright.

(41:12):
Right.
And that was kind of the clickand the realization is, and as,
and, you know, everything'sgoing to kind of, yeah, yeah.
It kind of be okay here, youknow, and you, and you think
about the typical business lastfive years or less or whatever,
you know, and that kind ofthing.
And did you, you took out alittle bit of debt.
In the beginning, did you usebank loans and debt to grow
along the way, or did you mostlyacquire your additional assets

(41:34):
with cash over time, or both?
Both.
Both.
I remember the first one, I'dhave to try to figure this out
of, of where we found thisfinancing company, but I know it
was like, I don't want to sayshark loan, but the interest
rates were crazy on this stuff.
Cause we didn't have any creditor credibility.
You know, as a two plus year oldbusiness.

(41:56):
And I remember we financed sometables and chairs on it, but
eventually, yeah, we, we wereable to have more of that, prove
a little bit of a balance sheet,you know, and, and show that to
some banks.
And, and that's primarily wherewe would do some funding, you
know, make a big capitalacquisition and then.
So it goes, yeah, you're a goodclient for a bank, frankly, it
seems like because you alwaysare getting new stuff You know,

(42:17):
you don't want to sit with ahalf a million dollars on your
balance sheet So you can acquirea bunch of tables that yeah, or
whatever.
Banks like us because we haveassets versus like, you know, a
catering operation Right.
They usually have more clientelebase.
Yeah, what we can loan against,you know.
Yeah, if you've got a need as acaterer for Debt, it means you

(42:38):
haven't been running anunprofitable operation, usually.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Um, I feel like I'd be okay tohave a quick break and resettle
and come back for, um, the nextsegment.
Sure.
All right.
Sounds good.

(43:40):
I want to hear about wherelittle Phil So, uh, well, let's
jump in the time machine.
You wanna hear where the storkcame from, huh?
Seven.
Seven years old.
Or, yeah, we can hear about thestork, too.
Oh my gosh.
Yeah, actually, I'll tell, uh,the stork from my, my, my
parents, they said I was soambitious to get into the world,

(44:00):
they had to pull over.
Um, on the way to the hospital,so I was born in the car.
Uh, so I was, I was eager, Iguess.
I guess so, yeah.
So, that's the story that, thatmy parents told me.
Were you here locally, inColorado?
Denver.
Okay.
Yep.
Oh yeah, you mentioned that youHad, uh, worked in some of the
rental stores down there andstuff.
What was the circumstance?
Like, what kind of a family didyou be born into?

(44:22):
Yeah, I mean, middle classfamily.
Um, parents are from, dad's fromNebraska area.
It's a very small town, 150people.
Catholic.
That's where I come from.
Yeah, you know, um.
And then my mom's side's fromQuincy, Illinois.
So it's a small Chicago, uh, noSouth Southern, right.
I guess the Missouri border.

(44:42):
Okay.
So also kind of small town.
Yeah.
Very small.
Yeah.
Very small town down there.
Farmers, you know, rural area.
So, um, so seven, what was Idoing when I was seven?
I don't even know.
You have brothers, sisters?
I have an older sister.
Okay.
Yep.
And how old was she?
A couple years older than me.
Okay.
So she lives in the Denver areaand um, does uh, software

(45:06):
consulting work uh, within thehealthcare industry.
What would nine year old, what'sher name?
Nicole.
What would nine year old Nicolehave said about seven year old
Phil?
Oh, man, she would beat up on melike an older sister.
Oh, yeah, absolutely.
Well, her sister liked to beaton younger, younger brother, you
know?
I mean, that's kind of how ithappened.
And then, you know, when I gotbigger, eventually, you know,
she just developed newtechniques.

(45:28):
That's kind of what it was.
More, uh, psychologicaltechniques instead of physical.
Oh, yeah, absolutely.
So, I mean, that's a brothersister relationship, you know?
And you said middle classfamily.
Um, were your folks bothemployed?
Or was your mom a So my dad, um,entrepreneur has always had his
own business.
Um, uh, sales, uh, kind of iswhat he did for, um, you know,

(45:49):
uh, for himself and for others.
Yeah, for him all himself.
He kind of wrapped in betweenlarge, uh, pumps for, Uh, you
know, uh, ski resorts to, um,uh, water plants to stuff like
that.
Okay.
And a lot of that stuff.
A lot of bigger equipment.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, you know, he had, he had abusiness and I remember going
down to his business and he wasmaybe three or 4, 000 square

(46:10):
feet.
And stuff, uh, there being thereas a kid.
And then my mom was a CPA by,uh, by trade.
Um, you know, so I should havehad her spend more time with you
on the number as I know, right.
Totally.
You know, so, so as youdeveloped, like, were you
sporty?
Were you smart?
Were you a nerd?

(46:31):
Were you, uh, um, we were smartkids.
I hung out with some prettysmart other buddies in, in, uh,
you know, uh, in theneighborhood.
Um, one is now he's an aerospaceengineer, electrical aerospace
engineer.
And so, um, myself and, and, uh,my, my buddy, we, we would, we
would build some very cool,complex, uh, you know, rockets

(46:54):
to all sorts of various stuff.
So I see a little more nerdy,but then also, uh, adventurous,
active, nothing scared us, youknow, take a bike rides
anywhere.
And you know, that, that, thatgenre of, uh, Still the thing,
even in Denver, like the citydidn't lose that'cause Yeah.
You know, we were a littlesuburb.
Suburb on the, on the east sidethere is kind of where we were.

(47:16):
Okay.
But, you know, uh, once the, thenight lights came on, you go
home and, and, uh, you hide theblood on blood on your, your,
your, your shirt, your elbow.
Yeah.
Or, or learn to clean it out anddrink hose out of the water.
And that's the generation, youknow, that, that we grew up in.
Sure.
You know?
And then, uh, did you go tocollege then after high school
or, yeah.
You did?
Up here in Fort Collins.
Okay.
Computer information systems.

(47:37):
Okay.
Yeah.
You mentioned that.
Okay.
So how, what did that choicecome from?
Uh, did you, was it kind oflike, yeah, he was, he was right
there.
Yeah, I know.
I mean, computers were alwaysthe, the, the thing we, we
played with in high school.
It was cutting edge at the time.
Yeah.
And grade school, you know, andinstalling things on networks of
the school computers that theydidn't have us locked out of
yet.
And, and, uh, you know, justbeing, uh, you know, curious and

(48:01):
figuring things out, you know,at that time, I find it
interesting that like when wewere About that age, and I think
I'm a little bit older, if Irecall, or a fair bit older, but
Like, the, the adults, theteachers and stuff were like,
Hey, you should study thesecomputer things, cause they're
gonna be really important in thefuture.
Right?
And now, With the AI thing andstuff, it feels like all the

(48:24):
young people, the, the, the 15to 24 year olds are like, Hey
adults, we should all study thisAI stuff a little more because
it's going to be really, itfeels like it's kind of flipped
the script a little bit comparedto what we experienced with the
new technology environment backthen.
It's just a different level.
You know what I mean?
If you think about thetechnology for our parents and

(48:45):
what was out there, it wascutting edge at the time, you
know?
And I was, I think as a kid, Iwas always like, why are my
parents like understanding andinto this stuff?
You know, and I think it's just,as you get older, you don't
really.
care as much in a certain wayor, or don't look backwards.
And, and you're, you know, I'maware of it and studying AI, but
when you have the time, I thinkas a kid too, you can be so

(49:06):
immersed in it and really, uh,on top of it, you know, do you
know all the settings on yourphone?
Curt?
No, like I was just like, Iactually just earlier today, I,
I told Alma, I was like, man, Ipushed the, uh.
Help polish this button onGoogle Gmail before I sent an
email to my facilitators.
It was like, it was so muchbetter than the email I wrote

(49:28):
before that, but damn it, I'msending the one I wrote by
myself because I can do it.
And guess what?
They've been doing that for 24months now.
Oh, yeah, exactly.
Exactly.
So, uh, yeah, so it goes.
Um, and so, yeah, we kind ofcircled back to You know getting
back into the rental industryafter college and any regrets
like if you Could have been ahundred and fifty thousand

(49:51):
dollar a year computer guy forthe last 20 years.
Would you swap that out?
I mean everything happening theneverything happens for a reason
I mean, you know plotted out atsome point you think you're
like, all right, I'm gonna dothis and whatnot Yeah I mean I
had no idea that the market wasgonna be flooded with IT guys
the way it was even with aCollege degree and jumping back
into rental and it just kind ofled to what it did Do you think

(50:13):
you could be a good employeenow?
After 20 years or something.
I've thought about that a littlebit and I'm like, oh man, you
know What if I did somethingelse and I work for somebody
else?
I think if somebody offered youtoo much money for your for your
business tomorrow, I you know, Idon't get a job Well, you'd
probably just I think you know,I mean, you know, I mean I'd
have to do Yeah, I'd have to dosomething right, you know, I'd

(50:34):
be bored Um, you know,visionaries and entrepreneurs
just, they can't, you can't sitaround.
I would, I'd make Stacey crazy.
You might not get a job, but youcan do some stuff.
So, so to answer your question,um, I, I think that would be a
challenging, you know, afterworking for myself for, for so
many years and, and having to,uh, report and accountability.
But I think in a certaincapacity, if I had the right

(50:56):
role, then sure, maybe I coulddo something.
You might be better at it nowafter a few years of EOS than
you would have been.
Before that sure because you Isuspect if you're like me, and
I'm just starting to implement aus But like I'm I'm a little
better at managing myself evenalready that I was Without that
element of kind of tracking andaccountability for myself.

(51:17):
Yeah.
Uh, discipline and, uh, habits,as you know, is really, is
really what it's making.
I mean, having weekly L10meetings is a habit.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
And, uh, so when you, when youcan instill these good habits,
right, in your life, then, then,uh, you have good things.
Well, you show up once or twiceand you're like, sorry, I didn't
do any of my homework beforecoming to this meeting.
Then you, like, kick your ownass so you do that better next

(51:40):
time.
You shamed yourself is whatyou're saying.
Exactly, exactly.
When I had Jennifer Lewis on,who I know you've worked with a
little bit in the EOS realm, sheasked me, why don't you
implement EOS, Kurt?
And I was like, well, becauseyou're going to make me Do a
bunch of hard things that I'mnot sure what to do.
You're going to hold meaccountable?
I don't want to be accountable.
Right.
And I don't even really want tohold myself to that.

(52:02):
But, uh, you know, nine monthslater, here we are.
Then what you do is you designthe world around that.
You have other people that canhelp with those things that you
don't like.
Which EOS will show those fourboxes as in, what do you like?
You really enjoy doing this.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Right.
And that's part of what, youknow, I have a, uh, executive
assistant that spends maybe fivehours a week kind of.

(52:23):
Making sure I don't miss stuffand occasionally setting up
appointments for me and thingslike that.
And that's just worth it for me.
Yeah 100 percent yeah betterthan shaming myself all the time
What you've heard that linebefore don't should on yourself.
It's you know, I mean Again,it's about what you decide to do
or do not do, but don't shouldall the time.

(52:44):
Yep.
Absolutely.
Um, so let's, uh, let's jumpinto the, um, mandatory.
Mandatory?
Segments.
Yes.
The, uh, faith family politics.

(53:36):
Oh, I remember you mentionedthat.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I'm sure you're excited aboutit.
Uh, we've had some fun politicalconversations.
Um, although we're, eh, Iwouldn't say we're that far
apart, but we're definitely on adifferent, uh, uh, Bandwidth, I
suppose.
I'm a very libertarian kind ofguy, and I think you've got some
of those notions, but maybe moreon the Progressive end of the

(54:01):
libertarian.
Sure.
Element.
Is that a fair?
Yeah, assessment.
Yeah I'm a little more on theconservative end of the
libertarian spectrum.
Yeah, I mean, I'm in the middle.
I'm independent You know, thisis where I land in this spectrum
there You know our core valuesUh, as a company or, you know,
accountability, do the rightthing and humility.

(54:21):
So, uh, I try to instill the,the same thing.
Uh, that's something we instillnot only in our employees, but
also in our clients.
Yeah.
If we have a client that's notworking within those core
values, uh, I'm not hesitant to,to move on and say, we're just
not the right, uh, solution foryou guys.
Fair enough.
And so I look the same thingwithin my, my, my beliefs also,
you know.

(54:41):
How, uh, how would you say Trumpis doing the first, uh, I was
wondering when you were gonnajust like Well it's right, it's
fresh.
It is very fresh.
And it's pretty crazy, like, wehaven't seen anything as active
as this.
Um, but, you know, theLibertarian, he says, like, well
it's about fucking time somebodyacted like this and cut a bunch

(55:03):
of shit and offered earlyresignations.
Yeah, I, um, the That's a,that's a hard ground to dance
here because as a businessowner, typically I'm pretty
Republican, right?
You know, and I want to, I wantto do better for businesses and,
and have those things.
Less regulation.
Yeah.
Yeah, exactly.

(55:23):
You know, Colorado has beenbecome, become so It's difficult
and regulated to operate in andpeople go why does it cost so
much to rent a tent?
The compliance that I have tohave for my business and the
employees, right, is insaneSorry, but the Family and
Medical Leave Act compliancecosts me 24 out of your 200 tent

(55:44):
rental.
I just switched to a new HRfirm, which is fantastic And we
went through, uh, an onboardingaudit with them.
They had 200 questions.
It took over two and a halfhours to go through this audit
with them and everythingcompliance wise that we were
doing.
I mean, you should see thisExcel list.
I, and, and, and I sat here andI go, didn't Colorado be, you

(56:06):
know, 20 plus years ago, I mean,it was such a easy right to work
state and then I always was likewith employees and I was like,
Hey, you know, I just have thatconversation.
Hey, is this working out for youstill?
And, and we've talked about thisa couple of times and, and
you're not performing in thisarea.
And you're like, yeah, I just, Idon't think my passion's with
anywhere.
And I was, I would always belike, Hey, maybe it's time you
look for something else.
I want the best for both of us.

(56:26):
Yeah.
You know, and, and we'd get apart ways and that was it.
You know, there, there, there'sso much more crazy complexity
around running that now, whichcreates costs and everybody
goes, why is it so expensive tolive here in.
In this state or area.
So that that is the one hardpart of, you know, going to the
left side there to the rightside.
You know, I mean, of course Iwant I want better operations

(56:49):
for businesses and in thoseareas.
So, um, Uh, Trump's an, anindividual that's pretty, I just
looked, uh, Lerner County went57 percent Harris and 40 percent
Trump.
So is it definitely buck thekind of national trend there?
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, this is a very blue areafor kind of many years now.
Um, you know, so I, I, in theend, I, there should always be

(57:13):
balance in the middle is kind ofmy philosophy and opinion on it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Um, you get too, too far onedirection or the other.
It creates turmoil foreverybody.
There should be like, uh, maybethere is polling data.
That's like it's actually 19percent Harris and 31 percent
Trump and like 45 percent nottoo excited about neither.
Yeah.

(57:33):
Yeah, so, um, you know, I, Ithink a lot of people Uh, he's
pretty, uh, um, uh, cutthroatand, and will make these
decisions and signs all theseexecutive orders.
Yeah.
I mean, I've heard fromdefinitely other construction
and farmer owners right now thatare very concerned about

(57:53):
deportations.
I mean, yeah.
How could you not be?
Well, yeah.
I mean, and, and, and heardabout, uh, Uh, you know, things
that are transpiring right nowand this, this country, I mean,
you gotta think that thesefarmers, some of them have half
their workforce Totally.
That, yeah.
That, that are harvesting the,the crops and everything right
now.
So what is that gonna do to ourfood costs?

(58:15):
Little alone availability?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Um, no, I'm, it's, it's aconcerning thing I think us as a
country and it, what is gonna bethe catalyst in the next month
or two that either changes thator one way or the other.
Yeah.
No, it's an interesting, my.
My hope is that the, the wholebig we're getting rid of
everybody kind of thing is abunch of bluster and they really
take action on the actualcriminal record people or the

(58:37):
people we just don't even knowwho they are, you know, um, but
I've had some of thatconversation with Alma and of
course she's from a Mexicanbackground and, uh, community
and, you know, she knows morethan a dozen people that she's
like, I'm a little, A littlenervous that somebody is going
to come and grab them, you know,and that's what kind of a way to

(58:58):
live is that terrible,especially if you were here
going back to 2019 or 2018 orsomething, you've been working
on your green card, you're doingthese things and now you're
like, Oh, am I going to be ainnocent bystander to this
sweep?
95 percent of the people thatare here usually here for the
right reason.
They want to work, make somemoney, give money to their
family and, and just, you know,and have that.

(59:20):
That dream lifestyle that anyAmerican wants to have, and they
just maybe haven't gone throughthe process to, to get there
with it.
But, you know, there's a lot ofjobs out there, uh, from farming
to, to construction that not alot of Americans are doing.
And I think that's, that shouldbe a concern for this, this
country in general.
No, I think, I mean, I thinkthere should be consensus.

(59:41):
Among both Republicans andDemocrats honestly that we need
to actually fix immigration sothat we can import more people
And we need to have the rightkinds of standards and screening
and perhaps a wall too so thatwe can tell the difference
because like I hate to be atinfoil hat guy, but how many
like Potentially bad Chinese orArab people came across the

(01:00:05):
border the last few years.
Yeah.
Like it could be hundreds ofthousands for all that.
Oh, we don't.
Yeah.
Right?
Like what would that do if therewas an actual conflict and they
were moles in our society?
Okay.
Tin foil hat.
I don't know.
They might be.
Yeah.
Like if you were China, wouldn'tyou try to send a bunch of young
recruits over to wreck thedemon?

(01:00:28):
Yeah, I mean, I, I don't knowcause I've never dug down in
that area and or been educatedon it.
So I, I, uh, uh, we could runthrough any scenario like that
as in, but I agree with you,like the labor force is so
important that if we literallybounce.
You know, a significant portionof the population.
Yeah, if we balance half theworkers out here, there's going

(01:00:49):
to be a food issue, uh, letalone construction issue, let
alone, you know, et cetera, etcetera.
So, um, I hope, I hope the, the,uh, talk and everything that's
kind of transparent right now inthe next month or two, uh, The
bluster kind of slows down andmoderates the action a little
bit.
Yeah, creates some, yeah, some,some balance, you know, is
really, is really what's needed.
It's been out of balance in, ina couple different ways.
Yeah, that's fair.

(01:01:09):
So, you know, um.
Should we talk about abortion orany of those other political hot
topics?
I mean, I think you and I arethe least qualified to talk
about something like that.
My blog that's going to come outtomorrow said, uh, basically one
of the reasons that Harris lostthe election is because she

(01:01:31):
didn't really have a focus, apoint.
It was kind of like, things arepretty good.
Continue Joe's legacy, protectwomen's rights and, uh, orange
man bad.
Yeah.
You know, and that.
Ultimately, she wasn'tsuccessful because she didn't
kind of get to the point ofwhat, what's going to be better
with you.
Um, and so, I don't know.
We'll see what happens.

(01:01:51):
I, you know, it's a, it's acomplicated world and the
unintended consequences of Anyaction are, are significant.
I hope we get the hell out of,uh, I hope Russia and Ukraine
comes to terms that areDisappointing to both of them
soon and we can quit worryingabout World War Three.
Yeah, war's bad overall as weall know and in the the the

(01:02:14):
ancillary people that areaffected within those
communities And, uh, um, uh,children and everybody that's
affected something like thatwill, will, will carry that for
multi generations in theirlives.
And that is incredibly sad.
Um, we, we are so isolated herein Fort Collins, Colorado with
This great blessed communitythat we live in and, uh, and I,

(01:02:38):
I very much, uh, tell myselfthat.
Dang, I forgot.
I usually, uh, we got to thepolitics section.
I usually offer a homegrownjoint to consume during the
show.
Uh, is that of interest to you?
We haven't talked about thatbefore.
I'm, I'm good with my, my, uh.
White wine is fine.
White wine and charcuterie.
Thank you for the hospitality.

(01:02:58):
Sure.
As always.
It actually, my, my percentageof, uh, acceptance has increased
from like 7 percent to like 12percent since people, since I've
been saying it was my ownhomegrown.
Oh really?
Yeah, yeah.
That's fun.
I grew like a, one big plant andit grew like, I don't know.
Quarter pound half pound orsomething like a ton this year,

(01:03:20):
man.
I remember when you know, butgive it away like crazy pot
became Legal or medically legalin Colorado, you know, and at
that point I went I was like,it's over, you know It's gonna
be here and it's gonna belegalized one hours Yeah, I knew
that was the first test step fordoing it and one of the reasons
it's so expensive to operate abusiness here is because You

(01:03:42):
have to have warehouse space togrow this Marijuana and it took
up a lot of the warehouse spacein Colorado, right?
Oh, yeah rents you were four tosix dollars a square foot and
they doubled plus In coloradobecause it's a lot more
lucrative to have a uh marijuanaoperation going in a warehouse
Yeah, you know, uh fun littleback.
Yeah from years ago.
How many total square foot doyou suppose they grow in now?

(01:04:04):
Oh, I, I don't, I'm hundreds ofthousands.
Yeah, I mean, yeah, I mean, I'mdepending on the size of the
operation.
At least for a season there wasa shortage.
Yeah, is my, yeah, is my, myguess.
Yeah.
You know, so.
What would you say as a mostlynon consumer or perhaps fully
non consumer, you think weed hasbeen good or bad for Colorado
or?
Neutral.
Probably neutral.

(01:04:24):
I'm not educated enough on thetax, um, you know, revenues.
Yeah, how much good has happenedfrom it.
And yeah, where those go.
I mean, uh, that was enacted towhere a lot that those.
That was a theory, right?
To go into the educationalsystems.
The kids will be smarter if wejust.
Yeah, you know, and um, I, Ithink it was a good thing from
the aspect of Um, it, it wasalready here before then, um, to

(01:04:45):
go ahead and might as wellregulate it and tax it, uh, to
make it safer.
Uh, I, I, I don't think that wasa bad thing, honestly, um, but
I, I, uh, hopefully the, the,the tax revenue has done some
good.
I don't know, I have never duginto where that's done, but I
mean, you don't see the societalcollapse that some see.
Or maybe that's why we voted 57percent for Harris.

(01:05:06):
No, I mean, you know, here's,here's the thing that when, when
pot became legal here inColorado, the people that always
smoked still smoked, but thepeople that didn't smoke didn't
smoke.
And it's, it really didn'tchange anything other than the
fact that he could go down astore and buy it, you know, so I
didn't really see a major changewith, with anything there.
That's so well observed.

(01:05:26):
Like it's exactly the echo of myexperience.
There was a few people that werelike, Ooh, I'm going to try it.
And then they.
Didn't, you know, people wouldtry edibles or something like
that, they're like, nah,whatever.
Religion or family, would youprefer?
Cause you do faith politics,faith family politics.
Well, family, faith familypolitics.
So, family now?

(01:05:48):
Yeah, sure.
Well, we talked about politicsfirst, we went backwards
already, cause I wanted to talkabout Trump with you, get you in
the hot seat.
Uh, family, so we talked aboutyour mom, your dad, a little
bit, your sister.
Um, Are you still in arelationship I assume?
Yeah.
Long term relationship?
Yeah, long term relationship.
Um, you know, um, my spouse, uh,partner Stacey and I, we've been

(01:06:10):
together 12, going on 13 yearsright now.
Yep, so, uh, we met through theevents industry.
She was doing, uh, working for,uh, Uh, Sneagrab, uh, corporate,
uh, sports authority.
Okay.
And, uh, doing the Sneagrabtents from Colorado to Montana
to Alaska.
Okay.
And so that was happening inFort Collins.
Sure.

(01:06:30):
And I kinda, kinda hunted herdown to get the business and.
And she blew me off for like sixmonths, you know, uh, to get the
business.
And I just kind of, you know,did that, but we ended up doing
a couple of dates.
She played very tough to get ah,um, I will say that.
And um, uh, so I was very luckyto just kind of be able to hang

(01:06:51):
out with her and get to knowher.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And then how long, um, you said13 years together?
Exclusive.
Yep.
Yep.
Um, you're probably edging outof, does she have children?
No, no kids.
You don't have kids.
Yeah.
Yeah, no kids.
Did you guys think about it?
Uh, you know, that's one thingwhen we got together, I think
what you usually do in the firstpart of a relationship, you talk

(01:07:13):
about like, you know, kids, andwe're like, we're both like,
yeah, you know, we're okay, youknow, yeah, you know, and that's
how we kind of, that's one ofthe reasons we got along is we
both kind of always had thatsame philosophy together and,
and, um, you know, so it's, uh,no kids, uh, family question
now, like, If all of a sudden,by some whatever, she got
pregnant, like, would you beexcited to have a child

(01:07:35):
together?
No, we're old enough.
We're, we're, we're past You'dbe terrified.
We're past that, Kurt.
Yeah, fair enough.
We're past that in life, soYeah, I wonder what I would do.
Like, Jill's 44, I'm 50, right?
Like, so we're past that too.
Yeah.
And, like, I don't know what wewould do.
Yeah.
You know?
Yeah, I mean, uh, we're, we're,uh, we're great.
We are dog parents and, uh, Onedog?

(01:07:58):
Two dogs.
You know, uh, this will come upwithin some of the philosophy.
We had one of the dogs pass inthe past couple of weeks.
Oh, I'm sorry.
And, uh, yeah, thank you.
And, uh, So now one dog?
Yeah, one dog.
Okay.
Let's talk about the departeddog first.
Oh my god, we probably shouldnot bring that up.
Well, you might cry, but that'sokay.

(01:08:21):
The back story on these dogs, wetravel.
Okay.
That's one thing that CCA liketo do is travel usually once a
year.
Um, Puerto Rico's been one ofour favorites.
We've been down there four orfive times.
Okay.
And we went to breakfast at thisrestaurant and they had posted
on their Facebook page.
We'd lot, we'd actually bothcome from with dogs from our
previous relationship.
Okay.
Ship.
So we both had dogs and they allpassed within a year.

(01:08:43):
It was absolutely terrible.
Oh, wow.
Uh, they were just, they, theygot old and, and whatnot.
It was terrible.
And, uh, but we were in PuertoRico and this restaurant posted,
uh, one of the tugs and, um.
Uh, uh, so I was, I went tobreakfast and, and then, you
know, I was like, no, no, we'renot going to do it.
And I surprised her.
I took her over to the rescueand that dog was gone.

(01:09:04):
I was a Sharpay.
Oh, in Puerto Rico.
Yeah.
In Puerto Rico.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It was a Sharpay, you know, kindof pity little dog and whatnot.
The dog wasn't there.
We made another dog and she'slike, Oh, the dog will be back
in two days.
Her brother got adopted, etcetera.
We were back like two dayslater.
She's there.
The brother didn't get adopted.
And they are just, they're 12weeks old, you know, and they're
just like glued to each other,pulling on each other in the

(01:09:24):
room and, and they, you, theyjust love each other to death.
So has that been the two?
Yeah.
And so, and so anyways, youknow, and I asked Stacy, I go, I
go, which, and I was like, whichdog do you want to choose to
bring home?
And I already knew I was screwedat that, you know, at that
point.
And she goes, yeah, you couldstay here.
They're both coming with.
The rescue lady dropped the, uh,I was like, we don't leave for
three days.
And she's like, I'll meet you atthe airport, three hours away,

(01:09:46):
dropped them in our arms at theairport at eight o'clock in the
morning, stood back, took apicture, uh, which I'll, I'll,
I'll share with you.
And we had these two dogs thatwe got on an airplane and all of
a sudden we're dog parents,brought them back.
So this is, that's 2018.
And, um, and we just spent somuch time with these dogs.
They're our kids.
And so, um.

(01:10:07):
Uh, the, the one dog, um, Raina,our, our Brown Sharpay, uh, a
couple of weeks ago, she justhad a, um, disc bulge suddenly
and, um, and it happened soquick Monday, acting weird
Tuesday at the vet, Wednesday atCSU, back at CSU at four o'clock
in the morning.
And, uh, we had to say goodbyeon Thursday night.

(01:10:29):
It was terrible.
Wow.
So.
Just intense pain.
Yeah, she was in intense pain.
You can spend 12, 000 to maybehave a chance to alleviate.
You know, there is no cost youcan put on a, your, one of your
best friends and your kid.
That's true.
And so that, that was, it wasmore of the fact that we did
everything we could and she wasin so much pain and we just had

(01:10:50):
to let her go.
It was terrible.
So, I'm so sorry.
And that's one of the thingswhen you sign up for these
animals, they will give you themost joy and love.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And they're incredible in somany ways.
How's, uh, how's the other dogdoing with their absence?
Yeah.
Fo yeah.
Foster, I mean, they're, they'reso, they're literally brother
and sister.
Yeah.
Um, you know, so I imagine thebond is super crazy.
Incredibly intense.

(01:11:10):
Yeah.
So, um, yeah, he's, he's, uh,you know, you can, until things
are different, you know?
Yeah.
So, um, yeah, we had, uh,brother and sister cats, um,
Bootsy that we still have, andthen the king of LaPorte, uh.
His name was Barley, and he gothit by a car.
Oh my god.
Like a week after our mostprevious exchange student moved

(01:11:32):
in.
And I wasn't around, I was outof pocket for a couple hours, so
he like, carried the cat.
To the backyard and stuff andman that the sister cat was a
mess for a while.
Yeah, she's still not the same.
Honestly.
100 percent Yeah.
Yeah.
When you have a bond like that,you know, with a, uh, animal
sibling, you know, and it's,it's, it's a, it's a thing for

(01:11:56):
everybody, but she was going toturn seven this last week.
So it was, yeah.
It was so sudden, and what not,yeah.
And when we signed up for this,we said, Cool, we got 12, 14
years with these animals.
And that was the traumatic part,shocking part of it, so.
We, uh, I usually ask a one worddescription of the kids.
Um, would you like to give a oneword in remembrance of Rain?

(01:12:19):
Or is that not enough words?
Um, Man, spirited.
Okay.
Yeah, she was the alpha of thehouse.
Okay.
Okay.
And, and Fosta is?
Fosto, yes.
Fosto?
Fosto, yeah, her brother.
And, he's like, does he feellost without somebody telling
him what to do all the time now?
Yeah, I mean, she was the onelike We're going, and he would

(01:12:41):
follow with, yeah, I mean, he's,he's figuring it out and we're
figuring it out as a, as a, as afamily and we're, we're, we're
making it work and it's aboutadjusting, you know, as humans,
we're 70 percent habit everyday.
You get up, you brush your teeththe same way the other day, you
shower the same way.
There's all these habits that wehad together as a family and
with the dogs and having toreadjust that has been probably

(01:13:02):
the most challenging part.
So we're, but as animals.
You know, we, we, we adapt andyou've got to, you got to figure
out what the next new normal is.
Yeah, yeah.
That's what's kind oftranspiring right now.
Yeah, that's really interesting.
Do you have a, a one word forFosto too that you would share?
Oh, Fosto is um, man, he issensitive.

(01:13:25):
Yeah.
Yeah.
He's a sensitive dog.
I don't really, I don't really,I'm not sure the Does he come
snuggle with you guys in themorning after?
Yeah, I mean, they were both.
Yeah, you know, I mean, thesedogs broke me, broke me down.
I, I, you know, when, if we wantto go back to like when I was
14, right?
My parents would send me back tothe farm on Illinois.
I'd go back for two months as akid in the summer and learn

(01:13:46):
mechanics and putting farmequipment and doing all that
stuff.
So I, I kind of grew up seeingYou know dogs are they sleep
outside.
Yeah, they sleep outside.
They're part.
They're part of the farm, right,you know And so this, this brown
little Reina dog broke me downover a six month period in our
house.
Because when we brought himhome, I go, Nope.

(01:14:06):
You were still that kind of guy.
Yeah.
Here's a, here's a gate.
The dog, the dog livesdownstairs.
You know, it's in this, thisroom is a part of the house that
was in negotiations.
And the stays that it had, youknow, she had to turn her thing.
She would invite, uh, open thegate up and she'd walk up to
the, the, the mid level and justsit on the rug right there and
stare at me.
And, and, and then move a footat a time over a six month
period.

(01:14:26):
This dog systematically broke myemotions down over time.
It was, it was terrible, youknow, and then next thing you
know, they're on the couch,they're on the beds and, and,
and they're one of the greatestthings that ever happened to me.
Yeah, for sure.
Well, I'm sorry for your loss.
That's a, uh, yeah, it's a toughthing to go through.
And, and I was just reflectingone of the, usually I get up and

(01:14:48):
work for.
90 minutes or something.
And then I take a shower andthen I climb back in bed and
Jill gets up.
And, and part of that wholeprocess is Tucker comes in and
says, hi, for like three or fourminutes, you know, he's, he's an
old grumpy dude at this point.
Now he's not this nice where heonce was, but he generally
always comes in every morningand kind of, you know, licks
Jill's nose a couple of times.

(01:15:09):
And that habit, thatcompanionship that you have is
just one of the golden things inlife is really what that is.
Yeah, fill it with somebody, alittle bit.
Yeah.
Some, something, some dog,somebody.
Um, okay.
Oh, we haven't talked aboutfaith yet.
Sure.
Yeah.
You mentioned along the journeythat you came from a Catholic

(01:15:29):
background.
Yeah.
So, you know, my dad's side wasCatholic and then my mom's side
was Christian, you know, in, uh,Illinois.
So I kind of had a blendedthing, but I was raised, you
know, Christian.
Okay.
And then, um, you know, as I gotout on my own, I I, I did a
little bit of that, but youknow, I, I, I kind of developed
just my own philosophy of Philbeing and not really attending

(01:15:50):
any sort of denomination or, orany, never really revolted
against your background, justreally engaged either, you know,
do the right thing to writepeople and, and all that.
Well, I mean, I heard it in yourvalues of humility and yeah,
certainly your values have beenimpacted from that background,
but no, uh, you don't feel anabsence or a desire to.

(01:16:11):
Engage more in that.
No.
Part of your world.
No, it's, it's, you know, I,I've just kinda got my, my own,
uh, complacency, you know, uh,as I'll say, yeah, you know, I
mean, you know, the, the, if youlook at the, um, uh, I mean, one
of the things I'm interested ina lot more as you get older is
like health, you know, and, and,and, and food and all that

(01:16:34):
stuff.
And, and if you've ever watchedthe, the blue zone show on, um,
On Netflix.
So anyways, there's, there'sthese five or six zones across
the planet where people live tolike the a hundred years old.
Why is this?
And that's what they went outand studied over like a 20 year
period.
And the three commonalitieswithin that are, uh, food,

(01:16:54):
community.
And exercise, you know, andthey're like, well, why are the
people on the bottom of the,this Italy village not living as
long?
And what they discovered islike, there's hills more and
this will move up here, youknow, and they were getting more
exercise, but the communityaspect is what's so important
that I've, I've found, um, asyou get older in life, you know,
first, when you're.

(01:17:15):
19, 20, you know, younger, andyou're like, ah, where's the
party at?
Right.
You're surrounded by people allthe time.
Yeah, exactly.
But having, um, uh, goodneighbors and good family and
that kind of stuff and creatingthat, um, uh, community aspect
because we're inherently socialanimals and you've got to have
that in your life.
And so, uh, that's kind of beena little bit more of, uh, my

(01:17:37):
focus as you say, faith, it'smore in the community that I've
built.
Around myself.
I dig it.
I dig it.
Um, any shout outs on that?
Like, are you neighborhood guy?
Are you a big golfer or do youhave a gym that you love or a
men's group?
Both.
You know, all, all the abovehere.
Um, Uh, our neighbors arefantastic.

(01:17:57):
We've got, uh, five plusneighbors that have, they all
have kids actually.
And so Stacey and I aresurrounded by, yeah, the dinks
that are always available.
Oh, we're, we're, yeah, we're,we're the dink wads, you know?
And so, um, we have, um, uh, thekids in the neighborhood are
four to 10.
And so we're, we're always thefun aunt and uncle of the

(01:18:19):
neighborhood and have, have thatkind of fun aspect to it.
So that's my community thatwe're directly involved with.
Um, business people thatobviously I interact with
yourself.
And then, um, I get a gym herein town, uh, manic training.
Um, it's, it's hit training.
These, uh, they do a, uh, afantastic job of community.
Good.
By the way, you're, you'reprobably 10 off of where you

(01:18:41):
were 18 months ago.
I think so.
Yeah, possibly, you know, par.
Yeah.
I've been training with manicfor almost.
Almost two years now.
And the one thing that attractedme to this gym where I've done
CrossFit.
Jiu Jitsu, Orange Theory, allthat kind of stuff.
The Manic Training has thesocial aspect to it.
And so, and that's what I, Ienjoy about the gym because the,

(01:19:02):
the, the owner operator thereis, he's small business.
And he's very much about, um,creating a community.
And I think that's just, uh,and, and adheres to some of the
values of community that Italked about.
It's not that easy sometimes.
And so, kudos to him for doingthat and inspiring that in
others.
Yeah.
Um.
I'm comfortable moving on.
Are you ready for, um, the, uh,grab bag questions?

(01:19:27):
Oh, sure.
This is new.
Grab three ping pong balls outof here.
Do you get to grab one too?
No.
Oh, oh.
They're, uh, I'm gonna ask youthe questions.
The balls are associated with aquestion that Dave and I have
come up with.
Oh boy.
And some lucky listener willreceive a, uh, Prize for

(01:19:49):
responding back with the answerto one of your questions.
So if you're listening outthere, keep listening and Phil,
if you would, I have a good one,by the way.
It's just even like, you know,the question, well, not a
question, but just, you know,people always say, cause flex
productions is the company,right?
Yeah.
What does flex stand for?
Do we, do we, do you want to, doyou want to have a listener?

(01:20:12):
That could be one of, that couldbe one of your three questions.
I think, I think somebodyshould, why is there a double X
on flex?
There was two of us.
Oh, okay.
Yeah, that started theorganization.
And, and what does it stand for?
Fort Collins Leading EventExperts.
Oh.
And then there's two of you.
There's two of us that startedthis.
Yep.
So that's, that's where, that'swhere the, the acronym came up.
That's cool.

(01:20:32):
That's cool.
I did not know that.
You don't talk about thatenough.
Not, not a lot of people knowthat.
Yeah.
Interesting.
So, but that's the acronym ofWareflex Productions.
You should actually promote thatsignificantly at your April 16th
party.
Um, absolutely, we'll, we'll,we'll talk about it and I always
do the same thing, kind of say,what does it, anybody know what
it stands for?
And 99 percent of people havenever heard of it.

(01:20:52):
Yeah, I didn't know about it.
Yeah.
And I've been around your radiusfor a while.
Okay, so now you can grab twoquestions.
We'll probably choose that one.
Let's get a number one here.
Oh, a number one.
One is on the agenda.
And a number 29.
Oh man, 29's been picked.
Has it?
Hold on, let's recycle it then.
Okay.
Hold on here, uh, 26.

(01:21:13):
Number 1 and number 26.
What do you got for me?
Okay, I like that one.
Okay.
Number 26 is what's yourfavorite way to unwind after a
stressful day?
Um, you know, having a glass ofwine, having a glass of wine is
sitting out in the front yardwith the pups, you know, that
was, that's my, my go to.

(01:21:34):
Um, you know, we live in themiddle of Fort Collins, just on
a, in a middle class house on acorner street.
And uh, then, and one neighbormight come walking by and say
hello, and then another onecomes by and then I'll, Hey, do
you want a cider?
I love impromptu neighborparties.
Oh yeah, you know, and all of asudden there's five or six of us
out there talking and talkingabout the families and the kids.
Uh, that's, that's an amazingthing.

(01:21:55):
So do you think you guys willget another dog?
Yeah, I'm sure eventually, youknow, I, we're.
He's kind of in betweener,right?
Like a seven year old dog,you're like, well, do I want to
wait seven years?
Does he want to be only forseven years?
No, foster needs companionship.
It's very apparent as I've beenwalking him and meeting other
dogs around, and we haveneighbors with the dogs.

(01:22:15):
Can I go home with them?
Yeah, you know, his sparkle isback when he's with another dog.
And so, um, I, I know eventuallywe'll, when the timing's right
and a rescue is always what we,we, we do a dog that needs a lot
of love and, and the, the familythat we're able to give.
Maybe it's worth going on acoaster or Puerto Rico.
Very possible.

(01:22:35):
Very possible.
Uh, you know, shout out to, toLeo at Barks of Hope.
Um, she is amazing solo.
Uh, rescue owner down there, andthat's where we got them from.
She recently rescued a cow.
His name is Berger.
Maybe you could get a cow forfostered abuse.
Well, CeCe's talked about a cowmultiple times.

(01:22:57):
Not in the middle of town.
We don't, we don't have theplace to do that.
But, yeah, so.
Number one was the other one?
Yep.
Oh, yeah, this is fun.
Your favorite childhood memoryBoy, um, probably my favorite
childhood memories now are Hotair ballooning with the family.

(01:23:22):
Interesting.
Um, they had some friends thatwere balloonists and and so Um,
we would go help set up theballoons, hot air balloons, and
then you, you chase and stufflike that.
Yeah, yeah.
And, um, it is a very tight knitcommunity, the ballooning
community is.
Yeah.
And it's funny, I, I, I startedwith a guy who was pretty Do you

(01:23:44):
do it more than once, up in theballoon?
Yeah, yeah.
You know, I was lucky enough tobe able to go up, uh, multiple
times, you know, working withthis, uh, with the, the, the
pilot at the time.
And, um, and the balloon can besuper, uh, uh, tight and, and
here's a, here's another memorywith, with Stacy and I were up
in a steamboat at the, and, uh,Uh, they had a balloon rodeo,

(01:24:07):
which they do every year.
And so, uh, we were just happyto be up there.
I didn't even think about it.
And I was like, we got to theballoon event.
And, and she was like, early inthe morning.
And so we ended up going to itand, um, and you know, six 45,
it's like the pilots meetings infive minutes.
Pilots meetings in five minutes.
Now, come on, let's go to thepilots meeting.
She goes.
You're not pilot.
We can't go to the the pilotsmeeting.
I start talking to this pilot,you know, the pilot here.

(01:24:29):
And I was like, Hey, I grew upballooning with this guy, Marty
Hill.
That's been in the community for40, 50 years.
Ballooning is like, everybodyknows Marty.
Oh my gosh.
Yeah.
You know, he's like, he waslike, you grew up with Marty and
whatnot.
And I was like, she's never beenup and he go, and I go, if
you'll take her up for a hop,just, you know, it'd be awesome.
And whatnot.
He's like, well, if we take herup, we're gonna take up with the
whole time.
And Stacey's afraid of Heights.
Oh, and you know, this guy hadbeen pulling for, I think it was

(01:24:51):
like 26 years, super calmmorning in steamboat.
And, and I'm like getting aballoon.
And she's like.
I'm not getting the balloon.
No, no, no, it was like gettingthe balloon.
You're not going to have abetter thing.
It's beautiful out and whatnot.
And he goes, well, I needsomebody to, to have our chase
vehicle, uh, runner chasevehicle, and he's like, can you
drive a truck in the trailer?
I was like, of course, you know,keys like that guy had met for
20 minutes.
Awesome.

(01:25:11):
That's how tight the ballooningcommunity is, you know?
Yeah.
But your relationship with thatold hat that you talked about,
like you're already validated.
Yeah.
You know, as you know, it's,it's about connections
everywhere.
Motorcyclists are like that alittle bit too.
Have you ever been?
Motorcyclist.
It feels like you might.
Yeah, absolutely.
I've ridden for, Oh my gosh.
Um, 30 plus years.

(01:25:32):
Oh, really?
Yeah.
Do you have a ride right now?
No, I, I, I have, um, uh, I gotrid of a bike, but I started on
like a little lady when I wasmaybe 10 or 12.
I had a buddy that had a cabinand they had motorcycles up
there and that's where I learnedto ride an 80, 125, 250 and up
from there.
I've ridden, uh, bikes acrossPeru with some buddies.

(01:25:53):
I rode across Italy and Corsicawith some other buddies on some
1200 GSs.
I mean, uh, yeah, I mean,motorcycling is a, a, a great
fun sport.
Um, and it's also a dangeroussport.
It is very much so it's a, it'sa time relative thing that I
look at.
It's not a matter of if it's amatter of when you go down and
if you get hurt when you'regoing down.

(01:26:14):
So.
Uh, you know, stay safe outthere, wear some gear, and uh,
you know, and uh, yeah, butmotorcycling's great.
And I lied actually, because itcan't be nearly as close knit as
the, the hot air ballooncommunity, because like, there's
only, what, there might be 50 or100 hot air balloonists in
Colorado, maybe 250, or youknow, some number, but it's not

(01:26:36):
a ton.
I don't know the, I don't knowthe stats of uh, The
balloonists, um, in Colorado,but it's, yeah, it's a, it's a,
I mean, uh, you gotta be acertified pilot, you know?
Oh, absolutely.
FAA.
Is there like radios up thereand stuff?
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
You're, you're, you're acertified pilot.
Uh, you know, there, there's alot of certain amount of
training you need to getlicensing to go up in, uh, FAA

(01:26:58):
airspace.
It feels like I should just beable to, I'm a libertarian.
I should just be able to buildmy own balloon and go up there
if I want to.
Uh, airplanes need to watch outfor me.
So, so, so yeah, so I, I, I, Uh,you, you know, yeah, you have
to, uh, understand the, the aircurrents and the clouds and when
to launch them because the onlycontrols you have in a balloon
are up and down.
Yeah.
You got to understand how theair currents are going to take

(01:27:18):
you and where they're going totake you to be able to, to get
where you kind of want to go.
Well, I took a 200 levelmeteorology class when I was in
college, so I feel.
Pretty near qualified.
So, um, Right, Phil says.
I'll, I'll spin off to a, um, astory within business, because
it's the best thing that youhave in, uh, in the rental
industry is these wild stories.
Yeah, let's hear a couple.

(01:27:39):
So, I'm going to spin off to aballoon story.
Okay.
Okay, so I get this phone calland this guy calls me up and he
goes, How much if, because wewere into helium tanks back in
the day, it was pretty common inthis area to, to have balloons
and, uh, you know, for partiesand whatnot.
But, you know, this guy calls upand he's like, you know, how
much will a, one of these tanksfill up and how much will it
lift?

(01:28:00):
And I go, I have, I usually atank will blow up 400, eight
inch balloons and, you know,250, 12 inch balloons.
You know, that was the metricsthat we had when they were, he's
like, but how much will it list?
I was like, man, you're going tohave to call somebody at CSU or
professor of how this kind ofworks and whatnot.
So this guy comes and rents likefour helium tanks from us.
And, um.

(01:28:21):
Uh, you know, and, and rinsethese tanks from us.
I didn't really know who he was.
And, and then all of a suddenone of my employees, like, you
know, four or five days later,they're like, dude, did you
check out the news?
That guy that rented the heliumtanks from us.
Uh, his kids in the, in thefricking balloon and I go, what
are you talking about?
And you flip on the news and,and, you know, and all of a
sudden we have this thing calledthe balloon boy and, and I'm

(01:28:44):
going, holy shit, you know,what, what, what did we do here?
But I was like, we didn't doanything.
Uh, you know, he ran out of thetanks for us.
We just supplied this and he didwhatever he did, you know, yeah,
you know.
So, so, you know, I mean, it,you know, this, this whole thing
goes down and, and I call him upbecause he's supposed to return
them.
Do you remember when that was?
Like 06, 07, something likethat?

(01:29:05):
Uh, that was 11.
11?
Oh, wait.
Okay.
I believe it was 11 if I recallright.
And for listeners that have noidea what you're talking about,
do you want to give a synopsis?
The balloon boy just.
Google the balloon boy, youknow, and it was a guy that kind
of, it did a hoax, you know, of,of, you know, my kids in this
balloon and, and, and, and justwanted some notoriety and

(01:29:25):
whatnot.
But anyways, we're a rentalcompany.
We're supposed to, the stuff'ssupposed to be returned by X
date.
Right.
Oh, right.
And so like a week goes by and Icall him up and we're like, Hey,
Richard, you get, you gottabring these tanks back to me.
You know, we, we, you know,we're, we're, we're, we're
rental company and whatnot.
So he, he, he's like, he's like,I can't leave my house.
Come get it.
So I go down there, and I pickup to his house, and it's media

(01:29:49):
row.
There is 20 freaking cameras upand down the road there.
And I pull up and park, youknow, just unmarked pickup.
Did you drive your, yeah, I wasgonna say, did you drive your
bandit truck?
Yeah, no, absolutely not, youknow.
I didn't want anything to dowith this.
And so, yeah, I pull up rightthere.
And they're like, hey man, youcan't park there, you know.
And I was like, Oh, I'm here topick up the helium tanks 20
cameras mobilize off thesetripod boom on their freaking,

(01:30:11):
you know Who are you withwhatnot and I go private company
walk up knocking the door, youknow And I get in there and it's
like blacked out at his houseThe curtains are drawn and i'm
like, what are you doing, man?
I was like, i've seen thehealing tanks.
Where are the healing tanks at?
You know?
Load them out of the truck andthen get out of there.
And so Did it ever come out oranything?
Oh no, I just, I didn't wantanything to do with it at all.
This guy is on national news.

(01:30:32):
Well, for sure.
In sort of whatever trouble atthe time.
I had no idea.
So, uh, there's my balloonstory.
I like it.
I like it.
Yeah.
Um, is that, would that be yourloco experience?
Your crazy experience?
Or do you have some other crazyexperiences of your lifetime
that you'd like to share?
The most, you know, the, thething about the, Tenting

(01:30:54):
industry is we install these bigsails, right?
Big sails Yeah, and if theybecome unanchored and weather
elements, which they can even ifyou take the most serious
precautions, right?
They're still temporarystructure slash tents.
I've seen your dudes likescrewing those big Like 18 inch
long things and to anchor thetents down, but we were very

(01:31:15):
we're very serious Uh,professional work with industry
standards are very safeconscious about what we do in
our industry.
We had an incident and, uh, thiswas a subcontracted tent that I
didn't, we didn't install, butit was a big enough part of your
operation.
Yeah.
You know, and this is back in ohsix.
When we just, we didn't haveproducts like this, a hundred by

(01:31:36):
a 260 foot tent.
Okay.
So 26, 000 square feet for a 800person gala.
You're talking to like basicallya rodeo event center.
This is, yeah, yeah.
Kind of thing.
So this is a large tent.
A, uh, microburst came through.
Pulled a hundred and forty,forty two inch pins, stakes, out

(01:31:57):
of the ground and threw thisthing a hundred feet, uh, to the
east.
Um, and Before the event?
Before the event.
Okay, thank God.
Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,yeah.
Right.
Before the event, about fourdays before.
Okay.
You know, and so Um, and thankGod nobody was standing to the
east of where this thing landed.
The center poles, there's 12center poles on this thing,
they're 35 feet high, theyweighed 900 pounds each.

(01:32:19):
Oh damn.
I mean, there would have beenYou are talking about a sale.
Yeah, I mean, it, it, it, it,it, it, in, in it, in it, um,
and you know, it scared me mid,my core, because in the end, as
the leader of this organizationYeah, yeah.
I'm responsible for the safetyof the consumer, the employees,
and everybody.
Um, and we changed a couple ofsystems there, but there was
nothing really we did wrong.

(01:32:39):
It was one of those freakhappenstance things.
And we just, we, I was lucky.
It was lucky, the people werelucky that were there.
They were all on the right sideof the tent when it happened.
And, um, so that's one of thoseinstances that I'll forever
remember.
I was just thinking to myself,like Like, you're talking about
a hundred by two hundred andsixty foot space, right?
And, like, the ships that wesail across, used to sail across

(01:33:03):
the ocean with, might have,like, you know, a triangular, a
three triangular fifty by X orwhatever, you know, the actual
air catching ability of asailing ship is probably only a
tenth of what your tent was,like, in terms of ultimate
square footage.
Yeah, these, the tents areincredibly Powerful in the wind

(01:33:25):
and even a 20 by 20 foot 400square feet.
You cannot control in in bigwind scenarios yeah, we do
trainings with our employees asfar as like When we're in wind
scenarios and what to do and andthe the tents not value zero,
you know it's about staying safeand And, um, and either
anchoring it down or creating asafe situation.
And how did that work out?

(01:33:45):
What, cause you said yousubcontracted this, uh, I guess
that was his problem.
Cause his failure.
Yeah.
Well, it's still my problembecause we're the, we're the
name of the face of the, of theactual client.
Um, we ended up, the event endedup moving indoors was the best
solution.
Uh, we did try to deploy anothersystem, but it rained for two
days straight and it just becamea mud.
pit in this field, and it was anadjustment we made.

(01:34:08):
Did you say 2011?
Uh, that was, oh, no, wait,wait, oh.
No, that was early, you said 06or something like that.
Yeah, oh, 2011 was, was BalloonBoy, and No, this was not 06,
I'm sorry.
Um I was just thinking, I thinkI went to Telluride Bluegrass
Festival in 2011, and it wasLike rained all weekend.
No, it was 13 or 12.

(01:34:29):
I don't know.
Anyway, I digress.
Yeah, yeah, don't matter.
So, Phil, if people think you'recool after listening to the show
and they want to make sure theyget all their event rentals from
you and from now on, um, youwant to send them to where?
Um, flex Productions.
F-L-E-X-X-X productions, two XsYeah.
Is our website.com.

(01:34:50):
Um, yeah.
And whenever our reach out toone of our team members, we have
an appointment module on ourwebsite.
We book you an appointment wherethey can make an appointment and
come by and have a, have, have atour.
Yeah.
I mean, have a, have we have atour and, and a glass of wine,
uh, you know, water what,whatever, when people come in,
because we want them to becomfortable.
It is a, we create an experiencewhen people come, come in for

(01:35:10):
sure.
They, if you're a bride and agroom, you really don't know
where to start with some of thisstuff.
And so our job is to really kindof coach them and say, here's
your Alucard solutions.
And, uh, and, and where we cancome in and help and guide them
to where they want to go withinthe vision that they have.
Yeah.
We didn't focus on it, but likeyour showroom area there, like
where you've got different kindsof fancy levels of plates and

(01:35:33):
silverware and all thesedifferent kinds of linens and
different things.
Got to touch it and feel it.
Yeah, absolutely.
You know, people are welcome tocome in and see our operation.
We, we enjoy when people come tosee what we do.
Anything you would ask me or,uh, declare before the year?
Well, I'm trying to remember howyou and I met each other.
I think, was it really peachfest?
I think so.
I think I'm, I think actually, Ithink I might've been bears

(01:35:55):
backyard grill, the, the foodtrucker guy that was doing
grilled half peaches, but I wasalso involved with like the,
you've been in Rotary forever?
Yeah, I've been in Rotary forabout that long.
Yeah.
And I was in the planningcommittee there and stuff like
that for that event.
So it's possible it was beforethen, but right around that
time.
Yeah.
Yeah, because I had the, I hadthe food trailer with the, uh,

(01:36:16):
red and red and blue umbrellason top of it.
Mm-hmm It was grill and peachesthat mm-hmm One of those first
years.
Anyway.
I think it's just interestinghow time flies so much as you,
as you kind of get older and youthink back to like, Oh my gosh,
how long was that?
You know, and, and trying tofigure that out.
Um, it's, uh, um, You know, uh,that's, uh, those are the great

(01:36:37):
times, you know, as far as I'mconcerned and, and I'm, I'm
impressed of, you know, Kurtalso use a small business where
you've kind of come with thethink tank and, and how far it's
come and, and I was lucky enoughto, to be a member and, yeah,
seven, I think it was sevenyears and, and then, yeah, and
being possibly a member in thefuture and, and, and where the
think tanks come and, and howmuch, uh, you know, you gave to

(01:36:57):
the, you give to the businesscommunity as far as that.
So I think that's, that's a lotof scrappiness.
Yes.
So, uh, whether you're in agarage or in kind of a virtual
setting like this.
Yeah, absolutely.
Awesome.
Well, Phil, Godspeed.
Yeah.
See you next time.
Thanks, man.
Appreciate it.
Cheers.

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EXPERIENCE 207 | Garage Operation to 20,000 Square Feet - Phillip Gottula, Co-Founder and Owner/Operator at FLEXX Productions - Leading the Northern Colorado Event Rental Industry in Service and Technology

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