In today’s conversation, I’m joined by longtime Producer of The LoCo Experience, (and continuing as Operations Manager of many hats at LoCo Think Tank) Alma Arellano, along with our newest employee and incoming Producer of the podcast, Ava Munos! We dig into Ava’s background a bit - which revolved around competitive dance for years - and explore some of the changes coming for Season 5 of The LoCo Experience.
Also, Alma breaks down our top 5 most-listened episodes of 2024 and we talk about some of the most inspiring - and the most LoCo - experiences shared during season 4. If you’re a fan of the show, you won’t want to miss this one!
Disclaimer - We lost the first hour of our conversation due to a tech glitch, during which Ava shared deeply about the joys and the traumas of her dance career. We tried to start over and re-create the conversation, but it was admittedly difficult to remember what we’d covered in the lost conversation, and what was still left to unfold in the fresh one.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
just trying to make sure I'mpaving the perfect path for
(00:02):
myself and, and there's noperfect path there's no perfect
way to do anything, but I'mtrying at least to make sure I
come out of college and I havea, a couple dollars in the bank
and a damn idea of what I wantto do.
So that's where I'm at.
In today's conversation, I'mjoined by longtime producer of
the Loco Experience andcontinuing as operations manager
of many hats at Loco Think Tank,Alma Arellano, along with our
(00:24):
newest employee and incomingproducer of the podcast, Ava
Manus.
We dig into Ava's background abit, which revolved around
competitive dance for years, andexplore some of the changes
coming for Season 5 of The LocoExperience.
Also, Alma breaks down our topfive most listened episodes of
2024.
And we talk about some of themost inspiring and the most
local experiences shared duringthe season.
(00:46):
If you're a fan of the show, youwon't want to miss this one.
Disclaimer.
We lost the first hour of ourconversation due to a tech
glitch during which Ava shareddeeply about the joys and
traumas of her dance career.
We tried to start over andrecreate the conversation, but
it was admittedly difficult toremember what we'd covered in
the lost conversation, and whatwas still left to unfold in the
(01:07):
fresh one.
We did our best, and I hope youenjoy.
Let's have some fun.
Welcome to the LoCo Experiencepodcast.
On this show, you'll get to knowbusiness and community leaders
from all around northernColorado and beyond.
(01:27):
Our guests share their stories,business stories, life stories,
stories of triumph and oftragedy, and through it all
you'll be inspired andentertained.
These conversations are real andraw, and no topics are off
limits.
So pop in a breath mint and getready to meet our latest guest.
Welcome back to the localexperience podcast.
(01:52):
This is a small crew of yourhost Kurt Baer.
Almariano, longtime producer,Almariano, and Ava Manus, the
new producer, incoming producer,Ava Manus.
And, uh, we just had a technicalglitch.
We didn't capture one hour or soof conversation.
So we're going to, we're goingto run it back, be more
efficient, recreate it.
(02:13):
And, uh, the goals for today arethreefold.
We're going to talk about someof our favorite episodes from
2024 season.
Some of the highlights, we'regoing to talk about some of the
plans we have for 2025,including the video that you see
right now.
And we're going to talk about,uh, introduce Ava Munoz.
(02:37):
I guess to set the stage here,um, You joined the team at local
think tank?
Yep.
In August, late August.
The day before my birthday wasmy first day.
The day before your birthday.
Yeah, marketing intern slash newpodcast producer starting with
season five.
I'll be editing this podcast,very excited about it.
Okay, so One of the ways westarted talking about you was
(03:01):
that you are a CSU student.
Yep.
And, uh, in half as much time aslast time, let's talk about the
process of selecting FortCollins and CSU as your home.
Let's.
So essentially, lived in, grewup in California, um, and I
wanted to go out of state.
Uh, that was my primary focus.
I wanted to explore newterritory, and then it was up to
(03:24):
where, and I'm paying forcollege, so I didn't want
flights to be expensive.
I didn't want tuition to beexpensive, and I was looking at
a lot of snowy places.
Honestly, I was looking atMichigan, Oregon and Colorado
primarily.
Mm-hmm And I toured.
Colorado State and I fell inlove with it.
(03:44):
I came here in the fall.
Um, so as we all know, FortCollins is gorgeous in the fall.
Um, I was like, well, I'm goingto become a pro snowboarder.
I am so excited for this newchapter in my life and it's only
a two hour flight.
So I was like, yeah, I appliedto about 18 schools.
Um, didn't tour any of thembesides Boulder and CSU.
(04:05):
And here we are.
And I've loved every second ofit.
No regrets.
Have you, what did you, whatwould you say is the difference
between the culture that youleft and the one you came to?
So I'd say, here's a greatexample.
I had.
And this might be a bit anexaggeration, but I cannot
recall a time that I've had thedoor held for me in California.
(04:25):
Like, like, yes, no.
Besides working at the RitzCarlton.
Yes.
I never, like, if people arewalking in front of you and
unless you're right behind them,they're just going to walk in.
Like in California, you're just,it's extremely materialistic.
People are more worried aboutthe brand of your car, what tags
you have on your clothes.
Like it's all about how youpresent yourself.
(04:48):
And you tell this is a verypremium brand shirt.
Oh, yes.
I broke it out for this episode.
Beautiful.
Matches me with my orange pants.
Matches.
Yes.
The salmon pants.
But yeah, I'd say in Colorado,it's like, is how I felt coming
here.
It's just a little tinge ofmarijuana smoke.
(05:09):
Exactly, like a tinge of alittle Secondhand but yeah, I
feel like.
California was very fast paced,very materialistic.
There's drivers.
Yeah.
Everybody's striving.
Everybody's trying andcompeting.
It's a lot of competition ofwho's more successful.
How much does your dad make?
How much does your parents make?
(05:29):
What car?
And it's like, here, it's like.
Nobody gives a shit.
It's like, do your own thing.
Like, nobody's watching whatyou're wearing and like, Well,
and that's part of why you fitmaybe better here.
Like, despite your mom being asuper successful career woman
and having some support fromyour dad, you couldn't really
compete with the real rich kids.
Exactly.
Like I had a nice home, like,uh, but at the same time my mom
(05:52):
tried to implement.
Very early on that my brotherand I were going to pave our own
ways and pay for our own things.
If you want a car, you're goingto buy it.
If you want a job, go get it.
If you want this, go get it.
Like, but I'm not going to holdyour hand past 12 years old,
essentially.
But yeah, so I chose Coloradobecause I wanted the seasons.
I wanted the change.
(06:12):
It's not too far from home, butit's enough where I come here
and I feel like I'm in a newworld.
And I, and I wanted, I wanted anopportunity that nobody here
knew who I was.
And I got to, I, yes, I got aclean slate and, and literally
not a single person from my highschool, which is a big high
school, went to Colorado State.
Yeah, I was the only one.
(06:33):
And I was reppin that like noother.
Happy to be here.
Yeah, Berkeley can have it.
Yeah, for real.
Um, do you wanna, like, lasttime we jumped in the time
machine already, like, Fiveyears old or something.
Do you want to talk about someof that?
A little bit of that?
Because that was, you were likea second year dancer.
(06:53):
Yes.
Five years old and that wasYeah, so I, to round me out
pretty well of my childhood,heavily into the arts, painting,
dancing, sculpting, pottery, um,at three years old, I started
dance and at seven years old, Iknew I wanted to compete and I
wanted to do it professionallyas what I thought I wanted to
(07:15):
do.
Um, unfortunately dancers makeno money, so I couldn't do that.
And I was never going toBroadway.
Um, but I was in theaterclasses, acting classes.
I did ballet, jazz, tap,contemporary, everything,
anything that had me on a stage,I was there.
I wanted to be.
I wanted solos.
I wanted, and not in like an egoway.
I just wanted to be able toprove to people that I have what
(07:37):
it takes and I also just loved.
The culture of dance and it'salways upbeat and you're always
happy and it's such an outletBecause I had a lot my parents
divorced when I was six, whichis a great time Um, because you
don't really know what's goingon You kind of just grow up and
I don't have any memories of anyholidays with them together So
all I recall is that they endedand they all went on their
(07:57):
separate ways and I just alwayshad two christmases Two new
year's eve like it was and itjust made sense.
It made sense that they weren'ttogether But you know coming
with a divorced family did yourmom never Never.
Never dated much either.
She dated a bit.
My dad's always dated.
Yeah, that man.
Oh yes, he's always dating.
But my mom was always just like,she wanted to make sure she had
(08:20):
A stable home for my brother andI to come home.
She never And she knew my dadwas going to bring that to the
table.
So she's like, I'm going to makesure, which honestly, so
selfless of her to give up thatentire aspect of her life for
her children.
Yeah.
Being raised by a strong single,strong, single strong.
So hardworking.
I always like was so, it's soadmirable how much she put into
(08:40):
work, but it was almost, she putso much into work where it's
like, You remember you had twokids at home?
Yeah, she sacrificed a littlebit.
She'd come home, and, I mean, wehad food on the table, a roof
over our heads, like, and Iknew, she knew that she was
giving up that portion of beinghome and being there for the
kids.
Well, and she created a, a veryself capable, compared to a lot
of 20 year olds I met.
(09:02):
Well, I had to learn pretty damnquick what the hell I'm doing
and you know, I was making ahundred dollar, a hundred dollar
paychecks every two weeks.
But I was like, putting in asavings.
I started a savings account whenI was 14 years old and it's
still my bank account now.
Really?
Yeah, and I still have moneygoing into it from every
paycheck Oh, wow, and I just Ididn't cash that out to buy your
(09:23):
car.
Nope.
No, that's so cool.
Yeah My car was always uh, well,I bought my car for pretty dang
cheap.
I bought in cash.
I saved up for Like a year and ahalf of working at Oasis, um,
which was a Mediterranean winebar lounge place I worked for a
few years.
Um, and I, I knew I wanted aMustang.
(09:44):
I knew I wanted like a sportscar.
I was like, if I'm going to buymy own car, it's going to be a
nice car.
I didn't know how to drivestick.
Didn't know anything.
I bought it still not knowinghow to drive stick.
They had to drive me home, and Iwatched a YouTube tutorial, and
I sat down for hours.
And I taught myself, and Istalled six times in a row in an
intersection.
(10:04):
And had all the cars go aroundme.
But it was still to this day.
It's such a fun fact that I selftaught how to drive a manual
car.
I have to say, uh, if Loco ThinkTank has a type right now in,
uh, terms of employees, it'slike overly capable.
Self sufficient.
For their age.
Self sufficient young women.
(10:24):
Yeah.
Juncture in the moment, anyway.
But yeah, so, wait, what didthis start with?
Nothing necessarily, we werejust talking about your car and
buying it for cash.
Oh, my mom a little bit, yeah.
Well, and saving for a house,how much?
Yeah.
Well, I don't want to ask youwhat's in your house.
Oh, yeah, it's not as much.
I've had a take out of thatsavings of a few times, for
sure.
But not to buy my car.
Um, but, yeah, I I've alwaysbeen very forward thinking, um,
(10:47):
just trying to make sure I'mpaving the perfect path for
myself and, and there's noperfect path there's no perfect
way to do anything, but I'mtrying at least to make sure I
come out of college and I havea, a couple dollars in the bank
and a damn idea of what I wantto do.
So that's where I'm at.
Do you beat yourself up prettybad when you Don't do good?
Oh yeah.
Yeah, definitely, like Nobody'sever criticized you like you've
(11:07):
criticized you?
Yeah, I It's hard to give myselfgrace of mistakes.
Cause I'm always, like, even onsimple things, like in the
beginning of this job, and I hadlike sent an email and I had
like the wrong link, I wouldjust be like, Oh god, like, how
did I not double check?
Like, I should have known.
But, yeah, I definitely, in myheart, Critique.
(11:28):
Yeah yeah.
So like from, from seven yearsold to 17, when you decided to
be a yeah, I decided to competeand travel.
I was on like six differentteams because for every type of
dance, like lyrical versus tap,they're two separate teams, but
two separate, like whole groupsof people.
So I was in about five or sogroups.
(11:49):
and not including a solo, asmuch as you could, I would get
out of school at three and be inthe studio until 10pm every
single day.
Every single day, and imagineHow did you get transported to
these places?
My grandparents Because theylived literally around the
corner, Grandma Pam, which shecomes in, she comes in later for
my local experience, um, but shewould help a lot.
(12:11):
My brother sometimes helped ifhe didn't have work during that
day.
And um, I remember taking likeUbers and stuff to dance or I'd
find friends because once I gotto like, yeah.
15, 16 people started havingcars that were older than me and
could pick me up.
I always found a way, but itwas, it was tough.
Like I, I lived at that studio,like Jazz and Taps.
That was our studio name.
(12:32):
And we would compete everysingle weekend for like 8am to
like, Like 1am when awards wereevery weekend.
Like it was, it was the mostI've put into anything in my
entire life.
Dance was my whole life.
I thought I was like goingabroad.
I was going to be Beyonce'sbackup dancer.
Like, I wanted to be fullyimmersed in dance.
(12:55):
I loved it so much.
And then once I entered highschool, got like jobs, I was
like, Okay, this is not gonnawork.
My bot like, my knees hurt at 15years old.
I'd wake up and my knees, youcould feel you still can now you
can feel, like, my joints movingand how achy they are.
I went to a chiropractor forfour years.
(13:15):
That would give me shocktherapy.
They would shock stimulants intomy back and it was horrible.
I mean, you're, if you're adancer, your body is absolutely
screwed.
Like you can rebuild, but ifyou're building, If you are
building your form from such ayoung age, and stretching your
bones, like my back, I had aposition Do you have normal
feet?
(13:35):
No, my feet are fucked up.
I have ugly dancer feet.
I'm not pulling out my feet.
But, I have, I mean like,bunions and blisters, like
permanent blisters, my heels areall like torn up.
Cause I did points, so point,you're shoving your foot into a
A little shoe that has aplatform and you are constantly
(13:56):
forced arch, ew.
You are forced.
Like while you're on yourtiptoes you have an arch too?
Constantly, arch too, yes.
Dang.
It is, It is unimaginablypainful.
Like my body, I'm 17 and I feellike I'm an 80 year old.
I wake up and my joints hurt.
My bone, my, my knees aredestroyed.
Like from doing like floor work.
Like we'd like roll around onour knees and bruises all my
(14:17):
whole leg would be bruised forweeks.
Like it was just so, and it waslike, damn, I'm getting home at
like.
10 p.
m.
I haven't eaten at all.
Like I'm just like I'm just likethis is not and I knew because I
started Mentally developing andbeing like, okay, I can't be
pushing my body.
I'm not gonna survive.
I'm my hair's falling out.
I couldn't so many side effectsto not eating I couldn't sleep
(14:40):
like and my mom then finallystarted noticing and I started
going to therapy and she waslike Like if you don't want to,
if you still want to, I'm notgoing to let you.
And I was not only competing onlike six or seven different
teams for my competitive out ofschool, but I was doing varsity
dance team at school.
So I was juggling both of those.
(15:02):
And so officially my mom and Iemailed and we were like, I'm
sorry, I'm pulling Ava out.
Like her body can't withstandthis, and she's, she's done.
And I you take yourself out ofan environment that you've been
in your Literal entire life andit's it's a family you create
and it's you know It was so hardto just come home from school
and just be like what the likewhat?
(15:25):
It feels like you've kind of,you know, Learned a lot about
yourself.
Oh, yeah.
I think we covered a lot of whoyou were.
Do you want to go, we're goingto go to Alma.
Yes, please.
Because we've been chattingCathy.
Let's hear that beautiful voice.
I'm sorry....
(16:27):
Uh, she's got some of our statsfrom last year.
The number one most listened toepisode?
Um, that was Experience 160.
Palmer Flowers, um, Tim andDanielle Jordan.
Oh, very good.
Congratulations, Tim andDanielle.
Thanks for sharing.
And, uh, the, that was a coolepisode.
(16:48):
Um, and you should actuallylisten to it.
Because, it's a, uh, It was afew days, we had the scoop.
It was like four days afterPalmer Flowers was sold to a
national publisher.
Brand or national carrier thatkeeps the brand keeps the legacy
and they kind of you know Thatwas to some extent their way of
like sharing it to the worldProbably they had a press
(17:09):
release later or something.
But anyway, super cool peopleand a good example of a husband
and wife Living and lovingwithin each other's strengths
Uh, as entrepreneurs and, uh,one of the coolest parts of
that, I, I, cause I've beenchasing Tim for a long time to
be a part of Loco Think Tank andhe's like, well, you know, me
(17:30):
and Danielle are kind of theteam that makes decisions.
And if I had a Loco Think Tankchapter also like in there and
what if they disagreed withDanielle?
Then what do I do?
You know?
Yeah.
Like can't, that kind of goesagainst the fabric of our thing.
Yeah.
So anyway, I think he's wrong.
That's sweet though.
And I think that they shouldboth just be in a chapter of
(17:51):
local think tank, but so it goesAnyway.
Love you guys.
Budget budget wise, you guysbudget wise, but Yeah.
You know, plus they just soldPalmer flour, which was kind of
their big breadwinner.
That's crazy.
Cool.
And then like a second, we don'thave to, yeah.
Is there a second place?
Mandy Mullen, I feel like that'sOh, episode two of Mandy?
That's the next one, yeah.
(18:11):
Dang, and she's number oneoverall still, too.
So, Mandy Mullen, one of ourlongtime Loco Think Tank
members, she's run Windsor?
So, Santa Catch is Oh shit,that's tomorrow morning.
I'm the emcee for the race.
Oh yeah! So Mandy has grown fromlike, Just since I've known her,
(18:31):
which is not long, like six upto like 11 or 12, I think 12 now
races that she organizes eitherin, in or around Windsor or, and
she also acquired a couple ofrelays that wild west relay that
I took part in and then, um, theflaming foliage.
And, uh, so this was kind of ourconversation to put together for
(18:51):
that.
Right.
And there's a lot of aspects toraces like that.
She's a, uh, she's run theLeadville 100 a couple, three
times.
So that was her look.
One of her local experiences.
But she like, injured.
Oh yeah, she hurt herself withlike 38 miles to go.
And she still continued.
Muscled it out.
Oh my god! You should get toknow her actually because, and
(19:16):
maybe it's not running, butsomething that, maybe it's
lifting or whatever, butsomething that helps to calm
the, uh, wants to do everythingmonster within your, between
your ears.
Is kind of part of her personain life and mental health
things.
She raises a lot of money forsuicide prevention and stuff.
(19:37):
Yeah.
So, I think you would dig Mandya lot.
And uh, you should probablylisten to episode 1 first.
Look at my first conversationwith her.
Where she really goes throughmost of the, the backdrop.
But I think that would be aninspiring one for you.
Yeah, good example of a powerlady that is sporty.
Sporty power lady.
Sporty power lady.
Sporty power lady.
The next, um, over top was 152Tammy Parker.
(20:02):
Oh, the best story that we toldthe story.
Well, maybe not the best story.
Who were we talking to?
Oh, it was Rick.
Gardener yesterday that we toldthe HR story, wasn't it?
Oh, it was the Steven Stein.
Even better.
Um, so one of our local thinktank members, Ava is Steven
Stein.
Uh, he's the Chick fil A ownerand a lot of Alma's friends and,
(20:27):
uh, fellow church members,especially have worked for Chick
fil A and kind of everybody.
A lot of people from a faithbackground especially think
Chick fil a is just like, thebusiesness.
So anyway, um, I almost startedtelling Steven this story about,
do you want to, do you want tofill in the story for remember,
(20:48):
like, what So we weredelivering, uh, the Christmas
trees.
We were at the social.
Yeah, we were at the social, butthe story that you were telling
was, was when we, when I wastelling Tammy this story about
us.
So this is a multi layer story.
But the, the, the backdrop isyou and I were delivering the
(21:08):
Realities for Children Christmastree back to the headquarters.
And, uh, I was asking how yourfirst year of marriage was, how
it was being, Alma Arellanoinstead of Alma Ferrer.
Mm hmm.
Um, well, I have, like, kind ofreflected on that, but, um, so
my full name is Alma Christina,and so.
(21:31):
Everybody at my church calls meTina.
Oh yeah.
We were talking about thatfirst.
Okay.
Actually that has been like onmy mind for a minute that your
Instagram says Tina and I'mlike, where does that come from?
Like, I was like, are you lying?
Is your name not Alma?
I was like, are you like, okay.
Right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Her resume said Alma and thenher email was Christina
(21:52):
something, something at Gmail,yeah, yeah.
Whichever.
Yeah.
Yeah, she gets to be, yeah.
But, um, Yeah, you get tochoose.
So, Stephen had said, I'm gonnago, like, blast your name at
Chick fil A.
And then Chris said, No, you'regonna have to say Tina, cause
nobody knows her.
Who Alma is.
Who Alma is.
So then it had explained, like,name stuff.
(22:13):
And then that got us to, um,that story.
But, I had thought about itthat, um, Ferrer, I mean,
technically it kind of isMexican, but, um, it's not like
a super known Mexican.
I've never, I've never known anyFerreras before, so I would have
guessed more like Italian wasgoing to say Italian.
(22:35):
I mean, weirdly in elementaryschool, there was like a
Filipino girl that was Ferrera.
Really?
And when you, like on Facebook,if you search up like anybody
Ferreras, they're like Way moreFilipinos than Mexicans.
They're kind of connectedsomehow.
But, um So I was thinking Ihaven't changed my name yet.
It was like the point.
I still pay Alma Ferrer And alittle bit of like low key like
(23:00):
I don't wanna Not, I'm notlosing it, you know?
But yeah, yeah, you know whatI'm saying?
You could be Ferrer Orellano.
Yeah, so it's kind of like, oh.
But I was telling Kurt, I waslike, yeah, that made me realize
that like, Orellano is much moreMexican.
Yeah.
And I was like, oh, yeah, I'mnot used to being Mexican.
Like, yeah, like, you can readthat very easily, though.
(23:22):
Yeah, and so, I was like, well,at least it's a cool one.
Yeah.
Not dissing, but it's not like asuper common, like, Gonzales.
Yeah.
So, Kurt had said that, once Itold that to Kurt, Kurt told me,
he was like, yeah, like, if Isaw that on your resume, it was,
Like, not Ariana, but just amore Mexican.
Oh, if I realized Ferrer was aHispanic name, I might not have
(23:45):
called you in.
Yeah.
For a second.
What?! I was just like Random,obviously not.
Kurt just says whatever hewants.
Totally, yeah.
So I'm telling this story tothis HR consultant, Tammy
Parker, about how, like, we werejust joking, or having this
conversation about How do youlike your new last name?
(24:08):
How's Arianna?
And she's like, well, I kind oflike it better than Ferrer
because it's a little moreobviously Hispanic.
And I was like, well, yeah, ifI'd have realized Ferrer was
Hispanic, I might not havecalled you for the first
interview.
And she knows that's baloney,right?
And it was funny.
Bro, without me, you're dead.
Right.
The eye roll and whatever elseanyway, I digress.
(24:30):
Almost less comfortable talkingabout these things than I am.
To me it was not a joke.
It was just a thing to say.
Um, well, continuing the episodehighlights.
Okay.
Yes.
Um, so Tammy Parker, 152, numberfour, fourth highest.
Episode number one 68.
That is Julia and Andy.
(24:52):
Oh yeah.
The leeches.
Yes.
The, uh, toddy coffee company.
Um, do you know that?
There's a company in Loveland,Colorado, Ms.
Ava, that manufactures the mostdominant cold brew coffee system
for commercial brewers.
No.
Like, they couldn't say it, butI'm pretty sure they do
(25:12):
Starbucks and Pete's and all thebig chains.
Why wouldn't they be able to saythat?
I don't know, they just kind ofavoided saying it, yeah.
I'd want to flex that.
They've been doing that forlike, Like since the seventies,
they've been selling these coldbrew coffee systems.
And then they like kept working.
It kept working.
It kept working.
It kept working it.
And then all of a sudden, boom,cold brews became like super
(25:34):
popular.
Yeah.
Huge.
And now, and they're right here.
They employ like.
60 some employees, they shipcold brew commercial and
increasingly soon through likeeven Walmart, you can be able to
get a toddy at home or maybe notWalmart, but other places.
So check it out.
T O D D Y toddy coffee.
(25:54):
And they, they have, um, one ofthe craziest parts of their
story.
So they're Christians and theyare, um, their daughter was,
child was diagnosed as probablydowns or something while still
in utero.
And they were like, they wereencouraged to abort it like so
(26:16):
many times, like so many times.
And they were like, no, no, wesaid no.
And, you know, I'll letlisteners kind of tune in, but
no regret.
I guess I would say.
Um, to that story.
So that was one of theinteresting things.
Just really, just really greatpeople.
The both of them are really, uh,You know what?
(26:36):
Andy Leach might be a greatfacilitator.
Cause he kinda does what heneeds to.
He comes in and out of thebusiness.
He takes a lot of mental healthtime.
He's a business enthusiast.
It would be a way for him tohave a dose of community.
But not too much, maybe.
Andy, I'm coming for you.
He's coming.
He's coming.
(26:56):
Number five.
Yeah, number five.
We'll just go to top five.
Yeah.
Episode 151.
Matt Dinsmore.
Oh, yeah.
Wilbur's.
Yeah, Wilbur's.
Total beverage.
Episode was It was right afterthe change so that grocery
stores could start selling wine.
(27:17):
Oh yeah.
Yeah, and Wilbur's has beenaround forever.
But he told, you know, obviouslythe whole Wilbur story, but just
the real impact of, like, everyliquor store you know has less
employees than they wish theyhad, and pays them less than
they wish they could.
Right now, whereas Wilbur's usedto really, and I'm sure they
still do, but now theiremployees really have to work
(27:40):
hard to make as much as theyused to because, you know, just
the pressure of wine sales and,and expanded beer sales, but
especially wine in grocerystores just took a lot.
You know, it turns a biggerbusiness into a smaller
business, and you're just gonnahave less people, which is the
way it is.
So anyway, that was a, and whoknows, you know, I'm a, I'm a
(28:01):
libertarian and ish.
So is it better for the consumerto just be able to grab your
wine right there?
Can't say don't buy itsometimes, you know?
And so I don't know, but I, Ithink the message that I would
share is like the world needslocal businesses more than ever
to be anchors for theircommunity and to be the people
(28:22):
that donate money to thefootball team and things like
that.
So whether it's your friendlyneighborhood liquor store or.
Whatever, like, if you're goingto sway your purchases, do it in
a way that tries to benefit the,the competitive small guy.
Yeah.
Instead of the, the even morecompetitive big guy sometimes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
(28:43):
Fair.
Fair.
Alright.
Yeah.
Well, that was number five.
So.
Boom.
Ava, you get to come back to,you get to come back to machine.
Woohoo! Time machine.
A little bit scary.
Oh, it's the closing segments.
Ah, yes.
Uh, well, actually, let me setthe stage a little bit in, yeah,
faith family politics, but Ithink I really want to start
(29:05):
with family because we talked somuch about, like, your mom and
different things about hercareer and how inspiring that
was to you and whatnot.
And uh, so if it's okay, I'dlike to just kind of rejoin
that.
Yeah, so, six years old, parentsdivorced.
(29:25):
Um, and we tried doing the weekon, week off thing, you know,
where you transfer, and you gotyour, like, divorced parents
duffel bag that you bring to andfrom.
Yeah.
And your brother's a coupleyears older than you?
He's two years older, yeah.
Dylan.
So you're like six and eight?
Yes, six and eight, exactly.
Um, Dylan's my best friend.
(29:46):
I miss him so much.
He recently graduated from UNRand is in an entry level supply
chain job.
And he's almost making sixfigures the first year out of
college.
Wow.
Honestly, so impressed.
I'm so proud of him.
He's getting up at 4 a.
m.
every day for, I'm just soimpressed.
Anyways.
Wow.
We were 6 and 8, bouncing backand forth for a few years.
(30:07):
My mom finally realizes, like,my dad's just gonna move around.
He was very much a gypsy.
Could not stay in one house fora year.
Bounced around Livermore andjust like all these like
surrounding towns.
Never in Pleasanton, he justbounced around outside of it.
What was he doing for work?
He worked for Workday and for,uh, Vodafone.
Okay.
Different times, but he alwayswas in like product sales and
(30:27):
people and like sales andmarketing.
Yes, very much.
My dad could sell you literallyanything.
Do you think people think I'm aschmoozer, Alma?
I don't think so.
Well, I, well, we sell.
Cause a lot of people know me,like you, like when we go out to
lunch and stuff, you're like,dang, it's just so many.
Yeah.
(30:48):
But they don't, hopefully theydon't.
No.
Well, to me, Schmooze is like, Ido not want to like, oh, do not
let him see me, like type of, tosell me something.
Well, maybe that's, well, but,like, but that's a little bit
your dad, the way you'redescribing him.
No, my dad is very much, yes.
He will try to sell everybodywhatever he's got to sell.
He's going to bargain you.
For anything he won't.
And that's why he loves Mexico.
(31:08):
My dad primarily lives in Mexicobecause you can bargain and you
could trade and you can try to,you know, dumb down the price.
You can just live on the beachand buy shit.
And so I bought weed on thebeach, or actually in Anstille
Ray in St.
Lucia, um, for 35 for a nicefluffy quarter.
(31:30):
And the, the, and, and that waslike my best bargain of the
whole time.
Yeah.
The, the best negotiating I didwas some dude trying to sell me
like this clump for 80 bucks.
And I bought it for 10.
Oh! It was like 80.
Right.
Which, I learned a lot from mydad at that age.
(31:51):
But it was on this beach wherethe beach chairs cost 100 to
rent for the day.
And the, the, the things cost 2,000 to stay the night in.
Yeah.
And uh, so, but, so it's smartfor him to test the market.
You know, I'm gonna give him 80.
But eventually he's like, no,I'm not gonna do it.
I'm like, oh, 10.
I'll give you 10 for that littlechunk.
(32:11):
Yeah.
Uh.
Uh.
Anyway, but you literally in anenvironment like that, where
like, what was the, the, the onethat I bought for 35.
It's like, what is the value toyou?
Cause I showed him a picture ofmy like home grow plant in
Colorado and described like theColorado weed culture to him and
stuff.
I'm like, dude, that's like,Like I could buy an ounce of
(32:34):
really nice weed at home for,you know, or half an ounce at
least of that.
And so I just can't like, Iphysically, like, I mentally
can't like pay you that price,but for, but, but he was like,
what, what is the right price?
And I think he was satisfied.
You know, he had a farmer thatsold it to him, or he was a
(32:54):
grower.
I can't believe he was askingfor 80 bucks.
That's crazy.
And so it was, but that was, soyour dad literally could make a
living.
Oh yeah.
Just, like, working somebody fora deal.
And for all I know, he could beright now.
Working for, working forsomebody for a deal and then
going and selling that dealaround on the same beach.
Just up, up and fast.
Right, he's just the one that'swilling to go and talk to the
(33:16):
tourist and get the 80 freakingdeal instead of like slinging it
to the dude in the beard on thebeach.
Anyway, I digress.
But yeah, so, grew up.
Um, single mom, primarily.
My brother and I lived with mymom through all of high school.
Um, and when I turned 18, shedecided to move to Tahoe, which
is way up north into the snow.
(33:36):
Um, she got a nice Well, and youwere resetting, right?
Yes.
I quit dance, um, after And atthe time, my mom was selling the
one, the single one place in myentire life that has been
stable.
My dad always bounced around.
My mom always said, we willnever move from this house.
This is, this is your safegrounds.
You can always come home here.
There will never be an issue.
Then she decided to change that.
(33:59):
I was like, you are taking theone place that I feel safe and
you're moving five hours north.
To a place, so I will no longerever have a home here in
Pleasanton again.
Wow.
Where I grew up, where I knoweverybody, where my neighborhood
was family.
Like, it felt so hard, and Ipray my mom's not listening to
this, she takes it verypersonally, and she apolog But,
(34:19):
but I could not stop her fromtaking that opportunity.
I mean, she was gonna be, like,director, and like, this
incredible position with greatmoney.
And she's always wanted toretire in, uh, In the mountains,
and she grew up in Tahoe.
She grew up there, so she knew.
You were self sufficientalready.
Yeah, and, and I was alsomoving.
I was coming to Colorado, butfor those five months that she
(34:41):
was trying to sell that home,and I literally was living out
of my car, and living out offriends homes.
And had absolutely no stability,no, no place to call home.
It was the hard I was trying toapply to colleges and apply for
tours, and my mom was she had togo up to Tahoe every other week,
so she was driving five hoursevery other week, or ten hours,
(35:05):
to and from, and staying up inthe hotel, and and my brother
was off in college and I wasliving.
Out of a staged home for months.
I kid you not I would have towake up and make the bed and put
all the pillows Exactly.
It was like I was living in afake home.
Like yeah, I hid I hid in thecloset Yeah, it was really tough
(35:26):
and my mom does not know that Islept in my car a lot Like
because she like assumed thati'd have friends but like I
didn't like always just beinglike can I still sleep on your
couch?
Like I felt like a burden so Ijust stay in my car And it was
so hard And I didn't wanna bringon more stress about,'cause she
was trying to sell this damnhome and find a new home and
(35:46):
help me with college.
Like it was, it was so much formy mom and I at this time.
Yeah.
And you didn't wanna putanything more on her.
And I didn't wanna put anythingand I already had a lot of
things that like, you know,teenager stresses and, right.
Well you were morning dance.
I had prom, I had prom, I had, Ihad all these things I wanted to
do.
Like it was just like a lot ofthings like that.
And I could not put that more onmy mom.
(36:07):
She was stressed about sellingher car and getting, it was just
so much change.
And I was like, I got to get thehell out of here.
Get me into Colorado.
I just want to be in my dorm.
I want to have a place.
Bed to sleep in, like, wow.
And it sounds like it washomeless and I wasn't, my mom
would've paid for hotels andstuff, but like I, but this is
an escape hatch kind of from anew, different life.
(36:28):
And essentially I had to learnhow to, are you gonna go back
next summer?
Not to California.
I will probably never stay inCalifornia again besides this
winter vacationing.
Yeah, vacation wise I will, but.
I, I don't see a future formyself in California.
I had my time in California.
I visited all areas ofCalifornia.
(36:49):
It's a new chapter in my life.
I see a lot more for me here inColorado.
Part of me also wants to visitthe East Coast, but until I have
sufficient funds for that, Iwill be right here.
But California is in the rearroof for now.
Yeah, it's in the past and, andIt was sad leaving, and I felt
like a lot of my life, like Iwas leaving in the dust, but at
(37:10):
the same time.
I kind of wanted to, I was like,I don't, there's a lot of
memories and a lot of baggagethat comes with California.
Something I think I'd like to,to bring to light maybe is that
as I listened to your story thatyou felt a little bit probably
abandoned by your mom at the endthere, and I'm sorry for that,
(37:30):
but she hustled for like 15years to make sure, to make sure
you guys had everything youneeded.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And, um, and was your exampleof, like, how a lady boss does
her business?
Yeah, my mom taught me at a veryearly age that I am fully
capable of anything I set mymind to, and I know that's a
(37:51):
very common phrase.
But quite literally, uh, Shetaught me that I can do hard
things and I watched her do thehardest shit and, and the way
that I feel of like abandonmentand just like damn like I was
only 17, 18 and I had to figureout what the fuck I was eating
for dinner, how I was getting toschool.
Like this has proved to me thatI don't, I haven't really been
(38:14):
parented and I felt like I've,I've, I've been well off without
it.
Well, it's cool that yourbrother became your best friend
after being your perfect friend.
Yeah, and it all started becauseof illegal substances.
For real?
Yeah, I saw him hitting a vapewhen I was like, 15, 16 and I
(38:35):
was like, Oh, I got shit on younow.
Oh, and he was like, swear,like, just try it.
Try it.
And I was like, no, I'm tellingmom, you and like, and like, we
created like, yeah.
And we created like a, like abond over like the secrecy that
we had over it.
And I felt cool.
Cause he was letting me in onsomething and right.
(38:55):
Literally because of that, webecame friends.
Was it.
A positive or negative thing foryou?
You had never been high before.
I, I didn't, I'd never triedafter I couldn't, I didn't even
know how to properly inhale.
I was just coughing.
You just didn't, you just hadsomething to bond over
virtually.
Yeah.
And you didn't rat him out.
Yeah.
I didn't rat him out until hesaw like, okay, you can be the
(39:16):
cool little sister I want.
And I saw, okay, you're allowingme.
Wow, so then my brother and Ibecame best friends and I love
him to death and I'm so thankfulthat I have a sibling to be that
close with because I want I haveso many aspirations for the
future of family traditions andthings, I want to You're a blank
(39:36):
canvas.
Yeah, exactly.
To some extent.
Yeah.
So let's talk about, um,actually can we take it just a
like a two minute break?
I need to pee so bad.
Yeah, same.
Okay, Um, but I was saying,like, I, My work, like, my,
(40:34):
like, church and everything,like, I've never been around
sucky men.
Right.
Or that's not, like Like, you'veseen some men that didn't really
step up like they could have, orwhatever, but You've never been
around sucky men?
I mean, like, obviously in theregular, the world, yes, but, um
Like, in your personal life, youdidn't?
Personal life, no.
No, not super, um, so like,yeah, like my church, like I
(41:00):
grew up in church like a lot.
So it's like as a kid, myfavorite day was Sunday because
I go with the little kids andSunday school and whatever.
But, um, yeah.
And like Kurt was saying, like,oh, well, maybe there's like
stuff I don't know and what ifthey are saying, and I don't
think that's true.
Like, for my church, you know, Ispeak for my church and like my
(41:21):
culture and stuff.
And I know a lot of them andtheir testimonies are that they
were.
And like, that's a big deal.
And obviously our culture islike, it's, it's like, Three
days a week, uh, to church, andeverybody And if you're not
living up to that kind ofexpectation, plus some
volunteering, plus some whateverEvery single person does
(41:43):
something, or, nobody gets paid,like, I'm Unfamiliar with like
that side of churches, but weall do that because we want to
do that Nobody's forced to doit.
Nobody's paid to do it Yeah, youwant to serve and they all do
that and it's just such tightknit and we're all each other's
family So even if there wassomebody that was sucky, it's
like Uh, you, like, fixyourself, kinda?
(42:07):
Yeah, yeah.
If somebody's beating theirwife, they aren't showing up to
church three days a week.
Like, the interlocking circlesabout people that go to church
three days a week and peoplethat beat their wife, like,
that's a super tiny circle.
But it'd be, it'd be like a big,like, Almost like a full church
effort or like yeah Part of itis like at least now generation
(42:34):
wise like obviously all thecurrent young men are being
taught Yeah, they're being Stuffbut it's even as girls where
it's like We have semi prettyhigh expectations.
Yeah.
Slash seeing some really greatmen.
It's kind of like Yeah, eventhough acknowledging that some
of them have been bad in thepast.
(42:56):
Like, that's one thing I'venoticed about, like, they're
real about the temptations ofbeing gay.
Being a man, being a wife, beinga husband, the shortfalls, the
opportunities, whatever.
But, like, so that, yeah, I'mlike in a different I know, we
have, we have, it's actuallylike incredible to me how
different Alma and I am.
(43:17):
Your life experience to thispoint.
Like, completely, like, on likecrazy spectrums.
Like, we grew up so different.
But you're both Cali girls.
Yeah.
Hey.
Hey, Cali girls.
We love it.
But like, I'm so far from, like,like, not religious, like, at
all, cause I never grew up withit, like, it was never, I've
maybe been to church once for adonut.
(43:39):
Like, I, and I, and I'm notkidding you, my dad drove us to
church to grab donuts and leave.
Like, how disrespectful is that?
Oh, damn! I'm serious, I'mserious, I remember it so
vividly.
Sounds like we're talking aboutthe faith segment of your life,
young Ava.
Oh yeah, we could, we could,like, Might as well jump in.
What kind of donuts did yousteal from the churches?
Uh, powdered.
And they were amazing.
(43:59):
uh, yeah, I really did not growup Super it was just never I
didn't even know really whatlike religion was for a long
time I thought everybody wasChristian like because I was
told I was Christian.
So I was like, I don't know whatthat is Never went to church.
I didn't know anything about it.
Like don't even know that meansand my dad always would say the
phrase I forgot like what it wasabout but he'd always be like,
(44:22):
well, you need a little jesus inyou and i'd be like What does
that even who's that?
So he had a little bit ofbackground Like never yeah, but
yeah, where does he come from?
Pleasanton, California.
My dad went to my exact sameelementary, middle, and high
school.
I had a professor, not aprofessor, a teacher that taught
my dad and me.
Old as rocks.
Like, actually.
(44:42):
So he was from there too, orwhatever.
Yes, he was, and same with mymom, they met in high school.
They went to homecomingtogether.
But it sounds like he had afaith background, at least a
little bit.
A little bit, yeah, definitely.
But your mom not as much?
I literally never talked aboutthat with my mom.
And so, what do you, like, whenyou hear the word faith, is it
almost, like, So my mom isextremely spiritual.
She believes in manifestationand she believes in being in
(45:05):
tune with your body and mind.
With, I was six, she would dothe whole home remedies.
Like she'd be like manifest thatyou're going to be better.
Tell yourself you're going to bebetter and you will.
And part of me does believe thatnow and just like putting off
like good energy and likeconstantly just no longer.
I used to be such a negative,like this sucks.
Like I'm so mad about that.
(45:25):
And now I'm just like, Well, I'mgrateful that I'm able to take
this test.
I'm grateful that I'm able andlike, I'm, I've been given all
these, so.
Faith wise, like, I just don'tknow, like, I don't really know
much, like, I mean, like, Ibelieve a hundred percent in a,
a, a bigger, something.
I don't know if that's God, Idon't know if that's, whatever,
(45:49):
God is a woman, like, I don'tknow.
But I, I didn't know very manypeople that were in, like,
church, like, very, like, inthat environment, and going to
church, and, like, went through,like, I didn't know what
communion was, or confirmation.
Yeah, confirmation is a thingwhere they like teach you how to
do stuff.
Yeah, I don't, I still don'tknow much about it.
I could be more informed, but atthe same time not a single girl
(46:12):
I love with goes to church.
Really?
Yeah, which is like, part of melike feels like ashamed for it,
but at the same time I'm like, Idon't even know what I'm ashamed
for.
One thing you would be shockedby is how many good looking
young Christian men there are atmy church.
Uh, just saying.
Anyway, I digress, um, becauseyou already got a boyfriend.
Didn't know it wasn't that.
Is he the same?
(46:33):
He's got no faith background atall?
He has more faith than I do.
Are they Catholics?
But they know You don't, youdon't even know, like, what the
difference between Catholics andProtestants is.
A Catholic is a portion of theChristian.
They were the, the Catholicswere, you want a quick primer?
Like a 4 minute primer on faith?
Ooh, not 4 minutes, but yeah.
Um, well hopefully it don't take14, but we'll get to it.
(46:54):
Um, so, so, Jesus died like,it's AD, right?
After death.
Nothing really happened for 150years, these guys wrote down
these books, Matthew, Mark,Luke, John, Acts, etc.
And then Paul, this dude, Paulbecame, he was like a persecutor
of Christians, and then hebecame like a follower.
(47:15):
Just in time to write a bunch ofbooks before the Romans could
Like say mandatory Christianityfrom here.
And so some early Roman emperor,not early, but like in the 350s
or something was like, Hey,everybody be Christians.
And it spread throughout, butthey kind of branded
Christianity with Like a bunchof pagan religions and different
(47:38):
kind of things to make ittasteful to everybody.
Uh, but Jen would do it anyway.
Dark ages, bad times.
Like, sapped everybody from allthe money.
The Catholic Church was like theboss of the world, literally,
for like, Hundreds of years cameout of that finally Martin
Luther was a Roman yeah, he putshim on blast and he writes like
(48:02):
99 reasons that you guys suckand that became the start of the
Protestant the Lutherans theBaptist the all the other kind
of Um, Presbyterians, theMethodists, the, the, the
pilgrims and the Puritans.
Cause after the Catholics like,cause the Catholics were like,
Hey, if you got enough money,your sins don't matter.
(48:22):
Stuff like that.
Yeah.
Alma's pretty knowledgeable.
And then it came to America andall these Protestant churches
exploded into like 200 differenttypes of which Alma's little
church is the voice ofTabernacle, but that's the
message.
Yeah.
So.
What?
Different, like, denominations,like, within that.
(48:43):
They all believe the same thingof, like, Jesus.
So what, what separates them?
What's the differentiator?
Kind of just Well, there's,like, Trinity versus, uh, like,
God, Jesus, Holy Spirit.
Like, they're all the sameperson, or no, they're not.
So, like, that makes a differentbranch.
See, that's what confuses me.
Yeah.
Are they the It's superconfusing.
Yeah.
(49:04):
We don't need to Right.
But.
But see, my, my biggest thing isthe, and the only like, cause
I've talked about a lot, like,meeting in college.
But the point is, let me get tothe point.
Get to the point.
So the point is, out of all,Catholics and non Catholics, is
that people suck, they'reinherently sinful, and that
sinfulness separates them fromthe world.
(49:25):
non sinful creative force thatcreated the world and everything
in it.
So that's my question.
So keep listening for a second.
And that we, the, the way tohave forgiveness and
relationship with the positivecreative force is to give
ourselves grace throughconfessing and being forgiven by
(49:46):
the, the Jesus Christ figurethat was sacrificed though he
was sinless.
In the heart of the Jewish facewas that something sinless had
to be sacrificed to save people.
So they would kill like dovesand rams and different things.
So there always had to be asacrifice because we suck.
(50:06):
So we have to kill our own bestanimals and burn up our own best
animals.
Parts of the harvest for likegenerations.
The Jews had this belief of thisYahweh God that needed to be
sacrificed to, and they becamelike really some of the most
successful people still are.
And they were always looking forthis Messiah that was prophesied
(50:27):
for hundreds of years, whichaccording to the Christians was
this person of Jesus Christ whobecame the sacrifice.
He like took all the sins of theworld, present, past, future of
all humans, And was strung up ona cross.
That's why we all wear crossesand died.
(50:47):
And like through belief in thatsacrificial action, we're saved
to be able to have arelationship with, with the God,
the creator of the universe.
That's the, that's the bigstory.
And then how to get there hasbecome like 160 different paths.
Yeah, that's what, that's what'sso confusing to me is like, we,
(51:09):
Almost all are under the samelike general belief, but it's
like a million differentpassages in like, to wait, like,
it's just like, yeah, it'soverwhelming.
Well, and that's, you know, likefor me, I kind of hold it a
little more loosely.
Yeah.
Um, and in contrast, almost haslike a particular, there's a, I
would say very much a prophet,like there's, there's prophet
(51:33):
figures and, and her faith has aparticular prophet they think is
extra smart.
Yeah.
About Christian faith.
Um, I grew up in this, so like,it was just kind of like, okay,
great.
That is what it is, I guess.
So even for me, it's like, Ihave no idea.
Never been to kind of like, noidea what everybody else
believes.
Like, that's crazy.
(51:54):
Yeah.
But, um, yeah, so we arespecifically non denominational.
So saying like, whatever theBible says, it's like a hundred
percent the Bible.
Um, and so whatever the Biblesays goes.
Is that what you're saying?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But, um, I guess to summarize,um, we believe that prophets,
(52:16):
well, they were sent in theBible, like, you know, there's
different prophets, Jesus was aprophet, kind of, um, and so for
our current time, um, we believethat there is also supposed to
be a prophet sent.
And so we believe that that wasWilliam Aaron Branham, which he
was from, like, the Bible.
(52:37):
I'm like early 1900s.
Yeah Late 1800s, early 1900s.
So like 19, I think he died inlike 9?
I'm like really bad, like maybe1964, 16?
Yeah.
But, um, he basically was like,Okay, Pentecostals believe this,
(52:58):
that's not right, but this partis, and kind of did like this
combination of all those littlethings.
He did the best of the best,kinda.
Like that stuff.
What's good slash a little someof I mean of his own prophecy,
too and I mean a prophet isbasically kind of like a
visionary a megaphone like Likehey, I'm God Ava.
(53:21):
Tell this to everybody and thenyou could be like God told me.
Yeah.
Well, yes And the actual wordprophet is actually more
accurately someone who kind ofsees more clearly than most
everybody else Okay.
And they're given the gift offoresight so that they can prove
it to the other people.
Um, and so like I've toldpeople, even in this podcast
(53:42):
that I'm a prophet, like Isometimes see things more
clearly than other people.
Like I'm a junior, junior,junior level, you know, but God
has given me the gift of kind offoresight and understanding, um,
more than some people.
So anyway, future prophet.
Very, very.
(54:03):
It's a pretty small segment.
Technically, it's like,worldwide.
But, it's such a weird And I'm,our church is kind of a little
bit the same, in that we try notto pay much attention to what
the big church says, orwhatever, we try to pay
attention to what the Biblesays, and we try to structure
our leadership around kind ofthat notion.
(54:24):
Okay.
So.
Yeah.
Uh, we're both kind of of mindthat the, the 160 different
paths through the Christian lensto God is kind of boop ha, I
suppose.
It's probably a fair statement.
Kim had told me a joke about itat the social where, um, Of
like, Catholic, it's like, inCatholic school, it's like,
(54:45):
okay, do you wanna have a like,you have an issue, you wanna
talk to God, like, first, youneed to talk to this person, and
then, then this other person,then that one, and then only if
you really have to, and then saysix Hail Marys, and two, then
you can bother God.
So, it's like, we're like, we'rea little more, just go talk to
(55:05):
God, yeah, talk to Jesus.
Yeah.
That's fair.
Um, so that's our faithperspective and, uh, you're
invited to either or, orchurches anytime.
Uh, bring your friends if youwant to.
Part of me like wonders, like ifI were to grow up in more in
that environment, like Well, youwould worry less, you would
worry less.
Like that's, that's was part ofwhere I was going in that first
(55:27):
conversation.
Just that, that like, trust God,he's got it figured out.
You don't have to like freakout.
And, and like, I believe thatthat spiritual force that your
mom feels and it's like the, theway the universe is pulling her
to be or whatever, that's God'swill in many cases, you know,
sometimes it's Sataninterrupting, but generally if
(55:48):
you're like in the flow of God'swill, you'll feel.
Better.
And if you push against it,you'll feel.
Awkward and constricted andwhatever.
And in whatever way that is in alot of ways.
And so like that, you know,don't worry, be happy.
That kind of thing.
That's just a trust in God.
Yeah.
Um, in a lot of ways, it soundsfunny, but it's like that notion
(56:12):
of don't fret too much.
Um, and so, anyway.
Anyways.
Yeah, no judgment for not havinginvestigated or found anything
yet, but also an invitation to,like, for me it was like a four
year process, probably, of Bothmy own self investigation and
some relationships randomlypopping around me, including,
(56:35):
like, probably like a yearbefore I met Jill, there was
like this, um, people thatstarted talking to me about it
and stuff, and, like, I went tochurch one time when I was in
Worthington before I moved here,and they were like, So excited
to have a new person visit theirchurch full of old people.
They like asked me to stand upand Like yes, like well, I'm
(56:59):
never coming back here Anyway, Idigress politics we did family
faith now politics Guys,politics, politics, politics.
All I gotta say on politics isthat both, both of them sucked
(57:26):
in numerous ways.
Both big parties, you mean?
Both parties, yes.
Or both candidates.
Both candidates.
Mind you, I'm coming fromCalifornia, I'm coming from the
most left winged country Peopleyou will ever meet.
Well, Kamala crushed Colorado.
Colorado was the only statewhere the Democratic ticket made
progress versus the Republicanticket from 2020.
Like, and the thing is, I'm notsuper knowledgeable.
(57:48):
I try, but at the same time,anything I'm seeing is coming
from media that is just TikTok.
It's just TikTok, Instagram,like Facebook, like it's all
coming from like wrong sources.
It's all misinformation.
I originally before this debatewould say that I'm more
Republican than I am.
Oh really?
I, I say I'm very much in themiddle though cause I believe
in, in gun rights.
(58:09):
Like I want to have a gun in myhome.
A hundred percent.
I dig it.
Yep.
Um, abortion.
Free speech?
What do you think about freespeech?
Of course, of course.
I think abortion, you should notbe having an abortion in the
third trimester.
Maybe not even a second.
Maybe not even a second.
Like, all right.
I You're actually a middle ofthe road And I think the left
takes it way too far.
(58:29):
The truth is that most people,hopefully most parties across
the world, not just our country,but they want the best for the
people of that nation, right?
And it's just how to get there.
Yeah, I understand that.
Actually, I did not vote for JoeJorgensen in favor of Kanye
instead.
Because Joe sucked.
Like, she was just not a verygood I don't know who that is.
(58:50):
She was a female that won theLibertarian Party ticket in
2020.
Was there a Libertarian Partythis year?
Gary Johnson was 20, yeah, afreaking dude that was all about
trans rights or some bullshit.
Chase something joke boy.
It's so hard for me becauseYeah, he was not a Libertarian
(59:10):
or whatever you're talkingabout, Chase.
If you want to look me up, ifyou want to be on my podcast.
Yeah, let's have you on.
Let's talk.
Yeah, yeah.
Have I talked, have I told youmy, uh, my, my vegetable plant
joke in that?
No, no, you haven't.
I don't think so.
I don't think I've heard thateither.
Uh, with regards to Kamalabecoming the nominee.
Mm hmm.
Oh.
The, uh, the vegetable made wayfor the plant without a vote to
save democracy.
(59:31):
What?
Because Joe Biden was avegetable, Kabo was a plant, uh,
without a vote to savedemocracy.
I can't believe they hid that hewas stupid for so many years.
Right?
Well we knew it in 2020.
Like, he was already showing alot of signs of dementia then.
Oh yeah.
Oh poor guy.
(59:52):
I hope he's like, on the couch,like, eating ice cream, like,
fine.
What is, um, Hunter's got apardon though, so he's not going
to prison.
And usually it's for likesomething that you've actually
been convicted of, but ForBiden's kid, it was basically,
well, he tax evasion, uh, got agun license when he was a drug
addict, different things.
He would maybe spend a couple,three years in jail for it.
(01:00:14):
But what he actually did wasmilked Ukraine for, uh, 30
billion in China for a bunch ofmoney.
And like, we're in this Ukrainewar as a payback to Ukraine for
making Biden's family rich,basically.
And so there's a lot ofpotential, but Biden's pardon of
his son became basically foranything you've done from 2014
(01:00:37):
to 2024.
You are absolved.
This is the first time anybodyhas ever had a pardon like that
though, where it's anythingyou've actually been accused of,
convicted of, done, or not done,or whatever.
That's like bullshit.
Oh yeah, after saying he wasn'tgoing to do it.
Yeah, okay, that's what I saw,that he said he wasn't going to
and then he did.
But not only did it, but did itin a way that was like, like a
(01:01:00):
whiteboard, like even if hekilled 10 people and they were,
and they were found buried inHunter Biden's backyard, if it
happened between the dates of2014 and 2024, they could not
put, do any legal action againsthim.
Anything he's done in the last10 years is absolved.
That's like the power of thePope.
That's why the Catholics, that'swhy the Catholics sucked.
(01:01:21):
And it's kind of why, like backin the day, anyway, we're
talking too much.
Um, the loco experience beforewe talk about Five.
Okay.
It's not that crazy, but buckleup.
So this was summer going into2020.
Can you tell I've prepared in20, 20, 23, I have practice in
(01:01:44):
my car.
Cause there's a lot of aspectsto this story.
So it was 2023 going into mysophomore year of college.
So I just finished freshmanyear, just a year before we met
you.
Yes, exactly.
It was upcoming my birthday.
End of August.
That's like when you go back toschool.
It's always like my birthdaythen school So we my grandma who
is a hypochondriac.
She's the healthiest person I'veever met in my life She is going
(01:02:06):
to live longer than my father ahundred percent She but she's
paranoid about everything.
She's paranoid about everything.
So she announced what aninteresting influence She
probably had on your in yourlife.
Yes I'm also hypochondriacbecause of her like I always I
will not go to the hospital foranything She implemented my
brain that like If something'swrong, there's something behind
(01:02:26):
it, and there's somethingSometimes it's worth
investigating.
Yeah, but not always, and she,she takes things way too far.
However, she decided to pay So,it's my, this was the Manuse
clan, so my dad's side of thefamily.
It's his mother.
He has two sisters.
So it's the three of them, andmy grandma paid for all three of
(01:02:47):
them and all their families,including us, to go to Hawaii.
Oh wow.
To Maui.
Okay.
She spent over 40, 000.
Yeah.
On our condos, our flights.
Like 20 people ish almost, or15?
Like 15, 15, yeah.
Cause yeah, it was threefamilies with like three kids
and like some significantothers.
Yeah, yeah.
And this is my favorite side ofthe family.
No offense, mom.
(01:03:07):
My dad's side.
I mean, they're just, theydrink, they have fun.
But I have two cousins.
They're the fun partiers.
They're the social, and we're,the Manuse clan is known in our
family.
Like we are the fun ones.
Like my dad's sisters, they're,they all went to the same
college.
My, My dad's closest sister wasa sweetheart of his frat.
They are like this.
That's how I want my brother andI to be.
Like, it's just the most tightknit.
(01:03:29):
Like, my cousins are my exactsame age, so we're all best
friends with my brother.
So we're all stoked, because thelast time we went on a family
excursion, it was like when wewere 12, and we couldn't drink,
and we weren't into it.
So now we're all in college.
We're like, this is gonna beamazing.
We decided to go to Maui.
So we get there.
And all is well, we get theseoceanside, oceanfront views,
(01:03:50):
we're like having a ball, we goout to a magic show, and so
Maui, we're staying in Lahaina.
Yeah, the one that burned.
Yeah, Jill and I were there lastMay.
Keep that in mind.
So, Lahaina, August, earlyAugust, um, and there's a lot of
history in Lahaina.
Fleetwoods the magic play likethe we went to the magic we went
(01:04:12):
to the oh i can't explore thatyet we went to a magic show we
we went snorkeling like we had alot of excursions planned so
second day rolls around having aball our power goes out We don't
really think much of it.
We're like we're on vacation.
We don't need our phones likewhatever like we'll go out to
dinner We don't need to cook.
We want like a short littlegrocery run like didn't get that
(01:04:33):
much And so we go snorkelingyada yada yada now dinner time
comes and all the restaurantsare closed because the power's
out And we hadn't even thoughtabout going to the lobby and
asking we were just like it'sgonna turn on like whatever
Slowly phones start to die Andso like my dad like puts aside
his phone and my brother's phonelike he's like Let's just keep
battery on that in case butsince we have no power we have
(01:04:54):
no service so we cannot contactanybody So our first question is
how much tequila do we have?
My dad's like let's ration outour tequila Let's make sure we
have enough for at least anotherday Like the power will come on.
We don't have to worry about itSo we go out to cook taquitos on
the barbeque, cause that's ouronly source of heat.
(01:05:15):
And my dad recognizes somebodyand he goes, is that Matt
Anthony?
From Van Halen, the drummer fromVan Halen is also at our resort.
And also cooking on the, on thebarbecues outside.
We're just like, weirdcoincidence, I take a, insert
picture, I take a picture withhim.
And we're like, and we're justlike, laughing about the fact
(01:05:36):
that there's no power.
And we're just like, all like,phoneless.
And we're just all in Hawaii.
We're like, what's going on?
So we go to watch the sunset andit's this bright red.
orange sunset Insert picture.
Yeah, some might understandwhat's happening next.
We're like, wow, it's sobeautiful We don't really think
much of it next day comesaround.
We're on day three of no power.
(01:05:56):
We have no food.
No phones We're like, okay Weneed to go to the grocery store
like something needs to happenright now Like we're just kind
of like coasting along like isthis power coming back on?
So a key side story my daddecides every vacation we've
ever gone We always either get alimo to the airport, or we get a
bougie ass rental car.
I don't know why, he just wantsto ride in style.
(01:06:18):
And it's fun, it's fun.
So we get, my dad and I decide,we're gonna go find a market.
We don't have phones, we'reusing a map, insert picture.
My dad has a map.
And we're in this bougie nicered convertible, like, soft top,
top off.
And we're driving trying to findthis market, we're just trying
to go along like these roads.
We're like, we'll findsomething.
And we're driving.
(01:06:38):
There's this huge tree that'scrashed down, and we're like, in
the middle, and there's no cops,no nothing around it, it's just
a tree smashed, there's nobodyout in the streets, and we're
like, damn, there must have beena storm, like, there must have
been a crazy storm, that's whythe power's out.
So we, we go around the tree, wego to a market, and there's
these hundreds of people crying,sobbing, so much distress, we're
(01:07:01):
like, holy shit, like, thisstorm must have been bad.
The Lahaina fire was a mileaway, walking distance from our
resort, still actively burning.
And we had no idea becausenobody could contact us.
We had no way of anybody tellingus.
So this fire was burning and wehad this resort.
Absolutely.
The picture that I insert rightnow, that picture, that sunset
(01:07:23):
was people's homes burning.
Well, sure.
And we're talking to thesepeople.
They're sobbing my arms, I mydog just died, I just lost my
father, like, he was sleeping,people jumping out of their
hotel bedrooms into the water toswim to safety, meanwhile, this
fire nobody has came to thisfire, it is still active, we
(01:07:44):
could see it, like, from ourresort, you could see the
flames, like, and we were like,we gotta get out of here, like,
we're gonna die, my mom, like,my dad was like, we cannot tell
grandma, hypochondria, like,Terrified of a cut, like, if she
hears there's a fire going on,oh my god.
And so my dad and I are justlike, we can't get food, all
(01:08:05):
these, like, everything wasdown, the registers were down,
like, people were just like, Ican't believe that nobody gave
you any notifications.
I'm like, there's no siren,like, or anything, I'm like, how
did we not, the lobby,literally, we were the first
people to know, nobody at thisresort knew.
You couldn't smell it, youcouldn't even smell it, and it
was only like, I kid you not,you guys.
(01:08:26):
You could, I could have ran towhere there was a, like, burning
people.
105 people died.
105 people died.
A mile from us.
Oh, more than that.
And, and people were like, itwas, and, Meanwhile, we were
worried about, like, tequilaand, and burgers.
We were like, we were trying tothink about, like, what food
we're getting, and these peopleare like, I don't have a home.
(01:08:48):
Like, my For a couple days, yourpower was out, and you didn't
know.
Days, and we had no idea.
How in the world?
And, and get this, all the roadto the airport Burned everything
around it burned.
We cannot, there's no planes.
No, no taxis, nobody.
Oh yeah.
Like everything.
Because that's the way, yeah.
There's one way, one way westayed right where you stayed.
We stayed a little north ofthere.
We scuba dive or snorkeled inthat Vegas north.
(01:09:10):
And so we go back and we'relike, we're trying to break the
news like as best po like, we'retrying to be like, there's, you
know, disaster happening.
We gotta get out.
No flights.
No flights.
We can't, we can't get to theairport.
We're like, what the hell do wedo?
Like my dad's freak because wecan't contact anybody.
The only source, cause at themoment, like, you're wondering
(01:09:31):
like, well, how do you even seethe resort there for a while?
See what happens.
But we were like, this, thisfire's not out.
Like it was actively burning aswe were like, cause the people
that we're talking to were like,it's going to hit my house in
like 10 minutes.
Like, can you guys please help?
Like we were like, like peoplewere actively trying to save
their whole livelihood and theystill have a man made right at.
(01:09:51):
Oh, no, not at all.
And we donated a lot of money.
Like I personally donated 300.
I just, um, it was the mostmoney I had at the time, so not
a lot, but I was just like, I, Ijust, I held like a woman who
had literally lost her entire,like her fucking husband died
and it was just the most, like,I was the most out of, I didn't
know even like how to, I hadnever, Been in a situation where
(01:10:15):
I was actively dealing withsomething, like grieving and
like, and in shock and, and justtrying to find help.
And my dad and I were justtrying to help everybody, but
like, how can you even, like,and like, we're trying to give
people rides, places, and it wasjust so, and we finally got
back, and we got flights, and,and get this.
(01:10:36):
I was actively going into livingto my sorority and if anybody
knows anything about a sororityThey are not lenient with jack
shit.
You are checking in at thistime.
Your foot better be enteringthis home at this time I would
think like I was at the Mauifires Oh, they did not give a
singular.
I emailed them and I was like, Idon't know if I can't get a
(01:10:56):
flight They're like We'll justmake sure you're in by this time
because if not then we're gonnahave to give you a deposit blah
blah blah You're not gonna havea room and I was like, I'm
trying to survive right now Ihaven't eaten in a day like and
so the day I got back from thatOh, meanwhile, we have no
technology.
My phone's dead.
Every phone's dead.
We don't have anything.
(01:11:17):
My mom thinks we're dead She'sseeing on she has a picture of
the news Lahaina fires.
You're part of the burn area.
You can see our resort in the,in the, in the birds view but,
yeah, so, my mom essentiallythought that we died.
She had been spamming my phone.
She was so worried.
She got us our flights outbecause we couldn't.
And it was just the most, andcoming from that, The night I
(01:11:38):
landed in Reno, got to Tahoe,slept in my bed, I woke up and
drove 18 hours to Colorado.
To get there just in time foryour sorority pledge?
The most miserable.
I drove through the hours of thenight.
I started hallucinating,thinking I was seeing things.
You had like three five hourenergies at the same time.
Oh my god, it was horrible.
(01:11:58):
It was horrible.
And I got here, and going from,you know, grieving with people
and holding their babies whilethey cry about losing their
families to Like it was justlike what the hell am I doing
here it felt so fake It felt soI was just like this is not
(01:12:19):
good.
Yeah, this feels so horribleWhat interesting?
Yeah, that was a goodexperience.
It was an experience to say theleast like We'll never put you
through any drama like that.
I And I was like I don't know ifanybody knows anything about
Lahaina, but Fleetwoods is amagician, it's like a magic
place and so much history behindit like it goes back hundreds of
(01:12:40):
years and we were the very lastpeople to ever see a show at
Fleetwoods and like somethingabout that just like Yeah, we
spent, we spent a day and a halfand including our last most of
our last day in Maui at LaHaina.
And so, yeah, it was crazy justto be, we were five months away,
you know, you were like rightthere.
That's so insane.
(01:13:00):
I want to pull up, pull up apicture of where my resort was
compared to where it wasburning.
I mean, you'll see in thepicture of like, it's a fire in
the air.
We thought it was a beautifulsunset.
We were probably another fewmiles north is where we stayed.
But, um, Alma, I want to talkabout, uh, Why is Ava the
producer of the podcast now andwhat do we have planned for
(01:13:20):
2025?
Yeah, um, I have a lot of workto do, um, but loco wise, but,
um, I think it's because she'spassionate about it is what I
would think.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'm almost like, cause I don'twant to do that.
Somebody willing to do it and Ididn't want to do it.
(01:13:40):
Well, I've always been like, I'mjust doing what I can and I only
know what I know.
And if somebody wants to put Ispassionate or likes it, like.
Yeah.
I have, you know.
And I do.
Want that, give thatopportunity.
Basically, but.
Well, and she's a showman insome ways.
Like, you want to make sureeverything works good.
(01:14:01):
And Ava wants to, uh, put on agreat show.
Yeah.
Again, this doesn't mean thatyou have to be the star.
want to make sure everythinglooks good.
So what's going on in, uh, inseason five?
Yeah.
Yeah, uh, full video.
When all the cameras run thewhole time.
Yeah.
One camera left, good job littledoodle, you're our OG.
(01:14:22):
Yeah, um.
And then, so, studio wise, um,technically the same, but tech
wise, Ava's desk, which isoutside of the studio, is the
one that runs everything.
I'll insert a picture.
Yeah.
And, um, Insert picture here.
And the full video, um, postproduction, that'd be a lot, so,
(01:14:46):
Ava's gonna be here during therecording and while it's live
recording, kind of, manuallyswitching, manually switching
cameras and to kind of save someeffort, time on that part.
Will you have a microphone inthe future so we don't have to
yell through the wall?
Maybe we should get a longercord, or uh, headphones.
I have them on.
(01:15:07):
Oh, you do?
You can listen to it from yourcomputer while we're talking?
And it's pretty loud still.
Yeah.
I'm loud enough anyway.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I hear like the delay.
I hear like you talking and thenit going to my headphones.
Oh, that's fun.
But yeah, there's, there's a lotchanging, I feel.
But technology wise, I feel likethere's a lot changing and
there's gonna be new segments.
So we're gonna be adding sorandom questions kind of thing
(01:15:29):
fine I think burp to fart ratioshould be but also like business
related things.
Oh, also, we're gonna ask advicefor a future generation Yeah, I
like that a lot We have so manyinspiring What have you learned
because you haven't been able tobe here during the podcast, but
you've been like editing andlistening for good clips and
(01:15:50):
stuff.
Is there anybody that inparticular you thought was just
a really either thoughtful orendearing moment?
Yeah.
I mean, numerous.
I, okay.
Matthew Fugate had like, he wentthrough a lot.
It's honestly so admirable forsomebody to come from such a low
and to pull themselves out ofthat And just like like that is
(01:16:14):
two separate lives you've livedAnd like most people cannot
admit to pulling themselves outof such a bad habit completely
Yeah.
And like, starting new.
He's got that mixture ofconfidence and humility.
Yes, and that's, yeah, I admirethat a lot to be able to talk
about that openly and to have noshame and just to, and to speak
it how it is and not try tosugarcoat it.
And like, he gave some realstories, like the two broken
(01:16:37):
arms.
I was like, yeah, that wascrazy.
Yeah.
Um, who else?
I feel like there's a, there's alot.
I mean, yeah.
That's okay.
I think it was a recent episodeand worthy and you know, I think
it's relevant even to your storyYou know, you gave your all to
this big dance journey and stuffand yes, you've mourned its
(01:16:57):
passing But you showed that youhad everything you needed and to
some extent that can be your lowpoint in some ways Yeah, that
relates to Rick Gardner how hegave up bull riding and how he
Explained that I related to thisstory so much when afterwards he
was like, I can't even look backat it.
I need to just start new andstart my new focus because
(01:17:18):
mourning it is just going tohurt so much.
I might as well just start a newpath.
That's how I felt.
I was like, cause I tried to goto competitions and support my
friends and it was just sittingin the audience watching what
you used to do felt like thebiggest stab to the heart and
just, I was just like, I felt sobad.
Sick.
I was like, I can't walk.
Like if you see girls dancing onTV now is even a little bit
(01:17:38):
harder.
Oh, I watch like Dancing withthe Stars and stuff and it's
just like, it's just, I'llalways have that part of me
that's just like what it couldhave been like if I kept going
like, but at the same time, likeI, it was a passion, it's a
hobby.
But when you make your passionand hobby your work, it's, it
takes the love out of it.
But like taking that and thatbeing your full time, everything
would just probably take thepassion out of it.
(01:17:59):
I think do it for joy instead ofdo it for money.
Yeah, definitely.
Better for most.
Definitely.
All right.
Well, that's it.
Um, I hope both of you enjoyedthis conversation.
Alma, is there anything that youwould have for wisdom for the
next generation to close thisepisode or for like, like if you
work your way up in, uh, inAlma's, uh, like managerial, uh,
(01:18:24):
jobs and things like for me,it's always like trying be eager
to show up.
You don't know how to dosomething, like, try it.
Like, change, you know, a lot ofpeople don't like change, a lot
of people want to, you know, andI'm just like Embrace the
change.
It's gonna happen.
Um, and that's like my wholething of even working here is
(01:18:44):
like, I don't want to do none ofthis.
I'm gonna figure it out though.
We're gonna try it.
See what happens.
Full video?
I don't know.
Let's do it.
Yeah.
So, yeah.
I feel like, um, I don't know.
I mean, I want to say it's like,the generation, the next
generation doesn't want to trythings, I think.
No, but people are getting lazy.
Well, people are scared too.
(01:19:05):
People are getting lazy.
You know what the most repeatedphrase in all of the Bible is,
young Ava?
Um, fear not or worry not.
Um, 360 sometimes.
Um, because that's like thething that keeps us from kind of
being in the flow with God andstuff is we worry and we fret
and we try to fix things that wedon't need to fix ourselves that
(01:19:28):
we just can trust and chill alittle bit.
Yeah, my mom always says likestop trying to control things
that you literally cannotcontrol at all.
There's no point in stressing.
And I don't know why I find itso hard to do that.
Yeah.
I will try not to fear.
Fear not.
Fear not.
Alright, Fear Not Season 2025.
Season 5 of The Local Experienceis upon us.
Thanks for watching andlistening.
(01:19:49):
And let's over and out, huh?
Yeah.
Godspeed.
Bye.
Alright.
just trying to make sure I'mpaving the perfect path for
(00:02):
myself and, and there's noperfect path there's no perfect
way to do anything, but I'mtrying at least to make sure I
come out of college and I havea, a couple dollars in the bank
and a damn idea of what I wantto do.
So that's where I'm at.
In today's conversation, I'mjoined by longtime producer of
the Loco Experience andcontinuing as operations manager
of many hats at Loco Think Tank,Alma Arellano, along with our
(00:24):
newest employee and incomingproducer of the podcast, Ava
Manus.
We dig into Ava's background abit, which revolved around
competitive dance for years, andexplore some of the changes
coming for Season 5 of The LocoExperience.
Also, Alma breaks down our topfive most listened episodes of
2024.
And we talk about some of themost inspiring and the most
local experiences shared duringthe season.
(00:46):
If you're a fan of the show, youwon't want to miss this one.
Disclaimer.
We lost the first hour of ourconversation due to a tech
glitch during which Ava shareddeeply about the joys and
traumas of her dance career.
We tried to start over andrecreate the conversation, but
it was admittedly difficult toremember what we'd covered in
the lost conversation, and whatwas still left to unfold in the
(01:07):
fresh one.
We did our best, and I hope youenjoy.
Let's have some fun.
Welcome to the LoCo Experiencepodcast.
On this show, you'll get to knowbusiness and community leaders
from all around northernColorado and beyond.
(01:27):
Our guests share their stories,business stories, life stories,
stories of triumph and oftragedy, and through it all
you'll be inspired andentertained.
These conversations are real andraw, and no topics are off
limits.
So pop in a breath mint and getready to meet our latest guest.
Welcome back to the localexperience podcast.
(01:52):
This is a small crew of yourhost Kurt Baer.
Almariano, longtime producer,Almariano, and Ava Manus, the
new producer, incoming producer,Ava Manus.
And, uh, we just had a technicalglitch.
We didn't capture one hour or soof conversation.
So we're going to, we're goingto run it back, be more
efficient, recreate it.
(02:13):
And, uh, the goals for today arethreefold.
We're going to talk about someof our favorite episodes from
2024 season.
Some of the highlights, we'regoing to talk about some of the
plans we have for 2025,including the video that you see
right now.
And we're going to talk about,uh, introduce Ava Munoz.
(02:37):
I guess to set the stage here,um, You joined the team at local
think tank?
Yep.
In August, late August.
The day before my birthday wasmy first day.
The day before your birthday.
Yeah, marketing intern slash newpodcast producer starting with
season five.
I'll be editing this podcast,very excited about it.
Okay, so One of the ways westarted talking about you was
(03:01):
that you are a CSU student.
Yep.
And, uh, in half as much time aslast time, let's talk about the
process of selecting FortCollins and CSU as your home.
Let's.
So essentially, lived in, grewup in California, um, and I
wanted to go out of state.
Uh, that was my primary focus.
I wanted to explore newterritory, and then it was up to
(03:24):
where, and I'm paying forcollege, so I didn't want
flights to be expensive.
I didn't want tuition to beexpensive, and I was looking at
a lot of snowy places.
Honestly, I was looking atMichigan, Oregon and Colorado
primarily.
Mm-hmm And I toured.
Colorado State and I fell inlove with it.
(03:44):
I came here in the fall.
Um, so as we all know, FortCollins is gorgeous in the fall.
Um, I was like, well, I'm goingto become a pro snowboarder.
I am so excited for this newchapter in my life and it's only
a two hour flight.
So I was like, yeah, I appliedto about 18 schools.
Um, didn't tour any of thembesides Boulder and CSU.
(04:05):
And here we are.
And I've loved every second ofit.
No regrets.
Have you, what did you, whatwould you say is the difference
between the culture that youleft and the one you came to?
So I'd say, here's a greatexample.
I had.
And this might be a bit anexaggeration, but I cannot
recall a time that I've had thedoor held for me in California.
(04:25):
Like, like, yes, no.
Besides working at the RitzCarlton.
Yes.
I never, like, if people arewalking in front of you and
unless you're right behind them,they're just going to walk in.
Like in California, you're just,it's extremely materialistic.
People are more worried aboutthe brand of your car, what tags
you have on your clothes.
Like it's all about how youpresent yourself.
(04:48):
And you tell this is a verypremium brand shirt.
Oh, yes.
I broke it out for this episode.
Beautiful.
Matches me with my orange pants.
Matches.
Yes.
The salmon pants.
But yeah, I'd say in Colorado,it's like, is how I felt coming
here.
It's just a little tinge ofmarijuana smoke.
(05:09):
Exactly, like a tinge of alittle Secondhand but yeah, I
feel like.
California was very fast paced,very materialistic.
There's drivers.
Yeah.
Everybody's striving.
Everybody's trying andcompeting.
It's a lot of competition ofwho's more successful.
How much does your dad make?
How much does your parents make?
(05:29):
What car?
And it's like, here, it's like.
Nobody gives a shit.
It's like, do your own thing.
Like, nobody's watching whatyou're wearing and like, Well,
and that's part of why you fitmaybe better here.
Like, despite your mom being asuper successful career woman
and having some support fromyour dad, you couldn't really
compete with the real rich kids.
Exactly.
Like I had a nice home, like,uh, but at the same time my mom
(05:52):
tried to implement.
Very early on that my brotherand I were going to pave our own
ways and pay for our own things.
If you want a car, you're goingto buy it.
If you want a job, go get it.
If you want this, go get it.
Like, but I'm not going to holdyour hand past 12 years old,
essentially.
But yeah, so I chose Coloradobecause I wanted the seasons.
I wanted the change.
(06:12):
It's not too far from home, butit's enough where I come here
and I feel like I'm in a newworld.
And I, and I wanted, I wanted anopportunity that nobody here
knew who I was.
And I got to, I, yes, I got aclean slate and, and literally
not a single person from my highschool, which is a big high
school, went to Colorado State.
Yeah, I was the only one.
(06:33):
And I was reppin that like noother.
Happy to be here.
Yeah, Berkeley can have it.
Yeah, for real.
Um, do you wanna, like, lasttime we jumped in the time
machine already, like, Fiveyears old or something.
Do you want to talk about someof that?
A little bit of that?
Because that was, you were likea second year dancer.
(06:53):
Yes.
Five years old and that wasYeah, so I, to round me out
pretty well of my childhood,heavily into the arts, painting,
dancing, sculpting, pottery, um,at three years old, I started
dance and at seven years old, Iknew I wanted to compete and I
wanted to do it professionallyas what I thought I wanted to
(07:15):
do.
Um, unfortunately dancers makeno money, so I couldn't do that.
And I was never going toBroadway.
Um, but I was in theaterclasses, acting classes.
I did ballet, jazz, tap,contemporary, everything,
anything that had me on a stage,I was there.
I wanted to be.
I wanted solos.
I wanted, and not in like an egoway.
I just wanted to be able toprove to people that I have what
(07:37):
it takes and I also just loved.
The culture of dance and it'salways upbeat and you're always
happy and it's such an outletBecause I had a lot my parents
divorced when I was six, whichis a great time Um, because you
don't really know what's goingon You kind of just grow up and
I don't have any memories of anyholidays with them together So
all I recall is that they endedand they all went on their
(07:57):
separate ways and I just alwayshad two christmases Two new
year's eve like it was and itjust made sense.
It made sense that they weren'ttogether But you know coming
with a divorced family did yourmom never Never.
Never dated much either.
She dated a bit.
My dad's always dated.
Yeah, that man.
Oh yes, he's always dating.
But my mom was always just like,she wanted to make sure she had
(08:20):
A stable home for my brother andI to come home.
She never And she knew my dadwas going to bring that to the
table.
So she's like, I'm going to makesure, which honestly, so
selfless of her to give up thatentire aspect of her life for
her children.
Yeah.
Being raised by a strong single,strong, single strong.
So hardworking.
I always like was so, it's soadmirable how much she put into
(08:40):
work, but it was almost, she putso much into work where it's
like, You remember you had twokids at home?
Yeah, she sacrificed a littlebit.
She'd come home, and, I mean, wehad food on the table, a roof
over our heads, like, and Iknew, she knew that she was
giving up that portion of beinghome and being there for the
kids.
Well, and she created a, a veryself capable, compared to a lot
of 20 year olds I met.
(09:02):
Well, I had to learn pretty damnquick what the hell I'm doing
and you know, I was making ahundred dollar, a hundred dollar
paychecks every two weeks.
But I was like, putting in asavings.
I started a savings account whenI was 14 years old and it's
still my bank account now.
Really?
Yeah, and I still have moneygoing into it from every
paycheck Oh, wow, and I just Ididn't cash that out to buy your
(09:23):
car.
Nope.
No, that's so cool.
Yeah My car was always uh, well,I bought my car for pretty dang
cheap.
I bought in cash.
I saved up for Like a year and ahalf of working at Oasis, um,
which was a Mediterranean winebar lounge place I worked for a
few years.
Um, and I, I knew I wanted aMustang.
(09:44):
I knew I wanted like a sportscar.
I was like, if I'm going to buymy own car, it's going to be a
nice car.
I didn't know how to drivestick.
Didn't know anything.
I bought it still not knowinghow to drive stick.
They had to drive me home, and Iwatched a YouTube tutorial, and
I sat down for hours.
And I taught myself, and Istalled six times in a row in an
intersection.
(10:04):
And had all the cars go aroundme.
But it was still to this day.
It's such a fun fact that I selftaught how to drive a manual
car.
I have to say, uh, if Loco ThinkTank has a type right now in,
uh, terms of employees, it'slike overly capable.
Self sufficient.
For their age.
Self sufficient young women.
(10:24):
Yeah.
Juncture in the moment, anyway.
But yeah, so, wait, what didthis start with?
Nothing necessarily, we werejust talking about your car and
buying it for cash.
Oh, my mom a little bit, yeah.
Well, and saving for a house,how much?
Yeah.
Well, I don't want to ask youwhat's in your house.
Oh, yeah, it's not as much.
I've had a take out of thatsavings of a few times, for
sure.
But not to buy my car.
Um, but, yeah, I I've alwaysbeen very forward thinking, um,
(10:47):
just trying to make sure I'mpaving the perfect path for
myself and, and there's noperfect path there's no perfect
way to do anything, but I'mtrying at least to make sure I
come out of college and I havea, a couple dollars in the bank
and a damn idea of what I wantto do.
So that's where I'm at.
Do you beat yourself up prettybad when you Don't do good?
Oh yeah.
Yeah, definitely, like Nobody'sever criticized you like you've
(11:07):
criticized you?
Yeah, I It's hard to give myselfgrace of mistakes.
Cause I'm always, like, even onsimple things, like in the
beginning of this job, and I hadlike sent an email and I had
like the wrong link, I wouldjust be like, Oh god, like, how
did I not double check?
Like, I should have known.
But, yeah, I definitely, in myheart, Critique.
(11:28):
Yeah yeah.
So like from, from seven yearsold to 17, when you decided to
be a yeah, I decided to competeand travel.
I was on like six differentteams because for every type of
dance, like lyrical versus tap,they're two separate teams, but
two separate, like whole groupsof people.
So I was in about five or sogroups.
(11:49):
and not including a solo, asmuch as you could, I would get
out of school at three and be inthe studio until 10pm every
single day.
Every single day, and imagineHow did you get transported to
these places?
My grandparents Because theylived literally around the
corner, Grandma Pam, which shecomes in, she comes in later for
my local experience, um, but shewould help a lot.
(12:11):
My brother sometimes helped ifhe didn't have work during that
day.
And um, I remember taking likeUbers and stuff to dance or I'd
find friends because once I gotto like, yeah.
15, 16 people started havingcars that were older than me and
could pick me up.
I always found a way, but itwas, it was tough.
Like I, I lived at that studio,like Jazz and Taps.
That was our studio name.
(12:32):
And we would compete everysingle weekend for like 8am to
like, Like 1am when awards wereevery weekend.
Like it was, it was the mostI've put into anything in my
entire life.
Dance was my whole life.
I thought I was like goingabroad.
I was going to be Beyonce'sbackup dancer.
Like, I wanted to be fullyimmersed in dance.
(12:55):
I loved it so much.
And then once I entered highschool, got like jobs, I was
like, Okay, this is not gonnawork.
My bot like, my knees hurt at 15years old.
I'd wake up and my knees, youcould feel you still can now you
can feel, like, my joints movingand how achy they are.
I went to a chiropractor forfour years.
(13:15):
That would give me shocktherapy.
They would shock stimulants intomy back and it was horrible.
I mean, you're, if you're adancer, your body is absolutely
screwed.
Like you can rebuild, but ifyou're building, If you are
building your form from such ayoung age, and stretching your
bones, like my back, I had aposition Do you have normal
feet?
(13:35):
No, my feet are fucked up.
I have ugly dancer feet.
I'm not pulling out my feet.
But, I have, I mean like,bunions and blisters, like
permanent blisters, my heels areall like torn up.
Cause I did points, so point,you're shoving your foot into a
A little shoe that has aplatform and you are constantly
(13:56):
forced arch, ew.
You are forced.
Like while you're on yourtiptoes you have an arch too?
Constantly, arch too, yes.
Dang.
It is, It is unimaginablypainful.
Like my body, I'm 17 and I feellike I'm an 80 year old.
I wake up and my joints hurt.
My bone, my, my knees aredestroyed.
Like from doing like floor work.
Like we'd like roll around onour knees and bruises all my
(14:17):
whole leg would be bruised forweeks.
Like it was just so, and it waslike, damn, I'm getting home at
like.
10 p.
m.
I haven't eaten at all.
Like I'm just like I'm just likethis is not and I knew because I
started Mentally developing andbeing like, okay, I can't be
pushing my body.
I'm not gonna survive.
I'm my hair's falling out.
I couldn't so many side effectsto not eating I couldn't sleep
(14:40):
like and my mom then finallystarted noticing and I started
going to therapy and she waslike Like if you don't want to,
if you still want to, I'm notgoing to let you.
And I was not only competing onlike six or seven different
teams for my competitive out ofschool, but I was doing varsity
dance team at school.
So I was juggling both of those.
(15:02):
And so officially my mom and Iemailed and we were like, I'm
sorry, I'm pulling Ava out.
Like her body can't withstandthis, and she's, she's done.
And I you take yourself out ofan environment that you've been
in your Literal entire life andit's it's a family you create
and it's you know It was so hardto just come home from school
and just be like what the likewhat?
(15:25):
It feels like you've kind of,you know, Learned a lot about
yourself.
Oh, yeah.
I think we covered a lot of whoyou were.
Do you want to go, we're goingto go to Alma.
Yes, please.
Because we've been chattingCathy.
Let's hear that beautiful voice.
I'm sorry....
(16:27):
Uh, she's got some of our statsfrom last year.
The number one most listened toepisode?
Um, that was Experience 160.
Palmer Flowers, um, Tim andDanielle Jordan.
Oh, very good.
Congratulations, Tim andDanielle.
Thanks for sharing.
And, uh, the, that was a coolepisode.
(16:48):
Um, and you should actuallylisten to it.
Because, it's a, uh, It was afew days, we had the scoop.
It was like four days afterPalmer Flowers was sold to a
national publisher.
Brand or national carrier thatkeeps the brand keeps the legacy
and they kind of you know Thatwas to some extent their way of
like sharing it to the worldProbably they had a press
(17:09):
release later or something.
But anyway, super cool peopleand a good example of a husband
and wife Living and lovingwithin each other's strengths
Uh, as entrepreneurs and, uh,one of the coolest parts of
that, I, I, cause I've beenchasing Tim for a long time to
be a part of Loco Think Tank andhe's like, well, you know, me
(17:30):
and Danielle are kind of theteam that makes decisions.
And if I had a Loco Think Tankchapter also like in there and
what if they disagreed withDanielle?
Then what do I do?
You know?
Yeah.
Like can't, that kind of goesagainst the fabric of our thing.
Yeah.
So anyway, I think he's wrong.
That's sweet though.
And I think that they shouldboth just be in a chapter of
(17:51):
local think tank, but so it goesAnyway.
Love you guys.
Budget budget wise, you guysbudget wise, but Yeah.
You know, plus they just soldPalmer flour, which was kind of
their big breadwinner.
That's crazy.
Cool.
And then like a second, we don'thave to, yeah.
Is there a second place?
Mandy Mullen, I feel like that'sOh, episode two of Mandy?
That's the next one, yeah.
(18:11):
Dang, and she's number oneoverall still, too.
So, Mandy Mullen, one of ourlongtime Loco Think Tank
members, she's run Windsor?
So, Santa Catch is Oh shit,that's tomorrow morning.
I'm the emcee for the race.
Oh yeah! So Mandy has grown fromlike, Just since I've known her,
(18:31):
which is not long, like six upto like 11 or 12, I think 12 now
races that she organizes eitherin, in or around Windsor or, and
she also acquired a couple ofrelays that wild west relay that
I took part in and then, um, theflaming foliage.
And, uh, so this was kind of ourconversation to put together for
(18:51):
that.
Right.
And there's a lot of aspects toraces like that.
She's a, uh, she's run theLeadville 100 a couple, three
times.
So that was her look.
One of her local experiences.
But she like, injured.
Oh yeah, she hurt herself withlike 38 miles to go.
And she still continued.
Muscled it out.
Oh my god! You should get toknow her actually because, and
(19:16):
maybe it's not running, butsomething that, maybe it's
lifting or whatever, butsomething that helps to calm
the, uh, wants to do everythingmonster within your, between
your ears.
Is kind of part of her personain life and mental health
things.
She raises a lot of money forsuicide prevention and stuff.
(19:37):
Yeah.
So, I think you would dig Mandya lot.
And uh, you should probablylisten to episode 1 first.
Look at my first conversationwith her.
Where she really goes throughmost of the, the backdrop.
But I think that would be aninspiring one for you.
Yeah, good example of a powerlady that is sporty.
Sporty power lady.
Sporty power lady.
Sporty power lady.
The next, um, over top was 152Tammy Parker.
(20:02):
Oh, the best story that we toldthe story.
Well, maybe not the best story.
Who were we talking to?
Oh, it was Rick.
Gardener yesterday that we toldthe HR story, wasn't it?
Oh, it was the Steven Stein.
Even better.
Um, so one of our local thinktank members, Ava is Steven
Stein.
Uh, he's the Chick fil A ownerand a lot of Alma's friends and,
(20:27):
uh, fellow church members,especially have worked for Chick
fil A and kind of everybody.
A lot of people from a faithbackground especially think
Chick fil a is just like, thebusiesness.
So anyway, um, I almost startedtelling Steven this story about,
do you want to, do you want tofill in the story for remember,
(20:48):
like, what So we weredelivering, uh, the Christmas
trees.
We were at the social.
Yeah, we were at the social, butthe story that you were telling
was, was when we, when I wastelling Tammy this story about
us.
So this is a multi layer story.
But the, the, the backdrop isyou and I were delivering the
(21:08):
Realities for Children Christmastree back to the headquarters.
And, uh, I was asking how yourfirst year of marriage was, how
it was being, Alma Arellanoinstead of Alma Ferrer.
Mm hmm.
Um, well, I have, like, kind ofreflected on that, but, um, so
my full name is Alma Christina,and so.
(21:31):
Everybody at my church calls meTina.
Oh yeah.
We were talking about thatfirst.
Okay.
Actually that has been like onmy mind for a minute that your
Instagram says Tina and I'mlike, where does that come from?
Like, I was like, are you lying?
Is your name not Alma?
I was like, are you like, okay.
Right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Her resume said Alma and thenher email was Christina
(21:52):
something, something at Gmail,yeah, yeah.
Whichever.
Yeah.
Yeah, she gets to be, yeah.
But, um, Yeah, you get tochoose.
So, Stephen had said, I'm gonnago, like, blast your name at
Chick fil A.
And then Chris said, No, you'regonna have to say Tina, cause
nobody knows her.
Who Alma is.
Who Alma is.
So then it had explained, like,name stuff.
(22:13):
And then that got us to, um,that story.
But, I had thought about itthat, um, Ferrer, I mean,
technically it kind of isMexican, but, um, it's not like
a super known Mexican.
I've never, I've never known anyFerreras before, so I would have
guessed more like Italian wasgoing to say Italian.
(22:35):
I mean, weirdly in elementaryschool, there was like a
Filipino girl that was Ferrera.
Really?
And when you, like on Facebook,if you search up like anybody
Ferreras, they're like Way moreFilipinos than Mexicans.
They're kind of connectedsomehow.
But, um So I was thinking Ihaven't changed my name yet.
It was like the point.
I still pay Alma Ferrer And alittle bit of like low key like
(23:00):
I don't wanna Not, I'm notlosing it, you know?
But yeah, yeah, you know whatI'm saying?
You could be Ferrer Orellano.
Yeah, so it's kind of like, oh.
But I was telling Kurt, I waslike, yeah, that made me realize
that like, Orellano is much moreMexican.
Yeah.
And I was like, oh, yeah, I'mnot used to being Mexican.
Like, yeah, like, you can readthat very easily, though.
(23:22):
Yeah, and so, I was like, well,at least it's a cool one.
Yeah.
Not dissing, but it's not like asuper common, like, Gonzales.
Yeah.
So, Kurt had said that, once Itold that to Kurt, Kurt told me,
he was like, yeah, like, if Isaw that on your resume, it was,
Like, not Ariana, but just amore Mexican.
Oh, if I realized Ferrer was aHispanic name, I might not have
(23:45):
called you in.
Yeah.
For a second.
What?! I was just like Random,obviously not.
Kurt just says whatever hewants.
Totally, yeah.
So I'm telling this story tothis HR consultant, Tammy
Parker, about how, like, we werejust joking, or having this
conversation about How do youlike your new last name?
(24:08):
How's Arianna?
And she's like, well, I kind oflike it better than Ferrer
because it's a little moreobviously Hispanic.
And I was like, well, yeah, ifI'd have realized Ferrer was
Hispanic, I might not havecalled you for the first
interview.
And she knows that's baloney,right?
And it was funny.
Bro, without me, you're dead.
Right.
The eye roll and whatever elseanyway, I digress.
(24:30):
Almost less comfortable talkingabout these things than I am.
To me it was not a joke.
It was just a thing to say.
Um, well, continuing the episodehighlights.
Okay.
Yes.
Um, so Tammy Parker, 152, numberfour, fourth highest.
Episode number one 68.
That is Julia and Andy.
(24:52):
Oh yeah.
The leeches.
Yes.
The, uh, toddy coffee company.
Um, do you know that?
There's a company in Loveland,Colorado, Ms.
Ava, that manufactures the mostdominant cold brew coffee system
for commercial brewers.
No.
Like, they couldn't say it, butI'm pretty sure they do
(25:12):
Starbucks and Pete's and all thebig chains.
Why wouldn't they be able to saythat?
I don't know, they just kind ofavoided saying it, yeah.
I'd want to flex that.
They've been doing that forlike, Like since the seventies,
they've been selling these coldbrew coffee systems.
And then they like kept working.
It kept working.
It kept working.
It kept working it.
And then all of a sudden, boom,cold brews became like super
(25:34):
popular.
Yeah.
Huge.
And now, and they're right here.
They employ like.
60 some employees, they shipcold brew commercial and
increasingly soon through likeeven Walmart, you can be able to
get a toddy at home or maybe notWalmart, but other places.
So check it out.
T O D D Y toddy coffee.
(25:54):
And they, they have, um, one ofthe craziest parts of their
story.
So they're Christians and theyare, um, their daughter was,
child was diagnosed as probablydowns or something while still
in utero.
And they were like, they wereencouraged to abort it like so
(26:16):
many times, like so many times.
And they were like, no, no, wesaid no.
And, you know, I'll letlisteners kind of tune in, but
no regret.
I guess I would say.
Um, to that story.
So that was one of theinteresting things.
Just really, just really greatpeople.
The both of them are really, uh,You know what?
(26:36):
Andy Leach might be a greatfacilitator.
Cause he kinda does what heneeds to.
He comes in and out of thebusiness.
He takes a lot of mental healthtime.
He's a business enthusiast.
It would be a way for him tohave a dose of community.
But not too much, maybe.
Andy, I'm coming for you.
He's coming.
He's coming.
(26:56):
Number five.
Yeah, number five.
We'll just go to top five.
Yeah.
Episode 151.
Matt Dinsmore.
Oh, yeah.
Wilbur's.
Yeah, Wilbur's.
Total beverage.
Episode was It was right afterthe change so that grocery
stores could start selling wine.
(27:17):
Oh yeah.
Yeah, and Wilbur's has beenaround forever.
But he told, you know, obviouslythe whole Wilbur story, but just
the real impact of, like, everyliquor store you know has less
employees than they wish theyhad, and pays them less than
they wish they could.
Right now, whereas Wilbur's usedto really, and I'm sure they
still do, but now theiremployees really have to work
(27:40):
hard to make as much as theyused to because, you know, just
the pressure of wine sales and,and expanded beer sales, but
especially wine in grocerystores just took a lot.
You know, it turns a biggerbusiness into a smaller
business, and you're just gonnahave less people, which is the
way it is.
So anyway, that was a, and whoknows, you know, I'm a, I'm a
(28:01):
libertarian and ish.
So is it better for the consumerto just be able to grab your
wine right there?
Can't say don't buy itsometimes, you know?
And so I don't know, but I, Ithink the message that I would
share is like the world needslocal businesses more than ever
to be anchors for theircommunity and to be the people
(28:22):
that donate money to thefootball team and things like
that.
So whether it's your friendlyneighborhood liquor store or.
Whatever, like, if you're goingto sway your purchases, do it in
a way that tries to benefit the,the competitive small guy.
Yeah.
Instead of the, the even morecompetitive big guy sometimes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
(28:43):
Fair.
Fair.
Alright.
Yeah.
Well, that was number five.
So.
Boom.
Ava, you get to come back to,you get to come back to machine.
Woohoo! Time machine.
A little bit scary.
Oh, it's the closing segments.
Ah, yes.
Uh, well, actually, let me setthe stage a little bit in, yeah,
faith family politics, but Ithink I really want to start
(29:05):
with family because we talked somuch about, like, your mom and
different things about hercareer and how inspiring that
was to you and whatnot.
And uh, so if it's okay, I'dlike to just kind of rejoin
that.
Yeah, so, six years old, parentsdivorced.
(29:25):
Um, and we tried doing the weekon, week off thing, you know,
where you transfer, and you gotyour, like, divorced parents
duffel bag that you bring to andfrom.
Yeah.
And your brother's a coupleyears older than you?
He's two years older, yeah.
Dylan.
So you're like six and eight?
Yes, six and eight, exactly.
Um, Dylan's my best friend.
(29:46):
I miss him so much.
He recently graduated from UNRand is in an entry level supply
chain job.
And he's almost making sixfigures the first year out of
college.
Wow.
Honestly, so impressed.
I'm so proud of him.
He's getting up at 4 a.
m.
every day for, I'm just soimpressed.
Anyways.
Wow.
We were 6 and 8, bouncing backand forth for a few years.
(30:07):
My mom finally realizes, like,my dad's just gonna move around.
He was very much a gypsy.
Could not stay in one house fora year.
Bounced around Livermore andjust like all these like
surrounding towns.
Never in Pleasanton, he justbounced around outside of it.
What was he doing for work?
He worked for Workday and for,uh, Vodafone.
Okay.
Different times, but he alwayswas in like product sales and
(30:27):
people and like sales andmarketing.
Yes, very much.
My dad could sell you literallyanything.
Do you think people think I'm aschmoozer, Alma?
I don't think so.
Well, I, well, we sell.
Cause a lot of people know me,like you, like when we go out to
lunch and stuff, you're like,dang, it's just so many.
Yeah.
(30:48):
But they don't, hopefully theydon't.
No.
Well, to me, Schmooze is like, Ido not want to like, oh, do not
let him see me, like type of, tosell me something.
Well, maybe that's, well, but,like, but that's a little bit
your dad, the way you'redescribing him.
No, my dad is very much, yes.
He will try to sell everybodywhatever he's got to sell.
He's going to bargain you.
For anything he won't.
And that's why he loves Mexico.
(31:08):
My dad primarily lives in Mexicobecause you can bargain and you
could trade and you can try to,you know, dumb down the price.
You can just live on the beachand buy shit.
And so I bought weed on thebeach, or actually in Anstille
Ray in St.
Lucia, um, for 35 for a nicefluffy quarter.
(31:30):
And the, the, and, and that waslike my best bargain of the
whole time.
Yeah.
The, the best negotiating I didwas some dude trying to sell me
like this clump for 80 bucks.
And I bought it for 10.
Oh! It was like 80.
Right.
Which, I learned a lot from mydad at that age.
(31:51):
But it was on this beach wherethe beach chairs cost 100 to
rent for the day.
And the, the, the things cost 2,000 to stay the night in.
Yeah.
And uh, so, but, so it's smartfor him to test the market.
You know, I'm gonna give him 80.
But eventually he's like, no,I'm not gonna do it.
I'm like, oh, 10.
I'll give you 10 for that littlechunk.
(32:11):
Yeah.
Uh.
Uh.
Anyway, but you literally in anenvironment like that, where
like, what was the, the, the onethat I bought for 35.
It's like, what is the value toyou?
Cause I showed him a picture ofmy like home grow plant in
Colorado and described like theColorado weed culture to him and
stuff.
I'm like, dude, that's like,Like I could buy an ounce of
(32:34):
really nice weed at home for,you know, or half an ounce at
least of that.
And so I just can't like, Iphysically, like, I mentally
can't like pay you that price,but for, but, but he was like,
what, what is the right price?
And I think he was satisfied.
You know, he had a farmer thatsold it to him, or he was a
(32:54):
grower.
I can't believe he was askingfor 80 bucks.
That's crazy.
And so it was, but that was, soyour dad literally could make a
living.
Oh yeah.
Just, like, working somebody fora deal.
And for all I know, he could beright now.
Working for, working forsomebody for a deal and then
going and selling that dealaround on the same beach.
Just up, up and fast.
Right, he's just the one that'swilling to go and talk to the
(33:16):
tourist and get the 80 freakingdeal instead of like slinging it
to the dude in the beard on thebeach.
Anyway, I digress.
But yeah, so, grew up.
Um, single mom, primarily.
My brother and I lived with mymom through all of high school.
Um, and when I turned 18, shedecided to move to Tahoe, which
is way up north into the snow.
(33:36):
Um, she got a nice Well, and youwere resetting, right?
Yes.
I quit dance, um, after And atthe time, my mom was selling the
one, the single one place in myentire life that has been
stable.
My dad always bounced around.
My mom always said, we willnever move from this house.
This is, this is your safegrounds.
You can always come home here.
There will never be an issue.
Then she decided to change that.
(33:59):
I was like, you are taking theone place that I feel safe and
you're moving five hours north.
To a place, so I will no longerever have a home here in
Pleasanton again.
Wow.
Where I grew up, where I knoweverybody, where my neighborhood
was family.
Like, it felt so hard, and Ipray my mom's not listening to
this, she takes it verypersonally, and she apolog But,
(34:19):
but I could not stop her fromtaking that opportunity.
I mean, she was gonna be, like,director, and like, this
incredible position with greatmoney.
And she's always wanted toretire in, uh, In the mountains,
and she grew up in Tahoe.
She grew up there, so she knew.
You were self sufficientalready.
Yeah, and, and I was alsomoving.
I was coming to Colorado, butfor those five months that she
(34:41):
was trying to sell that home,and I literally was living out
of my car, and living out offriends homes.
And had absolutely no stability,no, no place to call home.
It was the hard I was trying toapply to colleges and apply for
tours, and my mom was she had togo up to Tahoe every other week,
so she was driving five hoursevery other week, or ten hours,
(35:05):
to and from, and staying up inthe hotel, and and my brother
was off in college and I wasliving.
Out of a staged home for months.
I kid you not I would have towake up and make the bed and put
all the pillows Exactly.
It was like I was living in afake home.
Like yeah, I hid I hid in thecloset Yeah, it was really tough
(35:26):
and my mom does not know that Islept in my car a lot Like
because she like assumed thati'd have friends but like I
didn't like always just beinglike can I still sleep on your
couch?
Like I felt like a burden so Ijust stay in my car And it was
so hard And I didn't wanna bringon more stress about,'cause she
was trying to sell this damnhome and find a new home and
(35:46):
help me with college.
Like it was, it was so much formy mom and I at this time.
Yeah.
And you didn't wanna putanything more on her.
And I didn't wanna put anythingand I already had a lot of
things that like, you know,teenager stresses and, right.
Well you were morning dance.
I had prom, I had prom, I had, Ihad all these things I wanted to
do.
Like it was just like a lot ofthings like that.
And I could not put that more onmy mom.
(36:07):
She was stressed about sellingher car and getting, it was just
so much change.
And I was like, I got to get thehell out of here.
Get me into Colorado.
I just want to be in my dorm.
I want to have a place.
Bed to sleep in, like, wow.
And it sounds like it washomeless and I wasn't, my mom
would've paid for hotels andstuff, but like I, but this is
an escape hatch kind of from anew, different life.
(36:28):
And essentially I had to learnhow to, are you gonna go back
next summer?
Not to California.
I will probably never stay inCalifornia again besides this
winter vacationing.
Yeah, vacation wise I will, but.
I, I don't see a future formyself in California.
I had my time in California.
I visited all areas ofCalifornia.
(36:49):
It's a new chapter in my life.
I see a lot more for me here inColorado.
Part of me also wants to visitthe East Coast, but until I have
sufficient funds for that, Iwill be right here.
But California is in the rearroof for now.
Yeah, it's in the past and, andIt was sad leaving, and I felt
like a lot of my life, like Iwas leaving in the dust, but at
(37:10):
the same time.
I kind of wanted to, I was like,I don't, there's a lot of
memories and a lot of baggagethat comes with California.
Something I think I'd like to,to bring to light maybe is that
as I listened to your story thatyou felt a little bit probably
abandoned by your mom at the endthere, and I'm sorry for that,
(37:30):
but she hustled for like 15years to make sure, to make sure
you guys had everything youneeded.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And, um, and was your exampleof, like, how a lady boss does
her business?
Yeah, my mom taught me at a veryearly age that I am fully
capable of anything I set mymind to, and I know that's a
(37:51):
very common phrase.
But quite literally, uh, Shetaught me that I can do hard
things and I watched her do thehardest shit and, and the way
that I feel of like abandonmentand just like damn like I was
only 17, 18 and I had to figureout what the fuck I was eating
for dinner, how I was getting toschool.
Like this has proved to me thatI don't, I haven't really been
(38:14):
parented and I felt like I've,I've, I've been well off without
it.
Well, it's cool that yourbrother became your best friend
after being your perfect friend.
Yeah, and it all started becauseof illegal substances.
For real?
Yeah, I saw him hitting a vapewhen I was like, 15, 16 and I
(38:35):
was like, Oh, I got shit on younow.
Oh, and he was like, swear,like, just try it.
Try it.
And I was like, no, I'm tellingmom, you and like, and like, we
created like, yeah.
And we created like a, like abond over like the secrecy that
we had over it.
And I felt cool.
Cause he was letting me in onsomething and right.
(38:55):
Literally because of that, webecame friends.
Was it.
A positive or negative thing foryou?
You had never been high before.
I, I didn't, I'd never triedafter I couldn't, I didn't even
know how to properly inhale.
I was just coughing.
You just didn't, you just hadsomething to bond over
virtually.
Yeah.
And you didn't rat him out.
Yeah.
I didn't rat him out until hesaw like, okay, you can be the
(39:16):
cool little sister I want.
And I saw, okay, you're allowingme.
Wow, so then my brother and Ibecame best friends and I love
him to death and I'm so thankfulthat I have a sibling to be that
close with because I want I haveso many aspirations for the
future of family traditions andthings, I want to You're a blank
(39:36):
canvas.
Yeah, exactly.
To some extent.
Yeah.
So let's talk about, um,actually can we take it just a
like a two minute break?
I need to pee so bad.
Yeah, same.
Okay, Um, but I was saying,like, I, My work, like, my,
(40:34):
like, church and everything,like, I've never been around
sucky men.
Right.
Or that's not, like Like, you'veseen some men that didn't really
step up like they could have, orwhatever, but You've never been
around sucky men?
I mean, like, obviously in theregular, the world, yes, but, um
Like, in your personal life, youdidn't?
Personal life, no.
No, not super, um, so like,yeah, like my church, like I
(41:00):
grew up in church like a lot.
So it's like as a kid, myfavorite day was Sunday because
I go with the little kids andSunday school and whatever.
But, um, yeah.
And like Kurt was saying, like,oh, well, maybe there's like
stuff I don't know and what ifthey are saying, and I don't
think that's true.
Like, for my church, you know, Ispeak for my church and like my
(41:21):
culture and stuff.
And I know a lot of them andtheir testimonies are that they
were.
And like, that's a big deal.
And obviously our culture islike, it's, it's like, Three
days a week, uh, to church, andeverybody And if you're not
living up to that kind ofexpectation, plus some
volunteering, plus some whateverEvery single person does
(41:43):
something, or, nobody gets paid,like, I'm Unfamiliar with like
that side of churches, but weall do that because we want to
do that Nobody's forced to doit.
Nobody's paid to do it Yeah, youwant to serve and they all do
that and it's just such tightknit and we're all each other's
family So even if there wassomebody that was sucky, it's
like Uh, you, like, fixyourself, kinda?
(42:07):
Yeah, yeah.
If somebody's beating theirwife, they aren't showing up to
church three days a week.
Like, the interlocking circlesabout people that go to church
three days a week and peoplethat beat their wife, like,
that's a super tiny circle.
But it'd be, it'd be like a big,like, Almost like a full church
effort or like yeah Part of itis like at least now generation
(42:34):
wise like obviously all thecurrent young men are being
taught Yeah, they're being Stuffbut it's even as girls where
it's like We have semi prettyhigh expectations.
Yeah.
Slash seeing some really greatmen.
It's kind of like Yeah, eventhough acknowledging that some
of them have been bad in thepast.
(42:56):
Like, that's one thing I'venoticed about, like, they're
real about the temptations ofbeing gay.
Being a man, being a wife, beinga husband, the shortfalls, the
opportunities, whatever.
But, like, so that, yeah, I'mlike in a different I know, we
have, we have, it's actuallylike incredible to me how
different Alma and I am.
(43:17):
Your life experience to thispoint.
Like, completely, like, on likecrazy spectrums.
Like, we grew up so different.
But you're both Cali girls.
Yeah.
Hey.
Hey, Cali girls.
We love it.
But like, I'm so far from, like,like, not religious, like, at
all, cause I never grew up withit, like, it was never, I've
maybe been to church once for adonut.
(43:39):
Like, I, and I, and I'm notkidding you, my dad drove us to
church to grab donuts and leave.
Like, how disrespectful is that?
Oh, damn! I'm serious, I'mserious, I remember it so
vividly.
Sounds like we're talking aboutthe faith segment of your life,
young Ava.
Oh yeah, we could, we could,like, Might as well jump in.
What kind of donuts did yousteal from the churches?
Uh, powdered.
And they were amazing.
(43:59):
uh, yeah, I really did not growup Super it was just never I
didn't even know really whatlike religion was for a long
time I thought everybody wasChristian like because I was
told I was Christian.
So I was like, I don't know whatthat is Never went to church.
I didn't know anything about it.
Like don't even know that meansand my dad always would say the
phrase I forgot like what it wasabout but he'd always be like,
(44:22):
well, you need a little jesus inyou and i'd be like What does
that even who's that?
So he had a little bit ofbackground Like never yeah, but
yeah, where does he come from?
Pleasanton, California.
My dad went to my exact sameelementary, middle, and high
school.
I had a professor, not aprofessor, a teacher that taught
my dad and me.
Old as rocks.
Like, actually.
(44:42):
So he was from there too, orwhatever.
Yes, he was, and same with mymom, they met in high school.
They went to homecomingtogether.
But it sounds like he had afaith background, at least a
little bit.
A little bit, yeah, definitely.
But your mom not as much?
I literally never talked aboutthat with my mom.
And so, what do you, like, whenyou hear the word faith, is it
almost, like, So my mom isextremely spiritual.
She believes in manifestationand she believes in being in
(45:05):
tune with your body and mind.
With, I was six, she would dothe whole home remedies.
Like she'd be like manifest thatyou're going to be better.
Tell yourself you're going to bebetter and you will.
And part of me does believe thatnow and just like putting off
like good energy and likeconstantly just no longer.
I used to be such a negative,like this sucks.
Like I'm so mad about that.
(45:25):
And now I'm just like, Well, I'mgrateful that I'm able to take
this test.
I'm grateful that I'm able andlike, I'm, I've been given all
these, so.
Faith wise, like, I just don'tknow, like, I don't really know
much, like, I mean, like, Ibelieve a hundred percent in a,
a, a bigger, something.
I don't know if that's God, Idon't know if that's, whatever,
(45:49):
God is a woman, like, I don'tknow.
But I, I didn't know very manypeople that were in, like,
church, like, very, like, inthat environment, and going to
church, and, like, went through,like, I didn't know what
communion was, or confirmation.
Yeah, confirmation is a thingwhere they like teach you how to
do stuff.
Yeah, I don't, I still don'tknow much about it.
I could be more informed, but atthe same time not a single girl
(46:12):
I love with goes to church.
Really?
Yeah, which is like, part of melike feels like ashamed for it,
but at the same time I'm like, Idon't even know what I'm ashamed
for.
One thing you would be shockedby is how many good looking
young Christian men there are atmy church.
Uh, just saying.
Anyway, I digress, um, becauseyou already got a boyfriend.
Didn't know it wasn't that.
Is he the same?
(46:33):
He's got no faith background atall?
He has more faith than I do.
Are they Catholics?
But they know You don't, youdon't even know, like, what the
difference between Catholics andProtestants is.
A Catholic is a portion of theChristian.
They were the, the Catholicswere, you want a quick primer?
Like a 4 minute primer on faith?
Ooh, not 4 minutes, but yeah.
Um, well hopefully it don't take14, but we'll get to it.
(46:54):
Um, so, so, Jesus died like,it's AD, right?
After death.
Nothing really happened for 150years, these guys wrote down
these books, Matthew, Mark,Luke, John, Acts, etc.
And then Paul, this dude, Paulbecame, he was like a persecutor
of Christians, and then hebecame like a follower.
(47:15):
Just in time to write a bunch ofbooks before the Romans could
Like say mandatory Christianityfrom here.
And so some early Roman emperor,not early, but like in the 350s
or something was like, Hey,everybody be Christians.
And it spread throughout, butthey kind of branded
Christianity with Like a bunchof pagan religions and different
(47:38):
kind of things to make ittasteful to everybody.
Uh, but Jen would do it anyway.
Dark ages, bad times.
Like, sapped everybody from allthe money.
The Catholic Church was like theboss of the world, literally,
for like, Hundreds of years cameout of that finally Martin
Luther was a Roman yeah, he putshim on blast and he writes like
(48:02):
99 reasons that you guys suckand that became the start of the
Protestant the Lutherans theBaptist the all the other kind
of Um, Presbyterians, theMethodists, the, the, the
pilgrims and the Puritans.
Cause after the Catholics like,cause the Catholics were like,
Hey, if you got enough money,your sins don't matter.
(48:22):
Stuff like that.
Yeah.
Alma's pretty knowledgeable.
And then it came to America andall these Protestant churches
exploded into like 200 differenttypes of which Alma's little
church is the voice ofTabernacle, but that's the
message.
Yeah.
So.
What?
Different, like, denominations,like, within that.
(48:43):
They all believe the same thingof, like, Jesus.
So what, what separates them?
What's the differentiator?
Kind of just Well, there's,like, Trinity versus, uh, like,
God, Jesus, Holy Spirit.
Like, they're all the sameperson, or no, they're not.
So, like, that makes a differentbranch.
See, that's what confuses me.
Yeah.
Are they the It's superconfusing.
Yeah.
(49:04):
We don't need to Right.
But.
But see, my, my biggest thing isthe, and the only like, cause
I've talked about a lot, like,meeting in college.
But the point is, let me get tothe point.
Get to the point.
So the point is, out of all,Catholics and non Catholics, is
that people suck, they'reinherently sinful, and that
sinfulness separates them fromthe world.
(49:25):
non sinful creative force thatcreated the world and everything
in it.
So that's my question.
So keep listening for a second.
And that we, the, the way tohave forgiveness and
relationship with the positivecreative force is to give
ourselves grace throughconfessing and being forgiven by
(49:46):
the, the Jesus Christ figurethat was sacrificed though he
was sinless.
In the heart of the Jewish facewas that something sinless had
to be sacrificed to save people.
So they would kill like dovesand rams and different things.
So there always had to be asacrifice because we suck.
(50:06):
So we have to kill our own bestanimals and burn up our own best
animals.
Parts of the harvest for likegenerations.
The Jews had this belief of thisYahweh God that needed to be
sacrificed to, and they becamelike really some of the most
successful people still are.
And they were always looking forthis Messiah that was prophesied
(50:27):
for hundreds of years, whichaccording to the Christians was
this person of Jesus Christ whobecame the sacrifice.
He like took all the sins of theworld, present, past, future of
all humans, And was strung up ona cross.
That's why we all wear crossesand died.
(50:47):
And like through belief in thatsacrificial action, we're saved
to be able to have arelationship with, with the God,
the creator of the universe.
That's the, that's the bigstory.
And then how to get there hasbecome like 160 different paths.
Yeah, that's what, that's what'sso confusing to me is like, we,
(51:09):
Almost all are under the samelike general belief, but it's
like a million differentpassages in like, to wait, like,
it's just like, yeah, it'soverwhelming.
Well, and that's, you know, likefor me, I kind of hold it a
little more loosely.
Yeah.
Um, and in contrast, almost haslike a particular, there's a, I
would say very much a prophet,like there's, there's prophet
(51:33):
figures and, and her faith has aparticular prophet they think is
extra smart.
Yeah.
About Christian faith.
Um, I grew up in this, so like,it was just kind of like, okay,
great.
That is what it is, I guess.
So even for me, it's like, Ihave no idea.
Never been to kind of like, noidea what everybody else
believes.
Like, that's crazy.
(51:54):
Yeah.
But, um, yeah, so we arespecifically non denominational.
So saying like, whatever theBible says, it's like a hundred
percent the Bible.
Um, and so whatever the Biblesays goes.
Is that what you're saying?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But, um, I guess to summarize,um, we believe that prophets,
(52:16):
well, they were sent in theBible, like, you know, there's
different prophets, Jesus was aprophet, kind of, um, and so for
our current time, um, we believethat there is also supposed to
be a prophet sent.
And so we believe that that wasWilliam Aaron Branham, which he
was from, like, the Bible.
(52:37):
I'm like early 1900s.
Yeah Late 1800s, early 1900s.
So like 19, I think he died inlike 9?
I'm like really bad, like maybe1964, 16?
Yeah.
But, um, he basically was like,Okay, Pentecostals believe this,
(52:58):
that's not right, but this partis, and kind of did like this
combination of all those littlethings.
He did the best of the best,kinda.
Like that stuff.
What's good slash a little someof I mean of his own prophecy,
too and I mean a prophet isbasically kind of like a
visionary a megaphone like Likehey, I'm God Ava.
(53:21):
Tell this to everybody and thenyou could be like God told me.
Yeah.
Well, yes And the actual wordprophet is actually more
accurately someone who kind ofsees more clearly than most
everybody else Okay.
And they're given the gift offoresight so that they can prove
it to the other people.
Um, and so like I've toldpeople, even in this podcast
(53:42):
that I'm a prophet, like Isometimes see things more
clearly than other people.
Like I'm a junior, junior,junior level, you know, but God
has given me the gift of kind offoresight and understanding, um,
more than some people.
So anyway, future prophet.
Very, very.
(54:03):
It's a pretty small segment.
Technically, it's like,worldwide.
But, it's such a weird And I'm,our church is kind of a little
bit the same, in that we try notto pay much attention to what
the big church says, orwhatever, we try to pay
attention to what the Biblesays, and we try to structure
our leadership around kind ofthat notion.
(54:24):
Okay.
So.
Yeah.
Uh, we're both kind of of mindthat the, the 160 different
paths through the Christian lensto God is kind of boop ha, I
suppose.
It's probably a fair statement.
Kim had told me a joke about itat the social where, um, Of
like, Catholic, it's like, inCatholic school, it's like,
(54:45):
okay, do you wanna have a like,you have an issue, you wanna
talk to God, like, first, youneed to talk to this person, and
then, then this other person,then that one, and then only if
you really have to, and then saysix Hail Marys, and two, then
you can bother God.
So, it's like, we're like, we'rea little more, just go talk to
(55:05):
God, yeah, talk to Jesus.
Yeah.
That's fair.
Um, so that's our faithperspective and, uh, you're
invited to either or, orchurches anytime.
Uh, bring your friends if youwant to.
Part of me like wonders, like ifI were to grow up in more in
that environment, like Well, youwould worry less, you would
worry less.
Like that's, that's was part ofwhere I was going in that first
(55:27):
conversation.
Just that, that like, trust God,he's got it figured out.
You don't have to like freakout.
And, and like, I believe thatthat spiritual force that your
mom feels and it's like the, theway the universe is pulling her
to be or whatever, that's God'swill in many cases, you know,
sometimes it's Sataninterrupting, but generally if
(55:48):
you're like in the flow of God'swill, you'll feel.
Better.
And if you push against it,you'll feel.
Awkward and constricted andwhatever.
And in whatever way that is in alot of ways.
And so like that, you know,don't worry, be happy.
That kind of thing.
That's just a trust in God.
Yeah.
Um, in a lot of ways, it soundsfunny, but it's like that notion
(56:12):
of don't fret too much.
Um, and so, anyway.
Anyways.
Yeah, no judgment for not havinginvestigated or found anything
yet, but also an invitation to,like, for me it was like a four
year process, probably, of Bothmy own self investigation and
some relationships randomlypopping around me, including,
(56:35):
like, probably like a yearbefore I met Jill, there was
like this, um, people thatstarted talking to me about it
and stuff, and, like, I went tochurch one time when I was in
Worthington before I moved here,and they were like, So excited
to have a new person visit theirchurch full of old people.
They like asked me to stand upand Like yes, like well, I'm
(56:59):
never coming back here Anyway, Idigress politics we did family
faith now politics Guys,politics, politics, politics.
All I gotta say on politics isthat both, both of them sucked
(57:26):
in numerous ways.
Both big parties, you mean?
Both parties, yes.
Or both candidates.
Both candidates.
Mind you, I'm coming fromCalifornia, I'm coming from the
most left winged country Peopleyou will ever meet.
Well, Kamala crushed Colorado.
Colorado was the only statewhere the Democratic ticket made
progress versus the Republicanticket from 2020.
Like, and the thing is, I'm notsuper knowledgeable.
(57:48):
I try, but at the same time,anything I'm seeing is coming
from media that is just TikTok.
It's just TikTok, Instagram,like Facebook, like it's all
coming from like wrong sources.
It's all misinformation.
I originally before this debatewould say that I'm more
Republican than I am.
Oh really?
I, I say I'm very much in themiddle though cause I believe
in, in gun rights.
(58:09):
Like I want to have a gun in myhome.
A hundred percent.
I dig it.
Yep.
Um, abortion.
Free speech?
What do you think about freespeech?
Of course, of course.
I think abortion, you should notbe having an abortion in the
third trimester.
Maybe not even a second.
Maybe not even a second.
Like, all right.
I You're actually a middle ofthe road And I think the left
takes it way too far.
(58:29):
The truth is that most people,hopefully most parties across
the world, not just our country,but they want the best for the
people of that nation, right?
And it's just how to get there.
Yeah, I understand that.
Actually, I did not vote for JoeJorgensen in favor of Kanye
instead.
Because Joe sucked.
Like, she was just not a verygood I don't know who that is.
(58:50):
She was a female that won theLibertarian Party ticket in
2020.
Was there a Libertarian Partythis year?
Gary Johnson was 20, yeah, afreaking dude that was all about
trans rights or some bullshit.
Chase something joke boy.
It's so hard for me becauseYeah, he was not a Libertarian
(59:10):
or whatever you're talkingabout, Chase.
If you want to look me up, ifyou want to be on my podcast.
Yeah, let's have you on.
Let's talk.
Yeah, yeah.
Have I talked, have I told youmy, uh, my, my vegetable plant
joke in that?
No, no, you haven't.
I don't think so.
I don't think I've heard thateither.
Uh, with regards to Kamalabecoming the nominee.
Mm hmm.
Oh.
The, uh, the vegetable made wayfor the plant without a vote to
save democracy.
(59:31):
What?
Because Joe Biden was avegetable, Kabo was a plant, uh,
without a vote to savedemocracy.
I can't believe they hid that hewas stupid for so many years.
Right?
Well we knew it in 2020.
Like, he was already showing alot of signs of dementia then.
Oh yeah.
Oh poor guy.
(59:52):
I hope he's like, on the couch,like, eating ice cream, like,
fine.
What is, um, Hunter's got apardon though, so he's not going
to prison.
And usually it's for likesomething that you've actually
been convicted of, but ForBiden's kid, it was basically,
well, he tax evasion, uh, got agun license when he was a drug
addict, different things.
He would maybe spend a couple,three years in jail for it.
(01:00:14):
But what he actually did wasmilked Ukraine for, uh, 30
billion in China for a bunch ofmoney.
And like, we're in this Ukrainewar as a payback to Ukraine for
making Biden's family rich,basically.
And so there's a lot ofpotential, but Biden's pardon of
his son became basically foranything you've done from 2014
(01:00:37):
to 2024.
You are absolved.
This is the first time anybodyhas ever had a pardon like that
though, where it's anythingyou've actually been accused of,
convicted of, done, or not done,or whatever.
That's like bullshit.
Oh yeah, after saying he wasn'tgoing to do it.
Yeah, okay, that's what I saw,that he said he wasn't going to
and then he did.
But not only did it, but did itin a way that was like, like a
(01:01:00):
whiteboard, like even if hekilled 10 people and they were,
and they were found buried inHunter Biden's backyard, if it
happened between the dates of2014 and 2024, they could not
put, do any legal action againsthim.
Anything he's done in the last10 years is absolved.
That's like the power of thePope.
That's why the Catholics, that'swhy the Catholics sucked.
(01:01:21):
And it's kind of why, like backin the day, anyway, we're
talking too much.
Um, the loco experience beforewe talk about Five.
Okay.
It's not that crazy, but buckleup.
So this was summer going into2020.
Can you tell I've prepared in20, 20, 23, I have practice in
(01:01:44):
my car.
Cause there's a lot of aspectsto this story.
So it was 2023 going into mysophomore year of college.
So I just finished freshmanyear, just a year before we met
you.
Yes, exactly.
It was upcoming my birthday.
End of August.
That's like when you go back toschool.
It's always like my birthdaythen school So we my grandma who
is a hypochondriac.
She's the healthiest person I'veever met in my life She is going
(01:02:06):
to live longer than my father ahundred percent She but she's
paranoid about everything.
She's paranoid about everything.
So she announced what aninteresting influence She
probably had on your in yourlife.
Yes I'm also hypochondriacbecause of her like I always I
will not go to the hospital foranything She implemented my
brain that like If something'swrong, there's something behind
(01:02:26):
it, and there's somethingSometimes it's worth
investigating.
Yeah, but not always, and she,she takes things way too far.
However, she decided to pay So,it's my, this was the Manuse
clan, so my dad's side of thefamily.
It's his mother.
He has two sisters.
So it's the three of them, andmy grandma paid for all three of
(01:02:47):
them and all their families,including us, to go to Hawaii.
Oh wow.
To Maui.
Okay.
She spent over 40, 000.
Yeah.
On our condos, our flights.
Like 20 people ish almost, or15?
Like 15, 15, yeah.
Cause yeah, it was threefamilies with like three kids
and like some significantothers.
Yeah, yeah.
And this is my favorite side ofthe family.
No offense, mom.
(01:03:07):
My dad's side.
I mean, they're just, theydrink, they have fun.
But I have two cousins.
They're the fun partiers.
They're the social, and we're,the Manuse clan is known in our
family.
Like we are the fun ones.
Like my dad's sisters, they're,they all went to the same
college.
My, My dad's closest sister wasa sweetheart of his frat.
They are like this.
That's how I want my brother andI to be.
Like, it's just the most tightknit.
(01:03:29):
Like, my cousins are my exactsame age, so we're all best
friends with my brother.
So we're all stoked, because thelast time we went on a family
excursion, it was like when wewere 12, and we couldn't drink,
and we weren't into it.
So now we're all in college.
We're like, this is gonna beamazing.
We decided to go to Maui.
So we get there.
And all is well, we get theseoceanside, oceanfront views,
(01:03:50):
we're like having a ball, we goout to a magic show, and so
Maui, we're staying in Lahaina.
Yeah, the one that burned.
Yeah, Jill and I were there lastMay.
Keep that in mind.
So, Lahaina, August, earlyAugust, um, and there's a lot of
history in Lahaina.
Fleetwoods the magic play likethe we went to the magic we went
(01:04:12):
to the oh i can't explore thatyet we went to a magic show we
we went snorkeling like we had alot of excursions planned so
second day rolls around having aball our power goes out We don't
really think much of it.
We're like we're on vacation.
We don't need our phones likewhatever like we'll go out to
dinner We don't need to cook.
We want like a short littlegrocery run like didn't get that
(01:04:33):
much And so we go snorkelingyada yada yada now dinner time
comes and all the restaurantsare closed because the power's
out And we hadn't even thoughtabout going to the lobby and
asking we were just like it'sgonna turn on like whatever
Slowly phones start to die Andso like my dad like puts aside
his phone and my brother's phonelike he's like Let's just keep
battery on that in case butsince we have no power we have
(01:04:54):
no service so we cannot contactanybody So our first question is
how much tequila do we have?
My dad's like let's ration outour tequila Let's make sure we
have enough for at least anotherday Like the power will come on.
We don't have to worry about itSo we go out to cook taquitos on
the barbeque, cause that's ouronly source of heat.
(01:05:15):
And my dad recognizes somebodyand he goes, is that Matt
Anthony?
From Van Halen, the drummer fromVan Halen is also at our resort.
And also cooking on the, on thebarbecues outside.
We're just like, weirdcoincidence, I take a, insert
picture, I take a picture withhim.
And we're like, and we're justlike, laughing about the fact
(01:05:36):
that there's no power.
And we're just like, all like,phoneless.
And we're just all in Hawaii.
We're like, what's going on?
So we go to watch the sunset andit's this bright red.
orange sunset Insert picture.
Yeah, some might understandwhat's happening next.
We're like, wow, it's sobeautiful We don't really think
much of it next day comesaround.
We're on day three of no power.
(01:05:56):
We have no food.
No phones We're like, okay Weneed to go to the grocery store
like something needs to happenright now Like we're just kind
of like coasting along like isthis power coming back on?
So a key side story my daddecides every vacation we've
ever gone We always either get alimo to the airport, or we get a
bougie ass rental car.
I don't know why, he just wantsto ride in style.
(01:06:18):
And it's fun, it's fun.
So we get, my dad and I decide,we're gonna go find a market.
We don't have phones, we'reusing a map, insert picture.
My dad has a map.
And we're in this bougie nicered convertible, like, soft top,
top off.
And we're driving trying to findthis market, we're just trying
to go along like these roads.
We're like, we'll findsomething.
And we're driving.
(01:06:38):
There's this huge tree that'scrashed down, and we're like, in
the middle, and there's no cops,no nothing around it, it's just
a tree smashed, there's nobodyout in the streets, and we're
like, damn, there must have beena storm, like, there must have
been a crazy storm, that's whythe power's out.
So we, we go around the tree, wego to a market, and there's
these hundreds of people crying,sobbing, so much distress, we're
(01:07:01):
like, holy shit, like, thisstorm must have been bad.
The Lahaina fire was a mileaway, walking distance from our
resort, still actively burning.
And we had no idea becausenobody could contact us.
We had no way of anybody tellingus.
So this fire was burning and wehad this resort.
Absolutely.
The picture that I insert rightnow, that picture, that sunset
(01:07:23):
was people's homes burning.
Well, sure.
And we're talking to thesepeople.
They're sobbing my arms, I mydog just died, I just lost my
father, like, he was sleeping,people jumping out of their
hotel bedrooms into the water toswim to safety, meanwhile, this
fire nobody has came to thisfire, it is still active, we
(01:07:44):
could see it, like, from ourresort, you could see the
flames, like, and we were like,we gotta get out of here, like,
we're gonna die, my mom, like,my dad was like, we cannot tell
grandma, hypochondria, like,Terrified of a cut, like, if she
hears there's a fire going on,oh my god.
And so my dad and I are justlike, we can't get food, all
(01:08:05):
these, like, everything wasdown, the registers were down,
like, people were just like, Ican't believe that nobody gave
you any notifications.
I'm like, there's no siren,like, or anything, I'm like, how
did we not, the lobby,literally, we were the first
people to know, nobody at thisresort knew.
You couldn't smell it, youcouldn't even smell it, and it
was only like, I kid you not,you guys.
(01:08:26):
You could, I could have ran towhere there was a, like, burning
people.
105 people died.
105 people died.
A mile from us.
Oh, more than that.
And, and people were like, itwas, and, Meanwhile, we were
worried about, like, tequilaand, and burgers.
We were like, we were trying tothink about, like, what food
we're getting, and these peopleare like, I don't have a home.
(01:08:48):
Like, my For a couple days, yourpower was out, and you didn't
know.
Days, and we had no idea.
How in the world?
And, and get this, all the roadto the airport Burned everything
around it burned.
We cannot, there's no planes.
No, no taxis, nobody.
Oh yeah.
Like everything.
Because that's the way, yeah.
There's one way, one way westayed right where you stayed.
We stayed a little north ofthere.
We scuba dive or snorkeled inthat Vegas north.
(01:09:10):
And so we go back and we'relike, we're trying to break the
news like as best po like, we'retrying to be like, there's, you
know, disaster happening.
We gotta get out.
No flights.
No flights.
We can't, we can't get to theairport.
We're like, what the hell do wedo?
Like my dad's freak because wecan't contact anybody.
The only source, cause at themoment, like, you're wondering
(01:09:31):
like, well, how do you even seethe resort there for a while?
See what happens.
But we were like, this, thisfire's not out.
Like it was actively burning aswe were like, cause the people
that we're talking to were like,it's going to hit my house in
like 10 minutes.
Like, can you guys please help?
Like we were like, like peoplewere actively trying to save
their whole livelihood and theystill have a man made right at.
(01:09:51):
Oh, no, not at all.
And we donated a lot of money.
Like I personally donated 300.
I just, um, it was the mostmoney I had at the time, so not
a lot, but I was just like, I, Ijust, I held like a woman who
had literally lost her entire,like her fucking husband died
and it was just the most, like,I was the most out of, I didn't
know even like how to, I hadnever, Been in a situation where
(01:10:15):
I was actively dealing withsomething, like grieving and
like, and in shock and, and justtrying to find help.
And my dad and I were justtrying to help everybody, but
like, how can you even, like,and like, we're trying to give
people rides, places, and it wasjust so, and we finally got
back, and we got flights, and,and get this.
(01:10:36):
I was actively going into livingto my sorority and if anybody
knows anything about a sororityThey are not lenient with jack
shit.
You are checking in at thistime.
Your foot better be enteringthis home at this time I would
think like I was at the Mauifires Oh, they did not give a
singular.
I emailed them and I was like, Idon't know if I can't get a
(01:10:56):
flight They're like We'll justmake sure you're in by this time
because if not then we're gonnahave to give you a deposit blah
blah blah You're not gonna havea room and I was like, I'm
trying to survive right now Ihaven't eaten in a day like and
so the day I got back from thatOh, meanwhile, we have no
technology.
My phone's dead.
Every phone's dead.
We don't have anything.
(01:11:17):
My mom thinks we're dead She'sseeing on she has a picture of
the news Lahaina fires.
You're part of the burn area.
You can see our resort in the,in the, in the birds view but,
yeah, so, my mom essentiallythought that we died.
She had been spamming my phone.
She was so worried.
She got us our flights outbecause we couldn't.
And it was just the most, andcoming from that, The night I
(01:11:38):
landed in Reno, got to Tahoe,slept in my bed, I woke up and
drove 18 hours to Colorado.
To get there just in time foryour sorority pledge?
The most miserable.
I drove through the hours of thenight.
I started hallucinating,thinking I was seeing things.
You had like three five hourenergies at the same time.
Oh my god, it was horrible.
(01:11:58):
It was horrible.
And I got here, and going from,you know, grieving with people
and holding their babies whilethey cry about losing their
families to Like it was justlike what the hell am I doing
here it felt so fake It felt soI was just like this is not
(01:12:19):
good.
Yeah, this feels so horribleWhat interesting?
Yeah, that was a goodexperience.
It was an experience to say theleast like We'll never put you
through any drama like that.
I And I was like I don't know ifanybody knows anything about
Lahaina, but Fleetwoods is amagician, it's like a magic
place and so much history behindit like it goes back hundreds of
(01:12:40):
years and we were the very lastpeople to ever see a show at
Fleetwoods and like somethingabout that just like Yeah, we
spent, we spent a day and a halfand including our last most of
our last day in Maui at LaHaina.
And so, yeah, it was crazy justto be, we were five months away,
you know, you were like rightthere.
That's so insane.
(01:13:00):
I want to pull up, pull up apicture of where my resort was
compared to where it wasburning.
I mean, you'll see in thepicture of like, it's a fire in
the air.
We thought it was a beautifulsunset.
We were probably another fewmiles north is where we stayed.
But, um, Alma, I want to talkabout, uh, Why is Ava the
producer of the podcast now andwhat do we have planned for
(01:13:20):
2025?
Yeah, um, I have a lot of workto do, um, but loco wise, but,
um, I think it's because she'spassionate about it is what I
would think.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'm almost like, cause I don'twant to do that.
Somebody willing to do it and Ididn't want to do it.
(01:13:40):
Well, I've always been like, I'mjust doing what I can and I only
know what I know.
And if somebody wants to put Ispassionate or likes it, like.
Yeah.
I have, you know.
And I do.
Want that, give thatopportunity.
Basically, but.
Well, and she's a showman insome ways.
Like, you want to make sureeverything works good.
(01:14:01):
And Ava wants to, uh, put on agreat show.
Yeah.
Again, this doesn't mean thatyou have to be the star.
want to make sure everythinglooks good.
So what's going on in, uh, inseason five?
Yeah.
Yeah, uh, full video.
When all the cameras run thewhole time.
Yeah.
One camera left, good job littledoodle, you're our OG.
(01:14:22):
Yeah, um.
And then, so, studio wise, um,technically the same, but tech
wise, Ava's desk, which isoutside of the studio, is the
one that runs everything.
I'll insert a picture.
Yeah.
And, um, Insert picture here.
And the full video, um, postproduction, that'd be a lot, so,
(01:14:46):
Ava's gonna be here during therecording and while it's live
recording, kind of, manuallyswitching, manually switching
cameras and to kind of save someeffort, time on that part.
Will you have a microphone inthe future so we don't have to
yell through the wall?
Maybe we should get a longercord, or uh, headphones.
I have them on.
(01:15:07):
Oh, you do?
You can listen to it from yourcomputer while we're talking?
And it's pretty loud still.
Yeah.
I'm loud enough anyway.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I hear like the delay.
I hear like you talking and thenit going to my headphones.
Oh, that's fun.
But yeah, there's, there's a lotchanging, I feel.
But technology wise, I feel likethere's a lot changing and
there's gonna be new segments.
So we're gonna be adding sorandom questions kind of thing
(01:15:29):
fine I think burp to fart ratioshould be but also like business
related things.
Oh, also, we're gonna ask advicefor a future generation Yeah, I
like that a lot We have so manyinspiring What have you learned
because you haven't been able tobe here during the podcast, but
you've been like editing andlistening for good clips and
(01:15:50):
stuff.
Is there anybody that inparticular you thought was just
a really either thoughtful orendearing moment?
Yeah.
I mean, numerous.
I, okay.
Matthew Fugate had like, he wentthrough a lot.
It's honestly so admirable forsomebody to come from such a low
and to pull themselves out ofthat And just like like that is
(01:16:14):
two separate lives you've livedAnd like most people cannot
admit to pulling themselves outof such a bad habit completely
Yeah.
And like, starting new.
He's got that mixture ofconfidence and humility.
Yes, and that's, yeah, I admirethat a lot to be able to talk
about that openly and to have noshame and just to, and to speak
it how it is and not try tosugarcoat it.
And like, he gave some realstories, like the two broken
(01:16:37):
arms.
I was like, yeah, that wascrazy.
Yeah.
Um, who else?
I feel like there's a, there's alot.
I mean, yeah.
That's okay.
I think it was a recent episodeand worthy and you know, I think
it's relevant even to your storyYou know, you gave your all to
this big dance journey and stuffand yes, you've mourned its
(01:16:57):
passing But you showed that youhad everything you needed and to
some extent that can be your lowpoint in some ways Yeah, that
relates to Rick Gardner how hegave up bull riding and how he
Explained that I related to thisstory so much when afterwards he
was like, I can't even look backat it.
I need to just start new andstart my new focus because
(01:17:18):
mourning it is just going tohurt so much.
I might as well just start a newpath.
That's how I felt.
I was like, cause I tried to goto competitions and support my
friends and it was just sittingin the audience watching what
you used to do felt like thebiggest stab to the heart and
just, I was just like, I felt sobad.
Sick.
I was like, I can't walk.
Like if you see girls dancing onTV now is even a little bit
(01:17:38):
harder.
Oh, I watch like Dancing withthe Stars and stuff and it's
just like, it's just, I'llalways have that part of me
that's just like what it couldhave been like if I kept going
like, but at the same time, likeI, it was a passion, it's a
hobby.
But when you make your passionand hobby your work, it's, it
takes the love out of it.
But like taking that and thatbeing your full time, everything
would just probably take thepassion out of it.
(01:17:59):
I think do it for joy instead ofdo it for money.
Yeah, definitely.
Better for most.
Definitely.
All right.
Well, that's it.
Um, I hope both of you enjoyedthis conversation.
Alma, is there anything that youwould have for wisdom for the
next generation to close thisepisode or for like, like if you
work your way up in, uh, inAlma's, uh, like managerial, uh,
(01:18:24):
jobs and things like for me,it's always like trying be eager
to show up.
You don't know how to dosomething, like, try it.
Like, change, you know, a lot ofpeople don't like change, a lot
of people want to, you know, andI'm just like Embrace the
change.
It's gonna happen.
Um, and that's like my wholething of even working here is
(01:18:44):
like, I don't want to do none ofthis.
I'm gonna figure it out though.
We're gonna try it.
See what happens.
Full video?
I don't know.
Let's do it.
Yeah.
So, yeah.
I feel like, um, I don't know.
I mean, I want to say it's like,the generation, the next
generation doesn't want to trythings, I think.
No, but people are getting lazy.
Well, people are scared too.
(01:19:05):
People are getting lazy.
You know what the most repeatedphrase in all of the Bible is,
young Ava?
Um, fear not or worry not.
Um, 360 sometimes.
Um, because that's like thething that keeps us from kind of
being in the flow with God andstuff is we worry and we fret
and we try to fix things that wedon't need to fix ourselves that
(01:19:28):
we just can trust and chill alittle bit.
Yeah, my mom always says likestop trying to control things
that you literally cannotcontrol at all.
There's no point in stressing.
And I don't know why I find itso hard to do that.
Yeah.
I will try not to fear.
Fear not.
Fear not.
Alright, Fear Not Season 2025.
Season 5 of The Local Experienceis upon us.
Thanks for watching andlistening.
(01:19:49):
And let's over and out, huh?
Yeah.
Godspeed.
Bye.
Alright.
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